Emacs: Startup with no window system

Question

I know to start emacs with no window system, I do:

emacs -nw filename.txt

But, I don't want to specify -nw constantly. What do I add in my .emacs to do this automatically?

Solution 1

Depending on platform in shell, I believe you could add an alias in your bashrc or bash_profile (depending on needs) so that emacs is interpreted as emacs -nw

Solution 2

You can choose to install the non graphical version of emacs, under OSX I have the package "emacs @23.2, Revision 5 (editors): installed via MacPorts so when I type 'emacs' it never shows a GUI. off course aliasing (as suggested in another answer) leaves you with the option to run the graphical version sometimes.

Solution 3

1. Open your ~/.bash_profile and put this in a new line: alias emacs="emacs -nw"
2. Save the file.
3. Applying the change everywhere and immediately is simplest if you just log out and then log back in.

Comments

[Meier]

I think this answer is as good as it is going to get. I ran an experiment of setting the variable 'window-system to nil as the only thing done in the .emacs file and then started emacs from a terminal. As expected, it had no effect. As an alternative to using an alias, one could use a script (emacs.sh or emacs.bat) instead of invoking the executable directly.