Emacs: using emacsclient

Question

I always set up emacs running in server mode, and every time I update Ubuntu, the procedure to do this changes.

Even though I have all the same setting in my /.bash_aliases and /.emacs, it will not work.

I have emacs 24.3.x (whatever the most recent version is), I have AUCTeX cvs, and TeX Live 2013 installed.

In my ./bash_aliases, I have

emacs = 'emacsclient -t --alternate-editor='

The relevant information in my /.emacs is

;; Start server and set directory                                               
(setq server-socket-dir (format "/tmp/emacs%d" (user-uid)))
(server-start)

(custom-set-variables
 '(TeX-PDF-mode t)
 '(TeX-show-compilation t)
 '(TeX-newline-function (quote newline-and-indent))
 '(TeX-source-correlate-method (quote synctex))
 '(TeX-source-correlate-mode t)
 '(TeX-source-correlate-start-server t))

Problems only occur opening LaTeX files. Sometimes it says another server is running and other times it says:

dustin@dustin:~/Documents/NUPOC/NUPOCSoln$ emacs SolnNUPOC.tex 
emacsclient.emacs24: can't find socket; have you started the server?
To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".
Warning: due to a long standing Gtk+ bug
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=85715
Emacs might crash when run in daemon mode and the X11 connection is unexpectedly lost.
Using an Emacs configured with --with-x-toolkit=lucid does not have this problem.
("emacs")
Loading 00debian-vars...
Loading 00debian-vars...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el (source)...
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50cmake-data.el (source)...
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50cmake-data.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...
Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el (source)...
Error while loading 50dictionaries-common: Symbol's value as variable is void: debian-aspell-only-dictionary-alist
Loading paren...
Loading paren...done
Warning: no abbrev-file found, customize `abbrev-file-name' in order to make mode-specific abbrevs work. 
Starting Emacs daemon.
Restarting server

I read in the manual a footnote that:

---

Some programs use a different environment variable; for example, to make TeX use ‘emacsclient’, set the TEXEDIT environment variable to ‘emacsclient +%d %s’.

---

There is no mention (that I can find) on where and how to set the TEXEDIT environment.

1. How do I set the TEXEDIT environment? or
2. How can I set up emacsclient to work?

This set up worked prior to having to re-install everything.

Answer 1

I was able to get the server to start and work for synctex. It will still issue this message:

emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".

Warning: due to a long standing Gtk+ bug
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=85715
Emacs might crash when run in daemon mode and the X11 connection is unexpectedly lost.
Using an Emacs configured with --with-x-toolkit=lucid does not have this problem.
Loading paren...
Loading paren...done
Loading server...
Loading server...done
Warning: no abbrev-file found, customize `abbrev-file-name' in order to make mode-specific abbrevs work. 
Starting Emacs daemon.
Restarting server
Emacs daemon should have started, trying to connect again

What I changed was my /.bash_aliases and /.emacs.

If you open emacs first without specifying a file and then open a file, you will not receive the the warning above. I have no idea why it works flawlessly in that order opposed to going directly to a file.

For my aliases, I now have:

# emacs aliases for server mode
alias emacs='emacsclient -t -s server --alternate-editor='

The -s is short for --socket-name=; therefore, -s server is --socket-name=server.

I found this by M-x describe-variable then server-socket-name and the name should output for you. Also, we can locate the directory with the same M-x and then server-socket-dir

In my ~/.emacs, I changed:

;; Start server and set directory                
(setq server-socket-dir (format "/tmp/emacs1000" (user-uid)))
;(server-start)  has been commented out

In the custom set variables, I added: '(server-mode t).

I don't know if there is a difference between (server-start) and the custom variables '(server-mode t). I will test out using one or the other and both to see what happens later.