How prevent `display-buffer` from opening a specific buffer in a new window if and only if it is shown in another frame

Question

I want the *compilation* buffer to not pop up in my main frame when I have it in another frame already open. However if the buffer is not shown anywhere, I do want it to pop up in a new window of the main frame.

I have set special-display-regexps:

(setq special-display-regexps (list "\\*compilation\\*.*"))

And this somewhat works: The compilation buffer does not open in a new window when it's displayed in another frame, so far so good, but, if it is not displayed anywhere it is opened in a brand new frame - and I do not want this.

Any idea how I can tweak this?

Here is a link to a semi-related thread where I target a specific frame for buffers matching a particular criteria, creating the frame if it does not already exist. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18346785/how-to-intercept-a-file-before-it-opens-and-decide-which-frame You would need a custom function to meet your specified criteria outlined in the question above. Here is a link to a custom `my-display-buffer` function to target a specific window within a frame or create a new window (there are 3 built-in conditions).... https://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/15118/2287 — lawlist, Jun 24 '19 at 21:13

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 24 '19 at 14:15

Not a real answer, but some info that might help.

You will likely need to fiddle with display-buffer-alist (good luck!). Someone here will no doubt help with that.

You cannot use special-display-regexps or special-display-buffer-names alone to do what you want - they're designed for the simple behavior you described: use (and reuse) an existing window, and if there is none then use a new frame.

A poor man's workaround would be to first create a *compilation* window on your "main" frame, and then do the special-display-* thing. If a window showing the buffer already exists somewhere (anywhere) then it will be reused. If such a window does not exist then the buffer will be displayed in a new frame.

phils · Answer 2 · 2021-07-14T07:09:35.920

0

Try this:

;; Prefer existing frames already displaying *compilation*.
(add-to-list 'display-buffer-alist
             (cons "\\`\\*compilation\\*\\'"
                   (cons 'display-buffer-reuse-window
                         '((reusable-frames . visible)
                           (inhibit-switch-frame . nil)))))

For more information, refer to:

C-hf display-buffer-reuse-window
C-hv display-buffer-alist
C-hig (elisp)Displaying Buffers

edited Jul 14 '21 at 07:09

answered Jul 14 '21 at 06:59

phils

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Wow, this looks proomising! Will try it out and report back. Thanks heaps! – halloleo Jul 15 '21 at 07:58
How did you get on, @halloleo ? – phils Apr 10 '22 at 11:17

How prevent `display-buffer` from opening a specific buffer in a new window if and only if it is shown in another frame

2 Answers2