emacs/man/msdog.texi

@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
@c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001,
@c   2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Emacs and Microsoft Windows, Manifesto, Mac OS, Top
@appendix Emacs and Microsoft Windows
@cindex Microsoft Windows
@cindex MS-Windows, Emacs peculiarities

  This section describes peculiarities of using Emacs on Microsoft
Windows.  Some of these peculiarities are also relevant to Microsoft's
older MS-DOS ``operating system'' (also known as ``MS-DOG'').
However, Emacs features that are relevant @emph{only} to MS-DOS are
described in a separate manual (@inforef{MS-DOG,, emacs-xtra}).

  The behavior of Emacs on MS-Windows is reasonably similar to what is
documented in the rest of the manual, including support for long file
names, multiple frames, scroll bars, mouse menus, and subprocesses.
However, a few special considerations apply, and they are described
here.

@menu
* Text and Binary::            Text files use CRLF to terminate lines.
* Windows Files::              File-name conventions on Windows.
* Windows HOME::               Where Emacs looks for your @file{.emacs}.
* Windows Processes::          Running subprocesses on Windows.
* Windows Printing::           How to specify the printer on MS-Windows.
* Windows System Menu::        Controlling what the ALT key does.
@end menu

@node Text and Binary
@section Text Files and Binary Files
@cindex text and binary files on MS-DOS/MS-Windows

  GNU Emacs uses newline characters to separate text lines.  This is the
convention used on GNU, Unix, and other Posix-compliant systems.

@cindex end-of-line conversion on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
  By contrast, MS-DOS and MS-Windows normally use carriage-return linefeed,
a two-character sequence, to separate text lines.  (Linefeed is the same
character as newline.)  Therefore, convenient editing of typical files
with Emacs requires conversion of these end-of-line (EOL) sequences.
And that is what Emacs normally does: it converts carriage-return
linefeed into newline when reading files, and converts newline into
carriage-return linefeed when writing files.  The same mechanism that
handles conversion of international character codes does this conversion
also (@pxref{Coding Systems}).

@cindex cursor location, on MS-DOS
@cindex point location, on MS-DOS
  One consequence of this special format-conversion of most files is
that character positions as reported by Emacs (@pxref{Position Info}) do
not agree with the file size information known to the operating system.

  In addition, if Emacs recognizes from a file's contents that it uses
newline rather than carriage-return linefeed as its line separator, it
does not perform EOL conversion when reading or writing that file.
Thus, you can read and edit files from GNU and Unix systems on MS-DOS
with no special effort, and they will retain their Unix-style
end-of-line convention after you edit them.

  The mode line indicates whether end-of-line translation was used for
the current buffer.  If MS-DOS end-of-line translation is in use for the
buffer, the MS-Windows build of Emacs displays a backslash @samp{\} after
the coding system mnemonic near the beginning of the mode line
(@pxref{Mode Line}).  If no EOL translation was performed, the string
@samp{(Unix)} is displayed instead of the backslash, to alert you that the
file's EOL format is not the usual carriage-return linefeed.

@cindex DOS-to-Unix conversion of files
  To visit a file and specify whether it uses DOS-style or Unix-style
end-of-line, specify a coding system (@pxref{Text Coding}).  For
example, @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c unix @key{RET} C-x C-f foobar.txt}
visits the file @file{foobar.txt} without converting the EOLs; if some
line ends with a carriage-return linefeed pair, Emacs will display
@samp{^M} at the end of that line.  Similarly, you can direct Emacs to
save a buffer in a specified EOL format with the @kbd{C-x @key{RET} f}
command.  For example, to save a buffer with Unix EOL format, type
@kbd{C-x @key{RET} f unix @key{RET} C-x C-s}.  If you visit a file
with DOS EOL conversion, then save it with Unix EOL format, that
effectively converts the file to Unix EOL style, like @code{dos2unix}.

@cindex untranslated file system
@findex add-untranslated-filesystem
  When you use NFS, Samba, or some other similar method to access file
systems that reside on computers using GNU or Unix systems, Emacs
should not perform end-of-line translation on any files in these file
systems---not even when you create a new file.  To request this,
designate these file systems as @dfn{untranslated} file systems by
calling the function @code{add-untranslated-filesystem}.  It takes one
argument: the file system name, including a drive letter and
optionally a directory.  For example,

@example
(add-untranslated-filesystem "Z:")
@end example

@noindent
designates drive Z as an untranslated file system, and

@example
(add-untranslated-filesystem "Z:\\foo")
@end example

@noindent
designates directory @file{\foo} on drive Z as an untranslated file
system.

  Most often you would use @code{add-untranslated-filesystem} in your
@file{.emacs} file, or in @file{site-start.el} so that all the users at
your site get the benefit of it.

