Setup Telescope to save and close all buffers, when opening a new file

Question

I'm following a Neovim tutorial on LaraCasts from Jess Archer, setting up Neovim.
I've used Vim for a while, but I'm new with Neovim. You can see Jess Archers dotfiles here: Jess Archers Dotfiles.

I would like to set it up, so whenever I open a new file using Telescope, that it automatically saves and closes the file (buffer) I have open, to avoid a bunch of open buffers like this:

Here is my current telescope-settings file:

local telescope = require('telescope')
local actions = require('telescope.actions')

vim.cmd([[
  highlight link TelescopePromptTitle PMenuSel
  highlight link TelescopePreviewTitle PMenuSel
  highlight link TelescopePromptNormal NormalFloat
  highlight link TelescopePromptBorder FloatBorder
  highlight link TelescopeNormal CursorLine
  highlight link TelescopeBorder CursorLineBg
]])

telescope.setup({
  defaults = {
    path_display = { truncate = 1 },
    prompt_prefix = '   ',
    selection_caret = '  ',
    layout_config = {
      prompt_position = 'top',
    },
    sorting_strategy = 'ascending',
    mappings = {
      i = {
        ['<esc>'] = actions.close,
        ['<C-Down>'] = actions.cycle_history_next,
        ['<C-Up>'] = actions.cycle_history_prev,
      },
    },
    file_ignore_patterns = { '.git/', 'dist/', 'node%_modules/' },
  },
  pickers = {
    find_files = {
      hidden = true,
    },
    buffers = {
      previewer = false,
      layout_config = {
        width = 80,
      },
    },
    oldfiles = {
      prompt_title = 'History',
    },
    lsp_references = {
      previewer = false,
    },
  },
})

require('telescope').load_extension('fzf')
require('telescope').load_extension('live_grep_args')

vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>f', [[<cmd>lua require('telescope.builtin').find_files()<CR>]])
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>F', [[<cmd>lua require('telescope.builtin').find_files({ no_ignore = true, prompt_title = 'All Files' })<CR>]]) -- luacheck: no max line length
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>b', [[<cmd>lua require('telescope.builtin').buffers()<CR>]])
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>g', [[<cmd>lua require('telescope').extensions.live_grep_args.live_grep_args()<CR>]])
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>h', [[<cmd>lua require('telescope.builtin').oldfiles()<CR>]])
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>s', [[<cmd>lua require('telescope.builtin').lsp_document_symbols()<CR>]])

Solution attempt 1: Read Telescope's Github page and Telescope's help-pages

I read here: Telescope on Github.

And I also read this: :help telescope. But there is a lot! I can't find what I'm looking for. I was searching for these possibilities:

• 'Save and close buffer when opening new file'
• 'Disable buffers'
• 'Open new file i current buffer' (I know that this is now actually what happens, but that's what if kind of feels like for the user).

Solution attempt 2: Setup (another) auto-save plugin

I looked at auto-save.nvim. It just seems a bit extensive to add an entire plugin for something that might be handled directly by Telescope.

Answer 1

You don't close a buffer (see :help buffers and esp. :help buffer-hidden). But you can delete or wipe it out, if you don't want to see it :ls or tabline-configured-to-show-buffers. Saving everything is just :wall (:wa for short).

---

If the tabline bothers you, I would recommend displaying buffers differently; say, only on demand via :ls[!].

If having lots of modified buffers around bothers you, try running :wall or play with :set nohidden (you have to write to load a different buffer in the window, unless you use :hide).

Also consider that having lots of buffers around is not necessarily a bad thing; if you find that it slows you down trying to navigate to a file, consider any of the following alternatives:

• :args &co.
• the quickfix and location lists (esp. commands like :grep)
• tags
• :sbuffer and :buffer with command-completion (<Tab> by default of wildchar)

Answer 2

When using telescope to find files, I close all buffers other than unsaved or current buffer:

command! BufOnly execute '%bdelete|edit #|normal `"'  "close other buffers (silent! to try-catch error)


autocmd FileType nerdtree nmap <silent>zp :lua require('telescope.builtin').find_files{ find_command = {'rg','--files','-g','!node_modules/**','-g','!media/**'} }<CR>


nmap <silent>zp :silent! BufOnly<CR>:lua require('telescope.builtin').find_files{ find_command = {'rg','--files','-g','!node_modules/**','-g','!media/**'} }<CR>