Emacs comes with a lot of code, but there are even more packages out there. When you read other people's Emacs configurations, you might come across other interesting packages to try out.

Sometimes people don't indicate which packages they use, so you have to guess the package name based on the function. For example, (global-auto-complete-mode) turns on a completion mode called auto-complete-mode in all buffers. Before you can use this, you will need to install the auto-complete package. In general, you can find package names by looking at functions that include mode in their name, removing global, turn-on, and other prefixes as needed.

The default package repository in Emacs 24 has a limited number of packages. For more choices, you may want to add another repository such as MELPA or Marmalade Here's the code that you would run in order to add these repositories to your Emacs:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))

Note that MELPA includes many packages under active development. If you prefer to install only the packages marked as stable, replace the MELPA line with this:

(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa-stable" . "http://hiddencameras.milkbox.net/packages/"))

If you're connected to the Internet, use M-x package-refresh-contents to update the list of packages. Use M-x package-list-packages to list the available packages. RET displays the package's description. i marks the current package for installation, and x actually performs the operations. If you know the name of the package you want to install, you can skip the list and use M-x package-install instead.

A lightweight list of the key functions defined by packages is loaded after your init.el is run. You can start that initialization earlier by adding (package-initialize), which is useful if you want to call functions that are defined in packages.

Sometimes people want to install some packages on one computer but not on another. Here's some code that runs some configuration if the miniedit package can be loaded, but silently continues if the package has not been installed.

(when (require 'miniedit nil t)
   (miniedit-install)
   (define-key minibuffer-local-map (kbd "C-c e") 'miniedit))

If you use C-h f (describe-function) on require, you'll see that it has one required argument (feature) and two optional arguments (filename, noerror). require returns non-nil (or true) if the library was loaded, so if the library exists, then the rest of the code inside the when expression gets called.

Along those lines, you may come across code that looks like this:

(eval-after-load "dash" 
  '(dash-enable-font-lock))

This runs (dash-enable-font-lock) only after dash is loaded. It does not automatically load dash. You'll see this when people have configuration that they want to run only if something is loaded, which can make sense for performance reasons. When you're starting out, you may want to use require instead of eval-after-load, since the argument to eval-after-load has to be quoted.

Some files are not yet available as packages. If you search for the function, you'll probably find a webpage with an .el file. You can save those to your computer and load them with:

(load "/path/to/file")

You can also use this technique to split up your Emacs configuration file into smaller files. For example, you might have an org-config.el file, a programming-config.el file, and so forth. If you would like to load a host-specific file only if it exists, you can take advantage of the optional NOERROR argument for load like this:

(load (concat "~/.emacs.d/" (system-name) ".el") t)

Want to find out what that filename is? Position your cursor after the ​".el") and use C-x C-e (eval-last-sexp) to see the value in the buffer.

Use C-h f (describe-function) to learn more about the load function, including other arguments you can pass to it.

If you would like to use the require syntax to load files only if they haven't already been loaded, you can do that as long as they include the (provide ...) expression somewhere. First, you'll need to add your downloaded Emacs Lisp file to the load-path with something like this.

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/dir/with/el/files")

Then you can use require to load the Emacs Lisp code if it exists.

(require 'feature-name)

You may have pasted in something that has a “(” but no matching “)“, which results in unbalanced parentheses. Alternatively, you may have pasted in something that has “)” but no “(“, which results in a premature end. You can use M-x check-parens to quickly check for mismatched parentheses, or try reading the code carefully in order to find the mismatched pair. You can also use C-M-f (forward-sexp) and C-M-b (backward-sexp) to navigate by complete expressions until you find the specific one that causes the error.

The code is trying to require or load a file that Emacs can't find.

• Have you installed the appropriate package? Use M-x list-packages to see if it has been packaged into a form that's easy to install. You may need to add other sources to your package-archives to see a wider range of packages.
• Have you downloaded it manually and added it to your load-path? See the notes on load-path for more details.
• If you're using load, does the file exist?

The code calls a function that has not been defined.

• Have you installed the appropriate package? Look at the function name and try to guess the name of the package. People usually start the function name with the package name in order to make the function names unique. Use M-x list-packages to see the available packages. You may need to add other sources to your package-archives to see a wider range of packages.
• If you downloaded the library manually, load or require it.
• If you're copying some code that isn't packaged in a library, check if there are any defun (define function) expressions that you forgot to copy. Make sure to include and evaluate those.

The code is trying to get the value of a variable that has not yet been set. See if there's other code that you need to evaluate first in order to set up those variables. If the expression involves add-to-list or add-hook, you may need to use require to load the library that defines that list or hook first.

You might also get this if you're using C-x C-e (eval-last-sexp) to evaluate an expression that's inside let or other things that create variables. When you're starting out, make sure you use C-x C-e (eval-last-sexp) after the outermost set of parentheses.

Make sure you call C-x C-e after the outermost ) for the expression you want to evaluate.

(ido-mode 1)
            ^
            |
            +---- Your cursor should be here

If the code you're looking at has multiple expressions, you'll need to call C-x C-e after each of them. It might be easier to select the region and use M-x eval-region, or evaluate the entire buffer with M-x eval-buffer. Alternatively, use M-x ielm to evaluate the code instead.

Again, if you don't see the error you're struggling with here, ask the relevant mailing list, help-gnu-emacs, the #emacs channel on irc.freenode.net, or StackOverflow for help. Good luck!