1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
25 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
26 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
29 ** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
32 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
33 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
34 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
36 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
38 ** New commands `toggle-frame-maximized' and `cycle-frame-maximized',
39 bound to <f11> and S-<f11>, respectively.
42 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
44 ** New macro cl-tagbody in cl-lib.
47 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
48 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
49 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
50 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
51 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
53 *** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
54 date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
55 Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
56 The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
61 *** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
62 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally paste large
63 amounts of data into the ERC input.
65 ** Icomplete is a bit more like IDO.
66 *** key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.
67 *** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.
68 *** Removed icomplete-show-key-bindings.
70 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.4.
71 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
74 ** The unrmail command converts from BABYL to mboxrd rather than mboxo.
75 Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
78 ** Similarly, customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects
79 of how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
82 ** New function `ses-rename-cell' to give SES cells arbitrary names.
84 ** trace-function was largely rewritten.
86 - no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
87 - additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
88 used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
89 time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
90 name and arguments. Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
91 (point) when the function is invoked.
93 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines' has two types of operation:
94 when its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u C-u)
95 it works like the utility `uniq'. Otherwise by default it deletes
96 duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to adjacency.
100 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
101 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-sdk-dir'
102 must be set to the Android SDK installation directory.
106 *** The commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
107 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-* faces instead.
109 ** Obsolete packages:
111 *** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.
113 *** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.
116 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
117 ** New nadvice.el package offering lighter-weight advice facilities.
119 - add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
120 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
121 - advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
122 much like `defadvice' does.
124 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
126 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in symbol-function.
127 `symbol-function' never signals `void-function' any more.
128 `fboundp' returns non-nil if the symbol was `fset' to nil.
130 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
131 special-forms any more.
133 ** `dolist' in lexical-binding mode does not bind VAR in RESULT any more.
134 VAR was bound to nil which was not tremendously useful and just lead to
135 spurious warnings about an unused var.
137 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.4
139 ** Support for filesystem notifications.
140 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
141 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
142 'inotify' API on GNU/Linux systems. On MS-Windows systems, this is
143 supported for Windows XP and newer versions.
147 *** The `face-spec-set' is now analogous to `setq' for face specs.
148 Its third arg now accepts values specifying exactly which face spec to
149 set (defface, custom, or user spec), and it directly sets the relevant
150 property using the supplied face spec.
152 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
153 rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
155 ** time-to-seconds is not obsolete any more.
156 ** New function special-form-p.
157 ** Docstrings can be made dynamic by adding a `dynamic-docstring-function'
158 text-property on the first char.
160 ** The `defalias-fset-function' property lets you catch calls to defalias
161 and redirect them to your own function instead of `fset'.
163 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on non-free operating systems
166 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
167 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
168 directory where Emacs was running.
171 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
174 ** The default toolkit has been changed to Gtk+ version 3.
175 If you don't pass --with-x-toolkit to configure or if you pass
176 --with-x-toolkit=gtk or --with-x-toolkit=yes, configure will try to build
177 with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
178 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
179 --with-x-toolkit=gtk2 or --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 to configure.
182 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
183 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
186 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
187 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
190 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
191 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
192 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
193 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
197 ** The configure option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
198 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
199 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
200 check that this option enables.
203 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
204 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
207 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
208 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
212 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
213 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
214 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
215 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
216 links between the various manuals.
219 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
222 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
223 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
227 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
228 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
229 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
232 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
235 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
236 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
237 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
240 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
243 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
246 ** Most y-or-n prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
247 Typing C-v or M-v at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
248 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
252 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
253 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
254 that does not have its own specialized help text.
256 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
257 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
262 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
263 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
264 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
265 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
266 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
269 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
270 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
271 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
273 ** Minibuffer changes
275 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
276 next and previous path separator, respectively.
278 *** minibuffer-electric-default-mode can rewrite (default ...) to [...].
