1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2011
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 23.2 release requires about 170 MB of free
35 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 60 MB of space.
36 The final installed Emacs uses about 120 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 Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db", "libm17n-flt", "libotf"
115 to correctly display such complex scripts as Indic and Khmer.
116 On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux, these libraries may be
117 already present or available as additional packages. Note that if
118 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
119 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
120 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will contain
121 header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can download and
122 build libraries from sources.
124 The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
127 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
128 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
129 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
130 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
132 For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
133 because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
134 configure it with the option "--without-gui".
136 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
138 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
139 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
140 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
141 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
142 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
143 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
144 intlfonts distribution might look better.
146 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
147 package for printing international characters. The file
148 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
151 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
152 in the intlfonts/README file.
154 * Image support libraries
156 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
157 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
159 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
160 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
161 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
162 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
163 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
164 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
165 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
166 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
167 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
169 Here's the list of some of these optional libraries, and the URLs
170 where they can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution
171 does not provide them):
173 . libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
174 . libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
175 . libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
176 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
177 . libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
178 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
179 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
181 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
182 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
183 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
184 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
185 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
186 --without-LIB options to `configure', if you need to.
190 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
193 On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
194 (i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
195 fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
196 yourself. See <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/> for a large
197 number of free Unicode fonts.
199 * GNU/Linux development packages
201 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
202 they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
203 need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
204 and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
205 package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
207 The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
208 GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
209 configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
210 packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
211 like `apt-get build-dep emacs23'.
214 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
216 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
217 see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
218 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
220 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
221 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
222 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
223 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
224 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
225 running the final dumped Emacs. (This should not be an issue
226 on any recent system.)
228 Building Emacs requires about 230 MB of disk space (including the
229 Emacs sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 120 MB in the file
230 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
231 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
232 the building and installation take place in different directories,
233 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 230+120 MB.
235 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
236 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
237 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
238 for getting around some possible installation problems.
240 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
241 or in a separate directory.
243 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
244 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
246 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
248 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
249 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
251 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
252 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
253 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
255 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
256 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
257 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
258 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
259 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
260 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
262 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
263 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
264 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
265 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work
266 to use a toolkit with shared libraries. A free implementation of
267 Motif, called LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>.
268 Compiling with LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection
269 Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You
270 can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without Gtk or LessTif/Motif,
271 if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries"
272 above for Xaw3d availability).
274 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by specifying
275 `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where PATH is the pathname to
276 pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.6 or newer is required for Emacs.
278 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
279 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
280 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
281 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
282 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
283 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
285 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
286 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
287 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
288 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
290 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
291 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
292 or more of these options:
294 --without-xpm for XPM image support
295 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
296 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
297 --without-gif for GIF image support
298 --without-png for PNG image support
300 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
303 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
304 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
306 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
307 systems which support that.
309 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
311 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
312 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
313 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
314 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
315 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
316 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
317 - The architecture-dependent files go in
318 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
319 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
320 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
322 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
323 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
324 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
325 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
326 - The architecture-dependent files go in
327 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
328 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
330 For example, the command
332 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
334 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
335 without sound support.
337 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
338 It just creates the files that influence those things:
339 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
340 and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
341 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
343 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
344 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
345 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
346 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
347 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
348 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
349 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
350 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
351 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
352 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
354 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
355 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
356 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
357 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
358 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
359 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
360 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
362 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
363 directories for some header files, or link against optional
364 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
365 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
366 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
367 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
368 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
369 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
370 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
371 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
373 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
374 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
376 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
377 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
379 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
380 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
381 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
382 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
383 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
384 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
386 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
387 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
388 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
389 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
390 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
393 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
396 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
397 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
398 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
401 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
402 and run the program `configure' as follows:
404 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
406 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
407 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
408 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
410 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
411 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
413 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links
414 to the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will
417 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
418 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
419 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
420 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
421 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
423 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
425 is how you would override the default value of the variable
428 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
429 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
430 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
431 doing, you'll make a mistake.
433 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
434 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
435 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
436 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
437 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
438 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
439 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
441 If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
442 site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
443 again. If you do this, you are on your own!
445 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
446 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
448 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
449 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
451 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
452 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
453 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
454 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
455 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
457 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
458 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
459 are installed in the following directories:
461 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
462 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient',
463 `grep-changelog', and `rcs-checkin'.
465 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
466 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
467 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
468 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
469 another, including the version number in the path
470 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
471 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
472 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
474 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
475 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
476 might need while running.
478 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
479 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
481 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
482 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
483 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
484 architecture and operating system of your machine,
485 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
486 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
487 operating system, and architecture in use, including
488 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
489 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
490 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
491 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
492 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
494 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
495 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
496 documented using info files as well, so this directory
497 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
499 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
502 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
503 files in these directories.
505 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
506 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
508 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
509 files installed for all Emacs versions.
511 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
512 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
513 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
514 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
516 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
517 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
518 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
519 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
522 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
523 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
526 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
527 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
528 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
530 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
531 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
532 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
533 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
534 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
535 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
536 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
542 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
543 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
544 command line. For example, if you type
546 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
548 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
549 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
552 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
554 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
555 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
557 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
558 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
559 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
560 subdirectories under `datadir':
561 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
562 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
563 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
564 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
565 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
566 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
567 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
568 unavailable while installing a new version.
570 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
571 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
572 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
573 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
574 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
576 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
577 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
578 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
579 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
580 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
581 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
582 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
583 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
584 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
585 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
586 Emacs is installed on.
588 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
589 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
591 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
592 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
593 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
595 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
596 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
597 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
598 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
599 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
602 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
603 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
605 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
606 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
607 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
608 directories under that path.
610 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
611 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
612 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
614 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
615 GNU software; the following variable is specific to Emacs.
617 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
618 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
619 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
620 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
621 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
623 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
624 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
625 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
626 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
627 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
628 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
629 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
631 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
632 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
633 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
634 before you run `make'.
636 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
637 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
638 when running make in the subdirectories.
641 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
643 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
644 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
646 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
648 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
649 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
650 see which operating system and architecture description files from
651 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
652 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
653 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
655 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
656 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
657 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
658 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files.
660 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
661 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
662 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
664 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
665 program. You need at least the version of autoconf specified in the
666 AC_PREREQ(...) command to rebuild `configure' from `configure.in'.
668 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
670 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
673 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
674 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
675 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
677 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
678 and libraries used in later steps.
680 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
681 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
683 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
684 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
685 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
687 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
688 which has another name that contains a version number.
689 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
691 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
692 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
693 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
694 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
695 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
700 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
701 directory of the Emacs distribution.
703 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
704 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
706 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
707 - The programs `fakemail', `hexl', `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log',
708 and `vcdiff' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
709 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and `rcs-checkin'
710 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
711 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
712 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
714 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
715 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
716 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
717 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
718 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
719 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
721 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
722 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
723 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
724 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
725 of installing different versions.
727 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
729 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and `rcs-checkin'
730 from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for
733 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
735 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
736 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
737 the source on line for debugging.
742 See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
743 encountered, and what to do about them.
745 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
747 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
748 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
749 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
750 (at your option) any later version.
752 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
753 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
754 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
755 GNU General Public License for more details.
757 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
758 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.