@findex remove-untranslated-filesystem
  To countermand the effect of @code{add-untranslated-filesystem}, use
the function @code{remove-untranslated-filesystem}.  This function takes
one argument, which should be a string just like the one that was used
previously with @code{add-untranslated-filesystem}.

  Designating a file system as untranslated does not affect character
set conversion, only end-of-line conversion.  Essentially, it directs
Emacs to create new files with the Unix-style convention of using
newline at the end of a line.  @xref{Coding Systems}.

@vindex file-name-buffer-file-type-alist
@cindex binary files, on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
  Some kinds of files should not be converted at all, because their
contents are not really text.  Therefore, Emacs on MS-Windows distinguishes
certain files as @dfn{binary files}.  (This distinction is not part of
MS-Windows; it is made by Emacs only.)  Binary files include executable
programs, compressed archives, etc.  Emacs uses the file name to decide
whether to treat a file as binary: the variable
@code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist} defines the file-name patterns
that indicate binary files.  If a file name matches one of the patterns
for binary files (those whose associations are of the type
@code{(@var{pattern} . t)}, Emacs reads and writes that file using the
@code{no-conversion} coding system (@pxref{Coding Systems}) which turns
off @emph{all} coding-system conversions, not only the EOL conversion.
@code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist} also includes file-name patterns
for files which are known to be Windows-style text files with
carriage-return linefeed EOL format, such as @file{CONFIG.SYS}; Emacs
always writes those files with Windows-style EOLs.

  If a file which belongs to an untranslated file system matches one of
the file-name patterns in @code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist}, the
EOL conversion is determined by @code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist}.

@node Windows Files
@section File Names on MS-Windows
@cindex file names on MS-Windows

  MS-Windows and MS-DOS normally use a backslash, @samp{\}, to
separate name units within a file name, instead of the slash used on
other systems.  Emacs on MS-DOS/MS-Windows permits use of either slash or
backslash, and also knows about drive letters in file names.

@cindex file-name completion, on MS-Windows
  On MS-DOS/MS-Windows, file names are case-insensitive, so Emacs by
default ignores letter-case in file names during completion.

@node Windows HOME
@section HOME Directory on MS-Windows
@cindex @code{HOME} directory on MS-Windows

  The MS-Windows equivalent of the @code{HOME} directory is the
@dfn{user-specific application data directory}.  The actual location
depends on your Windows version and system configuration; typical values
are @file{C:\Documents and Settings\@var{username}\Application Data} on
Windows 2K/XP and later, and either @file{C:\WINDOWS\Application Data}
or @file{C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\@var{username}\Application Data} on the
older Windows 9X/ME systems.

@cindex init file @file{.emacs} on MS-Windows
  The home directory is where your init file @file{.emacs} is stored.
When Emacs starts, it first checks whether the environment variable
@env{HOME} is set.  If it is, it looks for the init file in the
directory pointed by @env{HOME}.  If @env{HOME} is not defined, Emacs
checks for an existing @file{.emacs} file in @file{C:\}, the root
directory of drive @file{C:}@footnote{
The check in @file{C:\} is in preference to the application data
directory for compatibility with older versions of Emacs, which didn't
check the application data directory.
}.  If there's no such file in @file{C:\}, Emacs next uses the Windows
system calls to find out the exact location of your application data
directory.  If that fails as well, Emacs falls back to @file{C:\}.

  Whatever the final place is, Emacs sets the value of the @env{HOME}
environment variable to point to it, and it will use that location for
other files and directories it normally creates in the user's home
directory.

  You can always find out where Emacs thinks is your home directory's
location by typing @kbd{C-x d ~/ @key{RET}}.  This should present the
list of files in the home directory, and show its full name on the
first line.  Likewise, to visit your init file, type @kbd{C-x C-f
~/.emacs @key{RET}}.

@cindex @file{_emacs} init file, MS-Windows
  Because MS-DOS does not allow file names with leading dots, and
because older Windows systems made it hard to create files with such
names, the Windows port of Emacs supports an alternative name
@file{_emacs} as a fallback, if such a file exists in the home
directory, whereas @file{.emacs} does not.

@node Windows Processes
@section Subprocesses on Windows 9X/ME and Windows NT/2K/XP
@cindex subprocesses on MS-Windows

@cindex DOS applications, running from Emacs
  Emacs compiled as a native Windows application (as opposed to the DOS
version) includes full support for asynchronous subprocesses.
In the Windows version, synchronous and asynchronous subprocesses work
fine on both
Windows 9X/ME and Windows NT/2K/XP as long as you run only 32-bit Windows
applications.  However, when you run a DOS application in a subprocess,
you may encounter problems or be unable to run the application at all;
and if you run two DOS applications at the same time in two
subprocesses, you may have to reboot your system.

Since the standard command interpreter (and most command line utilities)
on Windows 9X are DOS applications, these problems are significant when
using that system.  But there's nothing we can do about them; only
Microsoft can fix them.

If you run just one DOS application subprocess, the subprocess should
work as expected as long as it is ``well-behaved'' and does not perform
direct screen access or other unusual actions.  If you have a CPU
monitor application, your machine will appear to be 100% busy even when
the DOS application is idle, but this is only an artifact of the way CPU
monitors measure processor load.

You must terminate the DOS application before you start any other DOS
application in a different subprocess.  Emacs is unable to interrupt or
terminate a DOS subprocess.  The only way you can terminate such a
subprocess is by giving it a command that tells its program to exit.

If you attempt to run two DOS applications at the same time in separate
subprocesses, the second one that is started will be suspended until the
first one finishes, even if either or both of them are asynchronous.

@cindex kill DOS application
If you can go to the first subprocess, and tell it to exit, the second
subprocess should continue normally.  However, if the second subprocess
is synchronous, Emacs itself will be hung until the first subprocess
finishes.  If it will not finish without user input, then you have no
choice but to reboot if you are running on Windows 9X.  If you are
running on Windows NT/2K/XP, you can use a process viewer application to kill
the appropriate instance of NTVDM instead (this will terminate both DOS
subprocesses).

If you have to reboot Windows 9X in this situation, do not use the
@code{Shutdown} command on the @code{Start} menu; that usually hangs the
system.  Instead, type @kbd{CTL-ALT-@key{DEL}} and then choose
@code{Shutdown}.  That usually works, although it may take a few minutes
to do its job.

@node Windows Printing
@section Printing and MS-Windows

  Printing commands, such as @code{lpr-buffer} (@pxref{Printing}) and
@code{ps-print-buffer} (@pxref{PostScript}) work in MS-DOS and
MS-Windows by sending the output to one of the printer ports, if a
Posix-style @code{lpr} program is unavailable.  The same Emacs
variables control printing on all systems, but in some cases they have
different default values on MS-DOS and MS-Windows.

  Emacs on Windows automatically determines your default printer and
sets the variable @var{printer-name} to that printer's name.  But in
some rare cases this can fail, or you may wish to use a different
printer from within Emacs.  The rest of this section explains how to
tell Emacs which printer to use.

@vindex printer-name@r{, (MS-DOS/MW-Windows)}
  If you want to use your local printer, then set the Lisp variable
@code{lpr-command} to @code{""} (its default value on Windows) and
@code{printer-name} to the name of the printer port---for example,
@code{"PRN"}, the usual local printer port or @code{"LPT2"}, or
@code{"COM1"} for a serial printer.  You can also set
@code{printer-name} to a file name, in which case ``printed'' output
is actually appended to that file.  If you set @code{printer-name} to
@code{"NUL"}, printed output is silently discarded (sent to the system
null device).

  You can also use a printer shared by another machine by setting
@code{printer-name} to the UNC share name for that printer---for
example, @code{"//joes_pc/hp4si"}.  (It doesn't matter whether you use
forward slashes or backslashes here.)  To find out the names of shared
printers, run the command @samp{net view} from the command prompt to
obtain a list of servers, and @samp{net view @var{server-name}} to see
the names of printers (and directories) shared by that server.
Alternatively, click the @samp{Network Neighborhood} icon on your
desktop, and look for machines which share their printers via the
network.

@cindex @samp{net use}, and printing on MS-Windows
@cindex networked printers (MS-Windows)
  If the printer doesn't appear in the output of @samp{net view}, or
if setting @code{printer-name} to the UNC share name doesn't produce a
hardcopy on that printer, you can use the @samp{net use} command to
connect a local print port such as @code{"LPT2"} to the networked
printer.  For example, typing @kbd{net use LPT2: \\joes_pc\hp4si}@footnote{
Note that the @samp{net use} command requires the UNC share name to be
typed with the Windows-style backslashes, while the value of
@code{printer-name} can be set with either forward- or backslashes.}
causes Windows to @dfn{capture} the @code{LPT2} port and redirect the
printed material to the printer connected to the machine @code{joes_pc}.
After this command, setting @code{printer-name} to @code{"LPT2"}
should produce the hardcopy on the networked printer.

  With some varieties of Windows network software, you can instruct
Windows to capture a specific printer port such as @code{"LPT2"}, and
redirect it to a networked printer via the @w{@code{Control
Panel->Printers}} applet instead of @samp{net use}.

