Document Viewing
================

DocView mode (doc-view-mode) is a viewer for DVI, Postscript (PS), and PDF documents.  It provides features such as slicing, zooming, and searching inside documents.  It works by converting the document to a set of images using the gs (GhostScript) command, and displaying those images.

When you visit a PDF or DVI file, Emacs automatically switches to DocView mode.  When you visit a Postscript file, Emacs switches to PS mode, a major mode for editing Postscript files as text; however, it also enables DocView minor mode, so you can type C-c C-c to view the document with DocView.  (PDF and DVI files, unlike Postscript files, are not usually human-editable.)  In either case, repeating C-c C-c (doc-view-toggle-display) toggles between DocView and the file text.

You can explicitly toggle DocView mode with the command M-x doc-view-mode, and DocView minor mode with the command M-x doc-view-minor-mode.

When DocView mode starts, it displays a welcome screen and begins formatting the file, page by page.  It displays the first page once that has been formatted.

When in DocView mode, you can enlarge or shrink the document with + (doc-view-enlarge) and - (doc-view-shrink).  To specify the default size for DocView, set or customize the variable doc-view-resolution.

To kill the DocView buffer, type k (doc-view-kill-proc-and-buffer).  To bury it, type q (quit-window).

Navigation
----------

When in DocView mode, you can scroll the current page using the usual Emacs movement keys: C-p, C-n, C-b, C-f, and the arrow keys.

By default, the line-motion keys C-p and C-n stop scrolling at the beginning and end of the current page, respectively. However, if you change the variable doc-view-continuous to a non-nil value, then C-p displays the previous page if you are already at the beginning of the current page, and C-n displays the next page if you are at the end of the current page.

You can also display the next page by typing n, next or C-x ] (doc-view-next-page).  To display the previous page, type p, prior or C-x [ (doc-view-previous-page).

The SPC (doc-view-scroll-up-or-next-page) key is a convenient way to advance through the document.  It scrolls within the current page or advances to the next.  DEL moves backwards in a similar way (doc-view-scroll-down-or-previous-page).

To go to the first page, type M-< (doc-view-first-page); to go to the last one, type M-> (doc-view-last-page).  To jump to a page by its number, type M-g M-g or M-g g (doc-view-goto-page).

Searching
---------

While in DocView mode, you can search the file's text for a regular expression (see Regexps).  The interface for searching is inspired by isearch (see Incremental Search).

To begin a search, type C-s (doc-view-search) or C-r (doc-view-search-backward).  This reads a regular expression using a minibuffer, then echoes the number of matches found within the document.  You can move forward and back among the matches by typing C-s and C-r.  DocView mode has no way to show the match inside the page image; instead, it displays a tooltip (at the mouse position) listing all matching lines in the current page. To force display of this tooltip, type C-t (doc-view-show-tooltip).

To start a new search, use the search command with a prefix argument; i.e., C-u C-s for a forward search or C-u C-r for a backward search.

Slicing
-------

Documents often have wide margins for printing.  They are annoying when reading the document on the screen, because they use up screen space and can cause inconvenient scrolling.

With DocView you can hide these margins by selecting a slice of pages to display.  A slice is a rectangle within the page area; once you specify a slice in DocView, it applies to whichever page you look at.

To specify the slice numerically, type s s (doc-view-set-slice); then enter the top left pixel position and the slice's width and height.

A more convenient graphical way to specify the slice is with s m (doc-view-set-slice-using-mouse), where you use the mouse to select the slice.

To cancel the selected slice, type s r (doc-view-reset-slice).  Then DocView shows the entire page including its entire margins.

Conversion
----------

For efficiency, DocView caches the images produced by gs. The name of this directory is given by the variable doc-view-cache-directory.  You can clear the cache directory by typing M-x doc-view-clear-cache.

To force a reconversion of the currently viewed document, type r or g (revert-buffer).  To kill the converter process associated with the current buffer, type K (doc-view-kill-proc).  The command k (doc-view-kill-proc-and-buffer) kills the converter process and the DocView buffer.

The zoom commands + (doc-view-enlarge) and - (doc-view-shrink) need to reconvert the document at the new size.  The current page is converted first.

Gnus
====

Gnus is an Emacs package primarily designed for reading and posting Usenet news.  It can also be used to read and respond to messages from a number of other sources---mail, remote directories, digests, and so on. Here we introduce Gnus and describe several basic features. For full details, see Gnus (The Gnus Manual).

To start Gnus, type M-x gnus RET.

Gnus Buffers
------------

Unlike most Emacs packages, Gnus uses several buffers to display information and to receive commands.  The three Gnus buffers users use most are the group buffer, the summary buffer and the article buffer.

The group buffer contains a list of newsgroups.  This is the first buffer Gnus displays when it starts up.  It normally displays only the groups to which you subscribe and that contain unread articles.  Use this buffer to select a specific group.

The summary buffer lists one line for each article in a single group.  By default, the author, the subject and the line number are displayed for each article, but this is customizable, like most aspects of Gnus display.  The summary buffer is created when you select a group in the group buffer, and is killed when you exit the group.  Use this buffer to select an article.

The article buffer displays the article.  In normal Gnus usage, you see this buffer but you don't select it---all useful article-oriented commands work in the summary buffer.  But you can select the article buffer, and execute all Gnus commands from that buffer, if you want to.

When Gnus Starts Up
-------------------

At startup, Gnus reads your .newsrc news initialization file and attempts to communicate with the local news server, which is a repository of news articles.  The news server need not be the same computer you are logged in on.

If you start Gnus and connect to the server, but do not see any newsgroups listed in the group buffer, type L or A k to get a listing of all the groups.  Then type u to toggle subscription to groups.

The first time you start Gnus, Gnus subscribes you to a few selected groups.  All other groups start out as killed groups for you; you can list them with A k.  All new groups that subsequently come to exist at the news server become zombie groups for you; type A z to list them.  You can subscribe to a group shown in these lists using the u command.

When you quit Gnus with q, it automatically records in your .newsrc and .newsrc.eld initialization files the subscribed or unsubscribed status of all groups.  You should normally not edit these files manually, but you may if you know how.

Summary of Gnus Commands
------------------------

Reading news is a two-step process:

 1. Choose a group in the group buffer.

 2. Select articles from the summary buffer.  Each article selected is displayed in the article buffer in a large window, below the summary buffer in its small window.

Each Gnus buffer has its own special commands; the meanings of any given key in the various Gnus buffers are usually analogous, even if not identical.  Here are commands for the group and summary buffers:

q
     In the group buffer, update your .newsrc initialization file and quit Gnus.

     In the summary buffer, exit the current group and return to the group buffer.  Thus, typing q twice quits Gnus.

L
     In the group buffer, list all the groups available on your news server (except those you have killed).  This may be a long list!

l
     In the group buffer, list only the groups to which you subscribe and which contain unread articles.

u
     In the group buffer, unsubscribe from (or subscribe to) the group listed in the line that point is on.  When you quit Gnus by typing q, Gnus lists in your .newsrc file which groups you have subscribed to.  The next time you start Gnus, you won't see this group, because Gnus normally displays only subscribed-to groups.

C-k
     In the group buffer, ``kill'' the current line's group---don't even list it in .newsrc from now on.  This affects future Gnus sessions as well as the present session.

     When you quit Gnus by typing q, Gnus writes information in the file .newsrc describing all newsgroups except those you have ``killed.''

SPC
     In the group buffer, select the group on the line under the cursor and display the first unread article in that group.

     In the summary buffer,

       * Select the article on the line under the cursor if none is selected.

       * Scroll the text of the selected article (if there is one).

       * Select the next unread article if at the end of the current article.

     Thus, you can move through all the articles by repeatedly typing SPC.

DEL
     In the group buffer, move point to the previous group containing unread articles.

     In the summary buffer, scroll the text of the article backwards.

n
     Move point to the next unread group, or select the next unread article.

p
     Move point to the previous unread group, or select the previous unread article.

C-n
C-p
     Move point to the next or previous item, even if it is marked as read. This does not select the article or group on that line.

s
     In the summary buffer, do an incremental search of the current text in the article buffer, just as if you switched to the article buffer and typed C-s.

M-s REGEXP RET
     In the summary buffer, search forward for articles containing a match for REGEXP.

Running Shell Commands from Emacs
=================================

Emacs has commands for passing single command lines to inferior shell processes; it can also run a shell interactively with input and output to an Emacs buffer named *shell* or run a shell inside a terminal emulator window.

M-! CMD RET
     Run the shell command line CMD and display the output (shell-command).

M-| CMD RET
     Run the shell command line CMD with region contents as input; optionally replace the region with the output (shell-command-on-region).

M-& CMD RET
     Run the shell command line CMD asynchronously, and display the output (async-shell-command).

M-x shell
     Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively.

M-x term
     Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively. Full terminal emulation is available.

M-x eshell invokes a shell implemented entirely in Emacs.  It is documented in a separate manual.  See Eshell (Eshell: The Emacs Shell).

Single Shell Commands
---------------------

M-! (shell-command) reads a line of text using the minibuffer and executes it as a shell command in a subshell made just for that command.  Standard input for the command comes from the null device.  If the shell command produces any output, the output appears either in the echo area (if it is short), or in an Emacs buffer named *Shell Command Output*, which is displayed in another window but not selected (if the output is long).

For instance, one way to decompress a file foo.gz from Emacs is to type M-! gunzip foo.gz RET.  That shell command normally creates the file foo and produces no terminal output.

A numeric argument, as in M-1 M-!, says to insert terminal output into the current buffer instead of a separate buffer.  It puts point before the output, and sets the mark after the output.  For instance, M-1 M-! gunzip < foo.gz RET would insert the uncompressed equivalent of foo.gz into the current buffer.

If the shell command line ends in &, it runs asynchronously. For a synchronous shell command, shell-command returns the command's exit status (0 means success), when it is called from a Lisp program.  You do not get any status information for an asynchronous command, since it hasn't finished yet when shell-command returns.

You can also type M-& (async-shell-command) to execute a shell command asynchronously.  This behaves exactly like calling shell-command with &, except that you do not need to add the & to the shell command line.

M-| (shell-command-on-region) is like M-! but passes the contents of the region as the standard input to the shell command, instead of no input.  With a numeric argument, meaning insert the output in the current buffer, it deletes the old region and the output replaces it as the contents of the region.  It returns the command's exit status, like M-!.

One use for M-| is to run gpg to see what keys are in the buffer.  For instance, if the buffer contains a GPG key, type C-x h M-| gpg RET to feed the entire buffer contents to the gpg program.  That program will ignore everything except the encoded keys, and will output a list of the keys the buffer contains.

Both M-! and M-| use shell-file-name to specify the shell to use.  This variable is initialized based on your SHELL environment variable when Emacs is started.  If the file name is relative, Emacs searches the directories in the list exec-path; this list is initialized based on the environment variable PATH when Emacs is started.  Your init file can override either or both of these default initializations (see Init File).

Both M-! and M-| wait for the shell command to complete, unless you end the command with & to make it asynchronous.  To stop waiting, type C-g to quit; that terminates the shell command with the signal SIGINT---the same signal that C-c normally generates in the shell.  Emacs then waits until the command actually terminates.  If the shell command doesn't stop (because it ignores the SIGINT signal), type C-g again; this sends the command a SIGKILL signal which is impossible to ignore.

Asynchronous commands ending in & feed their output into the buffer *Async Shell Command*.  Output arrives in that buffer regardless of whether it is visible in a window.

To specify a coding system for M-! or M-|, use the command C-x RET c immediately beforehand.  See Communication Coding.

Error output from these commands is normally intermixed with the regular output.  But if the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer has a string as value, and it's the name of a buffer, M-! and M-| insert error output before point in that buffer.

Interactive Inferior Shell
--------------------------

To run a subshell interactively, use M-x shell.  This creates (or reuses) a buffer named *shell* and runs a subshell with input coming from and output going to that buffer.  That is to say, any ``terminal output'' from the subshell goes into the buffer, advancing point, and any ``terminal input'' for the subshell comes from text in the buffer.  To give input to the subshell, go to the end of the buffer and type the input, terminated by RET.

Emacs does not wait for the subshell to do anything.  You can switch windows or buffers and edit them while the shell is waiting, or while it is running a command.  Output from the subshell waits until Emacs has time to process it; this happens whenever Emacs is waiting for keyboard input or for time to elapse.

Input lines, once you submit them, are displayed using the face comint-highlight-input, and prompts are displayed using the face comint-highlight-prompt.  This makes it easier to see previous input lines in the buffer.  See Faces.

To make multiple subshells, you can invoke M-x shell with a prefix argument (e.g. C-u M-x shell), which will read a buffer name and create (or reuse) a subshell in that buffer.  You can also rename the *shell* buffer using M-x rename-uniquely, then create a new *shell* buffer using plain M-x shell. Subshells in different buffers run independently and in parallel.

The file name used to load the subshell is the value of the variable explicit-shell-file-name, if that is non-nil. Otherwise, the environment variable ESHELL is used, or the environment variable SHELL if there is no ESHELL.  If the file name specified is relative, the directories in the list exec-path are searched; this list is initialized based on the environment variable PATH when Emacs is started.  Your init file can override either or both of these default initializations. (see Init File).

Emacs sends the new shell the contents of the file ~/.emacs_SHELLNAME as input, if it exists, where SHELLNAME is the name of the file that the shell was loaded from.  For example, if you use bash, the file sent to it is ~/.emacs_bash.  If this file is not found, Emacs tries to fallback on ~/.emacs.d/init_SHELLNAME.sh.

To specify a coding system for the shell, you can use the command C-x RET c immediately before M-x shell.  You can also change the coding system for a running subshell by typing C-x RET p in the shell buffer.  See Communication Coding.

Emacs sets the environment variable INSIDE_EMACS in the subshell to a comma-separated list including the Emacs version. Programs can check this variable to determine whether they are running inside an Emacs subshell.

Emacs also sets the EMACS environment variable (to t) if it is not already defined.  Warning: This environment variable is deprecated.  Programs that check this variable should be changed to check INSIDE_EMACS instead.

Shell Mode
----------

Shell buffers use Shell mode, which defines several special keys attached to the C-c prefix.  They are chosen to resemble the usual editing and job control characters present in shells that are not under Emacs, except that you must type C-c first.  Here is a complete list of the special key bindings of Shell mode:

RET
     At end of buffer send line as input; otherwise, copy current line to end of buffer and send it (comint-send-input).  Copying a line in this way omits any prompt at the beginning of the line (text output by programs preceding your input).  See Shell Prompts, for how Shell mode recognizes prompts.

TAB
     Complete the command name or file name before point in the shell buffer (comint-dynamic-complete).  TAB also completes history references (see History References) and environment variable names.

     The variable shell-completion-fignore specifies a list of file name extensions to ignore in Shell mode completion.  The default setting is nil, but some users prefer ("~" "#" "%") to ignore file names ending in ~, # or %.  Other related Comint modes use the variable comint-completion-fignore instead.

M-?
     Display temporarily a list of the possible completions of the file name before point in the shell buffer (comint-dynamic-list-filename-completions).

C-d
     Either delete a character or send EOF (comint-delchar-or-maybe-eof).  Typed at the end of the shell buffer, C-d sends EOF to the subshell.  Typed at any other position in the buffer, C-d deletes a character as usual.

C-c C-a
     Move to the beginning of the line, but after the prompt if any (comint-bol-or-process-mark).  If you repeat this command twice in a row, the second time it moves back to the process mark, which is the beginning of the input that you have not yet sent to the subshell. (Normally that is the same place---the end of the prompt on this line---but after C-c SPC the process mark may be in a previous line.)

C-c SPC
     Accumulate multiple lines of input, then send them together.  This command inserts a newline before point, but does not send the preceding text as input to the subshell---at least, not yet.  Both lines, the one before this newline and the one after, will be sent together (along with the newline that separates them), when you type RET.

C-c C-u
     Kill all text pending at end of buffer to be sent as input (comint-kill-input).  If point is not at end of buffer, this only kills the part of this text that precedes point.

C-c C-w
     Kill a word before point (backward-kill-word).

C-c C-c
     Interrupt the shell or its current subjob if any (comint-interrupt-subjob).  This command also kills any shell input pending in the shell buffer and not yet sent.

C-c C-z
     Stop the shell or its current subjob if any (comint-stop-subjob). This command also kills any shell input pending in the shell buffer and not yet sent.

C-c C-\
     Send quit signal to the shell or its current subjob if any (comint-quit-subjob).  This command also kills any shell input pending in the shell buffer and not yet sent.

C-c C-o
     Delete the last batch of output from a shell command (comint-delete-output).  This is useful if a shell command spews out lots of output that just gets in the way.  This command used to be called comint-kill-output.

C-c C-s
     Write the last batch of output from a shell command to a file (comint-write-output).  With a prefix argument, the file is appended to instead.  Any prompt at the end of the output is not written.

C-c C-r
C-M-l
     Scroll to display the beginning of the last batch of output at the top of the window; also move the cursor there (comint-show-output).

C-c C-e
     Scroll to put the end of the buffer at the bottom of the window (comint-show-maximum-output).

C-c C-f
     Move forward across one shell command, but not beyond the current line (shell-forward-command).  The variable shell-command-regexp specifies how to recognize the end of a command.

C-c C-b
     Move backward across one shell command, but not beyond the current line (shell-backward-command).

M-x dirs
     Ask the shell what its current directory is, so that Emacs can agree with the shell.

M-x send-invisible RET TEXT RET
     Send TEXT as input to the shell, after reading it without echoing.  This is useful when a shell command runs a program that asks for a password.

     Please note that Emacs will not echo passwords by default.  If you really want them to be echoed, evaluate the following Lisp expression:

          (remove-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions
                       'comint-watch-for-password-prompt)

M-x comint-continue-subjob
     Continue the shell process.  This is useful if you accidentally suspend the shell process. (You should not suspend the shell process. Suspending a subjob of the shell is a completely different matter---that is normal practice, but you must use the shell to continue the subjob; this command won't do it.)

M-x comint-strip-ctrl-m
     Discard all control-M characters from the current group of shell output. The most convenient way to use this command is to make it run automatically when you get output from the subshell.  To do that, evaluate this Lisp expression:

          (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions
                    'comint-strip-ctrl-m)

M-x comint-truncate-buffer
     This command truncates the shell buffer to a certain maximum number of lines, specified by the variable comint-buffer-maximum-size. Here's how to do this automatically each time you get output from the subshell:

          (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions
                    'comint-truncate-buffer)

Shell mode is a derivative of Comint mode, a general-purpose mode for communicating with interactive subprocesses.  Most of the features of Shell mode actually come from Comint mode, as you can see from the command names listed above.  The special features of Shell mode include the directory tracking feature, and a few user commands.

Other Emacs features that use variants of Comint mode include GUD (see Debuggers) and M-x run-lisp (see External Lisp).

You can use M-x comint-run to execute any program of your choice in a subprocess using unmodified Comint mode---without the specializations of Shell mode.

Shell Prompts
-------------

A prompt is text output by a program to show that it is ready to accept new user input.  Normally, Comint mode (and thus Shell mode) considers the prompt to be any text output by a program at the beginning of an input line.  However, if the variable comint-use-prompt-regexp is non-nil, then Comint mode uses a regular expression to recognize prompts.  In Shell mode, shell-prompt-pattern specifies the regular expression.

The value of comint-use-prompt-regexp also affects many motion and paragraph commands.  If the value is non-nil, the general Emacs motion commands behave as they normally do in buffers without special text properties.  However, if the value is nil, the default, then Comint mode divides the buffer into two types of ``fields'' (ranges of consecutive characters having the same field text property): input and output.  Prompts are part of the output.  Most Emacs motion commands do not cross field boundaries, unless they move over multiple lines.  For instance, when point is in input on the same line as a prompt, C-a puts point at the beginning of the input if comint-use-prompt-regexp is nil and at the beginning of the line otherwise.

In Shell mode, only shell prompts start new paragraphs.  Thus, a paragraph consists of a prompt and the input and output that follow it.  However, if comint-use-prompt-regexp is nil, the default, most paragraph commands do not cross field boundaries.  This means that prompts, ranges of input, and ranges of non-prompt output behave mostly like separate paragraphs; with this setting, numeric arguments to most paragraph commands yield essentially undefined behavior.  For the purpose of finding paragraph boundaries, Shell mode uses shell-prompt-pattern, regardless of comint-use-prompt-regexp.

Shell Command History
---------------------

Shell buffers support three ways of repeating earlier commands.  You can use keys like those used for the minibuffer history; these work much as they do in the minibuffer, inserting text from prior commands while point remains always at the end of the buffer.  You can move through the buffer to previous inputs in their original place, then resubmit them or copy them to the end.  Or you can use a !-style history reference.

Shell History Ring
..................

M-p
C-UP
     Fetch the next earlier old shell command.

M-n
C-DOWN
     Fetch the next later old shell command.

M-r
     Begin an incremental regexp search of old shell commands.

C-c C-x
     Fetch the next subsequent command from the history.

C-c .
     Fetch one argument from an old shell command.

C-c C-l
     Display the buffer's history of shell commands in another window (comint-dynamic-list-input-ring).

Shell buffers provide a history of previously entered shell commands.  To reuse shell commands from the history, use the editing commands M-p, M-n, M-r and M-s.  These work just like the minibuffer history commands except that they operate on the text at the end of the shell buffer, where you would normally insert text to send to the shell.

M-p fetches an earlier shell command to the end of the shell buffer.  Successive use of M-p fetches successively earlier shell commands, each replacing any text that was already present as potential shell input.  M-n does likewise except that it finds successively more recent shell commands from the buffer. C-UP works like M-p, and C-DOWN like M-n.

The history search command M-r begins an incremental regular expression search of previous shell commands.  After typing M-r, start typing the desired string or regular expression; the last matching shell command will be displayed in the current line. Incremental search commands have their usual effects---for instance, C-s and C-r search forward and backward for the next match (see Incremental Search).  When you find the desired input, type RET to terminate the search.  This puts the input in the command line.  Any partial input you were composing before navigating the history list is restored when you go to the beginning or end of the history ring.

Often it is useful to reexecute several successive shell commands that were previously executed in sequence.  To do this, first find and reexecute the first command of the sequence.  Then type C-c C-x; that will fetch the following command---the one that follows the command you just repeated.  Then type RET to reexecute this command.  You can reexecute several successive commands by typing C-c C-x RET over and over.

The command C-c . (comint-input-previous-argument) copies an individual argument from a previous command, like ESC . in Bash.  The simplest use copies the last argument from the previous shell command.  With a prefix argument N, it copies the Nth argument instead.  Repeating C-c . copies from an earlier shell command instead, always using the same value of N (don't give a prefix argument when you repeat the C-c . command).

These commands get the text of previous shell commands from a special history list, not from the shell buffer itself.  Thus, editing the shell buffer, or even killing large parts of it, does not affect the history that these commands access.

Some shells store their command histories in files so that you can refer to commands from previous shell sessions.  Emacs reads the command history file for your chosen shell, to initialize its own command history.  The file name is ~/.bash_history for bash, ~/.sh_history for ksh, and ~/.history for other shells.

Shell History Copying
.....................

C-c C-p
     Move point to the previous prompt (comint-previous-prompt).

C-c C-n
     Move point to the following prompt (comint-next-prompt).

C-c RET
     Copy the input command at point, inserting the copy at the end of the buffer (comint-copy-old-input).  This is useful if you move point back to a previous command.  After you copy the command, you can submit the copy as input with RET.  If you wish, you can edit the copy before resubmitting it.  If you use this command on an output line, it copies that line to the end of the buffer.

Mouse-2
     If comint-use-prompt-regexp is nil (the default), copy the old input command that you click on, inserting the copy at the end of the buffer (comint-insert-input).  If comint-use-prompt-regexp is non-nil, or if the click is not over old input, just yank as usual.

Moving to a previous input and then copying it with C-c RET or Mouse-2 produces the same results---the same buffer contents---that you would get by using M-p enough times to fetch that previous input from the history list.  However, C-c RET copies the text from the buffer, which can be different from what is in the history list if you edit the input text in the buffer after it has been sent.

Shell History References
........................

Various shells including csh and bash support history references that begin with ! and ^.  Shell mode recognizes these constructs, and can perform the history substitution for you.

If you insert a history reference and type TAB, this searches the input history for a matching command, performs substitution if necessary, and places the result in the buffer in place of the history reference.  For example, you can fetch the most recent command beginning with mv with ! m v TAB.  You can edit the command if you wish, and then resubmit the command to the shell by typing RET.

Shell mode can optionally expand history references in the buffer when you send them to the shell.  To request this, set the variable comint-input-autoexpand to input.  You can make SPC perform history expansion by binding SPC to the command comint-magic-space.

Shell mode recognizes history references when they follow a prompt. See Shell Prompts, for how Shell mode recognizes prompts.

Directory Tracking
------------------

Shell mode keeps track of cd, pushd and popd commands given to the inferior shell, so it can keep the *shell* buffer's default directory the same as the shell's working directory.  It recognizes these commands syntactically, by examining lines of input that are sent.

If you use aliases for these commands, you can tell Emacs to recognize them also.  For example, if the value of the variable shell-pushd-regexp matches the beginning of a shell command line, that line is regarded as a pushd command.  Change this variable when you add aliases for pushd.  Likewise, shell-popd-regexp and shell-cd-regexp are used to recognize commands with the meaning of popd and cd. These commands are recognized only at the beginning of a shell command line.

If Emacs gets confused about changes in the current directory of the subshell, use the command M-x dirs to ask the shell what its current directory is.  This command works for shells that support the most common command syntax; it may not work for unusual shells.

You can also use M-x dirtrack-mode to enable (or disable) an alternative method of tracking changes in the current directory.  This method relies on your shell prompt containing the full current working directory at all times.

Shell Mode Options
------------------

If the variable comint-scroll-to-bottom-on-input is non-nil, insertion and yank commands scroll the selected window to the bottom before inserting.  The default is nil.

If comint-scroll-show-maximum-output is non-nil, then arrival of output when point is at the end tries to scroll the last line of text to the bottom line of the window, showing as much useful text as possible.  (This mimics the scrolling behavior of most terminals.)  The default is t.

By setting comint-move-point-for-output, you can opt for having point jump to the end of the buffer whenever output arrives---no matter where in the buffer point was before.  If the value is this, point jumps in the selected window.  If the value is all, point jumps in each window that shows the Comint buffer.  If the value is other, point jumps in all nonselected windows that show the current buffer.  The default value is nil, which means point does not jump to the end.

If you set comint-prompt-read-only, the prompts in the Comint buffer are read-only.

