@c This is part of the Emacs manual.@c Copyright (C) 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.@node International, Major Modes, Frames, Top@chapter International Character Set Support@cindex MULE@cindex international scripts@cindex multibyte characters@cindex encoding of characters@cindex Celtic@cindex Chinese@cindex Cyrillic@cindex Czech@cindex Devanagari@cindex Hindi@cindex Marathi@cindex Ethiopic@cindex German@cindex Greek@cindex Hebrew@cindex IPA@cindex Japanese@cindex Korean@cindex Lao@cindex Latin@cindex Polish@cindex Romanian@cindex Slovak@cindex Slovenian@cindex Thai@cindex Tibetan@cindex Turkish@cindex Vietnamese@cindex Dutch@cindex Spanish Emacs supports a wide variety of international character sets,including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,Cyrillic, Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopic, Greek, Hebrew, IPA,Japanese, Korean, Lao, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These featureshave been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as MULE (for``MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs'') Emacs also supports various encodings of these characters used byother internationalized software, such as word processors and mailers. Emacs allows editing text with international characters by supportingall the related activities:@itemize @bullet@itemYou can visit files with non-@acronym{ASCII} characters, save non-@acronym{ASCII} text, andpass non-@acronym{ASCII} text between Emacs and programs it invokes (such ascompilers, spell-checkers, and mailers). Setting your languageenvironment (@pxref{Language Environments}) takes care of setting up thecoding systems and other options for a specific language or culture.Alternatively, you can specify how Emacs should encode or decode textfor each command; see @ref{Specify Coding}.@itemYou can display non-@acronym{ASCII} characters encoded by the various scripts.This works by using appropriate fonts on X and similar graphicsdisplays (@pxref{Defining Fontsets}), and by sending special codes totext-only displays (@pxref{Specify Coding}). If some characters aredisplayed incorrectly, refer to @ref{Undisplayable Characters}, whichdescribes possible problems and explains how to solve them.@itemYou can insert non-@acronym{ASCII} characters or search for them. To do that,you can specify an input method (@pxref{Select Input Method}) suitablefor your language, or use the default input method set up when you setyour language environment. (Emacs input methods are part of the Leimpackage, which must be installed for you to be able to use them.) Ifyour keyboard can produce non-@acronym{ASCII} characters, you can select anappropriate keyboard coding system (@pxref{Specify Coding}), and Emacswill accept those characters. Latin-1 characters can also be input byusing the @kbd{C-x 8} prefix, see @ref{Single-Byte Character Support,C-x 8}. On X Window systems, your locale should be set to anappropriate value to make sure Emacs interprets keyboard inputcorrectly; see @ref{Language Environments, locales}.@end itemize The rest of this chapter describes these issues in detail.@menu* International Chars:: Basic concepts of multibyte characters.* Enabling Multibyte:: Controlling whether to use multibyte characters.* Language Environments:: Setting things up for the language you use.* Input Methods:: Entering text characters not on your keyboard.* Select Input Method:: Specifying your choice of input methods.* Multibyte Conversion:: How single-byte characters convert to multibyte.* Coding Systems:: Character set conversion when you read and write files, and so on.* Recognize Coding:: How Emacs figures out which conversion to use.* Specify Coding:: Various ways to choose which conversion to use.* Fontsets:: Fontsets are collections of fonts that cover the whole spectrum of characters.* Defining Fontsets:: Defining a new fontset.* Undisplayable Characters:: When characters don't display.* Single-Byte Character Support:: You can pick one European character set to use without multibyte characters.* Charsets:: How Emacs groups its internal character codes.@end menu@node International Chars@section Introduction to International Character Sets The users of international character sets and scripts have establishedmany more-or-less standard coding systems for storing files. Emacsinternally uses a single multibyte character encoding, so that it canintermix characters from all these scripts in a single buffer or string.This encoding represents each non-@acronym{ASCII} character as a sequence of bytesin the range 0200 through 0377. Emacs translates between the multibytecharacter encoding and various other coding systems when reading andwriting files, when exchanging data with subprocesses, and (in somecases) in the @kbd{C-q} command (@pxref{Multibyte Conversion}).@kindex C-h h@findex view-hello-file@cindex undisplayable characters@cindex @samp{?} in display The command @kbd{C-h h} (@code{view-hello-file}) displays the file@file{etc/HELLO}, which shows how to say ``hello'' in many languages.This illustrates various scripts. If some characters can't bedisplayed on your terminal, they appear as @samp{?} or as hollow boxes(@pxref{Undisplayable Characters}). Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacssupports various @dfn{input methods}, typically one for each script orlanguage, to make it convenient to type them.@kindex C-x RET The prefix key @kbd{C-x @key{RET}} is used for commands that pertainto multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.@node Enabling Multibyte@section Enabling Multibyte Characters@cindex turn multibyte support on or off You can enable or disable multibyte character support, either forEmacs as a whole, or for a single buffer. When multibyte characters aredisabled in a buffer, then each byte in that buffer represents acharacter, even codes 0200 through 0377. The old features forsupporting the European character sets, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2,work as they did in Emacs 19 and also work for the other ISO 8859character sets. However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support touse ISO Latin; the Emacs multibyte character set includes all thecharacters in these character sets, and Emacs can translateautomatically to and from the ISO codes. By default, Emacs starts in multibyte mode, because that allows you touse all the supported languages and scripts without limitations. To edit a particular file in unibyte representation, visit it using@code{find-file-literally}. @xref{Visiting}. To convert a buffer inmultibyte representation into a single-byte representation of the samecharacters, the easiest way is to save the contents in a file, kill thebuffer, and find the file again with @code{find-file-literally}. Youcan also use @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c}(@code{universal-coding-system-argument}) and specify @samp{raw-text} asthe coding system with which to find or save a file. @xref{SpecifyCoding}. Finding a file as @samp{raw-text} doesn't disable formatconversion, uncompression and auto mode selection as@code{find-file-literally} does.@vindex enable-multibyte-characters@vindex default-enable-multibyte-characters To turn off multibyte character support by default, start Emacs withthe @samp{--unibyte} option (@pxref{Initial Options}), or set theenvironment variable @env{EMACS_UNIBYTE}. You can also customize@code{enable-multibyte-characters} or, equivalently, directly set thevariable @code{default-enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{nil} inyour init file to have basically the same effect as @samp{--unibyte}.@findex toggle-enable-multibyte-characters To convert a unibyte session to a multibyte session, set@code{default-enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{t}. Buffers whichwere created in the unibyte session before you turn on multibyte supportwill stay unibyte. You can turn on multibyte support in a specificbuffer by invoking the command @code{toggle-enable-multibyte-characters}in that buffer.@cindex Lisp files, and multibyte operation@cindex multibyte operation, and Lisp files@cindex unibyte operation, and Lisp files@cindex init file, and non-@acronym{ASCII} characters@cindex environment variables, and non-@acronym{ASCII} characters With @samp{--unibyte}, multibyte strings are not created duringinitialization from the values of environment variables,@file{/etc/passwd} entries etc.@: that contain non-@acronym{ASCII} 8-bitcharacters. Emacs normally loads Lisp files as multibyte, regardless of whetheryou used @samp{--unibyte}. This includes the Emacs initializationfile, @file{.emacs}, and the initialization files of Emacs packagessuch as Gnus. However, you can specify unibyte loading for aparticular Lisp file, by putting @w{@samp{-*-unibyte: t;-*-}} in acomment on the first line. Then that file is always loaded as unibytetext, even if you did not start Emacs with @samp{--unibyte}. Themotivation for these conventions is that it is more reliable to alwaysload any particular Lisp file in the same way. However, you can loada Lisp file as unibyte, on any one occasion, by typing @kbd{C-x@key{RET} c raw-text @key{RET}} immediately before loading it. The mode line indicates whether multibyte character support is enabledin the current buffer. If it is, there are two or more characters (mostoften two dashes) before the colon near the beginning of the mode line.When multibyte characters are not enabled, just one dash precedes thecolon.@node Language Environments@section Language Environments@cindex language environments All supported character sets are supported in Emacs buffers whenevermultibyte characters are enabled; there is no need to select aparticular language in order to display its characters in an Emacsbuffer. However, it is important to select a @dfn{language environment}in order to set various defaults. The language environment reallyrepresents a choice of preferred script (more or less) rather than achoice of language. The language environment controls which coding systems to recognizewhen reading text (@pxref{Recognize Coding}). This applies to files,incoming mail, netnews, and any other text you read into Emacs. It mayalso specify the default coding system to use when you create a file.Each language environment also specifies a default input method.@findex set-language-environment@vindex current-language-environment To select a language environment, you can customize the variable@code{current-language-environment} or use the command @kbd{M-xset-language-environment}. It makes no difference which buffer iscurrent when you use this command, because the effects apply globally tothe Emacs session. The supported language environments include:@cindex Euro sign@cindex UTF-8@quotationChinese-BIG5, Chinese-CNS, Chinese-GB, Cyrillic-ALT, Cyrillic-ISO,Cyrillic-KOI8, Czech, Devanagari, Dutch, English, Ethiopic, German,Greek, Hebrew, IPA, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Latin-1, Latin-2, Latin-3,Latin-4, Latin-5, Latin-8 (Celtic), Latin-9 (updated Latin-1, with theEuro sign), Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai, Tibetan,Turkish, UTF-8 (for a setup which prefers Unicode characters and filesencoded in UTF-8), and Vietnamese.@end quotation@cindex fonts for various scripts@cindex Intlfonts package, installation To display the script(s) used by your language environment on agraphical display, you need to have a suitable font. If some of thecharacters appear as empty boxes, you should install the GNU Intlfontspackage, which includes fonts for all supported scripts.@footnote{Ifyou run Emacs on X, you need to inform the X server about the locationof the newly installed fonts with the following commands:@example xset fp+ /usr/local/share/emacs/fonts xset fp rehash@end example}@xref{Fontsets}, for more details about setting up your fonts.@findex set-locale-environment@vindex locale-language-names@vindex locale-charset-language-names@cindex locales Some operating systems let you specify the character-set locale youare using by setting the locale environment variables @env{LC_ALL},@env{LC_CTYPE}, or @env{LANG}.@footnote{If more than one of these isset, the first one that is nonempty specifies your locale for thispurpose.} During startup, Emacs looks up your character-set locale'sname in the system locale alias table, matches its canonical nameagainst entries in the value of the variables@code{locale-charset-language-names} and @code{locale-language-names},and selects the corresponding language environment if a match is found.(The former variable overrides the latter.) It also adjusts the displaytable and terminal coding system, the locale coding system, thepreferred coding system as needed for the locale, and---last but notleast---the way Emacs decodes non-@acronym{ASCII} characters sent by your keyboard. If you modify the @env{LC_ALL}, @env{LC_CTYPE}, or @env{LANG}environment variables while running Emacs, you may want to invoke the@code{set-locale-environment} function afterwards to readjust thelanguage environment from the new locale.@vindex locale-preferred-coding-systems The @code{set-locale-environment} function normally uses the preferredcoding system established by the language environment to decode systemmessages. But if your locale matches an entry in the variable@code{locale-preferred-coding-systems}, Emacs uses the correspondingcoding system instead. For example, if the locale @samp{ja_JP.PCK}matches @code{japanese-shift-jis} in@code{locale-preferred-coding-systems}, Emacs uses that encoding eventhough it might normally use @code{japanese-iso-8bit}. You can override the language environment chosen at startup withexplicit use of the command @code{set-language-environment}, or withcustomization of @code{current-language-environment} in your initfile.@kindex C-h L@findex describe-language-environment To display information about the effects of a certain languageenvironment @var{lang-env}, use the command @kbd{C-h L @var{lang-env}@key{RET}} (@code{describe-language-environment}). This tells you whichlanguages this language environment is useful for, and lists thecharacter sets, coding systems, and input methods that go with it. Italso shows some sample text to illustrate scripts used in this languageenvironment. By default, this command describes the chosen languageenvironment.@vindex set-language-environment-hook You can customize any language environment with the normal hook@code{set-language-environment-hook}. The command@code{set-language-environment} runs that hook after setting up the newlanguage environment. The hook functions can test for a specificlanguage environment by checking the variable@code{current-language-environment}. This hook is where you shouldput non-default settings for specific language environment, such ascoding systems for keyboard input and terminal output, the defaultinput method, etc.@vindex exit-language-environment-hook Before it starts to set up the new language environment,@code{set-language-environment} first runs the hook@code{exit-language-environment-hook}. This hook is useful for undoingcustomizations that were made with @code{set-language-environment-hook}.For instance, if you set up a special key binding in a specific languageenvironment using @code{set-language-environment-hook}, you should setup @code{exit-language-environment-hook} to restore the normal bindingfor that key.@node Input Methods@section Input Methods@cindex input methods An @dfn{input method} is a kind of character conversion designedspecifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each languagehas its own input method; sometimes several languages which use the samecharacters can share one input method. A few languages support severalinput methods. The simplest kind of input method works by mapping @acronym{ASCII} lettersinto another alphabet; this allows you to use one other alphabetinstead of @acronym{ASCII}. The Greek and Russian input methodswork this way. A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences ofcharacters into one letter. Many European input methods use compositionto produce a single non-@acronym{ASCII} letter from a sequence that consists of aletter followed by accent characters (or vice versa). For example, somemethods convert the sequence @kbd{a'} into a single accented letter.These input methods have no special commands of their own; all they dois compose sequences of printing characters. The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followedby composition. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tonemarks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable aremapped into one syllable sign. Chinese and Japanese require more complex methods. In Chinese inputmethods, first you enter the phonetic spelling of a Chinese word (ininput method @code{chinese-py}, among others), or a sequence ofportions of the character (input methods @code{chinese-4corner} and@code{chinese-sw}, and others). One input sequence typicallycorresponds to many possible Chinese characters. You select the oneyou mean using keys such as @kbd{C-f}, @kbd{C-b}, @kbd{C-n},@kbd{C-p}, and digits, which have special meanings in this situation. The possible characters are conceptually arranged in several rows,with each row holding up to 10 alternatives. Normally, Emacs displaysjust one row at a time, in the echo area; @code{(@var{i}/@var{j})}appears at the beginning, to indicate that this is the @var{i}th rowout of a total of @var{j} rows. Type @kbd{C-n} or @kbd{C-p} todisplay the next row or the previous row. Type @kbd{C-f} and @kbd{C-b} to move forward and backward amongthe alternatives in the current row. As you do this, Emacs highlightsthe current alternative with a special color; type @code{C-@key{SPC}}to select the current alternative and use it as input. Thealternatives in the row are also numbered; the number appears beforethe alternative. Typing a digit @var{n} selects the @var{n}thalternative of the current row and uses it as input. @key{TAB} in these Chinese input methods displays a buffer showingall the possible characters at once; then clicking @kbd{Mouse-2} onone of them selects that alternative. The keys @kbd{C-f}, @kbd{C-b},@kbd{C-n}, @kbd{C-p}, and digits continue to work as usual, but theydo the highlighting in the buffer showing the possible characters,rather than in the echo area. In Japanese input methods, first you input a whole word usingphonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacsconverts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary. Onephonetic spelling corresponds to a number of different Japanese words;to select one of them, use @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} to cycle throughthe alternatives. Sometimes it is useful to cut off input method processing so that thecharacters you have just entered will not combine with subsequentcharacters. For example, in input method @code{latin-1-postfix}, thesequence @kbd{e '} combines to form an @samp{e} with an accent. What ifyou want to enter them as separate characters? One way is to type the accent twice; this is a special feature forentering the separate letter and accent. For example, @kbd{e ' '} givesyou the two characters @samp{e'}. Another way is to type another letterafter the @kbd{e}---something that won't combine with that---andimmediately delete it. For example, you could type @kbd{e e @key{DEL}'} to get separate @samp{e} and @samp{'}. Another method, more general but not quite as easy to type, is to use@kbd{C-\ C-\} between two characters to stop them from combining. Thisis the command @kbd{C-\} (@code{toggle-input-method}) used twice.@ifinfo@xref{Select Input Method}.@end ifinfo@cindex incremental search, input method interference @kbd{C-\ C-\} is especially useful inside an incremental search,because it stops waiting for more characters to combine, and startssearching for what you have already entered.@vindex input-method-verbose-flag@vindex input-method-highlight-flag The variables @code{input-method-highlight-flag} and@code{input-method-verbose-flag} control how input methods explainwhat is happening. If @code{input-method-highlight-flag} isnon-@code{nil}, the partial sequence is highlighted in the buffer (formost input methods---some disable this feature). If@code{input-method-verbose-flag} is non-@code{nil}, the list ofpossible characters to type next is displayed in the echo area (butnot when you are in the minibuffer).@cindex Leim package Input methods are implemented in the separate Leim package: they areavailable only if the system administrator used Leim when buildingEmacs. If Emacs was built without Leim, you will find that no inputmethods are defined.@node Select Input Method@section Selecting an Input Method@table @kbd@item C-\Enable or disable use of the selected input method.@item C-x @key{RET} C-\ @var{method} @key{RET}Select a new input method for the current buffer.@item C-h I @var{method} @key{RET}@itemx C-h C-\ @var{method} @key{RET}@findex describe-input-method@kindex C-h I@kindex C-h C-\Describe the input method @var{method} (@code{describe-input-method}).By default, it describes the current input method (if any). Thisdescription should give you the full details of how to use anyparticular input method.@item M-x list-input-methodsDisplay a list of all the supported input methods.@end table@findex set-input-method@vindex current-input-method@kindex C-x RET C-\ To choose an input method for the current buffer, use @kbd{C-x@key{RET} C-\} (@code{set-input-method}). This command reads theinput method name from the minibuffer; the name normally starts with thelanguage environment that it is meant to be used with. The variable@code{current-input-method} records which input method is selected.@findex toggle-input-method@kindex C-\ Input methods use various sequences of @acronym{ASCII} characters to stand fornon-@acronym{ASCII} characters. Sometimes it is useful to turn off the inputmethod temporarily. To do this, type @kbd{C-\}(@code{toggle-input-method}). To reenable the input method, type@kbd{C-\} again. If you type @kbd{C-\} and you have not yet selected an input method,it prompts for you to specify one. This has the same effect as using@kbd{C-x @key{RET} C-\} to specify an input method. When invoked with a numeric argument, as in @kbd{C-u C-\},@code{toggle-input-method} always prompts you for an input method,suggesting the most recently selected one as the default.@vindex default-input-method Selecting a language environment specifies a default input method foruse in various buffers. When you have a default input method, you canselect it in the current buffer by typing @kbd{C-\}. The variable@code{default-input-method} specifies the default input method(@code{nil} means there is none). In some language environments, which support several different inputmethods, you might want to use an input method different from thedefault chosen by @code{set-language-environment}. You can instructEmacs to select a different default input method for a certainlanguage environment, if you wish, by using@code{set-language-environment-hook} (@pxref{Language Environments,set-language-environment-hook}). For example:@lisp(defun my-chinese-setup () "Set up my private Chinese environment." (if (equal current-language-environment "Chinese-GB") (setq default-input-method "chinese-tonepy")))(add-hook 'set-language-environment-hook 'my-chinese-setup)@end lisp@noindentThis sets the default input method to be @code{chinese-tonepy}whenever you choose a Chinese-GB language environment.@findex quail-set-keyboard-layout Some input methods for alphabetic scripts work by (in effect)remapping the keyboard to emulate various keyboard layouts commonly usedfor those scripts. How to do this remapping properly depends on youractual keyboard layout. To specify which layout your keyboard has, usethe command @kbd{M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout}.@findex list-input-methods To display a list of all the supported input methods, type @kbd{M-xlist-input-methods}. The list gives information about each inputmethod, including the string that stands for it in the mode line.