1 You are looking at the Emacs tutorial. See end for copying conditions.
2 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation.
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 around following line by help-with-tutorial>>
18 [Middle of page left blank for didactic purposes. Text continues below]
19 >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
20 (go ahead, do it by holding down the CONTROL key while typing v).
21 From now on, you should do this again whenever you finish
24 Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen
25 to screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading
28 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place
29 to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen,
30 with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key
31 and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META, EDIT, or ALT key).
33 >> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times.
39 The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
41 C-v Move forward one screenful
42 M-v Move backward one screenful
43 C-l Clear screen and redisplay all the text,
44 moving the text around the cursor
45 to the center of the screen.
46 (That's CONTROL-L, not CONTROL-1.)
48 >> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it.
50 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text
51 is near the cursor now.
53 You can also use the PageUp and PageDn keys to do scrolling, if your
54 terminal has them, but you can edit more efficiently if you use C-v
58 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
59 ----------------------
61 Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
62 move to a specific place within the text on the screen?
64 There are several ways you can do this. You can use the arrow keys,
65 but it's more efficient to keep your hands in the standard position
66 and use the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. These characters
67 are equivalent to the four arrow keys, like this:
72 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
77 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
78 using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram
79 centered in the screen.
81 You'll find it easy to remember these letters by words they stand for:
82 P for previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. You
83 will be using these basic cursor positioning commands all the time.
85 >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
87 >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
88 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
90 Each line of text ends with a Newline character, which serves to
91 separate it from the following line. The last line in your file ought
92 to have a Newline at the end (but Emacs does not require it to have
95 >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. It should move to
96 the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back
97 across the Newline character.
99 C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b.
101 >> Do a few more C-b's, so you get a feel for where the cursor is.
102 Then do C-f's to return to the end of the line.
103 Then do one more C-f to move to the following line.
105 When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
106 the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It
107 enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text
108 without moving it off the screen.
110 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and
113 If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
114 (META-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
116 >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's.
118 When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word.
119 When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the
120 following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction.
122 >> Type M-f and M-b a few times, interspersed with C-f's and C-b's
123 so that you can observe the action of M-f and M-b from various
124 places inside and between words.
126 Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
127 M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
128 operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences,
129 paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are
130 independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc).
132 This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to
133 the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning
134 or end of a sentence.
136 >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
137 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
139 See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one
140 more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems
143 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
144 paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
147 Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the
148 word and sentence moving commands:
150 C-f Move forward a character
151 C-b Move backward a character
153 M-f Move forward a word
154 M-b Move backward a word
156 C-n Move to next line
157 C-p Move to previous line
159 C-a Move to beginning of line
160 C-e Move to end of line
162 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
163 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
165 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
166 These are the most often used commands.
168 Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (META Less-than),
169 which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (META
170 Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text.
172 On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the
173 shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key
174 to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
176 >> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial.
177 Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here.
179 >> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial.
180 Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here.
182 You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has
183 arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three
184 reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once
185 you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these Control
186 characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not
187 have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once
188 you form the habit of using these Control character commands, you can
189 easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well.
191 Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this
192 serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count
193 is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If
194 you have a META (or EDIT or ALT) key, there is another, alternative way
195 to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the
196 META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on
197 any terminal. The numeric argument is also called a "prefix argument",
198 because you type the argument before the command it applies to.
200 For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
202 >> Try using C-n or C-p with a numeric argument, to move the cursor
203 to a line near this one with just one command.
205 Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count, but some
206 commands use it in some other way. Several commands (but none of
207 those you have learned so far) use it as a flag--the presence of a
208 prefix argument, regardless of its value, makes the command do
211 C-v and M-v are another kind of exception. When given an argument,
212 they scroll the screen up or down by that many lines, rather than by a
213 screenful. For example, C-u 8 C-v scrolls the screen by 8 lines.
215 >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
217 This should have scrolled the screen up by 8 lines. If you would like
218 to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v.
220 If you are using a windowed display, such as X11 or MS-Windows, there
221 should be a tall rectangular area called a scroll bar at the left hand
222 side of the Emacs window. You can scroll the text by clicking the
223 mouse in the scroll bar.
