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GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
[To find what has changed, see the "Changes" posting.]
[The FAQ post date slipped big-time this time. Now that school is over
with and I can get on with the rest of my life, posting should become a
lot more regular. - sbyrnes]
This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about
GNU Emacs with answers. This article contains a listing of the questions;
subsequent articles contain the questions and answers.
The FAQ list is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help'
newsgroup (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results from
the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these questions,
corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, name
calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best" answers
to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a slight
change that improves an answer, please tell us!
If you know the answer of a question is in the FAQ list, please reply to the
question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
The FAQ list is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive
the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ list is also crossposted to `news.answers'.
Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. The
most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (ie., the output of `diff
-c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us about the FAQ list.
Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb a
lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have time to
answer questions individually. :-(
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
`Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
These ideas have already been suggested, but we have not had time to
implement them:
* A Texinfo version.
* Marking questions in the table of contents that have been changed
recently.
--
Steven Byrnes <sbyrnes@rice.edu> (and Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>)
E-mail lpf@uunet.uu.net for details about the League for Programming Freedom.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GNU Emacs FAQ: Table of Contents
Notation Used in FAQ
1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
2: What does "M-x command" mean?
3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
General Questions
6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
comp.emacs, etc.?
9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
12: What is the current address of the FSF?
On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
Status of Emacs
23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
Common Things People Want To Do
28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
characters?
35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
40: How do I change load-path?
41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
commands are handled by the compiler?
51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
underlined paragraph?
57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
Bugs/Problems
63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
down one line?
78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
anymore?
80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
.emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
are filtered out?
133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
136: How do I "swap" two keys?
137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
Mail and News
152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
160: How do I read news under Emacs?
161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
GNU Emacs FAQ: Notation/General/Help/Status
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
deletions occurred.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
`Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
Notation Used in FAQ
Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the
later answers.
1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
C-x means press the `x' key while holding down the Control key. M-x means
press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key. M-C-x means press the
`x' key while holding down both the Control key and the Meta key. C-M-a
is a synonym for M-C-a. RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, and TAB respectively refer to
pressing the Return, Linefeed (aka Newline), Delete, Escape, and Tab keys
and are equivalent to C-m, C-j, C-?, C-[, and C-i. SPC means press the
Space bar.
I put any key sequence that is longer than one key (and some single-key
sequences) inside double quotes or on a line by itself. Any real spaces
in such a key sequence should be ignored; only SPC really means press the
space key.
The ASCII code sent by C-x (except for C-?) is the value that would be
sent by pressing just `x' minus 96 (or 64 for uppercase `X') and will be
from 0 to 31. The ASCII code sent by M-x is the sum of 128 and the ASCII
code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the
Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7.
For further information, see `Characters' and `Keys' in the online manual.
NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a
"control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very
few keyboards does Control-? generate ASCII code 127.
2: What does "M-x command" mean?
"M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
type RET.
M-x (by default) invokes the command `execute-extended-command'. This
command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the
command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type
TAB and SPC for completion, and "?" for a list of possibilities. An Emacs
"command" is any "interactive" Emacs function.
NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to
invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good
candidate for this.
To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 53.
3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
When I refer you to topic XXX in the on-line manual, you can read this
manual node inside Emacs (assuming nothing is broken) by typing this:
C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET
This invokes the Info facility. If you don't already know how to use
Info, type "?" from within Info.
If I refer you to topic XXX:YYY, you need to type this:
C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET m YYY RET
WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files,
or may have installed them properly. In this case you should complain.
4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
These are files that come with GNU Emacs. The GNU Emacs distribution is
divided into subdirectories; the important ones are `etc', `lisp', and
`src'.
If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system,
start Emacs, then type "C-h v exec-directory RET". The directory name
displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed `etc'
directory.
Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail, see
question 20. All are available in the source distribution.
5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
FSF == Free Software Foundation
LPF == League for Programming Freedom
OSF == Open Software Foundation
GNU == GNU's Not Unix
RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman
FTP == File Transfer Protocol
GPL == GNU General Public Licence
NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes
look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high
quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a commercial
organization which wants to provide an alternative, standardized version
of Unix not controlled by AT&T.
NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers
to "freedom", not "zero dollars". Anyone can charge any price for
GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the freedom
enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always get the
software for less money from someone else, because everyone has the right
to resell or give away GPL-covered software.
General Questions
6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and look-and-feel
copyrights. To get more information, feel free to contact the LPF via
e-mail or otherwise. {You may also contact me, jbw@cs.bu.edu; I will be
happy to talk with you about the LPF.} Here is the contact information:
E-mail address: league@prep.ai.mit.edu
Phone number: (617) 243-4091
Postal address:
League for Programming Freedom
1 Kendall Square, Number 143
Post Office Box 9171
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Papers describing the LPF's views are available on the internet and also
from the LPF:
Anonymous FTP:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/lpf/
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/lpf/
Anonymous UUCP:
osu-cis!~/lpf/*
7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public Licence (copyleft) is
however it is interpreted by a judge. There has never been a copyright
infringement case involving the GPL to set any precedents. Please take any
discussion regarding this issue to the newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss, which
was created to hold the extensive flame wars on the subject.
RMS writes:
The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the spirit,
which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work pertaining
to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that all users have
the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs. To make sure
everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you distribute
any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the recipients the
same freedom that you enjoyed.
8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
comp.emacs, etc.?
The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list.
(See question 20 on how to get a copy.) For those which are gatewayed
with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the mailing list
address.
comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This
includes GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE,
MicroEmacs, Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, Epsilon, etc.
Many people post GNU Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't
receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for
and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have
to decide for yourself.
Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on any
of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to
hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "non-free" software
includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify the
source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the gnu.*
groups from the `Newsgroups:' line when posting a followup that recommends
such software.
gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug
reports to this newsgroup, instead see question 10.
9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many
years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The
archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
postings from, but pretty much everything is there.
Anonymous FTP:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/
There is a WAIS database named `comp.emacs' on wais.oit.unc.edu that
makes available the last few days of articles in comp.emacs.
10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
The correct way to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Anything sent here also appears in the
newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit
the bug report. This way a reliable return address is available so you
can be contacted for further details.
RMS explains:
Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting
on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an
unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and
have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much
smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have
expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others.
However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to
gnu.emacs.help:
If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix, then
after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on
gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you.
If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell:
... if Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that is
a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it does,
that is a bug.
11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named `XXX', you might be able
to unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address
`XXX-request@prep.ai.mit.edu'. However, this will not work if you are
not listed on the main mailing list, but instead receive the mail from a
distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which
distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the `Received:' headers
on the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the `EXPN' or
`VRFY' sendmail commands through `telnet <site-address> smtp'. Ask your
postmaster for help.
12: What is the current address of the FSF?
E-mail address: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
Phone number: (617) 876-3296
Postal address:
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
675 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is
how to enter the help system.
WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL to
deal local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to invoke
help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system, type
"M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a comma-separated
list of key sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last character in each
key sequence listed. Each of the resulting key sequences invokes help.
NOTE: Emacs's help facility works best if help is invoked by a single key
whose value should be stored in the variable help-char. Andrew
Arensburger <arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote a patch that allows the help
facility to work properly when invoked by multiple character sequences.
14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
* The complete text of the Emacs manual is available online via the Info
hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info.
* You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15.
* You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to invoke
them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or you can
print your own from the etc/refcard.tex file in the Emacs distribution.
{Are PostScript versions of this available for FTP?}
* You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word
(actually which match a regular expression) using "C-h a"
(M-x command-apropos).
* You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a
certain word using M-x apropos.
* There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and information.
To get a list of these commands, type "C-h C-h C-h".
NOTE: You may find that command-apropos and apropos are extremely slow
on your system. This will be fixed in Emacs 19. If you can't wait that
long, there is a fast-apropos.el file available in the Emacs Lisp
Archive (see question 89) that contains the fix.
15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF for
$20. For 6 or more manuals the price is $13 each. The price may be
tax-deductible as a business expense.
The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the `man' directory of
the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this
300 page manual yourself (see question 18).
If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX, you
can get a PostScript version via anonymous FTP:
/cs.ubc.ca:pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-18.57.ps.Z !
which site requests that you please CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE
EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME (pacific time zone, GMT-8)). A DVI
version is also available via FTP:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.Z
If you don't have TeX you can convert the Texinfo sources into
{t,n,ps}roff format with the `texi2roff' program, which is available via
anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/texi2roff/texi2roff.shar.Z
See also question 14 for how to view the manual online.
16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a
function, "C-h v" for a variable.
For more information, obtain the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for Emacs
18 under Unix. It is available from the FSF for $50 (or 5 for $200). The
latest revision available for FTP is edition 1.03 dated 28 January 1991.
For online use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the
Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-1.03.tar.Z
(You can also create the Info files from the Texinfo source.) See
question 17 for details on how to install these files online.
If you are daring enough to try to print this 550 page manual out
yourself, for instructions see question 18.
Also, as a popular USENET saying goes, "Use the Force, Read the Source".
17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
First create Info files from the Texinfo files with the `makeinfo'
program. makeinfo is available as part of the latest Texinfo package:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-2.14.tar.Z
For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so you
can read it online.
Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor the makeinfo program install the
resulting Info files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:
1. Move the files to the `info' directory in the installed Emacs
distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that
is.
2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a
line for the top level node in the Info package that you are
installing. Follow the examples are already in this file. The format
is:
* Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary
privileges, you have several options:
* Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You
can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing
"g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
goes to the node named `Top' in that file. For example, to view a Info
file named `XXX' in your home directory, you can type this:
C-h i g (~/XXX) RET
* You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the
Info directory is by setting the value of the variable Info-directory
to its pathname. For example, to use a private Info directory which
is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info', you could do
this:
(setq Info-directory (expand-file-name "~/Info"))
You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory.
You can include the system-wide Info directory in your private Info
directory with symbolic links or by copying it.
* You can use an enhanced version of lisp/info.el that handles multiple
Info directories. Then you can more easily use a mix of private and
shared Info files. Dave Gillespie <daveg@synaptics.com,
daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> has written one such enhancement and I
believe there are others. Dave's info.el also handles compressed Info
files.
Anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:modes/info.el.Z
/ftp.uu.net:languages/emacs-lisp/modes/info.el.Z !
According to Jay Bourland <jayb@math.stanford.edu>, a version of Dave's
info.el comes with `xinfo' (see question 19).
18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still
have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print.
1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
\input texinfo
You may need to alter `texinfo' to the full pathname of the
texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy
or link it into the current directory).
2. tex XXX.texinfo
3. texindex XXX.??
The `texindex' program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
4. tex XXX.texinfo
5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files
at your site.
To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package
mentioned in question 17.
19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
Yes, the `info', `xinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. info uses
curses, xinfo uses standard X11 libraries, and ivinfo uses InterViews.
You can get info as part of the latest Texinfo package (see question
17). xinfo is available separately:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.Z
/export.lcs.mit.edu:
ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc archive or from Tom Horsley
<tom@ssd.csd.harris.com>. For ivinfo, you need Stanford's InterViews C++
X library, available via anonymous FTP (interviews.stanford.edu).
20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
informational files about GNU Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU
project are available for you to read.
The following files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU
Emacs distribution, and also the latest versions are available
individually via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/):
APPLE -- Why the FSF doen't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers
DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information,
including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form"
FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP
GNU -- The GNU Manifesto
INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain
UNIX-compatible software system
with BYTE editors
MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"
These files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs
distribution:
DIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Twenex Emacs
CCADIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and CCA Emacs
GOSDIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Gosling (Unipress??) Emacs
COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License
NEWS -- GNU Emacs News, a history of user-visible changes
LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
OPTIONS -- a complete explanation of startup option handling
These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/):
tasks -- GNU Task List
standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards
In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF
via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source
first.
These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail:
* GNU's Bulletin, June, 1991 -- this file includes:
GNU'S Who
What Is the Free Software Foundation?
What Is Copyleft?
A Small Way to Help Free Software
GNUs Flashes (important recent developments for project GNU)
Free Software Support (and how to get it!)
Copyrighted Programming Languages
AT&T Threatens Users of X Windows (and other software patent threats)
Project Gutenberg
GNU Project Status Report
GNU in Japan
GNU Wish List
Help Keep Government Software Free
GNU Software Available Now
Contents of the Emacs Tape
Contents of the Compiler Tape
Contents of the X11 Tapes
VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
GNU Documentation
How to Get GNU Software
Free Software for Microcomputers
GNU Software on Apple computers
GNU Software on the Amiga
GNU Software on the Atari
GNUish MS-DOS project
Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS
GNU in Japan
FSF Order Form
Thank GNUs
* Legal issues about contributing code to GNU
* GNU Project Status Report
A collection of past GNU's Bulletins is available via anonymous FTP:
/ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/Bulletins/
21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
Look in etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who will sell
you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the SERVICE file is
available on prep.ai.mit.edu (also see question 20).
22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
* Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your
news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups. Every
news reader of which I know will allow you to read any news article that
is still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before.
You may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover
how to do this. In `rn', this command will do this for you at the
article selection level:
?GNU Emacs FAQ?rc:m
In GNUS, you should type "C-u G" from the *Subject* buffer or "C-u SPC"
from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a newsgroup.
The FAQ articles' message IDs are:
<GNU-Emacs-FAQ-0.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
<GNU-Emacs-FAQ-1.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
<GNU-Emacs-FAQ-2.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
<GNU-Emacs-FAQ-3.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
<GNU-Emacs-FAQ-4.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
<GNU-Emacs-FAQ-5.1993.05.04.025218@rice.edu> !
If you are viewing this in the GNUS *Article* buffer, you can move point
within one of the above message IDs and type "r" to fetch the referenced
article. Type "o" in the *Article* buffer to restore the previous
contents. If this text is not in the GNUS *Article* buffer, use M-r
from the *Subject* buffer instead.
If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool,
it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before
July 3, 1993. !
* Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP
/rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/ part*
* Via e-mail. You can send the following magical incantation in the body
of a message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu:
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part0
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part4
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part5
* Via WAIS. The GNU Emacs FAQ is available via WAIS indexed on a
per-question basis from the `faq' database on bigbird.bu.edu on the
non-standard IP port number of 2210. This is probably the best way to
find out if there is something in the FAQ related to your question. I
use this myself to answer questions I see posted on gnu.emacs.help.
