tmtxt-async-tasks

This is a new emacs package that I’ve just finished. This is not a very complicated extension or something very new. This is just the code I extracted from my previous emacs’ extension tmtxt-dired-async. The purpose of tmtxt-async-tasks is to provide emacs users a tool for executing shell command asynchronously in a separate window and not be affected by the process. When you executing a command using this package, a new window will be created at the bottom of the current frame (this window is not affected by the other-window command). The shell command keep running and print out the result for you to keep track of the process and the window contains that command can be automatically closed after a specified time period when it finish executing. For more information, demo as well as how to use the package, please visit it’s homepage at http://truongtx.me/tmtxt-async-tasks.html.

Installation

To install the package, simply clone the package from github

$ git clone https://github.com/tmtxt/tmtxt-async-tasks.git

Put it somewhere in your emacs’ load-path and load it into emacs using this command

(require 'tmtxt-async-tasks)

Interactive Usage

To use it interactively, activate the command name tat/execute-async-interactive and type in the command that you want to execute. The output of the command will be printed into the new window at the bottom. After finishing execution, it will wait for 5s (can be changed) and then close the window automatically.

Stop all current async tasks

This function helps you stop all currently running async tasks. The function name is tat/kill-all

Jump to the end of the output buffer

Sometimes, the point in the output buffer stucks somewhere in the middle of the output buffer and will not auto scroll for user to track the progress. Activate this function to fix it.

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-n") 'tat/move-to-bottom-all)

Using in your code

In you code, if you want to to execute a shell command, call the function tat/execute-async. The first argument is the command to execute. The second one is the name to display. For example

(tat/execute-async "du -hc ~/" "get file size")

Some options

To set the delay (in second) for the output window before closing, change the variable tat/window-close-delay. Remember to set it as a string.

(setq-default tat/window-close-delay "5")

To set the height of the output window, set the variable tat/window-height. The height is measured by the number of lines.

(setq-default tat/window-height 10)

For using with Dired

I have another package that relies on this package for using with Dired to copy, synchronize, compress, decompress,… files. If you want, visit it home page at tmtxt-dired-async.