Re: Calling external programs in emacs

[Joost Kremers]

On Fri, Jan 13 2017, James K. Lowden wrote:
> On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 18:53:42 +0000 (UTC)
> Sam Nirvana <samnirvana@linux.org> wrote:
>
> > I'm new to emacs, so forgive my inexperience.
> >
> > As you know, with Vim I can compile, say, a TeX file from 
> > within the 
> > editor with the following command:
> >
> >         :!pdftex %
> >
> > Is there a way to do the same thing with emacs?
>
> The emacs function you want is called shell-function.  It's 
> usually
> mapped to M-! (meta-bang).  You can verify that with either 
>
>         C-h f shell-function
> or
>         C-h k M-!
>
> To run asynchronously, see async-shell-function, usually M-&.  

It should perhaps be pointed out that while M-! works to call 
`shell-command', Emacs usually provides some interface to the most 
commond commands you may want to call for a specific file type. So 
running pdftex on a file doesn't require calling M-! and typing 
out the command. Personally, I use AUCTeX (which you should really 
check out if you use TeX or LaTeX), which makes it possible to 
call TeX & friends with C-c C-c. It even tries to guess what 
command you're most likely to execute next. 



--
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments