GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ)
about GNU Emacs 20 with answers. Some of the answers are not valid for GNU
Emacs 18 or 19.
[This version has been somewhat edited from the last-posted version
(as of February 1999) for inclusion in the Emacs distribution.]
The FAQ is posted (in five parts) 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, and generally unproductive use of
the mailing list. 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 to a question in the FAQ list, please reply to the
question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
The FAQ is crossposted to comp.emacs because some sites do not receive the
gnu.* newsgroups. The FAQ is also crossposted to news.answers.
Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22.
A diff file between the last version of the FAQ and this one should have
been posted along with the FAQ. If you did not receive the diff file, you
can get it at
ftp://the-tech.mit.edu/pub/GNU-Emacs/faq-diffs
Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, and deletions by
sending mail to emacs-faq@lerner.co.il. The most helpful form for
suggestions is a context diff (i.e., the output of `diff -c'). Include
"FAQ" in the subject of messages 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. :-(
--
Reuven M. Lerner <reuven@lerner.co.il> and the FAQ team (a full list is
at the bottom of the FAQ).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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?
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 Emacs?
11: How do I unsubscribe from 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 Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs?
15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual?
16: Where can I get documentation on 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 Emacs?
20: What informational files are available for Emacs?
21: Where can I get help in installing 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 Emacs?
25: What is different about Emacs 20?
Common Things People Want To Do
26: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
27: How do I debug a .emacs file?
28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
29: How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current filename?
30: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
31: How do I turn on auto-fill mode by default?
32: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
33: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
characters?
34: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
35: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
36: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
37: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
38: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
39: How do I change load-path?
40: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
41: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
42: How do I indent switch statements like this?
43: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
44: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
45: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
46: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
47: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
48: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
49: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
commands are handled by the compiler?
50: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
51: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
52: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
53: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
54: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
55: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an
underlined paragraph?
56: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
57: 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?
58: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
59: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
60: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
61: Where is the documentation for "etags"?
62: How do I disable backup files?
63: How do I disable auto-save-mode?
64: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?
65: How do I delete menus and menu options?
66: How do I turn on syntax highlighting?
67: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
bottom of the screen?
68: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
69: How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs?
70: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
each period?
Bugs/Problems
71: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
72: How do I get rid of ^M or echoed commands in my shell buffer?
73: Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?
74: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"?
75: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?
76: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
77: Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"?
78: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
79: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
80: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
81: Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
82: Are there any security risks in Emacs?
83: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something.
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
84: How do I install Emacs?
85: How do I update Emacs to the latest version?
86: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
87: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
88: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
89: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
90: Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
91: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
92: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
93: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
Emacs")?
94: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
95: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows
NT?
96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
97: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
98: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
99: Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?
100: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
101: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
102: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++,
Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk?
103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support
105: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs
108: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
110: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs
112: EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes
113: Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news
114: JDE -- Development environment for Java programming
115: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
116: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
117: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?
118: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
.emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
119: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
120: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys
emit?
121: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
122: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
123: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered
out?
124: Why does the "Backspace" key invoke help?
125: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
126: How do I "swap" two keys?
127: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
128: What if I don't have a Meta key?
129: What if I don't have an Escape key?
130: Can I make my "Compose Character" key behave like a Meta key?
131: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
132: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
133: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0
and 9.x?
Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
134: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
135: How do I input 8-bit characters?
136: Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other
character sets?
137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
Mail and News
138: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
139: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
140: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
141: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?
142: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?
143: Why does Rmail need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
144: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?
145: How can I force Rmail to reply to the sender of a message, but not the
other recipients?
146: How can I get my favorite Emacs mail package to support MIME?
147: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
148: How do I read news under Emacs?
149: Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP?
150: How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g.,
ClariNews)?
151: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?
152: How do I make Gnus start up faster?
153: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?
154: Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control
headers?
155: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?
156: Why is catch up slow in Gnus?
157: Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting?
158: Where can I find out more about Gnus?
------------------------------------------------------------
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. Type RET to end the search.
If you have a web browser and the browse-url package configured for
it, you can visit ftp and HTTP uniform resource locators (URLs) by
placing the cursor on the URL and typing M-x browse-url-at-point.
The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would
prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22.
------------------------------------------------------------
Time-stamp: <1999-02-10 18:44:04 reuven>
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: press the `x' key while holding down the Control key
M-x: press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key (if your computer
doesn't have a Meta key, see question 128)
M-C-x: press the `x' key while holding down both Control and Meta
C-M-x: a synonym for the above
LFD: Linefeed or Newline; same as C-j
RET: Return, sometimes marked Enter; same as C-m
DEL: Delete, usually not the same as Backspace; same as C-? (See
question 124 if deleting invokes Emacs help)
ESC: Escape; same as C-[
TAB: Tab; same as C-i
SPC: Space bar
Key sequences longer than one key (and some single-key sequences) are
inside double quotes or on lines by themselves. 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.
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 C-? generate ASCII code 127.
For further information, see "Characters" and "Keys" in the on-line
manual. (See question 3 if you don't know how.)
2: What does "M-x command" mean?
"M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
type RET. (See question 1 if you're not sure what "M-x" and "RET" mean.)
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, `?' for a list of possibilities, and M-p and
M-n to see previous commands entered. 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 52.
3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
When we 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 Info, the GNU hypertext documentation browser. If you don't
already know how to use Info, type `?' from within Info.
If we refer to topic XXX:YYY, 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 improperly. In this case you should complain.
See question 15 if you would like a paper copy of the Emacs manual.
4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
These are files that come with Emacs. The Emacs distribution is divided
into subdirectories; the important ones are "etc", "lisp", and "src".
If you use Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system, start
Emacs, then type "C-h v data-directory RET". The directory name
displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed "etc"
directory.
The location of your Info directory (i.e., where on-line documentation is
stored) is kept in the variable Info-default-directory-list. Use "C-h v
Info-default-directory-list RET" to see the contents of this variable,
which will be a list of directory names. The last directory in that list
is probably where most Info files are stored. By default, Info
documentation is placed in /usr/local/info.
Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail; see
question 20. All are available in the source distribution. Many of the
files in the "etc" directory are also available via the Emacs "help"
menu, or by typing "C-h ?" (M-x help-for-help).
WARNING: Your system administrator may have removed the src directory and
many files from the etc directory.
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 License
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 consortium of
computer vendors which develops commercial software for Unix systems.
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?
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 Joe Wells
<jbw@cs.bu.edu>; he will be happy to talk with you about the LPF.
You can find more information about the LPF in the file etc/LPF. More
papers describing the LPF's views are available on the Internet and also
from the LPF:
http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/
7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public License (copyleft) will
only be known if and when a judge rules on its validity and scope. 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 if you want a copy of the file.) For those lists 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
Emacs along with various other implementations, such as JOVE, MicroEmacs,
Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, and Epsilon.
Many people post 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 (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. The archives
are available at
ftp://ftp-mailing-list-archives.gnu.org/
Web-based Usenet search services, such as DejaNews, also archive the
gnu.* groups. You can reach DejaNews at
http://www.dejanews.com
10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs?
The correct way to report Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. 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 ensures a reliable return address so you can be
contacted for further details.
Be sure to read the "Bugs" section of the Emacs manual before reporting a
bug to bug-gnu-emacs! The manual describes in detail how to submit a
useful bug report. (See question 3 if you don't know how to read the
manual.)
RMS says:
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 found a bug, consider the following
non-exhaustive list, courtesy of RMS:
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 from this mailing list?
If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named "XXX", you might be able to
unsubscribe from it by sending a request to the address
<XXX-request@gnu.org>. 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: gnu@gnu.org
Telephone: +1-617-542-5942
Fax: +1-617-542-2652
World Wide Web: http://www.gnu.org/
Postal address:
Free Software Foundation
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA
For details on how to order items directly from the FSF, see the file
etc/ORDERS.
On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
13: I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Just typing `C-h' enters
the help system.
WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed `C-h' to act like DEL
to deal with 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 help works best if it is invoked by a single key whose value
should be stored in the variable help-char.
There is also a WWW-based tutorial for Emacs 18, much of which is also
relevant for Emacs 20, available at
http://kufacts.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/writeups/misc/emacsguide.html
14: How do I find out how to do something in Emacs?
There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
* The complete text of the Emacs manual is available on-line via the Info
hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info. Typing `h' immediately
after entering Info will provide a short tutorial on how to use it.
* 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 or etc/refcard.ps files
in the Emacs distribution.
* 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 `?' after `C-h'.
15: How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual?
You can order a printed copy of the Emacs manual from the FSF. For
details see the file etc/ORDERS.
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
440-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 from
ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-19.21.ps.gz
Note that the above document is somewhat out of date, although most major
concepts are still relevant. This site requests that you please *confine
any major ftping to late evenings or early mornings, local time* (Pacific
time zone, GMT-8).
A WWW version of the (somewhat outdated) Emacs 19.34 manual is at
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/emacs_toc.html
See also question 14 for how to view the manual on-line.
16: Where can I get documentation on 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 Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. Details on
ordering it from FSF are in file etc/ORDERS.
The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is also available on-line, in Info
format. Texinfo source for the manual (along with pregenerated Info
files) is available at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-manual-20-2.5.tar.gz
and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list). See
question 17 if you want to install the Info files, or question 18 if you
want to use the Texinfo source to print the manual yourself.
