1 Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation, Inc; See end for conditions.
2 You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
4 Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labeled
5 CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labeled EDIT or ALT). Rather than
6 write that in full each time, we'll use the following abbreviations:
8 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
9 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
10 M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT or ALT key down while typing <chr>.
11 If there is no META, EDIT or ALT key, instead press and release the
12 ESC key and then type <chr>. We write <ESC> for the ESC key.
14 Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
15 The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
16 try using a command. For instance:
17 <<Blank lines inserted here by startup of help-with-tutorial>>
18 >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
19 (go ahead, do it by holding down the control key while typing v).
20 From now on, you should do this again whenever you finish
23 Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen
24 to screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading
27 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place
28 to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen,
29 with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key
30 and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META, EDIT, or ALT key).
32 >> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times.
38 The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
40 C-v Move forward one screenful
41 M-v Move backward one screenful
42 C-l Clear screen and redisplay all the text,
43 moving the text around the cursor
44 to the center of the screen.
45 (That's control-L, not control-1.)
47 >> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it.
49 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text
50 is near the cursor now.
53 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
54 ----------------------
56 Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
57 move to a specific place within the text on the screen?
59 There are several ways you can do this. The most basic way is to use
60 the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. Each of these commands moves the
61 cursor one row or column in a particular direction on the screen.
62 Here is a table showing these four commands and shows the directions
68 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
73 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
74 using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram
75 centered in the screen.
77 You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter: P for
78 previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are the
79 basic cursor positioning commands, and you'll be using them ALL the
80 time, so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
82 >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
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.
87 Each of text line ends with a Newline character, which serves to
88 separate it from the following line. The last line in your file ought
89 to have a Newline at the end (but Emacs does not require it to have
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.
96 C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b.
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.
102 When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
103 the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It
104 enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text
105 without moving it off the screen.
107 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and
110 If 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.
113 >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's.
115 When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word.
116 When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the
117 following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction.
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.
123 Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
124 M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
125 operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences,
126 paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are
127 independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc).
129 This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to
130 the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning
131 or end of a sentence.
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.
136 See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one
137 more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems
140 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
141 paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
144 Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the
145 word and sentence moving commands:
147 C-f Move forward a character
148 C-b Move backward a character
150 M-f Move forward a word
151 M-b Move backward a word
153 C-n Move to next line
154 C-p Move to previous line
156 C-a Move to beginning of line
157 C-e Move to end of line
159 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
160 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
162 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
163 These are the most often used commands.
165 Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
166 which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (Meta
167 Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text.
169 On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the
170 shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key
171 to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
173 >> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial.
174 Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here.
176 >> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial.
177 Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here.
179 You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has
180 arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three
181 reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once
182 you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these CTRL
183 characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not
184 have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once
185 you form the habit of using these CTRL character commands, you can
186 easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well.
188 Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this
189 serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count
190 is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If
191 you have a META (or EDIT or ALT) key, there is another alternative way
192 to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the
193 META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on
196 For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
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.
201 Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count. Certain
202 exceptional commands use it differently. C-v and M-v are among the
203 exceptions. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or down
204 by that many lines, rather than by a screenfuls. For example, C-u 4
205 C-v scrolls the screen by 4 lines.
207 >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
209 This should have scrolled the screen up by 8 lines. If you would like
210 to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v.
212 If you are using X Windows, there should be a tall rectangular area
213 called a scroll bar at the left hand side of the Emacs window. You
214 can scroll the text by clicking the mouse in the scroll bar.
216 >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
217 within the scroll bar. This should scroll the text to a position
218 determined by how high or low you click.
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
228 If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by
229 typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too
232 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
233 a command that you do not want to finish.
235 >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
236 Now type C-f. It should move just one character,
237 because you canceled the argument with C-g.
239 If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
246 Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use
249 If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message
250 saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go
251 ahead and execute the command.
253 If you really want to try the command, type Space in answer to the
254 question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the disabled
255 command, answer the question with "n".
257 >> Type <ESC> : (which is a disabled command),
258 then type n to answer the question.
264 Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text. We will
265 explain later on how to use multiple windows. Right now we want to
266 explain how to get rid of extra windows and go back to basic
267 one-window editing. It is simple:
269 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
271 That is Control-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window
272 which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all
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.
280 >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
283 * INSERTING AND DELETING
284 ------------------------
286 If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you
287 can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
288 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
291 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
292 <Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
293 some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
295 More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
296 current cursor position.
298 >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them
299 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
300 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is
301 your personal copy of it.
