Question

I want to write an emacs function that does the following –

1) Start a new shell named “abc”.
2) Change the dir “/opt/abc”
3) In the dir run a shell command “python abc.py”

I have written the following function –

(defun abc-server ()
 (interactive)
 (shell-command "cd /opt/abc/")
 (shell-command "python abc.py"))

The problem with the above –

1) It doesnt start a new shell
2) It doesnt change the dir.
3) When the cmd executes, it opens a browser window, which completely blocks any usage of emacs.

Answer 1

From shell-command‘s docstring (C-h f shell-command):

If COMMAND ends in ampersand, execute it asynchronously.
The output appears in the buffer `Async Shell Command‘.
That buffer is in shell mode.

Also, combine it all into one command line. shell-command makes a new shell every time, so the pwd will not persist from one invocation to another.

(defun abc-server ()
 (interactive)
 (shell-command "cd /opt/abc/; python abc.py &"))