Mercurial > emacs
view etc/FAQ @ 25861:2b7aca1bdda1
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| author | Dave Love <fx@gnu.org> |
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| date | Mon, 04 Oct 1999 13:10:21 +0000 |
| parents | 14b904ea2409 |
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GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about GNU Emacs 20 with answers. Some of the answers are not valid for GNU Emacs 18 or 19. [This version has been somewhat edited from the last-posted version (as of February 1999) for inclusion in the Emacs distribution.] The FAQ is posted (in five parts) to reduce the noise level in the gnu.emacs.help newsgroup (which is also the help-gnu-emacs mailing list) which results from the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these questions, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, name calling, and generally unproductive use of the mailing list. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best" answers to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a slight change that improves an answer, please tell us! If you know the answer to a question in the FAQ list, please reply to the question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise! The FAQ is crossposted to comp.emacs because some sites do not receive the gnu.* newsgroups. The FAQ is also crossposted to news.answers. Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. A diff file between the last version of the FAQ and this one should have been posted along with the FAQ. If you did not receive the diff file, you can get it at ftp://the-tech.mit.edu/pub/GNU-Emacs/faq-diffs Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, and deletions by sending mail to emacs-faq@lerner.co.il. The most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (i.e., the output of `diff -c'). Include "FAQ" in the subject of messages about the FAQ list. Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb a lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have time to answer questions individually. :-( -- Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@lerner.co.il> and the FAQ team (a full list is at the bottom of the FAQ). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Notation Used in FAQ 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.? 2: What does "M-x command" mean? 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual? 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el? 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL? General Questions 6: What is the LPF? 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft? 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug, comp.emacs, etc.? 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups? 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs? 11: How do I unsubscribe from this mailing list? 12: What is the current address of the FSF? On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help 13: I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing? 14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs? 15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual? 16: Where can I get documentation on Emacs Lisp? 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation? 18: How do I print a Texinfo file? 19: Can I view Info files without using Emacs? 20: What informational files are available for Emacs? 21: Where can I get help in installing Emacs? 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)? Status of Emacs 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from? 24: What is the latest version of Emacs? 25: What is different about Emacs 20? Common Things People Want To Do 26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly? 27: How do I debug a .emacs file? 28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number? 29: How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current filename? 30: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX? 31: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default? 32: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files? 33: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control) characters? 34: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs? 35: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing? 36: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me? 37: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs? 38: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents? 39: How do I change load-path? 40: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window? 41: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages? 42: How do I indent switch statements like this? 43: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally? 44: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting? 45: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal? 46: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows? 47: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the indentation of the previous line? 48: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at? 49: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef commands are handled by the compiler? 50: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi? 51: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)? 52: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code? 53: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length? 54: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line? 55: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an underlined paragraph? 56: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible? 57: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor should stay in the same column even if the line is too short? 58: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself? 59: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs? 60: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file? 61: Where is the documentation for "etags"? 62: How do I disable backup files? 63: How do I disable auto-save-mode? 64: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options? 65: How do I delete menus and menu options? 66: How do I turn on syntax highlighting? 67: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the bottom of the screen? 68: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type? 69: How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs? 70: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after each period? Bugs/Problems 71: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes? 72: How do I get rid of ^M or echoed commands in my shell buffer? 73: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"? 74: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"? 75: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping? 76: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)? 77: Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"? 78: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)? 79: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file? 80: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name? 81: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory? 82: Are there any security risks in Emacs? 83: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something. Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs 84: How do I install Emacs? 85: How do I update Emacs to the latest version? 86: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs? 87: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail? Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages 88: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)? 89: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX? 90: Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs? 91: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive? 92: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff? 93: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid Emacs")? 94: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS? 95: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows NT? 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2? 97: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST? 98: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga? 99: Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP? 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer? 101: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows? 102: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++, Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk? 103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ? Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs 104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support 105: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs 106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs 107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs 108: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities 109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers 110: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs 111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs 112: EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes 113: Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news 114: JDE -- Development environment for Java programming 115: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems 116: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands? 117: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"? 118: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up? 119: How do I use function keys under X Windows? 120: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys emit? 121: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs? 122: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control? 123: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered out? 124: Why does the "Backspace" key invoke help? 125: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete? 126: How do I "swap" two keys? 127: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard? 128: What if I don't have a Meta key? 129: What if I don't have an Escape key? 130: Can I make my "Compose Character" key behave like a Meta key? 131: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key? 132: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window? 133: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0 and 9.x? Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets 134: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters? 135: How do I input 8-bit characters? 136: Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other character sets? 137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets? Mail and News 138: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups? 139: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail? 140: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail? 141: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message? 142: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder? 143: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail? 144: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format? 145: How can I force Rmail to reply to the sender of a message, but not the other recipients? 146: How can I get my favorite Emacs mail package to support MIME? 147: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader? 148: How do I read news under Emacs? 149: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP? 150: How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g., ClariNews)? 151: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus? 152: How do I make Gnus start up faster? 153: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus? 154: Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control headers? 155: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections? 156: Why is catch up slow in Gnus? 157: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting? 158: Where can I find out more about Gnus? ------------------------------------------------------------ If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text of the answers, just type "C-x $". To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if that doesn't work. Type RET to end the search. If you have a web browser and the browse-url package configured for it, you can visit ftp and HTTP uniform resource locators (URLs) by placing the cursor on the URL and typing M-x browse-url-at-point. The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22. ------------------------------------------------------------ Time-stamp: <1999-02-10 18:44:04 reuven> Notation Used in FAQ Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the later answers. 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.? C-x: press the `x' key while holding down the Control key M-x: press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key (if your computer doesn't have a Meta key, see question 128) M-C-x: press the `x' key while holding down both Control and Meta C-M-x: a synonym for the above LFD: Linefeed or Newline; same as C-j RET: Return, sometimes marked Enter; same as C-m DEL: Delete, usually not the same as Backspace; same as C-? (See question 124 if deleting invokes Emacs help) ESC: Escape; same as C-[ TAB: Tab; same as C-i SPC: Space bar Key sequences longer than one key (and some single-key sequences) are inside double quotes or on lines by themselves. Any real spaces in such a key sequence should be ignored; only SPC really means press the space key. The ASCII code sent by C-x (except for C-?) is the value that would be sent by pressing just `x' minus 96 (or 64 for uppercase `X') and will be from 0 to 31. The ASCII code sent by M-x is the sum of 128 and the ASCII code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7. NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a "control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very few keyboards does C-? generate ASCII code 127. For further information, see "Characters" and "Keys" in the on-line manual. (See question 3 if you don't know how.) 2: What does "M-x command" mean? "M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then type RET. (See question 1 if you're not sure what "M-x" and "RET" mean.) M-x (by default) invokes the command "execute-extended-command". This command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type TAB and SPC for completion, `?' for a list of possibilities, and M-p and M-n to see previous commands entered. An Emacs "command" is any "interactive" Emacs function. NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good candidate for this. To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 52. 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual? When we refer you to topic XXX in the on-line manual, you can read this manual node inside Emacs (assuming nothing is broken) by typing this: C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET This invokes Info, the GNU hypertext documentation browser. If you don't already know how to use Info, type `?' from within Info. If we refer to topic XXX:YYY, type this: C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET m YYY RET WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files, or may have installed them improperly. In this case you should complain. See question 15 if you would like a paper copy of the Emacs manual. 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el? These are files that come with Emacs. The Emacs distribution is divided into subdirectories; the important ones are "etc", "lisp", and "src". If you use Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system, start Emacs, then type "C-h v data-directory RET". The directory name displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed "etc" directory. The location of your Info directory (i.e., where on-line documentation is stored) is kept in the variable Info-default-directory-list. Use "C-h v Info-default-directory-list RET" to see the contents of this variable, which will be a list of directory names. The last directory in that list is probably where most Info files are stored. By default, Info documentation is placed in /usr/local/info. Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail; see question 20. All are available in the source distribution. Many of the files in the "etc" directory are also available via the Emacs "help" menu, or by typing "C-h ?" (M-x help-for-help). WARNING: Your system administrator may have removed the src directory and many files from the etc directory. 