303 When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line
304 of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\")
305 at the right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
307 >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting.
308 You'll see a continuation line appear.
310 >> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
311 line again. The continuation line goes away.
313 You can delete a Newline character just like any other character.
314 Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into
315 one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the
316 screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line.
318 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
319 merges that line with the previous line.
321 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
323 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
324 this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts
327 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********.
329 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
330 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
331 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
333 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
334 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
336 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
337 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
339 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
340 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
342 Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
343 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> is not really a control
344 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
345 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
347 When you delete more than one character at a time, Emacs saves the
348 deleted text so that you can bring it back. Bringing back killed text
349 is called "yanking". You can yank the killed text either at the same
350 place where it was killed, or at some other place in the text. You
351 can yank the text several times in order to make multiple copies of
352 it. The command to yank is C-y.
354 Note that the difference between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is
355 that "Killed" things can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot.
356 Generally, the commands that can remove a lot of text save the text,
357 while the commands that delete just one character, or just blank lines
358 and spaces, do not save the deleted text.
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.
365 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
366 C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. C-k
367 treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND
368 their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two
369 lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that.
371 To retrieve the last killed text and put it where the cursor currently
374 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
376 Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone took
377 away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row, all of
378 the killed text is saved together, so that one C-y will yank all of
381 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
383 Now to retrieve that killed text:
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.
388 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
389 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
390 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
391 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
392 M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
393 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have
394 reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to
395 keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where
398 If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most
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
413 If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a
414 mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u.
416 Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat
417 the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one
420 But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do
421 not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling
422 command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups
423 of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to
424 type to undo insertion of text.)
426 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
428 C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u,
429 but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of
430 C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That
431 is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_
432 by typing / while holding down CTRL.
434 A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count.
440 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
441 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
442 away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. (This is
443 also called "visiting" the file.)
445 Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within
446 Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself.
447 However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent
448 until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a
449 half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when
450 you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case
451 you later decide that your changes were a mistake.
453 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
454 begins and ends with dashes, and starts with "--:-- TUTORIAL" or
455 something like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name
456 of the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file
457 called "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs
458 tutorial. When you find a file with Emacs, that file's name will
459 appear in that precise spot.
461 The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
462 commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
463 They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
464 of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
465 files, buffers, and related things. These commands are two, three or
466 four characters long.
468 Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
469 to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
470 from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
471 file). After you type the command
475 Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears
476 on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the
477 minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use
478 ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name.
480 While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input),
481 you can cancel the command with C-g.
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.
487 When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to
488 terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file
489 you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is
492 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can
493 edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent,
496 C-x C-s Save the file
498 This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you
499 do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is
500 not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the
501 original file's name.
503 When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
504 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
505 work if the system should crash.
507 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
508 This should print "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
510 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
511 will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
512 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
513 C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
514 type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
515 Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
517 You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also
518 find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a
519 file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then
520 begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the
521 file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have
522 inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an
523 already existing file.
529 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
530 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
531 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
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.
538 Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer."
539 Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the
540 buffers that current exist in your Emacs job, type
546 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
547 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
548 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
549 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
550 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
551 is always part of some buffer.
553 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
555 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
556 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
557 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
558 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
559 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
560 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
561 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
563 C-x s Save some buffers
565 C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have
566 not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the
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".
573 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
574 ---------------------------
576 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
577 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
578 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
580 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
581 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
583 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
584 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of
585 them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another
586 example is the command to end the Emacs session--this is the command
587 C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c
588 offers to save each changed file before it kills the Emacs.)
590 C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
591 back to the same Emacs session afterward.
593 On systems which allow it, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns
594 to the shell but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common
595 shells, you can resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'.
597 On systems which do not implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell
598 running under Emacs to give you the chance to run other programs and
599 return to Emacs afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In
600 this case, the shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to
601 Emacs from the subshell.
603 The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
604 the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
605 programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know
606 how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances,
607 though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs
608 with C-z instead of exiting Emacs.
610 There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned:
614 C-x C-b List buffers.
618 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
619 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An
620 example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one
621 string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the
622 bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the
623 command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and
624 Emacs will complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
626 The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be
627 replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each
628 argument with <Return>.
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>.
633 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
634 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred,
635 after the initial position of the cursor.
641 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
642 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
643 this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that
644 you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and
645 the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save
646 file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way,
647 Emacs deletes its auto save file.
649 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
650 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
651 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<return>. When it asks for
652 confirmation, type yes<return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
659 If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
660 at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
661 area contains the bottom line of the screen.
