Customization
*************

This chapter talks about various topics relevant to adapting the behavior of Emacs in minor ways.  See The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for how to make more far-reaching changes.

Customization that you do within Emacs normally affects only the particular Emacs session that you do it in--it does not persist between sessions unless you save the customization in a file such as .emacs or .Xdefaults that will affect future sessions. See Init File.  In the customization buffer, when you save customizations for future sessions, this actually works by editing .emacs for you.

Minor Modes
===========

Minor modes are optional features which you can turn on or off.  For example, Auto Fill mode is a minor mode in which SPC breaks lines between words as you type.  All the minor modes are independent of each other and of the selected major mode.  Most minor modes say in the mode line when they are on; for example, Fill in the mode line means that Auto Fill mode is on.

Append -mode to the name of a minor mode to get the name of a command function that turns the mode on or off.  Thus, the command to enable or disable Auto Fill mode is called M-x auto-fill-mode.  These commands are usually invoked with M-x, but you can bind keys to them if you wish.  With no argument, the function turns the mode on if it was off and off if it was on.  This is known as toggling.  A positive argument always turns the mode on, and an explicit zero argument or a negative argument always turns it off.

Some minor modes are global: while enabled, they affect everything you do in the Emacs session, in all buffers.  Other minor modes are buffer-local; they apply only to the current buffer, so you can enable the mode in certain buffers and not others.

For most minor modes, the command name is also the name of a variable which directly controls the mode.  The mode is enabled whenever this variable's value is non-nil, and the minor-mode command works by setting the variable.  For example, the command outline-minor-mode works by setting the value of outline-minor-mode as a variable; it is this variable that directly turns Outline minor mode on and off.  To check whether a given minor mode works this way, use C-h v to ask for documentation on the variable name.

These minor-mode variables provide a good way for Lisp programs to turn minor modes on and off; they are also useful in a file's local variables list.  But please think twice before setting minor modes with a local variables list, because most minor modes are matter of user preference---other users editing the same file might not want the same minor modes you prefer.

The buffer-local minor modes include Abbrev mode, Auto Fill mode, Auto Save mode, Font-Lock mode, Glasses mode, ISO Accents mode, Outline minor mode, Overwrite mode, and Binary Overwrite mode.

Abbrev mode allows you to define abbreviations that automatically expand as you type them.  For example, amd might expand to abbrev mode.  See Abbrevs, for full information.

Auto Fill mode allows you to enter filled text without breaking lines explicitly.  Emacs inserts newlines as necessary to prevent lines from becoming too long.  See Filling.

Auto Save mode causes the contents of a buffer to be saved periodically to reduce the amount of work you can lose in case of a system crash.  See Auto Save.

Enriched mode enables editing and saving of formatted text. See Formatted Text.

Flyspell mode automatically highlights misspelled words. See Spelling.

Font-Lock mode automatically highlights certain textual units found in programs, such as comments, strings, and function names being defined. This requires a window system that can display multiple fonts. See Faces.

ISO Accents mode makes the characters `, ', ", ^, / and ~ combine with the following letter, to produce an accented letter in the ISO Latin-1 character set.  The newer and more general feature of input methods more or less supersedes ISO Accents mode.  See Single-Byte Character Support.

Outline minor mode provides the same facilities as the major mode called Outline mode; but since it is a minor mode instead, you can combine it with any major mode.  See Outline Mode.

Overwrite mode causes ordinary printing characters to replace existing text instead of shoving it to the right.  For example, if point is in front of the B in FOOBAR, then in Overwrite mode typing a G changes it to FOOGAR, instead of producing FOOGBAR as usual.  In Overwrite mode, the command C-q inserts the next character whatever it may be, even if it is a digit---this gives you a way to insert a character instead of replacing an existing character.

The command overwrite-mode is an exception to the rule that commands which toggle minor modes are normally not bound to keys: it is bound to the INSERT function key.  This is because many other programs bind INSERT to similar functions.

Binary Overwrite mode is a variant of Overwrite mode for editing binary files; it treats newlines and tabs like other characters, so that they overwrite other characters and can be overwritten by them. In Binary Overwrite mode, digits after C-q specify an octal character code, as usual.

The following minor modes normally apply to all buffers at once. Since each is enabled or disabled by the value of a variable, you can set them differently for particular buffers, by explicitly making the corresponding variables local in those buffers. See Locals.

Icomplete mode displays an indication of available completions when you are in the minibuffer and completion is active.  See Completion Options.

Line Number mode enables continuous display in the mode line of the line number of point, and Column Number mode enables display of the column number.  See Mode Line.

Scroll Bar mode gives each window a scroll bar (see Scroll Bars). Menu Bar mode gives each frame a menu bar (see Menu Bars).  Both of these modes are enabled by default when you use the X Window System.

In Transient Mark mode, every change in the buffer contents ``deactivates'' the mark, so that commands that operate on the region will get an error.  This means you must either set the mark, or explicitly ``reactivate'' it, before each command that uses the region. The advantage of Transient Mark mode is that Emacs can display the region highlighted (currently only when using X).  See Mark.

Variables
=========

A variable is a Lisp symbol which has a value.  The symbol's name is also called the name of the variable.  A variable name can contain any characters that can appear in a file, but conventionally variable names consist of words separated by hyphens.  A variable can have a documentation string which describes what kind of value it should have and how the value will be used.

Lisp allows any variable to have any kind of value, but most variables that Emacs uses require a value of a certain type.  Often the value should always be a string, or should always be a number.  Sometimes we say that a certain feature is turned on if a variable is ``non-nil,'' meaning that if the variable's value is nil, the feature is off, but the feature is on for any other value.  The conventional value to use to turn on the feature---since you have to pick one particular value when you set the variable---is t.

Emacs uses many Lisp variables for internal record keeping, as any Lisp program must, but the most interesting variables for you are the ones that exist for the sake of customization.  Emacs does not (usually) change the values of these variables; instead, you set the values, and thereby alter and control the behavior of certain Emacs commands.  These variables are called user options.  Most user options are documented in this manual, and appear in the Variable Index (see Variable Index).

One example of a variable which is a user option is fill-column, which specifies the position of the right margin (as a number of characters from the left margin) to be used by the fill commands (see Filling).

Examining and Setting Variables
-------------------------------

C-h v VAR RET
     Display the value and documentation of variable VAR (describe-variable).

M-x set-variable RET VAR RET VALUE RET
     Change the value of variable VAR to VALUE.

To examine the value of a single variable, use C-h v (describe-variable), which reads a variable name using the minibuffer, with completion.  It displays both the value and the documentation of the variable.  For example,

     C-h v fill-column RET

displays something like this:

     fill-column's value is 70

     Documentation:
     *Column beyond which automatic line-wrapping should happen.
     Automatically becomes buffer-local when set in any fashion.

The star at the beginning of the documentation indicates that this variable is a user option.  C-h v is not restricted to user options; it allows any variable name.

The most convenient way to set a specific user option is with M-x set-variable.  This reads the variable name with the minibuffer (with completion), and then reads a Lisp expression for the new value using the minibuffer a second time.  For example,

     M-x set-variable RET fill-column RET 75 RET

sets fill-column to 75.

M-x set-variable is limited to user option variables, but you can set any variable with a Lisp expression, using the function setq. Here is a setq expression to set fill-column:

     (setq fill-column 75)

To execute an expression like this one, go to the *scratch* buffer, type in the expression, and then type C-j.  See Lisp Interaction.

Setting variables, like all means of customizing Emacs except where otherwise stated, affects only the current Emacs session.

Easy Customization Interface
----------------------------

A convenient way to find the user option variables that you want to change, and then change them, is with M-x customize.  This command creates a customization buffer with which you can browse through the Emacs user options in a logically organized structure, then edit and set their values.  You can also use the customization buffer to save settings permanently.  (Not all Emacs user options are included in this structure as of yet, but we are adding the rest.)

The appearance of the example buffers in the following is typically different under a window system where faces can be used to indicate the active fields and other features.

Customization Groups
....................

For customization purposes, user options are organized into groups to help you find them.  Groups are collected into bigger groups, all the way up to a master group called Emacs.

M-x customize creates a customization buffer that shows the top-level Emacs group and the second-level groups immediately under it.  It looks like this, in part:

     /- Emacs group: ---------------------------------------------------\
           [State]: visible group members are all at standard settings.
        Customization of the One True Editor.
        See also [Manual].

     Confirm Kill Emacs: [Hide] [Value Menu] Don't confirm
        [State]: this option is unchanged from its standard setting.
     How to ask for confirmation when leaving Emacs. [More]

     Editing group: [Go to Group]
     Basic text editing facilities.

     External group: [Go to Group]
     Interfacing to external utilities.

     MORE SECOND-LEVEL GROUPS

     \- Emacs group end ------------------------------------------------/

This says that the buffer displays the contents of the Emacs group.  The other groups are listed because they are its contents.  But they are listed differently, without indentation and dashes, because their contents are not included.  Each group has a single-line documentation string; the Emacs group also has a [State] line.

Most of the text in the customization buffer is read-only, but it typically includes some editable fields that you can edit.  There are also active fields; this means a field that does something when you invoke it.  To invoke an active field, either click on it with Mouse-1, or move point to it and type RET.

For example, the phrase [Go to Group] that appears in a second-level group is an active field.  Invoking the [Go to Group] field for a group creates a new customization buffer, which shows that group and its contents.  This field is a kind of hypertext link to another group.

The Emacs group includes a few user options itself, but mainly it contains other groups, which contain more groups, which contain the user options.  By browsing the hierarchy of groups, you will eventually find the feature you are interested in customizing. Then you can use the customization buffer to set the options and faces pertaining to that feature.  You can also go straight to a particular group by name, using the command M-x customize-group.

You can view the structure of customization groups on a larger scale with M-x customize-browse.  This command creates a special kind of customization buffer which shows only the names of the groups (and options and faces), and their structure.

In this buffer, you can show the contents of a group by invoking [+].  When the group contents are visible, this button changes to [-]; invoking that hides the group contents.

Each group, option or face name in this buffer has an active field which says [Group], [Option] or [Face].  Invoking that active field creates an ordinary customization buffer showing just that group and its contents, just that option, or just that face. This is the way to set values in it.

Changing an Option
..................

Here is an example of what a user option looks like in the customization buffer:

     Kill Ring Max: [Hide] 60
        [State]: this option is unchanged from its standard setting.
     Maximum length of kill ring before oldest elements are thrown away.

The text following [Hide], 60 in this case, indicates the current value of the option.  If you see [Show] instead of [Hide], it means that the value is hidden; the customization buffer initially hides values that take up several lines.  Invoke [Show] to show the value.

The line after the option name indicates the customization state of the option: in the example above, it says you have not changed the option yet.  The word [State] at the beginning of this line is active; you can get a menu of various operations by invoking it with Mouse-1 or RET.  These operations are essential for customizing the variable.

The line after the [State] line displays the beginning of the option's documentation string.  If there are more lines of documentation, this line ends with [More]; invoke this to show the full documentation string.

To enter a new value for Kill Ring Max, move point to the value and edit it textually.  For example, you can type M-d, then insert another number.

When you begin to alter the text, you will see the [State] line change to say that you have edited the value:

     [State]: you have edited the value as text, but not set the option.

Editing the value does not actually set the option variable.  To do that, you must set the option.  To do this, invoke the word [State] and choose Set for Current Session.

The state of the option changes visibly when you set it:

     [State]: you have set this option, but not saved it for future sessions.

You don't have to worry about specifying a value that is not valid; setting the option checks for validity and will not really install an unacceptable value.

While editing a value or field that is a file name, directory name, command name, or anything else for which completion is defined, you can type M-TAB (widget-complete) to do completion.

Some options have a small fixed set of possible legitimate values. These options don't let you edit the value textually.  Instead, an active field [Value Menu] appears before the value; invoke this field to edit the value.  For a boolean ``on or off'' value, the active field says [Toggle], and it changes to the other value. [Value Menu] and [Toggle] edit the buffer; the changes take effect when you use the Set for Current Session operation.

Some options have values with complex structure.  For example, the value of file-coding-system-alist is an association list.  Here is how it appears in the customization buffer:

     File Coding System Alist: [Hide]
     [INS] [DEL] File regexp: \.elc\'
                 Choice: [Value Menu] Encoding/decoding pair:
                 Decoding: emacs-mule
                 Encoding: emacs-mule
     [INS] [DEL] File regexp: \(\`\|/\)loaddefs.el\'
                 Choice: [Value Menu] Encoding/decoding pair:
                 Decoding: raw-text
                 Encoding: raw-text-unix
     [INS] [DEL] File regexp: \.tar\'
                 Choice: [Value Menu] Encoding/decoding pair:
                 Decoding: no-conversion
                 Encoding: no-conversion
     [INS] [DEL] File regexp:
                 Choice: [Value Menu] Encoding/decoding pair:
                 Decoding: undecided
                 Encoding: nil
     [INS]
        [State]: this option is unchanged from its standard setting.
     Alist to decide a coding system to use for a file I/O operation. [Hide]
     The format is ((PATTERN . VAL) ...),
     where PATTERN is a regular expression matching a file name,
     [...more lines of documentation...]

Each association in the list appears on four lines, with several editable or ``active'' fields.  You can edit the regexps and coding systems using ordinary editing commands.  You can also invoke [Value Menu] to switch to a kind of value---for instance, to specify a function instead of a pair of coding systems.

To delete an association from the list, invoke the [DEL] button for that item.  To add an association, invoke [INS] at the position where you want to add it.  There is an [INS] button between each pair of association, another at the beginning and another at the end, so you can add the new association at any position in the list.

Two special commands, TAB and S-TAB, are useful for moving through the customization buffer.  TAB (widget-forward) moves forward to the next active or editable field; S-TAB (widget-backward) moves backward to the previous active or editable field.

Typing RET on an editable field also moves forward, just like TAB.  We set it up this way because people often type RET when they are finished editing a field.  To insert a newline within an editable field, use C-o or C-q C-j.

Setting the option changes its value in the current Emacs session; saving the value changes it for future sessions as well.  This works by writing code into your ~/.emacs file so as to set the option variable again each time you start Emacs.  To save the option, invoke [State] and select the Save for Future Sessions operation.

If Emacs was invoked with the -q or --no-init-file options (see Initial Options), it will not let you save your customizations in your ~/.emacs init file.  This is because saving customizations from such a session would wipe out all the other customizations you might have on your init file.

You can also restore the option to its standard value by invoking [State] and selecting the Erase Customization operation.  There are actually three reset operations:

Reset
     If you have made some modifications and not yet set the option, this restores the text in the customization buffer to match the actual value.

Reset to Saved
     This restores the value of the option to the last saved value, and updates the text accordingly.

Erase Customization
     This sets the option to its standard value, and updates the text accordingly.  This also eliminates any saved value for the option, so that you will get the standard value in future Emacs sessions.

Sometimes it is useful to record a comment about a specific customization.  Use the Add Comment item from the [State] menu to create a field for entering the comment.  The comment you enter will be saved, and displayed again if you again view the same option in a customization buffer, even in another session.

The state of a group indicates whether anything in that group has been edited, set or saved.  You can select Set for Current Session, Save for Future Sessions and the various kinds of Reset operation for the group; these operations on the group apply to all options in the group and its subgroups.

Near the top of the customization buffer there are two lines containing several active fields:

      [Set for Current Session] [Save for Future Sessions]
      [Reset] [Reset to Saved] [Erase Customization]   [Finish]

Invoking [Finish] either buries or kills this customization buffer according to the setting of the option custom-buffer-done-function; the default is to bury the buffer. Each of the other fields performs an operation---set, save or reset---on each of the items in the buffer that could meaningfully be set, saved or reset.

Customizing Faces
.................

In addition to user options, some customization groups also include faces.  When you show the contents of a group, both the user options and the faces in the group appear in the customization buffer.  Here is an example of how a face looks:

     Custom Changed Face: (sample) [Hide]
        [State]: this face is unchanged from its standard setting.
     Parent groups: [Custom Magic Faces]
     Attributes: [ ] Font family: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Width: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Height: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Weight: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Slant: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Underline: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Overline: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Strike-through: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Box around text: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Inverse-video: [Value Menu] *
                 [X] Foreground: [Value Menu] Color: white       (sample)
                 [X] Background: [Value Menu] Color: blue        (sample)
                 [ ] Stipple: [Value Menu] *
                 [ ] Inherit:

Each face attribute has its own line.  The [X] field before the attribute name indicates whether the attribute is enabled; X means that it is.  You can enable or disable the attribute by invoking that field.  When the attribute is enabled, you can change the attribute value in the usual ways.

On a black-and-white display, the colors you can use for the background are black, white, gray, gray1, and gray3.  Emacs supports these shades of gray by using background stipple patterns instead of a color.

Setting, saving and resetting a face work like the same operations for options (see Changing an Option).

A face can specify different appearances for different types of display.  For example, a face can make text red on a color display, but use a bold font on a monochrome display.  To specify multiple appearances for a face, select Show all display specs in the menu you get from invoking [State].

Another more basic way to set the attributes of a specific face is with M-x modify-face.  This command reads the name of a face, then reads the attributes one by one.  For the color and stipple attributes, the attribute's current value is the default---type just RET if you don't want to change that attribute.  Type none if you want to clear out the attribute.

Customizing Specific Items
..........................

Instead of finding the options you want to change by moving down through the structure of groups, you can specify the particular option, face or group that you want to customize.

