NAME
emacs - GNU project Emacs
SYNOPSIS
emacs [ command-line switches ] [ files ... ]
DESCRIPTION
GNU Emacs is a version of Emacs, written by the author of
the original (PDP-10) Emacs, Richard Stallman.
The primary documentation of GNU Emacs is in the GNU Emacs
Manual, which you can read on line using Info, a subsystem
of Emacs. Please look there for complete and up-to-date
documentation. This man page is updated only when someone
volunteers to do so; the Emacs maintainers' priority goal is
to minimize the amount of time this man page takes away from
other more useful projects.
The user functionality of GNU Emacs encompasses everything
other Emacs editors do, and it is easily extensible since
its editing commands are written in Lisp.
Emacs has an extensive interactive help facility, but the
facility assumes that you know how to manipulate Emacs
windows and buffers. CTRL-h (backspace or CTRL-h) enters
the Help facility. Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t) requests an
interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the
fundamentals of Emacs in a few minutes. Help Apropos
(CTRL-h a) helps you find a command given its functionality,
Help Character (CTRL-h c) describes a given character's
effect, and Help Function (CTRL-h f) describes a given Lisp
function specified by name.
Emacs's Undo can undo several steps of modification to your
buffers, so it is easy to recover from editing mistakes.
GNU Emacs's many special packages handle mail reading
(RMail) and sending (Mail), outline editing (Outline),
compiling (Compile), running subshells within Emacs windows
(Shell), running a Lisp read-eval-print loop (Lisp-
Interaction-Mode), and automated psychotherapy (Doctor).
There is an extensive reference manual, but users of other
Emacses should have little trouble adapting even without a
copy. Users new to Emacs will be able to use basic features
fairly rapidly by studying the tutorial and using the self-
documentation features.
Emacs Options
The following options are of general interest:
file Edit file.
+number Go to the line specified by number (do not insert a
space between the "+" sign and the number).
-q Do not load an init file.
-u user Load user's init file.
-t file Use specified file as the terminal instead of using
stdin/stdout. This must be the first argument
specified in the command line.
The following options are lisp-oriented (these options are
processed in the order encountered):
-f function
Execute the lisp function function.
-l file Load the lisp code in the file file.
The following options are useful when running Emacs as a
batch editor:
-batch Edit in batch mode. The editor will send messages
to stderr. This option must be the first in the
argument list. You must use -l and -f options to
specify files to execute and functions to call.
-kill Exit Emacs while in batch mode.
Using Emacs with X
Emacs has been tailored to work well with the X window
system. If you run Emacs from under X windows, it will
create its own X window to display in. You will probably
want to start the editor as a background process so that you
can continue using your original window.
Emacs can be started with the following X switches:
-name name
Specifies the name which should be assigned to the
initial Emacs window. This controls looking up X
resources as well as the window title.
-title name
Specifies the title for the initial X window.
-r Display the Emacs window in reverse video.
-i Use the "kitchen sink" bitmap icon when iconifying
the Emacs window.
-font font, -fn font
Set the Emacs window's font to that specified by
font. You will find the various X fonts in the
/usr/lib/X11/fonts directory. Note that Emacs will
only accept fixed width fonts. Under the X11
Release 4 font-naming conventions, any font with the
value "m" or "c" in the eleventh field of the font
name is a fixed width font. Furthermore, fonts
whose name are of the form widthxheight are
generally fixed width, as is the font fixed. See
xlsfonts(1) for more information.
When you specify a font, be sure to put a space
between the switch and the font name.
-b pixels
Set the Emacs window's border width to the number of
pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to one pixel on
each side of the window.
-ib pixels
Set the window's internal border width to the number
of pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to one pixel
of padding on each side of the window.
-geometry geometry
Set the Emacs window's width, height, and position
as specified. The geometry specification is in the
standard X format; see X(1) for more information.
The width and height are specified in characters;
the default is 80 by 24.
-fg color
On color displays, sets the color of the text.
See the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for a list of
valid color names.
-bg color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
background.
-bd color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
border.
-cr color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
text cursor.
-ms color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
mouse cursor.
-d displayname, -display displayname
Create the Emacs window on the display specified by
displayname. Must be the first option specified in
the command line.
-nw Tells Emacs not to use its special interface to X.
If you use this switch when invoking Emacs from an
xterm(1) window, display is done in that window.
This must be the first option specified in the
command line.
You can set X default values for your Emacs windows in your
.Xresources file (see xrdb(1)). Use the following format:
emacs.keyword:value
where value specifies the default value of keyword. Emacs
lets you set default values for the following keywords:
font (class Font)
Sets the window's text font.
reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
If reverseVideo's value is set to on, the window
will be displayed in reverse video.
bitmapIcon (class BitmapIcon)
If bitmapIcon's value is set to on, the window will
iconify into the "kitchen sink."
borderWidth (class BorderWidth)
Sets the window's border width in pixels.
internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
Sets the window's internal border width in pixels.
foreground (class Foreground)
For color displays, sets the window's text color.
background (class Background)
For color displays, sets the window's background
color.
borderColor (class BorderColor)
For color displays, sets the color of the window's
border.
cursorColor (class Foreground)
For color displays, sets the color of the window's
text cursor.
pointerColor (class Foreground)
For color displays, sets the color of the window's
mouse cursor.
geometry (class Geometry)
Sets the geometry of the Emacs window (as described
above).
title (class Title)
Sets the title of the Emacs window.
iconName (class Title)
Sets the icon name for the Emacs window icon.
If you try to set color values while using a black and white
display, the window's characteristics will default as
follows: the foreground color will be set to black, the
background color will be set to white, the border color will
be set to grey, and the text and mouse cursors will be set
to black.
Using the Mouse
The following lists the mouse button bindings for the Emacs
window under X11.
MOUSE BUTTON FUNCTION
left Set point.
middle Paste text.
right Cut text into X cut buffer.
SHIFT-middle Cut text into X cut buffer.
SHIFT-right Paste text.
CTRL-middle Cut text into X cut buffer and kill it.
CTRL-right Select this window, then split it into
two windows. Same as typing CTRL-x 2.
CTRL-SHIFT-left X buffer menu--hold the buttons and
keys down, wait for menu to appear,
select buffer, and release. Move mouse
out of menu and release to cancel.
CTRL-SHIFT-middle X help menu--pop up index card menu for
Emacs help.
CTRL-SHIFT-right Select window with mouse, and delete
all other windows. Same as typing
CTRL-x 1.
MANUALS
You can order printed copies of the GNU Emacs Manual from
the Free Software Foundation, which develops GNU software.
See the file ORDERS for ordering information.
Your local Emacs maintainer might also have copies
available. As with all software and publications from FSF,
everyone is permitted to make and distribute copies of the
Emacs manual. The TeX source to the manual is also included
in the Emacs source distribution.
FILES
/usr/local/info - files for the Info documentation browser
(a subsystem of Emacs) to refer to. Currently not much of
Unix is documented here, but the complete text of the Emacs
reference manual is included in a convenient tree structured
form.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/src - C source files and
object files
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/lisp - Lisp source files and
compiled files that define most editing commands. Some are
preloaded; others are autoloaded from this directory when
used.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc - various programs that
are used with GNU Emacs, and some files of information.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/DOC.* - contains the
documentation strings for the Lisp primitives and preloaded
Lisp functions of GNU Emacs. They are stored here to reduce
the size of Emacs proper.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/OTHER.EMACSES discusses
GNU Emacs vs. other versions of Emacs.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/SERVICE lists people
offering various services to assist users of GNU Emacs,
including education, troubleshooting, porting and
customization.
These files also have information useful to anyone wishing
to write programs in the Emacs Lisp extension language,
which has not yet been fully documented.
/usr/local/com/emacs/lock - holds lock files that are made
for all files being modified in Emacs, to prevent
simultaneous modification of one file by two users.
/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt - list of valid X color names.
BUGS
There is a mailing list, bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu on
the internet (ucbvax!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gnu-emacs on
UUCPnet), for reporting Emacs bugs and fixes. But before
reporting something as a bug, please try to be sure that it
really is a bug, not a misunderstanding or a deliberate
feature. We ask you to read the section ``Reporting Emacs
Bugs'' near the end of the reference manual (or Info system)
for hints on how and when to report bugs. Also, include the
version number of the Emacs you are running in every bug
report that you send in.
Do not expect a personal answer to a bug report. The
purpose of reporting bugs is to get them fixed for everyone
in the next release, if possible. For personal assistance,
look in the SERVICE file (see above) for a list of people
who offer it.
Please do not send anything but bug reports to this mailing
list. Send requests to be added to mailing lists to the
special list info-gnu-emacs-request@prep.ai.mit.edu (or the
corresponding UUCP address). For more information about
Emacs mailing lists, see the file
/usr/local/emacs/etc/MAILINGLISTS. Bugs tend actually to be
fixed if they can be isolated, so it is in your interest to
report them in such a way that they can be easily
reproduced.
Bugs that I know about are: shell will not work with
programs running in Raw mode on some Unix versions.
UNRESTRICTIONS
Emacs is free; anyone may redistribute copies of Emacs to
anyone under the terms stated in the Emacs General Public
License, a copy of which accompanies each copy of Emacs and
which also appears in the reference manual.
Copies of Emacs may sometimes be received packaged with
distributions of Unix systems, but it is never included in
the scope of any license covering those systems. Such
inclusion violates the terms on which distribution is
permitted. In fact, the primary purpose of the General
Public License is to prohibit anyone from attaching any
other restrictions to redistribution of Emacs.
Richard Stallman encourages you to improve and extend Emacs,
and urges that you contribute your extensions to the GNU
library. Eventually GNU (Gnu's Not Unix) will be a complete
replacement for Berkeley Unix. Everyone will be free to
use, copy, study and change the GNU system.
SEE ALSO
X(1), xlsfonts(1), xterm(1), xrdb(1)
AUTHORS
Emacs was written by Richard Stallman and the Free Software
Foundation. Joachim Martillo and Robert Krawitz added the X
features.
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