Emacs is the advanced, extensible, customizable, self-documenting editor. This manual describes how to edit with Emacs and some of the ways to customize it; it corresponds to GNU Emacs version 30.1. If you are reading this in Emacs, type h to read a basic introduction to the Info documentation system. For information on extending Emacs, see Emacs Lisp.

• How to get the latest Emacs distribution.
• An introduction to Emacs concepts.
• The Organization of the Screen
• Kinds of User Input
• Keys
• Mouse Input
• Keys and Commands
• Touchscreen Input and Virtual Keyboards
• Entering Emacs
• Exiting Emacs
• Basic Editing Commands
• The Minibuffer
• Running Commands by Name
• Help
• The Mark and the Region
• Killing and Moving Text
• Registers
• Controlling the Display
• Searching and Replacement
• Commands for Fixing Typos
• Keyboard Macros
• File Handling
• Using Multiple Buffers
• Multiple Windows
• Frames and Graphical Displays
• International Character Set Support
• Major and Minor Modes
• Indentation
• Commands for Human Languages
• Editing Programs
• Compiling and Testing Programs
• Maintaining Large Programs
• Abbrevs
• Dired, the Directory Editor
• The Calendar and the Diary
• Sending Mail
• Reading Mail with Rmail
• Email and Usenet News with Gnus
• Host Security
• Network Security
• Document Viewing
• Running Shell Commands from Emacs
• Using Emacs as a Server
• Printing Hard Copies
• Sorting Text
• Editing Pictures
• Editing Binary Files
• Saving Emacs Sessions
• Recursive Editing Levels
• Hyperlinking and Web Navigation Features
• Games and Other Amusements
• Emacs Lisp Packages
• Customization
• Quitting and Aborting
• Dealing with Emacs Trouble
• Reporting Bugs
• Contributing to Emacs Development
• How To Get Help with GNU Emacs
• GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
• GNU Free Documentation License
• Command Line Arguments for Emacs Invocation
• X Options and Resources
• Emacs 29 Antinews
• Emacs and macOS / GNUstep
• Emacs and Haiku
• Emacs and Android
• Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS
• What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix!
• Terms used in this manual.
• Major contributors to GNU Emacs.
• An item for each standard Emacs key sequence.
• An item for every command-line option.
• An item for each standard command name.
• An item for each variable documented in this manual.
• An item for concepts and other general subjects.
• Point
• The Echo Area
• The Mode Line
• The Menu Bar
• Using Emacs on Touchscreens
• Using Emacs with Virtual Keyboards
• Inserting Text
• Changing the Location of Point
• Erasing Text
• Undoing Changes
• Files
• Help
• Blank Lines
• Continuation Lines
• Cursor Position Information
• Numeric Arguments
• Repeating a Command
• Using the Minibuffer
• Minibuffers for File Names
• Editing in the Minibuffer
• Completion
• Minibuffer History
• Repeating Minibuffer Commands
• Entering passwords
• Yes or No Prompts
• Completion Example
• Completion Commands
• Completion Exit
• How Completion Alternatives Are Chosen
• Completion Options
• Help Summary
• Documentation for a Key
• Help by Command or Variable Name
• Apropos
• Help Mode Commands
• Keyword Search for Packages
• Help for International Language Support
• Other Help Commands
• Help Files
• Help on Active Text and Tooltips
• Setting the Mark
• Commands to Mark Textual Objects
• Operating on the Region
• The Mark Ring
• The Global Mark Ring
