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view etc/FAQ @ 10596:3cda29fdf5f6
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(set-extent-face): New functions.
| author | Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Mon, 30 Jan 1995 07:16:14 +0000 |
| parents | 24e6be28b6ea |
| children | b097ca448b38 |
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GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction [To find what has changed, see the "Changes" posting.] [The FAQ post date slipped big-time this time. Now that school is over with and I can get on with the rest of my life, posting should become a lot more regular. - sbyrnes] This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about GNU Emacs with answers. This article contains a listing of the questions; subsequent articles contain the questions and answers. The FAQ list is posted 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, etc. 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 of a question is in the FAQ list, please reply to the question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise! The FAQ list is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ list is also crossposted to `news.answers'. Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. The most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (ie., the output of `diff -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us 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. :-( Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu. [Note: in Sep 1994, this seems no longer to be true--rms.] These ideas have already been suggested, but we have not had time to implement them: * A Texinfo version. * Marking questions in the table of contents that have been changed recently. -- Steven Byrnes <sbyrnes@rice.edu> (and Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>) E-mail lpf@uunet.uu.net for details about the League for Programming Freedom. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GNU Emacs FAQ: Table of Contents 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 and why should I join it? 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 GNU Emacs? 11: How do I unsubscribe to 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 GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing? 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs? 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual? 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU 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 GNU Emacs? 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs? 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU 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 GNU Emacs? 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available? 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19? 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist? Common Things People Want To Do 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly? 29: How do I debug a .emacs file? 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number? 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX? 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default? 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files? 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control) characters? 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs? 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing? 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me? 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs? 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents? 40: How do I change load-path? 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window? 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages? 43: How do I indent switch statements like this? 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally? 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting? 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal? 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows? 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the indentation of the previous line? 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at? 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef commands are handled by the compiler? 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi? 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)? 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code? 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length? 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line? 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an underlined paragraph? 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible? 58: 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? 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself? 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs? 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file? 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'? Bugs/Problems 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes? 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup? 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer? 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'? 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs? 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'? 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping? 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)? 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'? 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)? 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file? 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name? 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory? 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work? 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or down one line? 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4? 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line anymore? 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary? 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word? 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs? Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs? 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped? 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail? 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1? Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)? 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX? 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs? 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive? 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff? 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support? 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch? 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs? 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"? 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS? 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows? 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2? 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST? 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga? 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer? 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support? 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows? 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++, Objective C, Pascal, Awk? 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ? Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands? 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'? 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up? 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows? 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit? 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs? 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control? 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys are filtered out? 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help? 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete? 135: Why don't the arrow keys work? 136: How do I "swap" two keys? 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard? 138: What if I don't have a Meta key? 139: What if I don't have an Escape key? 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators? 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key? 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key? 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window? 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0? 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar? 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs? Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters? 148: How do I input 8-bit characters? 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters? 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese? 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets? Mail and News 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups? 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail? 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail? 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message? 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder? 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail? 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format? 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader? 160: How do I read news under Emacs? 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news? 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP? 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)? 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd" 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS? 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column? 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up? 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS? 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line? 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections? 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS? 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting? 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine? 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid? 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header? 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS? 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern? GNU Emacs FAQ: Notation/General/Help/Status 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, then type ESC to end the search. A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and deletions occurred. Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu. 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 means press the `x' key while holding down the Control key. M-x means press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key. M-C-x means press the `x' key while holding down both the Control key and the Meta key. C-M-a is a synonym for M-C-a. RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, and TAB respectively refer to pressing the Return, Linefeed (aka Newline), Delete, Escape, and Tab keys and are equivalent to C-m, C-j, C-?, C-[, and C-i. SPC means press the Space bar. I put any key sequence that is longer than one key (and some single-key sequences) inside double quotes or on a line by itself. 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. For further information, see `Characters' and `Keys' in the online manual. 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 Control-? generate ASCII code 127. 2: What does "M-x command" mean? "M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then type RET. 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, and "?" for a list of possibilities. 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 53. 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual? When I 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 the Info facility. If you don't already know how to use Info, type "?" from within Info. If I refer you to topic XXX:YYY, you need to 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 properly. In this case you should complain. 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el? These are files that come with GNU Emacs. The GNU Emacs distribution is divided into subdirectories; the important ones are `etc', `lisp', and `src'. If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system, start Emacs, then type "C-h v exec-directory RET". The directory name displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed `etc' directory. Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail, see question 20. All are available in the source distribution. 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 Licence 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 commercial organization which wants to provide an alternative, standardized version of Unix not controlled by AT&T. 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 and why should I join it? 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 me, jbw@cs.bu.edu; I will be happy to talk with you about the LPF.} Here is the contact information: E-mail address: league@prep.ai.mit.edu Phone number: (617) 243-4091 Postal address: League for Programming Freedom 1 Kendall Square, Number 143 Post Office Box 9171 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Papers describing the LPF's views are available on the internet and also from the LPF: Anonymous FTP: /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/lpf/ /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/lpf/ Anonymous UUCP: osu-cis!~/lpf/* 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft? The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public Licence (copyleft) is however it is interpreted by a judge. 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 on how to get a copy.) For those 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 GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE, MicroEmacs, Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, Epsilon, etc. Many people post GNU 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, instead 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. Anonymous FTP: /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/ There is a WAIS database named `comp.emacs' on wais.oit.unc.edu that makes available the last few days of articles in comp.emacs. 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs? The correct way to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. 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 way a reliable return address is available so you can be contacted for further details. RMS explains: 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 a bug, RMS describes how to tell: ... 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 to this mailing list? If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named `XXX', you might be able to unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address `XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu'. 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 address: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu Phone number: (617) 876-3296 Postal address: Free Software Foundation, Inc. 675 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139, USA On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing? Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is how to enter the help system. WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL to deal 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's help facility works best if help is invoked by a single key whose value should be stored in the variable help-char. Andrew Arensburger <arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote a patch that allows the help facility to work properly when invoked by multiple character sequences. 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs? There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs. * The complete text of the Emacs manual is available online via the Info hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info. * 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 file in the Emacs distribution. {Are PostScript versions of this available for FTP?} * 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 "C-h C-h C-h". NOTE: You may find that command-apropos and apropos are extremely slow on your system. This will be fixed in Emacs 19. If you can't wait that long, there is a fast-apropos.el file available in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89) that contains the fix. 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual? You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF for $20. For 6 or more manuals the price is $13 each. The price may be tax-deductible as a business expense. 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 300 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 via anonymous FTP: /cs.ubc.ca:pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-18.57.ps.Z ! which site requests that you please CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME (pacific time zone, GMT-8)). A DVI version is also available via FTP: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.Z If you don't have TeX you can convert the Texinfo sources into {t,n,ps}roff format with the `texi2roff' program, which is available via anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/texi2roff/texi2roff.shar.Z See also question 14 for how to view the manual online. 