nvim-bufdel

A small Neovim plugin to improve the deletion of buffers.

Improvements:

Preserve the layout of windows. Deleting a buffer will no longer close any window unexpectedly (see demo).
Cycle through buffers according to their number (configurable). This is especially helpful when using a bufferline: we get the same behavior as closing tabs in Chrome / Firefox (see demo).
Terminal buffers are deleted without prompt.
Exit Neovim when last buffer is deleted (configurable).
Add commands to close all listed buffers and to close them all except the current one.

Here the same buffer is displayed in left and top-right window. Deleting that buffer preserves the window layout and the first buffer with a number greater than the deleted one is selected instead (the one immediately to the right in the bufferline).

Installation

With packer.nvim:

use {'ojroques/nvim-bufdel'}

With paq-nvim:

paq {'ojroques/nvim-bufdel'}

Usage

Delete the current buffer:

:BufDel

Delete the current buffer and ignore changes:

:BufDel!

Delete a buffer by its name or number (use quotes in case the buffer name is a number):

:BufDel <bufexpr>

Delete all listed buffers (add ! to ignore changes):

:BufDelAll

Delete all listed buffers except the current one (add ! to ignore changes):

:BufDelOthers

Configuration

You can pass options to the setup() function. Here are the default options:

require('bufdel').setup {
  next = 'tabs',
  quit = true,  -- quit Neovim when last buffer is closed
}

The next option determines the next buffer to display after deletion. Supported values:

cycle: cycle through buffers according to their number.
tabs (default): like cycle but when the buffer with highest number is deleted, display the new highest buffer instead of going back to the first one.
alternate: switch to the alternate buffer (same behavior as without the plugin).
You can also pass your own function to select the next buffer.