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1 GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
3 [To find what has changed, view the `Changes' posting or inspect the change
4 bars in the text of the questions.]
6 This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about
7 GNU Emacs with answers. This article contains a listing of the questions;
8 subsequent articles contain the questions and answers.
10 The FAQ is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help' newsgroup
11 (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results from the
12 repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these questions,
13 corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, name
14 calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best" answers
15 to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a slight
16 change that improves an answer, please tell me!
18 If you know the answer of a question is in the FAQ, please reply to the
19 question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
21 The FAQ is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive the
22 `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ is also crossposted to `news.answers'.
24 Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. The
25 most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (ie., the output of `diff
26 -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to me about the FAQ.
28 Please do not send questions to me just because you do not want to disturb a
29 lot of people and you think I would know the answer. I do not have time to
30 answer questions individually. :-(
32 Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 29. Also see the
33 `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
34 e-mail to `mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use
35 FTP, WAIS, or Prospero to pit-manager.mit.edu.
37 Future plans for this FAQ list include:
39 * A new section devoted to GNUS questions.
40 * Verification for files available via FTP and for mailing lists.
41 * Up-to-date IP addresses for sites mentioned for FTP access.
42 * A Texinfo version.
43 * Marking questions in the list below that have been changed recently.
45 --
46 Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>
48 Member of the League for Programming Freedom --- send e-mail for details
49 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
51 Notation Used in the Answers
53 1: What do things like this mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, etc.?
54 2: What do you mean when you write things like this: type "ESC a"?
55 3: What if I don't have a Meta key?
56 4: What if I don't have an Escape key?
57 5: What does "M-x command" mean?
58 6: What do things like this mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h,
59 lisp/default.el?
60 7: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
62 Sources of Information and Help
64 8: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
65 9: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
66 10: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
67 11: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
68 12: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
69 13: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
70 14: How do I print a Texinfo file?
71 15: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
72 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
73 17: Has someone written an GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
74 18: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
75 19: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
76 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
77 21: Where can I get the latest VM, Supercite, GNUS, Calc, Calendar,
78 Ange-FTP, VIP, Dired, Ispell, Epoch, Demacs, Freemacs, or Patch?
79 22: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
80 23: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
81 comp.emacs, etc.?
82 24: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
83 25: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
84 26: What is the current address of the FSF?
85 27: What is the current address of the LPF?
86 28: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
87 29: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
89 GNU Emacs and Various Computing Environments
91 30: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
92 31: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
93 32: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
94 33: What will be different about GNU Emacs 19?
95 34: Is there an Emacs that has better mouse and X window support?
96 35: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
97 36: Where can I get Emacs for my PC?
98 37: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
99 38: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
100 39: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
101 40: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
102 41: How do I get Emacs running on VMS under DECwindows?
103 42: How do I use emacstool under SunView?
104 43: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
105 44: How do I input 8-bit characters?
106 45: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
107 46: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
108 47: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
109 48: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
111 Binding Keys to Commands
113 49: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?
114 50: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
115 .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
116 51: Other than that, why does my key binding fail?
117 52: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
118 53: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
119 54: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?
120 55: How do I disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control?
121 56: What do I do if my terminal is sending C-s and C-q for flow control and
122 I can't disable it?
123 57: How do I make Emacs honor C-s and C-q for flow control instead of for
124 commands?
125 58: Why does Emacs never see C-s and C-q through my network connection?
126 59: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
127 are filtered out?
128 60: How do I "swap" two keys?
129 61: Why does the "BackSpace" key invoke help?
130 62: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
131 63: Can I make my "Compose" key behave like a "Meta" key?
132 64: Why don't the arrow keys work?
133 65: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
134 66: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
135 67: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
136 68: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
138 Building/Installing/Porting Emacs and Machine/OS-Specific Bugs
140 69: Why does Emacs crash with "Fatal error (6).Abort" under SunOS 4.1?
141 70: Why do I get an "f68881_used undefined" error, when I build Emacs on my
142 Sun 3?
143 71: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
144 72: How do I get Emacs to compile with all features under OpenWindows?
145 73: How do I build Emacs under HP-UX 8.0?
146 74: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
148 Weird/Confusing Problems
150 75: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
151 76: Why does Emacs start up using the wrong directory?
152 77: How do I edit a file with a "$" in its name?
153 78: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
154 79: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
155 80: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
156 81: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
157 down one line?
158 82: Why does Emacs hang with message "Unknown XMenu error" with X11R4?
159 83: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
160 anymore?
161 84: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
162 85: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
163 86: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
164 87: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
165 88: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
166 89: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?
168 Configuring Emacs for Yourself
170 90: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
171 91: How do you debug a .emacs file?
172 92: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
173 93: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
174 94: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
175 95: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults file)?
176 96: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
177 97: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
178 98: How do I change load-path?
179 99: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
181 Emacs Lisp Programming
183 100: What dialect of Lisp is Emacs Lisp?
184 101: How close is Emacs Lisp to Common Lisp?
185 102: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
186 103: How do I make a set of operations work only within a region?
187 104: How can I highlight text in Emacs?
188 105: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
190 Carrying Out Common Tasks
192 106: How do I insert ">"'s in the beginning of every line in a buffer?
193 107: How do I insert "_^H" characters before each character in a paragraph
194 to get an underlined paragraph?
195 108: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
196 109: How do I search for or delete unprintable (8-bit or control)
197 characters?
198 110: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
199 111: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
200 indentation of the previous line?
201 112: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
202 113: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
203 114: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
204 should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
205 115: How do I read news under Emacs?
206 116: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
207 commands are handled by the compiler?
208 117: Is there an equivalent to the "." (dot) command of vi?
209 118: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
210 119: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
211 120: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
212 121: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
213 122: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
214 123: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
215 124: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
216 125: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
220 Notation Used in the Answers -
222 You may skip this section if you are reasonably familiar with GNU Emacs.
223 Some of these are not actually frequently asked questions, but knowing
224 them is important for understanding the answers to the rest of the
225 questions.
227 1: What do things like this mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, etc.?
229 C-a means press the "a" key while holding down the "Control" key. The
230 ASCII code this sends will generally be the value that would be sent by
231 pressing just "a" minus 96 or 64. Either way it will be a number from 0
232 to 31.
234 M-a means press the "a" key while holding down the "Meta" key. The
235 ASCII code this sends is the sum of the ASCII code that would be sent by
236 pressing just "a" and 128.
238 M-C-a means press the "a" key while holding down both the "Control" key
239 and the "Meta" key. C-M-a is a synonym for M-C-a.
241 * RET means press the "Return" key. RET is the same as C-m. This sends
242 ASCII code 13.
243 * LFD means press the "Linefeed" key. LFD is also the same as C-j. This
244 sends ASCII code 10. Under Unix, ASCII code 10 is more often called
245 "Newline".
246 * DEL means press the "Delete" key. DEL is the same as C-?. This sends
247 ASCII code 127. (WARNING: It is a misnomer to call C-? a "control" key,
248 since 127 has both bits 6 and 7 turned ON, and the rule for control keys
249 is that they have 6 and 7 turned OFF. Also, on very few keyboards does
250 Control-? generate ASCII code 127. In fact, Control-? (which is
251 actually Control-Shift-/) is more likely to generate C-_, ASCII code
252 31!)
253 * ESC means press the "Escape" key. ESC is the same as C-[. This sends
254 ASCII code 27.
255 * SPC means press the "Space" key. This send ASCII code 32.
256 * TAB means press the "Tab" key. TAB is the same as C-i. This send ASCII
257 code 9.
259 For C-@ and C-^, usually you don't have to hold down the shift key and you
260 can type Control-2 or Control-6 instead. For C-_, you may have to hold
261 down the shift key, typing Control-Shift-Hyphen. C-@ can often be
262 generated by typing Control-Space. C-@ is often called the NUL character,
263 and has ASCII value 0. C-_ can often be generated by typing Control-7 or
264 Control-/. C-? (aka DEL) may be generated by typing Shift-BackSpace or +
265 Control-BackSpace. Try Control with all of the digits on your keyboard to +
266 see what gets generated.
268 To read more about this online, type "C-h i m emacs RET m characters
269 RET", and also "C-h i m emacs RET m keys RET".
271 2: What do you mean when you write things like this: type "ESC a"?
273 I will enclose key sequences that are longer than one key inside double
274 quotes. These notations refer to single key strokes (some with
275 modifiers):
277 C-x, M-x, M-C-x
278 RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, SPC, TAB
280 I separate these from other keys within double quotes by spaces. Any
281 real spaces that I write inside double quotes can be ignored, only SPC
282 means press the space key. All other characters within double quotes
283 represent single keys (some shifted).
285 3: What if I don't have a Meta key?
287 Instead of typing M-a, you can type "ESC a" instead. In fact, Emacs
288 converts M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of
289 meta-prefix-char).
291 4: What if I don't have an Escape key?
293 Type C-[ instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
294 key would.
296 5: What does "M-x command" mean?
298 "M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
299 type RET.
301 M-x is simply the default key sequence that invokes the command
302 "execute-extended-command". This command allows you to run any Emacs
303 command if you can remember the command's name. If you can't remember
304 the command's name, you can type TAB and SPC for completion, and ? for a
305 list of possibilities. An Emacs "command" is any "interactive" Emacs
306 function.
308 NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to
309 invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled "Do" is a good
310 candidate for this.
312 To run non-interactive Emacs functions, use M-ESC instead and type a
313 Lisp form that invokes the function (see question 102).
315 6: What do things like this mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h,
316 lisp/default.el?
318 These are the names of files that are part of the GNU Emacs
319 distribution. The GNU Emacs distribution is divided into several
320 subdirectories; the important subdirectories are named "etc", "lisp",
321 and "src".
323 If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system,
324 start Emacs, then type "C-h v exec-directory RET". The directory name
325 that is displayed by this will be the full pathname of the "etc"
326 directory of your installed GNU Emacs distribution.
328 Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail, see
329 question 20.
331 7: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
333 FSF == Free Software Foundation
334 LPF == League for Programming Freedom
335 OSF == Open Software Foundation
336 GNU == GNU's Not Unix
337 RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman
338 FTP == File Transfer Protocol
339 GPL == GNU General Public Licence
341 NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes
342 look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high
343 quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a commercial
344 organization which wants to provide an alternative, standardized version
345 of Unix not controlled by AT&T.
347 NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers
348 to "freedom", not "zero dollars". Anyone can charge any price for
349 GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the freedom
350 enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always get the
351 software for less money from someone else, because everyone has the right
352 to resell or give away GPL-covered software.
356 Sources of Information and Help
358 8: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
360 Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is
361 how to enter the help system.
363 WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL.
364 You can use M-x help-for-help instead to invoke help. To discover what
365 key (if any) invokes help on your system, type "M-x where-is RET
366 help-for-help RET". This will print a comma-separated list of key
367 sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last character in each key
368 sequence listed. Each of the resulting key sequences invokes help.
370 NOTE: Emacs's help facility works best if help is invoked by a single
371 key. The variable help-char should hold the value of this character.
372 Andrew Arensburger <arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote a patch that allows +
373 the help facility to work properly when invoked by multiple character +
374 sequences. +
376 9: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
378 There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
380 * You should become familiar with the online documentation for Emacs. The +
381 complete text of the Emacs manual is available online in a hypertext
382 format via the "Info" manual reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info.
384 * You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 12. +
386 * You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to invoke +
387 them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or you can
388 print your own from the etc/refcard.tex file in the Emacs distribution.
390 * You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word +
391 (actually which match a regular expression) using the "command-apropos"
392 command. Type "C-h a" to invoke this command.
394 * You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a +
395 certain word using the "apropos" command. M-x apropos invokes this
396 command.
398 * There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and information. +
399 To get a list of these commands, type "C-h C-h C-h".
401 NOTE: You may find that command-apropos and apropos are extremely slow
402 on your system. This will be fixed in Emacs 19. If you can't wait that
403 long, there is a "fast-apropos.el" file available in the Emacs Lisp
404 Archive (see question 18) that contains the fix. This file
405 also contains a "super-apropos" command that will list all the functions
406 and variables whose documentation strings contain a certain word.
408 10: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
410 Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
411 archive sites. If you don't already have GNU Emacs, see question 20 !
412 for how to get these two files.
414 The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT
415 (prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.58.tar.Z). !
417 11: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
419 Look in the file etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who
420 will sell you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the
421 SERVICE file is available on prep.ai.mit.edu. See question 20
422 for how to retrieve this file.
424 12: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
426 You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF for
427 $20. For 6 or more manuals the price is $13 each. {The price may be !
428 tax-deductible as a business expense. Can someone tell me for certain? I !
429 know that pure donations to the FSF are tax-deductible, but I don't know !
430 about payments for manuals or tapes.} !
432 The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the "man" directory of
433 the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this
434 300 page manual yourself (see question 14).
436 If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX, you
437 can get a PostScript version via anonymous FTP (cs.ubc.ca: -
438 src/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-18.57.ps.Z, which site requests that you please
439 CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME
440 (pacific time zone, GMT-8)).
442 If you don't have TeX you can convert the Texinfo sources into
443 {t,n,ps}roff format with the "texi2roff" program, which is available via
444 anonymous FTP (archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:
445 /pub/gnu/texi2roff/texi2roff.shar.Z)
447 Carl Witty <cwitty@cs.stanford.edu> writes:
449 The Emacs manual is also available online in the Info system, which is
450 available by typing "C-h i". In this form, it has hypertext links and
451 is very easy to browse or search; many people prefer it to the printed
452 manual.
454 13: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
456 First create Info files from the Texinfo files with the "makeinfo"
457 program. makeinfo is available as part of the latest Texinfo package
458 (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/texinfo-2.12.tar.Z). -
460 For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
461 comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so you
462 can read it online.
464 Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor the makeinfo program install the
465 resulting Info files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:
467 1. Move the files to the "info" directory in the installed Emacs
468 distribution. See question 6 if you don't know where that
469 is.
471 2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a
472 line for the top level node in the Info package that you are
473 installing. Follow the examples are already in this file. The format
474 is:
476 * Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
478 If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary
479 privileges, you have several options: !
480 !
481 * Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You !
482 can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing
483 "g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
484 goes to the node named "Top" in that file. For example, to view a Info
485 file named "XXX" in your home directory, you can type this:
487 C-h i g (~/XXX) RET
489 * You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the !
490 Info directory is by setting the value of the variable Info-directory
491 to its pathname. For example, to use a private Info directory which
492 is a subdirectory of your home directory named "Info", you could do
493 this:
495 (setq Info-directory (expand-file-name "~/Info"))
497 You will need a top-level Info file named "dir" in this directory.
498 You can include the system-wide Info directory in your private Info
499 directory with symbolic links or by copying it.
501 * You can use an enhanced version of lisp/info.el that handles multiple +
502 Info directories. Then you can more easily use a mix of private and +
503 shared Info files. Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> has +
504 written one such enhancement and I am told there are others. +
506 14: How do I print a Texinfo file?
508 NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still +
509 have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print. +
511 1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
513 \input texinfo
515 You may need to alter "texinfo" to the full pathname of the
516 texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy
517 or link it into the current directory).
519 2. tex XXX.texinfo
521 3. texindex XXX.??
523 The "texindex" program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
525 4. tex XXX.texinfo
527 5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files
528 at your site.
530 To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package
531 mentioned in question 13.
533 15: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
535 Yes, the `info', `xinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. info uses
536 curses, xinfo uses standard X11R4 libraries, and ivinfo uses InterViews.
537 You can get info as part of the latest Texinfo package (see question 13).
538 xinfo is available separately (prep.ai.mit.edu:
539 pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.Z). ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc
540 archive or from Tom Horsley <tom@ssd.csd.harris.com>. For ivinfo, you
541 need Stanford's InterViews C++ X library, available via anonymous FTP
542 (interviews.stanford.edu).
544 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
546 Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a
547 function, "C-h v" for a variable.
549 For more information, obtain the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for Emacs
550 18 under Unix. It is available from the FSF for $50 (or 5 for $200). The
551 latest revision available for FTP is edition 1.03 dated 28 January 1991.
553 For online use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the
554 Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp
555 Archive, prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-1.03.tar.Z). (You can also !
556 create the Info files from the Texinfo source.) See question 13 for
557 details on how to install these files online.
559 If you are daring enough to try to print this 550 page manual out
560 yourself, for instructions see question 14.
562 Also, as a popular USENET saying goes, "Use the Force, Read the Source".
564 17: Has someone written an GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
566 Probably. A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code
567 Directory, is being maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> and !
568 Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov>. You can search through this list to find if
569 someone has written something that fits your needs.
571 This list is file "LCD-datafile.Z" in the Emacs Lisp Archive. (See
572 question 18 for methods for getting this file.) The files "lispdir.el.Z"
573 and "lispdir.doc.Z" in the archive contain information to help you use the
574 list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then you can
575 use the "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" command to look things up in the database.
576 For example, the command "M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces
577 this (outdated) output:
579 GNU Emacs Lisp Code Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
581 ange-ftp (3.112) 91-08-12
582 Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
583 archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:
584 /pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/ange-ftp.el.Z
585 transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs
587 18: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
589 First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you
590 are looking for. (See question 17). Then check local archives and
591 the Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. Then, if
592 you still haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for
593 a copy.
595 NOTE: The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual
596 requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If you
597 cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to find a
598 friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers.
600 You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP
601 (archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/). Fetch the
602 file "README" first.
604 NOTE: Any files with names ending in ".Z" are compressed, and you should
605 use "binary" mode in FTP to retrieve them. You should also use binary
606 mode whenever you retrieve any files with names ending in ".elc".
608 19: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
610 Submissions should be mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu. Mail
611 messages (submissions) are automatically saved and periodically archived.
612 Urgent mail may be sent directly to Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov> or Dave
613 Brennan <brennan@hal.com> or should contain the string "urgent" in the !
614 subject. The incomoing ftp directory is no longer available at the
615 request of Ohio State.
617 However, if someone has a submission with multiple files (which would be
618 archived as a tar file) or binary files, then FTP transfer is preferred
619 and can be arranged via an anonymous FTP site. This is faster than
620 uudecoding, unsharing, etc., and re-packaging files.
622 Before submitting anything, please read the file "guidelines.Z", which is
623 available in the archive. Whenever possible submissions should contain
624 a complete LCD entry since this helps reduce administrative overhead for
625 the maintainers. You can include an entry in this format:
627 ;; LCD Archive Entry:
628 ;; package name|author's name|email address
629 ;; |description
630 ;; |date|version|archive path
632 For example:
634 ;; LCD Archive Entry:
635 ;; tex-complete|Sebastian Kremer|sk@thp.Uni-Koeln.DE
636 ;; |Minibuffer name completion for editing [La]TeX.
637 ;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 1.12 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z
639 Dave Brennan has software which automatically looks for data in this
640 format. The format is fairly flexible. The entry ends when a line is
641 reached with a different prefix or the seventh field terminator is
642 seen.
644 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
646 This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
647 informational files about GNU Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU
648 project are available for you to read.
650 The following files are available in the "etc" directory of the GNU
651 Emacs distribution, and also the latest versions are available
652 individually via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/etc/):
654 APPLE -- Why the FSF doen't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers
655 DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information,
656 including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form"
657 FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP
658 GNU -- The GNU Manifesto
659 INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain
660 UNIX-compatible software system
661 with BYTE editors
662 MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
663 MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
664 SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
665 SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs" !
667 These files are available in the "etc" directory of the GNU Emacs
668 distribution:
670 DIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Twenex Emacs
671 CCADIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and CCA Emacs
672 GOSDIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Gosling (Unipress??) Emacs
673 COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License
674 NEWS -- GNU Emacs News, a history of user-visible changes
675 LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
676 FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
677 OPTIONS -- a complete explanation of startup option handling
679 These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/):
681 tasks -- GNU Task List
682 standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards
684 In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF
685 via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source
686 first.
688 These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail:
690 * GNU's Bulletin, June, 1991 -- this file includes:
691 GNU'S Who
692 What Is the Free Software Foundation?
693 What Is Copyleft?
694 A Small Way to Help Free Software
695 GNUs Flashes (important recent developments for project GNU)
696 Free Software Support (and how to get it!)
697 Copyrighted Programming Languages
698 AT&T Threatens Users of X Windows (and other software patent threats)
699 Project Gutenberg
700 GNU Project Status Report
701 GNU in Japan
702 GNU Wish List
703 Help Keep Government Software Free
704 GNU Software Available Now
705 Contents of the Emacs Tape
706 Contents of the Compiler Tape
707 Contents of the X11 Tapes
708 VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
709 GNU Documentation
710 How to Get GNU Software
711 Free Software for Microcomputers
712 GNU Software on Apple computers
713 GNU Software on the Amiga
714 GNU Software on the Atari
715 GNUish MS-DOS project
716 Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS
717 GNU in Japan
718 FSF Order Form
719 Thank GNUs
720 * Legal issues about contributing code to GNU
721 * GNU Project Status Report
723 21: Where can I get the latest VM, Supercite, GNUS, Calc, Calendar,
724 Ange-FTP, VIP, Dired, Ispell, Epoch, Demacs, Freemacs, or Patch?
726 {If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they
727 deserve to be mentioned here, please tell me. Having its own mailing list
728 or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good signs.}
730 * VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
732 Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net>
733 Latest released version: 4.41
734 Beta test version: 5.31
735 Anonymous FTP:
736 Emacs Lisp Archive: packages/vm-4.41.tar.Z, as-is/timer.shar.Z -
737 ftp.uu.net:/pub/vm-{4.41,5.31beta}.tar.Z
738 Newsgroups and mailing lists:
739 Info-VM:
740 gnu.emacs.vm.info
741 info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
742 info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) +
743 Bug-VM:
744 gnu.emacs.vm.bug
745 bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
746 bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions) +
748 * SuperCite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
750 Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com>
751 Mailing list: supercite-request@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for subscriptions)
752 supercite@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for submissions) +
753 Latest version: 2.2
754 Anonymous FTP:
755 Emacs Lisp Archive: packages/sc-2.2.tar.Z
756 Via e-mail:
757 To: library@cme.nist.gov
758 Subject: help
760 NOTE: Superyank is an old version of SuperCite.
762 * GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
764 Author: Masanobu Umeda <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp>
765 Latest official version: 3.13
766 Unofficial test version: 3.14.1
767 Anonymous FTP:
768 cs.umn.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z.
769 aun.uninett.no:pub/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
770 wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/GNU/etc/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
771 liasun3.epfl.ch:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
772 aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
773 funet.fi:/networking/news/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
774 src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu/EmacsBits/gnus/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
775 Emacs Lisp Archive: packages/gnus-3.13.tar.Z
776 Newsgroups and mailing lists:
777 English-only:
778 gnu.emacs.gnus
779 info-gnus-english-request@cis.ohio-state.edu (for subscriptions)
780 info-gnus-english@cis.ohio-state.edu (for submissions) +
781 Japanese (and some English):
782 info-gnus-request@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for subscriptions)
783 info-gnus@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for submissions) +
785 * Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
787 Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu>
788 Latest released version: 2.02 !
789 Anonymous FTP:
790 csvax.cs.caltech.edu:pub/calc-2.02.tar.Z !
791 prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02.tar.Z !
792 NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue anyone
793 for having a program with a similar command language to Calc. :-)
795 * Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
797 Author: Ed Reingold <reingold@cs.uiuc.edu>
798 Latest version: 4.01
799 Anonymous FTP:
800 emr.cs.uiuc.edu:/pub/emacs/calendar
801 Via e-mail:
802 To: reingold@cs.uiuc.edu
803 Subject: send-emacs-cal
804 Put your best internet e-mail address in the body.
806 * Ange-FTP -- adds transparent FTP access to Emacs's file access routines
808 Author: Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
809 Latest version: 3.143
810 Anonymous FTP:
811 ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu:ange-ftp/ange-ftp.el.Z
812 Emacs Lisp Archive:
813 as-is/ange-ftp.el.Z (current version)
814 packages/ange-ftp.el.Z (old version)
815 Mailing list: ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (subscriptions) !
816 ange-ftp-lovers@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for submissions) +
817 NOTE: now with support for accessing VMS systems
819 * VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs -
821 Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu>
822 Latest released version: 4.3 +
823 Anonymous FTP:
824 cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z
825 Emacs Lisp Archive: modes/vip-mode.tar.Z
826 NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one
827 distributed with Emacs.
829 Version distributed with Emacs: 3.5
830 Author: Masahiko Sato <ms@sail.stanford.edu,
831 masahiko@sato.riec.tohoku.junet>
833 * Dired -- directory editor for Emacs
835 Author: Sebastian Kremer <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de>
836 Latest released version: 5.239 +
837 Anonymous FTP: ftp.cs.buffalo.edu:pub/Emacs/diredall.tar.Z -
838 ftp.uni-koeln.de:pub/gnu/emacs/diredall.tar.Z -
839 NOTE: This is a huge improvement over the Dired distributed with Emacs.
840 This version will be in Emacs 19.
842 * AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode +
843 +
844 Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk> +
845 Latest released version: 5.4 +
846 Anonymous FTP: iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auc-tex-5.4.tar.Z +
847 Mailing list: +
848 auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions) +
849 auc-tex@iesd.auc.dk (for submissions) +
850 auc-tex_mgr@iesd.auc.dk (auc-tex development team) +
851 +
852 * Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs +
853 +
854 Author: Bob Weiner <rsw@cs.brown.edu> +
855 Anonymous FTP: +
856 wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/h*.tar.Z +
857 Mailing lists: +
858 hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only. +
859 Subscriptions: +
860 To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu +
861 Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole-announce. +
862 hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion. +
863 Subscriptions: +
864 To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu +
865 Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole. +
866 Submissions: +
867 hyperbole@cs.brown.edu +
868 NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a +
869 member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list. +
870 NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists. +
871 +
872 * Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs +
874 Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com> (latest of many)
875 Latest released version: 2.0.02
876 Beta test version: 3.0 (9 patches)
877 Anonymous FTP:
878 archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/ispell/* (version 2.0.02)
879 ftp.cs.ucla.edu:/pub/ispell/* (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries)
880 NOTE: Do not send mail to Geoff asking him to send you the latest
881 version of Ispell. He does not have free e-mail.
883 * Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
885 Latest released version: 3.2
886 Beta test version: 4.0 beta patchlevel 0 !
887 Anonymous FTP:
888 cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-4.0b0.tar.Z !
889 cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-3.2{.tar.Z,-patch-{1,2.tar.Z}}
890 Newsgroup and mailing lists: !
891 Epoch: !
892 gnu.emacs.epoch
893 epoch-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
894 epoch@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions) +
895 Epoch-Design: +
896 epoch-design-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions) +
897 epoch-design@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions) +
899 * Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to work under MS-DOS on 386 and 486 machines
901 Authors: Manabu Higashida <manabu@sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp>
902 HIRANO Satoshi <hirano@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
903 Latest released version: 1.2.0
904 Anonymous FTP:
905 utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:GNU/demacs/* (nearest to U.S.A.)
906 ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp:pub/Msdos/Demacs/*
907 wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/msdos/Demacs/*
908 ftp.3com.com:pub/gnu/msdos/demacs/* +
909 mindseye.berkeley.edu:pub/kanji/demacs/* +
910 ftp.hawaii.edu:pub/editors/demacs.tar.Z +
911 ftp.math.ksu.edu:pub/pc/demacs/* +
912 wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:pd1:<msdos.demacs>* +
913 ftp.uni-koeln.de: (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!) +
914 msdos/gnuprogs/dem120e.zip (executables, lisp-code, doc)
915 msdos/gnuprogs/dem120s.zip (sources, diffs)
916 ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/msdos/gnu/emacs/?????????????
917 mizar.docs.uu.se:pub/gnu/demacs/* +
918 iamsun.unibe.ch:PC/demacs/* +
919 flop.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:outgoing/demacs.tar +
920 ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/demacs/* +
921 garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120{e,s}.zip +
922 ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/demacs/* +
923 ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/Demacs/* +
924 {Does anyone know which sites have the Kanji version?} +
925 Via e-mail: +
926 From garbo.uwasa.fi: +
927 To: mailserv@garbo.uwasa.fi +
928 Subject: garbo-request +
929 Body: send pc/editor/dem120e.zip +
930 send pc/editor/dem120s.zip +
931 quit +
932 Downloading:
933 EXEC-PC (Milwaukee, WI) 414-789-4210 (2400 bps)
934 in the Mahoney MS-DOS file area in its Editors/wordprocessors
935 library (F), named GNUEMACS.ZIP
936 Channel 1 (Cambridge, MA) 617-345-8873 (9600 bps)
937 in the New Uploads file area, named GNUEMACS.ZIP
938 NOTE: Use the -d option of [pk]unzip for all .zip archives. Some sites
939 have Demacs lharc'ed. {Can anyone tell me FTP sites for programs to
940 extract lharc and zip format files? Or even better, give me a pointer
941 to another FAQ that answers these questions.}
942 Mailing list: +
943 NOTE: There is no mailing list for Demacs. However, there is a list +
944 for DJGPP, which is the environment that Demacs runs in. Many +
945 Demacs problems are actually issues with DJGPP. +
946 DJGPP: +
947 Subscriptions: +
948 To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu +
949 body: add <your-address> djgpp +
950 or put "help" in the body. +
951 If this fails, mail to djgpp-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu. +
952 Submissions: +
953 djgpp@sun.soe.clarkson.edu +
955 * Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
957 Author: Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> +
958 Latest released version: 1.6a
959 Anonymous FTP:
960 simtel20.army.mil:PD:<MSDOS.FREEMACS>*
961 grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:pub/msdos/freemacs/*
962 Via e-mail:
963 To: archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
964 body: help
965 Via snail mail:
966 address: Russell Nelson, 11 Grant St., Potsdam, NY 13676
967 Send $15 copying fee, and specify preferred floppy disk format:
968 5.25", 360K, or 3.50", 720K
969 Mailing lists:
970 Subscriptions:
971 To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
972 body: add <your-address> <name-of-list>
973 or put "help" in the body.
974 List distribution addresses:
975 freemacs-announce@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
976 freemacs-help@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
977 freemacs-workers@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (send bug reports here)
979 * Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
981 Author: Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
982 Latest version: 2.0 patchlevel 12u5
983 (This is the version that supports the new "unified" diff format.)
984 Anonymous FTP:
985 prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12u4.tar.Z
987 22: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
989 RMS writes:
991 The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the spirit,
992 which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work pertaining
993 to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that all users have
994 the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs. To make sure
995 everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you distribute
996 any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the recipients the
997 same freedom that you enjoyed.
999 If you still want to find out about the legal meaning of the copyleft,
1000 please ask yourself if this means you are not paying attention to the
1001 spirit.
1003 23: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
1004 comp.emacs, etc.?
1006 The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU
1007 mailing-list. (See question 20 on how to get a copy.) For
1008 those which are gatewayed with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup
1009 name and the mailing list address.
1011 comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This
1012 includes GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE,
1013 MicroEmacs, Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, Epsilon, etc.
1015 Many people post GNU Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't
1016 receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for
1017 and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have
1018 to decide for yourself.
1020 Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on any
1021 of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to
1022 hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "non-free" software
1023 includes any software for which the end user can't get source code. Be
1024 careful to remove the gnu.* groups from the "Newsgroups:" line when
1025 posting a followup that recommends such software.
1027 The correct place to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
1028 bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Anything sent here also appears in the
1029 newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit
1030 the bug report. This way a reliable return address is available so you
1031 can be contacted for further details.
1033 RMS explains: !
1035 Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting
1036 on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an
1037 unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and
1038 have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much
1039 smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have
1040 expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others.
1042 However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to +
1043 gnu.emacs.help: +
1044 +
1045 If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix, then +
1046 after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on +
1047 gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you. +
1049 If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell: !
1051 ... if Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
1052 while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that is
1053 a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it does,
1054 that is a bug.
1056 24: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
1058 If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named "XXX", you might be able
1059 to unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address
1060 "XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu". However, this will not work if you are
1061 not listed on the main mailing list, but instead recieve the mail from a
1062 distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which
1063 distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the "Received:" headers
1064 on the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the "EXPN" or
1065 "VRFY" sendmail commands through "telnet <site-address> smtp". Ask your
1066 postmaster for help.
1068 25: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
1070 The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and
1071 look-and-feel copyrights. Write to league@prep.ai.mit.edu for more
1072 information. You can get papers describing the LPF's views via
1073 anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/lpf/*) or via anonymous UUCP
1074 (osu-cis!~/lpf/*).
1076 26: What is the current address of the FSF?
1078 Snail mail address:
1079 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1080 675 Massachusetts Avenue
1081 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
1083 Phone number:
1084 (617) 876-3296
1086 E-mail addresses:
1087 gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
1089 27: What is the current address of the LPF?
1091 Snail mail address:
1092 League for Programming Freedom
1093 1 Kendall Square, Number 143
1094 Post Office Box 9171
1095 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
1097 Phone number:
1098 (617) 243-4061 { or 243-4091, I'm not sure ... }
1099 {Will someone please tell me which of the above numbers is correct?}
1101 E-mail address:
1102 league@prep.ai.mit.edu
1104 28: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
1106 The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on
1107 prep.ai.mit.edu and is available for anonymous FTP. See the files
1108 etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information. (To get copies of these
1109 files, see question 20.)
1111 For Europeans, the site nic.funet.fi duplicates the directory /pub/gnu
1112 from prep.ai.mit.edu.
1114 29: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
1116 The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
1118 1. Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your +
1119 news spool, in both the "gnu.emacs.help" and "comp.emacs" newsgroups.
1120 Every news reader of which I know will allow you to read any news
1121 article that is still in the news spool, even if you have read the
1122 article before. You may need to read the instructions for your news
1123 reader to discover how to do this. In "rn", this command will do this
1124 for you at the "article selection level":
1126 ?GNU Emacs FAQ?rc:m
1128 In GNUS, you should type "C-u G" from the *Subject* buffer or "C-u SPC"
1129 from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a newsgroup.
1131 The FAQ articles' message IDs are:
1133 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-0.92Feb23210646@bigbird.bu.edu> !
1134 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-1.92Feb23210646@bigbird.bu.edu> !
1135 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-2.92Feb23210646@bigbird.bu.edu> !
1136 <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-3.92Feb23210646@bigbird.bu.edu> +
1138 If you are viewing this in the GNUS `*Article*' buffer, you can move
1139 point within one of the above message IDs and type "r" to fetch the
1140 referenced article into the `*Article*' buffer. Type "o" in the
1141 `*Article*' buffer to restore the previous contents of the `*Article*'
1142 buffer. If you are not viewing this in the GNUS `*Article*' buffer,
1143 use M-x gnus-Article-refer-article instead of "r". GNUS must be
1144 running and you must display the `*Article*' buffer to see the results.
1146 If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool,
1147 it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
1148 administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before
1149 April 15, 1992. !
1151 2. Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP +
1152 (pit-manager.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part?). !
1154 3. Via e-mail. You can send the following magical incantation in the body +
1155 of a message to mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu:
1157 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part0 !
1158 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1 !
1159 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2 +
1160 send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3 +
1161 +
1162 4. Via WAIS. The GNU Emacs FAQ is available via WAIS indexed on a +
1163 per-question basis from the "faq" database on bigbird.bu.edu on the +
1164 non-standard IP port number of 2210. This is probably the best way to +
1165 find out if there is something in the FAQ related to your question. I +
1166 use this myself to answer questions I see posted on gnu.emacs.help. !
1167 !
1168 The articles of the GNU Emacs FAQ are also available from the "usenet" !
1169 database on pit-manager.mit.edu (on the standard IP port: 210), along !
1170 with a lot of other FAQ articles. However, these are all indexed at !
1171 the whole article level instead of at the question level. This is a !
1172 better place to look if you want to fetch the entire FAQ. !
1173 !
1174 5. In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest !
1175 available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of
1176 the GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.58 is the latest !
1177 version, and it was released in February 1992. !
1181 GNU Emacs and Various Computing Environments
1183 30: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
1185 EMACS originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. The first Emacs was
1186 a set of macros written by Richard Stallman and Guy Steele for the
1187 editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector (originally Tape Editor and
1188 COrrector)) on a PDP-10. (Amusing fact: many people have told me that
1189 TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See alt.lang.teco if you are
1190 interested.)
1192 31: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
1194 GNU Emacs 18.58 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better !
1195 mail address parsing, an X visual bell speedup, a call-process !
1196 enhancement, a regexp matching change, the ability to apply a numeric !
1197 argument to a self-inserting digit, getting X resource values from the !
1198 RESOURCE_MANAGER property, more reliable shell mode job control, and a !
1199 change to copy-keymap. Also, support has been added for many new system !
1200 types. !
1202 The June 1991 GNU's Bulletin says this about the status of Emacs: +
1204 GNU Emacs 18.57 is the current version. The undo facility has been
1205 completely rewritten and now holds unlimited data temporarily, and a
1206 user-specified amount for the long term.
1208 Berkeley is distributing GNU Emacs with the 4.3 BSD distribution, and
1209 numerous companies distribute it also.
1211 Emacs 18 maintenance continues for simple bug fixes.
1213 To visit a file with information about what has changed in recent !
1214 versions, type "C-h n". !
1216 32: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
1218 Good question, I don't know. For that matter, neither do the developers.
1219 It will undoubtedly be available sometime in the 1990s. :-) People are
1220 actually using alpha-test version of Emacs 19, which is a good sign. Work
1221 has begun on features for Emacs 20.
1223 RMS writes:
1225 Work is progressing steadily on 19 and it the to-do list is getting
1226 smaller. But I don't want to make the mistake of predicting when it
1227 will be ready.
1229 33: What will be different about GNU Emacs 19?
1231 From the June 1991 GNU's Bulletin:
1233 Version 19 approaches release, counting among its new features: before
1234 and after change hooks, source-level debugging of Emacs Lisp programs, X
1235 selection processing (including clipboard selections), scrollbars,
1236 support for European character sets, floating point numbers, per-buffer
1237 mouse commands, X resource manager interfacing, mouse-tracking,
1238 Lisp-level binding of function keys, multiple X windows (`screens' to
1239 Emacs), a new input system---all input now arrives in the form of Lisp
1240 objects---and buffer allocation, which uses a new mechanism capable of
1241 returning storage to the system when a buffer is killed.
1243 Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch for
1244 generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs. Emacs 19
1245 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a separate screen for
1246 the minibuffer, and another with a minibuffer attached to each screen.
1248 Features being considered for later releases of Emacs include:
1249 associating property lists with regions of text in a buffer; multiple
1250 fonts, color, and pixmaps defined by those properties; different
1251 visibility conditions for the regions, and for various windows showing
1252 one buffer; hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain
1253 range; incrementally saving undo history in a file; static menu bars;
1254 and better pop-up menus.
1256 Mention of these two items disappeared in the January 1991 GNU's bulletin:
1258 * Incremental syntax analysis for various programming languages (Leif).
1259 * A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which would provide
1260 network transparent Emacs widget functionality.
1262 34: Is there an Emacs that has better mouse and X window support?
1264 Emacs 18 has some limited X Window System support, but there are
1265 problems. Emacs 19 will have amazing mouse and window support. Right
1266 now, there is a modified version of Emacs 18.55 called "Epoch" which has
1267 greatly improved mouse and window support. To obtain Epoch, see
1268 question 21.
1270 There are numerous Emacs Lisp packages that have been written to extend
1271 Emacs 18's mouse handling capabilities. Some of these packages also have
1272 patches to the C code to provide enhanced capabilities. Look up "mouse"
1273 in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 17).
1275 NOTE: Epoch only works with the X Window System; it does not work on
1276 ordinary terminals.
1278 35: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
1280 The unofficial HP GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP
1281 (me10.lbl.gov:pub/interex/HUGE/HUGE.{README.HP,tar.Z.??},
1282 ee.utah.edu:HUGE/*, PLEASE FTP DURING NON-WORK HOURS!!!) and takes about
1283 35 megabytes of disk space to build. It is useful for non-HP machines,
1284 but some of the added features will only work under HP-UX.
1286 You will need to get patches to work with HP-UX 8.0 or on 700 series
1287 machines via e-mail from Darryl Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com>.
1289 36: Where can I get Emacs for my PC?
1291 ** Demacs
1293 For 386 or 486 PCs, there is a version of GNU Emacs called Demacs. To get
1294 Demacs see question 21.
1296 From the announcement message:
1298 Demacs is almost a full set of GNU Emacs but does not support some
1299 features: asynchronous process, locking a file, etc.
1301 Demacs provides following DOS specific features:
1303 * File type: text or binary file translation.
1304 * "8bit clean" display mode.
1305 * 8086 software interrupt call by int86 lisp function.
1306 * Machine specific features such as function key support.
1307 * File name completion with drive name.
1308 * Child process (suspend-emacs, call-process).
