This is elisp, produced by makeinfo version 4.0f from ./elisp.texi. INFO-DIR-SECTION Editors START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * Elisp: (elisp). The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY This Info file contains edition 2.8 of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, corresponding to Emacs version 21.2. Published by the Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place, Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being "Copying", with the Front-Cover texts being "A GNU Manual", and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development."  File: elisp, Node: Calendar Customizing, Next: Holiday Customizing, Up: Calendar Customizing the Calendar ======================== If you set the variable `view-diary-entries-initially' to `t', calling up the calendar automatically displays the diary entries for the current date as well. The diary dates appear only if the current date is visible. If you add both of the following lines to your init file: (setq view-diary-entries-initially t) (calendar) this displays both the calendar and diary windows whenever you start Emacs. Similarly, if you set the variable `view-calendar-holidays-initially' to `t', entering the calendar automatically displays a list of holidays for the current three-month period. The holiday list appears in a separate window. You can set the variable `mark-diary-entries-in-calendar' to `t' in order to mark any dates with diary entries. This takes effect whenever the calendar window contents are recomputed. There are two ways of marking these dates: by changing the face (*note Faces::), or by placing a plus sign (`+') beside the date. Similarly, setting the variable `mark-holidays-in-calendar' to `t' marks holiday dates, either with a change of face or with an asterisk (`*'). The variable `calendar-holiday-marker' specifies how to mark a date as being a holiday. Its value may be a character to insert next to the date, or a face name to use for displaying the date. Likewise, the variable `diary-entry-marker' specifies how to mark a date that has diary entries. The calendar creates faces named `holiday-face' and `diary-face' for these purposes; those symbols are the default values of these variables. The variable `calendar-load-hook' is a normal hook run when the calendar package is first loaded (before actually starting to display the calendar). Starting the calendar runs the normal hook `initial-calendar-window-hook'. Recomputation of the calendar display does not run this hook. But if you leave the calendar with the `q' command and reenter it, the hook runs again. The variable `today-visible-calendar-hook' is a normal hook run after the calendar buffer has been prepared with the calendar when the current date is visible in the window. One use of this hook is to replace today's date with asterisks; to do that, use the hook function `calendar-star-date'. (add-hook 'today-visible-calendar-hook 'calendar-star-date) Another standard hook function marks the current date, either by changing its face or by adding an asterisk. Here's how to use it: (add-hook 'today-visible-calendar-hook 'calendar-mark-today) The variable `calendar-today-marker' specifies how to mark today's date. Its value should be a character to insert next to the date or a face name to use for displaying the date. A face named `calendar-today-face' is provided for this purpose; that symbol is the default for this variable. A similar normal hook, `today-invisible-calendar-hook' is run if the current date is _not_ visible in the window. Starting in Emacs 21, each of the calendar cursor motion commands runs the hook `calendar-move-hook' after it moves the cursor.  File: elisp, Node: Holiday Customizing, Next: Date Display Format, Prev: Calendar Customizing, Up: Calendar Customizing the Holidays ======================== Emacs knows about holidays defined by entries on one of several lists. You can customize these lists of holidays to your own needs, adding or deleting holidays. The lists of holidays that Emacs uses are for general holidays (`general-holidays'), local holidays (`local-holidays'), Christian holidays (`christian-holidays'), Hebrew (Jewish) holidays (`hebrew-holidays'), Islamic (Moslem) holidays (`islamic-holidays'), and other holidays (`other-holidays'). The general holidays are, by default, holidays common throughout the United States. To eliminate these holidays, set `general-holidays' to `nil'. There are no default local holidays (but sites may supply some). You can set the variable `local-holidays' to any list of holidays, as described below. By default, Emacs does not include all the holidays of the religions that it knows, only those commonly found in secular calendars. For a more extensive collection of religious holidays, you can set any (or all) of the variables `all-christian-calendar-holidays', `all-hebrew-calendar-holidays', or `all-islamic-calendar-holidays' to `t'. If you want to eliminate the religious holidays, set any or all of the corresponding variables `christian-holidays', `hebrew-holidays', and `islamic-holidays' to `nil'. You can set the variable `other-holidays' to any list of holidays. This list, normally empty, is intended for individual use. Each of the lists (`general-holidays', `local-holidays', `christian-holidays', `hebrew-holidays', `islamic-holidays', and `other-holidays') is a list of "holiday forms", each holiday form describing a holiday (or sometimes a list of holidays). Here is a table of the possible kinds of holiday form. Day numbers and month numbers count starting from 1, but "dayname" numbers count Sunday as 0. The element STRING is always the name of the holiday, as a string. `(holiday-fixed MONTH DAY STRING)' A fixed date on the Gregorian calendar. `(holiday-float MONTH DAYNAME K STRING)' The Kth DAYNAME in MONTH on the Gregorian calendar (DAYNAME=0 for Sunday, and so on); negative K means count back from the end of the month. `(holiday-hebrew MONTH DAY STRING)' A fixed date on the Hebrew calendar. `(holiday-islamic MONTH DAY STRING)' A fixed date on the Islamic calendar. `(holiday-julian MONTH DAY STRING)' A fixed date on the Julian calendar. `(holiday-sexp SEXP STRING)' A date calculated by the Lisp expression SEXP. The expression should use the variable `year' to compute and return the date of a holiday, or `nil' if the holiday doesn't happen this year. The value of SEXP must represent the date as a list of the form `(MONTH DAY YEAR)'. `(if CONDITION HOLIDAY-FORM)' A holiday that happens only if CONDITION is true. `(FUNCTION [ARGS])' A list of dates calculated by the function FUNCTION, called with arguments ARGS. For example, suppose you want to add Bastille Day, celebrated in France on July 14. You can do this as follows: (setq other-holidays '((holiday-fixed 7 14 "Bastille Day"))) The holiday form `(holiday-fixed 7 14 "Bastille Day")' specifies the fourteenth day of the seventh month (July). Many holidays occur on a specific day of the week, at a specific time of month. Here is a holiday form describing Hurricane Supplication Day, celebrated in the Virgin Islands on the fourth Monday in August: (holiday-float 8 1 4 "Hurricane Supplication Day") Here the 8 specifies August, the 1 specifies Monday (Sunday is 0, Tuesday is 2, and so on), and the 4 specifies the fourth occurrence in the month (1 specifies the first occurrence, 2 the second occurrence, -1 the last occurrence, -2 the second-to-last occurrence, and so on). You can specify holidays that occur on fixed days of the Hebrew, Islamic, and Julian calendars too. For example, (setq other-holidays '((holiday-hebrew 10 2 "Last day of Hanukkah") (holiday-islamic 3 12 "Mohammed's Birthday") (holiday-julian 4 2 "Jefferson's Birthday"))) adds the last day of Hanukkah (since the Hebrew months are numbered with 1 starting from Nisan), the Islamic feast celebrating Mohammed's birthday (since the Islamic months are numbered from 1 starting with Muharram), and Thomas Jefferson's birthday, which is 2 April 1743 on the Julian calendar. To include a holiday conditionally, use either Emacs Lisp's `if' or the `holiday-sexp' form. For example, American presidential elections occur on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of years divisible by 4: (holiday-sexp (if (= 0 (% year 4)) (calendar-gregorian-from-absolute (1+ (calendar-dayname-on-or-before 1 (+ 6 (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian (list 11 1 year)))))) "US Presidential Election")) or (if (= 0 (% displayed-year 4)) (fixed 11 (extract-calendar-day (calendar-gregorian-from-absolute (1+ (calendar-dayname-on-or-before 1 (+ 6 (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian (list 11 1 displayed-year))))))) "US Presidential Election")) Some holidays just don't fit into any of these forms because special calculations are involved in their determination. In such cases you must write a Lisp function to do the calculation. To include eclipses, for example, add `(eclipses)' to `other-holidays' and write an Emacs Lisp function `eclipses' that returns a (possibly empty) list of the relevant Gregorian dates among the range visible in the calendar window, with descriptive strings, like this: (((6 27 1991) "Lunar Eclipse") ((7 11 1991) "Solar Eclipse") ... )  File: elisp, Node: Date Display Format, Next: Time Display Format, Prev: Holiday Customizing, Up: Calendar Date Display Format =================== You can customize the manner of displaying dates in the diary, in mode lines, and in messages by setting `calendar-date-display-form'. This variable holds a list of expressions that can involve the variables `month', `day', and `year', which are all numbers in string form, and `monthname' and `dayname', which are both alphabetic strings. In the American style, the default value of this list is as follows: ((if dayname (concat dayname ", ")) monthname " " day ", " year) while in the European style this value is the default: ((if dayname (concat dayname ", ")) day " " monthname " " year) The ISO standard date representation is this: (year "-" month "-" day) This specifies a typical American format: (month "/" day "/" (substring year -2))  File: elisp, Node: Time Display Format, Next: Daylight Savings, Prev: Date Display Format, Up: Calendar Time Display Format =================== The calendar and diary by default display times of day in the conventional American style with the hours from 1 through 12, minutes, and either `am' or `pm'. If you prefer the European style, also known in the US as military, in which the hours go from 00 to 23, you can alter the variable `calendar-time-display-form'. This variable is a list of expressions that can involve the variables `12-hours', `24-hours', and `minutes', which are all numbers in string form, and `am-pm' and `time-zone', which are both alphabetic strings. The default value of `calendar-time-display-form' is as follows: (12-hours ":" minutes am-pm (if time-zone " (") time-zone (if time-zone ")")) Here is a value that provides European style times: (24-hours ":" minutes (if time-zone " (") time-zone (if time-zone ")"))  File: elisp, Node: Daylight Savings, Next: Diary Customizing, Prev: Time Display Format, Up: Calendar Daylight Savings Time ===================== Emacs understands the difference between standard time and daylight savings time--the times given for sunrise, sunset, solstices, equinoxes, and the phases of the moon take that into account. The rules for daylight savings time vary from place to place and have also varied historically from year to year. To do the job properly, Emacs needs to know which