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1 GNU Emacs Installation Guide
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1994, 1996-1997, 2000-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end of the file for license conditions.
4
5
6 This file contains general information on building GNU Emacs.
7 For more information specific to the MS-Windows, GNUstep/Mac OS X, and
8 MS-DOS ports, also read the files nt/INSTALL, nextstep/INSTALL, and
9 msdos/INSTALL. For information about building from a repository checkout
10 (rather than a release), also read the file INSTALL.REPO.
11
12
13 BASIC INSTALLATION
14
15 On most Unix systems, you build Emacs by first running the `configure'
16 shell script. This attempts to deduce the correct values for
17 various system-dependent variables and features, and find the
18 directories where certain system headers and libraries are kept.
19 In a few cases, you may need to explicitly tell configure where to
20 find some things, or what options to use.
21
22 `configure' creates a `Makefile' in several subdirectories, and a
23 `src/config.h' file containing system-dependent definitions.
24 Running the `make' utility then builds the package for your system.
25
26 Building Emacs requires GNU make, <http://www.gnu.org/software/make/>.
27 On most systems that Emacs supports, this is the default `make' program.
28
29 Here's the procedure to build Emacs using `configure' on systems which
30 are supported by it. In some cases, if the simplified procedure fails,
31 you might need to use various non-default options, and maybe perform
32 some of the steps manually. The more detailed description in the other
33 sections of this guide will help you do that, so please refer to those
34 sections if you need to.
35
36 1. Unpacking the Emacs 24 release requires about 200 MB of free
37 disk space. Building Emacs uses about another 200 MB of space.
38 The final installed Emacs uses about 150 MB of disk space.
39 This includes the space-saving that comes from automatically
40 compressing the Lisp source files on installation.
41
42 2a. `cd' to the directory where you unpacked Emacs and invoke the
43 `configure' script:
44
45 ./configure
46
47 2b. Alternatively, create a separate directory, outside the source
48 directory, where you want to build Emacs, and invoke `configure'
49 from there:
50
51 SOURCE-DIR/configure
52
53 where SOURCE-DIR is the top-level Emacs source directory.
54
55 3. When `configure' finishes, it prints several lines of details
56 about the system configuration. Read those details carefully
57 looking for anything suspicious, such as wrong CPU and operating
58 system names, wrong places for headers or libraries, missing
59 libraries that you know are installed on your system, etc.
60
61 If you find anything wrong, you may have to pass to `configure'
62 one or more options specifying the explicit machine configuration
63 name, where to find various headers and libraries, etc.
64 Refer to the section DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION below.
65
66 If `configure' didn't find some image support libraries, such as
67 Xpm and jpeg, refer to "Image support libraries" below.
68
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
71 its job and proceed.
72
73 4. Invoke the `make' program:
74
75 make
76
77 5. If `make' succeeds, it will build an executable program `emacs'
78 in the `src' directory. You can try this program, to make sure
79 it works:
80
81 src/emacs -Q
82
83 6. 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:
86
87 make install
88
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:
92
93 make clean
94
95 You can delete the entire build directory if you do not plan to
96 build Emacs again, but it can be useful to keep for debugging.
97 If you want to build Emacs again with different configure options,
98 first clean the source directories:
99
100 make distclean
101
102 Note that the install automatically saves space by compressing
103 (provided you have the `gzip' program) those installed Lisp source (.el)
104 files that have corresponding .elc versions, as well as the Info files.
105
106
107 ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FILES
108
109 * Complex Text Layout support libraries
110
111 On GNU and Unix systems, Emacs needs the optional libraries "m17n-db",
112 "libm17n-flt", "libotf" to correctly display such complex scripts as
113 Indic and Khmer, and also for scripts that require Arabic shaping
114 support (Arabic and Farsi). On some systems, particularly GNU/Linux,
115 these libraries may be already present or available as additional
116 packages. Note that if there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package,
117 for use at compilation time rather than run time, you will need that
118 as well as the corresponding run time package; typically the dev
119 package will contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise,
120 you can download the libraries from <http://www.nongnu.org/m17n/>.
121
122 Note that Emacs cannot support complex scripts on a TTY, unless the
123 terminal includes such a support.
