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@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
@c Copyright (C) 1985,86,87,93,94,95,97,2000,2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Basic, Minibuffer, Exiting, Top
@chapter Basic Editing Commands

@kindex C-h t

with text-only terminals, you will need to tell Emacs which key to use
for that purpose.  If the large key not far above the @key{RET} or
@key{ENTER} key doesn't delete backwards, you need to do this.
@xref{DEL Does Not Delete}, for an explanation of how.

  Most PC keyboards have both a @key{BACKSPACE} key a short ways above
@key{RET} or @key{ENTER}, and a @key{DELETE} key elsewhere.  On these
keyboards, Emacs supports when possible the usual convention that the
@key{BACKSPACE} key deletes backwards (it is @key{DEL}), while the
@key{DELETE} key deletes ``forwards,'' deleting the character after
point, the one underneath the cursor, like @kbd{C-d} (see below).

@kindex RET
@cindex newline
   To end a line and start typing a new one, type @key{RET}.  This
inserts a newline character in the buffer.  If point is in the middle of
a line, @key{RET} splits the line.  Typing @key{DEL} when the cursor is
at the beginning of a line deletes the preceding newline, thus joining
the line with the preceding line.

  Emacs can split lines automatically when they become too long, if you
turn on a special minor mode called @dfn{Auto Fill} mode.

@kindex M-r
@kindex LEFT
@kindex RIGHT
@kindex UP
@kindex DOWN
@findex beginning-of-line
@findex end-of-line
@findex forward-char
@findex backward-char
@findex next-line
@findex previous-line
@findex beginning-of-buffer

@findex goto-char
@findex goto-line
@findex move-to-window-line
@table @kbd
@item C-a
Move to the beginning of the line (@code{beginning-of-line}).
@item C-e
Move to the end of the line (@code{end-of-line}).
@item C-f
Move forward one character (@code{forward-char}).  The right-arrow key
does the same thing.
@item C-b
Move backward one character (@code{backward-char}).  The left-arrow

numeric argument @var{n}, move to @var{n}/10 of the way from the top.
@xref{Arguments}, for more information on numeric arguments.@refill
@item M->
Move to the end of the buffer (@code{end-of-buffer}).
@item C-v
Scroll the display one screen forward, and move point if necessary to put
it on the screen (@code{scroll-up}).  This doesn't always
move point, but it is commonly used to do so.
If your keyboard has a @key{PAGEDOWN} key, it does the same thing.

Scrolling commands are further described in @ref{Scrolling}.
@item M-v
Scroll one screen backward, and move point if necessary to put it on
the screen (@code{scroll-down}).  This doesn't always move point, but
it is commonly used to do so.  The @key{PAGEUP} key has the same
effect.
@item M-x goto-char
Read a number @var{n} and move point to buffer position @var{n}.
Position 1 is the beginning of the buffer.
@item M-x goto-line
Read a number @var{n} and move point to line number @var{n}.  Line 1
is the beginning of the buffer.
@item C-x C-n
@findex set-goal-column
@kindex C-x C-n
Use the current column of point as the @dfn{semipermanent goal column} for
@kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} (@code{set-goal-column}).  Henceforth, those

then @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p}, when starting at the end of the line, move
to the end of another line.  Normally, @code{track-eol} is @code{nil}.
@xref{Variables}, for how to set variables such as @code{track-eol}.

@vindex next-line-add-newlines
  @kbd{C-n} normally gets an error when you use it on the last line of
the buffer (just as @kbd{C-p} gets an error on the first line).  But
if you set the variable @code{next-line-add-newlines} to a
non-@code{nil} value, @kbd{C-n} on the last line of a buffer creates
an additional line at the end and moves down onto it.

@node Erasing
@section Erasing Text

@table @kbd

@table @kbd
@item C-x u
Undo one batch of changes---usually, one command worth (@code{undo}).
@item C-_
The same.
@item C-u C-x u
Undo one batch of changes in the region.
@end table

@kindex C-x u
@kindex C-_
@findex undo
  The command @kbd{C-x u} or @kbd{C-_} is how you undo.  The first time
you give this command, it undoes the last change.  Point moves back to
where it was before the command that made the change.

