Shell (zsh) through Emacs? - emacs

Question

I usually run emacs in a terminal to work.
I would like to run a shell inside a emacs window.
I've found the shell command, but I would like to run the zsh I usually
use inside (with my own configuration).
Is it possible?
EDIT : I succeeded to run zsh through Emacs, but the PS1 prompt isn't rendered.
How could I render it? I assume I actually only have the "default" emacs prompt.

Answer 1

Like #TeddyKoker 's link suggested, I did the following :
adding this file as exec-path-from-shell.el to my emacs personnal configuration directories :
;;; exec-path-from-shell.el --- Get environment variables such as $PATH from the shell
;; Copyright (C) 2012-2014 Steve Purcell
;; Author: Steve Purcell <steve#sanityinc.com>
;; Keywords: environment
;; Package-Version: 20141212.846
;; URL: https://github.com/purcell/exec-path-from-shell
;; Version: DEV
;; This file is not part of GNU Emacs.
;; This file is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
;; the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
;; (at your option) any later version.
;; This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
;; GNU General Public License for more details.
;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
;; along with this file. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
;;; Commentary:
;; On OS X (and perhaps elsewhere) the $PATH environment variable and
;; `exec-path' used by a windowed Emacs instance will usually be the
;; system-wide default path, rather than that seen in a terminal
;; window.
;; This library allows the user to set Emacs' `exec-path' and $PATH
;; from the shell path, so that `shell-command', `compile' and the
;; like work as expected.
;; It also allows other environment variables to be retrieved from the
;; shell, so that Emacs will see the same values you get in a terminal.
;; If you use a non-POSIX-standard shell like "tcsh" or "fish", your
;; shell will be asked to execute "sh" as a subshell in order to print
;; out the variables in a format which can be reliably parsed. "sh"
;; must be a POSIX-compliant shell in this case.
;; Note that shell variables which have not been exported as
;; environment variables (e.g. using the "export" keyword) may not be
;; visible to `exec-path-from-shell'.
;; Installation:
;; ELPA packages are available on Marmalade and MELPA. Alternatively, place
;; this file on a directory in your `load-path', and explicitly require it.
;; Usage:
;;
;; (require 'exec-path-from-shell) ;; if not using the ELPA package
;; (exec-path-from-shell-initialize)
;;
;; Customize `exec-path-from-shell-variables' to modify the list of
;; variables imported.
;;
;; If you use your Emacs config on other platforms, you can instead
;; make initialization conditional as follows:
;;
;; (when (memq window-system '(mac ns))
;; (exec-path-from-shell-initialize))
;;
;; Alternatively, you can use `exec-path-from-shell-copy-envs' or
;; `exec-path-from-shell-copy-env' directly, e.g.
;;
;; (exec-path-from-shell-copy-env "PYTHONPATH")
;;; Code:
(defgroup exec-path-from-shell nil
"Make Emacs use shell-defined values for $PATH etc."
:prefix "exec-path-from-shell-"
:group 'environment)
(defcustom exec-path-from-shell-variables
'("PATH" "MANPATH")
"List of environment variables which are copied from the shell."
:type '(repeat (string :tag "Environment variable"))
:group 'exec-path-from-shell)
(defvar exec-path-from-shell-debug nil
"Display debug info when non-nil.")
(defun exec-path-from-shell--double-quote (s)
"Double-quote S, escaping any double-quotes already contained in it."
(concat "\"" (replace-regexp-in-string "\"" "\\\\\"" s) "\""))
(defun exec-path-from-shell--tcsh-p (shell)
"Return non-nil if SHELL appears to be tcsh."
(and shell (string-match "tcsh$" shell)))
(defun exec-path-from-shell--login-arg (shell)
"Return the name of the --login arg for SHELL."
(if (exec-path-from-shell--tcsh-p shell) "-d" "-l"))
(defcustom exec-path-from-shell-arguments
(list (exec-path-from-shell--login-arg (getenv "SHELL")) "-i")
"Additional arguments to pass to the shell.
The default value denotes an interactive login shell."
:type '(repeat (string :tag "Shell argument"))
:group 'exec-path-from-shell)
(defun exec-path-from-shell--debug (msg &rest args)
"Print MSG and ARGS like `message', but only if debug output is enabled."
(when exec-path-from-shell-debug
(apply 'message msg args)))
(defun exec-path-from-shell--standard-shell-p (shell)
"Return non-nil iff SHELL supports the standard ${VAR-default} syntax."
(not (string-match "\\(fish\\|tcsh\\)$" shell)))
(defun exec-path-from-shell-printf (str &optional args)
"Return the result of printing STR in the user's shell.
Executes $SHELL as interactive login shell.
STR is inserted literally in a single-quoted argument to printf,
and may therefore contain backslashed escape sequences understood
by printf.
ARGS is an optional list of args which will be inserted by printf
in place of any % placeholders in STR. ARGS are not automatically
shell-escaped, so they may contain $ etc."
(let* ((printf-bin (or (executable-find "printf") "printf"))
(printf-command
(concat printf-bin
" '__RESULT\\000" str "' "
(mapconcat #'exec-path-from-shell--double-quote args " ")))
(shell-args (append exec-path-from-shell-arguments
(list "-c"
(if (exec-path-from-shell--standard-shell-p (getenv "SHELL"))
printf-command
(concat "sh -c " (shell-quote-argument printf-command))))))
(shell (getenv "SHELL")))
(with-temp-buffer
(exec-path-from-shell--debug "Invoking shell %s with args %S" shell shell-args)
(let ((exit-code (apply #'call-process shell nil t nil shell-args)))
(exec-path-from-shell--debug "Shell printed: %S" (buffer-string))
(unless (zerop exit-code)
(error "Non-zero exit code from shell %s invoked with args %S. Output was:\n%S"
shell shell-args (buffer-string))))
(goto-char (point-min))
(if (re-search-forward "__RESULT\0\\(.*\\)" nil t)
(match-string 1)
(error "Expected printf output from shell, but got: %S" (buffer-string))))))
(defun exec-path-from-shell-getenvs (names)
"Get the environment variables with NAMES from the user's shell.
Execute $SHELL according to `exec-path-from-shell-arguments'.
The result is a list of (NAME . VALUE) pairs."
(let* ((dollar-names (mapcar (lambda (n) (format "${%s-}" n)) names))
(values (split-string (exec-path-from-shell-printf
(mapconcat #'identity (make-list (length names) "%s") "\\000")
dollar-names) "\0")))
(let (result)
(while names
(prog1
(push (cons (car names) (car values)) result)
(setq values (cdr values)
names (cdr names))))
result)))
(defun exec-path-from-shell-getenv (name)
"Get the environment variable NAME from the user's shell.
Execute $SHELL as interactive login shell, have it output the
variable of NAME and return this output as string."
(cdr (assoc name (exec-path-from-shell-getenvs (list name)))))
(defun exec-path-from-shell-setenv (name value)
"Set the value of environment var NAME to VALUE.
Additionally, if NAME is \"PATH\" then also set corresponding
variables such as `exec-path'."
(setenv name value)
(when (string-equal "PATH" name)
(setq eshell-path-env value
exec-path (append (parse-colon-path value) (list exec-directory)))))
;;;###autoload
(defun exec-path-from-shell-copy-envs (names)
"Set the environment variables with NAMES from the user's shell.
As a special case, if the variable is $PATH, then `exec-path' and
`eshell-path-env' are also set appropriately. The result is an alist,
as described by `exec-path-from-shell-getenvs'."
(mapc (lambda (pair)
(exec-path-from-shell-setenv (car pair) (cdr pair)))
(exec-path-from-shell-getenvs names)))
;;;###autoload
(defun exec-path-from-shell-copy-env (name)
"Set the environment variable $NAME from the user's shell.
As a special case, if the variable is $PATH, then `exec-path' and
`eshell-path-env' are also set appropriately. Return the value
of the environment variable."
(interactive "sCopy value of which environment variable from shell? ")
(cdar (exec-path-from-shell-copy-envs (list name))))
;;;###autoload
(defun exec-path-from-shell-initialize ()
"Initialize environment from the user's shell.
The values of all the environment variables named in
`exec-path-from-shell-variables' are set from the corresponding
values used in the user's shell."
(interactive)
(exec-path-from-shell-copy-envs exec-path-from-shell-variables))
(provide 'exec-path-from-shell)
;; Local Variables:
;; coding: utf-8
;; indent-tabs-mode: nil
;; mangle-whitespace: t
;; require-final-newline: t
;; checkdoc-minor-mode: t
;; End:
;;; exec-path-from-shell.el ends here
And adding the following in my ~/.emacs :
;; Set terminal :
(setenv "ESHELL" (expand-file-name "~/.emacs_config/scripts/eshell"))
(require 'exec-path-from-shell) ;; if not using the ELPA package
I still don't have access to all zsh features (like prompt expansion) but at least it works better. :)