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137 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
137 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
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@c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
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@node Entering Emacs, Exiting, Text Characters, Top
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@chapter Entering and Exiting Emacs
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@cindex entering Emacs
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@cindex starting Emacs
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The usual way to invoke Emacs is with the shell command @samp{emacs}.
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Emacs clears the screen and then displays an initial help message and
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copyright notice. Some operating systems discard all type-ahead when
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Emacs starts up; they give Emacs no way to prevent this. Therefore, it
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is advisable to wait until Emacs clears the screen before typing your
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first editing command.
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If you run Emacs from a shell window under the X Window System, run it
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in the background with @samp{emacs&}. This way, Emacs does not tie up
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the shell window, so you can use that to run other shell commands while
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Emacs operates its own X windows. You can begin typing Emacs commands
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as soon as you direct your keyboard input to the Emacs frame.
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@vindex initial-major-mode
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When Emacs starts up, it makes a buffer named @samp{*scratch*}.
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That's the buffer you start out in. The @samp{*scratch*} buffer uses Lisp
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Interaction mode; you can use it to type Lisp expressions and evaluate
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them, or you can ignore that capability and simply doodle. (You can
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specify a different major mode for this buffer by setting the variable
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@code{initial-major-mode} in your init file. @xref{Init File}.)
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It is possible to specify files to be visited, Lisp files to be
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loaded, and functions to be called, by giving Emacs arguments in the
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shell command line. @xref{Command Arguments}. But we don't recommend
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doing this. The feature exists mainly for compatibility with other
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editors.
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Many other editors are designed to be started afresh each time you
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want to edit. You edit one file and then exit the editor. The next
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time you want to edit either another file or the same one, you must run
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the editor again. With these editors, it makes sense to use a
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command-line argument to say which file to edit.
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But starting a new Emacs each time you want to edit a different file
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does not make sense. For one thing, this would be annoyingly slow. For
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another, this would fail to take advantage of Emacs's ability to visit
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more than one file in a single editing session. And it would lose the
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other accumulated context, such as registers, undo history, and the mark
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ring.
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The recommended way to use GNU Emacs is to start it only once, just
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after you log in, and do all your editing in the same Emacs session.
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Each time you want to edit a different file, you visit it with the
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existing Emacs, which eventually comes to have many files in it ready
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for editing. Usually you do not kill the Emacs until you are about to
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log out. @xref{Files}, for more information on visiting more than one
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file.
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@node Exiting, Basic, Entering Emacs, Top
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@section Exiting Emacs
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@cindex exiting
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@cindex killing Emacs
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@cindex suspending
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@cindex leaving Emacs
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@cindex quitting Emacs
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There are two commands for exiting Emacs because there are two kinds
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of exiting: @dfn{suspending} Emacs and @dfn{killing} Emacs.
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@dfn{Suspending} means stopping Emacs temporarily and returning
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control to its parent process (usually a shell), allowing you to resume
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editing later in the same Emacs job, with the same buffers, same kill
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ring, same undo history, and so on. This is the usual way to exit.
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@dfn{Killing} Emacs means destroying the Emacs job. You can run Emacs
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again later, but you will get a fresh Emacs; there is no way to resume
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the same editing session after it has been killed.
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@table @kbd
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@item C-z
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Suspend Emacs (@code{suspend-emacs}) or iconify a frame
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(@code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame}).
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@item C-x C-c
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Kill Emacs (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}).
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@end table
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@kindex C-z
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@findex suspend-emacs
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To suspend Emacs, type @kbd{C-z} (@code{suspend-emacs}). This takes
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you back to the shell from which you invoked Emacs. You can resume
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Emacs with the shell command @samp{%emacs} in most common shells.
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On systems that do not support suspending programs, @kbd{C-z} starts
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an inferior shell that communicates directly with the terminal.
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Emacs waits until you exit the subshell. (The way to do that is
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probably with @kbd{C-d} or @samp{exit}, but it depends on which shell
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you use.) The only way on these systems to get back to the shell from
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which Emacs was run (to log out, for example) is to kill Emacs.
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Suspending also fails if you run Emacs under a shell that doesn't
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support suspending programs, even if the system itself does support it.
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In such a case, you can set the variable @code{cannot-suspend} to a
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non-@code{nil} value to force @kbd{C-z} to start an inferior shell.
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(One might also describe Emacs's parent shell as ``inferior'' for
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failing to support job control properly, but that is a matter of taste.)
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When Emacs communicates directly with an X server and creates its own
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dedicated X windows, @kbd{C-z} has a different meaning. Suspending an
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applications that uses its own X windows is not meaningful or useful.
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Instead, @kbd{C-z} runs the command @code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame},
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which temporarily closes up the selected Emacs frame (@pxref{Frames}).
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The way to get back to a shell window is with the window manager.
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@kindex C-x C-c
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@findex save-buffers-kill-emacs
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To kill Emacs, type @kbd{C-x C-c} (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}). A
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two-character key is used for this to make it harder to type. This
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command first offers to save any modified file-visiting buffers. If you
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do not save them all, it asks for reconfirmation with @kbd{yes} before
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killing Emacs, since any changes not saved will be lost forever. Also,
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if any subprocesses are still running, @kbd{C-x C-c} asks for
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confirmation about them, since killing Emacs will kill the subprocesses
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immediately.
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There is no way to restart an Emacs session once you have killed it.
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You can, however, arrange for Emacs to record certain session
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information, such as which files are visited, when you kill it, so that
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the next time you restart Emacs it will try to visit the same files and
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so on. @xref{Saving Emacs Sessions}.
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The operating system usually listens for certain special characters
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whose meaning is to kill or suspend the program you are running.
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@b{This operating system feature is turned off while you are in Emacs.}
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The meanings of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-x C-c} as keys in Emacs were
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inspired by the use of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-c} on several operating
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systems as the characters for stopping or killing a program, but that is
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their only relationship with the operating system. You can customize
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these keys to run any commands of your choice (@pxref{Keymaps}).
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