emacsclient

EMACSCLIENT(1)              General Commands Manual             EMACSCLIENT(1)

NAME
       emacsclient - tells a running Emacs to visit a file

SYNOPSIS
       emacsclient [options] files ...

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page documents briefly the emacsclient command.  Full docu-
       mentation is available in the GNU Info format; see below.  This  manual
       page  was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, but
       is not specific to that system.

       emacsclient works in conjunction with the built-in Emacs server.

       You can either call emacsclient directly or let other programs  run  it
       for  you when necessary.  On GNU and Unix systems many programs consult
       the environment variable EDITOR (sometimes also VISUAL) to  obtain  the
       command  used  for editing.  Thus, setting this environment variable to
       'emacsclient' will allow these programs to use an already running Emacs
       for  editing.  Other operating systems might have their own methods for
       defining the default editor.

       For emacsclient to work, you need  an  already  running  Emacs  with  a
       server.   Within  Emacs,  call the functions "server-start" or "server-
       mode".  (Your ".emacs" file can do this automatically if you add either
       "(server-start)" or "(server-mode 1)" to it.)

       When  you've finished editing the buffer, type "C-x #" ("server-edit").
       This saves the file and sends a message back to the emacsclient program
       telling it to exit.  The programs that use EDITOR wait for the "editor"
       (actually, emacsclient) to exit.  "C-x #" also checks for other pending
       external  requests  to  edit  various  files, and selects the next such
       file.

       If you set the variable "server-window" to a window or a frame, "C-x #"
       displays the server buffer in that window or in that frame.

OPTIONS
       Most  options  follow  the usual GNU command line syntax, with long op-
       tions starting with two dashes ("-").

       +line[:column]
              Go to the specified  line  and  column.   A  missing  column  is
              treated  as column 1.  This option applies only to the next file
              specified.

       -a, --alternate-editor=COMMAND
              if the Emacs server is not running, run the specified shell com-
              mand instead.  This can also be specified via the ALTERNATE_EDI-
              TOR environment variable.  If the value of  ALTERNATE_EDITOR  is
              the  empty string, run "emacs --daemon" to start Emacs in daemon
              mode, and try to connect to it.

       -c, --create-frame
              create a new frame instead of trying to use  the  current  Emacs
              frame

       -F, --frame-parameters=ALIST
              set the parameters of a newly-created frame.

       -d, --display=DISPLAY
              tell the server to display the files on the given display.

       -e, --eval
              do  not  visit files but instead evaluate the arguments as Emacs
              Lisp expressions.

       -f, --server-file=FILENAME
              use TCP configuration file FILENAME for communication.  This can
              also  be  specified  via the EMACS_SERVER_FILE environment vari-
              able.

       -n, --no-wait
              returns immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the buf-
              fer in Emacs.

       -nw, -t, --tty
              open a new Emacs frame on the current terminal

       -s, --socket-name=FILENAME
              use socket named FILENAME for communication.

       -V, --version
              print version information and exit

       -H, --help
              print this usage information message and exit

EXIT STATUS
       Normally, the exit status is 0.  If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs
       signaling an error, the exit status is 1.

SEE ALSO
       The program is documented fully in Using Emacs as  a  Server  available
       via the Info system.

AUTHOR
       This  manual  page  was  written by Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@de-
       bian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).

COPYING
       This manual page is in the public domain.

                                                                EMACSCLIENT(1)