emacs/etc/emacs.1

.\" Copyright (C) 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
.\"   2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.\"
.\" This file is part of GNU Emacs.
.\"
.\" GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
.\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
.\" any later version.
.\"
.\" GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
.\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
.\"
.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
.\" along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
.\" Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
.\" Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
.\"
'\" t
.TH EMACS 1 "2007 April 13" "GNU Emacs 22.1"
.SH NAME
emacs \- GNU project Emacs
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B emacs
[
.I command-line switches
] [
.I files ...
]
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I GNU Emacs
is a version of
.I Emacs,
written by the author of the original (PDP-10)
.I Emacs,
Richard Stallman.
.br
The primary documentation of GNU Emacs is in the GNU Emacs Manual,
which you can read using Info, either from Emacs or as a standalone
program.  Please look there for complete and up-to-date documentation.
This man page is updated only when someone volunteers to do so; the
Emacs maintainers' priority goal is to minimize the amount of time
this man page takes away from other more useful projects.
.br
The user functionality of GNU Emacs encompasses
everything other
.I Emacs
editors do, and it is easily extensible since its
editing commands are written in Lisp.
.PP
.I Emacs
has an extensive interactive help facility,
but the facility assumes that you know how to manipulate
.I Emacs
windows and buffers.
CTRL-h or F1 enters the Help facility.  Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t)
starts an interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the fundamentals
of
.I Emacs
in a few minutes.
Help Apropos (CTRL-h a) helps you
find a command given its functionality, Help Character (CTRL-h c)
describes a given character's effect, and Help Function (CTRL-h f)
describes a given Lisp function specified by name.
.PP
.I Emacs's
Undo can undo several steps of modification to your buffers, so it is
easy to recover from editing mistakes.
.PP
.I GNU Emacs's
many special packages handle mail reading (RMail) and sending (Mail),
outline editing (Outline), compiling (Compile), running subshells
within
.I Emacs
windows (Shell), running a Lisp read-eval-print loop
(Lisp-Interaction-Mode), automated psychotherapy (Doctor), and much more.
.PP
There is an extensive reference manual, but
users of other Emacses
should have little trouble adapting even
without a copy.  Users new to
.I Emacs
will be able
to use basic features fairly rapidly by studying the tutorial and
using the self-documentation features.
.PP
.SM Emacs Options
.PP
The following options are of general interest:
.TP 8
.I file
Edit
.I file.
.TP
.BI \+ number
Go to the line specified by
.I number
(do not insert a space between the "+" sign and
the number).  This applies only to the next file specified.
.TP
.BI \+ line:column
Go to the specified
.I line
and
.I column
.TP
.B \-q
Do not load an init file.
.TP
.B \-no-site-file
Do not load the site-wide startup file.
.TP
.BI \-debug-init
Enable
.I Emacs
Lisp debugger during the processing of the user init file
.BI ~/.emacs.
This is useful for debugging problems in the init file.
.TP
.BI \-u " user"
Load
.I user's
init file.
.TP
.BI \-t " file"
Use specified
.I file
as the terminal instead of using stdin/stdout.
This must be the first argument specified in the command line.
.TP
.B \-version
Display
.I Emacs
version information and exit.
.PP
The following options are lisp-oriented
(these options are processed in the order encountered):
.TP 8
.BI \-f " function"
Execute the lisp function
.I function.
.TP
.BI \-l " file"
Load the lisp code in the file
.I file.
.TP
.BI \-eval " expr"
Evaluate the Lisp expression
.I expr.
.PP
The following options are useful when running
.I Emacs
as a batch editor:
.TP 8
.BI \-batch
Edit in batch mode.  The editor will send messages to stderr.  This
option must be the first in the argument list.  You must use \-l and \-f
options to specify files to execute and functions to call.
.TP
.B \-kill
Exit
.I Emacs
while in batch mode.
.TP
.BI \-L " directory"
Add
.I directory
to the list of directories
.I Emacs
searches for Lisp files.
.\" START DELETING HERE IF YOU'RE NOT USING X
.PP
.SM Using Emacs with X
.PP
.I Emacs
has been tailored to work well with the X window system.
If you run
.I 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.
.PP
.I Emacs
can be started with the following X switches:
.TP 8
.BI \-name " name"
Specifies the name which should be assigned to the initial
.I Emacs
window.  This controls looking up X resources as well as the window title.
.TP 8
.BI \-title " name"
Specifies the title for the initial X window.
.TP 8
.B \-r
Display the
.I Emacs
window in reverse video.
.TP
.BI \-font " font, " \-fn " font"
Set the
.I Emacs
window's font to that specified by
.I font.
You will find the various
.I X
fonts in the
.I /usr/lib/X11/fonts
directory.
Note that
.I 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 name is a fixed
width font.  Furthermore, fonts whose name are of the form
.IR width x height
are generally fixed width, as is the font
.IR fixed .
See
.IR xlsfonts (1)
for more information.

When you specify a font, be sure to put a space between the
switch and the font name.
.TP
.BI \-bw " pixels"
Set the
.I Emacs
window's border width to the number of pixels specified by
.I pixels.
Defaults to one pixel on each side of the window.
.TP
.BI \-ib " pixels"
Set the window's internal border width to the number of pixels specified
by
.I pixels.
Defaults to one pixel of padding on each side of the window.
.PP
.TP 8
.BI \-\-geometry " geometry"
Set the
.I Emacs
window's width, height, and position as specified.  The geometry
specification is in the standard X format; see
.IR X (1)
for more information.
The width and height are specified in characters; the default is 80 by
24.  See the Emacs manual, section "Options for Window Size and Position",
for information on how window sizes interact
with selecting or deselecting the tool bar and menu bar.
.PP
.TP 8
.BI \-fg " color"
On color displays, sets the color of the text.

Use the command
.I M-x list-colors-display
for a list of valid
color names.
.TP
.BI \-bg " color"
On color displays,
sets the color of the window's background.
.TP
.BI \-bd " color"
On color displays,
sets the color of the window's border.
.TP
.BI \-cr " color"
On color displays,
sets the color of the window's text cursor.
.TP
.BI \-ms " color"
On color displays,
sets the color of the window's mouse cursor.
.TP
.BI \-d " displayname, " \-display " displayname"
Create the
.I Emacs
window on the display specified by
.IR displayname .
Must be the first option specified in the command line.
.TP
.B \-nw
Tells
.I Emacs
not to use its special interface to X.  If you use this
switch when invoking
.I Emacs
from an
.IR xterm (1)
window, display is done in that window.
.PP
You can set
.I X
default values for your
.I Emacs
windows in your
.I \.Xresources
file (see
.IR xrdb (1)).
Use the following format:
.IP
emacs.keyword:value
.PP
where
.I value
specifies the default value of
.I keyword.
.I Emacs
lets you set default values for the following keywords:
.TP 8
.B font (\fPclass\fB Font)
Sets the window's text font.
.TP
.B reverseVideo (\fPclass\fB ReverseVideo)
If
.I reverseVideo's
value is set to
.I on,
the window will be displayed in reverse video.
.TP
.B bitmapIcon (\fPclass\fB BitmapIcon)
If
.I bitmapIcon's
value is set to
.I on,
the window will iconify into the "kitchen sink."
.TP
.B borderWidth (\fPclass\fB BorderWidth)
Sets the window's border width in pixels.
.TP
.B internalBorder (\fPclass\fB BorderWidth)
Sets the window's internal border width in pixels.
.TP
.B foreground (\fPclass\fB Foreground)
For color displays,
sets the window's text color.
.TP
.B background (\fPclass\fB Background)
For color displays,
sets the window's background color.
.TP
.B borderColor (\fPclass\fB BorderColor)
For color displays,
sets the color of the window's border.
.TP
.B cursorColor (\fPclass\fB Foreground)
For color displays,
sets the color of the window's text cursor.
.TP
.B pointerColor (\fPclass\fB Foreground)
For color displays,
sets the color of the window's mouse cursor.
.TP
.B geometry (\fPclass\fB Geometry)
Sets the geometry of the
.I Emacs
window (as described above).
.TP
.B title (\fPclass\fB Title)
Sets the title of the
.I Emacs
window.
.TP
.B iconName (\fPclass\fB Title)
Sets the icon name for the
.I Emacs
window icon.
.PP
If you try to set color values while using a black and white display,
the window's characteristics will default as follows:
the foreground color will be set to black,
the background 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.
.PP
.SM Using the Mouse
.PP
The following lists the mouse button bindings for the
.I Emacs
window under X11.

