emacsclient always runs as console application

Question

When emacs is not already running, emacsclient always starts as a console application, but I'd like it to start as a gui application.

This is the command I use:

emacsclient -a "" file

The -a "" is there to start an emacs instance, if none is running already.

Answer 1

What about specifying -a /usr/bin/emacs or whatever your emacs is?

Answer 2

To create a new Emacs frame:

emacsclient -c -a "" file

The advantage of -a "" compared to @choroba's answer is that it starts emacs in a daemon mode so the next time you'll try to open a file it will open it almost instantly without requiring you to start Emacs with a server either manually or via .emacs with (server-start) or (server-mode 1).