.SH "DESCRIPTION"
This manual page documents briefly the
.BR emacsclient
-command.
-This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution
-because the original program does not have a manual page.
-Instead, it has documentation in the GNU Info format; see below.
+command. Full documentation is available in the GNU Info format; see
+below.
+This manual page was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux
+distribution, but is not specific to that system.
.PP
-.B emacsclient
-works in conjunction with the built-in server of Emacs.
-.PP
-You typically does not call
.B emacsclient
-directly. Instead, you set the environment variable EDITOR
-to
+works in conjunction with the built-in Emacs server.
+.PP
+You can either call
.B emacsclient
-and let programs like 'vipw' or 'bug' or anything run
-it for you, which will use an existing Emacs to visit the file.
+directly or let other programs run it for you when necessary. On
+GNU and Unix systems many programs consult the environment
+variable EDITOR (sometimes also VISUAL) to obtain the command used for
+editing. Thus, setting this environment variable to 'emacsclient'
+will allow these programs to use an already running Emacs for editing.
+Other operating systems might have their own methods for defining the
+default editor.
For
-.B emacsclient
-to work, you need an already running Emacs with a server. Within Emacs, call
-the function
-`server-start'. (Your `.emacs' file can do this automatically if you
-add the expression `(server-start)' to it.)
+.B emacsclient
+to work, you need an already running Emacs with a server. Within Emacs,
+call the functions `server-start' or `server-mode'. (Your `.emacs' file
+can do this automatically if you add either `(server-start)' or
+`(server-mode 1)' to it.)
When you've finished editing the buffer, type `C-x #'
(`server-edit'). This saves the file and sends a message back to the
.B \-n, \-\-no-wait
returns
immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the buffer in Emacs.
+.TP
+.B \-e, \-\-eval
+do not visit files but instead evaluate the arguments as Emacs
+Lisp expressions.
+.TP
+.B \-s, \-\-socket-name=FILENAME
+use socket named FILENAME for communication.
+.TP
+.B \-f, \-\-server-file=FILENAME
+use TCP configuration file FILENAME for communication.
+This can also be specified via the `EMACS_SERVER_FILE' environment variable.
+.TP
+.B \-a, \-\-alternate-editor=EDITOR
+if the Emacs server is not running, run the specified editor instead.
+This can also be specified via the `ALTERNATE_EDITOR' environment variable.
+.TP
+.B \-d, \-\-display=DISPLAY
+tell the server to display the files on the given display.
+.TP
+.B \-V, \-\-version
+print version information and exit
+.TP
+.B \-h, \-\-help
+print this usage information message and exit
.SH "SEE ALSO"
The program is documented fully in
.IR "Using Emacs as a Server"
available via the Info system.
-.SH BUGS
-If there is no running Emacs server,
-.B emacsclient
-cannot launch one. I use a small Perl script instead of raw
-.B emacsclient
-to do it (it works only with systems which have BSD sockets, which is fine
-for Debian GNU/Linux).
.SH AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@debian.org>,
for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).
+.SH COPYING
+This manual page is in the public domain.
+
+.\" arch-tag: 2b35e723-b197-4073-8752-231bc8b3d3f3