124
125 * intlfonts-VERSION.tar.gz
126
127 The intlfonts distribution contains X11 fonts in various encodings
128 that Emacs can use to display international characters. If you see a
129 non-ASCII character appear as a hollow box, that means you don't have
130 a font for it. You might find one in the intlfonts distribution. If
131 you do have a font for a non-ASCII character, but some characters
132 don't look right, or appear improperly aligned, a font from the
133 intlfonts distribution might look better.
134
135 The fonts in the intlfonts distribution are also used by the ps-print
136 package for printing international characters. The file
137 lisp/ps-mule.el defines the *.bdf font files required for printing
138 each character set.
139
140 The intlfonts distribution contains its own installation instructions,
141 in the intlfonts/README file.
142
143 * Image support libraries
144
145 Emacs needs libraries to display images, with the exception of PBM and
146 XBM images whose support is built-in.
147
148 On some systems, particularly on GNU/Linux, these libraries may
149 already be present or available as additional packages. If
150 there is a separate `dev' or `devel' package, for use at compilation
151 time rather than run time, you will need that as well as the
152 corresponding run time package; typically the dev package will
153 contain header files and a library archive. Otherwise, you can
154 download and build libraries from sources. Although none of them are
155 essential for running Emacs, some are important enough that
156 'configure' will report an error if they are absent from a system that
157 has X11 support, unless 'configure' is specifically told to omit them.
158
159 Here's a list of some of these libraries, and the URLs where they
160 can be found (in the unlikely event that your distribution does not
161 provide them). By default, libraries marked with an X are required if
162 X11 is being used.
163
164 libXaw3d http://directory.fsf.org/project/xaw3d/
165 X libxpm for XPM: http://www.x.org/releases/current/src/lib/
166 X libpng for PNG: http://www.libpng.org/
167 libz (for PNG): http://www.zlib.net/
168 X libjpeg for JPEG: http://www.ijg.org/
169 X libtiff for TIFF: http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
170 X libgif for GIF: http://sourceforge.net/projects/giflib/
171 librsvg2 for SVG: http://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Projects/LibRsvg
172
173 If you supply the appropriate --without-LIB option, 'configure' will
174 omit the corresponding library from Emacs, even if that makes for a
175 less-pleasant user interface. Otherwise, Emacs will configure itself
176 to build with these libraries if 'configure' finds them on your
177 system, and 'configure' will complain and exit if a library marked 'X'
178 is not found on a system that uses X11. Use --without-LIB if your
179 version of a library won't work because some routines are missing.
180
181 * Extra fonts
182
183 The Emacs distribution does not include fonts and does not install
184 them.
185
186 On the GNU system, Emacs supports both X fonts and local fonts
187 (i.e. fonts managed by the fontconfig library). If you need more
188 fonts than your distribution normally provides, you must install them
189 yourself. See <URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/> for a large
190 number of free Unicode fonts.
191
192 * GNU/Linux development packages
193
194 Many GNU/Linux systems do not come with development packages by default;
195 they include the files that you need to run Emacs, but not those you
196 need to compile it. For example, to compile Emacs with support for X
197 and graphics libraries, you may need to install the `X development'
198 package(s), and development versions of the jpeg, png, etc. packages.
199
200 The names of the packages that you need varies according to the
201 GNU/Linux distribution that you use, and the options that you want to
202 configure Emacs with. On Debian-based systems, you can install all the
203 packages needed to build the installed version of Emacs with a command
204 like `apt-get build-dep emacs24'. On Red Hat systems, the
205 corresponding command is `yum-builddep emacs'.
206
207
208 DETAILED BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
209
210 (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For GNUstep and Mac OS X,
211 see nextstep/INSTALL. For non-ancient versions of MS Windows, see
212 the file nt/INSTALL. For MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X, see msdos/INSTALL.)
213
214 1) See the basic installation summary above for the disk space requirements.
215
216 2) In the unlikely event that `configure' does not detect your system
217 type correctly, consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what --host, --build
218 options you should pass to `configure'. That file also offers hints
219 for getting around some possible installation problems.
220
221 3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
222 or in a separate directory.
223
224 3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
225 directory and run the program `configure' as follows:
226
227 ./configure [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
228
229 If `configure' cannot determine your system type, try again
230 specifying the proper --build, --host options explicitly.
231
232 If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'. If you omit this
233 option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
234 system has X, and arrange to use it if present.
235
236 The `--x-includes=DIR' and `--x-libraries=DIR' options tell the build
237 process where the compiler should look for the include files and
238 object libraries used with the X Window System. Normally, `configure'
239 is able to find them; these options are necessary if you have your X
240 Window System files installed in unusual places. These options also
241 accept a list of directories, separated with colons.
242
243 To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
244 configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT', where
245 TOOLKIT is `gtk' (the default), `athena', or `motif' (`yes' and
246 `lucid' are synonyms for `athena'). Compiling with Motif causes a
247 standard File Selection Dialog to pop up when you invoke file commands
248 with the mouse. You can get fancy 3D-style scroll bars, even without
249 Gtk or Motif, if you have the Xaw3d library installed (see
250 "Image support libraries" above for Xaw3d availability).
251
252 You can tell configure where to search for GTK by giving it the
253 argument PKG_CONFIG='/full/name/of/pkg-config'.
254
255 Emacs will autolaunch a D-Bus session bus, when the environment
256 variable DISPLAY is set, but no session bus is running. This might be
257 inconvenient for Emacs when running as daemon or running via a remote
258 ssh connection. In order to completely prevent the use of D-Bus, configure
259 Emacs with the options `--without-dbus --without-gconf --without-gsettings'.
260
261 The Emacs mail reader RMAIL is configured to be able to read mail from
262 a POP3 server by default. Versions of the POP protocol older than
263 POP3 are not supported. For Kerberos-authenticated POP add
264 `--with-kerberos', for Hesiod support add `--with-hesiod'. While POP3
265 is always enabled, whether Emacs actually uses POP is controlled by
266 individual users--see the Rmail chapter of the Emacs manual.
267
268 For image support you may have to download, build, and install the
269 appropriate image support libraries for image types other than XBM and
270 PBM, see the list of URLs in "Image support libraries" above.
271 (Note that PNG support requires libz in addition to libpng.)
272
273 To disable individual types of image support in Emacs for some reason,
274 even though configure finds the libraries, you can configure with one
275 or more of these options:
276
277 --without-xpm for XPM image support
278 --without-jpeg for JPEG image support
279 --without-tiff for TIFF image support
280 --without-gif for GIF image support
281 --without-png for PNG image support
282 --without-rsvg for SVG image support
283
284 Use --without-toolkit-scroll-bars to disable Motif or Xaw3d scroll bars.
285
286 Use --without-xim to inhibit the default use of X Input Methods.
287 In this case, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn on use of XIM.
288
289 Use --disable-largefile to omit support for files larger than 2GB on
290 systems which support that.
291
292 Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
293
294 Use --without-all for a smaller executable with fewer dependencies on
295 external libraries, at the cost of disabling many features. Although
296 --without-all disables libraries not needed for ordinary Emacs
297 operation, it does enable X support, and using the GTK2 or GTK3
298 toolkit creates a lot of library dependencies. So if you want to
299 build a small executable with very basic X support, use --without-all
300 --with-x-toolkit=no. For the smallest possible executable without X,
301 use --without-all --without-x. If you want to build with just a few
302 features enabled, you can combine --without-all with --with-FEATURE.
303 For example, you can use --without-all --without-x --with-dbus to
304 build with DBus support and nothing more.
305
306 Use --with-wide-int to implement Emacs values with the type 'long long',
307 even on hosts where a narrower type would do. With this option, on a
308 typical 32-bit host, Emacs integers have 62 bits instead of 30.
309
310 Use --enable-gcc-warnings to enable compile-time checks that warn
311 about possibly-questionable C code. This is intended for developers
312 and is useful with GNU-compatible compilers. On a recent GNU system
313 there should be no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the
314 generated warnings may still be useful.
315
316 Use --enable-silent-rules to cause 'make' to chatter less. This is
317 helpful when combined with options like --enable-gcc-warnings that
318 generate long shell-command lines. 'make V=0' also suppresses the
319 chatter.
320
321 Use --enable-link-time-optimization to enable link-time optimizer. If
322 you're using GNU compiler, this feature is supported since version 4.5.0.
323 If `configure' can determine number of online CPUS on your system, final
324 link-time optimization and code generation is executed in parallel using
325 one job per each available online CPU.
326
327 This option is also supported for clang. You should have GNU binutils
328 with `gold' linker and plugin support, and clang with LLVMgold.so plugin.
