Tag Archives: emacs-package

Emacs: buffer-terminator.el – Safely Terminate Emacs Buffers Automatically

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The buffer-terminator Emacs package automatically kills buffers to help maintain a clean and efficient workspace, while also improving Emacs’ performance by reducing the number of open buffers, thereby decreasing the number of active modes, timers, and other processes associated with those buffers.

Activating (buffer-terminator-mode) terminates all buffers that have been inactive for longer than the duration specified by buffer-terminator-inactivity-timeout (default: 30 minutes). It checks every buffer-terminator-interval (default: 10 minutes) to determine if a buffer should be terminated.

The following buffers are not terminated by default:

  • Special buffers (buffers whose names start with a space, start and end with *, or whose major mode is derived from special-mode).
  • Modified file-visiting buffers that have not been saved; the user must save them first.
  • Buffers currently displayed in any visible window.
  • Buffers associated with running processes.

(The default parameters above are fully customizable. Users can define specific rules for keeping or terminating certain buffers by specifying a set of rules using buffer-terminator-rules-alist. These rules can include buffer name patterns or regular expressions, major-modes, buffer properties, etc.)

Installation from MELPA

MELPA

To install buffer-terminator from MELPA:

  1. If you haven’t already done so, add MELPA repository to your Emacs configuration.
  2. Add the following code to the Emacs init file:
(use-package buffer-terminator
  :ensure t
  :custom
  (buffer-terminator-verbose nil)
  :config
  (buffer-terminator-mode 1))Code language: CSS (css)

Customizations

To enable verbose mode to log buffer cleanup events:

(setq buffer-terminator-verbose t)Code language: Lisp (lisp)

To set the inactivity timeout (in seconds) after which buffers are considered inactive (default is 30 minutes):

(setq buffer-terminator-inactivity-timeout (* 30 60)) ; 30 minutesCode language: Lisp (lisp)

To define how frequently the cleanup process should run (default is every 10 minutes):

(customize-set-variable 'buffer-terminator-interval (* 10 60)) ; 10 minutesCode language: Lisp (lisp)

(Using customize-set-variable allows buffer-terminator-interval to update the timer dynamically, without the need to restart buffer-terminator-mode.)

There are other customizable options available in the buffer-terminator.el README.md file.

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The compile-angel Emacs package: Byte-compile and Native-compile Emacs Lisp libraries Automatically

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The compile-angel Emacs package automatically byte-compiles and native-compiles Emacs Lisp libraries. It offers:

  • (compile-angel-on-load-mode): A global mode that compiles .el files before they are loaded.
  • (compile-angel-on-save-local-mode): A local mode that compiles .el files whenever the user saves them.

The compile-angel modes speed up Emacs by ensuring all libraries are byte-compiled and native-compiled. Byte-compilation reduces the overhead of loading Emacs Lisp code at runtime, while native compilation optimizes performance by generating machine code specific to your system.

Why use compile-angel?

Because you are likely running a significant amount of interpreted, slow Elisp code. Ensuring that Elisp is native-compiled significantly improves Emacs’ performance. This is because functions like package-install and package-recompile-all do not compile .el files in the load-path paths that were not installed using package.el. Since these files are not byte-compiled, the Emacs JIT compiler does not native-compile them either, as a byte-compiled file signals the JIT compiler to perform native compilation. In contrast, compile-angel modes ensure that all loaded .el files are compiled transparently, regardless of whether they are part of a package.

Install compile-angel from MELPA

  1. If you haven’t already done so, add MELPA repository to your Emacs configuration.
  2. Add the following code at the very beginning of your Emacs init file, before all other packages:
(use-package compile-angel
  :ensure t
  :demand t
  :custom
  (compile-angel-verbose nil)
  :config
  (compile-angel-on-load-mode)
  (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 
            #'compile-angel-on-save-local-mode)) Code language: Lisp (lisp)

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dir-config.el – Automatically find and evaluate .dir-config.el Elisp files to configure directory-specific settings

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The dir-config.el Emacs package automatically loads and evaluates Elisp code from a .dir-config.el file found in the buffer’s current directory or its closest parent directory. This facilitates adjusting settings or executing functions specific to the directory structure of each buffer.

For instance, you can use the dir-config package to:

  • Configure project-specific settings: Automatically set up environment variables, keybindings, or modes unique to each project.
  • Apply directory-specific customizations: Set specific behaviors or preferences for files in different directories, such as enabling or disabling certain minor modes based on security considerations. For example, you might disable linters that execute code in directories where you handle untrusted code.
  • Manage multiple environments: Switch between different coding environments or workflows by loading environment-specific configurations.

Installation

To install the dir-config from MELPA:

  1. If you haven’t already done so, add MELPA repository to your Emacs configuration.
  2. Add the following code to your Emacs init file to install the dir-config repository from MELPA:
(use-package dir-config
  :ensure t
  :custom
  (dir-config-file-names '(".dir-config.el"))
  (dir-config-allowed-directories '("~/src" "~/projects"))
  :config
  (dir-config-mode))

More information about dir-config.el

easysession.el – Easily persist and restore your Emacs editing sessions

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The easysession.el Emacs package is a lightweight session manager for Emacs that can persist and restore file editing buffers, indirect buffers (clones), Dired buffers, the tab-bar, and Emacs frames (including or excluding the frame size, width, and height). It offers a convenient and effortless way to manage Emacs editing sessions and utilizes built-in Emacs functions to persist and restore frames.

Key features include:

  • Minimalistic design focused on performance and simplicity, avoiding unnecessary complexity.
  • Persist and restore file editing buffers, indirect buffers/clones, dired buffers, tab-bar, the Emacs frame.
  • Automatically save sessions by activating the mode with easysession-save-mode to ensure that the current session is automatically saved every easysession-save-interval seconds and when emacs quits.
  • Helper functions: Switch to a session (i.e., load and change the current session) with easysession-switch-to, load the Emacs editing session with easysession-load, save the Emacs editing session with easysession-save and easysession-save-as, delete the current Emacs session with easysession-delete, and rename the current Emacs session with easysession-rename.

Installation

MELPA

The easysession package can be installed from MELPA by adding the following to your Emacs init file:

(use-package easysession
  :ensure t
  :custom
  (easysession-save-interval (* 10 60))
  :init
  (add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook #'easysession-load-including-geometry 98)
  (add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook #'easysession-save-mode 99))Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Note that:

  • easysession-load-including-geometry is not needed after Emacs is loaded if you do not want EasySession to move or resize the Emacs frame when switching sessions. Instead, use easysession-switch-to or easysession-load to switch to another session or reload the current session without resizing or moving the Emacs frames.
  • The easysession-save-mode ensures that the current session is automatically saved every easysession-save-interval seconds and when emacs quits.
  • The easysession-save-interval variable determines the interval between automatic session saves. Setting it to nil disables timer-based autosaving, causing easysession-save-mode to save only when Emacs exits.

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Emacs: YAML file code Folding and Outlining

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Recommendation: I recommend you to try a similar package from the same author: outline-indent.el, which provides a minor mode for Emacs that enables code folding and outlining based on indentation levels for various indent-based text files such as YAML, Python, and others. In addition to code folding, it allows moving indented subtrees up/down, customizing the ellipsis, and inserting a heading that creates a new line with the same indentation level/depth as the current line, among other features.

Working with long and complex YAML files can be a daunting task. In such cases, code folding becomes an invaluable tool, allowing the collapse and expansion of sections of the file and enhancing readability and navigation. This makes it easier to focus on specific parts of the code without being overwhelmed by the entire document.

To address this need, I would like to introduce you to outline-yaml.el, a minor mode for Emacs that brings code folding and outlining capabilities to YAML files, making editing YAML files more efficient and enjoyable. Leveraging Emacs’ built-in outline-minor-mode, outline-yaml.el provides a structured and navigable view of YAML content, simplifying the editing of even the most difficult YAML files.

Installation of outline-yaml.el

  1. Install and configure yaml-mode or yaml-ts-mode.
  2. If you haven’t already done so, add the straight.el bootstrap code to your init file.
  3. After that, add the following code to your Emacs init file:
(use-package outline-yaml
  :ensure t
  :straight (outline-yaml
             :type git
             :host github
             :repo "jamescherti/outline-yaml.el")
  :hook
  ((yaml-mode . outline-yaml-minor-mode)
   (yaml-ts-mode . outline-yaml-minor-mode)))Code language: Lisp (lisp)

How to change the Ellipsis (…) to (▼)?

The code snippet in this article can be used to to change the Ellipsis to ▼.

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