GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ)
-about GNU Emacs with answers.
+about GNU Emacs 20 with answers. Some of the answers are not valid for GNU
+Emacs 18 or 19.
-The FAQ is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help'
-newsgroup (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results
-from the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these
-questions, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the
-corrections, debate, name calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of
-the canonical "best" answers to these questions. However, if you know a
-better answer or even a slight change that improves an answer, please tell
-us!
+[This version has been somewhat edited from the last-posted version
+(as of February 1999) for inclusion in the Emacs distribution.]
+
+The FAQ is posted (in five parts) to reduce the noise level in the
+gnu.emacs.help newsgroup (which is also the help-gnu-emacs mailing list)
+which results from the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong
+answers to these questions, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections
+to the corrections, debate, name calling, and generally unproductive use of
+the mailing list. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best"
+answers to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a
+slight change that improves an answer, please tell us!
If you know the answer to a question in the FAQ list, please reply to the
question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
-The FAQ is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive
-the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ is also crossposted to `news.answers'.
+The FAQ is crossposted to comp.emacs because some sites do not receive the
+gnu.* newsgroups. The FAQ is also crossposted to news.answers.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22.
-It has been so long since the FAQ was last edited and released that the
-maintainers decided to take a two-step approach. This edition corrects
-many basic inaccuracies in the old FAQ, most of them having to do with ftp
-sites and version numbers. In addition, we have deleted a number of
-questions that are no longer relevant with the release of GNU Emacs 19.
-
-Many questions specific to recent releases of GNU Emacs 19 remain
-unanswered in this version of the FAQ; the maintainers will spend time over
-the next month or two adding new questions (and answers), based in no small
-part on the questions that have come across help-gnu-emacs in recent
-months.
+A diff file between the last version of the FAQ and this one should have
+been posted along with the FAQ. If you did not receive the diff file, you
+can get it at
-There is no diff file for this version of the FAQ, as many things have
-changed since it was last updated.
+ ftp://the-tech.mit.edu/pub/GNU-Emacs/faq-diffs
-Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc.
-The most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (i.e., the output
-of `diff -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us about
-the FAQ list.
+Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, and deletions by
+sending mail to emacs-faq@lerner.co.il. The most helpful form for
+suggestions is a context diff (i.e., the output of `diff -c'). Include
+"FAQ" in the subject of messages about the FAQ list.
Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb
a lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have
time to answer questions individually. :-(
--
-Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@the-tech.mit.edu> and the FAQ team (a full list is
+Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@lerner.co.il> and the FAQ team (a full list is
at the bottom of the FAQ).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
comp.emacs, etc.?
9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
-10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
-11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
+10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs?
+11: How do I unsubscribe from this mailing list?
12: What is the current address of the FSF?
On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
-13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
-14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
-15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
-16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
+13: I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
+14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs?
+15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual?
+16: Where can I get documentation on Emacs Lisp?
17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
-19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
-20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
-21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
+19: Can I view Info files without using Emacs?
+20: What informational files are available for Emacs?
+21: Where can I get help in installing Emacs?
22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
Status of Emacs
23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
-24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
-25: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
+24: What is the latest version of Emacs?
+25: What is different about Emacs 20?
-Common Things People Want To Do
+Common Things People Want To Do
26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
27: How do I debug a .emacs file?
28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
-29: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
-30: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default?
-31: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
-32: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
+29: How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current filename?
+30: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
+31: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default?
+32: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
+33: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
characters?
-33: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
-34: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
-35: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
-36: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
-37: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
-38: How do I change load-path?
-39: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
-40: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
-41: How do I indent switch statements like this?
-42: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
-43: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
-44: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
-45: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
-46: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
+34: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
+35: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
+36: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
+37: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
+38: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
+39: How do I change load-path?
+40: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
+41: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
+42: How do I indent switch statements like this?
+43: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
+44: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
+45: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
+46: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
+47: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
-47: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
-48: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
+48: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
+49: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
commands are handled by the compiler?
-49: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
-50: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
-51: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
-52: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
-53: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
-54: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
+50: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
+51: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
+52: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
+53: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
+54: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
+55: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an
underlined paragraph?
-55: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
-56: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
+56: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
+57: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
-57: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
-58: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
-59: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
-60: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
+58: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
+59: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
+60: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
+61: Where is the documentation for "etags"?
+62: How do I disable backup files?
+63: How do I disable auto-save-mode?
+64: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?
+65: How do I delete menus and menu options?
+66: How do I turn on syntax highlighting?
+67: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
+ bottom of the screen?
+68: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
+69: How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs?
+70: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
+ each period?
Bugs/Problems
-61: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
-62: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my shell buffer?
-63: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
-64: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
-65: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
-66: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
-67: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
-68: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
-69: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
-70: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
-71: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
-72: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
+71: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
+72: How do I get rid of ^M or echoed commands in my shell buffer?
+73: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?
+74: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"?
+75: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?
+76: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
+77: Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"?
+78: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
+79: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
+80: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
+81: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
+82: Are there any security risks in Emacs?
+83: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something.
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
-73: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
-74: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
-75: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
+84: How do I install Emacs?
+85: How do I update Emacs to the latest version?
+86: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
+87: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
-76: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
-77: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
-78: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
-79: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
-80: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
-81: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
-82: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
- Emacs")?
-83: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
-84: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Microsoft Windows?
-85: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
-86: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
-87: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
-88: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
-89: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
-90: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++,
- Objective C, Pascal, and Awk?
-91: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
+88: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
+89: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
+90: Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
+91: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
+92: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
+93: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
+ Emacs")?
+94: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
+95: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows
+ NT?
+96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
+97: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
+98: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
+99: Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?
+100: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
+101: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
+102: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++,
+ Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk?
+103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
-92: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
-93: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
-94: Gnus -- news reader within Emacs
-95: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
-96: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
-97: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
-98: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
-99: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
-100: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
-101: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
-102: XEmacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface; formerly
- known as Lucid Emacs or lemacs.
-103: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
+104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support
+105: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
+106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
+107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs
+108: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
+109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
+110: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
+111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs
+112: EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes
+113: Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news
+114: JDE -- Development environment for Java programming
+115: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
-104: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
-105: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
-106: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
+116: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
+117: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?
+118: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
.emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
-107: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
-108: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys
+119: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
+120: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys
emit?
-109: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
-110: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
-111: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered
+121: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
+122: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
+123: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered
out?
-112: Why does the `Backspace' key invoke help?
-113: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
-114: How do I "swap" two keys?
-115: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
-116: What if I don't have a Meta key?
-117: What if I don't have an Escape key?
-118: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
-119: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
-120: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
-121: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
-122: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
-123: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
+124: Why does the "Backspace" key invoke help?
+125: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
+126: How do I "swap" two keys?
+127: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
+128: What if I don't have a Meta key?
+129: What if I don't have an Escape key?
+130: Can I make my "Compose Character" key behave like a Meta key?
+131: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
+132: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
+133: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0
+ and 9.x?
Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
-124: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
-125: How do I input 8-bit characters?
-126: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
-127: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
-128: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
+134: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
+135: How do I input 8-bit characters?
+136: Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other
+ character sets?
+137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
Mail and News
-129: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
-130: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
-131: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
-132: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?
-133: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?
-134: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
-135: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?
-136: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
-137: How do I read news under Emacs?
-138: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP?
-139: How do I view text with embedded underlining (e.g., ClariNews)?
-140: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?
-141: Why does Gnus put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
-142: How do I make Gnus start up faster?
-143: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?
-144: Why can't I kill in Gnus on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
-145: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?
-146: Why is catch up slow in Gnus?
-147: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting?
-148: Why don't my news postings in Gnus get past the local machine?
-149: Why doesn't Gnus generate the `Lines:' header?
-150: How do I kill all articles in Gnus but those matching a pattern?
+138: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
+139: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
+140: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
+141: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?
+142: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?
+143: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
+144: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?
+145: How can I force Rmail to reply to the sender of a message, but not the
+ other recipients?
+146: How can I get my favorite Emacs mail package to support MIME?
+147: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
+148: How do I read news under Emacs?
+149: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP?
+150: How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g.,
+ ClariNews)?
+151: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?
+152: How do I make Gnus start up faster?
+153: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?
+154: Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control
+ headers?
+155: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?
+156: Why is catch up slow in Gnus?
+157: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting?
+158: Where can I find out more about Gnus?
------------------------------------------------------------
at the text of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a
-C-r if that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
+C-r if that doesn't work. Type RET to end the search.
+
+If you have a web browser and the browse-url package configured for
+it, you can visit ftp and HTTP uniform resource locators (URLs) by
+placing the cursor on the URL and typing M-x browse-url-at-point.
+
+The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would
+prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------
+ Time-stamp: <1999-02-10 18:44:04 reuven>
-Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22, or use
-anonymous FTP to the-tech.mit.edu.
Notation Used in FAQ
1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
- C-x means press the `x' key while holding down the Control key. M-x
- means press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key. M-C-x means
- press the `x' key while holding down both the Control key and the Meta
- key. C-M-a is a synonym for M-C-a. RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, and TAB
- respectively refer to pressing the Return, Linefeed (aka Newline),
- Delete, Escape, and Tab keys and are equivalent to C-m, C-j, C-?, C-[,
- and C-i. SPC means press the Space bar.
+ C-x: press the `x' key while holding down the Control key
+
+ M-x: press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key (if your computer
+ doesn't have a Meta key, see question 128)
+
+ M-C-x: press the `x' key while holding down both Control and Meta
+ C-M-x: a synonym for the above
+
+ LFD: Linefeed or Newline; same as C-j
+ RET: Return, sometimes marked Enter; same as C-m
+ DEL: Delete, usually not the same as Backspace; same as C-? (See
+ question 124 if deleting invokes Emacs help)
+ ESC: Escape; same as C-[
+ TAB: Tab; same as C-i
+ SPC: Space bar
Key sequences longer than one key (and some single-key sequences) are
inside double quotes or on lines by themselves. Any real spaces in such
code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the
Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7.
- For further information, see `Characters' and `Keys' in the on-line
- manual.
-
NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a
"control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very
- few keyboards does Control-? generate ASCII code 127.
+ few keyboards does C-? generate ASCII code 127.
+
+ For further information, see "Characters" and "Keys" in the on-line
+ manual. (See question 3 if you don't know how.)
2: What does "M-x command" mean?
"M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
- type RET.
+ type RET. (See question 1 if you're not sure what "M-x" and "RET" mean.)
- M-x (by default) invokes the command `execute-extended-command'. This
+ M-x (by default) invokes the command "execute-extended-command". This
command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the
command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type
- TAB and SPC for completion, "?" for a list of possibilities, and M-p and
+ TAB and SPC for completion, `?' for a list of possibilities, and M-p and
M-n to see previous commands entered. An Emacs "command" is any
"interactive" Emacs function.
invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good
candidate for this.
- To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 51.
+ To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 52.
3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET
This invokes Info, the GNU hypertext documentation browser. If you don't
- already know how to use Info, type "?" from within Info.
+ already know how to use Info, type `?' from within Info.
If we refer to topic XXX:YYY, type this:
WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files,
or may have installed them improperly. In this case you should complain.
+ See question 15 if you would like a paper copy of the Emacs manual.
+
4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
- These are files that come with GNU Emacs. The GNU Emacs distribution is
- divided into subdirectories; the important ones are `etc', `lisp', and
- `src'.
+ These are files that come with Emacs. The Emacs distribution is divided
+ into subdirectories; the important ones are "etc", "lisp", and "src".
- If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system,
- start Emacs, then type "C-h v data-directory RET". The directory name
- displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed `etc'
+ If you use Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system, start
+ Emacs, then type "C-h v data-directory RET". The directory name
+ displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed "etc"
directory.
+ The location of your Info directory (i.e., where on-line documentation is
+ stored) is kept in the variable Info-default-directory-list. Use "C-h v
+ Info-default-directory-list RET" to see the contents of this variable,
+ which will be a list of directory names. The last directory in that list
+ is probably where most Info files are stored. By default, Info
+ documentation is placed in /usr/local/info.
+
Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail; see
- question 20. All are available in the source distribution.
+ question 20. All are available in the source distribution. Many of the
+ files in the "etc" directory are also available via the Emacs "help"
+ menu, or by typing "C-h ?" (M-x help-for-help).
WARNING: Your system administrator may have removed the src directory and
many files from the etc directory.
GNU == GNU's Not Unix
RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman
FTP == File Transfer Protocol
- GPL == GNU General Public Licence
+ GPL == GNU General Public License
NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes
look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high
papers describing the LPF's views are available on the Internet and also
from the LPF:
- Anonymous FTP:
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/lpf/
- /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/lpf/
- Anonymous UUCP:
- osu-cis!~/lpf/*
+ http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/
7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
- The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public Licence (copyleft) will
+ The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public License (copyleft) will
only be known if and when a judge rules on its validity and scope. There
has never been a copyright infringement case involving the GPL to set any
precedents. Please take any discussion regarding this issue to the
comp.emacs, etc.?
The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list.
- (See question 20 on how to get a copy.) For those which are gatewayed
- with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the mailing list
- address.
+ (See question 20 if you want a copy of the file.) For those lists which
+ are gatewayed with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the
+ mailing list address.
comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This includes
- GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE, MicroEmacs,
- Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, and Epsilon..
+ Emacs along with various other implementations, such as JOVE, MicroEmacs,
+ Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, and Epsilon.
- Many people post GNU Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't
- receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for
- and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have
- to decide for yourself.
+ Many people post Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't receive
+ any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for and
+ against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have to
+ decide for yourself.
Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on
any of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was
- created to hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "non-free"
+ created to hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "Non-free"
software includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify
the source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the
- gnu.* groups from the `Newsgroups:' line when posting a followup that
+ gnu.* groups from the "Newsgroups:" line when posting a followup that
recommends such software.
gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug
The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many
years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The
archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
- postings from, but pretty much everything is there. The archive is
- available via anonymous ftp at
+ postings from, but pretty much everything is there. The archives
+ are available at
+
+ ftp://ftp-mailing-list-archives.gnu.org/
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/
+ Web-based Usenet search services, such as DejaNews, also archive the
+ gnu.* groups. You can reach DejaNews at
-10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
+ http://www.dejanews.com
- The correct way to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
- bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Anything sent here also appears in the
+10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs?
+
+ The correct way to report Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
+ bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. Anything sent here also appears in the
newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit
- the bug report. This way a reliable return address is available so you
- can be contacted for further details.
+ the bug report. This ensures a reliable return address so you can be
+ contacted for further details.
+
+ Be sure to read the "Bugs" section of the Emacs manual before reporting a
+ bug to bug-gnu-emacs! The manual describes in detail how to submit a
+ useful bug report. (See question 3 if you don't know how to read the
+ manual.)
- RMS explains:
+ RMS says:
Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting
on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an
then after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on
gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you.
- If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell:
+ If you are unsure whether you have found a bug, consider the following
+ non-exhaustive list, courtesy of RMS:
- ... if Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
+ If Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that
is a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it
does, that is a bug.
-11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
+11: How do I unsubscribe from this mailing list?
- If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named `XXX', you might be able to
- unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address
- `XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu'. However, this will not work if you are
+ If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named "XXX", you might be able to
+ unsubscribe from it by sending a request to the address
+ <XXX-request@gnu.org>. However, this will not work if you are
not listed on the main mailing list, but instead receive the mail from a
distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which
- distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the `Received:' headers on
- the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the `EXPN' or
- `VRFY' sendmail commands through `telnet <site-address> smtp'. Ask your
+ distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the "Received:" headers on
+ the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the "EXPN" or
+ "VRFY" sendmail commands through "telnet <site-address> smtp". Ask your
postmaster for help.
12: What is the current address of the FSF?
- E-mail address: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
- Phone number: (617) 876-3296
+ E-mail: gnu@gnu.org
+ Telephone: +1-617-542-5942
+ Fax: +1-617-542-2652
+ World Wide Web: http://www.gnu.org/
+
Postal address:
- Free Software Foundation, Inc.
- 675 Massachusetts Avenue
- Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
+ Free Software Foundation
+ 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
+ Boston, MA 02111-1307
+ USA
- For details on how to order, see the file etc/ORDERS.
+ For details on how to order items directly from the FSF, see the file
+ etc/ORDERS.
On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
-13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
+13: I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
- Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is how
- to enter the help system.
+ Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Just typing `C-h' enters
+ the help system.
- WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL
+ WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed `C-h' to act like DEL
to deal with local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to
invoke help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system,
type "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a
sequences invokes help.
NOTE: Emacs help works best if it is invoked by a single key whose value
- should be stored in the variable help-char. Andrew Arensburger
- <arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote a patch that allows the help facility
- to work properly when invoked by multiple character sequences.
+ should be stored in the variable help-char.
+
+ There is also a WWW-based tutorial for Emacs 18, much of which is also
+ relevant for Emacs 20, available at
+
+ http://kufacts.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/writeups/misc/emacsguide.html
-14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
+14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs?
There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
* The complete text of the Emacs manual is available on-line via the Info
- hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info.
+ hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info. Typing `h' immediately
+ after entering Info will provide a short tutorial on how to use it.
* You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15.
certain word using M-x apropos.
* There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and
- information. To get a list of these commands, type "C-h C-h C-h".
+ information. To get a list of these commands, type `?' after `C-h'.
-15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
+15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual?
- You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF. For
+ You can order a printed copy of the Emacs manual from the FSF. For
details see the file etc/ORDERS.
- The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the `man' directory of
+ The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the "man" directory of
the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this
- 420 page manual yourself (see question 18).
+ 440-page manual yourself (see question 18).
If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX,
- you can get a PostScript version via anonymous FTP:
-
- /ftp.cs.ubc.ca:pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-19.21.ps.gz
-
- This site requests that you please CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE
- EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME (Pacific time zone, GMT-8). A DVI
- version is also available via FTP:
+ you can get a PostScript version from
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.gz
+ ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-19.21.ps.gz
- and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list).
+ Note that the above document is somewhat out of date, although most major
+ concepts are still relevant. This site requests that you please *confine
+ any major ftping to late evenings or early mornings, local time* (Pacific
+ time zone, GMT-8).
- A WWW version of the Emacs manual is available on the World-Wide Web at
- URL
+ A WWW version of the (somewhat outdated) Emacs 19.34 manual is at
- http://asis01.cern.ch/infohtml/emacs/emacs.html
+ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/emacs_toc.html
See also question 14 for how to view the manual on-line.
-16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
+16: Where can I get documentation on Emacs Lisp?
Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a
function, "C-h v" for a variable.
- For more information, obtain the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
- Details on ordering it from FSF are in file etc/ORDERS.
+ For more information, obtain the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Details on
+ ordering it from FSF are in file etc/ORDERS.
- For on-line use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the
- Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP at
+ The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is also available on-line, in Info
+ format. Texinfo source for the manual (along with pregenerated Info
+ files) is available at
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-19-2.3.tar.gz
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-manual-20-2.5.tar.gz
- and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list).
+ and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list). See
+ question 17 if you want to install the Info files, or question 18 if you
+ want to use the Texinfo source to print the manual yourself.
- You can also create the Info files from the Texinfo source. See question
- 17 for details on how to install these files on-line.
-
- A WWW version of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is available at
+ WWW versions of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual are available at
+ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/elisp_1.html
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/usr/local/www/elisp/lispref/elisp_toc.html
- An introduction to Emacs Lisp is available at
-
- http://www.cs.indiana.edu/usr/local/www/elisp/elisp-intro.html
-
- Of course, you can also print this 760-page manual yourself. For
- instructions on how to do this, see question 18.
-
17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
First, you must turn the Texinfo files into Info files. You may do this
- within Emacs, using "M-x texinfo-format-buffer", or with the standalone
- `makeinfo' program, available as part of the latest Texinfo package via
- anonymous ftp from:
+ using the stand-alone "makeinfo" program, available as part of the latest
+ Texinfo package at
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-3.1.tar.gz
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-3.12.tar.gz
- and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list).
+ and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (see question 92 for a list).
For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so
Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor makeinfo installs the resulting Info
files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:
- 1. Move the files to the `info' directory in the installed Emacs
+ 1. Move the files to the "info" directory in the installed Emacs
distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that is.
2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a
* Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
+ If (as it should have done) the Texinfo file used the @direntry
+ command, you can run the "install-info" command from the current
+ Texinfo distribution to do this automatically -- see the example in
+ the top-level Makefile in the Emacs source.
+
If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary
privileges, you have several options:
* Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You
can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing
- "g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
- goes to the node named `Top' in that file. For example, to view a Info
- file named `XXX' in your home directory, you can type this:
+ `g' in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
+ goes to the node named "Top" in that file. For example, to view a Info
+ file named "XXX" in your home directory, you can type this:
C-h i g (~/XXX) RET
* You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the
Info directory is by adding its pathname to the value of the variable
Info-default-directory-list. For example, to use a private Info
- directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info',
+ directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named "Info",
you could put this in your .emacs file:
- (setq Info-default-directory-list
+ (setq Info-default-directory-list
(cons "~/Info" Info-default-directory-list))
- You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory which
+ You will need a top-level Info file named "dir" in this directory which
has everything the system dir file has in it, except it should list
only entries for Info files in that directory. You might not need it
- if all files in this directory were referenced by other `dir' files.
+ if all files in this directory were referenced by other "dir" files.
The node lists from all dir files in Info-default-directory-list are
merged by the Info system.
18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
- NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still
+ NOTE: You can't get nicely printed output from Info files; you must still
have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print.
+ Assuming you have TeX installed on your system, follow these steps:
+
1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
\input texinfo
- You may need to alter `texinfo' to the full pathname of the
+ You may need to change "texinfo" to the full pathname of the
texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy
or link it into the current directory).
3. texindex XXX.??
- The `texindex' program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
+ The texindex program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
4. tex XXX.texinfo
your site.
To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package
- mentioned in question 17.
+ mentioned in question 17. The "texi2dvi" command from it will perform
+ the above steps 1 to 4 for you.
+
+19: Can I view Info files without using Emacs?
-19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
+ Yes. Here are some alternative programs:
- Yes, the `info', `xinfo', `tkinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. Info
- uses curses, xinfo uses standard X11 libraries, tkinfo uses Tk/Tcl and
- ivinfo uses InterViews. You can get Info as part of the latest Texinfo
- package (see question 17). xinfo is available separately:
+ * Info, a stand-alone version of the Info program, comes as part of the
+ Texinfo package. See question 17 for details.
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz
+ * Xinfo, a stand-alone version of the Info program that runs under X
+ Windows. You can get it at
- and all prep mirrors (See question 80 for a list).
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/xinfo/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz
- ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc archive or from Tom Horsley
- <tom@ssd.csd.harris.com>. tkinfo is available by anonymous ftp from:
+ and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list).
- /ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu:pub/misc/tkinfo-0.6.tar.Z
- /ftp.aud.alcatel.com:tcl/code/tkinfo-0.6.tar.gz
+ * Tkinfo, an Info viewer that runs under X Windows and uses Tcl/Tk. You
+ can get Tkinfo at
- For ivinfo, you need Stanford's InterViews C++ X library, available via
- anonymous ftp from interviews.stanford.edu. (A FAQ on InterViews is
- available at that site in pub/FAQ.)
+ http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/tkinfo/
-20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
+20: What informational files are available for Emacs?
This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
- informational files about GNU Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU
- project are available for you to read.
+ informational files about Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU project
+ are available for you to read.
- The following files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs
- distribution, and also the latest versions are available individually via
- anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/GNUinfo/):
+ The following files are available in the "etc" directory of the Emacs
+ distribution (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is).
- APPLE -- Why the FSF doesn't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers
- DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information,
- including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form"
+ COPYING -- Emacs General Public License
+ DISTRIB -- Emacs Availability Information, including the popular
+ "Free Software Foundation Order Form"
+ FAQ -- Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP
GNU -- The GNU Manifesto
INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain
UNIX-compatible software system with BYTE editors
- MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
+ LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
+ MACHINES -- Status of Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
+ NEWS -- Emacs news, a history of user-visible changes
+ PROBLEMS -- Known problems with building and running Emacs in various
+ situations, often with workarounds.
SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"
- These files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs
- distribution:
+ Latest versions of some of the above files are also available at
- COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License
- NEWS -- GNU Emacs news, a history of user-visible changes
- LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
- FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
-
- These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/):
-
- tasks -- GNU Task List
- standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards
-
- In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF
- via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source first
- (See question 80 for a list).
-
- These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail:
-
- * GNU's Bulletin, January 1994
- GNU's Who
- GNU's Bulletin
- What Is the Free Software Foundation?
- What Is Copyleft?
- Donations Translate Into Free Software
- Cygnus Matches Donations!
- GNUs Flashes
- What Is the LPF?
- News from the LPF
- Free Software Support
- Project GNU Wish List
- Towards a New Strategy of OS Design
- Part 1: A More Usable Approach to OS Design
- Part 2: A Look at Some of the Hurd's Beasts
- Second Annual GNU Seminar in Japan
- GNU and other Free Software in Japan
- Freely Available Texts
- OCEAN Integrated-Circuit Design System
- Hundred Acre Consulting Expands
- Project GNU Status Report
- GNU Documentation
- GNU Software Available Now
- Source Code CD-ROM
- Compiler Tools Binaries CD-ROM
- Tape & CD-ROM Subscription Service
- How to Get GNU Software
- The Deluxe Distribution
- MS-DOS Distribution
- Free Software for Microcomputers
- FSF T-shirt
- Thank GNUs
- Free Software Foundation Order Form
- * Legal issues about contributing code to GNU
- * GNU Project Status Report
-
- A collection of past GNU's Bulletins is available via anonymous FTP from:
-
- /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/Bulletins/
-
- The latest bulletin is available on the World-Wide Web at URL:
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/
- http://info.desy.de/gnu/www/gnu_bulletin_9401/gnu_bulletin_9401_toc.html
+ More GNU information, including back issues of the "GNU's Bulletin", are at
-21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
+ http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bulletins.html
+ http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/gnu.html
- Look in etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who will sell
- you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the SERVICE file is
- available on prep.ai.mit.edu (also see question 20).
+21: Where can I get help in installing Emacs?
- You might also try the help-gnu-emacs mailing list, which is also known
- as the gnu.emacs.help newsgroup, although many installation questions can
- easily be answered by looking at the PROBLEMS file (in the top-level
- directory when you unpack the Emacs source).
+ See question 84 for some basic installation hints, and question 83 if you
+ have problems with the installation.
+
+ The file etc/SERVICE (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is)
+ lists companies and individuals willing to sell you help in installing or
+ using Emacs. An up-to-date version this file is available on ftp.gnu.org
+ (see question 20).
22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
- The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
+ The Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
+
+ * Inside of Emacs itself. You can get it from selecting the "Emacs FAQ"
+ option from the "Help" menu at the top of any Emacs frame, or by typing
+ C-h F (M-x view-emacs-FAQ).
* Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your
news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups.
Every news reader should allow you to read any news article that is
still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before. You
may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover how
- to do this. In `rn', this command will do this for you at the article
+ to do this. In rn, this command will do this for you at the article
selection level:
- ?GNU Emacs FAQ?rc:m
+ ?GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions?rc:m
In Gnus, you should type "C-u c-x c-s" from the *Summary* buffer or
"C-u SPC" from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a
If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool,
it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
- administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before for
- a while.
+ administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire for a
+ while.
+
+ * Via HTTP or FTP. You can always fetch the latest FAQ at
+
+ http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/
+
+ and
- * Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP
- from the-tech.mit.edu, in ~ftp/pub/GNU-Emacs/.
+ ftp://ftp.lerner.co.il/pub/emacs/
- * In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest
- available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of
- the GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ.
+ * In the Emacs distribution. Since Emacs 18.56, the FAQ at the time of
+ release has been part of the Emacs distribution as etc/FAQ (see
+ question 4).
- * Via the World-Wide Web. Point your favorite Web browser (Mosaic, Lynx,
- w3-mode) to one of the following URLs:
+ * Via the World Wide Web. A hypertext version is available at
- http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/top.html
- http://scwww.ucs.indiana.edu/FAQ/Emacs/
+ http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/
- * If all goes well, this FAQ should also be available via anonymous ftp
- and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu, the main repository for FAQs and other
- items posted to news.answers. However, we are omitting explicit
- directions on how to retrieve the FAQ from rtfm.mit.edu, since it's
- possible that it won't end up there right away. (We're new at this
- FAQ-posting business.) Instructions on how to retrieve the FAQ from
- rtfm.mit.edu should be in the next version of the FAQ.
+ * Via anonymous ftp and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu (and its mirror in
+ Europe), the main repository for FAQs and other items posted to
+ news.answers. The Emacs FAQs are available at
+ ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/
+ ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/doc/FAQ/comp/emacs/
+
+ If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can access the archives
+ using the rtfm.mit.edu mail server. The Emacs FAQ can be retrieved by
+ sending mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with a blank subject and
+ containing
+
+ send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/diffs
+ send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1
+ send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2
+ send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3
+ send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part4
+ send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part5
+
+ For more information, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
+ "help" and "index" in the body on separate lines.
+
* As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to
- gnu-emacs-faq-maintainers@bigbird.bu.edu. Don't do this unless you
- have made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the
- methods listed above.
+ emacs-faq@lerner.co.il. Don't do this unless you have made a serious
+ effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the methods listed above.
+
Status of Emacs
23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked
- the name `Emacs' because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at
+ the name Emacs because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at
the time." The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by
- RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector (originally Tape
- Editor and COrrector)) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended
- TECO with a "real-time" full screen mode with active keys. Emacs was
- started by Guy Steele <gls@think.com> as a project to unify the many
- divergent TECO command sets and key bindings at MIT.
+ RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector, originally Tape
+ Editor and COrrector) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended
+ TECO with a "real-time" full screen mode with reprogrammable keys. Emacs
+ was started by Guy Steele <gls@east.sun.com> as a project to unify the
+ many divergent TECO command sets and key bindings at MIT, and completed
+ by RMS.
Many people have said that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See
alt.lang.teco if you are interested. Someone has written a TECO
- implementation in Emacs Lisp; it would be an interesting project to run
- the original TECO Emacs inside of GNU Emacs.
+ implementation in Emacs Lisp (to find it, see question 90); it would be
+ an interesting project to run the original TECO Emacs inside of Emacs.
+
+ For some not-so-serious alternative reasons for Emacs to have that name,
+ check out etc/JOKES (see question 4).
-24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
+24: What is the latest version of Emacs?
- GNU Emacs 19.27 is the current version as of 6 September, 1994.
+ Emacs 20.4 is the current version as of this writing.
-25: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
+25: What is different about Emacs 20?
To find out what has changed in recent versions, type C-h n (M-x
view-emacs-news). The oldest changes are at the bottom of the file, so
you might want to read it starting there, rather than at the top.
- The most obvious changes have to do with the user interface -- GNU Emacs
- 19 is fully X-aware, and provides pull-down menus and scroll bars. Emacs
- 19 also supports fonts and colors, including context-specific
- highlighting of source code and other types of buffers.
+ The differences between Emacs versions 18 and 19 was rather dramatic; the
+ introduction of frames, faces, and colors on windowing systems was
+ obvious to even the most casual user.
- Other changes include a line number mode, which displays the current line
- number in the mode line, and default bindings for arrow and paging keys
- that work.
+ There are differences between Emacs versions 19 and 20 as well, but many
+ are more subtle or harder to find. Among the changes are the inclusion
+ of MULE code for languages that use non-Latin characters, the "customize"
+ facility for modifying variables without having to use Lisp, and
+ automatic conversion of files from Macintosh, Microsoft, and Unix
+ platforms.
- Lower-level changes include a smarter memory allocation scheme (Emacs now
- returns memory to the operating system when you kill buffers), a better
- byte-compiler, and a source-level Emacs Lisp debugger.
+ Many Lisp packages have been updated and enhanced for Emacs 20.
- There are also a number of new Lisp packages, ranging from dunnet (an
- Adventure-like program) to mldrag (allows you to drag the mode line up
- and down with the mouse buttons) to gud (Grand Unified Debugger mode, for
- many flavors of debuggers). A number of popular Lisp packages, such as
- SuperCite and the calendar/diary, are also included.
-Common Things People Want To Do
+Common Things People Want To Do
26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
- See `Init File' in the on-line manual.
+ See "Init File" in the on-line manual.
WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files,
because it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send
questions to help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as
documented. :-)
+ Emacs 20 includes the new "customize" facility, which can be invoked
+ using M-x customize RET or via the Help menu. This allows users who are
+ unfamiliar with Emacs Lisp to modify their .emacs files in a relatively
+ straightforward way, using menus rather than Lisp code. While all the
+ packages included with Emacs (are meant to) support Customize now,
+ packages from other sources may not.
+
+ While Customize might indeed make it easier to configure Emacs, consider
+ taking a bit of time to learn Emacs Lisp and modifying your .emacs
+ directly. Simple configuration options are described rather completely in
+ the "Init File" section of the on-line manual, for users interested in
+ performing frequently requested, basic tasks.
+
27: How do I debug a .emacs file?
- First start Emacs with the `-debug-init' command-line option. This
- option enables the Emacs Lisp debugger before evaluating your .emacs
- file, and places you in the debugger if something goes wrong. The top
- line in the trace-back buffer will be the error message, and the second
- or third line of that buffer will display the Lisp code from your .emacs
- that caused the problem.
+ Start Emacs with the "-debug-init" command-line option. This enables the
+ Emacs Lisp debugger before evaluating your .emacs file, and places you in
+ the debugger if something goes wrong. The top line in the trace-back
+ buffer will be the error message, and the second or third line of that
+ buffer will display the Lisp code from your .emacs file that caused the
+ problem.
You can also evaluate an individual function or argument to a function in
your .emacs file by moving the cursor to the end of the function or
- argument and typing "C-x C-e" (M-x eval-last-sexp).
+ argument and typing "C-x C-e" (M-x eval-last-sexp). "C-M-x" (M-x
+ eval-defun) is particularly useful for re-evaluating "defvar" and
+ "customize" forms.
Use "C-h v" (M-x describe-variable) to check the value of variables which
you are trying to set or use.
28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
- To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x
- what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the
- current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)".
+ To toggle having Emacs automatically display the current line number of the
+ point in the mode line, do "M-x line-number-mode". (This option is on by
+ default.) Note that Emacs will not display the line number if the buffer is
+ larger than the value of the variable line-number-display-limit.
+
+ As of Emacs 20, you can similarly display the current column with "M-x
+ column-number-mode", by putting the form
+
+ (setq column-number-mode t)
- If you use these commands often, you might want to bind them to a key.
- See question 104 for instructions on how to do that.
+ in your .emacs file or by using Customize.
- Typing "C-x l" (or M-x count-lines-page) will also tell you what line you
- are on, provided the buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l
- characters. In that case, it will only tell you what line of the current
- "page" you are on.
