Arguments and Xdefaults

Here's a list of the more useful arguments that emacs can take. See the man page or emacs' own help for details.

-f function

Execute the lisp function called function.

-l file

Load the lisp code in the file file.

-font font

Choose a font.

-b pixels

Set the Emacs window's border width to the number of pixels specified by pixels.

-ib pixels

Set the window's internal border width to the number of pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to one pixel of padding on each side of the window.

-w =[WIDTH][xHEIGHT][+-XOFF[+-YOFF]]

Set the Emacs window's width, height, and position on the screen. The []'s denote optional arguments,

-fg color

On color displays, sets the color of the text.

-bg color

On color displays, sets the color of the window's background. See the file /usr/lib/rgb.txt for a list of valid color names.

-bd color

On color displays, sets the color of the window's border.See the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for a list of valid color names.

-cr color

On color displays, sets the color of the window's text cursor. See the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt.

-ms color

On color displays, sets the color of the window's mouse cursor. See the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt

You can also set up emacs defaults in your ~/.Xdefaults file. For instance, adding this to ~/.Xdefaults will set many of the things that could have been set from the command line

emacs.font:             6x10
emacs.geometry:         80x40+360+215
emacs.borderColor:      VioletRed
emacs.cursorColor:      SkyBlue
emacs.pointerColor:     Yellow
emacs.borderWidth:      1
emacs.softButtons:      on
emacs.foreground:       PaleGreen
emacs.background:       DarkSlateGrey
emacs.bitmapicon:       on
emacs.iconName:         Emacs