1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
3 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
7 This file contains general information. For more specific information
8 for the Windows, GNUstep/Mac OS X, and MS-DOS ports, also see the files
9 nt/INSTALL nextstep/INSTALL, and msdos/INSTALL. For information
10 specific to building from a Bazaar checkout (rather than a release), see
16 The simplest way to build Emacs is to use the `configure' shell script
17 which attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent
18 variables and features and find the directories where various system
19 headers and libraries are kept. It then creates a `Makefile' in each
20 subdirectory and a `config.h' file containing system-dependent
21 definitions. Running the `make' utility then builds the package for
24 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
25 are supported by it. If this simplified procedure fails, or if you
26 are using a platform such as MS-Windows, where `configure' script
27 doesn't work, you might need to use various non-default options, and
28 maybe perform some of the steps manually. The more detailed
29 description in the rest of the sections of this guide will help you do
30 that, so please refer to them if the simple procedure does not work.
32 1. Make sure your system has at least 120 MB of free disk space.
34 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
39 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
40 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
45 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory. This
46 may not work unless you use GNU make.
48 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
49 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
50 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
51 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
52 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
54 If you find anything wrong, you will have to pass to `configure'
55 explicit machine configuration name, and one or more options
56 which tell it where to find various headers and libraries; refer
57 to DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION section below.
59 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
60 Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them refer to the subsection
61 "Image support libraries", below.
63 If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
64 you, assume that `configure' did its job and proceed.
66 4. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
67 with some non-default options), always clean the source
68 directories before running `configure' again:
73 5. Invoke the `make' program:
77 6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
78 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
83 7. 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 also save some space by compressing (with `gzip') Info files
96 and installed Lisp source (.el) files which have corresponding .elc
100 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
102 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
104 Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db", "libm17n-flt", "libotf"
105 to correctly display such complex scripts as Indic and Khmer.
106 On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux, these libraries may be
107 already present or available as additional packages. Note that if
108 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
109 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
110 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will contain
111 header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can download and
112 build libraries from sources.
114 The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
117 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
118 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
119 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
120 % cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
122 For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
123 because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
124 configure it with the option "--without-gui".
126 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
128 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
129 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
130 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
131 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
132 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
133 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
134 intlfonts distribution might look better.
136 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
137 package for printing international characters. The file
138 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
141 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
142 in the intlfonts/README file.
144 * Image support libraries
146 Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
147 exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
149 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
150 already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
151 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
152 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
153 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
154 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
155 download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
156 running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
157 colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
159 Here's the list of these optional libraries, and the URLs where they
162 . libXaw3d for fancy 3D-style
163 scroll bars: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/Xaw3d/
164 . libxpm for XPM: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/
165 Get version 3.4k or later, which lets Emacs
166 use its own color allocation functions.
167 . libpng for PNG: ftp://ftp.simplesystems.org/pub/libpng/png/
168 . libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
169 . libjpeg for JPEG: ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/
170 Get version 6b -- 6a is reported to fail in
172 . libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
173 . libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
175 Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
176 `configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
177 appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
178 these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
179 configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
180 --without-LIB options to `configure'. See below for more details.
184 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
185 them. You must do that yourself.
187 Emacs running on the GNU system supports both X fonts and local fonts
188 (i.e. the fonts managed by the fontconfig library).
190 For `Unicode' (ISO 10646) X fonts, see
191 <URL:http://czyborra.com/unifont/> (packaged in Debian),
192 <URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> (packaged in Debian). (In
193 recent Debian versions, there is an extensive `misc-fixed' iso10646-1
194 in the default X installation.) Perhaps also see
195 <URL:http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/ucs-fonts.html>.
197 <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> has basic fonts for Emacs's
200 XFree86 release 4 (from <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/> and mirrors)
201 contains font support for most, if not all, of the charsets that Emacs
202 currently supports, including iso10646-1 encoded fonts for use with
203 the mule-unicode charsets. The font files should also be usable with
204 older X releases. Note that XFree 4 contains many iso10646-1 fonts
205 with minimal character repertoires, which can cause problems -- see
208 BDF Unicode fonts etl-unicode.tar.gz are available from
209 <URL:ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/fonts/> and
210 <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/mirror/X.Org/contrib/fonts/>. These
211 fonts can also be used by ps-print and ps-mule to print Unicode
214 Finally, the Web page <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/>
215 lists a large number of free Unicode fonts.
