1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (c) 1992, 94, 96, 97, 2000, 01, 02 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 in various encodings
97 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
98 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
99 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
100 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
101 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
102 intlfonts 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 At first, Emacs does not include fonts and does not install them. You
156 must do this yourself.
158 To take proper advantage of Emacs 21's mule-unicode charsets, you need
159 a suitable font. For `Unicode' (ISO 10646) fonts for X, see
160 <URL:http://dvdeug.dhis.org/unifont.html> (packaged in Debian),
161 <URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> (packaged in Debian). (In
162 recent Debian versions, there is an extensive `misc-fixed' iso10646-1
163 in the default X installation.) Perhaps also see
164 <URL:http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/ucs-fonts.html>.
166 <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> has basic fonts for Emacs's
169 XFree86 release 4 (from <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/> and mirrors)
170 contains font support for most, if not all, of the charsets that Emacs
171 currently supports, including iso10646-1 encoded fonts for use with
172 the mule-unicode charsets. The font files should also be usable with
173 older X releases. Note that XFree 4 contains many iso10646-1 fonts
174 with minimal character repertoires, which can cause problems -- see
177 BDF fonts etl-unicode.tar.gz used by ps-print and ps-mule to print
178 Unicode characters are available from <URL:ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/fonts/>
179 and <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/X.Org/contrib/fonts/>.
181 * GNU/Linux development packages
183 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by
184 default; they just include the files that you need to run Emacs, but
185 not those you need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with
186 X11 support, you may need to install the special `X11 development'
187 package. For example, in April 2003, the package names to install
188 were `XFree86-devel' and `Xaw3d-devel' on RedHat. On Debian, the
189 packages necessary to build the installed version should be
190 sufficient; they can be installed using `apt-get build-dep emacs21' in
194 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
196 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.X,
197 see below; search for MSDOG. For Windows 9X, Windows ME, Windows NT,
198 and Windows 2000, see the file nt/INSTALL. For the Mac, see the file
201 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
202 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
203 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
204 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
205 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
206 running the final dumped Emacs.
208 Building Emacs requires about 140 MB of disk space (including the
209 Emacs sources) Once installed, Emacs occupies about 77 MB in the file
210 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
211 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
212 the building and installation take place in different directories,
213 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 140+77 MB.
215 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
216 give to the `configure' program. That file offers hints for
217 getting around some possible installation problems. The file lists
218 many different configurations, but only the part for your machine and
219 operating system is relevant. (The list is arranged in alphabetical
220 order by the vendor name.)
222 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
223 or in a separate directory.
225 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
226 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
228 ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
230 The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
231 in `./etc/MACHINES', with the system version number added at the end.
233 You should try first omitting CONFIGURATION-NAME. This way,
234 `configure' will try to guess your system type. If it cannot guess,
235 or if something goes wrong in building or installing Emacs this way,
236 try again specifying the proper CONFIGURATION-NAME explicitly.
238 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
239 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
240 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
242 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
243 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
244 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
245 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
246 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
247 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
249 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
250 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
251 TOOLKIT is `athena', `motif' or `gtk' (`yes' and `lucid' are synonyms for
252 `athena'). On some systems, it does not work to use a toolkit with
253 shared libraries. A free implementation of Motif, called LessTif, is
254 available ftom <http://www.lesstif.org>. Compiling with LessTif or
255 Motif causes a standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you type
256 "C-x C-f" and similar commands. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll
257 bars, even without LessTif/Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library
258 installed (see "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d
261 If `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' is specified, you can tell configure where
262 to search for GTK by specifying `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where
263 PATH is the pathname to pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.0 or
264 newer is required for Emacs.
266 The `--with-gcc' option specifies that the build process should
267 compile Emacs using GCC. If you don't want to use GCC, specify
268 `--with-gcc=no'. If you omit this option, `configure' will search
269 for GCC in your path, and use it if present.
271 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
272 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
273 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
274 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
275 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
276 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
278 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
279 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
280 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
281 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
283 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
284 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
285 or more of these options:
287 --without-xpm for XPM image support
288 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
289 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
290 --without-gif for GIF image support
291 --without-png for PNG image support
293 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
294 scroll bars. --without-xim disables the use of X Input Methods, and
295 --disable-largefile omits support for files larger than 2GB on systems
296 which support that. Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
298 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
299 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
300 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
301 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
302 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
303 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.27').
304 - The architecture-dependent files go in
305 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
306 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
307 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
309 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
310 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
311 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
312 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
313 - The architecture-dependent files go in
314 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
315 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
317 For example, the command
319 ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
321 configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
322 support for the X11 window system.
324 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
325 itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
326 `./Makefile', `lib-src/Makefile', `oldXMenu/Makefile',
327 `lwlib/Makefile', `src/Makefile', and `./src/config.h'. For details
328 on exactly what it does, see the section called `CONFIGURATION BY
331 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
332 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
333 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
334 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
335 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
336 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
337 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
338 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
339 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
340 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
342 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
343 is not right, or if it claims some of the fatures or libraries are not
344 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
345 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
346 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
347 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
348 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
350 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
351 directories for some header files, or link against optional
352 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
353 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
354 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, and CC before
355 running `configure'. CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to the
356 preprocessor, CFLAGS are compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used
357 when linking, LIBS are libraries to link against, and CC is the
358 command which invokes the compiler.
360 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
361 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
363 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
364 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
366 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
367 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
368 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
369 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
370 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo.a and libbar.a
371 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
373 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
374 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
375 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
378 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
379 and run the program `configure' as follows:
381 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
383 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
384 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
385 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
387 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
388 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
390 3c) Some people try to build in a separate directory by filling
391 it full of symlinks to the files in the real source directory.
392 If you do that, `make all' does work, but `make install' fails:
393 it copies the symbolic links rather than the actual files.
395 As far as is known, there is no particular reason to use
396 a directory full of links rather than use the standard GNU
397 facilities to build in a separate directory (see 3b above).
399 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
400 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
401 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
402 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
403 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
405 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
407 is how you would override the default value of the variable
408 news-inews-program (which is "/usr/local/inews").
410 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
411 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
412 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
413 doing, you'll make a mistake.
415 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
416 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
417 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
418 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
419 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
420 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
421 was build with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
423 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
424 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
425 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
427 Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
428 not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
429 something up in the system's password and user information database.
430 See `./etc/PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
432 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
433 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
435 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
436 wish to add to various termcap entries. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
437 and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
440 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
441 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
442 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
443 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
444 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
446 Or you can "install" the executable and the other Emacs into their
447 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
448 are installed in the following directories:
450 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
451 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
454 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
455 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
456 you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.27'. Since the
457 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
458 another, including the version number in the path
459 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
460 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
461 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
463 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
464 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
466 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
467 files installed for all Emacs versions.
469 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
470 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
471 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
472 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
474 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
475 file, the `yow' database, and other
476 architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
477 running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
479 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
480 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
482 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
483 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument
484 you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
485 architecture and operating system of your machine,
486 like `mips-dec-ultrix' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
487 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
488 operating system, and architecture in use, including
489 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
490 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
491 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
492 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
493 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
495 `/usr/local/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs, known as
496 "info files". Many other GNU programs are documented
497 using info files as well, so this directory stands
498 apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
500 `/usr/local/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
503 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
504 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
505 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
506 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
509 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
510 /usr/local/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the Emacs
513 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
514 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
515 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
517 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
518 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
519 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
520 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
521 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
522 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
523 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
529 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
530 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
531 command line. For example, if you type
533 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
535 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
536 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
539 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
541 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
542 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
544 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
545 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
546 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
547 subdirectories under `datadir':
548 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
549 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
550 file, and the `yow' database.
551 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
552 like `18.59' or `19.0'. Since these files vary from one version
553 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
554 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
555 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
556 unavailable while installing a new version.
558 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
559 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
560 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
561 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
562 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
564 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
565 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument you gave to the
566 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
567 system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' or
568 `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since these files are specific to the version
569 of Emacs, operating system, and architecture in use, including
570 the configuration name in the path allows you to have several
571 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating systems
572 installed at the same time; this is useful for sites at which
573 different kinds of machines share the file system Emacs is
576 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
577 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/info'.
579 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
580 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
581 `/usr/local/man/man1'.
583 `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
584 It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
585 digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
586 values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
587 installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
589 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
590 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
591 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
592 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
593 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
596 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
597 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
599 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
600 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
601 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
602 directories under that path.
604 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
605 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
606 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
608 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
609 GNU software; this variable is specific to Emacs.
611 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
612 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
613 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
614 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
615 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
617 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
618 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
619 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
620 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
621 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
622 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
623 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
625 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/paths.h,
626 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
627 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
628 before you run `make'.
630 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
631 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
632 when running make in the subdirectories.
635 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
637 Instead of running the `configure' program, you have to perform the
640 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
642 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
643 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
644 see which operating system and architecture description files from
645 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
646 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
647 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
649 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
650 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
651 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
652 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files. Occasionally you may need to
653 redefine parameters used in `./lib-src/movemail.c'.
655 3) Create src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile from the corresponding
656 `Makefile.in' files. First copy `Makefile.in' to `Makefile.c',
657 then edit in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs,
658 and then copy the shell commands near the end of `configure'
659 that run cpp to construct `Makefile'.
661 4) Create `Makefile' files in various other directories
662 from the corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard,
663 just a matter of substitution.
665 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
666 program. You need version 2.51 or newer of `autoconf' to rebuild
669 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
671 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
674 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
675 `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.in', changing
676 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
678 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
679 executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `wakeup' and `make-docfile'
680 and `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. And others.
682 3) Go to directory `./src' and Run `make'. This refers to files in
683 the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
686 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
687 which has another name that contains a version number.
688 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
690 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
691 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
692 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
693 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
694 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs
700 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
701 directory of the Emacs distribution.
703 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
704 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/paths.h'.
706 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
707 - The programs `cvtmail', `fakemail', `hexl',
708 `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log', `timer', `vcdiff', `wakeup',
709 and `yow' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
710 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
711 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
712 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
713 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
714 - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
715 a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
717 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
718 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
719 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
720 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
721 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
722 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
724 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
725 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
726 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
727 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
728 of installing different versions.
730 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
732 4) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
733 `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
734 intended for users to run.
736 5) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
737 appropriate man directories.
739 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
740 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
741 the source on line for debugging.
746 See the file PROBLEMS in etc subdirectory for a list of various
747 problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
750 Installation on MSDOG (a.k.a. MSDOS)
752 To install on MSDOG, you need to have the GNU C compiler for MSDOG
753 (also known as djgpp), GNU Make, rm, mv, and sed. See the remarks in
754 config.bat for more information about locations and versions. The
755 file etc/FAQ includes pointers to Internet sites where you can find
756 the necessary utilities; search for "MS-DOS". The configuration step
757 (see below) will test for these utilities and will refuse to continue
758 if any of them isn't found.
760 Recompiling Lisp files in the `lisp' subdirectory using the various
761 targets in the lisp/Makefile file requires additional utilities:
762 `find' and `xargs' (from Findutils), `touch' (from Fileutils) GNU
763 `echo' and `test' (from Sh-utils), `tr, `sort', and `uniq' (from
764 Textutils), and a port of Bash. However, you should not normally need
765 to run lisp/Makefile, as all the Lisp files are distributed in
766 byte-compiled form as well.
768 If you are building the MSDOG version of Emacs on an MSDOG-like system
769 which supports long file names (e.g. Windows 95), you need to make
770 sure that long file names are handled consistently both when you
771 unpack the distribution and compile it. If you intend to compile with
772 DJGPP v2.0 or later, and long file names support is enabled (LFN=y in
773 the environment), you need to unpack Emacs distribution in a way that
774 doesn't truncate the original long filenames to the DOS 8.3 namespace;
775 the easiest way to do this is to use djtar program which comes with
776 DJGPP, since it will note the LFN setting and behave accordingly.
777 DJGPP v1 doesn't support long filenames, so you must unpack Emacs with
778 a program that truncates the filenames to 8.3 naming as it extracts
779 files; again, using djtar after setting LFN=n is the recommended way.
780 You can build Emacs with LFN=n even if you use DJGPP v2, if some of
781 your tools don't support long file names: just ensure that LFN is set
782 to `n' during both unpacking and compiling.
784 (By the time you read this, you have already unpacked the Emacs
785 distribution, but if the explanations above imply that you should have
786 done it differently, it's safer to delete the directory tree created
787 by the unpacking program and unpack Emacs again, than to risk running
788 into problems during the build process.)
790 It is important to understand that the runtime support of long file
791 names by the Emacs binary is NOT affected by the LFN setting during
792 compilation; Emacs compiled with DJGPP v2.0 or later will always
793 support long file names on Windows 9X no matter what was the setting
794 of LFN at compile time. However, if you compiled with LFN disabled
795 and want to enable LFN support after Emacs was already built, you need
796 to make sure that the support files in the lisp, etc and info
797 directories are called by their original long names as found in the
798 distribution. You can do this either by renaming the files manually,
799 or by extracting them from the original distribution archive with
800 djtar after you set LFN=y in the environment.
802 To unpack Emacs with djtar, type this command:
806 (This assumes that the Emacs distribution is called `emacs.tgz' on
809 If you want to print international characters, install the intlfonts
810 distribution. For this, create a directory called `fonts' under the
811 Emacs top-level directory (usually called `emacs-XX.YY') created by
812 unpacking emacs.tgz, chdir into the directory emacs-XX.YY/fonts, and
815 djtar -x intlfonts.tgz
817 When unpacking is done, a directory called `emacs-XX.YY' will be
818 created, where XX.YY is the Emacs version. To build and install
819 Emacs, chdir to that directory and type these commands:
824 Running "config msdos" checks for several programs that are required
825 to configure and build Emacs; if one of those programs is not found,
826 CONFIG.BAT stops and prints an error message. If you have DJGPP
827 version 2.0 or 2.01, it will complain about a program called
828 DJECHO.EXE. These old versions of DJGPP shipped that program under
829 the name ECHO.EXE, so you can simply copy ECHO.EXE to DJECHO.EXE and
830 rerun CONFIG.BAT. If you have neither ECHO.EXE nor DJECHO.EXE, you
831 should be able to find them in your djdevNNN.zip archive (where NNN is
832 the DJGPP version number).
834 On Windows NT or Windows 2000, running "config msdos" might print an
835 error message like "VDM has been already loaded". This is because
836 those systems have a program called `redir.exe' which is incompatible
837 with a program by the same name supplied with DJGPP, which is used by
838 config.bat. To resolve this, move the DJGPP's `bin' subdirectory to
839 the front of your PATH environment variable.
841 To install the international fonts, chdir to the intlfonts-X.Y
842 directory created when you unpacked the intlfonts distribution (X.Y is
843 the version number of the fonts' distribution), and type the following
846 make bdf INSTALLDIR=..
848 After Make finishes, you may remove the directory intlfonts-X.Y; the
849 fonts are installed into the fonts/bdf subdirectory of the top-level
850 Emacs directory, and that is where Emacs will look for them by
853 Building Emacs creates executable files in the src and lib-src
854 directories. Installing Emacs on MSDOS moves these executables to a
855 sibling directory called bin. For example, if you build in directory
856 /emacs, installing moves the executables from /emacs/src and
857 /emacs/lib-src to the directory /emacs/bin, so you can then delete the
858 subdirectories /emacs/src and /emacs/lib-src if you wish. The only
859 subdirectories you need to keep are bin, lisp, etc and info. (If you
860 installed intlfonts, keep the fonts directory and all its
861 subdirectories as well.) The bin subdirectory should be added to your
862 PATH. The msdos subdirectory includes a PIF and an icon file for
863 Emacs which you might find useful if you run Emacs under MS Windows.
865 Emacs on MSDOS finds the lisp, etc and info directories by looking in
866 ../lisp, ../etc and ../info, starting from the directory where the
867 Emacs executable was run from. You can override this by setting the
868 environment variables EMACSDATA (for the location of `etc' directory),
869 EMACSLOADPATH (for the location of `lisp' directory) and INFOPATH (for
870 the location of the `info' directory).
872 MSDOG is a not a multitasking operating system, so Emacs features such
873 as asynchronous subprocesses that depend on multitasking will not
874 work. Synchronous subprocesses do work.
876 Version 2.0 of djgpp has two bugs that affect Emacs. We've included
877 corrected versions of two files from djgpp in the msdos subdirectory:
878 is_exec.c and sigaction.c. To work around the bugs, compile these
879 files and link them into temacs. Djgpp versions 2.01 and later have
880 these bugs fixed, so upgrade if you can before building Emacs.
884 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
885 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
886 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
887 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
888 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
890 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
891 of this document, or of portions of it,
892 under the above conditions, provided also that they
893 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them,
894 and that any new or changed statements about the activities
895 of the Free Software Foundation are approved by the Foundation.