How to open a file in sh-mode

How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

Hello,

I'm trying to open a file with emacs automatically set on sh-mode.
The file name can't be used to guess that emacs should be in sh-mode
when opening it.

So I tried:

$ emacs -f sh-mode foo

But that doesn't work.

Could anybody give me some advices ?

Thanks
-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Henrik Austad]

On Thursday 14 August 2008 09:53:39 Francis Moreau wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to open a file with emacs automatically set on sh-mode.
> The file name can't be used to guess that emacs should be in sh-mode
> when opening it.
>
> So I tried:
>
> $ emacs -f sh-mode foo
>
> But that doesn't work.
>
> Could anybody give me some advices ?

1) which version of emacs are you using?
2) is it a valid-sh file? i.e. does it start with #!/bin/bash on the first 
line?
3) have you enabled syntax-highlighting in the first place? 
if unsure, add
 (global-font-lock-mode t)
to your ~/.emacs 


I've testet a file foo with the following content

#!/bin/bash
echo "Hello World"

and emacs syntax-highlight this with versions 21, 22, 23.0.50 and 23.0.60 
(although I expect that if it works in one version, it'll work in all).


-- 
Med vennlig hilsen - Yours Sincerely
Henrik Austad

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 10:16 AM, Henrik Austad <henrikau@stud.ntnu.no> wrote:
> On Thursday 14 August 2008 09:53:39 Francis Moreau wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm trying to open a file with emacs automatically set on sh-mode.
>> The file name can't be used to guess that emacs should be in sh-mode
>> when opening it.
>>
>> So I tried:
>>
>> $ emacs -f sh-mode foo
>>
>> But that doesn't work.
>>
>> Could anybody give me some advices ?
>
> 1) which version of emacs are you using?
> 2) is it a valid-sh file? i.e. does it start with #!/bin/bash on the first
> line?

No, it's actually the file created by fc(1) to edit the bash history.

It uses the FCEDIT env variable to launch the editor it going to use.

So I'd like to set it to:

export FCEDIT="emacs -f sh-mode"

so that fc(1) uses emacs as editor in sh-mode directly.

Note that the name of the temporary file is *appended* to what you
specified in FCEDIT.

-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Henrik Austad]

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On Thursday 14 August 2008 11:03:07 Francis Moreau wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 10:16 AM, Henrik Austad <henrikau@stud.ntnu.no> 
wrote:
> > On Thursday 14 August 2008 09:53:39 Francis Moreau wrote:
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> I'm trying to open a file with emacs automatically set on sh-mode.
> >> The file name can't be used to guess that emacs should be in sh-mode
> >> when opening it.
> >>
> >> So I tried:
> >>
> >> $ emacs -f sh-mode foo
> >>
> >> But that doesn't work.
> >>
> >> Could anybody give me some advices ?
> >
> > 1) which version of emacs are you using?
> > 2) is it a valid-sh file? i.e. does it start with #!/bin/bash on the
> > first line?
>
> No, it's actually the file created by fc(1) to edit the bash history.
>
> It uses the FCEDIT env variable to launch the editor it going to use.
>
> So I'd like to set it to:
>
> export FCEDIT="emacs -f sh-mode"
>
> so that fc(1) uses emacs as editor in sh-mode directly.
>
> Note that the name of the temporary file is *appended* to what you
> specified in FCEDIT.

so, basically you are looking for a way of putting #!/bin/bash before the 
output of fc is included?

I don't see any obvious ways of doing this, but, you could, if you wanted to, 
use .bash_history (or the appropriate history-file for your shell) and grep 
for what you want there?

When you set emacs to be the editor, remember that you call emacs with a new 
file as argument, i.e. if you specify foo as a file, emacs will open *both* 
foo and the new file from fc. 

You could, perhaps, add a hook in .emacs as all files created by fc starts 
with [shell]-fc-<numbers>

so basically, I think the question boils down to:

"""
How do I create a hook in my .emacs so that all files starting with bash-fc-* 
will load sh-mode?
"""


-- 
mvh Henrik Austad

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Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Henrik Austad <henrikau@stud.ntnu.no> wrote:
>
> so basically, I think the question boils down to:
>
> """
> How do I create a hook in my .emacs so that all files starting with bash-fc-*
> will load sh-mode?
> """
>

Well that would be the last thing I would do.