The variable comint-input-ignoredups controls whether successive identical inputs are stored in the input history.  A non-nil value means to omit an input that is the same as the previous input. The default is nil, which means to store each input even if it is equal to the previous input.

Three variables customize file name completion.  The variable comint-completion-addsuffix controls whether completion inserts a space or a slash to indicate a fully completed file or directory name (non-nil means do insert a space or slash). comint-completion-recexact, if non-nil, directs TAB to choose the shortest possible completion if the usual Emacs completion algorithm cannot add even a single character. comint-completion-autolist, if non-nil, says to list all the possible completions whenever completion is not exact.

Command completion normally considers only executable files. If you set shell-completion-execonly to nil, it considers nonexecutable files as well.

You can configure the behavior of pushd.  Variables control whether pushd behaves like cd if no argument is given (shell-pushd-tohome), pop rather than rotate with a numeric argument (shell-pushd-dextract), and only add directories to the directory stack if they are not already on it (shell-pushd-dunique).  The values you choose should match the underlying shell, of course.

Emacs Terminal Emulator
-----------------------

To run a subshell in a terminal emulator, use M-x term.  This creates (or reuses) a buffer named *terminal*, and runs a subshell with input coming from your keyboard, and output going to that buffer.

The terminal emulator uses Term mode, which has two input modes.  In line mode, Term basically acts like Shell mode; see Shell Mode.

In char mode, each character is sent directly to the inferior subshell, as ``terminal input.''  Any ``echoing'' of your input is the responsibility of the subshell.  The sole exception is the terminal escape character, which by default is C-c (see Term Mode). Any ``terminal output'' from the subshell goes into the buffer, advancing point.

Some programs (such as Emacs itself) need to control the appearance on the terminal screen in detail.  They do this by sending special control codes.  The exact control codes needed vary from terminal to terminal, but nowadays most terminals and terminal emulators (including xterm) understand the ANSI-standard (VT100-style) escape sequences.  Term mode recognizes these escape sequences, and handles each one appropriately, changing the buffer so that the appearance of the window matches what it would be on a real terminal. You can actually run Emacs inside an Emacs Term window.

You can use Term mode to communicate with a device connected to a serial port of your computer.  See Serial Terminal.

The file name used to load the subshell is determined the same way as for Shell mode.  To make multiple terminal emulators, rename the buffer *terminal* to something different using M-x rename-uniquely, just as with Shell mode.

Unlike Shell mode, Term mode does not track the current directory by examining your input.  But some shells can tell Term what the current directory is.  This is done automatically by bash version 1.15 and later.

Term Mode
---------

The terminal emulator uses Term mode, which has two input modes.  In line mode, Term basically acts like Shell mode; see Shell Mode. In char mode, each character is sent directly to the inferior subshell, except for the Term escape character, normally C-c.

To switch between line and char mode, use these commands:

C-c C-j
     Switch to line mode.  Do nothing if already in line mode.

C-c C-k
     Switch to char mode.  Do nothing if already in char mode.

The following commands are only available in char mode:

C-c C-c
     Send a literal C-c to the sub-shell.

C-c CHAR
     This is equivalent to C-x CHAR in normal Emacs.  For example, C-c o invokes the global binding of C-x o, which is normally other-window.

Page-At-A-Time Output
---------------------

Term mode has a page-at-a-time feature.  When enabled it makes output pause at the end of each screenful.

C-c C-q
     Toggle the page-at-a-time feature.  This command works in both line and char modes.  When page-at-a-time is enabled, the mode-line displays the word page.

With page-at-a-time enabled, whenever Term receives more than a screenful of output since your last input, it pauses, displaying **MORE** in the mode-line.  Type SPC to display the next screenful of output.  Type ? to see your other options.  The interface is similar to the more program.

Remote Host Shell
-----------------

You can login to a remote computer, using whatever commands you would from a regular terminal (e.g. using the telnet or rlogin commands), from a Term window.

A program that asks you for a password will normally suppress echoing of the password, so the password will not show up in the buffer.  This will happen just as if you were using a real terminal, if the buffer is in char mode.  If it is in line mode, the password is temporarily visible, but will be erased when you hit return.  (This happens automatically; there is no special password processing.)

When you log in to a different machine, you need to specify the type of terminal you're using, by setting the TERM environment variable in the environment for the remote login command.  (If you use bash, you do that by writing the variable assignment before the remote login command, without separating comma.)  Terminal types ansi or vt100 will work on most systems.

Serial Terminal
---------------

If you have a device connected to a serial port of your computer, you can use Emacs to communicate with it.  M-x serial-term will ask you for a serial port name and speed and will then open a new window in Term Mode.

The speed of the serial port is measured in bits per second.  The most common speed is 9600 bits per second.  You can change the speed interactively by clicking on the mode line.

A serial port can be configured even more by clicking on ``8N1'' in the mode line.  By default, a serial port is configured as ``8N1'', which means that each byte consists of 8 data bits, No parity check bit, and 1 stopbit.

When you have opened the serial port connection, you will see output from the device in the window.  Also, what you type in the window is sent to the device.

If the speed or the configuration is wrong, you cannot communicate with your device and will probably only see garbage output in the window.

Using Emacs as a Server
=======================

Various programs such as mail can invoke your choice of editor to edit a particular piece of text, such as a message that you are sending.  By convention, most of these programs use the environment variable EDITOR to specify which editor to run.  If you set EDITOR to emacs, they invoke Emacs---but in an inconvenient way, by starting a new Emacs process.  This is inconvenient because the new Emacs process doesn't share buffers, a command history, or other kinds of information with any existing Emacs process.

You can solve this problem by setting up Emacs as an edit server, so that it ``listens'' for external edit requests and acts accordingly.  There are two ways to start an Emacs server:

The first is to run the command server-start in an existing Emacs process: either type M-x server-start, or put the expression (server-start) in your initialization file (see Init File).  The existing Emacs process is the server; when you exit Emacs, the server dies with the Emacs process.

The second way to start an Emacs server is to run Emacs as a daemon, using the --daemon command-line option. See Initial Options.  When Emacs is started this way, it calls server-start after initialization, and returns control to the calling terminal instead of opening an initial frame; it then waits in the background, listening for edit requests.

Once an Emacs server is set up, you can use a shell command called emacsclient to connect to the existing Emacs process and tell it to visit a file.  If you set the EDITOR environment variable to emacsclient, programs such as mail will use the existing Emacs process for editing. (Some programs use a different environment variable; for example, to make TeX use emacsclient, set the TEXEDIT environment variable to emacsclient +%d %s.)

You can run multiple Emacs servers on the same machine by giving each one a unique ``server name'', using the variable server-name.  For example, M-x set-variable RET server-name RET foo RET sets the server name to foo.  The emacsclient program can specify a server by name, using the -s option (see emacsclient Options).

Invoking emacsclient
--------------------

The simplest way to use the emacsclient program is to run the shell command emacsclient FILE, where FILE is a file name.  This connects to an Emacs server, and tells that Emacs process to visit FILE in one of its existing frames---either a graphical frame, or one in a text-only terminal (see Frames).  You can then select that frame to begin editing.

If there is no Emacs server, the emacsclient program halts with an error message.  If the Emacs process has no existing frame---which can happen if it was started as a daemon (see Emacs Server)---then Emacs opens a frame on the terminal in which you called emacsclient.

You can also force emacsclient to open a new frame on a graphical display, or on a text-only terminal, using the -c and -t options.  See emacsclient Options.

If you are running on a single text-only terminal, you can switch between emacsclient's shell and the Emacs server using one of two methods: (i) run the Emacs server and emacsclient on different virtual terminals, and switch to the Emacs server's virtual terminal after calling emacsclient; or (ii) call emacsclient from within the Emacs server itself, using Shell mode (see Interactive Shell) or Term mode (see Term Mode); emacsclient blocks only the subshell under Emacs, and you can still use Emacs to edit the file.

When you finish editing FILE in the Emacs server, type C-x # (server-edit) in its buffer.  This saves the file and sends a message back to the emacsclient program, telling it to exit.  Programs that use EDITOR usually wait for the ``editor''---in this case emacsclient---to exit before doing something else.

You can also call emacsclient with multiple file name arguments: emacsclient FILE1 FILE2 ... tells the Emacs server to visit FILE1, FILE2, and so forth.  Emacs selects the buffer visiting FILE1, and buries the other buffers at the bottom of the buffer list (see Buffers).  The emacsclient program exits once all the specified files are finished (i.e., once you have typed C-x # in each server buffer).

Finishing with a server buffer also kills the buffer, unless it already existed in the Emacs session before the server was asked to create it.  However, if you set server-kill-new-buffers to nil, then a different criterion is used: finishing with a server buffer kills it if the file name matches the regular expression server-temp-file-regexp.  This is set up to distinguish certain ``temporary'' files.

Each C-x # checks for other pending external requests to edit various files, and selects the next such file.  You can switch to a server buffer manually if you wish; you don't have to arrive at it with C-x #.  But C-x # is the way to tell emacsclient that you are finished.

If you set the value of the variable server-window to a window or a frame, C-x # always displays the next server buffer in that window or in that frame.

emacsclient Options
-------------------

You can pass some optional arguments to the emacsclient program, such as:

     emacsclient -c +12 FILE1 +4:3 FILE2

The +LINE or +LINE:COLUMN arguments specify line numbers, or line and column numbers, for the next file argument.  These behave like the command line arguments for Emacs itself.  See Action Arguments.

The other optional arguments recognized by emacsclient are listed below:

-a COMMAND
--alternate-editor=COMMAND
     Specify a command to run if emacsclient fails to contact Emacs. This is useful when running emacsclient in a script.  For example, the following setting for the EDITOR environment variable will always give you an editor, even if no Emacs server is running:

          EDITOR="emacsclient --alternate-editor emacs +%d %s"

     As a special exception, if COMMAND is the empty string, then emacsclient starts Emacs in daemon mode and then tries connecting again.

     The environment variable ALTERNATE_EDITOR has the same effect as the -a option.  If both are present, the latter takes precedence.

-c
     Create a new graphical frame, instead of using an existing Emacs frame.  Emacs 23 can create a graphical frame even if it was started in a text-only terminal, provided it is able to connect to a graphical display.  If no graphical display is available, Emacs creates a new text-only terminal frame (see Frames).  If you omit a filename argument while supplying the -c option, the new frame displays the *scratch* buffer (see Buffers).

-d DISPLAY
--display=DISPLAY
     Tell Emacs to open the given files on the X display DISPLAY (assuming there is more than one X display available).

-e
--eval
     Tell Emacs to evaluate some Emacs Lisp code, instead of visiting some files.  When this option is given, the arguments to emacsclient are interpreted as a list of expressions to evaluate, not as a list of files to visit.

-f SERVER-FILE
--server-file=SERVER-FILE
     Specify a server file for connecting to an Emacs server via TCP.

     An Emacs server usually uses an operating system feature called a ``local socket'' to listen for connections.  Some operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, do not support local sockets; in that case, Emacs uses TCP instead.  When you start the Emacs server, Emacs creates a server file containing some TCP information that emacsclient needs for making the connection.  By default, the server file is in ~/.emacs.d/server/.  On Microsoft Windows, if emacsclient does not find the server file there, it looks in the .emacs.d/server/ subdirectory of the directory pointed to by the APPDATA environment variable.  You can tell emacsclient to use a specific server file with the -f or --server-file option, or by setting the EMACS_SERVER_FILE environment variable.

     Even if local sockets are available, you can tell Emacs to use TCP by setting the variable server-use-tcp to t.  One advantage of TCP is that the server can accept connections from remote machines. For this to work, you must (i) set the variable server-host to the hostname or IP address of the machine on which the Emacs server runs, and (ii) provide emacsclient with the server file. (One convenient way to do the latter is to put the server file on a networked file system such as NFS.)

-n
--no-wait
     Let emacsclient exit immediately, instead of waiting until all server buffers are finished.  You can take as long as you like to edit the server buffers within Emacs, and they are not killed when you type C-x # in them.

-s SERVER-NAME
--socket-name=SERVER-NAME
     Connect to the Emacs server named SERVER-NAME.  The server name is given by the variable server-name on the Emacs server.  If this option is omitted, emacsclient connects to the first server it finds.  (This option is not supported on MS-Windows.)

-t
--tty
-nw
     Create a new Emacs frame on the current text-only terminal, instead of using an existing Emacs frame.  Emacs 23 can open a text-only terminal even if it was started in another text-only terminal, or on a graphical display.  If you omit a filename argument while supplying this option, the new frame displays the *scratch* buffer. See Buffers.

If you type C-x C-c (save-buffers-kill-terminal) in an Emacs frame created with emacsclient, via the -c or -t options, Emacs deletes the frame instead of killing the Emacs process itself.  On a text-only terminal frame created with the -t option, this returns control to the terminal.  Emacs also marks all the server buffers for the client as finished, as though you had typed C-x # in all of them.

When Emacs is started as a daemon, all frames are considered client frames, so C-x C-c will never kill Emacs.  To kill the Emacs process, type M-x kill-emacs.

Printing Hard Copies
====================

Emacs provides commands for printing hard copies of either an entire buffer or just part of one, with or without page headers.  You can invoke the printing commands directly, as detailed in the following section, or using the File menu on the menu bar.

Aside from the commands described in this section, you can also ``print'' an Emacs buffer to HTML with M-x htmlfontify-buffer. This command converts the current buffer to a HTML file, replacing Emacs faces with CSS-based markup.  In addition, see the hardcopy commands of Dired (see Misc File Ops) and the diary (see Displaying the Diary).

M-x print-buffer
     Print hardcopy of current buffer with page headings containing the file name and page number.

M-x lpr-buffer
     Print hardcopy of current buffer without page headings.

M-x print-region
     Like print-buffer but print only the current region.

M-x lpr-region
     Like lpr-buffer but print only the current region.

The hardcopy commands (aside from the PostScript commands) pass extra switches to the lpr program based on the value of the variable lpr-switches.  Its value should be a list of strings, each string an option starting with -.  For example, to specify a line width of 80 columns for all the printing you do in Emacs, set lpr-switches like this:

     (setq lpr-switches '("-w80"))

You can specify the printer to use by setting the variable printer-name.

The variable lpr-command specifies the name of the printer program to run; the default value depends on your operating system type. On most systems, the default is "lpr".  The variable lpr-headers-switches similarly specifies the extra switches to use to make page headers.  The variable lpr-add-switches controls whether to supply -T and -J options (suitable for lpr) to the printer program: nil means don't add them. lpr-add-switches should be nil if your printer program is not compatible with lpr.

PostScript Hardcopy
===================

These commands convert buffer contents to PostScript, either printing it or leaving it in another Emacs buffer.

M-x ps-print-buffer
     Print hardcopy of the current buffer in PostScript form.

M-x ps-print-region
     Print hardcopy of the current region in PostScript form.

M-x ps-print-buffer-with-faces
     Print hardcopy of the current buffer in PostScript form, showing the faces used in the text by means of PostScript features.

M-x ps-print-region-with-faces
     Print hardcopy of the current region in PostScript form, showing the faces used in the text.

M-x ps-spool-buffer
     Generate and spool a PostScript image for the current buffer text.

M-x ps-spool-region
     Generate and spool a PostScript image for the current region.

M-x ps-spool-buffer-with-faces
     Generate and spool a PostScript image for the current buffer, showing the faces used.

M-x ps-spool-region-with-faces
     Generate and spool a PostScript image for the current region, showing the faces used.

M-x ps-despool
     Send the spooled PostScript to the printer.

M-x handwrite
     Generate/print PostScript for the current buffer as if handwritten.

The PostScript commands, ps-print-buffer and ps-print-region, print buffer contents in PostScript form.  One command prints the entire buffer; the other, just the region.  The corresponding -with-faces commands, ps-print-buffer-with-faces and ps-print-region-with-faces, use PostScript features to show the faces (fonts and colors) in the text properties of the text being printed.  The -with-faces commands only work if they are used in a window system, so it has a way to determine color values.

Interactively, when you use a prefix argument (C-u), the command prompts the user for a file name, and saves the PostScript image in that file instead of sending it to the printer.

Noninteractively, the argument FILENAME is treated as follows: if it is nil, send the image to the printer.  If FILENAME is a string, save the PostScript image in a file with that name.

If you are using a color display, you can print a buffer of program code with color highlighting by turning on Font-Lock mode in that buffer, and using ps-print-buffer-with-faces.

The commands whose names have spool instead of print, generate the PostScript output in an Emacs buffer instead of sending it to the printer.

Use the command ps-despool to send the spooled images to the printer.

This command sends the PostScript generated by  -spool- commands (see commands above) to the printer.

Interactively, when you use a prefix argument (C-u), the command prompts the user for a file name, and saves the spooled PostScript image in that file instead of sending it to the printer.

Noninteractively, the argument FILENAME is treated as follows: if it is nil, send the image to the printer.  If FILENAME is a string, save the PostScript image in a file with that name.

M-x handwrite is more frivolous.  It generates a PostScript rendition of the current buffer as a cursive handwritten document.  It can be customized in group handwrite.  This function only supports ISO 8859-1 characters.

The following section describes variables for customizing these commands.

Variables for PostScript Hardcopy
=================================

All the PostScript hardcopy commands use the variables ps-lpr-command and ps-lpr-switches to specify how to print the output.  ps-lpr-command specifies the command name to run, ps-lpr-switches specifies command line options to use, and ps-printer-name specifies the printer.  If you don't set the first two variables yourself, they take their initial values from lpr-command and lpr-switches.  If ps-printer-name is nil, printer-name is used.

The variable ps-print-header controls whether these commands add header lines to each page---set it to nil to turn headers off.

If your printer doesn't support colors, you should turn off color processing by setting ps-print-color-p to nil.  By default, if the display supports colors, Emacs produces hardcopy output with color information; on black-and-white printers, colors are emulated with shades of gray.  This might produce illegible output, even if your screen colors only use shades of gray.

