Instruct emacs --batch to wait for something

Instruct emacs --batch to wait for something

[Rodrigo Morales]

I'm trying to use Emacs as a tool for getting the text representation of
a website. For doing this, I'm using "eww" and I've written the
following command that I intend to use in the command line.

#+begin_src bash
emacs \
  --batch \
  --eval='(eww "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Intro.html")' \
  --eval='(with-current-buffer "*eww*" (princ (buffer-string)))'
#+end_src

The problem with this command is that it shows the following instead of
showing the website.

#+RESULTS:
#+begin_example
Loading https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Intro.html...
#+end_example

My question is: How can I instruct Emacs to wait for something when the
=--batch= flag is used?

Re: Instruct emacs --batch to wait for something

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2021-11-17, at 17:41, Rodrigo Morales <moralesrodrigo1100@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm trying to use Emacs as a tool for getting the text representation of
> a website. For doing this, I'm using "eww" and I've written the
> following command that I intend to use in the command line.
>
> #+begin_src bash
> emacs \
>   --batch \
>   --eval='(eww "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Intro.html")' \
>   --eval='(with-current-buffer "*eww*" (princ (buffer-string)))'
> #+end_src
>
> The problem with this command is that it shows the following instead of
> showing the website.
>
> #+RESULTS:
> #+begin_example
> Loading https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Intro.html...
> #+end_example
>
> My question is: How can I instruct Emacs to wait for something when the
> =--batch= flag is used?

I don't know, but did you try something blunt like
--eval='(sleep-for 5)'?
Of course, this would be very fragile and far from good practice...
Alternatively, maybe `eww-after-render-hook' would be useful?

Hth,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

Re: Instruct emacs --batch to wait for something

[Rodrigo Morales]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> writes:

> I don't know, but did you try something blunt like
> --eval='(sleep-for 5)'?
> Of course, this would be very fragile and far from good practice...
> Alternatively, maybe `eww-after-render-hook' would be useful?

Thanks for the help!

I was able to do what I was looking for with this hack (see code block
below), but now I have another problem: Some newlines are misplaced in
the *eww* buffer, for some reason. Please, continue reading.

#+begin_src dash
emacs \
  -batch \
  --eval="(setq _ (symbol-function 'kill-emacs))" \
  --eval="(fset 'kill-emacs 'ignore)" \
  --eval='(eww "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/org/Introduction.html")' \
  --eval="(add-hook 'eww-after-render-hook (lambda () (with-current-buffer \"*eww*\" (princ (buffer-string))) (funcall _)))"
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
#+begin_example
Next:
Document
Structure,
Previous:
Top,
Up:
Top
 
[Contents][Index]


1
Introduction


 • Summary      Brief summary of what Org does.   
 • Installation      Installing Org.   
 • Activation      How to activate Org for certain buffers.   
 • Feedback      Bug reports, ideas, patches, etc.   
 • Conventions      Typesetting conventions used in this manual.   
#+end_example

I can confirm that newlines are misplaced because when I open the same
URL in a running Emacs instance (the one that I'm also using to write
this response), the following is shown in the *eww* buffer when visiting
the same URL
(https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/org/Introduction.html).

#+BEGIN_SRC text
Next: Document Structure, Previous: Top, Up: Top   [Contents][Index]

1 Introduction

 • Summary      Brief summary of what Org does.   
 • Installation      Installing Org.   
 • Activation      How to activate Org for certain buffers.   
 • Feedback      Bug reports, ideas, patches, etc.   
 • Conventions      Typesetting conventions used in this manual.   
#+END_SRC

Do you know what might be causing this? Any help is appreciated.