Emacs: what is the shortcut key to clear buffer?

Question

Like, Control-A (select all) followed by delete?

A related (common) problem: to clear the mini-buffer using the `esc` key, set this in your init: `(global-set-key (kbd "") 'keyboard-escape-quit)` — silian-rail, Nov 30 '20 at 07:07

score 87 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 03 '11 at 15:27

87

How about using:

M-x erase-buffer

Which you could bind to whatever you want.

answered Feb 03 '11 at 15:27

Trey Jackson

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I have this in my .emacs: `(global-set-key (kbd "C-x ") 'erase-buffer)` – Pål GD Nov 01 '15 at 15:49
2

For new users, when `M-x erase buffer` is invoked for the first time you will receive a prompt explaining that it has been disabled but you can enable it . If unsure about exactly what this command does, I recommend running it with the `SPACE` option the first time to see what happens. – Nathan Feb 04 '16 at 18:07

score 45 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 02 '15 at 18:31

45

C-x h + del key clears the buffer

Note: This requires transient-mark-mode to be enabled (which it is by default).

edited Nov 02 '15 at 18:31

Trey Jackson

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answered Jul 31 '13 at 09:30

jith912

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This (or `M-x erase-buffer`) does not add the contents of the buffer to the kill ring, but `C-x h C-w` does, and `C-x h C-w` also works when transient mark mode is not enabled. – nisetama Jun 18 '16 at 06:42

score 33 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 03 '11 at 14:12

33

Select all in Emacs is:

C-x h

(technically, that's mark-whole-buffer) and kill-region (to kill the marked region, which is now the entire buffer) is:

C-w

If you want to delete the region without copying it to the kill-ring, you can use

M-x delete-region

instead. If you do this alot, you'll want to bind delete-region to a key/key combo.

answered Feb 03 '11 at 14:12

Tyler

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The difference between this solution and M-x erase-buffer, is that this solution copies the deleted text into the kill-ring. That can be very annoying if one wants to delete a large file as copying a ton of text to the kill ring can be slow. This behavior is even more annoying if one is a user of browse-kill-ring.el – Noah Sussman Nov 28 '12 at 14:59

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 05 '12 at 12:21

6

These macros build on the answers given above. To start using them paste them into your .emacs then restart emacs or (while in the .emacs buffer) type M-x eval-buffer.

(defun clear-buffer ()
  "clear whole buffer add contents to the kill ring"
  (interactive)
  (kill-region (point-min) (point-max))
  )

(defun clear-buffer-permenantly ()
  "clear whole buffer, contents is not added to the kill ring"
  (interactive)
  (delete-region (point-min) (point-max))
  )

answered Apr 05 '12 at 12:21

tjb

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`erase-buffer` will clear the buffer regardless of narrowing. That may or may not be more desirable. – jpkotta Dec 10 '15 at 19:51
1

`erase-buffer` does not add the contents of the buffer to the kill ring however. – nisetama Jun 18 '16 at 06:28

Frank da Cruz · Answer 5 · 2013-05-01T19:35:04.260

5

Old folks might like to call it hk rather than clear-buffer-permanently, and assign it to the nostalgic key sequence like so:

(define-key esc-map "\^[hk" 'hk)

That's the pre-Gnu TECO EMACS command to clear the buffer (ESC ESC wHole Kill).

edited May 01 '13 at 19:35

answered May 01 '13 at 19:17

Frank da Cruz

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cadrian · Answer 6 · 2011-02-03T15:18:33.820

4

Go to the begin of the buffer, go to the end (both set the mark), then cut:

M-< M-> C-w

edited Feb 03 '11 at 15:18

answered Feb 03 '11 at 13:39

cadrian

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 03 '11 at 13:39

2

There is no shortcut, but you can define one... Follow this link to get a macro for clearing a buffer.

answered Feb 03 '11 at 13:39

Matten

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Emacs: what is the shortcut key to clear buffer?

7 Answers7

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