+ The "%c" format specifier in the variable mode-line-format will insert
+ the current column's value into the mode line. See the documentation for
+ mode-line-format (using "C-h v mode-line-format RET") for more
+ information on how to set and use this variable.
- To have Emacs automatically display the current line number of the point
- in the mode line, do "M-x line-number-mode". You can also put the form
+ Users of all Emacs versions can display the current column using Per
+ Abrahamsen's <abraham@iesd.auc.dk> "column" package. See question 90 for
+ instructions on how to get it.
- (setq line-number-mode t)
+ None of the vi emulation modes provide the "set number" capability of vi
+ (as far as we know) but Kyle Jones's setnu.el package implements such a
+ feature.
- in your .emacs file to achieve this whenever you start Emacs. Note that
- Emacs will not display the line number if the buffer is larger than the
- value of the variable line-number-display-limit.
+29: How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current filename?
- None of the vi emulation modes provide the `set number' capability of vi
- (as far as we know).
+ The contains of an Emacs frame's titlebar is controlled by the variable
+ frame-title-format, which has the same structure as the variable
+ mode-line-format. (Use "C-h v" or "M-x describe-variable" to get
+ information about one or both of these variables.)
-29: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
+ By default, the titlebar for a frame does contain the name of the buffer
+ currently being visited, except if there is a single frame. In such a
+ case, the titlebar contains the name of the user and the machine at which
+ Emacs was invoked. This is done by setting frame-title-format to the
+ default value of
+
+ (multiple-frames "%b" ("" invocation-name "@" system-name))
+
+ To modify the behavior such that frame titlebars contain the buffer's
+ name regardless of the number of existing frames, include the following
+ in your .emacs:
+
+ (setq frame-title-format "%b")
+
+30: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
Put this in your .emacs file:
(file-error nil))
(add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook
- (function
- (lambda ()
- (setq abbrev-mode t))))
+ (lambda ()
+ (setq abbrev-mode t)))
-30: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default?
+31: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default?
To turn on auto-fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x
- auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in, for example, Text
- mode, do this:
+ auto-fill-mode".
+
+ To turn it on for every buffer in a certain mode, you must use the hook
+ for that mode. For example, to turn on auto-fill mode for all text
+ buffers, including the following in your .emacs file:
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
+ You can also do this via the Help -> Options menu, which runs the command
+ toggle-text-mode-auto-fill.
+
If you want auto-fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
- (setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill)
+ (setq-default auto-fill-function 'do-auto-fill)
-31: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
+32: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension
- `.YYY', this will do it for you:
+ ".YYY", this will do it for you:
- (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist))
+ (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode))
Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
- edit in XXX mode:
+ edit in XXX mode (in the second line, if the first line begins with
+ "#!"):
-*-XXX-*-
- Emacs 19 also includes a new variable, interpreter-mode-alist, that
- specifies which mode to use when loading a shell script. (Emacs
- determines which interpreter you're using by examining the first line of
- the file.) This feature only applies when the file name doesn't indicate
- which mode to use. Use "C-h v" (or M-x describe-variable) to learn more
- about this variable.
+ Beginning with Emacs 19, the variable interpreter-mode-alist specifies
+ which mode to use when loading a shell script. (Emacs determines which
+ interpreter you're using by examining the first line of the file.) This
+ feature only applies when the file name doesn't indicate which mode to
+ use. Use "C-h v" (or M-x describe-variable) on interpreter-mode-alist to
+ learn more.
-32: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
+33: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
characters?
To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for
- example, `\237', you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value
- of search-quote-char is 17 (i.e., C-q).) Searching for ALL unprintable
- characters is best done with a "regexp" search. The easiest regexp to
- use for the unprintable chars is the complement of the regexp for the
- printable chars.
-
- Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
+ example, "\237", you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value
+ of search-quote-char is 17 (i.e., `C-q').) Searching for ALL unprintable
+ characters is best done with a regular expression ("regexp") search. The
+ easiest regexp to use for the unprintable chars is the complement of the
+ regexp for the printable chars.
- Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
+ Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
+ Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
- To type some of these special characters in an interactive argument to
+ To type these special characters in an interactive argument to
isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t',
`\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So,
to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward:
M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET : RET
- NOTE: * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing
- something in the minibuffer.
+ NOTE: * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing
+ something in the minibuffer.
-33: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
+34: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
If you are using a windowing system such as X, you can cause the region
to be highlighted when the mark is active by including
(transient-mark-mode t)
- in your .emacs. There are also the following packages for content- based
- highlighting:
-
- hilit19.el
- font-lock.el
+ in your .emacs file, using Customize or via the Help->Options menu.
+ (Also see question 66.)
-34: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
+35: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines
whether they are case sensitive:
(setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive
(setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive
- Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether
+ To change this or similar variables during an Emacs session, use
+ M-x set-variable.
+
+ Similarly, for replacing, the variable case-replace determines whether
replacements preserve case.
To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major
mode's hook. For example:
(add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook
- (function
- (lambda ()
- (setq case-fold-search nil))))
+ (lambda ()
+ (setq case-fold-search nil)))
-35: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
+36: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
Use auto-fill mode, activated by typing "M-x auto-fill-mode". The
default maximum line width is 70, determined by the variable fill-column.
- To learn how to turn this on automatically, see question 30.
+ To learn how to turn this on automatically, see question 31.
-36: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
+37: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
- Use Ispell. See question 101.
+ Use Ispell. See question 110.
-37: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
+38: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
- Use Ispell. See question 101. Ispell can handle TeX and *roff
+ Use Ispell. See question 110. Ispell can handle TeX and *roff
documents.
-38: How do I change load-path?
+39: How do I change load-path?
In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add
directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this:
(setq load-path (cons "~/YYY/" load-path)
-39: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
+40: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
- The `emacsclient' program is for editing a file using an already running
- Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a
- request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the
- request.
+ Emacsclient, which comes with Emacs, is for editing a file using an
+ already running Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this
+ by sending a request to the already running Emacs, which must be
+ expecting the request.
* Setup
- Emacs must have executed the `server-start' function for emacsclient to
+ Emacs must have executed the "server-start" function for emacsclient to
work. This can be done either by a command line option:
emacs -f server-start
(if (some conditions are met) (server-start))
When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called
- `server'. `server' creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
- directory named `.emacs_server'.
+ "server". "server" creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
+ directory named .emacs_server.
To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try
setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the
- value `emacsclient'. You may have to specify the full pathname of the
+ value "emacsclient". You may have to specify the full pathname of the
emacsclient program instead. Examples:
# csh commands:
* Normal use
- When emacsclient is run, it connects to the `.emacs_server' socket and
- passes its command line options to `server'. When `server' receives
+ When emacsclient is run, it connects to the ".emacs_server" socket and
+ passes its command line options to "server". When "server" receives
these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process,
which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line
numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to
to it; otherwise emacsclient will exit, signaling the calling program
to continue.
- NOTE: `emacsclient' and `server' must be running on machines which
+ NOTE: "emacsclient" and "server" must be running on machines which
share the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that
emacsclient specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the
Emacs process sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the
time emacsclient is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from
another X window or from a shell window inside Emacs itself.
- There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called `gnuserv' by
+ There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called "gnuserv" by
Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp
- Archive. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across
- most network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary
- Emacs Lisp forms and also does not require the client program to wait
- for completion. It is available via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive:
- packages/gnuserv.shar).
+ Archive (see question 90). Gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it
+ can work across most network connections. It also supports the
+ execution of arbitrary Emacs Lisp forms and does not require the client
+ program to wait for completion.
+
+ The alpha version of an enhanced version of gnuserv is available at
+
+ ftp://ftp.splode.com/pub/users/friedman/packages/fgnuserv-1.0.tar.gz
-40: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
+41: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
The variable compilation-error-regexp-alist helps control how Emacs
parses your compiler output. It is a list of triples of the form:
already provided. Once you have determined the proper regexps, use the
following to inform Emacs of your changes:
- (setq compilation-error-regexp-alist
- (cons '(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX)
- compilation-error-regexp-alist))
+ (add-to-list 'compilation-error-regexp-alist
+ '(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX))
-41: How do I indent switch statements like this?
+42: How do I indent C switch statements like this?
Many people want to indent their switch statements like this:
c-label-offset to -2. However, this will give you an indentation spacing
of four instead of two.
- The solution is to use cc-mode (available from the Emacs Lisp Archive)
- and add the following line:
+ The solution is to use cc-mode (the default mode for C programming in
+ Emacs 20) and add the following line:
(c-set-offset 'case-label '+)
- There appears to be no way to do this with the old c-mode.
+ There appears to be no way to do this with the old c-mode.
+
+43: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
+
+ Use hscroll-mode, included in Emacs 20. Here is some information from
+ the documentation, available by typing C-h f hscroll-mode RET:
-42: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
+ Automatically scroll horizontally when the point moves off the
+ left or right edge of the window.
- Use hscroll.el by Wayne Mesard <wmesard@esd.sgi.com>.
+ - Type "M-x hscroll-mode" to enable it in the current buffer.
+ - Type "M-x hscroll-global-mode" to enable it in every buffer.
+ - "turn-on-hscroll" is useful in mode hooks as in:
+ (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-hscroll)
-43: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
+ - hscroll-margin controls how close the cursor can get to the edge
+ of the window.
+ - hscroll-step-percent controls how far to jump once we decide to do so.
- M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode).
+44: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
- On some workstations, the "Insert" key toggles insert and overwrite
- modes.
+ M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode). This toggles overwrite-mode on and
+ off, so exiting from overwrite-mode is as easy as another M-x
+ overwrite-mode.
-44: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
+ On some systems the "Insert" key toggles overwrite-mode on and off.
+
+45: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes:
- Tell Emacs to use the `visible bell' instead of the audible bell, and
+ Tell Emacs to use the "visible bell" instead of the audible bell, and
set the visible bell to nothing.
- Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable:
+ That is, put the following in your TERMCAP environment variable
+ (assuming you have one):
- ... :vb=: ...
+ ... :vb=: ...
- And evaluate this:
+ And evaluate the following Lisp form:
(setq visible-bell t)
-45: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
+ There is also a way to turn off _all_ effects of a bell, by defining
+ a custom `ring-bell-function' that does nothing.
+
+46: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
You can adjust the bell volume and duration for all programs with the
shell command xset.
-
+
Invoking xset without any arguments produces some basic information,
including the following:
- usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ...
- To turn bell off:
- -b b off b 0
- To set bell volume, pitch and duration:
- b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on
+ usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ...
+ To turn bell off:
+ -b b off b 0
+ To set bell volume, pitch and duration:
+ b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on
-46: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
+47: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
- One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode).
+ Such behavior is automatic in text mode in Emacs 20. From the NEWS file
+ for Emacs 20.2:
+
+ ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs. This makes
+ it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode in Text mode,
+ and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode). TAB in Text mode
+ now runs the command indent-relative; this makes a practical difference
+ only when you use indented paragraphs.
+
+ As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
+ and is an alias for it.
+
+ If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph, use
+ the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
- If you have auto-fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 30), you can
- tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the
- "fill prefix." Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position
- point after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill
- prefix. Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix
- at the beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any
- fill prefix when refilling the paragraph.
+ If you have auto-fill mode on (see question 31), you can tell Emacs to
+ prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the "fill prefix."
+ Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position point after it, and
+ then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill prefix. Thereafter,
+ auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix at the beginning of
+ new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any fill prefix when
+ refilling the paragraph.
NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you
will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move
to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages
- available from the Emacs Lisp Archive. Look up `fill' and `indent' in
- the Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
+ available from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 90.) Look up "fill"
+ and "indent" in the Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
-47: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
+48: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
- GNU Emacs 19 comes with paren.el, which (when loaded) will automatically
- highlight matching parentheses whenever point (i.e., the cursor) is
- located over one. To load paren automatically, include the line
+ As of version 19, Emacs comes with paren.el, which (when loaded) will
+ automatically highlight matching parentheses whenever point (i.e., the
+ cursor) is located over one. To load paren automatically, include the
+ line
(require 'paren)
- in your .emacs file.
+ in your .emacs file. As of version 20.1, you must instead call
+ show-paren-mode in your .emacs file:
+
+ (show-paren-mode 1)
+
+ and the "require" is redundant.
+
+ The "customize" facility will let you turn on show-paren-mode. Use M-x
+ customize-group RET paren-showing RET. From within customize, you can
+ also go directly to the "paren-showing" group.
Alternatives to paren include:
* Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching
parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a
- parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal.
+ parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal. (`Parenthesis' actually
+ includes and character with `open' or `close' syntax, which usually means
+ "()[]{}".)
;; By an unknown contributor
((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1))
(t (self-insert-command (or arg 1)))))
-48: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
+49: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
commands are handled by the compiler?
- M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.)
+ M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.) You might also want to try
+ cpp.el, available at the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 90).
-49: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
+50: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
(`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
- No, not really.
+ In Emacs 20.3 and later, use the C-x z ("repeat") command to repeat `simple
+ commands'.
- You can type "C-x ESC ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands
- that used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you
- can type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands
- you've typed.
+ Otherwise you can type "C-x ESC ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke
+ commands that used the minibuffer to get arguments. In
+ repeat-complex-command you can type M-p and M-n to scan through all the
+ different complex commands you've typed.
- To repeat something on each line, use keyboard macros. (See `Keyboard
- Macros' in the on-line manual.)
+ To repeat a set of commands, use keyboard macros. (See "Keyboard Macros"
+ in the on-line manual.)
-50: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
+ VIPER, which comes with Emacs, emulates vi, including `.'. (See question
+ 107.)
- See Emacs man page, or "Resources X" in the on-line manual.
+51: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
+
+ See Emacs man page, or "Resources X" in the on-line manual.
You can also use a resource editor, such as editres (for X11R5 and
onwards), to look at the resource names for the menu bar, assuming Emacs
was compiled with the X toolkit.
-51: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
+52: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
- There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") an Emacs Lisp
- "form":
+ There are a number of ways to execute ("evaluate," in Lisp lingo) an
+ Emacs Lisp "form":
* If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file
- named `.emacs' in your home directory.
+ named ".emacs" in your home directory. This is known as your ".emacs
+ file," and contains all of your personal customizations.
* You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or
C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in
* Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately
before point and prints its value in the echo area.
- * Typing M-ESC or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in
- the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
+ * Typing M-: or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form
+ in the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
* You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in
- a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function `load' instead.)
+ a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function "load" instead.)
- These functions are also used for evaluating Lisp forms:
+ These functions are also useful (see question 16 if you want to learn
+ more about them):
load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
-52: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
+53: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
Set the variable default-tab-width. For example, to set tab stops every
10 characters, insert the following in your .emacs file:
(setq default-tab-width 10)
-53: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
+ Do not confuse variable tab-width with variable tab-stop-list. The
+ former is used for the display of literal tab characters. The latter
+ controls what characters are inserted when you press the TAB character in
+ certain modes.
+
+54: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
- Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET".
+ To do this to an entire buffer, type "M-< M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET >
+ RET".
- To do this only in the region, type "C-x n n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET
- > RET C-x w".
+ To do this to a region, use "string-rectangle" ("C-x r t"). Set the mark
+ (`C-SPC') at the beginning of the first line you want to prefix, move the
+ cursor to last line to be prefixed, and type "C-x r t > RET". To do this
+ for the whole buffer, type "C-x h C-x r t > RET". In Emacs 20.3 and
+ later, this will affect only the current region if Transient Mark mode is
+ on (see NEWS via C-h N).
- WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n n) is disabled by default
- because it can be very confusing (i.e., "Oh no! Where did my file go?").
+ If you are trying to prefix a yanked mail message with '>', you might
+ want to set the variable mail-yank-prefix. Better yet, get the Supercite
+ package (see question 105), which provides flexible citation for yanked
+ mail and news messages.
-54: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
+55: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an
underlined paragraph?
M-x underline-region.
-55: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
+56: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command
and then type "M-0 C-x e".
WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be
suppressed.
-56: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
+57: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
- M-x picture-mode. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...)
+ M-x picture-mode.
-57: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
+58: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
- "C-z" iconifies Emacs when running in X and suspends Emacs otherwise.
- See `Misc X' in the on-line manual.
+ "C-z" iconifies Emacs when running under X Windows and suspends Emacs
+ otherwise. See "Misc X" in the on-line manual.
-58: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
+59: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
- See `Regexps' in the on-line manual.
+ See "Regexps" in the on-line manual.
WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
- are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\".
- Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is
- "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated backslashes!
+ are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is `\\'. To
+ specify a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) in a Lisp string, use
+
+ "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)"
+
+ Notice the doubled backslashes!
WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set
([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless
newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match.
- WARNING: The character syntax regexps (e.g., `\sw') are not meaningful
- inside character set regexps (e.g., `[aeiou]'). (This is actually
+ WARNING: The character syntax regexps (e.g., "\sw") are not meaningful
+ inside character set regexps (e.g., "[aeiou]"). (This is actually
typical for regexp syntax.)
-59: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
+60: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which
performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file.
- See `Tags:Tags Search' in the on-line manual.
+ See "Tags Search" in the on-line manual.
- In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace
- which will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the
- *compilation* buffer (usually done after a `grep'), which is available
- via anonymous FTP:
+ As of Emacs 19.29, Dired mode ("M-x dired RET", or C-x d) supports the
+ command dired-do-query-replace, which allows users to replace regular
+ expressions in multiple files.
- /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/compile.el.z
- /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/global-replace.el.z
- /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/query.el.z
+61: Where is the documentation for "etags"?
- NOTE: These files are compressed using GNU zip ("gzip"); you can get a
- copy from gzip from prep and its mirrors (see question 80).
+ "etags" is documented in the Tags node of the Emacs manual. The "etags"
+ man page should be in the same place as the "emacs" man page.
-60: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
+ Quick command-line switch descriptions are also available. For example,
+ "etags -H".
- The `etags' man page should be in the same place as the `emacs' man page.
+62: How do I disable backup files?
- Quick command-line switch descriptions are also available. For example,
- `etags -H'.
+ You probably don't want to do this, since backups are useful.
+
+ To avoid seeing backup files (and other "uninteresting" files) in Dired,
+ load dired-x by adding the following to your .emacs file:
+
+ (add-hook 'dired-load-hook
+ (function (lambda ()
+ (load "dired-x"))))
+
+ With dired-x loaded, `M-o' toggles omitting in each dired buffer. You
+ can make omitting the default for new dired buffers by putting the
+ following in your .emacs:
+
+ (setq initial-dired-omit-files-p t)
+
+ If you're tired of seeing backup files whenever you do an "ls" at the
+ Unix shell, try GNU ls with the "-B" option. GNU ls is part of the GNU
+ fileutils package, available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (see question 92).
+
+ To disable or change how backups are made, see "Backup Names" in the
+ on-line manual.
+
+63: How do I disable auto-save-mode?
+
+ You probably don't want to do this, since auto-saving is useful,
+ especially when Emacs or your computer crashes while you are editing a
+ document.
+
+ Instead, you might want to change the variable auto-save-interval, which
+ specifies how many keystrokes Emacs waits before auto-saving. Increasing
+ this value forces Emacs to wait longer between auto-saves, which might
+ annoy you less.
+
+ You might also want to look into Sebastian Kremer's auto-save package,
+ available from the Lisp Code Archive (see question 90). This package
+ also allows you to place all auto-save files in one directory, such as
+ /tmp.
+
+ To disable or change how auto-save-mode works, see "Auto Save" in the
+ on-line manual.
+
+64: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?
+
+ Each menu title (e.g., Buffers, File, Edit) represents a local or global
+ keymap. Selecting a menu title with the mouse displays that keymap's
+ non-nil contents in the form of a menu.
+
+ So to add a menu option to an existing menu, all you have to do is add a
+ new definition to the appropriate keymap. Adding a "forward word"
+ command to the "Edit" menu thus requires the following Lisp code:
+
+ (define-key global-map
+ [menu-bar edit forward]
+ '("Forward word" . forward-word))
+
+ The first line adds the entry to the global keymap, which includes global
+ menu bar entries. Replacing the reference to "global-map" with a local
+ keymap would add this menu option only within a particular mode.
+
+ The second line describes the path from the menu-bar to the new entry.
+ Placing this menu entry underneath the "File" menu would mean changing
+ the word "edit" in the second line to "file."
+
+ The third line is a cons cell whose first element is the title that will
+ be displayed, and whose second element is the function that will be
+ called when that menu option is invoked.
+
+ To add a new menu, rather than a new option to an existing menu, we must
+ define an entirely new keymap:
+
+ (define-key global-map [menu-bar words]
+ (cons "Words" (make-sparse-keymap "Words")))
+
+ The above code creates a new sparse keymap, gives it the name "Words",
+ and attaches it to the global menu bar. Adding the "forward word"
+ command to this new menu would thus require the following code:
+
+ (define-key global-map
+ [menu-bar words forward]
+ '("Forward word" . forward-word))
+
+ Note that because of the way keymaps work, menu options are displayed
+ with the more recently defined items at the top. Thus if you were to
+ define menu options "foo", "bar", and "baz" (in that order), menu option
+ "baz" would appear at the top, and "foo" would be at the bottom.
+
+ One way to avoid this problem is to use the function define-key-after,
+ which works the same as define-key, but lets you modify where items
+ appear. The following Lisp code would insert the "forward word" function
+ in the "edit" menu immediately following the "undo" option:
+
+ (define-key-after
+ (lookup-key global-map [menu-bar edit])
+ [forward]
+ '("Forward word" . forward-word)
+ 'undo)
+
+ Note how the second and third arguments to define-key-after are different
+ from those of define-key, and that we have added a new (final) argument,
+ the function after which our new key should be defined.
+
+ To move a menu option from one position to another, simply evaluate
+ define-key-after with the appropriate final argument.
+
+ More detailed information -- and more examples of how to create and
+ modify menu options -- are in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, under
+ "Menu Keymaps." (See question 16 for information on this manual.)
+
+ Note that Emacs 20.3 introduced a better (`extended') format for menu
+ items, described in the NEWS file and the Lisp Manual. The "easymenu"
+ package provides support for defining menus conveniently with some
+ portability amongst Emacs versions.
+
+65: How do I delete menus and menu options?
+
+ The simplest way to remove a menu is to set its keymap to nil. For
+ example, to delete the "Words" menu (from question 64), use:
+
+ (define-key global-map [menu-bar words] nil)
+
+ Similarly, removing a menu option requires redefining a keymap entry to
+ nil. For example, to delete the "Forward word" menu option from the
+ "Edit" menu (we added it in question 64), use:
+
+ (define-key global-map [menu-bar edit forward] nil)
+
+66: How do I turn on syntax highlighting?
+
+ Font-lock mode is the standard way to have Emacs perform syntax
+ highlighting. With font-lock mode invoked, different types of text will
+ appear in different colors. For instance, if you turn on font-lock in a
+ programming mode, variables will appear in one face, keywords in a
+ second, and comments in a third.
+
+ Earlier versions of Emacs supported hilit19, a similar package. Use of
+ hilit19 is now considered non-standard, although hilit19.el comes with
+ the stock Emacs distribution. It is no longer maintained.
+
+ To turn font-lock mode on within an existing buffer, use "M-x
+ font-lock-mode RET".
+
+ To automatically invoke font-lock mode when a particular major mode is
+ invoked, set the major mode's hook or define font-lock-global-modes as a
+ list with the mode name as an element. For example, to fontify all
+ c-mode buffers, add the following to your .emacs file:
+
+ (add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
+
+ To automatically invoke font-lock mode for all major modes, you can turn
+ on global-font-lock mode by including the following line in your .emacs
+ file (or use Custom):
+
+ (global-font-lock-mode 1)
+
+ This instructs Emacs to turn on font-lock mode in those buffers for which
+ a font-lock mode definition has been provided (in the variable
+ font-lock-global-modes or via the variable font-lock-defaults-alist). If
+ you edit a file in pie-ala-mode, and no font-lock definitions have been
+ provided for pie-ala files, then the above setting will have no effect on
+ that particular buffer.
+
+ Highlighting with font-lock mode can take quite a while, and thus
+ different levels of decoration are available, from slight to gaudy. To
+ control how decorated your buffers should become, set the value of
+ font-lock-maximum-decoration in your .emacs file, with a nil value
+ indicating default (usually minimum) decoration, and a t value indicating
+ the maximum decoration. For the gaudiest possible look, then, include
+ the line
+
+ (setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t)
+
+ in your .emacs file. You can also set this variable such that different
+ modes are highlighted in a different ways; for more information, see the
+ documentation for font-lock-maximum-decoration with "C-h v" (or "M-x
+ describe-variable RET").
+
+ You might also want to investigate fast-lock-mode and lazy-lock-mode,
+ versions of font-lock-mode that speed up highlighting. The advantage of
+ lazy-lock-mode is that it only fontifies buffers when certain conditions
+ are met, such as after a certain amount of idle time, or after you have
+ finished scrolling through text. See the documentation for
+ lazy-lock-mode by typing C-h f lazy-lock-mode ("M-x describe-function RET
+ lazy-lock-mode RET").
+
+ Also see the documentation for the function font-lock-mode, available by
+ typing C-h f font-lock-mode ("M-x describe-function RET font-lock-mode
+ RET").
+
+ For more information on font-lock mode, particularly adding new patterns,
+ see the Lisp Reference Manual and the commentary in the source
+ font-lock.el, which you can find in Emacs 20 (if it is installed) using,
+ say, M-x find-function font-lock-mode.
+
+ To print buffers with the faces (i.e., colors and fonts) intact, use
+ "M-x ps-print-buffer-with-faces" or "M-x ps-print-region-with-faces".
+
+67: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
+ bottom of the screen?
+
+ Place the following Lisp form in your .emacs file:
+
+ (setq scroll-step 1)
+
+ Also see "Scrolling" in the on-line manual.
+
+68: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
+
+ Use delete-selection mode, which you can start automatically by placing
+ the following Lisp form in your .emacs file:
+
+ (delete-selection-mode t)
+
+ According to the documentation string for delete-selection mode (which
+ you can read using M-x describe-function RET delete-selection-mode RET):
+
+ When ON, typed text replaces the selection if the selection is active.
+ When OFF, typed text is just inserted at point.
+
+ This mode also allows you to delete (not kill) the highlighted region by
+ pressing DEL.
+
+69: How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs?
+
+ As of Emacs 20, detection and handling of MS-DOS (and Windows) files is
+ performed transparently. You can open an MS-DOS file on a Unix system
+ (and vice versa), edit it, and save it without having to worry about the
+ file format. To save it with a different end-of-line convention use
+ C-x RET c to specify a new coding system such as undecided-unix.
+
+ When editing an MS-DOS style file, a backslash (\) will appear in the
+ mode line.
+
+ You can avoid translation of the end-of-line conventions either by
+ visiting a file using M-x find-file-literally or by setting the variable
+ inhibit-eol-conversion to t.
+
+ If you are running an earlier version of Emacs, get crypt++ from
+ ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/misc/crypt++.el. Among other things, crypt++
+ transparently modifies MS-DOS files as they are loaded and saved,
+ allowing you to ignore the different conventions that Unix and MS-DOS
+ have for delineating the end of a line.
+
+70: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
+ each period?
+
+ Ulrich Mueller <ulm@vsnhd1.cern.ch> suggests adding the following two
+ lines to your .emacs file:
+
+ (setq sentence-end "[.?!][]\"')}]*\\($\\|[ \t]\\)[ \t\n]*")
+ (setq sentence-end-double-space nil)
+
+ See "Sentences" in the online manual.
Bugs/Problems
-61: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
-[This problem has been solved better in Emacs 19.29 because the buffer
-size limit is now 16 times as large.]
+71: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
- Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and
- 24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can
- handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1).
+ Old versions (i.e., anything before 19.29) of Emacs had problems editing
+ files larger than 8 megabytes. As of version 19.29, the maximum buffer
+ size is at least 2^27-1, or 134,217,727 bytes.
- Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting the following two
- lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers
- and pointers (and thus filesizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes):
+ If you are using an older version of Emacs and cannot upgrade, you will
+ have to recompile. Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting
+ the following two lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow
+ for 26-bit integers and pointers (and thus file sizes of up to 33,554,431
+ bytes):
#define VALBITS 26
#define GCTYPEBITS 5
- WARNING: This method may result in `ILLEGAL DATATYPE' and other random
+ WARNING: This method may result in "ILLEGAL DATATYPE" and other random
errors on some machines.
- David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> gives an explanation of why
- Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers:
+ David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> explains how this problems
+ crops up; while his numbers are true only for pre-19.29 versions of
+ Emacs, the theory remains the same with current versions.
Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
(and pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
pointers.
- Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented
- machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits.
-
-62: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my shell buffer?
+72: How do I get rid of ^M or echoed commands in my shell buffer?
Try typing "M-x shell-strip-ctrl-m RET" while in shell-mode to make them
- go away. If that doesn't work, you have several options:
+ go away. You might add this function to comint-output-filter-functions:
- For tcsh, put this in your `.cshrc' (or `.tcshrc') file:
+ (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions 'shell-strip-ctrl-m)
+
+ If that doesn't work, you have several options:
+
+ For tcsh, put this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
if ($?EMACS) then
if ("$EMACS" == t) then
Alternatively, use csh in your shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way
is:
- (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
+ (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
(You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly
set for this to take effect.)
-63: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
+ You can also set the ESHELL environment variable in Emacs Lisp with
+ the following Lisp form,
+
+ (setenv "ESHELL" "/bin/csh")
+
+ On a related note: If your shell is echoing your input line in the shell
+ buffer, you might want to try the following command in your shell
+ start-up file:
+
+ stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z
- The most likely reason for this message is that the `env' program is not
+73: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?
+
+ The most likely reason for this message is that the "env" program is not
properly installed. Compile this program for your architecture, and
install it with a+x permission in the architecture-dependent Emacs
program directory. (You can find what this directory is at your site by
inspecting the value of the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v
exec-directory RET".)
- You should also check for other programs named `env' in your path (e.g.,
+ You should also check for other programs named "env" in your path (e.g.,
SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). We don't understand why this
can cause a failure and don't know a general solution for working around
the problem in this case.
- The `make clean' command will remove `env' and other vital programs, so
- be careful when using it.
-
It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started
as an X client from an xterm window (i.e., had a controlling tty) but the
xterm was later terminated.
- See also PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs
- source) for other possible causes of this message.
+ See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message.
-64: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
+74: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"?
- The termcap entry for terminal type `emacs' is ordinarily put in the
+ The termcap entry for terminal type "emacs" is ordinarily put in the
TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain
situations (e.g., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for
- `emacs' to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry
- for `emacs':
+ "emacs" to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry
+ for "emacs":
emacs:tc=unknown:
- To make a terminfo entry for `emacs', use `tic' or `captoinfo'. You need
+ To make a terminfo entry for "emacs", use "tic" or "captoinfo." You need
to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy
/usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs.
programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead.
A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to
- change terminal type `emacs' to type `dumb' or `unknown' in your shell
- start up file. `csh' users could put this in their .cshrc files:
+ change terminal type "emacs" to type "dumb" or "unknown" in your shell
+ start up file. "csh" users could put this in their .cshrc files:
if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb
-65: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
+75: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?
Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is
sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these
characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character
normally invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions,
- see question 110.
+ see question 122.
-66: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
+76: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of
gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is
- often manifested as a message on startup of `X server not responding.
- Check your DISPLAY environment variable.' or a message of `Unknown host'
+ often manifested as a message on startup of "X server not responding.
+ Check your DISPLAY environment variable." or a message of "Unknown host"
from open-network-stream.
On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C
* Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions
such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs.
- * If you are actually running NIS, make sure that `ypbind' is properly
+ * If you are actually running NIS, make sure that "ypbind" is properly
told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch.
- * Use tcp.el and tcp.c from Gnus. This has the additional advantage that
- you can use numeric IP addresses instead of names. open-network-stream
- currently can't handle numeric addresses. Brian Thomson
- <thomson@hub.toronto.edu> has a enhancement to open-network-stream to
- allow it to handle numeric addresses.
-
-67: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
+77: Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"?
An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the
system-wide lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your
.emacs file, see question 27.
- It may be the case that you may need to load some package first, or use a
+ It may be the case that you need to load some package first, or use a
hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case
- of this is explained in question 106.
+ of this is explained in question 118.
-68: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
+78: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
As of version 19, Emacs searches for X resources in the files specified
by the XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, and XAPPLRESDIR environment
separated by colons.
Emacs searches for X resources
-
- + specified on the command line, with the `-xrm RESOURCESTRING'
+
+ + specified on the command line, with the "-xrm RESOURCESTRING"
option,
+ then in the value of the XENVIRONMENT environment variable,
- or if that is unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults-HOSTNAME if it
- or in ~/Emacs,
+ then in the files listed in XFILESEARCHPATH.
-69: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
+79: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
- The usual cause is that the master lock file, `!!!SuperLock!!!' has been
+ Old versions of Emacs (i.e., versions before Emacs 20.x) often
+ encountered this when the master lock file, "!!!SuperLock!!!" has been
left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it.
Mark Meuer <meuer@geom.umn.edu> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an
- exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause the
- same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS anyway,
- the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION undefined.
+ exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause
+ the same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS
+ anyway, the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION
+ undefined.
-70: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
+80: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand
a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this
behavior, type "$$" instead.
-71: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
+81: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its
directory. This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to
- guess by recognizing `cd' commands. If you type `cd' followed by a
- directory name with a variable reference (`cd $HOME/bin') or with a shell
- metacharacter (`cd ../lib*'), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the
+ guess by recognizing "cd" commands. If you type "cd" followed by a
+ directory name with a variable reference ("cd $HOME/bin") or with a shell
+ metacharacter ("cd ../lib*"), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the
shell's new current directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements
to shell mode for this problem have been written to handle this problem.
- Check the Lisp Code Directory (see question 77).
+ Check the Lisp Code Directory (see question 89).
You can tell Emacs the shell's current directory with the command "M-x
dirs".
-72: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
+82: Are there any security risks in Emacs?
- * the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.)
+ * the "movemail" incident (No, this is not a risk.)
In his book "The Cuckoo's Egg," Cliff Stoll describes this in chapter
- 4. The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid
+ 4. The site at LBL had installed the "etc/movemail" program setuid
root. (As of version 19, movemail is in your architecture-specific
- directory; type "C-h v directory RET" to see what it is.) Since
- `movemail' had not been designed for this situation, a security hole
+ directory; type "C-h v exec-directory RET" to see what it is.) Since
+ "movemail" had not been designed for this situation, a security hole
was created and users could get root privileges.
- `movemail' has since been changed so that even if it is installed
- setuid root this security hole will not be a result.