The articles of the GNU Emacs FAQ are also available from the `usenet'
database on rtfm.mit.edu (on the standard IP port: 210), along with a
lot of other FAQ articles. However, these are all indexed at the whole
article level instead of at the question level. This is a better place
to look if you want to fetch the entire FAQ.
* In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest
available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the
GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.59 is the latest version,
and it was released in October 1992.
* There is an old version of the FAQ list available for FTP in the GNU
archives at MIT:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FAQ.emacs
* As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to
gnu-emacs-faq-maintainers@bigbird.bu.edu. Don't do this unless you have
made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the methods
listed above.
Status of Emacs
23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked
the name `Emacs' because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at
the time.". The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by
RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector (originally Tape Editor
and COrrector)) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended TECO with
a "real-time" full screen mode with active keys. Emacs was started by Guy
Steele <gls@think.com> as a project to unify the many divergent TECO
command sets and keybindings at MIT.
Many people have told me that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See
alt.lang.teco if you are interested. I think someone has written a TECO
implementation in Emacs Lisp. It would be an interesting project to run
the original TECO Emacs inside of GNU Emacs.
24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
GNU Emacs 18.59 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better
mail address parsing, an X visual bell speedup, a call-process
enhancement, a regexp matching change, the ability to apply a numeric
argument to a self-inserting digit, getting X resource values from the
RESOURCE_MANAGER property, more reliable shell mode job control, and a
change to copy-keymap. Also, support has been added for many new system
types. Fixes from 18.55 include the removal of arbitrary limits on the
undo facility.
According to the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin, "Emacs 18 maintenance
continues for simple bug fixes.".
To visit a file with information about what has changed in recent
versions, type "C-h n".
25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
Richard Stallman recently (February 19, 1993) posted in gnu.emacs.help !
the following: !
!
People should keep in mind that the successor of Emacs 18 does not !
come from Lucid. Its is GNU Emacs 19. I still can't say exactly when !
public release is going to be, but we are about to start testing at a !
number of sites. !
!
GNU Emacs 19 will support a broad spectrum of machines, like Emacs !
18. Ensuring this is the purpose of the testing we are about to do. !
!
(Please don't volunteer; we have enough pretesters, and if more people !
offer, dealing with those messages will slow things down.) !
!
Once we make sure it is indeed working reliably on various different !
systems, we will have a public beta test release. !
!
Emacs 19 does support adding properties to ranges of text, and using !
these to switch fonts. In the future, the Epoch people will help !
merge support for variable-width fonts. !
!
Meanwhile, I have almost finished updating the Emacs Lisp manual. Its !
next edition will describe Emacs 19. There will be an announcement !
when we know when this edition will be available. !
Lucid has released Lucid GNU Emacs 19.6, which is based on an early !
unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19. This will be similar to Emacs 19 when
it finally arrives, but they are not the same. See question 121.
Work has begun on features for Emacs 20.
26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
From the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin:
Version 19 will enter beta test late this year. Among its new features
are: before and after change hooks, source-level debugging of Emacs Lisp
programs, X selection processing (including clipboard selections),
scrollbars, support for European character sets, floating point numbers,
per-buffer mouse commands, X resource manager interfacing,
mouse-tracking, Lisp-level binding of function keys, multiple X windows
(`screens' to Emacs), a new input system, and buffer allocation, which
uses a new mechanism capable of returning storage to the system when a
buffer is killed.
The input stream is now a sequence of Lisp objects, instead of a
sequence of characters. This allows a reasonable representation for
mouse clicks, function keys, menu selections, etc.
Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch for
generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs, and to Eric
Raymond for help in polishing the Emacs 19 Lisp libraries.
The June 1991 GNU's bulletin had this to say about future plans for Emacs:
Features being considered for later releases of Emacs include:
associating property lists with regions of text in a buffer; multiple
fonts, color, and pixmaps defined by those properties; different
visibility conditions for the regions, and for various windows showing
one buffer; hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain
range; incrementally saving undo history in a file; static menu bars;
and better pop-up menus.
Mention of this feature disappeared in the January 1992 GNU's bulletin:
Emacs 19 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a separate
screen for the minibuffer, and another with a minibuffer attached to
each screen.
Mention of these two proposed features disappeared in the January 1991
GNU's bulletin:
* Incremental syntax analysis for various programming languages (Leif).
* A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which would provide
network transparent Emacs widget functionality.
27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
* Nemacs (Nihongo Emacs), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from
GNU Emacs 18.55. See question 149.
* Demacs, which can run under MS-DOS on 386 machines, is derived from
Nemacs. See question 122.
* Epoch, which has better X support, is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58.
See question 120 and 92.
* Nepoch (Nihongo Epoch), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from
Epoch.
* Mule (the MULtilingual Enhancement of GNU Emacs) can handle many
character sets simultaneously. It is derived from Emacs 18.58. It is
available for FTP:
/sh.wide.ad.jp:/JAPAN/mule/
/etlport.etl.go.jp:/pub/mule/
* Lucid GNU Emacs is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs
19. See question 121 and 92.
GNU Emacs FAQ: Common Requests/Problems
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
deletions occurred.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
`Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
Common Things People Want To Do
28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
See `Init File' in the on-line manual.
WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files, because
it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send questions to
help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as documented. :-)
29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
First start Emacs with the `-q' command line option. Then, in the
*scratch* buffer, type the following:
(setq debug-on-error t) LFD
(load-file "~/.emacs") LFD
(Type LFD by pressing C-j.)
If you have an error in your .emacs file, this will invoke the debugger
when the error occurs. If you don't know how to use the debugger do
(setq stack-trace-on-error t) instead.
WARNING: this will not discover errors caused by trying to do something
that requires the terminal/window-system initialization code to have
been loaded. See question 127.
30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x
what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the
current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)".
Typing "C-x l" will also tell you what line you are on, provided the
buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l characters. In that case, it
will only tell you what line of the current "page" you are on. WARNING:
"C-x l" gives the wrong value when point is at the beginning of a line.
There is no "correct" way to constantly display the current (or total)
line (or column) number on the mode line in Emacs 18, or to display the
line numbers next to the lines like vi can. Emacs is not a line-oriented
editor, and really has no idea what "lines" of the buffer are displayed in
the window. It would require a lot of work at the C code level to make
Emacs keep track of this. It would not be that hard to get the column
number, but it would still require changes at the C code level.
None of the vi emulation modes provide the `set number' capability of vi
(as far as I know).
Emacs 19 will probably be able to show the line number on the mode-line,
but probably very inefficiently.
People have written various kludges to display line numbers. One is
`display-line-numbers' by Wayne Mesard <wmesard@tofu.oracle.com,
Mesard@bbn.com>. Look in the Lisp Code Directory. (See question
88.)
31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
Put this in your .emacs file:
(condition-case ()
(read-abbrev-file nil t)
(file-error nil))
(setq XXX-mode-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(setq abbrev-mode t))))
32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
To turn on Auto-Fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x
auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in, for example, Text
mode, do this:
(setq text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
If you want Auto-Fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
(setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill)
33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension
`.YYY', this will do it for you:
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist))
Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
edit in XXX mode:
-*-XXX-*-
34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
characters?
To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for
example, `\237', you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value of
search-quote-char is 17 (ie., C-q).) Searching for ALL unprintable
characters is best done with a "regexp" search. The easiest regexp to use
for the unprintable chars is the complement of the regexp for the
printable chars.
Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
To type some of these special characters in an interactive argument to
isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t',
`\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So,
to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward:
M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET
Using isearch-forward-regexp:
M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~]
To delete all unprintable characters, simply use a replace-regexp:
M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET
Replacing is similar to the above. {I need to write the text for this
part of the answer!}
Notes:
* With isearch, you can type RET to get a quoted LFD (not a quoted RET).
* You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing something in
the minibuffer.
Here are the Emacs Lisp forms of the above regexps:
;; regexp matching all printable characters:
"[\t\n\r\f -~]"
;; regexp matching all unprintable characters:
"[^\t\n\r\f -~]"
35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
There are ways to get highlighting (reverse video, inverse video) in GNU
Emacs 18.59, but either they require patching the C code of Emacs and
rebuilding, or they are slow and the highlighting disappears if you scroll
or redraw the screen and it can not follow the point. Howard Gayle's
patches for 8-bit output appear to allow highlighting (see question
^8-bit-output). Another patch for highlighting is by Kenichi Handa
<handa@etl.go.jp>. There is a patch for use with X by Andy Norman
<ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> (and modified for 18.57 by Matthieu Herrb
<matthieu@laas.fr>), which is available for FTP:
/laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.55
/laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.57
You can highlight regions in a variety of ways in Epoch and Lucid Emacs.
GNU Emacs 19 may not be able to just temporarily highlight a region.
Similar comments apply to displaying text in different fonts, except that
it is even harder.
36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines
whether they are case sensitive:
(setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive
(setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive
Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether
replacements preserve case.
To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major
mode's hook. For example:
(setq XXX-mode-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(setq case-fold-search nil))))
37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
M-x auto-fill-mode. The default maximum line width is 74, determined by
the variable fill-column. To find how to turn this on automatically see
question 32.
38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
Use Ispell. See question 119.
39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
If you want to spell-check TeX or *roff documents with Ispell, you need to
arrange for a filter program that understands how to strip TeX or *roff
formatting commands to be run. In the TeX distribution, there are several
different programs named `detex', all with incompatible options, and a
very old pair of programs named `detex' and `delatex', which should
probably be avoided. The most useful one for Ispell is `detex' by Daniel
Trinkle. A more recent version is available via FTP:
/arthur.cs.purdue.edu:pub/trinkle/detex-2.4.tar
Raphael Cerf <cerf@clipper.ens.fr> recently released a program for this
named `xetal':
/spi.ens.fr:pub/unix/tex/
There is a program that comes with Unix named `deroff' for stripping
formatting commands from *roff files.
Here is an example of code you can put in a .emacs file to use these
programs:
;; Based on suggestions by David G. Grubbs <dgg@ksr.com> and Paul Palmer
;; <palmerp@math.orst.edu>.
;; Assuming the use of detex 2.3 by Daniel Trinkle:
;; -w means one word per line.
;; -n means don't expand \input or \include commands.
;; -l means force LaTeX mode.
(require 'ispell) ; for the make-variable-buffer-local statements
(setq plain-TeX-mode-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
(setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-nw")))))
(setq LaTeX-mode-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
(setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-lnw")))))
(setq nroff-mode-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(setq ispell-filter-hook "deroff")
(setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-w")))))
You will have to adjust the arguments for programs other than Trinkle's
detex or for other versions of deroff. Experiment running the command
from the shell to find the correct options. If you don't have a filter
that knows how to output one word per line, you must pipe its output
through another filter to break up the output.
40: How do I change load-path?
In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add
directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this:
(setq load-path (append load-path '("/XXX/YYY/")))
To do this relative to your home directory:
(setq load-path (append load-path (list (expand-file-name "~/YYY/"))))
41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
The `emacsclient' program is for editing a file using an already running
Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a
request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the request.
* Setup
Emacs must have executed the `server-start' function for emacsclient to
work. This can be done either by a command line option:
emacs -f server-start
or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file:
(if (some conditions are met) (server-start))
When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called
`server'. `server' creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
directory named `.emacs_server'.
To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try
setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the
value `emacsclient'. You may have to specify the full pathname of the
emacsclient program instead. Examples:
# csh commands:
setenv EDITOR emacsclient
setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname
# sh command:
EDITOR=emacsclient export EDITOR
* Normal use
When emacsclient is run, it connects to the `.emacs_server' socket and
passes its command line options to `server'. When `server' receives
these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process,
which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line
numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to
switch to the Emacs window by hand. When the user is done editing a
file, the user can type "C-x #" to indicate this. This will switch to
another buffer created at the request of emacsclient if there are any.
When "C-x #" has been invoked on all of the files that the emacsclient
requested to be edited, Emacs will send notification of this to `server'
which will pass this on to the emacsclient, which will then exit.
NOTE: `emacsclient' and `server' must be running on machines which share
the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that emacsclient
specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the Emacs process
sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the time emacsclient
is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from another X window or
from a shell window inside Emacs itself.
There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called `gnuserv' by
Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> which is available in the Emacs Lisp
Archive. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across most
network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary Emacs
Lisp forms and also does not require the client program to wait for
completion. It is available via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive:
packages/gnuserv.shar).
42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
Write a program which runs the compiler as a child and filters its output,
rearranging as necessary. Install with same name as compiler somewhere in
path.
Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu> wrote one such for a C compiler under AIX.
Available via FTP:
/cs.utk.edu:readonly/aixcc.lex
Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> wrote another for the IBM xlc compiler on the
RS/6000. (I don't know if these are both for the same compiler.)
Johnathan Vail <vail@tegra.COM> wrote something for a High C compiler
(`hc', which is one of the compilers on the RS/6000, although I think
Johnathan wrote his program for hc on a different computer).
43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
Many people want to indent their switch statements like this:
f()
{
switch(x) {
case A:
x1;
break;
case B:
x2;
break;
default:
x3;
}
}
I don't believe there is any way to do this exactly without modifying the
Lisp code in c-mode.el. You can set c-indent-level to 4 and
c-label-offset to -2, but this has bad effects elsewhere. {Anyone have a
solution?}
44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
There is no completely correct way of doing this that does not involve
rewriting all commands or writing your own top-level command loop (not a
completely bad idea). Wayne Mesard <wmesard@pescadero.stanford.edu> has
written a particularly advanced kludge called `hscroll.el' that checks
once a second to make sure point is visible.
45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode).
46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
Martin R. Frank <martin@cc.gatech.edu> writes:
Tell Emacs to use the 'visible bell' instead of the audible bell, and
set the visible bell to nothing.
Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable:
... :vb=: ...
And evaluate this:
(setq visible-bell t)
47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
Under versions of Emacs before 18.58, the bell volume was annoying loud
and difficult to turn off. So upgrading to 18.58 or higher will reduce
the volume. If you want to turn it off completely, use `xset'. There is
no way to turn the bell off just for Emacs without affecting all other
programs.
Under Epoch you can do:
(setq epoch::bell-volume 20)
Stu Grossman <grossman@sunburn.stanford.edu> wrote a patch that allows the
bell volume to be adjusted from inside Emacs just for Emacs.
48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode).
If you have Auto-Fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 32), you can
tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the
"fill prefix". Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position point
after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill prefix.
Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix at the
beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any fill
prefix when refilling the paragraph.
NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you
will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move
to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages
available from the Emacs Lisp Archive. Look up `fill' and `indent' in the
Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can
delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching
parenthesis.
M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over balanced
parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You can train it to
skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time by modifying the
syntax table.)
Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching
parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a
parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal.
;; By an unknown contributor
(global-set-key "%" 'match-paren)
(defun match-paren (arg)
"Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %."
(interactive "p")
(cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1))
((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1))
(t (self-insert-command (or arg 1)))))
50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
commands are handled by the compiler?
M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.)
You may have to (load "hideif") first. If you want to do this regularly,
put this in your .emacs file:
(autoload 'hide-ifdef-mode "hideif" nil t)
{Yes, I know, this should be in lisp/loaddefs.el already.}
51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
(`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
No, not really.
You can type "C-x ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands that
used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you can
type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands you've
typed.
To repeat something on each line I recommend using keyboard macros.
52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
See the Emacs man page, or the etc/OPTIONS file. Ignore the information
in etc/XDOC which is way out of date.
53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") an Emacs Lisp
"form":
* If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file
named `.emacs' in your home directory.
* You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or
C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in
the buffer.
* In Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before or
around point.
* Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately
before point and prints its value in the echo area.
* Typing M-ESC or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in
the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
* You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in
a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function `load' instead.)
These functions are also used for evaluating Lisp forms:
load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
Example: (setq default-tab-width 10).
55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET".
To do this only in the region, type "C-x n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET
> RET C-x w".
WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n) is disabled by default
because it can be very confusing (ie., "Oh no! Where did my file go?").
56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
underlined paragraph?
M-x underline-region.
57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command
and then type "M-0 C-x e".
WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be
suppressed.
58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
M-x picture-mode. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...)
59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
You need to modify C source and recompile. Either that or get Epoch or
Lucid Emacs instead. Patches have been written by Robert Forsman
<thoth@reef.cis.ufl.edu> and Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> to allow Emacs to
iconify itself and by Matt Wette <mwette@mr-ed.jpl.nasa.gov> and
Manavendra K. Thakur <thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu> (for 18.57, plus icon
geometry) to allow Emacs to start up iconified. I don't know which of
these patches work together.
Anonymous FTP:
/csi.jpl.nasa.gov:pub/emax.patch1 (Matt Wette)
/ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z (Johan Vromans)
/ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun (Johan Vromans)
60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
See `Regexps' in the online manual.
WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\".
Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is
"xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated backslashes!
WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set
([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless
newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match.
WARNING: The character syntax regexps (eg. `\sw') are not meaningful
inside character set regexps (eg. `[aeiou]'). (This is actually typical
for regexp syntax.)
61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which
performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file.
See `Tags:Tags Search' in the online manual.
In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace which
will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the
*compilation* buffer (usually done after a `grep'), which is available via
anonymous FTP:
/ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/compile.el.Z
/ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/global-replace.el.Z
/ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/query.el.Z
62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
`etags' takes options just like a prior version of ctags, so your ctags
manual (if any) may be useful. Eoin Woods, in comp.emacs, writes the !
following: !
!
From reading the source (!) the way I use it is: !
!
for f in `find <args>` !
do !
etags -at -f ETAGS $f !
done !
!
The "-t" option means to create tags for typedefs as well as functions. !
The "-a" option tells it to append to the output file. If you have a !
small number of files (up to a few hundred I think) you can use it !
direct as: !
!
etags -f ETAGS file1 file2 file3 ... filen !
!
The option list is: !
!
-f file - Specify the output file name (Default is "TAGS") !
-a - Append to the output file. (Default is to rewrite it) !
-t - Create tags for typedefs (default is just functions) !
-u - Update the output file. Do not re-create it. !
-w - Suppress warnings !
-v - Create vgrind style indexed output (What is vgrind??) !
-x - Create cxref style output (default is Emacs Tags) !
-e - Emacs tags style output (the default the way I !
compile it) !
!
Having got it working, it works fine! !
Bugs/Problems
63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and
24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can
handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1).
Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting the following two
lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers
and pointers (and thus filesizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes):
#define VALBITS 26
#define GCTYPEBITS 5
WARNING: This method may result in `ILLEGAL DATATYPE' and other random
errors on some machines.
David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> gives an explanation of why
Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers:
Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must
carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, eg.,
integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on.
Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8
bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers (and
pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
pointers.
Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented
machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits.
64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
The PWD bug has been fixed as of GNU Emacs 18.59. Read on if you are
running an older version of Emacs.
Most likely, you have an environment variable named PWD that is set to a
value other than the name of your current directory. This is most
likely caused by using two different shell programs. `ksh' and (some
versions of) `csh' set and maintain the value of the PWD environment
variable, but `sh' doesn't. If you start sh from ksh, change your
current directory inside sh, and then start Emacs from inside sh, PWD
will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. An invalid
setting for PWD can also be a problem if you use X Windows and csh on an
RS/6000. See the etc/OPTIONS file for more details.
Perhaps an easier solution is not to use two shells. The `chsh' program
can often be used to change one's default login shell.
You may have PWD set for other reasons. Another possibility is that you
are setting default-directory from your .emacs file.
Here is a fix by Jim Blandy <jimb@occs.cs.oberlin.edu>:
>--- emacs/jjj/emacs-18.58/lisp/startup.el Tue Jan 15 23:19:04 1991
>+++ startup.el Mon Apr 20 00:21:01 1992
>@@ -81,5 +81,7 @@
> ;; In presence of symlinks, switch to cleaner form of default directory.
> (if (and (not (eq system-type 'vax-vms))
>- (getenv "PWD"))
>+ (getenv "PWD")
>+ (equal (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes default-directory))
>+ (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes (getenv "PWD")))))
> (setq default-directory (file-name-as-directory (getenv "PWD"))))
> (unwind-protect
65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
For tcsh, put this in your `.cshrc' (or `.tcshrc') file:
if ($?EMACS) then
if ("$EMACS" == t) then
if ($?tcsh) unset edit
stty nl
endif
endif
Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file:
unset edit
stty nl
Alternatively, use csh in your Shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way
is:
(setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
setenv ESHELL /bin/csh
(You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly
set for this to take effect.)
66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
The most likely reason for this message is that the `env' program is not
properly installed. This program should be compiled (for the correct
architecture!) and installed with execute permission for everyone in
Emacs's program directory, which is normally /usr/local/emacs/etc. You
can find what this directory is at your site by inspecting the value of
the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v exec-directory RET". `env'
should also be for the correct architecture (check using `file' command).
You should also check for other programs named `env' in your path (eg.,
SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). I don't understand why this can
cause a failure and I don't know a general solution for working around the
problem in this case.
The `make clean' command will remove `env' and other vital programs, so be
careful when using it.
It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started
as an X client from an xterm window (ie. had a controlling tty) but the
xterm was later terminated.
See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message.
67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
Emacs stores things you "cut" in the X "cut buffers". It also pastes from
the cut buffer `CUT_BUFFER0'. This is obsolete. Most modern X programs
now expect to work with "selections" instead of cut buffers, although some
like `xterm' will try to use the cut buffers if the selection is null.
Emacs 18.58 contains a "fix" that makes xterm work by default. This
"fix" is that Emacs clears the `PRIMARY' selection when it stores
something in the cut buffer. By making the selection null, xterm will
then fetch from the cut buffer when you try to paste.
For versions of Emacs prior to 18.58, you can make pasting from Emacs into
xterm work with the following X resources:
! Solution by Thomas Narten, should work under X11R3 and later GNU
! Emacs only copies to CUT_BUFFER0. xterm by default wants to paste
! from the PRIMARY selection.
XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \
~Meta <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CUT_BUFFER0,PRIMARY)
You may have problems copying between Emacs and programs other than xterm
that won't store cut text in the cut buffers or look in the cut buffers
for text to paste (for backwards compatibility with obsolete applications
like Emacs :-). The best workaround is to use the `xcutsel' program as an
intermediary.
This problem does not exist for Epoch or Lucid Emacs.
68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
The termcap entry for terminal type `emacs' is ordinarily put in the
TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain
situations (eg., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for
`emacs' to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry
for `emacs':
emacs:tc=unknown:
To make a terminfo entry for `emacs', use `tic' or `captoinfo'. You need
to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy
/usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs.
Having a termcap/terminfo entry will not enable the use of full screen
programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead.
A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to
change terminal type `emacs' to type `dumb' or `unknown' in your shell
start up file. `csh' users could put this in their .cshrc files:
if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb
69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is
sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these
characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character normally
invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions, see
question 131.
70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of
gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is often
manifested as a message on startup of `X server not responding. Check
your DISPLAY environment variable.' or a message of `Unknown host' from
open-network-stream.
On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C
library. The version of gethostbyname in the static C library may only
look in /etc/hosts and the NIS (YP) maps, while the version in the dynamic
C library may be smart enough to check DNS in addition to or instead of
NIS. On a Motorola Delta running System V R3.6, the version of
gethosbyname in the standard library works, but the one that works with
NIS doesn't (the one you get with -linet). Other operating systems have
similar problems.
Try these options:
* Explicitly add the host you want to communicate with to /etc/hosts.
* Relink Emacs with this line in src/config.h:
#define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
* Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions
such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs.
* If you are actually running NIS, make sure that `ypbind' is properly
told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch.
* Use tcp.el and tcp.c from GNUS. This has the additional advantage that
you can use numeric IP addresses instead of names. open-network-stream
currently can't handle numeric addresses. Brian Thomson
<thomson@hub.toronto.edu> has a enhancement to open-network-stream to
allow it to handle numeric addresses.
71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the system-wide
lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your .emacs file,
see question 29.
It may be the case that you may need to load some package first, or use a
hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case of
this is explained in question 127.
72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
* Try compiling Emacs with the XBACKWARDS macro defined. There is a bug
in some implementations of XGetDefault, which do not correspond to the
documentation or the header files.
* Make sure you are either using the class name of `Emacs' (oops,
apparently this is buggy in Emacs 18.58!) or the correct instance name.
The instance name is normally the same as the name of the file Emacs is
in (ie., the last part of argv[0]), but this can be overridden by -rn
command line option or the WM_RES_NAME environment variable.
WARNING: Reports say using the class name fails in Emacs 18.58.
WARNING: The advice the man page gives to use `emacs' is often wrong.
WARNING: Older versions of Emacs got the class name wrong.
* Emacs currently ignores the -xrm command line argument.
* Emacs does not yet handle X11R5 screen-specific resources.
* Emacs has a bug where it ignores color specifications if running on a
1-bit display (ie. a non-color display).
* I don't think Emacs will use either of the application-specific resource
files. Thus these environment variables don't affect it: XAPPLRESDIR,
XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, XFILESEARCHPATH. {Correct?}
73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
The usual cause is that the master lock file, `!!!SuperLock!!!' has been
left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it.
Mark Meuer <meuer@geom.umn.edu> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an
exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause the
same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS anyway,
the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION undefined.
74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand
a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this
behavior, type "$$" instead.
75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its directory.
This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to guess by
recognizing `cd' commands. If you type `cd' followed by a directory name
with a variable reference (`cd $HOME/bin') or with a shell metacharacter
(`cd ../lib*'), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the shell's new current
directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements to Shell mode for
this problem have been written to handle this problem. Check the Lisp
Code Directory (see question 88).
76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
If you added a directory name containing a tilde (~) to your load-path,
expecting the tilde to be interpreted as your home directory, then you
need to do something like this:
(setq load-path (mapcar 'expand-file-name load-path))
77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
down one line?
You have inadvertently typed "C-x C-n" (set-goal-column) which sets the
"goal column" to the column where the cursor was. To undo this type
"C-u C-x C-n".
If you make this mistake frequently, you might want to unbind or disable
this command by doing one of these two:
(define-key ctl-x-map "\C-n" nil)
(put 'set-goal-column 'disabled t)
78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
Many different X errors can produce this message. Here is the solution
to one problem:
X11 Release 4 (and later, including OpenWindows) enforces some conditions
in the X protocol that were previously allowed to pass unnoticed. You
need to put the X11R4 server into X11R3 bug compatibility mode for Emacs's
Xmenu code to work. You can do this with the command `xset bc'.
79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
anymore?
In GNU Emacs 18.56, a change was made in the display-time code.
Formerly, in version 18.55, Emacs used a program named `loadst' to
notify Emacs of the change in time every minute. loadst also sent Emacs
the system load average if it was installed with sufficient privilege to
get that information (or was on a system where no such privilege was
needed). Emacs then displayed this information in the mode line.
In version 18.56, this code was changed to use a program named `wakeup'.
wakeup doesn't send Emacs any information, it's only purpose is to send
Emacs *something* every minute, thus invoking the filter function in
Emacs once a minute. The filter function in Emacs does all the work of
finding the time, date, and load average. However, getting the load
average requires the privilege to read kernel memory on most systems.
Since giving Emacs this privilege would destroy any security a system
might have, for almost everyone this is not an option. In addition,
Emacs does not have the code built into it to get this information on
the systems which have special system calls for this purpose, even
though loadst had code for this.
The solution I use is to get the files lisp/display-time.el and
etc/loadst.c from version 18.55 and use those with 18.58. (I have heard
a rumor that loadst disappeared because of the legal action Unipress
threatened against IBM.)
WARNING: Do not install Emacs setgid kmem unless you wish to destroy
any security your system might have!!!!!!!!!!
