Open an Emacs buffer when a command tries to open an editor in shell-mode

Question

I like to use Emacs\' shell mode, but it has a few deficiencies. One of those is that it\'s not smart enough to open a new buffer when a shell command tries to invoke an editor.

Answer 1

Along with using emacs client/server, I am using this script to invoke emacs.

This will start emacs if it is not running yet, or just open a new emacs buffer in the running emacs (using gnuclient). It runs in the background by default, but can be run in the foreground for processes that expect some input. For example, I am using this as my source control editor, when entering a change list description. I have "SVN_EDITOR=emacs sync", so I can do "svn commit" in an emacs shell, and it will open the svn editor in a new emacs buffer in the same emacs. When I close the buffer, "svn commit" continues. Pretty useful.

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z $EMACS_CMD ]; then
  EMACS_CMD="/usr/bin/emacs"
fi

if [ -z $GNUCLIENT_CMD ]; then
  GNUCLIENT_CMD="/usr/bin/gnuclient"
fi

if [ "$1" = "sync" ]; then
    shift 1
    sync=true
else
    sync=false
fi

cmd="${EMACS_CMD} $*"
lsof $EMACS_CMD | grep $USER >/dev/null 2>&1
if [ "$?" -ne "1" ]; then
    cmd="${GNUCLIENT_CMD} $*"
fi

if [ $sync = "true" ]; then
    $cmd
else
    $cmd &
fi