run emacs function in the shell with parameter

Question

Since there is parameter I need to use, so I will not use single quote as the question's answer

First, I try

emacsclient -q --eval (progn (find-file "ORG/${UN}.org") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))

zsh: bad pattern: (progn (find-file ORG/Austin.org) (org-latex-export-to-pdf))

Then,

emacsclient -q --eval "(progn (find-file "ORG/${UN}.org") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))"

I get the error again

ERROR: Symbol’s value as variable is void: ORG/Austin\.org

The question is how to give the parameters.

Update

I still get error after backslash the period

emacsclient -q --eval "(progn (find-file "ORG/${UN}\.org") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))" 

ERROR: Symbol’s value as variable is void: ORG/Austin\.org

Answer 1

Use either

emacsclient -q --eval "(progn (find-file \"ORG/${UN}.org\") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))"

or

emacsclient -q --eval '(progn (find-file "ORG/'"${UN}"'.org") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))'

The problem that needs to be solved is to give the string "ORG/Austin.org" rather than the symbol ORG/Austin.org to emacs.

Answer 2

emacs --batch foo.org -f org-latex-export-to-pdf

• --batch: Run Emacs in batch mode
• foo.org: Open foo.org and set it as current buffer (org.el is loaded by the way)
• -f org-latex-export-to-pdf: Then call org-latex-export-to-pdf to export the current buffer to pdf

---

As your tries

emacsclient -q --eval (progn (find-file "ORG/${UN}.org") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))

you need quote your expression for shell since it contains white spaces.

emacsclient -q --eval "(progn (find-file "ORG/${UN}.org") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))"

you need escape the inner " because you are using " outside. You can refer to @icarus's answer, I think it's correct. However, instead of writing Lisp in your shell, you can just make a function in Emacs and call it using emacsclient from command line, for example,

(defun my-org-latex-export-to-pdf ()
  ...)

$ emacsclient --eval '(my-org-latex-export-to-pdf)'

In Emacs Lisp, you can use getenv to access value of environment variable if you need to.

Answer 3

Use eval solve this question.

 eval "emacsclient -q --eval '(progn (find-file \"ORG/$UN.org\") (org-latex-export-to-pdf))'"