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL? FSF == Free Software Foundation LPF == League for Programming Freedom OSF == Open Software Foundation GNU == GNU's Not Unix RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman FTP == File Transfer Protocol GPL == GNU General Public License NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a consortium of computer vendors which develops commercial software for Unix systems. NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers to "freedom," not "zero dollars." Anyone can charge any price for GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the freedom enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always get the software for less money from someone else, because everyone has the right to resell or give away GPL-covered software. General Questions 6: What is the LPF? The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and look-and-feel copyrights. To get more information, feel free to contact the LPF via e-mail or otherwise. You may also contact Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>; he will be happy to talk with you about the LPF. You can find more information about the LPF in the file etc/LPF. More papers describing the LPF's views are available on the Internet and also from the LPF: http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/ 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft? The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public License (copyleft) will only be known if and when a judge rules on its validity and scope. There has never been a copyright infringement case involving the GPL to set any precedents. Please take any discussion regarding this issue to the newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to hold the extensive flame wars on the subject. RMS writes: The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the spirit, which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work pertaining to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that all users have the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs. To make sure everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you distribute any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the recipients the same freedom that you enjoyed. 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug, comp.emacs, etc.? The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list. (See question 20 if you want a copy of the file.) For those lists which are gatewayed with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the mailing list address. comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This includes Emacs along with various other implementations, such as JOVE, MicroEmacs, Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, and Epsilon. Many people post Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have to decide for yourself. Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on any of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "Non-free" software includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify the source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the gnu.* groups from the "Newsgroups:" line when posting a followup that recommends such software. gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug reports to this newsgroup (see question 10). 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups? The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual postings from, but pretty much everything is there. The archives are available at ftp://ftp-mailing-list-archives.gnu.org/ Web-based Usenet search services, such as DejaNews, also archive the gnu.* groups. You can reach DejaNews at http://www.dejanews.com 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs? The correct way to report Emacs bugs is by e-mail to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. Anything sent here also appears in the newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit the bug report. This ensures a reliable return address so you can be contacted for further details. Be sure to read the "Bugs" section of the Emacs manual before reporting a bug to bug-gnu-emacs! The manual describes in detail how to submit a useful bug report. (See question 3 if you don't know how to read the manual.) RMS says: Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others. However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to gnu.emacs.help: If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix, then after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you. If you are unsure whether you have found a bug, consider the following non-exhaustive list, courtesy of RMS: If Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that is a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it does, that is a bug. 11: How do I unsubscribe from this mailing list? If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named "XXX", you might be able to unsubscribe from it by sending a request to the address <XXX-request@gnu.org>. However, this will not work if you are not listed on the main mailing list, but instead receive the mail from a distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the "Received:" headers on the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the "EXPN" or "VRFY" sendmail commands through "telnet <site-address> smtp". Ask your postmaster for help. 12: What is the current address of the FSF? E-mail: gnu@gnu.org Telephone: +1-617-542-5942 Fax: +1-617-542-2652 World Wide Web: http://www.gnu.org/ Postal address: Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA For details on how to order items directly from the FSF, see the file etc/ORDERS. On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help 13: I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing? Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Just typing `C-h' enters the help system. WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed `C-h' to act like DEL to deal with local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to invoke help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system, type "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a comma-separated list of key sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last character in each key sequence listed. Each of the resulting key sequences invokes help. NOTE: Emacs help works best if it is invoked by a single key whose value should be stored in the variable help-char. There is also a WWW-based tutorial for Emacs 18, much of which is also relevant for Emacs 20, available at http://kufacts.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/writeups/misc/emacsguide.html 14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs? There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs. * The complete text of the Emacs manual is available on-line via the Info hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info. Typing `h' immediately after entering Info will provide a short tutorial on how to use it. * You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15. * You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to invoke them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or you can print your own from the etc/refcard.tex or etc/refcard.ps files in the Emacs distribution. * You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word (actually which match a regular expression) using "C-h a" (M-x command-apropos). * You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a certain word using M-x apropos. * There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and information. To get a list of these commands, type `?' after `C-h'. 15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual? You can order a printed copy of the Emacs manual from the FSF. For details see the file etc/ORDERS. The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the "man" directory of the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this 440-page manual yourself (see question 18). If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX, you can get a PostScript version from ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-19.21.ps.gz Note that the above document is somewhat out of date, although most major concepts are still relevant. This site requests that you please *confine any major ftping to late evenings or early mornings, local time* (Pacific time zone, GMT-8). A WWW version of the (somewhat outdated) Emacs 19.34 manual is at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/emacs_toc.html See also question 14 for how to view the manual on-line. 16: Where can I get documentation on Emacs Lisp? Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a function, "C-h v" for a variable. For more information, obtain the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Details on ordering it from FSF are in file etc/ORDERS. The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is also available on-line, in Info format. Texinfo source for the manual (along with pregenerated Info files) is available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-manual-20-2.5.tar.gz and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list). See question 17 if you want to install the Info files, or question 18 if you want to use the Texinfo source to print the manual yourself. WWW versions of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual are available at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/elisp_1.html http://www.cs.indiana.edu/usr/local/www/elisp/lispref/elisp_toc.html 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation? First, you must turn the Texinfo files into Info files. You may do this using the stand-alone "makeinfo" program, available as part of the latest Texinfo package at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-3.12.tar.gz and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (see question 92 for a list). For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so you can read it on-line. Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor makeinfo installs the resulting Info files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files: 1. Move the files to the "info" directory in the installed Emacs distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that is. 2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a line for the top level node in the Info package that you are installing. Follow the examples already in this file. The format is: * Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic. If (as it should have done) the Texinfo file used the @direntry command, you can run the "install-info" command from the current Texinfo distribution to do this automatically -- see the example in the top-level Makefile in the Emacs source. If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary privileges, you have several options: * Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing `g' in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This goes to the node named "Top" in that file. For example, to view a Info file named "XXX" in your home directory, you can type this: C-h i g (~/XXX) RET * You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the Info directory is by adding its pathname to the value of the variable Info-default-directory-list. For example, to use a private Info directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named "Info", you could put this in your .emacs file: (setq Info-default-directory-list (cons "~/Info" Info-default-directory-list)) You will need a top-level Info file named "dir" in this directory which has everything the system dir file has in it, except it should list only entries for Info files in that directory. You might not need it if all files in this directory were referenced by other "dir" files. The node lists from all dir files in Info-default-directory-list are merged by the Info system. 18: How do I print a Texinfo file? NOTE: You can't get nicely printed output from Info files; you must still have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print. Assuming you have TeX installed on your system, follow these steps: 1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this: \input texinfo You may need to change "texinfo" to the full pathname of the texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy or link it into the current directory). 2. tex XXX.texinfo 3. texindex XXX.?? The texindex program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c. 4. tex XXX.texinfo 5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files at your site. To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package mentioned in question 17. The "texi2dvi" command from it will perform the above steps 1 to 4 for you. 19: Can I view Info files without using Emacs? Yes. Here are some alternative programs: * Info, a stand-alone version of the Info program, comes as part of the Texinfo package. See question 17 for details. * Xinfo, a stand-alone version of the Info program that runs under X Windows. You can get it at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/xinfo/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list). * Tkinfo, an Info viewer that runs under X Windows and uses Tcl/Tk. You can get Tkinfo at http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/tkinfo/ 20: What informational files are available for Emacs? This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of informational files about Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU project are available for you to read. The following files are available in the "etc" directory of the Emacs distribution (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is). COPYING -- Emacs General Public License DISTRIB -- Emacs Availability Information, including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form" FAQ -- Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it) FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP GNU -- The GNU Manifesto INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain UNIX-compatible software system with BYTE editors LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom MACHINES -- Status of Emacs on Various Machines and Systems MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists NEWS -- Emacs news, a history of user-visible changes PROBLEMS -- Known problems with building and running Emacs in various situations, often with workarounds. SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs" Latest versions of some of the above files are also available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/ More GNU information, including back issues of the "GNU's Bulletin", are at http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bulletins.html http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/gnu.html 21: Where can I get help in installing Emacs? See question 84 for some basic installation hints, and question 83 if you have problems with the installation. The file etc/SERVICE (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is) lists companies and individuals willing to sell you help in installing or using Emacs. An up-to-date version this file is available on ftp.gnu.org (see question 20). 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)? The Emacs FAQ is available in several ways: * Inside of Emacs itself. You can get it from selecting the "Emacs FAQ" option from the "Help" menu at the top of any Emacs frame, or by typing C-h F (M-x view-emacs-FAQ). * Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups. Every news reader should allow you to read any news article that is still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before. You may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover how to do this. In rn, this command will do this for you at the article selection level: ?GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions?rc:m In Gnus, you should type "C-u c-x c-s" from the *Summary* buffer or "C-u SPC" from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a newsgroup. If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool, it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire for a while. * Via HTTP or FTP. You can always fetch the latest FAQ at http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/ and ftp://ftp.lerner.co.il/pub/emacs/ * In the Emacs distribution. Since Emacs 18.56, the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the Emacs distribution as etc/FAQ (see question 4). * Via the World Wide Web. A hypertext version is available at http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/ * Via anonymous ftp and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu (and its mirror in Europe), the main repository for FAQs and other items posted to news.answers. The Emacs FAQs are available at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/ ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/doc/FAQ/comp/emacs/ If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can access the archives using the rtfm.mit.edu mail server. The Emacs FAQ can be retrieved by sending mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with a blank subject and containing send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/diffs send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part4 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part5 For more information, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "help" and "index" in the body on separate lines. * As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to emacs-faq@lerner.co.il. Don't do this unless you have made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the methods listed above. Status of Emacs 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from? Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked the name Emacs because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at the time." The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector, originally Tape Editor and COrrector) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended TECO with a "real-time" full screen mode with reprogrammable keys. Emacs was started by Guy Steele <gls@east.sun.com> as a project to unify the many divergent TECO command sets and key bindings at MIT, and completed by RMS. Many people have said that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See alt.lang.teco if you are interested. Someone has written a TECO implementation in Emacs Lisp (to find it, see question 90); it would be an interesting project to run the original TECO Emacs inside of Emacs. For some not-so-serious alternative reasons for Emacs to have that name, check out etc/JOKES (see question 4). 24: What is the latest version of Emacs? Emacs 20.4 is the current version as of this writing. 25: What is different about Emacs 20? To find out what has changed in recent versions, type C-h n (M-x view-emacs-news). The oldest changes are at the bottom of the file, so you might want to read it starting there, rather than at the top. The differences between Emacs versions 18 and 19 was rather dramatic; the introduction of frames, faces, and colors on windowing systems was obvious to even the most casual user. There are differences between Emacs versions 19 and 20 as well, but many are more subtle or harder to find. Among the changes are the inclusion of MULE code for languages that use non-Latin characters, the "customize" facility for modifying variables without having to use Lisp, and automatic conversion of files from Macintosh, Microsoft, and Unix platforms. Many Lisp packages have been updated and enhanced for Emacs 20. Common Things People Want To Do 26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly? See "Init File" in the on-line manual. WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files, because it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send questions to help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as documented. :-) Emacs 20 includes the new "customize" facility, which can be invoked using M-x customize RET or via the Help menu. This allows users who are unfamiliar with Emacs Lisp to modify their .emacs files in a relatively straightforward way, using menus rather than Lisp code. While all the packages included with Emacs (are meant to) support Customize now, packages from other sources may not. While Customize might indeed make it easier to configure Emacs, consider taking a bit of time to learn Emacs Lisp and modifying your .emacs directly. Simple configuration options are described rather completely in the "Init File" section of the on-line manual, for users interested in performing frequently requested, basic tasks. 27: How do I debug a .emacs file? Start Emacs with the "-debug-init" command-line option. This enables the Emacs Lisp debugger before evaluating your .emacs file, and places you in the debugger if something goes wrong. The top line in the trace-back buffer will be the error message, and the second or third line of that buffer will display the Lisp code from your .emacs file that caused the problem. You can also evaluate an individual function or argument to a function in your .emacs file by moving the cursor to the end of the function or argument and typing "C-x C-e" (M-x eval-last-sexp). "C-M-x" (M-x eval-defun) is particularly useful for re-evaluating "defvar" and "customize" forms. Use "C-h v" (M-x describe-variable) to check the value of variables which you are trying to set or use. 28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number? To toggle having Emacs automatically display the current line number of the point in the mode line, do "M-x line-number-mode". (This option is on by default.) Note that Emacs will not display the line number if the buffer is larger than the value of the variable line-number-display-limit. As of Emacs 20, you can similarly display the current column with "M-x column-number-mode", by putting the form (setq column-number-mode t) in your .emacs file or by using Customize. The "%c" format specifier in the variable mode-line-format will insert the current column's value into the mode line. See the documentation for mode-line-format (using "C-h v mode-line-format RET") for more information on how to set and use this variable. Users of all Emacs versions can display the current column using Per Abrahamsen's <abraham@iesd.auc.dk> "column" package. See question 90 for instructions on how to get it. None of the vi emulation modes provide the "set number" capability of vi (as far as we know) but Kyle Jones's setnu.el package implements such a feature. 29: How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current filename? The contains of an Emacs frame's titlebar is controlled by the variable frame-title-format, which has the same structure as the variable mode-line-format. (Use "C-h v" or "M-x describe-variable" to get information about one or both of these variables.) By default, the titlebar for a frame does contain the name of the buffer currently being visited, except if there is a single frame. In such a case, the titlebar contains the name of the user and the machine at which Emacs was invoked. This is done by setting frame-title-format to the default value of (multiple-frames "%b" ("" invocation-name "@" system-name)) To modify the behavior such that frame titlebars contain the buffer's name regardless of the number of existing frames, include the following in your .emacs: (setq frame-title-format "%b") 30: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX? Put this in your .emacs file: (condition-case () (quietly-read-abbrev-file) (file-error nil)) (add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook (lambda () (setq abbrev-mode t))) 31: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default? To turn on auto-fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in a certain mode, you must use the hook for that mode. For example, to turn on auto-fill mode for all text buffers, including the following in your .emacs file: (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill) You can also do this via the Help -> Options menu, which runs the command toggle-text-mode-auto-fill. If you want auto-fill mode on in all major modes, do this: (setq-default auto-fill-function 'do-auto-fill) 32: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files? If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension ".YYY", this will do it for you: (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode)) Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to edit in XXX mode (in the second line, if the first line begins with "#!"): -*-XXX-*- Beginning with Emacs 19, the variable interpreter-mode-alist specifies which mode to use when loading a shell script. (Emacs determines which interpreter you're using by examining the first line of the file.) This feature only applies when the file name doesn't indicate which mode to use. Use "C-h v" (or M-x describe-variable) on interpreter-mode-alist to learn more. 33: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control) characters? To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for example, "\237", you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value of search-quote-char is 17 (i.e., `C-q').) Searching for ALL unprintable characters is best done with a regular expression ("regexp") search. The easiest regexp to use for the unprintable chars is the complement of the regexp for the printable chars. Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~] Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~] To type these special characters in an interactive argument to isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t', `\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So, to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward: M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET Using isearch-forward-regexp: M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] To delete all unprintable characters, simply use replace-regexp: M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET Replacing is similar to the above. To replace all unprintable characters with a colon, use: M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET : RET NOTE: * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing something in the minibuffer. 34: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs? If you are using a windowing system such as X, you can cause the region to be highlighted when the mark is active by including (transient-mark-mode t) in your .emacs file, using Customize or via the Help->Options menu. (Also see question 66.) 35: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing? For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines whether they are case sensitive: (setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive (setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive To change this or similar variables during an Emacs session, use M-x set-variable. Similarly, for replacing, the variable case-replace determines whether replacements preserve case. To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major mode's hook. For example: (add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook (lambda () (setq case-fold-search nil))) 36: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me? Use auto-fill mode, activated by typing "M-x auto-fill-mode". The default maximum line width is 70, determined by the variable fill-column. To learn how to turn this on automatically, see question 31. 37: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs? Use Ispell. See question 110. 38: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents? Use Ispell. See question 110. Ispell can handle TeX and *roff documents. 39: How do I change load-path? In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this: (setq load-path (cons "/XXX/YYY/" load-path)) To do this relative to your home directory: (setq load-path (cons "~/YYY/" load-path) 40: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window? Emacsclient, which comes with Emacs, is for editing a file using an already running Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the request. * Setup Emacs must have executed the "server-start" function for emacsclient to work. This can be done either by a command line option: emacs -f server-start or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file: (if (some conditions are met) (server-start)) When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called "server". "server" creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home directory named .emacs_server. To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the value "emacsclient". You may have to specify the full pathname of the emacsclient program instead. Examples: # csh commands: setenv EDITOR emacsclient setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname # sh command: EDITOR=emacsclient ; export EDITOR * Normal use When emacsclient is run, it connects to the ".emacs_server" socket and passes its command line options to "server". When "server" receives these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process, which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to switch to the Emacs window by hand. When the user is done editing a file, the user can type "C-x #" (or M-x server-edit) to indicate this. If there is another buffer requested by emacsclient, Emacs will switch to it; otherwise emacsclient will exit, signaling the calling program to continue. NOTE: "emacsclient" and "server" must be running on machines which share the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that emacsclient specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the Emacs process sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the time emacsclient is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from another X window or from a shell window inside Emacs itself. There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called "gnuserv" by Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 90). Gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across most network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary Emacs Lisp forms and does not require the client program to wait for completion. The alpha version of an enhanced version of gnuserv is available at ftp://ftp.splode.com/pub/users/friedman/packages/fgnuserv-1.0.tar.gz 41: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages? The variable compilation-error-regexp-alist helps control how Emacs parses your compiler output. It is a list of triples of the form: (REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX) where REGEXP, FILE-IDX and LINE-IDX are strings. To help determine what the constituent elements should be, load compile.el and then use C-h v compilation-error-regexp-alist RET to see the current value. A good idea is to look at compile.el itself as the comments included for this variable are quite useful -- the regular expressions required for your compiler's output may be very close to one already provided. Once you have determined the proper regexps, use the following to inform Emacs of your changes: (add-to-list 'compilation-error-regexp-alist '(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX)) 42: How do I indent C switch statements like this? Many people want to indent their switch statements like this: f() { switch(x) { case A: x1; break; case B: x2; break; default: x3; } } The solution at first appears to be: set c-indent-level to 4 and c-label-offset to -2. However, this will give you an indentation spacing of four instead of two. The solution is to use cc-mode (the default mode for C programming in Emacs 20) and add the following line: (c-set-offset 'case-label '+) There appears to be no way to do this with the old c-mode. 43: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally? Use hscroll-mode, included in Emacs 20. Here is some information from the documentation, available by typing C-h f hscroll-mode RET: Automatically scroll horizontally when the point moves off the left or right edge of the window. - Type "M-x hscroll-mode" to enable it in the current buffer. - Type "M-x hscroll-global-mode" to enable it in every buffer. - "turn-on-hscroll" is useful in mode hooks as in: (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-hscroll) - hscroll-margin controls how close the cursor can get to the edge of the window. - hscroll-step-percent controls how far to jump once we decide to do so. 44: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting? M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode). This toggles overwrite-mode on and off, so exiting from overwrite-mode is as easy as another M-x overwrite-mode. On some systems the "Insert" key toggles overwrite-mode on and off. 45: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal? Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes: Tell Emacs to use the "visible bell" instead of the audible bell, and set the visible bell to nothing. That is, put the following in your TERMCAP environment variable (assuming you have one): ... :vb=: ... And evaluate the following Lisp form: (setq visible-bell t) There is also a way to turn off _all_ effects of a bell, by defining a custom `ring-bell-function' that does nothing. 