Re: & and M-& to run programs asynchronously

[Juri Linkov]

> Thanks for the patch to bind & to dired-do-async-shell-command in dired.

It is installed now.

> I suppose the next step is to do the same for async-shell-command and bind it 
> to M-&
> That's in simple.el. A function can read the user's input, add "&",
> and pass the command to shell-command.

This can be done with the following patch that adds a new command
`async-shell-command'.  I also noticed that code that sets
`minibuffer-default-add-shell-commands' could be moved from the
interactive spec of `shell-command' to `read-shell-command' so this
feature will be available for all functions that read a shell command
from the minibuffer (including a new command `async-shell-command').

Index: lisp/bindings.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/emacs/emacs/lisp/bindings.el,v
retrieving revision 1.209
diff -c -r1.209 bindings.el
*** lisp/bindings.el    30 Jun 2008 19:37:02 -0000      1.209
--- lisp/bindings.el    29 Jul 2008 16:48:03 -0000
***************
*** 746,751 ****
--- 749,755 ----
  
  (define-key esc-map "!" 'shell-command)
  (define-key esc-map "|" 'shell-command-on-region)
+ (define-key esc-map "&" 'async-shell-command)
  
  (define-key ctl-x-map [right] 'next-buffer)
  (define-key ctl-x-map [C-right] 'next-buffer)

Index: lisp/simple.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/emacs/emacs/lisp/simple.el,v
retrieving revision 1.939
diff -c -r1.939 simple.el
*** lisp/simple.el      27 Jul 2008 18:24:31 -0000      1.939
--- lisp/simple.el      29 Jul 2008 16:46:20 -0000
***************
*** 2011,2021 ****
  The arguments are the same as the ones of `read-from-minibuffer',
  except READ and KEYMAP are missing and HIST defaults
  to `shell-command-history'."
!   (apply 'read-from-minibuffer prompt initial-contents
!          minibuffer-local-shell-command-map
!          nil
!          (or hist 'shell-command-history)
!          args))
  
  (defun shell-command (command &optional output-buffer error-buffer)
    "Execute string COMMAND in inferior shell; display output, if any.
--- 2004,2035 ----
  The arguments are the same as the ones of `read-from-minibuffer',
  except READ and KEYMAP are missing and HIST defaults
  to `shell-command-history'."
!   (minibuffer-with-setup-hook
!       (lambda ()
!       (set (make-local-variable 'minibuffer-default-add-function)
!            'minibuffer-default-add-shell-commands))
!     (apply 'read-from-minibuffer prompt initial-contents
!          minibuffer-local-shell-command-map
!          nil
!          (or hist 'shell-command-history)
!          args)))
! 
! (defun async-shell-command (command &optional output-buffer error-buffer)
!   "Execute string COMMAND asynchronously.
! 
! Like `shell-command' but if COMMAND doesn't end in ampersand, adds `&'
! surrounded by whitespace and executes the command asynchronously.
! The output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell Command*'."
!   (interactive
!    (list
!     (read-shell-command "Async shell command: " nil nil
!                       (and buffer-file-name
!                            (file-relative-name buffer-file-name)))
!     current-prefix-arg
!     shell-command-default-error-buffer))
!   (unless (string-match "&[ \t]*\\'" command)
!     (setq command (concat command " &")))
!   (shell-command command output-buffer error-buffer))
  
  (defun shell-command (command &optional output-buffer error-buffer)
    "Execute string COMMAND in inferior shell; display output, if any.
***************
*** 2069,2081 ****
  
    (interactive
     (list
!     (minibuffer-with-setup-hook
!       (lambda ()
!         (set (make-local-variable 'minibuffer-default-add-function)
!              'minibuffer-default-add-shell-commands))
!       (read-shell-command "Shell command: " nil nil
!                         (and buffer-file-name
!                              (file-relative-name buffer-file-name))))
      current-prefix-arg
      shell-command-default-error-buffer))
    ;; Look for a handler in case default-directory is a remote file name.
--- 2083,2091 ----
  
    (interactive
     (list
!     (read-shell-command "Shell command: " nil nil
!                       (and buffer-file-name
!                            (file-relative-name buffer-file-name)))
      current-prefix-arg
      shell-command-default-error-buffer))
    ;; Look for a handler in case default-directory is a remote file name.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/