225 >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
226 within the scroll bar. This should scroll the text to a position
227 determined by how high or low you click.
229 >> Try moving the mouse up and down, while holding the middle button
230 pressed down. You'll see that the text scrolls up and down as
237 If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by
238 typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too
241 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
242 a command that you do not want to finish.
244 >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
245 Now type C-f. It should move just one character,
246 because you canceled the argument with C-g.
248 If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
255 Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use
258 If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message
259 saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go
260 ahead and execute the command.
262 If you really want to try the command, type Space in answer to the
263 question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the disabled
264 command, answer the question with "n".
266 >> Type C-x C-l (which is a disabled command),
267 then type n to answer the question.
273 Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text. We will
274 explain later on how to use multiple windows. Right now we want to
275 explain how to get rid of extra windows and go back to basic
276 one-window editing. It is simple:
278 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
280 That is CONTROL-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window
281 which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all
284 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
285 >> Type CONTROL-h k CONTROL-f.
286 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
287 to display documentation on the CONTROL-f command.
289 >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
291 This command is unlike the other commands you have learned in that it
292 consists of two characters. It starts with the character CONTROL-x.
293 There is a whole series of commands that start with CONTROL-x; many of
294 them have to do with windows, files, buffers, and related things.
295 These commands are two, three or four characters long.
298 * INSERTING AND DELETING
299 ------------------------
301 If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you
302 can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
303 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
306 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delete>.
307 <Delete> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled "Del". In
308 some cases, the "Backspace" key serves as <Delete>, but not always!
310 More generally, <Delete> deletes the character immediately before the
311 current cursor position.
313 >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them
314 by typing <Delete> a few times. Don't worry about this file
315 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is
316 your personal copy of it.
318 When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line
319 of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\")
320 (or, if you're using a windowed display, a little curved arrow) at the
321 right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
323 >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting.
324 You'll see a continuation line appear.
326 >> Use <Delete>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
327 line again. The continuation line goes away.
329 You can delete a Newline character just like any other character.
330 Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into
331 one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the
332 screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line.
334 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
335 merges that line with the previous line.
337 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
339 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
340 this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts
343 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********.
345 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
346 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
347 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
349 <Delete> delete the character just before the cursor
350 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
352 M-<Delete> kill the word immediately before the cursor
353 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
355 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
356 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
358 Notice that <Delete> and C-d vs M-<Delete> and M-d extend the parallel
359 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delete> is not really a control
360 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
361 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
363 You can also kill any part of the buffer with one uniform method.
364 Move to one end of that part, and type C-@ or C-SPC (either one).
365 (SPC is the Space bar.) Move to the other end of that part, and type
366 C-w. That kills all the text between the two positions.
368 >> Move the cursor to the Y at the start of the previous paragraph.
369 >> Type C-SPC. Emacs should display a message "Mark set"
370 at the bottom of the screen.
371 >> Move the cursor to the n in "end", on the second line of the
373 >> Type C-w. This will kill the text starting from the Y,
374 and ending just before the n.
376 The difference between "killing" and "deleting" is that "killed" text
377 can be reinserted, whereas "deleted" things cannot be reinserted.
378 Reinsertion of killed text is called "yanking". Generally, the
379 commands that can remove a lot of text kill the text (they set up so
380 that you can yank the text), while the commands that remove just one
381 character, or just blank lines and spaces, do deletion (so you cannot
384 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty.
385 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line.
386 >> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline
387 which follows that line.
389 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
390 C-k kills the line itself, and makes all the other lines move up. C-k
391 treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND
392 their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two
393 lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that.
395 Bringing back killed text is called "yanking". (Think of it as
396 yanking back, or pulling back, some text that was taken away.) You
397 can yank the killed text either at the same place where it was killed,
398 or at some other place in the buffer, or even in a different file.
399 You can yank the text several times, which makes multiple copies of
402 The command for yanking is C-y. It reinserts the last killed text,
403 at the current cursor position.
405 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
407 If you do several C-k's in a row, all of the killed text is saved
408 together, so that one C-y will yank all of the lines at once.
