ediff: Hooks
7.1 Hooks
=========
The bulk of customization can be done via the following hooks:
‘ediff-load-hook’
This hook can be used to change defaults after Ediff is loaded.
‘ediff-before-setup-hook’
Hook that is run just before Ediff rearranges windows to its
liking. Can be used to save windows configuration.
‘ediff-keymap-setup-hook’
This hook can be used to alter bindings in Ediff’s keymap,
‘ediff-mode-map’. These hooks are run right after the default
bindings are set but before ‘ediff-load-hook’. The regular user
needs not be concerned with this hook—it is provided for
implementers of other Emacs packages built on top of Ediff.
‘ediff-before-setup-windows-hook’
‘ediff-after-setup-windows-hook’
These two hooks are called before and after Ediff sets up its
window configuration. These hooks are run each time Ediff
rearranges windows to its liking. This happens whenever it detects
that the user changed the windows setup.
‘ediff-suspend-hook’
‘ediff-quit-hook’
These two hooks are run when you suspend or quit Ediff. They can
be used to set desired window configurations, delete files Ediff
didn’t want to clean up after exiting, etc.
By default, ‘ediff-quit-hook’ holds one hook function,
‘ediff-cleanup-mess’, which cleans after Ediff, as appropriate in
most cases. You probably won’t want to change it, but you might
want to add other hook functions.
Keep in mind that hooks executing before ‘ediff-cleanup-mess’ start
in ‘ediff-control-buffer;’ they should also leave
‘ediff-control-buffer’ as the current buffer when they finish.
Hooks that are executed after ‘ediff-cleanup-mess’ should expect
the current buffer be either buffer A or buffer B.
‘ediff-cleanup-mess’ doesn’t kill the buffers being compared or
merged (see ‘ediff-cleanup-hook’, below).
‘ediff-cleanup-hook’
This hook is run just before ‘ediff-quit-hook’. This is a good
place to do various cleanups, such as deleting the variant buffers.
Ediff provides a helper function, ‘ediff-janitor’, that you can
invoke from a private hook function. For example:
(defun my-ediff-janitor ()
(ediff-janitor nil nil))
(add-hook 'ediff-cleanup-hook #'my-ediff-janitor)
This function kills buffers A, B, and, possibly, C, if these
buffers aren’t modified. In merge jobs, buffer C is never deleted.
However, the side effect of using this function is that you may not
be able to compare the same buffer in two separate Ediff sessions:
quitting one of them will delete this buffer in another session as
well.
‘ediff-quit-merge-hook’
This hook is called when Ediff quits a merge job. By default, the
value is ‘ediff-maybe-save-and-delete-merge’, which is a function
that attempts to save the merge buffer according to the value of
‘ediff-autostore-merges’, as described later.
‘ediff-before-setup-control-frame-hook’
‘ediff-after-setup-control-frame-hook’
These two hooks run before and after Ediff sets up the control
frame. They can be used to relocate Ediff control frame when Ediff
runs in a multiframe mode (i.e., when the control buffer is in its
own dedicated frame). Be aware that many variables that drive
Ediff are local to Ediff Control Panel (‘ediff-control-buffer’),
which requires special care in writing these hooks. Take a look at
‘ediff-default-suspend-hook’ and ‘ediff-default-quit-hook’ to see
what’s involved.
‘ediff-startup-hook’
This hook is run at the end of Ediff startup.
‘ediff-select-hook’
This hook is run after Ediff selects the next difference region.
‘ediff-unselect-hook’
This hook is run after Ediff unselects the current difference
region.
‘ediff-prepare-buffer-hook’
This hook is run for each Ediff buffer (A, B, C) right after the
buffer is arranged.
‘ediff-display-help-hook’
Ediff runs this hook each time after setting up the help message.
It can be used to alter the help message for custom packages that
run on top of Ediff.
‘ediff-mode-hook’
This hook is run just after Ediff mode is set up in the control
buffer. This is done before any Ediff window is created. You can
use it to set local variables that alter the look of the display.
‘ediff-registry-setup-hook’
Hooks run after setting up the registry for all active Ediff
session. Session Groups, for details.
‘ediff-before-session-group-setup-hook’
Hooks run before setting up a control panel for a group of related
Ediff sessions. Can be used, for example, to save window
configuration to restore later.
‘ediff-after-session-group-setup-hook’
Hooks run after setting up a control panel for a group of related
Ediff sessions. Session Groups, for details.
‘ediff-quit-session-group-hook’
Hooks run just before exiting a session group.
‘ediff-meta-buffer-keymap-setup-hook’
Hooks run just after setting up the ‘ediff-meta-buffer-map’, the
map that controls key bindings in the meta buffer. Since
‘ediff-meta-buffer-map’ is a local variable, you can set different
bindings for different kinds of meta buffers.