1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
3 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
4 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5 See the end of the file for license conditions.
8 This file contains general information. For more specific information
9 for the Windows, GNUstep/Mac OS X, and MS-DOS ports, also see the files
10 nt/INSTALL nextstep/INSTALL, and msdos/INSTALL. For information
11 specific to building from a Bazaar checkout (rather than a release), see
17 The simplest way to build Emacs is to use the `configure' shell script
18 which attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent
19 variables and features and find the directories where various system
20 headers and libraries are kept. It then creates a `Makefile' in each
21 subdirectory and a `config.h' file containing system-dependent
22 definitions. Running the `make' utility then builds the package for
25 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
26 are supported by it. If this simplified procedure fails, or if you
27 are using a platform such as MS-Windows, where `configure' script
28 doesn't work, you might need to use various non-default options, and
29 maybe perform some of the steps manually. The more detailed
30 description in the rest of the sections of this guide will help you do
31 that, so please refer to them if the simple procedure does not work.
33 1. Make sure your system has at least 120 MB of free disk space.
35 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
40 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
41 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
46 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory. This
47 may not work unless you use GNU make.
49 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
50 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
51 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
52 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
53 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
55 If you find anything wrong, you will have to pass to `configure'
56 explicit machine configuration name, and one or more options
57 which tell it where to find various headers and libraries; refer
58 to DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION section below.
60 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
61 Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them refer to the subsection
62 "Image support libraries", below.
64 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
65 you, assume that `configure' did its job and proceed.
67 4. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
68 with some non-default options), always clean the source
69 directories before running `configure' again:
74 5. Invoke the `make' program:
78 6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
79 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
84 7. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
85 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
86 files into their installation directories:
90 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
91 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
92 directory where you built Emacs:
96 You can also save some space by compressing (with `gzip') Info files
97 and installed Lisp source (.el) files which have corresponding .elc
101 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
103 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
105 Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db", "libm17n-flt", "libotf"
106 to correctly display such complex scripts as Indic and Khmer.
107 On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux, these libraries may be
108 already present or available as additional packages. Note that if
109 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
110 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
111 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will contain
112 header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can download and
113 build libraries from sources.
115 The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
118 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
119 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
120 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
121 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
123 For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
124 because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
125 configure it with the option "--without-gui".
127 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
129 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
130 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
131 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
132 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
133 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
134 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
135 intlfonts distribution might look better.
137 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
138 package for printing international characters. The file
139 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
142 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
143 in the intlfonts/README file.
145 * Image support libraries
147 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
148 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
150 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
151 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
152 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
153 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
154 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
155 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
156 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
157 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
158 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
160 Here's the list of these optional libraries, and the URLs where they
163 . libXaw3d for fancy 3D-style
164 scroll bars: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/Xaw3d/
165 . libxpm for XPM: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/
166 Get version 3.4k or later, which lets Emacs
167 use its own color allocation functions.
168 . libpng for PNG: ftp://ftp.simplesystems.org/pub/libpng/png/
169 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
170 . libjpeg for JPEG: ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/
171 Get version 6b -- 6a is reported to fail in
173 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
174 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
176 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
177 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
178 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
179 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
180 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
181 --without-LIB options to `configure'. See below for more details.
185 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
186 them. You must do that yourself.
188 Emacs running on the GNU system supports both X fonts and local fonts
189 (i.e. the fonts managed by the fontconfig library).
191 For `Unicode' (ISO 10646) X fonts, see
192 <URL:http://czyborra.com/unifont/> (packaged in Debian),
193 <URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> (packaged in Debian). (In
194 recent Debian versions, there is an extensive `misc-fixed' iso10646-1
195 in the default X installation.) Perhaps also see
196 <URL:http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/ucs-fonts.html>.
198 <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> has basic fonts for Emacs's
201 XFree86 release 4 (from <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/> and mirrors)
202 contains font support for most, if not all, of the charsets that Emacs
203 currently supports, including iso10646-1 encoded fonts for use with
204 the mule-unicode charsets. The font files should also be usable with
205 older X releases. Note that XFree 4 contains many iso10646-1 fonts
206 with minimal character repertoires, which can cause problems -- see
209 BDF Unicode fonts etl-unicode.tar.gz are available from
210 <URL:ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/fonts/> and
211 <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/mirror/X.Org/contrib/fonts/>. These
212 fonts can also be used by ps-print and ps-mule to print Unicode
215 Finally, the Web page <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/>
216 lists a large number of free Unicode fonts.
218 * GNU/Linux development packages
220 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by
221 default; they just include the files that you need to run Emacs, but
222 not those you need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with
223 X11 support, you may need to install the special `X11 development'
224 package. For example, in April 2003, the package names to install
225 were `XFree86-devel' and `Xaw3d-devel' on Red Hat. On Debian, the
226 packages necessary to build the installed version should be
227 sufficient; they can be installed using `apt-get build-dep emacs21' in
231 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
233 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.X,
234 see msdos/INSTALL. For Windows 9X, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows
235 2000, Windows XP/2003, and Windows Vista/2008, see the file
236 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
238 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
239 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
240 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
241 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
242 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
243 running the final dumped Emacs.
245 Building Emacs requires about 140 MB of disk space (including the
246 Emacs sources) Once installed, Emacs occupies about 77 MB in the file
247 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
248 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
249 the building and installation take place in different directories,
250 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 140+77 MB.
252 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
253 give to the `configure' program. That file offers hints for
254 getting around some possible installation problems. The file lists
255 many different configurations, but only the part for your machine and
256 operating system is relevant. (The list is arranged in alphabetical
257 order by the vendor name.)
259 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
260 or in a separate directory.
262 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
263 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
265 ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
267 The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
268 in `./etc/MACHINES', with the system version number added at the end.
270 You should try first omitting CONFIGURATION-NAME. This way,
271 `configure' will try to guess your system type. If it cannot guess,
272 or if something goes wrong in building or installing Emacs this way,
273 try again specifying the proper CONFIGURATION-NAME explicitly.
275 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
276 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
277 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
279 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
280 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
281 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
282 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
283 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
284 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
286 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
287 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
288 TOOLKIT is `athena', `motif' or `gtk' (`yes' and `lucid' are synonyms
289 for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work to use a toolkit
290 with shared libraries. A free implementation of Motif, called
291 LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>. Compiling with
292 LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection Dialog to pop up
293 when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You can get fancy
294 3D-style scroll bars, even without LessTif/Motif, if you have the
295 Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d
298 If `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' is specified, you can tell configure where
299 to search for GTK by specifying `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where
300 PATH is the pathname to pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.4 or
301 newer is required for Emacs.
303 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
304 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
305 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
306 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
307 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
308 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
310 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
311 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
312 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
313 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
315 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
316 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
317 or more of these options:
319 --without-xpm for XPM image support
320 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
321 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
322 --without-gif for GIF image support
323 --without-png for PNG image support
325 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
328 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods. In
329 this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
331 Use --disable-largefile omits support for files larger than 2GB on
332 systems which support that.
334 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
336 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
337 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
338 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
339 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
340 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
341 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.27').
342 - The architecture-dependent files go in
343 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
344 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
345 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
347 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
348 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
349 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
350 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
351 - The architecture-dependent files go in
352 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
353 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
355 For example, the command
357 ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
359 configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
360 support for the X11 window system.
362 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
363 itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
364 `./Makefile', `lib-src/Makefile', `oldXMenu/Makefile',
365 `lwlib/Makefile', `src/Makefile', and `./src/config.h'. For details
366 on exactly what it does, see the section called `CONFIGURATION BY
369 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
370 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
371 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
372 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
373 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
374 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
375 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
376 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
377 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
378 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
380 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
381 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
382 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
383 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
384 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
385 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
386 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
388 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
389 directories for some header files, or link against optional
390 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
391 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
392 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
393 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
394 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
395 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
396 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
397 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
399 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
400 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
402 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
403 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
405 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
406 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
407 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
408 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
409 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo.a and libbar.a
410 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
412 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
413 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
414 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
415 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
416 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
419 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
422 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
423 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
424 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
427 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
428 and run the program `configure' as follows:
430 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
432 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
433 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
434 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
436 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
437 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
439 3c) Some people try to build in a separate directory by filling
440 it full of symlinks to the files in the real source directory.
441 If you do that, `make all' does work, but `make install' fails:
442 it copies the symbolic links rather than the actual files.
444 As far as is known, there is no particular reason to use
445 a directory full of links rather than use the standard GNU
446 facilities to build in a separate directory (see 3b above).