217 * GNU/Linux development packages
219 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by
220 default; they just include the files that you need to run Emacs, but
221 not those you need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with
222 X11 support, you may need to install the special `X11 development'
223 package. For example, in April 2003, the package names to install
224 were `XFree86-devel' and `Xaw3d-devel' on Red Hat. On Debian, the
225 packages necessary to build the installed version should be
226 sufficient; they can be installed using `apt-get build-dep emacs21' in
230 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
232 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.X,
233 see msdos/INSTALL. For Windows 9X, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows
234 2000, Windows XP/2003, and Windows Vista/2008, see the file
235 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
237 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
238 a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
239 least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
240 insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
241 loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
242 running the final dumped Emacs.
244 Building Emacs requires about 140 MB of disk space (including the
245 Emacs sources) Once installed, Emacs occupies about 77 MB in the file
246 system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
247 libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
248 the building and installation take place in different directories,
249 then the installation procedure momentarily requires 140+77 MB.
251 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
252 give to the `configure' program. That file offers hints for
253 getting around some possible installation problems. The file lists
254 many different configurations, but only the part for your machine and
255 operating system is relevant. (The list is arranged in alphabetical
256 order by the vendor name.)
258 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
259 or in a separate directory.
261 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
262 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
264 ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
266 The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
267 in `./etc/MACHINES', with the system version number added at the end.
269 You should try first omitting CONFIGURATION-NAME. This way,
270 `configure' will try to guess your system type. If it cannot guess,
271 or if something goes wrong in building or installing Emacs this way,
272 try again specifying the proper CONFIGURATION-NAME explicitly.
274 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
275 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
276 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
278 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
279 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
280 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
281 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
282 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
283 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
285 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
286 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
287 TOOLKIT is `athena', `motif' or `gtk' (`yes' and `lucid' are synonyms
288 for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work to use a toolkit
289 with shared libraries. A free implementation of Motif, called
290 LessTif, is available from <http://www.lesstif.org>. Compiling with
291 LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection Dialog to pop up
292 when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You can get fancy
293 3D-style scroll bars, even without LessTif/Motif, if you have the
294 Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d
297 If `--with-x-toolkit=gtk' is specified, you can tell configure where
298 to search for GTK by specifying `--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where
299 PATH is the pathname to pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.4 or
300 newer is required for Emacs.
302 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
303 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
304 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
305 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
306 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
307 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
309 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
310 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
311 PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
312 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
314 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
315 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
316 or more of these options:
318 --without-xpm for XPM image support
319 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
320 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
321 --without-gif for GIF image support
322 --without-png for PNG image support
324 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
327 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods. In
328 this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
330 Use --disable-largefile omits support for files larger than 2GB on
331 systems which support that.
333 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
335 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
336 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
337 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
338 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
339 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
340 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.27').
341 - The architecture-dependent files go in
342 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
343 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
344 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
346 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
347 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
348 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
349 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
350 - The architecture-dependent files go in
351 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
352 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
354 For example, the command
356 ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
358 configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
359 support for the X11 window system.
361 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
362 itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
363 `./Makefile', `lib-src/Makefile', `oldXMenu/Makefile',
364 `lwlib/Makefile', `src/Makefile', and `./src/config.h'. For details
365 on exactly what it does, see the section called `CONFIGURATION BY
368 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
369 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
370 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
371 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
372 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
373 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
374 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
375 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
376 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
377 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
379 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
380 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
381 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
382 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
383 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
384 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
385 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
387 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
388 directories for some header files, or link against optional
389 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
390 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
391 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
392 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
393 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
394 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
395 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
396 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
398 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
399 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
401 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
402 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
404 (this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
405 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
406 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
407 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
408 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo.a and libbar.a
409 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
411 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' use
412 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
413 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
414 the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
415 where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
418 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
421 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
422 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
423 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
426 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
427 and run the program `configure' as follows:
429 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
431 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
432 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
433 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
435 To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
436 that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
438 3c) Some people try to build in a separate directory by filling
439 it full of symlinks to the files in the real source directory.
440 If you do that, `make all' does work, but `make install' fails:
441 it copies the symbolic links rather than the actual files.
443 As far as is known, there is no particular reason to use
444 a directory full of links rather than use the standard GNU
445 facilities to build in a separate directory (see 3b above).
447 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
448 for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
449 Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
450 itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
451 rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
453 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
455 is how you would override the default value of the variable
456 news-inews-program (which is "/usr/local/inews").
458 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
459 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
460 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
461 doing, you'll make a mistake.