M-x customize-option RET OPTION RET
     Set up a customization buffer with just one option, OPTION.

M-x customize-face RET FACE RET
     Set up a customization buffer with just one face, FACE.

M-x customize-group RET GROUP RET
     Set up a customization buffer with just one group, GROUP.

M-x customize-apropos RET REGEXP RET
     Set up a customization buffer with all the options, faces and groups that match REGEXP.

M-x customize-changed-options RET VERSION RET
     Set up a customization buffer with all the options, faces and groups whose meaning has changed since Emacs version VERSION.

M-x customize-saved
     Set up a customization buffer containing all options and faces that you have saved with customization buffers.

M-x customize-customized
     Set up a customization buffer containing all options and faces that you have customized but not saved.

If you want to alter a particular user option variable with the customization buffer, and you know its name, you can use the command M-x customize-option and specify the option name.  This sets up the customization buffer with just one option---the one that you asked for.  Editing, setting and saving the value work as described above, but only for the specified option.

Likewise, you can modify a specific face, chosen by name, using M-x customize-face.

You can also set up the customization buffer with a specific group, using M-x customize-group.  The immediate contents of the chosen group, including option variables, faces, and other groups, all appear as well.  However, these subgroups' own contents start out hidden.  You can show their contents in the usual way, by invoking [Show].

To control more precisely what to customize, you can use M-x customize-apropos.  You specify a regular expression as argument; then all options, faces and groups whose names match this regular expression are set up in the customization buffer.  If you specify an empty regular expression, this includes all groups, options and faces in the customization buffer (but that takes a long time).

When you upgrade to a new Emacs version, you might want to customize new options and options whose meanings or default values have changed. To do this, use M-x customize-changed-options and specify a previous Emacs version number using the minibuffer.  It creates a customization buffer which shows all the options (and groups) whose definitions have been changed since the specified version.

If you change option values and then decide the change was a mistake, you can use two special commands to revisit your previous changes.  Use M-x customize-saved to look at the options and faces that you have saved.  Use M-x customize-customized to look at the options and faces that you have set but not saved.

Hooks
-----

Hooks are an important mechanism for customization of Emacs.  A hook is a Lisp variable which holds a list of functions, to be called on some well-defined occasion.  (This is called running the hook.) The individual functions in the list are called the hook functions of the hook.  With rare exceptions, hooks in Emacs are empty when Emacs starts up, so the only hook functions in any given hook are the ones you explicitly put there as customization.

Most major modes run one or more mode hooks as the last step of initialization.  This makes it easy for you to customize the behavior of the mode, by setting up a hook function to override the local variable assignments already made by the mode.  But hooks are also used in other contexts.  For example, the hook suspend-hook runs just before Emacs suspends itself (see Exiting).

Most Emacs hooks are normal hooks.  This means that running the hook operates by calling all the hook functions, unconditionally, with no arguments.  We have made an effort to keep most hooks normal so that you can use them in a uniform way.  Every variable in Emacs whose name ends in -hook is a normal hook.

There are also a few abnormal hooks.  These variables' names end in -hooks or -functions, instead of -hook.  What makes these hooks abnormal is that there is something peculiar about the way its functions are called---perhaps they are given arguments, or perhaps the values they return are used in some way.  For example, find-file-not-found-hooks (see Visiting) is abnormal because as soon as one hook function returns a non-nil value, the rest are not called at all.  The documentation of each abnormal hook variable explains in detail what is peculiar about it.

The recommended way to add a hook function to a hook (either normal or abnormal) is by calling add-hook.  You can use any valid Lisp function as the hook function, provided it can handle the proper number of arguments (zero arguments, in the case of a normal hook).  Of course, not every Lisp function is useful in any particular hook.

For example, here's how to set up a hook to turn on Auto Fill mode when entering Text mode and other modes based on Text mode:

     (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)

The next example shows how to use a hook to customize the indentation of C code.  (People often have strong personal preferences for one format compared to another.)  Here the hook function is an anonymous lambda expression.

     (setq my-c-style
       '((c-comment-only-line-offset . 4)

         (c-cleanup-list . (scope-operator
     		       empty-defun-braces
     		       defun-close-semi))

         (c-offsets-alist . ((arglist-close . c-lineup-arglist)
     			(substatement-open . 0)))))

     (add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook
       '(lambda ()
          (c-add-style "my-style" my-c-style t)))

It is best to design your hook functions so that the order in which they are executed does not matter.  Any dependence on the order is ``asking for trouble.''  However, the order is predictable: the most recently added hook functions are executed first.

Local Variables
---------------

M-x make-local-variable RET VAR RET
     Make variable VAR have a local value in the current buffer.

M-x kill-local-variable RET VAR RET
     Make variable VAR use its global value in the current buffer.

M-x make-variable-buffer-local RET VAR RET
     Mark variable VAR so that setting it will make it local to the buffer that is current at that time.

Almost any variable can be made local to a specific Emacs buffer.  This means that its value in that buffer is independent of its value in other buffers.  A few variables are always local in every buffer.  Every other Emacs variable has a global value which is in effect in all buffers that have not made the variable local.

M-x make-local-variable reads the name of a variable and makes it local to the current buffer.  Further changes in this buffer will not affect others, and further changes in the global value will not affect this buffer.

M-x make-variable-buffer-local reads the name of a variable and changes the future behavior of the variable so that it will become local automatically when it is set.  More precisely, once a variable has been marked in this way, the usual ways of setting the variable automatically do make-local-variable first.  We call such variables per-buffer variables.

Major modes (see Major Modes) always make variables local to the buffer before setting the variables.  This is why changing major modes in one buffer has no effect on other buffers.  Minor modes also work by setting variables---normally, each minor mode has one controlling variable which is non-nil when the mode is enabled (see Minor Modes).  For most minor modes, the controlling variable is per buffer.

Emacs contains a number of variables that are always per-buffer. These include abbrev-mode, auto-fill-function, case-fold-search, comment-column, ctl-arrow, fill-column, fill-prefix, indent-tabs-mode, left-margin, mode-line-format, overwrite-mode, selective-display-ellipses, selective-display, tab-width, and truncate-lines.  Some other variables are always local in every buffer, but they are used for internal purposes.

A few variables cannot be local to a buffer because they are always local to each display instead (see Multiple Displays).  If you try to make one of these variables buffer-local, you'll get an error message.

M-x kill-local-variable reads the name of a variable and makes it cease to be local to the current buffer.  The global value of the variable henceforth is in effect in this buffer.  Setting the major mode kills all the local variables of the buffer except for a few variables specially marked as permanent locals.

To set the global value of a variable, regardless of whether the variable has a local value in the current buffer, you can use the Lisp construct setq-default.  This construct is used just like setq, but it sets variables' global values instead of their local values (if any).  When the current buffer does have a local value, the new global value may not be visible until you switch to another buffer. Here is an example:

     (setq-default fill-column 75)

setq-default is the only way to set the global value of a variable that has been marked with make-variable-buffer-local.

Lisp programs can use default-value to look at a variable's default value.  This function takes a symbol as argument and returns its default value.  The argument is evaluated; usually you must quote it explicitly.  For example, here's how to obtain the default value of fill-column:

     (default-value 'fill-column)

Local Variables in Files
------------------------

A file can specify local variable values for use when you edit the file with Emacs.  Visiting the file checks for local variable specifications; it automatically makes these variables local to the buffer, and sets them to the values specified in the file.

There are two ways to specify local variable values: in the first line, or with a local variables list.  Here's how to specify them in the first line:

     -*- mode: MODENAME; VAR: VALUE; ... -*-

You can specify any number of variables/value pairs in this way, each pair with a colon and semicolon as shown above.  mode: MODENAME; specifies the major mode; this should come first in the line.  The VALUEs are not evaluated; they are used literally. Here is an example that specifies Lisp mode and sets two variables with numeric values:

     ;; -*- mode: Lisp; fill-column: 75; comment-column: 50; -*-

You can also specify the coding system for a file in this way: just specify a value for the ``variable'' named coding.  The ``value'' must be a coding system name that Emacs recognizes.  See Coding Systems.

The eval pseudo-variable, described below, can be specified in the first line as well.

In shell scripts, the first line is used to identify the script interpreter, so you cannot put any local variables there.  To accomodate for this, when Emacs visits a shell script, it looks for local variable specifications in the second line.

A local variables list goes near the end of the file, in the last page.  (It is often best to put it on a page by itself.)  The local variables list starts with a line containing the string Local Variables:, and ends with a line containing the string End:.  In between come the variable names and values, one set per line, as VARIABLE: VALUE.  The VALUEs are not evaluated; they are used literally.  If a file has both a local variables list and a -*- line, Emacs processes everything in the -*- line first, and everything in the local variables list afterward.