448 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
449 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
450 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
451 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
452 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
454 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
456 is how you would override the default value of the variable
457 news-inews-program (which is "/usr/local/inews").
459 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
460 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
461 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
462 doing, you'll make a mistake.
464 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
465 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
466 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
467 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
468 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
469 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
470 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
472 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
473 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
474 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
476 Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
477 not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
478 something up in the system's password and user information database.
479 See `./etc/PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
481 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
482 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
484 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
485 wish to add to various termcap entries. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
486 and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
489 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
490 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
491 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
492 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
493 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
495 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
496 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
497 are installed in the following directories:
499 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
500 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
503 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
504 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
505 you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.27'. Since the
506 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
507 another, including the version number in the path
508 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
509 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
510 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
512 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
513 file, the `yow' database, and other
514 architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
515 running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
517 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
518 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
520 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
521 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument
522 you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
523 architecture and operating system of your machine,
524 like `mips-dec-ultrix' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
525 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
526 operating system, and architecture in use, including
527 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
528 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
529 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
530 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
531 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
533 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
534 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
535 documented using info files as well, so this directory
536 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific
539 `/usr/local/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
542 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
543 files in these directories.
545 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
546 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
548 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
549 files installed for all Emacs versions.
551 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
552 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
553 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
554 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
556 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
557 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
558 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
559 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
562 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
563 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
566 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
567 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
568 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
570 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
571 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
572 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
573 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
574 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
575 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
576 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
582 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
583 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
584 command line. For example, if you type
586 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
588 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
589 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
592 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
594 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
595 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
597 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
598 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
599 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
600 subdirectories under `datadir':
601 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
602 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
603 file, and the `yow' database.
604 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
605 like `18.59' or `19.0'. Since these files vary from one version
606 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
607 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
608 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
609 unavailable while installing a new version.
611 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
612 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
613 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
614 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
615 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
617 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
618 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument you gave to the
619 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
620 system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' or
621 `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since these files are specific to the version
622 of Emacs, operating system, and architecture in use, including
623 the configuration name in the path allows you to have several
624 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating systems
625 installed at the same time; this is useful for sites at which
626 different kinds of machines share the file system Emacs is
629 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
630 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
632 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
633 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
634 `/usr/local/man/man1'.
636 `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
637 It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
638 digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
639 values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
640 installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
642 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
643 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
644 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
645 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
646 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
649 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
650 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
652 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
653 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
654 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
655 directories under that path.
657 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
658 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
659 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
661 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
662 GNU software; this variable is specific to Emacs.
664 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
665 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
666 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
667 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
668 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
670 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
671 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
672 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
673 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
674 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
675 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
676 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
678 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/paths.h,
679 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
680 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
681 before you run `make'.
683 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
684 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
685 when running make in the subdirectories.
688 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
690 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
691 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
693 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
695 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
696 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
697 see which operating system and architecture description files from
698 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
699 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
700 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
702 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
703 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
704 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
705 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files.
707 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
708 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
709 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
711 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
712 program. You need at least the version of autoconf specified in the
713 AC_PREREQ(...) command to rebuild `configure' from `configure.in'.
715 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
717 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
720 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
721 `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.in', changing
722 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
724 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
725 executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `make-docfile' and
726 `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. And others.
728 3) Go to directory `./src' and Run `make'. This refers to files in
729 the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
732 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
733 which has another name that contains a version number.
734 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
736 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
737 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
738 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
739 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
740 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs
746 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
747 directory of the Emacs distribution.
749 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
750 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/paths.h'.
752 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
753 - The programs `fakemail', `hexl', `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log',
754 and `vcdiff' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
755 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
756 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
757 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
758 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
759 - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
760 a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
762 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
763 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
764 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
765 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
766 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
767 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
769 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
770 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
771 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
772 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
773 of installing different versions.
775 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
777 4) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
778 `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
779 intended for users to run.
781 5) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
782 appropriate man directories.
784 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
785 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
786 the source on line for debugging.
791 See the file PROBLEMS in etc subdirectory for a list of various
792 problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
794 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
796 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
797 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
798 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
799 (at your option) any later version.
801 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
802 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
803 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
804 GNU General Public License for more details.
806 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
807 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.