:lang org

Organize your plain life in plain text

1. Description

This module adds org-mode support to Doom Emacs, along with a number of adjustments, extensions and reasonable defaults to make it more performant and intuitive out of the box:

  • A custom, centralized attachment system that stores files in one place, rather than in the same directory as the input file(s) (only applies to attachments from files in/under org-directory).
  • Executable code blocks with support for a variety of languages and tools (depending on what :lang modules are enabled).
  • Supports an external org-capture workflow through the bin/org-capture shell script and +org-capture/open-frame.
  • A configuration for using org-mode for slide-show presentations or exporting org files to reveal.js slideshows.
  • Drag-and-drop support for images (with inline preview) and media files (drops a file icon and a short link) (requires +dragndrop flag).
  • Integration with pandoc, ipython, jupyter, reveal.js, beamer, and others (requires flags).
  • Export-to-clipboard functionality, for copying text into formatted html, markdown or rich text to the clipboard (see +org/export-to-clipboard and +org/export-to-clipboard-as-rich-text).

Org is a system for writing plain text notes with syntax highlighting, code execution, task scheduling, agenda management, and many more. The whole idea is that you can write notes and mix them with references to things like articles, images, and example code combined with the output of that code after it is executed.

https://www.mfoot.com/blog/2015/11/22/literate-emacs-configuration-with-org-mode/

1.1. Module flags

+brain
Enable org-brain integration.
+dragndrop
Enable drag-and-drop support for images and files; inserts inline previews for images and an icon+link for other media types.
+gnuplot
Install gnuplot and gnuplot-mode, which enables rendering images from gnuplot src blocks or plotting tables with org-plot/gnuplot (bound to <localleader> b p, by default).
+hugo
Enables integration with hugo to export from Emacs well-formed (blackfriday) markdown.
+ipython
(DEPRECATED) Enable ipython integration for babel.
+journal
Enable org-journal integration.
+jupyter
Enable Jupyter integration for babel.
+noter
Enable org-noter integration. Keeps notes in sync with a document. Requires pdf-tools (:tools pdf), DocView, or nov.el to be enabled.
+pandoc
Enable pandoc integration into the Org exporter.
+pomodoro
Enable a pomodoro timer for clocking time on tasks.
+present
Enable integration with reveal.js, beamer and org-tree-slide, so Emacs can be used for presentations. It automatically downloads reveal.js.
+pretty
Enables pretty unicode symbols for bullets and priorities, and better syntax highlighting for latex. Keep in mind: this can be expensive. If org becomes too slow, it’d be wise to disable this flag.
+roam
Enables integration with org-roam v1. Requires sqlite3 on your system. Incompatible with +roam2.
+roam2
Enables integration with org-roam v2. Requires sqlite3 on your system. Incompatible with +roam. This flag will replace +roam in mid-2022.

1.3. Hacks

  • Adds support for a :sync parameter for org src blocks. This overrides :async.
  • Gracefully degrades :async babel blocks to :sync when ob-async would cause errors or issues (such as with a :session parameter, which ob-async does not support, or when exporting org documents).
  • The window is recentered when following links.
  • The breadcrumbs displayed in eldoc when hovering over an org headline has been reworked to strip out link syntax and normalize font-size disparities.
  • If :ui workspaces is enabled, persp-mode won’t register org agenda buffers that are temporarily opened in the background.
  • Temporary org agenda files aren’t added to recentf.
  • file: links are highlighted with the error face if they are broken.

  • TAB was changed to toggle only the visibility state of the current subtree, rather than cycle through it recursively. This can be reversed with:

    # ⎘
    (after! evil-org
  (remove-hook 'org-tab-first-hook #'+org-cycle-only-current-subtree-h))
  • (Evil users) Nearby tables are formatted when exiting insert or replace mode (see +org-enable-auto-reformat-tables-h).
  • Statistics cookies are updated when saving the buffer of exiting insert mode (see +org-enable-auto-update-cookies-h).
  • Org-protocol has been lazy loaded (see +org-init-protocol-lazy-loader-h); loaded when the server receives a request for an org-protocol:// url.
  • Babel and babel plugins are now lazy loaded (see +org-init-babel-lazy-loader-h); loaded when a src block is executed. No need to use org-babel-do-load-languages in your config, just install your babel packages to extend language support (and ensure its org-babel-execute:* function is autoloaded).
  • If a variable is used as a file path in org-capture-template, it will be resolved relative to org-directory, instead of default-directory (see +org-capture-expand-variable-file-a).

