Here is a summary of help commands for accessing the built-in documentation. Most of these are described in more detail in the following sections.
Display a list of commands whose names match topics
(apropos-command
).
Display all active key bindings; minor mode bindings first, then those
of the major mode, then global bindings (describe-bindings
).
Show the name of the command that the key sequence key is bound
to (describe-key-briefly
). Here c stands for
“character”. For more extensive information on key, use
C-h k.
Display the commands and variables whose documentation matches
topics (apropos-documentation
).
Display the *Messages* buffer
(view-echo-area-messages
).
Display documentation on the Lisp function named function
(describe-function
). Since commands are Lisp functions,
this works for commands too.
Display the HELLO file, which shows examples of various character sets.
Run Info, the GNU documentation browser (info
). The Emacs
manual is available in Info.
Display the name and documentation of the command that key runs
(describe-key
).
Display a description of your last 300 keystrokes
(view-lossage
).
Display documentation of the current major mode and minor modes
(describe-mode
).
Display news of recent Emacs changes (view-emacs-news
).
Display documentation of the Lisp symbol named symbol
(describe-symbol
). This will show the documentation of all
kinds of symbols: functions, variables, and faces.
Find packages by topic keyword (finder-by-keyword
). This lists
packages using a package menu buffer. See Packages.
Display documentation about the specified package
(describe-package
).
Display the Emacs manual in Info (info-emacs-manual
).
Display the contents of the current syntax table
(describe-syntax
). The syntax table says which characters are
opening delimiters, which are parts of words, and so on. See Syntax Tables in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for
details.
Enter the Emacs interactive tutorial (help-with-tutorial
).
Display the documentation of the Lisp variable var
(describe-variable
).
Show which keys run the command named command (where-is
).
Describe the coding system coding
(describe-coding-system
).
Describe the coding systems currently in use.
Enter Info and go to the node that documents the Emacs command
command (Info-goto-emacs-command-node
).
Describe the input method method (describe-input-method
).
Enter Info and go to the node that documents the key sequence
key (Info-goto-emacs-key-command-node
).
Display information on the character sets, coding systems, and input
methods used in language environment language-env
(describe-language-environment
).
Display the Info documentation on symbol symbol according to the
programming language you are editing (info-lookup-symbol
).
Display the help message for a special text area, if point is in one
(display-local-help
). (These include, for example, links in
*Help* buffers.)