emacs_user-manual.org

Emacs User Manual

📝 NOTE: (for Beginners) I personally prefer Emacs built-in TUTORIAL first, which is very well documented and easy to understand. In this documentation I’ll use Ctrl as C, Alt as M, Shift as S, Space as SPC and BackSpace as BS.

This documentation is still in progress, so you better stick to it. cheers! 🍻

Table of Contents

• Basics of Emacs
  • Moving Around in the Buffer
  • Files
  • Asking input on quit
• Modeline
• Minibuffer
• Search
  • Search & Replace
• Regular Expression
• Mark, region and kill-ring
  • Block editing
• Getting Help
  • Menu
  • Meta Help
• Killing and Deleting
• Undo/Redo
• Tweaks
• Advance Editing
  • Emacs-lisp
  • Narrowing
  • Text conversion and transposition
  • Recursive Editing
  • Deleting Lines and Parts of Lines
• Buffers, Windows and Frames
  • Emacs Buffer
  • Emacs Window
  • Emacs Frame
• Repeat Command
• Built-In Programs
  • Dired Buffer
  • The Info manual
  • customize
  • eww
  • ses
  • Calender
• Shells
  • eshell
• emacsclient
  • What is so cool about the emacs server?
• SEXPS
• Fold/Unfold Blocks
• Bookmark
• Register
• Keyboard Macros
• Miscellaneous
  • Miscellaneous Text Commands
  • Commands for Matching Lines
  • Enter Numeric values
• Spelling Check
• ORG
• Conclusion

Basics of Emacs

Moving Around in the Buffer

General Shortcuts

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-n	next-line	move to next line (Down)
C-p	previous-line	move to previous line (Up)
C-f	forward-char	move forward one char (Right)
C-b	backward-char	move backward one char (Left)
M-f	forward-word	move one forward
M-b	backward-word	move one word backward
C-e	end-of-line	move to end of line
C-a	beginning-of-line	move to beginning of line
M-e	forward-sentence	move forward one sentence
M-a	backwards-sentence	move backwards one sentence
M-}	forward-paragraph	move forward one paragraph
M-{	backwards-paragraph	move backwards one paragraph
C-v	scroll-up	move forward one screen
M-v	scroll-down	move backward one screen
C-M-v	scroll-other-window	Scroll next window downward (when opened 2 >= windows)
C-M-S-v	scroll-other-window	Scroll next window upward
C-x [	forward-page	move forward one page
C-x ]	backward-page	move backward one page
M-<	beginning-of-buffer	move to beginning of file
M->	end-of-buffer	move to end of file
C-l	recenter-top-bottom	Scroll current line to center, top, bottom
M-C-l	reposition-window	make the current definition and/or comment visible.
M-r	reposition-point	without moving the text on the screen, reposition point
M-(n)	digit-argument	repeat the next command (N) times
C-u (n)	universal-argument	repeat the next command (N) times
M--	negative-argument	repeat the next command negative (N) times
M-g c	goto-char	goto char (N) of file
M-g TAB	move-to-column	move point to column in the current line.
M-g M-g	goto-line	goto line (N) of file
C-g	keyboard-quit	to cancel a command

Files

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-x C-f	find-file	find/create-new file and read it in a new buffer
C-x C-v	find-alternate-file	close current and open another
C-x C-w	write-file	write buffer contents (save buffer as a new file)
C-x i	inset-file	insert file at cursor position
C-x l	-	Report number of lines on current page.
C-x C-s	save-buffer	save current buffer in visited file if modified
C-x s	save-some-buffer	prompt to save any buffer that has been modified
C-u C-x s	-	save any buffer that has been modified with no questions
C-x C-c	save-buffers-kill-emacs	Offer to save each buffer, then kill Emacs
C-u C-x C-c	-	force save buffers and quit
C-x C-f M-p		open previously saved or opened
C-x d M-p RET R		rename previously saved or opened
C-x C-q	read-only-mode	toggle as read only
M-~	not-modified	mark buffer as unmodified
C-u M-~	-	mark buffer as modified
(none)	kill-emacs	force quit
C-z	suspend-emacs	Suspend Emacs temporarily
<insert>	overwrite-mode	toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode

Asking input on quit

• save file /home/Document ? (y, n, !, ., q, C-r, C-h)

  Key	Description
  y	Save the specific file
  n	Do not save the specific file
  !	to Save all of files at once and then Quit
  q	Quit immediately without saving
  .	Save the specific file and then Quit
  C-r	View the specific file
  C-h	Display help information

If you try to Quit when there are still files that are not Saved, Emacs will ask you to confirm your intentions. You’ll see a message like:

Modified buffer exist; exist anyway?(yes/no)

Modeline

Modeline: Near the bottom of each window is special line, which called Modeline.

Characters	Meaning
--	buffer has not been modified
**	buffer has been modified
%%	read only mode; buffer has not been modified
%*	read only mode; buffer has been modified

Minibuffer

Key Sequence	Action
M-p	previous input
M-n	recent input
TAB	complete name of buffer, file, symbol
C-i	same as previous
M-r <REGEXP> RET	search previous input backward with REGEXP
M-s <REGEXP> RET	search for previous input forward with REGEXP
M-r RET	search previous input backward again
M-s RET	search for previous input again
C-h e	show recently echoed messages
C-g	exit

Search

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-s	isearch-forward	incremental-search forward
C-r	isearch-backward	incremental-search backward
C-s C-s	isearch-repeat-forward	repeat previous search
C-r C-r	isearch-repeat-backward	repeat previous search backward
C-s C-w	isearch-yank-word	start with the word the cursor
C-s C-y	isearch-yank-line	start with the text from cursor
C-s M-y	isearch-yank-kill	start with the text from kill ring
M-p	previous-search-string	select PREVIOUS search string
M-n	next-search-string	select NEXT search string
M-s w	isearch-forward-word	forward incremental Word search
M-s w C-r	isearch-backward-word	backward incremental Word search
M-C-s	isearch-forward-regexp	forward incremental REGEXP search
M-C-r	isearch-backward-regexp	backward incremental REGEXP search

• Lower-case on searching is: (Case-Insensitive)
• Upper-case on searching is: (Case-Sensitive)

Search & Replace

Keystrokes	Command Name	Description
M-%		Query: search and replace
M-C-%		Query: search and replace (REGEXP)
(none)	replace-string	No query: search and replace
(none)	replace-regexp	No query: search and replace (REGEXP)
C-x ESC ESC	repeat-complex-command	Edit and re-evaluate last complex command
M-p		to see previous
M-n		to see next

Regular Expression

Basic character you can use to create a regular expression.

Character	Description
(char)	any regular character matches itself.
.	match any single character except RET and (like ? in file name).
*	match zero or more of the preceding char.
+	match one or more of the preceding char.
?	match exactly zero or more of the preceding char.
^	match the beginning of a line.
$	match the end of a line.
\<	match the beginning of a word.
\>	match the end of a word.
\b	match the beginning or end of a word.
\B	match anywhere not at the beginning or end of a word.
\d	matches any single digit(0-9).
\D	matches any char but a digit.
\`	match the beginning of the buffer.
'	match the end of the buffer.
\(char)	quotes a special character.
[ ]	match one of the enclosed characters.
[^ ]	match any character that is not enclosed.
\s	match any whitespace character, space, newline, tab, carriage, return, backspace
\S	matches any char except whitespace.
\w	matches any “word” char (upper-lower letters, digit, underscore).
\W	matches any char but not these (upper-lower letters, digit, underscore).

e.g. search for the characters (Welcome) at the beginning of a line, press M-C-s and type ^Welcome.

• IMHO the standard way is:
  1. Go to the top of your buffer.
  2. Type C-M-% for query-replace-regexp.
  3. Input ^\s-+ as regular expression and RET. (See explanation below.)
  4. Leave the replacement string empty, i.e., press RET again.
  5. You are prompted by query-replace-regexp in the minibuffer.
  6. Press ! to perform all replacements at once.
• Explanation of the regular expression:

1. The caret ^ stands for the beginning of line.
2. The \s- stands for any character designated as space by the current modes syntax table.
3. The + stands for one or more contiguous matches.