If you are using Emacs 18.55 or earlier, or already using the solution I
describe above, read further:
The most likely cause of the problem is that `loadst' can't read the
special file /dev/kmem. To properly install loadst, it should be either
setuid to the owner of /dev/kmem, or is should be setgid to the group to
which /dev/kmem belongs. In either case, /dev/kmem should be readable by
its owner or its group, respectively. Assuming the existence of a group
named `kmem', here is an example of how to do this:
chgrp kmem /dev/kmem
chmod g+r /dev/kmem
chgrp kmem /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
chmod g+s /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
Another possibility is that your version of Unix doesn't have the load
average data available in /dev/kmem. Your version of Unix might have a
special system call to retrieve this information (eg., inq_stats under
UMAX), and loadst might not have been enhanced to cope with this.
80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
You need to update the version of Ispell to 2.0.02. (Or you can switch to
version 3.0 which is still in beta-testing.) A patch is available via
anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/ispell/patch2.Z
You also need to change a line in ispell.el from:
(defconst ispell-version "2.0.01") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
to:
(defconst ispell-version "2.0.02") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
Ispell expects to get its input one word per line. The ispell filter,
which is specified by the variables ispell-filter-hook and
ispell-filter-hook-args, should output at most one word per line.
82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
* the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.)
Cliff Stoll in his book `The Cuckoo's Egg' describes this in chapter 4.
The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid root.
Since `movemail' had not been designed for this situation, a security
hole was created and users could get root privileges.
`movemail' has since been changed so that even if it is installed setuid
root this security hole will not be a result.
I have heard unverified reports that the Internet worm took advantage of
this configuration problem.
* the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.)
There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for
variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text near
the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to have
arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited.
Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this
feature.
If you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value,
Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file that
you visit and ask you if you really want them. This variable is not
mentioned in the manual.
It is wise to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs:
(setq inhibit-local-variables t)
If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in
lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own .emacs
file.
The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an RMAIL user
was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that
uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this.
For more information, see `File Variables' in the online manual (which,
incidentally, does not describe how to disable the feature).
There is a new variable in Emacs 18.58 named ignore-local-eval which
turns out to be useless as currently implemented. Ignore it.
* synthetic X events (Yes, a risk, use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.)
Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as
though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the
trivial host-based authentication, other users who can open X
connections to your X workstation can make your Emacs process do
anything, including run other processes with your privileges.
The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open
X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real
authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the
`xauth' program has any effect, then you are probably using
MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication
method; ask your system administrator.
If real authentication is not a possibility, you may be satisfied by
just allowing hosts access for brief intervals while you start your X
programs, then removing the access. This reduces the risk somewhat by
narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but DOES
NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK.
Lucid GNU Emacs does not accept synthetic X events unless you set a
variable.
* autosave file permissions (Yes, a risk, hard to work around.)
The file permissions for autosave files are determined solely by the
Emacs process's `umask' value. The permissions of the file being
autosaved are not used. The easiest workaround is to keep sensitive
files in protected directories. Sebastian Kremer has written an
enhanced version of the autosave file name picking code that can avoid
this problem by keeping autosave files in a protected directory. {FTP
information please?} This problem will be fixed in Emacs 19.
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
First look in the file etc/PROBLEMS to see if there is already a solution
for your problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't
find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help or
e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu. For further guidelines, see
question 8.
84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
Don't do that.
This problem has been reported on SGI Indigo machines running Irix 4.0.*
and RS/6000 machines. Scott Henry <scotth@hoshi.corp.SGi.COM> posted a
patch that fixes the problem for Irix.
85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library,
libX11.a. This may be missing.
Under OpenWindows, you may need to use `add_services' to add the
`OpenWindows Programmers' optional software category from the CD-ROM.
Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run `update' again to load the
X11-PRG `fileset'. This may be missing even if you specified `all
filesets' the first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load
the `Berkeley Development Option' {???}.
If you are building the MIT X11 sources, you may need to modify your
`site.cf' file to get static versions of the libraries. (Info from David
Zuhn <zoo@cygnus.com>.)
Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define
CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead.
To get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's
liboldX.a.
86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
I had hoped this question would go away after Emacs 18.57 was released,
but people continue to compile 18.55. Easiest solution: upgrade.
This is a result of the SunOS localtime/tzsetwall malloc bug, which was
(finally!) fixed in SunOS 4.1.2. If you actually need the full
explanation, send me e-mail. If you absolutely must compile Emacs 18.55
(eg., you are compiling Nemacs), the easiest workaround was to put
`#define SYSTEM_MALLOC' in src/config.h.
GNU Emacs FAQ: Getting Emacs/Packages
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
deletions occurred.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
`Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
archive sites. If you don't already have GNU Emacs, see question 20
for how to get these two files.
The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.59.tar.Z
See question 91.
88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code Directory, is being
maintained by Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> and Dave Sill <de5@ornl.gov>.
You can search through this list to find if someone has written something
that fits your needs.
This list is file LCD-datafile.Z in the Emacs Lisp Archive. (See
question 89 for methods for getting this file.) The files lispdir.el.Z
and lispdir.doc.Z in the archive contain information to help you use the
list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then you can
use the "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" command to look things up in the database.
For example, the command "M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces
this (outdated) output:
GNU Emacs Lisp Code Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
ange-ftp (3.112) 91-08-12
Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:
/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/ange-ftp.el.Z
transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs
89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you
are looking for. (See question 88). Then check local archives and
the Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. Then, if
you still haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for
a copy.
You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
Fetch the file README first.
NOTE: The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual
requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If you
cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to find a
friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers.
NOTE: Any files with names ending in `.Z' are compressed, and you should
use `binary' mode in FTP to retrieve them. You should also use binary
mode whenever you retrieve any files with names ending in `.elc'.
90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
Submissions should be mailed to elisp-archive@cis.ohio-state.edu. The
lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will help
you with this. Mail messages (submissions) are automatically saved and
periodically archived. Urgent mail may be sent directly to Dave Sill
<de5@ornl.gov> or Dave Brennan <brennan@hal.com> or should contain the
string `urgent' in the subject. The incoming ftp directory is no longer
available at the request of Ohio State. {Is this still true?}
However, if someone has a submission with multiple files (which would be
archived as a tar file) or binary files, then FTP transfer is preferred
and can be arranged via an anonymous FTP site. This is faster than
uudecoding, unsharing, etc., and re-packaging files.
Before submitting anything, please read the file guidelines.Z, which is
available in the archive. Whenever possible, submissions should contain a
complete LCD entry since this helps reduce administrative overhead for the
maintainers. You can include an entry in this format:
;; LCD Archive Entry:
;; package name|author's name|email address
;; |description
;; |date|version|archive path
For example:
;; LCD Archive Entry:
;; tex-complete|Sebastian Kremer|sk@thp.Uni-Koeln.DE
;; |Minibuffer name completion for editing [La]TeX.
;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 1.4 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z !
Dave Brennan has software which automatically looks for data in this
format. The format is fairly flexible. The entry ends when a line is
reached with a different prefix or the seventh field terminator is
seen.
If you are submitting a multi-file submission you should include a file
named "LCD-entry" which contains the archive entry, instead of placing
it in one or more of the individual files.
91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on prep.ai.mit.edu
and is available for anonymous FTP in the pub/gnu directory. See the
files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information. (To get copies of
these files, see question 20.)
The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/
/ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/
/src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/ (available via FTP, NIFTP, FTAM)
/ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/
/utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep/
/nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/
The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu,
except that files larger than 1 megabyte {right?} are automatically
split into multiple parts. If you have trouble transferring large
files, you should try here. A file normally named `XXX' is split into
files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], and there will be a file named
XXX-split/README which contains the list of parts (especially helpful
when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, and reassembly instructions.
Some of the other mirror sites may have the same property. {Can someone
check this out? Thanks!}
Information was provided by Lee McLoughlin <lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk>, Jonathan
R. Ferro <jf41+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU>, Arjan de Vet <devet@win.tue.nl>, and
Simon Marshall <S.Marshall@sequent.cc.hull.ac.uk>.
92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
Emacs 18 has some limited X Window System support, but there are
problems. Emacs 19 will have amazing mouse and window support. Right
now, there are Epoch which is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58 and Lucid GNU
Emacs which is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19,
both of which have greatly improved mouse and window support. See
questions 120 and 121.
The HP unofficial GNU Emacs also has nice mouse support. See question
95.
There are numerous Emacs Lisp packages that have been written to extend
Emacs 18's mouse handling capabilities. Some of these packages also have
patches to the C code to provide enhanced capabilities. Look up `mouse'
in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88).
There is a package called BAM (Born Again Menus) which provides menus for
GNU Emacs via an external C program. It does not provide mouse support in
the Emacs window such as scrollbars, cut-and-paste, etc.
NOTE: Epoch only works with the X Window System; it works on ordinary
terminals by invoking regular GNU Emacs. Lucid Emacs does not currently
work on ordinary terminals, although there are plans to fix this.
93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu> writes:
Epoch is GNU Emacs on steroids: an adaptation of GNU Emacs with lots of
additional support for features made possible by the X11 windowing
system. These features include multiple editing windows, arbitrary
colors and fonts (fixed-width and proportional), selectable zones per
buffer with arbitrary display styles (font, color, underline, stipple,
pixmap), an optional separate minibuffer window, improved keyboard and
mouse handling, full 8-bit character set support, and more.
94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
This information is condensed from the release notice:
Lucid GNU Emacs is based on an early version of GNU Emacs version 19
with many enhancements. It currently requires X Windows to run. For
information on where to get Lucid GNU Emacs see 121. X Windows support
is greatly enhanced over GNU Emacs version 18, including support for
multiple X Windows (a.k.a. screens in Emacs), Zmacs/Lispm style region
highlighting, a customizable, Motif-like menubar, more powerful keymap
support (allowing different actions to be associated with Backspace,
Control-h, etc.), flexible text attribute (e.g. font, color) support on
regional and screen-local basis through X resources and/or lisp, and
support for the X11 selection mechanism. Some other features include
run-time computation of the load-path, support for floating point
numbers, native timer support, and sound file support on Sun
SPARCstations. To build Lucid GNU Emacs, an ANSI C compiler (e.g. gcc)
is required.
95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
The unofficial HP GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP:
/ee.utah.edu:HUGE/ (PLEASE FTP DURING NON-WORK HOURS!!!)
and takes about 35 megabytes of disk space to build. It is useful for
non-HP machines, but some of the added features will only work under
HP-UX.
You will need to get patches to work with HP-UX 8.0 or on 700 series
machines via e-mail from Darryl Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com>.
96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
* Demacs
For 386 or 486 PCs running MS-DOS, there is a version of GNU Emacs
called Demacs. To get Demacs see question 122.
From the announcement message:
Demacs is almost a full set of GNU Emacs but does not support some
features: asynchronous process, locking a file, etc.
Demacs provides following DOS specific features:
* File type: text or binary file translation.
* "8-bit clean" display mode.
* 8086 software interrupt call by int86 lisp function.
* Machine specific features such as function key support.
* File name completion with drive name.
* Child process (suspend-emacs, call-process).
* Enhanced dired mode which can work without 'ls.exe'.
To our regret `shell-mode' does not work, but `compile' command works
properly.
Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by
D. J. Delorie <dj@ctron.com> which can compile and run large programs
under MS-DOS, but not under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs
rather than straight from GNU Emacs.
There are a variety of other Emacses for MS-DOS including among them the
following.
* Freemacs
Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, the author, describes
Freemacs:
* Freemacs is free, and it was designed from the start to be
programmable.
* Freemacs is the only IBM-PC editor that tries to be like GNU Emacs.
* Freemacs can only edit files less than 64K in length.
* Freemacs doesn't have undo.
Carl Witty <cwitty@cs.stanford.edu> reviews Freemacs:
Better is Freemacs, which follows the tradition of ITS and GNU Emacs
by having an full, turing-complete extension language which is
incompatible with everything else. In fact, it's even closer to ITS
Emacs than GNU Emacs is, because Mint (Freemacs' extension language)
is absolutely illegible without weeks of study, much like TECO.
To get Freemacs see question 123.
* MicroEmacs
MicroEmacs is a descendant of Microemacs {originally by Dave Conroy?}.
It is programmable in a BASIC-like language. Many of the keybindings
are different from GNU Emacs. The author is Daniel Lawrence -
<dan@mdbs.uucp, mdbs!dan@ee.ecn.purdue.edu>. The latest version is 3.12 !
and it is available via anonymous FTP:
/midas.mgmt.purdue.edu:dist/uemacs312/ (outside business hours) !
!
Version 3.12 includes Windows and Windows NT versions and a DOS !
protected mode (DMPI) version. !
* JOVE
Another Emacs for small machines is JOVE (Jonathan's Own Version of
Emacs). The latest official version is 4.14. There appears to be a
newer version. People rumored to be working on JOVE include Mark Moraes
<moraes@cs.toronto.edu> and Bill Marsh <bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil>. It is
available via anonymous FTP:
/cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.7.tar.Z
* MG
MG is another descendant of Microemacs. MG used to stand for
MicroGNUEmacs, but now just stands for MG. The look-and-feel of MG is
intended to be close to that of GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MG can
not correctly edit files larger than memory. The current version is
rumored to be 2. There is a version 3 in beta which works on the Amiga.
It is also available via anonymous FTP:
/ftp.white.toronto.edu:pub/mg/
/wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/unix-c/editors/
/procyon.cis.ksu.edu: (source and executable)
97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
I believe that no version of GNU Emacs runs under Windows. Pierre Perret
<pap@myths.az05.bull.com> has ported MicroEMACS 3.11c to Windows.
Anonymous FTP:
/ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10.zip
/ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10s.zip
/ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewri.zip
98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
From the OS/2 Programmer's FAQ:
GNU Emacs 18.58 is available. It requires you to have EMX installed
on your machine, but it comes with all the EMX files you will need.
Emacs is available on ftp-os2 in /pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs. (If you want
to recompile emacs, you will need the full EMX distribution see
question 1.2.)
The above quote may be out of date. See the latest OS/2 Programmer's FAQ
{perhaps in comp.os.os2.misc?} for the latest news. Anonymous FTP info:
/ftp-os2.nmsu.edu:pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs/
("ftp-os2" was formerly named "hobbes")
Thanks go to Stephen Simpson <simpson@symcom.math.uiuc.edu>, Jonathan
Miller <jem+@andrew.cmu.edu>, Terry Kane <terryk@cc.gatech.edu>, J. D.
Baldwin <baldwin@csservera.usna.navy.mil>, and Ken Bass
<kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>.
