Execute code in .emacs file only for command line version of Emacs?

Question

Hello!

I'm running Carbon Emacs on Macs here, and my GUI emacs has an extremely pleasing colour scheme set up to use. Unfortunately, it looks like hell when running "emacs" in a Terminal window, which parses the same .emacs file in my root folder.

So, is there a way to conditionally execute code in my .emacs file so that I can select a different colour scheme for command line and "GUI" emacs?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use the window-system variable to determine if you're running Emacs in a windowed environment. For example, you could add something like the following to your .emacs.el:

(when window-system
  (setq default-frame-alist
    (append
      '((background-color . "#102e4e")
        (background-mode  . dark)
        ...))))

Here's the documentation for the window-system variable (viewable within Emacs by typing C-h v window-system RET):

Name of window system through which the selected frame is displayed.
The value is a symbol--for instance, `x' for X windows.
The value is nil if the selected frame is on a text-only-terminal.