emacs custom keybindings

[push_back]

Hello anyone,
I'm having a weird problem, that may or may not have anything to do with using ubuntu.

I've defined some key bindings I want to use in my ~/.emacs, but they don't work. More shockingly, emacs itself seems to think they should!
Here's my .emacs section of relevance:

(global-set-key [M-p] 'previous-buffer)

when I enter the key combo (after saving & restarting emacs to make sure) it says:
M-p is undefined

when I enter the long command 'M-x previous-buffer', it says:
You can run the command `previous-buffer' with <M-p>

I'm confused.
Thanks for any input...

[Barrucadu]

Here you go :)

(global-set-key [?\M-p] 'previous-buffer)

M- and C- must be prefixed by a backslash. The question mark must be used after any spaces (and at the beginning). For example:

(global-set-key [?\C-x ?\C-u] 'undo)
(global-set-key [?\C-x ?g] 'goto-line)

[push_back]

huh.
Weird that I didn't find that anywhere else. international online emacs consipracy?
But thanks, it works now.

[Barrucadu]

Could be, perhaps I just divulged knowledge which only senior emacsers should know without realising it :p