Sources
- O’Reilly Learning GNU Emacs
- http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs.html
Modes (One Major Mode at a Time)
Fundamental, Text, View, Shell, Outline, Indented Text, Paragraph, Picture, HTML, SGML, LaTeX, Compilation, cc, Java, Perl, SQL, Emacs Lisp, Lisp, Lisp Interaction
C-h m Check major mode
Minor Modes
Many!
Toolbar
M-<backtick> Access the toolbar (C-g or ESC-ESC-ESC to get out)
Meta
M-<n> <command> Repeat <command> n times.
C-u <n> Repeat the next command entered n times.
Help
C-h ? List of options.
C-h t Tutorial.
C-h k "Describe key," e.g. C-h k C-x i
C-h f "Describe function," e.g. C-h f find-file
M-x describe-mode See active minor modes
Saving
C-x C-s
C-x C-w Save as. (write-file)
Quitting
C-g Quit out of minibuffers, etc.
C-x k *buffname* Kill buffer *buffname* (default to current)
C-x C-c Close emacs.
Menus
M-backtick Access the pop-up menu. `C-g` to escape.
Open
C-x C-f Open a file. (Supports tab completion.)
C-x C-v Open an alternate file to the one just opened.
Insertion and Appending
C-x i Insert one file into another.
M-> C-x i Move to the end of the file and append another one.
Moving Through Text
C-v Page down.
M-v Page up.
M-> Move to the end of the file (M-shift-.).
M-< Move to the beginning of the file (M-shift-,).
C-a / C-e Beginning / End of line.
C-b/C-p/C-f/C-n Move one char back/previous-line/char forward/next-line.
M-f / M-b Move one word forward/backward.
M-a / M-e Move back / forward one sentence.
M-{ / M-} Move back / forward one paragraph.
C-x [ / C-x ] Move back / forward one *page break*.
C-q C-l Insert a page break.
M-x goto-line Go to line (fill in prompt).
M-g g Go to line (fill in prompt).
M-x goto-char Go to the nth char in the file.
Move the Page
C-l Re-center the page.
C-l C-l Move page so cursor sits at the top.
C-l C-l C-l Move page so cursor sits at the bottom.
C-l C-l C-l C-l Move page so cursor sits in the center, etc.
Switch Buffers
C-x o Cycle through buffers in a split window.
C-x <left> Cycle through buffers.
C-x <right> Cycle through buffers.
C-x C-b List buffers.
C-x 1 Close all split windows but the active one.
C-x 2 Split frame above and below
C-x 3 Split frame left and right
C-x 0 Delete current window
Undo
C-_ / C-x u Undo.
<cursor> C-x u Re-do (of sorts).
M-x revert-buffer Go back to last save.
M-x recover-file Restore an auto-save file.
Fill Mode
M-x auto-fill-mode Enter/Exit Fill Mode.
M-q / Auto-reformat paragraphs.
M-x fill-paragraph
Delete Kill/Erase Text (kill ring / no kill ring)
C-k Kill to the end of the line.
M-k Kill to the end of the next sentence.
M-d Kill the next word.
M-delete Kill the previous word.
C-x delete Kill the previous sentence.
C-d Erase the character under the cursor. (no ring)
C-delete Erase the previous character. (no kill ring)
delete Erase the previous character. (no kill ring)
C-w Kill region.
kill-paragraph Delete next paragraph (long binding only).
backward-kill-paragraph Delete the previous paragraph (long only).
M "-" -C-k Meta -hyphen- C-k. Delete back to the line start.
Copy
M-w kill-ring-save a region.
Comment
M-; Comment/uncomment selected region
C-c / Un/Comment a line (using *my* .emacs)
Paste
C-y Bring a entry back from the kill ring.
M-y After C-y, brings back the second-most recent
deletion.
M-y After C-y, M-y, brings back the third-most
recent deletion, etc. Eventually we loop back
around to the first item in the ring.
Selecting Text
C-x h Select all.
C-<space> or C-@ Start the selection of a region.
C-x C-x Exchange point and mark (go to beginning of
marked region).
M-h Mark a paragraph.
C-x C-p Mark the current page (defined with C-l
chars).
Inserting Text
C-o Insert a line above the current line.
Autoindent
C-M-\ Indent selected region.
Transposition
C-t Transpose two characters.
M-t Transpose two words (but not punctuation).
C-x C-t Transpose two lines.
M-x transpose-sentences Transpose two sentences.
M-x transpose-paragraphs Transpose two paragraphs.
Changing Capitalization
M-l Convert following word to lower-case
M-l (meta-ell) Make an entire word (after cursor) lower case.
M-c Capitalize the the first letter of a word.
M-u Make an entire word (after cursor) upper case.
M- "-" (meta hyphen) Prefix to above to fix previous word.
C-x C-l Convert region to lower case
C-x C-u Convert region to upper case
Overwrite Mode
M-x overwrite-mode Enter overwrite mode. ("M-x ov")
Searching
C-s Incremental. C-s repeat; enter end; C-g cancel.
C-r Search backwards (C-s "backwards").
C-s C-w Copy next word into the search buffer.
C-s C-y Copy the rest of the line into the search.
C-s M-y Copy text from the kill ring into the search.
(M-p, M-n to move back, forward in the ring.)
C-s C-s Repeat the previous search.
C-r C-r Repeat the previous backwards search.
C-s <enter> Simple search. C-s repeat.
C-r <enter> Simple backwards search. C-r repeat.
C-s <enter> C-w Word search (word-search-forward).
C-r <enter> C-w Backward Word search.
Search and Replace
M-x replace-string Replace a string everywhere (forward cursor).
M-% Query-replace.
C-r Recursive edit while a query-replace is on-going.
C-M-c Exit the recursive edit; return to query-replace.
C-] Abort recursive edit and query-replace.
M-x top-level Abort recursive edit and query-replace.
Rename
M-x rename-buffer Rename a buffer
M-x rename-file Rename a file
Regular Expressions in Search and Replace
^ Match the beginning of a line.
$ Match the end of a line.
. Match any single character
.* Match any group of zero or more characters.
\< Match the beginning of a word.
\> Match the end of a word.
[] Match any character in [] (e.g.[a-z])
\s Match any whitespace character.
\S Match any non-whitespace character.
\d Match any single digit 0-9.
\D Match any character but a digit.
\w Match any word character.
\W Match any non-word character.
Change Variables
M-x set-variable e.g., case-replace -> nil
e.g., case-fold-search -> t / f
(Change lasts until end of session.)
For permanent:
(setq-default case-fold-search nil) ; init.el
Repeating Complex Commands
C-x <esc> <esc> Repeat command. M-n, M-p to cycle through history.
M-n <command> Repeat a command `n` times. (SORT OF DOESN'T WORK)
C-u n <command> Repeat a command `n` times.
Formatting
M-x refill-mode Minor mode where paragraphs are kept "neat"
M-x auto-fill-mode Use M-q to format edited paragraphs
M-x set-fill-column Set the outer edge for editing fill mode
M-x paragraph-indent-text-mode
M-x fill-region Highlight the area first
M-x delete-trailing-whitespace
Keyboard Macros
C-x ( (or f3) Start defining a macro
C-x ) (or f4) Finish the macro definition
C-x e (or f4) Execute the keyboard macro
C-u 10 C-x e Execute the keyboard macro 10 times
C-u 0 C-x e Execute the macro infinitely (to EOF)
M-x apply-macro-to-region-lines
Colors
M-x list-colors-display List available colors
Interact with the Shell
M-x shell Launch a shell (then `ipython`, etc.)
Very Important Commands
C-f Move forward a character
C-b Move backward a character
M-f Move forward a word
M-b Move backward a word
C-n Move to next line
C-p Move to previous line
C-a Move to beginning of line
C-e Move to end of line
M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
M-e Move forward to end of sentence
<DEL> Delete the character just before the cursor
C-d Delete the next character after the cursor
M-<DEL> Kill the word immediately before the cursor
M-d Kill the next word after the cursor
C-k Kill from the cursor position to end of line
M-k Kill to the end of the current sentence
C-x C-f Find file
C-x C-s Save file
C-x s Save some buffers
C-x C-b List buffers
C-x b Switch buffer
C-x C-c Quit Emacs
C-x 1 Delete all but one window
C-x u Undo
M-q Trim all selected, wrapped lines.
C-g Cancel a command before it is finished being typed.
Special Packages: Ido
C-x b ido-switch-buffer
Inside ido-switch-buffer:
C-f Stop suggestion (make a new file) (at end of name, may need 2x)