1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2013
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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 Bazaar checkout
11 (rather than a release), also read the file INSTALL.BZR.
16 On most Unix systems, you build Emacs by first running the `configure'
17 shell script. This attempts to deduce the correct values for
18 various system-dependent variables and features, and find the
19 directories where certain system headers and libraries are kept.
20 In a few cases, you may need to explicitly tell configure where to
21 find some things, or what options to use.
23 `configure' creates a `Makefile' in several subdirectories, and a
24 `src/config.h' file containing system-dependent definitions.
25 Running the `make' utility then builds the package for your system.
27 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
28 are supported by it. In some cases, if the simplified procedure fails,
29 you might need to use various non-default options, and maybe perform
30 some of the steps manually. The more detailed description in the other
31 sections of this guide will help you do that, so please refer to those
32 sections if you need to.
34 1. Unpacking the Emacs 24.1 release requires about 180 MB of free
35 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 70 MB of space.
36 The final installed Emacs uses about 110 MB of disk space.
37 This includes the space-saving that comes from automatically
38 compressing the Lisp source files on installation.
40 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
45 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
46 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
51 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory.
52 This may not work unless you use GNU make.
54 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
55 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
56 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
57 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
58 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
60 If you find anything wrong, you may have to pass to `configure'
61 one or more options specifying the explicit machine configuration
62 name, where to find various headers and libraries, etc.
63 Refer to the section DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION below.
65 If `configure' didn't find some (optional) image support libraries,
66 such as Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them, refer to the
67 subsection "Image support libraries" below.
69 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
70 you, but there are no obvious errors, assume that `configure' did
73 4. Invoke the `make' program:
77 5. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
78 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
83 6. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
84 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
85 files into their installation directories:
89 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
90 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
91 directory where you built Emacs:
95 You can delete the entire build directory if you do not plan to
96 build Emacs again, but it can be useful to keep for debugging.
97 If you want to build Emacs again with different configure options,
98 first clean the source directories:
102 Note that the install automatically saves space by compressing
103 (provided you have the `gzip' program) those installed Lisp source (.el)
104 files that have corresponding .elc versions, as well as the Info files.
107 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
109 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
111 On GNU and Unix systems, Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db",
112 "libm17n-flt", "libotf" to correctly display such complex scripts as
113 Indic and Khmer, and also for scripts that require Arabic shaping
114 support (Arabic and Farsi). On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux,
115 these libraries may be already present or available as additional
116 packages. Note that if there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package,
117 for use at compilation time rather than run time, you will need that
118 as well as the corresponding run time package; typically the dev
119 package will contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise,
120 you can download the libraries from <http://www.nongnu.org/m17n/>.
122 Note that Emacs cannot support complex scripts on a TTY, unless the
123 terminal includes such a support.
125 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
127 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
128 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
129 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
130 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
131 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
132 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
133 intlfonts distribution might look better.
135 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
136 package for printing international characters. The file
137 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
140 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
141 in the intlfonts/README file.
143 * Image support libraries
145 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
146 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
148 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
149 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
150 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
151 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
152 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
153 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
154 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
155 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
156 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
158 Here's the list of some of these optional libraries, and the URLs
159 where they can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution
160 does not provide them):
162 . libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
163 . libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
164 . libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
165 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
166 . libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
167 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
168 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
170 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
171 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
172 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
173 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
174 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
175 --without-LIB options to `configure', if you need to.
179 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
182 On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
183 (i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
184 fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
185 yourself. See <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/> for a large
186 number of free Unicode fonts.
188 * GNU/Linux development packages
190 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
191 they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
192 need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
193 and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
194 package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
196 The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
197 GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
198 configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
199 packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
200 like `apt-get build-dep emacs24'. On Red Hat systems, the
201 corresponding command is `yum-builddep emacs'.
204 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
206 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
207 see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
208 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
210 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
211 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
212 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
213 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
214 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
215 running the final dumped Emacs. (This should not be an issue
216 on any recent system.)
218 Building Emacs requires about 230 MB of disk space (including the
219 Emacs sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 120 MB in the file
220 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
221 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
222 the building and installation take place in different directories,
223 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 230+120 MB.
225 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
226 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
227 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
228 for getting around some possible installation problems.
230 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
231 or in a separate directory.
233 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
234 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
236 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
238 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
239 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
241 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
242 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
243 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
245 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
246 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
247 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
248 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
249 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
250 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
252 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
253 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
254 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
255 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work
256 to use a toolkit with shared libraries. A free implementation of
257 Motif, called LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>.
258 Compiling with LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection
259 Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You
260 can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without Gtk or LessTif/Motif,
261 if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries"
262 above for Xaw3d availability).
264 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by specifying
265 `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where PATH is the pathname to
266 pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.6 or newer is required for Emacs.
268 Emacs will autolaunch a D-Bus session bus, when the environment
269 variable DISPLAY is set, but no session bus is running. This might be
270 inconvenient for Emacs when running as daemon or running via a remote
271 ssh connection. In order to completely prevent the use of D-Bus, configure
272 Emacs with the options `--without-dbus --without-gconf --without-gsettings'.
274 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
275 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
276 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
277 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
278 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
279 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
281 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
282 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
283 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
284 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
286 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
287 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
288 or more of these options:
290 --without-xpm for XPM image support
291 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
292 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
293 --without-gif for GIF image support
294 --without-png for PNG image support
296 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
299 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
300 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
302 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
303 systems which support that.
305 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
307 Use --without-all if you want to build a small executable with the minimal
308 dependencies on external libraries, at the cost of disabling most of the
309 features that are normally enabled by default. Using --without-all is
310 equivalent to --without-sound --without-dbus --without-libotf
311 --without-selinux --without-xft --without-gsettings --without-gnutls
312 --without-rsvg --without-xml2 --without-gconf --without-imagemagick
313 --without-m17n-flt --without-jpeg --without-tiff --without-gif
314 --without-png --without-gpm --without-file-notification. Note that
315 --without-all leaves X support enabled, and using the GTK2 or GTK3
316 toolkit creates a lot of library dependencies. So if you want to
317 build a small executable with very basic X support, use --without-all
318 --with-x-toolkit=no. For the smallest possible executable without X,
319 use --without-all --without-x. If you want to build with just a few
320 features enabled, you can combine --without-all with --with-FEATURE.
321 For example, you can use --without-all --with-dbus to build with DBus
322 support and nothing more.
324 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
325 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
326 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
328 Use --enable-gcc-warnings to enable compile-time checks that warn
329 about possibly-questionable C code. This is intended for developers
330 and is useful with GNU-compatible compilers. On a recent GNU system
331 there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the
332 generated warnings may still be useful.
334 Use --enable-link-time-optimization to enable link-time optimizer, which
335 is available in GNU compiler since version 4.5.0. If your compiler is not
336 GNU or older than version 4.5.0, this option does nothing. If `configure'
337 can determine number of online CPUS on your system, final link-time
338 optimization and code generation is executed in parallel using one job
339 per each available online CPU.
341 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
342 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
343 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
344 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
345 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
346 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
347 - The architecture-dependent files go in
348 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
349 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
350 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
352 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
353 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
354 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
355 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
356 - The architecture-dependent files go in
357 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
358 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
360 For example, the command
362 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
364 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
365 without sound support.
367 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
368 It just creates the files that influence those things:
369 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
370 and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
371 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
373 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
374 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
375 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
376 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
377 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
378 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
379 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
380 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
381 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
382 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
384 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
385 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
386 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
387 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
388 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
389 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
390 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
392 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
393 directories for some header files, or link against optional
394 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
395 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
396 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
397 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
398 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
399 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
400 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
401 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
403 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
404 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
406 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
407 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
409 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
410 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
411 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
412 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
413 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
414 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
416 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
417 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
418 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
419 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
420 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
423 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
426 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
427 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
428 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
431 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
432 and run the program `configure' as follows:
434 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
436 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
437 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
438 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
440 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
441 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
443 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links
444 to the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will
447 4) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
448 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
449 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
450 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
451 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
452 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
453 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
455 It is not a good idea to edit the normal .el files that come with Emacs.
456 Instead, use a file like site-init.el to change settings.
458 To change the value of a variable that is already defined in Emacs,
459 you should use the Lisp function `setq', not `defvar'. For example,
461 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
463 is how you would override the default value of the variable
466 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
467 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
468 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
469 doing, you'll make a mistake.
471 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
472 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
473 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
475 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
476 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
478 5) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
479 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
481 6) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
482 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
483 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
484 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
485 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
487 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
488 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
489 are installed in the following directories:
491 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
492 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and
495 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
496 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
497 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
498 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
499 another, including the version number in the path
500 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
501 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
502 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
504 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
505 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
506 might need while running.
508 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
509 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
511 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
512 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
513 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
514 architecture and operating system of your machine,
515 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
516 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
517 operating system, and architecture in use, including
518 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
519 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
520 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
521 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
522 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
524 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
525 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
526 documented using info files as well, so this directory
527 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
529 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
532 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
533 files in these directories.
535 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
536 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
538 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
539 files installed for all Emacs versions.
541 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
542 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
543 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
544 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
546 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
547 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
548 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
549 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
552 7) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
553 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
556 8) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
557 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
558 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
560 9) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
561 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
562 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
563 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
564 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
565 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
566 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
572 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
573 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
574 command line. For example, if you type
576 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
578 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
579 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
582 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
584 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
585 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
587 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
588 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
589 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
590 subdirectories under `datadir':
591 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
592 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
593 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
594 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
595 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
596 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
597 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
598 unavailable while installing a new version.
600 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
601 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
602 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
603 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
604 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
606 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
607 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
608 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
609 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
610 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
611 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
612 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
613 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
614 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
615 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
616 Emacs is installed on.
618 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
619 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
621 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
622 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
623 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
625 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
626 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
627 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
628 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
629 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
632 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
633 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
635 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
636 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
637 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
638 directories under that path.
640 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
641 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
642 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
644 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
645 GNU software; the following variables are specific to Emacs.
647 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
648 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
649 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
650 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
651 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
653 `GZIP_PROG' is the name of the executable that compresses installed info,
654 manual, and .el files. It defaults to gzip. Setting it to
655 the empty string suppresses compression.
657 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
658 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
659 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
660 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
661 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
662 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
663 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
665 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
666 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
667 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
668 before you run `make'.
670 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
671 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
672 when running make in the subdirectories.
675 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
677 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
678 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
680 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
682 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system.
684 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
685 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
686 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
688 The `configure' script is built from `configure.ac' by the
689 `autogen.sh' script, which checks that `autoconf' and other build
690 tools are sufficiently up to date and then runs the build tools.
692 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
694 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
697 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
698 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
699 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
701 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
702 and libraries used in later steps.
704 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
705 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
707 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
708 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
709 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
711 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
712 which has another name that contains a version number.
713 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
715 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
716 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
717 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
718 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
719 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
724 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
725 directory of the Emacs distribution.
727 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
728 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
730 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
731 - The programs `hexl', `movemail', `profile', and `rcs2log'
732 are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
733 - The programs `etags', `ctags', and `emacsclient' are intended to be
734 run by users; they are handled below.
735 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
736 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
738 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
739 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/info.el'. Note that if the
740 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
741 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
742 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
743 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
745 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
746 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
747 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
748 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
749 of installing different versions.
751 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
753 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', and `etags' from `./lib-src'
754 to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for users to run.
756 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
758 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
759 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
760 the source on line for debugging.
765 See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
766 encountered, and what to do about them.
768 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
770 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
771 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
772 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
773 (at your option) any later version.
775 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
776 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
777 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
778 GNU General Public License for more details.
780 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
781 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.