26.10 Multiple Displays
A single Emacs can talk to more than one X display. Initially, Emacs
uses just one display—the one specified with the DISPLAY
environment variable or with the ‘--display’ option (see Initial Options). To connect to another display, use the command
make-frame-on-display:
- M-x make-frame-on-display <RET> display <RET>
- Create a new frame on display display.
A single X server can handle more than one screen. When you open
frames on two screens belonging to one server, Emacs knows they share a
single keyboard, and it treats all the commands arriving from these
screens as a single stream of input.
When you open frames on different X servers, Emacs makes a separate
input stream for each server. This way, two users can type
simultaneously on the two displays, and Emacs will not garble their
input. Each server also has its own selected frame. The commands you
enter with a particular X server apply to that server's selected frame.
Despite these features, people using the same Emacs job from different
displays can still interfere with each other if they are not careful.
For example, if any one types C-x C-c, that exits the Emacs job
for all of them!