463 5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
464 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
465 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
466 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
467 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
468 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
469 was build with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
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 Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
476 not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
477 something up in the system's password and user information database.
478 See `./etc/PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
480 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
481 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
483 6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
484 wish to add to various termcap entries. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
485 and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
488 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
489 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
490 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
491 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
492 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
494 Or you can "install" the executable and the other Emacs into their
495 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
496 are installed in the following directories:
498 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
499 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
502 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
503 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
504 you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.27'. Since the
505 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
506 another, including the version number in the path
507 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
508 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
509 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
511 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
512 file, the `yow' database, and other
513 architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
514 running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
516 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
517 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
519 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
520 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument
521 you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
522 architecture and operating system of your machine,
523 like `mips-dec-ultrix' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
524 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
525 operating system, and architecture in use, including
526 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
527 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
528 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
529 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
530 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
532 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
533 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
534 documented using info files as well, so this directory
535 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific
538 `/usr/local/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
541 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
542 files in these directories.
544 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
545 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
547 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
548 files installed for all Emacs versions.
550 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
551 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
552 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
553 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
555 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
556 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
557 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
558 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
561 8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
562 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
565 9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
566 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
567 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
569 10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
570 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
571 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
572 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
573 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
574 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
575 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
581 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
582 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
583 command line. For example, if you type
585 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
587 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
588 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
591 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
593 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
594 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
596 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
597 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
598 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
599 subdirectories under `datadir':
600 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
601 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
602 file, and the `yow' database.
603 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
604 like `18.59' or `19.0'. Since these files vary from one version
605 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
606 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
607 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
608 unavailable while installing a new version.
610 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
611 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
612 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
613 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
614 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
616 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
617 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the argument you gave to the
618 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
619 system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' or
620 `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since these files are specific to the version
621 of Emacs, operating system, and architecture in use, including
622 the configuration name in the path allows you to have several
623 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating systems
624 installed at the same time; this is useful for sites at which
625 different kinds of machines share the file system Emacs is
628 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
629 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
631 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
632 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
633 `/usr/local/man/man1'.
635 `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
636 It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
637 digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
638 values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
639 installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
641 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
642 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
643 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
644 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
645 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
648 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
649 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
651 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
652 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
653 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
654 directories under that path.
656 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
657 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
658 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
660 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
661 GNU software; this variable is specific to Emacs.
663 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
664 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
665 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
666 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
667 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
669 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
670 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
671 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
672 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
673 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
674 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
675 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
677 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/paths.h,
678 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
679 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
680 before you run `make'.
682 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
683 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
684 when running make in the subdirectories.
687 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
689 Instead of running the `configure' program, you have to perform the
692 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
694 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
695 use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
696 see which operating system and architecture description files from
697 `src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
698 `src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
699 the appropriate system and architecture description files.
701 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
702 you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
703 files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
704 changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files. Occasionally you may need to
705 redefine parameters used in `./lib-src/movemail.c'.
707 3) Create src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile from the corresponding
708 `Makefile.in' files. First copy `Makefile.in' to `Makefile.c',
709 then edit in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs,
710 and then copy the shell commands near the end of `configure'
711 that run cpp to construct `Makefile'.
713 4) Create `Makefile' files in various other directories
714 from the corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard,
715 just a matter of substitution.
717 The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
718 program. You need version 2.51 or newer of `autoconf' to rebuild
721 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
723 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
726 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
727 `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.in', changing
728 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
730 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
731 executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `make-docfile' and
732 `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. And others.
734 3) Go to directory `./src' and Run `make'. This refers to files in
735 the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
738 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
739 which has another name that contains a version number.
740 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
742 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
743 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
744 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
745 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
746 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs
752 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
753 directory of the Emacs distribution.
755 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
756 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/paths.h'.
758 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
759 - The programs `fakemail', `hexl', `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log',
760 and `vcdiff' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
761 - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
762 are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
763 - The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
764 used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
765 - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
766 a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
768 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
769 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
770 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
771 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
772 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
773 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
775 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
776 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
777 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
778 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
779 of installing different versions.
781 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
783 4) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
784 `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
785 intended for users to run.
787 5) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
788 appropriate man directories.
790 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
791 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
792 the source on line for debugging.
797 See the file PROBLEMS in etc subdirectory for a list of various
798 problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
800 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
802 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
803 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
804 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
805 (at your option) any later version.
807 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
808 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
809 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
810 GNU General Public License for more details.
812 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
813 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.