Browsing through previous-compilation errors during a new compilation?

Question

How to setup emacs so that I can browse through previous-compilation errors during new compilation?

Two things don't work for me:

1. M-g M-g (next-error) function is not working when second compilation is in-progress.

2. I have my emacs split into 5 uneven windows (split-windows-horizontally), the compilation "window" is double the size (dbl monitor setup). When I launch compilation it always appeared in the last double compilation window. Now it opens a new window for itself.

Answer 1

Putting the following in your init file will rename the compilation buffer to *compilation-old* when the compile command terminates.

Please note that this will not work if you run the new compilation process from the old compilation buffer (since compile will in this case reuse the buffer instead of creating a new one)

(defun my-rename-compilation-buffer (buffer message)
  ;; Don't do anything if we are in a derived mode
  (when (with-current-buffer buffer (eq major-mode 'compilation-mode))
    (let* ((old-compilation-buffer-name "*compilation-old*")
           (old-compilation-buffer (get-buffer old-compilation-buffer-name)))

      ;; Kill old compilation buffer if necessary
      (when old-compilation-buffer
        (kill-buffer old-compilation-buffer))

      ;; Rename the current compilation buffer
      (with-current-buffer buffer
        (rename-buffer old-compilation-buffer-name)))))

(add-hook 'compilation-finish-functions 'my-rename-compilation-buffer)