User interface in Emacs allowing one to “grab” the buffer’s filename conveniently

copy/pasteemacsfilenames

It happens quite often that I want to use the path of the file opened in a certain buffer in Emacs (either the full path or the basename) in another place (a buffer or a different X program, say, a terminal). I wonder whether there is some pre-defined subsystem in the Emacs "user interface" that would copy the filename of the current buffer ((buffer-file-name)) to the kill-ring.

Related things: There is a simple command in emacs-w3m that does an analoguos thing (y — w3m-print-current-url): it prints the URL and copies it to the kill-ring.

Of course, I could simply define the command I want, but I'm asking this question because I hope to learn some user interface subsystem of Emacs that includes such a possibility among other features. (Perhaps, some buffer and path manipulation interfaces.) So that I will know more useful features of Emacs.

Best Answer

I do this:

C-x C-v (find-alternate-file)
C-a (move-beginning-of-line)
C-k (kill-line)
C-g (keyboard-quit)

It's quicker than using the minibuffer history. If all you want is the base name, it's even faster - just skip the C-a in the second step.

Related Solutions

Convenient general way to “grab” the echoed result of a command in Emacs (of M-: or M-!)

Type C-u before either M-: or M-! to get the result inserted instead of sent to the echo area.

To get things directly into the kill ring, you need to dabble in Elisp. Something like this (untested):

;;; kill ring version of M-!
(defun shell-command-to-kill-ring (command)
    (interactive
      (list
        (read-shell-command "Shell command: " nil nil
                (let ((filename
                       (cond
                    (buffer-file-name)
                    ((eq major-mode 'dired-mode)
                     (dired-get-filename nil t)))))
                  (and filename (file-relative-name filename))))
        current-prefix-arg
        shell-command-default-error-buffer))
    (kill-new (shell-command-to-string command)))

;;; kill-ring version of M-:
(defun eval-expression-to-kill-ring ()
    (interactive)
    (call-interactively 'eval-expression)
    (kill-new (car values)))

In emacs, is there a way to Hex edit/view a buffer without losing the undo info

Here is a function which copies the contents of the current buffer into a new buffer and runs hexl-mode on that:

(defun hexify-buffer-copy()
    "Edit current buffer in hexl mode by copying it"
    (let ((orig-buffer (current-buffer)))
         (switch-to-buffer (create-file-buffer
             (buffer-file-name orig-buffer)))
         (insert-buffer orig-buffer)
         (setq buffer-undo-list nil)
         (hexl-mode)))

Run with M-: (hexify-buffer-copy)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Convenient general way to “grab” the echoed result of a command in Emacs (of M-: or M-!)

In emacs, is there a way to Hex edit/view a buffer without losing the undo info

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