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Spacemacs Documentation   TOC@4

Core Pillars

Four core pillars: Mnemonic, Discoverability, Consistency, "Crowd-Configured".

If any of these core pillars is violated open an issue and we'll fix it.

Mnemonic

Spacemacs organizes key bindings by mnemonic namespaces as much as possible. 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…

Discoverability

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

It also comes with dedicated helm sources to quickly find layers, packages and more.

which-key is enabled by default, it will display all the available key bindings in a dedicated popup buffer.

Consistency

Similar functionalities should have the same key binding no matter which major is currently active. For instance if you are looking for the definition of a function, the binding is SPC m g g, m for major mode and g g for go to thing at point. No matter what is the major mode it is the same binding to perform this action.

This is also true for the documentation, each configuration layer comes with an associated README.org file with the same base layout.

The consistency core pillar is supported by a convention file: CONVENTIONS.org

Crowd-Configured

By defining an very light structure called configuration layer which is easy to understand, Spacemacs makes it easy to contribute additional support.

The conventions in CONVENTIONS.org make it easy to get the spacemacs way and keep consistency even if there are a lot of contributions.

Crowd-configuration is the most powerful pillar of Spacemacs. Anybody can submit upstream improvements to configuration layers or a whole new one. Any user can easily and directly use this layer by adding it to a list in a dotfile. It is even possible to exclude any unwanted packages.

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.
  • Crowd-configured: Contribute easily your improvements and new configuration layers.
  • Minimalistic and nice graphical 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 and be the same in all major modes.
  • Fast boot time, everything is lazy-loaded.
  • Lower the risk of RSI by heavily using the space bar instead of modifiers.
  • Hopefully, if it's not already the case: Ɛ>Ɛ>Ɛ> make you love modal editing! <3<3<3

Screenshots

Startup /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/spacemacs-startup.png

Python /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/spacemacs-python.png

Terminal (urxvt) /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/spacemacs-urxvt.png

/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. There is a guide for these users to supplement the documentation.

It is also a good fit for people wanting to lower the risk of RSI induced by the default Emacs key bindings (this is an assumption, there is no official studies to prove this).

Emacs users wanting to learn a different way to edit files or wanting to learn Vim key bindings.

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.

Update and Rollback

For now it is still needed to update the Spacemacs repository manually.

Update Spacemacs repository

Close Emacs and update the git repository:

  $ git pull --rebase

Note It is recommended to update the packages first, see next session.

Update packages

To update Spacemacs press RET (enter) or click on the link [Update] in the startup page under the banner then restart Emacs.

If anything goes wrong you should be able to rollback the update by pressing RET or clicking on the [Rollback] link next to the [Update] link and choose a rollback slot (sorted by date).

Configuration layers

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

Within a layer

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:

    (setq <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 )

It is common to define the body with the use-package macro.

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:

    (setq <layer>-excluded-packages '(package1 package2 ...)

Without a layer

Sometimes a layer can be an unnecessary overhead, this is the case if you just want to install a package without any configuration associated to it. A good example is some niche language where you are only interested syntax highlighting.

You can install such packages by adding them to the variable dotspacemacs-additional-packages in your dotfile.

If you want to add some configuration for them then consider to create a layer, or just put the configuration in the dotspacemacs/config function.

Example to install llvm-mode and dts-mode:

    (setq dotspacemacs-additional-packages '(llvm-mode dts-mode)

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 behave like Vundle.

Types of configuration layers

There are three types of configuration layers:

  • core (this is the Spacemacs layer)
  • private (in the private directory, they are ignored by Git)
  • contrib (in the contrib directory, those layers are contributions shared by the community and merged upstream).

Submitting a configuration layer upstream

If you decide to provide a contrib configuration layer, please check the contribution guidelines in CONTRIBUTE.org.

Example: Themes Megapack example

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

To install it, just add themes-megapack to your ~/.spacemacs like so:

    (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers '(themes-megapack))

You have now installed around 100 themes you are free to try with SPC T h (helm-themes).

Managing private configuration layers

Spacemacs configuration system is flexible enough to let you manage your private layers in different ways.

Using the private directory

Everything in the private directory is ignored by Git so it is a good place to store private layers. There is a huge drawback to this approach though: your layers are not source controlled.

Using an external Git repository

This is the recommended way to manage your private layers.

The best approach is to store all your private layers into an external Git repository. It is especially a good practice to store them in your dotfiles repository if you have one. Put also your ~/.spacemacs file in it.

Then you are free to symlink your layers into ~/emacs.d/private or let them anywhere you want and reference the parent directory in the variable dotspacemacs-configuration-layer-path of your ~/.spacemacs.

Note that you could also have a dedicated repository for all your private layers and then directly clone this repository in ~/.emacs.d/private.

Using a personal branch

The final main way to manage your private layers is to push them in a personal branch that you keep up to date with upstream master or develop.

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/core/templates/.spacemacs.template

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

Alternative setup

Since v0.104 you have the option of using ~/.spacemacs.d/init.el for your dotfile instead of ~/.spacemacs. If you want to use this option, simply move ~/.spacemacs to ~/.spacemacs.d/init.el. ~/.spacemacs will always take priority over ~/.spacemacs.d/init.el, so ~/.spacemacs must be missing for ~/.spacemacs.d/init.el to be used by spacemacs.

If you use this option, everything that applies to ~/.spacemacs in this guide will now apply to ~/.spacemacs.d/init.el.

It is also possible to override the location of ~/.spacemacs.d/ using the environment variable SPACEMACSDIR. Of course you can also use symlinks to change the location of this directory.

Synchronization of dotfile changes

To apply the modifications made in ~/.spacemacs press SPC f e R. It will re-execute the Spacemacs initialization process.

Note: A synchronization re-executes the functions dotspacemacs/init and dotspacemacs/config. Depending on the content of this functions you may encounter some unwanted side effects. For instance if you use a toggle in dotspacemac/config to enable some behavior, this behavior will be turned off whenever the dotfile is re-synchronized. To avoid these side-effects it is recommended to either use setq expressions instead of toggle functions, or to use the on or off versions instead (i.e. instead of spacemacs/toggle-<thing>, use spacemacs/toggle-<thing>-on or spacemacs/toggle-<thing>-off). It is possible to skip the execution of dotspacemacs/config with the universal argument (SPC u SPC f e R).

Content

Using configuration layers

To use a configuration 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.

Configuration layers are expected to be stored in ~/.emacs.d/private or ~/.emacs.d/contrib. But you are free to keep them somewhere else by declaring additional paths where Spacemacs can look for configuration layers. This is done by setting the list dotspacemacs-configuration-layer-path in your ~/.spacemacs:

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

Setting configuration layers variables

Some configuration layers have configuration variables to enable specific support. For instance the git layer has several configuration variables, they can be set directly in the dotspacemacs-configuration-layers like this:

  (defun dotspacemacs/layers ()
    ;; List of configuration layers to load.
    (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers '(auto-completion
                                                      (git :variables
                                                           git-magit-status-fullscreen t)
                                                      smex)))

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 package 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.

Holy

Thanks to the new holy-mode Spacemacs can now be used by Vim users or Emacs users by setting the dotspacemacs-editing-style variable to 'vim or 'emacs in the dotfile. In Emacs style the leader is available as M-m. It is possible to dynamically switch between evil and holy modes using SPC P tab.

States

Spacemacs has 9 states:

State Color Description
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
replace chocolate exclusive to Evil, overwrites the character under point instead of inserting a new one
evilified light brown exclusive to Spacemacs, this is an emacs state modified to bring Vim navigation, selection and search.
lisp pink exclusive to Spacemacs, used to navigate Lisp code and modify it (more info)
iedit red exclusive to Spacemacs, used to navigate between multiple regions of text using iedit (more info)
iedit-insert red exclusive to Spacemacs, used to replace multiple regions of text using iedit (more info)

Note: Technically speaking there is also the operator evil state.

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, hence 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 b

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 prevents one from doing 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: /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/spacemacs-ahs-micro-state.png

Text scale micro-state: /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/spacemacs-scale-micro-state.png

Differences between Vim, Evil and Spacemacs

  • The , key does "repeat last f, t, F, or T command in opposite direction in Vim, but in Spacemacs it is the major mode specific leader key by default (which can be set on another key binding in the dotfile).

Send a PR to add the differences you found in this section.

The vim-surround case

There is one obvious visible difference though. It is not between Evil and Vim but between Spacemacs and vim-surround: the surround command is on S in vim-surround whereas it is on s in Spacemacs.

This is something that can surprise some Vim users so let me explain why this is the case:

  • s and c do the same thing in visual state,
  • s is only useful to delete one character and add more than one character which is a very narrow use case

  • c accept motions and can do everything s can do in normal state

    • this is also true for r but r is more useful because it stays in normal state
  • surround command is just a more powerful command than s.

If you are not convinced, then here is the snippet to revert back to the default Vim + vim-surround setup (add it to your dotspacemacs/config function or your ~/.spacemacs):

    (evil-define-key 'visual evil-surround-mode-map "s" 'evil-substitute)
    (evil-define-key 'visual evil-surround-mode-map "S" 'evil-surround-region)

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-indent-textobject add text object based on indentation level
evil-visualstar search for current selection with *
evil-exchange port of vim-exchange
evil-surround port of vim-surround
evil-matchit port of matchit.vim
evil-nerd-commenter port of nerdcommenter
evil-search-highlight-persist emulation of hlsearch behavior
evil-numbers like C-a and C-x in vim
evil-args motions and text objects for arguments
evil-jumper jump list emulation
NeoTree mimic NERD Tree

Spacemacs UI

Spacemacs has unique UI elements to make the Emacs experience even more enjoyable:

  • dedicated startup page with a mode aimed at easily managing Spacemacs
  • dedicated helm source via helm-spacemacs
  • a which-key buffer

Graphical UI

Spacemacs has a minimalistic and distraction free graphical UI:

Color themes

The official Spacemacs theme is spacemacs-dark and it is the default theme installed when you first started Spacemacs. There are two variants of the theme, a dark one and a light one. Some aspect of these themes can be customized in the function dotspacemacs/init of your ~/.spacemacs:

  • the comment background with the boolean spacemacs-theme-comment-bg
  • the height of org section titles with spacemacs-theme-org-height

It is possible to define your default themes in your ~/.spacemacs with the variable dotspacemacs-themes. For instance, to specify solarized-light, leuven and zenburn:

    (setq-default dotspacemacs-themes '(solarized-light leuven zenburn))
Key Binding Description
SPC T n switch to next theme listed in dotspacemacs-themes.
SPC T h select a theme using a helm buffer.

You can see samples of all included themes in this theme gallery from Rob Merrell.

Note:

  • You don't need to explicitly list in a layer the theme packages you are defining in dotspacemacs-themes, Spacemacs is smart enough to remove those packages from the list of orphans.
  • Due to the inner working of themes in Emacs, switching theme during the same session may have some weird side effects. Although these side effects should be pretty rare.

Hint If you are an Org user, leuven-theme is amazing ;-)

Font

The default font used by Spacemacs is source code pro by Adobe. It is recommended to install it on your system.

To change the default font set the variable dotspacemacs-default-font in your .spacemacs file.

By default its value is:

    (setq-default dotspacemacs-default-font '("Source Code Pro"
                                              :size 13
                                              :weight normal
                                              :width normal
                                              :powerline-scale 1.1))

The properties should be pretty straightforward, it is possible to set any valid property of a font-spec:

  • :family Font family or fontset (a string).

  • :width Relative character width. This should be one of the symbols:

    • ultra-condensed
    • extra-condensed
    • condensed
    • semi-condensed
    • normal
    • semi-expanded
    • expanded
    • extra-expanded
    • ultra-expanded
  • :height The height of the font. In the simplest case, this is an integer in units of 1/10 point.

