1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2011
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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 Bazaar checkout
11 (rather than a release), also read the file INSTALL.BZR.
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 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
28 are supported by it. In some cases, if the simplified procedure fails,
29 you might need to use various non-default options, and maybe perform
30 some of the steps manually. The more detailed description in the other
31 sections of this guide will help you do that, so please refer to those
32 sections if you need to.
34 1. Unpacking the Emacs 23.2 release requires about 170 MB of free
35 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 60 MB of space.
36 The final installed Emacs uses about 120 MB of disk space.
37 This includes the space-saving that comes from automatically
38 compressing the Lisp source files on installation.
40 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
45 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
46 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
51 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory.
52 This may not work unless you use GNU make.
54 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
55 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
56 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
57 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
58 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
60 If you find anything wrong, you may have to pass to `configure'
61 one or more options specifying the explicit machine configuration
62 name, where to find various headers and libraries, etc.
63 Refer to the section DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION below.
65 If `configure' didn't find some (optional) image support libraries,
66 such as Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them, refer to the
67 subsection "Image support libraries" below.
69 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
70 you, but there are no obvious errors, assume that `configure' did
73 4. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
74 with some non-default options), always clean the source
75 directories before running `configure' again:
80 5. Invoke the `make' program:
84 6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
85 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
90 7. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
91 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
92 files into their installation directories:
96 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
97 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
98 directory where you built Emacs:
102 You can delete the entire build directory if you do not plan to
103 build Emacs again, but it can be useful to keep for debugging.
105 Note that the install automatically saves space by compressing
106 (provided you have the `gzip' program) those installed Lisp source (.el)
107 files that have corresponding .elc versions, as well as the Info files.
110 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
112 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
114 Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db", "libm17n-flt", "libotf"
115 to correctly display such complex scripts as Indic and Khmer.
116 On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux, these libraries may be
117 already present or available as additional packages. Note that if
118 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
119 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
120 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will contain
121 header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can download and
122 build libraries from sources.
124 The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
127 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
128 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
129 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
130 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
132 For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
133 because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
134 configure it with the option "--without-gui".
136 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
138 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
139 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
140 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
141 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
142 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
143 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
144 intlfonts distribution might look better.
146 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
147 package for printing international characters. The file
148 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
151 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
152 in the intlfonts/README file.
154 * Image support libraries
156 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
157 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
159 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
160 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
161 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
162 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
163 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
164 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
165 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
166 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
167 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
169 Here's the list of some of these optional libraries, and the URLs
170 where they can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution
171 does not provide them):
173 . libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
174 . libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
175 . libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
176 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
177 . libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
178 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
179 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
181 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
182 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
183 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
184 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
185 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
186 --without-LIB options to `configure', if you need to.
190 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
193 On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
194 (i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
195 fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
196 yourself. See <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/> for a large
197 number of free Unicode fonts.
199 * GNU/Linux development packages
201 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
202 they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
203 need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
204 and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
205 package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
207 The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
208 GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
209 configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
210 packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
211 like `apt-get build-dep emacs23'. On Red Hat systems, the
212 corresponding command is `yum-builddep emacs'.
215 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
217 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
218 see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
219 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
221 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
222 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
223 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
224 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
225 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
226 running the final dumped Emacs. (This should not be an issue
227 on any recent system.)
229 Building Emacs requires about 230 MB of disk space (including the
230 Emacs sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 120 MB in the file
231 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
232 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
233 the building and installation take place in different directories,
234 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 230+120 MB.
236 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
237 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
238 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
239 for getting around some possible installation problems.
241 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
242 or in a separate directory.
244 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
245 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
247 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
249 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
250 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
252 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
253 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
254 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
256 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
257 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
258 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
259 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
260 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
261 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
263 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
264 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
265 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
266 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work
267 to use a toolkit with shared libraries. A free implementation of
268 Motif, called LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>.
269 Compiling with LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection
270 Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You
271 can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without Gtk or LessTif/Motif,
272 if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries"
273 above for Xaw3d availability).
275 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by specifying
276 `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where PATH is the pathname to
277 pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.6 or newer is required for Emacs.
279 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
280 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
281 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
282 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
283 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
284 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
286 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
287 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
288 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
289 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
291 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
292 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
293 or more of these options:
295 --without-xpm for XPM image support
296 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
297 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
298 --without-gif for GIF image support
299 --without-png for PNG image support
301 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
304 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
305 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
307 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
308 systems which support that.
310 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
312 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
313 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
314 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
316 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
317 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
318 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
319 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
320 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
321 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
322 - The architecture-dependent files go in
323 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
324 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
325 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
327 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
328 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
329 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
330 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
331 - The architecture-dependent files go in
332 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
333 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
335 For example, the command
337 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
339 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
340 without sound support.
342 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
343 It just creates the files that influence those things:
344 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
345 and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
346 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
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 features 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, CPP and CC
372 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
373 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
374 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
375 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
376 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
378 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
379 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
381 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
382 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
384 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
385 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
386 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
387 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
388 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
389 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
391 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
392 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
393 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
394 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
395 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
398 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
401 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
402 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
403 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
406 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
407 and run the program `configure' as follows:
409 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
411 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
412 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
413 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
415 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
416 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
418 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links
419 to the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will
422 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
423 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
424 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
425 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
426 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
428 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
430 is how you would override the default value of the variable
433 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
434 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
435 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
436 doing, you'll make a mistake.
438 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
439 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
440 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
441 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
442 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
443 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
444 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
446 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
447 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
448 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
450 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
451 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
453 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
454 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
456 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
457 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
458 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
459 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
460 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
462 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
463 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
464 are installed in the following directories:
466 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
467 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient',
468 `grep-changelog', and `rcs-checkin'.
470 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
471 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
472 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
473 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
474 another, including the version number in the path
475 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
476 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
477 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
479 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
480 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
481 might need while running.
483 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
484 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
486 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
487 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
488 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
489 architecture and operating system of your machine,
490 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
491 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
492 operating system, and architecture in use, including
493 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
494 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
495 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
496 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
497 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
499 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
500 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
501 documented using info files as well, so this directory
502 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
504 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
507 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
508 files in these directories.
510 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
511 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
513 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
514 files installed for all Emacs versions.
516 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
517 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
518 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
519 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
521 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
522 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
523 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
524 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
527 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
528 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
531 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
532 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
533 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
535 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
536 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
537 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
538 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
539 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
540 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
541 directory (usually /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 tutorials, DOC file, etc.
568 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
569 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
570 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
571 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
572 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
573 unavailable while installing a new version.
575 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
576 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
577 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
578 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
579 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
581 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
582 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
583 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
584 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
585 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
586 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
587 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
588 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
589 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
590 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
591 Emacs is installed on.
593 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
594 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
596 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
597 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
598 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
600 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
601 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
602 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
603 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
604 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
607 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
608 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
610 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
611 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
612 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
613 directories under that path.
615 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
616 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
617 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
619 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
620 GNU software; the following variable is specific to Emacs.
622 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
623 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
624 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
625 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
626 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
628 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
629 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
630 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
631 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
632 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
633 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
634 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
636 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
637 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
638 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
639 before you run `make'.
641 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
642 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
643 when running make in the subdirectories.
646 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
648 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
649 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
651 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
653 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
654 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
655 see which operating system and architecture description files from
656 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
657 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
658 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
660 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
661 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
662 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
663 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files.
665 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
666 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
667 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
669 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
670 program. You need at least the version of autoconf specified in the
671 AC_PREREQ(...) command to rebuild `configure' from `configure.in'.
673 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
675 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
678 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
679 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
680 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
682 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
683 and libraries used in later steps.
685 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
686 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
688 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
689 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
690 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
692 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
693 which has another name that contains a version number.
694 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
696 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
697 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
698 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
699 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
700 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
705 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
706 directory of the Emacs distribution.
708 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
709 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
711 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
712 - The programs `hexl', `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log', and `vcdiff'
713 are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
714 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and `rcs-checkin'
715 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
716 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
717 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
719 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
720 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
721 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
722 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
723 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
724 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
726 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
727 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
728 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
729 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
730 of installing different versions.
732 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
734 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and `rcs-checkin'
735 from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for
738 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
740 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
741 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
742 the source on line for debugging.
747 See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
748 encountered, and what to do about them.
750 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
752 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
753 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
754 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
755 (at your option) any later version.
757 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
758 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
759 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
760 GNU General Public License for more details.
762 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
763 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.