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Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end of the file for license conditions.
Emacs for Windows
This README file describes how to set up and run a precompiled version
of GNU Emacs for Windows NT/2000/XP and Windows 95/98/Me. This
distribution can be found on the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs
source distribution and the lisp source distribution, as well as older
releases of Emacs for Windows.
Answers to frequently asked questions, and further information about
this port of GNU Emacs and related software packages can be found via
http:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
* Preliminaries
Along with this file should be six subdirectories (bin, etc, info,
lisp, lock, site-lisp). Depending on which distribution you have
installed, the lisp subdirectory might contain both the lisp source
(*.el) and compiled lisp files (*.elc), or just the compiled lisp
files. If you don't have the lisp source files, you can obtain them
by downloading the lisp source distribution or the full source
distribution from the ftp site mentioned above.
* Setting up Emacs
To install Emacs, simply unpack all the files into a directory of your
choice, but note that you might encounter minor problems if there is a
space anywhere in the directory name. To complete the installation
process, you can optionally run the program addpm.exe in the bin
subdirectory. This will add some entries to the registry that tell
Emacs where to find its support files, and put an icon for Emacs in
the Start Menu under "Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs -> Emacs".
Some users have reported that the Start Menu item is not created for
them. If this happens, just create your own shortcut to runemacs.exe,
eg. by dragging it on to the desktop or the Start button.
Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to
locate all of its files without needing the information to be set in
the environment or the registry, although such settings will still be
obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a machine
which disallows registry changes, or on which software should not be
installed. For instance, you can now run Emacs directly from a CD
without copying or installing anything on the machine itself.
* Starting Emacs
To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or a command prompt. This will
start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have never
used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this point
(select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is quite
different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects.
If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command
window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt.
(Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in
your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw
(non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet
server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely.
* EXE files included
Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory.
+ emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run
as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application,
it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
+ runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
without popping up a command prompt window.
+ emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
node of the Emacs manul.
+ emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open
a command-line window.
+ addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
Running this is optional.
+ cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
the native shells in various versions of Windows.
+ ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the
`Tags' node of the Emacs manual.
+ ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the
`Ebrowse' manual.
+ ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers.
+ hexl.exe - A tool for converting files to hex dumps. See the
`Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
+ movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the
`Movemail' node of the Emacs manual.
+ digest-doc.exe, sorted-doc.exe - Tools for rebuilding the
built-in documentation.
* Image support
Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the
libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color
toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available
on the same place as you got this binary distribution from. The version
of libXpm bundled with this version of Emacs is 3.5.7, based on x.org's
libXpm library from X11R7.3.
Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate
libraries. These libraries are all available as part of GTK, or from
gnuwin32.sourceforge.net. Emacs will find them if the directory they
are installed in is on the PATH.
PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.2 or later, which will
be named libpng13d.dll, libpng13.dll, libpng12d.dll, libpng12.dll
or libpng.dll. LibPNG requires zlib, which should come from the same
source as you got libpng.
JPEG: requires the Independant JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll.
TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll
or libtiff.dll.
GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.
* Uninstalling Emacs
If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files and
subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs does
not install or update any files in system directories or anywhere
else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the registry
entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the registry
entries using regedit. All of the settings are written under the
Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you didn't have
administrator privileges, the same key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just
delete the Software\GNU\Emacs key.
The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Task bar
and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start
Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with
administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button
and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.)
* Troubleshooting
Unpacking the distributions
If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of
possible causes. If you didn't use the versions of tar and gunzip (or
djtarnt) on the above ftp site, it is possible that the distribution
became corrupted while it was being unpacked. Check the following for
indications that the distribution was not corrupted:
* Be sure to disable the CR/LF translation or the executables will
be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this
translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it.
(I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific
commands necessary to disable it.)
* Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example,
there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been
truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted
while unpacking and Emacs will not start.
* Users have said that some utilities (WinZip again?) don't create
the lock subdirectory. You can create the lock directory by hand
(it is normally empty).
* Users have also reported that the gnu-win32 tar corrupts the
executables. Use the version of tar or djtarnt on the ftp.gnu.org
site instead.
If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
below.
Virus scanners
Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you
are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or
McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector
scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties).
* Further information
If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
your favorite web browser to following the document (if you haven't
already):
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information
about the Windows port and related software packages.
In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues
related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the
list, see this Web page:
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows
To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as
explained there.
Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
These are particuarly good for help with general issues which aren't
specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
for seeking help are:
gnu.emacs.help
comp.emacs
There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
updated Emacs packages on this group:
gnu.emacs.sources
* Reporting bugs
If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear
about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug
is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether
the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by
invoking Emacs with the "-q --no-site-file" options.
If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs that might be specific to the
Windows port, send a message to the "help-emacs-windows@gnu.org"
mailing list describing the bug, the version of Emacs that you are
using, and the operating system that you are running on (Windows NT,
2000, 95, 98, etc. including service pack level if known). If the bug
is related to subprocesses, also specify which shell you are using
(e.g., include the values of `shell-file-name' and
`shell-explicit-file-name' in your message).
If you think the bug is not specific to the Windows port of Emacs,
then it is better to mail the bug report to "bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org" so
that it will be seen by the right people. If Emacs has been set up to
send mail, you can use the command M-x report-emacs-bug to create and
send the bug report, but in some cases there is a function to report
bugs in a specific package; e.g. M-x gnus-bug for Gnus, M-x
c-submit-bug-report for C/C++/Java mode, etc.
Enjoy!
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 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.