How to open a file using eval that works with '--alternative-editor'

Question

The following command works to open a file in an existing emacs instance:

emacsclient --eval \
"(progn (find-file \\"/a/b.txt\\") (goto-line 1) (forward-char 2) (recenter))" \
--no-wait \
--alternate-editor=emacs

However when there is no emacs instance running it creates a buffer called b.txt").

Is there a way this can be made to work in both cases?

Answer 1

In emacs 26 this will be supported by using --alternate-editor="emacs --eval"

For now you can write a script that wraps emacs, eg:

emacs-eval-wrapper

#!/bin/bash
exec emacs --eval "$@"