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 Control
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 Control 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.
282 This command is unlike the other commands you have learned in that it
283 consists of two characters. It starts with the character Control-x.
284 There is a whole series of commands that start with Control-x; many of
285 them have to do with windows, files, buffers, and related things.
286 These commands are two, three or four characters long.
289 * INSERTING AND DELETING
290 ------------------------
292 If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you
293 can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
294 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
297 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
298 <Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
299 some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
301 More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
302 current cursor position.
304 >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them
305 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
306 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is
307 your personal copy of it.
309 When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line
310 of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\")
311 at the right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
313 >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting.
314 You'll see a continuation line appear.
316 >> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
317 line again. The continuation line goes away.
319 You can delete a Newline character just like any other character.
320 Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into
321 one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the
322 screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line.
324 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
325 merges that line with the previous line.
327 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
329 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
330 this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts
333 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********.
335 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
336 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
337 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
339 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
340 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
342 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
343 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
345 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
346 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
348 Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
349 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> is not really a control
350 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
351 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
353 When you delete more than one character at a time, Emacs saves the
354 deleted text so that you can bring it back. Bringing back killed text
355 is called "yanking". You can yank the killed text either at the same
356 place where it was killed, or at some other place in the text. You
357 can yank the text several times in order to make multiple copies of
358 it. The command to yank is C-y.
360 Note that the difference between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is
361 that "Killed" things can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot.
362 Generally, the commands that can remove a lot of text save the text,
363 while the commands that delete just one character, or just blank lines
364 and spaces, do not save the deleted text.
366 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty.
367 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line.
368 >> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline
369 which follows that line.
371 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
372 C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. C-k
373 treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND
374 their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two
375 lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that.
377 To retrieve the last killed text and put it where the cursor currently
380 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
382 Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone took
383 away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row, all of
384 the killed text is saved together, so that one C-y will yank all of
387 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
389 Now to retrieve that killed text:
391 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
392 again. You now see how to copy some text.
394 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
395 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
396 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
397 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
398 M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
399 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have
400 reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to
401 keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where
404 If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most
407 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
408 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
409 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
410 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
411 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
412 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
419 If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a
420 mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u.
422 Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat
423 the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one
426 But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do
427 not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling
428 command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups
429 of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to
430 type to undo insertion of text.)
432 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
434 C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u,
435 but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of
436 C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That
437 is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_
438 by typing / while holding down CONTROL.
440 A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count.
446 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
447 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
448 away. In order to put your text in a file, you must "find" the file
449 before you enter the text. (This is also called "visiting" the file.)
451 Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within
452 Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself.
453 However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent
454 until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a
455 half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when
456 you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case
457 you later decide that your changes were a mistake.
459 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
460 begins and ends with dashes, and starts with "--:-- TUTORIAL" or
461 something like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name
462 of the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file
463 called "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs
464 tutorial. When you find a file with Emacs, that file's name will
465 appear in that precise spot.
467 One special thing about the command for finding a file is that you
468 have to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an
469 argument from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of
470 the file). After you type the command
474 Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears
475 on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the
476 minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use
477 ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name.
479 While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input),
480 you can cancel the command with C-g.
482 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
483 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
484 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
486 When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to
487 terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file
488 you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is
491 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can
492 edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent,
495 C-x C-s Save the file
497 This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you
498 do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is
499 not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the
500 original file's name.
502 When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
503 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
504 work if the system should crash.
506 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
507 This should print "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
509 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
510 will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
511 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
512 C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
513 type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
514 Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
516 You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also
517 find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a
518 file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then
519 begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the
520 file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have
521 inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an
522 already existing file.
528 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
529 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
530 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
532 >> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>.
533 Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s.
534 Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return>
535 to come back to the tutorial.
537 Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer."
538 Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the
539 buffers that current exist in your Emacs job, type
545 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
546 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
547 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
548 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
549 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
550 is always part of some buffer.
552 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
554 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
555 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
556 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
557 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
558 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
559 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
560 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
562 C-x s Save some buffers
564 C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have
565 not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the
568 >> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s.
569 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL.
570 Answer yes to the question by typing "y".
572 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
573 ---------------------------
575 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
576 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
577 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
579 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
580 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
582 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
583 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of
584 them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another
585 example is the command to end the Emacs session--this is the command
586 C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c
587 offers to save each changed file before it kills the Emacs.)
589 C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
590 back to the same Emacs session afterward.
592 On systems which allow it, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns
593 to the shell but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common
594 shells, you can resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'.
596 On systems which do not implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell
597 running under Emacs to give you the chance to run other programs and
598 return to Emacs afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In
599 this case, the shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to
600 Emacs from the subshell.
602 The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
603 the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
604 programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know
605 how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances,
606 though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs
607 with C-z instead of exiting Emacs.
609 There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned:
613 C-x C-b List buffers.
617 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
618 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An
619 example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one
620 string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the
621 bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the
622 command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and
623 Emacs will complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
625 The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be
626 replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each
627 argument with <Return>.
629 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
630 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
632 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
633 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred,
634 after the initial position of the cursor.
