file-template.el

file-template.el is an emacs package for expanding the predefined template file when creating a new file.

This originates from a fork of https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/file-template.el. Special thanks to the original author, Scott Frazer.

Configuration

Copy file-template.el into your Emacs load path

For example, you might copy it to a directory like ~/.emacs.d/lisp/:

cp file-template.el ~/.emacs.d/lisp/

Update your .emacs or init.el file

Add this.

(use-package file-template
    :commands (file-template-find-file-not-found-hook)
    :config
    (setq file-template-insert-automatically t)
    (setq file-template-paths '("~/.emacs.d/template/"))
    (setq file-template-mapping-alist
          '(("\\.el$"                    . ".template.el")
            ("\\.c$"                     . ".template.c")
            ("\\.\\(cpp\\|cc\\)$"        . ".template.cpp")
            ("\\.h$"                     . ".template.h")
            ("\\.hpp$"                   . ".template.hpp")
            ("\\.sh$"                    . ".template.sh")
            ("\\.tex$"                   . ".template.tex")
            ("\\.py$"                    . ".template.py")
            ("\\Makefile$"               . ".template.make")))
    :init
            (push #'file-template-find-file-not-found-hook find-file-not-found-functions))

Template file

The template files are searched recursively starting from the current directory up to the root directory. If no template file is found, the default template file saved in ~/.emacs.d/template/ will be used.

Here's an example of a template for C source code. You can use this as the default template by saving it as ~/.emacs.d/template/.template.c.

/**
 * @file   %b
 * @author %U <%a>
 * @date   %T
 *
 * @brief
 */

The %b, %U, %a, and %T are predefined tags, which will be expanded to the filename, your name with an email address, and the current time.

The full list of predefined tags is as follows.

tag	desc.
%u	user's login name
%U	user's full name
%a	user's mail address (from the variable "user-mail-address")
%f	file name with path
%b	file name without path
%n	file name without path and extension
%N	file name without path and extension, capitalized
%e	file extension
%E	file extension capitalized
%p	file directory
%T	current local time, as a human-readable string
%d	day
%m	month
%M	abbreviated month name
%y	last two digits of year
%Y	year
%q	fill-paragraph
%[ %]	prompt user for a string
%1-%9	refer to the nth strings prompted for with %[ %]
%( %)	elisp form to be evaluated
%%	inserts %
%@	sets the final position of "point"

Usage

Create a new file of the specified type in file-template-mapping-alist. The template file should be applied automatically.

file-template.el supports project-specific templates; it automatically uses template files placed in the project's root directory.

Examples of template files

Template file for C header file.

/**
 * @file   %b
 * @author %U <%a>
 * @date   %T
 *
 * @brief
 *
 *
 */

#if ! defined __%N_%E_INCLUDED__
#define __%N_%E_INCLUDED__

#endif // #if ! defined __%N_%E_INCLUDED__

/**
 * Local Variables:
 * mode: c
 * c-basic-offset: 4
 * coding: utf-8
 * End:
 */

Template file for C++ source file.

//!
// @file   %b
// @author %U <%a>
// @date   %T
//
// @brief
//

// Local Variables:
// mode: c++
// c-basic-offset: 4
// coding: utf-8
// End: