How to use org-export to export from a file in emacs

Question

I hava an input file name like /path/to/orgfiles/file.org

I have an output file name like /path/to/mdfiles/file.md

This two path have been set into two variables:

inputfile = "/path/to/orgfiles/file.org"

outputfile = "/path/to/mdfiles/file.md"

Now I want to use org-export-to-file from ox.el to export inputfile to outputfile, how?

It seems that org-export-to-file can only export file from the current buffer, I couldn't find any function which can specified the INPUT file :(

I tried org-publish but it seems should be used when project involved, doesn't meet my need too.

Answer 1

@DoMiNeLa10 is correct. You have to create a function to do something like this. Here is one that is interactive. M-x export-file-md will prompt you for an input file and an output file name, and then export the org-file to the desired md-file name and open it. It does a little buffer management, e.g. closing the org file if it was not already open.

This isn't the only way to get this done, but it works fine as far as I can tell.

(defun export-file-md (org-file md-file)
  "Export ORG-FILE to MD-FILE."
  (interactive "f\nf")
  (unless (string= "org" (file-name-extension org-file))
    (error "INFILE must be an org file."))
  (unless (string= "md" (file-name-extension md-file))
    (error "OUTFILE must have an .md extension."))
  (let ((current-buffers (buffer-list))
    (tmp-buffer) 
    (open (find-buffer-visiting org-file))
    (org-file-buffer (find-file-noselect org-file)))
    (with-current-buffer org-file-buffer
      (with-current-buffer (setq tmp-buffer (org-org-export-as-org))
    (insert (format "#+EXPORT_FILE_NAME: %s\n" md-file))
    (org-open-file (org-md-export-to-markdown))))
    (kill-buffer tmp-buffer)
    (unless open (kill-buffer org-file-buffer))))