Emacs open another shell in current window

Question

One small thing that has been bugging me with emacs

When opening a shell within a buffer i do:

M-x shell

So far so good

But if I want to open another shell, I switch to another buffer and:

C-u M-x shell

but this always opens in another window - not the one I am currently in

this is annoying does anyone know how to fix it?

EDIT

I should have added that i have multiple buffers open in multiple split windows, e.g. my frame is split into 3 sections - what i want is the new shell to open in the same section that currently has focus, i.e. the one i am typing in and not an alternate one

I think what happens when I do C-u M-x shell is that the new shell buffer opens in the next window, i.e. the one you would shift to if you hit C-x o. I want it to open in the same window

Answer 1

Emacs runs interactive shells in dedicated buffers. It cannot run a shell in, say, TeX buffer.

M-x shell creates a new shell if there isn't one already, and C-u M-x shell asks you for the name of a new buffer. You can also rename the shell buffer to facilitate multiple shells, see the link above.

EDIT: the new shell buffer is displayed using pop-to-buffer-same-window (in Emacs24). Your best venue is to add *Shell* to display-buffer-alist - but it is not necessary there.

In Emacs23 the display of the *Shell* buffer is controlled by special-display-function (since *Shell* has a match in special-display-buffer-names or special-display-regexps). Set special-display-function to display-buffer-same-window (or something similar) and you should be golden.

However, the ultimate solution is to upgrade Emacs to v24; since you are on a linux system, it should be straightforward.