Fixed length buffer for shell

Question

I launch a shell in my session with M-x shell and then I launch a python script that produces a lot of output to stdout---so many lines of output that my emacs session beomes quite slow.
Is there a command I can run to ask my buffer to be fixed length and automatically delete lines older than N?  I have tried looking this up, but don't even know what terms to use in my query beyond "automatically delete," "circular buffer" and "fixed length" which were not helpful.

phils · Answer

comint-buffer-maximum-size is a variable defined in ‘comint.el’.
Its value is 1024

Documentation:
The maximum size in lines for Comint buffers.
Comint buffers are truncated from the top to be no greater than this number, if
the function ‘comint-truncate-buffer’ is on ‘comint-output-filter-functions’.

You can customize this variable.

(defun my-shell-mode-hook ()
  "Custom `shell-mode' behaviours."
  (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions 'comint-truncate-buffer nil :local))

(add-hook 'shell-mode-hook 'my-shell-mode-hook)

Fixed length buffer for shell

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question