1 GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
3 [To find what has changed, see the "Changes" posting.]
5 [Joe Wells (me) has quit as FAQ coordinator. Steven Byrnes is taking over this
6 responsibility. Let's give him a big round of applause! More volunteers are
7 still needed to help by taking charge of a section of the FAQ list. Send
8 e-mail if you are interested. - jbw]
10 [First, I'd like to thank Joe for all of the work he's done on the FAQ to
11 date. Second: due to a hectic schedule, getting up to speed with
12 maintaining the FAQ, and trying to fix up some loose ends, this release of
13 the FAQ is coming out a bit late. (Ok, a lot late. :) I hope to get
14 another release, fixing up some lose ends, by the end of the month.
17 This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about
18 GNU Emacs with answers. This article contains a listing of the questions;
19 subsequent articles contain the questions and answers.
21 The FAQ list is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help'
22 newsgroup (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results from
23 the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these questions,
24 corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, name
25 calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best" answers
26 to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a slight
27 change that improves an answer, please tell us!
29 If you know the answer of a question is in the FAQ list, please reply to the
30 question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
32 The FAQ list is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive
33 the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ list is also crossposted to `news.answers'.
35 Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. The
36 most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (ie., the output of `diff
37 -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us about the FAQ list.
39 Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb a
40 lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have time to
41 answer questions individually. :-(
43 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
44 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
45 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
46 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
48 These ideas have already been suggested, but we have not had time to
52 * Marking questions in the table of contents that have been changed
56 Steven Byrnes <sbyrnes@rice.edu> (and Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>)
58 E-mail lpf@uunet.uu.net for details about the League for Programming Freedom.
60 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
62 GNU Emacs FAQ: Table of Contents
66 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
67 2: What does "M-x command" mean?
68 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
69 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
70 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
74 6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
75 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
76 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
78 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
79 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
80 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
81 12: What is the current address of the FSF?
83 On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
85 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
86 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
87 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
88 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
89 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
90 18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
91 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
92 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
93 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
94 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
98 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
99 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
100 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
101 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
102 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
104 Common Things People Want To Do
106 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
107 29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
108 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
109 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
110 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
111 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
112 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
114 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
115 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
116 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
117 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
118 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
119 40: How do I change load-path?
120 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
121 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
122 43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
123 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
124 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
125 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
126 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
127 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
128 indentation of the previous line?
129 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
130 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
131 commands are handled by the compiler?
132 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
133 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
134 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
135 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
136 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
137 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
138 underlined paragraph?
139 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
140 58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
141 should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
142 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
143 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
144 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
145 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
149 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
150 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
151 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
152 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
153 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
154 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
155 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
156 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
157 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
158 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
159 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
160 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
161 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
162 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
163 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
165 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
166 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
168 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
169 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
170 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
172 Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
174 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
175 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
176 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
177 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
179 Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
181 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
182 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
183 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
184 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
185 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
186 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
187 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
188 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
189 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
190 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
191 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
192 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
193 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
194 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
195 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
196 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
197 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
198 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
199 Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
200 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
202 Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
204 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
205 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
206 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
207 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
208 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
209 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
210 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
211 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
212 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
213 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
214 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
215 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
216 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
217 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
218 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
219 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
220 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
221 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
222 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
224 Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
226 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
227 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
228 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
229 .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
230 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
231 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
232 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
233 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
234 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
236 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
237 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
238 135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
239 136: How do I "swap" two keys?
240 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
241 138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
242 139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
243 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
244 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
245 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
246 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
247 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
248 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
249 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
251 Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
253 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
254 148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
255 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
256 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
257 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
261 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
262 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
263 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
264 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
265 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
266 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
267 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
268 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
269 160: How do I read news under Emacs?
270 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
271 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
272 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
273 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
274 the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
275 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
276 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
277 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
278 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
279 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
280 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
281 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
282 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
283 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
284 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
285 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
286 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
287 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
290 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
291 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells
292 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes
294 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers
295 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other
296 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new
297 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as
298 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice
299 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining
300 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and
301 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including
302 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these
303 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary
304 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution.
306 GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
308 [To find what has changed, see the "Changes" posting.]
310 [Joe Wells (me) has quit as FAQ coordinator. Steven Byrnes is taking over this
311 responsibility. Let's give him a big round of applause! More volunteers are
312 still needed to help by taking charge of a section of the FAQ list. Send
313 e-mail if you are interested. - jbw]
315 [First, I'd like to thank Joe for all of the work he's done on the FAQ to
316 date. Second: due to a hectic schedule, getting up to speed with
317 maintaining the FAQ, and trying to fix up some loose ends, this release of
318 the FAQ is coming out a bit late. (Ok, a lot late. :) I hope to get
319 another release, fixing up some lose ends, by the end of the month.
322 This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about
323 GNU Emacs with answers. This article contains a listing of the questions;
324 subsequent articles contain the questions and answers.
326 The FAQ list is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help'
327 newsgroup (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results from
328 the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these questions,
329 corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, name
330 calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best" answers
331 to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a slight
332 change that improves an answer, please tell us!
334 If you know the answer of a question is in the FAQ list, please reply to the
335 question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
337 The FAQ list is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive
338 the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ list is also crossposted to `news.answers'.
340 Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. The
341 most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (ie., the output of `diff
342 -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us about the FAQ list.
344 Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb a
345 lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have time to
346 answer questions individually. :-(
348 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
349 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
350 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
351 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
353 These ideas have already been suggested, but we have not had time to
357 * Marking questions in the table of contents that have been changed
361 Steven Byrnes <sbyrnes@rice.edu> (and Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>)
363 E-mail lpf@uunet.uu.net for details about the League for Programming Freedom.
365 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
367 GNU Emacs FAQ: Table of Contents
371 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
372 2: What does "M-x command" mean?
373 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
374 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
375 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
379 6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
380 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
381 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
383 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
384 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
385 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
386 12: What is the current address of the FSF?
388 On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
390 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
391 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
392 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
393 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
394 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
395 18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
396 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
397 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
398 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
399 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
403 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
404 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
405 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
406 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
407 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
409 Common Things People Want To Do
411 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
412 29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
413 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
414 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
415 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
416 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
417 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
419 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
420 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
421 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
422 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
423 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
424 40: How do I change load-path?
425 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
426 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
427 43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
428 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
429 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
430 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
431 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
432 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
433 indentation of the previous line?
434 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
435 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
436 commands are handled by the compiler?
437 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
438 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
439 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
440 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
441 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
442 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
443 underlined paragraph?
444 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
445 58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
446 should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
447 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
448 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
449 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
450 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
454 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
455 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
456 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
457 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
458 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
459 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
460 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
461 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
462 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
463 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
464 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
465 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
466 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
467 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
468 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
470 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
471 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
473 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
474 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
475 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
477 Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
479 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
480 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
481 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
482 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
484 Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
486 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
487 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
488 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
489 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
490 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
491 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
492 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
493 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
494 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
495 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
496 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
497 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
498 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
499 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
500 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
501 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
502 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
503 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
504 Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
505 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
507 Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
509 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
510 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
511 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
512 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
513 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
514 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
515 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
516 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
517 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
518 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
519 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
520 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
521 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
522 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
523 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
524 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
525 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
526 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
527 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
529 Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
531 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
532 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
533 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
534 .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
535 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
536 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
537 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
538 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
539 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
541 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
542 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
543 135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
544 136: How do I "swap" two keys?
545 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
546 138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
547 139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
548 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
549 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
550 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
551 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
552 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
553 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
554 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
556 Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
558 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
559 148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
560 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
561 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
562 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
566 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
567 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
568 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
569 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
570 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
571 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
572 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
573 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
574 160: How do I read news under Emacs?
575 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
576 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
577 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
578 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
579 the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
580 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
581 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
582 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
583 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
584 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
585 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
586 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
587 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
588 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
589 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
590 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
591 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
592 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
595 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
596 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells
597 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes
599 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers
600 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other
601 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new
602 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as
603 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice
604 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining
605 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and
606 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including
607 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these
608 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary
609 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution.
612 GNU Emacs FAQ: Notation/General/Help/Status
614 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
615 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
616 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
618 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
619 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
621 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
622 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
625 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
626 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
627 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
628 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
634 Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the
637 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
639 C-x means press the `x' key while holding down the Control key. M-x means
640 press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key. M-C-x means press the
641 `x' key while holding down both the Control key and the Meta key. C-M-a
642 is a synonym for M-C-a. RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, and TAB respectively refer to
643 pressing the Return, Linefeed (aka Newline), Delete, Escape, and Tab keys
644 and are equivalent to C-m, C-j, C-?, C-[, and C-i. SPC means press the
647 I put any key sequence that is longer than one key (and some single-key
648 sequences) inside double quotes or on a line by itself. Any real spaces
649 in such a key sequence should be ignored; only SPC really means press the
652 The ASCII code sent by C-x (except for C-?) is the value that would be
653 sent by pressing just `x' minus 96 (or 64 for uppercase `X') and will be
654 from 0 to 31. The ASCII code sent by M-x is the sum of 128 and the ASCII
655 code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the
656 Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7.
658 For further information, see `Characters' and `Keys' in the online manual.
660 NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a
661 "control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very
662 few keyboards does Control-? generate ASCII code 127.
664 2: What does "M-x command" mean?
666 "M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
669 M-x (by default) invokes the command `execute-extended-command'. This
670 command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the
671 command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type
672 TAB and SPC for completion, and "?" for a list of possibilities. An Emacs
673 "command" is any "interactive" Emacs function.
675 NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to
676 invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good
679 To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 53.
681 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
683 When I refer you to topic XXX in the on-line manual, you can read this
684 manual node inside Emacs (assuming nothing is broken) by typing this:
686 C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET
688 This invokes the Info facility. If you don't already know how to use
689 Info, type "?" from within Info.
691 If I refer you to topic XXX:YYY, you need to type this:
693 C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET m YYY RET
695 WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files,
696 or may have installed them properly. In this case you should complain.
698 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
700 These are files that come with GNU Emacs. The GNU Emacs distribution is
701 divided into subdirectories; the important ones are `etc', `lisp', and
704 If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system,
705 start Emacs, then type "C-h v exec-directory RET". The directory name
706 displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed `etc'
709 Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail, see
710 question 20. All are available in the source distribution.
712 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
714 FSF == Free Software Foundation
715 LPF == League for Programming Freedom
716 OSF == Open Software Foundation
717 GNU == GNU's Not Unix
718 RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman
719 FTP == File Transfer Protocol
720 GPL == GNU General Public Licence
722 NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes
723 look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high
724 quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a commercial
725 organization which wants to provide an alternative, standardized version
726 of Unix not controlled by AT&T.
728 NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers
729 to "freedom", not "zero dollars". Anyone can charge any price for
730 GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the freedom
731 enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always get the
732 software for less money from someone else, because everyone has the right
733 to resell or give away GPL-covered software.
739 6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
741 The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and look-and-feel
742 copyrights. To get more information, feel free to contact the LPF via
743 e-mail or otherwise. {You may also contact me, jbw@cs.bu.edu; I will be
744 happy to talk with you about the LPF.} Here is the contact information:
746 E-mail address: league@prep.ai.mit.edu
747 Phone number: (617) 243-4091
749 League for Programming Freedom
750 1 Kendall Square, Number 143
752 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
754 Papers describing the LPF's views are available on the internet and also
758 /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/lpf/
759 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/lpf/
763 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
765 The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public Licence (copyleft) is
766 however it is interpreted by a judge. There has never been a copyright
767 infringment case involving the GPL to set any precedents. Please take any
768 discussion regarding this issue to the newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss, which
769 was created to hold the extensive flame wars on the subject.
773 The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the spirit,
774 which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work pertaining
775 to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that all users have
776 the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs. To make sure
777 everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you distribute
778 any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the recipients the
779 same freedom that you enjoyed.
781 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
784 The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list.
785 (See question 20 on how to get a copy.) For those which are gatewayed
786 with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the mailing list
789 comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This
790 includes GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE,
791 MicroEmacs, Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, Epsilon, etc.
793 Many people post GNU Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't
794 receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for
795 and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have
796 to decide for yourself.
798 Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on any
799 of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to
800 hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "non-free" software
801 includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify the
802 source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the gnu.*
803 groups from the `Newsgroups:' line when posting a followup that recommends
806 gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug
807 reports to this newsgroup, instead see question 10.
809 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
811 The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many
812 years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The
813 archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
814 postings from, but pretty much everything is there.
817 /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/ !
819 There is a WAIS database named `comp.emacs' on wais.oit.unc.edu that !
820 makes available the last few days of articles in comp.emacs. !
822 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
824 The correct way to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
825 bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Anything sent here also appears in the
826 newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit
827 the bug report. This way a reliable return address is available so you
828 can be contacted for further details.
832 Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting
833 on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an
834 unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and
835 have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much
836 smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have
837 expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others.
839 However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to
842 If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix, then
843 after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on
844 gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you.
846 If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell:
848 ... if Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
849 while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that is
850 a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it does,
853 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
855 If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named `XXX', you might be able
856 to unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address
857 `XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu'. However, this will not work if you are
858 not listed on the main mailing list, but instead recieve the mail from a
859 distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which
860 distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the `Received:' headers
861 on the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the `EXPN' or
862 `VRFY' sendmail commands through `telnet <site-address> smtp'. Ask your
865 12: What is the current address of the FSF?
867 E-mail address: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
868 Phone number: (617) 876-3296
870 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
871 675 Massachusetts Avenue
872 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
876 On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
878 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
880 Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is
881 how to enter the help system.
883 WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL to
884 deal local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to invoke
885 help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system, type
886 "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a comma-separated
887 list of key sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last character in each
888 key sequence listed. Each of the resulting key sequences invokes help.
890 NOTE: Emacs's help facility works best if help is invoked by a single key
891 whose value should be stored in the variable help-char. Andrew
892 Arensburger <arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote a patch that allows the help
893 facility to work properly when invoked by multiple character sequences.
895 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
897 There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
899 * The complete text of the Emacs manual is available online via the Info
900 hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info.
902 * You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15.
904 * You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to invoke
905 them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or you can
906 print your own from the etc/refcard.tex file in the Emacs distribution.
907 {Are PostScript versions of this available for FTP?}
909 * You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word
910 (actually which match a regular expression) using "C-h a"
911 (M-x command-apropos).
913 * You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a
914 certain word using M-x apropos.
916 * There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and information.
917 To get a list of these commands, type "C-h C-h C-h".
919 NOTE: You may find that command-apropos and apropos are extremely slow
920 on your system. This will be fixed in Emacs 19. If you can't wait that
921 long, there is a fast-apropos.el file available in the Emacs Lisp
922 Archive (see question 89) that contains the fix.
924 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
926 You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF for
927 $20. For 6 or more manuals the price is $13 each. The price may be
928 tax-deductible as a business expense.
930 The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the `man' directory of
931 the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this
932 300 page manual yourself (see question 18).
934 If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX, you
935 can get a PostScript version via anonymous FTP:
937 /cs.ubc.ca:src/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-18.57.ps.Z
939 which site requests that you please CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE
940 EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME (pacific time zone, GMT-8)). A DVI
941 version is also available via FTP:
943 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.Z
945 If you don't have TeX you can convert the Texinfo sources into
946 {t,n,ps}roff format with the `texi2roff' program, which is available via
949 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/texi2roff/texi2roff.shar.Z
951 See also question 14 for how to view the manual online.
953 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
955 Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a
956 function, "C-h v" for a variable.
958 For more information, obtain the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for Emacs
959 18 under Unix. It is available from the FSF for $50 (or 5 for $200). The
960 latest revision available for FTP is edition 1.03 dated 28 January 1991.
962 For online use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the
963 Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP:
965 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/
966 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-1.03.tar.Z
968 (You can also create the Info files from the Texinfo source.) See
969 question 17 for details on how to install these files online.
971 If you are daring enough to try to print this 550 page manual out
972 yourself, for instructions see question 18.
974 Also, as a popular USENET saying goes, "Use the Force, Read the Source".
976 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
978 First create Info files from the Texinfo files with the `makeinfo'
979 program. makeinfo is available as part of the latest Texinfo package:
981 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-2.14.tar.Z
983 For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
984 comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so you
987 Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor the makeinfo program install the
988 resulting Info files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:
990 1. Move the files to the `info' directory in the installed Emacs
991 distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that
994 2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a
995 line for the top level node in the Info package that you are
996 installing. Follow the examples are already in this file. The format
999 * Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
1001 If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary
1002 privileges, you have several options:
1004 * Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You
1005 can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing
1006 "g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
1007 goes to the node named `Top' in that file. For example, to view a Info
1008 file named `XXX' in your home directory, you can type this:
1012 * You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the
1013 Info directory is by setting the value of the variable Info-directory
1014 to its pathname. For example, to use a private Info directory which
1015 is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info', you could do
1018 (setq Info-directory (expand-file-name "~/Info"))
1020 You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory.
1021 You can include the system-wide Info directory in your private Info
1022 directory with symbolic links or by copying it.
1024 * You can use an enhanced version of lisp/info.el that handles multiple
1025 Info directories. Then you can more easily use a mix of private and
1026 shared Info files. Dave Gillespie <daveg@synaptics.com,
1027 daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> has written one such enhancement and I
1028 believe there are others. Dave's info.el also handles compressed Info
1032 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:modes/info.el.Z
1033 /cs.umn.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/info.el.Z
1035 According to Jay Bourland <jayb@math.stanford.edu>, a version of Dave's
1036 info.el comes with `xinfo' (see question 19).
1038 18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
1040 NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still
1041 have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print.
1043 1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
1047 You may need to alter `texinfo' to the full pathname of the
1048 texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy
1049 or link it into the current directory).
1055 The `texindex' program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
1059 5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files
1062 To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package
1063 mentioned in question 17.
1065 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
1067 Yes, the `info', `xinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. info uses
1068 curses, xinfo uses standard X11 libraries, and ivinfo uses InterViews.
1069 You can get info as part of the latest Texinfo package (see question
1070 17). xinfo is available separately:
1072 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.Z
1073 /export.lcs.mit.edu:
1075 ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc archive or from Tom Horsley
1076 <tom@ssd.csd.harris.com>. For ivinfo, you need Stanford's InterViews C++
1077 X library, available via anonymous FTP (interviews.stanford.edu).
1079 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
1081 This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
1082 informational files about GNU Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU
1083 project are available for you to read.
1085 The following files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU
1086 Emacs distribution, and also the latest versions are available
1087 individually via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/):
1089 APPLE -- Why the FSF doen't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers
1090 DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information,
1091 including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form"
1092 FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP
1093 GNU -- The GNU Manifesto
1094 INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain
1095 UNIX-compatible software system
1097 MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
1098 MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
1099 SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
1100 SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"
1102 These files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs
1105 DIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Twenex Emacs
1106 CCADIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and CCA Emacs
1107 GOSDIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Gosling (Unipress??) Emacs
1108 COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License
1109 NEWS -- GNU Emacs News, a history of user-visible changes
1110 LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
1111 FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
1112 OPTIONS -- a complete explanation of startup option handling
1114 These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/):
1116 tasks -- GNU Task List
1117 standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards
1119 In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF
1120 via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source
1123 These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail:
1125 * GNU's Bulletin, June, 1991 -- this file includes:
1127 What Is the Free Software Foundation?
1129 A Small Way to Help Free Software
1130 GNUs Flashes (important recent developments for project GNU)
1131 Free Software Support (and how to get it!)
1132 Copyrighted Programming Languages
1133 AT&T Threatens Users of X Windows (and other software patent threats)
1135 GNU Project Status Report
1138 Help Keep Government Software Free
1139 GNU Software Available Now
1140 Contents of the Emacs Tape
1141 Contents of the Compiler Tape
1142 Contents of the X11 Tapes
1143 VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
1145 How to Get GNU Software
1146 Free Software for Microcomputers
1147 GNU Software on Apple computers
1148 GNU Software on the Amiga
1149 GNU Software on the Atari
1150 GNUish MS-DOS project
1151 Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS
1155 * Legal issues about contributing code to GNU
1156 * GNU Project Status Report
1158 A collection of past GNU's Bulletins is available via anonymous FTP:
1160 /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/Bulletins/
1162 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
1164 Look in etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who will sell
1165 you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the SERVICE file is
1166 available on prep.ai.mit.edu (also see question 20).
1168 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
1170 The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
1172 * Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your
1173 news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups. Every
1174 news reader of which I know will allow you to read any news article that
1175 is still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before.
1176 You may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover
1177 how to do this. In `rn', this command will do this for you at the
1178 article selection level:
1182 In GNUS, you should type "C-u G" from the *Subject* buffer or "C-u SPC"
1183 from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a newsgroup.
1185 The FAQ articles' message IDs are:
1187 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-0.1993.01.05.171933@rice.edu> !
1188 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-1.1993.01.05.171933@rice.edu> !
1189 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-2.1993.01.05.171933@rice.edu> !
1190 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-3.1993.01.05.171933@rice.edu> !
1191 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-4.1993.01.05.171933@rice.edu> !
1192 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-5.1993.01.05.171933@rice.edu> !
1194 If you are viewing this in the GNUS *Article* buffer, you can move point
1195 within one of the above message IDs and type "r" to fetch the referenced
1196 article. Type "o" in the *Article* buffer to restore the previous
1197 contents. If this text is not in the GNUS *Article* buffer, use M-r
1198 from the *Subject* buffer instead.
1200 If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool,
1201 it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
1202 administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before
1205 * Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP
1207 /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/ part*
1209 * Via e-mail. You can send the following magical incantation in the body
1210 of a message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu:
1212 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part0
1213 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1
1214 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2
1215 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3
1216 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part4
1217 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part5
1219 * Via WAIS. The GNU Emacs FAQ is available via WAIS indexed on a
1220 per-question basis from the `faq' database on bigbird.bu.edu on the
1221 non-standard IP port number of 2210. This is probably the best way to
1222 find out if there is something in the FAQ related to your question. I
1223 use this myself to answer questions I see posted on gnu.emacs.help.
1225 The articles of the GNU Emacs FAQ are also available from the `usenet'
1226 database on rtfm.mit.edu (on the standard IP port: 210), along with a
1227 lot of other FAQ articles. However, these are all indexed at the whole
1228 article level instead of at the question level. This is a better place
1229 to look if you want to fetch the entire FAQ.
1231 * In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest
1232 available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the
1233 GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.59 is the latest version, !
1234 and it was released in October 1992. !
1236 * There is an old version of the FAQ list available for FTP in the GNU
1239 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FAQ.emacs
1241 * As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to
1242 gnu-emacs-faq-maintainers@bigbird.bu.edu. Don't do this unless you have
1243 made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the methods
1250 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
1252 Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked
1253 the name `Emacs' because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at
1254 the time.". The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by
1255 RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector (originally Tape Editor
1256 and COrrector)) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended TECO with
1257 a "real-time" full screen mode with active keys. Emacs was started by Guy
1258 Steele <gls@think.com> as a project to unify the many divergent TECO
1259 command sets and keybindings at MIT.
1261 Many people have told me that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See
1262 alt.lang.teco if you are interested. I think someone has written a TECO
1263 implementation in Emacs Lisp. It would be an interesting project to run
1264 the original TECO Emacs inside of GNU Emacs.
1266 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
1268 GNU Emacs 18.59 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better !
1269 mail address parsing, an X visual bell speedup, a call-process
1270 enhancement, a regexp matching change, the ability to apply a numeric
1271 argument to a self-inserting digit, getting X resource values from the
1272 RESOURCE_MANAGER property, more reliable shell mode job control, and a
1273 change to copy-keymap. Also, support has been added for many new system
1274 types. Fixes from 18.55 include the removal of arbitrary limits on the
1277 According to the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin, "Emacs 18 maintenance
1278 continues for simple bug fixes.".
1280 To visit a file with information about what has changed in recent
1281 versions, type "C-h n".
1283 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
1285 There are strong indications that Emacs 19 will be available in 1992. The
1286 FSF has recently gone through a spate of copyright disclaimer checking,
1287 which is a good sign.
1289 Lucid has released Lucid GNU Emacs 19.3, which is based on an early !
1290 unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19. This will be similar to Emacs 19 when
1291 it finally arrives, but they are not the same. See question 121.
1293 Work has begun on features for Emacs 20.
1295 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
1297 From the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin:
1299 Version 19 will enter beta test late this year. Among its new features
1300 are: before and after change hooks, source-level debugging of Emacs Lisp
1301 programs, X selection processing (including clipboard selections),
1302 scrollbars, support for European character sets, floating point numbers,
1303 per-buffer mouse commands, X resource manager interfacing,
1304 mouse-tracking, Lisp-level binding of function keys, multiple X windows
1305 (`screens' to Emacs), a new input system, and buffer allocation, which
1306 uses a new mechanism capable of returning storage to the system when a
1309 The input stream is now a sequence of Lisp objects, instead of a
1310 sequence of characters. This allows a reasonable representation for
1311 mouse clicks, function keys, menu selections, etc.
1313 Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch for
1314 generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs, and to Eric
1315 Raymond for help in polishing the Emacs 19 Lisp libraries.
1317 The June 1991 GNU's bulletin had this to say about future plans for Emacs:
1319 Features being considered for later releases of Emacs include:
1320 associating property lists with regions of text in a buffer; multiple
1321 fonts, color, and pixmaps defined by those properties; different
1322 visibility conditions for the regions, and for various windows showing
1323 one buffer; hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain
1324 range; incrementally saving undo history in a file; static menu bars;
1325 and better pop-up menus.
1327 Mention of this feature disappeared in the January 1992 GNU's bulletin:
1329 Emacs 19 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a separate
1330 screen for the minibuffer, and another with a minibuffer attached to
1333 Mention of these two proposed features disappeared in the January 1991
1336 * Incremental syntax analysis for various programming languages (Leif).
1337 * A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which would provide
1338 network transparent Emacs widget functionality.
1340 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
1342 * Nemacs (Nihongo Emacs), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from
1343 GNU Emacs 18.55. See question 149.
1345 * Demacs, which can run under MS-DOS on 386 machines, is derived from
1346 Nemacs. See question 122.
1348 * Epoch, which has better X support, is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58.
1349 See question 120 and 92.
1351 * Nepoch (Nihongo Epoch), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from
1354 * Mule (the MULtilingual Enhancement of GNU Emacs) can handle many
1355 character sets simultaneously. It is derived from Emacs 18.58. It is
1358 /sh.wide.ad.jp:/JAPAN/mule/
1359 /etlport.etl.go.jp:/pub/mule/
1361 * Lucid GNU Emacs is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs
1362 19. See question 121 and 92.
1366 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- +
1367 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells +
1368 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes +
1370 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers +
1371 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other +
1372 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new +
1373 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as +
1374 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice +
1375 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining +
1376 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and +
1377 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including +
1378 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these +
1379 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary +
1380 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution. +
1383 GNU Emacs FAQ: Common Requests/Problems
1385 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
1386 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
1387 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
1389 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
1390 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
1392 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
1393 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
1396 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
1397 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
1398 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
1399 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
1403 Common Things People Want To Do
1405 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
1407 See `Init File' in the on-line manual.
1409 WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files, because
1410 it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send questions to
1411 help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as documented. :-)
1413 29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
1415 First start Emacs with the `-q' command line option. Then, in the
1416 *scratch* buffer, type the following:
1418 (setq debug-on-error t) LFD
1419 (load-file "~/.emacs") LFD
1421 (Type LFD by pressing C-j.)
1423 If you have an error in your .emacs file, this will invoke the debugger
1424 when the error occurs. If you don't know how to use the debugger do
1425 (setq stack-trace-on-error t) instead.
1427 WARNING: this will not discover errors caused by trying to do something
1428 that requires the terminal/window-system initialization code to have
1429 been loaded. See question 127.
1431 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
1433 To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x
1434 what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the
1435 current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)".
1437 Typing "C-x l" will also tell you what line you are on, provided the
1438 buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l characters. In that case, it
1439 will only tell you what line of the current "page" you are on. WARNING:
1440 "C-x l" gives the wrong value when point is at the beginning of a line.
1442 There is no "correct" way to constantly display the current (or total)
1443 line (or column) number on the mode line in Emacs 18, or to display the
1444 line numbers next to the lines like vi can. Emacs is not a line-oriented
1445 editor, and really has no idea what "lines" of the buffer are displayed in
1446 the window. It would require a lot of work at the C code level to make
1447 Emacs keep track of this. It would not be that hard to get the column
1448 number, but it would still require changes at the C code level.
1450 None of the vi emulation modes provide the `set number' capability of vi
1453 Emacs 19 will probably be able to show the line number on the mode-line,
1454 but probably very inefficiently.
1456 People have written various kludges to display line numbers. One is
1457 `display-line-numbers' by Wayne Mesard <wmesard@tofu.oracle.com,
1458 Mesard@bbn.com>. Look in the Lisp Code Directory. (See question
1461 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
1463 Put this in your .emacs file:
1466 (read-abbrev-file nil t)
1472 (setq abbrev-mode t))))
1474 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
1476 To turn on Auto-Fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x
1477 auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in, for example, Text
1480 (setq text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
1482 If you want Auto-Fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
1484 (setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill)
1486 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
1488 If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension
1489 `.YYY', this will do it for you:
1491 (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist))
1493 Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
1498 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
1501 To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for
1502 example, `\237', you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value of
1503 search-quote-char is 17 (ie., C-q).) Searching for ALL unprintable
1504 characters is best done with a "regexp" search. The easiest regexp to use
1505 for the unprintable chars is the complement of the regexp for the
1508 Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
1510 Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
1512 To type some of these special characters in an interactive argument to
1513 isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t',
1514 `\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So,
1515 to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward:
1517 M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET
1519 Using isearch-forward-regexp:
1521 M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~]
1523 To delete all unprintable characters, simply use a replace-regexp:
1525 M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET
1527 Replacing is similar to the above. {I need to write the text for this
1528 part of the answer!}
1532 * With isearch, you can type RET to get a quoted LFD (not a quoted RET).
1534 * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing something in
1537 Here are the Emacs Lisp forms of the above regexps:
1539 ;; regexp matching all printable characters:
1542 ;; regexp matching all unprintable characters:
1545 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
1547 There are ways to get highlighting (reverse video, inverse video) in GNU
1548 Emacs 18.59, but either they require patching the C code of Emacs and !
1549 rebuilding, or they are slow and the highlighting disappears if you scroll
1550 or redraw the screen and it can not follow the point. Howard Gayle's
1551 patches for 8-bit output appear to allow highlighting (see question
1552 ^8-bit-output). Another patch for highlighting is by Kenichi Handa
1553 <handa@etl.go.jp>. There is a patch for use with X by Andy Norman
1554 <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> (and modified for 18.57 by Matthieu Herrb
1555 <matthieu@laas.fr>), which is available for FTP:
1557 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.55 !
1558 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.57 !
1560 You can highlight regions in a variety of ways in Epoch and Lucid Emacs.
1561 GNU Emacs 19 may not be able to just temporarily highlight a region.
1563 Similar comments apply to displaying text in different fonts, except that
1566 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
1568 For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines
1569 whether they are case sensitive:
1571 (setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive
1572 (setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive
1574 Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether
1575 replacements preserve case.
1577 To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major
1578 mode's hook. For example:
1583 (setq case-fold-search nil))))
1585 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
1587 M-x auto-fill-mode. The default maximum line width is 74, determined by
1588 the variable fill-column. To find how to turn this on automatically see
1591 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
1593 Use Ispell. See question 119.
1595 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
1597 If you want to spell-check TeX or *roff documents with Ispell, you need to
1598 arrange for a filter program that understands how to strip TeX or *roff
1599 formatting commands to be run. In the TeX distribution, there are several
1600 different programs named `detex', all with incompatible options, and a
1601 very old pair of programs named `detex' and `delatex', which should
1602 probably be avoided. The most useful one for Ispell is `detex' by Daniel
1603 Trinkle. A more recent version is available via FTP:
1605 /arthur.cs.purdue.edu:pub/trinkle/detex-2.4.tar !
1607 Raphael Cerf <cerf@clipper.ens.fr> recently released a program for this
1610 /spi.ens.fr:pub/unix/tex/
1612 There is a program that comes with Unix named `deroff' for stripping
1613 formatting commands from *roff files.
1615 Here is an example of code you can put in a .emacs file to use these
1618 ;; Based on suggestions by David G. Grubbs <dgg@ksr.com> and Paul Palmer
1619 ;; <palmerp@math.orst.edu>.
1621 ;; Assuming the use of detex 2.3 by Daniel Trinkle:
1622 ;; -w means one word per line.
1623 ;; -n means don't expand \input or \include commands.
1624 ;; -l means force LaTeX mode.
1626 (require 'ispell) ; for the make-variable-buffer-local statements
1627 (setq plain-TeX-mode-hook
1630 (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
1631 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-nw")))))
1632 (setq LaTeX-mode-hook
1635 (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
1636 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-lnw")))))
1637 (setq nroff-mode-hook
1640 (setq ispell-filter-hook "deroff")
1641 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-w")))))
1643 You will have to adjust the arguments for programs other than Trinkle's
1644 detex or for other versions of deroff. Experiment running the command
1645 from the shell to find the correct options. If you don't have a filter
1646 that knows how to output one word per line, you must pipe its output
1647 through another filter to break up the output.
1649 40: How do I change load-path?
1651 In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add
1652 directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this:
1654 (setq load-path (append load-path '("/XXX/YYY/")))
1656 To do this relative to your home directory:
1658 (setq load-path (append load-path (list (expand-file-name "~/YYY/"))))
1660 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
1662 The `emacsclient' program is for editing a file using an already running
1663 Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a
1664 request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the request.
1668 Emacs must have executed the `server-start' function for emacsclient to
1669 work. This can be done either by a command line option:
1671 emacs -f server-start
1673 or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file:
1675 (if (some conditions are met) (server-start))
1677 When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called
1678 `server'. `server' creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
1679 directory named `.emacs_server'.
1681 To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try
1682 setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the
1683 value `emacsclient'. You may have to specify the full pathname of the
1684 emacsclient program instead. Examples:
1687 setenv EDITOR emacsclient
1688 setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname
1691 EDITOR=emacsclient export EDITOR
1695 When emacsclient is run, it connects to the `.emacs_server' socket and
1696 passes its command line options to `server'. When `server' receives
1697 these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process,
1698 which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line
1699 numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to
1700 switch to the Emacs window by hand. When the user is done editing a
1701 file, the user can type "C-x #" to indicate this. This will switch to
1702 another buffer created at the request of emacsclient if there are any.
1703 When "C-x #" has been invoked on all of the files that the emacsclient
1704 requested to be edited, Emacs will send notification of this to `server'
1705 which will pass this on to the emacsclient, which will then exit.
1707 NOTE: `emacsclient' and `server' must be running on machines which share
1708 the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that emacsclient
1709 specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the Emacs process
1710 sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the time emacsclient
1711 is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from another X window or
1712 from a shell window inside Emacs itself.
1714 There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called `gnuserv' by
1715 Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp
1716 Archive. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across most
1717 network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary Emacs
1718 Lisp forms and also does not require the client program to wait for
1719 completion. It is available via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive:
1720 packages/gnuserv.shar).
1722 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
1724 Write a program which runs the compiler as a child and filters its output,
1725 rearranging as necessary. Install with same name as compiler somewhere in
1728 Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu> wrote one such for a C compiler under AIX.
1731 /cs.utk.edu:readonly/aixcc.lex
1733 Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> wrote another for the IBM xlc compiler on the
1734 RS/6000. (I don't know if these are both for the same compiler.)
1735 Johnathan Vail <vail@tegra.COM> wrote something for a High C compiler
1736 (`hc', which is one of the compilers on the RS/6000, although I think
1737 Johnathan wrote his program for hc on a different computer).
1739 43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
1741 Many people want to indent their switch statements like this:
1757 I don't believe there is any way to do this exactly without modifying the
1758 Lisp code in c-mode.el. You can set c-indent-level to 4 and
1759 c-label-offset to -2, but this has bad effects elsewhere. {Anyone have a
1762 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
1764 There is no completely correct way of doing this that does not involve
1765 rewriting all commands or writing your own top-level command loop (not a
1766 completely bad idea). Wayne Mesard <wmesard@pescadero.stanford.edu> has
1767 written a particularly advanced kludge called `hscroll.el' that checks
1768 once a second to make sure point is visible.
1770 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
1772 M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode).
1774 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
1776 Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes:
1778 Tell Emacs to use the 'visible bell' instead of the audible bell, and
1779 set the visible bell to nothing.
1781 Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable:
1787 (setq visible-bell t)
1789 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
1791 Under versions of Emacs before 18.58, the bell volume was annoying loud
1792 and difficult to turn off. So upgrading to 18.58 or higher will reduce +
1793 the volume. If you want to turn it off completely, use `xset'. There is
1794 no way to turn the bell off just for Emacs without affecting all other
1797 Under Epoch you can do:
1799 (setq epoch::bell-volume 20)
1801 Stu Grossman <grossman@sunburn.stanford.edu> wrote a patch that allows the
1802 bell volume to be adjusted from inside Emacs just for Emacs.
1804 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
1805 indentation of the previous line?
1807 One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode).
1809 If you have Auto-Fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 32), you can
1810 tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the
1811 "fill prefix". Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position point
1812 after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill prefix.
1813 Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix at the
1814 beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any fill
1815 prefix when refilling the paragraph.
1817 NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you
1818 will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move
1819 to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages
1820 available from the Emacs Lisp Archive. Look up `fill' and `indent' in the
1821 Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
1823 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
1825 If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can
1826 delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching
1829 M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over balanced
1830 parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You can train it to
1831 skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time by modifying the
1834 Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching
1835 parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a
1836 parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal.
1838 ;; By an unknown contributor
1840 (global-set-key "%" 'match-paren)
1842 (defun match-paren (arg)
1843 "Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %."
1845 (cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1))
1846 ((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1))
1847 (t (self-insert-command (or arg 1)))))
1849 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
1850 commands are handled by the compiler?
1852 M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.)
1854 You may have to (load "hideif") first. If you want to do this regularly,
1855 put this in your .emacs file:
1857 (autoload 'hide-ifdef-mode "hideif" nil t)
1859 {Yes, I know, this should be in lisp/loaddefs.el already.}
1861 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
1863 (`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
1867 You can type "C-x ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands that
1868 used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you can
1869 type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands you've
1872 To repeat something on each line I recommend using keyboard macros.
1874 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
1876 See the Emacs man page, or the etc/OPTIONS file. Ignore the information
1877 in etc/XDOC which is way out of date.
1879 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
1881 There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") an Emacs Lisp
1884 * If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file
1885 named `.emacs' in your home directory.
1887 * You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or
1888 C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in
1891 * In Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before or
1894 * Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately
1895 before point and prints its value in the echo area.
1897 * Typing M-ESC or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in
1898 the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
1900 * You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in
1901 a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function `load' instead.)
1903 These functions are also used for evaluating Lisp forms:
1905 load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
1907 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
1909 Example: (setq default-tab-width 10).
1911 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
1913 Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET".
1915 To do this only in the region, type "C-x n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET
1918 WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n) is disabled by default
1919 because it can be very confusing (ie., "Oh no! Where did my file go?").
1921 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
1922 underlined paragraph?
1924 M-x underline-region.
1926 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
1928 Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command
1929 and then type "M-0 C-x e".
1931 WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be
1934 58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
1935 should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
1937 M-x picture-mode. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...)
1939 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
1941 You need to modify C source and recompile. Either that or get Epoch or
1942 Lucid Emacs instead. Patches have been written by Robert Forsman
1943 <thoth@reef.cis.ufl.edu> and Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> to allow Emacs to
1944 iconify itself and by Matt Wette <mwette@mr-ed.jpl.nasa.gov> and
1945 Manavendra K. Thakur <thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu> (for 18.57, plus icon
1946 geometry) to allow Emacs to start up iconified. I don't know which of
1947 these patches work together.
1950 /csi.jpl.nasa.gov:pub/emax.patch1 (Matt Wette) !
1951 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z (Johan Vromans)
1952 /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun (Johan Vromans) +
1954 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
1956 See `Regexps' in the online manual.
1958 WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
1959 are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\".
1960 Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is
1961 "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated backslashes!
1963 WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set
1964 ([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless
1965 newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match.
1967 WARNING: The character syntax regexps (eg. `\sw') are not meaningful
1968 inside character set regexps (eg. `[aeiou]'). (This is actually typical
1971 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
1973 The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which
1974 performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file.
1975 See `Tags:Tags Search' in the online manual.
1977 In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace which
1978 will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the
1979 *compilation* buffer (usually done after a `grep'), which is available via
1982 /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/compile.el.Z
1983 /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/global-replace.el.Z
1984 /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/query.el.Z
1986 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
1988 `etags' takes options just like a prior version of ctags, so your ctags
1989 manual (if any) may be useful. {Can someone send me the details on this?}
1995 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
1997 Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and
1998 24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can
1999 handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1).
2001 Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting the following two
2002 lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers
2003 and pointers (and thus filesizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes):
2006 #define GCTYPEBITS 5
2008 WARNING: This method may result in `ILLEGAL DATATYPE' and other random
2009 errors on some machines.
2011 David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> gives an explanation of why
2012 Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers:
2014 Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
2015 language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
2016 variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must
2017 carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, eg.,
2018 integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on.
2019 Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8
2020 bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers (and
2021 pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
2024 Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented
2025 machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits.
2027 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
2029 The PWD bug has been fixed as of GNU Emacs 18.59. Read on if you are +
2030 running an older version of Emacs. +
2032 Most likely, you have an environment variable named PWD that is set to a
2033 value other than the name of your current directory. This is most
2034 likely caused by using two different shell programs. `ksh' and (some
2035 versions of) `csh' set and maintain the value of the PWD environment
2036 variable, but `sh' doesn't. If you start sh from ksh, change your
2037 current directory inside sh, and then start Emacs from inside sh, PWD
2038 will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. An invalid +
2039 setting for PWD can also be a problem if you use X Windows and csh on an +
2040 RS/6000. See the etc/OPTIONS file for more details. +
2042 Perhaps an easier solution is not to use two shells. The `chsh' program
2043 can often be used to change one's default login shell.
2045 You may have PWD set for other reasons. Another possibility is that you
2046 are setting default-directory from your .emacs file.
2048 Here is a fix by Jim Blandy <jimb@occs.cs.oberlin.edu>:
2050 >--- emacs/jjj/emacs-18.58/lisp/startup.el Tue Jan 15 23:19:04 1991
2051 >+++ startup.el Mon Apr 20 00:21:01 1992
2053 > ;; In presence of symlinks, switch to cleaner form of default directory.
2054 > (if (and (not (eq system-type 'vax-vms))
2057 >+ (equal (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes default-directory))
2058 >+ (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes (getenv "PWD")))))
2059 > (setq default-directory (file-name-as-directory (getenv "PWD"))))
2062 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
2064 For tcsh, put this in your `.cshrc' (or `.tcshrc') file:
2067 if ("$EMACS" == t) then
2068 if ($?tcsh) unset edit
2073 Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file:
2078 Alternatively, use csh in your Shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way
2081 (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
2083 and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
2085 setenv ESHELL /bin/csh
2087 (You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly
2088 set for this to take effect.)
2090 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
2092 The most likely reason for this message is that the `env' program is not
2093 properly installed. This program should be compiled (for the correct
2094 architecture!) and installed with execute permission for everyone in
2095 Emacs's program directory, which is normally /usr/local/emacs/etc. You
2096 can find what this directory is at your site by inspecting the value of
2097 the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v exec-directory RET". `env'
2098 should also be for the correct architecture (check using `file' command).
2100 You should also check for other programs named `env' in your path (eg.,
2101 SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). I don't understand why this can
2102 cause a failure and I don't know a general solution for working around the
2103 problem in this case.
2105 The `make clean' command will remove `env' and other vital programs, so be
2106 careful when using it.
2108 It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started
2109 as an X client from an xterm window (ie. had a controlling tty) but the
2110 xterm was later terminated.
2112 See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message.
2114 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
2116 Emacs stores things you "cut" in the X "cut buffers". It also pastes from
2117 the cut buffer `CUT_BUFFER0'. This is obsolete. Most modern X programs
2118 now expect to work with "selections" instead of cut buffers, although some
2119 like `xterm' will try to use the cut buffers if the selection is null.
2121 Emacs 18.58 contains a "fix" that makes xterm work by default. This
2122 "fix" is that Emacs clears the `PRIMARY' selection when it stores
2123 something in the cut buffer. By making the selection null, xterm will
2124 then fetch from the cut buffer when you try to paste.
2126 For versions of Emacs prior to 18.58, you can make pasting from Emacs into
2127 xterm work with the following X resources:
2129 ! Solution by Thomas Narten, should work under X11R3 and later GNU
2130 ! Emacs only copies to CUT_BUFFER0. xterm by default wants to paste
2131 ! from the PRIMARY selection.
2132 XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \
2133 ~Meta <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CUT_BUFFER0,PRIMARY)
2135 You may have problems copying between Emacs and programs other than xterm
2136 that won't store cut text in the cut buffers or look in the cut buffers
2137 for text to paste (for backwards compatibility with obsolete applications
2138 like Emacs :-). The best workaround is to use the `xcutsel' program as an
2141 This problem does not exist for Epoch or Lucid Emacs.
2143 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
2145 The termcap entry for terminal type `emacs' is ordinarily put in the
2146 TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain
2147 situations (eg., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for
2148 `emacs' to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry
2153 To make a terminfo entry for `emacs', use `tic' or `captoinfo'. You need
2154 to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy
2155 /usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs.
2157 Having a termcap/terminfo entry will not enable the use of full screen
2158 programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead.
2160 A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to
2161 change terminal type `emacs' to type `dumb' or `unknown' in your shell
2162 start up file. `csh' users could put this in their .cshrc files:
2164 if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb
2166 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
2168 Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is
2169 sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these
2170 characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character normally
2171 invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions, see
2174 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
2176 The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of
2177 gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is often
2178 manifested as a message on startup of `X server not responding. Check
2179 your DISPLAY environment variable.' or a message of `Unknown host' from
2180 open-network-stream.
2182 On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C
2183 library. The version of gethostbyname in the static C library may only
2184 look in /etc/hosts and the NIS (YP) maps, while the version in the dynamic
2185 C library may be smart enough to check DNS in addition to or instead of
2186 NIS. On a Motorola Delta running System V R3.6, the version of
2187 gethosbyname in the standard library works, but the one that works with
2188 NIS doesn't (the one you get with -linet). Other operating systems have
2193 * Explicitly add the host you want to communicate with to /etc/hosts.
2195 * Relink Emacs with this line in src/config.h:
2197 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
2199 * Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions
2200 such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs.
2202 * If you are actually running NIS, make sure that `ypbind' is properly
2203 told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch.
2205 * Use tcp.el and tcp.c from GNUS. This has the additional advantage that
2206 you can use numeric IP addresses instead of names. open-network-stream
2207 currently can't handle numeric addresses. Brian Thomson
2208 <thomson@hub.toronto.edu> has a enhancement to open-network-stream to
2209 allow it to handle numeric addresses.
2211 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
2213 An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the system-wide
2214 lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your .emacs file,
2217 It may be the case that you may need to load some package first, or use a
2218 hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case of
2219 this is explained in question 127.
2221 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
2223 * Try compiling Emacs with the XBACKWARDS macro defined. There is a bug
2224 in some implementations of XGetDefault, which do not correspond to the
2225 documentation or the header files.
2227 * Make sure you are either using the class name of `Emacs' (oops,
2228 apparently this is buggy in Emacs 18.58!) or the correct instance name.
2229 The instance name is normally the same as the name of the file Emacs is
2230 in (ie., the last part of argv[0]), but this can be overridden by -rn
2231 command line option or the WM_RES_NAME environment variable.
2233 WARNING: Reports say using the class name fails in Emacs 18.58.
2235 WARNING: The advice the man page gives to use `emacs' is often wrong.
2237 WARNING: Older versions of Emacs got the class name wrong.
2239 * Emacs currently ignores the -xrm command line argument.
2241 * Emacs does not yet handle X11R5 screen-specific resources.
2243 * Emacs has a bug where it ignores color specifications if running on a
2244 1-bit display (ie. a non-color display).
2246 * I don't think Emacs will use either of the application-specific resource
2247 files. Thus these environment variables don't affect it: XAPPLRESDIR,
2248 XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, XFILESEARCHPATH. {Correct?}
2250 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
2252 The usual cause is that the master lock file, `!!!SuperLock!!!' has been
2253 left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it.
2255 Mark Meuer <meuer@geom.umn.edu> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an
2256 exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause the
2257 same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS anyway,
2258 the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION undefined.
2260 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
2262 When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand
2263 a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this
2264 behavior, type "$$" instead.
2266 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
2268 Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its directory.
2269 This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to guess by
2270 recognizing `cd' commands. If you type `cd' followed by a directory name
2271 with a variable reference (`cd $HOME/bin') or with a shell metacharacter
2272 (`cd ../lib*'), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the shell's new current
2273 directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements to Shell mode for
2274 this problem have been written to handle this problem. Check the Lisp
2275 Code Directory (see question 88).
2277 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
2279 If you added a directory name containing a tilde (~) to your load-path,
2280 expecting the tilde to be interpreted as your home directory, then you
2281 need to do something like this:
2283 (setq load-path (mapcar 'expand-file-name load-path))
2285 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
2288 You have inadvertently typed "C-x C-n" (set-goal-column) which sets the
2289 "goal column" to the column where the cursor was. To undo this type
2292 If you make this mistake frequently, you might want to unbind or disable
2293 this command by doing one of these two:
2295 (define-key ctl-x-map "\C-n" nil)
2296 (put 'set-goal-column 'disabled t)
2298 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
2300 Many different X errors can produce this message. Here is the solution
2303 X11 Release 4 (and later, including OpenWindows) enforces some conditions
2304 in the X protocol that were previously allowed to pass unnoticed. You
2305 need to put the X11R4 server into X11R3 bug compatibility mode for Emacs's
2306 Xmenu code to work. You can do this with the command `xset bc'.
2308 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
2311 In GNU Emacs 18.56, a change was made in the display-time code.
2312 Formerly, in version 18.55, Emacs used a program named `loadst' to
2313 notify Emacs of the change in time every minute. loadst also sent Emacs
2314 the system load average if it was installed with sufficient privilege to
2315 get that information (or was on a system where no such privilege was
2316 needed). Emacs then displayed this information in the mode line.
2318 In version 18.56, this code was changed to use a program named `wakeup'.
2319 wakeup doesn't send Emacs any information, it's only purpose is to send
2320 Emacs *something* every minute, thus invoking the filter function in
2321 Emacs once a minute. The filter function in Emacs does all the work of
2322 finding the time, date, and load average. However, getting the load
2323 average requires the privilege to read kernel memory on most systems.
2324 Since giving Emacs this privilege would destroy any security a system
2325 might have, for almost everyone this is not an option. In addition,
2326 Emacs does not have the code built into it to get this information on
2327 the systems which have special system calls for this purpose, even
2328 though loadst had code for this.
2330 The solution I use is to get the files lisp/display-time.el and
2331 etc/loadst.c from version 18.55 and use those with 18.58. (I have heard
2332 a rumor that loadst disappeared because of the legal action Unipress
2333 threatened against IBM.)
2335 WARNING: Do not install Emacs setgid kmem unless you wish to destroy
2336 any security your system might have!!!!!!!!!!
2338 If you are using Emacs 18.55 or earlier, or already using the solution I
2339 describe above, read further:
2341 The most likely cause of the problem is that `loadst' can't read the
2342 special file /dev/kmem. To properly install loadst, it should be either
2343 setuid to the owner of /dev/kmem, or is should be setgid to the group to
2344 which /dev/kmem belongs. In either case, /dev/kmem should be readable by
2345 its owner or its group, respectively. Assuming the existence of a group
2346 named `kmem', here is an example of how to do this:
2348 chgrp kmem /dev/kmem
2350 chgrp kmem /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
2351 chmod g+s /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
2353 Another possibility is that your version of Unix doesn't have the load
2354 average data available in /dev/kmem. Your version of Unix might have a
2355 special system call to retrieve this information (eg., inq_stats under
2356 UMAX), and loadst might not have been enhanced to cope with this.
2358 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
2360 You need to update the version of Ispell to 2.0.02. (Or you can switch to
2361 version 3.0 which is still in beta-testing.) A patch is available via
2364 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/ispell/patch2.Z
2366 You also need to change a line in ispell.el from:
2368 (defconst ispell-version "2.0.01") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2372 (defconst ispell-version "2.0.02") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2374 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
2376 Ispell expects to get its input one word per line. The ispell filter,
2377 which is specified by the variables ispell-filter-hook and
2378 ispell-filter-hook-args, should output at most one word per line.
2380 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
2382 * the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.)
2384 Cliff Stoll in his book `The Cuckoo's Egg' describes this in chapter 4.
2385 The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid root.
2386 Since `movemail' had not been designed for this situation, a security
2387 hole was created and users could get root priveleges.
2389 `movemail' has since been changed so that even if it is installed setuid
2390 root this security hole will not be a result.
2392 I have heard unverified reports that the Internet worm took advantage of
2393 this configuration problem.
2395 * the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.)
2397 There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for
2398 variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text near
2399 the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to have
2400 arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited.
2401 Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this
2404 If you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value,
2405 Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file that
2406 you visit and ask you if you really want them. This variable is not
2407 mentioned in the manual.
2409 It is wise to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs:
2411 (setq inhibit-local-variables t)
2413 If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in
2414 lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own .emacs
2417 The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an RMAIL user
2418 was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that
2419 uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this.
2421 For more information, see `File Variables' in the online manual (which,
2422 incidentally, does not describe how to disable the feature).
2424 There is a new variable in Emacs 18.58 named ignore-local-eval which
2425 turns out to be useless as currently implemented. Ignore it.
2427 * synthetic X events (Yes, a risk, use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.)
2429 Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as
2430 though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the
2431 trivial host-based authentication, other users who can open X
2432 connections to your X workstatation can make your Emacs process do
2433 anything, including run other processes with your priveleges.
2435 The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open
2436 X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real
2437 authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the
2438 `xauth' program has any effect, then you are probably using
2439 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication
2440 method; ask your system administrator.
2442 If real authentication is not a possibility, you may be satisfied by
2443 just allowing hosts access for brief intervals while you start your X
2444 programs, then removing the access. This reduces the risk somewhat by
2445 narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but DOES
2446 NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK.
2448 Lucid GNU Emacs does not accept synthetic X events unless you set a
2451 * autosave file permissions (Yes, a risk, hard to work around.)
2453 The file permissions for autosave files are determined solely by the
2454 Emacs process's `umask' value. The permissions of the file being
2455 autosaved are not used. The easiest workaround is to keep sensitive
2456 files in protected directories. Sebastian Kremer has written an
2457 enhanced version of the autosave file name picking code that can avoid
2458 this problem by keeping autosave files in a protected directory. {FTP
2459 information please?} This problem will be fixed in Emacs 19.
2463 Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
2465 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
2467 First look in the file etc/PROBLEMS to see if there is already a solution
2468 for your problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't
2469 find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
2470 bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help or
2471 e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines, see
2474 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
2478 This problem has been reported on SGI Indigo machines running Irix 4.0.*
2479 and RS/6000 machines. Scott Henry <scotth@hoshi.corp.SGi.COM> posted a
2480 patch that fixes the problem for Irix.
2482 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
2484 Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library,
2485 libX11.a. This may be missing.
2487 Under OpenWindows, you may need to use `add_services' to add the
2488 `OpenWindows Programmers' optional software category from the CD-ROM.
2490 Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run `update' again to load the
2491 X11-PRG `fileset'. This may be missing even if you specified `all
2492 filesets' the first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load
2493 the `Berkeley Development Option' {???}.
2495 If you are building the MIT X11 sources, you may need to modify your
2496 `site.cf' file to get static versions of the libraries. (Info from David
2497 Zuhn <zoo@cygnus.com>.)
2499 Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define
2500 CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead.
2502 To get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's
2505 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
2507 I had hoped this question would go away after Emacs 18.57 was released,
2508 but people continue to compile 18.55. Easiest solution: upgrade.
2510 This is a result of the SunOS localtime/tzsetwall malloc bug, which was
2511 (finally!) fixed in SunOS 4.1.2. If you actually need the full
2512 explanation, send me e-mail. If you absolutely must compile Emacs 18.55
2513 (eg., you are compiling Nemacs), the easiest workaround was to put
2514 `#define SYSTEM_MALLOC' in src/config.h.
2518 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- +
2519 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells +
2520 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes +
2522 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers +
2523 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other +
2524 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new +
2525 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as +
2526 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice +
2527 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining +
2528 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and +
2529 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including +
2530 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these +
2531 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary +
2532 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution. +
2535 GNU Emacs FAQ: Getting Emacs/Packages
2537 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
2538 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
2539 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
2541 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
2542 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
2544 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
2545 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
2548 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
2549 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
2550 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
2551 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
2555 Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
2557 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
2559 Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
2560 archive sites. If you don't already have GNU Emacs, see question 20
2561 for how to get these two files.
2563 The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT:
2565 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.59.tar.Z !
2569 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
2571 A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code Directory, is being
2572 maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> and Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov>.
2573 You can search through this list to find if someone has written something
2574 that fits your needs.
2576 This list is file LCD-datafile.Z in the Emacs Lisp Archive. (See
2577 question 89 for methods for getting this file.) The files lispdir.el.Z
2578 and lispdir.doc.Z in the archive contain information to help you use the
2579 list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then you can
2580 use the "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" command to look things up in the database.
2581 For example, the command "M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces
2582 this (outdated) output:
2584 GNU Emacs Lisp Code Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
2586 ange-ftp (3.112) 91-08-12
2587 Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
2588 archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:
2589 /pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/ange-ftp.el.Z
2590 transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs
2592 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
2594 First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you
2595 are looking for. (See question 88). Then check local archives and
2596 the Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. Then, if
2597 you still haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for
2600 You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP:
2602 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
2604 Fetch the file README first.
2606 NOTE: The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual
2607 requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If you
2608 cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to find a
2609 friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers.
2611 NOTE: Any files with names ending in `.Z' are compressed, and you should
2612 use `binary' mode in FTP to retrieve them. You should also use binary
2613 mode whenever you retrieve any files with names ending in `.elc'.
2615 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
2617 Submissions should be mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu. The
2618 lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will help
2619 you with this. Mail messages (submissions) are automatically saved and
2620 periodically archived. Urgent mail may be sent directly to Dave Sill
2621 <de5@ornl.gov> or Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> or should contain the
2622 string `urgent' in the subject. The incoming ftp directory is no longer
2623 available at the request of Ohio State. {Is this still true?}
2625 However, if someone has a submission with multiple files (which would be
2626 archived as a tar file) or binary files, then FTP transfer is preferred
2627 and can be arranged via an anonymous FTP site. This is faster than
2628 uudecoding, unsharing, etc., and re-packaging files.
2630 Before submitting anything, please read the file guidelines.Z, which is
2631 available in the archive. Whenever possible, submissions should contain a
2632 complete LCD entry since this helps reduce administrative overhead for the
2633 maintainers. You can include an entry in this format:
2635 ;; LCD Archive Entry:
2636 ;; package name|author's name|email address
2638 ;; |date|version|archive path
2642 ;; LCD Archive Entry:
2643 ;; tex-complete|Sebastian Kremer|sk@thp.Uni-Koeln.DE
2644 ;; |Minibuffer name completion for editing [La]TeX.
2645 ;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 19.4 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z !
2647 Dave Brennan has software which automatically looks for data in this
2648 format. The format is fairly flexible. The entry ends when a line is
2649 reached with a different prefix or the seventh field terminator is
2652 If you are submitting a multi-file submission you should include a file
2653 named "LCD-entry" which contains the archive entry, instead of placing
2654 it in one or more of the individual files.
2656 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
2658 The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on prep.ai.mit.edu
2659 and is available for anonymous FTP in the pub/gnu directory. See the
2660 files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information. (To get copies of
2661 these files, see question 20.)
2663 The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area:
2665 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/
2666 /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/
2667 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/ (available via FTP, NIFTP, FTAM)
2668 /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/
2669 /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep/
2670 /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/
2672 The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu,
2673 except that files larger than 1 megabyte {right?} are automatically
2674 split into multiple parts. If you have trouble transferring large
2675 files, you should try here. A file normally named `XXX' is split into
2676 files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], and there will be a file named
2677 XXX-split/README which contains the list of parts (especially helpful
2678 when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, and reassembly instructions.
2679 Some of the other mirror sites may have the same property. {Can someone
2680 check this out? Thanks!}
2682 Information was provided by Lee McLoughlin <lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk>, Jonathan
2683 R. Ferro <jf41+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU>, Arjan de Vet <devet@win.tue.nl>, and
2684 Simon Marshall <S.Marshall@sequent.cc.hull.ac.uk>.
2686 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
2688 Emacs 18 has some limited X Window System support, but there are
2689 problems. Emacs 19 will have amazing mouse and window support. Right
2690 now, there are Epoch which is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58 and Lucid GNU
2691 Emacs which is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19,
2692 both of which have greatly improved mouse and window support. See
2693 questions 120 and 121.
2695 The HP unofficial GNU Emacs also has nice mouse support. See question
2698 There are numerous Emacs Lisp packages that have been written to extend
2699 Emacs 18's mouse handling capabilities. Some of these packages also have
2700 patches to the C code to provide enhanced capabilities. Look up `mouse'
2701 in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88).
2703 There is a package called BAM (Born Again Menus) which provides menus for
2704 GNU Emacs via an external C program. It does not provide mouse support in
2705 the Emacs window such as scrollbars, cut-and-paste, etc.
2707 NOTE: Epoch only works with the X Window System; it works on ordinary
2708 terminals by invoking regular GNU Emacs. Lucid Emacs does not currently
2709 work on ordinary terminals, although there are plans to fix this.
2711 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
2713 Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu> writes:
2715 Epoch is GNU Emacs on steroids: an adaptation of GNU Emacs with lots of
2716 additional support for features made possible by the X11 windowing
2717 system. These features include multiple editing windows, arbitrary
2718 colors and fonts (fixed-width and proportional), selectable zones per
2719 buffer with arbitrary display styles (font, color, underline, stipple,
2720 pixmap), an optional separate minibuffer window, improved keyboard and
2721 mouse handling, full 8-bit character set support, and more.
2723 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
2725 This information is condensed from the release notice:
2727 Lucid GNU Emacs is based on an early version of GNU Emacs version 19
2728 with many enhancements. It currently requires X Windows to run. For
2729 information on where to get Lucid GNU Emacs see 121. X Windows support
2730 is greatly enhanced over GNU Emacs version 18, including support for
2731 multiple X Windows (a.k.a. screens in Emacs), Zmacs/Lispm style region
2732 highlighting, a customizable, Motif-like menubar, more powerful keymap
2733 support (allowing different actions to be associated with Backspace,
2734 Control-h, etc.), flexible text attribute (e.g. font, color) support on
2735 regional and screen-local basis through X resources and/or lisp, and
2736 support for the X11 selection mechanism. Some other features include
2737 run-time computation of the load-path, support for floating point
2738 numbers, native timer support, and sound file support on Sun
2739 SPARCstations. To build Lucid GNU Emacs, an ANSI C compiler (e.g. gcc)
2742 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
2744 The unofficial HP GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP:
2746 /ee.utah.edu:HUGE/ (PLEASE FTP DURING NON-WORK HOURS!!!) -
2748 and takes about 35 megabytes of disk space to build. It is useful for
2749 non-HP machines, but some of the added features will only work under
2752 You will need to get patches to work with HP-UX 8.0 or on 700 series
2753 machines via e-mail from Darryl Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com>.
2755 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
2759 For 386 or 486 PCs running MS-DOS, there is a version of GNU Emacs
2760 called Demacs. To get Demacs see question 122.
2762 From the announcement message:
2764 Demacs is almost a full set of GNU Emacs but does not support some
2765 features: asynchronous process, locking a file, etc.
2767 Demacs provides following DOS specific features:
2769 * File type: text or binary file translation.
2770 * "8-bit clean" display mode.
2771 * 8086 software interrupt call by int86 lisp function.
2772 * Machine specific features such as function key support.
2773 * File name completion with drive name.
2774 * Child process (suspend-emacs, call-process).
2775 * Enhanced dired mode which can work without 'ls.exe'.
2777 To our regret `shell-mode' does not work, but `compile' command works
2780 Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by
2781 D. J. Delorie <dj@ctron.com> which can compile and run large programs
2782 under MS-DOS, but not under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs
2783 rather than straight from GNU Emacs.
2785 There are a variety of other Emacses for MS-DOS including among them the
2790 Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, the author, describes
2793 * Freemacs is free, and it was designed from the start to be
2795 * Freemacs is the only IBM-PC editor that tries to be like GNU Emacs.
2796 * Freemacs can only edit files less than 64K in length.
2797 * Freemacs doesn't have undo.
2799 Carl Witty <cwitty@cs.stanford.edu> reviews Freemacs:
2801 Better is Freemacs, which follows the tradition of ITS and GNU Emacs
2802 by having an full, turing-complete extension language which is
2803 incompatible with everything else. In fact, it's even closer to ITS
2804 Emacs than GNU Emacs is, because Mint (Freemacs' extension language)
2805 is absolutely illegible without weeks of study, much like TECO.
2807 To get Freemacs see question 123.
2811 MicroEmacs is a descendant of Microemacs {originally by Dave Conroy?}.
2812 It is programmable in a BASIC-like language. Many of the keybindings
2813 are different from GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MicroEmacs can not
2814 correctly edit files larger than memory. The author is Daniel Lawrence
2815 <dan@mdbs.uucp, mdbs!dan@ee.ecn.purdue.edu>. The latest version is 3.11 !
2816 and it is available via anonymous FTP:
2818 /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/msdos/uemacs/ !
2822 Another Emacs for small machines is JOVE (Jonathan's Own Version of
2823 Emacs). The latest official version is 4.14. There appears to be a
2824 newer version. People rumored to be working on JOVE include Mark Moraes
2825 <moraes@cs.toronto.edu> and Bill Marsh <bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil>. It is
2826 available via anonymous FTP:
2828 /cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.7.tar.Z !
2832 MG is another descendant of Microemacs. MG used to stand for
2833 MicroGNUEmacs, but now just stands for MG. The look-and-feel of MG is
2834 intended to be close to that of GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MG can
2835 not correctly edit files larger than memory. The current version is
2836 rumored to be 2. There is a version 3 in beta which works on the Amiga.
2837 It is also available via anonymous FTP:
2839 /ftp.white.toronto.edu:pub/mg/
2840 /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/unix-c/editors/
2841 /procyon.cis.ksu.edu: (source and executable)
2843 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
2845 I believe that no version of GNU Emacs runs under Windows. Pierre Perret
2846 <pap@myths.az05.bull.com> has ported MicroEMACS 3.11c to Windows.
2849 /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10.zip
2850 /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10s.zip
2851 /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewri.zip
2853 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
2855 From the OS/2 Programmer's FAQ:
2857 GNU Emacs 18.58 is available. It requires you to have EMX installed
2858 on your machine, but it comes with all the EMX files you will need.
2859 Emacs is available on ftp-os2 in /pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs. (If you want
2860 to recompile emacs, you will need the full EMX distribution see
2863 The above quote may be out of date. See the latest OS/2 Programmer's FAQ
2864 {perhaps in comp.os.os2.misc?} for the latest news. Anonymous FTP info:
2866 /ftp-os2.nmsu.edu:pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs/
2867 ("ftp-os2" was formerly named "hobbes")
2869 Thanks go to Stephen Simpson <simpson@symcom.math.uiuc.edu>, Jonathan
2870 Miller <jem+@andrew.cmu.edu>, Terry Kane <terryk@cc.gatech.edu>, J. D.
2871 Baldwin <baldwin@csservera.usna.navy.mil>, and Ken Bass
2872 <kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>.
2874 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
2876 Emacs 18.57 is the latest version for TOS. Stefan Mueller-Pfeiffer
2877 <iff327@zam001.zam.kfa-juelich.de> says:
2879 There is also a version for MiNT, the multitasking enhancement for
2880 ATARI's TOS, which behaves almost like EMACS on a "real computer". This
2881 port was done by Erling Henanger <erlingh@idt.unit.no>.
2884 /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/gnustuff/tos/ (TOS Emacs 18.57)
2885 /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/new/mntemacs.zoo (MiNT Emacs)
2886 /cs.uni-sb.de:/pub/atari/emacs/
2888 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
2890 All of the files are lharc-ed.
2893 /oes.orst.edu:/pub/almanac/comp/amiga/software/gnuemacs-1.10/
2896 To: almanac@oes.orst.edu
2899 send computer amiga software gnuemacs <file>
2900 <file> is replaced by one of the following:
2901 Required: d1.lzh d2.lzh
2902 Recommended: d3_info.lzh d3_infolisp.lzh
2903 Optional: d3_autoloaded.lzh d3_entertainmentetc.lzh
2904 d3_entertainmentlisp.lzh d4_src.lzh d5_languagelisp.lzh
2905 d5_viclone.lzh d6_gnulibsrc.lzh d6_mailpackage.lzh
2906 d6_mathpackage.lzh d6_misc.lzh d6_textformat.lzh
2907 The `d#' at the beginning of each file is its disk number, which is
2908 referred to by the documentation.