329 Read http://llvm.org/docs/GoldPlugin.html for details. Also note that
330 this feature is still experimental, so prepare to build binutils and
331 clang from the corresponding source code repositories.
332
333 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
334 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
335 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
336 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
337 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/share/emacs/VERSION
338 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `23.2').
339 - The architecture-dependent files go in
340 PREFIXDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
341 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like
342 i686-pc-linux-gnu), unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
343
344 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
345 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
346 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
347 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
348 - The architecture-dependent files go in
349 EXECDIR/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
350 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
351
352 For example, the command
353
354 ./configure --build=i386-linux-gnu --without-sound
355
356 configures Emacs to build for a 32-bit GNU/Linux distribution,
357 without sound support.
358
359 `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation itself.
360 It just creates the files that influence those things:
361 `./Makefile' in the top-level directory and several subdirectories;
362 and `./src/config.h'.
363
364 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
365 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
366 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
367 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
368 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
369 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
370 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
371 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
372 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
373 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
374
375 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
376 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
377 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
378 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
379 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
380 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
381 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
382
383 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
384 directories for some header files, or link against optional
385 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
386 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
387 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
388 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
389 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
390 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
391 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
392 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
393
394 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
395 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
396
397 ./configure \
398 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
399 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar'
400
401 (this is all one shell command). This tells `configure' to instruct the
402 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
403 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
404 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
405 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
406 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
407
408 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
409 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
410 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
411 PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories where the .pc-files for
412 those libraries are. For example:
413
414 ./configure \
415 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig'
416
417 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
418 and run the program `configure' as follows:
419
420 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
421
422 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
423 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
424 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
425
426 4) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
427 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
428 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
429 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
430 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
431 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
432 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
433
434 It is not a good idea to edit the normal .el files that come with Emacs.
435 Instead, use a file like site-init.el to change settings.
436
437 To change the value of a variable that is already defined in Emacs,
438 you should use the Lisp function `setq', not `defvar'. For example,
439
440 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
441
442 is how you would override the default value of the variable
443 news-inews-program.
444
445 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
446 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
447 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
448 doing, you'll make a mistake.
449
450 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
451 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
452
453 5) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
454 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
455
456 6) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
457 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
458 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
459 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
460 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
461
462 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
463 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
464 are installed in the following directories:
465
466 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
467 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient'.
468
469 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
470 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
471 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
472 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
473 another, including the version number in the path
474 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
475 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
476 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
477
478 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
479 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
480 might need while running.
481
482 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
483 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
484 run themselves.
485 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
486 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
487 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
488 architecture and operating system of your machine,
489 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
490 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
491 operating system, and architecture in use, including
492 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
493 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
494 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
495 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
496 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
497
498 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
499 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
500 documented using info files as well, so this directory
501 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
502
503 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
504 in `/usr/local/bin'.
505
506 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
507 files in these directories.
508
509 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
510 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
511
512 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
513 files installed for all Emacs versions.
514
515 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
516 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
517 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
518 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
519
520 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
521 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
522 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
523 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
524 information on this.
525
526 7) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
527 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
528 Emacs info files.
529
530 8) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
531 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
532 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
533
534 9) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
535 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
536 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
537 configuration), type `make distclean'.
538
539
540 MAKE VARIABLES
541
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
545
546 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
547
548 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
549 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
550 `/usr/local/bin'.
551
552 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
553
554 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
555 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
556
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.
569
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
575 themselves.
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.
587
588 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
589 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
590
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'.
594
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
600 by default.
601
602 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
603 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
604 By including
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.
609
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'.
613
614 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
615 GNU software; the following variables are specific to Emacs.
616
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).
622
623 `GZIP_PROG' is the name of the executable that compresses installed info,
624 manual, and .el files. It defaults to gzip. Setting it to
625 the empty string suppresses compression.
626
627 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
628 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
629 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
630 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
631 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
632 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
633 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
634
635 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
636 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
637 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
638 before you run `make'.
639
640 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
641 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
642 when running make in the subdirectories.
643
644
645 PROBLEMS
646
647 See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
648 encountered, and what to do about them.
649 \f
650 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
651
652 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
653 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
654 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
655 (at your option) any later version.
656
657 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
658 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
659 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
660 GNU General Public License for more details.
661
662 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
663 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.