1 Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation, Inc; See end for conditions.
2 You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
4 Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labeled
5 CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labeled EDIT or ALT). Rather than
6 write that in full each time, we'll use the following abbreviations:
8 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
9 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
10 M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT or ALT key down while typing <chr>.
11 If there is no META, EDIT or ALT key, instead press and release the
12 ESC key and then type <chr>. We write <ESC> for the ESC key.
14 Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
15 The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
16 try using a command. For instance:
17 <<Blank lines inserted here by startup of help-with-tutorial>>
18 >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
19 (go ahead, do it by holding down the control key while typing v).
20 From now on, you should do this again whenever you finish
23 Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen
24 to screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading
27 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place
28 to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen,
29 with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key
30 and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META, EDIT, or ALT key).
32 >> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times.
38 The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
40 C-v Move forward one screenful
41 M-v Move backward one screenful
42 C-l Clear screen and redisplay all the text,
43 moving the text around the cursor
44 to the center of the screen.
45 (That's control-L, not control-1.)
47 >> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it.
49 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text
50 is near the cursor now.
53 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
54 ----------------------
56 Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
57 move to a specific place within the text on the screen?
59 There are several ways you can do this. The most basic way is to use
60 the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. Each of these commands moves the
61 cursor one row or column in a particular direction on the screen.
62 Here is a table showing these four commands and the directions they
68 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
73 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
74 using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram
75 centered in the screen.
77 You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter: P for
78 previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are the
79 basic cursor positioning commands, and you'll be using them ALL the
80 time, so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
82 >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
84 >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
85 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
87 Each of text line ends with a Newline character, which serves to
88 separate it from the following line. The last line in your file ought
89 to have a Newline at the end (but Emacs does not require it to have
92 >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. It should move to
93 the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back
94 across the Newline character.
96 C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b.
98 >> Do a few more C-b's, so you get a feel for where the cursor is.
99 Then do C-f's to return to the end of the line.
100 Then do one more C-f to move to the following line.
102 When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
103 the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It
104 enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text
105 without moving it off the screen.
107 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and
110 If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
111 (Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
113 >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's.
115 When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word.
116 When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the
117 following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction.
119 >> Type M-f and M-b a few times, interspersed with C-f's and C-b's
120 so that you can observe the action of M-f and M-b from various
121 places inside and between words.
123 Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
124 M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
125 operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences,
126 paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are
127 independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc).
129 This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to
130 the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning
131 or end of a sentence.
133 >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
134 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
136 See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one
137 more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems
140 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
141 paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
144 Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the
145 word and sentence moving commands:
147 C-f Move forward a character
148 C-b Move backward a character
150 M-f Move forward a word
151 M-b Move backward a word
153 C-n Move to next line
154 C-p Move to previous line
156 C-a Move to beginning of line
157 C-e Move to end of line
159 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
160 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
162 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
163 These are the most often used commands.
165 Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
166 which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (Meta
167 Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text.
169 On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the
170 shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key
171 to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
173 >> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial.
174 Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here.
176 >> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial.
177 Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here.
179 You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has
180 arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three
181 reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once
182 you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these Control
183 characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not
184 have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once
185 you form the habit of using these Control character commands, you can
186 easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well.
188 Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this
189 serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count
190 is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If
191 you have a META (or EDIT or ALT) key, there is another, alternative way
192 to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the
193 META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on
194 any terminal. The numeric argument is also called a "prefix argument",
195 because you type the argument before the command it applies to.
197 For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
199 >> Try using C-n or C-p with a numeric argument, to move the cursor
200 to a line near this one with just one command.
202 Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count, but some
203 commands use it in some other way. Several commands (but none of
204 those you have learned so far) use it as a flag--the presence of a
205 prefix argument, regardless of its value, makes the command do
208 C-v and M-v are another kind of exception. When given an argument,
209 they scroll the screen up or down by that many lines, rather than by a
210 screenful. For example, C-u 8 C-v scrolls the screen by 8 lines.
212 >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
214 This should have scrolled the screen up by 8 lines. If you would like
215 to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v.
217 If you are using X Windows, there should be a tall rectangular area
218 called a scroll bar at the left hand side of the Emacs window. You
219 can scroll the text by clicking the mouse in the scroll bar.
221 >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
222 within the scroll bar. This should scroll the text to a position
223 determined by how high or low you click.
225 >> Try moving the mouse up and down, while holding the middle button
226 pressed down. You'll see that the text scrolls up and down as
233 If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by
234 typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too
237 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
238 a command that you do not want to finish.
240 >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
241 Now type C-f. It should move just one character,
242 because you canceled the argument with C-g.
244 If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
251 Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use
254 If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message
255 saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go
256 ahead and execute the command.
258 If you really want to try the command, type Space in answer to the
259 question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the disabled
260 command, answer the question with "n".
262 >> Type C-x C-l (which is a disabled command),
263 then type n to answer the question.
269 Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text. We will
270 explain later on how to use multiple windows. Right now we want to
271 explain how to get rid of extra windows and go back to basic
272 one-window editing. It is simple:
274 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
276 That is Control-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window
277 which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all
280 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
281 >> Type Control-h k Control-f.
282 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
283 to display documentation on the Control-f command.
285 >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
287 This command is unlike the other commands you have learned in that it
288 consists of two characters. It starts with the character Control-x.
289 There is a whole series of commands that start with Control-x; many of
290 them have to do with windows, files, buffers, and related things.
291 These commands are two, three or four characters long.
294 * INSERTING AND DELETING
295 ------------------------
297 If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you
298 can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
299 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
302 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
303 <Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
304 some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
306 More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
307 current cursor position.
309 >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them
310 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
311 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is
312 your personal copy of it.
314 When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line
315 of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\")
316 at the right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
318 >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting.
319 You'll see a continuation line appear.
321 >> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
322 line again. The continuation line goes away.
324 You can delete a Newline character just like any other character.
325 Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into
326 one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the
327 screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line.
329 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
330 merges that line with the previous line.
332 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
334 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
335 this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts
338 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********.
340 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
341 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
342 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
344 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
345 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
347 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
348 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
350 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
351 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
353 Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
354 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> is not really a control
355 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
356 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
358 You can also kill any part of the buffer with one uniform method.
359 Move to one end of that part, and type C-@ or C-SPC (either one).
360 Move to the other end of that part, and type C-w. That kills
361 all the text between the two positions.
363 >> Move the cursor to the Y at the start of the previous paragraph.
364 >> Type C-SPC. Emacs should display a message "Mark set"
365 at the bottom of the screen.
366 >> Move the cursor to the n in "end", on the second line of the
368 >> Type C-w. This will kill the text starting from the Y,
369 and ending just before the n.
371 When you delete more than one character at a time, Emacs saves the
372 deleted text so that you can bring it back. Bringing back killed text
373 is called "yanking". You can yank the killed text either at the same
374 place where it was killed, or at some other place in the text. You
375 can yank the text several times in order to make multiple copies of
376 it. The command to yank is C-y.
378 Note that the difference between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is
379 that "Killed" things can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot.
380 Generally, the commands that can remove a lot of text save the text,
381 while the commands that delete just one character, or just blank lines
382 and spaces, do not save the deleted text.
384 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty.
385 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line.
386 >> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline
387 which follows that line.
389 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
390 C-k kills the line itself, and makes all the other lines move up. C-k
391 treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND
392 their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two
393 lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that.
395 To retrieve the last killed text and put it where the cursor currently
398 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
400 Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone took
401 away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row, all of
402 the killed text is saved together, so that one C-y will yank all of
405 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
407 Now to retrieve that killed text:
409 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
410 again. You now see how to copy some text.
412 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
413 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
414 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
415 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
416 M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
417 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have
418 reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to
419 keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where
422 If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most
425 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
426 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
427 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
428 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
429 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
430 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
437 If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a
438 mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u.
440 Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat
441 the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one
444 But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do
445 not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling
446 command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups
447 of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to
448 type to undo insertion of text.)
450 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
452 C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u,
453 but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of
454 C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That
455 is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_
456 by typing / while holding down CONTROL.
458 A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count.
464 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
465 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
466 away. In order to put your text in a file, you must "find" the file
467 before you enter the text. (This is also called "visiting" the file.)
469 Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within
470 Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself.
471 However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent
472 until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a
473 half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when
474 you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case
475 you later decide that your changes were a mistake.
477 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
478 begins and ends with dashes, and starts with "--:-- TUTORIAL" or
479 something like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name
480 of the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file
481 called "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs
482 tutorial. When you find a file with Emacs, that file's name will
483 appear in that precise spot.
485 One special thing about the command for finding a file is that you
486 have to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an
487 argument from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of
488 the file). After you type the command
492 Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears
493 on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the
494 minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use
495 ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name.
497 While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input),
498 you can cancel the command with C-g.
500 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
501 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
502 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
504 When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to
505 terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file
506 you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is
509 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can
510 edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent,
513 C-x C-s Save the file
515 This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you
516 do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is
517 not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the
518 original file's name.
520 When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
521 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
522 work if the system should crash.
524 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
525 This should print "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
527 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
528 will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
529 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
530 C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
531 type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
532 Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
534 You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also
535 find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a
536 file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then
537 begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the
538 file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have
539 inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an
540 already existing file.
546 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
547 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
548 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
550 >> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>.
551 Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s.
552 Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return>
553 to come back to the tutorial.
555 Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer".
556 Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the
557 buffers that currently exist in your Emacs job, type
563 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
564 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
565 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
566 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
567 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
568 is always part of some buffer.
570 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
572 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
573 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
574 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
575 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
576 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
577 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
578 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
580 C-x s Save some buffers
582 C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have
583 not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the
586 >> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s.
587 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL.
588 Answer yes to the question by typing "y".
591 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
592 ---------------------------
594 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
595 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
596 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
598 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
599 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
601 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
602 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of
603 them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another
604 example is the command to end the Emacs session--this is the command
605 C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c
606 offers to save each changed file before it kills the Emacs.)
608 C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
609 back to the same Emacs session afterward.
611 On systems which allow it, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns
612 to the shell but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common
613 shells, you can resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'.
615 On systems which do not implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell
616 running under Emacs to give you the chance to run other programs and
617 return to Emacs afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In
618 this case, the shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to
619 Emacs from the subshell.
621 The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
622 the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
623 programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know
624 how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances,
625 though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs
626 with C-z instead of exiting Emacs.
628 There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned:
632 C-x C-b List buffers.
634 C-x 1 Delete all but one window.
637 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
638 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An
639 example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one
640 string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the
641 bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the
642 command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and
643 Emacs will complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
645 The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be
646 replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each
647 argument with <Return>.
649 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
650 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
652 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
653 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred,
654 after the initial position of the cursor.
660 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
661 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
662 this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that
663 you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and
664 the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save
665 file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way,
666 Emacs deletes its auto save file.
668 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
669 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
670 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<Return>. When it asks for
671 confirmation, type yes<Return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
678 If Emacs sees that you are typing multicharacter commands slowly, it
679 shows them to you at the bottom of the screen in an area called the
680 "echo area". The echo area contains the bottom line of the screen.
686 The line immediately above the echo area is called the "mode line".
687 The mode line says something like this:
689 --:** TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%----------------
691 This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and
692 the text you are editing.
694 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
695 found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means
696 that NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the
697 top of the file is on the screen, it will say --Top-- instead of
698 --00%--. If the bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say
699 --Bot--. If you are looking at text so small that all of it fits on
700 the screen, the mode line says --All--.
702 The L and digits indicate position in another way: they give the
703 current line number of point.
705 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
706 Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows
707 no stars, just dashes.
709 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
710 editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is
711 what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode".
713 Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for
714 editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode,
715 Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active,
716 and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
717 "Fundamental" is now.
719 Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example,
720 there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each
721 programming language has a different idea of what a comment should
722 look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each
723 major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can
724 switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to
725 switch to Fundamental mode.
727 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
728 should probably use Text Mode.
729 >> Type M-x text mode<Return>.
731 Don't worry, none of the Emacs commands you have learned changes in
732 any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat
733 apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode,
734 M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators.
736 Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands
737 do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit
740 To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
742 >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
743 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
744 >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
746 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
747 Minor modes are not alternatives to the major modes, just minor
748 modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by
749 itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your
750 major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any
751 combination of several minor modes.
753 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
754 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
755 in between words automatically whenever you insert text and make a
756 line that is too wide.
758 You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto fill mode<Return>.
759 When the mode is on, you can turn it off again by doing M-x
760 auto fill mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on,
761 and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the
762 command "toggles the mode".
764 >> Type M-x auto fill mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
765 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
766 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
768 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
769 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
770 as a numeric argument.
772 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
773 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
774 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
777 If you make changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
778 does not re-fill it for you.
779 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
782 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
788 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
789 characters or words) either forward through the text or backward
790 through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command;
791 it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears.
793 The Emacs search command is different from the search commands
794 of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the
795 search happens while you type in the string to search for.
797 The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r
798 for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now.
800 When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as
801 a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is
802 called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that
803 you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search.
805 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
806 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
807 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
808 Now you have searched for "cursor", once.
809 >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor".
810 >> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
811 >> Type <Return> to terminate the search.
813 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
814 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To
815 go to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
816 occurrence exists, Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently
817 "failing". C-g would also terminate the search.
819 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
820 see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
821 system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
822 letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
823 Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
824 Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
826 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
827 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
828 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
829 instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first
830 occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move
831 to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delete>. This erases
832 the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to
833 the first occurrence of "c".
835 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
836 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
837 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
839 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
840 string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for
841 something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we
842 have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of
843 the search is reversed.
849 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
850 window on the screen at the same time.
852 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
854 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
855 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
857 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
858 (If you do not have a real Meta key, type ESC C-v.)
860 >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
861 >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
862 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
864 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
865 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before.
867 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
868 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
869 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
870 window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window".
872 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
873 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
874 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance
875 through the other window sequentially with C-M-v.
877 C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
878 META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CONTROL and META while
879 typing v. It does not matter whether CONTROL or META "comes first,"
880 because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type.
882 If you do not have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order
883 does matter: you must type ESC followed by Control-v, because
884 Control-ESC v will not work. This is because ESC is a character in
885 its own right, not a modifier key.
887 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
889 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
890 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
891 window--the window I am already in.")
893 You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you
894 use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not
895 change. You can find a file in each window independently.
897 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
900 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
901 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
902 window. The cursor goes there, too.
904 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
908 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
909 --------------------------
911 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
912 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
913 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
914 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
916 To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
917 an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
918 extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
920 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
922 You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is
923 because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the
924 recursive editing level.
930 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
931 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
932 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
933 to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features.
934 Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs
935 commands. These "help" commands all start with the character
936 Control-h, which is called "the Help character".
938 To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a
939 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
940 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
941 If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just
942 type C-g to cancel it.
944 (Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. They really
945 should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you have
946 grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h
947 does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try
948 typing the F1 key or M-x help <Return> instead.)
950 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and
951 a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief
952 description of the command.
955 The message should be something like
957 C-p runs the command previous-line
959 This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used
960 mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names
961 are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as
962 very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you
963 have already learned.
965 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
966 EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
968 To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
972 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
973 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
974 output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
975 to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
976 to the help text, and then type C-x 1.
978 Here are some other useful C-h options:
980 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
983 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
984 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
985 function which implements the C-p command.
987 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
988 all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
989 These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
990 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
991 or two character sequence which runs the same command.
993 >> Type C-h a file<Return>.
995 This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file"
996 in their names. You will see character-commands like C-x C-f listed
997 beside the corresponding command names such as find-file.
999 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
1001 >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
1007 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
1008 temporarily, so that you can come back to Emacs afterward, use C-z.
1010 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
1011 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
1017 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
1018 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
1020 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
1021 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
1023 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996 Free Software Foundation
1025 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1026 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1027 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
1028 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
1029 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
1031 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1032 of this document, or of portions of it,
1033 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1034 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
1036 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are more complex, but in the
1037 same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of
1038 GNU Emacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism
1039 ("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software!
HCoop / bpt / emacs.git / blob