Emacs: help me understand file/buffer management

emacs

I've been using emacs for all of my text editing needs for the past three years now. When I'm in a single file, working on code or whatnot, I'm fairly efficient. With two files, I can "C-x b RET" between them and I do fine. However, whenever I need to be working on more than two files at a time, I tend to get lost.

Here are some of the problems that I'd like to work on:

I forget what some of my buffers are called, but I don't understand why C-x C-b splits my window into two buffers and exits the mini buffer. Sure I can switch buffers and choose a buffer to visit, but this feels unintuitive, and leaves me with two buffers open.
When I visit a directory rather than a file, I have a convenient list of all of the files and directories. I usually want to do one of two things with this: 1) Open a single file and never see this buffer again OR 2) Open a bunch of files and never see this buffer again. I don't really know how to do this, as moving the point to a file and hitting return doesn't do either of these things.
I know that my buffers aren't like tabs, but I have an inclination to want to scroll through them to find what I want. I don't know of any key-bindings for this, but I'd like it to be M-n / M-p or the like. Then again, this may be a horribly inefficient way to switch buffers.
When I open interactive help of any kind (for example in ESS), I have a habit of switching back to the buffer I was working in and using C-x 1 to get back to a single buffer. When I do this, however, the help buffer hangs around in my buffer list, further confusing me. I know I can switch to that buffer, kill it, switch back, and then go back to a single buffer, but this seems wrong.

The way I've dealt with this so far involves using a tiling window manager and a few emacs windows in different work-spaces, rather than actually learn the best way to manage a number of files in emacs. I don't necessarily want to change emacs to better fit my needs (although I am open to that if it fits in with what I'm about to say), instead, I'd like to grok the thought process behind handling files/buffers the way that emacs does, and how I can be more efficient with it.

Any answer that would help me understand the correct way, or a more efficient way to manage my buffers or files would be greatly appreciated.

Best Solution

Bind C-x C-b to ibuffer. This is a better buffer listing facility with many advanced features, and its default behaviour is to replace the current buffer with the buffer listing, and then bury the listing when you select a buffer (leaving you with the newly-selected buffer in place of the original one).

You can simply use C-x b to enter your selection in the mini-buffer, of course; however the tab-completion (which is needed to make this a viable option, IMO) does open a new window temporarily, at which point I think you might as well familiarise yourself with something with more features.
Use a instead of RET when selecting from dired. This kills the dired buffer instead of leaving it behind. C-h m in any buffer will show you the help for its major mode (followed by help for the minor modes), and you can read about all the available dired key bindings there.
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/TabBarMode ? (edit: I prefer Rémi's answer for this one, but TabBarMode would give you the visual tab element if you were particularly keen on that.)
q is bound to a 'quit' function in a great many major modes. Generally it buries the buffer rather than killing it, but I certainly find that fine.

To elaborate a little on #1, ibuffer has lots of nice features, and M-x customize-group ibuffer RET will give you some idea of how you can customise it to your liking.

Furthermore, you can filter the buffer list by many criteria (again, use C-h m to see its help page), and then generate a 'group' definition from the current filters, and save your custom filters and groups for future usage.

For example:

/ f ^/var/www/ RET: filter buffer list to show only filenames starting with /var/www/.
/ s Web filters RET: name and save active filter set to your init file.
/ g Web development RET: create a named group from the active filters.
/ S My groups RET: name and save group definitions to your init file.
/ r Web filters RET: invoke the "Web filters" filters.
/ R My groups RET: invoke the "My groups" groups.
RET on a group name to collapse or expand it.
C-k and C-y to kill and yank groups, to re-arrange them.
C-h m for more information...

This way you can have a single Emacs instance running, and create filters and groups for different types of task, and easily switch between them.

Short answer:

The key point is to tell emacs to insert whatever you want when indenting, this is done by changing the indent-line-function. It is easier to change it to insert a tab and then change tabs into 4 spaces than change it to insert 4 spaces. The following configuration will solve your problem:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq-default tab-width 4)
(setq indent-line-function 'insert-tab)

Explanation:

From Indentation Controlled by Major Mode @ emacs manual:

An important function of each major mode is to customize the key to indent properly for the language being edited.

[...]

The indent-line-function variable is the function to be used by (and various commands, like when calling indent-region) to indent the current line. The command indent-according-to-mode does no more than call this function.

[...]

The default value is indent-relative for many modes.

From indent-relative @ emacs manual:

Indent-relative Space out to under next indent point in previous nonblank line.

[...]

If the previous nonblank line has no indent points beyond the column point starts at, `tab-to-tab-stop' is done instead.

Just change the value of indent-line-function to the insert-tab function and configure tab insertion as 4 spaces.

How to control how Emacs makes backup files

If you've ever been saved by an Emacs backup file, you probably want more of them, not less of them. It is annoying that they go in the same directory as the file you're editing, but that is easy to change. You can make all backup files go into a directory by putting something like the following in your .emacs.

(setq backup-directory-alist `(("." . "~/.saves")))

There are a number of arcane details associated with how Emacs might create your backup files. Should it rename the original and write out the edited buffer? What if the original is linked? In general, the safest but slowest bet is to always make backups by copying.

(setq backup-by-copying t)

If that's too slow for some reason you might also have a look at backup-by-copying-when-linked.

Since your backups are all in their own place now, you might want more of them, rather than less of them. Have a look at the Emacs documentation for these variables (with C-h v).

(setq delete-old-versions t
  kept-new-versions 6
  kept-old-versions 2
  version-control t)

Finally, if you absolutely must have no backup files:

(setq make-backup-files nil)

It makes me sick to think of it though.

Best Solution

Related Solutions

Set 4 Space Indent in Emacs in Text Mode

Short answer:

Explanation:

How to control how Emacs makes backup files

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