GNU Emacs Manual

GNU Emacs Manual by Free Software Foundation

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Source:http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/index.html

The Emacs Editor

Emacs is the extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor. This Info file describes how to edit with Emacs and some of how to customize it; it corresponds to GNU Emacs version 22.1.

For information on extending Emacs, see Emacs Lisp.

• Distrib: How to get the latest Emacs distribution.
• Copying: The GNU General Public License gives you permission to redistribute GNU Emacs on certain terms; it also explains that there is no warranty.
• GNU Free Documentation License: The license for this documentation.
• Intro: An introduction to Emacs concepts.
• Glossary: The glossary.
• Antinews: Information about Emacs version 21.
• Mac OS: Using Emacs in the Mac.
• Microsoft Windows: Using Emacs on Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS.
• Manifesto: What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix!
• Acknowledgments: Major contributors to GNU Emacs.

Indexes (each index contains a large menu)

• Key Index: An item for each standard Emacs key sequence.
• Option Index: An item for every command-line option.
• Command Index: An item for each command name.
• Variable Index: An item for each documented variable.
• Concept Index: An item for each concept.

Important General Concepts

• Screen: How to interpret what you see on the screen.
• User Input: Kinds of input events (characters, buttons, function keys).
• Keys: Key sequences: what you type to request one editing action.
• Commands: Named functions run by key sequences to do editing.
• Text Characters: Character set for text (the contents of buffers and strings).
• Entering Emacs: Starting Emacs from the shell.
• Exiting: Stopping or killing Emacs.
• Emacs Invocation: Hairy startup options.

Fundamental Editing Commands

• Basic: The most basic editing commands.
• Minibuffer: Entering arguments that are prompted for.
• M-x: Invoking commands by their names.
• Help: Commands for asking Emacs about its commands.

Important Text-Changing Commands

• Mark: The mark: how to delimit a ``region of text.
• Killing: Killing (cutting) text.
• Yanking: Recovering killed text. Moving text. (Pasting.)
• Accumulating Text: Other ways of copying text.
• Rectangles: Operating on the text inside a rectangle on the screen.
• Registers: Saving a text string or a location in the buffer.
• Display: Controlling what text is displayed.
• Search: Finding or replacing occurrences of a string.
• Fixit: Commands especially useful for fixing typos.
• Keyboard Macros: A keyboard macro records a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed with a single command.

Major Structures of Emacs

• Files: All about handling files.
• Buffers: Multiple buffers; editing several files at once.
• Windows: Viewing two pieces of text at once.
• Frames: Running the same Emacs session in multiple X windows.
• International: Using non-ASCII character sets (the MULE features).

Advanced Features

• Major Modes: Text mode vs. Lisp mode vs. C mode ...
• Indentation: Editing the white space at the beginnings of lines.
• Text: Commands and modes for editing English.
• Programs: Commands and modes for editing programs.
• Building: Compiling, running and debugging programs.
• Maintaining: Features for maintaining large programs.
• Abbrevs: How to define text abbreviations to reduce the number of characters you must type.
• Picture Mode: Editing pictures made up of characters using the quarter-plane screen model.
• Sending Mail: Sending mail in Emacs.
• Rmail: Reading mail in Emacs.
• Dired: You can ``edit a directory to manage files in it.
• Calendar/Diary: The calendar and diary facilities.
• Gnus: How to read netnews with Emacs.
• Shell: Executing shell commands from Emacs.
• Emacs Server: Using Emacs as an editing server for mail, etc.
• Printing: Printing hardcopies of buffers or regions.
• Sorting: Sorting lines, paragraphs or pages within Emacs.
• Narrowing: Restricting display and editing to a portion of the buffer.
• Two-Column: Splitting apart columns to edit them in side-by-side windows.
• Editing Binary Files: Using Hexl mode to edit binary files.
• Saving Emacs Sessions: Saving Emacs state from one session to the next.
• Recursive Edit: A command can allow you to do editing "within the command". This is called a "recursive editing level".
• Emulation: Emulating some other editors with Emacs.
• Hyperlinking: Following links in buffers.
• Dissociated Press: Dissociating text for fun.
• Amusements: Various games and hacks.
• Customization: Modifying the behavior of Emacs.
• X Resources: X resources for customizing Emacs.