+ "movemail" has since been changed so that this security hole will not
+ exist, even if it is installed setuid root. However, movemail no
+ longer needs to be installed setuid root, which should eliminate this
+ particular risk.
- We have heard unverified reports that the Internet worm took advantage
- of this configuration problem.
+ We have heard unverified reports that the 1988 Internet worm took
+ advantage of this configuration problem.
* the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.)
Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this
feature.
- If you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value,
- Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file that
- you visit and ask you if you really want them. This variable is not
- mentioned in the manual.
+ Emacs 18 allowed this feature by default; users could disable it by
+ setting the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value.
- It is wise to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs:
+ As of Emacs 19, Emacs has a list of local variables that create a
+ security risk. If a file tries to set one of them, it asks the user to
+ confirm whether the variables should be set. You can also tell Emacs
+ whether to allow the evaluation of Emacs Lisp code found at the bottom
+ of files by setting the variable enable-local-eval.
- (setq inhibit-local-variables t)
+ For more information, see "File Variables" in the on-line manual.
- If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in
- lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own
- .emacs file.
-
- The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an Rmail user
- was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that
- uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this.
-
- For more information, see `File Variables' in the on-line manual
- (which, incidentally, does not describe how to disable the feature).
-
- * synthetic X events (Yes, a risk, use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.)
+ * synthetic X events (Yes, a risk; use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.)
Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as
though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the
The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open
X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real
authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the
- `xauth' program has any effect, then you are probably using
+ "xauth" program has any effect, then you are probably using
MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication
method; ask your system administrator.
narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but
DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK.
+ On most computers running Unix and X Windows, you enable and disable
+ access using the "xhost" command. To allow all hosts access to your X
+ server, use
+
+ xhost +
+
+ at the shell prompt, which (on an HP machine, at least) produces the
+ following message:
+
+ access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
+
+ To deny all hosts access to your X server (except those explicitly
+ allowed by name), use
+
+ xhost -
+
+ On the test HP computer, this command generated the following message:
+
+ access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect
+
+83: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something.
+
+ Chances are you're using a localized version of Unix that doesn't
+ use US date format in dired listings. You can check this by looking
+ at dired listings or by typing `ls -l' to a shell and looking at the
+ dates that come out.
+
+ Dired uses a regular expression to find the beginning of a file
+ name. In a long Unix-style directory listing ("ls -l"), the file
+ name starts after the date. The regexp has thus been written to
+ look for the date, the format of which can vary on non-US systems.
+
+ There are two approaches to solving this. The first one involves
+ setting things up so that "ls -l" outputs US date format. This can
+ be done by setting the locale. See your OS manual for more
+ information.
+
+ The second approach involves changing the regular expression used by
+ dired, dired-move-to-filename-regexp.
+
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
-73: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
+84: How do I install Emacs?
+
+ This answer is meant for users of Unix and Unix-like systems. Users of
+ other operating systems should see the series of questions beginning with
+ question 94, which describe where to get non-Unix source and binaries.
+ These packages should come with installation instructions.
+
+ For Unix and Unix-like systems, the easiest way is often to compile it
+ from scratch. You will need:
+
+ * Emacs sources. See question 92 for a list of ftp sites that make them
+ available. On ftp.gnu.org, the main GNU distribution site, sources are
+ available at
+
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.4.tar.gz
+
+ The above will obviously change as new versions of Emacs come out. For
+ instance, when Emacs 20.5 is released, it will most probably be
+ available at
+
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.5.tar.gz
+
+ Again, you should use one of the mirror sites in question 92 (and
+ adjust the URL accordingly) so as to reduce load on ftp.gnu.org.
+
+ * Gzip, the GNU compression utility. You can get gzip via anonymous ftp
+ at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org sites; it should compile and install without
+ much trouble on most systems. Once you have retrieved the Emacs
+ sources, you will probably be able to uncompress them with the command
+
+ gunzip --verbose emacs-20.4.tar.gz
+
+ changing the Emacs version (20.4), as necessary. Once gunzip has
+ finished doing its job, a file by the name of "emacs-20.4.tar" should
+ be in your build directory.
+
+ * Tar, the "tape archiving" program, which moves multiple files into and
+ out of archive files, or "tarfiles." All of the files comprising the
+ Emacs source come in a single tarfile, and must be extracted using tar
+ before you can build Emacs. Typically, the extraction command would
+ look like
+
+ tar -xvvf emacs-20.4.tar
+
+ The `x' indicates that we want to extract files from this tarfile, the
+ two `v's force verbose output, and the `f' tells tar to use a disk
+ file, rather than one on tape.
+
+ If you're using GNU tar (available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org), you can
+ combine this step and the previous one by using the command
+
+ tar -zxvvf emacs-20.4.tar.gz
+
+ The additional `z' at the beginning of the options list tells GNU tar
+ to uncompress the file with gunzip before extracting the tarfile's
+ components.
+
+ At this point, the Emacs sources (all 25+ megabytes of them) should be
+ sitting in a directory called "emacs-20.4". On most common Unix and
+ Unix-like systems, you should be able to compile Emacs (with X Windows
+ support) with the following commands:
+
+ cd emacs-20.4 [ change directory to emacs-20.4 ]
+ ./configure [ configure Emacs for your particular system ]
+ make [ use Makefile to build components, then Emacs ]
+
+ If the "make" completes successfully, the odds are fairly good that the
+ build has gone well. (See question 86 if you weren't successful.)
+
+ To install Emacs in its default directories of /usr/local/bin (binaries),
+ /usr/local/share/emacs/20.xx (Lisp code and support files),
+ /usr/local/libexec/CONFIGURATION/emacs/VERSION (executable files to be
+ run by Emacs rather than users), /usr/local/man/man1 (man pages) and
+ /usr/local/info (Info documentation), become the super-user and type
+
+ make install
+
+ Note that "make install" will overwrite /usr/local/bin/emacs and any
+ Emacs Info files that might be in /usr/local/info.
+
+ Much more verbose instructions (with many more hints and suggestions)
+ come with the Emacs sources, in the file "INSTALL".
+
+85: How do I update Emacs to the latest version?
+
+ Follow the instructions in question 84.
+
+ Emacs places nearly everything in version-specific directories (e.g.,
+ /usr/local/share/emacs/20.4), so the only files that can be overwritten
+ when installing a new release are /usr/local/bin/emacs and the Emacs Info
+ documentation in /usr/local/info. Back up these files before you install
+ a new release, and you shouldn't have too much trouble.
+
+86: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
First look in the file PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you
unpack the Emacs source) to see if there is already a solution for your
- problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't find a
- solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
- bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help
- or e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines,
- see question 8.
+ problem. Next, look for other questions in this FAQ that have to do with
+ Emacs installation and compilation problems.
-74: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
+ If you'd like to have someone look at your problem and help solve it, see
+ question 21.
- Don't do that.
+ If you don't find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
+ bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help
+ or e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. For further guidelines,
+ see question 8 and question 10.
- This problem has been reported on SGI Indigo machines running Irix 4.0.*
- and RS/6000 machines. Scott Henry <scotth@hoshi.corp.SGi.COM> posted a
- patch that fixes the problem for Irix.
-
-75: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
+87: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library,
libX11.a. This may be missing.
- Under OpenWindows, you may need to use `add_services' to add the
- `OpenWindows Programmers' optional software category from the CD-ROM.
+ Under OpenWindows, you may need to use "add_services" to add the
+ "OpenWindows Programmers" optional software category from the CD-ROM.
- Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run `update' again to load the X11-PRG
- `fileset'. This may be missing even if you specified `all filesets' the
+ Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run "update" again to load the X11-PRG
+ "fileset". This may be missing even if you specified "all filesets" the
first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load the
- `Berkeley Development Option' {???}.
+ "Berkeley Development Option."
+
+ David Zuhn <zoo@armadillo.com> says that MIT X builds shared libraries by
+ default, and only shared libraries, on those platforms that support them.
+ These shared libraries can't be used when undumping temacs (the last
+ stage of the Emacs build process). To get regular libraries in addition
+ to shared libraries, add this to site.cf:
- If you are building the MIT X11 sources, you may need to modify your
- `site.cf' file to get static versions of the libraries. (Info from David
- Zuhn <zoo@cygnus.com>.)
+ #define ForceNormalLib YES
Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define
CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead.
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
-76: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
+88: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
archive sites and etc/ORDERS for mail orders. If you don't already have
- GNU Emacs, see question 20 for how to get these files.
-
- The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT:
-
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-19.27.tar.gz
-
- See question 80 for information on where to get other GNU software.
-
-77: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
-
- A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code Directory, is
- being maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com>. You can search
- through this list to learn if someone has written something that fits
- your needs.
-
- This list is file LCD-datafile.Z in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see the next
- question for retrieval instructions). The files lispdir.el.Z and
- lispdir.doc in the archive contain Lisp code and information to help you
- use the list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then
- you can use the `M-x lisp-dir-apropos' command to search the listing.
- For example, the command `M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET' produces
- this output:
+ Emacs, see question 20 for how to get these files.
+
+ See question 84 for information on how to obtain and build the latest
+ version of Emacs, and question 92 for a list of archive sites that make
+ GNU software available.
+
+89: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
+
+ First of all, you should check to make sure that the package isn't
+ already available. For example, typing "M-x apropos RET wordstar RET"
+ lists all functions and variables containing the string "wordstar".
+
+ It is also possible that the package is on your system, but has not been
+ loaded. To see which packages are available for loading, look through your
+ computer's lisp directory (see question 4) or use the Finder (C-h p) to
+ search under keywords. The Lisp source to most packages contains a
+ short description of how they should be loaded, invoked, and configured --
+ so before you use or modify a Lisp package, see if the author has provided
+ any hints in the source code.
+
+ If a package does not come with Emacs, check the Lisp Code
+ Directory, maintained (unfortunately slowly at present) by Dave
+ Brennan <brennan@gnu.org>. The directory is contained in the file
+ LCD-datafile.Z, available from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question
+ 90), and is accessed using the "lispdir" package, available from the
+ same site. Note that lispdir.el requires crypt++, which you can
+ grab from the Emacs Lisp Archive's "misc" subdirectory when you get
+ lispdir.el.
+
+ Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, you can use "M-x
+ lisp-dir-apropos" to search the listing. For example, "M-x
+ lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces this output:
GNU Emacs Lisp Code Directory Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
- "~/" refers to archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
+ "~/" refers to ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/emacs-lisp/
ange-ftp (4.18) 15-Jul-1992
Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
~/modes/ftp-quik.el.Z
Quik access to dired'ing of ange-ftp and normal paths
-78: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
+ You actually don't need the directory file LCD-datafile if your computer
+ is on the Internet, since the latest version is retrieved automatically
+ the first time you type "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" in a particular Emacs
+ session. If you would prefer to use a local copy of LCD-datafile, be
+ sure to set the variable lisp-code-directory at the top of the lispdir.el
+ source code.
+
+ A searchable version of the LCD is also available at
+
+ http://www.cs.indiana.edu/LCD/cover.html
+
+90: Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you
- are looking for (see question 77). Next, check local archives and the
+ are looking for (see question 89). Next, check local archives and the
Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. If you still
haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for a copy.
+ If you find Emacs Lisp code that doesn't appear in the LCD, please submit
+ a copy to the LCD (see question 91).
+
+ You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive at the following sites:
- You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP:
-
- /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
- /ftp.cs.umn.edu:pub/elisp-archive/
- /calypso-2.oit.unc.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
- /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/emacs-lisp/
- /gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU/elisp-archive/
- /nic.switch.ch:mirror/elisp-archive/
- /ftp.diku.dk:pub/elisp-archive/
- /quepasa.cs.tu-berlin.de:pub/gnu/elisp/
- /faui43.informatik.uni-erlangen.de:pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
- /ftp.uni-mainz.de:pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
- /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
- /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/
+ ftp://ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/
+ ftp://ftp.uni-mainz.de/pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
+ ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU/elisp-archive/
+ ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
+ ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/elisp-archive/
+ ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/Mirrors/ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/
Retrieve and read the file README first.
you cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to
find a friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers.
- * Any files with names ending in `.Z', `.z', or `.gz' are
- compressed, so you should use `binary' mode in FTP to retrieve
+ * Any files with names ending in ".Z", ".z", or ".gz" are
+ compressed, so you should use "binary" mode in FTP to retrieve
them. You should also use binary mode whenever you retrieve any
- files with names ending in `.elc'.
+ files with names ending in ".elc".
+
+ Packages which have been posted to gnu.emacs.sources should be locatable
+ via a service like Dejanews.
-79: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
+91: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
Guidelines and procedures for submission to the archive can be found in
- the file GUIDELINES in the archive directory (see question 78). It
+ the file GUIDELINES in the archive directory (see question 90). It
covers documentation, copyrights, packaging, submission, and the Lisp
Code Directory Record. Anonymous FTP uploads are not permitted.
Instead, all submissions are mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu.
The lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will
help you with this.
-80: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
+ Note that maintenance of the archive is currently very slow.
+
+92: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
+
+ The most up-to-date official GNU software is normally kept on
+ ftp.gnu.org and is available at
- The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on
- prep.ai.mit.edu and is available for anonymous FTP in the pub/gnu
- directory. Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information
- (see question 20 for retrieval instructions).
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu
- The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area:
+ Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information.
- /col.hp.com:mirrors/gnu/
- /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/
- /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/
- /gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU/
- /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/
- /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/ (available via FTP, NIFTP, FTAM)
- /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep/
- /wuarchive.wustl.edu:systems/gnu/
+ A list of sites mirroring ftp.gnu.org can be found at
- The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu,
- except that files larger than one megabyte are split into multiple parts.
- If you have trouble transferring large files, you should try here. A
- file normally named `XXX' is split into files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9],
- and there will be a file named XXX-split/README which contains the list
- of parts (especially helpful when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums,
- and reassembly instructions.
+ http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html
-81: What is the difference between Emacs and Epoch?
+93: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
+ Emacs")?
- Epoch was a modified version of GNU Emacs. It was merged
- into XEmacs (formerly "Lucid Emacs"), and the Epoch redisplay, now
- being totally rewritten, is slated to be merged into Emacs when the
- rewrite is done.
+ XEmacs is a modified version of GNU Emacs.
-82: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
- Emacs")?
+ This FAQ refers to the latest version to be distributed by the FSF
+ as "Emacs," partly because the XEmacs maintainers now refer to their
+ product using the "XEmacs" name, and partly because there isn't any
+ accurate way to differentiate between the two without getting mired
+ in paragraphs of legalese and history.
- XEmacs is a modified version of GNU Emacs.
+ XEmacs, which began life as Lucid Emacs, is based on an early version of
+ Emacs 19 and Epoch, an X-aware version of Emacs 18.
- A comparison between the two versions, written by the XEmacs
- maintainers, had been included here. Richard Stallman removed it
- from this copy of the FAQ because it was unfair. It was (1)
- one-sided, listing only advantages of XEmacs and not advantages of
- the principal version of Emacs, (2) biased, stating the opinions
- of the XEmacs maintainers, and (3) out of date, listing as advantages of
- XEmacs features which in fact both versions have.
+ Emacs (i.e., the version distributed by the FSF) has a larger installed
+ base and now always contains the MULE multilingual facilities. XEmacs
+ can do some clever tricks with X Windows, such as putting arbitrary
+ graphics in a buffer; similar facilities have been implemented for Emacs,
+ which will be integrated after version 20.4. Emacs and XEmacs each come
+ with some Lisp packages that are lacking or more up-to-date in the other;
+ RMS says that the FSF would include more packages that come with XEmacs,
+ but that the XEmacs maintainers don't always keep track of the authors of
+ contributed code, which makes it impossible for the FSF to have certain
+ legal papers signed. (Without these legal papers, the FSF will not
+ distribute Lisp packages with Emacs.) The two versions have some
+ significant differences at the Lisp programming level.
-83: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
+94: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
- Recent releases of GNU Emacs 19 should compile right out of the box on
- PCs with a 386 or better, running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. You will need the
- following to compile it:
-
- Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later. You can get the latest
- version by grabbing everything in the following directory
- (using anonymous ftp):
+ A pre-built binary distribution of Emacs is available from the Simtel
+ archives. This version works under MS-DOS and Windows (3.x, 9x, and NT) and
+ supports long file names under Windows 9x. More information is available
+ from:
- ftp.coast.net:/SimTel/vendors/djgpp
+ ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/emacs.README
- There are a few directories under djgpp whose names begin with
- `v1'; get the contents of `v1' and `v1gnu'.
- Do *not* try to compile Emacs with DJGPP v2.0 (in the
- directories whose name begin with `v2') as GNU Emacs doesn't
- support that version yet.
+ And the binary itself is available in the files em1934*.zip in the
+ directory
- GUnZip and Tar:
+ ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/
- The easiest way is to use `djtar' which comes with DJGPP v2.0,
- because it can unzip .tar.gz archives on-the-fly (so you won't
- need twice the required disk space while untarring the
- archive). You get `djtar' with the `v2/djdev200.zip' file from
- the above FTP server.
+ If you prefer to compile Emacs for yourself, you will need a 386 (or
+ better) processor, and are running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. According to Eli
+ Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> and Darrel Hankerson
+ <hankedr@dms.auburn.edu>, you will need the following:
- Another (slower) version of Tar which unzips automatically is
- available by anonymous ftp on this site:
+ Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later. Djgpp 2.0 or later is
+ recommended, since 1.x is being phased out. Djgpp 2 supports
+ long filenames under Windows 9x.
