1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (c) 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000 Free software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end of the file for copying permissions.
8 The simplest way to build Emacs is to use the `configure' shell script
9 which attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent
10 variables and features and find the directories where various system
11 headers and libraries are kept. It then creates a `Makefile' in each
12 subdirectory and a `config.h' file containing system-dependent
13 definitions. Running the `make' utility then builds the package for
16 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
17 are supported by it. If this simplified procedure fails, or if you
18 are using a platform such as MS-Windows, where `configure' script
19 doesn't work, you might need to use various non-default options, and
20 maybe perform some of the steps manually. The more detailed
21 description in the rest of the sections of this guide will help you do
22 that, so please refer to them if the simple procedure does not work.
24 1. If you want to be able to input international characters which
25 your keyboard doesn't support directly (i.e. you cannot type
26 them at the shell prompt), download the leim-M.N.tar.gz
27 distribution and unpack it into the same directory where you have
28 unpacked the main Emacs distribution. See ADDITIONAL
29 DISTRIBUTION FILES, below, for more about this.
31 2. Make sure your system has at least 120 MB of free disk space.
33 3a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
38 3b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
39 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
44 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory. This
45 may not work unless you use GNU make.
47 4. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
48 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
49 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
50 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
51 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
53 If you find anything wrong, you will have to pass to `configure'
54 explicit machine configuration name, and one or more options
55 which tell it where to find various headers and libraries; refer
56 to DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION section below.
58 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
59 Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them refer to the subsection
60 "Image support libraries", below.
62 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
63 you, assume that `configure' did its job and proceed.
65 5. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
66 with some non-default options), always clean the source
67 directories before running `configure' again:
72 6. Invoke the `make' program:
76 7. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
77 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
82 8. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
83 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
84 files into their installation directories:
88 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
89 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
90 directory where you built Emacs:
94 You can also save some space by compressing (with `gzip') Info files
95 and installed Lisp source (.el) files which have corresponding .elc
99 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
103 The Emacs Lisp code for input methods for various international
104 character scripts allows you to input characters in scripts which are
105 not directly supported by your keyboard. It is distributed in a
106 separate tar file because it amounts to a significant fraction of the
107 size of the distribution. This tar file is called leim-M.N.tar.gz,
108 with the same version number as Emacs, and it unpacks into the
109 directory emacs-M.N/leim.
111 You should unpack leim-M.N.tar.gz into the same directory where you
112 have previously unpacked the main Emacs distribution. It fills in the
113 contents of one subdirectory, which is present in the main Emacs
114 distribution only in dummy form.
116 Once you have unpacked the Leim tar file into the Emacs source tree,
117 building and installing Emacs automatically installs the input method
118 support as well. If you have built Emacs without unpacking Leim
119 first, just unpack Leim, build Emacs again, and install it again.
121 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
123 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts that Emacs needs in
124 order to display international characters. If you see a non-ASCII
125 character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have a font for
126 it. You might find a font in the intlfonts distribution. If you do
127 have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters don't look
128 right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the intlfonts
129 distribution might look better.
131 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
132 package for printing international characters. The file
133 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
136 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
137 in the intlfonts/README file.
139 * elisp-manual-M.N.tar.gz
141 This distribution contains the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual which
142 complements the Emacs Manual. (The Emacs Manual is accessible from
143 within the editor by typing "C-h i", then selecting the "Emacs" item
144 from the menu, or by clicking "Help" in the menu bar and selecting
145 "Read Emacs Manual".) It is a good idea to install the Emacs Lisp
146 Reference Manual after installing Emacs, to complete the on-line
147 documentation of Emacs in Info.
149 If you have installed Texinfo, you can install the Emacs Lisp
150 Reference Manual this way (after unpacking the elisp-manual-M.N.tar.gz
154 ./configure --prefix=PREFIXDIR
157 Otherwise, you can install it manually. Just copy the files elisp and
158 elisp-* from the elisp-manual-M.N directory to your site's info
159 directory (see the description of `infodir', below), and make sure
160 that file `dir' in this directory contains an entry like this:
162 * Elisp: (elisp). The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
164 * Image support libraries
166 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
167 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
169 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
170 already be present or available as additional packages. If not, you
171 can download and build them from sources. None of them are vital for
172 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use color
173 icons in the toolbar if the XPM support is not available.