  Consecutive repetitions of @kbd{C-_} or @kbd{C-x u} undo earlier and
earlier changes, back to the limit of the undo information available.
If all recorded changes have already been undone, the undo command
displays an error message and does nothing.

  Any command other than an undo command breaks the sequence of undo
commands.  Starting from that moment, the previous undo commands become
ordinary changes that you can undo.  Thus, to redo changes you have
undone, type @kbd{C-f} or any other command that will harmlessly break
the sequence of undoing, then type more undo commands.

@cindex selective undo
@kindex C-u C-x u
  Ordinary undo applies to all changes made in the current buffer.  You
can also perform @dfn{selective undo}, limited to the current region.
To do this, specify the region you want, then run the @code{undo}
command with a prefix argument (the value does not matter): @kbd{C-u C-x
u} or @kbd{C-u C-_}.  This undoes the most recent change in the region.
To undo further changes in the same region, repeat the @code{undo}
command (no prefix argument is needed).  In Transient Mark mode, any use
of @code{undo} when there is an active region performs selective undo;
you do not need a prefix argument.

  If you notice that a buffer has been modified accidentally, the
easiest way to recover is to type @kbd{C-_} repeatedly until the stars
disappear from the front of the mode line.  At this time, all the
modifications you made have been canceled.  Whenever an undo command

move back to the neighborhoods you have moved through by popping the
mark ring (@pxref{Mark Ring}).

@vindex undo-limit
@vindex undo-strong-limit
@cindex undo limit
  When the undo information for a buffer becomes too large, Emacs
discards the oldest undo information from time to time (during garbage
collection).  You can specify how much undo information to keep by
setting two variables: @code{undo-limit} and @code{undo-strong-limit}.
Their values are expressed in units of bytes of space.

  The variable @code{undo-limit} sets a soft limit: Emacs keeps undo
data for enough commands to reach this size, and perhaps exceed it, but
does not keep data for any earlier commands beyond that.  Its default
value is 20000.  The variable @code{undo-strong-limit} sets a stricter
limit: the command which pushes the size past this amount is itself
forgotten.  Its default value is 30000.

  Regardless of the values of those variables, the most recent change is
never discarded, so there is no danger that garbage collection occurring
right after an unintentional large change might prevent you from undoing
it.

  The reason the @code{undo} command has two keys, @kbd{C-x u} and
@kbd{C-_}, set up to run it is that it is worthy of a single-character
key, but on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type @kbd{C-_}.
@kbd{C-x u} is an alternative you can type straightforwardly on any
terminal.

@node Basic Files
@section Files

  The commands described above are sufficient for creating and altering

type the text for the new line.  @kbd{C-o F O O} has the same effect as
@w{@kbd{F O O @key{RET}}}, except for the final location of point.

  You can make several blank lines by typing @kbd{C-o} several times, or
by giving it a numeric argument to tell it how many blank lines to make.
@xref{Arguments}, for how.  If you have a fill prefix, then @kbd{C-o}
command inserts the fill prefix on the new line, when you use it at the
beginning of a line.  @xref{Fill Prefix}.

  The easy way to get rid of extra blank lines is with the command
@kbd{C-x C-o} (@code{delete-blank-lines}).  @kbd{C-x C-o} in a run of

  Sometimes it is nice to have Emacs insert newlines automatically when
a line gets too long.  Continuation on the screen does not do that.  Use
Auto Fill mode (@pxref{Filling}) if that's what you want.

@vindex truncate-lines
@cindex truncation
@cindex line truncation, and fringes
  As an alternative to continuation, Emacs can display long lines by
@dfn{truncation}.  This means that all the characters that do not fit
in the width of the screen or window do not appear at all.  They
remain in the buffer, temporarily invisible.  On terminals, @samp{$}
in the last column informs you that the line has been truncated on the
display.  On window systems, a small straight arrow in the fringe to
the right of the window indicates a truncated line.

@findex toggle-truncate-lines
  Truncation instead of continuation happens whenever horizontal
scrolling is in use, and optionally in all side-by-side windows
(@pxref{Windows}).  You can enable or disable truncation for a
particular buffer with the command @kbd{M-x toggle-truncate-lines}.

