It is my first time to use emacs -nw. But I have problem at the first when I type M-x. In the minibuffer, it shows "Mark set" instead of M-x
I don't know why it happens. How can I deal with it?
PS: My os is Macosx and I connect remote by using ssh and then I type emacs -nw but I cannot use M-x
Update:08/30/2015
When I see the options under M-x customize-group ns, it seems that Alt is actually used as Meta? Why it didn’t works.
14Hide Ns Alternate Modifier: [Value Menu] meta |
15 [ State ]: STANDARD. |
16 This variable describes the behavior of the alternate or option key. More |
37Hide Ns Right Alternate Modifier: [Value Menu] Use the value of ns-alternate-modifier |
38 [ State ]: STANDARD. |
39 This variable describes the behavior of the right alternate or option key. More |
When using Emacs in the terminal (switch -nw), you might not have a Meta key, depending on your platform etc. In particular, the Alt keyboard key might not function as the Meta key. You might find some information (e.g. here, or by googling) about how to get it working as Meta for your context (platform etc.), but you might not.
You can always use ESC (the Escape key) followed by a key to act the same as the Meta modifier applied to that key. For example, instead of M-x, you can use ESC x.
(You press and release ESC, and then do the same for x. ESC is not a modifier key -- you do not hold it pressed while hitting x.)
Your problem is that OSX is stealing the key. There are a few things which will make your life easier
Install emacs using homebrew. The version which comes with OSX is old
Use iterm2 instead of the default term.app - much better and feature rich
In iterm2, you can set a key override for either the left or right option as +ESC, which will make it all work.
This will all work on a local machine, but you may run into additional problems if your connecting to a remote machine and running emacs there. It is a similar problem, your key settings may no be getting stolen/dropped by the ssh session - all depends on your terminal, your ssh config and the remote system.
Note that with emacs, you often don't need to run remote. Emacs comes with a built-in system called Tramp, which is very powerful. Using tramp, you can open remote directories and edit the files as if they were local files. You run emacs locally and tramp uses ssh to open the remote files, read the contents into the local emacs buffer and then write the changes back tot he remote file. Helps to have ssh keys setup so you don't have to worry about passwords (but you will need an ssh-agent to make this work easily).
In general, when you find emads does not respond to a key press, especailly if you try C-h k and nothing happens when you hit the key bindings you can't get to work, it is almost certain that something in-between you and emacs is stealing the keys - this is often the window manager or OS, but it can also be due to terminal emulators etc. In over 20 years of using emacs, I've never had emacs 'do nothing' when you hit a key combination - if emacs recieves the key input, it will respond with something, even if that something is to tell you there is no key binding for the keys you pressed. If emacs does absolutely nothing, you know the message just isn't get through!
Open Terminal Preferences
Select Profiles
Keyboard
Check the box for "Use Option as Meta Key"
Related
Good evening,
I have a problem using Emacs in Terminal.app the last 9 hours but wasn't able to solve it on my own.
The workarounds I have found on Stackoverflow etc. didn't persuade me.
I didn't want to use the Option 'Wahltaste als Metataste verwenden' (alt/option as meta), because I have to type for example {}[] with my alt-key. Keybinding of these Charakters in Emacs is no solution for me, because outside of Emacs in nano I want to use []{}..., too.
I also didn't want to use iTerm2.app, I think it should be possible in Terminal too.
Because sometimes I use Emacs over SSH, it is not possible to choose an GUI-based Emacs either.
A possibilty I would accept is to use the left alt/option key for meta and the right one for typing []{}... Or the Fn-Key for meta...
But I wasn't able to do it the last 9 hours...
I already ported 'emulate-mac-keybord-mode.el' from Aquamacs, but I didn't get it work as expected.
Does anybody have an idea?