1309 * Enhanced dired mode which can work without 'ls.exe'.
1311 To our regret `shell-mode' does not work, but `compile' command works
1312 properly.
1314 Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by D. J.
1315 Delorie <dj@ctron.com> which can compile and run large programs under
1316 MS-DOS, but not under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs rather
1317 than straight from GNU Emacs.
1319 There are a variety of other Emacses for MS-DOS including among them the
1320 following.
1322 ** Freemacs
1324 Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, the author, describes
1325 Freemacs:
1327 * Freemacs is free, and it was designed from the start to be
1328 programmable.
1329 * Freemacs is the only IBM-PC editor that tries to be like GNU Emacs.
1330 * Freemacs can only edit files less than 64K in length.
1331 * Freemacs doesn't have undo.
1333 Carl Witty <cwitty@cs.stanford.edu> describes Freemacs:
1335 Better is Freemacs, which follows the tradition of ITS and GNU Emacs by
1336 having an full, turing-complete extension language which is incompatible
1337 with everything else. In fact, it's even closer to ITS Emacs than GNU
1338 Emacs is, because Mint (Freemacs' extension language) is absolutely
1339 illegible without weeks of study, much like TECO.
1341 To get Freemacs see question 21.
1343 ** MicroEmacs
1345 MicroEmacs is a descendant of Microemacs {originally by Dave Conroy?}. It +
1346 is programmable in a BASIC-like language. Many of the keybindings are +
1347 different from GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MicroEmacs can not correctly +
1348 edit files larger than memory. The author is Daniel Lawrence +
1349 <dan@mdbs.uucp, dan@midas.mgmt.purdue.edu, nwd@j.cc.purdue.edu>. The -
1350 latest version is 3.10 and it is available via anonymous FTP
1351 (midas.mgmt.purdue.edu (non-working hours only), durer.cme.nist.gov,
1352 wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/msdos/memacs/*). Version 3.11 is in beta
1353 test.
1355 ** JOVE
1357 Another Emacs for small machines is JOVE (Jonathan's Own Version of
1358 Emacs). The latest official version is 4.14. There appears to be a newer
1359 version. People rumored to be working on JOVE include Mark Moraes
1360 <moraes@cs.toronto.edu> and Bill Marsh <bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil>. It is
1361 available via anonymous FTP (cs.rochester.edu:/pub/jove.tar.4.14.Z,
1362 cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.3.tar.Z, ftp.uu.net:????). +
1364 ** MG
1366 MG is another descendant of Microemacs. MG used to stand for
1367 MicroGNUEmacs, but now just stands for MG. The look-and-feel of MG is +
1368 intended to be close to that of GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MG can not +
1369 correctly edit files larger than memory. The current version is rumored +
1370 to be 2. There is a version 3 in beta which works on the Amiga. It is
1371 also available via anonymous FTP (ftp.white.toronto.edu:pub/mg/*,
1372 wuarchive.wustl.edu: /mirrors/unix-c/editors/mg*, procyon.cis.ksu.edu
1373 (source and executable)).
1375 37: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
1377 Anonymous FTP:
1378 cs.uni-sb.de:/pub/atari/emacs/????????
1380 38: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
1382 All of the files are lharc-ed.
1384 Anonymous FTP:
1385 oes.orst.edu:/pub/almanac/comp/amiga/software/gnuemacs-1.10/*
1387 Via e-mail:
1388 To: almanac@oes.orst.edu:
1389 body:
1390 mode uuencode
1391 send computer amiga software gnuemacs <file>
1392 <file> is replaced by one of the following:
1393 Required: d1.lzh d2.lzh
1394 Recommended: d3_info.lzh d3_infolisp.lzh
1395 Optional: d3_autoloaded.lzh d3_entertainmentetc.lzh
1396 d3_entertainmentlisp.lzh d4_src.lzh d5_languagelisp.lzh
1397 d5_viclone.lzh d6_gnulibsrc.lzh d6_mailpackage.lzh
1398 d6_mathpackage.lzh d6_misc.lzh d6_textformat.lzh
1399 The `d#' at the beginning of each file is its disk number, which is
1400 referred to by the documentation.
1402 39: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
1404 The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look
1405 and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details.
1406 Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software
1407 for Apple computers such as the Macintosh.
1409 Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers.
1411 40: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
1413 Chris Maio's NeWS support package for GNU Emacs is available via
1414 anonymous FTP (columbia.edu:pub/ps-emacs.tar.Z, -
1415 archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ps-emacs.tar.Z) and via e-mail !
1416 (body: send NeWS emacs-support, To: archive-server@columbia.edu). +
1418 41: How do I get Emacs running on VMS under DECwindows?
1420 Hal R. Brand <BRAND@addvax.llnl.gov> is said to have a VMS save set with a
1421 ready-to-run VMS version of Emacs 18.55 for X Windows. It is available
1422 via anonymous FTP (addvax.llnl.gov). It is possible that the VMS versions +
1423 of Emacs at other sites have X support compiled in. See etc/FTP for +
1424 locations. +
1426 Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> writes:
1428 Getting Emacs to run on VMS with DECwindows requires a number of changes
1429 to the sources. Fortunately this has been done already. Joshua Marantz
1430 <josh@viewlogic.com> did most of the work for Emacs 18.52, and the mods
1431 were ported to 18.55 by Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl>. Also included is the
1432 handling of DEC's LK201 keyboard. You need to apply the changes to a
1433 fresh Emacs 18.55 distribution on a Unix system, and then you can copy
1434 the sources to VMS to perform the compile/link/build.
1436 The set of changes have been posted a number of times three times the
1437 last 12 months, so they should be widely available.
1439 42: How do I use emacstool under SunView?
1441 First read the man page for emacstool (etc/emacstool.1). The file !
1442 etc/SUN-SUPPORT includes further information. +
1444 43: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
1446 There is a patch called the `8-bit ctl-arrow patch' that allows Emacs to
1447 display characters with codes from 128 to 255. {It appears to be by
1448 Kenneth Cline <cline@proof.ergo.cs.cmu.edu>.}
1450 Anonymous FTP:
1451 cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z:cemacs/8bit-patch-18.57
1452 sics.se:archive/emacs-18.55-8bit-diff (new version not available)
1453 laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.5{5,7}
1455 Via e-mail: +
1456 To: mail-server@sics.se
1457 body: send emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
1459 Anders Edenbrandt <anderse@dna.lth.se> has produced a more comprehensive
1460 patch that allows for 8-bit input and output.
1462 Anonymous FTP:
1463 sics.se:archive/emacs-8bit-diff-lth
1464 gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU/DS-emacs-18.57-8bit-diff-lth
1466 The most comprehensive patches for 8-bit output are by Howard Gayle for -
1467 Emacs 18.55. These patches allow displaying any arbitrary string for a
1468 given 8-bit character (except TAB and C-j). Also supported is defining +
1469 the sorting order and the uppercase and lowercase translations. It is +
1470 reported that the 8-bit character support in Emacs 19 is largely based on +
1471 these patches. Thomas Bellman <Bellman@lysator.liu.se> has updated these !
1472 patches for Emacs 18.57. !
1474 Anonymous FTP:
1475 sics.se:archive/emacs-gayle.tar.Z (patches for 18.55) +
1476 ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.57.diff.tar.Z (patches for 18.57) +
1477 ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.57-gayle.tar.Z (patched 18.57) +
1478 +
1479 Nemacs displays 8-bit characters, and it may be useful for displaying the +
1480 8-bit ISO-8859 alphabet, but I don't know for sure. See question 46. +
1482 44: How do I input 8-bit characters?
1484 Minor modes for ISO Latin-1 that allow one to easily input this character
1485 set have been written by several people. Such modes have been written by !
1486 Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr> (laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/iso-latin-1.el), !
1487 Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> {FTP site??}, and Marc Shapiro +
1488 <shapiro@sor.inria.fr> {FTP site??}. +
1490 These approaches differ from the one taken by Anders Edenbrandt in that
1491 his method uses direct 8-bit input, while these methods use a compose
1492 sequence for 8-bit characters. {I have heard conflicting reports on
1493 whether this results in losing the Meta key. Perhaps this depends on
1494 whether Emacs is running under X. Can someone resolve this?}
1496 Karl Heuer <karl@haddock.ima.isc.com> is said to have a patch to allow !
1497 8-bit input.
1499 45: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
1501 The `emacsclient' program is for editing a file using an already running
1502 Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a
1503 request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the request. +
1504 +
1505 * Setup +
1506 +
1507 Emacs must have executed the `server-start' function for emacsclient to !
1508 work. This can be done either by a command line option:
1510 emacs -f server-start
1512 or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file:
1514 (if (some conditions are met) (server-start))
1516 When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called
1517 `server'. `server' creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
1518 directory named `.emacs_server'.
1520 To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try +
1521 setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the +
1522 value `emacsclient'. You may have to specify the full pathname of the +
1523 emacsclient program instead. Examples: +
1524 +
1525 # csh commands: +
1526 setenv EDITOR emacsclient +
1527 setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname +
1528 +
1529 # sh command: +
1530 EDITOR=emacsclient export EDITOR +
1531 +
1532 * Normal use +
1534 When emacsclient is run, it connects to the `.emacs_server' socket and !
1535 passes its command line options to `server'. When `server' receives -
1536 these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process,
1537 which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line
1538 numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) When the user is done
1539 editing a file, the user can type "C-x #" to indicate this. This will
1540 switch to another buffer created at the request of emacsclient if there
1541 are any. When "C-x #" has been invoked on all of the files that the
1542 emacsclient requested to be edited, Emacs will send notification of this
1543 to `server' which will pass this on to the emacsclient, which will then
1544 exit.
1546 NOTE: `emacsclient' and `server' must be running on machines which share +
1547 the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that emacsclient +
1548 specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the Emacs process +
1549 sees, which is not necessarily the same as the one the emacsclient sees. +
1550 The Emacs process should not be suspended at the time emacsclient is +
1551 invoked. Thus, emacsclient should either be invoked from another X window +
1552 or from a shell window inside Emacs itself. +
1554 There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called `gnuserv' by !
1555 Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp
1556 Archive. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across most
1557 network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary Emacs
1558 Lisp forms, not just the ability to visit files, and also does not require +
1559 the client program to wait for completion. It is available via anonymous +
1560 FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive: packages/gnuserv.shar).
1562 46: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters? -
1564 Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55
1565 that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP
1566 (crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z, uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu:
1567 editors/Nemacs-3.3.2/*, miki.cs.titech.ac.jp:
1568 JAPAN/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z). You might also need files for "wnn", a
1569 kanji input method (wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You +
1570 need a terminal (or terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in +
1571 JIS, Shift-JIS, or EUC (Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs +
1572 as a direct X Window client. +
1574 47: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
1576 `cemacs' by Stephen G. Simpson <simpson@math.psu.edu> is a patch to Emacs
1577 18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with
1578 Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous FTP
1579 (crl.nmsu.edu:pub/chinese/cemacs.tar.Z, cs.purdue.edu:
1580 pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z). Cxterm is available from the same place
1581 (cs.purdue.edu: pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z).
1583 48: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
1585 Joel M. Hoffman <joel@wam.umd.edu> writes:
1587 A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows right-to-left
1588 editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display the Hebrew
1589 letters, given the right codes, but not for any right-to-left support;
1590 the hardware also doesn't have to send any specific char. codes. Emacs
1591 keeps track of when the user is typing Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-*
1592 terminals in Israel contain built-in support for Hebrew.)
1594 To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's source
1595 code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean.
1597 [and in a separate message:]
1599 It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend
1600 trying that with emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order
1601 with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a
1602 quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to
1603 send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for
1604 anything large, however, you'll want something that works better.
1606 Joseph Friedman <yossi@Neon.Stanford.EDU> wrote something for Emacs that
1607 provides Hebrew support under X Windows.
1609 Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by
1610 modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards".
1612 A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with "hebrew".
1616 Binding Keys to Commands
1618 49: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?
1620 Most likely, it failed because the key sequence you were binding started
1621 with "ESC [" and this sequence was already bound to a command. Evaluate
1622 this form first:
1624 (define-key esc-map "[" nil)
1626 NOTE: By default, "ESC [" is bound to backward-paragraph, and if you do !
1627 this you will lose this key binding. For most people, this is not a
1628 problem.
1630 50: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
1631 .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
1633 This is because you're trying to do something in your .emacs file that
1634 needs to be postponed until after the terminal/window-system setup code
1635 is loaded. This is a result of the order in which things are done
1636 during the startup of Emacs. For more details see question 64.
1638 In order to postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after the
1639 terminal/window-system setup, set the value of the variable
1640 term-setup-hook or window-setup-hook to be a function which does what
1641 you want.
1643 See etc/OPTIONS for a complete explanation of what Emacs does every time
1644 it is started.
1646 Here is a simple example of how to set term-setup-hook:
1648 (setq term-setup-hook
1649 (function
1650 (lambda ()
1651 (cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
1652 ;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x:
1653 (define-key CSI-map "29~" 'execute-extended-command))
1654 ))))
1656 51: Other than that, why does my key binding fail?
1658 One possible reason that I've seen many times is improperly specifying
1659 the character ESC in the key binding string. In an Emacs Lisp string,
1660 ESC is specified as "\e". (ESC can also be specified as itself, the
1661 ASCII character with value 27, but this can cause serious problems when
1662 you try to print/view/mail the file.) Thus, for example, to bind the
1663 key sequence "ESC O D" to the command 'my-backward-char, the simplest
1664 incantation is this:
1666 (global-set-key "\eOD" 'my-backward-char)
1668 These are also correct (and represent what the above command actually
1669 does):
1671 (define-key global-map "\eOD" 'my-backward-char)
1672 (define-key esc-map "OD" 'my-backward-char)
1674 The string forms for the keys RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, SPC, and TAB are
1675 respectively "\r", "\n", "\C-?", "\e", " ", and "\t".
