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XEmacs Reference Manual

July 1994 (General Public License upgraded, January 1991)

Richard Stallman

Lucid, Inc.

and

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" may be included in a translation approved by the author instead of in the original English.

License: The GNU General Public License gives you permission to redistribute XEmacs on certain terms; and also explains that there is no warranty.
Distrib: How to get XEmacs.
Intro: An introduction to XEmacs concepts.
Glossary: The glossary.
Manifesto: What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix! Indices, nodes containing large menus
Key Index: An item for each standard XEmacs key sequence.
Command Index: An item for each command name.
Variable Index: An item for each documented variable.
Concept Index: An item for each concept. Important General Concepts
Frame: How to interpret what you see on the screen.
Keystrokes: Keyboard gestures XEmacs recognizes.
Pull-down Menus The XEmacs Pull-down Menus available under X.
Entering Emacs Starting Emacs from the shell.
Exiting: Stopping or killing XEmacs.
Command Switches Hairy startup options. Fundamental Editing Commands
Basic: The most basic editing commands.
Undo: Undoing recently made changes in the text.
Minibuffer: Entering arguments that are prompted for.
M-x: Invoking commands by their names.
Help: Commands for asking XEmacs about its commands. Important Text-Changing Commands
Mark: The mark: how to delimit a "region" of text.
Mouse Selection Selecting text with the mouse.
Additional Mouse Operations Other operations available from the mouse.
Killing: Killing text.
Yanking: Recovering killed text. Moving text.
Using X Selections Using primary selection, cut buffers, and highlighted regions.
Accumulating Text Other ways of copying text.
Rectangles: Operating on the text inside a rectangle on the screen.
Registers: Saving a text string or a location in the buffer.
Display: Controlling what text is displayed.
Search: Finding or replacing occurrences of a string.
Fixit: Commands especially useful for fixing typos. Larger Units of Text
Files: All about handling files.
Buffers: Multiple buffers; editing several files at once.
Windows: Viewing two pieces of text at once. Advanced Features
Major Modes: Text mode vs. Lisp mode vs. C mode ...
Indentation: Editing the white space at the beginnings of lines.
Text: Commands and modes for editing English.
Programs: Commands and modes for editing programs.
Running: Compiling, running and debugging programs.
Abbrevs: How to define text abbreviations to reduce the number of characters you must type.
Picture: Editing pictures made up of characters using the quarter-plane screen model.
Sending Mail: Sending mail in XEmacs.
Reading Mail: Reading mail in XEmacs.
Calendar/Diary: A Calendar and diary facility in XEmacs.
Sorting: Sorting lines, paragraphs or pages within XEmacs.
Shell: Executing shell commands from XEmacs.
Narrowing: Restricting display and editing to a portion of the buffer.
Hardcopy: Printing buffers or regions.
Recursive Edit A command can allow you to do editing "within the command". This is called a `recursive editing level'.
Dissociated Press: Dissociating text for fun.
CONX: A different kind of dissociation.
Amusements: Various games and hacks.
Emulation: Emulating some other editors with XEmacs.
Customization: Modifying the behavior of XEmacs. Recovery from Problems.
Quitting: Quitting and aborting.
Lossage: What to do if XEmacs is hung or malfunctioning.
Bugs: How and when to report a bug. Here are some other nodes which are really inferiors of the ones already listed, mentioned here so you can get to them in one step: -- The Detailed Node Listing --- The Organization of the Frame
Point: The place in the text where editing commands operate.
Echo Area: Short messages appear at the bottom of the frame.
Mode Line: Interpreting the mode line.
XEmacs under X: Some information on using XEmacs under the X Window System. Keystrokes
Intro to Keystrokes: Keystrokes as building blocks of key sequences.
Representing Keystrokes: Using lists of modifiers and keysyms to represent keystrokes.
Key Sequences: Combine key strokes into key sequences you can bind to commands.
String Key Sequences: Available for upward compatibility.
Meta Key: Using ESC to represent Meta
Super and Hyper Keys: Adding modifier keys on certain keyboards.
Character Representation: How characters appear in XEmacs buffers.
Commands: How commands are bound to key sequences. Pull-down Menus
File Menu: Items on the File menu.
Edit Menu: Items on the Edit menu.
Buffers Menu: Information about the Buffers menu
Help Menu: Items on the Help menu.
Menu Customization: Adding and removing menu items and related operations. Basic Editing Commands
Blank Lines: Commands to make or delete blank lines.
Continuation Lines: Lines too wide for the frame.
Position Info: What page, line, row, or column is point on?
Arguments: Numeric arguments for repeating a command. The Minibuffer
File: Entering file names with the minibuffer.
Edit: How to edit in the minibuffer.
Completion: An abbreviation facility for minibuffer input.
Repetition: Re-executing commands that used the minibuffer. The Mark and the Region
Setting Mark: Commands to set the mark.
Using Region: Summary of ways to operate on contents of the region.
Marking Objects: Commands to put region around textual units.
Mark Ring: Previous mark positions saved so you can go back there. Yanking
Kill Ring: Where killed text is stored. Basic yanking.
Appending Kills: Several kills in a row all yank together.
Earlier Kills: Yanking something killed some time ago. Using X Selections
X Clipboard Selection: Pasting to the X clipboard.
X Selection Commands: Other operations on the selection.
X Cut Buffers: X cut buffers are available for compatibility.
Active Regions: Using zmacs-style highlighting of the selected region. Registers
RegPos: Saving positions in registers.
RegText: Saving text in registers.
RegRect: Saving rectangles in registers. Controlling the Display
Scrolling: Moving text up and down in a window.
Horizontal Scrolling: Moving text left and right in a window.
Selective Display: Hiding lines with lots of indentation.
Display Vars: Information on variables for customizing display. Searching and Replacement
Incremental Search: Search happens as you type the string.
Non-Incremental Search: Specify entire string and then search.
Word Search: Search for sequence of words.
Regexp Search: Search for match for a regexp.
Regexps: Syntax of regular expressions.
Search Case: To ignore case while searching, or not.
Replace: Search, and replace some or all matches.
Other Repeating Search: Operating on all matches for some regexp. Replacement Commands
Unconditional Replace: Replacing all matches for a string.
Regexp Replace: Replacing all matches for a regexp.
Replacement and Case: How replacements preserve case of letters.
Query Replace: How to use querying. Commands for Fixing Typos
Kill Errors: Commands to kill a batch of recently entered text.
Transpose: Exchanging two characters, words, lines, lists...
Fixing Case: Correcting case of last word entered.
Spelling: Apply spelling checker to a word, or a whole file. File Handling
File Names: How to type and edit file name arguments.
Visiting: Visiting a file prepares XEmacs to edit the file.
Saving: Saving makes your changes permanent.
Reverting: Reverting cancels all the changes not saved.
Auto Save: Auto Save periodically protects against loss of data.
Version Control: Version control systems (RCS and SCCS).
ListDir: Listing the contents of a file directory.
Comparing Files: Finding where two files differ.
Dired: "Editing" a directory to delete, rename, etc. the files in it.
Misc File Ops: Other things you can do on files. Saving Files
Backup: How XEmacs saves the old version of your file.
Interlocking: How XEmacs protects against simultaneous editing of one file by two users. Backup Files
Names: How backup files are named; Choosing single or numbered backup files.
Deletion: XEmacs deletes excess numbered backups.
Copying: Backups can be made by copying or renaming. Auto-Saving: Protection Against Disasters
Files
Control
Recover: Recovering text from auto-save files. Version Control
Concepts of VC: Basic version control information; checking files in and out.
Editing with VC: Commands for editing a file maintained with version control.
Variables for Check-in/out: Variables that affect the commands used to check files in or out.
Log Entries: Logging your changes.
Change Logs and VC: Generating a change log file from log entries.
Old Versions: Examining and comparing old versions.
VC Status: Commands to view the VC status of files and look at log entries.
Renaming and VC: A command to rename both the source and master file correctly.
Snapshots: How to make and use snapshots, a set of file versions that can be treated as a unit.
Version Headers: Inserting version control headers into working files. Snapshots
Making Snapshots: The snapshot facilities.
Snapshot Caveats: Things to be careful of when using snapshots. Dired, the Directory Editor
Enter: How to invoke Dired.
Edit: Editing the Dired buffer.
Deletion: Deleting files with Dired.
Immed: Other file operations through Dired. Using Multiple Buffers
Select Buffer: Creating a new buffer or reselecting an old one.
List Buffers: Getting a list of buffers that exist.
Misc Buffer: Renaming; changing read-onliness; copying text.
Kill Buffer: Killing buffers you no longer need.
Several Buffers: How to go through the list of all buffers and operate variously on several of them. Multiple Windows
Basic Window: Introduction to XEmacs windows.
Split Window: New windows are made by splitting existing windows.
Other Window: Moving to another window or doing something to it.
Pop Up Window: Finding a file or buffer in another window.
Change Window: Deleting windows and changing their sizes. Major Modes
Choosing Modes: How major modes are specified or chosen. Indentation
Indentation Commands: Various commands and techniques for indentation.
Tab Stops: You can set arbitrary "tab stops" and then indent to the next tab stop when you want to.
Just Spaces: You can request indentation using just spaces. Commands for Human Languages
Text Mode: The major modes for editing text files.
Nroff Mode: The major mode for editing input to the formatter nroff.
TeX Mode: The major modes for editing input to the formatter TeX.
Outline Mode: The major mode for editing outlines.
Words: Moving over and killing words.
Sentences: Moving over and killing sentences.
Paragraphs: Moving over paragraphs.
Pages: Moving over pages.
Filling: Filling or justifying text
Case: Changing the case of text TeX Mode
Editing: Special commands for editing in TeX mode.
Printing: Commands for printing part of a file with TeX. Outline Mode
Format: What the text of an outline looks like.
Motion: Special commands for moving through outlines.
Visibility: Commands to control what is visible. Filling Text
Auto Fill: Auto Fill mode breaks long lines automatically.
Fill Commands: Commands to refill paragraphs and center lines.
Fill Prefix: Filling when every line is indented or in a comment, etc. Editing Programs
Program Modes: Major modes for editing programs.
Lists: Expressions with balanced parentheses. There are editing commands to operate on them.
Defuns: Each program is made up of separate functions. There are editing commands to operate on them.
Grinding: Adjusting indentation to show the nesting.
Matching: Insertion of a close-delimiter flashes matching open.
Comments: Inserting, filling and aligning comments.
Balanced Editing: Inserting two matching parentheses at once, etc.
Lisp Completion: Completion on symbol names in Lisp code.
Documentation: Getting documentation of functions you plan to call.
Change Log: Maintaining a change history for your program.
Tags: Go directly to any function in your program in one command. Tags remembers which file it is in.
Fortran: Fortran mode and its special features.
Asm Mode: Asm mode and its special features. Indentation for Programs
Basic Indent
Multi-line Indent: Commands to reindent many lines at once.
Lisp Indent: Specifying how each Lisp function should be indented.
C Indent: Choosing an indentation style for C code. Tag Tables
Tag Syntax
Create Tag Table
Select Tag Table
Find Tag
Tags Search
Tags Stepping
List Tags Fortran Mode
Motion: Moving point by statements or subprograms.
Indent: Indentation commands for Fortran.
Comments: Inserting and aligning comments.
Columns: Measuring columns for valid Fortran.
Abbrev: Built-in abbrevs for Fortran keywords. Fortran Indentation
Commands: Commands for indenting Fortran.
Numbers: How line numbers auto-indent.
Conv: Conventions you must obey to avoid trouble.
Vars: Variables controlling Fortran indent style. Compiling and Testing Programs
Compilation: Compiling programs in languages other than Lisp (C, Pascal, etc.)
Modes: Various modes for editing Lisp programs, with different facilities for running the Lisp programs.
Libraries: Creating Lisp programs to run in XEmacs.
Eval: Executing a single Lisp expression in XEmacs.
Debug: Debugging Lisp programs running in XEmacs.
Interaction: Executing Lisp in an XEmacs buffer.
External Lisp: Communicating through XEmacs with a separate Lisp. Lisp Libraries
Loading: Loading libraries of Lisp code into XEmacs for use.
Compiling Libraries: Compiling a library makes it load and run faster.
Mocklisp: Converting Mocklisp to Lisp so XEmacs can run it. Abbrevs
Defining Abbrevs: Defining an abbrev, so it will expand when typed.
Expanding Abbrevs: Controlling expansion: prefixes, canceling expansion.
Editing Abbrevs: Viewing or editing the entire list of defined abbrevs.
Saving Abbrevs: Saving the entire list of abbrevs for another session.
Dynamic Abbrevs: Abbreviations for words already in the buffer. Editing Pictures
Basic Picture: Basic concepts and simple commands of Picture Mode.
Insert in Picture: Controlling direction of cursor motion after "self-inserting" characters.
Tabs in Picture: Various features for tab stops and indentation.
Rectangles in Picture: Clearing and superimposing rectangles. Sending Mail
Format: Format of the mail being composed.
Headers: Details of allowed mail header fields.
Mode: Special commands for editing mail being composed. Running Shell Commands from XEmacs
Single Shell: How to run one shell command and return.
Interactive Shell: Permanent shell taking input via XEmacs.
Shell Mode: Special XEmacs commands used with permanent shell. Customization
Minor Modes: Each minor mode is one feature you can turn on independently of any others.
Variables: Many XEmacs commands examine XEmacs variables to decide what to do; by setting variables, you can control their functioning.
Keyboard Macros: A keyboard macro records a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed with a single command.
Key Bindings: The keymaps say what command each key runs. By changing them, you can "redefine keys".
Syntax: The syntax table controls how words and expressions are parsed.
Init File: How to write common customizations in the `.emacs' file.
Audible Bell: Changing how XEmacs sounds the bell.
Faces Changing the fonts and colors of a region of text. Variables
Examining: Examining or setting one variable's value.
Edit Options: Examining or editing list of all variables' values.
Locals: Per-buffer values of variables.
File Variables: How files can specify variable values. Keyboard Macros
Basic Kbd Macro: Defining and running keyboard macros.
Save Kbd Macro: Giving keyboard macros names; saving them in files.
Kbd Macro Query: Keyboard macros that do different things each use. Customizing Key Bindings
Keymaps: Definition of the keymap data structure. Names of XEmacs's standard keymaps.
Rebinding: How to redefine one key's meaning conveniently.
Disabling: Disabling a command means confirmation is required before it can be executed. This is done to protect beginners from surprises. The Syntax Table
Entry: What the syntax table records for each character.
Change: How to change the information. The Init File, `~/.emacs'
Init Syntax: Syntax of constants in Emacs Lisp.
Init Examples: How to do some things with an init file.
Terminal Init: Each terminal type can have an init file. Dealing with XEmacs Trouble
Stuck Recursive: `[...]' in mode line around the parentheses.
Screen Garbled: Garbage on the screen.
Text Garbled: Garbage in the text.
Unasked-for Search: Spontaneous entry to incremental search.
Emergency Escape: Emergency escape--- What to do if XEmacs stops responding.
Total Frustration: When you are at your wits' end.

Preface

This manual documents the use and simple customization of the XEmacs editor. The reader is not expected to be a programmer to use this editor, and simple customizations do not require programming skills either. Users who are not interested in customizing XEmacs can ignore the scattered customization hints.

This document is primarily a reference manual, but it can also be used as a primer. However, if you are new to XEmacs, consider using the on-line, learn-by-doing tutorial, which you get by running XEmacs and typing C-h t. With it, you learn XEmacs by using XEmacs on a specially designed file which describes commands, tells you when to try them, and then explains the results you see. Using the tutorial gives a more vivid introduction than the printed manual. Also consider reading the XEmacs New User's Guide, which is intended specifically as an introductory manual rather than as a reference guide.

On first reading, just skim chapters one and two, which describe the notational conventions of the manual and the general appearance of the XEmacs display frame. Note which questions are answered in these chapters, so you can refer back later. After reading chapter four you should practice the commands there. The next few chapters describe fundamental techniques and concepts that are used constantly. You need to understand them thoroughly, experimenting with them if necessary.

To find the documentation on a particular command, look in the index. Keys (character commands) and command names have separate indexes. There is also a glossary, with a cross reference for each term.

This manual comes in two forms: the published form and the Info form. The Info form is for on-line perusal with the INFO program; it is distributed along with XEmacs. Both forms contain substantially the same text and are generated from a common source file, which is also distributed along with XEmacs.

XEmacs is a member of the Emacs editor family. There are many Emacs editors, all sharing common principles of organization. For information on the underlying philosophy of Emacs and the lessons learned from its development, write for a copy of AI memo 519a, "Emacs, the Extensible, Customizable Self-Documenting Display Editor", to Publications Department, Artificial Intelligence Lab, 545 Tech Square, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. At last report they charge $2.25 per copy. Another useful publication is LCS TM-165, "A Cookbook for an Emacs", by Craig Finseth, available from Publications Department, Laboratory for Computer Science, 545 Tech Square, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. The price today is $3.

This manual is for XEmacs installed on UNIX systems. XEmacs also exists on Microsoft Windows and Windows NT as Win-Emacs (which is actually based on Lucid Emacs 19.6, an older incarnation of XEmacs).

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