1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2016 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 25 release requires about 200 MB of free
38 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 200 MB of space.
39 The final installed Emacs uses about 150 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 GNUstep and Mac OS X,
212 see nextstep/INSTALL. For non-ancient versions of MS Windows, see
213 the file nt/INSTALL. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X, see msdos/INSTALL.)
215 1) See the basic installation summary above for the disk space requirements.
217 2) In the unlikely event that 'configure' does not detect your system
218 type correctly, consult './etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
219 options you should pass to 'configure'. That file also offers hints
220 for getting around some possible installation problems.
222 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
223 or in a separate directory.
225 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
226 directory and run the program 'configure' as follows:
228 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
230 If 'configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
231 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
233 If you don't want X support, specify '--with-x=no'. If you omit this
234 option, 'configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
235 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
237 The '--x-includes=DIR' and '--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
238 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
239 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, 'configure'
240 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
241 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
242 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
244 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
245 configure Emacs; use the option '--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
246 TOOLKIT is 'gtk' (the default), 'athena', or 'motif' ('yes' and
247 'lucid' are synonyms for 'athena'). Compiling with Motif causes a
248 standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands
249 with the mouse. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without
250 Gtk or Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see
251 "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d availability).
253 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by giving it the
254 argument PKG_CONFIG='/full/name/of/pkg-config'.
256 Emacs will autolaunch a D-Bus session bus, when the environment
257 variable DISPLAY is set, but no session bus is running. This might be
258 inconvenient for Emacs when running as daemon or running via a remote
259 ssh connection. In order to completely prevent the use of D-Bus, configure
260 Emacs with the options '--without-dbus --without-gconf --without-gsettings'.
262 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
263 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
264 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
265 '--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add '--with-hesiod'. While POP3
266 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
267 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
269 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
270 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
271 PBM, see the list of URLs in "Image support libraries" above.
272 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
274 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
275 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
276 or more of these options:
278 --without-xpm for XPM image support
279 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
280 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
281 --without-gif for GIF image support
282 --without-png for PNG image support
283 --without-rsvg for SVG image support
284 --without-imagemagick for Imagemagick support
286 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable Motif or Xaw3d scroll bars.
288 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
289 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
291 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
292 systems which support that.
294 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
296 Use --without-all for a smaller executable with fewer dependencies on
297 external libraries, at the cost of disabling many features. Although
298 --without-all disables libraries not needed for ordinary Emacs
299 operation, it does enable X support, and using the GTK2 or GTK3
300 toolkit creates a lot of library dependencies. So if you want to
301 build a small executable with very basic X support, use --without-all
302 --with-x-toolkit=no. For the smallest possible executable without X,
303 use --without-all --without-x. If you want to build with just a few
304 features enabled, you can combine --without-all with --with-FEATURE.
305 For example, you can use --without-all --without-x --with-dbus to
306 build with DBus support and nothing more.
308 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
309 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
310 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
312 Use --with-cairo to compile Emacs with Cairo drawing.
314 Use --with-modules to build Emacs with support for loading dynamic
317 Use --enable-gcc-warnings to enable compile-time checks that warn
318 about possibly-questionable C code. This is intended for developers
319 and is useful with GNU-compatible compilers. On a recent GNU system
320 there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the
321 generated warnings may still be useful, though you may prefer building
322 with 'make WERROR_CFLAGS=' so that the warnings are not treated as
325 Use --disable-silent-rules to cause 'make' to give more details about
326 the commands it executes. This can be helpful when debugging a build
327 that goes awry. 'make V=1' also enables the extra chatter.
329 Use --enable-link-time-optimization to enable link-time optimizer. If
330 you're using GNU compiler, this feature is supported since version 4.5.0.
331 If 'configure' can determine number of online CPUS on your system, final
332 link-time optimization and code generation is executed in parallel using
333 one job per each available online CPU.
335 This option is also supported for clang. You should have GNU binutils
336 with 'gold' linker and plugin support, and clang with LLVMgold.so plugin.
337 Read http://llvm.org/docs/GoldPlugin.html for details. Also note that
338 this feature is still experimental, so prepare to build binutils and
339 clang from the corresponding source code repositories.
341 The '--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
342 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to '/usr/local'.
343 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
344 (unless the '--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
345 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
346 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like '23.2').
347 - The architecture-dependent files go in
348 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
349 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
350 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the '--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
352 The '--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
353 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
354 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
355 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
356 - The architecture-dependent files go in
357 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
358 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
360 For example, the command
362 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
364 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
365 without sound support.
367 'configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
368 It just creates the files that influence those things:
369 './Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
370 and './src/config.h'.
372 When it is done, 'configure' prints a description of what it did and
373 creates a shell script 'config.status' which, when run, recreates the
374 same configuration. If 'configure' exits with an error after
375 disturbing the status quo, it removes 'config.status'. 'configure'
376 also creates a file 'config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
377 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file 'config.log' containing compiler
378 output (useful mainly for debugging 'configure'). You can give
379 'configure' the option '--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
380 tests in FILE instead of 'config.cache'. Set FILE to '/dev/null' to
381 disable caching, for debugging 'configure'.
383 If the description of the system configuration printed by 'configure'
384 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
385 available when you know they are, look at the 'config.log' file for
386 the trace of the failed tests performed by 'configure' to check
387 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
388 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
389 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
391 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
392 directories for some header files, or link against optional
393 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
394 'configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
395 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
396 before running 'configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
397 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
398 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
399 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
400 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
402 Here's an example of a 'configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
403 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
406 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
407 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar'
409 (this is all one shell command). This tells 'configure' to instruct the
410 preprocessor to look in the '/foo/myinclude' directory for header
411 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
412 to look in '/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
413 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
414 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
416 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, 'configure' uses
417 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
418 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
419 PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories where the .pc-files for
420 those libraries are. For example:
423 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig'
425 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
426 and run the program 'configure' as follows:
428 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
430 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
431 where Emacs's configure script is located. 'configure' looks for the
432 Emacs source code in the directory that 'configure' is in.
434 4) Put into './lisp/site-init.el' or './lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
435 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
436 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
437 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
438 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
439 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
440 was built with a non-nil value of 'byte-compile-dynamic'.
442 It is not a good idea to edit the normal .el files that come with Emacs.
443 Instead, use a file like site-init.el to change settings.
445 To change the value of a variable that is already defined in Emacs,
446 you should use the Lisp function 'setq', not 'defvar'. For example,
448 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
450 is how you would override the default value of the variable
453 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
454 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
455 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
456 doing, you'll make a mistake.
458 The 'site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
459 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
461 5) Refer to the file './etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
462 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
464 6) Run 'make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
465 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
466 named 'src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
467 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
468 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
470 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
471 installed locations, with 'make install'. By default, Emacs's files
472 are installed in the following directories:
474 '/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
475 'emacs', 'etags', 'ctags', 'emacsclient'.
477 '/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
478 'VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
479 you are installing, like '23.1' or '23.2'. Since the
480 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
481 another, including the version number in the path
482 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
483 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
484 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
486 '/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
487 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
488 might need while running.
490 '/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
491 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
493 'VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
494 installing, and 'CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
495 deduced by the 'configure' program to identify the
496 architecture and operating system of your machine,
497 like 'i686-pc-linux-gnu' or 'sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
498 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
499 operating system, and architecture in use, including
500 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
501 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
502 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
503 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
504 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
506 '/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
507 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
508 documented using info files as well, so this directory
509 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
511 '/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
514 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
515 files in these directories.
517 '/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
518 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
520 '/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
521 files installed for all Emacs versions.
523 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
524 in '/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
525 '/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
526 '/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
528 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
529 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
530 for its Lisp files by giving values for 'make' variables as part of
531 the command. See the section below called 'MAKE VARIABLES' for more
534 7) Check the file 'dir' in your site's info directory (usually
535 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
538 8) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
539 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
540 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
542 9) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
543 the build directory by typing 'make clean'. To also remove the files
544 that 'configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
545 configuration), type 'make distclean'.
550 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
551 files by specifying values for 'make' variables as part of the 'make'
552 command line. For example, if you type
554 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
556 the 'bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
557 executable files should go in '/usr/local/gnubin', not
560 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
562 'bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
563 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
565 'datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
566 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
567 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
568 subdirectories under 'datadir':
569 - 'emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
570 - 'emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
571 'VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
572 like '23.1' or '23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
573 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
574 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
575 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
576 unavailable while installing a new version.
578 'libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
579 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to '/usr/local/libexec'.
580 We create the following subdirectories under 'libexecdir':
581 - 'emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
582 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
584 'VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
585 and 'CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
586 'configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
587 system of your machine, like 'i686-pc-linux-gnu' or 'sparc-sun-sunos'.
588 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
589 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
590 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
591 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
592 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
593 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
594 Emacs is installed on.
596 'infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
597 Emacs; it defaults to '/usr/local/share/info'.
599 'mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
600 utilities (like 'etags'); it defaults to
601 '/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
603 'prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
604 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
605 architecture-independent path variables - 'datadir',
606 'sharedstatedir', 'infodir', and 'mandir'. Its default value is
607 '/usr/local'; the other variables add on 'lib' or 'man' to it
610 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
611 under '/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of '/usr/local'.
613 'prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
614 in the arguments to 'make', you can instruct the build process
615 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
616 directories under that path.
618 'exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as 'prefix', but instead
619 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
620 path variables - 'bindir' and 'libexecdir'.
622 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
623 GNU software; the following variables are specific to Emacs.
625 'archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
626 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
627 running. Its default value, based on 'libexecdir' (which
628 see), is '/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
629 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
631 'GZIP_PROG' is the name of the executable that compresses installed info,
632 manual, and .el files. It defaults to gzip. Setting it to
633 the empty string suppresses compression.
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/epaths.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.
655 See the file './etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
656 encountered, and what to do about them.
658 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
660 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
661 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
662 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
663 (at your option) any later version.
665 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
666 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
667 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
668 GNU General Public License for more details.
670 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
671 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.