1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2015 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 release requires about 200 MB of free
35 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 200 MB of space.
36 The final installed Emacs uses about 150 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) See the basic installation summary above for the disk space requirements.
214 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
215 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
216 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
217 for getting around some possible installation problems.
219 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
220 or in a separate directory.
222 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
223 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
225 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
227 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
228 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
230 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
231 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
232 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
234 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
235 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
236 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
237 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
238 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
239 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
241 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
242 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
243 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
244 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). Compiling with Motif causes a
245 standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands
246 with the mouse. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without
247 Gtk or Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see
248 "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d availability).
250 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by specifying
251 `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where PATH is the pathname to
254 Emacs will autolaunch a D-Bus session bus, when the environment
255 variable DISPLAY is set, but no session bus is running. This might be
256 inconvenient for Emacs when running as daemon or running via a remote
257 ssh connection. In order to completely prevent the use of D-Bus, configure
258 Emacs with the options `--without-dbus --without-gconf --without-gsettings'.
260 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
261 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
262 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
263 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
264 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
265 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
267 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
268 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
269 PBM, see the list of URLs in "Image support libraries" above.
270 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
272 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
273 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
274 or more of these options:
276 --without-xpm for XPM image support
277 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
278 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
279 --without-gif for GIF image support
280 --without-png for PNG image support
282 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable Motif or Xaw3d scroll bars.
284 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
285 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
287 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
288 systems which support that.
290 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
292 Use --without-all if you want to build a small executable with the minimal
293 dependencies on external libraries, at the cost of disabling most of the
294 features that are normally enabled by default. Using --without-all is
295 equivalent to --without-sound --without-dbus --without-libotf
296 --without-selinux --without-xft --without-gsettings --without-gnutls
297 --without-rsvg --without-xml2 --without-gconf --without-imagemagick
298 --without-m17n-flt --without-jpeg --without-tiff --without-gif
299 --without-png --without-gpm --without-file-notification. Note that
300 --without-all leaves X support enabled, and using the GTK2 or GTK3
301 toolkit creates a lot of library dependencies. So if you want to
302 build a small executable with very basic X support, use --without-all
303 --with-x-toolkit=no. For the smallest possible executable without X,
304 use --without-all --without-x. If you want to build with just a few
305 features enabled, you can combine --without-all with --with-FEATURE.
306 For example, you can use --without-all --with-dbus to build with DBus
307 support and nothing more.
309 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
310 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
311 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
313 Use --enable-gcc-warnings to enable compile-time checks that warn
314 about possibly-questionable C code. This is intended for developers
315 and is useful with GNU-compatible compilers. On a recent GNU system
316 there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the
317 generated warnings may still be useful.
319 Use --enable-link-time-optimization to enable link-time optimizer, which
320 is available in GNU compiler since version 4.5.0. If your compiler is not
321 GNU or older than version 4.5.0, this option does nothing. If `configure'
322 can determine number of online CPUS on your system, final link-time
323 optimization and code generation is executed in parallel using one job
324 per each available online CPU.
326 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
327 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
328 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
329 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
330 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
331 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
332 - The architecture-dependent files go in
333 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
334 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
335 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
337 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
338 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
339 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
340 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
341 - The architecture-dependent files go in
342 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
343 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
345 For example, the command
347 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
349 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
350 without sound support.
