From time to time1 I need to quickly2 delete a file and kill the buffer associated with it. Since most of the files I work with are under version control I can just use the tried and true M-x vc-delete-file. Unfortunately the command does not act on the current file and will prompt you for a file to delete. Looks like we need to create a simple wrapper around it to get the job done:

(defun er-delete-file-and-buffer ()
  "Kill the current buffer and deletes the file it is visiting."
  (interactive)
  (let ((filename (buffer-file-name)))
    (when filename
      (if (vc-backend filename)
          (vc-delete-file filename)
        (progn
          (delete-file filename)
          (message "Deleted file %s" filename)
          (kill-buffer))))))

The wrapper is extra smart and will work on files that are not under version control as well! I’m pretty fond of commands that do what you mean instead of throwing errors. Now that we have this neat little command we should probably bind it to some each to press keys, like C-c D:

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c D")  #'er-delete-file-and-buffer)

This command is available in crux as crux-delete-file-and-buffer. This command is also available in prelude via the crux package.

  1. Most often when I refactor code. ↩

  2. This removes dired from the equation. ↩