GNU-Emacs Key Commands

A Brief Introduction

Use at your own risk. No guarantees stated or implied.

In general C refers to the Control key, which is also referred to as ^ at times. For instance, C-c means Control-c. ^C also means Control-c.

In general M refers to the Meta key, which is also ESC and ^[. For instance, M-x means ESC-x.

Movement
Forward:                        Backward
C-n         1 line              C-p
C-f         1 character         C-b
C-v         1 page              M-v
C-a         line start/end      C-e
M-<         file start end      M->

Search/Replace
C-s         search forwards
C-r         search backwards

Cut/Paste
C-d         clear letter
M-d         clear word
C-k         cut line
M-k         cut sentence
C-y         paste
C-@         set mark
C-spc       set mark
C-w         cut from mark
M-w         copy from mark
C-x C-x     exchange mark and cursor

File manipulation
C-x C-v     new
C-x C-f     open
C-x C-s     save
C-x C-w     save as
C-x C-c     quit

Misc
C-l         redraw screen
C-o         insert line
M-q         reformat current paragraph
C-x o       switch windows
C-x 0       hide current window
C-x 1       maxmize current window
C-x 2       split window horizontally
C-x 5       split window vertically
C-x C-b     list all buffers (files) in memory
C-x k       close current buffer (file)
C-g         cancel command
C-h         help (repeat C-h for more detail)

Last but not least:
M-x (also known as ESC-x) will then let you type in a command to execute.
examples include:
    M-x query replace (selective search and replace)
    M-x replace string (global search and replace)