1Emacs tutorial. See end for copying conditions. 2 3Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (often labeled CTRL) 4or the META key (usually labeled ALT). Rather than writing that 5in full each time, we'll use the following abbreviations: 6 7 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr> 8 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f. 9 M-<chr> means hold the META or ALT key down while typing <chr>. 10 If there is no META or ALT key, instead press and release the 11 ESC key and then type <chr>. We write <ESC> for the ESC key. 12 13Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.) 14To quit a partially entered command, type C-g. 15To stop the tutorial, type C-x k, then <Return> at the prompt. 16The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to 17try using a command. For instance: 18<<Blank lines inserted around following line by help-with-tutorial>> 19[Middle of page left blank for didactic purposes. Text continues below] 20>> Now type C-v (View next screen) to scroll down in the tutorial. 21 (go ahead, do it by holding down the CONTROL key while typing v). 22 From now on, please do this whenever you reach the end of the screen. 23 24Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you scroll a whole 25screenful; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading 26the text. 27 28This is a copy of the Emacs tutorial text, customized slightly for 29you. Later on we will instruct you to try various commands to alter 30this text. Don't worry if you change this text before we tell you to; 31that is called "editing" and that's what Emacs is for. 32 33The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place 34to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen, 35with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key 36and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META or ALT key). 37 38>> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times. 39 40It is ok to scroll this text in other ways, if you know how. 41 42* SUMMARY 43--------- 44 45The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls: 46 47 C-v Move forward one screenful 48 M-v Move backward one screenful 49 C-l Clear screen and redisplay all the text, 50 moving the text around the cursor 51 to the center of the screen. 52 (That's CONTROL-L, not CONTROL-1.) 53 54>> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it. Then type C-l. 55 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text is still near 56 the cursor, but now it is in the center of the screen. 57 If you press C-l again, this piece of text will move to the top of 58 the screen. Press C-l again, and it moves to the bottom. 59 60You can also use the PageUp and PageDn keys to move by screenfuls, if 61your terminal has them, but you can edit more efficiently if you use 62C-v and M-v. 63 64* BASIC CURSOR CONTROL 65---------------------- 66 67Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you 68move to a specific place within the text on the screen? 69 70There are several ways you can do this. You can use the arrow keys, 71but it's more efficient to keep your hands in the standard position 72and use the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. These characters 73are equivalent to the four arrow keys, like this: 74 75 Previous line, C-p 76 : 77 : 78 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f 79 : 80 : 81 Next line, C-n 82 83>> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram 84 using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram 85 centered in the screen. 86 87You'll find it easy to remember these letters by words they stand for: 88P for previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. You 89will be using these basic cursor positioning commands all the time. 90 91>> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line. 92 93>> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's. 94 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line. 95 96Each line of text ends with a Newline character, which serves to 97separate it from the following line. (Normally, the last line in 98a file will have a Newline at the end, but Emacs does not require it.) 99 100>> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. It should move to 101 the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back 102 across the Newline character. 103 104C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b. 105 106>> Do a few more C-b's, so you get a feel for where the cursor is. 107 Then do C-f's to return to the end of the line. 108 Then do one more C-f to move to the following line. 109 110When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond 111the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It 112enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text 113without moving it off the screen. 114 115>> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and 116 see what happens. 117 118If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f 119(META-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word. 120 121>> Type a few M-f's and M-b's. 122 123When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word. 124When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the 125following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction. 126 127>> Type M-f and M-b a few times, interspersed with C-f's and C-b's 128 so that you can observe the action of M-f and M-b from various 129 places inside and between words. 130 131Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and 132M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for 133operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences, 134paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are 135independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc). 136 137This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to 138the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning 139or end of a sentence. 140 141>> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's. 142 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's. 143 144See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one 145more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems 146natural. 147 148The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To 149paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in 150the text. 151 152Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the 153word and sentence moving commands: 154 155 C-f Move forward a character 156 C-b Move backward a character 157 158 M-f Move forward a word 159 M-b Move backward a word 160 161 C-n Move to next line 162 C-p Move to previous line 163 164 C-a Move to beginning of line 165 C-e Move to end of line 166 167 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence 168 M-e Move forward to end of sentence 169 170>> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice. 171 These are the most often used commands. 