1XEMACS(1) General Commands Manual XEMACS(1)
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6 xemacs - Emacs: The Next Generation
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9 xemacs [ command-line switches ] [ files ... ]
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12 XEmacs is a version of Emacs, compatible with and containing many
13 improvements over GNU Emacs, written by Richard Stallman of the Free
14 Software Foundation. It was originally based on an early release of
15 GNU Emacs Version 19, and has tracked subsequent releases of GNU Emacs
16 as they have become available.
17 The primary documentation of XEmacs is in the XEmacs Reference Manual,
19 which you can read on-line using Info, a subsystem of XEmacs. Please
20 look there for complete and up-to-date documentation. Complete docu‐
21 mentation on using Emacs Lisp is available on-line through the XEmacs
22 Lisp Programmer's Manual. Both manuals also can be printed out nicely
23 using the TeX formatting package.
24 The user functionality of XEmacs encompasses everything other Emacs
26 editors do, and it is easily extensible since its editing commands are
27 written in Lisp.
28 XEmacs has an extensive interactive help facility, but the facility
30 assumes that you know how to manipulate XEmacs windows and buffers.
31 CTRL-h enters the Help facility. Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t) requests an
32 interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the fundamentals of
33 XEmacs in a few minutes. Help Apropos (CTRL-h a) helps you find a com‐
34 mand given its functionality, Help Key Binding (CTRL-h k) describes a
35 given key sequence's effect, and Help Function (CTRL-h f) describes a
36 given Lisp function specified by name. You can also look up key
37 sequences in the XEmacs Reference Manual using Lookup Key Binding
38 (CTRL-h CTRL-k), and look up Lisp functions in the XEmacs Lisp Program‐
39 mer's Manual using Lookup Function (CTRL-h CTRL-f). All of these help
40 functions, and more, are available on the Help menu if you are using a
41 window system.
42 XEmacs has extensive GUI (graphical user interface) support when run‐
44 ning under a window system such as X, including multiple frames (top-
45 level windows), a menubar, a toolbar, horizontal and vertical scroll‐
46 bars, dialog boxes, and extensive mouse support.
47 XEmacs has full support for multiple fonts and colors, variable-width
49 fonts, and variable-height lines, and allows for pixmaps to be inserted
50 into a buffer. (This is used in the W3 web-browsing package and in some
51 of the debugger and outlining interfaces, among other things.)
52 XEmacs's Undo can undo several steps of modification to your buffers,
54 so it is easy to recover from editing mistakes.
55 XEmacs's many special packages handle mail reading (VM, MH-E and RMail)
57 and sending (Mail), Usenet news reading and posting (GNUS), World Wide
58 Web browsing (W3), specialized modes for editing source code in all
59 common programming languages, syntax highlighting for many languages
60 (Font-Lock), compiling (Compile), running subshells within XEmacs win‐
61 dows (Shell), outline editing (Outline), running a Lisp read-eval-print
62 loop (Lisp-Interaction-Mode), and automated psychotherapy (Doctor).
63 There is an extensive reference manual, but users of other Emacsen
65 should have little trouble adapting even without a copy. Users new to
66 Emacs will be able to use basic features fairly rapidly by studying the
67 tutorial and using the self-documentation features.
68 XEmacs Options
70 XEmacs accepts all standard X Toolkit command line options when run in
72 an X Windows environment. In addition, the following options are
73 accepted (when options imply a sequence of actions to perform, they are
74 performed in the order encountered):
75 -t file Use specified file as the terminal instead of using stdin/std‐
77 out. This implies -nw.
78 -batch Edit in batch mode. The editor will send messages to stdout.
80 You must use the -l, -f, and -eval options to specify files to
81 execute and functions to call.
82 -nw Inhibit the use of any window-system-specific display code: use
84 the current TTY.
85 -debug-init
87 Enter the debugger if an error occurs loading the init file.
88 -unmapped
90 Do not map the initial frame.
91 -no-site-file
93 Do not load the site-specific init file (site-start.el).
94 -q, -no-init-file
96 Do not load an init file.
97 -no-early-packages
99 Do not process the early packages.
100 -vanilla
102 Load no extra files at startup. Equivalent to the combination
103 of -q, -no-site-file, and -no-early-packages.
104 -u user, -user user
106 Load user's init file.
107 file Edit file.
109 +number Go to the line specified by number (do not insert a space
111 between the "+" sign and the number).
112 -help Print a help message and exit.
114 -V, -version,
116 Print the version number and exit.
117 -f function, -funcall function
119 Execute the lisp function function.
120 -l file, -load file
122 Load the Lisp code in the file file.
123 -eval form
125 Evaluate the Lisp form form.
126 -i file, -insert file
128 Insert file into the current buffer.
129 -kill Exit XEmacs (useful with -batch).
131 Using XEmacs with X Windows
133 XEmacs has been tailored to work well with the X window system. If you
135 run XEmacs from under X windows, it will create its own X window to
136 display in.
137 XEmacs can be started with the following standard X options:
139 -visual <visualname><bitdepth>
141 Select the visual that XEmacs will attempt to use. <visualname>
142 should be one of the strings "StaticColor", "TrueColor",
143 "GrayScale", "PseudoColor" or "DirectColor", and <bitdepth>
144 should be the number of bits per pixel (example, "-visual True‐
145 Color24" for a 24bit TrueColor visual) See X(1) for more infor‐
146 mation.
147 -privateColormap
149 Require XEmacs to create and use a private colormap for display.
150 This will keep XEmacs from taking colors from the default col‐
151 ormap and keeping them from other clients, at the cost of caus‐
152 ing annoying flicker when the focus changes. Use this option
153 only if your X server does not support 24 bit visuals.
154 -geometry ##x##+##+##
156 Specify the geometry of the initial window. The ##'s represent
157 a number; the four numbers are width (characters), height (char‐
158 acters), X offset (pixels), and Y offset (pixels), respectively.
159 Partial specifications of the form ##x## or +##+## are also
160 allowed. (The geometry specification is in the standard X for‐
161 mat; see X(1) for more information.)
162 -iconic
164 Specifies that the initial window should initially appear iconi‐
165 fied.
166 -name name
168 Specifies the program name which should be used when looking up
169 defaults in the user's X resources.
170 -title title, -T title, -wn title
172 Specifies the title which should be assigned to the XEmacs win‐
173 dow.
174 -d displayname, -display displayname
176 Create the XEmacs window on the display specified by display‐
177 name. Must be the first option specified in the command line.
178 -font font, -fn font
180 Set the XEmacs window's font to that specified by font. You
181 will find the various X fonts in the /usr/lib/X11/fonts direc‐
182 tory. XEmacs works with either fixed- or variable-width fonts,
183 but will probably look better with a fixed-width font.
184 -scrollbar-width pixels
186 Specify the width of the vertical scrollbars.
187 -scrollbar-height pixels
189 Specify the height of the horizontal scrollbars.
190 -bw pixels, -borderwidth pixels
192 Set the XEmacs window's border width to the number of pixels
193 specified by pixels. Defaults to one pixel on each side of the
194 window.
195 -ib pixels, -internal-border-width pixels
197 Specify the width between a frame's border and its text, in
198 pixels. Defaults to one pixel on each side of the window.
199 -fg color, -foreground color
201 Sets the color of the text.
202 See the file /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt for a list of valid color
204 names.
205 -bg color, -background color
207 Sets the color of the window's background.
208 -bd color, -bordercolor color
210 Sets the color of the window's border.
211 -mc color
213 Sets the color of the mouse pointer.
214 -cr color
216 Sets the color of the text cursor.
217 -rv, -reverse
219 Reverses the foreground and background colors (reverse video).
220 Consider explicitly setting the foreground and background col‐
221 ors instead of using this option.
222 -xrm argument
224 This allows you to set an arbitrary resource on the command
225 line. argument should be a resource specification, as might be
226 found in your .Xresources or .Xdefaults file.
227 You can also set resources, i.e. X default values, for your XEmacs
229 windows in your .Xresources or .Xdefaults file (see xrdb(1)). Use the
230 following format:
231 Emacs.keyword:value
233 or
235 Emacs*EmacsFrame.keyword:value
237 where value specifies the default value of keyword. (Some resources
239 need the former format; some the latter.)
240 You can also set resources for a particular frame by using the format
242 Emacs*framename.keyword:value
244 where framename is the resource name assigned to that particular frame.
246 (Certain packages, such as VM, give their frames unique resource names,
247 in this case "VM".)
