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The Emacs Editor

Emacs is the advanced, extensible, customizable, self-documenting editor. This manual describes how to edit with Emacs and some of the ways to customize it; it corresponds to GNU Emacs version 27.2.

The homepage for GNU Emacs is at https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/.
To view this manual in other formats, click here.
You can also purchase a printed copy from the FSF store. For information on extending Emacs, see Emacs Lisp in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

This is the GNU Emacs Manual, updated for Emacs version 27.2.

Distrib How to get the latest Emacs distribution.
Intro An introduction to Emacs concepts.
Important General Concepts
Screen How to interpret what you see on the screen.
User Input Kinds of input events (characters, buttons, function keys).
Keys Key sequences: what you type to request one editing action.
Commands Named functions run by key sequences to do editing.
Entering Emacs Starting Emacs from the shell.
Exiting Stopping or killing Emacs.
Fundamental Editing Commands
Basic The most basic editing commands.
Minibuffer Entering arguments that are prompted for.
M-x Invoking commands by their names.
Help Commands for asking Emacs about its commands.
Important Text-Changing Commands
Mark The mark: how to delimit a region of text.
Killing Killing (cutting) and yanking (copying) text.
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.
Keyboard Macros Recording a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed.
Major Structures of Emacs
Files All about handling files.
Buffers Multiple buffers; editing several files at once.
Windows Viewing multiple pieces of text in one frame.
Frames Using multiple windows on your display.
International Using non-ASCII character sets.
Advanced Features
Modes Major and minor modes alter Emacs’s basic behavior.
Indentation Editing the white space at the beginnings of lines.
Text Commands and modes for editing human languages.
Programs Commands and modes for editing programs.
Building Compiling, running and debugging programs.
Maintaining Features for maintaining large programs.
Abbrevs Defining text abbreviations to reduce typing.
Dired Directory and file manager.
Calendar/Diary Calendar and diary facilities.
Sending Mail Sending mail in Emacs.
Rmail Reading mail in Emacs.
Gnus A flexible mail and news reader.
Host Security Security issues on a single computer.
Network Security Managing the network security.
Document View Viewing PDF, PS and DVI files.
Shell Executing shell commands from Emacs.
Emacs Server Using Emacs as an editing server.
Printing Printing hardcopies of buffers or regions.
Sorting Sorting lines, paragraphs or pages within Emacs.
Picture Mode Editing pictures made up of text characters.
Editing Binary Files Editing binary files with Hexl mode.
Saving Emacs Sessions Saving Emacs state from one session to the next.
Recursive Edit Performing edits while within another command.
Hyperlinking Following links in buffers.
Amusements Various games and hacks.
Packages Installing additional features.
Customization Modifying the behavior of Emacs.
Recovery from Problems
Quitting Quitting and aborting.
Lossage What to do if Emacs is hung or malfunctioning.
Bugs How and when to report a bug.
Contributing How to contribute improvements to Emacs.
Service How to get help for your own Emacs needs.
Appendices
Copying The GNU General Public License gives you permission to redistribute GNU Emacs on certain terms; it also explains that there is no warranty.
GNU Free Documentation License The license for this documentation.
Emacs Invocation Hairy startup options.
X Resources X resources for customizing Emacs.
Antinews Information about Emacs version 26.
Mac OS / GNUstep Using Emacs under macOS and GNUstep.
Microsoft Windows Using Emacs on Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS.
Manifesto What’s GNU? Gnu’s Not Unix!
Glossary Terms used in this manual.
Acknowledgments Major contributors to GNU Emacs.
Indexes (each index contains a large menu)
Key Index An item for each standard Emacs key sequence.
Option Index An item for every command-line option.
Command Index An item for each standard command name.
Variable Index An item for each variable documented in this manual.
Concept Index An item for concepts and other general subjects.

Detailed Node Listing

Here are some other nodes which are really subnodes of the ones already listed, mentioned here so you can get to them in one step:

The Organization of the Screen
Point The place in the text where editing commands operate.
Echo Area Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen.
Mode Line Interpreting the mode line.
Menu Bar How to use the menu bar.
Basic Editing Commands
Inserting Text Inserting text by simply typing it.
Moving Point Moving the cursor to the place where you want to change something.
Erasing Deleting and killing text.
Basic Undo Undoing recent changes in the text.
Basic Files Visiting, creating, and saving files.
Basic Help Asking what a character does.
Blank Lines Making and deleting blank lines.
Continuation Lines How Emacs displays lines too wide for the screen.
Position Info What line, row, or column is point on?
Arguments Numeric arguments for repeating a command N times.
Repeating Repeating the previous command quickly.
The Minibuffer
Basic Minibuffer Basic usage of the minibuffer.
Minibuffer File Entering file names with the minibuffer.
Minibuffer Edit How to edit in the minibuffer.
Completion An abbreviation facility for minibuffer input.
Minibuffer History Reusing recent minibuffer arguments.
Repetition Re-executing commands that used the minibuffer.
Passwords Entering passwords in the echo area.
Yes or No Prompts Replying yes or no in the echo area.
Completion
Completion Example Examples of using completion.
Completion Commands A list of completion commands.
Completion Exit Completion and minibuffer text submission.
Completion Styles How completion matches are chosen.
Completion Options Options for completion.
Help
Help Summary Brief list of all Help commands.
Key Help Asking what a key does in Emacs.
Name Help Asking about a command, variable or function name.
Apropos Asking what pertains to a given topic.
Help Mode Special features of Help mode and Help buffers.
Package Keywords Finding Lisp libraries by keywords (topics).
Language Help Help relating to international language support.
Misc Help Other help commands.
Help Files Commands to display auxiliary help files.
Help Echo Help on active text and tooltips.
The Mark and the Region
Setting Mark Commands to set the mark.
Marking Objects Commands to put region around textual units.
Using Region Summary of ways to operate on contents of the region.
Mark Ring Previous mark positions saved so you can go back there.
Global Mark Ring Previous mark positions in various buffers.
Shift Selection Using shifted cursor motion keys.
Disabled Transient Mark Leaving regions unhighlighted by default.
Killing and Moving Text
Deletion and Killing Commands that remove text.
Yanking Commands that insert text.
Cut and Paste Clipboard and selections on graphical displays.
Accumulating Text Other methods to add text to the buffer.
Rectangles Operating on text in rectangular areas.
CUA Bindings Using C-x/C-c/C-v to kill and yank.
Deletion and Killing
Deletion Commands for deleting small amounts of text and blank areas.
Killing by Lines How to kill entire lines of text at one time.
Other Kill Commands Commands to kill large regions of text and syntactic units such as words and sentences.
Kill Options Options that affect killing.
Yanking
Kill Ring Where killed text is stored.
Earlier Kills Yanking something killed some time ago.
Appending Kills Several kills in a row all yank together.
Cut and Paste Operations on Graphical Displays
Clipboard How Emacs uses the system clipboard.
Primary Selection The temporarily selected text selection.
Secondary Selection Cutting without altering point and mark.
Registers
Position Registers Saving positions in registers.
Text Registers Saving text in registers.
Rectangle Registers Saving rectangles in registers.
Configuration Registers Saving window configurations in registers.
Number Registers Numbers in registers.
File Registers File names in registers.
Keyboard Macro Registers Keyboard macros in registers.
Bookmarks Bookmarks are like registers, but persistent.
Controlling the Display
Scrolling Commands to move text up and down in a window.
Recentering A scroll command that centers the current line.
Auto Scrolling Redisplay scrolls text automatically when needed.
Horizontal Scrolling Moving text left and right in a window.
Narrowing Restricting display and editing to a portion of the buffer.
View Mode Viewing read-only buffers.
Follow Mode Follow mode lets two windows scroll as one.
Faces How to change the display style using faces.
Colors Specifying colors for faces.
Standard Faces The main predefined faces.
Text Scale Increasing or decreasing text size in a buffer.
Font Lock Minor mode for syntactic highlighting using faces.
Highlight Interactively Tell Emacs what text to highlight.
Fringes Enabling or disabling window fringes.
Displaying Boundaries Displaying top and bottom of the buffer.
Useless Whitespace Showing possibly spurious trailing whitespace.
Selective Display Hiding lines with lots of indentation.
Optional Mode Line Optional mode line display features.
Text Display How text characters are normally displayed.
Cursor Display Features for displaying the cursor.
Line Truncation Truncating lines to fit the screen width instead of continuing them to multiple screen lines.
Visual Line Mode Word wrap and screen line-based editing.
Display Custom Information on variables for customizing display.
Searching and Replacement
Incremental Search Search happens as you type the string.
Nonincremental Search Specify entire string and then search.
Word Search Search for sequence of words.
Symbol Search Search for a source code symbol.
Regexp Search Search for match for a regexp.
Regexps Syntax of regular expressions.
Regexp Backslash Regular expression constructs starting with ‘\’.
Regexp Example A complex regular expression explained.
Lax Search Search ignores some distinctions between similar characters, like letter-case.
Replace Search, and replace some or all matches.
Other Repeating Search Operating on all matches for some regexp.
Search Customizations Various search customizations.
Incremental Search
Basic Isearch Basic incremental search commands.
Repeat Isearch Searching for the same string again.
Isearch Yank Commands that grab text into the search string or else edit the search string.
Error in Isearch When your string is not found.
Special Isearch Special input in incremental search.
Not Exiting Isearch Prefix argument and scrolling commands.
Isearch Minibuffer Incremental search of the minibuffer history.
Replacement Commands
Unconditional Replace Replacing all matches for a string.
Regexp Replace Replacing all matches for a regexp.
Replacement and Lax Matches Lax searching for text to replace.
Query Replace How to use querying.
Commands for Fixing Typos
Undo The Undo commands.
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.
Keyboard Macros
Basic Keyboard Macro Defining and running keyboard macros.
Keyboard Macro Ring Where previous keyboard macros are saved.
Keyboard Macro Counter Inserting incrementing numbers in macros.
Keyboard Macro Query Making keyboard macros do different things each time.
Save Keyboard Macro Giving keyboard macros names; saving them in files.
Edit Keyboard Macro Editing keyboard macros.
Keyboard Macro Step-Edit Interactively executing and editing a keyboard macro.
File Handling
File Names How to type and edit file-name arguments.
Visiting Visiting a file prepares Emacs to edit the file.
Saving Saving makes your changes permanent.
Reverting Reverting cancels all the changes not saved.
Auto Revert Keeping buffers automatically up-to-date.
Auto Save Auto Save periodically protects against loss of data.
File Aliases Handling multiple names for one file.
Directories Creating, deleting, and listing file directories.
Comparing Files Finding where two files differ.
Diff Mode Mode for editing file differences.
Copying and Naming Copying, naming and renaming files.
Misc File Ops Other things you can do on files.
Compressed Files Accessing compressed files.
File Archives Operating on tar, zip, jar etc. archive files.
Remote Files Accessing files on other machines.
Quoted File Names Quoting special characters in file names.
File Name Cache Completion against a list of files you often use.
File Conveniences Convenience features for finding files.
Image Mode Viewing image files.
Filesets Handling sets of files.
Saving Files
Save Commands Commands for saving files.
Backup How Emacs saves the old version of your file.
Customize Save Customizing the saving of files.
Interlocking How Emacs protects against simultaneous editing of one file by two users.
File Shadowing Copying files to shadows automatically.
Time Stamps Emacs can update time stamps on saved files.
Backup Files
Backup Names How backup files are named.
Backup Deletion Emacs deletes excess numbered backups.
Backup Copying Backups can be made by copying or renaming.
Auto Reverting Non-File Buffers
Auto Reverting the Buffer Menu Auto Revert of the Buffer Menu.
Auto Reverting Dired Auto Revert of Dired buffers.
Auto-Saving: Protection Against Disasters
Auto Save Files The file where auto-saved changes are actually made until you save the file.
Auto Save Control Controlling when and how often to auto-save.
Recover Recovering text from auto-save files.
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-only status; 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.
Indirect Buffers An indirect buffer shares the text of another buffer.
Buffer Convenience Convenience and customization features for buffer handling.
Convenience Features and Customization of Buffer Handling
Uniquify Making buffer names unique with directory parts.
Icomplete Fast minibuffer selection.
Buffer Menus Configurable buffer menu.
Multiple Windows
Basic Window Introduction to Emacs 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.
Displaying Buffers How Emacs picks a window for displaying a buffer.
Temporary Displays Displaying non-editable buffers.
Window Convenience Convenience functions for window handling.
Tab Line Window tab line.
Displaying a Buffer in a Window
Window Choice How display-buffer works.
Frames and Graphical Displays
Mouse Commands Moving, cutting, and pasting, with the mouse.
Word and Line Mouse Mouse commands for selecting whole words or lines.
Mouse References Using the mouse to select an item from a list.
Menu Mouse Clicks Mouse clicks that bring up menus.
Mode Line Mouse Mouse clicks on the mode line.
Creating Frames Creating additional Emacs frames with various contents.
Frame Commands Iconifying, deleting, and switching frames.
Fonts Changing the frame font.
Speedbar How to make and use a speedbar frame.
Multiple Displays How one Emacs instance can talk to several displays.
Frame Parameters Changing the colors and other modes of frames.
Scroll Bars How to enable and disable scroll bars; how to use them.
Window Dividers Window separators that can be dragged with the mouse.
Drag and Drop Using drag and drop to open files and insert text.
Menu Bars Enabling and disabling the menu bar.
Tool Bars Enabling and disabling the tool bar.
Tab Bars Enabling and disabling the tab bar.
Dialog Boxes Controlling use of dialog boxes.
Tooltips Displaying information at the current mouse position.
Mouse Avoidance Preventing the mouse pointer from obscuring text.
Non-Window Terminals Multiple frames on terminals that show only one.
Text-Only Mouse Using the mouse in text terminals.
International Character Set Support
International Chars Basic concepts of multibyte characters.
Language Environments Setting things up for the language you use.
Input Methods Entering text characters not on your keyboard.
Select Input Method Specifying your choice of input methods.
Coding Systems Character set conversion when you read and write files, and so on.
Recognize Coding How Emacs figures out which conversion to use.
Specify Coding Specifying a file’s coding system explicitly.
Output Coding Choosing coding systems for output.
Text Coding Choosing conversion to use for file text.
Communication Coding Coding systems for interprocess communication.
File Name Coding Coding systems for file names.
Terminal Coding Specifying coding systems for converting terminal input and output.
Fontsets Fontsets are collections of fonts that cover the whole spectrum of characters.
Defining Fontsets Defining a new fontset.
Modifying Fontsets Modifying an existing fontset.
Undisplayable Characters When characters don’t display.
Unibyte Mode You can pick one European character set to use without multibyte characters.
Charsets How Emacs groups its internal character codes.
Bidirectional Editing Support for right-to-left scripts.
Major and Minor Modes
Major Modes Text mode vs. Lisp mode vs. C mode...
Minor Modes Each minor mode is a feature you can turn on independently of any others.
Choosing Modes How modes are chosen when visiting files.
Indentation
Indentation Commands More commands for performing indentation.
Tab Stops Stop points for indentation in Text modes.
Just Spaces Using only space characters for indentation.
Indent Convenience Optional indentation features.
Commands for Human Languages
Words Moving over and killing words.
Sentences Moving over and killing sentences.
Paragraphs Moving over paragraphs.
Pages Moving over pages.
Quotation Marks Inserting quotation marks.
Filling Filling or justifying text.
Case Changing the case of text.
Text Mode The major modes for editing text files.
Outline Mode Editing outlines.
Org Mode The Emacs organizer.
TeX Mode Editing TeX and LaTeX files.
HTML Mode Editing HTML and SGML files.
Nroff Mode Editing input to the nroff formatter.
Enriched Text Editing text enriched with fonts, colors, etc.
Text Based Tables Commands for editing text-based tables.
Two-Column Splitting text columns into separate windows.
Filling Text
Auto Fill Auto Fill mode breaks long lines automatically.
Fill Commands Commands to refill paragraphs and center lines.
Fill Prefix Filling paragraphs that are indented or in a comment, etc.
Adaptive Fill How Emacs can determine the fill prefix automatically.
Outline Mode
Outline Format What the text of an outline looks like.
Outline Motion Special commands for moving through outlines.
Outline Visibility Commands to control what is visible.
Outline Views Outlines and multiple views.
Foldout Folding means zooming in on outlines.
Org Mode
Org Organizer Managing TODO lists and agendas.
Org Authoring Exporting Org buffers to various formats.
TeX Mode
TeX Editing Special commands for editing in TeX mode.
LaTeX Editing Additional commands for LaTeX input files.
TeX Print Commands for printing part of a file with TeX.
TeX Misc Customization of TeX mode, and related features.
Enriched Text
Enriched Mode Entering and exiting Enriched mode.
Hard and Soft Newlines There are two different kinds of newlines.
Editing Format Info How to edit text properties.
Enriched Faces Bold, italic, underline, etc.
Enriched Indentation Changing the left and right margins.
Enriched Justification Centering, setting text flush with the left or right margin, etc.
Enriched Properties The “Special text properties” submenu.
Editing Text-based Tables
Table Definition What is a text based table.
Table Creation How to create a table.
Table Recognition How to activate and deactivate tables.
Cell Commands Cell-oriented commands in a table.
Cell Justification Justifying cell contents.
Table Rows and Columns Inserting and deleting rows and columns.
Table Conversion Converting between plain text and tables.
Table Misc Table miscellany.
Editing Programs
Program Modes Major modes for editing programs.
Defuns Commands to operate on major top-level parts of a program.
Program Indent Adjusting indentation to show the nesting.
Parentheses Commands that operate on parentheses.
Comments Inserting, killing, and aligning comments.
Documentation Getting documentation of functions you plan to call.
Hideshow Displaying blocks selectively.
Symbol Completion Completion on symbol names of your program or language.
MixedCase Words Dealing with identifiersLikeThis.
Semantic Suite of editing tools based on source code parsing.
Misc for Programs Other Emacs features useful for editing programs.
C Modes Special commands of C, C++, Objective-C, Java, IDL, Pike and AWK modes.
Asm Mode Asm mode and its special features.
Fortran Fortran mode and its special features.
Top-Level Definitions, or Defuns
Left Margin Paren An open-paren or similar opening delimiter starts a defun if it is at the left margin.
Moving by Defuns Commands to move over or mark a major definition.
Imenu Making buffer indexes as menus.
Which Function Which Function mode shows which function you are in.
Indentation for Programs
Basic Indent Indenting a single line.
Multi-line Indent Commands to reindent many lines at once.
Lisp Indent Specifying how each Lisp function should be indented.
C Indent Extra features for indenting C and related modes.
Custom C Indent Controlling indentation style for C and related modes.
Commands for Editing with Parentheses
Expressions Expressions with balanced parentheses.
Moving by Parens Commands for moving up, down and across in the structure of parentheses.
Matching Insertion of a close-delimiter flashes matching open.
Manipulating Comments
Comment Commands Inserting, killing, and aligning comments.
Multi-Line Comments Commands for adding and editing multi-line comments.
Options for Comments Customizing the comment features.
Documentation Lookup
Info Lookup Looking up library functions and commands in Info files.
Man Page Looking up man pages of library functions and commands.
Lisp Doc Looking up Emacs Lisp functions, etc.
C and Related Modes
Motion in C Commands to move by C statements, etc.
Electric C Colon and other chars can automatically reindent.
Hungry Delete A more powerful DEL command.
Other C Commands Filling comments, viewing expansion of macros, and other neat features.
Fortran Mode
Fortran Motion Moving point by statements or subprograms.
Fortran Indent Indentation commands for Fortran.
Fortran Comments Inserting and aligning comments.
Fortran Autofill Auto fill support for Fortran.
Fortran Columns Measuring columns for valid Fortran.
Fortran Abbrev Built-in abbrevs for Fortran keywords.
Fortran Indentation
ForIndent Commands Commands for indenting and filling Fortran.
ForIndent Cont How continuation lines indent.
ForIndent Num How line numbers auto-indent.
ForIndent Conv Conventions you must obey to avoid trouble.
ForIndent Vars Variables controlling Fortran indent style.
Compiling and Testing Programs
Compilation Compiling programs in languages other than Lisp (C, Pascal, etc.).
Compilation Mode The mode for visiting compiler errors.
Compilation Shell Customizing your shell properly for use in the compilation buffer.
Grep Searching Searching with grep.
Flymake Finding syntax errors on the fly.
Debuggers Running symbolic debuggers for non-Lisp programs.
Executing Lisp Various modes for editing Lisp programs, with different facilities for running the Lisp programs.
Lisp Libraries How Lisp programs are loaded into Emacs.
Lisp Eval Executing a single Lisp expression in Emacs.
Lisp Interaction Executing Lisp in an Emacs buffer.
External Lisp Communicating through Emacs with a separate Lisp.
Running Debuggers Under Emacs
Starting GUD How to start a debugger subprocess.
Debugger Operation Connection between the debugger and source buffers.
Commands of GUD Key bindings for common commands.
GUD Customization Defining your own commands for GUD.
GDB Graphical Interface An enhanced mode that uses GDB features to implement a graphical debugging environment.
GDB Graphical Interface
GDB User Interface Layout Control the number of displayed buffers.
Source Buffers Use the mouse in the fringe/margin to control your program.
Breakpoints Buffer A breakpoint control panel.
Threads Buffer Displays your threads.
Stack Buffer Select a frame from the call stack.
Other GDB Buffers Other buffers for controlling the GDB state.
Watch Expressions Monitor variable values in the speedbar.
Multithreaded Debugging Debugging programs with several threads.
Maintaining Large Programs
Version Control Using version control systems.
Projects Commands for handling source files in a project.
Change Log Maintaining a change history for your program.
Xref Find definitions and references of any function, method, struct, macro, … in your program.
EDE An integrated development environment for Emacs.
Emerge A convenient way of merging two versions of a program.
Version Control
Introduction to VC How version control works in general.
VC Mode Line How the mode line shows version control status.
Basic VC Editing How to edit a file under version control.
Log Buffer Features available in log entry buffers.
Registering Putting a file under version control.
Old Revisions Examining and comparing old versions.
VC Change Log Viewing the VC Change Log.
VC Undo Canceling changes before or after committing.
VC Ignore Ignore files under version control system.
VC Directory Mode Listing files managed by version control.
Branches Multiple lines of development.
Miscellaneous VC Various other commands and features of VC.
Customizing VC Variables that change VC’s behavior.
Introduction to Version Control
Why Version Control? Understanding the problems it addresses.
Version Control Systems Supported version control back-end systems.
VCS Concepts Words and concepts related to version control.
VCS Merging How file conflicts are handled.
VCS Changesets How changes are grouped.
VCS Repositories Where version control repositories are stored.
Types of Log File The VCS log in contrast to the ChangeLog.
Basic Editing under Version Control
VC With A Merging VCS Without locking: default mode for CVS.
VC With A Locking VCS RCS in its default mode, SCCS, and optionally CVS.
Advanced C-x v v Advanced features available with a prefix argument.
VC Directory Mode
VC Directory Buffer What the buffer looks like and means.
VC Directory Commands Commands to use in a VC directory buffer.
Version Control Branches
Switching Branches How to get to another existing branch.
Pulling / Pushing Receiving/sending changes from/to elsewhere.
Merging Transferring changes between branches.
Creating Branches How to start a new branch.
Miscellaneous Commands and Features of VC
Change Logs and VC Generating a change log file from log entries.
VC Delete/Rename Deleting and renaming version-controlled files.
Revision Tags Symbolic names for revisions.
Version Headers Inserting version control headers into working files.
Customizing VC
General VC Options Options that apply to multiple back ends.
RCS and SCCS Options for RCS and SCCS.
CVS Options Options for CVS.
Change Logs
Change Log Commands Commands for editing change log files.
Format of ChangeLog What the change log file looks like.
Xref
Find Identifiers Commands to find where an identifier is defined or referenced, to list identifiers, etc.
Tags Tables Tags table records which file defines a symbol.
Select Tags Table How to visit a specific tags table.
Find Identifiers
Looking Up Identifiers Commands to find the definition of a specific tag.
Xref Commands Commands in the *xref* buffer.
Identifier Search Searching and replacing identifiers.
List Identifiers Listing identifiers and completing on them.
Tags Tables
Tag Syntax Tag syntax for various types of code and text files.
Create Tags Table Creating a tags table with etags.
Etags Regexps Create arbitrary tags using regular expressions.
Merging Files with Emerge
Overview of Emerge How to start Emerge. Basic concepts.
Submodes of Emerge Fast mode vs. Edit mode. Skip Prefers mode and Auto Advance mode.
State of Difference You do the merge by specifying state A or B for each difference.
Merge Commands Commands for selecting a difference, changing states of differences, etc.
Exiting Emerge What to do when you’ve finished the merge.
Combining in Emerge How to keep both alternatives for a difference.
Fine Points of Emerge Miscellaneous issues.
Abbrevs
Abbrev Concepts Fundamentals of defined 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.
Dabbrev Customization What is a word, for dynamic abbrevs. Case handling.
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.
Dired, the Directory Editor
Dired Enter How to invoke Dired.
Dired Navigation Special motion commands in the Dired buffer.
Dired Deletion Deleting files with Dired.
Flagging Many Files Flagging files based on their names.
Dired Visiting Other file operations through Dired.
Marks vs Flags Flagging for deletion vs marking.
Operating on Files How to copy, rename, print, compress, etc. either one file or several files.
Shell Commands in Dired Running a shell command on the marked files.
Transforming File Names Using patterns to rename multiple files.
Comparison in Dired Running diff by way of Dired.
Subdirectories in Dired Adding subdirectories to the Dired buffer.
Subdir Switches Subdirectory switches in Dired.
Subdirectory Motion Moving across subdirectories, and up and down.
Hiding Subdirectories Making subdirectories visible or invisible.
Dired Updating Discarding lines for files of no interest.
Dired and Find Using find to choose the files for Dired.
Wdired Operating on files by editing the Dired buffer.
Image-Dired Viewing image thumbnails in Dired.
Misc Dired Features Various other features.
The Calendar and the Diary
Calendar Motion Moving through the calendar; selecting a date.
Scroll Calendar Bringing earlier or later months onto the screen.
Counting Days How many days are there between two dates?
General Calendar Exiting or recomputing the calendar.
Writing Calendar Files Writing calendars to files of various formats.
Holidays Displaying dates of holidays.
Sunrise/Sunset Displaying local times of sunrise and sunset.
Lunar Phases Displaying phases of the moon.
Other Calendars Converting dates to other calendar systems.
Diary Displaying events from your diary.
Daylight Saving How to specify when daylight saving time is active.
Time Intervals Keeping track of time intervals.
Advanced Calendar/Diary Usage Advanced Calendar/Diary customization.
Movement in the Calendar
Calendar Unit Motion Moving by days, weeks, months, and years.
Move to Beginning or End Moving to start/end of weeks, months, and years.
Specified Dates Moving to the current date or another specific date.
Conversion To and From Other Calendars
Calendar Systems The calendars Emacs understands (aside from Gregorian).
To Other Calendar Converting the selected date to various calendars.
From Other Calendar Moving to a date specified in another calendar.
The Diary
Format of Diary File Entering events in your diary.
Displaying the Diary Viewing diary entries and associated calendar dates.
Date Formats Various ways you can specify dates.
Adding to Diary Commands to create diary entries.
Special Diary Entries Anniversaries, blocks of dates, cyclic entries, etc.
Appointments Reminders when it’s time to do something.
Importing Diary Converting diary events to/from other formats.
More advanced features of the Calendar and Diary
Calendar Customizing Calendar layout and hooks.
Holiday Customizing Defining your own holidays.
Mayan Calendar Moving to a date specified in a Mayan calendar.
Date Display Format Changing the format.
Time Display Format Changing the format.
Diary Customizing Defaults you can set.
Non-Gregorian Diary Diary entries based on other calendars.
Diary Display A choice of ways to display the diary.
Fancy Diary Display Sorting diary entries, using included diary files.
Sexp Diary Entries More flexible diary entries.
Sending Mail
Mail Format Format of a mail message.
Mail Headers Details of some standard mail header fields.
Mail Aliases Abbreviating and grouping mail addresses.
Mail Commands Special commands for editing mail being composed.
Mail Signature Adding a signature to every message.
Mail Amusements Distracting the NSA; adding fortune messages.
Mail Methods Using alternative mail-composition methods.
Mail Commands
Mail Sending Commands to send the message.
Header Editing Commands to move to header fields and edit them.
Citing Mail Quoting a message you are replying to.
Mail Misc Attachments, spell checking, etc.
Reading Mail with Rmail
Rmail Basics Basic concepts of Rmail, and simple use.
Rmail Scrolling Scrolling through a message.
Rmail Motion Moving to another message.
Rmail Deletion Deleting and expunging messages.
Rmail Inbox How mail gets into the Rmail file.
Rmail Files Using multiple Rmail files.
Rmail Output Copying message out to files.
Rmail Labels Classifying messages by labeling them.
Rmail Attributes Certain standard labels, called attributes.
Rmail Reply Sending replies to messages you are viewing.
Rmail Summary Summaries show brief info on many messages.
Rmail Sorting Sorting messages in Rmail.
Rmail Display How Rmail displays a message; customization.
Rmail Coding How Rmail handles decoding character sets.
Rmail Editing Editing message text and headers in Rmail.
Rmail Digest Extracting the messages from a digest message.
Rmail Rot13 Reading messages encoded in the rot13 code.
Movemail More details of fetching new mail.
Remote Mailboxes Retrieving mail from remote mailboxes.
Other Mailbox Formats Retrieving mail from local mailboxes in various formats.
Rmail Summaries
Rmail Make Summary Making various sorts of summaries.
Rmail Summary Edit Manipulating messages from the summary.
Gnus
Buffers of Gnus The group, summary, and article buffers.
Gnus Startup What you should know about starting Gnus.
Gnus Group Buffer A short description of Gnus group commands.
Gnus Summary Buffer A short description of Gnus summary commands.
Document Viewing
DocView Navigation Navigating DocView buffers.
DocView Searching Searching inside documents.
DocView Slicing Specifying which part of a page is displayed.
DocView Conversion Influencing and triggering conversion.
Running Shell Commands from Emacs
Single Shell How to run one shell command and return.
Interactive Shell Permanent shell taking input via Emacs.
Shell Mode Special Emacs commands used with permanent shell.
Shell Prompts Two ways to recognize shell prompts.
Shell History Repeating previous commands in a shell buffer.
Directory Tracking Keeping track when the subshell changes directory.
Shell Options Options for customizing Shell mode.
Terminal emulator An Emacs window as a terminal emulator.
Term Mode Special Emacs commands used in Term mode.
Remote Host Connecting to another computer.
Serial Terminal Connecting to a serial port.
Shell Command History
Shell Ring Fetching commands from the history list.
Shell History Copying Moving to a command and then copying it.
History References Expanding ‘!’-style history references.
Using Emacs as a Server
TCP Emacs server Listening to a TCP socket.
Invoking emacsclient Connecting to the Emacs server.
emacsclient Options Emacs client startup options.
Printing Hard Copies
PostScript Printing buffers or regions as PostScript.
PostScript Variables Customizing the PostScript printing commands.
Printing Package An optional advanced printing interface.
Hyperlinking and Navigation Features
EWW A web browser in Emacs.
Embedded WebKit Widgets Embedding browser widgets in Emacs buffers.
Browse-URL Following URLs.
Goto Address mode Activating URLs.
FFAP Finding files etc. at point.
Emacs Lisp Packages
Package Menu Buffer for viewing and managing packages.
Package Statuses Which statuses a package can have.
Package Installation Options for package installation.
Package Files Where packages are installed.
Customization
Easy Customization Convenient way to browse and change settings.
Variables Many Emacs commands examine Emacs variables to decide what to do; by setting variables, you can control their functioning.
Key Bindings The keymaps say what command each key runs. By changing them, you can redefine keys.
Init File How to write common customizations in the initialization file.
Authentication Keeping persistent authentication information.
Easy Customization Interface
Customization Groups How settings are classified.
Browsing Custom Browsing and searching for settings.
Changing a Variable How to edit an option’s value and set the option.
Saving Customizations Saving customizations for future Emacs sessions.
Face Customization How to edit the attributes of a face.
Specific Customization Customizing specific settings or groups.
Custom Themes Collections of customization settings.
Creating Custom Themes How to create a new custom theme.
Variables
Examining Examining or setting one variable’s value.
Hooks Hook variables let you specify programs for parts of Emacs to run on particular occasions.
Locals Per-buffer values of variables.
File Variables How files can specify variable values.
Directory Variables How variable values can be specified by directory.
Connection Variables Variables which are valid for buffers with a remote default directory.
Local Variables in Files
Specifying File Variables Specifying file local variables.
Safe File Variables Making sure file local variables are safe.
Customizing Key Bindings
Keymaps Generalities. The global keymap.
Prefix Keymaps Keymaps for prefix keys.
Local Keymaps Major and minor modes have their own keymaps.
Minibuffer Maps The minibuffer uses its own local keymaps.
Rebinding How to redefine one key’s meaning conveniently.
Init Rebinding Rebinding keys with your initialization file.
Modifier Keys Using modifier keys in key bindings.
Function Keys Rebinding terminal function keys.
Named ASCII Chars Distinguishing TAB from C-i, and so on.
Mouse Buttons Rebinding mouse buttons in Emacs.
Disabling Disabling a command means confirmation is required before it can be executed. This is done to protect beginners from surprises.
The Emacs Initialization File
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.
Find Init How Emacs finds the init file.
Init Non-ASCII Using non-ASCII characters in an init file.
Early Init File Another init file, which is read early on.
Dealing with Emacs Trouble
DEL Does Not Delete What to do if DEL doesn’t delete.
Stuck Recursive ’[...]’ in mode line around the parentheses.
Screen Garbled Garbage on the screen.
Text Garbled Garbage in the text.
Memory Full How to cope when you run out of memory.
Crashing What Emacs does when it crashes.
After a Crash Recovering editing in an Emacs session that crashed.
Emergency Escape What to do if Emacs stops responding.
Long Lines Mitigating slowness due to extremely long lines.
Reporting Bugs
Known Problems How to read about known problems and bugs.
Bug Criteria Have you really found a bug?
Understanding Bug Reporting How to report a bug effectively.
Checklist Steps to follow for a good bug report.
Sending Patches How to send a patch for GNU Emacs.
Contributing to Emacs Development
Coding Standards GNU Emacs coding standards.
Copyright Assignment Assigning copyright to the FSF.
Command Line Arguments for Emacs Invocation
Action Arguments Arguments to visit files, load libraries, and call functions.
Initial Options Arguments that take effect while starting Emacs.
Command Example Examples of using command line arguments.
Environment Environment variables that Emacs uses.
Display X Changing the default display and using remote login.
Font X Choosing a font for text, under X.
Colors X Choosing display colors.
Window Size X Start-up window size, under X.
Borders X Internal and outer borders, under X.
Title X Specifying the initial frame’s title.
Icons X Choosing what sort of icon to use, under X.
Misc X Other display options.
Environment Variables
General Variables Environment variables that all versions of Emacs use.
Misc Variables Certain system-specific variables.
MS-Windows Registry An alternative to the environment on MS-Windows.
X Options and Resources
Resources Using X resources with Emacs (in general).
Table of Resources Table of specific X resources that affect Emacs.
Lucid Resources X resources for Lucid menus.
Motif Resources X resources for Motif and LessTif menus.
GTK resources Resources for GTK widgets.
GTK resources
GTK Resource Basics Basic usage of GTK+ resources.
GTK Widget Names How GTK+ widgets are named.
GTK Names in Emacs GTK+ widgets used by Emacs.
GTK styles What can be customized in a GTK+ widget.
Emacs and macOS / GNUstep
Mac / GNUstep Basics Basic Emacs usage under GNUstep or macOS.
Mac / GNUstep Customization Customizations under GNUstep or macOS.
Mac / GNUstep Events How window system events are handled.
GNUstep Support Details on status of GNUstep support.
Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS
Windows Startup How to start Emacs on Windows.
Text and Binary Text files use CRLF to terminate lines.
Windows Files File-name conventions on Windows.
ls in Lisp Emulation of ls for Dired.
Windows HOME Where Emacs looks for your .emacs and where it starts up.
Windows Keyboard Windows-specific keyboard features.
Windows Mouse Windows-specific mouse features.
Windows Processes Running subprocesses on Windows.
Windows Printing How to specify the printer on MS-Windows.
Windows Fonts Specifying fonts on MS-Windows.
Windows Misc Miscellaneous Windows features.
MS-DOS Using Emacs on MS-DOS.
Emacs and MS-DOS
MS-DOS Keyboard Keyboard conventions on MS-DOS.
MS-DOS Mouse Mouse conventions on MS-DOS.
MS-DOS Display Fonts, frames and display size on MS-DOS.
MS-DOS File Names File name conventions on MS-DOS.
MS-DOS Printing Printing specifics on MS-DOS.
MS-DOS and MULE Support for internationalization on MS-DOS.
MS-DOS Processes Running subprocesses on MS-DOS.

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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being “The GNU Manifesto,” “Distribution” and “GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE,” with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.”


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