172 173Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (META Less-than), 174which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (META 175Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text. 176 177On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the 178shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key 179to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma. 180 181>> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial. 182 Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here. 183 184>> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial. 185 Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here. 186 187You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has 188arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three 189reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once 190you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these Control 191characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not 192have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once 193you form the habit of using these Control character commands, you can 194easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well. 195 196Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this 197serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count 198is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If 199you have a META (or ALT) key, there is another, alternative way 200to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the 201META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on 202any terminal. The numeric argument is also called a "prefix argument", 203because you type the argument before the command it applies to. 204 205For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters. 206 207>> Try using C-n or C-p with a numeric argument, to move the cursor 208 to a line near this one with just one command. 209 210Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count, but some 211commands use it in some other way. Several commands (but none of 212those you have learned so far) use it as a flag--the presence of a 213prefix argument, regardless of its value, makes the command do 214something different. 215 216C-v and M-v are another kind of exception. When given an argument, 217they scroll the text up or down by that many lines, rather than by a 218screenful. For example, C-u 8 C-v scrolls by 8 lines. 219 220>> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now. 221 222This should have scrolled the text up by 8 lines. If you would like 223to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v. 224 225If you are using a graphical display, such as X or MS-Windows, there 226should be a tall rectangular area called a scroll bar on one side of 227the Emacs window. You can scroll the text by clicking the mouse in 228the scroll bar. 229 230If your mouse has a wheel button, you can also use this to scroll. 231 232 233* IF EMACS STOPS RESPONDING 234--------------------------- 235 236If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by 237typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too 238long to execute. 239 240You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of 241a command that you do not want to finish. 242 243>> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric argument of 100, then type C-g. 244 Now type C-f. It should move just one character, because you 245 canceled the argument with C-g. 246 247If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it with a C-g. 248 249 250* DISABLED COMMANDS 251------------------- 252 253Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use 254them by accident. 255 256If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message 257saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go 258ahead and execute the command. 259 260If you really want to try the command, type <SPC> (the Space bar) in 261answer to the question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the 262disabled command, answer the question with "n". 263 264>> Type C-x C-l (which is a disabled command), 265 then type n to answer the question. 266 267 268* WINDOWS 269--------- 270 271Emacs can have several "windows", each displaying its own text. We 272will explain later on how to use multiple windows. Right now we want 273to explain how to get rid of extra windows and go back to basic 274one-window editing. It is simple: 275 276 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows). 277 278That is CONTROL-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window 279which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all 280other windows. 281 282>> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l. 283>> Type C-h k C-f. 284 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears 285 to display documentation on the C-f command. 286 287>> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear. 288 289There is a whole series of commands that start with CONTROL-x; many of 290them have to do with windows, files, buffers, and related things. 291These commands are two, three or four characters long. 292 293 294* INSERTING AND DELETING 295------------------------ 296 297If you want to insert text, just type the text. Ordinary characters, 298like A, 7, *, etc., are inserted as you type them. To insert a 299Newline character, type <Return> (this is the key on the keyboard 300which is sometimes labeled "Enter"). 301 302To delete the character immediately before the current cursor 303position, type <DEL>. This is the key on the keyboard usually labeled 304"Backspace"--the same one you normally use, outside Emacs, to delete 305the last character typed. 306 307There is usually another key on your keyboard labeled <Delete>, but 308that's not the one we refer to as <DEL> in Emacs. 309 310>> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them by 311 typing <DEL> a few times. Don't worry about this file 312 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. 313 This is your personal copy of it. 314 315When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line 316of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. If you're using a 317graphical display, little curved arrows appear in the narrow spaces on 318each side of the text area (the left and right "fringes"), to indicate 319where a line has been continued. If you're using a text terminal, the 320continued line is indicated by a backslash ('\') on the rightmost 321screen column. 322 323>> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting. 324 You'll see a continuation line appear. 325 326>> Use <DEL>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen 327 line again. The continuation line goes away. 328 329You can delete a Newline character just like any other character. 330Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into 331one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the 332screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line. 333 334>> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <DEL>. This 335 merges that line with the previous line. 336 337>> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted. 338 339The <Return> key is special, in that pressing it may do more than 340just insert a Newline character. Depending on the surrounding text, 341it may insert whitespace after the Newline character, so that when 342you start typing on the newly created line, the text lines up with 343that on the previous line. We call this behavior (where pressing a 344key does more than simply inserting the relevant character) "electric". 345 346>> Here is an example of <Return> being electric. 347 Type <Return> at the end of this line. 348 349You should see that after inserting the Newline, Emacs inserts spaces 350so that the cursor moves under the "T" of "Type". 351 352Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count; 353this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts 354it several times. 355 356>> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********. 357 358You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in 359Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines 360as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations: 361 362 <DEL> Delete the character just before the cursor 363 C-d Delete the next character after the cursor 364 365 M-<DEL> Kill the word immediately before the cursor 366 M-d Kill the next word after the cursor 367 368 C-k Kill from the cursor position to end of line 369 M-k Kill to the end of the current sentence 370 371Notice that <DEL> and C-d vs M-<DEL> and M-d extend the parallel 372started by C-f and M-f (well, <DEL> is not really a control character, 373but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e and M-e, 374sort of, in that lines are paired with sentences. 375 376You can also kill a segment of text with one uniform method. Move to 377one end of that part, and type C-<SPC>. (<SPC> is the Space bar.) 378Next, move the cursor to the other end of the text you intend to kill. 379As you do this, Emacs highlights the text between the cursor and the 380position where you typed C-<SPC>. Finally, type C-w. This kills all 381the text between the two positions. 382 383>> Move the cursor to the Y at the start of the previous paragraph. 384>> Type C-<SPC>. Emacs should display a message "Mark set" 385 at the bottom of the screen. 386>> Move the cursor to the n in "end", on the second line of the 387 paragraph. 388>> Type C-w. This will kill the text starting from the Y, 389 and ending just before the n. 390 391The difference between "killing" and "deleting" is that "killed" text 392can be reinserted (at any position), whereas "deleted" things cannot 393be reinserted in this way (you can, however, undo a deletion--see 394below). Reinsertion of killed text is called "yanking". (Think of it 395as yanking back, or pulling back, some text that was taken away.) 396Generally, the commands that can remove a lot of text kill the text 397(they are set up so that you can yank the text), while the commands 398that remove just one character, or only remove blank lines and spaces, 399do deletion (so you cannot yank that text). <DEL> and C-d do deletion 400in the simplest case, with no argument. When given an argument, they 401kill instead. 402 403>> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty. 404 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line. 405>> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline 406 which follows that line. 407 408Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second 409C-k kills the line itself, and makes all the other lines move up. C-k 410treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND 411their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two 412lines and their Newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that. 413 414You can yank the killed text either at the same place where it was 415killed, or at some other place in the text you are editing, or even in 416a different file. You can yank the same text several times; that 417makes multiple copies of it. Some other editors call killing and 418yanking "cutting" and "pasting" (see the Glossary in the Emacs 419manual). 420 421The command for yanking is C-y. It reinserts the last killed text, 422at the current cursor position. 423 424>> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back. 425 426If you do several C-k's in a row, all of the killed text is saved 427together, so that one C-y will yank all of the lines at once. 428 429>> Do this now, type C-k several times. 430 431Now to retrieve that killed text: 432 433>> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y 434 again. You now see how to copy some text. 435 436What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then 437you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But 438the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y 439command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing 440M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y 441again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have 442reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to 443keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where 444it is. 445 446If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most 447recent kill). 448 449>> Kill a line, move around, kill another line. 450 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line. 451 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line. 452 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until 453 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more. 454 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative 455 arguments. 456 457 458* UNDO 459------ 460 461If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a 462mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-/. 463 464Normally, C-/ undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat 465C-/ several times in a row, each repetition undoes one more command. 466 467But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text 468don't count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling 469commands), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups 470of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-/'s you have to type 471to undo insertion of text.) 472 473>> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-/ and it should reappear. 474 475C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works exactly the same as C-/. 476On some text terminals, you can omit the shift key when you type C-_. 477On some text terminals, typing C-/ actually sends C-_ to Emacs. 478Alternatively, C-x u also works exactly like C-/, but is a little less 479convenient to type. 480 481A numeric argument to C-/, C-_, or C-x u acts as a repeat count. 482 483You can undo deletion of text just as you can undo killing of text. 484The distinction between killing something and deleting it affects 485whether you can yank it with C-y; it makes no difference for undo. 486 487 488* FILES 489------- 490 491In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a 492file. Otherwise, it will go away when you exit Emacs. In order to 493put your text in a file, you must "find" the file before you enter the 494text. (This is also called "visiting" the file.) 495 496Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within 497Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself. 498However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent 499until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a 500half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when 501you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case 502you later decide that your changes were a mistake. 503 504If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that 505begins with dashes, and starts with " -:--- TUTORIAL" or something 506like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name of the 507file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting your personal 508copy of the Emacs tutorial, which is called "TUTORIAL". When you find 509a file with Emacs, that file's name will appear in that precise spot. 510 511One special thing about the command for finding a file is that you 512have to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an 513argument" (in this case, the argument is the name of the file). After 514you type the command 515 516 C-x C-f Find a file 517 518Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears 519on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the 520minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use 521ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name. 522 523While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input), 524you can cancel the command with C-g. 525 526>> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer, 527 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the 528 minibuffer. So you do not find any file. 529 530When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to 531terminate it. The minibuffer disappears, and the C-x C-f command goes 532to work to find the file you chose. 533 534The file contents now appear on the screen, and you can edit the 535contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent, type the 536command 537 538 C-x C-s Save the file 539 540This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you 541do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is 542not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the 543original file's name. When saving is finished, Emacs displays the 544name of the file written. 545 546>> Type C-x C-s TUTORIAL <Return>. 547 This should save this tutorial to a file named TUTORIAL, and show 548 "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen. 549 550You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also 551find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a 552file with Emacs: find the file, which starts out empty, and then begin 553inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the file, 554Emacs actually creates the file with the text that you have inserted. 555From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an already 556existing file. 557 558 559* BUFFERS 560--------- 561 562If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains 563inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with 564C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs. 565 566Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer". 567Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the 568buffers that currently exist, type 569 570 C-x C-b List buffers 571 572>> Try C-x C-b now. 573 574See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name for 575the file whose contents it holds. ANY text you see in an Emacs window 576is always part of some buffer. 577 578>> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list. 579 580When you have several buffers, only one of them is "current" at any 581time. That buffer is the one you edit. If you want to edit another 582buffer, you need to "switch" to it. If you want to switch to a buffer 583that corresponds to a file, you can do it by visiting the file again 584with C-x C-f. But there is an easier way: use the C-x b command. 585In that command, you have to type the buffer's name. 586 587>> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>. 588 Then type C-x b TUTORIAL <Return> to come back to this tutorial. 589 590Most of the time, the buffer's name is the same as the file name 591(without the file directory part). However, this is not always true. 592The buffer list you make with C-x C-b shows you both the buffer name 593and the file name of every buffer. 594 595Some buffers do not correspond to files. The buffer named 596"*Buffer List*", which contains the buffer list that you made with 597C-x C-b, does not have any file. This TUTORIAL buffer initially did 598not have a file, but now it does, because in the previous section you 599typed C-x C-s and saved it to a file. 600 601The buffer named "*Messages*" also does not correspond to any file. 602This buffer contains the messages that have appeared on the bottom 603line during your Emacs session. 604 605>> Type C-x b *Messages* <Return> to look at the buffer of messages. 606 Then type C-x b TUTORIAL <Return> to come back to this tutorial. 607 608If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file, 609this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs, 610in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's 611buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful, 612but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first 613file's buffer. Having to switch back to that buffer, in order to save 614it with C-x C-s, would be a nuisance. So we have 615 616 C-x s Save some buffers to their files 617 618C-x s asks you about each file-visiting buffer which contains changes 619that you have not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether 620to save the buffer to its file. 621 622>> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s. 623 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL. 624 Answer yes to the question by typing "y". 625 626 627* EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET 628--------------------------- 629 630There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put 631on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with 632the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors: 633 634 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character. 635 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name. 636 637These are commands that are generally useful but are used less than the 638commands you have already learned about. You have already seen a few 639of them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save, for 640example. Another example is the command to end the Emacs 641session--this is the command C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing 642changes you have made; C-x C-c offers to save each changed file before 643it kills Emacs.) 644 645If you are using a graphical display, you don't need any special 646command to move from Emacs to another application. You can do this 647with the mouse or with window manager commands. However, if you're 648using a text terminal which can only show one application at a time, 649you need to "suspend" Emacs to move to any other application. 650 651C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go 652back to the same Emacs session afterward. When Emacs is running on a 653text terminal, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns to the shell 654but does not destroy the Emacs job. In the most common shells, you 655can resume Emacs with the "fg" command or with "%emacs". 