GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. Copyright (C) 2021-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc. See the end of the file for license conditions. Please send Emacs bug reports to 'bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org'. If possible, use 'M-x report-emacs-bug'. This file is about changes in Emacs version 29. See file HISTORY for a list of GNU Emacs versions and release dates. See files NEWS.28, NEWS.27, ..., NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions. You can narrow news to a specific version by calling 'view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing 'C-u C-h C-n'. Temporary note: +++ indicates that all relevant manuals in doc/ have been updated. --- means no change in the manuals is needed. When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you are sure it applies, and please also update docstrings as needed. * Installation Changes in Emacs 29.1 +++ ** Emacs can be built with built-in support for accessing SQLite databases. This uses the popular sqlite3 library, and can be disabled by using the '--without-sqlite3' option to the 'configure' script. +++ ** Emacs has been ported to the Haiku operating system. The configuration process should automatically detect and build for Haiku. There is also an optional window-system port to Haiku, which can be enabled by configuring Emacs with the option '--with-be-app', which will require the Haiku Application Kit development headers and a C++ compiler to be present on your system. If Emacs is not built with the option '--with-be-app', the resulting Emacs will only run in text-mode terminals. +++ ** Cairo drawing support has been enabled for Haiku builds. To enable Cairo support, ensure that the Cairo and FreeType development files are present on your system, and configure Emacs with '--with-be-cairo'. --- ** Double buffering is now enabled on the Haiku operating system. Unlike X, there is no compile-time option to enable or disable double-buffering. If you wish to disable double-buffering, change the frame parameter 'inhibit-double-buffering' instead. --- ** Emacs now installs the ".pdmp" file using a unique fingerprint in the name. The file is typically installed using a file name akin to "...dir/libexec/emacs/29.1/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/emacs-.pdmp". If a constant file name is required, the file can be renamed to "emacs.pdmp", and Emacs will find it during startup anyway. --- ** Emacs now uses of XInput 2 for input events. If your X server has support and you have the XInput 2 development headers installed, Emacs will use the X Input Extension for handling input. If this causes problems, you can configure Emacs with the option '--without-xinput2' to disable this support. '(featurep 'xinput2)' can be used to test for the presence of XInput 2 support from Lisp programs. +++ ** Emacs now supports being built with pure GTK. To use this option, make sure the GTK 3 (version 3.20 or later) and Cairo development files are installed, and configure Emacs with the option '--with-pgtk'. Unlike the default X and GTK build, the resulting Emacs binary will work on any underlying window system supported by GDK, such as Wayland and Broadway. We do not recommend that you use this configuration, unless you are running a window system that's supported by GDK other than X. Running this configuration on X is known to have problems, such as undesirable frame positioning and various issues with keyboard input of sequences such as 'C-;' and 'C-S-u'. --- ** The docstrings of preloaded files are not in "etc/DOC" any more. Instead, they're fetched as needed from the corresponding ".elc" file, as was already the case for all the non-preloaded files. ** Emacs Sessions (Desktop) +++ *** New option to load a locked desktop if locking Emacs is not running. The option 'desktop-load-locked-desktop' can now be set to the value 'check-pid', which means to allow loading a locked ".emacs.desktop" file if the Emacs process which locked it is no longer running on the local machine. This allows avoiding questions about locked desktop files when the Emacs session which locked it crashes, or was otherwise interrupted, and didn't exit gracefully. See the "(emacs) Saving Emacs Sessions" node in the Emacs manual for more details. * Startup Changes in Emacs 29.1 +++ ** Emacs can now be used more easily in an executable script. If you start an executable script with #!/usr/bin/emacs -x Emacs will start without reading any init files (like with '--quick'), and then execute the rest of the script file as Emacs Lisp. When it reaches the end of the script, Emacs will exit with an exit code from the value of the final form. +++ ** Emacs now supports setting 'user-emacs-directory' via '--init-directory'. +++ ** Emacs now has a '--fingerprint' option. This will output a string identifying the current Emacs build. +++ ** New hook 'after-pdump-load-hook'. This is run at the end of the Emacs startup process, and is meant to be used to reinitialize structures that would normally be done at load time. --- ** New function 'startup-redirect-eln-cache'. This function can be called in your init files to change the user-specific directory where Emacs stores the "*.eln" files produced by native compilation of Lisp packages Emacs loads. The default eln-cache directory is unchanged: it is the 'eln-cache' subdirectory of 'user-emacs-directory'. * Incompatible changes in Emacs 29.1 --- ** The 'd' command in Dired now more consistently skip dot files. In previous Emacs versions, commands like `C-u 10 d' would put the "D" mark on the next ten files, no matter whether they were dot files (i.e., "." and "..") or not, while marking the next ten lines with the mouse (in 'transient-mark-mode') and then hitting 'd' would skip dot files. These now work equivalently. --- ** Isearch in "*Help*" and "*info*" now char-folds quote characters by default. This means that you can say 'C-s `foo' (GRAVE ACCENT) if the buffer contains "‘foo" (LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK) and the like. These quotation characters look somewhat similar in some fonts. To switch this off, disable the new 'isearch-fold-quotes-mode' minor mode. --- ** Sorting commands no longer necessarily change modification status. In earlier Emacs versions, commands like 'M-x sort-lines' would always change buffer modification status to "modified", whether they changed something in the buffer or not. This has been changed: The buffer is marked as modified only if the sorting ended up changing the contents of the buffer. --- ** 'string-lines' handles trailing newlines differently. It no longer returns an empty final string if the string ends with a newline. --- ** 'TAB' and '' are now bound in 'button-map'. This means that if point is on a button, 'TAB' will take you to the next button, even if the mode has bound it to something else. This also means that 'TAB' on a button in an 'outline-minor-mode' heading will move point instead of collapsing the outline. --- ** 'Info-default-directory-list' is no longer populated at Emacs startup. If you have code in your init file that removes directories from 'Info-default-directory-list', this will no longer work. --- ** 'C-k' no longer deletes files in 'ido-mode'. To get the previous action back, put something like the following in your Init file: (require 'ido) (keymap-set ido-file-completion-map "C-k" #'ido-delete-file-at-head) --- ** New user option 'term-clear-full-screen-programs'. By default, term will now work like most terminals when displaying full-screen programs: When they exit, the output is cleared, leaving what was displayed in the window before the programs started. Set this user option to nil to revert back to the old behavior. --- ** Support for old EIEIO functions is not autoloaded any more. You need an explicit '(require 'eieio-compat)' to use 'defmethod' and 'defgeneric' (which have been made obsolete in Emacs 25.1 with 'cl-defmethod' and 'cl-defgeneric'). Similarly you might need to '(require 'eieio-compat)' before loading files that were compiled with an old EIEIO (Emacs<25). --- ** 'C-x 8 .' has been moved to 'C-x 8 . .'. This is to open up the 'C-x 8 .' map to bind further characters there. ** Eshell --- *** 'source' and '.' no longer accept the '--help' option. This is for compatibility with the shell versions of these commands, which don't handle options like '--help' in any special way. +++ *** String delimiters in argument predicates/modifiers are more restricted. Previously, some argument predicates/modifiers allowed arbitrary characters as string delimiters. To provide more unified behavior across all predicates/modifiers, the list of allowed delimiters has been restricted to "...", '...', /.../, |...|, (...), [...], <...>, and {...}. See the "(eshell) Argument Predication and Modification" node in the Eshell manual for more details. --- ** The 'delete-forward-char' command now deletes by grapheme clusters. This command is by default bound to the function key (a.k.a. ). When invoked without a prefix argument or with a positive prefix numeric argument, the command will now delete complete grapheme clusters produced by character composition. For example, if point is before an Emoji sequence, pressing will delete the entire sequence, not just a single character at its beginning. +++ ** 'load-history' does not treat autoloads specially any more. An autoload definition appears just as a '(defun . NAME)' and the '(t . NAME)' entries are not generated any more. --- ** The Tamil input methods no longer insert Tamil digits. The input methods 'tamil-itrans' and 'tamil-inscript' no longer insert the Tamil digits, as those digit characters are not used nowadays by speakers of the Tamil language. To get back the previous behavior, use the new 'tamil-itrans-digits' and 'tamil-inscript-digits' input methods instead. +++ ** New variable 'current-time-list' governing default timestamp form. Functions like 'current-time' now yield '(TICKS . HZ)' timestamps if this new variable is nil. The variable defaults to t, which means these functions default to timestamps of the forms '(HI LO US PS)', '(HI LO US)' or '(HI LO)', which are less regular and less efficient. This is part of a long-planned change first documented in Emacs 27. Developers are encouraged to test timestamp-related code with this variable set to nil, as it will default to nil in a future Emacs version and will be removed some time after that. +++ ** Functions which recreate the "*scratch*" buffer now also initialize it. When functions like 'other-buffer' and 'server-execute' recreate "*scratch*", they now also insert 'initial-scratch-message' and set the major mode according to 'initial-major-mode', like at Emacs startup. Previously, these functions ignored 'initial-scratch-message' and left "*scratch*" in 'fundamental-mode'. * Changes in Emacs 29.1 +++ ** New user option 'switch-to-prev-buffer-skip-regexp'. This should be a regexp or a list of regexps; buffers whose names match those regexps will be ignored by 'switch-to-prev-buffer' and 'switch-to-next-buffer'. ** Menus --- *** The entries following the buffers in the "Buffers" menu can now be altered. Change the 'menu-bar-buffers-menu-command-entries' variable to alter the entries that follow the buffer list. --- ** 'delete-process' is now a command. When called interactively, it will kill the process running in the current buffer (if any). This can be useful if you have runaway output in the current buffer (from a process or a network connection), and want to stop it. +++ ** New command 'restart-emacs'. This is like 'save-buffers-kill-emacs', but instead of just killing the current Emacs process at the end, it starts a new Emacs process (using the same command line arguments as the running Emacs process). 'kill-emacs' and 'save-buffers-kill-emacs' have also gained new optional parameters to restart instead of just killing the current process. +++ ** New user option 'mouse-drag-and-drop-region-cross-program'. If non-nil, this option allows dragging text in the region from Emacs to another program. --- ** New user option 'mouse-drag-and-drop-region-scroll-margin'. If non-nil, this option allows scrolling a window while dragging text around without a scroll wheel. +++ ** New user options 'dnd-indicate-insertion-point' and 'dnd-scroll-margin'. These options allow adjusting point and scrolling a window when dragging items from another program. +++ ** New function 'command-query'. This function makes its argument command prompt the user for confirmation before executing. +++ ** The 'disabled' property of a command's symbol can now be a list. The first element of the list should be the symbol 'query', which will cause the command disabled this way prompt the user with a y/n or a yes/no question before executing. The new function 'command-query' is a convenient method of making commands disabled in this way. --- ** 'count-lines' will now report buffer totals if given a prefix. --- ** New user option 'find-library-include-other-files'. If set to nil, commands like 'find-library' will only include library files in the completion candidates. The default is t, which preserves previous behavior, whereby non-library files could also be included. +++ ** New command 'sqlite-mode-open-file' for examining an sqlite3 file. This uses the new 'sqlite-mode' which allows listing the tables in a DB file, and examining and modifying the columns and the contents of those tables. --- ** 'write-file' will now copy some file mode bits. If the current buffer is visiting a file that is executable, the 'C-x C-w' command will now make the new file executable, too. +++ ** New user option 'process-error-pause-time'. This determines how long to pause Emacs after a process filter/sentinel error has been handled. +++ ** New face 'variable-pitch-text'. This face is like 'variable-pitch' (from which it inherits), but is slightly larger, which should help with the visual size differences between the default, non-proportional font and proportional fonts when mixed. +++ ** New face 'mode-line-active'. This inherits from the 'mode-line' face, but is the face actually used on the mode lines (along with 'mode-line-inactive'). +++ ** New function 'buffer-text-pixel-size'. This is similar to 'window-text-pixel-size', but can be used when the buffer isn't displayed. +++ ** New X resource: "borderThickness". This controls the thickness of the external borders of the menu bars and pop-up menus. +++ ** New X resource: "inputStyle". This controls the style of the pre-edit and status areas of X input methods. +++ ** On X11, Emacs now tries to synchronize window resize with the window manager. This leads to less flicker and empty areas of a frame being displayed when a frame is being resized. Unfortunately, it does not work on some ancient buggy window managers, so if Emacs appears to freeze, but is still responsive to input, you can turn it off by setting the X resource "synchronizeResize" to "off". +++ ** New frame parameter 'alpha-background' and X resource "alphaBackground". This controls the opacity of the text background when running on a composited display. +++ ** New frame parameter 'shaded'. With window managers which support this, it controls whether or not a frame's contents will be hidden, leaving only the title bar on display. --- ** New user option 'x-gtk-use-native-input'. This controls whether or not GTK input methods are used by Emacs, instead of XIM input methods. +++ ** New user option 'use-system-tooltips'. This controls whether to use the toolkit tooltips, or Emacs's own native implementation of tooltips as small frames. This option is only meaningful if Emacs was built with GTK+, Nextstep, or Haiku support, and defaults to t, which makes Emacs use the toolkit tooltips. The existing GTK-specific option 'x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' is now an alias of this new option. +++ ** Non-native tooltips are now supported on Nextstep. This means Emacs built with GNUstep or built on macOS is now able to display different faces and images inside tooltips when the 'use-system-tooltips' user option is nil. ** Connection-local variables +++ *** Some connection-local variables are now user options. The variables 'connection-local-profile-alist' and 'connection-local-criteria-alist' are now user options, in order to make it more convenient to inspect and modify them. +++ *** The default connection-local application can be changed temporarily. Running 'with-connection-local-variables' defaults to application 'tramp'. This can be changed by let-binding 'connection-local-default-application' to another symbol. This is useful when running code in a buffer where Tramp has already set some connection-local variables. --- ** New minor mode 'pixel-scroll-precision-mode'. When enabled, and if your mouse supports it, you can scroll the display up or down at pixel resolution, according to what your mouse wheel reports. Unlike 'pixel-scroll-mode', this mode scrolls the display pixel-by-pixel, as opposed to only animating line-by-line scrolls. ** Terminal Emacs --- *** Emacs will now use 24-bit colors on terminals that support "Tc" capability. This is in addition to previously-supported ways of discovering 24-bit color support: either via the "RGB" or "setf24" capabilities, or if the 'COLORTERM' environment variable is set to the value "truecolor". ** ERT +++ *** New ERT variables 'ert-batch-print-length' and 'ert-batch-print-level'. These variables will override 'print-length' and 'print-level' when printing Lisp values in ERT batch test results. --- *** Redefining an ERT test in batch mode now signals an error. Executing 'ert-deftest' with the same name as an existing test causes the previous definition to be discarded, which was probably not intended when this occurs in batch mode. To remedy the error, rename tests so that they all have unique names. +++ *** ERT can generate JUnit test reports. When environment variable 'EMACS_TEST_JUNIT_REPORT' is set, ERT generates a JUnit test report under this file name. This is useful for Emacs integration into CI/CD test environments. --- *** Unbound test symbols now signal an 'ert-test-unbound' error. This affects the 'ert-select-tests' function and its callers. ** Emoji +++ *** Emacs now has several new methods for inserting Emojis. The Emoji commands are under the new 'C-x 8 e' prefix. +++ *** New command 'emoji-insert' (bound to 'C-x 8 e e' and 'C-x 8 e i'). This command guides you through various Emoji categories and combinations in a graphical menu system. +++ *** New command 'emoji-search' (bound to 'C-x 8 e s'). This command lets you search for Emojis based on names. +++ *** New command 'emoji-list' (bound to 'C-x 8 e l'). This command lists all Emojis (categorized by themes) in a special buffer and lets you choose one of them. --- *** New command 'emoji-recent' (bound to 'C-x 8 e r'). This command lets you choose among the Emojis you have recently inserted. +++ *** New command 'emoji-describe' (bound to 'C-x 8 e d'). This command will tell you the name of the Emoji at point. (This command also works for non-Emoji characters.) --- *** New input method 'emoji'. This allows you to enter emoji using short strings, eg ':face_palm:' or ':scream:'. ** Help --- *** 'M-x apropos-variable' output now includes values of variables. +++ *** New doc string syntax to indicate that symbols shouldn't be links. When displaying doc strings in "*Help*" buffers, strings that are "`like-this'" are made into links (if they point to a bound function/variable). This can lead to false positives when talking about values that are symbols that happen to have the same names as functions/variables. To inhibit this buttonification, the new "\\+`like-this'" syntax can be used. +++ *** New user option 'help-window-keep-selected'. If non-nil, commands to show the info manual and the source will reuse the same window the "*Help*" buffer is shown in. --- *** Commands like 'C-h f' have changed how they describe menu bindings. For instance, previously a command might be described as having the following bindings: It is bound to , C-x C-f, . This has been changed to: It is bound to and C-x C-f. It can also be invoked from the menu: File → Visit New File... +++ *** The 'C-h .' command now accepts a prefix argument. 'C-u C-h .' would previously inhibit displaying a warning message if there's no local help at point. This has been changed to call 'button-describe'/'widget-describe' and display button/widget help instead. --- *** New user option 'help-enable-variable-value-editing'. If enabled, 'e' on a value in "*Help*" will pop you to a new buffer where you can edit the value. This is not enabled by default, because it's easy to make an edit that yields an invalid result. --- *** 'C-h b' uses outlining by default. Set 'describe-bindings-outline' to nil to get the old behavior. --- *** Jumping to function/variable source now saves mark before moving point. Jumping to source from "*Help*" buffer moves the point when the source buffer is already open. Now, the old point is pushed to mark ring. +++ *** New key bindings in "*Help*" buffers: 'n' and 'p'. These will take you (respectively) to the next and previous "page". --- *** 'describe-char' now also outputs the name of emoji combinations. +++ *** New key binding in "*Help*" buffer: 'I'. This will take you to the Emacs Lisp manual entry for the item displayed, if any. --- *** The 'C-h m' ('describe-mode') "*Help*" buffer has been reformatted. It now only includes local minor modes at the start, and the global minor modes are listed after the major mode. +++ *** The user option 'help-window-select' now affects apropos commands. The apropos commands will now select the apropos window if 'help-window-select' is non-nil. --- *** 'describe-keymap' now considers the symbol at point. If the symbol at point is a keymap, 'describe-keymap' suggests it as the default candidate. ** Outline Mode +++ *** Support for customizing the default visibility state of headings. Customize the user option 'outline-default-state' to define what headings will be visible after Outline mode is turned on. When equal to a number, the user option 'outline-default-rules' determines the visibility of the subtree starting at the corresponding level. Values are provided to control showing a heading subtree depending on whether the heading matches a regexp, or on whether its subtree has long lines or is itself too long. ** Outline Minor Mode +++ *** New user option 'outline-minor-mode-use-buttons'. If non-nil, Outline Minor Mode will use buttons to hide/show outlines in addition to the ellipsis. The default is nil. --- *** New user option 'outline-minor-mode-buttons'. This is a list of pairs of open/close strings used to display buttons. +++ ** Support for the WebP image format. This support is built by default when the libwebp library is available, and includes support for animated WebP images. To disable WebP support, use the '--without-webp' configure flag. Image specifiers can now use ':type webp'. ** Windows *** New user option 'display-buffer-avoid-small-windows'. If non-nil, this should be a window height, a number. Windows smaller than this will be avoided by 'display-buffer', if possible. +++ *** New display action 'display-buffer-full-frame'. This action removes other windows on the frame when displaying a buffer. +++ *** 'display-buffer' now can set up the body size of the chosen window. For example, a 'display-buffer-alist' entry of '(window-width . (body-columns . 40))' will make the body of the chosen window 40 columns wide. For the height use 'window-height' in combination with 'body-lines'. --- *** You can customize which window 'scroll-other-window' operates on. This is controlled by the new 'other-window-scroll-default' user option. ** Frames +++ *** Deleted frames can now be undeleted. The 16 most recently deleted frames can be undeleted with 'C-x 5 u' when 'undelete-frame-mode' is enabled. Without a prefix argument, undelete the most recently deleted frame. With a numerical prefix argument between 1 and 16, where 1 is the most recently deleted frame, undelete the corresponding deleted frame. ** Tab Bars and Tab Lines --- *** 'C-x t RET' creates a new tab when the provided tab name doesn't exist. --- *** New keymap 'tab-bar-history-mode-map'. By default, it contains 'C-c ' and 'C-c ' to browse the history of tab window configurations back and forward. --- ** Better detection of text suspiciously reordered on display. The function 'bidi-find-overridden-directionality' has been extended to detect reordering effects produced by embeddings and isolates (started by directional formatting control characters such as RLO and LRI). The new command 'highlight-confusing-reorderings' finds and highlights segments of buffer text whose reordering for display is suspicious and could be malicious. ** Emacs server and client changes +++ *** New command-line option '-r' for emacsclient. With this command-line option, Emacs reuses an existing graphical client frame if one exists; otherwise it creates a new frame. +++ *** 'server-stop-automatically' can be used to automatically stop the server. The Emacs server will be automatically stopped when certain conditions are met. The conditions are given by the argument, which can be 'empty', 'delete-frame' or 'kill-terminal'. ** Rcirc +++ *** New command 'rcirc-when'. +++ *** New user option 'rcirc-cycle-completion-flag'. Rcirc will use the default 'completion-at-point' mechanism. The conventional IRC behaviour of completing by cycling through the available options can be restored by enabling this option. ** Imenu +++ *** 'imenu' is now bound to 'M-g i' globally. --- *** New function 'imenu-flush-cache'. Use it if you want Imenu to forget the buffer's index alist and recreate it anew next time 'imenu' is invoked. * Editing Changes in Emacs 29.1 +++ ** 'M-SPC' is now bound to 'cycle-spacing'. Formerly it invoked 'just-one-space'. The actions performed by 'cycle-spacing' and their order can now be customized via the user option 'cycle-spacing-actions'. --- ** 'zap-to-char' and 'zap-up-to-char' are case-sensitive for upper-case chars. These commands now behave as case-sensitive for interactive calls when they are invoked with an uppercase character, regardless of the `case-fold-search' value. --- ** 'scroll-other-window' and 'scroll-other-window-down' now respect remapping. These commands (bound to 'C-M-v' and 'C-M-V') used to scroll the other windows without looking a customizations in that other window. These functions now check whether they have been rebound in the buffer in that other window, and then call the remapped function instead. In addition, these commands now also respect the 