org-mode File Specific Functions

Question

I am working on a literate program in org-mode. I have couple of functions in my .emacs that I use to setup a repl for the program, is it possible to move these functions to the org-mode file and they are evaluated every time the file is opened (like buffer local vars but with functions.)

Chris Chris · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-18T14:17:06

You should be able to do this using the special eval file-local variable (emphasis mine):

Some "variable names" have special meanings in a local variables list:

mode enables the specified major mode.

eval evaluates the specified Lisp expression (the value returned by that expression is ignored).

coding specifies the coding system for character code conversion of this file. See Coding Systems.

unibyte says to load or compile a file of Emacs Lisp in unibyte mode, if the value is t. See Disabling Multibyte.

So, for example, an Org file that has this first line

# -*- eval: (message "foo"); -*-

or a block like this within the last 3000 characters of the file

# Local Variables:
# eval: (message "foo")
# End:

will evaluate (message "foo") when the file is opened.

This is a security risk, so you will be prompted when you open the file. You can use y to evaluate it once or ! to save it as a safe evaluation in your custom file and avoid future prompts.

Edit:

This is a bit awkward, but here is a way to evaluate a named source block on file load:

# -*- eval: (progn (org-babel-goto-named-src-block "foo") (org-babel-execute-src-block-maybe)) -*-

#+NAME: foo
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results silent
  (message "Yes, it worked")
#+END_SRC

Unfortunately I don't see any way to call the named block directly, and this way you get prompted for security two times: once for the eval and once for the code block foo.

org-mode File Specific Functions

1 Answers