Emacs is notoriously slow at startup, so most people use another
editor or emacsclient for quick editing jobs from the console.
Unfortunately, emacsclient was very awkward to use, because it did not
-support opening a new Emacs frame on the current virtual console.
+support opening a new Emacs frame on the current virtual tty.
Now, with multi-tty support, it can do that. (Emacsclient starts up
faster than vi!)
contributed to the project by testing, submitting patches, bug
reports, and suggestions. Thanks!
-ARISAWA Akihiro <ari at mbf dot ocn dot ne dot jp>
-Vincent Bernat <bernat at luffy dot cx>
-Han Boetes <han at mijncomputer dot nl>
-Robert J. Chassell <bob at rattlesnake dot com>
-Romain Francoise <romain at orebokech dot com>
-Ami Fischman <ami at fischman dot org>
-Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs <friedel at nomaden dot org>
-IRIE Tetsuya <irie at t dot email dot ne dot jp>
-Yoshiaki Kasahara <kasahara at nc dot kyushu-u dot ac dot jp>
-Jurej Kubelka <Juraj dot Kubelka at email dot cz>
-David Lichteblau <david at lichteblau dot com>
-Xavier Mallard <zedek at gnu-rox dot org>
-Istvan Marko <mi-mtty at kismala dot com>
-Ted Morse <morse at ciholas dot com>
-Dan Nicolaescu <dann at ics dot uci dot edu>
-Gergely Nagy <algernon at debian dot org>
-Mark Plaksin <happy at mcplaksin dot org>
-Francisco Borges <borges at let dot rug dot nl>
-Frank Ruell <stoerte at dreamwarrior dot net>
-Dan Waber <dwaber at logolalia dot com>
+Bernard Adrian <bernadrian@free.fr>
+ARISAWA Akihiro <ari@mbf.ocn.ne.jp>
+Vincent Bernat <bernat@luffy.cx>
+Han Boetes <han@mijncomputer.nl>
+Francisco Borges <borges@let.rug.nl>
+Damien Cassou <damien.cassou@laposte.net>
+Robert J. Chassell <bob@rattlesnake.com>
+Romain Francoise <romain@orebokech.com>
+Ami Fischman <ami@fischman.org>
+Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs <friedel@nomaden.org>
+IRIE Tetsuya <irie@t.email.ne.jp>
+Yoshiaki Kasahara <kasahara@nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp>
+Bas Kok <nekkobassu@yahoo.com>
+Jurej Kubelka <Juraj.Kubelka@email.cz>
+David Lichteblau <david@lichteblau.com>
+Xavier Mallard <zedek@gnu-rox.org>
+Istvan Marko <mi-mtty@kismala.com>
+Ted Morse <morse@ciholas.com>
+Gergely Nagy <algernon@debian.org>
+Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu>
+Kalle Olavi Niemitalo <kon@iki.fi>
+Mark Plaksin <happy@mcplaksin.org>
+Frank Ruell <stoerte@dreamwarrior.net>
+Tom Schutzer-Weissmann <trmsw@yahoo.co.uk>
+Joakim Verona <joakim@verona.se>
+Dan Waber <dwaber@logolalia.com>
and many others.
Richard Stallman was kind enough to review an earlier version of my
still needs to be ported to Windows/Mac/DOS, though.) Both multiple
tty device support and simultaneous X and tty frame support works
fine. Emacsclient has been extended to support opening new tty and X
-frames. It has been changed open new Emacs frames by default.
+frames. It has been changed to open new Emacs frames by default.
The multi-tty branch has been scheduled for inclusion in the next
major release of Emacs (version 23). I expect the merge into the
-development trunk to occur sometime during next year (2005), after the
+development trunk to occur sometime during next year (2006), after the
merge of the Unicode branch.
Tested on GNU/Linux, Solaris 8, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Please let me
Known problems:
* GTK support. If you compile your Emacs with the GTK
- toolkit, some functionality of multi-tty will be lost.
