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 depressing the control key and v together).
20 From now on, you'll be expected to do this whenever you finish
23 Note that there is an overlap when going from screen to screen; this
24 provides some continuity when moving through the file.
26 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from
27 place to place in the file. You already know how to move forward a
28 screen, with C-v. To move backwards a screen, type M-v (depress the
29 META key and type v, or type <ESC>v if you don't have a META or EDIT
32 >> Try typing M-v and then C-v to move back and forth 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 everything
43 putting the text near the cursor at the center.
44 (That's control-L, not control-1.)
46 >> Find the cursor and remember what text is near it.
48 Find the cursor again and see what text is near it now.
51 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
52 ----------------------
54 Getting from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
55 reposition yourself within a given screen to a specific place?
56 There are several ways you can do this. One way (not the best, but
57 the most basic) is to use the commands previous, backward, forward
58 and next. As you can imagine these commands (which are given to
59 Emacs as C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n respectively) move the cursor from
60 where it currently is to a new place in the given direction. Here,
61 in a more graphical form are the commands:
66 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
71 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
72 and type C-l to see the whole diagram centered in the screen.
74 You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter. P for
75 previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are
76 the basic cursor positioning commands and you'll be using them ALL
77 the time so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
79 >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
81 >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
82 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
84 Lines are separated by Newline characters. For most applications
85 there should normally be a Newline character at the end of the text,
86 as well, but it is up to you to make sure of this. A file can
87 validly exist without a Newline at the end.
89 >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. Do a few more C-b's.
90 Then do C-f's back to the end of the line and beyond.
92 When you go off the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
93 the edge is shifted onto the screen so that your instructions can
94 be carried out while keeping the cursor on the screen.
96 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n and
99 If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
100 (Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
102 >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's. Intersperse them with C-f's and C-b's.
104 Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
105 M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
106 operations related to English text whereas Control characters operate
107 on the basic textual units that are independent of what you are
108 editing (characters, lines, etc). There is a similar parallel between
109 lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to the beginning or end of a
110 line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning or end of a sentence.
112 >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
113 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
115 See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving
116 farther. Do you think that this is right?
118 Two other simple cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
119 which moves to the beginning of the file, and M-> (Meta Greater-than),
120 which moves to the end of the file. You probably don't need to try
121 them, since finding this spot again will be boring. On most terminals
122 the "<" is above the comma and you must use the shift key to type it.
123 On these terminals you must use the shift key to type M-< also;
124 without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
126 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
127 paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
130 Here is a summary of simple moving operations including the word and
131 sentence moving commands:
133 C-f Move forward a character
134 C-b Move backward a character
136 M-f Move forward a word
137 M-b Move backward a word
139 C-n Move to next line
140 C-p Move to previous line
142 C-a Move to beginning of line
143 C-e Move to end of line
145 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
146 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
148 M-< Go to beginning of file
149 M-> Go to end of file
151 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
152 Since the last two will take you away from this screen,
153 you can come back here with M-v's and C-v's. These are
154 the most often used commands.
156 Like all other commands in Emacs, these commands can be given
157 arguments which cause them to be executed repeatedly. The way you
158 give a command a repeat count is by typing C-u and then the digits
159 before you type the command. If you have a META or EDIT key, you can
160 omit the C-u if you hold down the META or EDIT key while you type the
161 digits. This is easier, but we recommend the C-u method because it
162 works on any terminal.
164 For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
166 >> Try giving a suitable argument to C-n or C-p to come as close
167 as you can to this line in one jump.
169 The only apparent exception to this is the screen moving commands,
170 C-v and M-v. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or
171 down by that many lines, rather than screenfuls. This proves to be
174 >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
176 Did it scroll the screen up by 8 lines? If you would like to
177 scroll it down you can give an argument to M-v.
179 If you are using X Windows, there is probably a rectangular area
180 called a scroll bar at the right hand side of the Emacs window. You
181 can scroll the text by clicking the mouse in the scroll bar.
183 >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
184 within the scroll bar, then moving the mouse while holding that button
187 >> Move the mouse to a point in the scroll bar about three lines from
188 the top, and click the left button a couple of times. Then try the
189 right button a couple of times.
195 If Emacs gets into an infinite (or simply very long) computation which
196 you don't want to finish, you can stop it safely by typing C-g.
197 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
198 a command that you don't want to finish.
200 >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
201 Now type C-f. How many characters does it move?
202 If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
205 If you type <ESC> : then you get a new window appearing on the screen,
206 telling you that M-: is a "disabled command" and asking whether you
207 really want to execute it. The command M-: is marked as disabled
208 because we expect it would confuse beginners and you probably don't
209 want to use it until you know more about Emacs. If you really want to
210 try the M-: command, you could type a Space in answer to the question,
211 and M-: would go ahead. Normally, if you do not want to execute M-:,
212 you would type "n" to answer the question.
214 >> Type <ESC> :, then type n.
220 Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text.
221 At this stage it is better not to go into the techniques of
222 using multiple windows. But you do need to know how to get
223 rid of extra windows that may appear to display help or
224 output from certain commands. It is simple:
226 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
228 That is Control-x followed by the digit 1.
229 C-x 1 makes the window which the cursor is in become
230 the full screen, by getting rid of any other windows.
232 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
233 >> Type Control-h k Control-f.
234 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
235 to display documentation on the Control-f command.
237 >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
240 * INSERTING AND DELETING
241 ------------------------
243 If you want to insert text, just type it. Characters which you can
244 see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
245 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
248 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
249 <Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
250 some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
252 More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
253 current cursor position.
255 >> Do this now, type a few characters and then delete them
256 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
257 being changed; you won't affect the master tutorial. This is just
260 >> Now start typing text until you reach the right margin, and keep
261 typing. When a line of text gets too big for one line on the
262 screen, the line of text is "continued" onto a second screen line.
263 The backslash at the right margin indicates a line which has
265 >> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
266 line again. The continuation line goes away.
268 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
269 deletes the newline before the line and merges the line onto
270 the previous line. The resulting line may be too long to fit, in
271 which case it has a continuation line.
272 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
274 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
275 this includes characters which insert themselves.
277 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * and see what happens.
279 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
280 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
281 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
283 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
284 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
286 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
287 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
289 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
290 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
292 Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
293 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> isn't really a control
294 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
295 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
297 Now suppose you kill something, and then you decide that you want to
298 get it back? Well, whenever you kill something bigger than a
299 character, Emacs saves it for you. To yank it back, use C-y. You
300 can kill text in one place, move elsewhere, and then do C-y; this is
301 a good way to move text around. Note that the difference
302 between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is that "Killed" things
303 can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot. Generally, the
304 commands that can destroy a lot of text save it, while the ones that
305 attack only one character, or nothing but blank lines and spaces, do
308 For instance, type C-n a couple times to position the cursor
309 at some line on this screen.
311 >> Do this now, move the cursor and kill that line with C-k.
313 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
314 C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. If
315 you give C-k a repeat count, it kills that many lines AND their
318 The text that has just disappeared is saved so that you can
319 retrieve it. To retrieve the last killed text and put it where
320 the cursor currently is, type C-y.
322 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
324 Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone
325 took away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row
326 the text that is killed is all saved together so that one C-y will
327 yank all of the lines.
329 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
331 Now to retrieve that killed text:
333 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
334 again. You now see how to copy some text.
336 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
337 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
338 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
339 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
340 M-Y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
341 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you
342 have reached the text you are looking for, you can just go away and
343 leave it there. If you M-y enough times, you come back to the
344 starting point (the most recent kill).
346 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
347 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
348 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
349 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
350 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
351 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
358 Any time you make a change to the text and wish you had not done so,
359 you can undo the change (return the text to its previous state)
360 with the undo command, C-x u. Normally, C-x u undoes one command's
361 worth of changes; if you repeat the C-x u several times in a row,
362 each time undoes one more command. There are two exceptions:
363 commands that made no change (just moved the cursor) do not count,
364 and self-inserting characters are often lumped together in groups
365 of up to 20. This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to type.
367 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
369 C-_ is another command for undoing; it is just the same as C-x u
370 but easier to type several times in a row. The problem with C-_ is
371 that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That is
372 why C-x u is provided as well. On some DEC terminals, you can type
373 C-_ by typing / while holding down CTRL. Illogical, but what can
376 Giving a numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u is equivalent to repeating
377 it as many times as the argument says.
383 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
384 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
385 away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. What
386 finding means is that you see the contents of the file in your Emacs;
387 and, loosely speaking, what you are editing is the file itself.
388 However, the changes still don't become permanent until you "save" the
389 file. This is so you can have control to avoid leaving a half-changed
390 file around when you don't want to. Even then, Emacs leaves the
391 original file under a changed name in case your changes turn out
394 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
395 begins and ends with dashes, and contains the string "Emacs: TUTORIAL".
396 Your copy of the Emacs tutorial is called "TUTORIAL". Whatever
397 file you find, that file's name will appear in that precise
400 The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
401 commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
402 They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
403 of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
404 files, buffers, and related things, and all of them consist of
405 Control-x followed by some other character.
407 Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
408 to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
409 from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
410 file). After you type the command
414 Emacs asks you to type the file name. It echoes on the bottom
415 line of the screen. You are using the minibuffer now! this is
416 what the minibuffer is for. When you type <Return> to end the
417 file name, the minibuffer is no longer needed, so it disappears.
419 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
420 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
421 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
423 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen. You can
424 edit the contents. When you wish to make the changes permanent,
427 C-x C-s Save the file
429 The contents of Emacs are written into the file. The first time you
430 do this, the original file is renamed to a new name so that it
431 is not lost. The new name is made by appending "~" to the end
432 of the original file's name.
434 When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
435 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
436 work if the system should crash.
438 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
439 This should print "Wrote .../TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
440 On VMS it will print "Wrote ...[...]TUTORIAL."
442 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
443 will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
444 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
445 C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
446 type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
447 Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
449 To make a new file, just find it "as if" it already existed. Then
450 start typing in the text. When you ask to "save" the file, Emacs
451 will really create the file with the text that you have inserted.
452 From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an already
459 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
460 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
461 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
463 The object inside Emacs which holds the text read from one file
464 is called a "buffer." Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs.
465 To see a list of the buffers that exist in Emacs, type
471 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
472 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
473 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
474 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
475 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
476 has to be in some buffer.
478 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
480 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
481 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
482 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
483 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
484 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
485 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
486 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
488 C-x s Save some buffers
490 C-x s goes through the list of all the buffers you have
491 and finds the ones that contain files you have changed.
492 For each such buffer, C-x s asks you whether to save it.
495 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
496 ---------------------------
498 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
499 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
500 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
502 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
503 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
505 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
506 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two
507 of them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save.
508 Another example is the command to tell Emacs that you'd like to stop
509 editing and get rid of Emacs. The command to do this is C-x C-c.
510 (Don't worry; it offers to save each changed file before it kills the
513 C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
514 back to the same Emacs session afterward.
516 On systems which allow it, C-z exits from Emacs to the shell but does
517 not destroy the Emacs; if you use the C shell, you can resume Emacs
518 with the `fg' command (or, more generally, with `%emacs', which works
519 even if your most recent job was some other). On systems which don't
520 implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell running under Emacs to
521 give you the chance to run other programs and return to Emacs
522 afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In this case, the
523 shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to Emacs from the
526 The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
527 the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
528 programs and other random utilities, since they may not know how to
529 cope with suspension of Emacs. On other occasions, use C-z, and
530 resume the Emacs when you have more editing to do.
532 There are many C-x commands. The ones you know are:
536 C-x C-b List buffers.
540 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
541 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. These
542 commands are usually called "functions". An example is the function
543 replace-string, which globally replaces one string with another. When
544 you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the bottom of the screen with
545 M-x and you should type the name of the function you wish to call; in
546 this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and Emacs will
547 complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
548 Then type the two "arguments"--the string to be replaced, and the string
549 to replace it with--each one ended with a Return.
551 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
552 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
554 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
555 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred
562 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
563 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
564 this, Emacs writes "auto save" files periodically. The auto save file
565 name has a # at the beginning and the end; for example, if your file
566 is named "hello.c", its auto save file's name is "#hello.c#". When
567 you save the file in the normal way, its auto save file is no longer
568 necessary so Emacs deletes it.
570 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
571 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
572 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<return>. When it asks for
573 confirmation, type yes<return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
580 If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
581 at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
582 area contains the bottom line of the screen. The line immediately above
583 it is called the MODE LINE. The mode line says something like
585 --**-Emacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--58%----------------------
587 This is a very useful "information" line.
589 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
590 found. What the --NN%-- means is that NN percent of the file is
591 above the top of the screen. If the top of the file is on the screen,
592 it will say --Top-- instead of --00%--. If the bottom of the file is
593 on the screen, it will say --Bot--. If you are looking at a file so
594 small it all fits on the screen, it says --All--.
596 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
597 Right after you visit or save a file, there are no stars, just dashes.
599 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
600 modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is what you
601 are in now. It is an example of a "major mode". There are several
602 major modes in Emacs for editing different languages and text, such as
603 Lisp mode, Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is
604 active, and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
605 "Fundamental" is now. Each major mode makes a few commands behave
606 differently. For example, there are commands for creating comments in
607 a program, and since each programming language has a different idea of
608 what a comment should look like, each major mode has to insert
609 comments differently. Each major mode is the name of an extended
610 command, which is how you get into the mode. For example,
611 M-x fundamental-mode is how to get into Fundamental mode.
613 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
614 should probably use Text Mode.
615 >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
617 Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
618 any great way. But you can observe that apostrophes are now part of
619 words when you do M-f or M-b. Major modes are usually like that:
620 commands don't change into completely unrelated things, but they work
621 a little bit differently.
623 To get documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
625 >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
626 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
627 >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
629 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
630 They are called minor because they aren't alternatives to the major
631 modes, just minor modifications of them. Each minor mode can be
632 turned on or off by itself, regardless of what major mode you are in,
633 and regardless of the other minor modes. So you can use no minor
634 modes, or one minor mode, or any combination of several minor modes.
636 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
637 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
638 in between words automatically whenever the line gets too long. You
639 can turn this mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>. When the
640 mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
641 If the mode is off, this function turns it on, and if the mode is on,
642 this function turns it off. This is called "toggling".
644 >> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
645 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
646 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
648 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
649 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
650 as a numeric argument.
652 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
653 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
654 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
657 If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
658 does not re-fill it for you.
659 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
662 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
667 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
668 characters or words) either forward through the file or backward
669 through it. To search for the string means that you are trying to
670 locate it somewhere in the file and have Emacs show you where the
671 occurrences of the string exist. This type of search is somewhat
672 different from what you may be familiar with. It is a search that is
673 performed as you type in the thing to search for. The command to
674 initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r for reverse
675 search. BUT WAIT! Don't do them now. When you type C-s you'll
676 notice that the string "I-search" appears as a prompt in the echo
677 area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is called an incremental
678 search waiting for you to type the thing that you want to search for.
679 <RET> terminates a search.
681 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
682 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
683 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
684 >> Type C-s to find the next occurrence of "cursor".
685 >> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
686 >> Type <RET> to terminate the search.
688 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
689 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To go
690 to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
691 occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you that it is a failing
692 search. C-g would also terminate the search.
694 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
695 see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
696 system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
697 letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
698 Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
699 Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
701 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
702 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
703 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
704 instance, suppose you currently have typed 'cu' and you see that your
705 cursor is at the first occurrence of 'cu'. If you now type <Delete>,
706 the 'u' on the search line is erased and you'll be repositioned in the
707 text to the occurrence of 'c' where the search took you before you
708 typed the 'u'. This provides a useful means for backing up while you
711 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
712 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
713 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
715 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
716 string AFTER the current cursor position. But what if you want to
717 search for something earlier in the text? To do this, type C-r for
718 Reverse search. Everything that applies to C-s applies to C-r except
719 that the direction of the search is reversed.
725 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
726 window on the screen at the same time.
728 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
730 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
731 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
733 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
734 (If you don't have a real Meta key, type ESC C-v.)
736 >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
737 >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
738 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
740 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
741 The cursor is still just where it was in the top window before.
743 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
744 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
745 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
746 window that the cursor is in.
748 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
749 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
750 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and edit
751 there as you advance through the other window.
753 C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
754 META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CTRL and META while
757 It doesn't matter whether CTRL or META "comes first," because both of
758 these keys act by modifying the characters you type. But if you don't
759 have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order does matter:
760 you must type ESC followed by CTRL-v; CTRL-ESC v will not work. This
761 is because ESC is a character in its own right, not a modifier key.
763 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
765 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
766 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
767 window--the window I am already in.")
769 You don't have to display the same buffer in both windows. If
770 you use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window
771 doesn't change. You can pick a file in each window
774 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
777 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
778 End with <RETURN>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
779 window. The cursor goes there, too.
781 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
785 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
786 --------------------------
788 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
789 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
790 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
791 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
793 To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
794 an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
795 extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
797 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
799 You can't use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level because C-g
800 is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the recursive
807 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
808 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
809 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
810 to learn more about Emacs since it has numerous desirable features
811 that you don't know about yet. Emacs has a great deal of internal
812 documentation. All of these commands can be accessed through
813 the character Control-h, which we call "the Help character"
814 because of the function it serves.
816 To use the HELP features, type the C-h character, and then a
817 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
818 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
819 If you have typed C-h and decide you don't want any help, just
820 type C-g to cancel it.
822 (Some sites rebind the character C-h. They really shouldn't do this
823 as a blanket measure, so complain to the operator. Meanwhile, if C-h
824 does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try
825 typing M-x help RET instead.)
827 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, a c, and a
828 command character or sequence, and Emacs displays a very brief
829 description of the command.
831 >> Type C-h c Control-p.
832 The message should be something like
834 C-p runs the command previous-line
836 This tells you the "name of the function". That is important in
837 writing Lisp code to extend Emacs; it also is enough to remind
838 you of what the command does if you have seen it before but did
841 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
842 EDIT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
844 To get more information on the command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
846 >> Type C-h k Control-p.
848 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
849 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
850 output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
851 to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
852 to the help text and then type C-x 1.
854 Here are some other useful C-h options:
856 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
859 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
860 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
861 function which implements the C-p command.
863 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
864 all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
865 These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
866 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
867 or two character sequence which has the same effect.
869 >> Type C-h a file<Return>.
871 This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with
872 "file" in their names. You will also see commands like C-x C-f
873 and C-x C-w, listed beside the command names find-file and
876 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
878 >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
884 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
885 temporarily, so that you can come back in, use C-z.
887 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
888 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
894 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
895 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
897 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
898 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
900 Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation
902 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
903 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
904 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
905 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
906 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
908 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
909 of this document, or of portions of it,
910 under the above conditions, provided also that they
911 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
913 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are slightly different
914 but in the same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then
915 do give copies of GNU Emacs to your friends.
916 Help stamp out software obstructionism ("ownership") by using,
917 writing, and sharing free software!
HCoop / bpt / emacs.git / blob