46: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows? You can adjust the bell volume and duration for all programs with the shell command xset. Invoking xset without any arguments produces some basic information, including the following: usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ... To turn bell off: -b b off b 0 To set bell volume, pitch and duration: b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on 47: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the indentation of the previous line? Such behavior is automatic in text mode in Emacs 20. From the NEWS file for Emacs 20.2: ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs. This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode). TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs. As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode, and is an alias for it. If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph, use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode. If you have auto-fill mode on (see question 31), you can tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the "fill prefix." Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position point after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill prefix. Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix at the beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any fill prefix when refilling the paragraph. NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages available from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 90.) Look up "fill" and "indent" in the Lisp Code Directory for guidance. 48: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at? As of version 19, Emacs comes with paren.el, which (when loaded) will automatically highlight matching parentheses whenever point (i.e., the cursor) is located over one. To load paren automatically, include the line (require 'paren) in your .emacs file. As of version 20.1, you must instead call show-paren-mode in your .emacs file: (show-paren-mode 1) and the "require" is redundant. The "customize" facility will let you turn on show-paren-mode. Use M-x customize-group RET paren-showing RET. From within customize, you can also go directly to the "paren-showing" group. Alternatives to paren include: * If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching parenthesis. * M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over one set of balanced parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You can train it to skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time by modifying the syntax table.) * Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal. (`Parenthesis' actually includes and character with `open' or `close' syntax, which usually means "()[]{}".) ;; By an unknown contributor (global-set-key "%" 'match-paren) (defun match-paren (arg) "Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %." (interactive "p") (cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1)) ((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1)) (t (self-insert-command (or arg 1))))) 49: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef commands are handled by the compiler? M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.) You might also want to try cpp.el, available at the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 90). 50: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi? (`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.) In Emacs 20.3 and later, use the C-x z ("repeat") command to repeat `simple commands'. Otherwise you can type "C-x ESC ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands that used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you can type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands you've typed. To repeat a set of commands, use keyboard macros. (See "Keyboard Macros" in the on-line manual.) VIPER, which comes with Emacs, emulates vi, including `.'. (See question 107.) 51: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)? See Emacs man page, or "Resources X" in the on-line manual. You can also use a resource editor, such as editres (for X11R5 and onwards), to look at the resource names for the menu bar, assuming Emacs was compiled with the X toolkit. 52: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code? There are a number of ways to execute ("evaluate," in Lisp lingo) an Emacs Lisp "form": * If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file named ".emacs" in your home directory. This is known as your ".emacs file," and contains all of your personal customizations. * You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in the buffer. * In Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before or around point. * Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately before point and prints its value in the echo area. * Typing M-: or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in the minibuffer which will be evaluated. * You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function "load" instead.) These functions are also useful (see question 16 if you want to learn more about them): load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload 53: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length? Set the variable default-tab-width. For example, to set tab stops every 10 characters, insert the following in your .emacs file: (setq default-tab-width 10) Do not confuse variable tab-width with variable tab-stop-list. The former is used for the display of literal tab characters. The latter controls what characters are inserted when you press the TAB character in certain modes. 54: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line? To do this to an entire buffer, type "M-< M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET". To do this to a region, use "string-rectangle" ("C-x r t"). Set the mark (`C-SPC') at the beginning of the first line you want to prefix, move the cursor to last line to be prefixed, and type "C-x r t > RET". To do this for the whole buffer, type "C-x h C-x r t > RET". In Emacs 20.3 and later, this will affect only the current region if Transient Mark mode is on (see NEWS via C-h N). If you are trying to prefix a yanked mail message with '>', you might want to set the variable mail-yank-prefix. Better yet, get the Supercite package (see question 105), which provides flexible citation for yanked mail and news messages. 55: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an underlined paragraph? M-x underline-region. 56: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible? Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command and then type "M-0 C-x e". WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be suppressed. 57: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor should stay in the same column even if the line is too short? M-x picture-mode. 58: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself? "C-z" iconifies Emacs when running under X Windows and suspends Emacs otherwise. See "Misc X" in the on-line manual. 59: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs? See "Regexps" in the on-line manual. WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is `\\'. To specify a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) in a Lisp string, use "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)" Notice the doubled backslashes! WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set ([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match. WARNING: The character syntax regexps (e.g., "\sw") are not meaningful inside character set regexps (e.g., "[aeiou]"). (This is actually typical for regexp syntax.) 60: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file? The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file. See "Tags Search" in the on-line manual. As of Emacs 19.29, Dired mode ("M-x dired RET", or C-x d) supports the command dired-do-query-replace, which allows users to replace regular expressions in multiple files. 61: Where is the documentation for "etags"? "etags" is documented in the Tags node of the Emacs manual. The "etags" man page should be in the same place as the "emacs" man page. Quick command-line switch descriptions are also available. For example, "etags -H". 62: How do I disable backup files? You probably don't want to do this, since backups are useful. To avoid seeing backup files (and other "uninteresting" files) in Dired, load dired-x by adding the following to your .emacs file: (add-hook 'dired-load-hook (function (lambda () (load "dired-x")))) With dired-x loaded, `M-o' toggles omitting in each dired buffer. You can make omitting the default for new dired buffers by putting the following in your .emacs: (setq initial-dired-omit-files-p t) If you're tired of seeing backup files whenever you do an "ls" at the Unix shell, try GNU ls with the "-B" option. GNU ls is part of the GNU fileutils package, available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (see question 92). To disable or change how backups are made, see "Backup Names" in the on-line manual. 63: How do I disable auto-save-mode? You probably don't want to do this, since auto-saving is useful, especially when Emacs or your computer crashes while you are editing a document. Instead, you might want to change the variable auto-save-interval, which specifies how many keystrokes Emacs waits before auto-saving. Increasing this value forces Emacs to wait longer between auto-saves, which might annoy you less. You might also want to look into Sebastian Kremer's auto-save package, available from the Lisp Code Archive (see question 90). This package also allows you to place all auto-save files in one directory, such as /tmp. To disable or change how auto-save-mode works, see "Auto Save" in the on-line manual. 64: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options? Each menu title (e.g., Buffers, File, Edit) represents a local or global keymap. Selecting a menu title with the mouse displays that keymap's non-nil contents in the form of a menu. So to add a menu option to an existing menu, all you have to do is add a new definition to the appropriate keymap. Adding a "forward word" command to the "Edit" menu thus requires the following Lisp code: (define-key global-map [menu-bar edit forward] '("Forward word" . forward-word)) The first line adds the entry to the global keymap, which includes global menu bar entries. Replacing the reference to "global-map" with a local keymap would add this menu option only within a particular mode. The second line describes the path from the menu-bar to the new entry. Placing this menu entry underneath the "File" menu would mean changing the word "edit" in the second line to "file." The third line is a cons cell whose first element is the title that will be displayed, and whose second element is the function that will be called when that menu option is invoked. To add a new menu, rather than a new option to an existing menu, we must define an entirely new keymap: (define-key global-map [menu-bar words] (cons "Words" (make-sparse-keymap "Words"))) The above code creates a new sparse keymap, gives it the name "Words", and attaches it to the global menu bar. Adding the "forward word" command to this new menu would thus require the following code: (define-key global-map [menu-bar words forward] '("Forward word" . forward-word)) Note that because of the way keymaps work, menu options are displayed with the more recently defined items at the top. Thus if you were to define menu options "foo", "bar", and "baz" (in that order), menu option "baz" would appear at the top, and "foo" would be at the bottom. One way to avoid this problem is to use the function define-key-after, which works the same as define-key, but lets you modify where items appear. The following Lisp code would insert the "forward word" function in the "edit" menu immediately following the "undo" option: (define-key-after (lookup-key global-map [menu-bar edit]) [forward] '("Forward word" . forward-word) 'undo) Note how the second and third arguments to define-key-after are different from those of define-key, and that we have added a new (final) argument, the function after which our new key should be defined. To move a menu option from one position to another, simply evaluate define-key-after with the appropriate final argument. More detailed information -- and more examples of how to create and modify menu options -- are in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, under "Menu Keymaps." (See question 16 for information on this manual.) Note that Emacs 20.3 introduced a better (`extended') format for menu items, described in the NEWS file and the Lisp Manual. The "easymenu" package provides support for defining menus conveniently with some portability amongst Emacs versions. 65: How do I delete menus and menu options? The simplest way to remove a menu is to set its keymap to nil. For example, to delete the "Words" menu (from question 64), use: (define-key global-map [menu-bar words] nil) Similarly, removing a menu option requires redefining a keymap entry to nil. For example, to delete the "Forward word" menu option from the "Edit" menu (we added it in question 64), use: (define-key global-map [menu-bar edit forward] nil) 66: How do I turn on syntax highlighting? Font-lock mode is the standard way to have Emacs perform syntax highlighting. With font-lock mode invoked, different types of text will appear in different colors. For instance, if you turn on font-lock in a programming mode, variables will appear in one face, keywords in a second, and comments in a third. Earlier versions of Emacs supported hilit19, a similar package. Use of hilit19 is now considered non-standard, although hilit19.el comes with the stock Emacs distribution. It is no longer maintained. To turn font-lock mode on within an existing buffer, use "M-x font-lock-mode RET". To automatically invoke font-lock mode when a particular major mode is invoked, set the major mode's hook or define font-lock-global-modes as a list with the mode name as an element. For example, to fontify all c-mode buffers, add the following to your .emacs file: (add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock) To automatically invoke font-lock mode for all major modes, you can turn on global-font-lock mode by including the following line in your .emacs file (or use Custom): (global-font-lock-mode 1) This instructs Emacs to turn on font-lock mode in those buffers for which a font-lock mode definition has been provided (in the variable font-lock-global-modes or via the variable font-lock-defaults-alist). If you edit a file in pie-ala-mode, and no font-lock definitions have been provided for pie-ala files, then the above setting will have no effect on that particular buffer. Highlighting with font-lock mode can take quite a while, and thus different levels of decoration are available, from slight to gaudy. To control how decorated your buffers should become, set the value of font-lock-maximum-decoration in your .emacs file, with a nil value indicating default (usually minimum) decoration, and a t value indicating the maximum decoration. For the gaudiest possible look, then, include the line (setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t) in your .emacs file. You can also set this variable such that different modes are highlighted in a different ways; for more information, see the documentation for font-lock-maximum-decoration with "C-h v" (or "M-x describe-variable RET"). You might also want to investigate fast-lock-mode and lazy-lock-mode, versions of font-lock-mode that speed up highlighting. The advantage of lazy-lock-mode is that it only fontifies buffers when certain conditions are met, such as after a certain amount of idle time, or after you have finished scrolling through text. See the documentation for lazy-lock-mode by typing C-h f lazy-lock-mode ("M-x describe-function RET lazy-lock-mode RET"). Also see the documentation for the function font-lock-mode, available by typing C-h f font-lock-mode ("M-x describe-function RET font-lock-mode RET"). For more information on font-lock mode, particularly adding new patterns, see the Lisp Reference Manual and the commentary in the source font-lock.el, which you can find in Emacs 20 (if it is installed) using, say, M-x find-function font-lock-mode. To print buffers with the faces (i.e., colors and fonts) intact, use "M-x ps-print-buffer-with-faces" or "M-x ps-print-region-with-faces". 