(mouse-drag-vertical-line): Handle left-side scroll bars.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / TUTORIAL
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f751376f 1Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation, Inc; See end for conditions.
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2You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
3
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4Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labeled
5CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labeled EDIT or ALT). Rather than
4a3142d2 6write that in full each time, we'll use the following abbreviations:
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7
8 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
9 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
8a4aff68 10 M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT or ALT key down while typing <chr>.
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11 If there is no META, EDIT or ALT key, instead press and release the
12 ESC key and then type <chr>. We write <ESC> for the ESC key.
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13
14Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
15The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
16try using a command. For instance:
17<<Blank lines inserted here by startup of help-with-tutorial>>
18>> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
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19 (go ahead, do it by holding down the control key while typing v).
20 From now on, you should do this again whenever you finish
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21 reading the screen.
22
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23Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen
24to screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading
25the text.
f751376f 26
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27The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place
28to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen,
29with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key
bec1289c 30and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META, EDIT, or ALT key).
f751376f 31
82e312c7 32>> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times.
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33
34
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35* SUMMARY
36---------
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37
38The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
39
40 C-v Move forward one screenful
41 M-v Move backward one screenful
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42 C-l Clear screen and redisplay all the text,
43 moving the text around the cursor
44 to the center of the screen.
3242b6f0 45 (That's control-L, not control-1.)
f751376f 46
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47>> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it.
48 Then type C-l.
49 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text
50 is near the cursor now.
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51
52
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53* BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
54----------------------
f751376f 55
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56Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
57move to a specific place within the text on the screen?
58
59There are several ways you can do this. The most basic way is to use
60the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. Each of these commands moves the
61cursor one row or column in a particular direction on the screen.
62Here is a table showing these four commands and shows the directions
63they move:
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64
65 Previous line, C-p
66 :
67 :
68 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
69 :
70 :
82e312c7 71 Next line, C-n
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72
73>> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
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74 using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram
75 centered in the screen.
f751376f 76
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77You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter: P for
78previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are the
79basic cursor positioning commands, and you'll be using them ALL the
80time, so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
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81
82>> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
83
84>> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
85 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
86
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87Each of text line ends with a Newline character, which serves to
88separate it from the following line. The last line in your file ought
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89to have a Newline at the end (but Emacs does not require it to have
90one).
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91
92>> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. It should move to
93 the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back
94 across the Newline character.
f751376f 95
82e312c7 96C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b.
f751376f 97
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98>> Do a few more C-b's, so you get a feel for where the cursor is.
99 Then do C-f's to return to the end of the line.
100 Then do one more C-f to move to the following line.
f751376f 101
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102When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
103the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It
104enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text
105without moving it off the screen.
106
107>> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and
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108 see what happens.
109
110If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
111(Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
112
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113>> Type a few M-f's and M-b's.
114
115When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word.
116When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the
117following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction.
118
119>> Type M-f and M-b a few times, interspersed with C-f's and C-b's
120 so that you can observe the action of M-f and M-b from various
121 places inside and between words.
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122
123Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
124M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
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125operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences,
126paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are
127independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc).
128
129This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to
130the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning
131or end of a sentence.
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132
133>> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
134 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
135
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136See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one
137more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems
138natural.
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139
140The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
141paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
142the text.
143
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144Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the
145word and sentence moving commands:
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146
147 C-f Move forward a character
148 C-b Move backward a character
149
150 M-f Move forward a word
151 M-b Move backward a word
152
153 C-n Move to next line
154 C-p Move to previous line
155
156 C-a Move to beginning of line
157 C-e Move to end of line
158
159 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
160 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
161
f751376f 162>> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
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163 These are the most often used commands.
164
165Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
166which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (Meta
167Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text.
168
169On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the
170shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key
171to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
172
173>> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial.
174 Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here.
175
176>> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial.
177 Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here.
178
179You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has
180arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three
181reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once
182you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these CTRL
183characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not
184have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once
185you form the habit of using these CTRL character commands, you can
186easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well.
187
188Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this
189serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count
190is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If
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191you have a META (or EDIT or ALT) key, there is another alternative way
192to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the
193META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on
82e312c7 194any terminal.
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195
196For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
197
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198>> Try using C-n or C-p with a numeric argument, to move the cursor
199 to a line near this one with just one command.
f751376f 200
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201Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count. Certain
202exceptional commands use it differently. C-v and M-v are among the
203exceptions. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or down
204by that many lines, rather than by a screenfuls. For example, C-u 4
205C-v scrolls the screen by 4 lines.
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206
207>> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
208
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209This should have scrolled the screen up by 8 lines. If you would like
210to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v.
f751376f 211
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212If you are using X Windows, there should be a tall rectangular area
213called a scroll bar at the left hand side of the Emacs window. You
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214can scroll the text by clicking the mouse in the scroll bar.