Here is an example of a local variables list:

     ;;; Local Variables: ***
     ;;; mode:lisp ***
     ;;; comment-column:0 ***
     ;;; comment-start: ";;; "  ***
     ;;; comment-end:"***" ***
     ;;; End: ***

As you see, each line starts with the prefix ;;;  and each line ends with the suffix  ***.  Emacs recognizes these as the prefix and suffix based on the first line of the list, by finding them surrounding the magic string Local Variables:; then it automatically discards them from the other lines of the list.

The usual reason for using a prefix and/or suffix is to embed the local variables list in a comment, so it won't confuse other programs that the file is intended as input for.  The example above is for a language where comment lines start with ;;;  and end with ***; the local values for comment-start and comment-end customize the rest of Emacs for this unusual syntax. Don't use a prefix (or a suffix) if you don't need one.

Two ``variable names'' have special meanings in a local variables list: a value for the variable mode really sets the major mode, and a value for the variable eval is simply evaluated as an expression and the value is ignored.  mode and eval are not real variables; setting variables named mode and eval in any other context has no special meaning.  If mode is used to set a major mode, it should be the first ``variable'' in the list.

You can use the mode ``variable'' to set minor modes as well as major modes; in fact, you can use it more than once, first to set the major mode and then to set minor modes which are specific to particular buffers.  But most minor modes should not be specified in the file in any fashion, because they represent user preferences.

For example, you may be tempted to try to turn on Auto Fill mode with a local variable list.  That is a mistake.  The choice of Auto Fill mode or not is a matter of individual taste, not a matter of the contents of particular files.  If you want to use Auto Fill, set up major mode hooks with your .emacs file to turn it on (when appropriate) for you alone (see Init File).  Don't use a local variable list to impose your taste on everyone.

The start of the local variables list must be no more than 3000 characters from the end of the file, and must be in the last page if the file is divided into pages.  Otherwise, Emacs will not notice it is there.  The purpose of this rule is so that a stray Local Variables: not in the last page does not confuse Emacs, and so that visiting a long file that is all one page and has no local variables list need not take the time to search the whole file.

Use the command normal-mode to reset the local variables and major mode of a buffer according to the file name and contents, including the local variables list if any.  See Choosing Modes.

The variable enable-local-variables controls whether to process local variables in files, and thus gives you a chance to override them. Its default value is t, which means do process local variables in files.  If you set the value to nil, Emacs simply ignores local variables in files.  Any other value says to query you about each file that has local variables, showing you the local variable specifications so you can judge.

The eval ``variable,'' and certain actual variables, create a special risk; when you visit someone else's file, local variable specifications for these could affect your Emacs in arbitrary ways. Therefore, the option enable-local-eval controls whether Emacs processes eval variables, as well variables with names that end in -hook, -hooks, -function or -functions, and certain other variables.  The three possibilities for the option's value are t, nil, and anything else, just as for enable-local-variables.  The default is maybe, which is neither t nor nil, so normally Emacs does ask for confirmation about file settings for these variables.

Keyboard Macros
===============

A keyboard macro is a command defined by the user to stand for another sequence of keys.  For example, if you discover that you are about to type C-n C-d forty times, you can speed your work by defining a keyboard macro to do C-n C-d and calling it with a repeat count of forty.

C-x (
     Start defining a keyboard macro (start-kbd-macro).

C-x )
     End the definition of a keyboard macro (end-kbd-macro).

C-x e
     Execute the most recent keyboard macro (call-last-kbd-macro).

C-u C-x (
     Re-execute last keyboard macro, then add more keys to its definition.

C-x q
     When this point is reached during macro execution, ask for confirmation (kbd-macro-query).

M-x name-last-kbd-macro
     Give a command name (for the duration of the session) to the most recently defined keyboard macro.

M-x insert-kbd-macro
     Insert in the buffer a keyboard macro's definition, as Lisp code.

C-x C-k
     Edit a previously defined keyboard macro (edit-kbd-macro).

M-x apply-macro-to-region-lines
     Run the last keyboard macro on each complete line in the region.

Keyboard macros differ from ordinary Emacs commands in that they are written in the Emacs command language rather than in Lisp.  This makes it easier for the novice to write them, and makes them more convenient as temporary hacks.  However, the Emacs command language is not powerful enough as a programming language to be useful for writing anything intelligent or general.  For such things, Lisp must be used.

You define a keyboard macro while executing the commands which are the definition.  Put differently, as you define a keyboard macro, the definition is being executed for the first time.  This way, you can see what the effects of your commands are, so that you don't have to figure them out in your head.  When you are finished, the keyboard macro is defined and also has been, in effect, executed once.  You can then do the whole thing over again by invoking the macro.

Basic Use
---------

To start defining a keyboard macro, type the C-x ( command (start-kbd-macro).  From then on, your keys continue to be executed, but also become part of the definition of the macro.  Def appears in the mode line to remind you of what is going on.  When you are finished, the C-x ) command (end-kbd-macro) terminates the definition (without becoming part of it!).  For example,

     C-x ( M-f foo C-x )

defines a macro to move forward a word and then insert foo.

The macro thus defined can be invoked again with the C-x e command (call-last-kbd-macro), which may be given a repeat count as a numeric argument to execute the macro many times.  C-x ) can also be given a repeat count as an argument, in which case it repeats the macro that many times right after defining it, but defining the macro counts as the first repetition (since it is executed as you define it).  Therefore, giving C-x ) an argument of 4 executes the macro immediately 3 additional times.  An argument of zero to C-x e or C-x ) means repeat the macro indefinitely (until it gets an error or you type C-g or, on MS-DOS, C-BREAK).

If you wish to repeat an operation at regularly spaced places in the text, define a macro and include as part of the macro the commands to move to the next place you want to use it.  For example, if you want to change each line, you should position point at the start of a line, and define a macro to change that line and leave point at the start of the next line. Then repeating the macro will operate on successive lines.

When a command reads an argument with the minibuffer, your minibuffer input becomes part of the macro along with the command.  So when you replay the macro, the command gets the same argument as when you entered the macro.  For example,

     C-x ( C-a C-SPC C-n M-w C-x b f o o RET C-y C-x b RET C-x )

defines a macro that copies the current line into the buffer foo, then returns to the original buffer.

You can use function keys in a keyboard macro, just like keyboard keys.  You can even use mouse events, but be careful about that: when the macro replays the mouse event, it uses the original mouse position of that event, the position that the mouse had while you were defining the macro.  The effect of this may be hard to predict.  (Using the current mouse position would be even less predictable.)

One thing that doesn't always work well in a keyboard macro is the command C-M-c (exit-recursive-edit).  When this command exits a recursive edit that started within the macro, it works as you'd expect.  But if it exits a recursive edit that started before you invoked the keyboard macro, it also necessarily exits the keyboard macro as part of the process.

After you have terminated the definition of a keyboard macro, you can add to the end of its definition by typing C-u C-x (.  This is equivalent to plain C-x ( followed by retyping the whole definition so far.  As a consequence it re-executes the macro as previously defined.

You can edit a keyboard macro already defined by typing C-x C-k (edit-kbd-macro).  Follow that with the keyboard input that you would use to invoke the macro---C-x e or M-x NAME or some other key sequence.  This formats the macro definition in a buffer and enters a specialized major mode for editing it.  Type C-h m once in that buffer to display details of how to edit the macro.  When you are finished editing, type C-c C-c.

The command M-x apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined keyboard macro on each complete line within the current region. It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of the line and then executing the macro.

Naming and Saving Keyboard Macros
---------------------------------

If you wish to save a keyboard macro for longer than until you define the next one, you must give it a name using M-x name-last-kbd-macro. This reads a name as an argument using the minibuffer and defines that name to execute the macro.  The macro name is a Lisp symbol, and defining it in this way makes it a valid command name for calling with M-x or for binding a key to with global-set-key (see Keymaps).  If you specify a name that has a prior definition other than another keyboard macro, an error message is shown and nothing is changed.

Once a macro has a command name, you can save its definition in a file. Then it can be used in another editing session.  First, visit the file you want to save the definition in.  Then use this command:

     M-x insert-kbd-macro RET MACRONAME RET

This inserts some Lisp code that, when executed later, will define the same macro with the same definition it has now.  (You need not understand Lisp code to do this, because insert-kbd-macro writes the Lisp code for you.)  Then save the file.  You can load the file later with load-file (see Lisp Libraries).  If the file you save in is your init file ~/.emacs (see Init File) then the macro will be defined each time you run Emacs.

If you give insert-kbd-macro a numeric argument, it makes additional Lisp code to record the keys (if any) that you have bound to the keyboard macro, so that the macro will be reassigned the same keys when you load the file.

Executing Macros with Variations
--------------------------------

Using C-x q (kbd-macro-query), you can get an effect similar to that of query-replace, where the macro asks you each time around whether to make a change.  While defining the macro, type C-x q at the point where you want the query to occur.  During macro definition, the C-x q does nothing, but when you run the macro later, C-x q asks you interactively whether to continue.

The valid responses when C-x q asks are SPC (or y), DEL (or n), RET (or q), C-l and C-r. The answers are the same as in query-replace, though not all of the query-replace options are meaningful.

These responses include SPC to continue, and DEL to skip the remainder of this repetition of the macro and start right away with the next repetition.  RET means to skip the remainder of this repetition and cancel further repetitions.  C-l redraws the screen and asks you again for a character to say what to do.

C-r enters a recursive editing level, in which you can perform editing which is not part of the macro.  When you exit the recursive edit using C-M-c, you are asked again how to continue with the keyboard macro.  If you type a SPC at this time, the rest of the macro definition is executed.  It is up to you to leave point and the text in a state such that the rest of the macro will do what you want.

C-u C-x q, which is C-x q with a numeric argument, performs a completely different function.  It enters a recursive edit reading input from the keyboard, both when you type it during the definition of the macro, and when it is executed from the macro.  During definition, the editing you do inside the recursive edit does not become part of the macro.  During macro execution, the recursive edit gives you a chance to do some particularized editing on each repetition. See Recursive Edit.

Another way to vary the behavior of a keyboard macro is to use a register as a counter, incrementing it on each repetition of the macro. See RegNumbers.

Customizing Key Bindings
========================

This section describes key bindings, which map keys to commands, and keymaps, which record key bindings.  It also explains how to customize key bindings.

Recall that a command is a Lisp function whose definition provides for interactive use.  Like every Lisp function, a command has a function name which usually consists of lower-case letters and hyphens.

Keymaps
-------

The bindings between key sequences and command functions are recorded in data structures called keymaps.  Emacs has many of these, each used on particular occasions.

Recall that a key sequence (key, for short) is a sequence of input events that have a meaning as a unit.  Input events include characters, function keys and mouse buttons---all the inputs that you can send to the computer with your terminal.  A key sequence gets its meaning from its binding, which says what command it runs.  The function of keymaps is to record these bindings.

The global keymap is the most important keymap because it is always in effect.  The global keymap defines keys for Fundamental mode; most of these definitions are common to most or all major modes.  Each major or minor mode can have its own keymap which overrides the global definitions of some keys.

For example, a self-inserting character such as g is self-inserting because the global keymap binds it to the command self-insert-command.  The standard Emacs editing characters such as C-a also get their standard meanings from the global keymap. Commands to rebind keys, such as M-x global-set-key, actually work by storing the new binding in the proper place in the global map. See Rebinding.

Meta characters work differently; Emacs translates each Meta character into a pair of characters starting with ESC.  When you type the character M-a in a key sequence, Emacs replaces it with ESC a.  A meta key comes in as a single input event, but becomes two events for purposes of key bindings.  The reason for this is historical, and we might change it someday.

Most modern keyboards have function keys as well as character keys. Function keys send input events just as character keys do, and keymaps can have bindings for them.

On many terminals, typing a function key actually sends the computer a sequence of characters; the precise details of the sequence depends on which function key and on the model of terminal you are using.  (Often the sequence starts with ESC [.)  If Emacs understands your terminal type properly, it recognizes the character sequences forming function keys wherever they occur in a key sequence (not just at the beginning).  Thus, for most purposes, you can pretend the function keys reach Emacs directly and ignore their encoding as character sequences.

Mouse buttons also produce input events.  These events come with other data---the window and position where you pressed or released the button, and a time stamp.  But only the choice of button matters for key bindings; the other data matters only if a command looks at it. (Commands designed for mouse invocation usually do look at the other data.)

A keymap records definitions for single events.  Interpreting a key sequence of multiple events involves a chain of keymaps.  The first keymap gives a definition for the first event; this definition is another keymap, which is used to look up the second event in the sequence, and so on.

Key sequences can mix function keys and characters.  For example, C-x SELECT is meaningful.  If you make SELECT a prefix key, then SELECT C-n makes sense.  You can even mix mouse events with keyboard events, but we recommend against it, because such key sequences are inconvenient to use.

As a user, you can redefine any key; but it is usually best to stick to key sequences that consist of C-c followed by a letter. These keys are ``reserved for users,'' so they won't conflict with any properly designed Emacs extension.  The function keys F5 through F9 are also reserved for users.  If you redefine some other key, your definition may be overridden by certain extensions or major modes which redefine the same key.

Prefix Keymaps
--------------

A prefix key such as C-x or ESC has its own keymap, which holds the definition for the event that immediately follows that prefix.

The definition of a prefix key is usually the keymap to use for looking up the following event.  The definition can also be a Lisp symbol whose function definition is the following keymap; the effect is the same, but it provides a command name for the prefix key that can be used as a description of what the prefix key is for.  Thus, the binding of C-x is the symbol Ctl-X-Prefix, whose function definition is the keymap for C-x commands.  The definitions of C-c, C-x, C-h and ESC as prefix keys appear in the global map, so these prefix keys are always available.

Aside from ordinary prefix keys, there is a fictitious ``prefix key'' which represents the menu bar; see Menu Bar (The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), for special information about menu bar key bindings. Mouse button events that invoke pop-up menus are also prefix keys; see Menu Keymaps (The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), for more details.

Some prefix keymaps are stored in variables with names:

  * ctl-x-map is the variable name for the map used for characters that follow C-x.

  * help-map is for characters that follow C-h.

  * esc-map is for characters that follow ESC.  Thus, all Meta characters are actually defined by this map.

  * ctl-x-4-map is for characters that follow C-x 4.

  * mode-specific-map is for characters that follow C-c.

Local Keymaps
-------------

So far we have explained the ins and outs of the global map.  Major modes customize Emacs by providing their own key bindings in local keymaps.  For example, C mode overrides TAB to make it indent the current line for C code.  Portions of text in the buffer can specify their own keymaps to substitute for the keymap of the buffer's major mode.

Minor modes can also have local keymaps.  Whenever a minor mode is in effect, the definitions in its keymap override both the major mode's local keymap and the global keymap.

The local keymaps for Lisp mode and several other major modes always exist even when not in use.  These are kept in variables named lisp-mode-map and so on.  For major modes less often used, the local keymap is normally constructed only when the mode is used for the first time in a session.  This is to save space.  If you wish to change one of these keymaps, you must use the major mode's mode hook---see below.

All minor mode keymaps are created in advance.  There is no way to defer their creation until the first time the minor mode is enabled.

A local keymap can locally redefine a key as a prefix key by defining it as a prefix keymap.  If the key is also defined globally as a prefix, then its local and global definitions (both keymaps) effectively combine: both of them are used to look up the event that follows the prefix key.  Thus, if the mode's local keymap defines C-c as another keymap, and that keymap defines C-z as a command, this provides a local meaning for C-c C-z.  This does not affect other sequences that start with C-c; if those sequences don't have their own local bindings, their global bindings remain in effect.

Another way to think of this is that Emacs handles a multi-event key sequence by looking in several keymaps, one by one, for a binding of the whole key sequence.  First it checks the minor mode keymaps for minor modes that are enabled, then it checks the major mode's keymap, and then it checks the global keymap.  This is not precisely how key lookup works, but it's good enough for understanding ordinary circumstances.

To change the local bindings of a major mode, you must change the mode's local keymap.  Normally you must wait until the first time the mode is used, because most major modes don't create their keymaps until then.  If you want to specify something in your ~/.emacs file to change a major mode's bindings, you must use the mode's mode hook to delay the change until the mode is first used.

For example, the command texinfo-mode to select Texinfo mode runs the hook texinfo-mode-hook.  Here's how you can use the hook to add local bindings (not very useful, we admit) for C-c n and C-c p in Texinfo mode:

     (add-hook 'texinfo-mode-hook
               '(lambda ()
                  (define-key texinfo-mode-map "\C-cp"
                              'backward-paragraph)
                  (define-key texinfo-mode-map "\C-cn"
                              'forward-paragraph)))

See Hooks.

Minibuffer Keymaps
------------------

The minibuffer has its own set of local keymaps; they contain various completion and exit commands.

  * minibuffer-local-map is used for ordinary input (no completion).

  * minibuffer-local-ns-map is similar, except that SPC exits just like RET.  This is used mainly for Mocklisp compatibility.

  * minibuffer-local-completion-map is for permissive completion.

  * minibuffer-local-must-match-map is for strict completion and for cautious completion.

Changing Key Bindings Interactively
-----------------------------------

The way to redefine an Emacs key is to change its entry in a keymap. You can change the global keymap, in which case the change is effective in all major modes (except those that have their own overriding local definitions for the same key).  Or you can change the current buffer's local map, which affects all buffers using the same major mode.

