Shortcut to open a specific file in Emacs - emacs

I want to be able to use a keyboard shortcut to edit my .emacs file instead of typing Ctrl-XCtrl-F.emacsEnter every time (here's an analogous question regarding Vim). There's probably an obvious way of doing this, but I can't find the Emacs Lisp command to open a file. I'd think it would be something beginning with "open" or "file" but typing M-x and those terms doesn't seem to bring up anything relevant. I tried
(global-set-key (kbd "<f6>") (find-file "~/.emacs"))
but that doesn't work.

According to the documentation
(global-set-key KEY COMMAND)
Give KEY a global binding as COMMAND. COMMAND is the command
definition to use; usually it is a symbol naming an
interactively-callable function.
So you have to use an interactively-callable function:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f6>") (lambda() (interactive)(find-file "~/.emacs")))
Personally I prefer to use emacs registers to store files which I use often.
I would store '~/.emacs' in a register:
(set-register ?e (cons 'file "~/.emacs"))
and open it with C-x r j e

Bookmarking is an excellent solution for this purpose that is packaged with emacs.
That way if it's ok for you to see the list of files that you want to open, you can easily browse them. There is also BookmarkPlus which offers variety of options.
M-x list-bookmarks

Related

How to Zoom in /out in emacs -nw (command line only) whithout having a numeric keypad (or mouse wheel)? [duplicate]

This s-expression in my .emacs file does not produce the desired result:
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-=") 'djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop)
Why can't I bind a command to Ctrl+=?
EDIT for clarification:
I am using emacs23-nox on the standard build of urxvt-256colors for Debian, except that I have recompiled with --disable-iso405776 (or something to that effect) it so that Ctrl+Shift doesn't do the weird 'insert character' thing. I don't know if this affects anything. For example, C-M-i sends M-TAB, which I don't understand.
EDIT II:
I apologize for not making this clear. The function djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop has the line (interactive) in it. This part works.
The accepted answer in combination with the link in the first comment to it is enough to get started on a complete solution. The steps are:
make your terminal output escape codes for the key
make Emacs recognise the escape codes as a standard keypress
bind the keypress in a mode map
The first is very terminal and/or operating system dependent.
The link in the first comment shows some examples for X Window System. The key names are available in /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h (or try locate keysymdef.h), prefixed with XK_ (which should be removed for our purposes). I read that symbolic names are preferred over key literals.
I don't currently run X but I think it should look like this in your case:
XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
Ctrl ~Meta ~Shift <Key> equal: string(0x1b) string("[emacs-C-=")\n
The first string is the escape, the second is of your choosing.
In iTerm you can use Preferences->Keys and choose Send Escape Sequence as the Action. For example, I have:
Emacs Wiki lists some configuration methods for other terminals.
Now you can teach Emacs to recognize it as a C-=. First define-key into input-decode-map. I have a couple of helper functions:
(defun my/global-map-and-set-key (key command &optional prefix suffix)
"`my/map-key' KEY then `global-set-key' KEY with COMMAND.
PREFIX or SUFFIX can wrap the key when passing to `global-set-key'."
(my/map-key key)
(global-set-key (kbd (concat prefix key suffix)) command))
(defun my/map-key (key)
"Map KEY from escape sequence \"\e[emacs-KEY\."
(define-key function-key-map (concat "\e[emacs-" key) (kbd key)))
So then:
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-=" 'some-function-to-bind-to)
Some keys (currently: ()\|;'`"#.,) will need escaping in the string, like C-\..
In a terminal, TAB is represented by the same byte sequence as C-i. And typically the terminal has no special byte-sequence for C-=, so it will just send a =. There is nothing that Emacs can do about it. But you might be able to teach your terminal emulator to send some special byte sequence of your choice (check the documentation of your terminal emulator for that), after which you can teach Emacs to recognize it as a C-= (with something like (define-key input-decode-map "...thebytes..." [?\C-=])).
The problem is that you use emacs in the terminal.
The terminal does not allow "C-=".
Try your function in the graphical emacs and it will work.
You will have to find another keybinding for the terminal.
You can map C-= using the default ascii codes: ^[[61;5u. Then you can bind it in Emacs either using:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-=") 'djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop))
or let use-package do it, e.g.:
(use-package expand-region
:ensure t
:bind (("C-=" . er/expand-region)))
I do want to thank Sam Brightman, for his wonderful solution. It's a very clean, albeit heavy-handed, approach that will work for any keys that cannot be sent via normal ascii codes. I've been wanting to get C-TAB working inside iterm2 for a long time. I was able to do it by deleting the builtin preferences keys for C-TAB/C-S-TAB and using his approach. With the following, I can be ssh'd into remote Linux boxes and quickly switch through lots of open buffers in projects, just like a desktop editor.
(use-package nswbuff
:defer 1
:after (projectile)
:commands (nswbuff-switch-to-previous-buffer
nswbuff-switch-to-next-buffer)
:config
(progn
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-TAB" 'nswbuff-switch-to-previous-buffer)
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-S-TAB" 'nswbuff-switch-to-next-buffer))
:init
(setq nswbuff-display-intermediate-buffers t
nswbuff-exclude-buffer-regexps '("^ "
"^\*.*\*"
"\*Treemacs.*\*"
"^magit.*:.+")
nswbuff-include-buffer-regexps '("^*Org Src")
nswbuff-start-with-current-centered t
nswbuff-buffer-list-function '(lambda ()
(interactive)
(if (projectile-project-p)
(nswbuff-projectile-buffer-list)
(buffer-list)))))
The function you're binding must be interactive. Try:
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-=")
(lambda () (interactive) (djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop)))

