emacs -nw hangs on redirect

emacs -nw hangs on redirect

[Victor Lesk]

Hi emacs,

I'm running emacs 21.2.1 on a linux ix86.

in bash, the command
emacs -nw > out.txt
hangs.

(the command emacs  > out.txt works fine).

Can you explain why/suggest a workaround?

Thank you

Victor Lesk

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Re: emacs -nw hangs on redirect

[Richard Stallman]

    I'm running emacs 21.2.1 on a linux ix86.

If it is capable of running Emacs, it must have more than just Linux
on it.  Linux is a kernel, and a kernel alone is not capable of
running programs like Emacs.  You must have the GNU/Linux operating
system installed.

When you call the entire system "Linux", you give the system's
principal developers none of the credit.  And yet here you are asking
us to help you out.  Please start treating us right.  (See
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html for more explanation.)

    in bash, the command
    emacs -nw > out.txt
    hangs.

-nw tells emacs to use an ordinary tty.  I doubt it could manage with
a file that is not a tty.  Probably what you want is -batch.  Please
see the Emacs manual for documentation of these options.

Re: emacs -nw hangs on redirect

[David Kastrup]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     I'm running emacs 21.2.1 on a linux ix86.
> 
> If it is capable of running Emacs, it must have more than just Linux
> on it.  Linux is a kernel, and a kernel alone is not capable of
> running programs like Emacs.  You must have the GNU/Linux operating
> system installed.

Actually, if I remember correctly, there are non-GNU environments for
Linux available too (certainly for some embedded systems, and I think
there was even a proof-of-concept BSD flavor system with a Linux
kernel).  But it would appear unlikely that he was using one of those.

> When you call the entire system "Linux", you give the system's
> principal developers none of the credit.

I would not go as far as to claim the kernel and system utility
developers are not also principal developers of the system.  And I
don't think that he was intending to give _anybody_ credit just by
trying to specify his system.  When somebody calls me just by my given
name, I don't assume that he is trying to give credit to the father of
Solomon for me, but denying my parents appreciation.

> And yet here you are asking us to help you out.  Please start
> treating us right.

If you talk for yourself, the proper pronoun to use here is "me".  He
was writing to an Emacs developer list, and I find it somewhat out of
balance to call all Emacs developers principal developers of GNU/Linux
systems while denying the kernel developers that title.

> (See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html for more
> explanation.)

Quite so.  There is really not much point in repeating here what is
already available for perusal elsewhere and in a better reviewed (and
thus probably less misconstruable) form than what one can come up with
in a moment oneself.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: emacs -nw hangs on redirect

[Richard Stallman]

    Actually, if I remember correctly, there are non-GNU environments for
    Linux available too (certainly for some embedded systems, and I think
    there was even a proof-of-concept BSD flavor system with a Linux
    kernel).  But it would appear unlikely that he was using one of those.

GNU is not an "environment for Linux".  GNU is an operating system
which we began developing in 1984.  Linux is a kernel that came along
many years later and is typically used together with GNU.

It is possible to use Linux without the GNU system, but then you don't
have a Unix-like operating system, just a kernel.  That is only done
in embedded systems.

    > When you call the entire system "Linux", you give the system's
    > principal developers none of the credit.

    I would not go as far as to claim the kernel and system utility
    developers are not also principal developers of the system.  And I
    don't think that he was intending to give _anybody_ credit just by
    trying to specify his system.

I would expect he had no intentions about it one way or the other, and was
simply following the usage he had seen elsewhere.

But intentions aside, it's a fact that calling the whole system Linux
gives the credit for the whole system to someone who came along seven
years after we (the GNU Project) started it.

You pointed out that one sentence in my message was not entirely
clear:

    > And yet here you are asking us to help you out.  Please start
    > treating us right.

In that context, "us" refers to the developers of the GNU system,
which includes the developers of GNU Emacs and those of many other
GNU programs.

Thanks.

Re: emacs -nw hangs on redirect

[Barry Margolin]

In article <mailman.3114.1067953597.21628.bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
Victor Lesk <victorlesk@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Hi emacs,
>
>I'm running emacs 21.2.1 on a linux ix86.
>
>in bash, the command
>emacs -nw > out.txt
>hangs.
>
>(the command emacs  > out.txt works fine).
>
>Can you explain why/suggest a workaround?

What are you trying to accomplish?  Emacs expects its stdin and stdout to
be a video terminal or emulator that it can perform cursor control on.  It
doesn't make much sense to redirect its output to a file.

If you want to capture the output of Emacs, run it inside a "script"
session.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com
Level(3), Woburn, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.