An Introduction to Emacs

• A combination of the CTRL key and some other key.
• Remember C-g
• Multi-key sequences
  • C-x C-f example
  • All file mgmt commands start with C-x

• Control combos are not enough to encompass all of emacs' commands.
• Meta on various systems: I know how mac works, figure out your OS meta key.
  • ESC works as Meta on any system. You don't hold it down though.
• Meta as amplifier of CTRL.
  • Example, C-f, M-f.
• M-x and command names.

• Before going online, check emacs for help. It is always better.
• If you don't know how to ask for help, use C-h ? or C-h C-h
  • C-h c Defines a key combination (eg C-x C-f)
  • C-h i Opens the info pages (Fantastic source for Emacs and Elisp documentation)
  • C-h t Opens the tutorial

• C-f C-b C-p C-n Move Forward, Backward, Previous-line, Next-line
• M-f M-b Move Forward by word, Backward by word
• C-v M-v Scroll Vertically down, Scroll Vertically up
• C-a C-e Go to beginning of line, end of line.
• M-< M-> Go to beginning of buffer, end of buffer.
• C-l Center the cursor

• C-d Delete character to the front of point.
• M-d Delete word to the front of point.
• <DEL> Delete character to the back of point (normal).
• M-<DEL> Delete word to the back of point.

Copy/paste doesn't work the exact same way in Emacs as it does in most editors. At first this might be confusing, but later you will begin to see the advantages of doing it this way.

• C-k Kill the line after cursor.
• C-y Yank the last thing that was killed.
• M-y After using C-y, yanks the last thing that was killed before that, and so on through the kill ring. Cycles through each of the previous things that were killed one at a time.

• C-_ (That's Control + Underscore, so the keys are Ctrl, Shift, and Minus "-") Undo's the last action

• M-x goto-line M-g g Go to the specified line number (it will prompt you for the line you want).

• C-h m Display help on current modes
• C-c The usual key combination prefix before minor-mode specific commands. For instance C-c C-c in C will comment a region.

• C-s Search for string forwards through current buffer. Each repeated execution of C-s will repeat that search for the same string until you press <RET> or C-g.
• C-r Same as C-s but goes backwards through your buffer instead.
• M-x replace-string
• M-x query-replace-string
• M-x replace-regexp
• M-x query-replace-regexp

• C-x ( Start recording macro
• C-x ) Stop recording macro
• C-x e M-x call-last-kbd-macro Execute the last recorded macro.

Remember C-g! It is useful if you want to cancel recording a macro.

• Example of macro: Indent every other line by two spaces.

• Installing ispell
• Using ispell (M-x ispell-buffer)

  flyspell-mode

M-x shell

Directory Editor

C-x d, or C-x C-f on a directory

Most editing commands supported, such as C-s

Specific dired commands are a single key.

• Rename file: R
• Copy file: C
• Set permission on file: M
• Mark files for deletion: d
• Delete marked files: x
• Unmark files: u

Remember C-h m. Let's try this now and see what else we can do.

Emacs automatically creates timely backups of your files. You will see these in the directory of the file being edited.

Backup Files: Previous copy of the file. Tilda (~)

Auto-Save files: Current copy of the file prior to saving explicitly. Gets updated frequently and on system errors. Hashes surround files. #filename#