emacs command help

 emacs - GNU project Emacs
 

SYNOPSIS

 emacs [ command-line switches ] [ files ... ]
 

DESCRIPTION

 GNU Emacs is a version of Emacs, written by the author of
 the original (PDP-10) Emacs, Richard Stallman.
 The primary documentation of GNU Emacs is in the GNU Emacs
 Manual, which you can read on line using Info, a subsystem
 of Emacs. Please look there for complete and up-to-date
 documentation. This man page is updated only when someone
 volunteers to do so; the Emacs maintainers' priority goal
 is to minimize the amount of time this man page takes away
 from other more useful projects.
 The user functionality of GNU Emacs encompasses everything
 other Emacs editors do, and it is easily extensible since
 its editing commands are written in Lisp.
 
 Emacs has an extensive interactive help facility, but the
 facility assumes that you know how to manipulate Emacs
 windows and buffers. CTRL-h (backspace or CTRL-h) enters
 the Help facility. Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t) requests an
 interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the fundaュ
 mentals of Emacs in a few minutes. Help Apropos (CTRL-h
 a) helps you find a command given its functionality, Help
 Character (CTRL-h c) describes a given character's effect,
 and Help Function (CTRL-h f) describes a given Lisp funcュ
 tion specified by name.
 
 Emacs's Undo can undo several steps of modification to
 your buffers, so it is easy to recover from editing misュ
 takes.
 
 GNU Emacs's many special packages handle mail reading
 (RMail) and sending (Mail), outline editing (Outline),
 compiling (Compile), running subshells within Emacs winュ
 dows (Shell), running a Lisp read-eval-print loop (Lisp-
 Interaction-Mode), and automated psychotherapy (Doctor).
 
 There is an extensive reference manual, but users of other
 Emacses should have little trouble adapting even without a
 copy. Users new to Emacs will be able to use basic feaュ
 tures fairly rapidly by studying the tutorial and using
 the self-documentation features.
 
 Emacs Options
 
 The following options are of general interest:
 
 file Edit file.
 
 -q Do not load an init file.
 
 -u user Load user's init file.
 
 -t file Use specified file as the terminal instead of
 using stdin/stdout. This must be the first arguュ
 ment specified in the command line.
 
 The following options are lisp-oriented (these options are
 processed in the order encountered):
 
 -f function
 Execute the lisp function function.
 
 -l file Load the lisp code in the file file.
 
 The following options are useful when running Emacs as a
 batch editor:
 
 -batch Edit in batch mode. The editor will send messages
 to stderr. This option must be the first in the
 argument list. You must use -l and -f options to
 specify files to execute and functions to call.
 
 -kill Exit Emacs while in batch mode.
 
 Using Emacs with X
 
 Emacs has been tailored to work well with the X window
 system. If you run Emacs from under X windows, it will
 create its own X window to display in. You will probably
 want to start the editor as a background process so that
 you can continue using your original window.
 
 Emacs can be started with the following X switches:
 
 -name name
 Specifies the name which should be assigned to the
 initial Emacs window. This controls looking up X
 resources as well as the window title.
 
 -title name
 Specifies the title for the initial X window.
 
 -r Display the Emacs window in reverse video.
 
 -i Use the "kitchen sink" bitmap icon when iconifying
 the Emacs window.
 
 -font font, -fn font
 Set the Emacs window's font to that specified by
 will only accept fixed width fonts. Under the X11
 Release 4 font-naming conventions, any font with
 the value "m" or "c" in the eleventh field of the
 font name is a fixed width font. Furthermore,
 fonts whose name are of the form widthxheight are
 generally fixed width, as is the font fixed. See
 xlsfonts(1) for more information.
 
 When you specify a font, be sure to put a space
 between the switch and the font name.
 
 -b pixels
 Set the Emacs window's border width to the number
 of pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to one
 pixel on each side of the window.
 
 -ib pixels
 Set the window's internal border width to the numュ
 ber of pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to
 one pixel of padding on each side of the window.
 
 -geometry geometry
 Set the Emacs window's width, height, and position
 as specified. The geometry specification is in
 the standard X format; see X(1) for more informaュ
 tion. The width and height are specified in charュ
 acters; the default is 80 by 24.
 
 -fg color
 On color displays, sets the color of the text.
 
 See the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for a list of
 valid color names.
 
 -bg color
 On color displays, sets the color of the window's
 background.
 
 -bd color
 On color displays, sets the color of the window's
 border.
 
 -cr color
 On color displays, sets the color of the window's
 text cursor.
 
 -ms color
 On color displays, sets the color of the window's
 mouse cursor.
 
 Create the Emacs window on the display specified
 by displayname. Must be the first option speciュ
 fied in the command line.
 
 -nw Tells Emacs not to use its special interface to X.
 If you use this switch when invoking Emacs from an
 xterm(1) window, display is done in that window.
 This must be the first option specified in the
 command line.
 
 You can set X default values for your Emacs windows in
 your .Xresources file (see xrdb(1)). Use the following
 format:
 
 emacs.keyword:value
 
 where value specifies the default value of keyword. Emacs
 lets you set default values for the following keywords:
 
 font (class Font)
 Sets the window's text font.
 
 reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
 If reverseVideo's value is set to on, the window
 will be displayed in reverse video.
 
 bitmapIcon (class BitmapIcon)
 If bitmapIcon's value is set to on, the window
 will iconify into the "kitchen sink."
 
 borderWidth (class BorderWidth)
 Sets the window's border width in pixels.
 
 internalBorder (class BorderWidth)
 Sets the window's internal border width in pixels.
 
 foreground (class Foreground)
 For color displays, sets the window's text color.
 
 background (class Background)
 For color displays, sets the window's background
 color.
 
 borderColor (class BorderColor)
 For color displays, sets the color of the window's
 border.
 
 cursorColor (class Foreground)
 For color displays, sets the color of the window's
 text cursor.
 
 pointerColor (class Foreground)
 
 geometry (class Geometry)
 Sets the geometry of the Emacs window (as
 described above).
 
 title (class Title)
 Sets the title of the Emacs window.
 
 iconName (class Title)
 Sets the icon name for the Emacs window icon.
 
