NAME

       emacsclient - tells a running Emacs to visit a file

SYNOPSIS

       emacsclient [options] files ...

DESCRIPTION

       This  manual  page  documents  briefly  the  emacsclient  command.   Full documentation is
       available in the GNU Info format; see below.

       emacsclient works in conjunction with the built-in Emacs server.

       You can either call emacsclient directly or  let  other  programs  run  it  for  you  when
       necessary.   On GNU and Unix systems many programs consult the environment variable EDITOR
       (sometimes also VISUAL) to obtain the  command  used  for  editing.   Thus,  setting  this
       environment  variable to 'emacsclient' will allow these programs to use an already running
       Emacs for editing.  Other operating systems might have their own methods for defining  the
       default editor.

       For  emacsclient  to work, you need an already running Emacs with a server.  Within Emacs,
       call the functions "server-start" or "server-mode".   (Your  ".emacs"  file  can  do  this
       automatically if you add either "(server-start)" or "(server-mode 1)" to it.)

       When  you've  finished  editing  the buffer, type "C-x #" ("server-edit").  This saves the
       file and sends a message back to the emacsclient program telling it to exit.  The programs
       that  use  EDITOR  wait  for  the  "editor" (actually, emacsclient) to exit.  "C-x #" also
       checks for other pending external requests to edit various files,  and  selects  the  next
       such file.

       If  you  set  the  variable  "server-window"  to a window or a frame, "C-x #" displays the
       server buffer in that window or in that frame.

OPTIONS

       Most options follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two
       dashes ("-").

       +line[:column]
              Go  to  the  specified  line  and column.  A missing column is treated as column 1.
              This option applies only to the next file specified.

       -a, --alternate-editor=COMMAND
              If the Emacs server is not running, run the specified shell command instead.   This
              can  also be specified via the ALTERNATE_EDITOR environment variable.  If the value
              of ALTERNATE_EDITOR is the empty string, run "emacs --daemon"  to  start  Emacs  in
              daemon mode, and try to connect to it.

       -c, --create-frame
              Create a new frame instead of trying to use the current Emacs frame.

       -r --reuse-frame
              Reuse an existing frame if one exists, otherwise create a new frame.

       -F, --frame-parameters=ALIST
              Set the parameters of a newly-created frame.

       -d, --display=DISPLAY
              Tell the server to display the files on the given display.

       -e, --eval
              Do not visit files but instead evaluate the arguments as Emacs Lisp expressions.

       -f, --server-file=FILENAME
              Use  TCP configuration file FILENAME for communication.  This can also be specified
              via the EMACS_SERVER_FILE environment variable.

       -n, --no-wait
              Return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the  buffer  in  Emacs.   If
              combined with --eval, this option is ignored.

       -w, --timeout=N
              How  long  to wait, in seconds, for Emacs to respond before giving up.  The default
              is 0, which means to wait forever.

       -nw, -t, --tty
              Open a new Emacs frame on the current terminal.

       -s, --socket-name=FILENAME
              Use socket named FILENAME for communication.  This can also be  specified  via  the
              EMACS_SOCKET_NAME environment variable.

       -V, --version
              Print version information and exit.

       -H, --help
              Print this usage information message and exit.

EXIT STATUS

       Normally,  the  exit  status  is  0.   If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an
       error, the exit status is 1.

SEE ALSO

       The program is documented fully in Using Emacs as a Server available via the Info system.

AUTHOR

       This manual page was originally written by  Stephane  Bortzmeyer  <bortzmeyer@debian.org>,
       for the Debian GNU/Linux system, but is not specific to that system.

COPYING

       This manual page is in the public domain.