emacs - Unix, Linux Command
NAME
emacs - GNU project Emacs
SYNOPSIS
emacs [
command-line switches ] [
files ... ]
DESCRIPTION
GNU Emacs is a version of
Emacs, written by the author of the original (PDP-10)
Emacs, Richard Stallman.
The primary documentation of GNU Emacs is in the GNU Emacs Manual,
which you can read on line using Info, a subsystem of Emacs. Please
look there for complete and up-to-date documentation. This man page
is updated only when someone volunteers to do so; the Emacs
maintainers priority goal is to minimize the amount of time this man
page takes away from other more useful projects.
The user functionality of GNU Emacs encompasses
everything other
Emacs editors do, and it is easily extensible since its
editing commands are written in Lisp.
Emacs has an extensive interactive help facility,
but the facility assumes that you know how to manipulate
Emacs windows and buffers.
CTRL-h (backspace
or CTRL-h) enters the Help facility. Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t)
requests an interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the fundamentals
of
Emacs in a few minutes.
Help Apropos (CTRL-h a) helps you
find a command given its functionality, Help Character (CTRL-h c)
describes a given characters effect, and Help Function (CTRL-h f)
describes a given Lisp function specified by name.
Emacss Undo can undo several steps of modification to your buffers, so it is
easy to recover from editing mistakes.
GNU Emacss many special packages handle mail reading (RMail) and sending (Mail),
outline editing (Outline), compiling (Compile), running subshells
within
Emacs windows (Shell), running a Lisp read-eval-print loop
(Lisp-Interaction-Mode), and automated psychotherapy (Doctor).
There is an extensive reference manual, but
users of other Emacses
should have little trouble adapting even
without a copy. Users new to
Emacs will be able
to use basic features fairly rapidly by studying the tutorial and
using the self-documentation features.
Emacs Options
The following options are of general interest:
Tag | Description |
file |
Edit
file. |
+number |
Go to the line specified by
number (do not insert a space between the "+" sign and
the number).
|
-q |
Do not load an init file.
|
-u user |
Load
users init file.
|
-t file |
Use specified
file as the terminal instead of using stdin/stdout.
This must be the first argument specified in the command line.
|
The following options are lisp-oriented
(these options are processed in the order encountered):
|
-f function | |
Execute the lisp function
function. |
-l file |
Load the lisp code in the file
file. |
The following options are useful when running
Emacs as a batch editor:
|
-batch |
Edit in batch mode. The editor will send messages to stderr. This
option must be the first in the argument list. You must use -l and -f
options to specify files to execute and functions to call.
|
-kill |
Exit
Emacs while in batch mode.
|
Using Emacs with X |
Emacs has been tailored to work well with the X window system.
If you run
Emacs from under X windows, it will create its own X window to
display in. You will probably want to start the editor
as a background process
so that you can continue using your original window.
|
Emacs can be started with the following X switches:
|
-name name | |
Specifies the name which should be assigned to the initial
Emacs window. This controls looking up X resources as well as the window title.
|
-title name | |
Specifies the title for the initial X window.
|
-r |
Display the
Emacs window in reverse video.
|
-i |
Use the "kitchen sink" bitmap icon when iconifying the
Emacs window.
|
-font font, -fn font | |
Set the
Emacs windows font to that specified by
font. You will find the various
X fonts in the
/usr/lib/X11/fonts directory.
Note that
Emacs will only accept fixed width fonts.
Under the X11 Release 4 font-naming conventions, any font with the
value "m" or "c" in the eleventh field of the font name is a fixed
width font. Furthermore, fonts whose name are of the form
widthxheight are generally fixed width, as is the font
fixed. See
xlsfonts(1)
for more information.
When you specify a font, be sure to put a space between the
switch and the font name.
|
-bw pixels | |
Set the
Emacs windows border width to the number of pixels specified by
pixels. Defaults to one pixel on each side of the window.
|
-ib pixels | |
Set the windows internal border width to the number of pixels specified
by
pixels. Defaults to one pixel of padding on each side of the window.
|
-geometry geometry | |
Set the
Emacs windows width, height, and position as specified. The geometry
specification is in the standard X format; see
X(1)
for more information.
The width and height are specified in characters; the default is 80 by
24.
|
-fg color |
On color displays, sets the color of the text.
See the file
/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for a list of valid
color names.
|
-bg color |
On color displays,
sets the color of the windows background.
|
-bd color |
On color displays,
sets the color of the windows border.
|
-cr color |
On color displays,
sets the color of the windows text cursor.
|
-ms color |
On color displays,
sets the color of the windows mouse cursor.
|
-d displayname, -display displayname | |
Create the
Emacs window on the display specified by
displayname. Must be the first option specified in the command line.
|
-nw |
Tells
Emacs not to use its special interface to X. If you use this
switch when invoking
Emacs from an
xterm(1)
window, display is done in that window.
This must be the first option specified in the command line.
|
You can set
X default values for your
Emacs windows in your
.Xresources file (see
xrdb(1)).
Use the following format:
Tag | Description |
|
emacs.keyword:value
|
where
value specifies the default value of
keyword. Emacs lets you set default values for the following keywords:
Tag | Description |
font (class Font) | |
Sets the windows text font.
|
reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo) | |
If
reverseVideos value is set to
on, the window will be displayed in reverse video.
|
bitmapIcon (class BitmapIcon) | |
If
bitmapIcons value is set to
on, the window will iconify into the "kitchen sink."
|
borderWidth (class BorderWidth) | |
Sets the windows border width in pixels.
|
internalBorder (class BorderWidth) | |
Sets the windows internal border width in pixels.
|
foreground (class Foreground) | |
For color displays,
sets the windows text color.
|
background (class Background) | |
For color displays,
sets the windows background color.
|
borderColor (class BorderColor) | |
For color displays,
sets the color of the windows border.
|
cursorColor (class Foreground) | |
For color displays,
sets the color of the windows text cursor.
|
pointerColor (class Foreground) | |
For color displays,
sets the color of the windows mouse cursor.
|
geometry (class Geometry) | |
Sets the geometry of the
Emacs window (as described above).
|
title (class Title) | |
Sets the title of the
Emacs window.
|
iconName (class Title) | |
Sets the icon name for the
Emacs window icon.
|
If you try to set color values while using a black and white display,
the windows characteristics will default as follows:
the foreground color will be set to black,
the background color will be set to white,
the border color will be set to grey,
and the text and mouse cursors will be set to black.
Using the Mouse
The following lists the mouse button bindings for the
Emacs window under X11.
MOUSE BUTTON FUNCTION
left Set point.
middle Paste text.
right Cut text into X cut buffer.
SHIFT-middle Cut text into X cut buffer.
SHIFT-right Paste text.
CTRL-middle Cut text into X cut buffer and kill it.
CTRL-right Select this window, then split it into
two windows. Same as typing CTRL-x 2.
CTRL-SHIFT-left X buffer menu--hold the buttons and keys
down, wait for menu to appear, select
buffer, and release. Move mouse out of
menu and release to cancel.
CTRL-SHIFT-middleX help menu--pop up index card menu for
Emacs help.
CTRL-SHIFT-right Select window with mouse, and delete all
other windows. Same as typing CTRL-x 1.
MANUALS
You can order printed copies of the GNU Emacs Manual from the Free
Software Foundation, which develops GNU software. See the file ORDERS
for ordering information.
Your local Emacs maintainer might also have copies available. As
with all software and publications from FSF, everyone is permitted to
make and distribute copies of the Emacs manual. The TeX source to the
manual is also included in the Emacs source distribution.
FILES
/usr/local/info - files for the Info documentation browser
(a subsystem of Emacs) to refer to. Currently not much of Unix
is documented here, but the complete text of the Emacs reference
manual is included in a convenient tree structured form.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/src - C source files and object files
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/lisp - Lisp source files and compiled files
that define most editing commands. Some are preloaded;
others are autoloaded from this directory when used.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc - various programs that are used with
GNU Emacs, and some files of information.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/DOC.* - contains the documentation
strings for the Lisp primitives and preloaded Lisp functions
of GNU Emacs. They are stored here to reduce the size of
Emacs proper.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/OTHER.EMACSES discusses GNU Emacs
vs. other versions of Emacs.
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/SERVICE lists people offering
various services to assist users of GNU Emacs, including education,
troubleshooting, porting and customization.
These files also have information useful to anyone wishing to write
programs in the Emacs Lisp extension language, which has not yet been fully
documented.
/usr/local/com/emacs/lock - holds lock files that are made for all
files being modified in Emacs, to prevent simultaneous modification
of one file by two users.
/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt - list of valid X color names.
BUGS
There is a mailing list, bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu on the internet
(ucbvax!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gnu-emacs on UUCPnet), for reporting Emacs
bugs and fixes. But before reporting something as a bug, please try
to be sure that it really is a bug, not a misunderstanding or a
deliberate feature. We ask you to read the section Reporting Emacs
Bugs near the end of the reference manual (or Info system) for hints
on how and when to report bugs. Also, include the version number of
the Emacs you are running in every bug report that you send in.
Do not expect a personal answer to a bug report. The purpose of reporting
bugs is to get them fixed for everyone in the next release, if possible.
For personal assistance, look in the SERVICE file (see above) for
a list of people who offer it.
Please do not send anything but bug reports to this mailing list.
Send requests to be added to mailing lists to the special list
info-gnu-emacs-request@prep.ai.mit.edu (or the corresponding UUCP
address). For more information about Emacs mailing lists, see the
file /usr/local/emacs/etc/MAILINGLISTS. Bugs tend actually to be
fixed if they can be isolated, so it is in your interest to report
them in such a way that they can be easily reproduced.
Bugs that I know about are: shell will not work with programs
running in Raw mode on some Unix versions.
UNRESTRICTIONS
Emacs is free; anyone may redistribute copies of
Emacs to
anyone under the terms stated in the
Emacs General Public License,
a copy of which accompanies each copy of
Emacs and which also
appears in the reference manual.
Copies of
Emacs may sometimes be received packaged with distributions of Unix systems,
but it is never included in the scope of any license covering those
systems. Such inclusion violates the terms on which distribution
is permitted. In fact, the primary purpose of the General Public
License is to prohibit anyone from attaching any other restrictions
to redistribution of
Emacs.
Richard Stallman encourages you to improve and extend
Emacs, and urges that
you contribute your extensions to the GNU library. Eventually GNU
(Gnus Not Unix) will be a complete replacement for Berkeley
Unix.
Everyone will be free to use, copy, study and change the GNU system.
SEE ALSO
AUTHORS
Emacs was written by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation.
Joachim Martillo and Robert Krawitz added the X features.
COPYING
Copyright
©
1995, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and no
Back-Cover Texts.
This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
A copy of the license is included in the
gfdl(1)
man page, and in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation
License" in the Emacs manual.
|