1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2012
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. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
74 with some non-default options), always clean the source
75 directories before running `configure' again:
80 5. Invoke the `make' program:
84 6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
85 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
90 7. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
91 opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
92 files into their installation directories:
96 You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
97 you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
98 directory where you built Emacs:
102 You can delete the entire build directory if you do not plan to
103 build Emacs again, but it can be useful to keep for debugging.
105 Note that the install automatically saves space by compressing
106 (provided you have the `gzip' program) those installed Lisp source (.el)
107 files that have corresponding .elc versions, as well as the Info files.
110 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
112 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
114 On GNU and Unix systems, Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db",
115 "libm17n-flt", "libotf" to correctly display such complex scripts as
116 Indic and Khmer, and also for scripts that require Arabic shaping
117 support (Arabic and Farsi). On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux,
118 these libraries may be already present or available as additional
119 packages. Note that if there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package,
120 for use at compilation time rather than run time, you will need that
121 as well as the corresponding run time package; typically the dev
122 package will contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise,
123 you can download and build libraries from sources.
125 The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
128 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
129 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
130 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
131 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
133 For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
134 because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
135 configure it with the option "--without-gui".
137 Note that Emacs cannot support complex scripts on a TTY, unless the
138 terminal includes such a support.
140 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
142 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
143 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
144 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
145 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
146 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
147 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
148 intlfonts distribution might look better.
150 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
151 package for printing international characters. The file
152 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
155 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
156 in the intlfonts/README file.
158 * Image support libraries
160 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
161 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
163 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
164 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
165 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
166 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
167 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
168 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
169 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
170 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
171 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
173 Here's the list of some of these optional libraries, and the URLs
174 where they can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution
175 does not provide them):
177 . libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
178 . libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
179 . libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
180 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
181 . libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
182 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
183 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
185 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
186 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
187 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
188 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
189 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
190 --without-LIB options to `configure', if you need to.
194 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
197 On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
198 (i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
199 fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
200 yourself. See <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/> for a large
201 number of free Unicode fonts.
203 * GNU/Linux development packages
205 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
206 they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
207 need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
208 and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
209 package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
211 The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
212 GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
213 configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
214 packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
215 like `apt-get build-dep emacs23'. On Red Hat systems, the
216 corresponding command is `yum-builddep emacs'.
219 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
221 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
222 see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
223 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
225 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
226 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
227 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
228 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
229 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
230 running the final dumped Emacs. (This should not be an issue
231 on any recent system.)
233 Building Emacs requires about 230 MB of disk space (including the
234 Emacs sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 120 MB in the file
235 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
236 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
237 the building and installation take place in different directories,
238 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 230+120 MB.
240 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
241 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
242 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
243 for getting around some possible installation problems.
245 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
246 or in a separate directory.
248 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
249 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
251 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
253 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
254 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
256 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
257 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
258 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
260 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
261 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
262 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
263 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
264 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
265 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
267 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
268 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
269 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
270 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work
271 to use a toolkit with shared libraries. A free implementation of
272 Motif, called LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>.
273 Compiling with LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection
274 Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You
275 can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without Gtk or LessTif/Motif,
276 if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries"
277 above for Xaw3d availability).
279 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by specifying
280 `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where PATH is the pathname to
281 pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.6 or newer is required for Emacs.
283 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
284 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
285 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
286 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
287 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
288 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
290 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
291 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
292 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
293 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
295 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
296 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
297 or more of these options:
299 --without-xpm for XPM image support
300 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
301 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
302 --without-gif for GIF image support
303 --without-png for PNG image support
305 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
308 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
309 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
311 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
312 systems which support that.
314 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
316 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
317 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
318 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
320 Use --enable-gcc-warnings to enable compile-time checks that warn
321 about possibly-questionable C code. This is intended for developers
322 and is useful with GNU-compatible compilers. On a recent GNU system
323 there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the
324 generated warnings may still be useful.
326 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
327 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
328 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
329 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
330 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
331 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
332 - The architecture-dependent files go in
333 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
334 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
335 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
337 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
338 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
339 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
340 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
341 - The architecture-dependent files go in
342 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
343 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
345 For example, the command
347 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
349 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
350 without sound support.