67: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the bottom of the screen? Place the following Lisp form in your .emacs file: (setq scroll-step 1) Also see "Scrolling" in the on-line manual. 68: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type? Use delete-selection mode, which you can start automatically by placing the following Lisp form in your .emacs file: (delete-selection-mode t) According to the documentation string for delete-selection mode (which you can read using M-x describe-function RET delete-selection-mode RET): When ON, typed text replaces the selection if the selection is active. When OFF, typed text is just inserted at point. This mode also allows you to delete (not kill) the highlighted region by pressing DEL. 69: How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs? As of Emacs 20, detection and handling of MS-DOS (and Windows) files is performed transparently. You can open an MS-DOS file on a Unix system (and vice versa), edit it, and save it without having to worry about the file format. To save it with a different end-of-line convention use C-x RET c to specify a new coding system such as undecided-unix. When editing an MS-DOS style file, a backslash (\) will appear in the mode line. You can avoid translation of the end-of-line conventions either by visiting a file using M-x find-file-literally or by setting the variable inhibit-eol-conversion to t. If you are running an earlier version of Emacs, get crypt++ from ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/misc/crypt++.el. Among other things, crypt++ transparently modifies MS-DOS files as they are loaded and saved, allowing you to ignore the different conventions that Unix and MS-DOS have for delineating the end of a line. 70: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after each period? Ulrich Mueller <ulm@vsnhd1.cern.ch> suggests adding the following two lines to your .emacs file: (setq sentence-end "[.?!][]\"')}]*\\($\\|[ \t]\\)[ \t\n]*") (setq sentence-end-double-space nil) See "Sentences" in the online manual. Bugs/Problems 71: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes? Old versions (i.e., anything before 19.29) of Emacs had problems editing files larger than 8 megabytes. As of version 19.29, the maximum buffer size is at least 2^27-1, or 134,217,727 bytes. If you are using an older version of Emacs and cannot upgrade, you will have to recompile. Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting the following two lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers and pointers (and thus file sizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes): #define VALBITS 26 #define GCTYPEBITS 5 WARNING: This method may result in "ILLEGAL DATATYPE" and other random errors on some machines. David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> explains how this problems crops up; while his numbers are true only for pre-19.29 versions of Emacs, the theory remains the same with current versions. Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, e.g., integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on. Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8 bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers (and pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and pointers. 72: How do I get rid of ^M or echoed commands in my shell buffer? Try typing "M-x shell-strip-ctrl-m RET" while in shell-mode to make them go away. You might add this function to comint-output-filter-functions: (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions 'shell-strip-ctrl-m) If that doesn't work, you have several options: For tcsh, put this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file: if ($?EMACS) then if ("$EMACS" == t) then if ($?tcsh) unset edit stty nl endif endif Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file: unset edit stty nl Alternatively, use csh in your shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way is: (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh") and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file: setenv ESHELL /bin/csh (You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly set for this to take effect.) You can also set the ESHELL environment variable in Emacs Lisp with the following Lisp form, (setenv "ESHELL" "/bin/csh") On a related note: If your shell is echoing your input line in the shell buffer, you might want to try the following command in your shell start-up file: stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z 73: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"? The most likely reason for this message is that the "env" program is not properly installed. Compile this program for your architecture, and install it with a+x permission in the architecture-dependent Emacs program directory. (You can find what this directory is at your site by inspecting the value of the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v exec-directory RET".) You should also check for other programs named "env" in your path (e.g., SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). We don't understand why this can cause a failure and don't know a general solution for working around the problem in this case. It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started as an X client from an xterm window (i.e., had a controlling tty) but the xterm was later terminated. See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message. 74: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"? The termcap entry for terminal type "emacs" is ordinarily put in the TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain situations (e.g., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for "emacs" to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry for "emacs": emacs:tc=unknown: To make a terminfo entry for "emacs", use "tic" or "captoinfo." You need to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy /usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. Having a termcap/terminfo entry will not enable the use of full screen programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead. A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to change terminal type "emacs" to type "dumb" or "unknown" in your shell start up file. "csh" users could put this in their .cshrc files: if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb 75: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping? Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character normally invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions, see question 122. 76: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)? The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is often manifested as a message on startup of "X server not responding. Check your DISPLAY environment variable." or a message of "Unknown host" from open-network-stream. On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C library. The version of gethostbyname in the static C library may only look in /etc/hosts and the NIS (YP) maps, while the version in the dynamic C library may be smart enough to check DNS in addition to or instead of NIS. On a Motorola Delta running System V R3.6, the version of gethostbyname in the standard library works, but the one that works with NIS doesn't (the one you get with -linet). Other operating systems have similar problems. Try these options: * Explicitly add the host you want to communicate with to /etc/hosts. * Relink Emacs with this line in src/config.h: #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv * Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs. * If you are actually running NIS, make sure that "ypbind" is properly told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch. 77: Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"? An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the system-wide lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your .emacs file, see question 27. It may be the case that you need to load some package first, or use a hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case of this is explained in question 118. 78: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)? As of version 19, Emacs searches for X resources in the files specified by the XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, and XAPPLRESDIR environment variables, emulating the functionality provided by programs written using Xt. XFILESEARCHPATH and XUSERFILESEARCHPATH should be a list of file names separated by colons; XAPPLRESDIR should be a list of directory names separated by colons. Emacs searches for X resources + specified on the command line, with the "-xrm RESOURCESTRING" option, + then in the value of the XENVIRONMENT environment variable, - or if that is unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults-HOSTNAME if it exists (where HOSTNAME is the hostname of the machine Emacs is running on), + then in the screen-specific and server-wide resource properties provided by the server, - or if those properties are unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults if it exists, + then in the files listed in XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, - or in files named LANG/Emacs in directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR (where LANG is the value of the LANG environment variable), if the LANG environment variable is set, - or in files named Emacs in the directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR - or in ~/LANG/Emacs (if the LANG environment variable is set), - or in ~/Emacs, + then in the files listed in XFILESEARCHPATH. 79: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file? Old versions of Emacs (i.e., versions before Emacs 20.x) often encountered this when the master lock file, "!!!SuperLock!!!" has been left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it. Mark Meuer <meuer@geom.umn.edu> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause the same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS anyway, the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION undefined. 80: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name? When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this behavior, type "$$" instead. 81: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory? Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its directory. This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to guess by recognizing "cd" commands. If you type "cd" followed by a directory name with a variable reference ("cd $HOME/bin") or with a shell metacharacter ("cd ../lib*"), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the shell's new current directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements to shell mode for this problem have been written to handle this problem. Check the Lisp Code Directory (see question 89). You can tell Emacs the shell's current directory with the command "M-x dirs". 82: Are there any security risks in Emacs? * the "movemail" incident (No, this is not a risk.) In his book "The Cuckoo's Egg," Cliff Stoll describes this in chapter 4. The site at LBL had installed the "etc/movemail" program setuid root. (As of version 19, movemail is in your architecture-specific directory; type "C-h v exec-directory RET" to see what it is.) Since "movemail" had not been designed for this situation, a security hole was created and users could get root privileges. "movemail" has since been changed so that this security hole will not exist, even if it is installed setuid root. However, movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root, which should eliminate this particular risk. We have heard unverified reports that the 1988 Internet worm took advantage of this configuration problem. * the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.) There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text near the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to have arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited. Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this feature. Emacs 18 allowed this feature by default; users could disable it by setting the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value. As of Emacs 19, Emacs has a list of local variables that create a security risk. If a file tries to set one of them, it asks the user to confirm whether the variables should be set. You can also tell Emacs whether to allow the evaluation of Emacs Lisp code found at the bottom of files by setting the variable enable-local-eval. For more information, see "File Variables" in the on-line manual. * synthetic X events (Yes, a risk; use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.) Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the trivial host-based authentication, other users who can open X connections to your X workstation can make your Emacs process do anything, including run other processes with your privileges. The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the "xauth" program has any effect, then you are probably using MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication method; ask your system administrator. If real authentication is not a possibility, you may be satisfied by just allowing hosts access for brief intervals while you start your X programs, then removing the access. This reduces the risk somewhat by narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK. On most computers running Unix and X Windows, you enable and disable access using the "xhost" command. To allow all hosts access to your X server, use xhost + at the shell prompt, which (on an HP machine, at least) produces the following message: access control disabled, clients can connect from any host To deny all hosts access to your X server (except those explicitly allowed by name), use xhost - On the test HP computer, this command generated the following message: access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect 83: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something. Chances are you're using a localized version of Unix that doesn't use US date format in dired listings. You can check this by looking at dired listings or by typing `ls -l' to a shell and looking at the dates that come out. Dired uses a regular expression to find the beginning of a file name. In a long Unix-style directory listing ("ls -l"), the file name starts after the date. The regexp has thus been written to look for the date, the format of which can vary on non-US systems. There are two approaches to solving this. The first one involves setting things up so that "ls -l" outputs US date format. This can be done by setting the locale. See your OS manual for more information. The second approach involves changing the regular expression used by dired, dired-move-to-filename-regexp. Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs 84: How do I install Emacs? This answer is meant for users of Unix and Unix-like systems. Users of other operating systems should see the series of questions beginning with question 94, which describe where to get non-Unix source and binaries. These packages should come with installation instructions. For Unix and Unix-like systems, the easiest way is often to compile it from scratch. You will need: * Emacs sources. See question 92 for a list of ftp sites that make them available. On ftp.gnu.org, the main GNU distribution site, sources are available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.4.tar.gz The above will obviously change as new versions of Emacs come out. For instance, when Emacs 20.5 is released, it will most probably be available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.5.tar.gz Again, you should use one of the mirror sites in question 92 (and adjust the URL accordingly) so as to reduce load on ftp.gnu.org. * Gzip, the GNU compression utility. You can get gzip via anonymous ftp at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org sites; it should compile and install without much trouble on most systems. Once you have retrieved the Emacs sources, you will probably be able to uncompress them with the command gunzip --verbose emacs-20.4.tar.gz changing the Emacs version (20.4), as necessary. Once gunzip has finished doing its job, a file by the name of "emacs-20.4.tar" should be in your build directory. * Tar, the "tape archiving" program, which moves multiple files into and out of archive files, or "tarfiles." All of the files comprising the Emacs source come in a single tarfile, and must be extracted using tar before you can build Emacs. Typically, the extraction command would look like tar -xvvf emacs-20.4.tar The `x' indicates that we want to extract files from this tarfile, the two `v's force verbose output, and the `f' tells tar to use a disk file, rather than one on tape. If you're using GNU tar (available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org), you can combine this step and the previous one by using the command tar -zxvvf emacs-20.4.tar.gz The additional `z' at the beginning of the options list tells GNU tar to uncompress the file with gunzip before extracting the tarfile's components. At this point, the Emacs sources (all 25+ megabytes of them) should be sitting in a directory called "emacs-20.4". On most common Unix and Unix-like systems, you should be able to compile Emacs (with X Windows support) with the following commands: cd emacs-20.4 [ change directory to emacs-20.4 ] ./configure [ configure Emacs for your particular system ] make [ use Makefile to build components, then Emacs ] If the "make" completes successfully, the odds are fairly good that the build has gone well. (See question 86 if you weren't successful.) To install Emacs in its default directories of /usr/local/bin (binaries), /usr/local/share/emacs/20.xx (Lisp code and support files), /usr/local/libexec/CONFIGURATION/emacs/VERSION (executable files to be run by Emacs rather than users), /usr/local/man/man1 (man pages) and /usr/local/info (Info documentation), become the super-user and type make install Note that "make install" will overwrite /usr/local/bin/emacs and any Emacs Info files that might be in /usr/local/info. Much more verbose instructions (with many more hints and suggestions) come with the Emacs sources, in the file "INSTALL". 85: How do I update Emacs to the latest version? Follow the instructions in question 84. Emacs places nearly everything in version-specific directories (e.g., /usr/local/share/emacs/20.4), so the only files that can be overwritten when installing a new release are /usr/local/bin/emacs and the Emacs Info documentation in /usr/local/info. Back up these files before you install a new release, and you shouldn't have too much trouble. 86: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs? First look in the file PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs source) to see if there is already a solution for your problem. Next, look for other questions in this FAQ that have to do with Emacs installation and compilation problems. If you'd like to have someone look at your problem and help solve it, see question 21. If you don't find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help or e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. For further guidelines, see question 8 and question 10. 87: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail? Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library, libX11.a. This may be missing. Under OpenWindows, you may need to use "add_services" to add the "OpenWindows Programmers" optional software category from the CD-ROM. Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run "update" again to load the X11-PRG "fileset". This may be missing even if you specified "all filesets" the first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load the "Berkeley Development Option." David Zuhn <zoo@armadillo.com> says that MIT X builds shared libraries by default, and only shared libraries, on those platforms that support them. These shared libraries can't be used when undumping temacs (the last stage of the Emacs build process). To get regular libraries in addition to shared libraries, add this to site.cf: #define ForceNormalLib YES Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead. To get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's liboldX.a. Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages 88: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)? Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby archive sites and etc/ORDERS for mail orders. If you don't already have Emacs, see question 20 for how to get these files. See question 84 for information on how to obtain and build the latest version of Emacs, and question 92 for a list of archive sites that make GNU software available. 89: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX? First of all, you should check to make sure that the package isn't already available. For example, typing "M-x apropos RET wordstar RET" lists all functions and variables containing the string "wordstar". It is also possible that the package is on your system, but has not been loaded. To see which packages are available for loading, look through your computer's lisp directory (see question 4) or use the Finder (C-h p) to search under keywords. The Lisp source to most packages contains a short description of how they should be loaded, invoked, and configured -- so before you use or modify a Lisp package, see if the author has provided any hints in the source code. If a package does not come with Emacs, check the Lisp Code Directory, maintained (unfortunately slowly at present) by Dave Brennan <brennan@gnu.org>. The directory is contained in the file LCD-datafile.Z, available from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 90), and is accessed using the "lispdir" package, available from the same site. Note that lispdir.el requires crypt++, which you can grab from the Emacs Lisp Archive's "misc" subdirectory when you get lispdir.el. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, you can use "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" to search the listing. For example, "M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces this output: GNU Emacs Lisp Code Directory Apropos -- "ange-ftp" "~/" refers to ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/emacs-lisp/ ange-ftp (4.18) 15-Jul-1992 Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> ~/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs auto-save (1.19) 01-May-1992 Sebastian Kremer, <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de> ~/misc/auto-save.el.Z Safer autosaving with support for ange-ftp and /tmp ftp-quik (1.0) 28-Jul-1993 Terrence Brannon, <tb06@pl122f.eecs.lehigh.edu> ~/modes/ftp-quik.el.Z Quik access to dired'ing of ange-ftp and normal paths You actually don't need the directory file LCD-datafile if your computer is on the Internet, since the latest version is retrieved automatically the first time you type "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" in a particular Emacs session. If you would prefer to use a local copy of LCD-datafile, be sure to set the variable lisp-code-directory at the top of the lispdir.el source code. A searchable version of the LCD is also available at http://www.cs.indiana.edu/LCD/cover.html 90: Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs? First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you are looking for (see question 89). Next, check local archives and the Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. If you still haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for a copy. If you find Emacs Lisp code that doesn't appear in the LCD, please submit a copy to the LCD (see question 91). You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive at the following sites: ftp://ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/ ftp://ftp.uni-mainz.de/pub/gnu/elisp-archive/ ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU/elisp-archive/ ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/ ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/elisp-archive/ ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/Mirrors/ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/ Retrieve and read the file README first. NOTE: * The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If you cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to find a friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers. * Any files with names ending in ".Z", ".z", or ".gz" are compressed, so you should use "binary" mode in FTP to retrieve them. You should also use binary mode whenever you retrieve any files with names ending in ".elc". Packages which have been posted to gnu.emacs.sources should be locatable via a service like Dejanews. 91: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive? Guidelines and procedures for submission to the archive can be found in the file GUIDELINES in the archive directory (see question 90). It covers documentation, copyrights, packaging, submission, and the Lisp Code Directory Record. Anonymous FTP uploads are not permitted. Instead, all submissions are mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu. The lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will help you with this. Note that maintenance of the archive is currently very slow. 92: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff? The most up-to-date official GNU software is normally kept on ftp.gnu.org and is available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information. A list of sites mirroring ftp.gnu.org can be found at http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html 93: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid Emacs")? XEmacs is a modified version of GNU Emacs. This FAQ refers to the latest version to be distributed by the FSF as "Emacs," partly because the XEmacs maintainers now refer to their product using the "XEmacs" name, and partly because there isn't any accurate way to differentiate between the two without getting mired in paragraphs of legalese and history. XEmacs, which began life as Lucid Emacs, is based on an early version of Emacs 19 and Epoch, an X-aware version of Emacs 18. Emacs (i.e., the version distributed by the FSF) has a larger installed base and now always contains the MULE multilingual facilities. XEmacs can do some clever tricks with X Windows, such as putting arbitrary graphics in a buffer; similar facilities have been implemented for Emacs, which will be integrated after version 20.4. Emacs and XEmacs each come with some Lisp packages that are lacking or more up-to-date in the other; RMS says that the FSF would include more packages that come with XEmacs, but that the XEmacs maintainers don't always keep track of the authors of contributed code, which makes it impossible for the FSF to have certain legal papers signed. (Without these legal papers, the FSF will not distribute Lisp packages with Emacs.) The two versions have some significant differences at the Lisp programming level. 94: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS? A pre-built binary distribution of Emacs is available from the Simtel archives. This version works under MS-DOS and Windows (3.x, 9x, and NT) and supports long file names under Windows 9x. More information is available from: ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/emacs.README And the binary itself is available in the files em1934*.zip in the directory ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/ If you prefer to compile Emacs for yourself, you will need a 386 (or better) processor, and are running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. According to Eli Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> and Darrel Hankerson <hankedr@dms.auburn.edu>, you will need the following: Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later. Djgpp 2.0 or later is recommended, since 1.x is being phased out. Djgpp 2 supports long filenames under Windows 9x. You can get the latest release of djgpp by retrieving all of the files in ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp Gunzip and tar: The easiest way is to use "djtar" which comes with djgpp v2.x, because it can open gzip'ed tarfiles (i.e., those ending with ".tar.gz") in one step. Djtar comes in "djdev201.zip", from the URL mentioned above. Utilities: make, mv, sed, rm. All of these utilities are available at ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu 16-bit utilities can be found in GNUish: ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish The files INSTALL and etc/PROBLEMS in the Emacs source contains some additional information regarding Emacs under MS-DOS. For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature," available at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/ Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they often lack certain features, particularly the Emacs Lisp extension language. 95: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows NT? GNU Emacs has been fully ported to Windows NT and Windows 95/98. If you have MSVC 4.0 or greater, then you can compile GNU Emacs directly from the source distribution. First read the file nt/README, and then the file nt/INSTALL, for step by step instructions on how to compile and install GNU Emacs on your system. You can also download precompiled distributions of GNU Emacs from: ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs If you need the gunzip and tar utilities for unpacking distributions, you can download precompiled versions from: ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs/utilities For more information on configuring your favorite package to run with GNU Emacs on Windows NT/95/98, see the following FAQ: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs/docs/ntemacs.html If you are running Windows 3.11, and if you compile GNU Emacs for MSDOS with the tools listed in the previous question, it will run under Microsoft Windows in a DOS box. 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2? Emacs 19.33 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1, and is available at: ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/editors/emacs/v19.33/ 97: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST? Roland Schäuble reports that Emacs 18.58 running on plain TOS and MiNT is available at ftp://atari.archive.umich.edu/Editors/Emacs-18-58/1858b-d3.zoo 98: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga? The files you need are available at ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/gnu/ David Gilbert <dgilbert@gamiga.guelphnet.dweomer.org> has released a beta version of Emacs 19.25 for the Amiga. You can get the binary at ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/gnu/a2.0bEmacs-bin.lha 99: Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP? Emacs.app is a NeXTSTEP version of Emacs 19.34 which supports colors, menus, and multiple frames. You can get it from ftp://next-ftp.peak.org/pub/next/apps/emacs/Emacs_for_NeXTstep.4.20a1.NIHS.b.tar.gz 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer? There used to be a boycott of Apple because of its "look and feel" lawsuit. The lawsuit failed, and the boycott is over. Currently the GNU project treats Apple like other computer companies. Since the Mac operating system is very different from Unix and GNU, support for it would be a big job. And this job would be tangential to the GNU project's goals. Meanwhile, we don't have the resources to do all we want to do on supporting Emacs for GNU-like systems. So if we had to do work on support for the Macintosh, that would directly harm the GNU project. Of course, the same is true for MSDOS and Windows NT. We decided to incorporate support for those systems because the code was very modular, because volunteers not only wrote all the code but also investigate all the bugs reported on those systems, and because we hoped that we will be able to raise funds for GNU using these versions, and in this way these ports will make up for the effort that they took. (We still hope so, but it has not happened yet.) An unofficial port of GNU Emacs 18.59 to the Macintosh is available at a number of ftp sites, the home being ftp://ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub/parmet/Emacs-1.17.sit.bin To the best of our knowledge, Emacs 19 has not been ported to the Macintosh. Apple's forthcoming "OS X" is based largely on NeXTSTEP and OpenStep. See question 99 for more details about that version. 