99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
Emacs 18.57 is the latest version for TOS. Stefan Mueller-Pfeiffer
<iff327@zam001.zam.kfa-juelich.de> says:
There is also a version for MiNT, the multitasking enhancement for
ATARI's TOS, which behaves almost like EMACS on a "real computer". This
port was done by Erling Henanger <erlingh@idt.unit.no>.
Anonymous FTP:
/atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/gnustuff/tos/ (TOS Emacs 18.57)
/atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/new/mntemacs.zoo (MiNT Emacs)
/cs.uni-sb.de:/pub/atari/emacs/
100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
All of the files are lharc-ed.
Anonymous FTP:
/oes.orst.edu:/pub/almanac/comp/amiga/software/gnuemacs-1.10/
Via e-mail:
To: almanac@oes.orst.edu
body:
mode uuencode
send computer amiga software gnuemacs <file>
<file> is replaced by one of the following:
Required: d1.lzh d2.lzh
Recommended: d3_info.lzh d3_infolisp.lzh
Optional: d3_autoloaded.lzh d3_entertainmentetc.lzh
d3_entertainmentlisp.lzh d4_src.lzh d5_languagelisp.lzh
d5_viclone.lzh d6_gnulibsrc.lzh d6_mailpackage.lzh
d6_mathpackage.lzh d6_misc.lzh d6_textformat.lzh
The `d#' at the beginning of each file is its disk number, which is
referred to by the documentation.
101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look
and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details.
Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software
for Apple computers such as the Macintosh.
Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers.
102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
Chris Maio's NeWS support package for GNU Emacs is available via anonymous
FTP:
/columbia.edu:pub/ps-emacs.tar.Z
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ps-emacs.tar.Z
and via e-mail:
To: archive-server@columbia.edu
body: send NeWS emacs-support
103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
Hal R. Brand <BRAND@addvax.llnl.gov> is said to have a VMS save set with a
ready-to-run VMS version of Emacs 18.55 for X Windows. It is available
via anonymous FTP (addvax.llnl.gov). It is possible that the VMS versions
of Emacs at other sites have X support compiled in. See etc/FTP for
locations.
Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> writes:
Getting Emacs to run on VMS with DECwindows requires a number of changes
to the sources. Fortunately this has been done already. Joshua Marantz
<josh@viewlogic.com> did most of the work for Emacs 18.52, and the mods
were ported to 18.55 by Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl>. Also included is the
handling of DEC's LK201 keyboard. You need to apply the changes to a
fresh Emacs 18.55 distribution on a Unix system, and then you can copy
the sources to VMS to perform the compile/link/build.
The set of changes have been posted a number of times three times the
last 12 months, so they should be widely available.
Richard Levitte <levitte@e.kth.se> tells us that there are patches for
Emacs 18.57, 18.58, and 18.59 available via e-mail: !
To: EMACS-FILESERV@e.kth.se !
body: SEND EMACS-1857-PATCHES
or: SEND EMACS-1858-PATCHES
or: SEND EMACS-1859-PATCHES +
+
or via anonymous ftp at: +
+
/lucy.merrimack.edu:emacs-1859-patches.share +
+
The set of patches weighs in at around 2.7 MB. +
104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
As usual, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88). For C++,
if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like this:
M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET
105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know
the IP address of a host to FTP files from it. You can get this
information in two ways:
* By telnet:
telnet nic.ddn.mil hostnames (or `telnet 192.112.36.5 101')
hname XXX.YYY.ZZZ
* By e-mail:
To: service@nic.ddn.mil
Subject: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ
or: whois XXX.YYY.ZZZ
or: help
or:
To: resolve@cs.widener.edu
body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ
Information from Brendan Kehoe <brendan@cs.widener.edu>.
Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
This section lists version numbers, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups,
and other information for many important packages, extensions, and related
programs. There is some overlap with the Lisp Code Directory, but these
entries give more detailed information.
If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they
deserve to be mentioned here, please tell me. Having its own mailing list
or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good signs.
106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net>
Latest released version: 4.41
Beta test version: 5.32
Anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/vm-4.41.tar.Z
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/timer.shar.Z
/ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-4.41.tar.Z
/ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-5.32beta.tar.Z
Newsgroups and mailing lists:
Info-VM:
gnu.emacs.vm.info
info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
Bug-VM:
gnu.emacs.vm.bug
bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com>
Mailing list: supercite-request@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for subscriptions)
supercite@anthem.nlm.nih.gov (for submissions)
Latest version: 2.3 !
Anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/sc-2.3.tar.Z !
/ftp.cme.nist.gov:pub/gnu/sc2.3.tar.Z !
Via e-mail:
To: library@cme.nist.gov
Subject: help
NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite.
108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
Author: Masanobu Umeda <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp>
Latest official version: 3.13
Unofficial test version: 3.14.1
Anonymous FTP:
/aun.uninett.no:pub/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z -
/wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/GNU/etc/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
/liasun3.epfl.ch:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
/aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
/funet.fi:/networking/news/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
/src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu/EmacsBits/gnus/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-3.13.tar.Z
Newsgroups and mailing lists:
English-only:
gnu.emacs.gnus
info-gnus-english-request@cis.ohio-state.edu (for subscriptions)
info-gnus-english@cis.ohio-state.edu (for submissions)
Japanese (and some English):
info-gnus-request@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for subscriptions)
info-gnus@flab.fujitsu.co.jp (for submissions)
109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu>
Latest released version: 2.02
Anonymous FTP:
/csvax.cs.caltech.edu:pub/calc-2.02.tar.Z
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02.tar.Z
NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue anyone
for having a program with a similar command language to Calc. :-)
110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
Author: Edward M. Reingold <reingold@cs.uiuc.edu>
Latest version: 4.02
Anonymous FTP:
/emr.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/emacs/calendar {???}
Via e-mail:
To: reingold@cs.uiuc.edu
Subject: send-emacs-cal
Put your best internet e-mail address in the body.
111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
Author: Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
Latest official version: 4.20
Anonymous FTP:
/alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu:ange-ftp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z
/ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/ange-ftp.tar.Z
Mailing lists:
ange-ftp-lovers-request@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for subscriptions)
Ange-FTP Lovers:
ange-ftp-lovers@anorman.hpl.hp.com (for submissions)
/ftp.reed.edu:pub/mailing-lists/ange-ftp/ (archives)
Ange-FTP Announcements:
ange-ftp-lovers-announce@anorman.hpl.hp.com
NOTE: now with support for accessing VMS, CMS, and MTS systems
112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu>
Latest released version: 4.3
Anonymous FTP:
/cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z
NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one
distributed with Emacs.
113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
Author: Sebastian Kremer <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de>
Latest released version: 5.239
Anonymous FTP: /ftp.cs.buffalo.edu:pub/Emacs/diredall.tar.Z
/ftp.uni-koeln.de:pub/gnu/emacs/diredall.tar.Z
NOTE: This is a huge improvement over the Dired distributed with Emacs.
This version will be in Emacs 19.
114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk>
Latest released version: 6.1 {???}
Anonymous FTP:
/iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex_6_1d.tar.Z
/iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex.tar.Z
Mailing list:
auc-tex-request@iesd.auc.dk (for subscriptions)
auc-tex@iesd.auc.dk (for submissions)
auc-tex_mgr@iesd.auc.dk (auc-tex development team)
115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
Author: Bob Weiner <rsw@cs.brown.edu>
Anonymous FTP:
/wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/ h*.tar.Z
Mailing lists:
hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only.
Subscriptions:
To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole-announce
hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion.
Subscriptions:
To: hyperbole-request@cs.brown.edu
Subject: Add <mailbox@domain.name> to hyperbole
Submissions:
hyperbole@cs.brown.edu
NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a
member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list.
NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists.
116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>,
Hallvard B. Furuseth <hallvard@ifi.uio.no>
Anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
/ftp.uu.net:languages/elisp/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
/src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z
117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
Author: Olin Shivers <Olin.Shivers@cs.cmu.edu>
Anonymous FTP:
/cs.cmu.edu:/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/shivers/lib/emacs/
{comint,cmu{tex,shell,scheme,lisp},ml}.el
(anonymous password must contain `@',
cannot cd to intermediate directories)
118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
Author: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
Latest released version: 1.47
Anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bbdb.tar.Z
Mailing list:
info-bbdb-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
info-bbdb@lucid.com
bbdb-announce-request@lucid.com (to be informed of new releases)
Note: BBDB does not work with VM 4. It does work with VM 5, RMAIL, GNUS,
and MH-E.
119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com>
Latest released version: 2.0.02
Beta test version: 3.0 (9 patches)
Anonymous FTP:
/archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/ispell/ (version 2.0.02)
/ftp.cs.ucla.edu:/pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries)
/argus.math.orst.edu:pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries)
/ftp.th-darmstadt.de:pub/dicts/ispell/ (mirror of argus)
NOTE: Do not send mail to Geoff asking him to send you the latest
version of Ispell. He does not have free e-mail.
120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
Latest released version: 4.2
Anonymous FTP:
/cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-4.2.tar.Z
/cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-diff-4.1-4.2.tar.Z
/src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/epoch/
/aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:gnu/emacs/epoch/
Newsgroup and mailing lists:
Epoch:
gnu.emacs.epoch
epoch-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
epoch@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
Epoch-Design:
epoch-design-request@cs.uiuc.edu (for subscriptions)
epoch-design@cs.uiuc.edu (for submissions)
FAQ list:
Maintainer: Marc Andreessen <marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Anonymous FTP:
/rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/epoch-faq
/ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:outgoing/marca/epoch/Epoch.FAQ
121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
Primary Maintainer: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
Other Developers: Eric Benson <eb@lucid.com>
Matthieu Devin <devin@lucid.com>
Harlan Sexton <hbs@lucid.com>
Latest released version: 19.6 !
Anonymous FTP:
/labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.6.tar.Z (source) !
/labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.6-sun4.tar.Z (Sun4binaries) !
Newsgroup and mailing lists:
Bugs:
alt.lucid-emacs.bug +
bug-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
bug-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions)
Help:
alt.lucid-emacs.help +
help-lucid-emacs-request@lucid.com (for subscriptions)
help-lucid-emacs@lucid.com (for submissions)
122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
Authors: Manabu Higashida <manabu@sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp>
HIRANO Satoshi <hirano@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
Latest released version: 1.2.0
Anonymous FTP:
/utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:GNU/demacs/ (nearest to U.S.A.)
/ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp:pub/Msdos/Demacs/
/wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/msdos/Demacs/
/ftp.3com.com:pub/gnu/msdos/demacs/
/mindseye.berkeley.edu:pub/kanji/demacs/
/ftp.hawaii.edu:pub/editors/demacs.tar.Z
/ftp.math.ksu.edu:pub/pc/demacs/
/wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:pd1:<msdos.demacs> {ange-ftp syntax?}
/ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120e.zip (executables, lisp-code, doc)
(PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!)
/ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120s.zip (sources, diffs)
(PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!)
/ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/msdos/gnu/emacs/
/mizar.docs.uu.se:pub/gnu/demacs/
/iamsun.unibe.ch:PC/demacs/
/flop.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:outgoing/demacs.tar
/ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/demacs/
/garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120e.zip
/garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120s.zip
/ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/demacs/
/ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/Demacs/
{Does anyone know which sites have the Kanji version?}
Via e-mail:
From garbo.uwasa.fi:
To: mailserv@garbo.uwasa.fi
Subject: garbo-request
Body: send pc/editor/dem120e.zip
send pc/editor/dem120s.zip
quit
Downloading:
EXEC-PC (Milwaukee, WI) 414-789-4210 (2400 bps)
in the Mahoney MS-DOS file area in its Editors/wordprocessors
library (F), named GNUEMACS.ZIP
Channel 1 (Cambridge, MA) 617-345-8873 (9600 bps)
in the New Uploads file area, named GNUEMACS.ZIP
NOTE: Use the -d option of [pk]unzip for all .zip archives. Some sites
have Demacs lharc'ed. If you need to find programs to unpack lharc and
zip format archives, Chris Dean <ctdean@talaris.com> points out that you
should see the comp.compression FAQ, available for FTP:
/rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/comp.compression/
Mailing list:
NOTE: There is no mailing list for Demacs. However, there is a list
for DJGPP, which is the environment that Demacs runs in. Many
Demacs problems are actually issues with DJGPP.
DJGPP:
Subscriptions:
To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
body: add <your-address> djgpp
or put `help' in the body.
If this fails, mail to djgpp-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu.
Submissions:
djgpp@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
FAQ list:
Maintainer: Dave Steibel <steibel@cs.umbc.edu>
Anonymous FTP: algol.cs.umbc.edu:pub/demacs/demacs.faq
123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
Author: Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Latest released version: 1.6a
Anonymous FTP:
/simtel20.army.mil:PD:<MSDOS.FREEMACS> {ange-ftp syntax?}
/grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:pub/msdos/freemacs/
Via e-mail:
To: archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
body: help
Via snail mail:
address: Russell Nelson, 11 Grant St., Potsdam, NY 13676
Send $15 copying fee, and specify preferred floppy disk format:
5.25", 360K, or 3.50", 720K
Mailing lists:
Subscriptions:
To: listserv@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
body: add <your-address> <name-of-list>
or put `help' in the body.
List distribution addresses:
freemacs-announce@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
freemacs-help@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
freemacs-workers@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (send bug reports here)
124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
Author: Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
Latest version: 2.0 patchlevel 12u8
(This is the version that supports the new unified diff format.)
Anonymous FTP:
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12u8.tar.Z
/prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12g8.tar.Z (GNU version)
GNU Emacs FAQ: Keybindings/Output
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
deletions occurred.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
`Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
1. Find out what character sequence is generated by the keystroke sequence
you wish to bind to a command. See question 129 for how to do this.
Keep in mind that the character sequences generated by a keystroke
sequence varies from one terminal to another. You may also get
different results depending on what type of machine you are running on
(see question 128). For example, these keystrokes may generate these
character sequences:
F1 ---> ESC [ 2 2 4 z
Shift-R10 ---> ESC O t
L7 ---> ESC [ 3 1 ~
Remove ---> C-@
2. Figure out what the Emacs Lisp syntax is for this character sequence.
Inside an Emacs Lisp string, RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, SPC, and TAB are
specified with `\r', `\n', `\C-?', `\e', ` ', and `\t'. C-x is
specified by `\C-x'. M-x is specified the same was as "ESC x".
(Control characters may also be specified as themselves, but I don't
recommend it.) An Emacs Lisp string begins and ends with the double
quote character, `"'. Here are some examples:
ESC [ D ---> "\e[D"
ESC [ 2 2 7 z ---> "\e[227z"
ESC [ 1 8 ~ ---> "\e[18~"
C-M-r ---> "\e\C-r"
3. If some prefix of the character sequence is already bound, you must
unbind it by binding it to `nil'. For example:
(global-set-key "\e[" nil)
4. Pick a command to bind your key sequence to. A command can be a
"symbol" with a function definition, or a "lambda list", or a string
(which is treated as a macro). For example:
(global-set-key "\e[D" 'backward-char)
(global-set-key "\e[227~" "\exgoto-line\r") ; macro
See `Key Bindings' and `Rebinding' in the online manual.
In Emacs 19 (including Lucid Emacs), you can bind function key F24 like
this:
(global-set-key 'f24 'some-command)
126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
A prefix of the character sequence you were trying to bind was already
bound. Usually, the sequence is "ESC [", in which case you should
evaluate this form first:
(define-key esc-map "[" nil)
NOTE: By default, "ESC [" is bound to backward-paragraph, and if you do
this you will lose this key binding. For most people, this is not a
problem.
See question 125.
127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
.emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
This is because you're trying to do something in your .emacs file that
needs to be postponed until after the terminal/window-system setup code
is loaded. This is a result of the order in which things are done
during the startup of Emacs. For more details see question 135.
In order to postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after the
terminal/window-system setup, set the value of the variable
term-setup-hook or window-setup-hook to be a function which does what
you want.
See etc/OPTIONS for a complete explanation of what Emacs does every time
it is started.
Here is a simple example of how to set term-setup-hook:
(setq term-setup-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x:
(define-key CSI-map "29~" 'execute-extended-command))
))))
128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
This depends on whether you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator
window, or whether you are allowing Emacs to create its own X window.
You can tell which you are doing by noticing whether Emacs creates a new
window when you start it.
If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window, then it
behaves exactly as it does on any other tty. In this case, for function
keys to be useful, they must generate character sequences that are sent
to the programs running inside the window as input. The `xterm' program
has two different sets of character sequences that it generates when
function keys are pressed, depending on the sunFunctionKeys X resource
and the -sf and +sf command line options. (To find out what these key
sequences are, see question 129.) In addition, with xterm,
you can override what key sequence a specific function key (or any other
key) will generate with the `translations' resource. This, for example:
XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
<KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
makes the function key F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [xyzzy".
On the other hand, if Emacs is managing its own X window, the following
description applies. Emacs receives `KeyPress' events from the X server
when a key is pressed while the keyboard focus is in its window. The
KeyPress event contains an X "keysym" code, which is simply an arbitrary
number corresponding to the name of the keysym, and information on which
"modifiers" such as `control' and `shift' are active. For example, the
`Tab' keysym is 0xff09. (Generally, a key on the keyboard will generate a
keysym whose name is the same as the label on the key, ie. the `Tab' key
will normally generate the `Tab' keysym. This can be changed with the
xmodmap program.) Emacs recognizes all the keysyms that correspond to
standard ASCII characters and internally uses the ASCII character instead.
(WARNING: I am about to describe a gross, disgusting hack to you, have
your barf bag ready.)
When Emacs receives the X keysym of one of the arrow keys, it behaves
the same as if it had received a letter key with the control modifier
down as follows (this is hard-coded):
Up becomes C-p
Down becomes C-n
Right becomes C-f
Left becomes C-b
The way Emacs treats other keysyms depends on what kind of machine it was
compiled on. The type of the display machine is irrelevant! Function
keys are mapped internally to escape sequences, while other keys are
completely ignored.
1. If compiled on a Sun, Emacs recognizes these X keysyms that
are normally on a Sun keyboard:
F1 through F9
L1 through L10 (same as F11 through F20)
R1 through R15 (same as F21 through F35)
(The keys labelled R8, R10, R12, and R14 usually are mapped to the
X keysyms Up, Left, Right, and Down.)
Break (the `Alternate' key is given this keysym)
These keys work like Sun function keys. When Emacs receives the
keysym, it will internally use character sequences that look like "ESC
[ ### z", where ### is replaced by a number. The character sequences
are identical to those generated by Sun's keyboard under SunView. Any
function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 z".
In order to use these key sequences, they should be bound to commands
using the standard key binding methods, just as if Emacs were running
on a regular terminal.
WARNING: F11 and L1 are the same keysym in X, as are F12 and L2, etc.
{Yes, this is stupid. Complain to the X consortium.}
2. If not compiled on a Sun, the function keys will appear to Emacs in a
way remarkably similar to the keys of a DEC LK201 keyboard (used on
some VT series terminals). These X keysyms will be recognized:
F1 through F20
Help (treated same as F15)
Menu (treated same as F16, is the LK201 `Do' key)
Find
Insert (LK201 `Insert Here' key)
Select
Prior (LK201 `Prev Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
Next (LK201 `Next Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
And finally, the LK201 key labelled `Remove' (or `Delete') is often
mapped to the Delete keysym which generates the DEL character (C-?)
instead of the key sequence given by the LK201 `Remove' key. It may
also be mapped to some other keysym, such as `_Remove', in which case
you can't use it from within Emacs at all.
Each function key will be internally converted to a character sequence
that looks like "ESC [ ## ~", where ## is replaced by a number. The
character sequences are identical to those generated by a LK201
keyboard. Any function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 ~".
For the complete list of the numbers which are generated by the function
keys, look in the file src/x11term.c at the definitions of the function
stringFuncVal.
If you are running Emacs on a Sun machine, even if your X display is
running on a non-Sun machine (eg., an X terminal), you get the setup
described above for Suns. The determining factor is what type of
machine Emacs is running (was compiled) on, not what type of machine
your X display is on.
If you have function keys not listed above on your keyboard, you can use
`xmodmap' to change their keysym assignments to get keys that Emacs will
recognize, but that may screw up other programs.
X resources are not used by Emacs to affect the key sequences generated.
In particular, there are no X key "translations" for Emacs.
If you have function keys not listed above and you don't want to use
xmodmap to change their names, you might want to make a modification to
your Emacs. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has made available a patch for Emacs
that adds the x-rebind-key function of Epoch to Emacs 18.58. This allows
another layer of key rebinding before Emacs even sees the keys, and in
this layer you can rebind all of the keys and modifier combinations as
well.
Anonymous FTP:
/ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z
/ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun
Johan Vromans explains what this buys for you:
After implementing this, all keyboard keys can be configured to send
user definable sequences, eg.,
(x-rebind-key "KP_F1" 0 "\033OP")
This will have the keypad key PF1 send the sequence "ESC O P", just like
an ordinary VT series terminal.
129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
Use this function by Randal L. Schwartz <merlyn@iwarp.intel.com>:
(defun see-chars ()
"Displays characters typed, terminated by a 3-second timeout."
(interactive)
(let ((chars "")
(inhibit-quit t))
(message "Enter characters, terminated by 3-second timeout.")
(while (not (sit-for 3))
(setq chars (concat chars (list (read-char)))
quit-flag nil)) ; quit-flag maybe set by C-g
(message "Characters entered: %s" (key-description chars))))
Alternatively, use the "C-h l" view-lossage command, which will display
the last 100 characters Emacs has seen in its input stream. Kevin
Gallagher <kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org> suggests typing some unique string
like "wxyz", typing the key in question, then typing "C-h l". The
characters that appear between "wxyz" and "C-h l" were generated by the
key.
130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
Sorry, you can't; there are no "translations" to be set. Emacs is not
written using the Xt library. The only way to affect the behavior of keys
within Emacs is through `xmodmap' (outside Emacs) or `define-key' (inside
Emacs).
131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This screws
up Emacs because it binds these characters to commands. Also, by default
Emacs will not honor them as flow control characters and may overwhelm
output buffers. Sometimes, intermediate software using XON/XOFF flow
control will prevent Emacs from ever seeing C-s and C-q.
Possible solutions:
* Disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control.
You need to determine what is the cause of the flow control.
* your terminal
Your terminal may use XON/XOFF flow control to have time to display
all the characters it receives. For example, VT series terminals do
this. It may be possible to turn this off from a setup menu. For
example, on a VT220 you may select `No XOFF' in the setup menu. This
is also true for some terminal emulation programs on PCs.
When you turn off flow control at the terminal, you will also need to
turn it off at the other end, which might be at the computer you are
logged in to or at some terminal server in between.
If you turn off flow control, characters may be lost; using a printer
connected to the terminal may fail. You may be able to get around
this problem by modifying the `termcap' entry for your terminal to
include extra NUL padding characters.
* a modem
If you are using a dialup connection, the modems may be using XON/XOFF
flow control. I don't know how to get around this.
* a router or terminal server
Some network box between the terminal and your computer may be using
XON/XOFF flow control. It may be possible to make it use some other
kind of flow control. You will probably have to ask your local
network experts for help with this.
* tty and/or pty devices
If your connection to Emacs goes through multiple tty and/or pty
devices, they may be using XON/XOFF flow control even when it is not
necessary.
Eirik Fuller <eirik@theory.tn.cornell.edu> writes:
Some versions of `rlogin' (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
control characters to the remote system to which they connect. On
such systems, Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow control
on the local system. Sometimes `rlogin -8' will avoid this problem.
One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
(the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the stty
command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, `stty
start u stop u' will do this.
Some versions of `tcsh' will prevent even this from working. One
way around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin,
and issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
Use `stty -ixon' instead of `stty start u stop u' on some systems.
* Make Emacs speak the XON/XOFF flow control protocol.
You can make Emacs treat C-s and C-q as flow control characters by
evaluating this form:
(set-input-mode nil t)
If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs
file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to
put it is unclear. I don't know if this has any effect when used in
lisp/site-init.el when building Emacs; I've never tried that. {Can
someone tell me whether it works?} Putting things in users' .emacs files
has a number of problems.
Putting this form in lisp/default.el has the problem that if the user's
.emacs file has an error, this will prevent lisp/default.el from being
loaded and Emacs may be unusable for the user, even for correcting their
.emacs file (unless they're smart enough to move it to another name). A
possible solution is to initially disable C-s and C-q by setting
keyboard-translate-table in lisp/site-init.el, either with swap-keys
(see question 136) or with the following form:
;; by Roger Crew <crew@cs.stanford.edu>:
(setq keyboard-translate-table
"\C-@\C-a\C-b\C-c\C-d\C-e\C-f\C-g\C-h\C-i\C-j\C-k\C-l\C-m\C-n\C-o\C-p\C-^\C-r\C-\\\C-t\C-u\C-v\C-w\C-x\C-y\C-z\C-[\C-s\C-]\C-q\C-_")
This will at least prevent Emacs from being confused by the flow control
characters, even if lisp/default.el cannot be loaded. Then, in
lisp/default.el, enable XON/XOFF flow control with set-input-mode.
For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS in the
Emacs distribution.
132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
are filtered out?
I suggest swapping C-s with C-\ and C-q with C-^:
(swap-keys ?\C-s ?\C-\\)
(swap-keys ?\C-q ?\C-^)
See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys. This method
has the advantage that it simultaneously swaps the characters everywhere
throughout Emacs, while just switching the keybindings will miss important
places where the character codes are stored (eg., the search-repeat-char
variable, major mode keymaps, etc.).
To do this for an entire site, you may want to swap the keys in
lisp/default.el. If only some of your users are connecting through
XON/XOFF flow-controlled connections, you will want to do this
conditionally. I suggest pre-swapping them in lisp/site-init.el when
Emacs is built, and then in lisp/default.el, if it is determined to be
safe, they can be reenabled (being careful not to screw up any other key
mappings users might have established using keyboard-translate-table).
See question 131 for an easy way to pre-swap these keys.
WARNING: If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by
the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs actually
behaves.
133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
The BackSpace key (on every keyboard I've used) generates ASCII code 8.
C-h sends the same code. In Emacs by default C-h invokes help-command.
This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of "help"
is "h". The easiest solution to this problem is to use C-h (and
BackSpace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous
character.
For many people this solution may be problematic:
* They normally use BackSpace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous
character typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for
deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do
this on many Unix systems:
stty erase '^?'
* The person may prefer using the BackSpace key for deleting the previous
character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or
because they don't even have a separate Delete key. In this case, the
BackSpace key should be made to behave like Delete. There are several
methods.
* Under X Windows, the easiest solution is to change the BackSpace key
into a Delete key like this:
xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
* Some terminals (eg., VT3## terminals) allow the character generated by
the BackSpace key to be changed from a setup menu.
* You may be able to get a keyboard that is completely programmable.
* Under X or on a dumb terminal, it is possible to swap the BackSpace
and Delete keys inside Emacs:
(swap-keys ?\C-h ?\C-?)
See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys.
* Another approach is to switch keybindings and put help on "C-x h"
instead:
(global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
(global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ; override mark-whole-buffer
Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?".
WARNING: Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many
modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere.
134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
Good question!
135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
When Emacs starts up, it doesn't know anything about arrow keys at all
(except when running under X, see question 128). During the process of
starting up, Emacs will load a terminal-specific initialization file for
your terminal type (as determined by the environment variable TERM), if
one exists. This file has the responsibility for enabling the arrow keys.
There are several things that can go wrong:
1. There is no initialization file for your terminal.
You can determine this by looking in the lisp/term directory. If your
terminal type (as determined by the TERM environment variable) is
xxx-yy-z, then the first of these files in the lisp/term directory will
be loaded as the terminal-specific initialization file: xxx-yy-z.el,
xxx-yy.el, or xxx.el.
There are two major cases of this problem:
* Your terminal type is very similar to one that has an init file.
In this case, there are several techniques suggested by Colin Jensen
<cjensen@ampex.com>, Ben Liblit <Liblit@cs.psu.edu>, and Marc
Auslander <marc@watson.ibm.com>:
A. Add a symbolic link in lisp/term for your terminal type that
points to the similar type. For example, you could make VT102
terminals work with this command:
ln -s vt100.el vt102.el
This fixes things for everyone on the system who uses the terminal
type.
B. If you can't do the solution in part A, you can add code to your
term-setup-hook that loads the correct file like this:
(setq term-setup-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(cond ((equal "vt102" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
(load (concat term-file-prefix "vt100")))
(;; Code for other terminal types goes here ...
)))))
C. If you use `tset' to set your TERM environment variable when you
login, you can use the `-m' switch to tell tset to use a terminal
type known by Emacs instead of another similar one. For example,
specifying this:
tset ... -m 'dec-vt220:vt220' ...
will make tset say you are on a `vt220' instead of a `dec-vt220'.
D. Interactively, you can type "M-x load-library RET term/vt100" to
load the terminal-specific initialization files for VT100
terminals.
* Your terminal type is not similar to one that has an init file.
One can be made for your terminal, or you can just add code to your
own .emacs to handle this problem for yourself. For example, if your
terminal's arrow keys send these character sequences:
Up: ESC [ A
Down: ESC [ B
Right: ESC [ C
Left: ESC [ D
then you can bind these keys to the appropriate commands with code in
your .emacs like this:
(setq term-setup-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(cond ((string-match "\\`xyzzy" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
;; First, must unmap the binding for left bracket
(or (keymapp (lookup-key global-map "\e\["))
(define-key global-map "\e\[" nil))
;; Enable terminal type xyzzy's arrow keys:
(define-key global-map "\e\[A" 'previous-line)
(define-key global-map "\e\[B" 'next-line)
(define-key global-map "\e\[C" 'forward-char)
(define-key global-map "\e\[D" 'backward-char))
((string-match "\\`abcde" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
;; Do something different for terminal type abcde
;; .....
)))))
NOTE: You may have to restart Emacs to get changes to take effect.
NOTE: Your arrow keys may send sequences beginning with "ESC O" when
Emacs is running, even if they send sequences beginning with "ESC [" at
all other times. This is because Emacs uses any command there may be
in your terminal's termcap entry for putting the terminal into
"Application Keypad Mode". Just map these sequences the same way as
above.
The next two cases are problems even if there is a initialization file for
your terminal type.
2. The initialization file for your terminal doesn't bind arrow keys.
If your terminal type is `xterm', you will have to bind the arrow keys
as in part 1 above, since the xterm.el file doesn't do anything useful.
There may be other terminal types with the same problem.
3. Your terminal's arrow keys send individual control characters.
For example, the arrow keys on an ADM-3 send C-h, C-j, C-k, and C-l.
There is not much Emacs can do in this situation, since all the control
characters except for C-^ and C-\ are already used as Emacs commands.
It may be possible to convince the terminal to send something else when
you press the arrow keys; it is worth investigating.
You have to make the hard choices of how to rebind keys to commands to
make things work the way you want. Another alternative is to start
learning the standard Emacs keybindings for moving point around: C-b,
C-f, C-p, and C-n. Personally, I no longer use the arrow keys when
editing because I have switched keyboards so many times.
4. Your terminal's arrow keys send sequences beginning with "ESC [".
Due to an extremely poor design decision (ie., these sequences are ANSI
standard), none of the the terminal-specific initialization files that
are distributed with Emacs will bind these character sequences to the
appropriate commands by default. (This also applies to any other
function keys which generate character sequences starting with "ESC
[".) This is because it was deemed far more important to preserve the
binding of M-[ to the backward-paragraph command. It appears that this
will change in Emacs 19.
Some of the terminal-specific initialization files that come with Emacs
provide a command enable-arrow-keys that will fix this problem. To get
this automatically invoked, put this in your .emacs:
(setq term-setup-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(if (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys) (enable-arrow-keys)))))
We put this in our lisp/default.el file, so users don't have to worry
about it:
;; don't override a user's term-setup-hook
(or term-setup-hook
(setq term-setup-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(and (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys)
;; don't override a user key mapping
(eq 'backward-paragraph (lookup-key esc-map "["))
(enable-arrow-keys))))))
If your terminal type is `sun', you should put this in your .emacs
instead (or in addition to the above):
(setq sun-esc-bracket t)
It is possible that the terminal-specific initialization file for your
terminal type was written locally and does not follow the rule
mentioned above. In this case you may need to inspect it to find out
how to enable the arrow keys. (Actually, if it was written locally, it
probably enables the arrow keys by default.)
136: How do I "swap" two keys?
When Emacs receives a character, you can make Emacs behave as though it
received another character by setting the value of
keyboard-translate-table. The following Emacs Lisp will do this for you,
allowing you to "swap" keys. After arranging for this Lisp to be
evaluated by Emacs, you can evaluate `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' to swap A and B.
(defun swap-keys (key1 key2)
"Swap keys KEY1 and KEY2 using map-key."
(map-key key1 key2)
(map-key key2 key1))
(defun map-key (from to)
"Make key FROM behave as though key TO was typed instead."
(setq keyboard-translate-table
(concat keyboard-translate-table
(let* ((i (length keyboard-translate-table))
(j from)
(k i)
(str (make-string (max 0 (- j (1- i))) ?X)))
(while (<= k j)
(aset str (- k i) k)
(setq k (1+ k)))
str)))
(aset keyboard-translate-table from to)
(let ((i (1- (length keyboard-translate-table))))
(while (and (>= i 0) (eq (aref keyboard-translate-table i) i))
(setq i (1- i)))
(setq keyboard-translate-table
(if (eq i -1)
nil
(substring keyboard-translate-table 0 (1+ i))))))
NOTE: You must evaluate the definition of these functions before calling
them! For example, list the function definitions before their use in your
.emacs file.
NOTE: These functions take two numbers as arguments. The example above,
`(swap-keys ?A ?B)' is actually `(swap-keys 65 66)', because `?A' is
merely notation for 65, the ASCII value of `A'.
NOTE: These functions only work for single characters. You cannot swap
two multi-character sequences.
137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
For C-@ and C-^, often you can just type Control-2 and Control-6. For
C-_, you may have to hold down the shift key, typing Control-Shift-Hyphen.
C-@ can often be generated by typing Control-Space. C-@ is often called
the NUL character, and has ASCII value 0. C-_ can often be generated by
typing Control-7 or Control-/. C-? (aka DEL) may be generated by typing
Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace or a key labelled Delete or Del.
Try Control with all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets
generated.
138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
Instead of typing M-a, you can type "ESC a" instead. In fact, Emacs
converts M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of
meta-prefix-char).
139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
Type C-[ instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
key would. Try also C-;.
140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
Some IBM PC compatibles do not have a key labeled `Del' or `Delete' {is
this true?}. Those that do generally have it in an inconvenient location.
(Also, in some terminal emulators, the `Del' key does not transmit DEL.)
The result is the standard "BackSpace invoking help" problem (see question
133).
The usual solution, suggested by Michael Covington
<mcovingt@aisun1.ai.uga.edu>, is to somehow tell the terminal emulator
program that BackSpace should transmit DEL. Read the program's manual.
Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace may send DEL. The `Del' key may only
send DEL if the NumLock key hasn't been pressed.
141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220
clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're using
X, you might be able to do this with the `xmodmap' program (this is
what I do).
142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
Unless you're using Emacs under emacstool (or xvetool?), have a working
version of x-rebind-key (see question 128), or are using Emacs 19 (Lucid
Emacs), you can't do this with Emacs alone.
If you are using emacstool, Emacs sees different character sequences for
the combination of a modifier and a function key from what it sees for the
function key alone. See etc/emacstool.1 for more information. Since
Emacs sees different character sequences, you can bind these different
sequences to different commands.
If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window like xterm, you
can modify its translation tables to make it generate different character
sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key. For
example, this X resource setting:
XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
Shift<KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
makes Shift-F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [ xyzzy". You can
bind these character sequences in Emacs as normal. Nick Ruprecht
<ruprecht@informatik.uni-freiburg.de> has written an extensive X
translation mapping for xterm that does this. {Does this have an FTP
site?}
If you have x-rebind-key, you can have any arbitrary combination of
modifiers with a key replaced by any sequence of "normal" characters. For
example, this makes Shift-Return behave as though you had typed "C-x C-e"
(example from Jerry Graves):
(x-rebind-key "Return" 'shift "\C-x\C-e")
In Emacs 19 (Lucid Emacs), you can bind Meta-Left-Arrow like this (example
from Jamie Zawinski):
(global-set-key '(meta left) 'backward-word)
With the last two methods, use `xmodmap' and `xev' to discover the keysym
and modifier names.
143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
Try all of these methods before asking for further help:
* You may have big problems using `mwm' as your window manager. {Does
anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in
Emacs with mwm?}
* For X11R4: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use `xev' to find out
what keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or
Meta_R. If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation.
* Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters.
`stty -a' (or `stty everything') should show `cs8' somewhere. If it
shows `cs7' instead, use `stty cs8 -istrip' (or `stty pass8') to fix
it.
* If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the
`-8' argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8
bits of every character.
* If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating
(set-input-mode t nil) helps.
* If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type
M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W
anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this:
XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false
(This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.)
With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation:
XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert()
You might have to replace `Meta' with `Alt'.
144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the
fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that
XLookupString returns the same result regardless of the Meta key state
which is no longer necessarily true. Until Emacs is fixed, the temporary
kludge is to run this command after each time the X server is started but
preferably before any xterm clients are:
xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which
may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them.
145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
There is a package `wordstar' by Jim Frost <jimf@saber.com> and
`ws-mode.el' by Juergen Nickelsen <nickel@cs.tu-berlin.de>. Check in the
Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89).
146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
This question comes up once every couple of months. I have never seen a
positive reply, so I presume no one has ever written one.
Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
There is a patch called the `8-bit ctl-arrow patch' that allows Emacs to
display characters with codes from 128 to 255. {The original appears to
have been by Kenneth Cline <cline@proof.ergo.cs.cmu.edu>.} Partially based
on Johan Widen's earlier work, Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> has updated this
patch for Emacs 18.58 along with some other 8-bit improvements.
Anonymous FTP:
/ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-EightBit.Z
/ftp.urc.tue.nl:/pub/tex/emacs/FP-EightBit
/cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z:cemacs/8bit-patch-18.57
/sics.se:archive/emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
/laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.55
/laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.57
Via e-mail:
To: mail-server@sics.se
body: send emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
Anders Edenbrandt <anderse@dna.lth.se> has produced a more comprehensive
patch for Emacs 18.59 that allows for 8-bit input and output.
Anonymous FTP:
/ftp.efd.lth.se:pub/gnu/emacs_8-bit.patch
In the words of the author:
With these patches, Emacs becomes fully 8-bit operational. There is
support for displaying 8-bit characters, as well as for entering such
characters from the keyboard. In addition, upcase/lowcase translation
is supported, accented characters are recognized as "letters" (important
when doing 'forward-word', for example), and text with 8-bit characters
can be sorted correctly.
A Meta-shift key can still be used, provided that you run in an
environment where it is possible to distinguish between a character
entered using the Meta-shift key and one entered directly. The diffs
include patches to make this work under SunView (with emacstool) as
well as under X. If you can't use a Meta-shift key, you have to enter
Meta-commands with the ESC-prefix.
The most comprehensive patches for 8-bit output are by Howard Gayle
(originally for Emacs 18.55. These patches allow displaying any arbitrary
string for a given 8-bit character (except TAB and C-j). Also supported
is defining the sorting order and the uppercase and lowercase
translations. It is reported that the 8-bit character support in Emacs 19
is largely based on these patches. Thomas Bellman
<Bellman@lysator.liu.se> has updated these patches for Emacs 18.59.
Anonymous FTP:
/sics.se:archive/emacs-gayle.tar.Z (patches for 18.55)
/ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.58.diff.tar.Z (patches)
/ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.59-gayle.tar.Z (patched Emacs)
Epoch's 8-bit character support is based on Anders Edenbrandt's patches.
Lucid Emacs has the ctl-arrow patch installed. Nemacs displays 8-bit
characters, and it may be useful for displaying the 8-bit ISO-8859
alphabet, but I don't know for sure (see question 149).
148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
Minor modes for ISO Latin-1 that allow one to easily input this character
set have been written by several people. Such modes have been written by
Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr> (laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/iso-latin-1.el),
Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> {FTP site??}, and Marc Shapiro
<shapiro@sor.inria.fr> {FTP site??}.
These approaches differ from the one taken by Anders Edenbrandt in that
his method uses direct 8-bit input, while these methods use a compose
sequence for 8-bit characters. {I have heard conflicting reports on
whether this results in losing the Meta key. Perhaps this depends on
whether Emacs is running under X. Can someone resolve this?}
Karl Heuer <karl@haddock.ima.isc.com> is said to have a patch to allow
8-bit input. Georg-Wilhelm Koltermann <gwk@crmunich0.cray.com> also has a
patch for either 18.57 or 18.58 that allows 8-bit input.
Epoch comes with a patch that allows it to input 8-bit characters, but it
is not enabled by default. {Is this right?}
Jamie Zawinski says:
Lucid GNU Emacs allows the input of any ISO-8859/1 keysyms that your
keyboard generates (see xmodmap), and contains a package that implements
a DEC/OpenWindows-like "Compose" key for systems which don't have one.
149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55
that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP:
/crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
/miki.cs.titech.ac.jp:JAPAN/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z
You might also need files for "wnn", a kanji input method
(wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You need a terminal (or
terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in JIS, Shift-JIS, or EUC
(Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs as a direct X Window
client.
150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
`cemacs' by Stephen G. Simpson <simpson@math.psu.edu> is a patch to Emacs
18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with
Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous
FTP:
/crl.nmsu.edu:pub/chinese/cemacs.tar.Z
/cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z
Cxterm is available from the same place:
/cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z
151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
Joel M. Hoffman <joel@wam.umd.edu> writes:
A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows right-to-left
editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display the Hebrew
letters, given the right codes, but not for any right-to-left support;
the hardware also doesn't have to send any specific char. codes. Emacs
keeps track of when the user is typing Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-*
terminals in Israel contain built-in support for Hebrew.)
To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's source
code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean.
[and in a separate message:]
It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend
trying that with emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order
with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a
quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to
send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for
anything large, however, you'll want something that works better.
Joel Hoffman has also written a "bi-directional bi-lingual Emacs-like"
editor for MS-DOS named Ibelbe (Itty Bitty Emacs-Like Bidirectional
Editor). Ibelbe is written in Turbo Pascal and comes with source code.
Here is the description:
Ibelbe looks like emacs (it even has a minibuffer and filename
completion), and fully supports both right-to-left and left-to-right
editing. Other than an EGA monitor or better, no special hardware is
required. You will need an EGA Hebrew font to use Ibelbe with Hebrew.
Anonymous FTP:
/israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/ibelbe.zip
/israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/hebfont.zip
Joseph Friedman <yossi@deshaw.com, yossi@Neon.Stanford.EDU> has written
patches for Emacs 18.55 and 18.58 that provide Semitic language support
under X Windows.
Warren Burstein <warren@itex.jct.ac.il> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by
modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards".
A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with `hebrew'.
GNU Emacs FAQ: Mail and News
This portion of the GNU Emacs FAQ list is cross-posted to `gnu.emacs.gnus'
because many of the questions herein deal with GNUS. See `gnu.emacs.help' for
the rest of the FAQ list.
If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
of the answers, just type "C-x $".
To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
deletions occurred.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
`Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
e-mail to `mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
Mail and News
152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
Many people want Emacs to prefix included text with something like ` > '
instead of with three spaces. One way is to change the code of the
function `mail-yank-original' in lisp/sendmail.el that prefixes with
spaces. A more flexible solution is to use Supercite, which provides wide
configurability in how you format included text in replies. See question
107. Both of these solutions work for RMAIL and GNUS.
A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers
of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of
mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value.
153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
Two methods:
1. (setq mail-self-blind t) will result in a `BCC:' header line with your
address being added to mail composition buffers. This will cause the
mail system to send a copy of the mail back to you.
2. (setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing")) will
result in an `FCC:' header line with the pathname of ~/outgoing being
added to mail composition buffers. When you send the mail, Emacs will
save a copy of the mail in the file ~/outgoing and then strip off the
`FCC:' line before actually sending.
WARNING: There is a bug in Emacs 18.58 that prevents mail readers such
as RMAIL from reading the saved mail messages individually. See
question 155.
WARNING: If you are visiting the file ~/outgoing at the time you send
the mail, this can cause a variety of horrible problems. Jamie
Zawinski has written a solution for this.
It does not work to put `set record filename' in the .mailrc file.
154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
* You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer
with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses
like this one:
To: Willy Smith <wks@xpnsv.lwyrs.com>
However, you do not need to separate addresses with commas in your
.mailrc file.
WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple
addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of
quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly
setting the value of mail-aliases.
* Emacs normally only reads the `.mailrc' file once per session, when you
start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can
type "M-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc.
(You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!)
* Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the
.mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set'
commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group'
commands.
155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
There is a bug for FCC-ed messages in Emacs 18.58 where it adds a timezone
on the "From " line after the year instead of before the year. (Before it
didn't add the timezone at all.) This is incompatible with the standard
format for the "From " line, and RMAIL in particular can no longer
distinguish between the messages. Karl Berry <karl@cs.umb.edu>, Felix Lee
<flee@cs.psu.edu>, Nick Gianniotis <nico@japan.sbi.com> and many
others have all posted patches for this. Karl's is the simplest and just
stops Emacs from adding the timezone:
>*** ./ORIG/sendmail.el Tue Jan 28 16:22:56 1992
>--- ./sendmail.el Thu May 14 18:23:48 1992
>***************
>*** 285,287 ****
> (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
>! (current-time-string) " " timezone "\n")
> (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
>--- 285,287 ----
> (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
>! (current-time-string) "\n")
> (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
Use rmailsort.el by Masanobu Umeda.
157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
This is the behavior of the `movemail' program which RMAIL uses. This
indicates that movemail is configured to use lock files.
RMS writes:
Certain systems require lock files to interlock access to mail files.
On these systems, movemail must write lock files, or you risk losing
mail. You simply must arrange to let movemail write them.
Other systems use the flock system call to interlock access. On these
systems, you should configure movemail to use flock.
158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
Users who just want to try RMAIL out to see how it works end up trapped
using it because saved mail in their `mbox' file has been converted into
an incompatible format (BABYL) that only RMAIL understands. RMAIL
provides no obvious way to reverse this transformation. Kyle Jones has
aptly named this "the great Emacs Mail Eating Monster". To convert a mail
file back to standard Unix format, there are several methods:
* Use the rmail-output ("C-o") command within RMAIL on each message in the
file. First use M-x rmail or M-x rmail-input to visit the RMAIL file in
Rmail mode. Type "1 j" to go to the first message. Use the C-o command
to output the message to a Unix format file. Type "n" to go to the next
message. Repeat.
* If the file contains hundreds of messages, you may not want to repeat
this for all of them. Instead of the above, after getting to the first
message type this (where "mbox" is the file you want to put the messages
in):
C-x ( C-o mbox RET M-s ^From: RET M-0 C-x )
(The rmail-search command ("M-s") is used instead of just "n" because it
is the only command which will cause an error when it reaches the last
message in the file, which is necessary to terminate the keyboard macro.
This will fail if there are messages in the file that don't have a
`From:' header. This assumes rmail-delete-after-output is nil.)
It is wise to save a copy of the RMAIL file first, in case you make a
mistake.
* There are software packages available for converting files or even
entire directories of BABYL files to standard Unix format. These are
helpful in this situation, but are intended mainly for people who have
used RMAIL for a long time and are converting to some other mail reader.
Lookup `rmail', `vm', and `babyl' in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see
question 89).
You may wish to disable RMAIL to avoid accidentally destroying your mbox
file (I have this in my .emacs):
(put 'rmail 'disabled t) ; avoid mbox destruction
159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
Example:
emacs -f gnus
Also:
alias gnus 'emacs -f gnus'
It is probably unwise to automatically start your mail or news reader from
your .emacs file. This would cause problems if you needed to run two
copies of Emacs at one time. Also, this would make it difficult for you
to start Emacs quickly when you needed to.
160: How do I read news under Emacs?
There are at least three news reading packages that operate inside Emacs.
`rnews' comes with Emacs. GNUS and Gnews come separately. rnews will
be replaced by GNUS in Emacs 19.
rnews works only with a local news spool directory. Both GNUS and Gnews
handle reading news remotely via NNTP in addition to reading from a local
news spool. GNUS supports reading mail stored in MH folders or articles
saved by GNUS.
Gnews is styled after `rn' and seems to work like RMAIL. GNUS feels more
like VM. People have complained that GNUS uses a lot of CPU time (it
does). Some people have complained that Gnews is slower than GNUS.
For more information about GNUS, see question 108.
Gnews was written by Matthew P. Wiener <weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu>.
The latest version seems to be 2.0, posted October 3, 1988. Matthew
posted some fixes on October 26, 1988. Gnews does not appear to have been
supported after this date. In particular, it has been reported that Gnews
does not work with Emacs 18.57. There is a newsgroup for Gnews called
gnu.emacs.gnews.
161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
rnews doesn't speak NNTP. You may need to use GNUS or Gnews.
162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests
are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before
blocking waiting for more input which never comes. NNTP version 1.5.11
claims to fix this.
You can work around the bug inside Emacs like this:
(setq nntp-maximum-request 1)
I also have a patch for NNTP 1.5.10 by Mike Pelletier
<stealth@engin.umich.edu> that is based on the timeout code that was in
1.5.9. However, please try to upgrade to 1.5.11 first.
You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by
telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine (ie.,
`telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version number
in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out.
163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
Underlining appears like this:
_^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg
You can destructively remove underlining with M-x ununderline-region.
For ClariNews articles, clari-clean.el by David N. Blank-Edelman
<dnb@meshugge.media.mit.edu> will remove both underlining and overstriking
automatically.
164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
Upgrade to Emacs 18.58 or higher.
165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
Use gnus-mark.el by Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>.
166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
This is a feature. If you set gnus-thread-hide-subject to non-nil, GNUS
will only display the subject of the first posting in a thread, even if
some of the replies use different subjects. It hides the subjects by
putting them past the edge of the window and setting truncate lines to t.
If your screen looks messed up, then for some reason truncate-lines in
your `*Subject*' buffer has been set to nil. It should be set to t.
(I have an enhancement to GNUS 3.13 that will make it only hide the subject
of a posting when it is unchanged from the followed-up-to posting. Thus,
you can use the subject hiding feature and still know when someone changes
the subject. (I have forgotten who originally gave me the idea for this.))
167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
GNUS does several things that take quadratic time of the number of
newsgroups that are listed in .newsrc. The quick fix for this is to
remove all the newsgroups in which you have no interest from your .newrc
file by using GNUS's C-k command in the `*Newsgroup*' buffer after
displaying all newsgroups with the L command. If you were to directly
edit your .newsrc to remove the newsgroups, GNUS would add them back.
GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for duplicates when the .newsrc
file is newer than the .newsrc.el file (ie., you edited your .newsrc).
GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for new newsgroups every time it
connects to the news server. {There may be other quadratic algorithms
that I am not aware of.}
You can speed up GNUS by using the C-k command in the *Newsgroup* buffer
to remove newsgroups from your .newsrc file.
Of course, GNUS will run faster if you make sure it is byte-compiled.
Felix Lee wrote some enhancements called `gnus-speedups.el' that fix some
of the problems. See the Emacs Lisp Archive.
168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
In the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, type the following magical incantation:
M-< C-x ( C-@ c y C-u C-@ C-e C-f C-f M-0 C-x )
Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of
the `*Newsgroup' buffer.
169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
GNUS 3.14.1 will complain that the `Newsgroups:', `Keywords:', and
`Control:' headers are `Unknown header field's.
For the `Newsgroups:' header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the
`Xref' header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article.
If you really want to kill on one of these headers, you can do it like
this:
(gnus-kill nil "^Newsgroups: .*\\(bad\\.group\\|worse\\.group\\)")
Various people (eg., Greg Holley <holley@acuson.com>) have posted
solutions to allow more efficient killing on these headers than the
preceding solution. Masanobu Umeda plans to fix this problem.
170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
GNUS outputs "NNTP: Reading..." message and then clears them, over and
over. In version 3.14.1 there is a variable named nntp-debug-read that
can help. Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl> wrote a fix. Others have also written
fixes.
171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
Because GNUS is marking crosspostings read. {I think it should do this at
the time the article is read to spread out the load. Maybe someone will
write the code to do this.}
172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> explains:
The problem is almost always interaction between NNTP and C News. NNTP
POST asks C News's inews to not background itself but rather hang around
and give its exit status so it knows whether the post was successful.
(That wait will on some systems not return the exit status of the
waited for job is a different sort of problem.) It ends up taking a
long time because inews is calling relaynews, which often waits for
another relaynews to free the lock on the news system so it can file the
article.
My preferred solution is to change inews to not call relaynews, but
rather use newsspool. This loses some error-catching functionality, but
is for the most part safe as inews will detect a lot of the errors on
its own. The C News folks have sped up inews, too, so speed should look
better to most folks as that update propagates around.
173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
Three possible reasons: local distribution, C News date problem (see
question 174, and the path problem. This piece of code may fix the path
problem for you:
(setq gnus-use-generic-path t)
174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
GNUS generates `Date:' headers without time zones. C-News's `inews'
doesn't replace it with a valid header, but will generate it if not
already there. If it is invalid, the article will not be forwarded
properly. Quick fix:
(defun gnus-inews-date () nil)
This is not fixed as of GNUS 3.14.1.
175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
GNUS was written for B news, which would generate the `Lines:' header. C
news doesn't. There is a comment in C news's `inews' that you can
uncomment to enable this functionality. Or you can have GNUS generate the
header, for example:
;; idea by jbryans@beach.csulb.edu (Jack Bryans)
(defun add-lines-header ()
;; Count the number of lines in the current posting and insert the
;; header line Lines into the message.
(save-excursion
(goto-char (point-min))
(if (search-forward "\n\n") ;; ***** I suspect this is wrong *****
(let ((lines (count-lines (point) (point-max))))
(forward-line -1)
(insert-string "Lines: " lines "\n")))))
Mike Williams <mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> has written something similar.
Ronald Florence <ron@mlfarm.com> has a patch for GNUS that makes it
calculate the `Lines:' header for incoming articles when necessary that
works for sites with local news spools.
David Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net> says that GNUS 3.14.1 generates Lines
if gnus-news-system is Cnews.
176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
Specifically, the error message is this:
Error occurred processing gnus.el: File error (("Cannot open load file" "nntp"))
This means that nntp.el is not in Emacs's load-path, which is easy to
happen when compiling using the Makefile.
Easiest solution: set EMACSLOADPATH in Makefile (idea from Glenn Gribble
<glenn@netcom.com>):
EMACSLOADPATH=/usr/local/emacs/lisp:.
ELC= env EMACSLOADPATH=$(EMACSLOADPATH) emacs -batch -f batch-byte-compile
Another solution, in hack.el put this:
(defun gross-hack () (setq load-path (cons "/directory" load-path)))
Then in Makefile:
ELC= emacs -batch -l hack.el -f gross-hack -f batch-byte-compile
177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
Example:
;; kill everything
(gnus-kill "subject" "" nil nil)
;; then restore stuff by our favorite poster
(gnus-kill "from" "good-guy"
(function
(lambda ()
(if (eq ?X (char-after (save-excursion
(beginning-of-line 1)
(point))))
(gnus-Subject-clear-mark-forward 1))))
t)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 Joseph Brian Wells
Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Steven Byrnes
This list of frequently asked questions about GNU Emacs with answers
("FAQ") may be translated into other languages, transformed into other
formats (e.g. Texinfo, Info, WWW, WAIS, etc.), and updated with new
information. The same conditions apply to any derivative of the FAQ as
apply to the FAQ itself. Every copy of the FAQ must include this notice
or an approved translation, information on who is currently maintaining
the FAQ and how to contact them (including their e-mail address), and
information on where the latest version of the FAQ is archived (including
FTP information). The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these
conditions, except that the FAQ may not be embedded in a larger literary
work unless that work itself allows free copying and redistribution.
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