In an indirect buffer `buffer-file-name' is nil, and consequently M-x diff-buffer-with-file fails with "diff-no-select: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil" I think it would be sensible to use the base buffer's file name in this situation. Patch attached. -Phil In GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars) of 2018-06-19 built on shodan Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11906000 System Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Scanning for dabbrevs...done user-error: No dynamic expansion for ‘diff-bu’ found Configured using: 'configure --prefix=/home/phil/emacs/26.1/usr/local --with-x-toolkit=lucid --without-sound' Configured features: XAW3D XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK DBUS GSETTINGS NOTIFY GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS LUCID X11 THREADS LCMS2 Important settings: value of $LANG: en_NZ.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8 Major mode: Dired by name Minor modes in effect: show-paren-mode: t minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode: t winner-mode: t global-hl-line-mode: t tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t buffer-read-only: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr dabbrev emacsbug message rmc puny seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv cl-loaddefs cl-lib format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache epa derived epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils dired-x easymenu paren mb-depth winner ring hl-line dired dired-loaddefs advice elec-pair time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/x-win x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote dbusbind inotify lcms2 dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 101859 10773) (symbols 48 20824 1) (miscs 40 108 168) (strings 32 30401 971) (string-bytes 1 796958) (vectors 16 15482) (vector-slots 8 504854 6666) (floats 8 60 57) (intervals 56 279 0) (buffers 992 13))