1 Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation, Inc; See end for conditions.
2 You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
4 Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labeled
5 CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labeled EDIT or ALT). Rather than
6 write that in full each time, we'll use the following abbreviations:
8 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
9 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
10 M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT or ALT key down while typing <chr>.
11 If there is no META, EDIT or ALT key, instead press and release the
12 ESC key and then type <chr>. We write <ESC> for the ESC key.
14 Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
15 The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
16 try using a command. For instance:
17 <<Blank lines inserted here by startup of help-with-tutorial>>
18 >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
19 (go ahead, do it by holding down the control key while typing v).
20 From now on, you should do this again whenever you finish
23 Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen
24 to screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading
27 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place
28 to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen,
29 with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key
30 and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META, EDIT, or ALT key).
32 >> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times.
38 The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
40 C-v Move forward one screenful
41 M-v Move backward one screenful
42 C-l Clear screen and redisplay all the text,
43 moving the text around the cursor
44 to the center of the screen.
45 (That's control-L, not control-1.)
47 >> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it.
49 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text
50 is near the cursor now.
53 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
54 ----------------------
56 Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
57 move to a specific place within the text on the screen?
59 There are several ways you can do this. The most basic way is to use
60 the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. Each of these commands moves the
61 cursor one row or column in a particular direction on the screen.
62 Here is a table showing these four commands and shows the directions
68 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
73 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
74 using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram
75 centered in the screen.
77 You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter: P for
78 previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are the
79 basic cursor positioning commands, and you'll be using them ALL the
80 time, so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
82 >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
84 >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
85 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
87 Each of text line ends with a Newline character, which serves to
88 separate it from the following line. The last line in your file ought
89 to have a Newline at the end (but Emacs does not require it to have
92 >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. It should move to
93 the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back
94 across the Newline character.
96 C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b.
98 >> Do a few more C-b's, so you get a feel for where the cursor is.
99 Then do C-f's to return to the end of the line.
100 Then do one more C-f to move to the following line.
102 When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
103 the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It
104 enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text
105 without moving it off the screen.
107 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and
110 If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
111 (Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
113 >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's.
115 When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word.
116 When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the
117 following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction.
119 >> Type M-f and M-b a few times, interspersed with C-f's and C-b's
120 so that you can observe the action of M-f and M-b from various
121 places inside and between words.
123 Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
124 M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
125 operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences,
126 paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are
127 independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc).
129 This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to
130 the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning
131 or end of a sentence.
133 >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
134 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
136 See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one
137 more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems
140 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
141 paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
144 Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the
145 word and sentence moving commands:
147 C-f Move forward a character
148 C-b Move backward a character
150 M-f Move forward a word
151 M-b Move backward a word
153 C-n Move to next line
154 C-p Move to previous line
156 C-a Move to beginning of line
157 C-e Move to end of line
159 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
160 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
162 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
163 These are the most often used commands.
165 Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
166 which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (Meta
167 Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text.
169 On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the
170 shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key
171 to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
173 >> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial.
174 Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here.
176 >> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial.
177 Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here.
179 You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has
180 arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three
181 reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once
182 you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these Control
183 characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not
184 have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once
185 you form the habit of using these Control character commands, you can
186 easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well.
188 Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this
189 serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count
190 is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If
191 you have a META (or EDIT or ALT) key, there is another alternative way
192 to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the
193 META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on
194 any terminal. The numeric argument is also called a "prefix argument",
195 because you type the argument before the command it applies to.
197 For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
199 >> Try using C-n or C-p with a numeric argument, to move the cursor
200 to a line near this one with just one command.
202 Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count, but some
203 commands use it in some other way. Several commands (but none of
204 those you have learned so far) use it as a flag--the presence of a
205 prefix argument, regardless of its value, makes the command do
208 C-v and M-v are another kind of exception. When given an argument,
209 they scroll the screen up or down by that many lines, rather than by a
210 screenful. For example, C-u 8 C-v scrolls the screen by 8 lines.