279 Just set minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default to t before enabling the mode.
282 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
283 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
284 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
285 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
287 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
288 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
289 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
291 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
292 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
293 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
296 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
297 :background image spec property.
299 ** Server and client changes
301 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
302 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
303 or expression to evaluate.
305 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
308 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
309 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
312 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
313 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
316 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
317 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
318 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
319 that support backtraces.
322 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
323 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
326 ** New variable `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
327 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
328 files (use this with caution).
331 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
332 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
335 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
336 local variables on remote hosts.
339 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
340 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
342 ** Internationalization changes
344 *** New language environment: Persian.
346 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
348 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port changes
350 *** Fullscreen and frame parameter fullscreen is supported.
352 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
356 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
358 ** Navigation command changes
360 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
362 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
364 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
365 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
367 ** Search and Replace changes
369 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
370 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
371 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
372 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
373 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch).
375 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
376 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
378 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
379 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
382 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
383 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
384 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
387 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
388 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
391 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
392 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
396 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
397 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
398 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
402 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
404 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
405 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
406 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
409 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
412 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
413 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
416 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
417 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
418 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
421 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
425 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
426 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
427 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
429 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
430 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
433 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
435 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
436 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
441 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
442 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
445 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
448 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
449 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
454 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
455 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
456 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
459 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
460 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
461 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
462 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
464 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
465 provide the old non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below.
468 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
469 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
470 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
471 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
474 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
475 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
476 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
477 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
480 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
481 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
482 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
485 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
486 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
487 rather than making them unbound.
490 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
491 (use features from gv.el instead):
492 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
493 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
494 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
495 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
498 ** New compilation option `compilation-always-kill'.
502 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
504 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
505 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
509 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
510 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
515 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
518 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
521 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
522 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
525 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
526 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
529 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
532 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
533 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
537 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
540 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
545 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
546 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
547 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
548 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
549 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
552 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
553 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
554 changes in context diffs.
557 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
558 whitespace introduced by a diff.
562 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
563 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
564 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
566 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
567 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
570 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
571 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
572 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
574 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
575 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
576 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
578 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
579 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
582 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
587 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
588 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
591 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
595 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
596 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
599 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
600 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
601 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
604 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
605 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
608 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
609 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
610 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
613 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
614 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
617 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
620 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
621 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
624 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
625 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
629 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
630 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
633 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
638 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
639 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
640 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
643 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
644 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
645 python-indent | python-indent-offset
646 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
647 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
648 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
650 *** Some user options have been removed:
652 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
654 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
655 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
657 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
658 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
660 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
661 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
663 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
664 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
666 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
667 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
670 *** Some commands have been replaced:
671 Old command | New command
672 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
673 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
674 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
675 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
676 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
677 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
678 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
679 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
680 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
681 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
682 python-beginning-of-defun-function | python-nav-beginning-of-defun
683 python-end-of-defun-function | python-nav-end-of-defun
684 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
685 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
686 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
687 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
688 python-shell-switch-to-shell
689 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
690 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
691 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
694 ** reStructuredText mode
696 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
697 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
700 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
702 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
703 Sphinx support has been improved.
705 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
707 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
709 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
711 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
716 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
718 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
720 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
723 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
724 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
725 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
728 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
729 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
730 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
731 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
733 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
735 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
736 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
740 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
741 now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
743 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
744 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
745 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
749 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
750 See the manual for details.
752 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
756 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
757 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
758 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
759 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
760 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
762 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
763 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
764 in case that is not properly encoded.
769 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
771 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
773 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
775 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
778 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
779 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
782 ** winner-mode-hook now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when it is
786 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
787 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
788 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
789 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
790 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
791 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
792 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
793 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
794 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
795 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
796 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
797 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
798 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
799 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
800 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
801 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
802 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
803 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
804 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
805 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
806 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
807 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
808 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
810 ** Obsolete packages:
813 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
814 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
815 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
830 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
833 ** set-buffer-multibyte now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
836 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
837 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
838 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
839 sequence in later calls.
