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authorDave Love <fx@gnu.org>1999-09-29 15:17:24 +0000
committerDave Love <fx@gnu.org>1999-09-29 15:17:24 +0000
commit6bf7aab68402fd010eae5d280350bd399014406a (patch)
tree625ed090fc4abe8605e63f152740733c70314c4a /man/entering.texi
parentf58395f66db524e38e011f95f292d7abcc1fe2d1 (diff)
downloademacs-6bf7aab68402fd010eae5d280350bd399014406a.tar.gz
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+@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
+@c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
+@node Entering Emacs, Exiting, Text Characters, Top
+@chapter Entering and Exiting Emacs
+@cindex entering Emacs
+@cindex starting Emacs
+
+ The usual way to invoke Emacs is with the shell command @samp{emacs}.
+Emacs clears the screen and then displays an initial help message and
+copyright notice. Some operating systems discard all type-ahead when
+Emacs starts up; they give Emacs no way to prevent this. Therefore, it
+is advisable to wait until Emacs clears the screen before typing your
+first editing command.
+
+ If you run Emacs from a shell window under the X Window System, run it
+in the background with @samp{emacs&}. This way, Emacs does not tie up
+the shell window, so you can use that to run other shell commands while
+Emacs operates its own X windows. You can begin typing Emacs commands
+as soon as you direct your keyboard input to the Emacs frame.
+
+@vindex initial-major-mode
+ When Emacs starts up, it makes a buffer named @samp{*scratch*}.
+That's the buffer you start out in. The @samp{*scratch*} buffer uses Lisp
+Interaction mode; you can use it to type Lisp expressions and evaluate
+them, or you can ignore that capability and simply doodle. (You can
+specify a different major mode for this buffer by setting the variable
+@code{initial-major-mode} in your init file. @xref{Init File}.)
+
+ It is possible to specify files to be visited, Lisp files to be
+loaded, and functions to be called, by giving Emacs arguments in the
+shell command line. @xref{Command Arguments}. But we don't recommend
+doing this. The feature exists mainly for compatibility with other
+editors.
+
+ Many other editors are designed to be started afresh each time you
+want to edit. You edit one file and then exit the editor. The next
+time you want to edit either another file or the same one, you must run
+the editor again. With these editors, it makes sense to use a
+command-line argument to say which file to edit.
+
+ But starting a new Emacs each time you want to edit a different file
+does not make sense. For one thing, this would be annoyingly slow. For
+another, this would fail to take advantage of Emacs's ability to visit
+more than one file in a single editing session. And it would lose the
+other accumulated context, such as registers, undo history, and the mark
+ring.
+
+ The recommended way to use GNU Emacs is to start it only once, just
+after you log in, and do all your editing in the same Emacs session.
+Each time you want to edit a different file, you visit it with the
+existing Emacs, which eventually comes to have many files in it ready
+for editing. Usually you do not kill the Emacs until you are about to
+log out. @xref{Files}, for more information on visiting more than one
+file.
+
+@node Exiting, Basic, Entering Emacs, Top
+@section Exiting Emacs
+@cindex exiting
+@cindex killing Emacs
+@cindex suspending
+@cindex leaving Emacs
+@cindex quitting Emacs
+
+ There are two commands for exiting Emacs because there are two kinds
+of exiting: @dfn{suspending} Emacs and @dfn{killing} Emacs.
+
+ @dfn{Suspending} means stopping Emacs temporarily and returning
+control to its parent process (usually a shell), allowing you to resume
+editing later in the same Emacs job, with the same buffers, same kill
+ring, same undo history, and so on. This is the usual way to exit.
+
+ @dfn{Killing} Emacs means destroying the Emacs job. You can run Emacs
+again later, but you will get a fresh Emacs; there is no way to resume
+the same editing session after it has been killed.
+
+@table @kbd
+@item C-z
+Suspend Emacs (@code{suspend-emacs}) or iconify a frame
+(@code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame}).
+@item C-x C-c
+Kill Emacs (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}).
+@end table
+
+@kindex C-z
+@findex suspend-emacs
+ To suspend Emacs, type @kbd{C-z} (@code{suspend-emacs}). This takes
+you back to the shell from which you invoked Emacs. You can resume
+Emacs with the shell command @samp{%emacs} in most common shells.
+
+ On systems that do not support suspending programs, @kbd{C-z} starts
+an inferior shell that communicates directly with the terminal.
+Emacs waits until you exit the subshell. (The way to do that is
+probably with @kbd{C-d} or @samp{exit}, but it depends on which shell
+you use.) The only way on these systems to get back to the shell from
+which Emacs was run (to log out, for example) is to kill Emacs.
+
+ Suspending also fails if you run Emacs under a shell that doesn't
+support suspending programs, even if the system itself does support it.
+In such a case, you can set the variable @code{cannot-suspend} to a
+non-@code{nil} value to force @kbd{C-z} to start an inferior shell.
+(One might also describe Emacs's parent shell as ``inferior'' for
+failing to support job control properly, but that is a matter of taste.)
+
+ When Emacs communicates directly with an X server and creates its own
+dedicated X windows, @kbd{C-z} has a different meaning. Suspending an
+applications that uses its own X windows is not meaningful or useful.
+Instead, @kbd{C-z} runs the command @code{iconify-or-deiconify-frame},
+which temporarily closes up the selected Emacs frame (@pxref{Frames}).
+The way to get back to a shell window is with the window manager.
+
+@kindex C-x C-c
+@findex save-buffers-kill-emacs
+ To kill Emacs, type @kbd{C-x C-c} (@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}). A
+two-character key is used for this to make it harder to type. This
+command first offers to save any modified file-visiting buffers. If you
+do not save them all, it asks for reconfirmation with @kbd{yes} before
+killing Emacs, since any changes not saved will be lost forever. Also,
+if any subprocesses are still running, @kbd{C-x C-c} asks for
+confirmation about them, since killing Emacs will kill the subprocesses
+immediately.
+
+ There is no way to restart an Emacs session once you have killed it.
+You can, however, arrange for Emacs to record certain session
+information, such as which files are visited, when you kill it, so that
+the next time you restart Emacs it will try to visit the same files and
+so on. @xref{Saving Emacs Sessions}.
+
+ The operating system usually listens for certain special characters
+whose meaning is to kill or suspend the program you are running.
+@b{This operating system feature is turned off while you are in Emacs.}
+The meanings of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-x C-c} as keys in Emacs were
+inspired by the use of @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-c} on several operating
+systems as the characters for stopping or killing a program, but that is
+their only relationship with the operating system. You can customize
+these keys to run any commands of your choice (@pxref{Keymaps}).