2 @node Command Switches, Startup Paths, Exiting, Top
3 @section Command Line Switches and Arguments
4 @cindex command line arguments
5 @cindex arguments (from shell)
7 XEmacs supports command line arguments you can use to request
8 various actions when invoking Emacs. The commands are for compatibility
9 with other editors and for sophisticated activities. If you are using
10 XEmacs under the X window system, you can also use a number of
11 standard Xt command line arguments. Command line arguments are not usually
12 needed for editing with Emacs; new users can skip this section.
14 Many editors are designed to be started afresh each time you want to
15 edit. You start the editor to edit one file; then exit the editor. The
16 next time you want to edit either another file or the same one, you
17 start the editor again. Under these circumstances, it makes sense to use a
18 command line argument to say which file to edit.
20 The recommended way to use XEmacs is to start it only once, just
21 after you log in, and do all your editing in the same Emacs process.
22 Each time you want to edit a file, you visit it using the existing
23 Emacs. Emacs creates a new buffer for each file, and (unless you kill
24 some of the buffers) Emacs eventually has many files in it ready for
25 editing. Usually you do not kill the Emacs process until you are about
26 to log out. Since you usually read files by typing commands to Emacs,
27 command line arguments for specifying a file when Emacs is started are seldom
30 Emacs accepts command-line arguments that specify files to visit,
31 functions to call, and other activities and operating modes. If you
32 are running XEmacs under the X window system, a number of standard Xt
33 command line arguments are available, as well as a few X parameters
34 that are XEmacs-specific.
36 Options with long names with a single initial hyphen are also
37 recognized with the GNU double initial hyphen syntax. (The reverse
40 The following subsections list:
43 Command line arguments that you can always use
45 Command line arguments that have to appear at the beginning of the
48 Command line arguments that are only relevant if you are running XEmacs
52 @subsection Command Line Arguments for Any Position
53 Command line arguments are processed in the order they appear on the
54 command line; however, certain arguments (the ones in the
55 second table) must be at the front of the list if they are used.
57 Here are the arguments allowed:
61 Visit @var{file} using @code{find-file}. @xref{Visiting}.
63 @item +@var{linenum} @var{file}
64 Visit @var{file} using @code{find-file}, then go to line number
67 @item -load @var{file}
69 Load a file @var{file} of Lisp code with the function @code{load}.
70 @xref{Lisp Libraries}.
72 @item -funcall @var{function}
73 @itemx -f @var{function}
74 Call Lisp function @var{function} with no arguments.
76 @item -eval @var{function}
77 Interpret the next argument as a Lisp expression, and evaluate it.
78 You must be very careful of the shell quoting here.
80 @item -insert @var{file}
82 Insert the contents of @var{file} into the current buffer. This is like
83 what @kbd{M-x insert-buffer} does; @xref{Misc File Ops}.
86 Exit from Emacs without asking for confirmation. Always the last
87 argument processed, no matter where it appears in the command line.
91 Prints version information. This implies @samp{-batch}.
95 XEmacs 19.13 of Mon Aug 21 1995 on willow (usg-unix-v) [formerly Lucid Emacs]
99 Prints a summary of command-line options and then exits.
102 @subsection Command Line Arguments (Beginning of Line Only)
103 The following arguments are recognized only at the beginning of the
104 command line. If more than one of them appears, they must appear in the
105 order in which they appear in this table.
110 Print the ID for the new portable dumper's dump file on the terminal and
111 exit. (Prints an error message and exits if XEmacs was not configured
116 Don't load the dump file. Roughly equivalent to old temacs. (Ignored if
117 XEmacs was not configured @samp{--pdump}.)
119 @item --terminal @var{file}
121 Use @var{file} instead of the terminal for input and output. This
122 implies the @samp{-nw} option, documented below.
126 Run Emacs in @dfn{batch mode}, which means that the text being edited is
127 not displayed and the standard Unix interrupt characters such as
128 @kbd{C-z} and @kbd{C-c} continue to have their normal effect. Emacs in
129 batch mode outputs to @code{stderr} only what would normally be printed
130 in the echo area under program control.
132 Batch mode is used for running programs written in Emacs Lisp from shell
133 scripts, makefiles, and so on. Normally the @samp{-l} switch or
134 @samp{-f} switch will be used as well, to invoke a Lisp program to do
135 the batch processing.
137 @samp{-batch} implies @samp{-q} (do not load an init file). It also
138 causes Emacs to kill itself after all command switches have been
139 processed. In addition, auto-saving is not done except in buffers for
140 which it has been explicitly requested.
144 Start up XEmacs in TTY mode (using the TTY XEmacs was started from),
145 rather than trying to connect to an X display. Note that this happens
146 automatically if the @samp{DISPLAY} environment variable is not set.
149 Enter the debugger if an error in the init file occurs.
152 Displays information on how XEmacs constructs the various paths into its
153 hierarchy on startup. (See also @pxref{Startup Paths}.)
156 Do not map the initial frame. This is useful if you want to start up
157 XEmacs as a server (e.g. for gnuserv screens or external client widgets).
161 Do not load your Emacs init file. @xref{Init File}.
164 Do not load the site-specific init file @file{lisp/site-start.el}.
167 Do not load global symbol files (@file{auto-autoloads}) at startup.
168 This implies @samp{-vanilla}.
170 @item -no-early-packages
171 Do not process early packages. (For more information on startup issues
172 concerning the package system, @xref{Startup Paths}.)
175 This is equivalent to @samp{-q -no-site-file -no-early-packages}.
177 @item -user-init-file @var{file}
178 Load @var{file} as your Emacs init file instead of
179 @file{~/.xemacs/init.el}/@file{~/.emacs}.
181 @item -user-init-directory @var{directory}
182 Use @var{directory} as the location of your early package hierarchies
183 and the various user-specific initialization files.
185 @item -user @var{user}
187 Equivalent to @samp{-user-init-file ~@var{user}/.xemacs/init.el
188 -user-init-directory ~@var{user}/.xemacs}, or @samp{-user-init-file
189 ~@var{user}/.emacs -user-init-directory ~@var{user}/.xemacs}, whichever
190 init file comes first. @xref{Init File}.
194 @vindex command-line-args
195 Note that the init file can get access to the command line argument
196 values as the elements of a list in the variable
197 @code{command-line-args}. (The arguments in the second table above will
198 already have been processed and will not be in the list.) The init file
199 can override the normal processing of the other arguments by setting
202 One way to use command switches is to visit many files automatically:
209 passes each @code{.c} file as a separate argument to Emacs, so that
210 Emacs visits each file (@pxref{Visiting}).
212 Here is an advanced example that assumes you have a Lisp program file
213 called @file{hack-c-program.el} which, when loaded, performs some useful
214 operation on the current buffer, expected to be a C program.
217 xemacs -batch foo.c -l hack-c-program -f save-buffer -kill > log
221 Here Emacs is told to visit @file{foo.c}, load @file{hack-c-program.el}
222 (which makes changes in the visited file), save @file{foo.c} (note that
223 @code{save-buffer} is the function that @kbd{C-x C-s} is bound to), and
224 then exit to the shell from which the command was executed. @samp{-batch}
225 guarantees there will be no problem redirecting output to @file{log},
226 because Emacs will not assume that it has a display terminal to work
229 @subsection Command Line Arguments (for XEmacs Under X)
230 @vindex frame-title-format
231 @vindex frame-icon-title-format
232 If you are running XEmacs under X, a number of options are
233 available to control color, border, and window title and icon name:
236 @item -title @var{title}
237 @itemx -wn @var{title}
238 @itemx -T @var{title}
239 Use @var{title} as the window title. This sets the
240 @code{frame-title-format} variable, which controls the title of the X
241 window corresponding to the selected frame. This is the same format as
242 @code{mode-line-format}.
244 @item -iconname @var{title}
245 @itemx -in @var{title}
246 Use @var{title} as the icon name. This sets the
247 @code{frame-icon-title-format} variable, which controls the title of
248 the icon corresponding to the selected frame.
250 @item -mc @var{color}
251 Use @var{color} as the mouse color.
253 @item -cr @var{color}
254 Use @var{color} as the text-cursor foreground color.
257 Install a private colormap for XEmacs.
260 In addition, XEmacs allows you to use a number of standard Xt
261 command line arguments.
265 @item -background @var{color}
266 @itemx -bg @var{color}
267 Use @var{color} as the background color.
269 @item -bordercolor @var{color}
270 @itemx -bd @var{color}
271 Use @var{color} as the border color.
273 @item -borderwidth @var{width}
274 @itemx -bw @var{width}
275 Use @var{width} as the border width.
277 @item -display @var{display}
278 @itemx -d @var{display}
279 When running under the X window system, create the window containing the
280 Emacs frame on the display named @var{display}.
282 @item -foreground @var{color}
283 @itemx -fg @var{color}
284 Use @var{color} as the foreground color.
286 @item -font @var{name}
287 @itemx -fn @var{name}
288 Use @var{name} as the default font.
290 @item -geometry @var{spec}
291 @itemx -geom @var{spec}
293 Use the geometry (window size and/or position) specified by @var{spec}.
299 Bring up Emacs in reverse video.
301 @item -name @var{name}
302 Use the resource manager resources specified by @var{name}.
303 The default is to use the name of the program (@code{argv[0]}) as
304 the resource manager name.
307 Read something into the resource database for this invocation of Emacs only.