- In particular, closing an X display causes a crash.
- Current releases of GTK have limitations and bugs that
- prevent full-blown multi-display support in Emacs. Use the
- Lucid toolkit if you want to see a complete feature set.
+ toolkit, some functionality of multi-tty will be lost. In
+ particular, you will not be able to work on multiple X
+ displays at once. Current releases of GTK have limitations
+ and bugs that prevent full-blown multi-display support in
+ Emacs. (GTK crashes when Emacs tries to disconnect from an
+ X server.) Use the Lucid toolkit if you want to see a
+ complete feature set.
* The single-kboard mode.
system-dependent source files need to be adapted
accordingly. The changes are mostly trivial, so almost
anyone can help, if only by compiling the branch and
- reporting the compiler errors. (It is not worth to do this
- yet, though.)
+ reporting the compiler errors.
HOW TO GET THE BRANCH
---------------------
-The branch uses GNU Arch (http://www.gnuarch.org) for version control.
+The branch uses Bazaar 1 (http://bazaar.canonical.com) for version control.
Retrieving the latest version of the branch:
- tla register-archive -f http://lorentey.hu/arch/2004/
- tla get lorentey@elte.hu--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>
+ baz register-archive -f http://aszt.inf.elte.hu/~lorentey/mirror/arch/2004
+ baz get lorentey@elte.hu--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>
-This incantation uses my private archive mirror that is hosted on a
-relatively low-bandwidth site; if you are outside Hungary, you will
-probably want to you use my secondary mirror: (Note that the -f option
-will overwrite the archive location if you have previously registered
-the Hungarian one.)
+This incantation uses an archive mirror that is hosted on a
+high-bandwidth site. Please note that on average there is a two-hour
+delay for commits to arrive on this mirror. My primary mirror is on the
+low-bandwidth http://lorentey.hu/ site:
- tla register-archive -f http://aszt.inf.elte.hu/~lorentey/mirror/arch/2004
- tla get lorentey@elte.hu--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>
+ baz register-archive -f http://lorentey.hu/arch/2004/
+ baz get lorentey@elte.hu--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>
- http://aszt.inf.elte.hu/~lorentey/mirror/arch/2004
+This is "instantly" updated, but very slow from outside Hungary.
+(By "instantly" I mean as soon as I connect the notebook I work on to
+a network. It could take days.)
The Arch supermirror provides mirroring services for all public Arch
repositories. We have a mirror there, too, if you prefer.
- tla register-archive -f http://mirrors.sourcecontrol.net/lorentey%40elte.hu--2004
- tla get lorentey@elte.hu--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>
+ baz register-archive -f http://mirrors.sourcecontrol.net/lorentey%40elte.hu--2004
+ baz get lorentey@elte.hu--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>
My GPG key id is 0FB27A3F; it is available from
hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net/, or from my homepage at
once you have a source tree, updating it to the latest revision will
be _much_ faster. Use the following command for the update:
- tla replay
+ baz replay
-You can find more information about Arch on http://wiki.gnuarch.org/.
-It's a wonderful source control system, I highly recommend it.
+You can find more information about Bazaar on
+http://bazaar.canonical.com/. It's a distributed source control
+system that is somewhat less broken than competing projects.
-If you don't have tla, the branch has a homepage from which you can
+If you don't have Bazaar, the branch has a homepage from which you can
download conventional patches against Emacs CVS HEAD:
http://lorentey.hu/project/emacs.html
+I suggest you use Bazaar whenever feasible.
+
+
DEBIAN PACKAGES
---------------
to use our binary packages; put these lines in your /etc/apt/sources.list:
# Multi-tty Emacs
- deb http://aszt.inf.elte.hu/~lorentey/mirror/apt ./
- deb-src http://aszt.inf.elte.hu/~lorentey/mirror/apt ./
+ deb http://aszt.inf.elte.hu/~lorentey/mirror/apt unstable multi-tty
+ deb-src http://aszt.inf.elte.hu/~lorentey/mirror/apt unstable multi-tty
Note that these packages are intended solely to provide an easy way to
test the new multi-tty features. They are not to be taken as Emacs
make maintainer-clean # (If you have compiled Emacs before)
- ./configure <your favourite options>
+ ./configure --without-gtk <your favourite options>
make bootstrap
make install
also works. Of course, you can create frames on more than two tty
devices.