2910 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
2912 The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look
2913 and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details.
2914 Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software
2915 for Apple computers such as the Macintosh.
2917 Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers.
2919 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
2921 Chris Maio's NeWS support package for GNU Emacs is available via anonymous
2924 /columbia.edu:pub/ps-emacs.tar.Z
2925 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ps-emacs.tar.Z
2929 To: archive-server@columbia.edu
2930 body: send NeWS emacs-support
2932 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
2934 Hal R. Brand <BRAND@addvax.llnl.gov> is said to have a VMS save set with a
2935 ready-to-run VMS version of Emacs 18.55 for X Windows. It is available
2936 via anonymous FTP (addvax.llnl.gov). It is possible that the VMS versions
2937 of Emacs at other sites have X support compiled in. See etc/FTP for
2940 Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> writes:
2942 Getting Emacs to run on VMS with DECwindows requires a number of changes
2943 to the sources. Fortunately this has been done already. Joshua Marantz
2944 <josh@viewlogic.com> did most of the work for Emacs 18.52, and the mods
2945 were ported to 18.55 by Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl>. Also included is the
2946 handling of DEC's LK201 keyboard. You need to apply the changes to a
2947 fresh Emacs 18.55 distribution on a Unix system, and then you can copy
2948 the sources to VMS to perform the compile/link/build.
2950 The set of changes have been posted a number of times three times the
2951 last 12 months, so they should be widely available.
2953 Richard Levitte <levitte@e.kth.se> tells us that there are patches for
2954 Emacs 18.57 and 18.58 available via e-mail:
2956 To: fileserv@ttt.kth.se
2957 body: SEND EMACS-1857-PATCHES
2958 or: SEND EMACS-1858-PATCHES
2960 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
2961 Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
2963 As usual, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88). For C++,
2964 if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like this:
2966 M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET
2968 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
2970 If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know
2971 the IP address of a host to FTP files from it. You can get this
2972 information in two ways:
2976 telnet nic.ddn.mil hostnames (or `telnet 192.112.36.5 101')
2981 To: service@nic.ddn.mil
2982 Subject: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2983 or: whois XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2988 To: resolve@cs.widener.edu
2989 body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2991 Information from Brendan Kehoe <brendan@cs.widener.edu>.
2996 Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
2998 This section lists version numbers, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups,
2999 and other information for many important packages, extensions, and related
3000 programs. There is some overlap with the Lisp Code Directory, but these
3001 entries give more detailed information.
3003 If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they
3004 deserve to be mentioned here, please tell me. Having its own mailing list
3005 or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good signs.
3007 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
3009 Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net>
3010 Latest released version: 4.41
3011 Beta test version: 5.32
3013 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/vm-4.41.tar.Z
3014 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/timer.shar.Z
3015 /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-4.41.tar.Z
3016 /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-5.32beta.tar.Z
3017 Newsgroups and mailing lists:
3020 info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
3021 info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
3024 bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
3025 bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
3027 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
3029 Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com>
3030 Mailing list: supercite-request@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for subscriptions)
3031 supercite@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for submissions)
3034 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/sc-2.2.tar.Z
3035 /ftp.cme.nist.gov:pub/gnu/sc2.2.tar.Z
3037 To: library@cme.nist.gov
3039 NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite.
3041 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
3043 Author: Masanobu Umeda <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp>
3044 Latest official version: 3.13
3045 Unofficial test version: 3.14.1
3047 /cs.umn.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z.
3048 /aun.uninett.no:pub/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
3049 /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/GNU/etc/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
3050 /liasun3.epfl.ch:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
3051 /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
3052 /funet.fi:/networking/news/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
3053 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu/EmacsBits/gnus/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
3054 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-3.13.tar.Z
3055 Newsgroups and mailing lists:
3058 info-gnus-english-request@cis.ohio-state.edu (for subscriptions)
3059 info-gnus-english@cis.ohio-state.edu (for submissions)
3060 Japanese (and some English):
3061 info-gnus-request@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for subscriptions)
3062 info-gnus@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for submissions)
3064 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
3066 Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu>
3067 Latest released version: 2.02
3069 /csvax.cs.caltech.edu:pub/calc-2.02.tar.Z
3070 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02.tar.Z
3071 NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue anyone
3072 for having a program with a similar command language to Calc. :-)
3074 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
3076 Author: Edward M. Reingold <reingold@cs.uiuc.edu>
3077 Latest version: 4.02
3079 /emr.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/emacs/calendar {???}
3081 To: reingold@cs.uiuc.edu
3082 Subject: send-emacs-cal
3083 Put your best internet e-mail address in the body.
3085 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
3087 Author: Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
3088 Latest official version: 4.20
3090 /alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu:ange-ftp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
3091 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z
3092 /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/ange-ftp.tar.Z +
3094 ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for subscriptions)
3096 ange-ftp-lovers@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for submissions)
3097 /ftp.reed.edu:pub/mailing-lists/ange-ftp/ (archives)
3098 Ange-FTP Announcements:
3099 ange-ftp-lovers-announce@anorman.hpl.hp.com
3100 NOTE: now with support for accessing VMS, CMS, and MTS systems
3102 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
3104 Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu>
3105 Latest released version: 4.3
3107 /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z
3108 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z
3109 NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one
3110 distributed with Emacs.
3112 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
3114 Author: Sebastian Kremer <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de>
3115 Latest released version: 5.239
3116 Anonymous FTP: /ftp.cs.buffalo.edu:pub/Emacs/diredall.tar.Z
3117 /ftp.uni-koeln.de:pub/gnu/emacs/diredall.tar.Z
3118 NOTE: This is a huge improvement over the Dired distributed with Emacs.
3119 This version will be in Emacs 19.
3121 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
3123 Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk>
3124 Latest released version: 6.1 {???}
3126 /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex_6_1d.tar.Z !
3127 /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex.tar.Z !
3129 auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions)
3130 auc-tex@iesd.auc.dk (for submissions)
3131 auc-tex_mgr@iesd.auc.dk (auc-tex development team)
3133 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
3135 Author: Bob Weiner <rsw@cs.brown.edu>
3137 /wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/ h*.tar.Z
3139 hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only.
3141 To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
3142 Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole-announce
3143 hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion.
3145 To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
3146 Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole
3148 hyperbole@cs.brown.edu
3149 NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a
3150 member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list.
3151 NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists.
3153 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
3155 Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>,
3156 Hallvard B. Furuseth <hallvard@ifi.uio.no>
3158 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
3159 /ftp.uu.net:languages/elisp/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
3160 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
3162 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
3164 Author: Olin Shivers <Olin.Shivers@cs.cmu.edu>
3166 /cs.cmu.edu:/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/shivers/lib/emacs/
3167 {comint,cmu{tex,shell,scheme,lisp},ml}.el
3168 (anonymous password must contain `@',
3169 cannot cd to intermediate directories)
3171 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
3173 Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
3174 Latest released version: 1.47
3176 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bbdb.tar.Z
3178 info-bbdb-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
3180 bbdb-announce-request@lucid.com (to be informed of new releases)
3181 Note: BBDB does not work with VM 4. It does work with VM 5, RMAIL, GNUS,
3184 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
3186 Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com>
3187 Latest released version: 2.0.02
3188 Beta test version: 3.0 (9 patches)
3190 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/ispell/ (version 2.0.02)
3191 /ftp.cs.ucla.edu:/pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries)
3192 /argus.math.orst.edu:pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries)
3193 /ftp.th-darmstadt.de:pub/dicts/ispell/ (mirror of argus)
3194 NOTE: Do not send mail to Geoff asking him to send you the latest
3195 version of Ispell. He does not have free e-mail.
3197 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
3199 Latest released version: 4.2
3201 /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-4.2.tar.Z
3202 /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-diff-4.1-4.2.tar.Z
3203 /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/epoch/
3204 /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:gnu/emacs/epoch/
3205 Newsgroup and mailing lists:
3208 epoch-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
3209 epoch@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
3211 epoch-design-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
3212 epoch-design@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
3214 Maintainer: Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
3216 /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/epoch-faq
3217 /ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:outgoing/marca/epoch/Epoch.FAQ
3219 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
3221 Primary Maintainer: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
3222 Other Developers: Eric Benson <eb@lucid.com>
3223 Matthieu Devin <devin@lucid.com>
3224 Harlan Sexton <hbs@lucid.com>
3225 Latest released version: 19.3
3227 /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.3.tar.Z (source)
3228 /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.3-sun4.tar.Z (Sun4binaries)
3229 Newsgroup and mailing lists:
3231 bug-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
3232 bug-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions)
3234 help-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
3235 help-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions)
3237 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
3239 Authors: Manabu Higashida <manabu@sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp>
3240 HIRANO Satoshi <hirano@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
3241 Latest released version: 1.2.0
3243 /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:GNU/demacs/ (nearest to U.S.A.)
3244 /ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp:pub/Msdos/Demacs/
3245 /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/msdos/Demacs/
3246 /ftp.3com.com:pub/gnu/msdos/demacs/
3247 /mindseye.berkeley.edu:pub/kanji/demacs/
3248 /ftp.hawaii.edu:pub/editors/demacs.tar.Z
3249 /ftp.math.ksu.edu:pub/pc/demacs/
3250 /wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:pd1:<msdos.demacs> {ange-ftp syntax?}
3251 /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120e.zip (executables, lisp-code, doc)
3252 (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!)
3253 /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120s.zip (sources, diffs)
3254 (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!)
3255 /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/msdos/gnu/emacs/
3256 /mizar.docs.uu.se:pub/gnu/demacs/
3257 /iamsun.unibe.ch:PC/demacs/
3258 /flop.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:outgoing/demacs.tar
3259 /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/demacs/
3260 /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120e.zip
3261 /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120s.zip
3262 /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/demacs/
3263 /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/Demacs/
3264 {Does anyone know which sites have the Kanji version?}
3266 From garbo.uwasa.fi:
3267 To: mailserv@garbo.uwasa.fi
3268 Subject: garbo-request
3269 Body: send pc/editor/dem120e.zip
3270 send pc/editor/dem120s.zip
3273 EXEC-PC (Milwaukee, WI) 414-789-4210 (2400 bps)
3274 in the Mahoney MS-DOS file area in its Editors/wordprocessors
3275 library (F), named GNUEMACS.ZIP
3276 Channel 1 (Cambridge, MA) 617-345-8873 (9600 bps)
3277 in the New Uploads file area, named GNUEMACS.ZIP
3278 NOTE: Use the -d option of [pk]unzip for all .zip archives. Some sites
3279 have Demacs lharc'ed. If you need to find programs to unpack lharc and
3280 zip format archives, Chris Dean <ctdean@talaris.com> points out that you
3281 should see the comp.compression FAQ, available for FTP:
3282 /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/comp.compression/
3284 NOTE: There is no mailing list for Demacs. However, there is a list
3285 for DJGPP, which is the environment that Demacs runs in. Many
3286 Demacs problems are actually issues with DJGPP.
3289 To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3290 body: add <your-address> djgpp
3291 or put `help' in the body.
3292 If this fails, mail to djgpp-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu.
3294 djgpp@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3296 Maintainer: Dave Steibel <steibel@cs.umbc.edu>
3297 Anonymous FTP: algol.cs.umbc.edu:pub/demacs/demacs.faq
3299 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
3301 Author: Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
3302 Latest released version: 1.6a
3304 /simtel20.army.mil:PD:<MSDOS.FREEMACS> {ange-ftp syntax?}
3305 /grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:pub/msdos/freemacs/
3307 To: archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3310 address: Russell Nelson, 11 Grant St., Potsdam, NY 13676
3311 Send $15 copying fee, and specify preferred floppy disk format:
3312 5.25", 360K, or 3.50", 720K
3315 To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3316 body: add <your-address> <name-of-list>
3317 or put `help' in the body.
3318 List distribution addresses:
3319 freemacs-announce@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3320 freemacs-help@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
3321 freemacs-workers@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (send bug reports here)
3323 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
3325 Author: Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
3326 Latest version: 2.0 patchlevel 12u8
3327 (This is the version that supports the new unified diff format.)
3329 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12u8.tar.Z
3330 /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12g8.tar.Z (GNU version)
3334 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- +
3335 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells +
3336 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes +
3338 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers +
3339 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other +
3340 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new +
3341 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as +
3342 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice +
3343 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining +
3344 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and +
3345 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including +
3346 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these +
3347 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary +
3348 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution. +
3351 GNU Emacs FAQ: Keybindings/Output
3353 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
3354 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
3355 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
3357 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
3358 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
3360 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
3361 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
3364 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
3365 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
3366 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
3367 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
3371 Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
3373 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
3375 1. Find out what character sequence is generated by the keystroke sequence
3376 you wish to bind to a command. See question 129 for how to do this.
3377 Keep in mind that the character sequences generated by a keystroke
3378 sequence varies from one terminal to another. You may also get
3379 different results depending on what type of machine you are running on
3380 (see question 128). For example, these keystrokes may generate these
3381 character sequences:
3383 F1 ---> ESC [ 2 2 4 z
3384 Shift-R10 ---> ESC O t
3388 2. Figure out what the Emacs Lisp syntax is for this character sequence.
3389 Inside an Emacs Lisp string, RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, SPC, and TAB are
3390 specified with `\r', `\n', `\C-?', `\e', ` ', and `\t'. C-x is
3391 specified by `\C-x'. M-x is specified the same was as "ESC x".
3392 (Control characters may also be specified as themselves, but I don't
3393 recommend it.) An Emacs Lisp string begins and ends with the double
3394 quote character, `"'. Here are some examples:
3397 ESC [ 2 2 7 z ---> "\e[227z"
3398 ESC [ 1 8 ~ ---> "\e[18~"
3401 3. If some prefix of the character sequence is already bound, you must
3402 unbind it by binding it to `nil'. For example:
3404 (global-set-key "\e[" nil)
3406 4. Pick a command to bind your key sequence to. A command can be a
3407 "symbol" with a function definition, or a "lambda list", or a string
3408 (which is treated as a macro). For example:
3410 (global-set-key "\e[D" 'backward-char)
3411 (global-set-key "\e[227~" "\exgoto-line\r") ; macro
3413 See `Key Bindings' and `Rebinding' in the online manual.
3415 In Emacs 19 (including Lucid Emacs), you can bind function key F24 like
3418 (global-set-key 'f24 'some-command)
3420 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
3422 A prefix of the character sequence you were trying to bind was already
3423 bound. Usually, the sequence is "ESC [", in which case you should
3424 evaluate this form first:
3426 (define-key esc-map "[" nil)
3428 NOTE: By default, "ESC [" is bound to backward-paragraph, and if you do
3429 this you will lose this key binding. For most people, this is not a
3434 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
3435 .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
3437 This is because you're trying to do something in your .emacs file that
3438 needs to be postponed until after the terminal/window-system setup code
3439 is loaded. This is a result of the order in which things are done
3440 during the startup of Emacs. For more details see question 135.
3442 In order to postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after the
3443 terminal/window-system setup, set the value of the variable
3444 term-setup-hook or window-setup-hook to be a function which does what
3447 See etc/OPTIONS for a complete explanation of what Emacs does every time
3450 Here is a simple example of how to set term-setup-hook:
3452 (setq term-setup-hook
3455 (cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3456 ;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x:
3457 (define-key CSI-map "29~" 'execute-extended-command))
3460 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
3462 This depends on whether you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator
3463 window, or whether you are allowing Emacs to create its own X window.
3464 You can tell which you are doing by noticing whether Emacs creates a new
3465 window when you start it.
3467 If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window, then it
3468 behaves exactly as it does on any other tty. In this case, for function
3469 keys to be useful, they must generate character sequences that are sent
3470 to the programs running inside the window as input. The `xterm' program
3471 has two different sets of character sequences that it generates when
3472 function keys are pressed, depending on the sunFunctionKeys X resource
3473 and the -sf and +sf command line options. (To find out what these key
3474 sequences are, see question 129.) In addition, with xterm,
3475 you can override what key sequence a specific function key (or any other
3476 key) will generate with the `translations' resource. This, for example:
3478 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
3479 <KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
3481 makes the function key F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [xyzzy".
3483 On the other hand, if Emacs is managing its own X window, the following
3484 description applies. Emacs receives `KeyPress' events from the X server
3485 when a key is pressed while the keyboard focus is in its window. The
3486 KeyPress event contains an X "keysym" code, which is simply an arbitrary
3487 number corresponding to the name of the keysym, and information on which
3488 "modifiers" such as `control' and `shift' are active. For example, the
3489 `Tab' keysym is 0xff09. (Generally, a key on the keyboard will generate a
3490 keysym whose name is the same as the label on the key, ie. the `Tab' key
3491 will normally generate the `Tab' keysym. This can be changed with the
3492 xmodmap program.) Emacs recognizes all the keysyms that correspond to
3493 standard ASCII characters and internally uses the ASCII character instead.
3495 (WARNING: I am about to describe a gross, disgusting hack to you, have
3496 your barf bag ready.)
