jvkersch / emacs-python

Call Python functions from Emacs

Emacs-Python: a Python module for Emacs

Emacs-Python is a very lightweight bridge between Emacs 25 and Python. It provides an Emacs extension module that runs the Python interpreter inside Emacs, so that Python functions can be run transparently from within Emacs.

Requirements

Emacs-Python requires a recent build of Emacs (>= 25.1) with module support enabled. Most likely, this will involve compiling Emacs from source with the --with-modules flag.

Emacs-Python also requires Python (2.7; Python 3 support is in the works).

Building

To build, run make. If there are no errors, you should have a file emacs-python.so in the src/ folder.

If you want to build against a non-standard Python interpreter, make sure that the python-config script refers to that interpreter before building (by editing the Makefile if necessary).

Walkthough

To use, copy the emacs-python.so library to a directory that's on the Emacs load-path.

From within Emacs, run

(require 'emacs-python)

To send a Python snippet to the embedded interpreter, use python-exec:

(python-exec "
def foo():
   return 42
")

To call a Python function from within Emacs, use python-funcall:

(python-funcall "foo") ;; outputs 42

(python-funcall "range" 3 7) ;; outputs (3 4 5 6)

The return value of Python function calls will be serialized into an equivalent Emacs type. If there's no meaningful corresponding return type, Emacs will return a user-ptr.

License

Emacs-Python is released under the GPL, version 3.0.