Alternatively, you can set ps-print-color-p to black-white to print colors on black/white printers.

By default, PostScript printing ignores the background colors of the faces, unless the variable ps-use-face-background is non-nil.  This is to avoid unwanted interference with the zebra stripes and background image/text.

The variable ps-paper-type specifies which size of paper to format for; legitimate values include a4, a3, a4small, b4, b5, executive, ledger, legal, letter, letter-small, statement, tabloid.  The default is letter.  You can define additional paper sizes by changing the variable ps-page-dimensions-database.

The variable ps-landscape-mode specifies the orientation of printing on the page.  The default is nil, which stands for ``portrait'' mode.  Any non-nil value specifies ``landscape'' mode.

The variable ps-number-of-columns specifies the number of columns; it takes effect in both landscape and portrait mode.  The default is 1.

The variable ps-font-family specifies which font family to use for printing ordinary text.  Legitimate values include Courier, Helvetica, NewCenturySchlbk, Palatino and Times.  The variable ps-font-size specifies the size of the font for ordinary text.  It defaults to 8.5 points.

Emacs supports more scripts and characters than a typical PostScript printer.  Thus, some of the characters in your buffer might not be printable using the fonts built into your printer.  You can augment the fonts supplied with the printer with those from the GNU Intlfonts package, or you can instruct Emacs to use Intlfonts exclusively.  The variable ps-multibyte-buffer controls this: the default value, nil, is appropriate for printing ASCII and Latin-1 characters; a value of non-latin-printer is for printers which have the fonts for ASCII, Latin-1, Japanese, and Korean characters built into them.  A value of bdf-font arranges for the BDF fonts from the Intlfonts package to be used for all characters.  Finally, a value of bdf-font-except-latin instructs the printer to use built-in fonts for ASCII and Latin-1 characters, and Intlfonts BDF fonts for the rest.

To be able to use the BDF fonts, Emacs needs to know where to find them.  The variable bdf-directory-list holds the list of directories where Emacs should look for the fonts; the default value includes a single directory /usr/local/share/emacs/fonts/bdf.

Many other customization variables for these commands are defined and described in the Lisp files ps-print.el and ps-mule.el.

Printing Package
================

The basic Emacs facilities for printing hardcopy can be extended using the Printing package.  This provides an easy-to-use interface for choosing what to print, previewing PostScript files before printing, and setting various printing options such as print headers, landscape or portrait modes, duplex modes, and so forth.  On GNU/Linux or Unix systems, the Printing package relies on the gs and gv utilities, which are distributed as part of the GhostScript program.  On MS-Windows, the gstools port of Ghostscript can be used.

To use the Printing package, add (require 'printing) to your init file (see Init File), followed by (pr-update-menus). This function replaces the usual printing commands in the menu bar with a Printing submenu that contains various printing options. You can also type M-x pr-interface RET; this creates a *Printing Interface* buffer, similar to a customization buffer, where you can set the printing options.  After selecting what and how to print, you start the print job using the Print button (click mouse-2 on it, or move point over it and type RET).  For further information on the various options, use the Interface Help button.

Sorting Text
============

Emacs provides several commands for sorting text in the buffer.  All operate on the contents of the region. They divide the text of the region into many sort records, identify a sort key for each record, and then reorder the records into the order determined by the sort keys.  The records are ordered so that their keys are in alphabetical order, or, for numeric sorting, in numeric order.  In alphabetic sorting, all upper-case letters `A' through `Z' come before lower-case `a', in accord with the ASCII character sequence.

The various sort commands differ in how they divide the text into sort records and in which part of each record is used as the sort key.  Most of the commands make each line a separate sort record, but some commands use paragraphs or pages as sort records.  Most of the sort commands use each entire sort record as its own sort key, but some use only a portion of the record as the sort key.

M-x sort-lines
     Divide the region into lines, and sort by comparing the entire text of a line.  A numeric argument means sort into descending order.

M-x sort-paragraphs
     Divide the region into paragraphs, and sort by comparing the entire text of a paragraph (except for leading blank lines).  A numeric argument means sort into descending order.

M-x sort-pages
     Divide the region into pages, and sort by comparing the entire text of a page (except for leading blank lines).  A numeric argument means sort into descending order.

M-x sort-fields
     Divide the region into lines, and sort by comparing the contents of one field in each line.  Fields are defined as separated by whitespace, so the first run of consecutive non-whitespace characters in a line constitutes field 1, the second such run constitutes field 2, etc.

     Specify which field to sort by with a numeric argument: 1 to sort by field 1, etc.  A negative argument means count fields from the right instead of from the left; thus, minus 1 means sort by the last field. If several lines have identical contents in the field being sorted, they keep the same relative order that they had in the original buffer.

M-x sort-numeric-fields
     Like M-x sort-fields except the specified field is converted to an integer for each line, and the numbers are compared.  10 comes before 2 when considered as text, but after it when considered as a number.  By default, numbers are interpreted according to sort-numeric-base, but numbers beginning with 0x or 0 are interpreted as hexadecimal and octal, respectively.

M-x sort-columns
     Like M-x sort-fields except that the text within each line used for comparison comes from a fixed range of columns.  See below for an explanation.

M-x reverse-region
     Reverse the order of the lines in the region.  This is useful for sorting into descending order by fields or columns, since those sort commands do not have a feature for doing that.

For example, if the buffer contains this:

     On systems where clash detection (locking of files being edited) is
     implemented, Emacs also checks the first time you modify a buffer
     whether the file has changed on disk since it was last visited or
     saved.  If it has, you are asked to confirm that you want to change
     the buffer.

applying M-x sort-lines to the entire buffer produces this:

     On systems where clash detection (locking of files being edited) is
     implemented, Emacs also checks the first time you modify a buffer
     saved.  If it has, you are asked to confirm that you want to change
     the buffer.
     whether the file has changed on disk since it was last visited or

where the upper-case O sorts before all lower-case letters.  If you use C-u 2 M-x sort-fields instead, you get this:

     implemented, Emacs also checks the first time you modify a buffer
     saved.  If it has, you are asked to confirm that you want to change
     the buffer.
     On systems where clash detection (locking of files being edited) is
     whether the file has changed on disk since it was last visited or

where the sort keys were Emacs, If, buffer, systems and the.

M-x sort-columns requires more explanation.  You specify the columns by putting point at one of the columns and the mark at the other column.  Because this means you cannot put point or the mark at the beginning of the first line of the text you want to sort, this command uses an unusual definition of ``region'': all of the line point is in is considered part of the region, and so is all of the line the mark is in, as well as all the lines in between.

For example, to sort a table by information found in columns 10 to 15, you could put the mark on column 10 in the first line of the table, and point on column 15 in the last line of the table, and then run sort-columns.  Equivalently, you could run it with the mark on column 15 in the first line and point on column 10 in the last line.

This can be thought of as sorting the rectangle specified by point and the mark, except that the text on each line to the left or right of the rectangle moves along with the text inside the rectangle. See Rectangles.

Many of the sort commands ignore case differences when comparing, if sort-fold-case is non-nil.

Narrowing
=========

Narrowing means focusing in on some portion of the buffer, making the rest temporarily inaccessible.  The portion which you can still get to is called the accessible portion.  Canceling the narrowing, which makes the entire buffer once again accessible, is called widening.  The bounds of narrowing in effect in a buffer are called the buffer's restriction.

Narrowing can make it easier to concentrate on a single subroutine or paragraph by eliminating clutter.  It can also be used to limit the range of operation of a replace command or repeating keyboard macro.

C-x n n
     Narrow down to between point and mark (narrow-to-region).

C-x n w
     Widen to make the entire buffer accessible again (widen).

C-x n p
     Narrow down to the current page (narrow-to-page).

C-x n d
     Narrow down to the current defun (narrow-to-defun).

When you have narrowed down to a part of the buffer, that part appears to be all there is.  You can't see the rest, you can't move into it (motion commands won't go outside the accessible part), you can't change it in any way.  However, it is not gone, and if you save the file all the inaccessible text will be saved.  The word Narrow appears in the mode line whenever narrowing is in effect.

The primary narrowing command is C-x n n (narrow-to-region). It sets the current buffer's restrictions so that the text in the current region remains accessible, but all text before the region or after the region is inaccessible.  Point and mark do not change.

Alternatively, use C-x n p (narrow-to-page) to narrow down to the current page.  See Pages, for the definition of a page. C-x n d (narrow-to-defun) narrows down to the defun containing point (see Defuns).

The way to cancel narrowing is to widen with C-x n w (widen).  This makes all text in the buffer accessible again.

You can get information on what part of the buffer you are narrowed down to using the C-x = command.  See Position Info.

Because narrowing can easily confuse users who do not understand it, narrow-to-region is normally a disabled command.  Attempting to use this command asks for confirmation and gives you the option of enabling it; if you enable the command, confirmation will no longer be required for it.  See Disabling.

Two-Column Editing
==================

Two-column mode lets you conveniently edit two side-by-side columns of text.  It uses two side-by-side windows, each showing its own buffer.

There are three ways to enter two-column mode:

F2 2 or C-x 6 2
     Enter two-column mode with the current buffer on the left, and on the right, a buffer whose name is based on the current buffer's name (2C-two-columns).  If the right-hand buffer doesn't already exist, it starts out empty; the current buffer's contents are not changed.

     This command is appropriate when the current buffer is empty or contains just one column and you want to add another column.

F2 s or C-x 6 s
     Split the current buffer, which contains two-column text, into two buffers, and display them side by side (2C-split).  The current buffer becomes the left-hand buffer, but the text in the right-hand column is moved into the right-hand buffer.  The current column specifies the split point.  Splitting starts with the current line and continues to the end of the buffer.

     This command is appropriate when you have a buffer that already contains two-column text, and you wish to separate the columns temporarily.

F2 b BUFFER RET
C-x 6 b BUFFER RET
     Enter two-column mode using the current buffer as the left-hand buffer, and using buffer BUFFER as the right-hand buffer (2C-associate-buffer).

F2 s or C-x 6 s looks for a column separator, which is a string that appears on each line between the two columns.  You can specify the width of the separator with a numeric argument to F2 s; that many characters, before point, constitute the separator string.  By default, the width is 1, so the column separator is the character before point.

When a line has the separator at the proper place, F2 s puts the text after the separator into the right-hand buffer, and deletes the separator.  Lines that don't have the column separator at the proper place remain unsplit; they stay in the left-hand buffer, and the right-hand buffer gets an empty line to correspond.  (This is the way to write a line that ``spans both columns while in two-column mode'': write it in the left-hand buffer, and put an empty line in the right-hand buffer.)

The command C-x 6 RET or F2 RET (2C-newline) inserts a newline in each of the two buffers at corresponding positions.  This is the easiest way to add a new line to the two-column text while editing it in split buffers.

When you have edited both buffers as you wish, merge them with F2 1 or C-x 6 1 (2C-merge).  This copies the text from the right-hand buffer as a second column in the other buffer. To go back to two-column editing, use F2 s.

Use F2 d or C-x 6 d to dissociate the two buffers, leaving each as it stands (2C-dissociate).  If the other buffer, the one not current when you type F2 d, is empty, F2 d kills it.

Editing Binary Files
====================

There is a special major mode for editing binary files: Hexl mode.  To use it, use M-x hexl-find-file instead of C-x C-f to visit the file.  This command converts the file's contents to hexadecimal and lets you edit the translation.  When you save the file, it is converted automatically back to binary.

You can also use M-x hexl-mode to translate an existing buffer into hex.  This is useful if you visit a file normally and then discover it is a binary file.

Ordinary text characters overwrite in Hexl mode.  This is to reduce the risk of accidentally spoiling the alignment of data in the file. There are special commands for insertion.  Here is a list of the commands of Hexl mode:

C-M-d
     Insert a byte with a code typed in decimal.

C-M-o
     Insert a byte with a code typed in octal.

C-M-x
     Insert a byte with a code typed in hex.

C-x [
     Move to the beginning of a 1k-byte ``page.''

C-x ]
     Move to the end of a 1k-byte ``page.''

M-g
     Move to an address specified in hex.

M-j
     Move to an address specified in decimal.

C-c C-c
     Leave Hexl mode, going back to the major mode this buffer had before you invoked hexl-mode.

Other Hexl commands let you insert strings (sequences) of binary bytes, move by shorts or ints, etc.; type C-h a hexl-RET for details.

Saving Emacs Sessions
=====================

Use the desktop library to save the state of Emacs from one session to another.  Once you save the Emacs desktop---the buffers, their file names, major modes, buffer positions, and so on---then subsequent Emacs sessions reload the saved desktop.

You can save the desktop manually with the command M-x desktop-save.  You can also enable automatic saving of the desktop when you exit Emacs, and automatic restoration of the last saved desktop when Emacs starts: use the Customization buffer (see Easy Customization) to set desktop-save-mode to t for future sessions, or add this line in your init file (see Init File):

     (desktop-save-mode 1)

If you turn on desktop-save-mode in your init file, then when Emacs starts, it looks for a saved desktop in the current directory. Thus, you can have separate saved desktops in different directories, and the starting directory determines which one Emacs reloads.  You can save the current desktop and reload one saved in another directory by typing M-x desktop-change-dir.  Typing M-x desktop-revert reverts to the desktop previously reloaded.

Specify the option --no-desktop on the command line when you don't want it to reload any saved desktop.  This turns off desktop-save-mode for the current session.  Starting Emacs with the --no-init-file option also disables desktop reloading, since it bypasses the init file, where desktop-save-mode is usually turned on.

By default, all the buffers in the desktop are restored at one go. However, this may be slow if there are a lot of buffers in the desktop.  You can specify the maximum number of buffers to restore immediately with the variable desktop-restore-eager; the remaining buffers are restored ``lazily,'' when Emacs is idle.

Type M-x desktop-clear to empty the Emacs desktop.  This kills all buffers except for internal ones, and clears the global variables listed in desktop-globals-to-clear.  If you want this to preserve certain buffers, customize the variable desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp, whose value is a regular expression matching the names of buffers not to kill.

If you want to save minibuffer history from one session to another, use the savehist library.

Recursive Editing Levels
========================

A recursive edit is a situation in which you are using Emacs commands to perform arbitrary editing while in the middle of another Emacs command.  For example, when you type C-r inside of a query-replace, you enter a recursive edit in which you can change the current buffer.  On exiting from the recursive edit, you go back to the query-replace.

Exiting the recursive edit means returning to the unfinished command, which continues execution.  The command to exit is C-M-c (exit-recursive-edit).

You can also abort the recursive edit.  This is like exiting, but also quits the unfinished command immediately.  Use the command C-] (abort-recursive-edit) to do this.  See Quitting.

The mode line shows you when you are in a recursive edit by displaying square brackets around the parentheses that always surround the major and minor mode names.  Every window's mode line shows this in the same way, since being in a recursive edit is true of Emacs as a whole rather than any particular window or buffer.

It is possible to be in recursive edits within recursive edits.  For example, after typing C-r in a query-replace, you may type a command that enters the debugger.  This begins a recursive editing level for the debugger, within the recursive editing level for C-r. Mode lines display a pair of square brackets for each recursive editing level currently in progress.

Exiting the inner recursive edit (such as with the debugger c command) resumes the command running in the next level up.  When that command finishes, you can then use C-M-c to exit another recursive editing level, and so on.  Exiting applies to the innermost level only. Aborting also gets out of only one level of recursive edit; it returns immediately to the command level of the previous recursive edit.  If you wish, you can then abort the next recursive editing level.

Alternatively, the command M-x top-level aborts all levels of recursive edits, returning immediately to the top-level command reader.  It also exits the minibuffer, if it is active.

The text being edited inside the recursive edit need not be the same text that you were editing at top level.  It depends on what the recursive edit is for.  If the command that invokes the recursive edit selects a different buffer first, that is the buffer you will edit recursively.  In any case, you can switch buffers within the recursive edit in the normal manner (as long as the buffer-switching keys have not been rebound).  You could probably do all the rest of your editing inside the recursive edit, visiting files and all.  But this could have surprising effects (such as stack overflow) from time to time.  So remember to exit or abort the recursive edit when you no longer need it.

In general, we try to minimize the use of recursive editing levels in GNU Emacs.  This is because they constrain you to ``go back'' in a particular order---from the innermost level toward the top level.  When possible, we present different activities in separate buffers so that you can switch between them as you please.  Some commands switch to a new major mode which provides a command to switch back.  These approaches give you more flexibility to go back to unfinished tasks in the order you choose.

Emulation
=========

GNU Emacs can be programmed to emulate (more or less) most other editors.  Standard facilities can emulate these:

CRiSP/Brief (PC editor)
     You can turn on key bindings to emulate the CRiSP/Brief editor with M-x crisp-mode.  Note that this rebinds M-x to exit Emacs unless you set the variable crisp-override-meta-x.  You can also use the command M-x scroll-all-mode or set the variable crisp-load-scroll-all to emulate CRiSP's scroll-all feature (scrolling all windows together).

EDT (DEC VMS editor)
     Turn on EDT emulation with the command M-x edt-emulation-on, while M-x edt-emulation-off restores normal Emacs command bindings.

     Most of the EDT emulation commands are keypad keys, and most standard Emacs key bindings are still available.  The EDT emulation rebindings are done in the global keymap, so there is no problem switching buffers or major modes while in EDT emulation.

TPU (DEC VMS editor)
     M-x tpu-edt-on turns on emulation of the TPU editor emulating EDT.

vi (Berkeley editor)
     Viper is the newest emulator for vi.  It implements several levels of emulation; level 1 is closest to vi itself, while level 5 departs somewhat from strict emulation to take advantage of the capabilities of Emacs.  To invoke Viper, type M-x viper-mode; it will guide you the rest of the way and ask for the emulation level.  See Viper (viper).

vi (another emulator)
     M-x vi-mode enters a major mode that replaces the previously established major mode.  All of the vi commands that, in real vi, enter ``input'' mode are programmed instead to return to the previous major mode.  Thus, ordinary Emacs serves as vi's ``input'' mode.

