save buffer on focus lost

[murtaza52]

Hi,

One feature I sorely miss from emacs prelude is the ability to save buffers whenever focus changes to another buffer or window. This is very valuable as the file is automatically saved, and I dont have to manually save them.

Is there such a feature in sapcemacs ?

Thanks,
Murtaza

[sooheon]

No, afaik, but you can add a naive version yourself very easily:

(defun sooheon--save-all ()
  (interactive)
  (save-some-buffers t))
;; Auto-save on focus out
(add-hook 'focus-out-hook 'sooheon--save-all)

[EricCrosson]

I have very similar code

  (add-hook 'focus-out-hook
            (defun save-current-buffer-if-needed ()
              (interactive)
              (when (and (buffer-file-name) (buffer-modified-p))
                (save-buffer))))

This only saves the current buffer, if it belongs to a file and has changes that need to be saved.
Is this issue closed?

[sooheon]

Nice improvement, will be using it. Thanks.

[Profpatsch]

I looked at my config and it’s just one line there:

  (add-hook 'focus-out-hook (lambda () (save-some-buffers t)))

Maybe it makes sense to include the function from Emacs Prelude, too.

[StreakyCobra]

The main question of this issue has been answered. If someone thinks it's used widely enough to be included in Spacemacs, feel free to open a PR with this change, it will be better discussed there 😄 Closing this issue in the meantime

[martin-liu]

Hi guys, I have the same requirement and I don't think this question is answered.

The documentation of focus-out-hook says

Normal hook run when a frame loses input focus.

It's not when switch buffer/window.

I found a solution here http://batsov.com/articles/2012/03/08/emacs-tip-number-5-save-buffers-automatically-on-buffer-or-window-switch/

Code like below:

(defadvice switch-to-buffer (before save-buffer-now activate)
  (when buffer-file-name (save-buffer)))
(defadvice other-window (before other-window-now activate)
  (when buffer-file-name (save-buffer)))

It works for me. So I paste it here.

[steshaw]

Did a pull request ever get raised for this?

In Emacs, I use:

(ensure-packages-installed 'focus-autosave-mode)
(focus-autosave-mode)

I've only just downloaded Spacemacs today! It seems that I may expect to have a configuration variable in my ~/.spacemacs file:

dotspacemacs-save-all-buffers-on-lost-focus nil

which I could toggle to t. It arguably should default to t.

[xged]

@martin-liu It auto-saves after every paste as well :(

[adius]

Pull request for this highly appreciated! 😅

[well1791]

Hi everyone,

Shouldn't this solution be also in the documentation? At least until #4964 is done.

@syl20bnr If you don't mind I can open a PR updating the docs including this snippet.

;; see: http://batsov.com/articles/2012/03/08/emacs-tip-number-5-save-buffers-automatically-on-buffer-or-window-switch/
(defadvice switch-to-buffer (before save-buffer-now activate)
  (when buffer-file-name (save-buffer)))
(defadvice other-window (before other-window-now activate)
  (when buffer-file-name (save-buffer)))

Thanks @martin-liu.

Also, this one is also great, however, not sure how to install it (any help will be pretty much appreciated).