Emacs Key Bindings

1.1.1 Overview

1.1.2 Key Notation and Conventions

1.1.3 Key Bindings and Commands by Task

1. Quitting
   

   Key Binding	Command (M-x <cmd>)	Description
   	kill-emacs	End Emacs and save all buffers automatically.
   C-x C-c	save-buffers-kill-emacs	Ask to kill each buffer and close Emacs.
   C-g	keyboard-quit	Cancel any emacs command or prompt.
   C-x k	kill-buffer	Close current buffer.
   C z or C-x C-z	suspend-emacs	Iconify Emacs in graphical mode or suspend Emacs process when in terminal.

   Note: Neither C-z or C-x C-c work in Cua mode.

2. File
   

   Key Binding	Function	Description
   C-x C-f	find-file	Open File.
   C-x C-v	find-alternate-file	Open another file and kill current buffer.
   C-x C-s	save-buffer	Save Current Buffer.
   C-x C-w	write-file	Save Buffer as different file.
   C-x s	save-some-buffers	Save all buffers interactively.
   C-u C-x s		Save all buffers.
   C-x C-C	save-buffers-kill-terminal	Closes Emacs and asks to save each buffers.
   C-x i	insert-file	Insert the content of a file at cursor position.
   -	revert-buffer	Update a buffer when the file is changed on disk.
   C-x C-q	read-only-mode	Toggle read-only mode.

3. Buffers
   

   Key Binding	Function	Description
   C-x b	switch-to-buffer	Select Another Buffer
   C-x C-b	list-buffers	List all buffers
   C-x k	kill-buffer	Kill a buffer
   C-x [right]	next-buffer	Move to next buffer
   C-x [left]	previous-buffer	Move to previous buffer

4. Navigation
   

   C-a	Go to start of the line
   C-e	Go to end of the line.
   C-k	Cut/Delete from cursor current position to the end of the line.
   M-<	Move to top of buffer
   M->	Move to Bottom of buffer
   M-f	Move forward one word
   M-b	Move backward one word
   M-[left key]	Move backward one word
   M-[right key]	Move forward one word
   Mg-g <line-num>	Go to line number
   Mg-c <cursor-pos>	Go to character position

5. Bookmarks
   

   C-x r m	Add current buffer to bookmarks.
   C-x r b	Open a buffer from bookmarks.
   C-x r l	List bookmarks.

6. Search
   

   C-s	Forward Search
   C-r	Backward Search
   M-%	Replace
   C-s	Jump to next occurrence
   C-r	Jump to previour occurrence
   C-g	Exit search
   M-s .	Find Symbol under cursor
   M-s w	Find Symbol under cursor, match symbols with underscore, dot, hyphen ..
   M-s o	List all matching lines

7. Highlight
   

   M-s-h-.	Highlight symbol under cursor
   M-s-h-p	Highlight phrase
   M-s-h-r	Highlight regex
   M-s-h-l	Highlight lines matching a regex
   M-s-h-u	Unhighlight regex

8. Select, Copy, Cut and Paste
   

   C - _	Undo
   C - x u	Redo
   C - Space	Begin Selection
   C - G	Cancel Selection
   C-x h	Select the whole buffer
   M-w	Copy
   C-y	Paste (Yank)
   C-w	Cut (Wipe out), Delete and copy to clipboard (Kill Ring)

9. Word Case / Comment and Uncomment
   

   M-u	Make word uppercase
   M-l	Make word lowercase
   M-c	Make word title (Capitalize only first letter)
   M-;	Comment/ Uncomment Selected Code

10. Windows
    

    Key Binding	Command (M-x <cmd>)	Description
    C-x k	kill-buffer	Close current buffer
    C-x b	switch-to-buffer	Switch to buffer
    C-x C-b	list-buffers	Choose buffer Window
    C-x 0	delete-window	Delete Current Window
    C-x 1	delete-other-window	Keep the current window and delete the remaining windows.
    C-x 2	split-window-below	Split Horizontally
    C-x 3		Split Vertically
    C-x o		Switch Window

11. Frames
    

    Key Binding	Command (M-x <cmd>)	Description
    C-x 5 0	kill-buffer	Close current frame
    C-x 5 1	delete-other-frames	Close all frames except current one
    C-x 5 2	make-frame-command	Create a new frame
    C-x 5 o	other-frame	Alternate frame
    C-z or C-x C-z	iconify-or-deiconify-frame	Minimize current frame
    C-x 5 f	find-file-other-frame	Open file in a new frame.
    C-x 5 r	find-file-read-only-other-frame	Open file in a new frame in read-only mode.
    C-x 5 b	switch-to-buffer-other-frame	Switch to buffer in a new frame.

    Note:

    • The key bind C-z is overridden by cua-mode if it enabled.
    • In terminal the key binding C-x C-z or the command M-x iconify-or-deiconify-frame suspends the Emacs process. To return to the process: type in the Unix shell fg and return.
12. Restricted Editing
    

    Key Binding	M-x <cmd>	Description
    C-x n n	narrow-to-region	Narrow to selected text (region)
    C-x n w	widen	Back to full buffer
    C-x n d	narrow-to-defun	Narrow to an s-expression

    This set of commands allow to edit a limited area of the buffer.

    Notes: This key bindings are overridden by cua-mode and C-x cuts the selected text in this mode. If the keys are overridden then the M-x <command> command must be used or the commands assigned to a new key binding.

13. Keyboard Macros
    

    Key Binding	M-x <cmd>
    C-x (	kmacro-start-macro
    C-x )	kmacro-end-macro
    C-x e or f4	kmacro-end-and-call-macro

14. Informationm, Documentation and Help
    

    Key Binding	Command (M-x command)	Description
    C-h ?	help-for-help	Show all commands to get help on Emacs.
    C-h a	apropos	Command Apropos
    C-h i	info	Info documentation reader
    	info-apropos	Search for a string in emacs info pages
    	woman	Browser Unix man pages
    C-h f	describe-function	Describe function
    C-h v	describe-variable	Describe variable
    C-h m	describe-mode	Describe mode
    C-h s	describe-syntax	Describe syntax
    C-h b	describe-bindings	Describe key bindings for current buffer
    C-h k	describe-key	Describe a particular key binding.
    	find-library	Find a library *.el file loaded with require
    		Example: M-x find-library org

1.1.4 Selected Key Bindings and Commands for Programming

1. File Editing
   

   C-x C-f	Open a new file or a existing file.
   C-x C-s	Save current buffer
   C-x b	Swithc Buffer
   M-;	Comment/ Uncomment Selected Code
   M-/	Autocomplete word (Equivalent to VIM Ctrl + p)
   C-g	Cancel any Emacs command

2. Navigation
   

   C-a	Move the cursor to the beggining of line
   C-e	Move the cursor to the end of line
   M-<	Move the cursor to the beggining of buffer
   M->	Move to the cursor tor end of buffer
   M-x goto-char	Got a character position
   Mg-g <line-num>	Go to line number
   Mg-c <cursor-pos>	Go to character position
   M-m	Jump to first non whitespace in current line.
   C-x r m	Make bookmark
   C-x r b	Jump to bookmarks

3. Text Editing
   

   C-y	Copy selected text by cursor (Copy region)
   C-y	Paste when no text is selected. (Yank)
   C-k	Delete current line from cursor position.
   C-w	Cut (Wipe Out)
   M-del	Delete previous word
   M-d	Delete next word
   C-x C-o	Delete all empty line around the cursor.
   M-q	Justify / Re-align current paragraph
   C-x C - (minus)	Decrease font size
   C-x C + (plus)	Increase font size
   M-x replace-string	Batch replace string in selected region or buffer.
   M-x replace-regexp	Batch replace regex pattern in selected text or buffer.
   M-x regexp-builder	Build and test Emacs regex patterns.

4. Indentation
   

   M-x <command>
   back-to-identation	M-m	Move to the first non-whitespace character on the current line.
   ident-region	C-M-\	Indent all lines in a region.
   ident-rigidly	C-x TAB	Select a region and type C-x TAB. Type right, left (move 1 space) or
   		S-right, S-left (move 1 tab) to move the block to left or right.
   		This keybinding doesn't work if cua-mode is activated.

   Indent entire buffer

   1. C-x h -> Select the whole buffer.
   2. C-M-\ or M-x indent-region

1.1.5 Ubiquitous Emacs Key Bindings

1.2.1 Dired mode key bindings

1.2.2 Commands to find files