215
216>> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
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217 within the scroll bar. This should scroll the text to a position
218 determined by how high or low you click.
b0874bbd 219
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220>> Try moving the mouse up and down, while holding the middle button
221 pressed down. You'll see that the text scrolls up and down as
222 you move the mouse.
b0874bbd 223
f751376f 224
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225* WHEN EMACS IS HUNG
226--------------------
f751376f 227
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228If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by
229typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too
230long to execute.
231
f751376f 232You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
82e312c7 233a command that you do not want to finish.
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234
235>> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
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236 Now type C-f. It should move just one character,
237 because you canceled the argument with C-g.
f751376f 238
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239If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
240with a C-g.
335b1952 241
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242
243* DISABLED COMMANDS
244-------------------
245
246Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use
247them by accident.
248
249If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message
250saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go
251ahead and execute the command.
252
253If you really want to try the command, type Space in answer to the
254question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the disabled
255command, answer the question with "n".
256
257>> Type <ESC> : (which is a disabled command),
258 then type n to answer the question.
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259
260
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261* WINDOWS
262---------
f751376f 263
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264Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text. We will
265explain later on how to use multiple windows. Right now we want to
266explain how to get rid of extra windows and go back to basic
267one-window editing. It is simple:
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268
269 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
270
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271That is Control-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window
272which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all
273other windows.
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274
275>> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
276>> Type Control-h k Control-f.
277 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
278 to display documentation on the Control-f command.
279
280>> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
281
282
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283* INSERTING AND DELETING
284------------------------
f751376f 285
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286If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you
287can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
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288immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
289Newline character.
290
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291You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
292<Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
293some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
294
295More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
296current cursor position.
f751376f 297
82e312c7 298>> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them
50d326a4 299 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
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300 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is
301 your personal copy of it.
302
303When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line
304of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\")
305at the right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
306
307>> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting.
308 You'll see a continuation line appear.
309
50d326a4 310>> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
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311 line again. The continuation line goes away.
312
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313You can delete a Newline character just like any other character.
314Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into
315one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the
316screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line.
317
50d326a4 318>> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
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319 merges that line with the previous line.
320
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321>> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
322
323Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
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324this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts
325it several times.
f751376f 326
82e312c7 327>> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********.
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328
329You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
330Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
331as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
332
50d326a4 333 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
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334 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
335
50d326a4 336 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
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337 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
338
339 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
340 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
341
50d326a4 342Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
82e312c7 343started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> is not really a control
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344character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
345and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
346
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347When you delete more than one character at a time, Emacs saves the
348deleted text so that you can bring it back. Bringing back killed text
349is called "yanking". You can yank the killed text either at the same
350place where it was killed, or at some other place in the text. You
351can yank the text several times in order to make multiple copies of
352it. The command to yank is C-y.
f751376f 353
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354Note that the difference between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is
355that "Killed" things can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot.
356Generally, the commands that can remove a lot of text save the text,
357while the commands that delete just one character, or just blank lines
358and spaces, do not save the deleted text.
f751376f 359
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360>> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty.
361 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line.
362>> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline
363 which follows that line.
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364
365Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
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366C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. C-k
367treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND
368their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two
369lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that.
f751376f 370
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371To retrieve the last killed text and put it where the cursor currently
372is, type C-y.
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373
374>> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
375
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376Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone took
377away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row, all of
378the killed text is saved together, so that one C-y will yank all of
379the lines.
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380
381>> Do this now, type C-k several times.
382
383Now to retrieve that killed text:
384
385>> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
386 again. You now see how to copy some text.
387
388What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
389you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
390the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
391command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
bec1289c 392M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
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393again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have
394reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to
395keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where
396it is.
397
398If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most
399recent kill).
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400
401>> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
402 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
403 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
404 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
405 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
406 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
407 arguments.
408
409
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410* UNDO
411------
f751376f 412
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413If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a
414mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u.
415
416Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat
417the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one
418additional command.
419
420But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do
421not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling
422command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups
423of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to
424type to undo insertion of text.)
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425
426>> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
427
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428C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u,
429but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of
430C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That
431is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_
432by typing / while holding down CTRL.
f751376f 433
82e312c7 434A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count.
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435
436
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437* FILES
438-------
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439
440In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
441file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
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442away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. (This is
443also called "visiting" the file.)
444
445Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within
446Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself.
447However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent
448until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a
449half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when
450you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case
451you later decide that your changes were a mistake.
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452
453If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
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454begins and ends with dashes, and starts with "--:-- TUTORIAL" or
455something like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name
456of the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file
457called "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs
458tutorial. When you find a file with Emacs, that file's name will
459appear in that precise spot.