1677 52: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
1679 This depends on whether you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator
1680 window, or whether you are allowing Emacs to create its own X window.
1681 You can tell which you are doing by noticing whether Emacs creates a new
1682 window when you start it.
1684 If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window, then it
1685 behaves exactly as it does on any other tty. In this case, for function
1686 keys to be useful, they must generate character sequences that are sent
1687 to the programs running inside the window as input. The "xterm" program
1688 has two different sets of character sequences that it generates when
1689 function keys are pressed, depending on the sunFunctionKeys X resource
1690 and the -sf and +sf command line options. (To find out what these key
1691 sequences are, see question 53.) In addition, with xterm,
1692 you can override what key sequence a specific function key (or any other
1693 key) will generate with the "translations" resource. This, for example:
1695 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
1696 <KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
1698 makes the function key F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [xyzzy".
1700 On the other hand, if Emacs is managing its own X window, the following
1701 description applies. Emacs receives `KeyPress' events from the X server
1702 when a key is pressed while the keyboard focus is in its window. The
1703 KeyPress event contains an X `keysym' code, which is simply an arbitrary
1704 number corresponding to the name of the keysym, and information on which
1705 "modifiers" such as `control' and `shift' are active. For example, the
1706 `Tab' keysym is 0xff09. (Generally, a key on the keyboard will generate a
1707 keysym whose name is the same as the label on the key, ie. the `Tab' key
1708 will normally generate the `Tab' keysym. This can be changed with the
1709 xmodmap program.) Emacs recognizes all the keysyms that correspond to
1710 standard ASCII characters and internally uses the ASCII character instead.
1712 (WARNING: I am about to describe a gross, disgusting hack to you, have
1713 your barf bag ready.)
1715 When Emacs receives the X keysym of one of the arrow keys, it behaves
1716 the same as if it had received a letter key with the control modifier
1717 down as follows (this is hard-coded):
1719 Up becomes C-p
1720 Down becomes C-n
1721 Right becomes C-f
1722 Left becomes C-b
1724 The way Emacs treats other keysyms depends on what kind of machine it was
1725 compiled on. The type of the display machine is irrelevant! Function +
1726 keys are mapped internally to escape sequences, while other keys are
1727 completely ignored.
1729 1. If compiled on a Sun, Emacs recognizes these X keysyms that
1730 are normally on a Sun keyboard:
1732 F1 through F9
1733 L1 through L10 (same as F11 through F20)
1734 R1 through R15 (same as F21 through F35)
1735 (The keys labelled R8, R10, R12, and R14 usually are mapped to the !
1736 X keysyms Up, Left, Right, and Down.)
1737 Break (the "Alternate" key is given this keysym)
1739 These keys work like Sun function keys. When Emacs recieves the
1740 keysym, it will internally use character sequences that look like "ESC
1741 [ ### z", where ### is replaced by a number. The character sequences
1742 are identical to those generated by Sun's keyboard under SunView. Any
1743 function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 z".
1745 In order to use these key sequences, they should be bound to commands
1746 using the standard key binding methods, just as if Emacs were running
1747 on a regular terminal.
1749 WARNING: F11 and L1 are the same keysym in X, as are F12 and L2, etc.
1750 {Yes, this is stupid. Complain to the X consortium.}
1752 2. If not compiled on a Sun, the function keys will appear to Emacs in a
1753 way remarkably similar to the keys of a DEC LK201 keyboard (used on
1754 some VT series terminals). These X keysyms will be recognized:
1756 F1 through F20
1757 Help (treated same as F15)
1758 Menu (treated same as F16, is the LK201 "Do" key)
1759 Find
1760 Insert (LK201 "Insert Here" key)
1761 Select
1763 These keysyms are supposed to be recognized, but they are not due to a
1764 bug (which is fixed in Emacs 18.58): +
1766 Prior (LK201 "Prev Screen" key)
1767 Next (LK201 "Next Screen" key)
1769 And finally, the LK201 key labelled `Remove' (or `Delete') is often !
1770 mapped to the Delete keysym which generates the DEL character (C-?) !
1771 instead of the key sequence given by the LK201 `Remove' key. It may +
1772 also be mapped to some other keysym, such as `_Remove', in which case +
1773 you can't use it from within Emacs at all. +
1775 Each function key will be internally converted to a character sequence
1776 that looks like "ESC [ ## ~", where ## is replaced by a number. The
1777 character sequences are identical to those generated by a LK201
1778 keyboard. Any function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 ~".
1780 For the complete list of the numbers which are generated by the function
1781 keys, look in the file src/x11term.c at the definitions of the function
1782 "stringFuncVal".
1784 If you are running Emacs on a Sun machine, even if your X display is
1785 running on a non-Sun machine (eg., an X terminal), you get the setup
1786 described above for Suns. The determining factor is what type of
1787 machine Emacs is running (was compiled) on, not what type of machine
1788 your X display is on.
1790 If you have function keys not listed above on your keyboard, you can use +
1791 `xmodmap' to change their keysym assignments to get keys that Emacs will !
1792 recognize, but that may screw up other programs. !
1794 X resources are not used by Emacs to affect the key sequences generated.
1795 In particular, there are no X key "translations" for Emacs. +
1797 If you have function keys not listed above and you don't want to use
1798 xmodmap to change their names, you might want to make a modification to
1799 your Emacs. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> explains:
1801 There are a number of tricks that can be helpful. The most elegant
1802 solution, however, is to use the function "x-rebind-key". This function
1803 is commented out in the source for good reasons --- it's buggy.
1805 It is rather easy to replace this function with the function
1806 epoch:rebind-key from the Epoch distribution.
1808 After implementing this, all keyboard keys can be configured to send
1809 user definable sequences, e.g.
1811 (x-rebind-key "KP_F1" 0 "\033OP")
1813 This will have the keypad key PF1 send the sequence "ESC O P", just like
1814 an ordinary VT series terminal.
1816 This is what I do in my Emacs. Note that you need to add an entry to
1817 syms_of_xfns at the bottom of src/x11fns.c. I can send a patch that has +
1818 the necessary changes, so you don't have to get the Epoch sources. +
1820 53: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit? +
1822 Use this function by Randal L. Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.com>:
1824 (defun see-chars ()
1825 "Displays characters typed, terminated by a 3-second timeout."
1826 (interactive)
1827 (let ((chars "")
1828 (inhibit-quit t))
1829 (message "Enter characters, terminated by 3-second timeout.")
1830 (while (not (sit-for 3))
1831 (setq chars (concat chars (list (read-char)))
1832 quit-flag nil)) ; quit-flag maybe set by C-g
1833 (message "Characters entered: %s" (key-description chars))))
1835 Alternatively, use the "C-h l" view-lossage command, which will display
1836 the last 100 characters Emacs has seen in its input stream. Kevin +
1837 Gallagher <kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org> suggests typing some unique string +
1838 like "wxyz", typing the key in question, then typing "C-h l". The +
1839 characters that appear between "wxyz" and "C-h l" were generated by the +
1840 key. +
1842 54: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?
1844 Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is
1845 sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these
1846 characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character normally
1847 invokes the isearch-forward command.) The best solution is to disable the
1848 use of C-s and C-q for flow control. If you can't do that, you can make
1849 Emacs treat C-s and C-q as flow control characters by evaluating this
1850 form:
1852 (set-input-mode nil t)
1854 If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs
1855 file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to put
1856 it is unclear. I don't know if this has any effect when used in
1857 lisp/site-init.el when building Emacs; I've never tried that. {Can
1858 someone tell me whether it works?} Putting things in users' .emacs files
1859 has a number of problems. Putting this form in lisp/default.el has the
1860 problem that if the user's .emacs file has an error, this will prevent
1861 lisp/default.el from being loaded and Emacs may be unusable for the user,
1862 even for correcting their .emacs file (unless they're smart enough to move
1863 it to another name).
1865 If some of your users are connecting through XON/XOFF flow-controlled
1866 connections, but some are not, then here is a possible solution. Disable
1867 C-s and C-q by setting keyboard-translate-table in lisp/site-init.el,
1868 either with swap-keys (see question 60) or with the following form:
1870 ;; by Roger Crew <crew@cs.stanford.edu>:
1871 (setq keyboard-translate-table
1872 "\C-@\C-a\C-b\C-c\C-d\C-e\C-f\C-g\C-h\C-i\C-j\C-k\C-l\C-m\C-n\C-o\C-p\C-^\C-r\C-\\\C-t\C-u\C-v\C-w\C-x\C-y\C-z\C-[\C-s\C-]\C-q\C-_")
1874 Then in lisp/default.el, if it is determined to be safe, they can be
1875 reenabled (being careful not to screw up any other key mappings users
1876 might have established using keyboard-translate-table, use swap-keys for
1877 this), or else set-input-mode can be called to further disable C-s and
1878 C-q.
1880 For further discussion of this issue, read the file etc/PROBLEMS in the +
1881 Emacs distribution.
1883 55: How do I disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control?
1885 Your terminal may be using C-s and C-q for XON/XOFF flow control. For +
1886 example, VT series terminals do this. On some terminals, it may be +
1887 possible to turn this off from a setup menu. This is also true for some +
1888 terminal emulation programs on PCs. +
1889 +
1890 If you are using a dialup connection, the modems may be using XON/XOFF +
1891 flow control. I don't know how to get around this. Also, some network +
1892 box between the terminal and your computer may be using XON/XOFF flow !
1893 control. You will probably have to ask your local network experts for
1894 help with this.
1896 56: What do I do if my terminal is sending C-s and C-q for flow control and
1897 I can't disable it?
1899 See question 54.
1901 57: How do I make Emacs honor C-s and C-q for flow control instead of for
1902 commands?
1904 See question 54.
1906 58: Why does Emacs never see C-s and C-q through my network connection?
1908 Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> writes:
1910 Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow control
1911 characters to the remote system to which they connect. On such systems,
1912 Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow control on the local
1913 system. Sometimes "rlogin -8" will avoid this problem.
1915 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host (the
1916 one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the stty command,
1917 before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, "stty start u stop
1918 u" will do this.
1920 Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way
1921 around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and issue
1922 the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
1924 59: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
1925 are filtered out?
1927 I suggest swapping C-s with C-\ and C-q with C-^:
1929 (swap-keys ?\C-s ?\C-\\)
1930 (swap-keys ?\C-q ?\C-^)
1932 See question 60 for the implementation of swap-keys. This method +
1933 has the advantage that it simultaneously swaps the characters everywhere +
1934 throughout Emacs, while just switching the keybindings will miss important +
1935 places where the character codes are stored (eg., the search-repeat-char +
1936 variable, major mode keymaps, etc.). +
1937 +
1938 WARNING: If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by +
1939 the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs actually +
1940 behaves. +
1942 60: How do I "swap" two keys?
1944 When Emacs receives a character, you can make Emacs behave as though it
1945 received another character by setting the value of
1946 keyboard-translate-table. The following Emacs Lisp will do this for you,
1947 allowing you to "swap" keys. After arranging for this Lisp to be
1948 evaluated by Emacs, you can evaluate `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' to swap A and B.
1949 The function `show-mapped-keys' will allow you to see what low-level key +
1950 mappings are in effect. +
1952 WARNING: the value of C-g (7) is still hard coded in one place in the
1953 minibuffer code. Thus, swapping C-g with another key may cause a minor
1954 problem. (Fixed in Emacs 18.58.)
1956 (defun swap-keys (key1 key2)
1957 "Swap keys KEY1 and KEY2 using map-key."
1958 (map-key key1 key2)
1959 (map-key key2 key1))
1961 (defun map-key (from to)
1962 "Make key FROM behave as though key TO was typed instead."
1963 (setq keyboard-translate-table
1964 (concat keyboard-translate-table
1965 (let* ((i (length keyboard-translate-table))
1966 (j from)
1967 (k i)
1968 (str (make-string (max 0 (- j (1- i))) ?X)))
1969 (while (<= k j)
1970 (aset str (- k i) k)
1971 (setq k (1+ k)))
1972 str)))
1973 (aset keyboard-translate-table from to)
1974 (let ((i (1- (length keyboard-translate-table))))
1975 (while (and (>= i 0) (eq (aref keyboard-translate-table i) i))
1976 (setq i (1- i)))
1977 (setq keyboard-translate-table
1978 (if (eq i -1)
1979 nil
1980 (substring keyboard-translate-table 0 (1+ i))))))
1982 (defun show-mapped-keys () +
1983 "Analyze keyboard-translate-table and display mapped keys." +
1984 (interactive) +
1985 (let (mapping-alist +
1986 (l (length keyboard-translate-table)) +
1987 (i 0) +
1988 e pair) +
1989 (while (< i l) +
1990 (setq e (aref keyboard-translate-table i)) +
1991 (or (eq i e) +
1992 (setq mapping-alist (cons (cons i e) mapping-alist))) +
1993 (setq i (1+ i))) +
1994 (cond (mapping-alist +
1995 (princ "Mapped Keys: ") +
1996 (setq mapping-alist (nreverse mapping-alist))) +
1997 (t +
1998 (princ "No keys mapped"))) +
1999 (while mapping-alist +
2000 (setq pair (car mapping-alist) +
2001 i (car pair) +
2002 e (cdr pair)) +
2003 (princ (single-key-description i)) +
2004 (cond ((eq i (cdr (setq pair (assq e mapping-alist)))) +
2005 (setq mapping-alist (delq pair mapping-alist)) +
2006 (princ " <=> ")) +
2007 (t +
2008 (princ " => "))) +
2009 (princ (single-key-description e)) +
2010 (setq mapping-alist (cdr mapping-alist)) +
2011 (if mapping-alist (princ ", "))))) +
2013 NOTE: You must evaluate the definition of swap-keys before calling it!
2014 The easiest way is to list it first in the file (eg., your .emacs file).
2016 61: Why does the "BackSpace" key invoke help?