410 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
412 Now to retrieve that killed text:
414 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
415 again. You now see how to copy some text.
417 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
418 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
419 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
420 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
421 M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
422 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have
423 reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to
424 keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where
427 If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most
430 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
431 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
432 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
433 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
434 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
435 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
442 If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a
443 mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u.
445 Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat
446 the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one
449 But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do
450 not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling
451 command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups
452 of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to
453 type to undo insertion of text.)
455 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
457 C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u,
458 but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of
459 C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That
460 is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_
461 by typing / while holding down CONTROL.
463 A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count.
465 You can undo deletion of text just as you can undo killing of text.
466 The distinction between killing something and deleting it affects
467 whether you can yank it with C-y; it makes no difference for undo.
473 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
474 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
475 away. In order to put your text in a file, you must "find" the file
476 before you enter the text. (This is also called "visiting" the file.)
478 Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within
479 Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself.
480 However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent
481 until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a
482 half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when
483 you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case
484 you later decide that your changes were a mistake.
486 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
487 begins and ends with dashes, and starts with "--:-- TUTORIAL" or
488 something like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name
489 of the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file
490 called "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs
491 tutorial. When you find a file with Emacs, that file's name will
492 appear in that precise spot.
494 One special thing about the command for finding a file is that you
495 have to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an
496 argument from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of
497 the file). After you type the command
501 Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears
502 on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the
503 minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use
504 ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name.
506 While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input),
507 you can cancel the command with C-g.
509 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
510 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
511 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
513 When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to
514 terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file
515 you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is
518 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can
519 edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent,
522 C-x C-s Save the file
524 This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you
525 do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is
526 not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the
527 original file's name.
529 When saving is finished, Emacs displays the name of the file written.
530 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
531 work if the system should crash.
533 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
534 This should show "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
536 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you
537 will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an
538 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the
539 C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen,
540 type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental
541 Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
543 You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also
544 find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a
545 file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then
546 begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the
547 file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have
548 inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an
549 already existing file.
555 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
556 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
557 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
559 >> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>.
560 Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s.
561 Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return>
562 to come back to the tutorial.
564 Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer".
565 Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the
566 buffers that currently exist in your Emacs job, type
572 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name for
573 the file whose contents it holds. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
574 is always part of some buffer.
576 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
578 When you have several buffers, only one of them is "current" at any
579 time. That buffer is the one you edit. If you want to edit another
580 buffer, you need to "switch" to it. If you want to switch to a buffer
581 that corresponds to a file, you can do it by visiting the file again
582 with C-x C-f. But there is an easier way: use the C-x b command.
583 In that command, you have to type the buffer's name.
585 >> Type C-x b foo <Return> to go back to the buffer "foo" which holds
586 the text of the file "foo". Then type C-x b TUTORIAL <Return>
587 to come back to this tutorial.
589 Most of the time, the buffer's name is the same as the file name
590 (without the file directory part). However, this is not always true.
591 The buffer list you make with C-x C-b always shows you the name of
594 ANY text you see in an Emacs window is always part of some buffer.
595 Some buffers do not correspond to files. For example, the buffer
596 named "*Buffer List*" does not have any file. It is the buffer which
597 contains the buffer list that you made with C-x C-b. The buffer named
598 "*Messages*" also does not correspond to any file; it contains the
599 messages that have appeared on the bottom line during your Emacs
602 >> Type C-x b *Messages* <Return> to look at the buffer of messages.
603 Then type C-b TUTORIAL <Return> to come back to this tutorial.
605 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
606 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
607 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
608 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
609 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
610 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
611 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
613 C-x s Save some buffers
615 C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have
616 not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the
619 >> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s.
620 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL.
621 Answer yes to the question by typing "y".
624 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
625 ---------------------------
627 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
628 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
629 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
631 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
632 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
634 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
635 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of
636 them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another
637 example is the command to end the Emacs session--this is the command
638 C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c
639 offers to save each changed file before it kills the Emacs.)
641 C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go
642 back to the same Emacs session afterward.
644 On systems which allow it, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns
645 to the shell but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common
646 shells, you can resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'.