Mark, region and kill-ring

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-@ / C-SP	set-mark-command	activate mark where point is
C-x C-x	exchange-point-and-mark	exchange location
M-h	mark-paragraph	move the point to the beginning
C-M-h	mark-defun	mark the whole function
M-w	kill-region-save	copy the region
C-x C-p	mark-page	marks the entire page
C-x h	mark-whole-buffer	select the whole buffer
M-@	set mark after next word	do not move point
ESC n M-@	” ” more than one word	use a prefix argument(n)
C-M-@	” ” after current sexp	without moving point

• Using set-mark-command to Remember Locations

Key Sequence	Action
C-SPC C-SPC	Push current position onto mark ring
C-u C-SPC	Return to previous position in the same buffer
C-x C-SPC	Return to previous position, which may or may not be in the same buffer

Block editing

Keystrokes	Action
C-x r t	(string-rectangle) inserts text at every line in the rectangle

• C-x C-@ / C-x C-SPC
  • (pop-global-mark) Pop off global mark ring and jump to the top location. The global mark ring is updated automatically

Getting Help

Menu

Key	Command Name	Action
M-`		text interaction with drop-down menu
F10		same as (M-`)
(none)	menu-bar-mode	toggle existence of drop-down menu
(none)	tool-bar-mode	toggle existence of clickable tool bar

Meta Help

The help system is simple. Type C-h (or F1) and follow the directions. If you are a first-time user, type C-h t for TUTORIAL.

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-h	help command	enter into Emacs help system
C-h ?	help-for-help	runs the command help-for-help
C-h C-h	help-for-help	-
C-h t	help-with-tutorial	start Emacs TUTORIAL
C-h c <key> RET	describe-key-briefly	what is command for KEY
C-h k <key> RET	describe-key	describe command for KEY
C-h w <command> RET	where-is	where is key binding for COMMAND
C-h m	describe-mode	show the current buffers modes
C-h o	describe-symbol	display the full documentation of SYMBOL.
C-h b	describe-bindings	show current key bindings
C-x C-h	-	list bindings starting with C-x (see “key” below)
C-c C-h	-	list bindings starting with C-c (see “key” below)
C-h a	apropos-command	list commands matching search
C-u C-h a	-	list commands and functions matching search
C-h f function	describe-function	describe FUNCTION
M-x M-p C-h f RET	-	describe last command executed with M-x
C-h v <variable> RET	describe-variable	describe and show values for VARIABLE
C-h l	view-lossage	display last few input keystrokes and the commands run.
C-h x	describe-command	help info for a command (a function available using M-x)
C-h h	view-hello-file	lists many languages and characters
C-h e	view-echo-area-messages	view the log of recent echo-area messages

• Info help

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-h i	info	open directory of manuals
C-h i m	-	go to info and SELECT m for menu
C-h r	-	Emacs info manual
C-h F	-	Emacs FAQ
C-h C-a	about-emacs	display the *About GNU Emacs* buffer
C-h s	describe-syntax	in the syntax table of BUFFER.
C-h S	info-lookup-symbol	find description of symbol in manual

Killing and Deleting

Keystrokes	Action
C-d	delete char under cursor
BS	delete previous char
M-z char	kill from cursor upto char
M-^	join this line to previous and fix up whitespace at join
M-\	delete all SPC & TABS around point (either side of point)
M-SPC	delete all SPC & TABS around point, leaving one space.
M-d	delete next word
M-BS	delete previous word
C-k	delete from the cursor to end-of-line
M-k	delete next sentence
C-M-k	kill the sexp (balanced expression) following point.
C-S-BS	delete entire line the point is on
C-x BS	delete previous sentence
C-x C-o	get rid off all blank line around current line except one
C-y	restore what you’ve deleted (YANK LAST KILL)
C-u C-y	cursor at beginning
M-y	REPLACE YANKED with PREVIOUS KILL
C-w	delete a marked region
M-w	copy the region (so it can be pasted with C-y)
M-C-w	append next kill to newest kill ring entry

Undo/Redo

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-_ or C-/	undo	Undo some previous changes.
C-g C-_ or C-?	undo-redo	Undo the last undos, i.e. Redo the last changes
(none)	revert-buffer	to Undo all-changes made since you last saved the file.