My question is:

"""
How do I start emacs in sh-mode from the shell with a file name
appended at the end of the command
"""

It doesn't seem to be all that complex !

-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[David Hansen]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:06:59 +0200 Francis Moreau wrote:

> """
> How do I start emacs in sh-mode from the shell with a file name
> appended at the end of the command
> """

emacs --eval '(progn (find-file "tmp/tst.c") (sh-mode))'

You'll have to write some wrapper script for your use in an env var.

> It doesn't seem to be all that complex!

It will become complex when the file name contains special characters
(mixing sh and emacs quoting is very nasty and I don't know about any
solution).

David

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Henrik Austad]

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On Thursday 14 August 2008 12:06:59 Francis Moreau wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Henrik Austad <henrikau@stud.ntnu.no> 
wrote:
> > so basically, I think the question boils down to:
> >
> > """
> > How do I create a hook in my .emacs so that all files starting with
> > bash-fc-* will load sh-mode?
> > """
>
> Well that would be the last thing I would do.
>
> My question is:
>
> """
> How do I start emacs in sh-mode from the shell with a file name
> appended at the end of the command
> """
>
> It doesn't seem to be all that complex !

ok, I think I got something that works, thanks to all the guys at #emacs for 
this (ams, pgas, bpalmer)

In .emacs add the following:
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("bash-fc" . sh-mode))

then;
export FCEDIT="emacs"

then sh-mode will be loaded when you open files starting with bash-fc

as a test;
echo "Hello World" && fc 

-- 
mvh Henrik Austad

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Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Henrik Austad <henrikau@orakel.ntnu.no> wrote:
> ok, I think I got something that works, thanks to all the guys at #emacs for
> this (ams, pgas, bpalmer)
>
> In .emacs add the following:
> (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("bash-fc" . sh-mode))
>
> then;
> export FCEDIT="emacs"
>
> then sh-mode will be loaded when you open files starting with bash-fc
>
> as a test;
> echo "Hello World" && fc
>

thanks for that but emacs command line option usage look soooo weird


-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Francis Moreau wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Henrik Austad <henrikau@orakel.ntnu.no> wrote:
>> ok, I think I got something that works, thanks to all the guys at #emacs for
>> this (ams, pgas, bpalmer)
>>
>> In .emacs add the following:
>> (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("bash-fc" . sh-mode))
>>
>> then;
>> export FCEDIT="emacs"
>>
>> then sh-mode will be loaded when you open files starting with bash-fc
>>
>> as a test;
>> echo "Hello World" && fc
>>
> 
> thanks for that but emacs command line option usage look soooo weird

Maybe, but as I tried to say before: it is emacsclient, not emacs that 
you normally use to open files in Emacs.

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:06:59 +0200, "Francis Moreau" <francis.moro@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Henrik Austad <henrikau@stud.ntnu.no> wrote:
>>
>> so basically, I think the question boils down to:
>>
>> """
>> How do I create a hook in my .emacs so that all files starting with bash-fc-*
>> will load sh-mode?
>> """
>
> Well that would be the last thing I would do.
>
> My question is:
>
> """
> How do I start emacs in sh-mode from the shell with a file name
> appended at the end of the command
> """
>
> It doesn't seem to be all that complex !

You can probably write a short wrapper script that is used as $FCEDIT to
run the equivalent of:

    emacs --eval "(setq-default default-major-mode 'sh-mode)" file1 file2 ...

That's a bit like "cheating", but it does work.  You are essentially
firing up Emacs with a default-mode of `sh-mode' for new files, which
is nice for editing shell history output.

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Giorgos Keramidas
<keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
>
> You can probably write a short wrapper script that is used as $FCEDIT to
> run the equivalent of:
>
>    emacs --eval "(setq-default default-major-mode 'sh-mode)" file1 file2 ...
>

Hmm I don't why I need a wrapper script in that case, do you have an idea ?

If I try without the wrapper I get:

$ export FCEDIT="emacs -nw --eval \"(setq-default default-major-mode
'sh-mode)\""
$ fc

<emacs is started but I get an error in the Messages window>

("emacs" "--eval" "\"(setq-default" "default-major-mode" "'sh-mode)\""
"/tmp/bash-fc-247955888988243")
Loading encoded-kb...done
Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d/focus-init.el (source)...done
Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d/igrep-init.el (source)...done
Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d/php-mode-init.el (source)...done
Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d/po-mode-init.el (source)...done
Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d/rpm-spec-mode-init.el
(source)...done
Loading easy-mmode...done
Loading easymenu...done
Loading cl-macs...done
Loading paren...done
....
command-line-1: End of file during parsing
Loading cl-seq...done


> That's a bit like "cheating", but it does work.

yes.

-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:01:02 +0200, "Francis Moreau" <francis.moro@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Giorgos Keramidas
> <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
>>
>> You can probably write a short wrapper script that is used as $FCEDIT to
>> run the equivalent of:
>>
>>    emacs --eval "(setq-default default-major-mode 'sh-mode)" file1 file2 ...
>>
>
> Hmm I don't why I need a wrapper script in that case, do you have an idea ?
>
> If I try without the wrapper I get:
>
> $ export FCEDIT="emacs -nw --eval \"(setq-default default-major-mode
> 'sh-mode)\""
> $ fc
>
> <emacs is started but I get an error in the Messages window>
>
> ("emacs" "--eval" "\"(setq-default" "default-major-mode" "'sh-mode)\""
> "/tmp/bash-fc-247955888988243")

See how the command-line arguments have been split in multiple places by
the shell that evaluated $FCEDIT?

That's why I suggested a wrapper script.  To avoid all the obnoxiously
stupid things expansion of $FCEDIT would do, and make sure that there is
only *one* level of quoting you would have to use.

The parenthesized list quoted above shows that Emacs tried to --eval the
expression "\"(setq-default", which isn't a complete Lisp s-exp (and
this is what Emacs is trying to say with the error message).

Using a shell wrapper makes expansion of the --eval argument much more
predictable here, so I tend to prefer that:

    $ cat > /tmp/fcedit.sh
    #!/bin/sh
    emacs --eval "(setq-default default-major-mode 'sh-mode)" "$@"
    ^D
    $ chmod 0755 /tmp/fcedit.sh
    $ export FCEDIT='/tmp/fcedit.sh -nw'
    $ fc

I have a few of these wrappers in my `~/bin' directory, to help me fire
up Emacs with a variety of options, i.e.:

    ~/bin/emacs-no-gui

        This runs `emacs -nw "$@"'.

    ~/bin/utf-emacs

        This sets up LANG, and LC_ALL, clears every other LC_XXX locale
        variable, and then fires up Emacs in `utf-8 mode'.

and so on.

I really hate having to fight with backslashes to get everything right
in tons of nested quotes, quoted quotes and quoted-quoted quotes ad
infinitum, so that's why I like throwing a wrapper here and there :)

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 3:27 PM, Giorgos Keramidas
<keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:01:02 +0200, "Francis Moreau" <francis.moro@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Giorgos Keramidas
>> <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
>>>
>>> You can probably write a short wrapper script that is used as $FCEDIT to
>>> run the equivalent of:
>>>
>>>    emacs --eval "(setq-default default-major-mode 'sh-mode)" file1 file2 ...
>>>
>>
>> Hmm I don't why I need a wrapper script in that case, do you have an idea ?
>>
>> If I try without the wrapper I get:
>>
>> $ export FCEDIT="emacs -nw --eval \"(setq-default default-major-mode
>> 'sh-mode)\""
>> $ fc
>>
>> <emacs is started but I get an error in the Messages window>
>>
>> ("emacs" "--eval" "\"(setq-default" "default-major-mode" "'sh-mode)\""
>> "/tmp/bash-fc-247955888988243")
>
> See how the command-line arguments have been split in multiple places by
> the shell that evaluated $FCEDIT?
>

hmm not really.

Could you tell me what's wrong here ? IOW how emacs have been launched ?

thanks
-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:48:57 +0200, Francis Moreau wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 3:27 PM, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
>> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:01:02 +0200, Francis Moreau wrote:
>>> <emacs is started but I get an error in the Messages window>
>>>
>>> ("emacs" "--eval" "\"(setq-default" "default-major-mode" "'sh-mode)\""
>>> "/tmp/bash-fc-247955888988243")
>>
>> See how the command-line arguments have been split in multiple places by
>> the shell that evaluated $FCEDIT?
>
> hmm not really.
>
> Could you tell me what's wrong here ? IOW how emacs have been launched?

It has been launched with the following command-line arguments:

    arg[0] = "emacs"
    arg[1] = "--eval"
    arg[2] = "\"(setq-default"
    arg[3] = "default-major-mode"
    arg[4] = "'sh-mode)\""
    arg[5] = "/tmp/bash-fc-247955888988243"

The shell that launched $FCEDIT as an editor, looked at its value, saw
that it had space characters in it, and split the $FCEDIT value to
several separate arguments at every unquoted space.

Try firing up Emacs with the following two commands, and look at the
*Messages* buffer to spot the difference:

    emacs -nw "foo" "bar"

    emacs -nw "foo bar"

The first should display:

    ("emacs" "-nw" "foo" "bar")

but the second should display:

    ("emacs" "-nw" "foo bar")

It may be possible to quote FCEDIT's value in some complex manner to
achieve the effect of second list, where the s-exp passed to --eval is a
single entry in the command-line argument list.  Is it worth all the
trouble to get it `right'?  My own personal preference at this point is
to say `No, not really.  I can write a shell wrapper, and be done with
it in half a minute or so' :-)

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[David Hansen]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:53:39 +0200 Francis Moreau wrote:

> Could anybody give me some advices ?

Put "#!/bin/sh" or "# -*- mode: sh; -*-" in the first line of the file.

David

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 10:26 AM, David Hansen <david.hansen@gmx.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:53:39 +0200 Francis Moreau wrote:
>
>> Could anybody give me some advices ?
>
> Put "#!/bin/sh" or "# -*- mode: sh; -*-" in the first line of the file.
>

As I previously replied I can't. Please see my answer to Henrik.

But IMHO that's an ugly workaround anyways

Thanks
-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Thierry Volpiatto]

"Francis Moreau" <francis.moro@gmail.com> writes:

> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 10:26 AM, David Hansen <david.hansen@gmx.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:53:39 +0200 Francis Moreau wrote:
>>
>>> Could anybody give me some advices ?
>>
>> Put "#!/bin/sh" or "# -*- mode: sh; -*-" in the first line of the file.
>>
>
> As I previously replied I can't. Please see my answer to Henrik.
>
> But IMHO that's an ugly workaround anyways

?? starting a shell script without any headers is not very nice i think!
-- 
A + Thierry Volpiatto
Location: Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mer - France

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 11:23 AM, Thierry Volpiatto
<thierry.volpiatto@gmail.com> wrote:
> "Francis Moreau" <francis.moro@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 10:26 AM, David Hansen <david.hansen@gmx.net> wrote:
>>> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:53:39 +0200 Francis Moreau wrote:
>>>
>>>> Could anybody give me some advices ?
>>>
>>> Put "#!/bin/sh" or "# -*- mode: sh; -*-" in the first line of the file.
>>>
>>
>> As I previously replied I can't. Please see my answer to Henrik.
>>
>> But IMHO that's an ugly workaround anyways
>
> ?? starting a shell script without any headers is not very nice i think!

Please have a look in my previous reply to see how is it going to be used...

-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 14.08.2008 um 11:04 schrieb Francis Moreau:

>> Put "#!/bin/sh" or "# -*- mode: sh; -*-" in the first line of the  
>> file.
>>
>
> As I previously replied I can't.


You could set up auto-mode-alist to use a particular mode (Shell- 
script mode) for a particular type of file name ...

--
Greetings

   Pete

People say that if you play Microsoft CD's backwards, you hear  
satanic things, but that's nothing, because if you play them  
forwards, they install MS Windows.

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@web.de> wrote:
>
> Am 14.08.2008 um 11:04 schrieb Francis Moreau:
>
>>> Put "#!/bin/sh" or "# -*- mode: sh; -*-" in the first line of the file.
>>>
>>
>> As I previously replied I can't.
>
>
> You could set up auto-mode-alist to use a particular mode (Shell-script
> mode) for a particular type of file name ...
>

yes that would be possible, but I fail to understand why I can't start
emacs in a specific
mode from the command line.

IOW why can't I simply do ?

     $ emacs -f sh-mode FOO

thanks
-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Francis Moreau wrote:
> yes that would be possible, but I fail to understand why I can't start
> emacs in a specific
> mode from the command line.
> 
> IOW why can't I simply do ?
> 
>      $ emacs -f sh-mode FOO

Because you are doing it in the wrong order. sh-mode will apply to the 
current buffer. Try

   $emacs FOO -f sh-mode

But ... - do you really want to do this? It means you are using a new 
eamcs instance for every file.

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM, Lennart Borgman (gmail)
<lennart.borgman@gmail.com> wrote:
> Francis Moreau wrote:
>>
>> yes that would be possible, but I fail to understand why I can't start
>> emacs in a specific
>> mode from the command line.
>>
>> IOW why can't I simply do ?
>>
>>     $ emacs -f sh-mode FOO
>
> Because you are doing it in the wrong order. sh-mode will apply to the
> current buffer. Try
>
>  $emacs FOO -f sh-mode
>
> But ... - do you really want to do this? It means you are using a new eamcs
> instance for every file.
>

So you mean that I need to this:

$ cat > emacs-ui-is-dumb.sh<<EOF
#! /bin/sh

file=$1; shift
emacs "$@" $file
EOF

and do:

$ export FCEDIT="emacs-ui-is-dumb.sh"

-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Francis Moreau wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM, Lennart Borgman (gmail)
> <lennart.borgman@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Francis Moreau wrote:
>>> yes that would be possible, but I fail to understand why I can't start
>>> emacs in a specific
>>> mode from the command line.
>>>
>>> IOW why can't I simply do ?
>>>
>>>     $ emacs -f sh-mode FOO
>> Because you are doing it in the wrong order. sh-mode will apply to the
>> current buffer. Try
>>
>>  $emacs FOO -f sh-mode
>>
>> But ... - do you really want to do this? It means you are using a new eamcs
>> instance for every file.
>>
> 
> So you mean that I need to this:
> 
> $ cat > emacs-ui-is-dumb.sh<<EOF
> #! /bin/sh
> 
> file=$1; shift
> emacs "$@" $file
> EOF
> 
> and do:
> 
> $ export FCEDIT="emacs-ui-is-dumb.sh"

I do not think I mean that, but maybe if you try to explain your 
intention ... ;-)

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 14.08.2008 um 13:02 schrieb Francis Moreau:

> IOW why can't I simply do ?
>
>      $ emacs -f sh-mode FOO


Could be it needs to be:

	emacs -f '(sh-mode)' FOO

See also the documentation on the function sh-mode.

--
Greetings

   Pete

’Twas a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to  
thank her for it.
				— W.C. Fields

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Francis Moreau]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 2:06 PM, Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@web.de> wrote:
>
> Am 14.08.2008 um 13:02 schrieb Francis Moreau:
>
>> IOW why can't I simply do ?
>>
>>     $ emacs -f sh-mode FOO
>
>
> Could be it needs to be:
>
>        emacs -f '(sh-mode)' FOO
>
> See also the documentation on the function sh-mode.
>

thanks for the tip.
-- 
Francis

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Sebastian Kaps]

// Francis Moreau writes:

> I'm trying to open a file with emacs automatically set on sh-mode.
> The file name can't be used to guess that emacs should be in sh-mode
> when opening it.

Put
,----
| # -*- mode:sh -*-
`----
 at the beginning of that file.

-- 
Ciao, Sebastian

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[Xah]

On Aug 14, 12:53 am, "Francis Moreau" <francis.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to open a file with emacs automatically set on sh-mode.
> The file name can't be used to guess that emacs should be in sh-mode
> when opening it.

If the file content's first line starts with “#!”, then you could use
the magic-mode-alist.

-----------------------------------
How Emacs Choose Modes

Emacs determines what mode to use primarily by 2 mechanisms, in order:
(1) Check the first line in the file, using “magic-mode-alist”. (2)
Check the file name's suffix, using “auto-mode-alist”.

The “magic-mode-alist” is a list that emacs use to match the first
line of a file with a mode. For example, if you want files that begin
with the line “<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 ...” to
always use nxml-mode, then add the following to your “.emacs”:

(add-to-list
 'magic-mode-alist
 '("<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0" . nxml-mode))

The magic-mode-alist is a list. In the above example, the string with
the “DOCTYPE” is a regex, used to match the first line of a file.

If emacs goes thru magic-mode-alist and didn't find any match, then
it'll use auto-mode-alist to check on file name suffix. The “auto-mode-
alist” associates a file name suffix with a mode. For example, if you
want files ending in “.js” to always open with js2-mode, then do:

(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.js\\'" . js2-mode))

Note: The double backslash in the string “\\.js\\'” is used to escape
the backslash. So, the regex engine just got “\.js\'”. The “\.” is to
match a period. The “\'” is one of emacs special regex syntax, to
match end of a string. (See also: Text Pattern Matching in Emacs)

Reference: Elisp Manual: Regexp-Backslash.

You can see what are the values of magic-mode-alist or auto-mode-alist
by typing “Alt+x describe-variable”.

There are few minor details about how emacs determines what mode to
load, but the above should cover vast majority of needs. For detail,
see emacs manual.

Reference: (info "(emacs)Choosing Modes").

--------------------------------------------
above from:
http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_installing_packages.html

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

Re: How to open a file in sh-mode

[David Combs]

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In article <64d8ebaf-0c89-4e9d-9aee-86b4e9414449@o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com>,
Xah  <xahlee@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Aug 14, 12:53 am, "Francis Moreau" <francis.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm trying to open a file with emacs automatically set on sh-mode.
>> The file name can't be used to guess that emacs should be in sh-mode
>> when opening it.
>
>If the file content's first line starts with “#!”, then you could use
>the magic-mode-alist.
>
Xah -- question about the characters in your posts:

If I or someone sees eg a url in one of your posts, and
wants to go to that url (because you've suggested doing that,
maybe), it's a little difficult to just cut-n-paste your string,
what with all the extra control or whatever they are characters
mixed in.

What is that stuff, why is it there, and is it really necessary
for you to include it.

Thanks,

David




>-----------------------------------
>How Emacs Choose Modes
>
>Emacs determines what mode to use primarily by 2 mechanisms, in order:
>(1) Check the first line in the file, using “magic-mode-alist”. (2)
>Check the file name's suffix, using “auto-mode-alist”.
>
>The “magic-mode-alist” is a list that emacs use to match the first
>line of a file with a mode. For example, if you want files that begin
>with the line “<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 ...” to
>always use nxml-mode, then add the following to your “.emacs”:
>
>(add-to-list
> 'magic-mode-alist
> '("<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0" . nxml-mode))
>
>The magic-mode-alist is a list. In the above example, the string with
>the “DOCTYPE” is a regex, used to match the first line of a file.
>
>If emacs goes thru magic-mode-alist and didn't find any match, then
>it'll use auto-mode-alist to check on file name suffix. The “auto-mode-
>alist” associates a file name suffix with a mode. For example, if you
>want files ending in “.js” to always open with js2-mode, then do:
>
>(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.js\\'" . js2-mode))
>
>Note: The double backslash in the string “\\.js\\'” is used to escape
>the backslash. So, the regex engine just got “\.js\'”. The “\.” is to
>match a period. The “\'” is one of emacs special regex syntax, to
>match end of a string. (See also: Text Pattern Matching in Emacs)
>
>Reference: Elisp Manual: Regexp-Backslash.
>
>You can see what are the values of magic-mode-alist or auto-mode-alist
>by typing “Alt+x describe-variable”.
>
>There are few minor details about how emacs determines what mode to
>load, but the above should cover vast majority of needs. For detail,
>see emacs manual.
>
>Reference: (info "(emacs)Choosing Modes").
>
>--------------------------------------------
>above from:
>http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_installing_packages.html
>
>  Xah
>∑ http://xahlee.org/
>
>☄