2018 The BackSpace key (on every keyboard I've used) generates ASCII code 8. !
2019 C-h sends the same code. In Emacs by default C-h invokes `help-command'.
2020 This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of `help'
2021 is `h'. The easiest solution to this problem is to use C-h (and
2022 BackSpace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous
2023 character.
2025 For many people this solution may be problematic:
2027 * They normally use BackSpace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous !
2028 character typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for
2029 deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do
2030 this on many Unix systems:
2032 stty erase '^?'
2034 * The person may prefer using the BackSpace key for deleting the previous !
2035 character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or
2036 because they don't even have a separate Delete key. In this case, the
2037 BackSpace key should be made to behave like Delete. There are several !
2038 methods. !
2039 !
2040 * Under X Windows, the easiest solution is to change the BackSpace key !
2041 into a Delete key like this: !
2042 !
2043 xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete" !
2044 !
2045 * Some terminals (eg., VT3## terminals) allow the character generated by !
2046 the BackSpace key to be changed from a setup menu. !
2047 !
2048 * You may be able to get a keyboard that is completely programmable. !
2049 !
2050 * Under X or on a dumb terminal, it is possible to swap the BackSpace and !
2051 Delete keys inside Emacs: +
2053 (swap-keys ?\C-h ?\C-?)
2055 See question 60 for the implementation of swap-keys.
2057 * Another approach is to switch keybindings and put help on "C-x h" !
2058 instead:
2060 (global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
2061 (global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ; override mark-whole-buffer
2063 Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?". +
2065 WARNING: This method fails to correctly bind BackSpace in the various !
2066 major and minor modes that define their own backward character !
2067 deletion or help commands, such as C mode and Lisp mode. To actually
2068 do that for every mode is a lot of work. There are probably other +
2069 places where the correspondence between help and C-h is hardcoded. +
2071 62: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
2073 Someone whose name I forgot wrote:
2075 Most PCs have deficient keyboards that don't have both BackSpace and
2076 Delete keys. Whether C-h (BackSpace) or DEL is generated by the
2077 BackSpace key varies from one terminal emulator to another. If you're !
2078 lucky, you can reconfigure the keyboard so that it generates DEL. If
2079 not, you will have to hunt to figure out what keystroke will do it ---
2080 possibilities include various shifted and controlled versions of
2081 BackSpace, the `Del' key on the numeric keypad (which might depend on !
2082 Shift or NumLock), or perhaps C-? (Control-?). !
2084 If this is too hard, you may want to swap the Delete key with some other
2085 key. See question 61.
2087 63: Can I make my "Compose" key behave like a "Meta" key?
2089 On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220
2090 clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're on an
2091 X workstation, you might have luck using the "xmodmap" program.
2093 64: Why don't the arrow keys work?
2095 When Emacs starts up, it doesn't know anything about arrow keys at all
2096 (except when running under X, see question 52). During the
2097 process of starting up, Emacs will load a terminal-specific initialization
2098 file for your terminal type (as determined by the environment variable
2099 TERM), if one exists. This file has the responsibility for enabling the
2100 arrow keys.
2102 There are several things that can go wrong:
2104 1. There is no initialization file for your terminal.
2106 You can determine this by looking in the lisp/term directory. If your
2107 terminal type (as determined by the TERM environment variable) is
2108 xxx-yy-z, then the first of these files in the lisp/term directory will
2109 be loaded as the terminal-specific initialization file: xxx-yy-z.el,
2110 xxx-yy.el, or xxx.el.
2112 If there is none there, one can be made for your terminal, or you can
2113 just add code to your own .emacs to handle this problem for yourself.
2114 For example, if your terminal's arrow keys send these character
2115 sequences:
2117 Up: ESC [ A
2118 Down: ESC [ B
2119 Right: ESC [ C
2120 Left: ESC [ D
2122 then you can bind these keys to the appropriate commands with code in
2123 your .emacs like this:
2125 (setq term-setup-hook
2126 (function
2127 (lambda ()
2128 (cond ((string-match "\\`xyzzy" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
2129 ;; First, must unmap the binding for M-[
2130 (or (keymapp (lookup-key global-map "\e["))
2131 (define-key global-map "\e[" nil))
2132 ;; Enable terminal type xyzzy's arrow keys:
2133 (define-key global-map "\e[A" 'previous-line)
2134 (define-key global-map "\e[B" 'next-line)
2135 (define-key global-map "\e[C" 'forward-char)
2136 (define-key global-map "\e[D" 'backward-char))
2137 ((string-match "\\`abcde" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
2138 ;; Do something different for terminal type abcde
2139 ;; .....
2140 ))))))
2142 This technique allows you to easily add more `cond' cases for different
2143 terminal types.
2145 NOTE: You will have to restart Emacs to get this change to take effect
2146 when using this technique.
2148 NOTE: Your arrow keys may send sequences beginning with "ESC O" when +
2149 Emacs is running, even if they send sequences beginning with "ESC [" at +
2150 all other times. This is because Emacs uses any command there may be +
2151 in your terminal's termcap entry for putting the terminal into +
2152 `Application Keypad Mode'. Just map these sequences the same way as +
2153 above. +
2155 The next two cases are problems even if there is a initialization file for
2156 your terminal type.
2158 2. Your terminal's arrow keys send individual control characters.
2160 For example, the arrow keys on an ADM-3 send C-h, C-j, C-k, and C-l. +
2162 There is not much Emacs can do in this situation, since all the control
2163 characters except for C-^ and C-\ are already used as Emacs commands.
2164 It may be possible to convince the terminal to send something else when +
2165 you press the arrow keys; it is worth investigating. +
2167 You have to make the hard choices of how to rebind keys to commands to
2168 make things work the way you want. Another alternative is to start +
2169 learning the standard Emacs keybindings for moving point around: C-b, +
2170 C-f, C-p, and C-n. Personally, I no longer use the arrow keys when +
2171 editing. +
2173 3. Your terminal's arrow keys send sequences beginning with "ESC [".
2175 Due to an extremely poor design decision (ie., these sequences are ANSI
2176 standard), none of the the terminal-specific initialization files that
2177 are distributed with Emacs will bind these character sequences to the
2178 appropriate commands by default. (This also applies to any other
2179 function keys which generate character sequences starting with "ESC
2180 [".) This is because it was deemed far more important to preserve the
2181 binding of M-[ to the backward-paragraph command. It appears that this
2182 will change in Emacs 19.
2184 Some of the terminal-specific initialization files that come with Emacs
2185 provide a command `enable-arrow-keys' that will fix this problem. To
2186 get this automatically invoked, put this in your .emacs:
2188 (setq term-setup-hook
2189 (function
2190 (lambda ()
2191 (if (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys) (enable-arrow-keys)))))
2193 We put this in our lisp/default.el file, so users don't have to worry
2194 about it:
2196 ;; don't override a user's term-setup-hook
2197 (or term-setup-hook
2198 (setq term-setup-hook
2199 (function
2200 (lambda ()
2201 (and (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys)
2202 ;; don't override a user key mapping
2203 (eq 'backward-paragraph (lookup-key esc-map "["))
2204 (enable-arrow-keys))))))
2206 If your terminal type is `sun', you should put this in your .emacs
2207 instead (or in addition to the above):
2209 (setq sun-esc-bracket t)
2211 If your terminal type is `xterm', you will have to bind the arrow keys
2212 as in part 1 above, since the xterm.el file doesn't do anything useful.
2214 It is possible that the terminal-specific initialization file for your
2215 terminal type was written locally and does not follow the rule
2216 mentioned above. In this case you may need to inspect it to find out
2217 how to enable the arrow keys. (Actually, if it was written locally, it
2218 probably enables the arrow keys by default.)
2220 65: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
2222 Unless you're using Emacs under emacstool (or xvetool?) or you have a
2223 working version of x-rebind-key (see question 52), you can't do this
2224 with Emacs alone. When using emacstool, Emacs sees different character
2225 sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key from what
2226 it sees for the function key alone. See etc/emacstool.1 for more
2227 information. Since Emacs sees different character sequences, you can bind
2228 these different sequences to different commands.
2230 If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window like xterm, you
2231 can modify its translation tables to make it generate different character
2232 sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key. For
2233 example, this X resource setting:
2235 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
2236 Shift<KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
2238 makes Shift-F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [ xyzzy". You can
2239 bind these character sequences in Emacs as normal.
2241 66: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
2243 Try all of these methods before asking for further help:
2245 * If you are using `olwm' as your window manager, switch to another window +
2246 manager. :-) {Seriously though, does anyone know a good generic +
2247 solution to allow the use of the Meta key with Emacs under olwm?} +
2248 +
2249 * For X11R4: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use "xev" to find out +
2250 what keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or
2251 Meta_R. If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation.
2253 * Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters.
2254 "stty -a" (or "stty everything") should show "cs8" somewhere. If it
2255 shows "cs7" instead, use "stty cs8 -istrip" (or "stty pass8") to fix
2256 it.
2258 * If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the
2259 "-8" argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8
2260 bits of every character.
2262 * If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating !
2263 (set-input-mode t nil) helps. +
2265 * If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type
2266 M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W
2267 anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this:
2269 XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false
2271 (This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.)
2273 With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation:
2275 XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
2276 Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert()
2278 You might have to replace "Meta" with "Alt".
2280 67: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
2282 This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the
2283 fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that
2284 XLookupString returns the same result regardless of the Meta key state
2285 which is no longer necessarily true. Until Emacs is fixed, the temporary
2286 kludge is to run this command after each time the X server is started but
2287 preferably before any xterm clients are:
2289 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
2291 NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which
2292 may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them.
2294 68: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
2296 Look for the package `wordstar' in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question
2297 18).
2301 Building/Installing/Porting Emacs and Machine/OS-Specific Bugs -
2303 69: Why does Emacs crash with "Fatal error (6).Abort" under SunOS 4.1?
2305 I had hoped this question would go away after Emacs 18.57 was released,
2306 but people continue to compile 18.55.
2308 There is a bug in the "localtime" routine supplied with SunOS 4.1. A
2309 private function called by tzsetwall zeroes the byte just past an eight
2310 byte region it mallocs. This corrupts GNU malloc's memory pool. When GNU
2311 malloc detects this it aborts.
2313 In the 18.57 release "#define SYSTEM_MALLOC" was added to the !
2314 configuration file for SunOS 4.1, which allowed Emacs to work. However, !
2315 Sun's realloc behaves horribly when alternated with malloc, so your +
2316 process size can balloon rapidly in certain situations quickly using up +
2317 all available memory. Thus, you may prefer the approach taken by Emacs +
2318 18.58, which has a different fix that makes GNU's malloc always allocate +
2319 at least 16 bytes. +
2320 +
2321 Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> supplies most of the following +
2322 information: +
2324 In SunOS 4.1.1, it appears that Sun has still not fixed their bug, since
2325 the localtime.o file did not change. They must be aware of it since they
2326 suggest using "#define SYSTEM_MALLOC" to compile Emacs in their
2327 documentation. It is reported that this same bug causes mysterious
2328 behavior in Sun's /usr/etc/rpc.mountd.
2330 For people who want to fix this problem for real, there is a fixed version
2331 of the localtime.o file available via anonymous FTP (titan.rice.edu:
2332 incoming/localtime.tar.Z). {Someone has reported that this file is now
2333 missing.} The new localtime.o file should be installed in the
2334 /usr/lib/libc{.a,.so.*} files. Read the `ar' man page and the README file
2335 in /usr/lib/shlib.etc for instructions. -
2337 Now stop asking this question! :-) :-)
2339 70: Why do I get an "f68881_used undefined" error, when I build Emacs on my
2340 Sun 3?
2342 Barry A. Warsaw <warsaw@cme.nist.gov> writes:
2344 Some of the code that is being linked on the "ld" line of emacs' build
2345 command has been compiled with the -f68881 option. Most common reason
2346 is that you're linking with X libraries which were built with -f68881
2347 option set. You need to either remove all dependencies to the 68881
2348 (may mean a recompile of the X libraries with -fswitch or -fsoft
2349 option), or you need to link emacs with the 68881 startup file
2350 /usr/lib/Mcrt1.o. Make this change to src/ymakefile:
2352 change: #define START_FILES crt0.o
2353 to: #define START_FILES crt0.o /usr/lib/Mcrt1.o
2355 The order of these start files is critical.
2357 71: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
2359 * Try compiling Emacs with the XBACKWARDS macro defined. There is a bug
2360 in some implementations of XGetDefault, which do not correspond to the
2361 documentation or the header files.
2363 * Make sure you are either using the class name of `Emacs' or the correct
2364 instance name. The instance name is normally the same as the name of
2365 the file Emacs is in (ie., the last part of argv[0]), but this can be
2366 overridden by -rn command line option or the WM_RES_NAME environment
2367 variable.
2369 WARNING: The advice the man page gives to use `emacs' is often wrong.
2371 WARNING: Older versions of Emacs got the class name wrong.
2373 * Emacs currently ignores the -xrm command line argument. !
2375 * Emacs does not yet handle X11R5 screen-specific resources.
2377 * Emacs has a bug where it ignores color specifications if running on a
2378 1-bit display (ie. a non-color display).
2380 72: How do I get Emacs to compile with all features under OpenWindows?
2382 Problems fixed in 18.58: the reference to include file <X11/X10.h>, !
2383 linking with the OpenWindows libX11.a. !
2385 If libX11.a is missing, you may need to use `add_services' to add the +
2386 `OpenWindows Programmers' optional software category from the CD-ROM. To +
2387 get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's liboldX.a.
2389 Questions for the net {please send me answers!}:
2391 * Are compiled versions of liboldX.A for Sun 4s running SunOS 4.*
2392 available for FTP anywhere?
2393 * What is the solution to the "not a sun window" problem with xvetool? -
2395 73: How do I build Emacs under HP-UX 8.0?
2397 Problems fixed in 18.58: missing errnet.h, "Cannot do arithmetic with !
2398 pointers to objects of unknown size" (void *), not finding -lX11, unexec !
2399 making a bad dumped emacs due to shared libraries ("Fatal Error(11)- !
2400 Segmentation Fault", I think). !
2401 !
2402 If libX11.a is missing, you may need to run `update' again to load the !
2403 X11-PRG "fileset". This may be missing even if you specified "all !
2404 filesets" the first time. !
2406 74: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
2408 First look in the file etc/PROBLEMS to see if there is already a solution
2409 for your problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't
2410 find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
2411 bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help or
2412 e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines, see +
2413 question 23. +
2417 Weird/Confusing Problems -
2419 75: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
2421 Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and +
2422 24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can !
2423 handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1). !
2425 Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting the following two !
2426 lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers !
2427 and pointers (and thus filesizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes): +
2429 #define VALBITS 26
2430 #define GCTYPEBITS 5
2432 WARNING: This method may result in `ILLEGAL DATATYPE' errors on some +
2433 machines. +
2435 David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> gives an explanation of why
2436 Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers:
2438 Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
2439 language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
2440 variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must
2441 carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, e.g.,
2442 integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on.
2443 Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8
2444 bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers (and
2445 pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
2446 pointers.
2448 Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented
2449 machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits. -
2451 76: Why does Emacs start up using the wrong directory?
2453 Most likely, you have an environment variable named PWD that is set to a
2454 value other than the name of your current directory. This is most
2455 likely caused by using two different shell programs. "ksh" and (some
2456 versions of) "csh" set and maintain the value of the PWD environment
2457 variable, but "sh" doesn't. If you start sh from ksh, change your
2458 current directory inside sh, and then start Emacs from inside sh, PWD
2459 will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. See the
2460 etc/OPTIONS file for more details.
2462 Perhaps an easier solution is not to use two shells. The "chsh" program
2463 can often be used to change one's default login shell.
2465 77: How do I edit a file with a "$" in its name?
2467 When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand
2468 a "$" followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this
2469 behavior, type "$$" instead.
2471 78: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
2473 Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its directory.
2474 This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to guess by
2475 recognizing "cd" commands. If you type "cd" followed by a directory name
2476 with a variable reference ("cd $HOME/bin") or with a shell metacharacter
2477 ("cd ../lib*"), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the shell's new current
2478 directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements to Shell mode for !
2479 this problem have been written to handle this problem. Check the Lisp
2480 Code Directory (see question 17).
2482 79: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
2484 * You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer +
2485 with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses
2486 like this one:
2488 To: Willy Smith <wks@xpnsv.lwyrs.com> +
2490 However, you do not need to separate addresses with commas in your +
2491 .mailrc file. +
2492 +
2493 WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple +
2494 addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of +
2495 quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly +
2496 setting the value of mail-aliases. +
2498 * Emacs normally only reads the ".mailrc" file once per session, when you
2499 start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can
2500 type "M-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc.
2501 (You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!)
2503 * Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the
2504 .mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set' +
2505 commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group' +
2506 commands. +
2508 80: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
2510 If you added a directory name containing a tilde (~) to your load-path,
2511 expecting the tilde to be interpreted as your home directory, then you
2512 need to do something like this:
2514 (setq load-path (mapcar 'expand-file-name load-path))
2516 81: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
2517 down one line?
2519 You have inadvertently typed "C-x C-n" (set-goal-column) which sets the
2520 "goal-column" to the column where the cursor was. To undo this type
2521 "C-u C-x C-n".
2523 If you make this mistake frequently, you might want to unbind or disable
2524 this command by doing one of these two:
2526 (define-key ctl-x-map "\C-n" nil)
2527 (put 'set-goal-column 'disabled t)
2529 82: Why does Emacs hang with message "Unknown XMenu error" with X11R4? +
2531 Many different X errors can produce this message. Here is the solution
2532 to one problem:
2534 X11 Release 4 (and later, including OpenWindows) enforces some conditions !
2535 in the X protocol that were previously allowed to pass unnoticed. You
2536 need to put the X11R4 server into X11R3 bug compatibility mode for Emacs's
2537 Xmenu code to work. You can do this with the command "xset bc".
2539 83: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
2540 anymore?
2542 In GNU Emacs 18.56, a change was made in the display-time code.
2543 Formerly, in version 18.55, Emacs used a program named "loadst" to
2544 notify Emacs of the change in time every minute. loadst also sent Emacs
2545 the system load average if it was installed with sufficient privilege to
2546 get that information (or was on a system where no such privilege was
2547 needed). Emacs then displayed this information in the mode line.
2549 In version 18.56, this code was changed to use a program named "wakeup".
2550 wakeup doesn't send Emacs any information, it's only purpose is to send
2551 Emacs *something* every minute, thus invoking the filter function in
2552 Emacs once a minute. The filter function in Emacs does all the work of
2553 finding the time, date, and load average. However, getting the load
2554 average requires the privilege to read kernel memory on most systems.
2555 Since giving Emacs this privilege would destroy any security a system
2556 might have, for almost everyone this is not an option. In addition,
2557 Emacs does not have the code built into it to get this information on
2558 the systems which have special system calls for this purpose, even
2559 though loadst had code for this.
2561 The solution I use is to get the files lisp/display-time.el and
2562 etc/loadst.c from version 18.55 and use those with 18.58. (I have heard !
2563 a rumor that loadst disappeared because of the legal action Unipress
2564 threatened against IBM.)
2566 WARNING: Do not install Emacs setgid kmem unless you wish to destroy
2567 any security your system might have!!!!!!!!!!
2569 If you are using Emacs 18.55 or earlier, or already using the solution I
2570 describe above, read further:
2572 The most likely cause of the problem is that "loadst" can't read the
2573 special file /dev/kmem. To properly install loadst, it should be either
2574 setuid to the owner of /dev/kmem, or is should be setgid to the group to
2575 which /dev/kmem belongs. In either case, /dev/kmem should be readable by
2576 its owner or its group, respectively.
2578 Another possibility is that your version of Unix doesn't have the load
2579 average data available in /dev/kmem. Your version of Unix might have a
2580 special system call to retrieve this information (eg., inq_stats under
2581 UMAX), and loadst might not have been enhanced to cope with this.
2583 84: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
2585 There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests
2586 are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before
2587 blocking waiting for more input which never comes. NNTP version 1.5.11
2588 claims to fix this.
2590 You can work around the bug inside Emacs like this:
2592 (setq nntp-maximum-request 1)
2594 I also have a patch for NNTP 1.5.10 by Mike Pelletier
2595 <stealth@engin.umich.edu> that is based on the timeout code that was in
2596 1.5.9. However, please try to upgrade to 1.5.11 first.
2598 You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by
2599 telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine (ie.,
2600 `telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version number
2601 in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out.
2603 85: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
2605 You need to update the version of ispell to 2.0.02. (Or you can switch to
2606 version 3.0 which is still in beta-testing.) A patch is available via
2607 anonymous FTP (archive.cis.ohio-state.edu: /pub/gnu/ispell/patch2.Z).
2609 You also need to change a line in ispell.el from:
2611 (defconst ispell-version "2.0.01") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2613 to:
2615 (defconst ispell-version "2.0.02") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2617 86: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
2619 For tcsh, put this in your ".cshrc" (or ".tcshrc") file:
2621 if ($?EMACS) then
2622 if ("$EMACS" == t) then
2623 if ($?tcsh) unset edit
2624 stty nl
2625 endif
2626 endif
2628 Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file:
2630 unset edit
2631 stty nl
2633 Alternatively, use csh in your Shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way
2634 is:
2636 (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
2638 and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
2640 setenv ESHELL /bin/csh
2642 (You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly
2643 set for this to take effect.)
2645 87: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
2647 1. the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.)
2649 Cliff Stoll in his book "The Cuckoo's Egg" describes this in chapter 4.
2650 The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid root.
2651 Since `movemail' had not been designed for this situation, a security
2652 hole was created and users could get root priveleges.
2654 `movemail' has since been changed so that even if it is installed
2655 setuid root this security hole will not be a result.
2657 I have heard reports that the Internet worm took advantage of this
2658 configuration problem.
2660 2. the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.)
2662 There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for
2663 variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text
2664 near the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to
2665 have arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited.
2666 Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this
2667 feature.
2669 However, if you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil
2670 value, Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file
2671 that you visit and ask you if you really want them. It is reasonable
2672 to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs:
2674 (setq inhibit-local-variables t)
2676 If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in
2677 lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own
2678 .emacs file.
2680 The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an RMAIL user
2681 was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that
2682 uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this.
2684 88: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
2686 Users who just want to try RMAIL out to see how it works end up trapped
2687 using it because saved mail in their `mbox' file has been converted into !
2688 an incompatible format (BABYL) that only RMAIL understands. RMAIL
2689 provides no obvious way to reverse this transformation. To convert a mail
2690 file back to standard Unix format, there are several methods:
2692 * Use the rmail-output ("C-o") command within RMAIL on each message in the
2693 file. First use M-x rmail or M-x rmail-input to visit the RMAIL file in
2694 Rmail mode. Type "1 j" to go to the first message. Use the C-o command
2695 to output the message to a Unix format file. Type "n" to go to the next
2696 message. Repeat.
2698 * If the file contains hundreds of messages, you may not want to repeat
2699 this for all of them. Instead of the above, after getting to the first
2700 message type this (where "mbox" is the file you want to put the messages
2701 in):
2703 C-x ( C-o mbox RET M-s ^From: RET M-0 C-x )
2705 (The rmail-search command ("M-s") is used instead of just "n" because it
2706 is the only command which will cause an error when it reaches the last
2707 message in the file, which is necessary to terminate the keyboard macro.
2708 This will fail if there are messages in the file that don't have a
2709 `From:' header. This assumes rmail-delete-after-output is nil.)
2711 It is wise to save a copy of the RMAIL file first, in case you make a
2712 mistake.
2714 * There are software packages available for converting files or even
2715 entire directories of BABYL files to standard Unix format. These are
2716 helpful in this situation, but are intended mainly for people who have
2717 used RMAIL for a long time and are converting to some other mail reader.
2718 Lookup `rmail', `vm', and `babyl' in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see
2719 question 18).
2721 You may wish to disable RMAIL to avoid accidentally destroying your mbox
2722 file (I have this in my .emacs):
2724 (put 'rmail 'disabled t) ; avoid mbox destruction
2726 89: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?
2728 The most likely reason for this message is that the "env" program is not
2729 properly installed. This program should be compiled and installed with
2730 execute permission for everyone in Emacs's program directory, which is
2731 normally /usr/local/emacs/etc. You can find what this directory is at
2732 your site by inspecting the value of the variable exec-directory by typing
2733 "C-h v exec-directory RET".
2735 See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message. +
2739 Configuring Emacs for Yourself -
2741 90: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
2743 See the section of the manual on the .emacs file, inside the section on
2744 customization. To reach this section of the online Info manual, type
2745 this:
2747 C-h i m emacs RET g init SPC file RET
2749 WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files,
2750 because it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send
2751 questions to help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as
2752 documented. :-)
2754 91: How do you debug a .emacs file?
2756 First start Emacs with the "-q" command line option. Then, in the
2757 *scratch* buffer, type the following:
2759 (setq debug-on-error t) LFD
2760 (load-file "~/.emacs") LFD
2762 (Type LFD by pressing C-j.)
2764 If you have an error in your .emacs file, this will invoke the debugger
2765 when the error occurs. If you don't know how to use the debugger do
2766 (setq stack-trace-on-error t) instead.
2768 WARNING: this will not discover errors caused by trying to do something
2769 that requires the terminal/window-system initialization code to have
2770 been loaded. See question 50.
2772 92: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
2774 Put this in your .emacs file:
2776 (condition-case ()
2777 (read-abbrev-file nil t)
2778 (file-error nil))
2780 (setq XXX-mode-hook
2781 (function
2782 (lambda ()
2783 (setq abbrev-mode t))))
2785 93: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
2787 To turn on Auto-Fill mode just once for one buffer, you type "M-x
2788 auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in, for example, Text
2789 mode, do this:
2791 (setq text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
2793 If you want Auto-Fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
2795 (setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill)
2797 94: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
2799 If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension
2800 ".YYY", this will do it for you:
2802 (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist))
2804 Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
2805 edit in XXX mode:
2807 -*-XXX-*-
2809 95: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults file)?
2811 See the Emacs man page, or the etc/OPTIONS file. Ignore the information
2812 in etc/XDOC which is way out of date.
2814 96: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
2816 Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes:
2818 Tell Emacs to use the 'visible bell' instead of the audible bell, and
2819 set the visible bell to nothing.
2821 Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable:
2823 ... :vb=: ...
2825 And evaluate this:
2827 (setq visible-bell t)
2829 97: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
2831 Under Epoch you can do:
2833 (setq epoch::bell-volume 20)
2835 Under normal GNU Emacs you must modify the XTfeep function in
2836 src/x11term.c. This simplest fix is to change the number 50 to -50 in the !
2837 call the XBell. Then "xset b 0" will turn off Emacs's beeping. !
2839 Explanation: After "xset b BASE": +
2841 XBell (disp, VAL) beeps with volume BASE - (BASE*VAL)/100 + VAL,
2842 XBell (disp, -VAL) beeps with volume BASE - (BASE*VAL)/100.
2844 Stu Grossman <grossman@sunburn.stanford.edu> wrote a patch that allows the +
2845 bell volume to be adjusted from inside Emacs. +
2847 98: How do I change load-path?