rules to use. Some operating systems keep track of the rules that apply to the place where you are; on these systems, Emacs gets the information it needs from the system automatically. If some or all of this information is missing, Emacs fills in the gaps with the rules currently used in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is the center of GNU's world. If the default choice of rules is not appropriate for your location, you can tell Emacs the rules to use by setting the variables `calendar-daylight-savings-starts' and `calendar-daylight-savings-ends'. Their values should be Lisp expressions that refer to the variable `year', and evaluate to the Gregorian date on which daylight savings time starts or (respectively) ends, in the form of a list `(MONTH DAY YEAR)'. The values should be `nil' if your area does not use daylight savings time. Emacs uses these expressions to determine the start and end dates of daylight savings time as holidays and for correcting times of day in the solar and lunar calculations. The values for Cambridge, Massachusetts are as follows: (calendar-nth-named-day 1 0 4 year) (calendar-nth-named-day -1 0 10 year) i.e., the first 0th day (Sunday) of the fourth month (April) in the year specified by `year', and the last Sunday of the tenth month (October) of that year. If daylight savings time were changed to start on October 1, you would set `calendar-daylight-savings-starts' to this: (list 10 1 year) For a more complex example, suppose daylight savings time begins on the first of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. You should set `calendar-daylight-savings-starts' to this value: (calendar-gregorian-from-absolute (calendar-absolute-from-hebrew (list 1 1 (+ year 3760)))) because Nisan is the first month in the Hebrew calendar and the Hebrew year differs from the Gregorian year by 3760 at Nisan. If there is no daylight savings time at your location, or if you want all times in standard time, set `calendar-daylight-savings-starts' and `calendar-daylight-savings-ends' to `nil'. The variable `calendar-daylight-time-offset' specifies the difference between daylight savings time and standard time, measured in minutes. The value for Cambridge is 60. The variable `calendar-daylight-savings-starts-time' and the variable `calendar-daylight-savings-ends-time' specify the number of minutes after midnight local time when the transition to and from daylight savings time should occur. For Cambridge, both variables' values are 120.  File: elisp, Node: Diary Customizing, Next: Hebrew/Islamic Entries, Prev: Daylight Savings, Up: Calendar Customizing the Diary ===================== Ordinarily, the mode line of the diary buffer window indicates any holidays that fall on the date of the diary entries. The process of checking for holidays can take several seconds, so including holiday information delays the display of the diary buffer noticeably. If you'd prefer to have a faster display of the diary buffer but without the holiday information, set the variable `holidays-in-diary-buffer' to `nil'. The variable `number-of-diary-entries' controls the number of days of diary entries to be displayed at one time. It affects the initial display when `view-diary-entries-initially' is `t', as well as the command `M-x diary'. For example, the default value is 1, which says to display only the current day's diary entries. If the value is 2, both the current day's and the next day's entries are displayed. The value can also be a vector of seven elements: for example, if the value is `[0 2 2 2 2 4 1]' then no diary entries appear on Sunday, the current date's and the next day's diary entries appear Monday through Thursday, Friday through Monday's entries appear on Friday, while on Saturday only that day's entries appear. The variable `print-diary-entries-hook' is a normal hook run after preparation of a temporary buffer containing just the diary entries currently visible in the diary buffer. (The other, irrelevant diary entries are really absent from the temporary buffer; in the diary buffer, they are merely hidden.) The default value of this hook does the printing with the command `lpr-buffer'. If you want to use a different command to do the printing, just change the value of this hook. Other uses might include, for example, rearranging the lines into order by day and time. You can customize the form of dates in your diary file, if neither the standard American nor European styles suits your needs, by setting the variable `diary-date-forms'. This variable is a list of patterns for recognizing a date. Each date pattern is a list whose elements may be regular expressions (*note Regular Expressions::) or the symbols `month', `day', `year', `monthname', and `dayname'. All these elements serve as patterns that match certain kinds of text in the diary file. In order for the date pattern, as a whole, to match, all of its elements must match consecutively. A regular expression in a date pattern matches in its usual fashion, using the standard syntax table altered so that `*' is a word constituent. The symbols `month', `day', `year', `monthname', and `dayname' match the month number, day number, year number, month name, and day name of the date being considered. The symbols that match numbers allow leading zeros; those that match names allow three-letter abbreviations and capitalization. All the symbols can match `*'; since `*' in a diary entry means "any day", "any month", and so on, it should match regardless of the date being considered. The default value of `diary-date-forms' in the American style is this: ((month "/" day "[^/0-9]") (month "/" day "/" year "[^0-9]") (monthname " *" day "[^,0-9]") (monthname " *" day ", *" year "[^0-9]") (dayname "\\W")) The date patterns in the list must be _mutually