GNU Emacs Manual

The Emacs Editor

Emacs is the extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor. This Info file describes how to edit with Emacs and some of how to customize it; it corresponds to GNU Emacs version 23.1.

For information on extending Emacs, see Emacs Lisp.

This is the Sixteenth edition of the GNU Emacs Manual,
updated for Emacs version 23.1.

Copyright © 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 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 1.3 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.”

• Distrib: How to get the latest Emacs distribution.
• Intro: An introduction to Emacs concepts.
• Glossary: Terms used in this manual.

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 command name.
• Variable Index: An item for each documented variable.
• Concept Index: An item for each concept.
• Acknowledgments: Major contributors to GNU Emacs.

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) text.
• Yanking: Recovering killed text. Moving text. (Pasting.)
• Accumulating Text: Other ways of copying text.
• Rectangles: Operating on the text inside a rectangle on the screen.
• CUA Bindings: Using C-x, C-c, C-v for copy and paste, with enhanced rectangle support.
• 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: A keyboard macro records a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed with a single command.

Major Structures of Emacs

• Files: All about handling files.
• Buffers: Multiple buffers; editing several files at once.
• Windows: Viewing two pieces of text at once.
• Frames: Running the same Emacs session in multiple X windows.
• International: Using non-ASCII character sets.

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.
• Building: Compiling, running and debugging programs.
• Maintaining: Features for maintaining large programs.
• Abbrevs: How to define text abbreviations to reduce the number of characters you must type.
• Picture Mode: Editing pictures made up of characters using the quarter-plane screen model.
• Sending Mail: Sending mail in Emacs.
• Rmail: Reading mail in Emacs.
• Dired: You can ``edit'' a directory to manage files in it.
• Calendar/Diary: The calendar and diary facilities.
• Document View: Viewing PDF, PS and DVI files.
• Gnus: How to read netnews with Emacs.
• Shell: Executing shell commands from Emacs.
• Emacs Server: Using Emacs as an editing server for mail, etc.
• Printing: Printing hardcopies of buffers or regions.
• Sorting: Sorting lines, paragraphs or pages within Emacs.
• Narrowing: Restricting display and editing to a portion of the buffer.
• Two-Column: Splitting apart columns to edit them in side-by-side windows.
• Editing Binary Files: Using Hexl mode to edit binary files.
• Saving Emacs Sessions: Saving Emacs state from one session to the next.
• Recursive Edit: A command can allow you to do editing "within the command". This is called a "recursive editing level".
• Emulation: Emulating some other editors with Emacs.
• Hyperlinking: Following links in buffers.
• Dissociated Press: Dissociating text for fun.
• Amusements: Various games and hacks.
• 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 22.
• Mac OS / GNUstep: Using Emacs under Mac OS and GNUstep.
• Microsoft Windows: Using Emacs on Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS.
• Manifesto: What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix!

--- The Detailed Node Listing --- ---------------------------------

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 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 page, line, row, or column is point on?
• Arguments: Numeric arguments for repeating a command N times.
• Repeating: Repeating the previous command quickly.

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.

Completion

• Completion Example: Examples of using completion.
• Completion Commands: A list of completion commands.
• Strict Completion: Different types of completion.
• 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.
• Library 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 pre-written help files.
• Help Echo: Help on active text and tooltips (`balloon help').

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.
• Persistent Mark: Keeping the mark active all the time.

Killing and Moving Text

• 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.

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.

Registers

• RegPos: Saving positions in registers.
• RegText: Saving text in registers.
• RegRect: Saving rectangles in registers.
• RegConfig: Saving window configurations in registers.
• RegNumbers: Numbers in registers.
• RegFiles: File names in registers.
• Bookmarks: Bookmarks are like registers, but persistent.

Controlling the Display

• Scrolling: Commands to move text up and down in a window.
• Auto Scrolling: Redisplay scrolls text automatically when needed.
• Horizontal Scrolling: Moving text left and right in a window.
• Follow Mode: Follow mode lets two windows scroll as one.
• Faces: How to change the display style using faces.
• Standard Faces: Emacs' predefined faces.
• Temporary Face Changes: Commands to temporarily modify the default text face
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Incremental Search

• Basic Isearch: Basic incremental search commands.
• Repeat Isearch: Searching for the same string again.
• Error in Isearch: When your string is not found.
• Special Isearch: Special input in incremental search.
• Isearch Yank: Commands that grab text into the search string or else edit the search string.
• Isearch Scroll: Scrolling during an incremental search.
• Isearch Minibuffer: Incremental search of the minibuffer history.
• Slow Isearch: Incremental search features for slow terminals.

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

• 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.
• Autorevert: Auto Reverting non-file buffers.
• 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.
• 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 sites.
• 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.
• 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.
• Supporting additional buffers: How to add more Auto Revert support.

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-onlyness; 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.
• Iswitchb: Switching between buffers with substrings.
• 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.
• Force Same Window: Forcing certain buffers to appear in the selected window rather than in another window.
• Change Window: Deleting windows and changing their sizes.
• Window Convenience: Convenience functions for window handling.

Frames and Graphical Displays

• Cut and Paste: Mouse commands for cut and paste.
• 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.
• Speedbar: How to make and use a speedbar frame.
• Multiple Displays: How one Emacs job can talk to several displays.
• Special Buffer Frames: You can make certain buffers have their own frames.
• Frame Parameters: Changing the colors and other modes of frames.
• Scroll Bars: How to enable and disable scroll bars; how to use them.
• Wheeled Mice: Using mouse wheels for scrolling.
• 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.
• Dialog Boxes: Controlling use of dialog boxes.
• Tooltips: Displaying information at the current mouse position.
• Mouse Avoidance: Moving the mouse pointer out of the way.
• Non-Window Terminals: Multiple frames on terminals that show only one.
• Text-Only Mouse: Using the mouse in text-only terminals.

Killing and Yanking on Graphical Displays

• Mouse Commands: Moving, cutting, and pasting, with the mouse.
• Word and Line Mouse: Mouse commands for selecting whole words or lines.
• Cut/Paste Other App: Transfering text between Emacs and other apps.
• Secondary Selection: Cutting without altering point and mark.
• Clipboard: Using the clipboard for selections.

International Character Set Support

• International Chars: Basic concepts of multibyte characters.
• Enabling Multibyte: Controlling whether to use 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.

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

• 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.
• Text Mode: The major modes for editing text files.
• Outline Mode: Editing outlines.
• TeX Mode: Editing input to the formatter TeX.
• HTML Mode: Editing HTML, SGML, and XML files.
• Nroff Mode: Editing input to the formatter nroff.
• Formatted Text: Editing formatted text directly in WYSIWYG fashion.
• Text Based Tables: Editing text-based tables in WYSIWYG fashion.

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.
• Refill: Keeping paragraphs filled.
• Longlines: Editing text with very long lines.

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.

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.

Editing Formatted Text

• Requesting Formatted Text: Entering and exiting Enriched mode.
• Hard and Soft Newlines: There are two different kinds of newlines.
• Editing Format Info: How to edit text properties.
• Format Faces: Bold, italic, underline, etc.
• Format Colors: Changing the color of text.
• Format Indentation: Changing the left and right margins.
• Format Justification: Centering, setting text flush with the left or right margin, etc.
• Format Properties: The "special" text properties submenu.
• Forcing Enriched Mode: How to force use of Enriched mode.

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.
• Row Commands: Manipulating rows of table cell.
• Column Commands: Manipulating columns of table cell.
• Fixed Width Mode: Fixing cell width.
• Table Conversion: Converting between plain text and tables.
• Measuring Tables: Analyzing table dimension.
• 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.
• Glasses: Making identifiersLikeThis more readable.
• Misc for Programs: Other Emacs features useful for editing programs.
• C Modes: Special commands of C, C++, Objective-C, Java, and Pike 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: Creating Lisp programs to run in 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 through Emacs.

GDB Graphical Interface

• GDB-UI 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.
• Stack Buffer: Select a frame from the call stack.
• Other GDB-UI Buffers: Input/output, locals, registers, assembler, threads and memory buffers.
• Watch Expressions: Monitor variable values in the speedbar.

Maintaining Large Programs

• Version Control: Using version control systems.
• 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.
• 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.
• Old Revisions: Examining and comparing old versions.
• Secondary VC Commands: The commands used a little less frequently.
• VC Directory Mode: Listing files managed by version control.
• Branches: Multiple lines of development.
• Remote Repositories: Efficient access to remote CVS servers.
• Revision Tags: Symbolic names for revisions.
• 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.
• 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.
• Log Buffer: Features available in log entry buffers.

The Secondary Commands of VC

• Registering: Putting a file under version control.
• VC Status: Viewing the VC status of files.
• VC Undo: Canceling changes before or after check-in.

VC Directory Mode

• VC Directory Buffer: What the buffer looks like and means.
• VC Directory Commands: Commands to use in a VC directory buffer.

Multiple Branches of a File

• Switching Branches: How to get to another existing branch.
• Creating Branches: How to start a new branch.
• Merging: Transferring changes between branches.
• Multi-User Branching: Multiple users working at multiple branches in parallel.

Remote Repositories

• Version Backups: Keeping local copies of repository versions.
• Local Version Control: Using another version system for local editing.

Revision Tags

• Making Revision Tags: The tag facilities.
• Revision Tag Caveats: Things to be careful of when using tags.

Miscellaneous Commands and Features of VC

• Change Logs and VC: Generating a change log file from log entries.
• Renaming and VC: A command to rename both the source and master file correctly.
• 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.

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.
• Select Tags Table: How to visit a tags table.
• Find Tag: Commands to find the definition of a specific tag.
• Tags Search: Using a tags table for searching and replacing.
• List Tags: Listing and finding tags defined in a file.

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.

Sending Mail

• Mail Format: Format of the mail being composed.
• Mail Headers: Details of some standard mail header fields.
• Mail Aliases: Abbreviating and grouping mail addresses.
• Mail Mode: Special commands for editing mail being composed.
• Mail Amusements: Distracting the NSA; adding fortune messages.
• Mail Methods: Using alternative mail-composition methods.

Mail Mode

• Mail Sending: Commands to send the message.
• Header Editing: Commands to move to header fields and edit them.
• Citing Mail: Copying all or part of a message you are replying to.
• Mail Mode Misc: Spell checking, signatures, 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.

Summaries

• Rmail Make Summary: Making various sorts of summaries.
• Rmail Summary Edit: Manipulating messages from the summary.

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.
• Appointments: Reminders when it's time to do something.
• Importing Diary: Converting diary events to/from other formats.
• 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.
• Mayan Calendar: Moving to a date specified in a Mayan calendar.

The Diary

• Displaying the Diary: Viewing diary entries and associated calendar dates.
• Format of Diary File: Entering events in your diary.
• 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.

Customizing the Calendar and Diary

• Calendar Customizing: Calendar layout and hooks.
• Holiday Customizing: Defining your own holidays.
• 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.
• Fancy Diary Display: Enhancing the diary display, sorting entries, using included diary files.
• Sexp Diary Entries: Fancy things you can do.

Document Viewing

• Navigation: Navigation inside DocView buffers.
• Searching: Searching inside documents.
• Slicing: Specifying which part of pages should be displayed.
• Conversion: Influencing and triggering conversion.

Gnus

• Buffers of Gnus: The group, summary, and article buffers.
• Gnus Startup: What you should know about starting Gnus.
• Summary of Gnus: A short description of the basic Gnus commands.

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.
• Paging in Term: Paging in the terminal emulator.
• 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

• 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

• Browse-URL: Following URLs.
• Goto Address mode: Activating URLs.
• FFAP: Finding files etc. at point.

Customization

• Minor Modes: Each minor mode is a feature you can turn on independently of any others.
• 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".
• Syntax: The syntax table controls how words and expressions are parsed.
• Init File: How to write common customizations in the .emacs file.

Easy Customization Interface

• Customization Groups: How settings are classified in a structure.
• Browsing Custom: Browsing and searching for settings.
• Changing a Variable: How to edit an option's value and set the option.
• Saving Customizations: Specifying the file for saving customizations.
• Face Customization: How to edit the attributes of a face.
• Specific Customization: Making a customization buffer for specific variables, faces, or groups.
• Custom Themes: How to define collections of customized options that can be loaded and unloaded together.

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.

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 init file, .emacs.
• 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 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.
• Find Init: How Emacs finds the init file.
• Init Non-ASCII: Using non-ASCII characters in an init file.

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.
• After a Crash: Recovering editing in an Emacs session that crashed.
• Emergency Escape: Emergency escape--- What to do if Emacs stops responding.
• Total Frustration: When you are at your wits' end.

Reporting 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.

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.
• Resume Arguments: Specifying arguments when you resume a running Emacs.
• 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: Choosing display colors.
• Window Size X: Start-up window size, under X.
• Borders X: Internal and external 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.
• Face Resources: X resources for customizing faces.
• Lucid Resources: X resources for Lucid menus.
• LessTif Resources: X resources for LessTif and Motif menus.
• GTK resources: Resources for GTK widgets.

GTK resources

• GTK widget names: How widgets in GTK are named in general.
• GTK Names in Emacs: GTK widget names in Emacs.
• GTK styles: What can be customized in a GTK widget.

Emacs and Mac OS / GNUstep

• Mac / GNUstep Basics: Basic Emacs usage under GNUstep or Mac OS.
• Mac / GNUstep Customization: Customizations under GNUstep or Mac OS.
• Mac / GNUstep Events: How window system events are handled.
• GNUstep Support: Details on status of GNUstep support.

Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS

• 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.
• 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 (otherwise known as MS-DOG).

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.