Setting emacs as $EDITOR in zshrc

Hi, I have a minor thing that is driving me crazy. I want to set `emacsclient -t -a emacs -nw` as $EDITOR, so programs like git commit use emacs. So, what I am trying is setting `export EDITOR='emacsclient -t -a emacs -nw'` in my `~/.zshrc`. When I run `$EDITOR` it says `zsh: command not found: emacsclient -t -a emacs -nw`. I also tried `export EDITOR="emacsclient -t -a emacs -nw"` and `export EDITOR=emacsclient -t -a emacs -nw`. The first one has the same result, the second one treads `-t` like a command / It's a bit weird, because this is how it's recommended in the wiki: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsClient Maybe a problem with zsh? // yup looks like it, because this works in bash.

I use `zshrc` and solved this by creating a shell script that I declare as `$EDITOR`: https://codeberg.org/takeonrules/dotzshrc/src/2aa186214030faa03bfdc7a1272ec54339f7d1af/bin/editor Then I have [the export here](https://codeberg.org/takeonrules/dotzshrc/src/2aa186214030faa03bfdc7a1272ec54339f7d1af/configs/aliases.zsh#L12-13).

The links are not working... Thanks for fixing them!

Use this in your .zshrc/.bashrc file: ``` export ALTERNATE_EDITOR="" export VISUAL="emacsclient -c -n -a ''" # $VISUAL opens in GUI with non-daemon as alternate export EDITOR="emacsclient -t -a ''" # $EDITOR should open in terminal ```

Yes thanks, this is pretty much what I wrote and also linked to, and it isn't working

[https://codeberg.org/takeonrules/dotzshrc/src/branch/main/bin/editor](https://codeberg.org/takeonrules/dotzshrc/src/branch/main/bin/editor) https://codeberg.org/takeonrules/dotzshrc/src/branch/main/configs/aliases.zsh#L12-13

Gah…so much for Emacs's git-link working with Codeberg.

it just went down anyway. I hope for you it wasn't because of your emacs :D

Er… is emacsclient actually discoverable in your shell? Do you set the PATH variable correctly?

How about giving Github a try instead: https://github.com/jeremyf/dotzshrc/blob/2aa186214030faa03bfdc7a1272ec54339f7d1af/bin/editor

ah, I see where this commit hash was coming from :D

your codeberg link is a 404 :( Maybe you're the only one authorized to see it?

Thanks, I did a little simpler approach: I made this script `editor` in `~/.local/bin`: ``` #!/usr/bin/env bash emacsclient -t -a emacs -nw ``` Then put `export EDITOR='editor'` into `~/.zshrc` / Is your script missing the shebang? I newer saw `#/bin/sh` before

This is odd, because I know I have done it. Try using single quotes, and the full path for emacsclient. This will avoid command expansion from rewriting the command.

It is a zsh thing. If a variable contains spaces it won’t be split after expansion, on purpose.

The oh-my-zsh emacs plugin does a lot of this for you pretty cleanly, worth looking at.

Precisely, OP would need to run ``` $ ${=EDITOR} ``` instead. That enables _word splitting_ on the variable. See the [zsh FAQ](https://zsh.sourceforge.io/FAQ/zshfaq03.html) for more information.

True that. But that doesn't help me with scripts and programs that use the variable $EDITOR

It's only Zsh itself that doesn't do word splitting unless you ask for it as shown. Programs that use `$EDITOR` have always had to deal with word splitting themselves, or they could pass the string to a known shell like `/bin/sh`. If you have shell scripts, then make sure they start with an appropriate `#!/bin/sh` line and that they do word splitting according to the shell chosen there. In other words, the behaviour of Zsh does not affect other programs and scripts.