![[BACK]](/cvsweb/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to FAQ CVS log ![[TXT]](/cvsweb/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/cvsweb/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [Apple XNU] / GNUtools / emacs / etc|
Return to FAQ CVS log | Up to [Apple XNU] / GNUtools / emacs / etc |
1.1 root 1: GNU Emacs FAQ: Introduction
2:
3: [To find what has changed, see the "diff" posting.]
4:
5: [Joe Wells plans to quit soon as FAQ coordinator. Steven Byrnes says he can
6: take over this portion of the FAQ responsibility. We still need more
7: volunteers to help by taking charge of a section of the FAQ list. Send e-mail
8: if you are interested.]
9:
10: This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about
11: GNU Emacs with answers. This article contains a listing of the questions;
12: subsequent articles contain the questions and answers.
13:
14: The FAQ list is posted to reduce the noise level in the `gnu.emacs.help'
15: newsgroup (which is also the `help-gnu-emacs' mailing list) which results from
16: the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong answers to these questions,
17: corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, name
18: calling, etc. Also, it serves as a repository of the canonical "best" answers
19: to these questions. However, if you know a better answer or even a slight
20: change that improves an answer, please tell us!
21:
22: If you know the answer of a question is in the FAQ list, please reply to the
23: question by e-mail instead of posting. Help reduce noise!
24:
25: The FAQ list is crossposted to `comp.emacs' because some sites do not receive
26: the `gnu.*' newsgroups. The FAQ list is also crossposted to `news.answers'.
27:
28: Please suggest new questions, answers, wording changes, deletions, etc. The
29: most helpful form for suggestions is a context diff (ie., the output of `diff
30: -c'). Include `FAQ' in the subject of messages sent to us about the FAQ list.
31:
32: Please do not send questions to us just because you do not want to disturb a
33: lot of people and you think we would know the answer. We do not have time to
34: answer questions individually. :-(
35:
36: Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
37: `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
38: e-mail to `[email protected]' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
39: WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
40:
41: These ideas have already been suggested, but we have not had time to
42: implement them:
43:
44: * A Texinfo version.
45: * Marking questions in the table of contents that have been changed
46: recently.
47:
48: --
49: Joe Wells <[email protected]> and Steven Byrnes <[email protected]>
50:
51: E-mail [email protected] for details about the League for Programming Freedom.
52:
53: ----------------------------------------------------------------------
54:
55: GNU Emacs FAQ: Table of Contents
56:
57: Notation Used in FAQ
58:
59: 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
60: 2: What does "M-x command" mean?
61: 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
62: 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
63: 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
64:
65: General Questions
66:
67: 6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
68: 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
69: 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
70: comp.emacs, etc.?
71: 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
72: 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
73: 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
74: 12: What is the current address of the FSF?
75:
76: On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
77:
78: 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
79: 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
80: 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
81: 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
82: 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
83: 18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
84: 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
85: 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
86: 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
87: 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
88:
89: Status of Emacs
90:
91: 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
92: 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
93: 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
94: 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
95: 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
96:
97: Common Things People Want To Do
98:
99: 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
100: 29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
101: 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
102: 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
103: 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
104: 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
105: 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
106: characters?
107: 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
108: 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
109: 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
110: 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
111: 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
112: 40: How do I change load-path?
113: 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
114: 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
115: 43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
116: 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
117: 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
118: 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
119: 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
120: 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
121: indentation of the previous line?
122: 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
123: 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
124: commands are handled by the compiler?
125: 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
126: 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
127: 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
128: 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
129: 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
130: 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
131: underlined paragraph?
132: 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
133: 58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
134: should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
135: 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
136: 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
137: 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
138: 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
139:
140: Bugs/Problems
141:
142: 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
143: 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
144: 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
145: 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
146: 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
147: 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
148: 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
149: 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
150: 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
151: 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
152: 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
153: 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
154: 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
155: 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
156: 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
157: down one line?
158: 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
159: 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
160: anymore?
161: 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
162: 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
163: 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
164:
165: Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
166:
167: 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
168: 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
169: 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail?
170: 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
171:
172: Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
173:
174: 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
175: 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
176: 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
177: 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
178: 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
179: 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
180: 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
181: 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
182: 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
183: 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
184: 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
185: 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
186: 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
187: 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
188: 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
189: 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
190: 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
191: 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
192: Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
193: 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
194:
195: Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
196:
197: 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
198: 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
199: 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
200: 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
201: 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
202: 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
203: 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
204: 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
205: 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
206: 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
207: 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
208: 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
209: 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
210: 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
211: 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
212: 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
213: 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
214: 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
215: 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
216:
217: Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
218:
219: 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
220: 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
221: 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
222: .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
223: 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
224: 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
225: 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
226: 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
227: 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
228: are filtered out?
229: 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
230: 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
231: 135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
232: 136: How do I "swap" two keys?
233: 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
234: 138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
235: 139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
236: 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
237: 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
238: 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
239: 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
240: 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
241: 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
242: 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
243:
244: Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
245:
246: 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
247: 148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
248: 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
249: 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
250: 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
251:
252: Mail and News
253:
254: 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
255: 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
256: 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
257: 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
258: 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
259: 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
260: 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
261: 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
262: 160: How do I read news under Emacs?
263: 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
264: 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
265: 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
266: 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
267: the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
268: 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
269: 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
270: 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
271: 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
272: 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
273: 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
274: 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
275: 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
276: 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
277: 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
278: 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
279: 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
280: 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
281:
282: GNU Emacs FAQ: Notation/General/Help/Status
283:
284: If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
285: get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
286: of the answers, just type "C-x $".
287:
288: To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
289: that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
290:
291: A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
292: something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
293: deletions occurred.
294:
295: Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
296: `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
297: e-mail to `[email protected]' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
298: WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
299:
300:
301:
302: Notation Used in FAQ
303:
304: Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the
305: later answers.
306:
307: 1: What do these mean: C-h, M-C-a, RET, "ESC a", etc.?
308:
309: C-x means press the `x' key while holding down the Control key. M-x means
310: press the `x' key while holding down the Meta key. M-C-x means press the
311: `x' key while holding down both the Control key and the Meta key. C-M-a
312: is a synonym for M-C-a. RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, and TAB respectively refer to
313: pressing the Return, Linefeed (aka Newline), Delete, Escape, and Tab keys
314: and are equivalent to C-m, C-j, C-?, C-[, and C-i. SPC means press the
315: Space bar.
316:
317: I put any key sequence that is longer than one key (and some single-key
318: sequences) inside double quotes or on a line by itself. Any real spaces
319: in such a key sequence should be ignored; only SPC really means press the
320: space key.
321:
322: The ASCII code sent by C-x (except for C-?) is the value that would be
323: sent by pressing just `x' minus 96 (or 64 for uppercase `X') and will be
324: from 0 to 31. The ASCII code sent by M-x is the sum of 128 and the ASCII
325: code that would be sent by pressing just the `x' key. Essentially, the
326: Control key turns off bits 5 and 6 and the Meta key turns on bit 7.
327:
328: For further information, see `Characters' and `Keys' in the online manual.
329:
330: NOTE: C-? (aka DEL) is ASCII code 127. It is a misnomer to call C-? a
331: "control" key, since 127 has both bits 5 and 6 turned ON. Also, on very
332: few keyboards does Control-? generate ASCII code 127.
333:
334: 2: What does "M-x command" mean?
335:
336: "M-x command" means type M-x, then type the name of the command, then
337: type RET.
338:
339: M-x (by default) invokes the command `execute-extended-command'. This
340: command allows you to run any Emacs command if you can remember the
341: command's name. If you can't remember the command's name, you can type
342: TAB and SPC for completion, and "?" for a list of possibilities. An Emacs
343: "command" is any "interactive" Emacs function.
344:
345: NOTE: Your system administrator may have bound other key sequences to
346: invoke execute-extended-command. A function key labeled `Do' is a good
347: candidate for this.
348:
349: To run non-interactive Emacs functions, see question 53.
350:
351: 3: How do I read topic XXX in the on-line manual?
352:
353: When I refer you to topic XXX in the on-line manual, you can read this
354: manual node inside Emacs (assuming nothing is broken) by typing this:
355:
356: C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET
357:
358: This invokes the Info facility. If you don't already know how to use
359: Info, type "?" from within Info.
360:
361: If I refer you to topic XXX:YYY, you need to type this:
362:
363: C-h i m emacs RET m XXX RET m YYY RET
364:
365: WARNING: Your system administrator may not have installed the Info files,
366: or may have installed them properly. In this case you should complain.
367:
368: 4: What do these mean: etc/SERVICE, src/config.h, lisp/default.el?
369:
370: These are files that come with GNU Emacs. The GNU Emacs distribution is
371: divided into subdirectories; the important ones are `etc', `lisp', and
372: `src'.
373:
374: If you use GNU Emacs, but don't know where it is kept on your system,
375: start Emacs, then type "C-h v exec-directory RET". The directory name
376: displayed by this will be the full pathname of the installed `etc'
377: directory.
378:
379: Some of these files are available individually via FTP or e-mail, see
380: question 20. All are available in the source distribution.
381:
382: 5: What are FSF, LPF, OSF, GNU, RMS, FTP, and GPL?
383:
384: FSF == Free Software Foundation
385: LPF == League for Programming Freedom
386: OSF == Open Software Foundation
387: GNU == GNU's Not Unix
388: RMS == Richard Matthew Stallman
389: FTP == File Transfer Protocol
390: GPL == GNU General Public Licence
391:
392: NOTE: Avoid confusing the FSF, the LPF, and the OSF. The LPF opposes
393: look-and-feel copyrights and software patents. The FSF aims to make high
394: quality free software available for everyone. The OSF is a commercial
395: organization which wants to provide an alternative, standardized version
396: of Unix not controlled by AT&T.
397:
398: NOTE: The word "free" in the title of the Free Software Foundation refers
399: to "freedom", not "zero dollars". Anyone can charge any price for
400: GPL-covered software that they want to. However, in practice, the freedom
401: enforced by the GPL leads to low prices, because you can always get the
402: software for less money from someone else, because everyone has the right
403: to resell or give away GPL-covered software.
404:
405:
406:
407: General Questions
408:
409: 6: What is the LPF and why should I join it?
410:
411: The LPF opposes the expanding danger of software patents and look-and-feel
412: copyrights. To get more information, feel free to contact the LPF via
413: e-mail or otherwise. {You may also contact me, [email protected]; I will be
414: happy to talk with you about the LPF.} Here is the contact information: !
415:
416: E-mail address: [email protected]
417: Phone number: (617) 243-4091 !
418: Postal address:
419: League for Programming Freedom
420: 1 Kendall Square, Number 143
421: Post Office Box 9171
422: Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
423:
424: Papers describing the LPF's views are available on the internet and also !
425: from the LPF: !
426:
427: Anonymous FTP:
428: /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/lpf/ +
429: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/lpf/ !
430: Anonymous UUCP:
431: osu-cis!~/lpf/* -
432:
433: 7: What is the real legal meaning of the GNU copyleft?
434:
435: The real legal meaning of the GNU General Public Licence (copyleft) is
436: however it is interpreted by a judge. There has never been a copyright
437: infringment case involving the GPL to set any precedents. Please take any
438: discussion regarding this issue to the newsgroup gnu.misc.discuss, which
439: was created to hold the extensive flame wars on the subject.
440:
441: RMS writes:
442:
443: The legal meaning of the GNU copyleft is less important than the spirit,
444: which is that Emacs is a free software project and that work pertaining
445: to Emacs should also be free software. "Free" means that all users have
446: the freedom to study, share, change and improve Emacs. To make sure
447: everyone has this freedom, pass along source code when you distribute
448: any version of Emacs or a related program, and give the recipients the
449: same freedom that you enjoyed.
450:
451: 8: What are appropriate messages for gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.bug,
452: comp.emacs, etc.?
453:
454: The file etc/MAILINGLISTS discusses the purpose of each GNU mailing-list.
455: (See question 20 on how to get a copy.) For those which are gatewayed
456: with newsgroups, it lists both the newsgroup name and the mailing list
457: address.
458:
459: comp.emacs is for discussion of Emacs programs in general. This
460: includes GNU Emacs along with various other implementations like JOVE,
461: MicroEmacs, Freemacs, MG, Unipress, CCA, Epsilon, etc.
462:
463: Many people post GNU Emacs questions to comp.emacs because they don't
464: receive any of the gnu.* newsgroups. Arguments have been made both for
465: and against posting GNU-Emacs-specific material to comp.emacs. You have
466: to decide for yourself.
467:
468: Messages advocating "non-free" software are considered unacceptable on any
469: of the gnu.* newsgroups except for gnu.misc.discuss, which was created to
470: hold the extensive flame-wars on the subject. "non-free" software
471: includes any software for which the end user can't freely modify the
472: source code and exchange enhancements. Be careful to remove the gnu.*
473: groups from the `Newsgroups:' line when posting a followup that recommends
474: such software.
475:
476: gnu.emacs.bug is a place where bug reports appear, but avoid posting bug
477: reports to this newsgroup, instead see question 10.
478:
479: 9: Where can I get old postings to gnu.emacs.help and other GNU groups?
480:
481: The FSF has maintained archives of all of the GNU mailing lists for many
482: years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage. The
483: archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
484: postings from, but pretty much everything is there.
485:
486: Anonymous FTP:
487: /prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/MailingListArchives/ !
488:
489: {There was a WAIS database named `comp-emacs' on lambada.oit.unc.edu that
490: makes available the last 10 days of articles in comp.emacs. It appears to
491: have died. Anyone know if it moved?}
492:
493: 10: Where should I report bugs and other problems with GNU Emacs?
494:
495: The correct way to report GNU Emacs bugs is by e-mail to
496: [email protected]. Anything sent here also appears in the
497: newsgroup gnu.emacs.bug, but please use e-mail instead of news to submit
498: the bug report. This way a reliable return address is available so you
499: can be contacted for further details.
500:
501: RMS explains:
502:
503: Sending bug reports to help-gnu-emacs (which has the effect of posting
504: on gnu.emacs.help) is undesirable because it takes the time of an
505: unnecessarily large group of people, most of whom are just users and
506: have no idea how to fix these problem. bug-gnu-emacs reaches a much
507: smaller group of people who are more likely to know what to do and have
508: expressed a wish to receive more messages about Emacs than the others.
509:
510: However, RMS says there are circumstances when it is okay to post to
511: gnu.emacs.help:
512:
513: If you have reported a bug and you don't hear about a possible fix, then
514: after a suitable delay (such as a week) it is okay to post on
515: gnu.emacs.help asking if anyone can help you.
516:
517: If you are unsure whether you have a bug, RMS describes how to tell:
518:
519: ... if Emacs crashes, that is a bug. If Emacs gets compilation errors
520: while building, that is a bug. If Emacs crashes while building, that is
521: a bug. If Lisp code does not do what the documentation says it does,
522: that is a bug.
523:
524: 11: How do I unsubscribe to this mailing list?
525:
526: If you are receiving a GNU mailing list named `XXX', you might be able
527: to unsubscribe to it by sending a request to the address
528: `[email protected]'. However, this will not work if you are
529: not listed on the main mailing list, but instead recieve the mail from a
530: distribution point. In that case, you will have to track down at which
531: distribution point you are listed. Inspecting the `Received:' headers
532: on the mail messages may help, along with liberal use of the `EXPN' or
533: `VRFY' sendmail commands through `telnet <site-address> smtp'. Ask your
534: postmaster for help.
535:
536: 12: What is the current address of the FSF?
537:
538: E-mail address: [email protected] +
539: Phone number: (617) 876-3296 +
540: Postal address:
541: Free Software Foundation, Inc.
542: 675 Massachusetts Avenue
543: Cambridge, MA 02139, USA -
544:
545:
546:
547: On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help
548:
549: 13: I'm just starting GNU Emacs; how do I do basic editing?
550:
551: Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial. Typing just C-h is
552: how to enter the help system.
553:
554: WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed C-h to act like DEL to
555: deal local keyboards. You can use M-x help-for-help instead to invoke
556: help. To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system, type
557: "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET". This will print a comma-separated
558: list of key sequences in the echo area. Ignore the last character in each
559: key sequence listed. Each of the resulting key sequences invokes help.
560:
561: NOTE: Emacs's help facility works best if help is invoked by a single key
562: whose value should be stored in the variable help-char. Andrew
563: Arensburger <[email protected]> wrote a patch that allows the help
564: facility to work properly when invoked by multiple character sequences.
565:
566: 14: How do I find out how to do something in GNU Emacs?
567:
568: There are several methods for finding out how to do things in Emacs.
569:
570: * The complete text of the Emacs manual is available online via the Info
571: hypertext reader. Type "C-h i" to invoke Info.
572:
573: * You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See question 15.
574:
575: * You can get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to invoke
576: them. You can order one from the FSF for $1 (or 10 for $5), or you can
577: print your own from the etc/refcard.tex file in the Emacs distribution.
578: {Are PostScript versions of this available for FTP?}
579:
580: * You can list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word
581: (actually which match a regular expression) using "C-h a"
582: (M-x command-apropos).
583:
584: * You can list all of the functions and variables whose names contain a
585: certain word using M-x apropos.
586:
587: * There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and information.
588: To get a list of these commands, type "C-h C-h C-h".
589:
590: NOTE: You may find that command-apropos and apropos are extremely slow
591: on your system. This will be fixed in Emacs 19. If you can't wait that
592: long, there is a fast-apropos.el file available in the Emacs Lisp
593: Archive (see question 89) that contains the fix.
594:
595: 15: How do I get a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual?
596:
597: You can order a printed copy of the GNU Emacs manual from the FSF for
598: $20. For 6 or more manuals the price is $13 each. The price may be -
599: tax-deductible as a business expense. -
600:
601: The full TeX source for the manual also comes in the `man' directory of
602: the Emacs distribution, if you're daring enough to try to print out this
603: 300 page manual yourself (see question 18).
604:
605: If you absolutely have to print your own copy, and you don't have TeX, you
606: can get a PostScript version via anonymous FTP: !
607: !
608: /cs.ubc.ca:src/gnu/manuals_ps/emacs-18.57.ps.Z !
609:
610: which site requests that you please CONFINE ANY MAJOR FTPING TO LATE
611: EVENINGS OR EARLY MORNINGS OUR TIME (pacific time zone, GMT-8)). A DVI
612: version is also available via FTP: !
613: !
614: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-manual-6.0.dvi.Z !
615:
616: If you don't have TeX you can convert the Texinfo sources into
617: {t,n,ps}roff format with the `texi2roff' program, which is available via
618: anonymous FTP: !
619: !
620: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/texi2roff/texi2roff.shar.Z !
621:
622: See also question 14 for how to view the manual online.
623:
624: 16: Where can I get documentation on GNU Emacs Lisp?
625:
626: Within Emacs, you can type "C-h f" to get the documentation for a
627: function, "C-h v" for a variable.
628:
629: For more information, obtain the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for Emacs
630: 18 under Unix. It is available from the FSF for $50 (or 5 for $200). The
631: latest revision available for FTP is edition 1.03 dated 28 January 1991.
632:
633: For online use, a set of pregenerated Info files is available with the
634: Texinfo source for the Emacs Lisp manual via anonymous FTP: !
635: !
636: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ !
637: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/elisp-manual-1.03.tar.Z !
638:
639: (You can also create the Info files from the Texinfo source.) See
640: question 17 for details on how to install these files online.
641:
642: If you are daring enough to try to print this 550 page manual out
643: yourself, for instructions see question 18.
644:
645: Also, as a popular USENET saying goes, "Use the Force, Read the Source".
646:
647: 17: How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?
648:
649: First create Info files from the Texinfo files with the `makeinfo'
650: program. makeinfo is available as part of the latest Texinfo package: !
651: !
652: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-2.14.tar.Z !
653:
654: For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
655: comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so you
656: can read it online.
657:
658: Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor the makeinfo program install the
659: resulting Info files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:
660:
661: 1. Move the files to the `info' directory in the installed Emacs
662: distribution. See question 4 if you don't know where that
663: is.
664:
665: 2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a
666: line for the top level node in the Info package that you are
667: installing. Follow the examples are already in this file. The format
668: is:
669:
670: * Topic: (relative-pathname). Short description of topic.
671:
672: If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary
673: privileges, you have several options:
674:
675: * Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used. You
676: can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing
677: "g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This
678: goes to the node named `Top' in that file. For example, to view a Info
679: file named `XXX' in your home directory, you can type this:
680:
681: C-h i g (~/XXX) RET
682:
683: * You can create your own Info directory. You can tell Emacs where the
684: Info directory is by setting the value of the variable Info-directory
685: to its pathname. For example, to use a private Info directory which
686: is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info', you could do
687: this:
688:
689: (setq Info-directory (expand-file-name "~/Info"))
690:
691: You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory.
692: You can include the system-wide Info directory in your private Info
693: directory with symbolic links or by copying it.
694:
695: * You can use an enhanced version of lisp/info.el that handles multiple
696: Info directories. Then you can more easily use a mix of private and
697: shared Info files. Dave Gillespie <[email protected],
698: [email protected]> has written one such enhancement and I
699: believe there are others. Dave's info.el also handles compressed Info
700: files.
701:
702: Anonymous FTP:
703: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:modes/info.el.Z !
704: /cs.umn.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/info.el.Z +
705:
706: According to Jay Bourland <[email protected]>, a version of Dave's
707: info.el comes with `xinfo' (see question 19).
708:
709: 18: How do I print a Texinfo file?
710:
711: NOTE: You can't get nice printed output from Info files; you must still
712: have the original Texinfo source file for the manual you want to print.
713:
714: 1. Make sure the first line of the Texinfo file looks like this:
715:
716: \input texinfo
717:
718: You may need to alter `texinfo' to the full pathname of the
719: texinfo.tex file, which comes with Emacs as man/texinfo.tex (or copy
720: or link it into the current directory).
721:
722: 2. tex XXX.texinfo
723:
724: 3. texindex XXX.??
725:
726: The `texindex' program comes with Emacs as man/texindex.c.
727:
728: 4. tex XXX.texinfo
729:
730: 5. Print the DVI file XXX.dvi in the normal way for printing DVI files
731: at your site.
732:
733: To get more general instructions, retrieve the latest Texinfo package
734: mentioned in question 17.
735:
736: 19: Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?
737:
738: Yes, the `info', `xinfo', and `ivinfo' programs do this. info uses
739: curses, xinfo uses standard X11 libraries, and ivinfo uses InterViews.
740: You can get info as part of the latest Texinfo package (see question
741: 17). xinfo is available separately: !
742: !
743: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.Z !
744: /export.lcs.mit.edu: !
745:
746: ivinfo is available in a comp.sources.misc archive or from Tom Horsley
747: <[email protected]>. For ivinfo, you need Stanford's InterViews C++
748: X library, available via anonymous FTP (interviews.stanford.edu).
749:
750: 20: What informational files are available for GNU Emacs?
751:
752: This isn't a frequently asked question, but it should be! A variety of
753: informational files about GNU Emacs and relevant aspects of the GNU
754: project are available for you to read.
755:
756: The following files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU
757: Emacs distribution, and also the latest versions are available
758: individually via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/):
759:
760: APPLE -- Why the FSF doen't support GNU Emacs on Apple computers
761: DISTRIB -- GNU Emacs Availability Information,
762: including the popular "Free Software Foundation Order Form"
763: FTP -- How to get GNU Software by Internet FTP or by UUCP
764: GNU -- The GNU Manifesto
765: INTERVIEW -- Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain
766: UNIX-compatible software system
767: with BYTE editors
768: MACHINES -- Status of GNU Emacs on Various Machines and Systems
769: MAILINGLISTS -- GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists
770: SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
771: SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"
772:
773: These files are available in the `etc' directory of the GNU Emacs
774: distribution:
775:
776: DIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Twenex Emacs
777: CCADIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and CCA Emacs
778: GOSDIFF -- Differences between GNU Emacs and Gosling (Unipress??) Emacs
779: COPYING -- GNU Emacs General Public License
780: NEWS -- GNU Emacs News, a history of user-visible changes
781: LPF -- Why you should join the League for Programming Freedom
782: FAQ -- GNU Emacs Frequently Asked Questions (You're reading it)
783: OPTIONS -- a complete explanation of startup option handling
784:
785: These files are available via anonymous FTP (prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/):
786:
787: tasks -- GNU Task List
788: standards.text -- GNU Coding Standards
789:
790: In addition, all of the above files are available directly from the FSF
791: via e-mail. Of course, please try to get them from a local source
792: first.
793:
794: These additional files are available from the FSF via e-mail:
795:
796: * GNU's Bulletin, June, 1991 -- this file includes:
797: GNU'S Who
798: What Is the Free Software Foundation?
799: What Is Copyleft?
800: A Small Way to Help Free Software
801: GNUs Flashes (important recent developments for project GNU)
802: Free Software Support (and how to get it!)
803: Copyrighted Programming Languages
804: AT&T Threatens Users of X Windows (and other software patent threats)
805: Project Gutenberg
806: GNU Project Status Report
807: GNU in Japan
808: GNU Wish List
809: Help Keep Government Software Free
810: GNU Software Available Now
811: Contents of the Emacs Tape
812: Contents of the Compiler Tape
813: Contents of the X11 Tapes
814: VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
815: GNU Documentation
816: How to Get GNU Software
817: Free Software for Microcomputers
818: GNU Software on Apple computers
819: GNU Software on the Amiga
820: GNU Software on the Atari
821: GNUish MS-DOS project
822: Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS
823: GNU in Japan
824: FSF Order Form
825: Thank GNUs
826: * Legal issues about contributing code to GNU
827: * GNU Project Status Report
828:
829: A collection of past GNU's Bulletins is available via anonymous FTP: +
830: +
831: /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/Bulletins/ +
832:
833: 21: Where can I get help in installing GNU Emacs?
834:
835: Look in etc/SERVICE for names of companies and individuals who will sell
836: you this type of service. An up-to-date version of the SERVICE file is
837: available on prep.ai.mit.edu (also see question 20).
838:
839: 22: Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?
840:
841: The GNU Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:
842:
843: * Via USENET. If you can read news, the FAQ should be available in your
844: news spool, in both the gnu.emacs.help and comp.emacs newsgroups. Every
845: news reader of which I know will allow you to read any news article that
846: is still in the news spool, even if you have read the article before.
847: You may need to read the instructions for your news reader to discover
848: how to do this. In `rn', this command will do this for you at the
849: article selection level:
850:
851: ?GNU Emacs FAQ?rc:m
852:
853: In GNUS, you should type "C-u G" from the *Subject* buffer or "C-u SPC"
854: from the *Newsgroup* buffer to view all articles in a newsgroup.
855:
856: The FAQ articles' message IDs are:
857:
858: <[email protected]> !
859: <[email protected]> !
860: <[email protected]> !
861: <[email protected]> !
862: <[email protected]> !
863: <[email protected]> !
864:
865: If you are viewing this in the GNUS *Article* buffer, you can move point
866: within one of the above message IDs and type "r" to fetch the referenced
867: article. Type "o" in the *Article* buffer to restore the previous
868: contents. If this text is not in the GNUS *Article* buffer, use M-r
869: from the *Subject* buffer instead.
870:
871: If the FAQ articles have expired and been deleted from your news spool,
872: it might (or might not) do some good to complain to your news
873: administrator, because the most recent FAQ should not expire before
874: November 21, 1992. !
875:
876: * Via anonymous FTP. You can fetch the FAQ articles via anonymous FTP
877:
878: /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/ part* !
879:
880: * Via e-mail. You can send the following magical incantation in the body
881: of a message to [email protected]:
882:
883: send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part0
884: send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part1
885: send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part2
886: send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part3
887: send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part4
888: send usenet/news.answers/GNU-Emacs-FAQ/part5
889:
890: * Via WAIS. The GNU Emacs FAQ is available via WAIS indexed on a
891: per-question basis from the `faq' database on bigbird.bu.edu on the
892: non-standard IP port number of 2210. This is probably the best way to
893: find out if there is something in the FAQ related to your question. I
894: use this myself to answer questions I see posted on gnu.emacs.help.
895:
896: The articles of the GNU Emacs FAQ are also available from the `usenet'
897: database on rtfm.mit.edu (on the standard IP port: 210), along with a
898: lot of other FAQ articles. However, these are all indexed at the whole
899: article level instead of at the question level. This is a better place
900: to look if you want to fetch the entire FAQ.
901:
902: * In the GNU Emacs distribution. Since GNU Emacs 18.56, the latest
903: available version of the FAQ at the time of release has been part of the
904: GNU Emacs distribution as file etc/FAQ. 18.58 is the latest version,
905: and it was released in February 1992.
906:
907: * There is an old version of the FAQ list available for FTP in the GNU +
908: archives at MIT: +
909: +
910: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FAQ.emacs +
911: +
912: * As the very last resort, you can e-mail a request to +
913: [email protected]. Don't do this unless you have
914: made a serious effort to obtain the FAQ list via one of the methods
915: listed above.
916:
917:
918:
919: Status of Emacs
920:
921: 23: Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
922:
923: Emacs originally was an acronym for Editor MACroS. RMS says he "picked
924: the name `Emacs' because `E' was not in use as an abbreviation on ITS at
925: the time.". The first Emacs was a set of macros written in 1976 at MIT by
926: RMS for the editor TECO (Text Editor and COrrector (originally Tape Editor
927: and COrrector)) under ITS on a PDP-10. RMS had already extended TECO with
928: a "real-time" full screen mode with active keys. Emacs was started by Guy
929: Steele <[email protected]> as a project to unify the many divergent TECO
930: command sets and keybindings at MIT.
931:
932: Many people have told me that TECO code looks a lot like line noise. See
933: alt.lang.teco if you are interested. I think someone has written a TECO
934: implementation in Emacs Lisp. It would be an interesting project to run
935: the original TECO Emacs inside of GNU Emacs.
936:
937: 24: What is the latest version of GNU Emacs?
938:
939: GNU Emacs 18.58 is the current version. Fixes from 18.57 include better
940: mail address parsing, an X visual bell speedup, a call-process
941: enhancement, a regexp matching change, the ability to apply a numeric
942: argument to a self-inserting digit, getting X resource values from the
943: RESOURCE_MANAGER property, more reliable shell mode job control, and a
944: change to copy-keymap. Also, support has been added for many new system
945: types. Fixes from 18.55 include the removal of arbitrary limits on the
946: undo facility.
947:
948: According to the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin, "Emacs 18 maintenance
949: continues for simple bug fixes.".
950:
951: To visit a file with information about what has changed in recent
952: versions, type "C-h n".
953:
954: 25: When will GNU Emacs 19 be available?
955:
956: There are strong indications that Emacs 19 will be available in 1992. The
957: FSF has recently gone through a spate of copyright disclaimer checking,
958: which is a good sign.
959:
960: Lucid has released Lucid GNU Emacs 19.2, which is based on an early
961: unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19. This will be similar to Emacs 19 when
962: it finally arrives, but they are not the same. See question 121.
963:
964: Work has begun on features for Emacs 20.
965:
966: 26: What is different about GNU Emacs 19?
967:
968: From the January 1992 GNU's Bulletin:
969:
970: Version 19 will enter beta test late this year. Among its new features
971: are: before and after change hooks, source-level debugging of Emacs Lisp
972: programs, X selection processing (including clipboard selections),
973: scrollbars, support for European character sets, floating point numbers,
974: per-buffer mouse commands, X resource manager interfacing,
975: mouse-tracking, Lisp-level binding of function keys, multiple X windows
976: (`screens' to Emacs), a new input system, and buffer allocation, which
977: uses a new mechanism capable of returning storage to the system when a
978: buffer is killed.
979:
980: The input stream is now a sequence of Lisp objects, instead of a
981: sequence of characters. This allows a reasonable representation for
982: mouse clicks, function keys, menu selections, etc.
983:
984: Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch for
985: generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs, and to Eric
986: Raymond for help in polishing the Emacs 19 Lisp libraries.
987:
988: The June 1991 GNU's bulletin had this to say about future plans for Emacs:
989:
990: Features being considered for later releases of Emacs include:
991: associating property lists with regions of text in a buffer; multiple
992: fonts, color, and pixmaps defined by those properties; different
993: visibility conditions for the regions, and for various windows showing
994: one buffer; hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain
995: range; incrementally saving undo history in a file; static menu bars;
996: and better pop-up menus.
997:
998: Mention of this feature disappeared in the January 1992 GNU's bulletin:
999:
1000: Emacs 19 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a separate
1001: screen for the minibuffer, and another with a minibuffer attached to
1002: each screen.
1003:
1004: Mention of these two proposed features disappeared in the January 1991
1005: GNU's bulletin:
1006:
1007: * Incremental syntax analysis for various programming languages (Leif).
1008: * A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which would provide
1009: network transparent Emacs widget functionality.
1010:
1011: 27: What variants of GNU Emacs exist?
1012:
1013: * Nemacs (Nihongo Emacs), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from +
1014: GNU Emacs 18.55. See question 149.
1015:
1016: * Demacs, which can run under MS-DOS on 386 machines, is derived from
1017: Nemacs. See question 122.
1018:
1019: * Epoch, which has better X support, is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58.
1020: See question 120 and 92.
1021:
1022: * Nepoch (Nihongo Epoch), which can handle Japanese text, is derived from +
1023: Epoch. +
1024: +
1025: * Mule (the MULtilingual Enhancement of GNU Emacs) can handle many +
1026: character sets simultaneously. It is derived from Emacs 18.58. It is +
1027: available for FTP: +
1028: +
1029: /sh.wide.ad.jp:/JAPAN/mule/ +
1030: /etlport.etl.go.jp:/pub/mule/ +
1031: +
1032: * Lucid GNU Emacs is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs +
1033: 19. See question 121 and 92.
1034:
1035: GNU Emacs FAQ: Common Requests/Problems
1036:
1037: If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
1038: get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
1039: of the answers, just type "C-x $".
1040:
1041: To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
1042: that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
1043:
1044: A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
1045: something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
1046: deletions occurred.
1047:
1048: Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
1049: `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
1050: e-mail to `[email protected]' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
1051: WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
1052:
1053:
1054:
1055: Common Things People Want To Do
1056:
1057: 28: How do I set up a .emacs file properly?
1058:
1059: See `Init File' in the on-line manual.
1060:
1061: WARNING: In general, new Emacs users should not have .emacs files, because
1062: it causes confusing non-standard behavior. Then they send questions to
1063: help-gnu-emacs asking why Emacs isn't behaving as documented. :-)
1064:
1065: 29: How do I debug a .emacs file?
1066:
1067: First start Emacs with the `-q' command line option. Then, in the
1068: *scratch* buffer, type the following:
1069:
1070: (setq debug-on-error t) LFD
1071: (load-file "~/.emacs") LFD
1072:
1073: (Type LFD by pressing C-j.)
1074:
1075: If you have an error in your .emacs file, this will invoke the debugger
1076: when the error occurs. If you don't know how to use the debugger do
1077: (setq stack-trace-on-error t) instead.
1078:
1079: WARNING: this will not discover errors caused by trying to do something
1080: that requires the terminal/window-system initialization code to have
1081: been loaded. See question 127.
1082:
1083: 30: How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
1084:
1085: To find out what line of the buffer you are on right now, do "M-x
1086: what-line". Use "M-x goto-line" to go to a specific line. To find the
1087: current column number, type "M-ESC (current-column)".
1088:
1089: Typing "C-x l" will also tell you what line you are on, provided the
1090: buffer isn't separated into "pages" with C-l characters. In that case, it
1091: will only tell you what line of the current "page" you are on. WARNING:
1092: "C-x l" gives the wrong value when point is at the beginning of a line.
1093:
1094: There is no "correct" way to constantly display the current (or total)
1095: line (or column) number on the mode line in Emacs 18, or to display the
1096: line numbers next to the lines like vi can. Emacs is not a line-oriented
1097: editor, and really has no idea what "lines" of the buffer are displayed in
1098: the window. It would require a lot of work at the C code level to make
1099: Emacs keep track of this. It would not be that hard to get the column
1100: number, but it would still require changes at the C code level.
1101:
1102: None of the vi emulation modes provide the `set number' capability of vi
1103: (as far as I know).
1104:
1105: Emacs 19 will probably be able to show the line number on the mode-line,
1106: but probably very inefficiently.
1107:
1108: People have written various kludges to display line numbers. One is
1109: `display-line-numbers' by Wayne Mesard <[email protected],
1110: [email protected]>. Look in the Lisp Code Directory. (See question
1111: 88.)
1112:
1113: 31: How do I turn on Abbrevs by default just in mode XXX?
1114:
1115: Put this in your .emacs file:
1116:
1117: (condition-case ()
1118: (read-abbrev-file nil t)
1119: (file-error nil))
1120:
1121: (setq XXX-mode-hook
1122: (function
1123: (lambda ()
1124: (setq abbrev-mode t))))
1125:
1126: 32: How do I turn on Auto-Fill mode by default?
1127:
1128: To turn on Auto-Fill mode just once for one buffer, use "M-x
1129: auto-fill-mode". To turn it on for every buffer in, for example, Text
1130: mode, do this:
1131:
1132: (setq text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
1133:
1134: If you want Auto-Fill mode on in all major modes, do this:
1135:
1136: (setq-default auto-fill-hook 'do-auto-fill)
1137:
1138: 33: How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
1139:
1140: If you want to use XXX mode for all files which end with the extension
1141: `.YYY', this will do it for you:
1142:
1143: (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.YYY\\'" . XXX-mode) auto-mode-alist))
1144:
1145: Otherwise put this somewhere in the first line of any file you want to
1146: edit in XXX mode:
1147:
1148: -*-XXX-*-
1149:
1150: 34: How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (8-bit or control)
1151: characters?
1152:
1153: To search for a single character that appears in the buffer as, for
1154: example, `\237', you can type "C-s C-q 2 3 7". (This assumes the value of
1155: search-quote-char is 17 (ie., C-q).) Searching for ALL unprintable
1156: characters is best done with a "regexp" search. The easiest regexp to use
1157: for the unprintable chars is the complement of the regexp for the
1158: printable chars.
1159:
1160: Regexp for the printable chars: [\t\n\r\f -~]
1161:
1162: Regexp for the unprintable chars: [^\t\n\r\f -~]
1163:
1164: To type some of these special characters in an interactive argument to
1165: isearch-forward-regexp or re-search-forward, you need to use C-q. (`\t',
1166: `\n', `\r', and `\f' stand respectively for TAB, LFD, RET, and C-l.) So,
1167: to search for unprintable characters using re-search-forward:
1168:
1169: M-x re-search-forward RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET
1170:
1171: Using isearch-forward-regexp:
1172:
1173: M-C-s [^ TAB RET C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~]
1174:
1175: To delete all unprintable characters, simply use a replace-regexp:
1176:
1177: M-x replace-regexp RET [^ TAB C-q LFD C-q RET C-q C-l SPC -~] RET RET
1178:
1179: Replacing is similar to the above. {I need to write the text for this
1180: part of the answer!}
1181:
1182: Notes:
1183:
1184: * With isearch, you can type RET to get a quoted LFD (not a quoted RET).
1185:
1186: * You don't need to quote TAB with either isearch or typing something in
1187: the minibuffer.
1188:
1189: Here are the Emacs Lisp forms of the above regexps:
1190:
1191: ;; regexp matching all printable characters:
1192: "[\t\n\r\f -~]"
1193:
1194: ;; regexp matching all unprintable characters:
1195: "[^\t\n\r\f -~]"
1196:
1197: 35: How can I highlight a region of text in Emacs?
1198:
1199: There are ways to get highlighting (reverse video, inverse video) in GNU
1200: Emacs 18.58, but either they require patching the C code of Emacs and
1201: rebuilding, or they are slow and the highlighting disappears if you scroll
1202: or redraw the screen and it can not follow the point. Howard Gayle's
1203: patches for 8-bit output appear to allow highlighting (see question
1204: ^8-bit-output). Another patch for highlighting is by Kenichi Handa
1205: <[email protected]>. There is a patch for use with X by Andy Norman
1206: <[email protected]> (and modified for 18.57 by Matthieu Herrb
1207: <[email protected]>), which is available for FTP: !
1208: !
1209: /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-X11-18.5{5,7} !
1210:
1211: You can highlight regions in a variety of ways in Epoch and Lucid Emacs.
1212: GNU Emacs 19 may not be able to just temporarily highlight a region. !
1213:
1214: Similar comments apply to displaying text in different fonts, except that
1215: it is even harder.
1216:
1217: 36: How do I control Emacs's case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
1218:
1219: For searching, the value of the variable case-fold-search determines
1220: whether they are case sensitive:
1221:
1222: (setq case-fold-search nil) ; make searches case sensitive
1223: (setq case-fold-search t) ; make searches case insensitive
1224:
1225: Similarly, for replacing the variable case-replace determines whether
1226: replacements preserve case.
1227:
1228: To change the case sensitivity just for one major mode, use the major
1229: mode's hook. For example:
1230:
1231: (setq XXX-mode-hook
1232: (function
1233: (lambda ()
1234: (setq case-fold-search nil))))
1235:
1236: 37: How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
1237:
1238: M-x auto-fill-mode. The default maximum line width is 74, determined by
1239: the variable fill-column. To find how to turn this on automatically see
1240: question 32.
1241:
1242: 38: Where can I get a better spelling checker for Emacs?
1243:
1244: Use Ispell. See question 119.
1245:
1246: 39: How can I spell-check TeX or *roff documents?
1247:
1248: If you want to spell-check TeX or *roff documents with Ispell, you need to
1249: arrange for a filter program that understands how to strip TeX or *roff
1250: formatting commands to be run. In the TeX distribution, there are several
1251: different programs named `detex', all with incompatible options, and a
1252: very old pair of programs named `detex' and `delatex', which should
1253: probably be avoided. The most useful one for Ispell is `detex' by Daniel
1254: Trinkle. A more recent version is available via FTP: !
1255: !
1256: /arthur.cs.purdue.edu:pub/trinkle/detex-2.3.tar.Z !
1257:
1258: Raphael Cerf <[email protected]> recently released a program for this +
1259: named `xetal': !
1260: !
1261: /spi.ens.fr:pub/unix/tex/ !
1262:
1263: There is a program that comes with Unix named `deroff' for stripping
1264: formatting commands from *roff files.
1265:
1266: Here is an example of code you can put in a .emacs file to use these
1267: programs:
1268:
1269: ;; Based on suggestions by David G. Grubbs <[email protected]> and Paul Palmer
1270: ;; <[email protected]>.
1271:
1272: ;; Assuming the use of detex 2.3 by Daniel Trinkle:
1273: ;; -w means one word per line.
1274: ;; -n means don't expand \input or \include commands.
1275: ;; -l means force LaTeX mode.
1276:
1277: (require 'ispell) ; for the make-variable-buffer-local statements
1278: (setq plain-TeX-mode-hook
1279: (function
1280: (lambda ()
1281: (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
1282: (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-nw")))))
1283: (setq LaTeX-mode-hook
1284: (function
1285: (lambda ()
1286: (setq ispell-filter-hook "detex")
1287: (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-lnw")))))
1288: (setq nroff-mode-hook
1289: (function
1290: (lambda ()
1291: (setq ispell-filter-hook "deroff")
1292: (setq ispell-filter-hook-args '("-w")))))
1293:
1294: You will have to adjust the arguments for programs other than Trinkle's
1295: detex or for other versions of deroff. Experiment running the command
1296: from the shell to find the correct options. If you don't have a filter
1297: that knows how to output one word per line, you must pipe its output
1298: through another filter to break up the output.
1299:
1300: 40: How do I change load-path?
