Launch/Start Emacs

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Emacs can run in GUI mode (graphical user interface), or within a text terminal. [see Emacs: Terminal vs Graphical User Interface]

Launch GUI Emacs, from Terminal

On a text terminal, type:

Linux

# linux. launch gui emacs
emacs
# linux. launch gui emacs. and if terminal is killed, won't kill emacs with it
nohup emacs &

Mac

# MacOS, launch gui emacs
/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs &
macOS terminal launch emacs 2022-10-05
macOS terminal launch emacs 2022-10-05

Microsoft Windows

# On Windows, PowerShell. example
~/Downloads/emacs-28.1/bin/runemacs.exe

Run Emacs in Text Terminal

On a text terminal, type:

Linux

# linux. run emacs in text terminal
emacs -nw

-nw is same as --no-window-system, means run emacs in text terminal.

Mac

# Mac OS X. run emacs in text terminal
/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs -nw

Microsoft Windows

# On Windows, PowerShell. run emacs in text terminal
~/Downloads/emacs-27.1-x86_64/bin/runemacs.exe -nw

Start emacs and open a file

# open a file with emacs
emacs fileName

Emacs Tutorial

Quick Start

Font

Split Window

File

Buffer

Copy/Paste

Find Replace

Unicode

Whitespace

Rectangle Edit

Line Wrap

Shell

View Special File

Editing Brackets

Org Mode

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Emacs Efficiency

Misc