-Creating new frames on the same tty with C-x 5 2 works, and they
-behave the same way as in previous Emacs versions. If you exit emacs,
-all terminals should be restored to their previous states.
+Creating new frames on the same tty with C-x 5 2 (make-frame-command)
+works, and behaves the same way as in previous Emacs versions. If you
+exit emacs, all terminals should be restored to their previous states.
This is work in progress, and probably full of bugs. It is a good
idea to run emacs from gdb, so that you'll have a live instance to
For the NEWS file: (Needs much, much work)
-** Support for multiple terminal devices has been added.
+** Support for multiple terminal devices and simultaneous graphical
+ and tty frames has been added. You can test for the presence of
+ this feature in your Lisp code by testing for the `multi-tty'
+ feature.
+
+*** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
+ `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system'
+ value for the first frame.
*** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
-*** You can test for the presence of multiple terminal support by
- testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
+*** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
+ frame on another tty device interactively.
+
+*** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
+ session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
*** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
frame. Its behaviour has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening
files in the currently selected Emacs frame.
-*** A make-frame-on-tty function has been added to make it easier to
- create frames on new terminals.
+*** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
+ `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
*** New functions: frame-tty-name, frame-tty-type, delete-tty,
- terminal-local-value, set-terminal-local-value
-
- terminal-id, terminal-parameters, terminal-parameter,
- set-terminal-parameter
+ suspend-tty, resume-tty, terminal-id, terminal-parameters,
+ terminal-parameter, set-terminal-parameter,
+ modify-terminal-parameters, environment, let-environment
-*** New variables: global-key-translation-map
+*** New variables: local-key-translation-map, local-function-key-map
-*** The keymaps key-translation-map and function-key-map are now
- terminal-local.
+*** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
+ keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
-** Support for simultaneous graphical and terminal frames has been
- added.
-
-*** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a terminal
- session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
-
-*** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local.
-
-*** The new `initial-window-system' variable contains the
- `window-system' value for the first frame.
+*** In addition to the global key-translation-map and
+ function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
+ local-key-translation-map and local-function-key-map variables,
+ and uses them instead of the global keymaps to set up translations
+ and function key sequences relevant to a specific terminal device.
*** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
-
* * *
(The rest of this file consists of my development notes and as such it
THINGS TO DO
------------
-** Go through lisp/term/*.el once more and protect terminal-local
- initializations with '(when (eq 1 (length (frames-on-display-list)))'
- as in xterm.el. This is to prevent resource allocation explosions
- when C-x 5 2 is used repeatedly.
+** Trouble: `setenv' doesn't actually set environment variables in the
+ Emacs process. This defeats the purpose of the elaborate
+ `server-with-environment' magic around the `tgetent' call in
+ `init_tty'. D'oh.
-** Dan Nicolaescu writes:
- > The terminal initialization code still has some issues.
- > This can be seen when using emacsclient -t on a 256 color xterm. The
- > terminal frame is only created with 8 color.
- > The reason is that terminal-init-xterm calls
- > xterm-register-default-colors which calls (display-color-cells (selected-frame))
- > and probably `selected-frame' is not completely setup at that time.
+** (Possibly) create hooks in struct device for creating frames on a
+ specific terminal, and eliminate the hackish terminal-related frame
+ parameters (display, tty, tty-type).
-** emacsclient --no-wait and --eval is currently broken.
+ make_terminal_frame
+ create_tty_output
-** xt-mouse.el needs to be adapted for multi-tty. It currently
- signals an error on kill-emacs under X, which prevents the user
- from exiting Emacs. (Reported by Mnemonikk on freenode.)