  @xref{Display Custom}, for additional variables that affect how text is
displayed.

@node Position Info
@section Cursor Position Information

  Here are commands to get information about the size and position of

Display the character code of character after point, character position of
point, and column of point (@code{what-cursor-position}).
@item M-x hl-line-mode
Enable or disable highlighting of the current line.  @xref{Cursor
Display}.
@end table

@findex what-page
@findex what-line
@cindex line number commands
@cindex location of point
@cindex cursor location
@cindex point location
  There are two commands for working with line numbers.  @kbd{M-x
what-line} computes the current line number and displays it in the echo
area.  To go to a given line by number, use @kbd{M-x goto-line}; it
prompts you for the number.  These line numbers count from one at the
beginning of the buffer.

  You can also see the current line number in the mode line; see @ref{Mode
Line}.  If you narrow the buffer, then the line number in the mode line
is relative to the accessible portion (@pxref{Narrowing}).  By contrast,
@code{what-line} shows both the line number relative to the narrowed
region and the line number relative to the whole buffer.

  @kbd{M-x what-page} counts pages from the beginning of the file, and
counts lines within the page, showing both numbers in the echo area.
@xref{Pages}.

column the cursor is in, and other miscellaneous information about
point and the character after it.  It displays a line in the echo area
that looks like this:

@smallexample
Char: c (0143, 99, 0x63)  point=21044 of 26883(78%)  column 53
@end smallexample

@noindent
(In fact, this is the output produced when point is before the
@samp{column} in the example.)

  The four values after @samp{Char:} describe the character that follows
point, first by showing it and then by giving its character code in
octal, decimal and hex.  For a non-ASCII multibyte character, these are
followed by @samp{ext} and the character's representation, in hex, in
the buffer's coding system, if that coding system encodes the character
safely and with a single byte (@pxref{Coding Systems}).  If the
character's encoding is longer than one byte, Emacs shows @samp{ext ...}.

  @samp{point=} is followed by the position of point expressed as a character
count.  The front of the buffer counts as position 1, one character later
as 2, and so on.  The next, larger, number is the total number of characters
in the buffer.  Afterward in parentheses comes the position expressed as a
percentage of the total size.

  @samp{column} is followed by the horizontal position of point, in
columns from the left edge of the window.

  If the buffer has been narrowed, making some of the text at the
beginning and the end temporarily inaccessible, @kbd{C-x =} displays
additional text describing the currently accessible range.  For example, it
might display this:

@smallexample
Char: C (0103, 67, 0x43)  point=252 of 889(28%) <231 - 599>  column 0
@end smallexample

@noindent
where the two extra numbers give the smallest and largest character
position that point is allowed to assume.  The characters between those

  If point is at the end of the buffer (or the end of the accessible
part), the @w{@kbd{C-x =}} output does not describe a character after
point.  The output might look like this:

@smallexample
point=26957 of 26956(100%)  column 0
@end smallexample

@cindex character set of character at point
@cindex font of character at point
@cindex text properties at point
  @w{@kbd{C-u C-x =}} displays additional information about a
character, including the character set name and the codes that
identify the character within that character set; ASCII characters are
identified as belonging to the @code{ascii} character set.  It also
shows the character's syntax, categories, and encodings both
internally in the buffer and externally if you save the file.  It also
shows the character's text properties (@pxref{Text Properties,,,
elisp, the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual}), and any overlays containing it
(@pxref{Overlays,,, elisp, the same manual}).

  Here's an example showing the Latin-1 character A with grave accent,
in a buffer whose coding system is @code{iso-2022-7bit}, whose
terminal coding system is @code{iso-latin-1} (so the terminal actually
displays the character as @samp{@`A}), and which has font-lock-mode
(@pxref{Font Lock}) enabled:

@smallexample
    character: @`A (04300, 2240, 0x8c0)
      charset: latin-iso8859-1
	       (Right-Hand Part of Latin Alphabet 1@dots{}
   code point: 64
       syntax: w 	which means: word
     category: l:Latin
  buffer code: 0x81 0xC0
    file code: ESC 2C 41 40 (encoded by coding system iso-2022-7bit)
terminal code: C0

Text properties
  font-lock-face: font-lock-variable-name-face
  fontified: t
@end smallexample

@node Arguments
@section Numeric Arguments
@cindex numeric arguments

@kindex M-1
@kindex M-@t{-}
@findex digit-argument
@findex negative-argument
  If your terminal keyboard has a @key{META} key, the easiest way to
specify a numeric argument is to type digits and/or a minus sign while
holding down the @key{META} key.  For example,

@example
M-5 C-n
@end example

@kbd{C-k}.)@refill

  A few commands treat a plain @kbd{C-u} differently from an ordinary
argument.  A few others may treat an argument of just a minus sign
differently from an argument of @minus{}1.  These unusual cases are
described when they come up; they are always for reasons of convenience
of use of the individual command.

  You can use a numeric argument to insert multiple copies of a
character.  This is straightforward unless the character is a digit; for
example, @kbd{C-u 6 4 a} inserts 64 copies of the character @samp{a}.
But this does not work for inserting digits; @kbd{C-u 6 4 1} specifies

characters.  You can repeat that command (including its argument) three
additional times, to delete a total of 80 characters, by typing @kbd{C-x
z z z}.  The first @kbd{C-x z} repeats the command once, and each
subsequent @kbd{z} repeats it once again.

88155:d7ddb3e565de

@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
@c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001,
@c   2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Basic, Minibuffer, Exiting, Top
@chapter Basic Editing Commands

@kindex C-h t

with text-only terminals, you will need to tell Emacs which key to use
for that purpose.  If the large key not far above the @key{RET} or
@key{ENTER} key doesn't delete backwards, you need to do this.
@xref{DEL Does Not Delete}, for an explanation of how.

  Most PC keyboards have both a @key{BACKSPACE} key not far above
@key{RET} or @key{ENTER}, and a @key{DELETE} key elsewhere.  On these
keyboards, Emacs supports when possible the usual convention that the
@key{BACKSPACE} key deletes backwards (it is @key{DEL}), while the
@key{DELETE} key deletes ``forwards,'' deleting the character after
point, the one underneath the cursor, like @kbd{C-d} (see below).

@kindex RET
@cindex newline
   To end a line and start typing a new one, type @key{RET}.  This
inserts a newline character in the buffer.  If point is in the middle of
a line, the effect is to split the line.  Typing @key{DEL} when the cursor is
at the beginning of a line deletes the preceding newline, thus joining
the line with the preceding line.

  Emacs can split lines automatically when they become too long, if you
turn on a special minor mode called @dfn{Auto Fill} mode.

@kindex M-r
@kindex LEFT
@kindex RIGHT
@kindex UP
@kindex DOWN
@findex move-beginning-of-line
@findex move-end-of-line
@findex forward-char
@findex backward-char
@findex next-line
@findex previous-line
@findex beginning-of-buffer

@findex goto-char
@findex goto-line
@findex move-to-window-line
@table @kbd
@item C-a
Move to the beginning of the line (@code{move-beginning-of-line}).
@item C-e
Move to the end of the line (@code{move-end-of-line}).
@item C-f
Move forward one character (@code{forward-char}).  The right-arrow key
does the same thing.
@item C-b
Move backward one character (@code{backward-char}).  The left-arrow

numeric argument @var{n}, move to @var{n}/10 of the way from the top.
@xref{Arguments}, for more information on numeric arguments.@refill
@item M->
Move to the end of the buffer (@code{end-of-buffer}).
@item C-v
@itemx @key{PAGEDOWN}
@itemx @key{PRIOR}
Scroll the display one screen forward, and move point if necessary to
put it on the screen (@code{scroll-up}).  This doesn't always move
point, but it is commonly used to do so.  If your keyboard has a
@key{PAGEDOWN} or @key{PRIOR} key, it does the same thing.