648 On systems which do not implement suspending, C-z creates a subshell
649 running under Emacs to give you the chance to run other programs and
650 return to Emacs afterward; it does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In
651 this case, the shell command `exit' is the usual way to get back to
652 Emacs from the subshell.
654 The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also
655 the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling
656 programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know
657 how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances,
658 though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs
659 with C-z instead of exiting Emacs.
661 There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned:
665 C-x C-b List buffers.
667 C-x 1 Delete all but one window.
670 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
671 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An
672 example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one
673 string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the
674 bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the
675 command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and
676 Emacs will complete the name. (<TAB> is the Tab key, usually found
677 above the CapsLock or Shift key near the left edge of the keyboard.)
678 End the command name with <Return>.
680 The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be
681 replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each
682 argument with <Return>.
684 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
685 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
687 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
688 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred,
689 after the initial position of the cursor.
695 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet,
696 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from
697 this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that
698 you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and
699 the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save
700 file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way,
701 Emacs deletes its auto save file.
703 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by
704 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto
705 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<Return>. When it asks for
706 confirmation, type yes<Return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save
713 If Emacs sees that you are typing multicharacter commands slowly, it
714 shows them to you at the bottom of the screen in an area called the
715 "echo area". The echo area contains the bottom line of the screen.
721 The line immediately above the echo area is called the "mode line".
722 The mode line says something like this:
724 --:** TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%----------------
726 This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and
727 the text you are editing.
729 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
730 found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means
731 that NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the
732 top of the file is on the screen, it will say --Top-- instead of
733 --00%--. If the bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say
734 --Bot--. If you are looking at text so small that all of it fits on
735 the screen, the mode line says --All--.
737 The L and digits indicate position in another way: they give the
738 current line number of point.
740 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
741 Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows
742 no stars, just dashes.
744 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
745 editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is
746 what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode".
748 Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for
749 editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode,
750 Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active,
751 and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
752 "Fundamental" is now.
754 Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example,
755 there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each
756 programming language has a different idea of what a comment should
757 look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each
758 major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can
759 switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to
760 switch to Fundamental mode.
762 If you are going to be editing human-language text, such as this file, you
763 should probably use Text Mode.
764 >> Type M-x text mode<Return>.
766 Don't worry, none of the Emacs commands you have learned changes in
767 any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat
768 apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode,
769 M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators.
771 Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands
772 do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit
775 To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
777 >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
778 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
779 >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
781 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
782 Minor modes are not alternatives to the major modes, just minor
783 modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by
784 itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your
785 major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any
786 combination of several minor modes.
788 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing
789 human-language text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs
790 breaks the line in between words automatically whenever you insert
791 text and make a line that is too wide.
793 You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto fill mode<Return>.
794 When the mode is on, you can turn it off again by doing M-x
795 auto fill mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on,
796 and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the
797 command "toggles the mode".
799 >> Type M-x auto fill mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
800 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
801 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
803 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
804 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
805 as a numeric argument.
807 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
808 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
809 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
812 If you make changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
813 does not re-fill it for you.
814 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (META-q) with the cursor inside
817 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
823 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
824 characters or words) either forward through the text or backward
825 through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command;
826 it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears.
828 The Emacs search command is different from the search commands
829 of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the
830 search happens while you type in the string to search for.
832 The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r
833 for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now.
835 When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as
836 a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is
837 called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that
838 you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search.
840 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
841 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
842 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
843 Now you have searched for "cursor", once.
844 >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor".
845 >> Now type <Delete> four times and see how the cursor moves.
846 >> Type <Return> to terminate the search.
848 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
849 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To
850 go to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
851 occurrence exists, Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently
852 "failing". C-g would also terminate the search.
854 NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will
855 see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating
856 system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not
857 letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q.
858 Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the
859 Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature".
861 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delete>,
862 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
863 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
864 instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first
865 occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move
866 to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delete>. This erases
867 the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to
868 the first occurrence of "c".
870 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta
871 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in
872 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated.
874 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
875 string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for
876 something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we
877 have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of
878 the search is reversed.
884 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
885 window on the screen at the same time.
887 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l (that's CONTROL-L, not
890 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
891 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
893 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
894 (If you do not have a real META key, type ESC C-v.)
