my emacs config

high-level features

I declared emacs bankruptcy and replaced a much more elaborate configuration with this one.

• use-package for package management
• hyrda for most custom key bindings
• ivy, counsel, and friends for search and navigation
• lsp-mode and Microsoft python language server for python development

installation

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/nhoffman/emacs-config .emacs.d

On first run, all dependencies should be installed by use-package.

shell environment

This configuration provides some commands (tested with bash and zsh) that are useful for using Emacs from the shell. In particular, if you are on a mac and have installed Emacs for OS X or compiled the Cocoa version, Emacs will be installed to /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs and emacsclient is found in /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient. These are aliased to emacs and emacsclient, respectively.

In addition, there are some shell commands that simplify running and using Emacs in server mode:

edaemon

launch the Emacs server daemon, removing any locked desktop files.

ec

attach to the Emacs server in GUI mode (emacsclient -c) in the background.

enw

attach to the Emacs server in terminal mode in place (emacsclient -nw).

e

open a file in an already open window (emacsclient -n).

Rather than copying the functions defined in init.bash elsewhere, I’d recommend sourcing it instead. For example, just place the following in your ~/.bash_login or ~/.zshrc or whatever (depending on your shell):

if [[ -f ~/.emacs.d/init.bash ]]; then
    source ~/.emacs.d/init.bash
fi

Here’s what this file looks like

cat init.bash

You will have to open a new terminal window for the shell commands above to become available. Once they are, you can launch the graphical version of emacs using:

emacs -c &

or the terminal version using

emacs -nw

A bit of explanation about Emacs server: the above two commands launch Emacs in an entirely new process. Using the Emacs server, you can run an Emacs server instance in the background and then “attach” either a graphical or terminal window as necessary. Working locally, you would do this by first starting the server:

edaemon

And then opening either a graphical or terminal window, for example:

ec

If you are subsequently working at the command line and you want to open somefile in an already-open Emacs window, you can use:

e somefile

(You can of course always open a file from within Emacs using many mechanisms, eg using C-c f).

Emacs server is particularly useful when you are running Emacs remotely on a server and you want to be able to log out and return to your work later: if you quit the terminal process using C-x C-c (M-x save-buffers-kill-terminal), the server continues running in the background. You can kill the server from within Emacs using M-x save-buffers-kill-emacs.

option as Meta (M-) on a Mac

I use Emacs from a variety of terminal types on my machines running OS X:

• the Cocoa version when working locally
• X11 when working remotely over a fast connection
• a terminal application when working remotely over a slow connection

I have done my best to configure all three to provide an experience that’s as comparable as possible. Here are some configuration suggestions to use the option key as Meta (M-), as opposed to Esc.

Cocoa

I just download it from http://emacsformacosx.com/ - as far as I can tell, option is used as Meta by default.

X11

I use XQuartz

Create the file ~/.Xmodmap as follows to use option as Meta in X11 (you’ll need to quit X11 for the changes to take effect):

cat > ~/.Xmodmap <<EOF
clear Mod1
clear Mod2
keycode 63 = Mode_switch
keycode 66 = Meta_L
add Mod1 = Meta_L
add Mod2 = Mode_switch
EOF

This post has more information on configuring X11.

Terminal

I prefer iTerm2 over Terminal.app

Head over to Preferences –> Profiles –> Keys and do these things:

• select “Left/right option key acts as”: +Esc (to use option as Meta)
• + –> Keyboard shortcut “OPT+<left arrow>”: Send Escape sequence “b”
• + –> Keyboard shortcut “OPT+<right arrow>”: Send Escape sequence “f”

The last two items cause option plus the right and left arrows to perform the same actions as M-f (forward-word) and M-b (backward-word) in both Emacs and in contexts that support default readline key bindings (which is just about everywhere).