WWW versions of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual are available at
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/elisp_1.html
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/usr/local/www/elisp/lispref/elisp_toc.html
17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
First, you must turn the Texinfo files into Info files. You may do this
using the stand-alone "makeinfo" program, available as part of the latest
Texinfo package at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-3.12.tar.gz
and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (see question 92 for a list).
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 on-line.
Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor makeinfo installs 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 already in this file. The format is:
* Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
If (as it should have done) the Texinfo file used the @direntry
command, you can run the "install-info" command from the current
Texinfo distribution to do this automatically -- see the example in
the top-level Makefile in the Emacs source.
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 adding its pathname to the value of the variable
Info-default-directory-list. For example, to use a private Info
directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named "Info",
you could put this in your .emacs file:
(setq Info-default-directory-list
(cons "~/Info" Info-default-directory-list))
You will need a top-level Info file named "dir" in this directory which
has everything the system dir file has in it, except it should list
only entries for Info files in that directory. You might not need it
if all files in this directory were referenced by other "dir" files.
The node lists from all dir files in Info-default-directory-list are
merged by the Info system.
18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
NOTE: You can't get nicely printed output from Info files; you must still
have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print.
Assuming you have TeX installed on your system, follow these steps:
1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
\input texinfo
You may need to change "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. The "texi2dvi" command from it will perform
the above steps 1 to 4 for you.
19: Can I view Info files without using Emacs?
Yes. Here are some alternative programs:
* Info, a stand-alone version of the Info program, comes as part of the
Texinfo package. See question 17 for details.
* Xinfo, a stand-alone version of the Info program that runs under X
Windows. You can get it at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/xinfo/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz
and all mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list).
* Tkinfo, an Info viewer that runs under X Windows and uses Tcl/Tk. You
can get Tkinfo at
http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/tkinfo/
20: What informational files are available for Emacs?
This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
informational files about 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 Emacs
distribution (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is).
COPYING -- Emacs General Public License
DISTRIB -- Emacs Availability Information, including the popular
"Free Software Foundation Order Form"
FAQ -- Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
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
LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
MACHINES -- Status of Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
NEWS -- Emacs news, a history of user-visible changes
PROBLEMS -- Known problems with building and running Emacs in various
situations, often with workarounds.
SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"
Latest versions of some of the above files are also available at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/
More GNU information, including back issues of the "GNU's Bulletin", are at
http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bulletins.html
http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/gnu.html
21: Where can I get help in installing Emacs?
See question 84 for some basic installation hints, and question 83 if you
have problems with the installation.
The file etc/SERVICE (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is)
lists companies and individuals willing to sell you help in installing or
using Emacs. An up-to-date version this file is available on ftp.gnu.org
(see question 20).
22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
The Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
* Inside of Emacs itself. You can get it from selecting the "Emacs FAQ"
option from the "Help" menu at the top of any Emacs frame, or by typing
C-h F (M-x view-emacs-FAQ).
* 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 should 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 Frequently Asked Questions?rc:m
In Gnus, you should type "C-u c-x c-s" from the *Summary* buffer or
"C-u SPC" from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a
newsgroup.
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 for a
while.
* Via HTTP or FTP. You can always fetch the latest FAQ at
http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/
and
ftp://ftp.lerner.co.il/pub/emacs/
* In the Emacs distribution. Since Emacs 18.56, the FAQ at the time of
release has been part of the Emacs distribution as etc/FAQ (see
question 4).
* Via the World Wide Web. A hypertext version is available at
http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/
* Via anonymous ftp and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu (and its mirror in
Europe), the main repository for FAQs and other items posted to
news.answers. The Emacs FAQs are available at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/
ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/doc/FAQ/comp/emacs/
If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can access the archives
using the rtfm.mit.edu mail server. The Emacs FAQ can be retrieved by
sending mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with a blank subject and
containing
send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/diffs
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
For more information, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
"help" and "index" in the body on separate lines.
* As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to
emacs-faq@lerner.co.il. 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 reprogrammable keys. Emacs
was started by Guy Steele <gls@east.sun.com> as a project to unify the
many divergent TECO command sets and key bindings at MIT, and completed
by RMS.
Many people have said that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See
alt.lang.teco if you are interested. Someone has written a TECO
implementation in Emacs Lisp (to find it, see question 90); it would be
an interesting project to run the original TECO Emacs inside of Emacs.
For some not-so-serious alternative reasons for Emacs to have that name,
check out etc/JOKES (see question 4).
24: What is the latest version of Emacs?
Emacs 20.5 is the current version as of this writing.
25: What is different about Emacs 20?
To find out what has changed in recent versions, type C-h n (M-x
view-emacs-news). The oldest changes are at the bottom of the file, so
you might want to read it starting there, rather than at the top.
The differences between Emacs versions 18 and 19 was rather dramatic; the
introduction of frames, faces, and colors on windowing systems was
obvious to even the most casual user.
There are differences between Emacs versions 19 and 20 as well, but many
are more subtle or harder to find. Among the changes are the inclusion
of MULE code for languages that use non-Latin characters, the "customize"
facility for modifying variables without having to use Lisp, and
automatic conversion of files from Macintosh, Microsoft, and Unix
platforms.
Many Lisp packages have been updated and enhanced for Emacs 20.
Common Things People Want To Do
26: 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. :-)
Emacs 20 includes the new "customize" facility, which can be invoked
using M-x customize RET or via the Help menu. This allows users who are
unfamiliar with Emacs Lisp to modify their .emacs files in a relatively
straightforward way, using menus rather than Lisp code. While all the
packages included with Emacs (are meant to) support Customize now,
packages from other sources may not.
While Customize might indeed make it easier to configure Emacs, consider
taking a bit of time to learn Emacs Lisp and modifying your .emacs
directly. Simple configuration options are described rather completely in
the "Init File" section of the on-line manual, for users interested in
performing frequently requested, basic tasks.
27: How do I debug a .emacs file?
Start Emacs with the "-debug-init" command-line option. This enables the
Emacs Lisp debugger before evaluating your .emacs file, and places you in
the debugger if something goes wrong. The top line in the trace-back
buffer will be the error message, and the second or third line of that
buffer will display the Lisp code from your .emacs file that caused the
problem.
You can also evaluate an individual function or argument to a function in
your .emacs file by moving the cursor to the end of the function or
argument and typing "C-x C-e" (M-x eval-last-sexp). "C-M-x" (M-x
eval-defun) is particularly useful for re-evaluating "defvar" and
"customize" forms.
Use "C-h v" (M-x describe-variable) to check the value of variables which
you are trying to set or use.
28: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
To toggle having Emacs automatically display the current line number of the
point in the mode line, do "M-x line-number-mode". (This option is on by
default.) Note that Emacs will not display the line number if the buffer is
larger than the value of the variable line-number-display-limit.
As of Emacs 20, you can similarly display the current column with "M-x
column-number-mode", by putting the form
(setq column-number-mode t)
in your .emacs file or by using Customize.
The "%c" format specifier in the variable mode-line-format will insert
the current column's value into the mode line. See the documentation for
mode-line-format (using "C-h v mode-line-format RET") for more
information on how to set and use this variable.
Users of all Emacs versions can display the current column using Per
Abrahamsen's <abraham@iesd.auc.dk> "column" package. See question 90 for
instructions on how to get it.
None of the vi emulation modes provide the "set number" capability of vi
(as far as we know) but Kyle Jones's setnu.el package implements such a
feature.
29: How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current filename?
The contains of an Emacs frame's titlebar is controlled by the variable
frame-title-format, which has the same structure as the variable
mode-line-format. (Use "C-h v" or "M-x describe-variable" to get
information about one or both of these variables.)
By default, the titlebar for a frame does contain the name of the buffer
currently being visited, except if there is a single frame. In such a
case, the titlebar contains the name of the user and the machine at which
Emacs was invoked. This is done by setting frame-title-format to the
default value of
(multiple-frames "%b" ("" invocation-name "@" system-name))
To modify the behavior such that frame titlebars contain the buffer's
name regardless of the number of existing frames, include the following
in your .emacs:
(setq frame-title-format "%b")
30: How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
Put this in your .emacs file:
(condition-case ()
(quietly-read-abbrev-file)
(file-error nil))
(add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(setq abbrev-mode t)))
31: 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 a certain mode, you must use the hook
for that mode. For example, to turn on auto-fill mode for all text
buffers, including the following in your .emacs file:
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
You can also do this via the Help -> Options menu, which runs the command
toggle-text-mode-auto-fill.
If you want auto-fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
(setq-default auto-fill-function 'do-auto-fill)
32: 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:
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode))
Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
edit in XXX mode (in the second line, if the first line begins with
"#!"):
-*-XXX-*-
Beginning with Emacs 19, the variable interpreter-mode-alist specifies
which mode to use when loading a shell script. (Emacs determines which
interpreter you're using by examining the first line of the file.) This
feature only applies when the file name doesn't indicate which mode to
use. Use "C-h v" (or M-x describe-variable) on interpreter-mode-alist to
learn more.
33: 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 (i.e., `C-q').) Searching for ALL unprintable
characters is best done with a regular expression ("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 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 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. To replace all unprintable characters
with a colon, use:
M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET : RET
NOTE: * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing
something in the minibuffer.
