The Emacs Editor Emacs is the advanced, extensible, customizable, self-documenting editor. This manual describes how to edit with Emacs and some of the ways to customize it; it corresponds to GNU Emacs version 27.2. The homepage for GNU Emacs is at https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/. To view this manual in other formats, click here. You can also purchase a printed copy from the FSF store. For information on extending Emacs, see Emacs Lisp in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. This is the GNU Emacs Manual, updated for Emacs version 27.2. Distrib How to get the latest Emacs distribution. Intro An introduction to Emacs concepts. Important General Concepts Screen How to interpret what you see on the screen. User Input Kinds of input events (characters, buttons, function keys). Keys Key sequences: what you type to request one editing action. Commands Named functions run by key sequences to do editing. Entering Emacs Starting Emacs from the shell. Exiting Stopping or killing Emacs. Fundamental Editing Commands Basic The most basic editing commands. Minibuffer Entering arguments that are prompted for. M-x Invoking commands by their names. Help Commands for asking Emacs about its commands. Important Text-Changing Commands Mark The mark: how to delimit a region of text. Killing Killing (cutting) and yanking (copying) text. Registers Saving a text string or a location in the buffer. Display Controlling what text is displayed. Search Finding or replacing occurrences of a string. Fixit Commands especially useful for fixing typos. Keyboard Macros Recording a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed. Major Structures of Emacs Files All about handling files. Buffers Multiple buffers; editing several files at once. Windows Viewing multiple pieces of text in one frame. Frames Using multiple windows on your display. International Using non-ASCII character sets. Advanced Features Modes Major and minor modes alter Emacs’s basic behavior. Indentation Editing the white space at the beginnings of lines. Text Commands and modes for editing human languages. Programs Commands and modes for editing programs. Building Compiling, running and debugging programs. Maintaining Features for maintaining large programs. Abbrevs Defining text abbreviations to reduce typing. Dired Directory and file manager. Calendar/Diary Calendar and diary facilities. Sending Mail Sending mail in Emacs. Rmail Reading mail in Emacs. Gnus A flexible mail and news reader. Host Security Security issues on a single computer. Network Security Managing the network security. Document View Viewing PDF, PS and DVI files. Shell Executing shell commands from Emacs. Emacs Server Using Emacs as an editing server. Printing Printing hardcopies of buffers or regions. Sorting Sorting lines, paragraphs or pages within Emacs. Picture Mode Editing pictures made up of text characters. Editing Binary Files Editing binary files with Hexl mode. Saving Emacs Sessions Saving Emacs state from one session to the next. Recursive Edit Performing edits while within another command. Hyperlinking Following links in buffers. Amusements Various games and hacks. Packages Installing additional features. Customization Modifying the behavior of Emacs. Recovery from Problems Quitting Quitting and aborting. Lossage What to do if Emacs is hung or malfunctioning. Bugs How and when to report a bug. Contributing How to contribute improvements to Emacs. Service How to get help for your own Emacs needs. Appendices The GNU General Public License gives you Copying permission to redistribute GNU Emacs on certain terms; it also explains that there is no warranty. GNU Free Documentation The license for this documentation. License Emacs Invocation Hairy startup options. X Resources X resources for customizing Emacs. Antinews Information about Emacs version 26. Mac OS / GNUstep Using Emacs under macOS and GNUstep. Microsoft Windows Using Emacs on Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS. Manifesto What’s GNU? Gnu’s Not Unix! Glossary Terms used in this manual. Acknowledgments Major contributors to GNU Emacs. Indexes (each index contains a large menu) Key Index An item for each standard Emacs key sequence. Option Index An item for every command-line option. Command Index An item for each standard command name. Variable Index An item for each variable documented in this manual. Concept Index An item for concepts and other general subjects. Detailed Node Listing Here are some other nodes which are really subnodes of the ones already listed, mentioned here so you can get to them in one step: The Organization of the Screen Point The place in the text where editing commands operate. Echo Area Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen. Mode Line Interpreting the mode line. Menu Bar How to use the menu bar. Basic Editing Commands Inserting Text Inserting text by simply typing it. Moving Point Moving the cursor to the place where you want to change something. Erasing Deleting and killing text. Basic Undo Undoing recent changes in the text. Basic Files Visiting, creating, and saving files. Basic Help Asking what a character does. Blank Lines Making and deleting blank lines. Continuation Lines How Emacs displays lines too wide for the screen. Position Info What line, row, or column is point on? Arguments Numeric arguments for repeating a command N times. Repeating Repeating the previous command quickly. The Minibuffer Basic Minibuffer Basic usage of the minibuffer. Minibuffer File Entering file names with the minibuffer. Minibuffer Edit How to edit in the minibuffer. Completion An abbreviation facility for minibuffer input. Minibuffer History Reusing recent minibuffer arguments. Repetition Re-executing commands that used the minibuffer. Passwords Entering passwords in the echo area. Yes or No Prompts Replying yes or no in the echo area. Completion Completion Example Examples of using completion. Completion Commands A list of completion commands. Completion Exit Completion and minibuffer text submission. Completion Styles How completion matches are chosen. Completion Options Options for completion. Help Help Summary Brief list of all Help commands. Key Help Asking what a key does in Emacs. Name Help Asking about a command, variable or function name. Apropos Asking what pertains to a given topic. Help Mode Special features of Help mode and Help buffers. Package Keywords Finding Lisp libraries by keywords (topics). Language Help Help relating to international language support. Misc Help Other help commands. Help Files Commands to display auxiliary help files. Help Echo Help on active text and tooltips. The Mark and the Region Setting Mark Commands to set the mark. Marking Objects Commands to put region around textual units. Using Region Summary of ways to operate on contents of the region. Mark Ring Previous mark positions saved so you can go back there. Global Mark Ring Previous mark positions in various buffers. Shift Selection Using shifted cursor motion keys. Disabled Transient Mark Leaving regions unhighlighted by default. Killing and Moving Text Deletion and Killing Commands that remove text. Yanking Commands that insert text. Cut and Paste Clipboard and selections on graphical displays. Accumulating Text Other methods to add text to the buffer. Rectangles Operating on text in rectangular areas. CUA Bindings Using C-x/C-c/C-v to kill and yank. Deletion and Killing Deletion Commands for deleting small amounts of text and blank areas. Killing by Lines How to kill entire lines of text at one time. Commands to kill large regions of text Other Kill Commands and syntactic units such as words and sentences. Kill Options Options that affect killing. Yanking Kill Ring Where killed text is stored. Earlier Kills Yanking something killed some time ago. Appending Kills Several kills in a row all yank together. Cut and Paste Operations on Graphical Displays Clipboard How Emacs uses the system clipboard. Primary Selection The temporarily selected text selection. Secondary Selection Cutting without altering point and mark. Registers Position Registers Saving positions in registers. Text Registers Saving text in registers. Rectangle Registers Saving rectangles in registers. Configuration Registers Saving window configurations in registers. Number Registers Numbers in registers. File Registers File names in registers. Keyboard Macro Registers Keyboard macros in registers. Bookmarks Bookmarks are like registers, but persistent. Controlling the Display Scrolling Commands to move text up and down in a window. Recentering A scroll command that centers the current line. Auto Scrolling Redisplay scrolls text automatically when needed. Horizontal Scrolling Moving text left and right in a window. Narrowing Restricting display and editing to a portion of the buffer. View Mode Viewing read-only buffers. Follow Mode Follow mode lets two windows scroll as one. Faces How to change the display style using faces. Colors Specifying colors for faces. Standard Faces The main predefined faces. Text Scale Increasing or decreasing text size in a buffer. Font Lock Minor mode for syntactic highlighting using faces. Highlight Interactively Tell Emacs what text to highlight. Fringes Enabling or disabling window fringes. Displaying Boundaries Displaying top and bottom of the buffer. Useless Whitespace Showing possibly spurious trailing whitespace. Selective Display Hiding lines with lots of indentation. Optional Mode Line Optional mode line display features. Text Display How text characters are normally displayed. Cursor Display Features for displaying the cursor. Truncating lines to fit the screen width Line Truncation instead of continuing them to multiple screen lines. Visual Line Mode Word wrap and screen line-based editing. Display Custom Information on variables for customizing display. Searching and Replacement Incremental Search Search happens as you type the string. Nonincremental Search Specify entire string and then search. Word Search Search for sequence of words. Symbol Search Search for a source code symbol. Regexp Search Search for match for a regexp. Regexps Syntax of regular expressions. Regexp Backslash Regular expression constructs starting with ‘\’. Regexp Example A complex regular expression explained. Lax Search Search ignores some distinctions between similar characters, like letter-case. Replace Search, and replace some or all matches. Other Repeating Search Operating on all matches for some regexp. Search Customizations Various search customizations. Incremental Search Basic Isearch Basic incremental search commands. Repeat Isearch Searching for the same string again. Isearch Yank Commands that grab text into the search string or else edit the search string. Error in Isearch When your string is not found. Special Isearch Special input in incremental search. Not Exiting Isearch Prefix argument and scrolling commands. Isearch Minibuffer Incremental search of the minibuffer history. Replacement Commands Unconditional Replace Replacing all matches for a string. Regexp Replace Replacing all matches for a regexp. Replacement and Lax Lax searching for text to replace. Matches Query Replace How to use querying. Commands for Fixing Typos Undo The Undo commands. Transpose Exchanging two characters, words, lines, lists... Fixing Case Correcting case of last word entered. Spelling Apply spelling checker to a word, or a whole file. Keyboard Macros Basic Keyboard Macro Defining and running keyboard macros. Keyboard Macro Ring Where previous keyboard macros are saved. Keyboard Macro Counter Inserting incrementing numbers in macros. Keyboard Macro Query Making keyboard macros do different things each time. Save Keyboard Macro Giving keyboard macros names; saving them in files. Edit Keyboard Macro Editing keyboard macros. Keyboard Macro Step-Edit Interactively executing and editing a keyboard macro. File Handling File Names How to type and edit file-name arguments. Visiting Visiting a file prepares Emacs to edit the file. Saving Saving makes your changes permanent. Reverting Reverting cancels all the changes not saved. Auto Revert Keeping buffers automatically up-to-date. Auto Save Auto Save periodically protects against loss of data. File Aliases Handling multiple names for one file. Directories Creating, deleting, and listing file directories. Comparing Files Finding where two files differ. Diff Mode Mode for editing file differences. Copying and Naming Copying, naming and renaming files. Misc File Ops Other things you can do on files. Compressed Files Accessing compressed files. File Archives Operating on tar, zip, jar etc. archive files. Remote Files Accessing files on other machines. Quoted File Names Quoting special characters in file names. File Name Cache Completion against a list of files you often use. File Conveniences Convenience features for finding files. Image Mode Viewing image files. Filesets Handling sets of files. Saving Files Save Commands Commands for saving files. Backup How Emacs saves the old version of your file. Customize Save Customizing the saving of files. Interlocking How Emacs protects against simultaneous editing of one file by two users. File Shadowing Copying files to shadows automatically. Time Stamps Emacs can update time stamps on saved files. Backup Files Backup Names How backup files are named. Backup Deletion Emacs deletes excess numbered backups. Backup Copying Backups can be made by copying or renaming. Auto Reverting Non-File Buffers Auto Reverting the Auto Revert of the Buffer Menu. Buffer Menu Auto Reverting Dired Auto Revert of Dired buffers. Auto-Saving: Protection Against Disasters Auto Save Files The file where auto-saved changes are actually made until you save the file. Auto Save Control Controlling when and how often to auto-save. Recover Recovering text from auto-save files. Using Multiple Buffers Select Buffer Creating a new buffer or reselecting an old one. List Buffers Getting a list of buffers that exist. Misc Buffer Renaming; changing read-only status; copying text. Kill Buffer Killing buffers you no longer need. Several Buffers How to go through the list of all buffers and operate variously on several of them. Indirect Buffers An indirect buffer shares the text of another buffer. Buffer Convenience Convenience and customization features for buffer handling. Convenience Features and Customization of Buffer Handling Uniquify Making buffer names unique with directory parts. Icomplete Fast minibuffer selection. Buffer Menus Configurable buffer menu. Multiple Windows Basic Window Introduction to Emacs windows. Split Window New windows are made by splitting existing windows. Other Window Moving to another window or doing something to it. Pop Up Window Finding a file or buffer in another window. Change Window Deleting windows and changing their sizes. Displaying Buffers How Emacs picks a window for displaying a buffer. Temporary Displays Displaying non-editable buffers. Window Convenience Convenience functions for window handling. Tab Line Window tab line. Displaying a Buffer in a Window Window Choice How display-buffer works. Frames and Graphical Displays Mouse Commands Moving, cutting, and pasting, with the mouse. Word and Line Mouse Mouse commands for selecting whole words or lines. Mouse References Using the mouse to select an item from a list. Menu Mouse Clicks Mouse clicks that bring up menus. Mode Line Mouse Mouse clicks on the mode line. Creating Frames Creating additional Emacs frames with various contents. Frame Commands Iconifying, deleting, and switching frames. Fonts Changing the frame font. Speedbar How to make and use a speedbar frame. Multiple Displays How one Emacs instance can talk to several displays. Frame Parameters Changing the colors and other modes of frames. Scroll Bars How to enable and disable scroll bars; how to use them. Window Dividers Window separators that can be dragged with the mouse. Drag and Drop Using drag and drop to open files and insert text. Menu Bars Enabling and disabling the menu bar. Tool Bars Enabling and disabling the tool bar. Tab Bars Enabling and disabling the tab bar. Dialog Boxes Controlling use of dialog boxes. Tooltips Displaying information at the current mouse position. Mouse Avoidance Preventing the mouse pointer from obscuring text. Non-Window Terminals Multiple frames on terminals that show only one. Text-Only Mouse Using the mouse in text terminals. International Character Set Support International Chars Basic concepts of multibyte characters. Language Environments Setting things up for the language you use. Input Methods Entering text characters not on your keyboard. Select Input Method Specifying your choice of input methods. Coding Systems Character set conversion when you read and write files, and so on. Recognize Coding How Emacs figures out which conversion to use. Specify Coding Specifying a file’s coding system explicitly. Output Coding Choosing coding systems for output. Text Coding Choosing conversion to use for file text. Communication Coding Coding systems for interprocess communication. File Name Coding Coding systems for file names. Terminal Coding Specifying coding systems for converting terminal input and output. Fontsets Fontsets are collections of fonts that cover the whole spectrum of characters. Defining Fontsets Defining a new fontset. Modifying Fontsets Modifying an existing fontset. Undisplayable Characters When characters don’t display. Unibyte Mode You can pick one European character set to use without multibyte characters. Charsets How Emacs groups its internal character codes. Bidirectional Editing Support for right-to-left scripts. Major and Minor Modes Major Modes Text mode vs. Lisp mode vs. C mode... Minor Modes Each minor mode is a feature you can turn on independently of any others. Choosing Modes How modes are chosen when visiting files. Indentation Indentation Commands More commands for performing indentation. Tab Stops Stop points for indentation in Text modes. Just Spaces Using only space characters for indentation. Indent Convenience Optional indentation features. Commands for Human Languages Words Moving over and killing words. Sentences Moving over and killing sentences. Paragraphs Moving over paragraphs. Pages Moving over pages. Quotation Marks Inserting quotation marks. Filling Filling or justifying text. Case Changing the case of text. Text Mode The major modes for editing text files. Outline Mode Editing outlines. Org Mode The Emacs organizer. TeX Mode Editing TeX and LaTeX files. HTML Mode Editing HTML and SGML files. Nroff Mode Editing input to the nroff formatter. Enriched Text Editing text enriched with fonts, colors, etc. Text Based Tables Commands for editing text-based tables. Two-Column Splitting text columns into separate windows. Filling Text Auto Fill Auto Fill mode breaks long lines automatically. Fill Commands Commands to refill paragraphs and center lines. Fill Prefix Filling paragraphs that are indented or in a comment, etc. Adaptive Fill How Emacs can determine the fill prefix automatically. Outline Mode Outline Format What the text of an outline looks like. Outline Motion Special commands for moving through outlines. Outline Visibility Commands to control what is visible. Outline Views Outlines and multiple views. Foldout Folding means zooming in on outlines. Org Mode Org Organizer Managing TODO lists and agendas. Org Authoring Exporting Org buffers to various formats. TeX Mode TeX Editing Special commands for editing in TeX mode. LaTeX Editing Additional commands for LaTeX input files. TeX Print Commands for printing part of a file with TeX. TeX Misc Customization of TeX mode, and related features. Enriched Text Enriched Mode Entering and exiting Enriched mode. Hard and Soft Newlines There are two different kinds of newlines. Editing Format Info How to edit text properties. Enriched Faces Bold, italic, underline, etc. Enriched Indentation Changing the left and right margins. Enriched Justification Centering, setting text flush with the left or right margin, etc. Enriched Properties The “Special text properties” submenu. Editing Text-based Tables Table Definition What is a text based table. Table Creation How to create a table. Table Recognition How to activate and deactivate tables. Cell Commands Cell-oriented commands in a table. Cell Justification Justifying cell contents. Table Rows and Columns Inserting and deleting rows and columns. Table Conversion Converting between plain text and tables. Table Misc Table miscellany. Editing Programs Program Modes Major modes for editing programs. Defuns Commands to operate on major top-level parts of a program. Program Indent Adjusting indentation to show the nesting. Parentheses Commands that operate on parentheses. Comments Inserting, killing, and aligning comments. Documentation Getting documentation of functions you plan to call. Hideshow Displaying blocks selectively. Symbol Completion Completion on symbol names of your program or language. MixedCase Words Dealing with identifiersLikeThis. Semantic Suite of editing tools based on source code parsing. Misc for Programs Other Emacs features useful for editing programs. C Modes Special commands of C, C++, Objective-C, Java, IDL, Pike and AWK modes. Asm Mode Asm mode and its special features. Fortran Fortran mode and its special features. Top-Level Definitions, or Defuns An open-paren or similar opening Left Margin Paren delimiter starts a defun if it is at the left margin. Moving by Defuns Commands to move over or mark a major definition. Imenu Making buffer indexes as menus. Which Function Which Function mode shows which function you are in. Indentation for Programs Basic Indent Indenting a single line. Multi-line Indent Commands to reindent many lines at once. Lisp Indent Specifying how each Lisp function should be indented. C Indent Extra features for indenting C and related modes. Custom C Indent Controlling indentation style for C and related modes. Commands for Editing with Parentheses Expressions Expressions with balanced parentheses. Moving by Parens Commands for moving up, down and across in the structure of parentheses. Matching Insertion of a close-delimiter flashes matching open. Manipulating Comments Comment Commands Inserting, killing, and aligning comments. Multi-Line Comments Commands for adding and editing multi-line comments. Options for Comments Customizing the comment features. Documentation Lookup Info Lookup Looking up library functions and commands in Info files. Man Page Looking up man pages of library functions and commands. Lisp Doc Looking up Emacs Lisp functions, etc. C and Related Modes Motion in C Commands to move by C statements, etc. Electric C Colon and other chars can automatically reindent. Hungry Delete A more powerful DEL command. Other C Commands Filling comments, viewing expansion of macros, and other neat features. Fortran Mode Fortran Motion Moving point by statements or subprograms. Fortran Indent Indentation commands for Fortran. Fortran Comments Inserting and aligning comments. Fortran Autofill Auto fill support for Fortran. Fortran Columns Measuring columns for valid Fortran. Fortran Abbrev Built-in abbrevs for Fortran keywords. Fortran Indentation ForIndent Commands Commands for indenting and filling Fortran. ForIndent Cont How continuation lines indent. ForIndent Num How line numbers auto-indent. ForIndent Conv Conventions you must obey to avoid trouble. ForIndent Vars Variables controlling Fortran indent style. Compiling and Testing Programs Compilation Compiling programs in languages other than Lisp (C, Pascal, etc.). Compilation Mode The mode for visiting compiler errors. Compilation Shell Customizing your shell properly for use in the compilation buffer. Grep Searching Searching with grep. Flymake Finding syntax errors on the fly. Debuggers Running symbolic debuggers for non-Lisp programs. Various modes for editing Lisp programs, Executing Lisp with different facilities for running the Lisp programs. Lisp Libraries How Lisp programs are loaded into Emacs. Lisp Eval Executing a single Lisp expression in Emacs. Lisp Interaction Executing Lisp in an Emacs buffer. External Lisp Communicating through Emacs with a separate Lisp. Running Debuggers Under Emacs Starting GUD How to start a debugger subprocess. Debugger Operation Connection between the debugger and source buffers. Commands of GUD Key bindings for common commands. GUD Customization Defining your own commands for GUD. An enhanced mode that uses GDB features GDB Graphical Interface to implement a graphical debugging environment. GDB Graphical Interface GDB User Interface Control the number of displayed buffers. Layout Source Buffers Use the mouse in the fringe/margin to control your program. Breakpoints Buffer A breakpoint control panel. Threads Buffer Displays your threads. Stack Buffer Select a frame from the call stack. Other GDB Buffers Other buffers for controlling the GDB state. Watch Expressions Monitor variable values in the speedbar. Multithreaded Debugging Debugging programs with several threads. Maintaining Large Programs Version Control Using version control systems. Projects Commands for handling source files in a project. Change Log Maintaining a change history for your program. Find definitions and references of any Xref function, method, struct, macro, … in your program. EDE An integrated development environment for Emacs. Emerge A convenient way of merging two versions of a program. Version Control Introduction to VC How version control works in general. VC Mode Line How the mode line shows version control status. Basic VC Editing How to edit a file under version control. Log Buffer Features available in log entry buffers. Registering Putting a file under version control. Old Revisions Examining and comparing old versions. VC Change Log Viewing the VC Change Log. VC Undo Canceling changes before or after committing. VC Ignore Ignore files under version control system. VC Directory Mode Listing files managed by version control. Branches Multiple lines of development. Miscellaneous VC Various other commands and features of VC. Customizing VC Variables that change VC’s behavior. Introduction to Version Control Why Version Control? Understanding the problems it addresses. Version Control Systems Supported version control back-end systems. VCS Concepts Words and concepts related to version control. VCS Merging How file conflicts are handled. VCS Changesets How changes are grouped. VCS Repositories Where version control repositories are stored. Types of Log File The VCS log in contrast to the ChangeLog. Basic Editing under Version Control VC With A Merging VCS Without locking: default mode for CVS. VC With A Locking VCS RCS in its default mode, SCCS, and optionally CVS. Advanced C-x v v Advanced features available with a prefix argument. VC Directory Mode VC Directory Buffer What the buffer looks like and means. VC Directory Commands Commands to use in a VC directory buffer. Version Control Branches Switching Branches How to get to another existing branch. Pulling / Pushing Receiving/sending changes from/to elsewhere. Merging Transferring changes between branches. Creating Branches How to start a new branch. Miscellaneous Commands and Features of VC Change Logs and VC Generating a change log file from log entries. VC Delete/Rename Deleting and renaming version-controlled files. Revision Tags Symbolic names for revisions. Version Headers Inserting version control headers into working files. Customizing VC General VC Options Options that apply to multiple back ends. RCS and SCCS Options for RCS and SCCS. CVS Options Options for CVS. Change Logs Change Log Commands Commands for editing change log files. Format of ChangeLog What the change log file looks like. Xref Commands to find where an identifier is Find Identifiers defined or referenced, to list identifiers, etc. Tags Tables Tags table records which file defines a symbol. Select Tags Table How to visit a specific tags table. Find Identifiers Looking Up Identifiers Commands to find the definition of a specific tag. Xref Commands Commands in the *xref* buffer. Identifier Search Searching and replacing identifiers. List Identifiers Listing identifiers and completing on them. Tags Tables Tag Syntax Tag syntax for various types of code and text files. Create Tags Table Creating a tags table with etags. Etags Regexps Create arbitrary tags using regular expressions. Merging Files with Emerge Overview of Emerge How to start Emerge. Basic concepts. Submodes of Emerge Fast mode vs. Edit mode. Skip Prefers mode and Auto Advance mode. State of Difference You do the merge by specifying state A or B for each difference. Merge Commands Commands for selecting a difference, changing states of differences, etc. Exiting Emerge What to do when you’ve finished the merge. Combining in Emerge How to keep both alternatives for a difference. Fine Points of Emerge Miscellaneous issues. Abbrevs Abbrev Concepts Fundamentals of defined abbrevs. Defining Abbrevs Defining an abbrev, so it will expand when typed. Expanding Abbrevs Controlling expansion: prefixes, canceling expansion. Editing Abbrevs Viewing or editing the entire list of defined abbrevs. Saving Abbrevs Saving the entire list of abbrevs for another session. Dynamic Abbrevs Abbreviations for words already in the buffer. Dabbrev Customization What is a word, for dynamic abbrevs. Case handling. Editing Pictures Basic Picture Basic concepts and simple commands of Picture Mode. Insert in Picture Controlling direction of cursor motion after self-inserting characters. Tabs in Picture Various features for tab stops and indentation. Rectangles in Picture Clearing and superimposing rectangles. Dired, the Directory Editor Dired Enter How to invoke Dired. Dired Navigation Special motion commands in the Dired buffer. Dired Deletion Deleting files with Dired. Flagging Many Files Flagging files based on their names. Dired Visiting Other file operations through Dired. Marks vs Flags Flagging for deletion vs marking. Operating on Files How to copy, rename, print, compress, etc. either one file or several files. Shell Commands in Dired Running a shell command on the marked files. Transforming File Names Using patterns to rename multiple files. Comparison in Dired Running diff by way of Dired. Subdirectories in Dired Adding subdirectories to the Dired buffer. Subdir Switches Subdirectory switches in Dired. Subdirectory Motion Moving across subdirectories, and up and down. Hiding Subdirectories Making subdirectories visible or invisible. Dired Updating Discarding lines for files of no interest. Dired and Find Using find to choose the files for Dired. Wdired Operating on files by editing the Dired buffer. Image-Dired Viewing image thumbnails in Dired. Misc Dired Features Various other features. The Calendar and the Diary Calendar Motion Moving through the calendar; selecting a date. Scroll Calendar Bringing earlier or later months onto the screen. Counting Days How many days are there between two dates? General Calendar Exiting or recomputing the calendar. Writing Calendar Files Writing calendars to files of various formats. Holidays Displaying dates of holidays. Sunrise/Sunset Displaying local times of sunrise and sunset. Lunar Phases Displaying phases of the moon. Other Calendars Converting dates to other calendar systems. Diary Displaying events from your diary. Daylight Saving How to specify when daylight saving time is active. Time Intervals Keeping track of time intervals. Advanced Calendar/Diary Advanced Calendar/Diary customization. Usage Movement in the Calendar Calendar Unit Motion Moving by days, weeks, months, and years. Move to Beginning or End Moving to start/end of weeks, months, and years. Specified Dates Moving to the current date or another specific date. Conversion To and From Other Calendars Calendar Systems The calendars Emacs understands (aside from Gregorian). To Other Calendar Converting the selected date to various calendars. From Other Calendar Moving to a date specified in another calendar. The Diary Format of Diary File Entering events in your diary. Displaying the Diary Viewing diary entries and associated calendar dates. Date Formats Various ways you can specify dates. Adding to Diary Commands to create diary entries. Special Diary Entries Anniversaries, blocks of dates, cyclic entries, etc. Appointments Reminders when it’s time to do something. Importing Diary Converting diary events to/from other formats. More advanced features of the Calendar and Diary Calendar Customizing Calendar layout and hooks. Holiday Customizing Defining your own holidays. Mayan Calendar Moving to a date specified in a Mayan calendar. Date Display Format Changing the format. Time Display Format Changing the format. Diary Customizing Defaults you can set. Non-Gregorian Diary Diary entries based on other calendars. Diary Display A choice of ways to display the diary. Fancy Diary Display Sorting diary entries, using included diary files. Sexp Diary Entries More flexible diary entries. Sending Mail Mail Format Format of a mail message. Mail Headers Details of some standard mail header fields. Mail Aliases Abbreviating and grouping mail addresses. Mail Commands Special commands for editing mail being composed. Mail Signature Adding a signature to every message. Mail Amusements Distracting the NSA; adding fortune messages. Mail Methods Using alternative mail-composition methods. Mail Commands Mail Sending Commands to send the message. Header Editing Commands to move to header fields and edit them. Citing Mail Quoting a message you are replying to. Mail Misc Attachments, spell checking, etc. Reading Mail with Rmail Rmail Basics Basic concepts of Rmail, and simple use. Rmail Scrolling Scrolling through a message. Rmail Motion Moving to another message. Rmail Deletion Deleting and expunging messages. Rmail Inbox How mail gets into the Rmail file. Rmail Files Using multiple Rmail files. Rmail Output Copying message out to files. Rmail Labels Classifying messages by labeling them. Rmail Attributes Certain standard labels, called attributes. Rmail Reply Sending replies to messages you are viewing. Rmail Summary Summaries show brief info on many messages. Rmail Sorting Sorting messages in Rmail. Rmail Display How Rmail displays a message; customization. Rmail Coding How Rmail handles decoding character sets. Rmail Editing Editing message text and headers in Rmail. Rmail Digest Extracting the messages from a digest message. Rmail Rot13 Reading messages encoded in the rot13 code. Movemail More details of fetching new mail. Remote Mailboxes Retrieving mail from remote mailboxes. Other Mailbox Formats Retrieving mail from local mailboxes in various formats. Rmail Summaries Rmail Make Summary Making various sorts of summaries. Rmail Summary Edit Manipulating messages from the summary. Gnus Buffers of Gnus The group, summary, and article buffers. Gnus Startup What you should know about starting Gnus. Gnus Group Buffer A short description of Gnus group commands. Gnus Summary Buffer A short description of Gnus summary commands. Document Viewing DocView Navigation Navigating DocView buffers. DocView Searching Searching inside documents. DocView Slicing Specifying which part of a page is displayed. DocView Conversion Influencing and triggering conversion. Running Shell Commands from Emacs Single Shell How to run one shell command and return. Interactive Shell Permanent shell taking input via Emacs. Shell Mode Special Emacs commands used with permanent shell. Shell Prompts Two ways to recognize shell prompts. Shell History Repeating previous commands in a shell buffer. Directory Tracking Keeping track when the subshell changes directory. Shell Options Options for customizing Shell mode. Terminal emulator An Emacs window as a terminal emulator. Term Mode Special Emacs commands used in Term mode. Remote Host Connecting to another computer. Serial Terminal Connecting to a serial port. Shell Command History Shell Ring Fetching commands from the history list. Shell History Copying Moving to a command and then copying it. History References Expanding ‘!’-style history references. Using Emacs as a Server TCP Emacs server Listening to a TCP socket. Invoking emacsclient Connecting to the Emacs server. emacsclient Options Emacs client startup options. Printing Hard Copies PostScript Printing buffers or regions as PostScript. PostScript Variables Customizing the PostScript printing commands. Printing Package An optional advanced printing interface. Hyperlinking and Navigation Features EWW A web browser in Emacs. Embedded WebKit Widgets Embedding browser widgets in Emacs buffers. Browse-URL Following URLs. Goto Address mode Activating URLs. FFAP Finding files etc. at point. Emacs Lisp Packages Package Menu Buffer for viewing and managing packages. Package Statuses Which statuses a package can have. Package Installation Options for package installation. Package Files Where packages are installed. Customization Easy Customization Convenient way to browse and change settings. Many Emacs commands examine Emacs Variables variables to decide what to do; by setting variables, you can control their functioning. The keymaps say what command each key Key Bindings runs. By changing them, you can redefine keys. Init File How to write common customizations in the initialization file. Authentication Keeping persistent authentication information. Easy Customization Interface Customization Groups How settings are classified. Browsing Custom Browsing and searching for settings. Changing a Variable How to edit an option’s value and set the option. Saving Customizations Saving customizations for future Emacs sessions. Face Customization How to edit the attributes of a face. Specific Customization Customizing specific settings or groups. Custom Themes Collections of customization settings. Creating Custom Themes How to create a new custom theme. Variables Examining Examining or setting one variable’s value. Hook variables let you specify programs Hooks for parts of Emacs to run on particular occasions. Locals Per-buffer values of variables. File Variables How files can specify variable values. Directory Variables How variable values can be specified by directory. Connection Variables Variables which are valid for buffers with a remote default directory. Local Variables in Files Specifying File Specifying file local variables. Variables Safe File Variables Making sure file local variables are safe. Customizing Key Bindings Keymaps Generalities. The global keymap. Prefix Keymaps Keymaps for prefix keys. Local Keymaps Major and minor modes have their own keymaps. Minibuffer Maps The minibuffer uses its own local keymaps. Rebinding How to redefine one key’s meaning conveniently. Init Rebinding Rebinding keys with your initialization file. Modifier Keys Using modifier keys in key bindings. Function Keys Rebinding terminal function keys. Named ASCII Chars Distinguishing TAB from C-i, and so on. Mouse Buttons Rebinding mouse buttons in Emacs. Disabling a command means confirmation is Disabling required before it can be executed. This is done to protect beginners from surprises. The Emacs Initialization File Init Syntax Syntax of constants in Emacs Lisp. Init Examples How to do some things with an init file. Terminal Init Each terminal type can have an init file. Find Init How Emacs finds the init file. Init Non-ASCII Using non-ASCII characters in an init file. Early Init File Another init file, which is read early on. Dealing with Emacs Trouble DEL Does Not Delete What to do if DEL doesn’t delete. Stuck Recursive ’[...]’ in mode line around the parentheses. Screen Garbled Garbage on the screen. Text Garbled Garbage in the text. Memory Full How to cope when you run out of memory. Crashing What Emacs does when it crashes. After a Crash Recovering editing in an Emacs session that crashed. Emergency Escape What to do if Emacs stops responding. Long Lines Mitigating slowness due to extremely long lines. Reporting Bugs Known Problems How to read about known problems and bugs. Bug Criteria Have you really found a bug? Understanding Bug How to report a bug effectively. Reporting Checklist Steps to follow for a good bug report. Sending Patches How to send a patch for GNU Emacs. Contributing to Emacs Development Coding Standards GNU Emacs coding standards. Copyright Assignment Assigning copyright to the FSF. Command Line Arguments for Emacs Invocation Action Arguments Arguments to visit files, load libraries, and call functions. Initial Options Arguments that take effect while starting Emacs. Command Example Examples of using command line arguments. Environment Environment variables that Emacs uses. Display X Changing the default display and using remote login. Font X Choosing a font for text, under X. Colors X Choosing display colors. Window Size X Start-up window size, under X. Borders X Internal and outer borders, under X. Title X Specifying the initial frame’s title. Icons X Choosing what sort of icon to use, under X. Misc X Other display options. Environment Variables General Variables Environment variables that all versions of Emacs use. Misc Variables Certain system-specific variables. MS-Windows Registry An alternative to the environment on MS-Windows. X Options and Resources Resources Using X resources with Emacs (in general). Table of Resources Table of specific X resources that affect Emacs. Lucid Resources X resources for Lucid menus. Motif Resources X resources for Motif and LessTif menus. GTK resources Resources for GTK widgets. GTK resources GTK Resource Basics Basic usage of GTK+ resources. GTK Widget Names How GTK+ widgets are named. GTK Names in Emacs GTK+ widgets used by Emacs. GTK styles What can be customized in a GTK+ widget. Emacs and macOS / GNUstep Mac / GNUstep Basics Basic Emacs usage under GNUstep or macOS. Mac / GNUstep Customizations under GNUstep or macOS. Customization Mac / GNUstep Events How window system events are handled. GNUstep Support Details on status of GNUstep support. Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS Windows Startup How to start Emacs on Windows. Text and Binary Text files use CRLF to terminate lines. Windows Files File-name conventions on Windows. ls in Lisp Emulation of ls for Dired. Windows HOME Where Emacs looks for your .emacs and where it starts up. Windows Keyboard Windows-specific keyboard features. Windows Mouse Windows-specific mouse features. Windows Processes Running subprocesses on Windows. Windows Printing How to specify the printer on MS-Windows. Windows Fonts Specifying fonts on MS-Windows. Windows Misc Miscellaneous Windows features. MS-DOS Using Emacs on MS-DOS. Emacs and MS-DOS MS-DOS Keyboard Keyboard conventions on MS-DOS. MS-DOS Mouse Mouse conventions on MS-DOS. MS-DOS Display Fonts, frames and display size on MS-DOS. MS-DOS File Names File name conventions on MS-DOS. MS-DOS Printing Printing specifics on MS-DOS. MS-DOS and MULE Support for internationalization on MS-DOS. MS-DOS Processes Running subprocesses on MS-DOS. Copyright © 1985–1987, 1993–2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being “The GNU Manifesto,” “Distribution” and “GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE,” with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.” (a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.” -------------------------------------------------------------- Next: Distrib [Contents][Index] Next: Intro, Previous: Top, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Distribution GNU Emacs is free software; this means that everyone is free to use it and free to redistribute it under certain conditions. GNU Emacs is not in the public domain; it is copyrighted and there are restrictions on its distribution, but these restrictions are designed to permit everything that a good cooperating citizen would want to do. What is not allowed is to try to prevent others from further sharing any version of GNU Emacs that they might get from you. The precise conditions are found in the GNU General Public License that comes with Emacs and also appears in this manual^1. See Copying. One way to get a copy of GNU Emacs is from someone else who has it. You need not ask for our permission to do so, or tell anyone else; just copy it. If you have access to the Internet, you can get the latest distribution version of GNU Emacs by anonymous FTP; see https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs on our website for more information. You may also receive GNU Emacs when you buy a computer. Computer manufacturers are free to distribute copies on the same terms that apply to everyone else. These terms require them to give you the full sources, including whatever changes they may have made, and to permit you to redistribute the GNU Emacs received from them under the usual terms of the General Public License. In other words, the program must be free for you when you get it, not just free for the manufacturer. If you find GNU Emacs useful, please send a donation to the Free Software Foundation to support our work. Donations to the Free Software Foundation are tax-deductible in the US. If you use GNU Emacs at your workplace, please suggest that the company make a donation. To donate, see https://my.fsf.org/donate/. For other ways in which you can help, see https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. We also sell hardcopy versions of this manual and An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp, by Robert J. Chassell. You can visit our online store at https://shop.fsf.org/. The income from sales goes to support the foundation’s purpose: the development of new free software, and improvements to our existing programs including GNU Emacs. If you need to contact the Free Software Foundation, see https://www.fsf.org/about/contact/, or write to Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (1) This manual is itself covered by the GNU Free Documentation License. This license is similar in spirit to the General Public License, but is more suitable for documentation. See GNU Free Documentation License. Next: Intro, Previous: Top, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Screen, Previous: Distrib, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Introduction You are reading about GNU Emacs, the GNU incarnation of the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible editor Emacs. (The ‘G’ in GNU (GNU’s Not Unix) is not silent.) We call Emacs advanced because it can do much more than simple insertion and deletion of text. It can control subprocesses, indent programs automatically, show multiple files at once, edit remote files like they were local files, and more. Emacs editing commands operate in terms of characters, words, lines, sentences, paragraphs, and pages, as well as expressions and comments in various programming languages. Self-documenting means that at any time you can use special commands, known as help commands, to find out what your options are, or to find out what any command does, or to find all the commands that pertain to a given topic. See Help. Customizable means that you can easily alter the behavior of Emacs commands in simple ways. For instance, if you use a programming language in which comments start with ‘<**’ and end with ‘**>’, you can tell the Emacs comment manipulation commands to use those strings (see Comments). To take another example, you can rebind the basic cursor motion commands (up, down, left and right) to any keys on the keyboard that you find comfortable. See Customization. Extensible means that you can go beyond simple customization and create entirely new commands. New commands are simply programs written in the Lisp language, which are run by Emacs’s own Lisp interpreter. Existing commands can even be redefined in the middle of an editing session, without having to restart Emacs. Most of the editing commands in Emacs are written in Lisp; the few exceptions could have been written in Lisp but use C instead for efficiency. Writing an extension is programming, but non-programmers can use it afterwards. See Preface in An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp, if you want to learn Emacs Lisp programming. Next: Screen, Previous: Distrib, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: User Input, Previous: Intro, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 1 The Organization of the Screen On a graphical display, such as on GNU/Linux using the X Window System, Emacs occupies a graphical window. On a text terminal, Emacs occupies the entire terminal screen. We will use the term frame to mean a graphical window or terminal screen occupied by Emacs. Emacs behaves very similarly on both kinds of frames. It normally starts out with just one frame, but you can create additional frames if you wish (see Frames). Each frame consists of several distinct regions. At the top of the frame is a menu bar, which allows you to access commands via a series of menus. On a graphical display, directly below the menu bar is a tool bar, a row of icons that perform editing commands when you click on them. At the very bottom of the frame is an echo area, where informative messages are displayed and where you enter information when Emacs asks for it. The main area of the frame, below the tool bar (if one exists) and above the echo area, is called the window. Henceforth in this manual, we will use the word “window” in this sense. Graphical display systems commonly use the word “window” with a different meaning; but, as stated above, we refer to those graphical windows as “frames”. An Emacs window is where the buffer—the text or other graphics you are editing or viewing—is displayed. On a graphical display, the window possesses a scroll bar on one side, which can be used to scroll through the buffer. The last line of the window is a mode line. This displays various information about what is going on in the buffer, such as whether there are unsaved changes, the editing modes that are in use, the current line number, and so forth. When you start Emacs, there is normally only one window in the frame. However, you can subdivide this window horizontally or vertically to create multiple windows, each of which can independently display a buffer (see Windows). At any time, one window is the selected window. On a graphical display, the selected window shows a more prominent cursor (usually solid and blinking); other windows show a less prominent cursor (usually a hollow box). On a text terminal, there is only one cursor, which is shown in the selected window. The buffer displayed in the selected window is called the current buffer, and it is where editing happens. Most Emacs commands implicitly apply to the current buffer; the text displayed in unselected windows is mostly visible for reference. If you use multiple frames on a graphical display, selecting a particular frame selects a window in that frame. • Point The place in the text where editing commands operate. • Echo Area Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen. • Mode Line Interpreting the mode line. • Menu Bar How to use the menu bar. Next: User Input, Previous: Intro, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Keys, Previous: Screen, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 2 Kinds of User Input GNU Emacs is primarily designed for use with the keyboard. While it is possible to use the mouse to issue editing commands through the menu bar and tool bar, that is not as efficient as using the keyboard. Therefore, this manual mainly documents how to edit with the keyboard. Keyboard input into Emacs is based on a heavily-extended version of ASCII. Simple characters, like ‘a’, ‘B’, ‘3’, ‘=’, and the space character (denoted as SPC), are entered by typing the corresponding key. Control characters, such as RET, TAB, DEL, ESC, F1, Home, and LEFT, are also entered this way, as are certain characters found on non-English keyboards (see International). Emacs also recognizes control characters that are entered using modifier keys. Two commonly-used modifier keys are Control (usually labeled Ctrl), and Meta (usually labeled Alt)^3. For example, Control-a is entered by holding down the Ctrl key while pressing a; we will refer to this as C-a for short. Similarly, Meta-a, or M-a for short, is entered by holding down the Alt key and pressing a. Modifier keys can also be applied to non-alphanumerical characters, e.g., C-F1 or M-LEFT. You can also type Meta characters using two-character sequences starting with ESC. Thus, you can enter M-a by typing ESC a. You can enter C-M-a (holding down both Ctrl and Alt, then pressing a) by typing ESC C-a. Unlike Meta, ESC is entered as a separate character. You don’t hold down ESC while typing the next character; instead, press ESC and release it, then enter the next character. This feature is useful on certain text terminals where the Meta key does not function reliably. Emacs supports 3 additional modifier keys, see Modifier Keys. On graphical displays, the window manager might block some keyboard inputs, including M-TAB, M-SPC, C-M-d and C-M-l. If you have this problem, you can either customize your window manager to not block those keys, or rebind the affected Emacs commands (see Customization). Simple characters and control characters, as well as certain non-keyboard inputs such as mouse clicks, are collectively referred to as input events. For details about how Emacs internally handles input events, see Input Events in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (3) We refer to Alt as Meta for historical reasons. Next: Keys, Previous: Screen, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Commands, Previous: User Input, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 3 Keys Some Emacs commands are invoked by just one input event; for example, C-f moves forward one character in the buffer. Other commands take two or more input events to invoke, such as C-x C-f and C-x 4 C-f. A key sequence, or key for short, is a sequence of one or more input events that is meaningful as a unit. If a key sequence invokes a command, we call it a complete key; for example, C-f, C-x C-f and C-x 4 C-f are all complete keys. If a key sequence isn’t long enough to invoke a command, we call it a prefix key; from the preceding example, we see that C-x and C-x 4 are prefix keys. Every key sequence is either a complete key or a prefix key. A prefix key combines with the following input event to make a longer key sequence. For example, C-x is a prefix key, so typing C-x alone does not invoke a command; instead, Emacs waits for further input (if you pause for longer than a second, it echoes the C-x key to prompt for that input; see Echo Area). C-x combines with the next input event to make a two-event key sequence, which could itself be a prefix key (such as C-x 4), or a complete key (such as C-x C-f). There is no limit to the length of key sequences, but in practice they are seldom longer than three or four input events. You can’t add input events onto a complete key. For example, because C-f is a complete key, the two-event sequence C-f C-k is two key sequences, not one. By default, the prefix keys in Emacs are C-c, C-h, C-x, C-x RET, C-x @, C-x a, C-x n, C-x r, C-x t, C-x v, C-x 4, C-x 5, C-x 6, ESC, M-g, and M-o. (F1 and F2 are aliases for C-h and C-x 6.) This list is not cast in stone; if you customize Emacs, you can make new prefix keys. You could even eliminate some of the standard ones, though this is not recommended for most users; for example, if you remove the prefix definition of C-x 4, then C-x 4 C-f becomes an invalid key sequence. See Key Bindings. Typing the help character (C-h or F1) after a prefix key displays a list of the commands starting with that prefix. The sole exception to this rule is ESC: ESC C-h is equivalent to C-M-h, which does something else entirely. You can, however, use F1 to display a list of commands starting with ESC. Next: Commands, Previous: User Input, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Entering Emacs, Previous: Keys, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 4 Keys and Commands This manual is full of passages that tell you what particular keys do. But Emacs does not assign meanings to keys directly. Instead, Emacs assigns meanings to named commands, and then gives keys their meanings by binding them to commands. Every command has a name chosen by a programmer. The name is usually made of a few English words separated by dashes; for example, next-line or forward-word. Internally, each command is a special type of Lisp function, and the actions associated with the command are performed by running the function. See What Is a Function in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. The bindings between keys and commands are recorded in tables called keymaps. See Keymaps. When we say that “C-n moves down vertically one line” we are glossing over a subtle distinction that is irrelevant in ordinary use, but vital for Emacs customization. The command next-line does a vertical move downward. C-n has this effect because it is bound to next-line. If you rebind C-n to the command forward-word, C-n will move forward one word instead. In this manual, we will often speak of keys like C-n as commands, even though strictly speaking the key is bound to a command. Usually, we state the name of the command which really does the work in parentheses after mentioning the key that runs it. For example, we will say that “The command C-n (next-line) moves point vertically down”, meaning that the command next-line moves vertically down, and the key C-n is normally bound to it. Since we are discussing customization, we should tell you about variables. Often the description of a command will say, “To change this, set the variable mumble-foo.” A variable is a name used to store a value. Most of the variables documented in this manual are meant for customization: some command or other part of Emacs examines the variable and behaves differently according to the value that you set. You can ignore the information about variables until you are interested in customizing them. Then read the basic information on variables (see Variables) and the information about specific variables will make sense. Next: Entering Emacs, Previous: Keys, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Exiting, Previous: Commands, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 5 Entering Emacs The usual way to invoke Emacs is with the shell command emacs. From a terminal window running a Unix shell on a GUI terminal, you can run Emacs in the background with emacs &; this way, Emacs won’t tie up the terminal window, so you can use it to run other shell commands. (For comparable methods of starting Emacs on MS-Windows, see Windows Startup.) When Emacs starts up, the initial frame displays a special buffer named ‘*GNU Emacs*’. This startup screen contains information about Emacs and links to common tasks that are useful for beginning users. For instance, activating the ‘Emacs Tutorial’ link opens the Emacs tutorial; this does the same thing as the command C-h t (help-with-tutorial). To activate a link, either move point onto it and type RET, or click on it with mouse-1 (the left mouse button). Using a command line argument, you can tell Emacs to visit one or more files as soon as it starts up. For example, emacs foo.txt starts Emacs with a buffer displaying the contents of the file ‘foo.txt’. This feature exists mainly for compatibility with other editors, which are designed to be launched from the shell for short editing sessions. If you call Emacs this way, the initial frame is split into two windows—one showing the specified file, and the other showing the startup screen. See Windows. Generally, it is unnecessary and wasteful to start Emacs afresh each time you want to edit a file. The recommended way to use Emacs is to start it just once, just after you log in, and do all your editing in the same Emacs session. See Files, for information on visiting more than one file. If you use Emacs this way, the Emacs session accumulates valuable context, such as the kill ring, registers, undo history, and mark ring data, which together make editing more convenient. These features are described later in the manual. To edit a file from another program while Emacs is running, you can use the emacsclient helper program to open a file in the existing Emacs session. See Emacs Server. Emacs accepts other command line arguments that tell it to load certain Lisp files, where to put the initial frame, and so forth. See Emacs Invocation. If the variable inhibit-startup-screen is non-nil, Emacs does not display the startup screen. In that case, if one or more files were specified on the command line, Emacs simply displays those files; otherwise, it displays a buffer named *scratch*, which can be used to evaluate Emacs Lisp expressions interactively. See Lisp Interaction. You can set the variable inhibit-startup-screen using the Customize facility (see Easy Customization), or by editing your initialization file (see Init File).^4 You can also force Emacs to display a file or directory at startup by setting the variable initial-buffer-choice to a string naming that file or directory. The value of initial-buffer-choice may also be a function (of no arguments) that should return a buffer which is then displayed. If initial-buffer-choice is non-nil, then if you specify any files on the command line, Emacs still visits them, but does not display them initially. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (4) Setting inhibit-startup-screen in site-start.el doesn’t work, because the startup screen is set up before reading site-start.el. See Init File, for information about site-start.el. Next: Exiting, Previous: Commands, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Basic, Previous: Entering Emacs, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 6 Exiting Emacs C-x C-c Kill Emacs (save-buffers-kill-terminal). C-z On a text terminal, suspend Emacs; on a graphical display, iconify (or “minimize”) the selected frame (suspend-frame). Killing Emacs means terminating the Emacs program. To do this, type C-x C-c (save-buffers-kill-terminal). A two-character key sequence is used to make it harder to type by accident. If there are any modified file-visiting buffers when you type C-x C-c, Emacs first offers to save these buffers. If you do not save them all, it asks for confirmation again, since the unsaved changes will be lost. Emacs also asks for confirmation if any subprocesses are still running, since killing Emacs will also kill the subprocesses (see Shell). C-x C-c behaves specially if you are using Emacs as a server. If you type it from a client frame, it closes the client connection. See Emacs Server. Emacs can, optionally, record certain session information when you kill it, such as the files you were visiting at the time. This information is then available the next time you start Emacs. See Saving Emacs Sessions. If the value of the variable confirm-kill-emacs is non-nil, C-x C-c assumes that its value is a predicate function, and calls that function. If the result of the function call is non-nil, the session is killed, otherwise Emacs continues to run. One convenient function to use as the value of confirm-kill-emacs is the function yes-or-no-p. The default value of confirm-kill-emacs is nil. If the value of the variable confirm-kill-processes is nil, C-x C-c does not ask for confirmation before killing subprocesses started by Emacs. The value is t by default. To further customize what happens when Emacs is exiting, see Killing Emacs in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. To kill Emacs without being prompted about saving, type M-x kill-emacs. C-z runs the command suspend-frame. On a graphical display, this command minimizes (or iconifies) the selected Emacs frame, hiding it in a way that lets you bring it back later (exactly how this hiding occurs depends on the window system). On a text terminal, the C-z command suspends Emacs, stopping the program temporarily and returning control to the parent process (usually a shell); in most shells, you can resume Emacs after suspending it with the shell command %emacs. Text terminals usually listen for certain special characters whose meaning is to kill or suspend the program you are running. This terminal feature is turned off while you are in Emacs. The meanings of C-z and C-x C-c as keys in Emacs were inspired by the use of C-z and C-c on several operating systems as the characters for stopping or killing a program, but that is their only relationship with the operating system. You can customize these keys to run any commands of your choice (see Keymaps). Next: Basic, Previous: Entering Emacs, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Minibuffer, Previous: Exiting, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 7 Basic Editing Commands Here we explain the basics of how to enter text, make corrections, and save the text in a file. If this material is new to you, we suggest you first run the Emacs learn-by-doing tutorial, by typing C-h t (help-with-tutorial). • Inserting Text Inserting text by simply typing it. • Moving Point Moving the cursor to the place where you want to change something. • Erasing Deleting and killing text. • Basic Undo Undoing recent changes in the text. • Files Visiting, creating, and saving files. • Help Asking what a character does. • Blank Lines Making and deleting blank lines. • Continuation Lines How Emacs displays lines too wide for the screen. • Position Info What line, row, or column is point on? • Arguments Numeric arguments for repeating a command N times. • Repeating Repeating the previous command quickly. Next: M-x, Previous: Basic, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 8 The Minibuffer The minibuffer is where Emacs commands read complicated arguments, such as file names, buffer names, Emacs command names, or Lisp expressions. We call it the “minibuffer” because it’s a special-purpose buffer with a small amount of screen space. You can use the usual Emacs editing commands in the minibuffer to edit the argument text. • Basic Minibuffer Basic usage of the minibuffer. • Minibuffer File Entering file names with the minibuffer. • Minibuffer Edit How to edit in the minibuffer. • Completion An abbreviation facility for minibuffer input. • Minibuffer History Reusing recent minibuffer arguments. • Repetition Re-executing commands that used the minibuffer. • Passwords Entering passwords in the echo area. • Yes or No Prompts Replying yes or no in the echo area. Next: Help, Previous: Minibuffer, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 9 Running Commands by Name Every Emacs command has a name that you can use to run it. For convenience, many commands also have key bindings. You can run those commands by typing the keys, or run them by name. Most Emacs commands have no key bindings, so the only way to run them is by name. (See Key Bindings, for how to set up key bindings.) By convention, a command name consists of one or more words, separated by hyphens; for example, auto-fill-mode or manual-entry. Command names mostly use complete English words to make them easier to remember. To run a command by name, start with M-x, type the command name, then terminate it with RET. M-x uses the minibuffer to read the command name. The string ‘M-x’ appears at the beginning of the minibuffer as a prompt to remind you to enter a command name to be run. RET exits the minibuffer and runs the command. See Minibuffer, for more information on the minibuffer. You can use completion to enter the command name. For example, to invoke the command forward-char, you can type M-x forward-char RET or M-x forw TAB c RET Note that forward-char is the same command that you invoke with the key C-f. The existence of a key binding does not stop you from running the command by name. When M-x completes on commands, it ignores the commands that are declared obsolete; for these, you will have to type their full name. Obsolete commands are those for which newer, better alternatives exist, and which are slated for removal in some future Emacs release. To cancel the M-x and not run a command, type C-g instead of entering the command name. This takes you back to command level. To pass a numeric argument to the command you are invoking with M-x, specify the numeric argument before M-x. The argument value appears in the prompt while the command name is being read, and finally M-x passes the argument to that command. For example, to pass the numeric argument of 42 to the command forward-char you can type C-u 42 M-x forward-char RET. When the command you run with M-x has a key binding, Emacs mentions this in the echo area after running the command. For example, if you type M-x forward-word, the message says that you can run the same command by typing M-f. You can turn off these messages by setting the variable suggest-key-bindings to nil. The value of suggest-key-bindings can also be a number, in which case Emacs will show the binding for that many seconds before removing it from display. The default behavior is to display the binding for 2 seconds. Commands that don’t have key bindings, can still be invoked after typing less than their full name at the ‘M-x’ prompt. Emacs mentions such shorthands in the echo area if they are significantly shorter than the full command name, and extended-command-suggest-shorter is non-nil. The setting of suggest-key-bindings affects these hints as well. In this manual, when we speak of running a command by name, we often omit the RET that terminates the name. Thus we might say M-x auto-fill-mode rather than M-x auto-fill-mode RET. We mention the RET only for emphasis, such as when the command is followed by arguments. M-x works by running the command execute-extended-command, which is responsible for reading the name of another command and invoking it. -------------------------------------------------------------- Next: Help, Previous: Minibuffer, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Mark, Previous: M-x, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 10 Help Emacs provides a wide variety of help commands, all accessible through the prefix key C-h (or, equivalently, the function key F1). These help commands are described in the following sections. You can also type C-h C-h to view a list of help commands (help-for-help). You can scroll the list with SPC and DEL, then type the help command you want. To cancel, type C-g. Many help commands display their information in a special help buffer. In this buffer, you can type SPC and DEL to scroll and type RET to follow hyperlinks. See Help Mode. If you are looking for a certain feature, but don’t know what it is called or where to look, we recommend three methods. First, try an apropos command, then try searching the manual index, then look in the FAQ and the package keywords. C-h a topics RET This searches for commands whose names match the argument topics. The argument can be a keyword, a list of keywords, or a regular expression (see Regexps). See Apropos. C-h i d m emacs RET i topic RET This searches for topic in the indices of the Emacs Info manual, displaying the first match found. Press , to see subsequent matches. You can use a regular expression as topic. C-h i d m emacs RET s topic RET Similar, but searches the text of the manual rather than the indices. C-h C-f This displays the Emacs FAQ, using Info. C-h p This displays the available Emacs packages based on keywords. See Package Keywords. C-h or F1 mean “help” in various other contexts as well. For instance, you can type them after a prefix key to view a list of the keys that can follow the prefix key. (You can also use ? in this context. A few prefix keys don’t support C-h or ? in this way, because they define other meanings for those inputs, but they all support F1.) • Help Summary Brief list of all Help commands. • Key Help Asking what a key does in Emacs. • Name Help Asking about a command, variable or function name. • Apropos Asking what pertains to a given topic. • Help Mode Special features of Help mode and Help buffers. • Package Keywords Finding Lisp libraries by keywords (topics). • Language Help Help relating to international language support. • Misc Help Other help commands. • Help Files Commands to display auxiliary help files. • Help Echo Help on active text and tooltips (“balloon help”). Next: Mark, Previous: M-x, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Killing, Previous: Help, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 11 The Mark and the Region Many Emacs commands operate on an arbitrary contiguous part of the current buffer. To specify the text for such a command to operate on, you set the mark at one end of it, and move point to the other end. The text between point and the mark is called the region. The region always extends between point and the mark, no matter which one comes earlier in the text; each time you move point, the region changes. Setting the mark at a position in the text also activates it. When the mark is active, we say also that the region is active; Emacs indicates its extent by highlighting the text within it, using the region face (see Face Customization). This is one of the few faces that has the :extend t attribute by default, which implies that the same face is used to highlight the text and space between end of line and the window border. To highlight only the text you could set this attribute to nil. After certain non-motion commands, including any command that changes the text in the buffer, Emacs automatically deactivates the mark; this turns off the highlighting. You can also explicitly deactivate the mark at any time, by typing C-g (see Quitting). The above default behavior is known as Transient Mark mode. Disabling Transient Mark mode switches Emacs to an alternative behavior, in which the region is usually not highlighted. See Disabled Transient Mark. Setting the mark in one buffer has no effect on the marks in other buffers. When you return to a buffer with an active mark, the mark is at the same place as before. When multiple windows show the same buffer, they can have different values of point, and thus different regions, but they all share one common mark position. See Windows. Ordinarily, only the selected window highlights its region; however, if the variable highlight-nonselected-windows is non-nil, each window highlights its own region. There is another kind of region: the rectangular region. See Rectangles. • Setting Mark Commands to set the mark. • Marking Objects Commands to put region around textual units. • Using Region Summary of ways to operate on contents of the region. • Mark Ring Previous mark positions saved so you can go back there. • Global Mark Ring Previous mark positions in various buffers. • Shift Selection Using shifted cursor motion keys. • Disabled Transient Leaving regions unhighlighted by default. Mark Next: Killing, Previous: Help, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Registers, Previous: Mark, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 12 Killing and Moving Text In Emacs, killing means erasing text and copying it into the kill ring. Yanking means bringing text from the kill ring back into the buffer. (Some applications use the terms “cutting” and “pasting” for similar operations.) The kill ring is so-named because it can be visualized as a set of blocks of text arranged in a ring, which you can access in cyclic order. See Kill Ring. Killing and yanking are the most common way to move or copy text within Emacs. It is very versatile, because there are commands for killing many different types of syntactic units. • Deletion and Killing Commands that remove text. • Yanking Commands that insert text. • Cut and Paste Clipboard and selections on graphical displays. • Accumulating Text Other methods to add text to the buffer. • Rectangles Operating on text in rectangular areas. • CUA Bindings Using C-x/C-c/C-v to kill and yank. Next: Display, Previous: Killing, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 13 Registers Emacs registers are compartments where you can save text, rectangles, positions, and other things for later use. Once you save text or a rectangle in a register, you can copy it into the buffer once or many times; once you save a position in a register, you can jump back to that position once or many times. Each register has a name that consists of a single character, which we will denote by r; r can be a letter (such as ‘a’) or a number (such as ‘1’); case matters, so register ‘a’ is not the same as register ‘A’. You can also set a register in non-alphanumeric characters, for instance ‘*’ or ‘C-d’. Note, it’s not possible to set a register in ‘C-g’ or ‘ESC’, because these keys are reserved for quitting (see Quitting). A register can store a position, a piece of text, a rectangle, a number, a window configuration, or a file name, but only one thing at any given time. Whatever you store in a register remains there until you store something else in that register. To see what register r contains, use M-x view-register: M-x view-register RET r Display a description of what register r contains. All of the commands that prompt for a register will display a preview window that lists the existing registers (if there are any) after a short delay. To change the length of the delay, customize register-preview-delay. To prevent this display, set that option to nil. You can explicitly request a preview window by pressing C-h or F1. Bookmarks record files and positions in them, so you can return to those positions when you look at the file again. Bookmarks are similar in spirit to registers, so they are also documented in this chapter. • Position Registers Saving positions in registers. • Text Registers Saving text in registers. • Rectangle Registers Saving rectangles in registers. • Configuration Registers Saving window configurations in registers. • Number Registers Numbers in registers. • File Registers File names in registers. • Keyboard Macro Registers Keyboard macros in registers. • Bookmarks Bookmarks are like registers, but persistent. Next: Display, Previous: Killing, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Search, Previous: Registers, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 14 Controlling the Display Since only part of a large buffer fits in the window, Emacs has to show only a part of it. This chapter describes commands and variables that let you specify which part of the text you want to see, and how the text is displayed. • Scrolling Commands to move text up and down in a window. • Recentering A scroll command that centers the current line. • Auto Scrolling Redisplay scrolls text automatically when needed. • Horizontal Scrolling Moving text left and right in a window. • Narrowing Restricting display and editing to a portion of the buffer. • View Mode Viewing read-only buffers. • Follow Mode Follow mode lets two windows scroll as one. • Faces How to change the display style using faces. • Colors Specifying colors for faces. • Standard Faces The main predefined faces. • Text Scale Increasing or decreasing text size in a buffer. • Font Lock Minor mode for syntactic highlighting using faces. • Highlight Interactively Tell Emacs what text to highlight. • Fringes Enabling or disabling window fringes. • Displaying Boundaries Displaying top and bottom of the buffer. • Useless Whitespace Showing possibly spurious trailing whitespace. • Selective Display Hiding lines with lots of indentation. • Optional Mode Line Optional mode line display features. • Text Display How text characters are normally displayed. • Cursor Display Features for displaying the cursor. • Line Truncation Truncating lines to fit the screen width instead of continuing them to multiple screen lines. • Visual Line Mode Word wrap and screen line-based editing. • Display Custom Information on variables for customizing display. Next: Search, Previous: Registers, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Fixit, Previous: Display, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 15 Searching and Replacement Like other editors, Emacs has commands to search for occurrences of a string. Emacs also has commands to replace occurrences of a string with a different string. There are also commands that do the same thing, but search for patterns instead of fixed strings. You can also search multiple files under the control of xref (see Identifier Search) or through the Dired A command (see Operating on Files), or ask the grep program to do it (see Grep Searching). • Incremental Search Search happens as you type the string. • Nonincremental Search Specify entire string and then search. • Word Search Search for sequence of words. • Symbol Search Search for a source code symbol. • Regexp Search Search for match for a regexp. • Regexps Syntax of regular expressions. • Regexp Backslash Regular expression constructs starting with ‘\’. • Regexp Example A complex regular expression explained. • Lax Search Search ignores some distinctions among similar characters, like letter-case. • Replace Search, and replace some or all matches. • Other Repeating Search Operating on all matches for some regexp. • Search Customizations Various search customizations. Next: Fixit, Previous: Display, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Keyboard Macros, Previous: Search, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 16 Commands for Fixing Typos In this chapter we describe commands that are useful when you catch a mistake while editing. The most fundamental of these commands is the undo command C-/ (also bound to C-x u and C-_). This undoes a single command, or a part of a command (as in the case of query-replace), or several consecutive character insertions. Consecutive repetitions of C-/ undo earlier and earlier changes, back to the limit of the undo information available. Aside from the commands described here, you can erase text using deletion commands such as DEL (delete-backward-char). These were described earlier in this manual. See Erasing. • Undo The Undo commands. • Transpose Exchanging two characters, words, lines, lists... • Fixing Case Correcting case of last word entered. • Spelling Apply spelling checker to a word, or a whole file. Next: Files, Previous: Fixit, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 17 Keyboard Macros In this chapter we describe how to record a sequence of editing commands so you can repeat it conveniently later. A keyboard macro is a command defined by an Emacs user to stand for another sequence of keys. For example, if you discover that you are about to type C-n M-d C-d forty times, you can speed your work by defining a keyboard macro to do C-n M-d C-d, and then executing it 39 more times. You define a keyboard macro by executing and recording the commands which are its definition. Put differently, as you define a keyboard macro, the definition is being executed for the first time. This way, you can see the effects of your commands, so that you don’t have to figure them out in your head. When you close the definition, the keyboard macro is defined and also has been, in effect, executed once. You can then do the whole thing over again by invoking the macro. Keyboard macros differ from ordinary Emacs commands in that they are written in the Emacs command language rather than in Lisp. This makes it easier for the novice to write them, and makes them more convenient as temporary hacks. However, the Emacs command language is not powerful enough as a programming language to be useful for writing anything intelligent or general. For such things, Lisp must be used. • Basic Keyboard Macro Defining and running keyboard macros. • Keyboard Macro Ring Where previous keyboard macros are saved. • Keyboard Macro Counter Inserting incrementing numbers in macros. • Keyboard Macro Query Making keyboard macros do different things each time. • Save Keyboard Macro Giving keyboard macros names; saving them in files. • Edit Keyboard Macro Editing keyboard macros. • Keyboard Macro Interactively executing and editing a Step-Edit keyboard macro. Next: Files, Previous: Fixit, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Buffers, Previous: Keyboard Macros, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 18 File Handling The operating system stores data permanently in named files, so most of the text you edit with Emacs comes from a file and is ultimately stored in a file. To edit a file, you must tell Emacs to read the file and prepare a buffer containing a copy of the file’s text. This is called visiting the file. Editing commands apply directly to text in the buffer; that is, to the copy inside Emacs. Your changes appear in the file itself only when you save the buffer back into the file. In addition to visiting and saving files, Emacs can delete, copy, rename, and append to files, keep multiple versions of them, and operate on file directories. • File Names How to type and edit file-name arguments. • Visiting Visiting a file prepares Emacs to edit the file. • Saving Saving makes your changes permanent. • Reverting Reverting cancels all the changes not saved. • Auto Revert Keeping buffers automatically up-to-date. • Auto Save Auto Save periodically protects against loss of data. • File Aliases Handling multiple names for one file. • Directories Creating, deleting, and listing file directories. • Comparing Files Finding where two files differ. • Diff Mode Mode for editing file differences. • Copying and Naming Copying, naming and renaming files. • Misc File Ops Other things you can do on files. • Compressed Files Accessing compressed files. • File Archives Operating on tar, zip, jar etc. archive files. • Remote Files Accessing files on other machines. • Quoted File Names Quoting special characters in file names. • File Name Cache Completion against a list of files you often use. • File Conveniences Convenience features for finding files. • Image Mode Viewing image files. • Filesets Handling sets of files. Next: Buffers, Previous: Keyboard Macros, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Windows, Previous: Files, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 19 Using Multiple Buffers The text you are editing in Emacs resides in an object called a buffer. Each time you visit a file, a buffer is used to hold the file’s text. Each time you invoke Dired, a buffer is used to hold the directory listing. If you send a message with C-x m, a buffer is used to hold the text of the message. When you ask for a command’s documentation, that appears in a buffer named *Help*. Buffers exist as long as they are in use, and are deleted (“killed”) when no longer needed, either by you (see Kill Buffer) or by Emacs (e.g., when you exit Emacs, see Exiting). Each buffer has a unique name, which can be of any length. When a buffer is displayed in a window, its name is shown in the mode line (see Mode Line). The distinction between upper and lower case matters in buffer names. Most buffers are made by visiting files, and their names are derived from the files’ names; however, you can also create an empty buffer with any name you want. A newly started Emacs has several buffers, including one named *scratch*, which can be used for evaluating Lisp expressions and is not associated with any file (see Lisp Interaction). At any time, one and only one buffer is selected; we call it the current buffer. We sometimes say that a command operates on “the buffer”; this really means that it operates on the current buffer. When there is only one Emacs window, the buffer displayed in that window is current. When there are multiple windows, the buffer displayed in the selected window is current. See Windows. A buffer’s contents consist of a series of characters, each of which optionally carries a set of text properties (see Text properties) that can specify more information about that character. Aside from its textual contents, each buffer records several pieces of information, such as what file it is visiting (if any), whether it is modified, and what major mode and minor modes are in effect (see Modes). These are stored in buffer-local variables—variables that can have a different value in each buffer. See Locals. A buffer’s size cannot be larger than some maximum, which is defined by the largest buffer position representable by Emacs integers. This is because Emacs tracks buffer positions using that data type. For typical 64-bit machines, this maximum buffer size is 2^{61} - 2 bytes, or about 2 EiB. For typical 32-bit machines, the maximum is usually 2^{29} - 2 bytes, or about 512 MiB. Buffer sizes are also limited by the amount of memory in the system. • Select Buffer Creating a new buffer or reselecting an old one. • List Buffers Getting a list of buffers that exist. • Misc Buffer Renaming; changing read-only status; copying text. • Kill Buffer Killing buffers you no longer need. • Several Buffers How to go through the list of all buffers and operate variously on several of them. • Indirect Buffers An indirect buffer shares the text of another buffer. • Buffer Convenience Convenience and customization features for buffer handling. Next: Windows, Previous: Files, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Frames, Previous: Buffers, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 20 Multiple Windows Emacs can split a frame into two or many windows. Multiple windows can display parts of different buffers, or different parts of one buffer. Multiple frames always imply multiple windows, because each frame has its own set of windows. Each window belongs to one and only one frame. • Basic Window Introduction to Emacs windows. • Split Window New windows are made by splitting existing windows. • Other Window Moving to another window or doing something to it. • Pop Up Window Finding a file or buffer in another window. • Change Window Deleting windows and changing their sizes. • Displaying Buffers How Emacs picks a window for displaying a buffer. • Window Convenience Convenience functions for window handling. • Tab Line Window tab line. Next: International, Previous: Windows, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 21 Frames and Graphical Displays When Emacs is started on a graphical display, e.g., on the X Window System, it occupies a graphical system-level display region. In this manual, we call this a frame, reserving the word “window” for the part of the frame used for displaying a buffer. A frame initially contains one window, but it can be subdivided into multiple windows (see Windows). A frame normally also contains a menu bar, tool bar, and echo area. You can also create additional frames (see Creating Frames). All frames created in the same Emacs session have access to the same underlying buffers and other data. For instance, if a buffer is being shown in more than one frame, any changes made to it in one frame show up immediately in the other frames too. Typing C-x C-c closes all the frames on the current display, and ends the Emacs session if it has no frames open on any other displays (see Exiting). To close just the selected frame, type C-x 5 0 (that is zero, not o). This chapter describes Emacs features specific to graphical displays (particularly mouse commands), and features for managing multiple frames. On text terminals, many of these features are unavailable. However, it is still possible to create multiple frames on text terminals; such frames are displayed one at a time, filling the entire terminal screen (see Non-Window Terminals). It is also possible to use the mouse on some text terminals (see Text-Only Mouse, for doing so on GNU and Unix systems; and see MS-DOS Mouse, for doing so on MS-DOS). Menus are supported on all text terminals. • Mouse Commands Moving, cutting, and pasting, with the mouse. • Word and Line Mouse Mouse commands for selecting whole words or lines. • Mouse References Using the mouse to select an item from a list. • Menu Mouse Clicks Mouse clicks that bring up menus. • Mode Line Mouse Mouse clicks on the mode line. • Creating Frames Creating additional Emacs frames with various contents. • Frame Commands Iconifying, deleting, and switching frames. • Fonts Changing the frame font. • Speedbar How to make and use a speedbar frame. • Multiple Displays How one Emacs instance can talk to several displays. • Frame Parameters Changing the colors and other modes of frames. • Scroll Bars How to enable and disable scroll bars; how to use them. • Window Dividers Window separators that can be dragged with the mouse. • Drag and Drop Using drag and drop to open files and insert text. • Menu Bars Enabling and disabling the menu bar. • Tool Bars Enabling and disabling the tool bar. • Tab Bars Enabling and disabling the tab bar. • Dialog Boxes Controlling use of dialog boxes. • Tooltips Displaying information at the current mouse position. • Mouse Avoidance Preventing the mouse pointer from obscuring text. • Non-Window Terminals Multiple frames on terminals that show only one. • Text-Only Mouse Using the mouse in text terminals. Next: International, Previous: Windows, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Modes, Previous: Frames, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 22 International Character Set Support Emacs supports a wide variety of international character sets, including European and Vietnamese variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Arabic scripts, Brahmic scripts (for languages such as Bengali, Hindi, and Thai), Cyrillic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Han (for Chinese and Japanese), Hangul (for Korean), Hebrew and IPA. Emacs also supports various encodings of these characters that are used by other internationalized software, such as word processors and mailers. Emacs allows editing text with international characters by supporting all the related activities: * You can visit files with non-ASCII characters, save non-ASCII text, and pass non-ASCII text between Emacs and programs it invokes (such as compilers, spell-checkers, and mailers). Setting your language environment (see Language Environments) takes care of setting up the coding systems and other options for a specific language or culture. Alternatively, you can specify how Emacs should encode or decode text for each command; see Text Coding. * You can display non-ASCII characters encoded by the various scripts. This works by using appropriate fonts on graphics displays (see Defining Fontsets), and by sending special codes to text displays (see Terminal Coding). If some characters are displayed incorrectly, refer to Undisplayable Characters, which describes possible problems and explains how to solve them. * Characters from scripts whose natural ordering of text is from right to left are reordered for display (see Bidirectional Editing). These scripts include Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Thaana, and a few others. * You can insert non-ASCII characters or search for them. To do that, you can specify an input method (see Select Input Method) suitable for your language, or use the default input method set up when you choose your language environment. If your keyboard can produce non-ASCII characters, you can select an appropriate keyboard coding system (see Terminal Coding), and Emacs will accept those characters. Latin-1 characters can also be input by using the C-x 8 prefix, see Unibyte Mode. With the X Window System, your locale should be set to an appropriate value to make sure Emacs interprets keyboard input correctly; see locales. The rest of this chapter describes these issues in detail. • International Chars Basic concepts of multibyte characters. • Language Environments Setting things up for the language you use. • Input Methods Entering text characters not on your keyboard. • Select Input Method Specifying your choice of input methods. • Coding Systems Character set conversion when you read and write files, and so on. • Recognize Coding How Emacs figures out which conversion to use. • Specify Coding Specifying a file’s coding system explicitly. • Output Coding Choosing coding systems for output. • Text Coding Choosing conversion to use for file text. • Communication Coding Coding systems for interprocess communication. • File Name Coding Coding systems for file names. • Terminal Coding Specifying coding systems for converting terminal input and output. • Fontsets Fontsets are collections of fonts that cover the whole spectrum of characters. • Defining Fontsets Defining a new fontset. • Modifying Fontsets Modifying an existing fontset. • Undisplayable Characters When characters don’t display. • Unibyte Mode You can pick one European character set to use without multibyte characters. • Charsets How Emacs groups its internal character codes. • Bidirectional Editing Support for right-to-left scripts. Next: Modes, Previous: Frames, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Indentation, Previous: International, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 23 Major and Minor Modes Emacs contains many editing modes that alter its basic behavior in useful ways. These are divided into major modes and minor modes. Major modes provide specialized facilities for working on a particular file type, such as a C source file (see Programs), or a particular type of non-file buffer, such as a shell buffer (see Shell). Major modes are mutually exclusive; each buffer has one and only one major mode at any time. Minor modes are optional features which you can turn on or off, not necessarily specific to a type of file or buffer. For example, Auto Fill mode is a minor mode in which SPC breaks lines between words as you type (see Auto Fill). Minor modes are independent of one another, and of the selected major mode. • Major Modes Text mode vs. Lisp mode vs. C mode... • Minor Modes Each minor mode is a feature you can turn on independently of any others. • Choosing Modes How modes are chosen when visiting files. Next: Text, Previous: Modes, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 24 Indentation Indentation refers to inserting or adjusting whitespace characters (space and/or tab characters) at the beginning of a line of text. This chapter documents indentation commands and options which are common to Text mode and related modes, as well as programming language modes. See Program Indent, for additional documentation about indenting in programming modes. The simplest way to perform indentation is the TAB key. In most major modes, this runs the command indent-for-tab-command. (In C and related modes, TAB runs the command c-indent-line-or-region, which behaves similarly, see C Indent). TAB Insert whitespace, or indent the current line, in a mode-appropriate way (indent-for-tab-command). If the region is active, indent all the lines within it. The exact behavior of TAB depends on the major mode. In Text mode and related major modes, TAB normally inserts some combination of space and tab characters to advance point to the next tab stop (see Tab Stops). For this purpose, the position of the first non-whitespace character on the preceding line is treated as an additional tab stop, so you can use TAB to align point with the preceding line. If the region is active (see Using Region), TAB acts specially: it indents each line in the region so that its first non-whitespace character is aligned with the preceding line. In programming modes, TAB indents the current line of code in a way that makes sense given the code in the preceding lines. If the region is active, all the lines in the region are indented this way. If point was initially within the current line’s indentation, it is repositioned to the first non-whitespace character on the line. If you just want to insert a tab character in the buffer, type C-q TAB (see Inserting Text). • Indentation Commands More commands for performing indentation. • Tab Stops Stop points for indentation in Text modes. • Just Spaces Using only space characters for indentation. • Indent Convenience Optional indentation features. Next: Text, Previous: Modes, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Programs, Previous: Indentation, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 25 Commands for Human Languages This chapter describes Emacs commands that act on text, by which we mean sequences of characters in a human language (as opposed to, say, a computer programming language). These commands act in ways that take into account the syntactic and stylistic conventions of human languages: conventions involving words, sentences, paragraphs, and capital letters. There are also commands for filling, which means rearranging the lines of a paragraph to be approximately equal in length. These commands, while intended primarily for editing text, are also often useful for editing programs. Emacs has several major modes for editing human-language text. If the file contains ordinary text, use Text mode, which customizes Emacs in small ways for the syntactic conventions of text. Outline mode provides special commands for operating on text with an outline structure. See Outline Mode. Org mode extends Outline mode and turns Emacs into a full-fledged organizer: you can manage TODO lists, store notes and publish them in many formats. See the Org Info manual, which is distributed with Emacs. Emacs has other major modes for text which contains embedded commands, such as TeX and LaTeX (see TeX Mode); HTML and SGML (see HTML Mode); XML (see the nXML mode Info manual, which is distributed with Emacs); and Groff and Nroff (see Nroff Mode). If you need to edit ASCII art pictures made out of text characters, use Picture mode, a special major mode for editing such pictures. See Picture Mode. • Words Moving over and killing words. • Sentences Moving over and killing sentences. • Paragraphs Moving over paragraphs. • Pages Moving over pages. • Quotation Marks Inserting quotation marks. • Filling Filling or justifying text. • Case Changing the case of text. • Text Mode The major modes for editing text files. • Outline Mode Editing outlines. • Org Mode The Emacs organizer. • TeX Mode Editing TeX and LaTeX files. • HTML Mode Editing HTML and SGML files. • Nroff Mode Editing input to the nroff formatter. • Enriched Text Editing text enriched with fonts, colors, etc. • Text Based Tables Commands for editing text-based tables. • Two-Column Splitting text columns into separate windows. Next: Programs, Previous: Indentation, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Building, Previous: Text, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 26 Editing Programs This chapter describes Emacs features for facilitating editing programs. Some of the things these features can do are: * Find or move over top-level definitions (see Defuns). * Apply the usual indentation conventions of the language (see Program Indent). * Balance parentheses (see Parentheses). * Insert, kill or align comments (see Comments). * Highlight program syntax (see Font Lock). • Program Modes Major modes for editing programs. • Defuns Commands to operate on major top-level parts of a program. • Program Indent Adjusting indentation to show the nesting. • Parentheses Commands that operate on parentheses. • Comments Inserting, killing, and aligning comments. • Documentation Getting documentation of functions you plan to call. • Hideshow Displaying blocks selectively. • Symbol Completion Completion on symbol names of your program or language. • MixedCase Words Dealing with identifiersLikeThis. • Semantic Suite of editing tools based on source code parsing. • Misc for Programs Other Emacs features useful for editing programs. • C Modes Special commands of C, C++, Objective-C, Java, IDL, Pike and AWK modes. • Asm Mode Asm mode and its special features. • Fortran Fortran mode and its special features. Next: Building, Previous: Text, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Maintaining, Previous: Programs, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 27 Compiling and Testing Programs The previous chapter discusses the Emacs commands that are useful for making changes in programs. This chapter deals with commands that assist in the process of compiling and testing programs. • Compilation Compiling programs in languages other than Lisp (C, Pascal, etc.). • Compilation Mode The mode for visiting compiler errors. • Compilation Shell Customizing your shell properly for use in the compilation buffer. • Grep Searching Searching with grep. • Flymake Finding syntax errors on the fly. • Debuggers Running symbolic debuggers for non-Lisp programs. • Executing Lisp Various modes for editing Lisp programs, with different facilities for running the Lisp programs. • Libraries How Lisp programs are loaded into Emacs. • Eval Executing a single Lisp expression in Emacs. • Interaction Executing Lisp in an Emacs buffer. • External Lisp Communicating through Emacs with a separate Lisp. Next: Abbrevs, Previous: Building, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 28 Maintaining Large Programs This chapter describes Emacs features for maintaining medium- to large-size programs and packages. These features include: * - Unified interface to Support for Version Control Systems (VCS) that record the history of changes to source files. * - Commands for handling programming projects. * - A specialized mode for maintaining ChangeLog files that provide a chronological log of program changes. * - Xref, a set of commands for displaying definitions of symbols (a.k.a. “identifiers”) and their references. * - EDE, the Emacs’s own IDE. * - A mode for merging changes to program sources made on separate branches of development. If you are maintaining a large Lisp program, then in addition to the features described here, you may find the Emacs Lisp Regression Testing (ERT) library useful (see ERT in Emacs Lisp Regression Testing). • Version Control Using version control systems. • Projects Commands for handling source files in a project. • Change Log Maintaining a change history for your program. • Xref Find definitions and references of any function, method, struct, macro, … in your program. • EDE An integrated development environment for Emacs. • Emerge A convenient way of merging two versions of a program. Next: Dired, Previous: Maintaining, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 29 Abbrevs A defined abbrev is a word which expands, if you insert it, into some different text. Abbrevs are defined by the user to expand in specific ways. For example, you might define ‘foo’ as an abbrev expanding to ‘find outer otter’. Then you could insert ‘find outer otter ’ into the buffer by typing f o o SPC. A second kind of abbreviation facility is called dynamic abbrev expansion. You use dynamic abbrev expansion with an explicit command to expand the letters in the buffer before point by looking for other words in the buffer that start with those letters. See Dynamic Abbrevs. A third kind, hippie expansion, generalizes abbreviation expansion. See Hippie Expansion in Features for Automatic Typing. • Abbrev Concepts Fundamentals of defined abbrevs. • Defining Abbrevs Defining an abbrev, so it will expand when typed. • Expanding Abbrevs Controlling expansion: prefixes, canceling expansion. • Editing Abbrevs Viewing or editing the entire list of defined abbrevs. • Saving Abbrevs Saving the entire list of abbrevs for another session. • Dynamic Abbrevs Abbreviations for words already in the buffer. • Dabbrev Customization What is a word, for dynamic abbrevs. Case handling. Next: Calendar/Diary, Previous: Abbrevs, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 30 Dired, the Directory Editor Dired makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of a directory, and optionally some of its subdirectories as well. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move around in this buffer, and special Dired commands to operate on the listed files. Dired works with both local and remote directories. The Dired buffer is normally read-only, and inserting text in it is not allowed (however, the Wdired mode allows that, see Wdired). Ordinary printing characters such as d and x are redefined for special Dired commands. Some Dired commands mark or flag the current file (that is, the file on the current line); other commands operate on the marked files or on the flagged files. You first mark certain files in order to operate on all of them with one command. The Dired-X package provides various extra features for Dired mode. See Dired-X in Dired Extra User’s Manual. You can also view a list of files in a directory with C-x C-d (list-directory). Unlike Dired, this command does not allow you to operate on the listed files. See Directories. • Enter How to invoke Dired. • Navigation Special motion commands in the Dired buffer. • Deletion Deleting files with Dired. • Flagging Many Files Flagging files based on their names. • Visit Other file operations through Dired. • Marks vs Flags Flagging for deletion vs marking. • Operating on Files How to copy, rename, print, compress, etc. either one file or several files. • Shell Commands in Dired Running a shell command on the marked files. • Transforming File Names Using patterns to rename multiple files. • Comparison in Dired Running diff by way of Dired. • Subdirectories in Dired Adding subdirectories to the Dired buffer. • Subdir Switches Subdirectory switches in Dired. • Subdirectory Motion Moving across subdirectories, and up and down. • Hiding Subdirectories Making subdirectories visible or invisible. • Updating Discarding lines for files of no interest. • Find Using find to choose the files for Dired. • Wdired Operating on files by editing the Dired buffer. • Image-Dired Viewing image thumbnails in Dired. • Misc Various other features. Next: Calendar/Diary, Previous: Abbrevs, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Sending Mail, Previous: Dired, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 31 The Calendar and the Diary Emacs provides the functions of a desk calendar, with a diary of planned or past events. It also has facilities for managing your appointments, and keeping track of how much time you spend working on certain projects. To enter the calendar, type M-x calendar. This displays a three-month calendar centered on the current month, with point on the current date. With a numeric argument, as in C-u M-x calendar, it prompts you for the month and year to be the center of the three-month calendar. The calendar uses its own buffer, whose major mode is Calendar mode. mouse-3 in the calendar brings up a menu of operations on a particular date; mouse-2 brings up a menu of commonly used calendar features that are independent of any particular date. To exit the calendar, type q. • Calendar Motion Moving through the calendar; selecting a date. • Scroll Calendar Bringing earlier or later months onto the screen. • Counting Days How many days are there between two dates? • General Calendar Exiting or recomputing the calendar. • Writing Calendar Files Writing calendars to files of various formats. • Holidays Displaying dates of holidays. • Sunrise/Sunset Displaying local times of sunrise and sunset. • Lunar Phases Displaying phases of the moon. • Other Calendars Converting dates to other calendar systems. • Diary Displaying events from your diary. • Daylight Saving How to specify when daylight saving time is active. • Time Intervals Keeping track of time intervals. • Advanced Calendar/Diary Advanced Calendar/Diary Usage customization. Next: Sending Mail, Previous: Dired, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Rmail, Previous: Calendar/Diary, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 32 Sending Mail To send an email message from Emacs, type C-x m. This switches to a buffer named *unsent mail*, where you can edit the text and headers of the message. When done, type C-c C-s or C-c C-c to send it. C-x m Begin composing mail (compose-mail). C-x 4 m Likewise, in another window (compose-mail-other-window). C-x 5 m Likewise, but in a new frame (compose-mail-other-frame). C-c C-s In the mail buffer, send the message (message-send). C-c C-c In the mail buffer, send the message and bury the buffer (message-send-and-exit). The mail buffer is an ordinary Emacs buffer, so you can switch to other buffers while composing the mail. If you want to send another message before finishing the current one, type C-x m again to open a new mail buffer whose name has a different numeric suffix (see Misc Buffer). (This only works if you use the default Message mode to compose email; see Mail Commands.) If you know that you’d like to continue composing the unsent message you were editing, invoke this command with a prefix argument, C-u C-x m, and Emacs will switch to the last mail buffer you used and let you pick up editing the message where you left off. The command C-x 4 m (compose-mail-other-window) does the same as C-x m, except it displays the mail buffer in a different window. The command C-x 5 m (compose-mail-other-frame) does it in a new frame. When you type C-c C-c or C-c C-s to send the mail, Emacs may ask you how it should deliver the mail—either directly via SMTP, or using some other method. See Mail Sending, for details. • Format Format of a mail message. • Headers Details of some standard mail header fields. • Aliases Abbreviating and grouping mail addresses. • Commands Special commands for editing mail being composed. • Signature Adding a signature to every message. • Amuse Distracting the NSA; adding fortune messages. • Methods Using alternative mail-composition methods. Next: Rmail, Previous: Calendar/Diary, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Gnus, Previous: Sending Mail, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 33 Reading Mail with Rmail Rmail is an Emacs subsystem for reading and disposing of mail that you receive. Rmail stores mail messages in files called Rmail files. Reading the messages in an Rmail file is done in a special major mode, Rmail mode, which redefines most letters to run commands for managing mail. Emacs also comes with a much more sophisticated and flexible subsystem for reading mail, called Gnus. Gnus is a very large package, and is therefore described in its own manual, see The Gnus Newsreader. • Basic Basic concepts of Rmail, and simple use. • Scroll Scrolling through a message. • Motion Moving to another message. • Deletion Deleting and expunging messages. • Inbox How mail gets into the Rmail file. • Files Using multiple Rmail files. • Output Copying messages out to files. • Labels Classifying messages by labeling them. • Attrs Certain standard labels, called attributes. • Reply Sending replies to messages you are viewing. • Summary Summaries show brief info on many messages. • Sort Sorting messages in Rmail. • Display How Rmail displays a message; customization. • Coding How Rmail handles decoding character sets. • Editing Editing message text and headers in Rmail. • Digest Extracting the messages from a digest message. • Rot13 Reading messages encoded in the rot13 code. • Movemail More details of fetching new mail. • Remote Mailboxes Retrieving mail from remote mailboxes. • Other Mailbox Formats Retrieving mail from local mailboxes in various formats. Next: Gnus, Previous: Sending Mail, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Host Security, Previous: Rmail, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 34 Email and Usenet News with Gnus Gnus is an Emacs package primarily designed for reading and posting Usenet news. It can also be used to read and respond to messages from a number of other sources—email, remote directories, digests, and so on. Here we introduce Gnus and describe several basic features. For full details, see Gnus in The Gnus Manual. • Buffers of Gnus The group, summary, and article buffers. • Gnus Startup What you should know about starting Gnus. • Gnus Group Buffer A short description of Gnus group commands. • Gnus Summary Buffer A short description of Gnus summary commands. Next: Network Security, Previous: Gnus, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 35 Host Security Emacs runs inside an operating system such as GNU/Linux, and relies on the operating system to check security constraints such as accesses to files. The default settings for Emacs are designed for typical use; they may require some tailoring in environments where security is more of a concern, or less of a concern, than usual. For example, file-local variables can be risky, and you can set the variable enable-local-variables to :safe or (even more conservatively) to nil; conversely, if your files can all be trusted and the default checking for these variables is irritating, you can set enable-local-variables to :all. See Safe File Variables. See Security Considerations in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for more information about security considerations when using Emacs as part of a larger application. Next: Document View, Previous: Host Security, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 36 Network Security Whenever Emacs establishes any network connection, it passes the established connection to the Network Security Manager (NSM). NSM is responsible for enforcing the network security under your control. Currently, this works by using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) features. The network-security-level variable determines the security level that NSM enforces. If its value is low, no security checks are performed. This is not recommended, and will basically mean that your network connections can’t be trusted. However, the setting can be useful in limited circumstances, as when testing network issues. If this variable is medium (which is the default), a number of checks will be performed. If as result NSM determines that the network connection might not be trustworthy, it will make you aware of that, and will ask you what to do about the network connection. You can decide to register a permanent security exception for an unverified connection, a temporary exception, or refuse the connection entirely. In addition to the basic certificate correctness checks, several TLS algorithm checks are available. Some encryption technologies that were previously thought to be secure have shown themselves to be fragile, so Emacs (by default) warns you about some of these problems. The protocol network checks is controlled via the network-security-protocol-checks variable. It’s an alist where the first element of each association is the name of the check, and the second element is the security level where the check should be used. An element like (rc4 medium) will result in the function nsm-protocol-check--rc4 being called like thus: (nsm-protocol-check--rc4 host port status settings). The function should return non-nil if the connection should proceed and nil otherwise. Below is a list of the checks done on the default medium level. unable to verify a TLS certificate If the connection is a TLS, SSL or STARTTLS connection, NSM will check whether the certificate used to establish the identity of the server we’re connecting to can be verified. While an invalid certificate is often the cause for concern (there could be a Man-in-the-Middle hijacking your network connection and stealing your password), there may be valid reasons for going ahead with the connection anyway. For instance, the server may be using a self-signed certificate, or the certificate may have expired. It’s up to you to determine whether it’s acceptable to continue with the connection. a self-signed certificate has changed If you’ve previously accepted a self-signed certificate, but it has now changed, that could mean that the server has just changed the certificate, but it might also mean that the network connection has been hijacked. previously encrypted connection now unencrypted If the connection is unencrypted, but it was encrypted in previous sessions, this might mean that there is a proxy between you and the server that strips away STARTTLS announcements, leaving the connection unencrypted. This is usually very suspicious. talking to an unencrypted service when sending a password When connecting to an IMAP or POP3 server, these should usually be encrypted, because it’s common to send passwords over these connections. Similarly, if you’re sending email via SMTP that requires a password, you usually want that connection to be encrypted. If the connection isn’t encrypted, NSM will warn you. Diffie-Hellman low prime bits When doing the public key exchange, the number of prime bits should be high enough to ensure that the channel can’t be eavesdropped on by third parties. If this number is too low, Emacs will warn you. (This is the diffie-hellman-prime-bits check in network-security-protocol-checks). RC4 stream cipher The RC4 stream cipher is believed to be of low quality and may allow eavesdropping by third parties. (This is the rc4 check in network-security-protocol-checks). SHA1 in the host certificate or in intermediate certificates It is believed that if an intermediate certificate uses the SHA1 hashing algorithm, then third parties can issue certificates pretending to be that issuing instance. These connections are therefore vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. (These are the signature-sha1 and intermediate-sha1 checks in network-security-protocol-checks). SSL1, SSL2 and SSL3 The protocols older than TLS1.0 are believed to be vulnerable to a variety of attacks, and you may want to avoid using these if what you’re doing requires higher security. (This is the ssl check in network-security-protocol-checks). If network-security-level is high, the following checks will be made, in addition to the above: 3DES cipher The 3DES stream cipher provides at most 112 bits of effective security, which is considered to be towards the low end. (This is the 3des check in network-security-protocol-checks). a validated certificate changes the public key Servers change their keys occasionally, and that is normally nothing to be concerned about. However, if you are worried that your network connections are being hijacked by agencies who have access to pliable Certificate Authorities which issue new certificates for third-party services, you may want to keep track of these changes. Finally, if network-security-level is paranoid, you will also be notified the first time NSM sees any new certificate. This will allow you to inspect all the certificates from all the connections that Emacs makes. The following additional variables can be used to control details of NSM operation: nsm-settings-file This is the file where NSM stores details about connections. It defaults to ~/.emacs.d/network-security.data. nsm-save-host-names By default, host names will not be saved for non-STARTTLS connections. Instead a host/port hash is used to identify connections. This means that one can’t casually read the settings file to see what servers the user has connected to. If this variable is t, NSM will also save host names in the nsm-settings-file. Next: Document View, Previous: Host Security, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Shell, Previous: Network Security, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 37 Document Viewing DocView mode is a major mode for viewing DVI, PostScript (PS), PDF, OpenDocument, and Microsoft Office documents. It provides features such as slicing, zooming, and searching inside documents. It works by converting the document to a set of images using the gs (GhostScript) or mudraw/pdfdraw (MuPDF) commands and other external tools ^18, and displaying those images. When you visit a document file that can be displayed with DocView mode, Emacs automatically uses that mode ^19. As an exception, when you visit a PostScript file, Emacs switches to PS mode, a major mode for editing PostScript files as text; however, it also enables DocView minor mode, so you can type C-c C-c to view the document with DocView. In either DocView mode or DocView minor mode, repeating C-c C-c (doc-view-toggle-display) toggles between DocView and the underlying file contents. When you visit a file which would normally be handled by DocView mode but some requirement is not met (e.g., you operate in a terminal frame or Emacs has no PNG support), you are queried if you want to view the document’s contents as plain text. If you confirm, the buffer is put in text mode and DocView minor mode is activated. Thus, by typing C-c C-c you switch to the fallback mode. With another C-c C-c you return to DocView mode. The plain text contents can also be displayed from within DocView mode by typing C-c C-t (doc-view-open-text). You can explicitly enable DocView mode with the command M-x doc-view-mode. You can toggle DocView minor mode with M-x doc-view-minor-mode. When DocView mode starts, it displays a welcome screen and begins formatting the file, page by page. It displays the first page once that has been formatted. To kill the DocView buffer, type k (doc-view-kill-proc-and-buffer). To bury it, type q (quit-window). • Navigation Navigating DocView buffers. • Searching Searching inside documents. • Slicing Specifying which part of a page is displayed. • Conversion Influencing and triggering conversion. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (18) For PostScript files, GhostScript is a hard requirement. For DVI files, dvipdf or dvipdfm is needed. For OpenDocument and Microsoft Office documents, the unoconv tool is needed. (19) The needed external tools for the document type must be available, and Emacs must be running in a graphical frame and have PNG image support. If these requirements is not fulfilled, Emacs falls back to another major mode. Next: Shell, Previous: Network Security, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Emacs Server, Previous: Document View, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 38 Running Shell Commands from Emacs Emacs has commands for passing single command lines to shell subprocesses, and for running a shell interactively with input and output to an Emacs buffer, and for running a shell in a terminal emulator window. M-! cmd RET Run the shell command cmd and display the output (shell-command). M-| cmd RET Run the shell command cmd with region contents as input; optionally replace the region with the output (shell-command-on-region). M-& cmd RET Run the shell command cmd asynchronously, and display the output (async-shell-command). M-x shell Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively. M-x term Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively. Full terminal emulation is available. Whenever you specify a relative file name for an executable program (either in the cmd argument to one of the above commands, or in other contexts), Emacs searches for the program in the directories specified by the variable exec-path. The value of this variable must be a list of directories; the default value is initialized from the environment variable PATH when Emacs is started (see General Variables). M-x eshell invokes a shell implemented entirely in Emacs. It is documented in its own manual. See Eshell in Eshell: The Emacs Shell. • Single Shell How to run one shell command and return. • Interactive Shell Permanent shell taking input via Emacs. • Shell Mode Special Emacs commands used with permanent shell. • Shell Prompts Two ways to recognize shell prompts. • History Repeating previous commands in a shell buffer. • Directory Tracking Keeping track when the subshell changes directory. • Options Options for customizing Shell mode. • Terminal emulator An Emacs window as a terminal emulator. • Term Mode Special Emacs commands used in Term mode. • Remote Host Connecting to another computer. • Serial Terminal Connecting to a serial port. Next: Emacs Server, Previous: Document View, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Printing, Previous: Shell, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 39 Using Emacs as a Server Various programs can invoke your choice of editor to edit a particular piece of text. For instance, version control programs invoke an editor to enter version control logs (see Version Control), and the Unix mail utility invokes an editor to enter a message to send. By convention, your choice of editor is specified by the environment variable EDITOR. If you set EDITOR to ‘emacs’, Emacs would be invoked, but in an inconvenient way—by starting a new Emacs process. This is inconvenient because the new Emacs process doesn’t share buffers, a command history, or other kinds of information with any existing Emacs process. You can solve this problem by setting up Emacs as an edit server, so that it “listens” for external edit requests and acts accordingly. There are various ways to start an Emacs server: * Run the command server-start in an existing Emacs process: either type M-x server-start, or put the expression (server-start) in your init file (see Init File). The existing Emacs process is the server; when you exit Emacs, the server dies with the Emacs process. * Run Emacs as a daemon, using one of the ‘--daemon’ command-line options. See Initial Options. When Emacs is started this way, it calls server-start after initialization and does not open an initial frame. It then waits for edit requests from clients. * If your operating system uses systemd to manage startup, you can automatically start Emacs in daemon mode when you login using the supplied systemd unit file. To activate this: systemctl --user enable emacs (If your Emacs was installed into a non-standard location, you may need to copy the emacs.service file to a standard directory such as ~/.config/systemd/user/.) * An external process can invoke the Emacs server when a connection event occurs upon a specified socket and pass the socket to the new Emacs server process. An instance of this is the socket functionality of systemd: the systemd service creates a socket and listens for connections on it; when emacsclient connects to it for the first time, systemd can launch the Emacs server and hand over the socket to it for servicing emacsclient connections. A setup to use this functionality could be: ~/.config/systemd/user/emacs.socket: [Socket] ListenStream=/path/to/.emacs.socket [Install] WantedBy=sockets.target (The emacs.service file described above must also be installed.) The ListenStream path will be the path that Emacs listens for connections from emacsclient; this is a file of your choice. Once an Emacs server is started, you can use a shell command called emacsclient to connect to the Emacs process and tell it to visit a file. You can then set the EDITOR environment variable to ‘emacsclient’, so that external programs will use the existing Emacs process for editing.^21 You can run multiple Emacs servers on the same machine by giving each one a unique server name, using the variable server-name. For example, M-x set-variable RET server-name RET "foo" RET sets the server name to ‘foo’. The emacsclient program can specify a server by name, using the ‘-s’ or the ‘-f’ option (see emacsclient Options), depending on whether or not the server uses a TCP socket (see TCP Emacs server). If you want to run multiple Emacs daemons (see Initial Options), you can give each daemon its own server name like this: emacs --daemon=foo If you have defined a server by a unique server name, it is possible to connect to the server from another Emacs instance and evaluate Lisp expressions on the server, using the server-eval-at function. For instance, (server-eval-at "foo" '(+ 1 2)) evaluates the expression (+ 1 2) on the ‘foo’ server, and returns 3. (If there is no server with that name, an error is signaled.) Currently, this feature is mainly useful for developers. • TCP Emacs server Listening to a TCP socket. • Invoking emacsclient Connecting to the Emacs server. • emacsclient Options Emacs client startup options. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (21) Some programs use a different environment variable; for example, to make TeX use ‘emacsclient’, set the TEXEDIT environment variable to ‘emacsclient +%d %s’. Next: Printing, Previous: Shell, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Sorting, Previous: Emacs Server, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 40 Printing Hard Copies Emacs provides commands for printing hardcopies of either an entire buffer or part of one. You can invoke the printing commands directly, as detailed below, or using the ‘File’ menu on the menu bar. Aside from the commands described in this section, you can also print hardcopies from Dired (see Operating on Files) and the diary (see Displaying the Diary). You can also “print” an Emacs buffer to HTML with the command M-x htmlfontify-buffer, which converts the current buffer to a HTML file, replacing Emacs faces with CSS-based markup. Furthermore, Org mode allows you to print Org files to a variety of formats, such as PDF (see Org Mode). M-x print-buffer Print hardcopy of current buffer with page headings containing the file name and page number. M-x lpr-buffer Print hardcopy of current buffer without page headings. M-x print-region Like print-buffer but print only the current region. M-x lpr-region Like lpr-buffer but print only the current region. On most operating systems, the above hardcopy commands submit files for printing by calling the lpr program. To change the printer program, customize the variable lpr-command. To specify extra switches to give the printer program, customize the list variable lpr-switches. Its value should be a list of option strings, each of which should start with ‘-’ (e.g., the option string "-w80" specifies a line width of 80 columns). The default is the empty list, nil. To specify the printer to use, set the variable printer-name. The default, nil, specifies the default printer. If you set it to a printer name (a string), that name is passed to lpr with the ‘-P’ switch; if you are not using lpr, you should specify the switch with lpr-printer-switch. The variable lpr-headers-switches similarly specifies the extra switches to use to make page headers. The variable lpr-add-switches controls whether to supply ‘-T’ and ‘-J’ options (suitable for lpr) to the printer program: nil means don’t add them (this should be the value if your printer program is not compatible with lpr). • PostScript Printing buffers or regions as PostScript. • PostScript Variables Customizing the PostScript printing commands. • Printing Package An optional advanced printing interface. Next: Sorting, Previous: Emacs Server, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Picture Mode, Previous: Printing, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 41 Sorting Text Emacs provides several commands for sorting text in the buffer. All operate on the contents of the region. They divide the text of the region into many sort records, identify a sort key for each record, and then reorder the records into the order determined by the sort keys. The records are ordered so that their keys are in alphabetical order, or, for numeric sorting, in numeric order. In alphabetic sorting, all upper-case letters ‘A’ through ‘Z’ come before lower-case ‘a’, in accordance with the ASCII character sequence (but sort-fold-case, described below, can change that). The various sort commands differ in how they divide the text into sort records and in which part of each record is used as the sort key. Most of the commands make each line a separate sort record, but some commands use paragraphs or pages as sort records. Most of the sort commands use each entire sort record as its own sort key, but some use only a portion of the record as the sort key. M-x sort-lines Divide the region into lines, and sort by comparing the entire text of a line. A numeric argument means sort into descending order. M-x sort-paragraphs Divide the region into paragraphs, and sort by comparing the entire text of a paragraph (except for leading blank lines). A numeric argument means sort into descending order. M-x sort-pages Divide the region into pages, and sort by comparing the entire text of a page (except for leading blank lines). A numeric argument means sort into descending order. M-x sort-fields Divide the region into lines, and sort by comparing the contents of one field in each line. Fields are defined as separated by whitespace, so the first run of consecutive non-whitespace characters in a line constitutes field 1, the second such run constitutes field 2, etc. Specify which field to sort by with a numeric argument: 1 to sort by field 1, etc.; the default is 1. A negative argument means count fields from the right instead of from the left; thus, minus 1 means sort by the last field. If several lines have identical contents in the field being sorted, they keep the same relative order that they had in the original buffer. M-x sort-numeric-fields Like M-x sort-fields except the specified field is converted to an integer for each line, and the numbers are compared. ‘10’ comes before ‘2’ when considered as text, but after it when considered as a number. By default, numbers are interpreted according to sort-numeric-base, but numbers beginning with ‘0x’ or ‘0’ are interpreted as hexadecimal and octal, respectively. M-x sort-columns Like M-x sort-fields except that the text within each line used for comparison comes from a fixed range of columns. With a prefix argument, sort in reverse order. See below for more details on this command. M-x reverse-region Reverse the order of the lines in the region. This is useful for sorting into descending order by fields, since those sort commands do not have a feature for doing that. For example, if the buffer contains this: On systems where clash detection (locking of files being edited) is implemented, Emacs also checks the first time you modify a buffer whether the file has changed on disk since it was last visited or saved. If it has, you are asked to confirm that you want to change the buffer. applying M-x sort-lines to the entire buffer produces this: On systems where clash detection (locking of files being edited) is implemented, Emacs also checks the first time you modify a buffer saved. If it has, you are asked to confirm that you want to change the buffer. whether the file has changed on disk since it was last visited or where the upper-case ‘O’ sorts before all lower-case letters. If you use C-u 2 M-x sort-fields instead, you get this: implemented, Emacs also checks the first time you modify a buffer saved. If it has, you are asked to confirm that you want to change the buffer. On systems where clash detection (locking of files being edited) is whether the file has changed on disk since it was last visited or where the sort keys were ‘Emacs’, ‘If’, ‘buffer’, ‘systems’ and ‘the’. M-x sort-columns requires more explanation. You specify the columns by putting point at one of the columns and the mark at the other column. Because this means you cannot put point or the mark at the beginning of the first line of the text you want to sort, this command uses an unusual definition of “region”: all of the line point is in is considered part of the region, and so is all of the line the mark is in, as well as all the lines in between. For example, to sort a table by information found in columns 10 to 15, you could put the mark on column 10 in the first line of the table, and point on column 15 in the last line of the table, and then run sort-columns. Equivalently, you could run it with the mark on column 15 in the first line and point on column 10 in the last line. This can be thought of as sorting the rectangle specified by point and the mark, except that the text on each line to the left or right of the rectangle moves along with the text inside the rectangle. See Rectangles. Many of the sort commands ignore case differences when comparing, if sort-fold-case is non-nil. Next: Picture Mode, Previous: Printing, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Editing Binary Files, Previous: Sorting, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 42 Editing Pictures To edit a picture made out of text characters (for example, a picture of the division of a register into fields, as a comment in a program), use the command M-x picture-mode to enter Picture mode. In Picture mode, editing is based on the quarter-plane model of text, according to which the text characters lie studded on an area that stretches infinitely far to the right and downward. The concept of the end of a line does not exist in this model; the most you can say is where the last nonblank character on the line is found. Of course, Emacs really always considers text as a sequence of characters, and lines really do have ends. But Picture mode replaces the most frequently-used commands with variants that simulate the quarter-plane model of text. They do this by inserting spaces or by converting tabs to spaces. Most of the basic editing commands of Emacs are redefined by Picture mode to do essentially the same thing but in a quarter-plane way. In addition, Picture mode defines various keys starting with the C-c prefix to run special picture editing commands. One of these keys, C-c C-c, is particularly important. Often a picture is part of a larger file that is usually edited in some other major mode. Picture mode records the name of the previous major mode so you can use the C-c C-c command (picture-mode-exit) later to go back to that mode. C-c C-c also deletes spaces from the ends of lines, unless given a numeric argument. The special commands of Picture mode all work in other modes (provided the picture library is loaded), but are not bound to keys except in Picture mode. The descriptions below talk of moving “one column” and so on, but all the picture mode commands handle numeric arguments as their normal equivalents do. Turning on Picture mode runs the hook picture-mode-hook. Additional extensions to Picture mode can be found in artist.el. • Basic Picture Basic concepts and simple commands of Picture Mode. • Insert in Picture Controlling direction of cursor motion after self-inserting characters. • Tabs in Picture Various features for tab stops and indentation. • Rectangles in Picture Clearing and superimposing rectangles. Next: Editing Binary Files, Previous: Sorting, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Saving Emacs Sessions, Previous: Picture Mode, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 43 Editing Binary Files There is a special major mode for editing binary files: Hexl mode. To use it, use M-x hexl-find-file instead of C-x C-f to visit the file. This command converts the file’s contents to hexadecimal and lets you edit the translation. When you save the file, it is converted automatically back to binary. You can also use M-x hexl-mode to translate an existing buffer into hex. This is useful if you visit a file normally and then discover it is a binary file. Inserting text always overwrites in Hexl mode. This is to reduce the risk of accidentally spoiling the alignment of data in the file. Ordinary text characters insert themselves (i.e., overwrite with themselves). There are commands for insertion of special characters by their code. Most cursor motion keys, as well as C-x C-s, are bound in Hexl mode to commands that produce the same effect. Here is a list of other important commands special to Hexl mode: C-M-d Insert a byte with a code typed in decimal. C-M-o Insert a byte with a code typed in octal. C-M-x Insert a byte with a code typed in hex. C-M-a Move to the beginning of a 512-byte page. C-M-e Move to the end of a 512-byte page. C-x [ Move to the beginning of a 1k-byte page. C-x ] Move to the end of a 1k-byte page. M-g Move to an address specified in hex. M-j Move to an address specified in decimal. C-c C-c Leave Hexl mode, going back to the major mode this buffer had before you invoked hexl-mode. Other Hexl commands let you insert strings (sequences) of binary bytes, move by shorts or ints, etc.; type C-h a hexl-RET for details. Next: Saving Emacs Sessions, Previous: Picture Mode, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Recursive Edit, Previous: Editing Binary Files, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 44 Saving Emacs Sessions Use the desktop library to save the state of Emacs from one session to another. Once you save the Emacs desktop—the buffers, their file names, major modes, buffer positions, and so on—then subsequent Emacs sessions reload the saved desktop. By default, the desktop also tries to save the frame and window configuration. To disable this, set desktop-restore-frames to nil. (See that variable’s documentation for some related options that you can customize to fine-tune this behavior.) Information about buffers visiting remote files is not saved by default. Customize the variable desktop-files-not-to-save to change this. When the desktop restores the frame and window configuration, it uses the recorded values of frame parameters, disregarding any settings for those parameters you have in your init file (see Init File). This means that frame parameters such as fonts and faces for the restored frames will come from the desktop file, where they were saved when you exited your previous Emacs session; any settings for those parameters in your init file will be ignored. To disable this, customize the value of frameset-filter-alist to filter out the frame parameters you don’t want to be restored. You can save the desktop manually with the command M-x desktop-save. You can also enable automatic saving of the desktop when you exit Emacs, and automatic restoration of the last saved desktop when Emacs starts: use the Customization buffer (see Easy Customization) to set desktop-save-mode to t for future sessions, or add this line in your init file (see Init File): (desktop-save-mode 1) If you turn on desktop-save-mode in your init file, then when Emacs starts, it looks for a saved desktop in the current directory. (More precisely, it looks in the directories specified by desktop-path, and uses the first desktop it finds.) Thus, you can have separate saved desktops in different directories, and the starting directory determines which one Emacs reloads. You can save the current desktop and reload one saved in another directory by typing M-x desktop-change-dir. Typing M-x desktop-revert reverts to the desktop previously reloaded. Specify the option ‘--no-desktop’ on the command line when you don’t want it to reload any saved desktop. This turns off desktop-save-mode for the current session. Starting Emacs with the ‘--no-init-file’ option also disables desktop reloading, since it bypasses the init file, where desktop-save-mode is usually turned on. By default, all the buffers in the desktop are restored in one go. However, this may be slow if there are a lot of buffers in the desktop. You can specify the maximum number of buffers to restore immediately with the variable desktop-restore-eager; the remaining buffers are restored lazily, when Emacs is idle. Type M-x desktop-clear to empty the Emacs desktop. This kills all buffers except for internal ones, and clears the global variables listed in desktop-globals-to-clear. If you want this to preserve certain buffers, customize the variable desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp, whose value is a regular expression matching the names of buffers not to kill. If you want to save minibuffer history from one session to another, use the savehist library. While Emacs runs with desktop-save-mode turned on, it by default auto-saves the desktop whenever any of it changes. The variable desktop-auto-save-timeout determines how frequently Emacs checks for modifications to your desktop. The file in which Emacs saves the desktop is locked while the session runs, to avoid inadvertently overwriting it from another Emacs session. That lock is normally removed when Emacs exits, but if Emacs or your system crashes, the lock stays, and when you restart Emacs, it will by default ask you whether to use the locked desktop file. You can avoid the question by customizing the variable desktop-load-locked-desktop to either nil, which means never load the desktop in this case, or t, which means load the desktop without asking. When Emacs starts in daemon mode, it cannot ask you any questions, so if it finds the desktop file locked, it will not load it, unless desktop-load-locked-desktop is t. Note that restoring the desktop in daemon mode is somewhat problematic for other reasons: e.g., the daemon cannot use GUI features, so parameters such as frame position, size, and decorations cannot be restored. For that reason, you may wish to delay restoring the desktop in daemon mode until the first client connects, by calling desktop-read in a hook function that you add to server-after-make-frame-hook (see Creating Frames in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). Next: Recursive Edit, Previous: Editing Binary Files, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Hyperlinking, Previous: Saving Emacs Sessions, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 45 Recursive Editing Levels A recursive edit is a situation in which you are using Emacs commands to perform arbitrary editing while in the middle of another Emacs command. For example, when you type C-r inside of a query-replace, you enter a recursive edit in which you can change the current buffer. On exiting from the recursive edit, you go back to the query-replace. See Query Replace. Exiting the recursive edit means returning to the unfinished command, which continues execution. The command to exit is C-M-c (exit-recursive-edit). You can also abort the recursive edit. This is like exiting, but also quits the unfinished command immediately. Use the command C-] (abort-recursive-edit) to do this. See Quitting. The mode line shows you when you are in a recursive edit by displaying square brackets around the parentheses that always surround the major and minor mode names. Every window’s mode line shows this in the same way, since being in a recursive edit is true of Emacs as a whole rather than any particular window or buffer. It is possible to be in recursive edits within recursive edits. For example, after typing C-r in a query-replace, you may type a command that enters the debugger. This begins a recursive editing level for the debugger, within the recursive editing level for C-r. Mode lines display a pair of square brackets for each recursive editing level currently in progress. Exiting the inner recursive edit (such as with the debugger c command) resumes the command running in the next level up. When that command finishes, you can then use C-M-c to exit another recursive editing level, and so on. Exiting applies to the innermost level only. Aborting also gets out of only one level of recursive edit; it returns immediately to the command level of the previous recursive edit. If you wish, you can then abort the next recursive editing level. Alternatively, the command M-x top-level aborts all levels of recursive edits, returning immediately to the top-level command reader. It also exits the minibuffer, if it is active. The text being edited inside the recursive edit need not be the same text that you were editing at top level. It depends on what the recursive edit is for. If the command that invokes the recursive edit selects a different buffer first, that is the buffer you will edit recursively. In any case, you can switch buffers within the recursive edit in the normal manner (as long as the buffer-switching keys have not been rebound). You could probably do all the rest of your editing inside the recursive edit, visiting files and all. But this could have surprising effects (such as stack overflow) from time to time. So remember to exit or abort the recursive edit when you no longer need it. In general, we try to minimize the use of recursive editing levels in GNU Emacs. This is because they constrain you to go back in a particular order—from the innermost level toward the top level. When possible, we present different activities in separate buffers so that you can switch between them as you please. Some commands switch to a new major mode which provides a command to switch back. These approaches give you more flexibility to go back to unfinished tasks in the order you choose. Next: Hyperlinking, Previous: Saving Emacs Sessions, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Amusements, Previous: Recursive Edit, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 46 Hyperlinking and Web Navigation Features The following subsections describe convenience features for handling URLs and other types of links occurring in Emacs buffer text. • EWW A web browser in Emacs. • Embedded WebKit Widgets Embedding browser widgets in Emacs buffers. • Browse-URL Following URLs. • Goto Address mode Activating URLs. • FFAP Finding files etc. at point. Next: Packages, Previous: Hyperlinking, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 47 Games and Other Amusements The animate package makes text dance (e.g., M-x animate-birthday-present). M-x blackbox, M-x mpuz and M-x 5x5 are puzzles. blackbox challenges you to determine the location of objects inside a box by tomography. mpuz displays a multiplication puzzle with letters standing for digits in a code that you must guess—to guess a value, type a letter and then the digit you think it stands for. The aim of 5x5 is to fill in all the squares. M-x bubbles is a game in which the object is to remove as many bubbles as you can in the smallest number of moves. M-x decipher helps you to cryptanalyze a buffer which is encrypted in a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher. M-x dissociated-press scrambles the text in the current Emacs buffer, word by word or character by character, writing its output to a buffer named *Dissociation*. A positive argument tells it to operate character by character, and specifies the number of overlap characters. A negative argument tells it to operate word by word, and specifies the number of overlap words. Dissociated Press produces results fairly like those of a Markov chain, but is however, an independent, ignoriginal invention; it techniquitously copies several consecutive characters from the sample text between random jumps, unlike a Markov chain which would jump randomly after each word or character. Keep dissociwords out of your documentation, if you want it to be well userenced and properbose. M-x dunnet runs a text-based adventure game. If you want a little more personal involvement, try M-x gomoku, which plays the game Go Moku with you. If you are a little bit bored, you can try M-x hanoi. If you are considerably bored, give it a numeric argument. If you are very, very bored, try an argument of 9. Sit back and watch. M-x life runs Conway’s Game of Life cellular automaton. M-x morse-region converts the text in the region to Morse code; M-x unmorse-region converts it back. M-x nato-region converts the text in the region to NATO phonetic alphabet; M-x denato-region converts it back. M-x pong, M-x snake and M-x tetris are implementations of the well-known Pong, Snake and Tetris games. M-x solitaire plays a game of solitaire in which you jump pegs across other pegs. The command M-x zone plays games with the display when Emacs is idle. “Real Programmers” deploy M-x butterfly, which uses butterflies to flip a bit on the drive platter, see https://xkcd.com/378. Finally, if you find yourself frustrated, try describing your problems to the famous psychotherapist Eliza. Just do M-x doctor. End each input by typing RET twice. Next: Packages, Previous: Hyperlinking, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Customization, Previous: Amusements, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 48 Emacs Lisp Packages Emacs is extended by implementing additional features in packages, which are Emacs Lisp libraries. These could be written by you or provided by someone else. If you want to install such a package so it is available in your future Emacs session, you need to compile it and put it in a directory where Emacs looks for Lisp libraries. See Lisp Libraries, for more details about this manual installation method. Many packages provide installation and usage instructions in the large commentary near the beginning of the Lisp file; you can use those instructions for installing and fine-tuning your use of the package. Packages can also be provided by package archives, which are large collections of Emacs Lisp packages. Each package is a separate Emacs Lisp program, sometimes including other components such as an Info manual. Emacs includes a facility that lets you easily download and install packages from such archives. The rest of this chapter describes this facility. To list the packages available for installation from package archives, type M-x list-packages RET. It brings up a buffer named *Packages* with a list of all packages. You can install or uninstall packages via this buffer. See Package Menu. The command C-h P (describe-package) prompts for the name of a package, and displays a help buffer describing the attributes of the package and the features that it implements. By default, Emacs downloads packages from a package archive maintained by the Emacs developers and hosted by the GNU project. Optionally, you can also download packages from archives maintained by third parties. See Package Installation. For information about turning an Emacs Lisp program into an installable package, See Packaging in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. • Package Menu Buffer for viewing and managing packages. • Package Statuses Which statuses a package can have. • Package Installation Options for package installation. • Package Files Where packages are installed. Next: Customization, Previous: Amusements, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Quitting, Previous: Packages, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 49 Customization This chapter describes some simple methods to customize the behavior of Emacs. Apart from the methods described here, see X Resources for information about using X resources to customize Emacs, and see Keyboard Macros for information about recording and replaying keyboard macros. Making more far-reaching and open-ended changes involves writing Emacs Lisp code; see Emacs Lisp in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. • Easy Customization Convenient way to browse and change settings. • Variables Many Emacs commands examine Emacs variables to decide what to do; by setting variables, you can control their functioning. • Key Bindings The keymaps say what command each key runs. By changing them, you can redefine keys. • Init File How to write common customizations in the initialization file. • Authentication Keeping persistent authentication information. Next: Lossage, Previous: Customization, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 50 Quitting and Aborting C-g C-Break (MS-DOS only) Quit: cancel running or partially typed command. C-] Abort innermost recursive editing level and cancel the command which invoked it (abort-recursive-edit). ESC ESC ESC Either quit or abort, whichever makes sense (keyboard-escape-quit). M-x top-level Abort all recursive editing levels that are currently executing. C-/ C-x u C-_ Cancel a previously made change in the buffer contents (undo). There are two ways of canceling a command before it has finished: quitting with C-g, and aborting with C-] or M-x top-level. Quitting cancels a partially typed command, or one which is still running. Aborting exits a recursive editing level and cancels the command that invoked the recursive edit (see Recursive Edit). Quitting with C-g is the way to get rid of a partially typed command, or a numeric argument that you don’t want. Furthermore, if you are in the middle of a command that is running, C-g stops the command in a relatively safe way. For example, if you quit out of a kill command that is taking a long time, either your text will all still be in the buffer, or it will all be in the kill ring, or maybe both. If the region is active, C-g deactivates the mark, unless Transient Mark mode is off (see Disabled Transient Mark). If you are in the middle of an incremental search, C-g behaves specially; it may take two successive C-g characters to get out of a search. See Incremental Search, for details. On MS-DOS, the character C-Break serves as a quit character like C-g. The reason is that it is not feasible, on MS-DOS, to recognize C-g while a command is running, between interactions with the user. By contrast, it is feasible to recognize C-Break at all times. See MS-DOS Keyboard. C-g works by setting the variable quit-flag to t the instant C-g is typed; Emacs Lisp checks this variable frequently, and quits if it is non-nil. C-g is only actually executed as a command if you type it while Emacs is waiting for input. In that case, the command it runs is keyboard-quit. On a text terminal, if you quit with C-g a second time before the first C-g is recognized, you activate the emergency-escape feature and return to the shell. See Emergency Escape. There are some situations where you cannot quit. When Emacs is waiting for the operating system to do something, quitting is impossible unless special pains are taken for the particular system call within Emacs where the waiting occurs. We have done this for the system calls that users are likely to want to quit from, but it’s possible you will encounter a case not handled. In one very common case—waiting for file input or output using NFS—Emacs itself knows how to quit, but many NFS implementations simply do not allow user programs to stop waiting for NFS when the NFS server is hung. Aborting with C-] (abort-recursive-edit) is used to get out of a recursive editing level and cancel the command which invoked it. Quitting with C-g does not do this, and could not do this, because it is used to cancel a partially typed command within the recursive editing level. Both operations are useful. For example, if you are in a recursive edit and type C-u 8 to enter a numeric argument, you can cancel that argument with C-g and remain in the recursive edit. The sequence ESC ESC ESC (keyboard-escape-quit) can either quit or abort. (We defined it this way because ESC means “get out” in many PC programs.) It can cancel a prefix argument, clear a selected region, or get out of a Query Replace, like C-g. It can get out of the minibuffer or a recursive edit, like C-]. It can also get out of splitting the frame into multiple windows, as with C-x 1. One thing it cannot do, however, is stop a command that is running. That’s because it executes as an ordinary command, and Emacs doesn’t notice it until it is ready for the next command. The command M-x top-level is equivalent to enough C-] commands to get you out of all the levels of recursive edits that you are in; it also exits the minibuffer if it is active. C-] gets you out one level at a time, but M-x top-level goes out all levels at once. Both C-] and M-x top-level are like all other commands, and unlike C-g, in that they take effect only when Emacs is ready for a command. C-] is an ordinary key and has its meaning only because of its binding in the keymap. See Recursive Edit. C-/ (undo) is not strictly speaking a way of canceling a command, but you can think of it as canceling a command that already finished executing. See Undo, for more information about the undo facility. Next: Lossage, Previous: Customization, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Bugs, Previous: Quitting, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 51 Dealing with Emacs Trouble This section describes how to recognize and deal with situations in which Emacs does not work as you expect, such as keyboard code mixups, garbled displays, running out of memory, and crashes and hangs. See Bugs, for what to do when you think you have found a bug in Emacs. • DEL Does Not Delete What to do if DEL doesn’t delete. • Stuck Recursive ’[...]’ in mode line around the parentheses. • Screen Garbled Garbage on the screen. • Text Garbled Garbage in the text. • Memory Full How to cope when you run out of memory. • Crashing What Emacs does when it crashes. • After a Crash Recovering editing in an Emacs session that crashed. • Emergency Escape What to do if Emacs stops responding. • Long Lines Mitigating slowness due to extremely long lines. Next: Contributing, Previous: Lossage, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 52 Reporting Bugs If you think you have found a bug in Emacs, please report it. We cannot promise to fix it, or always to agree that it is a bug, but we certainly want to hear about it. The same applies for new features you would like to see added. The following sections will help you to construct an effective bug report. • Known Problems How to read about known problems and bugs. • Criteria Have you really found a bug? • Understanding Bug Reporting How to report a bug effectively. • Checklist Steps to follow for a good bug report. • Sending Patches How to send a patch for GNU Emacs. Next: Service, Previous: Bugs, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 53 Contributing to Emacs Development Emacs is a collaborative project and we encourage contributions from anyone and everyone. There are many ways to contribute to Emacs: * find and report bugs; See Bugs. * answer questions on the Emacs user mailing list https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs. * write documentation, either on the wiki, or in the Emacs source repository (see Sending Patches). * check if existing bug reports are fixed in newer versions of Emacs https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/pkgreport.cgi?which=pkg&data=emacs. * fix existing bug reports. * implement a feature listed in the etc/TODO file in the Emacs distribution, and submit a patch. * implement a new feature, and submit a patch. * develop a package that works with Emacs, and publish it on your own or in GNU ELPA (https://elpa.gnu.org/). * port Emacs to a new platform, but that is not common nowadays. If you would like to work on improving Emacs, please contact the maintainers at the emacs-devel mailing list. You can ask for suggested projects or suggest your own ideas. If you have a feature request or a suggestion for how to improve Emacs, the best place to send it is to bug-gnu-emacs . Please explain as clearly as possible what change you would like to see, and why and how you think it would improve Emacs. If you have already written an improvement, please tell us about it. If you have not yet started work, it is useful to contact emacs-devel before you start; it might be possible to suggest ways to make your extension fit in better with the rest of Emacs. When implementing a feature, please follow the Emacs coding standards; See Coding Standards. In addition, non-trivial contributions require a copyright assignment to the FSF; See Copyright Assignment. The development version of Emacs can be downloaded from the repository where it is actively maintained by a group of developers. See the Emacs project page https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/emacs/ for access details. It is important to write your patch based on the current working version. If you start from an older version, your patch may be outdated (so that maintainers will have a hard time applying it), or changes in Emacs may have made your patch unnecessary. After you have downloaded the repository source, you should read the file INSTALL.REPO for build instructions (they differ to some extent from a normal build). If you would like to make more extensive contributions, see the CONTRIBUTE file in the Emacs distribution for information on how to be an Emacs developer. For documentation on Emacs (to understand how to implement your desired change), refer to: * the Emacs Manual https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/emacs.html. * the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/elisp.html. * https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs * https://www.emacswiki.org/ • Coding Standards GNU Emacs coding standards • Copyright Assignment assigning copyright to the FSF Next: Service, Previous: Bugs, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Copying, Previous: Contributing, Up: Top [Contents][Index] 54 How To Get Help with GNU Emacs If you need help installing, using or changing GNU Emacs, there are two ways to find it: * Send a message to the help-gnu-emacs mailing list, or post your request on newsgroup gnu.emacs.help. (This mailing list and newsgroup interconnect, so it does not matter which one you use.) * Look in the service directory for someone who might help you for a fee. Next: GNU Free Documentation License, Previous: Service, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix A GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3, 29 June 2007 Copyright © 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. https://fsf.org/ Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. Preamble The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program—to make sure it remains free software for all its users. We, the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License for most of our software; it applies also to any other work released this way by its authors. You can apply it to your programs, too. When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things. To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others. For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights. Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it. For the developers’ and authors’ protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this free software. For both users’ and authors’ sake, the GPL requires that modified versions be marked as changed, so that their problems will not be attributed erroneously to authors of previous versions. Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of protecting users’ freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users. Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. States should not allow patents to restrict development and use of software on general-purpose computers, but in those that do, we wish to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could make it effectively proprietary. To prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free. The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow. TERMS AND CONDITIONS * Definitions. “This License” refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License. “Copyright” also means copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds of works, such as semiconductor masks. “The Program” refers to any copyrightable work licensed under this License. Each licensee is addressed as “you”. “Licensees” and “recipients” may be individuals or organizations. To “modify” a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the work in a fashion requiring copyright permission, other than the making of an exact copy. The resulting work is called a “modified version” of the earlier work or a work “based on” the earlier work. A “covered work” means either the unmodified Program or a work based on the Program. To “propagate” a work means to do anything with it that, without permission, would make you directly or secondarily liable for infringement under applicable copyright law, except executing it on a computer or modifying a private copy. Propagation includes copying, distribution (with or without modification), making available to the public, and in some countries other activities as well. To “convey” a work means any kind of propagation that enables other parties to make or receive copies. Mere interaction with a user through a computer network, with no transfer of a copy, is not conveying. An interactive user interface displays “Appropriate Legal Notices” to the extent that it includes a convenient and prominently visible feature that (1) displays an appropriate copyright notice, and (2) tells the user that there is no warranty for the work (except to the extent that warranties are provided), that licensees may convey the work under this License, and how to view a copy of this License. If the interface presents a list of user commands or options, such as a menu, a prominent item in the list meets this criterion. * Source Code. 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A “Major Component”, in this context, means a major essential component (kernel, window system, and so on) of the specific operating system (if any) on which the executable work runs, or a compiler used to produce the work, or an object code interpreter used to run it. The “Corresponding Source” for a work in object code form means all the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to control those activities. However, it does not include the work’s System Libraries, or general-purpose tools or generally available free programs which are used unmodified in performing those activities but which are not part of the work. 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This License acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law. You may make, run and propagate covered works that you do not convey, without conditions so long as your license otherwise remains in force. You may convey covered works to others for the sole purpose of having them make modifications exclusively for you, or provide you with facilities for running those works, provided that you comply with the terms of this License in conveying all material for which you do not control copyright. Those thus making or running the covered works for you must do so exclusively on your behalf, under your direction and control, on terms that prohibit them from making any copies of your copyrighted material outside their relationship with you. Conveying under any other circumstances is permitted solely under the conditions stated below. Sublicensing is not allowed; section 10 makes it unnecessary. * Protecting Users’ Legal Rights From Anti-Circumvention Law. No covered work shall be deemed part of an effective technological measure under any applicable law fulfilling obligations under article 11 of the WIPO copyright treaty adopted on 20 December 1996, or similar laws prohibiting or restricting circumvention of such measures. When you convey a covered work, you waive any legal power to forbid circumvention of technological measures to the extent such circumvention is effected by exercising rights under this License with respect to the covered work, and you disclaim any intention to limit operation or modification of the work as a means of enforcing, against the work’s users, your or third parties’ legal rights to forbid circumvention of technological measures. * Conveying Verbatim Copies. You may convey verbatim copies of the Program’s source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program. You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee. * Conveying Modified Source Versions. You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications to produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these conditions: a. The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it, and giving a relevant date. b. The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is released under this License and any conditions added under section 7. This requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to “keep intact all notices”. c. You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7 additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts, regardless of how they are packaged. This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not invalidate such permission if you have separately received it. d. If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your work need not make them do so. A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work, and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an “aggregate” if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation’s users beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other parts of the aggregate. * Conveying Non-Source Forms. You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, in one of these ways: a. Convey the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product (including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by the Corresponding Source fixed on a durable physical medium customarily used for software interchange. b. Convey the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product (including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by a written offer, valid for at least three years and valid for as long as you offer spare parts or customer support for that product model, to give anyone who possesses the object code either (1) a copy of the Corresponding Source for all the software in the product that is covered by this License, on a durable physical medium customarily used for software interchange, for a price no more than your reasonable cost of physically performing this conveying of source, or (2) access to copy the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge. c. 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Regardless of what server hosts the Corresponding Source, you remain obligated to ensure that it is available for as long as needed to satisfy these requirements. e. Convey the object code using peer-to-peer transmission, provided you inform other peers where the object code and Corresponding Source of the work are being offered to the general public at no charge under subsection 6d. A separable portion of the object code, whose source code is excluded from the Corresponding Source as a System Library, need not be included in conveying the object code work. A “User Product” is either (1) a “consumer product”, which means any tangible personal property which is normally used for personal, family, or household purposes, or (2) anything designed or sold for incorporation into a dwelling. In determining whether a product is a consumer product, doubtful cases shall be resolved in favor of coverage. 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If you convey an object code work under this section in, or with, or specifically for use in, a User Product, and the conveying occurs as part of a transaction in which the right of possession and use of the User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a fixed term (regardless of how the transaction is characterized), the Corresponding Source conveyed under this section must be accompanied by the Installation Information. But this requirement does not apply if neither you nor any third party retains the ability to install modified object code on the User Product (for example, the work has been installed in ROM). The requirement to provide Installation Information does not include a requirement to continue to provide support service, warranty, or updates for a work that has been modified or installed by the recipient, or for the User Product in which it has been modified or installed. Access to a network may be denied when the modification itself materially and adversely affects the operation of the network or violates the rules and protocols for communication across the network. Corresponding Source conveyed, and Installation Information provided, in accord with this section must be in a format that is publicly documented (and with an implementation available to the public in source code form), and must require no special password or key for unpacking, reading or copying. * Additional Terms. “Additional permissions” are terms that supplement the terms of this License by making exceptions from one or more of its conditions. Additional permissions that are applicable to the entire Program shall be treated as though they were included in this License, to the extent that they are valid under applicable law. If additional permissions apply only to part of the Program, that part may be used separately under those permissions, but the entire Program remains governed by this License without regard to the additional permissions. When you convey a copy of a covered work, you may at your option remove any additional permissions from that copy, or from any part of it. (Additional permissions may be written to require their own removal in certain cases when you modify the work.) You may place additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work, for which you have or can give appropriate copyright permission. Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders of that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms: a. Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability differently from the terms of sections 15 and 16 of this License; or b. 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If the Program as you received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is governed by this License along with a term that is a further restriction, you may remove that term. If a license document contains a further restriction but permits relicensing or conveying under this License, you may add to a covered work material governed by the terms of that license document, provided that the further restriction does not survive such relicensing or conveying. If you add terms to a covered work in accord with this section, you must place, in the relevant source files, a statement of the additional terms that apply to those files, or a notice indicating where to find the applicable terms. Additional terms, permissive or non-permissive, may be stated in the form of a separately written license, or stated as exceptions; the above requirements apply either way. * Termination. You may not propagate or modify a covered work except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to propagate or modify it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License (including any patent licenses granted under the third paragraph of section 11). However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation. Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice. Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated, you do not qualify to receive new licenses for the same material under section 10. * Acceptance Not Required for Having Copies. You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run a copy of the Program. Ancillary propagation of a covered work occurring solely as a consequence of using peer-to-peer transmission to receive a copy likewise does not require acceptance. However, nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so. * Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients. Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and propagate that work, subject to this License. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License. An “entity transaction” is a transaction transferring control of an organization, or substantially all assets of one, or subdividing an organization, or merging organizations. If propagation of a covered work results from an entity transaction, each party to that transaction who receives a copy of the work also receives whatever licenses to the work the party’s predecessor in interest had or could give under the previous paragraph, plus a right to possession of the Corresponding Source of the work from the predecessor in interest, if the predecessor has it or can get it with reasonable efforts. You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License. For example, you may not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of rights granted under this License, and you may not initiate litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it. * Patents. A “contributor” is a copyright holder who authorizes use under this License of the Program or a work on which the Program is based. The work thus licensed is called the contributor’s “contributor version”. A contributor’s “essential patent claims” are all patent claims owned or controlled by the contributor, whether already acquired or hereafter acquired, that would be infringed by some manner, permitted by this License, of making, using, or selling its contributor version, but do not include claims that would be infringed only as a consequence of further modification of the contributor version. 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If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a covered work, and grant a patent license to some of the parties receiving the covered work authorizing them to use, propagate, modify or convey a specific copy of the covered work, then the patent license you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered work and works based on it. A patent license is “discriminatory” if it does not include within the scope of its coverage, prohibits the exercise of, or is conditioned on the non-exercise of one or more of the rights that are specifically granted under this License. You may not convey a covered work if you are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is in the business of distributing software, under which you make payment to the third party based on the extent of your activity of conveying the work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the parties who would receive the covered work from you, a discriminatory patent license (a) in connection with copies of the covered work conveyed by you (or copies made from those copies), or (b) primarily for and in connection with specific products or compilations that contain the covered work, unless you entered into that arrangement, or that patent license was granted, prior to 28 March 2007. Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may otherwise be available to you under applicable patent law. * No Surrender of Others’ Freedom. If conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot convey a covered work so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not convey it at all. For example, if you agree to terms that obligate you to collect a royalty for further conveying from those to whom you convey the Program, the only way you could satisfy both those terms and this License would be to refrain entirely from conveying the Program. * Use with the GNU Affero General Public License. Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License into a single combined work, and to convey the resulting work. The terms of this License will continue to apply to the part which is the covered work, but the special requirements of the GNU Affero General Public License, section 13, concerning interaction through a network will apply to the combination as such. * Revised Versions of this License. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the GNU General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies that a certain numbered version of the GNU General Public License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of the GNU General Public License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of the GNU General Public License can be used, that proxy’s public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Program. Later license versions may give you additional or different permissions. However, no additional obligations are imposed on any author or copyright holder as a result of your choosing to follow a later version. * Disclaimer of Warranty. THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. * Limitation of Liability. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. * Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16. If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program in return for a fee. END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms. To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively state the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the “copyright” line and a pointer to where the full notice is found. one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does. Copyright (C) year name of author This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/. Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail. If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode: program Copyright (C) year name of author This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type ‘show w’. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type ‘show c’ for details. The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, your program’s commands might be different; for a GUI interface, you would use an “about box”. You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school, if any, to sign a “copyright disclaimer” for the program, if necessary. For more information on this, and how to apply and follow the GNU GPL, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/. The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License. But first, please read https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html. Next: GNU Free Documentation License, Previous: Service, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Emacs Invocation, Previous: Copying, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix B GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.3, 3 November 2008 Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. https://fsf.org/ Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. * PREAMBLE The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others. This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software. We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference. * APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The “Document”, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as “you”. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law. A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language. A “Secondary Section” is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document’s overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them. The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none. The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words. A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”. Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only. The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page” means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work’s title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text. The “publisher” means any person or entity that distributes copies of the Document to the public. A section “Entitled XYZ” means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, “Endorsements”, or “History”.) To “Preserve the Title” of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a section “Entitled XYZ” according to this definition. The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License. * VERBATIM COPYING You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3. 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Next: Emacs Invocation, Previous: Copying, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: X Resources, Previous: GNU Free Documentation License, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix C Command Line Arguments for Emacs Invocation Emacs supports command line arguments to request various actions when invoking Emacs. These are for compatibility with other editors and for sophisticated activities. We don’t recommend using them for ordinary editing (See Emacs Server, for a way to access an existing Emacs job from the command line). Arguments starting with ‘-’ are options, and so is ‘+linenum’. All other arguments specify files to visit. Emacs visits the specified files while it starts up. The last file specified on the command line becomes the current buffer; the other files are also visited in other buffers. As with most programs, the special argument ‘--’ says that all subsequent arguments are file names, not options, even if they start with ‘-’. Emacs command options can specify many things, such as the size and position of the X window Emacs uses, its colors, and so on. A few options support advanced usage, such as running Lisp functions on files in batch mode. The sections of this chapter describe the available options, arranged according to their purpose. There are two ways of writing options: the short forms that start with a single ‘-’, and the long forms that start with ‘--’. For example, ‘-d’ is a short form and ‘--display’ is the corresponding long form. The long forms with ‘--’ are easier to remember, but longer to type. However, you don’t have to spell out the whole option name; any unambiguous abbreviation is enough. When a long option requires an argument, you can use either a space or an equal sign to separate the option name and the argument. Thus, for the option ‘--display’, you can write either ‘--display sugar-bombs:0.0’ or ‘--display=sugar-bombs:0.0’. We recommend an equal sign because it makes the relationship clearer, and the tables below always show an equal sign. Most options specify how to initialize Emacs, or set parameters for the Emacs session. We call them initial options. A few options specify things to do, such as loading libraries or calling Lisp functions. These are called action options. These and file names together are called action arguments. The action arguments are stored as a list of strings in the variable command-line-args. (Actually, when Emacs starts up, command-line-args contains all the arguments passed from the command line; during initialization, the initial arguments are removed from this list when they are processed, leaving only the action arguments.) • Action Arguments Arguments to visit files, load libraries, and call functions. • Initial Options Arguments that take effect while starting Emacs. • Command Example Examples of using command line arguments. • Environment Environment variables that Emacs uses. • Display X Changing the default display and using remote login. • Font X Choosing a font for text, under X. • Colors X Choosing display colors. • Window Size X Start-up window size, under X. • Borders X Internal and outer borders, under X. • Title X Specifying the initial frame’s title. • Icons X Choosing what sort of icon to use, under X. • Misc X Other display options. Next: X Resources, Previous: GNU Free Documentation License, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Antinews, Previous: Emacs Invocation, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix D X Options and Resources You can customize some X-related aspects of Emacs behavior using X resources, as is usual for programs that use X. When Emacs is compiled with GTK+ support, the appearance of various graphical widgets, such as the menu-bar, scroll-bar, and dialog boxes, is determined by GTK+ resources, which we will also describe. When Emacs is built without GTK+ support, the appearance of these widgets is determined by additional X resources. On MS-Windows, you can customize some of the same aspects using the system registry (see MS-Windows Registry). • Resources Using X resources with Emacs (in general). • Table of Resources Table of specific X resources that affect Emacs. • Lucid Resources X resources for Lucid menus. • Motif Resources X resources for Motif and LessTif menus. • GTK resources Resources for GTK+ widgets. Next: Mac OS / GNUstep, Previous: X Resources, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix E Emacs 26 Antinews For those users who live backwards in time, here is information about downgrading to Emacs version 26.3. We hope you will enjoy the greater simplicity that results from the absence of many Emacs 27.2 features. * Emacs no longer uses GMP, the GNU Multiple Precision library, and doesn’t support Lisp integers greater than most-positive-fixnum or smaller than most-negative-fixnum. We now have only one kind of a Lisp integer. This simplifies many Lisp programs that use integers, and makes integer calculations always fast. If you want larger values, use Lisp floats, as Emacs has done since day one. * Emacs no longer supports HarfBuzz as the engine for shaping complex text. As you move back in time, we will gradually shed off all traces of support for complex text shaping, and this is one step in that direction. * We have removed support for building with the Jansson library, and consequently the native support for JSON parsing is gone. The importance of JSON decreases as we go back in time, so for now using the Lisp code for handling it should be good enough; in one of the past Emacs versions, we intend to remove even that, as useless bloat. The library for supporting JSONRPC applications was removed for the same reason. * The “portable dumper” feature is gone. We are once again using the field-proven “unexec” way of dumping Emacs. With that, the hope for being able to re-dump your customized Emacs session is also gone: why would anyone want to record their random customization experiments on disk, and restore them the next time they start Emacs? And true Emacsers don’t restart their Emacs sessions anyway. * We dropped the support for XDG-style configuration directories and the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable. There’s once again only one place where Emacs looks for its init files: the ~/.emacs.d directory, with the ~/.emacs file as fallback. We think this will go a long way towards preventing confusion among users who for some reason have XDG_CONFIG_HOME set, thus risking to have their init files randomly spread between two places. In one of the past Emacs versions, we intend to further simplify this, removing the ~/.emacs.d place and leaving only ~/.emacs; stay tuned. For similar reasons, we’ve removed the “early init” file. You can now again use all the tricks you want to initialize variables like package-user-dir and package-load-list just in time for the packages to load. emacsclient no longer supports XDG-style directory trees, either. * TLS connections are back to their lenient security settings. We decided that too tight security settings are an annoyance for users, and make little sense considering the world-wide tendency to have fewer and fewer network security problems as we move back in time (those issues will be completely gone when networks disappear in some distant past). * The server-after-make-frame-hook hook was deleted, in preparation for removing the entire daemon business in some past Emacs version. You will be glad to learn that setting up the GUI customizations of your sessions is now once again as easy as it ever was, with just the after-make-frame-functions to use. * The flex completion style was removed. We feel that it unnecessarily complicates the Emacs user experience, and therefore will continue to remove other tricky completion styles, until in some past Emacs version we get to a single original style Emacs pioneered decades ago. Long live simplicity; down with complications! * The optional display of the fill-column indicator is no longer supported. With the display sizes becoming smaller and smaller as you move back in time, we feel that the display itself will always show you where to fill or wrap your text, and do this much more easily and reliably than any such display indicator. * We removed the features that made visiting large files easier. Thus, Emacs will no longer suggest visiting a large file literally, nor offer the so-long mode to deal with overly-long lines. We decided that this simplification is worthwhile, given that the general tendency of having very large files is becoming a rarity as we move back in time. * We have removed the feature that displayed echo-area messages without hiding content of the active minibuffer. This should prevent user confusion from having two unrelated pieces of text staring at them, with no clear separation between them. Users with good memories (and Emacs users are all expected to be of that kind) will have no trouble keeping the minibuffer text in their minds, and typing the responses without actually seeing the prompts. * Horizontal scrolling using the mouse or touchpad has been removed. In the past, wide monitors will become less popular, so horizontal scrolling will no longer be needed. Removal of the mouse support for horizontal scrolling is the first step towards its complete removal in prior Emacs versions. * The main-thread variable and list-threads were removed, and thread-join no longer returns the result of the finished thread. We intend to remove the support for Lisp threads in some past Emacs version, so we continue removing the associated complexities and features as we go back in time. * Tab bar and window tab-lines were removed. This should make the Emacs display simpler and less cluttered, and help those users who disable menu bar and tool bar in their GUI sessions. The fashion to provide tabs in every GUI application out there is gaining less and less popularity as we move back in time, and will completely disappear at some past point; removing the tabs from Emacs is the step in that direction. * Displaying line numbers for a buffer is only possibly using add-on features, such as linum-mode, which can only display the numbers in the display margins. Line-number display using these features is also slow, as we firmly believe such a feature is un-Emacsy and should not have been included in Emacs to begin with. Consequently, display-line-numbers-mode was removed. * On our permanent quest for simplifying Emacs, we’ve removed the support for changing the font size by turning the mouse wheel. * Several commands, deemed to be unnecessary complications, have been removed. Examples include make-empty-file, font-lock-refontify, xref-find-definitions-at-mouse, make-frame-on-monitor, and diff-buffers. * To keep up with decreasing computer memory capacity and disk space, many other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 26.3. Next: Mac OS / GNUstep, Previous: X Resources, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Microsoft Windows, Previous: Antinews, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix F Emacs and macOS / GNUstep This section describes the peculiarities of using Emacs built with the GNUstep libraries on GNU/Linux or other operating systems, or on macOS with native window system support. On macOS, Emacs can be built either without window system support, with X11, or with the Cocoa interface; this section only applies to the Cocoa build. This does not support versions before macOS 10.6. GNUstep is free software; macOS is not. Because it is a non-free operating system, macOS denies its users the freedom that every computer user deserves. That is an injustice. For your freedom’s sake, we urge you to switch to a free operating system. We support GNU Emacs on proprietary operating systems because we hope this taste of freedom will inspire users to escape from them. For various historical and technical reasons, Emacs uses the term ‘Nextstep’ internally, instead of “Cocoa” or “macOS”; for instance, most of the commands and variables described in this section begin with ‘ns-’, which is short for ‘Nextstep’. NeXTstep was an application interface released by NeXT Inc. during the 1980s, of which Cocoa is a direct descendant. Apart from Cocoa, there is another NeXTstep-style system: GNUstep, which is free software. As of this writing, Emacs GNUstep support is in alpha status (see GNUstep Support), but we hope to improve it in the future. • Mac / GNUstep Basics Basic Emacs usage under GNUstep or macOS. • Mac / GNUstep Customization Customizations under GNUstep or macOS. • Mac / GNUstep Events How window system events are handled. • GNUstep Support Details on status of GNUstep support. Next: Microsoft Windows, Previous: Antinews, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Manifesto, Previous: Mac OS / GNUstep, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix G Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS This section describes peculiarities of using Emacs on Microsoft Windows. Some of these peculiarities are also relevant to Microsoft’s older MS-DOS operating system. However, Emacs features that are relevant only to MS-DOS are described in a separate section (see MS-DOS). MS-Windows is a non-free operating system; that means it denies its users the freedom that every computer user deserves. That is an injustice. For your freedom’s sake, we urge you to switch to a free operating system. We support GNU Emacs on proprietary operating systems because we hope this taste of freedom will inspire users to escape from them. The behavior of Emacs on MS-Windows is reasonably similar to what is documented in the rest of the manual, including support for long file names, multiple frames, scroll bars, mouse menus, and subprocesses. However, a few special considerations apply, and they are described here. • Windows Startup How to start Emacs on Windows. • Text and Binary Text files use CRLF to terminate lines. • Windows Files File-name conventions on Windows. • ls in Lisp Emulation of ls for Dired. • Windows HOME Where Emacs looks for your .emacs and where it starts up. • Windows Keyboard Windows-specific keyboard features. • Windows Mouse Windows-specific mouse features. • Windows Processes Running subprocesses on Windows. • Windows Printing How to specify the printer on MS-Windows. • Windows Fonts Specifying fonts on MS-Windows. • Windows Misc Miscellaneous Windows features. • MS-DOS Using Emacs on MS-DOS. Next: Manifesto, Previous: Mac OS / GNUstep, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Glossary, Previous: Microsoft Windows, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The GNU Manifesto The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard Stallman at the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for participation and support. For the first few years, it was updated in minor ways to account for developments, but now it seems best to leave it unchanged as most people have seen it. Since that time, we have learned about certain common misunderstandings that different wording could help avoid. Footnotes added in 1993 help clarify these points. For up-to-date information about available GNU software, please see our web site, https://www.gnu.org. For software tasks and other ways to contribute, see https://www.gnu.org/help. What’s GNU? Gnu’s Not Unix! GNU, which stands for Gnu’s Not Unix, is the name for the complete Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it away free to everyone who can use it.^30 Several other volunteers are helping me. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly needed. So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor commands, a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator, a linker, and around 35 utilities. A shell (command interpreter) is nearly completed. A new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled itself and may be released this year. An initial kernel exists but many more features are needed to emulate Unix. When the kernel and compiler are finished, it will be possible to distribute a GNU system suitable for program development. We will use TeX as our text formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We will use the free, portable X window system as well. After this we will add a portable Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other things, plus on-line documentation. We hope to supply, eventually, everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more. GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for communication. GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with virtual memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run on. The extra effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left to someone who wants to use it on them. To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the “G” in the word “GNU” when it is the name of this project. Why I Must Write GNU I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an institution where such things are done for me against my will. So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent me from giving GNU away. Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix would be convenient for many other people to adopt. How GNU Will Be Available GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all versions of GNU remain free. Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and want to help. Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice. They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making money. By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can be hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in sharing. This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if we use software that is not free. For about half the programmers I talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace. How You Can Contribute I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and money. I’m asking individuals for donations of programs and work. One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU will run on them at an early date. The machines should be complete, ready to use systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not in need of sophisticated cooling or power. I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time work for GNU. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not work together. But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this problem is absent. A complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility programs, each of which is documented separately. Most interface specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility. If each contributor can write a compatible replacement for a single Unix utility, and make it work properly in place of the original on a Unix system, then these utilities will work right when put together. Even allowing for Murphy to create a few unexpected problems, assembling these components will be a feasible task. (The kernel will require closer communication and will be worked on by a small, tight group.) If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full or part time. The salary won’t be high by programmers’ standards, but I’m looking for people for whom building community spirit is as important as making money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them the need to make a living in another way. Why All Computer Users Will Benefit Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system software free, just like air.^31 This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix license. It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the state of the art. Complete system sources will be available to everyone. As a result, a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes. Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment by encouraging all students to study and improve the system code. Harvard’s computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be installed on the system if its sources were not on public display, and upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very much inspired by this. Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software and what one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted. Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is, which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police state can force everyone to obey them. Consider a space station where air must be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill. And the TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are outrageous. It’s better to support the air plant with a head tax and chuck the masks. Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free. Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU’s Goals “Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can’t rely on any support.” “You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the support.” If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free without service, a company to provide just service to people who have obtained GNU free ought to be profitable.^32 We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming work and mere handholding. The former is something one cannot rely on from a software vendor. If your problem is not shared by enough people, the vendor will tell you to get lost. If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way is to have all the necessary sources and tools. Then you can hire any available person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any individual. With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of consideration for most businesses. With GNU this will be easy. It is still possible for there to be no available competent person, but this problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangements. GNU does not eliminate all the world’s problems, only some of them. Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need handholding: doing things for them which they could easily do themselves but don’t know how. Such services could be provided by companies that sell just hand-holding and repair service. If it is true that users would rather spend money and get a product with service, they will also be willing to buy the service having got the product free. The service companies will compete in quality and price; users will not be tied to any particular one. Meanwhile, those of us who don’t need the service should be able to use the program without paying for the service. “You cannot reach many people without advertising, and you must charge for the program to support that.” “It’s no use advertising a program people can get free.” There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be used to inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU. But it may be true that one can reach more microcomputer users with advertising. If this is really so, a business which advertises the service of copying and mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful enough to pay for its advertising and more. This way, only the users who benefit from the advertising pay for it. On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and such companies don’t succeed, this will show that advertising was not really necessary to spread GNU. Why is it that free market advocates don’t want to let the free market decide this?^33 “My company needs a proprietary operating system to get a competitive edge.” GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of competition. You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but neither will your competitors be able to get an edge over you. You and they will compete in other areas, while benefiting mutually in this one. If your business is selling an operating system, you will not like GNU, but that’s tough on you. If your business is something else, GNU can save you from being pushed into the expensive business of selling operating systems. I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.^34 “Don’t programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?” If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution. Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society is free to use the results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs. “Shouldn’t a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his creativity?” There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to maximize one’s income, as long as one does not use means that are destructive. But the means customary in the field of software today are based on destruction. Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction. The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become poorer from the mutual destructiveness. This is Kantian ethics; or, the Golden Rule. Since I do not like the consequences that result if everyone hoards information, I am required to consider it wrong for one to do so. Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one’s creativity does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that creativity. “Won’t programmers starve?” I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and making faces. But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives standing on the street making faces, and starving. We do something else. But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner’s implicit assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers cannot possibly be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or nothing. The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as now. Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software. It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would move to other bases of organization which are now used less often. There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business. Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it is now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is not considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they now do. If programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice either. (In practice they would still make considerably more than that.) “Don’t people have a right to control how their creativity is used?” “Control over the use of one’s ideas” really constitutes control over other people’s lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more difficult. People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights^35 carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to intellectual property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of legislation for specific purposes. For example, the patent system was established to encourage inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented products. The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This practice was useful, and is the only way many authors’ works have survived even in part. The copyright system was created expressly for the purpose of encouraging authorship. In the domain for which it was invented—books, which could be copied economically only on a printing press—it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals who read the books. All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole would benefit by granting them. But in any particular situation, we have to ask: are we really better off granting such license? What kind of act are we licensing a person to do? The case of programs today is very different from that of books a hundred years ago. The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is from one neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source code and object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is used rather than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in which a person who enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole both materially and spiritually; in which a person should not do so regardless of whether the law enables him to. “Competition makes things get done better.” The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other strategies—such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into a fist fight, they will all finish late. Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners in a fist fight. Sad to say, the only referee we’ve got does not seem to object to fights; he just regulates them (“For every ten yards you run, you can fire one shot”). He really ought to break them up, and penalize runners for even trying to fight. “Won’t everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?” Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some people, usually the people who are best at it. There is no shortage of professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of making a living that way. But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate to the situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become less. So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced monetary incentive? My experience shows that they will. For more than ten years, many of the world’s best programmers worked at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could have had anywhere else. They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards: fame and appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a reward in itself. Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same interesting work for a lot of money. What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they will come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly if the high-paying ones are banned. “We need the programmers desperately. If they demand that we stop helping our neighbors, we have to obey.” You’re never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand. Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute! “Programmers need to make a living somehow.” In the short run, this is true. However, there are plenty of ways that programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a program. This way is customary now because it brings programmers and businessmen the most money, not because it is the only way to make a living. It is easy to find other ways if you want to find them. Here are a number of examples. A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of operating systems onto the new hardware. The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could also employ programmers. People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware^36, asking for donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services. I have met people who are already working this way successfully. Users with related needs can form users’ groups, and pay dues. A group would contract with programming companies to write programs that the group’s members would like to use. All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the price as a software tax. The government gives this to an agency like the NSF to spend on software development. But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to the project of his own choosing—often, chosen because he hopes to use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay. The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on. The consequences: * The computer-using community supports software development. * This community decides what level of support is needed. * Users who care which projects their share is spent on can choose this for themselves. In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming. We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole society must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this has translated itself into leisure for workers because much nonproductive activity is required to accompany productive activity. The main causes of this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against competition. Free software will greatly reduce these drains in the area of software production. We must do this, in order for technical gains in productivity to translate into less work for us. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (30) The wording here was careless. The intention was that nobody would have to pay for permission to use the GNU system. But the words don’t make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge. That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a profit. Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between “free” in the sense of freedom and “free” in the sense of price. Free software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and change. Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to obtain copies—and if the funds help support improving the software, so much the better. The important thing is that everyone who has a copy has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it. (31) This is another place I failed to distinguish carefully between the two different meanings of “free.” The statement as it stands is not false—you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your friends or over the net. But it does suggest the wrong idea. (32) Several such companies now exist. (33) The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from a distribution service, although it is a charity rather than a company. If no one chooses to obtain copies by ordering from the FSF, it will be unable to do its work. But this does not mean that proprietary restrictions are justified to force every user to pay. If a small fraction of all the users order copies from the FSF, that is sufficient to keep the FSF afloat. So we ask users to choose to support us in this way. Have you done your part? (34) A group of computer companies recently pooled funds to support maintenance of the GNU C Compiler. (35) In the 80s I had not yet realized how confusing it was to speak of “the issue” of “intellectual property.” That term is obviously biased; more subtle is the fact that it lumps together various disparate laws which raise very different issues. Nowadays I urge people to reject the term “intellectual property” entirely, lest it lead others to suppose that those laws form one coherent issue. The way to be clear is to discuss patents, copyrights, and trademarks separately. See https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml for more explanation of how this term spreads confusion and bias. (36) Subsequently we have discovered the need to distinguish between “free software” and “freeware”. The term “freeware” means software you are free to redistribute, but usually you are not free to study and change the source code, so most of it is not free software. See https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html for more explanation. Next: Glossary, Previous: Microsoft Windows, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Acknowledgments, Previous: Manifesto, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Glossary Abbrev An abbrev is a text string that expands into a different text string when present in the buffer. For example, you might define a few letters as an abbrev for a long phrase that you want to insert frequently. See Abbrevs. Aborting Aborting means getting out of a recursive edit (q.v.). The commands C-] and M-x top-level are used for this. See Quitting. Active Region Setting the mark (q.v.) at a position in the text also activates it. When the mark is active, we call the region an active region. See Mark. Alt Alt is the name of a modifier bit that a keyboard input character may have. To make a character Alt, type it while holding down the Alt key. Such characters are given names that start with Alt- (usually written A- for short). (Note that many terminals have a key labeled Alt that is really a Meta key.) See Alt. Argument See Glossary---Numeric Argument. ASCII character An ASCII character is either an ASCII control character or an ASCII printing character. See User Input. ASCII control character An ASCII control character is the Control version of an upper-case letter, or the Control version of one of the characters ‘@[\]^_?’. ASCII printing character ASCII letters, digits, space, and the following punctuation characters: ‘!@#$%^&*()_-+=|\~`{}[]:;"'<>,.?/’. Auto Fill Mode Auto Fill mode is a minor mode (q.v.) in which text that you insert is automatically broken into lines of a given maximum width. See Filling. Auto Saving Auto saving is the practice of periodically saving the contents of an Emacs buffer in a specially-named file, so that the information will be preserved if the buffer is lost due to a system error or user error. See Auto Save. Autoloading Emacs can automatically load Lisp libraries when a Lisp program requests a function from those libraries. This is called “autoloading”. See Lisp Libraries. Backtrace A backtrace is a trace of a series of function calls showing how a program arrived at a certain point. It is used mainly for finding and correcting bugs (q.v.). Emacs can display a backtrace when it signals an error or when you type C-g (see Glossary---Quitting). See Checklist. Backup File A backup file records the contents that a file had before the current editing session. Emacs makes backup files automatically to help you track down or cancel changes you later regret making. See Backup. Balancing Parentheses Emacs can balance parentheses (or other matching delimiters) either manually or automatically. You do manual balancing with the commands to move over parenthetical groupings (see Moving by Parens). Automatic balancing works by blinking or highlighting the delimiter that matches the one you just inserted, or inserting the matching delimiter for you (see Matching Parens). Balanced Expressions A balanced expression is a syntactically recognizable expression, such as a symbol, number, string constant, block, or parenthesized expression in C. See Balanced Expressions. Balloon Help See Glossary---Tooltips. Base Buffer A base buffer is a buffer whose text is shared by an indirect buffer (q.v.). Bidirectional Text Some human languages, such as English, are written from left to right. Others, such as Arabic, are written from right to left. Emacs supports both of these forms, as well as any mixture of them—this is “bidirectional text”. See Bidirectional Editing. Bind To bind a key sequence means to give it a binding (q.v.). See Rebinding. Binding A key sequence gets its meaning in Emacs by having a binding, which is a command (q.v.)—a Lisp function that is run when you type that sequence. See Binding. Customization often involves rebinding a character to a different command function. The bindings of all key sequences are recorded in the keymaps (q.v.). See Keymaps. Blank Lines Blank lines are lines that contain only whitespace. Emacs has several commands for operating on the blank lines in the buffer. See Blank Lines. Bookmark Bookmarks are akin to registers (q.v.) in that they record positions in buffers to which you can return later. Unlike registers, bookmarks persist between Emacs sessions. See Bookmarks. Border A border is a thin space along the edge of the frame, used just for spacing, not for displaying anything. An Emacs frame has an ordinary external border, outside of everything including the menu bar, plus an internal border that surrounds the text windows, their scroll bars and fringes, and separates them from the menu bar and tool bar. You can customize both borders with options and resources (see Borders X). Borders are not the same as fringes (q.v.). Buffer The buffer is the basic editing unit; one buffer corresponds to one text being edited. You normally have several buffers, but at any time you are editing only one, the current buffer, though several can be visible when you are using multiple windows or frames (q.v.). Most buffers are visiting (q.v.) some file. See Buffers. Buffer Selection History Emacs keeps a buffer selection history that records how recently each Emacs buffer has been selected. This is used for choosing which buffer to select. See Buffers. Bug A bug is an incorrect or unreasonable behavior of a program, or inaccurate or confusing documentation. Emacs developers treat bug reports, both in Emacs code and its documentation, very seriously and ask you to report any bugs you find. See Bugs. Button Down Event A button down event is the kind of input event (q.v.) generated right away when you press down on a mouse button. See Mouse Buttons. By Default See Glossary---Default. Byte Compilation See Glossary---Compilation. cf. c.f. Short for “confer” in Latin, which means “compare with” or “compare to”. The second variant, “c.f.”, is a widespread misspelling. C- C- in the name of a character is an abbreviation for Control. See C-. C-M- C-M- in the name of a character is an abbreviation for Control-Meta. If your terminal lacks a real Meta key, you type a Control-Meta character by typing ESC and then typing the corresponding Control character. See C-M-. Case Conversion Case conversion means changing text from upper case to lower case or vice versa. See Case. Case Folding Case folding means ignoring the differences between case variants of the same letter: upper-case, lower-case, and title-case. Emacs performs case folding by default in text search. See Lax Search. Character Characters form the contents of an Emacs buffer. Also, key sequences (q.v.) are usually made up of characters (though they may include other input events as well). See User Input. Character Folding Character folding means ignoring differences between similarly looking characters, such as between a, and ä and á. Emacs performs character folding by default in text search. See Lax Search. Character Set Emacs supports a number of character sets, each of which represents a particular alphabet or script. See International. Character Terminal See Glossary---Text Terminal. Click Event A click event is the kind of input event (q.v.) generated when you press a mouse button and release it without moving the mouse. See Mouse Buttons. Client See Glossary---Server. Clipboard A clipboard is a buffer provided by the window system for transferring text between applications. On the X Window System, the clipboard is provided in addition to the primary selection (q.v.); on MS-Windows and Mac, the clipboard is used instead of the primary selection. See Clipboard. Coding System A coding system is a way to encode text characters in a file or in a stream of information. Emacs has the ability to convert text to or from a variety of coding systems when reading or writing it. See Coding Systems. Command A command is a Lisp function specially defined to be able to serve as a key binding in Emacs or to be invoked by its name (see Glossary---Command Name). When you type a key sequence (q.v.), its binding (q.v.) is looked up in the relevant keymaps (q.v.) to find the command to run. See Commands. Command History See Glossary---Minibuffer History. Command Name A command name is the name of a Lisp symbol that is a command (see Commands). You can invoke any command by its name using M-x (see Running Commands by Name). Comment A comment is text in a program which is intended only for humans reading the program, and which is specially marked so that it will be ignored when the program is loaded or compiled. Emacs offers special commands for creating, aligning and killing comments. See Comments. Common Lisp Common Lisp is a dialect of Lisp (q.v.) much larger and more powerful than Emacs Lisp. Emacs provides a subset of Common Lisp in the CL package. See Overview in Common Lisp Extensions. Compilation Compilation is the process of creating an executable program from source code. Emacs has commands for compiling files of Emacs Lisp code (see Byte Compilation in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual) and programs in C and other languages (see Compilation). Byte-compiled Emacs Lisp code loads and executes faster. Complete Key A complete key is a key sequence that fully specifies one action to be performed by Emacs. For example, X and C-f and C-x m are complete keys. Complete keys derive their meanings from being bound (see Glossary---Bind) to commands (q.v.). Thus, X is conventionally bound to a command to insert ‘X’ in the buffer; C-x m is conventionally bound to a command to begin composing a mail message. See Keys. Completion Completion is what Emacs does when it automatically expands an abbreviation for a name into the entire name. Completion is done for minibuffer (q.v.) arguments when the set of possible valid inputs is known; for example, on command names, buffer names, and file names. Completion usually occurs when TAB, SPC or RET is typed. See Completion. Continuation Line When a line of text is longer than the width of the window, it normally takes up more than one screen line when displayed (but see Glossary---Truncation). We say that the text line is continued, and all screen lines used for it after the first are called continuation lines. See Continuation Lines. A related Emacs feature is filling (q.v.). Control Character A control character is a character that you type by holding down the Ctrl key. Some control characters also have their own keys, so that you can type them without using Ctrl. For example, RET, TAB, ESC and DEL are all control characters. See User Input. Copyleft A copyleft is a notice giving the public legal permission to redistribute and modify a program or other work of art, but requiring modified versions to carry similar permission. Copyright is normally used to keep users divided and helpless; with copyleft we turn that around to empower users and encourage them to cooperate. The particular form of copyleft used by the GNU project is called the GNU General Public License. See Copying. Ctrl The Ctrl or control key is what you hold down in order to enter a control character (q.v.). See Glossary---C-. Current Buffer The current buffer in Emacs is the Emacs buffer on which most editing commands operate. You can select any Emacs buffer as the current one. See Buffers. Current Line The current line is the line that point is on (see Point). Current Paragraph The current paragraph is the paragraph that point is in. If point is between two paragraphs, the current paragraph is the one that follows point. See Paragraphs. Current Defun The current defun is the defun (q.v.) that point is in. If point is between defuns, the current defun is the one that follows point. See Defuns. Cursor The cursor is the rectangle on the screen which indicates the position (called point; q.v.) at which insertion and deletion takes place. The cursor is on or under the character that follows point. Often people speak of “the cursor” when, strictly speaking, they mean “point”. See Cursor. Customization Customization is making minor changes in the way Emacs works, to reflect your preferences or needs. It is often done by setting variables (see Variables) or faces (see Face Customization), or by rebinding key sequences (see Keymaps). Cut and Paste See Glossary---Killing, and Glossary---Yanking. Daemon A daemon is a standard term for a system-level process that runs in the background. Daemons are often started when the system first starts up. When Emacs runs in daemon-mode, it does not open a display. You connect to it with the emacsclient program. See Emacs Server. Default Argument The default for an argument is the value that will be assumed if you do not specify one. When the minibuffer is used to read an argument, the default argument is used if you just type RET. See Minibuffer. Default A default is the value that is used for a certain purpose when you do not explicitly specify a value to use. Default Directory When you specify a file name that does not start with ‘/’ or ‘~’, it is interpreted relative to the current buffer’s default directory. (On MS systems, file names that start with a drive letter ‘x:’ are treated as absolute, not relative.) See Default Directory. Defun A defun is a major definition at the top level in a program. The name “defun” comes from Lisp, where most such definitions use the construct defun. See Defuns. DEL DEL is a character that runs the command to delete one character of text before the cursor. It is typically either the Delete key or the BACKSPACE key, whichever one is easy to type. See DEL. Deletion Deletion means erasing text without copying it into the kill ring (q.v.). The alternative is killing (q.v.). See Deletion. Deletion of Files Deleting a file means erasing it from the file system. (Note that some systems use the concept of a trash can, or recycle bin, to allow you to undelete files.) See Miscellaneous File Operations. Deletion of Messages Deleting a message (in Rmail, and other mail clients) means flagging it to be eliminated from your mail file. Until you expunge (q.v.) the Rmail file, you can still undelete the messages you have deleted. See Rmail Deletion. Deletion of Windows Deleting a window means eliminating it from the screen. Other windows expand to use up the space. The text that was in the window is not lost, and you can create a new window with the same dimensions as the old if you wish. See Windows. Directory File directories are named collections in the file system, within which you can place individual files or subdirectories. They are sometimes referred to as “folders”. See Directories. Directory Local Variable A directory local variable is a local variable (q.v.) that applies to all the files within a certain directory. See Directory Variables. Directory Name On GNU and other Unix-like systems, directory names are strings that end in ‘/’. For example, /no-such-dir/ is a directory name whereas /tmp is not, even though /tmp names a file that happens to be a directory. On MS-Windows the relationship is more complicated. See Directory Names in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Dired Dired is the Emacs facility that displays the contents of a file directory and allows you to “edit the directory”, performing operations on the files in the directory. See Dired. Disabled Command A disabled command is one that you may not run without special confirmation. The usual reason for disabling a command is that it is confusing for beginning users. See Disabling. Down Event Short for “button down event” (q.v.). Drag Event A drag event is the kind of input event (q.v.) generated when you press a mouse button, move the mouse, and then release the button. See Mouse Buttons. Dribble File A dribble file is a file into which Emacs writes all the characters that you type on the keyboard. Dribble files can be used to make a record for debugging Emacs bugs. Emacs does not make a dribble file unless you tell it to. See Bugs. e.g. Short for “exempli gratia” in Latin, which means “for example”. Echo Area The echo area is the bottom line of the screen, used for echoing the arguments to commands, for asking questions, and showing brief messages (including error messages). The messages are stored in the buffer *Messages* so you can review them later. See Echo Area. Echoing Echoing is acknowledging the receipt of input events by displaying them (in the echo area). Emacs never echoes single-character key sequences; longer key sequences echo only if you pause while typing them. Electric We say that a character is electric if it is normally self-inserting (q.v.), but the current major mode (q.v.) redefines it to do something else as well. For example, some programming language major modes define particular delimiter characters to reindent the line, or insert one or more newlines in addition to self-insertion. End Of Line End of line is a character or a sequence of characters that indicate the end of a text line. On GNU and Unix systems, this is a newline (q.v.), but other systems have other conventions. See end-of-line. Emacs can recognize several end-of-line conventions in files and convert between them. Environment Variable An environment variable is one of a collection of variables stored by the operating system, each one having a name and a value. Emacs can access environment variables set by its parent shell, and it can set variables in the environment it passes to programs it invokes. See Environment. EOL See Glossary---End Of Line. Error An error occurs when an Emacs command cannot execute in the current circumstances. When an error occurs, execution of the command stops (unless the command has been programmed to do otherwise) and Emacs reports the error by displaying an error message (q.v.). Error Message An error message is output displayed by Emacs when you ask it to do something impossible (such as, killing text forward when point is at the end of the buffer), or when a command malfunctions in some way. Such messages appear in the echo area, accompanied by a beep. ESC ESC is a character used as a prefix for typing Meta characters on keyboards lacking a Meta key. Unlike the Meta key (which, like the SHIFT key, is held down while another character is typed), you press the ESC key as you would press a letter key, and it applies to the next character you type. etc. Short for “et cetera” in Latin, which means “and so on”. Expression See Glossary---Balanced Expression. Expunging Expunging an Rmail, Gnus newsgroup, or Dired buffer is an operation that truly discards the messages or files you have previously flagged for deletion. Face A face is a style of displaying characters. It specifies attributes such as font family and size, foreground and background colors, underline and strike-through, background stipple, etc. Emacs provides features to associate specific faces with portions of buffer text, in order to display that text as specified by the face attributes. See Faces. File Local Variable A file local variable is a local variable (q.v.) specified in a given file. See File Variables, and Glossary---Directory Local Variable. File Locking Emacs uses file locking to notice when two different users start to edit one file at the same time. See Interlocking. File Name A file name is a name that refers to a file. File names may be relative or absolute; the meaning of a relative file name depends on the current directory, but an absolute file name refers to the same file regardless of which directory is current. On GNU and Unix systems, an absolute file name starts with a slash (the root directory) or with ‘~/’ or ‘~user/’ (a home directory). On MS-Windows/MS-DOS, an absolute file name can also start with a drive letter and a colon, e.g., ‘d:’. Some people use the term “pathname” for file names, but we do not; we use the word “path” only in the term “search path” (q.v.). File-Name Component A file-name component names a file directly within a particular directory. On GNU and Unix systems, a file name is a sequence of file-name components, separated by slashes. For example, foo/bar is a file name containing two components, ‘foo’ and ‘bar’; it refers to the file named ‘bar’ in the directory named ‘foo’ in the current directory. MS-DOS/MS-Windows file names can also use backslashes to separate components, as in foo\bar. Fill Prefix The fill prefix is a string that should be expected at the beginning of each line when filling is done. It is not regarded as part of the text to be filled. See Filling. Filling Filling text means adjusting the position of line-breaks to shift text between consecutive lines, so that all the lines are approximately the same length. See Filling. Some other editors call this feature “line wrapping”. Font Lock Font Lock is a mode that highlights parts of buffer text in different faces, according to the syntax. Some other editors refer to this as “syntax highlighting”. For example, all comments (q.v.) might be colored red. See Font Lock. Fontset A fontset is a named collection of fonts. A fontset specification lists character sets and which font to use to display each of them. Fontsets make it easy to change several fonts at once by specifying the name of a fontset, rather than changing each font separately. See Fontsets. Formfeed Character See Glossary---Page. Frame A frame is a rectangular cluster of Emacs windows. Emacs starts out with one frame, but you can create more. You can subdivide each frame into Emacs windows (q.v.). When you are using a window system (q.v.), more than one frame can be visible at the same time. See Frames. Some other editors use the term “window” for this, but in Emacs a window means something else. Free Software Free software is software that gives you the freedom to share, study and modify it. Emacs is free software, part of the GNU project (q.v.), and distributed under a copyleft (q.v.) license called the GNU General Public License. See Copying. Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a charitable foundation dedicated to promoting the development of free software (q.v.). For more information, see the FSF website. Fringe On a graphical display (q.v.), there’s a narrow portion of the frame (q.v.) between the text area and the window’s border. These “fringes” are used to display symbols that provide information about the buffer text (see Fringes). Emacs displays the fringe using a special face (q.v.) called fringe. See fringe. FSF See Glossary---Free Software Foundation. FTP FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. This is one standard method for retrieving remote files (q.v.). Function Key A function key is a key on the keyboard that sends input but does not correspond to any character. See Function Keys. Global Global means “independent of the current environment; in effect throughout Emacs”. It is the opposite of local (q.v.). Particular examples of the use of “global” appear below. Global Abbrev A global definition of an abbrev (q.v.) is effective in all major modes that do not have local (q.v.) definitions for the same abbrev. See Abbrevs. Global Keymap The global keymap (q.v.) contains key bindings that are in effect everywhere, except when overridden by local key bindings in a major mode’s local keymap (q.v.). See Keymaps. Global Mark Ring The global mark ring records the series of buffers you have recently set a mark (q.v.) in. In many cases you can use this to backtrack through buffers you have been editing, or in which you have found tags (see Glossary---Tags Table). See Global Mark Ring. Global Substitution Global substitution means replacing each occurrence of one string by another string throughout a large amount of text. See Replace. Global Variable The global value of a variable (q.v.) takes effect in all buffers that do not have their own local (q.v.) values for the variable. See Variables. GNU GNU is a recursive acronym for GNU’s Not Unix, and it refers to a Unix-compatible operating system which is free software (q.v.). See Manifesto. GNU is normally used with Linux as the kernel since Linux works better than the GNU kernel. For more information, see the GNU website. Graphic Character Graphic characters are those assigned pictorial images rather than just names. All the non-Meta (q.v.) characters except for the Control (q.v.) characters are graphic characters. These include letters, digits, punctuation, and spaces; they do not include RET or ESC. In Emacs, typing a graphic character inserts that character (in ordinary editing modes). See Inserting Text. Graphical Display A graphical display is one that can display images and multiple fonts. Usually it also has a window system (q.v.). Highlighting Highlighting text means displaying it with a different foreground and/or background color to make it stand out from the rest of the text in the buffer. Emacs uses highlighting in several ways. It highlights the region whenever it is active (see Mark). Incremental search also highlights matches (see Incremental Search). See Glossary---Font Lock. Hardcopy Hardcopy means printed output. Emacs has various commands for printing the contents of Emacs buffers. See Printing. HELP HELP is the Emacs name for C-h or F1. You can type HELP at any time to ask what options you have, or to ask what a command does. See Help. Help Echo Help echo is a short message displayed in the echo area (q.v.) when the mouse pointer is located on portions of display that require some explanations. Emacs displays help echo for menu items, parts of the mode line, tool-bar buttons, etc. On graphical displays, the messages can be displayed as tooltips (q.v.). See Tooltips. Home Directory Your home directory contains your personal files. On a multi-user GNU or Unix system, each user has his or her own home directory. When you start a new login session, your home directory is the default directory in which to start. A standard shorthand for your home directory is ‘~’. Similarly, ‘~user’ represents the home directory of some other user. Hook A hook is a list of functions to be called on specific occasions, such as saving a buffer in a file, major mode activation, etc. By customizing the various hooks, you can modify Emacs’s behavior without changing any of its code. See Hooks. Hyper Hyper is the name of a modifier bit that a keyboard input character may have. To make a character Hyper, type it while holding down the Hyper key. Such characters are given names that start with Hyper- (usually written H- for short). See Modifier Keys. i.e. Short for “id est” in Latin, which means “that is”. Iff “Iff” means “if and only if”. This terminology comes from mathematics. Try to avoid using this term in documentation, since many are unfamiliar with it and mistake it for a typo. Inbox An inbox is a file in which mail is delivered by the operating system. Rmail transfers mail from inboxes to Rmail files in which the mail is then stored permanently or until explicitly deleted. See Rmail Inbox. Incremental Search Emacs provides an incremental search facility, whereby Emacs begins searching for a string as soon as you type the first character. As you type more characters, it refines the search. See Incremental Search. Indentation Indentation means blank space at the beginning of a line. Most programming languages have conventions for using indentation to illuminate the structure of the program, and Emacs has special commands to adjust indentation. See Indentation. Indirect Buffer An indirect buffer is a buffer that shares the text of another buffer, called its base buffer (q.v.). See Indirect Buffers. Info Info is the hypertext format used by the GNU project for writing documentation. Input Event An input event represents, within Emacs, one action taken by the user on the terminal. Input events include typing characters, typing function keys, pressing or releasing mouse buttons, and switching between Emacs frames. See User Input. Input Method An input method is a system for entering non-ASCII text characters by typing sequences of ASCII characters (q.v.). See Input Methods. Insertion Insertion means adding text into the buffer, either from the keyboard or from some other place in Emacs. Interlocking See Glossary---File Locking. Isearch See Glossary---Incremental Search. Justification Justification means adding extra spaces within lines of text in order to adjust the position of the text edges. See Fill Commands. Key Binding See Glossary---Binding. Keyboard Macro Keyboard macros are a way of defining new Emacs commands from sequences of existing ones, with no need to write a Lisp program. You can use a macro to record a sequence of commands, then play them back as many times as you like. See Keyboard Macros. Keyboard Shortcut A keyboard shortcut is a key sequence (q.v.) that invokes a command. What some programs call “assigning a keyboard shortcut”, Emacs calls “binding a key sequence”. See Glossary---Binding. Key Sequence A key sequence (key, for short) is a sequence of input events (q.v.) that are meaningful as a single unit. If the key sequence is enough to specify one action, it is a complete key (q.v.); if it is not enough, it is a prefix key (q.v.). See Keys. Keymap The keymap is the data structure that records the bindings (q.v.) of key sequences to the commands that they run. For example, the global keymap binds the character C-n to the command function next-line. See Keymaps. Keyboard Translation Table The keyboard translation table is an array that translates the character codes that come from the terminal into the character codes that make up key sequences. Kill Ring The kill ring is where all text you have killed (see Glossary---Killing) recently is saved. You can reinsert any of the killed text still in the ring; this is called yanking (q.v.). See Yanking. Killing Killing means erasing text and saving it on the kill ring so it can be yanked (q.v.) later. Some other systems call this “cutting”. Most Emacs commands that erase text perform killing, as opposed to deletion (q.v.). See Killing. Killing a Job Killing a job (such as, an invocation of Emacs) means making it cease to exist. Any data within it, if not saved in a file, is lost. See Exiting. Language Environment Your choice of language environment specifies defaults for the input method (q.v.) and coding system (q.v.). See Language Environments. These defaults are relevant if you edit non-ASCII text (see International). Line Wrapping See Glossary---Filling. Lisp Lisp is a programming language. Most of Emacs is written in a dialect of Lisp, called Emacs Lisp, which is extended with special features that make it especially suitable for text editing tasks. List A list is, approximately, a text string beginning with an open parenthesis and ending with the matching close parenthesis. In C mode and other non-Lisp modes, groupings surrounded by other kinds of matched delimiters appropriate to the language, such as braces, are also considered lists. Emacs has special commands for many operations on lists. See Moving by Parens. Local Local means “in effect only in a particular context”; the relevant kind of context is a particular function execution, a particular buffer, or a particular major mode. It is the opposite of “global” (q.v.). Specific uses of “local” in Emacs terminology appear below. Local Abbrev A local abbrev definition is effective only if a particular major mode is selected. In that major mode, it overrides any global definition for the same abbrev. See Abbrevs. Local Keymap A local keymap is used in a particular major mode; the key bindings (q.v.) in the current local keymap override global bindings of the same key sequences. See Keymaps. Local Variable A local value of a variable (q.v.) applies to only one buffer. See Locals. M- M- in the name of a character is an abbreviation for Meta, one of the modifier keys that can accompany any character. See M-. M-C- M-C- in the name of a character is an abbreviation for Control-Meta; it means the same thing as C-M- (q.v.). M-x M-x is the key sequence that is used to call an Emacs command by name. This is how you run commands that are not bound to key sequences. See Running Commands by Name. Mail Mail means messages sent from one user to another through the computer system, to be read at the recipient’s convenience. Emacs has commands for composing and sending mail, and for reading and editing the mail you have received. See Sending Mail. See Rmail, for one way to read mail with Emacs. Mail Composition Method A mail composition method is a program runnable within Emacs for editing and sending a mail message. Emacs lets you select from several alternative mail composition methods. See Mail Methods. Major Mode The Emacs major modes are a mutually exclusive set of options, each of which configures Emacs for editing a certain sort of text. Ideally, each programming language has its own major mode. See Major Modes. Margin The space between the usable part of a window (including the fringe) and the window edge. Mark The mark points to a position in the text. It specifies one end of the region (q.v.), point being the other end. Many commands operate on all the text from point to the mark. Each buffer has its own mark. See Mark. Mark Ring The mark ring is used to hold several recent previous locations of the mark, in case you want to move back to them. Each buffer has its own mark ring; in addition, there is a single global mark ring (q.v.). See Mark Ring. Menu Bar The menu bar is a line at the top of an Emacs frame. It contains words you can click on with the mouse to bring up menus, or you can use a keyboard interface to navigate it. See Menu Bars. Message See Glossary---Mail. Meta Meta is the name of a modifier bit which you can use in a command character. To enter a meta character, you hold down the Meta key while typing the character. We refer to such characters with names that start with Meta- (usually written M- for short). For example, M-< is typed by holding down Meta and at the same time typing < (which itself is done, on most terminals, by holding down SHIFT and typing ,). See Meta. On some terminals, the Meta key is actually labeled Alt or Edit. Meta Character A Meta character is one whose character code includes the Meta bit. Minibuffer The minibuffer is the window that appears when necessary inside the echo area (q.v.), used for reading arguments to commands. See Minibuffer. Minibuffer History The minibuffer history records the text you have specified in the past for minibuffer arguments, so you can conveniently use the same text again. See Minibuffer History. Minor Mode A minor mode is an optional feature of Emacs, which can be switched on or off independently of all other features. Each minor mode has a command to turn it on or off. Some minor modes are global (q.v.), and some are local (q.v.). See Minor Modes. Minor Mode Keymap A minor mode keymap is a keymap that belongs to a minor mode and is active when that mode is enabled. Minor mode keymaps take precedence over the buffer’s local keymap, just as the local keymap takes precedence over the global keymap. See Keymaps. Mode Line The mode line is the line at the bottom of each window (q.v.), giving status information on the buffer displayed in that window. See Mode Line. Modified Buffer A buffer (q.v.) is modified if its text has been changed since the last time the buffer was saved (or since it was created, if it has never been saved). See Saving. Moving Text Moving text means erasing it from one place and inserting it in another. The usual way to move text is by killing (q.v.) it and then yanking (q.v.) it. See Killing. MULE Prior to Emacs 23, MULE was the name of a software package which provided a MULtilingual Enhancement to Emacs, by adding support for multiple character sets (q.v.). MULE was later integrated into Emacs, and much of it was replaced when Emacs gained internal Unicode support in version 23. Some parts of Emacs that deal with character set support still use the MULE name. See International. Multibyte Character A multibyte character is a character that takes up several bytes in a buffer. Emacs uses multibyte characters to represent non-ASCII text, since the number of non-ASCII characters is much more than 256. See International Characters. Named Mark A named mark is a register (q.v.), in its role of recording a location in text so that you can move point to that location. See Registers. Narrowing Narrowing means creating a restriction (q.v.) that limits editing in the current buffer to only a part of the text. Text outside that part is inaccessible for editing (or viewing) until the boundaries are widened again, but it is still there, and saving the file saves it all. See Narrowing. Newline Control-J characters in the buffer terminate lines of text and are therefore also called newlines. See Glossary---End Of Line. nil nil is a value usually interpreted as a logical “false”. Its opposite is t, interpreted as “true”. Numeric Argument A numeric argument is a number, specified before a command, to change the effect of the command. Often the numeric argument serves as a repeat count. See Arguments. Overwrite Mode Overwrite mode is a minor mode. When it is enabled, ordinary text characters replace the existing text after point rather than pushing it to one side. See Minor Modes. Package A package is a collection of Lisp code that you download and automatically install from within Emacs. Packages provide a convenient way to add new features. See Packages. Page A page is a unit of text, delimited by formfeed characters (ASCII control-L, code 014) at the beginning of a line. Some Emacs commands are provided for moving over and operating on pages. See Pages. Paragraph Paragraphs are the medium-size unit of human-language text. There are special Emacs commands for moving over and operating on paragraphs. See Paragraphs. Parsing We say that certain Emacs commands parse words or expressions in the text being edited. Really, all they know how to do is find the other end of a word or expression. Point Point is the place in the buffer at which insertion and deletion occur. Point is considered to be between two characters, not at one character. The terminal’s cursor (q.v.) indicates the location of point. See Point. Prefix Argument See Glossary---Numeric Argument. Prefix Key A prefix key is a key sequence (q.v.) whose sole function is to introduce a set of longer key sequences. C-x is an example of prefix key; any two-character sequence starting with C-x is therefore a legitimate key sequence. See Keys. Primary Selection The primary selection is one particular X selection (q.v.); it is the selection that most X applications use for transferring text to and from other applications. The Emacs commands that mark or select text set the primary selection, and clicking the mouse inserts text from the primary selection when appropriate. See Shift Selection. Prompt A prompt is text used to ask you for input. Displaying a prompt is called prompting. Emacs prompts always appear in the echo area (q.v.). One kind of prompting happens when the minibuffer is used to read an argument (see Minibuffer); the echoing that happens when you pause in the middle of typing a multi-character key sequence is also a kind of prompting (see Echo Area). q.v. Short for “quod vide” in Latin, which means “which see”. Query-Replace Query-replace is an interactive string replacement feature provided by Emacs. See Query Replace. Quitting Quitting means canceling a partially typed command or a running command, using C-g (or C-BREAK on MS-DOS). See Quitting. Quoting Quoting means depriving a character of its usual special significance. The most common kind of quoting in Emacs is with C-q. What constitutes special significance depends on the context and on convention. For example, an ordinary character as an Emacs command inserts itself; so in this context, a special character is any character that does not normally insert itself (such as DEL, for example), and quoting it makes it insert itself as if it were not special. Not all contexts allow quoting. See Quoting. Quoting File Names Quoting a file name turns off the special significance of constructs such as ‘$’, ‘~’ and ‘:’. See Quoted File Names. Read-Only Buffer A read-only buffer is one whose text you are not allowed to change. Normally Emacs makes buffers read-only when they contain text which has a special significance to Emacs; for example, Dired buffers. Visiting a file that is write-protected also makes a read-only buffer. See Buffers. Rectangle A rectangle consists of the text in a given range of columns on a given range of lines. Normally you specify a rectangle by putting point at one corner and putting the mark at the diagonally opposite corner. See Rectangles. Recursive Editing Level A recursive editing level is a state in which part of the execution of a command involves asking you to edit some text. This text may or may not be the same as the text to which the command was applied. The mode line (q.v.) indicates recursive editing levels with square brackets (‘[’ and ‘]’). See Recursive Edit. Redisplay Redisplay is the process of correcting the image on the screen to correspond to changes that have been made in the text being edited. See Redisplay. Regexp See Glossary---Regular Expression. Region The region is the text between point (q.v.) and the mark (q.v.). Many commands operate on the text of the region. See Region. Register Registers are named slots in which text, buffer positions, or rectangles can be saved for later use. See Registers. A related Emacs feature is bookmarks (q.v.). Regular Expression A regular expression is a pattern that can match various text strings; for example, ‘a[0-9]+’ matches ‘a’ followed by one or more digits. See Regexps. Remote File A remote file is a file that is stored on a system other than your own. Emacs can access files on other computers provided that they are reachable from your machine over the network, and (obviously) that you have a supported method to gain access to those files. See Remote Files. Repeat Count See Glossary---Numeric Argument. Replacement See Glossary---Global Substitution. Restriction A buffer’s restriction is the amount of text, at the beginning or the end of the buffer, that is temporarily inaccessible. Giving a buffer a nonzero amount of restriction is called narrowing (q.v.); removing a restriction is called widening (q.v.). See Narrowing. RET RET is a character that in Emacs runs the command to insert a newline into the text. It is also used to terminate most arguments read in the minibuffer (q.v.). See Return. Reverting Reverting means returning to the original state. For example, Emacs lets you revert a buffer by re-reading its file from disk. See Reverting. Saving Saving a buffer means copying its text into the file that was visited (q.v.) in that buffer. This is the way text in files actually gets changed by your Emacs editing. See Saving. Scroll Bar A scroll bar is a tall thin hollow box that appears at the side of a window. You can use mouse commands in the scroll bar to scroll the window. The scroll bar feature is supported only under windowing systems. See Scroll Bars. Scrolling Scrolling means shifting the text in the Emacs window so as to see a different part of the buffer. See Scrolling. Searching Searching means moving point to the next occurrence of a specified string or the next match for a specified regular expression. See Search. Search Path A search path is a list of directories, to be used for searching for files for certain purposes. For example, the variable load-path holds a search path for finding Lisp library files. See Lisp Libraries. Secondary Selection The secondary selection is one particular X selection (q.v.); some X applications can use it for transferring text to and from other applications. Emacs has special mouse commands for transferring text using the secondary selection. See Secondary Selection. Selected Frame The selected frame is the one your input currently operates on. See Frames. Selected Window The selected window is the one your input currently operates on. See Basic Window. Selecting a Buffer Selecting a buffer means making it the current (q.v.) buffer. See Select Buffer. Selection Windowing systems allow an application program to specify selections whose values are text. A program can also read the selections that other programs have set up. This is the principal way of transferring text between window applications. Emacs has commands to work with the primary (q.v.) selection and the secondary (q.v.) selection, and also with the clipboard (q.v.). Self-Documentation Self-documentation is the feature of Emacs that can tell you what any command does, or give you a list of all commands related to a topic you specify. You ask for self-documentation with the help character, C-h. See Help. Self-Inserting Character A character is self-inserting if typing that character inserts that character in the buffer. Ordinary printing and whitespace characters are self-inserting in Emacs, except in certain special major modes. Sentences Emacs has commands for moving by or killing by sentences. See Sentences. Server Within Emacs, you can start a “server” process, which listens for connections from “clients”. This offers a faster alternative to starting several Emacs instances. See Emacs Server, and Glossary---Daemon. Sexp A sexp (short for “s-expression”) is the basic syntactic unit of Lisp in its textual form: either a list, or Lisp atom. Sexps are also the balanced expressions (q.v.) of the Lisp language; this is why the commands for editing balanced expressions have ‘sexp’ in their name. See Sexps. Simultaneous Editing Simultaneous editing means two users modifying the same file at once. Simultaneous editing, if not detected, can cause one user to lose his or her work. Emacs detects all cases of simultaneous editing, and warns one of the users to investigate. See Simultaneous Editing. SPC SPC is the space character, which you enter by pressing the space bar. Speedbar The speedbar is a special tall frame that provides fast access to Emacs buffers, functions within those buffers, Info nodes, and other interesting parts of text within Emacs. See Speedbar. Spell Checking Spell checking means checking correctness of the written form of each one of the words in a text. Emacs can use various external spelling-checker programs to check the spelling of parts of a buffer via a convenient user interface. See Spelling. String A string is a kind of Lisp data object that contains a sequence of characters. Many Emacs variables are intended to have strings as values. The Lisp syntax for a string consists of the characters in the string with a ‘"’ before and another ‘"’ after. A ‘"’ that is part of the string must be written as ‘\"’ and a ‘\’ that is part of the string must be written as ‘\\’. All other characters, including newline, can be included just by writing them inside the string; however, backslash sequences as in C, such as ‘\n’ for newline or ‘\241’ using an octal character code, are allowed as well. String Substitution See Glossary---Global Substitution. Syntax Highlighting See Glossary---Font Lock. Syntax Table The syntax table tells Emacs which characters are part of a word, which characters balance each other like parentheses, etc. See Syntax Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Super Super is the name of a modifier bit that a keyboard input character may have. To make a character Super, type it while holding down the SUPER key. Such characters are given names that start with Super- (usually written s- for short). See Modifier Keys. Suspending Suspending Emacs means stopping it temporarily and returning control to its parent process, which is usually a shell. Unlike killing a job (q.v.), you can later resume the suspended Emacs job without losing your buffers, unsaved edits, undo history, etc. See Exiting. TAB TAB is the tab character. In Emacs it is typically used for indentation or completion. Tab Bar The tab bar is a row of tabs at the top of an Emacs frame. Clicking on one of these tabs switches named persistent window configurations. See Tab Bars. Tab Line The tab line is a line of tabs at the top of an Emacs window. Clicking on one of these tabs switches window buffers. See Tab Line. Tag A tag is an identifier in a program source. See Xref. Tags Table A tags table is a file that serves as an index to identifiers: definitions of functions, macros, data structures, etc., in one or more other files. See Tags Tables. Termscript File A termscript file contains a record of all characters sent by Emacs to the terminal. It is used for tracking down bugs in Emacs redisplay. Emacs does not make a termscript file unless you tell it to. See Bugs. Text “Text” has two meanings (see Text): * Data consisting of a sequence of characters, as opposed to binary numbers, executable programs, and the like. The basic contents of an Emacs buffer (aside from the text properties, q.v.) are always text in this sense. * Data consisting of written human language (as opposed to programs), or following the stylistic conventions of human language. Text Terminal A text terminal, or character terminal, is a display that is limited to displaying text in character units. Such a terminal cannot control individual pixels it displays. Emacs supports a subset of display features on text terminals. Text Properties Text properties are annotations recorded for particular characters in the buffer. Images in the buffer are recorded as text properties; they also specify formatting information. See Editing Format Info. Theme A theme is a set of customizations (q.v.) that give Emacs a particular appearance or behavior. For example, you might use a theme for your favorite set of faces (q.v.). Tool Bar The tool bar is a line (sometimes multiple lines) of icons at the top of an Emacs frame. Clicking on one of these icons executes a command. You can think of this as a graphical relative of the menu bar (q.v.). See Tool Bars. Tooltips Tooltips are small windows displaying a help echo (q.v.) text, which explains parts of the display, lists useful options available via mouse clicks, etc. See Tooltips. Top Level Top level is the normal state of Emacs, in which you are editing the text of the file you have visited. You are at top level whenever you are not in a recursive editing level (q.v.) or the minibuffer (q.v.), and not in the middle of a command. You can get back to top level by aborting (q.v.) and quitting (q.v.). See Quitting. Transient Mark Mode The default behavior of the mark (q.v.) and region (q.v.), in which setting the mark activates it and highlights the region, is called Transient Mark mode. In GNU Emacs 23 and onwards, it is enabled by default. See Disabled Transient Mark. Transposition Transposing two units of text means putting each one into the place formerly occupied by the other. There are Emacs commands to transpose two adjacent characters, words, balanced expressions (q.v.) or lines (see Transpose). Trash Can See Glossary---Deletion of Files. Truncation Truncating text lines in the display means leaving out any text on a line that does not fit within the right margin of the window displaying it. See Truncation, and Glossary---Continuation Line. TTY See Glossary---Text Terminal. Undoing Undoing means making your previous editing go in reverse, bringing back the text that existed earlier in the editing session. See Undo. Unix Unix is a class of multi-user computer operating systems with a long history. There are several implementations today. The GNU project (q.v.) aims to develop a complete Unix-like operating system that is free software (q.v.). User Option A user option is a face (q.v.) or a variable (q.v.) that exists so that you can customize Emacs by setting it to a new value. See Easy Customization. Variable A variable is an object in Lisp that can store an arbitrary value. Emacs uses some variables for internal purposes, and has others (known as “user options”; q.v.) just so that you can set their values to control the behavior of Emacs. The variables used in Emacs that you are likely to be interested in are listed in the Variables Index in this manual (see Variable Index). See Variables, for information on variables. Version Control Version control systems keep track of multiple versions of a source file. They provide a more powerful alternative to keeping backup files (q.v.). See Version Control. Visiting Visiting a file means loading its contents into a buffer (q.v.) where they can be edited. See Visiting. Whitespace Whitespace is any run of consecutive formatting characters (space, tab, newline, backspace, etc.). Widening Widening is removing any restriction (q.v.) on the current buffer; it is the opposite of narrowing (q.v.). See Narrowing. Window Emacs divides a frame (q.v.) into one or more windows, each of which can display the contents of one buffer (q.v.) at any time. See Screen, for basic information on how Emacs uses the screen. See Windows, for commands to control the use of windows. Some other editors use the term “window” for what we call a “frame” in Emacs. Window System A window system is software that operates on a graphical display (q.v.), to subdivide the screen so that multiple applications can have their own windows at the same time. All modern operating systems include a window system. Word Abbrev See Glossary---Abbrev. Word Search Word search is searching for a sequence of words, considering the punctuation between them as insignificant. See Word Search. Yanking Yanking means reinserting text previously killed (q.v.). It can be used to undo a mistaken kill, or for copying or moving text. Some other systems call this “pasting”. See Yanking. Next: Acknowledgments, Previous: Manifesto, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Key Index, Previous: Glossary, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Acknowledgments Many people have contributed code included in the Free Software Foundation’s distribution of GNU Emacs. To show our appreciation for their public spirit, we list here in alphabetical order those who have written substantial portions. Others too numerous to mention have reported and fixed bugs, and added features to many parts of Emacs. We thank them for their generosity as well. This list is intended to mention every contributor of a major package or feature we currently distribute; if you know of someone we have omitted, please make a bug report. More comprehensive information is available in the ChangeLog files, summarized in the file etc/AUTHORS in the distribution. * Per Abrahamsen wrote the customization facilities, as well as double.el, for typing accented characters not normally available from the keyboard; xt-mouse.el, which allows mouse commands through Xterm; gnus-cus.el, which implements customization commands for Gnus; gnus-cite.el, a citation-parsing facility for news articles; gnus-score.el, scoring for Gnus; cpp.el, which hides or highlights parts of C programs according to preprocessor conditionals; and the widget library files wid-browse.el, wid-edit.el, widget.el. He also co-wrote gnus-soup.el. * Tomas Abrahamsson wrote artist.el, a package for producing ASCII art with a mouse or with keyboard keys. * Jay K. Adams wrote jka-compr.el and jka-cmpr-hook.el, providing automatic decompression and recompression for compressed files. * Michael Albinus wrote dbus.el, a package that implements the D-Bus message bus protocol; zeroconf.el, a mode for browsing Avahi services; secrets.el, an interface to keyring daemons for storing confidential data; and filenotify.el and the associated low-level interface routines, for watching file status changes. He and Kai Großjohann wrote the Tramp package, which provides transparent remote file editing using ssh, ftp, and other network protocols. He and Daniel Pittman wrote tramp-cache.el. * Ralf Angeli wrote scroll-lock.el, a minor mode which keeps the point vertically fixed by scrolling the window when moving up and down in the buffer. * Aurélien Aptel added dynamic module support to Emacs. Philipp Stephani and others also worked on the dynamic module code. * Joe Arceneaux wrote the original text property implementation, and implemented support for X11. * Emil Åström, Milan Zamaza, and Stefan Bruda wrote prolog.el, a mode for editing Prolog (and Mercury) code. * Miles Bader wrote image-file.el, support code for visiting image files; minibuf-eldef.el, a minor mode that hides the minibuffer default value when appropriate; rfn-eshadow.el, shadowing of read-file-name input; mb-depth.el, display of minibuffer depth; button.el, the library that implements clickable buttons; face-remap.el, a package for changing the default face in individual buffers; and macroexp.el for macro-expansion. He also worked on an early version of the lexical binding code. * David Bakhash wrote strokes.el, a mode for controlling Emacs by moving the mouse in particular patterns. * Juanma Barranquero wrote emacs-lock.el (based on the original version by Tom Wurgler), which makes it harder to exit with valuable buffers unsaved; and frameset.el, for saving and restoring the frame/window setup. He also made many other contributions to other areas, including MS Windows support. * Eli Barzilay wrote calculator.el, a desktop calculator for Emacs. * Steven L. Baur wrote footnote.el which lets you include footnotes in email messages; and gnus-audio.el and earcon.el, which provide sound effects for Gnus. He also wrote gnus-setup.el. * Alexander L. Belikoff, Sergey Berezin, Sacha Chua, David Edmondson, Noah Friedman, Andreas Fuchs, Mario Lang, Ben Mesander, Lawrence Mitchell, Gergely Nagy, Michael Olson, Per Persson, Jorgen Schäfer, Alex Schroeder, and Tom Tromey wrote ERC, an advanced Internet Relay Chat client (for more information, see the file CREDITS in the ERC distribution). * Scott Bender, Michael Brouwer, Christophe de Dinechin, Carl Edman, Christian Limpach and Adrian Robert developed and maintained the NeXTstep port of Emacs. * Stephen Berman wrote todo-mode.el (based on the original version by Oliver Seidel), a package for maintaining TODO list files. * Anna M. Bigatti wrote cal-html.el, which produces HTML calendars. * Ray Blaak and Simon South wrote opascal.el, a mode for editing Object Pascal source code. * Martin Blais, Stefan Merten, and David Goodger wrote rst.el, a mode for editing reStructuredText documents. * Jim Blandy wrote Emacs 19’s input system, brought its configuration and build process up to the GNU coding standards, and contributed to the frame support and multi-face support. Jim also wrote tvi970.el, terminal support for the TeleVideo 970 terminals; and co-wrote wyse50.el (q.v.). * Per Bothner wrote term.el, a terminal emulator in an Emacs buffer. * Terrence M. Brannon wrote landmark.el, a neural-network robot that learns landmarks. * Frank Bresz wrote diff.el, a program to display diff output. * Peter Breton implemented dirtrack.el, a library for tracking directory changes in shell buffers; filecache.el, which records which directories your files are in; locate.el, which interfaces to the locate command; find-lisp.el, an Emacs Lisp emulation of the find program; net-utils.el; and the generic mode feature. * Emmanuel Briot wrote xml.el, an XML parser for Emacs; and ada-prj.el, editing of Ada mode project files, as well as co-authoring ada-mode.el and ada-xref.el. * Kevin Broadey wrote foldout.el, providing folding extensions to Emacs’s outline modes. * David M. Brown wrote array.el, for editing arrays and other tabular data. * Włodek Bzyl and Ryszard Kubiak wrote ogonek.el, a package for changing the encoding of Polish characters. * Bill Carpenter provided feedmail.el, a package for massaging outgoing mail messages and sending them through various popular mailers. * Per Cederqvist and Inge Wallin wrote ewoc.el, an Emacs widget for manipulating object collections. Per Cederqvist, Inge Wallin, and Thomas Bellman wrote avl-tree.el, for balanced binary trees. * Hans Chalupsky wrote advice.el, an overloading mechanism for Emacs Lisp functions; and trace.el, a tracing facility for Emacs Lisp. * Chris Chase, Carsten Dominik, and J. D. Smith wrote IDLWAVE mode, for editing IDL and WAVE CL. * Bob Chassell wrote texnfo-upd.el, texinfo.el, and makeinfo.el, modes and utilities for working with Texinfo files; and page-ext.el, commands for extended page handling. He also wrote the Emacs Lisp introduction. See Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp. * Jihyun Cho wrote hanja-util.el and hangul.el, utilities for Korean Hanja. * Andrew Choi and Yamamoto Mitsuharu wrote the Carbon support, used prior to Emacs 23 for macOS. Yamamoto Mitsuharu continued to contribute to macOS support in the newer Nextstep port; and also improved support for multi-monitor displays. * Chong Yidong was the Emacs co-maintainer from Emacs 23 to 24.3. He made many improvements to the Emacs display engine. He also wrote tabulated-list.el, a generic major mode for lists of data; and improved support for themes and packages. * James Clark wrote SGML mode, a mode for editing SGML documents; and nXML mode, a mode for editing XML documents. He also contributed to Emacs’s dumping procedures. * Mike Clarkson wrote edt.el, an emulation of DEC’s EDT editor. * Glynn Clements provided gamegrid.el and a couple of games that use it, Snake and Tetris. * Andrew Cohen wrote spam-wash.el, to decode and clean email before it is analyzed for spam. * Daniel Colascione wrote the portable dumping code in pdumper.c and elsewhere. He also implemented double-buffering for X-based GUI frames, and the original support for loading shared-object modules into Emacs. * Theresa O’Connor wrote json.el, a file for parsing and generating JSON files. * Georges Brun-Cottan and Stefan Monnier wrote easy-mmode.el, a package for easy definition of major and minor modes. * Andrew Csillag wrote M4 mode (m4-mode.el). * Doug Cutting and Jamie Zawinski wrote disass.el, a disassembler for compiled Emacs Lisp code. * Mathias Dahl wrote image-dired.el, a package for viewing image files as thumbnails. * Julien Danjou wrote an implementation of desktop notifications (notifications.el, and related packages for ERC and Gnus); and color.el, a library for general color manipulation. He also made various contributions to Gnus. * Vivek Dasmohapatra wrote htmlfontify.el, to convert a buffer or source tree to HTML. * Matthieu Devin wrote delsel.el, a package to make newly-typed text replace the current selection. * Eric Ding wrote goto-addr.el, * Jan Djärv added support for the GTK+ toolkit and X drag-and-drop. He also wrote dynamic-setting.el. * Carsten Dominik wrote RefTeX, a package for setting up labels and cross-references in LaTeX documents; and co-wrote IDLWAVE mode (q.v.). He was the original author of Org mode, for maintaining notes, todo lists, and project planning. Bastien Guerry subsequently took over maintainership. Benjamin Andresen, Thomas Baumann, Joel Boehland, Jan Böcker, Lennart Borgman, Baoqiu Cui, Dan Davison, Christian Egli, Eric S. Fraga, Daniel German, Chris Gray, Konrad Hinsen, Tassilo Horn, Philip Jackson, Martyn Jago, Thorsten Jolitz, Jambunathan K, Tokuya Kameshima, Sergey Litvinov, David Maus, Ross Patterson, Juan Pechiar, Sebastian Rose, Eric Schulte, Paul Sexton, Ulf Stegemann, Andy Stewart, Christopher Suckling, David O’Toole, John Wiegley, Zhang Weize, Piotr Zieliński, and others also wrote various Org mode components. For more information, see History and Acknowledgments in The Org Manual. * Scott Draves wrote tq.el, help functions for maintaining transaction queues between Emacs and its subprocesses. * Benjamin Drieu wrote pong.el, an implementation of the classical pong game. * Viktor Dukhovni wrote support for dumping under SunOS version 4. * John Eaton and Kurt Hornik wrote Octave mode. * Rolf Ebert, Markus Heritsch, and Emmanuel Briot wrote Ada mode. * Paul Eggert integrated the Gnulib portability library, and made many other portability fixes to the C code; as well as his contributions to VC and the calendar. * Stephen Eglen wrote mspools.el, which tells you which Procmail folders have mail waiting in them. * Torbjörn Einarsson wrote f90.el, a mode for Fortran 90 files. * Tsugutomo Enami co-wrote the support for international character sets. * David Engster wrote mairix.el and nnmairix.el, an interface to the Mairix indexing tool. * Hans Henrik Eriksen wrote simula.el, a mode for editing SIMULA 87 code. * Michael Ernst wrote reposition.el, a command for recentering a function’s source code and preceding comment on the screen. * Ata Etemadi wrote cdl.el, functions for working with Common Data Language source code. * Frederick Farnbach implemented morse.el, which converts text to Morse code. * Oscar Figueiredo wrote EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, which is an interface to directory servers via LDAP, CCSO PH/QI, or BBDB; and ldap.el, the LDAP client interface. * Fred Fish wrote the support for dumping COFF executable files. * Karl Fogel wrote bookmark.el, which implements named placeholders; mail-hist.el, a history mechanism for outgoing mail messages; and saveplace.el, for preserving point’s location in files between editing sessions. * Gary Foster wrote scroll-all.el, a mode for scrolling several buffers together. * Romain Francoise contributed ACL (Access Control List) support, for preserving extended file attributes on backup and copy. * Noah Friedman wrote rlogin.el, an interface to Rlogin, type-break.el, which reminds you to take periodic breaks from typing, and eldoc-mode, a mode to show the defined parameters or the doc string for the Lisp function near point. * Shigeru Fukaya wrote a testsuite for the byte-compiler. * Keith Gabryelski wrote hexl.el, a mode for editing binary files. * Kevin Gallagher rewrote and enhanced the EDT emulation, and wrote flow-ctrl.el, a package for coping with unsuppressible XON/XOFF flow control. * Fabián E. Gallina rewrote python.el, the major mode for the Python programming language used in Emacs 24.3 onwards. * Kevin Gallo added multiple-frame support for Windows NT and wrote w32-win.el, support functions for the MS-Windows window system. * Juan León Lahoz García wrote wdired.el, a package for performing file operations by directly editing Dired buffers. * Howard Gayle wrote much of the C and Lisp code for display tables and case tables. He also wrote rot13.el, a command to display the plain-text form of a buffer encoded with the Caesar cipher; vt100-led.el, a package for controlling the LEDs on VT100-compatible terminals; and much of the support for ISO-8859 European character sets (which includes iso-ascii.el, iso-insert.el, iso-swed.el, iso-syntax.el, iso-transl.el, and swedish.el). * Stephen Gildea made the Emacs quick reference card, and made many contributions for time-stamp.el, a package for maintaining last-change time stamps in files. * Julien Gilles wrote gnus-ml.el, a mailing list minor mode for Gnus. * David Gillespie wrote the Common Lisp compatibility packages; Calc, an advanced calculator and mathematical tool, since maintained and developed by Jay Belanger; complete.el, a partial completion mechanism; and edmacro.el, a package for editing keyboard macros. * Bob Glickstein wrote sregex.el, a facility for writing regexps using a Lisp-like syntax. * Boris Goldowsky wrote avoid.el, a package to keep the mouse cursor out of the way of the text cursor; shadowfile.el, a package for keeping identical copies of files in more than one place; format.el, a package for reading and writing files in various formats; enriched.el, a package for saving text properties in files; facemenu.el, a package for specifying faces; and descr-text.el, describing text and character properties. * Michelangelo Grigni wrote ffap.el which visits a file, taking the file name from the buffer. * Odd Gripenstam wrote dcl-mode.el for editing DCL command files. * Michael Gschwind wrote iso-cvt.el, a package to convert between the ISO 8859-1 character set and the notations for non-ASCII characters used by TeX and net tradition. * Bastien Guerry wrote gnus-bookmark.el, bookmark support for Gnus; as well as helping to maintain Org mode (q.v.). * Henry Guillaume wrote find-file.el, a package to visit files related to the currently visited file. * Doug Gwyn wrote the portable alloca implementation. * Ken’ichi Handa implemented most of the support for international character sets, and wrote most of the Emacs 23 font handling code. He also wrote composite.el, which provides a minor mode that composes characters automatically when they are displayed; isearch-x.el, a facility for searching non-ASCII text; and ps-bdf.el, a BDF font support for printing non-ASCII text on a PostScript printer. Together with Naoto Takahashi, he wrote quail.el, an input facility for typing non-ASCII text from an ASCII keyboard. * Jesper Harder wrote yenc.el, for decoding yenc encoded messages. * Alexandru Harsanyi wrote a library for accessing SOAP web services. * K. Shane Hartman wrote chistory.el and echistory.el, packages for browsing command history lists; electric.el and helper.el, which provide an alternative command loop and appropriate help facilities; emacsbug.el, a package for reporting Emacs bugs; picture.el, a mode for editing ASCII pictures; and view.el, a package for perusing files and buffers without editing them. * John Heidemann wrote mouse-copy.el and mouse-drag.el, which provide alternative mouse-based editing and scrolling features. * Jon K Hellan wrote utf7.el, support for mail-safe transformation format of Unicode. * Karl Heuer wrote the original blessmail script, implemented the intangible text property, and rearranged the structure of the Lisp_Object type to allow for more data bits. * Manabu Higashida ported Emacs to MS-DOS. * Anders Holst wrote hippie-exp.el, a versatile completion and expansion package. * Tassilo Horn wrote DocView mode, allowing viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents. * Khaled Hosny, Yamamoto Mitsuharu, and Eli Zaretskii implemented text shaping with HarfBuzz for Emacs. * Joakim Hove wrote html2text.el, a html to plain text converter. * Denis Howe wrote browse-url.el, a package for invoking a WWW browser to display a URL. * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen did a major redesign of the Gnus news-reader and wrote many of its parts. Several of these are now general components of Emacs, including: dns.el for Domain Name Service lookups; format-spec.el for formatting arbitrary format strings; netrc.el for parsing of .netrc files; and time-date.el for general date and time handling. He also wrote network-stream.el, for opening network processes; url-queue.el, for controlling parallel downloads of URLs; and implemented libxml2 support. He also wrote eww.el, an Emacs Lisp web browser; and implemented native zlib decompression. Components of Gnus have also been written by: Nagy Andras, David Blacka, Scott Byer, Ludovic Courtès, Julien Danjou, Kevin Greiner, Kai Großjohann, Joe Hildebrand, Paul Jarc, Simon Josefsson, Sascha Lüdecke, David Moore, Jim Radford, Benjamin Rutt, Raymond Scholz, Thomas Steffen, Reiner Steib, Jan Tatarik, Didier Verna, Ilja Weis, Katsumi Yamaoka, Teodor Zlatanov, and others (see Contributors in the Gnus Manual). * Andrew Innes contributed extensively to the MS-Windows support. * Seiichiro Inoue improved Emacs’s XIM support. * Philip Jackson wrote find-cmd.el, to build a find command-line. * Ulf Jasper wrote icalendar.el, a package for converting Emacs diary entries to and from the iCalendar format; newsticker.el, an RSS and Atom based Newsticker; and bubbles.el, a puzzle game. * Kyle Jones wrote life.el, a package to play Conway’s Game of Life. * Terry Jones wrote shadow.el, a package for finding potential load-path problems when some Lisp file shadows another. * Simon Josefsson wrote dns-mode.el, an editing mode for Domain Name System master files; dig.el, a Domain Name System interface; flow-fill.el, a package for interpreting RFC2646 formatted text in messages; fringe.el, a package for customizing the fringe; imap.el, an Emacs Lisp library for talking to IMAP servers; password-cache.el, a password reader; nnimap.el, the IMAP back-end for Gnus; url-imap.el for the URL library; rfc2104.el, a hashed message authentication facility; the Gnus S/MIME and Sieve components; and tls.el and starttls.el for the Transport Layer Security protocol. * Arne Jørgensen wrote latexenc.el, a package to automatically guess the correct coding system in LaTeX files. * Alexandre Julliard wrote vc-git.el, support for the Git version control system. * Tomoji Kagatani implemented smtpmail.el, used for sending out mail with SMTP. * Ivan Kanis wrote vc-hg.el, support for the Mercurial version control system. * Henry Kautz wrote bib-mode.el, a mode for maintaining bibliography databases compatible with refer (the troff version) and lookbib, and refbib.el, a package to convert those databases to the format used by the LaTeX text formatting package. * Taichi Kawabata added support for Devanagari script and the Indian languages, and wrote ucs-normalize.el for Unicode normalization. * Taro Kawagishi implemented the MD4 Message Digest Algorithm in Lisp; and wrote ntlm.el and sasl-ntlm.el for NT LanManager authentication support. * Howard Kaye wrote sort.el, commands to sort text in Emacs buffers. * Michael Kifer wrote ediff, an interactive interface to the diff, patch, and merge programs; and Viper, an emulator of the VI editor. * Richard King wrote the first version of userlock.el and filelock.c, which provide simple support for multiple users editing the same file. He also wrote the initial version of uniquify.el, a facility to make buffer names unique by adding parts of the file’s name to the buffer name. * Peter Kleiweg wrote ps-mode.el, a mode for editing PostScript files and running a PostScript interpreter interactively from within Emacs. * Karel Klíč contributed SELinux support, for preserving the Security-Enhanced Linux context of files on backup and copy. * Shuhei Kobayashi wrote hex-util.el, for operating on hexadecimal strings; and support for HMAC (Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication). * Pavel Kobyakov wrote flymake.el, a minor mode for performing on-the-fly syntax checking. * David M. Koppelman wrote hi-lock.el, a minor mode for interactive automatic highlighting of parts of the buffer text. * Koseki Yoshinori wrote iimage.el, a minor mode for displaying inline images. * Robert