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460
461The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
462commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
463They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
464of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
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465files, buffers, and related things. These commands are two, three or
466four characters long.
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467
468Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
469to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
470from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
471file). After you type the command
472
473 C-x C-f Find a file
474
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475Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears
476on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the
477minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use
478ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name.
479
480While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input),
481you can cancel the command with C-g.
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482
483>> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
484 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
485 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
486
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487When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to
488terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file
489you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is
490finished.
491
492In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can
493edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent,
494type the command
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495
496 C-x C-s Save the file
497
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498This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you
499do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is
500not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the
501original file's name.
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502
503When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
504You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
505work if the system should crash.
506
507>> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
82e312c7 508 This should print "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
f751376f 509
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510NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
511will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
512operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
513C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
514type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
515Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
516
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517You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also
518find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a
519file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then
520begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the
521file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have
522inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an
523already existing file.
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524
525
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526* BUFFERS
527---------
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528
529If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
530inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
531C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
532
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533>> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>.
534 Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s.
535 Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return>
536 to come back to the tutorial.
537
538Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer."
539Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the
540buffers that current exist in your Emacs job, type
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541
542 C-x C-b List buffers
543
544>> Try C-x C-b now.
545
546See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
547for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
548to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
549not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
550list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
82e312c7 551is always part of some buffer.
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552
553>> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
554
555If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
556this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
557in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
558buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
559but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
560file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
561it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
562
563 C-x s Save some buffers
564
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565C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have
566not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the
567buffer.
f751376f 568
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569>> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s.
570 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL.
571 Answer yes to the question by typing "y".
f751376f 572
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573* EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
574---------------------------
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575
576There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
577on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
578the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
579
580 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
581 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
582
583These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
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584commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of
585them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another
586example is the command to end the Emacs session--this is the command
587C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c
588offers to save each changed file before it kills the Emacs.)
f751376f 589
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590C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
591back to the same Emacs session afterward.
592
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593On systems which allow it, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns
594to the shell but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common
595shells, you can resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'.
596
597On systems which do not implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell
598running under Emacs to give you the chance to run other programs and
599return to Emacs afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In
600this case, the shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to
601Emacs from the subshell.
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602
603The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
604the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
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605programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know
606how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances,
607though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs
608with C-z instead of exiting Emacs.
f751376f 609
82e312c7 610There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned:
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611
612 C-x C-f Find file.
613 C-x C-s Save file.
614 C-x C-b List buffers.
615 C-x C-c Quit Emacs.
616 C-x u Undo.
617
618Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
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619frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An
620example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one
621string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the
622bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the
623command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and
624Emacs will complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
625
626The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be
627replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each
628argument with <Return>.
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629
630>> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
631 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
632
633 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
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634 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred,
635 after the initial position of the cursor.
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636
637
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638* AUTO SAVE
639-----------
640
641When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
642they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
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643this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that
644you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and
645the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save
646file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way,
647Emacs deletes its auto save file.
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648
649If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
650finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
651save file) and then typing M-x recover file<return>. When it asks for
652confirmation, type yes<return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
653data.
654
655
82e312c7 656* ECHO AREA
26dc36e6 657-----------
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658
659If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
660at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
82e312c7 661area contains the bottom line of the screen.
f751376f 662
f751376f 663
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664* MODE LINE
665-----------
666
667The line immediately above the echo area it is called the "mode line".
668The mode line says something like this:
669
670--**-Emacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%----------------
671
672This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and
673the text you are editing.
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674
675You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
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676found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means
677that NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the
678top of the file is on the screen, it will say --Top-- instead of
679--00%--. If the bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say
680--Bot--. If you are looking at text so small that all of it fits on
681the screen, the mode line says --All--.
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682
683The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
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684Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows
685no stars, just dashes.
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686
687The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
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688editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is
689what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode".
690
691Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for
bec1289c 692editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode,
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693Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active,
694and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
695"Fundamental" is now.
696
697Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example,
698there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each
699programming language has a different idea of what a comment should
700look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each
701major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can
bec1289c 702switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to
82e312c7 703switch to Fundamental mode.
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704
705If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
706should probably use Text Mode.
707>> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
708
709Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
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710any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat
711apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode,
712M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators.
f751376f 713
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714Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands
715do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit
716differently.
717
718To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
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719
720>> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
721>> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
722>> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
723
724Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
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725Minor modes are alternatives not to the major modes, just minor
726modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by
727itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your
728major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any
729combination of several minor modes.
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730
731One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
732text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
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733in between words automatically whenever you insert text and make a
734line that is too wide.
735
736You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
737When the mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x
738auto-fill-mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on,
739and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the
740command "toggles the mode".