34: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
If you are using a windowing system such as X, you can cause the region
to be highlighted when the mark is active by including
(transient-mark-mode t)
in your .emacs file, using Customize or via the Help->Options menu.
(Also see question 66.)
35: 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
To change this or similar variables during an Emacs session, use
M-x set-variable.
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:
(add-hook 'XXX-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(setq case-fold-search nil)))
36: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
Use auto-fill mode, activated by typing "M-x auto-fill-mode". The
default maximum line width is 70, determined by the variable fill-column.
To learn how to turn this on automatically, see question 31.
37: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
Use Ispell. See question 110.
38: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
Use Ispell. See question 110. Ispell can handle TeX and *roff
documents.
39: 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 (cons "/XXX/YYY/" load-path))
To do this relative to your home directory:
(setq load-path (cons "~/YYY/" load-path)
40: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
Emacsclient, which comes with Emacs, 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 #" (or M-x server-edit) to indicate this.
If there is another buffer requested by emacsclient, Emacs will switch
to it; otherwise emacsclient will exit, signaling the calling program
to continue.
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 (see question 90). Gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it
can work across most network connections. It also supports the
execution of arbitrary Emacs Lisp forms and does not require the client
program to wait for completion.
The alpha version of an enhanced version of gnuserv is available at
ftp://ftp.splode.com/pub/users/friedman/packages/fgnuserv-1.0.tar.gz
41: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
The variable compilation-error-regexp-alist helps control how Emacs
parses your compiler output. It is a list of triples of the form:
(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX)
where REGEXP, FILE-IDX and LINE-IDX are strings. To help determine what
the constituent elements should be, load compile.el and then use
C-h v compilation-error-regexp-alist RET
to see the current value. A good idea is to look at compile.el itself as
the comments included for this variable are quite useful -- the regular
expressions required for your compiler's output may be very close to one
already provided. Once you have determined the proper regexps, use the
following to inform Emacs of your changes:
(add-to-list 'compilation-error-regexp-alist
'(REGEXP FILE-IDX LINE-IDX))
42: How do I indent C 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;
}
}
The solution at first appears to be: set c-indent-level to 4 and
c-label-offset to -2. However, this will give you an indentation spacing
of four instead of two.
The solution is to use cc-mode (the default mode for C programming in
Emacs 20) and add the following line:
(c-set-offset 'case-label '+)
There appears to be no way to do this with the old c-mode.
43: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
Use hscroll-mode, included in Emacs 20. Here is some information from
the documentation, available by typing C-h f hscroll-mode RET:
Automatically scroll horizontally when the point moves off the
left or right edge of the window.
- Type "M-x hscroll-mode" to enable it in the current buffer.
- Type "M-x hscroll-global-mode" to enable it in every buffer.
- "turn-on-hscroll" is useful in mode hooks as in:
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-hscroll)
- hscroll-margin controls how close the cursor can get to the edge
of the window.
- hscroll-step-percent controls how far to jump once we decide to do so.
44: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode). This toggles overwrite-mode on and
off, so exiting from overwrite-mode is as easy as another M-x
overwrite-mode.
On some systems the "Insert" key toggles overwrite-mode on and off.
45: 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.
That is, put the following in your TERMCAP environment variable
(assuming you have one):
... :vb=: ...
And evaluate the following Lisp form:
(setq visible-bell t)
There is also a way to turn off _all_ effects of a bell, by defining
a custom `ring-bell-function' that does nothing.
46: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
You can adjust the bell volume and duration for all programs with the
shell command xset.
Invoking xset without any arguments produces some basic information,
including the following:
usage: xset [-display host:dpy] option ...
To turn bell off:
-b b off b 0
To set bell volume, pitch and duration:
b [vol [pitch [dur]]] b on
47: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
indentation of the previous line?
Such behavior is automatic in text mode in Emacs 20. From the NEWS file
for Emacs 20.2:
** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs. This makes
it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode in Text mode,
and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode). TAB in Text mode
now runs the command indent-relative; this makes a practical difference
only when you use indented paragraphs.
As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
and is an alias for it.
If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph, use
the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
If you have auto-fill mode on (see question 31), 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 (see question 90.) Look up "fill"
and "indent" in the Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
48: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
As of version 19, Emacs comes with paren.el, which (when loaded) will
automatically highlight matching parentheses whenever point (i.e., the
cursor) is located over one. To load paren automatically, include the
line
(require 'paren)
in your .emacs file. As of version 20.1, you must instead call
show-paren-mode in your .emacs file:
(show-paren-mode 1)
and the "require" is redundant.
The "customize" facility will let you turn on show-paren-mode. Use M-x
customize-group RET paren-showing RET. From within customize, you can
also go directly to the "paren-showing" group.
Alternatives to paren include:
* 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 one set
of 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. (`Parenthesis' actually
includes and character with `open' or `close' syntax, which usually means
"()[]{}".)
;; 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)))))
49: 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 might also want to try
cpp.el, available at the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 90).
50: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
(`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
In Emacs 20.3 and later, use the C-x z ("repeat") command to repeat `simple
commands'.
Otherwise you can type "C-x ESC 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 a set of commands, use keyboard macros. (See "Keyboard Macros"
in the on-line manual.)
VIPER, which comes with Emacs, emulates vi, including `.'. (See question
107.)
51: What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
See Emacs man page, or "Resources X" in the on-line manual.
You can also use a resource editor, such as editres (for X11R5 and
onwards), to look at the resource names for the menu bar, assuming Emacs
was compiled with the X toolkit.
52: How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
There are a number of ways to execute ("evaluate," in Lisp lingo) 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. This is known as your ".emacs
file," and contains all of your personal customizations.
* 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-: 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 useful (see question 16 if you want to learn
more about them):
load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
53: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
Set the variable default-tab-width. For example, to set tab stops every
10 characters, insert the following in your .emacs file:
(setq default-tab-width 10)
Do not confuse variable tab-width with variable tab-stop-list. The
former is used for the display of literal tab characters. The latter
controls what characters are inserted when you press the TAB character in
certain modes.
54: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
To do this to an entire buffer, type "M-< M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET >
RET".
To do this to a region, use "string-rectangle" ("C-x r t"). Set the mark
(`C-SPC') at the beginning of the first line you want to prefix, move the
cursor to last line to be prefixed, and type "C-x r t > RET". To do this
for the whole buffer, type "C-x h C-x r t > RET". In Emacs 20.3 and
later, this will affect only the current region if Transient Mark mode is
on (see NEWS via C-h N).
If you are trying to prefix a yanked mail message with '>', you might
want to set the variable mail-yank-prefix. Better yet, get the Supercite
package (see question 105), which provides flexible citation for yanked
mail and news messages.
55: How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an
underlined paragraph?
M-x underline-region.
56: 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.
57: 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.
58: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
"C-z" iconifies Emacs when running under X Windows and suspends Emacs
otherwise. See "Misc X" in the on-line manual.
59: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
See "Regexps" in the on-line manual.
WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is `\\'. To
specify a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) in a Lisp string, use
"xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)"
Notice the doubled 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 (e.g., "\sw") are not meaningful
inside character set regexps (e.g., "[aeiou]"). (This is actually
typical for regexp syntax.)
60: 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 Search" in the on-line manual.
As of Emacs 19.29, Dired mode ("M-x dired RET", or C-x d) supports the
command dired-do-query-replace, which allows users to replace regular
expressions in multiple files.
61: Where is the documentation for "etags"?
"etags" is documented in the Tags node of the Emacs manual. The "etags"
man page should be in the same place as the "emacs" man page.
Quick command-line switch descriptions are also available. For example,
"etags -H".
62: How do I disable backup files?
You probably don't want to do this, since backups are useful.
To avoid seeing backup files (and other "uninteresting" files) in Dired,
load dired-x by adding the following to your .emacs file:
(add-hook 'dired-load-hook
(function (lambda ()
(load "dired-x"))))
With dired-x loaded, `M-o' toggles omitting in each dired buffer. You
can make omitting the default for new dired buffers by putting the
following in your .emacs:
(setq initial-dired-omit-files-p t)
If you're tired of seeing backup files whenever you do an "ls" at the
Unix shell, try GNU ls with the "-B" option. GNU ls is part of the GNU
fileutils package, available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (see question 92).
To disable or change how backups are made, see "Backup Names" in the
on-line manual.
63: How do I disable auto-save-mode?
You probably don't want to do this, since auto-saving is useful,
especially when Emacs or your computer crashes while you are editing a
document.
Instead, you might want to change the variable auto-save-interval, which
specifies how many keystrokes Emacs waits before auto-saving. Increasing
this value forces Emacs to wait longer between auto-saves, which might
annoy you less.
You might also want to look into Sebastian Kremer's auto-save package,
available from the Lisp Code Archive (see question 90). This package
also allows you to place all auto-save files in one directory, such as
/tmp.
To disable or change how auto-save-mode works, see "Auto Save" in the
on-line manual.
64: How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?
Each menu title (e.g., Buffers, File, Edit) represents a local or global
keymap. Selecting a menu title with the mouse displays that keymap's
non-nil contents in the form of a menu.