'scroll-error-top-bottom' user option. --- ** Indentation of 'cl-flet' and 'cl-labels' has changed. These forms now indent like this: (cl-flet ((bla (x) (* x x))) (bla 42)) This change also affects 'cl-macrolet', 'cl-flet*' and 'cl-symbol-macrolet'. +++ ** New user option 'translate-upper-case-key-bindings'. Set this option to nil to inhibit translating upper case keys to lower case keys. +++ ** New command 'ensure-empty-lines'. This command increases (or decreases) the number of empty lines before point. --- ** Improved mouse behavior with auto-scrolling modes. When clicking inside the 'scroll-margin' or 'hscroll-margin' region, point is now moved only when releasing the mouse button. This no longer results in a bogus selection, unless the mouse has been effectively dragged. +++ ** 'kill-ring-max' now defaults to 120. --- ** New user option 'yank-menu-max-items'. Customize this option to limit the number of entries in the menu "Edit->Paste from Kill Menu". The default is 60. +++ ** Performing a pinch gesture on a touchpad now increases the text scale. ** show-paren-mode +++ *** New user option 'show-paren-context-when-offscreen'. When non-nil, if the point is in a closing delimiter and the opening delimiter is offscreen, shows some context around the opening delimiter in the echo area. The default is nil. May also be set to the symbols 'overlay' or 'child-frame', in which case the context is shown in an overlay or child-frame at the top-left of the current window. The latter option requires a graphical frame. On non-graphical frames, the context is shown in the echo area. ** Comint +++ *** 'comint-term-environment' is now aware of connection-local variables. The user option 'comint-terminfo-terminal' and the variable 'system-uses-terminfo' can now be set as connection-local variables to change the terminal used on a remote host. ** Mwheel --- *** New user options for alternate wheel events. The options 'mouse-wheel-down-alternate-event', 'mouse-wheel-up-alternate-event', 'mouse-wheel-left-alternate-event', and 'mouse-wheel-right-alternate-event' have been added to better support systems where two kinds of wheel events can be received. ** Internationalization changes *** The function key now allows deleting the entire composed sequence. For the details, see the item about the 'delete-forward-char' command above. *** New user option 'composition-break-at-point'. Setting it to a non-nil value temporarily disables automatic composition of character sequences at point, and thus makes it easier to edit such sequences by allowing point to "enter" the sequence. --- *** Support for many old scripts and writing systems. Emacs now supports and has language-environments and input methods for several dozens of old scripts that were used in the past for various languages in South and South-East Asia. For each such script Emacs now has font-selection and character composition rules, a language environment, and an input method. The newly-added scripts and the corresponding language environments are: **** Tai Tham script and the Northern Thai language environment **** Brahmi script and language environment **** Kaithi script and language environment **** Tirhuta script and language environment **** Sharada script and language environment **** Siddham script and language environment **** Syloti Nagri script and language environment **** Modi script and language environment **** Baybayin script and Tagalog language environment **** Hanunoo script and language environment **** Buhid script and language environment **** Tagbanwa script and language environment **** Limbu script and language environment --- *** The "Oriya" language environment was renamed to "Odia". This is to follow the change in the official name of the script. The 'oriya' input method was also renamed to 'odia'. However, the old name of the language environment and the input method are still supported. --- *** New Greek translation of the Emacs tutorial. Type 'C-u C-h t' to select it in case your language setup does not do so automatically. * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 29.1 ** Enriched Mode +++ *** New command 'enriched-toggle-markup'. This allows you to see the markup in 'enriched-mode' buffers (e.g., the HELLO file). ** Shell Script Mode --- *** New user option 'sh-indent-statement-after-and'. This controls how statements like the following are indented: foo && bar ** Cperl Mode --- *** New user option 'cperl-file-style'. This option determines the indentation style to be used. It can also be used as a file-local variable. ** Gud --- *** 'gud-go' is now bound to 'C-c C-v'. If given a prefix, it will query the user for an argument to use for the run/continue command. ** Customize --- *** New command 'custom-toggle-hide-all-widgets'. This is bound to 'H' and toggles whether to hide or show the widget contents. ** Ispell --- *** 'ispell-region' and 'ispell-buffer' now push the mark. These commands push onto the mark ring the location of the last misspelled word where corrections were offered, so that you can then skip back to that location with 'C-x C-x'. ** Dabbrev --- *** New function 'dabbrev-capf' for use on 'completion-at-point-functions'. +++ *** New user option 'dabbrev-ignored-buffer-modes'. Buffers with major modes in this list will be ignored. By default, this includes "binary" buffers like 'archive-mode' and 'image-mode'. ** Package +++ *** New command 'package-update'. This command allows you to upgrade packages without using 'M-x list-packages'. +++ *** New command 'package-update-all'. This command allows updating all packages without any queries. +++ *** New DWIM action on 'x' in "*Packages*" buffer. If no packages are marked, 'x' will install the package under point if it isn't already, and remove it if it is installed. ** Miscellaneous +++ *** New command 'scratch-buffer'. This command switches to the "*scratch*" buffer. If "*scratch*" doesn't exist, the command creates it first. You can use this command if you inadvertently delete the "*scratch*" buffer. ** Debugging *** New user option 'debug-allow-recursive-debug'. This user option controls whether the 'e' (in a "*Backtrace*" buffer or while edebugging) and 'C-x C-e' (while edebugging) commands lead to a (further) backtrace. By default, this variable is nil, which is a change in behaviour from previous Emacs versions. ** Compile +++ *** New user option 'compilation-hidden-output'. This can be used to make specific parts of compilation output invisible. +++ *** The 'compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error' user option has been extended. It can now have the additional values 'if-location-known' (which will only jump if the location of the first error is known), and 'first-known' (which will jump to the first known error location). +++ *** New user option 'compilation-max-output-line-length'. Lines longer than this will have the ends hidden, with a button to reveal the hidden text. This speeds up operations like grepping on files that have few newlines. ** Flymake +++ *** New user option 'flymake-mode-line-lighter'. +++ ** New minor mode 'word-wrap-whitespace-mode' for extending 'word-wrap'. This mode switches 'word-wrap' on, and breaks on all the whitespace characters instead of just SPC and TAB. --- ** New mode, 'emacs-news-mode', for editing the NEWS file. This mode adds some highlighting, fixes the 'M-q' command, and has commands for doing maintenance. --- ** Kmacro Kmacros are now OClosures and have a new constructor 'kmacro' which uses the 'key-parse' syntax. It replaces the old 'kmacro-lambda-form' (which is now declared obsolete). --- ** 'savehist.el' can now truncate variables that are too long. An element of 'savehist-additional-variables' can now be of the form '(VARIABLE . MAX-ELTS)', which means to truncate the VARIABLE's value to at most MAX-ELTS elements (if the value is a list) before saving the value. ** Minibuffer and Completions +++ *** New commands for navigating completions from the minibuffer. When the minibuffer is the current buffer, typing 'M-' or 'M-' selects a previous/next completion candidate from the "*Completions*" buffer and inserts it to the minibuffer. When the user option 'minibuffer-completion-auto-choose' is nil, 'M-' and 'M-' do the same, but without inserting a completion candidate to the minibuffer, then 'M-RET' can be used to choose the currently active candidate from the "*Completions*" buffer and exit the minibuffer. With a prefix argument, 'C-u M-RET' inserts the currently active candidate to the minibuffer, but doesn't exit the minibuffer. These keys are also available for in-buffer completion, but they don't insert candidates automatically, you need to type 'M-RET' to insert the selected candidate to the buffer. +++ *** The "*Completions*" buffer can now be automatically selected. To enable this behavior, customize the user option 'completion-auto-select' to t, then pressing 'TAB' will switch to the "*Completions*" buffer when it pops up that buffer. If the value is 'second-tab', then the first 'TAB' will display "*Completions*", and the second one will switch to the "*Completions*" buffer. --- *** New user option 'completion-wrap-movement'. When non-nil, the commands 'next-completion' and 'previous-completion' automatically wrap around on reaching the beginning or the end of the "*Completions*" buffer. +++ *** New user option 'completions-sort'. This option controls the sorting of the completion candidates in the "*Completions*" buffer. Available styles are no sorting, alphabetical (the default), or a custom sort function. +++ *** New values for the 'completion-auto-help' user option. There are two new values to control the way the "*Completions*" buffer behaves after pressing a 'TAB' if completion is not unique. The value 'always' updates or shows the "*Completions*" buffer after any attempt to complete. The value 'visual' is like 'always', but only updates the completions if they are already visible. The default value 't' always hides the completion buffer after some completion is made. +++ *** New user option 'completions-max-height'. This option limits the height of the "*Completions*" buffer. +++ *** New user option 'completions-header-format'. This is a string to control the heading line to show in the "*Completions*" buffer before the list of completions. If it contains "%s", that is replaced with the number of completions. If nil, the heading line is not shown. +++ *** New user option 'completions-highlight-face'. When this user option names a face, the current candidate in the "*Completions*" buffer is highlighted with that face. The nil value disables this highlighting. +++ *** Choosing a completion with a prefix argument doesn't exit the minibuffer. This means that typing 'C-u RET' on a completion candidate in the "*Completions*" buffer inserts the completion to the minibuffer, but doesn't exit the minibuffer. ** Isearch and Replace +++ *** Changes in how Isearch responds to 'mouse-yank-at-point'. If a user does 'C-s' and then uses '' ('mouse-yank-primary') outside the echo area, Emacs will, by default, end the Isearch and yank the text at mouse cursor. But if 'mouse-yank-at-point' is non-nil, the text will now be added to the Isearch instead. +++ *** New user option 'char-fold-override'. Non-nil means that the default definitions of equivalent characters are overridden. +++ *** New command 'isearch-emoji-by-name'. It is bound to 'C-x 8 e RET' during an incremental search. The command accepts the Unicode name of an Emoji (for example, "smiling face" or "heart with arrow"), like 'C-x 8 e e', with minibuffer completion, and adds the Emoji into the search string. +++ ** New minor mode 'glyphless-display-mode'. This allows an easy way to toggle seeing all glyphless characters in the current buffer. ** Registers +++ *** Buffer names can now be stored in registers. For instance, to enable jumping to the "*Messages*" buffer with 'C-x r j m': (set-register ?m '(buffer . "*Messages*")) ** Pixel-fill +++ *** This is a new package that deals with filling variable-pitch text. +++ *** New function 'pixel-fill-region'. This fills the region to be no wider than a specified pixel width. ** Info +++ *** 'M-x info-apropos' now takes a prefix argument to search for regexps. --- *** New command 'Info-goto-node-web' and key binding 'G'. This will take you to the gnu.org web server's version of the current info node. This command only works for the Emacs and Emacs Lisp manuals. ** VC +++ *** New command '%' ('vc-dir-mark-by-regexp'). This command marks files based on a regexp. If given a prefix argument, unmark instead. --- *** 'C-x v v' on an unregistered file will now use the most specific backend. Previously, if you had an SVN-covered "~/" directory, and a Git-covered directory in "~/foo/bar", using 'C-x v v' on a new, unregistered file "~/foo/bar/zot" would register it in the SVN repository in "~/" instead of in the Git repository in "~/foo/bar". This makes this command consistent with 'vc-responsible-backend'. ** Message --- *** New user option 'mml-attach-file-at-the-end'. If non-nil, 'C-c C-a' will put attached files at the end of the message. --- *** Message Mode now supports image yanking. +++ *** New user option 'message-server-alist'. This controls automatic insertion of the "X-Message-SMTP-Method" header before sending a message. ** HTML Mode --- *** HTML Mode now supports "text/html" and "image/*" yanking. ** Texinfo Mode --- *** 'texinfo-mode' now has a specialised 'narrow-to-defun' definition. It narrows to the current node. ** EUDC +++ *** 'eudc-expansion-overwrites-query' to 'eudc-expansion-save-query-as-kill'. 'eudc-expansion-overwrites-query' is renamed to 'eudc-expansion-save-query-as-kill' to reflect the actual behavior of the user option. +++ *** New command 'eudc-expand-try-all'. This command can be used in place of 'eudc-expand-inline'. It takes a prefix argument that causes 'eudc-expand-try-all' to return matches from all servers instead of just the matches from the first server to return any. This is useful for example, if one wants to search LDAP for a name that happens to match a contact in one's BBDB. +++ *** New behavior and default for user option 'eudc-inline-expansion-format'. EUDC inline expansion result formatting defaulted to '("%s %s <%s>" firstname name email) Since email address specifications need to comply with RFC 5322 in order to be useful in messages, there was a risk to produce syntax which was standard with RFC 822, but is marked as obsolete syntax by its successor RFC 5322. Also, the first and last name part was never enclosed in double quotes, potentially producing invalid address specifications, which may be rejected by a receiving MTA. Thus, this variable can now additionally be set to nil (the new default), or a function. In both cases, the formatted result will be in compliance with RFC 5322. When set to nil, a default format very similar to the old default will be produced. When set to a function, that function is called, and the returned values are used to populate the phrase and comment parts (see RFC 5322 for definitions). In both cases, the phrase part will be automatically quoted if necessary. +++ *** New function 'eudc-capf-complete' with 'message-mode' integration. EUDC can now contribute email addresses to 'completion-at-point' by adding the new function 'eudc-capf-complete' to 'completion-at-point-functions' in 'message-mode'. ** EWW/SHR +++ *** New user option to automatically rename EWW buffers. The 'eww-auto-rename-buffer' user option can be configured to rename rendered web pages by using their title, URL, or a user-defined function which returns a string. For the first two cases, the length of the resulting name is controlled by 'eww-buffer-name-length'. By default, no automatic renaming is performed. +++ *** New user option 'shr-allowed-images'. This complements 'shr-blocked-images', but allows specifying just the allowed images. +++ *** New user option 'shr-use-xwidgets-for-media'. If non-nil (and Emacs has been built with support for xwidgets), display