@node Multibyte Conversion@section Unibyte and Multibyte Non-@acronym{ASCII} characters When multibyte characters are enabled, character codes 0240 (octal)through 0377 (octal) are not really legitimate in the buffer. The validnon-@acronym{ASCII} printing characters have codes that start from 0400. If you type a self-inserting character in the range 0240 through0377, or if you use @kbd{C-q} to insert one, Emacs assumes youintended to use one of the ISO Latin-@var{n} character sets, andconverts it to the Emacs code representing that Latin-@var{n}character. You select @emph{which} ISO Latin character set to usethrough your choice of language environment@iftex(see above).@end iftex@ifinfo(@pxref{Language Environments}).@end ifinfoIf you do not specify a choice, the default is Latin-1. If you insert a character in the range 0200 through 0237, whichforms the @code{eight-bit-control} character set, it is insertedliterally. You should normally avoid doing this since bufferscontaining such characters have to be written out in either the@code{emacs-mule} or @code{raw-text} coding system, which is usuallynot what you want.@node Coding Systems@section Coding Systems@cindex coding systems Users of various languages have established many more-or-less standardcoding systems for representing them. Emacs does not use these codingsystems internally; instead, it converts from various coding systems toits own system when reading data, and converts the internal codingsystem to other coding systems when writing data. Conversion ispossible in reading or writing files, in sending or receiving from theterminal, and in exchanging data with subprocesses. Emacs assigns a name to each coding system. Most coding systems areused for one language, and the name of the coding system starts with thelanguage name. Some coding systems are used for several languages;their names usually start with @samp{iso}. There are also specialcoding systems @code{no-conversion}, @code{raw-text} and@code{emacs-mule} which do not convert printing characters at all.@cindex international files from DOS/Windows systems A special class of coding systems, collectively known as@dfn{codepages}, is designed to support text encoded by MS-Windows andMS-DOS software. To use any of these systems, you need to create itwith @kbd{M-x codepage-setup}. @xref{MS-DOS and MULE}. Aftercreating the coding system for the codepage, you can use it as anyother coding system. For example, to visit a file encoded in codepage850, type @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c cp850 @key{RET} C-x C-f @var{filename}@key{RET}}. In addition to converting various representations of non-@acronym{ASCII}characters, a coding system can perform end-of-line conversion. Emacshandles three different conventions for how to separate lines in a file:newline, carriage-return linefeed, and just carriage-return.@table @kbd@item C-h C @var{coding} @key{RET}Describe coding system @var{coding}.@item C-h C @key{RET}Describe the coding systems currently in use.@item M-x list-coding-systemsDisplay a list of all the supported coding systems.@end table@kindex C-h C@findex describe-coding-system The command @kbd{C-h C} (@code{describe-coding-system}) displaysinformation about particular coding systems. You can specify a codingsystem name as the argument; alternatively, with an empty argument, itdescribes the coding systems currently selected for various purposes,both in the current buffer and as the defaults, and the priority listfor recognizing coding systems (@pxref{Recognize Coding}).@findex list-coding-systems To display a list of all the supported coding systems, type @kbd{M-xlist-coding-systems}. The list gives information about each codingsystem, including the letter that stands for it in the mode line(@pxref{Mode Line}).@cindex end-of-line conversion@cindex MS-DOS end-of-line conversion@cindex Macintosh end-of-line conversion Each of the coding systems that appear in this list---except for@code{no-conversion}, which means no conversion of any kind---specifieshow and whether to convert printing characters, but leaves the choice ofend-of-line conversion to be decided based on the contents of each file.For example, if the file appears to use the sequence carriage-returnlinefeed to separate lines, DOS end-of-line conversion will be used. Each of the listed coding systems has three variants which specifyexactly what to do for end-of-line conversion:@table @code@item @dots{}-unixDon't do any end-of-line conversion; assume the file usesnewline to separate lines. (This is the convention normally usedon Unix and GNU systems.)@item @dots{}-dosAssume the file uses carriage-return linefeed to separate lines, and dothe appropriate conversion. (This is the convention normally used onMicrosoft systems.@footnote{It is also specified for MIME @samp{text/*}bodies and in other network transport contexts. It is differentfrom the SGML reference syntax record-start/record-end format whichEmacs doesn't support directly.})@item @dots{}-macAssume the file uses carriage-return to separate lines, and do theappropriate conversion. (This is the convention normally used on theMacintosh system.)@end table These variant coding systems are omitted from the@code{list-coding-systems} display for brevity, since they are entirelypredictable. For example, the coding system @code{iso-latin-1} hasvariants @code{iso-latin-1-unix}, @code{iso-latin-1-dos} and@code{iso-latin-1-mac}. The coding system @code{raw-text} is good for a file which is mainly@acronym{ASCII} text, but may contain byte values above 127 which are not meant toencode non-@acronym{ASCII} characters. With @code{raw-text}, Emacs copies thosebyte values unchanged, and sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to@code{nil} in the current buffer so that they will be interpretedproperly. @code{raw-text} handles end-of-line conversion in the usualway, based on the data encountered, and has the usual three variants tospecify the kind of end-of-line conversion to use. In contrast, the coding system @code{no-conversion} specifies nocharacter code conversion at all---none for non-@acronym{ASCII} byte values andnone for end of line. This is useful for reading or writing binaryfiles, tar files, and other files that must be examined verbatim. It,too, sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{nil}. The easiest way to edit a file with no conversion of any kind is withthe @kbd{M-x find-file-literally} command. This uses@code{no-conversion}, and also suppresses other Emacs features thatmight convert the file contents before you see them. @xref{Visiting}. The coding system @code{emacs-mule} means that the file containsnon-@acronym{ASCII} characters stored with the internal Emacs encoding. Ithandles end-of-line conversion based on the data encountered, and hasthe usual three variants to specify the kind of end-of-line conversion.@node Recognize Coding@section Recognizing Coding Systems Emacs tries to recognize which coding system to use for a given textas an integral part of reading that text. (This applies to filesbeing read, output from subprocesses, text from X selections, etc.)Emacs can select the right coding system automatically most of thetime---once you have specified your preferences. Some coding systems can be recognized or distinguished by which bytesequences appear in the data. However, there are coding systems thatcannot be distinguished, not even potentially. For example, there is noway to distinguish between Latin-1 and Latin-2; they use the same bytevalues with different meanings. Emacs handles this situation by means of a priority list of codingsystems. Whenever Emacs reads a file, if you do not specify the codingsystem to use, Emacs checks the data against each coding system,starting with the first in priority and working down the list, until itfinds a coding system that fits the data. Then it converts the filecontents assuming that they are represented in this coding system. The priority list of coding systems depends on the selected languageenvironment (@pxref{Language Environments}). For example, if you useFrench, you probably want Emacs to prefer Latin-1 to Latin-2; if you useCzech, you probably want Latin-2 to be preferred. This is one of thereasons to specify a language environment.@findex prefer-coding-system However, you can alter the coding system priority list in detailwith the command @kbd{M-x prefer-coding-system}. This command readsthe name of a coding system from the minibuffer, and adds it to thefront of the priority list, so that it is preferred to all others. Ifyou use this command several times, each use adds one element to thefront of the priority list. If you use a coding system that specifies the end-of-line conversiontype, such as @code{iso-8859-1-dos}, what this means is that Emacsshould attempt to recognize @code{iso-8859-1} with priority, and shoulduse DOS end-of-line conversion when it does recognize @code{iso-8859-1}.@vindex file-coding-system-alist Sometimes a file name indicates which coding system to use for thefile. The variable @code{file-coding-system-alist} specifies thiscorrespondence. There is a special function@code{modify-coding-system-alist} for adding elements to this list. Forexample, to read and write all @samp{.txt} files using the coding system@code{china-iso-8bit}, you can execute this Lisp expression:@smallexample(modify-coding-system-alist 'file "\\.txt\\'" 'china-iso-8bit)@end smallexample@noindentThe first argument should be @code{file}, the second argument should bea regular expression that determines which files this applies to, andthe third argument says which coding system to use for these files.@vindex inhibit-eol-conversion@cindex DOS-style end-of-line display Emacs recognizes which kind of end-of-line conversion to use based onthe contents of the file: if it sees only carriage-returns, or onlycarriage-return linefeed sequences, then it chooses the end-of-lineconversion accordingly. You can inhibit the automatic use ofend-of-line conversion by setting the variable @code{inhibit-eol-conversion}to non-@code{nil}. If you do that, DOS-style files will be displayedwith the @samp{^M} characters visible in the buffer; some peopleprefer this to the more subtle @samp{(DOS)} end-of-line typeindication near the left edge of the mode line (@pxref{Mode Line,eol-mnemonic}).@vindex inhibit-iso-escape-detection@cindex escape sequences in files By default, the automatic detection of coding system is sensitive toescape sequences. If Emacs sees a sequence of characters that beginwith an escape character, and the sequence is valid as an ISO-2022code, that tells Emacs to use one of the ISO-2022 encodings to decodethe file. However, there may be cases that you want to read escape sequencesin a file as is. In such a case, you can set the variable@code{inhibit-iso-escape-detection} to non-@code{nil}. Then the codedetection ignores any escape sequences, and never uses an ISO-2022encoding. The result is that all escape sequences become visible inthe buffer. The default value of @code{inhibit-iso-escape-detection} is@code{nil}. We recommend that you not change it permanently, only forone specific operation. That's because many Emacs Lisp source filesin the Emacs distribution contain non-@acronym{ASCII} characters encoded in thecoding system @code{iso-2022-7bit}, and they won't bedecoded correctly when you visit those files if you suppress theescape sequence detection.@vindex coding You can specify the coding system for a particular file using the@w{@samp{-*-@dots{}-*-}} construct at the beginning of a file, or alocal variables list at the end (@pxref{File Variables}). You do thisby defining a value for the ``variable'' named @code{coding}. Emacsdoes not really have a variable @code{coding}; instead of setting avariable, this uses the specified coding system for the file. Forexample, @samp{-*-mode: C; coding: latin-1;-*-} specifies use of theLatin-1 coding system, as well as C mode. When you specify the codingexplicitly in the file, that overrides@code{file-coding-system-alist}.@vindex auto-coding-alist@vindex auto-coding-regexp-alist@vindex auto-coding-functions The variables @code{auto-coding-alist},@code{auto-coding-regexp-alist} and @code{auto-coding-functions} arethe strongest way to specify the coding system for certain patterns offile names, or for files containing certain patterns; these variableseven override @samp{-*-coding:-*-} tags in the file itself. Emacsuses @code{auto-coding-alist} for tar and archive files, to prevent itfrom being confused by a @samp{-*-coding:-*-} tag in a member of thearchive and thinking it applies to the archive file as a whole.Likewise, Emacs uses @code{auto-coding-regexp-alist} to ensure thatRMAIL files, whose names in general don't match any particularpattern, are decoded correctly. One of the builtin@code{auto-coding-functions} detects the encoding for XML files. If Emacs recognizes the encoding of a file incorrectly, you canreread the file using the correct coding system by typing @kbd{C-x@key{RET} c @var{coding-system} @key{RET} M-x revert-buffer@key{RET}}. To see what coding system Emacs actually used to decodethe file, look at the coding system mnemonic letter near the left edgeof the mode line (@pxref{Mode Line}), or type @kbd{C-h C @key{RET}}.@findex unify-8859-on-decoding-mode The command @code{unify-8859-on-decoding-mode} enables a mode that``unifies'' the Latin alphabets when decoding text. This works byconverting all non-@acronym{ASCII} Latin-@var{n} characters to either Latin-1 orUnicode characters. This way it is easier to use variousLatin-@var{n} alphabets together. In a future Emacs version we hopeto move towards full Unicode support and complete unification ofcharacter sets.@vindex buffer-file-coding-system Once Emacs has chosen a coding system for a buffer, it stores thatcoding system in @code{buffer-file-coding-system} and uses that codingsystem, by default, for operations that write from this buffer into afile. This includes the commands @code{save-buffer} and@code{write-region}. If you want to write files from this buffer usinga different coding system, you can specify a different coding system forthe buffer using @code{set-buffer-file-coding-system} (@pxref{SpecifyCoding}). You can insert any possible character into any Emacs buffer, butmost coding systems can only handle some of the possible characters.This means that it is possible for you to insert characters thatcannot be encoded with the coding system that will be used to save thebuffer. For example, you could start with an @acronym{ASCII} file and insert afew Latin-1 characters into it, or you could edit a text file inPolish encoded in @code{iso-8859-2} and add some Russian words to it.When you save the buffer, Emacs cannot use the current value of@code{buffer-file-coding-system}, because the characters you addedcannot be encoded by that coding system. When that happens, Emacs tries the most-preferred coding system (setby @kbd{M-x prefer-coding-system} or @kbd{M-xset-language-environment}), and if that coding system can safelyencode all of the characters in the buffer, Emacs uses it, and storesits value in @code{buffer-file-coding-system}. Otherwise, Emacsdisplays a list of coding systems suitable for encoding the buffer'scontents, and asks you to choose one of those coding systems. If you insert the unsuitable characters in a mail message, Emacsbehaves a bit differently. It additionally checks whether themost-preferred coding system is recommended for use in MIME messages;if not, Emacs tells you that the most-preferred coding system isnot recommended and prompts you for another coding system. This is soyou won't inadvertently send a message encoded in a way that yourrecipient's mail software will have difficulty decoding. (If you dowant to use the most-preferred coding system, you can still type itsname in response to the question.)@vindex sendmail-coding-system When you send a message with Mail mode (@pxref{Sending Mail}), Emacs hasfour different ways to determine the coding system to use for encodingthe message text. It tries the buffer's own value of@code{buffer-file-coding-system}, if that is non-@code{nil}. Otherwise,it uses the value of @code{sendmail-coding-system}, if that isnon-@code{nil}. The third way is to use the default coding system fornew files, which is controlled by your choice of language environment,if that is non-@code{nil}. If all of these three values are @code{nil},Emacs encodes outgoing mail using the Latin-1 coding system.@vindex rmail-decode-mime-charset When you get new mail in Rmail, each message is translatedautomatically from the coding system it is written in, as if it were aseparate file. This uses the priority list of coding systems that youhave specified. If a MIME message specifies a character set, Rmailobeys that specification, unless @code{rmail-decode-mime-charset} is@code{nil}.@vindex rmail-file-coding-system For reading and saving Rmail files themselves, Emacs uses the codingsystem specified by the variable @code{rmail-file-coding-system}. Thedefault value is @code{nil}, which means that Rmail files are nottranslated (they are read and written in the Emacs internal charactercode).@node Specify Coding@section Specifying a Coding System In cases where Emacs does not automatically choose the right codingsystem, you can use these commands to specify one:@table @kbd@item C-x @key{RET} f @var{coding} @key{RET}Use coding system @var{coding} for saving or revisiting the visitedfile in the current buffer.@item C-x @key{RET} c @var{coding} @key{RET}Specify coding system @var{coding} for the immediately followingcommand.@item C-x @key{RET} k @var{coding} @key{RET}Use coding system @var{coding} for keyboard input.@item C-x @key{RET} t @var{coding} @key{RET}Use coding system @var{coding} for terminal output.@item C-x @key{RET} p @var{input-coding} @key{RET} @var{output-coding} @key{RET}Use coding systems @var{input-coding} and @var{output-coding} forsubprocess input and output in the current buffer.@item C-x @key{RET} x @var{coding} @key{RET}Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring selections to and fromother programs through the window system.@item C-x @key{RET} F @var{coding} @key{RET}Use coding system @var{coding} for encoding and decoding file@emph{names}. This affects the use of non-ASCII characters in filenames. It has no effect on reading and writing the @emph{contents} offiles.@item C-x @key{RET} X @var{coding} @key{RET}Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring @emph{one}selection---the next one---to or from the window system.@end table@kindex C-x RET f@findex set-buffer-file-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} f}(@code{set-buffer-file-coding-system}) sets the file coding system forthe current buffer---in other words, it says which coding system touse when saving or reverting the visited file. You specify whichcoding system using the minibuffer. If you specify a coding systemthat cannot handle all of the characters in the buffer, Emacs warnsyou about the troublesome characters when you actually save thebuffer.@kindex C-x RET c@findex universal-coding-system-argument Another way to specify the coding system for a file is when you visitthe file. First use the command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c}(@code{universal-coding-system-argument}); this command uses theminibuffer to read a coding system name. After you exit the minibuffer,the specified coding system is used for @emph{the immediately followingcommand}. So if the immediately following command is @kbd{C-x C-f}, for example,it reads the file using that coding system (and records the codingsystem for when you later save the file). Or if the immediately followingcommand is @kbd{C-x C-w}, it writes the file using that coding system.When you specify the coding system for saving in this way, insteadof with @kbd{C-x @key{RET} f}, there is no warning if the buffercontains characters that the coding system cannot handle. Other file commands affected by a specified coding system include@kbd{C-x C-i} and @kbd{C-x C-v}, as well as the other-window variantsof @kbd{C-x C-f}. @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c} also affects commands thatstart subprocesses, including @kbd{M-x shell} (@pxref{Shell}). If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,then @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c} ultimately has no effect. An easy way to visit a file with no conversion is with the @kbd{M-xfind-file-literally} command. @xref{Visiting}.@vindex default-buffer-file-coding-system The variable @code{default-buffer-file-coding-system} specifies thechoice of coding system to use when you create a new file. It applieswhen you find a new file, and when you create a buffer and then save itin a file. Selecting a language environment typically sets thisvariable to a good choice of default coding system for that languageenvironment.@kindex C-x RET t@findex set-terminal-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} t} (@code{set-terminal-coding-system})specifies the coding system for terminal output. If you specify acharacter code for terminal output, all characters output to theterminal are translated into that coding system. This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built tosupport specific languages or character sets---for example, Europeanterminals that support one of the ISO Latin character sets. You need tospecify the terminal coding system when using multibyte text, so thatEmacs knows which characters the terminal can actually handle. By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all, unlessEmacs can deduce the proper coding system from your terminal type oryour locale specification (@pxref{Language Environments}).@kindex C-x RET k@findex set-keyboard-coding-system@vindex keyboard-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} k} (@code{set-keyboard-coding-system})or the Custom option @code{keyboard-coding-system}specifies the coding system for keyboard input. Character-codetranslation of keyboard input is useful for terminals with keys thatsend non-@acronym{ASCII} graphic characters---for example, some terminals designedfor ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it. By default, keyboard input is translated based on your system localesetting. If your terminal does not really support the encodingimplied by your locale (for example, if you find it inserts anon-@acronym{ASCII} character if you type @kbd{M-i}), you will need to set@code{keyboard-coding-system} to @code{nil} to turn off encoding.You can do this by putting@lisp(set-keyboard-coding-system nil)@end lisp@noindentin your @file{~/.emacs} file. There is a similarity between using a coding system translation forkeyboard input, and using an input method: both define sequences ofkeyboard input that translate into single characters. However, inputmethods are designed to be convenient for interactive use by humans, andthe sequences that are translated are typically sequences of @acronym{ASCII}printing characters. Coding systems typically translate sequences ofnon-graphic characters.@kindex C-x RET x@kindex C-x RET X@findex set-selection-coding-system@findex set-next-selection-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} x} (@code{set-selection-coding-system})specifies the coding system for sending selected text to the windowsystem, and for receiving the text of selections made in otherapplications. This command applies to all subsequent selections, untilyou override it by using the command again. The command @kbd{C-x@key{RET} X} (@code{set-next-selection-coding-system}) specifies thecoding system for the next selection made in Emacs or read by Emacs.@kindex C-x RET p@findex set-buffer-process-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} p} (@code{set-buffer-process-coding-system})specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess. Thiscommand applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess has itsown buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify translation toand from a particular subprocess by giving the command in thecorresponding buffer. The default for translation of process input and output depends on thecurrent language environment.