3498 When Emacs receives the X keysym of one of the arrow keys, it behaves
3499 the same as if it had received a letter key with the control modifier
3500 down as follows (this is hard-coded):
3507 The way Emacs treats other keysyms depends on what kind of machine it was
3508 compiled on. The type of the display machine is irrelevant! Function
3509 keys are mapped internally to escape sequences, while other keys are
3512 1. If compiled on a Sun, Emacs recognizes these X keysyms that
3513 are normally on a Sun keyboard:
3516 L1 through L10 (same as F11 through F20)
3517 R1 through R15 (same as F21 through F35)
3518 (The keys labelled R8, R10, R12, and R14 usually are mapped to the
3519 X keysyms Up, Left, Right, and Down.)
3520 Break (the `Alternate' key is given this keysym)
3522 These keys work like Sun function keys. When Emacs recieves the
3523 keysym, it will internally use character sequences that look like "ESC
3524 [ ### z", where ### is replaced by a number. The character sequences
3525 are identical to those generated by Sun's keyboard under SunView. Any
3526 function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 z".
3528 In order to use these key sequences, they should be bound to commands
3529 using the standard key binding methods, just as if Emacs were running
3530 on a regular terminal.
3532 WARNING: F11 and L1 are the same keysym in X, as are F12 and L2, etc.
3533 {Yes, this is stupid. Complain to the X consortium.}
3535 2. If not compiled on a Sun, the function keys will appear to Emacs in a
3536 way remarkably similar to the keys of a DEC LK201 keyboard (used on
3537 some VT series terminals). These X keysyms will be recognized:
3540 Help (treated same as F15)
3541 Menu (treated same as F16, is the LK201 `Do' key)
3543 Insert (LK201 `Insert Here' key)
3545 Prior (LK201 `Prev Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
3546 Next (LK201 `Next Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
3548 And finally, the LK201 key labelled `Remove' (or `Delete') is often
3549 mapped to the Delete keysym which generates the DEL character (C-?)
3550 instead of the key sequence given by the LK201 `Remove' key. It may
3551 also be mapped to some other keysym, such as `_Remove', in which case
3552 you can't use it from within Emacs at all.
3554 Each function key will be internally converted to a character sequence
3555 that looks like "ESC [ ## ~", where ## is replaced by a number. The
3556 character sequences are identical to those generated by a LK201
3557 keyboard. Any function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 ~".
3559 For the complete list of the numbers which are generated by the function
3560 keys, look in the file src/x11term.c at the definitions of the function
3563 If you are running Emacs on a Sun machine, even if your X display is
3564 running on a non-Sun machine (eg., an X terminal), you get the setup
3565 described above for Suns. The determining factor is what type of
3566 machine Emacs is running (was compiled) on, not what type of machine
3567 your X display is on.
3569 If you have function keys not listed above on your keyboard, you can use
3570 `xmodmap' to change their keysym assignments to get keys that Emacs will
3571 recognize, but that may screw up other programs.
3573 X resources are not used by Emacs to affect the key sequences generated.
3574 In particular, there are no X key "translations" for Emacs.
3576 If you have function keys not listed above and you don't want to use
3577 xmodmap to change their names, you might want to make a modification to
3578 your Emacs. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has made available a patch for Emacs
3579 that adds the x-rebind-key function of Epoch to Emacs 18.58. This allows
3580 another layer of key rebinding before Emacs even sees the keys, and in
3581 this layer you can rebind all of the keys and modifier combinations as
3585 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z
3586 /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun
3588 Johan Vromans explains what this buys for you:
3590 After implementing this, all keyboard keys can be configured to send
3591 user definable sequences, eg.,
3593 (x-rebind-key "KP_F1" 0 "\033OP")
3595 This will have the keypad key PF1 send the sequence "ESC O P", just like
3596 an ordinary VT series terminal.
3598 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
3600 Use this function by Randal L. Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.com>:
3603 "Displays characters typed, terminated by a 3-second timeout."
3607 (message "Enter characters, terminated by 3-second timeout.")
3608 (while (not (sit-for 3))
3609 (setq chars (concat chars (list (read-char)))
3610 quit-flag nil)) ; quit-flag maybe set by C-g
3611 (message "Characters entered: %s" (key-description chars))))
3613 Alternatively, use the "C-h l" view-lossage command, which will display
3614 the last 100 characters Emacs has seen in its input stream. Kevin
3615 Gallagher <kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org> suggests typing some unique string
3616 like "wxyz", typing the key in question, then typing "C-h l". The
3617 characters that appear between "wxyz" and "C-h l" were generated by the
3620 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
3622 Sorry, you can't; there are no "translations" to be set. Emacs is not
3623 written using the Xt library. The only way to affect the behavior of keys
3624 within Emacs is through `xmodmap' (outside Emacs) or `define-key' (inside
3627 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
3629 C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This screws
3630 up Emacs because it binds these characters to commands. Also, by default
3631 Emacs will not honor them as flow control characters and may overwhelm
3632 output buffers. Sometimes, intermediate software using XON/XOFF flow
3633 control will prevent Emacs from ever seeing C-s and C-q.
3637 * Disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control.
3639 You need to determine what is the cause of the flow control.
3643 Your terminal may use XON/XOFF flow control to have time to display
3644 all the characters it receives. For example, VT series terminals do
3645 this. It may be possible to turn this off from a setup menu. For
3646 example, on a VT220 you may select `No XOFF' in the setup menu. This
3647 is also true for some terminal emulation programs on PCs.
3649 When you turn off flow control at the terminal, you will also need to
3650 turn it off at the other end, which might be at the computer you are
3651 logged in to or at some terminal server in between.
3653 If you turn off flow control, characters may be lost; using a printer
3654 connected to the terminal may fail. You may be able to get around
3655 this problem by modifying the `termcap' entry for your terminal to
3656 include extra NUL padding characters.
3660 If you are using a dialup connection, the modems may be using XON/XOFF
3661 flow control. I don't know how to get around this.
3663 * a router or terminal server
3665 Some network box between the terminal and your computer may be using
3666 XON/XOFF flow control. It may be possible to make it use some other
3667 kind of flow control. You will probably have to ask your local
3668 network experts for help with this.
3670 * tty and/or pty devices
3672 If your connection to Emacs goes through multiple tty and/or pty
3673 devices, they may be using XON/XOFF flow control even when it is not
3676 Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> writes:
3678 Some versions of `rlogin' (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
3679 control characters to the remote system to which they connect. On
3680 such systems, Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow control
3681 on the local system. Sometimes `rlogin -8' will avoid this problem.
3683 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
3684 (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the stty
3685 command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, `stty
3686 start u stop u' will do this.
3688 Some versions of `tcsh' will prevent even this from working. One
3689 way around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin,
3690 and issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
3692 Use `stty -ixon' instead of `stty start u stop u' on some systems.
3694 * Make Emacs speak the XON/XOFF flow control protocol.
3696 You can make Emacs treat C-s and C-q as flow control characters by
3697 evaluating this form:
3699 (set-input-mode nil t)
3701 If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs
3702 file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to
3703 put it is unclear. I don't know if this has any effect when used in
3704 lisp/site-init.el when building Emacs; I've never tried that. {Can
3705 someone tell me whether it works?} Putting things in users' .emacs files
3706 has a number of problems.
3708 Putting this form in lisp/default.el has the problem that if the user's
3709 .emacs file has an error, this will prevent lisp/default.el from being
3710 loaded and Emacs may be unusable for the user, even for correcting their
3711 .emacs file (unless they're smart enough to move it to another name). A
3712 possible solution is to initially disable C-s and C-q by setting
3713 keyboard-translate-table in lisp/site-init.el, either with swap-keys
3714 (see question 136) or with the following form:
3716 ;; by Roger Crew <crew@cs.stanford.edu>:
3717 (setq keyboard-translate-table
3718 "\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-_")
3720 This will at least prevent Emacs from being confused by the flow control
3721 characters, even if lisp/default.el cannot be loaded. Then, in
3722 lisp/default.el, enable XON/XOFF flow control with set-input-mode.
3724 For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS in the
3727 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
3730 I suggest swapping C-s with C-\ and C-q with C-^:
3732 (swap-keys ?\C-s ?\C-\\)
3733 (swap-keys ?\C-q ?\C-^)
3735 See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys. This method
3736 has the advantage that it simultaneously swaps the characters everywhere
3737 throughout Emacs, while just switching the keybindings will miss important
3738 places where the character codes are stored (eg., the search-repeat-char
3739 variable, major mode keymaps, etc.).
3741 To do this for an entire site, you may want to swap the keys in
3742 lisp/default.el. If only some of your users are connecting through
3743 XON/XOFF flow-controlled connections, you will want to do this
3744 conditionally. I suggest pre-swapping them in lisp/site-init.el when
3745 Emacs is built, and then in lisp/default.el, if it is determined to be
3746 safe, they can be reenabled (being careful not to screw up any other key
3747 mappings users might have established using keyboard-translate-table).
3748 See question 131 for an easy way to pre-swap these keys.
3750 WARNING: If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by
3751 the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs actually
3754 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
3756 The BackSpace key (on every keyboard I've used) generates ASCII code 8.
3757 C-h sends the same code. In Emacs by default C-h invokes help-command.
3758 This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of "help"
3759 is "h". The easiest solution to this problem is to use C-h (and
3760 BackSpace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous
3763 For many people this solution may be problematic:
3765 * They normally use BackSpace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous
3766 character typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for
3767 deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do
3768 this on many Unix systems:
3772 * The person may prefer using the BackSpace key for deleting the previous
3773 character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or
3774 because they don't even have a separate Delete key. In this case, the
3775 BackSpace key should be made to behave like Delete. There are several
3778 * Under X Windows, the easiest solution is to change the BackSpace key
3779 into a Delete key like this:
3781 xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
3783 * Some terminals (eg., VT3## terminals) allow the character generated by
3784 the BackSpace key to be changed from a setup menu.
3786 * You may be able to get a keyboard that is completely programmable.
3788 * Under X or on a dumb terminal, it is possible to swap the BackSpace
3789 and Delete keys inside Emacs:
3791 (swap-keys ?\C-h ?\C-?)
3793 See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys.
3795 * Another approach is to switch keybindings and put help on "C-x h"
3798 (global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
3799 (global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ; override mark-whole-buffer
3801 Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?".
3803 WARNING: Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many
3804 modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere.
3806 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
3810 135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
3812 When Emacs starts up, it doesn't know anything about arrow keys at all
3813 (except when running under X, see question 128). During the process of
3814 starting up, Emacs will load a terminal-specific initialization file for
3815 your terminal type (as determined by the environment variable TERM), if
3816 one exists. This file has the responsibility for enabling the arrow keys.
3818 There are several things that can go wrong:
3820 1. There is no initialization file for your terminal.
3822 You can determine this by looking in the lisp/term directory. If your
3823 terminal type (as determined by the TERM environment variable) is
3824 xxx-yy-z, then the first of these files in the lisp/term directory will
3825 be loaded as the terminal-specific initialization file: xxx-yy-z.el,
3826 xxx-yy.el, or xxx.el.
3828 There are two major cases of this problem:
3830 * Your terminal type is very similar to one that has an init file.
3832 In this case, there are several techniques suggested by Colin Jensen
3833 <cjensen@ampex.com>, Ben Liblit <Liblit@cs.psu.edu>, and Marc
3834 Auslander <marc@watson.ibm.com>:
3836 A. Add a symbolic link in lisp/term for your terminal type that
3837 points to the similar type. For example, you could make VT102
3838 terminals work with this command:
3840 ln -s vt100.el vt102.el
3842 This fixes things for everyone on the system who uses the terminal
3845 B. If you can't do the solution in part A, you can add code to your
3846 term-setup-hook that loads the correct file like this:
3848 (setq term-setup-hook
3851 (cond ((equal "vt102" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3852 (load (concat term-file-prefix "vt100")))
3853 (;; Code for other terminal types goes here ...
3856 C. If you use `tset' to set your TERM environment variable when you
3857 login, you can use the `-m' switch to tell tset to use a terminal
3858 type known by Emacs instead of another similar one. For example,
3861 tset ... -m 'dec-vt220:vt220' ...
3863 will make tset say you are on a `vt220' instead of a `dec-vt220'.
3865 D. Interactively, you can type "M-x load-library RET term/vt100" to
3866 load the terminal-specific initialization files for VT100
3869 * Your terminal type is not similar to one that has an init file.
3871 One can be made for your terminal, or you can just add code to your
3872 own .emacs to handle this problem for yourself. For example, if your
3873 terminal's arrow keys send these character sequences:
3880 then you can bind these keys to the appropriate commands with code in
3881 your .emacs like this:
3883 (setq term-setup-hook
3886 (cond ((string-match "\\`xyzzy" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3887 ;; First, must unmap the binding for left bracket
3888 (or (keymapp (lookup-key global-map "\e\["))
3889 (define-key global-map "\e\[" nil))
3890 ;; Enable terminal type xyzzy's arrow keys:
3891 (define-key global-map "\e\[A" 'previous-line)
3892 (define-key global-map "\e\[B" 'next-line)
3893 (define-key global-map "\e\[C" 'forward-char)
3894 (define-key global-map "\e\[D" 'backward-char))
3895 ((string-match "\\`abcde" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3896 ;; Do something different for terminal type abcde
3900 NOTE: You may have to restart Emacs to get changes to take effect.
3902 NOTE: Your arrow keys may send sequences beginning with "ESC O" when
3903 Emacs is running, even if they send sequences beginning with "ESC [" at
3904 all other times. This is because Emacs uses any command there may be
3905 in your terminal's termcap entry for putting the terminal into
3906 "Application Keypad Mode". Just map these sequences the same way as
3909 The next two cases are problems even if there is a initialization file for
3912 2. The initialization file for your terminal doesn't bind arrow keys.
3914 If your terminal type is `xterm', you will have to bind the arrow keys
3915 as in part 1 above, since the xterm.el file doesn't do anything useful.
3916 There may be other terminal types with the same problem.
3918 3. Your terminal's arrow keys send individual control characters.
3920 For example, the arrow keys on an ADM-3 send C-h, C-j, C-k, and C-l.
3922 There is not much Emacs can do in this situation, since all the control
3923 characters except for C-^ and C-\ are already used as Emacs commands.
3924 It may be possible to convince the terminal to send something else when
3925 you press the arrow keys; it is worth investigating.
3927 You have to make the hard choices of how to rebind keys to commands to
3928 make things work the way you want. Another alternative is to start
3929 learning the standard Emacs keybindings for moving point around: C-b,
3930 C-f, C-p, and C-n. Personally, I no longer use the arrow keys when
3931 editing because I have switched keyboards so many times.
3933 4. Your terminal's arrow keys send sequences beginning with "ESC [".
3935 Due to an extremely poor design decision (ie., these sequences are ANSI
3936 standard), none of the the terminal-specific initialization files that
3937 are distributed with Emacs will bind these character sequences to the
3938 appropriate commands by default. (This also applies to any other
3939 function keys which generate character sequences starting with "ESC
3940 [".) This is because it was deemed far more important to preserve the
3941 binding of M-[ to the backward-paragraph command. It appears that this
3942 will change in Emacs 19.
3944 Some of the terminal-specific initialization files that come with Emacs
3945 provide a command enable-arrow-keys that will fix this problem. To get
3946 this automatically invoked, put this in your .emacs:
3948 (setq term-setup-hook
3951 (if (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys) (enable-arrow-keys)))))
3953 We put this in our lisp/default.el file, so users don't have to worry
3956 ;; don't override a user's term-setup-hook
3958 (setq term-setup-hook
3961 (and (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys)
3962 ;; don't override a user key mapping
3963 (eq 'backward-paragraph (lookup-key esc-map "["))
3964 (enable-arrow-keys))))))
3966 If your terminal type is `sun', you should put this in your .emacs
3967 instead (or in addition to the above):
3969 (setq sun-esc-bracket t)
3971 It is possible that the terminal-specific initialization file for your
3972 terminal type was written locally and does not follow the rule
3973 mentioned above. In this case you may need to inspect it to find out
3974 how to enable the arrow keys. (Actually, if it was written locally, it
3975 probably enables the arrow keys by default.)
3977 136: How do I "swap" two keys?
3979 When Emacs receives a character, you can make Emacs behave as though it
3980 received another character by setting the value of
3981 keyboard-translate-table. The following Emacs Lisp will do this for you,
3982 allowing you to "swap" keys. After arranging for this Lisp to be
3983 evaluated by Emacs, you can evaluate `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' to swap A and B.
3985 (defun swap-keys (key1 key2)
3986 "Swap keys KEY1 and KEY2 using map-key."
3988 (map-key key2 key1))
3990 (defun map-key (from to)
3991 "Make key FROM behave as though key TO was typed instead."
3992 (setq keyboard-translate-table
3993 (concat keyboard-translate-table
3994 (let* ((i (length keyboard-translate-table))
3997 (str (make-string (max 0 (- j (1- i))) ?X)))
3999 (aset str (- k i) k)
4002 (aset keyboard-translate-table from to)
4003 (let ((i (1- (length keyboard-translate-table))))
4004 (while (and (>= i 0) (eq (aref keyboard-translate-table i) i))
4006 (setq keyboard-translate-table
4009 (substring keyboard-translate-table 0 (1+ i))))))
4011 NOTE: You must evaluate the definition of these functions before calling
4012 them! For example, list the function definitions before their use in your
4015 NOTE: These functions take two numbers as arguments. The example above,
4016 `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' is actually `(swap-keys 65 66)', because `?A' is
4017 merely notation for 65, the ASCII value of `A'.
4019 NOTE: These functions only work for single characters. You cannot swap
4020 two multi-character sequences.