212 >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
214 This should have scrolled the screen up by 8 lines. If you would like
215 to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v.
217 If you are using X Windows, there should be a tall rectangular area
218 called a scroll bar at the left hand side of the Emacs window. You
219 can scroll the text by clicking the mouse in the scroll bar.
221 >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
222 within the scroll bar. This should scroll the text to a position
223 determined by how high or low you click.
225 >> Try moving the mouse up and down, while holding the middle button
226 pressed down. You'll see that the text scrolls up and down as
233 If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by
234 typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too
237 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
238 a command that you do not want to finish.
240 >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
241 Now type C-f. It should move just one character,
242 because you canceled the argument with C-g.
244 If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
251 Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use
254 If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message
255 saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go
256 ahead and execute the command.
258 If you really want to try the command, type Space in answer to the
259 question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the disabled
260 command, answer the question with "n".
262 >> Type <ESC> : (which is a disabled command),
263 then type n to answer the question.
269 Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text. We will
270 explain later on how to use multiple windows. Right now we want to
271 explain how to get rid of extra windows and go back to basic
272 one-window editing. It is simple:
274 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
276 That is Control-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window
277 which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all
280 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
281 >> Type Control-h k Control-f.
282 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
283 to display documentation on the Control-f command.
285 >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
287 This command is unlike the other commands you have learned in that it
288 consists of two characters. It starts with the character Control-x.
289 There is a whole series of commands that start with Control-x; many of
290 them have to do with windows, files, buffers, and related things.
291 These commands are two, three or four characters long.
294 * INSERTING AND DELETING
295 ------------------------
297 If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you
298 can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
299 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
302 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
303 <Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
304 some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
306 More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
307 current cursor position.
309 >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them
310 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
311 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is
312 your personal copy of it.
314 When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line
315 of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\")
316 at the right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
318 >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting.
319 You'll see a continuation line appear.
321 >> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
322 line again. The continuation line goes away.
324 You can delete a Newline character just like any other character.
325 Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into
326 one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the
327 screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line.
329 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
330 merges that line with the previous line.
332 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
334 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
335 this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts
338 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********.
340 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
341 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
342 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
344 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
345 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
347 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
348 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
350 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
351 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
353 Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
354 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> is not really a control
355 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
356 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
358 When you delete more than one character at a time, Emacs saves the
359 deleted text so that you can bring it back. Bringing back killed text
360 is called "yanking". You can yank the killed text either at the same
361 place where it was killed, or at some other place in the text. You
362 can yank the text several times in order to make multiple copies of
363 it. The command to yank is C-y.
365 Note that the difference between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is
366 that "Killed" things can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot.
367 Generally, the commands that can remove a lot of text save the text,
368 while the commands that delete just one character, or just blank lines
369 and spaces, do not save the deleted text.
371 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty.
372 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line.
373 >> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline
374 which follows that line.
376 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
377 C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. C-k
378 treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND
379 their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two
380 lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that.
382 To retrieve the last killed text and put it where the cursor currently
385 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
387 Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone took
388 away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row, all of
389 the killed text is saved together, so that one C-y will yank all of
392 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
394 Now to retrieve that killed text:
396 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
397 again. You now see how to copy some text.
399 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
400 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
401 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
402 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
403 M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
404 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have
405 reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to
406 keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where
409 If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most
412 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
413 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
414 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
415 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
416 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
417 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
424 If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a
425 mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u.
427 Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat
428 the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one
431 But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do
432 not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling
433 command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups
434 of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to
435 type to undo insertion of text.)
437 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
439 C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u,
440 but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of
441 C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That
442 is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_
443 by typing / while holding down CONTROL.
445 A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count.
451 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
452 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
453 away. In order to put your text in a file, you must "find" the file
454 before you enter the text. (This is also called "visiting" the file.)
456 Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within
457 Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself.