2. Prerequisites

Org has a few soft dependencies that you will need to make use of Org’s more esoteric features:

  • For inline LaTeX previews, latex and dvipng is needed.
  • To render GNUPlot images (with +gnuplot flag) the gnuplot program is needed.
  • To execute babel code blocks, you need whatever dependencies those languages need. It is recommended you enable the associated :lang module and ensure its dependencies are met, e.g. install the ruby executable for ruby support. To use jupyter kernels you need the +jupyter flag, the associated kernel as well as the jupyter program.
  • org-roam (with +roam or +roam2 flag) requires sqlite3 to be installed.

2.1. MacOS

# ⎘
$ brew install --cask mactex
$ brew install gnuplot

2.2. Arch Linux

# ⎘
$ pacman -S texlive-core texlive-bin texlive-science
$ pacman -S gnuplot
$ pacman -S jupyter # required by +jupyter

2.3. NixOS

# ⎘
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
  # any less than medium isn't guaranteed to work
  texlive.combined.scheme-medium
  # required by +jupyter
  (python38.withPackages(ps: with ps; [jupyter]))
];

2.4. TODO Windows

3. Usage

This module’s usage documentation is incomplete. Complete it?

3.1. Invoking the org-capture frame from outside Emacs

The simplest way to use the org-capture frame is through the bin/org-capture script. I’d recommend binding a shortcut key to it. If Emacs isn’t running, it will spawn a temporary daemon for you.

Alternatively, you can call +org-capture/open-frame directly, e.g.

# ⎘
$ emacsclient --eval '(+org-capture/open-frame INTIAL-INPUT KEY)'

4. Configuration

This module’s configuration documentation is incomplete. Complete it?

4.1. Changing org-directory

To modify org-directory it must be set before org has loaded:

# ⎘
;; add to $DOOMDIR/config.el
(setq org-directory "~/new/org/location/")

4.2. Changing org-noter-notes-search-path

To modify org-noter-notes-search-path set:

# ⎘
;; add to $DOOMDIR/config.el
(setq org-noter-notes-search-path '("~/notes/path/"))

5. Troubleshooting

5.1. org-roam

5.1.1. Should I go with +roam (v1) or +roam2 (v2)?

Long story short: if you’re new to org-roam and haven’t used it, then you should go with +roam2; if you already have an org-roam-directory with the v1 files in it, then you can keep use +roam for a time being.

V1 isn’t actively maintained anymore and is now basically EOL. This means that the feature disparity between the both will continue to grow, while its existing bugs and problems won’t be addressed, at least by the main maintainers. V2 can be considered as a complete rewrite of the package so it comes with a lot of breaking changes.

While v1 won’t be actively maintained anymore, it still will be available in Doom for a while, at least until there will be a reliable tool that will migrate your data from v1 to v2.

To learn more about v2 you can use the next resources:

5.1.2. Migrating your existing files from v1 (+roam) to v2 (+roam2)

V2 comes with a migration wizard for v1 users. It’s new, which means issues can appear during the migration process. Because of that, don’t forget to backup your org-roam-directory before attempting to migrate.

In order to migrate from v1 to v2 using Doom follow the next steps:

  1. Enable +roam2 flag (and disable +roam if it was previously enabled) in your init.el.
  2. Ensure your org-roam-directory points to a directory with your v1 files.
  3. Run $ doom sync -u in your shell.
  4. Restart Emacs (if it was previously opened) and run org-roam-migrate-wizard command (M-x org-roam-migrate-wizard RET). The wizard will automatically attempt to backup your previous org-roam-directory to org-roam.bak, but just in case backup it yourself too.
  5. After the wizard is done you should be good to go. Verify the integrity of your data and whether it did everything as expected. In case of failure report your issue.

6. TODO Appendix

This module has no appendix yet. Write one?