@vindex file-name-coding-system@cindex file names with non-@acronym{ASCII} characters@findex set-file-name-coding-system@kindex C-x @key{RET} F The variable @code{file-name-coding-system} specifies a codingsystem to use for encoding file names. If you set the variable to acoding system name (as a Lisp symbol or a string), Emacs encodes filenames using that coding system for all file operations. This makes itpossible to use non-@acronym{ASCII} characters in file names---or, atleast, those non-@acronym{ASCII} characters which the specified codingsystem can encode. Use @kbd{C-x @key{RET} F}(@code{set-file-name-coding-system}) to specify this interactively. If @code{file-name-coding-system} is @code{nil}, Emacs uses a defaultcoding system determined by the selected language environment. In thedefault language environment, any non-@acronym{ASCII} characters in file names arenot encoded specially; they appear in the file system using the internalEmacs representation. @strong{Warning:} if you change @code{file-name-coding-system} (or thelanguage environment) in the middle of an Emacs session, problems canresult if you have already visited files whose names were encoded usingthe earlier coding system and cannot be encoded (or are encodeddifferently) under the new coding system. If you try to save one ofthese buffers under the visited file name, saving may use the wrong filename, or it may get an error. If such a problem happens, use @kbd{C-xC-w} to specify a new file name for that buffer.@vindex locale-coding-system@cindex decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} keyboard input on X The variable @code{locale-coding-system} specifies a coding systemto use when encoding and decoding system strings such as system errormessages and @code{format-time-string} formats and time stamps. Thatcoding system is also used for decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} keyboard input on XWindow systems. You should choose a coding system that is compatiblewith the underlying system's text representation, which is normallyspecified by one of the environment variables @env{LC_ALL},@env{LC_CTYPE}, and @env{LANG}. (The first one, in the orderspecified above, whose value is nonempty is the one that determinesthe text representation.)@node Fontsets@section Fontsets@cindex fontsets A font for X typically defines shapes for a single alphabet or script.Therefore, displaying the entire range of scripts that Emacs supportsrequires a collection of many fonts. In Emacs, such a collection iscalled a @dfn{fontset}. A fontset is defined by a list of fonts, eachassigned to handle a range of character codes. Each fontset has a name, like a font. The available X fonts aredefined by the X server; fontsets, however, are defined within Emacsitself. Once you have defined a fontset, you can use it within Emacs byspecifying its name, anywhere that you could use a single font. Ofcourse, Emacs fontsets can use only the fonts that the X serversupports; if certain characters appear on the screen as hollow boxes,this means that the fontset in use for them has no font for thosecharacters.@footnote{The Emacs installation instructions have information onadditional font support.} Emacs creates two fontsets automatically: the @dfn{standard fontset}and the @dfn{startup fontset}. The standard fontset is most likely tohave fonts for a wide variety of non-@acronym{ASCII} characters; however, this isnot the default for Emacs to use. (By default, Emacs tries to find afont that has bold and italic variants.) You can specify use of thestandard fontset with the @samp{-fn} option, or with the @samp{Font} Xresource (@pxref{Font X}). For example,@exampleemacs -fn fontset-standard@end example A fontset does not necessarily specify a font for every charactercode. If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if itspecifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannotdisplay that character properly. It will display that character as anempty box instead.@node Defining Fontsets@section Defining fontsets@vindex standard-fontset-spec@cindex standard fontset Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the valueof @code{standard-fontset-spec}. This fontset's name is@example-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-standard@end example@noindentor just @samp{fontset-standard} for short. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the standard fontset arecreated automatically. Their names have @samp{bold} instead of@samp{medium}, or @samp{i} instead of @samp{r}, or both.@cindex startup fontset If you specify a default @acronym{ASCII} font with the @samp{Font} resource orthe @samp{-fn} argument, Emacs generates a fontset from itautomatically. This is the @dfn{startup fontset} and its name is@code{fontset-startup}. It does this by replacing the @var{foundry},@var{family}, @var{add_style}, and @var{average_width} fields of thefont name with @samp{*}, replacing @var{charset_registry} field with@samp{fontset}, and replacing @var{charset_encoding} field with@samp{startup}, then using the resulting string to specify a fontset. For instance, if you start Emacs this way,@exampleemacs -fn "*courier-medium-r-normal--14-140-*-iso8859-1"@end example@noindentEmacs generates the following fontset and uses it for the initial Xwindow frame:@example-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-14-140-*-*-*-*-fontset-startup@end example With the X resource @samp{Emacs.Font}, you can specify a fontset namejust like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontsetname in a wildcard resource like @samp{Emacs*Font}---that wildcardspecification matches various other resources, such as for menus, andmenus cannot handle fontsets. You can specify additional fontsets using X resources named@samp{Fontset-@var{n}}, where @var{n} is an integer starting from 0.The resource value should have this form:@smallexample@var{fontpattern}, @r{[}@var{charsetname}:@var{fontname}@r{]@dots{}}@end smallexample@noindent@var{fontpattern} should have the form of a standard X font name, exceptfor the last two fields. They should have the form@samp{fontset-@var{alias}}. The fontset has two names, one long and one short. The long name is@var{fontpattern}. The short name is @samp{fontset-@var{alias}}. Youcan refer to the fontset by either name. The construct @samp{@var{charset}:@var{font}} specifies which font touse (in this fontset) for one particular character set. Here,@var{charset} is the name of a character set, and @var{font} is thefont to use for that character set. You can use this construct anynumber of times in defining one fontset. For the other character sets, Emacs chooses a font based on@var{fontpattern}. It replaces @samp{fontset-@var{alias}} with valuesthat describe the character set. For the @acronym{ASCII} character font,@samp{fontset-@var{alias}} is replaced with @samp{ISO8859-1}. In addition, when several consecutive fields are wildcards, Emacscollapses them into a single wildcard. This is to prevent use ofauto-scaled fonts. Fonts made by scaling larger fonts are not usablefor editing, and scaling a smaller font is not useful because it isbetter to use the smaller font in its own size, which is what Emacsdoes. Thus if @var{fontpattern} is this,@example-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24@end example@noindentthe font specification for @acronym{ASCII} characters would be this:@example-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1@end example@noindentand the font specification for Chinese GB2312 characters would be this:@example-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-gb2312*-*@end example You may not have any Chinese font matching the above fontspecification. Most X distributions include only Chinese fonts thathave @samp{song ti} or @samp{fangsong ti} in @var{family} field. Insuch a case, @samp{Fontset-@var{n}} can be specified as below:@smallexampleEmacs.Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24,\ chinese-gb2312:-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-gb2312*-*@end smallexample@noindentThen, the font specifications for all but Chinese GB2312 characters have@samp{fixed} in the @var{family} field, and the font specification forChinese GB2312 characters has a wild card @samp{*} in the @var{family}field.@findex create-fontset-from-fontset-spec The function that processes the fontset resource value to create thefontset is called @code{create-fontset-from-fontset-spec}. You can alsocall this function explicitly to create a fontset. @xref{Font X}, for more information about font naming in X.@node Undisplayable Characters@section Undisplayable Characters There may be a some non-@acronym{ASCII} characters that your terminal cannotdisplay. Most non-windowing terminals support just a single characterset (use the variable @code{default-terminal-coding-system}(@pxref{Specify Coding}) to tell Emacs which one); characters whichcan't be encoded in that coding system are displayed as @samp{?} bydefault. Windowing terminals can display a broader range of characters, butyou may not have fonts installed for all of them; characters that haveno font appear as a hollow box. If you use Latin-1 characters but your terminal can't displayLatin-1, you can arrange to display mnemonic @acronym{ASCII} sequencesinstead, e.g.@: @samp{"o} for o-umlaut. Load the library@file{iso-ascii} to do this.@vindex latin1-display If your terminal can display Latin-1, you can display charactersfrom other European character sets using a mixture of equivalentLatin-1 characters and @acronym{ASCII} mnemonics. Use the Custom option@code{latin1-display} to enable this. The mnemonic @acronym{ASCII}sequences mostly correspond to those of the prefix input methods.@node Single-Byte Character Support@section Single-byte Character Set Support@cindex European character sets@cindex accented characters@cindex ISO Latin character sets@cindex Unibyte operation The ISO 8859 Latin-@var{n} character sets define character codes inthe range 0240 to 0377 octal (160 to 255 decimal) to handle theaccented letters and punctuation needed by various European languages(and some non-European ones). If you disable multibyte characters,Emacs can still handle @emph{one} of these character codes at a time.To specify @emph{which} of these codes to use, invoke @kbd{M-xset-language-environment} and specify a suitable language environmentsuch as @samp{Latin-@var{n}}. For more information about unibyte operation, see @ref{EnablingMultibyte}. Note particularly that you probably want to ensure thatyour initialization files are read as unibyte if they contain non-@acronym{ASCII}characters.@vindex unibyte-display-via-language-environment Emacs can also display those characters, provided the terminal or fontin use supports them. This works automatically. Alternatively, if youare using a window system, Emacs can also display single-byte charactersthrough fontsets, in effect by displaying the equivalent multibytecharacters according to the current language environment. To requestthis, set the variable @code{unibyte-display-via-language-environment}to a non-@code{nil} value.@cindex @code{iso-ascii} library If your terminal does not support display of the Latin-1 characterset, Emacs can display these characters as @acronym{ASCII} sequences which atleast give you a clear idea of what the characters are. To do this,load the library @code{iso-ascii}. Similar libraries for otherLatin-@var{n} character sets could be implemented, but we don't havethem yet.@findex standard-display-8bit@cindex 8-bit display Normally non-ISO-8859 characters (decimal codes between 128 and 159inclusive) are displayed as octal escapes. You can change this fornon-standard ``extended'' versions of ISO-8859 character sets by using thefunction @code{standard-display-8bit} in the @code{disp-table} library. There are several ways you can input single-byte non-@acronym{ASCII}characters:@itemize @bullet@cindex 8-bit input@itemIf your keyboard can generate character codes 128 (decimal) and up,representing non-@acronym{ASCII} characters, you can type those character codesdirectly.On a windowing terminal, you should not need to do anything special touse these keys; they should simply work. On a text-only terminal, youshould use the command @code{M-x set-keyboard-coding-system} or theCustom option @code{keyboard-coding-system} to specify which codingsystem your keyboard uses (@pxref{Specify Coding}). Enabling thisfeature will probably require you to use @kbd{ESC} to type Metacharacters; however, on a Linux console or in @code{xterm}, you canarrange for Meta to be converted to @kbd{ESC} and still be able type8-bit characters present directly on the keyboard or using@kbd{Compose} or @kbd{AltGr} keys. @xref{User Input}.@itemYou can use an input method for the selected language environment.@xref{Input Methods}. When you use an input method in a unibyte buffer,the non-@acronym{ASCII} character you specify with it is converted to unibyte.@kindex C-x 8@cindex @code{iso-transl} library@cindex compose character@cindex dead character@itemFor Latin-1 only, you can use thekey @kbd{C-x 8} as a ``compose character'' prefix for entry ofnon-@acronym{ASCII} Latin-1 printing characters. @kbd{C-x 8} is good forinsertion (in the minibuffer as well as other buffers), for searching,and in any other context where a key sequence is allowed.@kbd{C-x 8} works by loading the @code{iso-transl} library. Once thatlibrary is loaded, the @key{ALT} modifier key, if you have one, servesthe same purpose as @kbd{C-x 8}; use @key{ALT} together with an accentcharacter to modify the following letter. In addition, if you have keysfor the Latin-1 ``dead accent characters,'' they too are defined tocompose with the following character, once @code{iso-transl} is loaded.Use @kbd{C-x 8 C-h} to list the available translations as mnemoniccommand names.@item@cindex @code{iso-acc} library@cindex ISO Accents mode@findex iso-accents-mode@cindex Latin-1, Latin-2 and Latin-3 input modeFor Latin-1, Latin-2 and Latin-3, @kbd{M-x iso-accents-mode} enablesa minor mode that works much like the @code{latin-1-prefix} inputmethod, but does not depend on having the input methods installed. Thismode is buffer-local. It can be customized for various languages with@kbd{M-x iso-accents-customize}.@end itemize@node Charsets@section Charsets@cindex charsets Emacs groups all supported characters into disjoint @dfn{charsets}.Each character code belongs to one and only one charset. Forhistorical reasons, Emacs typically divides an 8-bit character codefor an extended version of @acronym{ASCII} into two charsets: @acronym{ASCII}, whichcovers the codes 0 through 127, plus another charset which covers the``right-hand part'' (the codes 128 and up). For instance, thecharacters of Latin-1 include the Emacs charset @code{ascii} plus theEmacs charset @code{latin-iso8859-1}. Emacs characters belonging to different charsets may look the same,but they are still different characters. For example, the letter@samp{o} with acute accent in charset @code{latin-iso8859-1}, used forLatin-1, is different from the letter @samp{o} with acute accent incharset @code{latin-iso8859-2}, used for Latin-2.@findex list-charset-chars@cindex characters in a certain charset@findex describe-character-set There are two commands for obtaining information about Emacscharsets. The command @kbd{M-x list-charset-chars} prompts for a nameof a character set, and displays all the characters in that characterset. The command @kbd{M-x describe-character-set} prompts for acharset name and displays information about that charset, includingits internal representation within Emacs. To find out which charset a character in the buffer belongs to,put point before it and type @kbd{C-u C-x =}.@ignore arch-tag: 310ba60d-31ef-4ce7-91f1-f282dd57b6b3@end ignore