non-interactive shell

non-interactive shell

[B. T. Raven]

Apparently it's not possible to make a new directory with:

  (shell-command (concat "md " path))

where path is some string like

"\\a\\b\\c"

Is it possible at all to make a directory under the default-directory 
with elisp and using a variable rather than a literal string. Of course 
M-! works fine but that requires manual intervention. If this is not 
possible on the w32 port, can it be done in Emacs under Gnu/Linux?


Thanks for any help,

Ed

Re: non-interactive shell

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:27:04 -0600
> From: "B. T. Raven" <nihil@nihilo.net>
> 
> Apparently it's not possible to make a new directory with:
> 
>   (shell-command (concat "md " path))
> 
> where path is some string like
> 
> "\\a\\b\\c"

It works for me.  What happened on your machine, and which version of
Emacs did you use?

> Is it possible at all to make a directory under the default-directory 
> with elisp and using a variable rather than a literal string.

Of course, it is.  But I'd suggest to use Emacs primitives instead of
an external command:

  (make-directory path t)

Re: non-interactive shell

[B. T. Raven]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:27:04 -0600
>> From: "B. T. Raven" <nihil@nihilo.net>
>>
>> Apparently it's not possible to make a new directory with:
>>
>>   (shell-command (concat "md " path))
>>
>> where path is some string like
>>
>> "\\a\\b\\c"
> 
> It works for me.  What happened on your machine, and which version of
> Emacs did you use?

w32 22.1 but I was having trouble with knowing when Emacs would 
translate / into \ when needed. After studying directory-file-name and 
file-directory-name and some other functions new to me, I did get it to 
work.

> 
>> Is it possible at all to make a directory under the default-directory 
>> with elisp and using a variable rather than a literal string.
> 
> Of course, it is.  But I'd suggest to use Emacs primitives instead of
> an external command:
> 
>   (make-directory path t)
> 
> 

That one is new to me too. I'll use it but if I add parents arg I will 
have to learn how to handle the "Cancel" error. I could have found it 
with C-h a but I didn't think the function I needed would be among the 
commands. Is there a way to do apropos with C-h f ?
Anyway since I have cygwin df on this w2000 machine and I recently 
learned here about file-system-info on the "Dired hd drives list" thread 
I was trying to write a quick and dirty "Sneakernet" and backup program, 
polysave ["Save current buffer to other filesystems (i.e. flash drives, 
cd's, dvds, floppy) if they are mounted and with same relative path."]

Thanks, Eli; it (sort of) works now, for what it's worth.

RE: non-interactive shell

[Drew Adams]

> I could have found it with C-h a but I didn't think the
> function I needed would be among the 
> commands. Is there a way to do apropos with C-h f ?

Yes. In Icicles, `C-h f some-regexp S-TAB' shows you all functions whose names
match `some-regexp'. And you can change the regexp on the fly.

And whenever you use a command that expects a function or variable name as
input, you can see the complete help for selected completion candidates that
match your input, using `C-M-RET'.

Icicles also enhances the regular Emacs apropos commands in various ways.

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles_-_Help_on_Candidates

Re: non-interactive shell

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:34:25 -0600
> From: "B. T. Raven" <nihil@nihilo.net>
> 
> >   (make-directory path t)
> > 
> > 
> 
> That one is new to me too. I'll use it but if I add parents arg I will 
> have to learn how to handle the "Cancel" error. I could have found it 
> with C-h a but I didn't think the function I needed would be among the 
> commands. Is there a way to do apropos with C-h f ?

You mean, "M-x apropos-command RET"?

Re: non-interactive shell

[B. T. Raven]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:34:25 -0600
>> From: "B. T. Raven" <nihil@nihilo.net>
>>
>>>   (make-directory path t)
>>>
>>>
>> That one is new to me too. I'll use it but if I add parents arg I will 
>> have to learn how to handle the "Cancel" error. I could have found it 
>> with C-h a but I didn't think the function I needed would be among the 
>> commands. Is there a way to do apropos with C-h f ?
> 
> You mean, "M-x apropos-command RET"?
> 
> 
  Both give me the same prompt anyway:

Apropos command (word list or regexp):

So I think it's ok to refer to the default key bindings for the sake of 
brevity. Anyway, what I wrote about "Cancel" error should refer to 
(write-file filespec confirm) since that needs error handling more often 
than make-directory (and parents).