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU 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 GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for Emacs 18 under Unix. It is available from the FSF for $50 (or 5 for $200). The latest revision available for FTP is edition 1.03 dated 28 January 1991. For online use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-1.03.tar.Z (You can also create the Info files from the Texinfo source.) See question 17 for details on how to install these files online. If you are daring enough to try to print this 550 page manual out yourself, for instructions see question 18. Also, as a popular USENET saying goes, "Use the Force, Read the Source". 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation? First create Info files from the Texinfo files with the `makeinfo' program. makeinfo is available as part of the latest Texinfo package: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-2.14.tar.Z 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 online. Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor the makeinfo program install 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 are already in this file. The format is: * Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic. 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 setting the value of the variable Info-directory to its pathname. For example, to use a private Info directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info', you could do this: (setq Info-directory (expand-file-name "~/Info")) You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory. You can include the system-wide Info directory in your private Info directory with symbolic links or by copying it. * You can use an enhanced version of lisp/info.el that handles multiple Info directories. Then you can more easily use a mix of private and shared Info files. Dave Gillespie <daveg@synaptics.com, daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> has written one such enhancement and I believe there are others. Dave's info.el also handles compressed Info files. Anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:modes/info.el.Z /ftp.uu.net:languages/emacs-lisp/modes/info.el.Z ! According to Jay Bourland <jayb@math.stanford.edu>, a version of Dave's info.el comes with `xinfo' (see question 19). 18: How do I print a Texinfo file? NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print. 1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this: \input texinfo You may need to alter `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. 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs? Yes, the `info', `xinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. info uses curses, xinfo uses standard X11 libraries, and ivinfo uses InterViews. You can get info as part of the latest Texinfo package (see question 17). xinfo is available separately: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.Z /export.lcs.mit.edu: ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc archive or from Tom Horsley <tom@ssd.csd.harris.com>. For ivinfo, you need Stanford's InterViews C++ X library, available via anonymous FTP (interviews.stanford.edu). 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs? This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of informational files about GNU 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 GNU Emacs distribution, and also the latest versions are available individually via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/): APPLE -- Why the FSF doen't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information, including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form" 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 MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs" These files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs distribution: DIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Twenex Emacs CCADIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and CCA Emacs GOSDIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Gosling (Unipress??) Emacs COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License NEWS -- GNU Emacs News, a history of user-visible changes LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it) OPTIONS -- a complete explanation of startup option handling These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/): tasks -- GNU Task List standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source first. These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail: * GNU's Bulletin, June, 1991 -- this file includes: GNU'S Who What Is the Free Software Foundation? What Is Copyleft? A Small Way to Help Free Software GNUs Flashes (important recent developments for project GNU) Free Software Support (and how to get it!) Copyrighted Programming Languages AT&T Threatens Users of X Windows (and other software patent threats) Project Gutenberg GNU Project Status Report GNU in Japan GNU Wish List Help Keep Government Software Free GNU Software Available Now Contents of the Emacs Tape Contents of the Compiler Tape Contents of the X11 Tapes VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes GNU Documentation How to Get GNU Software Free Software for Microcomputers GNU Software on Apple computers GNU Software on the Amiga GNU Software on the Atari GNUish MS-DOS project Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS GNU in Japan FSF Order Form Thank GNUs * Legal issues about contributing code to GNU * GNU Project Status Report A collection of past GNU's Bulletins is available via anonymous FTP: /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/Bulletins/ 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs? Look in etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who will sell you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the SERVICE file is available on prep.ai.mit.edu (also see question 20). 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)? The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways: * 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 of which I know will 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 FAQ?rc:m In GNUS, you should type "C-u G" from the *Subject* buffer or "C-u SPC" from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a newsgroup. The FAQ articles' message IDs are: <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-0.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> ! <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-1.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> ! <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-2.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> ! <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-3.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> ! <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-4.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> ! <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-5.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> ! If you are viewing this in the GNUS *Article* buffer, you can move point within one of the above message IDs and type "r" to fetch the referenced article. Type "o" in the *Article* buffer to restore the previous contents. If this text is not in the GNUS *Article* buffer, use M-r from the *Subject* buffer instead. 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 before July 3, 1993. ! * Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/ part* * Via e-mail. You can send the following magical incantation in the body of a message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu: send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part0 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 * Via WAIS. The GNU Emacs FAQ is available via WAIS indexed on a per-question basis from the `faq' database on bigbird.bu.edu on the non-standard IP port number of 2210. This is probably the best way to find out if there is something in the FAQ related to your question. I use this myself to answer questions I see posted on gnu.emacs.help. The articles of the GNU Emacs FAQ are also available from the `usenet' database on rtfm.mit.edu (on the standard IP port: 210), along with a lot of other FAQ articles. However, these are all indexed at the whole article level instead of at the question level. This is a better place to look if you want to fetch the entire FAQ. * In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.59 is the latest version, and it was released in October 1992. * There is an old version of the FAQ list available for FTP in the GNU archives at MIT: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FAQ.emacs * As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to gnu-emacs-faq-maintainers@bigbird.bu.edu. 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 active keys. Emacs was started by Guy Steele <gls@think.com> as a project to unify the many divergent TECO command sets and keybindings at MIT. Many people have told me that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See alt.lang.teco if you are interested. I think someone has written a TECO implementation in Emacs Lisp. It would be an interesting project to run the original TECO Emacs inside of GNU Emacs. 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs? GNU Emacs 18.59 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better mail address parsing, an X visual bell speedup, a call-process enhancement, a regexp matching change, the ability to apply a numeric argument to a self-inserting digit, getting X resource values from the RESOURCE_MANAGER property, more reliable shell mode job control, and a change to copy-keymap. Also, support has been added for many new system types. Fixes from 18.55 include the removal of arbitrary limits on the undo facility. According to the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin, "Emacs 18 maintenance continues for simple bug fixes.". To visit a file with information about what has changed in recent versions, type "C-h n". 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available? Richard Stallman recently (February 19, 1993) posted in gnu.emacs.help ! the following: ! ! People should keep in mind that the successor of Emacs 18 does not ! come from Lucid. Its is GNU Emacs 19. I still can't say exactly when ! public release is going to be, but we are about to start testing at a ! number of sites. ! ! GNU Emacs 19 will support a broad spectrum of machines, like Emacs ! 18. Ensuring this is the purpose of the testing we are about to do. ! ! (Please don't volunteer; we have enough pretesters, and if more people ! offer, dealing with those messages will slow things down.) ! ! Once we make sure it is indeed working reliably on various different ! systems, we will have a public beta test release. ! ! Emacs 19 does support adding properties to ranges of text, and using ! these to switch fonts. In the future, the Epoch people will help ! merge support for variable-width fonts. ! ! Meanwhile, I have almost finished updating the Emacs Lisp manual. Its ! next edition will describe Emacs 19. There will be an announcement ! when we know when this edition will be available. ! Lucid has released Lucid GNU Emacs 19.6, which is based on an early ! unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19. This will be similar to Emacs 19 when it finally arrives, but they are not the same. See question 121. Work has begun on features for Emacs 20. 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19? From the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin: Version 19 will enter beta test late this year. Among its new features are: before and after change hooks, source-level debugging of Emacs Lisp programs, X selection processing (including clipboard selections), scrollbars, support for European character sets, floating point numbers, per-buffer mouse commands, X resource manager interfacing, mouse-tracking, Lisp-level binding of function keys, multiple X windows (`screens' to Emacs), a new input system, and buffer allocation, which uses a new mechanism capable of returning storage to the system when a buffer is killed. The input stream is now a sequence of Lisp objects, instead of a sequence of characters. This allows a reasonable representation for mouse clicks, function keys, menu selections, etc. Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch for generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs, and to Eric Raymond for help in polishing the Emacs 19 Lisp libraries. The June 1991 GNU's bulletin had this to say about future plans for Emacs: Features being considered for later releases of Emacs include: associating property lists with regions of text in a buffer; multiple fonts, color, and pixmaps defined by those properties; different visibility conditions for the regions, and for various windows showing one buffer; hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain range; incrementally saving undo history in a file; static menu bars; and better pop-up menus. Mention of this feature disappeared in the January 1992 GNU's bulletin: Emacs 19 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a separate screen for the minibuffer, and another with a minibuffer attached to each screen. Mention of these two proposed features disappeared in the January 1991 GNU's bulletin: * Incremental syntax analysis for various programming languages (Leif). * A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which would provide network transparent Emacs widget functionality. 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist? * Nemacs (Nihongo Emacs), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from GNU Emacs 18.55. See question 149. * Demacs, which can run under MS-DOS on 386 machines, is derived from Nemacs. See question 122. * Epoch, which has better X support, is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58. See question 120 and 92. * Nepoch (Nihongo Epoch), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from Epoch. * Mule (the MULtilingual Enhancement of GNU Emacs) can handle many character sets simultaneously. It is derived from Emacs 18.58. It is available for FTP: /sh.wide.ad.jp:/JAPAN/mule/ /etlport.etl.go.jp:/pub/mule/ * Lucid GNU Emacs is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19. See question 121 and 92. GNU Emacs FAQ: Common Requests/Problems 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, then type ESC to end the search. A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and deletions occurred. Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu. Common Things People Want To Do 28: 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. :-) 29: How do I debug a .emacs file? First start Emacs with the `-q' command line option. Then, in the *scratch* buffer, type the following: (setq debug-on-error t) LFD (load-file "~/.emacs") LFD (Type LFD by pressing C-j.) If you have an error in your .emacs file, this will invoke the debugger when the error occurs. If you don't know how to use the debugger do (setq stack-trace-on-error t) instead. WARNING: this will not discover errors caused by trying to do something that requires the terminal/window-system initialization code to have been loaded. See question 127. 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number? To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)". Typing "C-x l" will also tell you what line you are on, provided the buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l characters. In that case, it will only tell you what line of the current "page" you are on. WARNING: "C-x l" gives the wrong value when point is at the beginning of a line. There is no "correct" way to constantly display the current (or total) line (or column) number on the mode line in Emacs 18, or to display the line numbers next to the lines like vi can. Emacs is not a line-oriented editor, and really has no idea what "lines" of the buffer are displayed in the window. It would require a lot of work at the C code level to make Emacs keep track of this. It would not be that hard to get the column number, but it would still require changes at the C code level. None of the vi emulation modes provide the `set number' capability of vi (as far as I know). Emacs 19 will probably be able to show the line number on the mode-line, but probably very inefficiently. People have written various kludges to display line numbers. One is `display-line-numbers' by Wayne Mesard <wmesard@tofu.oracle.com, Mesard@bbn.com>. Look in the Lisp Code Directory. (See question 88.) 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX? Put this in your .emacs file: (condition-case () (read-abbrev-file nil t) (file-error nil)) (setq XXX-mode-hook (function (lambda () (setq abbrev-mode t)))) 32: 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, for example, Text mode, do this: (setq text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill) If you want Auto-Fill mode on in all major modes, do this: (setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill) 33: 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: (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist)) Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to edit in XXX mode: -*-XXX-*- 34: 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 (ie., C-q).) Searching for ALL unprintable characters is best done with a "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 some of 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 a 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. {I need to write the text for this part of the answer!} Notes: * With isearch, you can type RET to get a quoted LFD (not a quoted RET). * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing something in the minibuffer. Here are the Emacs Lisp forms of the above regexps: ;; regexp matching all printable characters: "[\t\n\r\f -~]" ;; regexp matching all unprintable characters: "[^\t\n\r\f -~]" 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs? There are ways to get highlighting (reverse video, inverse video) in GNU Emacs 18.59, but either they require patching the C code of Emacs and rebuilding, or they are slow and the highlighting disappears if you scroll or redraw the screen and it can not follow the point. Howard Gayle's patches for 8-bit output appear to allow highlighting (see question ^8-bit-output). Another patch for highlighting is by Kenichi Handa <handa@etl.go.jp>. There is a patch for use with X by Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> (and modified for 18.57 by Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr>), which is available for FTP: /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.55 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.57 You can highlight regions in a variety of ways in Epoch and Lucid Emacs. GNU Emacs 19 may not be able to just temporarily highlight a region. Similar comments apply to displaying text in different fonts, except that it is even harder. 36: 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 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: (setq XXX-mode-hook (function (lambda () (setq case-fold-search nil)))) 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me? M-x auto-fill-mode. The default maximum line width is 74, determined by the variable fill-column. To find how to turn this on automatically see question 32. 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs? Use Ispell. See question 119. 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents? If you want to spell-check TeX or *roff documents with Ispell, you need to arrange for a filter program that understands how to strip TeX or *roff formatting commands to be run. In the TeX distribution, there are several different programs named `detex', all with incompatible options, and a very old pair of programs named `detex' and `delatex', which should probably be avoided. The most useful one for Ispell is `detex' by Daniel Trinkle. A more recent version is available via FTP: /arthur.cs.purdue.edu:pub/trinkle/detex-2.4.tar Raphael Cerf <cerf@clipper.ens.fr> recently released a program for this named `xetal': /spi.ens.fr:pub/unix/tex/ There is a program that comes with Unix named `deroff' for stripping formatting commands from *roff files. Here is an example of code you can put in a .emacs file to use these programs: ;; Based on suggestions by David G. Grubbs <dgg@ksr.com> and Paul Palmer ;; <palmerp@math.orst.edu>. ;; Assuming the use of detex 2.3 by Daniel Trinkle: ;; -w means one word per line. ;; -n means don't expand \input or \include commands. ;; -l means force LaTeX mode. (require 'ispell) ; for the make-variable-buffer-local statements (setq plain-TeX-mode-hook (function (lambda () (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex") (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-nw"))))) (setq LaTeX-mode-hook (function (lambda () (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex") (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-lnw"))))) (setq nroff-mode-hook (function (lambda () (setq ispell-filter-hook "deroff") (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-w"))))) You will have to adjust the arguments for programs other than Trinkle's detex or for other versions of deroff. Experiment running the command from the shell to find the correct options. If you don't have a filter that knows how to output one word per line, you must pipe its output through another filter to break up the output. 40: 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 (append load-path '("/XXX/YYY/"))) To do this relative to your home directory: (setq load-path (append load-path (list (expand-file-name "~/YYY/")))) 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window? The `emacsclient' program 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 #" to indicate this. This will switch to another buffer created at the request of emacsclient if there are any. When "C-x #" has been invoked on all of the files that the emacsclient requested to be edited, Emacs will send notification of this to `server' which will pass this on to the emacsclient, which will then exit. 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. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across most network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary Emacs Lisp forms and also does not require the client program to wait for completion. It is available via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive: packages/gnuserv.shar). 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages? Write a program which runs the compiler as a child and filters its output, rearranging as necessary. Install with same name as compiler somewhere in path. Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu> wrote one such for a C compiler under AIX. Available via FTP: /cs.utk.edu:readonly/aixcc.lex Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> wrote another for the IBM xlc compiler on the RS/6000. (I don't know if these are both for the same compiler.) Johnathan Vail <vail@tegra.COM> wrote something for a High C compiler (`hc', which is one of the compilers on the RS/6000, although I think Johnathan wrote his program for hc on a different computer). 43: How do I indent 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; } } I don't believe there is any way to do this exactly without modifying the Lisp code in c-mode.el. You can set c-indent-level to 4 and c-label-offset to -2, but this has bad effects elsewhere. {Anyone have a solution?} 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally? There is no completely correct way of doing this that does not involve rewriting all commands or writing your own top-level command loop (not a completely bad idea). Wayne Mesard <wmesard@pescadero.stanford.edu> has written a particularly advanced kludge called `hscroll.el' that checks once a second to make sure point is visible. 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting? M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode). 46: 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. Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable: ... :vb=: ... And evaluate this: (setq visible-bell t) 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows? Under versions of Emacs before 18.58, the bell volume was annoying loud and difficult to turn off. So upgrading to 18.58 or higher will reduce the volume. If you want to turn it off completely, use `xset'. There is no way to turn the bell off just for Emacs without affecting all other programs. Under Epoch you can do: (setq epoch::bell-volume 20) Stu Grossman <grossman@sunburn.stanford.edu> wrote a patch that allows the bell volume to be adjusted from inside Emacs just for Emacs. 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the indentation of the previous line? One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode). If you have Auto-Fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 32), 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. Look up `fill' and `indent' in the Lisp Code Directory for guidance. 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at? 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 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. ;; 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))))) 50: 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 may have to (load "hideif") first. If you want to do this regularly, put this in your .emacs file: (autoload 'hide-ifdef-mode "hideif" nil t) {Yes, I know, this should be in lisp/loaddefs.el already.} 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi? (`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.) No, not really. You can type "C-x 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 something on each line I recommend using keyboard macros. 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)? See the Emacs man page, or the etc/OPTIONS file. Ignore the information in etc/XDOC which is way out of date. 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code? There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") 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. * 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-ESC 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 used for evaluating Lisp forms: load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length? Example: (setq default-tab-width 10). 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line? Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET". To do this only in the region, type "C-x n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET C-x w". WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n) is disabled by default because it can be very confusing (ie., "Oh no! Where did my file go?"). 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an underlined paragraph? M-x underline-region. 57: 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. 58: 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. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...) 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself? You need to modify C source and recompile. Either that or get Epoch or Lucid Emacs instead. Patches have been written by Robert Forsman <thoth@reef.cis.ufl.edu> and Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> to allow Emacs to iconify itself and by Matt Wette <mwette@mr-ed.jpl.nasa.gov> and Manavendra K. Thakur <thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu> (for 18.57, plus icon geometry) to allow Emacs to start up iconified. I don't know which of these patches work together. Anonymous FTP: /csi.jpl.nasa.gov:pub/emax.patch1 (Matt Wette) /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z (Johan Vromans) /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun (Johan Vromans) 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs? See `Regexps' in the online manual. WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\". Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated 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 (eg. `\sw') are not meaningful inside character set regexps (eg. `[aeiou]'). (This is actually typical for regexp syntax.) 61: 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:Tags Search' in the online manual. In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace which will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the *compilation* buffer (usually done after a `grep'), which is available via anonymous FTP: /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/compile.el.Z /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/global-replace.el.Z /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/query.el.Z 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'? `etags' takes options just like a prior version of ctags, so your ctags manual (if any) may be useful. Eoin Woods, in comp.emacs, writes the ! following: ! ! From reading the source (!) the way I use it is: ! ! for f in `find <args>` ! do ! etags -at -f ETAGS $f ! done ! ! The "-t" option means to create tags for typedefs as well as functions. ! The "-a" option tells it to append to the output file. If you have a ! small number of files (up to a few hundred I think) you can use it ! direct as: ! ! etags -f ETAGS file1 file2 file3 ... filen ! ! The option list is: ! ! -f file - Specify the output file name (Default is "TAGS") ! -a - Append to the output file. (Default is to rewrite it) ! -t - Create tags for typedefs (default is just functions) ! -u - Update the output file. Do not re-create it. ! -w - Suppress warnings ! -v - Create vgrind style indexed output (What is vgrind??) ! -x - Create cxref style output (default is Emacs Tags) ! -e - Emacs tags style output (the default the way I ! compile it) ! ! Having got it working, it works fine! ! Bugs/Problems 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes? Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and 24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1). 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 filesizes 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> gives an explanation of why Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers: 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, eg., 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. Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits. 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup? The PWD bug has been fixed as of GNU Emacs 18.59. Read on if you are running an older version of Emacs. Most likely, you have an environment variable named PWD that is set to a value other than the name of your current directory. This is most likely caused by using two different shell programs. `ksh' and (some versions of) `csh' set and maintain the value of the PWD environment variable, but `sh' doesn't. If you start sh from ksh, change your current directory inside sh, and then start Emacs from inside sh, PWD will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. An invalid setting for PWD can also be a problem if you use X Windows and csh on an RS/6000. See the etc/OPTIONS file for more details. Perhaps an easier solution is not to use two shells. The `chsh' program can often be used to change one's default login shell. You may have PWD set for other reasons. Another possibility is that you are setting default-directory from your .emacs file. Here is a fix by Jim Blandy <jimb@occs.cs.oberlin.edu>: >--- emacs/jjj/emacs-18.58/lisp/startup.el Tue Jan 15 23:19:04 1991 >+++ startup.el Mon Apr 20 00:21:01 1992 >@@ -81,5 +81,7 @@ > ;; In presence of symlinks, switch to cleaner form of default directory. > (if (and (not (eq system-type 'vax-vms)) >- (getenv "PWD")) >+ (getenv "PWD") >+ (equal (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes default-directory)) >+ (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes (getenv "PWD"))))) > (setq default-directory (file-name-as-directory (getenv "PWD")))) > (unwind-protect 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer? 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.) 66: 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. This program should be compiled (for the correct architecture!) and installed with execute permission for everyone in Emacs's program directory, which is normally /usr/local/emacs/etc. 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". `env' should also be for the correct architecture (check using `file' command). You should also check for other programs named `env' in your path (eg., SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). I don't understand why this can cause a failure and I don't know a general solution for working around the problem in this case. The `make clean' command will remove `env' and other vital programs, so be careful when using it. It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started as an X client from an xterm window (ie. had a controlling tty) but the xterm was later terminated. See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message. 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs? Emacs stores things you "cut" in the X "cut buffers". It also pastes from the cut buffer `CUT_BUFFER0'. This is obsolete. Most modern X programs now expect to work with "selections" instead of cut buffers, although some like `xterm' will try to use the cut buffers if the selection is null. Emacs 18.58 contains a "fix" that makes xterm work by default. This "fix" is that Emacs clears the `PRIMARY' selection when it stores something in the cut buffer. By making the selection null, xterm will then fetch from the cut buffer when you try to paste. For versions of Emacs prior to 18.58, you can make pasting from Emacs into xterm work with the following X resources: ! Solution by Thomas Narten, should work under X11R3 and later GNU ! Emacs only copies to CUT_BUFFER0. xterm by default wants to paste ! from the PRIMARY selection. XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \ ~Meta <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CUT_BUFFER0,PRIMARY) You may have problems copying between Emacs and programs other than xterm that won't store cut text in the cut buffers or look in the cut buffers for text to paste (for backwards compatibility with obsolete applications like Emacs :-). The best workaround is to use the `xcutsel' program as an intermediary. This problem does not exist for Epoch or Lucid Emacs. 68: 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 (eg., 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 69: 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 131. 70: 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 gethosbyname 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. * Use tcp.el and tcp.c from GNUS. This has the additional advantage that you can use numeric IP addresses instead of names. open-network-stream currently can't handle numeric addresses. Brian Thomson <thomson@hub.toronto.edu> has a enhancement to open-network-stream to allow it to handle numeric addresses. 71: 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 29. It may be the case that you may 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 127. 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)? * Try compiling Emacs with the XBACKWARDS macro defined. There is a bug in some implementations of XGetDefault, which do not correspond to the documentation or the header files. * Make sure you are either using the class name of `Emacs' (oops, apparently this is buggy in Emacs 18.58!) or the correct instance name. The instance name is normally the same as the name of the file Emacs is in (ie., the last part of argv[0]), but this can be overridden by -rn command line option or the WM_RES_NAME environment variable. WARNING: Reports say using the class name fails in Emacs 18.58. WARNING: The advice the man page gives to use `emacs' is often wrong. WARNING: Older versions of Emacs got the class name wrong. * Emacs currently ignores the -xrm command line argument. * Emacs does not yet handle X11R5 screen-specific resources. * Emacs has a bug where it ignores color specifications if running on a 1-bit display (ie. a non-color display). * I don't think Emacs will use either of the application-specific resource files. Thus these environment variables don't affect it: XAPPLRESDIR, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, XFILESEARCHPATH. {Correct?} 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file? The usual cause is that 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. 74: 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. 75: 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 88). 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work? If you added a directory name containing a tilde (~) to your load-path, expecting the tilde to be interpreted as your home directory, then you need to do something like this: (setq load-path (mapcar 'expand-file-name load-path)) 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or down one line? You have inadvertently typed "C-x C-n" (set-goal-column) which sets the "goal column" to the column where the cursor was. To undo this type "C-u C-x C-n". If you make this mistake frequently, you might want to unbind or disable this command by doing one of these two: (define-key ctl-x-map "\C-n" nil) (put 'set-goal-column 'disabled t) 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4? Many different X errors can produce this message. Here is the solution to one problem: X11 Release 4 (and later, including OpenWindows) enforces some conditions in the X protocol that were previously allowed to pass unnoticed. You need to put the X11R4 server into X11R3 bug compatibility mode for Emacs's Xmenu code to work. You can do this with the command `xset bc'. 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line anymore? In GNU Emacs 18.56, a change was made in the display-time code. Formerly, in version 18.55, Emacs used a program named `loadst' to notify Emacs of the change in time every minute. loadst also sent Emacs the system load average if it was installed with sufficient privilege to get that information (or was on a system where no such privilege was needed). Emacs then displayed this information in the mode line. In version 18.56, this code was changed to use a program named `wakeup'. wakeup doesn't send Emacs any information, it's only purpose is to send Emacs *something* every minute, thus invoking the filter function in Emacs once a minute. The filter function in Emacs does all the work of finding the time, date, and load average. However, getting the load average requires the privilege to read kernel memory on most systems. Since giving Emacs this privilege would destroy any security a system might have, for almost everyone this is not an option. In addition, Emacs does not have the code built into it to get this information on the systems which have special system calls for this purpose, even though loadst had code for this. The solution I use is to get the files lisp/display-time.el and etc/loadst.c from version 18.55 and use those with 18.58. (I have heard a rumor that loadst disappeared because of the legal action Unipress threatened against IBM.) WARNING: Do not install Emacs setgid kmem unless you wish to destroy any security your system might have!!!!!!!!!! If you are using Emacs 18.55 or earlier, or already using the solution I describe above, read further: The most likely cause of the problem is that `loadst' can't read the special file /dev/kmem. To properly install loadst, it should be either setuid to the owner of /dev/kmem, or is should be setgid to the group to which /dev/kmem belongs. In either case, /dev/kmem should be readable by its owner or its group, respectively. Assuming the existence of a group named `kmem', here is an example of how to do this: chgrp kmem /dev/kmem chmod g+r /dev/kmem chgrp kmem /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst chmod g+s /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst Another possibility is that your version of Unix doesn't have the load average data available in /dev/kmem. Your version of Unix might have a special system call to retrieve this information (eg., inq_stats under UMAX), and loadst might not have been enhanced to cope with this. 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary? You need to update the version of Ispell to 2.0.02. (Or you can switch to version 3.0 which is still in beta-testing.) A patch is available via anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/ispell/patch2.Z You also need to change a line in ispell.el from: (defconst ispell-version "2.0.01") ; Check against output of "ispell -v". to: (defconst ispell-version "2.0.02") ; Check against output of "ispell -v". 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word? Ispell expects to get its input one word per line. The ispell filter, which is specified by the variables ispell-filter-hook and ispell-filter-hook-args, should output at most one word per line. 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs? * the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.) Cliff Stoll in his book `The Cuckoo's Egg' describes this in chapter 4. The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid root. 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 even if it is installed setuid root this security hole will not be a result. I have heard unverified reports that the 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. If you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value, Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file that you visit and ask you if you really want them. This variable is not mentioned in the manual. It is wise to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs: (setq inhibit-local-variables t) If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own .emacs file. The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an RMAIL user was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this. For more information, see `File Variables' in the online manual (which, incidentally, does not describe how to disable the feature). There is a new variable in Emacs 18.58 named ignore-local-eval which turns out to be useless as currently implemented. Ignore it. * 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. Lucid GNU Emacs does not accept synthetic X events unless you set a variable. * autosave file permissions (Yes, a risk, hard to work around.) The file permissions for autosave files are determined solely by the Emacs process's `umask' value. The permissions of the file being autosaved are not used. The easiest workaround is to keep sensitive files in protected directories. Sebastian Kremer has written an enhanced version of the autosave file name picking code that can avoid this problem by keeping autosave files in a protected directory. {FTP information please?} This problem will be fixed in Emacs 19. Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs? First look in the file etc/PROBLEMS to see if there is already a solution for your problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help or e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines, see question 8. 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped? Don't do that. This problem has been reported on SGI Indigo machines running Irix 4.0.* and RS/6000 machines. Scott Henry <scotth@hoshi.corp.SGi.COM> posted a patch that fixes the problem for Irix. 85: 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' {???}. If you are building the MIT X11 sources, you may need to modify your `site.cf' file to get static versions of the libraries. (Info from David Zuhn <zoo@cygnus.com>.) 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. 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1? I had hoped this question would go away after Emacs 18.57 was released, but people continue to compile 18.55. Easiest solution: upgrade. This is a result of the SunOS localtime/tzsetwall malloc bug, which was (finally!) fixed in SunOS 4.1.2. If you actually need the full explanation, send me e-mail. If you absolutely must compile Emacs 18.55 (eg., you are compiling Nemacs), the easiest workaround was to put `#define SYSTEM_MALLOC' in src/config.h. GNU Emacs FAQ: Getting Emacs/Packages 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, then type ESC to end the search. A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and deletions occurred. Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu. Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)? Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby archive sites. If you don't already have GNU Emacs, see question 20 for how to get these two files. The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.59.tar.Z See question 91. 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX? A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code Directory, is being maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> and Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov>. You can search through this list to find if someone has written something that fits your needs. This list is file LCD-datafile.Z in the Emacs Lisp Archive. (See question 89 for methods for getting this file.) The files lispdir.el.Z and lispdir.doc.Z in the archive contain information to help you use the list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then you can use the "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" command to look things up in the database. For example, the command "M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces this (outdated) output: GNU Emacs Lisp Code Apropos -- "ange-ftp" ange-ftp (3.112) 91-08-12 Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> archive.cis.ohio-state.edu: /pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/ange-ftp.el.Z transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs 89: Where can I get GNU 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 88). Then check local archives and the Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. Then, if you still haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for a copy. You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/ Fetch 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. NOTE: Any files with names ending in `.Z' are compressed, and 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'. 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive? Submissions should be 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. Mail messages (submissions) are automatically saved and periodically archived. Urgent mail may be sent directly to Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov> or Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> or should contain the string `urgent' in the subject. The incoming ftp directory is no longer available at the request of Ohio State. {Is this still true?} However, if someone has a submission with multiple files (which would be archived as a tar file) or binary files, then FTP transfer is preferred and can be arranged via an anonymous FTP site. This is faster than uudecoding, unsharing, etc., and re-packaging files. Before submitting anything, please read the file guidelines.Z, which is available in the archive. Whenever possible, submissions should contain a complete LCD entry since this helps reduce administrative overhead for the maintainers. You can include an entry in this format: ;; LCD Archive Entry: ;; package name|author's name|email address ;; |description ;; |date|version|archive path For example: ;; LCD Archive Entry: ;; tex-complete|Sebastian Kremer|sk@thp.Uni-Koeln.DE ;; |Minibuffer name completion for editing [La]TeX. ;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 1.5 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z ! Dave Brennan has software which automatically looks for data in this format. The format is fairly flexible. The entry ends when a line is reached with a different prefix or the seventh field terminator is seen. If you are submitting a multi-file submission you should include a file named "LCD-entry" which contains the archive entry, instead of placing it in one or more of the individual files. 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff? The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on prep.ai.mit.edu and is available for anonymous FTP in the pub/gnu directory. See the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information. (To get copies of these files, see question 20.) The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/ /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/ /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/ (available via FTP, NIFTP, FTAM) /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/ /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep/ /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/ The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu, except that files larger than 1 megabyte {right?} are automatically split into multiple parts. If you have trouble transferring large files, you should try here. A file normally named `XXX' is split into files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], and there will be a file named XXX-split/README which contains the list of parts (especially helpful when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, and reassembly instructions. Some of the other mirror sites may have the same property. {Can someone check this out? Thanks!} Information was provided by Lee McLoughlin <lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk>, Jonathan R. Ferro <jf41+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU>, Arjan de Vet <devet@win.tue.nl>, and Simon Marshall <S.Marshall@sequent.cc.hull.ac.uk>. 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support? Emacs 18 has some limited X Window System support, but there are problems. Emacs 19 will have amazing mouse and window support. Right now, there are Epoch which is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58 and Lucid GNU Emacs which is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19, both of which have greatly improved mouse and window support. See questions 120 and 121. The HP unofficial GNU Emacs also has nice mouse support. See question 95. There are numerous Emacs Lisp packages that have been written to extend Emacs 18's mouse handling capabilities. Some of these packages also have patches to the C code to provide enhanced capabilities. Look up `mouse' in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88). There is a package called BAM (Born Again Menus) which provides menus for GNU Emacs via an external C program. It does not provide mouse support in the Emacs window such as scrollbars, cut-and-paste, etc. NOTE: Epoch only works with the X Window System; it works on ordinary terminals by invoking regular GNU Emacs. Lucid Emacs does not currently work on ordinary terminals, although there are plans to fix this. 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch? Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu> writes: Epoch is GNU Emacs on steroids: an adaptation of GNU Emacs with lots of additional support for features made possible by the X11 windowing system. These features include multiple editing windows, arbitrary colors and fonts (fixed-width and proportional), selectable zones per buffer with arbitrary display styles (font, color, underline, stipple, pixmap), an optional separate minibuffer window, improved keyboard and mouse handling, full 8-bit character set support, and more. 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs? This information is condensed from the release notice: Lucid GNU Emacs is based on an early version of GNU Emacs version 19 with many enhancements. It currently requires X Windows to run. For information on where to get Lucid GNU Emacs see 121. X Windows support is greatly enhanced over GNU Emacs version 18, including support for multiple X Windows (a.k.a. screens in Emacs), Zmacs/Lispm style region highlighting, a customizable, Motif-like menubar, more powerful keymap support (allowing different actions to be associated with Backspace, Control-h, etc.), flexible text attribute (e.g. font, color) support on regional and screen-local basis through X resources and/or lisp, and support for the X11 selection mechanism. Some other features include run-time computation of the load-path, support for floating point numbers, native timer support, and sound file support on Sun SPARCstations. To build Lucid GNU Emacs, an ANSI C compiler (e.g. gcc) is required. 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"? The unofficial HP GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP: /ee.utah.edu:HUGE/ (PLEASE FTP DURING NON-WORK HOURS!!!) and takes about 35 megabytes of disk space to build. It is useful for non-HP machines, but some of the added features will only work under HP-UX. You will need to get patches to work with HP-UX 8.0 or on 700 series machines via e-mail from Darryl Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com>. 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS? * Demacs For 386 or 486 PCs running MS-DOS, there is a version of GNU Emacs called Demacs. To get Demacs see question 122. From the announcement message: Demacs is almost a full set of GNU Emacs but does not support some features: asynchronous process, locking a file, etc. Demacs provides following DOS specific features: * File type: text or binary file translation. * "8-bit clean" display mode. * 8086 software interrupt call by int86 lisp function. * Machine specific features such as function key support. * File name completion with drive name. * Child process (suspend-emacs, call-process). * Enhanced dired mode which can work without 'ls.exe'. To our regret `shell-mode' does not work, but `compile' command works properly. Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by D. J. Delorie <dj@ctron.com> which can compile and run large programs under MS-DOS, but not under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs rather than straight from GNU Emacs. There are a variety of other Emacses for MS-DOS including among them the following. * Freemacs Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, the author, describes Freemacs: * Freemacs is free, and it was designed from the start to be programmable. * Freemacs is the only IBM-PC editor that tries to be like GNU Emacs. * Freemacs can only edit files less than 64K in length. * Freemacs doesn't have undo. Carl Witty <cwitty@cs.stanford.edu> reviews Freemacs: Better is Freemacs, which follows the tradition of ITS and GNU Emacs by having an full, turing-complete extension language which is incompatible with everything else. In fact, it's even closer to ITS Emacs than GNU Emacs is, because Mint (Freemacs' extension language) is absolutely illegible without weeks of study, much like TECO. To get Freemacs see question 123. * MicroEmacs MicroEmacs is a descendant of Microemacs {originally by Dave Conroy?}. It is programmable in a BASIC-like language. Many of the keybindings are different from GNU Emacs. The author is Daniel Lawrence - <dan@mdbs.uucp, mdbs!dan@ee.ecn.purdue.edu>. The latest version is 3.12 ! and it is available via anonymous FTP: /midas.mgmt.purdue.edu:dist/uemacs312/ (outside business hours) ! ! Version 3.12 includes Windows and Windows NT versions and a DOS ! protected mode (DMPI) version. ! * JOVE Another Emacs for small machines is JOVE (Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs). The latest official version is 4.14. There appears to be a newer version. People rumored to be working on JOVE include Mark Moraes <moraes@cs.toronto.edu> and Bill Marsh <bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil>. It is available via anonymous FTP: /cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.7.tar.Z * MG MG is another descendant of Microemacs. MG used to stand for MicroGNUEmacs, but now just stands for MG. The look-and-feel of MG is intended to be close to that of GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MG can not correctly edit files larger than memory. The current version is rumored to be 2. There is a version 3 in beta which works on the Amiga. It is also available via anonymous FTP: /ftp.white.toronto.edu:pub/mg/ /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/unix-c/editors/ /procyon.cis.ksu.edu: (source and executable) 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows? I believe that no version of GNU Emacs runs under Windows. Pierre Perret <pap@myths.az05.bull.com> has ported MicroEMACS 3.11c to Windows. Anonymous FTP: /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10.zip /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10s.zip /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewri.zip 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2? From the OS/2 Programmer's FAQ: GNU Emacs 18.58 is available. It requires you to have EMX installed on your machine, but it comes with all the EMX files you will need. Emacs is available on ftp-os2 in /pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs. (If you want to recompile emacs, you will need the full EMX distribution see question 1.2.) The above quote may be out of date. See the latest OS/2 Programmer's FAQ {perhaps in comp.os.os2.misc?} for the latest news. Anonymous FTP info: /ftp-os2.nmsu.edu:pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs/ ("ftp-os2" was formerly named "hobbes") Thanks go to Stephen Simpson <simpson@symcom.math.uiuc.edu>, Jonathan Miller <jem+@andrew.cmu.edu>, Terry Kane <terryk@cc.gatech.edu>, J. D. Baldwin <baldwin@csservera.usna.navy.mil>, and Ken Bass <kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>. 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST? Emacs 18.57 is the latest version for TOS. Stefan Mueller-Pfeiffer <iff327@zam001.zam.kfa-juelich.de> says: There is also a version for MiNT, the multitasking enhancement for ATARI's TOS, which behaves almost like EMACS on a "real computer". This port was done by Erling Henanger <erlingh@idt.unit.no>. Anonymous FTP: /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/gnustuff/tos/ (TOS Emacs 18.57) /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/new/mntemacs.zoo (MiNT Emacs) /cs.uni-sb.de:/pub/atari/emacs/ 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga? All of the files are lharc-ed. Anonymous FTP: /oes.orst.edu:/pub/almanac/comp/amiga/software/gnuemacs-1.10/ Via e-mail: To: almanac@oes.orst.edu body: mode uuencode send computer amiga software gnuemacs <file> <file> is replaced by one of the following: Required: d1.lzh d2.lzh Recommended: d3_info.lzh d3_infolisp.lzh Optional: d3_autoloaded.lzh d3_entertainmentetc.lzh d3_entertainmentlisp.lzh d4_src.lzh d5_languagelisp.lzh d5_viclone.lzh d6_gnulibsrc.lzh d6_mailpackage.lzh d6_mathpackage.lzh d6_misc.lzh d6_textformat.lzh The `d#' at the beginning of each file is its disk number, which is referred to by the documentation. 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer? The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details. Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software for Apple computers such as the Macintosh. Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers. 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support? Chris Maio's NeWS support package for GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP: /columbia.edu:pub/ps-emacs.tar.Z /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ps-emacs.tar.Z and via e-mail: To: archive-server@columbia.edu body: send NeWS emacs-support 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows? Hal R. Brand <BRAND@addvax.llnl.gov> is said to have a VMS save set with a ready-to-run VMS version of Emacs 18.55 for X Windows. It is available via anonymous FTP (addvax.llnl.gov). It is possible that the VMS versions of Emacs at other sites have X support compiled in. See etc/FTP for locations. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> writes: Getting Emacs to run on VMS with DECwindows requires a number of changes to the sources. Fortunately this has been done already. Joshua Marantz <josh@viewlogic.com> did most of the work for Emacs 18.52, and the mods were ported to 18.55 by Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl>. Also included is the handling of DEC's LK201 keyboard. You need to apply the changes to a fresh Emacs 18.55 distribution on a Unix system, and then you can copy the sources to VMS to perform the compile/link/build. The set of changes have been posted a number of times three times the last 12 months, so they should be widely available. Richard Levitte <levitte@e.kth.se> tells us that there are patches for Emacs 18.57, 18.58, and 18.59 available via e-mail: ! To: EMACS-FILESERV@e.kth.se ! body: SEND EMACS-1857-PATCHES or: SEND EMACS-1858-PATCHES or: SEND EMACS-1859-PATCHES + + or via anonymous ftp at: + + /lucy.merrimack.edu:emacs-1859-patches.share + + The set of patches weighs in at around 2.7 MB. + 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++, Objective C, Pascal, Awk? As usual, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88). For C++, if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like this: M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ? If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know the IP address of a host to FTP files from it. You can get this information in two ways: * By telnet: telnet nic.ddn.mil hostnames (or `telnet 192.112.36.5 101') hname XXX.YYY.ZZZ * By e-mail: To: service@nic.ddn.mil Subject: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ or: whois XXX.YYY.ZZZ or: help or: To: resolve@cs.widener.edu body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ Information from Brendan Kehoe <brendan@cs.widener.edu>. Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs This section lists version numbers, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups, and other information for many important packages, extensions, and related programs. There is some overlap with the Lisp Code Directory, but these entries give more detailed information. If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they deserve to be mentioned here, please tell me. Having its own mailing list or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good signs. 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net> Latest released version: 4.41 Beta test version: 5.32 Anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/vm-4.41.tar.Z /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/timer.shar.Z /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-4.41.tar.Z /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-5.32beta.tar.Z Newsgroups and mailing lists: Info-VM: gnu.emacs.vm.info info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions) info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) Bug-VM: gnu.emacs.vm.bug bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions) bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com> Mailing list: supercite-request@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for subscriptions) supercite@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for submissions) Latest version: 2.3 ! Anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/sc-2.3.tar.Z ! /ftp.cme.nist.gov:pub/gnu/sc2.3.tar.Z ! Via e-mail: To: library@cme.nist.gov Subject: help NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite. 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs Author: Masanobu Umeda <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp> Latest official version: 3.13 Unofficial test version: 3.14.1 Anonymous FTP: /aun.uninett.no:pub/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z - /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/GNU/etc/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z /liasun3.epfl.ch:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z /funet.fi:/networking/news/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu/EmacsBits/gnus/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-3.13.tar.Z Newsgroups and mailing lists: English-only: gnu.emacs.gnus info-gnus-english-request@cis.ohio-state.edu (for subscriptions) info-gnus-english@cis.ohio-state.edu (for submissions) Japanese (and some English): info-gnus-request@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for subscriptions) info-gnus@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for submissions) 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> Latest released version: 2.02 Anonymous FTP: /csvax.cs.caltech.edu:pub/calc-2.02.tar.Z /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02.tar.Z NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue anyone for having a program with a similar command language to Calc. :-) 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs Author: Edward M. Reingold <reingold@cs.uiuc.edu> Latest version: 4.02 Anonymous FTP: /emr.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/emacs/calendar {???} Via e-mail: To: reingold@cs.uiuc.edu Subject: send-emacs-cal Put your best internet e-mail address in the body. 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines Author: Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> Latest official version: 4.20 Anonymous FTP: /alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu:ange-ftp/ange-ftp.tar.Z /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/ange-ftp.tar.Z Mailing lists: ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for subscriptions) Ange-FTP Lovers: ange-ftp-lovers@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for submissions) /ftp.reed.edu:pub/mailing-lists/ange-ftp/ (archives) Ange-FTP Announcements: ange-ftp-lovers-announce@anorman.hpl.hp.com NOTE: now with support for accessing VMS, CMS, and MTS systems 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu> Latest released version: 4.3 Anonymous FTP: /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one distributed with Emacs. 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs Author: Sebastian Kremer <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de> Latest released version: 5.239 Anonymous FTP: /ftp.cs.buffalo.edu:pub/Emacs/diredall.tar.Z /ftp.uni-koeln.de:pub/gnu/emacs/diredall.tar.Z NOTE: This is a huge improvement over the Dired distributed with Emacs. This version will be in Emacs 19. 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk> Latest released version: 6.1 {???} Anonymous FTP: /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex_6_1d.tar.Z /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex.tar.Z 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) 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs Author: Bob Weiner <rsw@cs.brown.edu> Anonymous FTP: /wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/ h*.tar.Z Mailing lists: hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only. Subscriptions: To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole-announce hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion. Subscriptions: To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole Submissions: hyperbole@cs.brown.edu NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list. NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists. 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>, Hallvard B. Furuseth <hallvard@ifi.uio.no> Anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z /ftp.uu.net:languages/elisp/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes Author: Olin Shivers <Olin.Shivers@cs.cmu.edu> Anonymous FTP: /cs.cmu.edu:/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/shivers/lib/emacs/ {comint,cmu{tex,shell,scheme,lisp},ml}.el (anonymous password must contain `@', cannot cd to intermediate directories) 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com> Latest released version: 1.47 Anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bbdb.tar.Z Mailing list: info-bbdb-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions) info-bbdb@lucid.com bbdb-announce-request@lucid.com (to be informed of new releases) Note: BBDB does not work with VM 4. It does work with VM 5, RMAIL, GNUS, and MH-E. 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com> Latest released version: 2.0.02 Beta test version: 3.0 (9 patches) Anonymous FTP: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/ispell/ (version 2.0.02) /ftp.cs.ucla.edu:/pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries) /argus.math.orst.edu:pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries) /ftp.th-darmstadt.de:pub/dicts/ispell/ (mirror of argus) NOTE: Do not send mail to Geoff asking him to send you the latest version of Ispell. He does not have free e-mail. 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface Latest released version: 4.2 Anonymous FTP: /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-4.2.tar.Z /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-diff-4.1-4.2.tar.Z /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/epoch/ /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:gnu/emacs/epoch/ Newsgroup and mailing lists: Epoch: gnu.emacs.epoch epoch-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions) epoch@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions) Epoch-Design: epoch-design-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions) epoch-design@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions) FAQ list: Maintainer: Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu> Anonymous FTP: /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/epoch-faq /ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:outgoing/marca/epoch/Epoch.FAQ 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface Primary Maintainer: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com> Other Developers: Eric Benson <eb@lucid.com> Matthieu Devin <devin@lucid.com> Harlan Sexton <hbs@lucid.com> Latest released version: 19.6 ! Anonymous FTP: /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.6.tar.Z (source) ! /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.6-sun4.tar.Z (Sun4binaries) ! Newsgroup and mailing lists: Bugs: alt.lucid-emacs.bug + bug-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions) bug-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions) Help: alt.lucid-emacs.help + help-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions) help-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions) 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines Authors: Manabu Higashida <manabu@sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp> HIRANO Satoshi <hirano@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp> Latest released version: 1.2.0 Anonymous FTP: /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:GNU/demacs/ (nearest to U.S.A.) /ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp:pub/Msdos/Demacs/ /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/msdos/Demacs/ /ftp.3com.com:pub/gnu/msdos/demacs/ /mindseye.berkeley.edu:pub/kanji/demacs/ /ftp.hawaii.edu:pub/editors/demacs.tar.Z /ftp.math.ksu.edu:pub/pc/demacs/ /wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:pd1:<msdos.demacs> {ange-ftp syntax?} /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120e.zip (executables, lisp-code, doc) (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!) /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120s.zip (sources, diffs) (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!) /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/msdos/gnu/emacs/ /mizar.docs.uu.se:pub/gnu/demacs/ /iamsun.unibe.ch:PC/demacs/ /flop.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:outgoing/demacs.tar /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/demacs/ /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120e.zip /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120s.zip /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/demacs/ /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/Demacs/ {Does anyone know which sites have the Kanji version?} Via e-mail: From garbo.uwasa.fi: To: mailserv@garbo.uwasa.fi Subject: garbo-request Body: send pc/editor/dem120e.zip send pc/editor/dem120s.zip quit Downloading: EXEC-PC (Milwaukee, WI) 414-789-4210 (2400 bps) in the Mahoney MS-DOS file area in its Editors/wordprocessors library (F), named GNUEMACS.ZIP Channel 1 (Cambridge, MA) 617-345-8873 (9600 bps) in the New Uploads file area, named GNUEMACS.ZIP NOTE: Use the -d option of [pk]unzip for all .zip archives. Some sites have Demacs lharc'ed. If you need to find programs to unpack lharc and zip format archives, Chris Dean <ctdean@talaris.com> points out that you should see the comp.compression FAQ, available for FTP: /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/comp.compression/ Mailing list: NOTE: There is no mailing list for Demacs. However, there is a list for DJGPP, which is the environment that Demacs runs in. Many Demacs problems are actually issues with DJGPP. DJGPP: Subscriptions: To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu body: add <your-address> djgpp or put `help' in the body. If this fails, mail to djgpp-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu. Submissions: djgpp@sun.soe.clarkson.edu FAQ list: Maintainer: Dave Steibel <steibel@cs.umbc.edu> Anonymous FTP: algol.cs.umbc.edu:pub/demacs/demacs.faq 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS Author: Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> Latest released version: 1.6a Anonymous FTP: /simtel20.army.mil:PD:<MSDOS.FREEMACS> {ange-ftp syntax?} /grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:pub/msdos/freemacs/ Via e-mail: To: archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu body: help Via snail mail: address: Russell Nelson, 11 Grant St., Potsdam, NY 13676 Send $15 copying fee, and specify preferred floppy disk format: 5.25", 360K, or 3.50", 720K Mailing lists: Subscriptions: To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu body: add <your-address> <name-of-list> or put `help' in the body. List distribution addresses: freemacs-announce@sun.soe.clarkson.edu freemacs-help@sun.soe.clarkson.edu freemacs-workers@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (send bug reports here) 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files Author: Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com> Latest version: 2.0 patchlevel 12u8 (This is the version that supports the new unified diff format.) Anonymous FTP: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12u8.tar.Z /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12g8.tar.Z (GNU version) GNU Emacs FAQ: Keybindings/Output 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, then type ESC to end the search. A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and deletions occurred. Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu. Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands? 1. Find out what character sequence is generated by the keystroke sequence you wish to bind to a command. See question 129 for how to do this. Keep in mind that the character sequences generated by a keystroke sequence varies from one terminal to another. You may also get different results depending on what type of machine you are running on (see question 128). For example, these keystrokes may generate these character sequences: F1 ---> ESC [ 2 2 4 z Shift-R10 ---> ESC O t L7 ---> ESC [ 3 1 ~ Remove ---> C-@ 2. Figure out what the Emacs Lisp syntax is for this character sequence. Inside an Emacs Lisp string, RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, SPC, and TAB are specified with `\r', `\n', `\C-?', `\e', ` ', and `\t'. C-x is specified by `\C-x'. M-x is specified the same was as "ESC x". (Control characters may also be specified as themselves, but I don't recommend it.) An Emacs Lisp string begins and ends with the double quote character, `"'. Here are some examples: ESC [ D ---> "\e[D" ESC [ 2 2 7 z ---> "\e[227z" ESC [ 1 8 ~ ---> "\e[18~" C-M-r ---> "\e\C-r" 3. If some prefix of the character sequence is already bound, you must unbind it by binding it to `nil'. For example: (global-set-key "\e[" nil) 4. Pick a command to bind your key sequence to. A command can be a "symbol" with a function definition, or a "lambda list", or a string (which is treated as a macro). For example: (global-set-key "\e[D" 'backward-char) (global-set-key "\e[227~" "\exgoto-line\r") ; macro See `Key Bindings' and `Rebinding' in the online manual. In Emacs 19 (including Lucid Emacs), you can bind function key F24 like this: (global-set-key 'f24 'some-command) 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'? A prefix of the character sequence you were trying to bind was already bound. Usually, the sequence is "ESC [", in which case you should evaluate this form first: (define-key esc-map "[" nil) NOTE: By default, "ESC [" is bound to backward-paragraph, and if you do this you will lose this key binding. For most people, this is not a problem. See question 125. 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up? This is because you're trying to do something in your .emacs file that needs to be postponed until after the terminal/window-system setup code is loaded. This is a result of the order in which things are done during the startup of Emacs. For more details see question 135. In order to postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after the terminal/window-system setup, set the value of the variable term-setup-hook or window-setup-hook to be a function which does what you want. See etc/OPTIONS for a complete explanation of what Emacs does every time it is started. Here is a simple example of how to set term-setup-hook: (setq term-setup-hook (function (lambda () (cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") "")) ;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x: (define-key CSI-map "29~" 'execute-extended-command)) )))) 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows? This depends on whether you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window, or whether you are allowing Emacs to create its own X window. You can tell which you are doing by noticing whether Emacs creates a new window when you start it. If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window, then it behaves exactly as it does on any other tty. In this case, for function keys to be useful, they must generate character sequences that are sent to the programs running inside the window as input. The `xterm' program has two different sets of character sequences that it generates when function keys are pressed, depending on the sunFunctionKeys X resource and the -sf and +sf command line options. (To find out what these key sequences are, see question 129.) In addition, with xterm, you can override what key sequence a specific function key (or any other key) will generate with the `translations' resource. This, for example: XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \ <KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy") makes the function key F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [xyzzy". On the other hand, if Emacs is managing its own X window, the following description applies. Emacs receives `KeyPress' events from the X server when a key is pressed while the keyboard focus is in its window. The KeyPress event contains an X "keysym" code, which is simply an arbitrary number corresponding to the name of the keysym, and information on which "modifiers" such as `control' and `shift' are active. For example, the `Tab' keysym is 0xff09. (Generally, a key on the keyboard will generate a keysym whose name is the same as the label on the key, ie. the `Tab' key will normally generate the `Tab' keysym. This can be changed with the xmodmap program.) Emacs recognizes all the keysyms that correspond to standard ASCII characters and internally uses the ASCII character instead. (WARNING: I am about to describe a gross, disgusting hack to you, have your barf bag ready.) When Emacs receives the X keysym of one of the arrow keys, it behaves the same as if it had received a letter key with the control modifier down as follows (this is hard-coded): Up becomes C-p Down becomes C-n Right becomes C-f Left becomes C-b The way Emacs treats other keysyms depends on what kind of machine it was compiled on. The type of the display machine is irrelevant! Function keys are mapped internally to escape sequences, while other keys are completely ignored. 1. If compiled on a Sun, Emacs recognizes these X keysyms that are normally on a Sun keyboard: F1 through F9 L1 through L10 (same as F11 through F20) R1 through R15 (same as F21 through F35) (The keys labelled R8, R10, R12, and R14 usually are mapped to the X keysyms Up, Left, Right, and Down.) Break (the `Alternate' key is given this keysym) These keys work like Sun function keys. When Emacs receives the keysym, it will internally use character sequences that look like "ESC [ ### z", where ### is replaced by a number. The character sequences are identical to those generated by Sun's keyboard under SunView. Any function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 z". In order to use these key sequences, they should be bound to commands using the standard key binding methods, just as if Emacs were running on a regular terminal. WARNING: F11 and L1 are the same keysym in X, as are F12 and L2, etc. {Yes, this is stupid. Complain to the X consortium.} 2. If not compiled on a Sun, the function keys will appear to Emacs in a way remarkably similar to the keys of a DEC LK201 keyboard (used on some VT series terminals). These X keysyms will be recognized: F1 through F20 Help (treated same as F15) Menu (treated same as F16, is the LK201 `Do' key) Find Insert (LK201 `Insert Here' key) Select Prior (LK201 `Prev Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***) Next (LK201 `Next Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***) And finally, the LK201 key labelled `Remove' (or `Delete') is often mapped to the Delete keysym which generates the DEL character (C-?) instead of the key sequence given by the LK201 `Remove' key. It may also be mapped to some other keysym, such as `_Remove', in which case you can't use it from within Emacs at all. Each function key will be internally converted to a character sequence that looks like "ESC [ ## ~", where ## is replaced by a number. The character sequences are identical to those generated by a LK201 keyboard. Any function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 ~". For the complete list of the numbers which are generated by the function keys, look in the file src/x11term.c at the definitions of the function stringFuncVal. If you are running Emacs on a Sun machine, even if your X display is running on a non-Sun machine (eg., an X terminal), you get the setup described above for Suns. The determining factor is what type of machine Emacs is running (was compiled) on, not what type of machine your X display is on. If you have function keys not listed above on your keyboard, you can use `xmodmap' to change their keysym assignments to get keys that Emacs will recognize, but that may screw up other programs. X resources are not used by Emacs to affect the key sequences generated. In particular, there are no X key "translations" for Emacs. If you have function keys not listed above and you don't want to use xmodmap to change their names, you might want to make a modification to your Emacs. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has made available a patch for Emacs that adds the x-rebind-key function of Epoch to Emacs 18.58. This allows another layer of key rebinding before Emacs even sees the keys, and in this layer you can rebind all of the keys and modifier combinations as well. Anonymous FTP: /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun Johan Vromans explains what this buys for you: After implementing this, all keyboard keys can be configured to send user definable sequences, eg., (x-rebind-key "KP_F1" 0 "\033OP") This will have the keypad key PF1 send the sequence "ESC O P", just like an ordinary VT series terminal. 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit? Use this function by Randal L. Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.com>: (defun see-chars () "Displays characters typed, terminated by a 3-second timeout." (interactive) (let ((chars "") (inhibit-quit t)) (message "Enter characters, terminated by 3-second timeout.") (while (not (sit-for 3)) (setq chars (concat chars (list (read-char))) quit-flag nil)) ; quit-flag maybe set by C-g (message "Characters entered: %s" (key-description chars)))) Alternatively, use the "C-h l" view-lossage command, which will display the last 100 characters Emacs has seen in its input stream. Kevin Gallagher <kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org> suggests typing some unique string like "wxyz", typing the key in question, then typing "C-h l". The characters that appear between "wxyz" and "C-h l" were generated by the key. 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs? Sorry, you can't; there are no "translations" to be set. Emacs is not written using the Xt library. The only way to affect the behavior of keys within Emacs is through `xmodmap' (outside Emacs) or `define-key' (inside Emacs). 131: 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 screws up Emacs because it binds these characters to commands. Also, by default Emacs will not honor them as flow control characters and may 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 what is 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. I don't know 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 this form: (set-input-mode nil t) 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 unclear. I don't know if this has any effect when used in lisp/site-init.el when building Emacs; I've never tried that. {Can someone tell me whether it works?} Putting things in users' .emacs files has a number of problems. 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). A possible solution is to initially disable C-s and C-q by setting keyboard-translate-table in lisp/site-init.el, either with swap-keys (see question 136) or with the following form: ;; by Roger Crew <crew@cs.stanford.edu>: (setq keyboard-translate-table "\C-@\C-a\C-b\C-c\C-d\C-e\C-f\C-g\C-h\C-i\C-j\C-k\C-l\C-m\C-n\C-o\C-p\C-^\C-r\C-\\\C-t\C-u\C-v\C-w\C-x\C-y\C-z\C-[\C-s\C-]\C-q\C-_") This will at least prevent Emacs from being confused by the flow control characters, even if lisp/default.el cannot be loaded. Then, in lisp/default.el, enable XON/XOFF flow control with set-input-mode. For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS in the Emacs distribution. 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys are filtered out? I suggest swapping C-s with C-\ and C-q with C-^: (swap-keys ?\C-s ?\C-\\) (swap-keys ?\C-q ?\C-^) See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys. This method has the advantage that it simultaneously swaps the characters everywhere throughout Emacs, while just switching the keybindings will miss important places where the character codes are stored (eg., the search-repeat-char variable, major mode keymaps, etc.). To do this for an entire site, you may want to swap the keys in lisp/default.el. If only some of your users are connecting through XON/XOFF flow-controlled connections, you will want to do this conditionally. I suggest pre-swapping them in lisp/site-init.el when Emacs is built, and then in lisp/default.el, if it is determined to be safe, they can be reenabled (being careful not to screw up any other key mappings users might have established using keyboard-translate-table). See question 131 for an easy way to pre-swap these keys. WARNING: 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. 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help? The BackSpace key (on every keyboard I've used) 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 typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do this on many Unix systems: 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. * Under X Windows, the easiest solution is to change the BackSpace key into a Delete key like this: xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete" * Some terminals (eg., 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: (swap-keys ?\C-h ?\C-?) See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys. * Another approach is to switch keybindings and put help on "C-x h" instead: (global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char) (global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ; override mark-whole-buffer Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?". WARNING: Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere. 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete? Good question! 135: Why don't the arrow keys work? When Emacs starts up, it doesn't know anything about arrow keys at all (except when running under X, see question 128). During the process of starting up, Emacs will load a terminal-specific initialization file for your terminal type (as determined by the environment variable TERM), if one exists. This file has the responsibility for enabling the arrow keys. There are several things that can go wrong: 1. There is no initialization file for your terminal. You can determine this by looking in the lisp/term directory. If your terminal type (as determined by the TERM environment variable) is xxx-yy-z, then the first of these files in the lisp/term directory will be loaded as the terminal-specific initialization file: xxx-yy-z.el, xxx-yy.el, or xxx.el. There are two major cases of this problem: * Your terminal type is very similar to one that has an init file. In this case, there are several techniques suggested by Colin Jensen <cjensen@ampex.com>, Ben Liblit <Liblit@cs.psu.edu>, and Marc Auslander <marc@watson.ibm.com>: A. Add a symbolic link in lisp/term for your terminal type that points to the similar type. For example, you could make VT102 terminals work with this command: ln -s vt100.el vt102.el This fixes things for everyone on the system who uses the terminal type. B. If you can't do the solution in part A, you can add code to your term-setup-hook that loads the correct file like this: (setq term-setup-hook (function (lambda () (cond ((equal "vt102" (or (getenv "TERM") "")) (load (concat term-file-prefix "vt100"))) (;; Code for other terminal types goes here ... ))))) C. If you use `tset' to set your TERM environment variable when you login, you can use the `-m' switch to tell tset to use a terminal type known by Emacs instead of another similar one. For example, specifying this: tset ... -m 'dec-vt220:vt220' ... will make tset say you are on a `vt220' instead of a `dec-vt220'. D. Interactively, you can type "M-x load-library RET term/vt100" to load the terminal-specific initialization files for VT100 terminals. * Your terminal type is not similar to one that has an init file. One can be made for your terminal, or you can just add code to your own .emacs to handle this problem for yourself. For example, if your terminal's arrow keys send these character sequences: Up: ESC [ A Down: ESC [ B Right: ESC [ C Left: ESC [ D then you can bind these keys to the appropriate commands with code in your .emacs like this: (setq term-setup-hook (function (lambda () (cond ((string-match "\\`xyzzy" (or (getenv "TERM") "")) ;; First, must unmap the binding for left bracket (or (keymapp (lookup-key global-map "\e\[")) (define-key global-map "\e\[" nil)) ;; Enable terminal type xyzzy's arrow keys: (define-key global-map "\e\[A" 'previous-line) (define-key global-map "\e\[B" 'next-line) (define-key global-map "\e\[C" 'forward-char) (define-key global-map "\e\[D" 'backward-char)) ((string-match "\\`abcde" (or (getenv "TERM") "")) ;; Do something different for terminal type abcde ;; ..... ))))) NOTE: You may have to restart Emacs to get changes to take effect. NOTE: Your arrow keys may send sequences beginning with "ESC O" when Emacs is running, even if they send sequences beginning with "ESC [" at all other times. This is because Emacs uses any command there may be in your terminal's termcap entry for putting the terminal into "Application Keypad Mode". Just map these sequences the same way as above. The next two cases are problems even if there is a initialization file for your terminal type. 2. The initialization file for your terminal doesn't bind arrow keys. If your terminal type is `xterm', you will have to bind the arrow keys as in part 1 above, since the xterm.el file doesn't do anything useful. There may be other terminal types with the same problem. 3. Your terminal's arrow keys send individual control characters. For example, the arrow keys on an ADM-3 send C-h, C-j, C-k, and C-l. There is not much Emacs can do in this situation, since all the control characters except for C-^ and C-\ are already used as Emacs commands. It may be possible to convince the terminal to send something else when you press the arrow keys; it is worth investigating. You have to make the hard choices of how to rebind keys to commands to make things work the way you want. Another alternative is to start learning the standard Emacs keybindings for moving point around: C-b, C-f, C-p, and C-n. Personally, I no longer use the arrow keys when editing because I have switched keyboards so many times. 4. Your terminal's arrow keys send sequences beginning with "ESC [". Due to an extremely poor design decision (ie., these sequences are ANSI standard), none of the the terminal-specific initialization files that are distributed with Emacs will bind these character sequences to the appropriate commands by default. (This also applies to any other function keys which generate character sequences starting with "ESC [".) This is because it was deemed far more important to preserve the binding of M-[ to the backward-paragraph command. It appears that this will change in Emacs 19. Some of the terminal-specific initialization files that come with Emacs provide a command enable-arrow-keys that will fix this problem. To get this automatically invoked, put this in your .emacs: (setq term-setup-hook (function (lambda () (if (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys) (enable-arrow-keys))))) We put this in our lisp/default.el file, so users don't have to worry about it: ;; don't override a user's term-setup-hook (or term-setup-hook (setq term-setup-hook (function (lambda () (and (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys) ;; don't override a user key mapping (eq 'backward-paragraph (lookup-key esc-map "[")) (enable-arrow-keys)))))) If your terminal type is `sun', you should put this in your .emacs instead (or in addition to the above): (setq sun-esc-bracket t) It is possible that the terminal-specific initialization file for your terminal type was written locally and does not follow the rule mentioned above. In this case you may need to inspect it to find out how to enable the arrow keys. (Actually, if it was written locally, it probably enables the arrow keys by default.) 136: How do I "swap" two keys? When Emacs receives a character, you can make Emacs behave as though it received another character by setting the value of keyboard-translate-table. The following Emacs Lisp will do this for you, allowing you to "swap" keys. After arranging for this Lisp to be evaluated by Emacs, you can evaluate `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' to swap A and B. (defun swap-keys (key1 key2) "Swap keys KEY1 and KEY2 using map-key." (map-key key1 key2) (map-key key2 key1)) (defun map-key (from to) "Make key FROM behave as though key TO was typed instead." (setq keyboard-translate-table (concat keyboard-translate-table (let* ((i (length keyboard-translate-table)) (j from) (k i) (str (make-string (max 0 (- j (1- i))) ?X))) (while (<= k j) (aset str (- k i) k) (setq k (1+ k))) str))) (aset keyboard-translate-table from to) (let ((i (1- (length keyboard-translate-table)))) (while (and (>= i 0) (eq (aref keyboard-translate-table i) i)) (setq i (1- i))) (setq keyboard-translate-table (if (eq i -1) nil (substring keyboard-translate-table 0 (1+ i)))))) NOTE: You must evaluate the definition of these functions before calling them! For example, list the function definitions before their use in your .emacs file. NOTE: These functions take two numbers as arguments. The example above, `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' is actually `(swap-keys 65 66)', because `?A' is merely notation for 65, the ASCII value of `A'. NOTE: These functions only work for single characters. You cannot swap two multi-character sequences. 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard? For C-@ and C-^, often you can just type Control-2 and Control-6. For C-_, you may have to hold down the shift key, typing Control-Shift-Hyphen. C-@ can often be generated by typing Control-Space. C-@ is often called the NUL character, and has ASCII value 0. C-_ can often be generated by typing Control-7 or Control-/. C-? (aka DEL) may be generated by typing Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace or a key labelled Delete or Del. Try Control with all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets generated. 138: What if I don't have a Meta key? Instead of typing M-a, you can type "ESC a" instead. In fact, Emacs converts M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of meta-prefix-char). 139: What if I don't have an Escape key? Type C-[ instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape key would. Try also C-;. 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators? Some IBM PC compatibles do not have a key labeled `Del' or `Delete' {is this true?}. Those that do generally have it in an inconvenient location. (Also, in some terminal emulators, the `Del' key does not transmit DEL.) The result is the standard "BackSpace invoking help" problem (see question 133). The usual solution, suggested by Michael Covington <mcovingt@aisun1.ai.uga.edu>, is to somehow tell the terminal emulator program that BackSpace should transmit DEL. Read the program's manual. Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace may send DEL. The `Del' key may only send DEL if the NumLock key hasn't been pressed. 141: 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 (this is what I do). 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key? Unless you're using Emacs under emacstool (or xvetool?), have a working version of x-rebind-key (see question 128), or are using Emacs 19 (Lucid Emacs), you can't do this with Emacs alone. If you are using emacstool, Emacs sees different character sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key from what it sees for the function key alone. See etc/emacstool.1 for more information. Since Emacs sees different character sequences, you can bind these different sequences to different commands. If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window like xterm, you can modify its translation tables to make it generate different character sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key. For example, this X resource setting: XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \ Shift<KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy") makes Shift-F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [ xyzzy". You can bind these character sequences in Emacs as normal. Nick Ruprecht <ruprecht@informatik.uni-freiburg.de> has written an extensive X translation mapping for xterm that does this. {Does this have an FTP site?} If you have x-rebind-key, you can have any arbitrary combination of modifiers with a key replaced by any sequence of "normal" characters. For example, this makes Shift-Return behave as though you had typed "C-x C-e" (example from Jerry Graves): (x-rebind-key "Return" 'shift "\C-x\C-e") In Emacs 19 (Lucid Emacs), you can bind Meta-Left-Arrow like this (example from Jamie Zawinski): (global-set-key '(meta left) 'backward-word) With the last two methods, use `xmodmap' and `xev' to discover the keysym and modifier names. 143: 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 X11R4: 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'. 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0? 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. 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar? There is a package `wordstar' by Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> and `ws-mode.el' by Juergen Nickelsen <nickel@cs.tu-berlin.de>. Check in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89). 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs? This question comes up once every couple of months. I have never seen a positive reply, so I presume no one has ever written one. Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters? There is a patch called the `8-bit ctl-arrow patch' that allows Emacs to display characters with codes from 128 to 255. {The original appears to have been by Kenneth Cline <cline@proof.ergo.cs.cmu.edu>.} Partially based on Johan Widen's earlier work, Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has updated this patch for Emacs 18.58 along with some other 8-bit improvements. Anonymous FTP: /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-EightBit.Z /ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-EightBit /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z:cemacs/8bit-patch-18.57 /sics.se:archive/emacs-18.55-8bit-diff /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.55 /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.57 Via e-mail: To: mail-server@sics.se body: send emacs-18.55-8bit-diff Anders Edenbrandt <anderse@dna.lth.se> has produced a more comprehensive patch for Emacs 18.59 that allows for 8-bit input and output. Anonymous FTP: /ftp.efd.lth.se:pub/gnu/emacs_8-bit.patch In the words of the author: With these patches, Emacs becomes fully 8-bit operational. There is support for displaying 8-bit characters, as well as for entering such characters from the keyboard. In addition, upcase/lowcase translation is supported, accented characters are recognized as "letters" (important when doing 'forward-word', for example), and text with 8-bit characters can be sorted correctly. A Meta-shift key can still be used, provided that you run in an environment where it is possible to distinguish between a character entered using the Meta-shift key and one entered directly. The diffs include patches to make this work under SunView (with emacstool) as well as under X. If you can't use a Meta-shift key, you have to enter Meta-commands with the ESC-prefix. The most comprehensive patches for 8-bit output are by Howard Gayle (originally for Emacs 18.55. These patches allow displaying any arbitrary string for a given 8-bit character (except TAB and C-j). Also supported is defining the sorting order and the uppercase and lowercase translations. It is reported that the 8-bit character support in Emacs 19 is largely based on these patches. Thomas Bellman <Bellman@lysator.liu.se> has updated these patches for Emacs 18.59. Anonymous FTP: /sics.se:archive/emacs-gayle.tar.Z (patches for 18.55) /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.58.diff.tar.Z (patches) /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.59-gayle.tar.Z (patched Emacs) Epoch's 8-bit character support is based on Anders Edenbrandt's patches. Lucid Emacs has the ctl-arrow patch installed. Nemacs displays 8-bit characters, and it may be useful for displaying the 8-bit ISO-8859 alphabet, but I don't know for sure (see question 149). 148: How do I input 8-bit characters? Minor modes for ISO Latin-1 that allow one to easily input this character set have been written by several people. Such modes have been written by Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr> (laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/iso-latin-1.el), Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> {FTP site??}, and Marc Shapiro <shapiro@sor.inria.fr> {FTP site??}. These approaches differ from the one taken by Anders Edenbrandt in that his method uses direct 8-bit input, while these methods use a compose sequence for 8-bit characters. {I have heard conflicting reports on whether this results in losing the Meta key. Perhaps this depends on whether Emacs is running under X. Can someone resolve this?} Karl Heuer <karl@haddock.ima.isc.com> is said to have a patch to allow 8-bit input. Georg-Wilhelm Koltermann <gwk@crmunich0.cray.com> also has a patch for either 18.57 or 18.58 that allows 8-bit input. Epoch comes with a patch that allows it to input 8-bit characters, but it is not enabled by default. {Is this right?