458 However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent
459 until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a
460 half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when
461 you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case
462 you later decide that your changes were a mistake.
464 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
465 begins and ends with dashes, and starts with "--:-- TUTORIAL" or
466 something like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name
467 of the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file
468 called "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs
469 tutorial. When you find a file with Emacs, that file's name will
470 appear in that precise spot.
472 One special thing about the command for finding a file is that you
473 have to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an
474 argument from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of
475 the file). After you type the command
479 Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears
480 on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the
481 minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use
482 ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name.
484 While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input),
485 you can cancel the command with C-g.
487 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
488 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
489 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
491 When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to
492 terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file
493 you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is
496 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can
497 edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent,
500 C-x C-s Save the file
502 This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you
503 do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is
504 not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the
505 original file's name.
507 When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
508 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
509 work if the system should crash.
511 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
512 This should print "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
514 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
515 will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
516 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
517 C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
518 type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
519 Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
521 You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also
522 find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a
523 file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then
524 begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the
525 file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have
526 inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an
527 already existing file.
533 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
534 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
535 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
537 >> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>.
538 Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s.
539 Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return>
540 to come back to the tutorial.
542 Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer".
543 Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the
544 buffers that currently exist in your Emacs job, type
550 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
551 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
552 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
553 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
554 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
555 is always part of some buffer.
557 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
559 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
560 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
561 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
562 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
563 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
564 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
565 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
567 C-x s Save some buffers
569 C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have
570 not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the
573 >> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s.
574 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL.
575 Answer yes to the question by typing "y".
577 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
578 ---------------------------
580 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
581 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
582 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
584 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
585 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
587 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
588 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of
589 them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another
590 example is the command to end the Emacs session--this is the command
591 C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c
592 offers to save each changed file before it kills the Emacs.)
594 C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
595 back to the same Emacs session afterward.
597 On systems which allow it, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns
598 to the shell but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common
599 shells, you can resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'.
601 On systems which do not implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell
602 running under Emacs to give you the chance to run other programs and
603 return to Emacs afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In
604 this case, the shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to
605 Emacs from the subshell.
607 The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
608 the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
609 programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know
610 how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances,
611 though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs
612 with C-z instead of exiting Emacs.
614 There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned:
618 C-x C-b List buffers.
622 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
623 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An
624 example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one
625 string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the
626 bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the
627 command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and
628 Emacs will complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
630 The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be
631 replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each
632 argument with <Return>.
634 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
635 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
637 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
638 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred,
639 after the initial position of the cursor.
645 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
646 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
647 this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that
648 you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and
649 the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save
650 file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way,
651 Emacs deletes its auto save file.
653 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
654 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
655 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<Return>. When it asks for
656 confirmation, type yes<Return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
663 If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
664 at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area". The echo
665 area contains the bottom line of the screen.
671 The line immediately above the echo area it is called the "mode line".
672 The mode line says something like this:
674 --:** TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%----------------
676 This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and
677 the text you are editing.
679 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
680 found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means
681 that NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the
682 top of the file is on the screen, it will say --Top-- instead of
683 --00%--. If the bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say
684 --Bot--. If you are looking at text so small that all of it fits on
685 the screen, the mode line says --All--.
687 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
688 Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows
689 no stars, just dashes.
691 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
692 editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is
693 what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode".
695 Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for
696 editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode,
697 Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active,
698 and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
699 "Fundamental" is now.
701 Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example,
702 there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each
703 programming language has a different idea of what a comment should
704 look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each
705 major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can
706 switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to
707 switch to Fundamental mode.
709 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
710 should probably use Text Mode.
711 >> Type M-x text mode<Return>.
713 Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
714 any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat
715 apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode,
716 M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators.
718 Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands
719 do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit
722 To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
724 >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
725 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
726 >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
728 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
729 Minor modes are alternatives not to the major modes, just minor
730 modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by
731 itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your
732 major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any
733 combination of several minor modes.
735 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
736 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
737 in between words automatically whenever you insert text and make a
738 line that is too wide.
740 You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto fill mode<Return>.
741 When the mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x
742 auto fill mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on,
743 and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the
744 command "toggles the mode".
746 >> Type M-x auto fill mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
747 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
748 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
750 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
751 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
752 as a numeric argument.
754 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
755 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
756 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
759 If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
760 does not re-fill it for you.
761 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
764 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
769 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
770 characters or words) either forward through the text or backward
771 through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command;
772 it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears.
774 The Emacs search command is different from the search commands
775 of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the
776 search happens while you type in the string to search for.
778 The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r
779 for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now.
781 When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as
782 a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is
783 called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that
784 you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search.
786 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
787 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
788 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
789 Now you have searched for "cursor", once.
790 >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor".
791 >> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
792 >> Type <Return> to terminate the search.
794 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
795 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To
796 go to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
797 occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently
798 "failing", C-g would also terminate the search.
800 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
801 see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
802 system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
803 letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
804 Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
805 Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
807 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
808 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
809 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
810 instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first
811 occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move
812 to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delete>. This erases
813 the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to
814 the first occurrence of "c".
816 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
817 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
818 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
820 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
821 string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for
822 something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we
823 have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of
824 the search is reversed.
830 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
831 window on the screen at the same time.
833 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
835 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
836 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
838 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
839 (If you do not have a real Meta key, type ESC C-v.)
841 >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
842 >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
843 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
845 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
846 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before.
848 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
849 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
850 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
851 window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window".
853 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
854 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
855 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance
856 through the other window sequentially with C-M-v.
858 C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
859 META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CONTROL and META while
860 typing v. It does not matter whether CONTROL or META "comes first,"
861 because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type.
863 If you do not have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order
864 does matter: you must type ESC followed by Control-v, because
865 Control-ESC v will not work. This is because ESC is a character in
866 its own right, not a modifier key.
868 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
870 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
871 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
872 window--the window I am already in.")
874 You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you
875 use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not
876 change. You can find a file in each window independently.
878 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
881 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
882 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
883 window. The cursor goes there, too.
885 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
889 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
890 --------------------------
892 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
893 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
894 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
895 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
897 To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
898 an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
899 extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
901 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
903 You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is
904 because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the
905 recursive editing level.
911 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
912 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
913 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
914 to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features.
915 Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs
916 commands. These "help" commands all start with the character
917 Control-h, which is called "the Help character".
919 To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a
920 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
921 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
922 If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just
923 type C-g to cancel it.
925 (Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. They really
926 should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you have
927 grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h
928 does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try
929 typing the F1 key or M-x help <Return> instead.)
931 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and
932 a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief
933 description of the command.
935 >> Type C-h c Control-p.
936 The message should be something like
938 C-p runs the command previous-line
940 This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used
941 mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names
942 are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as
943 very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you
944 have already learned.
946 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
947 EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
949 To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
951 >> Type C-h k Control-p.
953 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
954 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
955 output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
956 to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
957 to the help text, and then type C-x 1.
959 Here are some other useful C-h options:
961 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
964 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
965 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
966 function which implements the C-p command.
968 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
969 all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
970 These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
971 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
972 or two character sequence which runs the same command.
974 >> Type C-h a file<Return>.
976 This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file"
977 in their names. You will see character-commands like C-x C-f listed
978 beside the corresponding command names such as find-file.
980 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
982 >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
988 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
989 temporarily, so that you can come back to Emacs afterward, use C-z.
991 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
992 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
998 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
999 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
1001 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
1002 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
1004 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996 Free Software Foundation
1006 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1007 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1008 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
1009 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
1010 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
1012 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1013 of this document, or of portions of it,
1014 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1015 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
1017 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are more complex, but in the
1018 same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of
1019 GNU Emacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism
1020 ("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software!