Calling vc-diff does not work in indirect buffers. If the base buffer visits a file under version control, I expect it to behave as if called from the base buffer. The attached patch is a possible fix in that direction. I don't know if other commands in vc should have the same fix, should that kind of patch be applied. Reproduction steps: =============== run emacs -Q open any file-under-version-control M-x clone-indirect-buffer In the new buffer, run vc-diff fails with `vc-deduce-fileset: Buffer [...] is not associated with a file` Details about the machine: ==================== Configured using: 'configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --without-compress-install -C 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3'' Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND NOTIFY W32NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 HARFBUZZ ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS MODULES THREADS PDUMPER LCMS2 GMP Important settings: value of $LANG: ENU locale-coding-system: cp65001 Major mode: Messages Minor modes in effect: global-subword-mode: t subword-mode: t save-place-mode: t minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode: t global-undo-tree-mode: t recentf-mode: t show-paren-mode: t global-auto-revert-mode: t savehist-mode: t delete-selection-mode: t override-global-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t buffer-read-only: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t global-visual-line-mode: t visual-line-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Load-path shadows: ~/.emacs.d/swiper/elpa hides ~/.emacs.d/lispy/elpa Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec epa epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs time-date mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils bookmark text-property-search pp smerge-mode tabify multiple-cursors-core rect eieio-opt speedbar sb-image ezimage dframe counsel xdg dired dired-loaddefs apropos go-mode url url-proxy url-privacy url-expand url-methods url-history url-cookie url-domsuf url-util mailcap find-file ffap compile cl-print debug cus-start cus-load diff-hl face-remap vc-hg vc-dir vc-bzr vc-src vc-sccs vc-svn vc-cvs vc-rcs ewoc vc vc-dispatcher vc-git diff-mode lispy swiper lispy-inline noutline outline etags fileloop generator edebug backtrace help-fns radix-tree lispy-tags mode-local find-func rainbow-delimiters hl-todo pcase my-color-theme init my-init highlight-symbol thingatpt cap-words superword subword saveplace ace-link mb-depth hl-line battery undo-tree diff avy rx ivy-hydra ivy-xref ivy colir color ivy-overlay xref project recentf tree-widget wid-edit hydra lv hippie-exp comint ansi-color ring key-chord benchmark-init-modes paren elec-pair autorevert filenotify savehist delsel dabbrev cl-extra help-mode edmacro kmacro diminish cl use-package use-package-ensure use-package-delight use-package-diminish use-package-bind-key bind-key easy-mmode use-package-core derived benchmark-init advice info package easymenu browse-url url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs eieio-loaddefs password-cache json subr-x map url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv cl-loaddefs cl-lib tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32 ls-lisp disp-table term/w32-win w32-win w32-vars term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame minibuffer cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote threads w32notify w32 lcms2 multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 311030 114283) (symbols 48 21138 1) (strings 32 60774 2776) (string-bytes 1 1941284) (vectors 16 26613) (vector-slots 8 306017 10984) (floats 8 293 480) (intervals 56 3804 12) (buffers 1000 24))