1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
3 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
7 This file contains general information. For more specific information
8 for the Windows, and GNUstep/Mac OS X ports, also see the files
9 nt/INSTALL and nextstep/INSTALL.
14 The simplest way to build Emacs is to use the `configure' shell script
15 which attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent
16 variables and features and find the directories where various system
17 headers and libraries are kept. It then creates a `Makefile' in each
18 subdirectory and a `config.h' file containing system-dependent
19 definitions. Running the `make' utility then builds the package for
22 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
23 are supported by it. If this simplified procedure fails, or if you
24 are using a platform such as MS-Windows, where `configure' script
25 doesn't work, you might need to use various non-default options, and
26 maybe perform some of the steps manually. The more detailed
27 description in the rest of the sections of this guide will help you do
28 that, so please refer to them if the simple procedure does not work.
30 1. Make sure your system has at least 120 MB of free disk space.
32 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
37 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
38 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
43 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory. This
44 may not work unless you use GNU make.
46 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
47 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
48 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
49 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
50 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
52 If you find anything wrong, you will have to pass to `configure'
53 explicit machine configuration name, and one or more options
54 which tell it where to find various headers and libraries; refer
55 to DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION section below.
57 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
58 Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them refer to the subsection
59 "Image support libraries", below.
61 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
62 you, assume that `configure' did its job and proceed.
64 4. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
65 with some non-default options), always clean the source
66 directories before running `configure' again:
71 5. Invoke the `make' program:
75 6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
76 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
81 7. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
82 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
83 files into their installation directories:
87 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
88 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
89 directory where you built Emacs:
93 You can also save some space by compressing (with `gzip') Info files
94 and installed Lisp source (.el) files which have corresponding .elc
98 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
100 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
102 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
103 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
104 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
105 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
106 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
107 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
108 intlfonts distribution might look better.
110 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
111 package for printing international characters. The file
112 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
115 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
116 in the intlfonts/README file.
118 * Image support libraries
120 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
121 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
123 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
124 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
125 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
126 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
127 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
128 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
129 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
130 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
131 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
133 Here's the list of these optional libraries, and the URLs where they
136 . libXaw3d for fancy 3D-style
137 scroll bars: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/Xaw3d/
138 . libxpm for XPM: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/
139 Get version 3.4k or later, which lets Emacs
140 use its own color allocation functions.
141 . libpng for PNG: ftp://ftp.simplesystems.org/pub/libpng/png/
142 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
143 . libjpeg for JPEG: ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/
144 Get version 6b -- 6a is reported to fail in
146 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
147 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
149 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
150 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
151 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
152 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
153 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
154 --without-LIB options to `configure'. See below for more details.
156 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
158 Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db", "libm17n-flt", "libotf"
159 to correctly display such complex scripts as Indic and Khmer.
160 On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux, these libraries may be
161 already present or available as additional packages. Note that if
162 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
163 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
164 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will contain
165 header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can download and
166 build libraries from sources.
168 The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
171 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
172 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
173 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
174 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
176 For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
177 because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
178 configure it with the option "--without-gui".
182 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
183 them. You must do that yourself.
185 Emacs running on the GNU system supports both X fonts and local fonts
186 (i.e. the fonts managed by the fontconfig library).
188 For `Unicode' (ISO 10646) X fonts, see
189 <URL:http://czyborra.com/unifont/> (packaged in Debian),
190 <URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> (packaged in Debian). (In
191 recent Debian versions, there is an extensive `misc-fixed' iso10646-1
192 in the default X installation.) Perhaps also see
193 <URL:http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/ucs-fonts.html>.
195 <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> has basic fonts for Emacs's
198 XFree86 release 4 (from <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/> and mirrors)
199 contains font support for most, if not all, of the charsets that Emacs
200 currently supports, including iso10646-1 encoded fonts for use with
201 the mule-unicode charsets. The font files should also be usable with
202 older X releases. Note that XFree 4 contains many iso10646-1 fonts
203 with minimal character repertoires, which can cause problems -- see
206 BDF Unicode fonts etl-unicode.tar.gz are available from
207 <URL:ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/fonts/> and
208 <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/mirror/X.Org/contrib/fonts/>. These
209 fonts can also be used by ps-print and ps-mule to print Unicode
212 Finally, the Web pages <URL:http://www.nongnu.org/freefont/index.html>
213 and <URL:http://www.nongnu.org/freefont/resources.html> list a large
214 number of free Unicode fonts.
216 * GNU/Linux development packages
218 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by
219 default; they just include the files that you need to run Emacs, but
220 not those you need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with
221 X11 support, you may need to install the special `X11 development'
222 package. For example, in April 2003, the package names to install
223 were `XFree86-devel' and `Xaw3d-devel' on Red Hat. On Debian, the
224 packages necessary to build the installed version should be
225 sufficient; they can be installed using `apt-get build-dep emacs21' in
229 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
231 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.X,
232 see below; search for MSDOG. For Windows 9X, Windows ME, Windows NT,
233 Windows 2000, Windows XP/2003, and Windows Vista/2008, see the file
234 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
236 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
237 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
238 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
239 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
240 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
241 running the final dumped Emacs.
243 Building Emacs requires about 140 MB of disk space (including the
244 Emacs sources) Once installed, Emacs occupies about 77 MB in the file
245 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
246 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
247 the building and installation take place in different directories,
248 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 140+77 MB.
250 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
251 give to the `configure' program. That file offers hints for
252 getting around some possible installation problems. The file lists
253 many different configurations, but only the part for your machine and
254 operating system is relevant. (The list is arranged in alphabetical
255 order by the vendor name.)
257 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
258 or in a separate directory.
260 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
261 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
263 ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
265 The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
266 in `./etc/MACHINES', with the system version number added at the end.
268 You should try first omitting CONFIGURATION-NAME. This way,
269 `configure' will try to guess your system type. If it cannot guess,
270 or if something goes wrong in building or installing Emacs this way,
271 try again specifying the proper CONFIGURATION-NAME explicitly.
273 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
274 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
275 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
277 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
278 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
279 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
280 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
281 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
282 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
284 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
285 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
286 TOOLKIT is `athena', `motif' or `gtk' (`yes' and `lucid' are synonyms
287 for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work to use a toolkit
288 with shared libraries. A free implementation of Motif, called
289 LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>. Compiling with
290 LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection Dialog to pop up
291 when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You can get fancy
292 3D-style scroll bars, even without LessTif/Motif, if you have the
293 Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d
296 If `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' is specified, you can tell configure where
297 to search for GTK by specifying `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where
298 PATH is the pathname to pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.4 or
299 newer is required for Emacs.
301 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
302 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
303 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
304 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
305 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
306 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
308 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
309 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
310 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
311 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
313 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
314 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
315 or more of these options:
317 --without-xpm for XPM image support
318 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
319 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
320 --without-gif for GIF image support
321 --without-png for PNG image support
323 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
326 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods. In
327 this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
329 Use --disable-largefile omits support for files larger than 2GB on
330 systems which support that.
332 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
334 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
335 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
336 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
337 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
338 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
339 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.27').
340 - The architecture-dependent files go in
341 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
342 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
343 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
345 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
346 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
347 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
348 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
349 - The architecture-dependent files go in
350 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
351 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
353 For example, the command
355 ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
357 configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
358 support for the X11 window system.
360 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
361 itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
362 `./Makefile', `lib-src/Makefile', `oldXMenu/Makefile',
363 `lwlib/Makefile', `src/Makefile', and `./src/config.h'. For details
364 on exactly what it does, see the section called `CONFIGURATION BY
367 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
368 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
369 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
370 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
371 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
372 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
373 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
374 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
375 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
376 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
378 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
379 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
380 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
381 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
382 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
383 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
384 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
386 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
387 directories for some header files, or link against optional
388 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
389 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
390 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
391 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
392 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
393 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
394 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
395 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
397 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
398 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
400 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
401 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
403 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
404 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
405 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
406 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
407 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo.a and libbar.a
408 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
410 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' use
411 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
412 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
413 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
414 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
417 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
420 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
421 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
422 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
425 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
426 and run the program `configure' as follows:
428 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
430 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
431 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
432 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
434 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
435 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
437 3c) Some people try to build in a separate directory by filling
438 it full of symlinks to the files in the real source directory.