  • :weight Font weight- one of the symbols (from densest to faintest):

    • ultra-bold
    • extra-bold
    • bold
    • semi-bold
    • normal
    • semi-light
    • light
    • extra-light
    • ultra-light

  • :slant Font slant- one of the symbols:

    • italic
    • oblique
    • normal
    • reverse-italic
    • reverse-oblique
  • :size The font size- either a non-negative integer that specifies the pixel size, or a floating-point number that specifies the point size.
  • :adstyle Additional typographic style information for the font, such as 'sans'. The value should be a string or a symbol.
  • :registry The charset registry and encoding of the font, such as 'iso8859-1'. The value should be a string or a symbol.
  • :script The script that the font must support (a symbol).

The special property :powerline-scale is Spacemacs specific and it is for quick tweaking of the mode-line height in order to avoid crappy rendering of the separators like on the following screenshot (default value is 1.1).

Ugly separators

/TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/crappy-powerline-separators.png

ugly-separators

Graphical UI Toggles

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

Key Binding Description
SPC t~ display ~ in the fringe on empty lines
SPC t f display the fill column (by default the fill column is set to 80)
SPC t h h toggle highlight of the current line
SPC t h i toggle highlight indentation levels
SPC t h c toggle highlight indentation current column
SPC t i toggle indentation guide at point
SPC t l toggle truncate lines
SPC t L toggle visual lines
SPC t n show the absolute line numbers
Key Binding Description
SPC T F toggle frame fullscreen
SPC T f toggle display of the fringe
SPC T m toggle menu bar
SPC T M toggle frame maximize
SPC T t toggle tool bar
SPC T T toggle frame transparency and enter transparency micro-state

Note These toggles are all available via the helm-spacemacs interface (press SPC f e h to display the helm-spacemacs buffer).

Mouse usage

There are some added mouse features set for the line number margin (if shown):

  • single click in line number margin visually selects the entire line
  • drag across line number margin visually selects the region
  • double click in line number margin visually select the current code block

Mode-line

The mode line is a 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 battery 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
Iedit/Iedit-Insert Red

Some elements can be dynamically toggled:

Key Binding Description
SPC t m b toggle the battery status
SPC t m c toggle the org task clock (available in org layer)
SPC t m m toggle the minor mode lighters
SPC t m M toggle the major mode
SPC t m n toggle the cat! (if colors layer is declared in your dotfile)
SPC t m p toggle the point character position
SPC t m t toggle the mode line itself
SPC t m v toggle the version control info
SPC t m V toggle the new version lighter
Powerline font installation for terminal-mode users

Users who run Emacs in terminal mode may need to install the Powerline patched fonts and configure their terminal clients to use them to make the Powerline separators render correctly.

Flycheck integration

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

/TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-wave.png

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.

/TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-anzu.png

powerline-anzu
Battery status integration

fancy-battery displays the percentage of total charge of the battery as well as the time remaining to charge or discharge completely the battery.

A color code is used for the battery status:

Battery State Color
Charging Green
Discharging Orange
Critical Red

Note the these colors may vary depending on your theme.

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 /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-alternate.png
arrow /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-arrow.png
arrow-fade /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-arrow-fade.png
bar /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-bar.png
box /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-box.png
brace /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-brace.png
butt /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-butt.png
chamfer /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-chamfer.png
contour /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-contour.png
curve /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-curve.png
rounded /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-rounded.png
roundstub /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-roundstub.png
slant /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-slant.png
wave /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-wave.png
zigzag /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-zigzag.png
nil /TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/powerline-nil.png
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

Unicode symbols are displayed by default. Setting the variable dotspacemacs-mode-line-unicode-symbols to nil in your ~/.spacemacs will display ASCII characters instead (may be useful in terminal if you cannot set an appropriate font).

The letters displayed in the mode-line correspond to the key bindings used to toggle them.

Some toggle have two flavors: local and global. The global version of the toggle can be reached using the control key.

Key Binding Unicode ASCII Mode
SPC t - ⊝ - centered-cursor mode
SPC t C-- ⊝ global centered cursor
SPC t a ⓐ a auto-completion
SPC t c ⓒ c camel case motion with subword mode
none ⓔ e evil-org mode
SPC t f fill-column-indicator mode
SPC t F Ⓕ F auto-fill mode
SPC t g ⓖ g golden-ratio mode
SPC t h i ⓗi h toggle highlight indentation levels
SPC t h c ⓗc hc toggle highlight indentation current column
SPC t i ⓘ i indentation guide
SPC t C-i ⓘ i global indentation guide
SPC t I Ⓘ I aggressive indent mode
SPC t K Ⓚ K which-key mode
SPC t p ⓟ p smartparens mode
SPC t C-p ⓟ global smartparens
SPC t s ⓢ s syntax checking (flycheck)
SPC t S Ⓢ S spell checking (flyspell)
SPC t w ⓦ w whitespace mode
SPC t C-w Ⓦ W global whitespace
SPC t y ⓨ y yasnippet mode

Commands

Vim key bindings

Spacemacs is based on Vim modal user interface to navigate and edit text. If you are not familiar with the Vim way of editing text you can try the evil-tutor lessons by pressing SPC h T at any time.

Escaping

Spacemacs uses evil-escape to easily switch between insert state and normal state by quickly pressing the fd keys.

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
  • quit apropos buffers
  • quit ert buffers
  • quit undo-tree buffer
  • quit paradox
  • quit gist-list menu
  • hide neotree buffer

If you find yourself in a buffer where the Spacemacs (SPC) or Vim keybindings don't work you can use this to get back to normal state (for example in SPC : customize press fd to make SPC b b work again).

This sequence can be customized in your ~/.spacemacs. Example to set it to jj (it is important set the variable in dotspacemacs/init):

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

Note: Although jj or jk are popular choices of vim users, these key sequences are not optimal for Spacemacs. Indeed it is very easy in visual state to press quickly jj and inadvertently escape to normal state.

Important Note One caveat of evil-escape is that you must not use it while recording macros. Use escape key instead.

Executing Vim and Emacs ex/M-x commands

Command Key Binding
Vim (ex-command) :
Emacs (M-x) SPC :

The command key : can be easily changed with the variable dotspacemacs-command-key of your ~/.spacemacs. Note that is will change both : and SPC : bindings to keep the symmetry between Vim and Emacs. A good key can be , for example.

Leader key

On top of Vim modes (modes are called states in Spacemacs) there is a special key called the leader key which once pressed gives a whole new keyboard layer. The leader key is by default SPC (space). It is possible to change this key with the variable dotspacemacs-leader-key.

