Emacs Lisp layer

This layer gathers all the configuration related to emacs-lisp. This should always be in your dotfile, it is not recommended to uninstall it.

To use this configuration layer, add it to your ~/.spacemacs. You will need to add emacs-lisp to the existing dotspacemacs-configuration-layers list in this file.

This layer adds the auto-compile package to automatically keep the byte-compiled version of your Emacs lisp files synced with the uncompiled version on every save. If there are any compiler errors in the file, you will see a counter show up in the mode line. You can hover over these numbers to get a description or view the compiler output with the SPC m c l key binding. To disable the feature use this line in your dotspacemacs/user-config function.

(remove-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'auto-compile-mode)

You can also exclude the auto-compile package.

Spacemacs comes with a special lisp-state for working with lisp code that supports slurpage, barfage and more tools you'll likely want when working with lisp.

As this state works the same for all files, the documentation is in global DOCUMENTATION.org. In general, use SPC k to interact with the lisp-state.

Here is an interactive quick start to debug Emacs Lisp from an emacs-lisp-mode buffer.

To follow this tutorial open the code of the following source block in an emacs-lisp-mode buffer. One way to do this is to first find this emacs-lisp layer documentation file in Spacemacs using SPC h l emacs-lisp RET. This will open the current file in space-doc-mode. Toggle off space-doc-mode using , T V so that Spacemacs will switch to org-mode. Now you can place the cursor somewhere inside the code block and press , ' to open the code in an interactive emacs-lisp-buffer.

(defun helloworld (name)
  (let ((n (subroutine name)))
    (message (format "Hello world, %s!" name))))

(defun subroutine (s)
  (concat "my dear " s))

(helloworld "Spacemacs")

Steps: Now from within the emacs-lisp-buffer

1. Evaluate each sexp by putting your point in each of them and press , e f or press , e b to evaluate all code in the buffer at once.
2. To debug the helloworld function, put your cursor on the defun keyword and

press SPC m d f (or , d f), it will put a breakpoint on the function (we say that we instrumentalise this function) so whenever the Lisp interpreter encounters this function it will start the debugger.

1. Then go to the closing parenthesis of (helloworld "Spacemacs") and press

, e e to evaluate it, if you are using vim editing style you end up in evilified state otherwise you end up in emacs state and *Debugging* is displayed in the mode line.

1. Press s to go to next step up to the opening parenthesis of (subroutine name),
2. Press i to go into the subroutine where you can press s to step in

function or press o to go out of it.

1. Press a to stop debugging.

Nameless hides package namespaces in your emacs-lisp code, and replaces it by leading > It can be toggled with SPC m T n.

By default nameless is deactivated, to enable it set the layer variable emacs-lisp-hide-namespace-prefix to t.

NOTE: nameless is known to cause problems when spacemacs is used inside a terminal window, use with caution.

(setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers '(
  (emacs-lisp :variables emacs-lisp-hide-namespace-prefix t)))

This layer adds support for evil-cleverparens which allows to safely edit lisp code by keeping the s-expressions balanced.

By default this mode is not activated. You can turn it on locally on the active buffer with SPC m T s (s for safe).

To turn it on automatically for all emacs-lisp buffers call the following function in your dotspacemacs/user-config function:

(spacemacs/toggle-evil-safe-lisp-structural-editing-on-register-hook-emacs-lisp-mode)

or to enable it for all supported modes:

(spacemacs/toggle-evil-safe-lisp-structural-editing-on-register-hooks)

When enabled the symbol 🆂 should be displayed in the mode-line.