Ubuntu – How to get emacs to open in the terminal when it is being used as the config editor

configurationemacsgnome-terminaltext-editor

I like to use emacs as my configuration editor, so it is the default for programs like git or cron. So I used

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

And chose emacs24 from the list.

Unlike Vim or nano, this launches emacs as a new gui application, rather than taking over the current terminal window.

Is there a way to make emacs open in the terminal as a configuration editor, or maybe when it is invoked from the command line, but still allow for launching emacs as a stand-alone application from the launcher or dash?

Best Answer

Most utilities, including git respect an environment variable named EDITOR which you can set to any editor you want, including options. export EDITOR='emacs -nw' will have them run emacs in non windowed mode.

In the case of emacs, it has a handy server mode you can start with M-x server-start and then run emacsclient as an editor to open a file in the already running emacs instance. This is handy since it allows you to retain access to the emacs kill ring and other features. It also accepts the -nw switch so that it will open a new emacs frame in the terminal window rather than in the gui emacs frame, so it will still look and feel like a text mode emacs session, but still share the kill ring and buffers with the other window(s).

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Ubuntu – Keeping emacs from splitting the window when openning multiple files

The following code works for me (add into ~/.emacs):

(add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook
          (lambda () (delete-other-windows)) t)

The emacs-startup-hook is run after loading the init file and processing the command line, so all files have been loaded and opened; calling delete-other-windows leaves just one of them visible (normally the last one given on the command line).

Note: you might also need to customize inhibit-startup-screen and set it to t for the above to work.

Ubuntu – How to install the latest version of EMACS and pick the appropriate UI

If you must chase the very latest version, then you can always get the source and compile it yourself. Unless you know of some killer new feature that emacs24 has though, I'd not waste the time and just use the one that ships with Ubuntu.

There's no downsides to calling it directly, but the emacs way is to start up one emacs session when you log on and never close it. You can export EDITOR=emacsclient and run M-x server-start in emacs and things like crontab -e will prompt emacs to open the file in the other window. When you are done, you hit C-x C-# to unblock the emacsclient.

If you prefer to keep the editing in the terminal window ( of course, you can just run M-x ansi-term and do your terminal work inside an emacs buffer ), you can add -t to the emacsclient command and it will open a new emacs frame on that terminal so you can do your editing in the terminal, but still have access to all of your other buffers, the kill ring, etc.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – Keeping emacs from splitting the window when openning multiple files

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