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c2fabcbf | 1 | GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction |
468a4755 | 2 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
3 | This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) |
4 | about GNU Emacs with answers. | |
5 | ||
6 | The FAQ is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help' | |
7 | newsgroup (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results | |
8 | from the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these | |
9 | questions, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the | |
10 | corrections, debate, name calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of | |
11 | the canonical "best" answers to these questions. However, if you know a | |
12 | better answer or even a slight change that improves an answer, please tell | |
13 | us! | |
14 | ||
15 | If you know the answer to a question in the FAQ list, please reply to the | |
cecdf47e | 16 | question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise! |
468a4755 | 17 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
18 | The FAQ is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive |
19 | the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ is also crossposted to `news.answers'. | |
468a4755 | 20 | |
e82f5d65 | 21 | Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. |
468a4755 | 22 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
23 | It has been so long since the FAQ was last edited and released that the |
24 | maintainers decided to take a two-step approach. This edition corrects | |
25 | many basic inaccuracies in the old FAQ, most of them having to do with ftp | |
26 | sites and version numbers. In addition, we have deleted a number of | |
27 | questions that are no longer relevant with the release of GNU Emacs 19. | |
468a4755 | 28 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
29 | Many questions specific to recent releases of GNU Emacs 19 remain |
30 | unanswered in this version of the FAQ; the maintainers will spend time over | |
31 | the next month or two adding new questions (and answers), based in no small | |
32 | part on the questions that have come across help-gnu-emacs in recent | |
33 | months. | |
468a4755 | 34 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
35 | There is no diff file for this version of the FAQ, as many things have |
36 | changed since it was last updated. | |
cecdf47e | 37 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
38 | Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. |
39 | The most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (i.e., the output | |
40 | of `diff -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us about | |
41 | the FAQ list. | |
468a4755 | 42 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
43 | Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb |
44 | a lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have | |
45 | time to answer questions individually. :-( | |
c2fabcbf | 46 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
47 | -- |
48 | Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@the-tech.mit.edu> and the FAQ team (a full list is | |
49 | at the bottom of the FAQ). | |
cecdf47e | 50 | |
cecdf47e JB |
51 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
52 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
53 | Notation Used in FAQ |
54 | ||
55 | 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.? | |
56 | 2: What does "M-x command" mean? | |
57 | 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual? | |
58 | 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el? | |
59 | 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL? | |
60 | ||
61 | General Questions | |
62 | ||
e82f5d65 | 63 | 6: What is the LPF? |
c2fabcbf RS |
64 | 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft? |
65 | 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug, | |
66 | comp.emacs, etc.? | |
67 | 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups? | |
68 | 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs? | |
69 | 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list? | |
70 | 12: What is the current address of the FSF? | |
71 | ||
72 | On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help | |
73 | ||
74 | 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing? | |
75 | 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs? | |
76 | 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual? | |
cecdf47e | 77 | 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp? |
c2fabcbf RS |
78 | 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation? |
79 | 18: How do I print a Texinfo file? | |
80 | 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs? | |
cecdf47e | 81 | 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs? |
c2fabcbf RS |
82 | 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs? |
83 | 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)? | |
84 | ||
85 | Status of Emacs | |
86 | ||
87 | 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from? | |
88 | 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs? | |
e82f5d65 RS |
89 | 25: What is different about GNU Emacs 19? |
90 | ||
91 | Common Things People Want To Do | |
92 | ||
93 | 26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly? | |
94 | 27: How do I debug a .emacs file? | |
95 | 28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number? | |
96 | 29: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX? | |
97 | 30: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default? | |
98 | 31: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files? | |
99 | 32: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control) | |
c2fabcbf | 100 | characters? |
e82f5d65 RS |
101 | 33: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs? |
102 | 34: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing? | |
103 | 35: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me? | |
104 | 36: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs? | |
105 | 37: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents? | |
106 | 38: How do I change load-path? | |
107 | 39: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window? | |
108 | 40: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages? | |
109 | 41: How do I indent switch statements like this? | |
110 | 42: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally? | |
111 | 43: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting? | |
112 | 44: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal? | |
113 | 45: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows? | |
114 | 46: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the | |
c2fabcbf | 115 | indentation of the previous line? |
e82f5d65 RS |
116 | 47: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at? |
117 | 48: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef | |
c2fabcbf | 118 | commands are handled by the compiler? |
e82f5d65 RS |
119 | 49: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi? |
120 | 50: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)? | |
121 | 51: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code? | |
122 | 52: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length? | |
123 | 53: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line? | |
124 | 54: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an | |
c2fabcbf | 125 | underlined paragraph? |
e82f5d65 RS |
126 | 55: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible? |
127 | 56: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor | |
c2fabcbf | 128 | should stay in the same column even if the line is too short? |
e82f5d65 RS |
129 | 57: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself? |
130 | 58: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs? | |
131 | 59: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file? | |
132 | 60: Where is the documentation for `etags'? | |
c2fabcbf RS |
133 | |
134 | Bugs/Problems | |
135 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
136 | 61: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes? |
137 | 62: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my shell buffer? | |
138 | 63: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'? | |
139 | 64: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'? | |
140 | 65: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping? | |
141 | 66: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)? | |
142 | 67: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'? | |
143 | 68: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)? | |
144 | 69: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file? | |
145 | 70: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name? | |
146 | 71: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory? | |
147 | 72: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs? | |
c2fabcbf RS |
148 | |
149 | Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs | |
150 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
151 | 73: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs? |
152 | 74: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped? | |
153 | 75: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail? | |
c2fabcbf RS |
154 | |
155 | Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages | |
156 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
157 | 76: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)? |
158 | 77: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX? | |
159 | 78: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs? | |
160 | 79: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive? | |
161 | 80: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff? | |
162 | 81: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch? | |
163 | 82: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid | |
164 | Emacs")? | |
165 | 83: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS? | |
166 | 84: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Microsoft Windows? | |
167 | 85: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2? | |
168 | 86: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST? | |
169 | 87: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga? | |
170 | 88: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer? | |
171 | 89: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows? | |
172 | 90: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++, | |
173 | Objective C, Pascal, and Awk? | |
174 | 91: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ? | |
c2fabcbf RS |
175 | |
176 | Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs | |
177 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
178 | 92: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs |
179 | 93: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs | |
180 | 94: Gnus -- news reader within Emacs | |
181 | 95: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs | |
182 | 96: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines | |
183 | 97: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs | |
184 | 98: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities | |
185 | 99: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs | |
186 | 100: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers | |
187 | 101: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs | |
188 | 102: XEmacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface; formerly | |
189 | known as Lucid Emacs or lemacs. | |
190 | 103: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files | |
c2fabcbf RS |
191 | |
192 | Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems | |
193 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
194 | 104: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands? |
195 | 105: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'? | |
196 | 106: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my | |
c2fabcbf | 197 | .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up? |
e82f5d65 RS |
198 | 107: How do I use function keys under X Windows? |
199 | 108: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys | |
200 | emit? | |
201 | 109: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs? | |
202 | 110: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control? | |
203 | 111: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered | |
204 | out? | |
205 | 112: Why does the `Backspace' key invoke help? | |
206 | 113: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete? | |
207 | 114: How do I "swap" two keys? | |
208 | 115: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard? | |
209 | 116: What if I don't have a Meta key? | |
210 | 117: What if I don't have an Escape key? | |
211 | 118: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key? | |
212 | 119: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key? | |
213 | 120: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window? | |
214 | 121: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0? | |
215 | 122: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar? | |
216 | 123: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs? | |
c2fabcbf RS |
217 | |
218 | Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets | |
219 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
220 | 124: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters? |
221 | 125: How do I input 8-bit characters? | |
222 | 126: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters? | |
223 | 127: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese? | |
224 | 128: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets? | |
c2fabcbf RS |
225 | |
226 | Mail and News | |
227 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
228 | 129: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups? |
229 | 130: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail? | |
230 | 131: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail? | |
231 | 132: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message? | |
232 | 133: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder? | |
233 | 134: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail? | |
234 | 135: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format? | |
235 | 136: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader? | |
236 | 137: How do I read news under Emacs? | |
237 | 138: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP? | |
238 | 139: How do I view text with embedded underlining (e.g., ClariNews)? | |
239 | 140: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus? | |
240 | 141: Why does Gnus put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column? | |
241 | 142: How do I make Gnus start up faster? | |
242 | 143: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus? | |
243 | 144: Why can't I kill in Gnus on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line? | |
244 | 145: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections? | |
245 | 146: Why is catch up slow in Gnus? | |
246 | 147: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting? | |
247 | 148: Why don't my news postings in Gnus get past the local machine? | |
248 | 149: Why doesn't Gnus generate the `Lines:' header? | |
249 | 150: How do I kill all articles in Gnus but those matching a pattern? | |
250 | ||
251 | ------------------------------------------------------------ | |
252 | ||
253 | If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x | |
254 | $" to get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look | |
255 | at the text of the answers, just type "C-x $". | |
256 | ||
257 | To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a | |
258 | C-r if that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search. | |
259 | ||
260 | Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22, or use | |
261 | anonymous FTP to the-tech.mit.edu. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
262 | |
263 | Notation Used in FAQ | |
264 | ||
265 | Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the | |
266 | later answers. | |
e82f5d65 | 267 | |
c2fabcbf | 268 | 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.? |
e82f5d65 RS |
269 | |
270 | C-x means press the `x' key while holding down the Control key. M-x | |
271 | means press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key. M-C-x means | |
272 | press the `x' key while holding down both the Control key and the Meta | |
273 | key. C-M-a is a synonym for M-C-a. RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, and TAB | |
274 | respectively refer to pressing the Return, Linefeed (aka Newline), | |
275 | Delete, Escape, and Tab keys and are equivalent to C-m, C-j, C-?, C-[, | |
276 | and C-i. SPC means press the Space bar. | |
277 | ||
278 | Key sequences longer than one key (and some single-key sequences) are | |
279 | inside double quotes or on lines by themselves. Any real spaces in such | |
280 | a key sequence should be ignored; only SPC really means press the space | |
281 | key. | |
282 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
283 | The ASCII code sent by C-x (except for C-?) is the value that would be |
284 | sent by pressing just `x' minus 96 (or 64 for uppercase `X') and will be | |
285 | from 0 to 31. The ASCII code sent by M-x is the sum of 128 and the ASCII | |
286 | code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the | |
287 | Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
288 | |
289 | For further information, see `Characters' and `Keys' in the on-line | |
290 | manual. | |
291 | ||
292 | NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a | |
c2fabcbf RS |
293 | "control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very |
294 | few keyboards does Control-? generate ASCII code 127. | |
e82f5d65 | 295 | |
c2fabcbf | 296 | 2: What does "M-x command" mean? |
e82f5d65 | 297 | |
468a4755 JB |
298 | "M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then |
299 | type RET. | |
e82f5d65 | 300 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
301 | M-x (by default) invokes the command `execute-extended-command'. This |
302 | command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the | |
303 | command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type | |
e82f5d65 RS |
304 | TAB and SPC for completion, "?" for a list of possibilities, and M-p and |
305 | M-n to see previous commands entered. An Emacs "command" is any | |
306 | "interactive" Emacs function. | |
307 | ||
468a4755 | 308 | NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to |
c2fabcbf | 309 | invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good |
468a4755 | 310 | candidate for this. |
e82f5d65 RS |
311 | |
312 | To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 51. | |
313 | ||
c2fabcbf | 314 | 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual? |
e82f5d65 RS |
315 | |
316 | When we refer you to topic XXX in the on-line manual, you can read this | |
c2fabcbf | 317 | manual node inside Emacs (assuming nothing is broken) by typing this: |
e82f5d65 | 318 | |
c2fabcbf | 319 | C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET |
e82f5d65 RS |
320 | |
321 | This invokes Info, the GNU hypertext documentation browser. If you don't | |
322 | already know how to use Info, type "?" from within Info. | |
323 | ||
324 | If we refer to topic XXX:YYY, type this: | |
325 | ||
c2fabcbf | 326 | C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET m YYY RET |
e82f5d65 | 327 | |
c2fabcbf | 328 | WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files, |
e82f5d65 RS |
329 | or may have installed them improperly. In this case you should complain. |
330 | ||
c2fabcbf | 331 | 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el? |
e82f5d65 | 332 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
333 | These are files that come with GNU Emacs. The GNU Emacs distribution is |
334 | divided into subdirectories; the important ones are `etc', `lisp', and | |
335 | `src'. | |
e82f5d65 | 336 | |
468a4755 | 337 | If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system, |
e82f5d65 | 338 | start Emacs, then type "C-h v data-directory RET". The directory name |
c2fabcbf RS |
339 | displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed `etc' |
340 | directory. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
341 | |
342 | Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail; see | |
c2fabcbf | 343 | question 20. All are available in the source distribution. |
e82f5d65 RS |
344 | |
345 | WARNING: Your system administrator may have removed the src directory and | |
346 | many files from the etc directory. | |
347 | ||
c2fabcbf | 348 | 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL? |
e82f5d65 | 349 | |
468a4755 JB |
350 | FSF == Free Software Foundation |
351 | LPF == League for Programming Freedom | |
352 | OSF == Open Software Foundation | |
353 | GNU == GNU's Not Unix | |
cecdf47e | 354 | RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman |
468a4755 | 355 | FTP == File Transfer Protocol |
468a4755 | 356 | GPL == GNU General Public Licence |
e82f5d65 | 357 | |
cecdf47e JB |
358 | NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes |
359 | look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high | |
e82f5d65 RS |
360 | quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a consortium of |
361 | computer vendors which develops commercial software for Unix systems. | |
362 | ||
cecdf47e | 363 | NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers |
e82f5d65 RS |
364 | to "freedom," not "zero dollars." Anyone can charge any price for |
365 | GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the | |
366 | freedom enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always | |
367 | get the software for less money from someone else, because everyone has | |
368 | the right to resell or give away GPL-covered software. | |
468a4755 JB |
369 | |
370 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
371 | General Questions |
372 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
373 | 6: What is the LPF? |
374 | ||
375 | The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and | |
376 | look-and-feel copyrights. To get more information, feel free to contact | |
377 | the LPF via e-mail or otherwise. You may also contact Joe Wells | |
378 | <jbw@cs.bu.edu>; he will be happy to talk with you about the LPF. | |
379 | ||
380 | You can find more information about the LPF in the file etc/LPF. More | |
381 | papers describing the LPF's views are available on the Internet and also | |
c2fabcbf | 382 | from the LPF: |
e82f5d65 | 383 | |
c2fabcbf | 384 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 | 385 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/lpf/ |
c2fabcbf RS |
386 | /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/lpf/ |
387 | Anonymous UUCP: | |
388 | osu-cis!~/lpf/* | |
e82f5d65 | 389 | |
c2fabcbf | 390 | 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft? |
e82f5d65 RS |
391 | |
392 | The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public Licence (copyleft) will | |
393 | only be known if and when a judge rules on its validity and scope. There | |
394 | has never been a copyright infringement case involving the GPL to set any | |
395 | precedents. Please take any discussion regarding this issue to the | |
396 | newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to hold the extensive flame | |
397 | wars on the subject. | |
398 | ||
c2fabcbf | 399 | RMS writes: |
e82f5d65 RS |
400 | |
401 | The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the | |
402 | spirit, which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work | |
403 | pertaining to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that | |
404 | all users have the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs. | |
405 | To make sure everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you | |
406 | distribute any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the | |
407 | recipients the same freedom that you enjoyed. | |
408 | ||
c2fabcbf | 409 | 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug, |
e82f5d65 RS |
410 | comp.emacs, etc.? |
411 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
412 | The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list. |
413 | (See question 20 on how to get a copy.) For those which are gatewayed | |
414 | with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the mailing list | |
415 | address. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
416 | |
417 | comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This includes | |
418 | GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE, MicroEmacs, | |
419 | Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, and Epsilon.. | |
420 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
421 | Many people post GNU Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't |
422 | receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for | |
423 | and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have | |
424 | to decide for yourself. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
425 | |
426 | Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on | |
427 | any of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was | |
428 | created to hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "non-free" | |
429 | software includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify | |
430 | the source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the | |
431 | gnu.* groups from the `Newsgroups:' line when posting a followup that | |
432 | recommends such software. | |
433 | ||
c2fabcbf | 434 | gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug |
e82f5d65 RS |
435 | reports to this newsgroup (see question 10). |
436 | ||
c2fabcbf | 437 | 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups? |
e82f5d65 | 438 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
439 | The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many |
440 | years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The | |
441 | archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual | |
e82f5d65 RS |
442 | postings from, but pretty much everything is there. The archive is |
443 | available via anonymous ftp at | |
444 | ||
445 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/ | |
446 | ||
c2fabcbf | 447 | 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs? |
e82f5d65 | 448 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
449 | The correct way to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to |
450 | bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Anything sent here also appears in the | |
451 | newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit | |
452 | the bug report. This way a reliable return address is available so you | |
453 | can be contacted for further details. | |
e82f5d65 | 454 | |
c2fabcbf | 455 | RMS explains: |
e82f5d65 | 456 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
457 | Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting |
458 | on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an | |
459 | unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and | |
460 | have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much | |
461 | smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have | |
462 | expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others. | |
e82f5d65 | 463 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
464 | However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to |
465 | gnu.emacs.help: | |
e82f5d65 RS |
466 | |
467 | If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix, | |
468 | then after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on | |
c2fabcbf | 469 | gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you. |
e82f5d65 | 470 | |
c2fabcbf | 471 | If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell: |
e82f5d65 | 472 | |
c2fabcbf | 473 | ... if Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors |
e82f5d65 RS |
474 | while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that |
475 | is a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it | |
476 | does, that is a bug. | |
477 | ||
c2fabcbf | 478 | 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list? |
e82f5d65 RS |
479 | |
480 | If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named `XXX', you might be able to | |
481 | unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address | |
c2fabcbf | 482 | `XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu'. However, this will not work if you are |
eb8c3be9 | 483 | not listed on the main mailing list, but instead receive the mail from a |
c2fabcbf | 484 | distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which |
e82f5d65 RS |
485 | distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the `Received:' headers on |
486 | the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the `EXPN' or | |
c2fabcbf RS |
487 | `VRFY' sendmail commands through `telnet <site-address> smtp'. Ask your |
488 | postmaster for help. | |
e82f5d65 | 489 | |
c2fabcbf | 490 | 12: What is the current address of the FSF? |
e82f5d65 | 491 | |
c2fabcbf | 492 | E-mail address: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu |
260ba202 | 493 | Phone number: (617) 542-5942 |
c2fabcbf RS |
494 | Postal address: |
495 | Free Software Foundation, Inc. | |
260ba202 KH |
496 | 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 |
497 | Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
498 | |
499 | For details on how to order, see the file etc/ORDERS. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
500 | |
501 | ||
502 | On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help | |
468a4755 | 503 | |
c2fabcbf | 504 | 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing? |
e82f5d65 RS |
505 | |
506 | Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is how | |
507 | to enter the help system. | |
508 | ||
509 | WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL | |
510 | to deal with local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to | |
511 | invoke help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system, | |
512 | type "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a | |
513 | comma-separated list of key sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last | |
514 | character in each key sequence listed. Each of the resulting key | |
515 | sequences invokes help. | |
516 | ||
517 | NOTE: Emacs help works best if it is invoked by a single key whose value | |
518 | should be stored in the variable help-char. Andrew Arensburger | |
519 | <arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote a patch that allows the help facility | |
520 | to work properly when invoked by multiple character sequences. | |
521 | ||
c2fabcbf | 522 | 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs? |
e82f5d65 | 523 | |
468a4755 | 524 | There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs. |
e82f5d65 RS |
525 | |
526 | * The complete text of the Emacs manual is available on-line via the Info | |
c2fabcbf | 527 | hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info. |
e82f5d65 | 528 | |
c2fabcbf | 529 | * You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15. |
e82f5d65 RS |
530 | |
531 | * You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to | |
532 | invoke them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or | |
533 | you can print your own from the etc/refcard.tex or etc/refcard.ps files | |
534 | in the Emacs distribution. | |
535 | ||
c2fabcbf | 536 | * You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word |
e82f5d65 RS |
537 | (actually which match a regular expression) using "C-h a" (M-x |
538 | command-apropos). | |
539 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
540 | * You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a |
541 | certain word using M-x apropos. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
542 | |
543 | * There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and | |
544 | information. To get a list of these commands, type "C-h C-h C-h". | |
545 | ||
c2fabcbf | 546 | 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual? |
e82f5d65 RS |
547 | |
548 | You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF. For | |
549 | details see the file etc/ORDERS. | |
550 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
551 | The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the `man' directory of |
552 | the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this | |
e82f5d65 RS |
553 | 420 page manual yourself (see question 18). |
554 | ||
555 | If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX, | |
556 | you can get a PostScript version via anonymous FTP: | |
557 | ||
558 | /ftp.cs.ubc.ca:pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-19.21.ps.gz | |
559 | ||
560 | This site requests that you please CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE | |
561 | EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME (Pacific time zone, GMT-8). A DVI | |
c2fabcbf | 562 | version is also available via FTP: |
e82f5d65 RS |
563 | |
564 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.gz | |
565 | ||
566 | and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list). | |
567 | ||
568 | A WWW version of the Emacs manual is available on the World-Wide Web at | |
569 | URL | |
570 | ||
571 | http://asis01.cern.ch/infohtml/emacs/emacs.html | |
572 | ||
573 | See also question 14 for how to view the manual on-line. | |
574 | ||
c2fabcbf | 575 | 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp? |
e82f5d65 | 576 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
577 | Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a |
578 | function, "C-h v" for a variable. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
579 | |
580 | For more information, obtain the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. | |
581 | Details on ordering it from FSF are in file etc/ORDERS. | |
582 | ||
583 | For on-line use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the | |
584 | Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP at | |
585 | ||
586 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-19-2.3.tar.gz | |
587 | ||
588 | and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list). | |
589 | ||
590 | You can also create the Info files from the Texinfo source. See question | |
591 | 17 for details on how to install these files on-line. | |
592 | ||
593 | A WWW version of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is available at | |
594 | ||
595 | http://www.cs.indiana.edu/usr/local/www/elisp/lispref/elisp_toc.html | |
596 | ||
597 | An introduction to Emacs Lisp is available at | |
598 | ||
599 | http://www.cs.indiana.edu/usr/local/www/elisp/elisp-intro.html | |
600 | ||
601 | Of course, you can also print this 760-page manual yourself. For | |
602 | instructions on how to do this, see question 18. | |
603 | ||
c2fabcbf | 604 | 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation? |
e82f5d65 RS |
605 | |
606 | First, you must turn the Texinfo files into Info files. You may do this | |
607 | within Emacs, using "M-x texinfo-format-buffer", or with the standalone | |
608 | `makeinfo' program, available as part of the latest Texinfo package via | |
609 | anonymous ftp from: | |
610 | ||
611 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-3.1.tar.gz | |
612 | ||
613 | and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list). | |
614 | ||
cecdf47e | 615 | For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which |
e82f5d65 RS |
616 | comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so |
617 | you can read it on-line. | |
618 | ||
619 | Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor makeinfo installs the resulting Info | |
620 | files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files: | |
621 | ||
c2fabcbf | 622 | 1. Move the files to the `info' directory in the installed Emacs |
e82f5d65 RS |
623 | distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that is. |
624 | ||
cecdf47e JB |
625 | 2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a |
626 | line for the top level node in the Info package that you are | |
e82f5d65 RS |
627 | installing. Follow the examples already in this file. The format is: |
628 | ||
cecdf47e | 629 | * Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic. |
e82f5d65 | 630 | |
cecdf47e | 631 | If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary |
c2fabcbf | 632 | privileges, you have several options: |
e82f5d65 | 633 | |
c2fabcbf | 634 | * Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You |
cecdf47e JB |
635 | can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing |
636 | "g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This | |
c2fabcbf RS |
637 | goes to the node named `Top' in that file. For example, to view a Info |
638 | file named `XXX' in your home directory, you can type this: | |
e82f5d65 | 639 | |
cecdf47e | 640 | C-h i g (~/XXX) RET |
e82f5d65 | 641 | |
c2fabcbf | 642 | * You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the |
e82f5d65 RS |
643 | Info directory is by adding its pathname to the value of the variable |
644 | Info-default-directory-list. For example, to use a private Info | |
645 | directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info', | |
646 | you could put this in your .emacs file: | |
647 | ||
648 | (setq Info-default-directory-list | |
649 | (cons "~/Info" Info-default-directory-list)) | |
650 | ||
651 | You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory which | |
652 | has everything the system dir file has in it, except it should list | |
653 | only entries for Info files in that directory. You might not need it | |
654 | if all files in this directory were referenced by other `dir' files. | |
655 | The node lists from all dir files in Info-default-directory-list are | |
656 | merged by the Info system. | |
657 | ||
c2fabcbf | 658 | 18: How do I print a Texinfo file? |
e82f5d65 | 659 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
660 | NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still |
661 | have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print. | |
e82f5d65 | 662 | |
cecdf47e | 663 | 1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this: |
e82f5d65 | 664 | |
cecdf47e | 665 | \input texinfo |
e82f5d65 | 666 | |
c2fabcbf | 667 | You may need to alter `texinfo' to the full pathname of the |
cecdf47e JB |
668 | texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy |
669 | or link it into the current directory). | |
e82f5d65 | 670 | |
cecdf47e | 671 | 2. tex XXX.texinfo |
e82f5d65 | 672 | |
cecdf47e | 673 | 3. texindex XXX.?? |
e82f5d65 | 674 | |
c2fabcbf | 675 | The `texindex' program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c. |
e82f5d65 | 676 | |
cecdf47e | 677 | 4. tex XXX.texinfo |
e82f5d65 RS |
678 | |
679 | 5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files at | |
680 | your site. | |
681 | ||
cecdf47e | 682 | To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package |
c2fabcbf | 683 | mentioned in question 17. |
e82f5d65 | 684 | |
c2fabcbf | 685 | 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs? |
e82f5d65 RS |
686 | |
687 | Yes, the `info', `xinfo', `tkinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. Info | |
688 | uses curses, xinfo uses standard X11 libraries, tkinfo uses Tk/Tcl and | |
689 | ivinfo uses InterViews. You can get Info as part of the latest Texinfo | |
690 | package (see question 17). xinfo is available separately: | |
691 | ||
692 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz | |
693 | ||
694 | and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list). | |
695 | ||
c2fabcbf | 696 | ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc archive or from Tom Horsley |
e82f5d65 RS |
697 | <tom@ssd.csd.harris.com>. tkinfo is available by anonymous ftp from: |
698 | ||
699 | /ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu:pub/misc/tkinfo-0.6.tar.Z | |
700 | /ftp.aud.alcatel.com:tcl/code/tkinfo-0.6.tar.gz | |
701 | ||
702 | For ivinfo, you need Stanford's InterViews C++ X library, available via | |
703 | anonymous ftp from interviews.stanford.edu. (A FAQ on InterViews is | |
704 | available at that site in pub/FAQ.) | |
705 | ||
706 | 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs? | |
707 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
708 | This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of |
709 | informational files about GNU Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU | |
710 | project are available for you to read. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
711 | |
712 | The following files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs | |
713 | distribution, and also the latest versions are available individually via | |
714 | anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/GNUinfo/): | |
715 | ||
716 | APPLE -- Why the FSF doesn't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers | |
468a4755 JB |
717 | DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information, |
718 | including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form" | |
719 | FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP | |
720 | GNU -- The GNU Manifesto | |
721 | INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain | |
e82f5d65 | 722 | UNIX-compatible software system with BYTE editors |
468a4755 JB |
723 | MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems |
724 | MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists | |
725 | SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory | |
c2fabcbf | 726 | SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs" |
e82f5d65 | 727 | |
c2fabcbf | 728 | These files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs |
468a4755 | 729 | distribution: |
e82f5d65 | 730 | |
468a4755 | 731 | COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License |
e82f5d65 | 732 | NEWS -- GNU Emacs news, a history of user-visible changes |
cecdf47e JB |
733 | LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom |
734 | FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it) | |
e82f5d65 RS |
735 | |
736 | These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/): | |
737 | ||
cecdf47e JB |
738 | tasks -- GNU Task List |
739 | standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards | |
e82f5d65 | 740 | |
468a4755 | 741 | In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF |
e82f5d65 RS |
742 | via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source first |
743 | (See question 80 for a list). | |
744 | ||
cecdf47e | 745 | These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail: |
e82f5d65 RS |
746 | |
747 | * GNU's Bulletin, January 1994 | |
748 | GNU's Who | |
749 | GNU's Bulletin | |
750 | What Is the Free Software Foundation? | |
751 | What Is Copyleft? | |
752 | Donations Translate Into Free Software | |
753 | Cygnus Matches Donations! | |
754 | GNUs Flashes | |
755 | What Is the LPF? | |
756 | News from the LPF | |
757 | Free Software Support | |
758 | Project GNU Wish List | |
759 | Towards a New Strategy of OS Design | |
760 | Part 1: A More Usable Approach to OS Design | |
761 | Part 2: A Look at Some of the Hurd's Beasts | |
762 | Second Annual GNU Seminar in Japan | |
763 | GNU and other Free Software in Japan | |
764 | Freely Available Texts | |
765 | OCEAN Integrated-Circuit Design System | |
766 | Hundred Acre Consulting Expands | |
767 | Project GNU Status Report | |
768 | GNU Documentation | |
769 | GNU Software Available Now | |
770 | Source Code CD-ROM | |
771 | Compiler Tools Binaries CD-ROM | |
772 | Tape & CD-ROM Subscription Service | |
773 | How to Get GNU Software | |
774 | The Deluxe Distribution | |
775 | MS-DOS Distribution | |
776 | Free Software for Microcomputers | |
777 | FSF T-shirt | |
778 | Thank GNUs | |
779 | Free Software Foundation Order Form | |
cecdf47e JB |
780 | * Legal issues about contributing code to GNU |
781 | * GNU Project Status Report | |
e82f5d65 RS |
782 | |
783 | A collection of past GNU's Bulletins is available via anonymous FTP from: | |
784 | ||
c2fabcbf | 785 | /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/Bulletins/ |
cecdf47e | 786 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
787 | The latest bulletin is available on the World-Wide Web at URL: |
788 | ||
789 | http://info.desy.de/gnu/www/gnu_bulletin_9401/gnu_bulletin_9401_toc.html | |
790 | ||
c2fabcbf | 791 | 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs? |
e82f5d65 | 792 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
793 | Look in etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who will sell |
794 | you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the SERVICE file is | |
795 | available on prep.ai.mit.edu (also see question 20). | |
e82f5d65 RS |
796 | |
797 | You might also try the help-gnu-emacs mailing list, which is also known | |
798 | as the gnu.emacs.help newsgroup, although many installation questions can | |
799 | easily be answered by looking at the PROBLEMS file (in the top-level | |
800 | directory when you unpack the Emacs source). | |
801 | ||
c2fabcbf | 802 | 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)? |
e82f5d65 | 803 | |
c2fabcbf | 804 | The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways: |
e82f5d65 | 805 | |
c2fabcbf | 806 | * Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your |
e82f5d65 RS |
807 | news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups. |
808 | Every news reader should allow you to read any news article that is | |
809 | still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before. You | |
810 | may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover how | |
811 | to do this. In `rn', this command will do this for you at the article | |
812 | selection level: | |
813 | ||
c2fabcbf | 814 | ?GNU Emacs FAQ?rc:m |
e82f5d65 RS |
815 | |
816 | In Gnus, you should type "C-u c-x c-s" from the *Summary* buffer or | |
817 | "C-u SPC" from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a | |
818 | newsgroup. | |
819 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
820 | If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool, |
821 | it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news | |
e82f5d65 RS |
822 | administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before for |
823 | a while. | |
824 | ||
c2fabcbf | 825 | * Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP |
e82f5d65 RS |
826 | from the-tech.mit.edu, in ~ftp/pub/GNU-Emacs/. |
827 | ||
c2fabcbf | 828 | * In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest |
e82f5d65 RS |
829 | available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of |
830 | the GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. | |
831 | ||
832 | * Via the World-Wide Web. Point your favorite Web browser (Mosaic, Lynx, | |
833 | w3-mode) to one of the following URLs: | |
834 | ||
835 | http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/top.html | |
836 | http://scwww.ucs.indiana.edu/FAQ/Emacs/ | |
c2fabcbf | 837 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
838 | * If all goes well, this FAQ should also be available via anonymous ftp |
839 | and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu, the main repository for FAQs and other | |
840 | items posted to news.answers. However, we are omitting explicit | |
841 | directions on how to retrieve the FAQ from rtfm.mit.edu, since it's | |
842 | possible that it won't end up there right away. (We're new at this | |
843 | FAQ-posting business.) Instructions on how to retrieve the FAQ from | |
844 | rtfm.mit.edu should be in the next version of the FAQ. | |
845 | ||
846 | * As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to | |
847 | gnu-emacs-faq-maintainers@bigbird.bu.edu. Don't do this unless you | |
848 | have made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the | |
849 | methods listed above. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
850 | |
851 | Status of Emacs | |
852 | ||
853 | 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from? | |
e82f5d65 | 854 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
855 | Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked |
856 | the name `Emacs' because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at | |
e82f5d65 RS |
857 | the time." The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by |
858 | RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector (originally Tape | |
859 | Editor and COrrector)) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended | |
860 | TECO with a "real-time" full screen mode with active keys. Emacs was | |
861 | started by Guy Steele <gls@think.com> as a project to unify the many | |
862 | divergent TECO command sets and key bindings at MIT. | |
863 | ||
864 | Many people have said that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See | |
865 | alt.lang.teco if you are interested. Someone has written a TECO | |
866 | implementation in Emacs Lisp; it would be an interesting project to run | |
c2fabcbf | 867 | the original TECO Emacs inside of GNU Emacs. |
c2fabcbf | 868 | |
e82f5d65 | 869 | 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs? |
c2fabcbf | 870 | |
e82f5d65 | 871 | GNU Emacs 19.27 is the current version as of 6 September, 1994. |
c2fabcbf | 872 | |
e82f5d65 | 873 | 25: What is different about GNU Emacs 19? |
c2fabcbf | 874 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
875 | To find out what has changed in recent versions, type C-h n (M-x |
876 | view-emacs-news). The oldest changes are at the bottom of the file, so | |
877 | you might want to read it starting there, rather than at the top. | |
c2fabcbf | 878 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
879 | The most obvious changes have to do with the user interface -- GNU Emacs |
880 | 19 is fully X-aware, and provides pull-down menus and scroll bars. Emacs | |
881 | 19 also supports fonts and colors, including context-specific | |
882 | highlighting of source code and other types of buffers. | |
c2fabcbf | 883 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
884 | Other changes include a line number mode, which displays the current line |
885 | number in the mode line, and default bindings for arrow and paging keys | |
886 | that work. | |
c2fabcbf | 887 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
888 | Lower-level changes include a smarter memory allocation scheme (Emacs now |
889 | returns memory to the operating system when you kill buffers), a better | |
890 | byte-compiler, and a source-level Emacs Lisp debugger. | |
c2fabcbf | 891 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
892 | There are also a number of new Lisp packages, ranging from dunnet (an |
893 | Adventure-like program) to mldrag (allows you to drag the mode line up | |
894 | and down with the mouse buttons) to gud (Grand Unified Debugger mode, for | |
895 | many flavors of debuggers). A number of popular Lisp packages, such as | |
896 | SuperCite and the calendar/diary, are also included. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
897 | |
898 | Common Things People Want To Do | |
899 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
900 | 26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly? |
901 | ||
c2fabcbf | 902 | See `Init File' in the on-line manual. |
e82f5d65 RS |
903 | |
904 | WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files, | |
905 | because it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send | |
906 | questions to help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as | |
907 | documented. :-) | |
908 | ||
909 | 27: How do I debug a .emacs file? | |
910 | ||
911 | First start Emacs with the `-debug-init' command-line option. This | |
912 | option enables the Emacs Lisp debugger before evaluating your .emacs | |
913 | file, and places you in the debugger if something goes wrong. The top | |
914 | line in the trace-back buffer will be the error message, and the second | |
915 | or third line of that buffer will display the Lisp code from your .emacs | |
916 | that caused the problem. | |
917 | ||
918 | You can also evaluate an individual function or argument to a function in | |
919 | your .emacs file by moving the cursor to the end of the function or | |
920 | argument and typing "C-x C-e" (M-x eval-last-sexp). | |
921 | ||
922 | Use "C-h v" (M-x describe-variable) to check the value of variables which | |
923 | you are trying to set or use. | |
924 | ||
925 | 28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number? | |
926 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
927 | To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x |
928 | what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the | |
929 | current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)". | |
e82f5d65 RS |
930 | |
931 | If you use these commands often, you might want to bind them to a key. | |
932 | See question 104 for instructions on how to do that. | |
933 | ||
934 | Typing "C-x l" (or M-x count-lines-page) will also tell you what line you | |
935 | are on, provided the buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l | |
936 | characters. In that case, it will only tell you what line of the current | |
937 | "page" you are on. | |
938 | ||
939 | To have Emacs automatically display the current line number of the point | |
940 | in the mode line, do "M-x line-number-mode". You can also put the form | |
941 | ||
942 | (setq line-number-mode t) | |
943 | ||
944 | in your .emacs file to achieve this whenever you start Emacs. Note that | |
945 | Emacs will not display the line number if the buffer is larger than the | |
946 | value of the variable line-number-display-limit. | |
947 | ||
c2fabcbf | 948 | None of the vi emulation modes provide the `set number' capability of vi |
e82f5d65 RS |
949 | (as far as we know). |
950 | ||
951 | 29: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX? | |
952 | ||
c2fabcbf | 953 | Put this in your .emacs file: |
e82f5d65 | 954 | |
c2fabcbf | 955 | (condition-case () |
e82f5d65 | 956 | (quietly-read-abbrev-file) |
c2fabcbf | 957 | (file-error nil)) |
e82f5d65 RS |
958 | |
959 | (add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook | |
960 | (function | |
961 | (lambda () | |
962 | (setq abbrev-mode t)))) | |
963 | ||
964 | 30: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default? | |
965 | ||
966 | To turn on auto-fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x | |
c2fabcbf RS |
967 | auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in, for example, Text |
968 | mode, do this: | |
e82f5d65 RS |
969 | |
970 | (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill) | |
971 | ||
972 | If you want auto-fill mode on in all major modes, do this: | |
973 | ||
c2fabcbf | 974 | (setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill) |
e82f5d65 RS |
975 | |
976 | 31: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files? | |
977 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
978 | If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension |
979 | `.YYY', this will do it for you: | |
e82f5d65 | 980 | |
c2fabcbf | 981 | (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist)) |
e82f5d65 | 982 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
983 | Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to |
984 | edit in XXX mode: | |
e82f5d65 | 985 | |
c2fabcbf | 986 | -*-XXX-*- |
e82f5d65 RS |
987 | |
988 | Emacs 19 also includes a new variable, interpreter-mode-alist, that | |
989 | specifies which mode to use when loading a shell script. (Emacs | |
990 | determines which interpreter you're using by examining the first line of | |
991 | the file.) This feature only applies when the file name doesn't indicate | |
992 | which mode to use. Use "C-h v" (or M-x describe-variable) to learn more | |
993 | about this variable. | |
994 | ||
995 | 32: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control) | |
996 | characters? | |
997 | ||
c2fabcbf | 998 | To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for |
e82f5d65 RS |
999 | example, `\237', you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value |
1000 | of search-quote-char is 17 (i.e., C-q).) Searching for ALL unprintable | |
1001 | characters is best done with a "regexp" search. The easiest regexp to | |
1002 | use for the unprintable chars is the complement of the regexp for the | |
c2fabcbf | 1003 | printable chars. |
e82f5d65 | 1004 | |
c2fabcbf | 1005 | Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~] |
e82f5d65 | 1006 | |
c2fabcbf | 1007 | Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~] |
e82f5d65 | 1008 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1009 | To type some of these special characters in an interactive argument to |
1010 | isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t', | |
1011 | `\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So, | |
1012 | to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward: | |
e82f5d65 | 1013 | |
c2fabcbf | 1014 | M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET |
e82f5d65 | 1015 | |
c2fabcbf | 1016 | Using isearch-forward-regexp: |
e82f5d65 | 1017 | |
c2fabcbf | 1018 | M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] |
e82f5d65 RS |
1019 | |
1020 | To delete all unprintable characters, simply use replace-regexp: | |
1021 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1022 | M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET |
e82f5d65 RS |
1023 | |
1024 | Replacing is similar to the above. To replace all unprintable characters | |
1025 | with a colon, use: | |
1026 | ||
1027 | M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET : RET | |
1028 | ||
1029 | NOTE: * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing | |
1030 | something in the minibuffer. | |
1031 | ||
1032 | 33: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs? | |
1033 | ||
1034 | If you are using a windowing system such as X, you can cause the region | |
1035 | to be highlighted when the mark is active by including | |
1036 | ||
1037 | (transient-mark-mode t) | |
1038 | ||
1039 | in your .emacs. There are also the following packages for content- based | |
1040 | highlighting: | |
1041 | ||
1042 | hilit19.el | |
1043 | font-lock.el | |
1044 | ||
1045 | 34: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing? | |
1046 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1047 | For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines |
1048 | whether they are case sensitive: | |
e82f5d65 | 1049 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1050 | (setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive |
1051 | (setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive | |
e82f5d65 | 1052 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1053 | Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether |
1054 | replacements preserve case. | |
e82f5d65 | 1055 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1056 | To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major |
1057 | mode's hook. For example: | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1058 | |
1059 | (add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook | |
c2fabcbf | 1060 | (function |
e82f5d65 RS |
1061 | (lambda () |
1062 | (setq case-fold-search nil)))) | |
1063 | ||
1064 | 35: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me? | |
1065 | ||
1066 | Use auto-fill mode, activated by typing "M-x auto-fill-mode". The | |
1067 | default maximum line width is 70, determined by the variable fill-column. | |
1068 | To learn how to turn this on automatically, see question 30. | |
1069 | ||
1070 | 36: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs? | |
1071 | ||
1072 | Use Ispell. See question 101. | |
1073 | ||
1074 | 37: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents? | |
1075 | ||
1076 | Use Ispell. See question 101. Ispell can handle TeX and *roff | |
1077 | documents. | |
1078 | ||
1079 | 38: How do I change load-path? | |
1080 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1081 | In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add |
1082 | directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this: | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1083 | |
1084 | (setq load-path (cons "/XXX/YYY/" load-path)) | |
1085 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1086 | To do this relative to your home directory: |
e82f5d65 RS |
1087 | |
1088 | (setq load-path (cons "~/YYY/" load-path) | |
1089 | ||
1090 | 39: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window? | |
1091 | ||
cecdf47e JB |
1092 | The `emacsclient' program is for editing a file using an already running |
1093 | Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1094 | request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the |
1095 | request. | |
1096 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1097 | * Setup |
e82f5d65 | 1098 | |
c2fabcbf | 1099 | Emacs must have executed the `server-start' function for emacsclient to |
cecdf47e | 1100 | work. This can be done either by a command line option: |
e82f5d65 | 1101 | |
cecdf47e | 1102 | emacs -f server-start |
e82f5d65 | 1103 | |
cecdf47e | 1104 | or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file: |
e82f5d65 | 1105 | |
cecdf47e | 1106 | (if (some conditions are met) (server-start)) |
e82f5d65 | 1107 | |
cecdf47e JB |
1108 | When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called |
1109 | `server'. `server' creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home | |
1110 | directory named `.emacs_server'. | |
e82f5d65 | 1111 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1112 | To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try |
1113 | setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the | |
1114 | value `emacsclient'. You may have to specify the full pathname of the | |
1115 | emacsclient program instead. Examples: | |
e82f5d65 | 1116 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1117 | # csh commands: |
1118 | setenv EDITOR emacsclient | |
1119 | setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname | |
e82f5d65 | 1120 | |
c2fabcbf | 1121 | # sh command: |
e82f5d65 RS |
1122 | EDITOR=emacsclient ; export EDITOR |
1123 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1124 | * Normal use |
e82f5d65 | 1125 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1126 | When emacsclient is run, it connects to the `.emacs_server' socket and |
1127 | passes its command line options to `server'. When `server' receives | |
cecdf47e JB |
1128 | these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process, |
1129 | which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1130 | numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to |
1131 | switch to the Emacs window by hand. When the user is done editing a | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1132 | file, the user can type "C-x #" (or M-x server-edit) to indicate this. |
1133 | If there is another buffer requested by emacsclient, Emacs will switch | |
1134 | to it; otherwise emacsclient will exit, signaling the calling program | |
1135 | to continue. | |
1136 | ||
1137 | NOTE: `emacsclient' and `server' must be running on machines which | |
1138 | share the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that | |
1139 | emacsclient specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the | |
1140 | Emacs process sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the | |
1141 | time emacsclient is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from | |
1142 | another X window or from a shell window inside Emacs itself. | |
1143 | ||
1144 | There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called `gnuserv' by | |
1145 | Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp | |
1146 | Archive. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across | |
1147 | most network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary | |
1148 | Emacs Lisp forms and also does not require the client program to wait | |
1149 | for completion. It is available via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive: | |
1150 | packages/gnuserv.shar). | |
1151 | ||
1152 | 40: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages? | |
1153 | ||
1154 | The variable compilation-error-regexp-alist helps control how Emacs | |
1155 | parses your compiler output. It is a list of triples of the form: | |
1156 | ||
1157 | (REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX) | |
1158 | ||
1159 | where REGEXP, FILE-IDX and LINE-IDX are strings. To help determine what | |
1160 | the constituent elements should be, load compile.el and then use | |
1161 | ||
1162 | C-h v compilation-error-regexp-alist RET | |
1163 | ||
1164 | to see the current value. A good idea is to look at compile.el itself as | |
1165 | the comments included for this variable are quite useful -- the regular | |
1166 | expressions required for your compiler's output may be very close to one | |
1167 | already provided. Once you have determined the proper regexps, use the | |
1168 | following to inform Emacs of your changes: | |
1169 | ||
1170 | (setq compilation-error-regexp-alist | |
1171 | (cons '(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX) | |
1172 | compilation-error-regexp-alist)) | |
1173 | ||
1174 | 41: How do I indent switch statements like this? | |
1175 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1176 | Many people want to indent their switch statements like this: |
e82f5d65 | 1177 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1178 | f() |
1179 | { | |
1180 | switch(x) { | |
1181 | case A: | |
1182 | x1; | |
1183 | break; | |
1184 | case B: | |
1185 | x2; | |
1186 | break; | |
1187 | default: | |
1188 | x3; | |
1189 | } | |
1190 | } | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1191 | |
1192 | The solution at first appears to be: set c-indent-level to 4 and | |
1193 | c-label-offset to -2. However, this will give you an indentation spacing | |
1194 | of four instead of two. | |
1195 | ||
1196 | The solution is to use cc-mode (available from the Emacs Lisp Archive) | |
1197 | and add the following line: | |
1198 | ||
1199 | (c-set-offset 'case-label '+) | |
1200 | ||
1201 | There appears to be no way to do this with the old c-mode. | |
1202 | ||
1203 | 42: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally? | |
1204 | ||
1205 | Use hscroll.el by Wayne Mesard <wmesard@esd.sgi.com>. | |
1206 | ||
1207 | 43: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting? | |
1208 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1209 | M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode). |
e82f5d65 RS |
1210 | |
1211 | On some workstations, the "Insert" key toggles insert and overwrite | |
1212 | modes. | |
1213 | ||
1214 | 44: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal? | |
1215 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1216 | Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes: |
e82f5d65 RS |
1217 | |
1218 | Tell Emacs to use the `visible bell' instead of the audible bell, and | |
c2fabcbf | 1219 | set the visible bell to nothing. |
e82f5d65 | 1220 | |
c2fabcbf | 1221 | Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable: |
e82f5d65 | 1222 | |
c2fabcbf | 1223 | ... :vb=: ... |
e82f5d65 | 1224 | |
c2fabcbf | 1225 | And evaluate this: |
e82f5d65 | 1226 | |
c2fabcbf | 1227 | (setq visible-bell t) |
e82f5d65 RS |
1228 | |
1229 | 45: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows? | |
1230 | ||
1231 | You can adjust the bell volume and duration for all programs with the | |
1232 | shell command xset. | |
1233 | ||
1234 | Invoking xset without any arguments produces some basic information, | |
1235 | including the following: | |
1236 | ||
1237 | usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ... | |
1238 | To turn bell off: | |
1239 | -b b off b 0 | |
1240 | To set bell volume, pitch and duration: | |
1241 | b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on | |
1242 | ||
1243 | 46: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the | |
1244 | indentation of the previous line? | |
1245 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1246 | One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode). |
e82f5d65 RS |
1247 | |
1248 | If you have auto-fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 30), you can | |
c2fabcbf | 1249 | tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the |
e82f5d65 RS |
1250 | "fill prefix." Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position |
1251 | point after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill | |
1252 | prefix. Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix | |
1253 | at the beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any | |
1254 | fill prefix when refilling the paragraph. | |
1255 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1256 | NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you |
1257 | will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move | |
1258 | to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1259 | available from the Emacs Lisp Archive. Look up `fill' and `indent' in |
1260 | the Lisp Code Directory for guidance. | |
1261 | ||
1262 | 47: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at? | |
1263 | ||
1264 | GNU Emacs 19 comes with paren.el, which (when loaded) will automatically | |
1265 | highlight matching parentheses whenever point (i.e., the cursor) is | |
1266 | located over one. To load paren automatically, include the line | |
1267 | ||
1268 | (require 'paren) | |
1269 | ||
1270 | in your .emacs file. | |
1271 | ||
1272 | Alternatives to paren include: | |
1273 | ||
1274 | * If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can | |
1275 | delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching | |
1276 | parenthesis. | |
1277 | ||
1278 | * M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over one set | |
1279 | of balanced parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You | |
1280 | can train it to skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time | |
1281 | by modifying the syntax table.) | |
1282 | ||
1283 | * Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching | |
1284 | parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a | |
1285 | parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal. | |
1286 | ||
1287 | ;; By an unknown contributor | |
1288 | ||
1289 | (global-set-key "%" 'match-paren) | |
1290 | ||
1291 | (defun match-paren (arg) | |
1292 | "Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %." | |
1293 | (interactive "p") | |
1294 | (cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1)) | |
1295 | ((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1)) | |
1296 | (t (self-insert-command (or arg 1))))) | |
1297 | ||
1298 | 48: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef | |
1299 | commands are handled by the compiler? | |
1300 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1301 | M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.) |
e82f5d65 RS |
1302 | |
1303 | 49: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi? | |
1304 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1305 | (`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.) |
e82f5d65 | 1306 | |
c2fabcbf | 1307 | No, not really. |
e82f5d65 RS |
1308 | |
1309 | You can type "C-x ESC ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands | |
1310 | that used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you | |
1311 | can type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands | |
1312 | you've typed. | |
1313 | ||
1314 | To repeat something on each line, use keyboard macros. (See `Keyboard | |
1315 | Macros' in the on-line manual.) | |
1316 | ||
1317 | 50: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)? | |
1318 | ||
1319 | See Emacs man page, or "Resources X" in the on-line manual. | |
1320 | ||
1321 | You can also use a resource editor, such as editres (for X11R5 and | |
1322 | onwards), to look at the resource names for the menu bar, assuming Emacs | |
1323 | was compiled with the X toolkit. | |
1324 | ||
1325 | 51: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code? | |
1326 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1327 | There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") an Emacs Lisp |
1328 | "form": | |
e82f5d65 | 1329 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1330 | * If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file |
1331 | named `.emacs' in your home directory. | |
e82f5d65 | 1332 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1333 | * You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or |
1334 | C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in | |
1335 | the buffer. | |
e82f5d65 | 1336 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1337 | * In Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before or |
1338 | around point. | |
e82f5d65 | 1339 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1340 | * Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately |
1341 | before point and prints its value in the echo area. | |
e82f5d65 | 1342 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1343 | * Typing M-ESC or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in |
1344 | the minibuffer which will be evaluated. | |
e82f5d65 | 1345 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1346 | * You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in |
1347 | a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function `load' instead.) | |
e82f5d65 | 1348 | |
c2fabcbf | 1349 | These functions are also used for evaluating Lisp forms: |
e82f5d65 | 1350 | |
c2fabcbf | 1351 | load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload |
e82f5d65 RS |
1352 | |
1353 | 52: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length? | |
1354 | ||
1355 | Set the variable default-tab-width. For example, to set tab stops every | |
1356 | 10 characters, insert the following in your .emacs file: | |
1357 | ||
1358 | (setq default-tab-width 10) | |
1359 | ||
1360 | 53: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line? | |
1361 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1362 | Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET". |
e82f5d65 RS |
1363 | |
1364 | To do this only in the region, type "C-x n n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET | |
c2fabcbf | 1365 | > RET C-x w". |
e82f5d65 RS |
1366 | |
1367 | WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n n) is disabled by default | |
1368 | because it can be very confusing (i.e., "Oh no! Where did my file go?"). | |
1369 | ||
1370 | 54: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an | |
1371 | underlined paragraph? | |
1372 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1373 | M-x underline-region. |
e82f5d65 RS |
1374 | |
1375 | 55: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible? | |
1376 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1377 | Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command |
1378 | and then type "M-0 C-x e". | |
e82f5d65 | 1379 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1380 | WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be |
1381 | suppressed. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1382 | |
1383 | 56: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor | |
1384 | should stay in the same column even if the line is too short? | |
1385 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1386 | M-x picture-mode. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...) |
e82f5d65 RS |
1387 | |
1388 | 57: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself? | |
1389 | ||
1390 | "C-z" iconifies Emacs when running in X and suspends Emacs otherwise. | |
1391 | See `Misc X' in the on-line manual. | |
1392 | ||
1393 | 58: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs? | |
1394 | ||
1395 | See `Regexps' in the on-line manual. | |
1396 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1397 | WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators |
1398 | are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\". | |
1399 | Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is | |
1400 | "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated backslashes! | |
e82f5d65 | 1401 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1402 | WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set |
1403 | ([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless | |
1404 | newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1405 | |
1406 | WARNING: The character syntax regexps (e.g., `\sw') are not meaningful | |
1407 | inside character set regexps (e.g., `[aeiou]'). (This is actually | |
1408 | typical for regexp syntax.) | |
1409 | ||
1410 | 59: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file? | |
1411 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1412 | The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which |
1413 | performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1414 | See `Tags:Tags Search' in the on-line manual. |
1415 | ||
1416 | In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace | |
1417 | which will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the | |
1418 | *compilation* buffer (usually done after a `grep'), which is available | |
1419 | via anonymous FTP: | |
1420 | ||
1421 | /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/compile.el.z | |
1422 | /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/global-replace.el.z | |
1423 | /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/query.el.z | |
1424 | ||
1425 | NOTE: These files are compressed using GNU zip ("gzip"); you can get a | |
1426 | copy from gzip from prep and its mirrors (see question 80). | |
1427 | ||
1428 | 60: Where is the documentation for `etags'? | |
1429 | ||
1430 | The `etags' man page should be in the same place as the `emacs' man page. | |
1431 | ||
1432 | Quick command-line switch descriptions are also available. For example, | |
1433 | `etags -H'. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1434 | |
1435 | ||
1436 | Bugs/Problems | |
1437 | ||
e82f5d65 | 1438 | 61: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes? |
83509348 RS |
1439 | [This problem has been solved better in Emacs 19.29 because the buffer |
1440 | size limit is now 16 times as large.] | |
e82f5d65 | 1441 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1442 | Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and |
1443 | 24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can | |
1444 | handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1). | |
e82f5d65 | 1445 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1446 | Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting the following two |
1447 | lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers | |
1448 | and pointers (and thus filesizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes): | |
e82f5d65 | 1449 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1450 | #define VALBITS 26 |
1451 | #define GCTYPEBITS 5 | |
e82f5d65 | 1452 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1453 | WARNING: This method may result in `ILLEGAL DATATYPE' and other random |
1454 | errors on some machines. | |
e82f5d65 | 1455 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1456 | David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> gives an explanation of why |
1457 | Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers: | |
e82f5d65 | 1458 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1459 | Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed |
1460 | language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any | |
1461 | variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must | |
e82f5d65 | 1462 | carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, e.g., |
c2fabcbf RS |
1463 | integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on. |
1464 | Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1465 | bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers |
1466 | (and pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and | |
c2fabcbf | 1467 | pointers. |
e82f5d65 | 1468 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1469 | Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented |
1470 | machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1471 | |
1472 | 62: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my shell buffer? | |
1473 | ||
1474 | Try typing "M-x shell-strip-ctrl-m RET" while in shell-mode to make them | |
1475 | go away. If that doesn't work, you have several options: | |
1476 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1477 | For tcsh, put this in your `.cshrc' (or `.tcshrc') file: |
e82f5d65 | 1478 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1479 | if ($?EMACS) then |
1480 | if ("$EMACS" == t) then | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1481 | if ($?tcsh) unset edit |
1482 | stty nl | |
1483 | endif | |
c2fabcbf | 1484 | endif |
e82f5d65 | 1485 | |
c2fabcbf | 1486 | Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file: |
e82f5d65 | 1487 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1488 | unset edit |
1489 | stty nl | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1490 | |
1491 | Alternatively, use csh in your shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way | |
c2fabcbf | 1492 | is: |
e82f5d65 | 1493 | |
c2fabcbf | 1494 | (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh") |
e82f5d65 | 1495 | |
c2fabcbf | 1496 | and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file: |
e82f5d65 | 1497 | |
c2fabcbf | 1498 | setenv ESHELL /bin/csh |
e82f5d65 | 1499 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1500 | (You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly |
1501 | set for this to take effect.) | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1502 | |
1503 | 63: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'? | |
1504 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1505 | The most likely reason for this message is that the `env' program is not |
e82f5d65 RS |
1506 | properly installed. Compile this program for your architecture, and |
1507 | install it with a+x permission in the architecture-dependent Emacs | |
1508 | program directory. (You can find what this directory is at your site by | |
1509 | inspecting the value of the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v | |
1510 | exec-directory RET".) | |
1511 | ||
1512 | You should also check for other programs named `env' in your path (e.g., | |
1513 | SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). We don't understand why this | |
1514 | can cause a failure and don't know a general solution for working around | |
1515 | the problem in this case. | |
1516 | ||
1517 | The `make clean' command will remove `env' and other vital programs, so | |
1518 | be careful when using it. | |
1519 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1520 | It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started |
e82f5d65 | 1521 | as an X client from an xterm window (i.e., had a controlling tty) but the |
c2fabcbf | 1522 | xterm was later terminated. |
e82f5d65 RS |
1523 | |
1524 | See also PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs | |
1525 | source) for other possible causes of this message. | |
1526 | ||
1527 | 64: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'? | |
1528 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1529 | The termcap entry for terminal type `emacs' is ordinarily put in the |
1530 | TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain | |
e82f5d65 | 1531 | situations (e.g., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for |
c2fabcbf RS |
1532 | `emacs' to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry |
1533 | for `emacs': | |
e82f5d65 | 1534 | |
c2fabcbf | 1535 | emacs:tc=unknown: |
e82f5d65 | 1536 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1537 | To make a terminfo entry for `emacs', use `tic' or `captoinfo'. You need |
1538 | to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy | |
1539 | /usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. | |
e82f5d65 | 1540 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1541 | Having a termcap/terminfo entry will not enable the use of full screen |
1542 | programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead. | |
e82f5d65 | 1543 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1544 | A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to |
1545 | change terminal type `emacs' to type `dumb' or `unknown' in your shell | |
1546 | start up file. `csh' users could put this in their .cshrc files: | |
e82f5d65 | 1547 | |
c2fabcbf | 1548 | if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb |
e82f5d65 RS |
1549 | |
1550 | 65: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping? | |
1551 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1552 | Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is |
1553 | sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1554 | characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character |
1555 | normally invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions, | |
1556 | see question 110. | |
1557 | ||
1558 | 66: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)? | |
1559 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1560 | The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of |
e82f5d65 RS |
1561 | gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is |
1562 | often manifested as a message on startup of `X server not responding. | |
1563 | Check your DISPLAY environment variable.' or a message of `Unknown host' | |
1564 | from open-network-stream. | |
1565 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1566 | On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C |
1567 | library. The version of gethostbyname in the static C library may only | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1568 | look in /etc/hosts and the NIS (YP) maps, while the version in the |
1569 | dynamic C library may be smart enough to check DNS in addition to or | |
1570 | instead of NIS. On a Motorola Delta running System V R3.6, the version | |
1571 | of gethostbyname in the standard library works, but the one that works | |
1572 | with NIS doesn't (the one you get with -linet). Other operating systems | |
1573 | have similar problems. | |
1574 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1575 | Try these options: |
e82f5d65 | 1576 | |
c2fabcbf | 1577 | * Explicitly add the host you want to communicate with to /etc/hosts. |
e82f5d65 | 1578 | |
c2fabcbf | 1579 | * Relink Emacs with this line in src/config.h: |
e82f5d65 | 1580 | |
c2fabcbf | 1581 | #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv |
e82f5d65 | 1582 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1583 | * Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions |
1584 | such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs. | |
e82f5d65 | 1585 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1586 | * If you are actually running NIS, make sure that `ypbind' is properly |
1587 | told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1588 | |
1589 | * Use tcp.el and tcp.c from Gnus. This has the additional advantage that | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1590 | you can use numeric IP addresses instead of names. open-network-stream |
1591 | currently can't handle numeric addresses. Brian Thomson | |
1592 | <thomson@hub.toronto.edu> has a enhancement to open-network-stream to | |
1593 | allow it to handle numeric addresses. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1594 | |
1595 | 67: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'? | |
1596 | ||
1597 | An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the | |
1598 | system-wide lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your | |
1599 | .emacs file, see question 27. | |
1600 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1601 | It may be the case that you may need to load some package first, or use a |
e82f5d65 RS |
1602 | hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case |
1603 | of this is explained in question 106. | |
1604 | ||
1605 | 68: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)? | |
1606 | ||
1607 | As of version 19, Emacs searches for X resources in the files specified | |
1608 | by the XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, and XAPPLRESDIR environment | |
1609 | variables, emulating the functionality provided by programs written using | |
1610 | Xt. | |
1611 | ||
1612 | XFILESEARCHPATH and XUSERFILESEARCHPATH should be a list of file names | |
1613 | separated by colons; XAPPLRESDIR should be a list of directory names | |
1614 | separated by colons. | |
1615 | ||
1616 | Emacs searches for X resources | |
1617 | ||
1618 | + specified on the command line, with the `-xrm RESOURCESTRING' | |
1619 | option, | |
1620 | + then in the value of the XENVIRONMENT environment variable, | |
1621 | - or if that is unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults-HOSTNAME if it | |
1622 | exists | |
1623 | (where HOSTNAME is the hostname of the machine Emacs is running on), | |
1624 | + then in the screen-specific and server-wide resource properties | |
1625 | provided by the server, | |
1626 | - or if those properties are unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults | |
1627 | if it exists, | |
1628 | + then in the files listed in XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, | |
1629 | - or in files named LANG/Emacs in directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR | |
1630 | (where LANG is the value of the LANG environment variable), if | |
1631 | the LANG environment variable is set, | |
1632 | - or in files named Emacs in the directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR | |
1633 | - or in ~/LANG/Emacs (if the LANG environment variable is set), | |
1634 | - or in ~/Emacs, | |
1635 | + then in the files listed in XFILESEARCHPATH. | |
1636 | ||
1637 | 69: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file? | |
1638 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1639 | The usual cause is that the master lock file, `!!!SuperLock!!!' has been |
1640 | left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it. | |
e82f5d65 | 1641 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1642 | Mark Meuer <meuer@geom.umn.edu> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an |
1643 | exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause the | |
1644 | same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS anyway, | |
1645 | the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION undefined. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1646 | |
1647 | 70: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name? | |
1648 | ||
468a4755 | 1649 | When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand |
c2fabcbf | 1650 | a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this |
468a4755 | 1651 | behavior, type "$$" instead. |
c2fabcbf | 1652 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1653 | 71: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory? |
1654 | ||
1655 | Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its | |
1656 | directory. This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to | |
1657 | guess by recognizing `cd' commands. If you type `cd' followed by a | |
1658 | directory name with a variable reference (`cd $HOME/bin') or with a shell | |
1659 | metacharacter (`cd ../lib*'), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the | |
1660 | shell's new current directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements | |
1661 | to shell mode for this problem have been written to handle this problem. | |
1662 | Check the Lisp Code Directory (see question 77). | |
1663 | ||
1664 | You can tell Emacs the shell's current directory with the command "M-x | |
1665 | dirs". | |
1666 | ||
1667 | 72: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs? | |
1668 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1669 | * the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.) |
e82f5d65 RS |
1670 | |
1671 | In his book "The Cuckoo's Egg," Cliff Stoll describes this in chapter | |
1672 | 4. The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid | |
1673 | root. (As of version 19, movemail is in your architecture-specific | |
1674 | directory; type "C-h v directory RET" to see what it is.) Since | |
1675 | `movemail' had not been designed for this situation, a security hole | |
1676 | was created and users could get root privileges. | |
1677 | ||
1678 | `movemail' has since been changed so that even if it is installed | |
1679 | setuid root this security hole will not be a result. | |
1680 | ||
1681 | We have heard unverified reports that the Internet worm took advantage | |
1682 | of this configuration problem. | |
1683 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1684 | * the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.) |
e82f5d65 | 1685 | |
c2fabcbf | 1686 | There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for |
e82f5d65 RS |
1687 | variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text |
1688 | near the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to | |
1689 | have arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1690 | Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this |
1691 | feature. | |
e82f5d65 | 1692 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1693 | If you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value, |
1694 | Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file that | |
1695 | you visit and ask you if you really want them. This variable is not | |
1696 | mentioned in the manual. | |
e82f5d65 | 1697 | |
c2fabcbf | 1698 | It is wise to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs: |
e82f5d65 | 1699 | |
c2fabcbf | 1700 | (setq inhibit-local-variables t) |
e82f5d65 | 1701 | |
c2fabcbf | 1702 | If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in |
e82f5d65 RS |
1703 | lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own |
1704 | .emacs file. | |
1705 | ||
1706 | The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an Rmail user | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1707 | was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that |
1708 | uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1709 | |
1710 | For more information, see `File Variables' in the on-line manual | |
1711 | (which, incidentally, does not describe how to disable the feature). | |
1712 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1713 | * synthetic X events (Yes, a risk, use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.) |
e82f5d65 | 1714 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1715 | Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as |
1716 | though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the | |
1717 | trivial host-based authentication, other users who can open X | |
eb8c3be9 JB |
1718 | connections to your X workstation can make your Emacs process do |
1719 | anything, including run other processes with your privileges. | |
e82f5d65 | 1720 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1721 | The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open |
1722 | X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real | |
1723 | authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the | |
1724 | `xauth' program has any effect, then you are probably using | |
1725 | MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication | |
1726 | method; ask your system administrator. | |
e82f5d65 | 1727 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1728 | If real authentication is not a possibility, you may be satisfied by |
1729 | just allowing hosts access for brief intervals while you start your X | |
1730 | programs, then removing the access. This reduces the risk somewhat by | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1731 | narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but |
1732 | DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1733 | |
1734 | ||
1735 | Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs | |
1736 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
1737 | 73: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs? |
1738 | ||
1739 | First look in the file PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you | |
1740 | unpack the Emacs source) to see if there is already a solution for your | |
1741 | problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't find a | |
1742 | solution, then report your problem via e-mail to | |
1743 | bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help | |
1744 | or e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines, | |
1745 | see question 8. | |
1746 | ||
1747 | 74: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped? | |
1748 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1749 | Don't do that. |
e82f5d65 | 1750 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1751 | This problem has been reported on SGI Indigo machines running Irix 4.0.* |
1752 | and RS/6000 machines. Scott Henry <scotth@hoshi.corp.SGi.COM> posted a | |
1753 | patch that fixes the problem for Irix. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1754 | |
1755 | 75: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail? | |
1756 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1757 | Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library, |
1758 | libX11.a. This may be missing. | |
e82f5d65 | 1759 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1760 | Under OpenWindows, you may need to use `add_services' to add the |
1761 | `OpenWindows Programmers' optional software category from the CD-ROM. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1762 | |
1763 | Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run `update' again to load the X11-PRG | |
1764 | `fileset'. This may be missing even if you specified `all filesets' the | |
1765 | first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load the | |
1766 | `Berkeley Development Option' {???}. | |
1767 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
1768 | If you are building the MIT X11 sources, you may need to modify your |
1769 | `site.cf' file to get static versions of the libraries. (Info from David | |
1770 | Zuhn <zoo@cygnus.com>.) | |
e82f5d65 | 1771 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1772 | Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define |
1773 | CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead. | |
e82f5d65 | 1774 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1775 | To get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's |
1776 | liboldX.a. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
1777 | |
1778 | ||
e82f5d65 | 1779 | Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages |
cecdf47e | 1780 | |
e82f5d65 | 1781 | 76: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)? |
cecdf47e | 1782 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1783 | Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby |
1784 | archive sites and etc/ORDERS for mail orders. If you don't already have | |
1785 | GNU Emacs, see question 20 for how to get these files. | |
cecdf47e | 1786 | |
e82f5d65 | 1787 | The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT: |
c2fabcbf | 1788 | |
e82f5d65 | 1789 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-19.27.tar.gz |
c2fabcbf | 1790 | |
e82f5d65 | 1791 | See question 80 for information on where to get other GNU software. |
c2fabcbf | 1792 | |
e82f5d65 | 1793 | 77: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX? |
c2fabcbf | 1794 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1795 | A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code Directory, is |
1796 | being maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com>. You can search | |
1797 | through this list to learn if someone has written something that fits | |
1798 | your needs. | |
1799 | ||
1800 | This list is file LCD-datafile.Z in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see the next | |
1801 | question for retrieval instructions). The files lispdir.el.Z and | |
1802 | lispdir.doc in the archive contain Lisp code and information to help you | |
1803 | use the list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then | |
1804 | you can use the `M-x lisp-dir-apropos' command to search the listing. | |
1805 | For example, the command `M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET' produces | |
1806 | this output: | |
1807 | ||
1808 | GNU Emacs Lisp Code Directory Apropos -- "ange-ftp" | |
1809 | "~/" refers to archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/ | |
1810 | ||
1811 | ange-ftp (4.18) 15-Jul-1992 | |
1812 | Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> | |
1813 | ~/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z | |
1814 | transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs | |
1815 | auto-save (1.19) 01-May-1992 | |
1816 | Sebastian Kremer, <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de> | |
1817 | ~/misc/auto-save.el.Z | |
1818 | Safer autosaving with support for ange-ftp and /tmp | |
1819 | ftp-quik (1.0) 28-Jul-1993 | |
1820 | Terrence Brannon, <tb06@pl122f.eecs.lehigh.edu> | |
1821 | ~/modes/ftp-quik.el.Z | |
1822 | Quik access to dired'ing of ange-ftp and normal paths | |
1823 | ||
1824 | 78: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs? | |
c2fabcbf | 1825 | |
c2fabcbf | 1826 | First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you |
e82f5d65 RS |
1827 | are looking for (see question 77). Next, check local archives and the |
1828 | Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. If you still | |
1829 | haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for a copy. | |
1830 | ||
1831 | You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP: | |
1832 | ||
1833 | /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/ | |
1834 | /ftp.cs.umn.edu:pub/elisp-archive/ | |
1835 | /calypso-2.oit.unc.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-archive/ | |
1836 | /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/emacs-lisp/ | |
1837 | /gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU/elisp-archive/ | |
1838 | /nic.switch.ch:mirror/elisp-archive/ | |
1839 | /ftp.diku.dk:pub/elisp-archive/ | |
1840 | /quepasa.cs.tu-berlin.de:pub/gnu/elisp/ | |
1841 | /faui43.informatik.uni-erlangen.de:pub/gnu/elisp-archive/ | |
1842 | /ftp.uni-mainz.de:pub/gnu/elisp-archive/ | |
1843 | /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/ | |
1844 | /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/ | |
1845 | ||
1846 | Retrieve and read the file README first. | |
1847 | ||
1848 | NOTE: * The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual | |
1849 | requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If | |
1850 | you cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to | |
1851 | find a friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers. | |
1852 | ||
1853 | * Any files with names ending in `.Z', `.z', or `.gz' are | |
1854 | compressed, so you should use `binary' mode in FTP to retrieve | |
1855 | them. You should also use binary mode whenever you retrieve any | |
1856 | files with names ending in `.elc'. | |
1857 | ||
1858 | 79: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive? | |
1859 | ||
1860 | Guidelines and procedures for submission to the archive can be found in | |
1861 | the file GUIDELINES in the archive directory (see question 78). It | |
1862 | covers documentation, copyrights, packaging, submission, and the Lisp | |
1863 | Code Directory Record. Anonymous FTP uploads are not permitted. | |
1864 | Instead, all submissions are mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu. | |
1865 | The lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will | |
1866 | help you with this. | |
1867 | ||
1868 | 80: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff? | |
1869 | ||
1870 | The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on | |
1871 | prep.ai.mit.edu and is available for anonymous FTP in the pub/gnu | |
1872 | directory. Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information | |
1873 | (see question 20 for retrieval instructions). | |
1874 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1875 | The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area: |
e82f5d65 RS |
1876 | |
1877 | /col.hp.com:mirrors/gnu/ | |
c2fabcbf | 1878 | /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/ |
c2fabcbf | 1879 | /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/ |
e82f5d65 | 1880 | /gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU/ |
c2fabcbf | 1881 | /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/ |
e82f5d65 RS |
1882 | /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/ (available via FTP, NIFTP, FTAM) |
1883 | /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep/ | |
1884 | /wuarchive.wustl.edu:systems/gnu/ | |
1885 | ||
c2fabcbf | 1886 | The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu, |
e82f5d65 RS |
1887 | except that files larger than one megabyte are split into multiple parts. |
1888 | If you have trouble transferring large files, you should try here. A | |
1889 | file normally named `XXX' is split into files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], | |
1890 | and there will be a file named XXX-split/README which contains the list | |
1891 | of parts (especially helpful when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, | |
1892 | and reassembly instructions. | |
1893 | ||
1894 | 81: What is the difference between Emacs and Epoch? | |
1895 | ||
83509348 | 1896 | Epoch was a modified version of GNU Emacs. It was merged |
e82f5d65 | 1897 | into XEmacs (formerly "Lucid Emacs"), and the Epoch redisplay, now |
83509348 RS |
1898 | being totally rewritten, is slated to be merged into Emacs when the |
1899 | rewrite is done. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1900 | |
1901 | 82: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid | |
1902 | Emacs")? | |
1903 | ||
1904 | XEmacs is a modified version of GNU Emacs. | |
1905 | ||
1906 | A comparison between the two versions, written by the XEmacs | |
1907 | maintainers, had been included here. Richard Stallman removed it | |
1908 | from this copy of the FAQ because it was unfair. It was (1) | |
1909 | one-sided, listing only advantages of XEmacs and not advantages of | |
83509348 RS |
1910 | the principal version of Emacs, (2) biased, stating the opinions |
1911 | of the XEmacs maintainers, and (3) out of date, listing as advantages of | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1912 | XEmacs features which in fact both versions have. |
1913 | ||
1914 | 83: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS? | |
1915 | ||
1916 | Recent releases of GNU Emacs 19 should compile right out of the box on | |
1917 | PCs with a 386 or better, running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. You will need the | |
707893ee | 1918 | following to compile it: |
e82f5d65 | 1919 | |
9f083d57 RS |
1920 | Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later. Djgpp v2.0 or later is |
1921 | recommended, since v1.x is being phased out--if you'll have any | |
1922 | djgpp-related problem for which there is no known solution, you | |
1923 | are on your own when you use djgpp v1.x. | |
1924 | ||
1925 | You can get the latest release of either v1.x or v2.0 by | |
1926 | grabbing everything in the following directory (using anonymous | |
1927 | ftp): | |
e82f5d65 | 1928 | |
e3c8df7c | 1929 | ftp.simtel.net:/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp |
e82f5d65 | 1930 | |
9f083d57 RS |
1931 | There are a few directories under djgpp whose names begin with |
1932 | `v1' or `v2'; get the contents of `v2' and `v2gnu' (for djgpp | |
1933 | v2) or `v1' and `v1gnu' (for djgpp v1). | |
e82f5d65 | 1934 | |
707893ee | 1935 | GUnZip and Tar: |
e82f5d65 | 1936 | |
e3c8df7c | 1937 | The easiest way is to use `djtar' which comes with DJGPP v2.x, |
9f083d57 RS |
1938 | because it can unzip .tar.gz archives on-the-fly (so you won't |
1939 | need twice the required disk space while untarring the | |
e3c8df7c | 1940 | archive). You get `djtar' with the `v2/djdev201.zip' file from |
9f083d57 | 1941 | the above FTP server. |
707893ee | 1942 | |
9f083d57 RS |
1943 | Another (slower) version of Tar which unzips automatically is |
1944 | available by anonymous ftp on this site: | |
707893ee | 1945 | |
9f083d57 | 1946 | ftp.kiae.su:msdos/arcers/tar320fp.zip |
707893ee | 1947 | |
9f083d57 | 1948 | Or you can unZip the archive with the DJGPP port of GZip (from |
e3c8df7c | 1949 | the above directory at ftp.simtel.net look for v2/gzp124b.zip), |
9f083d57 RS |
1950 | then unTar it with any of the Tar ports floating around. A |
1951 | DOS version of GNU tar is available via anonymous ftp from | |
707893ee | 1952 | |
9f083d57 | 1953 | ftp.unipg.it:/pub/msdos/aspi/gtar-exe.zip |
707893ee | 1954 | |
9f083d57 RS |
1955 | Note that DOS ports of GNU Tar usually cannot unzip compressed |
1956 | archives. | |
707893ee | 1957 | |
9f083d57 | 1958 | Another version of Tar for DOS can be found at |
707893ee | 1959 | |
9f083d57 | 1960 | ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/unixtools/dos |
707893ee | 1961 | |
9f083d57 RS |
1962 | However, be warned that not all DOS versions of tar work |
1963 | equally well, so you might have to try others if this one gives | |
1964 | you trouble. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1965 | |
1966 | Utilities: chmod, make, mv, sed, rm. | |
1967 | ||
707893ee RS |
1968 | All of these utilities are available via anonymous ftp from |
1969 | the site | |
1970 | ||
e3c8df7c | 1971 | ftp.simtel.net:/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu |
e82f5d65 | 1972 | |
e3c8df7c | 1973 | You should grab the file fil313b.zip (contains chmod.exe, |
707893ee | 1974 | mv.exe, and rm.exe). |
e82f5d65 | 1975 | |
9f083d57 RS |
1976 | A port of GNU Sed is available in the djgpp archives in the |
1977 | above directory on ftp.coast.net. Look for a file named | |
1978 | v2/sed118b.zip or v1/sed118bn.zip. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1979 | |
1980 | The file etc/MSDOS contains some information on the differences between | |
1981 | the Unix and MS-DOS versions of GNU Emacs. | |
1982 | ||
9f083d57 RS |
1983 | MS-DOS systems are notorious in the problems they present when installing |
1984 | programs, due to a great variability in both hardware and software. If | |
1985 | you have any unusual problems compiling or using Emacs, please consult | |
1986 | the latest version of the djgpp FAQ list, available as v2/faqNNNb.zip, | |
1987 | where `NNN' is the version number. For v1, get the file v1/faq102.zip. | |
1988 | ||
e82f5d65 | 1989 | If you would prefer not to compile Emacs by yourself, you can get |
707893ee RS |
1990 | binaries for Emacs via anonymous ftp from many sites; use your Archie |
1991 | client to search for them. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
1992 | |
1993 | You might also be interested in Demacs, which runs under MS-DOS (*not* | |
1994 | Microsoft Windows; see question 84) on 386- and 486-based PCs. Demacs is | |
1995 | a port of Nemacs (see question 126), rather than a straight port of GNU | |
1996 | Emacs 18 or 19. | |
1997 | ||
1998 | Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by | |
707893ee RS |
1999 | DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com> which can compile and run large programs |
2000 | under MS-DOS and under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2001 | rather than straight from GNU Emacs. You can get the most recent version |
2002 | of Demacs via anonymous ftp from ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp in | |
2003 | pub/Msdos/Demacs/*. | |
2004 | ||
2005 | For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs | |
2006 | look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature," | |
2007 | available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in pub/usenet/comp.emacs. | |
2008 | ||
2009 | 84: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Microsoft Windows? | |
2010 | ||
707893ee RS |
2011 | * If you compile GNU Emacs with the tools listed above, it will run under |
2012 | Microsoft Windows in a DOS box. | |
2013 | ||
2014 | There are currently two other ports of Emacs that runs under Microsoft | |
2015 | Windows: | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2016 | |
2017 | * Oemacs | |
2018 | ||
2019 | Current version of Oemacs4.1 is based on Emacs-19.19 and runs in either | |
2020 | MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows. There is rumor that the author Darryl | |
2021 | Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com> would not update unless there is | |
2022 | demonstrated interest. It is nearly a full porting of GNU Emacs except | |
2023 | that shell-mode does not work due to the limitation of MS-DOS. | |
2024 | Anonymous ftp information: | |
2025 | ||
707893ee | 2026 | ftp.coast.net:SimTel/vendors/gnu/oemacs/ |
e82f5d65 RS |
2027 | |
2028 | * The other uses a proprietary X Windows emulator and therefore | |
2029 | the FSF does not think it deserves publicity. | |
2030 | ||
2031 | 85: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2? | |
2032 | ||
2033 | Emacs 19.27 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1. | |
2034 | ||
2035 | Anonymous FTP info: | |
2036 | ||
2037 | hobbes.nmsu.edu:os2/2_x/unix/emacs27 | |
2038 | ||
2039 | 86: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST? | |
2040 | ||
2041 | (does anyone know?) | |
2042 | ||
2043 | 87: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga? | |
2044 | ||
2045 | Amiga software is available through Aminet, a set of interconnected FTP | |
2046 | sites and other file accessing services for Amiga software. The primary | |
2047 | sites for Aminet are ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) and ftp.cdrom.com | |
2048 | (192.153.46.2). In the directory pub/aminet/util/gnu, there are | |
2049 | ||
2050 | a1.26-emacs-bin.lha -- Amiga GNU Emacs V1.26, binaries | |
2051 | a1.26-emacs-src.lha -- Amiga GNU Emacs V1.26, sources | |
2052 | ||
2053 | There are also quite a few Emacs related files/programs. Please search | |
2054 | the index of Aminet. | |
2055 | ||
2056 | We have no access to an Amiga, so please send in your experience and | |
2057 | comments on the implementation. | |
2058 | ||
2059 | 88: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer? | |
c2fabcbf | 2060 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2061 | The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look |
2062 | and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details. | |
2063 | Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software | |
2064 | for Apple computers such as the Macintosh. | |
e82f5d65 | 2065 | |
c2fabcbf | 2066 | Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers. |
e82f5d65 RS |
2067 | |
2068 | 89: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows? | |
2069 | ||
2070 | Version 19.27 has a VMS directory containing installation instructions, a | |
2071 | makefile, and various .com files. But according to Richard Levitte | |
2072 | <levitte@e.kth.se>, it does not run out of the box. Even if it does, the | |
2073 | VMSNOTES indicates that the Emacs on VMS is going to have much more | |
2074 | limited functionality. Richard Levitte has a patched 19.22 that | |
2075 | supposedly has subprocess and networking functionality just as on Unix, | |
2076 | with virtually the same lisp interface. The source is available via | |
2077 | anonymous ftp at | |
2078 | ||
2079 | ftp.vms.stacken.kth.se:GNU-VMS/Beta/EMACS-19_22-********.TAR-GZ | |
2080 | ||
2081 | where ******** is the release date of the kit. You should also read | |
2082 | http://www.e.kth.se/elev/levitte/gnu/emacs.html for more information. | |
2083 | ||
2084 | 90: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++, | |
2085 | Objective C, Pascal, and Awk? | |
2086 | ||
2087 | Most of these modes are now available in standard Emacs distribution. To | |
2088 | get additional modes, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 77). | |
2089 | For C++, if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like | |
2090 | this: | |
2091 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2092 | M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET |
e82f5d65 RS |
2093 | |
2094 | Note that Barry Warsaw's cc-mode now works for C, C++, and Objective-C | |
2095 | code. You can get the latest version (4.85, as of this writing) from the | |
2096 | Emacs Lisp Archive. | |
2097 | ||
2098 | 91: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ? | |
2099 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2100 | If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know |
2101 | the IP address of a host to FTP files from it. You can get this | |
2102 | information in two ways: | |
e82f5d65 | 2103 | |
c2fabcbf | 2104 | * By telnet: |
e82f5d65 | 2105 | |
c2fabcbf | 2106 | telnet nic.ddn.mil hostnames (or `telnet 192.112.36.5 101') |
e82f5d65 RS |
2107 | @ whois |
2108 | Whois: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ | |
2109 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2110 | * By e-mail: |
e82f5d65 | 2111 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2112 | To: service@nic.ddn.mil |
2113 | Subject: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ | |
2114 | or: whois XXX.YYY.ZZZ | |
2115 | or: help | |
e82f5d65 | 2116 | |
c2fabcbf | 2117 | or: |
e82f5d65 | 2118 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2119 | To: resolve@cs.widener.edu |
2120 | body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ | |
c2fabcbf | 2121 | |
e82f5d65 | 2122 | Information from Brendan Kehoe <brendan@cs.widener.edu>. |
c2fabcbf RS |
2123 | |
2124 | ||
2125 | Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs | |
2126 | ||
2127 | This section lists version numbers, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups, | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2128 | and other information for many important packages, extensions, and |
2129 | related programs. There is some overlap with the Lisp Code Directory, | |
2130 | but these entries give more detailed information. | |
2131 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2132 | If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they |
e82f5d65 RS |
2133 | deserve to be mentioned here, please let us know. Having its own mailing |
2134 | list or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good | |
2135 | signs. | |
2136 | ||
2137 | 92: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs | |
2138 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2139 | Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net> |
e82f5d65 | 2140 | Latest version: 5.72 (beta) |
c2fabcbf | 2141 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 | 2142 | /ftp.uu.net:networking/mail/vm-5.72beta.tar.gz |
c2fabcbf RS |
2143 | Newsgroups and mailing lists: |
2144 | Info-VM: | |
e82f5d65 | 2145 | gnu.emacs.vm.info (newsgroup) |
c2fabcbf RS |
2146 | info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions) |
2147 | info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) | |
2148 | Bug-VM: | |
e82f5d65 | 2149 | gnu.emacs.vm.bug (newsgroup) |
c2fabcbf RS |
2150 | bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions) |
2151 | bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2152 | |
2153 | 93: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs | |
2154 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2155 | Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com> |
e82f5d65 RS |
2156 | Latest version: 3.54 (comes with GNU Emacs 19) |
2157 | 3.1 (available from the Emacs Lisp Archive) | |
2158 | Anonymous FTP: | |
2159 | /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/sc3.1.tar.Z | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2160 | Mailing list: supercite-request@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for subscriptions) |
2161 | supercite@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for submissions) | |
c2fabcbf | 2162 | NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite. |
e82f5d65 RS |
2163 | |
2164 | 94: Gnus -- news reader within Emacs | |
2165 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2166 | Author: Masanobu Umeda <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp> |
e82f5d65 | 2167 | Latest version: 4.1 (comes with GNU Emacs 19) |
c2fabcbf | 2168 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2169 | /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-4.1.tar.Z |
2170 | /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-4.1.tar.Z | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2171 | Newsgroups and mailing lists: |
2172 | English-only: | |
e82f5d65 | 2173 | gnu.emacs.gnus (newsgroup) |
c2fabcbf RS |
2174 | info-gnus-english-request@cis.ohio-state.edu (for subscriptions) |
2175 | info-gnus-english@cis.ohio-state.edu (for submissions) | |
2176 | Japanese (and some English): | |
2177 | info-gnus-request@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for subscriptions) | |
2178 | info-gnus@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for submissions) | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2179 | |
2180 | 95: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs | |
2181 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2182 | Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> |
e82f5d65 | 2183 | Latest version: 2.02c |
c2fabcbf | 2184 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2185 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02c.tar.gz |
2186 | NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue | |
2187 | anyone for having a program with a similar command language to | |
2188 | Calc. :-) | |
2189 | ||
2190 | 96: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines | |
2191 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2192 | Author: Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> |
e82f5d65 | 2193 | Latest version: 1.56 (comes with GNU Emacs 19) |
c2fabcbf | 2194 | Anonymous FTP: |
c2fabcbf | 2195 | /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z |
c2fabcbf | 2196 | Mailing lists: |
c2fabcbf | 2197 | Ange-FTP Lovers: |
e82f5d65 | 2198 | ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for subscriptions) |
c2fabcbf RS |
2199 | ange-ftp-lovers@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for submissions) |
2200 | /ftp.reed.edu:pub/mailing-lists/ange-ftp/ (archives) | |
2201 | Ange-FTP Announcements: | |
2202 | ange-ftp-lovers-announce@anorman.hpl.hp.com | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2203 | NOTE: now supports VMS, CMS, and MTS ftp servers |
2204 | ||
2205 | 97: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs | |
2206 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2207 | Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu> |
e82f5d65 | 2208 | Latest version: 4.3 |
c2fabcbf RS |
2209 | Anonymous FTP: |
2210 | /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z | |
2211 | /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z | |
2212 | NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2213 | distributed with Emacs. |
2214 | ||
2215 | 98: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities | |
2216 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2217 | Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk> |
e82f5d65 | 2218 | Latest version: 9.1i |
c2fabcbf | 2219 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 | 2220 | /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex-9.1i.tar.gz |
c2fabcbf RS |
2221 | Mailing list: |
2222 | auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions) | |
2223 | auc-tex@iesd.auc.dk (for submissions) | |
2224 | auc-tex_mgr@iesd.auc.dk (auc-tex development team) | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2225 | |
2226 | 99: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs | |
2227 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2228 | Author: Bob Weiner <rsw@cs.brown.edu> |
e82f5d65 | 2229 | Latest version: 3.15 |
c2fabcbf | 2230 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 | 2231 | /wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/h3.15.tar.Z |
c2fabcbf RS |
2232 | Mailing lists: |
2233 | hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only. | |
2234 | Subscriptions: | |
2235 | To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu | |
2236 | Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole-announce | |
2237 | hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion. | |
2238 | Subscriptions: | |
2239 | To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu | |
2240 | Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole | |
2241 | Submissions: | |
2242 | hyperbole@cs.brown.edu | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2243 | NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a |
2244 | member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list. | |
c2fabcbf | 2245 | NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists. |
e82f5d65 RS |
2246 | |
2247 | 100: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers | |
2248 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2249 | Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com> |
e82f5d65 | 2250 | Latest released version: 1.50 |
c2fabcbf | 2251 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2252 | /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bbdb-1.50.tar.Z |
2253 | Mailing lists: | |
2254 | info-bbdb-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions) | |
2255 | info-bbdb@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions) | |
2256 | bbdb-announce-request@cs.uiuc.edu (to be informed of new releases) | |
2257 | NOTE: BBDB does not work with VM 4. It does work with VM 5, | |
2258 | Rmail, Gnus, and MH-E. | |
2259 | ||
2260 | 101: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs | |
2261 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2262 | Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com> |
e82f5d65 | 2263 | Latest released version: 3.1.08 |
c2fabcbf | 2264 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2265 | Master Sites: |
2266 | /ftp.cs.ucla.edu:pub/ispell/ispell-3.1.08.tar.gz | |
2267 | /ftp.math.orst.edu:pub/ispell/ispell-3.1.08.tar.gz | |
2268 | Known Mirror Sites: (only directory names shown) | |
2269 | /ftp.th-darmstadt.de:pub/dicts/ispell/ | |
2270 | /ftp.nl.net:pub/textproc/ispell/ | |
2271 | ||
2272 | NOTE: * Do not ask Geoff to send you the latest version of Ispell. | |
2273 | He does not have free e-mail. | |
2274 | ||
2275 | * This Ispell program is distinct from GNU Ispell 4.0. GNU | |
2276 | Ispell 4.0 is no longer a supported product. | |
2277 | ||
2278 | 102: XEmacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface; formerly | |
2279 | known as Lucid Emacs or lemacs. | |
2280 | ||
2281 | Primary Maintainer: Chuck Thompson <cthomp@cs.uiuc.edu> | |
2282 | Other Developers: Ben Wing <wing@netcom.com> | |
2283 | Richard Mlynarik <mly@adoc.xerox.com> | |
2284 | Jamie Zawinski <jwz@mcom.com> | |
2285 | Latest released version: 19.11 | |
c2fabcbf | 2286 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2287 | /ftp.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/xemacs/xemacs-19.11.tar.gz |
2288 | Newsgroup and mailing lists: | |
2289 | Bugs: | |
2290 | alt.lucid-emacs.bug | |
2291 | bug-lucid-emacs-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions) | |
2292 | bug-lucid-emacs@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions) | |
2293 | Help: | |
2294 | alt.lucid-emacs.help | |
2295 | help-lucid-emacs-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions) | |
2296 | help-lucid-emacs@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions) | |
2297 | NOTE: The XEmacs FAQ is available via the World-Wide Web at URL | |
2298 | http://xemacs.cs.uiuc.edu/. | |
2299 | ||
2300 | 103: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files | |
2301 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2302 | Author: Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com> |
e82f5d65 RS |
2303 | Latest version: 2.1 |
2304 | Anonymous FTP: | |
2305 | /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.1.tar.gz | |
2306 | /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/patch-2.1.tar.gz | |
2307 | /ftp.uni-stuttgart.de:pub/unix/gnu/patch-2.1.tar.gz | |
2308 | NOTE: See question 80 for other GNU distribution sites. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2309 | |
2310 | ||
e82f5d65 | 2311 | Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems |
c2fabcbf | 2312 | |
e82f5d65 | 2313 | 104: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands? |
c2fabcbf | 2314 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2315 | Keys can be bound to commands either interactively or by predefinition |
2316 | (e.g. in the .emacs file). To interactively bind keys for all modes, | |
2317 | type `M-x global-set-key RET KEY CMD RET'; for the current major mode | |
2318 | only, type `M-x local-set-key RET KEY CMD RET' (see the Emacs on-line | |
2319 | documentation for further details). | |
c2fabcbf | 2320 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2321 | To bind keys on starting Emacs or on starting any given mode, you can use |
2322 | the following "trick." First bind the key interactively, then | |
2323 | immediately afterwards type `C-x ESC ESC C-a C-k C-g'. Now, the command | |
2324 | needed to bind the key is in the kill ring and can be yanked into the | |
2325 | .emacs file. If the key binding is global, no changes to the command are | |
2326 | required. For example, | |
c2fabcbf | 2327 | |
e82f5d65 | 2328 | (global-set-key (quote [f1]) (quote help-for-help)) |
c2fabcbf | 2329 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2330 | can be place directly into the .emacs file. If the key binding is local, |
2331 | the command is used in conjunction with the `add-hook' command. For | |
2332 | example, in tex-mode, a local binding might be | |
c2fabcbf | 2333 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2334 | (add-hook 'tex-mode-hook |
2335 | (function (lambda () | |
2336 | (local-set-key (quote [f1]) (quote help-for-help)))) | |
c2fabcbf | 2337 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2338 | NOTE: * Control characters in key sequence position of the form yanked |
2339 | from the kill ring are given in their graphic form - i.e. CTRL is | |
2340 | shown as `^', TAB as a set of spaces (usually 8), etc. You may | |
2341 | want to convert these into their vector or string forms. | |
2342 | ||
2343 | * If some prefix key of the character sequence to be bound is | |
2344 | already bound as a complete key, then you must unbind it before | |
2345 | the new binding. For example, if `ESC {' is previously bound: | |
2346 | ||
2347 | (global-unset-key [?\e ?{]) ;; or | |
2348 | (local-unset-key [?\e ?{]) | |
2349 | ||
2350 | * Aside from commands and "lambda lists," a vector or string also | |
2351 | can be bound to a key and thus treated as a macro. For example: | |
2352 | ||
2353 | (global-set-key [f10] [?\C-x?\e?\e?\C-a?\C-k?\C-g]) ;; or | |
2354 | (global-set-key [f10] "\C-x\e\e\C-a\C-k\C-g") | |
2355 | ||
2356 | See `Key Bindings' in the Emacs on-line documentation for further | |
2357 | details. | |
2358 | ||
2359 | 105: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'? | |
2360 | ||
2361 | Usually one of two things has happened. In one case, the control | |
2362 | character in the key sequence has been misspecified (e.g. `C-f' used | |
2363 | instead of `\C-f' within a Lisp expression). In the other case, a | |
2364 | "prefix key" in the keystroke sequence you were trying to bind was | |
2365 | already bound as a "complete key." Historically, the `ESC [' prefix was | |
2366 | usually the problem, in which case you should evaluate either of these | |
2367 | forms before attempting to bind the key sequence: | |
2368 | ||
2369 | (global-unset-key [?\e ?[]) ;; or | |
2370 | (global-unset-key "\e[") | |
2371 | ||
2372 | 106: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my | |
2373 | .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up? | |
2374 | ||
2375 | During startup, Emacs initializes itself according to a given code/file | |
2376 | order. If some of the code executed in your .emacs file needs to be | |
2377 | postponed until the initial terminal or window-system setup code has been | |
2378 | executed but is not, then you will experience this problem (this | |
2379 | code/file execution order is not enforced after startup). | |
2380 | ||
2381 | To postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after terminal or | |
2382 | window-system setup, treat the code as a "lambda list" and set the value | |
2383 | of either the `term-setup-hook' or `window-setup-hook' variable to this | |
2384 | "lambda function." For example, | |
c2fabcbf | 2385 | |
c2fabcbf | 2386 | (setq term-setup-hook |
e82f5d65 RS |
2387 | (function |
2388 | (lambda () | |
2389 | (cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") "")) | |
2390 | ;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x: | |
2391 | (global-set-key [do] 'execute-extended-command)) | |
2392 | )))) | |
2393 | ||
2394 | For information on what Emacs does every time it is started, see the | |
2395 | lisp/startup.el file. | |
2396 | ||
2397 | 107: How do I use function keys under X Windows? | |
2398 | ||
2399 | With Emacs 19, functions keys under X are bound like any other key. See | |
2400 | question 104 for details. | |
2401 | ||
2402 | 108: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys | |
2403 | emit? | |
2404 | ||
2405 | Put the following in your .emacs file and type `M-x see-chars' to use: | |
2406 | ||
2407 | (defun see-chars () | |
2408 | "Display events received, terminated by a 3-second timeout." | |
2409 | (interactive) | |
2410 | (let (chars | |
2411 | (inhibit-quit t)) | |
2412 | (message "Enter characters or other events, terminated by a 3-second | |
2413 | timeout.") | |
2414 | (while (not (sit-for 3)) | |
2415 | (setq chars (nconc chars (list (read-event))) | |
2416 | quit-flag nil) ; quit-flag might be set by C-g. | |
2417 | (if (not (input-pending-p)) | |
2418 | (message "Events received until now: %s..." | |
2419 | (key-description chars)))) | |
2420 | (message "Events received: %s" (key-description chars)))) | |
2421 | ||
2422 | Alternatively, type "C-h c" then the function or arrow keys. The command | |
2423 | will return either a function key symbol or character sequence (see the | |
2424 | Emacs on-line documentation for an explanation). This works for other | |
2425 | keys as well. | |
2426 | ||
2427 | 109: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs? | |
2428 | ||
2429 | Sorry, you can't; there are no "translations" to be set. Emacs is not | |
2430 | written using the Xt library. The only way to affect the behavior of | |
2431 | keys within Emacs is through `xmodmap' (outside Emacs) or `define-key' | |
2432 | (inside Emacs). The `define-key' command should be used in conjunction | |
2433 | with the `function-key-map' map. For instance, | |
2434 | ||
2435 | (define-key function-key-map [M-tab] [?\M-\t]) | |
2436 | ||
2437 | defines the `META TAB' key sequence. | |
2438 | ||
2439 | 110: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control? | |
2440 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2441 | C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This screws |
2442 | up Emacs because it binds these characters to commands. Also, by default | |
2443 | Emacs will not honor them as flow control characters and may overwhelm | |
2444 | output buffers. Sometimes, intermediate software using XON/XOFF flow | |
2445 | control will prevent Emacs from ever seeing C-s and C-q. | |
e82f5d65 | 2446 | |
c2fabcbf | 2447 | Possible solutions: |
e82f5d65 | 2448 | |
c2fabcbf | 2449 | * Disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control. |
e82f5d65 RS |
2450 | |
2451 | You need to determine the cause of the flow control. | |
2452 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2453 | * your terminal |
e82f5d65 | 2454 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2455 | Your terminal may use XON/XOFF flow control to have time to display |
2456 | all the characters it receives. For example, VT series terminals do | |
2457 | this. It may be possible to turn this off from a setup menu. For | |
2458 | example, on a VT220 you may select `No XOFF' in the setup menu. This | |
2459 | is also true for some terminal emulation programs on PCs. | |
e82f5d65 | 2460 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2461 | When you turn off flow control at the terminal, you will also need to |
2462 | turn it off at the other end, which might be at the computer you are | |
2463 | logged in to or at some terminal server in between. | |
e82f5d65 | 2464 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2465 | If you turn off flow control, characters may be lost; using a printer |
2466 | connected to the terminal may fail. You may be able to get around | |
2467 | this problem by modifying the `termcap' entry for your terminal to | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2468 | include extra NUL padding characters. |
2469 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2470 | * a modem |
e82f5d65 RS |
2471 | |
2472 | If you are using a dialup connection, the modems may be using | |
2473 | XON/XOFF flow control. It's not clear how to get around this. | |
2474 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2475 | * a router or terminal server |
e82f5d65 | 2476 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2477 | Some network box between the terminal and your computer may be using |
2478 | XON/XOFF flow control. It may be possible to make it use some other | |
2479 | kind of flow control. You will probably have to ask your local | |
2480 | network experts for help with this. | |
e82f5d65 | 2481 | |
c2fabcbf | 2482 | * tty and/or pty devices |
e82f5d65 | 2483 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2484 | If your connection to Emacs goes through multiple tty and/or pty |
2485 | devices, they may be using XON/XOFF flow control even when it is not | |
2486 | necessary. | |
e82f5d65 | 2487 | |
c2fabcbf | 2488 | Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> writes: |
e82f5d65 | 2489 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2490 | Some versions of `rlogin' (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow |
2491 | control characters to the remote system to which they connect. On | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2492 | such systems, Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow |
2493 | control on the local system. Sometimes `rlogin -8' will avoid this | |
2494 | problem. | |
2495 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2496 | One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host |
e82f5d65 RS |
2497 | (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the |
2498 | stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, | |
2499 | `stty start u stop u' will do this. | |
2500 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2501 | Some versions of `tcsh' will prevent even this from working. One |
2502 | way around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, | |
2503 | and issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell. | |
e82f5d65 | 2504 | |
c2fabcbf | 2505 | Use `stty -ixon' instead of `stty start u stop u' on some systems. |
e82f5d65 | 2506 | |
c2fabcbf | 2507 | * Make Emacs speak the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. |
e82f5d65 | 2508 | |
c2fabcbf | 2509 | You can make Emacs treat C-s and C-q as flow control characters by |
e82f5d65 RS |
2510 | evaluating the form |
2511 | ||
2512 | (enable-flow-control) | |
2513 | ||
2514 | to unconditionally enable flow control or | |
2515 | ||
2516 | (enable-flow-control-on "vt100" "h19") | |
2517 | ||
2518 | (using your terminal names instead of "vt100" or "h19") to enable | |
2519 | selectively. These commands will automatically swap `C-s' and `C-q' to | |
2520 | `C-\' and `C-^'. Variables can be used to change the default swap keys | |
2521 | (`flow-control-c-s-replacement' and `flow-control-c-q-replacement'). | |
2522 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2523 | If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs |
2524 | file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2525 | put it is in the lisp/site-start.el file. Putting this form in |
2526 | lisp/default.el has the problem that if the user's .emacs file has an | |
2527 | error, this will prevent lisp/default.el from being loaded and Emacs | |
2528 | may be unusable for the user, even for correcting their .emacs file | |
2529 | (unless they're smart enough to move it to another name). | |
2530 | ||
2531 | For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS (in the | |
2532 | top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs source). | |
2533 | ||
2534 | 111: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered | |
2535 | out? | |
2536 | ||
2537 | To bind `C-s' and `C-q', use either `enable-flow-control' or | |
2538 | `enable-flow-control-on'. See question 110 for usage and implementation | |
2539 | details. | |
2540 | ||
2541 | To bind other keys, use `keyboard-translate'. See question 114 for usage | |
2542 | details. To do this for an entire site, you should swap the keys in | |
2543 | lisp/site-start.el. See question 110 for an explanation of why | |
2544 | lisp/default.el should not be used. | |
2545 | ||
2546 | NOTE: * If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by | |
2547 | the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs | |
2548 | actually behaves. | |
2549 | ||
2550 | 112: Why does the `Backspace' key invoke help? | |
2551 | ||
2552 | The `Backspace' key (on most keyboards) generates ASCII code 8. `C-h' | |
2553 | sends the same code. In Emacs by default `C-h' invokes help-command. | |
c2fabcbf | 2554 | This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of "help" |
e82f5d65 RS |
2555 | is "h." The easiest solution to this problem is to use `C-h' (and |
2556 | Backspace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous | |
c2fabcbf | 2557 | character. |
e82f5d65 | 2558 | |
c2fabcbf | 2559 | For many people this solution may be problematic: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2560 | |
2561 | * They normally use Backspace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2562 | character typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for |
2563 | deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do | |
2564 | this on many Unix systems: | |
e82f5d65 | 2565 | |
c2fabcbf | 2566 | stty erase '^?' |
e82f5d65 RS |
2567 | |
2568 | * The person may prefer using the Backspace key for deleting the previous | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2569 | character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or |
2570 | because they don't even have a separate Delete key. In this case, the | |
e82f5d65 | 2571 | Backspace key should be made to behave like Delete. There are several |
c2fabcbf | 2572 | methods. |
e82f5d65 RS |
2573 | |
2574 | * Some terminals (e.g., VT3## terminals) allow the character generated by | |
2575 | the Backspace key to be changed from a setup menu. | |
2576 | ||
2577 | * You may be able to get a keyboard that is completely programmable. | |
2578 | ||
2579 | * Under X or on a dumb terminal, it is possible to swap the Backspace and | |
2580 | Delete keys inside Emacs: | |
2581 | ||
2582 | (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?) | |
2583 | ||
2584 | See question 114 for further details of `keyboard-translate'. | |
2585 | ||
2586 | * Another approach is to switch key bindings and put help on "C-x h" | |
2587 | instead: | |
2588 | ||
2589 | (global-set-key [?\C-h] 'delete-backward-char) | |
2590 | (global-set-key [?\C-x ?h] 'help-command) | |
2591 | ;; overrides mark-whole-buffer | |
2592 | ||
2593 | Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?". | |
2594 | ||
2595 | NOTE: * Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many | |
2596 | modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere. | |
2597 | ||
2598 | 113: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete? | |
2599 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2600 | Good question! |
e82f5d65 RS |
2601 | |
2602 | 114: How do I "swap" two keys? | |
2603 | ||
2604 | In Emacs 19, you can swap two keys (or key sequences) by using the | |
2605 | `keyboard-translate' function. For example, to turn `C-h' into DEL and | |
2606 | DEL to `C-h', use | |
2607 | ||
2608 | (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?) ; translate `C-h' to DEL | |
2609 | (keyboard-translate ?\C-? ?\C-h) ; translate DEL to `C-h'. | |
2610 | ||
2611 | The first key sequence of the pair after the function identifies what is | |
2612 | produced by the keyboard; the second, what is matched for in the keymaps. | |
2613 | ||
2614 | Keyboard translations are not the same as key bindings in keymaps. Emacs | |
2615 | contains numerous keymaps that apply in different situations, but there | |
2616 | is only one set of keyboard translations, and it applies to every | |
2617 | character that Emacs reads from the terminal. Keyboard translations take | |
2618 | place at the lowest level of input processing; the keys that are looked | |
2619 | up in keymaps contain the characters that result from keyboard | |
2620 | translation. | |
2621 | ||
2622 | Also see `Keyboard Translations' in the on-line manual. | |
2623 | ||
2624 | 115: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard? | |
2625 | ||
2626 | On terminals (but not under X), some common "aliases" are: | |
2627 | ||
2628 | CTRL-2 or CTRL-SPC for C-@ | |
2629 | CTRL-6 for C-^ | |
2630 | CTRL-7 or CTRL-SHIFT-- for C-_ | |
2631 | CTRL-4 for C-\ | |
2632 | CTRL-5 for C-] | |
2633 | CTRL-/ for C-? | |
2634 | ||
2635 | Often other aliases exist; use the `C-h c' command and try `CTRL' with | |
2636 | all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets generated. You can | |
2637 | also try the `C-h w' command if you know the name of the command. | |
2638 | ||
2639 | 116: What if I don't have a Meta key? | |
2640 | ||
2641 | Instead of typing "M-a", you can type "ESC a". In fact, Emacs converts | |
2642 | M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of | |
2643 | meta-prefix-char). Note that you press "Meta" and "a" together, while | |
2644 | you press "ESC", release it, and then press "a". | |
2645 | ||
2646 | 117: What if I don't have an Escape key? | |
2647 | ||
2648 | Type "C-[" instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape | |
2649 | key would. "C-3" may also work on some terminal (but not under X). For | |
2650 | many terminals (notably DEC terminals) "F11" generates the "ESC" key. If | |
2651 | not, the following form can be used bind it: | |
2652 | ||
2653 | (define-key function-key-map [f11] [?\e]) ; F11 is the documented ESC | |
2654 | ; replacement on DEC terminals. | |
2655 | ||
2656 | 118: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key? | |
2657 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2658 | On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220 |
2659 | clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're using | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2660 | X, you might be able to do this with the `xmodmap' program. |
2661 | ||
2662 | 119: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key? | |
2663 | ||
2664 | With Emacs 19 you can indicate modified function keys in vector format | |
2665 | through multi-prefixing the function key symbol. For example (from the | |
2666 | Emacs on-line documentation): | |
2667 | ||
2668 | (global-set-key [?\C-x right] 'forward-page) | |
2669 | ||
2670 | where "?\C-x" is the Lisp character constant for the character "C-x". | |
2671 | ||
2672 | You can use the modifier keys CTRL, META, HYPER, SUPER, ALT and SHIFT | |
2673 | with function keys. To represent these modifiers, prepend the strings | |
2674 | "C-", "M-", "H-", "s-", "A-" and "S-" to the symbol name. Thus, here is | |
2675 | how to make "Hyper-Meta-RIGHT" move forward a word: | |
2676 | ||
2677 | (global-set-key [H-M-right] 'forward-word) | |
2678 | ||
2679 | NOTE: * Not all modifiers are permitted in all situations. HYPER, SUPER, | |
2680 | and ALT are available only under X (provided there are such | |
2681 | keys). Non-ASCII keys and mouse events (e.g. "C-=" and | |
2682 | "mouse-1") also fall under this category. | |
2683 | ||
2684 | See question 104 for general key binding instructions. | |
2685 | ||
2686 | 120: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window? | |
2687 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2688 | Try all of these methods before asking for further help: |
e82f5d65 | 2689 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2690 | * You may have big problems using `mwm' as your window manager. {Does |
2691 | anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in | |
2692 | Emacs with mwm?} | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2693 | |
2694 | * For X11: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use `xev' to find out what | |
2695 | keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or Meta_R. | |
2696 | If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation. | |
2697 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2698 | * Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters. |
2699 | `stty -a' (or `stty everything') should show `cs8' somewhere. If it | |
2700 | shows `cs7' instead, use `stty cs8 -istrip' (or `stty pass8') to fix | |
2701 | it. | |
e82f5d65 | 2702 | |
c2fabcbf | 2703 | * If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the |
e82f5d65 RS |
2704 | `-8' argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8 bits |
2705 | of every character. | |
2706 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2707 | * If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating |
2708 | (set-input-mode t nil) helps. | |
e82f5d65 | 2709 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2710 | * If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type |
2711 | M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W | |
2712 | anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this: | |
e82f5d65 | 2713 | |
c2fabcbf | 2714 | XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false |
e82f5d65 | 2715 | |
c2fabcbf | 2716 | (This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.) |
e82f5d65 | 2717 | |
c2fabcbf | 2718 | With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation: |
e82f5d65 | 2719 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2720 | XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \ |
2721 | Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert() | |
e82f5d65 | 2722 | |
c2fabcbf | 2723 | You might have to replace `Meta' with `Alt'. |
e82f5d65 RS |
2724 | |
2725 | 121: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0? | |
2726 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2727 | This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the |
2728 | fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that | |
2729 | XLookupString returns the same result regardless of the Meta key state | |
2730 | which is no longer necessarily true. Until Emacs is fixed, the temporary | |
2731 | kludge is to run this command after each time the X server is started but | |
2732 | preferably before any xterm clients are: | |
e82f5d65 | 2733 | |
c2fabcbf | 2734 | xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch' |
e82f5d65 | 2735 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2736 | NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which |
2737 | may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them. | |
c2fabcbf | 2738 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2739 | 122: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar? |
2740 | ||
2741 | There is a package `wordstar' by Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> located under | |
2742 | the "misc" directory at the Emacs Lisp Archive. | |
2743 | ||
2744 | 123: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs? | |
2745 | ||
2746 | This question comes up once every couple of months. Searing for "xedit" | |
2747 | through most recent Lisp Code Directory fails to match any entries. | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2748 | |
2749 | Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets | |
2750 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
2751 | 124: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters? |
2752 | ||
2753 | GNU Emacs 19 has built-in support for 8-bit characters. Here is an | |
2754 | excerpt from the `European Display' page of the on-line manual: | |
2755 | ||
2756 | Some European languages use accented letters and other special symbols. | |
2757 | The ISO 8859 Latin-1 character set defines character codes for many | |
2758 | European languages in the range 160 to 255. | |
2759 | ||
2760 | Emacs can display those characters according to Latin-1, provided the | |
2761 | terminal or font in use supports them. The `M-x | |
2762 | standard-display-european' command toggles European character display | |
2763 | mode. With a numeric argument, `M-x standard-display-european' enables | |
2764 | European character display if and only if the argument is positive. | |
2765 | ||
2766 | Some operating systems let you specify the language you are using by | |
2767 | setting a locale. Emacs handles one common special case of this: if | |
2768 | your locale name for character types contains the string `8859-1' or | |
2769 | `88591', Emacs automatically enables European character display mode | |
2770 | when it starts up. | |
2771 | ||
2772 | 125: How do I input 8-bit characters? | |
2773 | ||
2774 | Again, from the `European Display' page of the on-line manual: | |
2775 | ||
2776 | If you enter non-ASCII ISO Latin-1 characters often, you might find ISO | |
2777 | Accents mode convenient. When this minor mode is enabled, the | |
2778 | characters ``', `'', `"', `^', `/' and `~' modify the following letter | |
2779 | by adding the corresponding diacritical mark to it, if possible. To | |
2780 | enable or disable ISO Accents mode, use the command `M-x | |
2781 | iso-accents-mode'. This command affects only the current buffer. | |
2782 | ||
2783 | To enter one of those six special characters, type the character, | |
2784 | followed by a space. Some of those characters have a corresponding | |
2785 | "dead key" accent character in the ISO Latin-1 character set; to enter | |
2786 | that character, type the corresponding ASCII character twice. For | |
2787 | example, `''' enters the Latin-1 character acute-accent (character code | |
2788 | 0264). | |
2789 | ||
2790 | 126: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters? | |
2791 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2792 | Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55 |
2793 | that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP: | |
e82f5d65 | 2794 | |
c2fabcbf | 2795 | /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z |
e82f5d65 RS |
2796 | /ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp:pub/gnu-rel/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.gz |
2797 | ||
2798 | You might also need files for "wnn," a kanji input method | |
c2fabcbf | 2799 | (wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You need a terminal (or |
e82f5d65 RS |
2800 | terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in JIS, Shift-JIS, or |
2801 | EUC (Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs as a direct X | |
2802 | Windows client. | |
2803 | ||
2804 | 127: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese? | |
2805 | ||
2806 | Cemacs by Stephen G. Simpson <simpson@math.psu.edu> is a patch to Emacs | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2807 | 18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with |
2808 | Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous | |
2809 | FTP: | |
e82f5d65 | 2810 | |
c2fabcbf | 2811 | /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z |
e82f5d65 RS |
2812 | |
2813 | Cxterm, a patch to Emacs 18.57 that allows you to enter Chinese | |
2814 | characters, is available from the same place: | |
2815 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2816 | /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z |
e82f5d65 RS |
2817 | |
2818 | 128: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets? | |
2819 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2820 | Joel M. Hoffman <joel@wam.umd.edu> writes: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2821 | |
2822 | A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows | |
2823 | right-to-left editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display | |
2824 | the Hebrew letters, given the right codes, but not for any | |
2825 | right-to-left support; the hardware also doesn't have to send any | |
2826 | specific char. codes. Emacs keeps track of when the user is typing | |
2827 | Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-* terminals in Israel contain built-in | |
2828 | support for Hebrew.) | |
2829 | ||
2830 | To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's | |
2831 | source code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean. | |
2832 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2833 | [and in a separate message:] |
e82f5d65 | 2834 | |
c2fabcbf | 2835 | It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend |
e82f5d65 | 2836 | trying that with Emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order |
c2fabcbf RS |
2837 | with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a |
2838 | quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to | |
2839 | send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for | |
2840 | anything large, however, you'll want something that works better. | |
e82f5d65 | 2841 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2842 | Joel Hoffman has also written a "bi-directional bi-lingual Emacs-like" |
2843 | editor for MS-DOS named Ibelbe (Itty Bitty Emacs-Like Bidirectional | |
2844 | Editor). Ibelbe is written in Turbo Pascal and comes with source code. | |
2845 | Here is the description: | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2846 | |
2847 | Ibelbe looks like Emacs (it even has a minibuffer and filename | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2848 | completion), and fully supports both right-to-left and left-to-right |
2849 | editing. Other than an EGA monitor or better, no special hardware is | |
2850 | required. You will need an EGA Hebrew font to use Ibelbe with Hebrew. | |
e82f5d65 | 2851 | |
c2fabcbf | 2852 | Anonymous FTP: |
e82f5d65 RS |
2853 | /israel.nysernet.org:israel/computers/software/msdos/ibelbe.zip |
2854 | /israel.nysernet.org:israel/computers/software/msdos/hebfont.zip | |
2855 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2856 | Joseph Friedman <yossi@deshaw.com, yossi@Neon.Stanford.EDU> has written |
2857 | patches for Emacs 18.55 and 18.58 that provide Semitic language support | |
2858 | under X Windows. | |
c2fabcbf | 2859 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2860 | Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by |
2861 | modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards." | |
c2fabcbf | 2862 | |
e82f5d65 | 2863 | A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with `hebrew'. |
c2fabcbf | 2864 | |
c2fabcbf | 2865 | |
e82f5d65 | 2866 | Mail and News |
468a4755 | 2867 | |
e82f5d65 | 2868 | 129: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups? |
468a4755 | 2869 | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2870 | If you read mail with Rmail or news with Gnus, set the variable |
2871 | mail-yank-prefix. For VM, set vm-included-text-prefix. For mh-e, set | |
2872 | mh-ins-buf-prefix. | |
468a4755 | 2873 | |
e82f5d65 | 2874 | For fancier control of citations, use Supercite. See question 93. |
c2fabcbf | 2875 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2876 | A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers |
2877 | of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of | |
2878 | mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2879 | |
2880 | 130: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail? | |
2881 | ||
2882 | You can either mail yourself a copy by including a `BCC:' header in the | |
2883 | mail message, or store a copy of the message directly to a file by | |
2884 | including an `FCC:' header. | |
2885 | ||
2886 | If you use standard mail, you can automatically create a `BCC:' to | |
2887 | yourself by putting | |
2888 | ||
2889 | (setq mail-self-blind t) | |
2890 | ||
2891 | in your .emacs. You can automatically include an `FCC:' field by putting | |
2892 | something like the following in your .emacs file: | |
2893 | ||
2894 | (setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing")) | |
2895 | ||
2896 | The output file will be in Unix mail format, which can be read directly | |
2897 | by VM, but not always by Rmail. See question 132. | |
2898 | ||
2899 | If you use mh-e add an FCC: or BCC: field to your components file. | |
2900 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2901 | It does not work to put `set record filename' in the .mailrc file. |
e82f5d65 RS |
2902 | |
2903 | 131: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail? | |
2904 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
2905 | * You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer |
2906 | with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses | |
2907 | like this one: | |
e82f5d65 | 2908 | |
c2fabcbf | 2909 | To: Willy Smith <wks@xpnsv.lwyrs.com> |
e82f5d65 | 2910 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2911 | However, you do not need to separate addresses with commas in your |
2912 | .mailrc file. | |
e82f5d65 | 2913 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2914 | WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple |
2915 | addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of | |
2916 | quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly | |
2917 | setting the value of mail-aliases. | |
e82f5d65 | 2918 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2919 | * Emacs normally only reads the `.mailrc' file once per session, when you |
2920 | start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can | |
2921 | type "M-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc. | |
2922 | (You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!) | |
e82f5d65 | 2923 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2924 | * Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the |
2925 | .mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set' | |
2926 | commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group' | |
2927 | commands. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2928 | |
2929 | * If you like, you can expand mail aliases as abbrevs, as soon as you | |
2930 | type them in. To enable this feature, execute the following: | |
2931 | ||
2932 | (add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup) | |
2933 | ||
2934 | 132: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message? | |
2935 | ||
2936 | A file created through the FCC: field in a message is in Unix Mail | |
2937 | format, not the format that Rmail uses (BABYL format). Rmail will try to | |
2938 | convert a Unix mail file into BABYL format on input, but sometimes it | |
2939 | makes errors. For guaranteed safety, you can make the saved- messages | |
2940 | file be an inbox for your Rmail file by using the function | |
2941 | set-rmail-inbox-list. | |
2942 | ||
2943 | 133: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder? | |
2944 | ||
2945 | In Rmail, type C-c C-s C-h to get a list of sorting functions and their | |
2946 | key bindings. | |
2947 | ||
2948 | 134: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail? | |
2949 | ||
2950 | This is the behavior of the `movemail' program which Rmail uses. This | |
c2fabcbf | 2951 | indicates that movemail is configured to use lock files. |
e82f5d65 | 2952 | |
c2fabcbf | 2953 | RMS writes: |
e82f5d65 | 2954 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2955 | Certain systems require lock files to interlock access to mail files. |
2956 | On these systems, movemail must write lock files, or you risk losing | |
2957 | mail. You simply must arrange to let movemail write them. | |
e82f5d65 | 2958 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
2959 | Other systems use the flock system call to interlock access. On these |
2960 | systems, you should configure movemail to use flock. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
2961 | |
2962 | 135: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format? | |
2963 | ||
2964 | If you have just done rmail-input on a file and you don't want to save it | |
2965 | in Rmail's format (called BABYL), just kill the buffer (with C-x k). | |
2966 | ||
2967 | If you typed M-x rmail and it read some messages out of your inbox and | |
2968 | you want to put them in a Unix mail file, use C-o on each message. | |
2969 | ||
2970 | If you want to convert an existing file from BABYL format to Unix mail | |
2971 | format, use the command M-x unrmail: it will prompt you for the input and | |
2972 | output file names. | |
2973 | ||
2974 | 136: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader? | |
2975 | ||
2976 | To start Emacs in Gnus: | |
2977 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2978 | emacs -f gnus |
e82f5d65 RS |
2979 | |
2980 | in Rmail: | |
2981 | ||
2982 | emacs -f rmail | |
2983 | ||
2984 | A more convenient way to start with Gnus: | |
2985 | ||
c2fabcbf | 2986 | alias gnus 'emacs -f gnus' |
e82f5d65 RS |
2987 | gnus |
2988 | ||
2989 | It is probably unwise to automatically start your mail or news reader | |
2990 | from your .emacs file. This would cause problems if you needed to run | |
2991 | two copies of Emacs at one time. Also, this would make it difficult for | |
2992 | you to start Emacs quickly when you needed to. | |
2993 | ||
2994 | 137: How do I read news under Emacs? | |
2995 | ||
2996 | Use M-x gnus. It is documented in Info (see question 14). | |
2997 | ||
2998 | 138: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP? | |
2999 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
3000 | There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests |
3001 | are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before | |
3002 | blocking waiting for more input which never comes. NNTP version 1.5.11 | |
3003 | claims to fix this. | |
e82f5d65 | 3004 | |
c2fabcbf | 3005 | You can work around the bug inside Emacs like this: |
e82f5d65 | 3006 | |
c2fabcbf | 3007 | (setq nntp-maximum-request 1) |
e82f5d65 | 3008 | |
c2fabcbf | 3009 | You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by |
e82f5d65 RS |
3010 | telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine |
3011 | (i.e., `telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version | |
3012 | number in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out. | |
3013 | ||
3014 | 139: How do I view text with embedded underlining (e.g., ClariNews)? | |
3015 | ||
c2fabcbf | 3016 | Underlining appears like this: |
e82f5d65 | 3017 | |
c2fabcbf | 3018 | _^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg |
e82f5d65 | 3019 | |
c2fabcbf | 3020 | You can destructively remove underlining with M-x ununderline-region. |
e82f5d65 | 3021 | |
c2fabcbf | 3022 | For ClariNews articles, clari-clean.el by David N. Blank-Edelman |
e82f5d65 RS |
3023 | <dnb@meshugge.media.mit.edu> will remove both underlining and |
3024 | overstriking automatically. It is available on the Lisp Code Directory | |
3025 | (see question 77). | |
3026 | ||
3027 | 140: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus? | |
3028 | ||
3029 | Use gnus-uu. Type C-c C-v C-h in the Gnus summary buffer to see a list | |
3030 | of available commands. | |
3031 | ||
3032 | 141: Why does Gnus put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column? | |
3033 | ||
3034 | This is a feature. If you set gnus-thread-hide-subject to non-nil, Gnus | |
c2fabcbf RS |
3035 | will only display the subject of the first posting in a thread, even if |
3036 | some of the replies use different subjects. It hides the subjects by | |
3037 | putting them past the edge of the window and setting truncate lines to t. | |
e82f5d65 | 3038 | |
c2fabcbf RS |
3039 | If your screen looks messed up, then for some reason truncate-lines in |
3040 | your `*Subject*' buffer has been set to nil. It should be set to t. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
3041 | |
3042 | 142: How do I make Gnus start up faster? | |
3043 | ||
3044 | Remove all the newsgroups in which you have no interest from your .newsrc | |
3045 | file by using Gnus's C-k or C-w commands in the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, | |
3046 | perhaps after displaying all newsgroups with the L command. | |
3047 | Unsubscribing will not speed up Gnus. | |
3048 | ||
3049 | 143: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus? | |
3050 | ||
c2fabcbf | 3051 | In the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, type the following magical incantation: |
e82f5d65 RS |
3052 | |
3053 | M-< C-x ( c y M-0 C-x ) | |
3054 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
3055 | Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of |
3056 | the `*Newsgroup' buffer. | |
e82f5d65 RS |
3057 | |
3058 | 144: Why can't I kill in Gnus on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line? | |
3059 | ||
3060 | Gnus will complain that the `Newsgroups:', `Keywords:', and `Control:' | |
3061 | headers are `Unknown header field's. | |
3062 | ||
c2fabcbf | 3063 | For the `Newsgroups:' header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the |
e82f5d65 RS |
3064 | `Xref' header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article |
3065 | (as long as your site carries the cross-post group). | |
3066 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
3067 | If you really want to kill on one of these headers, you can do it like |
3068 | this: | |
e82f5d65 | 3069 | |
c2fabcbf | 3070 | (gnus-kill nil "^Newsgroups: .*\\(bad\\.group\\|worse\\.group\\)") |
e82f5d65 RS |
3071 | |
3072 | 145: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections? | |
3073 | ||
3074 | Set nntp-debug-read to nil. | |
3075 | ||
3076 | 146: Why is catch up slow in Gnus? | |
3077 | ||
3078 | Because Gnus is marking crosspostings read. You can control this with | |
3079 | the variable gnus-use-cross-reference. | |
3080 | ||
3081 | 147: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting? | |
3082 | ||
c2fabcbf | 3083 | David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> explains: |
e82f5d65 | 3084 | |
c2fabcbf | 3085 | The problem is almost always interaction between NNTP and C News. NNTP |
e82f5d65 RS |
3086 | POST asks C News's inews to not background itself but rather hang |
3087 | around and give its exit status so it knows whether the post was | |
3088 | successful. (That wait will on some systems not return the exit status | |
3089 | of the waited for job is a different sort of problem.) It ends up | |
3090 | taking a long time because inews is calling relaynews, which often | |
3091 | waits for another relaynews to free the lock on the news system so it | |
3092 | can file the article. | |
3093 | ||
c2fabcbf | 3094 | My preferred solution is to change inews to not call relaynews, but |
e82f5d65 RS |
3095 | rather use newsspool. This loses some error-catching functionality, |
3096 | but is for the most part safe as inews will detect a lot of the errors | |
3097 | on its own. The C News folks have sped up inews, too, so speed should | |
3098 | look better to most folks as that update propagates around. | |
3099 | ||
3100 | 148: Why don't my news postings in Gnus get past the local machine? | |
3101 | ||
3102 | It could be that your Distribution: field is "local" or a synonym, or | |
3103 | your Path: field may be wrong. This piece of code may fix the latter | |
3104 | problem: | |
3105 | ||
c2fabcbf | 3106 | (setq gnus-use-generic-path t) |
e82f5d65 RS |
3107 | |
3108 | 149: Why doesn't Gnus generate the `Lines:' header? | |
3109 | ||
3110 | The posting software down the line from Gnus often generates a "Lines:" | |
3111 | header so Gnus doesn't have to. If you want it to, just add Lines to the | |
3112 | list in gnus-required-headers: | |
3113 | ||
3114 | (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook | |
3115 | '(lambda () | |
3116 | (setq gnus-required-headers (cons 'Lines gnus-required-headers)))) | |
3117 | ||
3118 | 150: How do I kill all articles in Gnus but those matching a pattern? | |
3119 | ||
3120 | Example kill file code: | |
3121 | ||
c2fabcbf RS |
3122 | ;; kill everything |
3123 | (gnus-kill "subject" "" nil nil) | |
3124 | ;; then restore stuff by our favorite poster | |
3125 | (gnus-kill "from" "good-guy" | |
3126 | (function | |
3127 | (lambda () | |
3128 | (if (eq ?X (char-after (save-excursion | |
3129 | (beginning-of-line 1) | |
3130 | (point)))) | |
e82f5d65 | 3131 | (gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward 1)))) |
c2fabcbf | 3132 | t) |
c2fabcbf RS |
3133 | |
3134 | ||
e82f5d65 RS |
3135 | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
3136 | Slightly modified by Richard Stallman | |
3137 | Copyright 1994 Reuven M. Lerner | |
3138 | Copyright 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes | |
3139 | Copyright 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells | |
c2fabcbf RS |
3140 | |
3141 | This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers | |
3142 | ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other | |
e82f5d65 RS |
3143 | formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS), and updated with new information. |
3144 | ||
3145 | The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as apply to the FAQ | |
3146 | itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice or an approved | |
3147 | translation, information on who is currently maintaining the FAQ and how to | |
3148 | contact them (including their e-mail address), and information on where the | |
3149 | latest version of the FAQ is archived (including FTP information). | |
3150 | ||
3151 | The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these conditions, except that | |
3152 | the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary work unless that work | |
3153 | itself allows free copying and redistribution. | |
3154 | ||
3155 | ------------------------------------------------------------ | |
3156 | ||
3157 | Special thanks to members of the FAQ team, who worked hard to ensure that | |
3158 | answers were up-to-date: | |
3159 | ||
3160 | Ethan Bradford <ethanb@u.washington.edu>, Luis Fernandes | |
3161 | <elf@eccles.ee.ryerson.ca>, Denby Wong <3dw16@qlink.QueensU.CA>, Yair | |
3162 | Friedman <yair@cs.huji.ac.il>, Thi <ttn@netcom.com>, Richard Levitte | |
3163 | <levitte@e.kth.se>, "William G. Dubuque" <wgd@martigny.ai.mit.edu>, | |
3164 | and Guan-Hsong Hsu <ghsu@relay.nswc.navy.mil>. | |
3165 | ||
3166 | ||
3167 | ||
3168 |