I am creating a plugin in vim that involves having a sidebar, within which you can switch between several different buffers with different functions. I am wondering how to hide these buffers from the buffer list (when you type :buffers or :ls) so as not to clutter the buffer list.
You might try making the buffer unlisted with :set nobl (see :h 'buflisted'). This is a buffer local setting so it only affects the current buffer.
Unlisted buffers don't show up with :ls by default (see below).
Not sure if this will work with what you have in mind for your plugin as you didn't provide a lot of details. But the basic requirement would be fulfilled.
You can list such buffers by adding ! to :ls or by adding u, i.e. :ls! or :ls u. The latter shows only unlisted buffers. You can edit an unlisted buffer by switching to it using :b # where # is its buffer number. From there you can revert to listed status with :set bl.
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@Mass I'm not sure. Would that be flexible enough to work for both users that don't have 'hidden' set as a rule and those that do (myself included)? Maybe I'm not understanding the advantage vs unlisted...– B LayerOct 21 '20 at 23:41
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True. I think though, if I were creating a plugin, I would use a for loop and bufwinid()– MassOct 22 '20 at 0:15
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1@BLayer Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, as this is my first post on the vim stack exchange I do not have enough points to vote, but I have accepted your answer. Oct 22 '20 at 20:50