@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
-@c Copyright (C) 1985,86,87,93,94,95,1997,2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001,
+@c 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node MS-DOS, Manifesto, Mac OS, Top
-@appendix Emacs and MS-DOS
+@appendix Emacs and MS-DOS
@cindex MS-DOG
@cindex MS-DOS peculiarities
This section briefly describes the peculiarities of using Emacs under
the MS-DOS ``operating system'' (also known as ``MS-DOG''). If you
build Emacs for MS-DOS, the binary will also run on Windows 3.X, Windows
-NT, Windows 9X, or OS/2 as a DOS application; the information in this
-chapter applies for all of those systems, if you use an Emacs that was
-built for MS-DOS.
+NT, Windows 9X/ME, Windows 2000, or OS/2 as a DOS application; the
+information in this chapter applies for all of those systems, if you use
+an Emacs that was built for MS-DOS.
- Note that it is possible to build Emacs specifically for Windows NT or
-Windows 9X. If you do that, most of this chapter does not apply;
+ Note that it is possible to build Emacs specifically for Windows NT/2K
+or Windows 9X/ME. If you do that, most of this chapter does not apply;
instead, you get behavior much closer to what is documented in the rest
of the manual, including support for long file names, multiple frames,
scroll bars, mouse menus, and subprocesses. However, the section on
text files and binary files does still apply. There are also two
-sections at the end of this chapter which apply specifically for Windows
-NT and 9X.
+sections at the end of this chapter which apply specifically for the
+Windows version.
@menu
-* Input: MS-DOS Input. Keyboard and mouse usage on MS-DOS.
+* Keyboard: MS-DOS Keyboard. Keyboard conventions on MS-DOS.
+* Mouse: MS-DOS Mouse. Mouse conventions on MS-DOS.
* Display: MS-DOS Display. Fonts, frames and display size on MS-DOS.
* Files: MS-DOS File Names. File name conventions on MS-DOS.
* Text and Binary:: Text files on MS-DOS use CRLF to separate lines.
* Windows System Menu:: Controlling what the ALT key does.
@end menu
-@node MS-DOS Input
-@section Keyboard and Mouse on MS-DOS
+@node MS-DOS Keyboard
+@section Keyboard Usage on MS-DOS
+
+@kindex DEL @r{(MS-DOS)}
+@kindex BS @r{(MS-DOS)}
+ The key that is called @key{DEL} in Emacs (because that's how it is
+designated on most workstations) is known as @key{BS} (backspace) on a
+PC. That is why the PC-specific terminal initialization remaps the
+@key{BS} key to act as @key{DEL}; the @key{DELETE} key is remapped to act
+as @kbd{C-d} for the same reasons.
+
+@kindex C-g @r{(MS-DOS)}
+@kindex C-BREAK @r{(MS-DOS)}
+@cindex quitting on MS-DOS
+ Emacs built for MS-DOS recognizes @kbd{C-@key{BREAK}} as a quit
+character, just like @kbd{C-g}. This is because Emacs cannot detect
+that you have typed @kbd{C-g} until it is ready for more input. As a
+consequence, you cannot use @kbd{C-g} to stop a running command
+(@pxref{Quitting}). By contrast, @kbd{C-@key{BREAK}} @emph{is} detected
+as soon as you type it (as @kbd{C-g} is on other systems), so it can be
+used to stop a running command and for emergency escape
+(@pxref{Emergency Escape}).
@cindex Meta (under MS-DOS)
@cindex Hyper (under MS-DOS)
(define-key function-key-map [kp-enter] [?\C-j])
@end smallexample
-@kindex DEL @r{(MS-DOS)}
-@kindex BS @r{(MS-DOS)}
- The key that is called @key{DEL} in Emacs (because that's how it is
-designated on most workstations) is known as @key{BS} (backspace) on a
-PC. That is why the PC-specific terminal initialization remaps the
-@key{BS} key to act as @key{DEL}; the @key{DEL} key is remapped to act
-as @kbd{C-d} for the same reasons.
-
-@kindex C-g @r{(MS-DOS)}
-@kindex C-BREAK @r{(MS-DOS)}
-@cindex quitting on MS-DOS
- Emacs built for MS-DOS recognizes @kbd{C-@key{BREAK}} as a quit
-character, just like @kbd{C-g}. This is because Emacs cannot detect
-that you have typed @kbd{C-g} until it is ready for more input. As a
-consequence, you cannot use @kbd{C-g} to stop a running command
-(@pxref{Quitting}). By contrast, @kbd{C-@key{BREAK}} @emph{is} detected
-as soon as you type it (as @kbd{C-g} is on other systems), so it can be
-used to stop a running command and for emergency escape
-(@pxref{Emergency Escape}).