+** Decide whether to keep the C implementation of terminal parameters,
+ or revert to the previous, purely Lisp code. It turned out that
+ local environments do not need terminal parameters after all.
+
+** Move Fsend_string_to_terminal to term.c, and declare get_named_tty
+ as static, removing it from dispextern.h.
+ Move fatal to emacs.c and declare it somewhere.
+
+** Search for `suspend-emacs' references and replace them with
+ `suspend-frame', if necessary. Ditto for `save-buffers-kill-emacs'
+ vs. `save-buffers-kill-display'.
+
+** Emacs crashes when a tty frame is resized so that there is no space
+ for all its windows. (Tom Schutzer-Weissmann)
+
+** Report GTK multi-display problems to GTK maintainers. For extra
+ credit, fix them.
+
+ Currently you can not connect to new X displays when you compile
+ Emacs with GTK support. If you want to play around with GTK
+ multidisplay (and don't mind core dumps), you can edit src/config.h
+ and define HAVE_GTK_MULTIDISPLAY there by hand.
+
+** Audit `face-valid-attribute-values' usage in customize and
+ elsewhere. Its return value depends on the current window system.
+ Replace static initializers using it with runtime functions. For
+ example, custom's buttons are broken on non-initial device types.
+
+** Possibly turn off the double C-g feature when there is an X frame.
+ C.f. (emacs)Emergency Escape.
+
+** frames-on-display-list should also accept frames.
+
+** I smell something funny around pop_kboard's "deleted kboard" case.
+ Determine what are the circumstances of this case, and fix any
+ bug that comes to light.
** Consider the `tty-type' frame parameter and the `display-tty-type'
function. They serve the exact same purpose. I think it may be
big, big mess. How come the terminal-specific file is loaded by
tty-create-frame-with-faces? I don't think it is necessary to load
these files for each frame; once per terminal should be enough.
+ Update: lisp/term/*.el is not loaded repeatedly anymore, but
+ faces.el still needs to be cleaned up.
** Fix frame-set-background-mode in this branch. It was recently
changed in CVS, and frame.el in multi-tty has not yet been adapted
for the changes. (It needs to look at
- default-frame-background-mode.)
+ default-frame-background-mode.) (Update: maybe it is fixed now;
+ needs testing.) (Note that the byte compiler has this to say about
+ term/rxvt.el:)
+
+ term/rxvt.el:309:17:Warning: assignment to free variable
+ `default-frame-background-mode'
** I think `(set-)terminal-local-value' and the terminal parameter
mechanism should be integrated into a single framework.
+ (Update: `(set-)terminal-local-value' is now eliminated, but the
+ terminal-local variables should still be accessible as terminal
+ parameters. This also applies to `display-name' and similar
+ functions.)
+
** Add the following hooks: after-delete-frame-hook (for server.el,
instead of delete-frame-functions),
after-delete-terminal-functions, after-create-terminal-functions.
-** Having {reset,init}_all_sys_modes in set-input-mode breaks arrow
- keys on non-selected terminals under screen, and sometimes on other
- terminal types as well. The other function keys continue to work
- fine. Sometimes faces on these screens become garbled.
-
- This only seems to affect displays that are of the same terminfo
- type as the selected one. Interestingly, in screen Emacs normally
- reports the up arrow key as `M-o A', but after the above SNAFU, it
- complains about `M-[ a'. UNIX ttys are a complete mystery to me,
- but it seems the reset-reinitialize cycle somehow leaves the
- non-selected terminals in a different state than usual. I have no
- idea how this could happen.
-
- Currently set-input-mode resets only the currently selected
- terminal, which seems to somehow work around the problem.
-
** Fix set-input-mode for multi-tty. It's a truly horrible interface;
what if we'd blow it up into several separate functions (with a
compatibility definition)?
frames-on-display-list frames-on-terminal-list
The following functions were introduced in the multi-tty branch, and
- can be renamed without aliases:
+ were renamed without aliases:
- display-controlling-tty-p terminal-controlling-tty-p
+ delete-display delete-terminal
+ display-controlling-tty-p controlling-tty-p
display-list terminal-list
display-live-p terminal-live-p
display-name terminal-name
- display-tty-type terminal-tty-type
- frame-display terminal-of-frame
- delete-display delete-terminal
-
-** The semantics of terminal-local variables are confusing; it is not
- clear what binding is in effect in any given time. See if
- current_kboard (or at least the terminal-local bindings exported to
- Lisp) might be changed to be tied to the selected frame instead.
- Currently, `function-key-map' and `key-translation-map' may be
- accessed reliably only using the hackish
- `(set-)terminal-local-value' functions.
-
- Perhaps there should be a difference between `last-command' &co.
- and these more conventional configuration variables.
- (E.g. `symbol-value' would use current_kboard to access
- `last-command', but SELECTED_FRAME()->display->kboard to get the
- value of `function-key-map'.
+ display-tty-type tty-type
+ frame-display frame-terminal
+ selected-display selected-terminal
** The single-keyboard mode of MULTI_KBOARD is extremely confusing
sometimes; Emacs does not respond to stimuli from other keyboards.
See if xsmfns.c should be updated.
-** normal-erase-is-backspace-mode in simple.el needs to be updated for
- multi-tty (rep. by Dan Waber).
-
** Hunt down display-related functions in frame.el and extend them all
to accept display ids.
** Dan Nicolaescu suggests that -nw should be added as an alias for -t
in emacsclient. Good idea. (Alas, implementing this is not
trivial, getopt_long does not seem to support two-letter ``short''
- options. Patches are welcome.) :-)
+ options. Patches are welcome.)
** Mark Plaksin suggests that emacsclient should accept the same
X-related command-line arguments as Emacs. Most of the X-related
useful. (Update: Look again. X unconditionally enables this, maybe
that's why raw terminal support is broken again. I really do need
to understand input.)
+ (Update: I am starting to understand the read_key_sequence->read-char
+ ->kbd_buffer_get_event->read_avail_input->read_socket_hook path. Yay!)
+
+** flow-ctrl.el must be updated.
** Fix stuff_char for multi-tty. Doesn't seem to be of high priority.
frame that is dumped with Emacs. Checking for this frame (e.g. in
cmd_error_internal) is ugly.
- (Done, broking interactive temacs.)
+ (Done, breaking interactive temacs.)
-- The command `emacsclient -t -e '(delete-frame)'' fails to exit.
frame is selected.
(Done.)
+
+-- xt-mouse.el needs to be adapted for multi-tty. It currently
+ signals an error on kill-emacs under X, which prevents the user
+ from exiting Emacs. (Reported by Mnemonikk on freenode.)
+
+ (Done, I hope.)
+-- Having {reset,init}_all_sys_modes in set-input-mode breaks arrow
+ keys on non-selected terminals under screen, and sometimes on other
+ terminal types as well. The other function keys continue to work
+ fine. Sometimes faces on these screens become garbled.
+
+ This only seems to affect displays that are of the same terminfo
+ type as the selected one. Interestingly, in screen Emacs normally
+ reports the up arrow key as `M-o A', but after the above SNAFU, it
+ complains about `M-[ a'. UNIX ttys are a complete mystery to me,
+ but it seems the reset-reinitialize cycle somehow leaves the
+ non-selected terminals in a different state than usual. I have no
+ idea how this could happen.
+
+ Currently set-input-mode resets only the currently selected
+ terminal, which seems to somehow work around the problem.
+
+ Update:
+
+ Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:
+ > Some terminals have 2 modes for cursor keys: Application Mode where
+ > the cursor keys transmit the codes defined in the terminfo entry, and
+ > Cursor mode. Applications have to send the smkx and rmkx terminfo
+ > strings to switch between the 2 modes. So Emacs (and emacsclient) have
+ > to send smkx when initializing and rmkx when quitting (or on
+ > suspend).
