|
Center for Instructional and Research Computing Activities * E520 CSE • |
|
Call the UF Computing Help Desk for assistance • (904) 392-HELP • SUNCOM 622-HELP Page I of 2 |
The emacs editor is a powerful editor found on some
Unix
systems. This handout is only a brief guide to using the
emacs editor.
This document was prepared by Bob Coldwell.
It is a summary of two CIRCA handouts with possible
applications to people in PHY 6156.
Use the control key (Ctrl)
in combination with another key
to send a special control character to the computer. The
control key is like a shift key that is held down while
another key is pressed. For example, to type Ctrl-U,
press and hold the Ctrl key and press the U key. In the
emacs manual and emacs
online information, C-x is used
to
mean Ctrl-x.
The Esc key sends a special character, called the escape
character to the computer. If your terminal or
workstation
does not have an Esc key, or if the Esc key doesn’t seem
to work correctly, you can type Ctrl- [ to send the
escape
character.
in most Unix documentation, the use of a meta character
is
shown as M-x. This
means that you must first type the meta
key and then the x key. In most versions of emacs, the Esc
key is used as the meta key..
To enter Emacs type the emacs
command, possibly with
the
name of the file to be edited.
emacs [test.f] – or if you want it to run as a separate
session
emacs [test.f]
&
To suspend emacs type Ctrl-z
To exit the editor and save the file you’re working on,
follow these steps:
1. Type Ctrl-x, Ctrl-c.
2. If you’ve made changes to the file, emacs
will ask
you whether you want to save the changes. Press
the “y” or “n” key for either yes or no.
3. If you type “n”, emacs will ask you if you
are sure
you want to quit without saving the file. If you are
sure, type “yes” and press Return.
Emacs has features and modes that you might accidentally
activate by pressing the wrong key. If you find yourself
stuck, try typing Ctrl-g.
If you are a new emacs user, you may want to
look at the
online tutorial. Follow these steps:
1. Enter the emacs command without a file
name to
start emacs.
2. Type Ctrl-h and then press the “t” key.
3. Follow the tutorial directions on the screen. To
leave the tutorial, type Ctrl-g.
Some emacs functions will not work correctly
on terminals
in CIRCA public labs. In emacs,
Ctrl-s is used to begin
an incremental search for text, but on many terminals,
this
will freeze the computer display. To unfreeze the display,
type Ctrl-q.
The emacs installed on the CIRCA system has
some Ctrl
keys remapped to new keys. In all cases while using emacs,
you should substitute the Ctrl characters as shown.
|
Use |
Instead of |
|
Ctrl-\ |
Ctrl-s |
|
Ctrl-‘ |
Ctrl-q |
|
Ctrl-/ |
Ctrl- |
|
Key |
How cursor moves |
|
Ctrl-b |
left one character |
|
Ctrl-f |
right one character |
|
Ctrl-n |
down one line |
|
Ctrl-u |
up one line |
|
M-b |
back a word |
|
M-f |
forward a word |
|
Ctrl-a |
to the beginning of line |
|
Ctrl-e |
to the end of line |
|
Ctrl-v |
forward one screen |
|
M-v |
backward one screen |
|
M-< |
to the top of the buffer |
|
M-> |
to the bottom of the buffer |
If your terminal or workstation has arrow keys and emacs
has been properly configured, you may be able to use
these
In emacs, text in your file can be deleted or killed. Deleted
text is removed from the file. Killed text is also deleted
but
can be reinserted back into your file.
Marking
set mark here C-@
or C-SPC
These commands delete text:
|
Key |
Delete what |
|
|
character before the cursor |
|
Ctrl-d |
character at the cursor |
These commands kill text:
|
Key |
Kill what |
|
Ctrl-k |
from cursor to end of line |
|
M-d |
to end of word |
|
M-DEL |
previous word |
|
C-w |
From mark |
|
M-w |
Copies from mark |
To yank (restore) the text just killed, type Ctrl-y.
|
Key |
Function |
|
Ctrl-o |
insert blank line below current line |
|
Ctrl-/ |
undo last change |
|
Ctrl-g |
quit current minibuffer |
|
M-x compile |
to enter emacs command |
read a file into Emacs C-x C-f
save a file back to disk C-x
C-s {C-x C-\}
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
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 ^
apropos: show commands matching a string C-h a
show the function a key runs C-h e
describe a function C-h
f
get mode-specific information C-h m
abort partially typed of 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
search forward C-s
{C-\}
search backward C-r
regular expression search C-M-s
{C-M-\}
Use C-s {C-\} or C-r again to repeat the search in either direction.
exit incremental search ESC
undo effect of last character
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.
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
replace all the remaining matches !
back up to the previous match ^
exit query-replace ESC
enter recursive edit (C-M-c to exit) C-r
select another buffer C-x b C-xb
list all buffers C-x C-b C-x
C-b
kill a buffer C-x k C-xk
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
execute a shell command M-!
run a shell command on the region M-1
filter a region through a shell command C-u M-|
start a shell in window *shell* M-x shell
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