Scrolling commands are further described in @ref{Scrolling}.
@item M-v
@itemx @key{PAGEUP}
@itemx @key{NEXT}
Scroll one screen backward, and move point if necessary to put it on
the screen (@code{scroll-down}).  This doesn't always move point, but
it is commonly used to do so.  If your keyboard has a @key{PAGEUP} or
@key{NEXT} key, it does the same thing.
@item M-x goto-char
Read a number @var{n} and move point to buffer position @var{n}.
Position 1 is the beginning of the buffer.
@item M-g M-g
@itemx M-g g
@itemx M-x goto-line
Read a number @var{n} and move point to the beginning of line number
@var{n}.  Line 1 is the beginning of the buffer.  If point is on or
just after a number, then that is the default for @var{n}, if you just
press @key{RET} with an empty minibuffer.
@item C-x C-n
@findex set-goal-column
@kindex C-x C-n
Use the current column of point as the @dfn{semipermanent goal column} for
@kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} (@code{set-goal-column}).  Henceforth, those

then @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p}, when starting at the end of the line, move
to the end of another line.  Normally, @code{track-eol} is @code{nil}.
@xref{Variables}, for how to set variables such as @code{track-eol}.

@vindex next-line-add-newlines
  @kbd{C-n} normally stops at the end of the buffer when you use it on
the last line of the buffer.  But if you set the variable
@code{next-line-add-newlines} to a non-@code{nil} value, @kbd{C-n} on
the last line of a buffer creates an additional line at the end and
moves down onto it.

@node Erasing
@section Erasing Text

@table @kbd

@table @kbd
@item C-x u
Undo one batch of changes---usually, one command worth (@code{undo}).
@item C-_
@itemx C-/
The same.
@item C-u C-x u
Undo one batch of changes in the region.
@end table

@kindex C-x u
@kindex C-_
@kindex C-/
@findex undo
  The command @kbd{C-x u} (or @kbd{C-_} or @kbd{C-/}) is how you undo.
The first time you give this command, it undoes the last change.
Point moves back to where it was before the command that made the
change.

  Consecutive repetitions of @kbd{C-_} or @kbd{C-x u} undo earlier and
earlier changes, back to the limit of the undo information available.
If all recorded changes have already been undone, the undo command
displays an error message and does nothing.

@findex undo-only
  Any command other than an undo command breaks the sequence of undo
commands.  Starting from that moment, the previous undo commands become
ordinary changes that you can undo.  Thus, to redo changes you have
undone, type @kbd{C-f} or any other command that will harmlessly break
the sequence of undoing, then type more undo commands.  On the other
hand, if you want to ignore previous undo commands, use @kbd{M-x
undo-only}.  This is like @code{undo}, but will not redo changes
you have just undone.

@cindex selective undo
@kindex C-u C-x u
  Ordinary undo applies to all changes made in the current buffer.  You
can also perform @dfn{selective undo}, limited to the current region
(@pxref{Mark}).
To do this, specify the region you want, then run the @code{undo}
command with a prefix argument (the value does not matter): @kbd{C-u C-x
u} or @kbd{C-u C-_}.  This undoes the most recent change in the region.
To undo further changes in the same region, repeat the @code{undo}
command (no prefix argument is needed).  In Transient Mark mode
(@pxref{Transient Mark}), any use of @code{undo} when there is an
active region performs selective undo; you do not need a prefix
argument.

  If you notice that a buffer has been modified accidentally, the
easiest way to recover is to type @kbd{C-_} repeatedly until the stars
disappear from the front of the mode line.  At this time, all the
modifications you made have been canceled.  Whenever an undo command

move back to the neighborhoods you have moved through by popping the
mark ring (@pxref{Mark Ring}).

@vindex undo-limit
@vindex undo-strong-limit
@vindex undo-outer-limit
@cindex undo limit
  When the undo information for a buffer becomes too large, Emacs
discards the oldest undo information from time to time (during garbage
collection).  You can specify how much undo information to keep by
setting three variables: @code{undo-limit}, @code{undo-strong-limit},
and @code{undo-outer-limit}.  Their values are expressed in units of
bytes of space.

  The variable @code{undo-limit} sets a soft limit: Emacs keeps undo
data for enough commands to reach this size, and perhaps exceed it,
but does not keep data for any earlier commands beyond that.  Its
default value is 20000.  The variable @code{undo-strong-limit} sets a
stricter limit: a previous command (not the most recent one) which
pushes the size past this amount is itself forgotten.  The default
value of @code{undo-strong-limit} is 30000.

