Question

Is there a way to rename an open file in Emacs? While I’m viewing it? Something like save-as, but the original one should go away.

Answer 1

Try this function from Steve Yegge’s .emacs:

 ;; source: http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/my-dot-emacs-file (defun rename-file-and-buffer (new-name)   'Renames both current buffer and file it's visiting to NEW-NAME.'   (interactive 'sNew name: ')   (let ((name (buffer-name))         (filename (buffer-file-name)))     (if (not filename)         (message 'Buffer '%s' is not visiting a file!' name)       (if (get-buffer new-name)           (message 'A buffer named '%s' already exists!' new-name)         (progn           (rename-file filename new-name 1)           (rename-buffer new-name)           (set-visited-file-name new-name)           (set-buffer-modified-p nil)))))) 

Take a look at that page, there’s another really useful related function there, called ‘move-buffer-file’.