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I'm using emacs 24.3 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. How do I make emacs automatically indent lines in Python, like in IDLE? Currently, it does not do that.

Also, in general, how would I do this for any programming language, say, Java or c++?

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  • jesshamrick.com/2012/09/18/emacs-as-a-python-ide Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 16:08
  • Does that still work with emacs 24? Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 18:54
  • give it a try, I don't use it to be honest. Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 19:49
  • I just tried the stuff in there, but emacs is still not auto-indenting. Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 23:01

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Try electric-indent-mode. It will be ebabled by default in Emacs-24.4. But note that the version in 24.3 probably doesn't work too well in python-mode buffers.

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3 Comments

Add (electric-indent-mode 1) in your ~/.emacs file.
I tried doing that, but now when I un-indent a line, and press the return key, the previous line indents back to its original position.
Right: "the version in 24.3 probably doesn't work too well in python-mode".
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You can try other python modes, like emacs-for-python or elpy, as given by this doc: http://wikemacs.org/index.php/Python (though the default mode works fine for me on the same config).

You can install them with package.el (M-x package-install RET elpy RET) and call them as explained.

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I used the emacs-for-python, and I love it! Thank you so much!
One more question, actually: how would I do this for any other language, like java?
Glad you liked it ! Mmmh… if your mode doesn't already do it, you may remap the RET key to a new-line (newline) and indent. This combo is currently done for me with reindent-then-newline-and-indent. You can investigate with the help (see C-h ?).
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Open a newline with C-j, you should get the indentation.

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How about auto-identation by just pressing enter?
The result depends from kind of python-mode resp. customization. With python-mode.el, that's the default, yes.
I love C-j, because that frees up the tab key for GitHub Copilot!

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