- ftp.kiae.su:msdos/arcers/tar320fp.zip
+ You can get the latest release of djgpp by retrieving
+ all of the files in
- Or you can unZip the archive with the DJGPP port of GZip (from
- the above directory at ftp.coast.net look for gzp124bn.zip),
- then unTar it with any of the Tar ports floating around. A
- DOS version of GNU tar is available via anonymous ftp from
+ ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp
- ftp.unipg.it:/pub/msdos/aspi/gtar-exe.zip
+ Gunzip and tar:
- Note that DOS ports of GNU Tar usually cannot unzip compressed
- archives, and the above port is no exception.
+ The easiest way is to use "djtar" which comes with djgpp v2.x,
+ because it can open gzip'ed tarfiles (i.e., those ending with
+ ".tar.gz") in one step. Djtar comes in "djdev201.zip", from
+ the URL mentioned above.
- Another version of Tar for DOS can be found at
+ Utilities: make, mv, sed, rm.
- ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/unixtools/dos
+ All of these utilities are available at
- However, be warned that not all DOS versions of tar work
- equally well, so you might have to try others if this one gives
- you trouble.
+ ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu
- Utilities: chmod, make, mv, sed, rm.
+ 16-bit utilities can be found in GNUish:
- All of these utilities are available via anonymous ftp from
- the site
+ ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish
- ftp.coast.net:/SimTel/vendors/gnu/gnuish/dos_only
+ The files INSTALL and etc/PROBLEMS in the Emacs source contains some
+ additional information regarding Emacs under MS-DOS.
- You should grab the files fut312bx.zip (contains chmod.exe,
- mv.exe, and rm.exe).
+ For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs
+ look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature,"
+ available at
- A port of GNU Sed is available in the djgpp archives in the
- above directory on ftp.coast.net. Look for a file named
- sed118bn.zip.
+ ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/
- The file etc/MSDOS contains some information on the differences between
- the Unix and MS-DOS versions of GNU Emacs.
+ Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they often
+ lack certain features, particularly the Emacs Lisp extension language.
- If you would prefer not to compile Emacs by yourself, you can get
- binaries for Emacs via anonymous ftp from many sites; use your Archie
- client to search for them.
+95: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows
+ NT?
- You might also be interested in Demacs, which runs under MS-DOS (*not*
- Microsoft Windows; see question 84) on 386- and 486-based PCs. Demacs is
- a port of Nemacs (see question 126), rather than a straight port of GNU
- Emacs 18 or 19.
+ GNU Emacs has been fully ported to Windows NT and Windows 95/98.
+ If you have MSVC 4.0 or greater, then you can compile GNU Emacs
+ directly from the source distribution. First read the file
+ nt/README, and then the file nt/INSTALL, for step by step
+ instructions on how to compile and install GNU Emacs on your system.
- Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by
- DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com> which can compile and run large programs
- under MS-DOS and under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs
- rather than straight from GNU Emacs. You can get the most recent version
- of Demacs via anonymous ftp from ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp in
- pub/Msdos/Demacs/*.
+ You can also download precompiled distributions of GNU Emacs from:
- For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs
- look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature,"
- available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in pub/usenet/comp.emacs.
+ ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs
+
+ If you need the gunzip and tar utilities for unpacking distributions,
+ you can download precompiled versions from:
-84: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Microsoft Windows?
+ ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs/utilities
- * If you compile GNU Emacs with the tools listed above, it will run under
+ For more information on configuring your favorite package to run with
+ GNU Emacs on Windows NT/95/98, see the following FAQ:
+
+ http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html
+ ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs/docs/ntemacs.html
+
+ If you are running Windows 3.11, and if you compile GNU Emacs for MSDOS
+ with the tools listed in the previous question, it will run under
Microsoft Windows in a DOS box.
- There are currently two other ports of Emacs that runs under Microsoft
- Windows:
+96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
+
+ Emacs 19.33 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1, and is available at:
+
+ ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/editors/emacs/v19.33/
+
+97: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
- * Oemacs
+ Roland Schäuble reports that Emacs 18.58 running on plain TOS and MiNT
+ is available at
- Current version of Oemacs4.1 is based on Emacs-19.19 and runs in either
- MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows. There is rumor that the author Darryl
- Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com> would not update unless there is
- demonstrated interest. It is nearly a full porting of GNU Emacs except
- that shell-mode does not work due to the limitation of MS-DOS.
- Anonymous ftp information:
+ ftp://atari.archive.umich.edu/Editors/Emacs-18-58/1858b-d3.zoo
- ftp.coast.net:SimTel/vendors/gnu/oemacs/
+98: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
- * The other uses a proprietary X Windows emulator and therefore
- the FSF does not think it deserves publicity.
+ The files you need are available at
-85: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
+ ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/gnu/
- Emacs 19.27 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1.
+ David Gilbert <dgilbert@gamiga.guelphnet.dweomer.org> has released a beta
+ version of Emacs 19.25 for the Amiga. You can get the binary at
- Anonymous FTP info:
+ ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/gnu/a2.0bEmacs-bin.lha
- hobbes.nmsu.edu:os2/2_x/unix/emacs27
+99: Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?
-86: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
+ Emacs.app is a NeXTSTEP version of Emacs 19.34 which supports colors,
+ menus, and multiple frames. You can get it from
- (does anyone know?)
+ ftp://next-ftp.peak.org/pub/next/apps/emacs/Emacs_for_NeXTstep.4.20a1.NIHS.b.tar.gz
-87: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
+100: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
- Amiga software is available through Aminet, a set of interconnected FTP
- sites and other file accessing services for Amiga software. The primary
- sites for Aminet are ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) and ftp.cdrom.com
- (192.153.46.2). In the directory pub/aminet/util/gnu, there are
- a1.26-emacs-bin.lha -- Amiga GNU Emacs V1.26, binaries
- a1.26-emacs-src.lha -- Amiga GNU Emacs V1.26, sources
+ There used to be a boycott of Apple because of its "look and feel"
+ lawsuit. The lawsuit failed, and the boycott is over.
+ Currently the GNU project treats Apple like other computer companies.
- There are also quite a few Emacs related files/programs. Please search
- the index of Aminet.
+ Since the Mac operating system is very different from Unix and GNU,
+ support for it would be a big job. And this job would be tangential
+ to the GNU project's goals. Meanwhile, we don't have the resources
+ to do all we want to do on supporting Emacs for GNU-like systems.
+ So if we had to do work on support for the Macintosh, that would
+ directly harm the GNU project.
- We have no access to an Amiga, so please send in your experience and
- comments on the implementation.
+ Of course, the same is true for MSDOS and Windows NT. We decided to
+ incorporate support for those systems because the code was very modular,
+ because volunteers not only wrote all the code but also investigate
+ all the bugs reported on those systems, and because we hoped that we
+ will be able to raise funds for GNU using these versions, and in this
+ way these ports will make up for the effort that they took. (We still
+ hope so, but it has not happened yet.)
-88: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
+ An unofficial port of GNU Emacs 18.59 to the Macintosh is available at a
+ number of ftp sites, the home being
- The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look
- and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details.
- Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software
- for Apple computers such as the Macintosh.
+ ftp://ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub/parmet/Emacs-1.17.sit.bin
- Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers.
+ To the best of our knowledge, Emacs 19 has not been ported to the
+ Macintosh.
-89: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
+ Apple's forthcoming "OS X" is based largely on NeXTSTEP and OpenStep.
+ See question 99 for more details about that version.
- Version 19.27 has a VMS directory containing installation instructions, a
- makefile, and various .com files. But according to Richard Levitte
- <levitte@e.kth.se>, it does not run out of the box. Even if it does, the
- VMSNOTES indicates that the Emacs on VMS is going to have much more
- limited functionality. Richard Levitte has a patched 19.22 that
- supposedly has subprocess and networking functionality just as on Unix,
- with virtually the same lisp interface. The source is available via
- anonymous ftp at
+101: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
- ftp.vms.stacken.kth.se:GNU-VMS/Beta/EMACS-19_22-********.TAR-GZ
+ Up-to-date information about GNU software (including Emacs) for VMS is
+ available at
- where ******** is the release date of the kit. You should also read
- http://www.e.kth.se/elev/levitte/gnu/emacs.html for more information.
+ http://vms.gnu.org/
-90: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++,
- Objective C, Pascal, and Awk?
+102: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++,
+ Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk?
Most of these modes are now available in standard Emacs distribution. To
- get additional modes, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 77).
+ get additional modes, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 89).
For C++, if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like
this:
M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET
- Note that Barry Warsaw's cc-mode now works for C, C++, and Objective-C
- code. You can get the latest version (4.85, as of this writing) from the
- Emacs Lisp Archive.
+ Note that Barry Warsaw's cc-mode now works for C, C++, Objective-C, and
+ Java code. You can get the latest version from the Emacs Lisp Archive;
+ see question 90 for details. A FAQ for cc-mode is available at
-91: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
+ http://www.python.org/emacs/cc-mode/
- If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know
- the IP address of a host to FTP files from it. You can get this
- information in two ways:
+103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
- * By telnet:
+ If you are on a Unix machine, try using the "nslookup" command, included
+ in the Berkeley BIND package. For example, to find the IP address of
+ "ftp.gnu.org", you would type
- telnet nic.ddn.mil hostnames (or `telnet 192.112.36.5 101')
- @ whois
- Whois: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ
+ nslookup ftp.gnu.org
- * By e-mail:
+ Your computer should then provide the IP address of that computer.
- To: service@nic.ddn.mil
- Subject: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ
- or: whois XXX.YYY.ZZZ
- or: help
+ If your site's nameserver is deficient, you can use IP addresses to FTP
+ files. You can get this information by
- or:
+ * E-mail:
- To: resolve@cs.widener.edu
- body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ
+ To: dns@[134.214.84.25] (to grasp.insa-lyon.fr)
+ Body: ip XXX.YYY.ZZZ (or "help" for more information
+ and options - no quotes)
+ or:
- Information from Brendan Kehoe <brendan@cs.widener.edu>.
+ To: resolve@[147.31.254.130] (to laverne.cs.widener.edu)
+ Body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ
Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
- This section lists version numbers, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups,
- and other information for many important packages, extensions, and
- related programs. There is some overlap with the Lisp Code Directory,
- but these entries give more detailed information.
-
- If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they
- deserve to be mentioned here, please let us know. Having its own mailing
- list or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good
- signs.
-
-92: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
+104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support
Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net>
- Latest version: 5.72 (beta)
+ Latest version: 6.67
Anonymous FTP:
- /ftp.uu.net:networking/mail/vm-5.72beta.tar.gz
+ ftp://ftp.wonderworks.com/pub/vm/vm.tar.gz
Newsgroups and mailing lists:
- Info-VM:
+ Informational newsgroup/mailing list:
gnu.emacs.vm.info (newsgroup)
info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
- Bug-VM:
+ Bug reports newsgroup/mailing list:
gnu.emacs.vm.bug (newsgroup)
bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
+ NOTE: VM 6 is not guaranteed to work under Emacs 20 (although many people
+ seem to use it without too much trouble). Users of Emacs 20 might prefer
+ to use VM 5.97, available from the same FTP site.
-93: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
+105: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com>
- Latest version: 3.54 (comes with GNU Emacs 19)
- 3.1 (available from the Emacs Lisp Archive)
- Anonymous FTP:
- /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/sc3.1.tar.Z
- Mailing list: supercite-request@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for subscriptions)
- supercite@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for submissions)
- NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite.
-
-94: Gnus -- news reader within Emacs
+ Latest version: 3.1 (comes with Emacs 20)
- Author: Masanobu Umeda <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp>
- Latest version: 4.1 (comes with GNU Emacs 19)
- Anonymous FTP:
- /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-4.1.tar.Z
- /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-4.1.tar.Z
- Newsgroups and mailing lists:
- English-only:
- gnu.emacs.gnus (newsgroup)
- info-gnus-english-request@cis.ohio-state.edu (for subscriptions)
- info-gnus-english@cis.ohio-state.edu (for submissions)
- Japanese (and some English):
- info-gnus-request@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for subscriptions)
- info-gnus@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for submissions)
+ World Wide Web:
+ http://www.python.org/emacs/supercite.tar.gz
+ Mailing list:
+ supercite-request@python.org (for subscriptions)
+ supercite@python.org (for submissions)
+ NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite.
-95: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
+106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu>
- Latest version: 2.02c
+ Latest version: 2.02f
Anonymous FTP:
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02c.tar.gz
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/calc/calc-2.02f.tar.gz
NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue
anyone for having a program with a similar command language to
Calc. :-)
-96: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
+107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs
- Author: Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
- Latest version: 1.56 (comes with GNU Emacs 19)
- Anonymous FTP:
- /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z
- Mailing lists:
- Ange-FTP Lovers:
- ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for subscriptions)
- ange-ftp-lovers@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for submissions)
- /ftp.reed.edu:pub/mailing-lists/ange-ftp/ (archives)
- Ange-FTP Announcements:
- ange-ftp-lovers-announce@anorman.hpl.hp.com
- NOTE: now supports VMS, CMS, and MTS ftp servers
+ Since Emacs 19.29, the preferred vi emulation in Emacs is VIPER (M-x
+ viper-mode RET), which comes with Emacs. It extends and supersedes VIP
+ (including VIP 4.3) and provides vi emulation at several levels, from one
+ that closely follows vi to one that departs from vi in several
+ significant ways.
-97: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
+ For Emacs 19.28 and earlier, the following version of VIP is generally
+ better than the one distributed with Emacs:
Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu>
Latest version: 4.3
Anonymous FTP:
- /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z
- /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z
- NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one
- distributed with Emacs.
+ ftp://ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z
-98: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
+108: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
- Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk>
- Latest version: 9.1i
+ Authors: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk>
+ and Per Abrahamsen <abraham@iesd.auc.dk>
+ Latest version: 9.8l
Anonymous FTP:
- /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex-9.1i.tar.gz
+ ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/packages/auctex/auctex.tar.gz
Mailing list:
auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions)
auc-tex@iesd.auc.dk (for submissions)
auc-tex_mgr@iesd.auc.dk (auc-tex development team)
+ World Wide Web:
+ http://sunsite.auc.dk/auctex/
-99: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
+109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
- Author: Bob Weiner <rsw@cs.brown.edu>
- Latest version: 3.15
- Anonymous FTP:
- /wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/h3.15.tar.Z
+ Maintainer: Matt Simmons <simmonmt@acm.org>
+ Latest released version: 2.00
+ Available from:
+ http://www.netcom.com/~simmonmt/bbdb/index.html
Mailing lists:
- hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only.
- Subscriptions:
- To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
- Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole-announce
- hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion.
- Subscriptions:
- To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
- Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole
- Submissions:
- hyperbole@cs.brown.edu
- NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a
- member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list.
- NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists.
-
-100: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
-
- Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
- Latest released version: 1.50
- Anonymous FTP:
- /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bbdb-1.50.tar.Z
- Mailing lists:
- info-bbdb-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
- info-bbdb@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
- bbdb-announce-request@cs.uiuc.edu (to be informed of new releases)
- NOTE: BBDB does not work with VM 4. It does work with VM 5,
- Rmail, Gnus, and MH-E.
+ info-bbdb-request@xemacs.org (for subscriptions)
+ info-bbdb@xemacs.org (for submissions)
+ bbdb-announce-request@xemacs.org (to be informed of new releases)
-101: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
+110: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com>
- Latest released version: 3.1.08
+ Latest released version: 3.1.20
Anonymous FTP:
Master Sites:
- /ftp.cs.ucla.edu:pub/ispell/ispell-3.1.08.tar.gz
- /ftp.math.orst.edu:pub/ispell/ispell-3.1.08.tar.gz
- Known Mirror Sites: (only directory names shown)
- /ftp.th-darmstadt.de:pub/dicts/ispell/
- /ftp.nl.net:pub/textproc/ispell/
+ ftp://ftp.cs.ucla.edu/pub/ispell/ispell-3.1.20.tar.gz
+ Known Mirror Sites:
+ ftp://ftp.th-darmstadt.de/pub/dicts/ispell/
+ ftp://ftp.nl.net/pub/textproc/ispell/
+ World Wide Web:
+ http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/ispell.html
NOTE: * Do not ask Geoff to send you the latest version of Ispell.
He does not have free e-mail.
-
+
* This Ispell program is distinct from GNU Ispell 4.0. GNU
Ispell 4.0 is no longer a supported product.
-102: XEmacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface; formerly
- known as Lucid Emacs or lemacs.
+111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs
+
+ Author: Bill Perry <wmperry@spry.com>
+ Latest version: 4.0pre.39
+ Anonymous FTP:
+ ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3/.betas/w3.tar.gz
+ Mailing lists:
+ w3-announce-request@indiana.edu (to get announcements of new versions)
+ w3-beta-request@indiana.edu (for beta-testers of new versions)
+ w3-dev@indiana.edu (for developers of W3)
+
+112: EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes
- Primary Maintainer: Chuck Thompson <cthomp@cs.uiuc.edu>
- Other Developers: Ben Wing <wing@netcom.com>
- Richard Mlynarik <mly@adoc.xerox.com>
- Jamie Zawinski <jwz@mcom.com>
- Latest released version: 19.11
+ Author: Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu>
+ Latest version: 1.21
Anonymous FTP:
- /ftp.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/xemacs/xemacs-19.11.tar.gz
- Newsgroup and mailing lists:
- Bugs:
- alt.lucid-emacs.bug
- bug-lucid-emacs-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
- bug-lucid-emacs@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
- Help:
- alt.lucid-emacs.help
- help-lucid-emacs-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
- help-lucid-emacs@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
- NOTE: The XEmacs FAQ is available via the World-Wide Web at URL
- http://xemacs.cs.uiuc.edu/.
