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elisp: Indirect Buffers

 
 26.11 Indirect Buffers
 ======================
 
 An “indirect buffer” shares the text of some other buffer, which is
 called the “base buffer” of the indirect buffer.  In some ways it is the
 analogue, for buffers, of a symbolic link among files.  The base buffer
 may not itself be an indirect buffer.
 
    The text of the indirect buffer is always identical to the text of
 its base buffer; changes made by editing either one are visible
 immediately in the other.  This includes the text properties as well as
 the characters themselves.
 
    In all other respects, the indirect buffer and its base buffer are
 completely separate.  They have different names, independent values of
 point, independent narrowing, independent markers and overlays (though
 inserting or deleting text in either buffer relocates the markers and
 overlays for both), independent major modes, and independent
 buffer-local variable bindings.
 
    An indirect buffer cannot visit a file, but its base buffer can.  If
 you try to save the indirect buffer, that actually saves the base
 buffer.
 
    Killing an indirect buffer has no effect on its base buffer.  Killing
 the base buffer effectively kills the indirect buffer in that it cannot
 ever again be the current buffer.
 
  -- Command: make-indirect-buffer base-buffer name &optional clone
      This creates and returns an indirect buffer named NAME whose base
      buffer is BASE-BUFFER.  The argument BASE-BUFFER may be a live
      buffer or the name (a string) of an existing buffer.  If NAME is
      the name of an existing buffer, an error is signaled.
 
      If CLONE is non-‘nil’, then the indirect buffer originally shares
      the state of BASE-BUFFER such as major mode, minor modes, buffer
      local variables and so on.  If CLONE is omitted or ‘nil’ the
      indirect buffer’s state is set to the default state for new
      buffers.
 
      If BASE-BUFFER is an indirect buffer, its base buffer is used as
      the base for the new buffer.  If, in addition, CLONE is non-‘nil’,
      the initial state is copied from the actual base buffer, not from
      BASE-BUFFER.
 
  -- Command: clone-indirect-buffer newname display-flag &optional
           norecord
      This function creates and returns a new indirect buffer that shares
      the current buffer’s base buffer and copies the rest of the current
      buffer’s attributes.  (If the current buffer is not indirect, it is
      used as the base buffer.)
 
      If DISPLAY-FLAG is non-‘nil’, that means to display the new buffer
      by calling ‘pop-to-buffer’.  If NORECORD is non-‘nil’, that means
      not to put the new buffer to the front of the buffer list.
 
  -- Function: buffer-base-buffer &optional buffer
      This function returns the base buffer of BUFFER, which defaults to
      the current buffer.  If BUFFER is not indirect, the value is ‘nil’.
      Otherwise, the value is another buffer, which is never an indirect
      buffer.
 

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