1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2014 Free Software Foundation,
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
7 This file contains general information on building GNU Emacs.
8 For more information specific to the MS-Windows, GNUstep/Mac OS X, and
9 MS-DOS ports, also read the files nt/INSTALL, nextstep/INSTALL, and
10 msdos/INSTALL. For information about building from a repository checkout
11 (rather than a release), also read the file INSTALL.REPO.
16 On most Unix systems, you build Emacs by first running the `configure'
17 shell script. This attempts to deduce the correct values for
18 various system-dependent variables and features, and find the
19 directories where certain system headers and libraries are kept.
20 In a few cases, you may need to explicitly tell configure where to
21 find some things, or what options to use.
23 `configure' creates a `Makefile' in several subdirectories, and a
24 `src/config.h' file containing system-dependent definitions.
25 Running the `make' utility then builds the package for your system.
27 Building Emacs requires GNU make, <http://www.gnu.org/software/make/>.
28 On most systems that Emacs supports, this is the default `make' program.
30 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
31 are supported by it. In some cases, if the simplified procedure fails,
32 you might need to use various non-default options, and maybe perform
33 some of the steps manually. The more detailed description in the other
34 sections of this guide will help you do that, so please refer to those
35 sections if you need to.
37 1. Unpacking the Emacs 24.1 release requires about 180 MB of free
38 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 70 MB of space.
39 The final installed Emacs uses about 110 MB of disk space.
40 This includes the space-saving that comes from automatically
41 compressing the Lisp source files on installation.
43 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
48 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
49 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
54 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory.
56 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
57 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
58 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
59 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
60 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
62 If you find anything wrong, you may have to pass to `configure'
63 one or more options specifying the explicit machine configuration
64 name, where to find various headers and libraries, etc.
65 Refer to the section DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION below.
67 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
68 Xpm and jpeg, refer to "Image support libraries" below.
70 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
71 you, but there are no obvious errors, assume that `configure' did
74 4. Invoke the `make' program:
78 5. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
79 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
84 6. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
85 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
86 files into their installation directories:
90 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
91 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
92 directory where you built Emacs:
96 You can delete the entire build directory if you do not plan to
97 build Emacs again, but it can be useful to keep for debugging.
98 If you want to build Emacs again with different configure options,
99 first clean the source directories:
103 Note that the install automatically saves space by compressing
104 (provided you have the `gzip' program) those installed Lisp source (.el)
105 files that have corresponding .elc versions, as well as the Info files.
108 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
110 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
112 On GNU and Unix systems, Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db",
113 "libm17n-flt", "libotf" to correctly display such complex scripts as
114 Indic and Khmer, and also for scripts that require Arabic shaping
115 support (Arabic and Farsi). On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux,
116 these libraries may be already present or available as additional
117 packages. Note that if there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package,
118 for use at compilation time rather than run time, you will need that
119 as well as the corresponding run time package; typically the dev
120 package will contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise,
121 you can download the libraries from <http://www.nongnu.org/m17n/>.
123 Note that Emacs cannot support complex scripts on a TTY, unless the
124 terminal includes such a support.
126 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
128 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
129 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
130 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
131 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
132 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
133 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
134 intlfonts distribution might look better.
136 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
137 package for printing international characters. The file
138 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
141 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
142 in the intlfonts/README file.
144 * Image support libraries
146 Emacs needs libraries to display images, with the exception of PBM and
147 XBM images whose support is built-in.
149 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
150 already be present or available as additional packages. If
151 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
152 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
153 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
154 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
155 download and build libraries from sources. Although none of them are
156 essential for running Emacs, some are important enough that
157 'configure' will report an error if they are absent from a system that
158 has X11 support, unless 'configure' is specifically told to omit them.
160 Here's a list of some of these libraries, and the URLs where they
161 can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution does not
162 provide them). By default, libraries marked with an X are required if
165 libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
166 X libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
167 X libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
168 libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
169 X libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
170 X libtiff for TIFF: http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
171 X libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
172 librsvg2 for SVG: http://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Projects/LibRsvg
174 If you supply the appropriate --without-LIB option, 'configure' will
175 omit the corresponding library from Emacs, even if that makes for a
176 less-pleasant user interface. Otherwise, Emacs will configure itself
177 to build with these libraries if 'configure' finds them on your
178 system, and 'configure' will complain and exit if a library marked 'X'
179 is not found on a system that uses X11. Use --without-LIB if your
180 version of a library won't work because some routines are missing.
