Re: Detecting if the Emacs server is running

[Deniz Dogan]

2011/3/18 PJ Weisberg <pjweisberg@gmail.com>:
> Is there a way, in GNU/Linux, to detect whether Emacs is running in
> server mode from a shell script?
>
> I'd like to write a script that creates a new frame with emacsclient
> if the user is already running an emacs server, but just starts up a
> regular Emacs instance if he isn't.
>

See e.g. (info "(emacs) emacsclient Options").

   The other optional arguments recognized by `emacsclient' are listed
below:

`-a COMMAND'
`--alternate-editor=COMMAND'
     Specify a command to run if `emacsclient' fails to contact Emacs.
     This is useful when running `emacsclient' in a script.  For
     example, the following setting for the `EDITOR' environment
     variable will always give you an editor, even if no Emacs server is
     running:

          EDITOR="emacsclient --alternate-editor emacs +%d %s"

     As a special exception, if COMMAND is the empty string, then
     `emacsclient' starts Emacs in daemon mode and then tries
     connecting again.

     The environment variable `ALTERNATE_EDITOR' has the same effect as
     the `-a' option.  If both are present, the latter takes precedence.

-- 
Deniz Dogan