8

I'd like to use emacsclient on my laptop to connect to an emacs server on my desktop.

I think I know that the emacs server process listens to a unix socket in "/tmp/emacs${UID}".

So I need to make a connection between a unix socket in laptop:/tmp/emacs${UID}/socat to desktop:/tmp/emacs${UID}/server.

I can make a socket locally with socat. I have tested:

socat -v UNIX-LISTEN:/tmp/emacs${UID}/socat UNIX-CONNECT/tmp/emacs${UID}/server emacsclient -nw -s socat .

That works.

So now I need to connect socat to server on the remote host...

desktop: socat -v TCP-LISTEN:7777 UNIX-CONNECT:/tmp/emacs${UID}/server laptop: socat -v UNIX-LISTEN:/tmp/emacs${UID}/socat TCP-CONNECT:127.0.0.1:9999 ssh -L9999:127.0.0.1:7777 desktop emacsclient -nw -s socat .

I can successfully route traffic over this setup. I know this because my home directory is different on my laptop, and the socat on the desktop is dumping out laptop-home-directory-related paths.

However, the emacsclient process on my laptop doesn't draw a frame.

Is there a way to make this work?

Edit: xuchunyang writes:

By the way, we don't need emacsclient to use the Emacs server, echo '- eval emacs-version' | nc -U /path/to/emacs/socket works as well.

I can confirm that connecting to the socket on the laptop works:

laptop $ echo '-eval emacs-version' | nc -U /tmp/emacs248200/socat -emacs-pid 184752 -print "26.3" $
Improve this question
8
  • Anticipating one possible question: my username and uid are the same on both hosts. Commented Mar 27, 2020 at 14:20
  • I don't know if that's possible: emacsclient just sends stuff to emacs, so it is the remote emacs that would need to create the frame on your laptop, i.e. more plumbing would be needed. Why not run a full emacs on your laptop and use tramp to access stuff on your desktop? Commented Mar 27, 2020 at 14:35
  • Answer 1: emacsclient -nw creates the frame inside the terminal - is the server doing this? Commented Mar 27, 2020 at 14:48
  • 1
    Re: Answer 1: probably not, but does that even work for you? The frame is completely unresponsive for me. Commented Mar 27, 2020 at 15:18
  • 1
    Not sure if it's possible, you shouldn't be able to make a graphic frame for sure, but what about text frame? considering we can use Emacs (or any full screen apps) through ssh. By the way, we don't need emacsclient to use the Emacs server, echo '-eval emacs-version' | nc -U /path/to/emacs/socket works as well. Commented Mar 27, 2020 at 15:19

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

rpluim suggests trying emacsclient-over-tcp.

Adding an answer in order to have formatting available.

Setup

Desktop

(setq server-use-tcp t server-host "127.0.0.1" server-port 6666 server-auth-dir "~/.emacs.d/server" server-auth-key "qTq/]3a$2@hmszaxJl{XvRn~9mBh,34O$8L>WS1TD%&8g*roC#Xck)9Lg]M*}\\z") (server-start)

Laptop

scp desktop:~/.emacs.d/server/server ~/.emacs.d/server/server ssh -L 6666:127.0.0.1:6666 desktop emacsclient -nw -f ~/.emacs.d/server/server .

Result:

The emacsclient call hangs after connecting (exactly the same behaviour as seen trying to tunnel the unix socket). There is a connection to port 6666 on the laptop.

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    Why are you port forwarding? It's TCP, just have emacs listen on a reachable IP address. Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 11:43
  • 1
    If you forget about everything else and do just emacsclient -nw, does that work for you? It does not work for me (as I mentioned in a comment: the window is unresponsive), so maybe there is a bug in the emacsclient -nw code - or maybe there is something that I'm missing. Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 15:51
  • rpluim: my employer has non-trivial security measures which mean that a direct connection is harder than port forwarding. Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 16:16
  • NickD: "emacsclient -a '' -s <servername> -nw ." is something that I use often - I have 1249 instances in my shell history. This hanging behaviour is completely new to me. Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 16:39

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.