Short Emacs Tutorial

--D. Thiebaut (talk) 18:41, 12 September 2015 (EDT)

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Emacs

Reference

• The page Emacs Quick Reference contains a list of most emacs commands you will ever need.
• There are also many tutorials on the Web on emacs.

Minimalist Set of Commands

• To create or edit a file called filename (replace with name you want to use for your file):

 emacs -nw filename

• Then enter text as simply as possible.
• To save the file and exit:

Control-X Control-C 

• To erase a character: Control-d
• To delete a line: Control-k
• To bring a deleted line back: Control-y
• To go down one page: Control-v
• To go up one page: Esc-v
• To go to the beginning of a line: Control-a
• To go to the end of a line: Control-e
• To replace a string (say "Better") with another string( say "Best" ):

  Esc % Return Better Return Best Return

Playing with the Emacs Editor

You will now get a copy of a file from a Web URL, and edit it. The file is called fulghum.txt and is a short story from Robert Fulghum's book All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten.

To get a copy of this file, type

  [aurora]$  wget http://cs.smith.edu/dftwiki/media/fulghum.txt

followed by the return key. Then edit the file with the command

  [aurora]$  emacs fulghum.txt

Simply work on the first paragraph of the file, and try to straighten it up. I have indicated below, on the right-hand side, which emacs commands you can use to fix the text on your screen.

Now                                                 |Join the lines together
    let                                             |(c-e) (c-k)
        me                                          |
tell you about Larry Walters, my hero.  Walters is  |
is is is is is is is is a truck driver,             |
thirty-three years old.  He is sitting in his lawn  |
chair in his backyard, wishing he could fly.  For   |
as long as he could remember, he wishing he go up.  |
as long as he could remember, he wishing he go up.  |< several copies of the
as long as he could remember, he wishing he go up.  |  same line here. Delete
as long as he could remember, he wishing he go up.  |  them with c-k
as long as he could remember, he wishing he go up.  |
To be able to just rise right up in the air and     |
see for a long way.  The time, money, education,    |
and opportunity to be a pilot were not his.  Hang   |
gliding was too ~!@#$%^&*()_+ dangerous, and any    |< Extra characters here!
good                                                |  remove them! (c-d)
place                                               |< Here again, Join lines
for                                                 |  together
gliding                                             |
was too far away.  So he he he he he he he          |< "he" repeated too many
spent a lot of summer afternoons sitting in his     |  times.  Use Esc-d
backyard in his ordinary old aluminum lawn          |
chair--the kind with the webbing and nails.  Just   |< Change word "nails"
like the one you've got in your backyard.           |  and replace by "rivets"
                                                    |
THE NEXT CHAPTER IN THIS STORY is carried by the    |< delete words and retype
newspapers and television.  There's old Larry       |  them in lower case
Walters up in the air over Los Angeles.  Flying at  |
last.  Really getting UP there.  Still sitting in   |
his aluminum lawn chair, but it's hooked on to      |
forty-five helium-filled surplus weather balloons.  |  In the lines below, find
Larry has a parachute on, a CB radio, a six-pack    |  every occurrence of ??
of beer, some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,   |  and replace it with the
and a BB gun to pop some of the balloons to come    |  word indicated in the
down.  And instead of being just a couple of        |  right column.
hundred feet over his neighborhood, he shot up      |  Use c-s to search for
eleven thousand feet, right through the approach    |  ??
corridor to the ?? International                    |> ?? --> Los Angeles
Airport                                             |
                                                    |
Walters is a ?? man.  When asked by the             |> ?? --> taciturn
press why he did it, he said: "You can't just sit   |
there." When asked if he was scared, he answered:   |
"Wonderfully so." When asked if he would do it      |
??, he said: "nope." And asked if he was glad       |> ?? --> again
that he did it, he grinned from ear to ear and      |
said: "Oh, yes." The human race sits in its ??.     |> ?? --> chair
On the once hand is the message that says there's   |
nothing left to do.  And the Larry Walterses of     |
the earth are busy tying balloons to their chairs,  |
directed by dreams and imagination to do their      |
thing.  The human race sits in its ??.  On the      |> ?? --> chair
one hand is the message that the human situation    |
is hopeless.  And the Larry Walterses of the earth  |
soar upward knowing anything is possible, sending   |
THIS WORDS SHOULD BE DELETED back the message from  |> Delete 5 words
eleven thousand feet: "I did it, I really did it.   |
I'm FLYING!"                                        |
                                                    |
It's the spirit here thAt counts.  The time mAy be  |> In this last chapter
long, the vehicle mAy be strAnge or unexpected.     |  all lower case letters
But if the dreAm is held close to the heArt, And    |  "a" have been replaced by
imAginAtion is Applied to whAt there is close At    |  uppercase letters "A".
hAnd, everything is still possible.  But wAit!      |  To change all of them at
Some cynic from the edge of the crowd insists thAt  |  once, position the
humAn beings still cAn't reAlly fly.  Not like      |  cursor on the first line
birds, AnywAy.  True.  But somewhere in some        |  and type the command:
little gArAge, some mAniAc with A gleAm in his eye  |
is scArfing vitAmins And minerAl supplements, And   |  ESC-X replace-string
prActicing flApping his Arms fAster And fAster.     |  (enter) A (enter) a
                                                    |
Robert Fulghum.

When you are done with the modification, or if you want to stop for right now and save your modifications, type C-x C-c, and press y when emacs asks if you want to save the file.

If you feel you need some more practice, you should find some time this week to go through the reference document listed at the top of this page.

Below is a summary of some useful emacs commands.

DEL/Shift Backspace	Delete previous character
c-d	Delete character at cursor
Esc-d	Delete word
c-k	Kill line
c-a	Go to beginning of line
c-e	Go to end of line
c-f	Move cursor 1 character forward
c-b	Move cursor 1 character backward
c-p	Move to previous line
c-n	Move to next line
c-x c-c	quit emacs and save file
c-x c-s	save file but remain in emacs
c-g	GE OUT OF TROUBLE!

Additional commands can be found on this page.