4022 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
4024 For C-@ and C-^, often you can just type Control-2 and Control-6. For
4025 C-_, you may have to hold down the shift key, typing Control-Shift-Hyphen.
4026 C-@ can often be generated by typing Control-Space. C-@ is often called
4027 the NUL character, and has ASCII value 0. C-_ can often be generated by
4028 typing Control-7 or Control-/. C-? (aka DEL) may be generated by typing
4029 Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace or a key labelled Delete or Del.
4031 Try Control with all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets
4034 138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
4036 Instead of typing M-a, you can type "ESC a" instead. In fact, Emacs
4037 converts M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of
4040 139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
4042 Type C-[ instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
4043 key would. Try also C-;.
4045 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
4047 Some IBM PC compatibles do not have a key labeled `Del' or `Delete' {is
4048 this true?}. Those that do generally have it in an inconvenient location.
4049 (Also, in some terminal emulators, the `Del' key does not transmit DEL.)
4050 The result is the standard "BackSpace invoking help" problem (see question
4053 The usual solution, suggested by Michael Covington
4054 <mcovingt@aisun1.ai.uga.edu>, is to somehow tell the terminal emulator
4055 program that BackSpace should transmit DEL. Read the program's manual.
4056 Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace may send DEL. The `Del' key may only
4057 send DEL if the NumLock key hasn't been pressed.
4059 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
4061 On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220
4062 clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're using
4063 X, you might be able to do this with the `xmodmap' program (this is
4066 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
4068 Unless you're using Emacs under emacstool (or xvetool?), have a working
4069 version of x-rebind-key (see question 128), or are using Emacs 19 (Lucid
4070 Emacs), you can't do this with Emacs alone.
4072 If you are using emacstool, Emacs sees different character sequences for
4073 the combination of a modifier and a function key from what it sees for the
4074 function key alone. See etc/emacstool.1 for more information. Since
4075 Emacs sees different character sequences, you can bind these different
4076 sequences to different commands.
4078 If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window like xterm, you
4079 can modify its translation tables to make it generate different character
4080 sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key. For
4081 example, this X resource setting:
4083 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
4084 Shift<KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
4086 makes Shift-F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [ xyzzy". You can
4087 bind these character sequences in Emacs as normal. Nick Ruprecht
4088 <ruprecht@informatik.uni-freiburg.de> has written an extensive X
4089 translation mapping for xterm that does this. {Does this have an FTP
4092 If you have x-rebind-key, you can have any arbitrary combination of
4093 modifiers with a key replaced by any sequence of "normal" characters. For
4094 example, this makes Shift-Return behave as though you had typed "C-x C-e"
4095 (example from Jerry Graves):
4097 (x-rebind-key "Return" 'shift "\C-x\C-e")
4099 In Emacs 19 (Lucid Emacs), you can bind Meta-Left-Arrow like this (example
4100 from Jamie Zawinski):
4102 (global-set-key '(meta left) 'backward-word)
4104 With the last two methods, use `xmodmap' and `xev' to discover the keysym
4107 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
4109 Try all of these methods before asking for further help:
4111 * You may have big problems using `mwm' as your window manager. {Does
4112 anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in
4115 * For X11R4: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use `xev' to find out
4116 what keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or
4117 Meta_R. If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation.
4119 * Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters.
4120 `stty -a' (or `stty everything') should show `cs8' somewhere. If it
4121 shows `cs7' instead, use `stty cs8 -istrip' (or `stty pass8') to fix
4124 * If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the
4125 `-8' argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8
4126 bits of every character.
4128 * If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating
4129 (set-input-mode t nil) helps.
4131 * If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type
4132 M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W
4133 anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this:
4135 XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false
4137 (This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.)
4139 With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation:
4141 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
4142 Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert()
4144 You might have to replace `Meta' with `Alt'.
4146 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
4148 This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the
4149 fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that
4150 XLookupString returns the same result regardless of the Meta key state
4151 which is no longer necessarily true. Until Emacs is fixed, the temporary
4152 kludge is to run this command after each time the X server is started but
4153 preferably before any xterm clients are:
4155 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
4157 NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which
4158 may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them.
4160 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
4162 There is a package `wordstar' by Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> and
4163 `ws-mode.el' by Juergen Nickelsen <nickel@cs.tu-berlin.de>. Check in the
4164 Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89).
4166 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
4168 This question comes up once every couple of months. I have never seen a
4169 positive reply, so I presume no one has ever written one.
4173 Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
4175 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
4177 There is a patch called the `8-bit ctl-arrow patch' that allows Emacs to
4178 display characters with codes from 128 to 255. {The original appears to
4179 have been by Kenneth Cline <cline@proof.ergo.cs.cmu.edu>.} Partially based
4180 on Johan Widen's earlier work, Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has updated this
4181 patch for Emacs 18.58 along with some other 8-bit improvements.
4184 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-EightBit.Z
4185 /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-EightBit +
4186 /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z:cemacs/8bit-patch-18.57
4187 /sics.se:archive/emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
4188 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.55
4189 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.57
4192 To: mail-server@sics.se
4193 body: send emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
4195 Anders Edenbrandt <anderse@dna.lth.se> has produced a more comprehensive
4196 patch for Emacs 18.59 that allows for 8-bit input and output. !
4199 /ftp.efd.lth.se:pub/gnu/emacs_8-bit.patch !
4201 In the words of the author: !
4203 With these patches, Emacs becomes fully 8-bit operational. There is !
4204 support for displaying 8-bit characters, as well as for entering such !
4205 characters from the keyboard. In addition, upcase/lowcase tranlatsion !
4206 is supported, accented characters are recognized as "letters" (important !
4207 when doing 'forward-word', for example), and text with 8-bit characters !
4208 can be sorted correctly. !
4210 A Meta-shift key can still be used, provided that you run in an !
4211 environment where it is possible to distinguish between a character !
4212 entered using the Meta-shift key and one entered directly. The diffs !
4213 include patches to make this work under SunView (with emacstool) as !
4214 well as under X. If you can't use a Meta-shift key, you have to enter !
4215 Meta-commands with the ESC-prefix. !
4217 The most comprehensive patches for 8-bit output are by Howard Gayle
4218 (originally for Emacs 18.55. These patches allow displaying any arbitrary
4219 string for a given 8-bit character (except TAB and C-j). Also supported
4220 is defining the sorting order and the uppercase and lowercase
4221 translations. It is reported that the 8-bit character support in Emacs 19
4222 is largely based on these patches. Thomas Bellman
4223 <Bellman@lysator.liu.se> has updated these patches for Emacs 18.59. !
4226 /sics.se:archive/emacs-gayle.tar.Z (patches for 18.55)
4227 /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.58.diff.tar.Z (patches) !
4228 /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.59-gayle.tar.Z (patched Emacs) !
4230 Epoch's 8-bit character support is based on Anders Edenbrandt's patches. !
4231 Lucid Emacs has the ctl-arrow patch installed. Nemacs displays 8-bit
4232 characters, and it may be useful for displaying the 8-bit ISO-8859
4233 alphabet, but I don't know for sure (see question 149).
4235 148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
4237 Minor modes for ISO Latin-1 that allow one to easily input this character
4238 set have been written by several people. Such modes have been written by
4239 Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr> (laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/iso-latin-1.el),
4240 Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> {FTP site??}, and Marc Shapiro
4241 <shapiro@sor.inria.fr> {FTP site??}.
4243 These approaches differ from the one taken by Anders Edenbrandt in that
4244 his method uses direct 8-bit input, while these methods use a compose
4245 sequence for 8-bit characters. {I have heard conflicting reports on
4246 whether this results in losing the Meta key. Perhaps this depends on
4247 whether Emacs is running under X. Can someone resolve this?}
4249 Karl Heuer <karl@haddock.ima.isc.com> is said to have a patch to allow
4250 8-bit input. Georg-Wilhelm Koltermann <gwk@crmunich0.cray.com> also has a
4251 patch for either 18.57 or 18.58 that allows 8-bit input.
4253 Epoch comes with a patch that allows it to input 8-bit characters, but it
4254 is not enabled by default. {Is this right?}
4256 Jamie Zawinski says:
4258 Lucid GNU Emacs allows the input of any ISO-8859/1 keysyms that your
4259 keyboard generates (see xmodmap), and contains a package that implements
4260 a DEC/OpenWindows-like "Compose" key for systems which don't have one.
4262 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
4264 Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55
4265 that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP:
4267 /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
4268 /miki.cs.titech.ac.jp:JAPAN/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z -
4270 You might also need files for "wnn", a kanji input method
4271 (wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You need a terminal (or
4272 terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in JIS, Shift-JIS, or EUC
4273 (Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs as a direct X Window
4276 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
4278 `cemacs' by Stephen G. Simpson <simpson@math.psu.edu> is a patch to Emacs
4279 18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with
4280 Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous
4283 /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/chinese/cemacs.tar.Z
4284 /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z
4286 Cxterm is available from the same place:
4288 /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z
4290 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
4292 Joel M. Hoffman <joel@wam.umd.edu> writes:
4294 A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows right-to-left
4295 editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display the Hebrew
4296 letters, given the right codes, but not for any right-to-left support;
4297 the hardware also doesn't have to send any specific char. codes. Emacs
4298 keeps track of when the user is typing Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-*
4299 terminals in Israel contain built-in support for Hebrew.)
4301 To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's source
4302 code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean.
4304 [and in a separate message:]
4306 It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend
4307 trying that with emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order
4308 with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a
4309 quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to
4310 send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for
4311 anything large, however, you'll want something that works better.
4313 Joel Hoffman has also written a "bi-directional bi-lingual Emacs-like"
4314 editor for MS-DOS named Ibelbe (Itty Bitty Emacs-Like Bidirectional
4315 Editor). Ibelbe is written in Turbo Pascal and comes with source code.
4316 Here is the description:
4318 Ibelbe looks like emacs (it even has a minibuffer and filename
4319 completion), and fully supports both right-to-left and left-to-right
4320 editing. Other than an EGA monitor or better, no special hardware is
4321 required. You will need an EGA Hebrew font to use Ibelbe with Hebrew.
4324 /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/ibelbe.zip
4325 /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/hebfont.zip
4327 Joseph Friedman <yossi@deshaw.com, yossi@Neon.Stanford.EDU> has written
4328 patches for Emacs 18.55 and 18.58 that provide Semitic language support
4331 Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by
4332 modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards".
4334 A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with `hebrew'.
4338 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- +
4339 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells +
4340 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes +
4342 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers +
4343 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other +
4344 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new +
4345 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as +
4346 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice +
4347 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining +
4348 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and +
4349 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including +
4350 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these +
4351 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary +
4352 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution. +
4355 GNU Emacs FAQ: Mail and News
4357 This portion of the GNU Emacs FAQ list is cross-posted to `gnu.emacs.gnus'
4358 because many of the questions herein deal with GNUS. See `gnu.emacs.help' for
4359 the rest of the FAQ list.
4361 If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
4362 get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
4363 of the answers, just type "C-x $".
4365 To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
4366 that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
4368 A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
4369 something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
4372 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
4373 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
4374 e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
4375 WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
4381 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
4383 Many people want Emacs to prefix included text with something like ` > '
4384 instead of with three spaces. One way is to change the code of the
4385 function `mail-yank-original' in lisp/sendmail.el that prefixes with
4386 spaces. A more flexible solution is to use Supercite, which provides wide
4387 configurability in how you format included text in replies. See question
4388 107. Both of these solutions work for RMAIL and GNUS.
4390 A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers
4391 of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of
4392 mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value.
4394 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
4398 1. (setq mail-self-blind t) will result in a `BCC:' header line with your
4399 address being added to mail composition buffers. This will cause the
4400 mail system to send a copy of the mail back to you.
4402 2. (setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing")) will
4403 result in an `FCC:' header line with the pathname of ~/outgoing being
4404 added to mail composition buffers. When you send the mail, Emacs will
4405 save a copy of the mail in the file ~/outgoing and then strip off the
4406 `FCC:' line before actually sending.
4408 WARNING: There is a bug in Emacs 18.58 that prevents mail readers such
4409 as RMAIL from reading the saved mail messages individually. See
4412 WARNING: If you are visiting the file ~/outgoing at the time you send
4413 the mail, this can cause a variety of horrible problems. Jamie
4414 Zawinski has written a solution for this.
4416 It does not work to put `set record filename' in the .mailrc file.
4418 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
4420 * You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer
4421 with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses
4424 To: Willy Smith <wks@xpnsv.lwyrs.com>
4426 However, you do not need to separate addresses with commas in your
4429 WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple
4430 addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of
4431 quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly
4432 setting the value of mail-aliases.
4434 * Emacs normally only reads the `.mailrc' file once per session, when you
4435 start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can
4436 type "M-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc.
4437 (You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!)
4439 * Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the
4440 .mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set'
4441 commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group'
4444 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
4446 There is a bug for FCC-ed messages in Emacs 18.58 where it adds a timezone
4447 on the "From " line after the year instead of before the year. (Before it
4448 didn't add the timezone at all.) This is incompatible with the standard
4449 format for the "From " line, and RMAIL in particular can no longer
4450 distinguish between the messages. Karl Berry <karl@cs.umb.edu>, Felix Lee
4451 <flee@cs.psu.edu>, Nick Gianniotis <nico@japan.sbi.com> and many
4452 others have all posted patches for this. Karl's is the simplest and just
4453 stops Emacs from adding the timezone:
4455 >*** ./ORIG/sendmail.el Tue Jan 28 16:22:56 1992
4456 >--- ./sendmail.el Thu May 14 18:23:48 1992
4459 > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
4460 >! (current-time-string) " " timezone "\n")
4461 > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
4463 > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
4464 >! (current-time-string) "\n")
4465 > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
4467 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
4469 Use rmailsort.el by Masanobu Umeda.
4471 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
4473 This is the behavior of the `movemail' program which RMAIL uses. This
4474 indicates that movemail is configured to use lock files.
4478 Certain systems require lock files to interlock access to mail files.
4479 On these systems, movemail must write lock files, or you risk losing
4480 mail. You simply must arrange to let movemail write them.
4482 Other systems use the flock system call to interlock access. On these
4483 systems, you should configure movemail to use flock.
4485 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
4487 Users who just want to try RMAIL out to see how it works end up trapped
4488 using it because saved mail in their `mbox' file has been converted into
4489 an incompatible format (BABYL) that only RMAIL understands. RMAIL
4490 provides no obvious way to reverse this transformation. Kyle Jones has
4491 aptly named this "the great Emacs Mail Eating Monster". To convert a mail
4492 file back to standard Unix format, there are several methods:
4494 * Use the rmail-output ("C-o") command within RMAIL on each message in the
4495 file. First use M-x rmail or M-x rmail-input to visit the RMAIL file in
4496 Rmail mode. Type "1 j" to go to the first message. Use the C-o command
4497 to output the message to a Unix format file. Type "n" to go to the next
4500 * If the file contains hundreds of messages, you may not want to repeat
4501 this for all of them. Instead of the above, after getting to the first
4502 message type this (where "mbox" is the file you want to put the messages
4505 C-x ( C-o mbox RET M-s ^From: RET M-0 C-x )
4507 (The rmail-search command ("M-s") is used instead of just "n" because it
4508 is the only command which will cause an error when it reaches the last
4509 message in the file, which is necessary to terminate the keyboard macro.
4510 This will fail if there are messages in the file that don't have a
4511 `From:' header. This assumes rmail-delete-after-output is nil.)
4513 It is wise to save a copy of the RMAIL file first, in case you make a
4516 * There are software packages available for converting files or even
4517 entire directories of BABYL files to standard Unix format. These are
4518 helpful in this situation, but are intended mainly for people who have
4519 used RMAIL for a long time and are converting to some other mail reader.
4520 Lookup `rmail', `vm', and `babyl' in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see
4523 You may wish to disable RMAIL to avoid accidentally destroying your mbox
4524 file (I have this in my .emacs):
4526 (put 'rmail 'disabled t) ; avoid mbox destruction
4528 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
4536 alias gnus 'emacs -f gnus'
4538 It is probably unwise to automatically start your mail or news reader from
4539 your .emacs file. This would cause problems if you needed to run two
4540 copies of Emacs at one time. Also, this would make it difficult for you
4541 to start Emacs quickly when you needed to.
4543 160: How do I read news under Emacs?
4545 There are at least three news reading packages that operate inside Emacs.
4546 `rnews' comes with Emacs. GNUS and Gnews come separately. rnews will
4547 be replaced by GNUS in Emacs 19.
4549 rnews works only with a local news spool directory. Both GNUS and Gnews
4550 handle reading news remotely via NNTP in addition to reading from a local
4551 news spool. GNUS supports reading mail stored in MH folders or articles
4554 Gnews is styled after `rn' and seems to work like RMAIL. GNUS feels more
4555 like VM. People have complained that GNUS uses a lot of CPU time (it
4556 does). Some people have complained that Gnews is slower than GNUS.
4558 For more information about GNUS, see question 108.
4560 Gnews was written by Matthew P. Wiener <weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu>.
4561 The latest version seems to be 2.0, posted October 3, 1988. Matthew
4562 posted some fixes on October 26, 1988. Gnews does not appear to have been
4563 supported after this date. In particular, it has been reported that Gnews
4564 does not work with Emacs 18.57. There is a newsgroup for Gnews called
4567 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
4569 rnews doesn't speak NNTP. You may need to use GNUS or Gnews.
