Using Emacs as a server and opening only one window exactly, which should be maximized

Question

I'd like to run my Emacs in daemon mode, and then use emacsclient to actually display things. However, if I run emacsclient filename, it shows up in the terminal, which isn't what I want; I instead have to pass it the -c option.

However, that option always creates a new frame, which isn't what I want - I'd rather just have one frame, and have stuff open in a new buffer in the same frame if it already exists; otherwise, it should make me a new frame. However, I'm not sure how to do this.

Additionally, I want that one frame to be maximized, which I usually achieve my starting Emacs with the -mm option; how would I ensure that a frame made by emacsclient is also maximized?

Answer 1

For having every new frame maximized, you could add this to your .emacs:

(modify-all-frames-parameters '((fullscreen . maximized))))

Answer 2

The following script does the following:

• start Emacs server if necessary
• if there are no open frames, open a new one
• open the given file(s) in the current frame

#!/bin/bash

# Selected options for "emacsclient"
#
# -c          Create a new frame instead of trying to use the current
#             Emacs frame.
#
# -e          Evaluate the FILE arguments as ELisp expressions.
#
# -n          Don't wait for the server to return.
#
# -t          Open a new Emacs frame on the current terminal.
#
# Note that the "-t" and "-n" options are contradictory: "-t" says to
# take control of the current text terminal to create a new client frame,
# while "-n" says not to take control of the text terminal.  If you
# supply both options, Emacs visits the specified files(s) in an existing
# frame rather than a new client frame, negating the effect of "-t".

# check whether an Emacs server is already running
pgrep -l "^emacs$" > /dev/null

# otherwise, start Emacs server daemon
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    emacs --daemon
fi

# return a list of all frames on $DISPLAY
emacsclient -e "(frames-on-display-list \"$DISPLAY\")" &>/dev/null

# open frames detected, so open files in current frame
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    emacsclient -n -t "$@"
# no open frames detected, so open new frame
else
    emacsclient -n -c "$@"
fi

Edit: fixed expansion of positional arguments (2017-12-31).

Answer 3

Is your DISPLAY env set in the terminal where you're running emacsclient? Because the behavior you request should be the default (the behavior of reusing existing frames, I mean).