The Emacs Editor

Tim Love July 1, 1998

Contents
1 Emacs Terminology 2 Help, short cuts and common operations 2.1 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Error recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Common Commands . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Manipulating blocks of text . . . . . 2.6 Numeric Arguments . . . . . . . . . 2.7 Multiple les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Concepts 3.1 Modes . . . . 3.2 Buffers . . . . 3.3 Windows . . . 3.4 Rings . . . . . 3.5 Registers . . . 3.6 Abbreviations 3.7 Variables . . . 3.8 Macros . . . . 3.9 Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7

4 Customising 4.1 Arguments and Xdefaults 4.2 Using the .emacs le . . 4.3 Saving macros . . . . . . . 4.4 emacsclient . . . . . . . 4.5 Big .emacs les . . . . . .

8 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 10 . 11

5 Key bindings 11 5.1 Interactive bindings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2 Using the .emacs le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6 Miscellaneous 11 6.1 Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 6.2 Compiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Introduction
Emacs is a self-documenting, customisable, extensible text editor which is freely available for most types of computers. A crib sheet is available for emacs and there is extensive on-line documentation within emacs as well as a tutorial. Further documentation (plus a copy of this document) is available from the help systems Emacs page 1 This document only looks at the under-used or undocumented features. Contributions to this document will be welcomed. Mail tpl@eng.

Emacs Terminology

The emacs documentation uses some terms that its useful to understand. This document will use terms like window in the same way as the emacs documentation does, rather the the way these terms are usually used. Buffers - emacs loads les into internal Buffers; it loads Files but saves Buffers. Frames - One emacs process can produce a number of X windows. Emacs calls each of these windows a frame. Windows - Each frame can be split into sections that emacs calls windows. Control Keys - M- means hold the Extend char key down (this key is called Meta in the emacs documentation) and C- means hold the CTRL key down. In general, CTRL key functions do standard things while Meta key functions do something extra. For example, C-f advances by a letter and C-d deletes a letter whereas the M- equivalents deal with word units. Using CTRL and Meta together usually calls a more specialised activity. point - The point is where the text cursor is. regexp - A regexp is a Unix Regular Expression; i.e. a string for pattern matching. Type man ed for more details on these, or look in Emacs own help system. Lisp - Emacs is not a self-contained binary. Many of emacs commands are written in a language called Lisp. To call one of these functions by name, type M-x function name. The les containing these functions are in the directory /usr/src/editors/emacs/lisp. You can write your own lisp functions, but nearly all users will be able to do what they want without having to do this.

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2.1

Help, short cuts and common operations

Info is the denitive source of emacs documentation, containing far more information than the online manual page. Move the pointer around and use the scrollbars to see the text. If a word becomes highlighted when the pointer passes over it, click with the middle-mouse-button to display more information on that subject. Type q to quit.

1 http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/emacs.html

Command Apropos ... tells you which emacs commands have something to do with a keyword that youre invited to type in.

List Keybindings lists the control-key sequences that run emacs commands.

Describe Key ... tells you what a particular control-key sequence does.

Describe Function ...

gives a full description of an emacs function.

Emacs Tutorial runs a tutorial.

2.2

Error recovery

To reverse the effect of the last editing command, use the Undo menu option or type C-x u. Whenever you save on top of any existing le, the old le is backed up into a le whose name has an appended . emacs also backs up your les automatically every so many key presses. The name of this auto-backed-up le is created from the original by adding a # to each end of the name.

2.3

Common Commands

In a window environment, the common commands are available via the menus. At CUED there are 2 sets of menus to choose from, one more extensive than the other. The bottom item of the Edit menu lets you ip between them. Many of the menu items also have control-key equivalents which are displayed in the menu. For instance the File menu contains an item Save Buffer (C-x C-s) . Its worth learning the short cuts for common operations, even if youre at a graphics terminal. Heres a list of some useful ones. C-g cancel C-s incremental search forward C-r incremental search backwards C-k kill line C-y yank line C-x C-f load in a new le C-x C-s save a le C-x C-w write to a new le With incremental searching, searching commences as soon as you begin to type in the target string. Hitting the Backspace key will remove the last letter from the current target string unless you have repeatedly used a search command with the same target, in which case emacs will go back to the last instance of the target found.

2.4

Completion

Whenever you type in a lename or an emacs command, these options are available to you

TAB - this will complete the name if theres a unique completion.

Space - like TAB but it will only complete up to a space or hyphen.