So to add a menu option to an existing menu, all you have to do is add a
new definition to the appropriate keymap. Adding a "forward word"
command to the "Edit" menu thus requires the following Lisp code:
(define-key global-map
[menu-bar edit forward]
'("Forward word" . forward-word))
The first line adds the entry to the global keymap, which includes global
menu bar entries. Replacing the reference to "global-map" with a local
keymap would add this menu option only within a particular mode.
The second line describes the path from the menu-bar to the new entry.
Placing this menu entry underneath the "File" menu would mean changing
the word "edit" in the second line to "file."
The third line is a cons cell whose first element is the title that will
be displayed, and whose second element is the function that will be
called when that menu option is invoked.
To add a new menu, rather than a new option to an existing menu, we must
define an entirely new keymap:
(define-key global-map [menu-bar words]
(cons "Words" (make-sparse-keymap "Words")))
The above code creates a new sparse keymap, gives it the name "Words",
and attaches it to the global menu bar. Adding the "forward word"
command to this new menu would thus require the following code:
(define-key global-map
[menu-bar words forward]
'("Forward word" . forward-word))
Note that because of the way keymaps work, menu options are displayed
with the more recently defined items at the top. Thus if you were to
define menu options "foo", "bar", and "baz" (in that order), menu option
"baz" would appear at the top, and "foo" would be at the bottom.
One way to avoid this problem is to use the function define-key-after,
which works the same as define-key, but lets you modify where items
appear. The following Lisp code would insert the "forward word" function
in the "edit" menu immediately following the "undo" option:
(define-key-after
(lookup-key global-map [menu-bar edit])
[forward]
'("Forward word" . forward-word)
'undo)
Note how the second and third arguments to define-key-after are different
from those of define-key, and that we have added a new (final) argument,
the function after which our new key should be defined.
To move a menu option from one position to another, simply evaluate
define-key-after with the appropriate final argument.
More detailed information -- and more examples of how to create and
modify menu options -- are in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, under
"Menu Keymaps." (See question 16 for information on this manual.)
Note that Emacs 20.3 introduced a better (`extended') format for menu
items, described in the NEWS file and the Lisp Manual. The "easymenu"
package provides support for defining menus conveniently with some
portability amongst Emacs versions.
65: How do I delete menus and menu options?
The simplest way to remove a menu is to set its keymap to nil. For
example, to delete the "Words" menu (from question 64), use:
(define-key global-map [menu-bar words] nil)
Similarly, removing a menu option requires redefining a keymap entry to
nil. For example, to delete the "Forward word" menu option from the
"Edit" menu (we added it in question 64), use:
(define-key global-map [menu-bar edit forward] nil)
66: How do I turn on syntax highlighting?
Font-lock mode is the standard way to have Emacs perform syntax
highlighting. With font-lock mode invoked, different types of text will
appear in different colors. For instance, if you turn on font-lock in a
programming mode, variables will appear in one face, keywords in a
second, and comments in a third.
Earlier versions of Emacs supported hilit19, a similar package. Use of
hilit19 is now considered non-standard, although hilit19.el comes with
the stock Emacs distribution. It is no longer maintained.
To turn font-lock mode on within an existing buffer, use "M-x
font-lock-mode RET".
To automatically invoke font-lock mode when a particular major mode is
invoked, set the major mode's hook or define font-lock-global-modes as a
list with the mode name as an element. For example, to fontify all
c-mode buffers, add the following to your .emacs file:
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
To automatically invoke font-lock mode for all major modes, you can turn
on global-font-lock mode by including the following line in your .emacs
file (or use Custom):
(global-font-lock-mode 1)
This instructs Emacs to turn on font-lock mode in those buffers for which
a font-lock mode definition has been provided (in the variable
font-lock-global-modes or via the variable font-lock-defaults-alist). If
you edit a file in pie-ala-mode, and no font-lock definitions have been
provided for pie-ala files, then the above setting will have no effect on
that particular buffer.
Highlighting with font-lock mode can take quite a while, and thus
different levels of decoration are available, from slight to gaudy. To
control how decorated your buffers should become, set the value of
font-lock-maximum-decoration in your .emacs file, with a nil value
indicating default (usually minimum) decoration, and a t value indicating
the maximum decoration. For the gaudiest possible look, then, include
the line
(setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t)
in your .emacs file. You can also set this variable such that different
modes are highlighted in a different ways; for more information, see the
documentation for font-lock-maximum-decoration with "C-h v" (or "M-x
describe-variable RET").
You might also want to investigate fast-lock-mode and lazy-lock-mode,
versions of font-lock-mode that speed up highlighting. The advantage of
lazy-lock-mode is that it only fontifies buffers when certain conditions
are met, such as after a certain amount of idle time, or after you have
finished scrolling through text. See the documentation for
lazy-lock-mode by typing C-h f lazy-lock-mode ("M-x describe-function RET
lazy-lock-mode RET").
Also see the documentation for the function font-lock-mode, available by
typing C-h f font-lock-mode ("M-x describe-function RET font-lock-mode
RET").
For more information on font-lock mode, particularly adding new patterns,
see the Lisp Reference Manual and the commentary in the source
font-lock.el, which you can find in Emacs 20 (if it is installed) using,
say, M-x find-function font-lock-mode.
To print buffers with the faces (i.e., colors and fonts) intact, use
"M-x ps-print-buffer-with-faces" or "M-x ps-print-region-with-faces".
67: How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
bottom of the screen?
Place the following Lisp form in your .emacs file:
(setq scroll-step 1)
Also see "Scrolling" in the on-line manual.
68: How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
Use delete-selection mode, which you can start automatically by placing
the following Lisp form in your .emacs file:
(delete-selection-mode t)
According to the documentation string for delete-selection mode (which
you can read using M-x describe-function RET delete-selection-mode RET):
When ON, typed text replaces the selection if the selection is active.
When OFF, typed text is just inserted at point.
This mode also allows you to delete (not kill) the highlighted region by
pressing DEL.
69: How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs?
As of Emacs 20, detection and handling of MS-DOS (and Windows) files is
performed transparently. You can open an MS-DOS file on a Unix system
(and vice versa), edit it, and save it without having to worry about the
file format. To save it with a different end-of-line convention use
C-x RET c to specify a new coding system such as undecided-unix.
When editing an MS-DOS style file, a backslash (\) will appear in the
mode line.
You can avoid translation of the end-of-line conventions either by
visiting a file using M-x find-file-literally or by setting the variable
inhibit-eol-conversion to t.
If you are running an earlier version of Emacs, get crypt++ from
ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/misc/crypt++.el. Among other things, crypt++
transparently modifies MS-DOS files as they are loaded and saved,
allowing you to ignore the different conventions that Unix and MS-DOS
have for delineating the end of a line.
70: How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
each period?
Ulrich Mueller <ulm@vsnhd1.cern.ch> suggests adding the following two
lines to your .emacs file:
(setq sentence-end "[.?!][]\"')}]*\\($\\|[ \t]\\)[ \t\n]*")
(setq sentence-end-double-space nil)
See "Sentences" in the online manual.
Bugs/Problems
71: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
Old versions (i.e., anything before 19.29) of Emacs had problems editing
files larger than 8 megabytes. As of version 19.29, the maximum buffer
size is at least 2^27-1, or 134,217,727 bytes.
If you are using an older version of Emacs and cannot upgrade, you will
have to recompile. Leonard N. Zubkoff <lnz@lucid.com> suggests putting
the following two lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow
for 26-bit integers and pointers (and thus file sizes of up to 33,554,431
bytes):
#define VALBITS 26
#define GCTYPEBITS 5
WARNING: This method may result in "ILLEGAL DATATYPE" and other random
errors on some machines.
David Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> explains how this problems
crops up; while his numbers are true only for pre-19.29 versions of
Emacs, the theory remains the same with current versions.
Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must
carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, e.g.,
integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on.
Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8
bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers
(and pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
pointers.
72: How do I get rid of ^M or echoed commands in my shell buffer?
Try typing "M-x shell-strip-ctrl-m RET" while in shell-mode to make them
go away. You might add this function to comint-output-filter-functions:
(add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions 'shell-strip-ctrl-m)
If that doesn't work, you have several options:
For tcsh, put this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
if ($?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.)
You can also set the ESHELL environment variable in Emacs Lisp with
the following Lisp form,
(setenv "ESHELL" "/bin/csh")
On a related note: If your shell is echoing your input line in the shell
buffer, you might want to try the following command in your shell
start-up file:
stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z
73: 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. Compile this program for your architecture, and
install it with a+x permission in the architecture-dependent Emacs
program directory. (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".)
You should also check for other programs named "env" in your path (e.g.,
SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). We don't understand why this
can cause a failure and don't know a general solution for working around
the problem in this case.
It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started
as an X client from an xterm window (i.e., had a controlling tty) but the
xterm was later terminated.
See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message.
74: 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 (e.g., 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
75: 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 122.
76: 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 gethostbyname 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.
77: 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 27.
It may be the case that you 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 118.
78: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
As of version 19, Emacs searches for X resources in the files specified
by the XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, and XAPPLRESDIR environment
variables, emulating the functionality provided by programs written using
Xt.
XFILESEARCHPATH and XUSERFILESEARCHPATH should be a list of file names
separated by colons; XAPPLRESDIR should be a list of directory names
separated by colons.
Emacs searches for X resources
+ specified on the command line, with the "-xrm RESOURCESTRING"
option,
+ then in the value of the XENVIRONMENT environment variable,
- or if that is unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults-HOSTNAME if it
exists
(where HOSTNAME is the hostname of the machine Emacs is running on),
+ then in the screen-specific and server-wide resource properties
provided by the server,
- or if those properties are unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults
if it exists,
+ then in the files listed in XUSERFILESEARCHPATH,
- or in files named LANG/Emacs in directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR
(where LANG is the value of the LANG environment variable), if
the LANG environment variable is set,
- or in files named Emacs in the directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR
- or in ~/LANG/Emacs (if the LANG environment variable is set),
- or in ~/Emacs,
+ then in the files listed in XFILESEARCHPATH.
79: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
Old versions of Emacs (i.e., versions before Emacs 20.x) often
encountered this when 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.
80: 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.
81: 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 89).
You can tell Emacs the shell's current directory with the command "M-x
dirs".
82: Are there any security risks in Emacs?
* the "movemail" incident (No, this is not a risk.)
In his book "The Cuckoo's Egg," Cliff Stoll describes this in chapter
4. The site at LBL had installed the "etc/movemail" program setuid
root. (As of version 19, movemail is in your architecture-specific
directory; type "C-h v exec-directory RET" to see what it is.) 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 this security hole will not
exist, even if it is installed setuid root. However, movemail no
longer needs to be installed setuid root, which should eliminate this
particular risk.
We have heard unverified reports that the 1988 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.
Emacs 18 allowed this feature by default; users could disable it by
setting the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value.
As of Emacs 19, Emacs has a list of local variables that create a
security risk. If a file tries to set one of them, it asks the user to
confirm whether the variables should be set. You can also tell Emacs
whether to allow the evaluation of Emacs Lisp code found at the bottom
of files by setting the variable enable-local-eval.
For more information, see "File Variables" in the on-line manual.
* 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.
On most computers running Unix and X Windows, you enable and disable
access using the "xhost" command. To allow all hosts access to your X
server, use
xhost +
at the shell prompt, which (on an HP machine, at least) produces the
following message:
access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
To deny all hosts access to your X server (except those explicitly
allowed by name), use
xhost -
On the test HP computer, this command generated the following message:
access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect
83: Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something.
Chances are you're using a localized version of Unix that doesn't
use US date format in dired listings. You can check this by looking
at dired listings or by typing `ls -l' to a shell and looking at the
dates that come out.
Dired uses a regular expression to find the beginning of a file
name. In a long Unix-style directory listing ("ls -l"), the file
name starts after the date. The regexp has thus been written to
look for the date, the format of which can vary on non-US systems.
There are two approaches to solving this. The first one involves
setting things up so that "ls -l" outputs US date format. This can
be done by setting the locale. See your OS manual for more
information.
The second approach involves changing the regular expression used by
dired, dired-move-to-filename-regexp.
Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
84: How do I install Emacs?
This answer is meant for users of Unix and Unix-like systems. Users of
other operating systems should see the series of questions beginning with
question 94, which describe where to get non-Unix source and binaries.
These packages should come with installation instructions.
For Unix and Unix-like systems, the easiest way is often to compile it
from scratch. You will need:
* Emacs sources. See question 92 for a list of ftp sites that make them
available. On ftp.gnu.org, the main GNU distribution site, sources are
available at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.5.tar.gz
The above will obviously change as new versions of Emacs come out. For
instance, Emacs 20.6 would most probably be available at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.6.tar.gz
Again, you should use one of the mirror sites in question 92 (and
adjust the URL accordingly) so as to reduce load on ftp.gnu.org.
* Gzip, the GNU compression utility. You can get gzip via anonymous ftp
at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org sites; it should compile and install without
much trouble on most systems. Once you have retrieved the Emacs
sources, you will probably be able to uncompress them with the command
gunzip --verbose emacs-20.5.tar.gz
changing the Emacs version (20.5), as necessary. Once gunzip has
finished doing its job, a file by the name of "emacs-20.5.tar" should
be in your build directory.
* Tar, the "tape archiving" program, which moves multiple files into and
out of archive files, or "tarfiles." All of the files comprising the
Emacs source come in a single tarfile, and must be extracted using tar
before you can build Emacs. Typically, the extraction command would
look like
tar -xvvf emacs-20.5.tar
The `x' indicates that we want to extract files from this tarfile, the
two `v's force verbose output, and the `f' tells tar to use a disk
file, rather than one on tape.
If you're using GNU tar (available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org), you can
combine this step and the previous one by using the command
tar -zxvvf emacs-20.5.tar.gz
The additional `z' at the beginning of the options list tells GNU tar
to uncompress the file with gunzip before extracting the tarfile's
components.
At this point, the Emacs sources (all 25+ megabytes of them) should be
sitting in a directory called "emacs-20.5". On most common Unix and
Unix-like systems, you should be able to compile Emacs (with X Windows
support) with the following commands:
cd emacs-20.5 [ change directory to emacs-20.5 ]
./configure [ configure Emacs for your particular system ]
make [ use Makefile to build components, then Emacs ]
If the "make" completes successfully, the odds are fairly good that the
build has gone well. (See question 86 if you weren't successful.)
To install Emacs in its default directories of /usr/local/bin (binaries),
/usr/local/share/emacs/20.xx (Lisp code and support files),
/usr/local/libexec/CONFIGURATION/emacs/VERSION (executable files to be
run by Emacs rather than users), /usr/local/man/man1 (man pages) and
/usr/local/info (Info documentation), become the super-user and type
make install
Note that "make install" will overwrite /usr/local/bin/emacs and any
Emacs Info files that might be in /usr/local/info.
Much more verbose instructions (with many more hints and suggestions)
come with the Emacs sources, in the file "INSTALL".
85: How do I update Emacs to the latest version?
Follow the instructions in question 84.
Emacs places nearly everything in version-specific directories (e.g.,
/usr/local/share/emacs/20.5), so the only files that can be overwritten
when installing a new release are /usr/local/bin/emacs and the Emacs Info
documentation in /usr/local/info. Back up these files before you install
a new release, and you shouldn't have too much trouble.
86: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
First look in the file PROBLEMS (in the top-level directory when you
unpack the Emacs source) to see if there is already a solution for your
problem. Next, look for other questions in this FAQ that have to do with
Emacs installation and compilation problems.
If you'd like to have someone look at your problem and help solve it, see
question 21.
If you don't find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help
or e-mail it to help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. For further guidelines,
see question 8 and question 10.
87: 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."
David Zuhn <zoo@armadillo.com> says that MIT X builds shared libraries by
default, and only shared libraries, on those platforms that support them.
These shared libraries can't be used when undumping temacs (the last
stage of the Emacs build process). To get regular libraries in addition
to shared libraries, add this to site.cf:
#define ForceNormalLib YES
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.
Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
88: Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
archive sites and etc/ORDERS for mail orders. If you don't already have
Emacs, see question 20 for how to get these files.
See question 84 for information on how to obtain and build the latest
version of Emacs, and question 92 for a list of archive sites that make
GNU software available.
89: How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
First of all, you should check to make sure that the package isn't
already available. For example, typing "M-x apropos RET wordstar RET"
lists all functions and variables containing the string "wordstar".
It is also possible that the package is on your system, but has not been
loaded. To see which packages are available for loading, look through your
computer's lisp directory (see question 4) or use the Finder (C-h p) to
search under keywords. The Lisp source to most packages contains a
short description of how they should be loaded, invoked, and configured --
so before you use or modify a Lisp package, see if the author has provided
any hints in the source code.
If a package does not come with Emacs, check the Lisp Code
Directory, maintained (unfortunately slowly at present) by Dave
Brennan <brennan@gnu.org>. The directory is contained in the file
LCD-datafile.Z, available from the Emacs Lisp Archive (see question
90), and is accessed using the "lispdir" package, available from the
same site. Note that lispdir.el requires crypt++, which you can
grab from the Emacs Lisp Archive's "misc" subdirectory when you get
lispdir.el.
Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, you can use "M-x
lisp-dir-apropos" to search the listing. For example, "M-x
lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces this output:
GNU Emacs Lisp Code Directory Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
"~/" refers to ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/emacs-lisp/
ange-ftp (4.18) 15-Jul-1992
Andy Norman, <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
~/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z
transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs
auto-save (1.19) 01-May-1992
Sebastian Kremer, <sk@thp.uni-koeln.de>
~/misc/auto-save.el.Z
Safer autosaving with support for ange-ftp and /tmp
ftp-quik (1.0) 28-Jul-1993
Terrence Brannon, <tb06@pl122f.eecs.lehigh.edu>
~/modes/ftp-quik.el.Z
Quik access to dired'ing of ange-ftp and normal paths
You actually don't need the directory file LCD-datafile if your computer
is on the Internet, since the latest version is retrieved automatically
the first time you type "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" in a particular Emacs
session. If you would prefer to use a local copy of LCD-datafile, be
sure to set the variable lisp-code-directory at the top of the lispdir.el
source code.
A searchable version of the LCD is also available at
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/LCD/cover.html
90: Where can I get 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 89). Next, check local archives and the
Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. If you still
haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for a copy.
If you find Emacs Lisp code that doesn't appear in the LCD, please submit
a copy to the LCD (see question 91).
You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive at the following sites:
ftp://ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/
ftp://ftp.uni-mainz.de/pub/gnu/elisp-archive/
ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU/elisp-archive/
ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/elisp-archive/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/Mirrors/ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/
Retrieve and read 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.
* Any files with names ending in ".Z", ".z", or ".gz" are
compressed, so 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".
Packages which have been posted to gnu.emacs.sources should be locatable
via a service like Dejanews.
91: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
Guidelines and procedures for submission to the archive can be found in
the file GUIDELINES in the archive directory (see question 90). It
covers documentation, copyrights, packaging, submission, and the Lisp
Code Directory Record. Anonymous FTP uploads are not permitted.
Instead, all submissions are 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.
Note that maintenance of the archive is currently very slow.
92: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
The most up-to-date official GNU software is normally kept on
ftp.gnu.org and is available at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu
Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information.
A list of sites mirroring ftp.gnu.org can be found at
http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html
93: What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
Emacs")?
XEmacs is a modified version of GNU Emacs.
This FAQ refers to the latest version to be distributed by the FSF
as "Emacs," partly because the XEmacs maintainers now refer to their
product using the "XEmacs" name, and partly because there isn't any
accurate way to differentiate between the two without getting mired
in paragraphs of legalese and history.
XEmacs, which began life as Lucid Emacs, is based on an early version of
Emacs 19 and Epoch, an X-aware version of Emacs 18.
Emacs (i.e., the version distributed by the FSF) has a larger installed
base and now always contains the MULE multilingual facilities. XEmacs
can do some clever tricks with X Windows, such as putting arbitrary
graphics in a buffer; similar facilities have been implemented for Emacs,
which will be integrated after version 20.5. Emacs and XEmacs each come
with some Lisp packages that are lacking or more up-to-date in the other;
RMS says that the FSF would include more packages that come with XEmacs,
but that the XEmacs maintainers don't always keep track of the authors of
contributed code, which makes it impossible for the FSF to have certain
legal papers signed. (Without these legal papers, the FSF will not
distribute Lisp packages with Emacs.) The two versions have some
significant differences at the Lisp programming level.
94: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
A pre-built binary distribution of Emacs is available from the Simtel
archives. This version works under MS-DOS and Windows (3.x, 9x, and NT) and
supports long file names under Windows 9x. More information is available
from:
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/emacs.README
And the binary itself is available in the files em1934*.zip in the
directory
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/
If you prefer to compile Emacs for yourself, you will need a 386 (or
better) processor, and are running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. According to Eli
Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> and Darrel Hankerson
<hankedr@dms.auburn.edu>, you will need the following:
Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later. Djgpp 2.0 or later is
recommended, since 1.x is being phased out. Djgpp 2 supports
long filenames under Windows 9x.
You can get the latest release of djgpp by retrieving
all of the files in
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp
Gunzip and tar:
The easiest way is to use "djtar" which comes with djgpp v2.x,
because it can open gzip'ed tarfiles (i.e., those ending with
".tar.gz") in one step. Djtar comes in "djdev201.zip", from
the URL mentioned above.
Utilities: make, mv, sed, rm.
All of these utilities are available at
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu
16-bit utilities can be found in GNUish:
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish
The files INSTALL and etc/PROBLEMS in the Emacs source contains some
additional information regarding Emacs under MS-DOS.
For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs
look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature,"
available at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/
Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they often
lack certain features, particularly the Emacs Lisp extension language.
95: Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows
NT?
GNU Emacs has been fully ported to Windows NT and Windows 95/98.
If you have MSVC 4.0 or greater, then you can compile GNU Emacs
directly from the source distribution. First read the file
nt/README, and then the file nt/INSTALL, for step by step
instructions on how to compile and install GNU Emacs on your system.
You can also download precompiled distributions of GNU Emacs from:
ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs
If you need the gunzip and tar utilities for unpacking distributions,
you can download precompiled versions from:
ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs/utilities
For more information on configuring your favorite package to run with
GNU Emacs on Windows NT/95/98, see the following FAQ:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html
ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs/docs/ntemacs.html
If you are running Windows 3.11, and if you compile GNU Emacs for MSDOS
with the tools listed in the previous question, it will run under
Microsoft Windows in a DOS box.
96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
Emacs 19.33 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1, and is available at:
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/editors/emacs/v19.33/
97: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
Roland Schäuble reports that Emacs 18.58 running on plain TOS and MiNT
is available at
ftp://atari.archive.umich.edu/Editors/Emacs-18-58/1858b-d3.zoo
98: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
The files you need are available at
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/gnu/
David Gilbert <dgilbert@gamiga.guelphnet.dweomer.org> has released a beta
version of Emacs 19.25 for the Amiga. You can get the binary at
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/gnu/a2.0bEmacs-bin.lha
99: Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?
Emacs.app is a NeXTSTEP version of Emacs 19.34 which supports colors,
menus, and multiple frames. You can get it from
ftp://next-ftp.peak.org/pub/next/apps/emacs/Emacs_for_NeXTstep.4.20a1.NIHS.b.tar.gz
100: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
There used to be a boycott of Apple because of its "look and feel"
lawsuit. The lawsuit failed, and the boycott is over.
Currently the GNU project treats Apple like other computer companies.
Since the Mac operating system is very different from Unix and GNU,
support for it would be a big job. And this job would be tangential
to the GNU project's goals. Meanwhile, we don't have the resources
to do all we want to do on supporting Emacs for GNU-like systems.
So if we had to do work on support for the Macintosh, that would
directly harm the GNU project.
Of course, the same is true for MSDOS and Windows NT. We decided to
incorporate support for those systems because the code was very modular,
because volunteers not only wrote all the code but also investigate
all the bugs reported on those systems, and because we hoped that we
will be able to raise funds for GNU using these versions, and in this
way these ports will make up for the effort that they took. (We still
hope so, but it has not happened yet.)
An unofficial port of GNU Emacs 18.59 to the Macintosh is available at a
number of ftp sites, the home being
ftp://ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub/parmet/Emacs-1.17.sit.bin
To the best of our knowledge, Emacs 19 has not been ported to the
Macintosh.
Apple's forthcoming "OS X" is based largely on NeXTSTEP and OpenStep.
See question 99 for more details about that version.
101: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
Up-to-date information about GNU software (including Emacs) for VMS is
available at
http://vms.gnu.org/
102: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, Csh, C++,
Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk?
Most of these modes are now available in standard Emacs distribution. To
get additional modes, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 89).
For C++, if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like
this:
M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET
Note that Barry Warsaw's cc-mode now works for C, C++, Objective-C, and
Java code. You can get the latest version from the Emacs Lisp Archive;
see question 90 for details. A FAQ for cc-mode is available at
http://www.python.org/emacs/cc-mode/
103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
If you are on a Unix machine, try using the "nslookup" command, included
in the Berkeley BIND package. For example, to find the IP address of
"ftp.gnu.org", you would type
nslookup ftp.gnu.org
Your computer should then provide the IP address of that computer.
If your site's nameserver is deficient, you can use IP addresses to FTP
files. You can get this information by
* E-mail:
To: dns@[134.214.84.25] (to grasp.insa-lyon.fr)
Body: ip XXX.YYY.ZZZ (or "help" for more information
and options - no quotes)
or:
To: resolve@[147.31.254.130] (to laverne.cs.widener.edu)
Body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ
Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support
Author: Kyle Jones <kyle@uunet.uu.net>
Latest version: 6.67
Anonymous FTP:
ftp://ftp.wonderworks.com/pub/vm/vm.tar.gz
Newsgroups and mailing lists:
Informational newsgroup/mailing list:
gnu.emacs.vm.info (newsgroup)
info-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
info-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
Bug reports newsgroup/mailing list:
gnu.emacs.vm.bug (newsgroup)
bug-vm-request@uunet.uu.net (for subscriptions)
bug-vm@uunet.uu.net (for submissions)
NOTE: VM 6 is not guaranteed to work under Emacs 20 (although many people
seem to use it without too much trouble). Users of Emacs 20 might prefer
to use VM 5.97, available from the same FTP site.
105: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
Author: Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@cen.com>
Latest version: 3.1 (comes with Emacs 20)
World Wide Web:
http://www.python.org/emacs/supercite.tar.gz
Mailing list:
supercite-request@python.org (for subscriptions)
supercite@python.org (for submissions)
NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite.
106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
Author: Dave Gillespie <daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu>
Latest version: 2.02f
Anonymous FTP:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/calc/calc-2.02f.tar.gz
NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue
anyone for having a program with a similar command language to
Calc. :-)
107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs
Since Emacs 19.29, the preferred vi emulation in Emacs is VIPER (M-x
viper-mode RET), which comes with Emacs. It extends and supersedes VIP
(including VIP 4.3) and provides vi emulation at several levels, from one
that closely follows vi to one that departs from vi in several
significant ways.
For Emacs 19.28 and earlier, the following version of VIP is generally
better than the one distributed with Emacs:
Author: Aamod Sane <sane@cs.uiuc.edu>
Latest version: 4.3
Anonymous FTP:
ftp://ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/emacs-lisp/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z
108: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
Authors: Kresten Krab Thorup <krab@iesd.auc.dk>
and Per Abrahamsen <abraham@iesd.auc.dk>
Latest version: 9.8l
Anonymous FTP:
ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/packages/auctex/auctex.tar.gz
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)
World Wide Web:
http://sunsite.auc.dk/auctex/
109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
Maintainer: Matt Simmons <simmonmt@acm.org>
Latest released version: 2.00
Available from:
http://www.netcom.com/~simmonmt/bbdb/index.html
Mailing lists:
info-bbdb-request@xemacs.org (for subscriptions)
info-bbdb@xemacs.org (for submissions)
bbdb-announce-request@xemacs.org (to be informed of new releases)
110: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
Author: Geoff Kuenning <geoff@itcorp.com>
Latest released version: 3.1.20
Anonymous FTP:
Master Sites:
ftp://ftp.cs.ucla.edu/pub/ispell/ispell-3.1.20.tar.gz
Known Mirror Sites:
ftp://ftp.th-darmstadt.de/pub/dicts/ispell/
ftp://ftp.nl.net/pub/textproc/ispell/
World Wide Web:
http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/ispell.html
NOTE: * Do not ask Geoff to send you the latest version of Ispell.
He does not have free e-mail.
* This Ispell program is distinct from GNU Ispell 4.0. GNU
Ispell 4.0 is no longer a supported product.
111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs
Author: Bill Perry <wmperry@spry.com>
Latest version: 4.0pre.39
Anonymous FTP:
ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3/.betas/w3.tar.gz
Mailing lists:
w3-announce-request@indiana.edu (to get announcements of new versions)
w3-beta-request@indiana.edu (for beta-testers of new versions)
w3-dev@indiana.edu (for developers of W3)
112: EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes
Author: Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu>
Latest version: 1.21
Anonymous FTP:
ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/emacs/edb
113: Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news
Authors: Patrick J. LoPresti <patl@lcs.mit.edu> and
Jin S. Choi <jin@atype.com>
Maintainer: Len Budney <lbudney@pobox.com>
Latest version: 3.5.1
Anonymous FTP:
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/crypto/mailcrypt-3.5.1.tar.gz
World Wide Web:
http://www.nb.net/~lbudney/linux/software/mailcrypt.html
114: JDE -- Development environment for Java programming
Author: Paul Kinnucan <paulk@mathworks.com>
Mailing list: jde-subscribe@sunsite.auc.dk
Latest version: 2.1.4
World Wide Web: http://sunsite.auc.dk/jde/
115: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
Author: Larry Wall <lwall@wall.org> (with GNU modifications)
Latest version: 2.5
Anonymous FTP: See question 92
Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
116: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
Keys can be bound to commands either interactively or in your .emacs
file. To interactively bind keys for all modes, type
M-x global-set-key RET KEY CMD RET
To bind a key just in the current major mode, type
M-x local-set-key RET KEY CMD RET
See "Key Bindings" in the on-line manual for further details.
To bind keys on starting Emacs or on starting any given mode, use the
following "trick": First bind the key interactively, then immediately
type "C-x ESC ESC C-a C-k C-g". Now, the command needed to bind the key
is in the kill ring, and can be yanked into your .emacs file. If the key
binding is global, no changes to the command are required. For example,
(global-set-key [f1] 'help-for-help)
can be placed directly into the .emacs file. If the key binding is
local, the command is used in conjunction with the "add-hook" command.
For example, in tex-mode, a local binding might be
(add-hook 'tex-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(local-set-key [f1] 'help-for-help)))
NOTE: * Control characters in key sequences, in the form yanked from the
kill ring are given in their graphic form -- i.e., CTRL is shown
as `^', TAB as a set of spaces (usually 8), etc. You may want to
convert these into their vector or string forms.
* If a prefix key of the character sequence to be bound is already
bound as a complete key, then you must unbind it before the new
binding. For example, if "ESC {" is previously bound:
(global-unset-key [?\e ?{]) ;; or
(local-unset-key [?\e ?{])
* Aside from commands and "lambda lists," a vector or string also
can be bound to a key and thus treated as a macro. For example:
(global-set-key [f10] [?\C-x?\e?\e?\C-a?\C-k?\C-g]) ;; or
(global-set-key [f10] "\C-x\e\e\C-a\C-k\C-g")
* The "kbd" macro is convenient for converting a key description in
the form used in documentation or printed by C-h c (except that
function key symbols must be enclosed in angle brackets). For
example:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f1>") 'help-for-help)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-h") 'help-for-help)
(local-set-key (kbd "DEL") 'scroll-down)
117: Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?
Usually, one of two things has happened. In one case, the control
character in the key sequence has been misspecified (e.g. "C-f" used
instead of "\C-f" within a Lisp expression). In the other case, a
"prefix key" in the keystroke sequence you were trying to bind was
already bound as a "complete key." Historically, the "ESC [" prefix was
usually the problem, in which case you should evaluate either of these
forms before attempting to bind the key sequence:
(global-unset-key [?\e ?[]) ;; or
(global-unset-key "\e[")
118: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
.emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
During startup, Emacs initializes itself according to a given code/file
order. If some of the code executed in your .emacs file needs to be
postponed until the initial terminal or window-system setup code has been
executed but is not, then you will experience this problem (this
code/file execution order is not enforced after startup).
To postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after terminal or
window-system setup, treat the code as a "lambda list" and set the value
of either the "term-setup-hook" or "window-setup-hook" variable to this
"lambda function." For example,
(setq term-setup-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x:
(global-set-key [do] 'execute-extended-command))
))))
For information on what Emacs does every time it is started, see
"Starting Up Emacs" in the Lisp Reference Manual.
119: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
With Emacs 19, functions keys under X are bound like any other key. See
question 116 for details.
120: How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys
emit?
Type "C-h c" then the function or arrow keys. The command will return
either a function key symbol or character sequence (see the Emacs on-line
documentation for an explanation). This works for other keys as well.
121: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
Emacs is not written using the Xt library by default, so there are no
"translations" to be set. (We aren't sure how to set such translations
if you do build Emacs with Xt; please let us know if you've done this!)
The only way to affect the behavior of keys within Emacs is through
"xmodmap" (outside Emacs) or "define-key" (inside Emacs). The
"define-key" command should be used in conjunction with the
"function-key-map" map. For instance,
(define-key function-key-map [M-tab] [?\M-\t])
defines the "M-TAB" key sequence.
122: 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 messes
things up when you're using Emacs, because Emacs binds these keys to
commands by default. Because Emacs won't honor them as flow control
characters, too many of these characters are not passed on and 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 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. It's not clear 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 the form
(enable-flow-control)
to unconditionally enable flow control or
(enable-flow-control-on "vt100" "h19")
(using your terminal names instead of "vt100" or "h19") to enable
selectively. These commands will automatically swap `C-s' and `C-q' to
`C-\' and `C-^'. Variables can be used to change the default swap keys
("flow-control-c-s-replacement" and "flow-control-c-q-replacement").
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 in the lisp/site-start.el file. 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).
For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS (in the
top-level directory when you unpack the Emacs source).
123: How do I bind `C-s' and `C-q' (or any key) if these keys are filtered
out?
To bind `C-s' and `C-q', use either "enable-flow-control" or
"enable-flow-control-on". See question 122 for usage and implementation
details.
To bind other keys, use "keyboard-translate". See question 126 for usage
details. To do this for an entire site, you should swap the keys in
lisp/site-start.el. See question 122 for an explanation of why
lisp/default.el should not be used.
NOTE: * 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.
124: Why does the "Backspace" key invoke help?
The "Backspace" key (on most keyboards) 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. This can be solved by making DEL the command for deleting
the previous character outside of Emacs. On many Unix systems, this
command will remap DEL:
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.
* Some terminals (e.g., 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:
(keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?)
See question 126 for further details of "keyboard-translate".
* Another approach is to switch key bindings and put help on "C-x h"
instead:
(global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
(global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ;; overrides mark-whole-buffer
Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?".
NOTE: * Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many
modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere.
125: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
Good question!
126: How do I "swap" two keys?
In Emacs 19, you can swap two keys (or key sequences) by using the
"keyboard-translate" function. For example, to turn `C-h' into DEL and
DEL to `C-h', use
(keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?) ; translate `C-h' to DEL
(keyboard-translate ?\C-? ?\C-h) ; translate DEL to `C-h'.
The first key sequence of the pair after the function identifies what is
produced by the keyboard; the second, what is matched for in the keymaps.
Keyboard translations are not the same as key bindings in keymaps. Emacs
contains numerous keymaps that apply in different situations, but there
is only one set of keyboard translations, and it applies to every
character that Emacs reads from the terminal. Keyboard translations take
place at the lowest level of input processing; the keys that are looked
up in keymaps contain the characters that result from keyboard
translation.
Also see "Keyboard Translations" in the on-line manual.
127: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
On terminals (but not under X), some common "aliases" are:
C-2 or C-SPC for C-@
C-6 for C-^
C-7 or C-S-- for C-_
C-4 for C-\
C-5 for C-]
C-/ for C-?
Often other aliases exist; use the "C-h c" command and try `CTRL' with
all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets generated. You can
also try the "C-h w" command if you know the name of the command.
128: What if I don't have a Meta key?
