EMACS(1) RISC/os Reference Manual EMACS(1)
NAME
emacs - GNU project Emacs
SYNOPSIS
emacs [ command-line switches ] [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
GNU Emacs is a new version of Emacs, written by the author
of the original (PDP-10) Emacs, Richard Stallman. Its user
functionality encompasses everything other Emacs editors do,
and it is easily extensible since its editing commands are
written in Lisp.
Emacs has an extensive interactive help facility, but the
facility assumes that you know how to manipulate Emacs win-
dows and buffers. CTRL-h (backspace or CTRL-h) enters the
Help facility. Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t) requests an
interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the fundamen-
tals of Emacs in a few minutes. Help Apropos (CTRL-h a)
helps you find a command given its functionality, Help Char-
acter (CTRL-h c) describes a given character's effect, and
Help Function (CTRL-h f) describes a given Lisp function
specified by name.
Emacs's Undo can undo several steps of modification to your
buffers, so it is easy to recover from editing mistakes.
GNU Emacs's many special packages handle mail reading
(RMail) and sending (Mail), outline editing (Outline), com-
piling (Compile), running subshells within Emacs windows
(Shell), running a Lisp read-eval-print loop (Lisp-
Interaction-Mode), and automated psychotherapy (Doctor).
There is an extensive reference manual, but users of other
Emacses should have little trouble adapting even without a
copy. Users new to Emacs will be able to use basic features
fairly rapidly by studying the tutorial and using the self-
documentation features.
Emacs Options
The following options are of general interest:
file Edit file.
+number Go to the line specified by number (do not insert a
space between the "+" sign and the number).
-q Do not load an init file.
-u user Load user's init file.
-t file Use specified file as the terminal instead of using
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stdin/stdout. This must be the first argument
specified in the command line.
The following options are lisp-oriented (these options are
processed in the order encountered):
-f function
Execute the lisp function function.
-l file Load the lisp code in the file file.
The following options are useful when running Emacs as a
batch editor:
-batch commandfile
Edit in batch mode using the commands found in com-
mandfile. The editor will send messages to stdout.
This option must be the first in the argument list.
-kill Exit Emacs while in batch mode.
Using Emacs with X
Emacs has been tailored to work well with the X window sys-
tem. If you run Emacs from under X windows, it will create
its own X window to display in. You will probably want to
start the editor as a background process so that you can
continue using your original window.
Emacs can be started with the following X switches:
-rn name
Specifies the program name which should be used when
looking up defaults in the user's X resources. This
must be the first option specified in the command
line.
-wn name
Specifies the name which should be assigned to the
Emacs window.
-r Display the Emacs window in reverse video.
-i Use the "kitchen sink" bitmap icon when iconifying
the Emacs window.
-font font, -fn font
Set the Emacs window's font to that specified by
font. You will find the various X fonts in the
/usr/lib/X11/fonts directory. Note that Emacs will
only accept fixed width fonts. Under the X11
Release 4 font-naming conventions, any font with the
value "m" or "c" in the eleventh field of the font
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name is a fixed width font. Furthermore, fonts
whose name are of the form widthxheight are gen-
erally fixed width, as is the font fixed. See
xlsfonts(1) for more information.
When you specify a font, be sure to put a space
between the switch and the font name.
-b pixels
Set the Emacs window's border width to the number of
pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to one pixel on
each side of the window.
-ib pixels
Set the window's internal border width to the number
of pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to one pixel
of padding on each side of the window.
-w geometry, -geometry geometry
Set the Emacs window's width, height, and position
as specified. The geometry specification is in the
standard X format; see X(1) for more information.
The width and height are specified in characters;
the default is 80 by 24.
-fg color
On color displays, sets the color of the text.
See the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for a list of
valid color names.
-bg color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
background.
-bd color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
border.
-cr color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
text cursor.
-ms color
On color displays, sets the color of the window's
mouse cursor.
-d displayname, -display displayname
Create the Emacs window on the display specified by
displayname. Must be the first option specified in
the command line.
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-nw Tells Emacs not to use its special interface to X.
If you use this switch when invoking Emacs from an
xterm(1) window, display is done in that window.
This must be the first option specified in the com-
mand line.
You can set X default values for your Emacs windows in your
.Xresources file (see xrdb(1)). Use the following format:
emacs.keyword:value
where value specifies the default value of keyword. Emacs
lets you set default values for the following keywords:
font (class Font)
Sets the window's text font.
reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
If reverseVideo's value is set to on, the window
will be displayed in reverse video.
bitmapIcon (class BitmapIcon)
If bitmapIcon's value is set to on, the window will
iconify into the "kitchen sink."
borderWidth (class BorderWidth)
Sets the window's border width in pixels.
internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
Sets the window's internal border width in pixels.
foreground (class Foreground)
For color displays, sets the window's text color.
background (class Background)
For color displays, sets the window's background
color.
borderColor (class BorderColor)
For color displays, sets the color of the window's
border.
cursorColor (class Foreground)
For color displays, sets the color of the window's
text cursor.
pointerColor (class Foreground)
For color displays, sets the color of the window's
mouse cursor.
geometry (class Geometry)
Sets the geometry of the Emacs window (as described
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above).
title (class Title)
Sets the title of the Emacs window.
iconName (class Title)
Sets the icon name for the Emacs window icon.
If you try to set color values while using a black and white
display, the window's characteristics will default as fol-
lows: the foreground color will be set to black, the back-
ground color will be set to white, the border color will be
set to grey, and the text and mouse cursors will be set to
black.
Using the Mouse
The following lists the mouse button bindings for the Emacs
window under X11.
MOUSE BUTTON FUNCTION
left Set point.
middle Paste text.
right Cut text into X cut buffer.
SHIFT-middle Cut text into X cut buffer.
SHIFT-right Paste text.
CTRL-middle Cut text into X cut buffer and kill it.
CTRL-right Select this window, then split it into
two windows. Same as typing CTRL-x 2.
CTRL-SHIFT-left X buffer menu--hold the buttons and
keys down, wait for menu to appear,
select buffer, and release. Move mouse
out of menu and release to cancel.
CTRL-SHIFT-middle X help menu--pop up index card menu for
Emacs help.
CTRL-SHIFT-right Select window with mouse, and delete
all other windows. Same as typing
CTRL-x 1.
MANUALS
You can order printed copies of the GNU Emacs Manual for
$15.00/copy postpaid from the Free Software Foundation,
which develops GNU software (contact them for quantity
prices on the manual). Their address is:
Free Software Foundation
675 Mass Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
Your local Emacs maintainer might also have copies avail-
able. As with all software and publications from FSF,
everyone is permitted to make and distribute copies of the
Emacs manual. The TeX source to the manual is also included
in the Emacs source distribution.
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FILES
/usr/new/lib/emacs/src - C source files and object files
/usr/new/lib/emacs/lisp - Lisp source files and compiled
files that define most editing commands. Some are
preloaded; others are autoloaded from this directory when
used.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/man - sources for the Emacs reference
manual.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/etc - various programs that are used with
GNU Emacs, and some files of information.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/etc/DOC.* - contains the documentation
strings for the Lisp primitives and preloaded Lisp functions
of GNU Emacs. They are stored here to reduce the size of
Emacs proper.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/etc/DIFF discusses GNU Emacs vs. Twenex
Emacs;
/usr/new/lib/emacs/etc/CCADIFF discusses GNU Emacs vs. CCA
Emacs;
/usr/new/lib/emacs/etc/GOSDIFF discusses GNU Emacs vs. Gos-
ling Emacs.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/etc/SERVICE lists people offering various
services to assist users of GNU Emacs, including education,
troubleshooting, porting and customization.
These files also have information useful to anyone wishing
to write programs in the Emacs Lisp extension language,
which has not yet been fully documented.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/info - files for the Info documentation
browser (a subsystem of Emacs) to refer to. Currently not
much of Unix is documented here, but the complete text of
the Emacs reference manual is included in a convenient tree
structured form.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/lock - holds lock files that are made for
all files being modified in Emacs, to prevent simultaneous
modification of one file by two users.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/cpp - the GNU cpp, needed for building
Emacs on certain versions of Unix where the standard cpp
cannot handle long names for macros.
/usr/new/lib/emacs/shortnames - facilities for translating
long names to short names in C code, needed for building
Emacs on certain versions of Unix where the C compiler can-
not handle long names for functions or variables.
/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt - list of valid X color names.
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BUGS
There is a mailing list, bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu on
the internet (ucbvax!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gnu-emacs on
UUCPnet), for reporting Emacs bugs and fixes. But before
reporting something as a bug, please try to be sure that it
really is a bug, not a misunderstanding or a deliberate
feature. We ask you to read the section ``Reporting Emacs
Bugs'' near the end of the reference manual (or Info system)
for hints on how and when to report bugs. Also, include the
version number of the Emacs you are running in every bug
report that you send in.
Do not expect a personal answer to a bug report. The pur-
pose of reporting bugs is to get them fixed for everyone in
the next release, if possible. For personal assistance,
look in the SERVICE file (see above) for a list of people
who offer it.
Please do not send anything but bug reports to this mailing
list. Send requests to be added to mailing lists to the
special list info-gnu-emacs-request@prep.ai.mit.edu (or the
corresponding UUCP address). For more information about
Emacs mailing lists, see the file
/usr/new/lib/emacs/etc/MAILINGLISTS. Bugs tend actually to
be fixed if they can be isolated, so it is in your interest
to report them in such a way that they can be easily repro-
duced.
Bugs that I know about are: shell will not work with pro-
grams running in Raw mode on some Unix versions.
UNRESTRICTIONS
Emacs is free; anyone may redistribute copies of Emacs to
anyone under the terms stated in the Emacs General Public
License, a copy of which accompanies each copy of Emacs and
which also appears in the reference manual.
Copies of Emacs may sometimes be received packaged with dis-
tributions of Unix systems, but it is never included in the
scope of any license covering those systems. Such inclusion
violates the terms on which distribution is permitted. In
fact, the primary purpose of the General Public License is
to prohibit anyone from attaching any other restrictions to
redistribution of Emacs.
Richard Stallman encourages you to improve and extend Emacs,
and urges that you contribute your extensions to the GNU
library. Eventually GNU (Gnu's Not Unix) will be a complete
replacement for Berkeley Unix. Everyone will be able to use
the GNU system for free.
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SEE ALSO
X(1), xlsfonts(1), xterm(1), xrdb(1)
AUTHORS
Emacs was written by Richard Stallman and the Free Software
Foundation. Joachim Martillo and Robert Krawitz added the X
features.
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