minibuffer

The minibuffer is a narrow, single-line input area at the bottom of an Emacs frame used to read user input for commands, filenames, and other prompts. It is presented in its own dedicated window, the minibuffer window, and is separate from ordinary text editing buffers.

Many core interactions rely on the minibuffer: M-x to run commands, C-x C-f to find files, M-: to evaluate Lisp expressions, and prompts produced by read-file-name, completing-read, or read-from-minibuffer. The content typed there is stored in the minibuffer and is subject to standard editing keys.

When the minibuffer is active, input goes to it until the prompt is completed or cancelled. Enter accepts the input, and C-g aborts. The minibuffer maintains a history of previous inputs, accessible with M-p and M-n, and can offer completion and annotations depending on the prompt. Its behavior is controlled by various minibuffer-related variables and the minibuffer-local-map, which defines key bindings for that context.

Recursive minibuffers allow prompting for input while another minibuffer is already active, a feature controlled by enable-recursive-minibuffers. This enables nested prompts but can be restricted to avoid confusion.

In Emacs Lisp, many interactive functions rely on the minibuffer for input, making it central to the editor's command interface. The concept is closely associated with GNU Emacs and related derivatives.