• Shift Selection
• Disabling Transient Mark Mode
• Deletion and Killing
• Yanking
• ``Cut and Paste'' Operations on Graphical Displays
• Accumulating Text
• Rectangles
• CUA Bindings
• Deletion
• Killing by Lines
• Other Kill Commands
• Options for Killing
• The Kill Ring
• Yanking Earlier Kills
• Appending Kills
• Using the Clipboard
• Cut and Paste with Other Window Applications
• Secondary Selection
• Saving Positions in Registers
• Saving Text in Registers
• Saving Rectangles in Registers
• Saving Window and Frame Configurations in Registers
• Keeping Numbers in Registers
• Keeping File and Buffer Names in Registers
• Keyboard Macro Registers
• Bookmarks
• Scrolling
• Recentering
• Automatic Scrolling
• Horizontal Scrolling
• Narrowing
• View Mode
• Follow Mode
• Text Faces
• RGB Triplets
• Standard Faces
• Text Scale
• Font Lock mode
• Interactive Highlighting
• Window Fringes
• Displaying Boundaries
• Useless Whitespace
• Selective Display
• Optional Mode Line Features
• How Text Is Displayed
• Displaying the Cursor
• Line Truncation
• Visual Line Mode
• Customization of Display
• Traditional Font Lock
• Parser-based Font Lock
• Incremental Search
• Nonincremental Search
• Word Search
• Symbol Search
• Regular Expression Search
• Syntax of Regular Expressions
• Backslash in Regular Expressions
• Regular Expression Example
• Lax Matching During Searching
• Replacement Commands
• Other Search-and-Loop Commands
• Tailoring Search to Your Needs
• Basics of Incremental Search
• Repeating Incremental Search
• Isearch Yanking
• Errors in Incremental Search
• Special Input for Incremental Search
• Not Exiting Incremental Search
• Searching the Minibuffer
• Unconditional Replacement
• Regexp Replacement
• Replace Commands and Lax Matches
• Query Replace
• Undo
• Transposing Text
• Case Conversion
• Checking and Correcting Spelling
• Basic Use
• The Keyboard Macro Ring
• The Keyboard Macro Counter
• Executing Macros with Variations
• Naming and Saving Keyboard Macros
• Editing a Keyboard Macro
• Stepwise Editing a Keyboard Macro
• File Names
• Visiting Files
• Saving Files
• Reverting a Buffer
• Auto Revert: Keeping buffers automatically up-to-date
• Auto-Saving: Protection Against Disasters
• File Name Aliases
• File Directories
• Comparing Files
• Diff Mode
• Copying, Naming and Renaming Files
• Miscellaneous File Operations
• Accessing Compressed Files
• File Archives
• Remote Files
• Quoted File Names
• File Name Cache
• Convenience Features for Finding Files
• Viewing Image Files
• Filesets
• Commands for Saving Files
• Backup Files
• Customizing Saving of Files
• Protection against Simultaneous Editing
• Shadowing Files
• Updating Time Stamps Automatically
• Single or Numbered Backups
• Automatic Deletion of Backups
• Copying vs. Renaming
• Auto Reverting the Buffer Menu
• Auto Reverting Dired buffers
• Auto-Save Files
• Controlling Auto-Saving
• Recovering Data from Auto-Saves
• Creating and Selecting Buffers
• Listing Existing Buffers
• Miscellaneous Buffer Operations
• Killing Buffers
• Operating on Several Buffers
• Indirect Buffers
• Convenience Features and Customization of Buffer Handling
• Making Buffer Names Unique
• Fast minibuffer selection
• Customizing Buffer Menus
• Concepts of Emacs Windows
• Splitting Windows
• Using Other Windows
• Displaying in Another Window
• Deleting and Resizing Windows
• Displaying a Buffer in a Window
• Displaying non-editable buffers.
• Convenience Features for Window Handling
• Window Tab Line
• Window Tool Bar
• How display-buffer works
• Mouse Commands for Editing
• Mouse Commands for Words and Lines
• Following References with the Mouse
• Mouse Clicks for Menus
• Mode Line Mouse Commands
• Creating Frames
• Frame Commands
• Fonts
• Speedbar Frames
• Multiple Displays
• Frame Parameters
• Scroll Bars
• Window Dividers
• Drag and Drop
• Menu Bars
• Tool Bars
• Tab Bars
• Using Dialog Boxes
• Tooltips
• Mouse Avoidance
• Text Terminals
• Using a Mouse in Text Terminals
• Introduction to International Character Sets
• Language Environments
• Input Methods
• Selecting an Input Method
• Coding Systems
• Recognizing Coding Systems
• Specifying a File's Coding System
• Choosing Coding Systems for Output
• Specifying a Coding System for File Text
• Coding Systems for Interprocess Communication
• Coding Systems for File Names
• Coding Systems for Terminal I/O
• Fontsets
• Defining Fontsets
• Modifying Fontsets
• Undisplayable Characters
• Unibyte Editing Mode
• Charsets
• Bidirectional Editing
• Major Modes
• Minor Modes
• Choosing File Modes
• Indentation Commands
• Tab Stops
• Tabs vs. Spaces
• Convenience Features for Indentation
• Code Alignment
• Words
• Sentences
• Paragraphs
• Pages
• Quotation Marks
• Filling Text
• Case Conversion Commands
• Text Mode
• Outline Mode
• Org Mode
• TeX Mode
• SGML and HTML Modes
• Nroff Mode
• Enriched Text
• Editing Text-based Tables
• Two-Column Editing
• Auto Fill Mode
• Explicit Fill Commands
• The Fill Prefix
• Adaptive Filling
• Format of Outlines
• Outline Motion Commands
• Outline Visibility Commands
• Viewing One Outline in Multiple Views
• Folding Editing
• Org as an organizer
• Org as an authoring system
• TeX Editing Commands
• LaTeX Editing Commands
• TeX Printing Commands
• TeX Mode Miscellany
• Enriched Mode
• Hard and Soft Newlines
• Editing Format Information
• Faces in Enriched Text
• Indentation in Enriched Text
• Justification in Enriched Text
• Setting Other Text Properties
• What is a Text-based Table?
• Creating a Table
• Table Recognition
• Commands for Table Cells
• Cell Justification
• Table Rows and Columns
• Converting Between Plain Text and Tables
• Table Miscellany
• Major Modes for Programming Languages
• Top-Level Definitions, or Defuns
• Indentation for Programs
• Commands for Editing with Parentheses
• Manipulating Comments
• Documentation Lookup
• Hideshow minor mode
• Completion for Symbol Names
• MixedCase Words
• Semantic
• Other Features Useful for Editing Programs
• C and Related Modes
• Asm Mode
• Fortran Mode
• Left Margin Convention
• Moving by Defuns
• Imenu
• Which Function Mode
• Basic Program Indentation Commands
• Indenting Several Lines
• Customizing Lisp Indentation
• Commands for C Indentation
• Customizing C Indentation
• Expressions with Balanced Parentheses
• Moving in the Parenthesis Structure
• Matching Parentheses
• Comment Commands
• Multiple Lines of Comments
• Options Controlling Comments
• Info Documentation Lookup
• Man Page Lookup
• Programming Language Documentation Lookup
• C Mode Motion Commands
• Electric C Characters
• Hungry Delete Feature in C
• Other Commands for C Mode
• Motion Commands
• Fortran Indentation
• Fortran Comments
• Auto Fill in Fortran Mode
• Checking Columns in Fortran
• Fortran Keyword Abbrevs
• Fortran Indentation and Filling Commands
• Continuation Lines
• Line Numbers
• Syntactic Conventions
• Variables for Fortran Indentation
• Running Compilations under Emacs
• Compilation Mode
• Subshells for Compilation
• Searching with Grep under Emacs
• Finding Syntax Errors On The Fly
• Running Debuggers Under Emacs
• Executing Lisp Expressions
• Libraries of Lisp Code for Emacs
• Evaluating Emacs Lisp Expressions
• Lisp Interaction Buffers
• Running an External Lisp
• Starting GUD
• Debugger Operation
• Commands of GUD
• GUD Customization
• GDB Graphical Interface
• GDB User Interface Layout
• Source Buffers
• Breakpoints Buffer
• Threads Buffer
• Stack Buffer
• Other GDB Buffers
• Watch Expressions
• Multithreaded Debugging
• Version Control
• Working with Projects
• Change Logs
• Find Identifier References
• Emacs Development Environment
• Merging Files with Emerge
• Bug Reference
• Introduction to Version Control
• Version Control and the Mode Line
• Basic Editing under Version Control
• Features of the Log Entry Buffer
• Registering a File for Version Control
• Examining And Comparing Old Revisions
• VC Change Log
• Undoing Version Control Actions
• Ignore Version Control Files
• VC Directory Mode
• Version Control Branches
• Miscellaneous Commands and Features of VC
• Customizing VC
• Understanding the Problems it Addresses
• Supported Version Control Systems
• Concepts of Version Control
• Merge-based vs Lock-based Version Control
• Changeset-based vs File-based Version Control
• Decentralized vs Centralized Repositories
• Types of Log File
• Basic Version Control with Merging
• Basic Version Control with Locking
• Advanced Control in C-x v v
• The VC Directory Buffer
• VC Directory Commands
• Switching between Branches
• Pulling/Pushing Changes into/from a Branch
• Merging Branches
• Creating New Branches
• Change Logs and VC
• Deleting and Renaming Version-Controlled Files
• Revision Tags
• Inserting Version Control Headers
• Editing VC Commands
• General Options
• Options for RCS and SCCS
• Options specific for CVS
• Project Commands That Operate on Files
• Project Commands That Operate on Buffers
• Switching Projects
• Managing the Project List File
• Change Log Commands
• Format of ChangeLog
• Find Identifiers
• Tags Tables
• Selecting a Tags Table
• Looking Up Identifiers
• Commands Available in the *xref* Buffer
• Searching and Replacing with Identifiers
• Identifier Inquiries
• Source File Tag Syntax
• Creating Tags Tables
• Etags Regexps
• Overview of Emerge
• Submodes of Emerge
• State of a Difference
• Merge Commands
• Exiting Emerge
• Combining the Two Versions
• Fine Points of Emerge
• Abbrev Concepts
• Defining Abbrevs
• Controlling Abbrev Expansion
• Abbrevs Suggestions
• Examining and Editing Abbrevs
• Saving Abbrevs
• Dynamic Abbrev Expansion
• Customizing Dynamic Abbreviation
• Basic Editing in Picture Mode
• Controlling Motion after Insert
• Picture Mode Tabs
• Picture Mode Rectangle Commands
• Entering Dired
• Navigation in the Dired Buffer
• Deleting Files with Dired
• Flagging Many Files at Once
• Visiting Files in Dired
• Dired Marks vs. Flags
• Operating on Files
• Shell Commands in Dired
• Transforming File Names in Dired
• File Comparison with Dired
• Subdirectories in Dired
• Subdirectory Switches in Dired
• Moving Over Subdirectories
• Hiding Subdirectories
• Updating the Dired Buffer
• Dired and find
• Editing the Dired Buffer
• Viewing Image Thumbnails in Dired
• Other Dired Features
• Movement in the Calendar
• Scrolling in the Calendar
• Counting Days
• Miscellaneous Calendar Commands
• Writing Calendar Files
• Holidays
• Times of Sunrise and Sunset
• Phases of the Moon
• Conversion To and From Other Calendars
• The Diary
• Daylight Saving Time
• Summing Time Intervals
• More advanced features of the Calendar and Diary
• Motion by Standard Lengths of Time
• Beginning or End of Week, Month or Year
• Specified Dates
• Supported Calendar Systems
• Converting To Other Calendars
• Converting From Other Calendars
• The Diary File
• Displaying the Diary
• Date Formats
• Commands to Add to the Diary
• Special Diary Entries
• Appointments
• Importing and Exporting Diary Entries
• Customizing the Calendar
• Customizing the Holidays
• Converting from the Mayan Calendar
• Date Display Format
• Time Display Format
• Customizing the Diary
• Diary Entries Using non-Gregorian Calendars
• Diary Display
• Fancy Diary Display
• Sexp Entries and the Fancy Diary Display
• The Format of the Mail Buffer
• Mail Header Fields
• Mail Aliases
• Mail Commands
• Mail Signature
• Mail Amusements
• Mail-Composition Methods
• Mail Sending
• Mail Header Editing
• Citing Mail
• Mail Miscellany
• Basic Concepts of Rmail
• Scrolling Within a Message
• Moving Among Messages
• Deleting Messages
• Rmail Files and Inboxes
• Multiple Rmail Files
• Copying Messages Out to Files
• Labels
• Rmail Attributes
• Sending Replies
• Summaries
• Sorting the Rmail File
• Display of Messages
• Rmail and Coding Systems
• Editing Within a Message
• Digest Messages
• Reading Rot13 Messages
• movemail program
• Retrieving Mail from Remote Mailboxes
• Retrieving Mail from Local Mailboxes in Various Formats
• Making Summaries
• Editing in Summaries
• Gnus Buffers
• When Gnus Starts Up
• Using the Gnus Group Buffer
• Using the Gnus Summary Buffer
• DocView Navigation
• DocView Searching
• DocView Slicing
• DocView Conversion
• Single Shell Commands
• Interactive Subshell
• Shell Mode
• Shell Prompts
• Shell Command History
• Directory Tracking
• Shell Mode Options
• Emacs Terminal Emulator
• Term Mode
• Remote Host Shell
• Serial Terminal
• Shell History Ring
• Shell History Copying
• Shell History References
• TCP Emacs server
• Invoking emacsclient
• emacsclient Options
• PostScript Hardcopy
• Variables for PostScript Hardcopy
• Printing Package
• Web Browsing with EWW
• Embedded WebKit Widgets
• Following URLs
• Activating URLs
• Finding Files and URLs at Point
• The Package Menu Buffer
• Package Statuses
• Package Installation
• Package Files and Directory Layout
• Easy Customization Interface
• Variables
• Customizing Key Bindings
• The Emacs Initialization File
• Keeping Persistent Authentication Information
• Customization Groups
• Browsing and Searching for Settings
• Changing a Variable
• Saving Customizations
• Customizing Faces
• Customizing Specific Items
• Custom Themes
• Creating Custom Themes
• Examining and Setting Variables
• Hooks
• Local Variables
• Local Variables in Files
• Per-Directory Local Variables
• Per-Connection Local Variables
• Specifying File Variables
• Safety of File Variables
• Per-Directory Variables via EditorConfig
• Keymaps
• Prefix Keymaps
• Local Keymaps
• Minibuffer Keymaps
• Changing Key Bindings Interactively
• Rebinding Keys in Your Init File
• Modifier Keys
• Rebinding Function Keys
• Named ASCII Control Characters
• Rebinding Mouse Buttons
• Disabling Commands
• Init File Syntax
• Init File Examples
• Terminal-specific Initialization
• How Emacs Finds Your Init File
• Non-ASCII Characters in Init Files
• The Early Init File
• Recursive Editing Levels
• Garbage on the Screen
• Garbage in the Text
• Running out of Memory
• When Emacs Crashes
• Recovery After a Crash
• Emergency Escape
• If DEL Fails to Delete
• Reading Existing Bug Reports and Known Problems
• When Is There a Bug
• Understanding Bug Reporting
• Checklist for Bug Reports
• Sending Patches for GNU Emacs
• Coding Standards
• Copyright Assignment
• Action Arguments
• Initial Options
• Command Argument Example
• Environment Variables
• Specifying the Display Name
• Font Specification Options
• Window Color Options
• Options for Window Size and Position
• Internal and Outer Borders
• Frame Titles
• Icons
• Other Display Options
• General Variables
• Miscellaneous Variables
• The MS-Windows System Registry
• X Resources
• Table of X Resources for Emacs
• Lucid Menu And Dialog X Resources
• Motif Menu X Resources
• GTK+ resources
• GTK+ Resource Basics
• GTK+ widget names
• GTK+ Widget Names in Emacs
• GTK+ styles
• Grabbing environment variables
• macOS Trackpad/Mousewheel Variables
• Windowing System Events under macOS / GNUstep
• GNUstep Support
• Haiku Installation and Startup
• Font Backends and Selection under Haiku
• Android History
• Starting Emacs on Android
• What Files Emacs Can Access on Android
• Accessing Files from Other Programs on Android
• Running Emacs under Android
• The Android Window System
• Font Backends and Selection under Android
• Troubleshooting Startup Problems on Android
• Installing Extra Software on Android
• How to Start Emacs on MS-Windows
• Text Files and Binary Files
• File Names on MS-Windows
• Emulation of ls on MS-Windows
• HOME and Startup Directories on MS-Windows
• Keyboard Usage on MS-Windows
• Mouse Usage on MS-Windows
• Subprocesses on Windows 9X/ME and Windows NT/2K/XP/Vista/7/8/10
• Printing and MS-Windows
• Specifying Fonts on MS-Windows
• Miscellaneous Windows-specific features
• Emacs and MS-DOS
• Keyboard Usage on MS-DOS
• Mouse Usage on MS-DOS
• Display on MS-DOS
• File Names on MS-DOS
• Printing and MS-DOS
• International Support on MS-DOS
• Subprocesses on MS-DOS