} Jamie Zawinski says: Lucid GNU Emacs allows the input of any ISO-8859/1 keysyms that your keyboard generates (see xmodmap), and contains a package that implements a DEC/OpenWindows-like "Compose" key for systems which don't have one. 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters? Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55 that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP: /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z /miki.cs.titech.ac.jp:JAPAN/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z You might also need files for "wnn", a kanji input method (wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You need a terminal (or terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in JIS, Shift-JIS, or EUC (Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs as a direct X Window client. 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese? `cemacs' by Stephen G. Simpson <simpson@math.psu.edu> is a patch to Emacs 18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous FTP: /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/chinese/cemacs.tar.Z /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z Cxterm is available from the same place: /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets? Joel M. Hoffman <joel@wam.umd.edu> writes: A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows right-to-left editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display the Hebrew letters, given the right codes, but not for any right-to-left support; the hardware also doesn't have to send any specific char. codes. Emacs keeps track of when the user is typing Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-* terminals in Israel contain built-in support for Hebrew.) To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's source code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean. [and in a separate message:] It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend trying that with emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for anything large, however, you'll want something that works better. Joel Hoffman has also written a "bi-directional bi-lingual Emacs-like" editor for MS-DOS named Ibelbe (Itty Bitty Emacs-Like Bidirectional Editor). Ibelbe is written in Turbo Pascal and comes with source code. Here is the description: Ibelbe looks like emacs (it even has a minibuffer and filename completion), and fully supports both right-to-left and left-to-right editing. Other than an EGA monitor or better, no special hardware is required. You will need an EGA Hebrew font to use Ibelbe with Hebrew. Anonymous FTP: /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/ibelbe.zip /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/hebfont.zip Joseph Friedman <yossi@deshaw.com, yossi@Neon.Stanford.EDU> has written patches for Emacs 18.55 and 18.58 that provide Semitic language support under X Windows. Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards". A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with `hebrew'. GNU Emacs FAQ: Mail and News This portion of the GNU Emacs FAQ list is cross-posted to `gnu.emacs.gnus' because many of the questions herein deal with GNUS. See `gnu.emacs.help' for the rest of the FAQ list. 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, then type ESC to end the search. A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and deletions occurred. Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu. Mail and News 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups? Many people want Emacs to prefix included text with something like ` > ' instead of with three spaces. One way is to change the code of the function `mail-yank-original' in lisp/sendmail.el that prefixes with spaces. A more flexible solution is to use Supercite, which provides wide configurability in how you format included text in replies. See question 107. Both of these solutions work for RMAIL and GNUS. A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value. 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail? Two methods: 1. (setq mail-self-blind t) will result in a `BCC:' header line with your address being added to mail composition buffers. This will cause the mail system to send a copy of the mail back to you. 2. (setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing")) will result in an `FCC:' header line with the pathname of ~/outgoing being added to mail composition buffers. When you send the mail, Emacs will save a copy of the mail in the file ~/outgoing and then strip off the `FCC:' line before actually sending. WARNING: There is a bug in Emacs 18.58 that prevents mail readers such as RMAIL from reading the saved mail messages individually. See question 155. WARNING: If you are visiting the file ~/outgoing at the time you send the mail, this can cause a variety of horrible problems. Jamie Zawinski has written a solution for this. It does not work to put `set record filename' in the .mailrc file. 154: 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 separate addresses with commas in your .mailrc file. WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly setting the value of mail-aliases. * 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-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc. (You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!) * Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the .mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set' commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group' commands. 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message? There is a bug for FCC-ed messages in Emacs 18.58 where it adds a timezone on the "From " line after the year instead of before the year. (Before it didn't add the timezone at all.) This is incompatible with the standard format for the "From " line, and RMAIL in particular can no longer distinguish between the messages. Karl Berry <karl@cs.umb.edu>, Felix Lee <flee@cs.psu.edu>, Nick Gianniotis <nico@japan.sbi.com> and many others have all posted patches for this. Karl's is the simplest and just stops Emacs from adding the timezone: >*** ./ORIG/sendmail.el Tue Jan 28 16:22:56 1992 >--- ./sendmail.el Thu May 14 18:23:48 1992 >*************** >*** 285,287 **** > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " " >! (current-time-string) " " timezone "\n") > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf) >--- 285,287 ---- > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " " >! (current-time-string) "\n") > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf) 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder? Use rmailsort.el by Masanobu Umeda. 157: 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. 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format? Users who just want to try RMAIL out to see how it works end up trapped using it because saved mail in their `mbox' file has been converted into an incompatible format (BABYL) that only RMAIL understands. RMAIL provides no obvious way to reverse this transformation. Kyle Jones has aptly named this "the great Emacs Mail Eating Monster". To convert a mail file back to standard Unix format, there are several methods: * Use the rmail-output ("C-o") command within RMAIL on each message in the file. First use M-x rmail or M-x rmail-input to visit the RMAIL file in Rmail mode. Type "1 j" to go to the first message. Use the C-o command to output the message to a Unix format file. Type "n" to go to the next message. Repeat. * If the file contains hundreds of messages, you may not want to repeat this for all of them. Instead of the above, after getting to the first message type this (where "mbox" is the file you want to put the messages in): C-x ( C-o mbox RET M-s ^From: RET M-0 C-x ) (The rmail-search command ("M-s") is used instead of just "n" because it is the only command which will cause an error when it reaches the last message in the file, which is necessary to terminate the keyboard macro. This will fail if there are messages in the file that don't have a `From:' header. This assumes rmail-delete-after-output is nil.) It is wise to save a copy of the RMAIL file first, in case you make a mistake. * There are software packages available for converting files or even entire directories of BABYL files to standard Unix format. These are helpful in this situation, but are intended mainly for people who have used RMAIL for a long time and are converting to some other mail reader. Lookup `rmail', `vm', and `babyl' in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89). You may wish to disable RMAIL to avoid accidentally destroying your mbox file (I have this in my .emacs): (put 'rmail 'disabled t) ; avoid mbox destruction 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader? Example: emacs -f gnus Also: alias gnus 'emacs -f 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. 160: How do I read news under Emacs? There are at least three news reading packages that operate inside Emacs. `rnews' comes with Emacs. GNUS and Gnews come separately. rnews will be replaced by GNUS in Emacs 19. rnews works only with a local news spool directory. Both GNUS and Gnews handle reading news remotely via NNTP in addition to reading from a local news spool. GNUS supports reading mail stored in MH folders or articles saved by GNUS. Gnews is styled after `rn' and seems to work like RMAIL. GNUS feels more like VM. People have complained that GNUS uses a lot of CPU time (it does). Some people have complained that Gnews is slower than GNUS. For more information about GNUS, see question 108. Gnews was written by Matthew P. Wiener <weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu>. The latest version seems to be 2.0, posted October 3, 1988. Matthew posted some fixes on October 26, 1988. Gnews does not appear to have been supported after this date. In particular, it has been reported that Gnews does not work with Emacs 18.57. There is a newsgroup for Gnews called gnu.emacs.gnews. 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news? rnews doesn't speak NNTP. You may need to use GNUS or Gnews. 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore 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) I also have a patch for NNTP 1.5.10 by Mike Pelletier <stealth@engin.umich.edu> that is based on the timeout code that was in 1.5.9. However, please try to upgrade to 1.5.11 first. 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 (ie., `telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version number in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out. 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)? Underlining appears like this: _^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg You can destructively remove underlining with M-x ununderline-region. For ClariNews articles, clari-clean.el by David N. Blank-Edelman <dnb@meshugge.media.mit.edu> will remove both underlining and overstriking automatically. 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd" Upgrade to Emacs 18.58 or higher. 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS? Use gnus-mark.el by Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>. 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column? This is a feature. If you set gnus-thread-hide-subject to non-nil, GNUS will only display the subject of the first posting in a thread, even if some of the replies use different subjects. It hides the subjects by putting them past the edge of the window and setting truncate lines to t. If your screen looks messed up, then for some reason truncate-lines in your `*Subject*' buffer has been set to nil. It should be set to t. (I have an enhancement to GNUS 3.13 that will make it only hide the subject of a posting when it is unchanged from the followed-up-to posting. Thus, you can use the subject hiding feature and still know when someone changes the subject. (I have forgotten who originally gave me the idea for this.)) 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up? GNUS does several things that take quadratic time of the number of newsgroups that are listed in .newsrc. The quick fix for this is to remove all the newsgroups in which you have no interest from your .newrc file by using GNUS's C-k command in the `*Newsgroup*' buffer after displaying all newsgroups with the L command. If you were to directly edit your .newsrc to remove the newsgroups, GNUS would add them back. GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for duplicates when the .newsrc file is newer than the .newsrc.el file (ie., you edited your .newsrc). GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for new newsgroups every time it connects to the news server. {There may be other quadratic algorithms that I am not aware of.} You can speed up GNUS by using the C-k command in the *Newsgroup* buffer to remove newsgroups from your .newsrc file. Of course, GNUS will run faster if you make sure it is byte-compiled. Felix Lee wrote some enhancements called `gnus-speedups.el' that fix some of the problems. See the Emacs Lisp Archive. 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS? In the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, type the following magical incantation: M-< C-x ( C-@ c y C-u C-@ C-e C-f C-f M-0 C-x ) Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of the `*Newsgroup' buffer. 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line? GNUS 3.14.1 will complain that the `Newsgroups:', `Keywords:', and `Control:' headers are `Unknown header field's. For the `Newsgroups:' header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the `Xref' header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article. 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\\)") Various people (eg., Greg Holley <holley@acuson.com>) have posted solutions to allow more efficient killing on these headers than the preceding solution. Masanobu Umeda plans to fix this problem. 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections? GNUS outputs "NNTP: Reading..." message and then clears them, over and over. In version 3.14.1 there is a variable named nntp-debug-read that can help. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> wrote a fix. Others have also written fixes. 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS? Because GNUS is marking crosspostings read. {I think it should do this at the time the article is read to spread out the load. Maybe someone will write the code to do this.} 172: 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. 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine? Three possible reasons: local distribution, C News date problem (see question 174, and the path problem. This piece of code may fix the path problem for you: (setq gnus-use-generic-path t) 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid? GNUS generates `Date:' headers without time zones. C-News's `inews' doesn't replace it with a valid header, but will generate it if not already there. If it is invalid, the article will not be forwarded properly. Quick fix: (defun gnus-inews-date () nil) This is not fixed as of GNUS 3.14.1. 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header? GNUS was written for B news, which would generate the `Lines:' header. C news doesn't. There is a comment in C news's `inews' that you can uncomment to enable this functionality. Or you can have GNUS generate the header, for example: ;; idea by jbryans@beach.csulb.edu (Jack Bryans) (defun add-lines-header () ;; Count the number of lines in the current posting and insert the ;; header line Lines into the message. (save-excursion (goto-char (point-min)) (if (search-forward "\n\n") ;; ***** I suspect this is wrong ***** (let ((lines (count-lines (point) (point-max)))) (forward-line -1) (insert-string "Lines: " lines "\n"))))) Mike Williams <mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> has written something similar. Ronald Florence <ron@mlfarm.com> has a patch for GNUS that makes it calculate the `Lines:' header for incoming articles when necessary that works for sites with local news spools. David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> says that GNUS 3.14.1 generates Lines if gnus-news-system is Cnews. 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS? Specifically, the error message is this: Error occurred processing gnus.el: File error (("Cannot open load file" "nntp")) This means that nntp.el is not in Emacs's load-path, which is easy to happen when compiling using the Makefile. Easiest solution: set EMACSLOADPATH in Makefile (idea from Glenn Gribble <glenn@netcom.com>): EMACSLOADPATH=/usr/local/emacs/lisp:. ELC= env EMACSLOADPATH=$(EMACSLOADPATH) emacs -batch -f batch-byte-compile Another solution, in hack.el put this: (defun gross-hack () (setq load-path (cons "/directory" load-path))) Then in Makefile: ELC= emacs -batch -l hack.el -f gross-hack -f batch-byte-compile 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern? Example: ;; kill everything (gnus-kill "subject" "" nil nil) ;; then restore stuff by our favorite poster (gnus-kill "from" "good-guy" (function (lambda () (if (eq ?X (char-after (save-excursion (beginning-of-line 1) (point)))) (gnus-Subject-clear-mark-forward 1)))) t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes 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, etc.), 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.