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Emacs can run compilers for noninteractive languages such as C and Fortran as inferior processes, feeding the error log into an Emacs buffer. It can also parse the error messages and show you the source lines where compilation errors occurred.
When the shell command line is read, the minibuffer appears containing a default command line, which is the command you used the last time you did M-x compile. If you type just RET, the same command line is used again. For the first M-x compile, the default is `make -k'. The default compilation command comes from the variable compile-command; if the appropriate compilation command for a file is something other than `make -k', it can be useful for the file to specify a local value for compile-command (see section Local Variables in Files).
Starting a compilation displays the buffer `compilation' in another window but does not select it. The buffer's mode line tells you whether compilation is finished, with the word `run' or `exit' inside the parentheses. You do not have to keep this buffer visible; compilation continues in any case. While a compilation is going on, the string `Compiling' appears in the mode lines of all windows. When this string disappears, the compilation is finished.
If you want to watch the compilation transcript as it appears, switch to the `compilation' buffer and move point to the end of the buffer. When point is at the end, new compilation output is inserted above point, which remains at the end. If point is not at the end of the buffer, it remains fixed while more compilation output is added at the end of the buffer.
If you set the variable compilation-scroll-output to a non-nil value, then the compilation buffer always scrolls to follow output as it comes in.
To kill the compilation process, do M-x kill-compilation. When the compiler process terminates, the mode line of the `compilation' buffer changes to say `signal' instead of `run'. Starting a new compilation also kills any running compilation, as only one can exist at any time. However, M-x compile asks for confirmation before actually killing a compilation that is running.
To do this, type M-x grep, then enter a command line that specifies how to run grep. Use the same arguments you would give grep when running it normally: a grep-style regexp (usually in single-quotes to quote the shell's special characters) followed by file names, which may use wildcards. The output from grep goes in the `grep' buffer. You can find the corresponding lines in the original files using C-x ` and RET, as with compilation errors.
If you specify a prefix argument for M-x grep, it figures out the tag (see section Tags Tables) around point, and puts that into the default grep command.
The command M-x grep-find is similar to M-x grep, but it supplies a different initial default for the command--one that runs both find and grep, so as to search every file in a directory tree. See also the find-grep-dired command, in section Dired and find.
To parse the compiler error messages sequentially, type C-x ` (next-error). The character following the C-x is the backquote or "grave accent," not the single-quote. This command is available in all buffers, not just in `compilation'; it displays the next error message at the top of one window and source location of the error in another window.
The first time C-x ` is used after the start of a compilation, it moves to the first error's location. Subsequent uses of C-x ` advance down to subsequent errors. If you visit a specific error message with RET or Mouse-2, subsequent C-x ` commands advance from there. When C-x ` gets to the end of the buffer and finds no more error messages to visit, it fails and signals an Emacs error.
C-u C-x ` starts scanning from the beginning of the compilation buffer. This is one way to process the same set of errors again.
Compilation mode also redefines the keys SPC and DEL to scroll by screenfuls, and M-n and M-p to move to the next or previous error message. You can also use M-{ and M-} to move up or down to an error message for a different source file.
The features of Compilation mode are also available in a minor mode called Compilation Minor mode. This lets you parse error messages in any buffer, not just a normal compilation output buffer. Type M-x compilation-minor-mode to enable the minor mode. This defines the keys RET and Mouse-2, as in the Compilation major mode.
Compilation minor mode works in any buffer, as long as the contents are in a format that it understands. In an Rlogin buffer (see section Remote Host Shell), Compilation minor mode automatically accesses remote source files by FTP (see section File Names).
if ($?prompt) set prompt = ...And here's how to do it in bash:
if [ "${PS1+set}" = set ]
then PS1=...
fi
There may well be other things that your shell's init file ought to do
only for an interactive shell. You can use the same method to conditionalize
them.
The MS-DOS "operating system" does not support asynchronous subprocesses; to work around this lack, M-x compile runs the compilation command synchronously on MS-DOS. As a consequence, you must wait until the command finishes before you can do anything else in Emacs. See section Emacs and MS-DOS.
