How do I refresh org-babel results?

Question
Answer
- Refresh a single named block (recommended)
- Refresh every block in a file
Script
Tested by
See also

For the convention on which recipes should carry a #+RESULTS: snapshot, see document types (the recipe section).

Question

How do I re-run the org-babel source blocks in a recipe and update its #+RESULTS: snapshots on disk, without opening emacs interactively?

Answer

Use emacs --batch with ob-shell loaded and org-confirm-babel-evaluate silenced.

Refresh a single named block (recommended)

Give the source block you want kept fresh a #+name: header. Then refresh just that block by name:

#+name: list-presets
#+begin_src sh :results verbatim :exports both
cmake --list-presets
#+end_src

FILE=doc/recipes/cmake/how_do_i_list_available_presets.org
emacs --batch -Q \
  --eval "(require 'org)" \
  --eval "(require 'ob-shell)" \
  --eval "(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)" \
  --visit "$FILE" \
  --eval "(org-babel-goto-named-src-block \"list-presets\")" \
  -f org-babel-execute-src-block \
  -f save-buffer

This is the safe default: only the block named list-presets runs. Other blocks (which may invoke long-running build commands) are left alone.

Refresh every block in a file

For a file where every block is meant to be runnable on refresh:

FILE=doc/recipes/some_recipe.org
emacs --batch -Q \
  --eval "(require 'org)" \
  --eval "(require 'ob-shell)" \
  --eval "(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)" \
  --visit "$FILE" \
  -f org-babel-execute-buffer \
  -f save-buffer

Mark blocks that should never run automatically (e.g. cmake --build) with :eval no so they're skipped:

#+begin_src sh :results verbatim :eval no
cmake --build --preset linux-clang-debug-ninja
#+end_src

Script

The emacs --batch invocations above. No wrapper at the moment — if this becomes a frequent operation, fold it into a script under build/scripts/.

Tested by

Used during the information-architecture rollout to populate the #+RESULTS: snapshot in How do I list available presets?. Not yet exercised in CI.