  Regardless of the values of those variables, the most recent change
is never discarded unless it gets bigger than @code{undo-outer-limit}
(normally 3,000,000).  At that point, Emacs discards the undo data and
warns you about it.  This is the only situation in which you cannot
undo the last command.  If this happens, you can increase the value of
@code{undo-outer-limit} to make it even less likely to happen in the
future.  But if you didn't expect the command to create such large
undo data, then it is probably a bug and you should report it.
@xref{Bugs,, Reporting Bugs}.

  The reason the @code{undo} command has three key bindings, @kbd{C-x
u}, @kbd{C-_} and @kbd{C-/}, is that it is worthy of a
single-character key, but @kbd{C-x u} is more straightforward for
beginners to type.

@node Basic Files
@section Files

  The commands described above are sufficient for creating and altering

type the text for the new line.  @kbd{C-o F O O} has the same effect as
@w{@kbd{F O O @key{RET}}}, except for the final location of point.

  You can make several blank lines by typing @kbd{C-o} several times, or
by giving it a numeric argument to tell it how many blank lines to make.
@xref{Arguments}, for how.  If you have a fill prefix, the @kbd{C-o}
command inserts the fill prefix on the new line, when you use it at the
beginning of a line.  @xref{Fill Prefix}.

  The easy way to get rid of extra blank lines is with the command
@kbd{C-x C-o} (@code{delete-blank-lines}).  @kbd{C-x C-o} in a run of

  Sometimes it is nice to have Emacs insert newlines automatically when
a line gets too long.  Continuation on the screen does not do that.  Use
Auto Fill mode (@pxref{Filling}) if that's what you want.

@cindex truncation
@cindex line truncation, and fringes
  As an alternative to continuation, Emacs can display long lines by
@dfn{truncation}.  This means that all the characters that do not fit
in the width of the screen or window do not appear at all.  @samp{$}
in the last column or a small straight arrow in the fringe to the
right of the window indicates a truncated line.

  @xref{Display Custom}, for more information about line truncation,
and other variables that affect how text is displayed.

@node Position Info
@section Cursor Position Information

  Here are commands to get information about the size and position of

Display the character code of character after point, character position of
point, and column of point (@code{what-cursor-position}).
@item M-x hl-line-mode
Enable or disable highlighting of the current line.  @xref{Cursor
Display}.
@item M-x size-indication-mode
Toggle automatic display of the size of the buffer.
@xref{Optional Mode Line}.
@end table

@findex what-page
@findex what-line
@cindex line number commands
@cindex location of point
@cindex cursor location
@cindex point location
  @kbd{M-x what-line} computes the current line number and displays it
in the echo area.  You can also see the current line number in the
mode line; see @ref{Mode Line}.  If you narrow the buffer, then the
line number in the mode line is relative to the accessible portion
(@pxref{Narrowing}).  By contrast, @code{what-line} shows both the
line number relative to the narrowed region and the line number
relative to the whole buffer.

  @kbd{M-x what-page} counts pages from the beginning of the file, and
counts lines within the page, showing both numbers in the echo area.
@xref{Pages}.

column the cursor is in, and other miscellaneous information about
point and the character after it.  It displays a line in the echo area
that looks like this:

@smallexample
Char: c (99, #o143, #x63) point=28062 of 36168 (78%) column=53
@end smallexample

  The four values after @samp{Char:} describe the character that follows
point, first by showing it and then by giving its character code in
decimal, octal and hex.  For a non-@acronym{ASCII} multibyte character, these are
followed by @samp{file} and the character's representation, in hex, in
the buffer's coding system, if that coding system encodes the character
safely and with a single byte (@pxref{Coding Systems}).  If the
character's encoding is longer than one byte, Emacs shows @samp{file ...}.

  However, if the character displayed is in the range 0200 through
0377 octal, it may actually stand for an invalid UTF-8 byte read from
a file.  In Emacs, that byte is represented as a sequence of 8-bit
characters, but all of them together display as the original invalid
byte, in octal code.  In this case, @kbd{C-x =} shows @samp{part of
display ...} instead of @samp{file}.

  @samp{point=} is followed by the position of point expressed as a character
count.  The front of the buffer counts as position 1, one character later
as 2, and so on.  The next, larger, number is the total number of characters
in the buffer.  Afterward in parentheses comes the position expressed as a
percentage of the total size.

  @samp{column=} is followed by the horizontal position of point, in
columns from the left edge of the window.

  If the buffer has been narrowed, making some of the text at the
beginning and the end temporarily inaccessible, @kbd{C-x =} displays
additional text describing the currently accessible range.  For example, it
might display this:

@smallexample
Char: C (67, #o103, #x43) point=252 of 889 (28%) <231-599> column=0
@end smallexample

@noindent
where the two extra numbers give the smallest and largest character
position that point is allowed to assume.  The characters between those

  If point is at the end of the buffer (or the end of the accessible
part), the @w{@kbd{C-x =}} output does not describe a character after
point.  The output might look like this:

@smallexample
point=36169 of 36168 (EOB) column=0
@end smallexample

@cindex character set of character at point
@cindex font of character at point
@cindex text properties at point
  @w{@kbd{C-u C-x =}} displays the following additional information about a
character.

@itemize @bullet
@item
The character set name, and the codes that identify the character
within that character set; @acronym{ASCII} characters are identified
as belonging to the @code{ascii} character set.

@item
The character's syntax and categories.

@item
The character's encodings, both internally in the buffer, and externally
if you were to save the file.

@item
What to type to input the character in the current input method
(if it supports the character).

@item
If you are running Emacs on a window system, the font name and glyph
code for the character.  If you are running Emacs on a terminal, the
code(s) sent to the terminal.

@item
The character's text properties (@pxref{Text Properties,,,
elisp, the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual}), and any overlays containing it
(@pxref{Overlays,,, elisp, the same manual}).
@end itemize

  Here's an example showing the Latin-1 character A with grave accent,
in a buffer whose coding system is @code{iso-latin-1}, whose
terminal coding system is @code{iso-latin-1} (so the terminal actually
displays the character as @samp{@`A}), and which has font-lock-mode
(@pxref{Font Lock}) enabled:

@smallexample
  character: @`A (2240, #o4300, #x8c0, U+00C0)
    charset: latin-iso8859-1
             (Right-Hand Part of Latin Alphabet 1@dots{}
 code point: #x40
     syntax: w 	which means: word
   category: l:Latin
   to input: type "`A" with latin-1-prefix
buffer code: #x81 #xC0
  file code: #xC0 (encoded by coding system iso-latin-1)
    display: terminal code #xC0

There are text properties here:
  fontified            t
@end smallexample

@node Arguments
@section Numeric Arguments
@cindex numeric arguments

@kindex M-1
@kindex M-@t{-}
@findex digit-argument
@findex negative-argument
  If your terminal keyboard has a @key{META} key (labeled @key{ALT} on
PC keyboards), the easiest way to specify a numeric argument is to
type digits and/or a minus sign while holding down the @key{META} key.
For example,

@example
M-5 C-n
@end example

@kbd{C-k}.)@refill

  A few commands treat a plain @kbd{C-u} differently from an ordinary
argument.  A few others may treat an argument of just a minus sign
differently from an argument of @minus{}1.  These unusual cases are
described when they come up; they are always for reasons of
convenience of use of the individual command, and they are documented
in the command's documentation string.

  You can use a numeric argument to insert multiple copies of a
character.  This is straightforward unless the character is a digit; for
example, @kbd{C-u 6 4 a} inserts 64 copies of the character @samp{a}.
But this does not work for inserting digits; @kbd{C-u 6 4 1} specifies

characters.  You can repeat that command (including its argument) three
additional times, to delete a total of 80 characters, by typing @kbd{C-x
z z z}.  The first @kbd{C-x z} repeats the command once, and each
subsequent @kbd{z} repeats it once again.

@ignore
   arch-tag: cda8952a-c439-41c1-aecf-4bc0d6482956
@end ignore