Emacs Doom

3-minute read
Ragnar Groot Koerkamp
devops linux
Table of Contents

Install Doom Emacs as explained in the readme.

Alongside it, you’ll want to install ripgrep and fd for better search integration, and possibly ttf-font-awesome for better icons.

Configuration

Instead of the default ~/emacs.d/ and ~/doom.d/ config directories, you can also use ~/.config/emacs/ and ~/.config/doom/.

init.el

My init.el is mostly default, and enables the languages I regularly use, with LSP support where possible:

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...
       :editor
       (format +onsave)  ; automated prettiness

       :tools
       lsp

       :lang
       (cc +lsp)         ; C > C++ == 1
       markdown          ; writing docs for people to ignore
       (python +lsp)     ; beautiful is better than ugly
       sh                ; she sells {ba,z,fi}sh shells on the C xor
       (yaml +lsp)       ; JSON, but readable
...

Note that some of these need additional programs to be installed, like clangd for C++, black for Python formatting, and prettier for more formatting.

I use the treemacs project drawer, and (ivy +icons +prescient) for searching. Add +fuzzy for fuzzy searching. (I found it too fuzzy for my taste.)

For git integration, magit is great.

To install additional packages from MELPA, add them to packages.el:

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(package! pkgbuild-mode)
(package! bazel)

config.el

Some highlights from my config.el. (Remember, SPC f p quickly opens files in your emacs config directory.)

  • Always keep 10 lines of buffer above/below the cursor: (setq scroll-margin 10)

  • Save buffer and exit insert mode on focus loss

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    ;; Auto save buffers on focus lost
(add-function :after after-focus-change-function (lambda () (save-some-buffers t)))
;; Exit insert mode on focus loss
(add-function :after after-focus-change-function (lambda () (evil-normal-state)))

  • Improve default C++ indenting to be more in line with the LSP/clang-format auto formatting

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    ; Better default indent style
(setq c-default-style "user")
; disable indenting namespaces
; https://brrian.tumblr.com/post/9018043954/emacs-fu-dont-indent-inside-of-c-namespaces
(c-set-offset 'innamespace 0)

  • There is a bug currently where LSP provided formatting does not work. This is the workaround.

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    ; Use clang-format instead of the lsp provided formatter, which doesn't appear to work.
; https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs/issues/1652
(setq +format-with-lsp nil)

  • Unlike Vim, Emacs treats _ as a word separator. To still be able to quickly jump over them, we can rebind the word-based motions to be symbol-based motions instead:

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    ; https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/9740
(with-eval-after-load 'evil (defalias #'forward-evil-word #'forward-evil-symbol))

Running as server and client

Emacs can run in server client mode by using a systemd unit. The ArchWiki explains how.

Note that when changing the configuration, doom/reload is not always sufficient. Restarting the server using systemctl --user restart emacs is usually necessary.

Wayland

I’m using the emacs-gcc-wayland-devel-bin AUR package, based on this git repo. After installing this, set the GDK_BACKEND=wayland environment variable and you should be good to go.

Useful commands

  • SPC p p to switch project
  • SPC SPC to switch file within project
  • SPC : search and execute a command (alternative for M-x) Whenever you are looking for some functionality, this is a great way to discover it. It also shows which keys are already bound to the command, if any.
  • SPC f p open emacs config file
  • SPC g g to open Magit
    • ? show keybindings
    • s stage files
    • c c commit
    • C-c C-c confirm commit
    • C-c C-k abort commit
  • SPC TAB 1-9 switch workspace
  • SPC TAB . switch workspace by name
  • SPC o p toggle treemacs
    • ? show keybindings
    • C-? show more keybindings
    • create file/dir: c f c d
    • rename: R

Emacs as mail client