Instead of typing "M-a", you can type "ESC a". In fact, Emacs converts
M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of
meta-prefix-char). Note that you press "Meta" and `a' together, while
you press `ESC', release it, and then press `a'.
129: What if I don't have an Escape key?
Type `C-[' instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
key would. `C-3' may also work on some terminal (but not under X). For
many terminals (notably DEC terminals) `F11' generates ESC. If not, the
following form can be used to bind it:
(define-key function-key-map [f11] [?\e]) ; F11 is the documented ESC
; replacement on DEC terminals.
130: 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.
131: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
With Emacs 19 you can represent modified function keys in vector format
by adding prefixes to the function key symbol. For example (from the
on-line documentation):
(global-set-key [?\C-x right] 'forward-page)
where "?\C-x" is the Lisp character constant for the character "C-x".
You can use the modifier keys Control, Meta, Hyper, Super, Alt, and Shift
with function keys. To represent these modifiers, prepend the strings
"C-", "M-", "H-", "s-", "A-", and "S-" to the symbol name. Here is how
to make "Hyper-Meta-RIGHT" move forward a word:
(global-set-key [H-M-right] 'forward-word)
In recent Emacs versions this may also be written as:
(global-set-key [(hyper meta right)] 'forward-word)
NOTE: * Not all modifiers are permitted in all situations. Hyper, Super,
and Alt are available only under X (provided there are such
keys). Non-ASCII keys and mouse events (e.g. "C-=" and
"mouse-1") also fall under this category.
See question 116 for general key binding instructions.
132: 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 X11: 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".
133: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0
and 9.x?
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.
Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
134: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
Emacs 19 introduced built-in support for 8-bit characters. Emacs 20 can
operate similarly in Unibyte mode or else in Multibyte mode. See the
"International" node in the online manual, specifically "Single-Byte
European Support".
135: How do I input 8-bit characters?
Again, see the "International" node of the on-line manual.
136: Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other
character sets?
Emacs 20 now includes many of the features of MULE, the Multilingual
Enhancement of Emacs. See question 84 for information on where to find
and download Emacs.
137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
Emacs 20 supports Hebrew characters (ISO 8859-8), but does not yet
support right-to-left character entry.
Joel M. Hoffman <joel@exc.com> has written a Lisp package called
hebrew.el that allows right-to-left editing of Hebrew. It reportedly
works out of the box with Emacs 19, but requires patches for Emacs 18.
Write to Joel if you want the patches or package.
Hebrew.el requires a Hebrew screen font, but no other Hardware support.
Joel has a screen font for PCs running MS-DOS and Linux.
You might also try to query archie for files named with "hebrew"; several
ftp sites in Israel may also have the necessary files.
Mail and News
138: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
If you read mail with Rmail or news with Gnus, set the variable
mail-yank-prefix. For VM, set vm-included-text-prefix. For mh-e, set
mh-ins-buf-prefix.
For fancier control of citations, use Supercite. See question 105.
To prevent Emacs from including various headers of the replied-to
message, set the value of mail-yank-ignored-headers to an appropriate
regexp.
139: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
You can either mail yourself a copy by including a "BCC:" header in the
mail message, or store a copy of the message directly to a file by
including an "FCC:" header.
If you use standard mail, you can automatically create a "BCC:" to
yourself by putting
(setq mail-self-blind t)
in your .emacs file. You can automatically include an "FCC:" field by
putting something like the following in your .emacs file:
(setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing"))
The output file will be in Unix mail format, which can be read directly
by VM, but not always by Rmail. See question 141.
For Gnus, see the `Archived Messages node of the Gnus manual.
If you use mh-e, add an "FCC:" or "BCC:" field to your components file.
It does not work to put "set record filename" in the .mailrc file.
140: 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 -- and probably should not, unless your
system's version of /usr/ucb/mail (aka mailx) supports RFC822 --
separate addresses with commas in your ~/.mailrc file.
* 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-x rebuild-mail-abbrevs RET" to make Emacs reread your ~/.mailrc
file.
* If you like, you can expand mail aliases as abbrevs, as soon as you
type them in. To enable this feature, execute the following:
(add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup)
Note that the aliases are expanded automatically only after you type
RET or a punctuation character (e.g. `,'). You can force their
expansion by moving point to the end of the alias and typing "C-x a e"
(M-x expand-abbrev).
141: Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?
A file created through the FCC: field in a message is in Unix mail
format, not the format that Rmail uses (BABYL format). Rmail will try to
convert a Unix mail file into BABYL format on input, but sometimes it
makes errors. For guaranteed safety, you can make the saved-messages
file be an inbox for your Rmail file by using the function
set-rmail-inbox-list.
142: How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?
In Rmail, type "C-c C-s C-h" to get a list of sorting functions and their
key bindings.
143: 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.
144: How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?
If you have just done rmail-input on a file and you don't want to save it
in Rmail's format (called BABYL), just kill the buffer (with C-x k).
If you typed M-x rmail and it read some messages out of your inbox and
you want to put them in a Unix mail file, use C-o on each message.
If you want to convert an existing file from BABYL format to Unix mail
format, use the command M-x unrmail: it will prompt you for the input and
output file names.
145: How can I force Rmail to reply to the sender of a message, but not the
other recipients?
Ron Isaacson <isaacson@seas.upenn.edu> says: When you hit "r" to reply in
Rmail, by default it CCs all of the original recipients (everyone on the
original "To" and "CC" lists). With a prefix argument (i.e., typing "C-u"
before "r"), it replies only to the sender. However, going through the
whole C-u business every time you want to reply is a pain. This is the
best fix I've been able to come up with:
(defun rmail-reply-t ()
"Reply only to the sender of the current message. (See rmail-reply.)"
(interactive)
(rmail-reply t))
(add-hook 'rmail-mode-hook
'(lambda ()
(define-key rmail-mode-map "r" 'rmail-reply-t)
(define-key rmail-mode-map "R" 'rmail-reply)))
146: How can I get my favorite Emacs mail package to support MIME?
Look at the Emacs MIME FAQ, maintained by MacDonald Hall Jackson
<trey@cs.berkeley.edu> at
http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~trey/emacs/mime.html
Version 6.x of VM supports MIME. See question 104.
MIME support has been added in the development version of Gnus which will
be included with a future version of Emacs.
147: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
To start Emacs in Gnus:
emacs -f gnus
in Rmail:
emacs -f rmail
A more convenient way to start with Gnus:
alias gnus 'emacs -f gnus'
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.
148: How do I read news under Emacs?
Use M-x gnus. It is documented in Info (see question 14).
149: Why doesn't Gnus work 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)
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
(i.e., "telnet server-machine 119"). The server should give its version
number in the welcome message. Type "quit" to get out.
Also see question 75 in this FAQ for some additional ideas.
150: How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g.,
ClariNews)?
Underlining appears like this:
_^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg
Use Gnus' "Overstrike" function from the Article -> Washing menu (or type
"W o"). You can do this for all articles with:
(add-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook 'gnus-article-treat-overstrike)
If you prefer to do away with underlining altogether, you can
destructively remove it with M-x ununderline-region; do this
automatically via
(add-hook 'gnus-article-prepare-hook
(lambda () (ununderline-region (point-min) (point-max))))
See the Gnus manual for more information about this and similar methods
for treating article contents.
151: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?
Use gnus-uu. Type C-c C-v C-h in the Gnus summary buffer to see a list
of available commands.
152: How do I make Gnus start up faster?
From the Gnus FAQ (see question 158):
Pranav Kumar Tiwari <pktiwari@eos.ncsu.edu> writes: I posted the same
query recently and I got an answer to it. I am going to repeat the
answer. What you need is a newer version of gnus, version 5.0.4+. I am
using 5.0.12 and it works fine with me with the following settings:
(setq gnus-check-new-newsgroups nil
gnus-read-active-file 'some
gnus-nov-is-evil nil
gnus-select-method '(nntp gnus-nntp-server))
153: How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?
In the "*Newsgroup*" buffer, type the following magical incantation:
M-< C-x ( c y C-x ) M-0 C-x e
Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of
the "*Newsgroup" buffer.
154: Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control
headers?
Gnus will complain that the "Newsgroups:", "Keywords:", and "Control:"
headers are "Unknown header" fields.
For the "Newsgroups:" header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the
"Xref" header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article
(as long as your site carries the cross-post group).
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\\)")
155: How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?
Set nntp-debug-read to nil.
156: Why is catch up slow in Gnus?
Because Gnus is marking crosspostings read. You can control this with
the variable gnus-use-cross-reference.
157: 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.
158: Where can I find out more about Gnus?
Visit http://www.gnus.org/, which has a pointer to the current Gnus FAQ and
more information. The relevant newsgroup is gnu.emacs.gnus.
------------------------------------------------------------
Modified, with permission, for the Emacs 20.4 distribution by Dave Love.
Copyright 1994-1998 Reuven M. Lerner
Copyright 1992-1993 Steven Byrnes
Copyright 1990-1992 Joseph Brian Wells
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), 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
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The FAQ may be copied and redistributed under these conditions, except that
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------------------------------------------------------------
People who helped with this version of the FAQ:
Ethan Bradford <ethanb@u.washington.edu>, William G. Dubuque
<wgd@martigny.ai.mit.edu>, Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu>,
and Denby Wong <3dw16@qlink.QueensU.CA>.