GNU Emacs Reference Card

Labels: Informatics
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook

GNU Emacs Reference Card

C-	means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character 
	Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
M-	means hold the META or EDIT key down while typing .
	If there is no META or EDIT key, type , release it,
	then type the character .  "" stands for the
	key labelled "ALT" or "ESC".
Type C-h t for a tutorial.


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 it) 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 reallywant   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.


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

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-kC-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 killM-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                  C-x h

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 window 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 window     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 newline 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 Minibuffer

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           Mtable-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 withfl)
  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