248 XEmacs lets you set default values for the following keywords:
250 default.attributeFont (class Face.AttributeFont)
252 Sets the window's text font.
253 default.attributeForeground (class Face.AttributeForeground)
255 Sets the window's text color.
256 default.attributeBackground (class Face.AttributeBackground)
258 Sets the window's background color.
259 face.attributeFont (class Face.AttributeFont)
261 Sets the font for face, which should be the name of a face.
262 Common face names are
263 FACE PURPOSE
265 default Normal text.
266 bold Bold text.
267 italic Italicized text.
268 bold-italic Bold and italicized text.
269 modeline Modeline text.
270 zmacs-region Text selected with the mouse.
271 highlight Text highlighted when the mouse passes over.
272 left-margin Text in the left margin.
273 right-margin Text in the right margin.
274 isearch Text highlighted during incremental search.
275 info-node Text of Info menu items.
276 info-xref Text of Info cross references.
277 face.attributeForeground (class Face.AttributeForeground)
279 Sets the foreground color for face.
280 face.attributeBackground (class Face.AttributeBackground)
282 Sets the background color for face.
283 face.attributeBackgroundPixmap (class Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap)
285 Sets the background pixmap (stipple) for face.
286 face.attributeUnderline (class Face.AttributeUnderline)
288 Whether face should be underlined.
289 reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)
291 If set to on, the window will be displayed in reverse video.
292 Consider explicitly setting the foreground and background col‐
293 ors instead of using this resource.
294 borderWidth (class BorderWidth)
296 Sets the window's border width in pixels.
297 internalBorderWidth (class InternalBorderWidth)
299 Sets the window's internal border width in pixels.
300 borderColor (class BorderColor)
302 Sets the color of the window's border.
303 cursorColor (class Foreground)
305 Sets the color of the window's text cursor.
306 pointerColor (class Foreground)
308 Sets the color of the window's mouse cursor.
309 emacsVisual (class EmacsVisual)
311 Sets the default visual XEmacs will try to use (as described
312 above).
313 privateColormap (class PrivateColormap)
315 If set, XEmacs will default to using a private colormap.
316 geometry (class Geometry)
318 Sets the geometry of the XEmacs window (as described above).
319 iconic (class Iconic)
321 If set to on, the XEmacs window will initially appear as an
322 icon.
323 menubar (class Menubar)
325 Whether the XEmacs window will have a menubar. Defaults to
326 true.
327 initiallyUnmapped (class InitiallyUnmapped)
329 Whether XEmacs will leave the initial frame unmapped when it
330 starts up.
331 barCursor (class BarCursor)
333 Whether the cursor should be a bar instead of the traditional
334 box.
335 title (class Title)
337 Sets the title of the XEmacs window.
338 iconName (class Title)
340 Sets the icon name for the XEmacs window icon.
341 scrollBarWidth (class ScrollBarWidth)
343 Sets the width of the vertical scrollbars, in pixels. A width
344 of 0 means no vertical scrollbars.
345 scrollBarHeight (class ScrollBarHeight)
347 Sets the height of the horizontal scrollbars, in pixels. A
348 height of 0 means no horizontal scrollbars.
349 scrollBarPlacement (class ScrollBarPlacement)
351 Sets the position of vertical and horizontal scrollbars.
352 Should be one of the strings "top-left", "bottom-left", "top-
353 right", or "bottom-right". The default is "bottom-right" for
354 the Motif and Lucid scrollbars and "bottom-left" for the Athena
355 scrollbars.
356 topToolBarHeight (class TopToolBarHeight)
358 Sets the height of the top toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no top
359 toolbar.
360 bottomToolBarHeight (class BottomToolBarHeight)
362 Sets the height of the bottom toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no
363 bottom toolbar.
364 leftToolBarWidth (class LeftToolBarWidth)
366 Sets the width of the left toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no left
367 toolbar.
368 rightToolBarWidth (class RightToolBarWidth)
370 Sets the width of the right toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no
371 right toolbar.
372 topToolBarShadowColor (class TopToolBarShadowColor)
374 Sets the color of the top shadows for the toolbars. (For all
375 toolbars, not just the toolbar at the top of the frame.)
376 bottomToolBarShadowColor (class BottomToolBarShadowColor)
378 Sets the color of the bottom shadows for the toolbars. (For all
379 toolbars, not just the toolbar at the bottom of the frame.)
