I've used emacs for more than a decade, I really loved it, however recently I find the emacs pinky finger problem gets more serious. Since now I am out of job, it is just the right time to give spacemacs a try. I believe that tools are tools, not for fancy show-casing, so I just use Practicalli's spacemacs configuration instead tweaking my own.

Use mirrors in China

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/")))

Visual selection

Editing

General editing

Programmer editing

Navigation

Narrowing

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

Toggle Themes

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.

Multi edit

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

iedit

Kill ring

Magit, git

Files

Treemacs

treemacs is for viewing and navigating project files.

Ranger

ranger is a file manager in emacs.

Buffers

Remarks:

Use M-SPC to enter helm transition state, then you can mark buffer(s) use t and kill the marked buffer(s) with M-D.

Layout

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

Bookmarks

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

Searching

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.

Undo tree

Spacemacs Clojure mode key bindings

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

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

List state

Lisp State is for easy navigating and editing s-expressions in Clojure mode.

Key bindings in lisp state:

For a complete list of key bindings, see lisp-state

• Lisp state uses a different set of keybindings, to switch back to normal state, press the ESC key.
• After calling a Lisp state function, the buffer enters Lisp state, lisp state functions can be triggered without the SPC k prefix.

Snippet

To use an existing snippets,

1. Type the keyword defined in the snippet
2. Use M-/ to expand with snippet
3. 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
*** .

Zoom / Adjust font size

Org mode

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.

Journal mode

EasyPG Assistant

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

Macro

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

To define and use a macro:

1. Press q q to start macro definition, all actions afterwards will be recorded.
2. Preform the editing actions you'd like to record.
3. Press q to complete the macro definition.
4. Press C-x e to execute this macro.
5. Press e to repeat this macro.
6. 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.

Project

Window management

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.

Toggle Emacs keybindings

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

Flycheck errors

Flutter

Rust

Python

Install necessary dependencies:

pip install python-language-server
pip install importmagic epc

JavaScript

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)

Graphviz

Add your own layer

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.