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I want to save a buffer somewhere temporary so I can later say bring up that buffer I was using.

Is there an equivalent to minimizing a window/buffer? I know you can kill the buffer to go to the previous one, but a true minimizing concept would be ideal.

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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Evan Adler
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    Could you please clarify your question? (There is `bury-buffer`, but so far I don't know if it matches your idea of "true" minimization, so I don't know if it fits the bill.) – Constantine Feb 10 '16 at 21:25
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    Please describe the behavior you would like, in some detail. Otherwise, the question risks being closed as unclear or too broad. – Drew Feb 10 '16 at 21:38
  • Basically, I want to save a buffer somewhere temporary so I can later say bring up that buffer I was using. – Evan Adler Feb 10 '16 at 21:43
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    Emacs maintains a list of open buffers that you can switch between using e.g. `C-x b` or `C-x C-b`. You don't need to kill a buffer in order to look at another one... – glucas Feb 10 '16 at 22:18
  • Define "save a buffer". – Drew Feb 10 '16 at 22:57
  • Please check out one of the [many fine Emacs tutorials](https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=emacs+tutorial&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002), as well as the built in tutorial (`C-h t` or `M-x help-with-tutorial`). They will help you understand the basics of how Emacs works, and will also help you clarify your questions. – Dan Feb 11 '16 at 01:19

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The concept of buffer and window in Emacs can be confusing to new users: the terms are used to mean different things in Emacs than in other tools. (See for example this question.)

The Emacs Manual provides details about using multiple buffers.

To answer the specific question: many buffers can be open at one time in Emacs, and you can freely switch between them without having to minimize or kill anything. You can simply switch to another buffer by name (C-x b) or choose one from the list of open buffers (C-x C-b). As mentioned in the comments you can also use bury-buffer, which moves the buffer you are currently looking at to the end of the list of buffers and shows you the next one. You can split the frame in to several windows and display a different buffer in each one... There are many options.

If you are a new Emacs user I would suggest going through the Emacs Tutorial, which covers the basics. You can start the tutorial in Emacs using C-h t (control h, followed by t).

Community
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glucas
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