Special Buffers

When a buffer is special it means that it is controlled by a Lisp program, not by the user typing into it (although this can happen as well).

Special buffers are used for things like the `*jade*' or `*Info*' buffers (in fact most of the buffers whose names are surrounded by asterisks are special).

What the special attribute actually does is make sure that the buffer is never truly killed (kill-buffer removes it from each window's buffer-list but doesn't call destroy-buffer on it) and modifications don't cause the `+' flag to appear in the status line.

Function: buffer-special-p &optional buffer

Returns t if the buffer is marked as being special.

Function: set-buffer-special buffer special

Sets the value of the special flag in the buffer buffer to the value of special (nil means non-special, anything else means special).

Another type of special buffer exists; the mildly-special buffer.

Variable: mildly-special-buffer

When this buffer-local variable is set to t (it is nil by default) and the buffer is marked as being special, the kill-buffer function is allowed to totally destroy the buffer.

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