Learning GNU Emacs, Second Edition

Appendix H. Quick Reference

This quick reference is arranged topically, in roughly the same order as the commands were treated in the text. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to be both “quick” and thorough, particularly with an editor as large and comprehensive as GNU Emacs. We’ve tried to take a middle road between “completeness” and “quickness”; we’ll confess that, if we’ve erred, we’ve erred on the side of quickness.

Table H-1. Working with Files and Buffers (Chapter 1, Chapter 4)

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
emacs	(none)	When typed at the shell prompt, start Emacs.
C-x C-f	find-file	Find file and read it.
Files→Open File
C-x C-v	find-alternate-file	Read an alternate file, replacing the one read with C-x C-f.
C-x i	insert-file	Insert file at cursor position.
Files→Insert File
C-x C-s	save-buffer	Save file.
Files→Save Buffer
C-x C-w	write-file	Write buffer contents to file.
Files→Save Buffer As
C-x C-c	save-buffers-kill-emacs	Exit Emacs.
Files→Exit Emacs
C-z	suspend-emacs	Suspend Emacs (use exit or fg to restart).
C-x b	switch-to-buffer	Moves to the buffer specified.
C-x C-b	list-buffers	Displays the buffer list.
Buffers→List All Buffers

Table H-2. Moving the Cursor (Chapter 2)

Keystrokes	Command Name	Action
C-f	forward-char	Move forward character (right).
C-b	backward-char	Move backward character (left).
C-p	previous-line	Move to ...