Xah Lee, , …,
This page shows some less known emacs tips.
Before continuing, here are 4 commands every serious emacs user should know. I used them about daily. (And they are all listed under the graphical menu 〖Help〗)
How to search the last searched string?
Type 【Ctrl+s Ctrl+s】 to search the same word searched last time.
How to search the string under cursor without typing it?
Type 【Ctrl+s Ctrl+w】 to search the word under the cursor. You can type 【Ctrl+w】 multiple times to expand the word selection.
How to list lines containing a specific string?
(for detail, see: List Matching Lines and Delete Matching Lines in Emacs.)
How to highlight all occurrences of word in a file?
Call highlight-phrase, highlight-regexp, highlight-lines-matching-regexp.
How to sort lines?
Call sort-lines. Call reverse-region to reverse order in region by lines.
To sort lines by a specific column, use sort-fields or sort-numeric-fields. (“fields” are separated by space or tabs. First field is 1, not 0.)
For example: Type 【Ctrl+u】, then 2, then 【Alt+x sort-field】. This will sort the line by the 2nd column, and the fields are compared as strings.
How to delete trailing white spaces in source code?
Call delete-trailing-whitespace does it to the whole buffer.
How to make spaces and tabs visible?
Call whitespace-mode, available in emacs 23. See: How to Use And Setup Emacs's whitespace-mode.
I have a set of different texts i want to paste frequently. Is there a way to use like multiple clipboards?
If your text is frequently needed (e.g. XML template or signature), you should set up a abbreviation. See: Using Emacs's Abbrev Mode for Abbreviation.
How to avoid restarting emacs when adding code to emacs init file?
For simple code, you can just select the code and call eval-region.
How to start a second shell?
To start a second shell, give it a empty argument, like this: 【Ctrl+u Alt+x shell】. In emacs, many commands take a empty argument for a slightly changed behavior.
How to “refresh” a opened file to its current saved state? For example, other people have edited the file thru a network.
Call revert-buffer. If someone modified the file, typically emacs will auto detect it, and when you type something, emacs will automatically ask you what to do.
I have a “.info” file. How to open it as info?
Call universal-argument 【Ctrl+u】, then call info 【F1 i】, then the info file name.
Is there a way for emacs to interpret the file as hex-decimal? (i.e. byte-code editor)
To open the file as hex, call hexl-find-file. If the file is already opened, call hexl-mode.
How to set the background color so that all new “frames” will have that color? (not set-background-color)
Call customize-variable then give “default-frame-alist”.
If you want to code elisp manually, call describe-variable on “default-frame-alist”. Here's a example you can put in your emacs init file:
(setq default-frame-alist
'((tool-bar-lines . 0)
(menu-bar-lines . 1)
(background-color . "cornsilk")))
To see a list of color names emacs support, call list-colors-display.