How to know the buffer I will return to from the minibuffer?

How to know the buffer I will return to from the minibuffer?

[Marcin Borkowski]

Hi all,

I am writing an interactive command to be used while in the minibuffer.
I need to know the buffer I was in when I issued the command that put me
in the minibuffer (like M-: or M-!).  I tried (other-buffer
(current-buffer)) and (last-buffer (current-buffer)), but to no avail.
Then I re-read the docs for `other-buffer' and used this: (other-buffer
(current-buffer) t), and it seemed to work.  The question is, how
reliable it is.  Am I doing this correctly?

TIA,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

Re: How to know the buffer I will return to from the minibuffer?

[tomas]

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On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 08:10:54AM +0100, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am writing an interactive command to be used while in the minibuffer.
> I need to know the buffer I was in when I issued the command that put me
> in the minibuffer (like M-: or M-!).  I tried (other-buffer
> (current-buffer)) and (last-buffer (current-buffer)), but to no avail.
> Then I re-read the docs for `other-buffer' and used this: (other-buffer
> (current-buffer) t), and it seemed to work.  The question is, how
> reliable it is.  Am I doing this correctly?

There's also minibuffer-selected-window (Emacs 27.0.50 here):

  minibuffer-selected-window is a built-in function in ‘C source code’.

  (minibuffer-selected-window)

  Return window selected just before minibuffer window was selected.
  Return nil if the selected window is not a minibuffer window.
  This function does not change global state, including the match data.

HTH
-- tomás

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Re: How to know the buffer I will return to from the minibuffer?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2019-02-14, at 09:39, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 08:10:54AM +0100, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I am writing an interactive command to be used while in the minibuffer.
>> I need to know the buffer I was in when I issued the command that put me
>> in the minibuffer (like M-: or M-!).  I tried (other-buffer
>> (current-buffer)) and (last-buffer (current-buffer)), but to no avail.
>> Then I re-read the docs for `other-buffer' and used this: (other-buffer
>> (current-buffer) t), and it seemed to work.  The question is, how
>> reliable it is.  Am I doing this correctly?
>
> There's also minibuffer-selected-window (Emacs 27.0.50 here):
>
>   minibuffer-selected-window is a built-in function in ‘C source code’.
>
>   (minibuffer-selected-window)
>
>   Return window selected just before minibuffer window was selected.
>   Return nil if the selected window is not a minibuffer window.
>   This function does not change global state, including the match data.
>
> HTH
> -- tomás

Yes, that seems to help a lot - thanks!

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

RE: How to know the buffer I will return to from the minibuffer?

[Drew Adams]

> I am writing an interactive command to be used while in the minibuffer.
> I need to know the buffer I was in when I issued the command that put
> me in the minibuffer (like M-: or M-!).  I tried (other-buffer
> (current-buffer)) and (last-buffer (current-buffer)), but to no avail.
> Then I re-read the docs for `other-buffer' and used this: (other-buffer
> (current-buffer) t), and it seemed to work.  The question is, how
> reliable it is.  Am I doing this correctly?

If you use Icicles then that buffer is the value of variable
`icicle-pre-minibuffer-buffer':

  Buffer that was current before the minibuffer became active.

and its window is the last-used window showing it:

(icicle-mru-window-for-buffer
  icicle-pre-minibuffer-buffer 'noMNI 0)

When minibuffer setup occurs, the variable is set using
function `icicle-last-non-minibuffer-buffer', which does this:

(let ((live-bufs  (icicle-remove-if
                    (lambda (buf) (not (buffer-live-p buf)))
                    (buffer-list))))
  (or (car bufs)  (car live-bufs)))

If you don't use Icicles you can do the same kind of thing.
Use `minibuffer-setup-hook' to set a variable to the last
live non-minibuffer buffer.

This is `icicle-mru-window-for-buffer':

(defun icicle-mru-window-for-buffer (buffer &optional
                                     minibuf all-frames)
  "Return the most recently used window for BUFFER.
Optional args MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are as for
`get-buffer-window-list'."
    (let* ((wins      (get-buffer-window-list
                        buffer minibuf all-frames))
           (mru-win   (car wins))
           (mru-time  (window-use-time mru-win))
           wtime)
      (unless (listp mru-time)
        (setq mru-time  (seconds-to-time mru-time)))
      (dolist (win  (cdr wins))
        (setq wtime  (window-use-time win))
        (unless (listp wtime)
          (setq wtime  (seconds-to-time wtime)))
        (unless (time-less-p wtime mru-time)
          (setq mru-time  wtime
                mru-win   win)))
      mru-win))

Re: How to know the buffer I will return to from the minibuffer?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2019-02-14, at 16:38, Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote:

>> I am writing an interactive command to be used while in the minibuffer.
>> I need to know the buffer I was in when I issued the command that put
>> me in the minibuffer (like M-: or M-!).  I tried (other-buffer
>> (current-buffer)) and (last-buffer (current-buffer)), but to no avail.
>> Then I re-read the docs for `other-buffer' and used this: (other-buffer
>> (current-buffer) t), and it seemed to work.  The question is, how
>> reliable it is.  Am I doing this correctly?
>
> If you use Icicles then that buffer is the value of variable
> `icicle-pre-minibuffer-buffer':

I don't, but thanks for pointing me to `minibuffer-setup-hook' - it is
interesting in itself.

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl