You are looking at the MicroEMACS tutorial. Comments on this document may
be referred to Daniel Lawrence.
NOTE: This tutorial attempts to help you "learn by doing". The characters
">>" at the left margin of your screen indicate directions for you to
try using a command.
EMACS commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labelled CTRL
or CTL) or the META key (generally labelled ESCAPE). Rather than write out
CONTROL or META each time we want you to prefix a character, we'll use the
following abbreviations:
^<chr> Hold the CONTROL key while pressing the character <chr>.
Thus, ^F would be: hold the CONTROL key and press F.
>> Now type ^V (View Next Screen) to move to the next screen.
Remember: hold the CONTROL key and press V.
ESC-<chr> Press the ESCAPE key and release it, then press the
character <chr>. Note: The command will have the
same meaning for upper or lower case characters (<chr>).
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you must exit at some point, type ^X^C.
For the time being, you'll be expected to type ^V whenever you finish reading
the current screen.
Note that there is an overlap when going from screen to screen; this provides
some continuity when moving through the file.
The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place to
place in the file. You already know how to move forward a screen with ^V.
To move back a screen, type ^Z.
>> Try typing ^Z and then ^V to move back and forth between screens a few
times.
SUMMARY
-------
The following commands are useful for viewing screens:
^V Move forward one screen
^Z Move back one screen
ESC-^L Clear screen and redisplay everything, putting the text
near the cursor at the center of the screen.
>> Find the cursor and remember what text is near it. Type an ESC-^L.
Find the cursor again and see what text is near it now.
BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
--------------------
Getting from screen to screen is useful, but how do you reposition yourself
within a given screen to a specific place? There are several ways you can
do this. One way (not the best, but the most basic) is to use the commands
previous, backward, forward and next. As you can imagine these commands
(which are given to EMACS as ^P, ^B, ^F, and ^N respectively) move the
cursor from where it currently is to a new place in the given direction.
Here, in a more graphical form, are the commands:
Previous line, ^P
:
:
Backward, ^B .... Current cursor position .... Forward, ^F
:
:
Next line, ^N
You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter. P for previous,
N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are the basic cursor
positioning commands and you'll be using them ALL the time so it would be
of great benefit if you learn them now.
>> Do a few ^N's to bring the cursor down to this line.
>> Move into the line with ^F's and then up with several ^P's. Note what
^P does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
>> Try ^B at the beginning of a line. Note what happened to the cursor.
Do a few more ^B's. Then do ^F's back to the end of the line and beyond.
When you go off the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond the edge is
shifted onto the screen so that your instructions can be carried out while
keeping the cursor on the screen.
>> Move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with ^N's and see what
happens. Note the new position of the cursor.
If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. ESC-F moves
forward a word and ESC-B moves back a word.
>> Type a few ESC-F's and ESC-B's. Intersperse them with ^F's and ^B's.
Notice the parallel between ^F and ^B on the one hand, and ESC-F and ESC-B on
the other hand. Very often META characters are used for operations related
to English text whereas CONTROL characters operate on the basic textual units
that are independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc.).
Two other commands which are useful are ^A and ^E. These commands move the
cursor to the beginning (^A) and the end (^E) of the line.
>> Try a couple of ^A's, and then a couple of ^E's. Note that the cursor
does not move when either of these commands is repeated continuously.
Two other simple cursor motion commands are ESC-< (less than), which moves
to the beginning of the file, and ESC-> (greater than), which moves to the
end of the file. If you need the shift key to type a "<", then you must
also use the shift key to type ESC-<. Otherwise, you would be typing ESC-, .
The location of the cursor within the text is also called "point". To
paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in the
text.
Here is a summary of simple moving operations, including the word and
line moving commands:
^F Move forward a character
^B Move back a character
ESC-F Move forward a word
ESC-B Move back a word
^N Move to next line
^P Move to previous line
ESC-N Move to next paragraph
ESC-P Move to previous paragraph
^A Move to beginning of line
^E Move to end of line
ESC-< Go to beginning of file
ESC-> Go to end of file
>> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice as these are
the most often used commands. Since the last two will take you away
from this screen, use ^V's and ^Z's to return here.
Like all other commands in EMACS, these commands can be given arguments
which cause them to be executed repeatedly. The way you give a command
a repeat count is by pressing META (ESC) and then the number before you
enter the command. As a special case, typing ^U is equivalent to ESC-4.
For instance, ESC-8 ^F moves forward eight characters.
>> Try giving a suitable argument to ^N or ^P to come as close as you
can to this line in one jump.
This also applies to the screen moving commands, ^V and ^Z. When given
an argument, they scroll the screen up or down by that many screens.
>> Try typing ESC-3 ^V now.
If you would like to scroll up, you can give an argument to ^Z.
ABORTING COMMANDS
-----------------
The EMACS command used to abort any command which requests input is
^G. For example, you can use ^G to discard a numeric argument or at
the beginning of a command that you don't want to finish.
>> Type ESC-100 to make a numeric argument of 100, then type ^G.
Now type ^F. How many characters does it move? If you have
typed an ESC by mistake, you can get rid of it with ^G^G.
ERRORS
------
Sometimes you may do something which EMACS doesn't allow. If it is
something simple, such as typing a CONTROL key sequence which is not
associated with any command, EMACS will just beep at you. Otherwise,
EMACS will also display an informative error message at the bottom of
the screen.
Some versions of EMACS do not have all the features described in this
tutorial implemented yet. If you come across such an unimplemented
feature, you may get an error message when you try to use it. Just
press any cursor movement key and proceed to the next section of the
tutorial.
NOTE: Several of the exercises in the following sections allow you to use
options which will make changes to this tutorial. Do no worry about
these changes affecting the tutorial - this is only a copy of the
master tutorial and you will not be instructed to save the changes
made to it.
CURSOR KEYS
-----------
The cursor keypad, usually located on the right side of the keyboard,
has been bound to some of the more useful screen movement commands.
The mappings are as follows:
Cursor-Right ^F Move forward a character
Cursor-Left ^B Move back a character
^Cursor-Right ESC-F Move forward a word
^Cursor-Left ESC-B Move back a word
Cursor-Down ^N Move to next line
Cursor-Up ^P Move to previous line
Pg-Dn ^V Move to next screen
Pg-Up ^Z Move to previous screen
Home ESC-< Go to beginning of file
End ESC-> Go to end of file
Insert ^C Insert single space
Delete ^D Delete current character
A map of the keypad layout looks something like this:
-------------------------------------------------
| 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Home | ^ | Pg Up |
| ESC-< | | ^P | ^Z |
-------------------------------------------------
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
| <-- ^B | | --> ^F |
-------------------------------------------------
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| End | | | Pg Dn |
| ESC-> | v ^N | ^V |
-------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | . |
| Insert ^C | Delete ^D |
-------------------------------------------------------------
>> Practice using the cursor keypad.
MODE LINE
---------
The line above the function key display at the bottom of the screen
is referred to as the "communication line". This is where EMACS
interactively communicates with you. Later you will see how EMACS
prompts you for information on this line, such as to initiate a
search. EMACS can report things to you on this line as well.
>> Type ^X= and see what appears in the communication line. Don't worry
about what all this information means - it is just an example of how
EMACS lets you know more about the file you are editing.
The line immediately above the communication line is referred to as the
"mode line". The mode line looks something like
=*== MicroEMACS 3.10 () == emacs.tut == File: emacs.tut ========================
This is a very useful "information" line.
- The asterisk (star) indicates that changes have been made to the file.
Immediately after opening or saving a file, there is no star.
- Any words inside the parentheses indicate the "modes" EMACS is
currently in. Modes will be discussed in the next section.
- The string following the () is the buffername, i.e., the name EMACS
gives to the buffer, and it is usually related to the filename.
- The string following "File:" is the name of the file you are
currently editing.
>> Look at the mode line and identify the items discussed above.
MODES
-----
Listed within the parentheses are the "modes" which are associated with
the current buffer. Modes are a feature of EMACS which assist in the
editing of different languages, i.e., C, and text. Presently, there are
no modes associated with this buffer. This means EMACS will do exactly
what you think it will when using it - no "bonuses". You can find out
more about the current buffer and mode status by typing ^X^B. Refer to
the EMACS manual for a further discussion of buffers and modes.
As you become more familiar with EMACS and the use of buffers, "mode"
takes on additional meaning. When more than one buffer is in use, a
mode is referred to as "local" or "global". These terms indicate how a
mode will affect the current buffer and other existing or to be added
buffers.
A "local" mode is valid only within the scope of the current buffer.
Other existing buffers and buffers which will be added are not affected
by local modes.
The commands to add and delete local modes are
^XM Add a local mode
^X^M Delete a local mode
Each of the above commands will prompt you for a mode. To activate
(deactivate) a mode, type the name of a valid (active) mode (refer to
EMACS manual for a complete list of the valid modes) and follow it by
pressing <Return>, the carriage-return key.
>> Type ^XM WRAP - note the change in the mode line. Move the cursor
to a blank line on this screen and begin typing the sequence "asdf ".
Continue typing this sequence and note what happens when the right
margin is encountered.
The previous exercise allowed you to enter text with the "WRAP" mode
active. As you can see, "WRAP" instructs EMACS to break between words
when a line gets too long. However, in order for this mode to be
effective, spaces must be inserted between words.
The right margin is usually set at 72 characters but it can be changed.
To change the margin type ESC nn ^XF where "nn" is the column number of
the new right-hand margin.
>> Type ESC 40 ^XF. Then begin typing "asdf " and notice where the
line now breaks. To return to the default right-hand margin, type
ESC 72 ^XF.
>> Type ^X^M WRAP to "turn off" the local mode "WRAP".
A "global" mode affects only those buffers which will be ADDED after the
"add/delete global mode" command is executed - not the current or other
existing buffers. Currently there is no global mode set.
The commands to add and delete global modes are
ESC-M Add a global mode
ESC-^M Delete a global mode
Note: All modes can be local. However, global modes allow you to
activate those modes which usually apply to most of the buffers
in use.
As with local modes, each of the above commands will prompt you for
a mode. To activate (deactivate) a mode, enter the name of a valid
(active) mode.
>> Type ESC-M OVER. This mode tells EMACS to write over the text on
the current line. Is there any change in the mode line? Now move to
the line of "asdf " you entered and start typing. Note that nothing
happens. Remember that global modes affect only those modes which
will be added - not those already existing.
>> Type ESC-^M OVER to "turn off" the global overwrite mode.
INSERTING AND DELETING
----------------------
If you want to type text, just start typing. Characters which you
can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by EMACS as text and are
immediately inserted. Type <Return> to insert a line separator,
i.e., a single linefeed character.
You can delete the last character you typed by typing either <Delete>
or ^H. On some keyboards, there is a dedicated key for creating a ^H.
If so, it is usually labelled as either "Backspace" or "<--". <Delete>
is a key on the keyboard, which may be labelled "Rubout" instead of
"Delete" on some terminals. More generally, <Delete> deletes the
character immediately before the current cursor position.
>> Now type a few characters and then delete them by typing <Delete>
a few times.
>> Now start typing text until you reach the right margin, then continue
to type. When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen,
the line of text is "continued" off the edge of the screen. The dollar
sign at the right margin indicates a line which has been continued.
EMACS scrolls the line over so you can see what you are editing. The
"$" at the left or right edge of the screen indicates that the current
line extends off in that direction.
This concept is easier to understand by doing rather than by reading about
it so it is suggested that the following exercises be done.
>> The following line actually goes off the edge. Try typing enough ESC-F's
so that you move off the right hand end of this line. This is a long line of text. Note the "$" at each edge. Keep typing ESC-F's and watch where EMACS decides to scroll the line. Now, type ESC-B's until EMACS decides to scroll the line again.
>> Go to the line you entered which the text continued off the edge of
the screen. Use ^D's to delete the text until the text line fits on
one screen line again. The continuation "$" will go away.
>> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delete>. This
deletes the line separator before the line and merges the line onto
the previous line. The resulting line may be too long to fit on the
screen, in which case it has a continuation indicator.
>> Press <Return> to insert the separator again.
Internally, EMACS will allow you to have lines of nearly any length, limited
only by the amount of memory available. Externally, however, EMACS can only
read or write lines, to or from a file, which are less than or equal to 255
characters.
Remember that most EMACS commands can be given a repeat count. Note that
this includes characters which insert themselves.
>> Try that now -- type ESC-8 * and see what happens.
If you want to insert spaces in a line, type ^C.
>> Move to a line and move the cursor with ^F's; then insert spaces with ^C.
Use ^D to remove the spaces.
If you want to create a blank line between two lines, move to the second
of the two lines and type ^O.
>> Try moving to a line and typing ^O now.
You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in EMACS and
correcting errors. You can delete characters, words or lines as well.
Here is a summary of the delete operations:
<Delete> Delete the character just before the cursor
^H Delete the character just before the cursor
^D Delete the character the cursor is under
ESC-<Delete> Kill the word immediately before the cursor
ESC-^H Kill the word immediately before the cursor
ESC-D Kill the word from the cursor position
^K Kill from the cursor position to end of line
Notice that <Delete> and ^D vs ESC-<Delete> and ESC-D extend the parallel
started by ^F and ESC-F (well, <Delete> isn't really a control character,
but let's not worry about that).
Now suppose you kill something, and then you decide that you want to get
it back? Well, whenever you kill something bigger than a character, EMACS
saves it for you. To yank it back, use ^Y. Note that you don't have to
be in the same place to do ^Y. This is a good way to move text around.
Also note the difference between "Killing" and "Deleting" - "Killed" text
can be yanked back, and "Deleted" text cannot. Generally, the commands
that can destroy a lot of text save it, while the ones that attack only
one character do not save it.
>> Type ^N a couple times to position the cursor at some line on this
screen. Now kill that line with ^K.
Note that a single ^K kills the contents of the line, and a second ^K
kills the line itself, and makes all the other lines move up. If you
give ^K a repeat count, it kills that many lines AND their contents.
The text that has just disappeared is saved so that you can retrieve it.
To retrieve the last killed text and put it where the cursor currently
is, type ^Y.
>> Try it. Type ^Y to yank the text back.
Think of ^Y as if you were yanking something back that someone took away
from you. Notice that if you do several ^K's in a row the text that is
killed is all saved together so that one ^Y will yank all of the lines.
>> Try it. Type ^K several times.
>> To retrieve that killed text: Type ^Y. Move the cursor down a few
lines and type ^Y again. You now know how to copy text.
What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
you kill something else? ^Y would yank the more recent kill.
>> Kill a line, move around, kill another line. Then do ^Y to get back
the second killed line.
SEARCHING
---------
EMACS can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
characters or words) either forward through the file or backward
through it.
>> Now type ^S to start a search. Type the word "cursor", then ESC.
>> Type ^S ESC to find the next occurrence of "cursor".
The ^S starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
string AFTER the current cursor position. But what if you want to
search for something earlier in the text? To do this one should
type ^R for Reverse search. Everything that applies to ^S applies
to ^R except that the direction of the search is reversed.
TEXT REPLACEMENT
----------------
>> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
Then type ESC-R changed ESC altered ESC .
Notice how this line has changed; you have replaced the word
"changed" with "altered" wherever it occurs in the file after
the cursor. After all the substitutions have been made or
the end of file has been reached, a message informing you of
the number of substitutions which have been made appears in
the communication line.
The more customary command for replacing strings is the interactive
command query-replace-search (ESC-^R), which has several options. In
essence, it shows each occurrence of the first string and asks you if
you want to replace it or not. Type a "?" when it asks to replace the
string to list the various options for query-replace-search. For a
more detailed discussion of this command refer to the EMACS manual.
FILES
-----
In order to make the text changes permanent, you must save them to a file.
If you do not save them, the changes will "disappear" when you leave EMACS.
As you make changes, i.e., corrections, deletions, insertions, etc., they
are actually written to a "scratch" copy of the file and the changes to
this file will not affect the "master" copy of the file until a file save
is specified. This allows you to decide if changes made to the file should
be made permanent or discarded.
Remember: The file name appears on the mode line.
=*== MicroEMACS 3.9i () == emacs.tut == File: emacs.tut ========================
---------------
The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other commands
you have learned so far in that they consist of two characters - a ^X
followed by another character which specifies the file command to be
executed.
To find a file, type ^X^F. EMACS will then prompt you from the
communication line for the name of the file. In response to the prompt,
type the file name followed by a <Return> to indicate the file name has
been entered. This command will tell EMACS to go find this file and
load it. Its contents will then be displayed on the screen and you will
be able to edit the file's contents.
To save any changes made to the file, type ^X^S. This tells EMACS to
create a new version of the file which includes the changes you have
made. When the save is complete, the number of lines saved will be
displayed in the communication line.
If you edit a file and at some point decide to quit (i.e., ^X^C) without
saving the changes, EMACS will remind you that changes have been made to
the file and ask you if you really want to quit. Enter "N" to return to
EMACS or "Y" to exit EMACS without saving the changes.
To create a file, just edit it "as if" it already existed. Then start
typing in the text. When you ask to "save" the file, EMACS will really
create the file with the text that you have entered. From then on, you
can consider yourself to be editing an existing file.
It is not easy for you to test editing a file and continue with the
tutorial. But you can always come back into the tutorial by starting
it over and skipping forward. So, when you feel ready, you should
try editing a file named "FOO", putting some text in it, and saving
it; then exit EMACS and look at the file to be sure that it worked.
EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
-------------------------
There are many, many more EMACS commands than could possibly be put on all
the CONTROL and META characters. EMACS gets around this with the X (eXtend)
command. There are two forms of this command:
^X Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
ESC-X Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the commands
you have already learned about. You have already seen two of them: the file
commands ^X^F to Find and ^X^S to Save. Another example is the command to
tell EMACS that you'd like to stop editing. The command to do this is ^X^C.
There are many ^X commands. Right now, the most helpful ones will be
^X^F Find file.
^X^S Save file.
^X^C Quit EMACS. This does not save your files automatically;
however, if your files have been modified, EMACS asks if
you really want to quit. The standard way to save and
exit is ^X^S ^X^C.
Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less frequently,
or commands which are used only in certain modes. These commands are
usually called "functions". An example is the function "apropos", which
prompts for a keyword and then gives the names of all the functions that
are apropos for that keyword. When you type ESC-X, EMACS prompts you from
the communication line with ":" and you should type the name of the
function you wish to call; in this case, "apropos". Just type "apr<Space>"
and EMACS will complete the name. EMACS will ask you for a keyword or
phrase and you type the string that you want information on.
>> Type ESC-X, followed by "apropos<Return>" or "apr<Space>". Then
type "file" followed by a <Return>. Note: ESC-A is equivalent to
the ECS-X "apropos" command.
>> To remove the "window" that was added, type ^X0 (zero).
FUNCTION KEYS
-------------
By now, you should be familiar with the format and meaning of some of
the more common CONTROL and META commands. Because several of these
commands are used frequently, they have been bound to the function
keys, which are usually located on the left-hand side of the keyboard
and labelled F1..F10. By pressing the appropriate function key, one
can replace several keystrokes with a single keystroke, thus saving
you time as you become familiar with their use.
The highlighted portion at the top of the screen lists the commands
which are associated with each function key. Each function key supports
two commands specified by fn or Fn where n = 1, 2,...10. The default
commands are represented by fn and are defined on the left side of the
screen; these commands are executed by pressing the appropriate function
key. The secondary commands are represented by Fn and are defined on
the right side of the screen; these commands are executed by pressing
the <Shift> key and the appropriate function key at the same time.
>> Press f1 would ESC. Note the position of the cursor - "would"
was located just as if ^S would ESC had been entered. Enter
^S would ESC to see for yourself.
>> Press F1 (<Shift> f1). Note the different appearance of the screen.
You have toggled the function key list, i.e., "turned it off". To
"turn it on", press F1 again.
>> Try using some of the other function keys to become familiar with
their use. NOTE: Do NOT use f9 with this file as it would save
any changes you may have made while using the tutorial.
GETTING MORE HELP
-----------------
In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to get
you started using EMACS. There is so much available in EMACS that it
would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want to
learn more about EMACS since it has numerous desirable features that you
don't know about yet.
The most basic HELP feature is the describe-key function which is
available by typing ^X? and then a command character. EMACS prints
one line in the communication line to tell what function is bound
to that key.
>> Type ^X?^P. The message in the communication line should
be something like "^P is bound to previous-line".
NOTE: Multi-character commands such as ^X^Z and ESC-V are also
allowed after ^X? .
### The describe-command function does not work - December 1986 ###
### Skip to the next section ###
The describe-command function (ESC-?) will prompt for the name of a
function and print out the section from the manual about that command.
When you are finished reading it, type a space or a ^G (quit) to bring
your text back on the screen.
Now let's get more information about the previous-line command.
>> Type ESC-?^P. When you are finished reading the output, type <Space>.
The "name of the function" is important for people who are customizing
EMACS. It is what appears in the EMACS CHART as the documentation for
the command character.
CONCLUSION
----------
Remember: To EXIT use ^X^C.
This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
You'll probably find that if you use EMACS for a few days you won't be
able to give it up. Initially it may give you trouble. But remember,
this is the case with any editor, especially one that can do many, many
things - and EMACS can do practically everything.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
----------------
This is a modified version of the "JOVE Tutorial" by Jonathan Payne
(19 January 86). That document was in turn a modified version of
the tutorial "Teach-Emacs" from MIT as modified by Steve Zimmerman
at CCA-UNIX (31 October 85).
Update - February 1986 by Dana Hoggatt.
Update - December 1986 by Kim Leburg.
Update - November 1987, February 1988, January 1989 by Daniel Lawrence