GNU released Emacs 31.1 on August 25, making the new version available through its official mirrors worldwide [1, 2]. The update replaces the longstanding Emacs dumper with a new portable dumper developed by Daniel Colascione, marking a significant change in Emacs initialization [3, 1].
Emacs 31.1 enables mouse support for terminal use (xterm-mouse-mode) by default in compatible terminals, improving usability for terminal users [4]. The release introduces a new "user-lisp/" sub-directory dedicated to Emacs configuration files, streamlining customization management [4, 1].
Text frames now support child frames, expanding the GUI capabilities within Emacs environments [4]. Both the grep and xref buffers have gained editable modes, allowing users to interact more directly with search and reference results [4].
A package management improvement lets users review changes before installing or upgrading packages, enhancing control over software updates [4]. Additionally, a new theme named "newcomers-presets" aims to improve the experience for new Emacs users by providing a more approachable visual style [4].
The Emacs 31.1 tarballs are digitally signed, and GNU provides instructions for verification with PGP keys and checksums to ensure secure installation [1, 2]. Notably, this release does not include the new garbage collector feature scheduled for Emacs 32, which will arrive in a future update [3].
