Test-C

• Ever wanted to write, compile and run a snippet of C code small enough that making a new file and writing the boiler plates puts you off?
• Tired of doing M-x compile with the same command?
• Accumulating small useless variations of "test.c" in your home directory?

Here comes test-c!

Installation

Place test-c.el somewhere on your load-path and load it.

Usage

Call M-x test-c to open a temporary *test-c* buffer. It is prefilled with a skeleton C program (customized through test-c-default-code) which is then compiled and run.

Every following call to test-c will compile and run the program and show its ouput in the minibar.

You can customize the compilation and run commands from the source itself using special definitions lines (very similar to Emacs file local variables in concept). Those lines must be of the form:

/*= var: value =*/

The compile and run variable are the one used respectively for compiling and running the file. You can refer to other variable from these variables using the $var syntax, similar to the shell. If you refer to a variable which has not been defined it will be passed as is to the shell, who might expand them (i.e. you can use shell/env variables too).

The default value of compile and run inserted with the initial skeleton can be customized via the test-c-default-compile-command and test-c-default-run-command variables.

$exe and $src are special variabled defined by test-c that expands to respectively the temporary executable filename and the temporary source file name.

You can save the file and keep using Test-C afterwards.

Sample configuration

;; bind to win+m
(global-set-key (kbd "s-m") 'test-c)
 
(eval-after-load 'test-c
  '(progn
     ;; update the default command to use clang
     (setq test-c-default-compile-command "clang -Wall $src -o $exe")
 
     ;; print error code after running
     (setq test-c-default-run-command "$exe ; echo $?")
 
     ;; use simpler skeleton
     (setq test-c-default-code "int main (void) {\nreturn 0;\n}\n")))