175 Here's the list of these optional libraries, and the URLs where they
178 . libXaw3d for fancy 3D-style
179 scroll bars: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/Xaw3d/
180 . libxpm for XPM: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/
181 . libpng for PNG: ftp://www.libpng.org/pub/png/
182 . libz (for PNG): http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/
183 . libjpeg for JPEG: ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/
184 Get version 6b -- 6a is reported to fail in
186 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
188 http://prtr-13.ucsc.edu/~badger/software/libungif/index.shtml
189 Ensure you get version 4.1.0b1 or higher of libungif -- a bug in
190 4.1.0 can crash Emacs.
192 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
193 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
194 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
195 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
196 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
197 --without-LIB options to `configure'. See below for more details.
201 To take proper advantage of Emacs 21's mule-unicode charsets, you need
202 a Unicode font. For information on Unicode fonts for X, see
203 <URL:http://czyborra.com/unifont/>,
204 <URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> and
205 <URL:http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/ucs-fonts.html>.
206 <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> has basic fonts for Emacs's
209 XFree86 release 4 (from <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/> and mirrors)
210 contains font support for most, if not all, of the charsets that Emacs
211 supports. The font files should be usable separately with older X
215 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
217 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.X,
218 see below; search for MSDOG. For Windows 9X, Windows ME, Windows NT,
219 and Windows 2000, see the file nt/INSTALL. For the Mac, see the file
222 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
223 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
224 least 2.5 MB and can reach 80 MB or more. If the swapping space is
225 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
226 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
227 running the final dumped Emacs.
229 Building Emacs requires about 95 MB of disk space (including the Emacs
230 sources), or 130 MB if Leim is used. Once installed, Emacs occupies
231 about 60 MB (70 MB with Leim) in the file system where it is
232 installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp libraries,
233 miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If the building
234 and installation take place in different directories, then the
235 installation procedure momentarily requires 95+60 MB (130+70 MB).
237 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
238 give to the `configure' program. That file offers hints for
239 getting around some possible installation problems. The file lists
240 many different configurations, but only the part for your machine and
241 operating system is relevant. (The list is arranged in alphabetical
242 order by the vendor name.)
244 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
245 or in a separate directory.
247 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
248 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
250 ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
252 The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
253 in `./etc/MACHINES', with the system version number added at the end.
255 You should try first omitting CONFIGURATION-NAME. This way,
256 `configure' will try to guess your system type. If it cannot guess,
257 or if something goes wrong in building or installing Emacs this way,
258 try again specifying the proper CONFIGURATION-NAME explicitly.
260 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
261 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
262 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
264 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
265 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
266 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
267 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
268 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
269 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
271 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
272 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
273 TOOLKIT is `athena' or `motif' (`yes' and `lucid' are synonyms for
274 `athena'). On some systems, it does not work to use a toolkit with
275 shared libraries. A free implementation of Motif, called LessTif, is
276 available ftom <http://www.lesstif.org>. Compiling with LessTif or
277 Motif causes a standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you type
278 "C-x C-f" and similar commands. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll
279 bars, even without LessTif/Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library
280 installed (see "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d
283 The `--with-gcc' option specifies that the build process should
284 compile Emacs using GCC. If you don't want to use GCC, specify
285 `--with-gcc=no'. If you omit this option, `configure' will search
286 for GCC in your path, and use it if present.
288 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
289 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
290 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
291 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
292 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
293 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
295 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
296 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
297 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
298 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
300 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
301 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
302 or more of these options:
304 --without-xpm for XPM image support
305 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
306 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
307 --without-gif for GIF image support
308 --without-png for PNG image support
310 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
311 scroll bars. --without-xim disables the use of X Input Methods, and
312 --disable-largefile omits support for files larger than 2GB on systems
315 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
316 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
317 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
318 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
319 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
320 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.27').
321 - The architecture-dependent files go in
322 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
323 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
324 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
326 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
327 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
328 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
329 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
330 - The architecture-dependent files go in
331 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
332 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
334 For example, the command
336 ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
338 configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
339 support for the X11 window system.
