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Info Node: (emacs-lisp-intro.info)See variable current value

(emacs-lisp-intro.info)See variable current value


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Seeing the Current Value of a Variable
--------------------------------------

   You can see the current value of a variable, any variable, by using
the `describe-variable' function, which is usually invoked by typing
`C-h v'.  If you type `C-h v' and then `kill-ring' (followed by <RET>)
when prompted, you will see what is in your current kill ring--this may
be quite a lot!  Conversely, if you have been doing nothing this Emacs
session except read this document, you may have nothing in it.  Also,
you will see the documentation for `kill-ring':

     Documentation:
     List of killed text sequences.
     Since the kill ring is supposed to interact nicely with cut-and-paste
     facilities offered by window systems, use of this variable should
     interact nicely with `interprogram-cut-function' and
     `interprogram-paste-function'.  The functions `kill-new',
     `kill-append', and `current-kill' are supposed to implement this
     interaction; you may want to use them instead of manipulating the kill
     ring directly.

   The kill ring is defined by a `defvar' in the following way:

     (defvar kill-ring nil
       "List of killed text sequences.
     ...")

In this variable definition, the variable is given an initial value of
`nil', which makes sense, since if you have saved nothing, you want
nothing back if you give a `yank' command.  The documentation string is
written just like the documentation string of a `defun'.  As with the
documentation string of the `defun', the first line of the
documentation should be a complete sentence, since some commands, like
`apropos', print only the first line of documentation.  Succeeding
lines should not be indented; otherwise they look odd when you use `C-h
v' (`describe-variable').


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