41 Running Shell Commands from Emacs

Emacs has commands for passing single command lines to inferior shell processes; it can also run a shell interactively with input and output to an Emacs buffer named ‘*shell*’ or run a shell inside a terminal emulator window.

There is a shell implemented entirely in Emacs, documented in a separate manual. See Eshell.

M-! cmd <RET>

Run the shell command line cmd and display the output (shell-command).

M-| cmd <RET>

Run the shell command line cmd with region contents as input; optionally replace the region with the output (shell-command-on-region).

M-x shell

Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively.

M-x term

Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively. Full terminal emulation is available.

M-x eshell

Start the Emacs shell.

• Single Shell: How to run one shell command and return.
• Interactive Shell: Permanent shell taking input via Emacs.
• Shell Mode: Special Emacs commands used with permanent shell.
• Shell Prompts: Two ways to recognize shell prompts.
• History: Repeating previous commands in a shell buffer.
• Directory Tracking: Keeping track when the subshell changes directory.
• Options: Options for customizing Shell mode.
• Terminal emulator: An Emacs window as a terminal emulator.
• Term Mode: Special Emacs commands used in Term mode.
• Paging in Term: Paging in the terminal emulator.
• Remote Host: Connecting to another computer.