352 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
353 It just creates the files that influence those things:
354 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
355 and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
356 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
358 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
359 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
360 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
361 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
362 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
363 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
364 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
365 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
366 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
367 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
369 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
370 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
371 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
372 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
373 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
374 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
375 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
377 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
378 directories for some header files, or link against optional
379 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
380 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
381 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
382 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
383 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
384 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
385 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
386 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
388 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
389 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
391 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
392 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
394 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
395 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
396 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
397 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
398 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
399 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
401 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
402 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
403 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
404 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
405 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
408 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
411 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
412 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
413 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
416 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
417 and run the program `configure' as follows:
419 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
421 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
422 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
423 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
425 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
426 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
428 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links
429 to the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will
432 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
433 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
434 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
435 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
436 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
438 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
440 is how you would override the default value of the variable
443 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
444 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
445 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
446 doing, you'll make a mistake.
448 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
449 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
450 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
451 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
452 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
453 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
454 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
456 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
457 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
458 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
460 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
461 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
463 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
464 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
466 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
467 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
468 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
469 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
470 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
472 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
473 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
474 are installed in the following directories:
476 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
477 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and
480 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
481 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
482 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
483 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
484 another, including the version number in the path
485 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
486 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
487 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
489 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
490 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
491 might need while running.
493 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
494 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
496 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
497 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
498 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
499 architecture and operating system of your machine,
500 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
501 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
502 operating system, and architecture in use, including
503 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
504 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
505 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
506 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
507 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
509 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
510 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
511 documented using info files as well, so this directory
512 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
514 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
517 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
518 files in these directories.
520 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
521 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
523 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
524 files installed for all Emacs versions.
526 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
527 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
528 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
529 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
531 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
532 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
533 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
534 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
537 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
538 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
541 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
542 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
543 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
545 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
546 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
547 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
548 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
549 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
550 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
551 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
557 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
558 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
559 command line. For example, if you type
561 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
563 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
564 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
567 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
569 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
570 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
572 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
573 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
574 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
575 subdirectories under `datadir':
576 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
577 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
578 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
579 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
580 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
581 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
582 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
583 unavailable while installing a new version.
585 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
586 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
587 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
588 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
589 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
591 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
592 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
593 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
594 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
595 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
596 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
597 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
598 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
599 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
600 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
601 Emacs is installed on.
603 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
604 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
606 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
607 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
608 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
610 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
611 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
612 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
613 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
614 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
617 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
618 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
620 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
621 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
622 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
623 directories under that path.
625 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
626 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
627 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
629 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
630 GNU software; the following variable is specific to Emacs.
632 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
633 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
634 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
635 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
636 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
638 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
639 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
640 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
641 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
642 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
643 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
644 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
646 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
647 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
648 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
649 before you run `make'.
651 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
652 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
653 when running make in the subdirectories.
656 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
658 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
659 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
661 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
663 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
664 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
665 see which operating system and architecture description files from
666 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
667 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
668 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
670 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
671 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
672 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
673 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files.
675 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
676 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
677 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
679 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
680 program. You need at least the version of autoconf specified in the
681 AC_PREREQ(...) command to rebuild `configure' from `configure.in'.
683 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
685 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
688 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
689 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
690 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
692 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
693 and libraries used in later steps.
695 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
696 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
698 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
699 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
700 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
702 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
703 which has another name that contains a version number.
704 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
706 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
707 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
708 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
709 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
710 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
715 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
716 directory of the Emacs distribution.
718 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
719 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
721 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
722 - The programs `hexl', `movemail', `profile', and `rcs2log'
723 are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
724 - The programs `etags', `ctags', and `emacsclient' are intended to be
725 run by users; they are handled below.
726 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
727 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
729 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
730 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
731 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
732 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
733 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
734 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
736 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
737 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
738 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
739 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
740 of installing different versions.
742 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
744 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', and `etags' from `./lib-src'
745 to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for users to run.
747 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
749 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
750 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
751 the source on line for debugging.
756 See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
757 encountered, and what to do about them.
759 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
761 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
762 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
763 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
764 (at your option) any later version.
766 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
767 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
768 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
769 GNU General Public License for more details.
771 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
772 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.