Dumping emacs

Suppose you have many customizations and you want to dump that into a new binary so that emacs can be started quickly. You might choose dumping new emacs. Here is a simple way to dump without the burden of separate configuration file management. Write your ~/.emacs.el as follows:

(require 'cl)
(defmacro eval-when-dump (&rest body)
  (when (boundp 'eval-when-dump) `(progn ,@body (makunbound 'eval-when-dump))))
(defmacro eval-after-dump (&rest body)
  (unless (boundp 'eval-when-dump) `(progn ,@body)))
(eval-when-dump ...)
(eval-after-dump ...)

$ $EMACS --batch --execute "(setq eval-when-dump t)" -f batch-byte-compile ~/.emacs.el
$ $EMACS --batch -l ~/.emacs.elc --execute "(dump-emacs \"$HOME/xe\" \"$EMACS\")"
$ $EMACS --batch -f batch-byte-compile ~/.emacs.el

A few commands should not be called while dumping. These includes (display-time), (setenv ...), and so on. Gnus needs some hack to be loaded while dumping.

Randum note:

• display-time, setenv and so on should not be evaled while dumping
• inhibit-startup-message is reseted to its default while startup.
• In debian, the package does not build correct image with above mentioned method.
• In solaris, dump fails when the original emacs binary was created using Sun cc with -xO5 option.
• In windows, dump fails. In these failed system, we can still use the traditional site-load.el while building the emacs. (In this case cl package loading and so on needs much more caution.)

Here's a emacs binary replacement to do automatic re-dumping if .emacs.el changes. Save it to emacs and make it an executable and make sure this emacs comes before the real emacs binary(check with type -a in your shell).

#! /bin/sh
DUMPUP=~/.emacs.el
EMACSDIR=/home/jay/build/emacs
PATH=$EMACSDIR/src:$EMACSDIR/lib-src:$PATH
export PATH
if test -n $DUMPUP -a -f $DUMPUP -a $DUMPUP -nt $EMACSDIR/src/xe; then
    pushd $EMACSDIR/src &&
    ./emacs -batch -eval "(setq eval-when-dump t)" -f batch-byte-compile $DUMPUP &&
    ./emacs -batch -l ${DUMPUP}c -eval "(dump-emacs \"xe\" \"emacs\")" &&
    ./emacs -batch -f batch-byte-compile $DUMPUP &&
    popd
fi
exec xe "$@"
   

emacs lisp codes

Here's a list of small emacs lisp scripts I've written.

• accelerate-keyboard.el -- keyboard accelerator
  

  If you have a slow input device, you may need this crude hack. I don't know if there's any way to differentiate the repeated key input from hold the key press, but this quick and dirty hack with suitable interval for disabling the timer will do.

• qs.el -- quick search url
  

  In M$ IE, there is something called, "web accessories" in which you can customize your search engine with one keystroke. (e.g., In your address bar, you can type "g Emacs" for searching Emacs in google.)

  Copy qs.el to your emacs load-path, put in your emacs:
  

  (load "qs" nil t)
(define-key mode-specific-map "d" 'qs-search)

  Now, try "C-c d" and then "g Emacs". That's all!

• advmarks.el -- advanced mark
  

  Actually, it's not my work. It's done by "Kim F.Storm ". It's so convenient.

  Load it in your emacs, and then C-SPC works an before, but now you can type C-u C-SPC C-SPC ... instead of C-u C-SPC C-u C-SPC C-u C-SPC ... . It will be the default behavior in emacs 21.4

• find-tag-hack.el -- find-tag command hack
  

  Once you type M-., you can repeated tag search via C-u M-.. But this hack will teach emacs such that repeated M-. will repeat last tag search.

• gdb-keymap.el -- gdb key map
  

  Load it in your emacs, and eval:
  

  (define-key mode-specific-map "/" 'gdb-keymap-mode)

  By typing C-c /, you can type n, b, t... like command without any ESC, Meta, Alt, Ctrl, Super key. Typing C-c / again, will make your emacs as normal.