352 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
353 It just creates the files that influence those things:
354 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
355 and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
356 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
358 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
359 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
360 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
361 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
362 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
363 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
364 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
365 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
366 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
367 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
369 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
370 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
371 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
372 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
373 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
374 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
375 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
377 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
378 directories for some header files, or link against optional
379 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
380 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
381 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
382 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
383 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
384 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
385 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
386 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
388 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
389 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
391 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
392 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
394 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
395 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
396 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
397 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
398 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
399 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
401 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
402 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
403 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
404 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
405 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
408 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
411 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
412 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
413 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
416 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
417 and run the program `configure' as follows:
419 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
421 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
422 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
423 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
425 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
426 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
428 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links
429 to the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will
432 4) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
433 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
434 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
435 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
436 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
437 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
438 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
440 It is not a good idea to edit the normal .el files that come with Emacs.
441 Instead, use a file like site-init.el to change settings.
443 To change the value of a variable that is already defined in Emacs,
444 you should use the Lisp function `setq', not `defvar'. For example,
446 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
448 is how you would override the default value of the variable
451 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
452 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
453 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
454 doing, you'll make a mistake.
456 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
457 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
459 5) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
460 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
462 6) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
463 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
464 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
465 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
466 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
468 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
469 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
470 are installed in the following directories:
472 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
473 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and
476 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
477 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
478 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
479 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
480 another, including the version number in the path
481 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
482 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
483 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
485 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
486 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
487 might need while running.
489 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
490 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
492 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
493 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
494 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
495 architecture and operating system of your machine,
496 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
497 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
498 operating system, and architecture in use, including
499 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
500 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
501 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
502 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
503 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
505 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
506 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
507 documented using info files as well, so this directory
508 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
510 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
513 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
514 files in these directories.
516 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
517 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
519 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
520 files installed for all Emacs versions.
522 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
523 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
524 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
525 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
527 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
528 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
529 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
530 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
533 7) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
534 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
537 8) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
538 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
539 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
541 9) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
542 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
543 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
544 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
545 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
546 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
547 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
553 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
554 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
555 command line. For example, if you type
557 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
559 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
560 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
563 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
565 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
566 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
568 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
569 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
570 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
571 subdirectories under `datadir':
572 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
573 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
574 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
575 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
576 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
577 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
578 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
579 unavailable while installing a new version.
581 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
582 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
583 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
584 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
585 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
587 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
588 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
589 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
590 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
591 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
592 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
593 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
594 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
595 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
596 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
597 Emacs is installed on.
599 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
600 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
602 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
603 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
604 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
606 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
607 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
608 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
609 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
610 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
613 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
614 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
616 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
617 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
618 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
619 directories under that path.
621 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
622 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
623 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
625 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
626 GNU software; the following variables are specific to Emacs.
628 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
629 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
630 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
631 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
632 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
634 `GZIP_PROG' is the name of the executable that compresses installed info,
635 manual, and .el files. It defaults to gzip. Setting it to
636 the empty string suppresses compression.
638 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
639 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
640 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
641 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
642 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
643 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
644 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
646 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
647 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
648 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
649 before you run `make'.
651 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
652 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
653 when running make in the subdirectories.
656 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
658 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
659 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
661 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
663 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system.
665 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
666 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
667 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
669 The `configure' script is built from `configure.ac' by the
670 `autogen.sh' script, which checks that `autoconf' and other build
671 tools are sufficiently up to date and then runs the build tools.
673 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
675 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
678 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
679 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
680 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
682 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
683 and libraries used in later steps.
685 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
686 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
688 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
689 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
690 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
692 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
693 which has another name that contains a version number.
694 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
696 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
697 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
698 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
699 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
700 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
705 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
706 directory of the Emacs distribution.
708 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
709 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
711 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
712 - The programs `hexl', `movemail', `profile', and `rcs2log'
713 are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
714 - The programs `etags', `ctags', and `emacsclient' are intended to be
715 run by users; they are handled below.
716 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
717 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
719 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
720 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/info.el'. Note that if the
721 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
722 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
723 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
724 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
726 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
727 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
728 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
729 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
730 of installing different versions.
732 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
734 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', and `etags' from `./lib-src'
735 to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for users to run.
737 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
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 `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
747 encountered, and what to do about them.
749 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
751 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
752 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
753 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
754 (at your option) any later version.
756 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
757 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
758 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
759 GNU General Public License for more details.
761 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
762 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.