1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (c) 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001 Free software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end of the file for copying permissions.
8 The simplest way to build Emacs is to use the `configure' shell script
9 which attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent
10 variables and features and find the directories where various system
11 headers and libraries are kept. It then creates a `Makefile' in each
12 subdirectory and a `config.h' file containing system-dependent
13 definitions. Running the `make' utility then builds the package for
16 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
17 are supported by it. If this simplified procedure fails, or if you
18 are using a platform such as MS-Windows, where `configure' script
19 doesn't work, you might need to use various non-default options, and
20 maybe perform some of the steps manually. The more detailed
21 description in the rest of the sections of this guide will help you do
22 that, so please refer to them if the simple procedure does not work.
24 1. Make sure your system has at least 120 MB of free disk space.
26 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
31 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
32 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
37 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory. This
38 may not work unless you use GNU make.
40 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
41 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
42 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
43 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
44 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
46 If you find anything wrong, you will have to pass to `configure'
47 explicit machine configuration name, and one or more options
48 which tell it where to find various headers and libraries; refer
49 to DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION section below.
51 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
52 Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them refer to the subsection
53 "Image support libraries", below.
55 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
56 you, assume that `configure' did its job and proceed.
58 4. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
59 with some non-default options), always clean the source
60 directories before running `configure' again:
65 5. Invoke the `make' program:
69 6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
70 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
75 7. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
76 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
77 files into their installation directories:
81 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
82 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
83 directory where you built Emacs:
87 You can also save some space by compressing (with `gzip') Info files
88 and installed Lisp source (.el) files which have corresponding .elc
92 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
94 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
96 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts that Emacs needs in
97 order to display international characters. If you see a non-ASCII
98 character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have a font for
99 it. You might find a font in the intlfonts distribution. If you do
100 have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters don't look
101 right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the intlfonts
102 distribution might look better.
104 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
105 package for printing international characters. The file
106 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
109 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
110 in the intlfonts/README file.
112 * Image support libraries
114 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
115 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
117 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
118 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
119 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
120 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
121 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
122 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
123 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
124 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
125 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
127 Here's the list of these optional libraries, and the URLs where they
130 . libXaw3d for fancy 3D-style
131 scroll bars: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/Xaw3d/
132 . libxpm for XPM: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/
133 Get version 3.4k or later, which lets Emacs
134 use its own color allocation functions.
135 . libpng for PNG: ftp://www.libpng.org/pub/png/
136 . libz (for PNG): http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/
137 . libjpeg for JPEG: ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/
138 Get version 6b -- 6a is reported to fail in
140 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
142 http://prtr-13.ucsc.edu/~badger/software/libungif/index.shtml
143 Ensure you get version 4.1.0b1 or higher of libungif -- a bug in
144 4.1.0 can crash Emacs.
146 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
147 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
148 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
149 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
150 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
151 --without-LIB options to `configure'. See below for more details.
155 To take proper advantage of Emacs 21's mule-unicode charsets, you need
156 a Unicode font. For information on Unicode fonts for X, see
157 <URL:http://czyborra.com/unifont/>,
158 <URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> and
159 <URL:http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/ucs-fonts.html>.
160 <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> has basic fonts for Emacs's
163 XFree86 release 4 (from <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/> and mirrors)
164 contains font support for most, if not all, of the charsets that Emacs
165 supports. The font files should be usable separately with older X
168 BDF fonts etl-unicode.tar.gz used by ps-print and ps-mule to print
169 Unicode characters are available from <URL:ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/fonts/>
170 and <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/X.Org/contrib/fonts/>.
173 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
175 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.X,
176 see below; search for MSDOG. For Windows 9X, Windows ME, Windows NT,
177 and Windows 2000, see the file nt/INSTALL. For the Mac, see the file
180 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
181 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
182 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
183 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
184 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
185 running the final dumped Emacs.
187 Building Emacs requires about 140 MB of disk space (including the
188 Emacs sources) Once installed, Emacs occupies about 77 MB in the file
189 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
190 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
191 the building and installation take place in different directories,
192 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 140+77 MB.
194 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
195 give to the `configure' program. That file offers hints for
196 getting around some possible installation problems. The file lists
197 many different configurations, but only the part for your machine and
198 operating system is relevant. (The list is arranged in alphabetical
199 order by the vendor name.)
201 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
202 or in a separate directory.
204 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
205 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
207 ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
209 The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
210 in `./etc/MACHINES', with the system version number added at the end.
212 You should try first omitting CONFIGURATION-NAME. This way,
213 `configure' will try to guess your system type. If it cannot guess,
214 or if something goes wrong in building or installing Emacs this way,
215 try again specifying the proper CONFIGURATION-NAME explicitly.
217 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
218 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
219 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
221 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
222 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
223 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
224 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
225 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
226 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
228 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
229 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
230 TOOLKIT is `athena' or `motif' (`yes' and `lucid' are synonyms for
231 `athena'). On some systems, it does not work to use a toolkit with
232 shared libraries. A free implementation of Motif, called LessTif, is
233 available ftom <http://www.lesstif.org>. Compiling with LessTif or
234 Motif causes a standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you type
235 "C-x C-f" and similar commands. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll
236 bars, even without LessTif/Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library
237 installed (see "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d
240 The `--with-gcc' option specifies that the build process should
241 compile Emacs using GCC. If you don't want to use GCC, specify
242 `--with-gcc=no'. If you omit this option, `configure' will search
243 for GCC in your path, and use it if present.
245 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
246 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
247 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
248 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
249 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
250 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
252 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
253 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
254 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
255 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
257 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
258 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
259 or more of these options:
261 --without-xpm for XPM image support
262 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
263 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
264 --without-gif for GIF image support
265 --without-png for PNG image support
267 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
268 scroll bars. --without-xim disables the use of X Input Methods, and
269 --disable-largefile omits support for files larger than 2GB on systems
270 which support that. Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
272 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
273 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
274 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
275 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
276 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
277 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.27').
278 - The architecture-dependent files go in
279 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
280 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
281 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
283 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
284 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
285 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
286 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
287 - The architecture-dependent files go in
288 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
289 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
291 For example, the command
293 ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
295 configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
296 support for the X11 window system.
298 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
299 itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
300 `./Makefile', `lib-src/Makefile', `oldXMenu/Makefile',
301 `lwlib/Makefile', `src/Makefile', and `./src/config.h'. For details
302 on exactly what it does, see the section called `CONFIGURATION BY
305 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
306 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
307 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
308 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
309 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
310 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
311 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
312 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
313 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
314 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
316 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
317 is not right, or if it claims some of the fatures or libraries are not
318 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
319 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
320 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
321 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
322 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
324 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
325 directories for some header files, or link against optional
326 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
327 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
328 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, and CC before
329 running `configure'. CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to the
330 preprocessor, CFLAGS are compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used
331 when linking, LIBS are libraries to link against, and CC is the
332 command which invokes the compiler.
334 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
335 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
337 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
338 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
340 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
341 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
342 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
343 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
344 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo.a and libbar.a
345 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
347 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
348 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
349 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
352 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
353 and run the program `configure' as follows:
355 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
357 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
358 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
359 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
361 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
362 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
364 3c) Some people try to build in a separate directory by filling
365 it full of symlinks to the files in the real source directory.
366 If you do that, `make all' does work, but `make install' fails:
367 it copies the symbolic links rather than the actual files.
369 As far as is known, there is no particular reason to use
370 a directory full of links rather than use the standard GNU
371 facilities to build in a separate directory (see 3b above).
373 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
374 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
375 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
376 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
377 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
379 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
381 is how you would override the default value of the variable
382 news-inews-program (which is "/usr/local/inews").
384 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
385 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
386 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
387 doing, you'll make a mistake.
389 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
390 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
391 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
392 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
393 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
394 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
395 was build with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
397 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
398 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
399 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
401 Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
402 not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
403 something up in the system's password and user information database.
404 See `./etc/PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
406 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
407 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
409 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
410 wish to add to various termcap entries. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
411 and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
414 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
415 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
416 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
417 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
418 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
420 Or you can "install" the executable and the other Emacs into their
421 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
422 are installed in the following directories:
424 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
425 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
428 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
429 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
430 you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.27'. Since the
431 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
432 another, including the version number in the path
433 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
434 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
435 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
437 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
438 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
440 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
441 files installed for all Emacs versions.
443 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
444 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
445 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
446 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
448 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
449 file, the `yow' database, and other
450 architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
451 running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
453 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
454 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
456 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
457 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument
458 you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
459 architecture and operating system of your machine,
460 like `mips-dec-ultrix' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
461 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
462 operating system, and architecture in use, including
463 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
464 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
465 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
466 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
467 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
469 `/usr/local/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs, known as
470 "info files". Many other GNU programs are documented
471 using info files as well, so this directory stands
472 apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
474 `/usr/local/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
477 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
478 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
479 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
480 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
483 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
484 /usr/local/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the Emacs
487 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
488 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
489 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
491 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
492 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
493 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
494 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
495 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
496 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
497 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
503 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
504 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
505 command line. For example, if you type
507 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
509 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
510 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
513 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
515 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
516 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
518 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
519 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
520 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
521 subdirectories under `datadir':
522 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
523 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
524 file, and the `yow' database.
525 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
526 like `18.59' or `19.0'. Since these files vary from one version
527 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
528 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
529 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
530 unavailable while installing a new version.
532 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
533 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
534 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
535 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
536 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
538 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
539 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument you gave to the
540 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
541 system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' or
542 `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since these files are specific to the version
543 of Emacs, operating system, and architecture in use, including
544 the configuration name in the path allows you to have several
545 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating systems
546 installed at the same time; this is useful for sites at which
547 different kinds of machines share the file system Emacs is
550 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
551 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/info'.
553 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
554 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
555 `/usr/local/man/man1'.
557 `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
558 It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
559 digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
560 values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
561 installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
563 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
564 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
565 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
566 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
567 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
570 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
571 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
573 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
574 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
575 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
576 directories under that path.
578 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
579 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
580 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
582 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
583 GNU software; this variable is specific to Emacs.
585 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
586 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
587 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
588 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
589 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
591 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
592 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
593 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
594 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
595 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
596 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
597 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
599 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/paths.h,
600 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
601 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
602 before you run `make'.
604 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
605 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
606 when running make in the subdirectories.
609 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
611 Instead of running the `configure' program, you have to perform the
614 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
616 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
617 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
618 see which operating system and architecture description files from
619 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
620 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
621 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
623 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
624 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
625 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
626 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files. Occasionally you may need to
627 redefine parameters used in `./lib-src/movemail.c'.
629 3) Create src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile from the corresponding
630 `Makefile.in' files. First copy `Makefile.in' to `Makefile.c',
631 then edit in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs,
632 and then copy the shell commands near the end of `configure'
633 that run cpp to construct `Makefile'.
635 4) Create `Makefile' files in various other directories
636 from the corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard,
637 just a matter of substitution.
639 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
640 program. You need version 2.51 or newer of `autoconf' to rebuild
643 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
645 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
648 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
649 `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.in', changing
650 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
652 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
653 executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `wakeup' and `make-docfile'
654 and `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. And others.
656 3) Go to directory `./src' and Run `make'. This refers to files in
657 the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
660 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
661 which has another name that contains a version number.
662 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
664 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
665 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
666 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
667 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
668 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs
674 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
675 directory of the Emacs distribution.
677 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
678 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/paths.h'.
680 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
681 - The programs `cvtmail', `fakemail', `hexl',
682 `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log', `timer', `vcdiff', `wakeup',
683 and `yow' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
684 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
685 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
686 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
687 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
688 - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
689 a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
691 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
692 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
693 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
694 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
695 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
696 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
698 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
699 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
700 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
701 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
702 of installing different versions.
704 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
706 4) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
707 `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
708 intended for users to run.
710 5) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
711 appropriate man directories.
713 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
714 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
715 the source on line for debugging.
720 See the file PROBLEMS in etc subdirectory for a list of various
721 problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
724 Installation on MSDOG (a.k.a. MSDOS)
726 To install on MSDOG, you need to have the GNU C compiler for MSDOG
727 (also known as djgpp), GNU Make, rm, mv, and sed. See the remarks in
728 config.bat for more information about locations and versions. The
729 file etc/FAQ includes pointers to Internet sites where you can find
730 the necessary utilities; search for "MS-DOS". The configuration step
731 (see below) will test for these utilities and will refuse to continue
732 if any of them isn't found.
734 Recompiling Lisp files in the `lisp' subdirectory using the various
735 targets in the lisp/Makefile file requires additional utilities:
736 `find' and `xargs' (from Findutils), `touch' (from Fileutils) GNU
737 `echo' and `test' (from Sh-utils), `tr, `sort', and `uniq' (from
738 Textutils), and a port of Bash. However, you should not normally need
739 to run lisp/Makefile, as all the Lisp files are distributed in
740 byte-compiled form as well.
742 If you are building the MSDOG version of Emacs on an MSDOG-like system
743 which supports long file names (e.g. Windows 95), you need to make
744 sure that long file names are handled consistently both when you
745 unpack the distribution and compile it. If you intend to compile with
746 DJGPP v2.0 or later, and long file names support is enabled (LFN=y in
747 the environment), you need to unpack Emacs distribution in a way that
748 doesn't truncate the original long filenames to the DOS 8.3 namespace;
749 the easiest way to do this is to use djtar program which comes with
750 DJGPP, since it will note the LFN setting and behave accordingly.
751 DJGPP v1 doesn't support long filenames, so you must unpack Emacs with
752 a program that truncates the filenames to 8.3 naming as it extracts
753 files; again, using djtar after setting LFN=n is the recommended way.
754 You can build Emacs with LFN=n even if you use DJGPP v2, if some of
755 your tools don't support long file names: just ensure that LFN is set
756 to `n' during both unpacking and compiling.
758 (By the time you read this, you have already unpacked the Emacs
759 distribution, but if the explanations above imply that you should have
760 done it differently, it's safer to delete the directory tree created
761 by the unpacking program and unpack Emacs again, than to risk running
762 into problems during the build process.)
764 It is important to understand that the runtime support of long file
765 names by the Emacs binary is NOT affected by the LFN setting during
766 compilation; Emacs compiled with DJGPP v2.0 or later will always
767 support long file names on Windows 9X no matter what was the setting
768 of LFN at compile time. However, if you compiled with LFN disabled
769 and want to enable LFN support after Emacs was already built, you need
770 to make sure that the support files in the lisp, etc and info
771 directories are called by their original long names as found in the
772 distribution. You can do this either by renaming the files manually,
773 or by extracting them from the original distribution archive with
774 djtar after you set LFN=y in the environment.
776 To unpack Emacs with djtar, type this command:
780 (This assumes that the Emacs distribution is called `emacs.tgz' on
783 If you want to print international characters, install the intlfonts
784 distribution. For this, create a directory called `fonts' under the
785 Emacs top-level directory (usually called `emacs-XX.YY') created by
786 unpacking emacs.tgz, chdir into the directory emacs-XX.YY/fonts, and
789 djtar -x intlfonts.tgz
791 When unpacking is done, a directory called `emacs-XX.YY' will be
792 created, where XX.YY is the Emacs version. To build and install
793 Emacs, chdir to that directory and type these commands:
798 Running "config msdos" checks for several programs that are required
799 to configure and build Emacs; if one of those programs is not found,
800 CONFIG.BAT stops and prints an error message. If you have DJGPP
801 version 2.0 or 2.01, it will complain about a program called
802 DJECHO.EXE. These old versions of DJGPP shipped that program under
803 the name ECHO.EXE, so you can simply copy ECHO.EXE to DJECHO.EXE and
804 rerun CONFIG.BAT. If you have neither ECHO.EXE nor DJECHO.EXE, you
805 should be able to find them in your djdevNNN.zip archive (where NNN is
806 the DJGPP version number).
808 On Windows NT or Windows 2000, running "config msdos" might print an
809 error message like "VDM has been already loaded". This is because
810 those systems have a program called `redir.exe' which is incompatible
811 with a program by the same name supplied with DJGPP, which is used by
812 config.bat. To resolve this, move the DJGPP's `bin' subdirectory to
813 the front of your PATH environment variable.
815 To install the international fonts, chdir to the intlfonts-X.Y
816 directory created when you unpacked the intlfonts distribution (X.Y is
817 the version number of the fonts' distribution), and type the following
820 make bdf INSTALLDIR=..
822 After Make finishes, you may remove the directory intlfonts-X.Y; the
823 fonts are installed into the fonts/bdf subdirectory of the top-level
824 Emacs directory, and that is where Emacs will look for them by
827 Building Emacs creates executable files in the src and lib-src
828 directories. Installing Emacs on MSDOS moves these executables to a
829 sibling directory called bin. For example, if you build in directory
830 /emacs, installing moves the executables from /emacs/src and
831 /emacs/lib-src to the directory /emacs/bin, so you can then delete the
832 subdirectories /emacs/src and /emacs/lib-src if you wish. The only
833 subdirectories you need to keep are bin, lisp, etc and info. (If you
834 installed intlfonts, keep the fonts directory and all its
835 subdirectories as well.) The bin subdirectory should be added to your
836 PATH. The msdos subdirectory includes a PIF and an icon file for
837 Emacs which you might find useful if you run Emacs under MS Windows.
839 Emacs on MSDOS finds the lisp, etc and info directories by looking in
840 ../lisp, ../etc and ../info, starting from the directory where the
841 Emacs executable was run from. You can override this by setting the
842 environment variables EMACSDATA (for the location of `etc' directory),
843 EMACSLOADPATH (for the location of `lisp' directory) and INFOPATH (for
844 the location of the `info' directory).
846 MSDOG is a not a multitasking operating system, so Emacs features such
847 as asynchronous subprocesses that depend on multitasking will not
848 work. Synchronous subprocesses do work.
850 Version 2.0 of djgpp has two bugs that affect Emacs. We've included
851 corrected versions of two files from djgpp in the msdos subdirectory:
852 is_exec.c and sigaction.c. To work around the bugs, compile these
853 files and link them into temacs. Djgpp versions 2.01 and later have
854 these bugs fixed, so upgrade if you can before building Emacs.
858 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
859 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
860 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
861 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
862 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
864 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
865 of this document, or of portions of it,
866 under the above conditions, provided also that they
867 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them,
868 and that any new or changed statements about the activities
869 of the Free Software Foundation are approved by the Foundation.