380 topToolBarShadowPixmap (class TopToolBarShadowPixmap)
382 Sets the pixmap of the top shadows for the toolbars. (For all
383 toolbars, not just the toolbar at the top of the frame.) If
384 set, this resource overrides the corresponding color resource.
385 bottomToolBarShadowPixmap (class BottomToolBarShadowPixmap)
387 Sets the pixmap of the bottom shadows for the toolbars. (For
388 all toolbars, not just the toolbar at the bottom of the frame.)
389 If set, this resource overrides the corresponding color
390 resource.
391 toolBarShadowThickness (class ToolBarShadowThickness)
393 Thickness of the shadows around the toolbars, in pixels.
394 visualBell (class VisualBell)
396 Whether XEmacs should flash the screen rather than making an
397 audible beep.
398 bellVolume (class BellVolume)
400 Volume of the audible beep. Range is 0 through 100.
401 useBackingStore (class UseBackingStore)
403 Whether XEmacs should set the backing-store attribute of the X
404 windows it creates. This increases the memory usage of the X
405 server but decreases the amount of X traffic necessary to
406 update the screen, and is useful when the connection to the X
407 server goes over a low-bandwidth line such as a modem connec‐
408 tion.
409 textPointer (class Cursor)
411 The cursor to use when the mouse is over text.
412 selectionPointer (class Cursor)
414 The cursor to use when the mouse is over a mouse-highlighted
415 text region.
416 spacePointer (class Cursor)
418 The cursor to use when the mouse is over a blank space in a
419 buffer (that is, after the end of a line or after the end-of-
420 file).
421 modeLinePointer (class Cursor)
423 The cursor to use when the mouse is over a mode line.
424 gcPointer (class Cursor)
426 The cursor to display when a garbage-collection is in progress.
427 scrollbarPointer (class Cursor)
429 The cursor to use when the mouse is over the scrollbar.
430 pointerColor (class Foreground)
432 The foreground color of the mouse cursor.
433 pointerBackground (class Background)
435 The background color of the mouse cursor.
436 Using the Mouse
438 The following lists the mouse button bindings for the XEmacs window
440 under X11.
441 MOUSE BUTTON FUNCTION
443 left Set point or make a text selection.
444 middle Paste text.
445 right Pop up a menu of options.
446 SHIFT-left Extend a selection.
447 CTRL-left Make a selection and insert it at point.
448 CTRL-middle Set point and move selected text there.
449 CTRL-SHIFT-left Make a selection, delete it, and insert it at
450 point.
451 META-left Make a rectangular selection.
452
454 Lisp code is read at startup from the user's init file,
455 $HOME/.xemacs/init.el. If this file does not exist then $HOME/.emacs
456 will be read if it is present.
457 /usr/local/info - files for the Info documentation browser (a subsystem
459 of XEmacs) to refer to. The complete text of the XEmacs Reference Man‐
460 ual and the XEmacs Lisp Programmer's Manual is included in a convenient
461 tree structured form.
462 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/info - the Info files may be here
464 instead.
465 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/lisp/* - Lisp source files and compiled
467 files that define most editing commands. The files are contained in
468 subdirectories, categorized by function or individual package. Some
469 are preloaded; others are autoloaded from these directories when used.
470 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc - some files of information, pixmap
472 files, other data files used by certain packages, etc.
473 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/$CONFIGURATION - various programs that
475 are used with XEmacs.
476 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/$CONFIGURATION/DOC - contains the docu‐
478 mentation strings for the Lisp primitives and preloaded Lisp functions
479 of XEmacs. They are stored here to reduce the size of XEmacs proper.
480 /usr/local/lib/xemacs/site-lisp - locally-provided Lisp files.
482
484 There is a newsgroup, comp.emacs.xemacs, for reporting XEmacs bugs and
485 fixes and requesting help. But before reporting something as a bug,
486 please try to be sure that it really is a bug, not a misunderstanding
487 or a deliberate feature. We ask you to read the section ``Reporting
488 XEmacs Bugs'' near the end of the reference manual (or Info system) for
489 hints on how and when to report bugs. Also, include the version number
490 of the XEmacs you are running and the system you are running it on in
491 every bug report that you send in. Finally, the more you can isolate
492 the cause of a bug and the conditions it happens under, the more likely
493 it is to be fixed, so please take the time to do so.
494 The newsgroup is bidirectionally gatewayed to and from the mailing list
496 xemacs@xemacs.org. You can read the list instead of the newsgroup if
497 you do not have convenient Usenet news access. To request to be added
498 to the mailing list, send mail to xemacs-request@xemacs.org. (Do not
499 send mail to the list itself.)
500 The XEmacs maintainers read the newsgroup regularly and will attempt to
502 fix bugs reported in a timely fashion. However, not every message will
503 get a response from one of the maintainers. Note that there are many
504 people other than the maintainers who read the newsgroup, and will usu‐
505 ally be of assistance in helping with any problems encountered.
506 If you need more personal assistance than can be provided by the news‐
508 group, look in the SERVICE file (see above) for a list of people who
509 offer it.
510 For more information about XEmacs mailing lists, see the file
512 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc/MAILINGLISTS.
513
515 XEmacs is free; anyone may redistribute copies of XEmacs to anyone
516 under the terms stated in the XEmacs General Public License, a copy of
517 which accompanies each copy of XEmacs and which also appears in the
518 reference manual.
519 Copies of XEmacs may sometimes be received packaged with distributions
521 of Unix systems, but it is never included in the scope of any license
522 covering those systems. Such inclusion violates the terms on which
523 distribution is permitted. In fact, the primary purpose of the General
524 Public License is to prohibit anyone from attaching any other restric‐
525 tions to redistribution of XEmacs.
526
528 X(1), xlsfonts(1), xterm(1), xrdb(1), emacs(1), vi(1)
529
531 XEmacs was written by Steve Baur <steve@xemacs.org>, Martin Buchholz
532 <martin@xemacs.org>, Richard Mlynarik <mly@adoc.xerox.com>, Hrvoje
533 Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>, Chuck Thompson <cthomp@xemacs.org>, Ben
534 Wing <ben@xemacs.org>, Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, and many others.
535 It was based on an early version of GNU Emacs Version 19, written by
536 Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> of the Free Software Foundation, and has
537 tracked subsequent releases of GNU Emacs as they have become available.
538 It was originally written by Lucid, Inc. (now defunct) and was called
539 Lucid Emacs.
540 Chuck Thompson wrote the XEmacs redisplay engine, maintains the XEmacs
542 FTP and WWW sites, and has put out all releases of XEmacs since 19.11
543 (the first release called XEmacs). Ben Wing wrote the Asian-language
544 support, the on-line documentation (including this man page and much of
545 the FAQ), the external widget code, and retooled or rewrote most of the
546 basic, low-level XEmacs subsystems. Jamie Zawinski put out all
547 releases of Lucid Emacs, from the first (19.0) through the last
548 (19.10), and was the primary code contributor for all of these
549 releases. Richard Mlynarik rewrote the XEmacs Lisp-object allocation
550 system, improved the keymap and minibuffer code, and did the initial
551 synching of XEmacs with GNU Emacs Version 19.
552 Many others have also contributed significantly. For more detailed
554 information, including a long history of XEmacs from multiple view‐
555 points and pretty pictures and bios of the major XEmacs contributors,
556 see the XEmacs About Page (the About XEmacs option on the Help menu).
557
559 For more information about XEmacs, see the XEmacs About Page (mentioned
560 above), look in the file /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc/NEWS, or
561 point your Web browser at
562 http://www.xemacs.org/
564 for up-to-the-minute information about XEmacs.
566 The XEmacs FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) can be found at the Web
568 site just listed. A possibly out-of-date version is also accessible
569 through the Info system inside of XEmacs.
570 The latest version of XEmacs can be downloaded using anonymous FTP from
572 ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
574 or from a mirror site near you. Mirror sites are listed in the file
576 etc/FTP in the XEmacs distribution or see the Web site for an up-to-
577 date list of mirror sites.
578
581 Copyright (C) 2004 Shyamal Prasad
582 Copyright (C) 1998, 2000 Martin Buchholz
583 Copyright (C) 1998 Andreas Jaeger
584 Copyright (C) 1998 Michael Sperber
585 Copyright (C) 1997, 1998 SL Baur
586 Copyright (C) 1992-1997 Ben Wing
587 This file is part of XEmacs.
589 XEmacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
591 the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
592 Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your
593 option) any later version.
594 XEmacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
596 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
597 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
598 for more details.
599 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
601 with XEmacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
6024th Berkeley Distribution 2000-09-20 XEMACS(1)