101: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows? Up-to-date information about GNU software (including Emacs) for VMS is available at http://vms.gnu.org/ 102: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++, Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk? Most of these modes are now available in standard Emacs distribution. To get additional modes, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 89). For C++, if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like this: M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET Note that Barry Warsaw's cc-mode now works for C, C++, Objective-C, and Java code. You can get the latest version from the Emacs Lisp Archive; see question 90 for details. A FAQ for cc-mode is available at http://www.python.org/emacs/cc-mode/ 103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ? If you are on a Unix machine, try using the "nslookup" command, included in the Berkeley BIND package. For example, to find the IP address of "ftp.gnu.org", you would type nslookup ftp.gnu.org Your computer should then provide the IP address of that computer. If your site's nameserver is deficient, you can use IP addresses to FTP files. You can get this information by * E-mail: To: dns@[134.214.84.25] (to grasp.insa-lyon.fr) Body: ip XXX.YYY.ZZZ (or "help" for more information and options - no quotes) or: To: resolve@[147.31.254.130] (to laverne.cs.widener.edu) Body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs 104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net> Latest version: 6.67 Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.wonderworks.com/pub/vm/vm.tar.gz Newsgroups and mailing lists: Informational newsgroup/mailing list: gnu.emacs.vm.info (newsgroup) info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions) info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) Bug reports newsgroup/mailing list: gnu.emacs.vm.bug (newsgroup) bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions) bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) NOTE: VM 6 is not guaranteed to work under Emacs 20 (although many people seem to use it without too much trouble). Users of Emacs 20 might prefer to use VM 5.97, available from the same FTP site. 105: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com> Latest version: 3.1 (comes with Emacs 20) World Wide Web: http://www.python.org/emacs/supercite.tar.gz Mailing list: supercite-request@python.org (for subscriptions) supercite@python.org (for submissions) NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite. 106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> Latest version: 2.02f Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/calc/calc-2.02f.tar.gz NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue anyone for having a program with a similar command language to Calc. :-) 107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs Since Emacs 19.29, the preferred vi emulation in Emacs is VIPER (M-x viper-mode RET), which comes with Emacs. It extends and supersedes VIP (including VIP 4.3) and provides vi emulation at several levels, from one that closely follows vi to one that departs from vi in several significant ways. For Emacs 19.28 and earlier, the following version of VIP is generally better than the one distributed with Emacs: Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu> Latest version: 4.3 Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z 108: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities Authors: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk> and Per Abrahamsen <abraham@iesd.auc.dk> Latest version: 9.8l Anonymous FTP: ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/packages/auctex/auctex.tar.gz Mailing list: auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions) auc-tex@iesd.auc.dk (for submissions) auc-tex_mgr@iesd.auc.dk (auc-tex development team) World Wide Web: http://sunsite.auc.dk/auctex/ 109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers Maintainer: Matt Simmons <simmonmt@acm.org> Latest released version: 2.00 Available from: http://www.netcom.com/~simmonmt/bbdb/index.html Mailing lists: info-bbdb-request@xemacs.org (for subscriptions) info-bbdb@xemacs.org (for submissions) bbdb-announce-request@xemacs.org (to be informed of new releases) 110: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com> Latest released version: 3.1.20 Anonymous FTP: Master Sites: ftp://ftp.cs.ucla.edu/pub/ispell/ispell-3.1.20.tar.gz Known Mirror Sites: ftp://ftp.th-darmstadt.de/pub/dicts/ispell/ ftp://ftp.nl.net/pub/textproc/ispell/ World Wide Web: http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/ispell.html NOTE: * Do not ask Geoff to send you the latest version of Ispell. He does not have free e-mail. * This Ispell program is distinct from GNU Ispell 4.0. GNU Ispell 4.0 is no longer a supported product. 111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs Author: Bill Perry <wmperry@spry.com> Latest version: 4.0pre.39 Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3/.betas/w3.tar.gz Mailing lists: w3-announce-request@indiana.edu (to get announcements of new versions) w3-beta-request@indiana.edu (for beta-testers of new versions) w3-dev@indiana.edu (for developers of W3) 112: EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes Author: Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu> Latest version: 1.21 Anonymous FTP: ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/emacs/edb 113: Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news Authors: Patrick J. LoPresti <patl@lcs.mit.edu> and Jin S. Choi <jin@atype.com> Maintainer: Len Budney <lbudney@pobox.com> Latest version: 3.5.1 Anonymous FTP: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/crypto/mailcrypt-3.5.1.tar.gz World Wide Web: http://www.nb.net/~lbudney/linux/software/mailcrypt.html 114: JDE -- Development environment for Java programming Author: Paul Kinnucan <paulk@mathworks.com> Mailing list: jde-subscribe@sunsite.auc.dk Latest version: 2.1.4 World Wide Web: http://sunsite.auc.dk/jde/ 115: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files Author: Larry Wall <lwall@wall.org> (with GNU modifications) Latest version: 2.5 Anonymous FTP: See question 92 Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems 116: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands? Keys can be bound to commands either interactively or in your .emacs file. To interactively bind keys for all modes, type M-x global-set-key RET KEY CMD RET To bind a key just in the current major mode, type M-x local-set-key RET KEY CMD RET See "Key Bindings" in the on-line manual for further details. To bind keys on starting Emacs or on starting any given mode, use the following "trick": First bind the key interactively, then immediately type "C-x ESC ESC C-a C-k C-g". Now, the command needed to bind the key is in the kill ring, and can be yanked into your .emacs file. If the key binding is global, no changes to the command are required. For example, (global-set-key [f1] 'help-for-help) can be placed directly into the .emacs file. If the key binding is local, the command is used in conjunction with the "add-hook" command. For example, in tex-mode, a local binding might be (add-hook 'tex-mode-hook (lambda () (local-set-key [f1] 'help-for-help))) NOTE: * Control characters in key sequences, in the form yanked from the kill ring are given in their graphic form -- i.e., CTRL is shown as `^', TAB as a set of spaces (usually 8), etc. You may want to convert these into their vector or string forms. * If a prefix key of the character sequence to be bound is already bound as a complete key, then you must unbind it before the new binding. For example, if "ESC {" is previously bound: (global-unset-key [?\e ?{]) ;; or (local-unset-key [?\e ?{]) * Aside from commands and "lambda lists," a vector or string also can be bound to a key and thus treated as a macro. For example: (global-set-key [f10] [?\C-x?\e?\e?\C-a?\C-k?\C-g]) ;; or (global-set-key [f10] "\C-x\e\e\C-a\C-k\C-g") * The "kbd" macro is convenient for converting a key description in the form used in documentation or printed by C-h c (except that function key symbols must be enclosed in angle brackets). For example: (global-set-key (kbd "<f1>") 'help-for-help) (global-set-key (kbd "C-h") 'help-for-help) (local-set-key (kbd "DEL") 'scroll-down) 117: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"? Usually, one of two things has happened. In one case, the control character in the key sequence has been misspecified (e.g. "C-f" used instead of "\C-f" within a Lisp expression). In the other case, a "prefix key" in the keystroke sequence you were trying to bind was already bound as a "complete key." Historically, the "ESC [" prefix was usually the problem, in which case you should evaluate either of these forms before attempting to bind the key sequence: (global-unset-key [?\e ?[]) ;; or (global-unset-key "\e[") 118: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up? During startup, Emacs initializes itself according to a given code/file order. If some of the code executed in your .emacs file needs to be postponed until the initial terminal or window-system setup code has been executed but is not, then you will experience this problem (this code/file execution order is not enforced after startup). To postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after terminal or window-system setup, treat the code as a "lambda list" and set the value of either the "term-setup-hook" or "window-setup-hook" variable to this "lambda function." For example, (setq term-setup-hook (function (lambda () (cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") "")) ;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x: (global-set-key [do] 'execute-extended-command)) )))) For information on what Emacs does every time it is started, see "Starting Up Emacs" in the Lisp Reference Manual. 119: How do I use function keys under X Windows? With Emacs 19, functions keys under X are bound like any other key. See question 116 for details. 120: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys emit? Type "C-h c" then the function or arrow keys. The command will return either a function key symbol or character sequence (see the Emacs on-line documentation for an explanation). This works for other keys as well. 121: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs? Emacs is not written using the Xt library by default, so there are no "translations" to be set. (We aren't sure how to set such translations if you do build Emacs with Xt; please let us know if you've done this!) The only way to affect the behavior of keys within Emacs is through "xmodmap" (outside Emacs) or "define-key" (inside Emacs). The "define-key" command should be used in conjunction with the "function-key-map" map. For instance, (define-key function-key-map [M-tab] [?\M-\t]) defines the "M-TAB" key sequence. 122: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control? C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This messes things up when you're using Emacs, because Emacs binds these keys to commands by default. Because Emacs won't honor them as flow control characters, too many of these characters are not passed on and overwhelm output buffers. Sometimes, intermediate software using XON/XOFF flow control will prevent Emacs from ever seeing C-s and C-q. Possible solutions: * Disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control. You need to determine the cause of the flow control. * your terminal Your terminal may use XON/XOFF flow control to have time to display all the characters it receives. For example, VT series terminals do this. It may be possible to turn this off from a setup menu. For example, on a VT220 you may select "No XOFF" in the setup menu. This is also true for some terminal emulation programs on PCs. When you turn off flow control at the terminal, you will also need to turn it off at the other end, which might be at the computer you are logged in to or at some terminal server in between. If you turn off flow control, characters may be lost; using a printer connected to the terminal may fail. You may be able to get around this problem by modifying the "termcap" entry for your terminal to include extra NUL padding characters. * a modem If you are using a dialup connection, the modems may be using XON/XOFF flow control. It's not clear how to get around this. * a router or terminal server Some network box between the terminal and your computer may be using XON/XOFF flow control. It may be possible to make it use some other kind of flow control. You will probably have to ask your local network experts for help with this. * tty and/or pty devices If your connection to Emacs goes through multiple tty and/or pty devices, they may be using XON/XOFF flow control even when it is not necessary. Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> writes: Some versions of "rlogin" (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow control characters to the remote system to which they connect. On such systems, Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow control on the local system. Sometimes "rlogin -8" will avoid this problem. One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, "stty start u stop u" will do this. Some versions of "tcsh" will prevent even this from working. One way around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell. Use "stty -ixon" instead of "stty start u stop u" on some systems. * Make Emacs speak the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. You can make Emacs treat C-s and C-q as flow control characters by evaluating the form (enable-flow-control) to unconditionally enable flow control or (enable-flow-control-on "vt100" "h19") (using your terminal names instead of "vt100" or "h19") to enable selectively. These commands will automatically swap `C-s' and `C-q' to `C-\' and `C-^'. Variables can be used to change the default swap keys ("flow-control-c-s-replacement" and "flow-control-c-q-replacement"). If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to put it is in the lisp/site-start.el file. Putting this form in lisp/default.el has the problem that if the user's .emacs file has an error, this will prevent lisp/default.el from being loaded and Emacs may be unusable for the user, even for correcting their .emacs file (unless they're smart enough to move it to another name). For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs source). 123: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered out? To bind `C-s' and `C-q', use either "enable-flow-control" or "enable-flow-control-on". See question 122 for usage and implementation details. To bind other keys, use "keyboard-translate". See question 126 for usage details. To do this for an entire site, you should swap the keys in lisp/site-start.el. See question 122 for an explanation of why lisp/default.el should not be used. NOTE: * If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs actually behaves. 124: Why does the "Backspace" key invoke help? The "Backspace" key (on most keyboards) generates ASCII code 8. `C-h' sends the same code. In Emacs by default `C-h' invokes help-command. This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of "help" is `h'. The easiest solution to this problem is to use `C-h' (and Backspace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous character. For many people this solution may be problematic: * They normally use Backspace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous character. This can be solved by making DEL the command for deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. On many Unix systems, this command will remap DEL: stty erase `^?' * The person may prefer using the Backspace key for deleting the previous character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or because they don't even have a separate Delete key. In this case, the Backspace key should be made to behave like Delete. There are several methods. * Some terminals (e.g., VT3## terminals) allow the character generated by the Backspace key to be changed from a setup menu. * You may be able to get a keyboard that is completely programmable. * Under X or on a dumb terminal, it is possible to swap the Backspace and Delete keys inside Emacs: (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?) See question 126 for further details of "keyboard-translate". * Another approach is to switch key bindings and put help on "C-x h" instead: (global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char) (global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ;; overrides mark-whole-buffer Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?". NOTE: * Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere. 125: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete? Good question! 126: How do I "swap" two keys? In Emacs 19, you can swap two keys (or key sequences) by using the "keyboard-translate" function. For example, to turn `C-h' into DEL and DEL to `C-h', use (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?) ; translate `C-h' to DEL (keyboard-translate ?