mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Mike Williams) (05/20/91)
Archive-name: gnu/emacs/gnuserv/1991-05-19 Archive: cs.umn.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnuserv.tar.Z [128.101.224.1] Original-posting-by: mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Mike Williams) Original-subject: Re: What is emacsclient/server/gnuserv? Reposted-by: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN) >>> In article <STEINARB.91May18185940@fenris.idt.unit.no>, >>> "Steinar" == steinarb@idt.unit.no (Steinar Bang) writes: Steinar> These concepts surface in the GNU newsgroups from time to time. I have Steinar> a vague idea (which may have no relation to reality whatsoever ;-) Steinar> about what they are: Steinar> 1. emacsclient: This is a "lightweight" emacs that have only a few Steinar> buffers of its own (only one perhaps?). It edits a Steinar> text file/text buffer piped down to it through a Steinar> socket connection/pipe from another program. It has Steinar> no file operations of its own(?). Steinar> 2. emacsserver: This is a server process that maintains buffers, Steinar> reads and writes files, runs emacs lisp commands, Steinar> controls sub-processes and creates/destroys Steinar> emacsclients at need. Steinar> 3. gnuserv : The original emacs server, written by Andy Norman. * emacsclient/server is a system that allows you to send REQUESTS to edit files to an existing Emacs process. You can tell emacs to start a server process using "(server-start)". Any emacsclient process can then contact the server process, specifying a file path (and possibly line number), and the server will then signal Emacs to edit the specified file. Note that this assumes that the emacsclient and Emacs itself both see the same file system (so that they're talking about the same file). Note that neither emacsclient or the server have any direct support for files, buffers, etc --- they are simply a means of contacting an existing Emacs process. * gnuserv/gnuclient is Andy Norman's replacement for the standard Emacs client/server. It provides a slightly more robust implementation, and one better suited for running Emacs and clients on different machines (ie. it's more network-aware). The gnuserv package also includes a program called gnudoit, which allows you to request an Emacs process to evaluate an arbitrary elisp form. This can be useful for invoking Emacs functions from a shell script or X Window Manager menu. These packages are useful if you wish to use emacs as your text editor for other interactive programs (news/mail readers being the main example), without having the overhead of starting up a new Emacs each time. emacsclient/server is standard with the Emacs distribution (look for /usr/local/emacs/emacsclient, /usr/local/emacs/lisp/server.el). I'm sure gnuserv must be availble for FTP somewhere ... contact Andy Norman <ange@hplb.hpl.hp.com> for details. -- /-------------------- mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz ---------------------\ | Mike Williams, Computer Science, Auckland University, Aotearoa. | \-------------- What's another word for Thesaurus? ---------------/ -- New administrater uofa. -- comp.archives file verification cs.umn.edu -rw-r--r-- 1 468 8 37352 Dec 6 17:37 /pub/gnu/emacs/gnuserv.tar.Z found gnuserv ok cs.umn.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/gnuserv.tar.Z