Re: How to do a massive unfill paragraph operation over several hundred files?

[Gerald Wildgruber <wildgruber@tu-berlin.de>]

Thanks Emanuel and Robert for explanations:

I now have a script unfill.el containing these lines:

------------------------------------------------------------

(require 'org)

;; https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/UnfillParagraph
(defun unfill-paragraph (&optional region)
  "Takes a multi-line paragraph and makes it into a single line of text."
  (interactive (progn (barf-if-buffer-read-only) '(t)))
  (let ((fill-column (point-max)))
    (fill-paragraph nil region)))

(dolist (f argv)
  (find-file f)
  (mark-whole-buffer)
  (unfill-paragraph t)
  (org-forward-paragraph)
  (save-buffer))

------------------------------------------------------------

I call this from a terminal like so:

emacs -Q --batch --script unfill.el FILE.org

Unfortunately, nothing happens; I get two "Mark set" messages in the terminal, but the file itself remains untouched. It isn't edited at all, same timestamp etc.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I have the impression I'm getting something completely wrong here, but can't see what.

Do you?


On Mo, Okt 01 2018, Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com> wrote:

> Gerald Wildgruber <wildgruber@tu-berlin.de> writes:
>
>> On Mo, Okt 01 2018, Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Gerald Wildgruber wrote:
>>>
>>>> But how can I use the unfill-paragraph
>>>> function programmatically (non-interactively)
>>>> in a script
>>>
>>> (unfill-paragraph ARGS)
>>
>> Yes, that is the whole point I didn't understand! What does "ARGS" have to be when called non-interactively in a script. From the doc string of the function:
>>
>> (defun unfill-paragraph (&optional region)
>>   "Takes a multi-line paragraph and makes it into a single line of text."
>>   (interactive (progn (barf-if-buffer-read-only) '(t)))
>>   (let ((fill-column (point-max)))
>>     (fill-paragraph nil region)))
>
> Itʼs optional, which means it will be 'nil' if you donʼt specify it,
> which means (from the docsting of 'fill-paragraph')
>
>     The REGION argument is non-nil if called interactively; in that
>     case, if Transient Mark mode is enabled and the mark is active,
>     call `fill-region' to fill each of the paragraphs in the active
>     region, instead of just filling the current paragraph.
>
> So 'nil' just means 'fill the current paragraph'. It might work for
> you if you mark the whole buffer, and call
>
> (unfill-paragraph t)
>
> instead, since that should take care of iterating over all the
> paragraphs (untested).
>
> Robert


-- 
Dr. Gerald Wildgruber
Institut für Philosophie, Literatur-, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte
Literaturwissenschaft mit Schwerpunkt Literatur und Wissenschaft
Technische Universität Berlin
Straße des 17. Juni 135
D-10623 Berlin
http://www.philosophie.tu-berlin.de/menue/home/
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wildgruber@tu-berlin.de
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