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Buffers

Commands

To open buffers or navigate through the buffers list see :doc commands files-and-buffers.

Scratch Buffers

Scratch buffers are useful for volatile data and quick prototyping. They are not linked to files, so Kakoune does not warn about unsaved changes at exit, and the :write command requires an explicit filename.

One particular scratch buffer, named *scratch*, is automatically created when there are no other buffers left in the current session, which is also the case when Kakoune starts up without any files to open.

A scratch buffer can be created by passing the -scratch switch to the :edit command.

Debug Buffers

Debug buffers are used to gather diagnostics. They have a number of restrictions compared to regular buffers:

  • They are skipped when cycling over the buffers list.

  • Their content is not considered for word completions with word=all completers.

  • Hooks are not always run (like the BufCreate/BufClose hooks).

  • Display profiling is disabled.

A specific *debug* buffer is used by Kakoune to write errors or warnings. This is also where the ouput of the :debug and the :echo -debug commands will land.

A debug buffer can be created by passing the -debug switch to the :edit command.

FIFO Buffers

The :edit command can take a -fifo switch:

:edit -fifo <filename> [-scroll] <buffername>

In this case, a buffer named <buffername> is created which reads its content from the FIFO (also called "named pipe") <filename>. When the FIFO is written to, the buffer is automatically updated.

If the -scroll switch is specified, the window displaying the buffer will scroll so that the newest data is always visible.

This is very useful for running some commands asynchronously while displaying their result in a buffer. See rc/make.kak and rc/grep.kak for examples.

When the write end of the FIFO is closed, the buffer becomes an ordinary scratch buffer. When the buffer is deleted, Kakoune closes the read end of the FIFO. Any program writing to the FIFO will receive SIGPIPE, which will terminate the program by default.