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Emacs defaults to the command make -k when I run compile. However, I pretty much never think it's useful to have make continue after errors, so I always remove the -k flag. Is there a way to change the default in my .emacs so that it's just make?

Steve
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2 Answers2

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(setq compile-command "make")

or similar in your .emacs should suffice.

For more info, type

C-h f compile

which describes what variables are used when M-x compile is called.

In there, you should see it calls compile-command and a

C-h v compile-command

tells you this defaults to "make -k". All above is a simplification, but all the info should be in those commands should you need to dig further.

Andre Holzner
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cristobalito
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  • For this purpose, is there an effective difference between `(setq compile-command ...)` and `(setq-default compile-command ...)`? – Steve Jan 12 '11 at 22:01
  • No idea Steve - C-h f setq and C-h f setq-default give a little more info, but can't really decipher. – cristobalito Jan 13 '11 at 16:00
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    @Steve, from the [Elisp Reference manual on `setq-default`](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Default-Value.html): "If a SYMBOL is not buffer-local for the current buffer, and is not marked automatically buffer-local, `setq-default` has the same effect as `setq`." `compile-command` is not automatically buffer-local, and it normally won't be buffer-local during execution of `.emacs`, so it normally won't make a difference. – cjm May 26 '11 at 08:36
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Since I need different compilers for different modes, I make use of the following snippet (here shown for javascript):

(require 'compile)
(add-hook 'js-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (set (make-local-variable 'compile-command)
                 (format "jshint %s" (file-name-nondirectory buffer-file-name)))))

This runs "jshint " as my compile command. I can then add hooks to other languages as well, and customize each according to my needs.

Stefan van der Walt
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  • Note that you can also use `(file-name-sans-extension buffer-file-name)` for the file name without the extension. For example, `(format "rustc %s && %s" (file-name-nondirectory buffer-file-name) (file-name-sans-extension buffer-file-name))`. – Jake Ireland Dec 25 '21 at 04:58