Krawitz wrote the original xmenu.c, part of Emacs’s pop-up menu support. * Sebastian Kremer wrote dired-mode, with contributions by Lawrence R. Dodd. He also wrote ls-lisp.el, a Lisp emulation of the ls command for platforms that don’t have ls as a standard program. * David Kågedal wrote tempo.el, providing support for easy insertion of boilerplate text and other common constructions. * Igor Kuzmin wrote cconv.el, providing closure conversion for statically scoped Emacs lisp. * Daniel LaLiberte wrote edebug.el, a source-level debugger for Emacs Lisp; cl-specs.el, specifications to help edebug debug code written using David Gillespie’s Common Lisp support; and isearch.el, Emacs’s incremental search minor mode. He also co-wrote hideif.el (q.v.). * Karl Landstrom and Daniel Colascione wrote js.el, a mode for editing JavaScript. * Vinicius Jose Latorre wrote the Emacs printing facilities, as well as ps-print (with Jim Thompson, Jacques Duthen, and Kenichi Handa), a package for pretty-printing Emacs buffers to PostScript printers; delim-col.el, a package to arrange text into columns; ebnf2ps.el, a package that translates EBNF grammar to a syntactic chart that can be printed to a PostScript printer; and whitespace.el, a package that detects and cleans up excess whitespace in a file (building on an earlier version by Rajesh Vaidheeswarran). * Frederic Lepied wrote expand.el, which uses the abbrev mechanism for inserting programming constructs. * Peter Liljenberg wrote elint.el, a Lint-style code checker for Emacs Lisp programs. * Lars Lindberg wrote msb.el, which provides more flexible menus for buffer selection; co-wrote imenu.el (q.v.); and rewrote dabbrev.el, originally written by Don Morrison. * Anders Lindgren wrote autorevert.el, a package for automatically reverting files visited by Emacs that were changed on disk; cwarn.el, a package to highlight suspicious C and C++ constructs; and follow.el, a minor mode to synchronize windows that show the same buffer. * Thomas Link wrote filesets.el, a package for handling sets of files. * Juri Linkov wrote misearch.el, extending isearch to multi-buffer searches; the code in files-x.el for handling file- and directory-local variables; and the info-finder feature that creates a virtual Info manual of package keywords. He also implemented the Tab Bar and window tab-lines, and added numerous enhancements and improvements in I-search. * Leo Liu wrote pcmpl-x.el, providing completion for miscellaneous external tools; and revamped support for Octave in Emacs 24.4. * Károly Lőrentey wrote the multi-terminal code, which allows Emacs to run on graphical and text terminals simultaneously. * Martin Lorentzon wrote vc-annotate.el, support for version control annotation. * Dave Love wrote much of the code dealing with Unicode support and Latin-N unification. He added support for many coding systems, including the various UTF-7 and UTF-16 coding systems. He also wrote autoarg-mode, a global minor mode whereby digit keys supply prefix arguments; autoarg-kp-mode, which redefines the keypad numeric keys to digit arguments; autoconf.el, a mode for editing Autoconf files; cfengine.el, a mode for editing Cfengine files; elide-head.el, a package for eliding boilerplate text from file headers; hl-line.el, a minor mode for highlighting the line in the current window on which point is; cap-words.el, a minor mode for motion in CapitalizedWordIdentifiers; latin1-disp.el, a package that lets you display ISO 8859 characters on Latin-1 terminals by setting up appropriate display tables; the version of python.el used prior to Emacs 24.3; smiley.el, a facility for displaying smiley faces; sym-comp.el, a library for performing mode-dependent symbol completion; benchmark.el for timing code execution; and tool-bar.el, a mode to control the display of the Emacs tool bar. With Riccardo Murri he wrote vc-bzr.el, support for the Bazaar version control system. * Eric Ludlam wrote the Speedbar package; checkdoc.el, for checking doc strings in Emacs Lisp programs; dframe.el, providing dedicated frame support modes; ezimage.el, a generalized way to place images over text; chart.el for drawing bar charts etc.; and the EIEIO (Enhanced Implementation of Emacs Interpreted Objects) package. He was also the main author of the CEDET (Collection of Emacs Development Environment Tools) package. Portions were also written by Jan Moringen, David Ponce, and Joakim Verona. * Roland McGrath wrote compile.el (since updated by Daniel Pfeiffer), a package for running compilations in a buffer, and then visiting the locations reported in error messages; etags.el, a package for jumping to function definitions and searching or replacing in all the files mentioned in a TAGS file; with Sebastian Kremer find-dired.el, for using dired commands on output from the find program; grep.el for running the grep command; map-ynp.el, a general purpose boolean question-asker; autoload.el, providing semi-automatic maintenance of autoload files. * Alan Mackenzie wrote the integrated AWK support in CC Mode, and maintained CC Mode from Emacs 22 onwards. * Michael McNamara and Wilson Snyder wrote Verilog mode. * Christopher J. Madsen wrote decipher.el, a package for cracking simple substitution ciphers. * Neil M. Mager wrote appt.el, functions to notify users of their appointments. It finds appointments recorded in the diary files used by the calendar package. * Ken Manheimer wrote allout.el, a mode for manipulating and formatting outlines, and icomplete.el, which provides incremental completion feedback in the minibuffer. * Bill Mann wrote perl-mode.el, a mode for editing Perl code. * Brian Marick and Daniel LaLiberte wrote hideif.el, support for hiding selected code within C #ifdef clauses. * Simon Marshall wrote regexp-opt.el, which generates a regular expression from a list of strings; and the fast-lock and lazy-lock font-lock support modes. He also extended comint.el and shell.el, originally written by Olin Shivers. * Bengt Martensson, Dirk Herrmann, Marc Shapiro, Mike Newton, Aaron Larson, and Stefan Schoef, wrote bibtex.el, a mode for editing BibTeX bibliography files. * Charlie Martin wrote autoinsert.el, which provides automatic mode-sensitive insertion of text into new files. * Yukihiro Matsumoto and Nobuyoshi Nakada wrote Ruby-mode. * Tomohiro Matsuyama wrote the native Elisp profiler. * Thomas May wrote blackbox.el, a version of the traditional blackbox game. * David Megginson wrote derived.el, which allows one to define new major modes by inheriting key bindings and commands from existing major modes. * Jimmy Aguilar Mena wrote the code to support the :extend face attribute, and also implemented the optional display-fill-column-indicator feature. * Will Mengarini wrote repeat.el, a command to repeat the preceding command with its arguments. * Richard Mlynarik wrote cl-indent.el, a package for indenting Common Lisp code; ebuff-menu.el, an electric browser for buffer listings; ehelp.el, bindings for browsing help screens; and rfc822.el, a parser for E-mail addresses in the format used in mail messages and news articles (Internet RFC 822 and its successors). * Gerd Möllmann was the Emacs maintainer from the beginning of Emacs 21 development until the release of 21.1. He wrote the new display engine used from Emacs 21 onwards, and the asynchronous timers facility. He also wrote ebrowse, the C++ browser; jit-lock.el, the Just-In-Time font-lock support mode; tooltip.el, a package for displaying tooltips; authors.el, a package for maintaining the AUTHORS file; and rx.el, a regular expression constructor. * Stefan Monnier was the Emacs (co-)maintainer from Emacs 23 until late in the development of 25.1. He added support for Arch and Subversion to VC, re-wrote much of the Emacs server to use the built-in networking primitives, and re-wrote the abbrev and minibuffer completion code for Emacs 23. He also wrote PCL-CVS, a directory-level front end to the CVS version control system; reveal.el, a minor mode for automatically revealing invisible text; smerge-mode.el, a minor mode for resolving diff3 conflicts; diff-mode.el, a mode for viewing and editing context diffs; css-mode.el for Cascading Style Sheets; bibtex-style.el for BibTeX Style files; mpc.el, a client for the Music Player Daemon (MPD); smie.el, a generic indentation engine; and pcase.el, implementing ML-style pattern matching. In Emacs 24, he integrated the lexical binding code, cleaned up the CL namespace (making it acceptable to use CL functions at runtime), added generalized variables to core Emacs Lisp, and implemented a new lightweight advice mechanism. * Morioka Tomohiko wrote several packages for MIME support in Gnus and elsewhere. * Sen Nagata wrote crm.el, a package for reading multiple strings with completion, and rfc2368.el, support for mailto: URLs. * Erik Naggum wrote the time-conversion functions. He also wrote disp-table.el, for dealing with display tables; mailheader.el, for parsing email headers; and parse-time.el, for parsing time strings. * Takahashi Naoto co-wrote quail.el (q.v.), and wrote robin.el, another input method. * Thomas Neumann and Eric Raymond wrote make-mode.el, a mode for editing makefiles. * Thien-Thi Nguyen and Dan Nicolaescu wrote hideshow.el, a minor mode for selectively displaying blocks of text. * Dan Nicolaescu added support for running Emacs as a daemon. He also wrote romanian.el, support for editing Romanian text; iris-ansi.el, support for running Emacs on SGI’s xwsh and winterm terminal emulators; and vc-dir.el, displaying the status of version-controlled directories. * Hrvoje Nikšić wrote savehist.el, for saving the minibuffer history between Emacs sessions. * Jeff Norden wrote kermit.el, a package to help the Kermit dialup communications program run comfortably in an Emacs shell buffer. * Andrew Norman wrote ange-ftp.el, providing transparent FTP support. * Kentaro Ohkouchi created the Emacs icons used beginning with Emacs 23. * Christian Ohler wrote ert.el, a library for automated regression testing. * Alexandre Oliva wrote gnus-mlspl.el, a group params-based mail splitting mechanism. * Takaaki Ota wrote table.el, a package for creating and editing embedded text-based tables. * Pieter E. J. Pareit wrote mixal-mode.el, an editing mode for the MIX assembly language. * David Pearson wrote quickurl.el, a simple method of inserting a URL into the current buffer based on text at point; 5x5.el, a game to fill all squares on the field. * Jeff Peck wrote sun.el, key bindings for sunterm keys. * Damon Anton Permezel wrote hanoi.el, an animated demonstration of the Towers of Hanoi puzzle. * William M. Perry wrote mailcap.el (with Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen), a MIME media types configuration facility; mwheel.el, a package for supporting mouse wheels; co-wrote (with Dave Love) socks.el, a Socks v5 client; and developed the URL package. * Per Persson wrote gnus-vm.el, the VM interface for Gnus. * Jens Petersen wrote find-func.el, which makes it easy to find the source code for an Emacs Lisp function or variable. * Nicolas Petton wrote map.el, a library providing map-manipulation functions that work on alists, hash-table and arrays; seq.el, a library providing advanced sequence manipulation functions and macros; and thunk.el, a library providing functions and macros to delay the evaluation of forms. He also created the new icon in Emacs 25. * Daniel Pfeiffer wrote conf-mode.el, a mode for editing configuration files; copyright.el, a package for updating copyright notices in files; executable.el, a package for executing interpreter scripts; sh-script.el, a mode for editing shell scripts; skeleton.el, implementing a concise language for writing statement skeletons; and two-column.el, a minor mode for simultaneous two-column editing. Daniel also rewrote apropos.el (originally written by Joe Wells), for finding commands, functions, and variables matching a regular expression; and, together with Jim Blandy, co-authored wyse50.el, support for Wyse 50 terminals. He also co-wrote compile.el (q.v.) and ada-stmt.el. * Richard L. Pieri wrote pop3.el, a Post Office Protocol (RFC 1460) interface for Emacs. * Fred Pierresteguy and Paul Reilly made Emacs work with X Toolkit widgets. * François Pinard, Greg McGary, and Bruno Haible wrote po.el, support for PO translation files. * Christian Plaunt wrote soundex.el, an implementation of the Soundex algorithm for comparing English words by their pronunciation. * David Ponce wrote recentf.el, a package that puts a menu of recently visited files in the Emacs menu bar; ruler-mode.el, a minor mode for displaying a ruler in the header line; and tree-widget.el, a package to display hierarchical data structures. * Francesco A. Potortì wrote cmacexp.el, providing a command which runs the C preprocessor on a region of a file and displays the results. He also expanded and redesigned the etags program. * Michael D. Prange and Steven A. Wood wrote fortran.el, a mode for editing Fortran code. * Ashwin Ram wrote refer.el, commands to look up references in bibliography files by keyword. * Eric S. Raymond wrote vc.el, an interface to the RCS and SCCS source code version control systems, with Paul Eggert; gud.el, a package for running source-level debuggers like GDB and SDB in Emacs; asm-mode.el, a mode for editing assembly language code; AT386.el, terminal support package for IBM’s AT keyboards; cookie1.el, support for fortune-cookie programs like yow.el and spook.el; finder.el, a package for finding Emacs Lisp packages by keyword and topic; keyswap.el, code to swap the BS and DEL keys; loadhist.el, functions for loading and unloading Emacs features; lisp-mnt.el, functions for working with the special headers used in Emacs Lisp library files; and code to set and make use of the load-history lisp variable, which records the source file from which each lisp function loaded into Emacs came. * Edward M. Reingold wrote the calendar and diary support, with contributions from Stewart Clamen (cal-mayan.el), Nachum Dershowitz (cal-hebrew.el), Paul Eggert (cal-dst.el), Steve Fisk (cal-tex.el), Michael Kifer (cal-x.el), Lara Rios (cal-menu.el), and Denis B. Roegel (solar.el). Andy Oram contributed to its documentation. Reingold also contributed to tex-mode.el, a mode for editing TeX files, as did William F. Schelter, Dick King, Stephen Gildea, Michael Prange, and Jacob Gore. * David Reitter wrote mailclient.el which can send mail via the system’s designated mail client. * Alex Rezinsky wrote which-func.el, a mode that shows the name of the current function in the mode line. * Rob Riepel wrote vt-control.el, providing some control functions for the DEC VT line of terminals. * Nick Roberts wrote t-mouse.el, for mouse support in text terminals; and gdb-ui.el, a graphical user interface to GDB. Together with Dmitry Dzhus, he wrote gdb-mi.el, the successor to gdb-ui.el. * Danny Roozendaal implemented handwrite.el, which converts text into “handwriting”. * Markus Rost wrote cus-test.el, a testing framework for customize. * Guillermo J. Rozas wrote scheme.el, a mode for editing Scheme and DSSSL code. * Martin Rudalics implemented improved display-buffer handling in Emacs 24; and implemented pixel-wise resizing of windows and frames. * Ivar Rummelhoff wrote winner.el, which records recent window configurations so you can move back to them. * Jason Rumney ported the Emacs 21 display engine to MS-Windows, and has contributed extensively to the MS-Windows port of Emacs. * Wolfgang Rupprecht wrote Emacs 19’s floating-point support (including float-sup.el and floatfns.c). * Kevin Ryde wrote info-xref.el, a library for checking references in Info files. * Phil Sainty wrote so-long.el, a set of features for easier editing of files with very long lines. * James B. Salem and Brewster Kahle wrote completion.el, providing dynamic word completion. * Holger Schauer wrote fortune.el, a package for using fortune in message signatures. * William Schelter wrote telnet.el, support for telnet sessions within Emacs. * Ralph Schleicher wrote battery.el, a package for displaying laptop computer battery status, and info-look.el, a package for looking up Info documentation for symbols in the buffer. * Michael Schmidt and Tom Perrine wrote modula2.el, a mode for editing Modula-2 code, based on work by Mick Jordan and Peter Robinson. * Ronald S. Schnell wrote dunnet.el, a text adventure game. * Philippe Schnoebelen wrote gomoku.el, a Go Moku game played against Emacs; and mpuz.el, a multiplication puzzle. * Jan Schormann wrote solitaire.el, an implementation of the Solitaire game. * Alex Schroeder wrote ansi-color.el, a package for translating ANSI color escape sequences to Emacs faces; sql.el, a package for interactively running an SQL interpreter in an Emacs buffer; cus-theme.el, an interface for custom themes; master.el, a package for making a buffer ‘master’ over another; and spam-stat.el, for statistical detection of junk email. He also wrote parts of the IRC client ERC (q.v.). * Randal Schwartz wrote pp.el, a pretty-printer for lisp objects. * Manuel Serrano wrote the Flyspell package, which does spell checking as you type. * Hovav Shacham wrote windmove.el, a set of commands for selecting windows based on their geometrical position on the frame. * Stanislav Shalunov wrote uce.el, for responding to unsolicited commercial email. * Richard Sharman wrote hilit-chg.el, which uses colors to show recent editing changes. * Olin Shivers wrote comint.el, a library for modes running interactive command-line-oriented subprocesses, and shell.el, for running inferior shells (both since extended by Simon Marshall); cmuscheme.el, for running inferior Scheme processes; inf-lisp.el, for running inferior Lisp process. * Espen Skoglund wrote pascal.el, a mode for editing Pascal code. * Rick Sladkey wrote backquote.el, a lisp macro for creating mostly-constant data. * Lynn Slater wrote help-macro.el, a macro for writing interactive help for key bindings. * Chris Smith wrote icon.el, a mode for editing Icon code. * David Smith wrote ielm.el, a mode for interacting with the Emacs Lisp interpreter as a subprocess. * Paul D. Smith wrote snmp-mode.el. * William Sommerfeld wrote scribe.el, a mode for editing Scribe files, and server.el, a package allowing programs to send files to an extant Emacs job to be edited. * Andre Spiegel made many contributions to the Emacs Version Control package, and in particular made it support multiple back ends. * Michael Staats wrote pc-select.el, which rebinds keys for selecting regions to follow many other systems. * Richard Stallman invented Emacs. He is the original author of GNU Emacs, and has been Emacs maintainer over several non-contiguous periods. In addition to much of the core Emacs code, he has written easymenu.el, a facility for defining Emacs menus; image-mode.el, support for visiting image files; menu-bar.el, the Emacs menu bar support code; paren.el, a package to make matching parentheses stand out in color; and also co-authored portions of CC mode. * Sam Steingold wrote midnight.el, a package for running a command every midnight. * Ake Stenhoff and Lars Lindberg wrote imenu.el, a framework for browsing indices made from buffer contents. * Peter Stephenson wrote vcursor.el, which implements a virtual cursor that you can move with the keyboard and use for copying text. * Ken Stevens wrote ispell.el, a spell-checker interface. * Kim F. Storm made many improvements to the Emacs display engine, process support, and networking support. He also wrote bindat.el, a package for encoding and decoding binary data; CUA mode, which allows Emacs to emulate the standard CUA key bindings; ido.el, a package for selecting buffers and files quickly; keypad.el for simplified keypad bindings; and kmacro.el, the keyboard macro facility. * Martin Stjernholm co-authored CC Mode, a major editing mode for C, C++, Objective-C, Java, Pike, CORBA IDL, and AWK code. * Steve Strassmann did not write spook.el, and even if he did, he really didn’t mean for you to use it in an anarchistic way. * Olaf Sylvester wrote bs.el, a package for manipulating Emacs buffers. * Tibor Šimko and Milan Zamazal wrote slovak.el, support for editing text in Slovak language. * João Távora wrote many improvements for flymake.el, an on-the-fly syntax-checking package. * Luc Teirlinck wrote help-at-pt.el, providing local help through the keyboard. * Jean-Philippe Theberge wrote thumbs.el, a package for viewing image files as thumbnails. * Spencer Thomas wrote the original dabbrev.el, providing a command which completes the partial word before point, based on other nearby words for which it is a prefix. He also wrote the original dumping support. * Toru Tomabechi contributed to Tibetan support. * Markus Triska wrote linum.el, a minor mode that displays line numbers in the left margin. * Tom Tromey and Chris Lindblad wrote tcl.el, a mode for editing Tcl/Tk source files and running a Tcl interpreter as an Emacs subprocess. Tom Tromey also wrote bug-reference.el, providing clickable links to bug reports; and the first version of the Emacs package system. * Eli Tziperman wrote rmail-spam-filter.el, a spam filter for RMAIL. * Daiki Ueno wrote starttls.el, support for Transport Layer Security protocol; sasl-cram.el and sasl-digest.el (with Kenichi Okada), and sasl.el, support for Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL); plstore.el for secure storage of property lists; and the EasyPG (and its predecessor PGG) package, for GnuPG and PGP support. * Masanobu Umeda wrote GNUS, a feature-rich reader for Usenet news that was the ancestor of the current Gnus package. He also wrote rmailsort.el, a package for sorting messages in RMAIL folders; metamail.el, an interface to the Metamail program; gnus-kill.el, the Kill File mode for Gnus; gnus-mh.el, an mh-e interface for Gnus; gnus-msg.el, a mail and post interface for Gnus; and timezone.el, providing functions for dealing with time zones. * Neil W. Van Dyke wrote webjump.el, a Web hotlist package. * Didier Verna wrote rect.el, a package of functions for operations on rectangle regions of text. He also contributed to Gnus (q.v.). * Joakim Verona implemented ImageMagick support. * Ulrik Vieth implemented meta-mode.el, for editing MetaFont code. * Geoffrey Voelker wrote the Windows NT support. He also wrote dos-w32.el, functions shared by the MS-DOS and MS-Windows ports of Emacs, and w32-fns.el, MS-Windows specific support functions. * Johan Vromans wrote forms.el and its associated files, a mode for filling in forms. He also wrote iso-acc.el, a minor mode providing electric accent keys. * Colin Walters wrote Ibuffer, an enhanced buffer menu. * Barry Warsaw wrote cc-mode.el, a mode for editing C, C++, and Java code, based on earlier work by Dave Detlefs, Stewart Clamen, and Richard Stallman; elp.el, a profiler for Emacs Lisp programs; man.el, a mode for reading Unix manual pages; regi.el, providing an AWK-like functionality for use in lisp programs; reporter.el, providing customizable bug reporting for lisp packages; and supercite.el, a minor mode for quoting sections of mail messages and news articles. * Christoph Wedler wrote antlr-mode.el, a major mode for ANTLR grammar files. * Morten Welinder helped port Emacs to MS-DOS, and introduced face support into the MS-DOS port of Emacs. He also wrote desktop.el, facilities for saving some of Emacs’s state between sessions; timer.el, the Emacs facility to run commands at a given time or frequency, or when Emacs is idle, and its C-level support code; pc-win.el, the MS-DOS “window-system” support; internal.el, an “internal terminal” emulator for the MS-DOS port of Emacs; arc-mode.el, the mode for editing compressed archives; s-region.el, commands for setting the region using the shift key and motion commands; and dos-fns.el, functions for use under MS-DOS. * Joe Wells wrote the original version of apropos.el (q.v.); resume.el, support for processing command-line arguments after resuming a suspended Emacs job; and mail-extr.el, a package for extracting names and addresses from mail headers, with contributions from Jamie Zawinski. * Rodney Whitby and Reto Zimmermann wrote vhdl-mode.el, a major mode for editing VHDL source code. * John Wiegley was the Emacs maintainer from Emacs 25 onwards. He wrote align.el, a set of commands for aligning text according to regular-expression based rules; isearchb.el for fast buffer switching; timeclock.el, a package for keeping track of time spent on projects; the Bahá’í calendar support; pcomplete.el, a programmable completion facility; remember.el, a mode for jotting down things to remember; eudcb-mab.el, an address book backend for the Emacs Unified Directory Client; and eshell, a command shell implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. He also contributed to Org mode (q.v.). * Mike Williams wrote thingatpt.el, a library of functions for finding the “thing” (word, line, s-expression) at point. * Roland Winkler wrote proced.el, a system process editor. * Bill Wohler wrote MH-E, the Emacs interface to the MH mail system; making use of earlier work by James R. Larus. Satyaki Das, Peter S. Galbraith, Stephen Gildea, and Jeffrey C. Honig also wrote various MH-E components. * Dale R. Worley wrote emerge.el, a package for interactively merging two versions of a file. * Francis J. Wright wrote woman.el, a package for browsing manual pages without the man command. * Masatake Yamato wrote ld-script.el, an editing mode for GNU linker scripts, and contributed subword handling and style guessing in CC mode. * Jonathan Yavner wrote testcover.el, a package for keeping track of the testing status of Emacs Lisp code; unsafep.el to determine if a Lisp form is safe; and the SES spreadsheet package. * Ryan Yeske wrote rcirc.el a simple Internet Relay Chat client. * Ilya Zakharevich and Bob Olson wrote cperl-mode.el, a major mode for editing Perl code. Ilya Zakharevich also wrote tmm.el, a mode for accessing the Emacs menu bar on a text-mode terminal. * Milan Zamazal wrote czech.el, support for editing Czech text; glasses.el, a package for easier reading of source code that uses illegible identifier names; and tildify.el, commands for adding hard spaces to text, TeX, and SGML/HTML files. * Victor Zandy wrote zone.el, a package for people who like to zone out in front of Emacs. * Eli Zaretskii made many standard Emacs features work on MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. He also wrote tty-colors.el, which implements transparent mapping of X colors to tty colors; and rxvt.el. He implemented support for bidirectional text, menus on text-mode terminals, and built-in display of line numbers. * Jamie Zawinski wrote much of the support for faces and X selections. With Hallvard Furuseth, he wrote the optimizing byte compiler used from Emacs 19 onwards. He also wrote mailabbrev.el, a package that provides automatic expansion of mail aliases, and tar-mode.el, which provides simple viewing and editing commands for tar files. * Andrew Zhilin created the Emacs 22 icons. * Shenghuo Zhu wrote binhex.el, a package for reading and writing binhex files; mm-partial.el, message/partial support for MIME messages; rfc1843.el, an HZ decoding package; uudecode.el, an Emacs Lisp decoder for uuencoded data; and webmail.el, an interface to Web mail. He also wrote several other Gnus components. * Ian T. Zimmerman wrote gametree.el. * Reto Zimmermann wrote vera-mode.el. * Neal Ziring and Felix S. T. Wu wrote vi.el, an emulation of the VI text editor. * Ted Zlatanov (as well as his contributions to the Gnus newsreader) wrote an interface to the GnuTLS library, for secure network connections; and a futures facility for the URL library. * Detlev Zundel wrote re-builder.el, a package for building regexps with visual feedback. Next: Key Index, Previous: Glossary, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Option Index, Previous: Acknowledgments, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Key (Character) Index Jump to: ! " # $ % ( * + - . / 1 2 : < = > ? ^ { } ~ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Z Index Entry Section -------------------------------------------------------------- ! ! (Dired): Shell Commands in Dired -------------------------------------------------------------- " " (TeX mode): TeX Editing -------------------------------------------------------------- # # (Dired): Flagging Many Files -------------------------------------------------------------- $ $ (Dired): Hiding Subdirectories -------------------------------------------------------------- % % & (Dired): Flagging Many Files % (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers % C (Dired): Transforming File Names % d (Dired): Flagging Many Files % g (Dired): Marks vs Flags % H (Dired): Transforming File Names % l (Dired): Transforming File Names % m (Dired): Marks vs Flags % R (Dired): Transforming File Names % S (Dired): Transforming File Names % u (Dired): Transforming File Names -------------------------------------------------------------- ( ( (Dired): Misc Dired Features ( (Package Menu): Package Menu -------------------------------------------------------------- * * ! (Dired): Marks vs Flags * % (Dired): Marks vs Flags * * (Dired): Marks vs Flags * / (Dired): Marks vs Flags * ? (Dired): Marks vs Flags * @ (Dired): Marks vs Flags * c (Dired): Marks vs Flags * C-n (Dired): Marks vs Flags * C-p (Dired): Marks vs Flags * DEL (Dired): Marks vs Flags * m (Dired): Marks vs Flags * N (Dired): Marks vs Flags * s (Dired): Marks vs Flags * t (Dired): Marks vs Flags * u (Dired): Marks vs Flags -------------------------------------------------------------- + + (Dired): Misc Dired Features + (DocView mode): DocView Navigation -------------------------------------------------------------- - - (DocView mode): DocView Navigation -------------------------------------------------------------- . . (Calendar mode): Specified Dates . (Dired): Flagging Many Files . (Rmail): Rmail Scrolling -------------------------------------------------------------- / / (Rmail): Rmail Scrolling / / (Package Menu): Package Menu / k (Package Menu): Package Menu / n (Package Menu): Package Menu -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1 (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers -------------------------------------------------------------- 2 2 (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers -------------------------------------------------------------- : :d (Dired): Operating on Files :e (Dired): Operating on Files :s (Dired): Operating on Files :v (Dired): Operating on Files -------------------------------------------------------------- < < (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar < (Dired): Subdirectory Motion < (Rmail): Rmail Motion -------------------------------------------------------------- = = (Dired): Comparison in Dired -------------------------------------------------------------- > > (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar > (Dired): Subdirectory Motion > (Rmail): Rmail Motion -------------------------------------------------------------- ? ? (completion): Completion Commands ? (Package Menu): Package Menu -------------------------------------------------------------- ^ ^ (Dired): Dired Visiting -------------------------------------------------------------- { { (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers -------------------------------------------------------------- } } (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers -------------------------------------------------------------- ~ ~ (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers ~ (Dired): Flagging Many Files ~ (Package Menu): Package Menu -------------------------------------------------------------- A a (Calendar mode): Holidays A (Dired): Operating on Files a (Rmail): Rmail Labels A k (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer A s (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer A u (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer A z (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer AltGr (MS-Windows): Windows Keyboard -------------------------------------------------------------- B b (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers B (Dired): Operating on Files b (Rmail summary): Rmail Summary Edit b (Rmail): Rmail Basics BS (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard -------------------------------------------------------------- C C (Dired): Operating on Files c (Dired): Operating on Files c (Rmail): Rmail Reply C-/: Undo C-@: Setting Mark C-a: Moving Point C-a (Calendar mode): Move to Beginning or End C-b: Moving Point C-b (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion C-Break (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard C-c ' (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c , j: Semantic C-c , J: Semantic C-c , l: Semantic C-c , SPC: Semantic C-c . (C mode): Custom C Indent C-c . (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c . (Shell mode): Shell Ring C-c / (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c / (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c 8 (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c ; (Fortran mode): Fortran Comments C-c < (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c < (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c > (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c > (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c ? (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c @ (Outline minor mode): Outline Mode C-c @ C-c: Hideshow C-c @ C-h: Hideshow C-c @ C-l: Hideshow C-c @ C-M-h: Hideshow C-c @ C-M-s: Hideshow C-c @ C-r: Hideshow C-c @ C-s: Hideshow C-c C-a (C mode): Electric C C-c C-a (F90 mode): Fortran Motion C-c C-a (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer C-c C-a (Message mode): Mail Misc C-c C-a (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-a (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c C-a (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-b (Help mode): Help Mode C-c C-b (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-b (Outline mode): Outline Motion C-c C-b (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c C-b (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c C-b (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-b (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-c (C mode): Comment Commands C-c C-c (customization buffer): Changing a Variable C-c C-c (Edit Abbrevs): Editing Abbrevs C-c C-c (Edit Tab Stops): Tab Stops C-c C-c (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer C-c C-c (Message mode): Mail Sending C-c C-c (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-c (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-c (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-d (C Mode): Hungry Delete C-c C-d (Fortran mode): ForIndent Commands C-c C-d (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-d (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer C-c C-d (Org Mode): Org Organizer C-c C-d (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-d (Picture mode): Basic Picture C-c C-d (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c C-DEL (C Mode): Hungry Delete C-c C-Delete (C Mode): Hungry Delete C-c C-e (C mode): Other C Commands C-c C-e (F90 mode): Fortran Motion C-c C-e (LaTeX mode): LaTeX Editing C-c C-e (Org mode): Org Authoring C-c C-e (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-e (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-f (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-f (Help mode): Help Mode C-c C-f (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer C-c C-f (Outline mode): Outline Motion C-c C-f (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c C-f (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c C-f (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-f (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-f C-b (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-f C-c (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-f C-f (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-f C-r (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-f C-s (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-f C-t (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-f C-w (Message mode): Header Editing C-c C-i (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-i (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-j (Term mode): Term Mode C-c C-k (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-k (Picture mode): Rectangles in Picture C-c C-k (Term mode): Term Mode C-c C-k (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-l (C mode): Electric C C-c C-l (Calendar mode): General Calendar C-c C-l (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-l (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-l (Shell mode): Shell Ring C-c C-l (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-n (C mode): Motion in C C-c C-n (Fortran mode): Fortran Motion C-c C-n (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-n (Outline mode): Outline Motion C-c C-n (Rmail): Rmail Motion C-c C-n (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c C-n (Shell mode): Shell History Copying C-c C-o (LaTeX mode): LaTeX Editing C-c C-o (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-o (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-p (C mode): Motion in C C-c C-p (Fortran mode): Fortran Motion C-c C-p (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-p (Outline mode): Outline Motion C-c C-p (Rmail): Rmail Motion C-c C-p (Shell mode): Shell History Copying C-c C-p (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-q (C mode): C Indent C-c C-q (Message mode): Citing Mail C-c C-q (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-q (Term mode): Term Mode C-c C-r (Fortran mode): Fortran Columns C-c C-r (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-r (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-r (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-s (C mode): Other C Commands C-c C-s (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-s (Message mode): Mail Sending C-c C-s (Org Mode): Org Organizer C-c C-s (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-s (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-t (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-t (Org Mode): Org Organizer C-c C-t (Outline mode): Outline Visibility C-c C-t (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c C-u (C mode): Motion in C C-c C-u (GUD): Commands of GUD C-c C-u (Outline mode): Outline Motion C-c C-u (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-v (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c C-v (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c C-w (Fortran mode): Fortran Columns C-c C-w (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer C-c C-w (Message mode): Mail Signature C-c C-w (Picture mode): Rectangles in Picture C-c C-w (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-x: Foldout C-c C-x (Picture mode): Rectangles in Picture C-c C-x (Shell mode): Shell Ring C-c C-y (Message mode): Citing Mail C-c C-y (Picture mode): Rectangles in Picture C-c C-z: Foldout C-c C-z (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c C-\ (C mode): Other C Commands C-c C-\ (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-c DEL (C Mode): Hungry Delete C-c Delete (C Mode): Hungry Delete C-c DOWN (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c End (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c Home (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c LEFT (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c next (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c PageDown (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c PageUp (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c prior (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c RET (Goto Address mode): Goto Address mode C-c RET (Shell mode): Shell History Copying C-c RIGHT (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c TAB (Picture mode): Tabs in Picture C-c TAB (SGML mode): HTML Mode C-c TAB (TeX mode): TeX Print C-c UP (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c [ (Enriched mode): Enriched Indentation C-c [ (Org Mode): Org Organizer C-c \ (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c ] (Enriched mode): Enriched Indentation C-c ^ (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c ` (Picture mode): Insert in Picture C-c { (TeX mode): TeX Editing C-c } (TeX mode): TeX Editing C-d (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers C-d (Rmail): Rmail Deletion C-d (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-Down-mouse-1: Buffer Menus C-e: Moving Point C-e (Calendar mode): Move to Beginning or End C-END: Moving Point C-f: Moving Point C-f (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion C-g: Quitting C-g (Incremental search): Error in Isearch C-g (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard C-g C-g (Incremental Search): Basic Isearch C-h: Help C-h .: Help Echo C-h 4 i: Misc Help C-h a: Apropos C-h b: Misc Help C-h c: Key Help C-h C: Coding Systems C-h C-c: Help Files C-h C-d: Help Files C-h C-e: Help Files C-h C-f: Help Files C-h C-h: Help C-h C-h (Incremental Search): Special Isearch C-h C-m: Help Files C-h C-n: Help Files C-h C-o: Help Files C-h C-p: Help Files C-h C-t: Help Files C-h C-w: Help Files C-h C-\: Select Input Method C-h d: Apropos C-h e: Misc Help C-h f: Name Help C-h F: Name Help C-h g: Help Files C-h h: International Chars C-h i: Misc Help C-h I: Select Input Method C-h k: Key Help C-h K: Key Help C-h l: Misc Help C-h L: Language Environments C-h m: Misc Help C-h o: Name Help C-h p: Package Keywords C-h P: Package Keywords C-h S: Misc Help C-h s: Misc Help C-h t: Basic C-h v: Name Help C-h w: Key Help C-j: Inserting Text C-j (and major modes): Major Modes C-j (Lisp Interaction mode): Lisp Interaction C-j (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard C-j (TeX mode): TeX Editing C-k: Killing by Lines C-k (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer C-l: Recentering C-LEFT: Moving Point C-M-%: Query Replace C-M-% (Incremental search): Special Isearch C-M-.: Looking Up Identifiers C-M-/: Dynamic Abbrevs C-M-@: Marking Objects C-M-a: Moving by Defuns C-M-b: Expressions C-M-c: Recursive Edit C-M-d: Moving by Parens C-M-d (Dired): Subdirectory Motion C-M-d (Incremental search): Isearch Yank C-M-e: Moving by Defuns C-M-f: Expressions C-M-f (Rmail): Rmail Make Summary C-M-h: Moving by Defuns C-M-h (C mode): Moving by Defuns C-M-i: Symbol Completion C-M-i (customization buffer): Changing a Variable C-M-j: Multi-Line Comments C-M-j (Fortran mode): ForIndent Commands C-M-k: Expressions C-M-l: Recentering C-M-l (Rmail): Rmail Make Summary C-M-l (Shell mode): Shell Mode C-M-n: Moving by Parens C-M-n (Dired): Subdirectory Motion C-M-n (Fortran mode): Fortran Motion C-M-n (Rmail): Rmail Labels C-M-o: Indentation Commands C-M-p: Moving by Parens C-M-p (Dired): Subdirectory Motion C-M-p (Fortran mode): Fortran Motion C-M-p (Rmail): Rmail Labels C-M-q: Multi-line Indent C-M-q (C mode): C Indent C-M-q (Fortran mode): ForIndent Commands C-M-r: Regexp Search C-M-r (Rmail): Rmail Make Summary C-M-s: Regexp Search C-M-s (Rmail): Rmail Make Summary C-M-S-v: Other Window C-M-SPC: Expressions C-M-t: Expressions C-M-t (Rmail): Rmail Make Summary C-M-u: Moving by Parens C-M-u (Dired): Subdirectory Motion C-M-v: Other Window C-M-w: Appending Kills C-M-w (Incremental search): Isearch Yank C-M-x (Emacs Lisp mode): Lisp Eval C-M-x (Lisp mode): External Lisp C-M-x (Scheme mode): External Lisp C-M-y (Incremental search): Isearch Yank C-M-z (Incremental search): Isearch Yank C-M-\: Indentation Commands C-mouse-1: Menu Mouse Clicks C-mouse-2: Menu Mouse Clicks C-mouse-2 (mode line): Split Window C-mouse-2 (scroll bar): Split Window C-mouse-3: Menu Mouse Clicks C-mouse-3 (when menu bar is Menu Bars disabled): C-n: Moving Point C-n (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion C-n (Dired): Dired Navigation C-o: Blank Lines C-o (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers C-o (Dired): Dired Visiting C-o (Occur mode): Other Repeating Search C-o (Rmail): Rmail Output C-p: Moving Point C-p (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion C-p (Dired): Dired Navigation C-q: Inserting Text C-q (Incremental Search): Special Isearch C-r: Basic Isearch C-r (Incremental Search): Repeat Isearch C-RIGHT: Moving Point C-s: Basic Isearch C-s (Incremental Search): Repeat Isearch C-S-backspace: Killing by Lines C-S-mouse-3 (FFAP): FFAP C-SPC: Setting Mark C-SPC C-SPC: Mark Ring C-SPC C-SPC, enabling Transient Mark Disabled Transient Mark mode temporarily: C-t: Transpose C-t d (Image-Dired): Image-Dired C-TAB: File Name Cache C-TAB: Tab Bars C-u: Arguments C-u C-/: Undo C-u C-c C-w (Fortran mode): Fortran Columns C-u C-SPC: Mark Ring C-u C-x C-x: Disabled Transient Mark C-u C-x v =: Old Revisions C-u C-x v D: Old Revisions C-u M-;: Comment Commands C-u TAB: Multi-line Indent C-v: Moving Point C-v: Scrolling C-v (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar C-w: Other Kill Commands C-w (Incremental search): Isearch Yank C-wheel-down: Text Scale C-wheel-up: Text Scale C-x #: Invoking emacsclient C-x $: Selective Display C-x (: Basic Keyboard Macro C-x ): Basic Keyboard Macro C-x +: Change Window C-x -: Change Window C-x .: Fill Prefix C-x 0: Change Window C-x 1: Change Window C-x 2: Split Window C-x 3: Split Window C-x 4: Pop Up Window C-x 4 .: Looking Up Identifiers C-x 4 0: Change Window C-x 4 a: Change Log Commands C-x 4 b: Select Buffer C-x 4 c: Indirect Buffers C-x 4 C-o: Pop Up Window C-x 4 d: Dired Enter C-x 4 f: Visiting C-x 4 f (FFAP): FFAP C-x 4 m: Sending Mail C-x 5: Creating Frames C-x 5 .: Looking Up Identifiers C-x 5 0: Frame Commands C-x 5 1: Frame Commands C-x 5 2: Creating Frames C-x 5 b: Select Buffer C-x 5 d: Dired Enter C-x 5 f: Visiting C-x 5 f (FFAP): FFAP C-x 5 m: Sending Mail C-x 5 o: Frame Commands C-x 5 r: Creating Frames C-x 6 1: Two-Column C-x 6 2: Two-Column C-x 6 b: Two-Column C-x 6 d: Two-Column C-x 6 RET: Two-Column C-x 6 s: Two-Column C-x 8: Inserting Text C-x 8 RET (Incremental Search): Special Isearch C-x ;: Options for Comments C-x <: Horizontal Scrolling C-x =: Position Info C-x =, and international characters: International Chars C-x >: Horizontal Scrolling C-x a g: Defining Abbrevs C-x a i g: Defining Abbrevs C-x a i l: Defining Abbrevs C-x a l: Defining Abbrevs C-x b: Select Buffer C-x C-+: Text Scale C-x C--: Text Scale C-x C-0: Text Scale C-x C-;: Comment Commands C-x C-=: Text Scale C-x C-a (GUD): Commands of GUD C-x C-a C-b: Commands of GUD C-x C-a C-j (GUD): Commands of GUD C-x C-a C-w (GUD): Watch Expressions C-x C-b: List Buffers C-x C-c: Exiting C-x C-c (customization buffer): Changing a Variable C-x C-d: Directories C-x C-e: Lisp Eval C-x C-f: Visiting C-x C-f (FFAP): FFAP C-x C-k b: Save Keyboard Macro C-x C-k C-a: Keyboard Macro Counter C-x C-k C-c: Keyboard Macro Counter C-x C-k C-e: Edit Keyboard Macro C-x C-k C-f: Keyboard Macro Counter C-x C-k C-i: Keyboard Macro Counter C-x C-k C-k: Keyboard Macro Ring C-x C-k C-n: Keyboard Macro Ring C-x C-k C-p: Keyboard Macro Ring C-x C-k e: Edit Keyboard Macro C-x C-k l: Edit Keyboard Macro C-x C-k n: Save Keyboard Macro C-x C-k r: Basic Keyboard Macro C-x C-k RET: Edit Keyboard Macro C-x C-k SPC: Keyboard Macro Step-Edit C-x C-k x: Keyboard Macro Registers C-x C-l: Case C-x C-n: Moving Point C-x C-o: Blank Lines C-x C-p: Pages C-x C-q: Misc Buffer C-x C-r: Visiting C-x C-r (FFAP): FFAP C-x C-s: Save Commands C-x C-s (Custom Themes buffer): Custom Themes C-x C-SPC: Global Mark Ring C-x C-t: Transpose C-x C-u: Case C-x C-v: Visiting C-x C-v (FFAP): FFAP C-x C-w: Save Commands C-x C-x: Setting Mark C-x C-x, in rectangle-mark-mode: Rectangles C-x C-z: External Lisp C-x d: Dired Enter C-x d (FFAP): FFAP C-x DEL: Sentences C-x e: Basic Keyboard Macro C-x ESC ESC: Repetition C-x f: Fill Commands C-x h: Marking Objects C-x i: Misc File Ops C-x k: Kill Buffer C-x l: Pages C-x LEFT: Select Buffer C-x m: Sending Mail C-x n d: Narrowing C-x n n: Narrowing C-x n p: Narrowing C-x n w: Narrowing C-x o: Other Window C-x q: Keyboard Macro Query C-x r +: Number Registers C-x r b: Bookmarks C-x r c: Rectangles C-x r d: Rectangles C-x r f: Configuration Registers C-x r i: Text Registers C-x r j: Position Registers C-x r k: Rectangles C-x r l: Bookmarks C-x r m: Bookmarks C-x r M: Bookmarks C-x r M-w: Rectangles C-x r N: Rectangles C-x r n: Number Registers C-x r o: Rectangles C-x r r: Rectangle Registers C-x r s: Text Registers C-x r SPC: Position Registers C-x r t: Rectangles C-x r w: Configuration Registers C-x r y: Rectangles C-x RET: International Chars C-x RET c: Text Coding C-x RET C-\: Select Input Method C-x RET f: Text Coding C-x RET F: File Name Coding C-x RET k: Terminal Coding C-x RET p: Communication Coding C-x RET r: Text Coding C-x RET t: Terminal Coding C-x RET x: Communication Coding C-x RET X: Communication Coding C-x RIGHT: Select Buffer C-x s: Save Commands C-x t: Tab Bars C-x t 0: Tab Bars C-x t 1: Tab Bars C-x t 2: Tab Bars C-x t o: Tab Bars C-x TAB: Indentation Commands C-x TAB (Enriched mode): Enriched Indentation C-x u: Undo C-x v +: Pulling / Pushing C-x v =: Old Revisions C-x v a: Change Logs and VC C-x v D: Old Revisions C-x v d: VC Directory Mode C-x v g: Old Revisions C-x v G: VC Ignore C-x v h: VC Change Log C-x v i: Registering C-x v I: VC Change Log C-x v l: VC Change Log C-x v L: VC Change Log C-x v O: VC Change Log C-x v P: Pulling / Pushing C-x v r: Revision Tags C-x v s: Revision Tags C-x v u: VC Undo C-x v v: Basic VC Editing C-x v ~: Old Revisions C-x w .: Highlight Interactively C-x w b: Highlight Interactively C-x w h: Highlight Interactively C-x w i: Highlight Interactively C-x w l: Highlight Interactively C-x w p: Highlight Interactively C-x w r: Highlight Interactively C-x z: Repeating C-x [: Pages C-x [ (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion C-x [ (DocView mode): DocView Navigation C-x ]: Pages C-x ] (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion C-x ] (DocView mode): DocView Navigation C-x ^: Change Window C-x `: Compilation Mode C-x }: Change Window C-y: Yanking C-y (Incremental search): Isearch Yank C-z: Exiting C-z (X windows): Frame Commands C-\: Select Input Method C-]: Quitting C-^ (Incremental Search): Special Isearch C-_: Undo C-_ (Dired): Marks vs Flags -------------------------------------------------------------- D d (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers d (Calendar mode): Displaying the Diary d (Dired): Dired Deletion D (Dired): Operating on Files D (GDB Breakpoints buffer): Breakpoints Buffer D (GDB speedbar): Watch Expressions d (GDB threads buffer): Threads Buffer d (Package Menu): Package Menu d (Rmail): Rmail Deletion DEL (and major modes): Major Modes DEL (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers DEL (Dired): Dired Deletion DEL (DocView mode): DocView Navigation DEL (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer DEL (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer DEL (Incremental search): Basic Isearch DEL (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard DEL (programming modes): Program Modes DEL (Rmail): Rmail Scrolling DEL (View mode): View Mode DOWN: Moving Point DOWN (minibuffer history): Minibuffer History -------------------------------------------------------------- E e (Dired): Dired Visiting e (Rmail): Rmail Editing e (View mode): View Mode END: Moving Point ESC ESC ESC: Quitting ESC ESC ESC (Incremental Search): Basic Isearch -------------------------------------------------------------- F f (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers f (Dired): Dired Visiting f (GDB threads buffer): Threads Buffer f (Rmail): Rmail Reply F1: Help F10: Menu Bar F11: Frame Commands F2 1: Two-Column F2 2: Two-Column F2 b: Two-Column F2 d: Two-Column F2 RET: Two-Column F2 s: Two-Column F3: Basic Keyboard Macro F4: Basic Keyboard Macro -------------------------------------------------------------- G G (Dired): Operating on Files g (Dired): Dired Updating g (Package Menu): Package Menu g (Rmail): Rmail Files g char (Calendar mode): From Other Calendar g d (Calendar mode): Specified Dates g D (Calendar mode): Specified Dates g m (Calendar mode): Mayan Calendar g w (Calendar mode): Specified Dates -------------------------------------------------------------- H H (Calendar mode): Writing Calendar Files h (Calendar mode): Holidays H (Dired): Operating on Files h (Package Menu): Package Menu H (Package Menu): Package Menu h (Rmail): Rmail Make Summary HOME: Moving Point -------------------------------------------------------------- I i (Dired): Subdirectories in Dired i (Package Menu): Package Menu i (Rmail): Rmail Files i a (Calendar mode): Special Diary Entries i b (Calendar mode): Special Diary Entries i c (Calendar mode): Special Diary Entries i d (Calendar mode): Adding to Diary i m (Calendar mode): Adding to Diary i w (Calendar mode): Adding to Diary i y (Calendar mode): Adding to Diary INSERT: Minor Modes -------------------------------------------------------------- J j (Dired): Dired Navigation j (Rmail): Rmail Motion -------------------------------------------------------------- K k (Dired): Dired Updating k (Rmail): Rmail Labels -------------------------------------------------------------- L L (Dired): Operating on Files l (Dired): Dired Updating l (GDB threads buffer): Threads Buffer l (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer L (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer l (Help mode): Help Mode l (Rmail): Rmail Make Summary LEFT: Moving Point LEFT, and bidirectional text: Bidirectional Editing -------------------------------------------------------------- M m (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers M (Calendar mode): Lunar Phases m (Calendar mode): Displaying the Diary m (Dired): Marks vs Flags M (Dired): Operating on Files m (Rmail): Rmail Reply M-!: Single Shell M-$: Spelling M-$ (Dired): Hiding Subdirectories M-%: Query Replace M-% (Incremental search): Special Isearch M-&: Single Shell M-': Expanding Abbrevs M-,: Looking Up Identifiers M--: Arguments M-- M-c: Fixing Case M-- M-l: Fixing Case M-- M-u: Fixing Case M-.: Looking Up Identifiers M-/: Dynamic Abbrevs M-1: Arguments M-:: Lisp Eval M-;: Comment Commands M-<: Moving Point M-< (Calendar mode): Move to Beginning or End M-< (DocView mode): DocView Navigation M-=: Position Info M-= (Calendar mode): Counting Days M->: Moving Point M-> (Calendar mode): Move to Beginning or End M-> (DocView mode): DocView Navigation M-?: Identifier Search M-? (Nroff mode): Nroff Mode M-? (Shell mode): Shell Mode M-@: Marking Objects M-@: Words M-a: Sentences M-a (C mode): Motion in C M-a (Calendar mode): Move to Beginning or End M-b: Words M-c: Case M-c (Incremental search): Lax Search M-d: Words M-DEL: Words M-DEL (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers M-DEL (Dired): Marks vs Flags M-DOWN (Org Mode): Org Mode M-Drag-mouse-1: Secondary Selection M-e: Sentences M-e (C mode): Motion in C M-e (Calendar mode): Move to Beginning or End M-e (Incremental search): Repeat Isearch M-f: Words M-F10: Frame Commands M-g c: Moving Point M-g g: Moving Point M-g M-g: Moving Point M-g M-n: Compilation Mode M-g n: Compilation Mode M-g TAB: Moving Point M-h: Paragraphs M-i: Indentation Commands M-j: Multi-Line Comments M-j b (Enriched mode): Enriched Justification M-j c (Enriched mode): Enriched Justification M-j l (Enriched mode): Enriched Justification M-j r (Enriched mode): Enriched Justification M-j u (Enriched mode): Enriched Justification M-k: Sentences M-l: Case M-LEFT: Moving Point M-LEFT (Org Mode): Org Mode M-m: Indentation Commands M-m (Rmail): Rmail Reply M-mouse-1: Secondary Selection M-mouse-2: Secondary Selection M-mouse-3: Secondary Selection M-n (Incremental search): Repeat Isearch M-n (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer M-n (Man mode): Man Page M-n (minibuffer history): Minibuffer History M-n (Nroff mode): Nroff Mode M-n (Rmail): Rmail Motion M-n (Shell mode): Shell Ring M-o b (Enriched mode): Enriched Faces M-o d (Enriched mode): Enriched Faces M-o i (Enriched mode): Enriched Faces M-o l (Enriched mode): Enriched Faces M-o M-s (Text mode): Fill Commands M-o o (Enriched mode): Enriched Faces M-o u (Enriched mode): Enriched Faces M-p (Incremental search): Repeat Isearch M-p (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer M-p (Man mode): Man Page M-p (minibuffer history): Minibuffer History M-p (Nroff mode): Nroff Mode M-p (Rmail): Rmail Motion M-p (Shell mode): Shell Ring M-q: Fill Commands M-q (C mode): Other C Commands M-q (Fortran mode): ForIndent Commands M-r: Moving Point M-r (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer M-r (Incremental Search): Special Isearch M-r (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer M-r (minibuffer history): Minibuffer History M-r (Shell mode): Shell Ring M-RIGHT: Moving Point M-RIGHT (Org Mode): Org Mode M-s ' (Incremental Search): Lax Search M-S (Enriched mode): Enriched Justification M-s (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer M-s (Log Edit mode): Log Buffer M-s (minibuffer history): Minibuffer History M-s (Rmail): Rmail Motion M-s .: Symbol Search M-s a C-s (Dired): Misc Dired Features M-s a M-C-s (Dired): Misc Dired Features M-s c (Incremental search): Lax Search M-s C-e (Incremental search): Isearch Yank M-s f C-s (Dired): Dired Navigation M-s f M-C-s (Dired): Dired Navigation M-s h .: Highlight Interactively M-s h f: Highlight Interactively M-s h l: Highlight Interactively M-s h l (Incremental Search): Special Isearch M-s h p: Highlight Interactively M-s h r: Highlight Interactively M-s h r (Incremental Search): Special Isearch M-s h u: Highlight Interactively M-s h w: Highlight Interactively M-s i (Incremental search): Special Isearch M-s M-<: Special Isearch M-s M->: Special Isearch M-s M-w: Word Search M-s o: Other Repeating Search M-s o (Incremental Search): Special Isearch M-s r (Incremental Search): Special Isearch M-s SPC (Incremental search): Lax Search M-s w: Word Search M-s _: Symbol Search M-SPC: Deletion M-t: Transpose M-TAB: Symbol Completion M-TAB (customization buffer): Changing a Variable M-TAB (Incremental search): Special Isearch M-TAB (Picture mode): Tabs in Picture M-TAB (Text mode): Text Mode M-TAB, (MS-Windows): Windows Keyboard M-u: Case M-UP (Org Mode): Org Mode M-v: Moving Point M-v: Scrolling M-v (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar M-w: Other Kill Commands M-x: M-x M-y: Earlier Kills M-y (Incremental search): Isearch Yank M-z: Other Kill Commands M-\: Deletion M-^: Indentation Commands M-^ (Fortran mode): ForIndent Commands M-`: Menu Bar M-{: Paragraphs M-{ (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion M-{ (Dired): Marks vs Flags M-|: Single Shell M-}: Paragraphs M-} (Calendar mode): Calendar Unit Motion M-} (Dired): Marks vs Flags M-~: Save Commands mouse-1: Mouse Commands mouse-1 (mode line): Mode Line Mouse mouse-1 (on buttons): Mouse References mouse-1 (scroll bar): Mode Line Mouse mouse-1 in the minibuffer Repeat Isearch (Incremental Search): mouse-2: Mouse Commands mouse-2 (GDB Breakpoints buffer): Breakpoints Buffer mouse-2 (mode line): Mode Line Mouse mouse-2 (on buttons): Mouse References mouse-2 in the minibuffer Isearch Yank (Incremental search): mouse-3: Mouse Commands mouse-3 (mode line): Mode Line Mouse -------------------------------------------------------------- N n (DocView mode): DocView Navigation n (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer n (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer n (Rmail): Rmail Motion next: Moving Point next: Scrolling next (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar next (DocView mode): DocView Navigation -------------------------------------------------------------- O o (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers o (Calendar mode): Specified Dates o (Dired): Dired Visiting O (Dired): Operating on Files o (Occur mode): Other Repeating Search o (Rmail): Rmail Output -------------------------------------------------------------- P p (Calendar mode): To Other Calendar P (Dired): Operating on Files p (DocView mode): DocView Navigation p (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer p (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer p (Rmail): Rmail Motion p d (Calendar mode): General Calendar PageDown: Moving Point PageDown: Scrolling PageDown (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar PageDown (DocView mode): DocView Navigation PageUp: Moving Point PageUp: Scrolling PageUp (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar PageUp (DocView mode): DocView Navigation prior: Moving Point prior: Scrolling prior (Calendar mode): Scroll Calendar prior (DocView mode): DocView Navigation -------------------------------------------------------------- Q q (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers q (Calendar mode): General Calendar q (Dired): Dired Enter Q (Dired): Operating on Files q (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer q (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer Q (Rmail summary): Rmail Summary Edit q (Rmail summary): Rmail Summary Edit q (Rmail): Rmail Basics q (View mode): View Mode -------------------------------------------------------------- R R (Dired): Operating on Files r (GDB threads buffer): Threads Buffer r (Help mode): Help Mode r (Package Menu): Package Menu r (Rmail): Rmail Reply RET: Inserting Text RET (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers RET (completion in minibuffer): Completion Exit RET (Dired): Dired Visiting RET (GDB Breakpoints buffer): Breakpoints Buffer RET (GDB speedbar): Watch Expressions RET (Help mode): Help Mode RET (Incremental search): Basic Isearch RET (Occur mode): Other Repeating Search RET (Package Menu): Package Menu RET (Shell mode): Shell Mode RIGHT: Moving Point RIGHT, and bidirectional text: Bidirectional Editing -------------------------------------------------------------- S s (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers S (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers S (Calendar mode): Sunrise/Sunset s (Calendar mode): Displaying the Diary S (Dired): Operating on Files s (Dired): Dired Updating s (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer s (Rmail): Rmail Basics s (View mode): View Mode S-C-TAB: Tab Bars S-mouse-2: Hideshow S-mouse-3 (FFAP): FFAP S-SPC (Rmail): Rmail Scrolling S-TAB (customization buffer): Customization Groups S-TAB (Help mode): Help Mode S-TAB (Org Mode): Org Mode SPC (Calendar mode): General Calendar SPC (completion): Completion Commands SPC (Dired): Dired Navigation SPC (DocView mode): DocView Navigation SPC (GDB Breakpoints buffer): Breakpoints Buffer SPC (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer SPC (Gnus Summary mode): Gnus Summary Buffer SPC (Incremental search): Lax Search SPC (Rmail): Rmail Scrolling SPC (View mode): View Mode -------------------------------------------------------------- T t (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers T (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers t (Calendar mode): Writing Calendar Files t (Dired): Marks vs Flags T (Dired): Operating on Files t (Rmail): Rmail Display TAB (and major modes): Major Modes TAB (completion example): Completion Example TAB (completion): Completion Commands TAB (customization buffer): Customization Groups TAB (GUD): Commands of GUD TAB (Help mode): Help Mode TAB (indentation): Indentation TAB (Message mode): Header Editing TAB (Org Mode): Org Mode TAB (programming modes): Basic Indent TAB (Shell mode): Shell Mode TAB (Text mode): Text Mode -------------------------------------------------------------- U u (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers U (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers u (Calendar mode): Holidays u (Dired deletion): Dired Deletion u (Dired): Marks vs Flags U (Dired): Marks vs Flags u (Gnus Group mode): Gnus Group Buffer u (Package Menu): Package Menu U (Package Menu): Package Menu u (Rmail): Rmail Deletion UP: Moving Point UP (minibuffer history): Minibuffer History -------------------------------------------------------------- V v (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers v (Dired): Dired Visiting v (Rmail): Rmail Display -------------------------------------------------------------- W w (Dired): Misc Dired Features W (Dired): Misc Dired Features w (Rmail): Rmail Output -------------------------------------------------------------- X x (Buffer Menu): Several Buffers x (Calendar mode): Holidays x (Dired): Dired Deletion X (Dired): Shell Commands in Dired x (Package Menu): Package Menu x (Rmail): Rmail Deletion -------------------------------------------------------------- Z Z (Dired): Operating on Files -------------------------------------------------------------- Jump to: ! " # $ % ( * + - . / 1 2 : < = > ? ^ { } ~ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Z Next: Option Index, Previous: Acknowledgments, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Command Index, Previous: Key Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Command-Line Options Index Jump to: + - Index Entry Section ---------------------------------------- + +linenum: Action Arguments ---------------------------------------- - --background-color: Colors X --basic-display: Misc X --batch: Initial Options --border-color: Colors X --border-width: Borders X --chdir: Initial Options --color: Colors X --cursor-color: Colors X --daemon: Initial Options --debug-init: Initial Options --directory: Action Arguments --display: Initial Options --dump-file: Initial Options --eval: Action Arguments --execute: Action Arguments --file: Action Arguments --find-file: Action Arguments --font: Font X --foreground-color: Colors X --fullheight: Window Size X --fullscreen: Window Size X --fullwidth: Window Size X --funcall: Action Arguments --geometry: Window Size X --help: Action Arguments --iconic: Icons X --insert: Action Arguments --internal-border: Borders X --kill: Action Arguments --line-spacing: Misc X --load: Action Arguments --maximized: Window Size X --module-assertions: Initial Options --mouse-color: Colors X --name: Resources --no-bitmap-icon: Icons X --no-blinking-cursor: Misc X --no-build-details: Initial Options --no-desktop: Initial Options --no-init-file: Initial Options --no-site-file: Initial Options --no-site-lisp: Initial Options --no-splash: Initial Options --no-window-system: Initial Options --no-x-resources: Initial Options --quick: Initial Options --reverse-video: Colors X --script: Initial Options --terminal: Initial Options --title: Title X --user: Initial Options --version: Action Arguments --vertical-scroll-bars: Misc X --visit: Action Arguments --xrm: Resources -bd: Colors X -bg: Colors X -bw: Borders X -chdir: Initial Options -cr: Colors X -d: Initial Options -D: Misc X -daemon: Initial Options -f: Action Arguments -fg: Colors X -fh: Window Size X -fn: Font X -fs: Window Size X -fw: Window Size X -g: Window Size X -ib: Borders X -l: Action Arguments -L: Action Arguments -lsp: Misc X -mm: Window Size X -ms: Colors X -nbc: Misc X -nbi: Icons X -nsl: Initial Options -nw: Initial Options -q: Initial Options -Q: Initial Options -r: Colors X -rv: Colors X -t: Initial Options -T: Title X -u: Initial Options -vb: Misc X ---------------------------------------- Jump to: + - Next: Command Index, Previous: Key Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Variable Index, Previous: Option Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Command and Function Index Jump to: 2 5 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Index Entry Section -------------------------------------------------------------- 2 2C-associate-buffer: Two-Column 2C-dissociate: Two-Column 2C-merge: Two-Column 2C-newline: Two-Column 2C-split: Two-Column 2C-two-columns: Two-Column -------------------------------------------------------------- 5 5x5: Amusements -------------------------------------------------------------- A abbrev-mode: Abbrev Concepts abbrev-prefix-mark: Expanding Abbrevs abort-recursive-edit: Quitting add-change-log-entry-other-window: Change Log Commands add-change-log-entry-other-window, in Diff Diff Mode mode: add-dir-local-variable: Directory Variables add-file-local-variable: Specifying File Variables add-file-local-variable-prop-line: Specifying File Variables add-global-abbrev: Defining Abbrevs add-hook: Hooks add-mode-abbrev: Defining Abbrevs add-name-to-file: Copying and Naming add-untranslated-filesystem: Text and Binary animate-birthday-present: Amusements append-next-kill: Appending Kills append-to-buffer: Accumulating Text append-to-file: Accumulating Text append-to-register: Text Registers apply-macro-to-region-lines: Basic Keyboard Macro appt-activate: Appointments appt-add: Appointments appt-delete: Appointments apropos: Apropos apropos-command: Apropos apropos-documentation: Apropos apropos-local-value: Apropos apropos-local-variable: Apropos apropos-user-option: Apropos apropos-value: Apropos apropos-variable: Apropos ask-user-about-lock: Interlocking async-shell-command: Single Shell auto-compression-mode: Compressed Files auto-fill-mode: Auto Fill auto-revert-mode: Auto Revert auto-revert-tail-mode: Auto Revert auto-save-mode: Auto Save Control -------------------------------------------------------------- B back-to-indentation: Indentation Commands backward-button: Help Mode backward-char: Moving Point backward-delete-char-untabify: Program Modes backward-kill-sentence: Sentences backward-kill-word: Words backward-list: Moving by Parens backward-page: Pages backward-paragraph: Paragraphs backward-sentence: Sentences backward-sexp: Expressions backward-up-list: Moving by Parens backward-word: Words balance-windows: Change Window beginning-of-buffer: Moving Point beginning-of-defun: Moving by Defuns beginning-of-visual-line: Visual Line Mode bibtex-mode: TeX Mode binary-overwrite-mode: Minor Modes blackbox: Amusements blink-cursor-mode: Cursor Display bookmark-delete: Bookmarks bookmark-insert: Bookmarks bookmark-insert-location: Bookmarks bookmark-jump: Bookmarks bookmark-load: Bookmarks bookmark-save: Bookmarks bookmark-set: Bookmarks bookmark-set-no-overwrite: Bookmarks bookmark-write: Bookmarks browse-url: Browse-URL browse-url-at-mouse: Browse-URL browse-url-at-point: Browse-URL browse-url-of-dired-file: Misc Dired Features bs-customize: Buffer Menus bs-show: Buffer Menus bubbles: Amusements buffer-menu: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-1-window: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-2-window: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-backup-unmark: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-bury: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-delete: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-delete-backwards: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-execute: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-mark: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-not-modified: Several Buffers buffer-menu-other-window: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-other-window: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-save: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-select: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-switch-other-window: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-this-window: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-toggle-read-only: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-unmark: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-unmark-all: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-unmark-all-buffers: Several Buffers Buffer-menu-visit-tags-table: Several Buffers butterfly: Amusements -------------------------------------------------------------- C c-backslash-region: Other C Commands c-backward-conditional: Motion in C c-beginning-of-defun: Motion in C c-beginning-of-statement: Motion in C c-context-line-break: Other C Commands c-end-of-defun: Motion in C c-end-of-statement: Motion in C c-fill-paragraph: Other C Commands c-forward-conditional: Motion in C c-guess: Custom C Indent c-guess-install: Custom C Indent c-hungry-delete-backwards: Hungry Delete c-hungry-delete-forward: Hungry Delete c-indent-command: C Indent c-indent-defun: C Indent c-indent-exp: C Indent c-macro-expand: Other C Commands c-mark-function: Moving by Defuns c-set-style: Custom C Indent c-show-syntactic-information: Other C Commands c-toggle-auto-newline: Electric C c-toggle-electric-state: Electric C c-toggle-hungry-state: Hungry Delete c-up-conditional: Motion in C calendar: Calendar/Diary calendar-astro-goto-day-number: From Other Calendar calendar-astro-print-day-number: To Other Calendar calendar-backward-day: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-backward-month: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-backward-week: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-backward-year: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-bahai-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-bahai-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-beginning-of-month: Move to Beginning or End calendar-beginning-of-week: Move to Beginning or End calendar-beginning-of-year: Move to Beginning or End calendar-chinese-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-chinese-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-coptic-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-coptic-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-count-days-region: Counting Days calendar-cursor-holidays: Holidays calendar-end-of-month: Move to Beginning or End calendar-end-of-week: Move to Beginning or End calendar-end-of-year: Move to Beginning or End calendar-ethiopic-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-ethiopic-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-forward-day: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-forward-month: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-forward-week: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-forward-year: Calendar Unit Motion calendar-french-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-french-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-goto-date: Specified Dates calendar-goto-day-of-year: Specified Dates calendar-goto-today: Specified Dates calendar-hebrew-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-hebrew-list-yahrzeits: From Other Calendar calendar-hebrew-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-islamic-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-islamic-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-iso-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-iso-goto-week: Specified Dates calendar-iso-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-julian-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-julian-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-list-holidays: Holidays calendar-lunar-phases: Lunar Phases calendar-mark-holidays: Holidays calendar-mark-today: Calendar Customizing calendar-mayan-goto-long-count-date: Mayan Calendar calendar-mayan-next-calendar-round-date: Mayan Calendar calendar-mayan-next-haab-date: Mayan Calendar calendar-mayan-next-tzolkin-date: Mayan Calendar calendar-mayan-previous-haab-date: Mayan Calendar calendar-mayan-previous-tzolkin-date: Mayan Calendar calendar-mayan-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-other-month: Specified Dates calendar-persian-goto-date: From Other Calendar calendar-persian-print-date: To Other Calendar calendar-print-day-of-year: General Calendar calendar-print-other-dates: To Other Calendar calendar-redraw: General Calendar calendar-scroll-left: Scroll Calendar calendar-scroll-left-three-months: Scroll Calendar calendar-scroll-right: Scroll Calendar calendar-scroll-right-three-months: Scroll Calendar calendar-set-date-style: Date Formats calendar-star-date: Calendar Customizing calendar-sunrise-sunset: Sunrise/Sunset calendar-unmark: Holidays capitalize-word: Case cd: File Names center-line: Fill Commands change-log-goto-source: Change Log Commands change-log-merge: Change Log Commands change-log-mode: Change Log Commands check-parens: Parentheses choose-completion: Completion Commands clean-buffer-list: Kill Buffer clear-rectangle: Rectangles clipboard-kill-region: Clipboard clipboard-kill-ring-save: Clipboard clipboard-yank: Clipboard clone-indirect-buffer: Indirect Buffers clone-indirect-buffer-other-window: Indirect Buffers column-number-mode: Optional Mode Line comint-bol-or-process-mark: Shell Mode comint-continue-subjob: Shell Mode comint-copy-old-input: Shell History Copying comint-delchar-or-maybe-eof: Shell Mode comint-delete-output: Shell Mode comint-dynamic-list-filename…: Shell Mode comint-dynamic-list-input-ring: Shell Ring comint-get-next-from-history: Shell Ring comint-history-isearch-backward-regexp: Shell Ring comint-insert-previous-argument: Shell Ring comint-interrupt-subjob: Shell Mode comint-kill-input: Shell Mode comint-magic-space: History References comint-next-input: Shell Ring comint-next-prompt: Shell History Copying comint-previous-input: Shell Ring comint-previous-prompt: Shell History Copying comint-quit-subjob: Shell Mode comint-run: Shell Mode comint-send-input: Shell Mode comint-send-invisible: Shell Mode comint-show-maximum-output: Shell Mode comint-show-output: Shell Mode comint-stop-subjob: Shell Mode comint-strip-ctrl-m: Shell Mode comint-truncate-buffer: Shell Mode comint-write-output: Shell Mode comment-dwim: Comment Commands comment-indent-new-line: Multi-Line Comments comment-kill: Comment Commands comment-line: Comment Commands comment-region: Comment Commands comment-set-column: Options for Comments compare-windows: Comparing Files compilation-next-error: Compilation Mode compilation-next-file: Compilation Mode compilation-previous-error: Compilation Mode compilation-previous-file: Compilation Mode compile: Compilation compile (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Processes compile-goto-error: Compilation Mode completion-at-point, in programming language Symbol modes: Completion completion-at-point, in Shell Mode: Shell Mode compose-mail: Sending Mail compose-mail-other-frame: Sending Mail compose-mail-other-window: Sending Mail connection-local-set-profile-variables: Connection Variables connection-local-set-profiles: Connection Variables copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals: Specifying File Variables copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line: Specifying File Variables copy-directory: Copying and Naming copy-file: Copying and Naming copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals: Directory Variables copy-rectangle-as-kill: Rectangles copy-rectangle-to-register: Rectangle Registers copy-to-buffer: Accumulating Text copy-to-register: Text Registers count-lines-page: Pages count-words: Position Info count-words-region: Position Info cpp-highlight-buffer: Other C Commands create-fontset-from-fontset-spec: Defining Fontsets cua-mode: CUA Bindings custom-prompt-customize-unsaved-options: Saving Customizations Custom-save: Changing a Variable Custom-set: Changing a Variable customize: Easy Customization customize-apropos: Specific Customization customize-browse: Browsing Custom customize-changed: Specific Customization customize-create-theme: Creating Custom Themes customize-face: Specific Customization customize-group: Specific Customization customize-option: Specific Customization customize-saved: Specific Customization customize-themes: Custom Themes customize-unsaved: Specific Customization cwarn-mode: Other C Commands cycle-spacing: Deletion -------------------------------------------------------------- D dabbrev-completion: Dynamic Abbrevs dabbrev-expand: Dynamic Abbrevs dbx: Starting GUD debug_print: Checklist decipher: Amusements default-value: Locals define-abbrevs: Saving Abbrevs define-global-abbrev: Defining Abbrevs define-key: Init Rebinding define-mode-abbrev: Defining Abbrevs delete-backward-char: Deletion delete-blank-lines: Blank Lines delete-char: Deletion delete-dir-local-variable: Directory Variables delete-duplicate-lines: Deletion delete-file: Misc File Ops delete-file-local-variable: Specifying File Variables delete-file-local-variable-prop-line: Specifying File Variables delete-frame: Frame Commands delete-horizontal-space: Deletion delete-indentation: Indentation Commands delete-other-frames: Frame Commands delete-other-windows: Change Window delete-rectangle: Rectangles delete-selection-mode: Using Region delete-trailing-whitespace: Useless Whitespace delete-whitespace-rectangle: Rectangles delete-window: Change Window describe-bindings: Misc Help describe-categories: Regexp Backslash describe-character-set: Charsets describe-coding-system: Coding Systems describe-copying: Help Files describe-distribution: Help Files describe-fontset: Fontsets describe-function: Name Help describe-gnu-project: Help Files describe-input-method: Select Input Method describe-key: Key Help describe-key-briefly: Key Help describe-language-environment: Language Environments describe-mode: Misc Help describe-no-warranty: Help Files describe-package: Package Keywords describe-prefix-bindings: Misc Help describe-symbol: Name Help describe-syntax: Misc Help describe-text-properties: Editing Format Info describe-theme: Custom Themes describe-variable: Name Help desktop-change-dir: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-clear: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-revert: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-save: Saving Emacs Sessions diary: Displaying the Diary diary-anniversary: Special Diary Entries diary-anniversary, and sexp diary entries: Sexp Diary Entries diary-astro-day-number: Sexp Diary Entries diary-bahai-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-bahai-insert-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-bahai-insert-monthly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-bahai-insert-yearly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-bahai-list-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-bahai-mark-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-block: Special Diary Entries diary-chinese-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-chinese-insert-anniversary-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-chinese-insert-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-chinese-insert-monthly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-chinese-insert-yearly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-chinese-list-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-chinese-mark-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-coptic-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-cyclic: Special Diary Entries diary-cyclic, and sexp diary entries: Sexp Diary Entries diary-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-day-of-year: Sexp Diary Entries diary-ethiopic-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-fancy-display: Diary Display diary-float: Special Diary Entries diary-float, and sexp diary entries: Sexp Diary Entries diary-french-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-hebrew-birthday: Sexp Diary Entries diary-hebrew-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-hebrew-insert-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-hebrew-insert-monthly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-hebrew-insert-yearly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-hebrew-list-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-hebrew-mark-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-hebrew-omer: Sexp Diary Entries diary-hebrew-parasha: Sexp Diary Entries diary-hebrew-rosh-hodesh: Sexp Diary Entries diary-hebrew-sabbath-candles: Sexp Diary Entries diary-hebrew-yahrzeit: Sexp Diary Entries diary-include-other-diary-files: Fancy Diary Display diary-insert-anniversary-entry: Special Diary Entries diary-insert-block-entry: Special Diary Entries diary-insert-cyclic-entry: Special Diary Entries diary-insert-entry: Adding to Diary diary-insert-monthly-entry: Adding to Diary diary-insert-weekly-entry: Adding to Diary diary-insert-yearly-entry: Adding to Diary diary-islamic-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-islamic-insert-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-islamic-insert-monthly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-islamic-insert-yearly-entry: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-islamic-list-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-islamic-mark-entries: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-iso-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-julian-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-lunar-phases: Sexp Diary Entries diary-mail-entries: Displaying the Diary diary-mark-entries: Displaying the Diary diary-mark-included-diary-files: Fancy Diary Display diary-mayan-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-persian-date: Sexp Diary Entries diary-print-entries: Diary Display diary-remind: Sexp Diary Entries diary-show-all-entries: Displaying the Diary diary-simple-display: Diary Display diary-sort-entries: Fancy Diary Display diary-sunrise-sunset: Sexp Diary Entries diary-view-entries: Displaying the Diary diff: Comparing Files diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window: Diff Mode diff-apply-hunk: Diff Mode diff-backup: Comparing Files diff-buffer-with-file: Comparing Files diff-buffers: Comparing Files diff-context->unified: Diff Mode diff-delete-trailing-whitespace: Diff Mode diff-ediff-patch: Diff Mode diff-file-kill: Diff Mode diff-file-next: Diff Mode diff-file-prev: Diff Mode diff-goto-source: Diff Mode diff-hunk-kill: Diff Mode diff-hunk-next: Diff Mode diff-hunk-prev: Diff Mode diff-ignore-whitespace-hunk: Diff Mode diff-mode: Diff Mode diff-refine-hunk: Diff Mode diff-restrict-view: Diff Mode diff-reverse-direction: Diff Mode diff-split-hunk: Diff Mode diff-unified->context: Diff Mode digit-argument: Arguments dir-locals-set-class-variables: Directory Variables dir-locals-set-directory-class: Directory Variables dired: Dired Enter dired-at-point: FFAP dired-change-marks: Marks vs Flags dired-clean-directory: Flagging Many Files dired-compare-directories: Misc Dired Features dired-copy-filename-as-kill: Misc Dired Features dired-create-directory: Misc Dired Features dired-create-empty-file: Misc Dired Features dired-diff: Comparison in Dired dired-display-file: Dired Visiting dired-do-byte-compile: Operating on Files dired-do-chgrp: Operating on Files dired-do-chmod: Operating on Files dired-do-chown: Operating on Files dired-do-compress: Operating on Files dired-do-compress-to: Operating on Files dired-do-copy: Operating on Files dired-do-copy-regexp: Transforming File Names dired-do-delete: Operating on Files dired-do-find-regexp: Operating on Files dired-do-find-regexp-and-replace: Operating on Files dired-do-flagged-delete: Dired Deletion dired-do-hardlink: Operating on Files dired-do-hardlink-regexp: Transforming File Names dired-do-isearch: Misc Dired Features dired-do-isearch-regexp: Misc Dired Features dired-do-kill-lines: Dired Updating dired-do-load: Operating on Files dired-do-print: Operating on Files dired-do-redisplay: Dired Updating dired-do-rename: Operating on Files dired-do-rename-regexp: Transforming File Names dired-do-shell-command: Shell Commands in Dired dired-do-symlink: Operating on Files dired-do-symlink-regexp: Transforming File Names dired-do-touch: Operating on Files dired-downcase: Transforming File Names dired-find-file: Dired Visiting dired-find-file-other-window: Dired Visiting dired-flag-auto-save-files: Flagging Many Files dired-flag-backup-files: Flagging Many Files dired-flag-file-deletion: Dired Deletion dired-flag-files-regexp: Flagging Many Files dired-flag-garbage-files: Flagging Many Files dired-goto-file: Dired Navigation dired-hide-all: Hiding Subdirectories dired-hide-details-mode: Misc Dired Features dired-hide-subdir: Hiding Subdirectories dired-isearch-filenames: Dired Navigation dired-isearch-filenames-regexp: Dired Navigation dired-mark: Marks vs Flags dired-mark-directories: Marks vs Flags dired-mark-executables: Marks vs Flags dired-mark-files-containing-regexp: Marks vs Flags dired-mark-files-regexp: Marks vs Flags dired-mark-subdir-files: Marks vs Flags dired-mark-symlinks: Marks vs Flags dired-maybe-insert-subdir: Subdirectories in Dired dired-mouse-find-file-other-window: Dired Visiting dired-next-dirline: Subdirectory Motion dired-next-line: Dired Navigation dired-next-marked-file: Marks vs Flags dired-next-subdir: Subdirectory Motion dired-number-of-marked-files: Marks vs Flags dired-other-frame: Dired Enter dired-other-window: Dired Enter dired-prev-dirline: Subdirectory Motion dired-prev-marked-file: Marks vs Flags dired-prev-subdir: Subdirectory Motion dired-previous-line: Dired Navigation dired-sort-toggle-or-edit: Dired Updating dired-toggle-marks: Marks vs Flags dired-tree-down: Subdirectory Motion dired-tree-up: Subdirectory Motion dired-undo: Marks vs Flags dired-unmark: Marks vs Flags dired-unmark-all-files: Marks vs Flags dired-unmark-all-marks: Marks vs Flags dired-unmark-backward: Marks vs Flags dired-up-directory: Dired Visiting dired-upcase: Transforming File Names dired-view-file: Dired Visiting dirs: Directory Tracking dirtrack-mode: Directory Tracking disable-command: Disabling disable-theme: Custom Themes display-battery-mode: Optional Mode Line display-buffer (command): Pop Up Window display-buffer, detailed description: Window Choice display-fill-column-indicator-mode: Displaying Boundaries display-line-numbers-mode: Display Custom display-local-help: Help Echo display-time: Optional Mode Line dissociated-press: Amusements do-auto-save: Auto Save Control doc-view-clear-cache: DocView Conversion doc-view-enlarge: DocView Navigation doc-view-first-page: DocView Navigation doc-view-goto-page: DocView Navigation doc-view-kill-proc: DocView Conversion doc-view-kill-proc-and-buffer: DocView Conversion doc-view-last-page: DocView Navigation doc-view-minor-mode: Document View doc-view-mode: Document View doc-view-next-page: DocView Navigation doc-view-open-text: Document View doc-view-previous-page: DocView Navigation doc-view-reset-slice: DocView Slicing doc-view-scroll-down-or-previous-page: DocView Navigation doc-view-scroll-up-or-next-page: DocView Navigation doc-view-search: DocView Searching doc-view-search-backward: DocView Searching doc-view-set-slice: DocView Slicing doc-view-set-slice-using-mouse: DocView Slicing doc-view-show-tooltip: DocView Searching doc-view-shrink: DocView Navigation doc-view-toggle-display: Document View doctex-mode: TeX Mode doctor: Amusements dos-mode25: MS-DOS Display dos-mode4350: MS-DOS Display down-list: Moving by Parens downcase-region: Case downcase-word: Case dunnet: Amusements -------------------------------------------------------------- E edit-abbrevs: Editing Abbrevs edit-kbd-macro: Edit Keyboard Macro edit-tab-stops: Tab Stops eldoc-mode: Lisp Doc electric-indent-mode: Indent Convenience electric-layout-mode: Misc for Programs electric-pair-mode: Matching electric-quote-mode: Quotation Marks emacs-lisp-mode: Lisp Eval emacs-version: Checklist emerge-auto-advance: Submodes of Emerge emerge-buffers: Overview of Emerge emerge-buffers-with-ancestor: Overview of Emerge emerge-files: Overview of Emerge emerge-files-with-ancestor: Overview of Emerge emerge-skip-prefers: Submodes of Emerge enable-command: Disabling enable-theme: Custom Themes end-of-buffer: Moving Point end-of-defun: Moving by Defuns end-of-visual-line: Visual Line Mode enlarge-window: Change Window enlarge-window-horizontally: Change Window enriched-mode: Enriched Mode epa-dired-do-decrypt: Operating on Files epa-dired-do-encrypt: Operating on Files epa-dired-do-sign: Operating on Files epa-dired-do-verify: Operating on Files eval-buffer: Lisp Eval eval-defun: Lisp Eval eval-expression: Lisp Eval eval-last-sexp: Lisp Eval eval-print-last-sexp: Lisp Interaction eval-region: Lisp Eval eww: EWW eww-open-file: EWW eww-search-words: Word Search exchange-point-and-mark: Setting Mark exchange-point-and-mark, in Rectangles rectangle-mark-mode: execute-extended-command: M-x exit-calendar: General Calendar exit-recursive-edit: Recursive Edit expand-abbrev: Expanding Abbrevs expand-region-abbrevs: Expanding Abbrevs -------------------------------------------------------------- F f90-beginning-of-block: Fortran Motion f90-end-of-block: Fortran Motion f90-mode: Fortran f90-next-block: Fortran Motion f90-next-statement: Fortran Motion f90-previous-block: Fortran Motion f90-previous-statement: Fortran Motion facemenu-remove-all: Editing Format Info facemenu-remove-face-props: Editing Format Info facemenu-set-background: Enriched Faces facemenu-set-bold: Enriched Faces facemenu-set-bold-italic: Enriched Faces facemenu-set-default: Enriched Faces facemenu-set-face: Enriched Faces facemenu-set-foreground: Enriched Faces facemenu-set-italic: Enriched Faces facemenu-set-underline: Enriched Faces ff-find-related-file: Other C Commands ffap: FFAP ffap-menu: FFAP ffap-mode: FFAP ffap-next: FFAP fido-mode: Icomplete file-cache-add-directory: File Name Cache file-cache-minibuffer-complete: File Name Cache file-name-shadow-mode: Minibuffer File fileloop-continue: Identifier Search filesets-add-buffer: Filesets filesets-init: Filesets filesets-remove-buffer: Filesets fill-individual-paragraphs: Fill Prefix fill-nonuniform-paragraphs: Fill Prefix fill-paragraph: Fill Commands fill-region: Fill Commands fill-region-as-paragraph: Fill Commands find-alternate-file: Visiting find-dired: Dired and Find find-file: Visiting find-file-at-point: FFAP find-file-literally: Visiting find-file-other-frame: Visiting find-file-other-window: Visiting find-file-read-only: Visiting find-file-read-only-other-frame: Creating Frames find-grep: Grep Searching find-grep-dired: Dired and Find find-name-dired: Dired and Find find-tag-other-window: Pop Up Window finder-by-keyword: Package Keywords flush-lines: Other Repeating Search flyspell-auto-correct-word: Spelling flyspell-correct-word: Spelling flyspell-correct-word-before-point: Spelling flyspell-mode: Spelling flyspell-prog-mode: Spelling foldout-exit-fold: Foldout foldout-zoom-subtree: Foldout follow-mode: Follow Mode font-lock-add-keywords: Font Lock font-lock-mode: Font Lock font-lock-remove-keywords: Font Lock format-decode-buffer: Enriched Mode fortran-beginning-of-block: Fortran Motion fortran-column-ruler: Fortran Columns fortran-comment-region: Fortran Comments fortran-end-of-block: Fortran Motion fortran-indent-subprogram: ForIndent Commands fortran-join-line: ForIndent Commands fortran-mode: Fortran fortran-next-statement: Fortran Motion fortran-previous-statement: Fortran Motion fortran-split-line: ForIndent Commands fortran-strip-sequence-nos: Fortran Columns fortran-window-create: Fortran Columns fortran-window-create-momentarily: Fortran Columns fortune-to-signature: Mail Amusements forward-button: Help Mode forward-char: Moving Point forward-list: Moving by Parens forward-page: Pages forward-paragraph: Paragraphs forward-sentence: Sentences forward-sexp: Expressions forward-word: Words frameset-to-register: Configuration Registers fringe-mode: Fringes -------------------------------------------------------------- G gdb: Starting GUD gdb-delete-breakpoint: Breakpoints Buffer gdb-display-disassembly-for-thread: Threads Buffer gdb-display-locals-for-thread: Threads Buffer gdb-display-registers-for-thread: Threads Buffer gdb-display-stack-for-thread: Threads Buffer gdb-edit-value: Watch Expressions gdb-frames-select: Stack Buffer gdb-goto-breakpoint: Breakpoints Buffer gdb-many-windows: GDB User Interface Layout gdb-restore-windows: GDB User Interface Layout gdb-select-thread: Threads Buffer gdb-toggle-breakpoint: Breakpoints Buffer gdb-var-delete: Watch Expressions getenv: Environment global-auto-revert-mode: Auto Revert global-cwarn-mode: Other C Commands global-display-fill-column-indicator-mode: Displaying Boundaries global-display-line-numbers-mode: Display Custom global-eldoc-mode: Lisp Doc global-font-lock-mode: Font Lock global-hl-line-mode: Cursor Display global-set-key: Rebinding global-so-long-mode: Long Lines global-tab-line-mode: Tab Line global-unset-key: Rebinding global-visual-line-mode: Visual Line Mode global-whitespace-mode: Useless Whitespace global-whitespace-toggle-options: Useless Whitespace gnus: Gnus Startup gnus-group-exit: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-kill-group: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-list-all-groups: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-list-groups: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-list-killed: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-list-zombies: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-next-unread-group: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-prev-unread-group: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-read-group: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group: Gnus Group Buffer gnus-summary-isearch-article: Gnus Summary Buffer gnus-summary-next-page: Gnus Summary Buffer gnus-summary-next-unread-article: Gnus Summary Buffer gnus-summary-prev-page: Gnus Summary Buffer gnus-summary-prev-unread-article: Gnus Summary Buffer gnus-summary-search-article-backward: Gnus Summary Buffer gnus-summary-search-article-forward: Gnus Summary Buffer gomoku: Amusements goto-address-at-point: Goto Address mode goto-address-mode: Goto Address mode goto-char: Moving Point goto-followup-to: Header Editing goto-line: Moving Point goto-line, with an argument: Select Buffer goto-reply-to: Header Editing gpm-mouse-mode: Text-Only Mouse grep: Grep Searching grep (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Processes grep-find: Grep Searching grep-find-toggle-abbreviation: Grep Searching gud-cont: Commands of GUD gud-def: GUD Customization gud-down: Commands of GUD gud-finish: Commands of GUD gud-gdb: Starting GUD gud-gdb-complete-command: Commands of GUD gud-jump: Commands of GUD gud-next: Commands of GUD gud-print: Commands of GUD gud-refresh: Commands of GUD gud-remove: Commands of GUD gud-step: Commands of GUD gud-stepi: Commands of GUD gud-tbreak: Commands of GUD gud-tooltip-mode: Debugger Operation gud-until: Commands of GUD gud-up: Commands of GUD gud-watch: Watch Expressions guiler: Starting GUD -------------------------------------------------------------- H handwrite: PostScript hanoi: Amusements help-command: Help help-follow: Help Mode help-for-help: Help help-go-back: Help Mode help-go-forward: Help Mode help-with-tutorial: Basic hi-lock-find-patterns: Highlight Interactively hi-lock-mode: Highlight Interactively hi-lock-write-interactive-patterns: Highlight Interactively hide-ifdef-mode: Other C Commands hide-sublevels: Outline Visibility highlight-changes-mode: Highlight Interactively highlight-lines-matching-regexp: Highlight Interactively highlight-phrase: Highlight Interactively highlight-regexp: Highlight Interactively highlight-symbol-at-point: Highlight Interactively hl-line-mode: Cursor Display holidays: Holidays horizontal-scroll-bar-mode: Scroll Bars how-many: Other Repeating Search hs-hide-all: Hideshow hs-hide-block: Hideshow hs-hide-level: Hideshow hs-minor-mode: Hideshow hs-mouse-toggle-hiding: Hideshow hs-show-all: Hideshow hs-show-block: Hideshow hs-show-region: Hideshow hs-toggle-hiding: Hideshow html-mode: HTML Mode htmlfontify-buffer: Printing -------------------------------------------------------------- I ibuffer: Buffer Menus icalendar-export-file: Importing Diary icalendar-export-region: Importing Diary icalendar-import-buffer: Importing Diary icalendar-import-file: Importing Diary icomplete-mode: Icomplete ielm: Lisp Interaction image-decrease-speed: Image Mode image-dired-display-thumbs: Image-Dired image-goto-frame: Image Mode image-increase-speed: Image Mode image-mode: Image Mode image-mode-copy-file-name-as-kill: Image Mode image-mode-mark-file: Image Mode image-mode-unmark-file: Image Mode image-next-file: Image Mode image-next-frame: Image Mode image-previous-file: Image Mode image-previous-frame: Image Mode image-reset-speed: Image Mode image-reverse-speed: Image Mode image-toggle-animation: Image Mode image-toggle-display: Image Mode image-transform-fit-both: Image Mode image-transform-reset: Image Mode image-transform-set-scale: Image Mode imenu: Imenu imenu-add-menubar-index: Imenu increase-left-margin: Enriched Indentation increment-register: Number Registers indent-code-rigidly: Multi-line Indent indent-for-tab-command: Indentation indent-line-function: Basic Indent indent-pp-sexp: Multi-line Indent indent-region: Indentation Commands indent-relative: Indentation Commands indent-rigidly: Indentation Commands info: Misc Help Info-goto-emacs-command-node: Name Help Info-goto-emacs-key-command-node: Key Help info-lookup-file: Info Lookup info-lookup-symbol: Misc Help info-other-window: Misc Help insert-abbrevs: Saving Abbrevs insert-char: Inserting Text insert-file: Misc File Ops insert-file-literally: Misc File Ops insert-kbd-macro: Save Keyboard Macro insert-register: Text Registers inverse-add-global-abbrev: Defining Abbrevs inverse-add-mode-abbrev: Defining Abbrevs isearch-abort: Basic Isearch isearch-backward: Basic Isearch isearch-backward-regexp: Regexp Search isearch-cancel: Basic Isearch isearch-char-by-name: Special Isearch isearch-complete: Special Isearch isearch-del-char: Isearch Yank isearch-delete-char: Basic Isearch isearch-edit-string: Repeat Isearch isearch-exit: Basic Isearch isearch-forward: Basic Isearch isearch-forward-regexp: Regexp Search isearch-forward-symbol: Symbol Search isearch-forward-symbol-at-point: Symbol Search isearch-forward-word: Word Search isearch-help-map: Special Isearch isearch-highlight-lines-matching-regexp: Special Isearch isearch-highlight-regexp: Special Isearch isearch-occur: Special Isearch isearch-query-replace: Special Isearch isearch-query-replace-regexp: Special Isearch isearch-quote-char: Special Isearch isearch-repeat-backward: Repeat Isearch isearch-repeat-forward: Repeat Isearch isearch-ring-advance: Repeat Isearch isearch-ring-retreat: Repeat Isearch isearch-toggle-case-fold: Lax Search isearch-toggle-char-fold: Lax Search isearch-toggle-input-method: Special Isearch isearch-toggle-invisible: Special Isearch isearch-toggle-lax-whitespace: Lax Search isearch-toggle-regexp: Special Isearch isearch-toggle-specified-input-method: Special Isearch isearch-toggle-symbol: Symbol Search isearch-toggle-word: Word Search isearch-yank-char: Isearch Yank isearch-yank-kill: Isearch Yank isearch-yank-line: Isearch Yank isearch-yank-pop: Isearch Yank isearch-yank-symbol-or-char: Isearch Yank isearch-yank-until-char: Isearch Yank isearch-yank-word-or-char: Isearch Yank isearch-yank-x-selection: Isearch Yank iso-gtex2iso: TeX Misc iso-iso2gtex: TeX Misc iso-iso2tex: TeX Misc iso-tex2iso: TeX Misc ispell: Spelling ispell-buffer: Spelling ispell-change-dictionary: Spelling ispell-complete-word: Spelling ispell-kill-ispell: Spelling ispell-message: Mail Misc ispell-region: Spelling ispell-word: Spelling -------------------------------------------------------------- J jdb: Starting GUD jump-to-register: Position Registers just-one-space: Deletion -------------------------------------------------------------- K kbd: Init Rebinding kbd-macro-query: Keyboard Macro Query keep-lines: Other Repeating Search keyboard-escape-quit: Quitting keyboard-quit: Quitting kill-all-abbrevs: Defining Abbrevs kill-buffer: Kill Buffer kill-buffer-and-window: Change Window kill-compilation: Compilation kill-current-buffer: Completion Commands kill-emacs: Exiting kill-line: Killing by Lines kill-local-variable: Locals kill-matching-buffers: Kill Buffer kill-rectangle: Rectangles kill-region: Other Kill Commands kill-ring-save: Other Kill Commands kill-sentence: Sentences kill-sexp: Expressions kill-some-buffers: Kill Buffer kill-whole-line: Killing by Lines kill-word: Words kmacro-add-counter: Keyboard Macro Counter kmacro-bind-to-key: Save Keyboard Macro kmacro-cycle-ring-next: Keyboard Macro Ring kmacro-cycle-ring-previous: Keyboard Macro Ring kmacro-edit-lossage: Edit Keyboard Macro kmacro-edit-macro: Edit Keyboard Macro kmacro-end-and-call-macro: Basic Keyboard Macro kmacro-end-macro: Basic Keyboard Macro kmacro-end-or-call-macro: Basic Keyboard Macro kmacro-end-or-call-macro-repeat: Keyboard Macro Ring kmacro-insert-counter: Keyboard Macro Counter kmacro-name-last-macro: Save Keyboard Macro kmacro-set-counter: Keyboard Macro Counter kmacro-set-format: Keyboard Macro Counter kmacro-start-macro: Basic Keyboard Macro kmacro-start-macro-or-insert-counter: Basic Keyboard Macro kmacro-step-edit-macro: Keyboard Macro Step-Edit kmacro-to-register: Keyboard Macro Registers -------------------------------------------------------------- L latex-electric-env-pair-mode: LaTeX Editing latex-mode: TeX Mode left-char: Moving Point left-char, and bidirectional text: Bidirectional Editing left-word: Moving Point lgrep: Grep Searching life: Amusements line-number-mode: Optional Mode Line lisp-eval-defun: External Lisp lisp-interaction-mode: Lisp Interaction list-abbrevs: Editing Abbrevs list-bookmarks: Bookmarks list-buffers: List Buffers list-character-sets: Charsets list-charset-chars: Charsets list-coding-systems: Coding Systems list-colors-display: Colors list-command-history: Repetition list-directory: Directories list-faces-display: Faces list-holidays: Holidays list-input-methods: Select Input Method list-matching-lines: Other Repeating Search list-packages: Package Menu list-tags: List Identifiers load: Lisp Libraries load-file: Lisp Libraries load-library: Lisp Libraries load-theme: Custom Themes local-set-key: Rebinding local-unset-key: Rebinding locate: Dired and Find locate-with-filter: Dired and Find log-edit-done: Log Buffer log-edit-generate-changelog-from-diff: Log Buffer log-edit-insert-changelog: Log Buffer log-edit-show-diff: Log Buffer log-edit-show-files: Log Buffer log-view-toggle-entry-display: VC Change Log lpr-buffer: Printing lpr-region: Printing lunar-phases: Lunar Phases -------------------------------------------------------------- M mail-abbrev-insert-alias: Mail Aliases mail-add-attachment: Mail Misc mail-fill-yanked-message: Citing Mail mail-text: Header Editing make-frame-command: Creating Frames make-frame-on-display: Multiple Displays make-frame-on-monitor: Multiple Displays make-indirect-buffer: Indirect Buffers make-local-variable: Locals make-symbolic-link: Copying and Naming make-variable-buffer-local: Locals man: Man Page mark-defun: Moving by Defuns mark-page: Pages mark-paragraph: Paragraphs mark-sexp: Marking Objects mark-whole-buffer: Marking Objects mark-word: Marking Objects menu-bar-mode: Menu Bars menu-bar-open: Menu Bar message-goto-bcc: Header Editing message-goto-cc: Header Editing message-goto-fcc: Header Editing message-goto-subject: Header Editing message-goto-to: Header Editing message-insert-signature: Mail Signature message-send: Mail Sending message-send-and-exit: Mail Sending message-tab: Header Editing message-yank-original: Citing Mail message-yank-prefix: Citing Mail minibuffer-complete: Completion Commands minibuffer-complete-and-exit: Completion Exit minibuffer-complete-word: Completion Commands minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode: Minibuffer Edit minibuffer-electric-default-mode: Basic Minibuffer minibuffer-inactive-mode: Minibuffer Edit mml-attach-file: Mail Misc morse-region: Amusements mouse-avoidance-mode: Mouse Avoidance mouse-buffer-menu: Buffer Menus mouse-save-then-kill: Mouse Commands mouse-secondary-save-then-kill: Secondary Selection mouse-set-point: Mouse Commands mouse-set-region: Mouse Commands mouse-set-secondary: Secondary Selection mouse-start-secondary: Secondary Selection mouse-wheel-mode: Mouse Commands mouse-yank-at-click: Mouse Commands mouse-yank-primary: Mouse Commands mouse-yank-secondary: Secondary Selection move-beginning-of-line: Moving Point move-end-of-line: Moving Point move-file-to-trash: Misc File Ops move-to-column: Moving Point move-to-window-line-top-bottom: Moving Point mpuz: Amusements msb-mode: Buffer Menus msdos-set-mouse-buttons: MS-DOS Mouse multi-isearch-buffers: Other Repeating Search multi-isearch-buffers-regexp: Other Repeating Search multi-isearch-files: Other Repeating Search multi-isearch-files-regexp: Other Repeating Search multi-occur: Other Repeating Search multi-occur-in-matching-buffers: Other Repeating Search -------------------------------------------------------------- N narrow-to-defun: Narrowing narrow-to-page: Narrowing narrow-to-region: Narrowing nato-region: Amusements negative-argument: Arguments next-buffer: Select Buffer next-completion: Completion Commands next-error: Compilation Mode next-error-follow-minor-mode: Compilation Mode next-error-select-buffer: Compilation Mode next-history-element: Minibuffer History next-line: Moving Point next-line-or-history-element: Minibuffer History next-logical-line: Visual Line Mode next-matching-history-element: Minibuffer History next-window-any-frame: Other Window normal-erase-is-backspace-mode: DEL Does Not Delete normal-mode: Choosing Modes not-modified: Save Commands nroff-backward-text-line: Nroff Mode nroff-count-text-lines: Nroff Mode nroff-electric-mode: Nroff Mode nroff-forward-text-line: Nroff Mode nroff-mode: Nroff Mode ns-popup-font-panel: Mac / GNUstep Customization number-to-register: Number Registers nxml-mode: HTML Mode -------------------------------------------------------------- O occur: Other Repeating Search open-dribble-file: Checklist open-line: Blank Lines open-rectangle: Rectangles open-termscript: Checklist org-agenda: Org Organizer org-agenda-file-to-front: Org Organizer org-cycle: Org Mode org-deadline: Org Organizer org-export: Org Authoring org-metadown: Org Mode org-metaleft: Org Mode org-metaright: Org Mode org-metaup: Org Mode org-mode: Org Mode org-schedule: Org Organizer org-shifttab: Org Mode org-todo: Org Organizer other-frame: Frame Commands other-window: Other Window outline-backward-same-level: Outline Motion outline-forward-same-level: Outline Motion outline-hide-body: Outline Visibility outline-hide-entry: Outline Visibility outline-hide-leaves: Outline Visibility outline-hide-other: Outline Visibility outline-hide-subtree: Outline Visibility outline-minor-mode: Outline Mode outline-mode: Outline Mode outline-next-visible-heading: Outline Motion outline-previous-visible-heading: Outline Motion outline-show-all: Outline Visibility outline-show-branches: Outline Visibility outline-show-children: Outline Visibility outline-show-entry: Outline Visibility outline-show-subtree: Outline Visibility outline-up-heading: Outline Motion overwrite-mode: Minor Modes -------------------------------------------------------------- P package-activate-all: Package Installation package-install: Package Installation package-install-file: Package Files package-menu-clear-filter: Package Menu package-menu-describe-package: Package Menu package-menu-execute: Package Menu package-menu-filter-by-keyword: Package Menu package-menu-filter-by-name: Package Menu package-menu-hide-package: Package Menu package-menu-mark-delete: Package Menu package-menu-mark-install: Package Menu package-menu-mark-obsolete-for-deletion: Package Menu package-menu-mark-unmark: Package Menu package-menu-mark-upgrades: Package Menu package-menu-quick-help: Package Menu package-menu-toggle-hiding: Package Menu paragraph-indent-minor-mode: Text Mode paragraph-indent-text-mode: Text Mode pdb: Starting GUD perldb: Starting GUD picture-backward-clear-column: Basic Picture picture-backward-column: Basic Picture picture-clear-column: Basic Picture picture-clear-line: Basic Picture picture-clear-rectangle: Rectangles in Picture picture-clear-rectangle-to-register: Rectangles in Picture picture-forward-column: Basic Picture picture-mode: Picture Mode picture-motion: Insert in Picture picture-motion-reverse: Insert in Picture picture-move-down: Basic Picture picture-move-up: Basic Picture picture-movement-down: Insert in Picture picture-movement-left: Insert in Picture picture-movement-ne: Insert in Picture picture-movement-nw: Insert in Picture picture-movement-right: Insert in Picture picture-movement-se: Insert in Picture picture-movement-sw: Insert in Picture picture-movement-up: Insert in Picture picture-newline: Basic Picture picture-open-line: Basic Picture picture-set-tab-stops: Tabs in Picture picture-tab: Tabs in Picture picture-tab-search: Tabs in Picture picture-yank-rectangle: Rectangles in Picture picture-yank-rectangle-from-register: Rectangles in Picture plain-tex-mode: TeX Mode point-to-register: Position Registers pong: Amusements pop-global-mark: Global Mark Ring pr-interface: Printing Package prefer-coding-system: Recognize Coding prepend-to-buffer: Accumulating Text prepend-to-register: Text Registers prettify-symbols-mode: Misc for Programs previous-buffer: Select Buffer previous-completion: Completion Commands previous-history-element: Minibuffer History previous-line: Moving Point previous-line-or-history-element: Minibuffer History previous-logical-line: Visual Line Mode previous-matching-history-element: Minibuffer History print-buffer: Printing print-buffer (MS-DOS): Windows Printing print-region: Printing print-region (MS-DOS): Windows Printing project-find-file: Projects project-find-regexp: Projects project-query-replace-regexp: Projects project-search: Projects ps-despool: PostScript ps-print-buffer: PostScript ps-print-buffer (MS-DOS): Windows Printing ps-print-buffer-with-faces: PostScript ps-print-region: PostScript ps-print-region-with-faces: PostScript ps-spool-buffer: PostScript ps-spool-buffer (MS-DOS): Windows Printing ps-spool-buffer-with-faces: PostScript ps-spool-region: PostScript ps-spool-region-with-faces: PostScript pwd: File Names -------------------------------------------------------------- Q quail-set-keyboard-layout: Select Input Method quail-show-key: Select Input Method quail-translation-keymap: Input Methods query-replace: Query Replace query-replace-regexp: Query Replace quietly-read-abbrev-file: Saving Abbrevs quit-window: Completion Commands quit-window: Several Buffers quit-window, in Dired buffers: Dired Enter quoted-insert: Inserting Text -------------------------------------------------------------- R re-search-backward: Regexp Search re-search-forward: Regexp Search read-abbrev-file: Saving Abbrevs read-only-mode: Misc Buffer recenter: Recentering recenter-top-bottom: Recentering recentf-edit-list: File Conveniences recentf-mode: File Conveniences recentf-save-list: File Conveniences recode-file-name: File Name Coding recode-region: Text Coding recompile: Compilation recover-file: Recover recover-session: Recover rectangle: Rectangles rectangle-exchange-point-and-mark: Rectangles rectangle-mark-mode: Rectangles remove-hook: Hooks remove-untranslated-filesystem: Text and Binary rename-buffer: Misc Buffer rename-file: Copying and Naming rename-uniquely: Misc Buffer repeat: Repeating repeat-complex-command: Repetition replace-regexp: Regexp Replace replace-string: Unconditional Replace report-emacs-bug: Checklist reposition-window: Recentering reveal-mode: Outline Visibility reverse-region: Sorting revert-buffer: Reverting revert-buffer (Dired): Dired Updating revert-buffer-with-coding-system: Text Coding rgrep: Grep Searching right-char: Moving Point right-char, and bidirectional text: Bidirectional Editing right-word: Moving Point rmail: Rmail rmail-abort-edit: Rmail Editing rmail-add-label: Rmail Labels rmail-beginning-of-message: Rmail Scrolling rmail-bury: Rmail Basics rmail-cease-edit: Rmail Editing rmail-continue: Rmail Reply rmail-delete-backward: Rmail Deletion rmail-delete-forward: Rmail Deletion rmail-edit-current-message: Rmail Editing rmail-end-of-message: Rmail Scrolling rmail-epa-decrypt: Rmail Display rmail-expunge: Rmail Deletion rmail-expunge-and-save: Rmail Basics rmail-first-message: Rmail Motion rmail-forward: Rmail Reply rmail-get-new-mail: Rmail Files rmail-input: Rmail Files rmail-kill-label: Rmail Labels rmail-last-message: Rmail Motion rmail-mail: Rmail Reply rmail-mime: Rmail Display rmail-mime-next-item: Rmail Display rmail-mime-previous-item: Rmail Display rmail-mime-toggle-hidden: Rmail Display rmail-mode: Rmail rmail-next-labeled-message: Rmail Labels rmail-next-message: Rmail Motion rmail-next-same-subject: Rmail Motion rmail-next-undeleted-message: Rmail Motion rmail-output: Rmail Output rmail-output-as-seen: Rmail Output rmail-output-body-to-file: Rmail Output rmail-previous-labeled-message: Rmail Labels rmail-previous-message: Rmail Motion rmail-previous-same-subject: Rmail Motion rmail-previous-undeleted-message: Rmail Motion rmail-quit: Rmail Basics rmail-redecode-body: Rmail Coding rmail-reply: Rmail Reply rmail-resend: Rmail Reply rmail-retry-failure: Rmail Reply rmail-search: Rmail Motion rmail-show-message: Rmail Motion rmail-sort-by-author: Rmail Sorting rmail-sort-by-correspondent: Rmail Sorting rmail-sort-by-date: Rmail Sorting rmail-sort-by-labels: Rmail Sorting rmail-sort-by-lines: Rmail Sorting rmail-sort-by-recipient: Rmail Sorting rmail-sort-by-subject: Rmail Sorting rmail-summary: Rmail Make Summary rmail-summary-bury: Rmail Summary Edit rmail-summary-by-labels: Rmail Make Summary rmail-summary-by-recipients: Rmail Make Summary rmail-summary-by-regexp: Rmail Make Summary rmail-summary-by-senders: Rmail Make Summary rmail-summary-by-topic: Rmail Make Summary rmail-summary-quit: Rmail Summary Edit rmail-summary-undelete-many: Rmail Summary Edit rmail-summary-wipe: Rmail Summary Edit rmail-toggle-header: Rmail Display rmail-undelete-previous-message: Rmail Deletion rot13-other-window: Rmail Rot13 run-lisp: External Lisp run-scheme: External Lisp -------------------------------------------------------------- S save-buffer: Save Commands save-buffers-kill-terminal: Exiting save-some-buffers: Save Commands scheme-mode: External Lisp scroll-bar-mode: Scroll Bars scroll-down-command: Scrolling scroll-down-line: Scrolling scroll-left: Horizontal Scrolling scroll-other-window: Other Window scroll-other-window-down: Other Window scroll-right: Horizontal Scrolling scroll-up-command: Scrolling scroll-up-line: Scrolling sdb: Starting GUD search-backward: Nonincremental Search search-forward: Nonincremental Search select-frame-by-name: Non-Window Terminals serial-term: Serial Terminal server-edit: Invoking emacsclient server-eval-at: Emacs Server server-generate-key: TCP Emacs server server-start: Emacs Server set-buffer-file-coding-system: Text Coding set-buffer-process-coding-system: Communication Coding set-face-background: Colors set-face-foreground: Colors set-file-modes: Misc File Ops set-file-name-coding-system: File Name Coding set-fill-column: Fill Commands set-fill-prefix: Fill Prefix set-fontset-font: Modifying Fontsets set-frame-name: Non-Window Terminals set-fringe-style: Fringes set-goal-column: Moving Point set-input-method: Select Input Method set-justification-center: Enriched Justification set-justification-full: Enriched Justification set-justification-left: Enriched Justification set-justification-none: Enriched Justification set-justification-right: Enriched Justification set-keyboard-coding-system: Terminal Coding set-language-environment: Language Environments set-left-margin: Enriched Indentation set-locale-environment: Language Environments set-mark-command: Setting Mark set-next-selection-coding-system: Communication Coding set-right-margin: Enriched Indentation set-selection-coding-system: Communication Coding set-selective-display: Selective Display set-terminal-coding-system: Terminal Coding set-variable: Examining set-visited-file-name: Save Commands setenv: Environment setq-default: Locals sgml-attributes: HTML Mode sgml-close-tag: HTML Mode sgml-delete-tag: HTML Mode sgml-mode: HTML Mode sgml-name-8bit-mode: HTML Mode sgml-name-char: HTML Mode sgml-skip-tag-backward: HTML Mode sgml-skip-tag-forward: HTML Mode sgml-tag: HTML Mode sgml-tag-help: HTML Mode sgml-tags-invisible: HTML Mode sgml-validate: HTML Mode shadow-initialize: File Shadowing shell: Interactive Shell shell-backward-command: Shell Mode shell-command: Single Shell shell-command-on-region: Single Shell shell-dynamic-complete-command: Shell Options shell-forward-command: Shell Mode shell-pushd-dextract: Shell Options shell-pushd-dunique: Shell Options shell-pushd-tohome: Shell Options show-paren-mode: Matching shrink-window-horizontally: Change Window shrink-window-if-larger-than-buffer: Change Window size-indication-mode: Optional Mode Line slitex-mode: TeX Mode smerge-mode: Comparing Files snake: Amusements so-long-commentary: Long Lines solitaire: Amusements sort-columns: Sorting sort-fields: Sorting sort-lines: Sorting sort-numeric-fields: Sorting sort-pages: Sorting sort-paragraphs: Sorting split-line: Indentation Commands split-window-below: Split Window split-window-right: Split Window spook: Mail Amusements standard-display-8bit: Unibyte Mode string-insert-rectangle: Rectangles string-rectangle: Rectangles substitute-key-definition: Init Examples subword-mode: MixedCase Words sunrise-sunset: Sunrise/Sunset superword-mode: Misc for Programs suspend-frame: Exiting switch-to-buffer: Select Buffer switch-to-buffer-other-frame: Select Buffer switch-to-buffer-other-window: Select Buffer switch-to-completions: Completion Commands -------------------------------------------------------------- T tab-bar-history-mode: Tab Bars tab-bar-mode: Tab Bars tab-close: Tab Bars tab-close-other: Tab Bars tab-move: Tab Bars tab-new: Tab Bars tab-next: Tab Bars tab-previous: Tab Bars tab-recent: Tab Bars tab-rename: Tab Bars tab-select: Tab Bars tab-to-tab-stop: Indentation Commands tab-undo: Tab Bars tabify: Just Spaces table-backward-cell: Cell Commands table-capture: Table Conversion table-fixed-width-mode: Text Based Tables table-forward-cell: Cell Commands table-generate-source: Table Misc table-heighten-cell: Cell Commands table-insert: Table Creation table-insert-column: Table Rows and Columns table-insert-row: Table Rows and Columns table-insert-sequence: Table Misc table-justify: Cell Justification table-narrow-cell: Cell Commands table-query-dimension: Table Misc table-recognize: Table Recognition table-recognize-cell: Table Recognition table-recognize-region: Table Recognition table-recognize-table: Table Recognition table-release: Table Conversion table-shorten-cell: Cell Commands table-span-cell: Cell Commands table-split-cell: Cell Commands table-split-cell-horizontally: Cell Commands table-split-cell-vertically: Cell Commands table-unrecognize: Table Recognition table-unrecognize-cell: Table Recognition table-unrecognize-region: Table Recognition table-unrecognize-table: Table Recognition table-widen-cell: Cell Commands tabulated-list-narrow-current-column: Several Buffers tabulated-list-sort: Several Buffers tabulated-list-widen-current-column: Several Buffers tags-next-file: List Identifiers tags-query-replace: Identifier Search tags-search: Identifier Search temp-buffer-resize-mode: Temporary Displays term: Terminal emulator term-char-mode: Term Mode term-line-mode: Term Mode term-pager-toggle: Term Mode tetris: Amusements tex-bibtex-file: TeX Print tex-buffer: TeX Print tex-close-latex-block: LaTeX Editing tex-compile: TeX Print tex-file: TeX Print tex-insert-braces: TeX Editing tex-insert-quote: TeX Editing tex-kill-job: TeX Print tex-latex-block: LaTeX Editing tex-mode: TeX Mode tex-print: TeX Print tex-recenter-output-buffer: TeX Print tex-region: TeX Print tex-terminate-paragraph: TeX Editing tex-validate-region: TeX Editing tex-view: TeX Print text-mode: Text Mode text-scale-adjust: Text Scale text-scale-decrease: Text Scale text-scale-increase: Text Scale text-scale-mode: Text Scale text-scale-set: Text Scale thumbs-mode: Image Mode time-stamp: Time Stamps timeclock-change: Time Intervals timeclock-in: Time Intervals timeclock-mode-line-display: Time Intervals timeclock-out: Time Intervals timeclock-reread-log: Time Intervals timeclock-when-to-leave: Time Intervals timeclock-workday-remaining: Time Intervals tmm-menubar: Menu Bar toggle-debug-on-error: Checklist toggle-frame-fullscreen: Frame Commands toggle-frame-maximized: Frame Commands toggle-gdb-all-registers: Other GDB Buffers toggle-input-method: Select Input Method toggle-scroll-bar: Scroll Bars toggle-truncate-lines: Line Truncation tool-bar-mode: Tool Bars tooltip-mode: Tooltips top-level: Quitting transient-mark-mode: Disabled Transient Mark transpose-chars: Transpose transpose-lines: Transpose transpose-paragraphs: Transpose transpose-regions: Transpose transpose-sentences: Transpose transpose-sexps: Expressions transpose-words: Transpose tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors: Display Custom -------------------------------------------------------------- U uncomment-region: Comment Commands undigestify-rmail-message: Rmail Digest undo: Undo undo-only: Undo unexpand-abbrev: Expanding Abbrevs unforward-rmail-message: Rmail Reply unhighlight-regexp: Highlight Interactively universal-argument: Arguments universal-coding-system-argument: Text Coding unmorse-region: Amusements untabify: Just Spaces up-list: TeX Editing upcase-region: Case upcase-word: Case use-hard-newlines: Hard and Soft Newlines -------------------------------------------------------------- V vc-annotate: Old Revisions vc-create-tag: Revision Tags vc-delete-file: VC Delete/Rename vc-diff: Old Revisions vc-dir: VC Directory Mode vc-dir-mark: VC Directory Commands vc-dir-mark-all-files: VC Directory Commands vc-ediff: Old Revisions vc-ignore: VC Ignore vc-insert-headers: Version Headers vc-log-incoming: VC Change Log vc-log-outgoing: VC Change Log vc-log-search: VC Change Log vc-next-action: Basic VC Editing vc-print-log: VC Change Log vc-print-root-log: VC Change Log vc-pull: Pulling / Pushing vc-push: Pulling / Pushing vc-refresh-state: Version Control vc-region-history: VC Change Log vc-register: Registering vc-rename-file: VC Delete/Rename vc-retrieve-tag: Revision Tags vc-revert: VC Undo vc-revision-other-window: Old Revisions vc-root-diff: Old Revisions vc-root-version-diff: Old Revisions vc-state-refresh: Version Control vc-update-change-log: Change Logs and VC view-buffer: View Mode view-echo-area-messages: Misc Help view-emacs-debugging: Help Files view-emacs-FAQ: Help Files view-emacs-news: Help Files view-emacs-problems: Help Files view-emacs-todo: Help Files View-exit: View Mode view-external-packages: Help Files view-file: View Mode view-hello-file: International Chars view-lossage: Misc Help view-order-manuals: Help Files View-quit: View Mode view-register: Registers visit-tags-table: Select Tags Table visual-line-mode: Visual Line Mode -------------------------------------------------------------- W w32-find-non-USB-fonts: Windows Fonts w32-register-hot-key: Windows Keyboard w32-shell-execute: Windows Processes w32-unregister-hot-key: Windows Keyboard wdired-change-to-wdired-mode: Wdired wdired-finish-edit: Wdired what-cursor-position: Position Info what-cursor-position, and international International characters: Chars what-line: Position Info what-page: Pages where-is: Key Help which-function-mode: Which Function whitespace-mode: Useless Whitespace whitespace-toggle-options: Useless Whitespace widen: Narrowing widget-backward: Customization Groups widget-complete: Changing a Variable widget-forward: Customization Groups windmove-default-keybindings: Window Convenience windmove-delete-default-keybindings: Window Convenience windmove-display-default-keybindings: Window Convenience windmove-right: Window Convenience windmove-swap-states-default-keybindings: Window Convenience window-configuration-to-register: Configuration Registers window-divider-mode: Window Dividers winner-mode: Window Convenience woman: Man Page word-search-backward: Word Search word-search-forward: Word Search write-abbrev-file: Saving Abbrevs write-file: Save Commands write-region: Misc File Ops -------------------------------------------------------------- X xdb: Starting GUD xref-etags-mode: Looking Up Identifiers xref-find-apropos: Looking Up Identifiers xref-find-definitions: Looking Up Identifiers xref-find-definitions-other-frame: Looking Up Identifiers xref-find-definitions-other-window: Looking Up Identifiers xref-find-references: Identifier Search xref-next-line: Xref Commands xref-pop-marker-stack: Looking Up Identifiers xref-prev-line: Xref Commands xref-query-replace-in-results: Identifier Search xref-quit: Xref Commands xref-quit-and-goto-xref: Xref Commands xref-revert-buffer: Xref Commands xref-show-location-at-point: Xref Commands xwidget-webkit-browse-url: Embedded WebKit Widgets xwidget-webkit-mode: Embedded WebKit Widgets -------------------------------------------------------------- Y yank: Yanking yank-pop: Earlier Kills yank-rectangle: Rectangles -------------------------------------------------------------- Z zap-to-char: Other Kill Commands zap-up-to-char: Other Kill Commands zone: Amusements zrgrep: Grep Searching -------------------------------------------------------------- Jump to: 2 5 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Next: Variable Index, Previous: Option Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Concept Index, Previous: Command Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Variable Index Jump to: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Index Entry Section ------------------------------------------------------------------ A abbrev-all-caps: Expanding Abbrevs abbrev-file-name: Saving Abbrevs adaptive-fill-first-line-regexp: Adaptive Fill adaptive-fill-function: Adaptive Fill adaptive-fill-mode: Adaptive Fill adaptive-fill-regexp: Adaptive Fill add-log-always-start-new-record: Change Log Commands add-log-dont-create-changelog-file: Change Log Commands add-log-keep-changes-together: Change Log Commands ange-ftp-default-user: Remote Files ange-ftp-gateway-host: Remote Files ange-ftp-generate-anonymous-password: Remote Files ange-ftp-make-backup-files: Remote Files ange-ftp-smart-gateway: Remote Files appt-audible: Appointments appt-delete-window-function: Appointments appt-disp-window-function: Appointments appt-display-diary: Appointments appt-display-duration: Appointments appt-display-format: Appointments appt-display-mode-line: Appointments appt-message-warning-time: Appointments appt-warning-time-regexp: Appointments apropos-do-all: Apropos apropos-documentation-sort-by-scores: Apropos apropos-sort-by-scores: Apropos async-shell-command-buffer: Single Shell async-shell-command-display-buffer: Single Shell async-shell-command-width: Single Shell auth-source-save-behavior: Authentication auth-sources: Authentication auto-coding-alist: Recognize Coding auto-coding-functions: Recognize Coding auto-coding-regexp-alist: Recognize Coding auto-compression-mode: Compressed Files auto-hscroll-mode: Horizontal Scrolling auto-mode-alist: Choosing Modes auto-mode-case-fold: Choosing Modes auto-revert-avoid-polling: Auto Revert auto-revert-check-vc-info: VC Mode Line auto-revert-interval: Auto Revert auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp: Auto Revert auto-revert-remote-files: Auto Revert auto-revert-use-notify: Auto Revert auto-revert-verbose: Auto Revert auto-save-default: Auto Save Control auto-save-file-name-transforms: Auto Save Files auto-save-interval: Auto Save Control auto-save-list-file-prefix: Recover auto-save-no-message: Auto Save auto-save-timeout: Auto Save Control auto-save-visited-interval: Auto Save Control auto-save-visited-mode: Auto Save Files ------------------------------------------------------------------ B backup-by-copying: Backup Copying backup-by-copying-when-linked: Backup Copying backup-by-copying-when-mismatch: Backup Copying backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch: Backup Copying backup-directory-alist: Backup backup-enable-predicate: Backup battery-mode-line-format: Optional Mode Line bdf-directory-list: PostScript Variables bidi-display-reordering: Bidirectional Editing bidi-paragraph-direction: Bidirectional Editing bidi-paragraph-separate-re: Bidirectional Editing bidi-paragraph-start-re: Bidirectional Editing blink-cursor-alist: Cursor Display blink-cursor-blinks: Cursor Display blink-cursor-mode: Cursor Display blink-matching-delay: Matching blink-matching-paren: Matching blink-matching-paren-distance: Matching bookmark-default-file: Bookmarks bookmark-save-flag: Bookmarks bookmark-search-size: Bookmarks bookmark-use-annotations: Bookmarks browse-url-browser-function: Browse-URL browse-url-mailto-function: Browse-URL buffer-auto-revert-by-notification: Non-File Buffers buffer-file-coding-system: Output Coding buffer-read-only: Misc Buffer ------------------------------------------------------------------ C c-default-style: Custom C Indent c-hungry-delete-key: Hungry Delete c-mode-hook: Program Modes c-tab-always-indent: C Indent cal-html-css-default: Writing Calendar Files calendar-bahai-all-holidays-flag: Holiday Customizing calendar-christian-all-holidays-flag: Holiday Customizing calendar-date-display-form: Date Display Format calendar-date-style: Date Formats calendar-day-header-array: Calendar Customizing calendar-daylight-savings-ends: Daylight Saving calendar-daylight-savings-ends-time: Daylight Saving calendar-daylight-savings-starts: Daylight Saving calendar-daylight-time-offset: Daylight Saving calendar-daylight-time-zone-name: Sunrise/Sunset calendar-hebrew-all-holidays-flag: Holiday Customizing calendar-holiday-marker: Calendar Customizing calendar-holidays: Holiday Customizing calendar-initial-window-hook: Calendar Customizing calendar-intermonth-text: Calendar Customizing calendar-islamic-all-holidays-flag: Holiday Customizing calendar-latitude: Sunrise/Sunset calendar-location-name: Sunrise/Sunset calendar-longitude: Sunrise/Sunset calendar-mark-diary-entries-flag: Displaying the Diary calendar-mark-holidays-flag: Holidays calendar-month-header: Calendar Customizing calendar-move-hook: Calendar Customizing calendar-remove-frame-by-deleting: General Calendar calendar-standard-time-zone-name: Sunrise/Sunset calendar-time-display-form: Time Display Format calendar-time-zone: Sunrise/Sunset calendar-today-invisible-hook: Calendar Customizing calendar-today-marker: Calendar Customizing calendar-today-visible-hook: Calendar Customizing calendar-view-diary-initially-flag: Displaying the Diary calendar-view-holidays-initially-flag: Holidays calendar-week-start-day: Move to Beginning or End calendar-weekend-days: Move to Beginning or End case-fold-search: Lax Search case-replace: Replacement and Lax Matches CDPATH, environment variable: General Variables change-log-version-info-enabled: Change Log Commands change-log-version-number-regexp-list: Change Log Commands change-major-mode-with-file-name: Choosing Modes char-fold-exclude: Lax Search char-fold-include: Lax Search char-fold-symmetric: Lax Search clone-indirect-buffer-hook: Indirect Buffers coding: Specify Coding colon-double-space: Fill Commands column-number-indicator-zero-based: Optional Mode Line comint-completion-addsuffix: Shell Options comint-completion-autolist: Shell Options comint-completion-fignore: Shell Options comint-completion-recexact: Shell Options comint-input-autoexpand: History References comint-input-ignoredups: Shell Options comint-input-ring-file-name: Shell Ring comint-insert-previous-argument-from-end: Shell Ring comint-move-point-for-output: Shell Options comint-prompt-read-only: Shell Options comint-scroll-show-maximum-output: Shell Options comint-scroll-to-bottom-on-input: Shell Options comint-terminfo-terminal: Shell Options comint-use-prompt-regexp: Shell Prompts command-history: Repetition command-line-args: Emacs Invocation comment-column: Options for Comments comment-end: Options for Comments comment-fill-column: Options for Comments comment-indent-function: Options for Comments comment-multi-line: Multi-Line Comments comment-padding: Options for Comments comment-start: Options for Comments comment-start-skip: Options for Comments compare-ignore-case: Comparing Files compare-ignore-whitespace: Comparing Files compilation-always-kill: Compilation compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error: Compilation Mode compilation-context-lines: Compilation Mode compilation-environment: Compilation compilation-error: Compilation Mode compilation-error-regexp-alist: Compilation Mode compilation-scroll-output: Compilation compilation-skip-threshold: Compilation Mode compilation-warning: Compilation Mode compile-command: Compilation completion-auto-help: Completion Options completion-category-overrides: Completion Styles completion-cycle-threshold: Completion Options completion-ignored-extensions: Completion Options completion-styles: Completion Styles COMSPEC: Misc Variables confirm-kill-emacs: Exiting confirm-kill-processes: Exiting confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer: Completion Exit create-lockfiles: Interlocking ctl-arrow: Text Display ctl-x-4-map: Prefix Keymaps ctl-x-map: Prefix Keymaps cua-enable-cua-keys: CUA Bindings cua-mode: CUA Bindings current-input-method: Select Input Method current-language-environment: Language Environments cursor-in-non-selected-windows: Cursor Display cursor-type: Cursor Display custom-buffer-done-kill: Changing a Variable custom-enabled-themes: Custom Themes custom-file: Saving Customizations custom-safe-themes: Custom Themes custom-search-field: Browsing Custom custom-theme-directory: Custom Themes custom-theme-directory, saving theme files: Creating Custom Themes custom-theme-load-path: Custom Themes ------------------------------------------------------------------ D dabbrev-abbrev-char-regexp: Dabbrev Customization dabbrev-abbrev-skip-leading-regexp: Dabbrev Customization dabbrev-case-fold-search: Dabbrev Customization dabbrev-case-replace: Dabbrev Customization dabbrev-check-all-buffers: Dynamic Abbrevs dabbrev-check-other-buffers: Dynamic Abbrevs dabbrev-ignored-buffer-names: Dynamic Abbrevs dabbrev-ignored-buffer-regexps: Dynamic Abbrevs dabbrev-limit: Dynamic Abbrevs DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS, environment variable: General Variables dbx-mode-hook: GUD Customization debug-on-event: Checklist debug-on-quit: Checklist default-directory: File Names default-frame-alist: Frame Parameters default-input-method: Select Input Method default-justification: Enriched Justification delete-active-region: Using Region delete-auto-save-files: Auto Save Files delete-by-moving-to-trash: Misc File Ops delete-by-moving-to-trash, and Dired: Dired Deletion delete-old-versions: Backup Deletion delete-trailing-lines: Useless Whitespace desktop-auto-save-timeout: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-files-not-to-save: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-globals-to-clear: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-load-locked-desktop: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-path: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-restore-eager: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-restore-frames: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop-save-mode: Saving Emacs Sessions diary-bahai-entry-symbol: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-chinese-entry-symbol: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-comment-start: Fancy Diary Display diary-date-forms: Diary Customizing diary-display-function: Diary Display diary-entry-marker: Calendar Customizing diary-file: Format of Diary File diary-hebrew-entry-symbol: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-include-string: Fancy Diary Display diary-islamic-entry-symbol: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-list-entries-hook: Fancy Diary Display diary-list-include-blanks: Diary Display diary-mail-days: Displaying the Diary diary-mark-entries-hook: Fancy Diary Display diary-nongregorian-listing-hook: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-nongregorian-marking-hook: Non-Gregorian Diary diary-nonmarking-symbol: Displaying the Diary diary-number-of-entries: Diary Customizing diary-outlook-formats: Importing Diary diary-print-entries-hook: Diary Display diary-sexp-entry-symbol: Sexp Diary Entries diary-show-holidays-flag: Diary Customizing diff-font-lock-syntax: Diff Mode diff-jump-to-old-file: Diff Mode diff-refine: Diff Mode diff-refine: Diff Mode diff-switches: Comparing Files diff-update-on-the-fly: Diff Mode directory-abbrev-alist: File Aliases dired-auto-revert-buffer: Dired Updating dired-chown-program: Operating on Files dired-copy-preserve-time: Operating on Files dired-create-destination-dirs: Operating on Files dired-dwim-target: Operating on Files dired-garbage-files-regexp: Flagging Many Files dired-hide-details-hide-information-lines: Misc Dired Features dired-hide-details-hide-symlink-targets: Misc Dired Features dired-isearch-filenames: Dired Navigation dired-kept-versions: Flagging Many Files dired-listing-switches: Dired Enter dired-listing-switches (MS-DOS): MS-DOS Processes dired-recursive-copies: Operating on Files dired-recursive-deletes: Dired Deletion dired-use-ls-dired: Dired Enter dired-vc-rename-file: Operating on Files dirtrack-list: Directory Tracking display-battery-mode: Optional Mode Line display-fill-column-indicator-character: Displaying Boundaries display-fill-column-indicator-column: Displaying Boundaries display-hourglass: Display Custom display-line-numbers: Display Custom display-line-numbers-current-absolute: Display Custom display-line-numbers-grow-only: Display Custom display-line-numbers-offset: Display Custom display-line-numbers-type: Display Custom display-line-numbers-widen: Display Custom display-line-numbers-width: Display Custom display-line-numbers-width-start: Display Custom display-raw-bytes-as-hex: Display Custom display-time-24hr-format: Optional Mode Line display-time-mail-directory: Optional Mode Line display-time-mail-face: Optional Mode Line display-time-mail-file: Optional Mode Line display-time-use-mail-icon: Optional Mode Line dnd-open-file-other-window: Drag and Drop doc-view-cache-directory: DocView Conversion doc-view-continuous: DocView Navigation doc-view-resolution: DocView Navigation doc-view-scale-internally: DocView Navigation doctex-mode-hook: TeX Misc dos-codepage: MS-DOS and MULE dos-display-scancodes: MS-DOS Mouse dos-hyper-key: MS-DOS Keyboard dos-keypad-mode: MS-DOS Keyboard dos-printer: MS-DOS Printing dos-ps-printer: MS-DOS Printing dos-super-key: MS-DOS Keyboard double-click-fuzz: Mouse Buttons double-click-time: Mouse Buttons ------------------------------------------------------------------ E echo-keystrokes: Display Custom electric-pair-delete-adjacent-pairs: Matching electric-pair-open-newline-between-pairs: Matching electric-pair-preserve-balance: Matching electric-pair-skip-whitespace: Matching electric-quote-chars: Quotation Marks electric-quote-comment: Quotation Marks electric-quote-paragraph: Quotation Marks electric-quote-replace-double: Quotation Marks electric-quote-string: Quotation Marks emacs-lisp-mode-hook: Program Modes EMACSCLIENT_TRAMP, environment variable: emacsclient Options EMACSCOLORS: Misc Variables EMACSDATA, environment variable: General Variables EMACSDOC, environment variable: General Variables EMACSLOADPATH, environment variable: General Variables EMACSPATH, environment variable: General Variables EMACSTEST: Misc Variables emacs_dir: Misc Variables EMACS_SERVER_FILE, environment variable: TCP Emacs server EMAIL, environment variable: General Variables emerge-combine-versions-template: Combining in Emerge emerge-startup-hook: Fine Points of Emerge enable-local-eval: Safe File Variables enable-local-variables: Safe File Variables enable-recursive-minibuffers: Minibuffer Edit enriched-allow-eval-in-display-props: Enriched Properties enriched-translations: Enriched Mode eol-mnemonic-dos: Optional Mode Line eol-mnemonic-mac: Optional Mode Line eol-mnemonic-undecided: Optional Mode Line eol-mnemonic-unix: Optional Mode Line esc-map: Prefix Keymaps ESHELL, environment variable: General Variables eval-expression-debug-on-error: Lisp Eval eval-expression-print-length: Lisp Eval eval-expression-print-level: Lisp Eval eval-expression-print-maximum-character: Lisp Eval eww-search-prefix: Word Search exec-path: Shell exit-language-environment-hook: Language Environments explicit-shell-file-name: Interactive Shell extended-command-suggest-shorter: M-x ------------------------------------------------------------------ F face-ignored-fonts: Modifying Fontsets fast-but-imprecise-scrolling: Scrolling ff-related-file-alist: Other C Commands file-coding-system-alist: Recognize Coding file-name-at-point-functions: Minibuffer History file-name-coding-system: File Name Coding fill-column: Fill Commands fill-column-indicator: Displaying Boundaries fill-nobreak-predicate: Fill Commands fill-prefix: Fill Prefix find-file-existing-other-name: File Aliases find-file-hook: Visiting find-file-not-found-functions: Visiting find-file-run-dired: Visiting find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings: File Aliases find-file-visit-truename: File Aliases find-file-wildcards: Visiting find-ls-option: Dired and Find focus-follows-mouse: Frame Commands foldout-mouse-modifiers: Foldout font-lock-maximum-decoration: Font Lock font-slant-table (MS-Windows): Windows Fonts font-weight-table (MS-Windows): Windows Fonts fortran-analyze-depth: ForIndent Cont fortran-break-before-delimiters: Fortran Autofill fortran-check-all-num…: ForIndent Vars fortran-column-ruler-fixed: Fortran Columns fortran-column-ruler-tabs: Fortran Columns fortran-comment-indent-char: Fortran Comments fortran-comment-indent-style: Fortran Comments fortran-comment-line-extra-indent: Fortran Comments fortran-comment-line-start: Fortran Comments fortran-comment-region: Fortran Comments fortran-continuation-indent: ForIndent Vars fortran-continuation-string: ForIndent Cont fortran-directive-re: Fortran Comments fortran-do-indent: ForIndent Vars fortran-electric-line-number: ForIndent Num fortran-if-indent: ForIndent Vars fortran-line-length: Fortran Columns fortran-line-number-indent: ForIndent Num fortran-minimum-statement-indent…: ForIndent Vars fortran-structure-indent: ForIndent Vars fortran-tab-mode-default: ForIndent Cont frame-background-mode: Faces frame-resize-pixelwise: Frame Commands frameset-filter-alist: Saving Emacs Sessions fringe-mode (variable): Fringes ------------------------------------------------------------------ G gdb-delete-out-of-scope: Watch Expressions gdb-gud-control-all-threads: Multithreaded Debugging gdb-many-windows: GDB User Interface Layout gdb-mi-decode-strings: Source Buffers gdb-mode-hook: GUD Customization gdb-non-stop-setting: Multithreaded Debugging gdb-show-changed-values: Watch Expressions gdb-show-main: GDB User Interface Layout gdb-show-threads-by-default: Breakpoints Buffer gdb-speedbar-auto-raise: Watch Expressions gdb-stack-buffer-addresses: Stack Buffer gdb-stopped-functions: Multithreaded Debugging gdb-switch-reasons: Multithreaded Debugging gdb-switch-when-another-stopped: Multithreaded Debugging gdb-thread-buffer-addresses: Threads Buffer gdb-thread-buffer-arguments: Threads Buffer gdb-thread-buffer-locations: Threads Buffer gdb-thread-buffer-verbose-names: Threads Buffer gdb-use-colon-colon-notation: Watch Expressions global-cwarn-mode: Other C Commands global-font-lock-mode: Font Lock global-mark-ring-max: Global Mark Ring grep-find-abbreviate: Grep Searching grep-find-ignored-directories: Grep Searching grep-find-ignored-directories (Dired): Operating on Files grep-find-ignored-files (Dired): Operating on Files grep-regexp-alist: Compilation Mode gud-gdb-command-name: GDB Graphical Interface gud-tooltip-echo-area: Debugger Operation gud-xdb-directories: Starting GUD guiler-mode-hook: GUD Customization ------------------------------------------------------------------ H help-at-pt-display-when-idle: Help Echo help-enable-autoload: Lisp Libraries help-enable-completion-autoload: Lisp Libraries help-map: Prefix Keymaps hi-lock-auto-select-face: Highlight Interactively hi-lock-exclude-modes: Highlight Interactively hi-lock-file-patterns-policy: Highlight Interactively hide-ifdef-shadow: Other C Commands highlight-nonselected-windows: Mark HISTFILE, environment variable: General Variables history-delete-duplicates: Minibuffer History history-length: Minibuffer History holiday-bahai-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-christian-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-general-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-hebrew-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-islamic-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-local-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-oriental-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-other-holidays: Holiday Customizing holiday-solar-holidays: Holiday Customizing HOME, environment variable: General Variables horizontal-scroll-bar-mode: Scroll Bars HOSTNAME, environment variable: General Variables hourglass-delay: Display Custom hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all: Hideshow hs-isearch-open: Hideshow hs-special-modes-alist: Hideshow hscroll-margin: Horizontal Scrolling hscroll-step: Horizontal Scrolling ------------------------------------------------------------------ I image-animate-loop: Image Mode image-auto-resize: Image Mode image-auto-resize-on-window-resize: Image Mode image-dired-external-viewer: Image-Dired