Understanding Kill Text Functions

Oct 13, 2025 by thesweetdesigns.com 121 views

Introduction

Emacs is a powerful text editor that offers a wide range of features and customization options. One of the essential features of Emacs is its ability to manipulate text using various kill functions. However, by default, the kill-word and backward-kill-word functions can sometimes delete too much text, especially when dealing with newlines. In this article, we will explore how to customize these functions to stop after killing a newline character, making your editing experience more efficient.

Understanding Kill Text Functions

Before we dive into customizing the kill-word and backward-kill-word functions, let's briefly understand what they do. The kill-word function deletes the word under the cursor, while the backward-kill-word function deletes the word before the cursor. These functions are essential for editing text, but they can sometimes delete more text than intended, especially when dealing with newlines.

The Problem with Default Kill Text Functions

When you press C-<backspace> in Emacs, it deletes the word before the cursor, but it also deletes the newline character that follows it. This can lead to unexpected behavior, especially when you're trying to edit text with multiple lines. For example, if you have the following text:

(foo (bar)
    <point>

And you press C-<backspace>, Emacs will delete the word before the cursor, but it will also delete the newline character, resulting in:

(foo <point>

This is not the desired behavior, as you want the newline character to remain intact.

Customizing Kill Text Functions

To customize the kill-word and backward-kill-word functions to stop after killing a newline character, you can use the following Emacs Lisp code:

(defun my-kill-word ()
  (interactive)
  (let ((beg (point)))
    (if (looking-back "\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\<br/>
**Q&A: Customizing Emacs Kill Text Functions for Efficient Editing**
====================================================================
Q: What is the problem with the default kill text functions in Emacs?
A: The default kill-word and backward-kill-word functions in Emacs can sometimes delete too much text, especially when dealing with newlines. This can lead to unexpected behavior and make editing text more difficult.
Q: How can I customize the kill text functions to stop after killing a newline character?
A: You can use the following Emacs Lisp code to customize the kill-word and backward-kill-word functions:
(defun my-kill-word ()
  (interactive)
  (let ((beg (point)))
    (if (looking-back &quot;\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\|\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s-\\s</code></pre>


                
                    
                        

                    
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