Tweaks

• Attention: This topic here is only applicable for my personal configuration of GNU Emacs. If you’re using my config than it’s totally fine, go ahead and use as it say’s. 👍🏼

Keystrokes	Action
C-c t	Toggle ON/OFF transparency.
C-c T	Change themes, choose your desired one and press Enter
C-F5	Toggle (display-line-numbers-mode-relative)
M-(0-5)	Change workspace (eyebrowse)
C-`	Copy current line
C-h	(backward-delete-char), same as using BackSpace in Emacs
C-S-H	(kill-whole-line)
C-w	(backward-kill-word)
C-q	(kill-region)
C-z	(undo-only)
C-S-z	(undo-tree-redo)
C-!	Eshell
M-p	previous-buffer
M-n	next-buffer
M-o	other-window
C-.	other-window
C-,	previous-window
C-S-r	rename-file
C-c D	Delete-current-file
C-x C-l	toggle-truncate-lines

Advance Editing

Keystrokes	Action
M-/	(dabbrev-expand) Expand previous word “dynamically”
C-M-o	split line at point
M-m	move to the first nonblank character on the current line
C-M-\	Indent several lines to same column
C-x TAB	Shift block of lines rigidly right or left
C-q TAB	Insert a literal \T
M-i / C-i	Indent from point to the next prespecified tab stop column

Emacs-lisp

• M-x eval-region
• M-x eval-buffer
• M-x load-file ~/.emacs.d/init.el
• M-x revert-buffer

Narrowing

Keys	Description
C-x n n	Narrow down to between point and mark (‘narrow-to-region’).
C-x n w	Widen to make the entire buffer accessible again (‘widen’).
C-x n p	Narrow down to the current page (‘narrow-to-page’).
C-x n d	Narrow down to the current defun (‘narrow-to-defun’).

Text conversion and transposition

• M-l, M-u, M-c: lowercase, uppercase, capitalize first character
• C-t, M-t, C-M-t, C-x C-t: transpose character, word, expression, line

Keystrokes	Description
M-l	change following word to lowercase
M-u	change following word to uppercase
M-c	change following word initial letter capital
M-- l	change previous word to lowercase
M-- u	change previous word to uppercase
M-- c	change previous word initial letter capital
C-x C-l	Convert the region to lower case
C-x C-u	Convert the region to upper case
C-t	Transpose two adjacent characters and move point forward by one
M-t	Transpose two adjacent word
C-M-t	Transpose two adjacent expression
C-x C-t	Transpose two adjacent consecutive lines
C-u 2 M-z e	delete all characters to the 2nd occurrence of e
M-- M-z e	delete all characters to the previous occurrence of e
C-u -4 M-z e	delete all characters to the 4th previous occurrence of e

Recursive Editing

Let’s say you are in middle of a long search and replace operation, and you happen to notice a different change you want to make. At such a times, it can be inconvenient to stop what you are doing just to make a single change. However, if you wait until your search and replace operation is finished, you may forgot what it was you wanted to change.

Instead you can press C-r. This pauses the search and replace, and put you back into a recursive editing environment. You can now make any change you want. When you are finished, press M-C-c. This will stop recursive editing and return you to the search and replace operation, exactly where you left. Or, C-] (abort-recursive-editing)

Whenever you press C-r, Emacs will put square brackets [ and ] around the name of the mode on your modeline.

Another way to start recursive editing during a search and replace operation is by pressing C-w. This will delete the current matching pattern and then start recursive editing.

