find a file and put it in a window

find a file and put it in a window

[Jasen]

Hi all,

Would someone please advise me how can I resolve this problem:

I would like to find a file in a directory through a shell command:

;; Get the newest version of file
   (setq file (string (shell command "ls -tc 
C:\\dir1\\dir2\\dir3/file*.txt | head -1")))

;; Put the file is a windows
   (find-file-other-window file)

The problem is that either Emacs or Windows can't interpret the full
file name along with directory path correctly and I don't know how to
fix it?

Thanks,
Austin

find a file and put it in a window

[Jasen]

Hi all,

Would someone please advise me how can I resolve this problem:

I would like to find a file in a directory through a shell command:

;; Get the newest version of file
   (setq file (string (shell command "ls -tc 
C:\\dir1\\dir2\\dir3/file*.txt | head -1")))

;; Put the file is a windows
   (find-file-other-window file)

The problem is that either Emacs or Windows can't interpret the full
file name along with directory path correctly and I don't know how to
fix it?

Thanks,
Austin

Re: find a file and put it in a window

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jasen <xx@yy.zz>
> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:28:38 -0700
> 
> I would like to find a file in a directory through a shell command:
> 
> ;; Get the newest version of file
>    (setq file (string (shell command "ls -tc 
> C:\\dir1\\dir2\\dir3/file*.txt | head -1")))
> 
> ;; Put the file is a windows
>    (find-file-other-window file)
> 
> The problem is that either Emacs or Windows can't interpret the full
> file name along with directory path correctly and I don't know how to
> fix it?

I think the problem is that the string you get includes a newline
after the name of the file.  You need to remove that before you use
the string as a file name.

(You can see what string Emacs gets by using shell-command-to-string.)

Re: find a file and put it in a window

[Jasen]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>>From: Jasen <xx@yy.zz>
>>Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
>>Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:28:38 -0700
>>
>>I would like to find a file in a directory through a shell command:
>>
>>;; Get the newest version of file
>>   (setq file (string (shell command "ls -tc 
>>C:\\dir1\\dir2\\dir3/file*.txt | head -1")))
>>
>>;; Put the file is a windows
>>   (find-file-other-window file)
>>
>>The problem is that either Emacs or Windows can't interpret the full
>>file name along with directory path correctly and I don't know how to
>>fix it?
> 
> 
> I think the problem is that the string you get includes a newline
> after the name of the file.  You need to remove that before you use
> the string as a file name.
> 
> (You can see what string Emacs gets by using shell-command-to-string.)
> 
> 

Ok, I'm almost there but Emacs gets me an empty new file rather than the 
  existing file?  Could this be the problem of space in the directory 
path because I'm using Windows XP and there are spaces in the path? 
c:/Documents and Settings/austin/Local Settings/Temp

Thanks,
Austin

Re: find a file and put it in a window

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jasen <xx@yy.zz>
> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 22:34:40 -0700
> 
> Ok, I'm almost there but Emacs gets me an empty new file rather than the 
>   existing file?  Could this be the problem of space in the directory 
> path because I'm using Windows XP and there are spaces in the path? 
> c:/Documents and Settings/austin/Local Settings/Temp

I don't think it should matter in this case, but it's easy to check:
just run the same code on a directory where the result of the shell
command gives you a file name without embedded whitespace, and see if
that succeeds.