]> code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - etc/FAQ
[WINDOWSNT]: (VIRT_ADDR_VARIES, DATA_END, DATA_START, HAVE_ALLOCA): Defined.
[gnu-emacs] / etc / FAQ
1 GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
2
3 [To find what has changed, see the "Changes" posting.]
4
5 [The FAQ post date slipped big-time this time. Now that school is over
6 with and I can get on with the rest of my life, posting should become a
7 lot more regular. - sbyrnes]
8
9 This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about
10 GNU Emacs with answers. This article contains a listing of the questions;
11 subsequent articles contain the questions and answers.
12
13 The FAQ list is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help'
14 newsgroup (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results from
15 the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these questions,
16 corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, name
17 calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best" answers
18 to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a slight
19 change that improves an answer, please tell us!
20
21 If you know the answer of a question is in the FAQ list, please reply to the
22 question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
23
24 The FAQ list is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive
25 the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ list is also crossposted to `news.answers'.
26
27 Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. The
28 most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (ie., the output of `diff
29 -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us about the FAQ list.
30
31 Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb a
32 lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have time to
33 answer questions individually. :-(
34
35 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also
36 see the `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers'
37 newsgroup, or send e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on
38 a body line, or use FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu. [Note: in
39 Sep 1994, this seems no longer to be true--rms.]
40
41 These ideas have already been suggested, but we have not had time to
42 implement them:
43
44 * A Texinfo version.
45 * Marking questions in the table of contents that have been changed
46 recently.
47
48 --
49 Steven Byrnes <sbyrnes@rice.edu> (and Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>)
50
51 E-mail lpf@uunet.uu.net for details about the League for Programming Freedom.
52
53 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
54
55 GNU Emacs FAQ: Table of Contents
56
57 Notation Used in FAQ
58
59 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
60 2: What does "M-x command" mean?
61 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
62 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
63 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
64
65 General Questions
66
67 6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
68 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
69 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
70 comp.emacs, etc.?
71 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
72 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
73 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
74 12: What is the current address of the FSF?
75
76 On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
77
78 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
79 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
80 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
81 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
82 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
83 18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
84 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
85 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
86 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
87 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
88
89 Status of Emacs
90
91 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
92 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
93 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
94 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
95 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
96
97 Common Things People Want To Do
98
99 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
100 29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
101 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
102 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
103 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
104 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
105 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
106 characters?
107 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
108 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
109 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
110 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
111 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
112 40: How do I change load-path?
113 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
114 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
115 43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
116 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
117 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
118 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
119 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
120 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
121 indentation of the previous line?
122 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
123 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
124 commands are handled by the compiler?
125 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
126 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
127 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
128 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
129 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
130 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
131 underlined paragraph?
132 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
133 58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
134 should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
135 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
136 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
137 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
138 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
139
140 Bugs/Problems
141
142 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
143 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
144 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
145 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
146 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
147 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
148 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
149 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
150 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
151 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
152 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
153 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
154 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
155 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
156 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
157 down one line?
158 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
159 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
160 anymore?
161 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
162 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
163 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
164
165 Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
166
167 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
168 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
169 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
170 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
171
172 Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
173
174 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
175 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
176 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
177 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
178 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
179 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
180 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
181 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
182 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
183 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
184 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
185 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
186 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
187 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
188 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
189 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
190 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
191 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
192 Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
193 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
194
195 Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
196
197 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
198 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
199 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
200 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
201 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
202 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
203 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
204 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
205 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
206 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
207 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
208 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
209 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
210 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
211 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
212 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
213 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
214 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
215 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
216
217 Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
218
219 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
220 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
221 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
222 .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
223 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
224 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
225 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
226 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
227 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
228 are filtered out?
229 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
230 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
231 135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
232 136: How do I "swap" two keys?
233 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
234 138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
235 139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
236 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
237 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
238 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
239 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
240 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
241 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
242 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
243
244 Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
245
246 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
247 148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
248 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
249 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
250 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
251
252 Mail and News
253
254 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
255 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
256 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
257 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
258 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
259 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
260 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
261 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
262 160: How do I read news under Emacs?
263 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
264 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
265 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
266 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
267 the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
268 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
269 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
270 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
271 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
272 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
273 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
274 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
275 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
276 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
277 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
278 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
279 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
280 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
281
282
283 GNU Emacs FAQ: Notation/General/Help/Status
284
285 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
286 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
287 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
288
289 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
290 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
291
292 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
293 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
294 deletions occurred.
295
296 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
297 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
298 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
299 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
300
301
302
303 Notation Used in FAQ
304
305 Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the
306 later answers.
307
308 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
309
310 C-x means press the `x' key while holding down the Control key. M-x means
311 press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key. M-C-x means press the
312 `x' key while holding down both the Control key and the Meta key. C-M-a
313 is a synonym for M-C-a. RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, and TAB respectively refer to
314 pressing the Return, Linefeed (aka Newline), Delete, Escape, and Tab keys
315 and are equivalent to C-m, C-j, C-?, C-[, and C-i. SPC means press the
316 Space bar.
317
318 I put any key sequence that is longer than one key (and some single-key
319 sequences) inside double quotes or on a line by itself. Any real spaces
320 in such a key sequence should be ignored; only SPC really means press the
321 space key.
322
323 The ASCII code sent by C-x (except for C-?) is the value that would be
324 sent by pressing just `x' minus 96 (or 64 for uppercase `X') and will be
325 from 0 to 31. The ASCII code sent by M-x is the sum of 128 and the ASCII
326 code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the
327 Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7.
328
329 For further information, see `Characters' and `Keys' in the online manual.
330
331 NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a
332 "control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very
333 few keyboards does Control-? generate ASCII code 127.
334
335 2: What does "M-x command" mean?
336
337 "M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
338 type RET.
339
340 M-x (by default) invokes the command `execute-extended-command'. This
341 command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the
342 command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type
343 TAB and SPC for completion, and "?" for a list of possibilities. An Emacs
344 "command" is any "interactive" Emacs function.
345
346 NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to
347 invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good
348 candidate for this.
349
350 To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 53.
351
352 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
353
354 When I refer you to topic XXX in the on-line manual, you can read this
355 manual node inside Emacs (assuming nothing is broken) by typing this:
356
357 C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET
358
359 This invokes the Info facility. If you don't already know how to use
360 Info, type "?" from within Info.
361
362 If I refer you to topic XXX:YYY, you need to type this:
363
364 C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET m YYY RET
365
366 WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files,
367 or may have installed them properly. In this case you should complain.
368
369 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
370
371 These are files that come with GNU Emacs. The GNU Emacs distribution is
372 divided into subdirectories; the important ones are `etc', `lisp', and
373 `src'.
374
375 If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system,
376 start Emacs, then type "C-h v exec-directory RET". The directory name
377 displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed `etc'
378 directory.
379
380 Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail, see
381 question 20. All are available in the source distribution.
382
383 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
384
385 FSF == Free Software Foundation
386 LPF == League for Programming Freedom
387 OSF == Open Software Foundation
388 GNU == GNU's Not Unix
389 RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman
390 FTP == File Transfer Protocol
391 GPL == GNU General Public Licence
392
393 NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes
394 look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high
395 quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a commercial
396 organization which wants to provide an alternative, standardized version
397 of Unix not controlled by AT&T.
398
399 NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers
400 to "freedom", not "zero dollars". Anyone can charge any price for
401 GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the freedom
402 enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always get the
403 software for less money from someone else, because everyone has the right
404 to resell or give away GPL-covered software.
405
406
407
408 General Questions
409
410 6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
411
412 The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and look-and-feel
413 copyrights. To get more information, feel free to contact the LPF via
414 e-mail or otherwise. {You may also contact me, jbw@cs.bu.edu; I will be
415 happy to talk with you about the LPF.} Here is the contact information:
416
417 E-mail address: league@prep.ai.mit.edu
418 Phone number: (617) 243-4091
419 Postal address:
420 League for Programming Freedom
421 1 Kendall Square, Number 143
422 Post Office Box 9171
423 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
424
425 Papers describing the LPF's views are available on the internet and also
426 from the LPF:
427
428 Anonymous FTP:
429 /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/lpf/
430 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/lpf/
431 Anonymous UUCP:
432 osu-cis!~/lpf/*
433
434 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
435
436 The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public Licence (copyleft) is
437 however it is interpreted by a judge. There has never been a copyright
438 infringement case involving the GPL to set any precedents. Please take any
439 discussion regarding this issue to the newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss, which
440 was created to hold the extensive flame wars on the subject.
441
442 RMS writes:
443
444 The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the spirit,
445 which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work pertaining
446 to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that all users have
447 the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs. To make sure
448 everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you distribute
449 any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the recipients the
450 same freedom that you enjoyed.
451
452 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
453 comp.emacs, etc.?
454
455 The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list.
456 (See question 20 on how to get a copy.) For those which are gatewayed
457 with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the mailing list
458 address.
459
460 comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This
461 includes GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE,
462 MicroEmacs, Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, Epsilon, etc.
463
464 Many people post GNU Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't
465 receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for
466 and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have
467 to decide for yourself.
468
469 Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on any
470 of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to
471 hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "non-free" software
472 includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify the
473 source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the gnu.*
474 groups from the `Newsgroups:' line when posting a followup that recommends
475 such software.
476
477 gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug
478 reports to this newsgroup, instead see question 10.
479
480 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
481
482 The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many
483 years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The
484 archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
485 postings from, but pretty much everything is there.
486
487 Anonymous FTP:
488 /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/
489
490 There is a WAIS database named `comp.emacs' on wais.oit.unc.edu that
491 makes available the last few days of articles in comp.emacs.
492
493 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
494
495 The correct way to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
496 bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Anything sent here also appears in the
497 newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit
498 the bug report. This way a reliable return address is available so you
499 can be contacted for further details.
500
501 RMS explains:
502
503 Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting
504 on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an
505 unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and
506 have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much
507 smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have
508 expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others.
509
510 However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to
511 gnu.emacs.help:
512
513 If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix, then
514 after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on
515 gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you.
516
517 If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell:
518
519 ... if Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
520 while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that is
521 a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it does,
522 that is a bug.
523
524 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
525
526 If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named `XXX', you might be able
527 to unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address
528 `XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu'. However, this will not work if you are
529 not listed on the main mailing list, but instead receive the mail from a
530 distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which
531 distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the `Received:' headers
532 on the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the `EXPN' or
533 `VRFY' sendmail commands through `telnet <site-address> smtp'. Ask your
534 postmaster for help.
535
536 12: What is the current address of the FSF?
537
538 E-mail address: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
539 Phone number: (617) 876-3296
540 Postal address:
541 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
542 675 Massachusetts Avenue
543 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
544
545
546
547 On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
548
549 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
550
551 Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is
552 how to enter the help system.
553
554 WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL to
555 deal local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to invoke
556 help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system, type
557 "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a comma-separated
558 list of key sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last character in each
559 key sequence listed. Each of the resulting key sequences invokes help.
560
561 NOTE: Emacs's help facility works best if help is invoked by a single key
562 whose value should be stored in the variable help-char. Andrew
563 Arensburger <arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote a patch that allows the help
564 facility to work properly when invoked by multiple character sequences.
565
566 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
567
568 There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
569
570 * The complete text of the Emacs manual is available online via the Info
571 hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info.
572
573 * You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15.
574
575 * You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to invoke
576 them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or you can
577 print your own from the etc/refcard.tex file in the Emacs distribution.
578 {Are PostScript versions of this available for FTP?}
579
580 * You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word
581 (actually which match a regular expression) using "C-h a"
582 (M-x command-apropos).
583
584 * You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a
585 certain word using M-x apropos.
586
587 * There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and information.
588 To get a list of these commands, type "C-h C-h C-h".
589
590 NOTE: You may find that command-apropos and apropos are extremely slow
591 on your system. This will be fixed in Emacs 19. If you can't wait that
592 long, there is a fast-apropos.el file available in the Emacs Lisp
593 Archive (see question 89) that contains the fix.
594
595 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
596
597 You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF for
598 $20. For 6 or more manuals the price is $13 each. The price may be
599 tax-deductible as a business expense.
600
601 The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the `man' directory of
602 the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this
603 300 page manual yourself (see question 18).
604
605 If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX, you
606 can get a PostScript version via anonymous FTP:
607
608 /cs.ubc.ca:pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-18.57.ps.Z !
609
610 which site requests that you please CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE
611 EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME (pacific time zone, GMT-8)). A DVI
612 version is also available via FTP:
613
614 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.Z
615
616 If you don't have TeX you can convert the Texinfo sources into
617 {t,n,ps}roff format with the `texi2roff' program, which is available via
618 anonymous FTP:
619
620 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/texi2roff/texi2roff.shar.Z
621
622 See also question 14 for how to view the manual online.
623
624 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
625
626 Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a
627 function, "C-h v" for a variable.
628
629 For more information, obtain the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for Emacs
630 18 under Unix. It is available from the FSF for $50 (or 5 for $200). The
631 latest revision available for FTP is edition 1.03 dated 28 January 1991.
632
633 For online use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the
634 Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP:
635
636 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/
637 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-1.03.tar.Z
638
639 (You can also create the Info files from the Texinfo source.) See
640 question 17 for details on how to install these files online.
641
642 If you are daring enough to try to print this 550 page manual out
643 yourself, for instructions see question 18.
644
645 Also, as a popular USENET saying goes, "Use the Force, Read the Source".
646
647 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
648
649 First create Info files from the Texinfo files with the `makeinfo'
650 program. makeinfo is available as part of the latest Texinfo package:
651
652 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-2.14.tar.Z
653
654 For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
655 comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so you
656 can read it online.
657
658 Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor the makeinfo program install the
659 resulting Info files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:
660
661 1. Move the files to the `info' directory in the installed Emacs
662 distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that
663 is.
664
665 2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a
666 line for the top level node in the Info package that you are
667 installing. Follow the examples are already in this file. The format
668 is:
669
670 * Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
671
672 If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary
673 privileges, you have several options:
674
675 * Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You
676 can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing
677 "g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
678 goes to the node named `Top' in that file. For example, to view a Info
679 file named `XXX' in your home directory, you can type this:
680
681 C-h i g (~/XXX) RET
682
683 * You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the
684 Info directory is by setting the value of the variable Info-directory
685 to its pathname. For example, to use a private Info directory which
686 is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info', you could do
687 this:
688
689 (setq Info-directory (expand-file-name "~/Info"))
690
691 You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory.
692 You can include the system-wide Info directory in your private Info
693 directory with symbolic links or by copying it.
694
695 * You can use an enhanced version of lisp/info.el that handles multiple
696 Info directories. Then you can more easily use a mix of private and
697 shared Info files. Dave Gillespie <daveg@synaptics.com,
698 daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> has written one such enhancement and I
699 believe there are others. Dave's info.el also handles compressed Info
700 files.
701
702 Anonymous FTP:
703 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:modes/info.el.Z
704 /ftp.uu.net:languages/emacs-lisp/modes/info.el.Z !
705
706 According to Jay Bourland <jayb@math.stanford.edu>, a version of Dave's
707 info.el comes with `xinfo' (see question 19).
708
709 18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
710
711 NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still
712 have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print.
713
714 1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
715
716 \input texinfo
717
718 You may need to alter `texinfo' to the full pathname of the
719 texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy
720 or link it into the current directory).
721
722 2. tex XXX.texinfo
723
724 3. texindex XXX.??
725
726 The `texindex' program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
727
728 4. tex XXX.texinfo
729
730 5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files
731 at your site.
732
733 To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package
734 mentioned in question 17.
735
736 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
737
738 Yes, the `info', `xinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. info uses
739 curses, xinfo uses standard X11 libraries, and ivinfo uses InterViews.
740 You can get info as part of the latest Texinfo package (see question
741 17). xinfo is available separately:
742
743 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.Z
744 /export.lcs.mit.edu:
745
746 ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc archive or from Tom Horsley
747 <tom@ssd.csd.harris.com>. For ivinfo, you need Stanford's InterViews C++
748 X library, available via anonymous FTP (interviews.stanford.edu).
749
750 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
751
752 This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
753 informational files about GNU Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU
754 project are available for you to read.
755
756 The following files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU
757 Emacs distribution, and also the latest versions are available
758 individually via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/):
759
760 APPLE -- Why the FSF doen't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers
761 DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information,
762 including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form"
763 FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP
764 GNU -- The GNU Manifesto
765 INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain
766 UNIX-compatible software system
767 with BYTE editors
768 MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
769 MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
770 SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
771 SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"
772
773 These files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs
774 distribution:
775
776 DIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Twenex Emacs
777 CCADIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and CCA Emacs
778 GOSDIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Gosling (Unipress??) Emacs
779 COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License
780 NEWS -- GNU Emacs News, a history of user-visible changes
781 LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
782 FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
783 OPTIONS -- a complete explanation of startup option handling
784
785 These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/):
786
787 tasks -- GNU Task List
788 standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards
789
790 In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF
791 via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source
792 first.
793
794 These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail:
795
796 * GNU's Bulletin, June, 1991 -- this file includes:
797 GNU'S Who
798 What Is the Free Software Foundation?
799 What Is Copyleft?
800 A Small Way to Help Free Software
801 GNUs Flashes (important recent developments for project GNU)
802 Free Software Support (and how to get it!)
803 Copyrighted Programming Languages
804 AT&T Threatens Users of X Windows (and other software patent threats)
805 Project Gutenberg
806 GNU Project Status Report
807 GNU in Japan
808 GNU Wish List
809 Help Keep Government Software Free
810 GNU Software Available Now
811 Contents of the Emacs Tape
812 Contents of the Compiler Tape
813 Contents of the X11 Tapes
814 VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
815 GNU Documentation
816 How to Get GNU Software
817 Free Software for Microcomputers
818 GNU Software on Apple computers
819 GNU Software on the Amiga
820 GNU Software on the Atari
821 GNUish MS-DOS project
822 Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS
823 GNU in Japan
824 FSF Order Form
825 Thank GNUs
826 * Legal issues about contributing code to GNU
827 * GNU Project Status Report
828
829 A collection of past GNU's Bulletins is available via anonymous FTP:
830
831 /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/Bulletins/
832
833 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
834
835 Look in etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who will sell
836 you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the SERVICE file is
837 available on prep.ai.mit.edu (also see question 20).
838
839 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
840
841 The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
842
843 * Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your
844 news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups. Every
845 news reader of which I know will allow you to read any news article that
846 is still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before.
847 You may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover
848 how to do this. In `rn', this command will do this for you at the
849 article selection level:
850
851 ?GNU Emacs FAQ?rc:m
852
853 In GNUS, you should type "C-u G" from the *Subject* buffer or "C-u SPC"
854 from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a newsgroup.
855
856 The FAQ articles' message IDs are:
857
858 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-0.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
859 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-1.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
860 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-2.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
861 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-3.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
862 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-4.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
863 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-5.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
864
865 If you are viewing this in the GNUS *Article* buffer, you can move point
866 within one of the above message IDs and type "r" to fetch the referenced
867 article. Type "o" in the *Article* buffer to restore the previous
868 contents. If this text is not in the GNUS *Article* buffer, use M-r
869 from the *Subject* buffer instead.
870
871 If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool,
872 it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
873 administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before
874 July 3, 1993. !
875
876 * Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP
877
878 /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/ part*
879
880 * Via e-mail. You can send the following magical incantation in the body
881 of a message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu:
882
883 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part0
884 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1
885 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2
886 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3
887 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part4
888 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part5
889
890 * Via WAIS. The GNU Emacs FAQ is available via WAIS indexed on a
891 per-question basis from the `faq' database on bigbird.bu.edu on the
892 non-standard IP port number of 2210. This is probably the best way to
893 find out if there is something in the FAQ related to your question. I
894 use this myself to answer questions I see posted on gnu.emacs.help.
895
896 The articles of the GNU Emacs FAQ are also available from the `usenet'
897 database on rtfm.mit.edu (on the standard IP port: 210), along with a
898 lot of other FAQ articles. However, these are all indexed at the whole
899 article level instead of at the question level. This is a better place
900 to look if you want to fetch the entire FAQ.
901
902 * In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest
903 available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the
904 GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.59 is the latest version,
905 and it was released in October 1992.
906
907 * There is an old version of the FAQ list available for FTP in the GNU
908 archives at MIT:
909
910 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FAQ.emacs
911
912 * As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to
913 gnu-emacs-faq-maintainers@bigbird.bu.edu. Don't do this unless you have
914 made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the methods
915 listed above.
916
917
918
919 Status of Emacs
920
921 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
922
923 Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked
924 the name `Emacs' because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at
925 the time.". The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by
926 RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector (originally Tape Editor
927 and COrrector)) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended TECO with
928 a "real-time" full screen mode with active keys. Emacs was started by Guy
929 Steele <gls@think.com> as a project to unify the many divergent TECO
930 command sets and keybindings at MIT.
931
932 Many people have told me that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See
933 alt.lang.teco if you are interested. I think someone has written a TECO
934 implementation in Emacs Lisp. It would be an interesting project to run
935 the original TECO Emacs inside of GNU Emacs.
936
937 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
938
939 GNU Emacs 18.59 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better
940 mail address parsing, an X visual bell speedup, a call-process
941 enhancement, a regexp matching change, the ability to apply a numeric
942 argument to a self-inserting digit, getting X resource values from the
943 RESOURCE_MANAGER property, more reliable shell mode job control, and a
944 change to copy-keymap. Also, support has been added for many new system
945 types. Fixes from 18.55 include the removal of arbitrary limits on the
946 undo facility.
947
948 According to the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin, "Emacs 18 maintenance
949 continues for simple bug fixes.".
950
951 To visit a file with information about what has changed in recent
952 versions, type "C-h n".
953
954 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
955
956 Richard Stallman recently (February 19, 1993) posted in gnu.emacs.help !
957 the following: !
958 !
959 People should keep in mind that the successor of Emacs 18 does not !
960 come from Lucid. Its is GNU Emacs 19. I still can't say exactly when !
961 public release is going to be, but we are about to start testing at a !
962 number of sites. !
963 !
964 GNU Emacs 19 will support a broad spectrum of machines, like Emacs !
965 18. Ensuring this is the purpose of the testing we are about to do. !
966 !
967 (Please don't volunteer; we have enough pretesters, and if more people !
968 offer, dealing with those messages will slow things down.) !
969 !
970 Once we make sure it is indeed working reliably on various different !
971 systems, we will have a public beta test release. !
972 !
973 Emacs 19 does support adding properties to ranges of text, and using !
974 these to switch fonts. In the future, the Epoch people will help !
975 merge support for variable-width fonts. !
976 !
977 Meanwhile, I have almost finished updating the Emacs Lisp manual. Its !
978 next edition will describe Emacs 19. There will be an announcement !
979 when we know when this edition will be available. !
980
981 Lucid has released Lucid GNU Emacs 19.6, which is based on an early !
982 unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19. This will be similar to Emacs 19 when
983 it finally arrives, but they are not the same. See question 121.
984
985 Work has begun on features for Emacs 20.
986
987 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
988
989 From the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin:
990
991 Version 19 will enter beta test late this year. Among its new features
992 are: before and after change hooks, source-level debugging of Emacs Lisp
993 programs, X selection processing (including clipboard selections),
994 scrollbars, support for European character sets, floating point numbers,
995 per-buffer mouse commands, X resource manager interfacing,
996 mouse-tracking, Lisp-level binding of function keys, multiple X windows
997 (`screens' to Emacs), a new input system, and buffer allocation, which
998 uses a new mechanism capable of returning storage to the system when a
999 buffer is killed.
1000
1001 The input stream is now a sequence of Lisp objects, instead of a
1002 sequence of characters. This allows a reasonable representation for
1003 mouse clicks, function keys, menu selections, etc.
1004
1005 Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch for
1006 generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs, and to Eric
1007 Raymond for help in polishing the Emacs 19 Lisp libraries.
1008
1009 The June 1991 GNU's bulletin had this to say about future plans for Emacs:
1010
1011 Features being considered for later releases of Emacs include:
1012 associating property lists with regions of text in a buffer; multiple
1013 fonts, color, and pixmaps defined by those properties; different
1014 visibility conditions for the regions, and for various windows showing
1015 one buffer; hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain
1016 range; incrementally saving undo history in a file; static menu bars;
1017 and better pop-up menus.
1018
1019 Mention of this feature disappeared in the January 1992 GNU's bulletin:
1020
1021 Emacs 19 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a separate
1022 screen for the minibuffer, and another with a minibuffer attached to
1023 each screen.
1024
1025 Mention of these two proposed features disappeared in the January 1991
1026 GNU's bulletin:
1027
1028 * Incremental syntax analysis for various programming languages (Leif).
1029 * A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which would provide
1030 network transparent Emacs widget functionality.
1031
1032 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
1033
1034 * Nemacs (Nihongo Emacs), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from
1035 GNU Emacs 18.55. See question 149.
1036
1037 * Demacs, which can run under MS-DOS on 386 machines, is derived from
1038 Nemacs. See question 122.
1039
1040 * Epoch, which has better X support, is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58.
1041 See question 120 and 92.
1042
1043 * Nepoch (Nihongo Epoch), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from
1044 Epoch.
1045
1046 * Mule (the MULtilingual Enhancement of GNU Emacs) can handle many
1047 character sets simultaneously. It is derived from Emacs 18.58. It is
1048 available for FTP:
1049
1050 /sh.wide.ad.jp:/JAPAN/mule/
1051 /etlport.etl.go.jp:/pub/mule/
1052
1053 * Lucid GNU Emacs is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs
1054 19. See question 121 and 92.
1055
1056
1057
1058 GNU Emacs FAQ: Common Requests/Problems
1059
1060 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
1061 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
1062 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
1063
1064 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
1065 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
1066
1067 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
1068 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
1069 deletions occurred.
1070
1071 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
1072 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
1073 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
1074 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
1075
1076
1077
1078 Common Things People Want To Do
1079
1080 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
1081
1082 See `Init File' in the on-line manual.
1083
1084 WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files, because
1085 it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send questions to
1086 help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as documented. :-)
1087
1088 29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
1089
1090 First start Emacs with the `-q' command line option. Then, in the
1091 *scratch* buffer, type the following:
1092
1093 (setq debug-on-error t) LFD
1094 (load-file "~/.emacs") LFD
1095
1096 (Type LFD by pressing C-j.)
1097
1098 If you have an error in your .emacs file, this will invoke the debugger
1099 when the error occurs. If you don't know how to use the debugger do
1100 (setq stack-trace-on-error t) instead.
1101
1102 WARNING: this will not discover errors caused by trying to do something
1103 that requires the terminal/window-system initialization code to have
1104 been loaded. See question 127.
1105
1106 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
1107
1108 To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x
1109 what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the
1110 current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)".
1111
1112 Typing "C-x l" will also tell you what line you are on, provided the
1113 buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l characters. In that case, it
1114 will only tell you what line of the current "page" you are on. WARNING:
1115 "C-x l" gives the wrong value when point is at the beginning of a line.
1116
1117 There is no "correct" way to constantly display the current (or total)
1118 line (or column) number on the mode line in Emacs 18, or to display the
1119 line numbers next to the lines like vi can. Emacs is not a line-oriented
1120 editor, and really has no idea what "lines" of the buffer are displayed in
1121 the window. It would require a lot of work at the C code level to make
1122 Emacs keep track of this. It would not be that hard to get the column
1123 number, but it would still require changes at the C code level.
1124
1125 None of the vi emulation modes provide the `set number' capability of vi
1126 (as far as I know).
1127
1128 Emacs 19 will probably be able to show the line number on the mode-line,
1129 but probably very inefficiently.
1130
1131 People have written various kludges to display line numbers. One is
1132 `display-line-numbers' by Wayne Mesard <wmesard@tofu.oracle.com,
1133 Mesard@bbn.com>. Look in the Lisp Code Directory. (See question
1134 88.)
1135
1136 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
1137
1138 Put this in your .emacs file:
1139
1140 (condition-case ()
1141 (read-abbrev-file nil t)
1142 (file-error nil))
1143
1144 (setq XXX-mode-hook
1145 (function
1146 (lambda ()
1147 (setq abbrev-mode t))))
1148
1149 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
1150
1151 To turn on Auto-Fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x
1152 auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in, for example, Text
1153 mode, do this:
1154
1155 (setq text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
1156
1157 If you want Auto-Fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
1158
1159 (setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill)
1160
1161 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
1162
1163 If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension
1164 `.YYY', this will do it for you:
1165
1166 (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist))
1167
1168 Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
1169 edit in XXX mode:
1170
1171 -*-XXX-*-
1172
1173 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
1174 characters?
1175
1176 To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for
1177 example, `\237', you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value of
1178 search-quote-char is 17 (ie., C-q).) Searching for ALL unprintable
1179 characters is best done with a "regexp" search. The easiest regexp to use
1180 for the unprintable chars is the complement of the regexp for the
1181 printable chars.
1182
1183 Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
1184
1185 Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
1186
1187 To type some of these special characters in an interactive argument to
1188 isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t',
1189 `\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So,
1190 to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward:
1191
1192 M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET
1193
1194 Using isearch-forward-regexp:
1195
1196 M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~]
1197
1198 To delete all unprintable characters, simply use a replace-regexp:
1199
1200 M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET
1201
1202 Replacing is similar to the above. {I need to write the text for this
1203 part of the answer!}
1204
1205 Notes:
1206
1207 * With isearch, you can type RET to get a quoted LFD (not a quoted RET).
1208
1209 * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing something in
1210 the minibuffer.
1211
1212 Here are the Emacs Lisp forms of the above regexps:
1213
1214 ;; regexp matching all printable characters:
1215 "[\t\n\r\f -~]"
1216
1217 ;; regexp matching all unprintable characters:
1218 "[^\t\n\r\f -~]"
1219
1220 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
1221
1222 There are ways to get highlighting (reverse video, inverse video) in GNU
1223 Emacs 18.59, but either they require patching the C code of Emacs and
1224 rebuilding, or they are slow and the highlighting disappears if you scroll
1225 or redraw the screen and it can not follow the point. Howard Gayle's
1226 patches for 8-bit output appear to allow highlighting (see question
1227 ^8-bit-output). Another patch for highlighting is by Kenichi Handa
1228 <handa@etl.go.jp>. There is a patch for use with X by Andy Norman
1229 <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> (and modified for 18.57 by Matthieu Herrb
1230 <matthieu@laas.fr>), which is available for FTP:
1231
1232 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.55
1233 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.57
1234
1235 You can highlight regions in a variety of ways in Epoch and Lucid Emacs.
1236 GNU Emacs 19 may not be able to just temporarily highlight a region.
1237
1238 Similar comments apply to displaying text in different fonts, except that
1239 it is even harder.
1240
1241 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
1242
1243 For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines
1244 whether they are case sensitive:
1245
1246 (setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive
1247 (setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive
1248
1249 Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether
1250 replacements preserve case.
1251
1252 To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major
1253 mode's hook. For example:
1254
1255 (setq XXX-mode-hook
1256 (function
1257 (lambda ()
1258 (setq case-fold-search nil))))
1259
1260 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
1261
1262 M-x auto-fill-mode. The default maximum line width is 74, determined by
1263 the variable fill-column. To find how to turn this on automatically see
1264 question 32.
1265
1266 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
1267
1268 Use Ispell. See question 119.
1269
1270 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
1271
1272 If you want to spell-check TeX or *roff documents with Ispell, you need to
1273 arrange for a filter program that understands how to strip TeX or *roff
1274 formatting commands to be run. In the TeX distribution, there are several
1275 different programs named `detex', all with incompatible options, and a
1276 very old pair of programs named `detex' and `delatex', which should
1277 probably be avoided. The most useful one for Ispell is `detex' by Daniel
1278 Trinkle. A more recent version is available via FTP:
1279
1280 /arthur.cs.purdue.edu:pub/trinkle/detex-2.4.tar
1281
1282 Raphael Cerf <cerf@clipper.ens.fr> recently released a program for this
1283 named `xetal':
1284
1285 /spi.ens.fr:pub/unix/tex/
1286
1287 There is a program that comes with Unix named `deroff' for stripping
1288 formatting commands from *roff files.
1289
1290 Here is an example of code you can put in a .emacs file to use these
1291 programs:
1292
1293 ;; Based on suggestions by David G. Grubbs <dgg@ksr.com> and Paul Palmer
1294 ;; <palmerp@math.orst.edu>.
1295
1296 ;; Assuming the use of detex 2.3 by Daniel Trinkle:
1297 ;; -w means one word per line.
1298 ;; -n means don't expand \input or \include commands.
1299 ;; -l means force LaTeX mode.
1300
1301 (require 'ispell) ; for the make-variable-buffer-local statements
1302 (setq plain-TeX-mode-hook
1303 (function
1304 (lambda ()
1305 (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
1306 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-nw")))))
1307 (setq LaTeX-mode-hook
1308 (function
1309 (lambda ()
1310 (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
1311 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-lnw")))))
1312 (setq nroff-mode-hook
1313 (function
1314 (lambda ()
1315 (setq ispell-filter-hook "deroff")
1316 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-w")))))
1317
1318 You will have to adjust the arguments for programs other than Trinkle's
1319 detex or for other versions of deroff. Experiment running the command
1320 from the shell to find the correct options. If you don't have a filter
1321 that knows how to output one word per line, you must pipe its output
1322 through another filter to break up the output.
1323
1324 40: How do I change load-path?
1325
1326 In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add
1327 directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this:
1328
1329 (setq load-path (append load-path '("/XXX/YYY/")))
1330
1331 To do this relative to your home directory:
1332
1333 (setq load-path (append load-path (list (expand-file-name "~/YYY/"))))
1334
1335 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
1336
1337 The `emacsclient' program is for editing a file using an already running
1338 Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a
1339 request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the request.
1340
1341 * Setup
1342
1343 Emacs must have executed the `server-start' function for emacsclient to
1344 work. This can be done either by a command line option:
1345
1346 emacs -f server-start
1347
1348 or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file:
1349
1350 (if (some conditions are met) (server-start))
1351
1352 When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called
1353 `server'. `server' creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
1354 directory named `.emacs_server'.
1355
1356 To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try
1357 setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the
1358 value `emacsclient'. You may have to specify the full pathname of the
1359 emacsclient program instead. Examples:
1360
1361 # csh commands:
1362 setenv EDITOR emacsclient
1363 setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname
1364
1365 # sh command:
1366 EDITOR=emacsclient export EDITOR
1367
1368 * Normal use
1369
1370 When emacsclient is run, it connects to the `.emacs_server' socket and
1371 passes its command line options to `server'. When `server' receives
1372 these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process,
1373 which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line
1374 numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to
1375 switch to the Emacs window by hand. When the user is done editing a
1376 file, the user can type "C-x #" to indicate this. This will switch to
1377 another buffer created at the request of emacsclient if there are any.
1378 When "C-x #" has been invoked on all of the files that the emacsclient
1379 requested to be edited, Emacs will send notification of this to `server'
1380 which will pass this on to the emacsclient, which will then exit.
1381
1382 NOTE: `emacsclient' and `server' must be running on machines which share
1383 the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that emacsclient
1384 specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the Emacs process
1385 sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the time emacsclient
1386 is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from another X window or
1387 from a shell window inside Emacs itself.
1388
1389 There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called `gnuserv' by
1390 Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp
1391 Archive. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across most
1392 network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary Emacs
1393 Lisp forms and also does not require the client program to wait for
1394 completion. It is available via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive:
1395 packages/gnuserv.shar).
1396
1397 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
1398
1399 Write a program which runs the compiler as a child and filters its output,
1400 rearranging as necessary. Install with same name as compiler somewhere in
1401 path.
1402
1403 Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu> wrote one such for a C compiler under AIX.
1404 Available via FTP:
1405
1406 /cs.utk.edu:readonly/aixcc.lex
1407
1408 Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> wrote another for the IBM xlc compiler on the
1409 RS/6000. (I don't know if these are both for the same compiler.)
1410 Johnathan Vail <vail@tegra.COM> wrote something for a High C compiler
1411 (`hc', which is one of the compilers on the RS/6000, although I think
1412 Johnathan wrote his program for hc on a different computer).
1413
1414 43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
1415
1416 Many people want to indent their switch statements like this:
1417
1418 f()
1419 {
1420 switch(x) {
1421 case A:
1422 x1;
1423 break;
1424 case B:
1425 x2;
1426 break;
1427 default:
1428 x3;
1429 }
1430 }
1431
1432 I don't believe there is any way to do this exactly without modifying the
1433 Lisp code in c-mode.el. You can set c-indent-level to 4 and
1434 c-label-offset to -2, but this has bad effects elsewhere. {Anyone have a
1435 solution?}
1436
1437 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
1438
1439 There is no completely correct way of doing this that does not involve
1440 rewriting all commands or writing your own top-level command loop (not a
1441 completely bad idea). Wayne Mesard <wmesard@pescadero.stanford.edu> has
1442 written a particularly advanced kludge called `hscroll.el' that checks
1443 once a second to make sure point is visible.
1444
1445 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
1446
1447 M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode).
1448
1449 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
1450
1451 Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes:
1452
1453 Tell Emacs to use the 'visible bell' instead of the audible bell, and
1454 set the visible bell to nothing.
1455
1456 Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable:
1457
1458 ... :vb=: ...
1459
1460 And evaluate this:
1461
1462 (setq visible-bell t)
1463
1464 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
1465
1466 Under versions of Emacs before 18.58, the bell volume was annoying loud
1467 and difficult to turn off. So upgrading to 18.58 or higher will reduce
1468 the volume. If you want to turn it off completely, use `xset'. There is
1469 no way to turn the bell off just for Emacs without affecting all other
1470 programs.
1471
1472 Under Epoch you can do:
1473
1474 (setq epoch::bell-volume 20)
1475
1476 Stu Grossman <grossman@sunburn.stanford.edu> wrote a patch that allows the
1477 bell volume to be adjusted from inside Emacs just for Emacs.
1478
1479 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
1480 indentation of the previous line?
1481
1482 One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode).
1483
1484 If you have Auto-Fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 32), you can
1485 tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the
1486 "fill prefix". Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position point
1487 after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill prefix.
1488 Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix at the
1489 beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any fill
1490 prefix when refilling the paragraph.
1491
1492 NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you
1493 will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move
1494 to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages
1495 available from the Emacs Lisp Archive. Look up `fill' and `indent' in the
1496 Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
1497
1498 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
1499
1500 If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can
1501 delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching
1502 parenthesis.
1503
1504 M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over balanced
1505 parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You can train it to
1506 skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time by modifying the
1507 syntax table.)
1508
1509 Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching
1510 parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a
1511 parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal.
1512
1513 ;; By an unknown contributor
1514
1515 (global-set-key "%" 'match-paren)
1516
1517 (defun match-paren (arg)
1518 "Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %."
1519 (interactive "p")
1520 (cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1))
1521 ((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1))
1522 (t (self-insert-command (or arg 1)))))
1523
1524 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
1525 commands are handled by the compiler?
1526
1527 M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.)
1528
1529 You may have to (load "hideif") first. If you want to do this regularly,
1530 put this in your .emacs file:
1531
1532 (autoload 'hide-ifdef-mode "hideif" nil t)
1533
1534 {Yes, I know, this should be in lisp/loaddefs.el already.}
1535
1536 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
1537
1538 (`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
1539
1540 No, not really.
1541
1542 You can type "C-x ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands that
1543 used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you can
1544 type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands you've
1545 typed.
1546
1547 To repeat something on each line I recommend using keyboard macros.
1548
1549 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
1550
1551 See the Emacs man page, or the etc/OPTIONS file. Ignore the information
1552 in etc/XDOC which is way out of date.
1553
1554 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
1555
1556 There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") an Emacs Lisp
1557 "form":
1558
1559 * If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file
1560 named `.emacs' in your home directory.
1561
1562 * You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or
1563 C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in
1564 the buffer.
1565
1566 * In Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before or
1567 around point.
1568
1569 * Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately
1570 before point and prints its value in the echo area.
1571
1572 * Typing M-ESC or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in
1573 the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
1574
1575 * You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in
1576 a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function `load' instead.)
1577
1578 These functions are also used for evaluating Lisp forms:
1579
1580 load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
1581
1582 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
1583
1584 Example: (setq default-tab-width 10).
1585
1586 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
1587
1588 Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET".
1589
1590 To do this only in the region, type "C-x n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET
1591 > RET C-x w".
1592
1593 WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n) is disabled by default
1594 because it can be very confusing (ie., "Oh no! Where did my file go?").
1595
1596 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
1597 underlined paragraph?
1598
1599 M-x underline-region.
1600
1601 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
1602
1603 Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command
1604 and then type "M-0 C-x e".
1605
1606 WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be
1607 suppressed.
1608
1609 58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
1610 should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
1611
1612 M-x picture-mode. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...)
1613
1614 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
1615
1616 You need to modify C source and recompile. Either that or get Epoch or
1617 Lucid Emacs instead. Patches have been written by Robert Forsman
1618 <thoth@reef.cis.ufl.edu> and Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> to allow Emacs to
1619 iconify itself and by Matt Wette <mwette@mr-ed.jpl.nasa.gov> and
1620 Manavendra K. Thakur <thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu> (for 18.57, plus icon
1621 geometry) to allow Emacs to start up iconified. I don't know which of
1622 these patches work together.
1623
1624 Anonymous FTP:
1625 /csi.jpl.nasa.gov:pub/emax.patch1 (Matt Wette)
1626 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z (Johan Vromans)
1627 /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun (Johan Vromans)
1628
1629 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
1630
1631 See `Regexps' in the online manual.
1632
1633 WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
1634 are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\".
1635 Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is
1636 "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated backslashes!
1637
1638 WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set
1639 ([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless
1640 newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match.
1641
1642 WARNING: The character syntax regexps (eg. `\sw') are not meaningful
1643 inside character set regexps (eg. `[aeiou]'). (This is actually typical
1644 for regexp syntax.)
1645
1646 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
1647
1648 The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which
1649 performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file.
1650 See `Tags:Tags Search' in the online manual.
1651
1652 In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace which
1653 will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the
1654 *compilation* buffer (usually done after a `grep'), which is available via
1655 anonymous FTP:
1656
1657 /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/compile.el.Z
1658 /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/global-replace.el.Z
1659 /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/query.el.Z
1660
1661 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
1662
1663 `etags' takes options just like a prior version of ctags, so your ctags
1664 manual (if any) may be useful. Eoin Woods, in comp.emacs, writes the !
1665 following: !
1666 !
1667 From reading the source (!) the way I use it is: !
1668 !
1669 for f in `find <args>` !
1670 do !
1671 etags -at -f ETAGS $f !
1672 done !
1673 !
1674 The "-t" option means to create tags for typedefs as well as functions. !
1675 The "-a" option tells it to append to the output file. If you have a !
1676 small number of files (up to a few hundred I think) you can use it !
1677 direct as: !
1678 !
1679 etags -f ETAGS file1 file2 file3 ... filen !
1680 !
1681 The option list is: !
1682 !
1683 -f file - Specify the output file name (Default is "TAGS") !
1684 -a - Append to the output file. (Default is to rewrite it) !
1685 -t - Create tags for typedefs (default is just functions) !
1686 -u - Update the output file. Do not re-create it. !
1687 -w - Suppress warnings !
1688 -v - Create vgrind style indexed output (What is vgrind??) !
1689 -x - Create cxref style output (default is Emacs Tags) !
1690 -e - Emacs tags style output (the default the way I !
1691 compile it) !
1692 !
1693 Having got it working, it works fine! !
1694
1695
1696
1697 Bugs/Problems
1698
1699 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
1700
1701 Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and
1702 24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can
1703 handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1).
1704
1705 Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting the following two
1706 lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers
1707 and pointers (and thus filesizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes):
1708
1709 #define VALBITS 26
1710 #define GCTYPEBITS 5
1711
1712 WARNING: This method may result in `ILLEGAL DATATYPE' and other random
1713 errors on some machines.
1714
1715 David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> gives an explanation of why
1716 Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers:
1717
1718 Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
1719 language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
1720 variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must
1721 carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, eg.,
1722 integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on.
1723 Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8
1724 bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers (and
1725 pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
1726 pointers.
1727
1728 Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented
1729 machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits.
1730
1731 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
1732
1733 The PWD bug has been fixed as of GNU Emacs 18.59. Read on if you are
1734 running an older version of Emacs.
1735
1736 Most likely, you have an environment variable named PWD that is set to a
1737 value other than the name of your current directory. This is most
1738 likely caused by using two different shell programs. `ksh' and (some
1739 versions of) `csh' set and maintain the value of the PWD environment
1740 variable, but `sh' doesn't. If you start sh from ksh, change your
1741 current directory inside sh, and then start Emacs from inside sh, PWD
1742 will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. An invalid
1743 setting for PWD can also be a problem if you use X Windows and csh on an
1744 RS/6000. See the etc/OPTIONS file for more details.
1745
1746 Perhaps an easier solution is not to use two shells. The `chsh' program
1747 can often be used to change one's default login shell.
1748
1749 You may have PWD set for other reasons. Another possibility is that you
1750 are setting default-directory from your .emacs file.
1751
1752 Here is a fix by Jim Blandy <jimb@occs.cs.oberlin.edu>:
1753
1754 >--- emacs/jjj/emacs-18.58/lisp/startup.el Tue Jan 15 23:19:04 1991
1755 >+++ startup.el Mon Apr 20 00:21:01 1992
1756 >@@ -81,5 +81,7 @@
1757 > ;; In presence of symlinks, switch to cleaner form of default directory.
1758 > (if (and (not (eq system-type 'vax-vms))
1759 >- (getenv "PWD"))
1760 >+ (getenv "PWD")
1761 >+ (equal (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes default-directory))
1762 >+ (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes (getenv "PWD")))))
1763 > (setq default-directory (file-name-as-directory (getenv "PWD"))))
1764 > (unwind-protect
1765
1766 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
1767
1768 For tcsh, put this in your `.cshrc' (or `.tcshrc') file:
1769
1770 if ($?EMACS) then
1771 if ("$EMACS" == t) then
1772 if ($?tcsh) unset edit
1773 stty nl
1774 endif
1775 endif
1776
1777 Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file:
1778
1779 unset edit
1780 stty nl
1781
1782 Alternatively, use csh in your Shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way
1783 is:
1784
1785 (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
1786
1787 and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
1788
1789 setenv ESHELL /bin/csh
1790
1791 (You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly
1792 set for this to take effect.)
1793
1794 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
1795
1796 The most likely reason for this message is that the `env' program is not
1797 properly installed. This program should be compiled (for the correct
1798 architecture!) and installed with execute permission for everyone in
1799 Emacs's program directory, which is normally /usr/local/emacs/etc. You
1800 can find what this directory is at your site by inspecting the value of
1801 the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v exec-directory RET". `env'
1802 should also be for the correct architecture (check using `file' command).
1803
1804 You should also check for other programs named `env' in your path (eg.,
1805 SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). I don't understand why this can
1806 cause a failure and I don't know a general solution for working around the
1807 problem in this case.
1808
1809 The `make clean' command will remove `env' and other vital programs, so be
1810 careful when using it.
1811
1812 It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started
1813 as an X client from an xterm window (ie. had a controlling tty) but the
1814 xterm was later terminated.
1815
1816 See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message.
1817
1818 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
1819
1820 Emacs stores things you "cut" in the X "cut buffers". It also pastes from
1821 the cut buffer `CUT_BUFFER0'. This is obsolete. Most modern X programs
1822 now expect to work with "selections" instead of cut buffers, although some
1823 like `xterm' will try to use the cut buffers if the selection is null.
1824
1825 Emacs 18.58 contains a "fix" that makes xterm work by default. This
1826 "fix" is that Emacs clears the `PRIMARY' selection when it stores
1827 something in the cut buffer. By making the selection null, xterm will
1828 then fetch from the cut buffer when you try to paste.
1829
1830 For versions of Emacs prior to 18.58, you can make pasting from Emacs into
1831 xterm work with the following X resources:
1832
1833 ! Solution by Thomas Narten, should work under X11R3 and later GNU
1834 ! Emacs only copies to CUT_BUFFER0. xterm by default wants to paste
1835 ! from the PRIMARY selection.
1836 XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \
1837 ~Meta <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CUT_BUFFER0,PRIMARY)
1838
1839 You may have problems copying between Emacs and programs other than xterm
1840 that won't store cut text in the cut buffers or look in the cut buffers
1841 for text to paste (for backwards compatibility with obsolete applications
1842 like Emacs :-). The best workaround is to use the `xcutsel' program as an
1843 intermediary.
1844
1845 This problem does not exist for Epoch or Lucid Emacs.
1846
1847 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
1848
1849 The termcap entry for terminal type `emacs' is ordinarily put in the
1850 TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain
1851 situations (eg., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for
1852 `emacs' to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry
1853 for `emacs':
1854
1855 emacs:tc=unknown:
1856
1857 To make a terminfo entry for `emacs', use `tic' or `captoinfo'. You need
1858 to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy
1859 /usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs.
1860
1861 Having a termcap/terminfo entry will not enable the use of full screen
1862 programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead.
1863
1864 A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to
1865 change terminal type `emacs' to type `dumb' or `unknown' in your shell
1866 start up file. `csh' users could put this in their .cshrc files:
1867
1868 if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb
1869
1870 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
1871
1872 Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is
1873 sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these
1874 characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character normally
1875 invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions, see
1876 question 131.
1877
1878 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
1879
1880 The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of
1881 gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is often
1882 manifested as a message on startup of `X server not responding. Check
1883 your DISPLAY environment variable.' or a message of `Unknown host' from
1884 open-network-stream.
1885
1886 On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C
1887 library. The version of gethostbyname in the static C library may only
1888 look in /etc/hosts and the NIS (YP) maps, while the version in the dynamic
1889 C library may be smart enough to check DNS in addition to or instead of
1890 NIS. On a Motorola Delta running System V R3.6, the version of
1891 gethosbyname in the standard library works, but the one that works with
1892 NIS doesn't (the one you get with -linet). Other operating systems have
1893 similar problems.
1894
1895 Try these options:
1896
1897 * Explicitly add the host you want to communicate with to /etc/hosts.
1898
1899 * Relink Emacs with this line in src/config.h:
1900
1901 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
1902
1903 * Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions
1904 such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs.
1905
1906 * If you are actually running NIS, make sure that `ypbind' is properly
1907 told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch.
1908
1909 * Use tcp.el and tcp.c from GNUS. This has the additional advantage that
1910 you can use numeric IP addresses instead of names. open-network-stream
1911 currently can't handle numeric addresses. Brian Thomson
1912 <thomson@hub.toronto.edu> has a enhancement to open-network-stream to
1913 allow it to handle numeric addresses.
1914
1915 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
1916
1917 An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the system-wide
1918 lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your .emacs file,
1919 see question 29.
1920
1921 It may be the case that you may need to load some package first, or use a
1922 hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case of
1923 this is explained in question 127.
1924
1925 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
1926
1927 * Try compiling Emacs with the XBACKWARDS macro defined. There is a bug
1928 in some implementations of XGetDefault, which do not correspond to the
1929 documentation or the header files.
1930
1931 * Make sure you are either using the class name of `Emacs' (oops,
1932 apparently this is buggy in Emacs 18.58!) or the correct instance name.
1933 The instance name is normally the same as the name of the file Emacs is
1934 in (ie., the last part of argv[0]), but this can be overridden by -rn
1935 command line option or the WM_RES_NAME environment variable.
1936
1937 WARNING: Reports say using the class name fails in Emacs 18.58.
1938
1939 WARNING: The advice the man page gives to use `emacs' is often wrong.
1940
1941 WARNING: Older versions of Emacs got the class name wrong.
1942
1943 * Emacs currently ignores the -xrm command line argument.
1944
1945 * Emacs does not yet handle X11R5 screen-specific resources.
1946
1947 * Emacs has a bug where it ignores color specifications if running on a
1948 1-bit display (ie. a non-color display).
1949
1950 * I don't think Emacs will use either of the application-specific resource
1951 files. Thus these environment variables don't affect it: XAPPLRESDIR,
1952 XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, XFILESEARCHPATH. {Correct?}
1953
1954 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
1955
1956 The usual cause is that the master lock file, `!!!SuperLock!!!' has been
1957 left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it.
1958
1959 Mark Meuer <meuer@geom.umn.edu> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an
1960 exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause the
1961 same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS anyway,
1962 the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION undefined.
1963
1964 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
1965
1966 When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand
1967 a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this
1968 behavior, type "$$" instead.
1969
1970 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
1971
1972 Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its directory.
1973 This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to guess by
1974 recognizing `cd' commands. If you type `cd' followed by a directory name
1975 with a variable reference (`cd $HOME/bin') or with a shell metacharacter
1976 (`cd ../lib*'), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the shell's new current
1977 directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements to Shell mode for
1978 this problem have been written to handle this problem. Check the Lisp
1979 Code Directory (see question 88).
1980
1981 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
1982
1983 If you added a directory name containing a tilde (~) to your load-path,
1984 expecting the tilde to be interpreted as your home directory, then you
1985 need to do something like this:
1986
1987 (setq load-path (mapcar 'expand-file-name load-path))
1988
1989 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
1990 down one line?
1991
1992 You have inadvertently typed "C-x C-n" (set-goal-column) which sets the
1993 "goal column" to the column where the cursor was. To undo this type
1994 "C-u C-x C-n".
1995
1996 If you make this mistake frequently, you might want to unbind or disable
1997 this command by doing one of these two:
1998
1999 (define-key ctl-x-map "\C-n" nil)
2000 (put 'set-goal-column 'disabled t)
2001
2002 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
2003
2004 Many different X errors can produce this message. Here is the solution
2005 to one problem:
2006
2007 X11 Release 4 (and later, including OpenWindows) enforces some conditions
2008 in the X protocol that were previously allowed to pass unnoticed. You
2009 need to put the X11R4 server into X11R3 bug compatibility mode for Emacs's
2010 Xmenu code to work. You can do this with the command `xset bc'.
2011
2012 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
2013 anymore?
2014
2015 In GNU Emacs 18.56, a change was made in the display-time code.
2016 Formerly, in version 18.55, Emacs used a program named `loadst' to
2017 notify Emacs of the change in time every minute. loadst also sent Emacs
2018 the system load average if it was installed with sufficient privilege to
2019 get that information (or was on a system where no such privilege was
2020 needed). Emacs then displayed this information in the mode line.
2021
2022 In version 18.56, this code was changed to use a program named `wakeup'.
2023 wakeup doesn't send Emacs any information, it's only purpose is to send
2024 Emacs *something* every minute, thus invoking the filter function in
2025 Emacs once a minute. The filter function in Emacs does all the work of
2026 finding the time, date, and load average. However, getting the load
2027 average requires the privilege to read kernel memory on most systems.
2028 Since giving Emacs this privilege would destroy any security a system
2029 might have, for almost everyone this is not an option. In addition,
2030 Emacs does not have the code built into it to get this information on
2031 the systems which have special system calls for this purpose, even
2032 though loadst had code for this.
2033
2034 The solution I use is to get the files lisp/display-time.el and
2035 etc/loadst.c from version 18.55 and use those with 18.58. (I have heard
2036 a rumor that loadst disappeared because of the legal action Unipress
2037 threatened against IBM.)
2038
2039 WARNING: Do not install Emacs setgid kmem unless you wish to destroy
2040 any security your system might have!!!!!!!!!!
2041
2042 If you are using Emacs 18.55 or earlier, or already using the solution I
2043 describe above, read further:
2044
2045 The most likely cause of the problem is that `loadst' can't read the
2046 special file /dev/kmem. To properly install loadst, it should be either
2047 setuid to the owner of /dev/kmem, or is should be setgid to the group to
2048 which /dev/kmem belongs. In either case, /dev/kmem should be readable by
2049 its owner or its group, respectively. Assuming the existence of a group
2050 named `kmem', here is an example of how to do this:
2051
2052 chgrp kmem /dev/kmem
2053 chmod g+r /dev/kmem
2054 chgrp kmem /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
2055 chmod g+s /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
2056
2057 Another possibility is that your version of Unix doesn't have the load
2058 average data available in /dev/kmem. Your version of Unix might have a
2059 special system call to retrieve this information (eg., inq_stats under
2060 UMAX), and loadst might not have been enhanced to cope with this.
2061
2062 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
2063
2064 You need to update the version of Ispell to 2.0.02. (Or you can switch to
2065 version 3.0 which is still in beta-testing.) A patch is available via
2066 anonymous FTP:
2067
2068 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/ispell/patch2.Z
2069
2070 You also need to change a line in ispell.el from:
2071
2072 (defconst ispell-version "2.0.01") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2073
2074 to:
2075
2076 (defconst ispell-version "2.0.02") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2077
2078 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
2079
2080 Ispell expects to get its input one word per line. The ispell filter,
2081 which is specified by the variables ispell-filter-hook and
2082 ispell-filter-hook-args, should output at most one word per line.
2083
2084 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
2085
2086 * the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.)
2087
2088 Cliff Stoll in his book `The Cuckoo's Egg' describes this in chapter 4.
2089 The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid root.
2090 Since `movemail' had not been designed for this situation, a security
2091 hole was created and users could get root privileges.
2092
2093 `movemail' has since been changed so that even if it is installed setuid
2094 root this security hole will not be a result.
2095
2096 I have heard unverified reports that the Internet worm took advantage of
2097 this configuration problem.
2098
2099 * the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.)
2100
2101 There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for
2102 variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text near
2103 the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to have
2104 arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited.
2105 Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this
2106 feature.
2107
2108 If you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value,
2109 Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file that
2110 you visit and ask you if you really want them. This variable is not
2111 mentioned in the manual.
2112
2113 It is wise to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs:
2114
2115 (setq inhibit-local-variables t)
2116
2117 If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in
2118 lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own .emacs
2119 file.
2120
2121 The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an RMAIL user
2122 was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that
2123 uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this.
2124
2125 For more information, see `File Variables' in the online manual (which,
2126 incidentally, does not describe how to disable the feature).
2127
2128 There is a new variable in Emacs 18.58 named ignore-local-eval which
2129 turns out to be useless as currently implemented. Ignore it.
2130
2131 * synthetic X events (Yes, a risk, use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.)
2132
2133 Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as
2134 though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the
2135 trivial host-based authentication, other users who can open X
2136 connections to your X workstation can make your Emacs process do
2137 anything, including run other processes with your privileges.
2138
2139 The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open
2140 X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real
2141 authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the
2142 `xauth' program has any effect, then you are probably using
2143 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication
2144 method; ask your system administrator.
2145
2146 If real authentication is not a possibility, you may be satisfied by
2147 just allowing hosts access for brief intervals while you start your X
2148 programs, then removing the access. This reduces the risk somewhat by
2149 narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but DOES
2150 NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK.
2151
2152 Lucid GNU Emacs does not accept synthetic X events unless you set a
2153 variable.
2154
2155 * autosave file permissions (Yes, a risk, hard to work around.)
2156
2157 The file permissions for autosave files are determined solely by the
2158 Emacs process's `umask' value. The permissions of the file being
2159 autosaved are not used. The easiest workaround is to keep sensitive
2160 files in protected directories. Sebastian Kremer has written an
2161 enhanced version of the autosave file name picking code that can avoid
2162 this problem by keeping autosave files in a protected directory. {FTP
2163 information please?} This problem will be fixed in Emacs 19.
2164
2165
2166
2167 Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
2168
2169 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
2170
2171 First look in the file etc/PROBLEMS to see if there is already a solution
2172 for your problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't
2173 find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
2174 bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help or
2175 e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines, see
2176 question 8.
2177
2178 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
2179
2180 Don't do that.
2181
2182 This problem has been reported on SGI Indigo machines running Irix 4.0.*
2183 and RS/6000 machines. Scott Henry <scotth@hoshi.corp.SGi.COM> posted a
2184 patch that fixes the problem for Irix.
2185
2186 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
2187
2188 Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library,
2189 libX11.a. This may be missing.
2190
2191 Under OpenWindows, you may need to use `add_services' to add the
2192 `OpenWindows Programmers' optional software category from the CD-ROM.
2193
2194 Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run `update' again to load the
2195 X11-PRG `fileset'. This may be missing even if you specified `all
2196 filesets' the first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load
2197 the `Berkeley Development Option' {???}.
2198
2199 If you are building the MIT X11 sources, you may need to modify your
2200 `site.cf' file to get static versions of the libraries. (Info from David
2201 Zuhn <zoo@cygnus.com>.)
2202
2203 Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define
2204 CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead.
2205
2206 To get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's
2207 liboldX.a.
2208
2209 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
2210
2211 I had hoped this question would go away after Emacs 18.57 was released,
2212 but people continue to compile 18.55. Easiest solution: upgrade.
2213
2214 This is a result of the SunOS localtime/tzsetwall malloc bug, which was
2215 (finally!) fixed in SunOS 4.1.2. If you actually need the full
2216 explanation, send me e-mail. If you absolutely must compile Emacs 18.55
2217 (eg., you are compiling Nemacs), the easiest workaround was to put
2218 `#define SYSTEM_MALLOC' in src/config.h.
2219
2220
2221
2222 GNU Emacs FAQ: Getting Emacs/Packages
2223
2224 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
2225 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
2226 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
2227
2228 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
2229 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
2230
2231 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
2232 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
2233 deletions occurred.
2234
2235 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
2236 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
2237 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
2238 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
2239
2240
2241
2242 Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
2243
2244 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
2245
2246 Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
2247 archive sites. If you don't already have GNU Emacs, see question 20
2248 for how to get these two files.
2249
2250 The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT:
2251
2252 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.59.tar.Z
2253
2254 See question 91.
2255
2256 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
2257
2258 A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code Directory, is being
2259 maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> and Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov>.
2260 You can search through this list to find if someone has written something
2261 that fits your needs.
2262
2263 This list is file LCD-datafile.Z in the Emacs Lisp Archive. (See
2264 question 89 for methods for getting this file.) The files lispdir.el.Z
2265 and lispdir.doc.Z in the archive contain information to help you use the
2266 list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then you can
2267 use the "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" command to look things up in the database.
2268 For example, the command "M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces
2269 this (outdated) output:
2270
2271 GNU Emacs Lisp Code Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
2272
2273 ange-ftp (3.112) 91-08-12
2274 Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
2275 archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:
2276 /pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/ange-ftp.el.Z
2277 transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs
2278
2279 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
2280
2281 First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you
2282 are looking for. (See question 88). Then check local archives and
2283 the Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. Then, if
2284 you still haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for
2285 a copy.
2286
2287 You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP:
2288
2289 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
2290
2291 Fetch the file README first.
2292
2293 NOTE: The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual
2294 requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If you
2295 cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to find a
2296 friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers.
2297
2298 NOTE: Any files with names ending in `.Z' are compressed, and you should
2299 use `binary' mode in FTP to retrieve them. You should also use binary
2300 mode whenever you retrieve any files with names ending in `.elc'.
2301
2302 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
2303
2304 Submissions should be mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu. The
2305 lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will help
2306 you with this. Mail messages (submissions) are automatically saved and
2307 periodically archived. Urgent mail may be sent directly to Dave Sill
2308 <de5@ornl.gov> or Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> or should contain the
2309 string `urgent' in the subject. The incoming ftp directory is no longer
2310 available at the request of Ohio State. {Is this still true?}
2311
2312 However, if someone has a submission with multiple files (which would be
2313 archived as a tar file) or binary files, then FTP transfer is preferred
2314 and can be arranged via an anonymous FTP site. This is faster than
2315 uudecoding, unsharing, etc., and re-packaging files.
2316
2317 Before submitting anything, please read the file guidelines.Z, which is
2318 available in the archive. Whenever possible, submissions should contain a
2319 complete LCD entry since this helps reduce administrative overhead for the
2320 maintainers. You can include an entry in this format:
2321
2322 ;; LCD Archive Entry:
2323 ;; package name|author's name|email address
2324 ;; |description
2325 ;; |date|version|archive path
2326
2327 For example:
2328
2329 ;; LCD Archive Entry:
2330 ;; tex-complete|Sebastian Kremer|sk@thp.Uni-Koeln.DE
2331 ;; |Minibuffer name completion for editing [La]TeX.
2332 ;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 1.5 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z !
2333
2334 Dave Brennan has software which automatically looks for data in this
2335 format. The format is fairly flexible. The entry ends when a line is
2336 reached with a different prefix or the seventh field terminator is
2337 seen.
2338
2339 If you are submitting a multi-file submission you should include a file
2340 named "LCD-entry" which contains the archive entry, instead of placing
2341 it in one or more of the individual files.
2342
2343 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
2344
2345 The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on prep.ai.mit.edu
2346 and is available for anonymous FTP in the pub/gnu directory. See the
2347 files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information. (To get copies of
2348 these files, see question 20.)
2349
2350 The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area:
2351
2352 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/
2353 /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/
2354 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/ (available via FTP, NIFTP, FTAM)
2355 /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/
2356 /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep/
2357 /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/
2358
2359 The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu,
2360 except that files larger than 1 megabyte {right?} are automatically
2361 split into multiple parts. If you have trouble transferring large
2362 files, you should try here. A file normally named `XXX' is split into
2363 files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], and there will be a file named
2364 XXX-split/README which contains the list of parts (especially helpful
2365 when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, and reassembly instructions.
2366 Some of the other mirror sites may have the same property. {Can someone
2367 check this out? Thanks!}
2368
2369 Information was provided by Lee McLoughlin <lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk>, Jonathan
2370 R. Ferro <jf41+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU>, Arjan de Vet <devet@win.tue.nl>, and
2371 Simon Marshall <S.Marshall@sequent.cc.hull.ac.uk>.
2372
2373 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
2374
2375 Emacs 18 has some limited X Window System support, but there are
2376 problems. Emacs 19 will have amazing mouse and window support. Right
2377 now, there are Epoch which is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58 and Lucid GNU
2378 Emacs which is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19,
2379 both of which have greatly improved mouse and window support. See
2380 questions 120 and 121.
2381
2382 The HP unofficial GNU Emacs also has nice mouse support. See question
2383 95.
2384
2385 There are numerous Emacs Lisp packages that have been written to extend
2386 Emacs 18's mouse handling capabilities. Some of these packages also have
2387 patches to the C code to provide enhanced capabilities. Look up `mouse'
2388 in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88).
2389
2390 There is a package called BAM (Born Again Menus) which provides menus for
2391 GNU Emacs via an external C program. It does not provide mouse support in
2392 the Emacs window such as scrollbars, cut-and-paste, etc.
2393
2394 NOTE: Epoch only works with the X Window System; it works on ordinary
2395 terminals by invoking regular GNU Emacs. Lucid Emacs does not currently
2396 work on ordinary terminals, although there are plans to fix this.
2397
2398 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
2399
2400 Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu> writes:
2401
2402 Epoch is GNU Emacs on steroids: an adaptation of GNU Emacs with lots of
2403 additional support for features made possible by the X11 windowing
2404 system. These features include multiple editing windows, arbitrary
2405 colors and fonts (fixed-width and proportional), selectable zones per
2406 buffer with arbitrary display styles (font, color, underline, stipple,
2407 pixmap), an optional separate minibuffer window, improved keyboard and
2408 mouse handling, full 8-bit character set support, and more.
2409
2410 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
2411
2412 This information is condensed from the release notice:
2413
2414 Lucid GNU Emacs is based on an early version of GNU Emacs version 19
2415 with many enhancements. It currently requires X Windows to run. For
2416 information on where to get Lucid GNU Emacs see 121. X Windows support
2417 is greatly enhanced over GNU Emacs version 18, including support for
2418 multiple X Windows (a.k.a. screens in Emacs), Zmacs/Lispm style region
2419 highlighting, a customizable, Motif-like menubar, more powerful keymap
2420 support (allowing different actions to be associated with Backspace,
2421 Control-h, etc.), flexible text attribute (e.g. font, color) support on
2422 regional and screen-local basis through X resources and/or lisp, and
2423 support for the X11 selection mechanism. Some other features include
2424 run-time computation of the load-path, support for floating point
2425 numbers, native timer support, and sound file support on Sun
2426 SPARCstations. To build Lucid GNU Emacs, an ANSI C compiler (e.g. gcc)
2427 is required.
2428
2429 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
2430
2431 The unofficial HP GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP:
2432
2433 /ee.utah.edu:HUGE/ (PLEASE FTP DURING NON-WORK HOURS!!!)
2434
2435 and takes about 35 megabytes of disk space to build. It is useful for
2436 non-HP machines, but some of the added features will only work under
2437 HP-UX.
2438
2439 You will need to get patches to work with HP-UX 8.0 or on 700 series
2440 machines via e-mail from Darryl Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com>.
2441
2442 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
2443
2444 * Demacs
2445
2446 For 386 or 486 PCs running MS-DOS, there is a version of GNU Emacs
2447 called Demacs. To get Demacs see question 122.
2448
2449 From the announcement message:
2450
2451 Demacs is almost a full set of GNU Emacs but does not support some
2452 features: asynchronous process, locking a file, etc.
2453
2454 Demacs provides following DOS specific features:
2455
2456 * File type: text or binary file translation.
2457 * "8-bit clean" display mode.
2458 * 8086 software interrupt call by int86 lisp function.
2459 * Machine specific features such as function key support.
2460 * File name completion with drive name.
2461 * Child process (suspend-emacs, call-process).
2462 * Enhanced dired mode which can work without 'ls.exe'.
2463
2464 To our regret `shell-mode' does not work, but `compile' command works
2465 properly.
2466
2467 Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by
2468 D. J. Delorie <dj@ctron.com> which can compile and run large programs
2469 under MS-DOS, but not under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs
2470 rather than straight from GNU Emacs.
2471
2472 There are a variety of other Emacses for MS-DOS including among them the
2473 following.
2474
2475 * Freemacs
2476
2477 Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, the author, describes
2478 Freemacs:
2479
2480 * Freemacs is free, and it was designed from the start to be
2481 programmable.
2482 * Freemacs is the only IBM-PC editor that tries to be like GNU Emacs.
2483 * Freemacs can only edit files less than 64K in length.
2484 * Freemacs doesn't have undo.
2485
2486 Carl Witty <cwitty@cs.stanford.edu> reviews Freemacs:
2487
2488 Better is Freemacs, which follows the tradition of ITS and GNU Emacs
2489 by having an full, turing-complete extension language which is
2490 incompatible with everything else. In fact, it's even closer to ITS
2491 Emacs than GNU Emacs is, because Mint (Freemacs' extension language)
2492 is absolutely illegible without weeks of study, much like TECO.
2493
2494 To get Freemacs see question 123.
2495
2496 * MicroEmacs
2497
2498 MicroEmacs is a descendant of Microemacs {originally by Dave Conroy?}.
2499 It is programmable in a BASIC-like language. Many of the keybindings
2500 are different from GNU Emacs. The author is Daniel Lawrence -
2501 <dan@mdbs.uucp, mdbs!dan@ee.ecn.purdue.edu>. The latest version is 3.12 !
2502 and it is available via anonymous FTP:
2503
2504 /midas.mgmt.purdue.edu:dist/uemacs312/ (outside business hours) !
2505 !
2506 Version 3.12 includes Windows and Windows NT versions and a DOS !
2507 protected mode (DMPI) version. !
2508
2509 * JOVE
2510
2511 Another Emacs for small machines is JOVE (Jonathan's Own Version of
2512 Emacs). The latest official version is 4.14. There appears to be a
2513 newer version. People rumored to be working on JOVE include Mark Moraes
2514 <moraes@cs.toronto.edu> and Bill Marsh <bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil>. It is
2515 available via anonymous FTP:
2516
2517 /cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.7.tar.Z
2518
2519 * MG
2520
2521 MG is another descendant of Microemacs. MG used to stand for
2522 MicroGNUEmacs, but now just stands for MG. The look-and-feel of MG is
2523 intended to be close to that of GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MG can
2524 not correctly edit files larger than memory. The current version is
2525 rumored to be 2. There is a version 3 in beta which works on the Amiga.
2526 It is also available via anonymous FTP:
2527
2528 /ftp.white.toronto.edu:pub/mg/
2529 /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/unix-c/editors/
2530 /procyon.cis.ksu.edu: (source and executable)
2531
2532 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
2533
2534 I believe that no version of GNU Emacs runs under Windows. Pierre Perret
2535 <pap@myths.az05.bull.com> has ported MicroEMACS 3.11c to Windows.
2536
2537 Anonymous FTP:
2538 /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10.zip
2539 /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10s.zip
2540 /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewri.zip
2541
2542 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
2543
2544 From the OS/2 Programmer's FAQ:
2545
2546 GNU Emacs 18.58 is available. It requires you to have EMX installed
2547 on your machine, but it comes with all the EMX files you will need.
2548 Emacs is available on ftp-os2 in /pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs. (If you want
2549 to recompile emacs, you will need the full EMX distribution see
2550 question 1.2.)
2551
2552 The above quote may be out of date. See the latest OS/2 Programmer's FAQ
2553 {perhaps in comp.os.os2.misc?} for the latest news. Anonymous FTP info:
2554
2555 /ftp-os2.nmsu.edu:pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs/
2556 ("ftp-os2" was formerly named "hobbes")
2557
2558 Thanks go to Stephen Simpson <simpson@symcom.math.uiuc.edu>, Jonathan
2559 Miller <jem+@andrew.cmu.edu>, Terry Kane <terryk@cc.gatech.edu>, J. D.
2560 Baldwin <baldwin@csservera.usna.navy.mil>, and Ken Bass
2561 <kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>.
2562
2563 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
2564
2565 Emacs 18.57 is the latest version for TOS. Stefan Mueller-Pfeiffer
2566 <iff327@zam001.zam.kfa-juelich.de> says:
2567
2568 There is also a version for MiNT, the multitasking enhancement for
2569 ATARI's TOS, which behaves almost like EMACS on a "real computer". This
2570 port was done by Erling Henanger <erlingh@idt.unit.no>.
2571
2572 Anonymous FTP:
2573 /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/gnustuff/tos/ (TOS Emacs 18.57)
2574 /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/new/mntemacs.zoo (MiNT Emacs)
2575 /cs.uni-sb.de:/pub/atari/emacs/
2576
2577 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
2578
2579 All of the files are lharc-ed.
2580
2581 Anonymous FTP:
2582 /oes.orst.edu:/pub/almanac/comp/amiga/software/gnuemacs-1.10/
2583
2584 Via e-mail:
2585 To: almanac@oes.orst.edu
2586 body:
2587 mode uuencode
2588 send computer amiga software gnuemacs <file>
2589 <file> is replaced by one of the following:
2590 Required: d1.lzh d2.lzh
2591 Recommended: d3_info.lzh d3_infolisp.lzh
2592 Optional: d3_autoloaded.lzh d3_entertainmentetc.lzh
2593 d3_entertainmentlisp.lzh d4_src.lzh d5_languagelisp.lzh
2594 d5_viclone.lzh d6_gnulibsrc.lzh d6_mailpackage.lzh
2595 d6_mathpackage.lzh d6_misc.lzh d6_textformat.lzh
2596 The `d#' at the beginning of each file is its disk number, which is
2597 referred to by the documentation.
2598
2599 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
2600
2601 The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look
2602 and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details.
2603 Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software
2604 for Apple computers such as the Macintosh.
2605
2606 Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers.
2607
2608 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
2609
2610 Chris Maio's NeWS support package for GNU Emacs is available via anonymous
2611 FTP:
2612
2613 /columbia.edu:pub/ps-emacs.tar.Z
2614 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ps-emacs.tar.Z
2615
2616 and via e-mail:
2617
2618 To: archive-server@columbia.edu
2619 body: send NeWS emacs-support
2620
2621 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
2622
2623 Hal R. Brand <BRAND@addvax.llnl.gov> is said to have a VMS save set with a
2624 ready-to-run VMS version of Emacs 18.55 for X Windows. It is available
2625 via anonymous FTP (addvax.llnl.gov). It is possible that the VMS versions
2626 of Emacs at other sites have X support compiled in. See etc/FTP for
2627 locations.
2628
2629 Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> writes:
2630
2631 Getting Emacs to run on VMS with DECwindows requires a number of changes
2632 to the sources. Fortunately this has been done already. Joshua Marantz
2633 <josh@viewlogic.com> did most of the work for Emacs 18.52, and the mods
2634 were ported to 18.55 by Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl>. Also included is the
2635 handling of DEC's LK201 keyboard. You need to apply the changes to a
2636 fresh Emacs 18.55 distribution on a Unix system, and then you can copy
2637 the sources to VMS to perform the compile/link/build.
2638
2639 The set of changes have been posted a number of times three times the
2640 last 12 months, so they should be widely available.
2641
2642 Richard Levitte <levitte@e.kth.se> tells us that there are patches for
2643 Emacs 18.57, 18.58, and 18.59 available via e-mail: !
2644
2645 To: EMACS-FILESERV@e.kth.se !
2646 body: SEND EMACS-1857-PATCHES
2647 or: SEND EMACS-1858-PATCHES
2648 or: SEND EMACS-1859-PATCHES +
2649 +
2650 or via anonymous ftp at: +
2651 +
2652 /lucy.merrimack.edu:emacs-1859-patches.share +
2653 +
2654 The set of patches weighs in at around 2.7 MB. +
2655
2656 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
2657 Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
2658
2659 As usual, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88). For C++,
2660 if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like this:
2661
2662 M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET
2663
2664 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
2665
2666 If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know
2667 the IP address of a host to FTP files from it. You can get this
2668 information in two ways:
2669
2670 * By telnet:
2671
2672 telnet nic.ddn.mil hostnames (or `telnet 192.112.36.5 101')
2673 hname XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2674
2675 * By e-mail:
2676
2677 To: service@nic.ddn.mil
2678 Subject: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2679 or: whois XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2680 or: help
2681
2682 or:
2683
2684 To: resolve@cs.widener.edu
2685 body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2686
2687 Information from Brendan Kehoe <brendan@cs.widener.edu>.
2688
2689
2690
2691
2692 Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
2693
2694 This section lists version numbers, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups,
2695 and other information for many important packages, extensions, and related
2696 programs. There is some overlap with the Lisp Code Directory, but these
2697 entries give more detailed information.
2698
2699 If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they
2700 deserve to be mentioned here, please tell me. Having its own mailing list
2701 or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good signs.
2702
2703 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
2704
2705 Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net>
2706 Latest released version: 4.41
2707 Beta test version: 5.32
2708 Anonymous FTP:
2709 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/vm-4.41.tar.Z
2710 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/timer.shar.Z
2711 /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-4.41.tar.Z
2712 /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-5.32beta.tar.Z
2713 Newsgroups and mailing lists:
2714 Info-VM:
2715 gnu.emacs.vm.info
2716 info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
2717 info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
2718 Bug-VM:
2719 gnu.emacs.vm.bug
2720 bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
2721 bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
2722
2723 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
2724
2725 Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com>
2726 Mailing list: supercite-request@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for subscriptions)
2727 supercite@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for submissions)
2728 Latest version: 2.3 !
2729 Anonymous FTP:
2730 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/sc-2.3.tar.Z !
2731 /ftp.cme.nist.gov:pub/gnu/sc2.3.tar.Z !
2732 Via e-mail:
2733 To: library@cme.nist.gov
2734 Subject: help
2735 NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite.
2736
2737 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
2738
2739 Author: Masanobu Umeda <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp>
2740 Latest official version: 3.13
2741 Unofficial test version: 3.14.1
2742 Anonymous FTP:
2743 /aun.uninett.no:pub/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z -
2744 /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/GNU/etc/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
2745 /liasun3.epfl.ch:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
2746 /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
2747 /funet.fi:/networking/news/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
2748 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu/EmacsBits/gnus/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
2749 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-3.13.tar.Z
2750 Newsgroups and mailing lists:
2751 English-only:
2752 gnu.emacs.gnus
2753 info-gnus-english-request@cis.ohio-state.edu (for subscriptions)
2754 info-gnus-english@cis.ohio-state.edu (for submissions)
2755 Japanese (and some English):
2756 info-gnus-request@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for subscriptions)
2757 info-gnus@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for submissions)
2758
2759 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
2760
2761 Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu>
2762 Latest released version: 2.02
2763 Anonymous FTP:
2764 /csvax.cs.caltech.edu:pub/calc-2.02.tar.Z
2765 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02.tar.Z
2766 NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue anyone
2767 for having a program with a similar command language to Calc. :-)
2768
2769 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
2770
2771 Author: Edward M. Reingold <reingold@cs.uiuc.edu>
2772 Latest version: 4.02
2773 Anonymous FTP:
2774 /emr.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/emacs/calendar {???}
2775 Via e-mail:
2776 To: reingold@cs.uiuc.edu
2777 Subject: send-emacs-cal
2778 Put your best internet e-mail address in the body.
2779
2780 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
2781
2782 Author: Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
2783 Latest official version: 4.20
2784 Anonymous FTP:
2785 /alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu:ange-ftp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
2786 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z
2787 /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
2788 Mailing lists:
2789 ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for subscriptions)
2790 Ange-FTP Lovers:
2791 ange-ftp-lovers@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for submissions)
2792 /ftp.reed.edu:pub/mailing-lists/ange-ftp/ (archives)
2793 Ange-FTP Announcements:
2794 ange-ftp-lovers-announce@anorman.hpl.hp.com
2795 NOTE: now with support for accessing VMS, CMS, and MTS systems
2796
2797 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
2798
2799 Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu>
2800 Latest released version: 4.3
2801 Anonymous FTP:
2802 /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z
2803 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z
2804 NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one
2805 distributed with Emacs.
2806
2807 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
2808
2809 Author: Sebastian Kremer <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de>
2810 Latest released version: 5.239
2811 Anonymous FTP: /ftp.cs.buffalo.edu:pub/Emacs/diredall.tar.Z
2812 /ftp.uni-koeln.de:pub/gnu/emacs/diredall.tar.Z
2813 NOTE: This is a huge improvement over the Dired distributed with Emacs.
2814 This version will be in Emacs 19.
2815
2816 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
2817
2818 Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk>
2819 Latest released version: 6.1 {???}
2820 Anonymous FTP:
2821 /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex_6_1d.tar.Z
2822 /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex.tar.Z
2823 Mailing list:
2824 auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions)
2825 auc-tex@iesd.auc.dk (for submissions)
2826 auc-tex_mgr@iesd.auc.dk (auc-tex development team)
2827
2828 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
2829
2830 Author: Bob Weiner <rsw@cs.brown.edu>
2831 Anonymous FTP:
2832 /wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/ h*.tar.Z
2833 Mailing lists:
2834 hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only.
2835 Subscriptions:
2836 To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
2837 Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole-announce
2838 hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion.
2839 Subscriptions:
2840 To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
2841 Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole
2842 Submissions:
2843 hyperbole@cs.brown.edu
2844 NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a
2845 member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list.
2846 NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists.
2847
2848 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
2849
2850 Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>,
2851 Hallvard B. Furuseth <hallvard@ifi.uio.no>
2852 Anonymous FTP:
2853 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
2854 /ftp.uu.net:languages/elisp/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
2855 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
2856
2857 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
2858
2859 Author: Olin Shivers <Olin.Shivers@cs.cmu.edu>
2860 Anonymous FTP:
2861 /cs.cmu.edu:/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/shivers/lib/emacs/
2862 {comint,cmu{tex,shell,scheme,lisp},ml}.el
2863 (anonymous password must contain `@',
2864 cannot cd to intermediate directories)
2865
2866 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
2867
2868 Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
2869 Latest released version: 1.47
2870 Anonymous FTP:
2871 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bbdb.tar.Z
2872 Mailing list:
2873 info-bbdb-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
2874 info-bbdb@lucid.com
2875 bbdb-announce-request@lucid.com (to be informed of new releases)
2876 Note: BBDB does not work with VM 4. It does work with VM 5, RMAIL, GNUS,
2877 and MH-E.
2878
2879 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
2880
2881 Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com>
2882 Latest released version: 2.0.02
2883 Beta test version: 3.0 (9 patches)
2884 Anonymous FTP:
2885 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/ispell/ (version 2.0.02)
2886 /ftp.cs.ucla.edu:/pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries)
2887 /argus.math.orst.edu:pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries)
2888 /ftp.th-darmstadt.de:pub/dicts/ispell/ (mirror of argus)
2889 NOTE: Do not send mail to Geoff asking him to send you the latest
2890 version of Ispell. He does not have free e-mail.
2891
2892 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
2893
2894 Latest released version: 4.2
2895 Anonymous FTP:
2896 /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-4.2.tar.Z
2897 /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-diff-4.1-4.2.tar.Z
2898 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/epoch/
2899 /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:gnu/emacs/epoch/
2900 Newsgroup and mailing lists:
2901 Epoch:
2902 gnu.emacs.epoch
2903 epoch-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
2904 epoch@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
2905 Epoch-Design:
2906 epoch-design-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
2907 epoch-design@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
2908 FAQ list:
2909 Maintainer: Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
2910 Anonymous FTP:
2911 /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/epoch-faq
2912 /ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:outgoing/marca/epoch/Epoch.FAQ
2913
2914 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
2915
2916 Primary Maintainer: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
2917 Other Developers: Eric Benson <eb@lucid.com>
2918 Matthieu Devin <devin@lucid.com>
2919 Harlan Sexton <hbs@lucid.com>
2920 Latest released version: 19.6 !
2921 Anonymous FTP:
2922 /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.6.tar.Z (source) !
2923 /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.6-sun4.tar.Z (Sun4binaries) !
2924 Newsgroup and mailing lists:
2925 Bugs:
2926 alt.lucid-emacs.bug +
2927 bug-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
2928 bug-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions)
2929 Help:
2930 alt.lucid-emacs.help +
2931 help-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
2932 help-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions)
2933
2934 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
2935
2936 Authors: Manabu Higashida <manabu@sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp>
2937 HIRANO Satoshi <hirano@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
2938 Latest released version: 1.2.0
2939 Anonymous FTP:
2940 /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:GNU/demacs/ (nearest to U.S.A.)
2941 /ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp:pub/Msdos/Demacs/
2942 /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/msdos/Demacs/
2943 /ftp.3com.com:pub/gnu/msdos/demacs/
2944 /mindseye.berkeley.edu:pub/kanji/demacs/
2945 /ftp.hawaii.edu:pub/editors/demacs.tar.Z
2946 /ftp.math.ksu.edu:pub/pc/demacs/
2947 /wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:pd1:<msdos.demacs> {ange-ftp syntax?}
2948 /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120e.zip (executables, lisp-code, doc)
2949 (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!)
2950 /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120s.zip (sources, diffs)
2951 (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!)
2952 /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/msdos/gnu/emacs/
2953 /mizar.docs.uu.se:pub/gnu/demacs/
2954 /iamsun.unibe.ch:PC/demacs/
2955 /flop.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:outgoing/demacs.tar
2956 /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/demacs/
2957 /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120e.zip
2958 /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120s.zip
2959 /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/demacs/
2960 /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/Demacs/
2961 {Does anyone know which sites have the Kanji version?}
2962 Via e-mail:
2963 From garbo.uwasa.fi:
2964 To: mailserv@garbo.uwasa.fi
2965 Subject: garbo-request
2966 Body: send pc/editor/dem120e.zip
2967 send pc/editor/dem120s.zip
2968 quit
2969 Downloading:
2970 EXEC-PC (Milwaukee, WI) 414-789-4210 (2400 bps)
2971 in the Mahoney MS-DOS file area in its Editors/wordprocessors
2972 library (F), named GNUEMACS.ZIP
2973 Channel 1 (Cambridge, MA) 617-345-8873 (9600 bps)
2974 in the New Uploads file area, named GNUEMACS.ZIP
2975 NOTE: Use the -d option of [pk]unzip for all .zip archives. Some sites
2976 have Demacs lharc'ed. If you need to find programs to unpack lharc and
2977 zip format archives, Chris Dean <ctdean@talaris.com> points out that you
2978 should see the comp.compression FAQ, available for FTP:
2979 /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/comp.compression/
2980 Mailing list:
2981 NOTE: There is no mailing list for Demacs. However, there is a list
2982 for DJGPP, which is the environment that Demacs runs in. Many
2983 Demacs problems are actually issues with DJGPP.
2984 DJGPP:
2985 Subscriptions:
2986 To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
2987 body: add <your-address> djgpp
2988 or put `help' in the body.
2989 If this fails, mail to djgpp-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu.
2990 Submissions:
2991 djgpp@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
2992 FAQ list:
2993 Maintainer: Dave Steibel <steibel@cs.umbc.edu>
2994 Anonymous FTP: algol.cs.umbc.edu:pub/demacs/demacs.faq
2995
2996 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
2997
2998 Author: Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
2999 Latest released version: 1.6a
3000 Anonymous FTP:
3001 /simtel20.army.mil:PD:<MSDOS.FREEMACS> {ange-ftp syntax?}
3002 /grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:pub/msdos/freemacs/
3003 Via e-mail:
3004 To: archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3005 body: help
3006 Via snail mail:
3007 address: Russell Nelson, 11 Grant St., Potsdam, NY 13676
3008 Send $15 copying fee, and specify preferred floppy disk format:
3009 5.25", 360K, or 3.50", 720K
3010 Mailing lists:
3011 Subscriptions:
3012 To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3013 body: add <your-address> <name-of-list>
3014 or put `help' in the body.
3015 List distribution addresses:
3016 freemacs-announce@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3017 freemacs-help@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3018 freemacs-workers@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (send bug reports here)
3019
3020 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
3021
3022 Author: Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
3023 Latest version: 2.0 patchlevel 12u8
3024 (This is the version that supports the new unified diff format.)
3025 Anonymous FTP:
3026 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12u8.tar.Z
3027 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12g8.tar.Z (GNU version)
3028
3029
3030
3031 GNU Emacs FAQ: Keybindings/Output
3032
3033 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
3034 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
3035 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
3036
3037 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
3038 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
3039
3040 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
3041 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
3042 deletions occurred.
3043
3044 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
3045 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
3046 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
3047 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
3048
3049
3050
3051 Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
3052
3053 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
3054
3055 1. Find out what character sequence is generated by the keystroke sequence
3056 you wish to bind to a command. See question 129 for how to do this.
3057 Keep in mind that the character sequences generated by a keystroke
3058 sequence varies from one terminal to another. You may also get
3059 different results depending on what type of machine you are running on
3060 (see question 128). For example, these keystrokes may generate these
3061 character sequences:
3062
3063 F1 ---> ESC [ 2 2 4 z
3064 Shift-R10 ---> ESC O t
3065 L7 ---> ESC [ 3 1 ~
3066 Remove ---> C-@
3067
3068 2. Figure out what the Emacs Lisp syntax is for this character sequence.
3069 Inside an Emacs Lisp string, RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, SPC, and TAB are
3070 specified with `\r', `\n', `\C-?', `\e', ` ', and `\t'. C-x is
3071 specified by `\C-x'. M-x is specified the same was as "ESC x".
3072 (Control characters may also be specified as themselves, but I don't
3073 recommend it.) An Emacs Lisp string begins and ends with the double
3074 quote character, `"'. Here are some examples:
3075
3076 ESC [ D ---> "\e[D"
3077 ESC [ 2 2 7 z ---> "\e[227z"
3078 ESC [ 1 8 ~ ---> "\e[18~"
3079 C-M-r ---> "\e\C-r"
3080
3081 3. If some prefix of the character sequence is already bound, you must
3082 unbind it by binding it to `nil'. For example:
3083
3084 (global-set-key "\e[" nil)
3085
3086 4. Pick a command to bind your key sequence to. A command can be a
3087 "symbol" with a function definition, or a "lambda list", or a string
3088 (which is treated as a macro). For example:
3089
3090 (global-set-key "\e[D" 'backward-char)
3091 (global-set-key "\e[227~" "\exgoto-line\r") ; macro
3092
3093 See `Key Bindings' and `Rebinding' in the online manual.
3094
3095 In Emacs 19 (including Lucid Emacs), you can bind function key F24 like
3096 this:
3097
3098 (global-set-key 'f24 'some-command)
3099
3100 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
3101
3102 A prefix of the character sequence you were trying to bind was already
3103 bound. Usually, the sequence is "ESC [", in which case you should
3104 evaluate this form first:
3105
3106 (define-key esc-map "[" nil)
3107
3108 NOTE: By default, "ESC [" is bound to backward-paragraph, and if you do
3109 this you will lose this key binding. For most people, this is not a
3110 problem.
3111
3112 See question 125.
3113
3114 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
3115 .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
3116
3117 This is because you're trying to do something in your .emacs file that
3118 needs to be postponed until after the terminal/window-system setup code
3119 is loaded. This is a result of the order in which things are done
3120 during the startup of Emacs. For more details see question 135.
3121
3122 In order to postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after the
3123 terminal/window-system setup, set the value of the variable
3124 term-setup-hook or window-setup-hook to be a function which does what
3125 you want.
3126
3127 See etc/OPTIONS for a complete explanation of what Emacs does every time
3128 it is started.
3129
3130 Here is a simple example of how to set term-setup-hook:
3131
3132 (setq term-setup-hook
3133 (function
3134 (lambda ()
3135 (cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3136 ;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x:
3137 (define-key CSI-map "29~" 'execute-extended-command))
3138 ))))
3139
3140 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
3141
3142 This depends on whether you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator
3143 window, or whether you are allowing Emacs to create its own X window.
3144 You can tell which you are doing by noticing whether Emacs creates a new
3145 window when you start it.
3146
3147 If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window, then it
3148 behaves exactly as it does on any other tty. In this case, for function
3149 keys to be useful, they must generate character sequences that are sent
3150 to the programs running inside the window as input. The `xterm' program
3151 has two different sets of character sequences that it generates when
3152 function keys are pressed, depending on the sunFunctionKeys X resource
3153 and the -sf and +sf command line options. (To find out what these key
3154 sequences are, see question 129.) In addition, with xterm,
3155 you can override what key sequence a specific function key (or any other
3156 key) will generate with the `translations' resource. This, for example:
3157
3158 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
3159 <KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
3160
3161 makes the function key F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [xyzzy".
3162
3163 On the other hand, if Emacs is managing its own X window, the following
3164 description applies. Emacs receives `KeyPress' events from the X server
3165 when a key is pressed while the keyboard focus is in its window. The
3166 KeyPress event contains an X "keysym" code, which is simply an arbitrary
3167 number corresponding to the name of the keysym, and information on which
3168 "modifiers" such as `control' and `shift' are active. For example, the
3169 `Tab' keysym is 0xff09. (Generally, a key on the keyboard will generate a
3170 keysym whose name is the same as the label on the key, ie. the `Tab' key
3171 will normally generate the `Tab' keysym. This can be changed with the
3172 xmodmap program.) Emacs recognizes all the keysyms that correspond to
3173 standard ASCII characters and internally uses the ASCII character instead.
3174
3175 (WARNING: I am about to describe a gross, disgusting hack to you, have
3176 your barf bag ready.)
3177
3178 When Emacs receives the X keysym of one of the arrow keys, it behaves
3179 the same as if it had received a letter key with the control modifier
3180 down as follows (this is hard-coded):
3181
3182 Up becomes C-p
3183 Down becomes C-n
3184 Right becomes C-f
3185 Left becomes C-b
3186
3187 The way Emacs treats other keysyms depends on what kind of machine it was
3188 compiled on. The type of the display machine is irrelevant! Function
3189 keys are mapped internally to escape sequences, while other keys are
3190 completely ignored.
3191
3192 1. If compiled on a Sun, Emacs recognizes these X keysyms that
3193 are normally on a Sun keyboard:
3194
3195 F1 through F9
3196 L1 through L10 (same as F11 through F20)
3197 R1 through R15 (same as F21 through F35)
3198 (The keys labelled R8, R10, R12, and R14 usually are mapped to the
3199 X keysyms Up, Left, Right, and Down.)
3200 Break (the `Alternate' key is given this keysym)
3201
3202 These keys work like Sun function keys. When Emacs receives the
3203 keysym, it will internally use character sequences that look like "ESC
3204 [ ### z", where ### is replaced by a number. The character sequences
3205 are identical to those generated by Sun's keyboard under SunView. Any
3206 function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 z".
3207
3208 In order to use these key sequences, they should be bound to commands
3209 using the standard key binding methods, just as if Emacs were running
3210 on a regular terminal.
3211
3212 WARNING: F11 and L1 are the same keysym in X, as are F12 and L2, etc.
3213 {Yes, this is stupid. Complain to the X consortium.}
3214
3215 2. If not compiled on a Sun, the function keys will appear to Emacs in a
3216 way remarkably similar to the keys of a DEC LK201 keyboard (used on
3217 some VT series terminals). These X keysyms will be recognized:
3218
3219 F1 through F20
3220 Help (treated same as F15)
3221 Menu (treated same as F16, is the LK201 `Do' key)
3222 Find
3223 Insert (LK201 `Insert Here' key)
3224 Select
3225 Prior (LK201 `Prev Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
3226 Next (LK201 `Next Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
3227
3228 And finally, the LK201 key labelled `Remove' (or `Delete') is often
3229 mapped to the Delete keysym which generates the DEL character (C-?)
3230 instead of the key sequence given by the LK201 `Remove' key. It may
3231 also be mapped to some other keysym, such as `_Remove', in which case
3232 you can't use it from within Emacs at all.
3233
3234 Each function key will be internally converted to a character sequence
3235 that looks like "ESC [ ## ~", where ## is replaced by a number. The
3236 character sequences are identical to those generated by a LK201
3237 keyboard. Any function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 ~".
3238
3239 For the complete list of the numbers which are generated by the function
3240 keys, look in the file src/x11term.c at the definitions of the function
3241 stringFuncVal.
3242
3243 If you are running Emacs on a Sun machine, even if your X display is
3244 running on a non-Sun machine (eg., an X terminal), you get the setup
3245 described above for Suns. The determining factor is what type of
3246 machine Emacs is running (was compiled) on, not what type of machine
3247 your X display is on.
3248
3249 If you have function keys not listed above on your keyboard, you can use
3250 `xmodmap' to change their keysym assignments to get keys that Emacs will
3251 recognize, but that may screw up other programs.
3252
3253 X resources are not used by Emacs to affect the key sequences generated.
3254 In particular, there are no X key "translations" for Emacs.
3255
3256 If you have function keys not listed above and you don't want to use
3257 xmodmap to change their names, you might want to make a modification to
3258 your Emacs. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has made available a patch for Emacs
3259 that adds the x-rebind-key function of Epoch to Emacs 18.58. This allows
3260 another layer of key rebinding before Emacs even sees the keys, and in
3261 this layer you can rebind all of the keys and modifier combinations as
3262 well.
3263
3264 Anonymous FTP:
3265 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z
3266 /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun
3267
3268 Johan Vromans explains what this buys for you:
3269
3270 After implementing this, all keyboard keys can be configured to send
3271 user definable sequences, eg.,
3272
3273 (x-rebind-key "KP_F1" 0 "\033OP")
3274
3275 This will have the keypad key PF1 send the sequence "ESC O P", just like
3276 an ordinary VT series terminal.
3277
3278 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
3279
3280 Use this function by Randal L. Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.com>:
3281
3282 (defun see-chars ()
3283 "Displays characters typed, terminated by a 3-second timeout."
3284 (interactive)
3285 (let ((chars "")
3286 (inhibit-quit t))
3287 (message "Enter characters, terminated by 3-second timeout.")
3288 (while (not (sit-for 3))
3289 (setq chars (concat chars (list (read-char)))
3290 quit-flag nil)) ; quit-flag maybe set by C-g
3291 (message "Characters entered: %s" (key-description chars))))
3292
3293 Alternatively, use the "C-h l" view-lossage command, which will display
3294 the last 100 characters Emacs has seen in its input stream. Kevin
3295 Gallagher <kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org> suggests typing some unique string
3296 like "wxyz", typing the key in question, then typing "C-h l". The
3297 characters that appear between "wxyz" and "C-h l" were generated by the
3298 key.
3299
3300 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
3301
3302 Sorry, you can't; there are no "translations" to be set. Emacs is not
3303 written using the Xt library. The only way to affect the behavior of keys
3304 within Emacs is through `xmodmap' (outside Emacs) or `define-key' (inside
3305 Emacs).
3306
3307 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
3308
3309 C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This screws
3310 up Emacs because it binds these characters to commands. Also, by default
3311 Emacs will not honor them as flow control characters and may overwhelm
3312 output buffers. Sometimes, intermediate software using XON/XOFF flow
3313 control will prevent Emacs from ever seeing C-s and C-q.
3314
3315 Possible solutions:
3316
3317 * Disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control.
3318
3319 You need to determine what is the cause of the flow control.
3320
3321 * your terminal
3322
3323 Your terminal may use XON/XOFF flow control to have time to display
3324 all the characters it receives. For example, VT series terminals do
3325 this. It may be possible to turn this off from a setup menu. For
3326 example, on a VT220 you may select `No XOFF' in the setup menu. This
3327 is also true for some terminal emulation programs on PCs.
3328
3329 When you turn off flow control at the terminal, you will also need to
3330 turn it off at the other end, which might be at the computer you are
3331 logged in to or at some terminal server in between.
3332
3333 If you turn off flow control, characters may be lost; using a printer
3334 connected to the terminal may fail. You may be able to get around
3335 this problem by modifying the `termcap' entry for your terminal to
3336 include extra NUL padding characters.
3337
3338 * a modem
3339
3340 If you are using a dialup connection, the modems may be using XON/XOFF
3341 flow control. I don't know how to get around this.
3342
3343 * a router or terminal server
3344
3345 Some network box between the terminal and your computer may be using
3346 XON/XOFF flow control. It may be possible to make it use some other
3347 kind of flow control. You will probably have to ask your local
3348 network experts for help with this.
3349
3350 * tty and/or pty devices
3351
3352 If your connection to Emacs goes through multiple tty and/or pty
3353 devices, they may be using XON/XOFF flow control even when it is not
3354 necessary.
3355
3356 Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> writes:
3357
3358 Some versions of `rlogin' (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
3359 control characters to the remote system to which they connect. On
3360 such systems, Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow control
3361 on the local system. Sometimes `rlogin -8' will avoid this problem.
3362
3363 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
3364 (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the stty
3365 command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, `stty
3366 start u stop u' will do this.
3367
3368 Some versions of `tcsh' will prevent even this from working. One
3369 way around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin,
3370 and issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
3371
3372 Use `stty -ixon' instead of `stty start u stop u' on some systems.
3373
3374 * Make Emacs speak the XON/XOFF flow control protocol.
3375
3376 You can make Emacs treat C-s and C-q as flow control characters by
3377 evaluating this form:
3378
3379 (set-input-mode nil t)
3380
3381 If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs
3382 file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to
3383 put it is unclear. I don't know if this has any effect when used in
3384 lisp/site-init.el when building Emacs; I've never tried that. {Can
3385 someone tell me whether it works?} Putting things in users' .emacs files
3386 has a number of problems.
3387
3388 Putting this form in lisp/default.el has the problem that if the user's
3389 .emacs file has an error, this will prevent lisp/default.el from being
3390 loaded and Emacs may be unusable for the user, even for correcting their
3391 .emacs file (unless they're smart enough to move it to another name). A
3392 possible solution is to initially disable C-s and C-q by setting
3393 keyboard-translate-table in lisp/site-init.el, either with swap-keys
3394 (see question 136) or with the following form:
3395
3396 ;; by Roger Crew <crew@cs.stanford.edu>:
3397 (setq keyboard-translate-table
3398 "\C-@\C-a\C-b\C-c\C-d\C-e\C-f\C-g\C-h\C-i\C-j\C-k\C-l\C-m\C-n\C-o\C-p\C-^\C-r\C-\\\C-t\C-u\C-v\C-w\C-x\C-y\C-z\C-[\C-s\C-]\C-q\C-_")
3399
3400 This will at least prevent Emacs from being confused by the flow control
3401 characters, even if lisp/default.el cannot be loaded. Then, in
3402 lisp/default.el, enable XON/XOFF flow control with set-input-mode.
3403
3404 For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS in the
3405 Emacs distribution.
3406
3407 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
3408 are filtered out?
3409
3410 I suggest swapping C-s with C-\ and C-q with C-^:
3411
3412 (swap-keys ?\C-s ?\C-\\)
3413 (swap-keys ?\C-q ?\C-^)
3414
3415 See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys. This method
3416 has the advantage that it simultaneously swaps the characters everywhere
3417 throughout Emacs, while just switching the keybindings will miss important
3418 places where the character codes are stored (eg., the search-repeat-char
3419 variable, major mode keymaps, etc.).
3420
3421 To do this for an entire site, you may want to swap the keys in
3422 lisp/default.el. If only some of your users are connecting through
3423 XON/XOFF flow-controlled connections, you will want to do this
3424 conditionally. I suggest pre-swapping them in lisp/site-init.el when
3425 Emacs is built, and then in lisp/default.el, if it is determined to be
3426 safe, they can be reenabled (being careful not to screw up any other key
3427 mappings users might have established using keyboard-translate-table).
3428 See question 131 for an easy way to pre-swap these keys.
3429
3430 WARNING: If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by
3431 the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs actually
3432 behaves.
3433
3434 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
3435
3436 The BackSpace key (on every keyboard I've used) generates ASCII code 8.
3437 C-h sends the same code. In Emacs by default C-h invokes help-command.
3438 This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of "help"
3439 is "h". The easiest solution to this problem is to use C-h (and
3440 BackSpace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous
3441 character.
3442
3443 For many people this solution may be problematic:
3444
3445 * They normally use BackSpace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous
3446 character typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for
3447 deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do
3448 this on many Unix systems:
3449
3450 stty erase '^?'
3451
3452 * The person may prefer using the BackSpace key for deleting the previous
3453 character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or
3454 because they don't even have a separate Delete key. In this case, the
3455 BackSpace key should be made to behave like Delete. There are several
3456 methods.
3457
3458 * Under X Windows, the easiest solution is to change the BackSpace key
3459 into a Delete key like this:
3460
3461 xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
3462
3463 * Some terminals (eg., VT3## terminals) allow the character generated by
3464 the BackSpace key to be changed from a setup menu.
3465
3466 * You may be able to get a keyboard that is completely programmable.
3467
3468 * Under X or on a dumb terminal, it is possible to swap the BackSpace
3469 and Delete keys inside Emacs:
3470
3471 (swap-keys ?\C-h ?\C-?)
3472
3473 See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys.
3474
3475 * Another approach is to switch keybindings and put help on "C-x h"
3476 instead:
3477
3478 (global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
3479 (global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ; override mark-whole-buffer
3480
3481 Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?".
3482
3483 WARNING: Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many
3484 modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere.
3485
3486 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
3487
3488 Good question!
3489
3490 135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
3491
3492 When Emacs starts up, it doesn't know anything about arrow keys at all
3493 (except when running under X, see question 128). During the process of
3494 starting up, Emacs will load a terminal-specific initialization file for
3495 your terminal type (as determined by the environment variable TERM), if
3496 one exists. This file has the responsibility for enabling the arrow keys.
3497
3498 There are several things that can go wrong:
3499
3500 1. There is no initialization file for your terminal.
3501
3502 You can determine this by looking in the lisp/term directory. If your
3503 terminal type (as determined by the TERM environment variable) is
3504 xxx-yy-z, then the first of these files in the lisp/term directory will
3505 be loaded as the terminal-specific initialization file: xxx-yy-z.el,
3506 xxx-yy.el, or xxx.el.
3507
3508 There are two major cases of this problem:
3509
3510 * Your terminal type is very similar to one that has an init file.
3511
3512 In this case, there are several techniques suggested by Colin Jensen
3513 <cjensen@ampex.com>, Ben Liblit <Liblit@cs.psu.edu>, and Marc
3514 Auslander <marc@watson.ibm.com>:
3515
3516 A. Add a symbolic link in lisp/term for your terminal type that
3517 points to the similar type. For example, you could make VT102
3518 terminals work with this command:
3519
3520 ln -s vt100.el vt102.el
3521
3522 This fixes things for everyone on the system who uses the terminal
3523 type.
3524
3525 B. If you can't do the solution in part A, you can add code to your
3526 term-setup-hook that loads the correct file like this:
3527
3528 (setq term-setup-hook
3529 (function
3530 (lambda ()
3531 (cond ((equal "vt102" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3532 (load (concat term-file-prefix "vt100")))
3533 (;; Code for other terminal types goes here ...
3534 )))))
3535
3536 C. If you use `tset' to set your TERM environment variable when you
3537 login, you can use the `-m' switch to tell tset to use a terminal
3538 type known by Emacs instead of another similar one. For example,
3539 specifying this:
3540
3541 tset ... -m 'dec-vt220:vt220' ...
3542
3543 will make tset say you are on a `vt220' instead of a `dec-vt220'.
3544
3545 D. Interactively, you can type "M-x load-library RET term/vt100" to
3546 load the terminal-specific initialization files for VT100
3547 terminals.
3548
3549 * Your terminal type is not similar to one that has an init file.
3550
3551 One can be made for your terminal, or you can just add code to your
3552 own .emacs to handle this problem for yourself. For example, if your
3553 terminal's arrow keys send these character sequences:
3554
3555 Up: ESC [ A
3556 Down: ESC [ B
3557 Right: ESC [ C
3558 Left: ESC [ D
3559
3560 then you can bind these keys to the appropriate commands with code in
3561 your .emacs like this:
3562
3563 (setq term-setup-hook
3564 (function
3565 (lambda ()
3566 (cond ((string-match "\\`xyzzy" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3567 ;; First, must unmap the binding for left bracket
3568 (or (keymapp (lookup-key global-map "\e\["))
3569 (define-key global-map "\e\[" nil))
3570 ;; Enable terminal type xyzzy's arrow keys:
3571 (define-key global-map "\e\[A" 'previous-line)
3572 (define-key global-map "\e\[B" 'next-line)
3573 (define-key global-map "\e\[C" 'forward-char)
3574 (define-key global-map "\e\[D" 'backward-char))
3575 ((string-match "\\`abcde" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3576 ;; Do something different for terminal type abcde
3577 ;; .....
3578 )))))
3579
3580 NOTE: You may have to restart Emacs to get changes to take effect.
3581
3582 NOTE: Your arrow keys may send sequences beginning with "ESC O" when
3583 Emacs is running, even if they send sequences beginning with "ESC [" at
3584 all other times. This is because Emacs uses any command there may be
3585 in your terminal's termcap entry for putting the terminal into
3586 "Application Keypad Mode". Just map these sequences the same way as
3587 above.
3588
3589 The next two cases are problems even if there is a initialization file for
3590 your terminal type.
3591
3592 2. The initialization file for your terminal doesn't bind arrow keys.
3593
3594 If your terminal type is `xterm', you will have to bind the arrow keys
3595 as in part 1 above, since the xterm.el file doesn't do anything useful.
3596 There may be other terminal types with the same problem.
3597
3598 3. Your terminal's arrow keys send individual control characters.
3599
3600 For example, the arrow keys on an ADM-3 send C-h, C-j, C-k, and C-l.
3601
3602 There is not much Emacs can do in this situation, since all the control
3603 characters except for C-^ and C-\ are already used as Emacs commands.
3604 It may be possible to convince the terminal to send something else when
3605 you press the arrow keys; it is worth investigating.
3606
3607 You have to make the hard choices of how to rebind keys to commands to
3608 make things work the way you want. Another alternative is to start
3609 learning the standard Emacs keybindings for moving point around: C-b,
3610 C-f, C-p, and C-n. Personally, I no longer use the arrow keys when
3611 editing because I have switched keyboards so many times.
3612
3613 4. Your terminal's arrow keys send sequences beginning with "ESC [".
3614
3615 Due to an extremely poor design decision (ie., these sequences are ANSI
3616 standard), none of the the terminal-specific initialization files that
3617 are distributed with Emacs will bind these character sequences to the
3618 appropriate commands by default. (This also applies to any other
3619 function keys which generate character sequences starting with "ESC
3620 [".) This is because it was deemed far more important to preserve the
3621 binding of M-[ to the backward-paragraph command. It appears that this
3622 will change in Emacs 19.
3623
3624 Some of the terminal-specific initialization files that come with Emacs
3625 provide a command enable-arrow-keys that will fix this problem. To get
3626 this automatically invoked, put this in your .emacs:
3627
3628 (setq term-setup-hook
3629 (function
3630 (lambda ()
3631 (if (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys) (enable-arrow-keys)))))
3632
3633 We put this in our lisp/default.el file, so users don't have to worry
3634 about it:
3635
3636 ;; don't override a user's term-setup-hook
3637 (or term-setup-hook
3638 (setq term-setup-hook
3639 (function
3640 (lambda ()
3641 (and (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys)
3642 ;; don't override a user key mapping
3643 (eq 'backward-paragraph (lookup-key esc-map "["))
3644 (enable-arrow-keys))))))
3645
3646 If your terminal type is `sun', you should put this in your .emacs
3647 instead (or in addition to the above):
3648
3649 (setq sun-esc-bracket t)
3650
3651 It is possible that the terminal-specific initialization file for your
3652 terminal type was written locally and does not follow the rule
3653 mentioned above. In this case you may need to inspect it to find out
3654 how to enable the arrow keys. (Actually, if it was written locally, it
3655 probably enables the arrow keys by default.)
3656
3657 136: How do I "swap" two keys?
3658
3659 When Emacs receives a character, you can make Emacs behave as though it
3660 received another character by setting the value of
3661 keyboard-translate-table. The following Emacs Lisp will do this for you,
3662 allowing you to "swap" keys. After arranging for this Lisp to be
3663 evaluated by Emacs, you can evaluate `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' to swap A and B.
3664
3665 (defun swap-keys (key1 key2)
3666 "Swap keys KEY1 and KEY2 using map-key."
3667 (map-key key1 key2)
3668 (map-key key2 key1))
3669
3670 (defun map-key (from to)
3671 "Make key FROM behave as though key TO was typed instead."
3672 (setq keyboard-translate-table
3673 (concat keyboard-translate-table
3674 (let* ((i (length keyboard-translate-table))
3675 (j from)
3676 (k i)
3677 (str (make-string (max 0 (- j (1- i))) ?X)))
3678 (while (<= k j)
3679 (aset str (- k i) k)
3680 (setq k (1+ k)))
3681 str)))
3682 (aset keyboard-translate-table from to)
3683 (let ((i (1- (length keyboard-translate-table))))
3684 (while (and (>= i 0) (eq (aref keyboard-translate-table i) i))
3685 (setq i (1- i)))
3686 (setq keyboard-translate-table
3687 (if (eq i -1)
3688 nil
3689 (substring keyboard-translate-table 0 (1+ i))))))
3690
3691 NOTE: You must evaluate the definition of these functions before calling
3692 them! For example, list the function definitions before their use in your
3693 .emacs file.
3694
3695 NOTE: These functions take two numbers as arguments. The example above,
3696 `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' is actually `(swap-keys 65 66)', because `?A' is
3697 merely notation for 65, the ASCII value of `A'.
3698
3699 NOTE: These functions only work for single characters. You cannot swap
3700 two multi-character sequences.
3701
3702 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
3703
3704 For C-@ and C-^, often you can just type Control-2 and Control-6. For
3705 C-_, you may have to hold down the shift key, typing Control-Shift-Hyphen.
3706 C-@ can often be generated by typing Control-Space. C-@ is often called
3707 the NUL character, and has ASCII value 0. C-_ can often be generated by
3708 typing Control-7 or Control-/. C-? (aka DEL) may be generated by typing
3709 Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace or a key labelled Delete or Del.
3710
3711 Try Control with all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets
3712 generated.
3713
3714 138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
3715
3716 Instead of typing M-a, you can type "ESC a" instead. In fact, Emacs
3717 converts M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of
3718 meta-prefix-char).
3719
3720 139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
3721
3722 Type C-[ instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
3723 key would. Try also C-;.
3724
3725 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
3726
3727 Some IBM PC compatibles do not have a key labeled `Del' or `Delete' {is
3728 this true?}. Those that do generally have it in an inconvenient location.
3729 (Also, in some terminal emulators, the `Del' key does not transmit DEL.)
3730 The result is the standard "BackSpace invoking help" problem (see question
3731 133).
3732
3733 The usual solution, suggested by Michael Covington
3734 <mcovingt@aisun1.ai.uga.edu>, is to somehow tell the terminal emulator
3735 program that BackSpace should transmit DEL. Read the program's manual.
3736 Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace may send DEL. The `Del' key may only
3737 send DEL if the NumLock key hasn't been pressed.
3738
3739 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
3740
3741 On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220
3742 clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're using
3743 X, you might be able to do this with the `xmodmap' program (this is
3744 what I do).
3745
3746 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
3747
3748 Unless you're using Emacs under emacstool (or xvetool?), have a working
3749 version of x-rebind-key (see question 128), or are using Emacs 19 (Lucid
3750 Emacs), you can't do this with Emacs alone.
3751
3752 If you are using emacstool, Emacs sees different character sequences for
3753 the combination of a modifier and a function key from what it sees for the
3754 function key alone. See etc/emacstool.1 for more information. Since
3755 Emacs sees different character sequences, you can bind these different
3756 sequences to different commands.
3757
3758 If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window like xterm, you
3759 can modify its translation tables to make it generate different character
3760 sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key. For
3761 example, this X resource setting:
3762
3763 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
3764 Shift<KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
3765
3766 makes Shift-F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [ xyzzy". You can
3767 bind these character sequences in Emacs as normal. Nick Ruprecht
3768 <ruprecht@informatik.uni-freiburg.de> has written an extensive X
3769 translation mapping for xterm that does this. {Does this have an FTP
3770 site?}
3771
3772 If you have x-rebind-key, you can have any arbitrary combination of
3773 modifiers with a key replaced by any sequence of "normal" characters. For
3774 example, this makes Shift-Return behave as though you had typed "C-x C-e"
3775 (example from Jerry Graves):
3776
3777 (x-rebind-key "Return" 'shift "\C-x\C-e")
3778
3779 In Emacs 19 (Lucid Emacs), you can bind Meta-Left-Arrow like this (example
3780 from Jamie Zawinski):
3781
3782 (global-set-key '(meta left) 'backward-word)
3783
3784 With the last two methods, use `xmodmap' and `xev' to discover the keysym
3785 and modifier names.
3786
3787 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
3788
3789 Try all of these methods before asking for further help:
3790
3791 * You may have big problems using `mwm' as your window manager. {Does
3792 anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in
3793 Emacs with mwm?}
3794
3795 * For X11R4: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use `xev' to find out
3796 what keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or
3797 Meta_R. If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation.
3798
3799 * Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters.
3800 `stty -a' (or `stty everything') should show `cs8' somewhere. If it
3801 shows `cs7' instead, use `stty cs8 -istrip' (or `stty pass8') to fix
3802 it.
3803
3804 * If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the
3805 `-8' argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8
3806 bits of every character.
3807
3808 * If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating
3809 (set-input-mode t nil) helps.
3810
3811 * If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type
3812 M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W
3813 anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this:
3814
3815 XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false
3816
3817 (This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.)
3818
3819 With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation:
3820
3821 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
3822 Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert()
3823
3824 You might have to replace `Meta' with `Alt'.
3825
3826 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
3827
3828 This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the
3829 fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that
3830 XLookupString returns the same result regardless of the Meta key state
3831 which is no longer necessarily true. Until Emacs is fixed, the temporary
3832 kludge is to run this command after each time the X server is started but
3833 preferably before any xterm clients are:
3834
3835 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
3836
3837 NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which
3838 may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them.
3839
3840 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
3841
3842 There is a package `wordstar' by Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> and
3843 `ws-mode.el' by Juergen Nickelsen <nickel@cs.tu-berlin.de>. Check in the
3844 Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89).
3845
3846 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
3847
3848 This question comes up once every couple of months. I have never seen a
3849 positive reply, so I presume no one has ever written one.
3850
3851
3852
3853 Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
3854
3855 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
3856
3857 There is a patch called the `8-bit ctl-arrow patch' that allows Emacs to
3858 display characters with codes from 128 to 255. {The original appears to
3859 have been by Kenneth Cline <cline@proof.ergo.cs.cmu.edu>.} Partially based
3860 on Johan Widen's earlier work, Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has updated this
3861 patch for Emacs 18.58 along with some other 8-bit improvements.
3862
3863 Anonymous FTP:
3864 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-EightBit.Z
3865 /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-EightBit
3866 /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z:cemacs/8bit-patch-18.57
3867 /sics.se:archive/emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
3868 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.55
3869 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.57
3870
3871 Via e-mail:
3872 To: mail-server@sics.se
3873 body: send emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
3874
3875 Anders Edenbrandt <anderse@dna.lth.se> has produced a more comprehensive
3876 patch for Emacs 18.59 that allows for 8-bit input and output.
3877
3878 Anonymous FTP:
3879 /ftp.efd.lth.se:pub/gnu/emacs_8-bit.patch
3880
3881 In the words of the author:
3882
3883 With these patches, Emacs becomes fully 8-bit operational. There is
3884 support for displaying 8-bit characters, as well as for entering such
3885 characters from the keyboard. In addition, upcase/lowcase translation
3886 is supported, accented characters are recognized as "letters" (important
3887 when doing 'forward-word', for example), and text with 8-bit characters
3888 can be sorted correctly.
3889
3890 A Meta-shift key can still be used, provided that you run in an
3891 environment where it is possible to distinguish between a character
3892 entered using the Meta-shift key and one entered directly. The diffs
3893 include patches to make this work under SunView (with emacstool) as
3894 well as under X. If you can't use a Meta-shift key, you have to enter
3895 Meta-commands with the ESC-prefix.
3896
3897 The most comprehensive patches for 8-bit output are by Howard Gayle
3898 (originally for Emacs 18.55. These patches allow displaying any arbitrary
3899 string for a given 8-bit character (except TAB and C-j). Also supported
3900 is defining the sorting order and the uppercase and lowercase
3901 translations. It is reported that the 8-bit character support in Emacs 19
3902 is largely based on these patches. Thomas Bellman
3903 <Bellman@lysator.liu.se> has updated these patches for Emacs 18.59.
3904
3905 Anonymous FTP:
3906 /sics.se:archive/emacs-gayle.tar.Z (patches for 18.55)
3907 /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.58.diff.tar.Z (patches)
3908 /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.59-gayle.tar.Z (patched Emacs)
3909
3910 Epoch's 8-bit character support is based on Anders Edenbrandt's patches.
3911 Lucid Emacs has the ctl-arrow patch installed. Nemacs displays 8-bit
3912 characters, and it may be useful for displaying the 8-bit ISO-8859
3913 alphabet, but I don't know for sure (see question 149).
3914
3915 148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
3916
3917 Minor modes for ISO Latin-1 that allow one to easily input this character
3918 set have been written by several people. Such modes have been written by
3919 Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr> (laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/iso-latin-1.el),
3920 Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> {FTP site??}, and Marc Shapiro
3921 <shapiro@sor.inria.fr> {FTP site??}.
3922
3923 These approaches differ from the one taken by Anders Edenbrandt in that
3924 his method uses direct 8-bit input, while these methods use a compose
3925 sequence for 8-bit characters. {I have heard conflicting reports on
3926 whether this results in losing the Meta key. Perhaps this depends on
3927 whether Emacs is running under X. Can someone resolve this?}
3928
3929 Karl Heuer <karl@haddock.ima.isc.com> is said to have a patch to allow
3930 8-bit input. Georg-Wilhelm Koltermann <gwk@crmunich0.cray.com> also has a
3931 patch for either 18.57 or 18.58 that allows 8-bit input.
3932
3933 Epoch comes with a patch that allows it to input 8-bit characters, but it
3934 is not enabled by default. {Is this right?}
3935
3936 Jamie Zawinski says:
3937
3938 Lucid GNU Emacs allows the input of any ISO-8859/1 keysyms that your
3939 keyboard generates (see xmodmap), and contains a package that implements
3940 a DEC/OpenWindows-like "Compose" key for systems which don't have one.
3941
3942 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
3943
3944 Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55
3945 that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP:
3946
3947 /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
3948 /miki.cs.titech.ac.jp:JAPAN/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
3949
3950 You might also need files for "wnn", a kanji input method
3951 (wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You need a terminal (or
3952 terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in JIS, Shift-JIS, or EUC
3953 (Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs as a direct X Window
3954 client.
3955
3956 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
3957
3958 `cemacs' by Stephen G. Simpson <simpson@math.psu.edu> is a patch to Emacs
3959 18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with
3960 Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous
3961 FTP:
3962
3963 /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/chinese/cemacs.tar.Z
3964 /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z
3965
3966 Cxterm is available from the same place:
3967
3968 /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z
3969
3970 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
3971
3972 Joel M. Hoffman <joel@wam.umd.edu> writes:
3973
3974 A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows right-to-left
3975 editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display the Hebrew
3976 letters, given the right codes, but not for any right-to-left support;
3977 the hardware also doesn't have to send any specific char. codes. Emacs
3978 keeps track of when the user is typing Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-*
3979 terminals in Israel contain built-in support for Hebrew.)
3980
3981 To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's source
3982 code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean.
3983
3984 [and in a separate message:]
3985
3986 It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend
3987 trying that with emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order
3988 with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a
3989 quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to
3990 send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for
3991 anything large, however, you'll want something that works better.
3992
3993 Joel Hoffman has also written a "bi-directional bi-lingual Emacs-like"
3994 editor for MS-DOS named Ibelbe (Itty Bitty Emacs-Like Bidirectional
3995 Editor). Ibelbe is written in Turbo Pascal and comes with source code.
3996 Here is the description:
3997
3998 Ibelbe looks like emacs (it even has a minibuffer and filename
3999 completion), and fully supports both right-to-left and left-to-right
4000 editing. Other than an EGA monitor or better, no special hardware is
4001 required. You will need an EGA Hebrew font to use Ibelbe with Hebrew.
4002
4003 Anonymous FTP:
4004 /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/ibelbe.zip
4005 /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/hebfont.zip
4006
4007 Joseph Friedman <yossi@deshaw.com, yossi@Neon.Stanford.EDU> has written
4008 patches for Emacs 18.55 and 18.58 that provide Semitic language support
4009 under X Windows.
4010
4011 Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by
4012 modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards".
4013
4014 A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with `hebrew'.
4015
4016 GNU Emacs FAQ: Mail and News
4017
4018 This portion of the GNU Emacs FAQ list is cross-posted to `gnu.emacs.gnus'
4019 because many of the questions herein deal with GNUS. See `gnu.emacs.help' for
4020 the rest of the FAQ list.
4021
4022 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
4023 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
4024 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
4025
4026 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
4027 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
4028
4029 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
4030 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
4031 deletions occurred.
4032
4033 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
4034 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
4035 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
4036 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
4037
4038
4039
4040 Mail and News
4041
4042 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
4043
4044 Many people want Emacs to prefix included text with something like ` > '
4045 instead of with three spaces. One way is to change the code of the
4046 function `mail-yank-original' in lisp/sendmail.el that prefixes with
4047 spaces. A more flexible solution is to use Supercite, which provides wide
4048 configurability in how you format included text in replies. See question
4049 107. Both of these solutions work for RMAIL and GNUS.
4050
4051 A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers
4052 of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of
4053 mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value.
4054
4055 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
4056
4057 Two methods:
4058
4059 1. (setq mail-self-blind t) will result in a `BCC:' header line with your
4060 address being added to mail composition buffers. This will cause the
4061 mail system to send a copy of the mail back to you.
4062
4063 2. (setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing")) will
4064 result in an `FCC:' header line with the pathname of ~/outgoing being
4065 added to mail composition buffers. When you send the mail, Emacs will
4066 save a copy of the mail in the file ~/outgoing and then strip off the
4067 `FCC:' line before actually sending.
4068
4069 WARNING: There is a bug in Emacs 18.58 that prevents mail readers such
4070 as RMAIL from reading the saved mail messages individually. See
4071 question 155.
4072
4073 WARNING: If you are visiting the file ~/outgoing at the time you send
4074 the mail, this can cause a variety of horrible problems. Jamie
4075 Zawinski has written a solution for this.
4076
4077 It does not work to put `set record filename' in the .mailrc file.
4078
4079 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
4080
4081 * You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer
4082 with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses
4083 like this one:
4084
4085 To: Willy Smith <wks@xpnsv.lwyrs.com>
4086
4087 However, you do not need to separate addresses with commas in your
4088 .mailrc file.
4089
4090 WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple
4091 addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of
4092 quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly
4093 setting the value of mail-aliases.
4094
4095 * Emacs normally only reads the `.mailrc' file once per session, when you
4096 start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can
4097 type "M-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc.
4098 (You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!)
4099
4100 * Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the
4101 .mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set'
4102 commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group'
4103 commands.
4104
4105 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
4106
4107 There is a bug for FCC-ed messages in Emacs 18.58 where it adds a timezone
4108 on the "From " line after the year instead of before the year. (Before it
4109 didn't add the timezone at all.) This is incompatible with the standard
4110 format for the "From " line, and RMAIL in particular can no longer
4111 distinguish between the messages. Karl Berry <karl@cs.umb.edu>, Felix Lee
4112 <flee@cs.psu.edu>, Nick Gianniotis <nico@japan.sbi.com> and many
4113 others have all posted patches for this. Karl's is the simplest and just
4114 stops Emacs from adding the timezone:
4115
4116 >*** ./ORIG/sendmail.el Tue Jan 28 16:22:56 1992
4117 >--- ./sendmail.el Thu May 14 18:23:48 1992
4118 >***************
4119 >*** 285,287 ****
4120 > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
4121 >! (current-time-string) " " timezone "\n")
4122 > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
4123 >--- 285,287 ----
4124 > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
4125 >! (current-time-string) "\n")
4126 > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
4127
4128 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
4129
4130 Use rmailsort.el by Masanobu Umeda.
4131
4132 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
4133
4134 This is the behavior of the `movemail' program which RMAIL uses. This
4135 indicates that movemail is configured to use lock files.
4136
4137 RMS writes:
4138
4139 Certain systems require lock files to interlock access to mail files.
4140 On these systems, movemail must write lock files, or you risk losing
4141 mail. You simply must arrange to let movemail write them.
4142
4143 Other systems use the flock system call to interlock access. On these
4144 systems, you should configure movemail to use flock.
4145
4146 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
4147
4148 Users who just want to try RMAIL out to see how it works end up trapped
4149 using it because saved mail in their `mbox' file has been converted into
4150 an incompatible format (BABYL) that only RMAIL understands. RMAIL
4151 provides no obvious way to reverse this transformation. Kyle Jones has
4152 aptly named this "the great Emacs Mail Eating Monster". To convert a mail
4153 file back to standard Unix format, there are several methods:
4154
4155 * Use the rmail-output ("C-o") command within RMAIL on each message in the
4156 file. First use M-x rmail or M-x rmail-input to visit the RMAIL file in
4157 Rmail mode. Type "1 j" to go to the first message. Use the C-o command
4158 to output the message to a Unix format file. Type "n" to go to the next
4159 message. Repeat.
4160
4161 * If the file contains hundreds of messages, you may not want to repeat
4162 this for all of them. Instead of the above, after getting to the first
4163 message type this (where "mbox" is the file you want to put the messages
4164 in):
4165
4166 C-x ( C-o mbox RET M-s ^From: RET M-0 C-x )
4167
4168 (The rmail-search command ("M-s") is used instead of just "n" because it
4169 is the only command which will cause an error when it reaches the last
4170 message in the file, which is necessary to terminate the keyboard macro.
4171 This will fail if there are messages in the file that don't have a
4172 `From:' header. This assumes rmail-delete-after-output is nil.)
4173
4174 It is wise to save a copy of the RMAIL file first, in case you make a
4175 mistake.
4176
4177 * There are software packages available for converting files or even
4178 entire directories of BABYL files to standard Unix format. These are
4179 helpful in this situation, but are intended mainly for people who have
4180 used RMAIL for a long time and are converting to some other mail reader.
4181 Lookup `rmail', `vm', and `babyl' in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see
4182 question 89).
4183
4184 You may wish to disable RMAIL to avoid accidentally destroying your mbox
4185 file (I have this in my .emacs):
4186
4187 (put 'rmail 'disabled t) ; avoid mbox destruction
4188
4189 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
4190
4191 Example:
4192
4193 emacs -f gnus
4194
4195 Also:
4196
4197 alias gnus 'emacs -f gnus'
4198
4199 It is probably unwise to automatically start your mail or news reader from
4200 your .emacs file. This would cause problems if you needed to run two
4201 copies of Emacs at one time. Also, this would make it difficult for you
4202 to start Emacs quickly when you needed to.
4203
4204 160: How do I read news under Emacs?
4205
4206 There are at least three news reading packages that operate inside Emacs.
4207 `rnews' comes with Emacs. GNUS and Gnews come separately. rnews will
4208 be replaced by GNUS in Emacs 19.
4209
4210 rnews works only with a local news spool directory. Both GNUS and Gnews
4211 handle reading news remotely via NNTP in addition to reading from a local
4212 news spool. GNUS supports reading mail stored in MH folders or articles
4213 saved by GNUS.
4214
4215 Gnews is styled after `rn' and seems to work like RMAIL. GNUS feels more
4216 like VM. People have complained that GNUS uses a lot of CPU time (it
4217 does). Some people have complained that Gnews is slower than GNUS.
4218
4219 For more information about GNUS, see question 108.
4220
4221 Gnews was written by Matthew P. Wiener <weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu>.
4222 The latest version seems to be 2.0, posted October 3, 1988. Matthew
4223 posted some fixes on October 26, 1988. Gnews does not appear to have been
4224 supported after this date. In particular, it has been reported that Gnews
4225 does not work with Emacs 18.57. There is a newsgroup for Gnews called
4226 gnu.emacs.gnews.
4227
4228 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
4229
4230 rnews doesn't speak NNTP. You may need to use GNUS or Gnews.
4231
4232 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
4233
4234 There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests
4235 are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before
4236 blocking waiting for more input which never comes. NNTP version 1.5.11
4237 claims to fix this.
4238
4239 You can work around the bug inside Emacs like this:
4240
4241 (setq nntp-maximum-request 1)
4242
4243 I also have a patch for NNTP 1.5.10 by Mike Pelletier
4244 <stealth@engin.umich.edu> that is based on the timeout code that was in
4245 1.5.9. However, please try to upgrade to 1.5.11 first.
4246
4247 You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by
4248 telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine (ie.,
4249 `telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version number
4250 in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out.
4251
4252 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
4253
4254 Underlining appears like this:
4255
4256 _^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg
4257
4258 You can destructively remove underlining with M-x ununderline-region.
4259
4260 For ClariNews articles, clari-clean.el by David N. Blank-Edelman
4261 <dnb@meshugge.media.mit.edu> will remove both underlining and overstriking
4262 automatically.
4263
4264 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
4265 the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
4266
4267 Upgrade to Emacs 18.58 or higher.
4268
4269 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
4270
4271 Use gnus-mark.el by Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>.
4272
4273 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
4274
4275 This is a feature. If you set gnus-thread-hide-subject to non-nil, GNUS
4276 will only display the subject of the first posting in a thread, even if
4277 some of the replies use different subjects. It hides the subjects by
4278 putting them past the edge of the window and setting truncate lines to t.
4279
4280 If your screen looks messed up, then for some reason truncate-lines in
4281 your `*Subject*' buffer has been set to nil. It should be set to t.
4282
4283 (I have an enhancement to GNUS 3.13 that will make it only hide the subject
4284 of a posting when it is unchanged from the followed-up-to posting. Thus,
4285 you can use the subject hiding feature and still know when someone changes
4286 the subject. (I have forgotten who originally gave me the idea for this.))
4287
4288 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
4289
4290 GNUS does several things that take quadratic time of the number of
4291 newsgroups that are listed in .newsrc. The quick fix for this is to
4292 remove all the newsgroups in which you have no interest from your .newrc
4293 file by using GNUS's C-k command in the `*Newsgroup*' buffer after
4294 displaying all newsgroups with the L command. If you were to directly
4295 edit your .newsrc to remove the newsgroups, GNUS would add them back.
4296
4297 GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for duplicates when the .newsrc
4298 file is newer than the .newsrc.el file (ie., you edited your .newsrc).
4299 GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for new newsgroups every time it
4300 connects to the news server. {There may be other quadratic algorithms
4301 that I am not aware of.}
4302
4303 You can speed up GNUS by using the C-k command in the *Newsgroup* buffer
4304 to remove newsgroups from your .newsrc file.
4305
4306 Of course, GNUS will run faster if you make sure it is byte-compiled.
4307
4308 Felix Lee wrote some enhancements called `gnus-speedups.el' that fix some
4309 of the problems. See the Emacs Lisp Archive.
4310
4311 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
4312
4313 In the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, type the following magical incantation:
4314
4315 M-< C-x ( C-@ c y C-u C-@ C-e C-f C-f M-0 C-x )
4316
4317 Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of
4318 the `*Newsgroup' buffer.
4319
4320 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
4321
4322 GNUS 3.14.1 will complain that the `Newsgroups:', `Keywords:', and
4323 `Control:' headers are `Unknown header field's.
4324
4325 For the `Newsgroups:' header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the
4326 `Xref' header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article.
4327
4328 If you really want to kill on one of these headers, you can do it like
4329 this:
4330
4331 (gnus-kill nil "^Newsgroups: .*\\(bad\\.group\\|worse\\.group\\)")
4332
4333 Various people (eg., Greg Holley <holley@acuson.com>) have posted
4334 solutions to allow more efficient killing on these headers than the
4335 preceding solution. Masanobu Umeda plans to fix this problem.
4336
4337 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
4338
4339 GNUS outputs "NNTP: Reading..." message and then clears them, over and
4340 over. In version 3.14.1 there is a variable named nntp-debug-read that
4341 can help. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> wrote a fix. Others have also written
4342 fixes.
4343
4344 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
4345
4346 Because GNUS is marking crosspostings read. {I think it should do this at
4347 the time the article is read to spread out the load. Maybe someone will
4348 write the code to do this.}
4349
4350 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
4351
4352 David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> explains:
4353
4354 The problem is almost always interaction between NNTP and C News. NNTP
4355 POST asks C News's inews to not background itself but rather hang around
4356 and give its exit status so it knows whether the post was successful.
4357 (That wait will on some systems not return the exit status of the
4358 waited for job is a different sort of problem.) It ends up taking a
4359 long time because inews is calling relaynews, which often waits for
4360 another relaynews to free the lock on the news system so it can file the
4361 article.
4362
4363 My preferred solution is to change inews to not call relaynews, but
4364 rather use newsspool. This loses some error-catching functionality, but
4365 is for the most part safe as inews will detect a lot of the errors on
4366 its own. The C News folks have sped up inews, too, so speed should look
4367 better to most folks as that update propagates around.
4368
4369 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
4370
4371 Three possible reasons: local distribution, C News date problem (see
4372 question 174, and the path problem. This piece of code may fix the path
4373 problem for you:
4374
4375 (setq gnus-use-generic-path t)
4376
4377 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
4378
4379 GNUS generates `Date:' headers without time zones. C-News's `inews'
4380 doesn't replace it with a valid header, but will generate it if not
4381 already there. If it is invalid, the article will not be forwarded
4382 properly. Quick fix:
4383
4384 (defun gnus-inews-date () nil)
4385
4386 This is not fixed as of GNUS 3.14.1.
4387
4388 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
4389
4390 GNUS was written for B news, which would generate the `Lines:' header. C
4391 news doesn't. There is a comment in C news's `inews' that you can
4392 uncomment to enable this functionality. Or you can have GNUS generate the
4393 header, for example:
4394
4395 ;; idea by jbryans@beach.csulb.edu (Jack Bryans)
4396 (defun add-lines-header ()
4397 ;; Count the number of lines in the current posting and insert the
4398 ;; header line Lines into the message.
4399 (save-excursion
4400 (goto-char (point-min))
4401 (if (search-forward "\n\n") ;; ***** I suspect this is wrong *****
4402 (let ((lines (count-lines (point) (point-max))))
4403 (forward-line -1)
4404 (insert-string "Lines: " lines "\n")))))
4405
4406 Mike Williams <mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> has written something similar.
4407
4408 Ronald Florence <ron@mlfarm.com> has a patch for GNUS that makes it
4409 calculate the `Lines:' header for incoming articles when necessary that
4410 works for sites with local news spools.
4411
4412 David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> says that GNUS 3.14.1 generates Lines
4413 if gnus-news-system is Cnews.
4414
4415 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
4416
4417 Specifically, the error message is this:
4418
4419 Error occurred processing gnus.el: File error (("Cannot open load file" "nntp"))
4420
4421 This means that nntp.el is not in Emacs's load-path, which is easy to
4422 happen when compiling using the Makefile.
4423
4424 Easiest solution: set EMACSLOADPATH in Makefile (idea from Glenn Gribble
4425 <glenn@netcom.com>):
4426
4427 EMACSLOADPATH=/usr/local/emacs/lisp:.
4428 ELC= env EMACSLOADPATH=$(EMACSLOADPATH) emacs -batch -f batch-byte-compile
4429
4430 Another solution, in hack.el put this:
4431
4432 (defun gross-hack () (setq load-path (cons "/directory" load-path)))
4433
4434 Then in Makefile:
4435
4436 ELC= emacs -batch -l hack.el -f gross-hack -f batch-byte-compile
4437
4438 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
4439
4440 Example:
4441
4442 ;; kill everything
4443 (gnus-kill "subject" "" nil nil)
4444 ;; then restore stuff by our favorite poster
4445 (gnus-kill "from" "good-guy"
4446 (function
4447 (lambda ()
4448 (if (eq ?X (char-after (save-excursion
4449 (beginning-of-line 1)
4450 (point))))
4451 (gnus-Subject-clear-mark-forward 1))))
4452 t)
4453
4454
4455
4456 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
4457 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells
4458 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes
4459
4460 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers
4461 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other
4462 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new
4463 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as
4464 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice
4465 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining
4466 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and
4467 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including
4468 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these
4469 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary
4470 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution.