GNU Emacs
NOTE: The ESC and META keys are interchangeable. If
your keyboard has a META key, you can use it anytime the ESC key
is shown, and vice versa.
A capital C stands for the CONTROL key. C-x means to
hold down the CONTROL key and press the x key.
ESC x means to hit the ESC key, let up, then hit the
x key.
Starting Emacs
Leaving Emacs
Files
Getting Help
Error Recovery
Incremental Search
Motion
Killing and Deleting
Marking
Query Replace
Multiple Windows
Formatting
Case Change
The Minibuffer
Buffers
Transposing
Spelling Check
Tags
Shells
Rmail
Regular Expressions
Registers
Info
Keyboard Macros
Commands Dealing With Emacs Lisp
Simple Customization
Writing Commands
STARTING EMACS 
To enter Emacs, just type its name: emacs
To read in a file to edit, see Files, below.
LEAVING EMACS
| suspend Emacs (the usual way of leaving) |
C-z |
| exit Emacs permanently |
C-x C-c |
FILES
| read a file into Emacs |
C-x C-f |
| save a file back to disk |
C-x C-s |
| insert contents of another file into this buffer |
C-x i |
| replace this file with the file you really want |
C-x C-v |
| write buffer to a specified file |
C-x C-w |
| run Dired, the directory editor |
C-x d |
GETTING HELP
The Help system is simple. Type C-h and follow the directions.
If you are a first-time user, type C-h t for a tutorial. (This card
assumes you know the tutorial)
| get rid of Help window |
C-x 1 |
| scroll Help window |
Esc C-v |
| apropos: show commands matching a string |
C-h a |
| show the function a key runs |
C-h c |
| describe a function |
C-h f |
| get mode-specific information |
C-h m |
ERROR RECOVERY
| abort partially typed or executing command |
C-g |
| recover a file lost by a system crash |
M-x recover-file |
| undo an unwanted change |
C-x u or C-_ |
| restore a buffer to its original contents |
M-x revert-buffer |
| redraw garbaged screen |
C-l |
INCREMENTAL SEARCH
| search forward |
C-s |
| search backward |
C-r |
| regular expression search |
C-M-s |
Use C-s or C-r again to repeat
the search in either direction.
| exit incremental search |
ESC |
| undo effect of last character |
DEL |
| abort current search |
C-g |
If Emacs is still searching, C-g will cancel
the part of the search not done, otherwise it aborts the entire
search.
MOTION
Cursor motion:
| entity to move over |
backward |
forward |
| character |
C-b |
C-f |
| word |
M-b |
M-f |
| line |
C-p |
C-n |
| go to line beginning (or end) |
C-a |
C-e |
| sentence |
M-a |
M-e |
| paragraph |
M-[ |
M-] |
| page |
C-x |
[ C-x ] |
| sexp |
C-M-b |
C-M-f |
| function |
C-M-a |
C-M-e |
| go to buffer beginning (or end) |
M-< |
M-> |
Screen motion:
| scroll to next screen |
C-v |
| scroll to previous screen |
M-v |
| scroll left |
C-x < |
| scroll right |
C-x > |
KILLING AND DELETING
Cursor motion:
| entity to kill |
backward |
forward |
| character (delete, not kill) |
DEL |
C-d |
| word |
M-DEL |
M-d |
| line (to end of) |
M-0 C-k |
C-k |
| sentence |
C-x DEL |
M-k |
| sexp |
M-- C-M-k |
C-M-k |
| kill region |
C-w |
|
| kill to next occurrence of char |
M-z char |
|
| yank back last thing killed |
C-y |
|
| replace last yank with previous kill |
M-y |
|
MARKING
| set mark here |
C-@ or C-SPC |
| exchange point and mark |
C-x C-x |
| set mark arg words away |
M-@ |
| mark paragraph |
M-h |
| mark page |
C-x C-p |
| mark sexp |
C-M-@ |
| mark function |
C-M-h |
| mark entire buffer |
|
QUERY REPLACE
| interactively replace a text string |
M-% |
| using regular expressions |
M-x query-replace-regexp |
| Valid responses in query-replace mode are: |
| replace this one, go on to next |
SPC |
| replace this one, don't move |
, |
| skip to next without replacing |
DEL |
| replace all remaining matches |
! |
| back up to the previous match |
^ |
| exit query-replace |
ESC |
| enter recursive edit (C-M-c to exit) |
C-r |
MULTIPLE WINDOWS
| delete all other windows |
C-x 1 |
| delete this window |
C-x 0 |
| split window in 2 vertically |
C-x 2 |
| split window in 2 horizontally |
C-x 5 |
| scroll other window |
C-M-v |
| switch cursor to another window |
C-x o |
| shrink windows shorter |
M-x shrink-window |
| grow window taller |
C-x ^ |
| shrink window narrower |
C-x { |
| grow window wider |
C-x } |
| select a buffer in other windows |
C-x 4 b |
| find file in other window |
C-x 4 f |
| compose mail in other window |
C-x 4 m |
| run Dired in other window |
C-x 4 d |
| find tag in other window |
C-x 4 . |
FORMATTING
| indent current line (mode dependent) |
TAB |
| indent region (mode dependent) |
C-M-\ |
| indent sexp (mode dependent) |
C-M-q |
| indent region rigidly arg columns |
C-x TAB |
| insert new line after point |
C-o |
| move rest of line vertically down |
C-M-o |
| delete blank lines around point |
C-x C-o |
| delete all whitespace around point |
M-\ |
| put exactly one space at point |
M-SPC |
| fill paragraph |
M-q |
| fill region |
M-g |
| set fill column |
C-x f |
| set prefix each line starts with |
C-x . |
CASE CHANGE
| uppercase word |
M-u |
| lowercase word |
M-l |
| capitalize word |
M-c |
| uppercase region |
C-x C-u |
| lowercase region |
C-x C-l |
| capitalize region |
M-x capitalize-region |
THE MINI BUFFER
The following keys are defined in the minibuffer:
| complete as much as possible |
TAB |
| complete up to one word |
SPC |
| complete and execute |
RET |
| show possible completions |
? |
| abort command |
C-g |
Type C-x ESC to edit and repeat the last command that used the
minibuffer. The following keys are then defined:
| previous minibuffer command |
M-p |
| next minibuffer command |
M-n |
BUFFERS
| select another buffer |
C-x b |
| list all buffers |
C-x C-b |
| kill a buffer |
C-x k |
TRANSPOSING
| transpose characters |
C-t |
| transpose words |
M-t |
| transpose lines |
C-x C-t |
| transpose sexps |
C-M-t |
SPELLING CHECK
| check spelling of current word |
M-$ |
| check spelling of all words in region |
M-x spell-region |
| check spelling of entire buffer |
M-x spell-buffer |
TAGS
| find tag |
M-. |
| find next occurrence of tag |
C-u M-. |
| specify a new tags file |
M-x visit-tags-table |
| regexp search on all files in tags table |
M-x tags-search |
| query replace on all the files |
M-x tags-query-replace |
| continue last tags search or query-replace |
M-, |
SHELLS
| execute a shell command |
M-! |
| run a shell command on the region |
M-| |
| filter region through a shell command |
C-u M-| |
| start a shell in window *shell* |
M-x shell |
RMAIL
| scroll forward |
SPC |
| scroll reverse |
DEL |
| beginning of message |
. (dot) |
| next non-deleted message |
n |
| previous non-deleted message |
p |
| next message |
M-n |
| previous message |
M-p |
| delete message |
d |
| delete message and back up |
C-d |
| undelete message |
u |
| reply to message |
r |
| forward message to someone |
f |
| send mail |
m |
| get newly arrived mail |
g |
| quit Rmail |
q |
| output message to another Rmail file |
o |
| output message in Unix-mail style |
C-o |
| show summary of headers |
h |
REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
The following have special meaning inside a regular expression:
| any single character |
. (dot) |
| zero or more repeats |
* |
| one or more repeats |
+ |
| zero or one repeat |
? |
| any character in set |
[ ... ] |
| any character not in set |
[^ ... ] |
| beginning of line |
~ |
| end of line |
$ |
| quote a special character |
c \c |
| alternative ("or") |
\| |
| grouping |
\( ...\) |
| nth group |
\n |
| beginning of buffer |
\' |
| end of buffer |
\' |
| word break |
\b |
| not beginning or end of word |
\B |
| beginning of word |
\< |
| end of word |
\> |
| any word-syntax character |
\w |
| any non-word-syntax character |
\W |
| character with syntax c |
\sc |
| character with syntax not c |
\Sc |
REGISTERS
| copy region to register |
C-x x |
| insert register contents |
C-x g |
| save point in register |
C-x / |
| move point to saved location |
C-x j |
INFO
| enter the Info documentation reader |
C-h i |
| Moving within a node: |
| scroll forward |
SPC |
| scroll reverse |
DEL |
| beginning of node |
. (dot) |
| Moving between nodes: |
| next node |
n |
| previous node |
p |
| move up |
u |
| select menu item by name |
m |
| select nth menu item by number (1-5) |
n |
| follow cross reference (return with 1) |
f |
| return to last node you saw |
l |
| return to directory node |
d |
| go to any node by name |
g |
| Other: |
| run Info tutorial |
h |
| list Info commands |
? |
| quit Info |
q |
| search nodes for regexp |
s |
KEYBOARD MACROS
| start defining a keyboard macro |
C-x ( |
| end keyboard macro definition |
C-x ) |
| execute last-defined keyboard macro |
C-x e |
| append to last keyboard macro |
C-u C-x ( |
| name last keyboard macro |
M-x name-last-kbd-macro |
| insert lisp definition in buffer |
M-x insert-kbd-macro |
COMMANDS DEALING WITH EMACS LISP
| eval sexp before point |
C-x C-e |
| eval current defun |
C-M-x |
| eval region |
M-x eval-region |
| eval entire buffer |
M-x eval-current-buffer |
| read and eval minibuffer |
M-ESC |
| re-execute last minibuffer command |
C-x ESC |
| read and eval Emacs Lisp file |
M-x load-file |
| load from standard system directory |
M-x load-library |
SIMPLE CUSTOMIZATION
Here are some examples of binding global keys in Emacs Lisp.
Note that you cannot say ""\M-#"; you must say "\e#".
(global-set-key "\C-cg" 'goto-line)
(global-set-key "\e\C-r" 'isearch-backward-regexp)
(global-set-key "\e#" 'query-replace-regexp)
An example of setting a variable in Emacs Lisp:
(setq backup-by-copying-when-linked t)
WRITING COMMANDS
(defun (command-name) (<args>)
"<documentation>"
(interactive "<template>")
<body>)
An example:
(defun this-line-to-top-of-screen (line)
"Reposition line point is on to the top of the screen. With
ARG, put point on line ARG. Negative counts from bottom."
(interactive "P")
(recenter (if (null line)
0
(prefix-numeric-value line))))
The argument to interactive is a string specifying how to get
the arguments when the function is called interactively. Type C-h
f interactive for more information.
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