-
-103: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
-
- Author: Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
- Latest version: 2.1
- Anonymous FTP:
- /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.1.tar.gz
- /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/patch-2.1.tar.gz
- /ftp.uni-stuttgart.de:pub/unix/gnu/patch-2.1.tar.gz
- NOTE: See question 80 for other GNU distribution sites.
+ ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/emacs/edb
+
+113: Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news
+
+ Authors: Patrick J. LoPresti <patl@lcs.mit.edu> and
+ Jin S. Choi <jin@atype.com>
+ Maintainer: Len Budney <lbudney@pobox.com>
+ Latest version: 3.5.1
+ Anonymous FTP:
+ ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/crypto/mailcrypt-3.5.1.tar.gz
+ World Wide Web:
+ http://www.nb.net/~lbudney/linux/software/mailcrypt.html
+
+114: JDE -- Development environment for Java programming
+
+ Author: Paul Kinnucan <paulk@mathworks.com>
+ Mailing list: jde-subscribe@sunsite.auc.dk
+ Latest version: 2.1.4
+ World Wide Web: http://sunsite.auc.dk/jde/
+
+115: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
+
+ Author: Larry Wall <lwall@wall.org> (with GNU modifications)
+ Latest version: 2.5
+ Anonymous FTP: See question 92
Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
-104: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
+116: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
+
+ Keys can be bound to commands either interactively or in your .emacs
+ file. To interactively bind keys for all modes, type
+
+ M-x global-set-key RET KEY CMD RET
- Keys can be bound to commands either interactively or by predefinition
- (e.g. in the .emacs file). To interactively bind keys for all modes,
- type `M-x global-set-key RET KEY CMD RET'; for the current major mode
- only, type `M-x local-set-key RET KEY CMD RET' (see the Emacs on-line
- documentation for further details).
+ To bind a key just in the current major mode, type
- To bind keys on starting Emacs or on starting any given mode, you can use
- the following "trick." First bind the key interactively, then
- immediately afterwards type `C-x ESC ESC C-a C-k C-g'. Now, the command
- needed to bind the key is in the kill ring and can be yanked into the
- .emacs file. If the key binding is global, no changes to the command are
- required. For example,
+ M-x local-set-key RET KEY CMD RET
- (global-set-key (quote [f1]) (quote help-for-help))
+ See "Key Bindings" in the on-line manual for further details.
- can be place directly into the .emacs file. If the key binding is local,
- the command is used in conjunction with the `add-hook' command. For
- example, in tex-mode, a local binding might be
+ To bind keys on starting Emacs or on starting any given mode, use the
+ following "trick": First bind the key interactively, then immediately
+ type "C-x ESC ESC C-a C-k C-g". Now, the command needed to bind the key
+ is in the kill ring, and can be yanked into your .emacs file. If the key
+ binding is global, no changes to the command are required. For example,
- (add-hook 'tex-mode-hook
- (function (lambda ()
- (local-set-key (quote [f1]) (quote help-for-help))))
+ (global-set-key [f1] 'help-for-help)
- NOTE: * Control characters in key sequence position of the form yanked
- from the kill ring are given in their graphic form - i.e. CTRL is
- shown as `^', TAB as a set of spaces (usually 8), etc. You may
- want to convert these into their vector or string forms.
+ can be placed directly into the .emacs file. If the key binding is
+ local, the command is used in conjunction with the "add-hook" command.
+ For example, in tex-mode, a local binding might be
- * If some prefix key of the character sequence to be bound is
- already bound as a complete key, then you must unbind it before
- the new binding. For example, if `ESC {' is previously bound:
+ (add-hook 'tex-mode-hook
+ (lambda ()
+ (local-set-key [f1] 'help-for-help)))
+
+ NOTE: * Control characters in key sequences, in the form yanked from the
+ kill ring are given in their graphic form -- i.e., CTRL is shown
+ as `^', TAB as a set of spaces (usually 8), etc. You may want to
+ convert these into their vector or string forms.
+
+ * If a prefix key of the character sequence to be bound is already
+ bound as a complete key, then you must unbind it before the new
+ binding. For example, if "ESC {" is previously bound:
(global-unset-key [?\e ?{]) ;; or
(local-unset-key [?\e ?{])
(global-set-key [f10] [?\C-x?\e?\e?\C-a?\C-k?\C-g]) ;; or
(global-set-key [f10] "\C-x\e\e\C-a\C-k\C-g")
- See `Key Bindings' in the Emacs on-line documentation for further
- details.
+ * The "kbd" macro is convenient for converting a key description in
+ the form used in documentation or printed by C-h c (except that
+ function key symbols must be enclosed in angle brackets). For
+ example:
-105: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
+ (global-set-key (kbd "<f1>") 'help-for-help)
+ (global-set-key (kbd "C-h") 'help-for-help)
+ (local-set-key (kbd "DEL") 'scroll-down)
- Usually one of two things has happened. In one case, the control
- character in the key sequence has been misspecified (e.g. `C-f' used
- instead of `\C-f' within a Lisp expression). In the other case, a
+117: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?
+
+ Usually, one of two things has happened. In one case, the control
+ character in the key sequence has been misspecified (e.g. "C-f" used
+ instead of "\C-f" within a Lisp expression). In the other case, a
"prefix key" in the keystroke sequence you were trying to bind was
- already bound as a "complete key." Historically, the `ESC [' prefix was
+ already bound as a "complete key." Historically, the "ESC [" prefix was
usually the problem, in which case you should evaluate either of these
forms before attempting to bind the key sequence:
- (global-unset-key [?\e ?[]) ;; or
- (global-unset-key "\e[")
+ (global-unset-key [?\e ?[]) ;; or
+ (global-unset-key "\e[")
-106: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
+118: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
.emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
During startup, Emacs initializes itself according to a given code/file
To postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after terminal or
window-system setup, treat the code as a "lambda list" and set the value
- of either the `term-setup-hook' or `window-setup-hook' variable to this
+ of either the "term-setup-hook" or "window-setup-hook" variable to this
"lambda function." For example,
(setq term-setup-hook
(global-set-key [do] 'execute-extended-command))
))))
- For information on what Emacs does every time it is started, see the
- lisp/startup.el file.
+ For information on what Emacs does every time it is started, see
+ "Starting Up Emacs" in the Lisp Reference Manual.
-107: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
+119: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
With Emacs 19, functions keys under X are bound like any other key. See
- question 104 for details.
+ question 116 for details.
-108: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys
+120: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys
emit?
- Put the following in your .emacs file and type `M-x see-chars' to use:
-
- (defun see-chars ()
- "Display events received, terminated by a 3-second timeout."
- (interactive)
- (let (chars
- (inhibit-quit t))
- (message "Enter characters or other events, terminated by a 3-second
- timeout.")
- (while (not (sit-for 3))
- (setq chars (nconc chars (list (read-event)))
- quit-flag nil) ; quit-flag might be set by C-g.
- (if (not (input-pending-p))
- (message "Events received until now: %s..."
- (key-description chars))))
- (message "Events received: %s" (key-description chars))))
-
- Alternatively, type "C-h c" then the function or arrow keys. The command
- will return either a function key symbol or character sequence (see the
- Emacs on-line documentation for an explanation). This works for other
- keys as well.
-
-109: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
-
- Sorry, you can't; there are no "translations" to be set. Emacs is not
- written using the Xt library. The only way to affect the behavior of
- keys within Emacs is through `xmodmap' (outside Emacs) or `define-key'
- (inside Emacs). The `define-key' command should be used in conjunction
- with the `function-key-map' map. For instance,
+ Type "C-h c" then the function or arrow keys. The command will return
+ either a function key symbol or character sequence (see the Emacs on-line
+ documentation for an explanation). This works for other keys as well.
+
+121: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
+
+ Emacs is not written using the Xt library by default, so there are no
+ "translations" to be set. (We aren't sure how to set such translations
+ if you do build Emacs with Xt; please let us know if you've done this!)
+
+ The only way to affect the behavior of keys within Emacs is through
+ "xmodmap" (outside Emacs) or "define-key" (inside Emacs). The
+ "define-key" command should be used in conjunction with the
+ "function-key-map" map. For instance,
(define-key function-key-map [M-tab] [?\M-\t])
- defines the `META TAB' key sequence.
+ defines the "M-TAB" key sequence.
-110: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
+122: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
- C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This screws
- up Emacs because it binds these characters to commands. Also, by default
- Emacs will not honor them as flow control characters and may overwhelm
+ C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This messes
+ things up when you're using Emacs, because Emacs binds these keys to
+ commands by default. Because Emacs won't honor them as flow control
+ characters, too many of these characters are not passed on and overwhelm
output buffers. Sometimes, intermediate software using XON/XOFF flow
control will prevent Emacs from ever seeing C-s and C-q.
Your terminal may use XON/XOFF flow control to have time to display
all the characters it receives. For example, VT series terminals do
this. It may be possible to turn this off from a setup menu. For
- example, on a VT220 you may select `No XOFF' in the setup menu. This
+ example, on a VT220 you may select "No XOFF" in the setup menu. This
is also true for some terminal emulation programs on PCs.
When you turn off flow control at the terminal, you will also need to
If you turn off flow control, characters may be lost; using a printer
connected to the terminal may fail. You may be able to get around
- this problem by modifying the `termcap' entry for your terminal to
+ this problem by modifying the "termcap" entry for your terminal to
include extra NUL padding characters.
* a modem
Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> writes:
- Some versions of `rlogin' (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
+ Some versions of "rlogin" (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
control characters to the remote system to which they connect. On
such systems, Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow
- control on the local system. Sometimes `rlogin -8' will avoid this
+ control on the local system. Sometimes "rlogin -8" will avoid this
problem.
One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
(the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the
stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems,
- `stty start u stop u' will do this.
+ "stty start u stop u" will do this.
- Some versions of `tcsh' will prevent even this from working. One
+ Some versions of "tcsh" will prevent even this from working. One
way around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin,
and issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
- Use `stty -ixon' instead of `stty start u stop u' on some systems.
+ Use "stty -ixon" instead of "stty start u stop u" on some systems.
* Make Emacs speak the XON/XOFF flow control protocol.
(using your terminal names instead of "vt100" or "h19") to enable
selectively. These commands will automatically swap `C-s' and `C-q' to
`C-\' and `C-^'. Variables can be used to change the default swap keys
- (`flow-control-c-s-replacement' and `flow-control-c-q-replacement').
+ ("flow-control-c-s-replacement" and "flow-control-c-q-replacement").
If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs
file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to
For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS (in the
top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs source).
-111: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered
+123: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered
out?
- To bind `C-s' and `C-q', use either `enable-flow-control' or
- `enable-flow-control-on'. See question 110 for usage and implementation
+ To bind `C-s' and `C-q', use either "enable-flow-control" or
+ "enable-flow-control-on". See question 122 for usage and implementation
details.
- To bind other keys, use `keyboard-translate'. See question 114 for usage
+ To bind other keys, use "keyboard-translate". See question 126 for usage
details. To do this for an entire site, you should swap the keys in
- lisp/site-start.el. See question 110 for an explanation of why
+ lisp/site-start.el. See question 122 for an explanation of why
lisp/default.el should not be used.
NOTE: * If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by
the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs
actually behaves.
-112: Why does the `Backspace' key invoke help?
+124: Why does the "Backspace" key invoke help?
- The `Backspace' key (on most keyboards) generates ASCII code 8. `C-h'
+ The "Backspace" key (on most keyboards) generates ASCII code 8. `C-h'
sends the same code. In Emacs by default `C-h' invokes help-command.
This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of "help"
- is "h." The easiest solution to this problem is to use `C-h' (and
+ is `h'. The easiest solution to this problem is to use `C-h' (and
Backspace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous
character.
For many people this solution may be problematic:
* They normally use Backspace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous
- character typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for
- deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do
- this on many Unix systems:
+ character. This can be solved by making DEL the command for deleting
+ the previous character outside of Emacs. On many Unix systems, this
+ command will remap DEL:
- stty erase '^?'
+ stty erase `^?'
* The person may prefer using the Backspace key for deleting the previous
character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or
(keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?)
- See question 114 for further details of `keyboard-translate'.
+ See question 126 for further details of "keyboard-translate".
* Another approach is to switch key bindings and put help on "C-x h"
instead:
- (global-set-key [?\C-h] 'delete-backward-char)
- (global-set-key [?\C-x ?h] 'help-command)
- ;; overrides mark-whole-buffer
+ (global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
+ (global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ;; overrides mark-whole-buffer
Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?".
NOTE: * Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many
modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere.
-113: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
+125: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
Good question!
-114: How do I "swap" two keys?
+126: How do I "swap" two keys?
In Emacs 19, you can swap two keys (or key sequences) by using the
- `keyboard-translate' function. For example, to turn `C-h' into DEL and
+ "keyboard-translate" function. For example, to turn `C-h' into DEL and
DEL to `C-h', use
(keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?) ; translate `C-h' to DEL
up in keymaps contain the characters that result from keyboard
translation.
- Also see `Keyboard Translations' in the on-line manual.
+ Also see "Keyboard Translations" in the on-line manual.
-115: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
+127: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
On terminals (but not under X), some common "aliases" are:
- CTRL-2 or CTRL-SPC for C-@
- CTRL-6 for C-^
- CTRL-7 or CTRL-SHIFT-- for C-_
- CTRL-4 for C-\
- CTRL-5 for C-]
- CTRL-/ for C-?
+ C-2 or C-SPC for C-@
+ C-6 for C-^
+ C-7 or C-S-- for C-_
+ C-4 for C-\
+ C-5 for C-]
+ C-/ for C-?
- Often other aliases exist; use the `C-h c' command and try `CTRL' with
+ Often other aliases exist; use the "C-h c" command and try `CTRL' with
all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets generated. You can
- also try the `C-h w' command if you know the name of the command.
+ also try the "C-h w" command if you know the name of the command.
-116: What if I don't have a Meta key?
+128: What if I don't have a Meta key?
Instead of typing "M-a", you can type "ESC a". In fact, Emacs converts
M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of
- meta-prefix-char). Note that you press "Meta" and "a" together, while
- you press "ESC", release it, and then press "a".
+ meta-prefix-char). Note that you press "Meta" and `a' together, while
+ you press `ESC', release it, and then press `a'.
-117: What if I don't have an Escape key?
+129: What if I don't have an Escape key?
- Type "C-[" instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
- key would. "C-3" may also work on some terminal (but not under X). For
- many terminals (notably DEC terminals) "F11" generates the "ESC" key. If
- not, the following form can be used bind it:
+ Type `C-[' instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
+ key would. `C-3' may also work on some terminal (but not under X). For
+ many terminals (notably DEC terminals) `F11' generates ESC. If not, the
+ following form can be used to bind it:
(define-key function-key-map [f11] [?\e]) ; F11 is the documented ESC
; replacement on DEC terminals.
-118: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
+130: Can I make my "Compose Character" key behave like a Meta key?
On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220
clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're using
- X, you might be able to do this with the `xmodmap' program.
+ X, you might be able to do this with the "xmodmap" program.
-119: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
+131: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
- With Emacs 19 you can indicate modified function keys in vector format
- through multi-prefixing the function key symbol. For example (from the
- Emacs on-line documentation):
+ With Emacs 19 you can represent modified function keys in vector format
+ by adding prefixes to the function key symbol. For example (from the
+ on-line documentation):
(global-set-key [?\C-x right] 'forward-page)
where "?\C-x" is the Lisp character constant for the character "C-x".
- You can use the modifier keys CTRL, META, HYPER, SUPER, ALT and SHIFT
+ You can use the modifier keys Control, Meta, Hyper, Super, Alt, and Shift
with function keys. To represent these modifiers, prepend the strings
- "C-", "M-", "H-", "s-", "A-" and "S-" to the symbol name. Thus, here is
- how to make "Hyper-Meta-RIGHT" move forward a word:
+ "C-", "M-", "H-", "s-", "A-", and "S-" to the symbol name. Here is how
+ to make "Hyper-Meta-RIGHT" move forward a word:
(global-set-key [H-M-right] 'forward-word)
- NOTE: * Not all modifiers are permitted in all situations. HYPER, SUPER,
- and ALT are available only under X (provided there are such
+ In recent Emacs versions this may also be written as:
+
+ (global-set-key [(hyper meta right)] 'forward-word)
+
+ NOTE: * Not all modifiers are permitted in all situations. Hyper, Super,
+ and Alt are available only under X (provided there are such
keys). Non-ASCII keys and mouse events (e.g. "C-=" and
"mouse-1") also fall under this category.
- See question 104 for general key binding instructions.
+ See question 116 for general key binding instructions.
-120: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
+132: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
Try all of these methods before asking for further help:
- * You may have big problems using `mwm' as your window manager. {Does
+ * You may have big problems using "mwm" as your window manager. {Does
anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in
Emacs with mwm?}
- * For X11: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use `xev' to find out what
+ * For X11: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use "xev" to find out what
keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or Meta_R.
If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation.
* Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters.
- `stty -a' (or `stty everything') should show `cs8' somewhere. If it
- shows `cs7' instead, use `stty cs8 -istrip' (or `stty pass8') to fix
+ "stty -a" (or "stty everything") should show "cs8" somewhere. If it
+ shows "cs7" instead, use "stty cs8 -istrip" (or "stty pass8") to fix
it.
