Bufferline in Nvim: auto-close or hide [No Name] buffer when other buffers are open?

Question

I'm using Bufferline with Neovim to show my open buffers at the top of the nvim window. I'd rather not see the 'No Name' buffer if I don't have to.

I understand that nvim must always have a buffer open so it makes sense that when I've closed all my 'real' buffers (the ones that correspond to files I'm editing) that there's still a 'No Name' buffer. So that case is fine.

However, when I've got other files open I'd love to hide (or close) the 'No Name' buffer, as pictured here:

Does anyone have any tips / advice on how I might auto-close or auto-hide the unnamed buffer when other 'real' buffers are open?

Answer 1

Ok, after some quality time with ChatGPT, the built-in and online docs, and Neovim itself here's what I came up with:

-- This is in my bufferline_setup.lua file
-- which is in my ~/nvim/lua/config folder
require("bufferline").setup {
    options = {
        indicator = {
            style = 'underline'
        },
        separator_style = "slant",
        show_buffer_icons = false
    }
}

local this_module = {}

-- Function to close empty and unnamed buffers
function this_module.close_empty_unnamed_buffers()
    -- Get a list of all buffers
    local buffers = vim.api.nvim_list_bufs()

    -- Iterate over each buffer
    for _, bufnr in ipairs(buffers) do
        -- Check if the buffer is empty and doesn't have a name
        if vim.api.nvim_buf_is_loaded(bufnr) and vim.api.nvim_buf_get_name(bufnr) == '' and
            vim.api.nvim_buf_get_option(bufnr, 'buftype') == '' then

            -- Get all lines in the buffer
            local lines = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(bufnr, 0, -1, false)

            -- Initialize a variable to store the total number of characters
            local total_characters = 0

            -- Iterate over each line and calculate the number of characters
            for _, line in ipairs(lines) do
                total_characters = total_characters + #line
            end


            -- Close the buffer if it's empty:
            if total_characters == 0 then

                vim.api.nvim_buf_delete(bufnr, {
                    force = true
                })
            end
        end
    end
end

-- Clear the mandatory, empty, unnamed buffer when a real file is opened:
vim.api.nvim_command('autocmd BufReadPost * lua require("config.bufferline_setup").close_empty_unnamed_buffers()')

return this_module

This works well with :bdelete! and :%bdelete! (in the sense that it'll close buffers for me but won't quit out of nvim)