1 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc. See end for conditions.
3 You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
5 Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labelled
6 CTRL or CTL) or the META key. On some keyboards, the META key is
7 labelled ALT or EDIT or something else (for example, on Sun keyboards,
8 the diamond key to the left of the spacebar is META). If you have no
9 META key, you can use ESC instead. Rather than write out META or
10 CONTROL each time we want you to prefix a character, we'll use the
11 following abbreviations:
13 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
14 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
15 M-<chr> means hold the META key down while typing <chr>. If there
16 is no META key, type <ESC>, release it, then type the
19 Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
20 The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
21 try using a command. For instance:
22 <<Middle of page left blank for didactic purposes. Text continues below.>>
23 >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
24 (go ahead, do it by holding down the control key while typing v).
25 From now on, you should do this again whenever you finish
28 Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen
29 to screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading
32 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place
33 to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen,
34 with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key
35 and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META, EDIT, or ALT key).
37 >> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times.
43 The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
45 C-v Move forward one screenful
46 M-v Move backward one screenful
47 C-l Clear screen and redisplay everything
48 putting the text near the cursor at the center.
49 (That's control-L, not control-1.)
51 >> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it.
53 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text
54 is near the cursor now.
57 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
58 ----------------------
60 Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
61 move to a specific place within the text on the screen?
63 There are several ways you can do this. The most basic way is to use
64 the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. Each of these commands moves the
65 cursor one row or column in a particular direction on the screen.
66 Here is a table showing these four commands and shows the directions
72 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
77 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
78 using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram
79 centered in the screen.
81 You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter: P for
82 previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are the
83 basic cursor positioning commands, and you'll be using them ALL the
84 time, so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
86 >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
88 >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
89 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
91 Each of text line ends with a Newline character, which serves to
92 separate it from the following line. The last line in your file ought
93 to have a Newline at the end (but Emacs does not require it to have
96 >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. It should move to
97 the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back
98 across the Newline character.
100 C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b.
102 >> Do a few more C-b's, so you get a feel for where the cursor is.
103 Then do C-f's to return to the end of the line.
104 Then do one more C-f to move to the following line.
106 When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
107 the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It
108 enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text
109 without moving it off the screen.
111 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and
114 If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
115 (Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
117 >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's.
119 When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word.
120 When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the
121 following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction.
123 >> Type M-f and M-b a few times, interspersed with C-f's and C-b's
124 so that you can observe the action of M-f and M-b from various
125 places inside and between words.
127 Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
128 M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
129 operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences,
130 paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are
131 independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc).
133 This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to
134 the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning
135 or end of a sentence.
137 >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
138 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
140 See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one
141 more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems
144 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
145 paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
148 Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the
149 word and sentence moving commands:
151 C-f Move forward a character
152 C-b Move backward a character
154 M-f Move forward a word
155 M-b Move backward a word
157 C-n Move to next line
158 C-p Move to previous line
160 C-a Move to beginning of line
161 C-e Move to end of line
163 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
164 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
166 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
167 These are the most often used commands.
169 Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
170 which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (Meta
171 Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text.
173 On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the
174 shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key
175 to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
177 >> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial.
178 Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here.
180 >> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial.
181 Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here.
183 You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has
184 arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three
185 reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once
186 you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these CTRL
187 characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not
188 have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once
189 you form the habit of using these CTRL character commands, you can
190 easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well.
192 Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this
193 serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count
194 is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If
195 you have a META (or EDIT or ALT) key, there is another alternative way
196 to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the
197 META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on
200 For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
202 >> Try using C-n or C-p with a numeric argument, to move the cursor
203 to a line near this one with just one command.
205 Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count. Certain
206 exceptional commands use it differently. C-v and M-v are among the
207 exceptions. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or down
208 by that many lines, rather than by a screenfuls. For example, C-u 4
209 C-v scrolls the screen by 4 lines.
211 >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
213 This should have scrolled the screen up by 8 lines. If you would like
214 to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v.
216 If you are using the X Window system, there is probably a rectangular
217 area called a scroll bar at the right hand side of the Emacs window.
218 You can scroll the text by manipulating the scroll bar with the mouse.
220 >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
221 within the scroll bar. This should scroll the text to a position
222 determined by how high or low you click.
224 >> Move the mouse to a point in the scroll bar about three lines from
225 the top, and click the left button a couple of times.
228 * CURSOR CONTROL WITH AN X TERMINAL
229 -----------------------------------
231 If you have an X terminal, you will probably find it easier to use
232 the keys on the keypad to control the cursor. The left, right, up,
233 and down arrow keys move in the expected direction; they function
234 exactly like C-b, C-f, C-p, and C-n, but are easier to type and to
235 remember. You can also use C-left and C-right to move by words, and
236 C-up and C-down to move by blocks (e.g. paragraphs, if you're
237 editing text). If you have keys labelled HOME (or BEGIN) and END,
238 they will take you to the beginning and end of a line, respectively,
239 and C-home and C-end will move to the beginning and end of the file.
240 If your keyboard has PgUp and PgDn keys, you can use them to move up
241 and down a screenful at a time, like M-v and C-v.
243 All of these commands can take numeric arguments, as described above.
244 You can use a shortcut to enter these arguments: just hold down the
245 CONTROL or META key and type the number. For example, to move 12
246 words to the right, type C-1 C-2 C-right. Note that it is very easy
247 to type this because you do not have to release the CONTROL key
254 If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by
255 typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too
258 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
259 a command that you do not want to finish.
261 >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
262 Now type C-f. It should move just one character,
263 because you canceled the argument with C-g.
265 If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
272 Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use
275 If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message
276 saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go
277 ahead and execute the command.
279 If you really want to try the command, type Space in answer to the
280 question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the disabled
281 command, answer the question with "n".
283 >> Type `C-x n p' (which is a disabled command),
284 then type n to answer the question.
290 Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text.
291 Note that "window" as used by Emacs does not refer to separate
292 overlapping windows in the window system, but to separate panes
293 within a single X window. (Emacs can also have multiple X
294 windows, or "frames" in Emacs terminology. This is described
297 At this stage it is better not to go into the techniques of
298 using multiple windows. But you do need to know how to get
299 rid of extra windows that may appear to display help or
300 output from certain commands. It is simple:
302 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
304 That is Control-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window
305 which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all
308 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
310 (Remember that C-l redraws the screen. If you give a
311 numeric argument to this command, it means "redraw the
312 screen and put the current line that many lines from the
313 top of the screen." So C-u 0 C-l means "redraw the
314 screen, putting the current line at the top.")
317 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
318 to display contents of this buffer.
320 >> Type C-x 1 and see the new window disappear.
323 * INSERTING AND DELETING
324 ------------------------
326 If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you
327 can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
328 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
331 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
332 <Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
333 some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
335 More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
336 current cursor position.
338 >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them
339 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
340 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is
341 your personal copy of it.
343 When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line
344 of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\")
345 at the right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
347 >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting.
348 You'll see a continuation line appear.
350 >> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
351 line again. The continuation line goes away.
353 You can delete a Newline character just like any other character.
354 Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into
355 one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the
356 screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line.
358 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
359 merges that line with the previous line.
361 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
363 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
364 this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts
367 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********.
369 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
370 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
371 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
373 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
374 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
376 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
377 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
379 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
380 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
382 Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
383 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> is not really a control
384 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
385 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
387 When you delete more than one character at a time, Emacs saves the
388 deleted text so that you can bring it back. Bringing back killed text
389 is called "yanking". You can yank the killed text either at the same
390 place where it was killed, or at some other place in the text. You
391 can yank the text several times in order to make multiple copies of
392 it. The command to yank is C-y.
394 Note that the difference between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is
395 that "Killed" things can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot.
396 Generally, the commands that can remove a lot of text save the text,
397 while the commands that delete just one character, or just blank lines
398 and spaces, do not save the deleted text.
400 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty.
401 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line.
402 >> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline
403 which follows that line.
405 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
406 C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. C-k
407 treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND
408 their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two
409 lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that.
411 To retrieve the last killed text and put it where the cursor currently
414 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
416 Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone took
417 away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row, all of
418 the killed text is saved together, so that one C-y will yank all of
421 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
423 Now to retrieve that killed text:
425 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
426 again. You now see how to copy some text.
428 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
429 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
430 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
431 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
432 M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
433 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have
434 reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to
435 keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where
438 If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most
441 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
442 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
443 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
444 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
445 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
446 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
453 If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a
454 mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u.
456 Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat
457 the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one
460 But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do
461 not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling
462 command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups
463 of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to
464 type to undo insertion of text.)
466 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
468 C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u,
469 but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of
470 C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That
471 is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_
472 by typing / while holding down CTRL.
474 A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count.
480 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
481 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
482 away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. (This is
483 also called "visiting" the file.)
485 Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within
486 Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself.
487 However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent
488 until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a
489 half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when
490 you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case
491 you later decide that your changes were a mistake.
493 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
494 begins and ends with dashes, and contains the string "Emacs:
495 TUTORIAL". This part of the screen always shows the name of the file
496 that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file called
497 "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs tutorial.
498 Whatever file you find, that file's name will appear in that precise
501 The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
502 commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
503 They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
504 of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
505 files, buffers, and related things. These commands are two, three or
506 four characters long.
508 Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
509 to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
510 from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
511 file). After you type the command
515 Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears
516 on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the
517 minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use
518 ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name.
520 While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input),
521 you can cancel the command with C-g.
523 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
524 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
525 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
527 When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to
528 terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file
529 you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is
532 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can
533 edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent,
536 C-x C-s Save the file
538 This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you
539 do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is
540 not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the
541 original file's name.
543 When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
544 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
545 work if the system should crash.
547 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
548 This should print "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
550 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
551 will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
552 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
553 C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
554 type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
555 Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
557 You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also
558 find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a
559 file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then
560 begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the
561 file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have
562 inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an
563 already existing file.
569 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
570 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
571 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
573 >> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>.
574 Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s.
575 Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return>
576 to come back to the tutorial.
578 Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer."
579 Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the
580 buffers that current exist in your Emacs job, type
586 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
587 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
588 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
589 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
590 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
591 is always part of some buffer.
593 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
595 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
596 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
597 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
598 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
599 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
600 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
601 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
603 C-x s Save some buffers
605 C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have
606 not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the
609 >> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s.
610 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL.
611 Answer yes to the question by typing "y".
616 If you are on an X terminal, you will notice a menubar at the
617 top of the Emacs screen. You can use this menubar to access all
618 the most common Emacs commands, such as "find file". You will
619 find this easier at first, because you don't need to remember
620 the keystrokes necessary to access any particular command. Once
621 you are comfortable with Emacs, it will be easy to begin using
622 the keyboard commands because each menu item with a
623 corresponding keyboard command has the command listed next to
626 Note that there are many items in the menubar that have no exact
627 keyboard equivalents. For example, the Buffers menu lists all
628 of the available buffers in most-recently used order. You can
629 switch to any buffer by simply findings its name in the Buffers
630 menu and selecting it.
636 When running under X, Emacs is fully integrated with the mouse.
637 You can position the text cursor by clicking the left button at
638 the desired location, and you can select text by dragging the
639 left mouse button across the text you want to select. (Or
640 alternatively, click the left mouse button at one end of the
641 text, then move to the other end and use Shift-click to select
644 To kill some selected text, you can use C-w or choose the Cut
645 item from the Edit menu. Note that these are *not* equivalent:
646 C-w only saves the text internally within Emacs (similar to C-k
647 as described above), whereas Cut does this and also puts the
648 text into the X clipboard, where it can be accessed by other
651 To retrieve text from the X clipboard, use the Paste item from
654 The middle mouse button is commonly used to choose items that
655 are visible on the screen. For example, if you enter Info (the
656 on-line Emacs documentation) using C-h i or the Help menu, you
657 can follow a highlighted link by clicking the middle mouse
658 button on it. Similarly, if you are typing a file name in
659 (e.g. when prompted by "Find File") and you hit TAB to show the
660 possible completions, you can click the middle mouse button on
661 one of the completions to select it.
663 The right mouse button brings up a popup menu. The contents of
664 this menu vary depending on what mode you're in, and usually
665 contain a few commonly used commands, so they're easier to
668 >> Press the right mouse button now.
670 You will have to hold the button down in order to keep the
674 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
675 ---------------------------
677 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
678 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
679 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
681 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
682 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
684 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
685 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of
686 them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another
687 example is the command to end the Emacs session--this is the command
688 C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c
689 offers to save each changed file before it kills the Emacs.)
691 C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
692 back to the same Emacs session afterward.
694 On systems which allow it, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns
695 to the shell but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common
696 shells, you can resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'.
698 On systems which do not implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell
699 running under Emacs to give you the chance to run other programs and
700 return to Emacs afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In
701 this case, the shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to
702 Emacs from the subshell.
704 The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
705 the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
706 programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know
707 how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances,
708 though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs
709 with C-z instead of exiting Emacs.
711 There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned:
715 C-x C-b List buffers.
719 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
720 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An
721 example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one
722 string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the
723 bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the
724 command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and
725 Emacs will complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
727 The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be
728 replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each
729 argument with <Return>.
731 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
732 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
734 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
735 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred,
736 after the initial position of the cursor.
742 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
743 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
744 this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that
745 you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and
746 the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save
747 file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way,
748 Emacs deletes its auto save file.
750 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
751 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
752 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<return>. When it asks for
753 confirmation, type yes<return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
760 If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
761 at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
762 area contains the bottom line of the screen.
768 The line immediately above the echo area it is called the "modeline".
769 The mode line says something like this:
771 --**-XEmacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%----------------
773 This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and
774 the text you are editing.
776 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
777 found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means
778 that NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the
779 top of the file is on the screen, it will say --Top-- instead of
780 --00%--. If the bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say
781 --Bot--. If you are looking at text so small that all of it fits on
782 the screen, the mode line says --All--.
784 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
785 Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows
786 no stars, just dashes.
788 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
789 editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is
790 what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode".
792 Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for
793 editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode,
794 Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active,
795 and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
796 "Fundamental" is now.
798 Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example,
799 there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each
800 programming language has a different idea of what a comment should
801 look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each
802 major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can
803 switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to
804 switch to Fundamental mode.
806 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
807 should probably use Text Mode.
808 >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
810 Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
811 any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat
812 apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode,
813 M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators.
815 Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands
816 do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit
819 To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
821 >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
822 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
823 >> Type q to remove the documentation from the screen.
825 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
826 Minor modes are alternatives not to the major modes, just minor
827 modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by
828 itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your
829 major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any
830 combination of several minor modes.
832 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
833 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
834 in between words automatically whenever you insert text and make a
835 line that is too wide.
837 You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
838 When the mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x
839 auto-fill-mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on,
840 and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the
841 command "toggles the mode".
843 >> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
844 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
845 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
847 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
848 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
849 as a numeric argument.
851 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
852 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
853 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
856 If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
857 does not re-fill it for you.
858 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
861 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
867 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
868 characters or words) either forward through the text or backward
869 through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command;
870 it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears.
872 The Emacs search command is different from the search commands
873 of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the
874 search happens while you type in the string to search for.
876 The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r
877 for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now.
879 When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as
880 a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is
881 called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that
882 you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search.
884 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
885 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
886 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
887 Now you have searched for "cursor", once.
888 >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor".
889 >> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
890 >> Type <RET> to terminate the search.
892 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
893 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far,
894 highlighting it for your convenience. To go to the next occurrence of
895 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such occurrence exists Emacs
896 beeps and tells you the search is currently "failing", C-g would also
897 terminate the search.
899 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
900 see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
901 system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
902 letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
903 Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
904 Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
906 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
907 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
908 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
909 instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first
910 occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move
911 to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delete>. This erases
912 the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to
913 the first occurrence of "c".
915 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
916 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
917 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
919 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
920 string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for
921 something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we
922 have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of
923 the search is reversed.
929 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
930 window on the screen at the same time.
932 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
934 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
935 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
937 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
938 (If you do not have a real Meta key, type ESC C-v.)
940 >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
941 >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
942 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
944 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
945 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before.
947 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
948 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
949 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
950 window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window".
952 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
953 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
954 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance
955 through the other window sequentially with C-M-v.
957 C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
958 META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CTRL and META while
959 typing v. It does not matter whether CTRL or META "comes first,"
960 because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type.
962 If you do not have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order
963 does matter: you must type ESC followed by CTRL-v; CTRL-ESC v will not
964 work. This is because ESC is a character in its own right, not a
967 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
969 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
970 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
971 window--the window I am already in.")
973 You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you
974 use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not
975 change. You can find a file in each window independently.
977 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
980 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
981 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
982 window. The cursor goes there, too.
984 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
988 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
989 --------------------------
991 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
992 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
993 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
994 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
996 To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
997 an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
998 extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
1000 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
1002 You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is
1003 because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the
1004 recursive editing level.
1010 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
1011 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
1012 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
1013 to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features.
1014 Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs
1015 commands. These "help" commands all start with the character
1016 Control-h, which is called "the Help character".
1018 To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a
1019 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
1020 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
1021 If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just
1022 type C-g to cancel it.
1024 (Some sites rebind the character C-h. They really should not do this
1025 as a blanket measure, so complain to the system administrator.
1026 Meanwhile, if C-h does not display a message about help at the bottom
1027 of the screen, try typing M-x help RET instead.)
1029 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, a c, and a
1030 command character or sequence, and Emacs displays a very brief
1031 description of the command.
1033 >> Type C-h c Control-p.
1034 The message should be something like
1036 C-p runs the command previous-line
1038 This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used
1039 mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names
1040 are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as
1041 very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you
1042 have already learned.
1044 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
1045 EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
1047 To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
1049 >> Type C-h k Control-p.
1051 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
1052 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
1053 output, type q to get rid of the help text.
1055 Here are some other useful C-h options:
1057 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
1060 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
1061 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
1062 function which implements the C-p command.
1064 C-h a Hyper Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
1065 all the functions and variables whose names contain
1066 that keyword. The commands that can be invoked with
1067 Meta-x, an asterisk will be displayed to the left.
1069 >> Type C-h a newline<Return>.
1071 This displays a list of all functions and variables with "newline" in
1072 their names. Press <Return> or click the middle mouse button to find
1073 out more about a function or variable. Type `q' to exit hyper-apropos.
1079 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
1080 temporarily, so that you can come back in, use C-z. (under X, this
1081 iconifies the current Emacs frame.)
1083 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
1084 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
1090 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
1091 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
1092 Ben Wing updated the tutorial for X Windows. Martin Buchholz and
1093 Hrvoje Niksic added more corrections for XEmacs.
1095 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
1096 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
1098 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996 Free Software Foundation
1100 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1101 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1102 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
1103 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
1104 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
1106 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1107 of this document, or of portions of it,
1108 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1109 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
1111 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are more complex, but in the
1112 same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of
1113 GNU Emacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism
1114 ("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software!
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