How to open a file from bash command line in the already open Emacs instead of a new instance? When I type
$ emacs file.txt
it opens a new Emacs instance, instead of opening the file in the existing Emacs instance. Mac OS X 10.6.8. and
GNU Emacs 23.4.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0, NS apple-appkit-1038.36)
of 2012-02-27 on beta.macosforge.org
Best Answer
what you are looking for is emacs server mode. Add this line to your .emacs file:
Then, open the file using emacsclient:
Have a look at this page for more information.
To avoid having to start emacs manually or setting it to auto-start, you could write a little function that tries connecting to a running server (by running
emacsclient
) and if not, runsemacs
instead. Add this to your shell's configuration file (e.g.~/.bashrc
):Now, simply running
emacs file
will either start the server or connect to an existing instance.