Key Bindings
Revision as of 20:59, 29 March 2012 by PhilHudson (talk | contribs)
In Emacs, almost any keystroke, optionally combined with one or more modifier keys, or any sequence of such keystrokes, can be "bound" to any command.
Modifier keys naming convention
| Modifier key | Abbr. | Remarks | Example | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alt | A | Relatively seldom used in Emacs, because Meta is often "logically" mapped to the "physical" Alt key. | A-x | Type "x" while holding down the (non-Meta) Alt key |
| Control | C | C-x C-f | While holding down Ctrl, type first "x" then "f". (This runs the command find-file). | |
| Hyper | h | Often not mapped to any key (by default). | h-x | Type "x" while holding down hyper |
| Meta | M | Often mapped to Alt on your keyboard | M-x find-file RET | Either:
which activates the minibuffer, then type "find-file" in the minibuffer, then Return. |
| Shift | S | S-x | Type "x" while holding down Shift | |
| Super | s | Often not mapped to any key by default, or to Window or Menu if present | s-x | Type "x" while holding down super |
Printable cheat sheet for popular modes
Emacs ships with cheat sheets of common and useful key bindings. The pdf files are located in the refcards/ subdirectory of data-directory.
Editing key bindings
You can add, remove and change key bindings for any command, either globally or locally to a mode, interactively (and only for the current session) via M-x global-set-key and M-x local-set-key, or persistently using simple Emacs Lisp code in your Emacs configuration file which is loaded when Emacs first starts up.