Mercurial > emacs
comparison man/entering.texi @ 25829:ac7e9e5e2ccb
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author | Dave Love <fx@gnu.org> |
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date | Wed, 29 Sep 1999 15:17:24 +0000 |
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children | 203ba1f77b7b |
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1 @c This is part of the Emacs manual. | |
2 @c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc. | |
3 @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions. | |
4 @node Entering Emacs, Exiting, Text Characters, Top | |
5 @chapter Entering and Exiting Emacs | |
6 @cindex entering Emacs | |
7 @cindex starting Emacs | |
8 | |
9 The usual way to invoke Emacs is with the shell command @samp{emacs}. | |
10 Emacs clears the screen and then displays an initial help message and | |
11 copyright notice. Some operating systems discard all type-ahead when | |
12 Emacs starts up; they give Emacs no way to prevent this. Therefore, it | |
13 is advisable to wait until Emacs clears the screen before typing your | |
14 first editing command. | |
15 | |
16 If you run Emacs from a shell window under the X Window System, run it | |
17 in the background with @samp{emacs&}. This way, Emacs does not tie up | |
18 the shell window, so you can use that to run other shell commands while | |
19 Emacs operates its own X windows. You can begin typing Emacs commands | |
20 as soon as you direct your keyboard input to the Emacs frame. | |
21 | |
22 @vindex initial-major-mode | |
23 When Emacs starts up, it makes a buffer named @samp{*scratch*}. | |
24 That's the buffer you start out in. The @samp{*scratch*} buffer uses Lisp | |
25 Interaction mode; you can use it to type Lisp expressions and evaluate | |
26 them, or you can ignore that capability and simply doodle. (You can | |
27 specify a different major mode for this buffer by setting the variable | |
28 @code{initial-major-mode} in your init file. @xref{Init File}.) | |
29 | |
30 It is possible to specify files to be visited, Lisp files to be | |
31 loaded, and functions to be called, by giving Emacs arguments in the | |
32 shell command line. @xref{Command Arguments}. But we don't recommend | |
33 doing this. The feature exists mainly for compatibility with other | |
34 editors. | |
35 | |
36 Many other editors are designed to be started afresh each time you | |
37 want to edit. You edit one file and then exit the editor. The next | |
38 time you want to edit either another file or the same one, you must run | |
39 the editor again. With these editors, it makes sense to use a | |
40 command-line argument to say which file to edit. | |
41 | |
42 But starting a new Emacs each time you want to edit a different file | |
43 does not make sense. For one thing, this would be annoyingly slow. For | |
44 another, this would fail to take advantage of Emacs's ability to visit | |
45 more than one file in a single editing session. And it would lose the | |
46 other accumulated context, such as registers, undo history, and the mark | |
47 ring. | |
48 | |
49 The recommended way to use GNU Emacs is to start it only once, just | |
50 after you log in, and do all your editing in the same Emacs session. | |
51 Each time you want to edit a different file, you visit it with the | |
52 existing Emacs, which eventually comes to have many files in it ready | |
53 for editing. Usually you do not kill the Emacs until you are about to | |
54 log out. @xref{Files}, for more information on visiting more than one | |
55 file. | |
56 | |
57 @node Exiting, Basic, Entering Emacs, Top | |
58 @section Exiting Emacs | |
59 @cindex exiting | |
60 @cindex killing Emacs | |
61 @cindex suspending | |
62 @cindex leaving Emacs | |
63 @cindex quitting Emacs | |
64 | |
65 There are two commands for exiting Emacs because there are two kinds | |
66 of exiting: @dfn{suspending} Emacs and @dfn{killing} Emacs. | |
67 | |
68 @dfn{Suspending} means stopping Emacs temporarily and returning | |
69 control to its parent process (usually a shell), allowing you to resume | |
70 editing later in the same Emacs job, with the same buffers, same kill | |
71 ring, same undo history, and so on. This is the usual way to exit. | |
72 | |
73 @dfn{Killing} Emacs means destroying the Emacs job. You can run Emacs | |
74 again later, but you will get a fresh Emacs; there is no way to resume | |
75 the same editing session after it has been killed. | |
76 | |
77 @table @kbd | |
78 @item C-z | |
79 Suspend Emacs (@code{suspend-emacs}) or iconify a frame | |
80 (@code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame}). | |
81 @item C-x C-c | |
82 Kill Emacs (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}). | |
83 @end table | |
84 | |
85 @kindex C-z | |
86 @findex suspend-emacs | |
87 To suspend Emacs, type @kbd{C-z} (@code{suspend-emacs}). This takes | |
88 you back to the shell from which you invoked Emacs. You can resume | |
89 Emacs with the shell command @samp{%emacs} in most common shells. | |
90 | |
91 On systems that do not support suspending programs, @kbd{C-z} starts | |
92 an inferior shell that communicates directly with the terminal. | |
93 Emacs waits until you exit the subshell. (The way to do that is | |
94 probably with @kbd{C-d} or @samp{exit}, but it depends on which shell | |
95 you use.) The only way on these systems to get back to the shell from | |
96 which Emacs was run (to log out, for example) is to kill Emacs. | |
97 | |
98 Suspending also fails if you run Emacs under a shell that doesn't | |
99 support suspending programs, even if the system itself does support it. | |
100 In such a case, you can set the variable @code{cannot-suspend} to a | |
101 non-@code{nil} value to force @kbd{C-z} to start an inferior shell. | |
102 (One might also describe Emacs's parent shell as ``inferior'' for | |
103 failing to support job control properly, but that is a matter of taste.) | |
104 | |
105 When Emacs communicates directly with an X server and creates its own | |
106 dedicated X windows, @kbd{C-z} has a different meaning. Suspending an | |
107 applications that uses its own X windows is not meaningful or useful. | |
108 Instead, @kbd{C-z} runs the command @code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame}, | |
109 which temporarily closes up the selected Emacs frame (@pxref{Frames}). | |
110 The way to get back to a shell window is with the window manager. | |
111 | |
112 @kindex C-x C-c | |
113 @findex save-buffers-kill-emacs | |
114 To kill Emacs, type @kbd{C-x C-c} (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}). A | |
115 two-character key is used for this to make it harder to type. This | |
116 command first offers to save any modified file-visiting buffers. If you | |
117 do not save them all, it asks for reconfirmation with @kbd{yes} before | |
118 killing Emacs, since any changes not saved will be lost forever. Also, | |
119 if any subprocesses are still running, @kbd{C-x C-c} asks for | |
120 confirmation about them, since killing Emacs will kill the subprocesses | |
121 immediately. | |
122 | |
123 There is no way to restart an Emacs session once you have killed it. | |
124 You can, however, arrange for Emacs to record certain session | |
125 information, such as which files are visited, when you kill it, so that | |
126 the next time you restart Emacs it will try to visit the same files and | |
127 so on. @xref{Saving Emacs Sessions}. | |
128 | |
129 The operating system usually listens for certain special characters | |
130 whose meaning is to kill or suspend the program you are running. | |
131 @b{This operating system feature is turned off while you are in Emacs.} | |
132 The meanings of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-x C-c} as keys in Emacs were | |
133 inspired by the use of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-c} on several operating | |
134 systems as the characters for stopping or killing a program, but that is | |
135 their only relationship with the operating system. You can customize | |
136 these keys to run any commands of your choice (@pxref{Keymaps}). |