640 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
641 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
642 this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that
643 you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and
644 the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save
645 file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way,
646 Emacs deletes its auto save file.
648 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
649 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
650 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<return>. When it asks for
651 confirmation, type yes<return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
658 If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
659 at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
660 area contains the bottom line of the screen.
666 The line immediately above the echo area it is called the "mode line".
667 The mode line says something like this:
669 --:** TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%----------------
671 This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and
672 the text you are editing.
674 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
675 found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means
676 that NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the
677 top of the file is on the screen, it will say --Top-- instead of
678 --00%--. If the bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say
679 --Bot--. If you are looking at text so small that all of it fits on
680 the screen, the mode line says --All--.
682 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
683 Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows
684 no stars, just dashes.
686 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
687 editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is
688 what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode".
690 Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for
691 editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode,
692 Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active,
693 and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
694 "Fundamental" is now.
696 Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example,
697 there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each
698 programming language has a different idea of what a comment should
699 look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each
700 major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can
701 switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to
702 switch to Fundamental mode.
704 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
705 should probably use Text Mode.
706 >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
708 Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
709 any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat
710 apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode,
711 M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators.
713 Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands
714 do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit
717 To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
719 >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
720 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
721 >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
723 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
724 Minor modes are alternatives not to the major modes, just minor
725 modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by
726 itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your
727 major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any
728 combination of several minor modes.
730 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
731 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
732 in between words automatically whenever you insert text and make a
733 line that is too wide.
735 You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
736 When the mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x
737 auto-fill-mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on,
738 and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the
739 command "toggles the mode".
741 >> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
742 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
743 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
745 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
746 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
747 as a numeric argument.
749 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
750 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
751 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
754 If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
755 does not re-fill it for you.
756 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
759 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
764 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
765 characters or words) either forward through the text or backward
766 through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command;
767 it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears.
769 The Emacs search command is different from the search commands
770 of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the
771 search happens while you type in the string to search for.
773 The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r
774 for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now.
776 When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as
777 a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is
778 called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that
779 you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search.
781 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
782 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
783 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
784 Now you have searched for "cursor", once.
785 >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor".
786 >> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
787 >> Type <Return> to terminate the search.
789 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
790 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To
791 go to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
792 occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently
793 "failing", C-g would also terminate the search.
795 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
796 see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
797 system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
798 letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
799 Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
800 Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
802 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
803 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
804 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
805 instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first
806 occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move
807 to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delete>. This erases
808 the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to
809 the first occurrence of "c".
811 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
812 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
813 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
815 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
816 string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for
817 something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we
818 have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of
819 the search is reversed.
825 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
826 window on the screen at the same time.
828 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
830 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
831 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
833 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
834 (If you do not have a real Meta key, type ESC C-v.)
836 >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
837 >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
838 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
840 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
841 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before.
843 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
844 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
845 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
846 window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window".
848 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
849 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
850 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance
851 through the other window sequentially with C-M-v.
853 C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
854 META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CONTROL and META while
855 typing v. It does not matter whether CONTROL or META "comes first,"
856 because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type.
858 If you do not have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order
859 does matter: you must type ESC followed by Control-v, because
860 Control-ESC v will not work. This is because ESC is a character in
861 its own right, not a modifier key.
863 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
865 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
866 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
867 window--the window I am already in.")
869 You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you
870 use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not
871 change. You can find a file in each window independently.
873 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
876 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
877 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
878 window. The cursor goes there, too.
880 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
884 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
885 --------------------------
887 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
888 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
889 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
890 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
892 To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
893 an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
894 extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
896 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
898 You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is
899 because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the
900 recursive editing level.
906 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
907 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
908 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
909 to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features.
910 Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs
911 commands. These "help" commands all start with the character
912 Control-h, which is called "the Help character".
914 To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a
915 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
916 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
917 If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just
918 type C-g to cancel it.
920 (Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. They really
921 should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you have
922 grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h
923 does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try
924 typing the F1 key or M-x help <Return> instead.)
926 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and
927 a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief
928 description of the command.
930 >> Type C-h c Control-p.
931 The message should be something like
933 C-p runs the command previous-line
935 This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used
936 mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names
937 are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as
938 very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you
939 have already learned.
941 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
942 EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
944 To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
946 >> Type C-h k Control-p.
948 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
949 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
950 output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
951 to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
952 to the help text, and then type C-x 1.
954 Here are some other useful C-h options:
956 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
959 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
960 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
961 function which implements the C-p command.
963 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
964 all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
965 These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
966 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
967 or two character sequence which runs the same command.
969 >> Type C-h a file<Return>.
971 This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file"
972 in their names. You will see character-commands like C-x C-f listed
973 beside the corresponding command names such as find-file.
975 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
977 >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
983 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
984 temporarily, so that you can come back to Emacs afterward, use C-z.
986 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
987 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
993 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
994 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
996 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
997 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
999 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996 Free Software Foundation
1001 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1002 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1003 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
1004 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
1005 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
1007 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1008 of this document, or of portions of it,
1009 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1010 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
1012 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are more complex, but in the
1013 same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of
1014 GNU Emacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism
1015 ("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software!