GNU Emacs FAQ: Table of Contents

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1. FAQ notation

1.1 What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, ESC a, etc.?

1.2 What does `M-x command' mean?

1.3 How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?

1.4 What are `etc/SERVICE', `src/config.h', and `lisp/default.el'?

1.5 What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?

2. General questions

2.1 What is the LPF?

2.2 What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?

2.3 What are appropriate messages for

news:gnu.emacs.help

news:gnu.emacs.bug

news:comp.emacs

2.4 Where can I get old postings to

news:gnu.emacs.help

2.5 Where should I report bugs and other problems with Emacs?

2.6 How do I unsubscribe from this mailing list?

2.7 What is the current address of the FSF?

3. Getting help

3.1 I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing?

3.2 How do I find out how to do something in Emacs?

3.3 How do I get a printed copy of the Emacs manual?

3.4 Where can I get documentation on Emacs Lisp?

3.5 How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?

3.6 How do I print a Texinfo file?

3.7 Can I view Info files without using Emacs?

3.8 What informational files are available for Emacs?

3.9 Where can I get help in installing Emacs?

3.10 Where can I get the latest version of this FAQ?

4. Status of Emacs

4.1 Where does the name "Emacs" come from?

4.2 What is the latest version of Emacs?

4.3 What is different about Emacs 20?

4.4 What is different about Emacs 21?

5. Common requests

5.1 How do I set up a `.emacs' file properly?

5.2 How do I get colors and syntax highlighting on a TTY?

5.3 How do I debug a `.emacs' file?

5.4 How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?

5.5 How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current file name?

5.6 How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode mymode?

5.7 How do I turn on auto-fill-mode by default?

5.8 How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?

5.9 How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (eight-bit or control) characters?

5.10 How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?

5.11 How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?

5.12 How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?

5.13 Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?

5.14 How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?

5.15 How do I change load-path?

5.16 How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?

5.17 How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?

5.18 How do I change the indentation for switch?

5.19 How to customize indentation in C, C++, and Java buffers?

5.20 How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?

5.21 How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?

5.22 How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?

5.23 How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X?

5.24 How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the indentation of the previous line?

5.25 How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?

5.26 In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef commands are handled by the compiler?

5.27 Is there an equivalent to the . (dot) command of vi?

5.28 What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?

5.29 How do I execute ("evaluate") a piece of Emacs Lisp code?

5.30 How do I change Emacs's idea of the TAB character's length?

5.31 How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?

5.32 How do I insert "_^H" before each character in a region to get an underlined paragraph?

5.33 How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?

5.34 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?

5.35 How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?

5.36 How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?

5.37 How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?

5.38 Where is the documentation for etags?

5.39 How do I disable backup files?

5.40 How do I disable auto-save-mode?

5.41 How can I go to a certain line given its number?

5.42 How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?

5.43 How do I delete menus and menu options?

5.44 How do I turn on syntax highlighting?

5.45 How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the bottom of the screen?

5.46 How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?

5.47 How can I edit MS-DOS files using Emacs?

5.48 How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after each period?

5.49 Why do I get these strange escape sequences when I run

6. Bugs and problems

6.1 Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?

6.2 How do I get rid of `^M' or echoed commands in my shell buffer?

6.3 Why do I get "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1"?

6.4 Why do I get an error message when I try to run M-x shell?

6.5 Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type "emacs"?

6.6 Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying "I-search:" and beeping?

6.7 Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?

6.8 Why does Emacs say "Error in init file"?

6.9 Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?

6.10 Why don't my customizations of the frame parameters work?

6.11 Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?

6.12 How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?

6.13 Why does shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?

6.14 Are there any security risks in Emacs?

6.15 Dired says, "no file on this line" when I try to do something.

7. Compiling and installing Emacs

7.1 How do I install Emacs?

7.2 How do I update Emacs to the latest version?

7.3 What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?

7.4 Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?

8. Finding Emacs and related packages

8.1 Where can I get Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?

8.2 How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?

8.3 Where can I get Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?

8.4 How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?

8.5 Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?

8.6 What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid Emacs")?

8.7 Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?

8.8 Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows

8.9 Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?

8.10 Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?

8.11 Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?

8.12 Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?

8.13 Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?

8.14 Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?

8.15 Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne shell, csh, C++, Objective-C, Pascal, Java, and Awk?

8.16 What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?

9. Major packages and programs

9.1 VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support

9.2 Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs

9.3 Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs

9.4 VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs

9.5 AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities

9.6 BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers

9.7 Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs

9.8 w3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs

9.9 EDB -- Database program for Emacs; replaces forms editing modes

9.10 Mailcrypt -- PGP interface within Emacs mail and news

9.11 JDE -- Integrated development environment for Java

9.12 Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files

10. Key bindings

10.1 How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?

10.2 Why does Emacs say "Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters"?

10.3 Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my `.emacs' file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?

10.4 How do I use function keys under X?

10.5 How do I tell what characters or symbols my function or arrow keys emit?

10.6 How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?

10.7 How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?

10.8 How do I bind C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys are filtered out?

10.9 Why does the Backspace key invoke help?

10.10 Why doesn't Emacs look at the `stty' settings for Backspace vs. Delete?

10.11 How do I swap two keys?

10.12 How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?

10.13 What if I don't have a Meta key?

10.14 What if I don't have an Escape key?

10.15 Can I make my Compose Character key behave like a Meta key?

10.16 How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?

10.17 Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?

10.18 Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0 and 9.x?

11. Alternate character sets

11.1 How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?

11.2 How do I input eight-bit characters?

11.3 Where can I get an Emacs that handles kanji, Chinese, or other Far-Eastern character sets?

11.4 Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?

12. Mail and news

12.1 How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?

12.2 How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?

12.3 Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?

12.4 Why does Rmail think all my saved messages are one big message?

12.5 How can I sort the messages in my Rmail folder?

12.6 Why does Rmail need to write to `/usr/spool/mail'?

12.7 How do I recover my mail files after Rmail munges their format?

12.8 How can I force Rmail to reply to the sender of a message, but not the other recipients?

12.9 How can I get my favorite Emacs mail package to support MIME?

12.10 How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?

12.11 How do I read news under Emacs?

12.12 Why doesn't Gnus work via NNTP?

12.13 How do I view news articles with embedded underlining (e.g., ClariNews)?

12.14 How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in Gnus?

12.15 How do I make Gnus start up faster?

12.16 How do I catch up all newsgroups in Gnus?

12.17 Why can't I kill in Gnus based on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control headers?

12.18 How do I get rid of flashing messages in Gnus for slow connections?

12.19 Why is catch up slow in Gnus?

12.20 Why does Gnus hang for a long time when posting?

12.21 Where can I find out more about Gnus?

Concept Index

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