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#+TITLE: Using emacsclient on MacOS
#+DATE: 2020-06-18T17:10:15-04:00
#+DRAFT: false
#+DESCRIPTION: Getting emacsclient setup nicely on MacOS
#+TAGS[]: macos emacs
#+KEYWORDS[]:
#+SLUG:
#+SUMMARY:
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt MacOS Emacsclient
#+ATTR_HTML: :title MacOS Emacsclient
[[file:cover.png]]
Emacs is an amazing editor, but it can be a little slow to start
sometimes. That's why =emacsclient= lets you run Emacs as a daemon and
connect to it as a client, negating the startup time and letting you
jump directly into editing.
The two primary ways of getting Emacs onto your Mac are by either
downloading it from [[https://emacsformacosx.com/][Emacs For MacOS X]] or by installing it through
[[https://brew.sh/][homebrew]] using =brew cask install emacs=. I prefer the homebrew method
as it automatically adds =emacs= and =emacsclient= to your =$PATH=.
Using it from the command line is a breeze. I have this alias in my
=.bashrc=
#+BEGIN_SRC shell
alias em="emacsclient -t -a ''"
#+END_SRC
This way I can type =em <filename>= to edit a file. =-t= tells
emacsclient to start in terminal mode, and =-a ''= tell it to start the
Emacs daemon process if it isn't already running.
Getting the GUI version to run without first opening the command line
is a little trickier. Homebrew provides an app for =emacs=, but no
launcher for =emacsclient=. The way I've worked around that is by
using [[https://github.com/deseven/icanhazshortcut][iCanHazShortcut]], which lets you bind arbitrary shell commands to
keyboard shortcuts. You can download the app from the [[https://github.com/deseven/icanhazshortcut/releases][release]] area on
github.
To add a new shortcut, download and install iCanHazShortcut, then open
the app and click the =Shortcuts= tab at the top. Then click the plus
in the bottom right corner, click inside the =Shortcut= field, press
the desired shortcut keys, give it an action name, and a command.
#+ATTR_HTML: :title Create a new shortcut
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt create a new shortcut in icanhazshortcut
[[file:create%20new%20shortcut.png]]
#+ATTR_HTML: :title My emacsclient shortcut
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt my emacsclient shortcut
[[file:emacs%20client%20shortcut.png]]
To launch =emacsclient=, I have a shortcut bound to
@@html:<kbd>⌃</kbd> + <kbd>⇧</kbd> + <kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>E</kbd>@@
which runs
#+BEGIN_SRC shell
emacsclient -c -n -a ''
#+END_SRC
The =-c= flag tells =emacsclient= to open a GUI window instead of in
terminal mode. The =-n= flag tells the command to return once the
window is opened, instead of waiting for the client to close. Finally,
like before the =-a ''= flag tells =emacsclient= to start the Emacs
daemon if it isn't already running.
Now all I have to do is press @@html:<kbd>⌃</kbd> + <kbd>⇧</kbd> + <kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>E</kbd>@@
and a new Emacs window pops up with no startup delay!
It's also possible to create an "application" shortcut for
=emacsclient= using [[https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/automator/welcome/mac][Automator]].
Create a new automation as an Application with the Run Shell Script
step. Then add the following as the contents of the script.
#+begin_src shell
/opt/homebrew/bin/emacsclient \
--no-wait \
--quiet \
--suppress-output \
--create-frame \
"$@"
#+end_src
Replacing =/opt/homebrew/bin/emacsclient= with the path to your
=emacsclient= if it's located elsewhere.
Then set =Pass input= to =as arguments=.
#+ATTR_HTML: :title Automator emacsclient script
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt Automator emacsclient script
[[file:emacsclient automator.png]]
Finally place the Automator application in your =/Applications=
directory.
You should now be able to open Emacsclient through spotlight and
associate it with filetypes.
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