439 If you do that, `make all' does work, but `make install' fails:
440 it copies the symbolic links rather than the actual files.
442 As far as is known, there is no particular reason to use
443 a directory full of links rather than use the standard GNU
444 facilities to build in a separate directory (see 3b above).
446 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
447 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
448 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
449 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
450 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
452 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
454 is how you would override the default value of the variable
455 news-inews-program (which is "/usr/local/inews").
457 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
458 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
459 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
460 doing, you'll make a mistake.
462 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
463 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
464 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
465 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
466 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
467 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
468 was build with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
470 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
471 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
472 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
474 Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
475 not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
476 something up in the system's password and user information database.
477 See `./etc/PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
479 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
480 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
482 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
483 wish to add to various termcap entries. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
484 and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
487 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
488 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
489 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
490 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
491 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
493 Or you can "install" the executable and the other Emacs into their
494 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
495 are installed in the following directories:
497 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
498 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
501 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
502 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
503 you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.27'. Since the
504 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
505 another, including the version number in the path
506 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
507 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
508 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
510 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
511 file, the `yow' database, and other
512 architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
513 running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
515 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
516 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
518 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
519 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument
520 you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
521 architecture and operating system of your machine,
522 like `mips-dec-ultrix' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
523 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
524 operating system, and architecture in use, including
525 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
526 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
527 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
528 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
529 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
531 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
532 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
533 documented using info files as well, so this directory
534 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific
537 `/usr/local/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
540 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
541 files in these directories.
543 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
544 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
546 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
547 files installed for all Emacs versions.
549 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
550 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
551 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
552 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
554 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
555 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
556 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
557 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
560 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
561 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
564 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
565 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
566 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
568 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
569 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
570 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
571 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
572 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
573 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
574 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
580 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
581 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
582 command line. For example, if you type
584 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
586 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
587 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
590 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
592 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
593 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
595 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
596 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
597 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
598 subdirectories under `datadir':
599 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
600 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
601 file, and the `yow' database.
602 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
603 like `18.59' or `19.0'. Since these files vary from one version
604 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
605 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
606 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
607 unavailable while installing a new version.
609 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
610 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
611 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
612 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
613 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
615 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
616 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument you gave to the
617 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
618 system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' or
619 `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since these files are specific to the version
620 of Emacs, operating system, and architecture in use, including
621 the configuration name in the path allows you to have several
622 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating systems
623 installed at the same time; this is useful for sites at which
624 different kinds of machines share the file system Emacs is
627 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
628 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
630 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
631 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
632 `/usr/local/man/man1'.
634 `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
635 It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
636 digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
637 values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
638 installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
640 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
641 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
642 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
643 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
644 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
647 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
648 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
650 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
651 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
652 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
653 directories under that path.
655 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
656 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
657 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
659 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
660 GNU software; this variable is specific to Emacs.
662 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
663 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
664 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
665 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
666 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
668 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
669 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
670 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
671 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
672 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
673 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
674 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
676 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/paths.h,
677 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
678 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
679 before you run `make'.
681 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
682 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
683 when running make in the subdirectories.
686 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
688 Instead of running the `configure' program, you have to perform the
691 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
693 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
694 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
695 see which operating system and architecture description files from
696 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
697 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
698 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
700 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
701 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
702 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
703 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files. Occasionally you may need to
704 redefine parameters used in `./lib-src/movemail.c'.
706 3) Create src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile from the corresponding
707 `Makefile.in' files. First copy `Makefile.in' to `Makefile.c',
708 then edit in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs,
709 and then copy the shell commands near the end of `configure'
710 that run cpp to construct `Makefile'.
712 4) Create `Makefile' files in various other directories
713 from the corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard,
714 just a matter of substitution.
716 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
717 program. You need version 2.51 or newer of `autoconf' to rebuild
720 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
722 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
725 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
726 `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.in', changing
727 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
729 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
730 executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `make-docfile' and
731 `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. And others.
733 3) Go to directory `./src' and Run `make'. This refers to files in
734 the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
737 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
738 which has another name that contains a version number.
739 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
741 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
742 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
743 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
744 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
745 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs
751 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
752 directory of the Emacs distribution.
754 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
755 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/paths.h'.
757 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
758 - The programs `cvtmail', `fakemail', `hexl',
759 `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log', and `vcdiff' are used by Emacs;
760 they do need to be copied.
761 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
762 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
763 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
764 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
765 - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
766 a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
768 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
769 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
770 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
771 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
772 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
773 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
775 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
776 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
777 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
778 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
779 of installing different versions.
781 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
783 4) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
784 `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
785 intended for users to run.
787 5) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
788 appropriate man directories.
790 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
791 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
792 the source on line for debugging.
797 See the file PROBLEMS in etc subdirectory for a list of various
798 problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
801 Installation on MSDOG (a.k.a. MSDOS)
803 To install on MSDOG, you need to have the GNU C compiler for MSDOG
804 (also known as djgpp), GNU Make, rm, mv, and sed. See the remarks in
805 config.bat for more information about locations and versions. The
806 file etc/FAQ includes pointers to Internet sites where you can find
807 the necessary utilities; search for "MS-DOS". The configuration step
808 (see below) will test for these utilities and will refuse to continue
809 if any of them isn't found.
811 Recompiling Lisp files in the `lisp' subdirectory using the various
812 targets in the lisp/Makefile file requires additional utilities:
813 `find' and `xargs' (from Findutils), `touch' (from Fileutils) GNU
814 `echo' and `test' (from Sh-utils), `tr, `sort', and `uniq' (from
815 Textutils), and a port of Bash. However, you should not normally need
816 to run lisp/Makefile, as all the Lisp files are distributed in
817 byte-compiled form as well.
819 If you are building the MSDOG version of Emacs on an MSDOG-like system
820 which supports long file names (e.g. Windows 9X or Windows XP), you
821 need to make sure that long file names are handled consistently both
822 when you unpack the distribution and compile it. If you intend to
823 compile with DJGPP v2.0 or later, and long file names support is
824 enabled (LFN=y in the environment), you need to unpack Emacs
825 distribution in a way that doesn't truncate the original long
826 filenames to the DOS 8.3 namespace; the easiest way to do this is to
827 use djtar program which comes with DJGPP, since it will note the LFN
828 setting and behave accordingly. DJGPP v1 doesn't support long
829 filenames, so you must unpack Emacs with a program that truncates the
830 filenames to 8.3 naming as it extracts files; again, using djtar after
831 setting LFN=n is the recommended way. You can build Emacs with LFN=n
832 even if you use DJGPP v2, if some of your tools don't support long
833 file names: just ensure that LFN is set to `n' during both unpacking
836 (By the time you read this, you have already unpacked the Emacs
837 distribution, but if the explanations above imply that you should have
838 done it differently, it's safer to delete the directory tree created
839 by the unpacking program and unpack Emacs again, than to risk running
840 into problems during the build process.)
842 It is important to understand that the runtime support of long file
843 names by the Emacs binary is NOT affected by the LFN setting during
844 compilation; Emacs compiled with DJGPP v2.0 or later will always
845 support long file names on Windows no matter what was the setting
846 of LFN at compile time. However, if you compiled with LFN disabled
847 and want to enable LFN support after Emacs was already built, you need
848 to make sure that the support files in the lisp, etc and info
849 directories are called by their original long names as found in the
850 distribution. You can do this either by renaming the files manually,
851 or by extracting them from the original distribution archive with
852 djtar after you set LFN=y in the environment.
854 To unpack Emacs with djtar, type this command:
858 (This assumes that the Emacs distribution is called `emacs.tgz' on
861 If you want to print international characters, install the intlfonts
862 distribution. For this, create a directory called `fonts' under the
863 Emacs top-level directory (usually called `emacs-XX.YY') created by
864 unpacking emacs.tgz, chdir into the directory emacs-XX.YY/fonts, and
867 djtar -x intlfonts.tgz
869 When unpacking is done, a directory called `emacs-XX.YY' will be
870 created, where XX.YY is the Emacs version. To build and install
871 Emacs, chdir to that directory and type these commands:
876 Running "config msdos" checks for several programs that are required
877 to configure and build Emacs; if one of those programs is not found,
878 CONFIG.BAT stops and prints an error message. If you have DJGPP
879 version 2.0 or 2.01, it will complain about a program called
880 DJECHO.EXE. These old versions of DJGPP shipped that program under
881 the name ECHO.EXE, so you can simply copy ECHO.EXE to DJECHO.EXE and
882 rerun CONFIG.BAT. If you have neither ECHO.EXE nor DJECHO.EXE, you
883 should be able to find them in your djdevNNN.zip archive (where NNN is
884 the DJGPP version number).
886 On Windows NT, Windows 2000/XP/Vista, running "config msdos" might
887 print an error message like "VDM has been already loaded". This is
888 because those systems have a program called `redir.exe' which is
889 incompatible with a program by the same name supplied with DJGPP,
890 which is used by config.bat. To resolve this, move the DJGPP's `bin'
891 subdirectory to the front of your PATH environment variable.
893 To install the international fonts, chdir to the intlfonts-X.Y
894 directory created when you unpacked the intlfonts distribution (X.Y is
895 the version number of the fonts' distribution), and type the following
898 make bdf INSTALLDIR=..
900 After Make finishes, you may remove the directory intlfonts-X.Y; the
901 fonts are installed into the fonts/bdf subdirectory of the top-level
902 Emacs directory, and that is where Emacs will look for them by
905 Building Emacs creates executable files in the src and lib-src
906 directories. Installing Emacs on MSDOS moves these executables to a
907 sibling directory called bin. For example, if you build in directory
908 /emacs, installing moves the executables from /emacs/src and
909 /emacs/lib-src to the directory /emacs/bin, so you can then delete the
910 subdirectories /emacs/src and /emacs/lib-src if you wish. The only
911 subdirectories you need to keep are bin, lisp, etc and info. (If you
912 installed intlfonts, keep the fonts directory and all its
913 subdirectories as well.) The bin subdirectory should be added to your
914 PATH. The msdos subdirectory includes a PIF and an icon file for
915 Emacs which you might find useful if you run Emacs under MS Windows.
917 Emacs on MSDOS finds the lisp, etc and info directories by looking in
918 ../lisp, ../etc and ../info, starting from the directory where the
919 Emacs executable was run from. You can override this by setting the
920 environment variables EMACSDATA (for the location of `etc' directory),
921 EMACSLOADPATH (for the location of `lisp' directory) and INFOPATH (for
922 the location of the `info' directory).
924 MSDOG is a not a multitasking operating system, so Emacs features such
925 as asynchronous subprocesses that depend on multitasking will not
926 work. Synchronous subprocesses do work.
928 Version 2.0 of djgpp has two bugs that affect Emacs. We've included
929 corrected versions of two files from djgpp in the msdos subdirectory:
930 is_exec.c and sigaction.c. To work around the bugs, compile these
931 files and link them into temacs. Djgpp versions 2.01 and later have
932 these bugs fixed, so upgrade if you can before building Emacs.
934 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
936 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
937 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
938 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
939 (at your option) any later version.
941 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
942 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
943 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
944 GNU General Public License for more details.
946 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
947 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.