The Ultimate Doom Emacs Cheatsheet

A few tips for Emacs newbies

• Use EmacsClient and set up a daemon. Your Emacs experience will improve a lot and you will save a lot of time.
• For better experience, use Emacs’s inner file manager.
• Get LSP up and running. It will turn Emacs into a fully-featured modern IDE. Emacs supports LSP for almost every language.
• Try to avoid terminal version of Emacs when possible.
• Use Doom Emacs’s built-in helps to understand how things work under the hood and change them to suit your needs.
  • SPC h k tells you how key combinations translate to Emacs commands.
  • SPC h w helps you find keyboard shortcuts for different commands.
  • SPC h v lets you see what’s inside variables and change them.
  • SPC h f tells you about functions and where they are defined.
  • SPC h b b to see a list of all keybindings
• Github doesn’t render org files very well. It’s best that you clone this repository and open it in Emacs.
• See other files in this repository as well. Currently additional instructions for Go, and Python are also offered. If there’s anything missing, or you can suggest a better workflow, make sure to contribute.

Command Abbreviations

• C - “Control” key
• M - “Alt” or “Option” key
• S - “Super” or “Command” key
• SPC - “Space” key

General

• SPC f s for saving the current file
• SPC : for entering a command
• SPC q q to close Emacs
• SPC f D to delete this file

Projects with Projectile

• SPC p p to open a project
• SPC SPC to open a file in a project
• SPC o p to open the file explorer
• SPC o E to open the shell (eshell) in fullscreen
• SPC o e to open the shell (eshell) in a popup window
• SPC f r recently visited files
• SPC p r recently visited files in a project
• M-x projectile-discover-projects-in-directory to find projects within given folder using Projectile
• M-x projectile-discover-projects-in-search-path to find projects in the folder defined by the projectile-project-search-path variable using Projectile

Dired

• Dired (Directory Editor) is how you interfaces with a directory
• Press C-x d to open dired.
• Use RET to go to a folder or open a file.
• Use - for going one folder back
• Use + for creating a new directory
• Use d to mark the files for deletion, press x to delete.
• Use M to change permissions
• Use o to sort by modes.
• Use O to change the owner.
• Use m to mark and u to unmark files or directories.
• U to unselect all
• Use t to invert the selection.
• t to switch between files and directories
• Use C to copy.
• Use R to move.
• Move with h, j, k, l
• Toggle ( for simple view
• SPC . to create or find a file
  • Use either arrow keys, or hold C- with h,=j=,=k=, and l to choose between options.
• * to select all directories.
• C copy to another window
• R move to another window
• dired-do-what-i-mean-target set to true
• i to edit file/dir name

Buffers, Windows and Basic Navigation

Buffers

• Buffers are a special concept in emacs they can be terminals, files, directories, etc
• SPC b b to open another buffer
  • workspace buffer
• SPC b B you can see all the buffer
• SPC , to switch buffers (its an alias)
• SPC SHIFT , to switch to all buffers
• SPC b X You can create a scratch buffer
• SPC b s to save and name it

Windows

• SPC w v window split vertically
• SPC w s window split horizontally
• SPC w w to switch windows
• SPC w q to close window, frame, quit EMACS if last frame
• SPC w + and SPC w - to increase and decrease window height
• SPC w > and SPC w < to increase and decrease window width
• You can use vim motion keys to navigate between open windows for example SPC w H moves the window to the left.
• Windows are panes in your screen

Workspaces

• SPC TAB n New workspace
• SPC TAB N Newly named workspace
• SPC TAB [ Previous workspace
• SPC TAB ] Next workspace
• SPC TAB d Remove workspace
• SPC TAB R Restore last session
• M-1 Switch to workspace 1
• M-2 Switch to workspace 2 and so forth.

Installing Packages using org-super-agenda as an example

• SPC f p to open the config.
• To add a package, add the package to .doom.d/package.el
• Then close and doom refresh
• Then go to .doom.d/config.el to configure the package
• def-package! is a macro you can use to configure packages
  • space h help you can look up method man pages
  • :init is used for setting the package up
  • :config to set configuration after the package has been initialized
  • :after lets you set which package it should load after
• You can use :after! to configure packages that are already there

Quick, horizontal movements with evil-snipe

Inline navigation

• f and then the letter you want to navigate to.
  • , will go backward
  • ; will go forward after that “find”
• t to find and move cursor to the character before what you’ve searched.
• v puts you in visual mode. You can select text by with v t some-char-you-navigate-to or v f some-char-you-navigate-to
• ; to jump to the next find
• , to jump to the previous one
• s to snipe

Long distance navigation inside the file

• Evil-snipe lets you go to all the occurrences in your document
• g s SPC to use avy and going to a certain word in file.
• t is the same thing except for a character you want to jump to before the one you insert
• s to do a double character search
• Evil-snipe will remember your last search so , and ; will navigate
• F or T to go backwards
• g s SPC and then select the letter that avy gives you to navigate to that spot
  • These letters are on your home row so they are easy to click
• SPC h v for variable, to set the avy variable to search all open windows
  • avy-all-windows lets you search in all windows open.
• You can remove a word with g s SPC select-one-letter x select-the-removal-spot
  • You can use X to stay in your original spot of search
• You can go g s space select-one-letter i select-the-correction-spot to correct the spelling of the search
  • Install ispell on your OS first
• You can yank a word from one place to another with g s SPC select-one-letter y select-the-correction-spot-to-paste
• Use t to “teleport” the word from one place to another g s SPC select-one-letter t select-the-correction-spot-to-teleport

Multiple cursor in Emacs with evil-multiedit

• Using evil-multiedit (known as multiple cursors in other IDEs) you can make selections and then edit those selections simultaneously. To do this uncomment multiple-cursors in your init.el.
• M-d will select the current word, press this again and it will find another occurrence
• M-D will find an occurrence upward
• You can use a visual selection to select multiple words as well.
• R will select all occurrences.
• CTRL n for next selection CTRL p for previous.
• Exclude matches with RET
• You can make an edit and the changes will be reflected to all the selections.

Org Mode

Basics

• Org mode gives you the ability to structure your document
• * for a h1 ** for an h2 and so on
• You can TAB a section to fold a subtree (hide it)
• You can use SHIFT TAB to cycle through folded states
• CTRL return to create a headline of the same type
• M-arrow up lets you shift the position of the section
• M-h promotes a headline to the next level
• M-l demotes
• You can create lists
  1. one
  2. 2
  3. wooo
  4. 3

Links, Hyperlinks and more

• SPC m l to add a link to an org page
• You can add :: to specify a heading or a line number
• You can paste http links as well
• You can “link” some text with specific code SPC m l elisp: (+ 2 2) when you click the link, emacs will evaluate the expression
• Show My Agenda
• List Files in directory

Defining custom Link Types

• Watch the video about custom links

Linking to words & Bookmarks

• SPC n l stores a link to a particular headline

Code Snippets & Babel

• SPC i s for inserting code snippets
  • Example:

    (+ 2 3 4 5)
            

• C-c C-c to execute the code.
• SPC m ' to edit inside the babel in another buffer.
• Results will show up in a ##+RESULTS header
• This feature is called Babel
• One snippet can consume the output of another snippet
• You can create your own snippets in the following directory: ~/.doom.d/snippets/

Task Management

• Create a task by prefixing any heading with TODO
• DONE means the task is done
• You can create your custom key words by changing this variable: org-todo-keywords
  • remember you can get to your variables through SPC h v (M-x counsel-describe-variable)
  • These values are already set in Doom:

       ((sequence "TODO(t)" "PROJ(p)" "STRT(s)" "WAIT(w)" "HOLD(h)" "|" "DONE(d)" "KILL(k)")
    (sequence "[ ](T)" "[-](S)" "[?](W)" "|" "[X](D)"))
            

• SPC m t to change a status of a todo
• SHIFT left and SHIFT right can be used to change the status of a todo as well.
• If you finish a task with a command, org mode will add a date that you “closed” the task.
• SPC o a t to open the agenda -> todo list
• q to quit
• org-agenda-files is a variable you can set to filter which files agenda searches for todos in.

Priorities for Tasks

• SHIFT up and SHIFT down will toggle the priority of tasks
• org-fancy-priorities gives you fancy looking priorities

Marking Tasks with Tags

• Tags can be attached to any headlines
• SPC m q to tag a headline
• Example:
  • TODO play more games :fun:
• Tags are hierarchical so nested headings will be tagged with the parent header tag
• org-tag-sparce-tree will search for headings that only have a specific tag

Setting a property for a task/headline

• SPC m o is used for setting a property.

Marking Headlines with Categories

• You can use categories to change the label in agenda view.

Org-Habits

• If you want to keep track of your habits using org mode, you can set the STYLE property to habit.

Lists

• Two types of lists, ordered and unordered lists
  • SHIFT right and SHIFT left can be used to change the type of lists.
• You can also change an unordered list by changing the first item to 1. and then typing C-c C-c and vice versa.

Checkboxes

• [ ] This is still todo
• [-] This is in progress
• [X] This is a done task

You can see how many are done with a “cookie” [1/2]

• [-] Task 1
• [X] Task 2
• You can do this by adding [/] to the heading and pressing C-c C-c
• You can’t assign a tag or a priority

Misc

• C-c C-z to insert a note for a heading in org mode.

• Note taken on [2020-12-18 Fri 21:52]
  Like this!

• C-c C-c to insert a tag for a heading in org mode.

Magit

• Magit is enabled by default in Doom Emacs’s init.el
• SPC g g shows Magit status page
  • Most commands are done from the status page
  • Use tab to expand headlines in the status page
• ? in Magit’s status page for a nice list of available commands and help, q to close this help page
• Open diff view for a file with TAB
• Press s under “Unstaged changes” to stage a change
  • u to undo a change
  • c to commit
• b s for branch and spinoff to create another branch, rewinding the commits you made to master
• b b to switch branches

Git Commit Flow in More Detail

• t t to create a tag, default place is the commit you are currently selecting
• V to select a change in a diff and x to discard that change.
• s to stage
• c to commit, you can q to quit the commit screen
• P to push and then p to your remote or u to a another remote

Magit with Forge for Issuing Pull Requests - Emacs

• Forge is installed in emacs doom
• @ for forge
• Set up forge with M-x forge-pull
  • the first time you will get a token from Github
• @ c p to create a pull request with forge
  • select the base branch
  • then select the target branch
  • then provide a short description
  • CTRL c CTRL c to finish the pull request
• Now there will be a pull requests tab

LSP-Mode

LSP related

• lsp-update-server select a language server to update.
• lsp-workspace-folders-add to interactively set a folder as an LSP workspace.
• lsp-workspace-folders-remove to interactively unset a folder as an LSP workspace.
• lsp-workspace-restart to restart your workspace. Especially useful after activating a virtual environment.

While coding

• SPC c c to run a compile command (or a test, or any other command in the current directory)
• SPC c C to repeat the command above
• SPC c d jump to var/func/… definitions
  • C o (evil-jump-backward) Go back to your last position in the jump list
  • C i (evil-jump-forward) Go forward in the jump list
• SPC c D see references to var/func/…
• SPC c e to evaluate the current buffer or region (when nothing is selected, equivalent to running SPC c c and writing go run + the file name.)
• SPC c f see references to var/func/…
• SPC c k jump to documentation
• SPC c r rename all references and definitions for the var/func at point in all project files
• SPC c s send to REPL
• SPC c x see all LSP diagnostics
• lsp-ui-imenu to navigate definitions in your code
• flycheck-list-errors to see the errors detected by LSP.

Terminal

• Set up vterm in your init.el file.
• SPC o T for opening vterm
• SPC o t for opening vterm in a popup window

File Tree

• Set up neotree or treemacs in your init.el file.
• SPC o p for opening neotree or treemacs

Capturing

• SPC X to capture (the new thing gets captured to a single file but that’s fine since we can easily refile it.)
• SPC m r r to refile

Org Roam

These keybindings only work after installing org-roam. To install org-roam edit your init.el file and add (org +roam2) in its designated place. Watch this video to understand what org-roam is.

• SPC n r f Find an existing node or create a new one.
• SPC n r i Insert a link to another node.
• SPC n r r Toggle backlinks pane
• SPC m m o t Add a roam tag.
• SPC m m o a Add a roam alias.

Code Folding

Code folding helps with code readability. First, make sure fold is not commented in your init.el file then move your cursor to the definition of a class or a function and try the following:

• z a Toggle the fold at point.
• z m Close all the folds.
• z r Open all the folds.
• z j Next folded region.
• z k Previous folded region.

Latex

• TBD, for now see Michael Neuper’s blog post which has videos as well.

Bi-directinal texts (RTL languages)

• First uncomment bidi under :input in init.el
• If your cursor moves at the wrong direction, see this evil-mode bug and toggle evil-mode by pressing C-z if neccessary.
• To enable the bidi-mode everywhere and change the font of Persian/Arabic texts, you can use the snippet below:

(+bidi-global-mode 1)
(setq +bidi-want-smart-fontify nil)
(set-fontset-font t 'arabic "Sahel") ; Works for Persian as well

Sources

• Zaiste Programming’s Doom Emacs Tutorial
• This org file is mostly from the notes taken from the series above by ianjones.us
• Doom Emacs Documentation
• DistroTube’s YouTube Video
• A very nice collection of Doom Emacs tips by yusbk

What to learn [0/3]

• [ ] LSP
• [ ] Org Roam
• [ ] abbrev-mode