Emacs
emacs is a powerful fullscreen editor with many capabilities. If the $DISPLAY variable is set, emacs will come up as an X client by default. Otherwise, emacs will run as a screen editor.
To edit a file, type:
[user@helix ~]$ emacs filename
A good way to get familiar with emacs is to type Ctrl-T, which will take you through a tutorial. Your arrow keys will enable you to move around the file. Most emacs commands are entered using the 'Ctrl' or 'Meta' keys. To use the command, hold down the Control (or Meta) key and hit the appropriate key. On most keyboards the 'Meta' key is the escape key.
A summary of emacs commands is below for your convenience:
| Command | What it does |
| Ctrl-h ? | Brief help menu |
| Ctrl-h t | Substantial tutorial |
| Ctrl-z | Suspend emacs process (fg to resume) |
| Ctrl-x Ctrl-c | Normal exit |
| Ctrl-x | Save current buffer |
| Ctrl-s | Save current buffer (1 or more buffers) |
| Ctrl-v | View next screen |
| Meta-v | View previous screen |
| Ctrl-l | Repaint screen, scroll/recenter at cursor |
| Ctrl-f | Advance one char |
| Meta-f | Advance one word |
| Ctrl-b | Back up one char |
| Meta-b | Back up one word |
| Ctrl-n | Vertical advance |
| Ctrl-p | Vertical backup |
| Ctrl-a | Start of current line |
| Meta-a | Start of current sentence |
| Ctrl-e | End of current line |
| Meta-e | End of current sentence |
| Meta-< | Top of file |
| Meta-> | bottom of file |
| Ctrl-u n | Repeat next command n times |
| Ctrl-g | Give up on current command |
| Ctrl-x u | Undo last command |
| Ctrl-x 1 | Leave only one window (chosen by cursor) |
| Ctrl-x o | Move cursor to other window |
| Meta-Ctrl-v | Scroll other window to its next screen |
| Ctrl-o | Open new line after the cursor |
| Del | Erase previous character |
| Ctrl-d | Delete current character |
| Meta-d | kill rest of word |
| Ctrl-k | Kill rest of line |
| Meta-k | Kill rest of sentence |
| Ctrl-u 0 Ctrl-K | Kill to line start |
| Ctrl-u 1 Meta-K | Kill to sentence start |
| Ctrl-y | Yank last kill to present location (paste type 1) |
| Meta-y | Replaced yanked text by kill ring entry |
| Ctrl-x Ctrl-f | Find new file for editing |
| Ctrl-x Ctrl-b | List buffers |
| Ctrl-x b | Change buffersMeta-x top-level<CR>Escape to top editing level |
| Meta-x auto-fill-mode<CR> | Toggle text autofill on/off |
| Meta-q | Re-fill text in current paragraph |
| Ctrl-s | Search forward incrementally |
| Ctrl-r | Search backward incrementally |
| Meta-Ctrl-s | Search forward incrementally for regular expression (see next p.) |
| Ctrl-@ | Set mark to current location (point) |
| Ctrl-x Ctrl-u | Change region to upper case |
| Ctrl-x Ctrl-l | Change region to lower case |
| Ctrl-w | Kill region (cut) |
| Meta-x copy-to-buffer<CR> | Save region to buffer |
| Ctrl-x x | Copy region into register |
| Ctrl-x g | Glue register contents into current location (paste type 2) |
| Meta-q | Re-fill region as text |
| Ctrl-x . | Set fill prefix to string left of point |
| Meta-Ctrl-\ | Indent region |
| Meta-x print-region<CR> | Get hard copy of region |
| Ctrl-x, Ctrl-q | Toggle read-only mode (alt: Meta-x toggle-read-only) |
| Meta-x replace-string<CR> | Global replace (will prompt for strings) |
| Meta-% | Interactive replace: space = yes del = no esc = stop ! = from now on ^ = backup one instance |
| Ctrl-t | Transpose two characters |
| Meta-t | Transpose two words |
| Ctrl-x Ctrl-t | Transpose two lines |
| Meta--, Meta-u | Change last word to upper case |
| Meta--, Meta-l | Change last word to lower case |
| Meta--, Meta-c | Capitalize first letter only of last word |
| Meta-$ | Check spelling of word |
| Meta-x ispell-buffer<CR> | Check spelling in whole buffer |
| Ctrl-x ( | Start keyboard macro definition |
| Ctrl-x ) | End kb macro definition |
| Ctrl-x e | Execute most recent kb macro |
| Ctrl-x d | Start directory editor |
| d | Mark entry for subsequent deletion |
| u | Unmark entry for subsequent deletion |
| x | Delete marked entries |
| n | Move to next entry |
| p | Move to previous entry |
| o | View current entry |
| Ctrl-x o | Switch cursor to other window |
| q | Quit directory editor |