1301:
1302: In general, you should only *add* to the load-path. You can add
1303: directory /XXX/YYY to the load path like this:
1304:
1305: (setq load-path (append load-path '("/XXX/YYY/")))
1306:
1307: To do this relative to your home directory:
1308:
1309: (setq load-path (append load-path (list (expand-file-name "~/YYY/"))))
1310:
1311: 41: How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
1312:
1313: The `emacsclient' program is for editing a file using an already running
1314: Emacs rather than starting up a new Emacs. It does this by sending a
1315: request to the already running Emacs, which must be expecting the request.
1316:
1317: * Setup
1318:
1319: Emacs must have executed the `server-start' function for emacsclient to
1320: work. This can be done either by a command line option:
1321:
1322: emacs -f server-start
1323:
1324: or by invoking server-start from the .emacs file:
1325:
1326: (if (some conditions are met) (server-start))
1327:
1328: When this is done, Emacs starts a subprocess running a program called
1329: `server'. `server' creates a Unix domain socket in the user's home
1330: directory named `.emacs_server'.
1331:
1332: To get your news reader, mail reader, etc., to invoke emacsclient, try
1333: setting the environment variable EDITOR (or sometimes VISUAL) to the
1334: value `emacsclient'. You may have to specify the full pathname of the
1335: emacsclient program instead. Examples:
1336:
1337: # csh commands:
1338: setenv EDITOR emacsclient
1339: setenv EDITOR /usr/local/emacs/etc/emacsclient # using full pathname
1340:
1341: # sh command:
1342: EDITOR=emacsclient export EDITOR
1343:
1344: * Normal use
1345:
1346: When emacsclient is run, it connects to the `.emacs_server' socket and
1347: passes its command line options to `server'. When `server' receives
1348: these requests, it sends this information on the the Emacs process,
1349: which at the next opportunity will visit the files specified. (Line
1350: numbers can be specified just like with Emacs.) The user will have to
1351: switch to the Emacs window by hand. When the user is done editing a
1352: file, the user can type "C-x #" to indicate this. This will switch to
1353: another buffer created at the request of emacsclient if there are any.
1354: When "C-x #" has been invoked on all of the files that the emacsclient
1355: requested to be edited, Emacs will send notification of this to `server'
1356: which will pass this on to the emacsclient, which will then exit.
1357:
1358: NOTE: `emacsclient' and `server' must be running on machines which share
1359: the same filesystem for this to work. The pathnames that emacsclient
1360: specifies should be correct for the filesystem that the Emacs process
1361: sees. The Emacs process should not be suspended at the time emacsclient
1362: is invoked. emacsclient should either be invoked from another X window or
1363: from a shell window inside Emacs itself.
1364:
1365: There is an enhanced version of emacsclient/server called `gnuserv' by
1366: Andy Norman <[email protected]> which is available in the Emacs Lisp
1367: Archive. gnuserv uses Internet domain sockets, so it can work across most
1368: network connections. It also supports the execution of arbitrary Emacs
1369: Lisp forms and also does not require the client program to wait for
1370: completion. It is available via anonymous FTP (Emacs Lisp Archive:
1371: packages/gnuserv.shar).
1372:
1373: 42: How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler's funny error messages?
1374:
1375: Write a program which runs the compiler as a child and filters its output,
1376: rearranging as necessary. Install with same name as compiler somewhere in
1377: path.
1378:
1379: Keith Moore <[email protected]> wrote one such for a C compiler under AIX.
1380: Available via FTP: !
1381: !
1382: /cs.utk.edu:readonly/aixcc.lex !
1383:
1384: Jim Frost <[email protected]> wrote another for the IBM xlc compiler on the
1385: RS/6000. (I don't know if these are both for the same compiler.)
1386: Johnathan Vail <[email protected]> wrote something for a High C compiler
1387: (`hc', which is one of the compilers on the RS/6000, although I think
1388: Johnathan wrote his program for hc on a different computer).
1389:
1390: 43: How do I indent switch statements like this?
1391:
1392: Many people want to indent their switch statements like this:
1393:
1394: f()
1395: {
1396: switch(x) {
1397: case A:
1398: x1;
1399: break;
1400: case B:
1401: x2;
1402: break;
1403: default:
1404: x3;
1405: }
1406: }
1407:
1408: I don't believe there is any way to do this exactly without modifying the
1409: Lisp code in c-mode.el. You can set c-indent-level to 4 and
1410: c-label-offset to -2, but this has bad effects elsewhere. {Anyone have a
1411: solution?}
1412:
1413: 44: How can I make Emacs automatically scroll horizontally?
1414:
1415: There is no completely correct way of doing this that does not involve !
1416: rewriting all commands or writing your own top-level command loop (not a !
1417: completely bad idea). Wayne Mesard <[email protected]> has !
1418: written a particularly advanced kludge called `hscroll.el' that checks !
1419: once a second to make sure point is visible. !
1420:
1421: 45: How do I make Emacs "typeover" or "overwrite" instead of inserting?
1422:
1423: M-x overwrite-mode (a minor mode).
1424:
1425: 46: How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
1426:
1427: Martin R. Frank <[email protected]> writes:
1428:
1429: Tell Emacs to use the 'visible bell' instead of the audible bell, and
1430: set the visible bell to nothing.
1431:
1432: Put this in your TERMCAP environment variable:
1433:
1434: ... :vb=: ...
1435:
1436: And evaluate this:
1437:
1438: (setq visible-bell t)
1439:
1440: 47: How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?
1441:
1442: Under versions of Emacs before 18.58, the bell volume was annoying loud
1443: and difficult to turn off. So upgrading to 18.58 will reduce the volume.
1444: If you want to turn it off completely, use `xset'. There is no way to
1445: turn the bell off just for Emacs without affecting all other programs.
1446:
1447: Under Epoch you can do:
1448:
1449: (setq epoch::bell-volume 20)
1450:
1451: Stu Grossman <[email protected]> wrote a patch that allows the
1452: bell volume to be adjusted from inside Emacs just for Emacs.
1453:
1454: 48: How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the
1455: indentation of the previous line?
1456:
1457: One solution is Indented Text Mode (M-x indented-text-mode).
1458:
1459: If you have Auto-Fill mode on (a minor mode, see question 32), you can
1460: tell Emacs to prefix every line with a certain character sequence, the
1461: "fill prefix". Type the prefix at the beginning of a line, position point
1462: after it, and then type "C-x ." (set-fill-prefix) to set the fill prefix.
1463: Thereafter, auto-filling will automatically put the fill prefix at the
1464: beginning of new lines, and M-q (fill-paragraph) will maintain any fill
1465: prefix when refilling the paragraph.
1466:
1467: NOTE: If you have paragraphs with different levels of indentation, you
1468: will have to set the fill prefix to the correct value each time you move
1469: to a new paragraph. To avoid this hassle, try one of the many packages
1470: available from the Emacs Lisp Archive. Look up `fill' and `indent' in the
1471: Lisp Code Directory for guidance.
1472:
1473: 49: How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I'm looking at?
1474:
1475: If you're looking at a right parenthesis (or brace or bracket) you can
1476: delete it and reinsert it. Emacs will blink the cursor on the matching
1477: parenthesis.
1478:
1479: M-C-f (forward-sexp) and M-C-b (backward-sexp) will skip over balanced
1480: parentheses, so you can see which parentheses match. (You can train it to
1481: skip over balanced brackets and braces at the same time by modifying the
1482: syntax table.)
1483:
1484: Here is some Emacs Lisp that will make the % key show the matching
1485: parenthesis, like in vi. In addition, if the cursor isn't over a
1486: parenthesis, it simply inserts a % like normal.
1487:
1488: ;; By an unknown contributor
1489:
1490: (global-set-key "%" 'match-paren)
1491:
1492: (defun match-paren (arg)
1493: "Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis otherwise insert %."
1494: (interactive "p")
1495: (cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1))
1496: ((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1))
1497: (t (self-insert-command (or arg 1)))))
1498:
1499: 50: In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef
1500: commands are handled by the compiler?
1501:
1502: M-x hide-ifdef-mode. (This is a minor mode.)
1503:
1504: You may have to (load "hideif") first. If you want to do this regularly,
1505: put this in your .emacs file:
1506:
1507: (autoload 'hide-ifdef-mode "hideif" nil t)
1508:
1509: {Yes, I know, this should be in lisp/loaddefs.el already.}
1510:
1511: 51: Is there an equivalent to the `.' (dot) command of vi?
1512:
1513: (`.' is the redo command in vi. It redoes the last insertion/deletion.)
1514:
1515: No, not really.
1516:
1517: You can type "C-x ESC" (repeat-complex-command) to reinvoke commands that
1518: used the minibuffer to get arguments. In repeat-complex-command you can
1519: type M-p and M-n to scan through all the different complex commands you've
1520: typed.
1521:
1522: To repeat something on each line I recommend using keyboard macros.
1523:
1524: 52: What are the valid X resource settings (ie., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
1525:
1526: See the Emacs man page, or the etc/OPTIONS file. Ignore the information
1527: in etc/XDOC which is way out of date.
1528:
1529: 53: How do I execute a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
1530:
1531: There are a number of ways to execute (called "evaluate") an Emacs Lisp
1532: "form":
1533:
1534: * If you want it evaluated every time you run Emacs, put it in a file
1535: named `.emacs' in your home directory.
1536:
1537: * You can type the form in the *scratch* buffer, and then type LFD (or
1538: C-j) after it. The result of evaluating the form will be inserted in
1539: the buffer.
1540:
1541: * In Emacs-Lisp mode, typing M-C-x evaluates a top-level form before or
1542: around point.
1543:
1544: * Typing "C-x C-e" in any buffer evaluates the Lisp form immediately
1545: before point and prints its value in the echo area.
1546:
1547: * Typing M-ESC or M-x eval-expression allows you to type a Lisp form in
1548: the minibuffer which will be evaluated.
1549:
1550: * You can use M-x load-file to have Emacs evaluate all the Lisp forms in
1551: a file. (To do this from Lisp use the function `load' instead.)
1552:
1553: These functions are also used for evaluating Lisp forms:
1554:
1555: load-library, eval-region, eval-current-buffer, require, autoload
1556:
1557: 54: How do I change Emacs's idea of the tab character's length?
1558:
1559: Example: (setq default-tab-width 10).
1560:
1561: 55: How do I insert `>' at the beginning of every line?
1562:
1563: Type "M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET > RET".
1564:
1565: To do this only in the region, type "C-x n M-x replace-regexp RET ^ RET
1566: > RET C-x w".
1567:
1568: WARNING: The command narrow-to-region (C-x n) is disabled by default
1569: because it can be very confusing (ie., "Oh no! Where did my file go?").
1570:
1571: 56: How do I insert `_^H' before each character in a paragraph to get an
1572: underlined paragraph?
1573:
1574: M-x underline-region.
1575:
1576: 57: How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
1577:
1578: Use "C-x (" and "C-x )" to make a keyboard macro that invokes the command
1579: and then type "M-0 C-x e".
1580:
1581: WARNING: any messages your command prints in the echo area will be
1582: suppressed.
1583:
1584: 58: How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor
1585: should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
1586:
1587: M-x picture-mode. (This is a minor mode, in theory anyway ...)
1588:
1589: 59: How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
1590:
1591: You need to modify C source and recompile. Either that or get Epoch or
1592: Lucid Emacs instead. Patches have been written by Robert Forsman
1593: <[email protected]> and Johan Vromans <[email protected]> to allow Emacs to
1594: iconify itself and by Matt Wette <[email protected]> and
1595: Manavendra K. Thakur <[email protected]> (for 18.57, plus icon
1596: geometry) to allow Emacs to start up iconified. I don't know which of
1597: these patches work together.
1598:
1599: Anonymous FTP:
1600: /csi.jpl.nasa.gov:pub/emacs.patch1 (Matt Wette) +
1601: /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z (Johan Vromans) +
1602: /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun (Johan Vromans) +
1603:
1604: 60: How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
1605:
1606: See `Regexps' in the online manual.
1607:
1608: WARNING: The "or" operator is `\|', not `|', and the grouping operators
1609: are `\(' and `\)'. Also, the string syntax for a backslash is "\\".
1610: Thus, the string syntax for a regular expression like xxx\(foo\|bar\) is
1611: "xxx\\(foo\\|bar\\)". Notice the duplicated backslashes!
1612:
1613: WARNING: Unlike in Unix grep, sed, etc., a complement character set
1614: ([^...]) can match a newline character (LFD aka C-j aka \n), unless
1615: newline is mentioned as one of the characters not to match.
1616:
1617: WARNING: The character syntax regexps (eg. `\sw') are not meaningful
1618: inside character set regexps (eg. `[aeiou]'). (This is actually typical
1619: for regexp syntax.)
1620:
1621: 61: How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
1622:
1623: The "tags" feature of Emacs includes the command tags-query-replace which
1624: performs a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the TAGS file.
1625: See `Tags:Tags Search' in the online manual.
1626:
1627: In addition, Martin Boyer has written a package named global-replace which
1628: will perform a query-replace across all the files mentioned in the
1629: *compilation* buffer (usually done after a `grep'), which is available via
1630: anonymous FTP: !
1631: !
1632: /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/compile.el.Z !
1633: /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/global-replace.el.Z !
1634: /ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca:pub/emacs/lisp/query.el.Z !
1635:
1636: 62: Where is the documentation for `etags'?
1637:
1638: `etags' takes options just like a prior version of ctags, so your ctags
1639: manual (if any) may be useful. {Can someone send me the details on this?}
1640:
1641:
1642:
1643: Bugs/Problems
1644:
1645: 63: Does Emacs have problems with files larger than 8 megabytes?
1646:
1647: Most installed versions of GNU Emacs will use 24-bit signed integers (and
1648: 24-bit pointers) internally. This limits the file size that Emacs can
1649: handle to 8,388,607 bytes (2^23 - 1).
1650:
1651: Leonard N. Zubkoff <[email protected]> suggests putting the following two
1652: lines in src/config.h before compiling Emacs to allow for 26-bit integers
1653: and pointers (and thus filesizes of up to 33,554,431 bytes):
1654:
1655: #define VALBITS 26
1656: #define GCTYPEBITS 5
1657:
1658: WARNING: This method may result in `ILLEGAL DATATYPE' and other random
1659: errors on some machines.
1660:
1661: David Gillespie <[email protected]> gives an explanation of why
1662: Emacs uses 24 bit integers and pointers:
1663:
1664: Emacs is largely written in a dialect of Lisp; Lisp is a freely-typed
1665: language in the sense that you can put any value of any type into any
1666: variable, or return it from a function, and so on. So each value must
1667: carry a "tag" along with it identifying what kind of thing it is, eg.,
1668: integer, pointer to a list, pointer to an editing buffer, and so on.
1669: Emacs uses standard 32-bit integers for data objects, taking the top 8
1670: bits for the tag and the bottom 24 bits for the value. So integers (and
1671: pointers) are somewhat restricted compared to true C integers and
1672: pointers.
1673:
1674: Emacs uses 8-bit tags because that's a little faster on byte-oriented
1675: machines, but there are only really enough tags to require 6 bits.
1676:
1677: 64: Why can't Emacs find files in current directory on startup?
1678:
1679: Most likely, you have an environment variable named PWD that is set to a
1680: value other than the name of your current directory. This is most
1681: likely caused by using two different shell programs. `ksh' and (some
1682: versions of) `csh' set and maintain the value of the PWD environment
1683: variable, but `sh' doesn't. If you start sh from ksh, change your
1684: current directory inside sh, and then start Emacs from inside sh, PWD
1685: will have the wrong value but Emacs will use this value. See the
1686: etc/OPTIONS file for more details.
1687:
1688: Perhaps an easier solution is not to use two shells. The `chsh' program
1689: can often be used to change one's default login shell.
1690:
1691: You may have PWD set for other reasons. Another possibility is that you
1692: are setting default-directory from your .emacs file.
1693:
1694: Here is a fix by Jim Blandy <[email protected]>:
1695:
1696: >--- emacs/jjj/emacs-18.58/lisp/startup.el Tue Jan 15 23:19:04 1991
1697: >+++ startup.el Mon Apr 20 00:21:01 1992
1698: >@@ -81,5 +81,7 @@
1699: > ;; In presence of symlinks, switch to cleaner form of default directory.
1700: > (if (and (not (eq system-type 'vax-vms))
1701: >- (getenv "PWD"))
1702: >+ (getenv "PWD")
1703: >+ (equal (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes default-directory))
1704: >+ (nthcdr 10 (file-attributes (getenv "PWD")))))
1705: > (setq default-directory (file-name-as-directory (getenv "PWD"))))
1706: > (unwind-protect
1707:
1708: 65: How do I get rid of the ^M junk in my Shell buffer?
1709:
1710: For tcsh, put this in your `.cshrc' (or `.tcshrc') file:
1711:
1712: if ($?EMACS) then
1713: if ("$EMACS" == t) then
1714: if ($?tcsh) unset edit
1715: stty nl
1716: endif
1717: endif
1718:
1719: Or put this in your .emacs_tcsh file:
1720:
1721: unset edit
1722: stty nl
1723:
1724: Alternatively, use csh in your Shell buffers instead of tcsh. One way
1725: is:
1726:
1727: (setq explicit-shell-file-name "/bin/csh")
1728:
1729: and another is to do this in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
1730:
1731: setenv ESHELL /bin/csh
1732:
1733: (You must start Emacs over again with the environment variable properly
1734: set for this to take effect.)
1735:
1736: 66: Why do I get `Process shell exited abnormally with code 1'?
1737:
1738: The most likely reason for this message is that the `env' program is not
1739: properly installed. This program should be compiled (for the correct
1740: architecture!) and installed with execute permission for everyone in
1741: Emacs's program directory, which is normally /usr/local/emacs/etc. You
1742: can find what this directory is at your site by inspecting the value of
1743: the variable exec-directory by typing "C-h v exec-directory RET". `env'
1744: should also be for the correct architecture (check using `file' command).
1745:
1746: You should also check for other programs named `env' in your path (eg.,
1747: SunOS has a program named /usr/bin/env). I don't understand why this can
1748: cause a failure and I don't know a general solution for working around the
1749: problem in this case.
1750:
1751: The `make clean' command will remove `env' and other vital programs, so be
1752: careful when using it.
1753:
1754: It has been reported that this sometimes happened when Emacs was started
1755: as an X client from an xterm window (ie. had a controlling tty) but the
1756: xterm was later terminated.
1757:
1758: See also etc/PROBLEMS for other possible causes of this message.
1759:
1760: 67: Why can't I cut from Emacs and paste in other X programs?
1761:
1762: Emacs stores things you "cut" in the X "cut buffers". It also pastes from
1763: the cut buffer `CUT_BUFFER0'. This is obsolete. Most modern X programs
1764: now expect to work with "selections" instead of cut buffers, although some
1765: like `xterm' will try to use the cut buffers if the selection is null.
1766:
1767: Emacs 18.58 contains a "fix" that makes xterm work by default. This
1768: "fix" is that Emacs clears the `PRIMARY' selection when it stores
1769: something in the cut buffer. By making the selection null, xterm will
1770: then fetch from the cut buffer when you try to paste.
1771:
1772: For versions of Emacs prior to 18.58, you can make pasting from Emacs into
1773: xterm work with the following X resources:
1774:
1775: ! Solution by Thomas Narten, should work under X11R3 and later GNU
1776: ! Emacs only copies to CUT_BUFFER0. xterm by default wants to paste
1777: ! from the PRIMARY selection.
1778: XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \
1779: ~Meta <Btn2Up>: insert-selection(CUT_BUFFER0,PRIMARY)
1780:
1781: You may have problems copying between Emacs and programs other than xterm
1782: that won't store cut text in the cut buffers or look in the cut buffers
1783: for text to paste (for backwards compatibility with obsolete applications
1784: like Emacs :-). The best workaround is to use the `xcutsel' program as an
1785: intermediary. -
1786:
1787: This problem does not exist for Epoch or Lucid Emacs.
1788:
1789: 68: Where is the termcap/terminfo entry for terminal type `emacs'?
1790:
1791: The termcap entry for terminal type `emacs' is ordinarily put in the
1792: TERMCAP environment variable of subshells. It may help in certain
1793: situations (eg., using rlogin from shell buffer) to add an entry for
1794: `emacs' to the system-wide termcap file. Here is a correct termcap entry
1795: for `emacs':
1796:
1797: emacs:tc=unknown:
1798:
1799: To make a terminfo entry for `emacs', use `tic' or `captoinfo'. You need
1800: to generate /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs. It may work to simply copy
1801: /usr/lib/terminfo/d/dumb to /usr/lib/terminfo/e/emacs.
1802:
1803: Having a termcap/terminfo entry will not enable the use of full screen
1804: programs in shell buffers. Use M-x terminal-emulator for that instead.
1805:
1806: A workaround to the problem of missing termcap/terminfo entries is to
1807: change terminal type `emacs' to type `dumb' or `unknown' in your shell
1808: start up file. `csh' users could put this in their .cshrc files:
1809:
1810: if ("$term" == emacs) set term=dumb
1811:
1812: 69: Why does Emacs spontaneously start displaying `I-search:' and beeping?
1813:
1814: Your terminal (or something between your terminal and the computer) is
1815: sending C-s and C-q for flow control, and Emacs is receiving these
1816: characters and interpreting them as commands. (The C-s character normally
1817: invokes the isearch-forward command.) For possible solutions, see
1818: question 131.
1819:
1820: 70: Why can't Emacs talk to certain hosts (or certain hostnames)?
1821:
1822: The problem may be that Emacs is linked with a wimpier version of
1823: gethostbyname than the rest of the programs on the machine. This is often
1824: manifested as a message on startup of `X server not responding. Check
1825: your DISPLAY environment variable.' or a message of `Unknown host' from
1826: open-network-stream.
1827:
1828: On a Sun, this may be because Emacs had to be linked with the static C
1829: library. The version of gethostbyname in the static C library may only
1830: look in /etc/hosts and the NIS (YP) maps, while the version in the dynamic
1831: C library may be smart enough to check DNS in addition to or instead of
1832: NIS. On a Motorola Delta running System V R3.6, the version of
1833: gethosbyname in the standard library works, but the one that works with
1834: NIS doesn't (the one you get with -linet). Other operating systems have
1835: similar problems.
1836:
1837: Try these options:
1838:
1839: * Explicitly add the host you want to communicate with to /etc/hosts.
1840:
1841: * Relink Emacs with this line in src/config.h:
1842:
1843: #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
1844:
1845: * Replace gethostbyname and friends in libc.a with more useful versions
1846: such as the ones in libresolv.a. Then relink Emacs.
1847:
1848: * If you are actually running NIS, make sure that `ypbind' is properly
1849: told to do DNS lookups with the correct command line switch.
1850:
1851: * Use tcp.el and tcp.c from GNUS. This has the additional advantage that
1852: you can use numeric IP addresses instead of names. open-network-stream
1853: currently can't handle numeric addresses. Brian Thomson
1854: <[email protected]> has a enhancement to open-network-stream to
1855: allow it to handle numeric addresses.
1856:
1857: 71: Why does Emacs say `Error in init file'?
1858:
1859: An error occurred while loading either your .emacs file or the system-wide
1860: lisp/default.el file. For information on how to debug your .emacs file,
1861: see question 29.
1862:
1863: It may be the case that you may need to load some package first, or use a
1864: hook that will be evaluated after the package is loaded. A common case of
1865: this is explained in question 127.
1866:
1867: 72: Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?
1868:
1869: * Try compiling Emacs with the XBACKWARDS macro defined. There is a bug
1870: in some implementations of XGetDefault, which do not correspond to the
1871: documentation or the header files.
1872:
1873: * Make sure you are either using the class name of `Emacs' (oops,
1874: apparently this is buggy in Emacs 18.58!) or the correct instance name.
1875: The instance name is normally the same as the name of the file Emacs is
1876: in (ie., the last part of argv[0]), but this can be overridden by -rn
1877: command line option or the WM_RES_NAME environment variable.
1878:
1879: WARNING: Reports say using the class name fails in Emacs 18.58.
1880:
1881: WARNING: The advice the man page gives to use `emacs' is often wrong.
1882:
1883: WARNING: Older versions of Emacs got the class name wrong.
1884:
1885: * Emacs currently ignores the -xrm command line argument.
1886:
1887: * Emacs does not yet handle X11R5 screen-specific resources.
1888:
1889: * Emacs has a bug where it ignores color specifications if running on a
1890: 1-bit display (ie. a non-color display).
1891:
1892: * I don't think Emacs will use either of the application-specific resource
1893: files. Thus these environment variables don't affect it: XAPPLRESDIR,
1894: XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, XFILESEARCHPATH. {Correct?}
1895:
1896: 73: Why does Emacs take 20 seconds to visit a file?
1897:
1898: The usual cause is that the master lock file, `!!!SuperLock!!!' has been
1899: left in the lock directory somehow. Delete it.
1900:
1901: Mark Meuer <[email protected]> says that NeXT NFS has a bug where an
1902: exclusive create succeeds but returns an error status. This can cause the
1903: same problem. Since Emacs's file locking doesn't work over NFS anyway,
1904: the best solution is to recompile Emacs with CLASH_DETECTION undefined.
1905:
1906: 74: How do I edit a file with a `$' in its name?
1907:
1908: When entering a filename in the minibuffer, Emacs will attempt to expand
1909: a `$' followed by a word as an environment variable. To suppress this
1910: behavior, type "$$" instead.
1911:
1912: 75: Why does Shell mode lose track of the shell's current directory?
1913:
1914: Emacs has no way of knowing when the shell actually changes its directory.
1915: This is an intrinsic limitation of Unix. So it tries to guess by
1916: recognizing `cd' commands. If you type `cd' followed by a directory name
1917: with a variable reference (`cd $HOME/bin') or with a shell metacharacter
1918: (`cd ../lib*'), Emacs will fail to correctly guess the shell's new current
1919: directory. A huge variety of fixes and enhancements to Shell mode for
1920: this problem have been written to handle this problem. Check the Lisp
1921: Code Directory (see question 88).
1922:
1923: 76: Why doesn't my change to load-path work?
1924:
1925: If you added a directory name containing a tilde (~) to your load-path,
1926: expecting the tilde to be interpreted as your home directory, then you
1927: need to do something like this:
1928:
1929: (setq load-path (mapcar 'expand-file-name load-path))
1930:
1931: 77: Why does the cursor always go to the wrong column when I move up or
1932: down one line?
1933:
1934: You have inadvertently typed "C-x C-n" (set-goal-column) which sets the
1935: "goal column" to the column where the cursor was. To undo this type
1936: "C-u C-x C-n".
1937:
1938: If you make this mistake frequently, you might want to unbind or disable
1939: this command by doing one of these two:
1940:
1941: (define-key ctl-x-map "\C-n" nil)
1942: (put 'set-goal-column 'disabled t)
1943:
1944: 78: Why does Emacs hang with message `Unknown XMenu error' with X11R4?
1945:
1946: Many different X errors can produce this message. Here is the solution
1947: to one problem:
1948:
1949: X11 Release 4 (and later, including OpenWindows) enforces some conditions
1950: in the X protocol that were previously allowed to pass unnoticed. You
1951: need to put the X11R4 server into X11R3 bug compatibility mode for Emacs's
1952: Xmenu code to work. You can do this with the command `xset bc'.
1953:
1954: 79: Why doesn't display-time show the load average in the mode line
1955: anymore?
1956:
1957: In GNU Emacs 18.56, a change was made in the display-time code.
1958: Formerly, in version 18.55, Emacs used a program named `loadst' to
1959: notify Emacs of the change in time every minute. loadst also sent Emacs
1960: the system load average if it was installed with sufficient privilege to
1961: get that information (or was on a system where no such privilege was
1962: needed). Emacs then displayed this information in the mode line.
1963:
1964: In version 18.56, this code was changed to use a program named `wakeup'.
1965: wakeup doesn't send Emacs any information, it's only purpose is to send
1966: Emacs *something* every minute, thus invoking the filter function in
1967: Emacs once a minute. The filter function in Emacs does all the work of
1968: finding the time, date, and load average. However, getting the load
1969: average requires the privilege to read kernel memory on most systems.
1970: Since giving Emacs this privilege would destroy any security a system
1971: might have, for almost everyone this is not an option. In addition,
1972: Emacs does not have the code built into it to get this information on
1973: the systems which have special system calls for this purpose, even
1974: though loadst had code for this.
1975:
1976: The solution I use is to get the files lisp/display-time.el and
1977: etc/loadst.c from version 18.55 and use those with 18.58. (I have heard
1978: a rumor that loadst disappeared because of the legal action Unipress
1979: threatened against IBM.)
1980:
1981: WARNING: Do not install Emacs setgid kmem unless you wish to destroy
1982: any security your system might have!!!!!!!!!!
1983:
1984: If you are using Emacs 18.55 or earlier, or already using the solution I
1985: describe above, read further:
1986:
1987: The most likely cause of the problem is that `loadst' can't read the
1988: special file /dev/kmem. To properly install loadst, it should be either
1989: setuid to the owner of /dev/kmem, or is should be setgid to the group to
1990: which /dev/kmem belongs. In either case, /dev/kmem should be readable by
1991: its owner or its group, respectively. Assuming the existence of a group
1992: named `kmem', here is an example of how to do this:
1993:
1994: chgrp kmem /dev/kmem
1995: chmod g+r /dev/kmem
1996: chgrp kmem /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
1997: chmod g+s /usr/local/emacs/etc/loadst
1998:
1999: Another possibility is that your version of Unix doesn't have the load
2000: average data available in /dev/kmem. Your version of Unix might have a
2001: special system call to retrieve this information (eg., inq_stats under
2002: UMAX), and loadst might not have been enhanced to cope with this.
2003:
2004: 80: Why does ispell sometimes ignore the local dictionary?
2005:
2006: You need to update the version of Ispell to 2.0.02. (Or you can switch to
2007: version 3.0 which is still in beta-testing.) A patch is available via
2008: anonymous FTP: !
2009: !
2010: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/ispell/patch2.Z !
2011:
2012: You also need to change a line in ispell.el from:
2013:
2014: (defconst ispell-version "2.0.01") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2015:
2016: to:
2017:
2018: (defconst ispell-version "2.0.02") ; Check against output of "ispell -v".
2019:
2020: 81: Why does Ispell treat each line as a single word?
2021:
2022: Ispell expects to get its input one word per line. The ispell filter,
2023: which is specified by the variables ispell-filter-hook and
2024: ispell-filter-hook-args, should output at most one word per line.
2025:
2026: 82: Are there any security risks in GNU Emacs?
2027:
2028: * the `movemail' incident (No, this is not a risk.)
2029:
2030: Cliff Stoll in his book `The Cuckoo's Egg' describes this in chapter 4.
2031: The site at LBL had installed the `etc/movemail' program setuid root.
2032: Since `movemail' had not been designed for this situation, a security
2033: hole was created and users could get root priveleges.
2034:
2035: `movemail' has since been changed so that even if it is installed setuid
2036: root this security hole will not be a result.
2037:
2038: I have heard unverified reports that the Internet worm took advantage of
2039: this configuration problem.
2040:
2041: * the file-local-variable feature (Yes, a risk, but easy to change.)
2042:
2043: There is an Emacs feature that allows the setting of local values for
2044: variables when editing a file by including specially formatted text near
2045: the end of the file. This feature also includes the ability to have
2046: arbitrary Emacs Lisp code evaluated when the file is visited.
2047: Obviously, there is a potential for Trojan horses to exploit this
2048: feature.
2049:
2050: If you set the variable inhibit-local-variables to a non-nil value,
2051: Emacs will display the special local variable settings of a file that
2052: you visit and ask you if you really want them. This variable is not
2053: mentioned in the manual.
2054:
2055: It is wise to do this in lisp/site-init.el before building Emacs:
2056:
2057: (setq inhibit-local-variables t)
2058:
2059: If Emacs has already been built, the expression can be put in
2060: lisp/default.el instead, or an individual can put it in their own .emacs
2061: file.
2062:
2063: The ability to exploit this feature by sending e-mail to an RMAIL user
2064: was fixed sometime after Emacs 18.52. However, any new package that
2065: uses find-file or find-file-noselect has to be careful about this.
2066:
2067: For more information, see `File Variables' in the online manual (which,
2068: incidentally, does not describe how to disable the feature).
2069:
2070: There is a new variable in Emacs 18.58 named ignore-local-eval which
2071: turns out to be useless as currently implemented. Ignore it.
2072:
2073: * synthetic X events (Yes, a risk, use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 or better.)
2074:
2075: Emacs accepts synthetic X events generated by the SendEvent request as
2076: though they were regular events. As a result, if you are using the
2077: trivial host-based authentication, other users who can open X
2078: connections to your X workstatation can make your Emacs process do
2079: anything, including run other processes with your priveleges.
2080:
2081: The only fix for this is to prevent other users from being able to open
2082: X connections. The standard way to prevent this is to use a real
2083: authentication mechanism, such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. If using the
2084: `xauth' program has any effect, then you are probably using
2085: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. Your site may be using a superior authentication
2086: method; ask your system administrator.
2087:
2088: If real authentication is not a possibility, you may be satisfied by
2089: just allowing hosts access for brief intervals while you start your X
2090: programs, then removing the access. This reduces the risk somewhat by
2091: narrowing the time window when hostile users would have access, but DOES
2092: NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK.
2093:
2094: Lucid GNU Emacs does not accept synthetic X events unless you set a +
2095: variable. +
2096:
2097: * autosave file permissions (Yes, a risk, hard to work around.)
2098:
2099: The file permissions for autosave files are determined solely by the
2100: Emacs process's `umask' value. The permissions of the file being
2101: autosaved are not used. The easiest workaround is to keep sensitive
2102: files in protected directories. Sebastian Kremer has written an
2103: enhanced version of the autosave file name picking code that can avoid
2104: this problem by keeping autosave files in a protected directory. {FTP
2105: information please?} This problem will be fixed in Emacs 19.
2106:
2107:
2108:
2109: Difficulties Building/Installing/Porting Emacs
2110:
2111: 83: What should I do if I have trouble building Emacs?
2112:
2113: First look in the file etc/PROBLEMS to see if there is already a solution
2114: for your problem. Next check the FAQ (you're reading it). If you don't
2115: find a solution, then report your problem via e-mail to
2116: [email protected]. Please do not post it to gnu.emacs.help or
2117: e-mail it to [email protected]. For further guidelines, see
2118: question 8.
2119:
2120: 84: How do I stop Emacs from failing when the executable is stripped?
2121:
2122: Don't do that.
2123:
2124: This problem has been reported on SGI Indigo machines running Irix 4.0.*
2125: and RS/6000 machines. Scott Henry <[email protected]> posted a
2126: patch that fixes the problem for Irix.
2127:
2128: 85: Why does linking Emacs with -lX11 fail? !
2129: !
2130: Emacs needs to be linked with the static version of the X11 library, !
2131: libX11.a. This may be missing. !
2132: !
2133: Under OpenWindows, you may need to use `add_services' to add the !
2134: `OpenWindows Programmers' optional software category from the CD-ROM. -
2135:
2136: Under HP-UX 8.0, you may need to run `update' again to load the -
2137: X11-PRG `fileset'. This may be missing even if you specified `all
2138: filesets' the first time. If libcurses.a is missing, you may need to load
2139: the `Berkeley Development Option' {???}.
2140:
2141: If you are building the MIT X11 sources, you may need to modify your +
2142: `site.cf' file to get static versions of the libraries. (Info from David +
2143: Zuhn <[email protected]>.) +
2144: +
2145: Other systems may have similar problems. You can always define +
2146: CANNOT_DUMP and link with the shared libraries instead.
2147:
2148: To get the Xmenu stuff to work, you need to find a copy of MIT's +
2149: liboldX.a. +
2150:
2151: 86: Why does Emacs 18.55 say `Fatal error (6).Abort' under SunOS 4.1?
2152:
2153: I had hoped this question would go away after Emacs 18.57 was released,
2154: but people continue to compile 18.55. Easiest solution: upgrade.
2155:
2156: This is a result of the SunOS localtime/tzsetwall malloc bug, which was
2157: (finally!) fixed in SunOS 4.1.2. If you actually need the full
2158: explanation, send me e-mail. If you absolutely must compile Emacs 18.55
2159: (eg., you are compiling Nemacs), the easiest workaround was to put
2160: `#define SYSTEM_MALLOC' in src/config.h. -
2161:
2162: GNU Emacs FAQ: Getting Emacs/Packages
2163:
2164: If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
2165: get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
2166: of the answers, just type "C-x $".
2167:
2168: To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
2169: that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
2170:
2171: A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
2172: something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
2173: deletions occurred.
2174:
2175: Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
2176: `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
2177: e-mail to `[email protected]' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
2178: WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
2179:
2180:
2181:
2182: Finding/Getting Emacs and Related Packages
2183:
2184: 87: Where can I get GNU Emacs on the net (or by snail mail)?
2185:
2186: Look in the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for information on nearby
2187: archive sites. If you don't already have GNU Emacs, see question 20
2188: for how to get these two files.
2189:
2190: The latest version is always available via anonymous FTP at MIT: !
2191: !
2192: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/emacs-18.58.tar.Z !
2193:
2194: See question 91.
2195:
2196: 88: How do I find a GNU Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?
2197:
2198: A listing of Emacs Lisp packages, called the Lisp Code Directory, is being
2199: maintained by Dave Brennan <[email protected]> and Dave Sill <[email protected]>.
2200: You can search through this list to find if someone has written something
2201: that fits your needs.
2202:
2203: This list is file LCD-datafile.Z in the Emacs Lisp Archive. (See
2204: question 89 for methods for getting this file.) The files lispdir.el.Z
2205: and lispdir.doc.Z in the archive contain information to help you use the
2206: list. Once you have installed lispdir.el and LCD-datafile, then you can
2207: use the "M-x lisp-dir-apropos" command to look things up in the database.
2208: For example, the command "M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET ange-ftp RET" produces
2209: this (outdated) output:
2210:
2211: GNU Emacs Lisp Code Apropos -- "ange-ftp"
2212:
2213: ange-ftp (3.112) 91-08-12
2214: Andy Norman, <[email protected]>
2215: archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:
2216: /pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/ange-ftp.el.Z
2217: transparent FTP Support for GNU Emacs
2218:
2219: 89: Where can I get GNU Emacs Lisp packages that don't come with Emacs?
2220:
2221: First, check the Lisp Code Directory to find the name of the package you
2222: are looking for. (See question 88). Then check local archives and
2223: the Emacs Lisp Archive to find a copy of the relevant files. Then, if
2224: you still haven't found it, you can send e-mail to the author asking for
2225: a copy.
2226:
2227: You can access the Emacs Lisp Archive via anonymous FTP: !
2228: !
2229: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/ !
2230:
2231: Fetch the file README first.
2232:
2233: NOTE: The archive maintainers do not have time to answer individual
2234: requests for packages or the list of packages in the archive. If you
2235: cannot use FTP or UUCP to access the archive yourself, try to find a
2236: friend who can, but please don't ask the maintainers.
2237:
2238: NOTE: Any files with names ending in `.Z' are compressed, and you should
2239: use `binary' mode in FTP to retrieve them. You should also use binary
2240: mode whenever you retrieve any files with names ending in `.elc'.
2241:
2242: 90: How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
2243:
2244: Submissions should be mailed to [email protected]. The
2245: lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will help
2246: you with this. Mail messages (submissions) are automatically saved and
2247: periodically archived. Urgent mail may be sent directly to Dave Sill
2248: <[email protected]> or Dave Brennan <[email protected]> or should contain the
2249: string `urgent' in the subject. The incoming ftp directory is no longer
2250: available at the request of Ohio State. {Is this still true?}
2251:
2252: However, if someone has a submission with multiple files (which would be
2253: archived as a tar file) or binary files, then FTP transfer is preferred
2254: and can be arranged via an anonymous FTP site. This is faster than
2255: uudecoding, unsharing, etc., and re-packaging files.
2256:
2257: Before submitting anything, please read the file guidelines.Z, which is
2258: available in the archive. Whenever possible, submissions should contain a
2259: complete LCD entry since this helps reduce administrative overhead for the
2260: maintainers. You can include an entry in this format:
2261:
2262: ;; LCD Archive Entry:
2263: ;; package name|author's name|email address
2264: ;; |description
2265: ;; |date|version|archive path
2266:
2267: For example:
2268:
2269: ;; LCD Archive Entry:
2270: ;; tex-complete|Sebastian Kremer|[email protected]
2271: ;; |Minibuffer name completion for editing [La]TeX.
2272: ;; |91-03-26|$Revision: 1.12 $|~/packages/tex-complete.el.Z
2273:
2274: Dave Brennan has software which automatically looks for data in this
2275: format. The format is fairly flexible. The entry ends when a line is
2276: reached with a different prefix or the seventh field terminator is
2277: seen.
2278:
2279: If you are submitting a multi-file submission you should include a file
2280: named "LCD-entry" which contains the archive entry, instead of placing
2281: it in one or more of the individual files.
2282:
2283: 91: Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
2284:
2285: The most up-to-date official GNU stuff is normally kept on prep.ai.mit.edu
2286: and is available for anonymous FTP in the pub/gnu directory. See the
2287: files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information. (To get copies of
2288: these files, see question 20.)
2289:
2290: The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area:
2291:
2292: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/ +
2293: /ftp.uu.net:packages/gnu/ +
2294: /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/ (available via FTP, NIFTP, FTAM) +
2295: /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/ !
2296: /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep/ +
2297: /nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu/ +
2298:
2299: The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu,
2300: except that files larger than 1 megabyte {right?} are automatically
2301: split into multiple parts. If you have trouble transferring large
2302: files, you should try here. A file normally named `XXX' is split into
2303: files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], and there will be a file named
2304: XXX-split/README which contains the list of parts (especially helpful
2305: when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, and reassembly instructions.
2306: Some of the other mirror sites may have the same property. {Can someone
2307: check this out? Thanks!}
2308:
2309: Information was provided by Lee McLoughlin <[email protected]>, Jonathan
2310: R. Ferro <[email protected]>, Arjan de Vet <[email protected]>, and -
2311: Simon Marshall <[email protected]>.
2312:
2313: 92: Where can I get an Emacs with better mouse and X window support?
2314:
2315: Emacs 18 has some limited X Window System support, but there are
2316: problems. Emacs 19 will have amazing mouse and window support. Right
2317: now, there are Epoch which is derived from GNU Emacs 18.58 and Lucid GNU
2318: Emacs which is derived from an early unreleased version of GNU Emacs 19,
2319: both of which have greatly improved mouse and window support. See
2320: questions 120 and 121.
2321:
2322: The HP unofficial GNU Emacs also has nice mouse support. See question
2323: 95.
2324:
2325: There are numerous Emacs Lisp packages that have been written to extend
2326: Emacs 18's mouse handling capabilities. Some of these packages also have
2327: patches to the C code to provide enhanced capabilities. Look up `mouse'
2328: in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88).
2329:
2330: There is a package called BAM (Born Again Menus) which provides menus for +
2331: GNU Emacs via an external C program. It does not provide mouse support in +
2332: the Emacs window such as scrollbars, cut-and-paste, etc. +
2333:
2334: NOTE: Epoch only works with the X Window System; it works on ordinary
2335: terminals by invoking regular GNU Emacs. Lucid Emacs does not currently
2336: work on ordinary terminals, although there are plans to fix this.
2337:
2338: 93: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Epoch?
2339:
2340: Marc Andreessen <[email protected]> writes:
2341:
2342: Epoch is GNU Emacs on steroids: an adaptation of GNU Emacs with lots of
2343: additional support for features made possible by the X11 windowing
2344: system. These features include multiple editing windows, arbitrary
2345: colors and fonts (fixed-width and proportional), selectable zones per
2346: buffer with arbitrary display styles (font, color, underline, stipple,
2347: pixmap), an optional separate minibuffer window, improved keyboard and
2348: mouse handling, full 8-bit character set support, and more.
2349:
2350: 94: What is the difference between GNU Emacs and Lucid GNU Emacs?
2351:
2352: This information is condensed from the release notice:
2353:
2354: Lucid GNU Emacs is based on an early version of GNU Emacs version 19
2355: with many enhancements. It currently requires X Windows to run. For
2356: information on where to get Lucid GNU Emacs see 121. X Windows support
2357: is greatly enhanced over GNU Emacs version 18, including support for
2358: multiple X Windows (a.k.a. screens in Emacs), Zmacs/Lispm style region
2359: highlighting, a customizable, Motif-like menubar, more powerful keymap
2360: support (allowing different actions to be associated with Backspace,
2361: Control-h, etc.), flexible text attribute (e.g. font, color) support on
2362: regional and screen-local basis through X resources and/or lisp, and
2363: support for the X11 selection mechanism. Some other features include
2364: run-time computation of the load-path, support for floating point
2365: numbers, native timer support, and sound file support on Sun
2366: SPARCstations. To build Lucid GNU Emacs, an ANSI C compiler (e.g. gcc)
2367: is required.
2368:
2369: 95: Where can I get the "unofficial HP GNU Emacs"?
2370:
2371: The unofficial HP GNU Emacs is available via anonymous FTP: !
2372: !
2373: /me10.lbl.gov:pub/interex/HUGE/ !
2374: /ee.utah.edu:HUGE/ (PLEASE FTP DURING NON-WORK HOURS!!!) !
2375:
2376: and takes about 35 megabytes of disk space to build. It is useful for
2377: non-HP machines, but some of the added features will only work under
2378: HP-UX.
2379:
2380: You will need to get patches to work with HP-UX 8.0 or on 700 series
2381: machines via e-mail from Darryl Okahata <[email protected]>.
2382:
2383: 96: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
2384:
2385: * Demacs
2386:
2387: For 386 or 486 PCs running MS-DOS, there is a version of GNU Emacs
2388: called Demacs. To get Demacs see question 122.
2389:
2390: From the announcement message:
2391:
2392: Demacs is almost a full set of GNU Emacs but does not support some
2393: features: asynchronous process, locking a file, etc.
2394:
2395: Demacs provides following DOS specific features:
2396:
2397: * File type: text or binary file translation.
2398: * "8-bit clean" display mode.
2399: * 8086 software interrupt call by int86 lisp function.
2400: * Machine specific features such as function key support.
2401: * File name completion with drive name.
2402: * Child process (suspend-emacs, call-process).
2403: * Enhanced dired mode which can work without 'ls.exe'.
2404:
2405: To our regret `shell-mode' does not work, but `compile' command works
2406: properly.
2407:
2408: Demacs was developed using an MS-DOS version of gcc called djgpp by
2409: D. J. Delorie <[email protected]> which can compile and run large programs
2410: under MS-DOS, but not under MS Windows. Demacs was derived from Nemacs
2411: rather than straight from GNU Emacs.
2412:
2413: There are a variety of other Emacses for MS-DOS including among them the
2414: following.
2415:
2416: * Freemacs
2417:
2418: Russ Nelson <[email protected]>, the author, describes
2419: Freemacs:
2420:
2421: * Freemacs is free, and it was designed from the start to be
2422: programmable.
2423: * Freemacs is the only IBM-PC editor that tries to be like GNU Emacs.
2424: * Freemacs can only edit files less than 64K in length.
2425: * Freemacs doesn't have undo.
2426:
2427: Carl Witty <[email protected]> reviews Freemacs:
2428:
2429: Better is Freemacs, which follows the tradition of ITS and GNU Emacs
2430: by having an full, turing-complete extension language which is
2431: incompatible with everything else. In fact, it's even closer to ITS
2432: Emacs than GNU Emacs is, because Mint (Freemacs' extension language)
2433: is absolutely illegible without weeks of study, much like TECO.
2434:
2435: To get Freemacs see question 123.
2436:
2437: * MicroEmacs
2438:
2439: MicroEmacs is a descendant of Microemacs {originally by Dave Conroy?}.
2440: It is programmable in a BASIC-like language. Many of the keybindings
2441: are different from GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MicroEmacs can not
2442: correctly edit files larger than memory. The author is Daniel Lawrence
2443: <[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]>. The
2444: latest version is 3.10 and it is available via anonymous FTP: !
2445: !
2446: /midas.mgmt.purdue.edu: (non-working hours only) !
2447: /durer.cme.nist.gov: !
2448: /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/msdos/memacs/ !
2449:
2450: Version 3.11 is in beta test.
2451:
2452: * JOVE
2453:
2454: Another Emacs for small machines is JOVE (Jonathan's Own Version of
2455: Emacs). The latest official version is 4.14. There appears to be a
2456: newer version. People rumored to be working on JOVE include Mark Moraes
2457: <[email protected]> and Bill Marsh <[email protected]>. It is
2458: available via anonymous FTP: !
2459: !
2460: /cs.rochester.edu:/pub/jove.tar.4.14.Z !
2461: /cs.toronto.edu:/pub/moraes/jove4.14.3.tar.Z !
2462: /ftp.uu.net: !
2463:
2464: * MG
2465:
2466: MG is another descendant of Microemacs. MG used to stand for
2467: MicroGNUEmacs, but now just stands for MG. The look-and-feel of MG is
2468: intended to be close to that of GNU Emacs. It is rumored that MG can
2469: not correctly edit files larger than memory. The current version is
2470: rumored to be 2. There is a version 3 in beta which works on the Amiga.
2471: It is also available via anonymous FTP: !
2472: !
2473: /ftp.white.toronto.edu:pub/mg/ !
2474: /wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/unix-c/editors/ !
2475: /procyon.cis.ksu.edu: (source and executable) !
2476:
2477: 97: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running Windows?
2478:
2479: I believe that no version of GNU Emacs runs under Windows. Pierre Perret
2480: <[email protected]> has ported MicroEMACS 3.11c to Windows.
2481:
2482: Anonymous FTP:
2483: /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10.zip !
2484: /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewin10s.zip !
2485: /ftp.cica.indiana.edu:pub/pc/win3/util/mewri.zip !
2486:
2487: 98: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
2488:
2489: From the OS/2 Programmer's FAQ: !
2490: !
2491: GNU Emacs 18.58 is available. It requires you to have EMX installed !
2492: on your machine, but it comes with all the EMX files you will need. !
2493: Emacs is available on ftp-os2 in /pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs. (If you want !
2494: to recompile emacs, you will need the full EMX distribution see !
2495: question 1.2.) !
2496: !
2497: The above quote may be out of date. See the latest OS/2 Programmer's FAQ !
2498: {perhaps in comp.os.os2.misc?} for the latest news. Anonymous FTP info: !
2499: !
2500: /ftp-os2.nmsu.edu:pub/os2/2.0/gnu/emacs/ !
2501: ("ftp-os2" was formerly named "hobbes") !
2502: !
2503: Thanks go to Stephen Simpson <[email protected]>, Jonathan !
2504: Miller <[email protected]>, Terry Kane <[email protected]>, J. D. !
2505: Baldwin <[email protected]>, and Ken Bass !
2506: <[email protected]>. !
2507:
2508: 99: Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
2509:
2510: Emacs 18.57 is the latest version for TOS. Stefan Mueller-Pfeiffer
2511: <[email protected]> says:
2512:
2513: There is also a version for MiNT, the multitasking enhancement for
2514: ATARI's TOS, which behaves almost like EMACS on a "real computer". This
2515: port was done by Erling Henanger <[email protected]>.
2516:
2517: Anonymous FTP:
2518: /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/gnustuff/tos/ (TOS Emacs 18.57) +
2519: /atari.archive.umich.edu:atari/new/mntemacs.zoo (MiNT Emacs) +
2520: /cs.uni-sb.de:/pub/atari/emacs/ +
2521:
2522: 100: Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
2523:
2524: All of the files are lharc-ed.
2525:
2526: Anonymous FTP:
2527: /oes.orst.edu:/pub/almanac/comp/amiga/software/gnuemacs-1.10/ !
2528:
2529: Via e-mail:
2530: To: [email protected] -
2531: body:
2532: mode uuencode
2533: send computer amiga software gnuemacs <file>
2534: <file> is replaced by one of the following:
2535: Required: d1.lzh d2.lzh
2536: Recommended: d3_info.lzh d3_infolisp.lzh
2537: Optional: d3_autoloaded.lzh d3_entertainmentetc.lzh
2538: d3_entertainmentlisp.lzh d4_src.lzh d5_languagelisp.lzh
2539: d5_viclone.lzh d6_gnulibsrc.lzh d6_mailpackage.lzh
2540: d6_mathpackage.lzh d6_misc.lzh d6_textformat.lzh
2541: The `d#' at the beginning of each file is its disk number, which is
2542: referred to by the documentation.
2543:
2544: 101: Where can I get Emacs for my Apple computer?
2545:
2546: The FSF is a participant in a boycott of Apple because of Apple's "look
2547: and feel" copyright suits. See the file etc/APPLE for more details.
2548: Because of this boycott, the FSF doesn't include support in GNU software
2549: for Apple computers such as the Macintosh.
2550:
2551: Please don't help people port or develop software for Apple computers.
2552:
2553: 102: Where can I get Emacs with NeWS support?
2554:
2555: Chris Maio's NeWS support package for GNU Emacs is available via anonymous
2556: FTP: !
2557: !
2558: /columbia.edu:pub/ps-emacs.tar.Z !
2559: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/ps-emacs.tar.Z !
2560:
2561: and via e-mail: !
2562:
2563: To: [email protected]
2564: body: send NeWS emacs-support !
2565:
2566: 103: Where do I get Emacs that runs on VMS under DECwindows?
2567:
2568: Hal R. Brand <[email protected]> is said to have a VMS save set with a
2569: ready-to-run VMS version of Emacs 18.55 for X Windows. It is available
2570: via anonymous FTP (addvax.llnl.gov). It is possible that the VMS versions
2571: of Emacs at other sites have X support compiled in. See etc/FTP for
2572: locations.
2573:
2574: Johan Vromans <[email protected]> writes:
2575:
2576: Getting Emacs to run on VMS with DECwindows requires a number of changes
2577: to the sources. Fortunately this has been done already. Joshua Marantz
2578: <[email protected]> did most of the work for Emacs 18.52, and the mods
2579: were ported to 18.55 by Johan Vromans <[email protected]>. Also included is the
2580: handling of DEC's LK201 keyboard. You need to apply the changes to a
2581: fresh Emacs 18.55 distribution on a Unix system, and then you can copy
2582: the sources to VMS to perform the compile/link/build.
2583:
2584: The set of changes have been posted a number of times three times the
2585: last 12 months, so they should be widely available.
2586:
2587: Richard Levitte <[email protected]> tells us that there are patches for +
2588: Emacs 18.57 and 18.58 available via e-mail: +
2589: +
2590: To: [email protected] +
2591: body: SEND EMACS-1857-PATCHES +
2592: or: SEND EMACS-1858-PATCHES +
2593:
2594: 104: Where can I get modes for Lex, Yacc/Bison, Bourne Shell, Csh, C++,
2595: Objective C, Pascal, Awk?
2596:
2597: As usual, look in the Lisp Code Directory (see question 88). For C++,
2598: if you use lisp-dir-apropos, you must specify the pattern like this:
2599:
2600: M-x lisp-dir-apropos RET c\+\+ RET
2601:
2602: 105: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?
2603:
2604: If you are at a site with a deficient nameserver, you may need to know
2605: the IP address of a host to FTP files from it. You can get this
2606: information in two ways: -
2607:
2608: * By telnet:
2609:
2610: telnet nic.ddn.mil hostnames (or `telnet 192.112.36.5 101')
2611: hname XXX.YYY.ZZZ -
2612:
2613: * By e-mail:
2614:
2615: To: [email protected]
2616: Subject: host XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2617: or: whois XXX.YYY.ZZZ
2618: or: help
2619:
2620: or: +
2621: +
2622: To: [email protected] +
2623: body: site XXX.YYY.ZZZ +
2624: +
2625: Information from Brendan Kehoe <[email protected]>. +
2626:
2627:
2628:
2629:
2630: Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs
2631:
2632: This section lists version numbers, FTP sites, mailing lists, newsgroups,
2633: and other information for many important packages, extensions, and related
2634: programs. There is some overlap with the Lisp Code Directory, but these
2635: entries give more detailed information.
2636:
2637: If you know of any other packages that are so substantial that they
2638: deserve to be mentioned here, please tell me. Having its own mailing list
2639: or newsgroup or more than half a megabyte of source code are good signs.
2640:
2641: 106: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs
2642:
2643: Author: Kyle Jones <[email protected]>
2644: Latest released version: 4.41
2645: Beta test version: 5.32
2646: Anonymous FTP:
2647: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/vm-4.41.tar.Z !
2648: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/timer.shar.Z !
2649: /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-4.41.tar.Z !
2650: /ftp.uu.net:mail/vm-5.32beta.tar.Z +
2651: Newsgroups and mailing lists:
2652: Info-VM:
2653: gnu.emacs.vm.info
2654: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2655: [email protected] (for submissions)
2656: Bug-VM:
2657: gnu.emacs.vm.bug
2658: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2659: [email protected] (for submissions)
2660:
2661: 107: Supercite -- mail and news citation package within Emacs
2662:
2663: Author: Barry Warsaw <[email protected]>
2664: Mailing list: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2665: [email protected] (for submissions)
2666: Latest version: 2.2
2667: Anonymous FTP:
2668: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/sc-2.2.tar.Z !
2669: /ftp.cme.nist.gov:pub/gnu/sc2.2.tar.Z +
2670: Via e-mail:
2671: To: [email protected]
2672: Subject: help
2673: NOTE: Superyank is an old version of Supercite.
2674:
2675: 108: GNUS -- news reader within Emacs
2676:
2677: Author: Masanobu Umeda <[email protected]>
2678: Latest official version: 3.13
2679: Unofficial test version: 3.14.1
2680: Anonymous FTP:
2681: /cs.umn.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z. +
2682: /aun.uninett.no:pub/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z +
2683: /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/GNU/etc/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z +
2684: /liasun3.epfl.ch:pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z +
2685: /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z +
2686: /funet.fi:/networking/news/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z +
2687: /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu/EmacsBits/gnus/gnus-3.14.1.tar.Z +
2688: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/gnus-3.13.tar.Z !
2689: Newsgroups and mailing lists:
2690: English-only:
2691: gnu.emacs.gnus
2692: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2693: [email protected] (for submissions)
2694: Japanese (and some English):
2695: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2696: [email protected] (for submissions)
2697:
2698: 109: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs
2699:
2700: Author: Dave Gillespie <[email protected]>
2701: Latest released version: 2.02
2702: Anonymous FTP:
2703: /csvax.cs.caltech.edu:pub/calc-2.02.tar.Z +
2704: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/calc-2.02.tar.Z +
2705: NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue anyone
2706: for having a program with a similar command language to Calc. :-)
2707:
2708: 110: Calendar/Diary -- calendar manager within Emacs
2709:
2710: Author: Edward M. Reingold <[email protected]>
2711: Latest version: 4.02
2712: Anonymous FTP:
2713: /emr.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/emacs/calendar {???} +
2714: Via e-mail:
2715: To: [email protected]
2716: Subject: send-emacs-cal
2717: Put your best internet e-mail address in the body.
2718:
2719: 111: Ange-FTP -- transparent FTP access for Emacs's file access routines
2720:
2721: Author: Andy Norman <[email protected]>
2722: Latest official version: 4.20 !
2723: Anonymous FTP:
2724: /alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu:ange-ftp/ange-ftp.tar.Z !
2725: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/ange-ftp.tar.Z !
2726: ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/ange-ftp.tar.Z -
2727: Mailing lists:
2728: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2729: Ange-FTP Lovers:
2730: [email protected] (for submissions)
2731: /ftp.reed.edu:pub/mailing-lists/ange-ftp/ (archives) !
2732: Ange-FTP Announcements:
2733: [email protected]
2734: NOTE: now with support for accessing VMS, CMS, and MTS systems
2735:
2736: 112: VIP -- vi emulation for Emacs
2737:
2738: Author: Aamod Sane <[email protected]>
2739: Latest released version: 4.3
2740: Anonymous FTP:
2741: /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/vip4.3.tar.Z +
2742: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/modes/vip-mode.tar.Z !
2743: NOTE: This version much more closely emulates vi than the one
2744: distributed with Emacs.
2745:
2746: 113: Dired -- better directory editor for Emacs
2747:
2748: Author: Sebastian Kremer <[email protected]>
2749: Latest released version: 5.239
2750: Anonymous FTP: /ftp.cs.buffalo.edu:pub/Emacs/diredall.tar.Z +
2751: /ftp.uni-koeln.de:pub/gnu/emacs/diredall.tar.Z +
2752: NOTE: This is a huge improvement over the Dired distributed with Emacs.
2753: This version will be in Emacs 19.
2754:
2755: 114: AUC TeX -- enhanced LaTeX mode with debugging facilities
2756:
2757: Author: Kresten Krab Thorup <[email protected]>
2758: Latest released version: 6.1 {???} !
2759: Anonymous FTP:
2760: /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auctex_5_6e.tar.Z {wrong} !
2761: /iesd.auc.dk:pub/emacs-lisp/auc-tex.tar.Z !
2762: Mailing list:
2763: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2764: [email protected] (for submissions)
2765: [email protected] (auc-tex development team)
2766:
2767: 115: Hyperbole -- extensible hypertext management system within Emacs
2768:
2769: Author: Bob Weiner <[email protected]>
2770: Anonymous FTP:
2771: /wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/hyperbole/ h*.tar.Z +
2772: Mailing lists:
2773: hyperbole-announce -- Hyperbole release announcements only.
2774: Subscriptions:
2775: To: [email protected]
2776: Subject: Add <[email protected]> to hyperbole-announce
2777: hyperbole -- Hyperbole discussion.
2778: Subscriptions:
2779: To: [email protected]
2780: Subject: Add <[email protected]> to hyperbole
2781: Submissions:
2782: [email protected]
2783: NOTE: Any member of the hyperbole mailing list is automatically a
2784: member of the hyperbole-announce mailing list.
2785: NOTE: No .UUCP or ! addresses are allowed on these mailing lists.
2786:
2787: 116: Byte Compiler -- enhanced version of Emacs's byte compiler
2788:
2789: Author: Jamie Zawinski <[email protected]>,
2790: Hallvard B. Furuseth <[email protected]>
2791: Anonymous FTP:
2792: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z !
2793: /ftp.uu.net:languages/elisp/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z +
2794: /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/EmacsBits/elisp-archive/packages/bytecomp.tar.Z +
2795:
2796: 117: comint -- hugely enhanced shell mode and other derived modes
2797:
2798: Author: Olin Shivers <[email protected]>
2799: Anonymous FTP:
2800: /cs.cmu.edu:/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/shivers/lib/emacs/ +
2801: {comint,cmu{tex,shell,scheme,lisp},ml}.el
2802: (anonymous password must contain `@',
2803: cannot cd to intermediate directories)
2804:
2805: 118: BBDB -- personal info rolodex integrated with mail/news readers
2806:
2807: Author: Jamie Zawinski <[email protected]>
2808: Latest released version: 1.47 !
2809: Anonymous FTP:
2810: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/packages/bbdb.tar.Z !
2811: Mailing list:
2812: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2813: [email protected] -
2814: [email protected] (to be informed of new releases)
2815: Note: BBDB does not work with VM 4. It does work with VM 5, RMAIL, GNUS, !
2816: and MH-E. !
2817:
2818: 119: Ispell -- spell checker in C with interface for Emacs
2819:
2820: Author: Geoff Kuenning <[email protected]>
2821: Latest released version: 2.0.02
2822: Beta test version: 3.0 (9 patches)
2823: Anonymous FTP:
2824: /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/ispell/ (version 2.0.02) !
2825: /ftp.cs.ucla.edu:/pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries) !
2826: /argus.math.orst.edu:pub/ispell/ (version 3.0, patches, dictionaries) !
2827: /ftp.th-darmstadt.de:pub/dicts/ispell/ (mirror of argus) !
2828: NOTE: Do not send mail to Geoff asking him to send you the latest
2829: version of Ispell. He does not have free e-mail.
2830:
2831: 120: Epoch -- enhanced GNU Emacs with better X interface
2832:
2833: Latest released version: 4.2 !
2834: Anonymous FTP:
2835: /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-4.2.tar.Z !
2836: /cs.uiuc.edu:pub/epoch-files/epoch/epoch-diff-4.1-4.2.tar.Z +
2837: /src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu/epoch/ +
2838: /aix370.rrz.uni-koeln.de:gnu/emacs/epoch/ +
2839: Newsgroup and mailing lists:
2840: Epoch:
2841: gnu.emacs.epoch
2842: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2843: [email protected] (for submissions)
2844: Epoch-Design:
2845: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2846: [email protected] (for submissions)
2847: FAQ list:
2848: Maintainer: Marc Andreessen <[email protected]>
2849: Anonymous FTP:
2850: /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/epoch-faq +
2851: /ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:outgoing/marca/epoch/Epoch.FAQ +
2852:
2853: 121: Lucid GNU Emacs -- alternative Emacs 19 with better X interface
2854:
2855: Primary Maintainer: Jamie Zawinski <[email protected]> +
2856: Other Developers: Eric Benson <[email protected]> !
2857: Matthieu Devin <[email protected]> !
2858: Harlan Sexton <[email protected]> !
2859: Latest released version: 19.3 !
2860: Anonymous FTP:
2861: /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.3.tar.Z (source) !