656 657The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also 658the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked for a quick edit, such 659as by a mail handling utility. 660 661There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned: 662 663 C-x C-f Find file 664 C-x C-s Save buffer to file 665 C-x s Save some buffers to their files 666 C-x C-b List buffers 667 C-x b Switch buffer 668 C-x C-c Quit Emacs 669 C-x 1 Delete all but one window 670 C-x u Undo 671 672Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less 673frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An 674example is the command replace-string, which replaces one string with 675another in the buffer. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the 676bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the 677command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and 678Emacs will complete the name. (<TAB> is the Tab key, usually found 679above the Caps Lock or Shift key near the left edge of the keyboard.) 680Submit the command name with <Return>. 681 682The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be 683replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each 684argument with <Return>. 685 686>> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one. 687 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>. 688 689 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced the word 690 "changed" with "altered" wherever it occurred, after the 691 initial position of the cursor. 692 693 694* AUTO SAVE 695----------- 696 697When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet, 698they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from 699this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that 700you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and 701the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save 702file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way, 703Emacs deletes its auto save file. 704 705If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by 706finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto 707save file) and then typing M-x recover-this-file <Return>. When it 708asks for confirmation, type yes<Return> to go ahead and recover the 709auto-save data. 710 711 712* ECHO AREA 713----------- 714 715If Emacs sees that you are typing multicharacter commands slowly, it 716shows them to you at the bottom of the screen in an area called the 717"echo area". The echo area contains the bottom line of the screen. 718 719 720* MODE LINE 721----------- 722 723The line immediately above the echo area is called the "mode line". 724The mode line says something like this: 725 726 -:**- TUTORIAL 63% L749 (Fundamental) 727 728This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and 729the text you are editing. 730 731You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have 732found. NN% indicates your current position in the buffer text; it 733means that NN percent of the buffer is above the top of the screen. 734If the top of the buffer is on the screen, it will say "Top" instead 735of " 0%". If the bottom of the buffer is on the screen, it will say 736"Bot". If you are looking at a buffer so small that all of it fits on 737the screen, the mode line says "All". 738 739The L and digits indicate position in another way: they give the 740current line number of point. 741 742The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text. 743Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows 744no stars, just dashes. 745 746The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what 747editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is 748what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode". 749 750Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for 751editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode, 752Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active, 753and its name can always be found in the mode line just where 754"Fundamental" is now. 755 756Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example, 757there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each 758programming language has a different idea of what a comment should 759look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each 760major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can 761switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to 762switch to Fundamental mode. 763 764If you are going to be editing human-language text, such as this file, you 765should probably use Text Mode. 766 767>> Type M-x text-mode <Return>. 768 769Don't worry, none of the Emacs commands you have learned changes in 770any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat 771apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode, 772M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators. 773 774Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands 775do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit 776differently. 777 778To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m. 779 780>> Move the cursor to the line following this line. 781>> Type C-l C-l to bring this line to the top of screen. 782>> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode. 783>> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen. 784 785Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes. 786Minor modes are not alternatives to the major modes, just minor 787modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by 788itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your 789major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any 790combination of several minor modes. 791 792One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing 793human-language text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs 794breaks the line in between words automatically whenever you insert 795text and make a line that is too wide. 796 797You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode <Return>. 798When the mode is on, you can turn it off again by doing 799M-x auto-fill-mode <Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns 800it on, and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that 801the command "toggles the mode". 802 803>> Type M-x auto-fill-mode <Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf " 804 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in 805 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces. 806 807The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it 808with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want 809as a numeric argument. 810 811>> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f). 812 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20 813 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using 814 C-x f again. 815 816If you make changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode 817does not re-fill it for you. 818To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (META-q) with the cursor inside 819that paragraph. 