image-use-external-converter: Image Mode imagemagick-enabled-types: Image Mode imagemagick-types-inhibit: Image Mode imenu-auto-rescan: Imenu imenu-auto-rescan-maxout: Imenu imenu-sort-function: Imenu indent-tabs-mode: Just Spaces indent-tabs-mode (Fortran mode): ForIndent Cont indicate-buffer-boundaries: Displaying Boundaries indicate-empty-lines: Useless Whitespace inferior-lisp-program: External Lisp INFOPATH, environment variable: General Variables inhibit-eol-conversion: Recognize Coding inhibit-iso-escape-detection: Recognize Coding inhibit-startup-buffer-menu: Action Arguments inhibit-startup-screen: Entering Emacs initial-environment: Environment initial-frame-alist: Frame Parameters initial-scratch-message: Lisp Interaction input-method-highlight-flag: Input Methods input-method-verbose-flag: Input Methods insert-default-directory: Minibuffer File interpreter-mode-alist: Choosing Modes isearch-allow-prefix: Not Exiting Isearch isearch-allow-scroll: Not Exiting Isearch isearch-hide-immediately: Search Customizations isearch-lazy-count: Search Customizations isearch-lazy-highlight: Search Customizations isearch-mode-map: Special Isearch isearch-resume-in-command-history: Repetition ispell-complete-word-dict: Spelling ispell-dictionary: Spelling ispell-local-dictionary: Spelling ispell-personal-dictionary: Spelling ------------------------------------------------------------------ J jdb-mode-hook: GUD Customization jit-lock-defer-time: Scrolling ------------------------------------------------------------------ K kept-new-versions: Backup Deletion kept-old-versions: Backup Deletion keyboard-coding-system: Terminal Coding kill-buffer-hook: Kill Buffer kill-do-not-save-duplicates: Kill Options kill-read-only-ok: Kill Options kill-ring: Kill Ring kill-ring-max: Kill Ring kill-whole-line: Killing by Lines kmacro-ring-max: Keyboard Macro Ring ------------------------------------------------------------------ L LANG, environment variable: General Variables large-file-warning-threshold: Visiting latex-block-names: LaTeX Editing latex-mode-hook: TeX Misc latex-run-command: TeX Print latin1-display: Undisplayable Characters lazy-count-prefix-format: Search Customizations lazy-count-suffix-format: Search Customizations lazy-highlight-initial-delay: Search Customizations lazy-highlight-interval: Search Customizations lazy-highlight-max-at-a-time: Search Customizations LC_ALL, environment variable: General Variables LC_COLLATE, environment variable: General Variables LC_CTYPE, environment variable: General Variables LC_MESSAGES, environment variable: General Variables LC_MONETARY, environment variable: General Variables LC_NUMERIC, environment variable: General Variables LC_TIME, environment variable: General Variables line-move-visual: Moving Point line-number-display-limit: Optional Mode Line line-number-display-limit-width: Optional Mode Line lisp-body-indent: Lisp Indent lisp-indent-offset: Lisp Indent lisp-interaction-mode-hook: Program Modes lisp-mode-hook: Program Modes list-colors-sort: Colors list-directory-brief-switches: Directories list-directory-verbose-switches: Directories list-matching-lines-default-context-lines: Other Repeating Search list-matching-lines-jump-to-current-line: Other Repeating Search load-dangerous-libraries: Lisp Libraries load-path: Lisp Libraries load-prefer-newer: Lisp Libraries locale-charset-language-names: Language Environments locale-coding-system: Communication Coding locale-language-names: Language Environments locale-preferred-coding-systems: Language Environments locate-command: Dired and Find LOGNAME, environment variable: General Variables lpr-add-switches: Printing lpr-command (MS-DOS): Windows Printing lpr-commands: Printing lpr-headers-switches: Printing lpr-headers-switches (MS-DOS): Windows Printing lpr-printer-switch: Printing lpr-switches: Printing lpr-switches (MS-DOS): Windows Printing ls-lisp-dirs-first: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-emulation: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-format-time-list: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-ignore-case: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-support-shell-wildcards: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-UCA-like-collation: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-use-insert-directory-program: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-use-localized-time-format: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-use-string-collate: ls in Lisp ls-lisp-verbosity: ls in Lisp ------------------------------------------------------------------ M magic-fallback-mode-alist: Choosing Modes magic-mode-alist: Choosing Modes MAIL, environment variable: General Variables mail-citation-hook: Citing Mail mail-default-headers: Mail Headers mail-dont-reply-to-names: Rmail Reply mail-personal-alias-file: Mail Aliases mail-signature: Mail Signature mail-signature-file: Mail Signature mail-user-agent: Mail Methods major-mode: Major Modes make-backup-file-name-function: Backup Names make-backup-files: Backup make-pointer-invisible: Display Custom Man-switches: Man Page mark-even-if-inactive: Using Region mark-ring-max: Mark Ring max-mini-window-height: Minibuffer Edit maximum-scroll-margin: Auto Scrolling menu-bar-mode: Menu Bars message-kill-buffer-on-exit: Mail Sending message-log-max: Echo Area message-mode-hook: Mail Misc message-send-hook: Mail Sending message-send-mail-function: Mail Sending message-setup-hook: Mail Misc message-signature: Mail Signature message-signature-file: Mail Signature MH, environment variable: General Variables midnight-hook: Kill Buffer midnight-mode: Kill Buffer minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default: Basic Minibuffer minibuffer-local-completion-map: Minibuffer Maps minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map: Minibuffer Maps minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map: Minibuffer Maps minibuffer-local-map: Minibuffer Maps minibuffer-local-must-match-map: Minibuffer Maps minibuffer-local-ns-map: Minibuffer Maps minibuffer-prompt-properties: Standard Faces mode-line-in-non-selected-windows: Optional Mode Line mode-require-final-newline: Customize Save mode-specific-map: Prefix Keymaps mouse-1-click-in-non-selected-windows: Mouse References mouse-autoselect-window: Other Window mouse-avoidance-mode: Mouse Avoidance mouse-drag-and-drop-region: Drag and Drop mouse-drag-and-drop-region-cut-when-buffers-differ: Drag and Drop mouse-drag-and-drop-region-show-cursor: Drag and Drop mouse-drag-and-drop-region-show-tooltip: Drag and Drop mouse-drag-copy-region: Mouse Commands mouse-highlight: Mouse References mouse-scroll-min-lines: Mouse Commands mouse-wheel-flip-direction: Mouse Commands mouse-wheel-follow-mouse: Mouse Commands mouse-wheel-progressive-speed: Mouse Commands mouse-wheel-scroll-amount: Mouse Commands mouse-wheel-tilt-scroll: Mouse Commands mouse-yank-at-point: Mouse Commands ------------------------------------------------------------------ N NAME: Misc Variables NAME, environment variable: General Variables network-security-level: Network Security network-security-protocol-checks: Network Security next-error-find-buffer-function: Compilation Mode next-error-highlight: Compilation Mode next-error-highlight-no-select: Compilation Mode next-line-add-newlines: Moving Point next-screen-context-lines: Scrolling NNTPSERVER, environment variable: General Variables nobreak-char-display: Text Display normal-erase-is-backspace: DEL Does Not Delete nroff-mode-hook: Nroff Mode ns-alternate-modifier: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-auto-hide-menu-bar: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-command-modifier: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-confirm-quit: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-control-modifier: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-function-modifier: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-mwheel-line-height: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-pop-up-frames: Mac / GNUstep Events ns-right-alternate-modifier: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-right-command-modifier: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-right-control-modifier: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-standard-fontset-spec: Defining Fontsets ns-use-mwheel-acceleration: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-use-mwheel-momentum: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-use-native-fullscreen: Mac / GNUstep Customization ns-use-proxy-icon: Mac / GNUstep Customization nsm-save-host-names: Network Security nsm-settings-file: Network Security ------------------------------------------------------------------ O open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start: Left Margin Paren org-agenda-files: Org Organizer org-publish-project-alist: Org Authoring org-todo-keywords: Org Organizer ORGANIZATION, environment variable: General Variables outline-level: Outline Format outline-minor-mode-prefix: Outline Mode outline-mode-hook: Outline Mode outline-regexp: Outline Format overflow-newline-into-fringe: Fringes overline-margin: Display Custom ------------------------------------------------------------------ P package-archive-priorities: Package Installation package-archives: Package Installation package-check-signature: Package Installation package-directory-list: Package Files package-enable-at-startup: Package Installation package-load-list: Package Installation package-menu-async: Package Menu package-menu-hide-low-priority: Package Installation package-pinned-packages: Package Installation package-unsigned-archives: Package Installation package-user-dir: Package Files page-delimiter: Pages paragraph-separate: Paragraphs paragraph-start: Paragraphs PATH, environment variable: General Variables pdb-mode-hook: GUD Customization perldb-mode-hook: GUD Customization picture-mode-hook: Picture Mode picture-tab-chars: Tabs in Picture plain-tex-mode-hook: TeX Misc PRELOAD_WINSOCK: Misc Variables print-region-function (MS-DOS): Windows Printing printer-name: Printing printer-name, (MS-DOS/MS-Windows): Windows Printing prog-mode-hook: Major Modes ps-black-white-faces: PostScript Variables ps-font-family: PostScript Variables ps-font-info-database: PostScript Variables ps-font-size: PostScript Variables ps-landscape-mode: PostScript Variables ps-lpr-command: PostScript Variables ps-lpr-command (MS-DOS): Windows Printing ps-lpr-switches: PostScript Variables ps-lpr-switches (MS-DOS): Windows Printing ps-multibyte-buffer: PostScript Variables ps-number-of-columns: PostScript Variables ps-page-dimensions-database: PostScript Variables ps-paper-type: PostScript Variables ps-print-color-p: PostScript Variables ps-print-header: PostScript Variables ps-printer-name: PostScript Variables ps-printer-name (MS-DOS): Windows Printing ps-use-face-background: PostScript Variables PWD, environment variable: General Variables ------------------------------------------------------------------ Q quail-activate-hook: Input Methods query-replace-from-to-separator: Query Replace query-replace-highlight: Query Replace query-replace-lazy-highlight: Query Replace query-replace-show-replacement: Query Replace query-replace-skip-read-only: Query Replace ------------------------------------------------------------------ R read-buffer-completion-ignore-case: Completion Options read-file-name-completion-ignore-case: Completion Options read-mail-command: Mail Methods read-quoted-char-radix: Inserting Text recenter-positions: Recentering recenter-redisplay: Recentering recentf-mode: File Conveniences regexp-search-ring-max: Regexp Search register-preview-delay: Registers register-separator: Text Registers replace-lax-whitespace: Replacement and Lax Matches replace-regexp-lax-whitespace: Replacement and Lax Matches REPLYTO, environment variable: General Variables require-final-newline: Customize Save resize-mini-windows: Minibuffer Edit revert-without-query: Reverting rmail-automatic-folder-directives: Rmail Output rmail-delete-after-output: Rmail Output rmail-delete-message-hook: Rmail Deletion rmail-displayed-headers: Rmail Display rmail-edit-mode-hook: Rmail Editing rmail-enable-mime: Rmail Display rmail-enable-mime-composing: Rmail Reply rmail-file-coding-system: Rmail Coding rmail-file-name: Rmail Basics rmail-highlighted-headers: Rmail Display rmail-ignored-headers: Rmail Display rmail-inbox-list: Rmail Files rmail-mail-new-frame: Rmail Reply rmail-mbox-format: Rmail Inbox rmail-mime-prefer-html: Rmail Display rmail-mode-hook: Rmail rmail-movemail-flags: Remote Mailboxes rmail-movemail-program: Movemail rmail-movemail-search-path: Movemail rmail-nonignored-headers: Rmail Display rmail-output-file-alist: Rmail Output rmail-output-reset-deleted-flag: Rmail Output rmail-preserve-inbox: Rmail Inbox rmail-primary-inbox-list: Rmail Inbox rmail-redisplay-summary: Rmail Summary Edit rmail-remote-password: Remote Mailboxes rmail-remote-password-required: Remote Mailboxes rmail-retry-ignored-headers: Rmail Reply rmail-secondary-file-directory: Rmail Files rmail-secondary-file-regexp: Rmail Files rmail-summary-line-count-flag: Rmail Make Summary rmail-summary-scroll-between-messages: Rmail Summary Edit rmail-summary-window-size: Rmail Make Summary ------------------------------------------------------------------ S safe-local-eval-forms: Safe File Variables safe-local-variable-values: Safe File Variables save-abbrevs: Saving Abbrevs save-interprogram-paste-before-kill: Clipboard save-some-buffers-default-predicate: Save Commands SAVEDIR, environment variable: General Variables scheme-mode-hook: Program Modes script-representative-chars: Modifying Fontsets scroll-all-mode: Window Convenience scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion: Scroll Bars scroll-bar-height: Scroll Bars scroll-bar-mode: Scroll Bars scroll-bar-width: Scroll Bars scroll-conservatively: Auto Scrolling scroll-down: Scrolling scroll-down-aggressively: Auto Scrolling scroll-error-top-bottom: Scrolling scroll-margin: Auto Scrolling scroll-preserve-screen-position: Scrolling scroll-step: Auto Scrolling scroll-up: Scrolling scroll-up-aggressively: Auto Scrolling sdb-mode-hook: GUD Customization search-exit-option: Not Exiting Isearch search-highlight: Search Customizations search-invisible: Outline Visibility search-nonincremental-instead: Search Customizations search-ring-max: Repeat Isearch search-slow-speed: Search Customizations search-slow-window-lines: Search Customizations search-upper-case: Lax Search search-whitespace-regexp: Lax Search select-active-regions: Primary Selection select-enable-clipboard: Clipboard select-enable-primary: Clipboard selective-display-ellipses: Selective Display send-mail-function: Mail Sending sendmail-coding-system: Output Coding sentence-end: Sentences sentence-end-double-space: Sentences sentence-end-without-period: Sentences server-auth-dir: TCP Emacs server server-auth-key: TCP Emacs server server-host: TCP Emacs server server-kill-new-buffers: Invoking emacsclient server-name: Emacs Server server-port: TCP Emacs server server-temp-file-regexp: Invoking emacsclient server-use-tcp: TCP Emacs server server-window: Invoking emacsclient set-language-environment-hook: Language Environments set-mark-command-repeat-pop: Mark Ring sgml-xml-mode: HTML Mode SHELL, environment variable: General Variables shell-cd-regexp: Directory Tracking shell-command-default-error-buffer: Single Shell shell-command-dont-erase-buffer: Single Shell shell-command-prompt-show-cwd: Single Shell shell-command-regexp: Shell Mode shell-completion-execonly: Shell Options shell-completion-fignore: Shell Options shell-file-name: Single Shell shell-popd-regexp: Directory Tracking shell-prompt-pattern: Shell Prompts shell-pushd-regexp: Directory Tracking show-paren-highlight-openparen: Matching show-paren-style: Matching show-paren-when-point-in-periphery: Matching show-paren-when-point-inside-paren: Matching show-trailing-whitespace: Useless Whitespace slitex-mode-hook: TeX Misc small-temporary-file-directory: Backup SMTPSERVER, environment variable: General Variables so-long-action: Long Lines sort-fold-case: Sorting sort-numeric-base: Sorting split-height-threshold: Window Choice split-width-threshold: Window Choice split-window-keep-point: Split Window standard-fontset-spec: Defining Fontsets standard-indent: Enriched Indentation suggest-key-bindings: M-x ------------------------------------------------------------------ T tab-always-indent: Indent Convenience tab-bar-close-tab-select: Tab Bars tab-bar-new-tab-choice: Tab Bars tab-bar-new-tab-to: Tab Bars tab-bar-show: Tab Bars tab-stop-list: Tab Stops tab-width: Text Display table-cell-horizontal-chars: Table Definition table-cell-intersection-char: Table Definition table-cell-vertical-char: Table Definition table-detect-cell-alignment: Cell Justification tags-case-fold-search: Identifier Search tags-file-name: Select Tags Table tags-table-list: Select Tags Table TEMP, environment variable: General Variables temp-buffer-max-height: Temporary Displays temp-buffer-max-width: Temporary Displays temporary-file-directory: Backup TERM, environment variable: General Variables TERM, environment variable, and display bugs: Checklist TERM, environment variable, in compilation mode: Compilation Shell TERM, environment variable, in sub-shell: Shell Options term-file-aliases: Terminal Init term-file-prefix: Terminal Init TERMCAP, environment variable: General Variables tex-bibtex-command: TeX Print tex-default-mode: TeX Mode tex-directory: TeX Print tex-dvi-print-command: TeX Print tex-dvi-view-command: TeX Print tex-main-file: TeX Print tex-mode-hook: TeX Misc tex-print-file-extension: TeX Print tex-run-command: TeX Print tex-shell-hook: TeX Misc tex-start-commands: TeX Print tex-start-options: TeX Print text-mode-hook: Text Mode timeclock-ask-before-exiting: Time Intervals timeclock-file: Time Intervals timeclock-mode-line-display: Time Intervals TMP, environment variable: General Variables TMPDIR, environment variable: General Variables tool-bar-mode: Tool Bars tool-bar-style: Tool Bars tooltip-delay: Tooltips tooltip-frame-parameters: Tooltips tooltip-hide-delay: Tooltips tooltip-short-delay: Tooltips tooltip-x-offset: Tooltips tooltip-y-offset: Tooltips track-eol: Moving Point tramp-histfile-override: Shell Ring truncate-lines: Line Truncation truncate-partial-width-windows: Split Window tty-menu-open-use-tmm: Menu Bar tty-setup-hook: Terminal Init TZ, environment variable: General Variables ------------------------------------------------------------------ U underline-minimum-offset: Display Custom undo-limit: Undo undo-outer-limit: Undo undo-strong-limit: Undo unibyte-display-via-language-environment: Unibyte Mode uniquify-buffer-name-style: Uniquify use-dialog-box: Dialog Boxes use-file-dialog: Dialog Boxes USER, environment variable: General Variables user-full-name: Mail Headers user-mail-address: Mail Headers user-mail-address, in init file: Init Examples user-mail-address, initialization: General Variables ------------------------------------------------------------------ V vc-annotate-background-mode: Old Revisions vc-backend-header: Version Headers vc-command-messages: General VC Options vc-consult-headers: Version Headers vc-cvs-global-switches: CVS Options vc-cvs-stay-local: CVS Options vc-diff-switches: Old Revisions vc-directory-exclusion-list: VC Directory Buffer vc-follow-symlinks: General VC Options vc-handled-backends: Customizing VC vc-log-mode-hook: Log Buffer vc-log-show-limit: VC Change Log vc-make-backup-files: General VC Options vc-revert-show-diff: VC Undo vc-static-header-alist: Version Headers vc-suppress-confirm: General VC Options version-control: Backup Names VERSION_CONTROL, environment variable: General Variables view-read-only: Misc Buffer visible-bell: Display Custom visible-cursor: Cursor Display visual-order-cursor-movement: Bidirectional Editing ------------------------------------------------------------------ W w32-alt-is-meta: Windows Keyboard w32-apps-modifier: Windows Keyboard w32-capslock-is-shiftlock: Windows Keyboard w32-charset-info-alist: Windows Fonts w32-enable-caps-lock: Windows Keyboard w32-enable-num-lock: Windows Keyboard w32-fixed-font-alist: Windows Fonts w32-get-true-file-attributes: Windows Files w32-grab-focus-on-raise: Windows Misc w32-lwindow-modifier: Windows Keyboard w32-mouse-button-tolerance: Windows Mouse w32-non-USB-fonts: Windows Fonts w32-pass-alt-to-system: Windows Keyboard w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system: Windows Mouse w32-pass-lwindow-to-system: Windows Keyboard w32-pass-rwindow-to-system: Windows Keyboard w32-pipe-buffer-size: Windows Processes w32-pipe-read-delay: Windows Processes w32-quote-process-args: Windows Processes w32-recognize-altgr: Windows Keyboard w32-rwindow-modifier: Windows Keyboard w32-scroll-lock-modifier: Windows Keyboard w32-standard-fontset-spec: Defining Fontsets w32-swap-mouse-buttons: Windows Mouse w32-unicode-filenames: File Name Coding w32-use-visible-system-caret: Windows Misc w32-use-w32-font-dialog: Windows Fonts what-cursor-show-names: Position Info which-func-modes: Which Function whitespace-big-indent-regexp: Useless Whitespace whitespace-line-column: Useless Whitespace whitespace-style: Useless Whitespace window-divider-default-bottom-width: Window Dividers window-divider-default-places: Window Dividers window-divider-default-right-width: Window Dividers window-min-height: Change Window window-min-width: Change Window window-resize-pixelwise: Split Window winner-boring-buffers: Window Convenience winner-boring-buffers-regexp: Window Convenience winner-dont-bind-my-keys: Window Convenience winner-ring-size: Window Convenience write-region-inhibit-fsync: Customize Save ------------------------------------------------------------------ X x-gtk-file-dialog-help-text: Dialog Boxes x-gtk-show-hidden-files: Dialog Boxes x-gtk-use-system-tooltips: Tooltips x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position: Mouse Commands x-select-enable-clipboard-manager: Clipboard x-select-request-type: Communication Coding x-stretch-cursor: Cursor Display x-underline-at-descent-line: Display Custom xdb-mode-hook: GUD Customization xref-marker-ring-length: Looking Up Identifiers xref-prompt-for-identifier: Looking Up Identifiers ------------------------------------------------------------------ Y yank-pop-change-selection: Clipboard ------------------------------------------------------------------ Jump to: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Next: Concept Index, Previous: Command Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Previous: Variable Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Concept Index Jump to: # $ ( * - . / 7 8 ? _ ~ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Index Entry Section -------------------------------------------------------------- # #, in auto-save file names: Auto Save Files -------------------------------------------------------------- $ $ in file names: File Names -------------------------------------------------------------- ( ( in leftmost column: Left Margin Paren -------------------------------------------------------------- * *Messages* buffer: Echo Area -------------------------------------------------------------- - –/—/.-./.../.: Amusements -------------------------------------------------------------- . .#, lock file names: Interlocking .dir-locals.el file: Directory Variables .emacs file: Init File .mailrc file: Mail Aliases .newsrc file: Gnus Startup -------------------------------------------------------------- / // in file name: Minibuffer File -------------------------------------------------------------- 7 7z: File Archives -------------------------------------------------------------- 8 8-bit display: Unibyte Mode 8-bit input: Unibyte Mode -------------------------------------------------------------- ? ‘?’ in display: International Chars -------------------------------------------------------------- _ _emacs init file, MS-Windows: Windows HOME -------------------------------------------------------------- ~ ~, in names of backup files: Backup Names ~/.authinfo file: Authentication ~/.authinfo.gpg file: Authentication ~/.config/emacs/init.el file: Init File ~/.emacs file: Init File ~/.emacs.d/%backup%~: Backup Names ~/.emacs.d/gtkrc file: GTK resources ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file: GTK resources ~/.netrc file: Authentication ~/.Xdefaults file: Resources ~/.Xresources file: Resources -------------------------------------------------------------- A A and B buffers (Emerge): Overview of Emerge A-: Modifier Keys abbrev file: Saving Abbrevs Abbrev mode: Abbrev Concepts abbrevs: Abbrevs abnormal hook: Hooks aborting recursive edit: Quitting accented characters: Unibyte Mode accessible portion: Narrowing accumulating scattered text: Accumulating Text action options (command line): Emacs Invocation activating the mark: Mark active region: Mark active text: Help Echo adaptive filling: Adaptive Fill adding to the kill ring in Dired: Misc Dired Features addpm, MS-Windows installation program: MS-Windows Registry adjust buffer face height: Text Scale aggressive scrolling: Auto Scrolling alarm clock: Appointments alignment for comments: Comment Commands Alt key (MS-Windows): Windows Keyboard Alt key invokes menu (Windows): Windows Keyboard Alt key, serving as Meta: User Input Alt, modifier key: Modifier Keys Alt-TAB vs M-TAB (MS-Windows): Windows Keyboard ALTERNATE_EDITOR environment variable: emacsclient Options AltGr key (MS-Windows): Windows Keyboard ange-ftp: Remote Files animate: Amusements animated images: Image Mode anonymous FTP: Remote Files appending kills in the ring: Appending Kills appointment notification: Appointments apropos: Apropos apropos search results, order by score: Apropos Arabic: Language Environments arc: File Archives Archive mode: File Archives arguments (command line): Emacs Invocation arguments to commands: Arguments arrow keys: Moving Point ASCII: User Input ASCII (language environment): Language Environments ASCII art: Text Asm mode: Asm Mode assembler mode: Asm Mode astronomical day numbers: Calendar Systems attached frame (of speedbar): Speedbar attribute (Rmail): Rmail Labels attributes of mode line, changing: Optional Mode Line Auto Compression mode: Compressed Files Auto Fill mode: Auto Fill Auto Revert mode: Auto Revert Auto Save mode: Auto Save auto-save for remote files: Auto Save Files autoload: Lisp Libraries autoload Lisp libraries: Init Examples automatic scrolling: Auto Scrolling automatic version backups: CVS Options avoiding mouse in the way of your typing: Mouse Avoidance Awk mode: Program Modes AWK mode: C Modes -------------------------------------------------------------- B back end (version control): Version Control Systems back reference, in regexp: Regexp Backslash back reference, in regexp replacement: Regexp Replace background color: Faces background color, command-line argument: Colors X background for menus (X resource): Table of Resources background mode, on xterm: General Variables background syntax highlighting: Font Lock BACKSPACE vs DEL: DEL Does Not Delete backtrace: Crashing backtrace for bug reports: Checklist backup file: Backup backup file names: Backup Names backup file names on MS-DOS: MS-DOS File Names backup, and user-id: Backup Copying backups for remote files: Remote Files Bahá’í calendar: Calendar Systems balanced expression: Expressions balloon help: Help Echo base buffer: Indirect Buffers base direction of paragraphs: Bidirectional Editing basic, completion style: Completion Styles batch mode: Initial Options battery status (on mode line): Optional Mode Line Bazaar: Version Control Systems Belarusian: Language Environments Bengali: Language Environments bidirectional editing: Bidirectional Editing binding: Commands binding keyboard macros: Save Keyboard Macro binding keys: Rebinding blank lines: Blank Lines blank lines in programs: Multi-Line Comments blinking cursor: Cursor Display blinking cursor disable, command-line Misc X argument: body lines (Outline mode): Outline Format bookmark annotations: Bookmarks bookmarks: Bookmarks border color, command-line argument: Colors X borders (X Window System): Borders X boredom: Amusements bound branch (Bazaar VCS): Pulling / Pushing brace in column zero and fontification: Font Lock braces, moving across: Moving by Parens branch (version control): Branches Brazilian Portuguese: Language Environments Browse-URL: Browse-URL bubbles: Amusements buffer contents: Buffers buffer definitions index: Imenu buffer list, customizable: Buffer Menus Buffer Menu: Several Buffers buffer size display: Optional Mode Line buffer size, maximum: Buffers buffer text garbled: Text Garbled buffer-local hooks: Hooks buffers: Buffers bug criteria: Bug Criteria bug reporting: Understanding Bug Reporting bug reporting, checklist: Checklist bug tracker: Known Problems bugs: Bugs build details: Initial Options building programs: Building built-in package: Package Menu Bulgarian: Language Environments Burmese: Language Environments butterfly: Amusements button-down events: Mouse Buttons buttons: Mouse References buttons (customization buffer): Customization Groups buttons at buffer position: Editing Format Info bypassing init and default.el file: Initial Options byte code: Lisp Libraries byte-compiling several files (in Dired): Operating on Files bzr: Version Control Systems -------------------------------------------------------------- C C editing: Programs C mode: C Modes C++ class browser, tags: Tags Tables C++ mode: C Modes C-: User Input cache of file names: File Name Cache calendar: Calendar/Diary calendar and HTML: Writing Calendar Files calendar and LaTeX: Writing Calendar Files calendar layout: Calendar Customizing calendar week numbers: Calendar Customizing calendar, first day of week: Move to Beginning or End call Lisp functions, command-line Action Arguments argument: camel case: MixedCase Words candle lighting times: Sexp Diary Entries capitalizing words: Case case conversion: Case case folding in replace commands: Replacement and Lax Matches case folding in search: Lax Search case in completion: Completion Options case-sensitivity and completion: Completion Options case-sensitivity and search: Lax Search case-sensitivity and tags search: Identifier Search categories of characters: Regexp Backslash cells, for text-based tables: Table Definition centering: Fill Commands centralized version control: VCS Repositories Cham: Language Environments change buffers: Select Buffer change Emacs directory: Initial Options change log: Change Log Change Log mode: Change Log Commands changes, undoing: Undo changeset-based version control: VCS Changesets changing file group (in Dired): Operating on Files changing file owner (in Dired): Operating on Files changing file permissions (in Dired): Operating on Files changing file time (in Dired): Operating on Files char mode (terminal emulator): Terminal emulator character equivalence in search: Lax Search character folding in replace commands: Replacement and Lax Matches character folding in search: Lax Search character set (keyboard): User Input character set of character at point: International Chars character syntax: Init Syntax characters (in text): Text Display characters in a certain charset: Charsets characters which belong to a specific Regexp Backslash language: characters with no font glyphs: Text Display characters, inserting by name or Inserting Text code-point: charsets: Charsets checking out files: VCS Concepts checking spelling: Spelling checking syntax: Flymake checklist before reporting a bug: Checklist Chinese: Language Environments Chinese calendar: Calendar Systems choosing a major mode: Choosing Modes choosing a minor mode: Choosing Modes ciphers: Amusements citing mail: Citing Mail CKJ characters: Modifying Fontsets class browser, C++: Tags Tables Cleartype: Windows Fonts click events: Mouse Buttons client frame: emacsclient Options client-side fonts: Fonts clipboard: Clipboard clipboard manager: Clipboard clocking time: Time Intervals close buffer: Kill Buffer close file: Kill Buffer codepage, MS-DOS: MS-DOS and MULE codepoint of a character: Modifying Fontsets coding standards: Coding Standards coding systems: Coding Systems collision: Interlocking color emulation on black-and-white PostScript Variables printers: color name: Colors color of window, from command line: Colors X color scheme: Custom Themes Column Number mode: Optional Mode Line columns (and rectangles): Rectangles columns (indentation): Indentation columns, splitting: Two-Column Comint mode: Shell Mode comint-highlight-input face: Interactive Shell comint-highlight-prompt face: Interactive Shell command: Commands command history: Repetition command line arguments: Emacs Invocation commands in *xref* buffers: Xref Commands comments: Comments comments on customized settings: Changing a Variable Common Lisp: External Lisp compare files (in Dired): Comparison in Dired comparing 3 files (diff3): Comparing Files comparing files: Comparing Files compilation buffer, keeping point at end: Compilation compilation errors: Compilation Compilation mode: Compilation Mode compilation mode faces: Compilation Mode compilation under MS-DOS: MS-DOS Processes complete key: Keys completion: Completion completion (Lisp symbols): Symbol Completion completion (symbol names): Symbol Completion completion alternative: Completion completion list: Completion Commands completion style: Completion Styles compose character: Unibyte Mode compressing files (in Dired): Operating on Files compression: Compressed Files Conf mode: Program Modes confirming in the minibuffer: Completion Exit conflicts: Merging connecting to remote host: Remote Host connection-local variables: Connection Variables contents of a buffer: Buffers continuation line: Continuation Lines contributing to Emacs: Contributing Control: User Input control character: User Input control characters on display: Text Display converting text to upper or lower case: Case Coptic calendar: Calendar Systems copy: Cut and Paste copy/paste to/from primary selection Mac / GNUstep Basics (macOS): copying files: Copying and Naming copying files (in Dired): Operating on Files copying text: Yanking copyright assignment: Copyright Assignment CORBA IDL mode: C Modes core dump: Crashing correcting spelling: Spelling CPerl mode: Program Modes crash report: Crashing crashes: Auto Save create a text-based table: Table Creation creating files: Visiting creating frames: Creating Frames Croatian: Language Environments cryptanalysis: Amusements CSSC: Version Control Systems CUA key bindings: CUA Bindings curly quotes: Quotation Marks curly quotes, and terminal capabilities: Text Display curly quotes, inserting: Inserting Text current buffer: Buffers current function name in mode line: Which Function current message (Rmail): Rmail Basics current project: Projects cursor: Point cursor color, command-line argument: Colors X cursor face: Faces cursor in non-selected windows: Cursor Display cursor location: Position Info cursor location, on MS-DOS: Text and Binary cursor motion: Moving Point cursor shape on MS-DOS: MS-DOS Display cursor, blinking: Cursor Display cursor, visual-order motion: Bidirectional Editing curved quotes: Quotation Marks curved quotes, and terminal capabilities: Text Display curved quotes, inserting: Inserting Text custom themes: Custom Themes custom themes, creating: Creating Custom Themes customizable variable: Easy Customization customization: Customization customization buffer: Easy Customization customization groups: Customization Groups customization of menu face: Standard Faces customizing faces: Face Customization customizing Lisp indentation: Lisp Indent customizing variables: Changing a Variable cut: Cut and Paste cut and paste: Glossary cutting text: Deletion and Killing cvs: VC Directory Mode CVS: Version Control Systems CVS directory mode: VC Directory Mode CWarn mode: Other C Commands Cyrillic: Language Environments Czech: Language Environments -------------------------------------------------------------- D daemon, Emacs: Emacs Server day of year: General Calendar daylight saving time: Daylight Saving DBX: Debuggers deactivating the mark: Mark dead character: Unibyte Mode debbugs package: Known Problems debuggers: Debuggers debugging Emacs, tricks and techniques: Checklist debugging X problems: Table of Resources decentralized version control: VCS Repositories decoding mail messages (Rmail): Rmail Coding decoding non-ASCII keyboard input on X: Communication Coding decrease buffer face height: Text Scale decrypting files (in Dired): Operating on Files default argument: Basic Minibuffer default directory: Minibuffer File default directory, of a buffer: File Names default face: Faces default file name: File Names default search mode: Search Customizations default.el file, not loading: Initial Options default.el, the default init file: Init File defining keyboard macros: Keyboard Macros defuns: Moving by Defuns DEL does not delete: DEL Does Not Delete DEL vs BACKSPACE: DEL Does Not Delete Delete Selection mode: Using Region delete window: Change Window deleting auto-save files: Flagging Many Files deleting blank lines: Blank Lines deleting characters and lines: Erasing deleting files (in Dired): Dired Deletion deleting rows and column in text-based Table Rows and tables: Columns deleting some backup files: Flagging Many Files deleting windows: Change Window deletion: Deletion and Killing deletion (of files): Misc File Ops deletion (Rmail): Rmail Deletion desktop: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop restore in daemon mode: Saving Emacs Sessions desktop shortcut, MS-Windows: Windows Startup deterministic build: Initial Options Devanagari: Language Environments device for Emacs terminal I/O: Initial Options dialog boxes: Dialog Boxes Dialog X Resources (Lucid widgets): Lucid Resources diary: Diary diary buffer: Diary Display diary file: Format of Diary File Diff mode: Diff Mode digest message: Rmail Digest directional window selection: Window Convenience directories in buffer names: Uniquify directory header lines: Subdirectory Motion directory listing: Directories directory listing on MS-DOS: MS-DOS Processes directory name abbreviation: File Aliases directory tracking: Directory Tracking directory where Emacs starts on Windows Startup MS-Windows: directory-local variables: Directory Variables Dired: Dired Dired and version control: Misc Dired Features Dired sorting: Dired Updating Dired sorting order, on ls in Lisp MS-Windows/MS-DOS: Dired, and MS-Windows/MS-DOS: ls in Lisp Dirtrack mode: Directory Tracking disable window system: Initial Options disabled command: Disabling disabling remote files: Remote Files DISPLAY environment variable: Display X display for Emacs frame: Initial Options display line numbers: Display Custom display name (X Window System): Display X display of buffer size: Optional Mode Line display of current line number: Optional Mode Line display, incorrect: Screen Garbled distributed version control: VCS Repositories DNS mode: Program Modes DocTeX mode: TeX Mode document viewer (DocView): Document View documentation string: Key Help DocView mode: Document View DOS applications, running from Emacs: Windows Processes DOS codepages: MS-DOS and MULE DOS-style end-of-line display: Recognize Coding DOS-to-Unix conversion of files: Text and Binary double clicks: Mouse Buttons double slash in file name: Minibuffer File down events: Mouse Buttons downcase file names: Transforming File Names drag and drop: Drag and Drop drag and drop, Dired: Misc Dired Features drag events: Mouse Buttons drastic changes: Reverting dribble file: Checklist DSSSL mode: Program Modes dunnet: Amusements Dutch: Language Environments DVI file: Document View -------------------------------------------------------------- E early init file: Early Init File Ebrowse: Tags Tables echo area: Echo Area echo area message: Echo Area echoing: Echo Area EDE (Emacs Development Environment): EDE Edebug: Checklist editable fields (customization buffer): Customization Groups editing binary files: Editing Binary Files editing in Picture mode: Basic Picture editing level, recursive: Recursive Edit EDITOR environment variable: Emacs Server eight-bit character set: International Chars ElDoc mode: Lisp Doc Electric Indent mode: Indent Convenience Electric Pair mode: Matching Electric Quote mode: Quotation Marks Eliza: Amusements Emacs as a server: Emacs Server Emacs Development Environment: EDE Emacs icon, a gnu: Icons X Emacs initialization file: Init File Emacs Lisp mode: Lisp Eval Emacs Lisp package archive: Packages emacs-internal, coding system: Coding Systems emacs22, completion style: Completion Styles emacsclient: Emacs Server emacsclient invocation: Invoking emacsclient emacsclient options: emacsclient Options emacsclient, on MS-Windows: Windows Startup emacsclient.exe: Windows Startup emacsclientw.exe: Windows Startup emacs_backtrace.txt file, MS-Windows: Crashing email: Sending Mail embedded widgets: Embedded WebKit Widgets Emerge: Emerge emergency escape: Emergency Escape enabling Transient Mark mode temporarily: Disabled Transient Mark encoding of characters: International encrypted mails (reading in Rmail): Rmail Display encrypting files (in Dired): Operating on Files encryption: Network Security end-of-line convention, mode-line Mode Line indication: end-of-line conversion: Coding Systems end-of-line conversion on Text and Binary MS-DOS/MS-Windows: English: Language Environments Enriched mode: Enriched Text enriched text: Enriched Text entering Emacs: Entering Emacs entering passwords: Passwords environment variables: Environment environment variables (macOS): Mac / GNUstep Basics environment variables for subshells: Interactive Shell environment variables in file names: File Names equivalent character sequences: Lax Search erasing characters and lines: Erasing error log: Compilation error message: Echo Area errors in init file: Initial Options ESC replacing Meta key: User Input escape sequences in files: Recognize Coding escape-glyph face: Text Display ESHELL environment variable: Interactive Shell Esperanto: Language Environments etags: Tags Tables etags program: Create Tags Table Ethiopic: Language Environments Ethiopic calendar: Calendar Systems European character sets: Unibyte Mode evaluate expression, command-line Action Arguments argument: evaluation, Emacs Lisp: Lisp Eval events on macOS: Mac / GNUstep Events exit incremental search: Basic Isearch exiting: Exiting exiting recursive edit: Recursive Edit expanding subdirectories in Dired: Subdirectories in Dired expansion (of abbrevs): Abbrevs expansion of C macros: Other C Commands expansion of environment variables: File Names expression: Expressions expunging (Rmail): Rmail Deletion -------------------------------------------------------------- F face at point: International Chars face colors, setting: Colors faces: Faces faces for highlighting query replace: Query Replace faces for highlighting search matches: Basic Isearch faces for mode lines: Standard Faces faces for text-mode menus: Standard Faces faces under MS-DOS: MS-DOS Display faces, customizing: Face Customization failed merges: Comparing Files Feedmail: Mail Sending FFAP minor mode: FFAP fido mode: Icomplete file archives: File Archives file comparison (in Dired): Comparison in Dired file database (locate): Dired and Find file dates: Interlocking file directory: Directories file local variables: File Variables file locking: Interlocking file management: Dired file modes: Misc File Ops file name caching: File Name Cache file names: File Names file names on MS-Windows: Windows Files file names under MS-DOS: MS-DOS File Names file names under Windows 95/NT: MS-DOS File Names file names with non-ASCII characters: File Name Coding file names, invalid characters on Windows Files MS-Windows: file names, quote special characters: Quoted File Names file notifications: Auto Revert file ownership, and backup: Backup Copying file permissions: Misc File Ops file selection dialog: Visiting file selection dialog, how to disable: Dialog Boxes file shadows: File Shadowing file truenames: File Aliases file version in change log entries: Change Log Commands file, warning when size is large: Visiting file-based version control: VCS Changesets file-name completion, on MS-Windows: Windows Files file-name encoding, MS-Windows: File Name Coding files: Files files, visiting and saving: Visiting filesets: Filesets filesets, VC: Basic VC Editing fill prefix: Fill Prefix filling text: Filling find: File Name Cache find and Dired: Dired and Find find definition of symbols: Looking Up Identifiers find Info manual by its file name: Misc Help find references to symbols: Looking Up Identifiers finder: Package Keywords finding file at point: FFAP finding files containing regexp matches Marks vs Flags (in Dired): finding strings within text: Search firewall, and accessing remote files: Remote Files fixing incorrectly decoded mail messages: Rmail Coding flagging files (in Dired): Dired Deletion flagging many files for deletion (in Flagging Many Files Dired): flex, completion style: Completion Styles Flyspell mode: Spelling folding editing: Foldout Follow mode: Follow Mode font antialiasing (MS Windows): Windows Fonts font backend selection (MS-Windows): Windows Fonts font for menus (X resource): Table of Resources Font Lock mode: Font Lock font lookup, MS-Windows: Windows Fonts font name (X Window System): Font X font of character at point: International Chars font properties (MS Windows): Windows Fonts font scripts (MS Windows): Windows Fonts font specification (MS Windows): Windows Fonts font Unicode subranges (MS Windows): Windows Fonts fontconfig: Fonts fonts: Fonts fonts and faces: Face Customization fonts for PostScript printing: PostScript Variables fonts for various scripts: Fontsets fonts, emulating under MS-DOS: MS-DOS Display fonts, how to ignore: Modifying Fontsets fontsets: Fontsets fontsets, modifying: Modifying Fontsets foreground color, command-line argument: Colors X foreground for menus (X resource): Table of Resources formfeed character: Pages Fortran 77 and Fortran 90, 95, 2003, Fortran 2008: Fortran continuation lines: ForIndent Cont Fortran fixed form and free form: Fortran Fortran mode: Fortran fortune cookies: Mail Amusements forwarding a message: Rmail Reply frame: Screen frame focus policy, MS-Windows: Windows Misc frame size under MS-DOS: MS-DOS Display frame size, specifying default: Frame Parameters frame title, command-line argument: Title X frames: Frames frames on MS-DOS: MS-DOS Display French: Language Environments French Revolutionary calendar: Calendar Systems fringe face: Standard Faces fringes: Fringes fringes, and continuation lines: Continuation Lines fringes, and unused line indication: Useless Whitespace fringes, for debugging: Source Buffers FTP: Remote Files fullheight, command-line argument: Window Size X fullscreen, command-line argument: Window Size X fullwidth, command-line argument: Window Size X function key: Keymaps function, move to beginning or end: Moving by Defuns future history for file names: Minibuffer History -------------------------------------------------------------- G games: Amusements gamma correction (X resource): Table of Resources garbled display: Screen Garbled garbled text: Text Garbled gateway, and remote file access with Remote Files ange-ftp: GDB: Debuggers GDB User Interface layout: GDB User Interface Layout geometry of Emacs window: Window Size X geometry, command-line argument: Window Size X Georgian: Language Environments German: Language Environments getting help with keys: Basic Help Ghostscript, use for PostScript printing: Windows Printing git: Version Control Systems Glasses mode: MixedCase Words Global Auto Revert mode: Auto Revert global keymap: Keymaps global mark: CUA Bindings global mark ring: Global Mark Ring global substitution: Replace glossary: Glossary glyphless characters: Text Display glyphless-char face: Text Display ‘gnu.emacs.help’ newsgroup: Service Gnus: Gnus GNUstep: Mac OS / GNUstep Go Moku: Amusements Goto Address mode: Goto Address mode graphic characters: Inserting Text Greek: Language Environments Gregorian calendar: Other Calendars growing minibuffer: Minibuffer Edit GTK font pattern: Fonts GTK+ resources: GTK resources GTK+ styles: GTK styles GTK+ widget classes: GTK Names in Emacs GTK+ widget names: GTK Widget Names GTK+ widget names in Emacs: GTK Names in Emacs GUD interaction buffer: Debugger Operation GUD library: Debuggers GUD Tooltip mode: Debugger Operation guillemets: Quotation Marks Gujarati: Language Environments gzip: Compressed Files -------------------------------------------------------------- H H-: Modifier Keys Han: International handwriting: PostScript Hangul: International hard links (creation): Copying and Naming hard links (in Dired): Operating on Files hard links (visiting): File Aliases hard newline: Hard and Soft Newlines hardcopy: Printing header (TeX mode): TeX Print header line (Dired): Subdirectory Motion header-line face: Standard Faces header-line-highlight face: Standard Faces headers (of mail message): Mail Headers heading lines (Outline mode): Outline Format Hebrew: Language Environments Hebrew calendar: Calendar Systems height of minibuffer: Minibuffer Edit height of the horizontal scroll bar: Scroll Bars help: Help help in using Emacs: Service help text, in GTK+ file chooser: Dialog Boxes help, viewing web pages: Help Mode ‘help-gnu-emacs’ mailing list: Service hex editing: Editing Binary Files Hexl mode: Editing Binary Files hg: Version Control Systems Hi Lock mode: Highlight Interactively hidden files, in GTK+ file chooser: Dialog Boxes Hide-ifdef mode: Other C Commands Hideshow mode: Hideshow hiding details in Dired: Misc Dired Features hiding subdirectories (Dired): Hiding Subdirectories Highlight Changes mode: Highlight Interactively highlight current line: Cursor Display highlighting by matching: Highlight Interactively highlighting lines of text: Highlight Interactively highlighting matching parentheses: Matching highlighting phrase: Highlight Interactively highlighting region: Disabled Transient Mark highlighting symbol at point: Highlight Interactively Hindi: International history of commands: Repetition history of minibuffer input: Minibuffer History history reference: History References holiday forms: Holiday Customizing holidays: Holidays HOME directory on MS-Windows: Windows HOME home directory shorthand: Minibuffer File HOME directory under MS-DOS: MS-DOS File Names homoglyph face: Text Display hook: Hooks Horizontal Scroll Bar: Scroll Bars Horizontal Scroll Bar mode: Scroll Bars horizontal scrolling: Horizontal Scrolling hourglass pointer display: Display Custom HTML mode: HTML Mode hungry deletion (C Mode): Hungry Delete hunk, diff: Diff Mode Hyper (under MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard Hyper, modifier key: Modifier Keys hyperlink: Help Mode hyperlinks: Mouse References -------------------------------------------------------------- I iCalendar support: Importing Diary Icomplete mode: Icomplete Icon mode: Program Modes iconifying: Exiting icons (X Window System): Icons X icons, toolbar: Tool Bars identifier, finding definition of: Looking Up Identifiers IDL mode: C Modes ignore font: Modifying Fontsets ignored file names, in completion: Completion Options image animation: Image Mode image-dired: Image-Dired image-dired mode: Image-Dired ImageMagick support: Image Mode images, viewing: Image Mode IMAP mailboxes: Remote Mailboxes in-situ subdirectory (Dired): Subdirectories in Dired inbox file: Rmail Inbox incorrect fontification: Font Lock increase buffer face height: Text Scale incremental search: Incremental Search incremental search, edit search string: Repeat Isearch incremental search, exiting: Basic Isearch incremental search, go to first or last Special Isearch occurrence: incremental search, help on special keys: Special Isearch incremental search, input method Input Methods interference: indentation: Indentation indentation for comments: Comment Commands indentation for programs: Program Indent index of buffer definitions: Imenu indirect buffer: Indirect Buffers indirect buffers and outlines: Outline Views inferior process: Compilation inferior processes under MS-DOS: MS-DOS Processes Info: Misc Help init file: Init File init file .emacs on MS-Windows: Windows HOME init file, default name under MS-DOS: MS-DOS File Names init file, not loading: Initial Options initial options (command line): Emacs Invocation initials, completion style: Completion Styles input event: User Input input item, isearch: Basic Isearch input methods: Input Methods input methods, X: Table of Resources input with the keyboard: User Input insert file contents, command-line Action Arguments argument: insert Unicode character: Inserting Text inserted subdirectory (Dired): Subdirectories in Dired inserting blank lines: Blank Lines inserting matching parentheses: Matching inserting rows and columns in text-based Table Rows and tables: Columns insertion: Inserting Text INSIDE_EMACS environment variable: Interactive Shell Integrated development environment: EDE interactive highlighting: Highlight Interactively interactively edit search string: Repeat Isearch internal border width, command-line Borders X argument: international characters in .emacs: Init Non-ASCII international files from DOS/Windows Coding Systems systems: international scripts: International international support (MS-DOS): MS-DOS and MULE Internet search: Word Search Intlfonts for PostScript printing: PostScript Variables Intlfonts package, installation: Fontsets invisible lines: Outline Mode invisible text, and query-replace: Query Replace invisible text, searching for: Special Isearch invocation (command line arguments): Emacs Invocation invoking Emacs from Windows Explorer: Windows Startup IPA: Language Environments isearch: Incremental Search isearch face: Basic Isearch isearch input item: Basic Isearch isearch multiple buffers: Other Repeating Search isearch multiple files: Other Repeating Search isearch-fail face: Error in Isearch Islamic calendar: Calendar Systems ISO commercial calendar: Calendar Systems ISO Latin character sets: Unibyte Mode iso-ascii library: Unibyte Mode iso-transl library: Unibyte Mode ispell program: Spelling Italian: Language Environments -------------------------------------------------------------- J Japanese: Language Environments jar: File Archives Java class archives: File Archives Java mode: C Modes Javascript mode: Program Modes JDB: Debuggers Julian calendar: Calendar Systems Julian day numbers: Calendar Systems just-in-time (JIT) font-lock: Font Lock justification: Fill Commands justification in text-based tables: Cell Justification justification style: Enriched Justification -------------------------------------------------------------- K Kannada: Language Environments Kerberos POP3 authentication: Remote Mailboxes key: Keys key bindings: Key Bindings key rebinding, permanent: Init Rebinding key rebinding, this session: Rebinding key sequence: Keys keyboard input: User Input keyboard macro: Keyboard Macros keyboard macros, in registers: Keyboard Macro Registers keyboard shortcuts: Glossary keyboard, MS-Windows: Windows Keyboard keymap: Keymaps keypad: Function Keys keypad keys (MS-Windows): Windows Keyboard keys stolen by window manager: User Input keys, reserved: Key Bindings Khmer: Language Environments kill DOS application: Windows Processes kill ring: Yanking killing buffers: Kill Buffer killing characters and lines: Erasing killing Emacs: Exiting killing expressions: Expressions killing rectangular areas of text: Rectangles killing text: Deletion and Killing killing unsaved buffers: Kill Buffer Korean: Language Environments -------------------------------------------------------------- L label (Rmail): Rmail Labels language environment, automatic selection MS-DOS and MULE on MS-DOS: language environments: Language Environments Lao: Language Environments LaTeX mode: TeX Mode Latin: Language Environments Latin-1 TeX encoding: TeX Misc Latvian: Language Environments lax search: Lax Search lax space matching in replace commands: Replacement and Lax Matches lax space matching in search: Lax Search lazy highlighting customizations: Search Customizations lazy search highlighting: Repeat Isearch lazy-highlight face: Search Customizations lazy-highlight face, in replace: Query Replace leaving Emacs: Exiting libraries: Lisp Libraries Life: Amusements line endings: Coding Systems line mode (terminal emulator): Terminal emulator line number commands: Position Info line number display: Optional Mode Line line spacing (X resource): Table of Resources line spacing, command-line argument: Misc X line truncation: Line Truncation line truncation, and fringes: Continuation Lines line wrapping: Continuation Lines line-number face: Display Custom lines, highlighting: Highlight Interactively links: Mouse References links (customization buffer): Customization Groups Lisp character syntax: Init Syntax Lisp editing: Programs Lisp files byte-compiled by XEmacs: Lisp Libraries Lisp mode: External Lisp Lisp object syntax: Init Syntax Lisp string syntax: Init Syntax Lisp symbol completion: Symbol Completion lisp-indent-function property: Lisp Indent list commands: Moving by Parens listing current buffers: List Buffers listing system fonts: Fonts Lithuanian: Language Environments load init file of another user: Initial Options load path for Emacs Lisp: Lisp Libraries loading Lisp code: Lisp Libraries loading Lisp libraries automatically: Init Examples loading Lisp libraries, command-line Action Arguments argument: loading several files (in Dired): Operating on Files local keymap: Local Keymaps local variables: Locals local variables in files: File Variables local variables, for all files in a Directory Variables directory: local variables, for all remote Connection Variables connections: locale, date format: Time Stamps locales: Language Environments location of point: Position Info locking (CVS): CVS Options locking files: Interlocking locking, non-strict (RCS): RCS and SCCS locking-based version: VCS Merging locus: Compilation Mode Log Edit mode: Log Buffer log File, types of: Types of Log File logging keystrokes: Checklist logical order: Bidirectional Editing long file names in DOS box under Windows MS-DOS File Names 95/NT: long lines: Long Lines looking for a subject in documentation: Help lpr usage under MS-DOS: Windows Printing LRM: Bidirectional Editing ls emulation: ls in Lisp Lucid Widget X Resources: Lucid Resources lzh: File Archives -------------------------------------------------------------- M M-: User Input M-TAB vs Alt-TAB (MS-Windows): Windows Keyboard M4 mode: Program Modes Macintosh: Mac OS / GNUstep Macintosh end-of-line conversion: Coding Systems macOS: Mac OS / GNUstep macro expansion in C: Other C Commands mail: Sending Mail mail (on mode line): Optional Mode Line mail aliases: Mail Aliases MAIL environment variable: Rmail Inbox Mail mode: Mail Methods mail signature: Mail Signature mail-composition methods: Mail Methods Mailclient: Mail Sending MAILHOST environment variable: Remote Mailboxes mailrc file: Mail Aliases main border width, command-line argument: Borders X major modes: Major Modes make: Compilation Makefile mode: Program Modes making pictures out of text characters: Picture Mode Malayalam: Language Environments man page: Man Page man pages, and local file variables: Specifying File Variables manipulating paragraphs: Paragraphs manipulating sentences: Sentences manipulating text: Text manual pages, on MS-DOS/MS-Windows: Man Page manual version backups: CVS Options manuals, included: Misc Help mark: Mark mark rectangle: Rectangles mark ring: Mark Ring marking executable files (in Dired): Marks vs Flags marking many files (in Dired): Marks vs Flags marking sections of text: Marking Objects marking subdirectories (in Dired): Marks vs Flags marking symbolic links (in Dired): Marks vs Flags match (face name): Other Repeating Search matching parentheses: Matching matching parenthesis and braces, moving Moving by Parens to: maximized, command-line argument: Window Size X maximum buffer size exceeded, error Visiting message: Mayan calendar: Mayan Calendar Mayan calendar round: Mayan Calendar Mayan calendars: Calendar Systems Mayan haab calendar: Mayan Calendar Mayan long count: Mayan Calendar Mayan tzolkin calendar: Mayan Calendar mbox files: Rmail Inbox memory full: Memory Full menu bar: Menu Bar menu bar (X resource): Table of Resources menu bar access using keyboard: Menu Bar menu bar appearance: Standard Faces menu bar mode: Menu Bars menu face, no effect if customized: Standard Faces Menu X Resources (Lucid widgets): Lucid Resources Menu X Resources (Motif widgets): Motif Resources Mercurial: Version Control Systems merge buffer (Emerge): Overview of Emerge merge mail from file (Rmail): Rmail Files merges, failed: Comparing Files merging changes: Merging merging files: Emerge merging-based version: VCS Merging message: Sending Mail Message mode: Mail Commands Message mode for sending mail: Mail Methods message number (Rmail): Rmail Basics messages saved from echo area: Echo Area META: User Input Meta (under MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard Meta commands and words: Words Metafont mode: Program Modes MH mail interface: Mail Methods Microsoft Office file: Document View Microsoft Windows: Microsoft Windows Midnight mode: Kill Buffer MIME: Mail Misc MIME messages (Rmail): Rmail Display minibuffer: Minibuffer minibuffer confirmation: Completion Exit minibuffer defaults for file names: Minibuffer History Minibuffer Electric Default mode: Basic Minibuffer minibuffer history: Minibuffer History minibuffer history, searching: Isearch Minibuffer minibuffer keymaps: Minibuffer Maps minibuffer-prompt face: Standard Faces minimizing: Exiting minimizing a frame at startup: Icons X minor mode keymap: Local Keymaps minor modes: Minor Modes mistakes, correcting: Fixit mode commands for minor modes: Minor Modes mode hook: Major Modes mode hook, and major modes: Program Modes mode line: Mode Line mode line (MS-DOS): MS-DOS and MULE mode line, 3D appearance: Optional Mode Line mode line, mouse: Mode Line Mouse mode, Abbrev: Abbrev Concepts mode, archive: File Archives mode, Auto Compression: Compressed Files mode, Auto Fill: Auto Fill mode, Auto Revert: Auto Revert mode, Auto Save: Auto Save mode, AWK: C Modes mode, C: C Modes mode, C++: C Modes mode, Column Number: Optional Mode Line mode, Comint: Shell Mode mode, Compilation: Compilation Mode mode, CORBA IDL: C Modes mode, Delete Selection: Using Region mode, Dirtrack: Directory Tracking mode, display-fill-column-indicator: Displaying Boundaries mode, DocTeX: TeX Mode mode, DocView: Document View mode, Electric Indent: Indent Convenience mode, Electric Quote: Quotation Marks mode, Emacs Lisp: Lisp Eval mode, Enriched: Enriched Text mode, Flyspell: Spelling mode, Follow: Follow Mode mode, Font Lock: Font Lock mode, Fortran: Fortran mode, Glasses: MixedCase Words mode, Global Auto Revert: Auto Revert mode, Goto Address: Goto Address mode mode, GUD Tooltip: Debugger Operation mode, Hexl: Editing Binary Files mode, Hideshow: Hideshow mode, HTML: HTML Mode mode, Java: C Modes mode, LaTeX: TeX Mode mode, Lisp: External Lisp mode, Log Edit: Log Buffer mode, Mail: Mail Methods mode, major: Major Modes mode, Menu Bar: Menu Bars mode, Message: Mail Commands mode, Minibuffer Electric Default: Basic Minibuffer mode, minor: Minor Modes mode, Mouse Wheel: Mouse Commands mode, MSB: Buffer Menus mode, nXML: HTML Mode mode, Objective C: C Modes mode, Occur: Other Repeating Search mode, Occur Edit: Other Repeating Search mode, Org: Org Mode mode, Outline: Outline Mode mode, Overwrite: Minor Modes mode, Paragraph-Indent Text: Text Mode mode, Pike: C Modes mode, Scheme: External Lisp mode, Scroll Bar: Scroll Bars mode, Scroll-all: Window Convenience mode, Semantic: Semantic mode, SGML: HTML Mode mode, Shell: Shell Mode mode, SliTeX: TeX Mode mode, Tab Bar: Tab Bars mode, tar: File Archives mode, Term: Term Mode mode, TeX: TeX Mode mode, Text: Text Mode mode, Thumbs: Image Mode mode, Tool Bar: Tool Bars mode, Transient Mark: Disabled Transient Mark mode, View: View Mode mode, Visual Line: Visual Line Mode mode, Whitespace: Useless Whitespace mode, Window Divider: Window Dividers mode, Winner: Window Convenience mode, XML: HTML Mode mode-line face: Standard Faces mode-line-buffer-id face: Standard Faces mode-line-highlight face: Standard Faces mode-line-inactive face: Standard Faces modes for editing programs: Hooks modes for programming languages: Program Modes modification dates: Time Stamps modified (buffer): Visiting modifier keys: User Input modifier keys (macOS): Mac / GNUstep Basics modifier keys, and key rebinding: Modifier Keys Modula2 mode: Program Modes module verification: Initial Options moon, phases of: Lunar Phases Morse code: Amusements Motif Widget X Resources: Motif Resources motion commands, during incremental Not Exiting Isearch search: mouse avoidance: Mouse Avoidance mouse button events: Mouse Buttons mouse buttons (what they do): Mouse Commands mouse on mode line: Mode Line Mouse mouse pointer: Display Custom mouse pointer color, command-line Colors X argument: mouse support: Text-Only Mouse mouse support under MS-DOS: MS-DOS Mouse mouse wheel: Mouse Commands Mouse Wheel minor mode: Mouse Commands mouse, and MS-Windows: Windows Mouse mouse, dragging: Mouse Commands mouse, selecting text using: Mouse Commands mouse, set number of buttons: MS-DOS Mouse move to beginning or end of function: Moving by Defuns movemail: Remote Mailboxes movemail program: Movemail movement: Moving Point moving files (in Dired): Operating on Files moving inside the calendar: Calendar Motion moving point: Moving Point moving text: Yanking moving the cursor: Moving Point MS-DOS end-of-line conversion: Coding Systems MS-DOS peculiarities: MS-DOS MS-Windows codepages: MS-DOS and MULE MS-Windows keyboard shortcuts: Windows Keyboard MS-Windows, and primary selection: Primary Selection MS-Windows, Emacs peculiarities: Microsoft Windows MSB mode: Buffer Menus MULE: Glossary multibyte characters: International multiple displays: Multiple Displays multiple source file search and replace: Identifier Search multiple views of outline: Outline Views multiple windows in Emacs: Windows multiple-buffer isearch: Other Repeating Search multiple-file isearch: Other Repeating Search Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions: Mail Misc Multithreaded debugging in GDB: Multithreaded Debugging -------------------------------------------------------------- N names of backup files: Backup Names narrowing: Narrowing narrowing, and line number display: Optional Mode Line ‘net use’, and printing on MS-Windows: Windows Printing network security manager: Network Security networked printers (MS-Windows): Windows Printing newline: Inserting Text newlines, hard and soft: Hard and Soft Newlines newsreader: Gnus Next Error Follow mode: Compilation Mode NFS and quitting: Quitting nil: Glossary no-conversion, coding system: Coding Systems nobreak-space face: Text Display non-ASCII characters in .emacs: Init Non-ASCII non-ASCII keys, binding: Init Non-ASCII non-breaking hyphen: Text Display non-breaking space: Text Display non-greedy regexp matching: Regexps non-integral number of lines in a window: Optional Mode Line non-selected windows, mode line Optional Mode Line appearance: Non-stop debugging in GDB: Multithreaded Debugging non-strict locking (RCS): RCS and SCCS nonincremental search: Nonincremental Search normal hook: Hooks nroff: Nroff Mode NSA: Mail Amusements NSM: Network Security number lines in a buffer: Display Custom numeric arguments: Arguments nXML mode: HTML Mode -------------------------------------------------------------- O Objective C mode: C Modes obsolete command: M-x Occur Edit mode: Other Repeating Search Occur mode: Other Repeating Search octal escapes: Text Display Octave mode: Program Modes omer count: Sexp Diary Entries OPascal mode: Program Modes open file: Visiting open-parenthesis in leftmost column: Left Margin Paren OpenDocument file: Document View operating on files in Dired: Operating on Files operations on a marked region: Using Region options (command line): Emacs Invocation Org agenda: Org Organizer Org exporting: Org Authoring Org mode: Org Mode organizer: Org Mode Oriya: Language Environments out of memory: Memory Full outer border width, command-line Borders X argument: Outline mode: Outline Mode outline with multiple views: Outline Views overlays at character position: Editing Format Info override character terminal color Colors X support: overscrolling: Scroll Bars overwrapped search: Repeat Isearch Overwrite mode: Minor Modes -------------------------------------------------------------- P Package: Packages Package archive: Packages package directory: Package Files package file: Package Files package menu: Package Menu package requirements: Package Installation package security: Package Installation package signing: Package Installation package status: Package Statuses pages: Pages paging in Term mode: Term Mode paragraph, base direction: Bidirectional Editing Paragraph-Indent Text mode: Text Mode paragraphs: Paragraphs parasha, weekly: Sexp Diary Entries parentheses, displaying matches: Matching parentheses, moving across: Moving by Parens parenthesis in column zero and Font Lock fontification: parenthetical groupings: Moving by Parens partial completion: Completion Styles partial-completion, completion style: Completion Styles paste: Cut and Paste pasting: Yanking patches, applying: Diff Mode patches, editing: Diff Mode patches, sending: Sending Patches PCL-CVS: VC Directory Mode PDB: Debuggers PDF file: Document View per-buffer variables: Locals per-connection local variables: Connection Variables per-directory local variables: Directory Variables Perl mode: Program Modes Perldb: Debuggers Persian: Language Environments Persian calendar: Calendar Systems phases of the moon: Lunar Phases phrase, highlighting: Highlight Interactively Picture mode and rectangles: Rectangles in Picture pictures: Picture Mode Pike mode: C Modes pinning Emacs to Windows task bar: Windows Startup planner: Org Mode point: Point point location: Position Info point location, on MS-DOS: Text and Binary Polish: Language Environments Pong game: Amusements POP3 mailboxes: Remote Mailboxes position and size of Emacs frame: Window Size X PostScript file: Document View PostScript mode: Program Modes prefix argument commands, during Not Exiting Isearch incremental search: prefix arguments: Arguments prefix key: Keys preprocessor highlighting: Other C Commands pretty-printer: Program Indent prevent commands from exiting incremental Not Exiting Isearch search: preview of registers: Registers primary Rmail file: Rmail Basics primary selection: Primary Selection primary selection, when active region Setting Mark changes: printing: Printing printing character: Text Display printing files (in Dired): Operating on Files Printing package: Printing Package printing under MS-DOS: MS-DOS Processes Prog mode: Hooks program building: Building program editing: Programs project back-end: Projects project root: Projects projects: Projects Prolog mode: Program Modes prompt: Basic Minibuffer prompt, shell: Shell Prompts PS file: Document View Punjabi: Language Environments puzzles: Amusements Python mode: Program Modes -------------------------------------------------------------- Q query replace: Query Replace query-replace face: Query Replace quitting: Quitting quitting (in search): Error in Isearch quitting Emacs: Exiting quitting on MS-DOS: MS-DOS Keyboard Quotation marks: Quotation Marks quoting: Inserting Text quoting file names: Quoted File Names -------------------------------------------------------------- R rar: File Archives raw bytes: International Chars raw-text, coding system: Coding Systems RCS: Version Control Systems read-only buffer: Misc Buffer read-only text, killing: Kill Options reading mail: Rmail rebinding keys, permanently: Init Rebinding rebinding keys, this session: Rebinding rebinding major mode keys: Init Rebinding rebinding mouse buttons: Mouse Buttons rebinding non-ASCII keys: Init Non-ASCII recovering crashed session: After a Crash rectangle: Rectangles rectangle highlighting: CUA Bindings rectangles and Picture mode: Rectangles in Picture rectangular region: Rectangles recursive copying: Operating on Files recursive deletion: Dired Deletion recursive editing level: Recursive Edit recursive editing, cannot exit: Stuck Recursive recycle bin: Misc File Ops redo: Undo refreshing displayed files: Dired Updating regexp: Regexps regexp search: Regexp Search region: Mark region highlighting: Disabled Transient Mark region-rectangle: Rectangles registered file: VCS Concepts registers: Registers registry, setting environment variables MS-Windows Registry (MS-Windows): registry, setting resources (MS-Windows): Resources regular expression: Regexps related files: Other C Commands reload files: Saving Emacs Sessions remember editing session: Saving Emacs Sessions remote file access: Remote Files remote host: Remote Host remote host, debugging on: Starting GUD remote repositories (CVS): CVS Options remove indentation: Indentation Commands renaming files: Copying and Naming renaming files (in Dired): Operating on Files renaming version-controlled files: VC Delete/Rename repeating a command: Repeating replacement: Replace reply to a message: Rmail Reply report an Emacs bug, how to: Understanding Bug Reporting repository: VCS Concepts reread a file: Reverting reserved key bindings: Key Bindings resize window: Change Window resizing minibuffer: Minibuffer Edit resizing windows: Change Window resolving conflicts: Merging resource files for GTK+: GTK resources resource name, command-line argument: Resources resource values, command-line argument: Resources resources: Resources restore session: Saving Emacs Sessions restriction: Narrowing retrying a failed message: Rmail Reply reverse order in POP3 inboxes: Remote Mailboxes reverse video, command-line argument: Colors X revision: VCS Concepts revision ID: VCS Concepts revision ID in version control: Advanced C-x v v revision tag: Revision Tags RGB triplet: Colors right-to-left text: Bidirectional Editing risky variable: Safe File Variables RLM: Bidirectional Editing Rlogin: Remote Host Rmail: Rmail Rmail file sorting: Rmail Sorting Romanian: Language Environments rosh hodesh: Sexp Diary Entries rot13 code: Rmail Rot13 Ruby mode: Program Modes runemacs.exe: Windows Startup running a hook: Hooks running Lisp functions: Building Russian: Language Environments -------------------------------------------------------------- S s-: Modifier Keys saved echo area messages: Echo Area saving a setting: Changing a Variable saving file name in a register: File Registers saving files: Visiting saving keyboard macro in a register: Keyboard Macro Registers saving keyboard macros: Save Keyboard Macro saving number in a register: Number Registers saving position in a register: Position Registers saving rectangle in a register: Rectangle Registers saving sessions: Saving Emacs Sessions saving text in a register: Text Registers saving window configuration in a Configuration register: Registers SCCS: Version Control Systems Scheme mode: External Lisp screen: Screen screen display, wrong: Screen Garbled screen reader software, MS-Windows: Windows Misc script mode: Initial Options script of a character: Modifying Fontsets scroll bar (X resource): Table of Resources Scroll Bar mode: Scroll Bars Scroll-all mode: Window Convenience scroll-bar face: Scroll Bars scroll-command property: Scrolling scrollbar width (X resource): Table of Resources scrolling: Scrolling scrolling commands, during incremental Not Exiting Isearch search: scrolling in the calendar: Scroll Calendar scrolling windows together: Window Convenience SDB: Debuggers search and replace in multiple files (in Operating on Files Dired): search and replace in multiple source Identifier Search files: search customizations: Search Customizations search display on slow terminals: Search Customizations search for a regular expression: Regexp Search search Internet for keywords: Word Search search mode, default: Search Customizations search multiple files (in Dired): Operating on Files search ring: Repeat Isearch search, overwrapped: Repeat Isearch search, wrapping around: Repeat Isearch search-and-replace commands: Replace searching: Search searching Dired buffers: Dired Navigation searching documentation efficiently: Help searching in Rmail: Rmail Motion searching multiple files via Dired: Misc Dired Features secondary selection: Secondary Selection secondary-selection face: Secondary Selection sections of manual pages: Man Page security: Host Security security, when displaying enriched text: Enriched Properties select all: Marking Objects selected buffer: Buffers selected window: Basic Window selecting buffers in other windows: Pop Up Window selection, primary: Primary Selection selective display: Selective Display selective undo: Undo self-documentation: Help Semantic mode: Semantic Semantic package: Semantic sending mail: Sending Mail sending patches for GNU Emacs: Sending Patches Sendmail: Mail Sending sentences: Sentences server file: TCP Emacs server server, using Emacs as: Emacs Server server-side fonts: Fonts set buffer face height: Text Scale sets of files: Filesets setting a mark: Mark setting variables: Examining settings: Easy Customization settings, how to save: Changing a Variable sexp: Expressions sexp diary entries: Sexp Diary Entries SGML mode: HTML Mode shadow cluster: File Shadowing shadow face: Standard Faces shadow files: File Shadowing shell commands: Shell shell commands, Dired: Shell Commands in Dired shell completion: Shell Mode SHELL environment variable: Interactive Shell Shell mode: Shell Mode shell scripts, and local file variables: Specifying File Variables Shell-script mode: Program Modes shelves in version control: VC Directory Commands shift-selection: Shift Selection Show Paren mode: Matching showing hidden subdirectories (Dired): Hiding Subdirectories shy group, in regexp: Regexp Backslash signing files (in Dired): Operating on Files Simula mode: Program Modes simulation of middle mouse button: Windows Mouse simultaneous editing: Interlocking Sinhala: Language Environments site init file: Init File site-lisp directories: Init File site-lisp files, not loading: Initial Options site-start.el file, not loading: Initial Options site-start.el, the site startup file: Init File size of file, warning when visiting: Visiting size of minibuffer: Minibuffer Edit slashes repeated in file name: Minibuffer File SliTeX mode: TeX Mode Slovak: Language Environments Slovenian: Language Environments Smerge mode: Comparing Files SMTP: Mail Sending Snake: Amusements so-long mode: Long Lines socket activation, systemd, Emacs: Emacs Server soft hyphen: Text Display soft newline: Hard and Soft Newlines solitaire: Amusements sorting: Sorting sorting diary entries: Fancy Diary Display sorting Dired buffer: Dired Updating sorting Rmail file: Rmail Sorting Spanish: Language Environments specific version control system: Advanced C-x v v specify default font from the command Font X line: specify dump file: Initial Options specify end-of-line conversion: Text Coding specifying fullscreen for Emacs frame: Window Size X speedbar: Speedbar spell-checking the active region: Spelling spelling, checking and correcting: Spelling splash screen: Initial Options splitting columns: Two-Column splitting table cells: Cell Commands SRC: Version Control Systems src: Version Control Systems SSL: Network Security standard colors on a character terminal: Colors X standard faces: Standard Faces standard fontset: Defining Fontsets start directory, MS-Windows: Windows Startup start iconified, command-line argument: Icons X starting Emacs: Entering Emacs starting Emacs on MS-Windows: Windows Startup STARTTLS: Network Security startup (command line arguments): Emacs Invocation startup (init file): Init File startup fontset: Defining Fontsets startup message: Initial Options startup screen: Entering Emacs stashes in version control: VC Directory Commands string substitution: Replace string syntax: Init Syntax stuck in recursive editing: Stuck Recursive style (for indentation): Custom C Indent subdirectories in Dired: Subdirectories in Dired subprocesses on MS-Windows: Windows Processes subscribe groups: Gnus Group Buffer subshell: Shell substring, completion style: Completion Styles subtree (Outline mode): Outline Visibility Subversion: Version Control Systems Subword mode: MixedCase Words summary (Rmail): Rmail Summary summing time intervals: Time Intervals sunrise and sunset: Sunrise/Sunset Super (under MS-DOS): MS-DOS Keyboard Super, modifier key: Modifier Keys suspending: Exiting suspicious constructions in C, C++: Other C Commands SVN: Version Control Systems Swedish: Language Environments switch buffers: Select Buffer switches (command line): Emacs Invocation symbol search: Symbol Search symbol, highlighting: Highlight Interactively symbolic links (and version control): General VC Options symbolic links (creation in Dired): Operating on Files symbolic links (creation): Copying and Naming symbolic links (visiting): File Aliases synchronizing windows: Follow Mode synchronous X mode: Table of Resources syntax highlighting and coloring: Font Lock syntax of regexps: Regexps system-wide packages: Package Files systemd unit file: Emacs Server -------------------------------------------------------------- T t: Glossary tab bar (X resource): Table of Resources tab bar mode: Tab Bars tab line: Tab Line tab stops: Tab Stops tab-line face: Standard Faces table creation: Table Creation table dimensions: Table Misc table for HTML and LaTeX: Table Misc table mode: Text Based Tables table recognition: Table Recognition table to text: Table Conversion tabs: Indentation tabs, tabbar: Tab Bars tag: Xref tags and tag tables: Tags Tables tags for version control: Revision Tags tags, C++: Tags Tables tags-based completion: Symbol Completion TaiViet: Language Environments Tajik: Language Environments Tamil: Language Environments Tar mode: File Archives Tcl mode: Program Modes TCP Emacs server: TCP Emacs server Telnet: Remote Host Telugu: Language Environments temporary windows: Temporary Displays Term mode: Term Mode terminal emulators, mouse support: Text-Only Mouse terminal, serial: Serial Terminal termscript file: Checklist Tetris: Amusements TeX encoding: TeX Misc TeX mode: TeX Mode TEXEDIT environment variable: Emacs Server TEXINPUTS environment variable: TeX Print text: Text text and binary files on Text and Binary MS-DOS/MS-Windows: text buttons: Mouse References text colors, from command line: Colors X text cursor: Cursor Display Text mode: Text Mode text properties at point: International Chars text properties of characters: Editing Format Info text terminal: Non-Window Terminals text to table: Table Conversion text-based tables: Text Based Tables text-based tables, splitting cells: Cell Commands text/enriched MIME format: Enriched Text Thai: Language Environments Tibetan: Language Environments tilde (~) at end of backup file name: Backup Names time (on mode line): Optional Mode Line time intervals, summing: Time Intervals time stamps: Time Stamps timeclock: Time Intervals timelog file: Time Intervals TLS: Network Security TLS encryption (Rmail): Remote Mailboxes TODO item: Org Organizer toggling marks (in Dired): Marks vs Flags tool bar (X resource): Table of Resources tool bar mode: Tool Bars Tool Bar position: Tool Bars Tool Bar style: Tool Bars tooltip help: Help Echo tooltips: Tooltips top level: Mode Line tower of Hanoi: Amusements trailing whitespace: Useless Whitespace trailing whitespace, in patches: Diff Mode trailing-whitespace face: Useless Whitespace Tramp: Remote Files Transient Mark mode: Disabled Transient Mark Transport Layer Security: Network Security transposition of expressions: Expressions trash: Misc File Ops triple clicks: Mouse Buttons troubleshooting Emacs: Lossage truenames of files: File Aliases truncation: Line Truncation TTY menu faces: Standard Faces Turkish: Language Environments two directories (in Dired): Operating on Files two-column editing: Two-Column types of log file: Types of Log File typos, fixing: Fixit -------------------------------------------------------------- U Ukrainian: Language Environments unbalanced parentheses and quotes: Parentheses uncompression: Compressed Files undecided, coding system: Coding Systems undeletion (Rmail): Rmail Deletion undigestify: Rmail Digest undisplayable characters: International Chars undo: Undo undo limit: Undo undoing window configuration changes: Window Convenience Unibyte operation: Unibyte Mode Unicode: International Chars Unicode characters, inserting: Inserting Text Unicode Collation Algorithm (UCA), and ls in Lisp ls-lisp.el: unique buffer names: Uniquify unmarking files (in Dired): Marks vs Flags unsaved buffers, killing: Kill Buffer unsaved customizations, reminder to save: Saving Customizations unsubscribe groups: Gnus Group Buffer untranslated file system: Text and Binary unused lines: Useless Whitespace unzip archives: File Archives upcase file names: Transforming File Names updating Dired buffer: Dired Updating URL, viewing in help: Help Mode URLs: Browse-URL URLs, activating: Goto Address mode Usenet news: Gnus user name for remote file access: Remote Files user option: Easy Customization user options, changing: Changing a Variable using Nextstep services (macOS): Mac / GNUstep Events UTF-8: Language Environments -------------------------------------------------------------- V variable: Variables variable-pitch face: Standard Faces variables, changing: Changing a Variable VC: Version Control VC change log: VC Change Log VC Directory buffer: VC Directory Mode VC filesets: Basic VC Editing VC log buffer, commands in: VC Change Log VC mode line indicator: VC Mode Line vc-log buffer: VC Change Log verifying digital signatures on files (in Operating on Files Dired): Verilog mode: Program Modes version control: Version Control version control log: Types of Log File version control status: VC Mode Line VERSION_CONTROL environment variable: Backup Names vertical border: Scroll Bars Vertical Scroll Bar: Scroll Bars vertical scroll bars, command-line Misc X argument: vertical-border face: Standard Faces VHDL mode: Program Modes Vietnamese: Language Environments View mode: View Mode viewing web pages in help: Help Mode views of an outline: Outline Views visiting files: Visiting visiting files, command-line argument: Action Arguments Visual Line mode: Visual Line Mode visual order: Bidirectional Editing -------------------------------------------------------------- W Watching expressions in GDB: Watch Expressions wdired mode: Wdired Web: Browse-URL web pages, viewing in help: Help Mode webkit widgets: Embedded WebKit Widgets weeks, which day they start on: Move to Beginning or End Welsh: Language Environments what constitutes an Emacs bug: Bug Criteria whitespace character: Indentation Whitespace mode: Useless Whitespace whitespace, trailing: Useless Whitespace wide block cursor: Cursor Display widening: Narrowing widgets at buffer position: Editing Format Info width and height of Emacs frame: Window Size X width of the vertical scroll bar: Scroll Bars wildcard characters in file names: Visiting Windmove package: Window Convenience window configuration changes, undoing: Window Convenience Window Divider mode: Window Dividers window manager, keys stolen by: User Input Windows clipboard support: MS-DOS Mouse windows in Emacs: Windows Windows system menu: Windows Keyboard windows, synchronizing: Follow Mode Windows-1255: Language Environments Winner mode: Window Convenience word processing: Enriched Text word search: Word Search word wrap: Visual Line Mode words: Words words, case conversion: Case work file: VCS Concepts working tree: VCS Concepts World Wide Web: Browse-URL wrapped search: Repeat Isearch wrapping: Continuation Lines WYSIWYG: Enriched Text -------------------------------------------------------------- X X cutting and pasting: Primary Selection X defaults file: Fonts X input methods (X resource): Table of Resources X Logical Font Description: Fonts X resources: Resources X resources file: Fonts X resources, not loading: Initial Options X selection: Primary Selection XDB: Debuggers XDG_CONFIG_HOME: Init File XIM (X resource): Table of Resources XLFD: Fonts XML schema: HTML Mode xref: Xref xref backend: Xref XREF mode: Xref Commands xterm: Text-Only Mouse xwidget: Embedded WebKit Widgets Xwidget-WebKit mode: Embedded WebKit Widgets -------------------------------------------------------------- Y y or n prompt: Yes or No Prompts yahrzeits: From Other Calendar yahrzeits, and sexp diary entries: Sexp Diary Entries yanking: Yanking yanking previous kills: Earlier Kills yes or no prompt: Yes or No Prompts -------------------------------------------------------------- Z zip: File Archives Zmacs mode: Disabled Transient Mark zone: Amusements zoo: File Archives -------------------------------------------------------------- Jump to: # $ ( * - . / 7 8 ? _ ~ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Previous: Variable Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index] Next: Echo Area, Up: Screen [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1.1 Point The cursor in the selected window shows the location where most editing commands take effect, which is called point^2. Many Emacs commands move point to different places in the buffer; for example, you can place point by clicking mouse button 1 (normally the left button) at the desired location. By default, the cursor in the selected window is drawn as a solid block and appears to be on a character, but you should think of point as between two characters; it is situated before the character under the cursor. For example, if your text looks like ‘frob’ with the cursor over the ‘b’, then point is between the ‘o’ and the ‘b’. If you insert the character ‘!’ at that position, the result is ‘fro!b’, with point between the ‘!’ and the ‘b’. Thus, the cursor remains over the ‘b’, as before. If you are editing several files in Emacs, each in its own buffer, each buffer has its own value of point. A buffer that is not currently displayed remembers its value of point if you later display it again. Furthermore, if a buffer is displayed in multiple windows, each of those windows has its own value of point. See Cursor Display, for options that control how Emacs displays the cursor. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (2) The term “point” comes from the character ‘.’, which was the command in TECO (the language in which the original Emacs was written) for accessing the editing position. Next: Mode Line, Previous: Point, Up: Screen [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1.2 The Echo Area The line at the very bottom of the frame is the echo area. It is used to display small amounts of text for various purposes. The echo area is so-named because one of the things it is used for is echoing, which means displaying the characters of a multi-character command as you type. Single-character commands are not echoed. Multi-character commands (see Keys) are echoed if you pause for more than a second in the middle of a command. Emacs then echoes all the characters of the command so far, to prompt you for the rest. Once echoing has started, the rest of the command echoes immediately as you type it. This behavior is designed to give confident users fast response, while giving hesitant users maximum feedback. The echo area is also used to display an error message when a command cannot do its job. Error messages may be accompanied by beeping or by flashing the screen. Some commands display informative messages in the echo area to tell you what the command has done, or to provide you with some specific information. These informative messages, unlike error messages, are not accompanied with a beep or flash. For example, C-x = (hold down Ctrl and type x, then let go of Ctrl and type =) displays a message describing the character at point, its position in the buffer, and its current column in the window. Commands that take a long time often display messages ending in ‘...’ while they are working (sometimes also indicating how much progress has been made, as a percentage), and add ‘done’ when they are finished. Informative echo area messages are saved in a special buffer named *Messages*. (We have not explained buffers yet; see Buffers, for more information about them.) If you miss a message that appeared briefly on the screen, you can switch to the *Messages* buffer to see it again. The *Messages* buffer is limited to a certain number of lines, specified by the variable message-log-max. (We have not explained variables either; see Variables, for more information about them.) Beyond this limit, one line is deleted from the beginning whenever a new message line is added at the end. See Display Custom, for options that control how Emacs uses the echo area. The echo area is also used to display the minibuffer, a special window where you can input arguments to commands, such as the name of a file to be edited. When the minibuffer is in use, the text displayed in the echo area begins with a prompt string, and the active cursor appears within the minibuffer, which is temporarily considered the selected window. You can always get out of the minibuffer by typing C-g. See Minibuffer. Next: Mode Line, Previous: Point, Up: Screen [Contents][Index] Next: Menu Bar, Previous: Echo Area, Up: Screen [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1.3 The Mode Line At the bottom of each window is a mode line, which describes what is going on in the current buffer. When there is only one window, the mode line appears right above the echo area; it is the next-to-last line in the frame. On a graphical display, the mode line is drawn with a 3D box appearance. Emacs also usually draws the mode line of the selected window with a different color from that of unselected windows, in order to make it stand out. The text displayed in the mode line has the following format: cs:ch-fr buf pos line (major minor) On a text terminal, this text is followed by a series of dashes extending to the right edge of the window. These dashes are omitted on a graphical display. The cs string and the colon character after it describe the character set and newline convention used for the current buffer. Normally, Emacs automatically handles these settings for you, but it is sometimes useful to have this information. cs describes the character set of the text in the buffer (see Coding Systems). If it is a dash (‘-’), that indicates no special character set handling (with the possible exception of end-of-line conventions, described in the next paragraph). ‘=’ means no conversion whatsoever, and is usually used for files containing non-textual data. Other characters represent various coding systems—for example, ‘1’ represents ISO Latin-1. On a text terminal, cs is preceded by two additional characters that describe the coding systems for keyboard input and terminal output. Furthermore, if you are using an input method, cs is preceded by a string that identifies the input method (see Input Methods). The character after cs is usually a colon. If a different string is displayed, that indicates a nontrivial end-of-line convention for encoding a file. Usually, lines of text are separated by newline characters in a file, but two other conventions are sometimes used. The MS-DOS convention uses a carriage return character followed by a linefeed character; when editing such files, the colon changes to either a backslash (‘\’) or ‘(DOS)’, depending on the operating system. Another convention, employed by older Macintosh systems, uses a carriage return character instead of a newline; when editing such files, the colon changes to either a forward slash (‘/’) or ‘(Mac)’. On some systems, Emacs displays ‘(Unix)’ instead of the colon for files that use newline as the line separator. On frames created for emacsclient (see Invoking emacsclient), the next character is ‘@’. This indication is typical for frames of an Emacs process running as a daemon (see Emacs Server). The next element on the mode line is the string indicated by ch. This shows two dashes (‘--’) if the buffer displayed in the window has the same contents as the corresponding file on the disk; i.e., if the buffer is unmodified. If the buffer is modified, it shows two stars (‘**’). For a read-only buffer, it shows ‘%*’ if the buffer is modified, and ‘%%’ otherwise. The character after ch is normally a dash (‘-’). However, if default-directory (see File Names) for the current buffer is on a remote machine, ‘@’ is displayed instead. fr gives the selected frame name (see Frames). It appears only on text terminals. The initial frame’s name is ‘F1’. buf is the name of the buffer displayed in the window. Usually, this is the same as the name of a file you are editing. See Buffers. pos tells you whether there is additional text above the top of the window, or below the bottom. If your buffer is small and all of it is visible in the window, pos is ‘All’. Otherwise, it is ‘Top’ if you are looking at the beginning of the buffer, ‘Bot’ if you are looking at the end of the buffer, or ‘nn%’, where nn is the percentage of the buffer above the top of the window. With Size Indication mode, you can display the size of the buffer as well. See Optional Mode Line. line is the character ‘L’ followed by the line number at point. (You can display the current column number too, by turning on Column Number mode. See Optional Mode Line.) major is the name of the major mode used in the buffer. A major mode is a principal editing mode for the buffer, such as Text mode, Lisp mode, C mode, and so forth. See Major Modes. Some major modes display additional information after the major mode name. For example, Compilation buffers and Shell buffers display the status of the subprocess. minor is a list of some of the enabled minor modes, which are optional editing modes that provide additional features on top of the major mode. See Minor Modes. Some features are listed together with the minor modes whenever they are turned on, even though they are not really minor modes. ‘Narrow’ means that the buffer being displayed has editing restricted to only a portion of its text (see Narrowing). ‘Def’ means that a keyboard macro is currently being defined (see Keyboard Macros). In addition, if Emacs is inside a recursive editing level, square brackets (‘[…]’) appear around the parentheses that surround the modes. If Emacs is in one recursive editing level within another, double square brackets appear, and so on. Since recursive editing levels affect Emacs globally, such square brackets appear in the mode line of every window. See Recursive Edit. You can change the appearance of the mode line as well as the format of its contents. See Optional Mode Line. In addition, the mode line is mouse-sensitive; clicking on different parts of the mode line performs various commands. See Mode Line Mouse. Also, hovering the mouse pointer above mouse-sensitive portions of the mode line shows tooltips (see Tooltips) with information about commands you can invoke by clicking on the mode line. Next: Menu Bar, Previous: Echo Area, Up: Screen [Contents][Index] Previous: Mode Line, Up: Screen [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1.4 The Menu Bar Each Emacs frame normally has a menu bar at the top which you can use to perform common operations. There’s no need to list them here, as you can more easily see them yourself. On a display that supports a mouse, you can use the mouse to choose a command from the menu bar. An arrow on the right edge of a menu item means it leads to a subsidiary menu, or submenu. A ‘...’ at the end of a menu item means that the command will prompt you for further input before it actually does anything. Some of the commands in the menu bar have ordinary key bindings as well; if so, a key binding is shown after the item itself. To view the full command name and documentation for a menu item, type C-h k, and then select the menu bar with the mouse in the usual way (see Key Help). Instead of using the mouse, you can also invoke the first menu bar item by pressing F10 (to run the command menu-bar-open). You can then navigate the menus with the arrow keys or with C-b, C-f (left/right), C-p, and C-n (up/down). To activate a selected menu item, press RET; to cancel menu navigation, press C-g or ESC ESC ESC. (However, note that when Emacs was built with a GUI toolkit, the menus are drawn and controlled by the toolkit, and the key sequences to cancel menu navigation might be different from the above description.) On a text terminal, you can optionally access the menu-bar menus in the echo area. To this end, customize the variable tty-menu-open-use-tmm to a non-nil value. Then typing F10 will run the command tmm-menubar instead of dropping down the menu. (You can also type M-`, which always invokes tmm-menubar.) tmm-menubar lets you select a menu item with the keyboard. A provisional choice appears in the echo area. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move through the menu to different items, and then you can type RET to select the item. Each menu item is also designated by a letter or digit (usually the initial of some word in the item’s name). This letter or digit is separated from the item name by ‘==>’. You can type the item’s letter or digit to select the item. Previous: Mode Line, Up: Screen [Contents][Index] Next: Moving Point, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.1 Inserting Text You can insert an ordinary graphic character (e.g., ‘a’, ‘B’, ‘3’, and ‘=’) by typing the associated key. This adds the character to the buffer at point. Insertion moves point forward, so that point remains just after the inserted text. See Point. To end a line and start a new one, type RET (newline). (The RET key may be labeled Return, or Enter, or with a funny-looking left-pointing arrow on your keyboard, but we refer to it as RET in this manual.) This command inserts a newline character into the buffer, then indents (see Indentation) according to the major mode. If point is at the end of the line, the effect is to create a new blank line after it and indent the new line; if point is in the middle of a line, the line is split at that position. To turn off the auto-indentation, you can either disable Electric Indent mode (see Indent Convenience) or type C-j, which inserts just a newline, without any auto-indentation. As we explain later in this manual, you can change the way Emacs handles text insertion by turning on minor modes. For instance, the minor mode called Auto Fill mode splits lines automatically when they get too long (see Filling). The minor mode called Overwrite mode causes inserted characters to replace (overwrite) existing text, instead of shoving it to the right. See Minor Modes. Only graphic characters can be inserted by typing the associated key; other keys act as editing commands and do not insert themselves. For instance, DEL runs the command delete-backward-char by default (some modes bind it to a different command); it does not insert a literal ‘DEL’ character (ASCII character code 127). To insert a non-graphic character, or a character that your keyboard does not support, first quote it by typing C-q (quoted-insert). There are two ways to use C-q: * C-q followed by any non-graphic character (even C-g) inserts that character. For instance, C-q DEL inserts a literal ‘DEL’ character. * C-q followed by a sequence of octal digits inserts the character with the specified octal character code. You can use any number of octal digits; any non-digit terminates the sequence. If the terminating character is RET, that RET serves only to terminate the sequence. Any other non-digit terminates the sequence and then acts as normal input—thus, C-q 1 0 1 B inserts ‘AB’. The use of octal sequences is disabled in ordinary non-binary Overwrite mode, to give you a convenient way to insert a digit instead of overwriting with it. To use decimal or hexadecimal instead of octal, set the variable read-quoted-char-radix to 10 or 16. If the radix is 16, the letters a to f serve as part of a character code, just like digits. Case is ignored. A few common Unicode characters can be inserted via a command starting with C-x 8. For example, C-x 8 [ inserts ‘ which is Unicode code-point U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, sometimes called a left single “curved quote” or “curly quote”. Similarly, C-x 8 ], C-x 8 { and C-x 8 } insert the curved quotes ’, “ and ”, respectively. Also, a working Alt key acts like C-x 8 (unless followed by RET); e.g., A-[ acts like C-x 8 [ and inserts ‘. To see which characters have C-x 8 shorthands, type C-x 8 C-h. Alternatively, you can use the command C-x 8 RET (insert-char). This prompts for the Unicode name or code-point of a character, using the minibuffer. If you enter a name, the command provides completion (see Completion). If you enter a code-point, it should be as a hexadecimal number (the convention for Unicode), or a number with a specified radix, e.g., #o23072 (octal); See Integer Basics in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. The command then inserts the corresponding character into the buffer. For example, the following all insert the same character: C-x 8 RET left single quotation mark RET C-x 8 RET left sin TAB RET C-x 8 RET 2018 RET C-x 8 [ A-[ (if the Alt key works) ` (in Electric Quote mode) A numeric argument to C-q or C-x 8 ... specifies how many copies of the character to insert (see Arguments). In addition, in some contexts, if you type a quotation using grave accent and apostrophe `like this', it is converted to a form ‘like this’ using single quotation marks, even without C-x 8 commands. Similarly, typing a quotation ``like this'' using double grave accent and apostrophe converts it to a form “like this” using double quotation marks. See Quotation Marks. Next: Moving Point, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] Next: Erasing, Previous: Inserting Text, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.2 Changing the Location of Point To do more than insert characters, you have to know how to move point (see Point). The keyboard commands C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p move point to the right, left, down, and up, respectively. You can also move point using the arrow keys present on most keyboards: RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN, and UP; however, many Emacs users find that it is slower to use the arrow keys than the control keys, because you need to move your hand to the area of the keyboard where those keys are located. You can also click the left mouse button to move point to the position clicked. Emacs also provides a variety of additional keyboard commands that move point in more sophisticated ways. C-f Move forward one character (forward-char). RIGHT This command (right-char) behaves like C-f, except when point is in a right-to-left paragraph (see Bidirectional Editing). C-b Move backward one character (backward-char). LEFT This command (left-char) behaves like C-b, except if the current paragraph is right-to-left (see Bidirectional Editing). C-n DOWN Move down one screen line (next-line). This command attempts to keep the horizontal position unchanged, so if you start in the middle of one line, you move to the middle of the next. C-p UP Move up one screen line (previous-line). This command preserves position within the line, like C-n. C-a Home Move to the beginning of the line (move-beginning-of-line). C-e End Move to the end of the line (move-end-of-line). M-f Move forward one word (forward-word). See Words. C-RIGHT M-RIGHT This command (right-word) behaves like M-f, except it moves backward by one word if the current paragraph is right-to-left. See Bidirectional Editing. M-b Move backward one word (backward-word). See Words. C-LEFT M-LEFT This command (left-word) behaves like M-b, except it moves forward by one word if the current paragraph is right-to-left. See Bidirectional Editing. M-r Without moving the text on the screen, reposition point on the left margin of the center-most text line of the window; on subsequent consecutive invocations, move point to the left margin of the top-most line, the bottom-most line, and so forth, in cyclic order (move-to-window-line-top-bottom). A numeric argument says which screen line to place point on, counting downward from the top of the window (zero means the top line). A negative argument counts lines up from the bottom (-1 means the bottom line). See Arguments, for more information on numeric arguments. M-< Move to the top of the buffer (beginning-of-buffer). With numeric argument n, move to n/10 of the way from the top. On graphical displays, C-HOME does the same. M-> Move to the end of the buffer (end-of-buffer). On graphical displays, C-END does the same. C-v PageDown next Scroll the display one screen forward, and move point onscreen if necessary (scroll-up-command). See Scrolling. M-v PageUp prior Scroll one screen backward, and move point onscreen if necessary (scroll-down-command). See Scrolling. M-g c Read a number n and move point to buffer position n. Position 1 is the beginning of the buffer. M-g M-g M-g g Read a number n and move point to the beginning of line number n (goto-line). Line 1 is the beginning of the buffer. If point is on or just after a number in the buffer, that is the default for n. Just type RET in the minibuffer to use it. You can also specify n by giving M-g M-g a numeric prefix argument. See Select Buffer, for the behavior of M-g M-g when you give it a plain prefix argument. M-g TAB Read a number n and move to column n in the current line. Column 0 is the leftmost column. If called with a prefix argument, move to the column number specified by the argument’s numeric value. C-x C-n Use the current column of point as the semipermanent goal column for C-n and C-p (set-goal-column) in the current buffer. When a semipermanent goal column is in effect, those commands always try to move to this column, or as close as possible to it, after moving vertically. The goal column remains in effect until canceled. C-u C-x C-n Cancel the goal column. Henceforth, C-n and C-p try to preserve the horizontal position, as usual. When a line of text in the buffer is longer than the width of the window, Emacs usually displays it on two or more screen lines. For convenience, C-n and C-p move point by screen lines, as do the equivalent keys down and up. You can force these commands to move according to logical lines (i.e., according to the text lines in the buffer) by setting the variable line-move-visual to nil; if a logical line occupies multiple screen lines, the cursor then skips over the additional screen lines. For details, see Continuation Lines. See Variables, for how to set variables such as line-move-visual. Unlike C-n and C-p, most of the Emacs commands that work on lines work on logical lines. For instance, C-a (move-beginning-of-line) and C-e (move-end-of-line) respectively move to the beginning and end of the logical line. Whenever we encounter commands that work on screen lines, such as C-n and C-p, we will point these out. When line-move-visual is nil, you can also set the variable track-eol to a non-nil value. Then C-n and C-p, when starting at the end of the logical line, move to the end of the next logical line. Normally, track-eol is nil. C-n normally stops at the end of the buffer when you use it on the last line in the buffer. However, if you set the variable next-line-add-newlines to a non-nil value, C-n on the last line of a buffer creates an additional line at the end and moves down into it. Next: Erasing, Previous: Inserting Text, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] Next: Basic Undo, Previous: Moving Point, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.3 Erasing Text DEL BACKSPACE Delete the character before point, or the region if it is active (delete-backward-char). Delete Delete the character after point, or the region if it is active (delete-forward-char). C-d Delete the character after point (delete-char). C-k Kill to the end of the line (kill-line). M-d Kill forward to the end of the next word (kill-word). M-DEL M-BACKSPACE Kill back to the beginning of the previous word (backward-kill-word). The DEL (delete-backward-char) command removes the character before point, moving the cursor and the characters after it backwards. If point was at the beginning of a line, this deletes the preceding newline, joining this line to the previous one. If, however, the region is active, DEL instead deletes the text in the region. See Mark, for a description of the region. On most keyboards, DEL is labeled BACKSPACE, but we refer to it as DEL in this manual. (Do not confuse DEL with the Delete key; we will discuss Delete momentarily.) On some text terminals, Emacs may not recognize the DEL key properly. See DEL Does Not Delete, if you encounter this problem. The Delete (delete-forward-char) command deletes in the opposite direction: it deletes the character after point, i.e., the character under the cursor. If point was at the end of a line, this joins the following line onto this one. Like DEL, it deletes the text in the region if the region is active (see Mark). C-d (delete-char) deletes the character after point, similar to Delete, but regardless of whether the region is active. See Deletion, for more detailed information about the above deletion commands. C-k (kill-line) erases (kills) a line at a time. If you type C-k at the beginning or middle of a line, it kills all the text up to the end of the line. If you type C-k at the end of a line, it joins that line with the following line. See Killing, for more information about C-k and related commands. Next: Basic Undo, Previous: Moving Point, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] Next: Basic Files, Previous: Erasing, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.4 Undoing Changes C-/ C-x u C-_ Undo one entry of the undo records—usually, one command worth (undo). (The first key might be unavailable on text-mode displays.) Emacs records a list of changes made in the buffer text, so you can undo recent changes. This is done using the undo command, which is bound to C-/ (as well as C-x u and C-_). Normally, this command undoes the last change, moving point back to where it was before the change. The undo command applies only to changes in the buffer; you can’t use it to undo cursor motion. Although each editing command usually makes a separate entry in the undo records, very simple commands may be grouped together. Sometimes, an entry may cover just part of a complex command. If you repeat C-/ (or its aliases), each repetition undoes another, earlier change, back to the limit of the undo information available. If all recorded changes have already been undone, the undo command displays an error message and does nothing. To learn more about the undo command, see Undo. Next: Basic Help, Previous: Basic Undo, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.5 Files Text that you insert in an Emacs buffer lasts only as long as the Emacs session. To keep any text permanently, you must put it in a file. Suppose there is a file named test.emacs in your home directory. To begin editing this file in Emacs, type C-x C-f test.emacs RET Here the file name is given as an argument to the command C-x C-f (find-file). That command uses the minibuffer to read the argument, and you type RET to terminate the argument (see Minibuffer). Emacs obeys this command by visiting the file: it creates a buffer, copies the contents of the file into the buffer, and then displays the buffer for editing. If you alter the text, you can save the new text in the file by typing C-x C-s (save-buffer). This copies the altered buffer contents back into the file test.emacs, making them permanent. Until you save, the changed text exists only inside Emacs, and the file test.emacs is unaltered. To create a file, just visit it with C-x C-f as if it already existed. This creates an empty buffer, in which you can insert the text you want to put in the file. Emacs actually creates the file the first time you save this buffer with C-x C-s. To learn more about using files in Emacs, see Files. Next: Blank Lines, Previous: Basic Files, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.6 Help If you forget what a key does, you can find out by typing C-h k (describe-key), followed by the key of interest; for example, C-h k C-n tells you what C-n does. The prefix key C-h stands for “help”. The key F1 serves as an alias for C-h. Apart from C-h k, there are many other help commands providing different kinds of help. See Help, for details. Next: Continuation Lines, Previous: Basic Help, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.7 Blank Lines Here are special commands and techniques for inserting and deleting blank lines. C-o Insert a blank line after the cursor (open-line). C-x C-o Delete all but one of many consecutive blank lines (delete-blank-lines). We have seen how RET (newline) starts a new line of text. However, it may be easier to see what you are doing if you first make a blank line and then insert the desired text into it. This is easy to do using the key C-o (open-line), which inserts a newline after point but leaves point in front of the newline. After C-o, type the text for the new line. You can make several blank lines by typing C-o several times, or by giving it a numeric argument specifying how many blank lines to make. See Arguments, for how. If you have a fill prefix, the C-o command inserts the fill prefix on the new line, if typed at the beginning of a line. See Fill Prefix. The easy way to get rid of extra blank lines is with the command C-x C-o (delete-blank-lines). If point lies within a run of several blank lines, C-x C-o deletes all but one of them. If point is on a single blank line, C-x C-o deletes it. If point is on a nonblank line, C-x C-o deletes all following blank lines, if any exists. Next: Position Info, Previous: Blank Lines, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.8 Continuation Lines Sometimes, a line of text in the buffer—a logical line—is too long to fit in the window, and Emacs displays it as two or more screen lines. This is called line wrapping or continuation, and the long logical line is called a continued line. On a graphical display, Emacs indicates line wrapping with small bent arrows in the left and right window fringes. On a text terminal, Emacs indicates line wrapping by displaying a ‘\’ character at the right margin. Most commands that act on lines act on logical lines, not screen lines. For instance, C-k kills a logical line. As described earlier, C-n (next-line) and C-p (previous-line) are special exceptions: they move point down and up, respectively, by one screen line (see Moving Point). Emacs can optionally truncate long logical lines instead of continuing them. This means that every logical line occupies a single screen line; if it is longer than the width of the window, the rest of the line is not displayed. On a graphical display, a truncated line is indicated by a small straight arrow in the right fringe; on a text terminal, it is indicated by a ‘$’ character in the right margin. See Line Truncation. By default, continued lines are wrapped at the right window edge. Since the wrapping may occur in the middle of a word, continued lines can be difficult to read. The usual solution is to break your lines before they get too long, by inserting newlines. If you prefer, you can make Emacs insert a newline automatically when a line gets too long, by using Auto Fill mode. See Filling. Sometimes, you may need to edit files containing many long logical lines, and it may not be practical to break them all up by adding newlines. In that case, you can use Visual Line mode, which enables word wrapping: instead of wrapping long lines exactly at the right window edge, Emacs wraps them at the word boundaries (i.e., space or tab characters) nearest to the right window edge. Visual Line mode also redefines editing commands such as C-a, C-n, and C-k to operate on screen lines rather than logical lines. See Visual Line Mode. Next: Position Info, Previous: Blank Lines, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] Next: Arguments, Previous: Continuation Lines, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.9 Cursor Position Information Here are commands to get information about the size and position of parts of the buffer, and to count words and lines. M-x what-line Display the line number of point. M-x line-number-mode M-x column-number-mode Toggle automatic display of the current line number or column number. See Optional Mode Line. If you want to have a line number displayed before each line, see Display Custom. M-= Display the number of lines, words, and characters that are present in the region (count-words-region). See Mark, for information about the region. M-x count-words Display the number of lines, words, and characters that are present in the buffer. If the region is active (see Mark), display the numbers for the region instead. C-x = Display the character code of character after point, character position of point, and column of point (what-cursor-position). M-x hl-line-mode Enable or disable highlighting of the current line. See Cursor Display. M-x size-indication-mode Toggle automatic display of the size of the buffer. See Optional Mode Line. M-x what-line displays the current line number in the echo area. This command is usually redundant because the current line number is shown in the mode line (see Mode Line). However, if you narrow the buffer, the mode line shows the line number relative to the accessible portion (see Narrowing). By contrast, what-line displays both the line number relative to the narrowed region and the line number relative to the whole buffer. M-= (count-words-region) displays a message reporting the number of lines, words, and characters in the region (see Mark, for an explanation of the region). With a prefix argument, C-u M-=, the command displays a count for the entire buffer. The command M-x count-words does the same job, but with a different calling convention. It displays a count for the region if the region is active, and for the buffer otherwise. The command C-x = (what-cursor-position) shows information about the current cursor position and the buffer contents at that position. It displays a line in the echo area that looks like this: Char: c (99, #o143, #x63) point=28062 of 36168 (78%) column=53 After ‘Char:’, this shows the character in the buffer at point. The text inside the parenthesis shows the corresponding decimal, octal and hex character codes; for more information about how C-x = displays character information, see International Chars. After ‘point=’ is the position of point as a character count (the first character in the buffer is position 1, the second character is position 2, and so on). The number after that is the total number of characters in the buffer, and the number in parenthesis expresses the position as a percentage of the total. After ‘column=’ is the horizontal position of point, in columns counting from the left edge of the window. If the user option what-cursor-show-names is non-nil, the name of the character, as defined by the Unicode Character Database, is shown as well. The part in parentheses would then become: (99, #o143, #x63, LATIN SMALL LETTER C) If the buffer has been narrowed, making some of the text at the beginning and the end temporarily inaccessible, C-x = displays additional text describing the currently accessible range. For example, it might display this: Char: C (67, #o103, #x43) point=252 of 889 (28%) <231-599> column=0 where the two extra numbers give the smallest and largest character position that point is allowed to assume. The characters between those two positions are the accessible ones. See Narrowing. Related, but different feature is display-line-numbers-mode (see Display Custom). Next: Arguments, Previous: Continuation Lines, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] Next: Repeating, Previous: Position Info, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.10 Numeric Arguments In the terminology of mathematics and computing, argument means “data provided to a function or operation”. You can give any Emacs command a numeric argument (also called a prefix argument). Some commands interpret the argument as a repetition count. For example, giving C-f an argument of ten causes it to move point forward by ten characters instead of one. With these commands, no argument is equivalent to an argument of one, and negative arguments cause them to move or act in the opposite direction. The easiest way to specify a numeric argument is to type a digit and/or a minus sign while holding down the Meta key. For example, M-5 C-n moves down five lines. The keys M-1, M-2, and so on, as well as M--, are bound to commands (digit-argument and negative-argument) that set up an argument for the next command. M-- without digits normally means -1. If you enter more than one digit, you need not hold down the Meta key for the second and subsequent digits. Thus, to move down fifty lines, type M-5 0 C-n Note that this does not insert five copies of ‘0’ and move down one line, as you might expect—the ‘0’ is treated as part of the prefix argument. (What if you do want to insert five copies of ‘0’? Type M-5 C-u 0. Here, C-u terminates the prefix argument, so that the next keystroke begins the command that you want to execute. Note that this meaning of C-u applies only to this case. For the usual role of C-u, see below.) Instead of typing M-1, M-2, and so on, another way to specify a numeric argument is to type C-u (universal-argument) followed by some digits, or (for a negative argument) a minus sign followed by digits. A minus sign without digits normally means -1. C-u alone has the special meaning of “four times”: it multiplies the argument for the next command by four. C-u C-u multiplies it by sixteen. Thus, C-u C-u C-f moves forward sixteen characters. Other useful combinations are C-u C-n, C-u C-u C-n (move down a good fraction of a screen), C-u C-u C-o (make sixteen blank lines), and C-u C-k (kill four lines). You can use a numeric argument before a self-inserting character to insert multiple copies of it. This is straightforward when the character is not a digit; for example, C-u 6 4 a inserts 64 copies of the character ‘a’. But this does not work for inserting digits; C-u 6 4 1 specifies an argument of 641. You can separate the argument from the digit to insert with another C-u; for example, C-u 6 4 C-u 1 does insert 64 copies of the character ‘1’. Some commands care whether there is an argument, but ignore its value. For example, the command M-q (fill-paragraph) fills text; with an argument, it justifies the text as well. (See Filling, for more information on M-q.) For these commands, it is enough to specify the argument with a single C-u. Some commands use the value of the argument as a repeat count but do something special when there is no argument. For example, the command C-k (kill-line) with argument n kills n lines, including their terminating newlines. But C-k with no argument is special: it kills the text up to the next newline, or, if point is right at the end of the line, it kills the newline itself. Thus, two C-k commands with no arguments can kill a nonblank line, just like C-k with an argument of one. (See Killing, for more information on C-k.) A few commands treat a plain C-u differently from an ordinary argument. A few others may treat an argument of just a minus sign differently from an argument of -1. These unusual cases are described when they come up; they exist to make an individual command more convenient, and they are documented in that command’s documentation string. We use the term prefix argument to emphasize that you type such arguments before the command, and to distinguish them from minibuffer arguments (see Minibuffer), which are entered after invoking the command. On graphical displays, C-0, C-1, etc. act the same as M-0, M-1, etc. Next: Repeating, Previous: Position Info, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] Previous: Arguments, Up: Basic [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7.11 Repeating a Command Many simple commands, such as those invoked with a single key or with M-x command-name RET, can be repeated by invoking them with a numeric argument that serves as a repeat count (see Arguments). However, if the command you want to repeat prompts for input, or uses a numeric argument in another way, that method won’t work. The command C-x z (repeat) provides another way to repeat an Emacs command many times. This command repeats the previous Emacs command, whatever that was. Repeating a command uses the same arguments that were used before; it does not read new arguments each time. To repeat the command more than once, type additional z’s: each z repeats the command one more time. Repetition ends when you type a character other than z or press a mouse button. For example, suppose you type C-u 2 0 C-d to delete 20 characters. You can repeat that command (including its argument) three additional times, to delete a total of 80 characters, by typing C-x z z z. The first C-x z repeats the command once, and each subsequent z repeats it once again. Next: Minibuffer File, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.1 Using the Minibuffer When the minibuffer is in use, it appears in the echo area, with a cursor. The minibuffer starts with a prompt, usually ending with a colon. The prompt states what kind of input is expected, and how it will be used. The prompt is highlighted using the minibuffer-prompt face (see Faces). The simplest way to enter a minibuffer argument is to type the text, then RET to submit the argument and exit the minibuffer. Alternatively, you can type C-g to exit the minibuffer by canceling the command asking for the argument (see Quitting). Sometimes, the prompt shows a default argument, inside parentheses before the colon. This default will be used as the argument if you just type RET. For example, commands that read buffer names usually show a buffer name as the default; you can type RET to operate on that default buffer. If you enable Minibuffer Electric Default mode, a global minor mode, Emacs hides the default argument as soon as you modify the contents of the minibuffer (since typing RET would no longer submit that default). If you ever bring back the original minibuffer text, the prompt again shows the default. Furthermore, if you change the variable minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default to a non-nil value, the default argument is displayed as ‘[default-arg]’ instead of ‘(default default-arg)’, saving some screen space. To enable this minor mode, type M-x minibuffer-electric-default-mode. Since the minibuffer appears in the echo area, it can conflict with other uses of the echo area. If an error message or an informative message is emitted while the minibuffer is active, the message hides the minibuffer for a few seconds, or until you type something; then the minibuffer comes back. While the minibuffer is in use, Emacs does not echo keystrokes. Next: Minibuffer File, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] Next: Minibuffer Edit, Previous: Basic Minibuffer, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.2 Minibuffers for File Names Commands such as C-x C-f (find-file) use the minibuffer to read a file name argument (see Basic Files). When the minibuffer is used to read a file name, it typically starts out with some initial text ending in a slash. This is the default directory. For example, it may start out like this: Find file: /u2/emacs/src/ Here, ‘Find file: ’ is the prompt and ‘/u2/emacs/src/’ is the default directory. If you now type buffer.c as input, that specifies the file /u2/emacs/src/buffer.c. See File Names, for information about the default directory. Alternative defaults for the file name you may want are available by typing M-n, see Minibuffer History. You can specify a file in the parent directory with ..: /a/b/../foo.el is equivalent to /a/foo.el. Alternatively, you can use M-DEL to kill directory names backwards (see Words). To specify a file in a completely different directory, you can kill the entire default with C-a C-k (see Minibuffer Edit). Alternatively, you can ignore the default, and enter an absolute file name starting with a slash or a tilde after the default directory. For example, you can specify /etc/termcap as follows: Find file: /u2/emacs/src//etc/termcap A double slash causes Emacs to ignore everything before the second slash in the pair. In the example above, /u2/emacs/src/ is ignored, so the argument you supplied is /etc/termcap. The ignored part of the file name is dimmed if the terminal allows it. (To disable this dimming, turn off File Name Shadow mode with the command M-x file-name-shadow-mode.) When completing remote file names (see Remote Files), a double slash behaves slightly differently: it causes Emacs to ignore only the file-name part, leaving the rest (method, host and username, etc.) intact. Typing three slashes in a row ignores everything in remote file names. See File name completion in The Tramp Manual. Emacs interprets ~/ as your home directory. Thus, ~/foo/bar.txt specifies a file named bar.txt, inside a directory named foo, which is in turn located in your home directory. In addition, ~user-id/ means the home directory of a user whose login name is user-id. Any leading directory name in front of the ~ is ignored: thus, /u2/emacs/~/foo/bar.txt is equivalent to ~/foo/bar.txt. On MS-Windows and MS-DOS systems, where a user doesn’t always have a home directory, Emacs uses several alternatives. For MS-Windows, see Windows HOME; for MS-DOS, see MS-DOS File Names. On these systems, the ~user-id/ construct is supported only for the current user, i.e., only if user-id is the current user’s login name. To prevent Emacs from inserting the default directory when reading file names, change the variable insert-default-directory to nil. In that case, the minibuffer starts out empty. Nonetheless, relative file name arguments are still interpreted based on the same default directory. You can also enter remote file names in the minibuffer. See Remote Files. Next: Minibuffer Edit, Previous: Basic Minibuffer, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] Next: Completion, Previous: Minibuffer File, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.3 Editing in the Minibuffer The minibuffer is an Emacs buffer, albeit a peculiar one, and the usual Emacs commands are available for editing the argument text. (The prompt, however, is read-only, and cannot be changed.) Since RET in the minibuffer submits the argument, you can’t use it to insert a newline. You can do that with C-q C-j, which inserts a C-j control character, which is formally equivalent to a newline character (see Inserting Text). Alternatively, you can use the C-o (open-line) command (see Blank Lines). Inside a minibuffer, the keys TAB, SPC, and ? are often bound to completion commands, which allow you to easily fill in the desired text without typing all of it. See Completion. As with RET, you can use C-q to insert a TAB, SPC, or ‘?’ character. For convenience, C-a (move-beginning-of-line) in a minibuffer moves point to the beginning of the argument text, not the beginning of the prompt. For example, this allows you to erase the entire argument with C-a C-k. When the minibuffer is active, the echo area is treated much like an ordinary Emacs window. For instance, you can switch to another window (with C-x o), edit text there, then return to the minibuffer window to finish the argument. You can even kill text in another window, return to the minibuffer window, and yank the text into the argument. There are some restrictions on the minibuffer window, however: for instance, you cannot split it. See Windows. Normally, the minibuffer window occupies a single screen line. However, if you add two or more lines’ worth of text into the minibuffer, it expands automatically to accommodate the text. The variable resize-mini-windows controls the resizing of the minibuffer. The default value is grow-only, which means the behavior we have just described. If the value is t, the minibuffer window will also shrink automatically if you remove some lines of text from the minibuffer, down to a minimum of one screen line. If the value is nil, the minibuffer window never changes size automatically, but you can use the usual window-resizing commands on it (see Windows). The variable max-mini-window-height controls the maximum height for resizing the minibuffer window. A floating-point number specifies a fraction of the frame’s height; an integer specifies the maximum number of lines; nil means do not resize the minibuffer window automatically. The default value is 0.25. The C-M-v command in the minibuffer scrolls the help text from commands that display help text of any sort in another window. You can also scroll the help text with M-PageUp and M-PageDown (or, equivalently, M-prior and M-next). This is especially useful with long lists of possible completions. See Other Window. Emacs normally disallows most commands that use the minibuffer while the minibuffer is active. To allow such commands in the minibuffer, set the variable enable-recursive-minibuffers to t. You might need also to enable minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode to show the current recursion depth in the minibuffer prompt on recursive use of the minibuffer. When not active, the minibuffer is in minibuffer-inactive-mode, and clicking mouse-1 there shows the *Messages* buffer. If you use a dedicated frame for minibuffers, Emacs also recognizes certain keys there, for example, n to make a new frame. Next: Completion, Previous: Minibuffer File, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] Next: Minibuffer History, Previous: Minibuffer Edit, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.4 Completion You can often use a feature called completion to help enter arguments. This means that after you type part of the argument, Emacs can fill in the rest, or some of it, based on what was typed so far. When completion is available, certain keys (usually TAB, RET, and SPC) are rebound in the minibuffer to special completion commands (see Completion Commands). These commands attempt to complete the text in the minibuffer, based on a set of completion alternatives provided by the command that requested the argument. You can usually type ? to see a list of completion alternatives. Although completion is usually done in the minibuffer, the feature is sometimes available in ordinary buffers too. See Symbol Completion. • Completion Example Examples of using completion. • Completion Commands A list of completion commands. • Completion Exit Completion and minibuffer text submission. • Completion Styles How completion matches are chosen. • Completion Options Options for completion. Next: Repetition, Previous: Completion, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.5 Minibuffer History Every argument that you enter with the minibuffer is saved in a minibuffer history list so you can easily use it again later. You can use the following arguments to quickly fetch an earlier argument into the minibuffer: M-p Move to the previous item in the minibuffer history, an earlier argument (previous-history-element). M-n Move to the next item in the minibuffer history (next-history-element). UP DOWN Like M-p and M-n, but move to the previous or next line of a multi-line item before going to the previous history item (previous-line-or-history-element and next-line-or-history-element) . M-r regexp RET Move to an earlier item in the minibuffer history that matches regexp (previous-matching-history-element). M-s regexp RET Move to a later item in the minibuffer history that matches regexp (next-matching-history-element). While in the minibuffer, M-p (previous-history-element) moves through the minibuffer history list, one item at a time. Each M-p fetches an earlier item from the history list into the minibuffer, replacing its existing contents. Typing M-n (next-history-element) moves through the minibuffer history list in the opposite direction, fetching later entries into the minibuffer. If you type M-n in the minibuffer when there are no later entries in the minibuffer history (e.g., if you haven’t previously typed M-p), Emacs tries fetching from a list of default arguments: values that you are likely to enter. You can think of this as moving through the “future history”. The “future history” for file names includes several possible alternatives you may find useful, such as the file name or the URL at point in the current buffer. The defaults put into the “future history” in this case are controlled by the functions mentioned in the value of the option file-name-at-point-functions. By default, its value invokes the ffap package (see FFAP), which tries to guess the default file or URL from the text around point. To disable this guessing, customize the option to a nil value, then the “future history” of file names will include only the file, if any, visited by the current buffer, and the default directory. The arrow keys UP and DOWN work like M-p and M-n, but if the current history item is longer than a single line, they allow you to move to the previous or next line of the current history item before going to the previous or next history item. If you edit the text inserted by the M-p or M-n minibuffer history commands, this does not change its entry in the history list. However, the edited argument does go at the end of the history list when you submit it. You can use M-r (previous-matching-history-element) to search through older elements in the history list, and M-s (next-matching-history-element) to search through newer entries. Each of these commands asks for a regular expression as an argument, and fetches the first matching entry into the minibuffer. See Regexps, for an explanation of regular expressions. A numeric prefix argument n means to fetch the nth matching entry. These commands are unusual, in that they use the minibuffer to read the regular expression argument, even though they are invoked from the minibuffer. An upper-case letter in the regular expression makes the search case-sensitive (see Lax Search). You can also search through the history using an incremental search. See Isearch Minibuffer. Emacs keeps separate history lists for several different kinds of arguments. For example, there is a list for file names, used by all the commands that read file names. Other history lists include buffer names, command names (used by M-x), and command arguments (used by commands like query-replace). The variable history-length specifies the maximum length of a minibuffer history list; adding a new element deletes the oldest element if the list gets too long. If the value is t, there is no maximum length. The variable history-delete-duplicates specifies whether to delete duplicates in history. If it is non-nil, adding a new element deletes from the list all other elements that are equal to it. The default is nil. Next: Repetition, Previous: Completion, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] Next: Passwords, Previous: Minibuffer History, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.6 Repeating Minibuffer Commands Every command that uses the minibuffer once is recorded on a special history list, the command history, together with the values of its arguments, so that you can repeat the entire command. In particular, every use of M-x is recorded there, since M-x uses the minibuffer to read the command name. C-x ESC ESC Re-execute a recent minibuffer command from the command history (repeat-complex-command). M-x list-command-history Display the entire command history, showing all the commands C-x ESC ESC can repeat, most recent first. C-x ESC ESC re-executes a recent command that used the minibuffer. With no argument, it repeats the last such command. A numeric argument specifies which command to repeat; 1 means the last one, 2 the previous, and so on. C-x ESC ESC works by turning the previous command into a Lisp expression and then entering a minibuffer initialized with the text for that expression. Even if you don’t know Lisp, it will probably be obvious which command is displayed for repetition. If you type just RET, that repeats the command unchanged. You can also change the command by editing the Lisp expression before you execute it. The executed command is added to the front of the command history unless it is identical to the most recent item. Once inside the minibuffer for C-x ESC ESC, you can use the usual minibuffer history commands (see Minibuffer History) to move through the history list. After finding the desired previous command, you can edit its expression as usual and then execute it by typing RET. Incremental search does not, strictly speaking, use the minibuffer. Therefore, although it behaves like a complex command, it normally does not appear in the history list for C-x ESC ESC. You can make incremental search commands appear in the history by setting isearch-resume-in-command-history to a non-nil value. See Incremental Search. The list of previous minibuffer-using commands is stored as a Lisp list in the variable command-history. Each element is a Lisp expression that describes one command and its arguments. Lisp programs can re-execute a command by calling eval with the command-history element. Next: Passwords, Previous: Minibuffer History, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] Next: Yes or No Prompts, Previous: Repetition, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.7 Entering passwords Sometimes, you may need to enter a password into Emacs. For instance, when you tell Emacs to visit a file on another machine via a network protocol such as FTP, you often need to supply a password to gain access to the machine (see Remote Files). Entering a password is similar to using a minibuffer. Emacs displays a prompt in the echo area (such as ‘Password: ’); after you type the required password, press RET to submit it. To prevent others from seeing your password, every character you type is displayed as an asterisk (‘*’) instead of its usual form. Most of the features and commands associated with the minibuffer cannot be used when entering a password. There is no history or completion, and you cannot change windows or perform any other action with Emacs until you have submitted the password. While you are typing the password, you may press DEL to delete backwards, removing the last character entered. C-u deletes everything you have typed so far. C-g quits the password prompt (see Quitting). C-y inserts the current kill into the password (see Killing). You may type either RET or ESC to submit the password. Any other self-inserting character key inserts the associated character into the password, and all other input is ignored. Previous: Passwords, Up: Minibuffer [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.8 Yes or No Prompts An Emacs command may require you to answer a yes-or-no question during the course of its execution. Such queries come in two main varieties. For the first type of yes-or-no query, the prompt ends with ‘(y or n)’. You answer the query by typing a single key, either ‘y’ or ‘n’, which immediately exits the minibuffer and delivers the response. For example, if you type C-x C-w (write-file) to save a buffer, and enter the name of an existing file, Emacs issues a prompt like this: File ‘foo.el’ exists; overwrite? (y or n) The second type of yes-or-no query is typically employed if giving the wrong answer would have serious consequences; it thus features a longer prompt ending with ‘(yes or no)’. For example, if you invoke C-x k (kill-buffer) on a file-visiting buffer with unsaved changes, Emacs activates the minibuffer with a prompt like this: Buffer foo.el modified; kill anyway? (yes or no) To answer, you must type ‘yes’ or ‘no’ into the minibuffer, followed by RET. With both types of yes-or-no query the minibuffer behaves as described in the previous sections; you can recenter the selected window with C-l, scroll that window (C-v or PageDown scrolls forward, M-v or PageUp scrolls backward), switch to another window with C-x o, use the history commands M-p and M-n, etc. Type C-g to dismiss the query, and quit the minibuffer and the querying command (see Quitting). Next: Completion Commands, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.4.1 Completion Example A simple example may help here. M-x uses the minibuffer to read the name of a command, so completion works by matching the minibuffer text against the names of existing Emacs commands. Suppose you wish to run the command auto-fill-mode. You can do that by typing M-x auto-fill-mode RET, but it is easier to use completion. If you type M-x a u TAB, the TAB looks for completion alternatives (in this case, command names) that start with ‘au’. There are several, including auto-fill-mode and autoconf-mode, but they all begin with auto, so the ‘au’ in the minibuffer completes to ‘auto’. (More commands may be defined in your Emacs session. For example, if a command called authorize-me was defined, Emacs could only complete as far as ‘aut’.) If you type TAB again immediately, it cannot determine the next character; it could be ‘-’, ‘a’, or ‘c’. So it does not add any characters; instead, TAB displays a list of all possible completions in another window. Next, type -f. The minibuffer now contains ‘auto-f’, and the only command name that starts with this is auto-fill-mode. If you now type TAB, completion fills in the rest of the argument ‘auto-fill-mode’ into the minibuffer. Hence, typing just a u TAB - f TAB allows you to enter ‘auto-fill-mode’. Next: Completion Exit, Previous: Completion Example, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.4.2 Completion Commands Here is a list of the completion commands defined in the minibuffer when completion is allowed. TAB Complete the text in the minibuffer as much as possible; if unable to complete, display a list of possible completions (minibuffer-complete). SPC Complete up to one word from the minibuffer text before point (minibuffer-complete-word). This command is not available for arguments that often include spaces, such as file names. RET Submit the text in the minibuffer as the argument, possibly completing first (minibuffer-complete-and-exit). See Completion Exit. ? Display a list of completions (minibuffer-completion-help). TAB (minibuffer-complete) is the most fundamental completion command. It searches for all possible completions that match the existing minibuffer text, and attempts to complete as much as it can. See Completion Styles, for how completion alternatives are chosen. SPC (minibuffer-complete-word) completes like TAB, but only up to the next hyphen or space. If you have ‘auto-f’ in the minibuffer and type SPC, it finds that the completion is ‘auto-fill-mode’, but it only inserts ‘ill-’, giving ‘auto-fill-’. Another SPC at this point completes all the way to ‘auto-fill-mode’. If TAB or SPC is unable to complete, it displays a list of matching completion alternatives (if there are any) in another window. You can display the same list with ? (minibuffer-completion-help). The following commands can be used with the completion list: M-v PageUp prior Typing M-v, while in the minibuffer, selects the window showing the completion list (switch-to-completions). This paves the way for using the commands below. PageUp or prior does the same. You can also select the window in other ways (see Windows). RET mouse-1 mouse-2 While in the completion list buffer, this chooses the completion at point (choose-completion). TAB RIGHT While in the completion list buffer, these keys move point to the following completion alternative (next-completion). S-TAB LEFT While in the completion list buffer, these keys move point to the previous completion alternative (previous-completion). q While in the completion list buffer, this quits the window showing it and selects the window showing the minibuffer (quit-window). z While in the completion list buffer, kill it and delete the window showing it (kill-current-buffer). Next: Completion Exit, Previous: Completion Example, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] Next: Completion Styles, Previous: Completion Commands, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.4.3 Completion Exit When a command reads an argument using the minibuffer with completion, it also controls what happens when you type RET (minibuffer-complete-and-exit) to submit the argument. There are four types of behavior: * Strict completion accepts only exact completion matches. Typing RET exits the minibuffer only if the minibuffer text is an exact match, or completes to one. Otherwise, Emacs refuses to exit the minibuffer; instead it tries to complete, and if no completion can be done it momentarily displays ‘[No match]’ after the minibuffer text. (You can still leave the minibuffer by typing C-g to cancel the command.) An example of a command that uses this behavior is M-x, since it is meaningless for it to accept a non-existent command name. * Cautious completion is like strict completion, except RET exits only if the text is already an exact match. If the text completes to an exact match, RET performs that completion but does not exit yet; you must type a second RET to exit. Cautious completion is used for reading file names for files that must already exist, for example. * Permissive completion allows any input; the completion candidates are just suggestions. Typing RET does not complete, it just submits the argument as you have entered it. * Permissive completion with confirmation is like permissive completion, with an exception: if you typed TAB and this completed the text up to some intermediate state (i.e., one that is not yet an exact completion match), typing RET right afterward does not submit the argument. Instead, Emacs asks for confirmation by momentarily displaying ‘[Confirm]’ after the text; type RET again to confirm and submit the text. This catches a common mistake, in which one types RET before realizing that TAB did not complete as far as desired. You can tweak the confirmation behavior by customizing the variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer. The default value, after-completion, gives the behavior we have just described. If you change it to nil, Emacs does not ask for confirmation, falling back on permissive completion. If you change it to any other non-nil value, Emacs asks for confirmation whether or not the preceding command was TAB. This behavior is used by most commands that read file names, like C-x C-f, and commands that read buffer names, like C-x b. Next: Completion Styles, Previous: Completion Commands, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] Next: Completion Options, Previous: Completion Exit, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.4.4 How Completion Alternatives Are Chosen Completion commands work by narrowing a large list of possible completion alternatives to a smaller subset that matches what you have typed in the minibuffer. In Completion Example, we gave a simple example of such matching. The procedure of determining what constitutes a match is quite intricate. Emacs attempts to offer plausible completions under most circumstances. Emacs performs completion using one or more completion styles—sets of criteria for matching minibuffer text to completion alternatives. During completion, Emacs tries each completion style in turn. If a style yields one or more matches, that is used as the list of completion alternatives. If a style produces no matches, Emacs falls back on the next style. The list variable completion-styles specifies the completion styles to use. Each list element is the name of a completion style (a Lisp symbol). The default completion styles are (in order): basic A matching completion alternative must have the same beginning as the text in the minibuffer before point. Furthermore, if there is any text in the minibuffer after point, the rest of the completion alternative must contain that text as a substring. partial-completion This aggressive completion style divides the minibuffer text into words separated by hyphens or spaces, and completes each word separately. (For example, when completing command names, ‘em-l-m’ completes to ‘emacs-lisp-mode’.) Furthermore, a ‘*’ in the minibuffer text is treated as a wildcard—it matches any string of characters at the corresponding position in the completion alternative. emacs22 This completion style is similar to basic, except that it ignores the text in the minibuffer after point. It is so-named because it corresponds to the completion behavior in Emacs 22. The following additional completion styles are also defined, and you can add them to completion-styles if you wish (see Customization): substring A matching completion alternative must contain the text in the minibuffer before point, and the text in the minibuffer after point, as substrings (in that same order). Thus, if the text in the minibuffer is ‘foobar’, with point between ‘foo’ and ‘bar’, that matches ‘afoobbarc’, where a, b, and c can be any string including the empty string. flex This aggressive completion style, also known as flx or fuzzy or scatter completion, attempts to complete using in-order substrings. For example, it can consider ‘foo’ to match ‘frodo’ or ‘fbarbazoo’. initials This very aggressive completion style attempts to complete acronyms and initialisms. For example, when completing command names, it matches ‘lch’ to ‘list-command-history’. There is also a very simple completion style called emacs21. In this style, if the text in the minibuffer is ‘foobar’, only matches starting with ‘foobar’ are considered. You can use different completion styles in different situations, by setting the variable completion-category-overrides. For example, the default setting says to use only basic and substring completion for buffer names. Next: Completion Options, Previous: Completion Exit, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] Previous: Completion Styles, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8.4.5 Completion Options Case is significant when completing case-sensitive arguments, such as command names. For example, when completing command names, ‘AU’ does not complete to ‘auto-fill-mode’. Case differences are ignored when completing arguments in which case does not matter. When completing file names, case differences are ignored if the variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case is non-nil. The default value is nil on systems that have case-sensitive file-names, such as GNU/Linux; it is non-nil on systems that have case-insensitive file-names, such as Microsoft Windows. When completing buffer names, case differences are ignored if the variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case is non-nil; the default is nil. When completing file names, Emacs usually omits certain alternatives that are considered unlikely to be chosen, as determined by the list variable completion-ignored-extensions. Each element in the list should be a string; any file name ending in such a string is ignored as a completion alternative. Any element ending in a slash (/) represents a subdirectory name. The standard value of completion-ignored-extensions has several elements including ".o", ".elc", and "~". For example, if a directory contains ‘foo.c’ and ‘foo.elc’, ‘foo’ completes to ‘foo.c’. However, if all possible completions end in otherwise-ignored strings, they are not ignored: in the previous example, ‘foo.e’ completes to ‘foo.elc’. Emacs disregards completion-ignored-extensions when showing completion alternatives in the completion list. Shell completion is an extended version of filename completion, see Shell Options. If completion-auto-help is set to nil, the completion commands never display the completion list buffer; you must type ? to display the list. If the value is lazy, Emacs only shows the completion list buffer on the second attempt to complete. In other words, if there is nothing to complete, the first TAB echoes ‘Next char not unique’; the second TAB shows the completion list buffer. If completion-cycle-threshold is non-nil, completion commands can cycle through completion alternatives. Normally, if there is more than one completion alternative for the text in the minibuffer, a completion command completes up to the longest common substring. If you change completion-cycle-threshold to t, the completion command instead completes to the first of those completion alternatives; each subsequent invocation of the completion command replaces that with the next completion alternative, in a cyclic manner. If you give completion-cycle-threshold a numeric value n, completion commands switch to this cycling behavior only when there are n or fewer alternatives. Previous: Completion Styles, Up: Completion [Contents][Index] Next: Key Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.1 Help Summary Here is a summary of help commands for accessing the built-in documentation. Most of these are described in more detail in the following sections. C-h a topics RET Display a list of commands whose names match topics (apropos-command). See Apropos. C-h b Display all active key bindings; minor mode bindings first, then those of the major mode, then global bindings (describe-bindings). See Misc Help. C-h c key Show the name of the command that the key sequence key is bound to (describe-key-briefly). Here c stands for “character”. For more extensive information on key, use C-h k. See Key Help. C-h d topics RET Display the commands and variables whose documentation matches topics (apropos-documentation). See Apropos. C-h e Display the *Messages* buffer (view-echo-area-messages). See Misc Help. C-h f function RET Display documentation on the Lisp function named function (describe-function). Since commands are Lisp functions, this works for commands too. See Name Help. C-h h Display the HELLO file, which shows examples of various character sets. C-h i Run Info, the GNU documentation browser (info). The Emacs manual is available in Info. See Misc Help. C-h k key Display the name and documentation of the command that key runs (describe-key). See Key Help. C-h l Display a description of your last 300 keystrokes (view-lossage). See Misc Help. C-h m Display documentation of the current major mode and minor modes (describe-mode). See Misc Help. C-h n Display news of recent Emacs changes (view-emacs-news). See Help Files. C-h o symbol Display documentation of the Lisp symbol named symbol (describe-symbol). This will show the documentation of all kinds of symbols: functions, variables, and faces. See Name Help. C-h p Find packages by topic keyword (finder-by-keyword). See Package Keywords. This lists packages using a package menu buffer. See Packages. C-h P package RET Display documentation about the specified package (describe-package). See Package Keywords. C-h r Display the Emacs manual in Info (info-emacs-manual). C-h s Display the contents of the current syntax table (describe-syntax). See Misc Help. The syntax table says which characters are opening delimiters, which are parts of words, and so on. See Syntax Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for details. C-h t Enter the Emacs interactive tutorial (help-with-tutorial). C-h v var RET Display the documentation of the Lisp variable var (describe-variable). See Name Help. C-h w command RET Show which keys run the command named command (where-is). See Key Help. C-h C coding RET Describe the coding system coding (describe-coding-system). See Coding Systems. C-h C RET Describe the coding systems currently in use. C-h F command RET Enter Info and go to the node that documents the Emacs command command (Info-goto-emacs-command-node). See Name Help. C-h I method RET Describe the input method method (describe-input-method). See Select Input Method. C-h K key Enter Info and go to the node that documents the key sequence key (Info-goto-emacs-key-command-node). See Key Help. C-h L language-env RET Display information on the character sets, coding systems, and input methods used in language environment language-env (describe-language-environment). See Language Environments. C-h S symbol RET Display the Info documentation on symbol symbol according to the programming language you are editing (info-lookup-symbol). See Misc Help. C-h . Display the help message for a special text area, if point is in one (display-local-help). (These include, for example, links in *Help* buffers.) See Help Echo. Next: Key Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] Next: Name Help, Previous: Help Summary, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.2 Documentation for a Key The help commands to get information about a key sequence are C-h c (describe-key-briefly) and C-h k (describe-key). C-h c key displays in the echo area the name of the command that key is bound to. For example, C-h c C-f displays ‘forward-char’. C-h k key is similar but gives more information: it displays a help buffer containing the command’s documentation string, which describes exactly what the command does. C-h K key displays the section of the Emacs manual that describes the command corresponding to key. C-h c, C-h k and C-h K work for any sort of key sequences, including function keys, menus, and mouse events (except that C-h c ignores mouse movement events). For instance, after C-h k you can select a menu item from the menu bar, to view the documentation string of the command it runs. C-h w command RET lists the keys that are bound to command. It displays the list in the echo area. If it says the command is not on any key, that means you must use M-x to run it. C-h w runs the command where-is. Next: Apropos, Previous: Key Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.3 Help by Command or Variable Name C-h f function RET (describe-function) displays the documentation of Lisp function function, in a window. Since commands are Lisp functions, you can use this method to view the documentation of any command whose name you know. For example, C-h f auto-fill-mode RET displays the documentation of auto-fill-mode. This is the only way to get the documentation of a command that is not bound to any key (one which you would normally run using M-x). C-h f is also useful for Lisp functions that you use in a Lisp program. For example, if you have just written the expression (make-vector len) and want to check that you are using make-vector properly, type C-h f make-vector RET. Because C-h f allows all function names, not just command names, you may find that some of your favorite completion abbreviations that work in M-x don’t work in C-h f. An abbreviation that is unique among command names may not be unique among all function names. If you type C-h f RET, it describes the function called by the innermost Lisp expression in the buffer around point, provided that function name is a valid, defined Lisp function. (That name appears as the default while you enter the argument.) For example, if point is located following the text ‘(make-vector (car x)’, the innermost list containing point is the one that starts with ‘(make-vector’, so C-h f RET describes the function make-vector. C-h f is also useful just to verify that you spelled a function name correctly. If the minibuffer prompt for C-h f shows the function name from the buffer as the default, it means that name is defined as a Lisp function. Type C-g to cancel the C-h f command if you don’t really want to view the documentation. C-h v (describe-variable) is like C-h f but describes Lisp variables instead of Lisp functions. Its default is the Lisp symbol around or before point, if that is the name of a defined Lisp variable. See Variables. Help buffers that describe Emacs variables and functions normally have hyperlinks to the corresponding source code, if you have the source files installed (see Hyperlinking). To find a command’s documentation in a manual, use C-h F (Info-goto-emacs-command-node). This knows about various manuals, not just the Emacs manual, and finds the right one. C-h o (describe-symbol) is like C-h f and C-h v, but it describes any symbol, be it a function, a variable, or a face. If the symbol has more than one definition, like it has both definition as a function and as a variable, this command will show the documentation of all of them, one after the other. Next: Apropos, Previous: Key Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] Next: Help Mode, Previous: Name Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.4 Apropos The apropos commands answer questions like, “What are the commands for working with files?” More precisely, you specify an apropos pattern, which means either a word, a list of words, or a regular expression. Each of the following apropos commands reads an apropos pattern in the minibuffer, searches for items that match the pattern, and displays the results in a different window. C-h a Search for commands (apropos-command). With a prefix argument, search for noninteractive functions too. M-x apropos Search for functions and variables. Both interactive functions (commands) and noninteractive functions can be found by this. M-x apropos-user-option Search for user-customizable variables. With a prefix argument, search for non-customizable variables too. M-x apropos-variable Search for variables. With a prefix argument, search for customizable variables only. M-x apropos-local-variable Search for buffer-local variables. M-x apropos-value Search for variables whose values match the specified pattern. With a prefix argument, search also for functions with definitions matching the pattern, and Lisp symbols with properties matching the pattern. M-x apropos-local-value Search for buffer-local variables whose values match the specified pattern. C-h d Search for functions and variables whose documentation strings match the specified pattern (apropos-documentation). The simplest kind of apropos pattern is one word. Anything containing that word matches the pattern. Thus, to find commands that work on files, type C-h a file RET. This displays a list of all command names that contain ‘file’, including copy-file, find-file, and so on. Each command name comes with a brief description and a list of keys you can currently invoke it with. In our example, it would say that you can invoke find-file by typing C-x C-f. For more information about a function definition, variable or symbol property listed in an apropos buffer, you can click on it with mouse-1 or mouse-2, or move there and type RET. When you specify more than one word in the apropos pattern, a name must contain at least two of the words in order to match. Thus, if you are looking for commands to kill a chunk of text before point, you could try C-h a kill back backward behind before RET. The real command name kill-backward will match that; if there were a command kill-text-before, it would also match, since it contains two of the specified words. For even greater flexibility, you can specify a regular expression (see Regexps). An apropos pattern is interpreted as a regular expression if it contains any of the regular expression special characters, ‘^$*+?.\[’. Following the conventions for naming Emacs commands, here are some words that you’ll find useful in apropos patterns. By using them in C-h a, you will also get a feel for the naming conventions. char, line, word, sentence, paragraph, region, page, sexp, list, defun, rect, buffer, frame, window, face, file, dir, register, mode, beginning, end, forward, backward, next, previous, up, down, search, goto, kill, delete, mark, insert, yank, fill, indent, case, change, set, what, list, find, view, describe, default. If the variable apropos-do-all is non-nil, most apropos commands behave as if they had been given a prefix argument. There is one exception: apropos-variable without a prefix argument will always search for all variables, no matter what the value of apropos-do-all is. By default, all apropos commands except apropos-documentation list their results in alphabetical order. If the variable apropos-sort-by-scores is non-nil, these commands instead try to guess the relevance of each result, and display the most relevant ones first. The apropos-documentation command lists its results in order of relevance by default; to list them in alphabetical order, change the variable apropos-documentation-sort-by-scores to nil. Next: Help Mode, Previous: Name Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] Next: Package Keywords, Previous: Apropos, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.5 Help Mode Commands Help buffers provide the same commands as View mode (see View Mode); for instance, SPC scrolls forward, and DEL or S-SPC scrolls backward. A few special commands are also provided: RET Follow a cross reference at point (help-follow). TAB Move point forward to the next hyperlink (forward-button). S-TAB Move point back to the previous hyperlink (backward-button). mouse-1 mouse-2 Follow a hyperlink that you click on. C-c C-c Show all documentation about the symbol at point (help-follow-symbol). C-c C-f r Go forward to the next help topic (help-go-forward). C-c C-b l Go back to the previous help topic (help-go-back). When a function name, variable name, or face name (see Faces) appears in the documentation in the help buffer, it is normally an underlined hyperlink. To view the associated documentation, move point there and type RET (help-follow), or click on the hyperlink with mouse-1 or mouse-2. Doing so replaces the contents of the help buffer; to retrace your steps, type C-c C-b or l (help-go-back). While retracing your steps, you can go forward by using C-c C-f or r (help-go-forward). A help buffer can also contain hyperlinks to Info manuals, source code definitions, and URLs (web pages). The first two are opened in Emacs, and the third using a web browser via the browse-url command (see Browse-URL). In a help buffer, TAB (forward-button) moves point forward to the next hyperlink, while S-TAB (backward-button) moves point back to the previous hyperlink. These commands act cyclically; for instance, typing TAB at the last hyperlink moves back to the first hyperlink. To view all documentation about any symbol in the text, move point to the symbol and type C-c C-c (help-follow-symbol). This shows the documentation for all the meanings of the symbol—as a variable, as a function, and/or as a face. Next: Package Keywords, Previous: Apropos, Up: Help [Contents][Index] Next: Language Help, Previous: Help Mode, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.6 Keyword Search for Packages Most optional features in Emacs are grouped into packages. Emacs contains several hundred built-in packages, and more can be installed over the network (see Packages). To make it easier to find packages related to a topic, most packages are associated with one or more keywords based on what they do. Type C-h p (finder-by-keyword) to bring up a list of package keywords, together with a description of what the keywords mean. To view a list of packages for a given keyword, type RET on that line; this displays the list of packages in a Package Menu buffer (see Package Menu). C-h P (describe-package) prompts for the name of a package (see Packages), and displays a help buffer describing the attributes of the package and the features that it implements. The buffer lists the keywords that relate to the package in the form of buttons. Click on a button with mouse-1 or mouse-2 to see the list of other packages related to that keyword. Next: Misc Help, Previous: Package Keywords, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.7 Help for International Language Support For information on a specific language environment (see Language Environments), type C-h L (describe-language-environment). This displays a help buffer describing the languages supported by the language environment, and listing the associated character sets, coding systems, and input methods, as well as some sample text for that language environment. The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays the file etc/HELLO, which demonstrates various character sets by showing how to say “hello” in many languages. The command C-h I (describe-input-method) describes an input method—either a specified input method, or by default the input method currently in use. See Input Methods. The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) describes coding systems—either a specified coding system, or the ones currently in use. See Coding Systems. Next: Help Files, Previous: Language Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.8 Other Help Commands C-h i (info) runs the Info program, which browses structured documentation files. C-h 4 i (info-other-window) does the same, but shows the Info buffer in another window. The entire Emacs manual is available within Info, along with many other manuals for the GNU system. Type h after entering Info to run a tutorial on using Info. With a numeric argument n, C-h i selects the Info buffer ‘*info*’. This is useful if you want to browse multiple Info manuals simultaneously. If you specify just C-u as the prefix argument, C-h i prompts for the name of a documentation file, so you can browse a file which doesn’t have an entry in the top-level Info menu. The help commands C-h F function RET and C-h K key, described above, enter Info and go straight to the documentation of function or key. When editing a program, if you have an Info version of the manual for the programming language, you can use C-h S (info-lookup-symbol) to find an entry for a symbol (keyword, function or variable) in the proper manual. The details of how this command works depend on the major mode. If something surprising happens, and you are not sure what you typed, use C-h l (view-lossage). C-h l displays your last 300 input keystrokes and the commands they invoked. If you see commands that you are not familiar with, you can use C-h k or C-h f to find out what they do. To review recent echo area messages, use C-h e (view-echo-area-messages). This displays the buffer *Messages*, where those messages are kept. Each Emacs major mode typically redefines a few keys and makes other changes in how editing works. C-h m (describe-mode) displays documentation on the current major mode, which normally describes the commands and features that are changed in this mode, and also its key bindings. C-h b (describe-bindings) and C-h s (describe-syntax) show other information about the current environment within Emacs. C-h b displays a list of all the key bindings now in effect: first the local bindings of the current minor modes, then the local bindings defined by the current major mode, and finally the global bindings (see Key Bindings). C-h s displays the contents of the syntax table, with explanations of each character’s syntax (see Syntax Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). You can get a list of subcommands for a particular prefix key by typing C-h, ?, or F1 (describe-prefix-bindings) after the prefix key. (There are a few prefix keys for which not all of these keys work—those that provide their own bindings for that key. One of these prefix keys is ESC, because ESC C-h is actually C-M-h, which marks a defun. However, ESC F1 and ESC ? work fine.) Next: Help Files, Previous: Language Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] Next: Help Echo, Previous: Misc Help, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.9 Help Files Apart from the built-in documentation and manuals, Emacs contains several other files describing topics like copying conditions, release notes, instructions for debugging and reporting bugs, and so forth. You can use the following commands to view these files. Apart from C-h g, they all have the form C-h C-char. C-h C-c Display the rules under which you can copy and redistribute Emacs (describe-copying). C-h C-d Display help for debugging Emacs (view-emacs-debugging). C-h C-e Display information about where to get external packages (view-external-packages). C-h C-f Display the Emacs frequently-answered-questions list (view-emacs-FAQ). C-h g Visit the page with information about the GNU Project (describe-gnu-project). C-h C-m Display information about ordering printed copies of Emacs manuals (view-order-manuals). C-h C-n Display the news, which lists the new features in this version of Emacs (view-emacs-news). C-h C-o Display how to order or download the latest version of Emacs and other GNU software (describe-distribution). C-h C-p Display the list of known Emacs problems, sometimes with suggested workarounds (view-emacs-problems). C-h C-t Display the Emacs to-do list (view-emacs-todo). C-h C-w Display the full details on the complete absence of warranty for GNU Emacs (describe-no-warranty). Previous: Help Files, Up: Help [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10.10 Help on Active Text and Tooltips In Emacs, stretches of active text (text that does something special in response to mouse clicks or RET) often have associated help text. This includes hyperlinks in Emacs buffers, as well as parts of the mode line. On graphical displays, as well as some text terminals which support mouse tracking, moving the mouse over the active text displays the help text as a tooltip. See Tooltips. On terminals that don’t support mouse-tracking, you can display the help text for active buffer text at point by typing C-h . (display-local-help). This shows the help text in the echo area. To display help text automatically whenever it is available at point, set the variable help-at-pt-display-when-idle to t. Next: Marking Objects, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 11.1 Setting the Mark Here are some commands for setting the mark: C-SPC Set the mark at point, and activate it (set-mark-command). C-@ The same. C-x C-x Set the mark at point, and activate it; then move point where the mark used to be (exchange-point-and-mark). Drag-mouse-1 Set point and the mark around the text you drag across. mouse-3 Set the mark at point, then move point to where you click (mouse-save-then-kill). Shifted cursor motion keys Set the mark at point if the mark is inactive, then move point. See Shift Selection. The most common way to set the mark is with C-SPC (set-mark-command)^5. This sets the mark where point is, and activates it. You can then move point away, leaving the mark behind. For example, suppose you wish to convert part of the buffer to upper case. To accomplish this, go to one end of the desired text, type C-SPC, and move point until the desired portion of text is highlighted. Now type C-x C-u (upcase-region). This converts the text in the region to upper case, and then deactivates the mark. Whenever the mark is active, you can deactivate it by typing C-g (see Quitting). Most commands that operate on the region also automatically deactivate the mark, like C-x C-u in the above example. Instead of setting the mark in order to operate on a region, you can also use it to remember a position in the buffer (by typing C-SPC C-SPC), and later jump back there (by typing C-u C-SPC). See Mark Ring, for details. The command C-x C-x (exchange-point-and-mark) exchanges the positions of point and the mark. C-x C-x is useful when you are satisfied with the position of point but want to move the other end of the region (where the mark is). Using C-x C-x a second time, if necessary, puts the mark at the new position with point back at its original position. Normally, if the mark is inactive, this command first reactivates the mark wherever it was last set, to ensure that the region is left highlighted. However, if you call it with a prefix argument, it leaves the mark inactive and the region unhighlighted; you can use this to jump to the mark in a manner similar to C-u C-SPC. You can also set the mark with the mouse. If you press the left mouse button (down-mouse-1) and drag the mouse across a range of text, this sets the mark where you first pressed the mouse button and puts point where you release it. Alternatively, clicking the right mouse button (mouse-3) sets the mark at point and then moves point to where you clicked. See Mouse Commands, for a more detailed description of these mouse commands. Finally, you can set the mark by holding down the shift key while typing certain cursor motion commands (such as S-RIGHT, S-C-f, S-C-n, etc.). This is called shift-selection. It sets the mark at point before moving point, but only if there is no active mark set via a previous shift-selection or mouse commands. The mark set by mouse commands and by shift-selection behaves slightly differently from the usual mark: any subsequent unshifted cursor motion command deactivates it automatically. For details, see Shift Selection. Many commands that insert text, such as C-y (yank), set the mark at the other end of the inserted text, without activating it. This lets you easily return to that position (see Mark Ring). You can tell that a command does this when it shows ‘Mark set’ in the echo area. Under X, every time the active region changes, Emacs saves the text in the region to the primary selection. This lets you insert that text into other X applications with mouse-2 clicks. See Primary Selection. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (5) There is no C-SPC character in ASCII; usually, typing C-SPC on a text terminal gives the character C-@. This key is also bound to set-mark-command, so unless you are unlucky enough to have a text terminal that behaves differently, you might as well think of C-@ as C-SPC. Next: Marking Objects, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] Next: Using Region, Previous: Setting Mark, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 11.2 Commands to Mark Textual Objects Here are commands for placing point and the mark around a textual object such as a word, list, paragraph or page: M-@ Set mark at the end of the next word (mark-word). This does not move point. C-M-@ Set mark after end of following balanced expression (mark-sexp). This does not move point. M-h Move point to the beginning of the current paragraph, and set mark at the end (mark-paragraph). C-M-h Move point to the beginning of the current defun, and set mark at the end (mark-defun). C-x C-p Move point to the beginning of the current page, and set mark at the end (mark-page). C-x h Move point to the beginning of the buffer, and set mark at the end (mark-whole-buffer). M-@ (mark-word) sets the mark at the end of the next word (see Words, for information about words). Repeated invocations of this command extend the region by advancing the mark one word at a time. As an exception, if the mark is active and located before point, M-@ moves the mark backwards from its current position one word at a time. This command also accepts a numeric argument n, which tells it to advance the mark by n words. A negative argument -n moves the mark back by n words. Similarly, C-M-@ (mark-sexp) puts the mark at the end of the next balanced expression (see Expressions). Repeated invocations extend the region to subsequent expressions, while positive or negative numeric arguments move the mark forward or backward by the specified number of expressions. The other commands in the above list set both point and mark, so as to delimit an object in the buffer. M-h (mark-paragraph) marks paragraphs (see Paragraphs), C-M-h (mark-defun) marks top-level definitions (see Moving by Defuns), and C-x C-p (mark-page) marks pages (see Pages). Repeated invocations again play the same role, extending the region to consecutive objects; similarly, numeric arguments specify how many objects to move the mark by. C-x h (mark-whole-buffer) sets up the entire buffer as the region, by putting point at the beginning and the mark at the end. Next: Using Region, Previous: Setting Mark, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] Next: Mark Ring, Previous: Marking Objects, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 11.3 Operating on the Region Once you have a region, here are some of the ways you can operate on it: * Kill it with C-w (see Killing). * Copy it to the kill ring with M-w (see Yanking). * Convert case with C-x C-l or C-x C-u (see Case). * Undo changes within it using C-u C-/ (see Undo). * Replace text within it using M-% (see Query Replace). * Indent it with C-x TAB or C-M-\ (see Indentation). * Fill it as text with M-x fill-region (see Filling). * Check the spelling of words within it with M-$ (see Spelling). * Evaluate it as Lisp code with M-x eval-region (see Lisp Eval). * Save it in a register with C-x r s (see Registers). * Save it in a buffer or a file (see Accumulating Text). Some commands have a default behavior when the mark is inactive, but operate on the region if the mark is active. For example, M-$ (ispell-word) normally checks the spelling of the word at point, but it checks the text in the region if the mark is active (see Spelling). Normally, such commands use their default behavior if the region is empty (i.e., if mark and point are at the same position). If you want them to operate on the empty region, change the variable use-empty-active-region to t. As described in Erasing, the DEL (backward-delete-char) and Delete (delete-forward-char) commands also act this way. If the mark is active, they delete the text in the region. (As an exception, if you supply a numeric argument n, where n is not one, these commands delete n characters regardless of whether the mark is active). If you change the variable delete-active-region to nil, then these commands don’t act differently when the mark is active. If you change the value to kill, these commands kill the region instead of deleting it (see Killing). Other commands always operate on the region, and have no default behavior. Such commands usually have the word region in their names, like C-w (kill-region) and C-x C-u (upcase-region). If the mark is inactive, they operate on the inactive region—that is, on the text between point and the position at which the mark was last set (see Mark Ring). To disable this behavior, change the variable mark-even-if-inactive to nil. Then these commands will instead signal an error if the mark is inactive. By default, text insertion occurs normally even if the mark is active—for example, typing a inserts the character ‘a’, then deactivates the mark. Delete Selection mode, a minor mode, modifies this behavior: if you enable that mode, then inserting text while the mark is active causes the text in the region to be deleted first. To toggle Delete Selection mode on or off, type M-x delete-selection-mode. Next: Mark Ring, Previous: Marking Objects, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] Next: Global Mark Ring, Previous: Using Region, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 11.4 The Mark Ring Each buffer remembers previous locations of the mark, in the mark ring. Commands that set the mark also push the old mark onto this ring. One of the uses of the mark ring is to remember spots that you may want to go back to. C-SPC C-SPC Set the mark, pushing it onto the mark ring, without activating it. C-u C-SPC Move point to where the mark was, and restore the mark from the ring of former marks. The command C-SPC C-SPC is handy when you want to use the mark to remember a position to which you may wish to return. It pushes the current point onto the mark ring, without activating the mark (which would cause Emacs to highlight the region). This is actually two consecutive invocations of C-SPC (set-mark-command); the first C-SPC sets the mark, and the second C-SPC deactivates it. (When Transient Mark mode is off, C-SPC C-SPC instead activates Transient Mark mode temporarily; see Disabled Transient Mark.) To return to a marked position, use set-mark-command with a prefix argument: C-u C-SPC. This moves point to where the mark was, and deactivates the mark if it was active. Each subsequent C-u C-SPC jumps to a prior position stored in the mark ring. The positions you move through in this way are not lost; they go to the end of the ring. If you set set-mark-command-repeat-pop to non-nil, then immediately after you type C-u C-SPC, you can type C-SPC instead of C-u C-SPC to cycle through the mark ring. By default, set-mark-command-repeat-pop is nil. Each buffer has its own mark ring. All editing commands use the current buffer’s mark ring. In particular, C-u C-SPC always stays in the same buffer. The variable mark-ring-max specifies the maximum number of entries to keep in the mark ring. This defaults to 16 entries. If that many entries exist and another one is pushed, the earliest one in the list is discarded. Repeating C-u C-SPC cycles through the positions currently in the ring. If you want to move back to the same place over and over, the mark ring may not be convenient enough. If so, you can record the position in a register for later retrieval (see Saving Positions in Registers). Next: Global Mark Ring, Previous: Using Region, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] Next: Shift Selection, Previous: Mark Ring, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 11.5 The Global Mark Ring In addition to the ordinary mark ring that belongs to each buffer, Emacs has a single global mark ring. Each time you set a mark, this is recorded in the global mark ring in addition to the current buffer’s own mark ring, if you have switched buffers since the previous mark setting. Hence, the global mark ring records a sequence of buffers that you have been in, and, for each buffer, a place where you set the mark. The length of the global mark ring is controlled by global-mark-ring-max, and is 16 by default. The command C-x C-SPC (pop-global-mark) jumps to the buffer and position of the latest entry in the global ring. It also rotates the ring, so that successive uses of C-x C-SPC take you to earlier buffers and mark positions. Next: Disabled Transient Mark, Previous: Global Mark Ring, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 11.6 Shift Selection If you hold down the shift key while typing a cursor motion command, this sets the mark before moving point, so that the region extends from the original position of point to its new position. This feature is referred to as shift-selection. It is similar to the way text is selected in other editors. The mark set via shift-selection behaves a little differently from what we have described above. Firstly, in addition to the usual ways of deactivating the mark (such as changing the buffer text or typing C-g), the mark is deactivated by any unshifted cursor motion command. Secondly, any subsequent shifted cursor motion command avoids setting the mark anew. Therefore, a series of shifted cursor motion commands will continuously adjust the region. Shift-selection only works if the shifted cursor motion key is not already bound to a separate command (see Customization). For example, if you bind S-C-f to another command, typing S-C-f runs that command instead of performing a shift-selected version of C-f (forward-char). A mark set via mouse commands behaves the same as a mark set via shift-selection (see Setting Mark). For example, if you specify a region by dragging the mouse, you can continue to extend the region using shifted cursor motion commands. In either case, any unshifted cursor motion command deactivates the mark. To turn off shift-selection, set shift-select-mode to nil. Doing so does not disable setting the mark via mouse commands. Previous: Shift Selection, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 11.7 Disabling Transient Mark Mode The default behavior of the mark and region, in which setting the mark activates it and highlights the region, is called Transient Mark mode. This is a minor mode that is enabled by default. It can be toggled with M-x transient-mark-mode, or with the ‘Highlight Active Region’ menu item in the ‘Options’ menu. Turning it off switches Emacs to an alternative mode of operation: * Setting the mark, with commands like C-SPC or C-x C-x, does not highlight the region. Therefore, you can’t tell by looking where the mark is located; you have to remember. The usual solution to this problem is to set the mark and then use it soon, before you forget where it is. You can also check where the mark is by using C-x C-x, which exchanges the positions of the point and the mark (see Setting Mark). * Some commands, which ordinarily act on the region when the mark is active, no longer do so. For example, normally M-% (query-replace) performs replacements within the region, if the mark is active. When Transient Mark mode is off, it always operates from point to the end of the buffer. Commands that act this way are identified in their own documentation. While Transient Mark mode is off, you can activate it temporarily using C-SPC C-SPC or C-u C-x C-x. C-SPC C-SPC Set the mark at point (like plain C-SPC) and enable Transient Mark mode just once, until the mark is deactivated. (This is not really a separate command; you are using the C-SPC command twice.) C-u C-x C-x Exchange point and mark, activate the mark and enable Transient Mark mode temporarily, until the mark is next deactivated. (This is the C-x C-x command, exchange-point-and-mark, with a prefix argument.) These commands set or activate the mark, and enable Transient Mark mode only until the mark is deactivated. One reason you may want to use them is that some commands operate on the entire buffer instead of the region when Transient Mark mode is off. Enabling Transient Mark mode momentarily gives you a way to use these commands on the region. When you specify a region with the mouse (see Setting Mark), or with shift-selection (see Shift Selection), this likewise activates Transient Mark mode temporarily and highlights the region. Previous: Shift Selection, Up: Mark [Contents][Index] Next: Yanking, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.1 Deletion and Killing Most commands which erase text from the buffer save it in the kill ring (see Kill Ring). These are known as kill commands, and their names normally contain the word ‘kill’ (e.g., kill-line). The kill ring stores several recent kills, not just the last one, so killing is a very safe operation: you don’t have to worry much about losing text that you previously killed. The kill ring is shared by all buffers, so text that is killed in one buffer can be yanked into another buffer. When you use C-/ (undo) to undo a kill command (see Undo), that brings the killed text back into the buffer, but does not remove it from the kill ring. On graphical displays, killing text also copies it to the system clipboard. See Cut and Paste. Commands that erase text but do not save it in the kill ring are known as delete commands; their names usually contain the word ‘delete’. These include C-d (delete-char) and DEL (delete-backward-char), which delete only one character at a time, and those commands that delete only spaces or newlines. Commands that can erase significant amounts of nontrivial data generally do a kill operation instead. You can also use the mouse to kill and yank. See Cut and Paste. • Deletion Commands for deleting small amounts of text and blank areas. • Killing by Lines How to kill entire lines of text at one time. • Other Kill Commands Commands to kill large regions of text and syntactic units such as words and sentences. • Kill Options Options that affect killing. Next: Yanking, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] Next: Cut and Paste, Previous: Deletion and Killing, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.2 Yanking Yanking means reinserting text previously killed. The usual way to move or copy text is to kill it and then yank it elsewhere. C-y Yank the last kill into the buffer, at point (yank). M-y Replace the text just yanked with an earlier batch of killed text (yank-pop). See Earlier Kills. C-M-w Cause the following command, if it is a kill command, to append to the previous kill (append-next-kill). See Appending Kills. The basic yanking command is C-y (yank). It inserts the most recent kill, leaving the cursor at the end of the inserted text. It also sets the mark at the beginning of the inserted text, without activating the mark; this lets you jump easily to that position, if you wish, with C-u C-SPC (see Mark Ring). With a plain prefix argument (C-u C-y), the command instead leaves the cursor in front of the inserted text, and sets the mark at the end. Using any other prefix argument specifies an earlier kill; e.g., C-u 4 C-y reinserts the fourth most recent kill. See Earlier Kills. On graphical displays, C-y first checks if another application has placed any text in the system clipboard more recently than the last Emacs kill. If so, it inserts the clipboard’s text instead. Thus, Emacs effectively treats “cut” or “copy” clipboard operations performed in other applications like Emacs kills, except that they are not recorded in the kill ring. See Cut and Paste, for details. • Kill Ring Where killed text is stored. • Earlier Kills Yanking something killed some time ago. • Appending Kills Several kills in a row all yank together. Next: Cut and Paste, Previous: Deletion and Killing, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] Next: Accumulating Text, Previous: Yanking, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.3 “Cut and Paste” Operations on Graphical Displays In most graphical desktop environments, you can transfer data (usually text) between different applications using a system facility called the clipboard. On X, two other similar facilities are available: the primary selection and the secondary selection. When Emacs is run on a graphical display, its kill and yank commands integrate with these facilities, so that you can easily transfer text between Emacs and other graphical applications. By default, Emacs uses UTF-8 as the coding system for inter-program text transfers. If you find that the pasted text is not what you expected, you can specify another coding system by typing C-x RET x or C-x RET X. You can also request a different data type by customizing x-select-request-type. See Communication Coding. • Clipboard How Emacs uses the system clipboard. • Primary Selection The temporarily selected text selection. • Secondary Selection Cutting without altering point and mark. Next: Rectangles, Previous: Cut and Paste, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.4 Accumulating Text Usually we copy or move text by killing it and yanking it, but there are other convenient methods for copying one block of text in many places, or for copying many scattered blocks of text into one place. Here we describe the commands to accumulate scattered pieces of text into a buffer or into a file. M-x append-to-buffer Append region to the contents of a specified buffer. M-x prepend-to-buffer Prepend region to the contents of a specified buffer. M-x copy-to-buffer Copy region into a specified buffer, deleting that buffer’s old contents. M-x insert-buffer Insert the contents of a specified buffer into current buffer at point. M-x append-to-file Append region to the contents of a specified file, at the end. To accumulate text into a buffer, use M-x append-to-buffer. This reads a buffer name, then inserts a copy of the region into the buffer specified. If you specify a nonexistent buffer, append-to-buffer creates the buffer. The text is inserted wherever point is in that buffer. If you have been using the buffer for editing, the copied text goes into the middle of the text of the buffer, starting from wherever point happens to be at that moment. Point in that buffer is left at the end of the copied text, so successive uses of append-to-buffer accumulate the text in the specified buffer in the same order as they were copied. Strictly speaking, append-to-buffer does not always append to the text already in the buffer—it appends only if point in that buffer is at the end. However, if append-to-buffer is the only command you use to alter a buffer, then point is always at the end. M-x prepend-to-buffer is just like append-to-buffer except that point in the other buffer is left before the copied text, so successive uses of this command add text in reverse order. M-x copy-to-buffer is similar, except that any existing text in the other buffer is deleted, so the buffer is left containing just the text newly copied into it. The command M-x insert-buffer can be used to retrieve the accumulated text from another buffer. This prompts for the name of a buffer, and inserts a copy of all the text in that buffer into the current buffer at point, leaving point at the beginning of the inserted text. It also adds the position of the end of the inserted text to the mark ring, without activating the mark. See Buffers, for background information on buffers. Instead of accumulating text in a buffer, you can append text directly into a file with M-x append-to-file. This prompts for a filename, and adds the text of the region to the end of the specified file. The file is changed immediately on disk. You should use append-to-file only with files that are not being visited in Emacs. Using it on a file that you are editing in Emacs would change the file behind Emacs’s back, which can lead to losing some of your editing. Another way to move text around is to store it in a register. See Registers. Next: Rectangles, Previous: Cut and Paste, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] Next: CUA Bindings, Previous: Accumulating Text, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.5 Rectangles Rectangle commands operate on rectangular areas of the text: all the characters between a certain pair of columns, in a certain range of lines. Emacs has commands to kill rectangles, yank killed rectangles, clear them out, fill them with blanks or text, or delete them. Rectangle commands are useful with text in multicolumn formats, and for changing text into or out of such formats. To specify a rectangle for a command to work on, set the mark at one corner and point at the opposite corner. The rectangle thus specified is called the region-rectangle. If point and the mark are in the same column, the region-rectangle is empty. If they are in the same line, the region-rectangle is one line high. The region-rectangle is controlled in much the same way as the region is controlled. But remember that a given combination of point and mark values can be interpreted either as a region or as a rectangle, depending on the command that uses them. A rectangular region can also be marked using the mouse: click and drag C-M-mouse-1 from one corner of the rectangle to the opposite. C-x r k Kill the text of the region-rectangle, saving its contents as the last killed rectangle (kill-rectangle). C-x r M-w Save the text of the region-rectangle as the last killed rectangle (copy-rectangle-as-kill). C-x r d Delete the text of the region-rectangle (delete-rectangle). C-x r y Yank the last killed rectangle with its upper left corner at point (yank-rectangle). C-x r o Insert blank space to fill the space of the region-rectangle (open-rectangle). This pushes the previous contents of the region-rectangle to the right. C-x r N Insert line numbers along the left edge of the region-rectangle (rectangle-number-lines). This pushes the previous contents of the region-rectangle to the right. C-x r c Clear the region-rectangle by replacing all of its contents with spaces (clear-rectangle). M-x delete-whitespace-rectangle Delete whitespace in each of the lines on the specified rectangle, starting from the left edge column of the rectangle. C-x r t string RET Replace rectangle contents with string on each line (string-rectangle). M-x string-insert-rectangle RET string RET Insert string on each line of the rectangle. C-x SPC Toggle Rectangle Mark mode (rectangle-mark-mode). When this mode is active, the region-rectangle is highlighted and can be shrunk/grown, and the standard kill and yank commands operate on it. The rectangle operations fall into two classes: commands to erase or insert rectangles, and commands to make blank rectangles. There are two ways to erase the text in a rectangle: C-x r d (delete-rectangle) to delete the text outright, or C-x r k (kill-rectangle) to remove the text and save it as the last killed rectangle. In both cases, erasing the region-rectangle is like erasing the specified text on each line of the rectangle; if there is any following text on the line, it moves backwards to fill the gap. Killing a rectangle is not killing in the usual sense; the rectangle is not stored in the kill ring, but in a special place that only records the most recent rectangle killed. This is because yanking a rectangle is so different from yanking linear text that different yank commands have to be used. Yank-popping is not defined for rectangles. C-x r M-w (copy-rectangle-as-kill) is the equivalent of M-w for rectangles: it records the rectangle as the last killed rectangle, without deleting the text from the buffer. To yank the last killed rectangle, type C-x r y (yank-rectangle). The rectangle’s first line is inserted at point, the rectangle’s second line is inserted at the same horizontal position one line vertically below, and so on. The number of lines affected is determined by the height of the saved rectangle. For example, you can convert two single-column lists into a double-column list by killing one of the single-column lists as a rectangle, and then yanking it beside the other list. You can also copy rectangles into and out of registers with C-x r r r and C-x r i r. See Rectangle Registers. There are two commands you can use for making blank rectangles: C-x r c (clear-rectangle) blanks out existing text in the region-rectangle, and C-x r o (open-rectangle) inserts a blank rectangle. M-x delete-whitespace-rectangle deletes horizontal whitespace starting from a particular column. This applies to each of the lines in the rectangle, and the column is specified by the left edge of the rectangle. The right edge of the rectangle does not make any difference to this command. The command C-x r N (rectangle-number-lines) inserts line numbers along the left edge of the region-rectangle. Normally, the numbering begins from 1 (for the first line of the rectangle). With a prefix argument, the command prompts for a number to begin from, and for a format string with which to print the numbers (see Formatting Strings in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). The command C-x r t (string-rectangle) replaces the contents of a region-rectangle with a string on each line. The string’s width need not be the same as the width of the rectangle. If the string’s width is less, the text after the rectangle shifts left; if the string is wider than the rectangle, the text after the rectangle shifts right. The command M-x string-insert-rectangle is similar to string-rectangle, but inserts the string on each line, shifting the original text to the right. The command C-x SPC (rectangle-mark-mode) toggles whether the region-rectangle or the standard region is highlighted (first activating the region if necessary). When this mode is enabled, commands that resize the region (C-f, C-n etc.) do so in a rectangular fashion, and killing and yanking operate on the rectangle. See Killing. The mode persists only as long as the region is active. Unlike the standard region, the region-rectangle can have its corners extended past the end of buffer, or inside stretches of white space that point normally cannot enter, like in the middle of a TAB character. When the region is in rectangle-mark-mode, C-x C-x runs the command rectangle-exchange-point-and-mark, which cycles between the four corners of the region-rectangle. This comes in handy if you want to modify the dimensions of the region-rectangle before invoking an operation on the marked text. Next: CUA Bindings, Previous: Accumulating Text, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] Previous: Rectangles, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.6 CUA Bindings The command M-x cua-mode sets up key bindings that are compatible with the Common User Access (CUA) system used in many other applications. When CUA mode is enabled, the keys C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z invoke commands that cut (kill), copy, paste (yank), and undo respectively. The C-x and C-c keys perform cut and copy only if the region is active. Otherwise, they still act as prefix keys, so that standard Emacs commands like C-x C-c still work. Note that this means the variable mark-even-if-inactive has no effect for C-x and C-c (see Using Region). To enter an Emacs command like C-x C-f while the mark is active, use one of the following methods: either hold Shift together with the prefix key, e.g., S-C-x C-f, or quickly type the prefix key twice, e.g., C-x C-x C-f. To disable the overriding of standard Emacs binding by CUA mode, while retaining the other features of CUA mode described below, set the variable cua-enable-cua-keys to nil. CUA mode by default activates Delete-Selection mode (see Mouse Commands) so that typed text replaces the active region. To use CUA without this behavior, set the variable cua-delete-selection to nil. CUA mode provides enhanced rectangle support with visible rectangle highlighting. Use C-RET to start a rectangle, extend it using the movement commands, and cut or copy it using C-x or C-c. RET moves the cursor to the next (clockwise) corner of the rectangle, so you can easily expand it in any direction. Normal text you type is inserted to the left or right of each line in the rectangle (on the same side as the cursor). You can use this rectangle support without activating CUA by calling the cua-rectangle-mark-mode command. There’s also the standard command rectangle-mark-mode, see Rectangles. With CUA you can easily copy text and rectangles into and out of registers by providing a one-digit numeric prefix to the kill, copy, and yank commands, e.g., C-1 C-c copies the region into register 1, and C-2 C-v yanks the contents of register 2. CUA mode also has a global mark feature which allows easy moving and copying of text between buffers. Use C-S-SPC to toggle the global mark on and off. When the global mark is on, all text that you kill or copy is automatically inserted at the global mark, and text you type is inserted at the global mark rather than at the current position. For example, to copy words from various buffers into a word list in a given buffer, set the global mark in the target buffer, then navigate to each of the words you want in the list, mark it (e.g., with S-M-f), copy it to the list with C-c or M-w, and insert a newline after the word in the target list by pressing RET. -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Rectangles, Up: Killing [Contents][Index] Next: Killing by Lines, Up: Deletion and Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.1.1 Deletion Deletion means erasing text and not saving it in the kill ring. For the most part, the Emacs commands that delete text are those that erase just one character or only whitespace. DEL BACKSPACE Delete the previous character, or the text in the region if it is active (delete-backward-char). Delete Delete the next character, or the text in the region if it is active (delete-forward-char). C-d Delete the next character (delete-char). M-\ Delete spaces and tabs around point (delete-horizontal-space). M-SPC Delete spaces and tabs around point, leaving one space (just-one-space). C-x C-o Delete blank lines around the current line (delete-blank-lines). M-^ Join two lines by deleting the intervening newline, along with any indentation following it (delete-indentation). We have already described the basic deletion commands DEL (delete-backward-char), delete (delete-forward-char), and C-d (delete-char). See Erasing. With a numeric argument, they delete the specified number of characters. If the numeric argument is omitted or one, DEL and delete delete all the text in the region if it is active (see Using Region). The other delete commands are those that delete only whitespace characters: spaces, tabs and newlines. M-\ (delete-horizontal-space) deletes all the spaces and tab characters before and after point. With a prefix argument, this only deletes spaces and tab characters before point. M-SPC (just-one-space) does likewise but leaves a single space before point, regardless of the number of spaces that existed previously (even if there were none before). With a numeric argument n, it leaves n spaces before point if n is positive; if n is negative, it deletes newlines in addition to spaces and tabs, leaving -n spaces before point. The command cycle-spacing acts like a more flexible version of just-one-space. It does different things if you call it repeatedly in succession. The first call acts like just-one-space, the next removes all whitespace, and a third call restores the original whitespace. C-x C-o (delete-blank-lines) deletes all blank lines after the current line. If the current line is blank, it deletes all blank lines preceding the current line as well (leaving one blank line, the current line). On a solitary blank line, it deletes that line. M-^ (delete-indentation) joins the current line and the previous line, by deleting a newline and all surrounding spaces, usually leaving a single space. See M-^. The command delete-duplicate-lines searches the region for identical lines, and removes all but one copy of each. Normally it keeps the first instance of each repeated line, but with a C-u prefix argument it keeps the last. With a C-u C-u prefix argument, it only searches for adjacent identical lines. This is a more efficient mode of operation, useful when the lines have already been sorted. With a C-u C-u C-u prefix argument, it retains repeated blank lines. Next: Killing by Lines, Up: Deletion and Killing [Contents][Index] Next: Other Kill Commands, Previous: Deletion, Up: Deletion and Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.1.2 Killing by Lines C-k Kill rest of line or one or more lines (kill-line). C-S-backspace Kill an entire line at once (kill-whole-line) The simplest kill command is C-k (kill-line). If used at the end of a line, it kills the line-ending newline character, merging the next line into the current one (thus, a blank line is entirely removed). Otherwise, C-k kills all the text from point up to the end of the line; if point was originally at the beginning of the line, this leaves the line blank. Spaces and tabs at the end of the line are ignored when deciding which case applies. As long as point is after the last non-whitespace character in the line, you can be sure that C-k will kill the newline. To kill an entire non-blank line, go to the beginning and type C-k twice. In this context, “line” means a logical text line, not a screen line (see Continuation Lines). When C-k is given a positive argument n, it kills n lines and the newlines that follow them (text on the current line before point is not killed). With a negative argument -n, it kills n lines preceding the current line, together with the text on the current line before point. C-k with an argument of zero kills the text before point on the current line. If the variable kill-whole-line is non-nil, C-k at the very beginning of a line kills the entire line including the following newline. This variable is normally nil. C-S-backspace (kill-whole-line) kills a whole line including its newline, regardless of the position of point within the line. Note that many text terminals will prevent you from typing the key sequence C-S-backspace. Next: Other Kill Commands, Previous: Deletion, Up: Deletion and Killing [Contents][Index] Next: Kill Options, Previous: Killing by Lines, Up: Deletion and Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.1.3 Other Kill Commands C-w Kill the region (kill-region). M-w Copy the region into the kill ring (kill-ring-save). M-d Kill the next word (kill-word). See Words. M-DEL Kill one word backwards (backward-kill-word). C-x DEL Kill back to beginning of sentence (backward-kill-sentence). See Sentences. M-k Kill to the end of the sentence (kill-sentence). C-M-k Kill the following balanced expression (kill-sexp). See Expressions. M-z char Kill through the next occurrence of char (zap-to-char). M-x zap-up-to-char char Kill up to, but not including, the next occurrence of char. One of the commonly-used kill commands is C-w (kill-region), which kills the text in the region (see Mark). Similarly, M-w (kill-ring-save) copies the text in the region into the kill ring without removing it from the buffer. If the mark is inactive when you type C-w or M-w, the command acts on the text between point and where you last set the mark (see Using Region). Emacs also provides commands to kill specific syntactic units: words, with M-DEL and M-d (see Words); balanced expressions, with C-M-k (see Expressions); and sentences, with C-x DEL and M-k (see Sentences). The command M-z (zap-to-char) combines killing with searching: it reads a character and kills from point up to (and including) the next occurrence of that character in the buffer. A numeric argument acts as a repeat count; a negative argument means to search backward and kill text before point. A history of previously used characters is maintained and can be accessed via the M-p/M-n keystrokes. This is mainly useful if the character to be used has to be entered via a complicated input method. A similar command zap-up-to-char kills from point up to, but not including the next occurrence of a character, with numeric argument acting as a repeat count. Next: Kill Options, Previous: Killing by Lines, Up: Deletion and Killing [Contents][Index] Previous: Other Kill Commands, Up: Deletion and Killing [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.1.4 Options for Killing Some specialized buffers contain read-only text, which cannot be modified and therefore cannot be killed. The kill commands work specially in a read-only buffer: they move over text and copy it to the kill ring, without actually deleting it from the buffer. Normally, they also beep and display an error message when this happens. But if you set the variable kill-read-only-ok to a non-nil value, they just print a message in the echo area to explain why the text has not been erased. If you change the variable kill-do-not-save-duplicates to a non-nil value, identical subsequent kills yield a single kill-ring entry, without duplication. Next: Earlier Kills, Up: Yanking [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.2.1 The Kill Ring The kill ring is a list of blocks of text that were previously killed. There is only one kill ring, shared by all buffers, so you can kill text in one buffer and yank it in another buffer. This is the usual way to move text from one buffer to another. (There are several other methods: for instance, you could store the text in a register; see Registers. See Accumulating Text, for some other ways to move text around.) The maximum number of entries in the kill ring is controlled by the variable kill-ring-max. The default is 60. If you make a new kill when this limit has been reached, Emacs makes room by deleting the oldest entry in the kill ring. The actual contents of the kill ring are stored in a variable named kill-ring; you can view the entire contents of the kill ring with C-h v kill-ring. Next: Appending Kills, Previous: Kill Ring, Up: Yanking [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.2.2 Yanking Earlier Kills As explained in Yanking, you can use a numeric argument to C-y to yank text that is no longer the most recent kill. This is useful if you remember which kill ring entry you want. If you don’t, you can use the M-y (yank-pop) command to cycle through the possibilities. If the previous command was a yank command, M-y takes the text that was yanked and replaces it with the text from an earlier kill. So, to recover the text of the next-to-the-last kill, first use C-y to yank the last kill, and then use M-y to replace it with the previous kill. M-y is allowed only after a C-y or another M-y. You can understand M-y in terms of a last-yank pointer which points at an entry in the kill ring. Each time you kill, the last-yank pointer moves to the newly made entry at the front of the ring. C-y yanks the entry which the last-yank pointer points to. M-y moves the last-yank pointer to a different entry, and the text in the buffer changes to match. Enough M-y commands can move the pointer to any entry in the ring, so you can get any entry into the buffer. Eventually the pointer reaches the end of the ring; the next M-y loops back around to the first entry again. M-y moves the last-yank pointer around the ring, but it does not change the order of the entries in the ring, which always runs from the most recent kill at the front to the oldest one still remembered. M-y can take a numeric argument, which tells it how many entries to advance the last-yank pointer by. A negative argument moves the pointer toward the front of the ring; from the front of the ring, it moves around to the last entry and continues forward from there. Once the text you are looking for is brought into the buffer, you can stop doing M-y commands and it will stay there. It’s just a copy of the kill ring entry, so editing it in the buffer does not change what’s in the ring. As long as no new killing is done, the last-yank pointer remains at the same place in the kill ring, so repeating C-y will yank another copy of the same previous kill. When you call C-y with a numeric argument, that also sets the last-yank pointer to the entry that it yanks. Next: Appending Kills, Previous: Kill Ring, Up: Yanking [Contents][Index] Previous: Earlier Kills, Up: Yanking [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.2.3 Appending Kills Normally, each kill command pushes a new entry onto the kill ring. However, two or more kill commands in a row combine their text into a single entry, so that a single C-y yanks all the text as a unit, just as it was before it was killed. Thus, if you want to yank text as a unit, you need not kill all of it with one command; you can keep killing line after line, or word after word, until you have killed it all, and you can still get it all back at once. Commands that kill forward from point add onto the end of the previous killed text. Commands that kill backward from point add text onto the beginning. This way, any sequence of mixed forward and backward kill commands puts all the killed text into one entry without rearrangement. Numeric arguments do not break the sequence of appending kills. For example, suppose the buffer contains this text: This is a line ∗of sample text. with point shown by ∗. If you type M-d M-DEL M-d M-DEL, killing alternately forward and backward, you end up with ‘a line of sample’ as one entry in the kill ring, and ‘This is text.’ in the buffer. (Note the double space between ‘is’ and ‘text’, which you can clean up with M-SPC or M-q.) Another way to kill the same text is to move back two words with M-b M-b, then kill all four words forward with C-u M-d. This produces exactly the same results in the buffer and in the kill ring. M-f M-f C-u M-DEL kills the same text, all going backward; once again, the result is the same. The text in the kill ring entry always has the same order that it had in the buffer before you killed it. If a kill command is separated from the last kill command by other commands (not just numeric arguments), it starts a new entry on the kill ring. But you can force it to combine with the last killed text, by typing C-M-w (append-next-kill) right beforehand. The C-M-w tells its following command, if it is a kill command, to treat the kill as part of the sequence of previous kills. As usual, the kill is appended to the previous killed text if the command kills forward, and prepended if the command kills backward. In this way, you can kill several separated pieces of text and accumulate them to be yanked back in one place. A kill command following M-w (kill-ring-save) does not append to the text that M-w copied into the kill ring. Previous: Earlier Kills, Up: Yanking [Contents][Index] Next: Primary Selection, Up: Cut and Paste [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.3.1 Using the Clipboard The clipboard is the facility that most graphical applications use for “cutting and pasting”. When the clipboard exists, the kill and yank commands in Emacs make use of it. When you kill some text with a command such as C-w (kill-region), or copy it to the kill ring with a command such as M-w (kill-ring-save), that text is also put in the clipboard. When an Emacs kill command puts text in the clipboard, the existing clipboard contents are normally lost. Optionally, you can change save-interprogram-paste-before-kill to t. Then Emacs will first save the clipboard to its kill ring, preventing you from losing the old clipboard data—at the risk of high memory consumption if that data turns out to be large. Yank commands, such as C-y (yank), also use the clipboard. If another application “owns” the clipboard—i.e., if you cut or copied text there more recently than your last kill command in Emacs—then Emacs yanks from the clipboard instead of the kill ring. Normally, rotating the kill ring with M-y (yank-pop) does not alter the clipboard. However, if you change yank-pop-change-selection to t, then M-y saves the new yank to the clipboard. To prevent kill and yank commands from accessing the clipboard, change the variable select-enable-clipboard to nil. Many X desktop environments support a feature called the clipboard manager. If you exit Emacs while it is the current “owner” of the clipboard data, and there is a clipboard manager running, Emacs transfers the clipboard data to the clipboard manager so that it is not lost. In some circumstances, this may cause a delay when exiting Emacs; if you wish to prevent Emacs from transferring data to the clipboard manager, change the variable x-select-enable-clipboard-manager to nil. Since strings containing NUL bytes are usually truncated when passed through the clipboard, Emacs replaces such characters with “\0” before transferring them to the system’s clipboard. Prior to Emacs 24, the kill and yank commands used the primary selection (see Primary Selection), not the clipboard. If you prefer this behavior, change select-enable-clipboard to nil, select-enable-primary to t, and mouse-drag-copy-region to t. In this case, you can use the following commands to act explicitly on the clipboard: clipboard-kill-region kills the region and saves it to the clipboard; clipboard-kill-ring-save copies the region to the kill ring and saves it to the clipboard; and clipboard-yank yanks the contents of the clipboard at point. Next: Primary Selection, Up: Cut and Paste [Contents][Index] Next: Secondary Selection, Previous: Clipboard, Up: Cut and Paste [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.3.2 Cut and Paste with Other Window Applications Under the X Window System, there exists a primary selection containing the last stretch of text selected in an X application (usually by dragging the mouse). Typically, this text can be inserted into other X applications by mouse-2 clicks. The primary selection is separate from the clipboard. Its contents are more fragile; they are overwritten each time you select text with the mouse, whereas the clipboard is only overwritten by explicit cut or copy commands. Under X, whenever the region is active (see Mark), the text in the region is saved in the primary selection. This applies regardless of whether the region was made by dragging or clicking the mouse (see Mouse Commands), or by keyboard commands (e.g., by typing C-SPC and moving point; see Setting Mark). If you change the variable select-active-regions to only, Emacs saves only temporarily active regions to the primary selection, i.e., those made with the mouse or with shift selection (see Shift Selection). If you change select-active-regions to nil, Emacs avoids saving active regions to the primary selection entirely. To insert the primary selection into an Emacs buffer, click mouse-2 (mouse-yank-primary) where you want to insert it. See Mouse Commands. MS-Windows provides no primary selection, but Emacs emulates it within a single Emacs session by storing the selected text internally. Therefore, all the features and commands related to the primary selection work on Windows as they do on X, for cutting and pasting within the same session, but not across Emacs sessions or with other applications. Next: Secondary Selection, Previous: Clipboard, Up: Cut and Paste [Contents][Index] Previous: Primary Selection, Up: Cut and Paste [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 12.3.3 Secondary Selection In addition to the primary selection, the X Window System provides a second similar facility known as the secondary selection. Nowadays, few X applications make use of the secondary selection, but you can access it using the following Emacs commands: M-Drag-mouse-1 Set the secondary selection, with one end at the place where you press down the button, and the other end at the place where you release it (mouse-set-secondary). The selected text is highlighted, using the secondary-selection face, as you drag. The window scrolls automatically if you drag the mouse off the top or bottom of the window, just like mouse-set-region (see Mouse Commands). This command does not alter the kill ring. M-mouse-1 Set one endpoint for the secondary selection (mouse-start-secondary); use M-mouse-3 to set the other end and complete the selection. This command cancels any existing secondary selection, when it starts a new one. M-mouse-3 Set the secondary selection (mouse-secondary-save-then-kill), with one end at the position you click M-mouse-3, and the other at the position specified previously with M-mouse-1. This also puts the selected text in the kill ring. A second M-mouse-3 at the same place kills the text selected by the secondary selection just made. M-mouse-2 Insert the secondary selection where you click, placing point at the end of the yanked text (mouse-yank-secondary). Double or triple clicking of M-mouse-1 operates on words and lines, much like mouse-1. If mouse-yank-at-point is non-nil, M-mouse-2 yanks at point. Then it does not matter precisely where you click, or even which of the frame’s windows you click on. See Mouse Commands. Previous: Primary Selection, Up: Cut and Paste [Contents][Index] Next: Text Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.1 Saving Positions in Registers C-x r SPC r Record the position of point and the current buffer in register r (point-to-register). C-x r j r Jump to the position and buffer saved in register r (jump-to-register). Typing C-x r SPC (point-to-register), followed by a character r, saves both the position of point and the current buffer in register r. The register retains this information until you store something else in it. The command C-x r j r switches to the buffer recorded in register r, pushes a mark, and moves point to the recorded position. (The mark is not pushed if point was already at the recorded position, or in successive calls to the command.) The contents of the register are not changed, so you can jump to the saved position any number of times. If you use C-x r j to go to a saved position, but the buffer it was saved from has been killed, C-x r j tries to create the buffer again by visiting the same file. Of course, this works only for buffers that were visiting files. Next: Rectangle Registers, Previous: Position Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.2 Saving Text in Registers When you want to insert a copy of the same piece of text several times, it may be inconvenient to yank it from the kill ring, since each subsequent kill moves that entry further down the ring. An alternative is to store the text in a register and later retrieve it. C-x r s r Copy region into register r (copy-to-register). C-x r i r Insert text from register r (insert-register). M-x append-to-register RET r Append region to text in register r. When register r contains text, you can use C-x r + (increment-register) to append to that register. Note that command C-x r + behaves differently if r contains a number. See Number Registers. M-x prepend-to-register RET r Prepend region to text in register r. C-x r s r stores a copy of the text of the region into the register named r. If the mark is inactive, Emacs first reactivates the mark where it was last set. The mark is deactivated at the end of this command. See Mark. C-u C-x r s r, the same command with a prefix argument, copies the text into register r and deletes the text from the buffer as well; you can think of this as moving the region text into the register. M-x append-to-register RET r appends the copy of the text in the region to the text already stored in the register named r. If invoked with a prefix argument, it deletes the region after appending it to the register. The command prepend-to-register is similar, except that it prepends the region text to the text in the register instead of appending it. When you are collecting text using append-to-register and prepend-to-register, you may want to separate individual collected pieces using a separator. In that case, configure a register-separator and store the separator text in to that register. For example, to get double newlines as text separator during the collection process, you can use the following setting. (setq register-separator ?+) (set-register register-separator "\n\n") C-x r i r inserts in the buffer the text from register r. Normally it leaves point after the text and sets the mark before, without activating it. With a prefix argument, it instead puts point before the text and the mark after. Next: Rectangle Registers, Previous: Position Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] Next: Configuration Registers, Previous: Text Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.3 Saving Rectangles in Registers A register can contain a rectangle instead of linear text. See Rectangles, for basic information on how to specify a rectangle in the buffer. C-x r r r Copy the region-rectangle into register r (copy-rectangle-to-register). With prefix argument, delete it as well. C-x r i r Insert the rectangle stored in register r (if it contains a rectangle) (insert-register). The C-x r i r (insert-register) command, previously documented in Text Registers, inserts a rectangle rather than a text string, if the register contains a rectangle. Next: Number Registers, Previous: Rectangle Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.4 Saving Window Configurations in Registers You can save the window configuration of the selected frame in a register, or even the configuration of all windows in all frames, and restore the configuration later. See Windows, for information about window configurations. C-x r w r Save the state of the selected frame’s windows in register r (window-configuration-to-register). C-x r f r Save the state of all frames, including all their windows, in register r (frameset-to-register). Use C-x r j r to restore a window or frame configuration. This is the same command used to restore a cursor position. When you restore a frame configuration, any existing frames not included in the configuration become invisible. If you wish to delete these frames instead, use C-u C-x r j r. Next: File Registers, Previous: Configuration Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.5 Keeping Numbers in Registers There are commands to store a number in a register, to insert the number in the buffer in decimal, and to increment it. These commands can be useful in keyboard macros (see Keyboard Macros). C-u number C-x r n r Store number into register r (number-to-register). C-u number C-x r + r If r contains a number, increment the number in that register by number. Note that command C-x r + (increment-register) behaves differently if r contains text. See Text Registers. C-x r i r Insert the number from register r into the buffer. C-x r i is the same command used to insert any other sort of register contents into the buffer. C-x r + with no numeric argument increments the register value by 1; C-x r n with no numeric argument stores zero in the register. Next: Keyboard Macro Registers, Previous: Number Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.6 Keeping File Names in Registers If you visit certain file names frequently, you can visit them more conveniently if you put their names in registers. Here’s the Lisp code used to put a file name into register r: (set-register r '(file . name)) For example, (set-register ?z '(file . "/gd/gnu/emacs/19.0/src/ChangeLog")) puts the file name shown in register ‘z’. To visit the file whose name is in register r, type C-x r j r. (This is the same command used to jump to a position or restore a frame configuration.) Next: Bookmarks, Previous: File Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.7 Keyboard Macro Registers If you need to execute a keyboard macro (see Keyboard Macros) frequently, it is more convenient to put it in a register or save it (see Save Keyboard Macro). C-x C-k x r (kmacro-to-register) stores the last keyboard macro in register r. To execute the keyboard macro in register r, type C-x r j r. (This is the same command used to jump to a position or restore a frameset.) Previous: Keyboard Macro Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 13.8 Bookmarks Bookmarks are somewhat like registers in that they record positions you can jump to. Unlike registers, they have long names, and they persist automatically from one Emacs session to the next. The prototypical use of bookmarks is to record where you were reading in various files. C-x r m RET Set the bookmark for the visited file, at point. C-x r m bookmark RET Set the bookmark named bookmark at point (bookmark-set). C-x r M bookmark RET Like C-x r m, but don’t overwrite an existing bookmark. C-x r b bookmark RET Jump to the bookmark named bookmark (bookmark-jump). C-x r l List all bookmarks (list-bookmarks). M-x bookmark-save Save all the current bookmark values in the default bookmark file. To record the current position in the visited file, use the command C-x r m, which sets a bookmark using the visited file name as the default for the bookmark name. If you name each bookmark after the file it points to, then you can conveniently revisit any of those files with C-x r b, and move to the position of the bookmark at the same time. The command C-x r M (bookmark-set-no-overwrite) works like C-x r m, but it signals an error if the specified bookmark already exists, instead of overwriting it. To display a list of all your bookmarks in a separate buffer, type C-x r l (list-bookmarks). If you switch to that buffer, you can use it to edit your bookmark definitions or annotate the bookmarks. Type C-h m in the bookmark buffer for more information about its special editing commands. When you kill Emacs, Emacs saves your bookmarks, if you have changed any bookmark values. You can also save the bookmarks at any time with the M-x bookmark-save command. Bookmarks are saved to the file ~/.emacs.d/bookmarks (for compatibility with older versions of Emacs, if you have a file named ~/.emacs.bmk, that is used instead). The bookmark commands load your default bookmark file automatically. This saving and loading is how bookmarks persist from one Emacs session to the next. If you set the variable bookmark-save-flag to 1, each command that sets a bookmark will also save your bookmarks; this way, you don’t lose any bookmark values even if Emacs crashes. The value, if a number, says how many bookmark modifications should go by between saving. If you set this variable to nil, Emacs only saves bookmarks if you explicitly use M-x bookmark-save. The variable bookmark-default-file specifies the file in which to save bookmarks by default. If you set the variable bookmark-use-annotations to t, setting a bookmark will query for an annotation. If a bookmark has an annotation, it is automatically shown in a separate window when you jump to the bookmark. Bookmark position values are saved with surrounding context, so that bookmark-jump can find the proper position even if the file is modified slightly. The variable bookmark-search-size says how many characters of context to record on each side of the bookmark’s position. Here are some additional commands for working with bookmarks: M-x bookmark-load RET filename RET Load a file named filename that contains a list of bookmark values. You can use this command, as well as bookmark-write, to work with other files of bookmark values in addition to your default bookmark file. M-x bookmark-write RET filename RET Save all the current bookmark values in the file filename. M-x bookmark-delete RET bookmark RET Delete the bookmark named bookmark. M-x bookmark-insert-location RET bookmark RET Insert in the buffer the name of the file that bookmark bookmark points to. M-x bookmark-insert RET bookmark RET Insert in the buffer the contents of the file that bookmark bookmark points to. Previous: Keyboard Macro Registers, Up: Registers [Contents][Index] Next: Recentering, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.1 Scrolling If a window is too small to display all the text in its buffer, it displays only a portion of it. Scrolling commands change which portion of the buffer is displayed. Scrolling forward or up advances the portion of the buffer displayed in the window; equivalently, it moves the buffer text upwards relative to the window. Scrolling backward or down displays an earlier portion of the buffer, and moves the text downwards relative to the window. In Emacs, scrolling up or down refers to the direction that the text moves in the window, not the direction that the window moves relative to the text. This terminology was adopted by Emacs before the modern meaning of “scrolling up” and “scrolling down” became widespread. Hence, the strange result that PageDown scrolls up in the Emacs sense. The portion of a buffer displayed in a window always contains point. If you move point past the bottom or top of the window, scrolling occurs automatically to bring it back onscreen (see Auto Scrolling). You can also scroll explicitly with these commands: C-v PageDown next Scroll forward by nearly a full window (scroll-up-command). M-v PageUp prior Scroll backward (scroll-down-command). C-v (scroll-up-command) scrolls forward by nearly the whole window height. The effect is to take the two lines at the bottom of the window and put them at the top, followed by lines that were not previously visible. If point was in the text that scrolled off the top, it ends up on the window’s new topmost line. The PageDown (or next) key is equivalent to C-v. M-v (scroll-down-command) scrolls backward in a similar way. The PageUp (or prior) key is equivalent to M-v. The number of lines of overlap left by these scroll commands is controlled by the variable next-screen-context-lines, whose default value is 2. You can supply the commands with a numeric prefix argument, n, to scroll by n lines; Emacs attempts to leave point unchanged, so that the text and point move up or down together. C-v with a negative argument is like M-v and vice versa. By default, these commands signal an error (by beeping or flashing the screen) if no more scrolling is possible, because the window has reached the beginning or end of the buffer. If you change the variable scroll-error-top-bottom to t, these commands move point to the farthest possible position. If point is already there, the commands signal an error. Some users like scroll commands to keep point at the same screen position, so that scrolling back to the same screen conveniently returns point to its original position. You can enable this behavior via the variable scroll-preserve-screen-position. If the value is t, Emacs adjusts point to keep the cursor at the same screen position whenever a scroll command moves it off-window, rather than moving it to the topmost or bottommost line. With any other non-nil value, Emacs adjusts point this way even if the scroll command leaves point in the window. This variable affects all the scroll commands documented in this section, as well as scrolling with the mouse wheel (see Mouse Commands); in general, it affects any command that has a non-nil scroll-command property. See Property Lists in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Sometimes, particularly when you hold down keys such as C-v and M-v, activating keyboard auto-repeat, Emacs fails to keep up with the rapid rate of scrolling requested; the display doesn’t update and Emacs can become unresponsive to input for quite a long time. You can counter this sluggishness by setting the variable fast-but-imprecise-scrolling to a non-nil value. This instructs the scrolling commands not to fontify (see Font Lock) any unfontified text they scroll over, instead to assume it has the default face. This can cause Emacs to scroll to somewhat wrong buffer positions when the faces in use are not all the same size, even with single (i.e., without auto-repeat) scrolling operations. As an alternative to setting fast-but-imprecise-scrolling you might prefer to enable jit-lock deferred fontification (see Font Lock). To do this, customize jit-lock-defer-time to a small positive number such as 0.25, or even 0.1 if you type quickly. This gives you less jerky scrolling when you hold down C-v, but the window contents after any action which scrolls into a fresh portion of the buffer will be momentarily unfontified. The commands M-x scroll-up and M-x scroll-down behave similarly to scroll-up-command and scroll-down-command, except they do not obey scroll-error-top-bottom. Prior to Emacs 24, these were the default commands for scrolling up and down. The commands M-x scroll-up-line and M-x scroll-down-line scroll the current window by one line at a time. If you intend to use any of these commands, you might want to give them key bindings (see Init Rebinding). Next: Recentering, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Auto Scrolling, Previous: Scrolling, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.2 Recentering C-l Scroll the selected window so the current line is the center-most text line; on subsequent consecutive invocations, make the current line the top line, the bottom line, and so on in cyclic order. Possibly redisplay the screen too (recenter-top-bottom). M-x recenter Scroll the selected window so the current line is the center-most text line. Possibly redisplay the screen too. C-M-l Scroll heuristically to bring useful information onto the screen (reposition-window). The C-l (recenter-top-bottom) command recenters the selected window, scrolling it so that the current screen line is exactly in the center of the window, or as close to the center as possible. Typing C-l twice in a row (C-l C-l) scrolls the window so that point is on the topmost screen line. Typing a third C-l scrolls the window so that point is on the bottom-most screen line. Each successive C-l cycles through these three positions. You can change the cycling order by customizing the list variable recenter-positions. Each list element should be the symbol top, middle, or bottom, or a number; an integer means to move the line to the specified screen line, while a floating-point number between 0.0 and 1.0 specifies a percentage of the screen space from the top of the window. The default, (middle top bottom), is the cycling order described above. Furthermore, if you change the variable scroll-margin to a non-zero value n, C-l always leaves at least n screen lines between point and the top or bottom of the window (see Auto Scrolling). You can also give C-l a prefix argument. A plain prefix argument, C-u C-l, simply recenters the line showing point. A positive argument n moves line showing point n lines down from the top of the window. An argument of zero moves point’s line to the top of the window. A negative argument -n moves point’s line n lines from the bottom of the window. When given an argument, C-l does not clear the screen or cycle through different screen positions. If the variable recenter-redisplay has a non-nil value, each invocation of C-l also clears and redisplays the screen; the special value tty (the default) says to do this on text-terminal frames only. Redisplaying is useful in case the screen becomes garbled for any reason (see Screen Garbled). The more primitive command M-x recenter behaves like recenter-top-bottom, but does not cycle among screen positions. C-M-l (reposition-window) scrolls the current window heuristically in a way designed to get useful information onto the screen. For example, in a Lisp file, this command tries to get the entire current defun onto the screen if possible. Next: Auto Scrolling, Previous: Scrolling, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Horizontal Scrolling, Previous: Recentering, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.3 Automatic Scrolling Emacs performs automatic scrolling when point moves out of the visible portion of the text. Normally, automatic scrolling centers point vertically in the window, but there are several ways to alter this behavior. If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number n, then moving point just a little off the screen (no more than n lines) causes Emacs to scroll just enough to bring point back on screen; if doing so fails to make point visible, Emacs scrolls just far enough to center point in the window. If you set scroll-conservatively to a large number (larger than 100), automatic scrolling never centers point, no matter how far point moves; Emacs always scrolls text just enough to bring point into view, either at the top or bottom of the window depending on the scroll direction. By default, scroll-conservatively is 0, which means to always center point in the window. Another way to control automatic scrolling is to customize the variable scroll-step. Its value determines the number of lines by which to automatically scroll, when point moves off the screen. If scrolling by that number of lines fails to bring point back into view, point is centered instead. The default value is zero, which (by default) causes point to always be centered after scrolling. A third way to control automatic scrolling is to customize the variables scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively, which directly specify the vertical position of point after scrolling. The value of scroll-up-aggressively should be either nil (the default), or a floating point number f between 0 and 1. The latter means that when point goes below the bottom window edge (i.e., scrolling forward), Emacs scrolls the window so that point is f parts of the window height from the bottom window edge. Thus, larger f means more aggressive scrolling: more new text is brought into view. The default value, nil, is equivalent to 0.5. Likewise, scroll-down-aggressively is used when point goes above the top window edge (i.e., scrolling backward). The value specifies how far point should be from the top margin of the window after scrolling. Thus, as with scroll-up-aggressively, a larger value is more aggressive. Note that the variables scroll-conservatively, scroll-step, and scroll-up-aggressively / scroll-down-aggressively control automatic scrolling in contradictory ways. Therefore, you should pick no more than one of these methods to customize automatic scrolling. In case you customize multiple variables, the order of priority is: scroll-conservatively, then scroll-step, and finally scroll-up-aggressively / scroll-down-aggressively. The variable scroll-margin restricts how close point can come to the top or bottom of a window (even if aggressive scrolling specifies a fraction f that is larger than the window portion between the top and the bottom margins). Its value is a number of screen lines; if point comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs performs automatic scrolling. By default, scroll-margin is 0. The effective margin size is limited to a quarter of the window height by default, but this limit can be increased up to half (or decreased down to zero) by customizing maximum-scroll-margin. Next: Horizontal Scrolling, Previous: Recentering, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Narrowing, Previous: Auto Scrolling, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.4 Horizontal Scrolling Horizontal scrolling means shifting all the lines sideways within a window, so that some of the text near the left margin is not displayed. When the text in a window is scrolled horizontally, text lines are truncated rather than continued (see Line Truncation). If a window shows truncated lines, Emacs performs automatic horizontal scrolling whenever point moves off the left or right edge of the screen. By default, all the lines in the window are scrolled horizontally together, but if you set the variable auto-hscroll-mode to the special value of current-line, only the line showing the cursor will be scrolled. To disable automatic horizontal scrolling entirely, set the variable auto-hscroll-mode to nil. Note that when the automatic horizontal scrolling is turned off, if point moves off the edge of the screen, the cursor disappears to indicate that. (On text terminals, the cursor is left at the edge instead.) The variable hscroll-margin controls how close point can get to the window’s left and right edges before automatic scrolling occurs. It is measured in columns. For example, if the value is 5, then moving point within 5 columns of an edge causes horizontal scrolling away from that edge. The variable hscroll-step determines how many columns to scroll the window when point gets too close to the edge. Zero, the default value, means to center point horizontally within the window. A positive integer value specifies the number of columns to scroll by. A floating-point number (whose value should be between 0 and 1) specifies the fraction of the window’s width to scroll by. You can also perform explicit horizontal scrolling with the following commands: C-x < Scroll text in current window to the left (scroll-left). C-x > Scroll to the right (scroll-right). C-x < (scroll-left) scrolls text in the selected window to the left by the full width of the window, less two columns. (In other words, the text in the window moves left relative to the window.) With a numeric argument n, it scrolls by n columns. If the text is scrolled to the left, and point moves off the left edge of the window, the cursor will freeze at the left edge of the window, until point moves back to the displayed portion of the text. This is independent of the current setting of auto-hscroll-mode, which, for text scrolled to the left, only affects the behavior at the right edge of the window. C-x > (scroll-right) scrolls similarly to the right. The window cannot be scrolled any farther to the right once it is displayed normally, with each line starting at the window’s left margin; attempting to do so has no effect. This means that you don’t have to calculate the argument precisely for C-x >; any sufficiently large argument will restore the normal display. If you use those commands to scroll a window horizontally, that sets a lower bound for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will continue to scroll the window, but never farther to the right than the amount you previously set by scroll-left. When auto-hscroll-mode is set to current-line, all the lines other than the one showing the cursor will be scrolled by that minimal amount. Next: Narrowing, Previous: Auto Scrolling, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: View Mode, Previous: Horizontal Scrolling, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.5 Narrowing Narrowing means focusing in on some portion of the buffer, making the rest temporarily inaccessible. The portion which you can still get to is called the accessible portion. Canceling the narrowing, which makes the entire buffer once again accessible, is called widening. The bounds of narrowing in effect in a buffer are called the buffer’s restriction. Narrowing can make it easier to concentrate on a single subroutine or paragraph by eliminating clutter. It can also be used to limit the range of operation of a replace command or repeating keyboard macro. C-x n n Narrow down to between point and mark (narrow-to-region). C-x n w Widen to make the entire buffer accessible again (widen). C-x n p Narrow down to the current page (narrow-to-page). C-x n d Narrow down to the current defun (narrow-to-defun). When you have narrowed down to a part of the buffer, that part appears to be all there is. You can’t see the rest, you can’t move into it (motion commands won’t go outside the accessible part), you can’t change it in any way. However, it is not gone, and if you save the file all the inaccessible text will be saved. The word ‘Narrow’ appears in the mode line whenever narrowing is in effect. The primary narrowing command is C-x n n (narrow-to-region). It sets the current buffer’s restrictions so that the text in the current region remains accessible, but all text before the region or after the region is inaccessible. Point and mark do not change. Alternatively, use C-x n p (narrow-to-page) to narrow down to the current page. See Pages, for the definition of a page. C-x n d (narrow-to-defun) narrows down to the defun containing point (see Defuns). The way to cancel narrowing is to widen with C-x n w (widen). This makes all text in the buffer accessible again. You can get information on what part of the buffer you are narrowed down to using the C-x = command. See Position Info. Because narrowing can easily confuse users who do not understand it, narrow-to-region is normally a disabled command. Attempting to use this command asks for confirmation and gives you the option of enabling it; if you enable the command, confirmation will no longer be required for it. See Disabling. Next: View Mode, Previous: Horizontal Scrolling, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Follow Mode, Previous: Narrowing, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.6 View Mode View mode is a minor mode that lets you scan a buffer by sequential screenfuls. It provides commands for scrolling through the buffer conveniently but not for changing it. Apart from the usual Emacs cursor motion commands, you can type SPC to scroll forward one windowful, S-SPC or DEL to scroll backward, and s to start an incremental search. Typing q (View-quit) disables View mode, and switches back to the buffer and position before View mode was enabled. Typing e (View-exit) disables View mode, keeping the current buffer and position. M-x view-buffer prompts for an existing Emacs buffer, switches to it, and enables View mode. M-x view-file prompts for a file and visits it with View mode enabled. Next: Faces, Previous: View Mode, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.7 Follow Mode Follow mode is a minor mode that makes two windows, both showing the same buffer, scroll as a single tall virtual window. To use Follow mode, go to a frame with just one window, split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x follow-mode. From then on, you can edit the buffer in either of the two windows, or scroll either one; the other window follows it. In Follow mode, if you move point outside the portion visible in one window and into the portion visible in the other window, that selects the other window—again, treating the two as if they were parts of one large window. To turn off Follow mode, type M-x follow-mode a second time. Next: Colors, Previous: Follow Mode, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.8 Text Faces Emacs can display text in several different styles, called faces. Each face can specify various face attributes, such as the font, height, weight, slant, foreground and background color, and underlining or overlining. Most major modes assign faces to the text automatically, via Font Lock mode. See Font Lock, for more information about how these faces are assigned. To see what faces are currently defined, and what they look like, type M-x list-faces-display. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a regular expression, and displays only faces with names matching that regular expression (see Regexps). It’s possible for a given face to look different in different frames. For instance, some text terminals do not support all face attributes, particularly font, height, and width, and some support a limited range of colors. In addition, most Emacs faces are defined so that their attributes are different on light and dark frame backgrounds, for reasons of legibility. By default, Emacs automatically chooses which set of face attributes to display on each frame, based on the frame’s current background color. However, you can override this by giving the variable frame-background-mode a non-nil value. A value of dark makes Emacs treat all frames as if they have a dark background, whereas a value of light makes it treat all frames as if they have a light background. You can customize a face to alter its attributes, and save those customizations for future Emacs sessions. See Face Customization, for details. The default face is the default for displaying text, and all of its attributes are specified. Its background color is also used as the frame’s background color. See Colors. Another special face is the cursor face. On graphical displays, the background color of this face is used to draw the text cursor. None of the other attributes of this face have any effect; the foreground color for text under the cursor is taken from the background color of the underlying text. On text terminals, the appearance of the text cursor is determined by the terminal, not by the cursor face. You can also use X resources to specify attributes of any particular face. See Resources. Emacs can display variable-width fonts, but some Emacs commands, particularly indentation commands, do not account for variable character display widths. Therefore, we recommend not using variable-width fonts for most faces, particularly those assigned by Font Lock mode. Next: Colors, Previous: Follow Mode, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Standard Faces, Previous: Faces, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.9 Colors for Faces Faces can have various foreground and background colors. When you specify a color for a face—for instance, when customizing the face (see Face Customization)—you can use either a color name or an RGB triplet. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.9.1 Color Names A color name is a pre-defined name, such as ‘dark orange’ or ‘medium sea green’. To view a list of color names, type M-x list-colors-display. To control the order in which colors are shown, customize list-colors-sort. If you run this command on a graphical display, it shows the full range of color names known to Emacs (these are the standard X11 color names, defined in X’s rgb.txt file). If you run the command on a text terminal, it shows only a small subset of colors that can be safely displayed on such terminals. However, Emacs understands X11 color names even on text terminals; if a face is given a color specified by an X11 color name, it is displayed using the closest-matching terminal color. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.9.2 RGB Triplets An RGB triplet is a string of the form ‘#RRGGBB’. Each of the primary color components is represented by a hexadecimal number between ‘00’ (intensity 0) and ‘FF’ (the maximum intensity). It is also possible to use one, three, or four hex digits for each component, so ‘red’ can be represented as ‘#F00’, ‘#fff000000’, or ‘#ffff00000000’. The components must have the same number of digits. For hexadecimal values A to F, either upper or lower case are acceptable. The M-x list-colors-display command also shows the equivalent RGB triplet for each named color. For instance, ‘medium sea green’ is equivalent to ‘#3CB371’. You can change the foreground and background colors of a face with M-x set-face-foreground and M-x set-face-background. These commands prompt in the minibuffer for a face name and a color, with completion, and then set that face to use the specified color. They affect the face colors on all frames, but their effects do not persist for future Emacs sessions, unlike using the customization buffer or X resources. You can also use frame parameters to set foreground and background colors for a specific frame; See Frame Parameters. Next: Standard Faces, Previous: Faces, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Text Scale, Previous: Colors, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.10 Standard Faces Here are the standard faces for specifying text appearance. You can apply them to specific text when you want the effects they produce. default This face is used for ordinary text that doesn’t specify any face. Its background color is used as the frame’s background color. bold This face uses a bold variant of the default font. italic This face uses an italic variant of the default font. bold-italic This face uses a bold italic variant of the default font. underline This face underlines text. fixed-pitch This face forces use of a fixed-width font. It’s reasonable to customize this face to use a different fixed-width font, if you like, but you should not make it a variable-width font. fixed-pitch-serif This face is like fixed-pitch, except the font has serifs and looks more like traditional typewriting. variable-pitch This face forces use of a variable-width font. shadow This face is used for making the text less noticeable than the surrounding ordinary text. Usually this can be achieved by using shades of gray in contrast with either black or white default foreground color. Here’s an incomplete list of faces used to highlight parts of the text temporarily for specific purposes. (Many other modes define their own faces for this purpose.) highlight This face is used for text highlighting in various contexts, such as when the mouse cursor is moved over a hyperlink. isearch This face is used to highlight the current Isearch match (see Incremental Search). query-replace This face is used to highlight the current Query Replace match (see Replace). lazy-highlight This face is used to highlight lazy matches for Isearch and Query Replace (matches other than the current one). region This face is used for displaying an active region (see Mark). When Emacs is built with GTK+ support, its colors are taken from the current GTK+ theme. secondary-selection This face is used for displaying a secondary X selection (see Secondary Selection). trailing-whitespace The face for highlighting excess spaces and tabs at the end of a line when show-trailing-whitespace is non-nil (see Useless Whitespace). escape-glyph The face for displaying control characters and escape sequences (see Text Display). homoglyph The face for displaying lookalike characters, i.e., characters that look like but are not the characters being represented (see Text Display). nobreak-space The face for displaying no-break space characters (see Text Display). nobreak-hyphen The face for displaying no-break hyphen characters (see Text Display). The following faces control the appearance of parts of the Emacs frame: mode-line This face is used for the mode line of the currently selected window, and for menu bars when toolkit menus are not used. By default, it’s drawn with shadows for a raised effect on graphical displays, and drawn as the inverse of the default face on non-windowed terminals. mode-line-inactive Like mode-line, but used for mode lines of the windows other than the selected one (if mode-line-in-non-selected-windows is non-nil). This face inherits from mode-line, so changes in that face affect mode lines in all windows. mode-line-highlight Like highlight, but used for mouse-sensitive portions of text on mode lines. Such portions of text typically pop up tooltips (see Tooltips) when the mouse pointer hovers above them. mode-line-buffer-id This face is used for buffer identification parts in the mode line. header-line Similar to mode-line for a window’s header line, which appears at the top of a window just as the mode line appears at the bottom. Most windows do not have a header line—only some special modes, such Info mode, create one. header-line-highlight Similar to highlight and mode-line-highlight, but used for mouse-sensitive portions of text on header lines. This is a separate face because the header-line face might be customized in a way that does not interact well with highlight. tab-line Similar to mode-line for a window’s tab line, which appears at the top of a window with tabs representing window buffers. See Tab Line. vertical-border This face is used for the vertical divider between windows on text terminals. minibuffer-prompt This face is used for the prompt strings displayed in the minibuffer. By default, Emacs automatically adds this face to the value of minibuffer-prompt-properties, which is a list of text properties (see Text Properties in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual) used to display the prompt text. (This variable takes effect when you enter the minibuffer.) fringe The face for the fringes to the left and right of windows on graphic displays. (The fringes are the narrow portions of the Emacs frame between the text area and the window’s right and left borders.) See Fringes. cursor The :background attribute of this face specifies the color of the text cursor. See Cursor Display. tooltip This face is used for tooltip text. By default, if Emacs is built with GTK+ support, tooltips are drawn via GTK+ and this face has no effect. See Tooltips. mouse This face determines the color of the mouse pointer. The following faces likewise control the appearance of parts of the Emacs frame, but only on text terminals, or when Emacs is built on X with no toolkit support. (For all other cases, the appearance of the respective frame elements is determined by system-wide settings.) scroll-bar This face determines the visual appearance of the scroll bar. See Scroll Bars. tool-bar This face determines the color of tool bar icons. See Tool Bars. tab-bar This face determines the color of tab bar icons. See Tab Bars. menu This face determines the colors and font of Emacs’s menus. See Menu Bars. tty-menu-enabled-face This face is used to display enabled menu items on text-mode terminals. tty-menu-disabled-face This face is used to display disabled menu items on text-mode terminals. tty-menu-selected-face This face is used to display on text-mode terminals the menu item that would be selected if you click a mouse or press RET. Next: Text Scale, Previous: Colors, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Font Lock, Previous: Standard Faces, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.11 Text Scale To increase the height of the default face in the current buffer, type C-x C-+ or C-x C-=. To decrease it, type C-x C--. To restore the default (global) face height, type C-x C-0. These keys are all bound to the same command, text-scale-adjust, which looks at the last key typed to determine which action to take. Similarly, scrolling the mouse wheel with the Ctrl modifier pressed, when the mouse pointer is above buffer text, will increase or decrease the height of the default face, depending on the direction of the scrolling. The final key of these commands may be repeated without the leading C-x. For instance, C-x C-= C-= C-= increases the face height by three steps. Each step scales the text height by a factor of 1.2; to change this factor, customize the variable text-scale-mode-step. A numeric argument of 0 to the text-scale-adjust command restores the default height, the same as typing C-x C-0. The commands text-scale-increase and text-scale-decrease increase or decrease the height of the default face, just like C-x C-+ and C-x C-- respectively. You may find it convenient to bind to these commands, rather than text-scale-adjust. The command text-scale-set scales the height of the default face in the current buffer to an absolute level specified by its prefix argument. The above commands automatically enable the minor mode text-scale-mode if the current font scaling is other than 1, and disable it otherwise. Next: Font Lock, Previous: Standard Faces, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Highlight Interactively, Previous: Text Scale, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.12 Font Lock mode Font Lock mode is a minor mode, always local to a particular buffer, which assigns faces to (or fontifies) the text in the buffer. Each buffer’s major mode tells Font Lock mode which text to fontify; for instance, programming language modes fontify syntactically relevant constructs like comments, strings, and function names. Font Lock mode is enabled by default in major modes that support it. To toggle it in the current buffer, type M-x font-lock-mode. A positive numeric argument unconditionally enables Font Lock mode, and a negative or zero argument disables it. Type M-x global-font-lock-mode to toggle Font Lock mode in all buffers. To impose this setting for future Emacs sessions, customize the variable global-font-lock-mode (see Easy Customization), or add the following line to your init file: (global-font-lock-mode 0) If you have disabled Global Font Lock mode, you can still enable Font Lock for specific major modes by adding the function font-lock-mode to the mode hooks (see Hooks). For example, to enable Font Lock mode for editing C files, you can do this: (add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'font-lock-mode) Font Lock mode uses several specifically named faces to do its job, including font-lock-string-face, font-lock-comment-face, and others. The easiest way to find them all is to use M-x customize-group RET font-lock-faces RET. You can then use that customization buffer to customize the appearance of these faces. See Face Customization. You can customize the variable font-lock-maximum-decoration to alter the amount of fontification applied by Font Lock mode, for major modes that support this feature. The value should be a number (with 1 representing a minimal amount of fontification; some modes support levels as high as 3); or t, meaning “as high as possible” (the default). To be effective for a given file buffer, the customization of font-lock-maximum-decoration should be done before the file is visited; if you already have the file visited in a buffer when you customize this variable, kill the buffer and visit the file again after the customization. You can also specify different numbers for particular major modes; for example, to use level 1 for C/C++ modes, and the default level otherwise, use the value '((c-mode . 1) (c++-mode . 