Look up help for keys and functions

Emacs has extensive documentation built in. To look up help for a certain keyboard command, use C-h k and then the keyboard shortcut. For example to look up the help for C-x C-s you would use C-h k C-x C-s and you will see a help buffer open which documents the command and has a link to the section of code where the command is defined.

Similarly if you want to look up the help for a specific function, use C-h f function-name.

  • vargonaut

    You can also invoked C-h part way through a key command and get a help buffer of commands that start with that chord. I know that makes little sense, so an example:

    Invoked C-x r C-h and you get a buffer for “Global Bindings Starting With C-x r:”

  • jean37

    How would you list all single key bindings available in current buffer ? For instance, when in a Dired buffer, you can type J or j or D to act on currently selected files/directory. I’d like to see all of them.

    • jean37

      C-h m