842 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
843 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
844 depends on the graphical library.
847 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
848 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
849 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
852 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
853 It does so even if the window was selected before.
856 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
857 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
858 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
862 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
863 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
864 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
865 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
868 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
869 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
872 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
873 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
874 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
877 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
878 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
879 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
880 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
881 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
884 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
885 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
888 *** Renamed functions
890 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
891 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
892 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
893 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
894 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
895 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
896 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
897 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
901 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
902 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
903 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
904 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
905 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
908 *** Renamed Lisp variables
909 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
910 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
911 deactivate-current-input-method-function
914 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
915 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
916 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
917 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
918 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
919 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
920 *** `set-char-table-default'
921 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
922 *** `compile-internal'
924 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
925 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
926 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
927 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
928 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
929 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
930 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
931 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
932 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
933 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
936 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
938 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
939 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
940 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
941 CPU time or memory allocations.
944 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
945 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
946 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
947 `gv-define-setter', etc.
950 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
951 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
955 *** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
956 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
957 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via M-n
958 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
959 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
963 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
964 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
967 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
968 table, but with a different prefix.
973 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
974 These do not trigger the debugger.
977 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
978 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
981 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
982 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
983 to work out which code is doing something.
985 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
986 recursive invocations.
990 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
991 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
993 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
996 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
997 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
1000 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
1004 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
1008 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
1009 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
1012 *** New option switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point to restore a
1013 window's point when switching buffers.
1015 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
1016 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1018 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
1019 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
1022 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
1023 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
1025 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
1026 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1028 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
1029 to specify size of new window created by `display-buffer'.
1031 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
1032 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
1035 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
1037 **** `special-display-regexps'
1039 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
1041 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
1043 **** `special-display-function'
1045 **** `display-buffer-function'
1047 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
1051 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
1052 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
1053 by the underlying C implementation.
1055 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
1056 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
1057 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
1058 functions that use this format, such as file-attributes and
1059 format-time-string, have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
1060 stamps are still accepted.
1062 *** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
1063 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
1064 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
1065 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
1067 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
1068 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
1071 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
1072 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args, e.g. (log -1.0).
1073 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
1074 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
1075 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
1078 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
1079 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
1080 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
1081 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
1082 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
1083 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
1084 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
1086 ** Miscellaneous new functions:
1088 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
1090 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
1092 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
1094 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
1096 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
1098 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
1100 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
1101 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
1103 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
1105 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
1107 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
1110 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
1112 ** Changes to special forms and macros
1114 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms
1116 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
1119 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
1122 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
1124 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1126 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
1128 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
1130 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
1132 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
1134 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
1136 *** `query-replace-interactive'
1138 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
1141 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
1144 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
1145 Pass --with-w32 to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
1147 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
1148 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
1149 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
1150 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
1151 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
1153 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
1154 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
1155 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
1158 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
1161 ** On MS Windows, you can pass --without-libxml2 to configure.bat to omit
1162 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
1165 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
1168 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
1169 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
1172 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
1174 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
1177 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
1179 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
1180 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
1181 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
1184 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
1185 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1186 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1187 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
1189 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
1190 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1191 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1192 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
1194 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
1195 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1196 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1197 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
1198 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
1200 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
1201 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1202 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1203 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
1205 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
1206 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
1208 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
1209 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
1210 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
1213 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
1214 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
1215 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
1217 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
1218 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
1219 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
1221 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
1222 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
1224 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
1225 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
1228 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
1230 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
1231 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
1232 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
1234 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
1235 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
1236 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
1240 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
1244 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
1245 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
1247 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
1249 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
1250 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
1252 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
1254 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
1255 default completion style in certain circumstances.
1257 *** New completion style `substring'.
1259 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
1261 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
1265 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
1266 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
1267 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
1268 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
1269 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
1270 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
1272 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
1273 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
1274 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
1276 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
1277 and Mail mode changes
1279 ** Emacs server and client changes
1281 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
1283 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
1285 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
1286 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
1288 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
1289 its exit status is 1.
1291 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
1292 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
1293 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
1295 ** Internationalization changes
1297 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
1298 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
1299 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
1300 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
1301 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
1302 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
1304 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
1305 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
1307 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1308 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
1309 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
1310 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
1313 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
1314 the right window edge.
1316 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
1317 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
1318 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
1319 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
1320 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
1322 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
1323 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
1325 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
1326 (U+2010 and U+2011).
1328 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
1329 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
1330 automatically select it.
1332 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
1333 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
1334 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
1336 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
1337 selected for installation.
1339 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
1341 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
1342 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
1343 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
1345 ** Custom theme changes
1347 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
1348 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
1350 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
1351 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
1352 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
1353 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
1354 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
1355 built-in Custom themes.
1357 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1358 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1359 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1360 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1362 ** Improved GTK integration
1364 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1365 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1367 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1368 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1369 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1371 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1372 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1373 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1376 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1377 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1379 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1380 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1382 ** Graphical interface changes
1384 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1385 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1386 displayed as a space.
1388 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1389 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1391 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1392 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1393 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1397 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1398 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1400 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1401 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1402 do the right thing in batch mode.
1404 ** Scrolling changes
1406 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1407 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1408 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1409 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1411 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1413 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1414 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1416 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1417 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1419 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1420 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1421 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1422 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1423 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1425 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1426 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1427 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1428 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1431 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1432 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1434 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1435 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1436 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1437 now includes the SELinux context.
1439 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1440 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1444 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1445 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1447 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1448 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1450 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1452 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1453 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1454 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1457 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1458 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1459 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1460 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1461 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1463 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1464 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1466 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1467 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1468 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1469 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1474 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1475 in the quitted window.
1477 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1478 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1480 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1482 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1483 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1484 for choosing the displaying window).
1486 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1487 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1489 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1490 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1492 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1493 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1494 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1495 from which such space was obtained.
1497 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1498 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1499 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1500 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1501 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1503 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1504 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1505 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1507 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1508 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1510 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1511 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1512 been shown in a specific window.
1514 ** Minibuffer changes
1516 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1517 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1518 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1520 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1521 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1522 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1524 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1526 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1528 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1529 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1530 successful operation.
1532 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1533 for `list-colors-display'.
1535 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1538 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1542 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1543 `isearch-yank-line'.
1545 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1546 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1548 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1550 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1552 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1553 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1554 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1555 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1558 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1559 also deletes newlines around point.
1563 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1564 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1565 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1568 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1569 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1570 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1572 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1573 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1574 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1575 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1577 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1579 ** Selection changes.
1581 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1582 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1583 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1584 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1586 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1587 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1589 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1590 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1591 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1592 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1594 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1595 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1596 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1597 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1598 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1600 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1602 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1603 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1604 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1606 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1608 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1609 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1610 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1612 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1613 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1615 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1616 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1617 between applications.
1619 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1621 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1622 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1623 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1624 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1625 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1627 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1629 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1630 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1632 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1633 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1634 number to count from and for a format string.
1636 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1637 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1638 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1639 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1640 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1642 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1643 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1644 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1645 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1646 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1648 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1649 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1650 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1651 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1652 follows `replace-match'.
1655 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1657 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1661 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1662 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1663 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1664 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1666 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1668 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1670 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1674 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1676 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1677 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1679 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1681 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1682 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1684 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1685 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1687 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1688 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1689 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1691 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1693 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1694 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1696 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1697 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1698 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1700 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1701 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1702 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1704 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1705 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1709 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1710 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1712 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1714 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1715 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1718 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1719 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1720 parsed as a statement continuation.
1722 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1726 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1727 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1729 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1730 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1731 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1733 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1734 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1735 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1740 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1741 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1742 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1744 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1745 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1747 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1749 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1750 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1754 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1757 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1758 optionally do not register names.
1760 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1761 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1765 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1766 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1767 instead of using the current buffer.
1769 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1770 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1774 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1775 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1777 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1778 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1779 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1780 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1784 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1785 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1786 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1790 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1791 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1792 debugging of several threads.
1796 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1797 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1801 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1802 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1803 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1804 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1805 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1807 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1808 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1809 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1812 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1814 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1816 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1817 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1818 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1820 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1821 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1823 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1825 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1827 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1828 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1829 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1830 default), this performs tag completion.
1832 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1833 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1835 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1836 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1837 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1841 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1842 in the Rmail incoming message.
1844 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1845 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1846 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1850 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1851 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1852 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1854 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1855 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1859 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1860 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1861 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1864 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1865 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1866 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1867 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1868 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1869 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1870 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1871 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1873 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1874 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1876 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1878 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1880 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1881 the credentials file.
1883 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1884 If you had that set, you need to put
1886 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1888 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1890 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1891 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1892 to the address you wish to use instead.
1896 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1897 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1899 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1900 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1901 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1902 connection is established.
1904 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1905 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1907 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1908 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1909 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1910 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1912 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1913 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1914 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1915 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1916 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1917 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1919 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1920 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1922 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1923 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1924 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1926 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1927 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1929 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1933 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1937 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1939 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1940 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1942 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1943 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1945 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1946 default value to "".
1948 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1949 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1951 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1952 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1953 the degree of parallelism.
1955 ** VC and related modes
1957 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1958 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1959 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1960 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1961 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1963 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1965 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1966 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1967 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1968 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1969 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1971 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1972 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1974 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1975 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1976 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1977 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1978 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1979 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1981 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1982 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1984 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1985 this was not advertised at the time.
1987 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1988 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1989 this was not advertised at the time.
1995 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1997 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1998 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1999 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
2000 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
2002 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
2004 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
2006 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
2008 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
2009 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
2011 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
2015 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
2016 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
2018 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
2019 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
2021 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
2023 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
2025 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
2028 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2030 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
2031 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
2033 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
2034 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
2035 matching closing one.
2037 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
2038 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
2039 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
2040 electric-indent-functions.
2042 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
2043 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
2044 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
2046 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
2047 from which other modes can be derived.
2049 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
2051 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
2052 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
2053 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
2054 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
2057 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
2058 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
2060 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
2061 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
2063 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
2065 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
2066 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
2067 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
2068 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
2069 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
2070 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
2073 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
2075 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
2076 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
2078 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
2080 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
2081 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
2082 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
2083 command still toggles the minor mode.
2085 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
2086 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
2087 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
2088 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
2089 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
2091 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
2092 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
2093 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
2094 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
2095 argument `bidi-class'.
2097 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
2098 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
2099 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
2100 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
2102 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
2103 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
2104 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
2107 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
2108 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
2109 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
2110 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
2111 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
2112 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
2113 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
2115 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
2116 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
2117 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
2118 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
2121 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
2122 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
2123 replaced all known uses.
2125 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
2126 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
2127 major mode is special).
2129 ** Menu and tool bar changes
2131 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
2132 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
2133 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
2134 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
2135 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
2136 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
2138 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
2139 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
2141 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
2142 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
2143 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
2144 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
2146 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
2147 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
2148 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
2150 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
2152 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
2153 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
2154 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
2156 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
2157 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
2158 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
2159 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
2160 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
2161 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
2162 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
2163 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
2164 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
2165 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
2166 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
2167 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
2168 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
2169 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
2170 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
2171 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
2172 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
2173 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
2174 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
2175 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
2176 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
2178 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
2179 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
2181 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
2182 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
2183 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
2184 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
2185 *** `e' (`float-e').
2187 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
2188 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
2190 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
2191 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
2192 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
2193 `finder-keywords-hash'.
2195 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
2196 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
2197 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
2200 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
2202 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
2203 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
2204 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
2205 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
2208 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
2209 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
2211 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
2212 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
2214 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
2216 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
2217 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
2219 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
2220 declared as dynamically bound.
2222 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
2224 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
2225 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
2226 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
2228 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
2230 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2231 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
2233 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
2234 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
2235 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
2236 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
2237 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
2238 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
2240 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
2241 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
2242 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
2246 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
2247 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
2248 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
2249 buffer) in the window tree.
2251 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
2254 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
2255 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
2256 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
2257 act on any window including internal ones.
2259 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
2260 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
2261 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
2262 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
2263 and `window-body-height' are provided.
2265 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
2266 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
2267 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
2268 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
2269 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
2271 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
2272 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
2273 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
2274 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
2275 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
2276 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
2278 *** Window resizing functions.
2279 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
2280 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
2281 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
2283 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
2284 live window on that frame instead.
2286 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
2287 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
2288 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
2289 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
2290 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
2291 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
2293 *** Window-local buffer lists.
2294 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
2295 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
2296 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
2297 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
2298 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
2300 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
2301 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
2302 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
2303 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
2305 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
2306 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
2307 The old names are kept as aliases.
2311 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
2312 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
2313 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
2314 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
2316 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
2318 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
2319 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
2320 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
2321 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
2322 are user-customizable variables.
2324 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
2326 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
2327 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
2328 frame or window as an Elisp object.
2332 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
2333 properties of the current completion:
2334 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
2335 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
2337 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
2338 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
2340 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
2342 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
2343 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
2344 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
2345 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
2346 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
2347 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
2348 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
2350 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
2351 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
2352 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
2354 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
2355 behavior of `completing-read'.
2357 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2358 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2360 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2361 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2365 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2366 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2367 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2368 non-nil return value.
2370 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2371 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2372 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2373 advertised at the time.)
2377 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2378 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2380 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2382 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2384 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2385 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2386 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2388 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2389 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2391 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2392 named Emacs server instances.
2394 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2395 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2397 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2398 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2400 ** New input reading functions
2402 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2403 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2405 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2406 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2409 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2411 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2412 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2413 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2416 ** Syntax parsing changes
2418 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2419 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2420 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2421 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2422 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2423 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2424 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2425 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2428 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2430 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2432 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2434 ** Major and minor mode changes
2436 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2437 as well as those in the -*- line.
2439 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2442 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2443 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2444 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2446 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2447 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2449 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2450 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2451 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2453 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2455 ** File-handling changes
2457 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2458 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2459 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2460 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2462 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2464 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2465 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2466 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2470 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2472 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2474 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2476 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2479 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2480 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2482 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2483 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2485 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2486 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2487 ImageMagick installation supports.
2489 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2490 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2493 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2494 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2496 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2497 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2498 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2499 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2501 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2502 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2503 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2504 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2506 ** XML and HTML parsing
2507 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2508 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2509 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2510 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2512 ** Networking and encryption changes
2514 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2515 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2516 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2517 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2518 must also be supplied.
2520 *** New library gnutls.el.
2521 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2522 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2523 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2524 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2525 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2526 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2529 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2530 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2531 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2535 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2537 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2538 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2539 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2540 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2541 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2542 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2544 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2545 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2547 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2548 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2549 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2550 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2551 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2552 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2554 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2556 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2557 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2558 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2559 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2561 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2562 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2564 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2565 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2566 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2567 an empty uninterned symbol.
2569 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2571 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2573 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2574 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2576 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2577 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2579 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2581 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2582 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2584 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2587 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2589 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2590 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2592 ** New configure.bat options
2594 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2596 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2598 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2600 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2602 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2604 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2605 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2607 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2608 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2610 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2611 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2614 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2615 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2617 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2618 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2619 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2620 (at your option) any later version.
2622 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2623 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2624 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2625 GNU General Public License for more details.
2627 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2628 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2633 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"