Keystrokes	Description
C-]	exit recursive edit
C-M-c	cancel recursive edit
C-[ C-c	same as (C-M-c)
(top-level)	cancel all

Deleting Lines and Parts of Lines

Key Sequence	Action
C-0 C-k	Delete from point to beginning of line
C-S-BS	Delete entire line the point is on

Buffers, Windows and Frames

Emacs Buffer

• The Emacs object containing text
• Buffer != file: a file can be opened in multiple buffers
• C-x C-f, C-x C-b, C-x k: open file, switch buffer, kill buffer

Emacs Window

• The Emacs object showing a buffer
• Emacs’ window != window in Linux/Windows (Emacs calls it frame)
• C-x 0, 1, 2, 3: delete, maximize, split horizontally/vertically
• C-x {, }, ^, _: shrink, enlarge horizontally/vertically

Keystrokes	Description
C-x 0	Delete the selected window
C-x 1	Delete all windows except selected window
C-x 2	split selected window vertically
C-x 3	split selected window horizontally
C-x o	move cursor to the next(other) window
C-x }	make selected window wider
C-x {	make selected window narrower
C-x ^	make selected window larger
shrink-window	make selected window smaller
Keystrokes	Description
C-x b	Display a different buffer in selected window
C-x b	Create a new buffer in selected window
C-x 4 b	Display a different buffer in next window
C-x C-b o	open a file in other-window from Buffer List
C-x 4 C-o	same as(C-x 4 b) but don’t change selected window
C-x C-b	Display a list of all buffers
C-x k	kill (delete) a buffer
C-x 4 C-f	read contents of file into next window
C-x 4 f	same as (C-x 4 C-f)
C-x 4 r	same as (C-x 4 C-f), but in read-only mode

Note: Use C-x b for creating a new buffer only when you don’t want to save.

Emacs Frame

Keystrokes	Action
C-x 5 2	to open a new frame
C-x 5 o	to go to another frame
C-x 5 f	open a frame on particular name of file
C-x 5 C-f	same as (C-x 5 f)
C-x 5 b	to move to a buffer and put it in a new frame

Repeat Command

Keystrokes	Command Name	Description
C-x z	repeat	Repeat most recently executed command.
C-x ESC ESC	repeat-complex-command	Edit and re-evaluate last complex command.
M-p		to see previous
M-n		to see next

Built-In Programs

You can quit any Emacs build-in-program by pressing q.

Dired Buffer

Using dired as a file manager in Emacs 💪

One of the great things about it is that it also supports all of the abstractions that Emacs does, like TRAMP for accessing remote machines.

C-x d (dired-at-point) - Prompt for directory and open dired there C-x C-j (dired-jump) - to the name of the current file, in dired

Once inside of dired, you can navigate and perform actions with the following:

Key	Action
n / p	next-line/previous-line
RET	open a file or directory
f	open the file
e	open the file
o	open the file in the other window (alongside)
C-o	preview file but stay in dired buffer
X	execute shell command on file
!	perform a shell function on the file
&	perform a shell function asynchronously on the file
(	hide/unhide details for the listing
^	go up one directory
+	prompt to create a directory
Z	compress or uncompress file at point
g	refresh buffer
h	display help summery
i	insert the sub-directory at point
j	jump to a location in dired
k	remove section, work with previous argument(C-u k)
C	copy the file to a location
R	rename/move the file to a location
M	chmod a file (change permissions)
O	chown a file (change owner)
G	chgrp a file (change group)
q	quit/close the dired window

• Mark/Unmark

Key	Description
m	Mark current file/directory, move cursor down
BS	Unmark current file/directory, move cursor up
u	Unmark not-current file/directory, move cursor down
U	Unmark all files/directories
R	Move marked file or current file to another directory
Q	query replace marked files

• Deleting

Key	Description
d	Flag file for Deletion.
x	Delete files flagged by (d).
D	Delete directly without marking.

• Writable Dired

Key	Description
C-x C-q	Enter into editable mode from read-only mode
C-c C-c	Save and quit editing mode
C-c Esc	Abort changes and quit editing mode

Regular Expression

In order to mark the items that are matched by the search terms.

• % and then m

Let’s search for all the files whose ending is .el by entering .el in minibuffer.

Now you can see item has been marked is by the astrict(*) sign on the left side of window.

• Toggle the mark by pressing: t

It’ll reverse the matching terms. So instead of matching items, it do reverse of selection.

The Info manual

Keystrokes	Purpose
[, ]	previous/next node
l, r	go back/forward History
n, p	previous/next sibling node
u	goes up one level to a parent node
SPC	scroll one screen at a time
TAB	cycle through cross-references and links
RET	opens the active link
m	prompts for a menu item name and opens it
q	close the Info Buffer

customize

• Tools to help you change user options.

Commands	Description
emacs-init-time	run time of loading user init file
customize	main menu
customize-variable	variable
customize-apropos	search
customize-mode	mode
global-set-key	define key binding
local-set-key	define key binding for current buffer
normal-mode	reread settings in file local variables
display-time	show clock, system load and email flag in mode line
display-time-mode	turn off
display-time-world	show times around the world
display-battery-mode	show system power
size-indication-mode	show size in mode line
column-number-mode	show column number in mode line
toggle-indicate-empty-lines	show end of file in fringe
ruler-mode	add a ruler to the current buffer’s window
menu-bar-mode	toggle existence of drop-down menu
tool-bar-mode	toggle existence of clickable tool bar
scroll-bar-mode	toggle scroll bar
toggle-scroll-bar	toggle scroll bar in current frame
blink-cursor-mode	toggle blinking of cursor
normal-erase-is-backspace-mode	fix delete and backspace keys

eww

eww: Emacs web browser.

ses

ses: create and edit spreadsheet files.

Calender

• Calendar and Diary

Shells

Keystrokes	Command Name	Description
M-!	shell command	Execute string COMMAND in inferior shell; display output, if any.
M-│	shell-command-on-region	Execute string COMMAND in inferior shell with region as input.
M-x	shell	start a separate shell in it’s own Buffer.
C-u M-│		run shell command in buffer region

e.g. First select the region for formatted then enter into shell by pressing M-|. And then enter command fmt -w 80 to set width and show result on minibuffer.

Enter into shell by: M-x shell. Look at the menu: you have several keys to interact with the shell. Some of them are:

Key	Action
M-p / C-up	fetch previous input of command line
M-n / C-down	fetch next input of command line
M-r	search backward a regexp in cmnd history. C-r to cycle
C-c C-x	fetch the next subsequent command from the history
C-c .	fetch one argument from an old shell command
C-c C-l	display the buffer’s history of shell cmnd in another window
C-c r	go to beginning of output
C-c p	go to beginning of previous output group
C-c c	send the C-c command to the shell
C-c o	delete the output of the last command

eshell

Command History and Prompt Key Bindings

Eshell comes with a feature-rich command history facility. Because Eshell does not use comint-mode it does not have all the history features available to it, but most of the common ones do exist.

Keystrokes	Action
M-r / M-s	search backwards/forwards for a command by regexp
M-p / M-n	goes backwards/forwards in the command history list
C-a / C-e	move to the beginning or end of line
C-c C-o	kills the output of the previous command
C-c M-b	inserts the printed buffer name at point
C-c M-i	inserts the printed process name at point
C-c M-v	inserts an environment variable name at point
C-c M-d	toggles between direct input and delayed input (send on RET)
C-c C-p / C-c C-n	jump to the previous/next cmnd prompt in Eshell
C-c M-r / C-c M-s	eshell-previous/next-matching-input-from-input

• Unfortunately, the search-as-you-type history search in M-x shell (bound to M-r) is not implemented in Eshell.

Because I program a lot, I tend to use M-m instead of C-a to move to the beginning of the line. M-m skips indentation and moves to the first non-whitespace char, unlike C-a.

That command does not work in Eshell, for obvious reasons, but you can rebind it to the same key as C-a:

(define-key eshell-mode-map (kbd "M-m") 'eshell-bol)

History Interaction

You can rewrite previous commands found in Eshell’s history. The syntax is similar to what you find in bash, but it’s just a subset of the most common features. It’s probably easier to refer you to the bash info manual for detailed information on how the history interaction works. I’ve included a small table below that describes most of the history syntax Eshell supports.

You may also want to read my article on Shell & Comint Secrets: History commands. Although it concerns comint-mode-derived things, it’s useful to know about anyway.

Chars	Action
!!	repeats the last command
!ls	repeats the last command beginning with ls
!?ls	repeats the last command containing ls
$_	returns the last parameter in the last executed command
!ls:n	extract the nth argument from the last cmnd beginning with ls
!ls<tab>	using pcomplete, show completion results matches ls
^old^new	using the last command, replaceold with new and run it again

• Commandline Interaction

Eshell also has some support for bash history modifiers (like !!:s/old/new/) and the bash reference on history interaction would be a good place to brush up on that.

You can use \ to escape newlines and it supports rudimentary multi-line input that way.

Another way of doing multi-line literal strings is with single quotes: begin a single quote and hit enter, and you are free to enter text until the closing quote delimiter is encountered. If you use double quotes Eshell will expand subshell commands and do variable expansion. In this sense it’s quite similar to bash, though without the support for bash heredocs.

emacsclient

An Emacs server creates a special emacs process that listens on a socket for connecting to it. This way the initialisation is already done before you connect to it and all configurations are already loaded. This is the actual “slow” part of emacs. And is a bit similar to starting python, which also needs to load its libraries at start.

With the emacs server running, you can connect to it using the emacsclient program.

alias vim='emacsclient -nw'

What is so cool about the emacs server?

Saving a lot of response time and making working with emacs feel much faster is the obvious advantage. However, there is a much bigger one:

With the emacs server, you can connect to it from the terminal and X Window. Because the emacs server also manages the buffers (“open files” for non-emacs users), you can view the same open file from the terminal or an x window.

Emacs does “chunk-wise” completion of these strings, too? For example, M-x j-p-p-b <tab> completes to M-x json-pretty-print-buffer

SEXPS

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-M-f	forward-sexp	Move forward by s-expression.
C-M-b	backward-sexp	Move backward by s-expression.
C-M-d	down-list	Move forward down one level of parentheses.
C-M-u	backward-up-list	Move backward out of one level of parentheses.
C-M-n	forward-list	Move forward across one balanced group of parentheses.
C-M-p	backward-list	Move backward across one balanced group of parentheses.
C-M-k	kill-sexp	Kill the sexp (balanced expression) following point.

• Selecting words or sexps without moving the cursor:

Keystrokes	Action
C-M-SPC M-w	This does not move the cursor
C-M-SPC C-M-SPC M-w	If you want to select the next two words after point
C-M-SPC C-w	Killing next word or sexp
C-M-K	Killing next word or sexp

Fold/Unfold Blocks

Fold/Unfold code blocks with hs-minor-mode

Key binding	Hideshow mode	Key binding	Outline minor mode
C-c @ C-a	hs-show-all	C-c @ TAB	outline-show-children
C-c @ C-c	hs-toggle-hiding	C-c @ C-k	outline-show-branches
C-c @ C-d	hs-hide-block	C-c @ C-o	outline-hide-other
C-c @ C-e	hs-toggle-hiding	C-c @ C-q	outline-hide-sub-levels
C-c @ C-h	hs-hide-block	C-u n C-c @ C-l	Hide all blocks n levels below this block
C-c @ C-l	hs-hide-level
C-c @ C-s	hs-show-block
C-c @ C-t	hs-hide-all
C-c @ ESC	Prefix Command
C-c @ C-M-h	hs-hide-all
C-c @ C-M-s	hs-show-all

• hs-isearch-open
  • Specifies what kind of hidden blocks to open in isearch-mode.

The value should be one of these four symbols.

• code (open only code blocks)
• comment (open only comments)
• t (open both code blocks and comments).
• nil (open neither code blocks nor comments)
• hs-special-modes-alist
  • A list of elements, each specifying how to initialize Hideshow variables for one major mode. See the variable’s documentation string for more information.

Bookmark

Note that some commands (especially ones which are liable to move you an unknown or arbitrary distance from your original location) will automatically push to the mark ring so that you can use C-u C-SPC to return afterwards. This includes isearch, so after using C-s to go somewhere, you can easily jump back again.

Shortcut	Command Invoked	Description
C-x r m	bookmark-set	Create / set bookmark.
C-x r b	bookmark-jump	Open bookmark.
C-x r l	bookmark-bmenu-list	List bookmarks.

• Delete Bookmark
  • go to Bookmark and Select by pressing d than to Delete press x

Register

Specify a prefix on copy/move commands to delete the original.

Key Sequence	Function
C-x r s ρ	Copy position to register ρ
C-x r j ρ	Jump to the position in register ρ
C-x r s ρ	Copy/Move region to register ρ
C-x r i ρ	Insert object in register ρ at point
C-x r r ρ	Copy/Move rectangle to register ρ
C-x r w ρ	Copy current frame config to register ρ
C-x r f ρ	Copy all frame configs to register ρ
C-u N C-x r n ρ	Insert N into register ρ
C-u I C-x r + ρ	Increment register ρ by I

If you’re taking advantage of register functionality in elisp, use some non-conflicting symbol for the name, rather than a char, so that you can’t conflict with interactively-set registers (unless, of course, you want to do that).
The register retains this information until you store something else in it.

If you use (C-x r j) to go to a saved position, but the buffer it was saved from has been killed, (C-x r j) tries to create the buffer again by visiting the same file. Of course, this works only for buffers that were visiting files.

Keyboard Macros

Shortcut	Command Invoked	Description
C-x (	kmacro-start-macro	Define keyboard macro (Start recording key strokes)
C-x )	kmacro-end-macro	End keyboard macro definition (Stop and save recording key strokes)
C-x e	kmacro-end-and-call-macro	Playback keyboard macro, can just keep pressing e after first press
C-x C-k SPC	kmacro-step-edit-macro	Open keyboard macro debugger
C-x C-k e	edit-kbd-macro	Enter macro editor, (C-c C-c) to finish editing
C-x C-k n	kmacro-name-last-macro	Save the keyboard macro for later use
	insert-kbd-macro	Insert a saved macro into the file, in Emacs lisp

Miscellaneous

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
(none)	emacs-uptime	show time since Emacs started
(none)	auto-fill-mode	turn ON/OFF auto-fill-mode
M-q	fill-paragraph	fill paragraph at or after point
ESC 1 M-q	-	justify and Fill paragraph at or after point
(none)	fill-region	fill each paragraph in the region
ESC 1 M-x	fill-region	justify and Fill each paragraph in the region
(none)	”-“-as-paragraph	fill region as one long paragraph
ESC 1 M-x	-	justify and Fill region as one long paragraph
C-x f	set-fill-column	set the fill column value
M-=	count-words-region	count lines, words and characters in the region
C-q char	quoted-insert	read next input character and insert it

Miscellaneous Text Commands

Key	Command	Action
M-o M-s	center-line	Center line (n lines with prefix n)
C-M-w	append-next-kill	Append next kill
(none)	linum-mode	Turn on line numbers in left fringe

Commands for Matching Lines

COMMAND	ALIAS	ACTION
keep-lines	delete-non-matching-lines	Delete lines not matching regexp
flush-lines	delete-matching-lines	Delete lines matching regexp
how-many	count-matches	Count lines matching regexp
occur	list-matching-lines	Show lines matching regexp in another buffer
highlight-lines-matching-regexp	hi-lock-line-face-buffer	Highlight lines matching regexp
multi-occur		Occur on multiple buffers
multi-occur-in-matching-buffers		Occur on buffers chosen by regexp

Enter Numeric values

Insert integer trough a significant point

• C-10 C-u 0
  • will give 10 zeros after the point.
• C-x C-b o
  • open a file in other-window from Buffer List

Spelling Check

Interface To Spell (Ispell) and On The Fly Spell (Flyspell)

Shortcut	Command Invoked	Description
M-$	ispell-word	check and correct spelling of word under or before the cursor
M-TAB	completion-at-point	complete the word before point based on the spelling dictionary
C-M i	-	-
C-c $	flyspell-correct-word-before-point	Correct word before point
M-x	ispell-buffer	check the current buffer for spelling errors
-	ispell-region	check a region for spelling errors
-	flyspell-mode	Enable Fly-spell mode, which highlights all misspelled words
-	flyspell-prog-mode	Enable Fly-spell mode for comments and strings only
-	flyspell-buffer	Check and correct spelling in the buffer

ORG

This topic Org is pretty huge on it’s own. So, I made a separate manual for org-mode and moved everything about org-mode there.
Please, check this out here: 👉🏽 ORG-user-manual.

Conclusion

For more you can go here: Reference Sheet by Aaron Hawley