GNU Emacs Installation Guide
Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end of the file for license conditions.
This file contains general information on building GNU Emacs.
For more information specific to the MS-Windows, GNUstep/Mac OS X, and
MS-DOS ports, also read the files nt/INSTALL, nextstep/INSTALL, and
msdos/INSTALL. For information about building from a Bazaar checkout
(rather than a release), also read the file INSTALL.BZR.
BASIC INSTALLATION
On most Unix systems, you build Emacs by first running the `configure'
shell script. This attempts to deduce the correct values for
various system-dependent variables and features, and find the
directories where certain system headers and libraries are kept.
In a few cases, you may need to explicitly tell configure where to
find some things, or what options to use.
`configure' creates a `Makefile' in several subdirectories, and a
`src/config.h' file containing system-dependent definitions.
Running the `make' utility then builds the package for your system.
Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
are supported by it. In some cases, if the simplified procedure fails,
you might need to use various non-default options, and maybe perform
some of the steps manually. The more detailed description in the other
sections of this guide will help you do that, so please refer to those
sections if you need to.
1. Unpacking the Emacs 23.2 release requires about 170 MB of free
disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 60 MB of space.
The final installed Emacs uses about 120 MB of disk space.
This includes the space-saving that comes from automatically
compressing the Lisp source files on installation.
2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
`configure' script:
./configure
2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
from there:
SOURCE-DIR/configure
where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory.
This may not work unless you use GNU make.
3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
If you find anything wrong, you may have to pass to `configure'
one or more options specifying the explicit machine configuration
name, where to find various headers and libraries, etc.
Refer to the section DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION below.
If `configure' didn't find some (optional) image support libraries,
such as Xpm, jpeg, etc., and you want to use them, refer to the
subsection "Image support libraries" below.
If the details printed by `configure' don't make any sense to
you, but there are no obvious errors, assume that `configure' did
its job and proceed.
4. If you need to run the `configure' script more than once (e.g.,
with some non-default options), always clean the source
directories before running `configure' again:
make distclean
./configure
5. Invoke the `make' program:
make
6. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
it works:
src/emacs -Q
7. Assuming that the program `src/emacs' starts and displays its
opening screen, you can install the program and its auxiliary
files into their installation directories:
make install
You are now ready to use Emacs. If you wish to conserve disk space,
you may remove the program binaries and object files from the
directory where you built Emacs:
make clean
You can delete the entire build directory if you do not plan to
build Emacs again, but it can be useful to keep for debugging.
Note that the install automatically saves space by compressing
(provided you have the `gzip' program) those installed Lisp source (.el)
files that have corresponding .elc versions, as well as the Info files.
ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
* Complex Text Layout support libraries
Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db", "libm17n-flt", "libotf"
to correctly display such complex scripts as Indic and Khmer.
On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux, these libraries may be
already present or available as additional packages. Note that if
there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will contain
header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can download and
build libraries from sources.
The sources of these libraries are available by anonymous CVS from
cvs.m17n.org.
% cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n login
% cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-db
% cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co m17n-lib
% cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.m17n.org:/cvs/m17n co libotf
For m17n-lib, if you have problems with making the whole package
because you lack some other packages on which m17n-lib depends, try to
configure it with the option "--without-gui".
* intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
intlfonts distribution might look better.
The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
package for printing international characters. The file
lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
each character set.
The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
in the intlfonts/README file.
* Image support libraries
Emacs needs optional libraries to be able to display images (with the
exception of PBM and XBM images whose support is built-in).
On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
already be present or available as additional packages. Note that if
there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
download and build libraries from sources. None of them are vital for
running Emacs; however, note that Emacs will not be able to use
colored icons in the toolbar if XPM support is not compiled in.
Here's the list of some of these optional libraries, and the URLs
where they can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution
does not provide them):
. libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
. libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
. libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
. libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
. libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
. libtiff for TIFF: http://www.libtiff.org/
. libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
Emacs will configure itself to build with these libraries if the
`configure' script finds them on your system, unless you supply the
appropriate --without-LIB option. In some cases, older versions of
these libraries won't work because some routines are missing, and
configure should avoid such old versions. If that happens, use the
--without-LIB options to `configure', if you need to.
* Extra fonts
The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
them.
On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
(i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
yourself. See for a large
number of free Unicode fonts.
* GNU/Linux development packages
Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
like `apt-get build-dep emacs23'.
DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
(This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/INSTALL.)
1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
a program whose pure code is 1.5 MB and whose data area is at
least 2.8 MB and can reach 100 MB or more. If the swapping space is
insufficient, you will get an error in the command `temacs -batch -l
loadup dump', found in `./src/Makefile.in', or possibly when
running the final dumped Emacs. (This should not be an issue
on any recent system.)
Building Emacs requires about 230 MB of disk space (including the
Emacs sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 120 MB in the file
system where it is installed; this includes the executable files, Lisp
libraries, miscellaneous data files, and on-line documentation. If
the building and installation take place in different directories,
then the installation procedure momentarily requires 230+120 MB.
2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
for getting around some possible installation problems.
3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
or in a separate directory.
3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
process where the compiler should look for the include files and
object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
`lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). On some systems, it does not work
to use a toolkit with shared libraries. A free implementation of
Motif, called LessTif, is available from .
Compiling with LessTif or Motif causes a standard File Selection
Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands with the mouse. You
can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without Gtk or LessTif/Motif,
if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see "Image support libraries"
above for Xaw3d availability).
You can tell configure where to search for GTK by specifying
`--with-pkg-config-prog=PATH' where PATH is the pathname to
pkg-config. Note that GTK version 2.6 or newer is required for Emacs.
The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
`--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
PBM, see the list of URLs in "ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES" above.
(Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
or more of these options:
--without-xpm for XPM image support
--without-jpeg for JPEG image support
--without-tiff for TIFF image support
--without-gif for GIF image support
--without-png for PNG image support
Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable LessTif/Motif or Xaw3d
scroll bars.
Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
systems which support that.
Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
- Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
(unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
- The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
(where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
- The architecture-dependent files go in
PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
(where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
- Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
- The architecture-dependent files go in
EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
For example, the command
./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
without sound support.
`configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
It just creates the files that influence those things:
`./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
and `./src/config.h'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
`configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
directories for some header files, or link against optional
libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
`configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar' ./configure
(this is all one long line). This tells `configure' to instruct the
preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
libraries in addition to the standard ones.
For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories
where the .pc-files for those libraries are.
For example:
PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig' \
./configure
The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
"CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
yourself.
3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
and run the program `configure' as follows:
SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
To build in a separate directory, you must use a version of `make'
that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'.
(Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links
to the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will
fail.)
4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
for your system, set up the file `./lisp/site-init.el' with Emacs
Lisp code to override them; it is not a good idea to edit paths.el
itself. YOU MUST USE THE LISP FUNCTION `setq' TO ASSIGN VALUES,
rather than `defvar', as used by `./lisp/paths.el'. For example,
(setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
is how you would override the default value of the variable
news-inews-program.
Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
doing, you'll make a mistake.
5) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
If you set load-path to a different value in site-init.el or
site-load.el, Emacs will use *precisely* that value when it starts up
again. If you do this, you are on your own!
The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
6) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
are installed in the following directories:
`/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
`emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient',
`grep-changelog', and `rcs-checkin'.
`/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
`VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
another, including the version number in the path
allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
`/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
might need while running.
`/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
run themselves.
`VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
architecture and operating system of your machine,
like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
operating system, and architecture in use, including
the configuration name in the path allows you to have
several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
operating systems installed at the same time; this is
useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
share the file system Emacs is installed on.
`/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
documented using info files as well, so this directory
stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
`/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
in `/usr/local/bin'.
Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
files in these directories.
`/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
`/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
files installed for all Emacs versions.
When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
`/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
`/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
information on this.
8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
/usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
Emacs info files.
9) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
10) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
MAKE VARIABLES
You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
command line. For example, if you type
make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
`/usr/local/bin'.
Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
`bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
`datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
subdirectories under `datadir':
- `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
- `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
`VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
unavailable while installing a new version.
`libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
- `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
themselves.
`VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
`configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
operating system, and architecture in use, including the
configuration name in the path allows you to have several
versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
at which different kinds of machines share the file system
Emacs is installed on.
`infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
`mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
`/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
`prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
`sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
`/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
by default.
For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
By including
`prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
directories under that path.
`exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
GNU software; the following variable is specific to Emacs.
`archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
(where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
`Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
before you run `make'.
The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
when running make in the subdirectories.
CONFIGURATION BY HAND
This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
use for your system. Look at the code of the `configure' script to
see which operating system and architecture description files from
`src/s' and `src/m' should be used for that configuration name. Edit
`src/config.h', and change the two `#include' directives to include
the appropriate system and architecture description files.
2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system. If
you need to override any of the definitions in the s/*.h and m/*.h
files for your system and machine, do so by editing config.h, not by
changing the s/*.h and m/*.h files.
3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
program. You need at least the version of autoconf specified in the
AC_PREREQ(...) command to rebuild `configure' from `configure.in'.
BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
the following steps.
1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
`./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
3) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
the `./lisp' and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names `../lisp' and
`../lib-src'.
This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
which has another name that contains a version number.
Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
INSTALLATION BY HAND
The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
directory of the Emacs distribution.
1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
- The programs `fakemail', `hexl', `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log',
and `vcdiff' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
- The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and `rcs-checkin'
are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
- The programs `make-docfile' and `test-distrib' were
used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
`./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/paths.el'. Note that if the
destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
`./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
`/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
of installing different versions.
You can delete `./src/temacs'.
4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and `rcs-checkin'
from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for
users to run.
5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
the source on line for debugging.
PROBLEMS
See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
encountered, and what to do about them.
This file is part of GNU Emacs.
GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with GNU Emacs. If not, see .