Path: news1.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!the-tech!reuven
From: Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@the-tech.mit.edu>
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), part 1/4
Supersedes: <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-1_837025641@the-tech.mit.edu>
Followup-To: gnu.emacs.help
Date: 11 Sep 1996 19:08:06 GMT
Organization: GNU Emacs FAQ Central
Lines: 851
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 20 Oct 1996 19:08:02 GMT
Message-ID: <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-1_842468882@the-tech.mit.edu>
Reply-To: reuven@netvision.net.il
NNTP-Posting-Host: the-tech.mit.edu
Summary: Questions and answers having to do with GNU Emacs
Keywords: GNU Emacs editors questions
Originator: reuven@the-tech
Xref: news1.ucsd.edu gnu.emacs.help:32844 comp.emacs:18701 comp.answers:16239 news.answers:65026
Archive-name: GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1
GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ)
about GNU Emacs 19 with answers. Some of the answers are not valid for GNU
Emacs 18.
The FAQ is posted (in five parts) to reduce the noise level in the
gnu.emacs.help newsgroup (which is also the help-gnu-emacs mailing list)
which results from the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong
answers to these questions, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections
to the corrections, debate, name calling, and generally unproductive use of
the mailing list. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best"
answers to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a
slight change that improves an answer, please tell us!
If you know the answer to a question in the FAQ list, please reply to the
question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
The FAQ is crossposted to comp.emacs because some sites do not receive the
gnu.* newsgroups. The FAQ is also crossposted to news.answers.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22.
A diff file between the last version of the FAQ and this one should have
been posted along with the FAQ. If you did not receive the diff file, you
can get it at
ftp://the-tech.mit.edu/pub/GNU-Emacs/faq-diffs
Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, and deletions by
sending mail to reuven@netvision.net.il. The most helpful form for
suggestions is a context diff (i.e., the output of `diff -c'). Include
"FAQ" in the subject of messages about the FAQ list.
Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb
a lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have
time to answer questions individually. :-(
--
Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@netvision.net.il> and the FAQ team (a full list is
at the bottom of the FAQ).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Notation Used in FAQ
1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
2: What does "M-x command" mean?
3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
General Questions
6: What is the LPF?
7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
comp.emacs, etc.?
9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs?
11: How do I unsubscribe from this mailing list?
12: What is the current address of the FSF?
On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
13: I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs?
15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual?
16: Where can I get documentation on Emacs Lisp?
17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
19: Can I view Info files without using Emacs?
20: What informational files are available for Emacs?
21: Where can I get help in installing Emacs?
22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
Status of Emacs
23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
24: What is the latest version of Emacs?
25: What is different about Emacs 19?
Common Things People Want To Do
26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
27: How do I debug a .emacs file?
28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
29: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
30: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default?
31: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
32: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
characters?
33: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
34: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
35: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
36: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
37: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
38: How do I change load-path?
39: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
40: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
41: How do I indent switch statements like this?
42: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
43: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
44: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
45: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
46: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
47: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
48: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
commands are handled by the compiler?
49: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
50: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
51: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
52: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
53: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
54: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an
underlined paragraph?
55: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
56: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
57: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
58: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
59: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
60: Where is the documentation for "etags"?
61: How do I disable backup files?
62: How do I disable auto-save-mode?
63: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?
64: How do I delete menus and menu options?
65: What are hilit19 and font-lock modes, what is the difference between
them, and how do I customize them?
66: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
bottom of the screen?
67: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
68: How can I edit MS-DOS files using Emacs?
69: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
each period?
Bugs/Problems
70: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
71: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my shell buffer?
72: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?
73: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"?
74: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?
75: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
76: Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"?
77: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
78: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
79: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
80: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
81: Are there any security risks in Emacs?
82: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something.
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
83: How do I install Emacs?
84: How do I update Emacs to the latest version?
85: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
86: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
87: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
88: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
89: Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
92: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
Emacs")?
93: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
94: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows '95, or Windows
NT?
95: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
96: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
97: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
98: Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?
99: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
100: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
101: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++,
Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk?
102: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
103: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
104: SuperCite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
105: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
106: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs
107: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
108: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
110: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
111: W3-mode -- A World-Wide Web browser inside of Emacs
112: EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes
113: Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news
114: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
115: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
116: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?
117: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
.emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
118: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
119: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys
emit?
120: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
121: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
122: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered
out?
123: Why does the "Backspace" key invoke help?
124: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
125: How do I "swap" two keys?
126: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
127: What if I don't have a Meta key?
128: What if I don't have an Escape key?
129: Can I make my "Compose Character" key behave like a Meta key?
130: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
131: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
132: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
133: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
134: How do I input 8-bit characters?
135: Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other
character sets?
136: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
Mail and News
137: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
138: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
139: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
140: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?
141: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?
142: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
143: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?
144: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
145: How do I read news under Emacs?
146: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP?
147: How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g.,
ClariNews)?
148: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?
149: How do I make Gnus start up faster?
150: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?
151: Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control
headers?
152: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?
153: Why is catch up slow in Gnus?
154: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting?
155: Where can I find out more about Gnus?
------------------------------------------------------------
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x
$" to get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look
at the text of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a
C-r if that doesn't work. Type RET to end the search.
If you have w3-mode installed (see question 111), you can visit ftp and
HTTP uniform resource locators (URLs) by placing the cursor on the URL and
typing M-x w3-follow-url-at-point.
The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would
prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22.
------------------------------------------------------------
This FAQ was last updated on September 10, 1996.
Notation Used in FAQ
Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the
later answers.
1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
C-x: press the `x' key while holding down the Control key
M-x: press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key (if your computer
doesn't have a Meta key, see question 127)
M-C-x: press the `x' key while holding down both Control and Meta
C-M-x: a synonym for the above
LFD: Linefeed or Newline; same as C-j
RET: Return, sometimes marked Enter; same as C-m
DEL: Delete, usually not the same as Backspace; same as C-? (See
question 123 if deleting invokes Emacs help)
ESC: Escape; same as C-[
TAB: Tab; same as C-i
SPC: Space bar
Key sequences longer than one key (and some single-key sequences) are
inside double quotes or on lines by themselves. Any real spaces in such
a key sequence should be ignored; only SPC really means press the space
key.
The ASCII code sent by C-x (except for C-?) is the value that would be
sent by pressing just `x' minus 96 (or 64 for uppercase `X') and will be
from 0 to 31. The ASCII code sent by M-x is the sum of 128 and the ASCII
code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the
Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7.
NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a
"control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very
few keyboards does C-? generate ASCII code 127.
For further information, see "Characters" and "Keys" in the on-line
manual. (See question 3 if you don't know how.)
2: What does "M-x command" mean?
"M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
type RET. (See question 1 if you're not sure what "M-x" and "RET" mean.)
M-x (by default) invokes the command "execute-extended-command". This
command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the
command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type
TAB and SPC for completion, `?' for a list of possibilities, and M-p and
M-n to see previous commands entered. An Emacs "command" is any
"interactive" Emacs function.
NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to
invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good
candidate for this.
To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 51.
3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
When we refer you to topic XXX in the on-line manual, you can read this
manual node inside Emacs (assuming nothing is broken) by typing this:
C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET
This invokes Info, the GNU hypertext documentation browser. If you don't
already know how to use Info, type `?' from within Info.
If we refer to topic XXX:YYY, type this:
C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET m YYY RET
WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files,
or may have installed them improperly. In this case you should complain.
See question 15 if you would like a paper copy of the Emacs manual.
4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
These are files that come with Emacs. The Emacs distribution is divided
into subdirectories; the important ones are "etc", "lisp", and "src".
If you use Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system, start
Emacs, then type "C-h v data-directory RET". The directory name
displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed "etc"
directory.
The location of your Info directory (i.e., where on-line documentation is
stored) is kept in the variable Info-default-directory-list. Use "C-h v
Info-default-directory-list RET" to see the contents of this variable,
which will be a list of directory names. The last directory in that list
is probably where most Info files are stored. By default, Info
documentation is placed in /usr/local/info.
Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail; see
question 20. All are available in the source distribution.
WARNING: Your system administrator may have removed the src directory and
many files from the etc directory.
5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
FSF == Free Software Foundation
LPF == League for Programming Freedom
OSF == Open Software Foundation
GNU == GNU's Not Unix
RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman
FTP == File Transfer Protocol
GPL == GNU General Public License
NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes
look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high
quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a consortium of
computer vendors which develops commercial software for Unix systems.
NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers
to "freedom," not "zero dollars." Anyone can charge any price for
GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the
freedom enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always
get the software for less money from someone else, because everyone has
the right to resell or give away GPL-covered software.
General Questions
6: What is the LPF?
The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and
look-and-feel copyrights. To get more information, feel free to contact
the LPF via e-mail or otherwise. You may also contact Joe Wells
<jbw@cs.bu.edu>; he will be happy to talk with you about the LPF.
You can find more information about the LPF in the file etc/LPF. More
papers describing the LPF's views are available on the Internet and also
from the LPF:
http://www.lpf.org/
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/lpf/
ftp://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/lpf/
7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public License (copyleft) will
only be known if and when a judge rules on its validity and scope. There
has never been a copyright infringement case involving the GPL to set any
precedents. Please take any discussion regarding this issue to the
newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to hold the extensive flame
wars on the subject.
RMS writes:
The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the
spirit, which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work
pertaining to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that
all users have the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs.
To make sure everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you
distribute any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the
recipients the same freedom that you enjoyed.
8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
comp.emacs, etc.?
The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list.
(See question 20 if you want a copy of the file.) For those lists which
are gatewayed with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the
mailing list address.
comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This includes
Emacs along with various other implementations, such as JOVE, MicroEmacs,
Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, and Epsilon.
Many people post Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't receive
any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for and
against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have to
decide for yourself.
Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on
any of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was
created to hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "Non-free"
software includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify
the source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the
gnu.* groups from the "Newsgroups:" line when posting a followup that
recommends such software.
gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug
reports to this newsgroup (see question 10).
9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many
years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The
archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
postings from, but pretty much everything is there. The archive is
available at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/
10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs?
The correct way to report Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Anything sent here also appears in the
newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit
the bug report. This ensures a reliable return address so you can be
contacted for further details.
Be sure to read the "Bugs" section of the Emacs manual before reporting a
bug to bug-gnu-emacs! The manual describes in detail how to submit a
useful bug report. (See question 3 if you don't know how to read the
manual.)
RMS says:
Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting
on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an
unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and
have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much
smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have
expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others.
However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to
gnu.emacs.help:
If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix,
then after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on
gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you.
If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell:
If Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that
is a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it
does, that is a bug.
11: How do I unsubscribe from this mailing list?
If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named "XXX", you might be able to
unsubscribe from it by sending a request to the address
<XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu>. However, this will not work if you are
not listed on the main mailing list, but instead receive the mail from a
distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which
distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the "Received:" headers on
the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the "EXPN" or
"VRFY" sendmail commands through "telnet <site-address> smtp". Ask your
postmaster for help.
12: What is the current address of the FSF?
E-mail: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
Telephone: +1-617-542-5942
Fax: +1-617-542-2652
World-Wide Web: http://www.fsf.org/
Postal address:
Free Software Foundation
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA
For details on how to order items directly from the FSF, see the file
etc/ORDERS.
On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
13: I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Just typing `C-h' enters
the help system.
WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed `C-h' to act like DEL
to deal with local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to
invoke help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system,
type "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a
comma-separated list of key sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last
character in each key sequence listed. Each of the resulting key
sequences invokes help.
NOTE: Emacs help works best if it is invoked by a single key whose value
should be stored in the variable help-char.
There is also a WWW-based tutorial for Emacs 18, much of which is also
relevant for Emacs 19, available at
http://kufacts.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/writeups/misc/emacsguide.html
14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs?
There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
* The complete text of the Emacs manual is available on-line via the Info
hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info. Typing `h' immediately
after entering Info will provide a short tutorial on how to use it.
* You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15.
* You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to
invoke them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or
you can print your own from the etc/refcard.tex or etc/refcard.ps files
in the Emacs distribution.
* You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word
(actually which match a regular expression) using "C-h a" (M-x
command-apropos).
* You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a
certain word using M-x apropos.
* There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and
information. To get a list of these commands, type `?' after `C-h'.
15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual?
You can order a printed copy of the Emacs manual from the FSF. For
details see the file etc/ORDERS.
The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the "man" directory of
the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this
440-page manual yourself (see question 18).
If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX,
you can get a PostScript version from
ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-19.21.ps.gz
Note that the above document is somewhat out of date, although most major
concepts are still relevant. This site requests that you please *confine
any major ftping to late evenings or early mornings, local time* (Pacific
time zone, GMT-8). A DVI version is also available from:
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.gz
and all prep mirrors (see question 91 for a list).
A WWW version of the (somewhat outdated) Emacs 19.22 manual is at
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/emacs_toc.html
See also question 14 for how to view the manual on-line.
16: Where can I get documentation on Emacs Lisp?
Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a
function, "C-h v" for a variable.
For more information, obtain the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Details on
ordering it from FSF are in file etc/ORDERS.
The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is also available on-line, in Info
format. Texinfo source for the manual (along with pregenerated Info
files) is available at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/elisp-manual-19-2.4.tar.gz
and all prep mirrors (See question 91 for a list). See question 17 if
you want to install the Info files, or question 18 if you want to use the
Texinfo source to print the manual yourself.
WWW versions of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual are available at
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/elisp_1.html
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/usr/local/www/elisp/lispref/elisp_toc.html
17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
First, you must turn the Texinfo files into Info files. You may do this
within Emacs, using "M-x texinfo-format-buffer", or with the stand-alone
"makeinfo" program, available as part of the latest Texinfo package at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/texinfo-3.7.tar.gz
and all prep mirrors (see question 91 for a list).
For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so
you can read it on-line.
Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor makeinfo installs the resulting Info
files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:
1. Move the files to the "info" directory in the installed Emacs
distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that is.
2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a
line for the top level node in the Info package that you are
installing. Follow the examples already in this file. The format is:
* Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary
privileges, you have several options:
* Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You
can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing
`g' in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
goes to the node named "Top" in that file. For example, to view a Info
file named "XXX" in your home directory, you can type this:
C-h i g (~/XXX) RET
* You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the
Info directory is by adding its pathname to the value of the variable
Info-default-directory-list. For example, to use a private Info
directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named "Info",
you could put this in your .emacs file:
(setq Info-default-directory-list
(cons "~/Info" Info-default-directory-list))
You will need a top-level Info file named "dir" in this directory which
has everything the system dir file has in it, except it should list
only entries for Info files in that directory. You might not need it
if all files in this directory were referenced by other "dir" files.
The node lists from all dir files in Info-default-directory-list are
merged by the Info system.
18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
NOTE: You can't get nicely printed output from Info files; you must still
have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print.
Assuming you have TeX installed on your system, follow these steps:
1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
\input texinfo
You may need to change "texinfo" to the full pathname of the
texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy
or link it into the current directory).
2. tex XXX.texinfo
3. texindex XXX.??
The texindex program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
4. tex XXX.texinfo
5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files at
your site.
To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package
mentioned in question 17.
19: Can I view Info files without using Emacs?
Yes. Here are some alternative programs:
* Info, a stand-alone version of the Info program, comes as part of the
Texinfo package. See question 17 for details.
* Xinfo, a stand-alone version of the Info program that runs under X
Windows. You can get it at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz
and all prep mirrors (See question 91 for a list).
* Tkinfo, an Info viewer that runs under X Windows and uses Tcl/Tk. You
can get Tkinfo at
ftp://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/pub/misc/tkinfo-0.6.tar.gz
20: What informational files are available for Emacs?
This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
informational files about Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU project
are available for you to read.
The following files are available in the "etc" directory of the Emacs
distribution (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is).
COPYING -- Emacs General Public License
DISTRIB -- Emacs Availability Information, including the popular
"Free Software Foundation Order Form"
FAQ -- Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP
GNU -- The GNU Manifesto
INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain
UNIX-compatible software system with BYTE editors
LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
MACHINES -- Status of Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
NEWS -- Emacs news, a history of user-visible changes
SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"
Latest versions of the above files also available at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/
More GNU information, including back issues of the "GNU's Bulletin", are at
http://www.fsf.org/
http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/gnu.html
21: Where can I get help in installing Emacs?
See question 83 for some basic installation hints, and question 83 if you
have problems with the installation.
The file etc/SERVICE (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is)
lists companies and individuals willing to sell you help in installing or
using Emacs. An up-to-date version this file is available on
prep.ai.mit.edu (see question 20).
22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
The Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
* Inside of Emacs itself. You can get it from selecting the "Emacs FAQ"
option from the "Help" menu at the top of any Emacs frame, or by typing
C-h F (M-x view-emacs-FAQ).
* Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your
news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups.
Every news reader should allow you to read any news article that is
still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before. You
may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover how
to do this. In rn, this command will do this for you at the article
selection level:
?GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions?rc:m
In Gnus, you should type "C-u c-x c-s" from the *Summary* buffer or
"C-u SPC" from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a
newsgroup.
If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool,
it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire for a
while.
* Via anonymous FTP. You can always fetch the latest FAQ at
ftp://the-tech.mit.edu/pub/GNU-Emacs/faq
* In the Emacs distribution. Since Emacs 18.56, the latest available
version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the Emacs
distribution as file etc/FAQ (see question 4).
* Via the World-Wide Web. Point your favorite Web browser (Lynx, Mosaic,
Netscape, w3-mode) at one of the following:
http://ancho.ucs.indiana.edu/FAQ/Emacs/
http://www.eecs.nwu.edu/emacs/faq/index.html
http://www.smartpages.com/bngfaqs/gnu/emacs/help/top.html
* Via anonymous ftp and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu (and its mirror in
Europe), the main repository for FAQs and other items posted to
news.answers. The Emacs FAQs are available at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/
ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/doc/FAQ/comp.emacs/
If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can access the archives
using the rtfm.mit.edu mail server. The Emacs FAQ can be retrieved by
sending mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with a blank subject and
containing
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/diffs
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part4
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part5
For more information, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
"help" and "index" in the body on separate lines.
* As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to
gnu-emacs-faq-maintainers@bigbird.bu.edu. Don't do this unless you
have made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the
methods listed above.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: news1.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!the-tech!reuven
From: Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@the-tech.mit.edu>
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), part 2/4
Supersedes: <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-2_837025641@the-tech.mit.edu>
Followup-To: gnu.emacs.help
Date: 11 Sep 1996 19:08:09 GMT
Organization: GNU Emacs FAQ Central
Lines: 840
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 20 Oct 1996 19:08:02 GMT
Message-ID: <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-2_842468882@the-tech.mit.edu>
Reply-To: reuven@netvision.net.il
NNTP-Posting-Host: the-tech.mit.edu
Summary: Questions and answers having to do with GNU Emacs
Keywords: GNU Emacs editors questions
Originator: reuven@the-tech
Xref: news1.ucsd.edu gnu.emacs.help:32845 comp.emacs:18702 comp.answers:16240 news.answers:65027
Archive-name: GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2
------------------------------------------------------------
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x
$" to get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look
at the text of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a
C-r if that doesn't work. Type RET to end the search.
If you have w3-mode installed (see question 111), you can visit ftp and
HTTP uniform resource locators (URLs) by placing the cursor on the URL and
typing M-x w3-follow-url-at-point.
The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would
prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22.
------------------------------------------------------------
Status of Emacs
23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked
the name Emacs because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at
the time." The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by
RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector, originally Tape
Editor and COrrector) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended
TECO with a "real-time" full screen mode with active keys. Emacs was
started by Guy Steele <gls@east.sun.com> as a project to unify the many
divergent TECO command sets and key bindings at MIT.
Many people have said that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See
alt.lang.teco if you are interested. Someone has written a TECO
implementation in Emacs Lisp (to find it, see question 89); it would be
an interesting project to run the original TECO Emacs inside of Emacs.
For some not-so-serious alternative reasons for Emacs to have that name,
check out etc/JOKES (see question 4).
24: What is the latest version of Emacs?
Emacs 19.34 is the current version as of this writing.
25: What is different about Emacs 19?
To find out what has changed in recent versions, type C-h n (M-x
view-emacs-news). The oldest changes are at the bottom of the file, so
you might want to read it starting there, rather than at the top.
The most obvious changes have to do with the user interface -- Emacs 19
is fully X-aware, and provides pull-down menus (see question 63) and
scroll bars. Emacs 19 also supports fonts and colors, including
context-specific highlighting of source code and other types of buffers
(see question 65).
Other changes include a line number mode, which displays the current line
number in the mode line, and default bindings for arrow and paging keys
that work.
Lower-level changes include a smarter memory allocation scheme (Emacs now
returns memory to the operating system when you kill buffers), a better
byte-compiler, and a source-level Emacs Lisp debugger.
There are also a number of new Lisp packages, ranging from dunnet (an
Adventure-like program) to mldrag (allows you to drag the mode line up
and down with mouse buttons) to gud (Grand Unified Debugger mode, for
many flavors of debuggers). A number of older Lisp packages, such as
Gnus, SuperCite and the calendar/diary, have been updated and enhanced to
work with Emacs 19, and are now included with the standard distribution.
Common Things People Want To Do
26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
See "Init File" in the on-line manual.
WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files,
because it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send
questions to help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as
documented. :-)
27: How do I debug a .emacs file?
Start Emacs with the "-debug-init" command-line option. This enables the
Emacs Lisp debugger before evaluating your .emacs file, and places you in
the debugger if something goes wrong. The top line in the trace-back
buffer will be the error message, and the second or third line of that
buffer will display the Lisp code from your .emacs file that caused the
problem.
You can also evaluate an individual function or argument to a function in
your .emacs file by moving the cursor to the end of the function or
argument and typing "C-x C-e" (M-x eval-last-sexp).
Use "C-h v" (M-x describe-variable) to check the value of variables which
you are trying to set or use.
28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
To have Emacs automatically display the current line number of the point
in the mode line, do "M-x line-number-mode". You can also put the form
(setq line-number-mode t)
in your .emacs file to achieve this whenever you start Emacs. Note that
Emacs will not display the line number if the buffer is larger than the
value of the variable line-number-display-limit.
As of version 19.29, Emacs will automatically display the current column
in the mode line if you include the "%c" format specifier in the variable
mode-line-format. See the documentation for mode-line-format (using "C-h
v mode-line-format RET") for more information on how to set and use this
variable.
Users of all Emacs versions can display the current column using Per
Abrahamsen's <abraham@iesd.auc.dk> "column" package. See question 89 for
instructions on how to get it.
None of the vi emulation modes provide the "set number" capability of vi
(as far as we know).
29: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
Put this in your .emacs file:
(condition-case ()
(quietly-read-abbrev-file)
(file-error nil))
(add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(setq abbrev-mode t))))
30: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default?
To turn on auto-fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x
auto-fill-mode".
To turn it on for every buffer in a certain mode, you must use the hook
for that mode. For example, to turn on auto-fill mode for all text
buffers, including the following in your .emacs file:
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
If you want auto-fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
(setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill)
31: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension
".YYY", this will do it for you:
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist))
Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
edit in XXX mode (in the second line, if the first line begins with
"#!"):
-*-XXX-*-
Emacs 19 also includes a new variable, interpreter-mode-alist, that
specifies which mode to use when loading a shell script. (Emacs
determines which interpreter you're using by examining the first line of
the file.) This feature only applies when the file name doesn't indicate
which mode to use. Use "C-h v" (or M-x describe-variable) on
interpreter-mode-alist to learn more.
32: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
characters?
To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for
example, "\237", you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value
of search-quote-char is 17 (i.e., `C-q').) Searching for ALL unprintable
characters is best done with a regular expression ("regexp") search. The
easiest regexp to use for the unprintable chars is the complement of the
regexp for the printable chars.
Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
To type these special characters in an interactive argument to
isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t',
`\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So,
to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward:
M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET
Using isearch-forward-regexp:
M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~]
To delete all unprintable characters, simply use replace-regexp:
M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET
Replacing is similar to the above. To replace all unprintable characters
with a colon, use:
M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET : RET
NOTE: * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing
something in the minibuffer.
33: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
If you are using a windowing system such as X, you can cause the region
to be highlighted when the mark is active by including
(transient-mark-mode t)
in your .emacs file. (Also see question 65.)
34: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines
whether they are case sensitive:
(setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive
(setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive
Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether
replacements preserve case.
To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major
mode's hook. For example:
(add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(setq case-fold-search nil))))
35: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
Use auto-fill mode, activated by typing "M-x auto-fill-mode". The
default maximum line width is 70, determined by the variable fill-column.
To learn how to turn this on automatically, see question 30.
36: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
Use Ispell. See question 110.
37: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
Use Ispell. See question 110. Ispell can handle TeX and *roff
documents.
38: How do I change load-path?
In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add
directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this:
(setq load-path (cons "/XXX/YYY/" load-path))
To do this relative to your home directory:
(setq load-path (cons "~/YYY/" load-path)
39: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
Emacsclient, which comes with Emacs, is for editing a file using an
already running Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this
by sending a request to the already running Emacs, which must be
expecting the request.
* Setup
Emacs must have executed the "server-start" function for emacsclient to
work. This can be done either by a command line option:
emacs -f server-start
or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file:
(if (some conditions are met) (server-start))
When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called
"server". "server" creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
directory named .emacs_server.
To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try
setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the
value "emacsclient". You may have to specify the full pathname of the
emacsclient program instead. Examples:
# csh commands:
setenv EDITOR emacsclient
setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname
# sh command:
EDITOR=emacsclient ; export EDITOR
* Normal use
When emacsclient is run, it connects to the ".emacs_server" socket and
passes its command line options to "server". When "server" receives
these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process,
which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line
numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to
switch to the Emacs window by hand. When the user is done editing a
file, the user can type "C-x #" (or M-x server-edit) to indicate this.
If there is another buffer requested by emacsclient, Emacs will switch
to it; otherwise emacsclient will exit, signaling the calling program
to continue.
NOTE: "emacsclient" and "server" must be running on machines which
share the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that
emacsclient specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the
Emacs process sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the
time emacsclient is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from
another X window or from a shell window inside Emacs itself.
There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called "gnuserv" by
Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp
Archive (see question 89). Gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it
can work across most network connections. It also supports the
execution of arbitrary Emacs Lisp forms and does not require the client
program to wait for completion.
The alpha version of an enhanced version of gnuserv is available at
ftp://ftp.wellfleet.com/netman/psmith/emacs/gnuserv-2.1alpha.tar.gz
40: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
The variable compilation-error-regexp-alist helps control how Emacs
parses your compiler output. It is a list of triples of the form:
(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX)
where REGEXP, FILE-IDX and LINE-IDX are strings. To help determine what
the constituent elements should be, load compile.el and then use
C-h v compilation-error-regexp-alist RET
to see the current value. A good idea is to look at compile.el itself as
the comments included for this variable are quite useful -- the regular
expressions required for your compiler's output may be very close to one
already provided. Once you have determined the proper regexps, use the
following to inform Emacs of your changes:
(setq compilation-error-regexp-alist
(cons '(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX)
compilation-error-regexp-alist))
41: How do I indent switch statements like this?
Many people want to indent their switch statements like this:
f()
{
switch(x) {
case A:
x1;
break;
case B:
x2;
break;
default:
x3;
}
}
The solution at first appears to be: set c-indent-level to 4 and
c-label-offset to -2. However, this will give you an indentation spacing
of four instead of two.
The solution is to use cc-mode (bundled with Emacs 19, but not the
default mode) and add the following line:
(c-set-offset 'case-label '+)
There appears to be no way to do this with the old c-mode.
42: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
Use hscroll.el by Wayne Mesard <wmesard@esd.sgi.com>. The current
version of hscroll is 1.5 (November 1993), and should be included in a
future Emacs distribution. If you cannot find the package, write to
Wayne directly.
NOTE: The version at the Emacs Lisp Archive is out of date. Check the
version number before installing any copies of hscroll you might find!
43: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode). This toggles overwrite-mode on and
off, so exiting from overwrite-mode is as easy as another M-x
overwrite-mode.
On some workstations, the "Insert" key toggles overwrite-mode on and off.
44: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes:
Tell Emacs to use the "visible bell" instead of the audible bell, and
set the visible bell to nothing.
That is, put the following in your TERMCAP environment variable
(assuming you have one):
... :vb=: ...
And evaluate the following Lisp form:
(setq visible-bell t)
45: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
You can adjust the bell volume and duration for all programs with the
shell command xset.
Invoking xset without any arguments produces some basic information,
including the following:
usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ...
To turn bell off:
-b b off b 0
To set bell volume, pitch and duration:
b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on
46: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode).
If you have auto-fill mode on (see question 30), you can tell Emacs to
prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the "fill prefix."
Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position point after it, and
then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill prefix. Thereafter,
auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix at the beginning of
new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any fill prefix when
refilling the paragraph.
NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you
will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move
to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages
available from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89.) Look up "fill"
and "indent" in the Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
47: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
Emacs 19 comes with paren.el, which (when loaded) will automatically
highlight matching parentheses whenever point (i.e., the cursor) is
located over one. To load paren automatically, include the line
(require 'paren)
in your .emacs file.
Alternatives to paren include:
* If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can
delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching
parenthesis.
* M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over one set
of balanced parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You
can train it to skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time
by modifying the syntax table.)
* Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching
parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a
parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal.
;; By an unknown contributor
(global-set-key "%" 'match-paren)
(defun match-paren (arg)
"Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %."
(interactive "p")
(cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1))
((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1))
(t (self-insert-command (or arg 1)))))
48: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
commands are handled by the compiler?
M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.) You might also want to try
cpp.el, available at the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89).
49: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
(`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
No, not really, because Emacs doesn't have a special insertion mode.
You can type "C-x ESC ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands
that used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you
can type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands
you've typed.
To repeat a set of commands, use keyboard macros. (See "Keyboard Macros"
in the on-line manual.)
If you're really desperate for the `.' command, VIPER, which comes with
Emacs 19, and which appears to support it. (See question 106.)
50: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
See Emacs man page, or "Resources X" in the on-line manual.
You can also use a resource editor, such as editres (for X11R5 and
onwards), to look at the resource names for the menu bar, assuming Emacs
was compiled with the X toolkit.
51: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
There are a number of ways to execute ("evaluate," in Lisp lingo) an
Emacs Lisp "form":
* If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file
named ".emacs" in your home directory. This is known as your ".emacs
file," and contains all of your personal customizations.
* You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or
C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in
the buffer.
* In Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before or
around point.
* Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately
before point and prints its value in the echo area.
* Typing M-: or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form
in the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
* You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in
a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function "load" instead.)
These functions are also useful (see question 16 if you want to learn
more about them):
load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
52: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
Set the variable default-tab-width. For example, to set tab stops every
10 characters, insert the following in your .emacs file:
(setq default-tab-width 10)
Do not confuse variable tab-width with variable tab-stop-list. The
former is used for the display of literal tab characters. The latter
controls what characters are inserted when you press the TAB character in
certain modes.
53: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
To do this to an entire buffer, type "M-< M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET >
RET".
To do this to a region, use "string-rectangle" ("C-x r t"). Set the mark
(`C-SPC') at the beginning of the first line you want to prefix, move the
cursor to last line to be prefixed, and type "C-x r t > RET". To do this
for the whole buffer, type "C-x h C-x r t > RET".
If you are trying to prefix a yanked mail message with '>', you might
want to set the variable mail-yank-prefix. Better yet, get the SuperCite
package (see question 104), which provides flexible citation for yanked
mail and news messages.
54: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an
underlined paragraph?
M-x underline-region.
55: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command
and then type "M-0 C-x e".
WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be
suppressed.
56: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
M-x picture-mode.
57: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
"C-z" iconifies Emacs when running under X Windows and suspends Emacs
otherwise. See "Misc X" in the on-line manual.
58: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
See "Regexps" in the on-line manual.
WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is `\\'. To
specify a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) in a Lisp string, use
"xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)"
Notice the doubled backslashes!
WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set
([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless
newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match.
WARNING: The character syntax regexps (e.g., "\sw") are not meaningful
inside character set regexps (e.g., "[aeiou]"). (This is actually
typical for regexp syntax.)
59: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which
performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file.
See "Tags Search" in the on-line manual.
As of Emacs 19.29, Dired mode ("M-x dired RET", or C-x d) supports the
command dired-do-query-replace, which allows users to replace regular
expressions in multiple files.
60: Where is the documentation for "etags"?
The "etags" man page should be in the same place as the "emacs" man page.
Quick command-line switch descriptions are also available. For example,
"etags -H".
61: How do I disable backup files?
You probably don't want to do this, since backups are useful.
To avoid seeing backup files (and other "uninteresting" files) in Dired,
load dired-x by adding the following to your .emacs file:
(add-hook 'dired-load-hook
(function (lambda ()
(load "dired-x"))))
With dired-x loaded, `M-o' toggles omitting in each dired buffer. You
can make omitting the default for new dired buffers by putting the
following in your .emacs:
(setq initial-dired-omit-files-p t)
If you're tired of seeing backup files whenever you do an "ls" at the
Unix shell, try GNU ls with the "-B" option. GNU ls is part of the GNU
fileutils package, available at prep and its mirrors (see question 91).
To disable or change how backups are made, see "Backup Names" in the
on-line manual.
62: How do I disable auto-save-mode?
You probably don't want to do this, since auto-saving is useful,
especially when Emacs or your computer crashes while you are editing a
document.
Instead, you might want to change the variable auto-save-interval, which
specifies how many keystrokes Emacs waits before auto-saving. Increasing
this value forces Emacs to wait longer between auto-saves, which might
annoy you less.
You might also want to look into Sebastian Kremer's auto-save package,
available from the Lisp Code Archive (see question 89). This package
also allows you to place all auto-save files in one directory, such as
/tmp.
To disable or change how auto-save-mode works, see "Auto Save" in the
on-line manual.
63: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?
Pull-down menus are a new feature in Emacs 19, and are available only
when Emacs runs directly under a window system. (Thus Emacs run under X
Windows can display pull-down menus, but Emacs run inside an xterm
cannot.)
Each menu title (e.g., Buffers, File, Edit) represents a local or global
keymap. Selecting a menu title with the mouse displays that keymap's
non-nil contents in the form of a menu.
So to add a menu option to an existing menu, all you have to do is add a
new definition to the appropriate keymap. Adding a "forward word"
command to the "Edit" menu thus requires the following Lisp code:
(define-key global-map
[menu-bar edit forward]
'("Forward word" . forward-word))
The first line adds the entry to the global keymap, which includes global
menu bar entries. Replacing the reference to "global-map" with a local
keymap would add this menu option only within a particular mode.
The second line describes the path from the menu-bar to the new entry.
Placing this menu entry underneath the "File" menu would mean changing
the word "edit" in the second line to "file."
The third line is a cons cell whose first element is the title that will
be displayed, and whose second element is the function that will be
called when that menu option is invoked.
To add a new menu, rather than a new option to an existing menu, we must
define an entirely new keymap:
(define-key global-map [menu-bar words]
(cons "Words" (make-sparse-keymap "Words")))
The above code creates a new sparse keymap, gives it the name "Words",
and attaches it to the global menu bar. Adding the "forward word"
command to this new menu would thus require the following code:
(define-key global-map
[menu-bar words forward]
'("Forward word" . forward-word))
Note that because of the way keymaps work, menu options are displayed
with the more recently defined items at the top. Thus if you were to
define menu options "foo", "bar", and "baz" (in that order), menu option
"baz" would appear at the top, and "foo" would be at the bottom.
One way to avoid this problem is to use the function define-key-after,
which works the same as define-key, but lets you modify where items
appear. The following Lisp code would insert the "forward word" function
in the "edit" menu immediately following the "undo" option:
(define-key-after
(lookup-key global-map [menu-bar edit])
[forward]
'("Forward word" . forward-word)
'undo)
Note how the second and third arguments to define-key-after are different
from those of define-key, and that we have added a new (final) argument,
the function after which our new key should be defined.
To move a menu option from one position to another, simply evaluate
define-key-after with the appropriate final argument.
More detailed information -- and more examples of how to create and
modify menu options -- are in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, under
"Keymaps." (See question 16 for information on this manual.)
64: How do I delete menus and menu options?
The simplest way to remove a menu is to set its keymap to nil. For
example, to delete the "Words" menu (from question 63), use:
(define-key global-map [menu-bar words] nil)
Similarly, removing a menu option requires redefining a keymap entry to
nil. For example, to delete the "Forward word" menu option from the
"Edit" menu (we added it in question 63), use:
(define-key global-map [menu-bar edit forward] nil)
65: What are hilit19 and font-lock modes, what is the difference between
them, and how do I customize them?
Hilit19 and font-lock are two minor modes that syntactically highlight
Emacs buffers using colors and fonts of your choosing. This is
especially useful when editing code, since strings can be in one face,
comments a second color, and function definitions a third. Both packages
come with Emacs 19.
While hilit19 is still included in the Emacs distribution, it has been
(more or less) replaced by font-lock mode, which increasing numbers of
Emacs modes now understand.
To turn font-lock mode on within an existing buffer, use "M-x
font-lock-mode RET".
To automatically invoke font-lock mode when a particular major mode is
invoked, set the major mode's hook. For example, to fontify all c-mode
buffers, add the following to your .emacs file:
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
To automatically invoke font-lock mode for all major modes, you can turn
on global-font-lock mode by including the following line in your .emacs
file:
(global-font-lock-mode t)
To print buffers with the faces (i.e., colors and fonts) intact, use
"M-x ps-print-buffer-with-faces" or "M-x ps-print-region-with-faces".
For more information on font-lock mode, take a look at the font-lock mode
FAQ, maintained by Chris Ryder <ryder@eritel.se> at
ftp//cs.uta.fi:/pub/ssjaa/ema-font.gui
Also see the documentatation for the function font-lock-mode, available
by typing C-h f font-lock-mode ("M-x describe-function RET font-lock-mode
RET").
66: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
bottom of the screen?
Place the following Lisp form in your .emacs file:
(setq scroll-step 1)
Also see "Scrolling" in the on-line manual.
67: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
Use delete-selection mode, which you can start automatically by placing
the following Lisp form in your .emacs file:
(delete-selection-mode t)
According to the documentation string for delete-selection mode (which
you can read using M-x describe-function RET delete-selection-mode RET):
When ON, typed text replaces the selection if the selection is active.
When OFF, typed text is just inserted at point.
This mode also allows you to delete (not kill) the highlighted region by
pressing DEL.
68: How can I edit MS-DOS files using Emacs?
Get crypt++ from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89). Among other
things, crypt++ transparently modifies MS-DOS files as they are loaded
and saved, allowing you to ignore the different conventions that Unix and
MS-DOS have for delineating the end of a line.
69: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
each period?
Ulrich Mueller <ulm@vsnhd1.cern.ch> suggests adding the following two
lines to your .emacs file:
(setq sentence-end "[.?!][]\"')}]*\\($\\|[ \t]\\)[ \t\n]*")
(setq sentence-end-double-space nil)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: news1.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!the-tech!reuven
From: Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@the-tech.mit.edu>
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), part 3/4
Supersedes: <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-3_837025641@the-tech.mit.edu>
Followup-To: gnu.emacs.help
Date: 11 Sep 1996 19:08:12 GMT
Organization: GNU Emacs FAQ Central
Lines: 866
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 20 Oct 1996 19:08:02 GMT
Message-ID: <GNU-Emacs-FAQ-3_842468882@the-tech.mit.edu>
Reply-To: reuven@netvision.net.il
NNTP-Posting-Host: the-tech.mit.edu
Summary: Questions and answers having to do with GNU Emacs
Keywords: GNU Emacs editors questions
Originator: reuven@the-tech
Xref: news1.ucsd.edu gnu.emacs.help:32846 comp.emacs:18703 comp.answers:16241 news.answers:65028
Archive-name: GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3
------------------------------------------------------------
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x
$" to get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look
at the text of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a
C-r if that doesn't work. Type RET to end the search.
If you have w3-mode installed (see question 111), you can visit ftp and
HTTP uniform resource locators (URLs) by placing the cursor on the URL and
typing M-x w3-follow-url-at-point.
The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would
prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22.
------------------------------------------------------------
Bugs/Problems
70: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
Old versions (i.e., anything before 19.29) of Emacs had problems editing
files larger than 8 megabytes. As of version 19.29, the maximum buffer
size is at least 2^27-1, or or 134,217,727 bytes.
If you are using an older version of Emacs and cannot upgrade, you will
have to recompile. Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting
the following two lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow
for 26-bit integers and pointers (and thus file sizes of up to 33,554,431
bytes):
#define VALBITS 26
#define GCTYPEBITS 5
WARNING: This method may result in "ILLEGAL DATATYPE" and other random
errors on some machines.
David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> explains how this problems
crops up; while his numbers are true only for pre-19.29 versions of
Emacs, the theory remains the same with current versions.
Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must
carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, e.g.,
integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on.
Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8
bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers
(and pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
pointers.
Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented
machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits.
71: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my shell buffer?
Try typing "M-x shell-strip-ctrl-m RET" while in shell-mode to make them
go away. If that doesn't work, you have several options:
For tcsh, put this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
if ($?EMACS) then
if ("$EMACS" == t) then
if ($?tcsh) unset edit
stty nl
endif
endif
Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file:
unset edit
stty nl
Alternatively, use csh in your shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way
is:
(setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
setenv ESHELL /bin/csh
(You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly
set for this to take effect.)
You can also set the ESHELL environment variable in Emacs Lisp with
the following Lisp form,
(setenv "ESHELL" "/bin/csh")
72: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?
The most likely reason for this message is that the "env" program is not
properly installed. Compile this program for your architecture, and
install it with a+x permission in the architecture-dependent Emacs
program directory. (You can find what this directory is at your site by
inspecting the value of the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v
exec-directory RET".)
You should also check for other programs named "env" in your path (e.g.,
SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). We don't understand why this
can cause a failure and don't know a general solution for working around
the problem in this case.
The "make clean" command will remove "env" and other vital programs, so
be careful when using it.
It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started
as an X client from an xterm window (i.e., had a controlling tty) but the
xterm was later terminated.
See also PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs
source) for other possible causes of this message.
73: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"?
The termcap entry for terminal type "emacs" is ordinarily put in the
TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain
situations (e.g., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for
"emacs" to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry
for "emacs":
emacs:tc=unknown:
To make a terminfo entry for "emacs", use "tic" or "captoinfo." You need
to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy
/usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs.
Having a termcap/terminfo entry will not enable the use of full screen
programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead.
A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to
change terminal type "emacs" to type "dumb" or "unknown" in your shell
start up file. "csh" users could put this in their .cshrc files:
if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb
74: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?
Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is
sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these
characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character
normally invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions,
see question 121.
75: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of
gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is
often manifested as a message on startup of "X server not responding.
Check your DISPLAY environment variable." or a message of "Unknown host"
from open-network-stream.
On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C
library. The version of gethostbyname in the static C library may only
look in /etc/hosts and the NIS (YP) maps, while the version in the
dynamic C library may be smart enough to check DNS in addition to or
instead of NIS. On a Motorola Delta running System V R3.6, the version
of gethostbyname in the standard library works, but the one that works
with NIS doesn't (the one you get with -linet). Other operating systems
have similar problems.
Try these options:
* Explicitly add the host you want to communicate with to /etc/hosts.
* Relink Emacs with this line in src/config.h:
#define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
* Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions
such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs.
* If you are actually running NIS, make sure that "ypbind" is properly
told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch.
76: Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"?
An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the
system-wide lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your
.emacs file, see question 27.
It may be the case that you need to load some package first, or use a
hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case
of this is explained in question 117.
77: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
As of version 19, Emacs searches for X resources in the files specified
by the XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, and XAPPLRESDIR environment
variables, emulating the functionality provided by programs written using
Xt.
XFILESEARCHPATH and XUSERFILESEARCHPATH should be a list of file names
separated by colons; XAPPLRESDIR should be a list of directory names
separated by colons.
Emacs searches for X resources
+ specified on the command line, with the "-xrm RESOURCESTRING"
option,
+ then in the value of the XENVIRONMENT environment variable,
- or if that is unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults-HOSTNAME if it
exists
(where HOSTNAME is the hostname of the machine Emacs is running on),
+ then in the screen-specific and server-wide resource properties
provided by the server,
- or if those properties are unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults
if it exists,
+ then in the files listed in XUSERFILESEARCHPATH,
- or in files named LANG/Emacs in directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR
(where LANG is the value of the LANG environment variable), if
the LANG environment variable is set,
- or in files named Emacs in the directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR
- or in ~/LANG/Emacs (if the LANG environment variable is set),
- or in ~/Emacs,
+ then in the files listed in XFILESEARCHPATH.
78: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
The usual cause is that the master lock file, "!!!SuperLock!!!" has been
left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it.
Mark Meuer <meuer@geom.umn.edu> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an
exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause
the same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS
anyway, the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION
undefined.
79: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand
a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this
behavior, type "$$" instead.
80: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its
directory. This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to
guess by recognizing "cd" commands. If you type "cd" followed by a
directory name with a variable reference ("cd $HOME/bin") or with a shell
metacharacter ("cd ../lib*"), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the
shell's new current directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements
to shell mode for this problem have been written to handle this problem.
Check the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88).
You can tell Emacs the shell's current directory with the command "M-x
dirs".
81: Are there any security risks in Emacs?
* the "movemail" incident (No, this is not a risk.)
In his book "The Cuckoo's Egg," Cliff Stoll describes this in chapter
4. The site at LBL had installed the "etc/movemail" program setuid
root. (As of version 19, movemail is in your architecture-specific
directory; type "C-h v exec-directory RET" to see what it is.) Since
"movemail" had not been designed for this situation, a security hole
was created and users could get root privileges.
"movemail" has since been changed so that even if it is installed
setuid root this security hole will not be a result.
We have heard unverified reports that the 1988 Internet worm took
advantage of this configuration problem.
* the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.)
There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for
variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text
near the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to
have arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited.
Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this
feature.
Emacs 18 allowed this feature by default; users could disable it by
setting the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value.
As of Emacs 19, the opposite is true: Emacs disallows file variable by
default, and users must explicitly enable them by setting the variable
enable-local-variables to a non-nil value. You can also tell Emacs
whether to allow the evaluation of Emacs Lisp code found at the bottom
of files by setting the variable enable-local-eval.
For more information, see "File Variables" in the on-line manual.
* synthetic X events (Yes, a risk; use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.)
Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as
though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the
trivial host-based authentication, other users who can open X
connections to your X workstation can make your Emacs process do
anything, including run other processes with your privileges.
The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open
X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real
authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the
"xauth" program has any effect, then you are probably using
MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication
method; ask your system administrator.
If real authentication is not a possibility, you may be satisfied by
just allowing hosts access for brief intervals while you start your X
programs, then removing the access. This reduces the risk somewhat by
narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but
DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK.
On most computers running Unix and X Windows, you enable and disable
access using the "xhost" command. To allow all hosts access to your X
server, use
xhost +
at the shell prompt, which (on an HP machine, at least) produces the
following message:
access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
To deny all hosts access to your X server (except those explicitly
allowed by name), use
xhost -
On the test HP computer, this command generated the following message:
access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect
82: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something.
Chances are you're using a localized version of Unix that doesn't
use US date format in dired listings. You can check this by looking
at dired listings or by typing `ls -l' to a shell and looking at the
dates that come out.
Dired uses a regular expression to find the beginning of a file
name. In a long Unix-style directory listing ("ls -l"), the file
name starts after the date. The regexp has thus been written to
look for the date, the format of which can vary on non-US systems.
There are two approaches to solving this. The first one involves
setting things up so that "ls -l" outputs US date format. This can
be done by setting the locale. See your OS manual for more
information.
The second approach involves changing the regular expression used by
dired, dired-move-to-filename-regexp.
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
83: How do I install Emacs?
This answer is meant for users of Unix and Unix-like systems. Users of
other operating systems should see the series of questions beginning with
question 93, which describe where to get non-Unix source and binaries.
These packages should come with installation instructions.
For Unix and Unix-like systems, the easiest way is often to compile it
from scratch. You will need:
* Emacs sources. See question 91 for a list of ftp sites that make them
available. On prep.ai.mit.edu, the main GNU distribution site, sources
are available at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-19.34.tar.gz
The above will obviously change as new versions of Emacs come out. For
instance, when Emacs 19.35 is released, it will most probably be
available at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-19.35.tar.gz
Again, you should use one of the mirror sites in question 91 (and
adjust the URL accordingly) so as to reduce load on prep.
* Gzip, the GNU compression utility. You can get gzip via anonymous ftp
at prep and its mirror sites; it should compile and install without
much trouble on most systems. Once you have retrieved the Emacs
sources, you will probably be able to uncompress them with the command
gunzip --verbose emacs-19.34.tar.gz
changing the Emacs version (19.34), as necessary. Once gunzip has
finished doing its job, a file by the name of "emacs-19.34.tar" should
be in your build directory.
* Tar, the "tape archiving" program, which moves multiple files into and
out of archive files, or "tarfiles." All of the files comprising the
Emacs source come in a single tarfile, and must be extracted using tar
before you can build Emacs. Typically, the extraction command would
look like
tar -xvvf emacs-19.34.tar
The `x' indicates that we want to extract files from this tarfile, the
two `v's force verbose output, and the `f' tells tar to use a disk
file, rather than one on tape.
If you're using GNU tar (available at prep and its mirrors), you can
combine this step and the previous one by using the command
tar -zxvvf emacs-19.34.tar.gz
The additional `z' at the beginning of the options list tells GNU tar
to uncompress the file with gunzip before extracting the tarfile's
components.
At this point, the Emacs sources (all 25+ megabytes of them) should be
sitting in a directory called "emacs-19.34". On most common Unix and
Unix-like systems, you should be able to compile Emacs (with X Windows
support) with the following commands:
cd emacs-19.34 [ change directory to emacs-19.34 ]
./configure [ configure Emacs for your particular system ]
make [ use Makefile to build components, then Emacs ]
If the "make" completes successfully, the odds are fairly good that the
build has gone well. (See question 85 if you weren't successful.)
To install Emacs in its default directories of /usr/local/bin (binaries),
/usr/local/share/emacs/19.xx (Lisp code and support files), and
/usr/local/info (Info documentation), become the super-user and type
make install
Note that "make install" will overwrite /usr/local/bin/emacs and any
Emacs Info files that might be in /usr/local/info.
Much more verbose instructions (with many more hints and suggestions)
come with the Emacs sources, in the file "INSTALL".
84: How do I update Emacs to the latest version?
Follow the instructions in question 83.
Emacs 19 places nearly everything in version-specific directories (e.g.,
/usr/local/share/emacs/19.34), so the only files that can be overwritten
when installing a new release are /usr/local/bin/emacs and the Emacs Info
documentation in /usr/local/info. Back up these files before you install
a new release, and you shouldn't have too much trouble.
85: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
First look in the file PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you
unpack the Emacs source) to see if there is already a solution for your
problem. Next, look for other questions in this FAQ that have to do with
Emacs installation and compilation problems.
If you'd like to have someone look at your problem and help solve it, see
question 21.
If you don't find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help
or e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines,
see question 8 and question 10.
86: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library,
libX11.a. This may be missing.
Under OpenWindows, you may need to use "add_services" to add the
"OpenWindows Programmers" optional software category from the CD-ROM.
Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run "update" again to load the X11-PRG
"fileset". This may be missing even if you specified "all filesets" the
first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load the
"Berkeley Development Option."
David Zuhn <zoo@armadillo.com> says that MIT X builds shared libraries by
default, and only shared libraries, on those platforms that support them.
These shared libraries can't be used when undumping temacs (the last
stage of the Emacs build process). To get regular libraries in addition
to shared libraries, add this to site.cf:
#define ForceNormalLib YES
Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define
CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead.
To get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's
liboldX.a.
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
87: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
archive sites and etc/ORDERS for mail orders. If you don't already have
Emacs, see question 20 for how to get these files.
See question 83 for information on how to obtain and build the latest
version of Emacs, and question 91 for a list of archive sites that make
GNU software available.
88: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
First of all, you should check to make sure that the package isn't
already available. For example, typing "M-x apropos RET wordstar RET"
lists all functions and variables containing the string "wordstar".
It is also possible that the package is on your system, but has not been
loaded. To see which packages are available for loading, look through
your computer's lisp directory (see question 4). The Lisp source to most
most packages contains a short description of how they should be loaded,
invoked, and configured -- so before you use or modify a Lisp package,
see if the author has provided any hints in the source code.
If a package does not come with Emacs, check the Lisp Code Directory,
maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com>. The directory is contained
in the file LCD-datafile.Z, available from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see
question 89), and is accessed using the "lispdir" package, available from
the same site. Note that lispdir.el requires crypt++, which you can grab
from the Emacs Lisp Archive's "misc" subdirectory when you get
lispdir.el.
Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, you can use "M-x
lisp-dir-apropos" to search the listing. For example, "M-x
lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces this output:
GNU Emacs Lisp Code Directory Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
"~/" refers to archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
ange-ftp (4.18) 15-Jul-1992
Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
~/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z
transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs
auto-save (1.19) 01-May-1992
Sebastian Kremer, <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de>
~/misc/auto-save.el.Z
Safer autosaving with support for ange-ftp and /tmp
ftp-quik (1.0) 28-Jul-1993
Terrence Brannon, <tb06@pl122f.eecs.lehigh.edu>
~/modes/ftp-quik.el.Z
Quik access to dired'ing of ange-ftp and normal paths
You actually don't need the directory file LCD-datafile if your computer
is on the Internet, since the latest version is retrieved automatically
the first time you type "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" in a particular Emacs
session. If you would prefer to use a local copy of LCD-datafile, be
sure to set the variable lisp-code-directory at the top of the lispdir.el
source code.
A searchable version of the LCD is also available at
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/LCD/cover.html
89: Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you
are looking for (see question 88). Next, check local archives and the
Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. If you still
haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for a copy.
If you find Emacs Lisp code that doesn't appear in the LCD, please submit
a copy to the LCD (see question 90).
You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive at the following sites:
ftp://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
ftp://calypso-2.oit.unc.edu/pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
ftp://faui43.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
ftp://ftp.cs.umn.edu/pub/elisp-archive/
ftp://ftp.diku.dk/pub/elisp-archive/
ftp://ftp.uni-mainz.de/pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
ftp://ftp.uu.net/packages/gnu/emacs-lisp/
ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU/elisp-archive/
ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
ftp://nic.switch.ch/mirror/elisp-archive/
ftp://quepasa.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/gnu/elisp/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/
Retrieve and read the file README first.
NOTE: * The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual
requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If
you cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to
find a friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers.
* Any files with names ending in ".Z", ".z", or ".gz" are
compressed, so you should use "binary" mode in FTP to retrieve
them. You should also use binary mode whenever you retrieve any
files with names ending in ".elc".
90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
Guidelines and procedures for submission to the archive can be found in
the file GUIDELINES in the archive directory (see question 89). It
covers documentation, copyrights, packaging, submission, and the Lisp
Code Directory Record. Anonymous FTP uploads are not permitted.
Instead, all submissions are mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu.
The lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will
help you with this.
91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
The most up-to-date official GNU software is normally kept on
prep.ai.mit.edu and is available at
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu
Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information.
The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area:
ASIA: ftp://cair.kaist.ac.kr/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/gnu,
ftp://utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ftpsync/prep,
ftp://ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp/pub/gnu
AUSTRALIA: ftp://archie.au/gnu (archie.oz or archie.oz.au for ACSnet)
AFRICA: ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/gnu
MIDDLE-EAST: ftp://ftp.technion.ac.il/pub/unsupported/gnu
EUROPE: ftp://ftp.denet.dk/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/pub/comp/gnu,
ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/unix/gnu,
ftp://ftp.stacken.kth.se/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/gnu,
ftp://isy.liu.se/pub/gnu,
ftp://nic.switch.ch/mirror/gnu,
ftp://archive.eu.net/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.eunet.ch/software/gnu,
ftp://ftp.ieunet.ie/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.mcc.ac.uk/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.sunet.se:/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.univ-lyon1.fr/pub/gnu,
ftp://irisa.irisa.fr/pub/gnu,
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/gnu,
ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/pub/uunet/systems/gnu
SOUTH AMERICA: ftp.unicamp.br:/pub/gnu
WESTERN CANADA: ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror2/gnu
USA: ftp://col.hp.com/mirrors/gnu,
ftp://f.ms.uky.edu/pub3/gnu,
ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/archives/gnu/prep,
ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/gnu,
ftp://ftp.hawaii.edu/mirrors/gnu,
ftp://ftp.kpc.com/pub/mirror/gnu,
ftp://ftp.uu.net/systems/gnu,
ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU,
ftp://jaguar.utah.edu/gnustuff,
ftp://labrea.stanford.edu/pub/gnu,
ftp://mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/gnu,
ftp://vixen.cso.uiuc.edu/gnu,
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/gnu
The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep except that files larger
than one megabyte are split into multiple parts. If you have trouble
transferring large files, you should try that site. A file normally
named "XXX" is split into files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], and there will
be a file named XXX-split/README which contains the list of parts
(especially helpful when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, and
reassembly instructions.
92: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
Emacs")?
First of all, they're both GNU Emacs. XEmacs is just as much a later
version of GNU Emacs 18 as the FSF-distributed version. This FAQ refers
to the latest version to be distributed by the FSF as "Emacs," partly
because the XEmacs maintainers now refer to their product using the
"XEmacs" name, and partly because there isn't any accurate way to
differentiate between the two without getting mired in paragraphs of
legalese and history.
XEmacs, which began life as Lucid Emacs, is based on an early version of
Emacs 19 and Epoch, an X-aware version of Emacs 18.
Emacs (i.e., the version distributed by the FSF) has a larger installed
base, while XEmacs can do some clever tricks with X Windows, such as
putting arbitrary graphics in a buffer. Emacs and XEmacs each come with
Lisp packages that are lacking in the other; RMS says that the FSF would
include more packages that come with XEmacs, but that the XEmacs
maintainers don't always keep track of the authors of contributed code,
which makes it impossible for the FSF to have certain legal papers
signed. (Without these legal papers, the FSF will not distribute Lisp
packages with Emacs.)
Many XEmacs features have found their way into recent versions of Emacs,
and more features can be expected in the future, but there are still many
differences between the two packages.
The latest version of XEmacs as of this writing is 19.14; you can get it
at
ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/xemacs-19.14.tar.gz
More information about XEmacs, including a list of frequently asked
questions (FAQ), is available at
http://www.xemacs.org/
93: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
Emacs 19 (versions 19.23 and later) should compile right out of the box
on PCs with a 386 or better, running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. You will need
the following:
Compiler: djgpp version 1.11 maint 4 or later. You can get the latest
version by grabbing everything you see at:
http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
Tar: One DOS version of tar is available at
ftp://ftp.urc.tue.nl/pub/unixtools/dos/
However, not all DOS versions of tar work equally well, so you
might have to try others if this one gives you trouble. The
versions known as tar4dos.zip and ltarv3.zip are also supposed to
work, as well.
Utilities: chmod, make, mv, sed, rm.
All of these utilities are available at:
ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/vendors/gnu/gnuish/
You should grab the files gnufut21.zip (contains chmod.exe,
mv.exe, and rm.exe), sed106.zip (contains sed.exe), and
gzip124x.zip (contains gzip.exe).
The file INSTALL in the top-level directory of the Emacs source contains
some additional information regarding Emacs under MS-DOS. In addition,
the file etc/MSDOS contains some information on the differences between
the Unix and MS-DOS versions of Emacs.
For the most comprehensive information on running GNU Emacs on a PC, see
the file prepared by Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu> at
ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/emacs/pc-emacs
For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs
look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature,"
available at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/
Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they often
lack certain features, such as the Emacs Lisp extension language.
94: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows '95, or Windows
NT?
For the most comprehensive information on running GNU Emacs on a PC, see
the file prepared by Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu> at
ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/emacs/pc-emacs
For information on Win32 versions of Emacs, read the FAQ produced by
Geoff Voelker <voelker@cs.washington.edu>, available at
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html
95: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
Emacs 19.31 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1, and is available at:
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/emacs31
96: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?