The GUD (Grand Unified Debugger) library provides an interface to various symbolic debuggers from within Emacs. We recommend the debugger GDB, which is free software, but you can also run DBX, SDB or XDB if you have them. GUD can also serve as an interface to the Perl's debugging mode, the Python debugger PDB, and to JDB, the Java Debugger.
Emacs can only run one debugger process at a time.
You can start editing these source files at any time in the buffers that were made to display them. The arrow is not part of the file's text; it appears only on the screen. If you do modify a source file, keep in mind that inserting or deleting lines will throw off the arrow's positioning; GUD has no way of figuring out which line corresponded before your changes to the line number in a debugger message. Also, you'll typically have to recompile and restart the program for your changes to be reflected in the debugger's tables.
If you wish, you can control your debugger process entirely through the debugger buffer, which uses a variant of Shell mode. All the usual commands for your debugger are available, and you can use the Shell mode history commands to repeat them. See section Shell Mode.
The breakpoint commands are usually used in source file buffers, because that is the way to specify where to set or clear the breakpoint. Here's the global command to set a breakpoint:
Because TAB serves as a completion command, you can't use it to enter a tab as input to the program you are debugging with GDB. Instead, type C-q TAB to enter a tab.
Here is a convenient way to define a command that sends a particular command string to the debugger, and set up a key binding for it in the debugger interaction buffer:
(gud-def function cmdstring binding docstring)This defines a command named function which sends cmdstring to the debugger process, and gives it the documentation string docstring. You can use the command thus defined in any buffer. If binding is non-nil, gud-def also binds the command to C-c binding in the GUD buffer's mode and to C-x C-a binding generally.
The command string cmdstring may contain certain `%'-sequences that stand for data to be filled in at the time function is called:
Lisp code for Emacs editing commands is stored in files whose names conventionally end in `.el'. This ending tells Emacs to edit them in Emacs-Lisp mode (see section Executing Lisp Expressions).
To execute a file of Emacs Lisp code, use M-x load-file. This command reads a file name using the minibuffer and then executes the contents of that file as Lisp code. It is not necessary to visit the file first; in any case, this command reads the file as found on disk, not text in an Emacs buffer.
Once a file of Lisp code is installed in the Emacs Lisp library directories, users can load it using M-x load-library. Programs can load it by calling load-library, or with load, a more primitive function that is similar but accepts some additional arguments.
M-x load-library differs from M-x load-file in that it searches a sequence of directories and tries three file names in each directory. Suppose your argument is lib; the three names are `lib.elc', `lib.el', and lastly just `lib'. If `lib.elc' exists, it is by convention the result of compiling `lib.el'; it is better to load the compiled file, since it will load and run faster.
If load-library finds that `lib.el' is newer than `lib.elc' file, it prints a warning, because it's likely that somebody made changes to the `.el' file and forgot to recompile it.
Because the argument to load-library is usually not in itself a valid file name, file name completion is not available. Indeed, when using this command, you usually do not know exactly what file name will be used.
The sequence of directories searched by M-x load-library is specified by the variable load-path, a list of strings that are directory names. The default value of the list contains the directory where the Lisp code for Emacs itself is stored. If you have libraries of your own, put them in a single directory and add that directory to load-path. nil in this list stands for the current default directory, but it is probably not a good idea to put nil in the list. If you find yourself wishing that nil were in the list, most likely what you really want to do is use M-x load-file this once.
Often you do not have to give any command to load a library, because the commands defined in the library are set up to autoload that library. Trying to run any of those commands calls load to load the library; this replaces the autoload definitions with the real ones from the library.
Emacs Lisp code can be compiled into byte-code which loads faster, takes up less space when loaded, and executes faster. See section `Byte Compilation' in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. By convention, the compiled code for a library goes in a separate file whose name consists of the library source file with `c' appended. Thus, the compiled code for `foo.el' goes in `foo.elc'. That's why load-library searches for `.elc' files first.
Lisp programs intended to be run in Emacs should be edited in Emacs-Lisp mode; this happens automatically for file names ending in `.el'. By contrast, Lisp mode itself is used for editing Lisp programs intended for other Lisp systems. To switch to Emacs-Lisp mode explicitly, use the command M-x emacs-lisp-mode.
For testing of Lisp programs to run in Emacs, it is often useful to evaluate part of the program as it is found in the Emacs buffer. For example, after changing the text of a Lisp function definition, evaluating the definition installs the change for future calls to the function. Evaluation of Lisp expressions is also useful in any kind of editing, for invoking noninteractive functions (functions that are not commands).
In Emacs-Lisp mode, the key C-M-x is bound to the command eval-defun, which parses the defun containing or following point as a Lisp expression and evaluates it. The value is printed in the echo area. This command is convenient for installing in the Lisp environment changes that you have just made in the text of a function definition.
C-M-x treats defvar expressions specially. Normally, evaluating a defvar expression does nothing if the variable it defines already has a value. But C-M-x unconditionally resets the variable to the initial value specified in the defvar expression. This special feature is convenient for debugging Lisp programs.
The command C-x C-e (eval-last-sexp) evaluates the Lisp expression preceding point in the buffer, and displays the value in the echo area. It is available in all major modes, not just Emacs-Lisp mode. It does not treat defvar specially.
If C-M-x, C-x C-e, or M-: is given a numeric argument, it inserts the value into the current buffer at point, rather than displaying it in the echo area. The argument's value does not matter.
The most general command for evaluating Lisp expressions from a buffer is eval-region. M-x eval-region parses the text of the region as one or more Lisp expressions, evaluating them one by one. M-x eval-current-buffer is similar but evaluates the entire buffer. This is a reasonable way to install the contents of a file of Lisp code that you are just ready to test. Later, as you find bugs and change individual functions, use C-M-x on each function that you change. This keeps the Lisp world in step with the source file.
The simplest way to use the `scratch' buffer is to insert Lisp expressions and type C-j after each expression. This command reads the Lisp expression before point, evaluates it, and inserts the value in printed representation before point. The result is a complete typescript of the expressions you have evaluated and their values.
The `scratch' buffer's major mode is Lisp Interaction mode, which is the same as Emacs-Lisp mode except for the binding of C-j.
The rationale for this feature is that Emacs must have a buffer when it starts up, but that buffer is not useful for editing files since a new buffer is made for every file that you visit. The Lisp interpreter typescript is the most useful thing I can think of for the initial buffer to do. Type M-x lisp-interaction-mode to put the current buffer in Lisp Interaction mode.
An alternative way of evaluating Emacs Lisp expressions interactively is to use Inferior Emacs-Lisp mode, which provides an interface rather like Shell mode (see section Shell Mode) for evaluating Emacs Lisp expressions. Type M-x ielm to create an `ielm' buffer which uses this mode.
To run an inferior Lisp process, type M-x run-lisp. This runs the program named lisp, the same program you would run by typing lisp as a shell command, with both input and output going through an Emacs buffer named `lisp'. That is to say, any "terminal output" from Lisp will go into the buffer, advancing point, and any "terminal input" for Lisp comes from text in the buffer. (You can change the name of the Lisp executable file by setting the variable inferior-lisp-program.)
To give input to Lisp, go to the end of the buffer and type the input, terminated by RET. The `lisp' buffer is in Inferior Lisp mode, which combines the special characteristics of Lisp mode with most of the features of Shell mode. The definition of RET to send a line to a subprocess is one of the features of Shell mode.
For the source files of programs to run in external Lisps, use Lisp mode. This mode can be selected with M-x lisp-mode, and is used automatically for files whose names end in `.l', `.lsp', or `.lisp', as most Lisp systems usually expect.
When you edit a function in a Lisp program you are running, the easiest way to send the changed definition to the inferior Lisp process is the key C-M-x. In Lisp mode, this runs the function lisp-eval-defun, which finds the defun around or following point and sends it as input to the Lisp process. (Emacs can send input to any inferior process regardless of what buffer is current.)
Contrast the meanings of C-M-x in Lisp mode (for editing programs to be run in another Lisp system) and Emacs-Lisp mode (for editing Lisp programs to be run in Emacs): in both modes it has the effect of installing the function definition that point is in, but the way of doing so is different according to where the relevant Lisp environment is found.
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