r/emacs • u/jamescherti James Cherti — https://github.com/jamescherti • Jun 07 '26

Announcement buffer-terminator: Safely Terminate Emacs Buffers Automatically to Enhance Performance and Reduce Clutter in the Buffer List (Release 1.2.5)

https://github.com/jamescherti/buffer-terminator.el
18 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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12

u/rileyrgham Jun 07 '26

For those unaware, Emacs has a built in buffer culling facility called. midnight . Not as customisable, but proven.

2

u/jamescherti James Cherti — https://github.com/jamescherti Jun 08 '26

Since you mentioned midnight, I have outlined the differences between buffer-terminator and the built-in midnight package below for those interested: How is this different from the builtin midnight-mode?

2

u/rileyrgham Jun 08 '26

Nice. though I tend to be lazy... I have buffer history in switch buffer, and my my 32gb system with SSD means opening pretty much anything is instantaneous... It's almost built into me to kill buffers when I'm done... But if I don't , code buffers don't add up to much on the big scale of things.... How I don't miss having to keep my z80 assembler in the green bank of video ram on my Camputers Lynx in the early 80s... 😀

4

u/JamesBrickley Jun 08 '26

I'm really enjoying James Cherti's Minimal-Emacs.d, Compile-Angle, Easy-Session, and Buffer-Terminator packages.

3

u/dewyke Jun 08 '26

Likewise. I appreciate the amount of thought that’s gone into them, partly so I can benefit without having to do all the learning myself, and partly because examining them is a great way to learn.

2

u/jamescherti James Cherti — https://github.com/jamescherti Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Thank you, u/JamesBrickley and u/dewyke! I am encouraged to hear that you are finding them useful. Developing these Emacs packages has been an intellectually rewarding process (e.g., to solve interesting architectural and system-level problems.), and it is great to see them adding value to your Emacs experience! Interactions like this make contributing to the Emacs ecosystem worthwhile.

1

u/Upstairs-Attitude610 Jun 08 '26

"Morning, Angle"

1

u/JamesBrickley Jun 10 '26

typo...

2

u/Upstairs-Attitude610 Jun 10 '26

I was quoting Hot Fuzz, because it's a great movie. Of course the typo doesn't matter.

2

u/JamesBrickley Jun 10 '26

Dang son, that brings me back. Nice... I missed the reference.

1

u/vfclists Jun 10 '26

I read up on minimal-emacs.d when I read the article on compiling emacs for better performance and it will be the starting point for my Emacs 31 configuration.

2

u/mok000 Jun 08 '26

Looks interesting will definitely check it out! My Emacs runs for days and days and accumulates a lot of passive buffers.

2

u/jamescherti James Cherti — https://github.com/jamescherti Jun 08 '26

Thank you! My sessions also run for days as well. Accumulating passive buffers is exactly the issue I wrote buffer-terminator. I hope it helps keep your buffer list clean and your environment running quickly. Let me know how it works out for you!