Use Commands and Interactions
By the end of this chapter, you will have found a command, inspected its bindings, and cancelled a prompt without changing a document.
Use the nonmodal profile from the first editing session.
C- means Control; M- means Meta, usually Alt. Chords separated by spaces
are sequential: C-x C-s is Control-x followed by Control-s.
Find and Run a Command
Press Alt-x, type list-buffers, and press Enter. The buffer inventory opens.
Press q to return to the document. Repeat Alt-x with find-file, then press
Ctrl-G at the path prompt. The current document and its unsaved text remain.
Command candidates show a name, contextual binding when one exists, and a short description. Type to filter; Up/Down or Ctrl-P/Ctrl-N moves the selected row. Page Up/Down moves through visible pages. Enter confirms the selected command. Highlighting alone does not execute it.
Commands that need a path, name, or other value open another interaction. Read its prompt before accepting. Ctrl-G cancels pending interaction. During incremental search, one cancellation can first remove a failing query suffix; a subsequent cancellation returns to the original location.
Inspect Effective Controls
Use Ctrl-X h to open Help, enter context, and press Enter. Read the current
profile, state, and configuration source. Ctrl-G closes Help. Personal and
contextual maps can change ordinary shortcuts; Help reports the active values.
Alt-x and Ctrl-G are protected across the supported profiles and states.
| Nonmodal keys | Action |
|---|---|
C-x C-f | Open a file or directory. |
C-x C-s | Save the current buffer. |
C-x b | Switch buffers or create a named buffer. |
C-z, C-x C-z | Undo and redo. |
C-s, C-r | Search forward and backward. |
M-x | Find and run a named command. |
C-g | Cancel the current interaction. |
C-q, C-x C-c | Request exit and resolve modified buffers. |
The optional modal profile uses its own states and bindings. The command reference records current names, profiles, and exact behavior.
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