tips.org

Emacs Tips and Useful links

Where to dowload latest Emacs binary?

• GNU Official Windows Binaries
• Mac Universal Binaries (brew cask install emacs)
• Emacs Mac Port

How to build Emacs manually?

Clone Emacs source code from official repository

Build Emacs on macOS

1. Install Xcode command line tools by xcode-select --install
2. Install dependencies by brew install pkg-config gnutls (Hint: brew info emacs)
3. ./configure --with-native-compilation
4. make install -j$(nproc) NATIVE_FULL_AOT=1 (This step will assemble the app in nextstep/Emacs.app. See nextstep/INSTALL for more information.)
5. Link or copy nextstep/Emacs.app to /Applications

Install Emacs Plus on macOS via homebrew

1. Follow the instructions in https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus

Build Emacs on Debian-based GNU/Linux

1. apt install build-essential and apt build-dep emacs. These commands install the necessary dependent packages.
2. make (See INSTALL.REPO in the emacs repository for more information.)
3. To use native elisp ahead-of-time compilation in Emacs 29, run ./autogen.sh && ./configure --with-native-compilation=aot && make -j$(nproc)
4. After the build finished, emacs and emacsclient will be available under src and lib-src, respectively. Add them to the loading path of your preferred shell.

Emacs Lisp

• “Wrong type argument: commandp” error
• eval-after-load vs. mode hook
• Call function with prefix argument programmatically
• Directory name and its name as a file
• Prefix Command Arguments
• File variables
• Use trace-function to see the callstack of a given function.

Coding system

• Use describe-coding-system to show current coding system.
• Use set-buffer-file-coding-system (or C-x RET f) to convert the current buffer to a coding system.
• http://www.masteringemacs.org/articles/2012/08/09/working-coding-systems-unicode-emacs/
• http://www.reai.us/windows-emacs-encoding

Packages

Eshell

• Generate Eshell alias from bash alias

Ivy

• During selecting a candidate, press M-o to select an action to perform. https://oremacs.com/swiper/#how-can-different-actions-be-called

Hunspell

• Check installed dictionaries: hunspell -D
• Download en_US dictionary
• On Mac OS, dictionaries can be installed under ~/Library/Spelling/
• Hunspell executable for Windows

Org mode

• C-c ': edit source code block.
• C-c *: toggle the heading status
• C-c -: toggle the items in plain list.
• C-c ^: sort the plain list.
• C-c C-e b: export the file to HTML and show it in browser.
• C-c C-l: insert a link.
• C-c C-x C-f: insert or change emphasis.
• C-u C-c C-l: insert a file link.
• Adjust exported headline levels
• Support languages in source code block
• org-export-with-sub-superscripts: Interpret “_” and “^” for export. Set ^:{}

Server

• Solution to the problem “server directory is unsafe on Windows.”

Undo Tree

• C-x u: undo-tree-visualize

magit

• M-x magit-toggle-verbose-refresh to debug magit performance issue https://magit.vc/manual/magit/Performance.html https://jakemccrary.com/blog/2020/11/14/speeding-up-magit/

How to?

Find and replace a string in multiple files

Use wgrep, counsel-rg, ivy-occur

1. Install wgrep.
2. Use counsel-rg and type the search string.
3. Press C-c C-o to convert to a `ivy-occur` buffer.
4. Press C-x C-q or w to switch to edit mode.
5. After editing the lines in buffers, press C-x C-s to save all.

Use dired

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/efaq/Replacing-text-across-multiple-files.html

Enter Greek letters

Press C-u C-\ greek RET to switch to Greek input method. Leave by pressing C-\.