Starting Emacs

To enter GNU Emacs, just type its name: emacs

To read in a file to edit, see Files, below.

Leaving Emacs

suspend Emacs (or iconify it under X)      C-z 
exit Emacs permanently      C-x C-c 

Files

read a file into Emacs      C-x C-f 
save a file back to disk      C-x C-s 
save all files      C-x s 
insert contents of another file into this buffer      C-x i 
replace this file with the file you really want      C-x C-v 
write buffer to a specified file      C-x C-w 
version control checkin/checkout      C-x C-q 

Getting Help

The Help system is simple. Type C-h (or F1 ) and follow the directions. If you are a first-time user, type C-h t for a tutorial .

 remove Help window      C-x 1 
 scroll Help window      C-M-v 
 apropos: show commands matching a string      C-h a 
 show the function a key runs      C-h c 
 describe a function      C-h f 
 get mode-specific information      C-h m 

Error Recovery

abort partially typed or executing command      C-g 
recover a file lost by a system crash      M-x recover-file 
undo an unwanted change      C-x u  or C- 
restore a buffer to its original contents     M-x revert-buffer 
redraw garbaged screen      C-l 

Incremental Search

search forward      C-s 
 search backward      C-r 
 regular expression search      C-M-s 
 reverse regular expression search      C-M-r 

 select previous search string      M-p 
 select next later search string      M-n 
 exit incremental search      RET 
 undo effect of last character      DEL 
 abort current search      C-g 

Use C-s or C-r again to repeat the search in either direction. If Emacs is still searching, C-g cancels only the part not done.

Motion

entity to move over        backward        forward 
character      C-b      C-f 
word      M-b      M-f 
line      C-p      C-n 
go to line beginning (or end)      C-a      C-e 
sentence      M-a      M-e 
paragraph      M-       M- 
page      C-x      [ C-x ] 
sexp      C-M-b      C-M-f 
function      C-M-a      C-M-e 
go to buffer beginning (or end)      M-<      M-> 
 scroll to next screen      C-v 
 scroll to previous screen      M-v 
 scroll left      C-x < 
 scroll right      C-x > 
 scroll current line to center of screen      C-u C-l 

Killing and Deleting

entity to kill        backward        forward 
character (delete, not kill)      DEL      C-d 
word      M-DEL      M-d 
line (to end of)      M-0 C-k      C-k 
sentence      C-x DEL      M-k 
sexp      M C-M-k      C-M-k 
kill  region       C-w 
copy region to kill ring      M-w 
kill through next occurrence of  char       M-z  char 
yank back last thing killed      C-y 
replace last yank with previous kill      M-y 

Marking

set mark here      C-@  or C-SPC 
exchange point and mark      C-x C-x 
 set mark  arg  words away      M-@ 
 mark  paragraph       M-h 
 mark  page       C-x C-p 
 mark  sexp       C-M-@ 
 mark  function       C-M-h 
 mark entire  buffer       C-x h 

Query Replace

interactively replace a text string      M-%
using regular expressions      M-x query-replace-regexp 

Valid responses in query-replace mode are

replace this one, go on to next      SPC 
replace this one, don't move      , 
skip to next without replacing      DEL 
replace all remaining matches      ! 
back up to the previous match       ^
exit query-replace      RET 
enter recursive edit ( C-M-c to exit)      C-r 

Multiple Windows

When two commands are shown, the second is for "other frame."

delete all other windows      C-x 1 
split window in two above and below     C-x 2     C-x 5 2
delete this window     C-x 0     C-x 5 0
split window, side by side      C-x 3 
scroll other window      C-M-v 
switch cursor to another window      C-x o      C-x 5 o 
select buffer in other window      C-x 4 b      C-x 5 b 
display buffer in other window      C-x 4 C-o      C-x 5 C-o 
find file in other window      C-x 4 f      C-x 5 f 
find file read-only in other window      C-x 4 r      C-x 5 r 
run Dired in other window      C-x 4 d      C-x 5 d 
find tag in other window      C-x 4 .      C-x 5 . 
grow window taller      C-x  
shrink window narrower     C-x  
grow window wider      C-x  

Formatting

indent current  line (mode-dependent)      TAB 
indent  region (mode-dependent)      C-M- 
indent  sexp (mode-dependent)      C-M-q 
indent region rigidly arg columns      C-x TAB 
insert newline after point      C-o 
move rest of line vertically down      C-M-o 
delete blank lines around point      C-x C-o 
join line with previous (with arg, next)      M- 
delete all white space around point      M- 
put exactly one space at point      M-SPC 
fill paragraph      M-q 
set fill column      C-x f 
set prefix each line starts with      C-x . 
set face      M-g 

Case Change

uppercase word      M-u 
lowercase word      M-l 
capitalize word      M-c 
uppercase region      C-x C-u 
lowercase region      C-x C-l 

The Minibuffer

The following keys are defined in the minibuffer.

complete as much as possible      TAB 
complete up to one word      SPC 
complete and execute      RET 
show possible completions      ? 
fetch previous minibuffer input      M-p 
fetch next later minibuffer input      M-n 
regexp search backward through history      M-r 
regexp search forward through history      M-s 
abort command      C-g 

Type C-x ESC ESC to edit and repeat the last command that used the minibuffer. Type F10 to activate the menu bar using the minibuffer.

Buffers

select another buffer      C-x b 
list all buffers      C-x C-b 
kill a buffer      C-x k 

Transposing

transpose  characters       C-t 
 transpose  words       M-t 
 transpose  lines       C-x C-t 
 transpose  sexps       C-M-t 

Spelling Check

check spelling of current word      M- 
check spelling of all words in region      M-x ispell-region 
check spelling of entire buffer      M-x ispell-buffer 

Tags

find a tag (a definition)      M-. 
find next occurrence of tag      C-u M-. 
specify a new tags file      M-x visit-tags-table 
regexp search on all files in tags table      M-x tags-search 
 run query-replace on all the files      M-x tags-query-replace 
 continue last tags search or query-replace      M-, 

Shells

execute a shell command      M-! 
run a shell command on the region      M-| 
filter region through a shell command      C-u M-| 
start a shell in window  *shell*       M-x shell 

Rectangles

copy rectangle to register      C-x r r 
kill rectangle      C-x r k 
yank rectangle      C-x r y 
open rectangle, shifting text right      C-x r o 
blank out rectangle      C-x r c 
prefix each line with a string      C-x r t 

Abbrevs

add global abbrev      C-x a g 
add mode-local abbrev      C-x a l 
add global expansion for this abbrev      C-x a i g 
add mode-local expansion for this abbrev      C-x a i l 
explicitly expand abbrev      C-x a e 
expand previous word dynamically      M-/ 

Regular Expressions

any single character except a newline      .  (dot) 
zero or more repeats      * 
one or more repeats      + 
zero or one repeat      ? 
any character in the set         ] 
any character not in the set      [    ] 
 beginning of line     ^
end of line       $
quote a special character  c         \c 
alternative ("or")       \| 
grouping  (    )      \( ... |)
n th group        \n 
beginning of buffer       \' 
end of buffer       \' 
word break       \b 
not beginning or end of word       \B 
 beginning of word       \< 
 end of word       \> 
 any word-syntax character       \w 
 any non-word-syntax character       \W 
 character with syntax  c       \s  c 
 character with syntax not c       \S  c 

Registers

save region in register      C-x r s 
insert register contents into buffer      C-x r i 
save value of point in register      C-x r SPC 
jump to point saved in register      C-x r j 

Info

enter the Info documentation reader      C-h i 

Moving within a node:
scroll forward      SPC 
scroll reverse      DEL 
beginning of node      .  (dot) 

Moving between nodes:
next node      n 
previous node      p 
move up       u 
select menu item by name      m 
select n th menu item by number (19)        n 
follow cross reference (return with  l )      f 
return to last node you saw      l 
return to directory node      d 
go to any node by name      g 

Other:
run Info  tutorial       h 
list Info commands      ? 
quit Info      q 
search nodes for regexp      M-s 

Keyboard Macros

start defining a keyboard macro      C-x ( 
end keyboard macro definition      C-x ) 
execute last-defined keyboard macro      C-x e 
append to last keyboard macro      C-u C-x ( 
name last keyboard macro      M-x name-last-kbd-macro 
insert Lisp definition in buffer      M-x insert-kbd-macro 

Commands Dealing with Emacs Lisp

eval  sexp before point      C-x C-e 
eval current  defun       C-M-x 
eval  region       M-x eval-region 
eval entire  buffer       M-x eval-current-buffer 
read and eval minibuffer      M-: 
re-execute last minibuffer command      C-x ESC ESC 
read and eval Emacs Lisp file      M-x load-file 
load from standard system directory      M-x load-library 

Simple Customization

Here are some examples of binding global keys in Emacs Lisp.

(global-set-key " C-cg" 'goto-line)
(global-set-key " C-x C-k" 'kill-region)
(global-set-key " M- " 'query-replace-regexp)
 

An example of setting a variable in Emacs Lisp:

 (setq backup-by-copying-when-linked t)

Writing Commands

(defun command-name (args)

"documentation"

(interactive "template")

body)

An example:

(defun this-line-to-top-of-window (line)

"Reposition line point is on to top of window.

With ARG, put point on line ARG.

Negative counts from bottom."

(interactive "P")

(recenter (if (null line)

0

(prefix-numeric-value line))))

The argument to interactive is a string specifying how to get the arguments when the function is called interactively. Type C-h f interactive for more information.

Copyright 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

designed by Stephen Gildea, March 1996 v2.1

for GNU Emacs version 19 on Unix systems

Permission is granted to make and distribute copies of this card provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

For copies of the GNU Emacs manual, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA