1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
3 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
9 The simplest way to build Emacs is to use the `configure' shell script
10 which attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent
11 variables and features and find the directories where various system
12 headers and libraries are kept. It then creates a `Makefile' in each
13 subdirectory and a `config.h' file containing system-dependent
14 definitions. Running the `make' utility then builds the package for
17 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
18 are supported by it. If this simplified procedure fails, or if you
19 are using a platform such as MS-Windows, where `configure' script
20 doesn't work, you might need to use various non-default options, and
21 maybe perform some of the steps manually. The more detailed
22 description in the rest of the sections of this guide will help you do
23 that, so please refer to them if the simple procedure does not work.
25 1. Make sure your system has at least 120 MB of free disk space.
27 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
32 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
33 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
38 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory. This
39 may not work unless you use GNU make.
41 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
42 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
43 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
44 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
45 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
47 If you find anything wrong, you will have to pass to `configure'
48 explicit machine configuration name, and one or more options
49 which tell it where to find various headers and libraries; refer
50 to DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION section below.
52 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
53 Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them refer to the subsection
54 "Image support libraries", below.
56 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
57 you, assume that `configure' did its job and proceed.
59 4. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
60 with some non-default options), always clean the source
61 directories before running `configure' again:
66 5. Invoke the `make' program:
70 6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
71 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
76 7. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
77 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
78 files into their installation directories:
82 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
83 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
84 directory where you built Emacs:
88 You can also save some space by compressing (with `gzip') Info files
89 and installed Lisp source (.el) files which have corresponding .elc
93 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
95 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
97 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
98 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
99 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
100 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
101 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
102 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
103 intlfonts distribution might look better.
105 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
106 package for printing international characters. The file
107 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
110 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
111 in the intlfonts/README file.
113 * Image support libraries
115 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
116 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
118 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
119 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
120 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
121 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
122 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
123 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
124 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
125 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
126 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
128 Here's the list of these optional libraries, and the URLs where they
131 . libXaw3d for fancy 3D-style
132 scroll bars: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/Xaw3d/
133 . libxpm for XPM: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/
134 Get version 3.4k or later, which lets Emacs
135 use its own color allocation functions.
136 . libpng for PNG: ftp://ftp.simplesystems.org/pub/libpng/png/
137 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
138 . libjpeg for JPEG: ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/
139 Get version 6b -- 6a is reported to fail in
141 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
142 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
144 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
145 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
146 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
147 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
148 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
149 --without-LIB options to `configure'. See below for more details.
151 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
153 Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db", "libm17n-flt", "libotf"
154 to correctly display such complex scripts as Indic and Khmer.
155 On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux, these libraries may be
156 already present or available as additional packages. Note that if
157 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
158 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
159 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will contain
160 header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can download and
161 build libraries from sources.
163 The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
166 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
167 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
168 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
169 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
171 For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
172 because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
173 configure it with the option "--without-gui".
175 Please note that Emacs must be configured with the arg
176 "--enable-font-backend" to get the benefit of those libraries.
180 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
181 them. You must do that yourself.
183 To take proper advantage of Emacs 21's mule-unicode charsets, you need
184 a suitable font. For `Unicode' (ISO 10646) fonts for X, see
185 <URL:http://czyborra.com/unifont/> (packaged in Debian),
186 <URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> (packaged in Debian). (In
187 recent Debian versions, there is an extensive `misc-fixed' iso10646-1
188 in the default X installation.) Perhaps also see
189 <URL:http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/ucs-fonts.html>.
191 <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> has basic fonts for Emacs's
194 XFree86 release 4 (from <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/> and mirrors)
195 contains font support for most, if not all, of the charsets that Emacs
196 currently supports, including iso10646-1 encoded fonts for use with
197 the mule-unicode charsets. The font files should also be usable with
198 older X releases. Note that XFree 4 contains many iso10646-1 fonts
199 with minimal character repertoires, which can cause problems -- see
202 BDF Unicode fonts etl-unicode.tar.gz are available from
203 <URL:ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/fonts/> and
204 <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/mirror/X.Org/contrib/fonts/>. These
205 fonts can also be used by ps-print and ps-mule to print Unicode
208 Finally, the Web pages <URL:http://www.nongnu.org/freefont/index.html>
209 and <URL:http://www.nongnu.org/freefont/resources.html> list a large
210 number of free Unicode fonts.
212 * GNU/Linux development packages
214 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by
215 default; they just include the files that you need to run Emacs, but
216 not those you need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with
217 X11 support, you may need to install the special `X11 development'
218 package. For example, in April 2003, the package names to install
219 were `XFree86-devel' and `Xaw3d-devel' on Red Hat. On Debian, the
220 packages necessary to build the installed version should be
221 sufficient; they can be installed using `apt-get build-dep emacs21' in
225 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
227 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.X,
228 see below; search for MSDOG. For Windows 9X, Windows ME, Windows NT,
229 and Windows 2000, see the file nt/INSTALL. For the Mac, see the file
232 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
233 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
234 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
235 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
236 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
237 running the final dumped Emacs.
239 Building Emacs requires about 140 MB of disk space (including the
240 Emacs sources) Once installed, Emacs occupies about 77 MB in the file
241 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
242 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
243 the building and installation take place in different directories,
244 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 140+77 MB.
246 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
247 give to the `configure' program. That file offers hints for
248 getting around some possible installation problems. The file lists
249 many different configurations, but only the part for your machine and
250 operating system is relevant. (The list is arranged in alphabetical
251 order by the vendor name.)
253 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
254 or in a separate directory.
256 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
257 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
259 ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
261 The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
262 in `./etc/MACHINES', with the system version number added at the end.
264 You should try first omitting CONFIGURATION-NAME. This way,
265 `configure' will try to guess your system type. If it cannot guess,
266 or if something goes wrong in building or installing Emacs this way,
267 try again specifying the proper CONFIGURATION-NAME explicitly.
269 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
270 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
271 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
273 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
274 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
275 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
276 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
277 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
278 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
280 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
281 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
282 TOOLKIT is `athena', `motif' or `gtk' (`yes' and `lucid' are synonyms
283 for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work to use a toolkit
284 with shared libraries. A free implementation of Motif, called
285 LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>. Compiling with
286 LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection Dialog to pop up
287 when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You can get fancy
288 3D-style scroll bars, even without LessTif/Motif, if you have the
289 Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d
292 If `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' is specified, you can tell configure where
293 to search for GTK by specifying `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where
294 PATH is the pathname to pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.4 or
295 newer is required for Emacs.
297 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
298 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
299 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
300 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
301 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
302 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
304 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
305 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
306 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
307 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
309 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
310 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
311 or more of these options:
313 --without-xpm for XPM image support
314 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
315 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
316 --without-gif for GIF image support
317 --without-png for PNG image support
319 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
322 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods. In
323 this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
325 Use --disable-largefile omits support for files larger than 2GB on
326 systems which support that.
328 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
330 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
331 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
332 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
333 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
334 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
335 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.27').
336 - The architecture-dependent files go in
337 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
338 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
339 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
341 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
342 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
343 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
344 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
345 - The architecture-dependent files go in
346 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
347 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
349 For example, the command
351 ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
353 configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
354 support for the X11 window system.
356 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
357 itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
358 `./Makefile', `lib-src/Makefile', `oldXMenu/Makefile',
359 `lwlib/Makefile', `src/Makefile', and `./src/config.h'. For details
360 on exactly what it does, see the section called `CONFIGURATION BY
363 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
364 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
365 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
366 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
367 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
368 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
369 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
370 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
371 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
372 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
374 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
375 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
376 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
377 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
378 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
379 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
380 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
382 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
383 directories for some header files, or link against optional
384 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
385 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
386 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
387 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
388 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
389 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
390 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
391 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
393 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
394 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
396 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
397 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
399 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
400 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
401 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
402 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
403 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo.a and libbar.a
404 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
406 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' use
407 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
408 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
409 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
410 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
413 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
416 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
417 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
418 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
421 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
422 and run the program `configure' as follows:
424 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
426 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
427 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
428 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
430 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
431 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
433 3c) Some people try to build in a separate directory by filling
434 it full of symlinks to the files in the real source directory.
435 If you do that, `make all' does work, but `make install' fails:
436 it copies the symbolic links rather than the actual files.
438 As far as is known, there is no particular reason to use
439 a directory full of links rather than use the standard GNU
440 facilities to build in a separate directory (see 3b above).
442 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
443 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
444 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
445 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
446 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
448 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
450 is how you would override the default value of the variable
451 news-inews-program (which is "/usr/local/inews").
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 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
459 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
460 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
461 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
462 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
463 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
464 was build with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
466 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
467 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
468 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
470 Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
471 not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
472 something up in the system's password and user information database.
473 See `./etc/PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
475 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
476 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
478 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
479 wish to add to various termcap entries. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
480 and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
483 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
484 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
485 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
486 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
487 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
489 Or you can "install" the executable and the other Emacs into their
490 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
491 are installed in the following directories:
493 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
494 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
497 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
498 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
499 you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.27'. Since the
500 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
501 another, including the version number in the path
502 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
503 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
504 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
506 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
507 file, the `yow' database, and other
508 architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
509 running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
511 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
512 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
514 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
515 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument
516 you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
517 architecture and operating system of your machine,
518 like `mips-dec-ultrix' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
519 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
520 operating system, and architecture in use, including
521 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
522 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
523 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
524 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
525 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
527 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
528 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
529 documented using info files as well, so this directory
530 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific
533 `/usr/local/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
536 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
537 files in these directories.
539 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
540 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
542 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
543 files installed for all Emacs versions.
545 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
546 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
547 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
548 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
550 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
551 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
552 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
553 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
556 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
557 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
560 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
561 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
562 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
564 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
565 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
566 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
567 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
568 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
569 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
570 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
576 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
577 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
578 command line. For example, if you type
580 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
582 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
583 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
586 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
588 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
589 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
591 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
592 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
593 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
594 subdirectories under `datadir':
595 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
596 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
597 file, and the `yow' database.
598 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
599 like `18.59' or `19.0'. Since these files vary from one version
600 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
601 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
602 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
603 unavailable while installing a new version.
605 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
606 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
607 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
608 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
609 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
611 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
612 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument you gave to the
613 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
614 system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' or
615 `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since these files are specific to the version
616 of Emacs, operating system, and architecture in use, including
617 the configuration name in the path allows you to have several
618 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating systems
619 installed at the same time; this is useful for sites at which
620 different kinds of machines share the file system Emacs is
623 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
624 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
626 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
627 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
628 `/usr/local/man/man1'.
630 `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
631 It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
632 digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
633 values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
634 installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
636 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
637 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
638 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
639 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
640 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
643 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
644 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
646 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
647 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
648 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
649 directories under that path.
651 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
652 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
653 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
655 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
656 GNU software; this variable is specific to Emacs.
658 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
659 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
660 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
661 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
662 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
664 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
665 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
666 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
667 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
668 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
669 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
670 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
672 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/paths.h,
673 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
674 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
675 before you run `make'.
677 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
678 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
679 when running make in the subdirectories.
682 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
684 Instead of running the `configure' program, you have to perform the
687 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
689 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
690 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
691 see which operating system and architecture description files from
692 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
693 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
694 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
696 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
697 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
698 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
699 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files. Occasionally you may need to
700 redefine parameters used in `./lib-src/movemail.c'.
702 3) Create src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile from the corresponding
703 `Makefile.in' files. First copy `Makefile.in' to `Makefile.c',
704 then edit in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs,
705 and then copy the shell commands near the end of `configure'
706 that run cpp to construct `Makefile'.
708 4) Create `Makefile' files in various other directories
709 from the corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard,
710 just a matter of substitution.
712 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
713 program. You need version 2.51 or newer of `autoconf' to rebuild
716 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
718 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
721 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
722 `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.in', changing
723 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
725 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
726 executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `make-docfile' and
727 `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. And others.
729 3) Go to directory `./src' and Run `make'. This refers to files in
730 the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
733 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
734 which has another name that contains a version number.
735 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
737 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
738 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
739 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
740 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
741 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs
747 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
748 directory of the Emacs distribution.
750 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
751 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/paths.h'.
753 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
754 - The programs `cvtmail', `fakemail', `hexl',
755 `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log', and `vcdiff' are used by Emacs;
756 they do need to be copied.
757 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
758 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
759 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
760 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
761 - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
762 a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
764 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
765 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
766 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
767 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
768 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
769 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
771 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
772 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
773 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
774 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
775 of installing different versions.
777 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
779 4) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
780 `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
781 intended for users to run.
783 5) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
784 appropriate man directories.
786 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
787 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
788 the source on line for debugging.
793 See the file PROBLEMS in etc subdirectory for a list of various
794 problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
797 Installation on MSDOG (a.k.a. MSDOS)
799 To install on MSDOG, you need to have the GNU C compiler for MSDOG
800 (also known as djgpp), GNU Make, rm, mv, and sed. See the remarks in
801 config.bat for more information about locations and versions. The
802 file etc/FAQ includes pointers to Internet sites where you can find
803 the necessary utilities; search for "MS-DOS". The configuration step
804 (see below) will test for these utilities and will refuse to continue
805 if any of them isn't found.
807 Recompiling Lisp files in the `lisp' subdirectory using the various
808 targets in the lisp/Makefile file requires additional utilities:
809 `find' and `xargs' (from Findutils), `touch' (from Fileutils) GNU
810 `echo' and `test' (from Sh-utils), `tr, `sort', and `uniq' (from
811 Textutils), and a port of Bash. However, you should not normally need
812 to run lisp/Makefile, as all the Lisp files are distributed in
813 byte-compiled form as well.
815 If you are building the MSDOG version of Emacs on an MSDOG-like system
816 which supports long file names (e.g. Windows 95), you need to make
817 sure that long file names are handled consistently both when you
818 unpack the distribution and compile it. If you intend to compile with
819 DJGPP v2.0 or later, and long file names support is enabled (LFN=y in
820 the environment), you need to unpack Emacs distribution in a way that
821 doesn't truncate the original long filenames to the DOS 8.3 namespace;
822 the easiest way to do this is to use djtar program which comes with
823 DJGPP, since it will note the LFN setting and behave accordingly.
824 DJGPP v1 doesn't support long filenames, so you must unpack Emacs with
825 a program that truncates the filenames to 8.3 naming as it extracts
826 files; again, using djtar after setting LFN=n is the recommended way.
827 You can build Emacs with LFN=n even if you use DJGPP v2, if some of
828 your tools don't support long file names: just ensure that LFN is set
829 to `n' during both unpacking and compiling.
831 (By the time you read this, you have already unpacked the Emacs
832 distribution, but if the explanations above imply that you should have
833 done it differently, it's safer to delete the directory tree created
834 by the unpacking program and unpack Emacs again, than to risk running
835 into problems during the build process.)
837 It is important to understand that the runtime support of long file
838 names by the Emacs binary is NOT affected by the LFN setting during
839 compilation; Emacs compiled with DJGPP v2.0 or later will always
840 support long file names on Windows 9X no matter what was the setting
841 of LFN at compile time. However, if you compiled with LFN disabled
842 and want to enable LFN support after Emacs was already built, you need
843 to make sure that the support files in the lisp, etc and info
844 directories are called by their original long names as found in the
845 distribution. You can do this either by renaming the files manually,
846 or by extracting them from the original distribution archive with
847 djtar after you set LFN=y in the environment.
849 To unpack Emacs with djtar, type this command:
853 (This assumes that the Emacs distribution is called `emacs.tgz' on
856 If you want to print international characters, install the intlfonts
857 distribution. For this, create a directory called `fonts' under the
858 Emacs top-level directory (usually called `emacs-XX.YY') created by
859 unpacking emacs.tgz, chdir into the directory emacs-XX.YY/fonts, and
862 djtar -x intlfonts.tgz
864 When unpacking is done, a directory called `emacs-XX.YY' will be
865 created, where XX.YY is the Emacs version. To build and install
866 Emacs, chdir to that directory and type these commands:
871 Running "config msdos" checks for several programs that are required
872 to configure and build Emacs; if one of those programs is not found,
873 CONFIG.BAT stops and prints an error message. If you have DJGPP
874 version 2.0 or 2.01, it will complain about a program called
875 DJECHO.EXE. These old versions of DJGPP shipped that program under
876 the name ECHO.EXE, so you can simply copy ECHO.EXE to DJECHO.EXE and
877 rerun CONFIG.BAT. If you have neither ECHO.EXE nor DJECHO.EXE, you
878 should be able to find them in your djdevNNN.zip archive (where NNN is
879 the DJGPP version number).
881 On Windows NT or Windows 2000, running "config msdos" might print an
882 error message like "VDM has been already loaded". This is because
883 those systems have a program called `redir.exe' which is incompatible
884 with a program by the same name supplied with DJGPP, which is used by
885 config.bat. To resolve this, move the DJGPP's `bin' subdirectory to
886 the front of your PATH environment variable.
888 To install the international fonts, chdir to the intlfonts-X.Y
889 directory created when you unpacked the intlfonts distribution (X.Y is
890 the version number of the fonts' distribution), and type the following
893 make bdf INSTALLDIR=..
895 After Make finishes, you may remove the directory intlfonts-X.Y; the
896 fonts are installed into the fonts/bdf subdirectory of the top-level
897 Emacs directory, and that is where Emacs will look for them by
900 Building Emacs creates executable files in the src and lib-src
901 directories. Installing Emacs on MSDOS moves these executables to a
902 sibling directory called bin. For example, if you build in directory
903 /emacs, installing moves the executables from /emacs/src and
904 /emacs/lib-src to the directory /emacs/bin, so you can then delete the
905 subdirectories /emacs/src and /emacs/lib-src if you wish. The only
906 subdirectories you need to keep are bin, lisp, etc and info. (If you
907 installed intlfonts, keep the fonts directory and all its
908 subdirectories as well.) The bin subdirectory should be added to your
909 PATH. The msdos subdirectory includes a PIF and an icon file for
910 Emacs which you might find useful if you run Emacs under MS Windows.
912 Emacs on MSDOS finds the lisp, etc and info directories by looking in
913 ../lisp, ../etc and ../info, starting from the directory where the
914 Emacs executable was run from. You can override this by setting the
915 environment variables EMACSDATA (for the location of `etc' directory),
916 EMACSLOADPATH (for the location of `lisp' directory) and INFOPATH (for
917 the location of the `info' directory).
919 MSDOG is a not a multitasking operating system, so Emacs features such
920 as asynchronous subprocesses that depend on multitasking will not
921 work. Synchronous subprocesses do work.
923 Version 2.0 of djgpp has two bugs that affect Emacs. We've included
924 corrected versions of two files from djgpp in the msdos subdirectory:
925 is_exec.c and sigaction.c. To work around the bugs, compile these
926 files and link them into temacs. Djgpp versions 2.01 and later have
927 these bugs fixed, so upgrade if you can before building Emacs.
929 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
931 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
932 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
933 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
934 (at your option) any later version.
936 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
937 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
938 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
939 GNU General Public License for more details.
941 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
942 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.