Ubuntu Manpage: emacsclient - tells a running Emacs to visit a file

Provided by: emacs-common_29.3+1-1ubuntu2_all

NAME

       emacsclient - tells a running Emacs to visit a file

SYNOPSIS

       emacsclient [options] files ...

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the emacsclient command. Full documentation is available in the GNU
Info format; see below.

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 options 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 command instead. If the empty string
is specified, run "emacs --daemon" to start Emacs in daemon mode, and try to connect to it.

See also the ALTERNATE_EDITOR environment variable, over which this option takes precedence.

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

-r --reuse-frame
Reuse an existing frame if one exists, otherwise create a new 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. Relative filenames are relative to
"~/.emacs.d/server/" or "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/server/", and the default is "server".

See also the EMACS_SERVER_FILE environment variable, over which this option takes precedence.

-n, --no-wait
Return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the buffer in Emacs. If combined with
--eval, this option is ignored.

-w, --timeout=N
How long to wait, in seconds, for Emacs to respond before giving up. The default is 0, which
means to wait forever.

--parent-id=ID
Open an emacsclient frame as a client frame in the parent X window with id ID.

-q, --quiet
Do not let emacsclient display messages about waiting for Emacs or connecting to remote server
sockets.

-u, --suppress-output
Do not let emacsclient display results returned from the server. Mostly useful in combination
with --eval when the evaluation performed is for side-effect rather than result.

-s, --socket-name=FILENAME
Use socket named FILENAME for communication. Relative filenames are relative to
"$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/emacs/" or "$TMPDIR/".

See also the EMACS_SOCKET_NAME environment variable, over which this option takes precedence.

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

-T, --tramp=PREFIX
Set PREFIX to add to filenames for Emacs to locate files on remote machines using TRAMP. This is
mostly useful in combination with using the Emacs server on a remote host (either using TCP with
--server-file, or a socket forwarded over SSH).

See also the EMACSCLIENT_TRAMP environment variable, over which this option takes precedence.

-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.

ENVIRONMENT

       ALTERNATE_EDITOR
              If the Emacs server is not running, run the shell command in this  environment  variable  instead.
              If set to the empty string, run "emacs --daemon" to start Emacs in daemon mode, and try to connect
              to it.  Will be overridden by the --alternate-editor option, if present.

       EMACSCLIENT_TRAMP
              A  prefix  to  add  to filenames, intended to allow Emacs to locate files on remote machines using
              TRAMP.  Will be overridden by the --tramp option, if present.

       EMACS_SERVER_FILE
              Look in this file to discover where to find a TCP Emacs server.  Relative filenames  are  relative
              to "~/.emacs.d/server/" or "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/server/", and the default is "server".  Will be
              overridden by the --server-file option, if present.

       EMACS_SOCKET_NAME
              The filename of the socket to use for communication with the Emacs server.  Relative filenames are
              relative  to  "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/emacs/"  or  "$TMPDIR/".   Will be overridden by the --socket-name
              option, if present.

AUTHOR

       This manual page was originally written by Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@debian.org>,  for  the  Debian
       GNU/Linux system, but is not specific to that system.

COPYING

       This manual page is in the public domain.

GNU Emacs                                          2023-12-23                                     EMACSCLIENT(1)