667 The line immediately above the echo area it is called the "mode line".
668 The mode line says something like this:
670 --**-Emacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%----------------
672 This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and
673 the text you are editing.
675 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
676 found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means
677 that NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the
678 top 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
681 the screen, the mode line says --All--.
683 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
684 Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows
685 no stars, just dashes.
687 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
688 editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is
689 what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode".
691 Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for
692 editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode,
693 Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active,
694 and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
695 "Fundamental" is now.
697 Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example,
698 there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each
699 programming language has a different idea of what a comment should
700 look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each
701 major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can
702 switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to
703 switch to Fundamental mode.
705 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
706 should probably use Text Mode.
707 >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
709 Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
710 any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat
711 apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode,
712 M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators.
714 Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands
715 do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit
718 To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
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.
724 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
725 Minor modes are alternatives not to the major modes, just minor
726 modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by
727 itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your
728 major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any
729 combination of several minor modes.
731 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
732 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
733 in between words automatically whenever you insert text and make a
734 line that is too wide.
736 You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
737 When the mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x
738 auto-fill-mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on,
739 and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the
740 command "toggles the mode".
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.
746 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
747 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
748 as a numeric argument.
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
755 If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
756 does not re-fill it for you.
757 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
760 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
765 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
766 characters or words) either forward through the text or backward
767 through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command;
768 it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears.
770 The Emacs search command is different from the search commands
771 of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the
772 search happens while you type in the string to search for.
774 The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r
775 for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now.
777 When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as
778 a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is
779 called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that
780 you want to search for. <RET> terminates a search.
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.
785 Now you have searched for "cursor", once.
786 >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor".
787 >> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
788 >> Type <RET> to terminate the search.
790 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
791 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To
792 go to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
793 occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently
794 "failing", C-g would also terminate the search.
796 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
797 see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
798 system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
799 letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
800 Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
801 Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
803 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
804 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
805 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
806 instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first
807 occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move
808 to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delete>. This erases
809 the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to
810 the first occurrence of "c".
812 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
813 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
814 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
816 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
817 string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for
818 something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we
819 have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of
820 the search is reversed.
826 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
827 window on the screen at the same time.
829 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
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.
834 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
835 (If you do not have a real Meta key, type ESC C-v.)
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.
841 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
842 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before.
844 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
845 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
846 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
847 window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window".
849 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
850 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
851 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance
852 through the other window sequentially with C-M-v.
854 C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
855 META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CTRL and META while
856 typing v. It does not matter whether CTRL or META "comes first,"
857 because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type.
859 If you do not have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order
860 does matter: you must type ESC followed by CTRL-v; CTRL-ESC v will not
861 work. This is because ESC is a character in its own right, not a
864 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
866 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
867 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
868 window--the window I am already in.")
870 You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you
871 use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not
872 change. You can find a file in each window independently.
874 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
877 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
878 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
879 window. The cursor goes there, too.
881 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
885 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
886 --------------------------
888 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
889 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
890 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
891 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
893 To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
894 an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
895 extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
897 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
899 You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is
900 because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the
901 recursive editing level.
907 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
908 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
909 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
910 to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features.
911 Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs
912 commands. These "help" commands all start with the character
913 Control-h, which is called "the Help character".
915 To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a
916 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
917 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
918 If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just
919 type C-g to cancel it.
921 (Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. They really
922 should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you have
923 grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h
924 does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try
925 typing the F1 key or M-x help RET instead.)
927 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and
928 a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief
929 description of the command.
931 >> Type C-h c Control-p.
932 The message should be something like
934 C-p runs the command previous-line
936 This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used
937 mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names
938 are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as
939 very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you
940 have already learned.
942 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
943 EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
945 To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
947 >> Type C-h k Control-p.
949 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
950 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
951 output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
952 to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
953 to the help text, and then type C-x 1.
955 Here are some other useful C-h options:
957 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
960 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
961 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
962 function which implements the C-p command.
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
968 or two character sequence which runs the same command.
970 >> Type C-h a file<Return>.
972 This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file"
973 in their names. You will see character-commands like C-x C-f listed
974 beside the corresponding command names such as find-file.
976 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
978 >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
984 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
985 temporarily, so that you can come back to Emacs afterward, use C-z.
987 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
988 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
994 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
995 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
997 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
998 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
1000 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996 Free Software Foundation
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.
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.
1013 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are more complex, but in the
1014 same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of
1015 GNU Emacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism
1016 ("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software!
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