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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.   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

       The  programs  follow  the  usual  GNU  command  line syntax, with long
       options starting with two dashes (‘-’).

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

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

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

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

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

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

       -a, --alternate-editor=EDITOR
              if  the  Emacs  server  is not running, run the specified editor
              instead.  This can also be specified via the  ‘ALTERNATE_EDITOR’
              environment  variable.   If  the  value  of  EDITOR is the empty
              string, then Emacs is started in  daemon  mode  and  emacsclient
              will try to connect to it.

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

       -V, --version
              print version information and exit

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

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@debian.org>,  for  the  Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be
       used by others).

COPYING

       This manual page is in the public domain.

                                                                EMACSCLIENT(1)