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24.7.1 Making Buffer Names Unique
When several buffers visit identically-named files, Emacs must give the buffers distinct names. The usual method for making buffer names unique adds ‘<2>’, ‘<3>’, etc. to the end of the buffer names (all but one of them).
Other methods work by adding parts of each file's directory to the
buffer name. To select one, customize the variable
uniquify-buffer-name-style
(see section Easy Customization Interface).
To begin with, the forward
naming method includes part of the
file's directory name at the beginning of the buffer name; using this
method, buffers visiting the files ‘/u/rms/tmp/Makefile’ and
‘/usr/projects/zaphod/Makefile’ would be named
‘tmp/Makefile’ and ‘zaphod/Makefile’, respectively (instead
of ‘Makefile’ and ‘Makefile<2>’).
In contrast, the post-forward
naming method would call the
buffers ‘Makefile|tmp’ and ‘Makefile|zaphod’, and the
reverse
naming method would call them ‘Makefile\tmp’ and
‘Makefile\zaphod’. The nontrivial difference between
post-forward
and reverse
occurs when just one directory
name is not enough to distinguish two files; then reverse
puts
the directory names in reverse order, so that ‘/top/middle/file’
becomes ‘file\middle\top’, while post-forward
puts them in
forward order after the file name, as in ‘file|top/middle’.
Which rule to follow for putting the directory names in the buffer name is not very important if you are going to look at the buffer names before you type one. But as an experienced user, if you know the rule, you won't have to look. And then you may find that one rule or another is easier for you to remember and apply quickly.