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I'm using Debian sid with X installed. Emacs launched as a GUI shows the small bent arrows on the right margin indicating continuation lines. When I launch Emacs with -nw in text terminal mode, the \ character does not appear in the right margin to indicate continuation lines. I have searched through my ~/.emacs file to see if a setting is specifying this, but did not find anything relevant.

How can I specify that Emacs in text terminal mode should display the \ character in the right margin to indicate continuation lines?

SabreWolfy
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  • Works here on Emacs 24 with `emacs -q -nw`. Could you give your Emacs version? – pmr Oct 20 '12 at 14:03
  • `emacs -q -nw file.tex` *shows* the backslash character, so it must be something in my `~/.emacs` file. I'll have to go through all 365 lines of it to find which setting it is. – SabreWolfy Oct 20 '12 at 14:31

2 Answers2

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When word-wrap is set to nil in a text terminal (-nw) Emacs, the backslash character appears on the right margin.

When word-wrap is set to t in a text terminal Emacs, the backslash character is not shown. Setting visual-line-mode also sets word-wrap to true.

This does not apply when Emacs is running as a GUI window: the small bent arrow appears on the right margin regardless of the value of word-wrap.

Tested with Emacs 23.4.1 under Debian sid.

SabreWolfy
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It looks like toggle-truncate-lines is one Emacs feature that causes the behavior you're describing: Stupid Shell Tricks

Can you test it interactively with M-x toggle-truncate-lines to see if that fixes it for you?

Kyle Burton
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  • If I enable `toggle-truncate-lines`, then lines are truncated (they do not wrap), which is not what I want. Lines extend *off* the right margin and are indicated with a `$` character on the right margin. I would like lines *not* to be truncated (as they are at present before changing the setting), but rather to wrap (as they do before changing the setting) and be *indicated* with backslah on the right margin, as the manual page I linked to indicates should be the case. Lines are wrapping correctly -- it's just that there is no `\` character to easily identify long lines. – SabreWolfy Oct 20 '12 at 14:05
  • Do you have `longlines-mode` enabled? That show long lines as if they were several lines in the buffer. Can you see the entire line or is it just cut-off at the right hand side (like toggle-truncate-lines w/o the $) or is it visible below the current line? – Kyle Burton Oct 20 '12 at 14:13
  • `longlines-mode` is disabled. Long lines wrap at the right margin and continue on the next line -- they are visible on the next line. There's just no backslash on the right margin in text terminal mode. In GUI mode the arrow appears on the right margin. – SabreWolfy Oct 20 '12 at 14:18
  • Toggling `visual-line-mode` makes no difference. – SabreWolfy Oct 20 '12 at 14:20
  • Is the fringe column (the right-most column in the Emacs view) 'blank' for lines that wrap? Is it possible that the color scheme makes the backslash invisible? If you try to select the end of the line being wrapped, do you see or get the backslash? (I know this is a long shot, I'm not sure what else it might be though) – Kyle Burton Oct 20 '12 at 14:22
  • I was thinking it might be something like that. I've just tested in a virtual terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F2 for tty2) and it looks the same as what I am seeing in a normal terminal emulator under X. The margin is present because when I enable `toggle-truncate-lines` the `$` appears. – SabreWolfy Oct 20 '12 at 14:26
  • Updated question: launching Emacs with `-q` shows the character in the fringe, so it must be something in my `~/.emacs` file. I'll have to try to find what it is. – SabreWolfy Oct 20 '12 at 14:32