exclusive_ and must not match any portion of the diary entry itself, just the date and one character of whitespace. If, to be mutually exclusive, the pattern must match a portion of the diary entry text--beyond the whitespace that ends the date--then the first element of the date pattern _must_ be `backup'. This causes the date recognizer to back up to the beginning of the current word of the diary entry, after finishing the match. Even if you use `backup', the date pattern must absolutely not match more than a portion of the first word of the diary entry. The default value of `diary-date-forms' in the European style is this list: ((day "/" month "[^/0-9]") (day "/" month "/" year "[^0-9]") (backup day " *" monthname "\\W+\\<[^*0-9]") (day " *" monthname " *" year "[^0-9]") (dayname "\\W")) Notice the use of `backup' in the third pattern, because it needs to match part of a word beyond the date itself to distinguish it from the fourth pattern.  File: elisp, Node: Hebrew/Islamic Entries, Next: Fancy Diary Display, Prev: Diary Customizing, Up: Calendar Hebrew- and Islamic-Date Diary Entries ====================================== Your diary file can have entries based on Hebrew or Islamic dates, as well as entries based on the world-standard Gregorian calendar. However, because recognition of such entries is time-consuming and most people don't use them, you must explicitly enable their use. If you want the diary to recognize Hebrew-date diary entries, for example, you must do this: (add-hook 'nongregorian-diary-listing-hook 'list-hebrew-diary-entries) (add-hook 'nongregorian-diary-marking-hook 'mark-hebrew-diary-entries) If you want Islamic-date entries, do this: (add-hook 'nongregorian-diary-listing-hook 'list-islamic-diary-entries) (add-hook 'nongregorian-diary-marking-hook 'mark-islamic-diary-entries) Hebrew- and Islamic-date diary entries have the same formats as Gregorian-date diary entries, except that `H' precedes a Hebrew date and `I' precedes an Islamic date. Moreover, because the Hebrew and Islamic month names are not uniquely specified by the first three letters, you may not abbreviate them. For example, a diary entry for the Hebrew date Heshvan 25 could look like this: HHeshvan 25 Happy Hebrew birthday! and would appear in the diary for any date that corresponds to Heshvan 25 on the Hebrew calendar. And here is an Islamic-date diary entry that matches Dhu al-Qada 25: IDhu al-Qada 25 Happy Islamic birthday! As with Gregorian-date diary entries, Hebrew- and Islamic-date entries are nonmarking if they are preceded with an ampersand (`&'). Here is a table of commands used in the calendar to create diary entries that match the selected date and other dates that are similar in the Hebrew or Islamic calendar: `i h d' Add a diary entry for the Hebrew date corresponding to the selected date (`insert-hebrew-diary-entry'). `i h m' Add a diary entry for the day of the Hebrew month corresponding to the selected date (`insert-monthly-hebrew-diary-entry'). This diary entry matches any date that has the same Hebrew day-within-month as the selected date. `i h y' Add a diary entry for the day of the Hebrew year corresponding to the selected date (`insert-yearly-hebrew-diary-entry'). This diary entry matches any date which has the same Hebrew month and day-within-month as the selected date. `i i d' Add a diary entry for the Islamic date corresponding to the selected date (`insert-islamic-diary-entry'). `i i m' Add a diary entry for the day of the Islamic month corresponding to the selected date (`insert-monthly-islamic-diary-entry'). `i i y' Add a diary entry for the day of the Islamic year corresponding to the selected date (`insert-yearly-islamic-diary-entry'). These commands work much like the corresponding commands for ordinary diary entries: they apply to the date that point is on in the calendar window, and what they do is insert just the date portion of a diary entry at the end of your diary file. You must then insert the rest of the diary entry.  File: elisp, Node: Fancy Diary Display, Next: Sexp Diary Entries, Prev: Hebrew/Islamic Entries, Up: Calendar Fancy Diary Display =================== Diary display works by preparing the diary buffer and then running the hook `diary-display-hook'. The default value of this hook (`simple-diary-display') hides the irrelevant diary entries and then displays the buffer. However, if you specify the hook as follows, (add-hook 'diary-display-hook 'fancy-diary-display) this enables fancy diary display. It displays diary entries and holidays by copying them into a special buffer that exists only for the sake of display. Copying to a separate buffer provides an opportunity to change the displayed text to make it prettier--for example, to sort the entries by the dates they apply to. As with simple diary display, you can print a hard copy of the buffer with `print-diary-entries'. To print a hard copy of a day-by-day diary for a week, position point on Sunday of that week, type `7 d', and then do `M-x print-diary-entries'. As usual, the inclusion of the holidays slows down the display slightly; you can speed things up by setting the variable `holidays-in-diary-buffer' to `nil'. Ordinarily, the fancy diary buffer does not show days for which there are no diary entries, even if that day is a holiday. If you want such days to be shown in the fancy diary buffer, set the variable `diary-list-include-blanks' to `t'. If you use the fancy diary display, you can use the normal hook `list-diary-entries-hook' to sort each day's diary entries by their time of day. Here's how: (add-hook 'list-diary-entries-hook 'sort-diary-entries t) For each day, this sorts diary entries that begin with a recognizable time of day according to their times. Diary entries without times come first within each day. Fancy diary display also has the ability to process included diary files. This permits a group of people to share a diary file for events that apply to all of them. Lines in the diary file of this form: #include "FILENAME" includes the diary entries from the file FILENAME in the fancy diary buffer. The include mechanism is recursive, so that included files can include other files, and so on; you must be careful not to have a cycle of inclusions, of course. Here is how to enable the include facility: (add-hook 'list-diary-entries-hook 'include-other-diary-files) (add-hook 'mark-diary-entries-hook 'mark-included-diary-files) The include mechanism works only with the fancy diary display, because ordinary diary display shows the entries directly from your diary file.  