\C-? ?\C-h) ; translate DEL to `C-h'. The first key sequence of the pair after the function identifies what is produced by the keyboard; the second, what is matched for in the keymaps. Keyboard translations are not the same as key bindings in keymaps. Emacs contains numerous keymaps that apply in different situations, but there is only one set of keyboard translations, and it applies to every character that Emacs reads from the terminal. Keyboard translations take place at the lowest level of input processing; the keys that are looked up in keymaps contain the characters that result from keyboard translation. Also see "Keyboard Translations" in the on-line manual. 127: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard? On terminals (but not under X), some common "aliases" are: C-2 or C-SPC for C-@ C-6 for C-^ C-7 or C-S-- for C-_ C-4 for C-\ C-5 for C-] C-/ for C-? Often other aliases exist; use the "C-h c" command and try `CTRL' with all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets generated. You can also try the "C-h w" command if you know the name of the command. 128: What if I don't have a Meta key? Instead of typing "M-a", you can type "ESC a". In fact, Emacs converts M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of meta-prefix-char). Note that you press "Meta" and `a' together, while you press `ESC', release it, and then press `a'. 129: What if I don't have an Escape key? Type `C-[' instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape key would. `C-3' may also work on some terminal (but not under X). For many terminals (notably DEC terminals) `F11' generates ESC. If not, the following form can be used to bind it: (define-key function-key-map [f11] [?\e]) ; F11 is the documented ESC ; replacement on DEC terminals. 130: Can I make my "Compose Character" key behave like a Meta key? On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220 clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're using X, you might be able to do this with the "xmodmap" program. 131: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key? With Emacs 19 you can represent modified function keys in vector format by adding prefixes to the function key symbol. For example (from the on-line documentation): (global-set-key [?\C-x right] 'forward-page) where "?\C-x" is the Lisp character constant for the character "C-x". You can use the modifier keys Control, Meta, Hyper, Super, Alt, and Shift with function keys. To represent these modifiers, prepend the strings "C-", "M-", "H-", "s-", "A-", and "S-" to the symbol name. Here is how to make "Hyper-Meta-RIGHT" move forward a word: (global-set-key [H-M-right] 'forward-word) In recent Emacs versions this may also be written as: (global-set-key [(hyper meta right)] 'forward-word) NOTE: * Not all modifiers are permitted in all situations. Hyper, Super, and Alt are available only under X (provided there are such keys). Non-ASCII keys and mouse events (e.g. "C-=" and "mouse-1") also fall under this category. See question 116 for general key binding instructions. 132: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window? Try all of these methods before asking for further help: * You may have big problems using "mwm" as your window manager. {Does anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in Emacs with mwm?} * For X11: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use "xev" to find out what keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or Meta_R. If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation. * Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters. "stty -a" (or "stty everything") should show "cs8" somewhere. If it shows "cs7" instead, use "stty cs8 -istrip" (or "stty pass8") to fix it. * If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the "-8" argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8 bits of every character. * If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating (set-input-mode t nil) helps. * If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this: XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false (This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.) With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation: XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \ Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert() You might have to replace "Meta" with "Alt". 133: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0 and 9.x? This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that XLookupString returns the same result regardless of the Meta key state which is no longer necessarily true. Until Emacs is fixed, the temporary kludge is to run this command after each time the X server is started but preferably before any xterm clients are: xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch' NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them. Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets 134: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters? Emacs 19 introduced built-in support for 8-bit characters. Emacs 20 can operate similarly in Unibyte mode or else in Multibyte mode. See the "International" node in the online manual, specifically "Single-Byte European Support". 135: How do I input 8-bit characters? Again, see the "International" node of the on-line manual. 136: Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other character sets? Emacs 20 now includes many of the features of MULE, the Multilingual Enhancement of Emacs. See question 84 for information on where to find and download Emacs. 137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets? Emacs 20 supports Hebrew characters (ISO 8859-8), but does not yet support right-to-left character entry. Joel M. Hoffman <joel@exc.com> has written a Lisp package called hebrew.el that allows right-to-left editing of Hebrew. It reportedly works out of the box with Emacs 19, but requires patches for Emacs 18. Write to Joel if you want the patches or package. Hebrew.el requires a Hebrew screen font, but no other Hardware support. Joel has a screen font for PCs running MS-DOS and Linux. You might also try to query archie for files named with "hebrew"; several ftp sites in Israel may also have the necessary files. Mail and News 138: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups? If you read mail with Rmail or news with Gnus, set the variable mail-yank-prefix. For VM, set vm-included-text-prefix. For mh-e, set mh-ins-buf-prefix. For fancier control of citations, use Supercite. See question 105. To prevent Emacs from including various headers of the replied-to message, set the value of mail-yank-ignored-headers to an appropriate regexp. 139: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail? You can either mail yourself a copy by including a "BCC:" header in the mail message, or store a copy of the message directly to a file by including an "FCC:" header. If you use standard mail, you can automatically create a "BCC:" to yourself by putting (setq mail-self-blind t) in your .emacs file. You can automatically include an "FCC:" field by putting something like the following in your .emacs file: (setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing")) The output file will be in Unix mail format, which can be read directly by VM, but not always by Rmail. See question 141. For Gnus, see the `Archived Messages node of the Gnus manual. If you use mh-e, add an "FCC:" or "BCC:" field to your components file. It does not work to put "set record filename" in the .mailrc file. 140: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail? * You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses like this one: To: Willy Smith <wks@xpnsv.lwyrs.com> However, you do not need to -- and probably should not, unless your system's version of /usr/ucb/mail (aka mailx) supports RFC822 -- separate addresses with commas in your ~/.mailrc file. * Emacs normally only reads the ".mailrc" file once per session, when you start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can type "M-x rebuild-mail-abbrevs RET" to make Emacs reread your ~/.mailrc file. * If you like, you can expand mail aliases as abbrevs, as soon as you type them in. To enable this feature, execute the following: (add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup) Note that the aliases are expanded automatically only after you type RET or a punctuation character (e.g. `,'). You can force their expansion by moving point to the end of the alias and typing "C-x a e" (M-x expand-abbrev). 141: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message? A file created through the FCC: field in a message is in Unix mail format, not the format that Rmail uses (BABYL format). Rmail will try to convert a Unix mail file into BABYL format on input, but sometimes it makes errors. For guaranteed safety, you can make the saved-messages file be an inbox for your Rmail file by using the function set-rmail-inbox-list. 142: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder? In Rmail, type "C-c C-s C-h" to get a list of sorting functions and their key bindings. 143: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail? This is the behavior of the "movemail" program which Rmail uses. This indicates that movemail is configured to use lock files. RMS writes: Certain systems require lock files to interlock access to mail files. On these systems, movemail must write lock files, or you risk losing mail. You simply must arrange to let movemail write them. Other systems use the flock system call to interlock access. On these systems, you should configure movemail to use flock. 144: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format? If you have just done rmail-input on a file and you don't want to save it in Rmail's format (called BABYL), just kill the buffer (with C-x k). If you typed M-x rmail and it read some messages out of your inbox and you want to put them in a Unix mail file, use C-o on each message. If you want to convert an existing file from BABYL format to Unix mail format, use the command M-x unrmail: it will prompt you for the input and output file names. 145: How can I force Rmail to reply to the sender of a message, but not the other recipients? Ron Isaacson <isaacson@seas.upenn.edu> says: When you hit "r" to reply in Rmail, by default it CCs all of the original recipients (everyone on the original "To" and "CC" lists). With a prefix argument (i.e., typing "C-u" before "r"), it replies only to the sender. However, going through the whole C-u business every time you want to reply is a pain. This is the best fix I've been able to come up with: (defun rmail-reply-t () "Reply only to the sender of the current message. (See rmail-reply.)" (interactive) (rmail-reply t)) (add-hook 'rmail-mode-hook '(lambda () (define-key rmail-mode-map "r" 'rmail-reply-t) (define-key rmail-mode-map "R" 'rmail-reply))) 146: How can I get my favorite Emacs mail package to support MIME? Look at the Emacs MIME FAQ, maintained by MacDonald Hall Jackson <trey@cs.berkeley.edu> at http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~trey/emacs/mime.html Version 6.x of VM supports MIME. See question 104. MIME support has been added in the development version of Gnus which will be included with a future version of Emacs. 147: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader? To start Emacs in Gnus: emacs -f gnus in Rmail: emacs -f rmail A more convenient way to start with Gnus: alias gnus 'emacs -f gnus' gnus It is probably unwise to automatically start your mail or news reader from your .emacs file. This would cause problems if you needed to run two copies of Emacs at one time. Also, this would make it difficult for you to start Emacs quickly when you needed to. 148: How do I read news under Emacs? Use M-x gnus. It is documented in Info (see question 14). 149: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP? There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before blocking waiting for more input which never comes. NNTP version 1.5.11 claims to fix this. You can work around the bug inside Emacs like this: (setq nntp-maximum-request 1) You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine (i.e., "telnet server-machine 119"). The server should give its version number in the welcome message. Type "quit" to get out. Also see question 75 in this FAQ for some additional ideas. 150: How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g., ClariNews)? Underlining appears like this: _^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg Use Gnus' "Overstrike" function from the Article -> Washing menu (or type "W o"). You can do this for all articles with: (add-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook 'gnus-article-treat-overstrike) If you prefer to do away with underlining altogether, you can destructively remove it with M-x ununderline-region; do this automatically via (add-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook (lambda () (ununderline-region (point-min) (point-max)))) See the Gnus manual for more information about this and similar methods for treating article contents. 151: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus? Use gnus-uu. Type C-c C-v C-h in the Gnus summary buffer to see a list of available commands. 152: How do I make Gnus start up faster? From the Gnus FAQ (see question 158): Pranav Kumar Tiwari <pktiwari@eos.ncsu.edu> writes: I posted the same query recently and I got an answer to it. I am going to repeat the answer. What you need is a newer version of gnus, version 5.0.4+. I am using 5.0.12 and it works fine with me with the following settings: (setq gnus-check-new-newsgroups nil gnus-read-active-file 'some gnus-nov-is-evil nil gnus-select-method '(nntp gnus-nntp-server)) 153: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus? In the "*Newsgroup*" buffer, type the following magical incantation: M-< C-x ( c y C-x ) M-0 C-x e Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of the "*Newsgroup" buffer. 154: Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control headers? Gnus will complain that the "Newsgroups:", "Keywords:", and "Control:" headers are "Unknown header" fields. For the "Newsgroups:" header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the "Xref" header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article (as long as your site carries the cross-post group). If you really want to kill on one of these headers, you can do it like this: (gnus-kill nil "^Newsgroups: .*\\(bad\\.group\\|worse\\.group\\)") 155: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections? Set nntp-debug-read to nil. 156: Why is catch up slow in Gnus? Because Gnus is marking crosspostings read. You can control this with the variable gnus-use-cross-reference. 157: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting? David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> explains: The problem is almost always interaction between NNTP and C News. NNTP POST asks C News's inews to not background itself but rather hang around and give its exit status so it knows whether the post was successful. (That wait will on some systems not return the exit status of the waited for job is a different sort of problem.) It ends up taking a long time because inews is calling relaynews, which often waits for another relaynews to free the lock on the news system so it can file the article. My preferred solution is to change inews to not call relaynews, but rather use newsspool. This loses some error-catching functionality, but is for the most part safe as inews will detect a lot of the errors on its own. The C News folks have sped up inews, too, so speed should look better to most folks as that update propagates around. 158: Where can I find out more about Gnus? Visit http://www.gnus.org/, which has a pointer to the current Gnus FAQ and more information. The relevant newsgroup is gnu.emacs.gnus. ------------------------------------------------------------ Modified, with permission, for the Emacs 20.4 distribution by Dave Love. Copyright 1994-1998 Reuven M. Lerner Copyright 1992-1993 Steven Byrnes Copyright 1990-1992 Joseph Brian Wells This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers ("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS), and updated with new information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ People who helped with this version of the FAQ: Ethan Bradford <ethanb@u.washington.edu>, William G. Dubuque <wgd@martigny.ai.mit.edu>, Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu>, and Denby Wong <3dw16@qlink.QueensU.CA>.