find-hfile(3)

NAME

find-hfile - Load a file using selected handler
find-cfile - Load an encrypted file
find-lfile - Load a file lossless
find-cfile - Load a Unicode file

SYNOPSIS

n find-hfile "h" "file-name" (C-x C-h) 
n find-cfile "file-name"
n find-lfile "file-name"
n find-ufile "file-name"

DESCRIPTION

find-hfile first prompts the user for the read handler h required to load the file into MicroEmacs, where h can be:

C


As with c below except that the user is prompted for a second handler which is combined with crypt. Supported secondary handlers are b, l, r, t and u. When used this handler must be given first.

b


Standard binary file handler, see binary(2m) mode for more information.

c


Encrypted file handler, see crypt(2m) mode for more information.

l


Lossless text file handler, allows loading of any file, including binary files, as if a normal text file while preserving every byte. This allows easy searching for text strings within any file, but care needs to be taken if editing as binary files are easily corrupted. See command translate-buffer(2) for more information on the lossless text format.

r


Reduced binary file handler, see rbin(2m) mode for more information.

t


Normal text file, equivalent to standard use of find-file(2).

u


Unicode text file handler, see find-ufile below for more information.

z


Zip file handler, see find-zfile(3) for more information. This handler cannot currently be combined with C.

The macro then calls the appropriate underlying file handler command with the required numerical argument to load file-name correctly.

find-cfile provides a simple interface to loading files in crypt(2m) mode. The numeric argument has the same effect as with the find-file(2) command except the crypt mode is always enabled. See documentation on the mode and find-file command for more information.

The find-lfile macro uses find-file(2) to load the given file in rbin(2m) mode, then calls translate-buffer(2) with a numerical argument of 0 to convert the buffer to text without loss of any character. When using this mode care should be taken not to change the cr(2m), ctrlz(2m) or lf(2m) modes as these will affect the output.

find-ufile allows loading of any UTF-8, UTF-16 or UTF-32 encoded Unicode file as if a normal text file, while preserving every character (except those in the last 0x100000 Unicode plane). This allows for easy reading and editing of all languages supported by the current charset of MicroEmacs. Care must be taken to avoid corrupting the byte sequences of characters not supported by the current charset, see command translate-buffer(2) for more information on the Unicode preserving text format used.

NOTES

find-hfile, find-cfile, find-lfile and find-ufile are macros defined in file tools.emf.

Buffers containing directory listings generated by find-file and zip content listings created by find-zfile provide a similar interface to find-hfile bound to the letter h.

The command find-file(2) is bound to key "C-x 9" with a numeric argument of 3, this is equivalent to executing find-bfile with no argument.

SEE ALSO

find-bfile(3), find-rfile(3), find-zfile(3), find-file(2), translate-buffer(2), binary(2m), crypt(2m), rbin(2m).

(c) Copyright JASSPA 2026
Last Modified: 2026/02/25
Generated On: 2026/03/01