Emacs.md

Setting up Emacs daemon on OS X

Tired of waiting for emacs to start on OS X? This step by step guide will teach you how to install the latest version of emacs and configure it to start in the background (daemon mode) and use emacsclient as your main editor.

Install Homebrew

First you'll need to install the Homebrew package manager if yo haven't already. It is amazing.

Install Cocoa Emacs

brew install emacs --cocoa
open $(brew --prefix)/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/

Drag the Emacs Application to your Applications folder

Create the daemon application

Open the AppleScript editor and paste the following:

tell application "Terminal"
  do shell script "/bin/bash -l -c /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs --daemon"
end

Save this as an Application called "Emacs Daemon" in your Applications folder

Add as a login item

Goto System Preferences > Accounts

• With your user name selected, click on the Login Items tab
• Click on the plus sign
• Browse to your applications folder and find "Emacs Daemon"
• Don't worry about the "hide" checkbox, since it the dock icon disappears naturally

Create the client application

Open the AppleScript editor and paste the following:

tell application "Terminal"
  do shell script "/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/bin/emacsclient -c"
end

Save this as an Application called "Emacs Client" in your Applications folder.

Giving the client application a proper icon

Using the Finder, navigate to your Application folder and right click on your Emacs application (not the client or daemon), and click on Show Package Contents Do the same for the Emacs Client application

Copy the Emacs.icns file from Contents/Resources of the Emacs application to the Contents/Resources of the Emacs Client application Delete applet.icns and rename Emacs.icns to applet.icns in the Emacs Client application.

Hiding the dock icon for Emacs while Emacs Client is running

• Again, navigate to your Application folder and right click on your Emacs application (not the client or daemon), and click on Show Package Contents
• Open the Info.plist using the Property List Editor
• Click Add Child
• Set the key NSUIElement
• Set the value to 1