? - lists possible completions

2.5

Manipulating blocks of text

Using the Mouse - The Cut option in the Edit menu lets you remove blocks of text. To delete a block of text, place the cursor at the start of the text that you wish to remove and drag over the text holding the left mouse button down. Then click on Cut. A faster way to cut text is to click at one end with the left mouse button, then double-click at the other end with the right mouse button. If you want to restore the text, just click on the new destination with the middle mouse button. To copy some text, place the cursor at the start and hold the left mouse button down while dragging the pointer over the text you want to copy. Release the mouse button when you reach the end of the text. Now dont select Cut, just move the pointer where you want the text to be copied and press the middle mouse button. This facility also works between most kinds of text windows. Using Keys - Mark one end of the region by moving the cursor there and using CSpace . Move the cursor to the other end of the region. Use C-w to pick up the text and remove it; M-w to just pick up. Move the text cursor where you want the text to be pasted and type C-y

If you want to manipulate rectangles of text, mark one corner of the region, move the cursor to a diametrically opposite corner and use these commands:C-x r k C-x r y

2.6

Numeric Arguments

All emacs commands can take a numerical argument. For instance, to kill 5 lines you can do M-5 C-k or C-u 5 C-k. If no number follows C-u then a default numerical argument of 4 is used. Where it makes sense, negative numerical arguments are accepted. Some commands dont interpret the numerical argument as a request for repetion but as a ag to modify behaviour. E.g. C-<Space> sets a mark whereas C-u C-<Space> goes back through previous marks.

2.7

Multiple les

You dont need to have one emacs running for each le youre editing! emacs is designed to be kept running. This is easily done in at a graphics terminal. On a non-graphics terminal you can do C-z to suspend emacs without killing it, then bring it back into the foreground using fg.

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3.1

Concepts
Modes

To customize emacs further it helps to know about some underlying ideas.

So that each type of text le can be treated appropriately, emacs supports various major modes of operation. In the status line you will see something like --:** emacs.tex (TeX)--L1-----16%---------

The major mode of the buffer is in brackets. emacs tries to pick the most appropriate mode by looking at the le name, but you can explicitly set modes. For example, you can type M-x C-mode to enter a mode with support for those writing C programs. Minor modes are mutually independant and independant of major modes. For instance, if you type M-x auto-fill-mode, the status line will display something like --:** emacs.tex (TeX Fill)--L1-26%------and emacs will create a new line for you when you reach the right edge of your window. To nd out which modes are available and what they provide, look in emacs Info les.

3.2

Buffers

All the commands you use to move text around within a le can be used to move text from one buffer to another. If you select the Buffers menu you can see the available buffers and pick which you want to visit. If you type C-x C-b you will see something like ----------------------------------------------------------MR Buffer Size Mode File -- --------- ------. xcursors.1 303 Fundamental /tmp/xcursors.1 comp_sci 329 Fundamental /tmp/notes/comp_sci *scratch* 0 Lisp Interaction *Buffer List* 0 Buffer Menu ----------------------------------------------------------This shows which mode each buffer has and what le, if any, its associated with. To jump between buffers, use C-x b. By default you are invited to go to the last buffer you visited. You can save all the buffers by typing C-x s (rather than C-x C-s which just saves the current buffer). Some types of buffers have their own special commands. For instance, the *Buffer List* buffer cant be written into but you can move the cursor around and select buffers for deletion (type d) or saving (type s) then type x for everything to happen. See the emacs Info section called Several Buffers for more info.

3.3

Windows

Emacs can split the screen into two or many windows, which can display parts of different buffers, or different parts of one buffer. You can use the mouse to move the text cursor into a window, or use C-x o C-x 2 Split the selected window into two windows, one above the other C-x 5 Split the selected window into two windows side by side C-x 0 Get rid of the selected window C-x 1 Get rid of all windows except the selected one C-x Make the selected window taller, at the expense of the other(s) C-x Make the selected window wider

3.4

Rings

Each point that you mark is saved in a circular list or ring. Each buffer has its own Mark Ring. You can go back to these old marks by repeatedly typing C-u C- Space 5

The Kill Ring contains blocks of killed text. Emacs has only one kill ring, common to all buffers, allowing you to delete text from one buffer and insert it in another. Old deletions are saved so that you can, for instance, recover text 3 deletions back by doing C-u 3 C-y.

3.5

Registers

You can temporarily store away text or information in registers. Each register has a single character label denoted here by <r>. C-x / <r> to save position in register C-x j <r> to go to position saved in <r> C-x x <r> to save region C-x g <r> to get region saved in <r> C-x r <r> to save rectangle C-x g <r> to get rectangle (if a rectangle was saved in that register). Use M-x view-register to see what a register contains.

3.6

Abbreviations

Theres an Abbrev minor mode (set it using M-x abbrev-mode) which allows automatic expansion of abbreviations. If you nd that you are often typing at this moment in time, you can easily arrange things so that typing wafe space reproduces the phrase. You can dene abbreviations interactively or from a le.

Interactive - To dene a new abbreviation for a word, type the word, then type C-x a g. Youll be prompted for the abbreviation you want to use. If you want to create an abbreviation for a phrase of (say) 3 words, use the standard emacs numerical argument facility. E.g., typing Save our Souls C-u 3 C-x a g sos creates an abbreviation sos. Use M-x list-abbrevs to list and M-x edit-abbrevs to edit abbreviations. Note that there are mode-specic abbreviations as well as global ones. Using abbreviation les - M-x write-abbrev-file will put into a le the currently active abbreviations. M-x read-abbrev-file will read a le of abbreviations. Dynamic abbreviation - If you type M-/ emacs will try to complete the word youre on by looking back in the le and nding the rst match. This facility is available even if the Abbrev minor mode isnt set.

3.7

Variables

Emacs keeps a list of variables for its own use. Many of them are switches to control emacs behaviour. Find out about them by typing M-x list-options Change their values using one of the following M-x set-variable RET <var> RET <val> RET M-x edit-options

3.8

Macros

To avoid repetitive key sequences you can use macros. Suppose you wanted to append .old to the next 50 words of text. Type C-x ( to start dening a macro, then perform what you want the macro to do on the rst word, M-f .old (M-f goes to the end of the current word) then end the macro denition using C-x ) C-x e will execute this, the last dened macro, once. To perform it 48 more times, use C-u 48 C-x e. To give this macro a name, use M-x name-last-kbd-macro RET <macroname> RET You can now use M-x macroname to call the macro, or use global-set-key to bind a key to the macro (see page 11).

3.9

Tags

To assist movement within a multi-le source, you can set up tag les which stores the location of functions denitions, chapter headings etc that you might want to A jump to by name. The syntax of C, Fortran and L TEX les are understood. From the command line go to the directory where youll be working from and type etags <files> (or etags -t <files> to record typedefs in C code too). This will create a le called TAGS. It doesnt matter if this le gets a bit out of date unless you move functions from one le to another. Just run etags again every so often. To load this tag le in, use M-x visit-tags-table which will prompt for a le name (the default is TAGS). Now you can use M-. <tag> to jump to the le and position of the denition of <tag>. Since the TAGS le contains a list of les that youre interested in, you can use it to perform multi-le versions of emacs commands. Eg M-x tags-search (then M-, to resume the search) M-x tags-query-replace If you know youre going to visit a succession of les, use C-u M-x next-file to look at the rst le mentioned in TAGS and M-x next-file to move to the next. M-x list-tags asks for a le and tells you the tags dened in it. M-x tags-apropos asks for a regexp and displays the matching tags. 7

Customising

Just about everything in emacs can be customised. The rest of this document concentrates on how this can be done.

4.1

Arguments and Xdefaults

Heres a list of the more useful arguments that emacs can take. See the man page or emacs own help for details. -f function Execute the lisp function called function. -l file Load the lisp code in the le le. -font font Choose a font. -b pixels Set the Emacs windows border width to the number of pixels specied by pixels. -ib pixels Set the windows internal border width to the number of pixels specied by pixels. Defaults to one pixel of padding on each side of the window. -w =[WIDTH][xHEIGHT][+-XOFF[+-YOFF]] Set the Emacs windows width, height, and position on the screen. The []s denote optional arguments, -fg color On color displays, sets the color of the text. -bg color On color displays, sets the color of the windows background. See the le /usr/lib/rgb.txt for a list of valid color names. -bd color On color displays, sets the color of the windows border.See the le /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for a list of valid color names. -cr color On color displays, sets the color of the windows text cursor. See the le /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt. -ms color On color displays, sets the color of the windows mouse cursor. See the le /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt You can also set up emacs defaults in your /.Xdefaults le. For instance, adding this to /.Xdefaults will set many of the things that could have been set from the command line emacs.font: emacs.geometry: emacs.borderColor: emacs.cursorColor: emacs.pointerColor: emacs.borderWidth: emacs.softButtons: emacs.foreground: emacs.background: emacs.bitmapicon: emacs.iconName: 6x10 80x40+360+215 VioletRed SkyBlue Yellow 1 on PaleGreen DarkSlateGrey on Emacs

4.2

Using the .emacs le

If you have an .emacs le in your HOME directory, this will be read when emacs starts up. This le contains Lisp calls. Here are some examples of things you can do

Make searches case-sensitive (setq-default case-fold-search nil)

Sets autoll on in text mode automatically. (setq text-mode-hook (lambda() (auto-fill-mode 1))) or (setq text-mode-hook turn-on-auto-fill)

Set text rather than Lisp to be the default mode. (setq default-major-mode text-mode)

A Arrange for the syntactic elements of C, fortran, pascal and L TEX les to be displayed in different colors that display ok in a window with a light background (the CUED default is a dark background).

(setq inhibit-default-init 1) (cond (window-system (setq hilit-mode-enable-list hilit-background-mode hilit-inhibit-hooks hilit-inhibit-rebinding (require hilit19) ))

(not text-mode) light nil nil)

Disable coloring (setq inhibit-default-init 1)

Use matlab-mode for matlab les (autoload matlab-mode "matlab-mode" "Enter Matlab mode." t) (setq auto-mode-alist (cons ("\\.m$" . matlab-mode) auto-mode-alist))

Stop C-s freezing the screen when using emacs in a windowless environment (enable-flow-control)

Dont show the startup message (setq inhibit-startup-message t)

Set colors (as in /.Xdefaults). 9

(set-border-color "lightblue") (set-border-color "blue") (set-cursor-color "red") (set-foreground-color "black") (set-mouse-color "red")

Display the time in the status line (load "time" t t) (display-time)

If you want to customise menus, look at the example les in the directory /usr/src/editors/emacs/site-lisp. Putting the following into your .emacs le will give you long menus by default (load "/usr/src/editors/emacs/site-lisp/.long_menus.el") (setq inhibit-default-init 1)

4.3

Saving macros

To save a macro into /.emacs so that you will always be able to use it, make /.emacs the current le and do M-x insert-kbd-macro RET <macroname> RET This will convert the macro into Lisp for you. Doing M-x 4 insert-kbd-macro RET <macroname> RET will save the relevent key bindings too.

4.4

emacsclient

Many other editors are designed to be started afresh each time you want to edit. You edit one le and then exit the editor. The next time you want to edit either another le or the same one, you must run the editor again. With these editors, it makes sense to use a command line argument to say which le to edit. But starting a new emacs each time you want to edit a different le would be annoyingly slow and would fail to take advantage of emacs ability to visit more than one le in a single editing session. If you 1. start emacs with the emacsserver running (this can be done by adding (server-start) to your .emacs le, or by typing M-x server-start from within emacs) 2. use emacsclient where youd normally use emacs (as your editor in pine, as the value of the EDITOR environmental variable, etc) youll cause pine, etc to use the existing emacs rather than start a new one. This facility goes wrong if youre in a windowless environment. Get round that by adding this to your /.profile # Sort out the terminal. [ $TERM = network ] && TERM=xterm # Set your default TERM here if [ $TERM = "xterm" ] then export EDITOR=emacsclient else export EDITOR=emacs fi 10

(thanks to itc10@eng for this tip)

4.5

Big .emacs les

If you have a big .emacs le you should compile the Lisp into a le (estart.elc, say) by copying /.emacs into /estart.el (the .el extension denotes Emacs Lisp) then using M-x byte-compile-file on this to create /estart.elc (the .elc extension denotes Emacs Lisp Compiled) so that in your .emacs le you can just have (load /estart.elc).

Key bindings

To make the most of the above customisation, you will need to set keys to perform particular functions. Tables called keymaps store what keys do. Theres a global keymap and one for each major mode.

5.1

Interactive bindings

The commands M-x global-set-key RET <key> RET <cmd> RET M-x local-set-key RET <key> RET <cmd> RET are used to set key functions.

5.2

Using the .emacs le

Here you will need to know (or copy) a bit of Lisp. Here are some examples. (global-set-key "\e#" quoted-insert) (define-key c-mode-map "\e#" quoted-insert) These both set M-# to perform a quoted insert. (global-set-key "\C-cg" goto-line) (define-key ctl-x-map "g" goto-line) Make C-c g and C-x g prompt for a line number to jump to. The function keys can also be set to do things (global-set-key [f1] goto-line) ;; goto line number

Miscellaneous

Some other commands you may like to investigate are :M-h mark a paragraph C-x TAB indent a region C-x C-u make a region upper case M-x overwrite-mode to toggle insert/overwrite C-x f set right margin to point C-M-n move down, staying at same syntax level C-M-p move up, staying at same syntax level C-M-a move to start of function C-M-e move to end of function C-x C-q toggle the writeability of the le 11

You can add control characters to a le. To put a C-m character (which has ascii value 13) into a le, type C-q then type C-m. This ability to quote control characters is useful if you have copied a le from another machine and nd that each line has one of these characters on the end. Use query-replace (M-%), input C-M, (quoted as above), to be your target string and nothing as your replacement string.

6.1

Sorting

A region of text can be sorted within emacs. For example, if you want to sort the lines of a region so that the third words of the lines are in alphabetical order, dene the region then type M-x sort-fields 3 See the info documentation for more details and options.

6.2

Compiling

You can compile programs from within emacs by using M-x compile. This will prompt for a command line which will be used as the default for subsequent calls of M-x compile. If compilation fails, you can use C-x to move to the rst reported error and then to subsequent errors.

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