Original Author: Fredrik Hubinette
Auto-recompile is a small emacs add-on which allows you to fix compilation errors faster by automatically runs compile command on save.
M-x auto-recompile will toggle auto-recompile on and off.
When auto-recompile is active, your emacs will do some extra things:
When you save a file, emacs will start a new compilation with the same parameters as the last call to M-x compile. Any active previous compilation will be killed, but it's buffer will remain so that you can still work on any compilation errors in that buffer. Each new compilation will live in it's own buffer.
When you hit C-x ` to go to the next error, emacs will search all compilation buffers, starting with the newest one until it finds one that has an error. When it finds a buffer with an error, older compilation buffers will be killed automatically as any error in those buffers aren't interesting anymore.
If no error is found, emacs will show you the end of thelast compilation buffer. This will tell you if the current compilation is still active, or if it completed successfully.
When using C-`, emacs will automatically save ALL buffers if the next error is in a different buffer than the last one. This will automatically start a new compilation.
So, what does all this mean? It means that after starting a compile with M-x compile, all you need to do is to use C-x ` to go from error to error and fix them. Emacs will automatically save and recompile as you work your way through the files. Occationally you may want to save file explicitly, but it should not be needed.
auto-recompile mode can be dangerous. It will kill compilations without warning, and it will save ALL buffers in your emacs without asking. To turn off the automatic saving of buffers, set auto-recompile-save to nil.