/spacemacs

Emacs advanced Kit focused on Evil: The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs *and* Vim!

Primary LanguageEmacs Lisp

Spacemacs Advanced Kit Twitter

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Quick Install:

git clone --recursive http://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs ~/.emacs.d

Jump to Install for more info and here for contribution guidelines

Table of Contents

Introduction

Spacemacs is a user-friendly and well-documented Emacs Advanced kit.

Advanced means here that it heavily and happily performs non-trivial tweaks and customization in order to make itself easy to use and unique.

Advanced does not mean that you have to be an advanced Emacs user, beginners are welcome and encouraged to use Spacemacs since it provides a simple architecture to contribute changes and hack others contributions.

Its status is beta for now, essentially because of the contribution system that is not yet finished but already usable.

And now, to use a well known catch line from Emacs Live:

M-x start-spacing !

Philosophy

Three core pillars: Easy, Consistency, "Crowd-Configured".

Easy

Spacemacs organizes key bindings by mnemonic namespaces. If you are looking for commands to operate on your buffer, they are right under <SPC> b, if you want to operate on your project, then it is <SPC> p, etc...

Spacemacs comes with a dedicated major mode spacemacs-mode. Its goal is to give useful feedbacks and perform maintenance tasks easily.

Consistency

Similar functionalities should have the same key binding. For instance if you are looking for the definition of a function, the binding is <SPC> m g, m for major mode and g for go to. And no matter what is the major mode it should be the same binding.

Crowd-Configured

This term does not really exist but I'm sure you know what it means.

This is the most powerful feature of Spacemacs. Anybody can submit upstream his or her configuration layer and anybody can use it in a second by adding it in a dotfile and by optionally filtering it (ie. removing unwanted packages).

So by cloning this repository you have a centralized place of configured packages tuned by expert in their domain. And most importantly it should be consistent with the whole experience provided by Spacemacs.

If some packages are missing from core Spacemacs but they are present in several contribution layers, chances are that they should be in core and we can easily move them there.

If any of this core pillars are violated open an issue and we'll try to fix this.

Goals

  • Bring the power of modal editing to the powerful Emacs editing platform.

  • Integrate nicely with Evil states (Vim modes): Spacemacs tries to keep your fingers on the home row as much as possible, no matter the mode you are in.

  • Crowed-configured: Contribute your own personal layer upstream and everybody can use it.

  • Minimalistic and nice UI, keep your available screen space for what matters: your text files.

  • Mnemonic and consistent key bindings which should be easier to learn and remember.

  • Fast boot time.

  • Lower the risk of RSI.

  • Hopefully, if it's not already the case:

Ɛ>Ɛ>Ɛ> make you love modal editing! <3<3<3

Screenshots

Startup spacemacs_startup

Python spacemacs_python

Terminal (urxvt) spacemacs_urxvt

Note: Even though screenshots are updated frequently, Spacemacs is evolving quickly and the screenshots may not reflect exactly the current state of the project.

Who can benefit from this ?

Spacemacs is first intended to be used by Vim users who want to go to the next level by using Emacs.

It is also a good fit for people wanting to lower the risk of RSI induced by the default Emacs key bindings.

Emacs users wanting to learn a different way to edit files or wanting to learn Vim key bindings (see Tips for Emacs users).

As a side note, if you are a programmer and you don't know Vim key bindings yet, I deeply recommend you to learn the basics as recommended in Sacha Chua's one-page guide about how to learn Emacs.

Prerequisites

Spacemacs is tested with Emacs 24.3 and 24.4. It should boot on all the major OSes where these versions can be installed.

Some packages require external tools to work, a list of all dependencies will be provided in this read me. Stay tuned.

Install

  1. Backup your current ~/.emacs.d and clone the repo with the submodules:

    cd ~ mv .emacs.d .emacs.bak git clone --recursive http://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs .emacs.d

master is a stable branch, if you want the "bleeding edge" checkout the develop branch.

  1. Launch Emacs, the first time a bunch of packages will be downloaded and installed. When the package installation is complete restart Emacs and Spacemacs should be ready to use.

Troubleshoot

Loading fails

If during the first boot of Emacs nothing seems to happen or if the installation seems to abort prematurely, you can check for an error message by opening the *Warning* buffer:

C-x b warning RET

('C-x b' means 'Ctrl + x then b' and 'RET' means 'return')

Then you can copy/paste the error in a Github issue, thank you.

I have no file ~/.spacemacs

You have to manually copy the ~/.emacs.d/.spacemacs.template file to ~/.spacemacs

Help commands

Key bindings

  1. By default, guide-key and guide-key-tip are enabled.

Whenever you press a prefix command (like <SPC>) and wait for one second, a buffer appear listing the possible keys following this prefix.

  1. You can also easily get a full list of all the key bindings by pressing:

    ?

To narrow the list to Spacemacs specific key bindings set the pattern to something like the regular expression:

`^SPC\ b`

The example above will list all the buffer related bindings.

Other describe functions

Emacs describe-xxx function are accessible with the following bindings:

Key Binding Description
<SPC> h d f describe-function
<SPC> h d k describe-key
<SPC> h d m describe-mode
<SPC> h d v describe-variable

Configuration layers

This part of Spacemacs is still in beta, the structure can change over time. Refer to commit messages for more information in case of big changes.

Structure

Configuration is organized in layers. Each layer has the following structure:

[layer_name]
  |__ [extensions]
  | |__ [mode 1]
  | |     ...
  | |__ [mode n]
  |__ config.el
  |__ extensions.el
  |__ funcs.el
  |__ keybindings.el
  |__ packages.el

[] = directory

Where:

  File        |                          Usage

------------------|----------------------------------------------------------- config.el | Emacs built-in configuration or mandatory configuration extensions.el | The list of extensions to load and the functions to initialize them funcs.el | Various functions and macros (often used in keybindings.el) keybindings.el | Emacs built-in key bindings or mandatory key bindings packages.el | The list of packages to install and the functions to initialize them

Packages are ELPA packages which can be installed from an ELPA compliant repository, and Extensions are generally elisp code from git submodules.

Extensions and Packages

Declaration

Extensions and Packages are declared in variables <layer>-pre-extensions, <layer>-post-extensions and <layer>-packages where <layer> is the layer name. Pre-Extensions are loaded before Packages and Post-Extensions are loaded after Packages.

They are processed in alphabetical order so sometimes you'll have to use some eval-after-load black magic.

Example:

(defvar <layer>-packages
  '(
    package1
    package2
    )

Initialization

To initialize an extension or a package xxx, define a function with this format in extensions.el or packages.el:

(defun <layer>/init-xxx ()
   ...body
)

Exclusion

It is possible to exclude some packages from Spacemacs in a per layer basis. This is useful when a configuration layer aims to replace a stock package declared in the Spacemacs layer.

To do so add the package names to exclude to the variable <layer>-excluded-packages.

Example:

(defvar <layer>-excluded-packages
  '(
    package1
    )

Packages synchronization (Vundle like feature)

Spacemacs features a synchronization engine for the ELPA packages. It means that Spacemacs will auto-install the new packages in <layer>-packages lists and auto-delete orphan packages in your elpa directory.

It effectively makes Spacemacs to behave like Vundle.

Contribution layers

Spacemacs leverages the configuration layers in order to make it possible for you to share your own layer with other Spacemacs users. This kind of layer is called contribution layer.

Adding a contribution layer

Just create a configuration layer in ~/.emacs.d/contrib or in a path that is registered in dotspacemacs-configuration-layer-path variable of your ~/.spacemacs dotile (see the dotfile section for more info on this file).

The base files of a configuration layer (see structure) are optional so you just have to create only the files you need in your layer. For instance if you just want to add packages then only the packages.el file is necessary (as it is the case for the Themes Megapack layer).

Submitting a contribution layer upstream

See the CONTRIBUTE.md-CL file.

Themes Megapack example

This is a simple contribution layer listing a bunch of themes, you can find it here.

To install it, just add themes-megapack to your ~/.spacemacs. You have now installed around 100 themes you are free to try with <SPC> h t (helm-themes).

Pull Request Guidelines

See the CONTRIBUTE.md-PR file.

Dotfile Configuration

User configuration can be stored in your ~/.spacemacs file.

Installation

~/.spacemacs is an optional file. If you want to use it you have to copy it manually from the template file ~/.emacs.d/.spacemacs.template

$ cp ~/.emacs.d/.spacemacs.template ~/.spacemacs

Content

Using contributions layers

To use a contribution layer, add it to the dotspacemacs-configuration-layers variable of your ~/.spacemacs.

For instance to add the configuration layer of RMS:

(setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers '(rms))

If this layer does not exist you can still try another one in the contrib directory.

By default contribution layers are expected to be stored in ~/.emacs.d/contrib and we encourage you to submit your layers upstream in order to share them, grow the package coverage of Spacemacs and dispatch responsibilities for their maintenance. But of course you are free to keep them somewhere else, if this is your case you can declare additional paths where Spacemacs can look for contribution layers. This is done by setting the list dotspacemacs-configuration-layer-path in your ~/.spacemacs:

(setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layer-path '("~/.mycontribs/"))

Excluding packages

You can exclude packages you don't want to install with the variable dotspacemacs-excluded-packages, this variable can exclude both packages and extensions (see Configuration layers for more info on packages and extensions).

For instance to disable the rainbow-delimiters package:

(setq-default dotspacemacs-excluded-packages '(rainbow-delimiters))

When you exclude a package, Spacemacs will automatically delete it for you the next time you launch Emacs. All the orphan dependencies are as well delete automatically.

Hooks

Two special functions of the ~/.spacemacs file can be used to perform configuration at the beginning and end of Spacemacs loading process.

  • dotspacemacs/init is triggered at the very beginning of Spacemacs loading.
  • dotspacemacs/config is triggered at the very end of Spacemacs loading.

Custom variables

Custom variables configuration from M-x customize-group which are automatically saved by Emacs are stored at the end of your ~/.spacemacs file.

Main principles

Evil

Spacemacs uses the evil mode to emulate Vim key bindings. It is a very complete emulation, maybe the most advanced. In fact, Evil is much more than just a Vim emulation. It has more states than Vim for instance.

States

Spacemacs has 6 states:

  • Normal (orange) - like the normal mode of Vim, used to execute and combine commands
  • Insert (green) - like the insert mode of Vim, used to actually insert text
  • Visual (gray) - like the visual mode of Vim, used to make text selection
  • Motion (purple) - exclusive to Evil, used to navigate read only buffers
  • Emacs (blue) - exclusive to Evil, using this state is like using a regular Emacs without Vim
  • Lisp (pink) - exclusive to Spacemacs, used to navigate Lisp code and modify it

Base States

(I apologize in advance for the number of repetition of the word state in this section, but I encourage you to read again this section until you correctly grasp the concept of base state since it is an important concept in Spacemacs)

Spacemacs has a notion of base state. A base state is the state you are when leaving the insert state.

The typical base state in Vim is the normal state and it is the only one. Spacemacs has more than one base state, here is the list:

  • normal
  • lisp

This allows a coder of Lisp to completely replace the normal state by the lisp state. Indeed, once you fire up the lisp state you can just go back and forth between the insert state and the lisp state.

Of course there is a rule to break this in order to be able to go back to the normal state. It is pretty simple:

When in a base state, ESC or fd will always set you back to the normal state.

So to go back to the normal state while in lisp state just hit ESC or fd.

Evil leader

Spacemacs heavily uses the evil-leader mode which brings the Vim leader key to the Emacs world.

This leader key is commonly set to , by Vim users, in Spacemacs the leader key is set on SPC (space bar, this is why the name spacemacs). This key is the most accessible key on a keyboard and it is pressed with the thumb which is a good choice to lower the risk of RSI.

So with Spacemacs there is no need to remap your keyboard modifiers to attempt to reduce the risk of RSI, every command can be executed very easily while you are in normal mode by pressing the SPC leader key, here are a few examples:

  • Save a buffer: <SPC> f s
  • Save all opened buffers: <SPC> f S
  • Open (switch) to a buffer with helm: <SPC> b s

Universal argument

The universal argument C-u is an important command in Emacs but it is also a very handy Vim key binding to scroll up.

Spacemacs binds C-u to scroll-up and change the universal argument binding to <SPC> u.

Micro-states

Spacemacs defines a wide variety of micro-states (temporary overlay maps) where it makes sense. This prevent from repetitive and tedious presses on the SPC key.

When a micro-state is active, a documentation is displayed in the minibuffer. Additional information may as well be displayed in the minibuffer.

Auto-highlight-symbol micro-state: spacemacs_ahs_micro_state

Text scale micro-state: spacemacs_scale_micro_state

Color theme

By default, Spacemacs uses the theme Solarized.

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> c t | cycle between Spacemacs themes <SPC> h t | select a theme using a helm buffer

Spacemacs available themes:

UI elements

Spacemacs has a minimalistic and distraction free UI with a lot of subtle customization which make it unique compared to other kits:

Toggles

Some UI indicators can be toggled on and off (toggles start with t):

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> t 8 | display a mark on the 80th column <SPC> t F | toggle display of the fringe <SPC> t n | show the absolute line numbers

Mode-line

The mode line is an heavily customized powerline with the following capabilities:

  • show the window number
  • color code for current state
  • show the number of search occurrences via anzu
  • toggle flycheck info
  • toggle minor mode lighters

Reminder of the color codes for the states:

Evil State Color
Normal Orange
Insert Green
Visual Grey
Emacs Blue
Motion Purple
Lisp Pink

Some elements can be dynamically toggled:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> t m m | toggle the minor mode lighters <SPC> t m f | toggle the flycheck info

Flycheck integration

When Flycheck minor mode is enabled, a new element appears showing the number of errors, warnings and info.

powerline-wave

Anzu integration

Anzu shows the number of occurrence when performing a search. Spacemacs integrates nicely the Anzu status by displaying it temporarily when n or N are being pressed. See the 5/6 segment on the screenshot below.

powerline-anzu

Powerline separators

It is possible to easily customize the powerline separator by setting the powerline-default-separator variable in your ~./spacemacs. For instance if you want to set back the separator to the well-known arrow separator add the following snippet to your configuration file:

(defun dotspacemacs/config ()
  "This is were you can ultimately override default Spacemacs configuration.
This function is called at the very end of Spacemacs initialization."
  (setq powerline-default-separator 'arrow)

To save you the time to try all the possible separators provided by the powerline, here is an exhaustive set of screenshots:

Separator     |                 Screenshot

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ alternate | powerline-alternate arrow | powerline-arrow arrow-fade | powerline-arrow-fade bar | powerline-bar box | powerline-box brace | powerline-brace butt | powerline-butt chamfer | powerline-chamfer contour | powerline-contour curve | powerline-curve rounded | powerline-rounded roundstub | powerline-roundstub slant | powerline-slant wave | powerline-wave zigzag | powerline-zigzag nil | powerline-nil

Minor Modes

Spacemacs uses diminish mode to reduce the size of minor mode indicators:

The minor mode area can be toggled on and off with:

<SPC> t m m
Lighter Mode
⊞ golden-ratio mode
Ⓐ auto-complete mode
Ⓒ centered-cursor mode
eⓅ e-project mode
Ⓕ flycheck mode
Ⓕ2 flymake mode
Ⓖ guide-key mode
(Ⓟ) paredit mode
Ⓢ flyspell mode
(Ⓢ) smartparens mode
Ⓨ yasnippet mode
(Ⓐ) anaconda-mode

Note: in terminal the regular indicators are used instead of the utf-8 ones.

Base packages

Spacemacs main mechanics rely largely on Evil and Helm base packages. They are both extended with various packages to build on their foundations.

Evil plugins

Spacemacs ships with the following evil plugins:

             Mode                   |             Description

----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------- evil-leader | vim leader that bring a new layer of keys in normal mode evil-little-word | port of camelcasemotion.vim evil-visualstar | search for current selection with * evil-exchange | port of vim-exchange evil-surround | port of vim-surround evil-nerd-commenter | port of nerdcommenter [evil-search-highlight-persist][] | emulation of hlsearch behavior evil-numbers | like C-a/C-x in vim evil-args | motions and text objects for arguments evil-jumper | jump list emulation NeoTree | mimic NERD Tree

Commands

Every sequences must be performed in normal mode.

Escaping

Spacemacs uses evil-escape to easily switch between insert state and normal state with the key sequence fd.

The choice of fd was made to be able to use the same sequence to escape from "everything" in Emacs:

  • escape from all evil states to normal state
  • escape from evil-lisp-state to normal state
  • abort evil ex command
  • quit minibuffer
  • abort isearch
  • quit magit buffers
  • quit help buffers
  • hide neotree buffer

This sequence can be customized in your ~/.spacemacs, for instance to revert back to the popular configuration using jj (just for the example it is not recommended) add this to your config function:

(defun dotspacemacs/config ()
  (setq-default evil-escape-key-sequence (kbd "jj"))
)

Executing Vim, Emacs and shell commands

Command Key Binding
Vim :
Emacs <SPC> :
Shell <SPC> !

Navigating

Point/Cursor

Navigation is performed using the Vi key bindings hjkl.

Key Binding Description
h move cursor left
j move cursor down
k move cursor up
l move cursor right
H move quickly up (10 lines at a time)
L move quickly down (10 lines at a time)
<SPC> j h go to the beginning of line (and set a mark at the previous location in the line)
<SPC> j l go to the end of line (and set a mark at the previous location in the line)
<SPC> z z lock the cursor at the center of the screen
Smooth scrolling

smooth-scrolling prevent the point to jump when it reaches the top or bottom of the screen. It is enabled by default.

On Windows, you may want to disable it. To disable the smooth scrolling set the dotspacemacs-smooth-scrolling variable in your ~/.spacemacs to nil:

(setq-default dotspacemacs-smooth-scrolling t)
Experimental insert state feature

If dotspacemacs-feature-toggle-leader-on-jk is non nil, pressing jk while in insert state will trigger the evil leader as if you pressed <SPC> in normal mode.

Vim motions with ace-jump mode

Spacemacs uses the evil integration of ace-jump mode which enables the invocation of ace-jump-mode during motions.

It is useful for deleting visually a set of lines, try the following sequence in a buffer containing some text:

d <SPC> l
Key Binding Description
<SPC> <SPC> initiate ace jump word mode
<SPC> l initiate ace jump line mode
`` ``` go back to the previous location (before the jump)

Hint: you may change to char mode by C-c C-c in word mode.

Window manipulation

Every window has a number displayed at the start of the mode-line and can be quickly accessed using <SPC> number.

Key Binding Description
<SPC> 1 go to first window
<SPC> 2 go to window number 2
<SPC> 3 go to window number 3
<SPC> 4 go to window number 4
<SPC> 5 go to window number 5
<SPC> 6 go to window number 6
<SPC> 7 go to window number 7
<SPC> 8 go to window number 8
<SPC> 9 go to window number 9
<SPC> 0 go to window number 10

Windows manipulation commands (start with w):

Key Binding Description
<SPC> w b split a window horizontally
<SPC> w c close a window
<SPC> w d toggle window dedication (dedicated window cannot be used by a mode)
<SPC> w H move window to the left
<SPC> w J move window to the bottom
<SPC> w K move window to the top
<SPC> w L move window to the right
<SPC> w m maximize/minimize a window
<SPC> w M maximize/minimize a window, when maximized the buffer is centered
<SPC> w p m open messages buffer in a popup window
<SPC> w p p close the current sticky popup window
<SPC> w r rotate windows clockwise
<SPC> w R rotate windows counter-clockwise
<SPC> w u undo window layout (used to effectively undo a close window)
<SPC> w U redo window layout
<SPC> w v split a window vertically
<SPC> w w cycle and focus between windows
Golden ratio

Split windows can be dynamically resized depending on whether they are selected or not. Resizing is performed by the golden-ratio mode. By default golden-ratio if off.

The mode can be toggled on and off with:

<SPC> t g

Buffers and Files

Spacemacs uses ido for opening files since ido way to navigate the file system is better than helm in my opinion (especially because ido can remember the last selected directories and buffers, maybe helm can do this ?). ido is also used to kill buffers.

Buffer manipulation commands (start with b):

Key Binding Description
<SPC> b d delete the current buffer (beware the associated file is also deleted)
<SPC> b k kill the current buffer
<SPC> b K kill all buffers except the current one
<SPC> b m h move a buffer to the left
<SPC> b m j move a buffer to the bottom
<SPC> b m k move a buffer to the top
<SPC> b m l move a buffer to the right
<SPC> b n switch to next buffer
<SPC> b p switch to previous buffer
<SPC> b r rename the current buffer
<SPC> b s switch to a buffer using helm
<SPC> b w toggle read-only

Files manipulation commands (start with f):

Key Binding Description
<SPC> f f open a file using ido
<SPC> f i open your init.el file
<SPC> f s save a file
<SPC> f S save all files
<SPC> f t toggle file tree side bar using NeoTree
<SPC> f y show current file absolute path in the minibuffer

Ido

Spacemacs displays the ido minibuffer vertically thanks to the ido-vertical-mode.

Basic ido operations can be done with Ctrl key:

Key Binding Description
C-<return> open a dired buffer
C-b open selected file in a horizontally split window
C-d delete selected file (ask for confirmation)
C-h go to parent directory
C-j select next file or directory
C-S-j go to next directory
C-k select previous file or directory
C-S-k go to previous directory
C-l open the selected file
C-n next history element
C-p previous history element
C-t open selected file in a new frame
C-v open selected file in a vertically split window
C-x open selected file in other window
Experimental Ido feature

If dotspacemacs-feature-toggle-leader-on-jk is non nil, pressing jk while in ido minibuffer will trigger the evil leader.

When evil leader is triggered the following commands are available:

Key Binding Description
b open selected file in a horizontally split window
t open selected file in a new frame
v open selected file in a vertically split window
x open selected file in other window

NeoTree file tree

Spacemacs provides a quick and simple way to navigate in an unknown project file tree with NeoTree.

To toggle the NeoTree buffer press:

<SPC> f t

In the NeoTree buffer:

Key Binding Description
TAB or RET expand/open
a toggle stretch the buffer
c create a node
d delete a node
g refresh
H toggle hidden files
K kill corresponding buffer
q or fd hide NeoTree buffer
r rename a node

Bookmarks

Bookmarks can be set anywhere in a file. Bookmarks are persistent. They are very useful to jump to/open a known project. Spacemacs used helm-bookmarks to manage them.

Open an helm window with the current bookmarks by pressing:

<SPC> h b

Then in the helm-bookmarks buffer:

Key Binding Description
CTRL+d delete the selected bookmark
CTRL+e edit the selected bookmark
CTRL+f toggle filename location
CTRL+o open the selected bookmark in another window

To save a new bookmark, just type the name of the bookmark and press RET.

Searching

Persistent highlighting

Spacemacs uses evil-search-highlight-persist to keep the searched expression highlighted until the next search. It is also possible to clear the highlighting by pressing <SPC> s c or executing the ex command :noh.

Stacking highlights

With [hl-anything][] it is possible to highlight all occurrences of the word under point. The highlights can be stacked.

Key Binding Description
<SPC> h c clear the current highlightings
<SPC> h h highlight all occurrence of the word at point
<SPC> h n next highlighted occurrence
<SPC> h N previous highlighted occurrence
<SPC> h p toggle auto-highlight of the enclosing parenthesis

Auto-highlight symbols

Spacemacs supports auto highlighting of the current symbol (provided by the auto-highlight-symbol mode) and add a micro-state to it which makes it a very handy tool to have in your tool belt.

Key Binding Description
<SPC> s e edit all occurrences of the current symbol
<SPC> t h toggle the auto highlighting

Navigation between the highlighted symbols can be done with the commands:

Key Binding Description
* initiate navigation micro-state
<SPC> s n go to next occurrence and initiate navigation micro-state
<SPC> s N go to previous occurrence and initiate navigation micro-state
<SPC> s r b change range to whole buffer
<SPC> s r d change range to display area
<SPC> s r f change range to function
<SPC> s R change range to default (whole buffer)

In 'Spacemacs' highlight symbol micro-state:

Key Binding Description
e edit occurrences
n go to next occurrence
N go to previous occurrence
d go to next definition occurrence
D go to previous definition occurrence
r change range (function, display area, whole buffer)
R go to home occurrence (reset position to starting occurrence)
Any other key leave the navigation micro-state

The micro-state text in minibuffer display the following information:

<M> [6/11]* press (n) or (N) to navigate, (R) for home symbol, (r) to change range

Where <M> [x/y]* is:

  • M: the current range mode
    • <B>: whole buffer range
    • <D>: current display range
    • <F>: current function range
  • x: the index of the current highlighted occurrence
  • y: the total number of occurrences
  • *: appears if there is at least one occurrence which is not currently visible.

Visual Star

With evil-visualstar you can search for the next occurrence of the current selection.

It is pretty useful combined with the expand-region bindings.

Note: If the current state is not the visual state then pressing * uses auto-highlight-symbol and its micro-state.

Listing symbols by semantic

Use helm-semantic-or-imenu command from Helm to quickly navigate between the symbols in a buffer.

To list all the symbols of a buffer press:

<SPC> s l

Helm-swoop

This is very similar to moccur, it displays a helm buffer with all the occurrences of the word under point. You can then change the search query in real-time and navigate between them easily.

You can even edit the occurrences directly in the helm buffer and apply the modifications to the buffer.

Key Binding Description
<SPC> s s execute helm-swoop
<SPC> s S execute helm-multi-swoop
<SPC> s C-s execute helm-multi-swoop-all

Editing

Text manipulation commands

Text related commands (start with x):

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> x u | set the selected text to lower case <SPC> x U | set the selected text to upper case <SPC> x d w | delete trailing whitespaces <SPC> x g l | set languages used by translate commands <SPC> x g t | translate current word using Google Translate <SPC> x g T | reverse source and target languages <SPC> x m j | move down a line of text <SPC> x m k | move up a line of text <SPC> x t c | swap (transpose) the current character with the previous one <SPC> x t w | swap (transpose) the current word with the previous one <SPC> x t l | swap (transpose) the current line with the previous one <SPC> x w c | count the number of words in the selection region <SPC> x w C | count the number of occurrences per word in the select region

Change font size

The font size of the current buffer can be adjusted with the commands:

Key Binding Description
<SPC> x + scale up the font and initiate the font scaling micro-state
<SPC> x - scale down the font and initiate the font scaling micro-state
<SPC> x = reset the font size (no scaling) and initiate the font scaling micro-state
+ increase the font size
- decrease the font size
= reset the font size
Any other key leave the font scaling micro-state

Increase/Decrease numbers

Spacemacs uses evil-numbers to easily increase or increase numbers.

Key Binding Description
<SPC> n + increase the number under point by one and initiate micro-state
<SPC> n - decrease the number under point by one and initiate micro-state

In micro-state:

Key Binding Description
+ increase the number under point by one
- decrease the number under point by one
Any other key leave the micro-state

Tips: you can increase or decrease a value by more that once by using a prefix argument (ie. 10 <SPC> n + will add 10 to the number under point).

Spell checking

Spell checking commands start with S:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> S c | list of corrections in a helm buffer <SPC> S d | change dictionary language <SPC> S n | go to the next spell check error

Region selection

Vi Visual modes are all supported by evil, Spacemacs adds another Visual mode via the expand-region mode.

Key Binding Description
<SPC> v initiate expand-region mode then...
v expand the region by one semantic unit
V contract the region by one semantic unit
r reset the region to initial selection
ESC leave expand-region mode

Region narrowing

The displayed text of a buffer can be narrowed with the commands (start with n):

Key Binding Description
<SPC> n f narrow the buffer to the current function
<SPC> n p narrow the buffer to the visible page
<SPC> n r narrow the buffer to the selected text
<SPC> n w widen, i.e show the whole buffer again

Line formatting

Spacemacs performs go to the line below point and indent it with <SPC> j k. You may repeat this operation with evil-repeat if you need to indent many lines.

Line formatting commands start with j:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ J | join the current line with the next line <SPC> j j | same as <SPC> j k but will split the current line at point <SPC> J | split a quoted string or s-expression in place <SPC> j J | split a quoted string or s-expression and auto-indent <SPC> j k | go to next line and indent it using auto-indent rules

Used together these key bindings are very powerful to quickly reformat the code.

Auto-completion

Spacemacs uses auto-complete auto-completion engine.

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ C-j | select next candidate C-k | select previous candidate TAB | expand selection or select next candidate S-TAB | select previous candidate return | complete word, if word is already completed insert a carriage return

Commenting

Comments are handled by evil-nerd-commenter, it's bound to the following keys.

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> ; | comment operator <SPC> c i | comment invert <SPC> c l | comment lines <SPC> c p | comment paragraphs <SPC> c r | comment region <SPC> c t | comment to line <SPC> c y | comment and yank

Tips: To comment efficiently a block of line use the combo:

<SPC> ; <SPC> l

Editing Lisp code

Lisp navigation and edition is performed with a custom evil lisp state provided by evil-lisp-state package.

Intuitive navigation model:

hjkl behaves like in the default normal state.

Next sexp on the same level (sibling)

  • L next sexp
  • H previous sexp

Change level (parent/children)

  • J go to next sexp one level down
  • K go to previous one level up

And that's it! All these commands always put the point at the beginning of the sexp.

Key bindings maps
Regular normal state bindings
Key Binding Function
a evil-append
c evil-change
d evil-delete
h next char
i evil-insert-state
I evil-insert-line
j next visual line
k previous visual line
l next char
o evil-insert-below
O evil-insert-above
p evil-past-after
P evil-past-before
r evil-replace
C-r undo-tree-redo
u undo-tree-undo
x evil-delete-char
X evil-delete-backward-char
y evil-yank
ESC evil-normal-state
Lisp specific bindings

In this table we assume that evil-lisp-state-backward-prefix is set to default <tab>

Key Binding Function
( insert sibling before sexp and switch to insert state
) insert sibling after sexp and switch to insert state
$ sp-end-of-sexp
0 sp-beginning-of-sexp
A sp-absorb-sexp
b sp-forward-barf-sexp
<tab> b sp-backward-barf-sexp
C sp-convolute-sexp
Dd sp-kill-hybrid-sexp
Dx sp-kill-sexp
<tab> Dx sp-backward-kill-sexp
Ds sp-kill-symbol
<tab> Ds sp-backward-kill-symbol
Dw sp-kill-word
<tab> Dw sp-backward-kill-word
E$ evil-lisp-state-eval-sexp-end-of-line
Ee eval-last-sexp
Ef eval-defun
gs go to source of symbol under point
gt sp-transpose-sexp
gT sp-transpose-hybrid-sexp
H previous sexp at the same level
J next sexp one level down
K previous sexp one level up
L next sexp of the same level
M sp-join-sexp (think about merge-sexp)
R sp-raise-sexp
s sp-forward-slurp-sexp
<tab> s sp-backward-slurp-sexp
S sp-splice-sexp-killing-forward
<tab> S sp-splice-sexp-killing-backward
w wrap sexp
W unwrap sexp
<tab> W sp-backward-unwrap-sexp
Y sp-copy-sexp
<tab> y sp-backward-copy-sexp
backspace sp-backward-delete-char
S-backspace sp-delete-char
RET indent next line
S-RET insert new line char and switch to insert state

Reminder: lisp state is a base state which means that leaving the insert state when the previous state was lisp will set you back in lisp state. To go back to normal state press <ESC> or fd while in lisp state.

Project management

Projects in Spacemacs are managed with projectile. In projectile projects are defined implicitly, for instance the root of a project is found when a .git repository or .projectile file is encountered in the file tree.

The only bound key for projectile is projectile-commander which is:

<SPC> p

projectile commander commands:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ a | run ack on project A | run ag on project b | switch to project buffer d | find directory in project D | open project root in dired f | find file in project g | run grep on project h | find file in project using helm j | find a tag in project k | kill all project buffers o | run multi-occur on project R | regenerate the project's [e|g]tags r | replace a string in the project s | switch project T | find test files in project v | open project root in vc-dir or magit

Working with Git

Git commands (start with g):

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> g c c | highlight regions by age of commits <SPC> g c C | clear highlights <SPC> g c t | highlight regions by last updated time <SPC> g s | open a magit status window <SPC> g m | display the last commit message of the current line <SPC> g t | launch the git time machine

  • Highlight by age of commit or last update time is provided by smeargle.
  • Git time machine is provided by git-timemachine.
  • Git last commit message per line is provided by git-messenger

Magit

Spacemacs uses magit to manage Git repositories.

To open a status buffer, type in a buffer of a Git repository:

<SPC> g s

hjkl navigation is enabled in all Magit buffers. The default Magit keys on hjkl are remapped on HJKL.

Here are the often used bindings inside a status buffer:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ $ | open command output buffer c c | open a commit message buffer b b | checkout a branch b c | create a branch b v | open the branch manager buffer f f | fetch changes F -r F | pull and rebase h | go left j | go down k | go up K | discard changes l | go right L l | open log buffer P P | push q | quit s | on a file or hunk in a diff: stage the file or hunk + | on a hunk: increase hunk size - | on a hunk: decrease hunk size S | stage all TAB | on a file: expand/collapse diff u | on a staged file: unstage U | unstage all staged files z z | stash changes

In a commit message buffer press C-c C-c to commit the changes with the entered message. C-c C-k will discard the commit message.

Note: Sometimes you will be asked about reverting the commit buffer, you can answer y with no issue.

Quick guide for recurring use cases in Magit

  • Amend a commit:
    • l l to open log buffer
    • c a on the commit you want to amend
    • C-c C-c to submit the changes
  • Squash last commit:
    • l l to open log buffer
    • E on the second to last commit, it opens the rebase buffer
    • j to put point on last commit
    • i to pass in insert state
    • s to squash it
    • C-c C-c to continue to the commit message buffer
    • C-c C-c again when you have finished to edit the commit message
  • Force push a squashed commit:
    • in the status buffer you should see the new commit unpushed and the old commit unpulled
    • P -f P for force a push (beware usually it is not recommended to rewrite the history of a public repository, but if you are sure that you are the only one to work on a repository it is ok - i.e. in your fork).
  • Add upstream remote (the parent repository you have forked):
    • b v to open the branch manager buffer
    • a to add a remote, type the name (i.e. upstream) and the URL
  • Pull changes from upstream (the parent repository you have forked) and push:
    • F -r C-u F and choose upstream or the name you gave to it
    • P P to push the commit to origin

Git gutter bitmaps

Spacemacs has custom fringe bitmaps for git-gutter-fringe:

Symbol Description
git-new new line
git-del at least one line has been deleted
git-mod modified line

Registers

Access commands to the various registers start with r:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> r e | show evil yank and named registers <SPC> r m | show marks register <SPC> r r | show helm register <SPC> r y | show kill ring

Errors handling

Spacemacs uses Flycheck to gives error feedback on the fly. The checks are only performed at save time by default.

Errors management commands (star with f for flycheck):

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> f c | clear all errors <SPC> f l | display the flycheck list of errors/warnings <SPC> f n | go to the next flycheck error <SPC> f p | go to the previous �flycheck� error

Custom fringe bitmaps:

Symbol Description
dot-error Error
dot-warning warning
dot-info Info

Modes

Spacemacs tries to add more natural Vi key bindings to some modes or simply add new leader key bindings.

Leader key bindings start with m because they are bindings related to the current major mode.

Helm

Spacemacs add hjkl navigation to helm buffers:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ CTRL+h | go to previous page CTRL+j | go to previous item CTRL+k | go to next item CTRL+l | go to next page

Experimental Helm feature

If dotspacemacs-feature-toggle-leader-on-jk is non nil, pressing jk while in helm buffer will trigger the evil leader.

When evil leader is triggered the following commands are available:

Key Binding Description
1 execute action 0
2 execute action 1
3 execute action 2
4 execute action 3
5 execute action 4
6 execute action 5
7 execute action 6
8 execute action 7
9 execute action 8
0 execute action 9
a toggle action selection menu

Erlang

Spacemacs uses EDTS as an Erlang coding environment.

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> m d | show man page documentation <SPC> m e | go to next issue <SPC> m g | go to definition <SPC> m G | find a module in the current project <SPC> m h | open the header file under point <SPC> m l | find a function in the current module <SPC> m m | go to the macro definition under point <SPC> m r | go to the record definition under point

Ledger

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> m a | add a transaction <SPC> m d | delete current transaction

Org

In org, evil-org-mode is activated.

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ gh | outline-up-heading gj | org-forward-heading-same-level gk | org-backward-heading-same-level gl | outline-next-visible-heading t | org-todo T | org-insert-todo-heading nil H | org-beginning-of-line L | org-end-of-line ;t | org-show-todo-tree o | always-insert-item O | org-insert-heading $ | org-end-of-line ^ | org-beginning-of-line < | org-metaleft > | org-metaright ;a | org-agenda`

Perforce

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ <SPC> p 4 a | add a file in depot <SPC> p 4 d | delete a file in depot <SPC> p 4 D | p4-describe <SPC> p 4 e | checkout a file <SPC> p 4 r | rename a file <SPC> p 4 R | revert a file <SPC> p 4 S | submit CL

Python

Writing python code with spacemacs is supported by python contribution. Please see python contribution documentation for detail.

JavaScript

js2-mode will activate for all *.js files, along with tern-auto-complete which will provide the best JavaScript completion currently available. Just make sure you have the tern NPM module installed.

Tern includes the following key bindings:

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ M-. | jump to the definition of the thing under the cursor. M-, | brings you back to last place you were when you pressed M-.. C-c C-r | rename the variable under the cursor. C-c C-c | find the type of the thing under the cursor. C-c C-d | find docs of the thing under the cursor. Press again to open the associated URL (if any).

rcirc

Key Binding   |                 Description

------------------|------------------------------------------------------------ CTRL+j | next item in command history CTRL+k | previous item in command history

Tips

Tips for Emacs users

If you came here with a pure Emacs background, here are some useful tips to get you started.

  1. As you may have notice, raw Emacs behavior is indeed available in Evil via the Emacs state!

To start you could setup the Emacs state as the default one, pressing fd quickly would bring you to Normal state and pressing ESC from there would bring you back in Emacs state. This way you should never feel lost.

To do so add the following snippet to your ~/.spacemacs:

(defun dotspacemacs/config ()
  "This is were you can ultimately override default Spacemacs configuration.
This function is called at the very end of Spacemacs initialization."
  (setq evil-default-state 'emacs)
  (define-key evil-normal-state-map [escape] 'evil-emacs-state))

Tips for Spacemacs advanced users

evil-lisp-state as default state

To Make lisp state the default state in Emacs Lisp buffers, insert in your ~/.spacemacs the following snippet:

(defun dotspacemacs/config ()
  (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'evil-lisp-state))

"jk" to trigger evil leader

It is possible to activate an experimental feature which allows to trigger the evil leader in insert state, in ido minibuffer and in helm buffers.

To activate it, set dotspacemacs-feature-toggle-leader-on-jk to t.

(setq-default dotspacemacs-feature-toggle-leader-on-jk t)

More info on this feature:

Contributors Achievements

Achievements Contributors
First contribution trishume
First contribution layer trishume
First blog article on Spacemacs Wolfy87
100th issue (PR) danielwuz

Thank you

Jokes aside, thank you Richard for this great piece of software.

Thank you to all the contributors and the whole Emacs community from core developers to elisp hackers!