41. Running Shell Commands from Emacs

Emacs has commands for passing single command lines to inferior shell processes; it can also run a shell interactively with input and output to an Emacs buffer named ‘*shell*’ or run a shell inside a terminal emulator window.

M-! cmd <RET>

Run the shell command line cmd and display the output (shell-command).

M-| cmd <RET>

Run the shell command line cmd with region contents as input; optionally replace the region with the output (shell-command-on-region).

M-x shell

Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively.

M-x term

Run a subshell with input and output through an Emacs buffer. You can then give commands interactively. Full terminal emulation is available.

M-x eshell invokes a shell implemented entirely in Emacs. It is documented in a separate manual. See Eshell: (eshell)Top section `Eshell' in Eshell: The Emacs Shell.