+@node MS-DOS Mouse
+@section Mouse Usage on MS-DOS
@cindex mouse support under MS-DOS
Emacs on MS-DOS supports a mouse (on the default terminal only).
of free DOS memory that is available to Emacs. Usually, up to 620KB of
text can be put into the clipboard, but this limit depends on the system
configuration and is lower if you run Emacs as a subprocess of
-another program. If the killed text does not fit, Emacs prints a
+another program. If the killed text does not fit, Emacs outputs a
message saying so, and does not put the text into the clipboard.
Null characters also cannot be put into the Windows clipboard. If the
killed text includes null characters, Emacs does not put such text into
-the clipboard, and prints in the echo area a message to that effect.
+the clipboard, and displays in the echo area a message to that effect.
@vindex dos-display-scancodes
The variable @code{dos-display-scancodes}, when non-@code{nil},
-directs Emacs to display the ASCII value and the keyboard scan code of
+directs Emacs to display the @acronym{ASCII} value and the keyboard scan code of
each keystroke; this feature serves as a complement to the
@code{view-lossage} command, for debugging.
@code{default-frame-alist} (@pxref{Creating Frames}). The MS-DOS
terminal doesn't support a vertical-bar cursor, so the bar cursor is
horizontal, and the @code{@var{width}} parameter, if specified by the
-frame parameters, actually determines its height. As an extension,
-the bar cursor specification can include the starting scan line of the
-cursor as well as its width, like this:
+frame parameters, actually determines its height. For this reason,
+the @code{bar} and @code{hbar} cursor types produce the same effect on
+MS-DOS. As an extension, the bar cursor specification can include the
+starting scan line of the cursor as well as its width, like this:
@example
'(cursor-type bar @var{width} . @var{start})
@cindex file names under Windows 95/NT
@cindex long file names in DOS box under Windows 95/NT
- If you run Emacs as a DOS application under Windows 9X, you can
-turn on support for long file names. If you do that, Emacs doesn't
-truncate file names or convert them to lower case; instead, it uses the
-file names that you specify, verbatim. To enable long file name
-support, set the environment variable @env{LFN} to @samp{y} before
-starting Emacs. Unfortunately, Windows NT doesn't allow DOS programs to
-access long file names, so Emacs built for MS-DOS will only see their
-short 8+3 aliases.
+ If you run Emacs as a DOS application under Windows 9X, Windows ME, or
+Windows 2000, you can turn on support for long file names. If you do
+that, Emacs doesn't truncate file names or convert them to lower case;
+instead, it uses the file names that you specify, verbatim. To enable
+long file name support, set the environment variable @env{LFN} to
+@samp{y} before starting Emacs. Unfortunately, Windows NT doesn't allow
+DOS programs to access long file names, so Emacs built for MS-DOS will
+only see their short 8+3 aliases.
@cindex @env{HOME} directory under MS-DOS
MS-DOS has no notion of home directory, so Emacs on MS-DOS pretends
-that the directory where it is installed is the value of @env{HOME}
+that the directory where it is installed is the value of the @env{HOME}
environment variable. That is, if your Emacs binary,
@file{emacs.exe}, is in the directory @file{c:/utils/emacs/bin}, then
Emacs acts as if @env{HOME} were set to @samp{c:/utils/emacs}. In
@findex add-untranslated-filesystem
When you use NFS or Samba to access file systems that reside on
computers using GNU or Unix systems, Emacs should not perform
-end-of-line translation on any files in these file systems--not even
+end-of-line translation on any files in these file systems---not even
when you create a new file. To request this, designate these file
systems as @dfn{untranslated} file systems by calling the function
@code{add-untranslated-filesystem}. It takes one argument: the file
@node MS-DOS Printing
@section Printing and MS-DOS
- Printing commands, such as @code{lpr-buffer} (@pxref{Hardcopy}) and
+ Printing commands, such as @code{lpr-buffer} (@pxref{Printing}) and
@code{ps-print-buffer} (@pxref{PostScript}) can work in MS-DOS and
MS-Windows by sending the output to one of the printer ports, if a
-Unix-style @code{lpr} program is unavailable. The same Emacs
-variables control printing on all systems (@pxref{Hardcopy}), but in
-some cases they have different default values on MS-DOS and
-MS-Windows.