Use only two functions from the evil package as keybinding

I want to get the search at point functionality ("*" and "#") in emacs.
So I want to use "*" and "#" from the emacs evil-mode, as this is one of the suggestions. However, I don't want anything else from the evil-mode, just those two functions!
This is my .emacs file:
(package-initialize)
(evil-mode 1) ;; enable evil-mode
(global-set-key (kbd "C-*") 'evil-search-symbol-forward)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-#") 'evil-search-symbol-backward)
Now the keybindings work, but I loaded the whole evil-mode, so it messes up my standard emacs keybindings like "C-y" for yank.
If I don't load the evil-mode in the .emacs file, I get the error:
Symbol's function definition is void: evil-search-symbol-forward
#event_jr's answer mentions highlight-symbols, which is probably a much more lightweight way to do what you want.
However, if you really want to use the evil version, you can (require 'evil) in your .emacs file without turning it on (ie, leave off the (evil-mode 1) statement).
Meanwhile, the functions you want are actually named evil-search-word-forward and evil-search-word-backward, not the ...-symbol-... version you saw on the wiki page (which is probably outdated).
You should use highlight-symbols for symbol jumping and highlighting.

If I open doc.foo file, I want emacs to look for and open doc.bar file in the same folder

Specifically this problem arises when working in LaTeX (auctex) for me, but I think it must have a general emacs solution.
To every doc.tex file, I have an associated and oft-edited doc.sty file in the same folder.
Is there a way that whenever I open the doc.tex file I can have emacs open the doc.sty file in that folder? I'm not proficient at all in elisp, so something very simple---it doesn't need to be robust code: it can work on the assumption that both files are named doc.* and that both exist.
Take a look at the commentary for:
M-x find-library RET find-file RET
It's not precisely what you asked for, but it is a built-in solution for opening related files. Just bind a key to ff-find-other-file (or ff-find-related-file if you prefer that alias), and you can switch back and forth between the two files easily.
In particular, see:
C-hv ff-other-file-alist RET
C-hv ff-search-directories RET
So something like this:
(add-hook 'latex-mode-hook 'my-latex-mode-hook)
(defun my-latex-mode-hook ()
"My LaTeX customisations."
(setq ff-search-directories '(".")
ff-other-file-alist '(("\\.tex$" (".sty"))
("\\.sty$" (".tex"))))
(local-set-key (kbd "C-c f") 'ff-find-other-file))

How do I bind C-= in emacs?

This s-expression in my .emacs file does not produce the desired result:
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-=") 'djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop)
Why can't I bind a command to Ctrl+=?
EDIT for clarification:
I am using emacs23-nox on the standard build of urxvt-256colors for Debian, except that I have recompiled with --disable-iso405776 (or something to that effect) it so that Ctrl+Shift doesn't do the weird 'insert character' thing. I don't know if this affects anything. For example, C-M-i sends M-TAB, which I don't understand.
EDIT II:
I apologize for not making this clear. The function djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop has the line (interactive) in it. This part works.
The accepted answer in combination with the link in the first comment to it is enough to get started on a complete solution. The steps are:
make your terminal output escape codes for the key
make Emacs recognise the escape codes as a standard keypress
bind the keypress in a mode map
The first is very terminal and/or operating system dependent.
The link in the first comment shows some examples for X Window System. The key names are available in /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h (or try locate keysymdef.h), prefixed with XK_ (which should be removed for our purposes). I read that symbolic names are preferred over key literals.
I don't currently run X but I think it should look like this in your case:
XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
Ctrl ~Meta ~Shift <Key> equal: string(0x1b) string("[emacs-C-=")\n
The first string is the escape, the second is of your choosing.
In iTerm you can use Preferences->Keys and choose Send Escape Sequence as the Action. For example, I have:
Emacs Wiki lists some configuration methods for other terminals.
Now you can teach Emacs to recognize it as a C-=. First define-key into input-decode-map. I have a couple of helper functions:
(defun my/global-map-and-set-key (key command &optional prefix suffix)
"`my/map-key' KEY then `global-set-key' KEY with COMMAND.
PREFIX or SUFFIX can wrap the key when passing to `global-set-key'."
(my/map-key key)
(global-set-key (kbd (concat prefix key suffix)) command))
(defun my/map-key (key)
"Map KEY from escape sequence \"\e[emacs-KEY\."
(define-key function-key-map (concat "\e[emacs-" key) (kbd key)))
So then:
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-=" 'some-function-to-bind-to)
Some keys (currently: ()\|;'`"#.,) will need escaping in the string, like C-\..
In a terminal, TAB is represented by the same byte sequence as C-i. And typically the terminal has no special byte-sequence for C-=, so it will just send a =. There is nothing that Emacs can do about it. But you might be able to teach your terminal emulator to send some special byte sequence of your choice (check the documentation of your terminal emulator for that), after which you can teach Emacs to recognize it as a C-= (with something like (define-key input-decode-map "...thebytes..." [?\C-=])).
The problem is that you use emacs in the terminal.
The terminal does not allow "C-=".
Try your function in the graphical emacs and it will work.
You will have to find another keybinding for the terminal.
You can map C-= using the default ascii codes: ^[[61;5u. Then you can bind it in Emacs either using:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-=") 'djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop))
or let use-package do it, e.g.:
(use-package expand-region
:ensure t
:bind (("C-=" . er/expand-region)))
I do want to thank Sam Brightman, for his wonderful solution. It's a very clean, albeit heavy-handed, approach that will work for any keys that cannot be sent via normal ascii codes. I've been wanting to get C-TAB working inside iterm2 for a long time. I was able to do it by deleting the builtin preferences keys for C-TAB/C-S-TAB and using his approach. With the following, I can be ssh'd into remote Linux boxes and quickly switch through lots of open buffers in projects, just like a desktop editor.
(use-package nswbuff
:defer 1
:after (projectile)
:commands (nswbuff-switch-to-previous-buffer
nswbuff-switch-to-next-buffer)
:config
(progn
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-TAB" 'nswbuff-switch-to-previous-buffer)
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-S-TAB" 'nswbuff-switch-to-next-buffer))
:init
(setq nswbuff-display-intermediate-buffers t
nswbuff-exclude-buffer-regexps '("^ "
"^\*.*\*"
"\*Treemacs.*\*"
"^magit.*:.+")
nswbuff-include-buffer-regexps '("^*Org Src")
nswbuff-start-with-current-centered t
nswbuff-buffer-list-function '(lambda ()
(interactive)
(if (projectile-project-p)
(nswbuff-projectile-buffer-list)
(buffer-list)))))
The function you're binding must be interactive. Try:
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-=")
(lambda () (interactive) (djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop)))

How to do use C-x k to kill an Emacs buffer opened in server mode?

I use windows batch file to open files in an already-running instance of Emacs using emacsclientw.exe. However, any file opened that way is opened in server mode, which means that I have to use C-x # to kill it, instead of the usual C-x k. How do I change this behavior?
My solution was to rebind it (well M-w actually) to:
(lambda ()
(interactive)
(if server-buffer-clients
(server-edit)
(kill-this-buffer)))
[edit: having now read the code for server-edit, it might be better to use server-done (depending on what you want). server-edit will switch you to a server-edited buffer (if any still exist) but server-done will simply switch you to the next buffer. You could also use the output of server-done to see if the buffer was actually killed (not the case if the file was open before invoking emacsclient) and then kill it if not. Or use server-kill-buffer as suggested elsewhere.]
Here is what i put in my .emacs to do this :
(add-hook 'server-switch-hook
(lambda ()
(local-set-key (kbd "C-x k") '(lambda ()
(interactive)
(if server-buffer-clients
(server-edit)
(ido-kill-buffer))))))
Like this C-x k work the usual way when i'm not finding a file from emacsclient (which for me is ido-kill-buffer), and if i'm using emacsclient, C-x k does server-edit if the client is waiting, or run ido-kill-buffer otherwise (if i used emacsclient -n).
use:
D:\> emacsclientw -n foo.txt
the -n says "no wait". This is in GNU Emacs 22.2.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2008-03-26 on RELEASE (and many prior versions, IIRC).
You know, I hate to suggest workarounds instead of a real solution... but after reading the server code, I am confused as to how emacs even determines that a buffer is a server buffer.
With that in mind, why not open up files like:
emacsclient --eval '(find-file "/path/to/file")'
This way emacs doesn't know that your buffer was opened via emacsclient, which sounds like what you really want.
Edit:
I'm not really happy with this, but it seems to work:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x k") (lambda () (interactive) (server-kill-buffer (current-buffer))))
Okay, THIS did work for me:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x k") '(lambda ()
(interactive)
(if server-buffer-clients
(server-done)
(kill-this-buffer))))
(this is the code from IvanAndrus's answer with the explicit changes from edits and comments, and using jrockway's keybinding.)
And, yes -- I am rebinding a standard keybinding. BUT it's a functional replacement NOT something completely different (eg, replacing kill-ring-save with kill-buffer stuff).
BTW, EmacsWiki has a couple of pages on this topic-- KillKey and KillingBuffer -- neither of which shed better light for me than the above (although the first-function on KillKey also used "server-edit"...).
I am not sure if that will work on windows, but on linux, emacs -daemon is just great.
With it, you don't have to run a different program, and your bindings are the same. I guess there are other advantages, but since I could never learn those emacsclient bindings, I never really used it, and can't say.
I don't think -daemon had been released yet, I am using 23.0.60.1 from CVS.