.TS
l l.
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	T{
Select this window, then split it into
two windows.  Same as typing CTRL-x 2.
T}
.\" START DELETING HERE IF YOU'RE NOT USING X MENUS
CTRL-SHIFT-left	T{
X buffer menu \(em hold the buttons and keys
down, wait for menu to appear, select
buffer, and release.  Move mouse out of
menu and release to cancel.
T}
CTRL-SHIFT-middle	X help menu \(em pop up index card menu for Emacs help.
.\" STOP DELETING HERE IF YOU'RE NOT USING X MENUS
CTRL-SHIFT-right	T{
Select window with mouse, and delete all
other windows.  Same as typing CTRL-x 1.
T}
.\" STOP DELETING HERE IF YOU'RE NOT USING X
.TE
.PP
.SH MANUALS
You can order printed copies of the GNU Emacs Manual from the Free
Software Foundation, which develops GNU software.  See the file ORDERS
for ordering information.
.br
Your local Emacs maintainer might also have copies available.  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.
.PP
.SH FILES
/usr/local/share/info - files for the Info documentation browser.
The complete text of the Emacs reference manual is included in a
convenient tree structured form.  Also includes the Emacs Lisp
Reference Manual, useful to anyone wishing to write programs in the
Emacs Lisp extension language.

/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/lisp - Lisp source files and compiled files
that define most editing commands.  Some are preloaded;
others are autoloaded from this directory when used.

/usr/local/libexec/emacs/$VERSION/$ARCH - various programs that are
used with GNU Emacs.

/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc - various files of information.

/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/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.

.br
/usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/SERVICE lists people offering
various services to assist users of GNU Emacs, including education,
troubleshooting, porting and customization.

.PP
.SH BUGS
There is a mailing list, bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org, 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 \fIevery\fR bug report that you send in.

Do not expect a personal answer to a bug report.  The purpose 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.
For more information about Emacs mailing lists, see the
file /usr/local/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 reproduced.
.SH UNRESTRICTIONS
.PP
.I Emacs
is free; anyone may redistribute copies of
.I Emacs
to
anyone under the terms stated in the
.I Emacs
General Public License,
a copy of which accompanies each copy of
.I Emacs
and which also
appears in the reference manual.
.PP
Copies of
.I Emacs
may sometimes be received packaged with distributions 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
.I Emacs.
.PP
Richard Stallman encourages you to improve and extend
.I Emacs,
and urges that
you contribute your extensions to the GNU library.  Eventually GNU
(Gnu's Not Unix) will be a complete replacement for Unix.
Everyone will be free to use, copy, study and change the GNU system.
.SH SEE ALSO
emacsclient(1), etags(1), X(1), xlsfonts(1), xterm(1), xrdb(1)
.SH AUTHORS
.PP
.I Emacs
was written by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation.
Joachim Martillo and Robert Krawitz added the X features.
.SH COPYING
Copyright
.if t \(co
.if n (C)
1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
      2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.PP
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
document provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
.PP
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this document under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of
a permission notice identical to this one.
.PP
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
document into another language, under the above conditions for
modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated
in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.

.\" arch-tag: 04dfd376-b46e-4924-919a-cecc3b257eaa