Thanks in advance,
Zappel
If you insist on a TTY Emacs within Terminal.app, you may probably have some success with kernel level remappings of modifier keys, using KeyRemap4MacBook. I do not know, because I never used it for such things, and since the key codes, Terminal.app sends to the TTY process when a modifier is pressed, are ultimately hard-coded in Terminal.app, this is neither easy nor particularly pretty.
iTerm2 probably provides means to customize modifiers individually, and is generally a superior terminal emulator (with the notable exception of color management), but frankly, do yourself a favor, and use a GUI Emacs.
A GUI Emacs provides a much nicer expierence on OS X. You are not only able to map each modifier key individually with mac-option-modifier and friends, you also more modifiers available, namely Super and Hyper.
For instance, the following setting uses the Command keys as Meta, the function key has Hyper, and keeps the Option keys for OS X, so that you can still use the alternate layout level:
(setq mac-option-modifier 'none
mac-command-modifier 'meta
mac-function-modifier 'hyper)
To edit files on remote systems, you'd just use Tramp then.
I am making a SSH client for a special device which does not have a all keys on it's keyboard, my question is how is the Esc,Alt,Ctrl and arrow keys encoded in the string sent to the shell? is it just '\033'?
I know how the Enter key behaves, it gives an ^M, from here
But when i press Ctrl+v and then Ctrl nothing appears, when i press Ctrl+v and then Ctrl+c in the teminal i get: ^C , so is Ctrl just ^ ?
But what about alt
Further more i found:
left ^[[D
right ^[[C
up ^[[A
down ^[[B
can i just write these commands as command below, to libssh:
rc = libssh2_channel_write(self.channel, [command UTF8String], strlen([command UTF8String])))
The problem is I get the following response from ssh: zsh: substitution failed in both bash on my mac and in my SSH program:
-bash: :s^[^C: substitution failed
Key sequence encoding depends on the terminal device. Each terminal device can make up its own encoding. The Linux console, xterm, GNU screen, gnome-terminal, konsole, vt220, etc. all have different (but similar) capabilities and key encodings.
If you need to know the encoding of a key sequence for a particular terminal device, then you should query the terminfo database for the TERM you are interested in.
Chances are the terminal emulates something similar to ECMA-48, so that it s a starting point. However, do not hard-code ECMA-48 into your application; some users might use a different terminal—especially if they ssh into the system before using your application to ssh out.
See the ncurses web site for more documentation.
If you are attempting to create your own terminal device (e.g., emulating a user pressing keys at a terminal), then it's up to you to choose the encoding you want. For it to work, you'll have to make sure your terminal device's key encoding is in the remote system's terminfo database and that the TERM environment variable is set properly. To minimize the work you need to do, you're probably best off emulating an existing popular terminal, such as GNU screen or vt220. To get their key encodings, see their terminfo database entries.
I see a few entries here about making Shift-Tab work in vim, but none of them addresses the failure when it's in Cygwin, running at a Windows command prompt. In that environment, Shift-Tab works for me exactly like an unshifted tab, and my attempts at remapping have failed:
:imap <S-Tab> ^D [ this is a real Ctrl-D, entered with Ctrl-V before it ]
:imap [ typed Ctrl-V, Shift-Tab here; got a Tab character inserted ]
So it seems that the Shift modifier is being ignored. Any thoughts about how to proceed? Thanks.
That won't work in the Cygwin console because it sends the same keycode for both Tab and Shift+Tab: ^I.
You might want to install Cygwin's mintty terminal emulator, which sends the standard keycode for Shift+Tab: \e[Z.
Instead of messing with the Cygwin version, I suggest you remove it and install the native version instead. With that, you can map Shift-Tab without issues, even when starting Vim from a bash shell.
I don't have windows right here now, but look whether your vimrc contains
behave mswin
source ...\mswin.vim
In that case,
:e +g/mswin/norm!\ 0i" $MYVIMRC
should automatically comment these out. Relaunch vim, and inspect whether there are existing mappings:
:verbose map <S-Tab>
will show you any existing mappings, and where it was last defined, so you can find the script/plugin that is causing this (:he :verbose-cmd)
HTH
Update to the comment:
Well - blimey, turns out that Shift-Tab is magically impossible with Win32 Consoles. Never noticed.
Perhaps it is because I
use mintty these days, to provide a much better experience (Unix like copy pasting, real alternative terminals, more performance, and re-attaching screen sessions, e.g.)
might have tweaked the CompletionChar setting although this seems like a loose fodder even to me
Could you try with mintty? I'd think I'd have noticed such a hairy incompatibility over the years. But, you never know :)
I am using the Emacs keybinding on Komodo IDE where Komodo uses the command key for "Meta" by default. So you press Command-X when you normally press Alt+X for Emacs on Linux.
I want to use the actual Alt key .. so when I tried to assign Alt+K, Komodo informs that "This key combination is not available" (see screenshot below)
Komodo Preferences Dialog screenshot http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/87045/permalinks/komodo-alt-key.png
How do I use the Alt key in Komodo? Is it possible?
On the Mac the Option/Alt key is used to quickly enter non-ASCII characters.
Komodo provides a few bindings involving control keys, like Alt+Return to
edit a file's properties, but it stays away from the Alt/Option key for
the most part.
I tried binding [Go to file...] to Cmd+Alt+K. The preferences dialog
accepted it (although it said it was first bound to Cmd+¬, and later said
it was bound to Cmd+Alt+Û, both of which gave me the feeling that
the binding would fail to work. There have been Mozilla bugs dealing
with inconsistencies in keybindings on OS X, and we're seeing that here.
Komodo will also let you create keybindings using combinations of
the Command, Control, and Shift keys -- I would stick with those,
and leave the Alt key for entering non-ASCII characters.
One can workaround this behavior using ControllerMate or a similar tool:
Create a new Driver Configuration for your normal keyboard
In that configuration, swap the Option and Command keys
Disable this new configuration
Create a new ControllerMate page
Add an Application Block to that page which only triggers when Komodo IDE is running in the foreground
Add a Properties Block connected to the Application Block which enables your Driver
Configuration.
Thus, when Komodo IDE is running in the foreground, ControllerMate swaps
Command and Option, giving you the Meta behavior you get everywhere else in OS X.
I am trying to learn Emacs and trying to find best keyboard layout for me. One thing is really annoying me. I have added following lines to .emacs
(global-set-key "\C-y" 'scroll-up)
(global-set-key "\M-y" 'scroll-down)
When I hold Control and press y a few times, it will page down on every press of y.
However, when I hold the Windows key (mapped as Meta) and press y a few times it will only page up on the first press of y and all subsequent presses of y I get the ‘y’ character inserted in the buffer.
Can the page up behave like page down? I want to hold Meta and keep pressing y to scroll multiple pages up.
I am using GNU Emacs 23.0.60.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2008-05-12 on LENNART-69DE564 (patched). It is Emacs with EmacsW32 patch. Is this problem with this Emacs? Problem with Meta key?
I tried original GNU Emacs (not patched) and it works OK with Alt. But my problem is not that I want to scroll without releasing any key. I release key y and press it multiple times but don't want to have to release Meta key. Same problem is described here:
http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.help/browse_thread/thread/f30f4b75a8b75b10
Problem is not in that I have changed key mapping. It looks like it is a bug in EmacsW32 version. Here is another description of the problem:
Unreleased Meta/Win modifier
Use C-v and M-v.
Don't change C-y, M-y default bindings.
Could this be a side affect of using the Windows key as Meta? I'm thinking this because in a non-Emacs situation if you press and hold the Windows key and another key for a short cut (Win+E for Explorer, Win+R for Run dialog, etc.) the desired action only triggers once, not multiple times if you keep holding it down.
I'd try reassigning Meta to Alt and see if the problem persists. If it doesn't, then I'm not sure what other option you have, since likely it's the OS only sending the Windows key press once to the app in focus.
You should use the patched EmacsW32 version, if you want the Windows key as Meta.
From the site about the patches:
"Changes that makes it possible to use the window keyboard keys as META in Emacs. Without this patch key sequences like E will always do what they by default does in windows, ie in this case open up Windows Explorer. (This patched is not used by default, you have to turn it on.)"