NAME

emacsedit − an editor for use in Emacs shell windows

emacsedit args

DESCRIPTION

emacsedit is intended to be used as "the editor" that is invoked by programs running under a shell window, such as mail(1).   It works in conjunction with the process.ml (shell windows) package, which sets up an unexpected process handler to catch EIPC messages.   When invoked, emacsedit tries to send an EIPC message to the Emacs session that is running on the terminal specified by the environment variable EMACSEDIT_TTY (which is set up by process.ml for shells running in shell windows).  The EIPC message contains the arguments that were given to emacsedit.  The Emacs session will edit the file given by the argument in a recursive edit.  When the recursive edit is exited (^C, ^X^C, etc.), Emacs will write the file, send a message to the emacsedit to let it know it has finished, and return to the shell window. 

emacsedit can be used from outside of Emacs.  emacsedit simply starts up a fresh Emacs on the controlling terminal if the environment variable EMACSEDIT_TTY is not set, or if the EIPC connection cannot be made for some reason.  The lack of EMACSEDIT_TTY means that this incarnation of emacsedit was not invoked by an Emacs shell window.  It will start up a new Emacs on the terminal.  If there is one already, they will fight for the terminal. 

Failure to open a connection to the Emacs session running on this terminal may mean one of the following:

-There is no Emacs session running on this terminal.  emacsedit starts one up and tries to send EIPC messages to it every two seconds for a maximum of 40 seconds, after which it gives up and exits.  If the Emacs accepts the connection after it has started up, then it will edit the message using the same mechanism invoked by emacsedit from a shell window.  When you exit that mode via ^C, it writes your message out and exits, returning you to the mail session. 

-emacsedit was invoked from a shell window, but then the invoking Emacs session refused to accept the connection.  This is almost certainly an accident; Emacs should always be ready to accept connections from programs run within shell windows.  In this case, starting up a new Emacs is clearly the wrong thing to do... 

-There was some other problem, such as insufficient system buffer space.  A new Emacs gets started even if there is already another one running.  If there is, they will wind up fighting for the terminal. 

EXAMPLES

To use emacsedit as your editor in berkeley Mail under 4.2bsd, add a line to your .mailrc file that reads as follows (using the path where emacsedit resides on your system, of course):

    set VISUAL=/usr/lib/emacs/emacsedit

This causes the Mail program to invoke emacsedit on the text of the message when you type ~v at the start of a line while typing in a new message. 

SEE ALSO

emacs(1)the Emacs editor

BUGS

Starting up a fresh Emacs if the EIPC connection cannot be made is not really the brightest thing for it to do, because the new Emacs winds up fighting the existing one for the terminal.   Since that doesn’t happen that often, we’ll have to live with it for now. 

Version 2.5r1  —  December 06, 1986