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 

• Here are the minimalist set of commands you should learn:

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!

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.

Additional commands can be found on this page.