2849 In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add
2850 directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this:
2852 (setq load-path (append load-path '("/XXX/YYY/")))
2854 To do this relative to your home directory:
2856 (setq load-path (append load-path (list (expand-file-name "~/YYY/"))))
2858 99: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
2860 Many people want Emacs to prefix included text with something like " > " !
2861 instead of with three spaces. One way is to change the code of the !
2862 function `mail-yank-original' in lisp/sendmail.el that prefixes with !
2863 spaces. A more flexible solution is to use SuperCite, which provides wide !
2864 configurability in how you format included text in replies. See question
2865 21. Both of these solutions work for Rmail and GNUS. !
2866 !
2867 A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers !
2868 of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of !
2869 mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value. !
2873 Emacs Lisp Programming -
2875 100: What dialect of Lisp is Emacs Lisp?
2877 Quite simply, it is the dialect of Lisp called GNU Emacs Lisp. People !
2878 also call it elisp or e-lisp. (NOTE: The term "Elisp" is trademarked by
2879 someone else. {I believe it is by Uniworks Inc., the sellers of CCA !
2880 Emacs.}) !
2882 101: How close is Emacs Lisp to Common Lisp?
2884 They are not close. GNU Emacs Lisp is case-sensitive, uses dynamic
2885 scoping, doesn't have packages, doesn't have multiple return values,
2886 doesn't have reader macros, doesn't have rational, floating point, or
2887 arbitrary size numbers, etc. For people used to Common Lisp, some of the
2888 functions in Common Lisp that are not in Emacs Lisp by default are
2889 provided in the file lisp/cl.el. There is a Texinfo manual describing
2890 these functions in man/cl.texinfo.
2892 102: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
2894 There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") an Emacs Lisp
2895 "form":
2897 * If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file
2898 named ".emacs" in your home directory.
2900 * You can type the form in the "*scratch*" buffer, and then type LFD (or
2901 C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in
2902 the buffer.
2904 * In in Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before
2905 or around point.
2907 * Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately
2908 before point and prints its value in the echo area.
2910 * Typing M-ESC or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in
2911 the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
2913 * You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in
2914 a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function "load" instead.)
2916 These functions are also used for evaluating Lisp forms:
2918 load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
2920 103: How do I make a set of operations work only within a region? !
2922 Use narrow-to-region inside of save-restriction.
2924 104: How can I highlight text in Emacs?
2926 There are ways to get highlighting (reverse video) in GNU Emacs 18.58, but !
2927 either they require patching the C code of Emacs and rebuilding, or they
2928 are slow and the highlighting disappears if you scroll or redraw the
2929 screen and it can not follow the point. Howard Gayle's patches for 8-bit !
2930 output appear to allow highlighting (see question 43). Another !
2931 patch for highlighting is by Kenichi Handa <handa@etl.go.jp>. There is a !
2932 patch for use with X by Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> (and modified +
2933 for 18.57 by Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr>), which is available for +
2934 FTP (laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.5{5,7}). +
2936 You can highlight regions in a variety of ways in Epoch. GNU Emacs 19
2937 will have everything you need, but won't be out soon.
2939 Similar comments apply to displaying text in different fonts, except that +
2940 it is even harder. +
2942 105: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
2944 Example: (setq default-tab-width 10).
2948 Carrying Out Common Tasks -
2950 106: How do I insert ">"'s in the beginning of every line in a buffer?
2952 Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET". ("replace-regexp" can be
2953 shortened to "repl TAB r".)
2955 To do this only in the region, type "C-x n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET
2956 > RET C-x w". -
2958 WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n) is disabled by default
2959 because it can be very confusing (ie., "Oh no! Where did my file go?").
2961 107: How do I insert "_^H" characters before each character in a paragraph
2962 to get an underlined paragraph?
2964 M-x underline-region.
2966 108: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
2968 Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command
2969 and then type "M-0 C-x e".
2971 WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be
2972 suppressed.
2974 109: How do I search for or delete unprintable (8-bit or control)
2975 characters?
2977 To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for
2978 example, \237, you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value of
2979 search-quote-char is 17 (C-q).)
2981 Searching for ALL unprintable characters is best done with a "regexp"
2982 search. The easiest regexp to use for the unprintable chars is the
2983 complement of the regexp for the printable chars.
2985 Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
2987 Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
2989 To type some of these special characters (\t, \n, \r, \f) as an
2990 interactive argument to isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you
2991 need to use C-q.
2993 So, to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward:
2995 M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET
2997 Using isearch-forward-regexp:
2999 M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~]
3001 To delete all unprintable characters, simply use a replace-regexp:
3003 M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET
3005 Notes:
3007 * With isearch, you can type RET to get a quoted LFD (not a quoted RET).
3009 * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing something in
3010 the minibuffer.
3012 Here are the Emacs Lisp forms of the above regexps:
3014 ;; regexp matching all printable characters:
3015 "[\t\n\r\f -~]"
3017 ;; regexp matching all unprintable characters:
3018 "[^\t\n\r\f -~]"
3020 ;; alternative regexps for all unprintable characters:
3021 "[\C-@-\C-h\C-k\C-n-\C-_\C-?-\377]"
3022 "[\000-\010\013\016-\037\177-\377]"
3024 (To use "[\000-\010\013\016-\037\177-\377]" interactively, type:
3026 [ C-q 000 - C-q 010 C-q 013 C-q 016 - C-q 037 C-q 177 - C-q 377 ]
3028 )
3030 110: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing? +
3032 For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines
3033 whether they are case sensitive:
3035 (setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive
3036 (setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive
3038 Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether
3039 replacements preserve case.
3041 To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major +
3042 mode's hook. For example: +
3043 +
3044 (setq XXX-mode-hook +
3045 (function +
3046 (lambda () +
3047 (setq case-fold-search nil)))) +
3049 111: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
3050 indentation of the previous line?
3052 One solution is the major mode Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-tex-mode).
3054 If you have Auto-Fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 93),
3055 you can tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character
3056 sequence, the "fill prefix". Type the prefix at the beginning of a
3057 line, position point after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix)
3058 to set the fill prefix. Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put
3059 the fill prefix at the beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph)
3060 will maintain any fill prefix when refilling the paragraph.
3062 NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you
3063 will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move
3064 to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages
3065 available from the Emacs Lisp Archive. Look up "fill" and "indent" in the
3066 Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
3068 112: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting? -
3070 M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode).
3072 113: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
3074 If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can
3075 delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching
3076 parenthesis.
3078 M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over balanced
3079 parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You can train it
3080 to skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time by modifying
3081 the syntax table.)
3083 Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching
3084 parenthese, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a
3085 parenthese, it simply inserts a % like normal.
3087 ;; By an unknown contributor !
3089 (global-set-key "%" 'match-paren)
3091 (defun match-paren (arg)
3092 "Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %."
3093 (interactive "p")
3094 (cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1))
3095 ((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1))
3096 (t (self-insert-command (or arg 1)))))
3098 114: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
3099 should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
3101 M-x picture-mode. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...)
3103 115: How do I read news under Emacs?
3105 There are at least three news reading packages that operate inside Emacs.
3106 "rnews" comes with Emacs. "GNUS" and "Gnews" come separately. rnews will
3107 be replaced by GNUS in Emacs 19.
3109 rnews works only with a local news spool directory. Both GNUS and Gnews
3110 handle reading news remotely via NNTP in addition to reading from a local
3111 news spool. GNUS supports reading mail stored in MH folders or articles
3112 saved by GNUS.
3114 Gnews is styled after `rn' and seems to work like Rmail. GNUS feels more
3115 like VM. People have complained that GNUS uses a lot of CPU time (it
3116 does). Some people have complained that Gnews is slower than GNUS.
3118 For more information about GNUS, see question 21.
3120 Gnews was written by Matthew P. Wiener <weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu>.
3121 The latest version seems to be 2.0, posted October 3, 1988. Matthew
3122 posted some fixes on October 26, 1988. Gnews does not appear to have been
3123 supported after this date. In particular, it has been reported that Gnews
3124 does not work with Emacs 18.57. There is a newsgroup for Gnews called
3125 gnu.emacs.gnews.
3127 116: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
3128 commands are handled by the compiler?
3130 M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.)
3132 You may have to (load "hideif") first. If you want to do this
3133 regularly, put this in your .emacs file:
3135 (autoload 'hide-ifdef-mode "hideif" nil t)
3137 {Yes, I know, this should be in lisp/loaddefs.el already.}
3139 117: Is there an equivalent to the "." (dot) command of vi?
3141 ("." is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
3143 No, not really.
3145 You can type "C-x ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands
3146 that used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command
3147 you can type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex
3148 commands you've typed.
3150 To repeat something on each line I recommend using keyboard macros.
3152 118: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number? !
3154 To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x
3155 what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the +
3156 current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)". +
3158 Typing "C-x l" will also tell you what line you are on, provided the
3159 buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l characters. In that case, it
3160 will only tell you what line of the current "page" you are on. WARNING:
3161 "C-x l" gives the wrong value when point is at the beginning of a line.
3163 There is no "correct" way to constantly display the current line (or !
3164 column) number on the mode line in Emacs 18, or to display the line +
3165 numbers next to the lines. Emacs is not a line-oriented editor, and +
3166 really has no idea what "lines" of the buffer are displayed in the window. +
3167 It would require a lot of work at the C code level to make Emacs keep +
3168 track of this. It would not be that hard to get the column number, but it +
3169 would still require changes at the C code level. +
3170 +
3171 vi emulation mode does not emulate this capability of vi (as far as I +
3172 know). +
3173 +
3174 Emacs 19 will probably be able to show the line number on the mode-line, +
3175 but probably very inefficiently. +
3176 +
3177 People have written various kludges to display line numbers. Look in the +
3178 Lisp Code Directory. (See question 17.)
3180 119: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
3182 You need to modify C source and recompile. Either that or get Epoch
3183 instead. For the interested I have a patch by Robert Forsman
3184 <thoth@reef.cis.ufl.edu> to allow Emacs to iconify itself and a patch by
3185 Matt Wette <mwette@mr-ed.jpl.nasa.gov> to allow Emacs to start up
3186 iconified. I don't know whether these two patches work together.
3188 {Are either of these two patches available via anonymous FTP anywhere?}
3190 120: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
3192 This is documented in the Emacs manual. To read the manual section
3193 online, type "C-h i m emacs RET m regexps RET".
3195 WARNING: The `or' operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
3196 are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\".
3197 Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is
3198 "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated backslashes!
3200 WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set
3201 ([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless
3202 newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match.
3204 WARNING: The character syntax regexps (eg. `\sw') are not meaningful +
3205 inside character set regexps (eg. `[aeiou]'). (This is typical for regexp +
3206 syntax.) +
3208 121: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
3210 The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace
3211 which performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the
3212 TAGS file. To read the relevant online manual section, type "C-h i m
3213 emacs RET m tags RET m tags search RET".
3215 In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace
3216 which will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the
3217 *compilation* buffer (usually done after a "grep"), which is available
3218 via anonymous FTP (ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:
3219 /pub/emacs/lisp/{compile,global-replace,query}.el.Z).
3221 122: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
3223 M-x auto-fill-mode. The default maximum line width is 74, determined by
3224 the variable fill-column. To find how to turn this on automatically see
3225 question 93.
3227 123: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
3229 Use Ispell. See question 21.
3231 124: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
3233 If you want to spell-check TeX or *roff documents with Ispell, you need to !
3234 arrange for a filter program that understands how to strip TeX or *roff !
3235 formatting commands to be run. In the TeX distribution, there are several !
3236 different programs named `detex', all with incompatible options, and a !
3237 very old pair of programs named `detex' and `delatex', which should !
3238 probably be avoided. The most useful one for Ispell is `detex' by Daniel !
3239 Trinkle. A more recent version is available via FTP +
3240 (arthur.cs.purdue.edu: pub/trinkle/detex-2.3.tar.Z). Raphael Cerf !
3241 <cerf@clipper.ens.fr> recently released a program named `xetal' !
3242 (spi.ens.fr:pub/unix/tex/???). There is a program that comes with Unix !
3243 named `deroff' for stripping formatting commands from *roff files. !
3244 !
3245 Here is an example of code you can put in a .emacs file to use these !
3246 programs: !
3247 !
3248 ;; Based on suggestions by David G. Grubbs <dgg@ksr.com> and Paul Palmer !
3249 ;; <palmerp@math.orst.edu>. !
3250 !
3251 ;; Assuming the use of detex 2.3 by Daniel Trinkle: !
3252 ;; -w means one word per line. !
3253 ;; -n means don't expand \input or \include commands. !
3254 ;; -l means force LaTeX mode. !
3255 !
3256 (require 'ispell) ; for the make-variable-buffer-local statements !
3257 (setq plain-TeX-mode-hook !
3258 (function !
3259 (lambda () !
3260 (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex") +
3261 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-nw"))))) !
3262 (setq LaTeX-mode-hook !
3263 (function
3264 (lambda ()
3265 (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex") !
3266 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-lnw"))))) !
3267 (setq nroff-mode-hook
3268 (function
3269 (lambda ()
3270 (setq ispell-filter-hook "deroff")
3271 (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-w"))))) +
3272 +
3273 You will have to adjust the arguments for programs other than Trinkle's +
3274 detex or for other versions of deroff. Experiment running the command +
3275 from the shell to find the correct options. If you don't have a filter +
3276 that knows how to output one word per line, you must pipe its output +
3277 through another filter to break up the output. +
3279 125: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
3281 Sorry, you can't. The best you can do is rewrite a large number of
3282 commands and make them check if the point is still on the screen after
3283 they are done. {Has someone done this already?}