| 1 | @c This is part of the Emacs manual. |
| 2 | @c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004, |
| 3 | @c 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| 4 | @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions. |
| 5 | @node Entering Emacs, Exiting, Text Characters, Top |
| 6 | @chapter Entering and Exiting Emacs |
| 7 | @cindex entering Emacs |
| 8 | @cindex starting Emacs |
| 9 | |
| 10 | The usual way to invoke Emacs is with the shell command |
| 11 | @command{emacs}. Emacs clears the screen and then displays an initial |
| 12 | help message and copyright notice. Some operating systems discard all |
| 13 | type-ahead when Emacs starts up; they give Emacs no way to prevent |
| 14 | this. If you ever use those systems, learn the habit of waiting for |
| 15 | Emacs to clear the screen before typing your first editing command. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | If you run Emacs from a shell window under the X Window System, run it |
| 18 | in the background with @command{emacs&}. This way, Emacs does not tie up |
| 19 | the shell window, so you can use that to run other shell commands while |
| 20 | Emacs operates its own X windows. You can begin typing Emacs commands |
| 21 | as soon as you direct your keyboard input to the Emacs frame. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | @vindex initial-major-mode |
| 24 | When Emacs starts up, it creates a buffer named @samp{*scratch*}. |
| 25 | That's the buffer you start out in. The @samp{*scratch*} buffer uses |
| 26 | Lisp Interaction mode; you can use it to type Lisp expressions and |
| 27 | evaluate them, or you can ignore that capability and just write notes |
| 28 | in it. (You can specify a different major mode for this buffer by |
| 29 | setting the variable @code{initial-major-mode} in your init file. |
| 30 | @xref{Init File}.) |
| 31 | |
| 32 | It is possible to specify files to be visited, Lisp files to be |
| 33 | loaded, and functions to be called, by giving Emacs arguments in the |
| 34 | shell command line. @xref{Emacs Invocation}. But we don't recommend |
| 35 | doing this. The feature exists mainly for compatibility with other |
| 36 | editors. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | Many other editors are designed to be started afresh each time you |
| 39 | want to edit. You edit one file and then exit the editor. The next |
| 40 | time you want to edit either another file or the same one, you must run |
| 41 | the editor again. With these editors, it makes sense to use a |
| 42 | command-line argument to say which file to edit. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | But starting a new Emacs each time you want to edit a different file |
| 45 | does not make sense. This would fail to take advantage of Emacs's |
| 46 | ability to visit more than one file in a single editing session, and |
| 47 | it would lose the other accumulated context, such as the kill ring, |
| 48 | registers, undo history, and mark ring, that are useful for operating |
| 49 | on multiple files or even one. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | The recommended way to use GNU Emacs is to start it only once, just |
| 52 | after you log in, and do all your editing in the same Emacs session. |
| 53 | Each time you want to edit a different file, you visit it with the |
| 54 | existing Emacs, which eventually comes to have many files in it ready |
| 55 | for editing. Usually you do not kill the Emacs until you are about to |
| 56 | log out. @xref{Files}, for more information on visiting more than one |
| 57 | file. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | If you want to edit a file from another program and already have |
| 60 | Emacs running, you can use the @command{emacsclient} program to open a |
| 61 | file in the already running Emacs. @xref{Emacs Server}, for more |
| 62 | information on editing files with Emacs from other programs. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | @ifnottex |
| 65 | @raisesections |
| 66 | @end ifnottex |
| 67 | |
| 68 | @node Exiting, Basic, Entering Emacs, Top |
| 69 | @section Exiting Emacs |
| 70 | @cindex exiting |
| 71 | @cindex killing Emacs |
| 72 | @cindex suspending |
| 73 | @cindex leaving Emacs |
| 74 | @cindex quitting Emacs |
| 75 | |
| 76 | There are two commands for exiting Emacs because there are three |
| 77 | kinds of exiting: @dfn{suspending} Emacs, @dfn{Iconifying} Emacs, and |
| 78 | @dfn{killing} Emacs. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | @dfn{Suspending} means stopping Emacs temporarily and returning |
| 81 | control to its parent process (usually a shell), allowing you to resume |
| 82 | editing later in the same Emacs job, with the same buffers, same kill |
| 83 | ring, same undo history, and so on. This is the usual way to exit Emacs |
| 84 | when running on a text terminal. |
| 85 | |
| 86 | @dfn{Iconifying} means replacing the Emacs frame with a small box |
| 87 | somewhere on the screen. This is the usual way to exit Emacs when you're |
| 88 | using a graphics terminal---if you bother to ``exit'' at all. (Just switching |
| 89 | to another application is usually sufficient.) |
| 90 | |
| 91 | @dfn{Killing} Emacs means destroying the Emacs job. You can run Emacs |
| 92 | again later, but you will get a fresh Emacs; there is no way to resume |
| 93 | the same editing session after it has been killed. |
| 94 | |
| 95 | @table @kbd |
| 96 | @item C-z |
| 97 | Suspend Emacs (@code{suspend-emacs}) or iconify a frame |
| 98 | (@code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame}). |
| 99 | @item C-x C-c |
| 100 | Kill Emacs (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}). |
| 101 | @end table |
| 102 | |
| 103 | @kindex C-z |
| 104 | @findex suspend-emacs |
| 105 | To suspend or iconify Emacs, type @kbd{C-z} (@code{suspend-emacs}). |
| 106 | On text terminals, this suspends Emacs. On graphical displays, |
| 107 | it iconifies the Emacs frame. |
| 108 | |
| 109 | Suspending Emacs takes you back to the shell from which you invoked |
| 110 | Emacs. You can resume Emacs with the shell command @command{%emacs} |
| 111 | in most common shells. On systems that don't support suspending |
| 112 | programs, @kbd{C-z} starts an inferior shell that communicates |
| 113 | directly with the terminal, and Emacs waits until you exit the subshell. |
| 114 | (The way to do that is probably with @kbd{C-d} or @command{exit}, but |
| 115 | it depends on which shell you use.) The only way on these systems to |
| 116 | get back to the shell from which Emacs was run (to log out, for |
| 117 | example) is to kill Emacs. |
| 118 | |
| 119 | Suspending can fail if you run Emacs under a shell that doesn't |
| 120 | support suspending programs, even if the system itself does support |
| 121 | it. In such a case, you can set the variable @code{cannot-suspend} to |
| 122 | a non-@code{nil} value to force @kbd{C-z} to start an inferior shell. |
| 123 | (One might also describe Emacs's parent shell as ``inferior'' for |
| 124 | failing to support job control properly, but that is a matter of |
| 125 | taste.) |
| 126 | |
| 127 | On graphical displays, @kbd{C-z} has a different meaning: it runs |
| 128 | the command @code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame}, which temporarily |
| 129 | iconifies (or ``minimizes'') the selected Emacs frame |
| 130 | (@pxref{Frames}). Then you can use the window manager to get back to |
| 131 | a shell window. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | @kindex C-x C-c |
| 134 | @findex save-buffers-kill-emacs |
| 135 | To exit and kill Emacs, type @kbd{C-x C-c} |
| 136 | (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}). A two-character key is used for |
| 137 | this to make it harder to type by accident. This command first offers |
| 138 | to save any modified file-visiting buffers. If you do not save them |
| 139 | all, it asks for reconfirmation with @kbd{yes} before killing Emacs, |
| 140 | since any changes not saved will be lost forever. Also, if any |
| 141 | subprocesses are still running, @kbd{C-x C-c} asks for confirmation |
| 142 | about them, since killing Emacs will also kill the subprocesses. |
| 143 | |
| 144 | @vindex confirm-kill-emacs |
| 145 | If the value of the variable @code{confirm-kill-emacs} is |
| 146 | non-@code{nil}, @kbd{C-x C-c} assumes that its value is a predicate |
| 147 | function, and calls that function. If the result is non-@code{nil}, the |
| 148 | session is killed, otherwise Emacs continues to run. One convenient |
| 149 | function to use as the value of @code{confirm-kill-emacs} is the |
| 150 | function @code{yes-or-no-p}. The default value of |
| 151 | @code{confirm-kill-emacs} is @code{nil}. |
| 152 | |
| 153 | There is no way to resume an Emacs session once you have killed it. |
| 154 | You can, however, arrange for Emacs to record certain session |
| 155 | information when you kill it, such as which files are visited, so that |
| 156 | the next time you start Emacs it will try to visit the same files and |
| 157 | so on. @xref{Saving Emacs Sessions}. |
| 158 | |
| 159 | The operating system usually listens for certain special characters |
| 160 | whose meaning is to kill or suspend the program you are running. |
| 161 | @b{This operating system feature is turned off while you are in Emacs.} |
| 162 | The meanings of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-x C-c} as keys in Emacs were |
| 163 | inspired by the use of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-c} on several operating |
| 164 | systems as the characters for stopping or killing a program, but that is |
| 165 | their only relationship with the operating system. You can customize |
| 166 | these keys to run any commands of your choice (@pxref{Keymaps}). |
| 167 | |
| 168 | @ifnottex |
| 169 | @lowersections |
| 170 | @end ifnottex |
| 171 | |
| 172 | @ignore |
| 173 | arch-tag: df798d8b-f253-4113-b585-f528f078a944 |
| 174 | @end ignore |