1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2014 Free Software Foundation,
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
7 This file contains general information on building GNU Emacs.
8 For more information specific to the MS-Windows, GNUstep/Mac OS X, and
9 MS-DOS ports, also read the files nt/INSTALL, nextstep/INSTALL, and
10 msdos/INSTALL. For information about building from a repository checkout
11 (rather than a release), also read the file INSTALL.REPO.
16 On most Unix systems, you build Emacs by first running the `configure'
17 shell script. This attempts to deduce the correct values for
18 various system-dependent variables and features, and find the
19 directories where certain system headers and libraries are kept.
20 In a few cases, you may need to explicitly tell configure where to
21 find some things, or what options to use.
23 `configure' creates a `Makefile' in several subdirectories, and a
24 `src/config.h' file containing system-dependent definitions.
25 Running the `make' utility then builds the package for your system.
27 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
28 are supported by it. In some cases, if the simplified procedure fails,
29 you might need to use various non-default options, and maybe perform
30 some of the steps manually. The more detailed description in the other
31 sections of this guide will help you do that, so please refer to those
32 sections if you need to.
34 1. Unpacking the Emacs 24.1 release requires about 180 MB of free
35 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 70 MB of space.
36 The final installed Emacs uses about 110 MB of disk space.
37 This includes the space-saving that comes from automatically
38 compressing the Lisp source files on installation.
40 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
45 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
46 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
51 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory.
52 This may not work unless you use GNU make.
54 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
55 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
56 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
57 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
58 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
60 If you find anything wrong, you may have to pass to `configure'
61 one or more options specifying the explicit machine configuration
62 name, where to find various headers and libraries, etc.
63 Refer to the section DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION below.
65 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
66 Xpm and jpeg, refer to "Image support libraries" below.
68 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
69 you, but there are no obvious errors, assume that `configure' did
72 4. Invoke the `make' program:
76 5. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
77 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
82 6. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
83 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
84 files into their installation directories:
88 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
89 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
90 directory where you built Emacs:
94 You can delete the entire build directory if you do not plan to
95 build Emacs again, but it can be useful to keep for debugging.
96 If you want to build Emacs again with different configure options,
97 first clean the source directories:
101 Note that the install automatically saves space by compressing
102 (provided you have the `gzip' program) those installed Lisp source (.el)
103 files that have corresponding .elc versions, as well as the Info files.
106 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
108 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
110 On GNU and Unix systems, Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db",
111 "libm17n-flt", "libotf" to correctly display such complex scripts as
112 Indic and Khmer, and also for scripts that require Arabic shaping
113 support (Arabic and Farsi). On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux,
114 these libraries may be already present or available as additional
115 packages. Note that if there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package,
116 for use at compilation time rather than run time, you will need that
117 as well as the corresponding run time package; typically the dev
118 package will contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise,
119 you can download the libraries from <http://www.nongnu.org/m17n/>.
121 Note that Emacs cannot support complex scripts on a TTY, unless the
122 terminal includes such a support.
124 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
126 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
127 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
128 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
129 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
130 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
131 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
132 intlfonts distribution might look better.
134 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
135 package for printing international characters. The file
136 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
139 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
140 in the intlfonts/README file.
142 * Image support libraries
144 Emacs needs libraries to display images, with the exception of PBM and
145 XBM images whose support is built-in.
147 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
148 already be present or available as additional packages. If
149 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
150 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
151 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
152 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
153 download and build libraries from sources. Although none of them are
154 essential for running Emacs, some are important enough that
155 'configure' will report an error if they are absent from a system that
156 has X11 support, unless 'configure' is specifically told to omit them.
158 Here's a list of some of these libraries, and the URLs where they
159 can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution does not
160 provide them). By default, libraries marked with an X are required if
163 libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
164 X libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
165 X libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
166 libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
167 X libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
168 X libtiff for TIFF: http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
169 X libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
171 If you supply the appropriate --without-LIB option, 'configure' will
172 omit the corresponding library from Emacs, even if that makes for a
173 less-pleasant user interface. Otherwise, Emacs will configure itself
174 to build with these libraries if 'configure' finds them on your
175 system, and 'configure' will complain and exit if a library marked 'X'
176 is not found on a system that uses X11. Use --without-LIB if your
177 version of a library won't work because some routines are missing.
181 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
184 On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
185 (i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
186 fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
187 yourself. See <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/> for a large
188 number of free Unicode fonts.
190 * GNU/Linux development packages
192 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
193 they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
194 need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
195 and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
196 package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
198 The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
199 GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
200 configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
201 packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
202 like `apt-get build-dep emacs24'. On Red Hat systems, the
203 corresponding command is `yum-builddep emacs'.
206 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
208 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
209 see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
210 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
212 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
213 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
214 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
215 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
216 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
217 running the final dumped Emacs. (This should not be an issue
218 on any recent system.)
220 Building Emacs requires about 230 MB of disk space (including the
221 Emacs sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 120 MB in the file
222 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
223 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
224 the building and installation take place in different directories,
225 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 230+120 MB.
227 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
228 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
229 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
230 for getting around some possible installation problems.
232 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
233 or in a separate directory.
235 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
236 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
238 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
240 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
241 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
243 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
244 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
245 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
247 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
248 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
249 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
250 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
251 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
252 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
254 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
255 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
256 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
257 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). Compiling with Motif causes a
258 standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands
259 with the mouse. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without
260 Gtk or Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see
261 "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d availability).
263 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by specifying
264 `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where PATH is the pathname to
265 pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.6 or newer is required for Emacs.
267 Emacs will autolaunch a D-Bus session bus, when the environment
268 variable DISPLAY is set, but no session bus is running. This might be
269 inconvenient for Emacs when running as daemon or running via a remote
270 ssh connection. In order to completely prevent the use of D-Bus, configure
271 Emacs with the options `--without-dbus --without-gconf --without-gsettings'.
273 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
274 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
275 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
276 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
277 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
278 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
280 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
281 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
282 PBM, see the list of URLs in "Image support libraries" above.
283 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
285 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
286 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
287 or more of these options:
289 --without-xpm for XPM image support
290 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
291 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
292 --without-gif for GIF image support
293 --without-png for PNG image support
295 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable Motif or Xaw3d scroll bars.
297 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
298 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
300 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
301 systems which support that.
303 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
305 Use --without-all if you want to build a small executable with the minimal
306 dependencies on external libraries, at the cost of disabling most of the
307 features that are normally enabled by default. Using --without-all is
308 equivalent to --without-sound --without-dbus --without-libotf
309 --without-selinux --without-xft --without-gsettings --without-gnutls
310 --without-rsvg --without-xml2 --without-gconf --without-imagemagick
311 --without-m17n-flt --without-jpeg --without-tiff --without-gif
312 --without-png --without-gpm --without-file-notification. Note that
313 --without-all leaves X support enabled, and using the GTK2 or GTK3
314 toolkit creates a lot of library dependencies. So if you want to
315 build a small executable with very basic X support, use --without-all
316 --with-x-toolkit=no. For the smallest possible executable without X,
317 use --without-all --without-x. If you want to build with just a few
318 features enabled, you can combine --without-all with --with-FEATURE.
319 For example, you can use --without-all --with-dbus to build with DBus
320 support and nothing more.
322 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
323 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
324 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
326 Use --enable-gcc-warnings to enable compile-time checks that warn
327 about possibly-questionable C code. This is intended for developers
328 and is useful with GNU-compatible compilers. On a recent GNU system
329 there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the
330 generated warnings may still be useful.
332 Use --enable-link-time-optimization to enable link-time optimizer, which
333 is available in GNU compiler since version 4.5.0. If your compiler is not
334 GNU or older than version 4.5.0, this option does nothing. If `configure'
335 can determine number of online CPUS on your system, final link-time
336 optimization and code generation is executed in parallel using one job
337 per each available online CPU.
339 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
340 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
341 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
342 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
343 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
344 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
345 - The architecture-dependent files go in
346 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
347 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
348 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
350 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
351 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
352 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
353 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
354 - The architecture-dependent files go in
355 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
356 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
358 For example, the command
360 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
362 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
363 without sound support.
365 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
366 It just creates the files that influence those things:
367 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
368 and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
369 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
371 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
372 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
373 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
374 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
375 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
376 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
377 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
378 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
379 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
380 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
382 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
383 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
384 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
385 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
386 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
387 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
388 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
390 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
391 directories for some header files, or link against optional
392 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
393 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
394 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
395 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
396 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
397 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
398 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
399 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
401 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
402 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
404 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
405 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
407 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
408 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
409 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
410 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
411 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
412 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
414 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
415 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
416 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
417 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
418 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
421 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
424 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
425 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
426 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
429 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
430 and run the program `configure' as follows:
432 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
434 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
435 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
436 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
438 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
439 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
441 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links
442 to the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will
445 4) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
446 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
447 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
448 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
449 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
450 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
451 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
453 It is not a good idea to edit the normal .el files that come with Emacs.
454 Instead, use a file like site-init.el to change settings.
456 To change the value of a variable that is already defined in Emacs,
457 you should use the Lisp function `setq', not `defvar'. For example,
459 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
461 is how you would override the default value of the variable
464 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
465 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
466 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
467 doing, you'll make a mistake.
469 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
470 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
472 5) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
473 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
475 6) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
476 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
477 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
478 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
479 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
481 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
482 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
483 are installed in the following directories:
485 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
486 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and
489 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
490 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
491 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
492 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
493 another, including the version number in the path
494 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
495 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
496 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
498 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
499 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
500 might need while running.
502 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
503 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
505 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
506 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
507 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
508 architecture and operating system of your machine,
509 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
510 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
511 operating system, and architecture in use, including
512 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
513 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
514 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
515 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
516 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
518 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
519 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
520 documented using info files as well, so this directory
521 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
523 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
526 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
527 files in these directories.
529 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
530 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
532 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
533 files installed for all Emacs versions.
535 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
536 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
537 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
538 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
540 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
541 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
542 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
543 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
546 7) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
547 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
550 8) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
551 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
552 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
554 9) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
555 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
556 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
557 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
558 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
559 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
560 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
566 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
567 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
568 command line. For example, if you type
570 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
572 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
573 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
576 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
578 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
579 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
581 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
582 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
583 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
584 subdirectories under `datadir':
585 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
586 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
587 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
588 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
589 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
590 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
591 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
592 unavailable while installing a new version.
594 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
595 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
596 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
597 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
598 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
600 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
601 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
602 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
603 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
604 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
605 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
606 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
607 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
608 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
609 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
610 Emacs is installed on.
612 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
613 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
615 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
616 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
617 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
619 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
620 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
621 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
622 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
623 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
626 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
627 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
629 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
630 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
631 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
632 directories under that path.
634 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
635 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
636 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
638 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
639 GNU software; the following variables are specific to Emacs.
641 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
642 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
643 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
644 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
645 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
647 `GZIP_PROG' is the name of the executable that compresses installed info,
648 manual, and .el files. It defaults to gzip. Setting it to
649 the empty string suppresses compression.
651 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
652 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
653 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
654 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
655 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
656 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
657 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
659 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
660 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
661 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
662 before you run `make'.
664 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
665 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
666 when running make in the subdirectories.
669 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
671 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
672 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
674 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
676 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system.
678 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
679 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
680 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
682 The `configure' script is built from `configure.ac' by the
683 `autogen.sh' script, which checks that `autoconf' and other build
684 tools are sufficiently up to date and then runs the build tools.
686 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
688 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
691 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
692 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
693 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
695 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
696 and libraries used in later steps.
698 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
699 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
701 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
702 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
703 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
705 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
706 which has another name that contains a version number.
707 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
709 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
710 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
711 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
712 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
713 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
718 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
719 directory of the Emacs distribution.
721 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
722 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
724 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
725 - The programs `hexl', `movemail', `profile', and `rcs2log'
726 are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
727 - The programs `etags', `ctags', and `emacsclient' are intended to be
728 run by users; they are handled below.
729 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
730 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
732 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
733 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/info.el'. Note that if the
734 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
735 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
736 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
737 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
739 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
740 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
741 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
742 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
743 of installing different versions.
745 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
747 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', and `etags' from `./lib-src'
748 to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for users to run.
750 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
752 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
753 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
754 the source on line for debugging.
759 See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
760 encountered, and what to do about them.
762 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
764 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
765 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
766 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
767 (at your option) any later version.
769 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
770 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
771 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
772 GNU General Public License for more details.
774 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
775 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.