820 821>> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q. 822 823 824* SEARCHING 825----------- 826 827Emacs can do searches for strings (a "string" is a group of contiguous 828characters) either forward through the text or backward through it. 829Searching for a string is a cursor motion command; it moves the cursor 830to the next place where that string appears. 831 832The Emacs search command is "incremental". This means that the 833search happens while you type in the string to search for. 834 835The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r 836for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now. 837 838When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as 839a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is 840called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that 841you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search. 842 843>> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time, 844 type the word "cursor", pausing after you type each 845 character to notice what happens to the cursor. 846 Now you have searched for "cursor", once. 847>> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor". 848>> Now type <DEL> four times and see how the cursor moves. 849>> Type <Return> to terminate the search. 850 851Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to 852go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To 853go to the next occurrence of "cursor" just type C-s again. If no such 854occurrence exists, Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently 855"failing". C-g would also terminate the search. 856 857If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <DEL>, the 858search "retreats" to an earlier location. If you type <DEL> just 859after you had typed C-s to advance to the next occurrence of a search 860string, the <DEL> moves the cursor back to an earlier occurrence. If 861there are no earlier occurrences, the <DEL> erases the last character 862in the search string. For instance, suppose you have typed "c", to 863search for the first occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the 864cursor will move to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <DEL>. 865This erases the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back 866to the first occurrence of "c". 867 868If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta 869character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in a 870search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated. 871 872C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search string 873AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for 874something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we 875have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of 876the search is reversed. 877 878 879* MULTIPLE WINDOWS 880------------------ 881 882One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than 883one window on the screen at the same time. (Note that Emacs uses the 884term "frames"--described in the next section--for what some other 885applications call "windows". The Emacs manual contains a Glossary of 886Emacs terms.) 887 888>> Move the cursor to this line and type C-l C-l. 889 890>> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows. 891 Both windows display this tutorial. The editing cursor stays in 892 the top window. 893 894>> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window. 895 (If you do not have a real META key, type <ESC> C-v.) 896 897>> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window. 898>> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it. 899 Keep reading these directions in the top window. 900 901>> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window. 902 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before. 903 904You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. The "selected 905window", where most editing takes place, is the one with a prominent 906cursor which blinks when you are not typing. The other windows have 907their own cursor positions; if you are running Emacs in a graphical 908display, those cursors are drawn as unblinking hollow boxes. 909 910The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one 911window and using the other window just for reference. Without leaving 912the selected window, you can scroll the text in the other window with 913C-M-v. 914 915C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a META 916(or Alt) key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CONTROL and META 917while typing v. It does not matter whether CONTROL or META "comes 918first," as both of these keys act by modifying the characters you 919type. 920 921If you do not have a META key, and you use <ESC> instead, the order 922does matter: you must type <ESC> followed by CONTROL-v, because 923CONTROL-<ESC> v will not work. This is because <ESC> is a character 924in its own right, not a modifier key. 925 926>> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window. 927 928(If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid 929of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one 930window--the window I am already in.") 931 932You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you 933use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not 934change. You can find a file in each window independently. 935 936Here is another way to use two windows to display two different things: 937 938>> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files. 939 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom 940 window. The cursor goes there, too. 941 942>> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete 943 the bottom window. 944 945 946* MULTIPLE FRAMES 947------------------ 948 949Emacs can also create multiple "frames". A frame is what we call one 950collection of windows, together with its menus, scroll bars, echo 951area, etc. On graphical displays, what Emacs calls a "frame" is what 952most other applications call a "window". Multiple graphical frames 953can be shown on the screen at the same time. On a text terminal, only 954one frame can be shown at a time. 955 956>> Type C-x 5 2. 957 See a new frame appear on your screen. 958 959You can do everything you did in the original frame in the new frame. 960There is nothing special about the first frame. 961 962>> Type C-x 5 0. 963 This removes the selected frame. 964 965You can also remove a frame by using the normal method provided by the 966graphical system (often clicking a button with an "X" at a top corner 967of the frame). If you remove the Emacs job's last frame this way, 968that exits Emacs. 969 970 971* RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS 972-------------------------- 973 974Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing 975level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line, 976surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For 977example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental). 978 979To get out of the recursive editing level, type <ESC> <ESC> <ESC>. 980That is an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for 981eliminating extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer. 982 983>> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type <ESC> <ESC> <ESC> to 984 get out. 985 986You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is 987because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the 988recursive editing level. 989 990 991* GETTING MORE HELP 992------------------- 993 994In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to 995get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that 996it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want 997to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features. 998Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs 999commands. These "help" commands all start with the character 1000CONTROL-h, which is called "the Help character". 1001 1002To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a 1003character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost, 1004type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give. 1005If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just 1006type C-g to cancel it. 1007 1008(If C-h does not display a message about help at the bottom of the 1009screen, try typing the F1 key or M-x help <Return> instead.) 1010 1011The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and 1012a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief 1013description of the command. 1014 1015>> Type C-h c C-p. 1016 1017The message should be something like this: 1018 1019 C-p runs the command previous-line 1020 1021This tells you the "name of the function". Since function names 1022are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve as 1023very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you 1024have already learned. 1025 1026Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and <ESC>v (instead of M-v, 1027if you have no META or ALT key) are also allowed after C-h c. 1028 1029To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c. 1030 1031>> Type C-h k C-p. 1032 1033This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its name, 1034in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the output, type 1035C-x 1 to get rid of that window. You do not have to do this right 1036away. You can do some editing while referring to the help text, and 1037then type C-x 1. 1038 1039Here are some other useful C-h options: 1040 1041 C-h x Describe a command. You type in the name of the 1042 command. 1043 1044>> Try typing C-h x previous-line <Return>. 1045 This displays all the information Emacs has about the 1046 function which implements the C-p command. 1047 1048A similar command C-h v displays the documentation of variables, 1049including those whose values you can set to customize Emacs behavior. 1050You need to type in the name of the variable when Emacs prompts for it. 1051 1052 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list 1053 all the commands whose names contain that keyword. 1054 These commands can all be invoked with META-x. 1055 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a 1056 sequence of one or more characters which runs the same 1057 command. 1058 1059>> Type C-h a file <Return>. 1060 1061This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file" 1062in their names. You will see character-commands listed beside the 1063corresponding command names (such as C-x C-f beside find-file). 1064 1065>> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times. 1066 1067>> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window. 1068 1069 C-h i Read included Manuals (a.k.a. Info). This command puts 1070 you into a special buffer called "*info*" where you 1071 can read manuals for the packages installed on your system. 1072 Type m emacs <Return> to read the Emacs manual. 1073 If you have never before used Info, type h and Emacs 1074 will take you on a guided tour of Info mode facilities. 1075 Once you are through with this tutorial, you should 1076 consult the Emacs Info manual as your primary documentation. 1077 1078 1079* MORE FEATURES 1080--------------- 1081 1082You can learn more about Emacs by reading its manual, either as a 1083printed book, or inside Emacs (use the Help menu or type C-h r). 1084Two features that you may like especially are completion, which saves 1085typing, and Dired, which simplifies file handling. 1086 1087Completion is a way to avoid unnecessary typing. For instance, if you 1088want to switch to the *Messages* buffer, you can type C-x b *M<Tab> 1089and Emacs will fill in the rest of the buffer name as far as it can 1090determine from what you have already typed. Completion also works for 1091command names and file names. Completion is described in the Emacs 1092manual in the node called "Completion". 1093 1094Dired enables you to list files in a directory (and optionally its 1095subdirectories), move around that list, visit, rename, delete and 1096otherwise operate on the files. Dired is described in the Emacs 1097manual in the node called "Dired". 1098 1099The manual also describes many other Emacs features. 1100 1101 1102* INSTALLING PACKAGES 1103--------------------- 1104 1105There's a rich set of packages for Emacs written by the community, 1106which extend Emacs' capabilities. These packages include support for 1107new languages, additional themes, plugins for integrating with 1108external applications, and much, much more. 1109 1110To see a list of all available packages, type M-x list-packages. In 1111the display this shows, you can install or uninstall packages, as well 1112as read packages' descriptions. For more information about package 1113management, consult the manual. 1114 1115 1116* CONCLUSION 1117------------ 1118 1119To exit Emacs use C-x C-c. 1120 1121This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if 1122you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain! 1123 1124 1125* COPYING 1126--------- 1127 1128This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials 1129starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs. 1130 1131This version of the tutorial is a part of GNU Emacs. It is copyrighted 1132and comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions: 1133 1134 Copyright (C) 1985, 1996, 1998, 2001-2021 Free Software Foundation, 1135 Inc. 1136 1137 This file is part of GNU Emacs. 1138 1139 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify 1140 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by 1141 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or 1142 (at your option) any later version. 1143 1144 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 1145 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 1146 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the 1147 GNU General Public License for more details. 1148 1149 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 1150 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. 1151 1152Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of GNU Emacs to 1153your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism ("ownership") by 1154using, writing, and sharing free software! 1155