+Posix-style @code{lpr} program is unavailable. The same Emacs
+variables control printing on all systems, but in some cases they have
+different default values on MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
@vindex printer-name @r{(MS-DOS)}
If you want to use your local printer, printing on it in the usual DOS
On MS-Windows, when the Windows network software is installed, you can
also use a printer shared by another machine by setting
-@code{printer-name} to the UNC share name for that printer--for example,
+@code{printer-name} to the UNC share name for that printer---for example,
@code{"//joes_pc/hp4si"}. (It doesn't matter whether you use forward
slashes or backslashes here.) To find out the names of shared printers,
run the command @samp{net view} at a DOS command prompt to obtain a list
redirect it to a networked printer via the @w{@code{Control
Panel->Printers}} applet instead of @samp{net use}.
- Some printers expect DOS codepage encoding of non-ASCII text, even
+ Some printers expect DOS codepage encoding of non-@acronym{ASCII} text, even
though they are connected to a Windows machine which uses a different
encoding for the same locale. For example, in the Latin-1 locale, DOS
uses codepage 850 whereas Windows uses codepage 1252. @xref{MS-DOS and
@cindex international support @r{(MS-DOS)}
Emacs on MS-DOS supports the same international character sets as it
-does on Unix and other platforms (@pxref{International}), including
+does on GNU, Unix and other platforms (@pxref{International}), including
coding systems for converting between the different character sets.
-However, due to incompatibilities between MS-DOS/MS-Windows and Unix,
-there are several DOS-specific aspects of this support that users should
+However, due to incompatibilities between MS-DOS/MS-Windows and other systems,
+there are several DOS-specific aspects of this support that you should
be aware of. This section describes these aspects.
+ The description below is largely specific to the MS-DOS port of
+Emacs, especially where it talks about practical implications for
+Emacs users. For other operating systems, see the @file{code-pages.el}
+package, which implements support for MS-DOS- and MS-Windows-specific
+encodings for all platforms other than MS-DOS.
+
@table @kbd
@item M-x dos-codepage-setup
Set up Emacs display and coding systems as appropriate for the current
MS-DOS is designed to support one character set of 256 characters at
any given time, but gives you a variety of character sets to choose
from. The alternative character sets are known as @dfn{DOS codepages}.
-Each codepage includes all 128 ASCII characters, but the other 128
+Each codepage includes all 128 @acronym{ASCII} characters, but the other 128
characters (codes 128 through 255) vary from one codepage to another.
Each DOS codepage is identified by a 3-digit number, such as 850, 862,
etc.
MS-DOS normally doesn't allow use of several codepages in a single
session. MS-DOS was designed to load a single codepage at system
startup, and require you to reboot in order to change
-it@footnote{Normally, one particular codepage is burnt into the display
-memory, while other codepages can be installed by modifying system
-configuration files, such as @file{CONFIG.SYS}, and rebooting. While
-third-party software is known to exist that allows to change the
-codepage without rebooting, we describe here how a stock MS-DOS system
+it@footnote{Normally, one particular codepage is burnt into the
+display memory, while other codepages can be installed by modifying
+system configuration files, such as @file{CONFIG.SYS}, and rebooting.
+While there is third-party software that allows changing the codepage
+without rebooting, we describe here how a stock MS-DOS system
behaves.}. Much the same limitation applies when you run DOS
executables on other systems such as MS-Windows.
@cindex unibyte operation @r{(MS-DOS)}
If you invoke Emacs on MS-DOS with the @samp{--unibyte} option
(@pxref{Initial Options}), Emacs does not perform any conversion of
-non-ASCII characters. Instead, it reads and writes any non-ASCII
+non-@acronym{ASCII} characters. Instead, it reads and writes any non-@acronym{ASCII}
characters verbatim, and sends their 8-bit codes to the display
verbatim. Thus, unibyte Emacs on MS-DOS supports the current codepage,
whatever it may be, but cannot even represent any other characters.
@code{cp@var{nnn}} coding system at startup, it is normal for the mode
line on MS-DOS to begin with @samp{-DD\-}. @xref{Mode Line}.
Far-Eastern DOS terminals do not use the @code{cp@var{nnn}} coding
-systems, and thus their initial mode line looks like on Unix.
+systems, and thus their initial mode line looks like the Emacs default.
Since the codepage number also indicates which script you are using,
Emacs automatically runs @code{set-language-environment} to select the
If a buffer contains a character belonging to some other ISO 8859
character set, not the one that the chosen DOS codepage supports, Emacs
-displays it using a sequence of ASCII characters. For example, if the
+displays it using a sequence of @acronym{ASCII} characters. For example, if the
current codepage doesn't have a glyph for the letter @samp{@`o} (small
@samp{o} with a grave accent), it is displayed as @samp{@{`o@}}, where
the braces serve as a visual indication that this is a single character.
supports the same character set as Windows codepage 1252; DOS codepage
855 supports the same character set as Windows codepage 1251, etc.
The MS-Windows version of Emacs uses the current codepage for display
-when invoked with the @samp{-nw} option.
+when invoked with the @samp{-nw} option. Support for codepages in the
+Windows port of Emacs is part of the @file{code-pages.el} package.
@node MS-DOS Processes
@section Subprocesses on MS-DOS
mode and its variants do not work. Most Emacs features that use
asynchronous subprocesses also don't work on MS-DOS, including
Shell mode and GUD. When in doubt, try and see; commands that
-don't work print an error message saying that asynchronous processes
+don't work output an error message saying that asynchronous processes
aren't supported.
Compilation under Emacs with @kbd{M-x compile}, searching files with
Spell checking also works, by means of special support for synchronous
invocation of the @code{ispell} program. This is slower than the
-asynchronous invocation on Unix.
+asynchronous invocation on other platforms
Instead of the Shell mode, which doesn't work on MS-DOS, you can use
the @kbd{M-x eshell} command. This invokes the Eshell package that
-implements a Unix-like shell entirely in Emacs Lisp.
+implements a Posix-like shell entirely in Emacs Lisp.
- By contrast, Emacs compiled as native Windows application
+ By contrast, Emacs compiled as a native Windows application
@strong{does} support asynchronous subprocesses. @xref{Windows
Processes}.
@cindex printing under MS-DOS
- Printing commands, such as @code{lpr-buffer} (@pxref{Hardcopy}) and
+ Printing commands, such as @code{lpr-buffer} (@pxref{Printing}) and
@code{ps-print-buffer} (@pxref{PostScript}), work in MS-DOS by sending
the output to one of the printer ports. @xref{MS-DOS Printing}.
@samp{-s}, @samp{-t}, and @samp{-u}.
@node Windows Processes
-@section Subprocesses on Windows 95 and NT
+@section Subprocesses on Windows 9X/ME and Windows NT/2K
-Emacs compiled as a native Windows application (as opposed to the DOS
+ Emacs compiled as a native Windows application (as opposed to the DOS
version) includes full support for asynchronous subprocesses.
In the Windows version, synchronous and asynchronous subprocesses work
fine on both
-Windows 95 and Windows NT as long as you run only 32-bit Windows
+Windows 9X and Windows NT/2K as long as you run only 32-bit Windows
applications. However, when you run a DOS application in a subprocess,
you may encounter problems or be unable to run the application at all;
and if you run two DOS applications at the same time in two
subprocess should continue normally. However, if the second subprocess
is synchronous, Emacs itself will be hung until the first subprocess
finishes. If it will not finish without user input, then you have no
-choice but to reboot if you are running on Windows 95. If you are
-running on Windows NT, you can use a process viewer application to kill
+choice but to reboot if you are running on Windows 9X. If you are
+running on Windows NT/2K, you can use a process viewer application to kill
the appropriate instance of ntvdm instead (this will terminate both DOS
subprocesses).
-If you have to reboot Windows 95 in this situation, do not use the
+If you have to reboot Windows 9X in this situation, do not use the
@code{Shutdown} command on the @code{Start} menu; that usually hangs the
system. Instead, type @kbd{CTL-ALT-@key{DEL}} and then choose
@code{Shutdown}. That usually works, although it may take a few minutes
serves as @key{META} in Emacs. When using Emacs, users often press the
@key{META} key temporarily and then change their minds; if this has the
effect of bringing up the Windows menu, it alters the meaning of
-subsequent commands. Many users find this frustrating.
+subsequent commands. Many users find this frustrating.
@vindex w32-pass-alt-to-system
-You can reenable Windows's default handling of tapping the @key{ALT} key
+You can re-enable Windows' default handling of tapping the @key{ALT} key
by setting @code{w32-pass-alt-to-system} to a non-@code{nil} value.
+@ignore
+ arch-tag: f39d2590-5dcc-4318-88d9-0eb73ca10fa2
+@end ignore
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