Emacs Beginner's HOWTO: Running Emacs (2023)

2. Running Emacs

2.1 Starting & Quitting Emacs

As a new user, you'll probably want to launch Emacs just to messaround and try it out. Once you're into Emacs and want to exit,however, you may not be able to figure out what to do. So if you'venever used Emacs before, give it a shot right now. At your shellprompt, type emacs and hit enter. Emacs should start up. Ifnot, it is either not installed or not in your path.

Once you've seen Emacs, you need to know how to exit. Thekeystrokes for leaving Emacs are C-x C-c. The C-xnotation means hold down the Ctrl key and pressx. In this case, you'll then need to hold down Ctrland press c to finish the task.

The keystrokes used in Emacs will likely seem odd, foreign, andmaybe even uncomfortable to you at first--especially if you're avi user. Unlike vi, Emacs doesn't have separatemodes for editing text and issuing commands.

To re-cap: emacs will start Emacs. C-x C-c willexit Emacs.

What you'll see

When Emacs starts up it will consume a whole X window (or screen ifyou're running on a console instead of in the X Window System). You'llsee a menu across the top, some text in the main part of the screen,and a couple of lines at the bottom.

It will look something like this ASCII sketch:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+|Buffers Files Tools Edit Search Mule Help || ||Welcome to GNU Emacs, one component of a Linux-based GNU system. || || || || ... || ||---1:---F1 *scratch* (Lisp Interaction)--L1--All-------------||For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p. |+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

NOTE: Emacs will usually fill the entirescreen/window. I've shrunk the above example to save space here. Youwill also see a welcome message in Emacs when you first start it. Iomitted that as well and substituted ``...'' instead. Thewelcome message simply identifies the exact version of Emacs you areusing as well as pointing you to the on-line help and related items.

The Menu Bar

The topmost line of the Emacs interface is a menu. If you'rerunning X, you'll recognize them as traditional pull-down menus thatyou can access using your mouse. Otherwise you'll need to use keyboardshortcuts (not covered here) for accessing the menus.

The Status Bar and Mini-buffer

Of the last two lines in the Emacs interface, the topmost one isessentially a status bar. It contains information about the bufferyou're working in, which mode Emacs is in, and various otherthings. For now, just realize that it's there.

The bottommost line is called the mini-buffer. It isseparated from the main buffer by the status bar we justdiscussed. You can think of the mini-buffer as the Emacs``command-line''. It is where commands that you give Emacs appear andit is where status messages are printed in response to things you do.

You'll find that what I've called the status bar is usually referredto as the mode line in Emacs related documentation. It is where Emacsdisplays information about the current modes(s) you may be using aswell as things like the current date and time, line number, file size,and almost anything else you might want to see there.

2.2 Some Terminology

This section covers the most basic of Emacs terminology that you'llencounter when using and reading about Emacs.

Buffers & Files

Unlike some editors, when you open a file in Emacs it does not stay``open'' the entire time you're working with it. Instead, Emacs readsthe file into a buffer in memory. While you're editing thebuffer and working with the data nothing is changed on disk. Only whenyou actually save the buffer does the file on disk get updated. Thereare advantages and disadvantages to this approach but it is onlyimportant that you understand that it works this way.

As a consequence, you will see the term ``buffer'' used in Emacsdocumentation, modes, packages, and so on. Just realize that buffermeans ``a copy of the file that is currently in memory.'' Oh, it'sworth pointing out that a buffer doesn't always have to refer to aspecific file on disk. Often times Emacs will create buffers as theresult of commands you run. Such buffers may contain the result of thecommand, a list of selections to pick from, and so on.

Point & Region

In Emacs lingo, you'll often hear or see references to thepoint. In general terms the point is the cursor. The actualdistinction between the point and cursor probably isn't important whenyou're first starting out with Emacs. But if you are curious, thinkabout it this way. The cursor is the visual representation of thepoint. The cursor is always ``on'' a particular character position inthe current buffer. The point, on the other hand, lives in the spacebetween characters on in the buffer. So you might say that ifthe cursor is on the letter `h' in the word ``the'' then the point isbetween the `t' and the `h'.

Like many modern editors, Emacs allows to perform operations(indent, spell-check, reformat, cut, copy, paste, ...) on a section ofthe current buffer. You can highlight (or ``mark'') a block of textusing the keyboard or mouse and then perform operations on just theselected block of text. In Emacs, that block of text is called aregion.

Windows

Okay, this will be a bit confusing to anyone who has ever used aGUI interface before. Just remember that Emacs was developed longbefore GUI interfaces and window managers were popular.

A window in Emacs is an area of the screen in which abuffer is displayed. When Emacs is first started, you have one windowon your screen. Some Emacs functions (such as the help anddocumentation) often [temporarily] open up additional windows in yourEmacs screen.

Emacs windows have nothing to do with X windows in the GUIsense. You can open up additional X windows to display Emacs buffers,maybe to compare two files side by side. Those new X windows arereferred to as frames in Emacs lingo. Read on.

Frames

In Emacs, a frame is a separate X window in which an Emacsbuffer is displayed. But both are part of the same Emacs session. Thebehavior is somewhat (but not too much) like what happens if you hitAlt+N in Netscape Navigator.

2.3 Keyboard Basics

This section covers the basics of keyboarding for Emacs. Like everypowerful editor, everything that you can do with Emacs is just a fewkeystrokes away.

If you're a vi user, the notion of using the k, j, l,h keys to move up a line, down a line, forward by a character,and backward by a character probably took some getting used to. Infact, it might have taken you a few hours or even weeks of practicebefore you could comfortably navigate a file using the various keycombinations available in vi.

Emacs is no different. There are different keystrokes and commandsto learn. Just like vi, you only need to master the basics toget a lot of work done. Then, as time goes on, you can slowly expandyour knowledge and find faster ways of doing things.

Command Keys (Meta, Esc, Control, and Alt)

As you'll soon learn, Emacs makes heavy use of multi-keycombinations. Because it is not a modal editor like vi, youdon't have to think about being in ``command mode'' or ``editingmode'' before you can try to move the cursor or execute acommand. Instead, you just press the right combination of keys andEmacs does as told (usually).

The keys that Emacs makes the most use of are usually abbreviated inthe documentation as C (for Control or Ctrl) and Mfor (Meta). While most modern PC keyboards have one or more keyslabeled Ctrl few have one labeled Meta. You'll wantto mentally substitute either Esc or Alt for the Metakey. In most standard configurations, both Esc and Alt do essentiallythe same thing.

So when you see a reference in any Emacs related documentation toC-x f it means ``press control-x and then f.'' And if you seea reference to something like M-x shell is means ``pressalt-x and type the word shell''.

A very useful command for beginners is M-x apropos orC-h a. apropos will search the Emacs on-line documentationfor all functions and search for the regular expression you type. Thisis a great way to discover all commands related to frames. SimplyC-h a and then frame.

Moving Around in a Buffer

Now that you know what all those fancy abbreviations mean, here's alist of the most common keystrokes for moving within a buffer:

Keystrokes Action-----------------------------------C-p Up one lineC-n Down one lineC-f Forward one characterC-b Backward one characterC-a Beginning of line C-e End of lineC-v Down one pageM-v Up one pageM-f Forward one wordM-b Backward one wordM-< Beginning of bufferM-> End of bufferC-g Quit current operation-----------------------------------

And, as you might expect, the cursor keys (or arrow keys) usuallywork just as you'd expect. Your Backspace may not. That'sanother story. :-(

Essential Commands

Okay, now that you know how to move around within a buffer whatabout opening and saving files? Search? Here are some basic commands.

Before we jump straight to those commands, I need to briefly pointout how this works.

All ``command keystrokes'' in Emacs (those that are M-xsomething or C-something) are actually just shortcuts tofunctions which are part of Emacs. You can call any of those functionsby typing M-x function-name and hitting Enter. Youcan also use the keyboard shortcut for that function (if it has one).

For example, the Emacs function which saves a buffer to disk iscalled save-buffer. By default it is also bound to C-xC-s. So, you can either use they shortcut to save the currentbuffer, or you could type M-x save-buffer and achieve theexact same result.

All of the most common functions have keyboard shortcuts bydefault. Some of them are listed below.

Keystrokes Function Description-------------------------------------------------------------------C-x C-s save-buffer Save the current buffer to diskC-x u undo Undo the last operationC-x C-f find-file Open a file from diskC-s isearch-forward Search forward for a stringC-r isearch-backward Search backward for a string replace-string Search & replace for a string replace-regexp Search & replace using regexpC-h t help-with-tutorial Use the interactive tutorialC-h f describe-function Display help for a functionC-h v describe-variable Display help for a variableC-h x describe-key Display what a key sequence doesC-h a apropos Search help for string/regexpC-h F view-emacs-FAQ Display the Emacs FAQC-h i info Read the Emacs documentationC-x r m bookmark-set Set a bookmark. Useful in searchesC-x r b bookmark-jump Jump to a bookmark.-------------------------------------------------------------------

As you try many of those functions, you'll notice that many willprompt you for input. They will always to do in the mini-buffer. Thisis similar to using the : commands in vi or mostcommands that you'd use within your favorite Unix shell.

Emacs has literally hundreds of built-in functions available. Thelist above is a tiny sample that represents those that I useregularly. See the on-line help for a more complete listing of theavailable functions and more complete documentation on those Imentioned above.

Tab Completion

Like many popular Unix shells (bash, csh, tcsh, ...) Emacs offerscommand completion via the Tab key. In fact, the commandcompletion in bash was modeled after that in Emacs, so if you use thatfeature in bash you'll be right at home.

As an example, try M-x search and then hitTab. Emacs will append a hyphen to indicate that there areseveral possible completions but they all have a hyphen as the nextcharacter. Hit Tab once more and Emacs will display a list ofthe possible matches for you to choose from. Notice that it does so ina new window. It temporarily splits your display into twowindows: one which contains the buffer you were editing and the othercontains the list of possible completions for ``search-''. You may hitC-g to exit out of the selection process and close the newwindow.

2.4 Tutorial, Help, & Info

Emacs comes with an on-line tutorial which walks you through thebasic editing features and functions that everyone should know. Italso explains how to use the other help features in Emacs.

I highly recommend that you spend some time going through thetutorial if you plan on making a serious effort to learn Emacs. Asshown in the table above, you can enter the tutorial via C-ht. The tutorial is self-guided and aimed at folks who are justgetting started with Emacs.

If you are running Emacs in X, you will see that the rightmost menuon the menu bar is labeled Help. As you explore the Help menu noticethat some items have keyboard shortcuts and those are listed right inthe menu.

Finally, to see the volume of documentation available with Emacs,you should try M-x info or C-h i which launchesInfo, the Emacs documentation browser.