Frequent Questions
3,491 questions
42
votes
2
answers
8k
views
How to evaluate the variables before adding them to a list?
The below obviously doesn't work and hence this question.
How do I correct the below code so that the value of somelist becomes '(("abc" . 123)) ?
(setq x "abc")
(setq y 123)
(setq somelist nil)
(...
- 26.2k
42
votes
6
answers
19k
views
Problems with keybindings when using terminal
I have the following line in init.el:
(global-set-key [(control \;)] 'comment-region)
It works very well in GUI window, but if emacs is invoked with the -nw option then C-; doesn't comment region, ...
28
votes
1
answer
5k
views
How do I troubleshoot Emacs problems?
In a situation where Emacs is not behaving like I want, what can I do to troubleshoot the problem? What steps can I take to find and fix the problem myself?
Or, failing that, how can I gather useful ...
- 23.1k
44
votes
1
answer
4k
views
What is the difference between a function and a command?
When posting questions and answers here, people sometimes use the terms "function" and "command" interchangeably. In other cases, people only use one of the two terms to discuss specific pieces of ...
- 14.9k
36
votes
1
answer
7k
views
Why do regular expressions created with the regex builder use syntax different from the interactive regular expressions?
So, using the regular expression builder (M-x re-builder), finding lines that end in \ takes "\\$", while in search and replace by regex, it only takes "\$". I would have expected the regex builder ...
- 2,301
63
votes
12
answers
9k
views
Synchronize packages between different machines
I use emacs in different places and I want to have a similar setup and packages installed everywhere. I guess I can use a version control repository for the setup files. Since I use Prelude, that ...
- 1,631
58
votes
6
answers
16k
views
How to override major mode bindings
Sometimes my global keybindings are overridden by a major mode. An easy example is the following setting in my init file
(global-set-key (kbd "C-j") 'newline-and-indent)
But annoyingly this ...
- 8,385
48
votes
2
answers
11k
views
What's the difference between a buffer, a file, a window, and a frame?
When posing questions on this site, people sometimes talk about "windows" when they mean "frames," and "buffers" or "files" when they mean "windows." So:
Q: What is the difference between a buffer, ...
Dan♦
- 33.6k
73
votes
5
answers
20k
views
How can I find out in which keymap a key is bound?
I have rebound a the 'd' key in gnus-article-mode, but its old behavior is still active when the point is on an attachment. I can see that the rebinding did not take effect there by doing C-h k d, but ...
- 935
20
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How to bind C-i as different from TAB?
I want to make Control-i perform indent-region (basically since Xcode has built that muscle memory already).
I realise that Control-i and tab are indistinguishable in the Ascii sense, but they are in ...
- 1,459
10
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to get the raw data for an org-mode agenda without an agenda view?
Q: How can I have org-mode return the raw data for an agenda view without actually creating an agenda view?
I'd like to access my agenda for an arbitrary day. However, I do not want to create an ...
Dan♦
- 33.6k
9
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How to modify-face for a specific buffer?
I work with a lot of tabular data files and use stripe-buffer.el make them easier to read. But I also work with more than one, so I'd like to make it easier to distinguish among them as well and want ...
- 3,777
15
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Shift+Up isn't recognized by Emacs in a terminal
Very often I use Shift+Up/Down to select a region in Emacs. It works fine in GUI mode, but when emacs is invoked with -nw option I can select lines only with Shift+Down. The Shift+Up doesn't work, I ...
37
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Is there a way to use query-replace from grep/ack/ag output modes?
I'm aware of find-grep-dired, marking the corresponding files and then pressing Q to run dired-do-query-replace-regexp on the marked files. Unfortunately that requires restarting the grep and no ...
- 4,289
23
votes
3
answers
5k
views
A faster method to obtain `line-number-at-pos` in large buffers
The function line-number-at-pos (when repeated about 50 times) is causing a noticeable slow-down in semi-large buffers -- e.g., 50,000 lines -- when point is near the end of the buffer. By slow-down, ...
- 19.6k