How do I instruct emacs to use 4 spaces instead of the tab character for all indentation?

Posted by knorv on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by knorv
Published on 2010-04-05T10:45:29Z Indexed on 2010/04/05 10:53 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 247

Filed under:

emacs

|

emacs-lisp

|

indentation

What do I put in my .emacs file to use four spaces instead of the tab character for all indentation?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about emacs

Error while installing emacs23 from Software Center

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Trying to install emacs in Software Center Ubuntu 12.04 got this error. installArchives() failed: Selecting previously unselected package emacs23. (Reading database ... (Reading database ... 5% (Reading database ... 10% (Reading database ... 15% (Reading database ... 20% (Reading database ... 25% (Reading… >>> More
Shorten Emacs timeout of ~/.emacs read

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
My ~/.emacs start-up file is stored in my AFS home directory. Often when I login to a linux machine I will forget to renew my AFS credentials before attempting to edit a local (non-AFS) file with Emacs. When this happens Emacs will attempt to load ~./emacs but cannot because it is in AFS space where… >>> More
Running emacs in GNU Screen overrides .emacs settings for [home] key binding in FreeBSD 8.2

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
If I use the following .emacs file, I am able to go to the beginning/end of the current line using the home/end keys as I would expect. (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?) (add-to-list 'load-path "/home/sam/programs/go/go/misc/emacs/" t) (require 'go-mode-load) (global-set-key [kp-home] 'beginning-of-line)… >>> More
Emacs 23.1 make error 139 in Mac OS X 10.6.3

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
When I try to compile GNU Emacs 23.1 on my machine with Mac OS X 10.6.3 I repeatedly get the following ending: Directories: /src/emacs-23.1/lisp/. /src/emacs-23.1/lisp/./calc /src/emacs-23.1/lisp/./calendar /src/emacs-23.1/lisp/./emacs-lisp /src/emacs-23.1/lisp/./emulation /src/emacs-23.1/lisp/./erc… >>> More
portable emacs? (emacs server not working)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have seen a few suggestions on making emacs portable (on Windows). I have this in my site-start.el: (defvar program-dir (substring data-directory 0 -4)) (setq inhibit-startup-message t) (setenv "HOME" program-dir) I changed the HOME variable so that not only my .emacs init files (and other init… >>> More

Related posts about emacs-lisp

Emacs Lisp: how to set encoding for call-process

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I thought I knew how to set coding-system (or encoding): use process-coding-system-alist. Apparently, it's not working. ;; -*- coding: utf-8 -*- (require 'cl) (let ((process-coding-system-alist '("cygwin/bin/bash" . (utf-8-dos . utf-8-unix)))) (setq my-words (list "Lilo" "?_?" "_?" "?_" "?"… >>> More
How to Create a Temporary Function in Emacs Lisp

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm making some tedious calls to a bunch of functions, but the parameters will be determined at runtime. I wrote a simple function to keep my code DRY but giving it a name is unnecessary. I don't use this function anywhere else. I'm trying to do it the way I would in Scheme, but I get a void-function… >>> More
Overriding a function in Emacs Lisp

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I would like to temporarily override the kill-new function. I have a way I want to reimplement kill-new that works in only in certain contexts, but I don't want to reimplement a special version of kill-region on top of that. (kill-new is called from kill-region) Since Emacs Lisp uses dynamic scoping… >>> More
Recenter a named buffer that is not neccessarily the current buffer in emacs Lisp

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'd like to recenter a buffer, called "Lense", where I've inserted some text. I wished to make it the current buffer by "(set-buffer "Lense")", then "(recenter 0))". By the following code segments: (save-excursion (set-buffer "Lense") (recenter 0)) However, it seems that the above… >>> More
Wrapping variable width text in emacs lisp

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am hacking up a tagging application for emacs. I have got a tag cloud/weighted list successfully displaying on a buffer, but i am running into a snag. I need to be able to properly word-wrap the buffer, but I haven't a clue where to start. The font I am using is a variable width font. On top… >>> More