35.1.2 Subroutines of Visiting

The find-file-noselect function uses the create-file-buffer and after-find-file functions as subroutines. Sometimes it is useful to call them directly.

Function: create-file-buffer filename

This function creates a suitably named buffer for visiting filename, and returns it. It uses filename (sans directory) as the name if that name is free; otherwise, it appends a string such as ‘<2>’ to get an unused name. See also Creating Buffers.

Please note: create-file-buffer does not associate the new buffer with a file and does not select the buffer. It also does not use the default major mode.

(create-file-buffer "foo")
     ⇒ #<buffer foo>

(create-file-buffer "foo")
     ⇒ #<buffer foo<2>>

(create-file-buffer "foo")
     ⇒ #<buffer foo<3>>

This function is used by find-file-noselect. It uses generate-new-buffer (see Creating Buffers).

Function: after-find-file &optional error warn noauto

This function sets the buffer major mode, and parses local variables (see Auto Major Mode). It is called by find-file-noselect and by the default revert function (see Reverting).

If reading the file got an error because the file does not exist, but its directory does exist, the caller should pass a non-nil value for error. In that case, after-find-file issues a warning: ‘(New File)’. For more serious errors, the caller should usually not call after-find-file.

If warn is non-nil, then this function issues a warning if an auto-save file exists and is more recent than the visited file.

If noauto is non-nil, then this function does not turn on auto-save mode; otherwise, it does.

The last thing after-find-file does is call all the functions in find-file-hooks.