Recovery from Problems

• Quitting: Quitting and aborting.
• Lossage: What to do if Emacs is hung or malfunctioning.
• Bugs: How and when to report a bug.
• Contributing: How to contribute improvements to Emacs.
• Service: How to get help for your own Emacs needs.

The Detailed Node Listing

Here are some other nodes which are really inferiors of the ones already listed, mentioned here so you can get to them in one step:

The Organization of the Screen

• Point: The place in the text where editing commands operate.
• Echo Area: Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen.
• Mode Line: Interpreting the mode line.
• Menu Bar: How to use the menu bar.

Basic Editing Commands

• Inserting Text: Inserting text by simply typing it.
• Moving Point: How to move the cursor to the place where you want to change something.
• Erasing: Deleting and killing text.
• Basic Undo: Undoing recent changes in the text.
• Basic Files: Visiting, creating, and saving files.
• Basic Help: Asking what a character does.
• Blank Lines: Commands to make or delete blank lines.
• Continuation Lines: Lines too wide for the screen.
• Position Info: What page, line, row, or column is point on?
• Arguments: Numeric arguments for repeating a command.
• Repeating: A short-cut for repeating the previous command.

The Minibuffer

• Minibuffer File: Entering file names with the minibuffer.
• Minibuffer Edit: How to edit in the minibuffer.
• Completion: An abbreviation facility for minibuffer input.
• Minibuffer History: Reusing recent minibuffer arguments.
• Repetition: Re-executing commands that used the minibuffer.

Completion

• Example: Examples of using completion.
• Commands: A list of completion commands.
• Strict Completion: Different types of completion.
• Options: Options for completion.

Help

• Help Summary: Brief list of all Help commands.
• Key Help: Asking what a key does in Emacs.
• Name Help: Asking about a command, variable or function name.
• Apropos: Asking what pertains to a given topic.
• Help Mode: Special features of Help mode and Help buffers.
• Library Keywords: Finding Lisp libraries by keywords (topics).
• Language Help: Help relating to international language support.
• Misc Help: Other help commands.
• Help Files: Commands to display pre-written help files.
• Help Echo: Help on active text and tooltips (`balloon help')

The Mark and the Region

• Setting Mark: Commands to set the mark.
• Transient Mark: How to make Emacs highlight the region-- when there is one.
• Momentary Mark: Enabling Transient Mark mode momentarily.
• Using Region: Summary of ways to operate on contents of the region.
• Marking Objects: Commands to put region around textual units.
• Mark Ring: Previous mark positions saved so you can go back there.
• Global Mark Ring: Previous mark positions in various buffers.

Killing and Moving Text

• Deletion: Commands for deleting small amounts of text and blank areas.
• Killing by Lines: How to kill entire lines of text at one time.
• Other Kill Commands: Commands to kill large regions of text and syntactic units such as words and sentences.
• CUA Bindings: Using C-x, C-c, C-v for copy and paste, with enhanced rectangle support.

Yanking

• Kill Ring: Where killed text is stored. Basic yanking.
• Appending Kills: Several kills in a row all yank together.
• Earlier Kills: Yanking something killed some time ago.

Registers

• RegPos: Saving positions in registers.
• RegText: Saving text in registers.
• RegRect: Saving rectangles in registers.
• RegConfig: Saving window configurations in registers.
• RegNumbers: Numbers in registers.
• RegFiles: File names in registers.
• Bookmarks: Bookmarks are like registers, but persistent.

Controlling the Display

• Scrolling: Moving text up and down in a window.
• Auto Scrolling: Redisplay scrolls text automatically when needed.
• Horizontal Scrolling: Moving text left and right in a window.
• Follow Mode: Follow mode lets two windows scroll as one.
• Faces: How to change the display style using faces.
• Standard Faces: Emacs' predefined faces.
• Font Lock: Minor mode for syntactic highlighting using faces.
• Highlight Interactively: Tell Emacs what text to highlight.
• Fringes: Enabling or disabling window fringes.
• Displaying Boundaries: Displaying top and bottom of the buffer.
• Useless Whitespace: Showing possibly-spurious trailing whitespace.
• Selective Display: Hiding lines with lots of indentation.
• Optional Mode Line: Optional mode line display features.
• Text Display: How text characters are normally displayed.
• Cursor Display: Features for displaying the cursor.
• Line Truncation: Truncating lines to fit the screen width instead of continuing them to multiple screen lines.
• Display Custom: Information on variables for customizing display.

Searching and Replacement

• Incremental Search: Search happens as you type the string.
• Nonincremental Search: Specify entire string and then search.
• Word Search: Search for sequence of words.
• Regexp Search: Search for match for a regexp.
• Regexps: Syntax of regular expressions.
• Regexp Backslash: Regular expression constructs starting with `\'.
• Regexp Example: A complex regular expression explained.
• Search Case: To ignore case while searching, or not.
• Replace: Search, and replace some or all matches.
• Other Repeating Search: Operating on all matches for some regexp.

Incremental Search

• Basic Isearch: Basic incremental search commands.
• Repeat Isearch: Searching for the same string again.
• Error in Isearch: When your string is not found.
• Special Isearch: Special input in incremental search.
• Non-ASCII Isearch: How to search for non-ASCII characters.
• Isearch Yank: Commands that grab text into the search string or else edit the search string.
• Highlight Isearch: Isearch highlights the other possible matches.
• Isearch Scroll: Scrolling during an incremental search.
• Slow Isearch: Incremental search features for slow terminals.

Replacement Commands

• Unconditional Replace: Replacing all matches for a string.
• Regexp Replace: Replacing all matches for a regexp.
• Replacement and Case: How replacements preserve case of letters.
• Query Replace: How to use querying.

Commands for Fixing Typos

• Undo: Full details of Emacs undo commands.
• Kill Errors: Commands to kill a batch of recently entered text.
• Transpose: Exchanging two characters, words, lines, lists...
• Fixing Case: Correcting case of last word entered.
• Spelling: Apply spelling checker to a word or a whole buffer.

Keyboard Macros

• Basic Keyboard Macro: Defining and running keyboard macros.
• Keyboard Macro Ring: Where previous keyboard macros are saved.
• Keyboard Macro Counter: Inserting incrementing numbers in macros.
• Keyboard Macro Query: Making keyboard macros do different things each time.
• Save Keyboard Macro: Giving keyboard macros names; saving them in files.
• Edit Keyboard Macro: Editing keyboard macros.
• Keyboard Macro Step-Edit: Interactively executing and editing a keyboard macro.

File Handling

• File Names: How to type and edit file-name arguments.
• Visiting: Visiting a file prepares Emacs to edit the file.
• Saving: Saving makes your changes permanent.
• Reverting: Reverting cancels all the changes not saved.
• Autorevert: Auto Reverting non-file buffers.
• Auto Save: Auto Save periodically protects against loss of data.
• File Aliases: Handling multiple names for one file.
• Version Control: Version control systems (RCS, CVS and SCCS).
• Directories: Creating, deleting, and listing file directories.
• Comparing Files: Finding where two files differ.
• Diff Mode: Editing diff output.
• Misc File Ops: Other things you can do on files.
• Compressed Files: Accessing compressed files.
• File Archives: Operating on tar, zip, jar etc. archive files.
• Remote Files: Accessing files on other sites.
• Quoted File Names: Quoting special characters in file names.
• File Name Cache: Completion against a list of files you often use.
• File Conveniences: Convenience Features for Finding Files.
• Filesets: Handling sets of files.

Saving Files

• Save Commands: Commands for saving files.
• Backup: How Emacs saves the old version of your file.
• Customize Save: Customizing the saving of files.
• Interlocking: How Emacs protects against simultaneous editing of one file by two users.
• File Shadowing: Copying files to "shadows" automatically.
• Time Stamps: Emacs can update time stamps on saved files.

Backup Files

• One or Many: Whether to make one backup file or many.
• Names: How backup files are named.
• Deletion: Emacs deletes excess numbered backups.
• Copying: Backups can be made by copying or renaming.

Auto-Saving: Protection Against Disasters

• Files: The file where auto-saved changes are actually made until you save the file.
• Control: Controlling when and how often to auto-save.
• Recover: Recovering text from auto-save files.

Version Control

• Introduction to VC: How version control works in general.
• VC Mode Line: How the mode line shows version control status.
• Basic VC Editing: How to edit a file under version control.
• Old Versions: Examining and comparing old versions.
• Secondary VC Commands: The commands used a little less frequently.
• Branches: Multiple lines of development.
• Remote Repositories: Efficient access to remote CVS servers.
• Snapshots: Sets of file versions treated as a unit.
• Miscellaneous VC: Various other commands and features of VC.
• Customizing VC: Variables that change VC's behavior.

Using Multiple Buffers

• Select Buffer: Creating a new buffer or reselecting an old one.
• List Buffers: Getting a list of buffers that exist.
• Misc Buffer: Renaming; changing read-onliness; copying text.
• Kill Buffer: Killing buffers you no longer need.
• Several Buffers: How to go through the list of all buffers and operate variously on several of them.
• Indirect Buffers: An indirect buffer shares the text of another buffer.
• Buffer Convenience: Convenience and customization features for buffer handling.

Multiple Windows

• Basic Window: Introduction to Emacs windows.
• Split Window: New windows are made by splitting existing windows.
• Other Window: Moving to another window or doing something to it.
• Pop Up Window: Finding a file or buffer in another window.
• Force Same Window: Forcing certain buffers to appear in the selected window rather than in another window.
• Change Window: Deleting windows and changing their sizes.
• Window Convenience: Convenience functions for window handling.

Frames and Graphical Displays

• Cut and Paste: Mouse commands for cut and paste.
• Mouse References: Using the mouse to select an item from a list.
• Menu Mouse Clicks: Mouse clicks that bring up menus.
• Mode Line Mouse: Mouse clicks on the mode line.
• Creating Frames: Creating additional Emacs frames with various contents.
• Frame Commands: Iconifying, deleting, and switching frames.
• Speedbar: How to make and use a speedbar frame.
• Multiple Displays: How one Emacs job can talk to several displays.
• Special Buffer Frames: You can make certain buffers have their own frames.
• Frame Parameters: Changing the colors and other modes of frames.
• Scroll Bars: How to enable and disable scroll bars; how to use them.
• Wheeled Mice: Using mouse wheels for scrolling.
• Drag and Drop: Using drag and drop to open files and insert text.
• Menu Bars: Enabling and disabling the menu bar.
• Tool Bars: Enabling and disabling the tool bar.
• Dialog Boxes: Controlling use of dialog boxes.
• Tooltips: Showing "tooltips", AKA "balloon help" for active text.
• Mouse Avoidance: Moving the mouse pointer out of the way.
• Non-Window Terminals: Multiple frames on terminals that show only one.
• Text-Only Mouse: Using the mouse in text-only terminals.

International Character Set Support

• International Chars: Basic concepts of multibyte characters.
• Enabling Multibyte: Controlling whether to use multibyte characters.
• Language Environments: Setting things up for the language you use.
• Input Methods: Entering text characters not on your keyboard.
• Select Input Method: Specifying your choice of input methods.
• Multibyte Conversion: How single-byte characters convert to multibyte.
• Coding Systems: Character set conversion when you read and write files, and so on.
• Recognize Coding: How Emacs figures out which conversion to use.
• Specify Coding: Specifying a file's coding system explicitly.
• Output Coding: Choosing coding systems for output.
• Text Coding: Choosing conversion to use for file text.
• Communication Coding: Coding systems for interprocess communication.
• File Name Coding: Coding systems for file names.
• Terminal Coding: Specifying coding systems for converting terminal input and output.
• Fontsets: Fontsets are collections of fonts that cover the whole spectrum of characters.
• Defining Fontsets: Defining a new fontset.
• Undisplayable Characters: When characters don't display.
• Unibyte Mode: You can pick one European character set to use without multibyte characters.
• Charsets: How Emacs groups its internal character codes.

Major Modes

• Choosing Modes: How major modes are specified or chosen.

Indentation

• Indentation Commands: Various commands and techniques for indentation.
• Tab Stops: You can set arbitrary "tab stops" and then indent to the next tab stop when you want to.
• Just Spaces: You can request indentation using just spaces.

Commands for Human Languages

• Words: Moving over and killing words.
• Sentences: Moving over and killing sentences.
• Paragraphs: Moving over paragraphs.
• Pages: Moving over pages.
• Filling: Filling or justifying text.
• Case: Changing the case of text.
• Text Mode: The major modes for editing text files.
• Outline Mode: Editing outlines.
• TeX Mode: Editing input to the formatter TeX.
• HTML Mode: Editing HTML, SGML, and XML files.
• Nroff Mode: Editing input to the formatter nroff.
• Formatted Text: Editing formatted text directly in WYSIWYG fashion.
• Text Based Tables: Editing text-based tables in WYSIWYG fashion.

Filling Text

• Auto Fill: Auto Fill mode breaks long lines automatically.
• Refill: Keeping paragraphs filled.
• Fill Commands: Commands to refill paragraphs and center lines.
• Fill Prefix: Filling paragraphs that are indented or in a comment, etc.
• Adaptive Fill: How Emacs can determine the fill prefix automatically.
• Longlines: Editing text with very long lines.

Outline Mode

• Format: What the text of an outline looks like.
• Motion: Special commands for moving through outlines.
• Visibility: Commands to control what is visible.
• Views: Outlines and multiple views.
• Foldout: Folding means zooming in on outlines.

TeX Mode

• Editing: Special commands for editing in TeX mode.
• LaTeX: Additional commands for LaTeX input files.
• Printing: Commands for printing part of a file with TeX.
• Misc: Customization of TeX mode, and related features.

Editing Formatted Text

• Requesting Formatted Text: Entering and exiting Enriched mode.
• Hard and Soft Newlines: There are two different kinds of newlines.
• Editing Format Info: How to edit text properties.
• Faces: Bold, italic, underline, etc.
• Color: Changing the color of text.
• Indent: Changing the left and right margins.
• Justification Centering, setting text flush with the left or right margin, etc.
• Other: The "special" text properties submenu.
• Forcing Enriched Mode: How to force use of Enriched mode.

Editing Text-based Tables

• Table Definition: What is a text based table.
• Table Creation: How to create a table.
• Table Recognition: How to activate and deactivate tables.
• Cell Commands: Cell-oriented commands in a table.
• Cell Justification: Justifying cell contents.
• Row Commands: Manipulating rows of table cell.
• Column Commands: Manipulating columns of table cell.
• Fixed Width Mode: Fixing cell width.
• Table Conversion: Converting between plain text and tables.
• Measuring Tables: Analyzing table dimension.
• Table Misc: Table miscellany.

Editing Programs

• Program Modes: Major modes for editing programs.
• Defuns: Commands to operate on major top-level parts of a program.
• Program Indent: Adjusting indentation to show the nesting.
• Parentheses: Commands that operate on parentheses.
• Comments: Inserting, killing, and aligning comments.
• Documentation: Getting documentation of functions you plan to call.
• Hideshow: Displaying blocks selectively.
• Symbol Completion: Completion on symbol names of your program or language.
• Glasses: Making identifiersLikeThis more readable.
• Misc for Programs: Other Emacs features useful for editing programs.
• C Modes: Special commands of C, C++, Objective-C, Java, and Pike modes.
• Asm Mode: Asm mode and its special features.
• Fortran: Fortran mode and its special features.

Top-Level Definitions, or Defuns

• Left Margin Paren: An open-paren or similar opening delimiter starts a defun if it is at the left margin.
• Moving by Defuns: Commands to move over or mark a major definition.
• Imenu: Making buffer indexes as menus.
• Which Function: Which Function mode shows which function you are in.

Indentation for Programs

• Basic Indent: Indenting a single line.
• Multi-line Indent: Commands to reindent many lines at once.
• Lisp Indent: Specifying how each Lisp function should be indented.
• C Indent: Extra features for indenting C and related modes.
• Custom C Indent: Controlling indentation style for C and related modes.

Commands for Editing with Parentheses

• Expressions: Expressions with balanced parentheses.
• Moving by Parens: Commands for moving up, down and across in the structure of parentheses.
• Matching: Insertion of a close-delimiter flashes matching open.

Manipulating Comments

• Comment Commands: Inserting, killing, and aligning comments.
• Multi-Line Comments: Commands for adding and editing multi-line comments.
• Options for Comments: Customizing the comment features.

Documentation Lookup

• Info Lookup: Looking up library functions and commands in Info files.
• Man Page: Looking up man pages of library functions and commands.
• Lisp Doc: Looking up Emacs Lisp functions, etc.

C and Related Modes

• Motion in C: Commands to move by C statements, etc.
• Electric C: Colon and other chars can automatically reindent.
• Hungry Delete: A more powerful DEL command.
• Other C Commands: Filling comments, viewing expansion of macros, and other neat features.

Compiling and Testing Programs

• Compilation: Compiling programs in languages other than Lisp (C, Pascal, etc.).
• Compilation Mode: The mode for visiting compiler errors.
• Compilation Shell: Customizing your shell properly for use in the compilation buffer.
• Grep Searching: Searching with grep.
• Flymake: Finding syntax errors on the fly.
• Debuggers: Running symbolic debuggers for non-Lisp programs.
• Executing Lisp: Various modes for editing Lisp programs, with different facilities for running the Lisp programs.
• Lisp Libraries: Creating Lisp programs to run in Emacs.
• Lisp Eval: Executing a single Lisp expression in Emacs.
• Lisp Interaction: Executing Lisp in an Emacs buffer.
• External Lisp: Communicating through Emacs with a separate Lisp.

Running Debuggers Under Emacs

• Starting GUD: How to start a debugger subprocess.
• Debugger Operation: Connection between the debugger and source buffers.
• Commands of GUD: Key bindings for common commands.
• GUD Customization: Defining your own commands for GUD.
• GDB Graphical Interface: An enhanced mode that uses GDB features to implement a graphical debugging environment through Emacs.

Maintaining Large Programs

• Change Log: Maintaining a change history for your program.
• Format of ChangeLog: What the change log file looks like.
• Tags: Go direct to any function in your program in one command. Tags remembers which file it is in.
• Emerge: A convenient way of merging two versions of a program.

Tags Tables

• Tag Syntax: Tag syntax for various types of code and text files.
• Create Tags Table: Creating a tags table with etags.
• Etags Regexps: Create arbitrary tags using regular expressions.
• Select Tags Table: How to visit a tags table.
• Find Tag: Commands to find the definition of a specific tag.
• Tags Search: Using a tags table for searching and replacing.
• List Tags: Listing and finding tags defined in a file.

Abbrevs

• Abbrev Concepts: Fundamentals of defined abbrevs.
• Defining Abbrevs: Defining an abbrev, so it will expand when typed.
• Expanding Abbrevs: Controlling expansion: prefixes, canceling expansion.
• Editing Abbrevs: Viewing or editing the entire list of defined abbrevs.
• Saving Abbrevs: Saving the entire list of abbrevs for another session.
• Dynamic Abbrevs: Abbreviations for words already in the buffer.
• Dabbrev Customization: What is a word, for dynamic abbrevs. Case handling.

Editing Pictures

• Basic Picture: Basic concepts and simple commands of Picture Mode.
• Insert in Picture: Controlling direction of cursor motion after "self-inserting" characters.
• Tabs in Picture: Various features for tab stops and indentation.
• Rectangles in Picture: Clearing and superimposing rectangles.

Sending Mail

• Mail Format: Format of the mail being composed.
• Mail Headers: Details of permitted mail header fields.
• Mail Aliases: Abbreviating and grouping mail addresses.
• Mail Mode: Special commands for editing mail being composed.
• Mail Amusements: Distract the NSA's attention; add a fortune to a msg.
• Mail Methods: Using alternative mail-composition methods.

Reading Mail with Rmail

• Rmail Basics: Basic concepts of Rmail, and simple use.
• Rmail Scrolling: Scrolling through a message.
• Rmail Motion: Moving to another message.
• Rmail Deletion: Deleting and expunging messages.
• Rmail Inbox: How mail gets into the Rmail file.
• Rmail Files: Using multiple Rmail files.
• Rmail Output: Copying message out to files.
• Rmail Labels: Classifying messages by labeling them.
• Rmail Attributes: Certain standard labels, called attributes.
• Rmail Reply: Sending replies to messages you are viewing.
• Rmail Summary: Summaries show brief info on many messages.
• Rmail Sorting: Sorting messages in Rmail.
• Rmail Display: How Rmail displays a message; customization.
• Rmail Coding: How Rmail handles decoding character sets.
• Rmail Editing: Editing message text and headers in Rmail.
• Rmail Digest: Extracting the messages from a digest message.
• Out of Rmail: Converting an Rmail file to mailbox format.
• Rmail Rot13: Reading messages encoded in the rot13 code.
• Movemail: More details of fetching new mail.
• Remote Mailboxes: Retrieving Mail from Remote Mailboxes.
• Other Mailbox Formats: Retrieving Mail from Local Mailboxes in Various Formats

Dired, the Directory Editor

• Dired Enter: How to invoke Dired.
• Dired Navigation: How to move in the Dired buffer.
• Dired Deletion: Deleting files with Dired.
• Flagging Many Files: Flagging files based on their names.
• Dired Visiting: Other file operations through Dired.
• Marks vs Flags: Flagging for deletion vs marking.
• Operating on Files: How to copy, rename, print, compress, etc. either one file or several files.
• Shell Commands in Dired: Running a shell command on the marked files.
• Transforming File Names: Using patterns to rename multiple files.
• Comparison in Dired: Running `diff' by way of Dired.
• Subdirectories in Dired: Adding subdirectories to the Dired buffer.
• Subdir Switches: Subdirectory switches in Dired.
• Subdirectory Motion: Moving across subdirectories, and up and down.
• Hiding Subdirectories: Making subdirectories visible or invisible.
• Dired Updating: Discarding lines for files of no interest.
• Dired and Find: Using `find' to choose the files for Dired.
• Wdired: Operating on files by editing the Dired buffer.
• Image-Dired: Viewing image thumbnails in Dired
• Misc Dired Features: Various other features.

The Calendar and the Diary

• Calendar Motion: Moving through the calendar; selecting a date.
• Scroll Calendar: Bringing earlier or later months onto the screen.
• Counting Days: How many days are there between two dates?
• General Calendar: Exiting or recomputing the calendar.
• Writing Calendar Files: Writing calendars to files of various formats.
• Holidays: Displaying dates of holidays.
• Sunrise/Sunset: Displaying local times of sunrise and sunset.
• Lunar Phases: Displaying phases of the moon.
• Other Calendars: Converting dates to other calendar systems.
• Diary: Displaying events from your diary.
• Appointments: Reminders when it's time to do something.
• Importing Diary: Converting diary events to/from other formats.
• Daylight Saving: How to specify when daylight saving time is active.
• Time Intervals: Keeping track of time intervals.
• Advanced Calendar/Diary Usage: Advanced Calendar/Diary customization.

Movement in the Calendar

• Calendar Unit Motion: Moving by days, weeks, months, and years.
• Move to Beginning or End: Moving to start/end of weeks, months, and years.
• Specified Dates: Moving to the current date or another specific date.

Conversion To and From Other Calendars

• Calendar Systems: The calendars Emacs understands (aside from Gregorian).
• To Other Calendar: Converting the selected date to various calendars.
• From Other Calendar: Moving to a date specified in another calendar.
• Mayan Calendar: Moving to a date specified in a Mayan calendar.

The Diary

• Displaying the Diary: Viewing diary entries and associated calendar dates.
• Format of Diary File: Entering events in your diary.
• Date Formats: Various ways you can specify dates.
• Adding to Diary: Commands to create diary entries.
• Special Diary Entries: Anniversaries, blocks of dates, cyclic entries, etc.

Gnus

• Buffers of Gnus: The group, summary, and article buffers.
• Gnus Startup: What you should know about starting Gnus.
• Summary of Gnus: A short description of the basic Gnus commands.

Running Shell Commands from Emacs

• Single Shell: How to run one shell command and return.
• Interactive Shell: Permanent shell taking input via Emacs.
• Shell Mode: Special Emacs commands used with permanent shell.
• Shell Prompts: Two ways to recognize shell prompts.
• Shell History: Repeating previous commands in a shell buffer.
• Directory Tracking: Keeping track when the subshell changes directory.
• Shell Options: Options for customizing Shell mode.
• Terminal emulator: An Emacs window as a terminal emulator.
• Term Mode: Special Emacs commands used in Term mode.
• Paging in Term: Paging in the terminal emulator.
• Remote Host: Connecting to another computer.

Using Emacs as a Server

• Invoking emacsclient: Emacs client startup options.

Printing Hard Copies

• PostScript: Printing buffers or regions as PostScript.
• PostScript Variables: Customizing the PostScript printing commands.
• Printing Package: An optional advanced printing interface.

Hyperlinking and Navigation Features

• Browse-URL: Following URLs.
• Goto-address: Activating URLs.
• FFAP: Finding files etc. at point.

Customization

• Minor Modes: Each minor mode is one feature you can turn on independently of any others.
• Easy Customization: Convenient way to browse and change user options.
• Variables: Many Emacs commands examine Emacs variables to decide what to do; by setting variables, you can control their functioning.
• Key Bindings: The keymaps say what command each key runs. By changing them, you can "redefine keys".
• Syntax: The syntax table controls how words and expressions are parsed.
• Init File: How to write common customizations in the .emacs file.