+
+ (I think patch-370 fixed this.)
+
+-- This long-standing bug (first reported by Han Boetes) seems to come
+ and go all the time. It is time to track it down and fix it.
+
+ emacs
+ M-x server-start
+
+ # From another xterm:
+ emacsclient -e '(y-or-n-p "Do you want me to crash? ")'
+ # Notice how the answer ends up in the *scratch* buffer
+ M-x garbage-collect
+ SIGSEGV
+
+ (Fixed in patch-414 after detailed analysis by Kalle Olavi Niemitalo.)
+
+-- normal-erase-is-backspace-mode in simple.el needs to be updated for
+ multi-tty (rep. by Dan Waber). (The Delete key is broken on X
+ because of this.)
+
+ (Fixed in patch-427.)
+
+-- I think keyboard-translate-table should be made terminal-local.
+
+ (Done in patch-431.)
+
+-- The semantics of terminal-local variables are confusing; it is not
+ clear what binding is in effect in any given time. See if
+ current_kboard (or at least the terminal-local bindings exported to
+ Lisp) might be changed to be tied to the selected frame instead.
+ Currently, `function-key-map' and `key-translation-map' may be
+ accessed reliably only using the hackish
+ `(set-)terminal-local-value' functions.
+
+ Perhaps there should be a difference between `last-command' &co.
+ and these more conventional configuration variables.
+ (E.g. `symbol-value' would use current_kboard to access
+ `last-command', but SELECTED_FRAME()->display->kboard to get the
+ value of `function-key-map'.
+
+ (Fixed in patch-434.)
+
+-- If the first key pressed on a new tty terminal is a function key,
+ it is not recognized correctly. May be related to the bug below.
+
+ (Seems to have been fixed as a side effect of patch-434. "The bug
+ below" was the set-input-mode madness.)
+
+ (Update: this bug was fixed for good in patch-449. It was tracked
+ down to a bug in `read_key_sequence': it failed to reinitialize its
+ local function-key-map/key-translation-map references when it
+ switched keyboards. I don't understand why did this bug only
+ appear on brand new frames, though!)
+
+-- Disable connecting to a new X display when we use the GTK toolkit.
+
+ (Disabled in patch-450.)
+
+-- Implement automatic forwarding of client environment variables to
+ forked processes, as discussed on the multi-tty list. Terminal
+ parameters are now accessible in C code, so the biggest obstacle is
+ gone. The `getenv_internal' and `child_setup' functions in
+ callproc.c must be changed to support the following variable:
+
+ terminal-local-environment-variables is a variable defined in ...
+
+ Enable or disable terminal-local environment variables.
+
+ If set to t, `getenv', `setenv' and subprocess creation
+ functions use the environment variables of the emacsclient
+ process that created the selected frame, ignoring
+ `process-environment'.
+
+ If set to nil, Emacs uses `process-environment' and ignores
+ the client environment.
+
+ Otherwise, `terminal-local-environment-variables' should be a
+ list of variable names (represented by Lisp strings) to look
+ up in the client environment. The rest will come from
+ `process-environment'.
+
+ (Implemented in patch-461; `terminal-getenv', `terminal-setenv' and
+ `with-terminal-environment' are now replaced by extensions to
+ `getenv' and `setenv', and the new `local-environment-variables'
+ facility. Yay!)
+
+ (Updated in patch-465 to fix the semantics of let-binding
+ `process-environment'. `process-environment' was changed to
+ override all local/global environment variables, and a new variable
+ `global-environment' was introduced to have `process-environment's
+ old meaning.)
+
+ (Updated in patch-466 to fix the case when two emacsclient sessions
+ share the same terminal, but have different environment. The local
+ environment lists are now stored as frame parameters, so the
+ C-level terminal parameters are not strictly necessary any more.)
+
;;; arch-tag: 8da1619e-2e79-41a8-9ac9-a0485daad17d
HCoop / bpt / emacs.git / blobdiff