Start Emacs.app from CLI

Emacs_starter.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Emacs starter for Emacs mac port

# Thanks to Aquamacs Project and David Reitter

my $args = "";
my $tmpfiles = "";

for my $f (@ARGV) {
  $args .= '"'.$f.'" ';
  $tmpfiles .= '"'.$f.'" ' if (! -e $f);
}

system("touch $args") if ($tmpfiles);
 
system("open -a /Applications/Emacs.app $args");

# delay deletion because AE drag&drop doesn't work with non-existing documents
system("(sleep 3; rm $tmpfiles) &") if ($tmpfiles);
 
exit;

I rewrote this as a shell script and added the capability to accommodate filenames with spaces:

#!/bin/sh

if [ -e '/Applications/Emacs.app' ]; then
  t=()

  if [ ${#@} -ne 0 ]; then
    while IFS= read -r file; do
      [ ! -f "$file" ] && t+=("$file") && /usr/bin/touch "$file"
      file=$(echo $(cd $(dirname "$file") && pwd -P)/$(basename "$file"))
      $(/usr/bin/osascript <<-END
        if application "Emacs.app" is running then
          tell application id (id of application "Emacs.app") to open POSIX file "$file"
        else
          tell application ((path to applications folder as text) & "Emacs.app")
            activate
            open POSIX file "$file"
          end tell
        end if
END
      ) &  # Note: END on the previous line may be indented with tabs but not spaces
    done <<<"$(printf '%s\n' "$@")"
  fi

  if [ ! -z "$t" ]; then
    $(/bin/sleep 10; for file in "${t[@]}"; do
      [ ! -s "$file" ] && /bin/rm "$file";
    done) &
  fi
else
  vim -No "$@"
fi

Since I switched from vi, I can't help but to type vi filename every time, so I saved this script as /usr/local/bin/vi. In the off chance I haven't yet installed Emacs.app, it uses the built in system vim instead.

Thanks @ptb :)

Sorry to ask guys, how can I install this?

@lmartins Paste into a file named emacs (or whatever you want the command to be) in a directory in your path (ahead of the location of the existing emacs command). Then chmod +x /path/to/emacs.

It'd be better to use emacsclient (and kick off Emacs.app as the alternate editor if it's not running already.)

The command open with the argument -a does not need the full application path. It's not useless but if you have installed Emacs in a different location I would consider just to use

system("open -a Emacs $args");

Here's a variation that ensures Emacs.app is launched, waits for it to be ready, and then uses emacsclient to open the file in a GUI frame and wait for edits to be completed.

#!/bin/sh

CLIENT=/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient

$(/usr/bin/osascript <<-END
  tell application ((path to applications folder as text) & "Emacs.app")
    activate
  end tell
END
)

while ! "$CLIENT" -e '"pass"' 2>&1 | grep '"pass"' > /dev/null; do
    sleep 0.3
done

if test "$#" -gt 0; then
    exec "$CLIENT" -c $@
fi

Hi @mwolson, thanks for the update. I believe your starter script works for Nextstep port (although I haven't verify that by myself), but it not works for Mac port. Because Emacs Mac port lacks multi-tty support, which means, emacsclient from mac port can only able to create tty frames but not GUI frames.

@ptb Just curious, why do you use a sub-shell to initialize t in your script? Any reason not to use t="" instead?

Edit: After some digging, I see I was misinterpreting the parentheses and mistaking an array assignment for a sub-shell.

Do I need to start server in emacs config before running this? because emacsclient gives me the following error

emacsclient -c nginx.conf
emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".

I made some small modifications to the script @ptb provided. This variation is callable with or without file args, and will make emacs visible even if it was previously hidden.

The if [ $# -gt 0] block that handles file args is run in the background (see the closing fi &), but its contents run synchronously with respect to each other. That prevents deleting the tempfiles before they've been visited, with no need for sleep.

#!/bin/sh

emacs_app=/usr/local/opt/emacs-mac/Emacs.app

if [ ! -x $emacs_app ]; then
  echo "Emacs.app not found" >&2
  exit 1
fi

/usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"$emacs_app\" to activate" &

if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
  tempfiles=()

  while IFS= read -r filename; do
    if [ ! -f "$filename" ]; then
      tempfiles+=("$filename")
      /usr/bin/touch "$filename"
    fi

    file=$(echo $(cd $(dirname "$filename") && pwd -P)/$(basename "$filename"))
    /usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"$emacs_app\" to open POSIX file \"$file\""
  done <<< "$(printf '%s\n' "$@")"

  for tempfile in "${tempfiles[@]}"; do
    [ ! -s "$tempfile" ] && /bin/rm "$tempfile"
  done
fi &

This will create buffers of any number of existing or non-existing files with or without spaces in their names in a new instance of Emacs.app. emacs_starter file1 file2 file3 ...

#! /usr/bin/env perl
local $" = qq{" "};
my (@have, @havenot);
for (@ARGV) {-e && {push @have, $_} || push @havenot, $_}
system qq{open -a Emacs.app "@have" --args "@havenot"};

If you have an emacs server running, then typing emacsclient file1 file2 file3 ... will use the server.

Anyone know if it's possible to use emacsclient with emacs-mac in a way that opens a new cocoa frame with the -c flag? I've started emacs server using a system plist and am able to connect with /usr/local/opt/emacs-mac/bin/emacsclient, but only in a terminal session.

Interestingly it looks like some people seem to have a bin directory inside of /usr/local/opt/emacs-mac/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS but I do not.

ls -la /usr/local/opt/emacs-mac/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS
total 24912
drwxr-xr-x  4 horace  admin       136 Aug 23 12:38 .
drwxr-xr-x  6 horace  admin       204 Aug 23 12:33 ..
-rwxr-xr-x  1 horace  admin  12747496 Aug 23 12:38 Emacs
-rwxr-xr-x  1 horace  admin      1650 Jul 26 21:44 Emacs.sh

If it's useful to anyone here's the plist I'm using to start the emacs daemon automatically on login:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>gnu.emacs.daemon</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/opt/emacs-mac/bin/emacs</string>
      <string>--daemon</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ServiceDescription</key>
    <string>Gnu Emacs Daemon</string>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>worace</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

Then I have a couple utility functions for restarting it or stopping it as needed:

function emrestart {
    if pgrep "emacs.*daemon" > /dev/null
    then
        echo "killing emacs daemon process"
        $EMACS_BIN_DIR/emacsclient -e "(kill-emacs)"
    fi
  launchctl unload "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/emacsserver.plist" &&
  launchctl load "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/emacsserver.plist"
}

function emstop {
    if pgrep "emacs.*daemon" > /dev/null
    then
        echo "killing emacs daemon process"
        $EMACS_BIN_DIR/emacsclient -e "(kill-emacs)"
    fi
}

Would love to know if anyone has figured out the emacsclient thing though. That's the only thing I seem to be able to do with the default homebrew emacs setup that I haven't figured out with emacs-mac.

@worace If you start the server in a running GUI Emacs instance, emacsclient will connect to it.
It would be ideal to be able to start Emacs as a daemon process, and have GUI Emacs connect to it, but unfortunately I haven't gotten that to work.

@tonylotts do you know if it's possible to have the GUI emacs client connect to an already existing emacs daemon instance?

@worace @johnhamelink
My solution to run GUI emacs through emacsclient is checking Emacs.app whether running. The only configuration you should do is add (server-start) to your emacs init.el, you can see details at my gist

#!/bin/bash
BG_RED=`tput setaf 1`
BG_GREEN=`tput setaf 2`
BOLD=`tput bold`
RESET=`tput sgr0`

EMACS='/Applications/Emacs.app'
EMACS_CLIENT='/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient'

DEFAULT_EVAL='(switch-to-buffer "*scratch*")'
DEFAULT_ARGS="-e"
NO_WAIT='-n'

function run_client(){
    if [ $# -ne 0 ]
    then
        ${EMACS_CLIENT} ${NO_WAIT} $@
    else
        ${EMACS_CLIENT} ${NO_WAIT} ${DEFAULT_ARGS} "${DEFAULT_EVAL}" &> /dev/null
    fi
}

echo -e "Checking Emacs server status...\c"
if pgrep Emacs &> /dev/null
then
    echo "${BOLD}${BG_GREEN}Active${RESET}"
    echo -e "Connecting...\c"
    run_client $*
    echo "${BOLD}${BG_GREEN}DONE${RESET}"
else
    echo "${BOLD}${BG_RED}Inactive${RESET}"
    echo -e "Emacs server is starting...\c"
    open -a ${EMACS}
    echo "${BOLD}${BG_GREEN}DONE${RESET}"

    echo -e "Trying connecting...\c"
    until run_client $* &> /dev/null;[ $? -eq 0 ]
    do
        sleep 1
    done
    echo "${BOLD}${BG_GREEN}DONE${RESET}"
fi

Tested out @ChillingHsu's method from above across a few different builds on macOS High Sierra 10.13 with Emacs 26, and found the following:

• emacsclient works fine if you use emacs-plus.
• emacsclient also works fine with Aquamacs (normal version installed via brew cask install emacs)
• emacsclient doesn't work with emacs-mac, which doesn't install a /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient, and is therefore not available with or without the (server-start) parameter.

I like emacs-mac the most, since it works with my window manager. I currently run it by making EDITOR='open -a /Applications/Emacs.app, which opens the file in the existing window; sort of like having a persistent server.

How to place a hook for when one opens a file via the terminal?

(Using plain Emacs.app - no client/server)

@Vvkmnn

• emacsclient doesn't work with emacs-mac, which doesn't install a /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient, and is therefore not available with or without the (server-start) parameter.

Hello Vivek, I tried to change /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient to /usr/local/bin/emacsclient (emacs-mac). After that, this script would work well.