Variables

• Examining: Examining or setting one variable's value.
• Hooks: Hook variables let you specify programs for parts of Emacs to run on particular occasions.
• Locals: Per-buffer values of variables.
• File Variables: How files can specify variable values.

Customizing Key Bindings

• Keymaps: Generalities. The global keymap.
• Prefix Keymaps: Keymaps for prefix keys.
• Local Keymaps: Major and minor modes have their own keymaps.
• Minibuffer Maps: The minibuffer uses its own local keymaps.
• Rebinding: How to redefine one key's meaning conveniently.
• Init Rebinding: Rebinding keys with your init file, .emacs.
• Function Keys: Rebinding terminal function keys.
• Named ASCII Chars: Distinguishing <TAB> from C-i, and so on.
• Mouse Buttons: Rebinding mouse buttons in Emacs.
• Disabling: Disabling a command means confirmation is required before it can be executed. This is done to protect beginners from surprises.

The Init File, ~/.emacs

• Init Syntax: Syntax of constants in Emacs Lisp.
• Init Examples: How to do some things with an init file.
• Terminal Init: Each terminal type can have an init file.
• Find Init: How Emacs finds the init file.
• Init Non-ASCII: Using non-ASCII characters in an init file.

Dealing with Emacs Trouble

• DEL Does Not Delete: What to do if <DEL> doesn't delete.
• Stuck Recursive: `[...]' in mode line around the parentheses.
• Screen Garbled: Garbage on the screen.
• Text Garbled: Garbage in the text.
• Memory Full: How to cope when you run out of memory.
• After a Crash: Recovering editing in an Emacs session that crashed.
• Emergency Escape: Emergency escape--- What to do if Emacs stops responding.
• Total Frustration: When you are at your wits' end.

Reporting Bugs

• Bug Criteria: Have you really found a bug?
• Understanding Bug Reporting: How to report a bug effectively.
• Checklist: Steps to follow for a good bug report.
• Sending Patches: How to send a patch for GNU Emacs.

Command Line Arguments for Emacs Invocation

• Action Arguments: Arguments to visit files, load libraries, and call functions.
• Initial Options: Arguments that take effect while starting Emacs.
• Command Example: Examples of using command line arguments.
• Resume Arguments: Specifying arguments when you resume a running Emacs.
• Environment: Environment variables that Emacs uses.
• Display X: Changing the default display and using remote login.
• Font X: Choosing a font for text, under X.
• Colors: Choosing display colors.
• Window Size X: Start-up window size, under X.
• Borders X: Internal and external borders, under X.
• Title X: Specifying the initial frame's title.
• Icons X: Choosing what sort of icon to use, under X.
• Misc X: Other display options.

Environment Variables

• General Variables: Environment variables that all versions of Emacs use.
• Misc Variables: Certain system specific variables.
• MS-Windows Registry: An alternative to the environment on MS-Windows.

X Options and Resources

• Resources: Using X resources with Emacs (in general).
• Table of Resources: Table of specific X resources that affect Emacs.
• Face Resources: X resources for customizing faces.
• Lucid Resources: X resources for Lucid menus.
• LessTif Resources: X resources for LessTif and Motif menus.
• GTK resources: Resources for GTK widgets.

Emacs and Mac OS

• Mac Input: Keyboard and mouse input on Mac.
• Mac International: International character sets on Mac.
• Mac Environment Variables: Setting environment variables for Emacs.
• Mac Directories: Volumes and directories on Mac.
• Mac Font Specs: Specifying fonts on Mac.
• Mac Functions: Mac-specific Lisp functions.

Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS

• Text and Binary: Text files use CRLF to terminate lines.
• Windows Files: File-name conventions on Windows.
• ls in Lisp: Emulation of ls for Dired.
• Windows HOME: Where Emacs looks for your .emacs.
• Windows Keyboard: Windows-specific keyboard features.
• Windows Mouse: Windows-specific mouse features.
• Windows Processes: Running subprocesses on Windows.
• Windows Printing: How to specify the printer on MS-Windows.
• Windows Misc: Miscellaneous Windows features.
• MS-DOS: Using Emacs on MS-DOS (otherwise known as MS-DOG).

NOTE This document contains Invariant Sections. See below.

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