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Command Arguments

The actions of many commands can be altered by giving them a numeric argument, this argument is entered immediately prior to invoking the command (they are technically called prefix arguments).

Each argument is built using a number of special key sequences,

Meta-0 to Meta-9
Append a digit to the end of the current prefix argument. Use a sequence of these keys to build up a decimal number. For example typing Meta-1 Meta-0 Meta-0 creates an argument of 100 for the following command.
Meta--
(That's Meta-minus.) Negates the value of current argument, if the command is invoked after a single Meta-- prefix the actual argument is -1.
Ctrl-u
Successive Ctrl-u key presses multiply the argument by 4 each time. Note that any existing argument entered by the numeric or minus commands (described above) is discarded with the first Ctrl-u.


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