Start Emacs Client in GUI (and launch Emacs server if not already running)

ec

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Shamelessly taken from http://mjwall.com/blog/2013/10/04/how-i-use-emacs/

# This script starts emacs daemon if it is not running, opens whatever file
# you pass in and changes the focus to emacs.  Without any arguments, it just
# opens the current buffer or *scratch* if nothing else is open.  The following
# example will open ~/.bashrc

# ec ~/.bashrc

# You can also pass it multiple files, it will open them all.  Unbury-buffer
# will cycle through those files in order

# The compliment to the script is et, which opens emacs in the terminal
# attached to a daemon

# If you want to execute elisp, pass in -e whatever.
# You may also want to stop the output from returning to the terminal, like
# ec -e "(message \"Hello\")" > /dev/null

# emacsclient options for reference
# -a "" starts emacs daemon and reattaches
# -c creates a new frame
# -n returns control back to the terminal
# -e eval the script

# Number of current visible frames,
# Emacs daemon always has a visible frame called F1
visible_frames() {
  emacsclient -a "" -e '(length (visible-frame-list))'
}

change_focus() {
  emacsclient -n -e "(select-frame-set-input-focus (selected-frame))" > /dev/null
}

# try switching to the frame incase it is just minimized
# will start a server if not running
test "$(visible_frames)" -eq "1" && change_focus

if [ "$(visible_frames)" -lt  "2" ]; then # need to create a frame
  # -c $@ with no args just opens the scratch buffer
  emacsclient -n -c "$@" && change_focus
  emacsclient -n -e "(apm-graphic-frame-init)" > /dev/null
else # there is already a visible frame besides the daemon, so
  change_focus
  # -n $@ errors if there are no args
  test  "$#" -ne "0" && emacsclient -n "$@"
fi

Using env for detecting bash if bash is not installed in the standard path.