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A fast, powerful and modular Emacs configuration that favors built-in functionality over third-party packages.

Screenshots · System Crafters Demo · Emacs Version · Optional Dependencies · Installation · Disclaimer · FAQ

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Emacs Solo

This is what you see as soon as you start Emacs:

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Emacs Solo is a configuration I use when I want to go back to the roots and challenge myself by using Emacs with only built-in features.

It aims to be minimalist, at least in spirit. Yes, there are over 3000 lines of code, but most of that comes from organizing things cleanly and building small, reusable modules. Compared to full-featured distributions, it’s still lean and focused.

The configuration favors Emacs built-ins, configured my way. But when something essential is missing (like margin git gutters), a small, hacky workaround is always added.

Obligatory Screenshots

Overall View

More screenshots here…

iComplete (in buffer completion) + Flymake + Gutter

Help Variable

iComplete Vertical

Eshell

Dired + Gutter

Well behaved mode-line

Single init file with sections

Every enhancement is optional and customizable

Use M-x customize-group emacs-solo RET.

As seen on System Crafters!

Also, check out the full demo of Emacs Solo in action, as seen on the System Crafters channel. In this video, David Wilson explores and learns from the configuration, showing how different settings and approaches are applied to create a more efficient and personalized Emacs setup.

Minimum Emacs Version

Emacs Solo always requires the latest stable release of Emacs, which is currently: 30.1

However, some bleeding-edge features may be tested as well. For those, you’ll need to compile Emacs from the master branch. I do my best to mark these features with the EMACS-31 tag.

Optional Dependencies

It is recommended you have this programs in your system:

• ripgrep (rg)

This provides quicker project grep and xref navigation.

If you opt to use regular grep, reset the customization of variable grep-command.

• ghostscript

This is necessary if you want to be able to use doc-view to see documents like PDFs.

• gls

MacOS comes with an implementation of ls that misses some nice switches from the gnu implementation (gls on homebrew). If you opt to use MacOS defaul ls you might need to change the dired-listing-switches variable.

• curl

Only needed if you’d like to upload text/images directly to 0x0.st site from Emacs Solo, by using either emacs-solo/0x0-upload-text or emacs-solo/0x0-upload-file.

Also used for emacs-solo-weather and emacs-solo-rate.

• wget

If present on the system, emacs-solo newsticker config uses it instead of the internal fetcher.

• mpv

Only needed if you’d like to play videos directly from news in newsticker, play music from dired with dired music player C-c m, play something from a m3u file with m3u-visualize-buffer or listen to online radio with C-c r.

• rsync

Only needed if you’d like to use emacs-solo/dired-rsync-copy.

• ollama

Only needed if you’d like to use emacs-solo/ollama-run-model.

• gemmini-cli

Only needed if you’d like to use emacs-solo/gemini-run-model.

• khard

Only needed if you’d like to use emacs-solo/khard-... funcitons.

In order to proper copy/paste from terminals (TUI), you need:

• pbcopy/pbpaste (macos)
• wl-copy/wl-paste (Linux with Wayland)
• xclip (Linux with Xorg)

Installation

Clone this repository into a directory of your liking and run Emacs with:

emacs --init-directory=YOUR_DIR

You can also simply copy init.el and early-init.el into any folder issue the same command as above

And that’s it, happy hacking! 🐂

Disclaimer

I’m happy to share this configuration with a catchy name, and I’d be genuinely delighted if you find it useful. 🙂

However, this is not intended to be a distribution. This means I may not cover every user’s needs, nor will I accept every contribution that pushes it in that direction. I use this configuration daily for both personal and professional work, and like any custom setup, it reflects my own preferences.

For example, this config does not include Python-specific settings, whether for Eglot or Tree-sitter. Since this is a real working setup and I’m not currently using Python, its absence might seem like an oversight.

If you’d like to add your own modifications while staying up to date with Emacs Solo, simply create a private.el file in the same directory as init.el. A hook is already in place to load this private file after Emacs initializes.

Of course, you can also fork it! (please do 😊)

How do I…

A FAQ like session of common questions of how to do X with only Emacs Solo.

So, how do I…

1.) Copy the current word under cursor?

The usual answer is M-b to go back to the beginning of the word. C-M-SPC to expand the selection to the end of the word and M-w.

Custom Emacs Solo Solution: Use the isearch way to search a word (it has better completion than C-M-SPC), like M-s M-. you can now just M-w.

2.) Edit multiple search entries at once?

Original problem: I usually consult-outline, then embark-collect and wgrep...

You can start by using occur, or using isearch and than moving to occur.

Next start the edit mode of the occur buffer with e.