1))) Comment and string fontification (or “syntactic” fontification) relies on analysis of the syntactic structure of the buffer text. For the sake of speed, some modes, including Lisp mode, rely on a special convention: an open-parenthesis or open-brace in the leftmost column always defines the beginning of a defun, and is thus always outside any string or comment. Therefore, you should avoid placing an open-parenthesis or open-brace in the leftmost column, if it is inside a string or comment. See Left Margin Paren, for details. Font Lock highlighting patterns already exist for most modes, but you may want to fontify additional patterns. You can use the function font-lock-add-keywords, to add your own highlighting patterns for a particular mode. For example, to highlight ‘FIXME:’ words in C comments, use this: (add-hook 'c-mode-hook (lambda () (font-lock-add-keywords nil '(("\\<\\(FIXME\\):" 1 font-lock-warning-face t))))) To remove keywords from the font-lock highlighting patterns, use the function font-lock-remove-keywords. See Search-based Fontification in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Fontifying large buffers can take a long time. To avoid large delays when a file is visited, Emacs initially fontifies only the visible portion of a buffer. As you scroll through the buffer, each portion that becomes visible is fontified as soon as it is displayed; this type of Font Lock is called Just-In-Time (or JIT) Lock. You can control how JIT Lock behaves, including telling it to perform fontification while idle, by customizing variables in the customization group ‘jit-lock’. See Specific Customization. Next: Highlight Interactively, Previous: Text Scale, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Fringes, Previous: Font Lock, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.13 Interactive Highlighting Highlight Changes mode is a minor mode that highlights the parts of the buffer that were changed most recently, by giving that text a different face. To enable or disable Highlight Changes mode, use M-x highlight-changes-mode. Hi Lock mode is a minor mode that highlights text that matches regular expressions you specify. For example, you can use it to highlight all the references to a certain variable in a program source file, highlight certain parts in a voluminous output of some program, or highlight certain names in an article. To enable or disable Hi Lock mode, use the command M-x hi-lock-mode. To enable Hi Lock mode for all buffers, use M-x global-hi-lock-mode or place (global-hi-lock-mode 1) in your .emacs file. Hi Lock mode works like Font Lock mode (see Font Lock), except that you specify explicitly the regular expressions to highlight. You can control them with the following commands. (The key bindings below that begin with C-x w are deprecated in favor of the global M-s h bindings, and will be removed in some future Emacs version.) M-s h r regexp RET face RET C-x w h regexp RET face RET Highlight text that matches regexp using face face (highlight-regexp). The highlighting will remain as long as the buffer is loaded. For example, to highlight all occurrences of the word “whim” using the default face (a yellow background), type M-s h r whim RET RET. Any face can be used for highlighting, Hi Lock provides several of its own and these are pre-loaded into a list of default values. While being prompted for a face use M-n and M-p to cycle through them. A prefix numeric argument limits the highlighting to the corresponding subexpression. Setting the option hi-lock-auto-select-face to a non-nil value causes this command (and other Hi Lock commands that read faces) to automatically choose the next face from the default list without prompting. You can use this command multiple times, specifying various regular expressions to highlight in different ways. M-s h u regexp RET C-x w r regexp RET Unhighlight regexp (unhighlight-regexp). If you invoke this from the menu, you select the expression to unhighlight from a list. If you invoke this from the keyboard, you use the minibuffer. It will show the most recently added regular expression; use M-n to show the next older expression and M-p to select the next newer expression. (You can also type the expression by hand, with completion.) When the expression you want to unhighlight appears in the minibuffer, press RET to exit the minibuffer and unhighlight it. M-s h l regexp RET face RET C-x w l regexp RET face RET Highlight entire lines containing a match for regexp, using face face (highlight-lines-matching-regexp). M-s h p phrase RET face RET C-x w p phrase RET face RET Highlight matches of phrase, using face face (highlight-phrase). phrase can be any regexp, but spaces will be replaced by matches to whitespace and initial lower-case letters will become case insensitive. M-s h . C-x w . Highlight the symbol found near point, using the next available face (highlight-symbol-at-point). M-s h w C-x w b Insert all the current highlighting regexp/face pairs into the buffer at point, with comment delimiters to prevent them from changing your program. (This key binding runs the hi-lock-write-interactive-patterns command.) These patterns are extracted from the comments, if appropriate, if you invoke M-x hi-lock-find-patterns, or if you visit the file while Hi Lock mode is enabled (since that runs hi-lock-find-patterns). M-s h f C-x w i Extract regexp/face pairs from comments in the current buffer (hi-lock-find-patterns). Thus, you can enter patterns interactively with highlight-regexp, store them into the file with hi-lock-write-interactive-patterns, edit them (perhaps including different faces for different parenthesized parts of the match), and finally use this command (hi-lock-find-patterns) to have Hi Lock highlight the edited patterns. The variable hi-lock-file-patterns-policy controls whether Hi Lock mode should automatically extract and highlight patterns found in a file when it is visited. Its value can be nil (never highlight), ask (query the user), or a function. If it is a function, hi-lock-find-patterns calls it with the patterns as argument; if the function returns non-nil, the patterns are used. The default is ask. Note that patterns are always highlighted if you call hi-lock-find-patterns directly, regardless of the value of this variable. Also, hi-lock-find-patterns does nothing if the current major mode’s symbol is a member of the list hi-lock-exclude-modes. Next: Fringes, Previous: Font Lock, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Displaying Boundaries, Previous: Highlight Interactively, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.14 Window Fringes On graphical displays, each Emacs window normally has narrow fringes on the left and right edges. The fringes are used to display symbols that provide information about the text in the window. You can type M-x fringe-mode to toggle display of the fringes or to modify their width. This command affects fringes in all frames; to modify fringes on the selected frame only, use M-x set-fringe-style. You can make your changes to the fringes permanent by customizing the variable fringe-mode. The most common use of the fringes is to indicate a continuation line (see Continuation Lines). When one line of text is split into multiple screen lines, the left fringe shows a curving arrow for each screen line except the first, indicating that this is not the real beginning. The right fringe shows a curving arrow for each screen line except the last, indicating that this is not the real end. If the line’s direction is right-to-left (see Bidirectional Editing), the meanings of the curving arrows in the fringes are swapped. The fringes indicate line truncation (see Line Truncation) with short horizontal arrows meaning there’s more text on this line which is scrolled horizontally out of view. Clicking the mouse on one of the arrows scrolls the display horizontally in the direction of the arrow. The fringes can also indicate other things, such as buffer boundaries (see Displaying Boundaries), unused lines near the end of the window (see indicate-empty-lines), and where a program you are debugging is executing (see Debuggers). The fringe is also used for drawing the cursor, if the current line is exactly as wide as the window and point is at the end of the line. To disable this, change the variable overflow-newline-into-fringe to nil; this causes Emacs to continue or truncate lines that are exactly as wide as the window. If you customize fringe-mode to remove the fringes on one or both sides of the window display, the features that display on the fringe are not available. Indicators of line continuation and truncation are an exception: when fringes are not available, Emacs uses the leftmost and rightmost character cells to indicate continuation and truncation with special ASCII characters, see Continuation Lines, and Line Truncation. This reduces the width available for displaying text on each line, because the character cells used for truncation and continuation indicators are reserved for that purpose. Since buffer text can include bidirectional text, and thus both left-to-right and right-to-left paragraphs (see Bidirectional Editing), removing only one of the fringes still reserves two character cells, one on each side of the window, for truncation and continuation indicators, because these indicators are displayed on opposite sides of the window in right-to-left paragraphs. Next: Displaying Boundaries, Previous: Highlight Interactively, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Useless Whitespace, Previous: Fringes, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.15 Displaying Boundaries Emacs can display an indication of the fill-column position (see Fill Commands). The fill-column indicator is a useful functionality especially in prog-mode and its descendants (see Major Modes) to indicate the position of a specific column that has some special meaning for formatting the source code of a program. To activate the fill-column indication display, use the minor modes M-x display-fill-column-indicator-mode and M-x global-display-fill-column-indicator-mode, which enable the indicator locally or globally, respectively. Alternatively, you can set the two buffer-local variables display-fill-column-indicator and display-fill-column-indicator-character to activate the indicator and control the character used for the indication. Note that both variables must be non-nil for the indication to be displayed. (Turning on the minor mode sets both these variables.) There are 2 buffer local variables and a face to customize this mode: display-fill-column-indicator-column Specifies the column number where the indicator should be set. It can take positive numerical values for the column, or the special value t, which means that the value of the variable fill-column will be used. Any other value disables the indicator. The default value is t. display-fill-column-indicator-character Specifies the character used for the indicator. This character can be any valid character including Unicode ones if the font supports them. The value nil disables the indicator. When the mode is enabled through the functions display-fill-column-indicator-mode or global-display-fill-column-indicator-mode, they will use the character specified by this variable, if it is non-nil; otherwise Emacs will use the character ‘U+2502 VERTICAL LINE’, falling back to ‘|’ if U+2502 cannot be displayed. fill-column-indicator Specifies the face used to display the indicator. It inherits its default values from the face shadow, but without background color. To change the indicator color, you need only set the foreground color of this face. On graphical displays, Emacs can indicate the buffer boundaries in the fringes. If you enable this feature, the first line and the last line are marked with angle images in the fringes. This can be combined with up and down arrow images which say whether it is possible to scroll the window. The buffer-local variable indicate-buffer-boundaries controls how the buffer boundaries and window scrolling is indicated in the fringes. If the value is left or right, both angle and arrow bitmaps are displayed in the left or right fringe, respectively. If value is an alist (see Association Lists in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), each element (indicator . position) specifies the position of one of the indicators. The indicator must be one of top, bottom, up, down, or t which specifies the default position for the indicators not present in the alist. The position is one of left, right, or nil which specifies not to show this indicator. For example, ((top . left) (t . right)) places the top angle bitmap in left fringe, the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both arrow bitmaps in right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the left fringe, but no arrow bitmaps, use ((top . left) (bottom . left)). Next: Useless Whitespace, Previous: Fringes, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Selective Display, Previous: Displaying Boundaries, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.16 Useless Whitespace It is easy to leave unnecessary spaces at the end of a line, or empty lines at the end of a buffer, without realizing it. In most cases, this trailing whitespace has no effect, but sometimes it can be a nuisance. You can make trailing whitespace at the end of a line visible by setting the buffer-local variable show-trailing-whitespace to t. Then Emacs displays trailing whitespace, using the face trailing-whitespace. This feature does not apply when point is at the end of the line containing the whitespace. Strictly speaking, that is trailing whitespace nonetheless, but displaying it specially in that case looks ugly while you are typing in new text. In this special case, the location of point is enough to show you that the spaces are present. Type M-x delete-trailing-whitespace to delete all trailing whitespace. This command deletes all extra spaces at the end of each line in the buffer, and all empty lines at the end of the buffer; to ignore the latter, change the variable delete-trailing-lines to nil. If the region is active, the command instead deletes extra spaces at the end of each line in the region. On graphical displays, Emacs can indicate unused lines at the end of the window with a small image in the left fringe (see Fringes). The image appears for screen lines that do not correspond to any buffer text, so blank lines at the end of the buffer stand out because they lack this image. To enable this feature, set the buffer-local variable indicate-empty-lines to a non-nil value. You can enable or disable this feature for all new buffers by setting the default value of this variable, e.g., (setq-default indicate-empty-lines t). Whitespace mode is a buffer-local minor mode that lets you visualize many kinds of whitespace in the buffer, by either drawing the whitespace characters with a special face or displaying them as special glyphs. To toggle this mode, type M-x whitespace-mode. The kinds of whitespace visualized are determined by the list variable whitespace-style. Individual elements in that list can be toggled on or off in the current buffer by typing M-x whitespace-toggle-options. Here is a partial list of possible elements (see the variable’s documentation for the full list): face Enable all visualizations which use special faces. This element has a special meaning: if it is absent from the list, none of the other visualizations take effect except space-mark, tab-mark, and newline-mark. trailing Highlight trailing whitespace. tabs Highlight tab characters. spaces Highlight space and non-breaking space characters. lines Highlight lines longer than 80 columns. To change the column limit, customize the variable whitespace-line-column. newline Highlight newlines. empty Highlight empty lines at the beginning and/or end of the buffer. big-indent Highlight too-deep indentation. By default any sequence of at least 4 consecutive tab characters or 32 consecutive space characters is highlighted. To change that, customize the regular expression whitespace-big-indent-regexp. space-mark Draw space and non-breaking characters with a special glyph. tab-mark Draw tab characters with a special glyph. newline-mark Draw newline characters with a special glyph. Global Whitespace mode is a global minor mode that lets you visualize whitespace in all buffers. To toggle individual features, use M-x global-whitespace-toggle-options. Next: Selective Display, Previous: Displaying Boundaries, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Optional Mode Line, Previous: Useless Whitespace, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.17 Selective Display Emacs has the ability to hide lines indented more than a given number of columns. You can use this to get an overview of a part of a program. To hide lines in the current buffer, type C-x $ (set-selective-display) with a numeric argument n. Then lines with at least n columns of indentation disappear from the screen. The only indication of their presence is that three dots (‘…’) appear at the end of each visible line that is followed by one or more hidden ones. The commands C-n and C-p move across the hidden lines as if they were not there. The hidden lines are still present in the buffer, and most editing commands see them as usual, so you may find point in the middle of the hidden text. When this happens, the cursor appears at the end of the previous line, after the three dots. If point is at the end of the visible line, before the newline that ends it, the cursor appears before the three dots. To make all lines visible again, type C-x $ with no argument. If you set the variable selective-display-ellipses to nil, the three dots do not appear at the end of a line that precedes hidden lines. Then there is no visible indication of the hidden lines. This variable becomes local automatically when set. See also Outline Mode for another way to hide part of the text in a buffer. Next: Text Display, Previous: Selective Display, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.18 Optional Mode Line Features The buffer percentage pos indicates the percentage of the buffer above the top of the window. You can additionally display the size of the buffer by typing M-x size-indication-mode to turn on Size Indication mode. The size will be displayed immediately following the buffer percentage like this: pos of size Here size is the human readable representation of the number of characters in the buffer, which means that ‘k’ for 10^3, ‘M’ for 10^6, ‘G’ for 10^9, etc., are used to abbreviate. The current line number of point appears in the mode line when Line Number mode is enabled. Use the command M-x line-number-mode to turn this mode on and off; normally it is on. The line number appears after the buffer percentage pos, with the letter ‘L’ to indicate what it is. Similarly, you can display the current column number by turning on Column Number mode with M-x column-number-mode. The column number is indicated by the letter ‘C’. However, when both of these modes are enabled, the line and column numbers are displayed in parentheses, the line number first, rather than with ‘L’ and ‘C’. For example: ‘(561,2)’. See Minor Modes, for more information about minor modes and about how to use these commands. In Column Number mode, the displayed column number counts from zero starting at the left margin of the window. If you would prefer for the displayed column number to count from one, you may set column-number-indicator-zero-based to nil. If you have narrowed the buffer (see Narrowing), the displayed line number is relative to the accessible portion of the buffer. Thus, it isn’t suitable as an argument to goto-line. (Use what-line command to see the line number relative to the whole file.) If the buffer is very large (larger than the value of line-number-display-limit), Emacs won’t compute the line number, because that would be too slow; therefore, the line number won’t appear on the mode-line. To remove this limit, set line-number-display-limit to nil. Line-number computation can also be slow if the lines in the buffer are too long. For this reason, Emacs doesn’t display line numbers if the average width, in characters, of lines near point is larger than the value of line-number-display-limit-width. The default value is 200 characters. Emacs can optionally display the time and system load in all mode lines. To enable this feature, type M-x display-time or customize the option display-time-mode. The information added to the mode line looks like this: hh:mmPM l.ll Here hh and mm are the hour and minute, followed always by ‘AM’ or ‘PM’. l.ll is the average number, collected for the last few minutes, of processes in the whole system that were either running or ready to run (i.e., were waiting for an available processor). (Some fields may be missing if your operating system cannot support them.) If you prefer time display in 24-hour format, set the variable display-time-24hr-format to t. The word ‘Mail’ appears after the load level if there is mail for you that you have not read yet. On graphical displays, you can use an icon instead of ‘Mail’ by customizing display-time-use-mail-icon; this may save some space on the mode line. You can customize display-time-mail-face to make the mail indicator prominent. Use display-time-mail-file to specify the mail file to check, or set display-time-mail-directory to specify the directory to check for incoming mail (any nonempty regular file in the directory is considered to be newly arrived mail). When running Emacs on a laptop computer, you can display the battery charge on the mode-line, by using the command display-battery-mode or customizing the variable display-battery-mode. The variable battery-mode-line-format determines the way the battery charge is displayed; the exact mode-line message depends on the operating system, and it usually shows the current battery charge as a percentage of the total charge. On graphical displays, the mode line is drawn as a 3D box. If you don’t like this effect, you can disable it by customizing the mode-line face and setting its box attribute to nil. See Face Customization. By default, the mode line of nonselected windows is displayed in a different face, called mode-line-inactive. Only the selected window is displayed in the mode-line face. This helps show which window is selected. When the minibuffer is selected, since it has no mode line, the window from which you activated the minibuffer has its mode line displayed using mode-line; as a result, ordinary entry to the minibuffer does not change any mode lines. You can disable use of mode-line-inactive by setting variable mode-line-in-non-selected-windows to nil; then all mode lines are displayed in the mode-line face. You can customize the mode line display for each of the end-of-line formats by setting each of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos, eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided to the strings you prefer. Next: Text Display, Previous: Selective Display, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Cursor Display, Previous: Optional Mode Line, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.19 How Text Is Displayed Most characters are printing characters: when they appear in a buffer, they are displayed literally on the screen. Printing characters include ASCII numbers, letters, and punctuation characters, as well as many non-ASCII characters. The ASCII character set contains non-printing control characters. Two of these are displayed specially: the newline character (Unicode code point U+000A) is displayed by starting a new line, while the tab character (U+0009) is displayed as a space that extends to the next tab stop column (normally every 8 columns). The number of spaces per tab is controlled by the buffer-local variable tab-width, which must have an integer value between 1 and 1000, inclusive. Note that the way the tab character in the buffer is displayed has nothing to do with the definition of TAB as a command. Other ASCII control characters, whose codes are below U+0020 (octal 40, decimal 32), are displayed as a caret (‘^’) followed by the non-control version of the character, with the escape-glyph face. For instance, the ‘control-A’ character, U+0001, is displayed as ‘^A’. The raw bytes with codes U+0080 (octal 200) through U+009F (octal 237) are displayed as octal escape sequences, with the escape-glyph face. For instance, character code U+0098 (octal 230) is displayed as ‘\230’. If you change the buffer-local variable ctl-arrow to nil, the ASCII control characters are also displayed as octal escape sequences instead of caret escape sequences. (You can also request that raw bytes be shown in hex, see display-raw-bytes-as-hex.) Some non-ASCII characters have the same appearance as an ASCII space or hyphen (minus) character. Such characters can cause problems if they are entered into a buffer without your realization, e.g., by yanking; for instance, source code compilers typically do not treat non-ASCII spaces as whitespace characters. To deal with this problem, Emacs displays such characters specially: it displays U+00A0 (no-break space) with the nobreak-space face, and it displays U+00AD (soft hyphen), U+2010 (hyphen), and U+2011 (non-breaking hyphen) with the nobreak-hyphen face. To disable this, change the variable nobreak-char-display to nil. If you give this variable a non-nil and non-t value, Emacs instead displays such characters as a highlighted backslash followed by a space or hyphen. You can customize the way any particular character code is displayed by means of a display table. See Display Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. On graphical displays, some characters may have no glyphs in any of the fonts available to Emacs. These glyphless characters are normally displayed as boxes containing the hexadecimal character code. Similarly, on text terminals, characters that cannot be displayed using the terminal encoding (see Terminal Coding) are normally displayed as question signs. You can control the display method by customizing the variable glyphless-char-display-control. You can also customize the glyphless-char face to make these characters more prominent on display. See Glyphless Character Display in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for details. Emacs tries to determine if the curved quotes ‘‘’ and ‘’’ can be displayed on the current display. By default, if this seems to be so, then Emacs will translate the ASCII quotes (‘`’ and ‘'’), when they appear in messages and help texts, to these curved quotes. You can influence or inhibit this translation by customizing the user option text-quoting-style (see Keys in Documentation in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). If the curved quotes ‘, ’, “, and ” are known to look just like ASCII characters, they are shown with the homoglyph face. Curved quotes that are known not to be displayable are shown as their ASCII approximations `, ', and " with the homoglyph face. Next: Cursor Display, Previous: Optional Mode Line, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Line Truncation, Previous: Text Display, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.20 Displaying the Cursor On a text terminal, the cursor’s appearance is controlled by the terminal, largely out of the control of Emacs. Some terminals offer two different cursors: a visible static cursor, and a very visible blinking cursor. By default, Emacs uses the very visible cursor, and switches to it when you start or resume Emacs. If the variable visible-cursor is nil when Emacs starts or resumes, it uses the normal cursor. On a graphical display, many more properties of the text cursor can be altered. To customize its color, change the :background attribute of the face named cursor (see Face Customization). (The other attributes of this face have no effect; the text shown under the cursor is drawn using the frame’s background color.) To change its shape, customize the buffer-local variable cursor-type; possible values are box (the default), hollow (a hollow box), bar (a vertical bar), (bar . n) (a vertical bar n pixels wide), hbar (a horizontal bar), (hbar . n) (a horizontal bar n pixels tall), or nil (no cursor at all). By default, the cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks, if Emacs does not get any input during that time; any input event restarts the count. You can customize the variable blink-cursor-blinks to control that: its value says how many times to blink without input before stopping. Setting that variable to a zero or negative value will make the cursor blink forever. To disable cursor blinking altogether, change the variable blink-cursor-mode to nil (see Easy Customization), or add the line (blink-cursor-mode 0) to your init file. Alternatively, you can change how the cursor looks when it blinks off by customizing the list variable blink-cursor-alist. Each element in the list should have the form (on-type . off-type); this means that if the cursor is displayed as on-type when it blinks on (where on-type is one of the cursor types described above), then it is displayed as off-type when it blinks off. Some characters, such as tab characters, are extra wide. When the cursor is positioned over such a character, it is normally drawn with the default character width. You can make the cursor stretch to cover wide characters, by changing the variable x-stretch-cursor to a non-nil value. The cursor normally appears in non-selected windows as a non-blinking hollow box. (For a bar cursor, it instead appears as a thinner bar.) To turn off cursors in non-selected windows, change the variable cursor-in-non-selected-windows to nil. To make the cursor even more visible, you can use HL Line mode, a minor mode that highlights the line containing point. Use M-x hl-line-mode to enable or disable it in the current buffer. M-x global-hl-line-mode enables or disables the same mode globally. Next: Line Truncation, Previous: Text Display, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Visual Line Mode, Previous: Cursor Display, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.21 Line Truncation As an alternative to continuation (see Continuation Lines), Emacs can display long lines by truncation. This means that all the characters that do not fit in the width of the screen or window do not appear at all. On graphical displays, a small straight arrow in the fringe indicates truncation at either end of the line. On text terminals, this is indicated with ‘$’ signs in the rightmost and/or leftmost columns. Horizontal scrolling automatically causes line truncation (see Horizontal Scrolling). You can explicitly enable line truncation for a particular buffer with the command M-x toggle-truncate-lines. This works by locally changing the variable truncate-lines. If that variable is non-nil, long lines are truncated; if it is nil, they are continued onto multiple screen lines. Setting the variable truncate-lines in any way makes it local to the current buffer; until that time, the default value, which is normally nil, is in effect. If a split window becomes too narrow, Emacs may automatically enable line truncation. See Split Window, for the variable truncate-partial-width-windows which controls this. Next: Display Custom, Previous: Line Truncation, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.22 Visual Line Mode Another alternative to ordinary line continuation is to use word wrap. Here, each long logical line is divided into two or more screen lines, like in ordinary line continuation. However, Emacs attempts to wrap the line at word boundaries near the right window edge. (If the line’s direction is right-to-left, it is wrapped at the left window edge instead.) This makes the text easier to read, as wrapping does not occur in the middle of words. Word wrap is enabled by Visual Line mode, an optional minor mode. To turn on Visual Line mode in the current buffer, type M-x visual-line-mode; repeating this command turns it off. You can also turn on Visual Line mode using the menu bar: in the Options menu, select the ‘Line Wrapping in this Buffer’ submenu, followed by the ‘Word Wrap (Visual Line mode)’ menu item. While Visual Line mode is enabled, the mode line shows the string ‘wrap’ in the mode display. The command M-x global-visual-line-mode toggles Visual Line mode in all buffers. In Visual Line mode, some editing commands work on screen lines instead of logical lines: C-a (beginning-of-visual-line) moves to the beginning of the screen line, C-e (end-of-visual-line) moves to the end of the screen line, and C-k (kill-visual-line) kills text to the end of the screen line. To move by logical lines, use the commands M-x next-logical-line and M-x previous-logical-line. These move point to the next logical line and the previous logical line respectively, regardless of whether Visual Line mode is enabled. If you use these commands frequently, it may be convenient to assign key bindings to them. See Init Rebinding. By default, word-wrapped lines do not display fringe indicators. Visual Line mode is often used to edit files that contain many long logical lines, so having a fringe indicator for each wrapped line would be visually distracting. You can change this by customizing the variable visual-line-fringe-indicators. Next: Display Custom, Previous: Line Truncation, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Previous: Visual Line Mode, Up: Display [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 14.23 Customization of Display This section describes variables that control miscellaneous aspects of the appearance of the Emacs screen. Beginning users can skip it. If you want to have Emacs display line numbers for every line in the buffer, customize the buffer-local variable display-line-numbers; it is nil by default. This variable can have several different values to support various modes of line-number display: t Display (an absolute) line number before each non-continuation screen line that displays buffer text. If the line is a continuation line, or if the entire screen line displays a display or an overlay string, that line will not be numbered. relative Display relative line numbers before non-continuation lines which show buffer text. The line numbers are relative to the line showing point, so the numbers grow both up and down as lines become farther from the current line. visual This value causes Emacs to count lines visually: only lines actually shown on the display will be counted (disregarding any lines in invisible parts of text), and lines which wrap to consume more than one screen line will be numbered that many times. The displayed numbers are relative, as with relative value above. This is handy in modes that fold text, such as Outline mode (see Outline Mode), and when you need to move by exact number of screen lines. anything else Any other non-nil value is treated as t. The command M-x display-line-numbers-mode provides a convenient way to turn on display of line numbers. This mode has a globalized variant, global-display-line-numbers-mode. The user option display-line-numbers-type controls which sub-mode of line-number display, described above, will these modes activate. Note that line numbers are not displayed in the minibuffer and in the tooltips, even if you turn on display-line-numbers-mode globally. When Emacs displays relative line numbers, you can control the number displayed before the current line, the line showing point. By default, Emacs displays the absolute number of the current line there, even though all the other line numbers are relative. If you customize the variable display-line-numbers-current-absolute to a nil value, the number displayed for the current line will be zero. This is handy if you don’t care about the number of the current line, and want to leave more horizontal space for text in large buffers. In a narrowed buffer (see Narrowing) lines are normally numbered starting at the beginning of the narrowing. However, if you customize the variable display-line-numbers-widen to a non-nil value, line numbers will disregard any narrowing and will start at the first character of the buffer. If the value of display-line-numbers-offset is non-zero, it is added to each absolute line number, and lines are counted from the beginning of the buffer, as if display-line-numbers-widen were non-nil. It has no effect when set to zero, or when line numbers are not absolute. In selective display mode (see Selective Display), and other modes that hide many lines from display (such as Outline and Org modes), you may wish to customize the variables display-line-numbers-width-start and display-line-numbers-grow-only, or set display-line-numbers-width to a large enough value, to avoid occasional miscalculations of space reserved for the line numbers. The line numbers are displayed in a special face line-number. The current line number is displayed in a different face, line-number-current-line, so you can make the current line’s number have a distinct appearance, which will help locating the line showing point. Additional faces line-number-major-tick and line-number-minor-tick can be used to highlight the line numbers of lines which are a multiple of certain numbers. Customize display-line-numbers-major-tick and display-line-numbers-minor-tick respectively to set those numbers. If the variable visible-bell is non-nil, Emacs attempts to make the whole screen blink when it would normally make an audible bell sound. This variable has no effect if your terminal does not have a way to make the screen blink. The variable echo-keystrokes controls the echoing of multi-character keys; its value is the number of seconds of pause required to cause echoing to start, or zero, meaning don’t echo at all. The value takes effect when there is something to echo. See Echo Area. On graphical displays, Emacs displays the mouse pointer as an hourglass if Emacs is busy. To disable this feature, set the variable display-hourglass to nil. The variable hourglass-delay determines the number of seconds of busy time before the hourglass is shown; the default is 1. If the mouse pointer lies inside an Emacs frame, Emacs makes it invisible each time you type a character to insert text, to prevent it from obscuring the text. (To be precise, the hiding occurs when you type a self-inserting character. See Inserting Text.) Moving the mouse pointer makes it visible again. To disable this feature, set the variable make-pointer-invisible to nil. On graphical displays, the variable underline-minimum-offset determines the minimum distance between the baseline and underline, in pixels, for underlined text. By default, the value is 1; increasing it may improve the legibility of underlined text for certain fonts. (However, Emacs will never draw the underline below the current line area.) The variable x-underline-at-descent-line determines how to draw underlined text. The default is nil, which means to draw it at the baseline level of the font; if you change it to t, Emacs draws the underline at the same height as the font’s descent line. (If non-default line spacing was specified for the underlined text, see Line Height in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, Emacs draws the underline below the additional spacing.) The variable overline-margin specifies the vertical position of an overline above the text, including the height of the overline itself, in pixels; the default is 2. On some text terminals, bold face and inverse video together result in text that is hard to read. Call the function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors with a non-nil argument to suppress the effect of bold-face in this case. Raw bytes are displayed in octal format by default, for example a byte with a decimal value of 128 is displayed as \200. To change display to the hexadecimal format of \x80, set the variable display-raw-bytes-as-hex to t. -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Visual Line Mode, Up: Display [Contents][Index] Next: Nonincremental Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1 Incremental Search The principal search command in Emacs is incremental: it begins searching as soon as you type the first character of the search string. As you type in the search string, Emacs shows you where the string (as you have typed it so far) would be found. When you have typed enough characters to identify the place you want, you can stop. Depending on what you plan to do next, you may or may not need to terminate the search explicitly with RET. C-s Incremental search forward (isearch-forward). C-r Incremental search backward (isearch-backward). You can also invoke incremental search from the menu bar’s ‘Edit->Search’ menu. • Basic Isearch Basic incremental search commands. • Repeat Isearch Searching for the same string again. • Isearch Yank Commands that grab text into the search string or else edit the search string. • Error in Isearch When your string is not found. • Special Isearch Special input in incremental search. • Not Exiting Isearch Prefix argument and scrolling commands. • Isearch Minibuffer Incremental search of the minibuffer history. Next: Word Search, Previous: Incremental Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.2 Nonincremental Search Emacs also has conventional nonincremental search commands, which require you to type the entire search string before searching begins. C-s RET string RET Search for string. C-r RET string RET Search backward for string. To start a nonincremental search, first type C-s RET. This enters the minibuffer to read the search string; terminate the string with RET, and then the search takes place. If the string is not found, the search command signals an error. When you type C-s RET, the C-s invokes incremental search as usual. That command is specially programmed to invoke the command for nonincremental search, if the string you specify is empty. (Such an empty argument would otherwise be useless.) C-r RET does likewise, invoking the nonincremental backward-searching command. Nonincremental search can also be invoked from the menu bar’s ‘Edit->Search’ menu. You can also use two simpler commands, M-x search-forward and M-x search-backward. These commands look for the literal strings you specify, and don’t support any of the lax-search features (see Lax Search) except case folding. Next: Symbol Search, Previous: Nonincremental Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.3 Word Search A word search finds a sequence of words without regard to the type of punctuation between them. For instance, if you enter a search string that consists of two words separated by a single space, the search matches any sequence of those two words separated by one or more spaces, newlines, or other punctuation characters. This is particularly useful for searching text documents, because you don’t have to worry whether the words you are looking for are separated by newlines or spaces. Note that major modes for programming languages or other specialized modes can modify the definition of a word to suit their syntactic needs. M-s w If incremental search is active, toggle word search mode (isearch-toggle-word); otherwise, begin an incremental forward word search (isearch-forward-word). M-s w RET words RET Search for words, using a forward nonincremental word search. M-s w C-r RET words RET Search backward for words, using a nonincremental word search. M-s M-w Search the Web for the text in region. To begin a forward incremental word search, type M-s w. If incremental search is not already active, this runs the command isearch-forward-word. If incremental search is already active (whether a forward or backward search), M-s w runs the command isearch-toggle-word, which switches to a word search while keeping the direction of the search and the current search string unchanged. You can toggle word search back off by typing M-s w again. To begin a nonincremental word search, type M-s w RET for a forward search, or M-s w C-r RET for a backward search. These run the commands word-search-forward and word-search-backward respectively. Incremental and nonincremental word searches differ slightly in the way they find a match. In a nonincremental word search, each word in the search string must exactly match a whole word. In an incremental word search, the matching is more lax: while you are typing the search string, its first and last words need not match whole words. This is so that the matching can proceed incrementally as you type. This additional laxity does not apply to the lazy highlight (see Incremental Search), which always matches whole words. While you are typing the search string, ‘Pending’ appears in the search prompt until you use a search repeating key like C-s. The word search commands don’t perform character folding, and toggling lax whitespace matching (see lax space matching) has no effect on them. To search the Web for the text in region, type M-s M-w. This command performs an Internet search for the words in region using the search engine whose URL is specified by the variable eww-search-prefix (see EWW in The Emacs Web Wowser Manual). If the region is not active, or doesn’t contain any words, this command prompts the user for a URL or keywords to search. Next: Symbol Search, Previous: Nonincremental Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Next: Regexp Search, Previous: Word Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.4 Symbol Search A symbol search is much like an ordinary search, except that the boundaries of the search must match the boundaries of a symbol. The meaning of symbol in this context depends on the major mode, and usually refers to a source code token, such as a Lisp symbol in Emacs Lisp mode. For instance, if you perform an incremental symbol search for the Lisp symbol forward-word, it would not match isearch-forward-word. This feature is thus mainly useful for searching source code. M-s _ If incremental search is active, toggle symbol search mode (isearch-toggle-symbol); otherwise, begin an incremental forward symbol search (isearch-forward-symbol). M-s . Start a symbol incremental search forward with the symbol found near point added to the search string initially. M-s _ RET symbol RET Search forward for symbol, nonincrementally. M-s _ C-r RET symbol RET Search backward for symbol, nonincrementally. To begin a forward incremental symbol search, type M-s _ (or M-s . if the symbol to search is near point). If incremental search is not already active, M-s _ runs the command isearch-forward-symbol and M-s . runs the command isearch-forward-symbol-at-point. With a numeric prefix argument of n, M-s . will search for the nthe next occurrence of the symbol at point; negative values of n search backwards. If incremental search is already active, M-s _ switches to a symbol search, preserving the direction of the search and the current search string; you can disable symbol search by typing M-s _ again. In incremental symbol search, while you are typing the search string, only the beginning of the search string is required to match the beginning of a symbol, and ‘Pending’ appears in the search prompt until you use a search repeating key like C-s. To begin a nonincremental symbol search, type M-s _ RET for a forward search, or M-s _ C-r RET or a backward search. In nonincremental symbol searches, the beginning and end of the search string are required to match the beginning and end of a symbol, respectively. The symbol search commands don’t perform character folding, and toggling lax whitespace matching (see lax space matching) has no effect on them. Next: Regexp Search, Previous: Word Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Next: Regexps, Previous: Symbol Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.5 Regular Expression Search A regular expression (or regexp for short) is a pattern that denotes a class of alternative strings to match. Emacs provides both incremental and nonincremental ways to search for a match for a regexp. The syntax of regular expressions is explained in the next section. C-M-s Begin incremental regexp search (isearch-forward-regexp). C-M-r Begin reverse incremental regexp search (isearch-backward-regexp). Incremental search for a regexp is done by typing C-M-s (isearch-forward-regexp), by invoking C-s with a prefix argument (whose value does not matter), or by typing M-r within a forward incremental search. This command reads a search string incrementally just like C-s, but it treats the search string as a regexp rather than looking for an exact match against the text in the buffer. Each time you add text to the search string, you make the regexp longer, and the new regexp is searched for. To search backward for a regexp, use C-M-r (isearch-backward-regexp), C-r with a prefix argument, or M-r within a backward incremental search. All of the special key sequences in an ordinary incremental search (see Special Isearch) do similar things in an incremental regexp search. For instance, typing C-s immediately after starting the search retrieves the last incremental search regexp used and searches forward for it. Incremental regexp and non-regexp searches have independent defaults. They also have separate search rings, which you can access with M-p and M-n. The maximum number of search regexps saved in the search ring is determined by the value of regexp-search-ring-max, 16 by default. Unlike ordinary incremental search, incremental regexp search does not use lax space matching by default. To toggle this feature use M-s SPC (isearch-toggle-lax-whitespace). Then any SPC typed in incremental regexp search will match any sequence of one or more whitespace characters. The variable search-whitespace-regexp specifies the regexp for the lax space matching. See Special Isearch. Also unlike ordinary incremental search, incremental regexp search cannot use character folding (see Lax Search). (If you toggle character folding during incremental regexp search with M-s ', the search becomes a non-regexp search and the search pattern you typed is interpreted as a literal string.) In some cases, adding characters to the regexp in an incremental regexp search can make the cursor move back and start again. For example, if you have searched for ‘foo’ and you add ‘\|bar’, the cursor backs up in case the first ‘bar’ precedes the first ‘foo’. See Regexps. Forward and backward regexp search are not symmetrical, because regexp matching in Emacs always operates forward, starting with the beginning of the regexp. Thus, forward regexp search scans forward, trying a forward match at each possible starting position. Backward regexp search scans backward, trying a forward match at each possible starting position. These search methods are not mirror images. Nonincremental search for a regexp is done with the commands re-search-forward and re-search-backward. You can invoke these with M-x, or by way of incremental regexp search with C-M-s RET and C-M-r RET. When you invoke these commands with M-x, they search for the exact regexp you specify, and thus don’t support any lax-search features (see Lax Search) except case folding. If you use the incremental regexp search commands with a prefix argument, they perform ordinary string search, like isearch-forward and isearch-backward. See Incremental Search. Next: Regexps, Previous: Symbol Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Next: Regexp Backslash, Previous: Regexp Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.6 Syntax of Regular Expressions This section (and this manual in general) describes regular expression features that users typically use. See Regular Expressions in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for additional features used mainly in Lisp programs. Regular expressions have a syntax in which a few characters are special constructs and the rest are ordinary. An ordinary character matches that same character and nothing else. The special characters are ‘$^.*+?[\’. The character ‘]’ is special if it ends a character alternative (see below). The character ‘-’ is special inside a character alternative. Any other character appearing in a regular expression is ordinary, unless a ‘\’ precedes it. (When you use regular expressions in a Lisp program, each ‘\’ must be doubled, see the example near the end of this section.) For example, ‘f’ is not a special character, so it is ordinary, and therefore ‘f’ is a regular expression that matches the string ‘f’ and no other string. (It does not match the string ‘ff’.) Likewise, ‘o’ is a regular expression that matches only ‘o’. (When case distinctions are being ignored, these regexps also match ‘F’ and ‘O’, but we consider this a generalization of “the same string”, rather than an exception.) Any two regular expressions a and b can be concatenated. The result is a regular expression which matches a string if a matches some amount of the beginning of that string and b matches the rest of the string. As a trivial example, concatenating the regular expressions ‘f’ and ‘o’ gives the regular expression ‘fo’, which matches only the string ‘fo’. To do something less trivial, you need to use one of the special characters. Here is a list of them. . (Period) is a special character that matches any single character except a newline. For example, the regular expressions ‘a.b’ matches any three-character string that begins with ‘a’ and ends with ‘b’. * is not a construct by itself; it is a postfix operator that means to match the preceding regular expression repetitively any number of times, as many times as possible. Thus, ‘o*’ matches any number of ‘o’s, including no ‘o’s. ‘*’ always applies to the smallest possible preceding expression. Thus, ‘fo*’ has a repeating ‘o’, not a repeating ‘fo’. It matches ‘f’, ‘fo’, ‘foo’, and so on. The matcher processes a ‘*’ construct by matching, immediately, as many repetitions as can be found. Then it continues with the rest of the pattern. If that fails, backtracking occurs, discarding some of the matches of the ‘*’-modified construct in case that makes it possible to match the rest of the pattern. For example, in matching ‘ca*ar’ against the string ‘caaar’, the ‘a*’ first tries to match all three ‘a’s; but the rest of the pattern is ‘ar’ and there is only ‘r’ left to match, so this try fails. The next alternative is for ‘a*’ to match only two ‘a’s. With this choice, the rest of the regexp matches successfully. + is a postfix operator, similar to ‘*’ except that it must match the preceding expression at least once. Thus, ‘ca+r’ matches the strings ‘car’ and ‘caaaar’ but not the string ‘cr’, whereas ‘ca*r’ matches all three strings. ? is a postfix operator, similar to ‘*’ except that it can match the preceding expression either once or not at all. Thus, ‘ca?r’ matches ‘car’ or ‘cr’, and nothing else. *?, +?, ?? are non-greedy variants of the operators above. The normal operators ‘*’, ‘+’, ‘?’ match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can still match. With a following ‘?’, they will match as little as possible. Thus, both ‘ab*’ and ‘ab*?’ can match the string ‘a’ and the string ‘abbbb’; but if you try to match them both against the text ‘abbb’, ‘ab*’ will match it all (the longest valid match), while ‘ab*?’ will match just ‘a’ (the shortest valid match). Non-greedy operators match the shortest possible string starting at a given starting point; in a forward search, though, the earliest possible starting point for match is always the one chosen. Thus, if you search for ‘a.*?$’ against the text ‘abbab’ followed by a newline, it matches the whole string. Since it can match starting at the first ‘a’, it does. \{n\} is a postfix operator specifying n repetitions—that is, the preceding regular expression must match exactly n times in a row. For example, ‘x\{4\}’ matches the string ‘xxxx’ and nothing else. \{n,m\} is a postfix operator specifying between n and m repetitions—that is, the preceding regular expression must match at least n times, but no more than m times. If m is omitted, then there is no upper limit, but the preceding regular expression must match at least n times. ‘\{0,1\}’ is equivalent to ‘?’. ‘\{0,\}’ is equivalent to ‘*’. ‘\{1,\}’ is equivalent to ‘+’. [ … ] is a character set, beginning with ‘[’ and terminated by ‘]’. In the simplest case, the characters between the two brackets are what this set can match. Thus, ‘[ad]’ matches either one ‘a’ or one ‘d’, and ‘[ad]*’ matches any string composed of just ‘a’s and ‘d’s (including the empty string). It follows that ‘c[ad]*r’ matches ‘cr’, ‘car’, ‘cdr’, ‘caddaar’, etc. You can also include character ranges in a character set, by writing the starting and ending characters with a ‘-’ between them. Thus, ‘[a-z]’ matches any lower-case ASCII letter. Ranges may be intermixed freely with individual characters, as in ‘[a-z$%.]’, which matches any lower-case ASCII letter or ‘$’, ‘%’ or period. As another example, ‘[α-ωί]’ matches all lower-case Greek letters. You can also include certain special character classes in a character set. A ‘[:’ and balancing ‘:]’ enclose a character class inside a character alternative. For instance, ‘[[:alnum:]]’ matches any letter or digit. See Char Classes in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for a list of character classes. To include a ‘]’ in a character set, you must make it the first character. For example, ‘[]a]’ matches ‘]’ or ‘a’. To include a ‘-’, write ‘-’ as the last character of the set, tho you can also put it first or after a range. Thus, ‘[]-]’ matches both ‘]’ and ‘-’. To include ‘^’ in a set, put it anywhere but at the beginning of the set. (At the beginning, it complements the set—see below.) When you use a range in case-insensitive search, you should write both ends of the range in upper case, or both in lower case, or both should be non-letters. The behavior of a mixed-case range such as ‘A-z’ is somewhat ill-defined, and it may change in future Emacs versions. [^ … ] ‘[^’ begins a complemented character set, which matches any character except the ones specified. Thus, ‘[^a-z0-9A-Z]’ matches all characters except ASCII letters and digits. ‘^’ is not special in a character set unless it is the first character. The character following the ‘^’ is treated as if it were first (in other words, ‘-’ and ‘]’ are not special there). A complemented character set can match a newline, unless newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match. This is in contrast to the handling of regexps in programs such as grep. ^ is a special character that matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line in the text being matched. Otherwise it fails to match anything. Thus, ‘^foo’ matches a ‘foo’ that occurs at the beginning of a line. For historical compatibility reasons, ‘^’ can be used with this meaning only at the beginning of the regular expression, or after ‘\(’ or ‘\|’. $ is similar to ‘^’ but matches only at the end of a line. Thus, ‘x+$’ matches a string of one ‘x’ or more at the end of a line. For historical compatibility reasons, ‘$’ can be used with this meaning only at the end of the regular expression, or before ‘\)’ or ‘\|’. \ has two functions: it quotes the special characters (including ‘\’), and it introduces additional special constructs. Because ‘\’ quotes special characters, ‘\$’ is a regular expression that matches only ‘$’, and ‘\[’ is a regular expression that matches only ‘[’, and so on. See the following section for the special constructs that begin with ‘\’. Note: for historical compatibility, special characters are treated as ordinary ones if they are in contexts where their special meanings make no sense. For example, ‘*foo’ treats ‘*’ as ordinary since there is no preceding expression on which the ‘*’ can act. It is poor practice to depend on this behavior; it is better to quote the special character anyway, regardless of where it appears. As a ‘\’ is not special inside a character alternative, it can never remove the special meaning of ‘-’ or ‘]’. So you should not quote these characters when they have no special meaning either. This would not clarify anything, since backslashes can legitimately precede these characters where they have special meaning, as in ‘[^\]’ ("[^\\]" for Lisp string syntax), which matches any single character except a backslash. Next: Regexp Backslash, Previous: Regexp Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Next: Regexp Example, Previous: Regexps, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.7 Backslash in Regular Expressions For the most part, ‘\’ followed by any character matches only that character. However, there are several exceptions: two-character sequences starting with ‘\’ that have special meanings. The second character in the sequence is always an ordinary character when used on its own. Here is a table of ‘\’ constructs. \| specifies an alternative. Two regular expressions a and b with ‘\|’ in between form an expression that matches some text if either a matches it or b matches it. It works by trying to match a, and if that fails, by trying to match b. Thus, ‘foo\|bar’ matches either ‘foo’ or ‘bar’ but no other string. ‘\|’ applies to the largest possible surrounding expressions. Only a surrounding ‘\( … \)’ grouping can limit the grouping power of ‘\|’. Full backtracking capability exists to handle multiple uses of ‘\|’. \( … \) is a grouping construct that serves three purposes: 1. To enclose a set of ‘\|’ alternatives for other operations. Thus, ‘\(foo\|bar\)x’ matches either ‘foox’ or ‘barx’. 2. To enclose a complicated expression for the postfix operators ‘*’, ‘+’ and ‘?’ to operate on. Thus, ‘ba\(na\)*’ matches ‘bananana’, etc., with any (zero or more) number of ‘na’ strings. 3. To record a matched substring for future reference. This last application is not a consequence of the idea of a parenthetical grouping; it is a separate feature that is assigned as a second meaning to the same ‘\( … \)’ construct. In practice there is usually no conflict between the two meanings; when there is a conflict, you can use a shy group, described below. \(?: … \) specifies a shy group that does not record the matched substring; you can’t refer back to it with ‘\d’ (see below). This is useful in mechanically combining regular expressions, so that you can add groups for syntactic purposes without interfering with the numbering of the groups that are meant to be referred to. \d matches the same text that matched the dth occurrence of a ‘\( … \)’ construct. This is called a back reference. After the end of a ‘\( … \)’ construct, the matcher remembers the beginning and end of the text matched by that construct. Then, later on in the regular expression, you can use ‘\’ followed by the digit d to mean “match the same text matched the dth time by the ‘\( … \)’ construct”. The strings matching the first nine ‘\( … \)’ constructs appearing in a regular expression are assigned numbers 1 through 9 in the order that the open-parentheses appear in the regular expression. So you can use ‘\1’ through ‘\9’ to refer to the text matched by the corresponding ‘\( … \)’ constructs. For example, ‘\(.*\)\1’ matches any newline-free string that is composed of two identical halves. The ‘\(.*\)’ matches the first half, which may be anything, but the ‘\1’ that follows must match the same exact text. If a particular ‘\( … \)’ construct matches more than once (which can easily happen if it is followed by ‘*’), only the last match is recorded. \` matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the string or buffer (or its accessible portion) being matched against. \' matches the empty string, but only at the end of the string or buffer (or its accessible portion) being matched against. \= matches the empty string, but only at point. \b matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a word. Thus, ‘\bfoo\b’ matches any occurrence of ‘foo’ as a separate word. ‘\bballs?\b’ matches ‘ball’ or ‘balls’ as a separate word. ‘\b’ matches at the beginning or end of the buffer regardless of what text appears next to it. \B matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a word. \< matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a word. ‘\<’ matches at the beginning of the buffer only if a word-constituent character follows. \> matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word. ‘\>’ matches at the end of the buffer only if the contents end with a word-constituent character. \w matches any word-constituent character. The syntax table determines which characters these are. See Syntax Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. \W matches any character that is not a word-constituent. \_< matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a symbol. A symbol is a sequence of one or more symbol-constituent characters. A symbol-constituent character is a character whose syntax is either ‘w’ or ‘_’. ‘\_<’ matches at the beginning of the buffer only if a symbol-constituent character follows. As with words, the syntax table determines which characters are symbol-constituent. \_> matches the empty string, but only at the end of a symbol. ‘\_>’ matches at the end of the buffer only if the contents end with a symbol-constituent character. \sc matches any character whose syntax is c. Here c is a character that designates a particular syntax class: thus, ‘w’ for word constituent, ‘-’ or ‘ ’ for whitespace, ‘.’ for ordinary punctuation, etc. See Syntax Class Table in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. \Sc matches any character whose syntax is not c. \cc matches any character that belongs to the category c. For example, ‘\cc’ matches Chinese characters, ‘\cg’ matches Greek characters, etc. For the description of the known categories, type M-x describe-categories RET. \Cc matches any character that does not belong to category c. The constructs that pertain to words and syntax are controlled by the setting of the syntax table. See Syntax Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Next: Regexp Example, Previous: Regexps, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Next: Lax Search, Previous: Regexp Backslash, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.8 Regular Expression Example Here is an example of a regexp—similar to the regexp that Emacs uses, by default, to recognize the end of a sentence, not including the following space (i.e., the variable sentence-end-base): [.?!][]\"')}]* This contains two parts in succession: a character set matching period, ‘?’, or ‘!’, and a character set matching close-brackets, quotes, or parentheses, repeated zero or more times. Next: Replace, Previous: Regexp Example, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.9 Lax Matching During Searching Normally, you’d want search commands to disregard certain minor differences between the search string you type and the text being searched. For example, sequences of whitespace characters of different length are usually perceived as equivalent; letter-case differences usually don’t matter; etc. This is known as character equivalence. This section describes the Emacs lax search features, and how to tailor them to your needs. By default, search commands perform lax space matching: each space, or sequence of spaces, matches any sequence of one or more whitespace characters in the text. (Incremental regexp search has a separate default; see Regexp Search.) Hence, ‘foo bar’ matches ‘foo bar’, ‘foo bar’, ‘foo bar’, and so on (but not ‘foobar’). More precisely, Emacs matches each sequence of space characters in the search string to a regular expression specified by the variable search-whitespace-regexp. For example, to make spaces match sequences of newlines as well as spaces, set it to ‘"[[:space:]\n]+"’. The default value of this variable depends on the buffer’s major mode; most major modes classify spaces, tabs, and formfeed characters as whitespace. If you want whitespace characters to match exactly, you can turn lax space matching off by typing M-s SPC (isearch-toggle-lax-whitespace) within an incremental search. Another M-s SPC turns lax space matching back on. To disable lax whitespace matching for all searches, change search-whitespace-regexp to nil; then each space in the search string matches exactly one space. Searches in Emacs by default ignore the case of the text they are searching through, if you specify the search string in lower case. Thus, if you specify searching for ‘foo’, then ‘Foo’ and ‘fOO’ also match. Regexps, and in particular character sets, behave likewise: ‘[ab]’ matches ‘a’ or ‘A’ or ‘b’ or ‘B’. This feature is known as case folding, and it is supported in both incremental and non-incremental search modes. An upper-case letter anywhere in the search string makes the search case-sensitive. Thus, searching for ‘Foo’ does not find ‘foo’ or ‘FOO’. This applies to regular expression search as well as to literal string search. The effect ceases if you delete the upper-case letter from the search string. The variable search-upper-case controls this: if it is non-nil, an upper-case character in the search string makes the search case-sensitive; setting it to nil disables this effect of upper-case characters. The default value of this variable is not-yanks, which makes search case-sensitive if there are upper-case letters in the search string, and also causes text yanked into the search string (see Isearch Yank) to be down-cased, so that such searches are case-insensitive by default. If you set the variable case-fold-search to nil, then all letters must match exactly, including case. This is a per-buffer variable; altering the variable normally affects only the current buffer, unless you change its default value. See Locals. This variable applies to nonincremental searches also, including those performed by the replace commands (see Replace) and the minibuffer history matching commands (see Minibuffer History). Typing M-c or M-s c (isearch-toggle-case-fold) within an incremental search toggles the case sensitivity of that search. The effect does not extend beyond the current incremental search, but it does override the effect of adding or removing an upper-case letter in the current search. Several related variables control case-sensitivity of searching and matching for specific commands or activities. For instance, tags-case-fold-search controls case sensitivity for find-tag. To find these variables, do M-x apropos-variable RET case-fold-search RET. Case folding disregards case distinctions among characters, making upper-case characters match lower-case variants, and vice versa. A generalization of case folding is character folding, which disregards wider classes of distinctions among similar characters. For instance, under character folding the letter a matches all of its accented cousins like ä and á, i.e., the match disregards the diacritics that distinguish these variants. In addition, a matches other characters that resemble it, or have it as part of their graphical representation, such as U+249C PARENTHESIZED LATIN SMALL LETTER A and U+2100 ACCOUNT OF (which looks like a small a over c). Similarly, the ASCII double-quote character " matches all the other variants of double quotes defined by the Unicode standard. Finally, character folding can make a sequence of one or more characters match another sequence of a different length: for example, the sequence of two characters ff matches U+FB00 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FF. Character sequences that are not identical, but match under character folding are known as equivalent character sequences. Generally, search commands in Emacs do not by default perform character folding in order to match equivalent character sequences. You can enable this behavior by customizing the variable search-default-mode to char-fold-to-regexp. See Search Customizations. Within an incremental search, typing M-s ' (isearch-toggle-char-fold) toggles character folding, but only for that search. (Replace commands have a different default, controlled by a separate option; see Replacement and Lax Matches.) By default, typing an explicit variant of a character, such as ä, as part of the search string doesn’t match its base character, such as a. But if you customize the variable char-fold-symmetric to t, then search commands treat equivalent characters the same and use of any of a set of equivalent characters in a search string finds any of them in the text being searched, so typing an accented character ä matches the letter a as well as all the other variants like á. You can add new foldings using the customizable variable char-fold-include, or remove the existing ones using the customizable variable char-fold-exclude. Next: Replace, Previous: Regexp Example, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Next: Other Repeating Search, Previous: Lax Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.10 Replacement Commands Emacs provides several commands for performing search-and-replace operations. In addition to the simple M-x replace-string command, there is M-% (query-replace), which presents each occurrence of the search pattern and asks you whether to replace it. The replace commands normally operate on the text from point to the end of the buffer. When the region is active, they operate on it instead (see Mark). The basic replace commands replace one search string (or regexp) with one replacement string. It is possible to perform several replacements in parallel, using the command expand-region-abbrevs (see Expanding Abbrevs). • Unconditional Replace Replacing all matches for a string. • Regexp Replace Replacing all matches for a regexp. • Replacement and Lax Matches Lax searching for text to replace. • Query Replace How to use querying. Next: Search Customizations, Previous: Replace, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.11 Other Search-and-Loop Commands Here are some other commands that find matches for a regular expression. They all ignore case in matching, if the pattern contains no upper-case letters and case-fold-search is non-nil. Aside from multi-occur and multi-occur-in-matching-buffers, which always search the whole buffer, all operate on the text from point to the end of the buffer, or on the region if it is active. M-x multi-isearch-buffers Prompt for one or more buffer names, ending with RET; then, begin a multi-buffer incremental search in those buffers. (If the search fails in one buffer, the next C-s tries searching the next specified buffer, and so forth.) With a prefix argument, prompt for a regexp and begin a multi-buffer incremental search in buffers matching that regexp. M-x multi-isearch-buffers-regexp This command is just like multi-isearch-buffers, except it performs an incremental regexp search. M-x multi-isearch-files Prompt for one or more file names, ending with RET; then, begin a multi-file incremental search in those files. (If the search fails in one file, the next C-s tries searching the next specified file, and so forth.) With a prefix argument, prompt for a regexp and begin a multi-file incremental search in files matching that regexp. M-x multi-isearch-files-regexp This command is just like multi-isearch-files, except it performs an incremental regexp search. In some modes that set the buffer-local variable multi-isearch-next-buffer-function (e.g., in Change Log mode) a multi-file incremental search is activated automatically. M-x occur M-s o Prompt for a regexp, and display a list showing each line in the buffer that contains a match for it. If you type M-n at the prompt, you can reuse search strings from previous incremental searches. The text that matched is highlighted using the match face. A numeric argument n specifies that n lines of context are to be displayed before and after each matching line. The default number of context lines is specified by the variable list-matching-lines-default-context-lines. When list-matching-lines-jump-to-current-line is non-nil the current line is shown highlighted with face list-matching-lines-current-line-face and the point is set at the first match after such line. You can also run M-s o when an incremental search is active; this uses the current search string. Note that matches for the regexp you type are extended to include complete lines, and a match that starts before the previous match ends is not considered a match. In the *Occur* buffer, you can click on each entry, or move point there and type RET, to visit the corresponding position in the buffer that was searched. o and C-o display the match in another window; C-o does not select it. Alternatively, you can use the M-g M-n (next-error) command to visit the occurrences one by one (see Compilation Mode). Typing e in the *Occur* buffer switches to Occur Edit mode, in which edits made to the entries are also applied to the text in the originating buffer. Type C-c C-c to return to Occur mode. The command M-x list-matching-lines is a synonym for M-x occur. M-x multi-occur This command is just like occur, except it is able to search through multiple buffers. It asks you to specify the buffer names one by one. M-x multi-occur-in-matching-buffers This command is similar to multi-occur, except the buffers to search are specified by a regular expression that matches visited file names. With a prefix argument, it uses the regular expression to match buffer names instead. M-x how-many Prompt for a regexp, and print the number of matches for it in the buffer after point. If the region is active, this operates on the region instead. M-x flush-lines Prompt for a regexp, and delete each line that contains a match for it, operating on the text after point. When the command finishes, it prints the number of deleted matching lines. This command deletes the current line if it contains a match starting after point. If the region is active, it operates on the region instead; if a line partially contained in the region contains a match entirely contained in the region, it is deleted. If a match is split across lines, flush-lines deletes all those lines. It deletes the lines before starting to look for the next match; hence, it ignores a match starting on the same line at which another match ended. M-x keep-lines Prompt for a regexp, and delete each line that does not contain a match for it, operating on the text after point. If point is not at the beginning of a line, this command always keeps the current line. If the region is active, the command operates on the region instead; it never deletes lines that are only partially contained in the region (a newline that ends a line counts as part of that line). If a match is split across lines, this command keeps all those lines. Next: Search Customizations, Previous: Replace, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Previous: Other Repeating Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.12 Tailoring Search to Your Needs This section describes miscellaneous search-related customizations not described elsewhere. The default search mode for the incremental search is specified by the variable search-default-mode. It can be nil, t, or a function. If it is nil, the default mode is to do literal searches without character folding, but with case folding and lax-whitespace matches as determined by case-fold-search and search-whitespace-regexp, respectively (see Lax Search). If the value is t, incremental search defaults to regexp searches. The default value specifies a function that only performs case folding and lax-whitespace matching. The current match of an on-going incremental search is highlighted using the isearch face. This highlighting can be disabled by setting the variable search-highlight to nil. The other matches for the search string that are visible on display are highlighted using the lazy-highlight face. Setting the variable isearch-lazy-highlight to nil disables this highlighting. Here are some other variables that customize the lazy highlighting: lazy-highlight-initial-delay Time in seconds to wait before highlighting visible matches. lazy-highlight-interval Time in seconds between highlighting successive matches. lazy-highlight-max-at-a-time The maximum number of matches to highlight before checking for input. A large number can take some time to highlight, so if you want to continue searching and type C-s or C-r during that time, Emacs will not respond until it finishes highlighting all those matches. Thus, smaller values make Emacs more responsive. isearch-lazy-count Show the current match number and the total number of matches in the search prompt. lazy-count-prefix-format lazy-count-suffix-format These two variables determine the format of showing the current and the total number of matches for isearch-lazy-count. Normally, entering RET within incremental search when the search string is empty launches a nonincremental search. (Actually, it lets you edit the search string, and the next RET does the search.) However, if you customize the variable search-nonincremental-instead to nil, typing RET will always exit the incremental search, even if the search string is empty. By default, incremental search and query-replace commands match invisible text, but hide any such matches as soon as the current match moves off the invisible text. If you customize the variable isearch-hide-immediately to nil, any invisible text where matches were found stays on display until the search or the replace command exits. Searching incrementally on slow terminals, such as displays connected to remote machines over slow connection, could be annoying due to the need to redraw large portions of the display as the search proceeds. Emacs provides a special display mode for slow terminals, whereby search pops up a separate small window and displays the text surrounding the match in that window. Small windows display faster, so the annoying effect of slow speed is alleviated. The variable search-slow-speed determines the baud rate threshold below which Emacs will use this display mode. The variable search-slow-window-lines controls the number of lines in the window Emacs pops up for displaying the search results; the default is 1 line. Normally, this window will pop up at the bottom of the window that displays the buffer where you start searching, but if the value of search-slow-window-lines is negative, that means to put the window at the top and give it the number of lines that is the absolute value of search-slow-window-lines. -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Other Repeating Search, Up: Search [Contents][Index] Next: Repeat Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1.1 Basics of Incremental Search C-s Begin incremental search (isearch-forward). C-r Begin reverse incremental search (isearch-backward). C-s (isearch-forward) starts a forward incremental search. It reads characters from the keyboard, and moves point just past the end of the next occurrence of those characters in the buffer. For instance, if you type C-s and then F, that puts the cursor after the first ‘F’ that occurs in the buffer after the starting point. If you then type O, the cursor moves to just after the first ‘FO’; the ‘F’ in that ‘FO’ might not be the first ‘F’ previously found. After another O, the cursor moves to just after the first ‘FOO’. At each step, Emacs highlights the current match—the buffer text that matches the search string—using the isearch face (see Faces). See Search Customizations, for various options that customize this highlighting. The current search string is also displayed in the echo area. If you make a mistake typing the search string, type DEL (isearch-delete-char). Each DEL cancels the last input item entered during the search. Emacs records a new input item whenever you type a command that changes the search string, the position of point, the success or failure of the search, the direction of the search, the position of the other end of the current search result, or the “wrappedness” of the search. See Error in Isearch, for more about dealing with unsuccessful search. When you are satisfied with the place you have reached, type RET (isearch-exit). This stops searching, leaving the cursor where the search brought it. Also, any command not specially meaningful in searches stops the searching and is then executed. Thus, typing C-a exits the search and then moves to the beginning of the line; typing one of the arrow keys exits the search and performs the respective movement command; etc. RET is necessary only if the next command you want to type is a printing character, DEL, RET, or another character that is special within searches (C-q, C-w, C-r, C-s, C-y, M-y, M-r, M-c, M-e, and some others described below). You can fine-tune the commands that exit the search; see Not Exiting Isearch. As a special exception, entering RET when the search string is empty launches nonincremental search (see Nonincremental Search). (This can be customized; see Search Customizations.) To abandon the search and return to the place where you started, type ESC ESC ESC (isearch-cancel) or C-g C-g (isearch-abort). When you exit the incremental search, it adds the original value of point to the mark ring, without activating the mark; you can thus use C-u C-SPC or C-x C-x to return to where you were before beginning the search. See Mark Ring. (Emacs only does this if the mark was not already active; if the mark was active when you started the search, both C-u C-SPC and C-x C-x will go to the mark.) To search backwards, use C-r (isearch-backward) instead of C-s to start the search. A backward search finds matches that end before the starting point, just as a forward search finds matches that begin after it. Next: Repeat Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] Next: Isearch Yank, Previous: Basic Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1.2 Repeating Incremental Search Suppose you search forward for ‘FOO’ and find a match, but not the one you expected to find: the ‘FOO’ you were aiming for occurs later in the buffer. In this event, type another C-s (isearch-repeat-forward) to move to the next occurrence of the search string, or C-r (isearch-repeat-backward) to move to the previous occurrence. You can repeat these commands any number of times. Alternatively, you can supply a numeric prefix argument of n to C-s and C-r to find the nth next or previous occurrence. If you overshoot, you can cancel some C-s commands with DEL. Similarly, each C-r (isearch-repeat-backward) in a backward incremental search repeats the backward search. If you pause for a little while during incremental search, Emacs highlights all the other possible matches for the search string that are present on the screen. This helps you anticipate where you can get to by typing C-s or C-r to repeat the search. The other matches are highlighted differently from the current match, using the customizable face lazy-highlight (see Faces). If you don’t like this feature, you can disable it by setting isearch-lazy-highlight to nil. For other customizations related to highlighting matches, see Search Customizations. After exiting a search, you can search for the same string again by typing just C-s C-s. The first C-s is the key that invokes incremental search, and the second C-s means to search again for the last search string. Similarly, C-r C-r searches backward for the last search string. In determining the last search string, it doesn’t matter whether that string was searched for with C-s or C-r. If you are searching forward but you realize you were looking for something before the starting point, type C-r to switch to a backward search, leaving the search string unchanged. Similarly, C-s in a backward search switches to a forward search. If a search is failing and you ask to repeat it by typing another C-s, it starts again from the beginning of the buffer. Repeating a failing reverse search with C-r starts again from the end. This is called wrapping around, and ‘Wrapped’ appears in the search prompt once this has happened. If you keep on going past the original starting point of the search, it changes to ‘Overwrapped’, which means that you are revisiting matches that you have already seen. To reuse earlier search strings, use the search ring. The commands M-p (isearch-ring-retreat) and M-n (isearch-ring-advance) move through the ring to pick a search string to reuse. These commands leave the selected search ring element in the minibuffer, where you can edit it. Type C-s/C-r or RET to accept the string and start searching for it. The number of most recently used search strings saved in the search ring is specified by the variable search-ring-max, 16 by default. To edit the current search string in the minibuffer without replacing it with items from the search ring, type M-e (isearch-edit-string) or click mouse-1 in the minibuffer. Type RET, C-s or C-r to finish editing the string and search for it. Type C-f or RIGHT to add to the search string characters following point from the buffer from which you started the search. Next: Isearch Yank, Previous: Basic Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] Next: Error in Isearch, Previous: Repeat Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1.3 Isearch Yanking In many cases, you will want to use text at or near point as your search string. The commands described in this subsection let you do that conveniently. C-w (isearch-yank-word-or-char) appends the next character or word at point to the search string. This is an easy way to search for another occurrence of the text at point. (The decision of whether to copy a character or a word is heuristic.) With a prefix numeric argument of n, append the next n characters or words. C-M-w (isearch-yank-symbol-or-char) appends the next character or symbol at point to the search string. This is an easy way to search for another occurrence of the symbol at point. (The decision of whether to copy a character or a symbol is heuristic.) With a prefix numeric argument of n, append the next n characters or symbols. M-s C-e (isearch-yank-line) appends the rest of the current line to the search string. If point is already at the end of a line, it appends the next line. With a prefix argument n, it appends the next n lines. Similarly, C-M-z (isearch-yank-until-char) appends to the search string everything from point until the next occurrence of a specified character (not including that character). This is especially useful for keyboard macros, for example in programming languages or markup languages in which that character marks a token boundary. With a prefix numeric argument of n, the command appends everything from point to the nth occurrence of the specified character. Within incremental search, C-y (isearch-yank-kill) appends the current kill to the search string. M-y (isearch-yank-pop), if called after C-y, replaces that appended text with an earlier kill, similar to the usual M-y (yank-pop) command (see Yanking). Clicking mouse-2 in the echo area appends the current X selection (see Primary Selection) to the search string (isearch-yank-x-selection). C-M-d (isearch-del-char) deletes the last character from the search string, and C-M-y (isearch-yank-char) appends the character after point to the search string. An alternative method to add the character after point is to enter the minibuffer with M-e (see Repeat Isearch) and type C-f or RIGHT at the end of the search string in the minibuffer. Each C-f or RIGHT you type adds another character following point to the search string. Normally, when the search is case-insensitive, text yanked into the search string is converted to lower case, so that the search remains case-insensitive (see case folding). However, if the value of the variable search-upper-case (see search-upper-case) is other than not-yanks, that disables this down-casing. Next: Error in Isearch, Previous: Repeat Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] Next: Special Isearch, Previous: Isearch Yank, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1.4 Errors in Incremental Search If your string is not found at all, the echo area says ‘Failing I-Search’, and the cursor moves past the place where Emacs found as much of your string as it could. Thus, if you search for ‘FOOT’, and there is no ‘FOOT’, you might see the cursor after the ‘FOO’ in ‘FOOL’. In the echo area, the part of the search string that failed to match is highlighted using the face isearch-fail. At this point, there are several things you can do. If your string was mistyped, use DEL to cancel a previous input item (see Basic Isearch), C-M-d to erase one character at a time, or M-e to edit it. If you like the place you have found, you can type RET to remain there. Or you can type C-g, which removes from the search string the characters that could not be found (the ‘T’ in ‘FOOT’), leaving those that were found (the ‘FOO’ in ‘FOOT’). A second C-g at that point cancels the search entirely, returning point to where it was when the search started. The quit command, C-g, does special things during searches; just what it does depends on the status of the search. If the search has found what you specified and is waiting for input, C-g cancels the entire search, moving the cursor back to where you started the search. If C-g is typed when there are characters in the search string that have not been found—because Emacs is still searching for them, or because it has failed to find them—then the search string characters which have not been found are discarded from the search string. With them gone, the search is now successful and waiting for more input, so a second C-g will cancel the entire search. Next: Special Isearch, Previous: Isearch Yank, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] Next: Not Exiting Isearch, Previous: Error in Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1.5 Special Input for Incremental Search In addition to characters described in the previous subsections, some of the other characters you type during incremental search have special effects. They are described here. To toggle lax space matching (see lax space matching), type M-s SPC. To toggle case sensitivity of the search, type M-c or M-s c. See case folding. If the search string includes upper-case letters, the search is case-sensitive by default. To toggle whether or not the search will consider similar and equivalent characters as a match, type M-s '. See character folding. If the search string includes accented characters, that disables character folding during that search. To toggle whether or not invisible text is searched, type M-s i (isearch-toggle-invisible). See Outline Search. To toggle between non-regexp and regexp incremental search, type M-r or M-s r (isearch-toggle-regexp). See Regexp Search. To toggle symbol mode, type M-s _. See Symbol Search. To search for a newline character, type C-j as part of the search string. To search for non-ASCII characters, use one of the following methods: * Type C-q (isearch-quote-char), followed by a non-graphic character or a sequence of octal digits. This adds a character to the search string, similar to inserting into a buffer using C-q (see Inserting Text). For example, C-q C-s during incremental search adds the ‘control-S’ character to the search string. * Type C-x 8 RET (isearch-char-by-name), followed by a Unicode name or code-point in hex. This adds the specified character into the search string, similar to the usual insert-char command (see Inserting Text). * Use an input method (see Input Methods). If an input method is enabled in the current buffer when you start the search, the same method will be active in the minibuffer when you type the search string. While typing the search string, you can toggle the input method with C-\ (isearch-toggle-input-method). You can also turn on a non-default input method with C-^ (isearch-toggle-specified-input-method), which prompts for the name of the input method. When an input method is active during incremental search, the search prompt includes the input method mnemonic, like this: I-search [im]: where im is the mnemonic of the active input method. Any input method you enable during incremental search remains enabled in the current buffer afterwards. Typing M-s o in incremental search invokes isearch-occur, which runs occur with the current search string. See occur. Typing M-% (isearch-query-replace) in incremental search invokes query-replace or query-replace-regexp (depending on search mode) with the current search string used as the string to replace. A negative prefix argument means to replace backward. See Query Replace. Typing C-M-% (isearch-query-replace-regexp) invokes query-replace-regexp with the current search string used as the regexp to replace. Typing M-TAB in incremental search invokes isearch-complete, which attempts to complete the search string using the search ring (the previous search strings you used) as a list of completion alternatives. See Completion. In many operating systems, the M-TAB key sequence is captured by the window manager; you then need to rebind isearch-complete to another key sequence if you want to use it (see Rebinding). You can exit the search while leaving the matches highlighted by typing M-s h r (isearch-highlight-regexp). This runs highlight-regexp (see Highlight Interactively), passing it the regexp derived from the search string and prompting you for the face to use for highlighting. To highlight whole lines containing matches (rather than just the matches), type M-s h l (isearch-highlight-lines-matching-regexp). In either case, to remove the highlighting, type M-s h u (unhighlight-regexp). When incremental search is active, you can type C-h C-h (isearch-help-map) to access interactive help options, including a list of special key bindings. These key bindings are part of the keymap isearch-mode-map (see Keymaps). When incremental search is active, typing M-s M-> will go to the last occurrence of the search string, and M-s M-< will go to the first occurrence. With a prefix numeric argument of n, these commands will go to the nth occurrence of the search string counting from the beginning or end of the buffer, respectively. Next: Not Exiting Isearch, Previous: Error in Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] Next: Isearch Minibuffer, Previous: Special Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1.6 Not Exiting Incremental Search This subsection describes how to control whether typing a command not specifically meaningful in searches exits the search before executing the command. It also describes three categories of commands which you can type without exiting the current incremental search, even though they are not themselves part of incremental search. Normally, typing a command that is not bound by the incremental search exits the search before executing the command. Thus, the command operates on the buffer from which you invoked the search. However, if you customize the variable search-exit-option to append, the characters which you type that are not interpreted by the incremental search are simply appended to the search string. This is so you could include in the search string control characters, such as C-a, that would normally exit the search and invoke the command bound to them on the buffer. Prefix Arguments In incremental search, when you type a command that specifies a prefix argument (see Arguments), by default it will apply either to the next action in the search or to the command that exits the search. In other words, entering a prefix argument will not by itself terminate the search. In previous versions of Emacs, entering a prefix argument always terminated the search. You can revert to this behavior by setting the variable isearch-allow-prefix to nil. When isearch-allow-scroll is non-nil (see below), prefix arguments always have the default behavior described above, i.e., they don’t terminate the search, even if isearch-allow-prefix is nil. Scrolling Commands Normally, scrolling commands exit incremental search. If you change the variable isearch-allow-scroll to a non-nil value, that enables the use of the scroll-bar, as well as keyboard scrolling commands like C-v, M-v, and C-l (see Scrolling). This applies only to calling these commands via their bound key sequences—typing M-x will still exit the search. You can give prefix arguments to these commands in the usual way. This feature normally won’t let you scroll the current match out of visibility; but if you customize isearch-allow-scroll to the special value unlimited, that restriction is lifted. The isearch-allow-scroll feature also affects some other commands, such as C-x 2 (split-window-below) and C-x ^ (enlarge-window), which don’t exactly scroll but do affect where the text appears on the screen. It applies to any command whose name has a non-nil isearch-scroll property. So you can control which commands are affected by changing these properties. For example, to make C-h l usable within an incremental search in all future Emacs sessions, use C-h c to find what command it runs (see Key Help), which is view-lossage. Then you can put the following line in your init file (see Init File): (put 'view-lossage 'isearch-scroll t) This feature can be applied to any command that doesn’t permanently change point, the buffer contents, the match data, the current buffer, or the selected window and frame. The command must not itself attempt an incremental search. This feature is disabled if isearch-allow-scroll is nil (which it is by default). Motion Commands When isearch-yank-on-move is customized to shift, you can extend the search string by holding down the shift key while typing cursor motion commands. It will yank text that ends at the new position after moving point in the current buffer. When isearch-yank-on-move is t, you can extend the search string without using the shift key for cursor motion commands, but it applies only for certain motion command that have the isearch-move property on their symbols. Next: Isearch Minibuffer, Previous: Special Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] Previous: Not Exiting Isearch, Up: Incremental Search [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.1.7 Searching the Minibuffer If you start an incremental search while the minibuffer is active, Emacs searches the contents of the minibuffer. Unlike searching an ordinary buffer, the search string is not shown in the echo area, because that is used to display the minibuffer. If an incremental search fails in the minibuffer, it tries searching the minibuffer history. See Minibuffer History. You can visualize the minibuffer and its history as a series of pages, with the earliest history element on the first page and the current minibuffer on the last page. A forward search, C-s, searches forward to later pages; a reverse search, C-r, searches backwards to earlier pages. Like in ordinary buffer search, a failing search can wrap around, going from the last page to the first page or vice versa. When the current match is on a history element, that history element is pulled into the minibuffer. If you exit the incremental search normally (e.g., by typing RET), it remains in the minibuffer afterwards. Canceling the search, with C-g, restores the contents of the minibuffer when you began the search. Next: Regexp Replace, Up: Replace [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.10.1 Unconditional Replacement M-x replace-string RET string RET newstring RET Replace every occurrence of string with newstring. To replace every instance of ‘foo’ after point with ‘bar’, use the command M-x replace-string with the two arguments ‘foo’ and ‘bar’. Replacement happens only in the text after point, so if you want to cover the whole buffer you must go to the beginning first. All occurrences up to the end of the buffer are replaced; to limit replacement to part of the buffer, activate the region around that part. When the region is active, replacement is limited to the region (see Mark). When replace-string exits, it leaves point at the last occurrence replaced. It adds the prior position of point (where the replace-string command was issued) to the mark ring, without activating the mark; use C-u C-SPC to move back there. See Mark Ring. A prefix argument restricts replacement to matches that are surrounded by word boundaries. See Replacement and Lax Matches, for details about case-sensitivity and character folding in replace commands. Next: Replacement and Lax Matches, Previous: Unconditional Replace, Up: Replace [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.10.2 Regexp Replacement The M-x replace-string command replaces exact matches for a single string. The similar command M-x replace-regexp replaces any match for a specified regular expression pattern (see Regexps). M-x replace-regexp RET regexp RET newstring RET Replace every match for regexp with newstring. In replace-regexp, the newstring need not be constant: it can refer to all or part of what is matched by the regexp. ‘\&’ in newstring stands for the entire match being replaced. ‘\d’ in newstring, where d is a digit starting from 1, stands for whatever matched the dth parenthesized grouping in regexp. (This is called a “back reference”.) ‘\#’ refers to the count of replacements already made in this command, as a decimal number. In the first replacement, ‘\#’ stands for ‘0’; in the second, for ‘1’; and so on. For example, M-x replace-regexp RET c[ad]+r RET \&-safe RET replaces (for example) ‘cadr’ with ‘cadr-safe’ and ‘cddr’ with ‘cddr-safe’. M-x replace-regexp RET \(c[ad]+r\)-safe RET \1 RET performs the inverse transformation. To include a ‘\’ in the text to replace with, you must enter ‘\\’. If you want to enter part of the replacement string by hand each time, use ‘\?’ in the replacement string. Each replacement will ask you to edit the replacement string in the minibuffer, putting point where the ‘\?’ was. The remainder of this subsection is intended for specialized tasks and requires knowledge of Lisp. Most readers can skip it. You can use Lisp expressions to calculate parts of the replacement string. To do this, write ‘\,’ followed by the expression in the replacement string. Each replacement calculates the value of the expression and converts it to text without quoting (if it’s a string, this means using the string’s contents), and uses it in the replacement string in place of the expression itself. If the expression is a symbol, one space in the replacement string after the symbol name goes with the symbol name, so the value replaces them both. Inside such an expression, you can use some special sequences. ‘\&’ and ‘\d’ refer here, as usual, to the entire match as a string, and to a submatch as a string. d may be multiple digits, and the value of ‘\d’ is nil if the d’th parenthesized grouping did not match. You can also use ‘\#&’ and ‘\#d’ to refer to those matches as numbers (this is valid when the match or submatch has the form of a numeral). ‘\#’ here too stands for the number of already-completed replacements. For example, we can exchange ‘x’ and ‘y’ this way: M-x replace-regexp RET \(x\)\|y RET \,(if \1 "y" "x") RET For computing replacement strings for ‘\,’, the format function is often useful (see Formatting Strings in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). For example, to add consecutively numbered strings like ‘ABC00042’ to columns 73 to 80 (unless they are already occupied), you can use M-x replace-regexp RET ^.\{0,72\}$ RET \,(format "%-72sABC%05d" \& \#) RET Next: Replacement and Lax Matches, Previous: Unconditional Replace, Up: Replace [Contents][Index] Next: Query Replace, Previous: Regexp Replace, Up: Replace [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.10.3 Replace Commands and Lax Matches This subsection describes the behavior of replace commands with respect to lax matches (see Lax Search) and how to customize it. In general, replace commands mostly default to stricter matching than their search counterparts. Unlike incremental search, the replacement commands do not use lax space matching (see lax space matching) by default. To enable lax space matching for replacement, change the variable replace-lax-whitespace to non-nil. (This only affects how Emacs finds the text to replace, not the replacement text.) A companion variable replace-regexp-lax-whitespace controls whether query-replace-regexp uses lax whitespace matching when searching for patterns. If the first argument of a replace command is all lower case, the command ignores case while searching for occurrences to replace—provided case-fold-search is non-nil and search-upper-case is also non-nil. If search-upper-case (see search-upper-case) is nil, whether searching ignores case is determined by case-fold-search alone, regardless of letter-case of the command’s first argument. If case-fold-search is set to nil, case is always significant in all searches. In addition, when the newstring argument is all or partly lower case, replacement commands try to preserve the case pattern of each occurrence. Thus, the command M-x replace-string RET foo RET bar RET replaces a lower case ‘foo’ with a lower case ‘bar’, an all-caps ‘FOO’ with ‘BAR’, and a capitalized ‘Foo’ with ‘Bar’. (These three alternatives—lower case, all caps, and capitalized, are the only ones that replace-string can distinguish.) If upper-case letters are used in the replacement string, they remain upper case every time that text is inserted. If upper-case letters are used in the first argument, the second argument is always substituted exactly as given, with no case conversion. Likewise, if either case-replace or case-fold-search is set to nil, replacement is done without case conversion. The replacement commands by default do not use character folding (see character folding) when looking for the text to replace. To enable character folding for matching in query-replace and replace-string, set the variable replace-char-fold to a non-nil value. (This setting does not affect the replacement text, only how Emacs finds the text to replace. It also doesn’t affect replace-regexp.) Next: Query Replace, Previous: Regexp Replace, Up: Replace [Contents][Index] Previous: Replacement and Lax Matches, Up: Replace [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15.10.4 Query Replace M-% string RET newstring RET Replace some occurrences of string with newstring. C-M-% regexp RET newstring RET Replace some matches for regexp with newstring. If you want to change only some of the occurrences of ‘foo’ to ‘bar’, not all of them, use M-% (query-replace). This command finds occurrences of ‘foo’ one by one, displays each occurrence and asks you whether to replace it. Aside from querying, query-replace works just like replace-string (see Unconditional Replace). In particular, it preserves case provided case-replace is non-nil, as it normally is (see Replacement and Lax Matches). A numeric argument means to consider only occurrences that are bounded by word-delimiter characters. A negative prefix argument replaces backward. C-M-% performs regexp search and replace (query-replace-regexp). It works like replace-regexp except that it queries like query-replace. You can reuse earlier replacements with these commands. When query-replace or query-replace-regexp prompts for the search string, use M-p and M-n to show previous replacements in the form ‘from -> to’, where from is the search pattern, to is its replacement, and the separator between them is determined by the value of the variable query-replace-from-to-separator. Type RET to select the desired replacement. If the value of this variable is nil, replacements are not added to the command history, and cannot be reused. These commands highlight the current match using the face query-replace. You can disable this highlight by setting the variable query-replace-highlight to nil. They highlight other matches using lazy-highlight just like incremental search (see Incremental Search); this can be disabled by setting query-replace-lazy-highlight to nil. By default, query-replace-regexp will show the substituted replacement string for the current match in the minibuffer. If you want to keep special sequences ‘\&’ and ‘\n’ unexpanded, customize query-replace-show-replacement variable. The variable query-replace-skip-read-only, if set non-nil, will cause replacement commands to ignore matches in read-only text. The default is not to ignore them. The characters you can type when you are shown a match for the string or regexp are: SPC y to replace the occurrence with newstring. DEL Delete BACKSPACE n to skip to the next occurrence without replacing this one. , (Comma) to replace this occurrence and display the result. You are then asked for another input character to say what to do next. Since the replacement has already been made, DEL and SPC are equivalent in this situation; both move to the next occurrence. You can type C-r at this point (see below) to alter the replaced text. You can also undo the replacement with the undo command (e.g., type C-x u; see Undo); this exits the query-replace, so if you want to do further replacement you must use C-x ESC ESC RET to restart (see Repetition). RET q to exit without doing any more replacements. . (Period) to replace this occurrence and then exit without searching for more occurrences. ! to replace all remaining occurrences without asking again. ^ to go back to the position of the previous occurrence (or what used to be an occurrence), in case you changed it by mistake or want to reexamine it. u to undo the last replacement and go back to where that replacement was made. U to undo all the replacements and go back to where the first replacement was made. C-r to enter a recursive editing level, in case the occurrence needs to be edited rather than just replaced with newstring. When you are done, exit the recursive editing level with C-M-c to proceed to the next occurrence. See Recursive Edit. C-w to delete the occurrence, and then enter a recursive editing level as in C-r. Use the recursive edit to insert text to replace the deleted occurrence of string. When done, exit the recursive editing level with C-M-c to proceed to the next occurrence. e E to edit the replacement string in the minibuffer. When you exit the minibuffer by typing RET, the minibuffer contents replace the current occurrence of the pattern. They also become the new replacement string for any further occurrences. C-l to redisplay the screen. Then you must type another character to specify what to do with this occurrence. Y (Upper-case) to replace all remaining occurrences in all remaining buffers in multi-buffer replacements (like the Dired Q command that performs query replace on selected files). It answers this question and all subsequent questions in the series with “yes”, without further user interaction. N (Upper-case) to skip to the next buffer in multi-buffer replacements without replacing remaining occurrences in the current buffer. It answers this question “no”, gives up on the questions for the current buffer, and continues to the next buffer in the sequence. C-h ? F1 to display a message summarizing these options. Then you must type another character to specify what to do with this occurrence. Aside from this, any other character exits the query-replace, and is then reread as part of a key sequence. Thus, if you type C-k, it exits the query-replace and then kills to end of line. In particular, C-g simply exits the query-replace. To restart a query-replace once it is exited, use C-x ESC ESC, which repeats the query-replace because it used the minibuffer to read its arguments. See C-x ESC ESC. The option search-invisible determines how query-replace treats invisible text. See Outline Search. See Operating on Files, for the Dired Q command which performs query replace on selected files. See also Transforming File Names, for Dired commands to rename, copy, or link files by replacing regexp matches in file names. Previous: Replacement and Lax Matches, Up: Replace [Contents][Index] Next: Transpose, Up: Fixit [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 16.1 Undo The undo command reverses recent changes in the buffer’s text. Each buffer records changes individually, and the undo command always applies to the current buffer. You can undo all the changes in a buffer for as far back as the buffer’s records go. Usually, each editing command makes a separate entry in the undo records, but some commands such as query-replace divide their changes into multiple entries for flexibility in undoing. Consecutive character insertion commands are usually grouped together into a single undo record, to make undoing less tedious. C-/ C-x u C-_ Undo one entry in the current buffer’s undo records (undo). To begin to undo, type C-/ (or its aliases, C-_ or C-x u)^6. This undoes the most recent change in the buffer, and moves point back to where it was before that change. Consecutive repetitions of C-/ (or its aliases) undo earlier and earlier changes in the current buffer. If all the recorded changes have already been undone, the undo command signals an error. Any command other than an undo command breaks the sequence of undo commands. Starting from that moment, the entire sequence of undo commands that you have just performed are themselves placed into the undo record. Therefore, to re-apply changes you have undone, type C-f or any other command that harmlessly breaks the sequence of undoing; then type C-/ one or more times to undo some of the undo commands. Alternatively, if you want to resume undoing, without redoing previous undo commands, use M-x undo-only. This is like undo, but will not redo changes you have just undone. If you notice that a buffer has been modified accidentally, the easiest way to recover is to type C-/ repeatedly until the stars disappear from the front of the mode line (see Mode Line). Whenever an undo command makes the stars disappear from the mode line, it means that the buffer contents are the same as they were when the file was last read in or saved. If you do not remember whether you changed the buffer deliberately, type C-/ once. When you see the last change you made undone, you will see whether it was an intentional change. If it was an accident, leave it undone. If it was deliberate, redo the change as described above. Alternatively, you can discard all the changes since the buffer was last visited or saved with M-x revert-buffer (see Reverting). When there is an active region, any use of undo performs selective undo: it undoes the most recent change within the region, instead of the entire buffer. However, when Transient Mark mode is off (see Disabled Transient Mark), C-/ always operates on the entire buffer, ignoring the region. In this case, you can perform selective undo by supplying a prefix argument to the undo command: C-u C-/. To undo further changes in the same region, repeat the undo command (no prefix argument is needed). Some specialized buffers do not make undo records. Buffers whose names start with spaces never do; these buffers are used internally by Emacs to hold text that users don’t normally look at or edit. When the undo information for a buffer becomes too large, Emacs discards the oldest records from time to time (during garbage collection). You can specify how much undo information to keep by setting the variables undo-limit, undo-strong-limit, and undo-outer-limit. Their values are expressed in bytes. The variable undo-limit sets a soft limit: Emacs keeps undo data for enough commands to reach this size, and perhaps exceed it, but does not keep data for any earlier commands beyond that. Its default value is 160000. The variable undo-strong-limit sets a stricter limit: any previous command (though not the most recent one) that pushes the size past this amount is forgotten. The default value of undo-strong-limit is 240000. Regardless of the values of those variables, the most recent change is never discarded unless it gets bigger than undo-outer-limit (normally 24,000,000). At that point, Emacs discards the undo data and warns you about it. This is the only situation in which you cannot undo the last command. If this happens, you can increase the value of undo-outer-limit to make it even less likely to happen in the future. But if you didn’t expect the command to create such large undo data, then it is probably a bug and you should report it. See Reporting Bugs. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (6) Aside from C-/, the undo command is also bound to C-x u because that is more straightforward for beginners to remember: ‘u’ stands for “undo”. It is also bound to C-_ because typing C-/ on some text terminals actually enters C-_. Next: Transpose, Up: Fixit [Contents][Index] Next: Fixing Case, Previous: Undo, Up: Fixit [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 16.2 Transposing Text C-t Transpose two characters (transpose-chars). M-t Transpose two words (transpose-words). C-M-t Transpose two balanced expressions (transpose-sexps). C-x C-t Transpose two lines (transpose-lines). M-x transpose-sentences Transpose two sentences (transpose-sentences). M-x transpose-paragraphs Transpose two paragraphs (transpose-paragraphs). M-x transpose-regions Transpose two regions. The common error of transposing two characters can be fixed, when they are adjacent, with the C-t command (transpose-chars). Normally, C-t transposes the two characters on either side of point. When given at the end of a line, rather than transposing the last character of the line with the newline, which would be useless, C-t transposes the last two characters on the line. So, if you catch your transposition error right away, you can fix it with just a C-t. If you don’t catch it so fast, you must move the cursor back between the two transposed characters before you type C-t. If you transposed a space with the last character of the word before it, the word motion commands (M-f, M-b, etc.) are a good way of getting there. Otherwise, a reverse search (C-r) is often the best way. See Search. M-t transposes the word before point with the word after point (transpose-words). It moves point forward over a word, dragging the word preceding or containing point forward as well. The punctuation characters between the words do not move. For example, ‘FOO, BAR’ transposes into ‘BAR, FOO’ rather than ‘BAR FOO,’. When point is at the end of the line, it will transpose the word before point with the first word on the next line. C-M-t (transpose-sexps) is a similar command for transposing two expressions (see Expressions), and C-x C-t (transpose-lines) exchanges lines. M-x transpose-sentences and M-x transpose-paragraphs transpose sentences and paragraphs, respectively. These commands work like M-t except as regards the units of text they transpose. A numeric argument to a transpose command serves as a repeat count: it tells the transpose command to move the character (or word or expression or line) before or containing point across several other characters (or words or expressions or lines). For example, C-u 3 C-t moves the character before point forward across three other characters. It would change ‘f∗oobar’ into ‘oobf∗ar’. This is equivalent to repeating C-t three times. C-u - 4 M-t moves the word before point backward across four words. C-u - C-M-t would cancel the effect of plain C-M-t. A numeric argument of zero is assigned a special meaning (because otherwise a command with a repeat count of zero would do nothing): to transpose the character (or word or expression or line) ending after point with the one ending after the mark. M-x transpose-regions transposes the text between point and mark with the text between the last two marks pushed to the mark ring (see Setting Mark). With a numeric prefix argument, it transposes the text between point and mark with the text between two successive marks that many entries back in the mark ring. This command is best used for transposing multiple characters (or words or sentences or paragraphs) in one go. Next: Fixing Case, Previous: Undo, Up: Fixit [Contents][Index] Next: Spelling, Previous: Transpose, Up: Fixit [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 16.3 Case Conversion M-- M-l Convert last word to lower case. Note Meta-- is Meta-minus. M-- M-u Convert last word to all upper case. M-- M-c Convert last word to lower case with capital initial. A very common error is to type words in the wrong case. Because of this, the word case-conversion commands M-l, M-u, and M-c have a special feature when used with a negative argument: they do not move the cursor. As soon as you see you have mistyped the last word, you can simply case-convert it and go on typing. See Case. Previous: Fixing Case, Up: Fixit [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 16.4 Checking and Correcting Spelling This section describes the commands to check the spelling of a single word or of a portion of a buffer. These commands only work if a spelling checker program, one of Hunspell, Aspell, Ispell or Enchant, is installed. These programs are not part of Emacs, but one of them is usually installed on GNU/Linux and other free operating systems. See Aspell in The Aspell Manual. M-$ Check and correct spelling of the word at point (ispell-word). If the region is active, do it for all words in the region instead. M-x ispell Check and correct spelling of all words in the buffer. If the region is active, do it for all words in the region instead. M-x ispell-buffer Check and correct spelling in the buffer. M-x ispell-region Check and correct spelling in the region. M-x ispell-message Check and correct spelling in a draft mail message, excluding cited material. M-x ispell-change-dictionary RET dict RET Restart the spell-checker process, using dict as the dictionary. M-x ispell-kill-ispell Kill the spell-checker subprocess. M-TAB ESC TAB C-M-i Complete the word before point based on the spelling dictionary (ispell-complete-word). M-x flyspell-mode Enable Flyspell mode, which highlights all misspelled words. M-x flyspell-prog-mode Enable Flyspell mode for comments and strings only. To check the spelling of the word around or before point, and optionally correct it as well, type M-$ (ispell-word). If a region is active, M-$ checks the spelling of all words within the region. See Mark. (When Transient Mark mode is off, M-$ always acts on the word around or before point, ignoring the region; see Disabled Transient Mark.) Similarly, the command M-x ispell performs spell-checking in the region if one is active, or in the entire buffer otherwise. The commands M-x ispell-buffer and M-x ispell-region explicitly perform spell-checking on the entire buffer or the region respectively. To check spelling in an email message you are writing, use M-x ispell-message; that command checks the whole buffer, except for material that is indented or appears to be cited from other messages. See Sending Mail. When one of these commands encounters what appears to be an incorrect word, it asks you what to do. It usually displays a list of numbered near-misses—words that are close to the incorrect word. Then you must type a single-character response. Here are the valid responses: digit Replace the word, just this time, with one of the displayed near-misses. Each near-miss is listed with a digit; type that digit to select it. SPC Skip this word—continue to consider it incorrect, but don’t change it here. r new RET Replace the word, just this time, with new. (The replacement string will be rescanned for more spelling errors.) R new RET Replace the word with new, and do a query-replace so you can replace it elsewhere in the buffer if you wish. (The replacements will be rescanned for more spelling errors.) a Accept the incorrect word—treat it as correct, but only in this editing session. A Accept the incorrect word—treat it as correct, but only in this editing session and for this buffer. i Insert this word in your private dictionary file so that it will be considered correct from now on, even in future sessions. m Like i, but you can also specify dictionary completion information. u Insert the lower-case version of this word in your private dictionary file. l word RET Look in the dictionary for words that match word. These words become the new list of near-misses; you can select one of them as the replacement by typing a digit. You can use ‘*’ in word as a wildcard. C-g X Quit interactive spell-checking, leaving point at the word that was being checked. You can restart checking again afterward with C-u M-$. x Quit interactive spell-checking and move point back to where it was when you started spell-checking. q Quit interactive spell-checking and kill the spell-checker subprocess. ? Show the list of options. In Text mode and related modes, M-TAB (ispell-complete-word) performs in-buffer completion based on spelling correction. Insert the beginning of a word, and then type M-TAB; this shows a list of completions. (If your window manager intercepts M-TAB, type ESC TAB or C-M-i.) Each completion is listed with a digit or character; type that digit or character to choose it. Once started, the spell-checker subprocess continues to run, waiting for something to do, so that subsequent spell-checking commands complete more quickly. If you want to get rid of the process, use M-x ispell-kill-ispell. This is not usually necessary, since the process uses no processor time except when you do spelling correction. Spell-checkers look up spelling in two dictionaries: the standard dictionary and your personal dictionary. The standard dictionary is specified by the variable ispell-local-dictionary or, if that is nil, by the variable ispell-dictionary. If both are nil, the spelling program’s default dictionary is used. The command M-x ispell-change-dictionary sets the standard dictionary for the buffer and then restarts the subprocess, so that it will use a different standard dictionary. Your personal dictionary is specified by the variable ispell-personal-dictionary. If that is nil, the spelling program looks for a personal dictionary in a default location, which is specific to each spell-checker. A separate dictionary is used for word completion. The variable ispell-complete-word-dict specifies the file name of this dictionary. The completion dictionary must be different because it cannot use the information about roots and affixes of the words, which spell-checking uses to detect variations of words. For some languages, there is a spell-checking dictionary but no word completion dictionary. Flyspell mode is a minor mode that performs automatic spell-checking of the text you type as you type it. When it finds a word that it does not recognize, it highlights that word. Type M-x flyspell-mode to toggle Flyspell mode in the current buffer. To enable Flyspell mode in all text mode buffers, add flyspell-mode to text-mode-hook. See Hooks. Note that, as Flyspell mode needs to check each word across which you move, it will slow down cursor motion and scrolling commands. It also doesn’t automatically check the text you didn’t type or move across; use flyspell-region or flyspell-buffer for that. When Flyspell mode highlights a word as misspelled, you can click on it with mouse-2 (flyspell-correct-word) to display a menu of possible corrections and actions. In addition, C-. or ESC-TAB (flyspell-auto-correct-word) will propose various successive corrections for the word at point, and C-c $ (flyspell-correct-word-before-point) will pop up a menu of possible corrections. Of course, you can always correct the misspelled word by editing it manually in any way you like. Flyspell Prog mode works just like ordinary Flyspell mode, except that it only checks words in comments and string constants. This feature is useful for editing programs. Type M-x flyspell-prog-mode to enable or disable this mode in the current buffer. To enable this mode in all programming mode buffers, add flyspell-prog-mode to prog-mode-hook (see Hooks). -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Fixing Case, Up: Fixit [Contents][Index] Next: Keyboard Macro Ring, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 17.1 Basic Use F3 Start defining a keyboard macro (kmacro-start-macro-or-insert-counter). F4 If a keyboard macro is being defined, end the definition; otherwise, execute the most recent keyboard macro (kmacro-end-or-call-macro). C-u F3 Re-execute last keyboard macro, then append keys to its definition. C-u C-u F3 Append keys to the last keyboard macro without re-executing it. C-x C-k r Run the last keyboard macro on each line that begins in the region (apply-macro-to-region-lines). C-x ( Start defining a keyboard macro (old style) (kmacro-start-macro); with a prefix argument, append keys to the last macro. C-x ) End a macro definition (old style) (kmacro-end-macro); prefix argument serves as the repeat count for executing the macro. C-x e Execute the most recently defined keyboard macro (kmacro-end-and-call-macro); prefix argument serves as repeat count. To start defining a keyboard macro, type F3. From then on, your keys continue to be executed, but also become part of the definition of the macro. ‘Def’ appears in the mode line to remind you of what is going on. When you are finished, type F4 (kmacro-end-or-call-macro) to terminate the definition. For example, F3 M-f foo F4 defines a macro to move forward a word and then insert ‘foo’. Note that F3 and F4 do not become part of the macro. After defining the macro, you can call it with F4. For the above example, this has the same effect as typing M-f foo again. (Note the two roles of the F4 command: it ends the macro if you are in the process of defining one, or calls the last macro otherwise.) You can also supply F4 with a numeric prefix argument ‘n’, which means to invoke the macro ‘n’ times. An argument of zero repeats the macro indefinitely, until it gets an error or you type C-g (or, on MS-DOS, C-BREAK). The above example demonstrates a handy trick that you can employ with keyboard macros: if you wish to repeat an operation at regularly spaced places in the text, include a motion command as part of the macro. In this case, repeating the macro inserts the string ‘foo’ after each successive word. After terminating the definition of a keyboard macro, you can append more keystrokes to its definition by typing C-u F3. This is equivalent to plain F3 followed by retyping the whole definition so far. As a consequence, it re-executes the macro as previously defined. If you change the variable kmacro-execute-before-append to nil, the existing macro will not be re-executed before appending to it (the default is t). You can also add to the end of the definition of the last keyboard macro without re-executing it by typing C-u C-u F3. When a command reads an argument with the minibuffer, your minibuffer input becomes part of the macro along with the command. So when you replay the macro, the command gets the same argument as when you entered the macro. For example, F3 C-a C-k C-x b foo RET C-y C-x b RET F4 defines a macro that kills the current line, yanks it into the buffer ‘foo’, then returns to the original buffer. Most keyboard commands work as usual in a keyboard macro definition, with some exceptions. Typing C-g (keyboard-quit) quits the keyboard macro definition. Typing C-M-c (exit-recursive-edit) can be unreliable: it works as you’d expect if exiting a recursive edit that started within the macro, but if it exits a recursive edit that started before you invoked the keyboard macro, it also necessarily exits the keyboard macro too. Mouse events are also unreliable, even though you can use them in a keyboard macro: when the macro replays the mouse event, it uses the original mouse position of that event, the position that the mouse had while you were defining the macro. The effect of this may be hard to predict. The command C-x C-k r (apply-macro-to-region-lines) repeats the last defined keyboard macro on each line that begins in the region. It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of the line and then executing the macro. In addition to the F3 and F4 commands described above, Emacs also supports an older set of key bindings for defining and executing keyboard macros. To begin a macro definition, type C-x ( (kmacro-start-macro); as with F3, a prefix argument appends this definition to the last keyboard macro. To end a macro definition, type C-x ) (kmacro-end-macro). To execute the most recent macro, type C-x e (kmacro-end-and-call-macro). If you enter C-x e while defining a macro, the macro is terminated and executed immediately. Immediately after typing C-x e, you can type e repeatedly to immediately repeat the macro one or more times. You can also give C-x e a repeat argument, just like F4 (when it is used to execute a macro). C-x ) can be given a repeat count as an argument. This means to repeat the macro right after defining it. The macro definition itself counts as the first repetition, since it is executed as you define it, so C-u 4 C-x ) executes the macro immediately 3 additional times. Next: Keyboard Macro Ring, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] Next: Keyboard Macro Counter, Previous: Basic Keyboard Macro, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 17.2 The Keyboard Macro Ring All defined keyboard macros are recorded in the keyboard macro ring. There is only one keyboard macro ring, shared by all buffers. C-x C-k C-k Execute the keyboard macro at the head of the ring (kmacro-end-or-call-macro-repeat). C-x C-k C-n Rotate the keyboard macro ring to the next macro (defined earlier) (kmacro-cycle-ring-next). C-x C-k C-p Rotate the keyboard macro ring to the previous macro (defined later) (kmacro-cycle-ring-previous). All commands which operate on the keyboard macro ring use the same C-x C-k prefix. Most of these commands can be executed and repeated immediately after each other without repeating the C-x C-k prefix. For example, C-x C-k C-p C-p C-k C-k C-k C-n C-n C-k C-p C-k C-d will rotate the keyboard macro ring to the second-previous macro, execute the resulting head macro three times, rotate back to the original head macro, execute that once, rotate to the previous macro, execute that, and finally delete it from the macro ring. The command C-x C-k C-k (kmacro-end-or-call-macro-repeat) executes the keyboard macro at the head of the macro ring. You can repeat the macro immediately by typing another C-k, or you can rotate the macro ring immediately by typing C-n or C-p. When a keyboard macro is being defined, C-x C-k C-k behaves like F4 except that, immediately afterward, you can use most key bindings of this section without the C-x C-k prefix. For instance, another C-k will re-execute the macro. The commands C-x C-k C-n (kmacro-cycle-ring-next) and C-x C-k C-p (kmacro-cycle-ring-previous) rotate the macro ring, bringing the next or previous keyboard macro to the head of the macro ring. The definition of the new head macro is displayed in the echo area. You can continue to rotate the macro ring immediately by repeating just C-n and C-p until the desired macro is at the head of the ring. To execute the new macro ring head immediately, just type C-k. Note that Emacs treats the head of the macro ring as the last defined keyboard macro. For instance, F4 will execute that macro, and C-x C-k n will give it a name. The maximum number of macros stored in the keyboard macro ring is determined by the customizable variable kmacro-ring-max. Next: Keyboard Macro Counter, Previous: Basic Keyboard Macro, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] Next: Keyboard Macro Query, Previous: Keyboard Macro Ring, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 17.3 The Keyboard Macro Counter Each keyboard macro has an associated counter, which is initialized to 0 when you start defining the macro. This current counter allows you to insert a number into the buffer that depends on the number of times the macro has been called. The counter is normally incremented each time its value is inserted into the buffer. In addition to the current counter, keyboard macros also maintain the previous counter, which records the value the current counter had last time it was incremented or set. Note that incrementing the current counter by zero, e.g., with C-u 0 C-x C-k C-i, also records the value of the current counter as the previous counter value. F3 In a keyboard macro definition, insert the keyboard macro counter value in the buffer (kmacro-start-macro-or-insert-counter). C-x C-k C-i Insert the keyboard macro counter value in the buffer (kmacro-insert-counter). C-x C-k C-c Set the keyboard macro counter (kmacro-set-counter). C-x C-k C-a Add the prefix arg to the keyboard macro counter (kmacro-add-counter). C-x C-k C-f Specify the format for inserting the keyboard macro counter (kmacro-set-format). When you are defining a keyboard macro, the command F3 (kmacro-start-macro-or-insert-counter) inserts the current value of the keyboard macro’s counter into the buffer, and increments the counter by 1. (If you are not defining a macro, F3 begins a macro definition instead. See Basic Keyboard Macro.) You can use a numeric prefix argument to specify a different increment. If you just specify a C-u prefix, that inserts the previous counter value, and doesn’t change the current value. As an example, let us show how the keyboard macro counter can be used to build a numbered list. Consider the following key sequence: F3 C-a F3 . SPC F4 As part of this keyboard macro definition, the string ‘0. ’ was inserted into the beginning of the current line. If you now move somewhere else in the buffer and type F4 to invoke the macro, the string ‘1. ’ is inserted at the beginning of that line. Subsequent invocations insert ‘2. ’, ‘3. ’, and so forth. The command C-x C-k C-i (kmacro-insert-counter) does the same thing as F3, but it can be used outside a keyboard macro definition. When no keyboard macro is being defined or executed, it inserts and increments the counter of the macro at the head of the keyboard macro ring. The command C-x C-k C-c (kmacro-set-counter) sets the current macro counter to the value of the numeric argument. If you use it inside the macro, it operates on each repetition of the macro. If you specify just C-u as the prefix, while executing the macro, that resets the counter to the value it had at the beginning of the current repetition of the macro (undoing any increments so far in this repetition). The command C-x C-k C-a (kmacro-add-counter) adds the prefix argument to the current macro counter. With just C-u as argument, it resets the counter to the last value inserted by any keyboard macro. (Normally, when you use this, the last insertion will be in the same macro and it will be the same counter.) The command C-x C-k C-f (kmacro-set-format) prompts for the format to use when inserting the macro counter. The default format is ‘%d’, which means to insert the number in decimal without any padding. You can exit with empty minibuffer to reset the format to this default. You can specify any format string that the format function accepts and that makes sense with a single integer extra argument (see Formatting Strings in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). Do not put the format string inside double quotes when you insert it in the minibuffer. If you use this command while no keyboard macro is being defined or executed, the new format affects all subsequent macro definitions. Existing macros continue to use the format in effect when they were defined. If you set the format while defining a keyboard macro, this affects the macro being defined from that point on, but it does not affect subsequent macros. Execution of the macro will, at each step, use the format in effect at that step during its definition. Changes to the macro format during execution of a macro, like the corresponding changes during its definition, have no effect on subsequent macros. The format set by C-x C-k C-f does not affect insertion of numbers stored in registers. If you use a register as a counter, incrementing it on each repetition of the macro, that accomplishes the same thing as a keyboard macro counter. See Number Registers. For most purposes, it is simpler to use a keyboard macro counter. Next: Keyboard Macro Query, Previous: Keyboard Macro Ring, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] Next: Save Keyboard Macro, Previous: Keyboard Macro Counter, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 17.4 Executing Macros with Variations In a keyboard macro, you can create an effect similar to that of query-replace, in that the macro asks you each time around whether to make a change. C-x q When this point is reached during macro execution, ask for confirmation (kbd-macro-query). While defining the macro, type C-x q at the point where you want the query to occur. During macro definition, the C-x q does nothing, but when you run the macro later, C-x q asks you interactively whether to continue. The valid responses when C-x q asks are: SPC (or y) Continue executing the keyboard macro. DEL (or n) Skip the remainder of this repetition of the macro, and start right away with the next repetition. RET (or q) Skip the remainder of this repetition and cancel further repetitions. C-r Enter a recursive editing level, in which you can perform editing which is not part of the macro. When you exit the recursive edit using C-M-c, you are asked again how to continue with the keyboard macro. If you type a SPC at this time, the rest of the macro definition is executed. It is up to you to leave point and the text in a state such that the rest of the macro will do what you want. C-u C-x q, which is C-x q with a prefix argument, performs a completely different function. It enters a recursive edit reading input from the keyboard, both when you type it during the definition of the macro, and when it is executed from the macro. During definition, the editing you do inside the recursive edit does not become part of the macro. During macro execution, the recursive edit gives you a chance to do some particularized editing on each repetition. See Recursive Edit. Next: Save Keyboard Macro, Previous: Keyboard Macro Counter, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] Next: Edit Keyboard Macro, Previous: Keyboard Macro Query, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 17.5 Naming and Saving Keyboard Macros C-x C-k n Give a command name (for the duration of the Emacs session) to the most recently defined keyboard macro (kmacro-name-last-macro). C-x C-k b Bind the most recently defined keyboard macro to a key sequence (for the duration of the session) (kmacro-bind-to-key). M-x insert-kbd-macro Insert in the buffer a keyboard macro’s definition, as Lisp code. If you wish to save a keyboard macro for later use, you can give it a name using C-x C-k n (kmacro-name-last-macro). This reads a name as an argument using the minibuffer and defines that name to execute the last keyboard macro, in its current form. (If you later add to the definition of this macro, that does not alter the name’s definition as a macro.) The macro name is a Lisp symbol, and defining it in this way makes it a valid command name for calling with M-x or for binding a key to with global-set-key (see Keymaps). If you specify a name that has a prior definition other than a keyboard macro, an error message is shown and nothing is changed. You can also bind the last keyboard macro (in its current form) to a key, using C-x C-k b (kmacro-bind-to-key) followed by the key sequence you want to bind. You can bind to any key sequence in the global keymap, but since most key sequences already have other bindings, you should select the key sequence carefully. If you try to bind to a key sequence with an existing binding (in any keymap), this command asks you for confirmation before replacing the existing binding. To avoid problems caused by overriding existing bindings, the key sequences C-x C-k 0 through C-x C-k 9 and C-x C-k A through C-x C-k Z are reserved for your own keyboard macro bindings. In fact, to bind to one of these key sequences, you only need to type the digit or letter rather than the whole key sequences. For example, C-x C-k b 4 will bind the last keyboard macro to the key sequence C-x C-k 4. Once a macro has a command name, you can save its definition in a file. Then it can be used in another editing session. First, visit the file you want to save the definition in. Then use this command: M-x insert-kbd-macro RET macroname RET This inserts some Lisp code that, when executed later, will define the same macro with the same definition it has now. (You don’t need to understand Lisp code to do this, because insert-kbd-macro writes the Lisp code for you.) Then save the file. You can load the file later with load-file (see Lisp Libraries). If the file you save in is your init file ~/.emacs (see Init File) then the macro will be defined each time you run Emacs. If you give insert-kbd-macro a prefix argument, it makes additional Lisp code to record the keys (if any) that you have bound to macroname, so that the macro will be reassigned the same keys when you load the file. Next: Edit Keyboard Macro, Previous: Keyboard Macro Query, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] Next: Keyboard Macro Step-Edit, Previous: Save Keyboard Macro, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 17.6 Editing a Keyboard Macro C-x C-k C-e Edit the last defined keyboard macro (kmacro-edit-macro). C-x C-k e name RET Edit a previously defined keyboard macro name (edit-kbd-macro). C-x C-k l Edit the last 300 keystrokes as a keyboard macro (kmacro-edit-lossage). You can edit the last keyboard macro by typing C-x C-k C-e or C-x C-k RET (kmacro-edit-macro). This formats the macro definition in a buffer and enters a specialized major mode for editing it. Type C-h m once in that buffer to display details of how to edit the macro. When you are finished editing, type C-c C-c. You can edit a named keyboard macro or a macro bound to a key by typing C-x C-k e (edit-kbd-macro). Follow that with the keyboard input that you would use to invoke the macro—C-x e or M-x name or some other key sequence. You can edit the last 300 keystrokes as a macro by typing C-x C-k l (kmacro-edit-lossage). Previous: Edit Keyboard Macro, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 17.7 Stepwise Editing a Keyboard Macro You can interactively replay and edit the last keyboard macro, one command at a time, by typing C-x C-k SPC (kmacro-step-edit-macro). Unless you quit the macro using q or C-g, the edited macro replaces the last macro on the macro ring. This macro editing feature shows the last macro in the minibuffer together with the first (or next) command to be executed, and prompts you for an action. You can enter ? to get a summary of your options. These actions are available: * SPC and y execute the current command, and advance to the next command in the keyboard macro. * n, d, and DEL skip and delete the current command. * f skips the current command in this execution of the keyboard macro, but doesn’t delete it from the macro. * TAB executes the current command, as well as all similar commands immediately following the current command; for example, TAB may be used to insert a sequence of characters (corresponding to a sequence of self-insert-command commands). * c continues execution (without further editing) until the end of the keyboard macro. If execution terminates normally, the edited macro replaces the original keyboard macro. * C-k skips and deletes the rest of the keyboard macro, terminates step-editing, and replaces the original keyboard macro with the edited macro. * q and C-g cancels the step-editing of the keyboard macro; discarding any changes made to the keyboard macro. * i key… C-j reads and executes a series of key sequences (not including the final C-j), and inserts them before the current command in the keyboard macro, without advancing over the current command. * I key… reads one key sequence, executes it, and inserts it before the current command in the keyboard macro, without advancing over the current command. * r key… C-j reads and executes a series of key sequences (not including the final C-j), and replaces the current command in the keyboard macro with them, advancing over the inserted key sequences. * R key… reads one key sequence, executes it, and replaces the current command in the keyboard macro with that key sequence, advancing over the inserted key sequence. * a key… C-j executes the current command, then reads and executes a series of key sequences (not including the final C-j), and inserts them after the current command in the keyboard macro; it then advances over the current command and the inserted key sequences. * A key… C-j executes the rest of the commands in the keyboard macro, then reads and executes a series of key sequences (not including the final C-j), and appends them at the end of the keyboard macro; it then terminates the step-editing and replaces the original keyboard macro with the edited macro. Previous: Edit Keyboard Macro, Up: Keyboard Macros [Contents][Index] Next: Visiting, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.1 File Names Many Emacs commands that operate on a file require you to specify the file name, using the minibuffer (see Minibuffer File). While in the minibuffer, you can use the usual completion and history commands (see Minibuffer). Note that file name completion ignores file names whose extensions appear in the variable completion-ignored-extensions (see Completion Options). Note also that most commands use permissive completion with confirmation for reading file names: you are allowed to submit a nonexistent file name, but if you type RET immediately after completing up to a nonexistent file name, Emacs prints ‘[Confirm]’ and you must type a second RET to confirm. See Completion Exit, for details. Minibuffer history commands offer some special features for reading file names, see Minibuffer History. Each buffer has a default directory, stored in the buffer-local variable default-directory. Whenever Emacs reads a file name using the minibuffer, it usually inserts the default directory into the minibuffer as the initial contents. You can inhibit this insertion by changing the variable insert-default-directory to nil (see Minibuffer File). Regardless, Emacs always assumes that any relative file name is relative to the default directory, e.g., entering a file name without a directory specifies a file in the default directory. When you visit a file, Emacs sets default-directory in the visiting buffer to the directory of its file. When you create a new buffer that is not visiting a file, via a command like C-x b, its default directory is usually copied from the buffer that was current at the time (see Select Buffer). You can use the command M-x pwd to see the value of default-directory in the current buffer. The command M-x cd prompts for a directory’s name, and sets the buffer’s default-directory to that directory (doing this does not change the buffer’s file name, if any). As an example, when you visit the file /u/rms/gnu/gnu.tasks, the default directory is set to /u/rms/gnu/. If you invoke a command that reads a file name, entering just ‘foo’ in the minibuffer, with a directory omitted, specifies the file /u/rms/gnu/foo; entering ‘../.login’ specifies /u/rms/.login; and entering ‘new/foo’ specifies /u/rms/gnu/new/foo. When typing a file name into the minibuffer, you can make use of a couple of shortcuts: a double slash ignores everything before the second slash in the pair, and ‘~/’ is your home directory. See Minibuffer File. The character ‘$’ is used to substitute an environment variable into a file name. The name of the environment variable consists of all the alphanumeric characters after the ‘$’; alternatively, it can be enclosed in braces after the ‘$’. For example, if you have used the shell command export FOO=rms/hacks to set up an environment variable named FOO, then both /u/$FOO/test.c and /u/${FOO}/test.c are abbreviations for /u/rms/hacks/test.c. If the environment variable is not defined, no substitution occurs, so that the character ‘$’ stands for itself. Note that environment variables set outside Emacs affect Emacs only if they are applied before Emacs is started. To access a file with ‘$’ in its name, if the ‘$’ causes expansion, type ‘$$’. This pair is converted to a single ‘$’ at the same time that variable substitution is performed for a single ‘$’. Alternatively, quote the whole file name with ‘/:’ (see Quoted File Names). File names which begin with a literal ‘~’ should also be quoted with ‘/:’. You can include non-ASCII characters in file names. See File Name Coding. Next: Visiting, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Saving, Previous: File Names, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.2 Visiting Files C-x C-f Visit a file (find-file). C-x C-r Visit a file for viewing, without allowing changes to it (find-file-read-only). C-x C-v Visit a different file instead of the one visited last (find-alternate-file). C-x 4 f Visit a file, in another window (find-file-other-window). Don’t alter what is displayed in the selected window. C-x 5 f Visit a file, in a new frame (find-file-other-frame). Don’t alter what is displayed in the selected frame. M-x find-file-literally Visit a file with no conversion of the contents. Visiting a file means reading its contents into an Emacs buffer so you can edit them. Emacs makes a new buffer for each file that you visit. To visit a file, type C-x C-f (find-file) and use the minibuffer to enter the name of the desired file. While in the minibuffer, you can abort the command by typing C-g. See File Names, for details about entering file names into minibuffers. If the specified file exists but the system does not allow you to read it, an error message is displayed in the echo area (on GNU and Unix systems you might be able to visit such a file using the ‘su’ or ‘sudo’ methods; see Remote Files). Otherwise, you can tell that C-x C-f has completed successfully by the appearance of new text on the screen, and by the buffer name shown in the mode line (see Mode Line). Emacs normally constructs the buffer name from the file name, omitting the directory name. For example, a file named /usr/rms/emacs.tex is visited in a buffer named ‘emacs.tex’. If there is already a buffer with that name, Emacs constructs a unique name; the normal method is to add a suffix based on the directory name (e.g., ‘’, ‘’, and so on), but you can select other methods. See Uniquify. To create a new file, just visit it using the same command, C-x C-f. Emacs displays ‘(New file)’ in the echo area, but in other respects behaves as if you had visited an existing empty file. After visiting a file, the changes you make with editing commands are made in the Emacs buffer. They do not take effect in the visited file, until you save the buffer (see Saving). If a buffer contains changes that have not been saved, we say the buffer is modified. This implies that some changes will be lost if the buffer is not saved. The mode line displays two stars near the left margin to indicate that the buffer is modified. If you visit a file that is already in Emacs, C-x C-f switches to the existing buffer instead of making another copy. Before doing so, it checks whether the file has changed since you last visited or saved it. If the file has changed, Emacs offers to reread it. If you try to visit a file larger than large-file-warning-threshold (the default is 10000000, which is about 10 megabytes), Emacs asks you for confirmation first. You can answer y to proceed with visiting the file or l to visit the file literally (see below). Visiting large files literally speeds up navigation and editing of such files, because various potentially-expensive features are turned off. Note, however, that Emacs cannot visit files that are larger than the maximum Emacs buffer size, which is limited by the amount of memory Emacs can allocate and by the integers that Emacs can represent (see Buffers). If you try, Emacs displays an error message saying that the maximum buffer size has been exceeded. If the file name you specify contains shell-style wildcard characters, Emacs visits all the files that match it. (On case-insensitive filesystems, Emacs matches the wildcards disregarding the letter case.) Wildcards include ‘?’, ‘*’, and ‘[…]’ sequences. To enter the wild card ‘?’ in a file name in the minibuffer, you need to type C-q ?. See Quoted File Names, for information on how to visit a file whose name actually contains wildcard characters. You can disable the wildcard feature by customizing find-file-wildcards. If you visit the wrong file unintentionally by typing its name incorrectly, type C-x C-v (find-alternate-file) to visit the file you really wanted. C-x C-v is similar to C-x C-f, but it kills the current buffer (after first offering to save it if it is modified). When C-x C-v reads the file name to visit, it inserts the entire default file name in the buffer, with point just after the directory part; this is convenient if you made a slight error in typing the name. If you visit a file that is actually a directory, Emacs invokes Dired, the Emacs directory browser. See Dired. You can disable this behavior by setting the variable find-file-run-dired to nil; in that case, it is an error to try to visit a directory. Files which are actually collections of other files, or file archives, are visited in special modes which invoke a Dired-like environment to allow operations on archive members. See File Archives, for more about these features. If you visit a file that the operating system won’t let you modify, or that is marked read-only, Emacs makes the buffer read-only too, so that you won’t go ahead and make changes that you’ll have trouble saving afterward. You can make the buffer writable with C-x C-q (read-only-mode). See Misc Buffer. If you want to visit a file as read-only in order to protect yourself from entering changes accidentally, visit it with the command C-x C-r (find-file-read-only) instead of C-x C-f. C-x 4 f (find-file-other-window) is like C-x C-f except that the buffer containing the specified file is selected in another window. The window that was selected before C-x 4 f continues to show the same buffer it was already showing. If this command is used when only one window is being displayed, that window is split in two, with one window showing the same buffer as before, and the other one showing the newly requested file. See Windows. C-x 5 f (find-file-other-frame) is similar, but opens a new frame, or selects any existing frame showing the specified file. See Frames. On graphical displays, there are two additional methods for visiting files. Firstly, when Emacs is built with a suitable GUI toolkit, commands invoked with the mouse (by clicking on the menu bar or tool bar) use the toolkit’s standard file selection dialog instead of prompting for the file name in the minibuffer. On GNU/Linux and Unix platforms, Emacs does this when built with GTK+, LessTif, and Motif toolkits; on MS-Windows and Mac, the GUI version does that by default. For information on how to customize this, see Dialog Boxes. Secondly, Emacs supports drag and drop: dropping a file into an ordinary Emacs window visits the file using that window. As an exception, dropping a file into a window displaying a Dired buffer moves or copies the file into the displayed directory. For details, see Drag and Drop, and Misc Dired Features. On text-mode terminals and on graphical displays when Emacs was built without a GUI toolkit, you can visit files via the menu-bar ‘File’ menu, which has the ‘Visit New File’ and the ‘Open File’ items. Each time you visit a file, Emacs automatically scans its contents to detect what character encoding and end-of-line convention it uses, and converts these to Emacs’s internal encoding and end-of-line convention within the buffer. When you save the buffer, Emacs performs the inverse conversion, writing the file to disk with its original encoding and end-of-line convention. See Coding Systems. If you wish to edit a file as a sequence of ASCII characters with no special encoding or conversion, use the M-x find-file-literally command. This visits a file, like C-x C-f, but does not do format conversion (see Format Conversion in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), character code conversion (see Coding Systems), or automatic uncompression (see Compressed Files), and does not add a final newline because of require-final-newline (see Customize Save). If you have already visited the same file in the usual (non-literal) manner, this command asks you whether to visit it literally instead. Two special hook variables allow extensions to modify the operation of visiting files. Visiting a file that does not exist runs the functions in find-file-not-found-functions; this variable holds a list of functions, which are called one by one (with no arguments) until one of them returns non-nil. This is not a normal hook, and the name ends in ‘-functions’ rather than ‘-hook’ to indicate that fact. Successful visiting of any file, whether existing or not, calls the functions in find-file-hook, with no arguments. This variable is a normal hook. In the case of a nonexistent file, the find-file-not-found-functions are run first. See Hooks. There are several ways to specify automatically the major mode for editing the file (see Choosing Modes), and to specify local variables defined for that file (see File Variables). Next: Saving, Previous: File Names, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Reverting, Previous: Visiting, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3 Saving Files Saving a buffer in Emacs means writing its contents back into the file that was visited in the buffer. • Save Commands Commands for saving files. • Backup How Emacs saves the old version of your file. • Customize Save Customizing the saving of files. • Interlocking How Emacs protects against simultaneous editing of one file by two users. • Shadowing Copying files to “shadows” automatically. • Time Stamps Emacs can update time stamps on saved files. Next: Auto Revert, Previous: Saving, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.4 Reverting a Buffer If you have made extensive changes to a file-visiting buffer and then change your mind, you can revert the changes and go back to the saved version of the file. To do this, type M-x revert-buffer. Since reverting unintentionally could lose a lot of work, Emacs asks for confirmation first. The revert-buffer command tries to position point in such a way that, if the file was edited only slightly, you will be at approximately the same part of the text as before. But if you have made major changes, point may end up in a totally different location. Reverting marks the buffer as not modified. However, it adds the reverted changes as a single modification to the buffer’s undo history (see Undo). Thus, after reverting, you can type C-/ or its aliases to bring the reverted changes back, if you happen to change your mind. Some kinds of buffers that are not associated with files, such as Dired buffers, can also be reverted. For them, reverting means recalculating their contents. Buffers created explicitly with C-x b cannot be reverted; revert-buffer reports an error if you try. When you edit a file that changes automatically and frequently—for example, a log of output from a process that continues to run—it may be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you. To request this behavior, set the variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. When a file name matches one of these regular expressions, find-file and revert-buffer will revert it automatically if it has changed—provided the buffer itself is not modified. (If you have edited the text, it would be wrong to discard your changes.) You can also tell Emacs to revert buffers automatically when their visited files change on disk; see Auto Revert. Next: Auto Revert, Previous: Saving, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Auto Save, Previous: Reverting, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.5 Auto Revert: Keeping buffers automatically up-to-date A buffer can get out of sync with respect to its visited file on disk if that file is changed by another program. To keep it up to date, you can enable Auto Revert mode by typing M-x auto-revert-mode. This automatically reverts the buffer when its visited file changes on disk. To do the same for all file buffers, type M-x global-auto-revert-mode to enable Global Auto Revert mode. Auto Revert will not revert a buffer if it has unsaved changes, or if its file on disk is deleted or renamed. One use of Auto Revert mode is to “tail” a file such as a system log, so that changes made to that file by other programs are continuously displayed. To do this, just move the point to the end of the buffer, and it will stay there as the file contents change. However, if you are sure that the file will only change by growing at the end, use Auto Revert Tail mode instead (auto-revert-tail-mode). It is more efficient for this. Auto Revert Tail mode also works for remote files. When a buffer is auto-reverted, a message is generated. This can be suppressed by setting auto-revert-verbose to nil. The Auto Revert modes do not check or revert remote files, because that is usually too slow. This behavior can be changed by setting the variable auto-revert-remote-files to non-nil. By default, Auto Revert mode works using file notifications, whereby changes in the filesystem are reported to Emacs by the OS. You can disable use of file notifications by customizing the variable auto-revert-use-notify to a nil value, then Emacs will check for file changes by polling every five seconds. You can change the polling interval through the variable auto-revert-interval. Not all systems support file notifications; where they are not supported, auto-revert-use-notify will be nil by default. By default, Auto Revert mode will poll files for changes periodically even when file notifications are used. Polling is unnecessary in many cases, and turning it off may save power by relying on notifications only. To do so, set the variable auto-revert-avoid-polling to non-nil. However, notification is ineffective on certain file systems; mainly network file system on Unix-like machines, where files can be altered from other machines. For such file systems, polling may be necessary. To force polling when auto-revert-avoid-polling is non-nil, set auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp to match files that should be excluded from using notification. In Dired buffers (see Dired), Auto Revert mode refreshes the buffer when a file is created or deleted in the buffer’s directory. See VC Undo, for commands to revert to earlier versions of files under version control. See VC Mode Line, for Auto Revert peculiarities when visiting files under version control. • Non-File Buffers Auto Reverting Non-File Buffers. Next: Auto Save, Previous: Reverting, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: File Aliases, Previous: Auto Revert, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.6 Auto-Saving: Protection Against Disasters From time to time, Emacs automatically saves each visited file in a separate file, without altering the file you actually use. This is called auto-saving. It prevents you from losing more than a limited amount of work if the system crashes. When Emacs determines that it is time for auto-saving, it considers each buffer, and each is auto-saved if auto-saving is enabled for it and it has been changed since the last time it was auto-saved. When the auto-save-no-message variable is set to nil (the default), the message ‘Auto-saving...’ is displayed in the echo area during auto-saving, if any files are actually auto-saved; to disable these messages, customize the variable to a non-nil value. Errors occurring during auto-saving are caught so that they do not interfere with the execution of commands you have been typing. • Files The file where auto-saved changes are actually made until you save the file. • Control Controlling when and how often to auto-save. • Recover Recovering text from auto-save files. Next: Directories, Previous: Auto Save, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.7 File Name Aliases Symbolic links and hard links both make it possible for several file names to refer to the same file. Hard links are alternate names that refer directly to the file; all the names are equally valid, and no one of them is preferred. By contrast, a symbolic link is a kind of defined alias: when foo is a symbolic link to bar, you can use either name to refer to the file, but bar is the real name, while foo is just an alias. More complex cases occur when symbolic links point to directories. Normally, if you visit a file which Emacs is already visiting under a different name, Emacs displays a message in the echo area and uses the existing buffer visiting that file. This can happen on systems that support hard or symbolic links, or if you use a long file name on a system that truncates long file names, or on a case-insensitive file system. You can suppress the message by setting the variable find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings to a non-nil value. You can disable this feature entirely by setting the variable find-file-existing-other-name to nil: then if you visit the same file under two different names, you get a separate buffer for each file name. If the variable find-file-visit-truename is non-nil, then the file name recorded for a buffer is the file’s truename (made by replacing all symbolic links with their target names), rather than the name you specify. Setting find-file-visit-truename also implies the effect of find-file-existing-other-name. Sometimes, a directory is ordinarily accessed through a symbolic link, and you may want Emacs to preferentially show its linked name. To do this, customize directory-abbrev-alist. Each element in this list should have the form (from . to), which means to replace from with to whenever from appears in a directory name. The from string is a regular expression (see Regexps). It is matched against directory names anchored at the first character, and should start with ‘\`’ (to support directory names with embedded newlines, which would defeat ‘^’). The to string should be an ordinary absolute directory name pointing to the same directory. Do not use ‘~’ to stand for a home directory in the to string; Emacs performs these substitutions separately. Here’s an example, from a system on which /home/fsf is normally accessed through a symbolic link named /fsf: (("\\`/home/fsf" . "/fsf")) Next: Directories, Previous: Auto Save, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Comparing Files, Previous: File Aliases, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.8 File Directories The file system groups files into directories. A directory listing is a list of all the files in a directory. Emacs provides commands to create and delete directories, and to make directory listings in brief format (file names only) and verbose format (sizes, dates, and other attributes included). Emacs also includes a directory browser feature called Dired, which you can invoke with C-x d; see Dired. C-x C-d dir-or-pattern RET Display a brief directory listing (list-directory). C-u C-x C-d dir-or-pattern RET Display a verbose directory listing. M-x make-directory RET dirname RET Create a new directory named dirname. M-x delete-directory RET dirname RET Delete the directory named dirname. If it isn’t empty, you will be asked whether you want to delete it recursively. The command to display a directory listing is C-x C-d (list-directory). It reads using the minibuffer a file name which is either a directory to be listed or a wildcard-containing pattern for the files to be listed. For example, C-x C-d /u2/emacs/etc RET lists all the files in directory /u2/emacs/etc. Here is an example of specifying a file name pattern: C-x C-d /u2/emacs/src/*.c RET Normally, C-x C-d displays a brief directory listing containing just file names. A numeric argument (regardless of value) tells it to make a verbose listing including sizes, dates, and owners (like ‘ls -l’). The text of a directory listing is mostly obtained by running ls in an inferior process. Two Emacs variables control the switches passed to ls: list-directory-brief-switches is a string giving the switches to use in brief listings ("-CF" by default), and list-directory-verbose-switches is a string giving the switches to use in a verbose listing ("-l" by default). In verbose directory listings, Emacs adds information about the amount of free space on the disk that contains the directory. The command M-x delete-directory prompts for a directory’s name using the minibuffer, and deletes the directory if it is empty. If the directory is not empty, you will be asked whether you want to delete it recursively. On systems that have a “Trash” (or “Recycle Bin”) feature, you can make this command move the specified directory to the Trash instead of deleting it outright, by changing the variable delete-by-moving-to-trash to t. See Misc File Ops, for more information about using the Trash. Next: Comparing Files, Previous: File Aliases, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Diff Mode, Previous: Directories, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.9 Comparing Files The command M-x diff prompts for two file names, using the minibuffer, and displays the differences between the two files in a buffer named *diff*. This works by running the diff program, using options taken from the variable diff-switches. The value of diff-switches should be a string; the default is "-u" to specify a unified context diff. See Diff in Comparing and Merging Files, for more information about the diff program. The output of the diff command is shown using a major mode called Diff mode. See Diff Mode. A (much more sophisticated) alternative is M-x ediff (see Ediff in The Ediff Manual). The command M-x diff-backup compares a specified file with its most recent backup. If you specify the name of a backup file, diff-backup compares it with the source file that it is a backup of. In all other respects, this behaves like M-x diff. The command M-x diff-buffer-with-file compares a specified buffer with its corresponding file. This shows you what changes you would make to the file if you save the buffer. The command M-x diff-buffers compares the contents of two specified buffers. The command M-x compare-windows compares the text in the current window with that in the window that was the selected window before you selected the current one. (For more information about windows in Emacs, Windows.) Comparison starts at point in each window, after pushing each initial point value on the mark ring (see Mark Ring) in its respective buffer. Then it moves point forward in each window, one character at a time, until it reaches characters that don’t match. Then the command exits. If point in the two windows is followed by non-matching text when the command starts, M-x compare-windows tries heuristically to advance up to matching text in the two windows, and then exits. So if you use M-x compare-windows repeatedly, each time it either skips one matching range or finds the start of another. With a numeric argument, compare-windows ignores changes in whitespace. If the variable compare-ignore-case is non-nil, the comparison ignores differences in case as well. If the variable compare-ignore-whitespace is non-nil, compare-windows by default ignores changes in whitespace, but a prefix argument turns that off for that single invocation of the command. You can use M-x smerge-mode to turn on Smerge mode, a minor mode for editing output from the diff3 program. This is typically the result of a failed merge from a version control system update outside VC, due to conflicting changes to a file. Smerge mode provides commands to resolve conflicts by selecting specific changes. See Emerge, for the Emerge facility, which provides a powerful interface for merging files. Next: Diff Mode, Previous: Directories, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Copying and Naming, Previous: Comparing Files, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.10 Diff Mode Diff mode is a major mode used for the output of M-x diff and other similar commands. This kind of output is called a patch, because it can be passed to the patch command to automatically apply the specified changes. To select Diff mode manually, type M-x diff-mode. The changes specified in a patch are grouped into hunks, which are contiguous chunks of text that contain one or more changed lines. Hunks usually also include unchanged lines to provide context for the changes. Each hunk is preceded by a hunk header, which specifies the old and new line numbers where the hunk’s changes occur. Diff mode highlights each hunk header, to distinguish it from the actual contents of the hunk. The first hunk in a patch is preceded by a file header, which shows the names of the new and the old versions of the file, and their time stamps. If a patch shows changes for more than one file, each file has such a header before the first hunk of that file’s changes. You can edit a Diff mode buffer like any other buffer. (If it is read-only, you need to make it writable first; see Misc Buffer.) Whenever you edit a hunk, Diff mode attempts to automatically correct the line numbers in the hunk headers, to ensure that the patch remains correct, and could still be applied by patch. To disable automatic line number correction, change the variable diff-update-on-the-fly to nil. Diff mode arranges for hunks to be treated as compiler error messages by M-g M-n and other commands that handle error messages (see Compilation Mode). Thus, you can use the compilation-mode commands to visit the corresponding source locations. In addition, Diff mode provides the following commands to navigate, manipulate and apply parts of patches: M-n Move to the next hunk-start (diff-hunk-next). With prefix argument n, move forward to the nth next hunk. By default, Diff mode refines hunks as Emacs displays them, highlighting their changes with better granularity. Alternatively, if you set diff-refine to the symbol navigation, Diff mode only refines the hunk you move to with this command or with diff-hunk-prev. M-p Move to the previous hunk-start (diff-hunk-prev). With prefix argument n, move back to the nth previous hunk. Like M-n, this command refines the hunk you move to if you set diff-refine to the symbol navigation. M-} Move to the next file-start, in a multi-file patch (diff-file-next). With prefix argument n, move forward to the start of the nth next file. M-{ Move to the previous file-start, in a multi-file patch (diff-file-prev). With prefix argument n, move back to the start of the nth previous file. M-k Kill the hunk at point (diff-hunk-kill). M-K In a multi-file patch, kill the current file part. (diff-file-kill). C-c C-a Apply this hunk to its target file (diff-apply-hunk). With a prefix argument of C-u, revert this hunk, i.e. apply the reverse of the hunk, which changes the “new” version into the “old” version. If diff-jump-to-old-file is non-nil, apply the hunk to the “old” version of the file instead. C-c C-b Highlight the changes of the hunk at point with a finer granularity (diff-refine-hunk). This allows you to see exactly which parts of each changed line were actually changed. By default, Diff mode refines hunks as Emacs displays them, so you may find this command useful if you customize diff-refine to a non-default value. C-c C-c Go to the source file and line corresponding to this hunk (diff-goto-source). By default, this jumps to the “new” version of the file, the one shown first on the file header. With a prefix argument, jump to the “old” version instead. If diff-jump-to-old-file is non-nil, this command by default jumps to the “old” file, and the meaning of the prefix argument is reversed. If the prefix argument is a number greater than 8 (e.g., if you type C-u C-u C-c C-c), then this command also sets diff-jump-to-old-file for the next invocation. If the source file is under version control (see Version Control), this jumps to the work file by default. With a prefix argument, jump to the “old” revision of the file (see Old Revisions), when point is on the old line, or otherwise jump to the “new” revision. C-c C-e Start an Ediff session with the patch (diff-ediff-patch). See Ediff in The Ediff Manual. C-c C-n Restrict the view to the current hunk (diff-restrict-view). See Narrowing. With a prefix argument, restrict the view to the current file of a multiple-file patch. To widen again, use C-x n w (widen). C-c C-r Reverse the direction of comparison for the entire buffer (diff-reverse-direction). With a prefix argument, reverse the direction only inside the current region (see Mark). Reversing the direction means changing the hunks and the file-start headers to produce a patch that would change the “new” version into the “old” one. C-c C-s Split the hunk at point (diff-split-hunk) into two separate hunks. This inserts a hunk header and modifies the header of the current hunk. This command is useful for manually editing patches, and only works with the unified diff format produced by the -u or --unified options to the diff program. If you need to split a hunk in the context diff format produced by the -c or --context options to diff, first convert the buffer to the unified diff format with C-c C-u. C-c C-d Convert the entire buffer to the context diff format (diff-unified->context). With a prefix argument, convert only the hunks within the region. C-c C-u Convert the entire buffer to unified diff format (diff-context->unified). With a prefix argument, convert unified format to context format. When the mark is active, convert only the hunks within the region. C-c C-w Re-generate the current hunk, disregarding changes in whitespace (diff-ignore-whitespace-hunk). C-x 4 A Generate a ChangeLog entry, like C-x 4 a does (see Change Log), for each one of the hunks (diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window). This creates a skeleton of the log of changes that you can later fill with the actual descriptions of the changes. C-x 4 a itself in Diff mode operates on behalf of the current hunk’s file, but gets the function name from the patch itself. This is useful for making log entries for functions that are deleted by the patch. Patches sometimes include trailing whitespace on modified lines, as an unintentional and undesired change. There are two ways to deal with this problem. Firstly, if you enable Whitespace mode in a Diff buffer (see Useless Whitespace), it automatically highlights trailing whitespace in modified lines. Secondly, you can use the command M-x diff-delete-trailing-whitespace, which searches for trailing whitespace in the lines modified by the patch, and removes that whitespace in both the patch and the patched source file(s). This command does not save the modifications that it makes, so you can decide whether to save the changes (the list of modified files is displayed in the echo area). With a prefix argument, it tries to modify the original (“old”) source files rather than the patched (“new”) source files. If diff-font-lock-syntax is non-nil, fragments of source in hunks are highlighted according to the appropriate major mode. Next: Copying and Naming, Previous: Comparing Files, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Misc File Ops, Previous: Diff Mode, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.11 Copying, Naming and Renaming Files Emacs has several commands for copying, naming, and renaming files. All of them read two file names, old (or target) and new, using the minibuffer, and then copy or adjust a file’s name accordingly; they do not accept wildcard file names. In all these commands, if the argument new is just a directory name (see Directory Names in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), the real new name is in that directory, with the same non-directory component as old. For example, the command M-x rename-file RET ~/foo RET /tmp/ RET renames ~/foo to /tmp/foo. On GNU and other POSIX-like systems, directory names end in ‘/’. All these commands ask for confirmation when the new file name already exists. M-x copy-file copies the contents of the file old to the file new. M-x copy-directory copies directories, similar to the cp -r shell command. If new is a directory name, it creates a copy of the old directory and puts it in new. Otherwise it copies all the contents of old into a new directory named new. M-x rename-file renames file old as new. If the file name new already exists, you must confirm with yes or renaming is not done; this is because renaming causes the old meaning of the name new to be lost. If old and new are on different file systems, the file old is copied and deleted. If a file is under version control (see Version Control), you should rename it using M-x vc-rename-file instead of M-x rename-file. See VC Delete/Rename. M-x add-name-to-file adds an additional name to an existing file without removing the old name. The new name is created as a hard link to the existing file. The new name must belong on the same file system that the file is on. On MS-Windows, this command works only if the file resides in an NTFS file system. On MS-DOS, and some remote system types, it works by copying the file. M-x make-symbolic-link creates a symbolic link named new, which points at target. The effect is that future attempts to open file new will refer to whatever file is named target at the time the opening is done, or will get an error if the name target is nonexistent at that time. This command does not expand the argument target, so that it allows you to specify a relative name as the target of the link. However, this command does expand leading ‘~’ in target so that you can easily specify home directories, and strips leading ‘/:’ so that you can specify relative names beginning with literal ‘~’ or ‘/:’. See Quoted File Names. On MS-Windows, this command works only on MS Windows Vista and later. When new is remote, it works depending on the system type. Next: Misc File Ops, Previous: Diff Mode, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Compressed Files, Previous: Copying and Naming, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.12 Miscellaneous File Operations Emacs has commands for performing many other operations on files. All operate on one file; they do not accept wildcard file names. M-x delete-file prompts for a file and deletes it. If you are deleting many files in one directory, it may be more convenient to use Dired rather than delete-file. See Dired Deletion. M-x move-file-to-trash moves a file into the system Trash (or Recycle Bin). This is a facility available on most operating systems; files that are moved into the Trash can be brought back later if you change your mind. (The way to restore trashed files is system-dependent.) By default, Emacs deletion commands do not use the Trash. To use the Trash (when it is available) for common deletion commands, change the variable delete-by-moving-to-trash to t. This affects the commands M-x delete-file and M-x delete-directory (see Directories), as well as the deletion commands in Dired (see Dired Deletion). Supplying a prefix argument to M-x delete-file or M-x delete-directory makes them delete outright, instead of using the Trash, regardless of delete-by-moving-to-trash. If a file is under version control (see Version Control), you should delete it using M-x vc-delete-file instead of M-x delete-file. See VC Delete/Rename. M-x insert-file (also C-x i) inserts a copy of the contents of the specified file into the current buffer at point, leaving point unchanged before the contents. The position after the inserted contents is added to the mark ring, without activating the mark (see Mark Ring). M-x insert-file-literally is like M-x insert-file, except the file is inserted literally: it is treated as a sequence of ASCII characters with no special encoding or conversion, similar to the M-x find-file-literally command (see Visiting). M-x write-region is the inverse of M-x insert-file; it copies the contents of the region into the specified file. M-x append-to-file adds the text of the region to the end of the specified file. See Accumulating Text. The variable write-region-inhibit-fsync applies to these commands, as well as saving files; see Customize Save. M-x set-file-modes reads a file name followed by a file mode, and applies that file mode to the specified file. File modes, also called file permissions, determine whether a file can be read, written to, or executed, and by whom. This command reads file modes using the same symbolic or octal format accepted by the chmod command; for instance, ‘u+x’ means to add execution permission for the user who owns the file. It has no effect on operating systems that do not support file modes. chmod is a convenience alias for this function. Next: Compressed Files, Previous: Copying and Naming, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: File Archives, Previous: Misc File Ops, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.13 Accessing Compressed Files Emacs automatically uncompresses compressed files when you visit them, and automatically recompresses them if you alter them and save them. Emacs recognizes compressed files by their file names. File names ending in ‘.gz’ indicate a file compressed with gzip. Other endings indicate other compression programs. Automatic uncompression and compression apply to all the operations in which Emacs uses the contents of a file. This includes visiting it, saving it, inserting its contents into a buffer, loading it, and byte compiling it. To disable this feature, type the command M-x auto-compression-mode. You can disable it permanently by customizing the variable auto-compression-mode. Next: Remote Files, Previous: Compressed Files, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.14 File Archives A file whose name ends in ‘.tar’ is normally an archive made by the tar program. Emacs views these files in a special mode called Tar mode which provides a Dired-like list of the contents (see Dired). You can move around through the list just as you would in Dired, and visit the subfiles contained in the archive. However, not all Dired commands are available in Tar mode. If Auto Compression mode is enabled (see Compressed Files), then Tar mode is used also for compressed archives—files with extensions ‘.tgz’, .tar.Z and .tar.gz. The keys e, f and RET all extract a component file into its own buffer. You can edit it there, and if you save the buffer, the edited version will replace the version in the Tar buffer. Clicking with the mouse on the file name in the Tar buffer does likewise. v extracts a file into a buffer in View mode (see View Mode). o extracts the file and displays it in another window, so you could edit the file and operate on the archive simultaneously. The I key adds a new (regular) file to the archive. The file is initially empty, but can readily be edited using the commands above. The command inserts the new file before the current one, so that using it on the topmost line of the Tar buffer makes the new file the first one in the archive, and using it at the end of the buffer makes it the last one. d marks a file for deletion when you later use x, and u unmarks a file, as in Dired. C copies a file from the archive to disk and R renames a file within the archive. g reverts the buffer from the archive on disk. The keys M, G, and O change the file’s permission bits, group, and owner, respectively. Saving the Tar buffer writes a new version of the archive to disk with the changes you made to the components. You don’t need the tar program to use Tar mode—Emacs reads the archives directly. However, accessing compressed archives requires the appropriate uncompression program. A separate but similar Archive mode is used for arc, jar, lzh, zip, rar, 7z, and zoo archives, as well as exe files that are self-extracting executables. The key bindings of Archive mode are similar to those in Tar mode, with the addition of the m key which marks a file for subsequent operations, and M-DEL which unmarks all the marked files. Also, the a key toggles the display of detailed file information, for those archive types where it won’t fit in a single line. Operations such as renaming a subfile, or changing its mode or owner, are supported only for some of the archive formats. Unlike Tar mode, Archive mode runs the archiving programs to unpack and repack archives. However, you don’t need these programs to look at the archive table of contents, only to extract or manipulate the subfiles in the archive. Details of the program names and their options can be set in the ‘Archive’ Customize group (see Customization Groups). Next: Remote Files, Previous: Compressed Files, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Quoted File Names, Previous: File Archives, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.15 Remote Files You can refer to files on other machines using a special file name syntax: /method:host:filename /method:user@host:filename /method:user@host#port:filename To carry out this request, Emacs uses a remote-login program such as ssh. You must always specify in the file name which method to use—for example, /ssh:user@host:filename uses ssh. When you specify the pseudo method ‘-’ in the file name, Emacs chooses the method as follows: 1. If the host name starts with ‘ftp.’ (with dot), Emacs uses FTP. 2. If the user name is ‘ftp’ or ‘anonymous’, Emacs uses FTP. 3. If the variable tramp-default-method is set to ‘ftp’, Emacs uses FTP. 4. If ssh-agent is running, Emacs uses scp. 5. Otherwise, Emacs uses ssh. You can entirely turn off the remote file name feature by setting the variable tramp-mode to nil. You can turn off the feature in individual cases by quoting the file name with ‘/:’ (see Quoted File Names). Remote file access through FTP is handled by the Ange-FTP package, which is documented in the following. Remote file access through the other methods is handled by the Tramp package, which has its own manual. See The Tramp Manual in The Tramp Manual. When the Ange-FTP package is used, Emacs logs in through FTP using the name user, if that is specified in the remote file name. If user is unspecified, Emacs logs in using your user name on the local system; but if you set the variable ange-ftp-default-user to a string, that string is used instead. When logging in, Emacs may also ask for a password. For performance reasons, Emacs does not make backup files for files accessed via FTP by default. To make it do so, change the variable ange-ftp-make-backup-files to a non-nil value. By default, auto-save files for remote files are made in the temporary file directory on the local machine, as specified by the variable auto-save-file-name-transforms. See Auto Save Files. To visit files accessible by anonymous FTP, you use special user names ‘anonymous’ or ‘ftp’. Passwords for these user names are handled specially. The variable ange-ftp-generate-anonymous-password controls what happens: if the value of this variable is a string, then that string is used as the password; if non-nil (the default), then the value of user-mail-address is used; if nil, then Emacs prompts you for a password as usual (see Passwords). Sometimes you may be unable to access files on a remote machine because a firewall in between blocks the connection for security reasons. If you can log in on a gateway machine from which the target files are accessible, and whose FTP server supports gatewaying features, you can still use remote file names; all you have to do is specify the name of the gateway machine by setting the variable ange-ftp-gateway-host, and set ange-ftp-smart-gateway to t. Otherwise you may be able to make remote file names work, but the procedure is complex. You can read the instructions by typing M-x finder-commentary RET ange-ftp RET. Next: Quoted File Names, Previous: File Archives, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: File Name Cache, Previous: Remote Files, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.16 Quoted File Names You can quote an absolute file name to prevent special characters and syntax in it from having their special effects. The way to do this is to add ‘/:’ at the beginning. For example, you can quote a local file name which appears remote, to prevent it from being treated as a remote file name. Thus, if you have a directory named /foo: and a file named bar in it, you can refer to that file in Emacs as ‘/:/foo:/bar’. If you want to quote only special characters in the local part of a remote file name, you can quote just the local part. ‘/ssh:baz:/:/foo:/bar’ refers to the file bar of directory /foo: on the host baz. ‘/:’ can also prevent ‘~’ from being treated as a special character for a user’s home directory. For example, /:/tmp/~hack refers to a file whose name is ~hack in directory /tmp. Quoting with ‘/:’ is also a way to enter in the minibuffer a file name that contains ‘$’. In order for this to work, the ‘/:’ must be at the beginning of the minibuffer contents. (You can also double each ‘$’; see File Names with $.) You can also quote wildcard characters with ‘/:’, for visiting. For example, /:/tmp/foo*bar visits the file /tmp/foo*bar. Another method of getting the same result is to enter /tmp/foo[*]bar, which is a wildcard specification that matches only /tmp/foo*bar. However, in many cases there is no need to quote the wildcard characters because even unquoted they give the right result. For example, if the only file name in /tmp that starts with ‘foo’ and ends with ‘bar’ is foo*bar, then specifying /tmp/foo*bar will visit only /tmp/foo*bar. Next: File Name Cache, Previous: Remote Files, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: File Conveniences, Previous: Quoted File Names, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.17 File Name Cache You can use the file name cache to make it easy to locate a file by name, without having to remember exactly where it is located. When typing a file name in the minibuffer, C-TAB (file-cache-minibuffer-complete) completes it using the file name cache. If you repeat C-TAB, that cycles through the possible completions of what you had originally typed. (However, note that the C-TAB character cannot be typed on most text terminals.) The file name cache does not fill up automatically. Instead, you load file names into the cache using these commands: M-x file-cache-add-directory RET directory RET Add each file name in directory to the file name cache. M-x file-cache-add-directory-using-find RET directory RET Add each file name in directory and all of its nested subdirectories to the file name cache. M-x file-cache-add-directory-using-locate RET directory RET Add each file name in directory and all of its nested subdirectories to the file name cache, using locate to find them all. M-x file-cache-add-directory-list RET variable RET Add each file name in each directory listed in variable to the file name cache. variable should be a Lisp variable whose value is a list of directories, like load-path. M-x file-cache-clear-cache RET Clear the cache; that is, remove all file names from it. The file name cache is not persistent: it is kept and maintained only for the duration of the Emacs session. You can view the contents of the cache with the file-cache-display command. Next: File Conveniences, Previous: Quoted File Names, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Image Mode, Previous: File Name Cache, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.18 Convenience Features for Finding Files In this section, we introduce some convenient facilities for finding recently-opened files, reading file names from a buffer. If you enable Recentf mode, with M-x recentf-mode, the ‘File’ menu includes a submenu containing a list of recently opened files. M-x recentf-save-list saves the current recentf-list to a file, and M-x recentf-edit-list edits it. The M-x ffap command generalizes find-file with more powerful heuristic defaults (see FFAP), often based on the text at point. Partial Completion mode offers other features extending find-file, which can be used with ffap. See Completion Options. Next: Filesets, Previous: File Conveniences, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.19 Viewing Image Files Visiting image files automatically selects Image mode. In this major mode, you can type C-c C-c (image-toggle-display) to toggle between displaying the file as an image in the Emacs buffer, and displaying its underlying text (or raw byte) representation. Additionally you can type C-c C-x (image-toggle-hex-display) to toggle between displaying the file as an image in the Emacs buffer, and displaying it in hex representation. Displaying the file as an image works only if Emacs is compiled with support for displaying such images. If the displayed image is wider or taller than the window in which it is displayed, the usual point motion keys (C-f, C-p, and so forth) cause different parts of the image to be displayed. However, by default images are resized automatically to fit the window, so this is only necessary if you customize the default behavior by using the options image-auto-resize and image-auto-resize-on-window-resize. To resize the image manually you can use the command image-transform-fit-both bound to s b that fits the image to both the window height and width. To scale the image specifying a scale factor, use the command image-transform-set-scale bound to s s. To reset all transformations to the initial state, use image-transform-reset bound to s 0. You can press n (image-next-file) and p (image-previous-file) to visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same directory, respectively. When looking through images, it’s sometimes convenient to be able to mark the files for later processing (for instance, if you want to select a group of images to copy somewhere else). The m (image-mode-mark-file) command will mark the current file in any Dired buffer(s) that display the current file’s directory. If no such buffer is open, the directory is opened in a new buffer. To unmark files, use the u (image-mode-mark-file) command. Finally, if you just want to copy the current buffers file name to the kill ring, you can use the w (image-mode-copy-file-name-as-kill) command. If the image can be animated, the command RET (image-toggle-animation) starts or stops the animation. Animation plays once, unless the option image-animate-loop is non-nil. With f (image-next-frame) and b (image-previous-frame) you can step through the individual frames. Both commands accept a numeric prefix to step through several frames at once. You can go to a specific frame with F (image-goto-frame). Frames are indexed from 1. Typing a + (image-increase-speed) increases the speed of the animation, a - (image-decrease-speed) decreases it, and a r (image-reverse-speed) reverses it. The command a 0 (image-reset-speed) resets the speed to the original value. If Emacs was compiled with support for the ImageMagick library, it can use ImageMagick to render a wide variety of images. The variable imagemagick-enabled-types lists the image types that Emacs may render using ImageMagick; each element in the list should be an internal ImageMagick name for an image type, as a symbol or an equivalent string (e.g., BMP for .bmp images). To enable ImageMagick for all possible image types, change imagemagick-enabled-types to t. The variable imagemagick-types-inhibit lists the image types which should never be rendered using ImageMagick, regardless of the value of imagemagick-enabled-types (the default list includes types like C and HTML, which ImageMagick can render as an image but Emacs should not). To disable ImageMagick entirely, change imagemagick-types-inhibit to t. If Emacs doesn’t have native support for the image format in question, and image-use-external-converter is non-nil, Emacs will try to determine whether there are external utilities that can be used to transform the image in question to PNG before displaying. GraphicsMagick, ImageMagick and ffmpeg are currently supported for image conversions. The Image-Dired package can also be used to view images as thumbnails. See Image-Dired. Next: Filesets, Previous: File Conveniences, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Previous: Image Mode, Up: Files [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.20 Filesets If you regularly edit a certain group of files, you can define them as a fileset. This lets you perform certain operations, such as visiting, query-replace, and shell commands on all the files at once. To make use of filesets, you must first add the expression (filesets-init) to your init file (see Init File). This adds a ‘Filesets’ sub-menu to the menu bar’s ‘File’ menu. The simplest way to define a fileset is by adding files to it one at a time. To add a file to fileset name, visit the file and type M-x filesets-add-buffer RET name RET. If there is no fileset name, this creates a new one, which initially contains only the current file. The command M-x filesets-remove-buffer removes the current file from a fileset. You can also edit the list of filesets directly, with M-x filesets-edit (or by choosing ‘Edit Filesets’ from the ‘Filesets’ menu). The editing is performed in a Customize buffer (see Easy Customization). Normally, a fileset is a simple list of files, but you can also define a fileset as a regular expression matching file names. Some examples of these more complicated filesets are shown in the Customize buffer. Remember to select ‘Save for future sessions’ if you want to use the same filesets in future Emacs sessions. You can use the command M-x filesets-open to visit all the files in a fileset, and M-x filesets-close to close them. Use M-x filesets-run-cmd to run a shell command on all the files in a fileset. These commands are also available from the ‘Filesets’ menu, where each existing fileset is represented by a submenu. See Version Control, for a different concept of filesets: groups of files bundled together for version control operations. Filesets of that type are unnamed, and do not persist across Emacs sessions. -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Image Mode, Up: Files [Contents][Index] Next: Backup, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.1 Commands for Saving Files These are the commands that relate to saving and writing files. C-x C-s Save the current buffer to its file (save-buffer). C-x s Save any or all buffers to their files (save-some-buffers). M-~ Forget that the current buffer has been changed (not-modified). With prefix argument (C-u), mark the current buffer as changed. C-x C-w Save the current buffer with a specified file name (write-file). M-x set-visited-file-name Change the file name under which the current buffer will be saved. When you wish to save the file and make your changes permanent, type C-x C-s (save-buffer). After saving is finished, C-x C-s displays a message like this: Wrote /u/rms/gnu/gnu.tasks If the current buffer is not modified (no changes have been made in it since the buffer was created or last saved), saving is not really done, because it would have no effect. Instead, C-x C-s displays a message like this in the echo area: (No changes need to be saved) With a prefix argument, C-u C-x C-s, Emacs also marks the buffer to be backed up when the next save is done. See Backup. The command C-x s (save-some-buffers) offers to save any or all modified buffers. It asks you what to do with each buffer. The possible responses are analogous to those of query-replace: y SPC Save this buffer and ask about the rest of the buffers. n DEL Don’t save this buffer, but ask about the rest of the buffers. ! Save this buffer and all the rest with no more questions. q RET Terminate save-some-buffers without any more saving. . Save this buffer, then exit save-some-buffers without even asking about other buffers. C-r View the buffer that you are currently being asked about. When you exit View mode, you get back to save-some-buffers, which asks the question again. C-f Exit save-some-buffers and visit the buffer that you are currently being asked about. d Diff the buffer against its corresponding file, so you can see what changes you would be saving. This calls the command diff-buffer-with-file (see Comparing Files). C-h Display a help message about these options. You can customize the value of save-some-buffers-default-predicate to control which buffers Emacs will ask about. C-x C-c, the key sequence to exit Emacs, invokes save-some-buffers and therefore asks the same questions. If you have changed a buffer but do not wish to save the changes, you should take some action to prevent it. Otherwise, each time you use C-x s or C-x C-c, you are liable to save this buffer by mistake. One thing you can do is type M-~ (not-modified), which clears out the indication that the buffer is modified. If you do this, none of the save commands will believe that the buffer needs to be saved. (‘~’ is often used as a mathematical symbol for “not”; thus M-~ is “not”, metafied.) Alternatively, you can cancel all the changes made since the file was visited or saved, by reading the text from the file again. This is called reverting. See Reverting. (You could also undo all the changes by repeating the undo command C-x u until you have undone all the changes; but reverting is easier.) M-x set-visited-file-name alters the name of the file that the current buffer is visiting. It reads the new file name using the minibuffer. Then it marks the buffer as visiting that file name, and changes the buffer name correspondingly. set-visited-file-name does not save the buffer in the newly visited file; it just alters the records inside Emacs in case you do save later. It also marks the buffer as modified so that C-x C-s in that buffer will save. If you wish to mark the buffer as visiting a different file and save it right away, use C-x C-w (write-file). This is equivalent to set-visited-file-name followed by C-x C-s, except that C-x C-w asks for confirmation if the file exists. C-x C-s used on a buffer that is not visiting a file has the same effect as C-x C-w; that is, it reads a file name, marks the buffer as visiting that file, and saves it there. The default file name in a buffer that is not visiting a file is made by combining the buffer name with the buffer’s default directory (see File Names). If the new file name implies a major mode, then C-x C-w switches to that major mode, in most cases. The command set-visited-file-name also does this. See Choosing Modes. If Emacs is about to save a file and sees that the date of the latest version on disk does not match what Emacs last read or wrote, Emacs notifies you of this fact, because it probably indicates a problem caused by simultaneous editing and requires your immediate attention. See Simultaneous Editing. Next: Backup, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] Next: Customize Save, Previous: Save Commands, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.2 Backup Files On most operating systems, rewriting a file automatically destroys all record of what the file used to contain. Thus, saving a file from Emacs throws away the old contents of the file—or it would, except that Emacs carefully copies the old contents to another file, called the backup file, before actually saving. Emacs makes a backup for a file only the first time the file is saved from a buffer. No matter how many times you subsequently save the file, its backup remains unchanged. However, if you kill the buffer and then visit the file again, a new backup file will be made. For most files, the variable make-backup-files determines whether to make backup files. On most operating systems, its default value is t, so that Emacs does write backup files. For files managed by a version control system (see Version Control), the variable vc-make-backup-files determines whether to make backup files. By default it is nil, since backup files are redundant when you store all the previous versions in a version control system. See General VC Options. At your option, Emacs can keep either a single backup for each file, or make a series of numbered backup files for each file that you edit. See Backup Names. The default value of the backup-enable-predicate variable prevents backup files being written for files in the directories used for temporary files, specified by temporary-file-directory or small-temporary-file-directory. You can explicitly tell Emacs to make another backup file from a buffer, even though that buffer has been saved before. If you save the buffer with C-u C-x C-s, the version thus saved will be made into a backup file if you save the buffer again. C-u C-u C-x C-s saves the buffer, but first makes the previous file contents into a new backup file. C-u C-u C-u C-x C-s does both things: it makes a backup from the previous contents, and arranges to make another from the newly saved contents if you save again. You can customize the variable backup-directory-alist to specify that files matching certain patterns should be backed up in specific directories. A typical use is to add an element ("." . dir) to make all backups in the directory with absolute name dir. Emacs modifies the backup file names to avoid clashes between files with the same names originating in different directories. Alternatively, adding, ("." . ".~") would make backups in the invisible subdirectory .~ of the original file’s directory. Emacs creates the directory, if necessary, to make the backup. • Names How backup files are named. • Deletion Emacs deletes excess numbered backups. • Copying Backups can be made by copying or renaming. Next: Customize Save, Previous: Save Commands, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] Next: Interlocking, Previous: Backup, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.3 Customizing Saving of Files If the value of the variable require-final-newline is t, saving or writing a file silently puts a newline at the end if there isn’t already one there. If the value is visit, Emacs adds a newline at the end of any file that doesn’t have one, just after it visits the file. (This marks the buffer as modified, and you can undo it.) If the value is visit-save, Emacs adds such newlines both on visiting and on saving. If the value is nil, Emacs leaves the end of the file unchanged; any other non-nil value means Emacs asks you whether to add a newline. The default is nil. Some major modes are designed for specific kinds of files that are always supposed to end in newlines. Such major modes set the variable require-final-newline to the value of mode-require-final-newline, which defaults to t. By setting the latter variable, you can control how these modes handle final newlines. Normally, when a program writes a file, the operating system briefly caches the file’s data in main memory before committing the data to disk. This can greatly improve performance; for example, when running on laptops, it can avoid a disk spin-up each time a file is written. However, it risks data loss if the operating system crashes before committing the cache to disk. To lessen this risk, Emacs can invoke the fsync system call after saving a file. Using fsync does not eliminate the risk of data loss, partly because many systems do not implement fsync properly, and partly because Emacs’s file-saving procedure typically relies also on directory updates that might not survive a crash even if fsync works properly. The write-region-inhibit-fsync variable controls whether Emacs invokes fsync after saving a file. The variable’s default value is nil when Emacs is interactive, and t when Emacs runs in batch mode (see Batch Mode). Emacs never uses fsync when writing auto-save files, as these files might lose data anyway. Next: Interlocking, Previous: Backup, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] Next: File Shadowing, Previous: Customize Save, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.4 Protection against Simultaneous Editing Simultaneous editing occurs when two users visit the same file, both make changes, and then both save them. If nobody is informed that this is happening, whichever user saves first would later find that their changes were lost. On some systems, Emacs notices immediately when the second user starts to change the file, and issues an immediate warning. On all systems, Emacs checks when you save the file, and warns if you are about to overwrite another user’s changes. You can prevent loss of the other user’s work by taking the proper corrective action instead of saving the file. When you make the first modification in an Emacs buffer that is visiting a file, Emacs records that the file is locked by you. (It does this by creating a specially-named symbolic link^7 with special contents in the same directory. See (elisp)File Locks, for more details.) Emacs removes the lock when you save the changes. The idea is that the file is locked whenever an Emacs buffer visiting it has unsaved changes. You can prevent the creation of lock files by setting the variable create-lockfiles to nil. Caution: by doing so you will lose the benefits that this feature provides. If you begin to modify the buffer while the visited file is locked by someone else, this constitutes a collision. When Emacs detects a collision, it asks you what to do, by calling the Lisp function ask-user-about-lock. You can redefine this function for the sake of customization. The standard definition of this function asks you a question and accepts three possible answers: s Steal the lock. Whoever was already changing the file loses the lock, and you gain the lock. p Proceed. Go ahead and edit the file despite its being locked by someone else. q Quit. This causes an error (file-locked), and the buffer contents remain unchanged—the modification you were trying to make does not actually take place. If Emacs or the operating system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which are stale, so you may occasionally get warnings about spurious collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just use p to tell Emacs to go ahead anyway. Note that locking works on the basis of a file name; if a file has multiple names, Emacs does not prevent two users from editing it simultaneously under different names. A lock file cannot be written in some circumstances, e.g., if Emacs lacks the system permissions or cannot create lock files for some other reason. In these cases, Emacs can still detect the collision when you try to save a file, by checking the file’s last-modification date. If the file has changed since the last time Emacs visited or saved it, that implies that changes have been made in some other way, and will be lost if Emacs proceeds with saving. Emacs then displays a warning message and asks for confirmation before saving; answer yes to save, and no or C-g cancel the save. If you are notified that simultaneous editing has already taken place, one way to compare the buffer to its file is the M-x diff-buffer-with-file command. See Comparing Files. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (7) If your file system does not support symbolic links, a regular file is used. Next: File Shadowing, Previous: Customize Save, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] Next: Time Stamps, Previous: Interlocking, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.5 Shadowing Files You can arrange to keep identical shadow copies of certain files in more than one place—possibly on different machines. To do this, first you must set up a shadow file group, which is a set of identically-named files shared between a list of sites. The file group is permanent and applies to further Emacs sessions as well as the current one. Once the group is set up, every time you exit Emacs, it will copy the file you edited to the other files in its group. You can also do the copying without exiting Emacs, by typing M-x shadow-copy-files. A shadow cluster is a group of hosts that share directories, so that copying to or from one of them is sufficient to update the file on all of them. Each shadow cluster has a name, and specifies the network address of a primary host (the one we copy files to), and a regular expression that matches the host names of all the other hosts in the cluster. You can define a shadow cluster with M-x shadow-define-cluster. M-x shadow-initialize Set up file shadowing. M-x shadow-define-literal-group Declare a single file to be shared between sites. M-x shadow-define-regexp-group Make all files that match each of a group of files be shared between hosts. M-x shadow-define-cluster RET name RET Define a shadow file cluster name. M-x shadow-copy-files Copy all pending shadow files. M-x shadow-cancel Cancel the instruction to shadow some files. To set up a shadow file group, use M-x shadow-define-literal-group or M-x shadow-define-regexp-group. See their documentation strings for further information. Before copying a file to its shadows, Emacs asks for confirmation. You can answer “no” to bypass copying of this file, this time. If you want to cancel the shadowing permanently for a certain file, use M-x shadow-cancel to eliminate or change the shadow file group. File Shadowing is not available on MS Windows. Next: Time Stamps, Previous: Interlocking, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] Previous: File Shadowing, Up: Saving [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.6 Updating Time Stamps Automatically You can arrange to put a time stamp in a file, so that it is updated automatically each time you edit and save the file. The time stamp must be in the first eight lines of the file, and you should insert it like this: Time-stamp: <> or like this: Time-stamp: " " Then add the function time-stamp to the hook before-save-hook (see Hooks). When you save the file, this function then automatically updates the time stamp with the current date and time. You can also use the command M-x time-stamp to update the time stamp manually. By default the time stamp is formatted according to your locale setting (see Environment) and time zone (see Time of Day in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). For customizations, see the Custom group time-stamp. Next: Backup Deletion, Up: Backup [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.2.1 Single or Numbered Backups When Emacs makes a backup file, its name is normally constructed by appending ‘~’ to the file name being edited; thus, the backup file for eval.c would be eval.c~. If access control stops Emacs from writing backup files under the usual names, it writes the backup file as ~/.emacs.d/%backup%~. Only one such file can exist, so only the most recently made such backup is available. Emacs can also make numbered backup files. Numbered backup file names contain ‘.~’, the number, and another ‘~’ after the original file name. Thus, the backup files of eval.c would be called eval.c.~1~, eval.c.~2~, and so on, all the way through names like eval.c.~259~ and beyond. The variable version-control determines whether to make single backup files or multiple numbered backup files. Its possible values are: nil Make numbered backups for files that have numbered backups already. Otherwise, make single backups. This is the default. t Make numbered backups. never Never make numbered backups; always make single backups. The usual way to set this variable is globally, through your init file or the customization buffer. However, you can set version-control locally in an individual buffer to control the making of backups for that buffer’s file (see Locals). You can have Emacs set version-control locally whenever you visit a given file (see File Variables). Some modes, such as Rmail mode, set this variable. If you set the environment variable VERSION_CONTROL, to tell various GNU utilities what to do with backup files, Emacs also obeys the environment variable by setting the Lisp variable version-control accordingly at startup. If the environment variable’s value is ‘t’ or ‘numbered’, then version-control becomes t; if the value is ‘nil’ or ‘existing’, then version-control becomes nil; if it is ‘never’ or ‘simple’, then version-control becomes never. If you set the variable make-backup-file-name-function to a suitable Lisp function, you can override the usual way Emacs constructs backup file names. Next: Backup Deletion, Up: Backup [Contents][Index] Next: Backup Copying, Previous: Backup Names, Up: Backup [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.2.2 Automatic Deletion of Backups To prevent excessive consumption of disk space, Emacs can delete numbered backup versions automatically. Generally Emacs keeps the first few backups and the latest few backups, deleting any in between. This happens every time a new backup is made. The two variables kept-old-versions and kept-new-versions control this deletion. Their values are, respectively, the number of oldest (lowest-numbered) backups to keep and the number of newest (highest-numbered) ones to keep, each time a new backup is made. The backups in the middle (excluding those oldest and newest) are the excess middle versions—those backups are deleted. These variables’ values are used when it is time to delete excess versions, just after a new backup version is made; the newly made backup is included in the count in kept-new-versions. By default, both variables are 2. If delete-old-versions is t, Emacs deletes the excess backup files silently. If it is nil, the default, Emacs asks you whether it should delete the excess backup versions. If it has any other value, then Emacs never automatically deletes backups. Dired’s . (Period) command can also be used to delete old versions. See Flagging Many Files. Previous: Backup Deletion, Up: Backup [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.3.2.3 Copying vs. Renaming Backup files can be made by copying the old file or by renaming it. This makes a difference when the old file has multiple names (hard links). If the old file is renamed into the backup file, then the alternate names become names for the backup file. If the old file is copied instead, then the alternate names remain names for the file that you are editing, and the contents accessed by those names will be the new contents. The method of making a backup file may also affect the file’s owner and group. If copying is used, these do not change. If renaming is used, you become the file’s owner, and the file’s group becomes the default (different operating systems have different defaults for the group). The choice of renaming or copying is made as follows: * If the variable backup-by-copying is non-nil (the default is nil), use copying. * Otherwise, if the variable backup-by-copying-when-linked is non-nil (the default is nil), and the file has multiple names, use copying. * Otherwise, if the variable backup-by-copying-when-mismatch is non-nil (the default is t), and renaming would change the file’s owner or group, use copying. If you change backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to nil, Emacs checks the numeric user-id of the file’s owner and the numeric group-id of the file’s group. If either is no greater than backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, then it behaves as though backup-by-copying-when-mismatch is non-nil anyway. * Otherwise, renaming is the default choice. When a file is managed with a version control system (see Version Control), Emacs does not normally make backups in the usual way for that file. But committing (a.k.a. checking in, see VCS Concepts) new versions of files is similar in some ways to making backups. One unfortunate similarity is that these operations typically break hard links, disconnecting the file name you visited from any alternate names for the same file. This has nothing to do with Emacs—the version control system does it. Previous: Backup Deletion, Up: Backup [Contents][Index] Next: Auto Reverting Dired, Up: Non-File Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.5.1.1 Auto Reverting the Buffer Menu If auto-reverting of non-file buffers is enabled, the Buffer Menu (see Several Buffers) automatically reverts every auto-revert-interval seconds, whether there is a need for it or not. (It would probably take longer to check whether there is a need than to actually revert.) If the Buffer Menu inappropriately gets marked modified, just revert it manually using g and auto-reverting will resume. However, if you marked certain buffers to get deleted or to be displayed, you have to be careful, because reverting erases all marks. The fact that adding marks sets the buffer’s modified flag prevents Auto Revert from automatically erasing the marks. Previous: Auto Reverting the Buffer Menu, Up: Non-File Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.5.1.2 Auto Reverting Dired buffers Dired buffers only auto-revert when the file list of the buffer’s main directory changes (e.g., when a new file is added or deleted). They do not auto-revert when information about a particular file changes (e.g., when the size changes) or when inserted subdirectories change. To be sure that all listed information is up to date, you have to manually revert using g, even if auto-reverting is enabled in the Dired buffer. Sometimes, you might get the impression that modifying or saving files listed in the main directory actually does cause auto-reverting. This is because making changes to a file, or saving it, very often causes changes in the directory itself; for instance, through backup files or auto-save files. However, this is not guaranteed. If the Dired buffer is marked modified and there are no changes you want to protect, then most of the time you can make auto-reverting resume by manually reverting the buffer using g. There is one exception. If you flag or mark files, you can safely revert the buffer. This will not erase the flags or marks (unless the marked file has been deleted, of course). However, the buffer will stay modified, even after reverting, and auto-reverting will not resume. This is because, if you flag or mark files, you may be working on the buffer and you might not want the buffer to change without warning. If you want auto-reverting to resume in the presence of marks and flags, mark the buffer non-modified using M-~. However, adding, deleting or changing marks or flags will mark it modified again. Remote Dired buffers are currently not auto-reverted. Neither are Dired buffers for which you used shell wildcards or file arguments to list only some of the files. *Find* and *Locate* buffers do not auto-revert either. Note that auto-reverting Dired buffers may not work satisfactorily on some systems. Previous: Auto Reverting the Buffer Menu, Up: Non-File Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Auto Save Control, Up: Auto Save [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.6.1 Auto-Save Files Auto-saving does not normally save in the files that you visited, because it can be very undesirable to save a change that you did not want to make permanent. Instead, auto-saving is done in a different file called the auto-save file, and the visited file is changed only when you request saving explicitly (such as with C-x C-s). Normally, the auto-save file name is made by appending ‘#’ to the front and rear of the visited file name. Thus, a buffer visiting file foo.c is auto-saved in a file #foo.c#. Most buffers that are not visiting files are auto-saved only if you request it explicitly; when they are auto-saved, the auto-save file name is made by appending ‘#’ to the front and rear of buffer name, then adding digits and letters at the end for uniqueness. For example, the *mail* buffer in which you compose messages to be sent might be auto-saved in a file named #*mail*#704juu. Auto-save file names are made this way unless you reprogram parts of Emacs to do something different (the functions make-auto-save-file-name and auto-save-file-name-p). The file name to be used for auto-saving in a buffer is calculated when auto-saving is turned on in that buffer. The variable auto-save-file-name-transforms allows a degree of control over the auto-save file name. It lets you specify a series of regular expressions and replacements to transform the auto save file name. The default value puts the auto-save files for remote files (see Remote Files) into the temporary file directory on the local machine. When you delete a substantial part of the text in a large buffer, auto save turns off temporarily in that buffer. This is because if you deleted the text unintentionally, you might find the auto-save file more useful if it contains the deleted text. To reenable auto-saving after this happens, save the buffer with C-x C-s, or use C-u 1 M-x auto-save-mode. If you want auto-saving to be done in the visited file rather than in a separate auto-save file, enable the global minor mode auto-save-visited-mode. In this mode, auto-saving is identical to explicit saving. Note that this mode is orthogonal to the auto-save mode described above; you can enable both at the same time. However, if auto-save mode is active in some buffer and the obsolete auto-save-visited-file-name variable is set to a non-nil value, that buffer won’t be affected by auto-save-visited-mode. You can use the variable auto-save-visited-interval to customize the interval between auto-save operations in auto-save-visited-mode; by default it’s five seconds. auto-save-interval and auto-save-timeout have no effect on auto-save-visited-mode. See Auto Save Control, for details on these variables. A buffer’s auto-save file is deleted when you save the buffer in its visited file. (You can inhibit this by setting the variable delete-auto-save-files to nil.) Changing the visited file name with C-x C-w or set-visited-file-name renames any auto-save file to go with the new visited name. Next: Auto Save Control, Up: Auto Save [Contents][Index] Next: Recover, Previous: Auto Save Files, Up: Auto Save [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.6.2 Controlling Auto-Saving Each time you visit a file, auto-saving is turned on for that file’s buffer if the variable auto-save-default is non-nil (but not in batch mode; see Initial Options). The default for this variable is t, so auto-saving is the usual practice for file-visiting buffers. To toggle auto-saving in the current buffer, type M-x auto-save-mode. Auto Save mode acts as a buffer-local minor mode (see Minor Modes). Emacs auto-saves periodically based on how many characters you have typed since the last auto-save. The variable auto-save-interval specifies how many characters there are between auto-saves. By default, it is 300. Emacs doesn’t accept values that are too small: if you customize auto-save-interval to a value less than 20, Emacs will behave as if the value is 20. Auto-saving also takes place when you stop typing for a while. By default, it does this after 30 seconds of idleness (at this time, Emacs may also perform garbage collection; see Garbage Collection in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). To change this interval, customize the variable auto-save-timeout. The actual time period is longer if the current buffer is long; this is a heuristic which aims to keep out of your way when you are editing long buffers, in which auto-save takes an appreciable amount of time. Auto-saving during idle periods accomplishes two things: first, it makes sure all your work is saved if you go away from the terminal for a while; second, it may avoid some auto-saving while you are actually typing. When auto-save-visited-mode is enabled, Emacs will auto-save file-visiting buffers after five seconds of idle time. You can customize the variable auto-save-visited-interval to change the idle time interval. Emacs also does auto-saving whenever it gets a fatal error. This includes killing the Emacs job with a shell command such as ‘kill %emacs’, or disconnecting a phone line or network connection. You can perform an auto-save explicitly with the command M-x do-auto-save. Next: Recover, Previous: Auto Save Files, Up: Auto Save [Contents][Index] Previous: Auto Save Control, Up: Auto Save [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 18.6.3 Recovering Data from Auto-Saves You can use the contents of an auto-save file to recover from a loss of data with the command M-x recover-file RET file RET. This visits file and then (after your confirmation) restores the contents from its auto-save file #file#. You can then save with C-x C-s to put the recovered text into file itself. For example, to recover file foo.c from its auto-save file #foo.c#, do: M-x recover-file RET foo.c RET yes RET C-x C-s Before asking for confirmation, M-x recover-file displays a directory listing describing the specified file and the auto-save file, so you can compare their sizes and dates. If the auto-save file is older, M-x recover-file does not offer to read it. If Emacs or the computer crashes, you can recover all the files you were editing from their auto save files with the command M-x recover-session. This first shows you a list of recorded interrupted sessions. Move point to the one you choose, and type C-c C-c. Then recover-session asks about each of the files that were being edited during that session, asking whether to recover that file. If you answer y, it calls recover-file, which works in its normal fashion. It shows the dates of the original file and its auto-save file, and asks once again whether to recover that file. When recover-session is done, the files you’ve chosen to recover are present in Emacs buffers. You should then save them. Only this—saving them—updates the files themselves. Emacs records information about interrupted sessions in files named .saves-pid-hostname~ in the directory ~/.emacs.d/auto-save-list/. This directory is determined by the variable auto-save-list-file-prefix. If you set auto-save-list-file-prefix to nil, sessions are not recorded for recovery. Previous: Auto Save Control, Up: Auto Save [Contents][Index] Next: List Buffers, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.1 Creating and Selecting Buffers C-x b buffer RET Select or create a buffer named buffer (switch-to-buffer). C-x 4 b buffer RET Similar, but select buffer in another window (switch-to-buffer-other-window). C-x 5 b buffer RET Similar, but select buffer in a separate frame (switch-to-buffer-other-frame). C-x LEFT Select the previous buffer in the buffer list (previous-buffer). C-x RIGHT Select the next buffer in the buffer list (next-buffer). C-u M-g M-g C-u M-g g Read a number n and move to line n in the most recently selected buffer other than the current buffer, in another window. The C-x b (switch-to-buffer) command reads a buffer name using the minibuffer. Then it makes that buffer current, and displays it in the currently-selected window. An empty input specifies the buffer that was current most recently among those not now displayed in any window. While entering the buffer name, you can use the usual completion and history commands (see Minibuffer). Note that C-x b, and related commands, use permissive completion with confirmation for minibuffer completion: if you type RET when the minibuffer text names a nonexistent buffer, Emacs prints ‘[Confirm]’ and you must type a second RET to submit that buffer name. See Completion Exit, for details. For other completion options and features, see Completion Options. If you specify a buffer that does not exist, C-x b creates a new, empty buffer that is not visiting any file, and selects it for editing. The default value of the variable major-mode determines the new buffer’s major mode; the default value is Fundamental mode. See Major Modes. One reason to create a new buffer is to use it for making temporary notes. If you try to save it, Emacs asks for the file name to use, and the buffer’s major mode is re-established taking that file name into account (see Choosing Modes). For conveniently switching between a few buffers, use the commands C-x LEFT and C-x RIGHT. C-x LEFT (previous-buffer) selects the previous buffer (following the order of most recent selection in the current frame), while C-x RIGHT (next-buffer) moves through buffers in the reverse direction. Both commands support a numeric prefix argument that serves as a repeat count. To select a buffer in a window other than the current one (see Windows), type C-x 4 b (switch-to-buffer-other-window). This prompts for a buffer name using the minibuffer, displays that buffer in another window, and selects that window. Similarly, C-x 5 b (switch-to-buffer-other-frame) prompts for a buffer name, displays that buffer in another frame (see Frames), and selects that frame. If the buffer is already being shown in a window on another frame, Emacs selects that window and frame instead of creating a new frame. See Displaying Buffers, for how the C-x 4 b and C-x 5 b commands get the window and/or frame to display in. In addition, C-x C-f, and any other command for visiting a file, can also be used to switch to an existing file-visiting buffer. See Visiting. C-u M-g M-g, that is goto-line with a plain prefix argument, reads a number n using the minibuffer, selects the most recently selected buffer other than the current buffer in another window, and then moves point to the beginning of line number n in that buffer. This is mainly useful in a buffer that refers to line numbers in another buffer: if point is on or just after a number, goto-line uses that number as the default for n. Note that prefix arguments other than just C-u behave differently. C-u 4 M-g M-g goes to line 4 in the current buffer, without reading a number from the minibuffer. (Remember that M-g M-g without prefix argument reads a number n and then moves to line number n in the current buffer. See Moving Point.) Emacs uses buffer names that start with a space for internal purposes. It treats these buffers specially in minor ways—for example, by default they do not record undo information. It is best to avoid using such buffer names yourself. Next: List Buffers, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Misc Buffer, Previous: Select Buffer, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.2 Listing Existing Buffers C-x C-b List the existing buffers (list-buffers). To display a list of existing buffers, type C-x C-b. This pops up a buffer menu in a buffer named *Buffer List*. Each line in the list shows one buffer’s name, size, major mode and visited file. The buffers are listed in the order that they were current; the buffers that were current most recently come first. This section describes how the list of buffers is displayed and how to interpret the various indications in the list; see Several Buffers, for description of the special mode in the *Buffer List* buffer and the commands available there. ‘.’ in the first field of a line indicates that the buffer is current. ‘%’ indicates a read-only buffer. ‘*’ indicates that the buffer is modified. If several buffers are modified, it may be time to save some with C-x s (see Save Commands). Here is an example of a buffer list: CRM Buffer Size Mode File . * .emacs 3294 Emacs-Lisp ~/.emacs % *Help* 101 Help search.c 86055 C ~/cvs/emacs/src/search.c % src 20959 Dired by name ~/cvs/emacs/src/ * *mail* 42 Mail % HELLO 1607 Fundamental ~/cvs/emacs/etc/HELLO % NEWS 481184 Outline ~/cvs/emacs/etc/NEWS *scratch* 191 Lisp Interaction * *Messages* 1554 Messages The buffer *Help* was made by a help request (see Help); it is not visiting any file. The buffer src was made by Dired on the directory ~/cvs/emacs/src/. You can list only buffers that are visiting files by giving the command a prefix argument, as in C-u C-x C-b. list-buffers omits buffers whose names begin with a space, unless they visit files: such buffers are used internally by Emacs. Next: Misc Buffer, Previous: Select Buffer, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Kill Buffer, Previous: List Buffers, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.3 Miscellaneous Buffer Operations C-x C-q Toggle read-only status of buffer (read-only-mode). M-x rename-buffer RET buffer RET Change the name of the current buffer. M-x rename-uniquely Rename the current buffer by adding ‘’ to the end. M-x view-buffer RET buffer RET Scroll through buffer buffer. See View Mode. A buffer can be read-only, which means that commands to insert or delete its text are not allowed. (However, other commands, like C-x RET f, can still mark it as modified, see Text Coding). The mode line indicates read-only buffers with ‘%%’ or ‘%*’ near the left margin. See Mode Line. Read-only buffers are usually made by subsystems such as Dired and Rmail that have special commands to operate on the text. Visiting a file whose access control says you cannot write it also makes the buffer read-only. The command C-x C-q (read-only-mode) makes a read-only buffer writable, and makes a writable buffer read-only. This works by setting the variable buffer-read-only, which has a local value in each buffer and makes the buffer read-only if its value is non-nil. If you change the option view-read-only to a non-nil value, making the buffer read-only with C-x C-q also enables View mode in the buffer (see View Mode). M-x rename-buffer changes the name of the current buffer. You specify the new name as a minibuffer argument; there is no default. If you specify a name that is in use for some other buffer, an error happens and no renaming is done. M-x rename-uniquely renames the current buffer to a similar name with a numeric suffix added to make it both different and unique. This command does not need an argument. It is useful for creating multiple shell buffers: if you rename the *shell* buffer, then do M-x shell again, it makes a new shell buffer named *shell*; meanwhile, the old shell buffer continues to exist under its new name. This method is also good for mail buffers, compilation buffers, and most Emacs features that create special buffers with particular names. (With some of these features, such as M-x compile, M-x grep, you need to switch to some other buffer before using the command again, otherwise it will reuse the current buffer despite the name change.) The commands M-x append-to-buffer and M-x insert-buffer can also be used to copy text from one buffer to another. See Accumulating Text. Next: Kill Buffer, Previous: List Buffers, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Several Buffers, Previous: Misc Buffer, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.4 Killing Buffers If you continue an Emacs session for a while, you may accumulate a large number of buffers. You may then find it convenient to kill the buffers you no longer need. (Some other editors call this operation close, and talk about “closing the buffer” or “closing the file” visited in the buffer.) On most operating systems, killing a buffer releases the memory Emacs used for the buffer back to the operating system so that other programs can use it. Here are some commands for killing buffers: C-x k buffer RET Kill buffer buffer (kill-buffer). M-x kill-some-buffers Offer to kill each buffer, one by one. M-x kill-matching-buffers Offer to kill all buffers matching a regular expression. C-x k (kill-buffer) kills one buffer, whose name you specify in the minibuffer. The default, used if you type just RET in the minibuffer, is to kill the current buffer. If you kill the current buffer, another buffer becomes current: one that was current in the recent past but is not displayed in any window now. If you ask to kill a file-visiting buffer that is modified, then you must confirm with yes before the buffer is killed. The command M-x kill-some-buffers asks about each buffer, one by one. An answer of yes means to kill the buffer, just like kill-buffer. This command ignores buffers whose names begin with a space, which are used internally by Emacs. The command M-x kill-matching-buffers prompts for a regular expression and kills all buffers whose names match that expression. See Regexps. Like kill-some-buffers, it asks for confirmation before each kill. This command normally ignores buffers whose names begin with a space, which are used internally by Emacs. To kill internal buffers as well, call kill-matching-buffers with a prefix argument. The Buffer Menu feature is also convenient for killing various buffers. See Several Buffers. If you want to do something special every time a buffer is killed, you can add hook functions to the hook kill-buffer-hook (see Hooks). If you run one Emacs session for a period of days, as many people do, it can fill up with buffers that you used several days ago. The command M-x clean-buffer-list is a convenient way to purge them; it kills all the unmodified buffers that you have not used for a long time. An ordinary buffer is killed if it has not been displayed for three days; however, you can specify certain buffers that should never be killed automatically, and others that should be killed if they have been unused for a mere hour. These defaults, and other aspects of this command’s behavior, can be controlled by customizing several options described in the doc string of clean-buffer-list. You can also have this buffer purging done for you, once a day, by enabling Midnight mode. Midnight mode operates each day at midnight; at that time, it runs clean-buffer-list, or whichever functions you have placed in the normal hook midnight-hook (see Hooks). To enable Midnight mode, use the Customization buffer to set the variable midnight-mode to t. See Easy Customization. Next: Several Buffers, Previous: Misc Buffer, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Indirect Buffers, Previous: Kill Buffer, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.5 Operating on Several Buffers M-x buffer-menu Begin editing a buffer listing all Emacs buffers. M-x buffer-menu-other-window Similar, but do it in another window. The Buffer Menu opened by C-x C-b (see List Buffers) does not merely list buffers. It also allows you to perform various operations on buffers, through an interface similar to Dired (see Dired). You can save buffers, kill them (here called deleting them, for consistency with Dired), or display them. To use the Buffer Menu, type C-x C-b and switch to the window displaying the *Buffer List* buffer. You can also type M-x buffer-menu to open the Buffer Menu in the selected window. Alternatively, the command M-x buffer-menu-other-window opens the Buffer Menu in another window, and selects that window. The Buffer Menu is a read-only buffer, and can be changed only through the special commands described in this section. The usual cursor motion commands can be used in this buffer. The following commands apply to the buffer described on the current line: d Flag the buffer for deletion (killing), then move point to the next line (Buffer-menu-delete). The deletion flag is indicated by the character ‘D’ on the line, before the buffer name. The deletion occurs only when you type the x command (see below). C-d Like d, but move point up instead of down (Buffer-menu-delete-backwards). s Flag the buffer for saving (Buffer-menu-save). The save flag is indicated by the character ‘S’ on the line, before the buffer name. The saving occurs only when you type x. You may request both saving and deletion for the same buffer. x Perform all flagged deletions and saves (Buffer-menu-execute). u Remove all flags from the current line, and move down (Buffer-menu-unmark). With a prefix argument, moves up after removing the flags. DEL Move to the previous line and remove all flags on that line (Buffer-menu-backup-unmark). M-DEL Remove a particular flag from all lines (Buffer-menu-unmark-all-buffers). This asks for a single character, and unmarks buffers marked with that character; typing RET removes all marks. U Remove all flags from all the lines (Buffer-menu-unmark-all). The commands for removing flags, d and C-d, accept a numeric argument as a repeat count. The following commands operate immediately on the buffer listed on the current line. They also accept a numeric argument as a repeat count. ~ Mark the buffer as unmodified (Buffer-menu-not-modified). See Save Commands. % Toggle the buffer’s read-only status (Buffer-menu-toggle-read-only). See Misc Buffer. t Visit the buffer as a tags table (Buffer-menu-visit-tags-table). See Select Tags Table. The following commands are used to select another buffer or buffers: q Quit the Buffer Menu (quit-window). The most recent formerly visible buffer is displayed in its place. RET f Select this line’s buffer, replacing the *Buffer List* buffer in its window (Buffer-menu-this-window). o Select this line’s buffer in another window, as if by C-x 4 b, leaving *Buffer List* visible (Buffer-menu-other-window). C-o Display this line’s buffer in another window, without selecting it (Buffer-menu-switch-other-window). 1 Select this line’s buffer in a full-frame window (Buffer-menu-1-window). 2 Set up two windows on the current frame, with this line’s buffer selected in one, and a previously current buffer (aside from *Buffer List*) in the other (Buffer-menu-2-window). b Bury this line’s buffer (Buffer-menu-bury) (i.e., move it to the end of the buffer list). m Mark this line’s buffer to be displayed in another window if you exit with the v command (Buffer-menu-mark). The display flag is indicated by the character ‘>’ at the beginning of the line. (A single buffer may not have both deletion and display flags.) v Select this line’s buffer, and also display in other windows any buffers flagged with the m command (Buffer-menu-select). If you have not flagged any buffers, this command is equivalent to 1. The following commands affect the entire buffer list: S Sort the Buffer Menu entries according to their values in the column at point. With a numeric prefix argument n, sort according to the n-th column (tabulated-list-sort). } Widen the current column width by n (the prefix numeric argument) characters. { Narrow the current column width by n (the prefix numeric argument) characters. T Delete, or reinsert, lines for non-file buffers (Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only). This command toggles the inclusion of such buffers in the buffer list. Normally, the buffer *Buffer List* is not updated automatically when buffers are created and killed; its contents are just text. If you have created, deleted or renamed buffers, the way to update *Buffer List* to show what you have done is to type g (revert-buffer). You can make this happen regularly every auto-revert-interval seconds if you enable Auto Revert mode in this buffer, as long as it is not marked modified. Global Auto Revert mode applies to the *Buffer List* buffer only if global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers is non-nil. See global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers, for details. Next: Indirect Buffers, Previous: Kill Buffer, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Buffer Convenience, Previous: Several Buffers, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.6 Indirect Buffers An indirect buffer shares the text of some other buffer, which is called the base buffer of the indirect buffer. In some ways it is a buffer analogue of a symbolic link between files. M-x make-indirect-buffer RET base-buffer RET indirect-name RET Create an indirect buffer named indirect-name with base buffer base-buffer. M-x clone-indirect-buffer RET Create an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. C-x 4 c Create an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer, and select it in another window (clone-indirect-buffer-other-window). The text of the indirect buffer is always identical to the text of its base buffer; changes made by editing either one are visible immediately in the other. But in all other respects, the indirect buffer and its base buffer are completely separate. They can have different names, different values of point, different narrowing, different markers, different major modes, and different local variables. An indirect buffer cannot visit a file, but its base buffer can. If you try to save the indirect buffer, that actually works by saving the base buffer. Killing the base buffer effectively kills the indirect buffer, but killing an indirect buffer has no effect on its base buffer. One way to use indirect buffers is to display multiple views of an outline. See Outline Views. A quick and handy way to make an indirect buffer is with the command M-x clone-indirect-buffer. It creates and selects an indirect buffer whose base buffer is the current buffer. With a numeric argument, it prompts for the name of the indirect buffer; otherwise it uses the name of the current buffer, with a ‘’ suffix added. C-x 4 c (clone-indirect-buffer-other-window) works like M-x clone-indirect-buffer, but it selects the new buffer in another window. These functions run the hook clone-indirect-buffer-hook after creating the indirect buffer. The more general way to make an indirect buffer is with the command M-x make-indirect-buffer. It creates an indirect buffer named indirect-name from a buffer base-buffer, prompting for both using the minibuffer. Next: Buffer Convenience, Previous: Several Buffers, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] Previous: Indirect Buffers, Up: Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.7 Convenience Features and Customization of Buffer Handling This section describes several modes and features that make it more convenient to switch between buffers. • Uniquify Making buffer names unique with directory parts. • Icomplete Fast minibuffer selection. • Buffer Menus Configurable buffer menu. Next: Icomplete, Up: Buffer Convenience [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.7.1 Making Buffer Names Unique When several buffers visit identically-named files, Emacs must give the buffers distinct names. The default method adds a suffix based on the names of the directories that contain the files. For example, if you visit files /foo/bar/mumble/name and /baz/quux/mumble/name at the same time, their buffers will be named ‘name’ and ‘name’, respectively. Emacs adds as many directory parts as are needed to make a unique name. You can choose from several different styles for constructing unique buffer names, by customizing the option uniquify-buffer-name-style. The forward naming method includes part of the file’s directory name at the beginning of the buffer name; using this method, buffers visiting the files /u/rms/tmp/Makefile and /usr/projects/zaphod/Makefile would be named ‘tmp/Makefile’ and ‘zaphod/Makefile’. In contrast, the post-forward naming method would call the buffers ‘Makefile|tmp’ and ‘Makefile|zaphod’. The default method post-forward-angle-brackets is like post-forward, except that it encloses the unique path in angle brackets. The reverse naming method would call them ‘Makefile\tmp’ and ‘Makefile\zaphod’. The nontrivial difference between post-forward and reverse occurs when just one directory name is not enough to distinguish two files; then reverse puts the directory names in reverse order, so that /top/middle/file becomes ‘file\middle\top’, while post-forward puts them in forward order after the file name, as in ‘file|top/middle’. If uniquify-buffer-name-style is set to nil, the buffer names simply get ‘<2>’, ‘<3>’, etc. appended. Which rule to follow for putting the directory names in the buffer name is not very important if you are going to look at the buffer names before you type one. But as an experienced user, if you know the rule, you won’t have to look. And then you may find that one rule or another is easier for you to remember and apply quickly. Next: Icomplete, Up: Buffer Convenience [Contents][Index] Next: Buffer Menus, Previous: Uniquify, Up: Buffer Convenience [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.7.2 Fast minibuffer selection Icomplete global minor mode provides a convenient way to quickly select an element among the possible completions in a minibuffer. When enabled, typing in the minibuffer continuously displays a list of possible completions that match the string you have typed. At any time, you can type C-j to select the first completion in the list. So the way to select a particular completion is to make it the first in the list. There are two ways to do this. You can type more of the completion name and thus narrow down the list, excluding unwanted completions above the desired one. Alternatively, you can use C-. and C-, to rotate the list until the desired buffer is first. M-TAB will select the first completion in the list, like C-j but without exiting the minibuffer, so you can edit it further. This is typically used when entering a file name, where M-TAB can be used a few times to descend in the hierarchy of directories. To enable Icomplete mode, type M-x icomplete-mode, or customize the variable icomplete-mode to t (see Easy Customization). An alternative to Icomplete mode is Fido mode. This is very similar to Icomplete mode, but retains some functionality from a popular extension called Ido mode (in fact the name is derived from “Fake Ido”). Among other things, in Fido mode, C-s and C-r are also used to rotate the completions list, C-k can be used to delete files and kill buffers in-list. Another noteworthy aspect is that flex is used as the default completion style (see Completion Styles). To change this, add the following to your initialization file (see Init File): (defun my-icomplete-styles () (setq-local completion-styles '(initials flex))) (add-hook 'icomplete-minibuffer-setup-hook 'my-icomplete-styles) To enable Fido mode, type M-x fido-mode, or customize the variable fido-mode to t (see Easy Customization). Next: Buffer Menus, Previous: Uniquify, Up: Buffer Convenience [Contents][Index] Previous: Icomplete, Up: Buffer Convenience [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 19.7.3 Customizing Buffer Menus M-x bs-show Make a list of buffers similarly to M-x list-buffers but customizable. M-x ibuffer Make a list of buffers and operate on them in Dired-like fashion. M-x bs-show pops up a buffer list similar to the one normally displayed by C-x C-b, but whose display you can customize in a more flexible fashion. For example, you can specify the list of buffer attributes to show, the minimum and maximum width of buffer name column, a regexp for names of buffers that will never be shown and those which will always be shown, etc. If you prefer this to the usual buffer list, you can bind this command to C-x C-b. To customize this buffer list, use the bs Custom group (see Easy Customization), or invoke bs-customize. MSB global minor mode (“MSB” stands for “mouse select buffer”) provides a different and customizable mouse buffer menu which you may prefer. It replaces the mouse-buffer-menu commands, normally bound to C-Down-mouse-1 and C-F10, with its own commands, and also modifies the menu-bar buffer menu. You can customize the menu in the msb Custom group. IBuffer is a major mode for viewing a list of buffers and operating on them in a way analogous to that of Dired (see Dired), including filtering, marking, sorting in various ways, and acting on buffers. Next: Split Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.1 Concepts of Emacs Windows Each Emacs window displays one Emacs buffer at any time. A single buffer may appear in more than one window; if it does, any changes in its text are displayed in all the windows where it appears. But these windows can show different parts of the buffer, because each window has its own value of point. At any time, one Emacs window is the selected window; the buffer this window is displaying is the current buffer. On graphical displays, the point is indicated by a solid blinking cursor in the selected window, and by a hollow box in non-selected windows. On text terminals, the cursor is drawn only in the selected window. See Cursor Display. Commands to move point affect the value of point for the selected Emacs window only. They do not change the value of point in other Emacs windows, even those showing the same buffer. The same is true for buffer-switching commands such as C-x b; they do not affect other windows at all. However, there are other commands such as C-x 4 b that select a different window and switch buffers in it. Also, all commands that display information in a window, including (for example) C-h f (describe-function) and C-x C-b (list-buffers), usually work by displaying buffers in a nonselected window without affecting the selected window. When multiple windows show the same buffer, they can have different regions, because they can have different values of point. However, they all have the same value for the mark, because each buffer has only one mark position. Each window has its own mode line, which displays the buffer name, modification status and major and minor modes of the buffer that is displayed in the window. The selected window’s mode line appears in a different color. See Mode Line, for details. Next: Split Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] Next: Other Window, Previous: Basic Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.2 Splitting Windows C-x 2 Split the selected window into two windows, one above the other (split-window-below). C-x 3 Split the selected window into two windows, positioned side by side (split-window-right). C-mouse-2 In the mode line of a window, split that window. C-x 2 (split-window-below) splits the selected window into two windows, one above the other. After splitting, the selected window is the upper one, and the newly split-off window is below. Both windows have the same value of point as before, and display the same portion of the buffer (or as close to it as possible). If necessary, the windows are scrolled to keep point on-screen. By default, the two windows each get half the height of the original window. A positive numeric argument specifies how many lines to give to the top window; a negative numeric argument specifies how many lines to give to the bottom window. If you change the variable split-window-keep-point to nil, C-x 2 instead adjusts the portion of the buffer displayed by the two windows, as well as the value of point in each window, in order to keep the text on the screen as close as possible to what it was before; furthermore, if point was in the lower half of the original window, the bottom window is selected instead of the upper one. C-x 3 (split-window-right) splits the selected window into two side-by-side windows. The left window is the selected one; the right window displays the same portion of the same buffer, and has the same value of point. A positive numeric argument specifies how many columns to give the left window; a negative numeric argument specifies how many columns to give the right window. When you split a window with C-x 3, each resulting window occupies less than the full width of the frame. If it becomes too narrow, the buffer may be difficult to read if continuation lines are in use (see Continuation Lines). Therefore, Emacs automatically switches to line truncation if the window width becomes narrower than 50 columns. This truncation occurs regardless of the value of the variable truncate-lines (see Line Truncation); it is instead controlled by the variable truncate-partial-width-windows. If the value of this variable is a positive integer (the default is 50), that specifies the minimum total width for a partial-width window before automatic line truncation occurs; if the value is nil, automatic line truncation is disabled; and for any other non-nil value, Emacs truncates lines in every partial-width window regardless of its width. The total width of a window is in column units as reported by window-total-width (see Window Sizes in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), it includes the fringes, the continuation and truncation glyphs, the margins, and the scroll bar. On text terminals, side-by-side windows are separated by a vertical divider which is drawn using the vertical-border face. If you click C-mouse-2 in the mode line of a window, that splits the window, putting a vertical divider where you click. Depending on how Emacs is compiled, you can also split a window by clicking C-mouse-2 in the scroll bar, which puts a horizontal divider where you click (this feature does not work when Emacs uses GTK+ scroll bars). By default, when you split a window, Emacs gives each of the resulting windows dimensions that are an integral multiple of the default font size of the frame. That might subdivide the screen estate unevenly between the resulting windows. If you set the variable window-resize-pixelwise to a non-nil value, Emacs will give each window the same number of pixels (give or take one pixel if the initial dimension was an odd number of pixels). Note that when a frame’s pixel size is not a multiple of the frame’s character size, at least one window may get resized pixelwise even if this option is nil. Next: Other Window, Previous: Basic Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] Next: Pop Up Window, Previous: Split Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.3 Using Other Windows C-x o Select another window (other-window). C-M-v Scroll the next window upward (scroll-other-window). C-M-S-v Scroll the next window downward (scroll-other-window-down). mouse-1 mouse-1, in the text area of a window, selects the window and moves point to the position clicked. Clicking in the mode line selects the window without moving point in it. With the keyboard, you can switch windows by typing C-x o (other-window). That is an o, for “other”, not a zero. When there are more than two windows, this command moves through all the windows in a cyclic order, generally top to bottom and left to right. After the rightmost and bottommost window, it goes back to the one at the upper left corner. A numeric argument means to move several steps in the cyclic order of windows. A negative argument moves around the cycle in the opposite order. When the minibuffer is active, the minibuffer window is the last window in the cycle; you can switch from the minibuffer window to one of the other windows, and later switch back and finish supplying the minibuffer argument that is requested. See Minibuffer Edit. The other-window command will normally only switch to the next window in the current frame (unless otherwise configured). If you work in a multi-frame environment and you want windows in all frames to be part of the cycle, you can rebind C-x o to the next-window-any-frame command. (See Rebinding, for how to rebind a command.) The usual scrolling commands (see Display) apply to the selected window only, but there are also commands to scroll the next window. C-M-v (scroll-other-window) scrolls the window that C-x o would select. In other respects, the command behaves like C-v; both move the buffer text upward relative to the window, and take positive and negative arguments. (In the minibuffer, C-M-v scrolls the help window associated with the minibuffer, if any, rather than the next window in the standard cyclic order; see Minibuffer Edit.) C-M-S-v (scroll-other-window-down) scrolls the next window downward in a similar way. If you set mouse-autoselect-window to a non-nil value, moving the mouse over a different window selects that window. This feature is off by default. Next: Pop Up Window, Previous: Split Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] Next: Change Window, Previous: Other Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.4 Displaying in Another Window C-x 4 is a prefix key for a variety of commands that switch to a buffer in a different window—either another existing window, or a new window created by splitting the selected window. See Window Choice, for how Emacs picks or creates the window to use. C-x 4 b bufname RET Select buffer bufname in another window (switch-to-buffer-other-window). See Select Buffer. C-x 4 C-o bufname RET Display buffer bufname in some window, without trying to select it (display-buffer). See Displaying Buffers, for details about how the window is chosen. C-x 4 f filename RET Visit file filename and select its buffer in another window (find-file-other-window). See Visiting. C-x 4 d directory RET Select a Dired buffer for directory directory in another window (dired-other-window). See Dired. C-x 4 m Start composing a mail message, similar to C-x m (see Sending Mail), but in another window (compose-mail-other-window). C-x 4 . Find the definition of an identifier, similar to M-. (see Xref), but in another window (xref-find-definitions-other-window). C-x 4 r filename RET Visit file filename read-only, and select its buffer in another window (find-file-read-only-other-window). See Visiting. Next: Displaying Buffers, Previous: Pop Up Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.5 Deleting and Resizing Windows C-x 0 Delete the selected window (delete-window). C-x 1 Delete all windows in the selected frame except the selected window (delete-other-windows). C-x 4 0 Delete the selected window and kill the buffer that was showing in it (kill-buffer-and-window). The last character in this key sequence is a zero. M-x delete-windows-on RET buffer RET Delete windows showing the specified buffer. C-x ^ Make selected window taller (enlarge-window). C-x } Make selected window wider (enlarge-window-horizontally). C-x { Make selected window narrower (shrink-window-horizontally). C-x - Shrink this window if its buffer doesn’t need so many lines (shrink-window-if-larger-than-buffer). C-x + Make all windows the same height (balance-windows). To delete the selected window, type C-x 0 (delete-window). (That is a zero.) Once a window is deleted, the space that it occupied is given to an adjacent window (but not the minibuffer window, even if that is active at the time). Deleting the window has no effect on the buffer it used to display; the buffer continues to exist, and you can still switch to it with C-x b. C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) is a stronger command than C-x 0; it kills the current buffer and then deletes the selected window. C-x 1 (delete-other-windows) deletes all the windows, except the selected one; the selected window expands to use the whole frame. (This command cannot be used while the minibuffer window is active; attempting to do so signals an error.) M-x delete-windows-on deletes windows that show a specific buffer. It prompts for the buffer, defaulting to the current buffer. With prefix argument of zero, C-u 0, this command deletes windows only on the current display’s frames. The command C-x ^ (enlarge-window) makes the selected window one line taller, taking space from a vertically adjacent window without changing the height of the frame. With a positive numeric argument, this command increases the window height by that many lines; with a negative argument, it reduces the height by that many lines. If there are no vertically adjacent windows (i.e., the window is at the full frame height), that signals an error. The command also signals an error if you attempt to reduce the height of any window below a certain minimum number of lines, specified by the variable window-min-height (the default is 4). Similarly, C-x } (enlarge-window-horizontally) makes the selected window wider, and C-x { (shrink-window-horizontally) makes it narrower. These commands signal an error if you attempt to reduce the width of any window below a certain minimum number of columns, specified by the variable window-min-width (the default is 10). Mouse clicks on the mode line (see Mode Line Mouse) or on window dividers (see Window Dividers) provide another way to change window heights and to split or delete windows. C-x - (shrink-window-if-larger-than-buffer) reduces the height of the selected window, if it is taller than necessary to show the whole text of the buffer it is displaying. It gives the extra lines to other windows in the frame. You can also use C-x + (balance-windows) to even out the heights of all the windows in the selected frame. Next: Displaying Buffers, Previous: Pop Up Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] Next: Window Convenience, Previous: Change Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.6 Displaying a Buffer in a Window It is a common Emacs operation to display or pop up some buffer in response to a user command. There are several different ways in which commands do this. Many commands, like C-x C-f (find-file), by default display the buffer by “taking over” the selected window, expecting that the user’s attention will be diverted to that buffer. Some commands try to display intelligently, trying not to take over the selected window, e.g., by splitting off a new window and displaying the desired buffer there. Such commands, which include the various help commands (see Help), work by calling display-buffer internally. See Window Choice, for details. Other commands do the same as display-buffer, and additionally select the displaying window so that you can begin editing its buffer. The command M-g M-n (next-error) is one example (see Compilation Mode). Such commands work by calling the function pop-to-buffer internally. See Switching to a Buffer in a Window in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Commands with names ending in -other-window behave like display-buffer, except that they never display in the selected window. Several of these commands are bound in the C-x 4 prefix key (see Pop Up Window). Commands with names ending in -other-frame behave like display-buffer, except that they (i) never display in the selected window and (ii) prefer to either create a new frame or use a window on some other frame to display the desired buffer. Several of these commands are bound in the C-x 5 prefix key. • Window Choice How display-buffer works. • Temporary Displays Displaying non-editable buffers. Next: Window Convenience, Previous: Change Window, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] Previous: Window Choice, Up: Displaying Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.6.2 Displaying non-editable buffers. Some buffers are shown in windows for perusal rather than for editing. Help commands (see Help) typically use a buffer called *Help* for that purpose, minibuffer completion (see Completion) uses a buffer called *Completions*, etc. Such buffers are usually displayed only for a short period of time. Normally, Emacs chooses the window for such temporary displays via display-buffer, as described in the previous subsection. The *Completions* buffer, on the other hand, is normally displayed in a window at the bottom of the selected frame, regardless of the number of windows already shown on that frame. If you prefer Emacs to display a temporary buffer in a different fashion, customize the variable display-buffer-alist (see Choosing a Window for Displaying a Buffer in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual) appropriately. For example, to display *Completions* always below the selected window, use the following form in your initialization file (see Init File): (customize-set-variable 'display-buffer-alist '(("\\*Completions\\*" display-buffer-below-selected))) The *Completions* buffer is also special in the sense that Emacs usually tries to make its window just as large as necessary to display all of its contents. To resize windows showing other temporary displays, like, for example, the *Help* buffer, turn on the minor mode (see Minor Modes) temp-buffer-resize-mode (see Temporary Displays in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). The maximum size of windows resized by temp-buffer-resize-mode can be controlled by customizing the options temp-buffer-max-height and temp-buffer-max-width (see Temporary Displays in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), and cannot exceed the size of the containing frame. Previous: Window Choice, Up: Displaying Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Tab Line, Previous: Displaying Buffers, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.7 Convenience Features for Window Handling Winner mode is a global minor mode that records the changes in the window configuration (i.e., how the frames are partitioned into windows), so that you can undo them. You can toggle Winner mode with M-x winner-mode, or by customizing the variable winner-mode. When the mode is enabled, C-c left (winner-undo) undoes the last window configuration change. If you change your mind while undoing, you can redo the changes you had undone using C-c right (M-x winner-redo). To prevent Winner mode from binding C-c left and C-c right, you can customize the variable winner-dont-bind-my-keys to a non-nil value. By default, Winner mode stores a maximum of 200 window configurations per frame, but you can change that by modifying the variable winner-ring-size. If there are some buffers whose windows you wouldn’t want Winner mode to restore, add their names to the list variable winner-boring-buffers or to the regexp winner-boring-buffers-regexp. Follow mode (M-x follow-mode) synchronizes several windows on the same buffer so that they always display adjacent sections of that buffer. See Follow Mode. The Windmove package defines commands for moving directionally between neighboring windows in a frame. M-x windmove-right selects the window immediately to the right of the currently selected one, and similarly for the left, up, and down counterparts. M-x windmove-default-keybindings binds these commands to S-right etc.; doing so disables shift selection for those keys (see Shift Selection). In the same way as keybindings can be defined for commands that select windows directionally, you can use M-x windmove-display-default-keybindings to define keybindings for commands that specify in what direction to display the window for the buffer that the next command is going to display. Also there is M-x windmove-delete-default-keybindings to define keybindings for commands that delete windows directionally, and M-x windmove-swap-states-default-keybindings that defines keybindings for commands that swap the window contents of the selected window with the window in the specified direction. The command M-x compare-windows lets you compare the text shown in different windows. See Comparing Files. Scroll All mode (M-x scroll-all-mode) is a global minor mode that causes scrolling commands and point motion commands to apply to every single window. Next: Tab Line, Previous: Displaying Buffers, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] Previous: Window Convenience, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.8 Window Tab Line The command global-tab-line-mode toggles the display of a tab line on the top screen line of each window. The Tab Line shows special buttons (“tabs”) for each buffer that was displayed in a window, and allows switching to any of these buffers by clicking the corresponding button. Clicking on the + icon adds a new buffer to the window-local tab line of buffers, and clicking on the x icon of a tab deletes it. The mouse wheel on the tab line scrolls the tabs horizontally. Selecting the previous window-local tab is the same as typing C-x LEFT (previous-buffer), selecting the next tab is the same as C-x RIGHT (next-buffer). Both commands support a numeric prefix argument as a repeat count. You can customize the variable tab-line-tabs-function to define the preferred contents of the tab line. By default, it displays all buffers previously visited in the window, as described above. But you can also set it to display a list of buffers with the same major mode as the current buffer, or to display buffers grouped by their major mode, where clicking on the mode name in the first tab displays a list of all major modes where you can select another group of buffers. Note that the Tab Line is different from the Tab Bar (see Tab Bars). Whereas tabs on the Tab Bar at the top of each frame are used to switch between window configurations containing several windows with buffers, tabs on the Tab Line at the top of each window are used to switch between buffers in the window. -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Window Convenience, Up: Windows [Contents][Index] Next: Temporary Displays, Up: Displaying Buffers [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 20.6.1 How display-buffer works The display-buffer command (as well as commands that call it internally) chooses a window to display by following the steps given below. See Choosing a Window for Displaying a Buffer in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for details about how to alter this sequence of steps. * If the buffer should be displayed in the selected window regardless of other considerations, reuse the selected window. By default, this step is skipped, but you can tell Emacs not to skip it by adding a regular expression matching the buffer’s name together with a reference to the display-buffer-same-window action function (see Action Functions for Buffer Display in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual) to the option display-buffer-alist (see Choosing a Window for Displaying a Buffer in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). For example, to display the buffer *scratch* preferably in the selected window write: (customize-set-variable 'display-buffer-alist '("\\*scratch\\*" (display-buffer-same-window))) By default, display-buffer-alist is nil. * Otherwise, if the buffer is already displayed in an existing window, reuse that window. Normally, only windows on the selected frame are considered, but windows on other frames are also reusable if you use the corresponding reusable-frames action alist entry (see Action Alists for Buffer Display in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). See the next step for an example of how to do that. * Otherwise, optionally create a new frame and display the buffer there. By default, this step is skipped. To enable it, change the value of the option display-buffer-base-action (see Choosing a Window for Displaying a Buffer in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual) as follows: (customize-set-variable 'display-buffer-base-action '((display-buffer-reuse-window display-buffer-pop-up-frame) (reusable-frames . 0))) This customization will also try to make the preceding step search for a reusable window on all visible or iconified frames. * Otherwise, try to create a new window by splitting a window on the selected frame, and display the buffer in that new window. The split can be either vertical or horizontal, depending on the variables split-height-threshold and split-width-threshold. These variables should have integer values. If split-height-threshold is smaller than the chosen window’s height, the split puts the new window below. Otherwise, if split-width-threshold is smaller than the window’s width, the split puts the new window on the right. If neither condition holds, Emacs tries to split so that the new window is below—but only if the window was not split before (to avoid excessive splitting). * Otherwise, display the buffer in a window previously showing it. Normally, only windows on the selected frame are considered, but with a suitable reusable-frames action alist entry (see above) the window may be also on another frame. * Otherwise, display the buffer in an existing window on the selected frame. * If all the above methods fail for whatever reason, create a new frame and display the buffer there. Next: Temporary Displays, Up: Displaying Buffers [Contents][Index] Next: Word and Line Mouse, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.1 Mouse Commands for Editing mouse-1 Move point to where you click (mouse-set-point). Drag-mouse-1 Activate the region around the text selected by dragging, and put the text in the primary selection (mouse-set-region). mouse-2 Move point to where you click, and insert the contents of the primary selection there (mouse-yank-primary). mouse-3 If the region is active, move the nearer end of the region to the click position; otherwise, set mark at the current value of point and point at the click position. Save the resulting region in the kill ring; on a second click, kill it (mouse-save-then-kill). C-M-mouse-1 Activate a rectangular region around the text selected by dragging. See Rectangles. The most basic mouse command is mouse-set-point, which is invoked by clicking with the left mouse button, mouse-1, in the text area of a window. This moves point to the position where you clicked. If that window was not the selected window, it becomes the selected window. You can also activate a region by double-clicking mouse-1 (see Word and Line Mouse). Normally, if the frame you clicked in was not the selected frame, it is made the selected frame, in addition to selecting the window and setting the cursor. On the X Window System, you can change this by setting the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t. In that case, the initial click on an unselected frame just selects the frame, without doing anything else; clicking again selects the window and sets the cursor position. Holding down mouse-1 and dragging the mouse over a stretch of text activates the region around that text (mouse-set-region), placing the mark where you started holding down the mouse button, and point where you release it (see Mark). In addition, the text in the region becomes the primary selection (see Primary Selection). If you change the variable mouse-drag-copy-region to a non-nil value, dragging the mouse over a stretch of text also adds the text to the kill ring. The default is nil. If you move the mouse off the top or bottom of the window while dragging, the window scrolls at a steady rate until you move the mouse back into the window. This way, you can select regions that don’t fit entirely on the screen. The number of lines scrolled per step depends on how far away from the window edge the mouse has gone; the variable mouse-scroll-min-lines specifies a minimum step size. Clicking with the middle mouse button, mouse-2, moves point to the position where you clicked and inserts the contents of the primary selection (mouse-yank-primary). See Primary Selection. This behavior is consistent with other X applications. Alternatively, you can rebind mouse-2 to mouse-yank-at-click, which performs a yank at the position you click. If you change the variable mouse-yank-at-point to a non-nil value, mouse-2 does not move point; it inserts the text at point, regardless of where you clicked or even which of the frame’s windows you clicked on. This variable affects both mouse-yank-primary and mouse-yank-at-click. Clicking with the right mouse button, mouse-3, runs the command mouse-save-then-kill. This performs several actions depending on where you click and the status of the region: * If no region is active, clicking mouse-3 activates the region, placing the mark where point was and point at the clicked position. * If a region is active, clicking mouse-3 adjusts the nearer end of the region by moving it to the clicked position. The adjusted region’s text is copied to the kill ring; if the text in the original region was already on the kill ring, it replaces it there. * If you originally specified the region using a double or triple mouse-1, so that the region is defined to consist of entire words or lines (see Word and Line Mouse), then adjusting the region with mouse-3 also proceeds by entire words or lines. * If you use mouse-3 a second time consecutively, at the same place, that kills the region already selected. Thus, the simplest way to kill text with the mouse is to click mouse-1 at one end, then click mouse-3 twice at the other end. To copy the text into the kill ring without deleting it from the buffer, press mouse-3 just once—or just drag across the text with mouse-1. Then you can copy it elsewhere by yanking it. The mouse-save-then-kill command also obeys the variable mouse-drag-copy-region (described above). If the value is non-nil, then whenever the command sets or adjusts the active region, the text in the region is also added to the kill ring. If the latest kill ring entry had been added the same way, that entry is replaced rather than making a new entry. Whenever you set the region using any of the mouse commands described above, the mark will be deactivated by any subsequent unshifted cursor motion command, in addition to the usual ways of deactivating the mark. See Shift Selection. Some mice have a “wheel” which can be used for scrolling. Emacs supports scrolling windows with the mouse wheel, by default, on most graphical displays. To toggle this feature, use M-x mouse-wheel-mode. The variables mouse-wheel-follow-mouse and mouse-wheel-scroll-amount determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled. The variable mouse-wheel-progressive-speed determines whether the scroll speed is linked to how fast you move the wheel. This mode also supports increasing or decreasing the height of the default face, by default bound to scrolling with the Ctrl modifier. Emacs can also support horizontal scrolling if your mouse’s wheel can be tilted, or if your touchpad supports it. This feature is off by default; the variable mouse-wheel-tilt-scroll turns it on, if you customize it to a non-nil value. By default, tilting the mouse wheel scrolls the window’s view horizontally in the direction of the tilt: e.g., tilting to the right scrolls the window to the right, so that the text displayed in the window moves horizontally to the left. If you’d like to reverse the direction of horizontal scrolling, customize the variable mouse-wheel-flip-direction to a non-nil value. When the mouse pointer is over an image in Image mode, see Image Mode, scrolling the mouse wheel with the Ctrl modifier scales the image under the mouse pointer. Next: Word and Line Mouse, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Mouse References, Previous: Mouse Commands, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.2 Mouse Commands for Words and Lines These variants of mouse-1 select entire words or lines at a time. Emacs activates the region around the selected text, which is also copied to the kill ring. Double-mouse-1 Select the text around the word or character which you click on. Double-clicking on a character with symbol syntax (such as underscore, in C mode) selects the symbol surrounding that character. Double-clicking on a character with open- or close-parenthesis syntax selects the parenthetical grouping which that character starts or ends. Double-clicking on a character with string-delimiter syntax (such as a single-quote or double-quote in C) selects the string constant (Emacs uses heuristics to figure out whether that character is the beginning or the end of it). Double-clicking on the beginning of a parenthetical grouping or beginning string-delimiter moves point to the end of the region, scrolling the buffer display forward if necessary to show the new location of point. Double-clicking on the end of a parenthetical grouping or end string-delimiter keeps point at the end of the region by default, so the beginning of the region will not be visible if it is above the top of the window; setting the user option mouse-select-region-move-to-beginning to non-nil changes this to move point to the beginning of the region, scrolling the display backward if necessary. Double-Drag-mouse-1 Select the text you drag across, in units of whole words. Triple-mouse-1 Select the line you click on. Triple-Drag-mouse-1 Select the text you drag across, in units of whole lines. Next: Menu Mouse Clicks, Previous: Word and Line Mouse, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.3 Following References with the Mouse Some Emacs buffers include buttons, or hyperlinks: pieces of text that perform some action (e.g., following a reference) when activated (e.g., by clicking on them). Usually, a button’s text is visually highlighted: it is underlined, or a box is drawn around it. If you move the mouse over a button, the shape of the mouse cursor changes and the button lights up. If you change the variable mouse-highlight to nil, Emacs disables this highlighting. You can activate a button by moving point to it and typing RET, or by clicking either mouse-1 or mouse-2 on the button. For example, in a Dired buffer, each file name is a button; activating it causes Emacs to visit that file (see Dired). In a *Compilation* buffer, each error message is a button, and activating it visits the source code for that error (see Compilation). Although clicking mouse-1 on a button usually activates the button, if you hold the mouse button down for a period of time before releasing it (specifically, for more than 450 milliseconds), then Emacs moves point where you clicked, without activating the button. In this way, you can use the mouse to move point over a button without activating it. Dragging the mouse over or onto a button has its usual behavior of setting the region, and does not activate the button. You can change how mouse-1 applies to buttons by customizing the variable mouse-1-click-follows-link. If the value is a positive integer, that determines how long you need to hold the mouse button down for, in milliseconds, to cancel button activation; the default is 450, as described in the previous paragraph. If the value is nil, mouse-1 just sets point where you clicked, and does not activate buttons. If the value is double, double clicks activate buttons but single clicks just set point. Normally, mouse-1 on a button activates the button even if it is in a non-selected window. If you change the variable mouse-1-click-in-non-selected-windows to nil, mouse-1 on a button in an unselected window moves point to the clicked position and selects that window, without activating the button. Next: Menu Mouse Clicks, Previous: Word and Line Mouse, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Mode Line Mouse, Previous: Mouse References, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.4 Mouse Clicks for Menus Several mouse clicks with the Ctrl and SHIFT modifiers bring up menus. C-mouse-1 This menu is for selecting a buffer. The MSB (“mouse select buffer”) global minor mode makes this menu smarter and more customizable. See Buffer Menus. C-mouse-2 This menu contains entries for examining faces and other text properties, and well as for setting them (the latter is mainly useful when editing enriched text; see Enriched Text). C-mouse-3 This menu is mode-specific. For most modes if Menu-bar mode is on, this menu has the same items as all the mode-specific menu-bar menus put together. Some modes may specify a different menu for this button. If Menu Bar mode is off, this menu contains all the items which would be present in the menu bar—not just the mode-specific ones—so that you can access them without having to display the menu bar. S-mouse-1 This menu is for changing the default face within the window’s buffer. See Text Scale. Some graphical applications use mouse-3 for a mode-specific menu. If you prefer mouse-3 in Emacs to bring up such a menu instead of running the mouse-save-then-kill command, rebind mouse-3 by adding the following line to your init file (see Init Rebinding): (global-set-key [mouse-3] 'mouse-popup-menubar-stuff) Next: Creating Frames, Previous: Menu Mouse Clicks, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.5 Mode Line Mouse Commands You can use mouse clicks on window mode lines to select and manipulate windows. Some areas of the mode line, such as the buffer name, and major and minor mode names, have their own special mouse bindings. These areas are highlighted when you hold the mouse over them, and information about the special bindings will be displayed (see Tooltips). This section’s commands do not apply in those areas. mouse-1 mouse-1 on a mode line selects the window it belongs to. By dragging mouse-1 on the mode line, you can move it, thus changing the height of the windows above and below. Changing heights with the mouse in this way never deletes windows, it just refuses to make any window smaller than the minimum height. mouse-2 mouse-2 on a mode line expands that window to fill its frame. mouse-3 mouse-3 on a mode line deletes the window it belongs to. If the frame has only one window, it does nothing. C-mouse-2 C-mouse-2 on a mode line splits that window, producing two side-by-side windows with the boundary running through the click position (see Split Window). Furthermore, by clicking and dragging mouse-1 on the divider between two side-by-side mode lines, you can move the vertical boundary to the left or right. Note that resizing windows is affected by the value of window-resize-pixelwise, see Split Window. Next: Frame Commands, Previous: Mode Line Mouse, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.6 Creating Frames The prefix key C-x 5 is analogous to C-x 4. Whereas each C-x 4 command pops up a buffer in a different window in the selected frame (see Pop Up Window), the C-x 5 commands use a different frame. If an existing visible or iconified (a.k.a. “minimized”, see Visibility of Frames in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual) frame already displays the requested buffer, that frame is raised and deiconified (“un-minimized”); otherwise, a new frame is created on the current display terminal. The various C-x 5 commands differ in how they find or create the buffer to select: C-x 5 2 Create a new frame (make-frame-command). C-x 5 b bufname RET Select buffer bufname in another frame. This runs switch-to-buffer-other-frame. C-x 5 f filename RET Visit file filename and select its buffer in another frame. This runs find-file-other-frame. See Visiting. C-x 5 d directory RET Select a Dired buffer for directory directory in another frame. This runs dired-other-frame. See Dired. C-x 5 m Start composing a mail message in another frame. This runs compose-mail-other-frame. It is the other-frame variant of C-x m. See Sending Mail. C-x 5 . Find the definition of an identifier in another frame. This runs xref-find-definitions-other-frame, the multiple-frame variant of M-.. See Xref. C-x 5 r filename RET Visit file filename read-only, and select its buffer in another frame. This runs find-file-read-only-other-frame. See Visiting. You can control the appearance and behavior of the newly-created frames by specifying frame parameters. See Frame Parameters. Next: Frame Commands, Previous: Mode Line Mouse, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Fonts, Previous: Creating Frames, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.7 Frame Commands The following commands are used to delete and operate on frames: C-x 5 0 Delete the selected frame (delete-frame). This signals an error if there is only one frame. C-z Minimize (or iconify) the selected Emacs frame (suspend-frame). See Exiting. C-x 5 o Select another frame, and raise it. If you repeat this command, it cycles through all the frames on your terminal. C-x 5 1 Delete all frames on the current terminal, except the selected one. M-F10 Toggle the maximization state of the current frame. When a frame is maximized, it fills the screen. F11 Toggle full-screen mode for the current frame. (The difference between full-screen and maximized is normally that the former hides window manager decorations, giving slightly more screen space to Emacs itself.) Note that with some window managers you may have to customize the variable frame-resize-pixelwise to a non-nil value in order to make a frame truly maximized or full-screen. This variable, when set to a non-nil value, in general allows resizing frames at pixel resolution, rather than in integral multiples of lines and columns. The C-x 5 0 (delete-frame) command deletes the selected frame. However, it will refuse to delete the last frame in an Emacs session, to prevent you from losing the ability to interact with the Emacs session. Note that when Emacs is run as a daemon (see Emacs Server), there is always a virtual frame that remains after all the ordinary, interactive frames are deleted. In this case, C-x 5 0 can delete the last interactive frame; you can use emacsclient to reconnect to the Emacs session. The C-x 5 1 (delete-other-frames) command deletes all other frames on the current terminal (this terminal refers to either a graphical display, or a text terminal; see Non-Window Terminals). If the Emacs session has frames open on other graphical displays or text terminals, those are not deleted. The C-x 5 o (other-frame) command selects the next frame on the current terminal. If you are using Emacs on the X Window System with a window manager that selects (or gives focus to) whatever frame the mouse cursor is over, you have to change the variable focus-follows-mouse to t in order for this command to work properly. Then invoking C-x 5 o will also warp the mouse cursor to the chosen frame. Next: Fonts, Previous: Creating Frames, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Speedbar, Previous: Frame Commands, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.8 Fonts By default, Emacs displays text on graphical displays using a 10-point monospace font, and the font size can be changed interactively (see Text Scale). There are several different ways to specify a different font: * Click on ‘Set Default Font’ in the ‘Options’ menu. This makes the selected font the default on all existing graphical frames. To save this for future sessions, click on ‘Save Options’ in the ‘Options’ menu. * Add a line to your init file, modifying the variable default-frame-alist to specify the font parameter (see Frame Parameters), like this: (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(font . "DejaVu Sans Mono-10")) This makes the font the default on all graphical frames created after restarting Emacs with that init file. * Add an ‘emacs.font’ X resource setting to your X resource file, like this: emacs.font: DejaVu Sans Mono-12 You must restart X, or use the xrdb command, for the X resources file to take effect. See Resources. Do not quote font names in X resource files. * If you are running Emacs on the GNOME desktop, you can tell Emacs to use the default system font by setting the variable font-use-system-font to t (the default is nil). For this to work, Emacs must have been compiled with support for Gsettings (or the older Gconf). * Use the command line option ‘-fn’ (or ‘--font’). See Font X. To check what font you’re currently using, the C-u C-x = command can be helpful. It describes the character at point, and names the font that it’s rendered in. There are four different ways to express a font name. The first is to use a Fontconfig pattern. Fontconfig patterns have the following form: fontname[-fontsize][:name1=values1][:name2=values2]... Within this format, any of the elements in brackets may be omitted. Here, fontname is the family name of the font, such as ‘Monospace’ or ‘DejaVu Sans Mono’; fontsize is the point size of the font (one printer’s point is about 1/72 of an inch); and the ‘name=values’ entries specify settings such as the slant and weight of the font. Each values may be a single value, or a list of values separated by commas. In addition, some property values are valid with only one kind of property name, in which case the ‘name=’ part may be omitted. Here is a list of common font properties: ‘slant’ One of ‘italic’, ‘oblique’, or ‘roman’. ‘weight’ One of ‘light’, ‘medium’, ‘demibold’, ‘bold’ or ‘black’. ‘style’ Some fonts define special styles which are a combination of slant and weight. For instance, ‘Dejavu Sans’ defines the ‘book’ style, which overrides the slant and weight properties. ‘width’ One of ‘condensed’, ‘normal’, or ‘expanded’. ‘spacing’ One of ‘monospace’, ‘proportional’, ‘dual-width’, or ‘charcell’. Here are some examples of Fontconfig patterns: Monospace Monospace-12 Monospace-12:bold DejaVu Sans Mono:bold:italic Monospace-12:weight=bold:slant=italic For a more detailed description of Fontconfig patterns, see the Fontconfig manual, which is distributed with Fontconfig and available online at https://fontconfig.org/fontconfig-user.html. On MS-Windows, only the subset of the form fontname[-fontsize] is supported for all fonts; the full Fontconfig pattern might not work for all of them. The second way to specify a font is to use a GTK font pattern. These have the syntax fontname [properties] [fontsize] where fontname is the family name, properties is a list of property values separated by spaces, and fontsize is the point size. The properties that you may specify for GTK font patterns are as follows: * Slant properties: ‘Italic’ or ‘Oblique’. If omitted, the default (roman) slant is implied. * Weight properties: ‘Bold’, ‘Book’, ‘Light’, ‘Medium’, ‘Semi-bold’, or ‘Ultra-light’. If omitted, ‘Medium’ weight is implied. * Width properties: ‘Semi-Condensed’ or ‘Condensed’. If omitted, a default width is used. Here are some examples of GTK font patterns: Monospace 12 Monospace Bold Italic 12 On MS-Windows, only the subset fontname is supported. The third way to specify a font is to use an XLFD (X Logical Font Description). This is the traditional method for specifying fonts under X, and is also supported on MS-Windows. Each XLFD consists of fourteen words or numbers, separated by dashes, like this: -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-*-*-*-c-60-iso8859-1 A wildcard character (‘*’) in an XLFD matches any sequence of characters (including none), and ‘?’ matches any single character. However, matching is implementation-dependent, and can be inaccurate when wildcards match dashes in a long name. For reliable results, supply all 14 dashes and use wildcards only within a field. Case is insignificant in an XLFD. The syntax for an XLFD is as follows: -maker-family-weight-slant-widthtype-style… …-pixels-height-horiz-vert-spacing-width-registry-encoding The entries have the following meanings: maker The name of the font manufacturer. family The name of the font family (e.g., ‘courier’). weight The font weight—normally either ‘bold’, ‘medium’ or ‘light’. Some font names support other values. slant The font slant—normally ‘r’ (roman), ‘i’ (italic), ‘o’ (oblique), ‘ri’ (reverse italic), or ‘ot’ (other). Some font names support other values. widthtype The font width—normally ‘normal’, ‘condensed’, ‘semicondensed’, or ‘extended’. Some font names support other values. style An optional additional style name. Usually it is empty—most XLFDs have two hyphens in a row at this point. The style name can also specify a two-letter ISO-639 language name, like ‘ja’ or ‘ko’; some fonts that support CJK scripts have that spelled out in the style name part. pixels The font height, in pixels. height The font height on the screen, measured in tenths of a printer’s point. This is the point size of the font, times ten. For a given vertical resolution, height and pixels are proportional; therefore, it is common to specify just one of them and use ‘*’ for the other. horiz The horizontal resolution, in pixels per inch, of the screen for which the font is intended. vert The vertical resolution, in pixels per inch, of the screen for which the font is intended. Normally the resolution of the fonts on your system is the right value for your screen; therefore, you normally specify ‘*’ for this and horiz. spacing This is ‘m’ (monospace), ‘p’ (proportional) or ‘c’ (character cell). width The average character width, in pixels, multiplied by ten. registry encoding The X font character set that the font depicts. (X font character sets are not the same as Emacs character sets, but they are similar.) You can use the xfontsel program to check which choices you have. Normally you should use ‘iso8859’ for registry and ‘1’ for encoding. The fourth and final method of specifying a font is to use a font nickname. Certain fonts have shorter nicknames, which you can use instead of a normal font specification. For instance, ‘6x13’ is equivalent to -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-*-*-*-c-60-iso8859-1 This form is not supported on MS-Windows. On X, Emacs recognizes two types of fonts: client-side fonts, which are provided by the Xft and Fontconfig libraries, and server-side fonts, which are provided by the X server itself. Most client-side fonts support advanced font features such as antialiasing and subpixel hinting, while server-side fonts do not. Fontconfig and GTK patterns match only client-side fonts. You will probably want to use a fixed-width default font—that is, a font in which all characters have the same width. For Xft and Fontconfig fonts, you can use the fc-list command to list the available fixed-width fonts, like this: fc-list :spacing=mono fc-list :spacing=charcell For server-side X fonts, you can use the xlsfonts program to list the available fixed-width fonts, like this: xlsfonts -fn '*x*' | grep -E '^[0-9]+x[0-9]+' xlsfonts -fn '*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-m*' xlsfonts -fn '*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-c*' Any font with ‘m’ or ‘c’ in the spacing field of the XLFD is a fixed-width font. To see what a particular font looks like, use the xfd command. For example: xfd -fn 6x13 displays the entire font ‘6x13’. While running Emacs, you can also set the font of a specific kind of text (see Faces), or a particular frame (see Frame Parameters). Next: Speedbar, Previous: Frame Commands, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Multiple Displays, Previous: Fonts, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.9 Speedbar Frames The speedbar is a special frame for conveniently navigating in or operating on another frame. The speedbar, when it exists, is always associated with a specific frame, called its attached frame; all speedbar operations act on that frame. Type M-x speedbar to create the speedbar and associate it with the current frame. To dismiss the speedbar, type M-x speedbar again, or select the speedbar and type q. (You can also delete the speedbar frame like any other Emacs frame.) If you wish to associate the speedbar with a different frame, dismiss it and call M-x speedbar from that frame. The speedbar can operate in various modes. Its default mode is File Display mode, which shows the files in the current directory of the selected window of the attached frame, one file per line. Clicking on a non-directory visits that file in the selected window of the attached frame, and clicking on a directory shows that directory in the speedbar (see Mouse References). Each line also has a box, ‘[+]’ or ‘<+>’, that you can click on to expand the contents of that item. Expanding a directory adds the contents of that directory to the speedbar display, underneath the directory’s own line. Expanding an ordinary file adds a list of the tags in that file to the speedbar display; you can click on a tag name to jump to that tag in the selected window of the attached frame. When a file or directory is expanded, the ‘[+]’ changes to ‘[-]’; you can click on that box to contract the item, hiding its contents. You navigate through the speedbar using the keyboard, too. Typing RET while point is on a line in the speedbar is equivalent to clicking the item on the current line, and SPC expands or contracts the item. U displays the parent directory of the current directory. To copy, delete, or rename the file on the current line, type C, D, and R respectively. To create a new directory, type M. Another general-purpose speedbar mode is Buffer Display mode; in this mode, the speedbar displays a list of Emacs buffers. To switch to this mode, type b in the speedbar. To return to File Display mode, type f. You can also change the display mode by clicking mouse-3 anywhere in the speedbar window (or mouse-1 on the mode-line) and selecting ‘Displays’ in the pop-up menu. Some major modes, including Rmail mode, Info, and GUD, have specialized ways of putting useful items into the speedbar for you to select. For example, in Rmail mode, the speedbar shows a list of Rmail files, and lets you move the current message to another Rmail file by clicking on its ‘’ box. For more details on using and programming the speedbar, See Speedbar in Speedbar Manual. Next: Multiple Displays, Previous: Fonts, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Frame Parameters, Previous: Speedbar, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.10 Multiple Displays A single Emacs can talk to more than one X display. Initially, Emacs uses just one display—the one specified with the DISPLAY environment variable or with the ‘--display’ option (see Initial Options). To connect to another display, use the command make-frame-on-display: M-x make-frame-on-display RET display RET Create a new frame on display display. A single X server can handle more than one screen. When you open frames on two screens belonging to one server, Emacs knows they share a single keyboard, and it treats all the commands arriving from these screens as a single stream of input. When you open frames on different X servers, Emacs makes a separate input stream for each server. Each server also has its own selected frame. The commands you enter with a particular X server apply to that server’s selected frame. On multi-monitor displays it is possible to use the command make-frame-on-monitor: M-x make-frame-on-monitor RET monitor RET Create a new frame on monitor monitor whose screen area is a part of the current display. Next: Scroll Bars, Previous: Multiple Displays, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.11 Frame Parameters You can control the default appearance and behavior of all frames by specifying a default list of frame parameters in the variable default-frame-alist. Its value should be a list of entries, each specifying a parameter name and a value for that parameter. These entries take effect whenever Emacs creates a new frame, including the initial frame. For example, you can add the following lines to your init file (see Init File) to set the default frame width to 90 character columns, the default frame height to 40 character rows, and the default font to ‘Monospace-10’: (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(width . 90)) (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(height . 40)) (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(font . "Monospace-10")) For a list of frame parameters and their effects, see Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. You can also specify a list of frame parameters which apply to just the initial frame, by customizing the variable initial-frame-alist. If Emacs is compiled to use an X toolkit, frame parameters that specify colors and fonts don’t affect menus and the menu bar, since those are drawn by the toolkit and not directly by Emacs. Frame appearance and behavior can also be customized through X resources (see X Resources); these override the parameters of the initial frame specified in your init file. Note that if you are using the desktop library to save and restore your sessions, the frames to be restored are recorded in the desktop file, together with their parameters. When these frames are restored, the recorded parameters take precedence over the frame parameters specified by default-frame-alist and initial-frame-alist in your init file. See Saving Emacs Sessions, for how to avoid that. Next: Scroll Bars, Previous: Multiple Displays, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Window Dividers, Previous: Frame Parameters, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.12 Scroll Bars On graphical displays, there is a vertical scroll bar on the side of each Emacs window. Clicking mouse-1 on the scroll bar’s up and down buttons scrolls the window by one line at a time (but some toolkits allow you to customize the scroll bars to not have those buttons). Clicking mouse-1 above or below the scroll bar’s inner box scrolls the window by nearly the entire height of the window, like M-v and C-v respectively (see Moving Point). (This, too, can behave differently with some toolkits.) Dragging the inner box scrolls continuously. If Emacs is compiled on the X Window System without X toolkit support, the scroll bar behaves differently. Clicking mouse-1 anywhere on the scroll bar scrolls forward like C-v, while mouse-3 scrolls backward like M-v. Clicking mouse-2 in the scroll bar lets you drag the inner box up and down. To toggle the use of vertical scroll bars, type M-x scroll-bar-mode. This command applies to all frames, including frames yet to be created. To toggle vertical scroll bars for just the selected frame, use the command M-x toggle-scroll-bar. To control the use of vertical scroll bars at startup, customize the variable scroll-bar-mode (see Customization). Its value should be either right (put scroll bars on the right side of windows), left (put them on the left), or nil (disable vertical scroll bars). By default, Emacs puts scroll bars on the right if it was compiled with GTK+ support on the X Window System, and on MS-Windows or macOS; Emacs puts scroll bars on the left if compiled on the X Window System without GTK+ support (following the old convention for X applications). You can also use the X resource ‘verticalScrollBars’ to enable or disable the scroll bars (see Resources). To control the scroll bar width, change the scroll-bar-width frame parameter (see Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). If you’re using Emacs on X (with GTK+ or Motif), you can customize the variable scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion to control overscrolling of the scroll bar, i.e., dragging the thumb down even when the end of the buffer is visible. If its value is non-nil, the scroll bar can be dragged downwards even if the end of the buffer is shown; if nil, the thumb will be at the bottom when the end of the buffer is shown. You cannot over-scroll when the entire buffer is visible. The visual appearance of the scroll bars is controlled by the scroll-bar face. (Some toolkits, such as GTK+ and MS-Windows, ignore this face; the scroll-bar appearance there can only be customized system-wide, for GTK+ see GTK resources). On graphical frames, vertical scroll bars implicitly serve to separate side-by-side windows visually. When vertical scroll bars are disabled, Emacs by default separates such windows with the help of a one-pixel wide vertical border. That border occupies the first pixel column of the window on the right and may thus overdraw the leftmost pixels of any glyph displayed there. If these pixels convey important information, you can make them visible by enabling window dividers, see Window Dividers. To replicate the look of vertical borders, set the right-divider-width parameter of frames to one and have the window-divider face inherit from that of vertical-border, Window Dividers in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. On graphical displays with toolkit support, Emacs may also supply a horizontal scroll bar on the bottom of each window. Clicking mouse-1 on that scroll bar’s left and right buttons scrolls the window horizontally by one column at a time. (Note that some toolkits allow customizations of the scroll bar that cause these buttons not to be shown.) Clicking mouse-1 on the left or right of the scroll bar’s inner box scrolls the window by four columns. Dragging the inner box scrolls the window continuously. Note that such horizontal scrolling can make the window’s position of point disappear on the left or the right. Typing a character to insert text or moving point with a keyboard command will usually bring it back into view. To toggle the use of horizontal scroll bars, type M-x horizontal-scroll-bar-mode. This command applies to all frames, including frames yet to be created. To toggle horizontal scroll bars for just the selected frame, use the command M-x toggle-horizontal-scroll-bar. To control the use of horizontal scroll bars at startup, customize the variable horizontal-scroll-bar-mode. You can also use the X resource ‘horizontalScrollBars’ to enable or disable horizontal scroll bars (see Resources). To control the scroll bar height, change the scroll-bar-height frame parameter (see Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). Next: Window Dividers, Previous: Frame Parameters, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Drag and Drop, Previous: Scroll Bars, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.13 Window Dividers On graphical displays, you can use window dividers in order to separate windows visually. Window dividers are bars that can be dragged with the mouse, thus allowing you to easily resize adjacent windows. To toggle the display of window dividers, use the command M-x window-divider-mode. To customize where dividers should appear, use the option window-divider-default-places. Its value should be either bottom-only (to show dividers only on the bottom of windows), right-only (to show dividers only on the right of windows), or t (to show them on the bottom and on the right). To adjust the width of window dividers displayed by this mode customize the options window-divider-default-bottom-width and window-divider-default-right-width. When vertical scroll bars are disabled, dividers can be also useful to make the first pixel column of a window visible, which would be otherwise covered by the vertical border used to separate side-by-side windows (see Scroll Bars). For more details about window dividers see Window Dividers in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Next: Menu Bars, Previous: Window Dividers, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.14 Drag and Drop In most graphical desktop environments, Emacs has basic support for drag and drop operations. For instance, dropping text onto an Emacs frame inserts the text where it is dropped. Dropping a file onto an Emacs frame visits that file. As a special case, dropping the file on a Dired buffer moves or copies the file (according to the conventions of the application it came from) into the directory displayed in that buffer. Dropping a file normally visits it in the window you drop it on. If you prefer to visit the file in a new window in such cases, customize the variable dnd-open-file-other-window. The XDND and Motif drag and drop protocols, and the old KDE 1.x protocol, are currently supported. Emacs can also optionally drag the region with the mouse into another portion of this or another buffer. To enable that, customize the variable mouse-drag-and-drop-region to a non-nil value. Normally, the text is moved, i.e. cut and pasted, when the destination is the same buffer as the origin; dropping the region on another buffer copies the text instead. If the value of this variable names a modifier key, such as ‘shift’, ‘control’ or ‘alt’, then pressing that modifier key when dropping the text will copy it instead of cutting it, even if you drop on the same buffer as the one from which the text came. In order to cut text even when source and destination buffers differ, set the option mouse-drag-and-drop-region-cut-when-buffers-differ to a non-nil value. By default, on a graphic display the selected text is shown in a tooltip and point moves together with the mouse cursor during dragging. To suppress such behavior, set the options mouse-drag-and-drop-region-show-tooltip and/or mouse-drag-and-drop-region-show-cursor to nil. Next: Menu Bars, Previous: Window Dividers, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Tool Bars, Previous: Drag and Drop, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.15 Menu Bars You can toggle the use of menu bars with M-x menu-bar-mode. With no argument, this command toggles Menu Bar mode, a global minor mode. With an argument, the command turns Menu Bar mode on if the argument is positive, off if the argument is not positive. To control the use of menu bars at startup, customize the variable menu-bar-mode. Expert users often turn off the menu bar, especially on text terminals, where this makes one additional line available for text. If the menu bar is off, you can still pop up a menu of its contents with C-mouse-3 on a display which supports pop-up menus. See Menu Mouse Clicks. See Menu Bar, for information on how to invoke commands with the menu bar. See X Resources, for how to customize the menu bar menus’ visual appearance. Next: Tab Bars, Previous: Menu Bars, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.16 Tool Bars On graphical displays, Emacs puts a tool bar at the top of each frame, just below the menu bar. This is a row of icons which you can click on with the mouse to invoke various commands. The global (default) tool bar contains general commands. Some major modes define their own tool bars; whenever a buffer with such a major mode is current, the mode’s tool bar replaces the global tool bar. To toggle the use of tool bars, type M-x tool-bar-mode. This command applies to all frames, including frames yet to be created. To control the use of tool bars at startup, customize the variable tool-bar-mode. When Emacs is compiled with GTK+ support, each tool bar item can consist of an image, or a text label, or both. By default, Emacs follows the Gnome desktop’s tool bar style setting; if none is defined, it displays tool bar items as just images. To impose a specific tool bar style, customize the variable tool-bar-style. You can also control the placement of the tool bar for the GTK+ tool bar with the frame parameter tool-bar-position. See Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. NS builds consider the tool bar to be a window decoration, and therefore do not display it when a window is undecorated. See Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. On macOS the tool bar is hidden when the frame is put into fullscreen, but can be displayed by moving the mouse pointer to the top of the screen. Next: Tab Bars, Previous: Menu Bars, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Dialog Boxes, Previous: Tool Bars, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.17 Tab Bars On graphical displays and on text terminals, Emacs can optionally display a Tab Bar at the top of each frame, just below the menu bar. The Tab Bar is a row of tabs—buttons that you can click to switch between window configurations on that frame. Each tab on the Tab Bar represents a named persistent window configuration. Its name is composed from the list of names of buffers visible in windows of that window configuration. Clicking on the tab switches to the window configuration recorded by the tab; it is a configuration of windows and buffers which was previously used in the frame when that tab was the current tab. If you are using the desktop library to save and restore your sessions (see Saving Emacs Sessions), the tabs from the Tab Bar are recorded in the desktop file, together with their associated window configurations, and will be available after restoring the session. Note that the Tab Bar is different from the Tab Line (see Tab Line). Whereas tabs on the Tab Line at the top of each window are used to switch between buffers, tabs on the Tab Bar at the top of each frame are used to switch between window configurations containing several windows with buffers. To toggle the use of tab bars, type M-x tab-bar-mode. This command applies to all frames, including frames yet to be created. To control the use of tab bars at startup, customize the variable tab-bar-mode. The variable tab-bar-show controls whether the Tab Bar mode is turned on automatically. If the value is t, then tab-bar-mode is enabled when using the commands that create new tabs. The value 1 hides the tab bar when it has only one tab, and shows it again when more tabs are created. The value nil always keeps the tab bar hidden; in this case it’s still possible to switch between named window configurations without the tab bar by using M-x tab-next, M-x tab-switcher, and other commands that provide completion on tab names. Also it’s possible to create and close tabs without the tab bar by using commands M-x tab-new, M-x tab-close, etc. The prefix key C-x t is analogous to C-x 5. Whereas each C-x 5 command pops up a buffer in a different frame (see Creating Frames), the C-x t commands use a different tab with a different window configuration in the selected frame. The various C-x t commands differ in how they find or create the buffer to select. The following commands can be used to select a buffer in a new tab: C-x t 2 Add a new tab (tab-new). You can control the choice of the buffer displayed in a new tab by customizing the variable tab-bar-new-tab-choice. C-x t b bufname RET Select buffer bufname in another tab. This runs switch-to-buffer-other-tab. C-x t f filename RET Visit file filename and select its buffer in another tab. This runs find-file-other-tab. See Visiting. C-x t d directory RET Select a Dired buffer for directory directory in another tab. This runs dired-other-tab. See Dired. By default, a new tab starts with the buffer that was current before calling the command that adds a new tab. To start a new tab with other buffers, customize the variable tab-bar-new-tab-choice. The variable tab-bar-new-tab-to defines where to place a new tab. By default, a new tab is added on the right side of the current tab. The following commands can be used to delete tabs: C-x t 0 Close the selected tab (tab-close). It has no effect if there is only one tab, unless the variable tab-bar-close-last-tab-choice is customized to a non-default value. C-x t 1 Close all tabs on the selected frame, except the selected one. The variable tab-bar-close-tab-select defines what tab to select after closing the current tab. By default, it selects a recently used tab. The command tab-undo restores the last closed tab. The following commands can be used to switch between tabs: C-x t o C-TAB Switch to the next tab. If you repeat this command, it cycles through all the tabs on the selected frame. With a positive numeric argument n, it switches to the next nth tab; with a negative argument -n, it switches back to the previous nth tab. S-C-TAB Switch to the previous tab. With a positive numeric argument n, it switches to the previous nth tab; with a negative argument -n, it switches back to the next nth tab. C-x t RET tabname RET Switch to the tab by its name, with completion on all tab names. Default values are tab names sorted by recency, so you can use M-n (next-history-element) to get the name of the last visited tab, the second last, and so on. modifier-tabnumber Switch to the tab by its number. After customizing the variable tab-bar-select-tab-modifiers to specify a modifier key, you can select a tab by its ordinal number using the specified modifier in combination with the tab number to select. To display the tab number alongside the tab name, you can customize another variable tab-bar-tab-hints. This will help you to decide what key to press to select the tab by its number. modifier-0 Switch to the recent tab. The key combination is the modifier key defined by tab-bar-select-tab-modifiers and the key 0. With a numeric argument n, switch to the nth recent tab. The following commands can be used to operate on tabs: C-x t r tabname RET Rename the current tab to tabname. You can control the programmatic name given to a tab by default by customizing the variable tab-bar-tab-name-function. C-x t m Move the current tab n positions to the right with a positive numeric argument n. With a negative argument -n, move the current tab n positions to the left. You can enable tab-bar-history-mode to remember window configurations used in every tab, and restore them. tab-bar-history-back Restore a previous window configuration used in the current tab. This navigates back in the history of window configurations. tab-bar-history-forward Cancel restoration of the previous window configuration. This navigates forward in the history of window configurations. Next: Dialog Boxes, Previous: Tool Bars, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Tooltips, Previous: Tab Bars, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.18 Using Dialog Boxes A dialog box is a special kind of menu for asking you a yes-or-no question or some other special question. Many Emacs commands use a dialog box to ask a yes-or-no question, if you used the mouse to invoke the command that led to the question. To disable the use of dialog boxes, change the variable use-dialog-box to nil. In that case, Emacs always performs yes-or-no prompts using the echo area and keyboard input. This variable also controls whether to use file selection windows (but those are not supported on all platforms). A file selection window is a special kind of dialog box for asking for file names. You can customize the variable use-file-dialog to suppress the use of file selection windows, even if you still want other kinds of dialogs. This variable has no effect if you have suppressed all dialog boxes with the variable use-dialog-box. When Emacs is compiled with GTK+ support, it uses the GTK+ file chooser dialog. Emacs adds an additional toggle button to this dialog, which you can use to enable or disable the display of hidden files (files starting with a dot) in that dialog. If you want this toggle to be activated by default, change the variable x-gtk-show-hidden-files to t. In addition, Emacs adds help text to the GTK+ file chooser dialog; to disable this help text, change the variable x-gtk-file-dialog-help-text to nil. Next: Mouse Avoidance, Previous: Dialog Boxes, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.19 Tooltips Tooltips are small special frames that display text information at the current mouse position. They activate when there is a pause in mouse movement over some significant piece of text in a window, or the mode line, or some other part of the Emacs frame such as a tool bar button or menu item. You can toggle the use of tooltips with the command M-x tooltip-mode. When Tooltip mode is disabled, the help text is displayed in the echo area instead. To control the use of tooltips at startup, customize the variable tooltip-mode. The following variables provide customization options for tooltip display: tooltip-delay This variable specifies how long Emacs should wait before displaying the first tooltip. The value is in seconds. tooltip-short-delay This variable specifies how long Emacs should wait before displaying subsequent tooltips on different items, having already displayed the first tooltip. The value is in seconds. tooltip-hide-delay The number of seconds since displaying a tooltip to hide it, if the mouse doesn’t move. tooltip-x-offset tooltip-y-offset The X and Y offsets, in pixels, of the left top corner of the tooltip from the mouse pointer position. Note that these are ignored if tooltip-frame-parameters was customized to include, respectively, the left and top parameters. The values of the offsets should be chosen so that the tooltip doesn’t cover the mouse pointer’s hot spot, or it might interfere with clicking the mouse. tooltip-frame-parameters The frame parameters used for displaying tooltips. See Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, and also Tooltips in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. For additional customization options for displaying tooltips, use M-x customize-group RET tooltip RET. If Emacs is built with GTK+ support, it displays tooltips via GTK+, using the default appearance of GTK+ tooltips. To disable this, change the variable x-gtk-use-system-tooltips to nil. If you do this, or if Emacs is built without GTK+ support, most attributes of the tooltip text are specified by the tooltip face, and by X resources (see X Resources). GUD tooltips are special tooltips that show the values of variables when debugging a program with GUD. See Debugger Operation. Next: Mouse Avoidance, Previous: Dialog Boxes, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] Next: Non-Window Terminals, Previous: Tooltips, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.20 Mouse Avoidance On graphical terminals, the mouse pointer may obscure the text in the Emacs frame. Emacs provides two methods to avoid this problem. Firstly, Emacs hides the mouse pointer each time you type a self-inserting character, if the pointer lies inside an Emacs frame; moving the mouse pointer makes it visible again. To disable this feature, set the variable make-pointer-invisible to nil. See Display Custom. Secondly, you can use Mouse Avoidance mode, a minor mode, to keep the mouse pointer away from point. To use Mouse Avoidance mode, customize the variable mouse-avoidance-mode. You can set this to various values to move the mouse in several ways: banish Move the pointer to a corner of the frame on any key-press. You can customize the variable mouse-avoidance-banish-position to specify where the pointer goes when it is banished. exile Banish the pointer only if the cursor gets too close, and allow it to return once the cursor is out of the way. jump If the cursor gets too close to the pointer, displace the pointer by a random distance and direction. animate As jump, but shows steps along the way for illusion of motion. cat-and-mouse The same as animate. proteus As animate, but changes the shape of the mouse pointer too. You can also use the command M-x mouse-avoidance-mode to enable the mode. Whenever Mouse Avoidance mode moves the mouse, it also raises the frame. Next: Text-Only Mouse, Previous: Mouse Avoidance, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.21 Non-Window Terminals On a text terminal, Emacs can display only one Emacs frame at a time. However, you can still create multiple Emacs frames, and switch between them. Switching frames on these terminals is much like switching between different window configurations. Use C-x 5 2 to create a new frame and switch to it; use C-x 5 o to cycle through the existing frames; use C-x 5 0 to delete the current frame. Each frame has a number to distinguish it. If your terminal can display only one frame at a time, the selected frame’s number n appears near the beginning of the mode line, in the form ‘Fn’. ‘Fn’ is in fact the frame’s initial name. You can give frames more meaningful names if you wish, and you can select a frame by its name. Use the command M-x set-frame-name RET name RET to specify a new name for the selected frame, and use M-x select-frame-by-name RET name RET to select a frame according to its name. The name you specify appears in the mode line when the frame is selected. Previous: Non-Window Terminals, Up: Frames [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 21.22 Using a Mouse in Text Terminals Some text terminals support mouse clicks in the terminal window. In a terminal emulator which is compatible with xterm, you can use M-x xterm-mouse-mode to give Emacs control over simple uses of the mouse—basically, only non-modified single clicks are supported. Newer versions of xterm also support mouse-tracking. The normal xterm mouse functionality for such clicks is still available by holding down the SHIFT key when you press the mouse button. Xterm Mouse mode is a global minor mode (see Minor Modes). Repeating the command turns the mode off again. In the console on GNU/Linux, you can use M-x gpm-mouse-mode to enable mouse support. You must have the gpm server installed and running on your system in order for this to work. Note that when this mode is enabled, you cannot use the mouse to transfer text between Emacs and other programs which use GPM. This is due to limitations in GPM and the Linux kernel. See MS-DOS Mouse, for information about mouse support on MS-DOS. Next: Language Environments, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.1 Introduction to International Character Sets The users of international character sets and scripts have established many more-or-less standard coding systems for storing files. These coding systems are typically multibyte, meaning that sequences of two or more bytes are used to represent individual non-ASCII characters. Internally, Emacs uses its own multibyte character encoding, which is a superset of the Unicode standard. This internal encoding allows characters from almost every known script to be intermixed in a single buffer or string. Emacs translates between the multibyte character encoding and various other coding systems when reading and writing files, and when exchanging data with subprocesses. The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays the file etc/HELLO, which illustrates various scripts by showing how to say “hello” in many languages. If some characters can’t be displayed on your terminal, they appear as ‘?’ or as hollow boxes (see Undisplayable Characters). Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used, generally don’t have keys for all the characters in them. You can insert characters that your keyboard does not support, using C-x 8 RET (insert-char). See Inserting Text. Shorthands are available for some common characters; for example, you can insert a left single quotation mark ‘ by typing C-x 8 [, or in Electric Quote mode, usually by simply typing `. See Quotation Marks. Emacs also supports various input methods, typically one for each script or language, which make it easier to type characters in the script. See Input Methods. The prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods. The command C-x = (what-cursor-position) shows information about the character at point. In addition to the character position, which was described in Position Info, this command displays how the character is encoded. For instance, it displays the following line in the echo area for the character ‘c’: Char: c (99, #o143, #x63) point=28062 of 36168 (78%) column=53 The four values after ‘Char:’ describe the character that follows point, first by showing it and then by giving its character code in decimal, octal and hex. For a non-ASCII multibyte character, these are followed by ‘file’ and the character’s representation, in hex, in the buffer’s coding system, if that coding system encodes the character safely and with a single byte (see Coding Systems). If the character’s encoding is longer than one byte, Emacs shows ‘file ...’. On rare occasions, Emacs encounters raw bytes: single bytes whose values are in the range 128 (0200 octal) through 255 (0377 octal), which Emacs cannot interpret as part of a known encoding of some non-ASCII character. Such raw bytes are treated as if they belonged to a special character set eight-bit; Emacs displays them as escaped octal codes (this can be customized; see Display Custom). In this case, C-x = shows ‘raw-byte’ instead of ‘file’. In addition, C-x = shows the character codes of raw bytes as if they were in the range #x3FFF80..#x3FFFFF, which is where Emacs maps them to distinguish them from Unicode characters in the range #x0080..#x00FF. With a prefix argument (C-u C-x =), this command displays a detailed description of the character in a window: * The character set name, and the codes that identify the character within that character set; ASCII characters are identified as belonging to the ascii character set. * The character’s script, syntax and categories. * What keys to type to input the character in the current input method (if it supports the character). * The character’s encodings, both internally in the buffer, and externally if you were to save the buffer to a file. * If you are running Emacs on a graphical display, the font name and glyph code for the character. If you are running Emacs on a text terminal, the code(s) sent to the terminal. * If the character was composed on display with any following characters to form one or more grapheme clusters, the composition information: the font glyphs if the frame is on a graphical display, else the characters that were composed. * The character’s text properties (see Text Properties in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), including any non-default faces used to display the character, and any overlays containing it (see Overlays in the same manual). Here’s an example, with some lines folded to fit into this manual: position: 1 of 1 (0%), column: 0 character: ê (displayed as ê) (codepoint 234, #o352, #xea) preferred charset: unicode (Unicode (ISO10646)) code point in charset: 0xEA script: latin syntax: w which means: word category: .:Base, L:Left-to-right (strong), c:Chinese, j:Japanese, l:Latin, v:Viet to input: type "C-x 8 RET ea" or "C-x 8 RET LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX" buffer code: #xC3 #xAA file code: #xC3 #xAA (encoded by coding system utf-8-unix) display: by this font (glyph code) xft:-PfEd-DejaVu Sans Mono-normal-normal- normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 (#xAC) Character code properties: customize what to show name: LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX old-name: LATIN SMALL LETTER E CIRCUMFLEX general-category: Ll (Letter, Lowercase) decomposition: (101 770) ('e' '^') Next: Language Environments, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Input Methods, Previous: International Chars, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.2 Language Environments All supported character sets are supported in Emacs buffers whenever multibyte characters are enabled; there is no need to select a particular language in order to display its characters. However, it is important to select a language environment in order to set various defaults. Roughly speaking, the language environment represents a choice of preferred script rather than a choice of language. The language environment controls which coding systems to recognize when reading text (see Recognize Coding). This applies to files, incoming mail, and any other text you read into Emacs. It may also specify the default coding system to use when you create a file. Each language environment also specifies a default input method. To select a language environment, customize current-language-environment or use the command M-x set-language-environment. It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use this command, because the effects apply globally to the Emacs session. See the variable language-info-alist for the list of supported language environments, and use the command C-h L lang-env RET (describe-language-environment) for more information about the language environment lang-env. Supported language environments include: ASCII, Arabic, Belarusian, Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cham, Chinese-BIG5, Chinese-CNS, Chinese-EUC-TW, Chinese-GB, Chinese-GB18030, Chinese-GBK, Croatian, Cyrillic-ALT, Cyrillic-ISO, Cyrillic-KOI8, Czech, Devanagari, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Ethiopic, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, IPA, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latin-1, Latin-2, Latin-3, Latin-4, Latin-5, Latin-6, Latin-7, Latin-8, Latin-9, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Oriya, Persian, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, TaiViet, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, UTF-8, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Windows-1255. To display the script(s) used by your language environment on a graphical display, you need to have suitable fonts. See Fontsets, for more details about setting up your fonts. Some operating systems let you specify the character-set locale you are using by setting the locale environment variables LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG. (If more than one of these is set, the first one that is nonempty specifies your locale for this purpose.) During startup, Emacs looks up your character-set locale’s name in the system locale alias table, matches its canonical name against entries in the value of the variables locale-charset-language-names and locale-language-names (the former overrides the latter), and selects the corresponding language environment if a match is found. It also adjusts the display table and terminal coding system, the locale coding system, the preferred coding system as needed for the locale, and—last but not least—the way Emacs decodes non-ASCII characters sent by your keyboard. If you modify the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG environment variables while running Emacs (by using M-x setenv), you may want to invoke the set-locale-environment command afterwards to readjust the language environment from the new locale. The set-locale-environment function normally uses the preferred coding system established by the language environment to decode system messages. But if your locale matches an entry in the variable locale-preferred-coding-systems, Emacs uses the corresponding coding system instead. For example, if the locale ‘ja_JP.PCK’ matches japanese-shift-jis in locale-preferred-coding-systems, Emacs uses that encoding even though it might normally use utf-8. You can override the language environment chosen at startup with explicit use of the command set-language-environment, or with customization of current-language-environment in your init file. To display information about the effects of a certain language environment lang-env, use the command C-h L lang-env RET (describe-language-environment). This tells you which languages this language environment is useful for, and lists the character sets, coding systems, and input methods that go with it. It also shows some sample text to illustrate scripts used in this language environment. If you give an empty input for lang-env, this command describes the chosen language environment. You can customize any language environment with the normal hook set-language-environment-hook. The command set-language-environment runs that hook after setting up the new language environment. The hook functions can test for a specific language environment by checking the variable current-language-environment. This hook is where you should put non-default settings for specific language environments, such as coding systems for keyboard input and terminal output, the default input method, etc. Before it starts to set up the new language environment, set-language-environment first runs the hook exit-language-environment-hook. This hook is useful for undoing customizations that were made with set-language-environment-hook. For instance, if you set up a special key binding in a specific language environment using set-language-environment-hook, you should set up exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal binding for that key. Next: Input Methods, Previous: International Chars, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Select Input Method, Previous: Language Environments, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.3 Input Methods An input method is a kind of character conversion designed specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language has its own input method; sometimes several languages that use the same characters can share one input method. A few languages support several input methods. The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into another alphabet; this allows you to use one other alphabet instead of ASCII. The Greek and Russian input methods work this way. A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of characters into one letter. Many European input methods use composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence that consists of a letter followed by accent characters (or vice versa). For example, some methods convert the sequence o ^ into a single accented letter. These input methods have no special commands of their own; all they do is compose sequences of printing characters. The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed by composition. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way. First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone marks; then, sequences of these that make up a whole syllable are mapped into one syllable sign. Chinese and Japanese require more complex methods. In Chinese input methods, first you enter the phonetic spelling of a Chinese word (in input method chinese-py, among others), or a sequence of portions of the character (input methods chinese-4corner and chinese-sw, and others). One input sequence typically corresponds to many possible Chinese characters. You select the one you mean using keys such as C-f, C-b, C-n, C-p (or the arrow keys), and digits, which have special meanings in this situation. The possible characters are conceptually arranged in several rows, with each row holding up to 10 alternatives. Normally, Emacs displays just one row at a time, in the echo area; (i/j) appears at the beginning, to indicate that this is the ith row out of a total of j rows. Type C-n or C-p to display the next row or the previous row. Type C-f and C-b to move forward and backward among the alternatives in the current row. As you do this, Emacs highlights the current alternative with a special color; type C-SPC to select the current alternative and use it as input. The alternatives in the row are also numbered; the number appears before the alternative. Typing a number selects the associated alternative of the current row and uses it as input. TAB in these Chinese input methods displays a buffer showing all the possible characters at once; then clicking mouse-2 on one of them selects that alternative. The keys C-f, C-b, C-n, C-p, and digits continue to work as usual, but they do the highlighting in the buffer showing the possible characters, rather than in the echo area. To enter characters according to the pīnyīn transliteration method instead, use the chinese-sisheng input method. This is a composition based method, where e.g. pi1 results in ‘pī’. In Japanese input methods, first you input a whole word using phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary. One phonetic spelling corresponds to a number of different Japanese words; to select one of them, use C-n and C-p to cycle through the alternatives. Sometimes it is useful to cut off input method processing so that the characters you have just entered will not combine with subsequent characters. For example, in input method latin-1-postfix, the sequence o ^ combines to form an ‘o’ with an accent. What if you want to enter them as separate characters? One way is to type the accent twice; this is a special feature for entering the separate letter and accent. For example, o ^ ^ gives you the two characters ‘o^’. Another way is to type another letter after the o—something that won’t combine with that—and immediately delete it. For example, you could type o o DEL ^ to get separate ‘o’ and ‘^’. Another method, more general but not quite as easy to type, is to use C-\ C-\ between two characters to stop them from combining. This is the command C-\ (toggle-input-method) used twice. See Select Input Method. C-\ C-\ is especially useful inside an incremental search, because it stops waiting for more characters to combine, and starts searching for what you have already entered. To find out how to input the character after point using the current input method, type C-u C-x =. See Position Info. The variables input-method-highlight-flag and input-method-verbose-flag control how input methods explain what is happening. If input-method-highlight-flag is non-nil, the partial sequence is highlighted in the buffer (for most input methods—some disable this feature). If input-method-verbose-flag is non-nil, the list of possible characters to type next is displayed in the echo area (but not when you are in the minibuffer). You can modify how an input method works by making your changes in a function that you add to the hook variable quail-activate-hook. See Hooks. For example, you can redefine some of the input method’s keys by defining key bindings in the keymap returned by the function quail-translation-keymap, using define-key. See Init Rebinding. Input methods are inhibited when the text in the buffer is read-only for some reason. This is so single-character key bindings work in modes that make buffer text or parts of it read-only, such as read-only-mode and image-mode, even when an input method is active. Another facility for typing characters not on your keyboard is by using C-x 8 RET (insert-char) to insert a single character based on its Unicode name or code-point; see Inserting Text. Next: Select Input Method, Previous: Language Environments, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Coding Systems, Previous: Input Methods, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.4 Selecting an Input Method C-\ Enable or disable use of the selected input method (toggle-input-method). C-x RET C-\ method RET Select a new input method for the current buffer (set-input-method). C-h I method RET C-h C-\ method RET Describe the input method method (describe-input-method). By default, it describes the current input method (if any). This description should give you the full details of how to use any particular input method. M-x list-input-methods Display a list of all the supported input methods. To choose an input method for the current buffer, use C-x RET C-\ (set-input-method). This command reads the input method name from the minibuffer; the name normally starts with the language environment that it is meant to be used with. The variable current-input-method records which input method is selected. Input methods use various sequences of ASCII characters to stand for non-ASCII characters. Sometimes it is useful to turn off the input method temporarily. To do this, type C-\ (toggle-input-method). To reenable the input method, type C-\ again. If you type C-\ and you have not yet selected an input method, it prompts you to specify one. This has the same effect as using C-x RET C-\ to specify an input method. When invoked with a numeric argument, as in C-u C-\, toggle-input-method always prompts you for an input method, suggesting the most recently selected one as the default. Selecting a language environment specifies a default input method for use in various buffers. When you have a default input method, you can select it in the current buffer by typing C-\. The variable default-input-method specifies the default input method (nil means there is none). In some language environments, which support several different input methods, you might want to use an input method different from the default chosen by set-language-environment. You can instruct Emacs to select a different default input method for a certain language environment, if you wish, by using set-language-environment-hook (see set-language-environment-hook). For example: (defun my-chinese-setup () "Set up my private Chinese environment." (if (equal current-language-environment "Chinese-GB") (setq default-input-method "chinese-tonepy"))) (add-hook 'set-language-environment-hook 'my-chinese-setup) This sets the default input method to be chinese-tonepy whenever you choose a Chinese-GB language environment. You can instruct Emacs to activate a certain input method automatically. For example: (add-hook 'text-mode-hook (lambda () (set-input-method "german-prefix"))) This automatically activates the input method german-prefix in Text mode. Some input methods for alphabetic scripts work by (in effect) remapping the keyboard to emulate various keyboard layouts commonly used for those scripts. How to do this remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify which layout your keyboard has, use the command M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout. You can use the command M-x quail-show-key to show what key (or key sequence) to type in order to input the character following point, using the selected keyboard layout. The command C-u C-x = also shows that information, in addition to other information about the character. M-x list-input-methods displays a list of all the supported input methods. The list gives information about each input method, including the string that stands for it in the mode line. Next: Coding Systems, Previous: Input Methods, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Recognize Coding, Previous: Select Input Method, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.5 Coding Systems Users of various languages have established many more-or-less standard coding systems for representing them. Emacs does not use these coding systems internally; instead, it converts from various coding systems to its own system when reading data, and converts the internal coding system to other coding systems when writing data. Conversion is possible in reading or writing files, in sending or receiving from the terminal, and in exchanging data with subprocesses. Emacs assigns a name to each coding system. Most coding systems are used for one language, and the name of the coding system starts with the language name. Some coding systems are used for several languages; their names usually start with ‘iso’. There are also special coding systems, such as no-conversion, raw-text, and emacs-internal. A special class of coding systems, collectively known as codepages, is designed to support text encoded by MS-Windows and MS-DOS software. The names of these coding systems are cpnnnn, where nnnn is a 3- or 4-digit number of the codepage. You can use these encodings just like any other coding system; for example, to visit a file encoded in codepage 850, type C-x RET c cp850 RET C-x C-f filename RET. In addition to converting various representations of non-ASCII characters, a coding system can perform end-of-line conversion. Emacs handles three different conventions for how to separate lines in a file: newline (Unix), carriage return followed by linefeed (DOS), and just carriage return (Mac). C-h C coding RET Describe coding system coding (describe-coding-system). C-h C RET Describe the coding systems currently in use (describe-coding-system). M-x list-coding-systems Display a list of all the supported coding systems. The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays information about particular coding systems, including the end-of-line conversion specified by those coding systems. You can specify a coding system name as the argument; alternatively, with an empty argument, it describes the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, both in the current buffer and as the defaults, and the priority list for recognizing coding systems (see Recognize Coding). To display a list of all the supported coding systems, type M-x list-coding-systems. The list gives information about each coding system, including the letter that stands for it in the mode line (see Mode Line). Each of the coding systems that appear in this list—except for no-conversion, which means no conversion of any kind—specifies how and whether to convert printing characters, but leaves the choice of end-of-line conversion to be decided based on the contents of each file. For example, if the file appears to use the sequence carriage return and linefeed to separate lines, DOS end-of-line conversion will be used. Each of the listed coding systems has three variants, which specify exactly what to do for end-of-line conversion: …-unix Don’t do any end-of-line conversion; assume the file uses newline to separate lines. (This is the convention normally used on Unix and GNU systems, and macOS.) …-dos Assume the file uses carriage return followed by linefeed to separate lines, and do the appropriate conversion. (This is the convention normally used on Microsoft systems.^8) …-mac Assume the file uses carriage return to separate lines, and do the appropriate conversion. (This was the convention used in Classic Mac OS.) These variant coding systems are omitted from the list-coding-systems display for brevity, since they are entirely predictable. For example, the coding system iso-latin-1 has variants iso-latin-1-unix, iso-latin-1-dos and iso-latin-1-mac. The coding systems unix, dos, and mac are aliases for undecided-unix, undecided-dos, and undecided-mac, respectively. These coding systems specify only the end-of-line conversion, and leave the character code conversion to be deduced from the text itself. The coding system raw-text is good for a file which is mainly ASCII text, but may contain byte values above 127 that are not meant to encode non-ASCII characters. With raw-text, Emacs copies those byte values unchanged, and sets enable-multibyte-characters to nil in the current buffer so that they will be interpreted properly. raw-text handles end-of-line conversion in the usual way, based on the data encountered, and has the usual three variants to specify the kind of end-of-line conversion to use. In contrast, the coding system no-conversion specifies no character code conversion at all—none for non-ASCII byte values and none for end of line. This is useful for reading or writing binary files, tar files, and other files that must be examined verbatim. It, too, sets enable-multibyte-characters to nil. The easiest way to edit a file with no conversion of any kind is with the M-x find-file-literally command. This uses no-conversion, and also suppresses other Emacs features that might convert the file contents before you see them. See Visiting. The coding system emacs-internal (or utf-8-emacs, which is equivalent) means that the file contains non-ASCII characters stored with the internal Emacs encoding. This coding system handles end-of-line conversion based on the data encountered, and has the usual three variants to specify the kind of end-of-line conversion. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (8) It is also specified for MIME ‘text/*’ bodies and in other network transport contexts. It is different from the SGML reference syntax record-start/record-end format, which Emacs doesn’t support directly. Next: Recognize Coding, Previous: Select Input Method, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Specify Coding, Previous: Coding Systems, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.6 Recognizing Coding Systems Whenever Emacs reads a given piece of text, it tries to recognize which coding system to use. This applies to files being read, output from subprocesses, text from X selections, etc. Emacs can select the right coding system automatically most of the time—once you have specified your preferences. Some coding systems can be recognized or distinguished by which byte sequences appear in the data. However, there are coding systems that cannot be distinguished, not even potentially. For example, there is no way to distinguish between Latin-1 and Latin-2; they use the same byte values with different meanings. Emacs handles this situation by means of a priority list of coding systems. Whenever Emacs reads a file, if you do not specify the coding system to use, Emacs checks the data against each coding system, starting with the first in priority and working down the list, until it finds a coding system that fits the data. Then it converts the file contents assuming that they are represented in this coding system. The priority list of coding systems depends on the selected language environment (see Language Environments). For example, if you use French, you probably want Emacs to prefer Latin-1 to Latin-2; if you use Czech, you probably want Latin-2 to be preferred. This is one of the reasons to specify a language environment. However, you can alter the coding system priority list in detail with the command M-x prefer-coding-system. This command reads the name of a coding system from the minibuffer, and adds it to the front of the priority list, so that it is preferred to all others. If you use this command several times, each use adds one element to the front of the priority list. If you use a coding system that specifies the end-of-line conversion type, such as iso-8859-1-dos, what this means is that Emacs should attempt to recognize iso-8859-1 with priority, and should use DOS end-of-line conversion when it does recognize iso-8859-1. Sometimes a file name indicates which coding system to use for the file. The variable file-coding-system-alist specifies this correspondence. There is a special function modify-coding-system-alist for adding elements to this list. For example, to read and write all ‘.txt’ files using the coding system chinese-iso-8bit, you can execute this Lisp expression: (modify-coding-system-alist 'file "\\.txt\\'" 'chinese-iso-8bit) The first argument should be file, the second argument should be a regular expression that determines which files this applies to, and the third argument says which coding system to use for these files. Emacs recognizes which kind of end-of-line conversion to use based on the contents of the file: if it sees only carriage returns, or only carriage return followed by linefeed sequences, then it chooses the end-of-line conversion accordingly. You can inhibit the automatic use of end-of-line conversion by setting the variable inhibit-eol-conversion to non-nil. If you do that, DOS-style files will be displayed with the ‘^M’ characters visible in the buffer; some people prefer this to the more subtle ‘(DOS)’ end-of-line type indication near the left edge of the mode line (see eol-mnemonic). By default, the automatic detection of the coding system is sensitive to escape sequences. If Emacs sees a sequence of characters that begin with an escape character, and the sequence is valid as an ISO-2022 code, that tells Emacs to use one of the ISO-2022 encodings to decode the file. However, there may be cases that you want to read escape sequences in a file as is. In such a case, you can set the variable inhibit-iso-escape-detection to non-nil. Then the code detection ignores any escape sequences, and never uses an ISO-2022 encoding. The result is that all escape sequences become visible in the buffer. The default value of inhibit-iso-escape-detection is nil. We recommend that you not change it permanently, only for one specific operation. That’s because some Emacs Lisp source files in the Emacs distribution contain non-ASCII characters encoded in the coding system iso-2022-7bit, and they won’t be decoded correctly when you visit those files if you suppress the escape sequence detection. The variables auto-coding-alist and auto-coding-regexp-alist are the strongest way to specify the coding system for certain patterns of file names, or for files containing certain patterns, respectively. These variables even override ‘-*-coding:-*-’ tags in the file itself (see Specify Coding). For example, Emacs uses auto-coding-alist for tar and archive files, to prevent it from being confused by a ‘-*-coding:-*-’ tag in a member of the archive and thinking it applies to the archive file as a whole. Another way to specify a coding system is with the variable auto-coding-functions. For example, one of the builtin auto-coding-functions detects the encoding for XML files. Unlike the previous two, this variable does not override any ‘-*-coding:-*-’ tag. Next: Specify Coding, Previous: Coding Systems, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Output Coding, Previous: Recognize Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.7 Specifying a File’s Coding System If Emacs recognizes the encoding of a file incorrectly, you can reread the file using the correct coding system with C-x RET r (revert-buffer-with-coding-system). This command prompts for the coding system to use. To see what coding system Emacs actually used to decode the file, look at the coding system mnemonic letter near the left edge of the mode line (see Mode Line), or type C-h C (describe-coding-system). You can specify the coding system for a particular file in the file itself, using the ‘-*-…-*-’ construct at the beginning, or a local variables list at the end (see File Variables). You do this by defining a value for the “variable” named coding. Emacs does not really have a variable coding; instead of setting a variable, this uses the specified coding system for the file. For example, ‘-*-mode: C; coding: latin-1; -*-’ specifies use of the Latin-1 coding system, as well as C mode. When you specify the coding explicitly in the file, that overrides file-coding-system-alist. Next: Text Coding, Previous: Specify Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.8 Choosing Coding Systems for Output Once Emacs has chosen a coding system for a buffer, it stores that coding system in buffer-file-coding-system. That makes it the default for operations that write from this buffer into a file, such as save-buffer and write-region. You can specify a different coding system for further file output from the buffer using set-buffer-file-coding-system (see Text Coding). You can insert any character Emacs supports into any Emacs buffer, but most coding systems can only handle a subset of these characters. Therefore, it’s possible that the characters you insert cannot be encoded with the coding system that will be used to save the buffer. For example, you could visit a text file in Polish, encoded in iso-8859-2, and add some Russian words to it. When you save that buffer, Emacs cannot use the current value of buffer-file-coding-system, because the characters you added cannot be encoded by that coding system. When that happens, Emacs tries the most-preferred coding system (set by M-x prefer-coding-system or M-x set-language-environment). If that coding system can safely encode all of the characters in the buffer, Emacs uses it, and stores its value in buffer-file-coding-system. Otherwise, Emacs displays a list of coding systems suitable for encoding the buffer’s contents, and asks you to choose one of those coding systems. If you insert the unsuitable characters in a mail message, Emacs behaves a bit differently. It additionally checks whether the most-preferred coding system is recommended for use in MIME messages; if not, it informs you of this fact and prompts you for another coding system. This is so you won’t inadvertently send a message encoded in a way that your recipient’s mail software will have difficulty decoding. (You can still use an unsuitable coding system if you enter its name at the prompt.) When you send a mail message (see Sending Mail), Emacs has four different ways to determine the coding system to use for encoding the message text. It first tries the buffer’s own value of buffer-file-coding-system, if that is non-nil. Otherwise, it uses the value of sendmail-coding-system, if that is non-nil. Thirdly, it uses the value of default-sendmail-coding-system. If all of these three values are nil, Emacs encodes outgoing mail using the default coding system for new files (i.e., the default value of buffer-file-coding-system), which is controlled by your choice of language environment. Next: Text Coding, Previous: Specify Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Communication Coding, Previous: Output Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.9 Specifying a Coding System for File Text In cases where Emacs does not automatically choose the right coding system for a file’s contents, you can use these commands to specify one: C-x RET f coding RET Use coding system coding to save or revisit the file in the current buffer (set-buffer-file-coding-system). C-x RET c coding RET Specify coding system coding for the immediately following command (universal-coding-system-argument). C-x RET r coding RET Revisit the current file using the coding system coding (revert-buffer-with-coding-system). M-x recode-region RET right RET wrong RET Convert a region that was decoded using coding system wrong, decoding it using coding system right instead. The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) sets the file coding system for the current buffer (i.e., the coding system to use when saving or reverting the file). You specify which coding system using the minibuffer. You can also invoke this command by clicking with mouse-3 on the coding system indicator in the mode line (see Mode Line). If you specify a coding system that cannot handle all the characters in the buffer, Emacs will warn you about the troublesome characters, and ask you to choose another coding system, when you try to save the buffer (see Output Coding). You can also use this command to specify the end-of-line conversion (see end-of-line conversion) for encoding the current buffer. For example, C-x RET f dos RET will cause Emacs to save the current buffer’s text with DOS-style carriage return followed by linefeed line endings. Another way to specify the coding system for a file is when you visit the file. First use the command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument); this command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name. After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system is used for the immediately following command. So if the immediately following command is C-x C-f, for example, it reads the file using that coding system (and records the coding system for when you later save the file). Or if the immediately following command is C-x C-w, it writes the file using that coding system. When you specify the coding system for saving in this way, instead of with C-x RET f, there is no warning if the buffer contains characters that the coding system cannot handle. Other file commands affected by a specified coding system include C-x i and C-x C-v, as well as the other-window variants of C-x C-f. C-x RET c also affects commands that start subprocesses, including M-x shell (see Shell). If the immediately following command does not use the coding system, then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect. An easy way to visit a file with no conversion is with the M-x find-file-literally command. See Visiting. The default value of the variable buffer-file-coding-system specifies the choice of coding system to use when you create a new file. It applies when you find a new file, and when you create a buffer and then save it in a file. Selecting a language environment typically sets this variable to a good choice of default coding system for that language environment. If you visit a file with a wrong coding system, you can correct this with C-x RET r (revert-buffer-with-coding-system). This visits the current file again, using a coding system you specify. If a piece of text has already been inserted into a buffer using the wrong coding system, you can redo the decoding of it using M-x recode-region. This prompts you for the proper coding system, then for the wrong coding system that was actually used, and does the conversion. It first encodes the region using the wrong coding system, then decodes it again using the proper coding system. Next: Communication Coding, Previous: Output Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: File Name Coding, Previous: Text Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.10 Coding Systems for Interprocess Communication This section explains how to specify coding systems for use in communication with other processes. C-x RET x coding RET Use coding system coding for transferring selections to and from other graphical applications (set-selection-coding-system). C-x RET X coding RET Use coding system coding for transferring one selection—the next one—to or from another graphical application (set-next-selection-coding-system). C-x RET p input-coding RET output-coding RET Use coding systems input-coding and output-coding for subprocess input and output in the current buffer (set-buffer-process-coding-system). The command C-x RET x (set-selection-coding-system) specifies the coding system for sending selected text to other windowing applications, and for receiving the text of selections made in other applications. This command applies to all subsequent selections, until you override it by using the command again. The command C-x RET X (set-next-selection-coding-system) specifies the coding system for the next selection made in Emacs or read by Emacs. The variable x-select-request-type specifies the data type to request from the X Window System for receiving text selections from other applications. If the value is nil (the default), Emacs tries UTF8_STRING and COMPOUND_TEXT, in this order, and uses various heuristics to choose the more appropriate of the two results; if none of these succeed, Emacs falls back on STRING. If the value of x-select-request-type is one of the symbols COMPOUND_TEXT, UTF8_STRING, STRING, or TEXT, Emacs uses only that request type. If the value is a list of some of these symbols, Emacs tries only the request types in the list, in order, until one of them succeeds, or until the list is exhausted. The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system) specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess. This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command in the corresponding buffer. You can also use C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument) just before the command that runs or starts a subprocess, to specify the coding system for communicating with that subprocess. See Text Coding. The default for translation of process input and output depends on the current language environment. The variable locale-coding-system specifies a coding system to use when encoding and decoding system strings such as system error messages and format-time-string formats and time stamps. That coding system is also used for decoding non-ASCII keyboard input on the X Window System and for encoding text sent to the standard output and error streams when in batch mode. You should choose a coding system that is compatible with the underlying system’s text representation, which is normally specified by one of the environment variables LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG. (The first one, in the order specified above, whose value is nonempty is the one that determines the text representation.) Next: File Name Coding, Previous: Text Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Terminal Coding, Previous: Communication Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.11 Coding Systems for File Names C-x RET F coding RET Use coding system coding for encoding and decoding file names (set-file-name-coding-system). The command C-x RET F (set-file-name-coding-system) specifies a coding system to use for encoding file names. It has no effect on reading and writing the contents of files. In fact, all this command does is set the value of the variable file-name-coding-system. If you set the variable to a coding system name (as a Lisp symbol or a string), Emacs encodes file names using that coding system for all file operations. This makes it possible to use non-ASCII characters in file names—or, at least, those non-ASCII characters that the specified coding system can encode. If file-name-coding-system is nil, Emacs uses a default coding system determined by the selected language environment, and stored in the default-file-name-coding-system variable. In the default language environment, non-ASCII characters in file names are not encoded specially; they appear in the file system using the internal Emacs representation. When Emacs runs on MS-Windows versions that are descendants of the NT family (Windows 2000, XP, and all the later versions), the value of file-name-coding-system is largely ignored, as Emacs by default uses APIs that allow passing Unicode file names directly. By contrast, on Windows 9X, file names are encoded using file-name-coding-system, which should be set to the codepage (see codepage) pertinent for the current system locale. The value of the variable w32-unicode-filenames controls whether Emacs uses the Unicode APIs when it calls OS functions that accept file names. This variable is set by the startup code to nil on Windows 9X, and to t on newer versions of MS-Windows. Warning: if you change file-name-coding-system (or the language environment) in the middle of an Emacs session, problems can result if you have already visited files whose names were encoded using the earlier coding system and cannot be encoded (or are encoded differently) under the new coding system. If you try to save one of these buffers under the visited file name, saving may use the wrong file name, or it may encounter an error. If such a problem happens, use C-x C-w to specify a new file name for that buffer. If a mistake occurs when encoding a file name, use the command M-x recode-file-name to change the file name’s coding system. This prompts for an existing file name, its old coding system, and the coding system to which you wish to convert. Next: Terminal Coding, Previous: Communication Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Fontsets, Previous: File Name Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.12 Coding Systems for Terminal I/O C-x RET t coding RET Use coding system coding for terminal output (set-terminal-coding-system). C-x RET k coding RET Use coding system coding for keyboard input (set-keyboard-coding-system). The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are translated into that coding system. This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built to support specific languages or character sets—for example, European terminals that support one of the ISO Latin character sets. You need to specify the terminal coding system when using multibyte text, so that Emacs knows which characters the terminal can actually handle. By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all, unless Emacs can deduce the proper coding system from your terminal type or your locale specification (see Language Environments). The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system), or the variable keyboard-coding-system, specifies the coding system for keyboard input. Character-code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters—for example, some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it. By default, keyboard input is translated based on your system locale setting. If your terminal does not really support the encoding implied by your locale (for example, if you find it inserts a non-ASCII character if you type M-i), you will need to set keyboard-coding-system to nil to turn off encoding. You can do this by putting (set-keyboard-coding-system nil) in your init file. There is a similarity between using a coding system translation for keyboard input, and using an input method: both define sequences of keyboard input that translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed to be convenient for interactive use by humans, and the sequences that are translated are typically sequences of ASCII printing characters. Coding systems typically translate sequences of non-graphic characters. Next: Fontsets, Previous: File Name Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Defining Fontsets, Previous: Terminal Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.13 Fontsets A font typically defines shapes for a single alphabet or script. Therefore, displaying the entire range of scripts that Emacs supports requires a collection of many fonts. In Emacs, such a collection is called a fontset. A fontset is defined by a list of font specifications, each assigned to handle a range of character codes, and may fall back on another fontset for characters that are not covered by the fonts it specifies. Each fontset has a name, like a font. However, while fonts are stored in the system and the available font names are defined by the system, fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. Once you have defined a fontset, you can use it within Emacs by specifying its name, anywhere that you could use a single font. Of course, Emacs fontsets can use only the fonts that your system supports. If some characters appear on the screen as empty boxes or hex codes, this means that the fontset in use for them has no font for those characters. In this case, or if the characters are shown, but not as well as you would like, you may need to install extra fonts or modify the fontset to use specific fonts already installed on your system (see below). Your operating system may have optional fonts that you can install; or you can install the GNU Intlfonts package, which includes fonts for most supported scripts.^9 Emacs creates three fontsets automatically: the standard fontset, the startup fontset and the default fontset. The default fontset is most likely to have fonts for a wide variety of non-ASCII characters, and is the default fallback for the other two fontsets, and if you set a default font rather than fontset. However, it does not specify font family names, so results can be somewhat random if you use it directly. You can specify a particular fontset by starting Emacs with the ‘-fn’ option. For example, emacs -fn fontset-standard You can also specify a fontset with the ‘Font’ resource (see X Resources). If no fontset is specified for use, then Emacs uses an ASCII font, with ‘fontset-default’ as a fallback for characters the font does not cover. The standard fontset is only used if explicitly requested, despite its name. To show the information about a specific fontset, use the M-x describe-fontset command. It prompts for a fontset name, defaulting to the one used by the current frame, and then displays all the subranges of characters and the fonts assigned to them in that fontset. To see which fonts Emacs is using in a session started without a specific fontset (which is what happens normally), type fontset-default RET at the prompt, or just RET to describe the fontset used by the current frame. A fontset does not necessarily specify a font for every character code. If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot display that character properly. It will display that character as a hex code or thin space or an empty box instead. (See glyphless characters, for details.) Or a fontset might specify a font for some range of characters, but you may not like their visual appearance. If this happens, you may wish to modify your fontset; see Modifying Fontsets, for how to do that. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (9) If you run Emacs on X, you may need to inform the X server about the location of the newly installed fonts with commands such as: xset fp+ /usr/local/share/emacs/fonts xset fp rehash Next: Defining Fontsets, Previous: Terminal Coding, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Modifying Fontsets, Previous: Fontsets, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.14 Defining Fontsets When running on X, Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset’s name is -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-standard or just ‘fontset-standard’ for short. On GNUstep and macOS, the standard fontset is created using the value of ns-standard-fontset-spec, and on MS Windows it is created using the value of w32-standard-fontset-spec. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the standard fontset are created automatically. Their names have ‘bold’ instead of ‘medium’, or ‘i’ instead of ‘r’, or both. Emacs generates a fontset automatically, based on any default ASCII font that you specify with the ‘Font’ resource or the ‘-fn’ argument, or the default font that Emacs found when it started. This is the startup fontset and its name is fontset-startup. Emacs generates this fontset by replacing the charset_registry field with ‘fontset’, and replacing the charset_encoding field with ‘startup’, then using the resulting string to specify a fontset. For instance, if you start Emacs with a font of this form, emacs -fn "*courier-medium-r-normal--14-140-*-iso8859-1" Emacs generates the following fontset and uses it for the initial X window frame: -*-courier-medium-r-normal-*-14-140-*-*-*-*-fontset-startup The startup fontset will use the font that you specify, or a variant with a different registry and encoding, for all the characters that are supported by that font, and fallback on ‘fontset-default’ for other characters. With the X resource ‘Emacs.Font’, you can specify a fontset name just like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset name in a wildcard resource like ‘Emacs*Font’—that wildcard specification matches various other resources, such as for menus, and menus cannot handle fontsets. See X Resources. You can specify additional fontsets using X resources named ‘Fontset-n’, where n is an integer starting from 0. The resource value should have this form: fontpattern, [charset:font]… where fontpattern should have the form of a standard X font name (see the previous fontset-startup example), except for the last two fields. They should have the form ‘fontset-alias’. Each fontset has two names, one long and one short. The long name is fontpattern. The short name is ‘fontset-alias’, the last 2 fields of the long name (e.g., ‘fontset-startup’ for the fontset automatically created at startup). You can refer to the fontset by either name. The construct ‘charset:font’ specifies which font to use (in this fontset) for one particular character set. Here, charset is the name of a character set, and font is the font to use for that character set. You can use this construct any number of times in defining one fontset. For the other character sets, Emacs chooses a font based on fontpattern. It replaces ‘fontset-alias’ with values that describe the character set. For the ASCII character font, ‘fontset-alias’ is replaced with ‘ISO8859-1’. In addition, when several consecutive fields are wildcards, Emacs collapses them into a single wildcard. This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts. Fonts made by scaling larger fonts are not usable for editing, and scaling a smaller font is also not useful, because it is better to use the smaller font in its own size, which is what Emacs does. Thus if fontpattern is this, -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24 the font specification for ASCII characters would be this: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1 and the font specification for Chinese GB2312 characters would be this: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-gb2312*-* You may not have any Chinese font matching the above font specification. Most X distributions include only Chinese fonts that have ‘song ti’ or ‘fangsong ti’ in the family field. In such a case, ‘Fontset-n’ can be specified as: Emacs.Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24,\ chinese-gb2312:-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-gb2312*-* Then, the font specifications for all but Chinese GB2312 characters have ‘fixed’ in the family field, and the font specification for Chinese GB2312 characters has a wild card ‘*’ in the family field. The function that processes the fontset resource value to create the fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call this function explicitly to create a fontset. See Fonts, for more information about font naming. Next: Modifying Fontsets, Previous: Fontsets, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Undisplayable Characters, Previous: Defining Fontsets, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.15 Modifying Fontsets Fontsets do not always have to be created from scratch. If only minor changes are required it may be easier to modify an existing fontset, usually ‘fontset-default’. Modifying ‘fontset-default’ will also affect other fontsets that use it as a fallback, so can be an effective way of fixing problems with the fonts that Emacs chooses for a particular script. Fontsets can be modified using the function set-fontset-font, specifying a character, a charset, a script, or a range of characters to modify the font for, and a font specification for the font to be used. Some examples are: ;; Prefer a big5 font for han characters. (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" 'han (font-spec :registry "big5") nil 'prepend) ;; Use MyPrivateFont for the Unicode private use area. (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" '(#xe000 . #xf8ff) "MyPrivateFont") ;; Use Liberation Mono for latin-3 charset. (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" 'iso-8859-3 "Liberation Mono") ;; Use DejaVu Sans Mono as a fallback in fontset-startup ;; before resorting to fontset-default. (set-fontset-font "fontset-startup" nil "DejaVu Sans Mono" nil 'append) See Fontsets in GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for more details about using the set-fontset-font function. If you don’t know the character’s codepoint or the script to which it belongs, you can ask Emacs. With point at the character, type C-u C-x = (what-cursor-position), and this information, together with much more, will be displayed in the *Help* buffer that Emacs pops up. See Position Info. For example, Japanese characters belong to the ‘kana’ script, but Japanese text also mixes them with Chinese characters so the following uses the ‘han’ script to set up Emacs to use the ‘Kochi Gothic’ font for Japanese text: (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" 'han "Kochi Gothic") (For convenience, the ‘han’ script in Emacs is set up to support all of the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, a.k.a. CJK, characters, not just Chinese characters.) For the list of known scripts, see the variable script-representative-chars. Fontset settings like those above only affect characters that the default font doesn’t support, so if the ‘Kochi Gothic’ font covers Latin characters, it will not be used for displaying Latin scripts, since the default font used by Emacs usually covers Basic Latin. Some fonts installed on your system might be broken, or produce unpleasant results for characters for which they are used, and you may wish to instruct Emacs to completely ignore them while searching for a suitable font required to display a character. You can do that by adding the offending fonts to the value of the variable face-ignored-fonts, which is a list. Here’s an example to put in your ~/.emacs: (add-to-list 'face-ignored-fonts "Some Bad Font") Next: Undisplayable Characters, Previous: Defining Fontsets, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Unibyte Mode, Previous: Modifying Fontsets, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.16 Undisplayable Characters There may be some non-ASCII characters that your terminal cannot display. Most text terminals support just a single character set (use the variable default-terminal-coding-system to tell Emacs which one, Terminal Coding); characters that can’t be encoded in that coding system are displayed as ‘?’ by default. Graphical displays can display a broader range of characters, but you may not have fonts installed for all of them; characters that have no font appear as a hollow box. If you use Latin-1 characters but your terminal can’t display Latin-1, you can arrange to display mnemonic ASCII sequences instead, e.g., ‘"o’ for o-umlaut. Load the library iso-ascii to do this. If your terminal can display Latin-1, you can display characters from other European character sets using a mixture of equivalent Latin-1 characters and ASCII mnemonics. Customize the variable latin1-display to enable this. The mnemonic ASCII sequences mostly correspond to those of the prefix input methods. Next: Charsets, Previous: Undisplayable Characters, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.17 Unibyte Editing Mode The ISO 8859 Latin-n character sets define character codes in the range 0240 to 0377 octal (160 to 255 decimal) to handle the accented letters and punctuation needed by various European languages (and some non-European ones). Note that Emacs considers bytes with codes in this range as raw bytes, not as characters, even in a unibyte buffer, i.e., if you disable multibyte characters. However, Emacs can still handle these character codes as if they belonged to one of the single-byte character sets at a time. To specify which of these codes to use, invoke M-x set-language-environment and specify a suitable language environment such as ‘Latin-n’. See Disabling Multibyte Characters in GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Emacs can also display bytes in the range 160 to 255 as readable characters, provided the terminal or font in use supports them. This works automatically. On a graphical display, Emacs can also display single-byte characters through fontsets, in effect by displaying the equivalent multibyte characters according to the current language environment. To request this, set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to a non-nil value. Note that setting this only affects how these bytes are displayed, but does not change the fundamental fact that Emacs treats them as raw bytes, not as characters. If your terminal does not support display of the Latin-1 character set, Emacs can display these characters as ASCII sequences which at least give you a clear idea of what the characters are. To do this, load the library iso-ascii. Similar libraries for other Latin-n character sets could be implemented, but have not been so far. Normally non-ISO-8859 characters (decimal codes between 128 and 159 inclusive) are displayed as octal escapes. You can change this for non-standard extended versions of ISO-8859 character sets by using the function standard-display-8bit in the disp-table library. There are two ways to input single-byte non-ASCII characters: * You can use an input method for the selected language environment. See Input Methods. When you use an input method in a unibyte buffer, the non-ASCII character you specify with it is converted to unibyte. * If your keyboard can generate character codes 128 (decimal) and up, representing non-ASCII characters, you can type those character codes directly. On a graphical display, you should not need to do anything special to use these keys; they should simply work. On a text terminal, you should use the command M-x set-keyboard-coding-system or customize the variable keyboard-coding-system to specify which coding system your keyboard uses (see Terminal Coding). Enabling this feature will probably require you to use ESC to type Meta characters; however, on a console terminal or a terminal emulator such as xterm, you can arrange for Meta to be converted to ESC and still be able to type 8-bit characters present directly on the keyboard or using Compose or AltGr keys. See User Input. * You can use the key C-x 8 as a compose-character prefix for entry of non-ASCII Latin-1 and a few other printing characters. C-x 8 is good for insertion (in the minibuffer as well as other buffers), for searching, and in any other context where a key sequence is allowed. C-x 8 works by loading the iso-transl library. Once that library is loaded, the Alt modifier key, if the keyboard has one, serves the same purpose as C-x 8: use Alt together with an accent character to modify the following letter. In addition, if the keyboard has keys for the Latin-1 dead accent characters, they too are defined to compose with the following character, once iso-transl is loaded. Use C-x 8 C-h to list all the available C-x 8 translations. Next: Charsets, Previous: Undisplayable Characters, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Bidirectional Editing, Previous: Unibyte Mode, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.18 Charsets In Emacs, charset is short for “character set”. Emacs supports most popular charsets (such as ascii, iso-8859-1, cp1250, big5, and unicode), in addition to some charsets of its own (such as emacs, unicode-bmp, and eight-bit). All supported characters belong to one or more charsets. Emacs normally does the right thing with respect to charsets, so that you don’t have to worry about them. However, it is sometimes helpful to know some of the underlying details about charsets. One example is font selection (see Fonts). Each language environment (see Language Environments) defines a priority list for the various charsets. When searching for a font, Emacs initially attempts to find one that can display the highest-priority charsets. For instance, in the Japanese language environment, the charset japanese-jisx0208 has the highest priority, so Emacs tries to use a font whose registry property is ‘JISX0208.1983-0’. There are two commands that can be used to obtain information about charsets. The command M-x list-charset-chars prompts for a charset name, and displays all the characters in that character set. The command M-x describe-character-set prompts for a charset name, and displays information about that charset, including its internal representation within Emacs. M-x list-character-sets displays a list of all supported charsets. The list gives the names of charsets and additional information to identity each charset; for more details, see the ISO International Register of Coded Character Sets to be Used with Escape Sequences (ISO-IR) maintained by the Information Processing Society of Japan/Information Technology Standards Commission of Japan (IPSJ/ITSCJ). In this list, charsets are divided into two categories: normal charsets are listed first, followed by supplementary charsets. A supplementary charset is one that is used to define another charset (as a parent or a subset), or to provide backward-compatibility for older Emacs versions. To find out which charset a character in the buffer belongs to, put point before it and type C-u C-x = (see International Chars). Next: Bidirectional Editing, Previous: Unibyte Mode, Up: International [Contents][Index] Previous: Charsets, Up: International [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 22.19 Bidirectional Editing Emacs supports editing text written in scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, whose natural ordering of horizontal text for display is from right to left. However, digits and Latin text embedded in these scripts are still displayed left to right. It is also not uncommon to have small portions of text in Arabic or Hebrew embedded in an otherwise Latin document; e.g., as comments and strings in a program source file. For these reasons, text that uses these scripts is actually bidirectional: a mixture of runs of left-to-right and right-to-left characters. This section describes the facilities and options provided by Emacs for editing bidirectional text. Emacs stores right-to-left and bidirectional text in the so-called logical (or reading) order: the buffer or string position of the first character you read precedes that of the next character. Reordering of bidirectional text into the visual order happens at display time. As a result, character positions no longer increase monotonically with their positions on display. Emacs implements the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA) described in the Unicode Standard Annex #9, for reordering of bidirectional text for display. It deviates from the UBA only in how continuation lines are displayed when text direction is opposite to the base paragraph direction, e.g., when a long line of English text appears in a right-to-left paragraph. The buffer-local variable bidi-display-reordering controls whether text in the buffer is reordered for display. If its value is non-nil, Emacs reorders characters that have right-to-left directionality when they are displayed. The default value is t. Each paragraph of bidirectional text can have its own base direction, either right-to-left or left-to-right. Text in left-to-right paragraphs begins on the screen at the left margin of the window and is truncated or continued when it reaches the right margin. By contrast, text in right-to-left paragraphs is displayed starting at the right margin and is continued or truncated at the left margin. By default, paragraph boundaries are empty lines, i.e., lines consisting entirely of whitespace characters. To change that, you can customize the two variables bidi-paragraph-start-re and bidi-paragraph-separate-re, whose values should be regular expressions (strings); e.g., to have a single newline start a new paragraph, set both of these variables to "^". These two variables are buffer-local (see Locals). Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph dynamically, based on the text at the beginning of the paragraph. However, sometimes a buffer may need to force a certain base direction for its paragraphs. The variable bidi-paragraph-direction, if non-nil, disables the dynamic determination of the base direction, and instead forces all paragraphs in the buffer to have the direction specified by its buffer-local value. The value can be either right-to-left or left-to-right. Any other value is interpreted as nil. Alternatively, you can control the base direction of a paragraph by inserting special formatting characters in front of the paragraph. The special character RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK, or RLM, forces the right-to-left direction on the following paragraph, while LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK, or LRM forces the left-to-right direction. (You can use C-x 8 RET to insert these characters.) In a GUI session, the LRM and RLM characters display as very thin blank characters; on text terminals they display as blanks. Because characters are reordered for display, Emacs commands that operate in the logical order or on stretches of buffer positions may produce unusual effects. For example, the commands C-f and C-b move point in the logical order, so the cursor will sometimes jump when point traverses reordered bidirectional text. Similarly, a highlighted region covering a contiguous range of character positions may look discontinuous if the region spans reordered text. This is normal and similar to the behavior of other programs that support bidirectional text. Cursor motion commands bound to arrow keys, such as LEFT and C-RIGHT, are sensitive to the base direction of the current paragraph. In a left-to-right paragraph, commands bound to RIGHT with or without modifiers move forward through buffer text, but in a right-to-left paragraph they move backward instead. This reflects the fact that in a right-to-left paragraph buffer positions predominantly increase when moving to the left on display. When you move out of a paragraph, the meaning of the arrow keys might change if the base direction of the preceding or the following paragraph is different from the paragraph out of which you moved. When that happens, you need to adjust the arrow key you press to the new base direction. By default, LEFT and RIGHT move in the logical order, but if visual-order-cursor-movement is non-nil, these commands move to the character that is, correspondingly, to the left or right of the current screen position, moving to the next or previous screen line as appropriate. Note that this might potentially move point many buffer positions away, depending on the surrounding bidirectional context. -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Charsets, Up: International [Contents][Index] Next: Minor Modes, Up: Modes [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 23.1 Major Modes Every buffer possesses a major mode, which determines the editing behavior of Emacs while that buffer is current. The mode line normally shows the name of the current major mode, in parentheses (see Mode Line). The least specialized major mode is called Fundamental mode. This mode has no mode-specific redefinitions or variable settings, so that each Emacs command behaves in its most general manner, and each user option variable is in its default state. For editing text of a specific type that Emacs knows about, such as Lisp code or English text, you typically use a more specialized major mode, such as Lisp mode or Text mode. Most major modes fall into three major groups. The first group contains modes for normal text, either plain or with mark-up. It includes Text mode, HTML mode, SGML mode, TeX mode and Outline mode. The second group contains modes for specific programming languages. These include Lisp mode (which has several variants), C mode, Fortran mode, and others. The third group consists of major modes that are not associated directly with files; they are used in buffers created for specific purposes by Emacs. Examples include Dired mode for buffers made by Dired (see Dired), Message mode for buffers made by C-x m (see Sending Mail), and Shell mode for buffers used to communicate with an inferior shell process (see Interactive Shell). Usually, the major mode is automatically set by Emacs, when you first visit a file or create a buffer (see Choosing Modes). You can explicitly select a new major mode by using an M-x command. Take the name of the mode and add -mode to get the name of the command to select that mode (e.g., M-x lisp-mode enters Lisp mode). Since every buffer has exactly one major mode, there is no way to “turn off” a major mode; instead you must switch to a different one. The value of the buffer-local variable major-mode is a symbol with the same name as the major mode command (e.g., lisp-mode). This variable is set automatically; you should not change it yourself. The default value of major-mode determines the major mode to use for files that do not specify a major mode, and for new buffers created with C-x b. Normally, this default value is the symbol fundamental-mode, which specifies Fundamental mode. You can change this default value via the Customization interface (see Easy Customization), or by adding a line like this to your init file (see Init File): (setq-default major-mode 'text-mode) If the default value of major-mode is nil, the major mode is taken from the previously current buffer. Specialized major modes often change the meanings of certain keys to do something more suitable for the mode. For instance, programming language modes bind TAB to indent the current line according to the rules of the language (see Indentation). The keys that are commonly changed are TAB, DEL, and C-j. Many modes also define special commands of their own, usually bound to key sequences whose prefix key is C-c (see Keys). Major modes can also alter user options and variables; for instance, programming language modes typically set a buffer-local value for the variable comment-start, which determines how source code comments are delimited (see Comments). To view the documentation for the current major mode, including a list of its key bindings, type C-h m (describe-mode). See Misc Help. Every major mode, apart from Fundamental mode, defines a mode hook, a customizable list of Lisp functions to run each time the mode is enabled in a buffer. See Hooks, for more information about hooks. Each mode hook is named after its major mode, e.g., Fortran mode has fortran-mode-hook. Furthermore, all text-based major modes run text-mode-hook, and many programming language modes ^10 (including all those distributed with Emacs) run prog-mode-hook, prior to running their own mode hooks. Hook functions can look at the value of the variable major-mode to see which mode is actually being entered. Mode hooks are commonly used to enable minor modes (see Minor Modes). For example, you can put the following lines in your init file to enable Flyspell minor mode in all text-based major modes (see Spelling), and ElDoc minor mode in Emacs Lisp mode (see Lisp Doc): (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'flyspell-mode) (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'eldoc-mode) -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (10) More specifically, the modes which are “derived” from prog-mode (see Derived Modes in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual). Next: Minor Modes, Up: Modes [Contents][Index] Next: Choosing Modes, Previous: Major Modes, Up: Modes [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 23.2 Minor Modes A minor mode is an optional editing mode that alters the behavior of Emacs in some well-defined way. Unlike major modes, any number of minor modes can be in effect at any time. Some minor modes are buffer-local, and can be turned on (enabled) in certain buffers and off (disabled) in others. Other minor modes are global: while enabled, they affect everything you do in the Emacs session, in all buffers. Most minor modes are disabled by default, but a few are enabled by default. Most buffer-local minor modes say in the mode line when they are enabled, just after the major mode indicator. For example, ‘Fill’ in the mode line means that Auto Fill mode is enabled. See Mode Line. Like major modes, each minor mode is associated with a mode command, whose name consists of the mode name followed by ‘-mode’. For instance, the mode command for Auto Fill mode is auto-fill-mode. But unlike a major mode command, which simply enables the mode, the mode command for a minor mode can either enable or disable it: * If you invoke the mode command directly with no prefix argument (either via M-x, or by binding it to a key and typing that key; see Key Bindings), that toggles the minor mode. The minor mode is turned on if it was off, and turned off if it was on. * If you invoke the mode command with a prefix argument, the minor mode is unconditionally turned off if that argument is zero or negative; otherwise, it is unconditionally turned on. * If the mode command is called via Lisp, the minor mode is unconditionally turned on if the argument is omitted or nil. This makes it easy to turn on a minor mode from a major mode’s mode hook (see Major Modes). A non-nil argument is handled like an interactive prefix argument, as described above. Most minor modes also have a mode variable, with the same name as the mode command. Its value is non-nil if the mode is enabled, and nil if it is disabled. In general, you should not try to enable or disable the mode by changing the value of the mode variable directly in Lisp; you should run the mode command instead. However, setting the mode variable through the Customize interface (see Easy Customization) will always properly enable or disable the mode, since Customize automatically runs the mode command for you. The following is a list of some buffer-local minor modes: * Abbrev mode automatically expands text based on pre-defined abbreviation definitions. See Abbrevs. * Auto Fill mode inserts newlines as you type to prevent lines from becoming too long. See Filling. * Auto Save mode saves the buffer contents periodically to reduce the amount of work you can lose in case of a crash. See Auto Save. * Electric Quote mode automatically converts quotation marks. For example, it requotes text typed `like this' to text ‘like this’. You can control what kind of text it operates in, and you can disable it entirely in individual buffers. See Quotation Marks. * Enriched mode enables editing and saving of formatted text. See Enriched Text. * Flyspell mode automatically highlights misspelled words. See Spelling. * Font-Lock mode automatically highlights certain textual units found in programs. It is enabled globally by default, but you can disable it in individual buffers. See Faces. * Display Line Numbers mode is a convenience wrapper around display-line-numbers, setting it using the value of display-line-numbers-type. See Display Custom. * Outline minor mode provides similar facilities to the major mode called Outline mode. See Outline Mode. * Overwrite mode causes ordinary printing characters to replace existing text instead of shoving it to the right. For example, if point is in front of the ‘B’ in ‘FOOBAR’, then in Overwrite mode typing a G changes it to ‘FOOGAR’, instead of producing ‘FOOGBAR’ as usual. In Overwrite mode, the command C-q inserts the next character whatever it may be, even if it is a digit—this gives you a way to insert a character instead of replacing an existing character. The mode command, overwrite-mode, is bound to the Insert key. * Binary Overwrite mode is a variant of Overwrite mode for editing binary files; it treats newlines and tabs like other characters, so that they overwrite other characters and can be overwritten by them. In Binary Overwrite mode, digits after C-q specify an octal character code, as usual. * Visual Line mode performs word wrapping, causing long lines to be wrapped at word boundaries. See Visual Line Mode. And here are some useful global minor modes: * Column Number mode enables display of the current column number in the mode line. See Mode Line. * Delete Selection mode causes text insertion to first delete the text in the region, if the region is active. See Using Region. * Icomplete mode displays an indication of available completions when you are in the minibuffer and completion is active. See Icomplete. * Line Number mode enables display of the current line number in the mode line. It is enabled by default. See Mode Line. * Menu Bar mode gives each frame a menu bar. It is enabled by default. See Menu Bars. * Scroll Bar mode gives each window a scroll bar. It is enabled by default, but the scroll bar is only displayed on graphical terminals. See Scroll Bars. * Tool Bar mode gives each frame a tool bar. It is enabled by default, but the tool bar is only displayed on graphical terminals. See Tool Bars. * Tab Bar mode gives each frame a tab bar. See Tab Bars. * Tab Line mode gives each window a tab line. See Tab Line. * Transient Mark mode highlights the region, and makes many Emacs commands operate on the region when the mark is active. It is enabled by default. See Mark. Next: Choosing Modes, Previous: Major Modes, Up: Modes [Contents][Index] Previous: Minor Modes, Up: Modes [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 23.3 Choosing File Modes When you visit a file, Emacs chooses a major mode automatically. Normally, it makes the choice based on the file name—for example, files whose names end in ‘.c’ are normally edited in C mode—but sometimes it chooses the major mode based on special text in the file. This special text can also be used to enable buffer-local minor modes. Here is the exact procedure: First, Emacs checks whether the file contains file-local mode variables. See File Variables. If there is a file-local variable that specifies a major mode, then Emacs uses that major mode, ignoring all other criteria. There are several methods to specify a major mode using a file-local variable; the simplest is to put the mode name in the first nonblank line, preceded and followed by ‘-*-’. Other text may appear on the line as well. For example, ; -*-Lisp-*- tells Emacs to use Lisp mode. Note how the semicolon is used to make Lisp treat this line as a comment. You could equivalently write ; -*- mode: Lisp;-*- You can also use file-local variables to specify buffer-local minor modes, by using eval specifications. For example, this first nonblank line puts the buffer in Lisp mode and enables Auto-Fill mode: ; -*- mode: Lisp; eval: (auto-fill-mode 1); -*- Note, however, that it is usually inappropriate to enable minor modes this way, since most minor modes represent individual user preferences. If you personally want to use a minor mode for a particular file type, it is better to enable the minor mode via a major mode hook (see Major Modes). Second, if there is no file variable specifying a major mode, Emacs checks whether the file’s contents begin with ‘#!’. If so, that indicates that the file can serve as an executable shell command, which works by running an interpreter named on the file’s first line (the rest of the file is used as input to the interpreter). Therefore, Emacs tries to use the interpreter name to choose a mode. For instance, a file that begins with ‘#!/usr/bin/perl’ is opened in Perl mode. The variable interpreter-mode-alist specifies the correspondence between interpreter program names and major modes. When the first line starts with ‘#!’, you usually cannot use the ‘-*-’ feature on the first line, because the system would get confused when running the interpreter. So Emacs looks for ‘-*-’ on the second line in such files as well as on the first line. The same is true for man pages which start with the magic string ‘'\"’ to specify a list of troff preprocessors. Third, Emacs tries to determine the major mode by looking at the text at the start of the buffer, based on the variable magic-mode-alist. By default, this variable is nil (an empty list), so Emacs skips this step; however, you can customize it in your init file (see Init File). The value should be a list of elements of the form (regexp . mode-function) where regexp is a regular expression (see Regexps), and mode-function is a major mode command. If the text at the beginning of the file matches regexp, Emacs chooses the major mode specified by mode-function. Alternatively, an element of magic-mode-alist may have the form (match-function . mode-function) where match-function is a Lisp function that is called at the beginning of the buffer; if the function returns non-nil, Emacs set the major mode with mode-function. Fourth—if Emacs still hasn’t found a suitable major mode—it looks at the file’s name. The correspondence between file names and major modes is controlled by the variable auto-mode-alist. Its value is a list in which each element has this form, (regexp . mode-function) or this form, (regexp mode-function flag) For example, one element normally found in the list has the form ("\\.c\\'" . c-mode), and it is responsible for selecting C mode for files whose names end in .c. (Note that ‘\\’ is needed in Lisp syntax to include a ‘\’ in the string, which must be used to suppress the special meaning of ‘.’ in regexps.) If the element has the form (regexp mode-function flag) and flag is non-nil, then after calling mode-function, Emacs discards the suffix that matched regexp and searches the list again for another match. On GNU/Linux and other systems with case-sensitive file names, Emacs performs a case-sensitive search through auto-mode-alist; if this search fails, it performs a second case-insensitive search through the alist. To suppress the second search, change the variable auto-mode-case-fold to nil. On systems with case-insensitive file names, such as Microsoft Windows, Emacs performs a single case-insensitive search through auto-mode-alist. Finally, if Emacs still hasn’t found a major mode to use, it compares the text at the start of the buffer to the variable magic-fallback-mode-alist. This variable works like magic-mode-alist, described above, except that it is consulted only after auto-mode-alist. By default, magic-fallback-mode-alist contains forms that check for image files, HTML/XML/SGML files, PostScript files, and Unix style Conf files. If you have changed the major mode of a buffer, you can return to the major mode Emacs would have chosen automatically, by typing M-x normal-mode. This is the same function that find-file calls to choose the major mode. It also processes the file’s ‘-*-’ line or local variables list (if any). See File Variables. The commands C-x C-w and set-visited-file-name change to a new major mode if the new file name implies a mode (see Saving). (C-x C-s does this too, if the buffer wasn’t visiting a file.) However, this does not happen if the buffer contents specify a major mode, and certain special major modes do not allow the mode to change. You can turn off this mode-changing feature by setting change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil. -------------------------------------------------------------- Previous: Minor Modes, Up: Modes [Contents][Index] Next: Tab Stops, Up: Indentation [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 24.1 Indentation Commands Apart from the TAB (indent-for-tab-command) command, Emacs provides a variety of commands to perform indentation in other ways. C-M-o Split the current line at point (split-line). The text on the line after point becomes a new line, indented to the same column where point is located. This command first moves point forward over any spaces and tabs. Afterward, point is positioned before the inserted newline. M-m Move (forward or back) to the first non-whitespace character on the current line (back-to-indentation). If there are no non-whitespace characters on the line, move to the end of the line. M-i Indent whitespace at point, up to the next tab stop (tab-to-tab-stop). See Tab Stops. M-x indent-relative Insert whitespace at point, until point is aligned with the first non-whitespace character on the previous line (actually, the last non-blank line). If point is already farther right than that, run tab-to-tab-stop instead—unless called with a numeric argument, in which case do nothing. M-^ Merge the previous and the current line (delete-indentation). This joins the two lines cleanly, by replacing any indentation at the front of the current line, together with the line boundary, with a single space. As a special case (useful for Lisp code), the single space is omitted if the characters to be joined are consecutive opening and closing parentheses, or if the junction follows another newline. If there is a fill prefix, M-^ deletes the fill prefix if it appears after the newline that is deleted. See Fill Prefix. With a prefix argument, join the current line to the following line. If the region is active, and no prefix argument is given, join all lines in the region instead. C-M-\ Indent all the lines in the region, as though you had typed TAB at the beginning of each line (indent-region). If a numeric argument is supplied, indent every line in the region to that column number. C-x TAB This command is used to change the indentation of all lines that begin in the region, moving the affected lines as a rigid unit. If called with no argument, the command activates a transient mode for adjusting the indentation of the affected lines interactively. While this transient mode is active, typing LEFT or RIGHT indents leftward and rightward, respectively, by one space. You can also type S-LEFT or S-RIGHT to indent leftward or rightward to the next tab stop (see Tab Stops). Typing any other key disables the transient mode, and this key is then acted upon as normally. If called with a prefix argument n, this command indents the lines forward by n spaces (without enabling the transient mode). Negative values of n indent backward, so you can remove all indentation from the lines in the region using a large negative argument, like this: C-u -999 C-x TAB Next: Tab Stops, Up: Indentation [Contents][Index] Next: Just Spaces, Previous: Indentation Commands, Up: Indentation [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 24.2 Tab Stops Emacs defines certain column numbers to be tab stops. These are used as stopping points by TAB when inserting whitespace in Text mode and related modes (see Indentation), and by commands like M-i (see Indentation Commands). The variable tab-stop-list controls these positions. The default value is nil, which means a tab stop every 8 columns. The value can also be a list of zero-based column numbers (in increasing order) at which to place tab stops. Emacs extends the list forever by repeating the difference between the last and next-to-last elements. Instead of customizing the variable tab-stop-list directly, a convenient way to view and set tab stops is via the command M-x edit-tab-stops. This switches to a buffer containing a description of the tab stop settings, which looks like this: : : : : : : 0 1 2 3 4 0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 To install changes, type C-c C-c The first line contains a colon at each tab stop. The numbers on the next two lines are present just to indicate where the colons are. If the value of tab-stop-list is nil, as it is by default, no colons are displayed initially. You can edit this buffer to specify different tab stops by placing colons on the desired columns. The buffer uses Overwrite mode (see Minor Modes). Remember that Emacs will extend the list of tab stops forever by repeating the difference between the last two explicit stops that you place. When you are done, type C-c C-c to make the new tab stops take effect. Normally, the new tab stop settings apply to all buffers. However, if you have made the tab-stop-list variable local to the buffer where you called M-x edit-tab-stops (see Locals), then the new tab stop settings apply only to that buffer. To save the tab stop settings for future Emacs sessions, use the Customize interface to save the value of tab-stop-list (see Easy Customization). Note that the tab stops discussed in this section have nothing to do with how tab characters are displayed in the buffer. Tab characters are always displayed as empty spaces extending to the next display tab stop. See Text Display. Next: Just Spaces, Previous: Indentation Commands, Up: Indentation [Contents][Index] Next: Indent Convenience, Previous: Tab Stops, Up: Indentation [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 24.3 Tabs vs. Spaces Normally, indentation commands insert (or remove) the shortest possible series of tab and space characters so as to align to the desired column. Tab characters are displayed as a stretch of empty space extending to the next display tab stop. By default, there is one display tab stop every tab-width columns (the default is 8). See Text Display. If you prefer, all indentation can be made from spaces only. To request this, set the buffer-local variable indent-tabs-mode to nil. See Locals, for information about setting buffer-local variables. Note, however, that C-q TAB always inserts a tab character, regardless of the value of indent-tabs-mode. One reason to set indent-tabs-mode to nil is that not all editors display tab characters in the same way. Emacs users, too, may have different customized values of tab-width. By using spaces only, you can make sure that your file always looks the same. If you only care about how it looks within Emacs, another way to tackle this problem is to set the tab-width variable in a file-local variable (see File Variables). There are also commands to convert tabs to spaces or vice versa, always preserving the columns of all non-whitespace text. M-x tabify scans the region for sequences of spaces, and converts sequences of at least two spaces to tabs if that can be done without changing indentation. M-x untabify changes all tabs in the region to appropriate numbers of spaces. Previous: Just Spaces, Up: Indentation [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 24.4 Convenience Features for Indentation The variable tab-always-indent tweaks the behavior of the TAB (indent-for-tab-command) command. The default value, t, gives the behavior described in Indentation. If you change the value to the symbol complete, then TAB first tries to indent the current line, and if the line was already indented, it tries to complete the text at point (see Symbol Completion). If the value is nil, then TAB indents the current line only if point is at the left margin or in the line’s indentation; otherwise, it inserts a tab character. Electric Indent mode is a global minor mode that automatically indents the line after every RET you type. This mode is enabled by default. To toggle this minor mode, type M-x electric-indent-mode. To toggle the mode in a single buffer, use M-x electric-indent-local-mode. Next: Sentences, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.1 Words Emacs defines several commands for moving over or operating on words: M-f Move forward over a word (forward-word). M-b Move backward over a word (backward-word). M-d Kill up to the end of a word (kill-word). M-DEL Kill back to the beginning of a word (backward-kill-word). M-@ Set mark at the end of the next word (mark-word). M-t Transpose two words or drag a word across others (transpose-words). Notice how these keys form a series that parallels the character-based C-f, C-b, C-d, DEL and C-t. M-@ is cognate to C-@, which is an alias for C-SPC. The commands M-f (forward-word) and M-b (backward-word) move forward and backward over words. These Meta-based key sequences are analogous to the key sequences C-f and C-b, which move over single characters. The analogy extends to numeric arguments, which serve as repeat counts. M-f with a negative argument moves backward, and M-b with a negative argument moves forward. Forward motion stops right after the last letter of the word, while backward motion stops right before the first letter. M-d (kill-word) kills the word after point. To be precise, it kills everything from point to the place M-f would move to. Thus, if point is in the middle of a word, M-d kills just the part after point. If some punctuation comes between point and the next word, it is killed along with the word. (If you wish to kill only the next word but not the punctuation before it, simply do M-f to get the end, and kill the word backwards with M-DEL.) M-d takes arguments just like M-f. M-DEL (backward-kill-word) kills the word before point. It kills everything from point back to where M-b would move to. For instance, if point is after the space in ‘FOO, BAR’, it kills ‘FOO, ’. If you wish to kill just ‘FOO’, and not the comma and the space, use M-b M-d instead of M-DEL. M-t (transpose-words) exchanges the word before or containing point with the following word. The delimiter characters between the words do not move. For example, ‘FOO, BAR’ transposes into ‘BAR, FOO’ rather than ‘BAR FOO,’. See Transpose, for more on transposition. To operate on words with an operation which acts on the region, use the command M-@ (mark-word). This command sets the mark where M-f would move to. See Marking Objects, for more information about this command. The word commands’ understanding of word boundaries is controlled by the syntax table. Any character can, for example, be declared to be a word delimiter. See Syntax Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. In addition, see Position Info for the M-= (count-words-region) and M-x count-words commands, which count and report the number of words in the region or buffer. Next: Sentences, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Paragraphs, Previous: Words, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.2 Sentences The Emacs commands for manipulating sentences and paragraphs are mostly on Meta keys, like the word-handling commands. M-a Move back to the beginning of the sentence (backward-sentence). M-e Move forward to the end of the sentence (forward-sentence). M-k Kill forward to the end of the sentence (kill-sentence). C-x DEL Kill back to the beginning of the sentence (backward-kill-sentence). The commands M-a (backward-sentence) and M-e (forward-sentence) move to the beginning and end of the current sentence, respectively. Their bindings were chosen to resemble C-a and C-e, which move to the beginning and end of a line. Unlike them, M-a and M-e move over successive sentences if repeated. Moving backward over a sentence places point just before the first character of the sentence; moving forward places point right after the punctuation that ends the sentence. Neither one moves over the whitespace at the sentence boundary. Just as C-a and C-e have a kill command, C-k, to go with them, M-a and M-e have a corresponding kill command: M-k (kill-sentence) kills from point to the end of the sentence. With a positive numeric argument n, it kills the next n sentences; with a negative argument -n, it kills back to the beginning of the nth preceding sentence. The C-x DEL (backward-kill-sentence) kills back to the beginning of a sentence. The sentence commands assume that you follow the American typist’s convention of putting two spaces at the end of a sentence. That is, a sentence ends wherever there is a ‘.’, ‘?’ or ‘!’ followed by the end of a line or two spaces, with any number of ‘)’, ‘]’, ‘'’, or ‘"’ characters allowed in between. A sentence also begins or ends wherever a paragraph begins or ends. It is useful to follow this convention, because it allows the Emacs sentence commands to distinguish between periods that end a sentence and periods that indicate abbreviations. If you want to use just one space between sentences, you can set the variable sentence-end-double-space to nil to make the sentence commands stop for single spaces. However, this has a drawback: there is no way to distinguish between periods that end sentences and those that indicate abbreviations. For convenient and reliable editing, we therefore recommend you follow the two-space convention. The variable sentence-end-double-space also affects filling (see Fill Commands). The variable sentence-end controls how to recognize the end of a sentence. If non-nil, its value should be a regular expression, which is used to match the last few characters of a sentence, together with the whitespace following the sentence (see Regexps). If the value is nil, the default, then Emacs computes sentence ends according to various criteria such as the value of sentence-end-double-space. Some languages, such as Thai, do not use periods to indicate the end of a sentence. Set the variable sentence-end-without-period to t in such cases. Next: Paragraphs, Previous: Words, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Pages, Previous: Sentences, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.3 Paragraphs The Emacs commands for manipulating paragraphs are also on Meta keys. M-{ Move back to previous paragraph beginning (backward-paragraph). M-} Move forward to next paragraph end (forward-paragraph). M-h Put point and mark around this or next paragraph (mark-paragraph). M-{ (backward-paragraph) moves to the beginning of the current or previous paragraph, depending on where point is when the command is invoked (see below for the definition of a paragraph). M-} (forward-paragraph) similarly moves to the end of the current or next paragraph. If there is a blank line before the paragraph, M-{ moves to the blank line. When you wish to operate on a paragraph, type M-h (mark-paragraph) to set the region around it. For example, M-h C-w kills the paragraph around or after point. M-h puts point at the beginning and mark at the end of the paragraph point was in. If point is between paragraphs (in a run of blank lines, or at a boundary), M-h sets the region around the paragraph following point. If there are blank lines preceding the first line of the paragraph, one of these blank lines is included in the region. If the region is already active, the command sets the mark without changing point, and each subsequent M-h further advances the mark by one paragraph. The definition of a paragraph depends on the major mode. In Fundamental mode, as well as Text mode and related modes, a paragraph is separated from neighboring paragraphs by one or more blank lines—lines that are either empty, or consist solely of space, tab and/or formfeed characters. In programming language modes, paragraphs are usually defined in a similar way, so that you can use the paragraph commands even though there are no paragraphs as such in a program. Note that an indented line is not itself a paragraph break in Text mode. If you want indented lines to separate paragraphs, use Paragraph-Indent Text mode instead. See Text Mode. If you set a fill prefix, then paragraphs are delimited by all lines which don’t start with the fill prefix. See Filling. The precise definition of a paragraph boundary is controlled by the variables paragraph-separate and paragraph-start. The value of paragraph-start is a regular expression that should match lines that either start or separate paragraphs (see Regexps). The value of paragraph-separate is another regular expression that should match lines that separate paragraphs without being part of any paragraph (for example, blank lines). Lines that start a new paragraph and are contained in it must match only paragraph-start, not paragraph-separate. For example, in Fundamental mode, paragraph-start is "\f\\|[ \t]*$", and paragraph-separate is "[ \t\f]*$". Note that paragraph-start and paragraph-separate are matched against the text at the left margin, which is not necessarily the beginning of the line, so these regexps should not use ‘^’ as an anchor, to ensure that the paragraph functions will work equally within a region of text indented by a margin setting. Next: Pages, Previous: Sentences, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Quotation Marks, Previous: Paragraphs, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.4 Pages Within some text files, text is divided into pages delimited by the formfeed character (ASCII code 12, also denoted as ‘control-L’), which is displayed in Emacs as the escape sequence ‘^L’ (see Text Display). Traditionally, when such text files are printed to hardcopy, each formfeed character forces a page break. Most Emacs commands treat it just like any other character, so you can insert it with C-q C-l, delete it with DEL, etc. In addition, Emacs provides commands to move over pages and operate on them. M-x what-page Display the page number of point, and the line number within that page. C-x [ Move point to previous page boundary (backward-page). C-x ] Move point to next page boundary (forward-page). C-x C-p Put point and mark around this page (or another page) (mark-page). C-x l Count the lines in this page (count-lines-page). M-x what-page counts pages from the beginning of the file, and counts lines within the page, showing both numbers in the echo area. The C-x [ (backward-page) command moves point to immediately after the previous page delimiter. If point is already right after a page delimiter, it skips that one and stops at the previous one. A numeric argument serves as a repeat count. The C-x ] (forward-page) command moves forward past the next page delimiter. The C-x C-p command (mark-page) puts point at the beginning of the current page (after that page delimiter at the front), and the mark at the end of the page (after the page delimiter at the end). C-x C-p C-w is a handy way to kill a page to move it elsewhere. If you move to another page delimiter with C-x [ and C-x ], then yank the killed page, all the pages will be properly delimited once again. Making sure this works as expected is the reason C-x C-p includes only the following page delimiter in the region. A numeric argument to C-x C-p specifies which page to go to, relative to the current one. Zero means the current page, one means the next page, and -1 means the previous one. The C-x l command (count-lines-page) is good for deciding where to break a page in two. It displays in the echo area the total number of lines in the current page, and then divides it up into those preceding the current line and those following, as in Page has 96 (72+25) lines Notice that the sum is off by one; this is correct if point is not at the beginning of a line. The variable page-delimiter controls where pages begin. Its value is a regular expression that matches the beginning of a line that separates pages (see Regexps). The normal value of this variable is "^\f", which matches a formfeed character at the beginning of a line. Next: Quotation Marks, Previous: Paragraphs, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Filling, Previous: Pages, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.5 Quotation Marks One common way to quote is the typewriter convention, which quotes using straight apostrophes 'like this' or double-quotes "like this". Another common way is the curved quote convention, which uses left and right single or double quotation marks ‘like this’ or “like this”^11. In text files, typewriter quotes are simple and portable; curved quotes are less ambiguous and typically look nicer. Electric Quote mode makes it easier to type curved quotes. As you type characters it optionally converts ` to ‘, ' to ’, `` to “, and '' to ”. It’s possible to change the default quotes listed above, by customizing the variable electric-quote-chars, a list of four characters, where the items correspond to the left single quote, the right single quote, the left double quote and the right double quote, respectively, whose default value is '(?‘ ?’ ?“ ?”). You can customize the behavior of Electric Quote mode by customizing variables that control where it is active. It is active in text paragraphs if electric-quote-paragraph is non-nil, in programming-language comments if electric-quote-comment is non-nil, and in programming-language strings if electric-quote-string is non-nil. The default is nil for electric-quote-string and t for the other variables. You can also set the option electric-quote-replace-double to a non-nil value. Then, typing " insert an appropriate curved double quote depending on context: “ at the beginning of the buffer or after a line break, whitespace, opening parenthesis, or quote character, and ” otherwise. Electric Quote mode is disabled by default. To toggle it in a single buffer, use M-x electric-quote-local-mode. To toggle it globally, type M-x electric-quote-mode. To suppress it for a single use, type C-q ` or C-q ' instead of ` or '. To insert a curved quote even when Electric Quote is disabled or inactive, you can type C-x 8 [ for ‘, C-x 8 ] for ’, C-x 8 { for “, and C-x 8 } for ”. See Inserting Text. Note that the value of electric-quote-chars does not affect these keybindings, they are not keybindings of electric-quote-mode but bound in global-map. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (11) The curved single quote characters are U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK and U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK; the curved double quotes are U+201C LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK and U+201D RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK. On text terminals which cannot display these characters, the Info reader might show them as the typewriter ASCII quote characters. Next: Filling, Previous: Pages, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Case, Previous: Quotation Marks, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.6 Filling Text Filling text means breaking it up into lines that fit a specified width. Emacs does filling in two ways. In Auto Fill mode, inserting text with self-inserting characters also automatically fills it. There are also explicit fill commands that you can use when editing text. • Auto Fill Auto Fill mode breaks long lines automatically. • Fill Commands Commands to refill paragraphs and center lines. • Fill Prefix Filling paragraphs that are indented or in a comment, etc. • Adaptive Fill How Emacs can determine the fill prefix automatically. Next: Text Mode, Previous: Filling, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.7 Case Conversion Commands Emacs has commands for converting either a single word or any arbitrary range of text to upper case or to lower case. M-l Convert following word to lower case (downcase-word). M-u Convert following word to upper case (upcase-word). M-c Capitalize the following word (capitalize-word). C-x C-l Convert region to lower case (downcase-region). C-x C-u Convert region to upper case (upcase-region). M-l (downcase-word) converts the word after point to lower case, moving past it. Thus, repeating M-l converts successive words. M-u (upcase-word) converts to all capitals instead, while M-c (capitalize-word) puts the first letter of the word into upper case and the rest into lower case. All these commands convert several words at once if given an argument. They are especially convenient for converting a large amount of text from all upper case to mixed case, because you can move through the text using M-l, M-u or M-c on each word as appropriate, occasionally using M-f instead to skip a word. When given a negative argument, the word case conversion commands apply to the appropriate number of words before point, but do not move point. This is convenient when you have just typed a word in the wrong case: you can give the case conversion command and continue typing. If a word case conversion command is given in the middle of a word, it applies only to the part of the word which follows point. (This is comparable to what M-d (kill-word) does.) With a negative argument, case conversion applies only to the part of the word before point. The other case conversion commands are C-x C-u (upcase-region) and C-x C-l (downcase-region), which convert everything between point and mark to the specified case. Point and mark do not move. The region case conversion commands upcase-region and downcase-region are normally disabled. This means that they ask for confirmation if you try to use them. When you confirm, you may enable the command, which means it will not ask for confirmation again. See Disabling. Next: Text Mode, Previous: Filling, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Outline Mode, Previous: Case, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.8 Text Mode Text mode is a major mode for editing files of text in a human language. Files which have names ending in the extension .txt are usually opened in Text mode (see Choosing Modes). To explicitly switch to Text mode, type M-x text-mode. In Text mode, only blank lines and page delimiters separate paragraphs. As a result, paragraphs can be indented, and adaptive filling determines what indentation to use when filling a paragraph. See Adaptive Fill. In Text mode, the TAB (indent-for-tab-command) command usually inserts whitespace up to the next tab stop, instead of indenting the current line. See Indentation, for details. Text mode turns off the features concerned with comments except when you explicitly invoke them. It changes the syntax table so that apostrophes are considered part of words (e.g., ‘don't’ is considered one word). However, if a word starts with an apostrophe, it is treated as a prefix for the purposes of capitalization (e.g., M-c converts ‘'hello'’ into ‘'Hello'’, as expected). If you indent the first lines of paragraphs, then you should use Paragraph-Indent Text mode (M-x paragraph-indent-text-mode) rather than Text mode. In that mode, you do not need to have blank lines between paragraphs, because the first-line indentation is sufficient to start a paragraph; however paragraphs in which every line is indented are not supported. Use M-x paragraph-indent-minor-mode to enable an equivalent minor mode for situations where you shouldn’t change the major mode—in mail composition, for instance. Text mode binds M-TAB to ispell-complete-word. This command performs completion of the partial word in the buffer before point, using the spelling dictionary as the space of possible words. See Spelling. If your window manager defines M-TAB to switch windows, you can type ESC TAB or C-M-i instead. Entering Text mode runs the mode hook text-mode-hook (see Major Modes). The following sections describe several major modes that are derived from Text mode. These derivatives share most of the features of Text mode described above. In particular, derivatives of Text mode run text-mode-hook prior to running their own mode hooks. Next: Outline Mode, Previous: Case, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Org Mode, Previous: Text Mode, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.9 Outline Mode Outline mode is a major mode derived from Text mode, which is specialized for editing outlines. It provides commands to navigate between entries in the outline structure, and commands to make parts of a buffer temporarily invisible, so that the outline structure may be more easily viewed. Type M-x outline-mode to switch to Outline mode. Entering Outline mode runs the hook text-mode-hook followed by the hook outline-mode-hook (see Hooks). When you use an Outline mode command to make a line invisible (see Outline Visibility), the line disappears from the screen. An ellipsis (three periods in a row) is displayed at the end of the previous visible line, to indicate the hidden text. Multiple consecutive invisible lines produce just one ellipsis. Editing commands that operate on lines, such as C-n and C-p, treat the text of the invisible line as part of the previous visible line. Killing the ellipsis at the end of a visible line really kills all the following invisible text associated with the ellipsis. Outline minor mode is a buffer-local minor mode which provides the same commands as the major mode, Outline mode, but can be used in conjunction with other major modes. You can type M-x outline-minor-mode to toggle Outline minor mode in the current buffer, or use a file-local variable setting to enable it in a specific file (see File Variables). The major mode, Outline mode, provides special key bindings on the C-c prefix. Outline minor mode provides similar bindings with C-c @ as the prefix; this is to reduce the conflicts with the major mode’s special commands. (The variable outline-minor-mode-prefix controls the prefix used.) • Outline Format What the text of an outline looks like. • Outline Motion Special commands for moving through outlines. • Outline Visibility Commands to control what is visible. • Outline Views Outlines and multiple views. • Foldout Folding means zooming in on outlines. Next: Org Mode, Previous: Text Mode, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: TeX Mode, Previous: Outline Mode, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.10 Org Mode Org mode is a variant of Outline mode for using Emacs as an organizer and/or authoring system. Files with names ending in the extension .org are opened in Org mode (see Choosing Modes). To explicitly switch to Org mode, type M-x org-mode. In Org mode, as in Outline mode, each entry has a heading line that starts with one or more ‘*’ characters. See Outline Format. In addition, any line that begins with the ‘#’ character is treated as a comment. Org mode provides commands for easily viewing and manipulating the outline structure. The simplest of these commands is TAB (org-cycle). If invoked on a heading line, it cycles through the different visibility states of the subtree: (i) showing only that heading line, (ii) showing only the heading line and the heading lines of its direct children, if any, and (iii) showing the entire subtree. If invoked in a body line, the global binding for TAB is executed. Typing S-TAB (org-shifttab) anywhere in an Org mode buffer cycles the visibility of the entire outline structure, between (i) showing only top-level heading lines, (ii) showing all heading lines but no body lines, and (iii) showing everything. You can move an entire entry up or down in the buffer, including its body lines and subtree (if any), by typing M-UP (org-metaup) or M-DOWN (org-metadown) on the heading line. Similarly, you can promote or demote a heading line with M-LEFT (org-metaleft) and M-RIGHT (org-metaright). These commands execute their global bindings if invoked on a body line. The following subsections give basic instructions for using Org mode as an organizer and as an authoring system. For details, see Introduction in The Org Manual. • Org Organizer Managing TODO lists and agendas. • Org Authoring Exporting Org buffers to various formats. Next: TeX Mode, Previous: Outline Mode, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: HTML Mode, Previous: Org Mode, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.11 TeX Mode TeX is a powerful text formatter written by Donald Knuth; like GNU Emacs, it is free software. The TeX format has several variants, including LaTeX, a simplified input format for TeX; DocTeX, a special file format in which the LaTeX sources are written, combining sources with documentation; and SliTeX, an obsolete special form of LaTeX^12. Emacs provides a TeX major mode for each of these variants: Plain TeX mode, LaTeX mode, DocTeX mode, and SliTeX mode. Emacs selects the appropriate mode by looking at the contents of the buffer. (This is done by invoking the tex-mode command, which is normally called automatically when you visit a TeX-like file. See Choosing Modes.) If the contents are insufficient to determine this, Emacs chooses the mode specified by the variable tex-default-mode; its default value is latex-mode. If Emacs does not guess right, you can select the correct variant of TeX mode using the commands plain-tex-mode, latex-mode, slitex-mode, or doctex-mode. The following sections document the features of TeX mode and its variants. There are several other TeX-related Emacs packages, which are not documented in this manual: * BibTeX mode is a major mode for BibTeX files, which are commonly used for keeping bibliographic references for LaTeX documents. For more information, see the documentation string for the command bibtex-mode. * The RefTeX package provides a minor mode which can be used with LaTeX mode to manage bibliographic references. For more information, see the RefTeX Info manual, which is distributed with Emacs. * The AUCTeX package provides more advanced features for editing TeX and its related formats, including the ability to preview TeX equations within Emacs buffers. Unlike BibTeX mode and the RefTeX package, AUCTeX is not distributed with Emacs by default. It can be downloaded via the Package Menu (see Packages); once installed, see the AUCTeX manual, which is included with the package. • TeX Editing Special commands for editing in TeX mode. • LaTeX Editing Additional commands for LaTeX input files. • TeX Print Commands for printing part of a file with TeX. • TeX Misc Customization of TeX mode, and related features. -------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes (12) It has been replaced by the ‘slides’ document class, which comes with LaTeX. Next: HTML Mode, Previous: Org Mode, Up: Text [Contents][Index] Next: Nroff Mode, Previous: TeX Mode, Up: Text [Contents][Index] ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 25.12 SGML and HTML Modes The major modes for SGML and HTML provide indentation support and commands for operating on tags. HTML consists of two modes—one, a basic mode called html-mode is a slightly customized variant of SGML mode. The other, which is used by default for HTML files, is called mhtml-mode, and attempts to properly handle Javascript enclosed in a