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741
742>> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
743 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
744 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
745
746The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
747with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
748as a numeric argument.
749
750>> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
751 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
752 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
753 C-x f again.
754
755If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
756does not re-fill it for you.
757To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
758that paragraph.
759
760>> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
761
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762* SEARCHING
763-----------
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764
765Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
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766characters or words) either forward through the text or backward
767through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command;
768it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears.
769
770The Emacs search command is different from the search commands
771of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the
772search happens while you type in the string to search for.
773
774The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r
775for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now.
776
777When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as
778a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is
779called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that
780you want to search for. <RET> terminates a search.
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781
782>> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
783 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
784 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
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785 Now you have searched for "cursor", once.
786>> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor".
50d326a4 787>> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
525a7dc4 788>> Type <RET> to terminate the search.
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789
790Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
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791go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To
792go to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
793occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently
794"failing", C-g would also terminate the search.
f751376f 795
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796NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
797see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
798system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
799letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
800Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
801Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
802
50d326a4 803If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
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804you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
805and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
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806instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first
807occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move
808to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delete>. This erases
809the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to
810the first occurrence of "c".
f751376f 811
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812If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
813character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
814a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
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815
816The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
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817string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for
818something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we
819have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of
820the search is reversed.
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821
822
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823* MULTIPLE WINDOWS
824------------------
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825
826One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
827window on the screen at the same time.
828
829>> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
830
831>> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
832 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
833
834>> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
82e312c7 835 (If you do not have a real Meta key, type ESC C-v.)
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836
837>> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
838>> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
839 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
840
841>> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
82e312c7 842 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before.
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843
844You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
845window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
846shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
82e312c7 847window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window".
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848
849The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
850window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
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851the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance
852through the other window sequentially with C-M-v.
e652a34a 853
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854C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
855META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CTRL and META while
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856typing v. It does not matter whether CTRL or META "comes first,"
857because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type.
8a4aff68 858
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859If you do not have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order
860does matter: you must type ESC followed by CTRL-v; CTRL-ESC v will not
861work. This is because ESC is a character in its own right, not a
862modifier key.
8a4aff68 863
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864>> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
865
866(If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
867of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
868window--the window I am already in.")
869
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870You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you
871use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not
872change. You can find a file in each window independently.
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873
874Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
875things:
876
877>> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
82e312c7 878 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
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879 window. The cursor goes there, too.
880
881>> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
882 the bottom window.
883
884
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885* RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
886--------------------------
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887
888Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
889level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
890surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
891example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
892
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893To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
894an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
895extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
f751376f 896
289e5a55 897>> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
f751376f 898
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899You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is
900because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the
901recursive editing level.
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902
903
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904* GETTING MORE HELP
905-------------------
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906
907In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
908get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
909it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
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910to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features.
911Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs
912commands. These "help" commands all start with the character
913Control-h, which is called "the Help character".
f751376f 914
82e312c7 915To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a
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916character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
917type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
82e312c7 918If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just
3242b6f0 919type C-g to cancel it.
f751376f 920
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921(Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. They really
922should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you have
923grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h
924does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try
925typing the F1 key or M-x help RET instead.)
926
927The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and
928a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief
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929description of the command.
930
931>> Type C-h c Control-p.
932 The message should be something like
933
934 C-p runs the command previous-line
935
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936This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used
937mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names
938are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as
939very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you
940have already learned.
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941
942Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
bec1289c 943EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
f751376f 944
82e312c7 945To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
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946
947>> Type C-h k Control-p.
948
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949This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
950name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
951output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
952to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
82e312c7 953to the help text, and then type C-x 1.
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954
955Here are some other useful C-h options:
956
957 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
958 function.
959
960>> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
961 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
3242b6f0 962 function which implements the C-p command.
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963
964 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
965 all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
966 These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
967 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
bec1289c 968 or two character sequence which runs the same command.
f751376f 969
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970>> Type C-h a file<Return>.
971
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972This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file"
973in their names. You will see character-commands like C-x C-f listed
974beside the corresponding command names such as find-file.
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975
976>> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
977
978>> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
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979
980
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981* CONCLUSION
982------------
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983
984Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
82e312c7 985temporarily, so that you can come back to Emacs afterward, use C-z.
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986
987This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
988you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
989
990
991COPYING
992-------
993
994This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
995starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
996
997This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
998comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
999
82e312c7 1000Copyright (c) 1985, 1996 Free Software Foundation
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1001
1002 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1003 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1004 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
1005 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
1006 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
1007
1008 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1009 of this document, or of portions of it,
1010 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1011 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
1012
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1013The conditions for copying Emacs itself are more complex, but in the
1014same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of
1015GNU Emacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism
1016("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software!