How to start Emacs from the Terminal window as a GUI application (macOS)

Question

I've installed Emacs via Homebrew. The version that got installed is 25.3.1. It was installed as the file whose full path is /usr/local/bin/emacs. When I execute

emacs

at a Terminal window, Emacs starts inside the self-same window as a console application. How can I cause it to start as a GUI application?

The answer given here won't work, because the version of Emacs installed as /Applications/Emacs is 25.1.1 .

macOS Sierra Version 10.12.6

If you don't like the end result of what other answers posted, you can just try `xemacs` instead :) — Sridhar Sarnobat, Dec 18 '19 at 23:22
`brew install --cask emacs` installs [Emacs.app](https://emacsformacosx.com/), and `brew install emacs` installs [emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) without GUI into `/opt/homebrew/Cellar/emacs` — DawnSong, May 12 '22 at 13:59

ayckoster · Answer 1 · 2020-12-18T13:15:07.133

32

According to Emacswiki "Homebrew has Emacs 26.1 as of January 2019" and "Homebrew now recommends to use the cask version".

The message that Homebrew gives is "Please try the Cask for a better-supported Cocoa version".

I tried --with-cocoa myself in February 2019 and is not supported any more.

linkapps also doesn't work any more.

Use this command to install Emacs with Cocoa.

brew cask install emacs

This works for Emacs 26.1 upwards.

The command brew cask install was changed to brew install --cask instead. You will get a warning for now, but it might lead to errors in the future. Use the following command instead.

brew install --cask emacs

edited Dec 18 '20 at 13:15

answered Feb 12 '19 at 14:54

ayckoster

429
4
3

Thanks. What is your answer based on? Could you link to a source, please? – Evan Aad Feb 12 '19 at 19:06
Added some sources :) – ayckoster Feb 13 '19 at 08:29
Great. Thanks. +1 – Evan Aad Feb 13 '19 at 12:11
Same experience as ayckoster. Confirming that it worked for me a/o Apr 30. 2019. – tomilchik Apr 30 '19 at 15:06
Doesn't work now. – foki Oct 10 '20 at 04:20
1

`brew install --cask emacs` worked for me. Thanks – A. K. Oct 07 '21 at 23:11
It's better to put the latest method first. – DawnSong May 12 '22 at 13:55
I'm curious how this works with the `brew upgrade` command - would you still need `--cask`? What if you didn't use it initially? – George Mauer Jul 21 '22 at 13:44

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 04 '19 at 14:34

7

Did you follow the install instructions in the wiki?

http://wikemacs.org/wiki/Installing_Emacs_on_OS_X

Basically, you need to install it with cocoa, it adds the GUI support.

$ brew install emacs --with-cocoa

If you are willing to use spacemacs, then they recommend installing emacs-plus. https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs

$ brew tap d12frosted/emacs-plus
$ brew install emacs-plus
$ brew linkapps emacs-plus

edited Jul 04 '19 at 14:34

Community

1

answered Oct 14 '17 at 14:05

NoamStolero

106
6

Thank you so much! Where is it recommended to install emacs-plus? – Evan Aad Oct 14 '17 at 15:23
1

If you use Spacemacs on OSX, the documentation suggest you install emacs-plus. – NoamStolero Oct 14 '17 at 15:26
The required command is now `brew install --cask emacs` (as noted in a comment above that I missed on first glance) – Digicrat Jul 06 '23 at 22:44

How to start Emacs from the Terminal window as a GUI application (macOS)

2 Answers2

Linked