896 >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
897 >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
898 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
900 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
901 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before.
903 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
904 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
905 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
906 window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window".
908 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
909 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
910 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance
911 through the other window sequentially with C-M-v.
913 C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real
914 META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CONTROL and META while
915 typing v. It does not matter whether CONTROL or META "comes first,"
916 because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type.
918 If you do not have a real META key, and you use ESC instead, the order
919 does matter: you must type ESC followed by CONTROL-v, because
920 CONTROL-ESC v will not work. This is because ESC is a character in
921 its own right, not a modifier key.
923 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
925 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
926 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
927 window--the window I am already in.")
929 You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you
930 use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not
931 change. You can find a file in each window independently.
933 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
936 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
937 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
938 window. The cursor goes there, too.
940 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
944 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
945 --------------------------
947 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
948 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
949 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
950 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
952 To get out of the recursive editing level, type ESC ESC ESC. That is
953 an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for eliminating
954 extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer.
956 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC ESC to get out.
958 You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is
959 because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the
960 recursive editing level.
966 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
967 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
968 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
969 to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features.
970 Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs
971 commands. These "help" commands all start with the character
972 CONTROL-h, which is called "the Help character".
974 To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a
975 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
976 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
977 If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just
978 type C-g to cancel it.
980 (Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. They really
981 should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you have
982 grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h
983 does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try
984 typing the F1 key or M-x help <Return> instead.)
986 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and
987 a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief
988 description of the command.
991 The message should be something like
993 C-p runs the command previous-line
995 This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used
996 mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names
997 are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as
998 very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you
999 have already learned.
1001 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
1002 EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
1004 To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
1008 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
1009 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
1010 output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
1011 to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
1012 to the help text, and then type C-x 1.
1014 Here are some other useful C-h options:
1016 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
1019 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
1020 This displays all the information Emacs has about the
1021 function which implements the C-p command.
1023 A similar command C-h v displays the documentation of variables whose
1024 values you can set to customize Emacs behavior. You need to type in
1025 the name of the variable when Emacs prompts for it.
1027 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
1028 all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
1029 These commands can all be invoked with META-x.
1030 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
1031 or two character sequence which runs the same command.
1033 >> Type C-h a file<Return>.
1035 This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file"
1036 in their names. You will see character-commands like C-x C-f listed
1037 beside the corresponding command names such as find-file.
1039 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
1041 >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
1043 C-h i Read On-line Manuals (a.k.a. Info). This command puts
1044 you into a special buffer called `*info*' where you
1045 can read on-line manuals for the packages installed on
1046 your system. Type m emacs <Return> to read the Emacs
1047 manual. If you have never before used Info, type ?
1048 and Emacs will take you on a guided tour of Info mode
1049 facilities. Once you are through with this tutorial,
1050 you should consult the Emacs Info manual as your
1051 primary documentation.
1057 You can learn more about Emacs by reading its manual, either as a book
1058 or on-line in Info (use the Help menu or type F10 h r). Two features
1059 that you may like especially are completion, which saves typing, and
1060 dired, which simplifies file handling.
1062 Completion is a way to avoid unnecessary typing. For instance, if you
1063 want to switch to the *Messages* buffer, you can type C-x b *M<Tab>
1064 and Emacs will fill in the rest of the buffer name as far as it can
1065 determine from what you have already typed. Completion is described
1066 in Info in the Emacs manual in the node called "Completion".
1068 Dired enables you to list files in a directory (and optionally its
1069 subdirectories), move around that list, visit, rename, delete and
1070 otherwise operate on the files. Dired is described in Info in the
1071 Emacs manual in the node called "Dired".
1073 The manual also describes many other Emacs features.
1079 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
1080 temporarily, so that you can come back to Emacs afterward, use C-z.
1082 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
1083 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
1089 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
1090 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
1092 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
1093 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
1095 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation
1097 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
1098 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
1099 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
1100 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
1101 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
1103 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
1104 of this document, or of portions of it,
1105 under the above conditions, provided also that they
1106 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
1108 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are more complex, but in the
1109 same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of
1110 GNU Emacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism
1111 ("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software!