M-x global-set-key RET KEY CMD RET
     Define KEY globally to run CMD.

M-x local-set-key RET KEY CMD RET
     Define KEY locally (in the major mode now in effect) to run CMD.

M-x global-unset-key RET KEY
     Make KEY undefined in the global map.

M-x local-unset-key RET KEY
     Make KEY undefined locally (in the major mode now in effect).

For example, suppose you like to execute commands in a subshell within an Emacs buffer, instead of suspending Emacs and executing commands in your login shell.  Normally, C-z is bound to the function suspend-emacs (when not using the X Window System), but you can change C-z to invoke an interactive subshell within Emacs, by binding it to shell as follows:

     M-x global-set-key RET C-z shell RET

global-set-key reads the command name after the key.   After you press the key, a message like this appears so that you can confirm that you are binding the key you want:

     Set key C-z to command:

You can redefine function keys and mouse events in the same way; just type the function key or click the mouse when it's time to specify the key to rebind.

You can rebind a key that contains more than one event in the same way.  Emacs keeps reading the key to rebind until it is a complete key (that is, not a prefix key).  Thus, if you type C-f for KEY, that's the end; the minibuffer is entered immediately to read CMD.  But if you type C-x, another character is read; if that is 4, another character is read, and so on.  For example,

     M-x global-set-key RET C-x 4 $ spell-other-window RET

redefines C-x 4 $ to run the (fictitious) command spell-other-window.

The two-character keys consisting of C-c followed by a letter are reserved for user customizations.  Lisp programs are not supposed to define these keys, so the bindings you make for them will be available in all major modes and will never get in the way of anything.

You can remove the global definition of a key with global-unset-key.  This makes the key undefined; if you type it, Emacs will just beep.  Similarly, local-unset-key makes a key undefined in the current major mode keymap, which makes the global definition (or lack of one) come back into effect in that major mode.

If you have redefined (or undefined) a key and you subsequently wish to retract the change, undefining the key will not do the job---you need to redefine the key with its standard definition.  To find the name of the standard definition of a key, go to a Fundamental mode buffer and use C-h c.  The documentation of keys in this manual also lists their command names.

If you want to prevent yourself from invoking a command by mistake, it is better to disable the command than to undefine the key.  A disabled command is less work to invoke when you really want to. See Disabling.

Rebinding Keys in Your Init File
--------------------------------

If you have a set of key bindings that you like to use all the time, you can specify them in your .emacs file by using their Lisp syntax.  (see Init File.)

The simplest method for doing this works for ASCII characters and Meta-modified ASCII characters only.  This method uses a string to represent the key sequence you want to rebind.  For example, here's how to bind C-z to shell:

     (global-set-key "\C-z" 'shell)

This example uses a string constant containing one character, C-z. The single-quote before the command name, shell, marks it as a constant symbol rather than a variable.  If you omit the quote, Emacs would try to evaluate shell immediately as a variable.  This probably causes an error; it certainly isn't what you want.

Here is another example that binds a key sequence two characters long:

     (global-set-key "\C-xl" 'make-symbolic-link)

To put TAB, RET, ESC, or DEL in the string, you can use the Emacs Lisp escape sequences, \t, \r, \e, and \d.  Here is an example which binds C-x TAB:

     (global-set-key "\C-x\t" 'indent-rigidly)

These examples show how to write some other special ASCII characters in strings for key bindings:

     (global-set-key "\r" 'newline)               ;; RET
     (global-set-key "\d" 'delete-backward-char)  ;; DEL
     (global-set-key "\C-x\e\e" 'repeat-complex-command)  ;; ESC

When the key sequence includes function keys or mouse button events, or non-ASCII characters such as C-= or H-a, you must use the more general method of rebinding, which uses a vector to specify the key sequence.

The way to write a vector in Emacs Lisp is with square brackets around the vector elements.  Use spaces to separate the elements.  If an element is a symbol, simply write the symbol's name---no other delimiters or punctuation are needed.  If a vector element is a character, write it as a Lisp character constant: ? followed by the character as it would appear in a string.

Here are examples of using vectors to rebind C-= (a control character not in ASCII), C-M-= (not in ASCII because C-= is not), H-a (a Hyper character; ASCII doesn't have Hyper at all), F7 (a function key), and C-Mouse-1 (a keyboard-modified mouse button):

     (global-set-key [?\C-=] 'make-symbolic-link)
     (global-set-key [?\M-\C-=] 'make-symbolic-link)
     (global-set-key [?\H-a] 'make-symbolic-link)
     (global-set-key [f7] 'make-symbolic-link)
     (global-set-key [C-mouse-1] 'make-symbolic-link)

You can use a vector for the simple cases too.  Here's how to rewrite the first three examples above, using vectors to bind C-z, C-x l, and C-x TAB:

     (global-set-key [?\C-z] 'shell)
     (global-set-key [?\C-x ?l] 'make-symbolic-link)
     (global-set-key [?\C-x ?\t] 'indent-rigidly)
     (global-set-key [?\r] 'newline)
     (global-set-key [?\d] 'delete-backward-char)
     (global-set-key [?\C-x ?\e ?\e] 'repeat-complex-command)

As you see, you represent a multi-character key sequence with a vector by listing each of the characters within the square brackets that delimit the vector.

Rebinding Function Keys
-----------------------

Key sequences can contain function keys as well as ordinary characters.  Just as Lisp characters (actually integers) represent keyboard characters, Lisp symbols represent function keys.  If the function key has a word as its label, then that word is also the name of the corresponding Lisp symbol.  Here are the conventional Lisp names for common function keys:

left, up, right, down
     Cursor arrow keys.

begin, end, home, next, prior
     Other cursor repositioning keys.

select, print, execute, backtab
insert, undo, redo, clearline
insertline, deleteline, insertchar, deletechar
     Miscellaneous function keys.

f1, f2, ... f35
     Numbered function keys (across the top of the keyboard).

kp-add, kp-subtract, kp-multiply, kp-divide
kp-backtab, kp-space, kp-tab, kp-enter
kp-separator, kp-decimal, kp-equal
     Keypad keys (to the right of the regular keyboard), with names or punctuation.

kp-0, kp-1, ... kp-9
     Keypad keys with digits.

kp-f1, kp-f2, kp-f3, kp-f4
     Keypad PF keys.

These names are conventional, but some systems (especially when using X) may use different names.  To make certain what symbol is used for a given function key on your terminal, type C-h c followed by that key.

A key sequence which contains function key symbols (or anything but ASCII characters) must be a vector rather than a string.  The vector syntax uses spaces between the elements, and square brackets around the whole vector.  Thus, to bind function key f1 to the command rmail, write the following:

     (global-set-key [f1] 'rmail)

To bind the right-arrow key to the command forward-char, you can use this expression:

     (global-set-key [right] 'forward-char)

This uses the Lisp syntax for a vector containing the symbol right.  (This binding is present in Emacs by default.)

See Init Rebinding, for more information about using vectors for rebinding.

You can mix function keys and characters in a key sequence.  This example binds C-x NEXT to the command forward-page.

     (global-set-key [?\C-x next] 'forward-page)

where ?\C-x is the Lisp character constant for the character C-x.  The vector element next is a symbol and therefore does not take a question mark.

You can use the modifier keys CTRL, META, HYPER, SUPER, ALT and SHIFT with function keys.  To represent these modifiers, add the strings C-, M-, H-, s-, A- and S- at the front of the symbol name. Thus, here is how to make Hyper-Meta-RIGHT move forward a word:

     (global-set-key [H-M-right] 'forward-word)

Named ASCII Control Characters
------------------------------

TAB, RET, BS, LFD, ESC and DEL started out as names for certain ASCII control characters, used so often that they have special keys of their own.  Later, users found it convenient to distinguish in Emacs between these keys and the ``same'' control characters typed with the CTRL key.

Emacs distinguishes these two kinds of input, when the keyboard reports these keys to Emacs.  It treats the ``special'' keys as function keys named tab, return, backspace, linefeed, escape, and delete.  These function keys translate automatically into the corresponding ASCII characters if they have no bindings of their own.  As a result, neither users nor Lisp programs need to pay attention to the distinction unless they care to.

If you do not want to distinguish between (for example) TAB and C-i, make just one binding, for the ASCII character TAB (octal code 011).  If you do want to distinguish, make one binding for this ASCII character, and another for the ``function key'' tab.

With an ordinary ASCII terminal, there is no way to distinguish between TAB and C-i (and likewise for other such pairs), because the terminal sends the same character in both cases.

Non-ASCII Characters on the Keyboard
------------------------------------

If your keyboard has keys that send non-ASCII characters, such as accented letters, rebinding these keys is a bit tricky.  There are two solutions you can use.  One is to specify a keyboard coding system, using set-keyboard-coding-system (see Specify Coding). Then you can bind these keys in the usual way (Note that you should avoid the string syntax for binding 8-bit characters, since they will be interpreted as meta keys.  See Strings of Events (The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual).), like this:

     (global-set-key [?CHAR] 'some-function)

Type C-q followed by the key you want to bind, to insert CHAR.

