GNU Info

(emacs)Entering Emacs

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Entering and Exiting Emacs
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   The usual way to invoke Emacs is with the shell command `emacs'.
Emacs clears the screen and then displays an initial help message and
copyright notice.  Some operating systems discard all type-ahead when
Emacs starts up; they give Emacs no way to prevent this.  Therefore, it
is advisable to wait until Emacs clears the screen before typing your
first editing command.

   If you run Emacs from a shell window under the X Window System, run
it in the background with `emacs&'.  This way, Emacs does not tie up
the shell window, so you can use that to run other shell commands while
Emacs operates its own X windows.  You can begin typing Emacs commands
as soon as you direct your keyboard input to the Emacs frame.

   When Emacs starts up, it creates a buffer named `*scratch*'.  That's
the buffer you start out in.  The `*scratch*' buffer uses Lisp
Interaction mode; you can use it to type Lisp expressions and evaluate
them, or you can ignore that capability and simply doodle.  (You can
specify a different major mode for this buffer by setting the variable
`initial-major-mode' in your init file.  Note: Init File.)

   It is possible to specify files to be visited, Lisp files to be
loaded, and functions to be called, by giving Emacs arguments in the
shell command line.  Note: Command Arguments.  But we don't recommend
doing this.  The feature exists mainly for compatibility with other
editors.

   Many other editors are designed to be started afresh each time you
want to edit.  You edit one file and then exit the editor.  The next
time you want to edit either another file or the same one, you must run
the editor again.  With these editors, it makes sense to use a
command-line argument to say which file to edit.

   But starting a new Emacs each time you want to edit a different file
does not make sense.  For one thing, this would be annoyingly slow.
For another, this would fail to take advantage of Emacs's ability to
visit more than one file in a single editing session.  And it would
lose the other accumulated context, such as the kill ring, registers,
undo history, and mark ring.

   The recommended way to use GNU Emacs is to start it only once, just
after you log in, and do all your editing in the same Emacs session.
Each time you want to edit a different file, you visit it with the
existing Emacs, which eventually comes to have many files in it ready
for editing.  Usually you do not kill the Emacs until you are about to
log out.  Note: Files, for more information on visiting more than one
file.