Tabulated List mode is a major mode for displaying tabulated data, i.e., data consisting of entries, each entry occupying one row of text with its contents divided into columns. Tabulated List mode provides facilities for pretty-printing rows and columns, and sorting the rows according to the values in each column. It is derived from Special mode (see Basic Major Modes).
Tabulated List mode is intended to be used as a parent mode by a more specialized major mode. Examples include Process Menu mode (see Process Information) and Package Menu mode (see Package Menu in The GNU Emacs Manual).
Such a derived mode should use define-derived-mode in the usual
way, specifying tabulated-list-mode as the second argument
(see Defining Derived Modes). The body of the define-derived-mode
form should specify the format of the tabulated data, by assigning
values to the variables documented below; optionally, it can then call
the function tabulated-list-init-header, which will populate a
header with the names of the columns.
The derived mode should also define a listing command. This,
not the mode command, is what the user calls (e.g., M-x
list-processes). The listing command should create or switch to a
buffer, turn on the derived mode, specify the tabulated data, and
finally call tabulated-list-print to populate the buffer.
This buffer-local variable specifies the format of the Tabulated List
data. Its value should be a vector. Each element of the vector
represents a data column, and should be a list (name
width sort), where
nil,
the column cannot be used for sorting. If t, the column is
sorted by comparing string values. Otherwise, this should be a
predicate function for sort (see Functions that Rearrange Lists), which
accepts two arguments with the same form as the elements of
tabulated-list-entries (see below).
This buffer-local variable specifies the entries displayed in the Tabulated List buffer. Its value should be either a list, or a function.
If the value is a list, each list element corresponds to one entry, and
should have the form (id contents), where
nil, or a Lisp object that identifies the
entry. If the latter, the cursor stays on the same entry when
re-sorting entries. Comparison is done with equal.
tabulated-list-format. Each vector element is either a string,
which is inserted into the buffer as-is, or a list (label
. properties), which means to insert a text button by calling
insert-text-button with label and properties as
arguments (see Making Buttons).
There should be no newlines in any of these strings.
Otherwise, the value should be a function which returns a list of the above form when called with no arguments.
This normal hook is run prior to reverting a Tabulated List buffer. A
derived mode can add a function to this hook to recompute
tabulated-list-entries.
The value of this variable is the function called to insert an entry at
point, including its terminating newline. The function should accept
two arguments, id and contents, having the same meanings as
in tabulated-list-entries. The default value is a function which
inserts an entry in a straightforward way; a mode which uses Tabulated
List mode in a more complex way can specify another function.
The value of this variable specifies the current sort key for the
Tabulated List buffer. If it is nil, no sorting is done.
Otherwise, it should have the form (name . flip),
where name is a string matching one of the column names in
tabulated-list-format, and flip, if non-nil, means
to invert the sort order.
This function computes and sets header-line-format for the
Tabulated List buffer (see Window Header Lines), and assigns a keymap to
the header line to allow sorting entries by clicking on column headers.
Modes derived from Tabulated List mode should call this after setting
the above variables (in particular, only after setting
tabulated-list-format).
This function populates the current buffer with entries. It should be
called by the listing command. It erases the buffer, sorts the entries
specified by tabulated-list-entries according to
tabulated-list-sort-key, then calls the function specified by
tabulated-list-printer to insert each entry.
If the optional argument remember-pos is non-nil, this
function looks for the id element on the current line, if any, and
tries to move to that entry after all the entries are (re)inserted.
If the optional argument update is non-nil, this function
will only erase or add entries that have changed since the last print.
This is several times faster if most entries haven’t changed since the
last time this function was called. The only difference in outcome is
that tags placed via tabulated-list-put-tag will not be removed
from entries that haven’t changed (normally all tags are removed).