341 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
342 itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
343 `./Makefile', `lib-src/Makefile', `oldXMenu/Makefile',
344 `lwlib/Makefile', `src/Makefile', and `./src/config.h'. For details
345 on exactly what it does, see the section called `CONFIGURATION BY
348 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
349 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
350 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
351 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
352 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
353 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
354 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
355 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
356 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
357 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
359 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
360 is not right, or if it claims some of the fatures or libraries are not
361 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
362 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
363 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
364 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
365 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
367 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
368 directories for some header files, or link against optional
369 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
370 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
371 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, and CC before
372 running `configure'. CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to the
373 preprocessor, CFLAGS are compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used
374 when linking, LIBS are libraries to link against, and CC is the
375 command which invokes the compiler.
377 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
378 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
380 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
381 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
383 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
384 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
385 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
386 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
387 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo.a and libbar.a
388 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
390 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
391 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
392 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
395 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
396 and run the program `configure' as follows:
398 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
400 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
401 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
402 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
404 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
405 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
407 3c) Some people try to build in a separate directory by filling
408 it full of symlinks to the files in the real source directory.
409 If you do that, `make all' does work, but `make install' fails:
410 it copies the symbolic links rather than the actual files.
412 As far as is known, there is no particular reason to use
413 a directory full of links rather than use the standard GNU
414 facilities to build in a separate directory (see 3b above).
416 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
417 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
418 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
419 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
420 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
422 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
424 is how you would override the default value of the variable
425 news-inews-program (which is "/usr/local/inews").
427 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
428 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
429 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
430 doing, you'll make a mistake.
432 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
433 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
434 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
435 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
436 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
437 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
438 was build with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
440 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
441 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
442 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
444 Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
445 not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
446 something up in the system's password and user information database.
447 See `./etc/PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
449 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
450 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
452 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
453 wish to add to various termcap entries. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
454 and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
457 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
458 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
459 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
460 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
461 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
463 Or you can "install" the executable and the other Emacs into their
464 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
465 are installed in the following directories:
467 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
468 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
471 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
472 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
473 you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.27'. Since the
474 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
475 another, including the version number in the path
476 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
477 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
478 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
480 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
481 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
483 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
484 files installed for all Emacs versions.
486 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
487 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
488 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
489 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
491 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
492 file, the `yow' database, and other
493 architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
494 running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
496 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
497 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
499 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
500 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument
501 you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
502 architecture and operating system of your machine,
503 like `mips-dec-ultrix' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
504 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
505 operating system, and architecture in use, including
506 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
507 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
508 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
509 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
510 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
512 `/usr/local/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs, known as
513 "info files". Many other GNU programs are documented
514 using info files as well, so this directory stands
515 apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
517 `/usr/local/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
520 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
521 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
522 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
523 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
526 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
527 /usr/local/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the Emacs
530 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
531 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
532 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
534 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
535 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
536 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
537 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
538 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
539 unneeded files in the leim/quail, leim/skk, and leim/skk-dic
540 subdirectories of your site's lisp directory (usually
541 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
547 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
548 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
549 command line. For example, if you type
551 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
553 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
554 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
557 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
559 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
560 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
562 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
563 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
564 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
565 subdirectories under `datadir':
566 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
567 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
568 file, and the `yow' database.
569 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
570 like `18.59' or `19.0'. Since these files vary from one version
571 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
572 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
573 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
574 unavailable while installing a new version.
576 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
577 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
578 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
579 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
580 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
582 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
583 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument you gave to the
584 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
585 system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' or
586 `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since these files are specific to the version
587 of Emacs, operating system, and architecture in use, including
588 the configuration name in the path allows you to have several
589 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating systems
590 installed at the same time; this is useful for sites at which
591 different kinds of machines share the file system Emacs is
594 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
595 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/info'.
597 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
598 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
599 `/usr/local/man/man1'.
601 `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
602 It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
603 digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
604 values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
605 installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
607 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
608 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
609 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
610 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
611 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
614 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
615 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
617 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
618 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
619 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
620 directories under that path.
622 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
623 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
624 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
626 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
627 GNU software; this variable is specific to Emacs.
629 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
630 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
631 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
632 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
633 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
635 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
636 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
637 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
638 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
639 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
640 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
641 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
643 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/paths.h,
644 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
645 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
646 before you run `make'.
648 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
649 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
650 when running make in the subdirectories.
653 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
655 Instead of running the `configure' program, you have to perform the
658 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
660 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
661 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
662 see which operating system and architecture description files from
663 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
664 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
665 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
667 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
668 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
669 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
670 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files. Occasionally you may need to
671 redefine parameters used in `./lib-src/movemail.c'.
673 3) Create src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile from the corresponding
674 `Makefile.in' files. First copy `Makefile.in' to `Makefile.c',
675 then edit in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs,
676 and then copy the shell commands near the end of `configure'
677 that run cpp to construct `Makefile'.
679 4) Create `Makefile' files in various other directories
680 from the corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard,
681 just a matter of substitution.
683 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
684 program. You need version 2.8 or newer of `autoconf' to rebuild
687 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
689 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
692 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
693 `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.in', changing
694 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
696 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
697 executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `wakeup' and `make-docfile'
698 and `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. And others.
700 3) Go to directory `./src' and Run `make'. This refers to files in
701 the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
704 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
705 which has another name that contains a version number.
706 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
708 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
709 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
710 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
711 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
712 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs
718 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
719 directory of the Emacs distribution.
721 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
722 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/paths.h'.
724 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
725 - The programs `cvtmail', `emacsserver', `fakemail', `hexl',
726 `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log', `timer', `vcdiff', `wakeup',
727 and `yow' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
728 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
729 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
730 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
731 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
732 - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
733 a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
735 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
736 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
737 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
738 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
739 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
740 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
742 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
743 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
744 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
745 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
746 of installing different versions.
748 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
750 4) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
751 `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
752 intended for users to run.
754 5) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
755 appropriate man directories.
757 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
758 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
759 the source on line for debugging.
764 See the file PROBLEMS in etc subdirectory for a list of various
765 problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
768 Installation on MSDOG (a.k.a. MSDOS)
770 To install on MSDOG, you need to have the GNU C compiler for MSDOG
771 (also known as djgpp), GNU Make, rm, mv, and sed. See the remarks in
772 config.bat for more information about locations and versions. The
773 file etc/FAQ includes pointers to Internet sites where you can find
774 the necessary utilities; search for "MS-DOS". The configuration step
775 (see below) will test for these utilities and will refuse to continue
776 if any of them isn't found.
778 Recompiling Lisp files in the `lisp' subdirectory using the various
779 targets in the lisp/Makefile file requires additional utilities:
780 `find' and `xargs' (from Findutils), `touch' (from Fileutils) GNU
781 `echo' and `test' (from Sh-utils), `tr, `sort', and `uniq' (from
782 Textutils), and a port of Bash. However, you should not normally need
783 to run lisp/Makefile, as all the Lisp files are distributed in
784 byte-compiled form as well.
786 If you are building the MSDOG version of Emacs on an MSDOG-like system
787 which supports long file names (e.g. Windows 95), you need to make
788 sure that long file names are handled consistently both when you
789 unpack the distribution and compile it. If you intend to compile with
790 DJGPP v2.0 or later, and long file names support is enabled (LFN=y in
791 the environment), you need to unpack Emacs distribution in a way that
792 doesn't truncate the original long filenames to the DOS 8.3 namespace;
793 the easiest way to do this is to use djtar program which comes with
794 DJGPP, since it will note the LFN setting and behave accordingly.
795 DJGPP v1 doesn't support long filenames, so you must unpack Emacs with
796 a program that truncates the filenames to 8.3 naming as it extracts
797 files; again, using djtar after setting LFN=n is the recommended way.
798 You can build Emacs with LFN=n even if you use DJGPP v2, if some of
799 your tools don't support long file names: just ensure that LFN is set
800 to `n' during both unpacking and compiling.
802 (By the time you read this, you have already unpacked the Emacs
803 distribution, but if the explanations above imply that you should have
804 done it differently, it's safer to delete the directory tree created
805 by the unpacking program and unpack Emacs again, than to risk running
806 into problems during the build process.)
808 It is important to understand that the runtime support of long file
809 names by the Emacs binary is NOT affected by the LFN setting during
810 compilation; Emacs compiled with DJGPP v2.0 or later will always
811 support long file names on Windows 9X no matter what was the setting
812 of LFN at compile time. However, if you compiled with LFN disabled
813 and want to enable LFN support after Emacs was already built, you need
814 to make sure that the support files in the lisp, etc and info
815 directories are called by their original long names as found in the
816 distribution. You can do this either by renaming the files manually,
817 or by extracting them from the original distribution archive with
818 djtar after you set LFN=y in the environment.
820 To unpack Emacs with djtar, type this command:
824 (This assumes that the Emacs distribution is called `emacs.tgz' on
827 If you need to type international characters, you will need to unpack
828 the Leim distribution (see the description near the beginning of this
829 file). You unpack it from the same directory where you unpacked
830 Emacs. To unpack Leim with djtar, assuming the Leim distribution is
831 called `leim.tgz', type this command:
835 If you want to print international characters, install the intlfonts
836 distribution. For this, create a directory called `fonts' under the
837 Emacs top-level directory (usually called `emacs-XX.YY') created by
838 unpacking emacs.tgz, chdir into the directory emacs-XX.YY/fonts, and
841 djtar -x intlfonts.tgz
843 When unpacking is done, a directory called `emacs-XX.YY' will be
844 created, where XX.YY is the Emacs version. To build and install
845 Emacs, chdir to that directory and type these commands:
850 Running "config msdos" checks for several programs that are required
851 to configure and build Emacs; if one of those programs is not found,
852 CONFIG.BAT stops and prints an error message. If you have DJGPP
853 version 2.0 or 2.01, it will complain about a program called
854 DJECHO.EXE. These old versions of DJGPP shipped that program under
855 the name ECHO.EXE, so you can simply copy ECHO.EXE to DJECHO.EXE and
856 rerun CONFIG.BAT. If you have neither ECHO.EXE nor DJECHO.EXE, you
857 should be able to find them in your djdevNNN.zip archive (where NNN is
858 the DJGPP version number).
860 To install the international fonts, chdir to the intlfonts-X.Y
861 directory created when you unpacked the intlfonts distribution (X.Y is
862 the version number of the fonts' distribution), and type the following
865 make bdf INSTALLDIR=..
867 After Make finishes, you may remove the directory intlfonts-X.Y; the
868 fonts are installed into the fonts/bdf subdirectory of the top-level
869 Emacs directory, and that is where Emacs will look for them by
872 Building Emacs creates executable files in the src and lib-src
873 directories. Installing Emacs on MSDOS moves these executables to a
874 sibling directory called bin. For example, if you build in directory
875 /emacs, installing moves the executables from /emacs/src and
876 /emacs/lib-src to the directory /emacs/bin, so you can then delete the
877 subdirectories /emacs/src and /emacs/lib-src if you wish. The only
878 subdirectories you need to keep are bin, lisp, etc and info. (If you
879 installed Leim, keep the leim subdirectory, and if you installed
880 intlfonts, keep the fonts directory and all its subdirectories as well.)
881 The bin subdirectory should be added to your PATH. The msdos
882 subdirectory includes a PIF and an icon file for Emacs which you might
883 find useful if you run Emacs under MS Windows.
885 Emacs on MSDOS finds the lisp, etc and info directories by looking in
886 ../lisp, ../etc and ../info, starting from the directory where the
887 Emacs executable was run from. You can override this by setting the
888 environment variables EMACSDATA (for the location of `etc' directory),
889 EMACSLOADPATH (for the location of `lisp' directory) and INFOPATH (for
890 the location of the `info' directory).
892 MSDOG is a not a multitasking operating system, so Emacs features such
893 as asynchronous subprocesses that depend on multitasking will not
894 work. Synchronous subprocesses do work.
896 Version 2.0 of djgpp has two bugs that affect Emacs. We've included
897 corrected versions of two files from djgpp in the msdos subdirectory:
898 is_exec.c and sigaction.c. To work around the bugs, compile these
899 files and link them into temacs. Djgpp versions 2.01 and later have
900 these bugs fixed, so upgrade if you can before building Emacs.
904 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
905 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
906 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
907 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
908 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
910 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
911 of this document, or of portions of it,
912 under the above conditions, provided also that they
913 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them,
914 and that any new or changed statements about the activities
915 of the Free Software Foundation are approved by the Foundation.