2862: /labrea.stanford.edu:pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs-19.3-sun4.tar.Z (Sun4binaries) !
2863: Newsgroup and mailing lists:
2864: Bugs:
2865: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2866: [email protected] (for submissions)
2867: Help:
2868: [email protected] (for subscriptions)
2869: [email protected] (for submissions)
2870:
2871: 122: Demacs -- GNU Emacs altered to run on MS-DOS on 386/486 machines
2872:
2873: Authors: Manabu Higashida <[email protected]>
2874: HIRANO Satoshi <[email protected]>
2875: Latest released version: 1.2.0
2876: Anonymous FTP:
2877: /utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:GNU/demacs/ (nearest to U.S.A.) !
2878: /ftp.sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp:pub/Msdos/Demacs/ +
2879: /wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp:pub/msdos/Demacs/ !
2880: /ftp.3com.com:pub/gnu/msdos/demacs/ !
2881: /mindseye.berkeley.edu:pub/kanji/demacs/ !
2882: /ftp.hawaii.edu:pub/editors/demacs.tar.Z !
2883: /ftp.math.ksu.edu:pub/pc/demacs/ +
2884: /wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:pd1:<msdos.demacs> {ange-ftp syntax?} !
2885: /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120e.zip (executables, lisp-code, doc) !
2886: (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!) +
2887: /ftp.uni-koeln.de:msdos/gnuprogs/dem120s.zip (sources, diffs) +
2888: (PLEASE USE ONLY OUTSIDE WORKING HOURS!) +
2889: /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/msdos/gnu/emacs/ +
2890: /mizar.docs.uu.se:pub/gnu/demacs/ !
2891: /iamsun.unibe.ch:PC/demacs/ !
2892: /flop.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:outgoing/demacs.tar !
2893: /ftp.funet.fi:pub/gnu/emacs/demacs/ +
2894: /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120e.zip !
2895: /garbo.uwasa.fi:pc/editor/dem120s.zip !
2896: /ftp.win.tue.nl:pub/gnu/demacs/ !
2897: /ugle.unit.no:pub/gnu/Demacs/ !
2898: {Does anyone know which sites have the Kanji version?}
2899: Via e-mail:
2900: From garbo.uwasa.fi:
2901: To: [email protected]
2902: Subject: garbo-request
2903: Body: send pc/editor/dem120e.zip
2904: send pc/editor/dem120s.zip
2905: quit
2906: Downloading:
2907: EXEC-PC (Milwaukee, WI) 414-789-4210 (2400 bps)
2908: in the Mahoney MS-DOS file area in its Editors/wordprocessors
2909: library (F), named GNUEMACS.ZIP
2910: Channel 1 (Cambridge, MA) 617-345-8873 (9600 bps)
2911: in the New Uploads file area, named GNUEMACS.ZIP
2912: NOTE: Use the -d option of [pk]unzip for all .zip archives. Some sites
2913: have Demacs lharc'ed. If you need to find programs to unpack lharc and -
2914: zip format archives, Chris Dean <[email protected]> points out that you
2915: should see the comp.compression FAQ, available for FTP: !
2916: /rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/comp.compression/ !
2917: Mailing list:
2918: NOTE: There is no mailing list for Demacs. However, there is a list
2919: for DJGPP, which is the environment that Demacs runs in. Many
2920: Demacs problems are actually issues with DJGPP.
2921: DJGPP:
2922: Subscriptions:
2923: To: [email protected]
2924: body: add <your-address> djgpp
2925: or put `help' in the body.
2926: If this fails, mail to [email protected].
2927: Submissions:
2928: [email protected]
2929: FAQ list:
2930: Maintainer: Dave Steibel <[email protected]>
2931: Anonymous FTP: algol.cs.umbc.edu:pub/demacs/demacs.faq
2932:
2933: 123: Freemacs -- a small Emacs for MS-DOS
2934:
2935: Author: Russ Nelson <[email protected]>
2936: Latest released version: 1.6a
2937: Anonymous FTP:
2938: /simtel20.army.mil:PD:<MSDOS.FREEMACS> {ange-ftp syntax?} !
2939: /grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:pub/msdos/freemacs/ !
2940: Via e-mail:
2941: To: [email protected]
2942: body: help
2943: Via snail mail:
2944: address: Russell Nelson, 11 Grant St., Potsdam, NY 13676
2945: Send $15 copying fee, and specify preferred floppy disk format:
2946: 5.25", 360K, or 3.50", 720K
2947: Mailing lists:
2948: Subscriptions:
2949: To: [email protected]
2950: body: add <your-address> <name-of-list>
2951: or put `help' in the body.
2952: List distribution addresses:
2953: [email protected]
2954: [email protected]
2955: [email protected] (send bug reports here)
2956:
2957: 124: Patch -- program to apply "diffs" for updating files
2958:
2959: Author: Larry Wall <[email protected]>
2960: Latest version: 2.0 patchlevel 12u8 !
2961: (This is the version that supports the new unified diff format.)
2962: Anonymous FTP:
2963: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12u8.tar.Z !
2964: /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/patch-2.0.12g8.tar.Z (GNU version) +
2965:
2966: GNU Emacs FAQ: Keybindings/Output
2967:
2968: If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
2969: get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
2970: of the answers, just type "C-x $".
2971:
2972: To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
2973: that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
2974:
2975: A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
2976: something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
2977: deletions occurred.
2978:
2979: Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
2980: `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
2981: e-mail to `[email protected]' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
2982: WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
2983:
2984:
2985:
2986: Changing Key Bindings and Handling Key Binding Problems
2987:
2988: 125: How do I bind keys (including function keys) to commands?
2989:
2990: 1. Find out what character sequence is generated by the keystroke sequence
2991: you wish to bind to a command. See question 129 for how to do this.
2992: Keep in mind that the character sequences generated by a keystroke
2993: sequence varies from one terminal to another. You may also get
2994: different results depending on what type of machine you are running on
2995: (see question 128). For example, these keystrokes may generate these
2996: character sequences:
2997:
2998: F1 ---> ESC [ 2 2 4 z
2999: Shift-R10 ---> ESC O t
3000: L7 ---> ESC [ 3 1 ~
3001: Remove ---> C-@
3002:
3003: 2. Figure out what the Emacs Lisp syntax is for this character sequence.
3004: Inside an Emacs Lisp string, RET, LFD, DEL, ESC, SPC, and TAB are
3005: specified with `\r', `\n', `\C-?', `\e', ` ', and `\t'. C-x is
3006: specified by `\C-x'. M-x is specified the same was as "ESC x".
3007: (Control characters may also be specified as themselves, but I don't
3008: recommend it.) An Emacs Lisp string begins and ends with the double
3009: quote character, `"'. Here are some examples:
3010:
3011: ESC [ D ---> "\e[D"
3012: ESC [ 2 2 7 z ---> "\e[227z"
3013: ESC [ 1 8 ~ ---> "\e[18~"
3014: C-M-r ---> "\e\C-r"
3015:
3016: 3. If some prefix of the character sequence is already bound, you must
3017: unbind it by binding it to `nil'. For example:
3018:
3019: (global-set-key "\e[" nil)
3020:
3021: 4. Pick a command to bind your key sequence to. A command can be a
3022: "symbol" with a function definition, or a "lambda list", or a string
3023: (which is treated as a macro). For example:
3024:
3025: (global-set-key "\e[D" 'backward-char)
3026: (global-set-key "\e[227~" "\exgoto-line\r") ; macro
3027:
3028: See `Key Bindings' and `Rebinding' in the online manual.
3029:
3030: In Emacs 19 (including Lucid Emacs), you can bind function key F24 like +
3031: this: +
3032: +
3033: (global-set-key 'f24 'some-command) +
3034:
3035: 126: Why does Emacs say `Key sequence XXX uses invalid prefix characters'?
3036:
3037: A prefix of the character sequence you were trying to bind was already
3038: bound. Usually, the sequence is "ESC [", in which case you should
3039: evaluate this form first:
3040:
3041: (define-key esc-map "[" nil)
3042:
3043: NOTE: By default, "ESC [" is bound to backward-paragraph, and if you do
3044: this you will lose this key binding. For most people, this is not a
3045: problem.
3046:
3047: See question 125.
3048:
3049: 127: Why doesn't this [terminal or window-system setup] code work in my
3050: .emacs file, but it works just fine after Emacs starts up?
3051:
3052: This is because you're trying to do something in your .emacs file that
3053: needs to be postponed until after the terminal/window-system setup code
3054: is loaded. This is a result of the order in which things are done
3055: during the startup of Emacs. For more details see question 135.
3056:
3057: In order to postpone the execution of Emacs Lisp code until after the
3058: terminal/window-system setup, set the value of the variable
3059: term-setup-hook or window-setup-hook to be a function which does what
3060: you want.
3061:
3062: See etc/OPTIONS for a complete explanation of what Emacs does every time
3063: it is started.
3064:
3065: Here is a simple example of how to set term-setup-hook:
3066:
3067: (setq term-setup-hook
3068: (function
3069: (lambda ()
3070: (cond ((string-match "\\`vt220" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3071: ;; Make vt220's "Do" key behave like M-x:
3072: (define-key CSI-map "29~" 'execute-extended-command))
3073: ))))
3074:
3075: 128: How do I use function keys under X Windows?
3076:
3077: This depends on whether you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator
3078: window, or whether you are allowing Emacs to create its own X window.
3079: You can tell which you are doing by noticing whether Emacs creates a new
3080: window when you start it.
3081:
3082: If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window, then it
3083: behaves exactly as it does on any other tty. In this case, for function
3084: keys to be useful, they must generate character sequences that are sent
3085: to the programs running inside the window as input. The `xterm' program
3086: has two different sets of character sequences that it generates when
3087: function keys are pressed, depending on the sunFunctionKeys X resource
3088: and the -sf and +sf command line options. (To find out what these key
3089: sequences are, see question 129.) In addition, with xterm,
3090: you can override what key sequence a specific function key (or any other
3091: key) will generate with the `translations' resource. This, for example:
3092:
3093: XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
3094: <KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
3095:
3096: makes the function key F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [xyzzy".
3097:
3098: On the other hand, if Emacs is managing its own X window, the following
3099: description applies. Emacs receives `KeyPress' events from the X server
3100: when a key is pressed while the keyboard focus is in its window. The
3101: KeyPress event contains an X "keysym" code, which is simply an arbitrary
3102: number corresponding to the name of the keysym, and information on which
3103: "modifiers" such as `control' and `shift' are active. For example, the
3104: `Tab' keysym is 0xff09. (Generally, a key on the keyboard will generate a
3105: keysym whose name is the same as the label on the key, ie. the `Tab' key
3106: will normally generate the `Tab' keysym. This can be changed with the
3107: xmodmap program.) Emacs recognizes all the keysyms that correspond to
3108: standard ASCII characters and internally uses the ASCII character instead.
3109:
3110: (WARNING: I am about to describe a gross, disgusting hack to you, have
3111: your barf bag ready.)
3112:
3113: When Emacs receives the X keysym of one of the arrow keys, it behaves
3114: the same as if it had received a letter key with the control modifier
3115: down as follows (this is hard-coded):
3116:
3117: Up becomes C-p
3118: Down becomes C-n
3119: Right becomes C-f
3120: Left becomes C-b
3121:
3122: The way Emacs treats other keysyms depends on what kind of machine it was
3123: compiled on. The type of the display machine is irrelevant! Function
3124: keys are mapped internally to escape sequences, while other keys are
3125: completely ignored.
3126:
3127: 1. If compiled on a Sun, Emacs recognizes these X keysyms that
3128: are normally on a Sun keyboard:
3129:
3130: F1 through F9
3131: L1 through L10 (same as F11 through F20)
3132: R1 through R15 (same as F21 through F35)
3133: (The keys labelled R8, R10, R12, and R14 usually are mapped to the
3134: X keysyms Up, Left, Right, and Down.)
3135: Break (the `Alternate' key is given this keysym)
3136:
3137: These keys work like Sun function keys. When Emacs recieves the
3138: keysym, it will internally use character sequences that look like "ESC
3139: [ ### z", where ### is replaced by a number. The character sequences
3140: are identical to those generated by Sun's keyboard under SunView. Any
3141: function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 z".
3142:
3143: In order to use these key sequences, they should be bound to commands
3144: using the standard key binding methods, just as if Emacs were running
3145: on a regular terminal.
3146:
3147: WARNING: F11 and L1 are the same keysym in X, as are F12 and L2, etc.
3148: {Yes, this is stupid. Complain to the X consortium.}
3149:
3150: 2. If not compiled on a Sun, the function keys will appear to Emacs in a
3151: way remarkably similar to the keys of a DEC LK201 keyboard (used on
3152: some VT series terminals). These X keysyms will be recognized:
3153:
3154: F1 through F20
3155: Help (treated same as F15)
3156: Menu (treated same as F16, is the LK201 `Do' key)
3157: Find
3158: Insert (LK201 `Insert Here' key)
3159: Select
3160: Prior (LK201 `Prev Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
3161: Next (LK201 `Next Screen' key *** ONLY IN 18.58 AND LATER ***)
3162:
3163: And finally, the LK201 key labelled `Remove' (or `Delete') is often
3164: mapped to the Delete keysym which generates the DEL character (C-?)
3165: instead of the key sequence given by the LK201 `Remove' key. It may
3166: also be mapped to some other keysym, such as `_Remove', in which case
3167: you can't use it from within Emacs at all.
3168:
3169: Each function key will be internally converted to a character sequence
3170: that looks like "ESC [ ## ~", where ## is replaced by a number. The
3171: character sequences are identical to those generated by a LK201
3172: keyboard. Any function key not listed above generates "ESC [ - 1 ~".
3173:
3174: For the complete list of the numbers which are generated by the function
3175: keys, look in the file src/x11term.c at the definitions of the function
3176: stringFuncVal.
3177:
3178: If you are running Emacs on a Sun machine, even if your X display is
3179: running on a non-Sun machine (eg., an X terminal), you get the setup
3180: described above for Suns. The determining factor is what type of
3181: machine Emacs is running (was compiled) on, not what type of machine
3182: your X display is on.
3183:
3184: If you have function keys not listed above on your keyboard, you can use
3185: `xmodmap' to change their keysym assignments to get keys that Emacs will
3186: recognize, but that may screw up other programs.
3187:
3188: X resources are not used by Emacs to affect the key sequences generated.
3189: In particular, there are no X key "translations" for Emacs.
3190:
3191: If you have function keys not listed above and you don't want to use
3192: xmodmap to change their names, you might want to make a modification to
3193: your Emacs. Johan Vromans <[email protected]> has made available a patch for Emacs
3194: that adds the x-rebind-key function of Epoch to Emacs 18.58. This allows
3195: another layer of key rebinding before Emacs even sees the keys, and in
3196: this layer you can rebind all of the keys and modifier combinations as
3197: well.
3198:
3199: Anonymous FTP:
3200: /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-Xfun.Z +
3201: /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-Xfun +
3202:
3203: Johan Vromans explains what this buys for you:
3204:
3205: After implementing this, all keyboard keys can be configured to send
3206: user definable sequences, eg.,
3207:
3208: (x-rebind-key "KP_F1" 0 "\033OP")
3209:
3210: This will have the keypad key PF1 send the sequence "ESC O P", just like
3211: an ordinary VT series terminal.
3212:
3213: 129: How do I tell what characters my function or arrow keys emit?
3214:
3215: Use this function by Randal L. Schwartz <[email protected]>:
3216:
3217: (defun see-chars ()
3218: "Displays characters typed, terminated by a 3-second timeout."
3219: (interactive)
3220: (let ((chars "")
3221: (inhibit-quit t))
3222: (message "Enter characters, terminated by 3-second timeout.")
3223: (while (not (sit-for 3))
3224: (setq chars (concat chars (list (read-char)))
3225: quit-flag nil)) ; quit-flag maybe set by C-g
3226: (message "Characters entered: %s" (key-description chars))))
3227:
3228: Alternatively, use the "C-h l" view-lossage command, which will display
3229: the last 100 characters Emacs has seen in its input stream. Kevin
3230: Gallagher <[email protected]> suggests typing some unique string
3231: like "wxyz", typing the key in question, then typing "C-h l". The
3232: characters that appear between "wxyz" and "C-h l" were generated by the
3233: key.
3234:
3235: 130: How do I set the X key "translations" for Emacs?
3236:
3237: Sorry, you can't; there are no "translations" to be set. Emacs is not
3238: written using the Xt library. The only way to affect the behavior of keys
3239: within Emacs is through `xmodmap' (outside Emacs) or `define-key' (inside
3240: Emacs).
3241:
3242: 131: How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?
3243:
3244: C-s and C-q are used in the XON/XOFF flow control protocol. This screws
3245: up Emacs because it binds these characters to commands. Also, by default
3246: Emacs will not honor them as flow control characters and may overwhelm
3247: output buffers. Sometimes, intermediate software using XON/XOFF flow
3248: control will prevent Emacs from ever seeing C-s and C-q.
3249:
3250: Possible solutions:
3251:
3252: * Disable the use of C-s and C-q for flow control.
3253:
3254: You need to determine what is the cause of the flow control.
3255:
3256: * your terminal
3257:
3258: Your terminal may use XON/XOFF flow control to have time to display
3259: all the characters it receives. For example, VT series terminals do
3260: this. It may be possible to turn this off from a setup menu. For
3261: example, on a VT220 you may select `No XOFF' in the setup menu. This
3262: is also true for some terminal emulation programs on PCs.
3263:
3264: When you turn off flow control at the terminal, you will also need to
3265: turn it off at the other end, which might be at the computer you are
3266: logged in to or at some terminal server in between.
3267:
3268: If you turn off flow control, characters may be lost; using a printer
3269: connected to the terminal may fail. You may be able to get around
3270: this problem by modifying the `termcap' entry for your terminal to
3271: include extra NUL padding characters.
3272:
3273: * a modem
3274:
3275: If you are using a dialup connection, the modems may be using XON/XOFF
3276: flow control. I don't know how to get around this.
3277:
3278: * a router or terminal server
3279:
3280: Some network box between the terminal and your computer may be using
3281: XON/XOFF flow control. It may be possible to make it use some other
3282: kind of flow control. You will probably have to ask your local
3283: network experts for help with this.
3284:
3285: * tty and/or pty devices
3286:
3287: If your connection to Emacs goes through multiple tty and/or pty
3288: devices, they may be using XON/XOFF flow control even when it is not
3289: necessary.
3290:
3291: Eirik Fuller <[email protected]> writes:
3292:
3293: Some versions of `rlogin' (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
3294: control characters to the remote system to which they connect. On
3295: such systems, Emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow control
3296: on the local system. Sometimes `rlogin -8' will avoid this problem.
3297:
3298: One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
3299: (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the stty
3300: command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, `stty
3301: start u stop u' will do this.
3302:
3303: Some versions of `tcsh' will prevent even this from working. One
3304: way around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin,
3305: and issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
3306:
3307: Use `stty -ixon' instead of `stty start u stop u' on some systems.
3308:
3309: * Make Emacs speak the XON/XOFF flow control protocol.
3310:
3311: You can make Emacs treat C-s and C-q as flow control characters by
3312: evaluating this form:
3313:
3314: (set-input-mode nil t)
3315:
3316: If you are fixing this for yourself, simply put the form in your .emacs
3317: file. If you are fixing this for your entire site, the best place to
3318: put it is unclear. I don't know if this has any effect when used in
3319: lisp/site-init.el when building Emacs; I've never tried that. {Can
3320: someone tell me whether it works?} Putting things in users' .emacs files
3321: has a number of problems.
3322:
3323: Putting this form in lisp/default.el has the problem that if the user's
3324: .emacs file has an error, this will prevent lisp/default.el from being
3325: loaded and Emacs may be unusable for the user, even for correcting their
3326: .emacs file (unless they're smart enough to move it to another name). A
3327: possible solution is to initially disable C-s and C-q by setting
3328: keyboard-translate-table in lisp/site-init.el, either with swap-keys
3329: (see question 136) or with the following form:
3330:
3331: ;; by Roger Crew <[email protected]>:
3332: (setq keyboard-translate-table
3333: "\C-@\C-a\C-b\C-c\C-d\C-e\C-f\C-g\C-h\C-i\C-j\C-k\C-l\C-m\C-n\C-o\C-p\C-^\C-r\C-\\\C-t\C-u\C-v\C-w\C-x\C-y\C-z\C-[\C-s\C-]\C-q\C-_")
3334:
3335: This will at least prevent Emacs from being confused by the flow control
3336: characters, even if lisp/default.el cannot be loaded. Then, in
3337: lisp/default.el, enable XON/XOFF flow control with set-input-mode.
3338:
3339: For further discussion of this issue, read the file PROBLEMS in the
3340: Emacs distribution.
3341:
3342: 132: How do I use commands bound to C-s and C-q (or any key) if these keys
3343: are filtered out?
3344:
3345: I suggest swapping C-s with C-\ and C-q with C-^:
3346:
3347: (swap-keys ?\C-s ?\C-\\)
3348: (swap-keys ?\C-q ?\C-^)
3349:
3350: See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys. This method
3351: has the advantage that it simultaneously swaps the characters everywhere
3352: throughout Emacs, while just switching the keybindings will miss important
3353: places where the character codes are stored (eg., the search-repeat-char
3354: variable, major mode keymaps, etc.).
3355:
3356: To do this for an entire site, you may want to swap the keys in
3357: lisp/default.el. If only some of your users are connecting through
3358: XON/XOFF flow-controlled connections, you will want to do this
3359: conditionally. I suggest pre-swapping them in lisp/site-init.el when
3360: Emacs is built, and then in lisp/default.el, if it is determined to be
3361: safe, they can be reenabled (being careful not to screw up any other key
3362: mappings users might have established using keyboard-translate-table).
3363: See question 131 for an easy way to pre-swap these keys.
3364:
3365: WARNING: If you do this for an entire site, the users will be confused by
3366: the disparity between what the documentation says and how Emacs actually
3367: behaves.
3368:
3369: 133: Why does the `BackSpace' key invoke help?
3370:
3371: The BackSpace key (on every keyboard I've used) generates ASCII code 8.
3372: C-h sends the same code. In Emacs by default C-h invokes help-command.
3373: This is intended to be easy to remember since the first letter of "help"
3374: is "h". The easiest solution to this problem is to use C-h (and
3375: BackSpace) for help and DEL (the Delete key) for deleting the previous
3376: character.
3377:
3378: For many people this solution may be problematic:
3379:
3380: * They normally use BackSpace outside of Emacs for deleting the previous
3381: character typed. This can be solved by making DEL be the command for
3382: deleting the previous character outside of Emacs. This command will do
3383: this on many Unix systems:
3384:
3385: stty erase '^?'
3386:
3387: * The person may prefer using the BackSpace key for deleting the previous
3388: character because it is more conveniently located on their keyboard or
3389: because they don't even have a separate Delete key. In this case, the
3390: BackSpace key should be made to behave like Delete. There are several
3391: methods.
3392:
3393: * Under X Windows, the easiest solution is to change the BackSpace key
3394: into a Delete key like this:
3395:
3396: xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
3397:
3398: * Some terminals (eg., VT3## terminals) allow the character generated by
3399: the BackSpace key to be changed from a setup menu.
3400:
3401: * You may be able to get a keyboard that is completely programmable.
3402:
3403: * Under X or on a dumb terminal, it is possible to swap the BackSpace
3404: and Delete keys inside Emacs:
3405:
3406: (swap-keys ?\C-h ?\C-?)
3407:
3408: See question 136 for the implementation of swap-keys.
3409:
3410: * Another approach is to switch keybindings and put help on "C-x h"
3411: instead:
3412:
3413: (global-set-key "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
3414: (global-set-key "\C-xh" 'help-command) ; override mark-whole-buffer
3415:
3416: Other popular key bindings for help are M-? and "C-x ?".
3417:
3418: WARNING: Don't try to bind DEL to help-command, because there are many
3419: modes that have local bindings of DEL that will interfere. -
3420:
3421: 134: Why doesn't Emacs look at the stty settings for Backspace vs. Delete?
3422:
3423: Good question!
3424:
3425: 135: Why don't the arrow keys work?
3426:
3427: When Emacs starts up, it doesn't know anything about arrow keys at all
3428: (except when running under X, see question 128). During the process of
3429: starting up, Emacs will load a terminal-specific initialization file for
3430: your terminal type (as determined by the environment variable TERM), if
3431: one exists. This file has the responsibility for enabling the arrow keys.
3432:
3433: There are several things that can go wrong:
3434:
3435: 1. There is no initialization file for your terminal.
3436:
3437: You can determine this by looking in the lisp/term directory. If your
3438: terminal type (as determined by the TERM environment variable) is
3439: xxx-yy-z, then the first of these files in the lisp/term directory will
3440: be loaded as the terminal-specific initialization file: xxx-yy-z.el,
3441: xxx-yy.el, or xxx.el.
3442:
3443: There are two major cases of this problem:
3444:
3445: * Your terminal type is very similar to one that has an init file.
3446:
3447: In this case, there are several techniques suggested by Colin Jensen
3448: <[email protected]>, Ben Liblit <[email protected]>, and Marc
3449: Auslander <[email protected]>:
3450:
3451: A. Add a symbolic link in lisp/term for your terminal type that
3452: points to the similar type. For example, you could make VT102
3453: terminals work with this command:
3454:
3455: ln -s vt100.el vt102.el
3456:
3457: This fixes things for everyone on the system who uses the terminal
3458: type.
3459:
3460: B. If you can't do the solution in part A, you can add code to your
3461: term-setup-hook that loads the correct file like this:
3462:
3463: (setq term-setup-hook
3464: (function
3465: (lambda ()
3466: (cond ((equal "vt102" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3467: (load (concat term-file-prefix "vt100")))
3468: (;; Code for other terminal types goes here ...
3469: )))))
3470:
3471: C. If you use `tset' to set your TERM environment variable when you
3472: login, you can use the `-m' switch to tell tset to use a terminal
3473: type known by Emacs instead of another similar one. For example,
3474: specifying this:
3475:
3476: tset ... -m 'dec-vt220:vt220' ...
3477:
3478: will make tset say you are on a `vt220' instead of a `dec-vt220'.
3479:
3480: D. Interactively, you can type "M-x load-library RET term/vt100" to
3481: load the terminal-specific initialization files for VT100
3482: terminals.
3483:
3484: * Your terminal type is not similar to one that has an init file.
3485:
3486: One can be made for your terminal, or you can just add code to your
3487: own .emacs to handle this problem for yourself. For example, if your
3488: terminal's arrow keys send these character sequences:
3489:
3490: Up: ESC [ A
3491: Down: ESC [ B
3492: Right: ESC [ C
3493: Left: ESC [ D
3494:
3495: then you can bind these keys to the appropriate commands with code in
3496: your .emacs like this:
3497:
3498: (setq term-setup-hook
3499: (function
3500: (lambda ()
3501: (cond ((string-match "\\`xyzzy" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3502: ;; First, must unmap the binding for left bracket
3503: (or (keymapp (lookup-key global-map "\e\["))
3504: (define-key global-map "\e\[" nil))
3505: ;; Enable terminal type xyzzy's arrow keys:
3506: (define-key global-map "\e\[A" 'previous-line)
3507: (define-key global-map "\e\[B" 'next-line)
3508: (define-key global-map "\e\[C" 'forward-char)
3509: (define-key global-map "\e\[D" 'backward-char))
3510: ((string-match "\\`abcde" (or (getenv "TERM") ""))
3511: ;; Do something different for terminal type abcde
3512: ;; .....
3513: )))))
3514:
3515: NOTE: You may have to restart Emacs to get changes to take effect.
3516:
3517: NOTE: Your arrow keys may send sequences beginning with "ESC O" when
3518: Emacs is running, even if they send sequences beginning with "ESC [" at
3519: all other times. This is because Emacs uses any command there may be
3520: in your terminal's termcap entry for putting the terminal into
3521: "Application Keypad Mode". Just map these sequences the same way as
3522: above.
3523:
3524: The next two cases are problems even if there is a initialization file for
3525: your terminal type.
3526:
3527: 2. The initialization file for your terminal doesn't bind arrow keys.
3528:
3529: If your terminal type is `xterm', you will have to bind the arrow keys
3530: as in part 1 above, since the xterm.el file doesn't do anything useful.
3531: There may be other terminal types with the same problem.
3532:
3533: 3. Your terminal's arrow keys send individual control characters.
3534:
3535: For example, the arrow keys on an ADM-3 send C-h, C-j, C-k, and C-l.
3536:
3537: There is not much Emacs can do in this situation, since all the control
3538: characters except for C-^ and C-\ are already used as Emacs commands.
3539: It may be possible to convince the terminal to send something else when
3540: you press the arrow keys; it is worth investigating.
3541:
3542: You have to make the hard choices of how to rebind keys to commands to
3543: make things work the way you want. Another alternative is to start
3544: learning the standard Emacs keybindings for moving point around: C-b,
3545: C-f, C-p, and C-n. Personally, I no longer use the arrow keys when
3546: editing because I have switched keyboards so many times.
3547:
3548: 4. Your terminal's arrow keys send sequences beginning with "ESC [".
3549:
3550: Due to an extremely poor design decision (ie., these sequences are ANSI
3551: standard), none of the the terminal-specific initialization files that
3552: are distributed with Emacs will bind these character sequences to the
3553: appropriate commands by default. (This also applies to any other
3554: function keys which generate character sequences starting with "ESC
3555: [".) This is because it was deemed far more important to preserve the
3556: binding of M-[ to the backward-paragraph command. It appears that this
3557: will change in Emacs 19.
3558:
3559: Some of the terminal-specific initialization files that come with Emacs
3560: provide a command enable-arrow-keys that will fix this problem. To get
3561: this automatically invoked, put this in your .emacs:
3562:
3563: (setq term-setup-hook
3564: (function
3565: (lambda ()
3566: (if (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys) (enable-arrow-keys)))))
3567:
3568: We put this in our lisp/default.el file, so users don't have to worry
3569: about it:
3570:
3571: ;; don't override a user's term-setup-hook
3572: (or term-setup-hook
3573: (setq term-setup-hook
3574: (function
3575: (lambda ()
3576: (and (fboundp 'enable-arrow-keys)
3577: ;; don't override a user key mapping
3578: (eq 'backward-paragraph (lookup-key esc-map "["))
3579: (enable-arrow-keys))))))
3580:
3581: If your terminal type is `sun', you should put this in your .emacs
3582: instead (or in addition to the above):
3583:
3584: (setq sun-esc-bracket t)
3585:
3586: It is possible that the terminal-specific initialization file for your
3587: terminal type was written locally and does not follow the rule
3588: mentioned above. In this case you may need to inspect it to find out
3589: how to enable the arrow keys. (Actually, if it was written locally, it
3590: probably enables the arrow keys by default.)
3591:
3592: 136: How do I "swap" two keys?
3593:
3594: When Emacs receives a character, you can make Emacs behave as though it
3595: received another character by setting the value of
3596: keyboard-translate-table. The following Emacs Lisp will do this for you,
3597: allowing you to "swap" keys. After arranging for this Lisp to be
3598: evaluated by Emacs, you can evaluate `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' to swap A and B.
3599:
3600: (defun swap-keys (key1 key2)
3601: "Swap keys KEY1 and KEY2 using map-key."
3602: (map-key key1 key2)
3603: (map-key key2 key1))
3604:
3605: (defun map-key (from to)
3606: "Make key FROM behave as though key TO was typed instead."
3607: (setq keyboard-translate-table
3608: (concat keyboard-translate-table
3609: (let* ((i (length keyboard-translate-table))
3610: (j from)
3611: (k i)
3612: (str (make-string (max 0 (- j (1- i))) ?X)))
3613: (while (<= k j)
3614: (aset str (- k i) k)
3615: (setq k (1+ k)))
3616: str)))
3617: (aset keyboard-translate-table from to)
3618: (let ((i (1- (length keyboard-translate-table))))
3619: (while (and (>= i 0) (eq (aref keyboard-translate-table i) i))
3620: (setq i (1- i)))
3621: (setq keyboard-translate-table
3622: (if (eq i -1)
3623: nil
3624: (substring keyboard-translate-table 0 (1+ i))))))
3625:
3626: NOTE: You must evaluate the definition of these functions before calling
3627: them! For example, list the function definitions before their use in your
3628: .emacs file.
3629:
3630: NOTE: These functions take two numbers as arguments. The example above,
3631: `(swap-keys ?A ?B)' is actually `(swap-keys 65 66)', because `?A' is
3632: merely notation for 65, the ASCII value of `A'.
3633:
3634: NOTE: These functions only work for single characters. You cannot swap
3635: two multi-character sequences.
3636:
3637: 137: How do I produce C-XXX with my keyboard?
3638:
3639: For C-@ and C-^, often you can just type Control-2 and Control-6. For
3640: C-_, you may have to hold down the shift key, typing Control-Shift-Hyphen.
3641: C-@ can often be generated by typing Control-Space. C-@ is often called
3642: the NUL character, and has ASCII value 0. C-_ can often be generated by
3643: typing Control-7 or Control-/. C-? (aka DEL) may be generated by typing
3644: Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace or a key labelled Delete or Del.
3645:
3646: Try Control with all of the digits on your keyboard to see what gets
3647: generated.
3648:
3649: 138: What if I don't have a Meta key?
3650:
3651: Instead of typing M-a, you can type "ESC a" instead. In fact, Emacs
3652: converts M-a internally into "ESC a" anyway (depending on the value of
3653: meta-prefix-char).
3654:
3655: 139: What if I don't have an Escape key?
3656:
3657: Type C-[ instead. This should send ASCII code 27 just like an Escape
3658: key would. Try also C-;.
3659:
3660: 140: How do I type DEL on PC terminal emulators?
3661:
3662: Some IBM PC compatibles do not have a key labeled `Del' or `Delete' {is
3663: this true?}. Those that do generally have it in an inconvenient location.
3664: (Also, in some terminal emulators, the `Del' key does not transmit DEL.)
3665: The result is the standard "BackSpace invoking help" problem (see question
3666: 133).
3667:
3668: The usual solution, suggested by Michael Covington
3669: <[email protected]>, is to somehow tell the terminal emulator
3670: program that BackSpace should transmit DEL. Read the program's manual.
3671: Shift-BackSpace or Control-BackSpace may send DEL. The `Del' key may only
3672: send DEL if the NumLock key hasn't been pressed.
3673:
3674: 141: Can I make my `Compose Character' key behave like a Meta key?
3675:
3676: On a dumb terminal such as a VT220, no. It is rumored that certain VT220
3677: clones could have their Compose key configured this way. If you're using
3678: X, you might be able to do this with the `xmodmap' program (this is
3679: what I do).
3680:
3681: 142: How do I bind a combination of modifier key and function key?
3682:
3683: Unless you're using Emacs under emacstool (or xvetool?), have a working !
3684: version of x-rebind-key (see question 128), or are using Emacs 19 (Lucid +
3685: Emacs), you can't do this with Emacs alone. +
3686:
3687: If you are using emacstool, Emacs sees different character sequences for
3688: the combination of a modifier and a function key from what it sees for the
3689: function key alone. See etc/emacstool.1 for more information. Since
3690: Emacs sees different character sequences, you can bind these different
3691: sequences to different commands.
3692:
3693: If you are running Emacs inside a terminal emulator window like xterm, you
3694: can modify its translation tables to make it generate different character
3695: sequences for the combination of a modifier and a function key. For
3696: example, this X resource setting:
3697:
3698: XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
3699: Shift<KeyPress>F1: string(0x1b) string("[xyzzy")
3700:
3701: makes Shift-F1 generate the character sequence "ESC [ xyzzy". You can
3702: bind these character sequences in Emacs as normal. Nick Ruprecht
3703: <[email protected]> has written an extensive X
3704: translation mapping for xterm that does this. {Does this have an FTP
3705: site?}
3706:
3707: If you have x-rebind-key, you can have any arbitrary combination of +
3708: modifiers with a key replaced by any sequence of "normal" characters. For +
3709: example, this makes Shift-Return behave as though you had typed "C-x C-e" +
3710: (example from Jerry Graves): +
3711: +
3712: (x-rebind-key "Return" 'shift "\C-x\C-e") +
3713: +
3714: In Emacs 19 (Lucid Emacs), you can bind Meta-Left-Arrow like this (example +
3715: from Jamie Zawinski): +
3716: +
3717: (global-set-key '(meta left) 'backward-word) +
3718: +
3719: With the last two methods, use `xmodmap' and `xev' to discover the keysym +
3720: and modifier names. +
3721:
3722: 143: Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?
3723:
3724: Try all of these methods before asking for further help:
3725:
3726: * You may have big problems using `mwm' as your window manager. {Does
3727: anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in
3728: Emacs with mwm?}
3729:
3730: * For X11R4: Make sure it really is a Meta key. Use `xev' to find out
3731: what keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or
3732: Meta_R. If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation.
3733:
3734: * Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters.
3735: `stty -a' (or `stty everything') should show `cs8' somewhere. If it
3736: shows `cs7' instead, use `stty cs8 -istrip' (or `stty pass8') to fix
3737: it.
3738:
3739: * If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the
3740: `-8' argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8
3741: bits of every character.
3742:
3743: * If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating
3744: (set-input-mode t nil) helps.
3745:
3746: * If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type
3747: M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W
3748: anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this:
3749:
3750: XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false
3751:
3752: (This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.)
3753:
3754: With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation:
3755:
3756: XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
3757: Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert()
3758:
3759: You might have to replace `Meta' with `Alt'.
3760:
3761: 144: Why doesn't my ExtendChar key work as a Meta key under HP-UX 8.0?
3762:
3763: This is a result of an internationalization extension in X11R4 and the
3764: fact that HP is now using this extension. Emacs assumes that
3765: XLookupString returns the same result regardless of the Meta key state
3766: which is no longer necessarily true. Until Emacs is fixed, the temporary
3767: kludge is to run this command after each time the X server is started but
3768: preferably before any xterm clients are:
3769:
3770: xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
3771:
3772: NOTE: This will disable the use of the extra keysyms systemwide, which
3773: may be undesirable if you actually intend to use them.
3774:
3775: 145: Where can I get key bindings to make Emacs emulate WordStar?
3776:
3777: There is a package `wordstar' by Jim Frost <[email protected]> and
3778: `ws-mode.el' by Juergen Nickelsen <[email protected]>. Check in the
3779: Emacs Lisp Archive (see question 89).
3780:
3781: 146: Where can I get an XEDIT emulator for Emacs?
3782:
3783: This question comes up once every couple of months. I have never seen a
3784: positive reply, so I presume no one has ever written one.
3785:
3786:
3787:
3788: Using Emacs with Alternate Character Sets
3789:
3790: 147: How do I make Emacs display 8-bit characters?
3791:
3792: There is a patch called the `8-bit ctl-arrow patch' that allows Emacs to
3793: display characters with codes from 128 to 255. {The original appears to
3794: have been by Kenneth Cline <[email protected]>.} Partially based
3795: on Johan Widen's earlier work, Johan Vromans <[email protected]> has updated this
3796: patch for Emacs 18.58 along with some other 8-bit improvements.
3797:
3798: Anonymous FTP:
3799: /ftp.eu.net:gnu/emacs/FP-EightBit.Z +
3800: /ftp.urc.tue.nl:pub/tex/emacs/FP-EightBit +
3801: /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z:cemacs/8bit-patch-18.57 +
3802: /sics.se:archive/emacs-18.55-8bit-diff +
3803: /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.55 !
3804: /laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/patch-8bit-18.57 !
3805:
3806: Via e-mail:
3807: To: [email protected]
3808: body: send emacs-18.55-8bit-diff
3809:
3810: Anders Edenbrandt <[email protected]> has produced a more comprehensive
3811: patch for Emacs 18.57 that allows for 8-bit input and output.
3812:
3813: Anonymous FTP:
3814: /sics.se:archive/emacs-8bit-diff-lth +
3815: /gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU/DS-emacs-18.57-8bit-diff-lth +
3816:
3817: The most comprehensive patches for 8-bit output are by Howard Gayle
3818: (originally for Emacs 18.55. These patches allow displaying any arbitrary
3819: string for a given 8-bit character (except TAB and C-j). Also supported
3820: is defining the sorting order and the uppercase and lowercase
3821: translations. It is reported that the 8-bit character support in Emacs 19
3822: is largely based on these patches. Thomas Bellman
3823: <[email protected]> has updated these patches for Emacs 18.57.
3824:
3825: Anonymous FTP:
3826: /sics.se:archive/emacs-gayle.tar.Z (patches for 18.55) +
3827: /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/gayle-18.57.diff.tar.Z (patches) +
3828: /ftp.lysator.liu.se:pub/emacs/emacs-18.57-gayle.tar.Z (patched Emacs) +
3829:
3830: I am not sure if Epoch can display 8-bit characters as is. Lucid Emacs
3831: has the ctl-arrow patch installed. Nemacs displays 8-bit characters, and
3832: it may be useful for displaying the 8-bit ISO-8859 alphabet, but I don't
3833: know for sure (see question 149).
3834:
3835: 148: How do I input 8-bit characters?
3836:
3837: Minor modes for ISO Latin-1 that allow one to easily input this character
3838: set have been written by several people. Such modes have been written by
3839: Matthieu Herrb <[email protected]> (laas.laas.fr:pub/emacs/iso-latin-1.el),
3840: Johan Vromans <[email protected]> {FTP site??}, and Marc Shapiro
3841: <[email protected]> {FTP site??}.
3842:
3843: These approaches differ from the one taken by Anders Edenbrandt in that
3844: his method uses direct 8-bit input, while these methods use a compose
3845: sequence for 8-bit characters. {I have heard conflicting reports on
3846: whether this results in losing the Meta key. Perhaps this depends on
3847: whether Emacs is running under X. Can someone resolve this?}
3848:
3849: Karl Heuer <[email protected]> is said to have a patch to allow
3850: 8-bit input. Georg-Wilhelm Koltermann <[email protected]> also has a
3851: patch for either 18.57 or 18.58 that allows 8-bit input.
3852:
3853: Epoch comes with a patch that allows it to input 8-bit characters, but it
3854: is not enabled by default. {Is this right?}
3855:
3856: Jamie Zawinski says: +
3857: +
3858: Lucid GNU Emacs allows the input of any ISO-8859/1 keysyms that your +
3859: keyboard generates (see xmodmap), and contains a package that implements +
3860: a DEC/OpenWindows-like "Compose" key for systems which don't have one. +
3861:
3862: 149: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle kanji characters?
3863:
3864: Nemacs 3.3.2 (Nihongo GNU Emacs) is a modified version of GNU Emacs 18.55
3865: that handles kanji characters. It is available via anonymous FTP: !
3866: !
3867: /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z !
3868: /uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu:editors/Nemacs-3.3.2/ !
3869: /miki.cs.titech.ac.jp:JAPAN/nemacs/nemacs-3.3.2.tar.Z !
3870:
3871: You might also need files for "wnn", a kanji input method
3872: (wnn-4.0.3{-README,.tar.Z} {on which machine?}). You need a terminal (or
3873: terminal emulator) that can display text encoded in JIS, Shift-JIS, or EUC
3874: (Extended Unix Code), or the ability to run Nemacs as a direct X Window
3875: client.
3876:
3877: 150: Where can I get an Emacs that can handle Chinese?
3878:
3879: `cemacs' by Stephen G. Simpson <[email protected]> is a patch to Emacs
3880: 18.57 (the ctl-arrow patch) and some Emacs Lisp code that combined with
3881: Cxterm allows using Chinese characters. It is available via anonymous
3882: FTP: !
3883: !
3884: /crl.nmsu.edu:pub/chinese/cemacs.tar.Z !
3885: /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cemacs.tar.Z !
3886:
3887: Cxterm is available from the same place: !
3888: !
3889: /cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm-11.5.1.tar.Z !
3890:
3891: 151: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?
3892:
3893: Joel M. Hoffman <[email protected]> writes:
3894:
3895: A couple of years ago a wrote a hebrew.el file that allows right-to-left
3896: editing of Hebrew. I relied on the hardware to display the Hebrew
3897: letters, given the right codes, but not for any right-to-left support;
3898: the hardware also doesn't have to send any specific char. codes. Emacs
3899: keeps track of when the user is typing Hebrew vs. English. (The VT-*
3900: terminals in Israel contain built-in support for Hebrew.)
3901:
3902: To get it to work I had to modify only a few lines of GNU Emacs's source
3903: code --- just enough to make it 8-bit clean.
3904:
3905: [and in a separate message:]
3906:
3907: It doesn't produce time-order ["sefer" format] (I wouldn't recommend
3908: trying that with emacs, because converting time-order to screen-order
3909: with arbitrarily long lines is a bit tricky), but I also concocted a
3910: quick filter to convert screen-order into time-order. I'll be happy to
3911: send you the requisite files if you want them. If you're using it for
3912: anything large, however, you'll want something that works better.
3913:
3914: Joel Hoffman has also written a "bi-directional bi-lingual Emacs-like"
3915: editor for MS-DOS named Ibelbe (Itty Bitty Emacs-Like Bidirectional
3916: Editor). Ibelbe is written in Turbo Pascal and comes with source code.
3917: Here is the description:
3918:
3919: Ibelbe looks like emacs (it even has a minibuffer and filename
3920: completion), and fully supports both right-to-left and left-to-right
3921: editing. Other than an EGA monitor or better, no special hardware is
3922: required. You will need an EGA Hebrew font to use Ibelbe with Hebrew.
3923:
3924: Anonymous FTP:
3925: /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/ibelbe.zip !
3926: /israel.nysernet.org:israel/msdos/hebfont.zip !
3927:
3928: Joseph Friedman <[email protected], [email protected]> has written
3929: patches for Emacs 18.55 and 18.58 that provide Semitic language support
3930: under X Windows.
3931:
3932: Warren Burstein <[email protected]> says he has mapped 7-bit keys by
3933: modifying self-insert-command "for Hebrew input on 7-bit keyboards".
3934:
3935: A good suggestion is to query archie for files named with `hebrew'.
3936:
3937:
3938: GNU Emacs FAQ: Mail and News
3939:
3940: This portion of the GNU Emacs FAQ list is cross-posted to `gnu.emacs.gnus'
3941: because many of the questions herein deal with GNUS. See `gnu.emacs.help' for
3942: the rest of the FAQ list.
3943:
3944: If you are viewing this text in a GNU Emacs Buffer, you can type "M-2 C-x $" to
3945: get an overview of just the questions. Then, when you want to look at the text
3946: of the answers, just type "C-x $".
3947:
3948: To search for a question numbered XXX, type "M-C-s ^XXX:", followed by a C-r if
3949: that doesn't work, then type ESC to end the search.
3950:
3951: A `+' in the 78th column means something was inserted on the line. A `-' means
3952: something was deleted and a `!' means some combination of insertions and
3953: deletions occurred.
3954:
3955: Full instructions for getting the latest FAQ are in question 22. Also see the
3956: `Introduction to news.answers' posting in the `news.answers' newsgroup, or send
3957: e-mail to `[email protected]' with `help' on a body line, or use FTP,
3958: WAIS, or Prospero to rtfm.mit.edu.
3959:
3960:
3961:
3962: Mail and News
3963:
3964: 152: How do I change the included text prefix in mail/news followups?
3965:
3966: Many people want Emacs to prefix included text with something like ` > '
3967: instead of with three spaces. One way is to change the code of the
3968: function `mail-yank-original' in lisp/sendmail.el that prefixes with
3969: spaces. A more flexible solution is to use Supercite, which provides wide
3970: configurability in how you format included text in replies. See question
3971: 107. Both of these solutions work for RMAIL and GNUS.
3972:
3973: A related problem is how to prevent Emacs from including various headers
3974: of the replied-to message. For this, you should set the value of
3975: mail-yank-ignored-headers, which takes a regexp value.
3976:
3977: 153: How do I save a copy of outgoing mail?
3978:
3979: Two methods:
3980:
3981: 1. (setq mail-self-blind t) will result in a `BCC:' header line with your
3982: address being added to mail composition buffers. This will cause the
3983: mail system to send a copy of the mail back to you.
3984:
3985: 2. (setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name "~/outgoing")) will
3986: result in an `FCC:' header line with the pathname of ~/outgoing being
3987: added to mail composition buffers. When you send the mail, Emacs will
3988: save a copy of the mail in the file ~/outgoing and then strip off the
3989: `FCC:' line before actually sending.
3990:
3991: WARNING: There is a bug in Emacs 18.58 that prevents mail readers such
3992: as RMAIL from reading the saved mail messages individually. See
3993: question 155.
3994:
3995: WARNING: If you are visiting the file ~/outgoing at the time you send
3996: the mail, this can cause a variety of horrible problems. Jamie +
3997: Zawinski has written a solution for this. +
3998:
3999: It does not work to put `set record filename' in the .mailrc file.
4000:
4001: 154: Why doesn't Emacs expand my aliases when sending mail?
4002:
4003: * You must separate multiple addresses in the headers of the mail buffer
4004: with commas. This is because Emacs supports RFC822 standard addresses
4005: like this one:
4006:
4007: To: Willy Smith <[email protected]>
4008:
4009: However, you do not need to separate addresses with commas in your
4010: .mailrc file.
4011:
4012: WARNING: Emacs breaks up aliases in the .mailrc file into multiple
4013: addresses both on commas and on whitespace, regardless of any use of
4014: quotes. This is probably a bug. You can get around this by directly
4015: setting the value of mail-aliases.
4016:
4017: * Emacs normally only reads the `.mailrc' file once per session, when you
4018: start to compose your first mail message. If you edit .mailrc, you can
4019: type "M-ESC (build-mail-aliases) RET" to make Emacs reread .mailrc.
4020: (You have to include the parentheses where they are shown!)
4021:
4022: * Emacs does not interpret vendor-specific additions to the format of the
4023: .mailrc file such as the `source' command. It also ignores any `set'
4024: commands. The only commands it looks at are `alias' and `group'
4025: commands.
4026:
4027: 155: Why does RMAIL think all my saved messages are one big message?
4028:
4029: There is a bug for FCC-ed messages in Emacs 18.58 where it adds a timezone
4030: on the "From " line after the year instead of before the year. (Before it
4031: didn't add the timezone at all.) This is incompatible with the standard
4032: format for the "From " line, and RMAIL in particular can no longer
4033: distinguish between the messages. Karl Berry <[email protected]>, Felix Lee
4034: <[email protected]>, Nick Gianniotis <[email protected]> and many
4035: others have all posted patches for this. Karl's is the simplest and just
4036: stops Emacs from adding the timezone:
4037:
4038: >*** ./ORIG/sendmail.el Tue Jan 28 16:22:56 1992
4039: >--- ./sendmail.el Thu May 14 18:23:48 1992
4040: >***************
4041: >*** 285,287 ****
4042: > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
4043: >! (current-time-string) " " timezone "\n")
4044: > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
4045: >--- 285,287 ----
4046: > (insert "\nFrom " (user-login-name) " "
4047: >! (current-time-string) "\n")
4048: > (insert-buffer-substring rmailbuf)
4049:
4050: 156: How can I sort the messages in my RMAIL folder?
4051:
4052: Use rmailsort.el by Masanobu Umeda.
4053:
4054: 157: Why does RMAIL need to write to /usr/spool/mail?
4055:
4056: This is the behavior of the `movemail' program which RMAIL uses. This
4057: indicates that movemail is configured to use lock files.
4058:
4059: RMS writes:
4060:
4061: Certain systems require lock files to interlock access to mail files.
4062: On these systems, movemail must write lock files, or you risk losing
4063: mail. You simply must arrange to let movemail write them.
4064:
4065: Other systems use the flock system call to interlock access. On these
4066: systems, you should configure movemail to use flock.
4067:
4068: 158: How do I recover my mail files after RMAIL munges their format?
4069:
4070: Users who just want to try RMAIL out to see how it works end up trapped
4071: using it because saved mail in their `mbox' file has been converted into
4072: an incompatible format (BABYL) that only RMAIL understands. RMAIL
4073: provides no obvious way to reverse this transformation. Kyle Jones has +
4074: aptly named this "the great Emacs Mail Eating Monster". To convert a mail +
4075: file back to standard Unix format, there are several methods:
4076:
4077: * Use the rmail-output ("C-o") command within RMAIL on each message in the
4078: file. First use M-x rmail or M-x rmail-input to visit the RMAIL file in
4079: Rmail mode. Type "1 j" to go to the first message. Use the C-o command
4080: to output the message to a Unix format file. Type "n" to go to the next
4081: message. Repeat.
4082:
4083: * If the file contains hundreds of messages, you may not want to repeat
4084: this for all of them. Instead of the above, after getting to the first
4085: message type this (where "mbox" is the file you want to put the messages
4086: in):
4087:
4088: C-x ( C-o mbox RET M-s ^From: RET M-0 C-x )
4089:
4090: (The rmail-search command ("M-s") is used instead of just "n" because it
4091: is the only command which will cause an error when it reaches the last
4092: message in the file, which is necessary to terminate the keyboard macro.
4093: This will fail if there are messages in the file that don't have a
4094: `From:' header. This assumes rmail-delete-after-output is nil.)
4095:
4096: It is wise to save a copy of the RMAIL file first, in case you make a
4097: mistake.
4098:
4099: * There are software packages available for converting files or even
4100: entire directories of BABYL files to standard Unix format. These are
4101: helpful in this situation, but are intended mainly for people who have
4102: used RMAIL for a long time and are converting to some other mail reader.
4103: Lookup `rmail', `vm', and `babyl' in the Emacs Lisp Archive (see
4104: question 89).
4105:
4106: You may wish to disable RMAIL to avoid accidentally destroying your mbox
4107: file (I have this in my .emacs):
4108:
4109: (put 'rmail 'disabled t) ; avoid mbox destruction
4110:
4111: 159: How do I make Emacs automatically start my mail/news reader?
4112:
4113: Example:
4114:
4115: emacs -f gnus
4116:
4117: Also:
4118:
4119: alias gnus 'emacs -f gnus'
4120:
4121: It is probably unwise to automatically start your mail or news reader from
4122: your .emacs file. This would cause problems if you needed to run two
4123: copies of Emacs at one time. Also, this would make it difficult for you
4124: to start Emacs quickly when you needed to.
4125:
4126: 160: How do I read news under Emacs?
4127:
4128: There are at least three news reading packages that operate inside Emacs.
4129: `rnews' comes with Emacs. GNUS and Gnews come separately. rnews will
4130: be replaced by GNUS in Emacs 19.
4131:
4132: rnews works only with a local news spool directory. Both GNUS and Gnews
4133: handle reading news remotely via NNTP in addition to reading from a local
4134: news spool. GNUS supports reading mail stored in MH folders or articles
4135: saved by GNUS.
4136:
4137: Gnews is styled after `rn' and seems to work like RMAIL. GNUS feels more
4138: like VM. People have complained that GNUS uses a lot of CPU time (it
4139: does). Some people have complained that Gnews is slower than GNUS.
4140:
4141: For more information about GNUS, see question 108.
4142:
4143: Gnews was written by Matthew P. Wiener <[email protected]>.
4144: The latest version seems to be 2.0, posted October 3, 1988. Matthew
4145: posted some fixes on October 26, 1988. Gnews does not appear to have been
4146: supported after this date. In particular, it has been reported that Gnews
4147: does not work with Emacs 18.57. There is a newsgroup for Gnews called
4148: gnu.emacs.gnews.
4149:
4150: 161: Why does `rnews' say "No News is good news" when there is news?
4151:
4152: rnews doesn't speak NNTP. You may need to use GNUS or Gnews.
4153:
4154: 162: Why doesn't GNUS work anymore via NNTP?
4155:
4156: There is a bug in NNTP version 1.5.10, such that when multiple requests
4157: are sent to the NNTP server, the server only handles the first one before
4158: blocking waiting for more input which never comes. NNTP version 1.5.11
4159: claims to fix this.
4160:
4161: You can work around the bug inside Emacs like this:
4162:
4163: (setq nntp-maximum-request 1)
4164:
4165: I also have a patch for NNTP 1.5.10 by Mike Pelletier
4166: <[email protected]> that is based on the timeout code that was in
4167: 1.5.9. However, please try to upgrade to 1.5.11 first.
4168:
4169: You can find out what version of NNTP your news server is running by
4170: telnetting to the NNTP port (usually 119) on the news server machine (ie.,
4171: `telnet server-machine 119'). The server should give its version number
4172: in the welcome message. Type `quit' to get out.
4173:
4174: 163: How do I view text with embedded underlining (eg., ClariNews)?
4175:
4176: Underlining appears like this:
4177:
4178: _^Hu_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hl_^Hi_^Hn_^Hi_^Hn_^Hg
4179:
4180: You can destructively remove underlining with M-x ununderline-region.
4181:
4182: For ClariNews articles, clari-clean.el by David N. Blank-Edelman
4183: <[email protected]> will remove both underlining and overstriking
4184: automatically.
4185:
4186: 164: When I try to post a long article in GNUS (about 10K or longer), I get
4187: the error, "Writing to process: no more processes, nntpd"
4188:
4189: Upgrade to Emacs 18.58.
4190:
4191: 165: How do I save all the items of a multi-part posting in GNUS?
4192:
4193: Use gnus-mark.el by Jamie Zawinski <[email protected]>.
4194:
4195: 166: Why does GNUS put the subjects in replies beyond the 80th column?
4196:
4197: This is a feature. If you set gnus-thread-hide-subject to non-nil, GNUS
4198: will only display the subject of the first posting in a thread, even if
4199: some of the replies use different subjects. It hides the subjects by
4200: putting them past the edge of the window and setting truncate lines to t.
4201:
4202: If your screen looks messed up, then for some reason truncate-lines in
4203: your `*Subject*' buffer has been set to nil. It should be set to t.
4204:
4205: (I have an enhancement to GNUS 3.13 that will make it only hide the subject
4206: of a posting when it is unchanged from the followed-up-to posting. Thus,
4207: you can use the subject hiding feature and still know when someone changes
4208: the subject. (I have forgotten who originally gave me the idea for this.))
4209:
4210: 167: Why is GNUS so slow to start up?
4211:
4212: GNUS does several things that take quadratic time of the number of
4213: newsgroups that are listed in .newsrc. The quick fix for this is to
4214: remove all the newsgroups in which you have no interest from your .newrc
4215: file by using GNUS's C-k command in the `*Newsgroup*' buffer after
4216: displaying all newsgroups with the L command. If you were to directly
4217: edit your .newsrc to remove the newsgroups, GNUS would add them back.
4218:
4219: GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for duplicates when the .newsrc
4220: file is newer than the .newsrc.el file (ie., you edited your .newsrc).
4221: GNUS uses a quadratic algorithm to check for new newsgroups every time it
4222: connects to the news server. {There may be other quadratic algorithms
4223: that I am not aware of.}
4224:
4225: You can speed up GNUS by using the C-k command in the *Newsgroup* buffer
4226: to remove newsgroups from your .newsrc file.
4227:
4228: Of course, GNUS will run faster if you make sure it is byte-compiled.
4229:
4230: Felix Lee wrote some enhancements called `gnus-speedups.el' that fix some +
4231: of the problems. See the Emacs Lisp Archive. +
4232:
4233: 168: How do I catch up all newsgroups in GNUS?
4234:
4235: In the `*Newsgroup*' buffer, type the following magical incantation:
4236:
4237: M-< C-x ( C-@ c y C-u C-@ C-e C-f C-f M-0 C-x )
4238:
4239: Leave off the "M-<" if you only want to catch up from point to the end of
4240: the `*Newsgroup' buffer.
4241:
4242: 169: Why can't I kill in GNUS on the Newsgroups/Keywords/Control line?
4243:
4244: GNUS 3.14.1 will complain that the `Newsgroups:', `Keywords:', and
4245: `Control:' headers are `Unknown header field's.
4246:
4247: For the `Newsgroups:' header, there is an easy workaround: kill on the
4248: `Xref' header instead, which will be present on any cross-posted article.
4249:
4250: If you really want to kill on one of these headers, you can do it like
4251: this:
4252:
4253: (gnus-kill nil "^Newsgroups: .*\\(bad\\.group\\|worse\\.group\\)")
4254:
4255: Various people (eg., Greg Holley <[email protected]>) have posted
4256: solutions to allow more efficient killing on these headers than the
4257: preceding solution. Masanobu Umeda plans to fix this problem.
4258:
4259: 170: How do I get rid of flashing messages in GNUS for slow connections?
4260:
4261: GNUS outputs "NNTP: Reading..." message and then clears them, over and
4262: over. In version 3.14.1 there is a variable named nntp-debug-read that
4263: can help. Johan Vromans <[email protected]> wrote a fix. Others have also written
4264: fixes.
4265:
4266: 171: Why is catch up slow in Gnews/GNUS?
4267:
4268: Because GNUS is marking crosspostings read. {I think it should do this at
4269: the time the article is read to spread out the load. Maybe someone will
4270: write the code to do this.}
4271:
4272: 172: Why does GNUS hang for a long time when posting?
4273:
4274: David Lawrence <[email protected]> explains: !
4275: !
4276: The problem is almost always interaction between NNTP and C News. NNTP !
4277: POST asks C News's inews to not background itself but rather hang around !
4278: and give its exit status so it knows whether the post was successful. !
4279: (That wait will on some systems not return the exit status of the !
4280: waited for job is a different sort of problem.) It ends up taking a !
4281: long time because inews is calling relaynews, which often waits for !
4282: another relaynews to free the lock on the news system so it can file the !
4283: article. !
4284: !
4285: My preferred solution is to change inews to not call relaynews, but !
4286: rather use newsspool. This loses some error-catching functionality, but !
4287: is for the most part safe as inews will detect a lot of the errors on !
4288: its own. The C News folks have sped up inews, too, so speed should look !
4289: better to most folks as that update propagates around. !
4290:
4291: 173: Why don't my news postings in GNUS get past the local machine?
4292:
4293: Three possible reasons: local distribution, C News date problem (see
4294: question 174, and the path problem. This piece of code may fix the path !
4295: problem for you: !
4296: !
4297: (setq gnus-use-generic-path t) !
4298:
4299: 174: Why is the GNUS-generated `Date:' header invalid?
4300:
4301: GNUS generates `Date:' headers without time zones. C-News's `inews'
4302: doesn't replace it with a valid header, but will generate it if not
4303: already there. If it is invalid, the article will not be forwarded
4304: properly. Quick fix:
4305:
4306: (defun gnus-inews-date () nil)
4307:
4308: I think this is fixed in GNUS 3.14.1 if you set gnus-news-system {?} to +
4309: Cnews. +
4310:
4311: 175: Why doesn't GNUS generate the `Lines:' header?
4312:
4313: GNUS was written for B news, which would generate the `Lines:' header. C
4314: news doesn't. There is a comment in C news's `inews' that you can
4315: uncomment to enable this functionality. Or you can have GNUS generate the
4316: header, for example:
4317:
4318: ;; idea by [email protected] (Jack Bryans)
4319: (defun add-lines-header ()
4320: ;; Count the number of lines in the current posting and insert the
4321: ;; header line Lines into the message.
4322: (save-excursion
4323: (goto-char (point-min))
4324: (if (search-forward "\n\n") ;; ***** I suspect this is wrong *****
4325: (let ((lines (count-lines (point) (point-max))))
4326: (forward-line -1)
4327: (insert-string "Lines: " lines "\n")))))
4328:
4329: Mike Williams <[email protected]> has written something similar.
4330:
4331: Ronald Florence <[email protected]> has a patch for GNUS that makes it
4332: calculate the `Lines:' header for incoming articles when necessary that
4333: works for sites with local news spools.
4334:
4335: David Lawrence <[email protected]> says that GNUS 3.14.1 generates Lines +
4336: if gnus-news-system is Cnews. +
4337:
4338: 176: Why do I get "Cannot open load file" "nntp" when compiling GNUS?
4339:
4340: Specifically, the error message is this:
4341:
4342: Error occurred processing gnus.el: File error (("Cannot open load file" "nntp"))
4343:
4344: This means that nntp.el is not in Emacs's load-path, which is easy to
4345: happen when compiling using the Makefile.
4346:
4347: Easiest solution: set EMACSLOADPATH in Makefile (idea from Glenn Gribble
4348: <[email protected]>):
4349:
4350: EMACSLOADPATH=/usr/local/emacs/lisp:.
4351: ELC= env EMACSLOADPATH=$(EMACSLOADPATH) emacs -batch -f batch-byte-compile
4352:
4353: Another solution, in hack.el put this:
4354:
4355: (defun gross-hack () (setq load-path (cons "/directory" load-path)))
4356:
4357: Then in Makefile:
4358:
4359: ELC= emacs -batch -l hack.el -f gross-hack -f batch-byte-compile
4360:
4361: 177: How do I kill all articles in GNUS but those matching a pattern?
4362:
4363: Example:
4364:
4365: ;; kill everything
4366: (gnus-kill "subject" "" nil nil)
4367: ;; then restore stuff by our favorite poster
4368: (gnus-kill "from" "good-guy"
4369: (function
4370: (lambda ()
4371: (if (eq ?X (char-after (save-excursion
4372: (beginning-of-line 1)
4373: (point))))
4374: (gnus-Subject-clear-mark-forward 1))))
4375: t)
4376:
4377:
This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.