Customizing Emacs Using a .emacs File


To customize Emacs, you need to write some Lisp code. It's not really that difficult. The code should be put in a file named .emacs in your home directory. Every time Emacs starts up, it automatically reads any Lisp code you have put into your .emacs file.

To define a key binding, use an expression of this form:


  (define-key key-map keystrokes function)
To set an Emacs variable, use an expression of this form:

  (setq variable value)
The section below gives some typical customizations you might perform in your .emacs file. Note that comments are preceded by semicolon characters.

(define-key esc-map "G" 'goto-line)		; Esc-G runs the goto-line
						; function.

(define-key ctl-x-map "t" 'transpose-lines)	; Ctrl-x t runs the
						; transpose-lines function.

(setq require-final-newline t)			; Make sure file always
						; ends with a newline.

(setq default-major-mode 'text-mode)		; Default mode is text-mode.

(setq text-mode-hook				; Enable auto-fill-mode
 '(lambda () (auto-fill-mode 1)))		; whenever using text-mode.

(setq delete-auto-save-files t)			; Delete unnecessary
						; auto-save files.

(display-time)					; Display current time and
						; load average on mode line.