184 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
187 On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
188 (i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
189 fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
190 yourself. See <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/> for a large
191 number of free Unicode fonts.
193 * GNU/Linux development packages
195 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
196 they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
197 need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
198 and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
199 package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
201 The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
202 GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
203 configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
204 packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
205 like `apt-get build-dep emacs24'. On Red Hat systems, the
206 corresponding command is `yum-builddep emacs'.
209 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
211 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
212 see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
213 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
215 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
216 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
217 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
218 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
219 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
220 running the final dumped Emacs. (This should not be an issue
221 on any recent system.)
223 Building Emacs requires about 230 MB of disk space (including the
224 Emacs sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 120 MB in the file
225 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
226 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
227 the building and installation take place in different directories,
228 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 230+120 MB.
230 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
231 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
232 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
233 for getting around some possible installation problems.
235 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
236 or in a separate directory.
238 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
239 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
241 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
243 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
244 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
246 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
247 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
248 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
250 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
251 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
252 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
253 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
254 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
255 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
257 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
258 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
259 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
260 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). Compiling with Motif causes a
261 standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands
262 with the mouse. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without
263 Gtk or Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see
264 "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d availability).
266 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by giving it the
267 argument PKG_CONFIG='/full/name/of/pkg-config'. GTK version 2.6 or
268 newer is required for Emacs.
270 Emacs will autolaunch a D-Bus session bus, when the environment
271 variable DISPLAY is set, but no session bus is running. This might be
272 inconvenient for Emacs when running as daemon or running via a remote
273 ssh connection. In order to completely prevent the use of D-Bus, configure
274 Emacs with the options `--without-dbus --without-gconf --without-gsettings'.
276 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
277 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
278 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
279 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
280 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
281 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
283 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
284 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
285 PBM, see the list of URLs in "Image support libraries" above.
286 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
288 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
289 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
290 or more of these options:
292 --without-xpm for XPM image support
293 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
294 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
295 --without-gif for GIF image support
296 --without-png for PNG image support
297 --without-rsvg for SVG image support
299 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable Motif or Xaw3d scroll bars.
301 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
302 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
304 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
305 systems which support that.
307 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
309 Use --without-all for a smaller executable with fewer dependencies on
310 external libraries, at the cost of disabling many features. Although
311 --without-all disables libraries not needed for ordinary Emacs
312 operation, it does enable X support, and using the GTK2 or GTK3
313 toolkit creates a lot of library dependencies. So if you want to
314 build a small executable with very basic X support, use --without-all
315 --with-x-toolkit=no. For the smallest possible executable without X,
316 use --without-all --without-x. If you want to build with just a few
317 features enabled, you can combine --without-all with --with-FEATURE.
318 For example, you can use --without-all --without-x --with-dbus to
319 build with DBus support and nothing more.
321 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
322 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
323 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
325 Use --enable-gcc-warnings to enable compile-time checks that warn
326 about possibly-questionable C code. This is intended for developers
327 and is useful with GNU-compatible compilers. On a recent GNU system
328 there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the
329 generated warnings may still be useful.
331 Use --enable-silent-rules to cause 'make' to chatter less. This is
332 helpful when combined with options like --enable-gcc-warnings that
333 generate long shell-command lines. 'make V=0' also suppresses the
336 Use --enable-link-time-optimization to enable link-time optimizer. If
337 you're using GNU compiler, this feature is supported since version 4.5.0.
338 If `configure' can determine number of online CPUS on your system, final
339 link-time optimization and code generation is executed in parallel using
340 one job per each available online CPU.
342 This option is also supported for clang. You should have GNU binutils
343 with `gold' linker and plugin support, and clang with LLVMgold.so plugin.
344 Read http://llvm.org/docs/GoldPlugin.html for details. Also note that
345 this feature is still experimental, so prepare to build binutils and
346 clang from the corresponding source code repositories.
348 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
349 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
350 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
351 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
352 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
353 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
354 - The architecture-dependent files go in
355 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
356 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
357 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
359 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
360 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
361 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
362 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
363 - The architecture-dependent files go in
364 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
365 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
367 For example, the command
369 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
371 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
372 without sound support.
