Re: Calling external programs in emacs

[John Mastro]

Rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 12:23:46 AM UTC+5:30, Sam Nirvana 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?
>
> Others have already told you about M-! (also to be found on Menu→Tools→Shell 
> Command)
>
> The % trick however does not work OTB in emacs
> Here is some elisp that can help that
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2008-08/msg00482.html

Someone may have already mentioned this, but Emacs's built-in way to
achieve something similar is to type `M-! M-n'. The M-n will cause the
relative file name of the current buffer to be inserted, leaving point
before it.

        John