Org mode for Emacs – Release notes

From now on, Org expects at least Emacs 24.3, although Emacs 24.4 or above is suggested.

Incomplete compatibility layer with XEmacs has been removed. If you want to take over maintainance of this compatibility, please contact our mailing list.

Export blocks are explicitly marked as such at the syntax level to disambiguate their parsing from special blocks. The new syntax is

#+BEGIN_EXPORT backend
...
#+END_EXPORT

instead of

#+BEGIN_backend
...
#+END_backend

As a consequence, INCLUDE keywords syntax is modified, e.g.,

#+INCLUDE: "file.org" HTML

becomes

#+INCLUDE: "file.org" export html

The following function repairs export blocks and INCLUDE keywords using previous syntax:

(defun org-repair-export-blocks ()
  "Repair export blocks and INCLUDE keywords in current buffer."
  (interactive)
  (when (eq major-mode 'org-mode)
    (let ((case-fold-search t)
          (back-end-re (regexp-opt
                        '("HTML" "ASCII" "LATEX" "ODT" "MARKDOWN" "MD" "ORG"
                          "MAN" "BEAMER" "TEXINFO" "GROFF" "KOMA-LETTER")
                        t)))
      (org-with-wide-buffer
       (goto-char (point-min))
       (let ((block-re (concat "^[ \t]*#\\+BEGIN_" back-end-re)))
         (save-excursion
           (while (re-search-forward block-re nil t)
             (let ((element (save-match-data (org-element-at-point))))
               (when (eq (org-element-type element) 'special-block)
                 (save-excursion
                   (goto-char (org-element-property :end element))
                   (save-match-data (search-backward "_"))
                   (forward-char)
                   (insert "EXPORT")
                   (delete-region (point) (line-end-position)))
                 (replace-match "EXPORT \\1" nil nil nil 1))))))
       (let ((include-re
              (format "^[ \t]*#\\+INCLUDE: .*?%s[ \t]*$" back-end-re)))
         (while (re-search-forward include-re nil t)
           (let ((element (save-match-data (org-element-at-point))))
             (when (and (eq (org-element-type element) 'keyword)
                        (string= (org-element-property :key element) "INCLUDE"))
               (replace-match "EXPORT \\1" nil nil nil 1)))))))))

Moreover, :export-block keyword used in org-export-define-backend and org-export-define-derived-backend is no longer used and needs to be removed.

The variable now accepts functions of two arguments instead of plain S-expressions. Replacing a S-expresion with an appropriate function is straightforward. For example

("pdf" . (foo))

becomes

("pdf" . (lambda (file link) (foo)))

The modification time will be determined via vc.el if the second argument is non-nil. See the manual for details.

Preparation and completion functions are now called with an argument, which is the project property list. It used to be dynamically scoped through the project-plist variable.

Using header arguments as property names is no longer possible. As such, the following

* Headline
:PROPERTIES:
:exports: code
:var: a=1 b=2
:var+: c=3
:END:

should be written instead

* Headline
:PROPERTIES:
:header-args: :exports code
:header-args: :var a=1 b=2
:header-args+: :var c=3
:END:

Please note that, however, old properties were defined at the source block definition. Current ones are defined where the block is called.

Org-protocol can now handle query-style parameters such as:

org-protocol://store-link?url=http:%2F%2Flocalhost%2Findex.html&title=The%20title
org-protocol://capture?template=x&title=Hello&body=World&url=http:%2F%2Fexample.com

Old-style links such as

org-protocol://store-link:/http:%2F%2Flocalhost%2Findex.html/The%20title

continue to be supported.

If you have defined your own handler functions for org-protocol-protocol-alist, change them to accept either a property list (for new-style links) or a string (for old-style links). Use org-protocol-parse-parameters to convert old-style links into property lists.

org-lint can check syntax and report common issues in Org documents.

When org-agenda-insert-diary-strategy is set to date-tree-last, diary entries are added to last in the date tree.

\vbar or \vbar{} will be exported unconditionnally as a |, unlike to existing \vert, which is expanded as | when using a HTML derived export back-end.

Radio lists, i.e, Org plain lists in foreign buffers, have been rewritten to be on par with Radio tables. You can use a large set of parameters to control how a given list should be rendered. See manual for details.

Used like org-bbdb-anniversaries, it provides a few days warning for upcoming anniversaries (default: 7 days).

If the task is repeated, and therefore done at least one, scheduling information is no longer relevant. It is therefore removed.

See commit message for more information.

ISO week trees are an alternative date tree format that orders entries by ISO week and not by month.

For example:

* 2015
** 2015-W35
** 2015-W36
*** 2015-08-31 Monday

They are supported in org-capture via file+weektree and file+weektree+prompt target specifications.

When defining a "columnview" dynamic block, it is now possible to add an :indent parameter, much like the one in the clock table.

On the other hand, stars no longer appear in an ITEM field.

When non-nil, commit attachments with git, assuming the document is in a git repository.

When set to smart, the new variable org-occur-case-fold-search allows to mimic isearch.el: if the regexp searched contains any upper case character (or character class), the search is case sensitive. Otherwise, it is case insensitive.

Repeated footnotes are now numbered by referring to a label in the first footnote.

This works also when org-src-fontify-natively is non-nil. It is also possible to specify per-languages faces. See org-src-block-faces and the manual for details.

Links can now have custom colors, tooltips, keymaps, display behavior, etc. Links are now centralized in org-link-parameters.

It replaces the deprecated next argument to org-previous-line-empty-p.

It is a faster implementation of outline-show-children.

Use org-agenda-filter-by-tag instead.

Use org-agenda-today-p instead.

Use org-babel--get-vars or assq instead, as applicable.

Use org-trim instead.

Use org-remove-indentation instead.

Use image-file-name-regexp instead. The never-used-in-core extensions argument has been dropped.

Use org-list-to-lisp instead.

A comment to this effect was in the source code since 7.8.03, but now a byte-compiler warning will be generated as well.

Use org-at-table-p instead.

It was not called by any org code since 2010.

The affected functions are:

• org-count
• org-remove-if
• org-remove-if-not
• org-reduce
• org-every
• org-some

Additionally, org-sublist is deprecated in favor of cl-subseq. Note the differences in indexing conventions: org-sublist is 1-based and end-inclusive; cl-subseq is 0-based and end-exclusive.

This includes org-completion-use-iswitchb and org-completion-use-ido. Instead Org uses regular functions, e.g., completion-read so as to let those libraries operate.

Two consecutive blank lines always terminate all levels of current plain list.

fixltx2e is obsolete, see LaTeX News 22.

It is now allowed to write, e.g., [[http:orgmode.org][<file:unicorn.png>]] as an equivalent to [[http:orgmode.org][file:unicorn.png]]. The advantage of the former is that spaces are allowed within the path.

Functions in this list are called before any file is associated to the current projet. Thus, they can be used to generate to be published Org files.

The new algorithm doesn't remove TAB characters not used for indentation.

Placeholders in capture templates are no longer expanded recursively. However, %(...) constructs are expanded very late, so you can fill the contents of the S-exp with the replacement text of non-interactive placeholders. As before, interactive ones are still expanded as the very last step, so the previous statement doesn't apply to them.

Note that only %(...) placeholders initially present in the template, or introduced using a file placeholder, i.e., %[...] are expanded. This prevents evaluating potentially malicious code when another placeholder, e.g., %i expands to a S-exp.

Since gnus nnir groups are temporary, org-gnus-store-link now refers to the article's original group.

The calling convention has changed.

Variable org-html-table-row-tags has been split into org-html-table-row-open-tag and org-html-table-row-close-tag. Both new variables can be either a string or a function which will be called with 6 parameters.

The previous name is, for the time being, kept as an obsolete alias.

When setting a new optional argument to a non-nil value, org-trim preserves leading indentation while removing blank lines at the beginning of the string. The behavior is identical for white space at the end of the string.

HTML links created from certain info links now point to gnu.org URL's rather than just to local files. For example info links such as info:emacs#List Buffers used to be converted to HTML links like this:

<a href="emacs.html#List-Buffers">emacs#List Buffers</a>

where local file emacs.html is referenced. For most folks this file does not exist. Thus the new behavior is to generate this HTML link instead:

<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/emacs.html#List-Buffers">emacs#List Buffers</a>

All emacs related info links are similarly translated plus few other gnu.org manuals.

Previously, if a recurring task had a timestamp of <2016-01-01 Fri 20:00 ++1d> and was completed on 2016-01-02 at 08:00, the task would skip 2016-01-02 and would be rescheduled for 2016-01-03. Timestamps with ++ cookies and a specific time will now shift to the first possible future occurrence, even if the occurrence is later the same day the task is completed. (Timestamps already in the future are still shifted one time further into the future.)

It used to be a defcustom, with a warning that it shouldn't be modified anyway.

They are still supported in Org 9.0 but will eventually be removed in a later release. Use file link type along with universal arguments to force opening it in either Emacs or with system application.

Allows J source blocks be indicated by letter j. Previously the indication letter was solely J.

When org-special-ctrl-o is non-nil, it is impractical to create a blank line above a table at the beginning of the document. Now, as a special case, org-open-line behaves normally in this situation.

The experimental variable used to be more or less confidential, as a defvar.

It defines the format of the original link. Possible values are: plain, bracket and angle.