Spacemacs cheetsheet March 2022

For users in China, use a mirror for spacemacs, this will save a lot time downloading packages. Locate configuration-layer-elpa-archives in ~/.spacemacs.d/init.el and edit as follows:

(setq configuration-layer-elpa-archives
      '(("melpa-cn" . "http://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/elpa/melpa/")
        ("org-cn"   . "http://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/elpa/org/")
        ("gnu-cn"   . "http://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/elpa/gnu/")))

Narrowing is very useful to many occasions, e.g., limiting search/replace region, or focusing on function or block.

You can edit themes by editing the values of dotspacemacs-themes in spacemacs configuration file (SPC f e d), when emacs starts it will use the first theme as default theme. A list of themes can be found at emacs-theme-gallery and Spacemacs ThemesSpacemacs Themes. My current favorite dark theme is cyberpunk. | |

Evil multi-cursor (evil-mc) mode

Use visual selection to select world(s), then use C-p or C-n to select occurrences above or below, then enter edit mode to edit multiple occurrences, or use g r q to quit multi-edit mode, or use g r p or g r n to exclude previous or next occurrence

Spacemacs will display the number of occurrences in the status bar. Use ESC to quit.

treemacs is for viewing and navigating project files.

ranger is a file manager in emacs.

Layout is also known as perspective in spacemacs, a layout contains a list of buffers. When spacemacs is started, the default layout is Global

It's an easy way to pause and resume editing a file. The bookmark feature is like a light version of layout.

If you have ripgrep installed, you can use ripgrep arguments as the search pattern. Example patterns for search the term bql in different files:

Search only in Java files:

-g*.java bql // Or use `-t` flag: -tjava bql

Search in any files except Java files:

-g!*.java bql

Show 2 lines above and below the occurrence, this works in project search only:

-C2 bql

Search and replace

After doing search and helm buffered displayed, press C-c C-e, you can then edit the results in a new buffer as if it's a new file, e.g., you can use SPC s e to replace all occurrences.

Use SPC v followed by v or V to expand or shrink expression selection.

When in Clojure REPL buffer, the following keybinding are available:

To use an existing snippets,

Type the keyword defined in the snippet

Use M-/ to expand with snippet Use TAB to jump to other makers in the snippet

Sinppets are saved in ~/.spacemacs.d/snippets/ or ~/.emacs.d/private/snippets/ directories.

List of snippets can be found with the yas-visit-snippet-file command.

Every snippet is a single file under a directory named with its target major mode.

A example snippet at ~/.spacemacs.d/snippets/org-mode/journal-entry is shown below, you type journal-entry to trigger the snippet and everything below # – will be inserted in place for you.

Note: $0 indicates the end cursor position, while $1, $2 etc indicates the initial and second positions.

# -*- mode: snippet -*-
#name : journal-entry
#key : journal-entry
#contributor : jr0cket
# --
* 201912$1
** Thoughts for today
$0
** Code commits
*** .
** Activities in detail
*** .

If you have source code in an org file, it can be slow to open this file caused by source code evaluation. Disable code eval by adding this header argument: #+PROPERTY: header-args :eval no. See source.

You can encrypt or decrypt files with epa- commands, some are listed below.

Macro in emacs means a sequence of actions usually edits. You can use macro to simplify repetitive tasks.

To define and use a macro:

Press q q to start macro definition, all actions afterwards will be recorded.

Perform the editing actions you'd like to record.

Press q to complete the macro definition.

Press C-x e to execute this macro.

Press e to repeat this macro.

Press ESC to quit macro execution.

If you'd like to execute this macro multiple times, you can always use the number prefix trick. For example pressing 5 C-x e will execute the macro 5 times.

The emacs window can be split in to multiple windows.

Press SPC w and some common window-related commands will be displayed in the mini-buffer.

You can use C-z to toggle between the default Evil mode and Emacs mode.

Install necessary dependencies:

pip install python-language-server
pip install importmagic epc

To disable warnings of missing trailing semicolon in JavaScript mode, add this to spacemacs config (SPC f e d):

(setq js2-strict-missing-semi-warning nil)

To create a new layer, press SPC SPC and select configuration-layer/create-layer, a template layer will be auto generated.

Refer to configuring-spacemacs-a-tutorial for more details.