374 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
375 It just creates the files that influence those things:
376 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
377 and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
378 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
380 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
381 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
382 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
383 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
384 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
385 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
386 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
387 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
388 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
389 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
391 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
392 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
393 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
394 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
395 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
396 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
397 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
399 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
400 directories for some header files, or link against optional
401 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
402 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
403 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
404 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
405 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
406 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
407 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
408 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
410 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
411 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
414 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
415 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar'
417 (this is all one shell command). This tells `configure' to instruct the
418 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
419 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
420 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
421 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
422 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
424 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
425 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
426 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
427 PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories where the .pc-files for
428 those libraries are. For example:
431 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig'
433 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
434 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
435 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
438 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
439 and run the program `configure' as follows:
441 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
443 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
444 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
445 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
447 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links to
448 the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will fail.)
450 4) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
451 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
452 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
453 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
454 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
455 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
456 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
458 It is not a good idea to edit the normal .el files that come with Emacs.
459 Instead, use a file like site-init.el to change settings.
461 To change the value of a variable that is already defined in Emacs,
462 you should use the Lisp function `setq', not `defvar'. For example,
464 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
466 is how you would override the default value of the variable
469 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
470 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
471 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
472 doing, you'll make a mistake.
474 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
475 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
477 5) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
478 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
480 6) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
481 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
482 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
483 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
484 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
486 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
487 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
488 are installed in the following directories:
490 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
491 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and
494 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
495 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
496 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
497 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
498 another, including the version number in the path
499 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
500 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
501 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
503 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
504 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
505 might need while running.
507 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
508 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
510 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
511 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
512 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
513 architecture and operating system of your machine,
514 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
515 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
516 operating system, and architecture in use, including
517 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
518 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
519 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
520 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
521 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
523 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
524 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
525 documented using info files as well, so this directory
526 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
528 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
531 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
532 files in these directories.
534 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
535 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
537 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
538 files installed for all Emacs versions.
540 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
541 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
542 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
543 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
545 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
546 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
547 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
548 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
551 7) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
552 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
555 8) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
556 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
557 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
559 9) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
560 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
561 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
562 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
563 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
564 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
565 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
571 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
572 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
573 command line. For example, if you type
575 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
577 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
578 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
581 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
583 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
584 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
586 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
587 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
588 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
589 subdirectories under `datadir':
590 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
591 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
592 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
593 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
594 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
595 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
596 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
597 unavailable while installing a new version.
599 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
600 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
601 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
602 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
603 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
605 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
606 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
607 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
608 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
609 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
610 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
611 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
612 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
613 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
614 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
615 Emacs is installed on.
617 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
618 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
620 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
621 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
622 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
624 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
625 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
626 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
627 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
628 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
631 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
632 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
634 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
635 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
636 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
637 directories under that path.
639 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
640 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
641 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
643 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
644 GNU software; the following variables are specific to Emacs.
646 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
647 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
648 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
649 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
650 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
652 `GZIP_PROG' is the name of the executable that compresses installed info,
653 manual, and .el files. It defaults to gzip. Setting it to
654 the empty string suppresses compression.
656 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
657 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
658 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
659 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
660 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
661 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
662 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
664 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
665 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
666 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
667 before you run `make'.
669 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
670 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
671 when running make in the subdirectories.
674 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
676 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
677 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
679 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
681 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system.
683 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
684 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
685 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
687 The `configure' script is built from `configure.ac' by the
688 `autogen.sh' script, which checks that `autoconf' and other build
689 tools are sufficiently up to date and then runs the build tools.
691 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
693 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
696 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
697 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
698 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
700 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
701 and libraries used in later steps.
703 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
704 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
706 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
707 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
708 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
710 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
711 which has another name that contains a version number.
712 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
714 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
715 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
716 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
717 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
718 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
723 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
724 directory of the Emacs distribution.
726 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
727 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
729 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
730 - The programs `hexl', `movemail', `profile', and `rcs2log'
731 are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
732 - The programs `etags', `ctags', and `emacsclient' are intended to be
733 run by users; they are handled below.
734 - The program `make-docfile' was used in building Emacs, and is
737 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
738 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/info.el'. Note that if the
739 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
740 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
741 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
742 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
744 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
745 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
746 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
747 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
748 of installing different versions.
750 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
752 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', and `etags' from `./lib-src'
753 to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for users to run.
755 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
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 `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
765 encountered, and what to do about them.
767 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
769 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
770 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
771 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
772 (at your option) any later version.
774 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
775 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
776 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
777 GNU General Public License for more details.
779 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
780 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.