57 Customization

This chapter talks about various topics relevant to adapting the behavior of Emacs in ways we have anticipated. See Emacs Lisp, for how to make more far-reaching and open-ended changes. See X Resources, for information on using X resources to customize Emacs.

Customization that you do within Emacs normally affects only the particular Emacs session that you do it in—it does not persist between sessions unless you save the customization in a file such as your init file (.emacs) that will affect future sessions. (See Init File.) When you tell the customization buffer to save customizations for future sessions, this actually works by editing .emacs for you.

Another means of customization is the keyboard macro, which is a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed with a single command. See Keyboard Macros, for full instruction how to record, manage, and replay sequences of keys.

• Minor Modes: Each minor mode is one 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.