CODEWITHSUNDEEP
emacseditortext-editor
Just a learner
Just a learner

Reputation: 28572

How to quickly delete all text in emacs' minibuffer?

I'm new to Emacs. I run emacs on Windows. When I start Emacs by click the runemacs.exe, I got a welcome window. Now to create a new file and do some experiment editing, I press C-x C-f. Now the minibuffer shows something similar to:

Find file: d:\emacs-23.3\bin

Normally I need to press backspace some time to delete d:\emacs-23\bin and type a new file name like c:\test\a.txt. My question is, how can I quickly delete d:\emacs-23\bin? How do you deal with the welcome window (I don't like it)?

Thanks

Upvotes: 9

Views: 4695

Answers (6)

rkachach
rkachach

Reputation: 17345

I normally use the following lisp code to kill the current line with a single key combination. This will remove the whole line and move to the cursor to the beginning.

(defun my-kill-line ()
  "kill current line. you don't have to put point at the beginning of line."
  (interactive)
  (copy-kill 'kill 'line))

A better approach (once you get familiar with Emacs usage) is to use some package to make your file navigation easier. Take a look to helm (or ido) I personally prefer helm and to projectile. Combining helm+projectile you can open files very fast and switch easily between files located on different directories/projects.

Upvotes: 0

Seki
Seki

Reputation: 11465

You can use backward-kill-sentence that is bound by default to M-DEL

If you use ido-mode (if not you should give a try, it is very useful) you can just begin to type the path or name of the file you want to open and it will give you some proposals.

For the startup message, you can put the following in your .emacs :

(setq inhibit-startup-message t)

Upvotes: 3

Oleg Pavliv
Oleg Pavliv

Reputation: 21162

You don't need to delete the default filename. Just continue to enter your file

d:\emacs-23.3\bin\c:\test\a.txt

Upvotes: 5

Peter Frings
Peter Frings

Reputation: 161

On unix-like OSes, you can type ~ or / after the file- or pathname in the prompt. Emacs then takes that as the starting point for the file path. ~ starts from your home directory, / from root.

Example: assume the prompt is Find file: /var/tmp/etc/list/foo/bar/, then simply type ~/.emacs to get the dot-emacs file in your home directory. No need to delete anything.

Upvotes: 4

jaybee
jaybee

Reputation: 1925

The answers given are probably the best approach for now but once you've been using emacs for a while you should look at ido-mode. Type M-x ido-mode to start, then use the arrow keys to move quickly around file paths.

Upvotes: 0

Thomas
Thomas

Reputation: 17422

backward-kill-sentence is bound to C-x DEL by default.

Alternatively, you could type C-a C-k which I find slightly easier to type because

  1. you don't have to release the CTRL key before hitting the third key.
  2. your right hand does not have to leave the home row

This key combination first moves point (aka the cursor) to the beginning of the line, and then kills the line. So it's actually two commands, but it's the same amount of key strokes.

Upvotes: 12

Related Questions