15.2 Listing Existing Buffers

C-x C-b

List the existing buffers (list-buffers).

To print a list of all existing buffers, type C-x C-b. Each line in the list shows one buffer’s name, major mode, and visited file. A ‘*’ at the beginning of a line indicates the buffer has been “modified”. If several buffers are modified, it may be time to save some with C-x s (see Saving). A ‘%’ indicates a read-only buffer. A ‘.’ marks the selected buffer. Here is an example of a buffer list:

 MR Buffer         Size  Mode           File
 -- ------         ----  ----           ----
.*  emacs.tex      383402 Texinfo       /u2/emacs/man/emacs.tex
    *Help*         1287  Fundamental
    files.el       23076 Emacs-Lisp     /u2/emacs/lisp/files.el
  % RMAIL          64042 RMAIL          /u/rms/RMAIL
 *% man            747   Dired          /u2/emacs/man/
    net.emacs      343885 Fundamental   /u/rms/net.emacs
    fileio.c       27691 C              /u2/emacs/src/fileio.c
    NEWS           67340 Text           /u2/emacs/etc/NEWS
    *scratch*      0     Lisp Interaction

Note that the buffer ‘*Help*’ was made by a help request; it is not visiting any file. The buffer man was made by Dired on the directory /u2/emacs/man/.

As you move the mouse over the ‘*Buffer List*’ buffer, the lines are highlighted. This visual cue indicates that clicking the right mouse button (button3) will pop up a menu of commands on the buffer represented by this line. This menu duplicates most of those commands which are bound to keys in the ‘*Buffer List*’ buffer.