Emacs Command Cheat Sheet
Standard Emacs Commands and Command Lines
Meta Key on Various Keyboards:
Common Abbreviations: M-x means press and then release the Meta key and then press the x key C-x means press and hold the Control key and then press and release the x key
Unix PC Macintosh
Command Open a file Insert another file at the current cursor position Save current file Save current file with another name (similar to Save As) Open an additional file
Keystroke C-x C-f C-x i C-x C-s C-x C-w C-x C-f
Command-Line M-x find-file M-x insert-file M-x save-buffer M-x write-file M-x find file
Emacs Basic Commands
Command Move to the previous buffer Display buffer list Delete current buffer
Keystroke C-x b C-x C-b C-x k
Command-Line M-x switch-to-buffer M-x list-buffers M-x kill-buffer
Moving Among Buffers
Using Emacs Windows
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Emacs Command Cheat Sheet
Command Create two windows Move to the other window Delete the current window Delete all other windows except the current window Keystroke C-x 2 C-x o C-x 0 C-x 1 Standard Emacs Commands and Command Lines Command-Line M-x split-window-vertically M-x other-window M-x delete-window M-x delete-other-windows
Command Move to the beginning of a buffer Move to the end of a buffer Move forward one character Move backward one character Move down one line Move up on line Move forward one word Move backward one word Move to the end of a line Move to the beginning of a line Move forward one screen Move backward one screen
Keystroke M-< M-> C-f C-b C-n C-p M-f M-b C-e C-a C-v M-v
Command-Line M-x beginning-of-buffer M-x end-of-buffer M-x forward-char M-x backward-char M-x next-line M-x previous-line M-x forward-word M-x backward-word M-x end-of-line M-x beginning-of-line M-x scroll up M-x scroll-down
Moving Around an Emacs Buffer
Command Delete character Delete previous character Delete word Delete previous word Delete the entire line
Keystroke C-d DEL (or BACKSPACE on some keyboards) M-d M-DEL (or M-BACKSPACE on some keyboards) C-k
Command-Line M-x delete-char M-x delete-backward-char M-x kill-word M-x backward-kill-word M-x kill-line
Cutting (Deleting) Text
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Emacs Command Cheat Sheet
Standard Emacs Commands and Command Lines
Command Mark the beginning of a selection Delete the marked region Copy a marked region Paste (Yank) a cut or copied a region
Keystroke C-@ or C-SPACEBAR C-w M-w or C-INSERT C-y
Marking Text to Delete, Move or Copy
Command-Line M-x set-mark-command M-x kill-region M-x kill-ring-save M-x yank
Command Incremental search forward* Incremental search backward* Exit incremental search* Cancel incremental search* Delete incorrect character in search string of incremental search* Non-incremental search forward Non-incremental search backward Start query replace Replace current instance and continue on to next instance Dont replace current instance, but move on to next instance
Keystroke C-s C-r <ENTER> or <RETURN> C-g DEL (or M-BACKSPACE on some keyboards) C-s RETURN (or ENTER on some keyboards) C-r RETURN (or ENTER on some keyboards) M-% SPACEBAR or y DEL (or M-BACKSPACE on some keyboards) or n . (period key)
Command-Line M-x isearch-forward M-x isearch-backward *None M-x keyboard-quit *None *None *None M-x query-replace *None *None
Searching & Replacing Text
Replace the current instance and then quit *None Replace the current instance and then , (comma key) *None pause Resume after pausing SPACEBAR or y *None Replace remaining instances without asking ! *None Back up to previous instance ^ *None Exit query replace RETURN (or ENTER on some keyboards) or q *None *- NOTE: An incremental search is one in which the search begins as soon as you begin typing and continues search as you type additional characters.
Wildcard Searches
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Emacs Command Cheat Sheet
Command Search for a group of sequential characters forward Search for a group of sequential characters backward Search for a group of sequential characters forward and incrementally Search for a group of sequential characters backward and incrementally Keystroke M C-s RETURN (ENTER on some keyboards) FOLLOWED BY thisIsMySearchExpressio* M C-r RETURN (ENTER on some keyboards) FOLLOWED BY thisIsMySearchExpressio* M C-s M C-r Standard Emacs Commands and Command Lines Command-Line M-x re-search-forward
M-x re-search-backward M-x isearch-forward-regexp M-x isearch-backward-regexp
Command Undoing recent changes Undo all changes since the last save Go back to an earlier version of the current file (the file as it appeared when you first opened it) Pop out to your Unix prompt Cancel current command
Keystroke C-x u *None C-x C-f filename~ RETURN (ENTER on some keyboards) FOLLOWED BY C-x C-w filename *None C-g
Command-Line *None M-x revert-buffer *None M-x shell *None
Various Other Commands
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