4571 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
4573 There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests
4574 are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before
4575 blocking waiting for more input which never comes. NNTP version 1.5.11
4578 You can work around the bug inside Emacs like this:
4580 (setq nntp-maximum-request 1)
4582 I also have a patch for NNTP 1.5.10 by Mike Pelletier
4583 <stealth@engin.umich.edu> that is based on the timeout code that was in
4584 1.5.9. However, please try to upgrade to 1.5.11 first.
4586 You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by
4587 telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine (ie.,
4588 `telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version number
4589 in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out.
4591 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
4593 Underlining appears like this:
4595 _^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg
4597 You can destructively remove underlining with M-x ununderline-region.
4599 For ClariNews articles, clari-clean.el by David N. Blank-Edelman
4600 <dnb@meshugge.media.mit.edu> will remove both underlining and overstriking
4603 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
4604 the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
4606 Upgrade to Emacs 18.58 or higher. +
4608 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
4610 Use gnus-mark.el by Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>.
4612 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
4614 This is a feature. If you set gnus-thread-hide-subject to non-nil, GNUS
4615 will only display the subject of the first posting in a thread, even if
4616 some of the replies use different subjects. It hides the subjects by
4617 putting them past the edge of the window and setting truncate lines to t.
4619 If your screen looks messed up, then for some reason truncate-lines in
4620 your `*Subject*' buffer has been set to nil. It should be set to t.
4622 (I have an enhancement to GNUS 3.13 that will make it only hide the subject
4623 of a posting when it is unchanged from the followed-up-to posting. Thus,
4624 you can use the subject hiding feature and still know when someone changes
4625 the subject. (I have forgotten who originally gave me the idea for this.))
4627 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
4629 GNUS does several things that take quadratic time of the number of
4630 newsgroups that are listed in .newsrc. The quick fix for this is to
4631 remove all the newsgroups in which you have no interest from your .newrc
4632 file by using GNUS's C-k command in the `*Newsgroup*' buffer after
4633 displaying all newsgroups with the L command. If you were to directly
4634 edit your .newsrc to remove the newsgroups, GNUS would add them back.
4636 GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for duplicates when the .newsrc
4637 file is newer than the .newsrc.el file (ie., you edited your .newsrc).
4638 GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for new newsgroups every time it
4639 connects to the news server. {There may be other quadratic algorithms
4640 that I am not aware of.}
4642 You can speed up GNUS by using the C-k command in the *Newsgroup* buffer
4643 to remove newsgroups from your .newsrc file.
4645 Of course, GNUS will run faster if you make sure it is byte-compiled.
4647 Felix Lee wrote some enhancements called `gnus-speedups.el' that fix some
4648 of the problems. See the Emacs Lisp Archive.
4650 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
4652 In the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, type the following magical incantation:
4654 M-< C-x ( C-@ c y C-u C-@ C-e C-f C-f M-0 C-x )
4656 Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of
4657 the `*Newsgroup' buffer.
4659 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
4661 GNUS 3.14.1 will complain that the `Newsgroups:', `Keywords:', and
4662 `Control:' headers are `Unknown header field's.
4664 For the `Newsgroups:' header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the
4665 `Xref' header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article.
4667 If you really want to kill on one of these headers, you can do it like
4670 (gnus-kill nil "^Newsgroups: .*\\(bad\\.group\\|worse\\.group\\)")
4672 Various people (eg., Greg Holley <holley@acuson.com>) have posted
4673 solutions to allow more efficient killing on these headers than the
4674 preceding solution. Masanobu Umeda plans to fix this problem.
4676 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
4678 GNUS outputs "NNTP: Reading..." message and then clears them, over and
4679 over. In version 3.14.1 there is a variable named nntp-debug-read that
4680 can help. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> wrote a fix. Others have also written
4683 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
4685 Because GNUS is marking crosspostings read. {I think it should do this at
4686 the time the article is read to spread out the load. Maybe someone will
4687 write the code to do this.}
4689 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
4691 David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> explains:
4693 The problem is almost always interaction between NNTP and C News. NNTP
4694 POST asks C News's inews to not background itself but rather hang around
4695 and give its exit status so it knows whether the post was successful.
4696 (That wait will on some systems not return the exit status of the
4697 waited for job is a different sort of problem.) It ends up taking a
4698 long time because inews is calling relaynews, which often waits for
4699 another relaynews to free the lock on the news system so it can file the
4702 My preferred solution is to change inews to not call relaynews, but
4703 rather use newsspool. This loses some error-catching functionality, but
4704 is for the most part safe as inews will detect a lot of the errors on
4705 its own. The C News folks have sped up inews, too, so speed should look
4706 better to most folks as that update propagates around.
4708 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
4710 Three possible reasons: local distribution, C News date problem (see
4711 question 174, and the path problem. This piece of code may fix the path
4714 (setq gnus-use-generic-path t)
4716 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
4718 GNUS generates `Date:' headers without time zones. C-News's `inews'
4719 doesn't replace it with a valid header, but will generate it if not
4720 already there. If it is invalid, the article will not be forwarded
4721 properly. Quick fix:
4723 (defun gnus-inews-date () nil)
4725 This is not fixed as of GNUS 3.14.1. !
4727 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
4729 GNUS was written for B news, which would generate the `Lines:' header. C
4730 news doesn't. There is a comment in C news's `inews' that you can
4731 uncomment to enable this functionality. Or you can have GNUS generate the
4732 header, for example:
4734 ;; idea by jbryans@beach.csulb.edu (Jack Bryans)
4735 (defun add-lines-header ()
4736 ;; Count the number of lines in the current posting and insert the
4737 ;; header line Lines into the message.
4739 (goto-char (point-min))
4740 (if (search-forward "\n\n") ;; ***** I suspect this is wrong *****
4741 (let ((lines (count-lines (point) (point-max))))
4743 (insert-string "Lines: " lines "\n")))))
4745 Mike Williams <mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> has written something similar.
4747 Ronald Florence <ron@mlfarm.com> has a patch for GNUS that makes it
4748 calculate the `Lines:' header for incoming articles when necessary that
4749 works for sites with local news spools.
4751 David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> says that GNUS 3.14.1 generates Lines
4752 if gnus-news-system is Cnews.
4754 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
4756 Specifically, the error message is this:
4758 Error occurred processing gnus.el: File error (("Cannot open load file" "nntp"))
4760 This means that nntp.el is not in Emacs's load-path, which is easy to
4761 happen when compiling using the Makefile.
4763 Easiest solution: set EMACSLOADPATH in Makefile (idea from Glenn Gribble
4764 <glenn@netcom.com>):
4766 EMACSLOADPATH=/usr/local/emacs/lisp:.
4767 ELC= env EMACSLOADPATH=$(EMACSLOADPATH) emacs -batch -f batch-byte-compile
4769 Another solution, in hack.el put this:
4771 (defun gross-hack () (setq load-path (cons "/directory" load-path)))
4775 ELC= emacs -batch -l hack.el -f gross-hack -f batch-byte-compile
4777 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
4782 (gnus-kill "subject" "" nil nil)
4783 ;; then restore stuff by our favorite poster
4784 (gnus-kill "from" "good-guy"
4787 (if (eq ?X (char-after (save-excursion
4788 (beginning-of-line 1)
4790 (gnus-Subject-clear-mark-forward 1))))
4795 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- +
4796 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells +
4797 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes +
4799 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers +
4800 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other +
4801 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new +
4802 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as +
4803 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice +
4804 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining +
4805 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and +
4806 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including +
4807 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these +
4808 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary +
4809 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution. +
4812 GNU Emacs FAQ: Changes
4814 The latest version of the GNU Emacs FAQ has changed from the previous version.
4815 This article shows the changed text. The contents of this article are from the
4816 output of `diff -wu2'. Since the question numbers are generated automatically
4817 and can change, these are stripped from both versions before comparing them.
4818 After generating the differences for each part, they were concatenated and then
4819 edited to remove as much noise as possible. You can't use this as a patch.
4822 Steven Byrnes <sbyrnes@rice.edu> (and Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>)
4824 E-mail lpf@uunet.uu.net for details about the League for Programming Freedom.
4826 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
4832 - /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/MailingListArchives/
4833 + /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/
4835 - {There was a WAIS database named `comp-emacs' on lambada.oit.unc.edu that
4836 - makes available the last 10 days of articles in comp.emacs. It appears to
4837 - have died. Anyone know if it moved?}
4838 + There is a WAIS database named `comp.emacs' on wais.oit.unc.edu that
4839 + makes available the last few days of articles in comp.emacs.
4841 QQQ: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
4844 it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
4845 administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before
4846 - November 21, 1992.
4849 * Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP
4851 * In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest
4852 available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the
4853 - GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.58 is the latest version,
4854 - and it was released in February 1992.
4855 + GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.59 is the latest version,
4856 + and it was released in October 1992.
4858 * There is an old version of the FAQ list available for FTP in the GNU
4860 QQQ: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
4862 - GNU Emacs 18.58 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better
4863 + GNU Emacs 18.59 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better
4864 mail address parsing, an X visual bell speedup, a call-process
4865 enhancement, a regexp matching change, the ability to apply a numeric
4867 which is a good sign.
4869 - Lucid has released Lucid GNU Emacs 19.2, which is based on an early
4870 + Lucid has released Lucid GNU Emacs 19.3, which is based on an early
4871 unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19. This will be similar to Emacs 19 when
4872 it finally arrives, but they are not the same. See question QQQ.
4876 There are ways to get highlighting (reverse video, inverse video) in GNU
4877 - Emacs 18.58, but either they require patching the C code of Emacs and
4878 + Emacs 18.59, but either they require patching the C code of Emacs and
4879 rebuilding, or they are slow and the highlighting disappears if you scroll
4880 or redraw the screen and it can not follow the point. Howard Gayle's
4882 <matthieu@laas.fr>), which is available for FTP:
4884 - /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.5{5,7}
4885 + /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.55
4886 + /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.57
4888 You can highlight regions in a variety of ways in Epoch and Lucid Emacs.
4890 Trinkle. A more recent version is available via FTP:
4892 - /arthur.cs.purdue.edu:pub/trinkle/detex-2.3.tar.Z
4893 + /arthur.cs.purdue.edu:pub/trinkle/detex-2.4.tar
4895 Raphael Cerf <cerf@clipper.ens.fr> recently released a program for this
4898 Under versions of Emacs before 18.58, the bell volume was annoying loud
4899 - and difficult to turn off. So upgrading to 18.58 will reduce the volume.
4900 - If you want to turn it off completely, use `xset'. There is no way to
4901 - turn the bell off just for Emacs without affecting all other programs.
4902 + and difficult to turn off. So upgrading to 18.58 or higher will reduce
4903 + the volume. If you want to turn it off completely, use `xset'. There is
4904 + no way to turn the bell off just for Emacs without affecting all other
4907 Under Epoch you can do:
4911 - /csi.jpl.nasa.gov:pub/emacs.patch1 (Matt Wette)
4912 + /csi.jpl.nasa.gov:pub/emax.patch1 (Matt Wette)
4913 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z (Johan Vromans)
4914 - /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun (Johan Vromans)
4915 + /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun (Johan Vromans)
4917 QQQ: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
4919 QQQ: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
4921 + The PWD bug has been fixed as of GNU Emacs 18.59. Read on if you are
4922 + running an older version of Emacs.
4924 Most likely, you have an environment variable named PWD that is set to a
4925 value other than the name of your current directory. This is most
4927 variable, but `sh' doesn't. If you start sh from ksh, change your
4928 current directory inside sh, and then start Emacs from inside sh, PWD
4929 - will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. See the
4930 - etc/OPTIONS file for more details.
4931 + will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. An invalid
4932 + setting for PWD can also be a problem if you use X Windows and csh on an
4933 + RS/6000. See the etc/OPTIONS file for more details.
4935 Perhaps an easier solution is not to use two shells. The `chsh' program
4938 The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT:
4940 - /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.58.tar.Z
4941 + /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.59.tar.Z
4945 ;; tex-complete|Sebastian Kremer|sk@thp.Uni-Koeln.DE
4946 ;; |Minibuffer name completion for editing [La]TeX.
4947 - ;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 1.12 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z
4948 + ;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 19.4 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z
4950 Dave Brennan has software which automatically looks for data in this
4952 The unofficial HP GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP:
4954 - /me10.lbl.gov:pub/interex/HUGE/
4955 /ee.utah.edu:HUGE/ (PLEASE FTP DURING NON-WORK HOURS!!!)
4957 @@ -301,13 +300,9 @@
4958 are different from GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MicroEmacs can not
4959 correctly edit files larger than memory. The author is Daniel Lawrence
4960 - <dan@mdbs.uucp, dan@midas.mgmt.purdue.edu, nwd@j.cc.purdue.edu>. The
4961 - latest version is 3.10 and it is available via anonymous FTP:
4962 + <dan@mdbs.uucp, mdbs!dan@ee.ecn.purdue.edu>. The latest version is 3.11
4963 + and it is available via anonymous FTP:
4965 - /midas.mgmt.purdue.edu: (non-working hours only)
4966 - /durer.cme.nist.gov:
4967 - /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/msdos/memacs/
4968 + /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/msdos/uemacs/
4970 - Version 3.11 is in beta test.
4975 available via anonymous FTP:
4977 - /cs.rochester.edu:/pub/jove.tar.4.14.Z
4978 - /cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.3.tar.Z
4980 + /cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.7.tar.Z
4984 /alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu:ange-ftp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
4985 /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z
4986 - ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
4987 + /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
4989 ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for subscriptions)
4991 Latest released version: 6.1 {???}
4993 - /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex_5_6e.tar.Z {wrong}
4994 - /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auc-tex.tar.Z
4995 + /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex_6_1d.tar.Z
4996 + /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex.tar.Z
4998 auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions)
5002 /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-EightBit.Z
5003 - /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-EightBit
5004 + /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-EightBit
5005 /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z:cemacs/8bit-patch-18.57
5006 /sics.se:archive/emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
5007 @@ -865,10 +865,25 @@
5009 Anders Edenbrandt <anderse@dna.lth.se> has produced a more comprehensive
5010 - patch for Emacs 18.57 that allows for 8-bit input and output.
5011 + patch for Emacs 18.59 that allows for 8-bit input and output.
5014 - /sics.se:archive/emacs-8bit-diff-lth
5015 - /gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU/DS-emacs-18.57-8bit-diff-lth
5016 + /ftp.efd.lth.se:pub/gnu/emacs_8-bit.patch
5018 + In the words of the author:
5020 + With these patches, Emacs becomes fully 8-bit operational. There is
5021 + support for displaying 8-bit characters, as well as for entering such
5022 + characters from the keyboard. In addition, upcase/lowcase tranlatsion
5023 + is supported, accented characters are recognized as "letters" (important
5024 + when doing 'forward-word', for example), and text with 8-bit characters
5025 + can be sorted correctly.
5027 + A Meta-shift key can still be used, provided that you run in an
5028 + environment where it is possible to distinguish between a character
5029 + entered using the Meta-shift key and one entered directly. The diffs
5030 + include patches to make this work under SunView (with emacstool) as
5031 + well as under X. If you can't use a Meta-shift key, you have to enter
5032 + Meta-commands with the ESC-prefix.
5034 The most comprehensive patches for 8-bit output are by Howard Gayle
5035 (originally for Emacs 18.55. These patches allow displaying any arbitrary
5036 @@ -877,15 +892,15 @@
5037 translations. It is reported that the 8-bit character support in Emacs 19
5038 is largely based on these patches. Thomas Bellman
5039 - <Bellman@lysator.liu.se> has updated these patches for Emacs 18.57.
5040 + <Bellman@lysator.liu.se> has updated these patches for Emacs 18.59.
5043 /sics.se:archive/emacs-gayle.tar.Z (patches for 18.55)
5044 - /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.57.diff.tar.Z (patches)
5045 - /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.57-gayle.tar.Z (patched Emacs)
5046 + /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.58.diff.tar.Z (patches)
5047 + /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.59-gayle.tar.Z (patched Emacs)
5049 - I am not sure if Epoch can display 8-bit characters as is. Lucid Emacs
5050 - has the ctl-arrow patch installed. Nemacs displays 8-bit characters, and
5051 - it may be useful for displaying the 8-bit ISO-8859 alphabet, but I don't
5052 - know for sure (see question QQQ).
5053 + Epoch's 8-bit character support is based on Anders Edenbrandt's patches.
5054 + Lucid Emacs has the ctl-arrow patch installed. Nemacs displays 8-bit
5055 + characters, and it may be useful for displaying the 8-bit ISO-8859
5056 + alphabet, but I don't know for sure (see question QQQ).
5058 QQQ: How do I input 8-bit characters?
5061 /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
5062 - /uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu:editors/Nemacs-3.3.2/
5063 /miki.cs.titech.ac.jp:JAPAN/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
5066 the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
5068 - Upgrade to Emacs 18.58.
5069 + Upgrade to Emacs 18.58 or higher.
5071 QQQ: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
5073 (defun gnus-inews-date () nil)
5075 - I think this is fixed in GNUS 3.14.1 if you set gnus-news-system {?} to
5077 + This is not fixed as of GNUS 3.14.1.
5079 QQQ: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
5080 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
5081 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells
5082 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes
5084 This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers
5085 ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other
5086 formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new
5087 information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as
5088 apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice
5089 or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining
5090 the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and
5091 information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including
5092 FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these
5093 conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary
5094 work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution.