ccmode: Getting Started
3 Getting Started
*****************
If you got this version of CC Mode with Emacs or XEmacs, it should work
just fine right out of the box. Note however that you might not have
the latest CC Mode release and might want to upgrade your copy (see
below).
You should probably start by skimming through the entire Commands
chapter (
Commands) to get an overview of CC Mode’s capabilities.
After trying out some commands, you may dislike some aspects of CC
Mode’s default configuration. Here is an outline of how to change some
of the settings that newcomers to CC Mode most often want to change:
c-basic-offset
This Lisp variable holds an integer, the number of columns CC Mode
indents nested code. To set this value to 6, customize
‘c-basic-offset’ or put this into your ‘.emacs’:
(setq c-basic-offset 6)
The (indentation) style
The basic “shape” of indentation created by CC Mode—by default,
this is ‘gnu’ style (except for Java and AWK buffers). A list of
the available styles and their descriptions can be found in
Built-in Styles. A complete specification of the CC Mode style
system, including how to create your own style, can be found in the
chapter Styles. To set your style to ‘linux’, either
customize ‘c-default-style’ or put this into your ‘.emacs’:
(setq c-default-style '((java-mode . "java")
(awk-mode . "awk")
(other . "linux")))
Electric Indentation
Normally, when you type “punctuation” characters such as ‘;’ or
‘{’, CC Mode instantly reindents the current line. This can be
disconcerting until you get used to it. To disable “electric
indentation” in the current buffer, type ‘C-c C-l’. Type the same
thing to enable it again. To have electric indentation disabled by
default, put the following into your ‘.emacs’ file(1):
(setq-default c-electric-flag nil)
Details of this and other similar “Minor Modes” appear in the
section Minor Modes.
Making the <RET> key indent the new line
The standard Emacs binding for <RET> just adds a new line. If you
want it to reindent the new line as well, rebind the key. Note
that the action of rebinding would fail if the pertinent keymap
didn’t yet exist—we thus need to delay the action until after CC
Mode has been loaded. Put the following code into your ‘.emacs’:
(defun my-make-CR-do-indent ()
(define-key c-mode-base-map "\C-m" 'c-context-line-break))
(add-hook 'c-initialization-hook 'my-make-CR-do-indent)
This example demonstrates the use of a very powerful CC Mode (and
Emacs) facility, the hook. The use of CC Mode’s hooks is described
in CC Hooks.
All these settings should occur in your ‘.emacs’ _before_ any CC Mode
buffers get loaded—in particular, before any call of ‘desktop-read’.
As you get to know the mode better, you may want to make more
ambitious changes to your configuration. For this, you should start
reading the chapter Config Basics.
If you are upgrading an existing CC Mode installation, please see the
‘README’ file for installation details. In particular, if you are going
to be editing AWK files, ‘README’ describes how to configure your
(X)Emacs so that CC Mode will supersede the obsolete ‘awk-mode.el’ which
might have been supplied with your (X)Emacs. CC Mode might not work
with older versions of Emacs or XEmacs. See the CC Mode release notes
at <http://cc-mode.sourceforge.net> for the latest information on Emacs
version and package compatibility (Updating CC Mode).
-- Command: c-version
You can find out what version of CC Mode you are using by visiting
a C file and entering ‘M-x c-version RET’. You should see this
message in the echo area:
Using CC Mode version 5.XX
where ‘XX’ is the minor release number.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) There is no “easy customization” facility for making this change.
Info Catalog
ccmode: Overview
ccmode: Top
ccmode: Commands