File: elisp, Node: Sexp Diary Entries, Next: Appt Customizing, Prev: Fancy Diary Display, Up: Calendar Sexp Entries and the Fancy Diary Display ======================================== Sexp diary entries allow you to do more than just have complicated conditions under which a diary entry applies. If you use the fancy diary display, sexp entries can generate the text of the entry depending on the date itself. For example, an anniversary diary entry can insert the number of years since the anniversary date into the text of the diary entry. Thus the `%d' in this dairy entry: %%(diary-anniversary 10 31 1948) Arthur's birthday (%d years old) gets replaced by the age, so on October 31, 1990 the entry appears in the fancy diary buffer like this: Arthur's birthday (42 years old) If the diary file instead contains this entry: %%(diary-anniversary 10 31 1948) Arthur's %d%s birthday the entry in the fancy diary buffer for October 31, 1990 appears like this: Arthur's 42nd birthday Similarly, cyclic diary entries can interpolate the number of repetitions that have occurred: %%(diary-cyclic 50 1 1 1990) Renew medication (%d%s time) looks like this: Renew medication (5th time) in the fancy diary display on September 8, 1990. There is an early reminder diary sexp that includes its entry in the diary not only on the date of occurrence, but also on earlier dates. For example, if you want a reminder a week before your anniversary, you can use %%(diary-remind '(diary-anniversary 12 22 1968) 7) Ed's anniversary and the fancy diary will show Ed's anniversary both on December 15 and on December 22. The function `diary-date' applies to dates described by a month, day, year combination, each of which can be an integer, a list of integers, or `t'. The value `t' means all values. For example, %%(diary-date '(10 11 12) 22 t) Rake leaves causes the fancy diary to show Rake leaves on October 22, November 22, and December 22 of every year. The function `diary-float' allows you to describe diary entries that apply to dates like the third Friday of November, or the last Tuesday in April. The parameters are the MONTH, DAYNAME, and an index N. The entry appears on the Nth DAYNAME of MONTH, where DAYNAME=0 means Sunday, 1 means Monday, and so on. If N is negative it counts backward from the end of MONTH. The value of MONTH can be a list of months, a single month, or `t' to specify all months. You can also use an optional parameter DAY to specify the Nth DAYNAME of MONTH on or after/before DAY; the value of DAY defaults to 1 if N is positive and to the last day of MONTH if N is negative. For example, %%(diary-float t 1 -1) Pay rent causes the fancy diary to show Pay rent on the last Monday of every month. The generality of sexp diary entries lets you specify any diary entry that you can describe algorithmically. A sexp diary entry contains an expression that computes whether the entry applies to any given date. If its value is non-`nil', the entry applies to that date; otherwise, it does not. The expression can use the variable `date' to find the date being considered; its value is a list (MONTH DAY YEAR) that refers to the Gregorian calendar. Suppose you get paid on the 21st of the month if it is a weekday, and on the Friday before if the 21st is on a weekend. Here is how to write a sexp diary entry that matches those dates: &%%(let ((dayname (calendar-day-of-week date)) (day (car (cdr date)))) (or (and (= day 21) (memq dayname '(1 2 3 4 5))) (and (memq day '(19 20)) (= dayname 5))) ) Pay check deposited The following sexp diary entries take advantage of the ability (in the fancy diary display) to concoct diary entries whose text varies based on the date: `%%(diary-sunrise-sunset)' Make a diary entry for the local times of today's sunrise and sunset. `%%(diary-phases-of-moon)' Make a diary entry for the phases (quarters) of the moon. `%%(diary-day-of-year)' Make a diary entry with today's day number in the current year and the number of days remaining in the current year. `%%(diary-iso-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent ISO commercial date. `%%(diary-julian-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the Julian calendar. `%%(diary-astro-day-number)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent astronomical (Julian) day number. `%%(diary-hebrew-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the Hebrew calendar. `%%(diary-islamic-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the Islamic calendar. `%%(diary-french-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the French Revolutionary calendar. `%%(diary-mayan-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the Mayan calendar. Thus including the diary entry &%%(diary-hebrew-date) causes every day's diary display to contain the equivalent date on the Hebrew calendar, if you are using the fancy diary display. (With simple diary display, the line `&%%(diary-hebrew-date)' appears in the diary for any date, but does nothing particularly useful.) These functions can be used to construct sexp diary entries based on the Hebrew calendar in certain standard ways: `%%(diary-rosh-hodesh)' Make a diary entry that tells the occurrence and ritual announcement of each new Hebrew month. `%%(diary-parasha)' Make a Saturday diary entry that tells the weekly synagogue scripture reading. `%%(diary-sabbath-candles)' Make a Friday diary entry that tells the _local time_ of Sabbath candle lighting. `%%(diary-omer)' Make a diary entry that gives the omer count, when appropriate. `%%(diary-yahrzeit MONTH DAY YEAR) NAME' Make a diary entry marking the anniversary of a date of death. The date is the _Gregorian_ (civil) date of death. The diary entry appears on the proper Hebrew calendar anniversary and on the day before. (In the European style, the order of the parameters is changed to DAY, MONTH, YEAR.)  File: elisp, Node: Appt Customizing, Prev: Sexp Diary Entries, Up: Calendar Customizing Appointment Reminders ================================= You can specify exactly how Emacs reminds you of an appointment, and how far in advance it begins doing so, by setting these variables: `appt-message-warning-time' The time in minutes before an appointment that the reminder begins. The default is 10 minutes. `appt-audible' If this is non-`nil', Emacs rings the terminal bell for appointment reminders. The default is `t'. `appt-visible' If this is non-`nil', Emacs displays the appointment message in the echo area. The default is `t'. `appt-display-mode-line' If this is non-`nil', Emacs displays the number of minutes to the appointment on the mode line. The default is `t'. `appt-msg-window' If this is non-`nil', Emacs displays the appointment message in another window. The default is `t'. `appt-disp-window-function' This variable holds a function to use to create the other window for the appointment message. `appt-delete-window-function' This variable holds a function to use to get rid of the appointment message window, when its time is up. `appt-display-duration' The number of seconds to display an appointment message. The default is 5 seconds.  File: elisp, Node: System Interface, Next: Antinews, Prev: Calendar, Up: Top Operating System Interface ************************** This chapter is about starting and getting out of Emacs, access to values in the operating system environment, and terminal input, output, and flow control. *Note Building Emacs::, for related information. See also *Note Display::, for additional operating system status information pertaining to the terminal and the screen. * Menu: * Starting Up:: Customizing Emacs startup processing. * Getting Out:: How exiting works (permanent or temporary). * System Environment:: Distinguish the name and kind of system. * User Identification:: Finding the name and user id of the user. * Time of Day:: Getting the current time. * Time Conversion:: Converting a time from numeric form to a string, or to calendrical data (or vice versa). * Timers:: Setting a timer to call a function at a certain time. * Terminal Input:: Recording terminal input for debugging. * Terminal Output:: Recording terminal output for debugging. * Sound Output:: Playing sounds on the computer's speaker. * Special Keysyms:: Defining system-specific key symbols for X. * Flow Control:: How to turn output flow control on or off. * Batch Mode:: Running Emacs without terminal interaction.  File: elisp, Node: Starting Up, Next: Getting Out, Up: System Interface Starting Up Emacs ================= This section describes what Emacs does when it is started, and how you can customize these actions. * Menu: * Startup Summary:: Sequence of actions Emacs performs at startup. * Init File:: Details on reading the init file (`.emacs'). * Terminal-Specific:: How the terminal-specific Lisp file is read. * Command-Line Arguments:: How command-line arguments are processed, and how you can customize them.  File: elisp, Node: Startup Summary, Next: Init File, Up: Starting Up Summary: Sequence of Actions at Startup --------------------------------------- The order of operations performed (in `startup.el') by Emacs when it is started up is as follows: 1. It adds subdirectories to `load-path', by running the file named `subdirs.el' in each directory in the list. Normally this file adds the directory's subdirectories to the list, and these will be scanned in their turn. The files `subdirs.el' are normally generated automatically by Emacs installation. 2. It sets the language environment and the terminal coding system, if requested by environment variables such as `LANG'. 3. It loads the initialization library for the window system, if you are using a window system. This library's name is `term/WINDOWSYSTEM-win.el'. 4. It processes the initial options. (Some of them are handled even earlier than this.) 5. It initializes the window frame and faces, if appropriate. 6. It runs the normal hook `before-init-hook'. 7. It loads the library `site-start', unless the option `-no-site-file' was specified. The library's file name is usually `site-start.el'. 8. It loads your init file (usually `~/.emacs'), unless `-q', `-no-init-file', or `-batch' was specified on the command line. The `-u' option can specify another user whose home directory should be used instead of `~'. 9. It loads the library `default', unless `inhibit-default-init' is non-`nil'. (This is not done in `-batch' mode or if `-q' was specified on the command line.) The library's file name is usually `default.el'. 10. It runs the normal hook `after-init-hook'. 11. It sets the major mode according to `initial-major-mode', provided the buffer `*scratch*' is still current and still in Fundamental mode. 12. It loads the terminal-specific Lisp file, if any, except when in batch mode or using a window system. 13. It displays the initial echo area message, unless you have suppressed that with `inhibit-startup-echo-area-message'. 14. It processes the action arguments from the command line. 15. It runs `emacs-startup-hook' and then `term-setup-hook'. 16. It calls `frame-notice-user-settings', which modifies the parameters of the selected frame according to whatever the init files specify. 17. It runs `window-setup-hook'. *Note Window Systems::. 18. It displays copyleft, nonwarranty, and basic use information, provided there were no remaining command-line arguments (a few steps above), the value of `inhibit-startup-message' is `nil', and the buffer is still empty. - User Option: inhibit-startup-message This variable inhibits the initial startup messages (the nonwarranty, etc.). If it is non-`nil', then the messages are not printed. This variable exists so you can set it in your personal init file, once you are familiar with the contents of the startup message. Do not set this variable in the init file of a new user, or in a way that affects more than one user, because that would prevent new users from receiving the information they are supposed to see. - User Option: inhibit-startup-echo-area-message This variable controls the display of the startup echo area message. You can suppress the startup echo area message by adding text with this form to your init file: (setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "YOUR-LOGIN-NAME") Emacs explicitly checks for an expression as shown above in your init file; your login name must appear in the expression as a Lisp string constant. Other methods of setting `inhibit-startup-echo-area-message' to the same value do not inhibit the startup message. This way, you can easily inhibit the message for yourself if you wish, but thoughtless copying of your init file will not inhibit the message for someone else.  File: elisp, Node: Init File, Next: Terminal-Specific, Prev: Startup Summary, Up: Starting Up The Init File, `.emacs' ----------------------- When you start Emacs, it normally attempts to load your "init file", a file in your home directory. Its normal name is `.emacs', but you can alternatively call it `.emacs.el', which enables you to byte-compile it (*note Byte Compilation::); then the actual file loaded will be `.emacs.elc'. The command-line switches `-q' and `-u' control whether and where to find the init file; `-q' says not to load an init file, and `-u USER' says to load USER's init file instead of yours. *Note Entering Emacs: (emacs)Entering Emacs. If neither option is specified, Emacs uses the `LOGNAME' environment variable, or the `USER' (most systems) or `USERNAME' (MS systems) variable, to find your home directory and thus your init file; this way, even if you have su'd, Emacs still loads your own init file. If those environment variables are absent, though, Emacs uses your user-id to find your home directory. A site may have a "default init file", which is the library named `default.el'. Emacs finds the `default.el' file through the standard search path for libraries (*note How Programs Do Loading::). The Emacs distribution does not come with this file; sites may provide one for local customizations. If the default init file exists, it is loaded whenever you start Emacs, except in batch mode or if `-q' is specified. But your own personal init file, if any, is loaded first; if it sets `inhibit-default-init' to a non-`nil' value, then Emacs does not subsequently load the `default.el' file. Another file for site-customization is `site-start.el'. Emacs loads this _before_ the user's init file. You can inhibit the loading of this file with the option `-no-site-file'. - Variable: site-run-file This variable specifies the site-customization file to load before the user's init file. Its normal value is `"site-start"'. The only way you can change it with real effect is to do so before dumping Emacs. *Note Init File Examples: (emacs)Init File Examples, for examples of how to make various commonly desired customizations in your `.emacs' file. - User Option: inhibit-default-init This variable prevents Emacs from loading the default initialization library file for your session of Emacs. If its value is non-`nil', then the default library is not loaded. The default value is `nil'. - Variable: before-init-hook This normal hook is run, once, just before loading all the init files (the user's init file, `default.el', and/or `site-start.el'). (The only way to change it with real effect is before dumping Emacs.) - Variable: after-init-hook This normal hook is run, once, just after loading all the init files (the user's init file, `default.el', and/or `site-start.el'), before loading the terminal-specific library and processing the command-line arguments. - Variable: emacs-startup-hook This normal hook is run, once, just after handling the command line arguments, just before `term-setup-hook'. - Variable: user-init-file This variable holds the file name of the user's init file. If the actual init file loaded is a compiled file, such as `.emacs.elc', the value refers to the corresponding source file.  File: elisp, Node: Terminal-Specific, Next: Command-Line Arguments, Prev: Init File, Up: Starting Up Terminal-Specific Initialization -------------------------------- Each terminal type can have its own Lisp library that Emacs loads when run on that type of terminal. The library's name is constructed by concatenating the value of the variable `term-file-prefix' and the terminal type (specified by the environment variable `TERM'). Normally, `term-file-prefix' has the value `"term/"'; changing this is not recommended. Emacs finds the file in the normal manner, by searching the `load-path' directories, and trying the `.elc' and `.el' suffixes. The usual function of a terminal-specific library is to enable special keys to send sequences that Emacs can recognize. It may also need to set or add to `function-key-map' if the Termcap entry does not specify all the terminal's function keys. *Note Terminal Input::. When the name of the terminal type contains a hyphen, only the part of the name before the first hyphen is significant in choosing the library name. Thus, terminal types `aaa-48' and `aaa-30-rv' both use the `term/aaa' library. If necessary, the library can evaluate `(getenv "TERM")' to find the full name of the terminal type. Your init file can prevent the loading of the terminal-specific library by setting the variable `term-file-prefix' to `nil'. This feature is useful when experimenting with your own peculiar customizations. You can also arrange to override some of the actions of the terminal-specific library by setting the variable `term-setup-hook'. This is a normal hook which Emacs runs using `run-hooks' at the end of Emacs initialization, after loading both your init file and any terminal-specific libraries. You can use this variable to define initializations for terminals that do not have their own libraries. *Note Hooks::. - Variable: term-file-prefix If the `term-file-prefix' variable is non-`nil', Emacs loads a terminal-specific initialization file as follows: (load (concat term-file-prefix (getenv "TERM"))) You may set the `term-file-prefix' variable to `nil' in your init file if you do not wish to load the terminal-initialization file. To do this, put the following in your init file: `(setq term-file-prefix nil)'. On MS-DOS, if the environment variable `TERM' is not set, Emacs uses `internal' as the terminal type. - Variable: term-setup-hook This variable is a normal hook that Emacs runs after loading your init file, the default initialization file (if any) and the terminal-specific Lisp file. You can use `term-setup-hook' to override the definitions made by a terminal-specific file. See `window-setup-hook' in *Note Window Systems::, for a related feature.  File: elisp, Node: Command-Line Arguments, Prev: Terminal-Specific, Up: Starting Up Command-Line Arguments ---------------------- You can use command-line arguments to request various actions when you start Emacs. Since you do not need to start Emacs more than once per day, and will often leave your Emacs session running longer than that, command-line arguments are hardly ever used. As a practical matter, it is best to avoid making the habit of using them, since this habit would encourage you to kill and restart Emacs unnecessarily often. These options exist for two reasons: to be compatible with other editors (for invocation by other programs) and to enable shell scripts to run specific Lisp programs. This section describes how Emacs processes command-line arguments, and how you can customize them. - Function: command-line This function parses the command line that Emacs was called with, processes it, loads the user's init file and displays the startup messages. - Variable: command-line-processed The value of this variable is `t' once the command line has been processed. If you redump Emacs by calling `dump-emacs', you may wish to set this variable to `nil' first in order to cause the new dumped Emacs to process its new command-line arguments. - Variable: command-switch-alist The value of this variable is an alist of user-defined command-line options and associated handler functions. This variable exists so you can add elements to it. A "command-line option" is an argument on the command line, which has the form: -OPTION The elements of the `command-switch-alist' look like this: (OPTION . HANDLER-FUNCTION) The CAR, OPTION, is a string, the name of a command-line option (not including the initial hyphen). The HANDLER-FUNCTION is called to handle OPTION, and receives the option name as its sole argument. In some cases, the option is followed in the command line by an argument. In these cases, the HANDLER-FUNCTION can find all the remaining command-line arguments in the variable `command-line-args-left'. (The entire list of command-line arguments is in `command-line-args'.) The command-line arguments are parsed by the `command-line-1' function in the `startup.el' file. See also *Note Command Line Switches and Arguments: (emacs)Command Switches. - Variable: command-line-args The value of this variable is the list of command-line arguments passed to Emacs. - Variable: command-line-functions This variable's value is a list of functions for handling an unrecognized command-line argument. Each time the next argument to be processed has no special meaning, the functions in this list are called, in order of appearance, until one of them returns a non-`nil' value. These functions are called with no arguments. They can access the command-line argument under consideration through the variable `argi', which is bound temporarily at this point. The remaining arguments (not including the current one) are in the variable `command-line-args-left'. When a function recognizes and processes the argument in `argi', it should return a non-`nil' value to say it has dealt with that argument. If it has also dealt with some of the following arguments, it can indicate that by deleting them from `command-line-args-left'. If all of these functions return `nil', then the argument is used as a file name to visit.  File: elisp, Node: Getting Out, Next: System Environment, Prev: Starting Up, Up: System Interface Getting Out of Emacs ==================== There are two ways to get out of Emacs: you can kill the Emacs job, which exits permanently, or you can suspend it, which permits you to reenter the Emacs process later. As a practical matter, you seldom kill Emacs--only when you are about to log out. Suspending is much more common. * Menu: * Killing Emacs:: Exiting Emacs irreversibly. * Suspending Emacs:: Exiting Emacs reversibly.