  If you set @code{printer-name} to a file name, it's best to use an
absolute file name.  Emacs changes the working directory according to
the default directory of the current buffer, so if the file name in
@code{printer-name} is relative, you will end up with several such
files, each one in the directory of the buffer from which the printing
was done.

@findex print-buffer @r{(MS-DOS)}
@findex print-region @r{(MS-DOS)}
@vindex lpr-headers-switches @r{(MS-DOS)}
  The commands @code{print-buffer} and @code{print-region} call the
@code{pr} program, or use special switches to the @code{lpr} program, to
produce headers on each printed page.  MS-DOS and MS-Windows don't
normally have these programs, so by default, the variable
@code{lpr-headers-switches} is set so that the requests to print page
headers are silently ignored.  Thus, @code{print-buffer} and
@code{print-region} produce the same output as @code{lpr-buffer} and
@code{lpr-region}, respectively.  If you do have a suitable @code{pr}
program (for example, from GNU Coreutils), set
@code{lpr-headers-switches} to @code{nil}; Emacs will then call
@code{pr} to produce the page headers, and print the resulting output as
specified by @code{printer-name}.

@vindex print-region-function @r{(MS-DOS)}
@cindex lpr usage under MS-DOS
@vindex lpr-command @r{(MS-DOS)}
@vindex lpr-switches @r{(MS-DOS)}
  Finally, if you do have an @code{lpr} work-alike, you can set the
variable @code{lpr-command} to @code{"lpr"}.  Then Emacs will use
@code{lpr} for printing, as on other systems.  (If the name of the
program isn't @code{lpr}, set @code{lpr-command} to specify where to
find it.)  The variable @code{lpr-switches} has its standard meaning
when @code{lpr-command} is not @code{""}.  If the variable
@code{printer-name} has a string value, it is used as the value for the
@code{-P} option to @code{lpr}, as on Unix.

@findex ps-print-buffer @r{(MS-DOS)}
@findex ps-spool-buffer @r{(MS-DOS)}
@vindex ps-printer-name @r{(MS-DOS)}
@vindex ps-lpr-command @r{(MS-DOS)}
@vindex ps-lpr-switches @r{(MS-DOS)}
  A parallel set of variables, @code{ps-lpr-command},
@code{ps-lpr-switches}, and @code{ps-printer-name} (@pxref{PostScript
Variables}), defines how PostScript files should be printed.  These
variables are used in the same way as the corresponding variables
described above for non-PostScript printing.  Thus, the value of
@code{ps-printer-name} is used as the name of the device (or file) to
which PostScript output is sent, just as @code{printer-name} is used
for non-PostScript printing.  (There are two distinct sets of
variables in case you have two printers attached to two different
ports, and only one of them is a PostScript printer.)

  The default value of the variable @code{ps-lpr-command} is @code{""},
which causes PostScript output to be sent to the printer port specified
by @code{ps-printer-name}, but @code{ps-lpr-command} can also be set to
the name of a program which will accept PostScript files.  Thus, if you
have a non-PostScript printer, you can set this variable to the name of
a PostScript interpreter program (such as Ghostscript).  Any switches
that need to be passed to the interpreter program are specified using
@code{ps-lpr-switches}.  (If the value of @code{ps-printer-name} is a
string, it will be added to the list of switches as the value for the
@code{-P} option.  This is probably only useful if you are using
@code{lpr}, so when using an interpreter typically you would set
@code{ps-printer-name} to something other than a string so it is
ignored.)

  For example, to use Ghostscript for printing on the system's default
printer, put this in your @file{.emacs} file:

@example
(setq ps-printer-name t)
(setq ps-lpr-command "D:/gs6.01/bin/gswin32c.exe")
(setq ps-lpr-switches '("-q" "-dNOPAUSE" "-dBATCH"
			"-sDEVICE=mswinpr2"
			"-sPAPERSIZE=a4"))
@end example

@noindent
(This assumes that Ghostscript is installed in the
@file{D:/gs6.01} directory.)

@node Windows System Menu
@section Using the System Menu on Windows
@cindex @code{Alt} key invokes menu (Windows)

Emacs compiled as a native Windows application normally turns off the
Windows feature that tapping the @key{ALT} key invokes the Windows
menu.  The reason is that the @key{ALT} serves as @key{META} in Emacs.
When using Emacs, users often press the @key{META} key temporarily and
then change their minds; if this has the effect of bringing up the
Windows menu, it alters the meaning of subsequent commands.  Many
users find this frustrating.

@vindex w32-pass-alt-to-system
You can re-enable Windows' default handling of tapping the @key{ALT} key
by setting @code{w32-pass-alt-to-system} to a non-@code{nil} value.

@ignore
   arch-tag: f39d2590-5dcc-4318-88d9-0eb73ca10fa2
@end ignore