Reserved prefix command for user

SPC o and SPC m o are reserved for the user. Setting key bindings behind these is guaranteed to never conflict with Spacemacs default key bindings.

Example: Put (evil-leader/set-key "oc" 'org-capture) inside dotspacemacs/config in your ~/.spacemacs file, to be able to use SPC o c to run org mode capture.

Helm

Spacemacs is powered by Helm which is an incremental completion and selection narrowing framework.

Helm is the central control tower of Spacemacs, it is used to manage buffers, projects, search results, configuration layers, toggles and more…

Mastering Helm will make you a Spacemacs power user. Do not hesitate to read the Helm documentation wiki.

C-z and Tab switch

The command bound to C-z is much more useful than the one bound to Tab, so it makes sense to swap them. It's also recommended here.

Helm micro-state

Spacemacs defines a micro-state for Helm to make it work like Vim's Unite plugin.

Initiate the micro-state with M-SPC or s-M-SPC while in a Helm buffer.

Key Binding Description
M-SPC or s-M-SPC initiate or leave the micro-state
TAB switch to actions page and leave the micro-state
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 switch to actions page
g go to first candidate
G go to last candidate
h go to previous source
j select next candidate
k select previous candidate
l go to next source
q quit micro-state
t mark current candidate
T mark all candidates
v execute persistent action

Discovering

Key bindings

Which-key

An help buffer is displayed each time the SPC key is pressed in normal mode. It lists the available key bindings and their associated commands.

By default the which-key buffer will be displayed quickly after the key has been pressed. You can change the delay by setting the variable dotspacemacs-which-key-delay to your liking (the value is in second).

Helm describe key bindings

It is possible to search for specific key bindings by pressing SPC ?.

To narrow the list to some key bindings using the leader key type a pattern like this regular expression: SPC\ b which would list all buffer related bindings.

Getting help

Describe functions are powerful Emacs introspection commands to get information about functions, variables, modes etc. These commands are bound thusly:

Key Binding Description
SPC h d b describe bindings in a helm buffer
SPC h d c describe current character under point
SPC h d f describe a function
SPC h d k describe a key
SPC h d m describe current modes
SPC h d p describe a package
SPC h d s copy system information that you can paste in gitter chat
SPC h d t describe a theme
SPC h d v describe a variable

Other help key bindings:

Key Binding Description
SPC h i search in info pages with the symbol at point
SPC h L go to library a implementation
SPC h m search available man pages

Available layers

All layers can be easily discovered via helm-spacemacs accessible with SPC f e h.

The following helm actions are available:

  • default: open the layer README.md
  • 2nd: open the layer packages.el
  • 3nd: open the layer extensions.el
Available packages in Spacemacs

helm-spacemacs also lists all the packages available in Spacemacs. The entry format is (layer) packages. If you type flycheck you'll be able to see all the layers where flycheck is used.

The following helm actions are available on packages:

  • default: go the package init function
New packages from ELPA repositories

package-list-packages is where you can browse for all available packages in the different Elpa repositories. It is possible to upgrade packages from there but it is not recommended, use the [Update] link on the Spacemacs startup page instead.

Spacemacs proposes to use Paradox instead of package-list-packages to list available ELPA packages. Paradox enhances the package list buffer with better feedbacks, new filters and Github information like the number of stars. Optionally you can also star packages directly in the buffer.

Important Note 1 Installing a new package from Paradox won't make it persistent. To install a package persistently you have to add it explicitly to a configuration layer.

Important Note 2 Don't update your packages from Paradox or package-list-packages because they don't support the rollback feature of Spacemacs.

Key Binding Description
/ evil-search
f k filter by keywords
f r filter by regexp
f u display only installed package with updates available
h go left
H show help (not accurate)
j go down
k go up
l go right
L show last commits
n next search occurrence
N previous search occurrence
o open package homepage
r refresh
S P sort by package name
S S sort by status (installed, available, etc…)
S * sort by Github stars
v visual state
V visual-line state
x execute (action flags)

Toggles

helm-spacemacs is also a central place to discover the available toggles. To display only the toggles source press C-l (or in Helm micro-state you can press just l).

The following helm actions are available on packages:

  • default: toggle on/off

Tips Use SPC h l to resume the last helm session. It is handy to quickly toggle on and off a toggle.

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 cursor to the top of the screen
L move cursor to the bottom of the screen
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 t - 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)

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
SPC ` go back to the previous location (before the jump)

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

ace-link mode

Similar to ace-jump-mode, ace-link allows one to jump to any link in help-mode and info-mode with two key strokes.

Key Binding Description
o initiate ace link mode in help-mode and info-mode

Window manipulation

Window manipulation key bindings

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 window number 1
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 0

Windows manipulation commands (start with w):

Key Binding Description
SPC w = balance split windows
SPC w b force the focus back to the minibuffer (usefull with helm popups)
SPC w c close a window
SPC w C delete another window using ace-delete-window
SPC w d toggle window dedication (dedicated window cannot be reused by a mode)
SPC w h move to window on the left
SPC w H move window to the left
SPC w j move to window below
SPC w J move window to the bottom
SPC w k move to window above
SPC w K move window to the top
SPC w l move to window on the right
SPC w L move window to the right
SPC w m maximize/minimize a window (maximize is equivalent to delete other windows)
SPC w M maximize/minimize a window, when maximized the buffer is centered
SPC w o cycle and focus between frames
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 s or SPC w / horizontal split
SPC w S horizontal split and focus new window
SPC w u undo window layout (used to effectively undo a closed window)
SPC w U redo window layout
SPC w v or SPC w - vertical split
SPC w V vertical split and focus new window
SPC w w cycle and focus between windows
SPC w W select window using ace-window
Window manipulation micro-state

A convenient window manipulation micro-state allows to perform most of the actions listed above. The micro-state allows additional actions as well like window resizing.

Key Binding Description
SPC w . initiate micro-state
? display the full documentation in minibuffer
0 go to window number 0
1 go to window number 1
2 go to window number 2
3 go to window number 3
4 go to window number 4
5 go to window number 5
6 go to window number 6
7 go to window number 7
8 go to window number 8
9 go to window number 9
- vertical split
/ horizontal split
[ shrink window horizontally
] enlarge window horizontally
{ shrink window vertically
} enlarge window vertically
c close window
C close other windows
g toggle golden-ratio on and off
h go to window on the left
j go to window below
k go to window above
l go to window on the right
H move window to the left
J move window to the bottom
K move bottom to the top
L move window to the right
o focus other frame
R rotate windows
s horizontal split
S horizontal split and focus new window
u undo window layout (used to effectively undo a closed window)
U redo window layout
v vertical split
V horizontal split and focus new window
w focus other window
Any other key leave the micro-state
Golden ratio

If you resize windows like crazy you may want to give a try to golden-ratio.

golden-ratio resizes windows dynamically depending on whether they are selected or not. By default golden-ratio is off.

The mode can be toggled on and off with SPC t g.

Buffers and Files

Since helm is used everywhere, by default Spacemacs uses helm to open files.

Some users prefer the ido way to navigate the file system because it can remember the last selected directories and buffers and RET is used to open directories instead of TAB or C-z in helm. It is possible to use ido instead of helm by setting the variable dotspacemacs-use-ido to t in your dotfile.

Buffers manipulation key bindings

Buffer manipulation commands (start with b):

Key Binding Description
SPC TAB switch to alternate buffer in the current window (switch back and forth)
SPC b b switch to a buffer using helm
SPC b d kill the current buffer (does not delete the visited file)
SPC b e erase the content of the buffer (ask for confirmation)
SPC b h open *spacemacs* home buffer
SPC b k kill a buffer
SPC b K kill all buffers except the current one
SPC b C-K kill all buffers matching the regexp
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 M swap windows using ace-swap-window
SPC b n switch to next buffer avoiding special buffers
SPC b p switch to previous buffer avoiding special buffers
SPC b P copy clipboard and replace buffer (useful when pasting from a browser)
SPC b R revert the current buffer (reload from disk)
SPC b w toggle read-only (writable state)
SPC b Y copy whole buffer to clipboard (useful when copying to a browser)
z f Make current function or comments visible in buffer as much as possible
Buffers manipulation manipulation micro-state

A convenient buffer manipulation micro-state allows to quickly cycles through the opened buffer and kill them.

Key Binding Description
SPC b . initiate micro-state
K kill current buffer
n go to next buffer (avoid special buffers)
N go to previous buffer (avoid special buffers)
Any other key leave the micro-state
Special Buffers

Unlike vim, emacs creates many buffers that most people do not need to see. Some examples are *Messages* and *Compile-Log*. Spacemacs tries to automatically ignore buffers that are not useful. However, you may want to change the way Spacemacs marks buffers as useful. For instructions, see the special buffer howto.

Files manipulations key bindings

Files manipulation commands (start with f):

Key Binding Description
SPC f D delete a file and the associated buffer (ask for confirmation)
SPC f f open file with helm (or ido)
SPC f F try to open the file under point helm
SPC f j jump to the current buffer file in dired
SPC f l open file literally in fundamental mode
SPC f o open a file using the default external program
SPC f R rename the current file
SPC f s save a file
SPC f S save all files
SPC f r open a recent file with helm
SPC f C copy current file to a different location
SPC f t toggle file tree side bar using NeoTree
SPC f y show current file absolute path in the minibuffer
Emacs and Spacemacs files

Convenient key bindings are located under the prefix SPC f e to quickly navigate between Emacs and Spacemacs specific files.

Key Binding Description
SPC f e c open ido in the contrib folder
SPC f e d open the spacemacs dotfile (~/.spacemacs)
SPC f e D open ediff buffer of ~/.spacemacs and .spacemacs.template
SPC f e h discover Spacemacs documentation, layers and packages using helm
SPC f e i open the all mighty init.el
SPC f e R resync the dotfile with spacemacs
SPC f e s open ido in the spacemacs layer folder
SPC f e v display and copy the spacemacs version

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
M-<return> open a dired buffer in terminal
C-d delete selected file (ask for confirmation)
C-h go to parent directory
C-j select next file or directory
C-k select previous file or directory
C-l open the selected file
C-n select next file or directory
C-o open selected file in other window
C-p select previous file or directory
C-s open selected file in a vertically split window
C-t open selected file in a new frame
C-v open selected file in a horizontally split window
C-S-h go to previous directory
C-S-j or C-S-n next history element
C-S-k or C-S-p previous history element
C-S-l go to next directory

Ido micro-state

Spacemacs defines a micro-state for ido.

Initiate the micro-state with M-SPC or s-M-SPC while in an ido buffer.

Key Binding Description
M-SPC or s-M-SPC initiate or leave the micro-state
? display help
e open dired
h delete backward or parent directory
j next match
J sub directory
k previous match
K parent directory
l select match
n next directory in history
o open in other window
p previous directory in history
q quit micro-state
s open in a new horizontal split
t open in other frame
v open in a new vertical split

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 or SPC p t (the latter open NeoTree with the root set to the projectile project root).

The NeoTree window always has the number 0 so it does not shift the current number of the other windows. To select the NeoTree window you then use SPC 0.

NeoTree navigation

Navigation is centered on the hjkl with the hope to provide a fast navigation experience like in ranger:

Key Binding Description
h collapse expanded directory or go to parent node
H previous sibling
j next file or directory
J next expanded directory on level down
k previous file or directory
K parent directory, when reaching the root change it to parent directory
l or RET expand directory
L next sibling
R make a directory the root directory

Note: The point is automatically set to the first letter of a node for a smoother experience.

Opening files with NeoTree

By default a file is opened in the last active window. It is possible to choose window number where to open a file by using a numeric argument, for instance 2 l or 2 RET will open the current file in window 2. It is also possible to open the file in a split window with | and -:

Key Binding Description
l or RET open file in last active window
# l or # RET open file in window number #
¦ open file in an vertically split window
- open file in an horizontally split window
Other NeoTree key bindings
Key Binding Description
TAB toggle stretching of the buffer
c create a node
d delete a node
g refresh
s toggle showing of hidden files
q or fd hide NeoTree buffer
r rename a node
NeoTree mode-line

The mode-line has the following format [x/y] d (D:a, F:b) where:

  • x is the index of the current selected file or directory
  • y the total number of items (file and directory) in the current directory
  • d the name of the current directory
  • a the number of directories in the current directory
  • b the number of files in the current directory

Bookmarks

Bookmarks can be set anywhere in a file. Bookmarks are persistent. They are very useful to jump to/open a known project. Spacemacs uses 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
C-d delete the selected bookmark
C-e edit the selected bookmark
C-f toggle filename location
C-o open the selected bookmark in another window

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

DocView mode

doc-view-mode is a built-in major mode to view DVI, PostScript (PS), PDF, OpenDocument, and Microsoft Office documents.

Key Binding Description
/ search forward
? search backward
+ enlarge
- shrink
gg go to first page
G go to last page
gt go to page number
h previous page
H adjust to height
j next line
k previous line
K kill proc and buffer
l next page
n go to next search occurrence
N go to previous search occurrence
P fit page to window
r revert
W adjust to width
C-d scroll down
C-k kill proc
C-u scroll up
C-c C-c toggle display text and image display
C-c C-t open new buffer with doc's text contents

Auto-saving

Frequency of auto-saving

By default auto-saving of files is performed every 300 characters and every 30 seconds of idle time which can be changed by setting to a new value the variables auto-save-inteval and auto-save-timeout respectively.

Location of auto-saved files

Auto-save of modified files can be performed in-place on the original file itself or in the cache directory (in this case the original file will remain unsaved). By default Spacemacs auto-save the file in the cache directory.

To modify the location set the variable dotspacemacs-auto-save-file-location to original or cache.

Local files are auto-saved in a sub-directory called site in the cache directory whereas remote files (i.e. files edited over TRAMP) are auto-saved in a sub-directory called dist.

Disable auto-save

To disable auto-saving set the variable dotspacemacs-auto-save-file-location to nil.

You can toggle auto-save in a buffer by calling the command auto-save-mode.

Searching

With an external tool

Spacemacs can be interfaced with different search utilities like:

The search commands in Spacemacs are organized under the SPC s prefix with the next key is the tool to use and the last key is the scope. For instance SPC s a b will search in all opened buffers using ag. If the last key (determining the scope) is uppercase then the current region or symbol under point is used as default input for the search. For instance SPC s a B will search with symbol under point (if there is no active region). If the tool key is omitted then a default tool will be automatically selected for the search. This tool corresponds to the first tool found on the system of the list dotspacemacs-search-tools, the default order is ag, pt, ack then grep. For instance SPC s b will search in the opened buffers using pt if ag has not been found on the system.

The tool keys are:

Tool Key
ag a
grep g
ack k
pt t

The available scopes and corresponding keys are:

Scope Key
opened buffers b
files in a given directory f
current project p

It is possible to search in the current file by double tapping the second key of the sequence, for instance SPC s a a will search in the current file with ag.

Notes

  • ag and pt are optimized to be used in a source control repository but they can be used in an arbitrary directory as well.
  • It is also possible to search in several directories at once by marking them in the helm buffer.

Beware if you use pt, TCL parser tools also install a command line tool called pt.

Useful key bindings
Key Binding Description
SPC h l resume the last helm buffer
F3 in a helm buffer, convert a helm search buffer into a regular buffer
SPC s L focus the last converted search buffer
Prefix argument will ask for file extensions
Searching in current file
Key Binding Description
SPC s s search with the first found tool
SPC s S search with the first found tool with default input
SPC s a a ag
SPC s a A ag with default input
SPC s g g grep
SPC s g G grep with default input
Searching in all open buffers visiting files
Key Binding Description
SPC s b search with the first found tool
SPC s B search with the first found tool with default input
SPC s a b ag
SPC s a B ag with default text
SPC s g b grep
SPC s g B grep with default text
SPC s k b ack
SPC s k B ack with default text
SPC s t b pt
SPC s t B pt with default text
Searching for files in an arbitrary directory
Key Binding Description
SPC s f search with the first found tool
SPC s F search with the first found tool with default input
SPC s a f ag
SPC s a F ag with default text
SPC s g f grep
SPC s g F grep with default text
SPC s k f ack
SPC s k F ack with default text
SPC s t f pt
SPC s t F pt with default text
Searching in a project
Key Binding Description
SPC s p search with the first found tool
SPC / or SPC s P search with the first found tool with default input
SPC s a p ag
SPC s a P ag with default text
SPC s g p grep with default text
SPC s k p ack
SPC s k P ack with default text
SPC s t p pt
SPC s t P pt with default text
Searching the web
Key Binding Description
SPC s w g Get Google suggestions in emacs. Opens Google results in Browser.
SPC s w w Get Wikipedia suggestions in emacs. Opens Wikipedia page in Browser.

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 highlightings
SPC h C clear the highlightings globally (all opened buffers)
SPC h h highlight all occurrence of the word at point
SPC h H highlight all occurrence of the word at point globally (all opened buffers)
SPC h n next highlighted occurrence
SPC h N previous highlighted occurrence
SPC h p toggle auto-highlight of the enclosing parenthesis
SPC h r restore saved highlights in the current buffer
SPC h s save current highlights

Highlight current symbol

Spacemacs supports highlighting of the current symbol on demand (provided by the auto-highlight-symbol mode) and adds a micro-state to easily navigate and rename this symbol.

It is also possible to change the range of the navigation on the fly to:

  • buffer
  • function
  • visible area

To initiate the highlighting of the current symbol under point press SPC s h.

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

Key Binding Description
/ initiate navigation micro-state on current symbol and jump forwards
# initiate navigation micro-state on current symbol and jump backwards
SPC s e edit all occurrences of the current symbol(/)
SPC s h highlight the current symbol and all its occurrence within the current range
SPC s H go to the last searched occurrence of the last highlighted symbol
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

(*) using iedit or the default implementation of auto-highlight-symbol

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

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

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

Paste text

Paste Micro-state

The paste micro-state can be enabled by settings the variable dotspacemacs-enable-paste-micro-state to t. By default it is disabled.

When the micro-state is enabled, pressing p again will replace the pasted text with the previous yanked (copied) text on the kill ring.

For example if you copy foo and bar then press p the text bar will be pasted, pressing p again will replace bar with foo.

Key Binding Description
p or P paste the text before or after point and initiate the paste micro-state
p in micro-state: replace paste text with the previously copied one
P in micro-state: replace paste text with the next copied one
. paste the same text and leave the micro-state
Any other key leave the micro-state
Auto-indent pasted text

By default any pasted text will be auto-indented. To paste text un-indented use the universal argument.

It is possible to disable the auto-indentation for specific major-modes by adding a major-mode to the variable spacemacs-indent-sensitive-modes in your dotspacemacs/config function.

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 a a align region (or guessed section) using default rules
SPC x a r align region using user-specified regexp
SPC x a m align region at arithmetic operators (+-*/)
SPC x a . align region at . (for numeric tables)
SPC x a , align region at ,
SPC x a ; align region at ;
SPC x a = align region at =
SPC x a & align region at &
SPC x a ¦ align region at ¦
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 J move down a line of text (enter micro-state)
SPC x K move up a line of text (enter micro-state)
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
SPC x w d show dictionary entry of word from wordnik.com

Searching and inserting unicode characters

You can very easily search for and insert unicode characters into the current buffer with helm-unicode.

Key Binding Description
SPC i u Search for unicode characters and insert them into the active buffer.

Smartparens Strict mode

Smartparens comes with a strict mode which prevents deletion of parenthesis if the result is unbalanced.

This mode can be frustrating for novices, this is why it is not enabled by default.

It is possible to enable it easily for all programming modes with the variable dotspacemacs-smartparens-strict-mode of you ~/.spacemacs.

    (setq-default dotspacemacs-smartparens-strict-mode t)

Zooming

Text

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

Key Binding Description
SPC z x + scale up the font and initiate the font scaling micro-state
SPC z x - scale down the font and initiate the font scaling micro-state
SPC z 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

Note that only the text of the current buffer is scaled, the other buffers, the mode-line and the minibuffer are not affected. To zoom the whole content of a frame use the zoom frame bindings (see next section).

Frame

You can zoom in and out the whole content of the frame with the commands:

Key Binding Description
SPC z f + zoom in the frame content
SPC z f - zoom out the frame content
SPC z f = reset the frame content size
+ zoom in
- zoom out
= reset zoom
Any other key leave the zoom frame 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.

Expand-region

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
Indent text object

With evil-indent-textobject the following action can be performed in normal state:

  • ii - Inner Indentation: the surrounding textblock with the same indentation
  • ai - Above and Indentation: ii + the line above with a different indentation
  • aI - Above and Indentation+: ai + the line below with a different indentation

Example (| is the point):

    (while (not done) (messa|ge "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."))
      (1+ 41)
  • vii will select the line with message
  • vai will select the whole while loop
  • vaI will select the whole fragment

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 code.

Replacing text with iedit

Spacemacs uses the powerful iedit mode through evil-iedit-state to quickly edit multiple occurrences of a symbol or selection.

evil-iedit-state defines two new evil states:

  • iedit state
  • iedit-insert state

The color code for these states is red.

evil-iedit-state has also a nice integration with expand-region for quick edition of the current selected text by pressing e.

iedit states key bindings
State transitions
Key Binding From To
SPC s e normal or visual iedit
e expand-region iedit
ESC iedit normal
C-g iedit normal
fd iedit normal
ESC iedit-insert iedit
C-g iedit-insert normal
fd iedit-insert normal

To sum-up, in iedit-insert state you have to press ESC twice to go back to the normal state. You can also at any time press C-g or fd to return to normal state.

Note: evil commands which switch to insert state will switch in iedit-insert state.

In iedit state

iedit state inherits from normal state, the following key bindings are specific to iedit state.

Key Binding Description
ESC go back to normal state
TAB toggle current occurrence
0 go to the beginning of the current occurrence
$ go to the end of the current occurrence
# prefix all occurrences with an increasing number (SPC u to choose the starting number).
A go to the end of the current occurrence and switch to iedit-insert state
D delete the occurrences
F restrict the scope to the function
gg go to first occurrence
G go to last occurrence
I go to the beginning of the current occurrence and switch to iedit-insert state
J increase the edition scope by one line below
K increase the edition scope by one line above
L restrict the scope to the current line
n go to next occurrence
N go to previous occurrence
p replace occurrences with last yanked (copied) text
S (substitute) delete the occurrences and switch to iedit-insert state
V toggle visibility of lines with no occurrence
U Up-case the occurrences
C-U down-case the occurrences

Note: 0, $, A and I have the default Vim behavior when used outside of an occurrence.

In iedit-insert state
Key Binding Description
ESC go back to iedit state
C-g go back to normal state
Examples
  • manual selection of several words then replace: v w w SPC s e S "toto" ESC ESC
  • append text to a word on two lines: v i w SPC s e J i "toto" ESC ESC
  • substitute symbol with expand-region: SPC v v e S "toto" ESC ESC
  • replace symbol with yanked (copied) text with expand region: SPC v e p ESC ESC

Replacing text in several files

Replacing an occurrence of text in several files can be performed via helm-ag.

Say you want to replace all foo occurrences by bar in your current project:

  • initiate a search with SPC /
  • enter in edit mode with C-c C-e
  • go to the occurrence and enter in iedit state with SPC s e
  • edit the occurrences then leave the iedit state
  • press C-c C-c

Note in Spacemacs, helm-ag despite its name works with ack and pt as well.

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

Deleting files

Deletion is configured to send deleted files to system trash.

On OS X the trash program is required. It can be installed with homebrew with the following command:

    $ brew install trash

To disable the trash you can set the variable delete-by-moving-to-trash to nil in your ~/.spacemacs.

Editing Lisp code

Edition of lisp code is provided by evil-lisp-state.

Commands will set the current state to lisp state where different commands combo can be repeated without pressing on SPC m.

When in lisp state the color of the mode-line changes to pink.

Examples:

  • to slurp three times while in normal state: SPC k 3 n
  • to wrap a symbol in parenthesis then slurping two times: SPC k w 2 n

Note The lisp state commands are available in any modes! Try it out.

Lisp Key Bindings
Lisp state key bindings

These commands automatically switch to lisp state.

Key Binding Function
SPC k % evil jump item
SPC k : ex command
SPC k ( insert expression before (same level as current one)
SPC k ) insert expression after (same level as current one)
SPC k $ go to the end of current sexp
SPC k ` k hybrid version of push sexp (can be used in non lisp dialects)
SPC k ` p hybrid version of push sexp (can be used in non lisp dialects)
SPC k ` s hybrid version of slurp sexp (can be used in non lisp dialects)
SPC k ` t hybrid version of transpose sexp (can be used in non lisp dialects)
SPC k 0 go to the beginning of current sexp
SPC k a absorb expression
SPC k b forward barf expression
SPC k B backward barf expression
SPC k c convolute expression
SPC k ds delete symbol
SPC k Ds backward delete symbol
SPC k dw delete word
SPC k Dw backward delete word
SPC k dx delete expression
SPC k Dx backward delete expression
SPC k e unwrap current expression and kill all symbols after point
SPC k E unwrap current expression and kill all symbols before point
SPC k h previous symbol
SPC k H go to previous sexp
SPC k i switch to insert state
SPC k I go to beginning of current expression and switch to insert state
SPC k j next closing parenthesis
SPC k J join expression
SPC k k previous opening parenthesis
SPC k l next symbol
SPC k L go to next sexp
SPC k p paste after
SPC k P paste before
SPC k r raise expression (replace parent expression by current one)
SPC k s forward slurp expression
SPC k S backward slurp expression
SPC k t transpose expression
SPC k u undo
SPC k U got to parent sexp backward
SPC k C-r redo
SPC k v switch to visual state
SPC k V switch to visual line state
SPC k C-v switch to visual block state
SPC k w wrap expression with parenthesis
SPC k W unwrap expression
SPC k y copy expression
Emacs lisp specific key bindings
Key Binding Function
SPC m e $ go to end of line and evaluate last sexp
SPC m e b evaluate buffer
SPC m e c evaluate current form (a def or a set)
SPC m e e evaluate last sexp
SPC m e f evaluate current defun
SPC m e l go to end of line and evaluate last sexp
SPC m e r evaluate region
Key Binding Function
SPC m g g go to definition
SPC m h h describe elisp thing at point (show documentation)
SPC m t b execute buffer tests
SPC m t q ask for test function to execute

Managing projects

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.

Helm is used whenever it is possible.

To search in a project see project searching.

projectile commands start with p:

Key Binding Description
SPC p ! run shell command in root
SPC p & run async shell command in root
SPC p a toggle between implementation and test
SPC p b switch to project buffer
SPC p c compile project using projectile
SPC p d find directory
SPC p D open project root in dired
SPC p f find file
SPC p G regenerate the project's etags=/=gtags
SPC p h find file using helm
SPC p I invalidate the projectile cache
SPC p k kill all project buffers
SPC p o run multi-occur
SPC p p switch project
SPC p r open a recent file
SPC p R replace a string
SPC p s see search in project
SPC p t open NeoTree in projectile root
SPC p T find test files
SPC p v open project root in vc-dir or magit
SPC p y find tags
SPC / search in project with the best search tool available
SPC s a p run ag
SPC s g p run grep
SPC s k p run ack
SPC s p p run pt

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 (start with e):

Key Binding Description
SPC e c clear all errors
SPC e f toggle flycheck
SPC e l display the flycheck list of errors/warnings
SPC e n go to the next error
SPC e p go to the previous error

Custom fringe bitmaps:

Symbol Description
/TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/dot-error.png Error
/TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/dot-warning.png warning
/TakeV/spacemacs/media/commit/8bf4f60e5afbd62ef6633fb70d02c8ddf7b1d12e/doc/img/dot-info.png Info

Compiling

Spacemacs binds a few commands to support compiling a project.

Key Binding Description
SPC c c use helm-make via projectile
SPC c C compile
SPC c r recompile

Modes

Major Mode leader key

Key bindings specific to the current major mode start with SPC m. For convenience a shortcut key called the major mode leader key is set by default on , which saves one precious keystroke.

It is possible to change the major mode leader key by defining the variable dotspacemacs-major-mode-leader-key in your ~/.spacemacs. For example to setup the key on tabulation:

    (setq-default dotspacemacs-major-mode-leader-key "<tab>")

Helm

Spacemacs add hjkl navigation to helm buffers:

Key Binding Description
C-h go to previous page
C-j go to previous item
C-k go to next item
C-l go to next page

Emacs Server

Spacemacs starts a server at launch. This server is killed whenever you close your Emacs windows.

Connecting to the Emacs server

You can open a file in Emacs from the terminal using emacsclient. Use emacsclient -c to open the file in Emacs GUI. Use emacsclient -t to open the file in Emacs within the terminal.

If you want your Linux/OS X system to use Emacs by default for any prompt, use export EDITOR"emacsclient -c"= in your shell configuration.

Note that if you're on OS X, you may have to refer to the emacsclient that comes with your GUI Emacs, e.g. export EDITOR"/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient -c"=.

Tip: Remember to use :wq or C-x # after you are done editing the file in Emacs.

See Emacs as a Server in the official Emacs manual for more details.

Keeping the server alive

It is possible to keep the server alive when you close Emacs by setting the variable dotspacemacs-persistent-server to t in your ~./spacemacs.

    (setq-default dotspacemacs-persistent-server t)

When this variable is set to t, the only way to quit Emacs and kill the server is to use the following bindings:

Keybinding Description
SPC q q Quit Emacs and kill the server, prompt for changed buffers to save
SPC q Q Quit Emacs and kill the server, lose all unsaved changes.
SPC q s Save the buffers, quit Emacs and kill the server
SPC q z Kill the current frame

Troubleshoot

Loading fails

If any errors happen during the loading the mode-line will turn red and the errors should appear inline in the startup buffer. Spacemacs should still be usable, if it is not the case then restart Emacs with emacs --debug-init and open a Github issue with the backtrace.

I have no file ~/.spacemacs

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

Achievements

Issues

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Specials

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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!