elisp: Quitting Windows
27.18 Quitting Windows
======================
When you want to get rid of a window used for displaying a buffer, you
can call ‘delete-window’ or ‘delete-windows-on’ (
Deleting
Windows) to remove that window from its frame. If the buffer is shown
on a separate frame, you might want to call ‘delete-frame’ (
Deleting Frames) instead. If, on the other hand, a window has been
reused for displaying the buffer, you might prefer showing the buffer
previously shown in that window, by calling the function
‘switch-to-prev-buffer’ (Window History). Finally, you might
DONTPRINTYET want to either bury (Buffer List) or kill (*noteKilling
DONTPRINTYET want to either bury (Buffer List) or kill (Killing
Buffers) the window’s buffer.
The following command uses information on how the window for
displaying the buffer was obtained in the first place, thus attempting
to automate the above decisions for you.
-- Command: quit-window &optional kill window
This command quits WINDOW and buries its buffer. The argument
WINDOW must be a live window and defaults to the selected one.
With prefix argument KILL non-‘nil’, it kills the buffer instead of
burying it. It calls the function ‘quit-restore-window’ described
next to deal with the window and its buffer.
-- Function: quit-restore-window &optional window bury-or-kill
This function handles WINDOW and its buffer after quitting. The
optional argument WINDOW must be a live window and defaults to the
selected one. The function’s behavior is determined by the four
elements of the ‘quit-restore’ window parameter (Window
Parameters), which is set to nil afterwards.
The window is deleted entirely if: 1) the first element of the
‘quit-restore’ parameter is one of ’window or ’frame, 2) the window
has no history of previously-displayed buffers, and 3) the
displayed buffer matches the one in the fourth element of the
‘quit-restore’ parameter. If WINDOW is the only window on its
frame and there are other frames on the frame’s terminal, the value
of the optional argument BURY-OR-KILL determines how to proceed
with the window. If BURY-OR-KILL equals ‘kill’, the frame is
deleted unconditionally. Otherwise, the fate of the frame is
determined by calling ‘frame-auto-hide-function’ (see below) with
that frame as sole argument.
If the third element of the ‘quit-restore’ parameter is a list of
buffer, window start (Window Start and End), and point
(Window Point), and that buffer is still live, the buffer
will be displayed, and start and point set accordingly. If, in
addition, WINDOW’s buffer was temporarily resized, this function
will also try to restore the original height of WINDOW.
Otherwise, if WINDOW was previously used for displaying other
buffers (Window History), the most recent buffer in that
history will be displayed.
The optional argument BURY-OR-KILL specifies how to deal with
WINDOW’s buffer. The following values are handled:
‘nil’
This means to not deal with the buffer in any particular way.
As a consequence, if WINDOW is not deleted, invoking
‘switch-to-prev-buffer’ will usually show the buffer again.
‘append’
This means that if WINDOW is not deleted, its buffer is moved
to the end of WINDOW’s list of previous buffers, so it’s less
likely that a future invocation of ‘switch-to-prev-buffer’
will switch to it. Also, it moves the buffer to the end of
the frame’s buffer list.
‘bury’
This means that if WINDOW is not deleted, its buffer is
removed from WINDOW’s list of previous buffers. Also, it
moves the buffer to the end of the frame’s buffer list. This
value provides the most reliable remedy to not have
‘switch-to-prev-buffer’ switch to this buffer again without
killing the buffer.
‘kill’
This means to kill WINDOW’s buffer.
Typically, the display routines run by ‘display-buffer’ will set
the ‘quit-restore’ window parameter correctly. It’s also possible
to set it manually, using the following code for displaying BUFFER
in WINDOW:
(display-buffer-record-window type window buffer)
(set-window-buffer window buffer)
(set-window-prev-buffers window nil)
Setting the window history to nil ensures that a future call to
‘quit-window’ can delete the window altogether.
The following option specifies how to deal with a frame containing
just one window that should be either quit, or whose buffer should be
buried.
-- User Option: frame-auto-hide-function
The function specified by this option is called to automatically
hide frames. This function is called with one argument—a frame.
Buffer List::) when the selected window is dedicated and shows the
buffer to bury. It is also called by ‘quit-restore-window’ (see
above) when the frame of the window to quit has been specially
created for displaying that window’s buffer and the buffer is not
killed.
The default is to call ‘iconify-frame’ (Visibility of
Frames). Alternatively, you may specify either ‘delete-frame’
(Deleting Frames) to remove the frame from its display,
‘ignore’ to leave the frame unchanged, or any other function that
can take a frame as its sole argument.
Note that the function specified by this option is called only if
the specified frame contains just one live window and there is at
least one other frame on the same terminal.
Info Catalog
elisp: Dedicated Windows
elisp: Windows
elisp: Window Point