Emacs Cheatsheet

emacs-cheatsheet.md

Emacs Cheatsheet

A cheatsheet inspired by the book "Clojure for the Brave and True".

Shortcut Keys Used

• C = Control Key
• M = Meta Key (Alt on PCs, Option on Macs)

Examples:

• C-a = Hold control, press 'a'.
• C-x o = Hold control, press 'x', release both, press 'o' (oh, not zero).

Basics

Keys	Description
C-x C-c	Quit Emacs.
C-g	Cancel any in progress keybinding/shortcut command.
C-x C-s	Save current buffer.
C-x b	Switch to a different buffer.
C-x k	Kill/close current buffer.
C-x C-f	Open a file.
C-/	Undo the last action.

Movement

In addition to the arrow keys, these keybindings allow for cursor movements.

Buffer/File

Keys	Description
M-<	Move to beginning of buffer/file.
M->	Move to end of buffer/file.
C-v	Move one screen forward.
M-v	Move one screen backward.
C-l	Center screen on position at cursor.

Lines

Keys	Description
C-a	Move to beginning of line.
C-e	Move to end of line.
C-n	Move to the next line.
C-p	Move to the previous line.
M-g g	Go to line.

Words

Keys	Description
M-f	Move forward one word.
M-b	Move backward one word.

Characters

Keys	Description
C-f	Move forward one character.
C-b	Move backward one character.

Searching

Keys	Description
C-s	Regex search for text in current buffer and move to it. Press C-s again to move to next match.
C-r	Same as C-s, but search in reverse.
M-%	Search and replace.

Kill Ring (Copy/Cut/Paste)

Keys	Description
C-spacebar	Create a region (select). Use movement keys to expand the region selected. Then use copy/cut commands below.
M-w	Copy region to kill ring (copy).
C-w	Kill region (cut).
C-y	Yank (paste).
M-y	Cycle through kill ring after yanking/pasting. This is like a copy/paste clipboard.
M-d	Kill/delete word starting at cursor (cut).
C-k	Kill/delete line starting at cursor (cut).

Editing

Keys	Description
Tab	Indent line.
C-j	New line and indent, equivalent to enter followed by tab.
M-\	Delete all spaces and tabs around point.
C-d	Delete the next character.
M-backspace	Delete previous word.
C-x space (use movement keys to select up/down). C-x r t (type key to insert, then Enter)	Rectangle mode

Formatting Tricks

Keys	Description
C-t	Swap two characters at the point/cursor.
M-u	Change the word at the point/cursor to uppercase.
M-l	Change the word at the point/cursor to lowercase.
C-u n char	Insert 'n' (a number) copies of 'char' (a character).

Help

Keys	Description
C-h k key-binding	Describe the function bound to the key binding. To get this to work, you actually perform the key sequence after typing C-h k.
C-h f	Describe function.

Windows and Frame

Keys	Description
C-x o	Switch cursor to another window.
C-x 1	Delete all other windows, leaving only the current window in the frame. This doesn’t close your buffers, and it won’t cause you to lose any work.
C-x 2	Split frame above and below.
C-x 3	Split frame side by side.
C-x 0	Delete current window.

Plugin: Cider

Clojure Files

Keys	Description
C-c M-n M-n	Switch to namespace of current buffer.
C-x C-e	Evaluate expression immediately preceding point.
C-c C-k	Compile current buffer/file.
C-c C-d C-d	Display documentation for symbol under point.
M-. and M-,	Navigate to source code for symbol under point and return to your original buffer.
C-c C-d C-a	Apropros search; find arbitrary text across function names and documentation.

REPL

Keys	Description
M-x cider-jack-in	Start a REPL.
C-c C-x C-j C-j	Alternative to start a REPL.
C-↑, C-↓	Cycle through REPL history.
C-enter	Close parentheses and evaluate.

Plugin: Paredit

Keys	Description
M-x paredit-mode	Toggle paredit mode.
M-(	Surround expression after point in parentheses (paredit-wrap-round).
C-→	Slurp; move closing parenthesis to the right to include next expression.
C-←	Barf; move closing parenthesis to the left to exclude last expression.
C-M-f, C-M-b	Move to the opening/closing parenthesis.