Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

A More Complicated Macro Example

Sometimes you may want to find all the references to a particular topic in a file. Table 6-2 lists steps for creating a macro that takes takes every sentence in the buffer that contains the word Emacs and copies it to another buffer. If you try this macro, you'll need to type some text about Emacs into a buffer. You can also get a test file to work with by opening the Emacs NEWS file (using C-h n), then writing it to a file (C-x C-w NEWS). This buffer is in view mode by default; change to text mode by typing M-x text-mode Enter.

Table 6-2. Steps for macro that creates a buffer of Emacs references

Keystrokes	Action
F3 or C-x (	Start macro definition; Def appears on the mode line.
C-s emacs	Find the word Emacs.
Enter	Stop the search after it is successful; if the search is unsuccessful, it rings the bell and stops the macro.
M-a	Move to the beginning of the sentence.[3]
C-Space	Set the mark.
M-e	Move to the end of the sentence.
M-w	Copy the sentence to the kill ring.
C-x b emacsrefs Enter	Move to a buffer called emacsrefs.
C-y	Insert the sentence.
Enter	Start the next sentence on a new line.
C-x b Enter	Move back to the original buffer.
F4 or C-x )	End the macro definition; Def is removed from the mode line.
[3] M-a's definition of a "sentence" is controlled by the variable sentence-end, which is a fairly complex regular expression. By default, a sentence ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation ...