Invoking Commands

When a command is to be invoked, the call-command function is used. This builds a list of argument values to apply to the command (using its interactive declaration) then calls the command.

call-command command &optional prefix-arg

Function

This function calls the command command interactively. See the documentation of commandp above for what constitutes a command. If the prefix-argument is non-nil it defines the value of the current-prefix-arg variable for this command, normally the value of this variable would be taken from the global prefix-arg variable. There is a corresponding call-command command that prompts for a command to execute.

apply-command name &rest args

Function

Call the function underlying the command name, passing in args as the arguments. This is useful for calling a command in a non-interactive context.

current-prefix-arg

Variable

When invoking an interactive command, this is set to the current prefix argument.

this-command

Variable

The command currently being called, or nil if no command is being called.

last-command

Variable

The command previously called, or nil if there is no such command.

See Command Hooks, for hooks run before and after commands.