     Because vi emulation works through major modes, it does not work to switch buffers during emulation.  Return to normal Emacs first.

     If you plan to use vi emulation much, you probably want to bind a key to the vi-mode command.

vi (alternate emulator)
     M-x vip-mode invokes another vi emulator, said to resemble real vi more thoroughly than M-x vi-mode.  ``Input'' mode in this emulator is changed from ordinary Emacs so you can use ESC to go back to emulated vi command mode.  To get from emulated vi command mode back to ordinary Emacs, type C-z.

     This emulation does not work through major modes, and it is possible to switch buffers in various ways within the emulator.  It is not so necessary to assign a key to the command vip-mode as it is with vi-mode because terminating insert mode does not use it.

     See VIP (vip), for full information.

WordStar (old wordprocessor)
     M-x wordstar-mode provides a major mode with WordStar-like key bindings.

Hyperlinking and Navigation Features
====================================

Various modes documented elsewhere have hypertext features so that you can follow links, usually by clicking Mouse-2 on the link or typing RET while point is on the link.  Clicking Mouse-1 quickly on the link also follows it.  (Hold Mouse-1 for longer if you want to set point instead.)

Info mode, Help mode and the Dired-like modes are examples of modes that have links in the buffer.  The Tags facility links between uses and definitions in source files, see Tags.  Imenu provides navigation amongst items indexed in the current buffer, see Imenu.  Info-lookup provides mode-specific lookup of definitions in Info indexes, see Documentation.  Speedbar maintains a frame in which links to files, and locations in files are displayed, see Speedbar.

Other non-mode-specific facilities described in this section enable following links from the current buffer in a context-sensitive fashion.

Following URLs
--------------

M-x browse-url RET URL RET
     Load a URL into a Web browser.

The Browse-URL package provides facilities for following URLs specifying links on the World Wide Web.  Usually this works by invoking a web browser, but you can, for instance, arrange to invoke compose-mail from mailto: URLs.

The general way to use this feature is to type M-x browse-url, which displays a specified URL.  If point is located near a plausible URL, that URL is used as the default.  Other commands are available which you might like to bind to keys, such as browse-url-at-point and browse-url-at-mouse.

You can customize Browse-URL's behavior via various options in the browse-url Customize group, particularly browse-url-browser-function.  You can invoke actions dependent on the type of URL by defining browse-url-browser-function as an association list.  The package's commentary available via C-h p under the hypermedia keyword provides more information. Packages with facilities for following URLs should always go through Browse-URL, so that the customization options for Browse-URL will affect all browsing in Emacs.

Activating URLs
---------------

M-x goto-address-mode
     Activate URLs and e-mail addresses in the current buffer.

You can make URLs in the current buffer active with M-x goto-address-mode.  This minor mode finds all the URLs in the buffer, highlights them, and turns them into buttons: if you click on a URL with Mouse-1 or Mouse-2 (see Mouse References), or move to the URL and type C-c RET, that displays the web page that the URL specifies.  For a mailto URL, it sends mail instead, using your selected mail-composition method (see Mail Methods).

It can be useful to add goto-address-mode to mode hooks and the hooks used to display an incoming message (e.g., rmail-show-message-hook for Rmail, and mh-show-mode-hook for MH-E).  This is not needed for Gnus, which has a similar feature of its own.

Finding Files and URLs at Point
-------------------------------

FFAP mode replaces certain key bindings for finding files, including C-x C-f, with commands that provide more sensitive defaults. These commands behave like the ordinary ones when given a prefix argument.  Otherwise, they get the default file name or URL from the text around point.  If what is found in the buffer has the form of a URL rather than a file name, the commands use browse-url to view it.

This feature is useful for following references in mail or news buffers, README files, MANIFEST files, and so on.  The ffap package's commentary available via C-h p under the files keyword and the ffap Custom group provide details.

You can turn on FFAP minor mode by calling ffap-bindings to make the following key bindings and to install hooks for using ffap in Rmail, Gnus and VM article buffers.

C-x C-f FILENAME RET
     Find FILENAME, guessing a default from text around point (find-file-at-point).

C-x C-r
     ffap-read-only, analogous to find-file-read-only.

C-x C-v
     ffap-alternate-file, analogous to find-alternate-file.

C-x d DIRECTORY RET
     Start Dired on DIRECTORY, defaulting to the directory name at point (dired-at-point).

C-x C-d
     ffap-list-directory, analogous to list-directory.

C-x 4 f
     ffap-other-window, analogous to find-file-other-window.

C-x 4 r
     ffap-read-only-other-window, analogous to find-file-read-only-other-window.

C-x 4 d
     ffap-dired-other-window, analogous to dired-other-window.

C-x 5 f
     ffap-other-frame, analogous to find-file-other-frame.

C-x 5 r
     ffap-read-only-other-frame, analogous to find-file-read-only-other-frame.

C-x 5 d
     ffap-dired-other-frame, analogous to dired-other-frame.

M-x ffap-next
     Search buffer for next file name or URL, then find that file or URL.

S-Mouse-3
     ffap-at-mouse finds the file guessed from text around the position of a mouse click.

C-S-Mouse-3
     Display a menu of files and URLs mentioned in current buffer, then find the one you select (ffap-menu).

Dissociated Press
=================

M-x dissociated-press is a command for scrambling a file of text either word by word or character by character.  Starting from a buffer of straight English, it produces extremely amusing output.  The input comes from the current Emacs buffer.  Dissociated Press writes its output in a buffer named *Dissociation*, and redisplays that buffer after every couple of lines (approximately) so you can read the output as it comes out.

Dissociated Press asks every so often whether to continue generating output.  Answer n to stop it.  You can also stop at any time by typing C-g.  The dissociation output remains in the *Dissociation* buffer for you to copy elsewhere if you wish.

Dissociated Press operates by jumping at random from one point in the buffer to another.  In order to produce plausible output rather than gibberish, it insists on a certain amount of overlap between the end of one run of consecutive words or characters and the start of the next.  That is, if it has just output `president' and then decides to jump to a different point in the buffer, it might spot the `ent' in `pentagon' and continue from there, producing `presidentagon'.  Long sample texts produce the best results.

A positive argument to M-x dissociated-press tells it to operate character by character, and specifies the number of overlap characters.  A negative argument tells it to operate word by word, and specifies the number of overlap words.  In this mode, whole words are treated as the elements to be permuted, rather than characters.  No argument is equivalent to an argument of two.  For your againformation, the output goes only into the buffer *Dissociation*.  The buffer you start with is not changed.

Dissociated Press produces results fairly like those of a Markov chain based on a frequency table constructed from the sample text.  It is, however, an independent, ignoriginal invention.  Dissociated Press techniquitously copies several consecutive characters from the sample text between random jumps, unlike a Markov chain which would jump randomly after each word or character.  This makes for more plausible sounding results, and runs faster.

It is a mustatement that too much use of Dissociated Press can be a developediment to your real work, sometimes to the point of outragedy. And keep dissociwords out of your documentation, if you want it to be well userenced and properbose.  Have fun.  Your buggestions are welcome.

Other Amusements
================

If you are a little bit bored, you can try M-x hanoi.  If you are considerably bored, give it a numeric argument.  If you are very, very bored, try an argument of 9.  Sit back and watch.

If you want a little more personal involvement, try M-x gomoku, which plays the game Go Moku with you.

M-x blackbox, M-x mpuz and M-x 5x5 are puzzles. blackbox challenges you to determine the location of objects inside a box by tomography.  mpuz displays a multiplication puzzle with letters standing for digits in a code that you must guess---to guess a value, type a letter and then the digit you think it stands for.  The aim of 5x5 is to fill in all the squares.

M-x decipher helps you to cryptanalyze a buffer which is encrypted in a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher.

M-x dunnet runs an adventure-style exploration game, which is a bigger sort of puzzle.

M-x lm runs a relatively non-participatory game in which a robot attempts to maneuver towards a tree at the center of the window based on unique olfactory cues from each of the four directions.

M-x life runs Conway's ``Life'' cellular automaton.

M-x morse-region converts text in a region to Morse code and M-x unmorse-region converts it back.  No cause for remorse.

M-x pong plays a Pong-like game, bouncing the ball off opposing bats.

M-x solitaire plays a game of solitaire in which you jump pegs across other pegs.

M-x studlify-region studlify-cases the region, producing text like this:

     M-x stUdlIfY-RegioN stUdlIfY-CaSeS thE region.

M-x tetris runs an implementation of the well-known Tetris game. Likewise, M-x snake provides an implementation of Snake.

When you are frustrated, try the famous Eliza program.  Just do M-x doctor.  End each input by typing RET twice.

When you are feeling strange, type M-x yow.

The command M-x zone plays games with the display when Emacs is idle.