Make your changes, apply it with C-c C-c

From Emacs 30.1 onward you can also use the combo: replace-regexp-as-diff for replacements in a single buffer, multi-replace-regexp-as-diff for multiple buffers, and dired-do-replace-regexp-as-diff to perform replace-regexp-as-diff

3.) Edit multiple search entries between several files at once?

Original problem: I usually consult-grep, then use embark collect and wgrep...

Open dired on the root folder of where you search will happen. Mark some files and or folders with m.

Use dired-do-query-replace-regexp or in a dired buffer hit Q.

Confirm it all or one by one, use ? to check the options.

From Emacs 30.1 onward you can also use the combo: replace-regexp-as-diff for replacements in a single buffer, multi-replace-regexp-as-diff for multiple buffers, and dired-do-replace-regexp-as-diff to perform replace-regexp-as-diff

4.) Read news, like with elfeed?

You have two built-in options on Emacs.

• M-x gnus
• M-x newsticker-treeview

5.) How do I see logs and their diffs?

C-x v L on a file inside your version controlled file. And over the line you have the commit, press d for diffing.

If you wanna diff a range, mark the lines starting with C-SPC on the first line of the range, and again C-SPC in the last line of the range (the content of what you want must be selected, if ther cursor is on first column of the line it won’t be included), now use d to diff.

6.) How do I revert a hunk?

C-x v = will open the diff panel for the current file, restrict it to the hunk you’d like to revert with r, revert the direction of the diff with R and apply the diff with C-c C-a.

From Emacs 31, we also have C-c M-r (diff-revert-and-kill), when on buffers generated by C-x v = and C-x v D.

7.) Use (neo)vi(m) keybindings (aka Evil keybindings)?

Emacs comes with viper which is a vi emulator. This means a lot of modern editing capabilities are missing.

Take a look at use-package Emacs Solo-viper-extensions, section of the init.el file. Emacs Solo extends viper mode to include a bunch of more modern evil-like bindings.

Just give it a try ;) M-x viper-mode

8.) Temporaraly highlight some word?

Use the powers of highlight-regexp! Over a word you want to make highlighted use M-s h .

You can repeat it to other words and Emacs will handle different colors for you.

To remove a highlight use M-s h u and select the highlighted regexp on the list.

Find out about more options regarding highlighting with M-s h ?.

9.) Know what is changed when closing Emacs or several files?

It is a common thing trying to close Emacs with C-x C-c just to find out one of your buffers has some modification and now Emacs asks if you’d like to save, override, etc.

Emacs Solo provides the extra option d, which will generate a diff of the current file being asked to take action, so you can see if saving is needed.

10.) Show/Hide (toggle) hidden files in Dired?

Use dired-omit-mode, which you can toggle with C-x M-o. Notice that this mode uses the regular expression defined in the dired-omit-files variable. Emacs Solo already customizes this to ignore files matching ^\\.

11.) Open multiple terms/shells?

Ever felt the need of some multi-term package on Emacs? Well, you don’t really need it, at least not with the internal implementations of terminals and eshell.

Just use the C-u unversal argument command before calling your term/shell, like: C-u M-x eshell or C-u C-x p e or C-u M-x term, and so on.

Now you have another instance of your term to work with, repeat this pattern if you need more instances.

12.) How do I select a single hunk out of many?

From Emacs 31, we have after C-x v = a new C-c RET n (diff-delete-other-hunks) option to do so.

13.) How do I edit commit messages?

From C-x v L, you can press e and you’ll be editing the commit message. This is available from Emacs 31 onward.

14.) How do I amend commits?

From C-x v v, you can press C-c C-e and you’ll be on ‘amend’ mode.

15.) Zoom fonts

Only the current buffer:

C-x C-- C-x C-+ / C-x C-= C-x C-0

The whole interface:

C-x C-M-- C-x C-M-+ / C-x C-M- C-x C-M-0

16.) Visit an URL

With global-goto-address-mode turned on, you can C-c RET over a link to open it on your default browser.

C-u C-c RET will open it on secundary browser, recommended:

Emacs Solo defaults:

(setq global-goto-address-mode t)
(setq browse-url-secondary-browser-function 'eww-browse-url)

17.) Increase/Decrease the resolution of PDFs

The doc-view-resolution variable is the way to go.

18.) Open an URL under point

Given global-goto-address-mode is set to t, we can C-c RET to url under point. This will use your system default browser.

If you’d like to use EWW and never leave Emacs, simply set browse-url-secondary-browser-function to 'eww-browse-url. This way you can C-u C-c RET.

19.) Open a file when path is under point

Use C-x f and then M-n to get the path under point fed to file-find.

20.) Kill buffer and close window

Usually C-x k kills a buffer, but it keeps the window opened. If you wish to kill and close window, use C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window).