 If you try to set color values while using a black and
 white display, the window's characteristics will default
 as follows: the foreground color will be set to black, the
 background color will be set to white, the border color
 will be set to grey, and the text and mouse cursors will
 be set to black.
 
 Using the Mouse
 
 The following lists the mouse button bindings for the
 Emacs window under X11.
 
 MOUSE BUTTON FUNCTION
 left Set point.
 middle Paste text.
 right Cut text into X cut buffer.
 SHIFT-middle Cut text into X cut buffer.
 SHIFT-right Paste text.
 CTRL-middle Cut text into X cut buffer and kill
 it.
 CTRL-right Select this window, then split it
 into two windows. Same as typing
 CTRL-x 2.
 CTRL-SHIFT-left X buffer menu--hold the buttons and
 keys down, wait for menu to appear,
 select buffer, and release. Move
 mouse out of menu and release to canュ
 cel.
 CTRL-SHIFT-middle X help menu--pop up index card menu
 for Emacs help.
 CTRL-SHIFT-right Select window with mouse, and delete
 all other windows. Same as typing
 CTRL-x 1.
 

MANUALS

 You can order printed copies of the GNU Emacs Manual from
 the Free Software Foundation, which develops GNU software.
 See the file ORDERS for ordering information.
 Your local Emacs maintainer might also have copies availュ
 able. As with all software and publications from FSF,
 included in the Emacs source distribution.
 

FILES

 /usr/local/info - files for the Info documentation browser
 (a subsystem of Emacs) to refer to. Currently not much of
 Unix is documented here, but the complete text of the
 Emacs reference manual is included in a convenient tree
 structured form.
 
 /usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/src - C source files and
 object files
 
 /usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/lisp - Lisp source files
 and compiled files that define most editing commands.
 Some are preloaded; others are autoloaded from this direcュ
 tory when used.
 
 /usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc - various programs
 that are used with GNU Emacs, and some files of informaュ
 tion.
 
 /usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/DOC.* - contains the
 documentation strings for the Lisp primitives and
 preloaded Lisp functions of GNU Emacs. They are stored
 here to reduce the size of Emacs proper.
 
 /usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/OTHER.EMACSES disュ
 cusses GNU Emacs vs. other versions of Emacs.
 /usr/local/share/emacs/$VERSION/etc/SERVICE lists people
 offering various services to assist users of GNU Emacs,
 including education, troubleshooting, porting and cusュ
 tomization.
 These files also have information useful to anyone wishing
 to write programs in the Emacs Lisp extension language,
 which has not yet been fully documented.
 
 /usr/local/com/emacs/lock - holds lock files that are made
 for all files being modified in Emacs, to prevent simultaュ
 neous modification of one file by two users.
 
 /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt - list of valid X color names.
 

BUGS

 There is a mailing list, bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu on
 the internet (ucbvax!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gnu-emacs on
 UUCPnet), for reporting Emacs bugs and fixes. But before
 reporting something as a bug, please try to be sure that
 it really is a bug, not a misunderstanding or a deliberate
 feature. We ask you to read the section ``Reporting Emacs
 Bugs'' near the end of the reference manual (or Info sysュ
 every bug report that you send in.
 
 Do not expect a personal answer to a bug report. The purュ
 pose of reporting bugs is to get them fixed for everyone
 in the next release, if possible. For personal assisュ
 tance, look in the SERVICE file (see above) for a list of
 people who offer it.
 
 Please do not send anything but bug reports to this mailュ
 ing list. Send requests to be added to mailing lists to
 the special list info-gnu-emacs-request@prep.ai.mit.edu
 (or the corresponding UUCP address). For more information
 about Emacs mailing lists, see the file
 /usr/local/emacs/etc/MAILINGLISTS. Bugs tend actually to
 be fixed if they can be isolated, so it is in your interュ
 est to report them in such a way that they can be easily
 reproduced.
 
 Bugs that I know about are: shell will not work with proュ
 grams running in Raw mode on some Unix versions.
 

UNRESTRICTIONS

 Emacs is free; anyone may redistribute copies of Emacs to
 anyone under the terms stated in the Emacs General Public
 License, a copy of which accompanies each copy of Emacs
 and which also appears in the reference manual.
 
 Copies of Emacs may sometimes be received packaged with
 distributions of Unix systems, but it is never included in
 the scope of any license covering those systems. Such
 inclusion violates the terms on which distribution is perュ
 mitted. In fact, the primary purpose of the General Pubュ
 lic License is to prohibit anyone from attaching any other
 restrictions to redistribution of Emacs.
 
 Richard Stallman encourages you to improve and extend
 Emacs, and urges that you contribute your extensions to
 the GNU library. Eventually GNU (Gnu's Not Unix) will be
 a complete replacement for Berkeley Unix. Everyone will
 be free to use, copy, study and change the GNU system.
 

SEE ALSO

 X(1) , xlsfonts(1) , xterm(1) , xrdb(1) 
 

AUTHORS

 Emacs was written by Richard Stallman and the Free Softュ
 ware Foundation. Joachim Martillo and Robert Krawitz
 added the X features.