If you don't specify the keyboard coding system, that approach won't work.  Instead, you need to find out the actual code that the terminal sends.  The easiest way to do this in Emacs is to create an empty buffer with C-x b temp RET, make it unibyte with M-x toggle-enable-multibyte-characters RET, then type the key to insert the character into this buffer.

Move point before the character, then type C-x =.  This displays a message in the minibuffer, showing the character code in three ways, octal, decimal and hexadecimal, all within a set of parentheses.  Use the second of the three numbers, the decimal one, inside the vector to bind:

     (global-set-key [DECIMAL-CODE] 'some-function)

If you bind 8-bit characters like this in your init file, you may find it convenient to specify that it is unibyte.  See Enabling Multibyte.

Rebinding Mouse Buttons
-----------------------

Emacs uses Lisp symbols to designate mouse buttons, too.  The ordinary mouse events in Emacs are click events; these happen when you press a button and release it without moving the mouse.  You can also get drag events, when you move the mouse while holding the button down.  Drag events happen when you finally let go of the button.

The symbols for basic click events are mouse-1 for the leftmost button, mouse-2 for the next, and so on.  Here is how you can redefine the second mouse button to split the current window:

     (global-set-key [mouse-2] 'split-window-vertically)

The symbols for drag events are similar, but have the prefix drag- before the word mouse.  For example, dragging the first button generates a drag-mouse-1 event.

You can also define bindings for events that occur when a mouse button is pressed down.  These events start with down- instead of drag-.  Such events are generated only if they have key bindings. When you get a button-down event, a corresponding click or drag event will always follow.

If you wish, you can distinguish single, double, and triple clicks.  A double click means clicking a mouse button twice in approximately the same place.  The first click generates an ordinary click event.  The second click, if it comes soon enough, generates a double-click event instead.  The event type for a double-click event starts with double-: for example, double-mouse-3.

This means that you can give a special meaning to the second click at the same place, but it must act on the assumption that the ordinary single click definition has run when the first click was received.

This constrains what you can do with double clicks, but user interface designers say that this constraint ought to be followed in any case.  A double click should do something similar to the single click, only ``more so.''  The command for the double-click event should perform the extra work for the double click.

If a double-click event has no binding, it changes to the corresponding single-click event.  Thus, if you don't define a particular double click specially, it executes the single-click command twice.

Emacs also supports triple-click events whose names start with triple-.  Emacs does not distinguish quadruple clicks as event types; clicks beyond the third generate additional triple-click events. However, the full number of clicks is recorded in the event list, so you can distinguish if you really want to.  We don't recommend distinct meanings for more than three clicks, but sometimes it is useful for subsequent clicks to cycle through the same set of three meanings, so that four clicks are equivalent to one click, five are equivalent to two, and six are equivalent to three.

Emacs also records multiple presses in drag and button-down events. For example, when you press a button twice, then move the mouse while holding the button, Emacs gets a double-drag- event.  And at the moment when you press it down for the second time, Emacs gets a double-down- event (which is ignored, like all button-down events, if it has no binding).

The variable double-click-time specifies how much time can elapse between clicks and still allow them to be grouped as a multiple click.  Its value is in units of milliseconds.  If the value is nil, double clicks are not detected at all.  If the value is t, then there is no time limit.  The default is 500.

The variable double-click-fuzz specifies how much the mouse can move between clicks still allow them to be grouped as a multiple click.  Its value is in units of pixels on windowed displays and in units of 1/8 of a character cell on text-mode terminals; the default is 3.

The symbols for mouse events also indicate the status of the modifier keys, with the usual prefixes C-, M-, H-, s-, A- and S-.  These always precede double- or triple-, which always precede drag- or down-.

A frame includes areas that don't show text from the buffer, such as the mode line and the scroll bar.  You can tell whether a mouse button comes from a special area of the screen by means of dummy ``prefix keys.''  For example, if you click the mouse in the mode line, you get the prefix key mode-line before the ordinary mouse-button symbol. Thus, here is how to define the command for clicking the first button in a mode line to run scroll-up:

     (global-set-key [mode-line mouse-1] 'scroll-up)

Here is the complete list of these dummy prefix keys and their meanings:

mode-line
     The mouse was in the mode line of a window.

vertical-line
     The mouse was in the vertical line separating side-by-side windows.  (If you use scroll bars, they appear in place of these vertical lines.)

vertical-scroll-bar
     The mouse was in a vertical scroll bar.  (This is the only kind of scroll bar Emacs currently supports.)

You can put more than one mouse button in a key sequence, but it isn't usual to do so.

Disabling Commands
------------------

Disabling a command marks the command as requiring confirmation before it can be executed.  The purpose of disabling a command is to prevent beginning users from executing it by accident and being confused.

An attempt to invoke a disabled command interactively in Emacs displays a window containing the command's name, its documentation, and some instructions on what to do immediately; then Emacs asks for input saying whether to execute the command as requested, enable it and execute it, or cancel.  If you decide to enable the command, you are asked whether to do this permanently or just for the current session. (Enabling permanently works by automatically editing your .emacs file.)  You can also type ! to enable all commands, for the current session only.

The direct mechanism for disabling a command is to put a non-nil disabled property on the Lisp symbol for the command.  Here is the Lisp program to do this:

     (put 'delete-region 'disabled t)

If the value of the disabled property is a string, that string is included in the message displayed when the command is used:

     (put 'delete-region 'disabled
          "It's better to use `kill-region' instead.\n")

You can make a command disabled either by editing the .emacs file directly or with the command M-x disable-command, which edits the .emacs file for you.  Likewise, M-x enable-command edits .emacs to enable a command permanently.  See Init File.

Whether a command is disabled is independent of what key is used to invoke it; disabling also applies if the command is invoked using M-x.  Disabling a command has no effect on calling it as a function from Lisp programs.

Keyboard Translations
=====================

Some keyboards do not make it convenient to send all the special characters that Emacs uses.  The most common problem case is the DEL character.  Some keyboards provide no convenient way to type this very important character---usually because they were designed to expect the character C-h to be used for deletion.  On these keyboards, if you press the key normally used for deletion, Emacs handles the C-h as a prefix character and offers you a list of help options, which is not what you want.

You can work around this problem within Emacs by setting up keyboard translations to turn C-h into DEL and DEL into C-h, as follows:

     ;; Translate C-h to DEL.
     (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?)

     ;; Translate DEL to C-h.
     (keyboard-translate ?\C-? ?\C-h)

Keyboard translations are not the same as key bindings in keymaps (see Keymaps).  Emacs contains numerous keymaps that apply in different situations, but there is only one set of keyboard translations, and it applies to every character that Emacs reads from the terminal.  Keyboard translations take place at the lowest level of input processing; the keys that are looked up in keymaps contain the characters that result from keyboard translation.

On a window system, the keyboard key named DELETE is a function key and is distinct from the ASCII character named DEL. See Named ASCII Chars.  Keyboard translations affect only ASCII character input, not function keys; thus, the above example used on a window system does not affect the DELETE key.  However, the translation above isn't necessary on window systems, because Emacs can also distinguish between the BACKSPACE key and C-h; and it normally treats BACKSPACE as DEL.

For full information about how to use keyboard translations, see Translating Input (The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual).

The Syntax Table
================

All the Emacs commands which parse words or balance parentheses are controlled by the syntax table.  The syntax table says which characters are opening delimiters, which are parts of words, which are string quotes, and so on.  It does this by assigning each character to one of fifteen-odd syntax classes.  In some cases it specifies some additional information also.

Each major mode has its own syntax table (though related major modes sometimes share one syntax table) which it installs in each buffer that uses the mode.  The syntax table installed in the current buffer is the one that all commands use, so we call it ``the'' syntax table.

To display a description of the contents of the current syntax table, type C-h s (describe-syntax).  The description of each character includes both the string you would have to give to modify-syntax-entry to set up that character's current syntax, starting with the character which designates its syntax class, plus some English text to explain its meaning.

A syntax table is actually a Lisp object, a char-table, whose elements are cons cells.  For full information on the syntax table, see Syntax Tables (The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual).

The Init File, ~/.emacs
=======================

When Emacs is started, it normally loads a Lisp program from the file .emacs or .emacs.el in your home directory.  We call this file your init file because it specifies how to initialize Emacs for you.  You can use the command line switch -q to prevent loading your init file, and -u (or --user) to specify a different user's init file (see Entering Emacs).

There can also be a default init file, which is the library named default.el, found via the standard search path for libraries.  The Emacs distribution contains no such library; your site may create one for local customizations.  If this library exists, it is loaded whenever you start Emacs (except when you specify -q). But your init file, if any, is loaded first; if it sets inhibit-default-init non-nil, then default is not loaded.

Your site may also have a site startup file; this is named site-start.el, if it exists.  Like default.el, Emacs finds this file via the standard search path for Lisp libraries. Emacs loads this library before it loads your init file.  To inhibit loading of this library, use the option -no-site-file. See Initial Options.

You can place default.el and site-start.el in any of the directories which Emacs searches for Lisp libraries.  The variable load-path (see Lisp Libraries) specifies these directories. Many sites put these files in the site-lisp subdirectory of the Emacs installation directory, typically /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp.

If you have a large amount of code in your .emacs file, you should rename it to ~/.emacs.el, and byte-compile it.  See Byte Compilation (the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual), for more information about compiling Emacs Lisp programs.

If you are going to write actual Emacs Lisp programs that go beyond minor customization, you should read the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. See Emacs Lisp (the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual).

Init File Syntax
----------------

The .emacs file contains one or more Lisp function call expressions.  Each of these consists of a function name followed by arguments, all surrounded by parentheses.  For example, (setq fill-column 60) calls the function setq to set the variable fill-column (see Filling) to 60.

The second argument to setq is an expression for the new value of the variable.  This can be a constant, a variable, or a function call expression.  In .emacs, constants are used most of the time.  They can be:

Numbers:
     Numbers are written in decimal, with an optional initial minus sign.

Strings:
     Lisp string syntax is the same as C string syntax with a few extra features.  Use a double-quote character to begin and end a string constant.

     In a string, you can include newlines and special characters literally. But often it is cleaner to use backslash sequences for them: \n for newline, \b for backspace, \r for carriage return, \t for tab, \f for formfeed (control-L), \e for escape, \\ for a backslash, \" for a double-quote, or \OOO for the character whose octal code is OOO. Backslash and double-quote are the only characters for which backslash sequences are mandatory.

     \C- can be used as a prefix for a control character, as in \C-s for ASCII control-S, and \M- can be used as a prefix for a Meta character, as in \M-a for Meta-A or \M-\C-a for Control-Meta-A.

     If you want to include non-ASCII characters in strings in your init file, you should consider putting a -*-coding: CODING-SYSTEM-*- tag on the first line which states the coding system used to save your .emacs, as explained in Recognize Coding.  This is because the defaults for decoding non-ASCII text might not yet be set up by the time Emacs reads those parts of your init file which use such strings, possibly leading Emacs to decode those strings incorrectly.

Characters:
     Lisp character constant syntax consists of a ? followed by either a character or an escape sequence starting with \. Examples: ?x, ?\n, ?\", ?\).  Note that strings and characters are not interchangeable in Lisp; some contexts require one and some contexts require the other.

     See Non-ASCII Rebinding, for information about binding commands to keys which send non-ASCII characters.

True:
     t stands for `true'.

False:
     nil stands for `false'.

Other Lisp objects:
     Write a single-quote (') followed by the Lisp object you want.

Init File Examples
------------------

Here are some examples of doing certain commonly desired things with Lisp expressions:

  * Make TAB in C mode just insert a tab if point is in the middle of a line.

          (setq c-tab-always-indent nil)

     Here we have a variable whose value is normally t for `true' and the alternative is nil for `false'.

  * Make searches case sensitive by default (in all buffers that do not override this).

          (setq-default case-fold-search nil)

     This sets the default value, which is effective in all buffers that do not have local values for the variable.  Setting case-fold-search with setq affects only the current buffer's local value, which is not what you probably want to do in an init file.

  * Specify your own email address, if Emacs can't figure it out correctly.

          (setq user-mail-address "coon@yoyodyne.com")

     Various Emacs packages that need your own email address use the value of user-mail-address.

  * Make Text mode the default mode for new buffers.

          (setq default-major-mode 'text-mode)

     Note that text-mode is used because it is the command for entering Text mode.  The single-quote before it makes the symbol a constant; otherwise, text-mode would be treated as a variable name.

  * Set up defaults for the Latin-1 character set which supports most of the languages of Western Europe.

          (set-language-environment "Latin-1")

  * Turn on Auto Fill mode automatically in Text mode and related modes.

          (add-hook 'text-mode-hook
            '(lambda () (auto-fill-mode 1)))

     This shows how to add a hook function to a normal hook variable (see Hooks).  The function we supply is a list starting with lambda, with a single-quote in front of it to make it a list constant rather than an expression.

     It's beyond the scope of this manual to explain Lisp functions, but for this example it is enough to know that the effect is to execute (auto-fill-mode 1) when Text mode is entered.  You can replace that with any other expression that you like, or with several expressions in a row.

     Emacs comes with a function named turn-on-auto-fill whose definition is (lambda () (auto-fill-mode 1)).  Thus, a simpler way to write the above example is as follows:

          (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)

  * Load the installed Lisp library named foo (actually a file foo.elc or foo.el in a standard Emacs directory).

          (load "foo")

     When the argument to load is a relative file name, not starting with / or ~, load searches the directories in load-path (see Lisp Libraries).

  * Load the compiled Lisp file foo.elc from your home directory.

          (load "~/foo.elc")

     Here an absolute file name is used, so no searching is done.

  * Tell Emacs to find the definition for the function myfunction by loading a Lisp library named mypackage (i.e. a file mypackage.elc or mypackage.el):

          (autoload 'myfunction "mypackage" "Do what I say." t)

     Here the string "Do what I say." is the function's documentation string.  You specify it in the autoload definition so it will be available for help commands even when the package is not loaded.  The last argument, t, indicates that this function is interactive; that is, it can be invoked interactively by typing M-x myfunction RET or by binding it to a key. If the function is not interactive, omit the t or use nil.

  * Rebind the key C-x l to run the function make-symbolic-link.

          (global-set-key "\C-xl" 'make-symbolic-link)

     or

          (define-key global-map "\C-xl" 'make-symbolic-link)

     Note once again the single-quote used to refer to the symbol make-symbolic-link instead of its value as a variable.

  * Do the same thing for Lisp mode only.

          (define-key lisp-mode-map "\C-xl" 'make-symbolic-link)

  * Redefine all keys which now run next-line in Fundamental mode so that they run forward-line instead.

          (substitute-key-definition 'next-line 'forward-line
                                     global-map)

  * Make C-x C-v undefined.

          (global-unset-key "\C-x\C-v")

     One reason to undefine a key is so that you can make it a prefix. Simply defining C-x C-v ANYTHING will make C-x C-v a prefix, but C-x C-v must first be freed of its usual non-prefix definition.

  * Make $ have the syntax of punctuation in Text mode. Note the use of a character constant for $.

          (modify-syntax-entry ?\$ "." text-mode-syntax-table)

  * Enable the use of the command narrow-to-region without confirmation.

          (put 'narrow-to-region 'disabled nil)

Terminal-specific Initialization
--------------------------------

Each terminal type can have a Lisp library to be loaded into Emacs when it is run on that type of terminal.  For a terminal type named TERMTYPE, the library is called term/TERMTYPE and it is found by searching the directories load-path as usual and trying the suffixes .elc and .el.  Normally it appears in the subdirectory term of the directory where most Emacs libraries are kept.

The usual purpose of the terminal-specific library is to map the escape sequences used by the terminal's function keys onto more meaningful names, using function-key-map.  See the file term/lk201.el for an example of how this is done.  Many function keys are mapped automatically according to the information in the Termcap data base; the terminal-specific library needs to map only the function keys that Termcap does not specify.

When the terminal type contains a hyphen, only the part of the name before the first hyphen is significant in choosing the library name. Thus, terminal types aaa-48 and aaa-30-rv both use the library term/aaa.  The code in the library can use (getenv "TERM") to find the full terminal type name.

The library's name is constructed by concatenating the value of the variable term-file-prefix and the terminal type.  Your .emacs file can prevent the loading of the terminal-specific library by setting term-file-prefix to nil.

Emacs runs the hook term-setup-hook at the end of initialization, after both your .emacs file and any terminal-specific library have been read in.  Add hook functions to this hook if you wish to override part of any of the terminal-specific libraries and to define initializations for terminals that do not have a library.  See Hooks.

How Emacs Finds Your Init File
------------------------------

Normally Emacs uses the environment variable HOME to find .emacs; that's what ~ means in a file name.  But if you run Emacs from a shell started by su, Emacs tries to find your own .emacs, not that of the user you are currently pretending to be.  The idea is that you should get your own editor customizations even if you are running as the super user.

More precisely, Emacs first determines which user's init file to use. It gets the user name from the environment variables LOGNAME and USER; if neither of those exists, it uses effective user-ID. If that user name matches the real user-ID, then Emacs uses HOME; otherwise, it looks up the home directory corresponding to that user name in the system's data base of users.