* If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the
- `-8' argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8 bits
+ "-8" argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8 bits
of every character.
* If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating
XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert()
- You might have to replace `Meta' with `Alt'.
+ You might have to replace "Meta" with "Alt".
-121: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
+133: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0
+ and 9.x?
This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the
fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that
xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
- NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which
+ NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which
may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them.
-122: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
-
- There is a package `wordstar' by Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> located under
- the "misc" directory at the Emacs Lisp Archive.
-
-123: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
-
- This question comes up once every couple of months. Searing for "xedit"
- through most recent Lisp Code Directory fails to match any entries.
Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
-124: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
-
- GNU Emacs 19 has built-in support for 8-bit characters. Here is an
- excerpt from the `European Display' page of the on-line manual:
-
- Some European languages use accented letters and other special symbols.
- The ISO 8859 Latin-1 character set defines character codes for many
- European languages in the range 160 to 255.
-
- Emacs can display those characters according to Latin-1, provided the
- terminal or font in use supports them. The `M-x
- standard-display-european' command toggles European character display
- mode. With a numeric argument, `M-x standard-display-european' enables
- European character display if and only if the argument is positive.
-
- Some operating systems let you specify the language you are using by
- setting a locale. Emacs handles one common special case of this: if
- your locale name for character types contains the string `8859-1' or
- `88591', Emacs automatically enables European character display mode
- when it starts up.
-
-125: How do I input 8-bit characters?
-
- Again, from the `European Display' page of the on-line manual:
-
- If you enter non-ASCII ISO Latin-1 characters often, you might find ISO
- Accents mode convenient. When this minor mode is enabled, the
- characters ``', `'', `"', `^', `/' and `~' modify the following letter
- by adding the corresponding diacritical mark to it, if possible. To
- enable or disable ISO Accents mode, use the command `M-x
- iso-accents-mode'. This command affects only the current buffer.
-
- To enter one of those six special characters, type the character,
- followed by a space. Some of those characters have a corresponding
- "dead key" accent character in the ISO Latin-1 character set; to enter
- that character, type the corresponding ASCII character twice. For
- example, `''' enters the Latin-1 character acute-accent (character code
- 0264).
-
-126: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
-
- Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55
- that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP:
-
- /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
- /ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp:pub/gnu-rel/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.gz
-
- You might also need files for "wnn," a kanji input method
- (wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You need a terminal (or
- terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in JIS, Shift-JIS, or
- EUC (Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs as a direct X
- Windows client.
+134: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
-127: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
+ Emacs 19 introduced built-in support for 8-bit characters. Emacs 20 can
+ operate similarly in Unibyte mode or else in Multibyte mode. See the
+ "International" node in the online manual, specifically "Single-Byte
+ European Support".
- Cemacs by Stephen G. Simpson <simpson@math.psu.edu> is a patch to Emacs
- 18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with
- Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous
- FTP:
+135: How do I input 8-bit characters?
- /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z
+ Again, see the "International" node of the on-line manual.
- Cxterm, a patch to Emacs 18.57 that allows you to enter Chinese
- characters, is available from the same place:
+136: Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other
+ character sets?
- /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z
+ Emacs 20 now includes many of the features of MULE, the Multilingual
+ Enhancement of Emacs. See question 84 for information on where to find
+ and download Emacs.
-128: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
+137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
- Joel M. Hoffman <joel@wam.umd.edu> writes:
+ Emacs 20 supports Hebrew characters (ISO 8859-8), but does not yet
+ support right-to-left character entry.
- A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows
- right-to-left editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display
- the Hebrew letters, given the right codes, but not for any
- right-to-left support; the hardware also doesn't have to send any
- specific char. codes. Emacs keeps track of when the user is typing
- Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-* terminals in Israel contain built-in
- support for Hebrew.)
+ Joel M. Hoffman <joel@exc.com> has written a Lisp package called
+ hebrew.el that allows right-to-left editing of Hebrew. It reportedly
+ works out of the box with Emacs 19, but requires patches for Emacs 18.
+ Write to Joel if you want the patches or package.
- To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's
- source code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean.
+ Hebrew.el requires a Hebrew screen font, but no other Hardware support.
+ Joel has a screen font for PCs running MS-DOS and Linux.
- [and in a separate message:]
-
- It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend
- trying that with Emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order
- with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a
- quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to
- send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for
- anything large, however, you'll want something that works better.
-
- Joel Hoffman has also written a "bi-directional bi-lingual Emacs-like"
- editor for MS-DOS named Ibelbe (Itty Bitty Emacs-Like Bidirectional
- Editor). Ibelbe is written in Turbo Pascal and comes with source code.
- Here is the description:
-
- Ibelbe looks like Emacs (it even has a minibuffer and filename
- completion), and fully supports both right-to-left and left-to-right
- editing. Other than an EGA monitor or better, no special hardware is
- required. You will need an EGA Hebrew font to use Ibelbe with Hebrew.
-
- Anonymous FTP:
- /israel.nysernet.org:israel/computers/software/msdos/ibelbe.zip
- /israel.nysernet.org:israel/computers/software/msdos/hebfont.zip
-
- Joseph Friedman <yossi@deshaw.com, yossi@Neon.Stanford.EDU> has written
- patches for Emacs 18.55 and 18.58 that provide Semitic language support
- under X Windows.
-
- Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by
- modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards."
-
- A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with `hebrew'.
+ You might also try to query archie for files named with "hebrew"; several
+ ftp sites in Israel may also have the necessary files.
Mail and News
-129: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
+138: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
If you read mail with Rmail or news with Gnus, set the variable
mail-yank-prefix. For VM, set vm-included-text-prefix. For mh-e, set
mh-ins-buf-prefix.
- For fancier control of citations, use Supercite. See question 93.
+ For fancier control of citations, use Supercite. See question 105.
- A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers
- of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of
- mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value.
+ To prevent Emacs from including various headers of the replied-to
+ message, set the value of mail-yank-ignored-headers to an appropriate
+ regexp.
-130: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
+139: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
- You can either mail yourself a copy by including a `BCC:' header in the
+ You can either mail yourself a copy by including a "BCC:" header in the
mail message, or store a copy of the message directly to a file by
- including an `FCC:' header.
+ including an "FCC:" header.
- If you use standard mail, you can automatically create a `BCC:' to
+ If you use standard mail, you can automatically create a "BCC:" to
yourself by putting
(setq mail-self-blind t)
- in your .emacs. You can automatically include an `FCC:' field by putting
- something like the following in your .emacs file:
+ in your .emacs file. You can automatically include an "FCC:" field by
+ putting something like the following in your .emacs file:
(setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing"))
The output file will be in Unix mail format, which can be read directly
- by VM, but not always by Rmail. See question 132.
+ by VM, but not always by Rmail. See question 141.
- If you use mh-e add an FCC: or BCC: field to your components file.
+ For Gnus, see the `Archived Messages node of the Gnus manual.
- It does not work to put `set record filename' in the .mailrc file.
+ If you use mh-e, add an "FCC:" or "BCC:" field to your components file.
-131: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
+ It does not work to put "set record filename" in the .mailrc file.
+
+140: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
* You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer
with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses
To: Willy Smith <wks@xpnsv.lwyrs.com>
- However, you do not need to separate addresses with commas in your
- .mailrc file.
-
- WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple
- addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of
- quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly
- setting the value of mail-aliases.
+ However, you do not need to -- and probably should not, unless your
+ system's version of /usr/ucb/mail (aka mailx) supports RFC822 --
+ separate addresses with commas in your ~/.mailrc file.
- * Emacs normally only reads the `.mailrc' file once per session, when you
+ * Emacs normally only reads the ".mailrc" file once per session, when you
start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can
- type "M-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc.
- (You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!)
-
- * Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the
- .mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set'
- commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group'
- commands.
+ type "M-x rebuild-mail-abbrevs RET" to make Emacs reread your ~/.mailrc
+ file.
* If you like, you can expand mail aliases as abbrevs, as soon as you
type them in. To enable this feature, execute the following:
(add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup)
-132: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?
+ Note that the aliases are expanded automatically only after you type
+ RET or a punctuation character (e.g. `,'). You can force their
+ expansion by moving point to the end of the alias and typing "C-x a e"
+ (M-x expand-abbrev).
+
+141: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?
- A file created through the FCC: field in a message is in Unix Mail
+ A file created through the FCC: field in a message is in Unix mail
format, not the format that Rmail uses (BABYL format). Rmail will try to
convert a Unix mail file into BABYL format on input, but sometimes it
- makes errors. For guaranteed safety, you can make the saved- messages
+ makes errors. For guaranteed safety, you can make the saved-messages
file be an inbox for your Rmail file by using the function
set-rmail-inbox-list.
-133: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?
+142: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?
- In Rmail, type C-c C-s C-h to get a list of sorting functions and their
+ In Rmail, type "C-c C-s C-h" to get a list of sorting functions and their
key bindings.
-134: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
+143: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
- This is the behavior of the `movemail' program which Rmail uses. This
+ This is the behavior of the "movemail" program which Rmail uses. This
indicates that movemail is configured to use lock files.
RMS writes:
Other systems use the flock system call to interlock access. On these
systems, you should configure movemail to use flock.
-135: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?
+144: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?
If you have just done rmail-input on a file and you don't want to save it
in Rmail's format (called BABYL), just kill the buffer (with C-x k).
format, use the command M-x unrmail: it will prompt you for the input and
output file names.
-136: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
+145: How can I force Rmail to reply to the sender of a message, but not the
+ other recipients?
+
+ Ron Isaacson <isaacson@seas.upenn.edu> says: When you hit "r" to reply in
+ Rmail, by default it CCs all of the original recipients (everyone on the
+ original "To" and "CC" lists). With a prefix argument (i.e., typing "C-u"
+ before "r"), it replies only to the sender. However, going through the
+ whole C-u business every time you want to reply is a pain. This is the
+ best fix I've been able to come up with:
+
+ (defun rmail-reply-t ()
+ "Reply only to the sender of the current message. (See rmail-reply.)"
+ (interactive)
+ (rmail-reply t))
+
+ (add-hook 'rmail-mode-hook
+ '(lambda ()
+ (define-key rmail-mode-map "r" 'rmail-reply-t)
+ (define-key rmail-mode-map "R" 'rmail-reply)))
+
+146: How can I get my favorite Emacs mail package to support MIME?
+
+ Look at the Emacs MIME FAQ, maintained by MacDonald Hall Jackson
+ <trey@cs.berkeley.edu> at
+
+ http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~trey/emacs/mime.html
+
+ Version 6.x of VM supports MIME. See question 104.
+
+ MIME support has been added in the development version of Gnus which will
+ be included with a future version of Emacs.
+
+147: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
To start Emacs in Gnus:
two copies of Emacs at one time. Also, this would make it difficult for
you to start Emacs quickly when you needed to.
-137: How do I read news under Emacs?
+148: How do I read news under Emacs?
Use M-x gnus. It is documented in Info (see question 14).
-138: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP?
+149: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP?
There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests
are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before
You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by
telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine
- (i.e., `telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version
- number in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out.
+ (i.e., "telnet server-machine 119"). The server should give its version
+ number in the welcome message. Type "quit" to get out.
+
+ Also see question 75 in this FAQ for some additional ideas.
-139: How do I view text with embedded underlining (e.g., ClariNews)?
+150: How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g.,
+ ClariNews)?
Underlining appears like this:
_^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg
- You can destructively remove underlining with M-x ununderline-region.
+ Use Gnus' "Overstrike" function from the Article -> Washing menu (or type
+ "W o"). You can do this for all articles with:
+
+ (add-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook 'gnus-article-treat-overstrike)
+
+ If you prefer to do away with underlining altogether, you can
+ destructively remove it with M-x ununderline-region; do this
+ automatically via
+
+ (add-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook
+ (lambda () (ununderline-region (point-min) (point-max))))
- For ClariNews articles, clari-clean.el by David N. Blank-Edelman
- <dnb@meshugge.media.mit.edu> will remove both underlining and
- overstriking automatically. It is available on the Lisp Code Directory
- (see question 77).
+ See the Gnus manual for more information about this and similar methods
+ for treating article contents.
-140: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?
+151: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?
Use gnus-uu. Type C-c C-v C-h in the Gnus summary buffer to see a list
of available commands.
-141: Why does Gnus put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
+152: How do I make Gnus start up faster?
- This is a feature. If you set gnus-thread-hide-subject to non-nil, Gnus
- will only display the subject of the first posting in a thread, even if
- some of the replies use different subjects. It hides the subjects by
- putting them past the edge of the window and setting truncate lines to t.
+ From the Gnus FAQ (see question 158):
- If your screen looks messed up, then for some reason truncate-lines in
- your `*Subject*' buffer has been set to nil. It should be set to t.
+ Pranav Kumar Tiwari <pktiwari@eos.ncsu.edu> writes: I posted the same
+ query recently and I got an answer to it. I am going to repeat the
+ answer. What you need is a newer version of gnus, version 5.0.4+. I am
+ using 5.0.12 and it works fine with me with the following settings:
-142: How do I make Gnus start up faster?
+ (setq gnus-check-new-newsgroups nil
+ gnus-read-active-file 'some
+ gnus-nov-is-evil nil
+ gnus-select-method '(nntp gnus-nntp-server))
- Remove all the newsgroups in which you have no interest from your .newsrc
- file by using Gnus's C-k or C-w commands in the `*Newsgroup*' buffer,
- perhaps after displaying all newsgroups with the L command.
- Unsubscribing will not speed up Gnus.
+153: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?
-143: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?
+ In the "*Newsgroup*" buffer, type the following magical incantation:
- In the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, type the following magical incantation:
-
- M-< C-x ( c y M-0 C-x )
+ M-< C-x ( c y C-x ) M-0 C-x e
Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of
- the `*Newsgroup' buffer.
+ the "*Newsgroup" buffer.
-144: Why can't I kill in Gnus on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
+154: Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control
+ headers?
- Gnus will complain that the `Newsgroups:', `Keywords:', and `Control:'
- headers are `Unknown header field's.
+ Gnus will complain that the "Newsgroups:", "Keywords:", and "Control:"
+ headers are "Unknown header" fields.
- For the `Newsgroups:' header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the
- `Xref' header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article
+ For the "Newsgroups:" header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the
+ "Xref" header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article
(as long as your site carries the cross-post group).
If you really want to kill on one of these headers, you can do it like
(gnus-kill nil "^Newsgroups: .*\\(bad\\.group\\|worse\\.group\\)")
-145: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?
+155: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?
Set nntp-debug-read to nil.
-146: Why is catch up slow in Gnus?
+156: Why is catch up slow in Gnus?
Because Gnus is marking crosspostings read. You can control this with
the variable gnus-use-cross-reference.
-147: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting?
+157: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting?
David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> explains:
on its own. The C News folks have sped up inews, too, so speed should
look better to most folks as that update propagates around.
-148: Why don't my news postings in Gnus get past the local machine?
-
- It could be that your Distribution: field is "local" or a synonym, or
- your Path: field may be wrong. This piece of code may fix the latter
- problem:
-
- (setq gnus-use-generic-path t)
-
-149: Why doesn't Gnus generate the `Lines:' header?
-
- The posting software down the line from Gnus often generates a "Lines:"
- header so Gnus doesn't have to. If you want it to, just add Lines to the
- list in gnus-required-headers:
-
- (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook
- '(lambda ()
- (setq gnus-required-headers (cons 'Lines gnus-required-headers))))
-
-150: How do I kill all articles in Gnus but those matching a pattern?
-
- Example kill file code:
-
- ;; kill everything
- (gnus-kill "subject" "" nil nil)
- ;; then restore stuff by our favorite poster
- (gnus-kill "from" "good-guy"
- (function
- (lambda ()
- (if (eq ?X (char-after (save-excursion
- (beginning-of-line 1)
- (point))))
- (gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward 1))))
- t)
+158: Where can I find out more about Gnus?
+ Visit http://www.gnus.org/, which has a pointer to the current Gnus FAQ and
+ more information. The relevant newsgroup is gnu.emacs.gnus.
------------------------------------------------------------
-Slightly modified by Richard Stallman
-Copyright 1994 Reuven M. Lerner
-Copyright 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes
-Copyright 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells
+Modified, with permission, for the Emacs 20.4 distribution by Dave Love.
+
+Copyright 1994-1998 Reuven M. Lerner
+Copyright 1992-1993 Steven Byrnes
+Copyright 1990-1992 Joseph Brian Wells
This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers
("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other
------------------------------------------------------------
-Special thanks to members of the FAQ team, who worked hard to ensure that
-answers were up-to-date:
-
-Ethan Bradford <ethanb@u.washington.edu>, Luis Fernandes
-<elf@eccles.ee.ryerson.ca>, Denby Wong <3dw16@qlink.QueensU.CA>, Yair
-Friedman <yair@cs.huji.ac.il>, Thi <ttn@netcom.com>, Richard Levitte
-<levitte@e.kth.se>, "William G. Dubuque" <wgd@martigny.ai.mit.edu>,
-and Guan-Hsong Hsu <ghsu@relay.nswc.navy.mil>.
-
-
-
+People who helped with this version of the FAQ:
+Ethan Bradford <ethanb@u.washington.edu>, William G. Dubuque
+<wgd@martigny.ai.mit.edu>, Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu>,
+and Denby Wong <3dw16@qlink.QueensU.CA>.
HCoop / bpt / emacs.git / blobdiff