Re-open *scratch* buffer in Emacs?

Question

If I accidentally closed the scratch buffer in Emacs, how do I create a new scratch buffer?

Answer 1

I prefer to have my scratch buffer be an actual file that is automatically saved, and reopening it is as simple as opening a file. On startup, I kill the default and find my own like this.

(add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook
  (lambda ()
    (kill-buffer "*scratch*")
    (find-file "/Users/HOME/Desktop/.scratch")))

I have a custom kill-buffer function that does essentially the same thing -- reopens my personal scratch saved file and kills the default scratch if I killed the last visible buffer.

I customized a few of the desktop.el functions to load after (kill-buffer "*scratch*") and (find-file "/Users/HOME/Desktop/.scratch") so that the file last visible on exiting Emacs doesn't get buried by the default scratch or buried by my custom scratch when launching Emacs.

I enjoy using auto-save-buffers-enhanced, which automatically saves any file extension that is not specifically excluded:

https://github.com/kentaro/auto-save-buffers-enhanced/blob/master/auto-save-buffers-enhanced.el

(require 'auto-save-buffers-enhanced)
(auto-save-buffers-enhanced t)
(setq auto-save-buffers-enhanced-save-scratch-buffer-to-file-p 1)
(setq auto-save-buffers-enhanced-exclude-regexps '("\\.txt" "\\.el" "\\.tex"))

I use a slight variation of the function by @paprika when I want to create a no-file visiting buffer:

(defun lawlist-new-buffer ()
  "Create a new buffer -- \*lawlist\*"
(interactive)
  (let* (
    (n 0)
    bufname)
  (catch 'done
    (while t
      (setq bufname (concat "*lawlist"
        (if (= n 0) "" (int-to-string n))
          "*"))
      (setq n (1+ n))
      (if (not (get-buffer bufname))
        (throw 'done nil)) ))
  (switch-to-buffer (get-buffer-create bufname))
  (text-mode) ))