Emacs Text Editor

Getting Started

Emacs keybindings use a shorthand notation: C- means hold Ctrl, and M- means hold Alt (Meta). For example, C-x C-s means press Ctrl+x, then Ctrl+s. Start Emacs with -nw to run it inside the terminal instead of opening a window.

$ emacs textfile.txt

$ emacs -nw textfile.txt

Key	Description
C-x C-f	Open a file
C-x C-s	Save current file
C-x C-w	Save as (write to a different file)
C-x C-c	Quit Emacs
C-g	Cancel current command or operation
C-/	Undo last change (also C-x u)

Stuck in a command you did not mean to start? C-g cancels almost anything. The built-in interactive tutorial is at C-h t.

Navigation

Movement commands come in pairs: C- moves by small units, M- moves by larger units.

Key	Description
C-f	Move forward one character
C-b	Move backward one character
M-f	Move forward one word
M-b	Move backward one word
C-n	Move to next line
C-p	Move to previous line
C-a	Move to beginning of line
C-e	Move to end of line
M-a	Move to beginning of sentence
M-e	Move to end of sentence
M-{	Move to beginning of paragraph
M-}	Move to end of paragraph
C-v	Scroll down one page
M-v	Scroll up one page
M-<	Move to beginning of buffer
M->	Move to end of buffer
M-g g	Jump to a line number
C-M-a	Move to beginning of function
C-M-e	Move to end of function

Editing

Mark a region with C-SPC to set the start point, then move the cursor to select text. Emacs says "kill" for cut and "yank" for paste.

Key	Description
C-SPC	Set mark (start of selection)
C-x h	Select the entire buffer
C-w	Cut (kill) selected region
M-w	Copy selected region
C-y	Paste (yank) last killed text
M-y	After C-y: cycle through earlier killed text
C-k	Kill from cursor to end of line
C-d	Delete character under cursor
M-d	Kill from cursor to end of word
TAB	Indent current line
C-x C-+	Increase text size
C-x C--	Decrease text size

Killed text accumulates in the kill ring, not just a single clipboard. Press C-y then repeat M-y to step back through everything you killed recently.

Search and Replace

Emacs uses incremental search: results appear as you type. Press C-s again to jump to the next match, Enter to stop at the current one, or C-g to cancel and return to where you started.

Key	Description
C-s	Search forward (incremental)
C-r	Search backward (incremental)
M-%	Search and replace (query mode)

In query replace, answer y to replace, n to skip, ! to replace all remaining, q to stop.

Buffers and Windows

Every open file lives in a buffer. Emacs can split the screen into multiple windows, each showing a buffer.

Key	Description
C-x 2	Split into top and bottom windows
C-x 3	Split into left and right windows
C-x 1	Close all windows except current
C-x 0	Close current window
C-x o	Switch to the next window
C-x b	Switch to a different buffer by name
C-x C-b	List all open buffers
C-x k	Kill (close) a buffer
C-x d	Open the directory browser (Dired)

Commands

Run any command by name with M-x followed by the command name. Every keybinding is a shortcut for one of these commands.

Key	Description
M-x eshell	Open a terminal shell inside Emacs
M-x toggle-word-wrap	Toggle word wrapping
M-x flyspell-mode	Toggle spell checking
M-x display-line-numbers-mode	Toggle line numbers
M-x visual-line-mode	Toggle visual line wrapping
M-x compile	Run a compile command
M-x package-list-packages	Browse and install packages

Getting Help

Emacs documents itself. The help system answers "what does this key do" and "which key runs this command".

Key	Description
C-h t	Open the interactive tutorial
C-h k	Describe what a key combination does
C-h f	Describe a function
C-h v	Describe a variable
C-h a	Search commands by keyword