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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 MS-DOS and MS Windows 3.X,
211 see msdos/INSTALL. For later versions of MS Windows, see the file
212 nt/INSTALL. For GNUstep and Mac OS X, see nextstep/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'. For details on exactly what it does, see the
363 section called `CONFIGURATION BY HAND', below.
364
365 When it is done, `configure' prints a description of what it did and
366 creates a shell script `config.status' which, when run, recreates the
367 same configuration. If `configure' exits with an error after
368 disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'. `configure'
369 also creates a file `config.cache' that saves the results of its tests
370 to make reconfiguring faster, and a file `config.log' containing compiler
371 output (useful mainly for debugging `configure'). You can give
372 `configure' the option `--cache-file=FILE' to use the results of the
373 tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'. Set FILE to `/dev/null' to
374 disable caching, for debugging `configure'.
375
376 If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
377 is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
378 available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
379 the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
380 whether these features are supported. Typically, some test fails
381 because the compiler cannot find some function in the system
382 libraries, or some macro-processor definition in the system headers.
383
384 Some tests might fail because the compiler should look in special
385 directories for some header files, or link against optional
386 libraries, or use special compilation options. You can force
387 `configure' and the build process which follows it to do that by
388 setting the variables CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPP and CC
389 before running `configure'. CPP is the command which invokes the
390 preprocessor, CPPFLAGS lists the options passed to it, CFLAGS are
391 compilation options, LDFLAGS are options used when linking, LIBS are
392 libraries to link against, and CC is the command which invokes the
393 compiler. By default, gcc is used if available.
394
395 Here's an example of a `configure' invocation, assuming a Bourne-like
396 shell such as Bash, which uses these variables:
397
398 ./configure \
399 CPPFLAGS='-I/foo/myinclude' LDFLAGS='-L/bar/mylib' \
400 CFLAGS='-O3' LIBS='-lfoo -lbar'
401
402 (this is all one shell command). This tells `configure' to instruct the
403 preprocessor to look in the `/foo/myinclude' directory for header
404 files (in addition to the standard directories), instruct the linker
405 to look in `/bar/mylib' for libraries, pass the -O3 optimization
406 switch to the compiler, and link against libfoo and libbar
407 libraries in addition to the standard ones.
408
409 For some libraries, like Gtk+, fontconfig and ALSA, `configure' uses
410 pkg-config to find where those libraries are installed.
411 If you want pkg-config to look in special directories, you have to set
412 PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to the directories where the .pc-files for
413 those libraries are. For example:
414
415 ./configure \
416 PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/local/alsa/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/gtk+-2.8/lib/pkgconfig'
417
418 The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
419 distribution, but using `configure' is easier. See the section called
420 "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the configuration
421 yourself.
422
423 3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
424 and run the program `configure' as follows:
425
426 SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
427
428 SOURCE-DIR refers to the top-level Emacs source directory which is
429 where Emacs's configure script is located. `configure' looks for the
430 Emacs source code in the directory that `configure' is in.
431
432 (Do not try to build in a separate directory by creating many links to
433 the real source directory--there is no need, and installation will fail.)
434
435 4) Put into `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/site-load.el' any Emacs
436 Lisp code you want Emacs to load before it is dumped out. Use
437 site-load.el for additional libraries if you arrange for their
438 documentation strings to be in the etc/DOC file (see
439 src/Makefile.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
440 else, use site-init.el. Do not load byte-compiled code which
441 was built with a non-nil value of `byte-compile-dynamic'.
442
443 It is not a good idea to edit the normal .el files that come with Emacs.
444 Instead, use a file like site-init.el to change settings.
445
446 To change the value of a variable that is already defined in Emacs,
447 you should use the Lisp function `setq', not `defvar'. For example,
448
449 (setq news-inews-program "/usr/bin/inews")
450
451 is how you would override the default value of the variable
452 news-inews-program.
453
454 Before you override a variable this way, *look at the value* that the
455 variable gets by default! Make sure you know what kind of value the
456 variable should have. If you don't pay attention to what you are
457 doing, you'll make a mistake.
458
459 The `site-*.el' files are nonexistent in the distribution. You do not
460 need to create them if you have nothing to put in them.
461
462 5) Refer to the file `./etc/TERMS' for information on fields you may
463 wish to add to various termcap entries. (This is unlikely to be necessary.)
464
465 6) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
466 building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file is
467 named `src/emacs'. You can execute this file "in place" without
468 copying it, if you wish; then it automatically uses the sibling
469 directories ../lisp, ../lib-src, ../info.
470
471 Or you can "install" the executable and the other files into their
472 installed locations, with `make install'. By default, Emacs's files
473 are installed in the following directories:
474
475 `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
476 `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', and
477 `grep-changelog'.
478
479 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
480 `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
481 you are installing, like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since the
482 Lisp library changes from one version of Emacs to
483 another, including the version number in the path
484 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed
485 at the same time; in particular, you don't have to
486 make Emacs unavailable while installing a new version.
487
488 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
489 file, and other architecture-independent files Emacs
490 might need while running.
491
492 `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME' contains executable
493 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to
494 run themselves.
495 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are
496 installing, and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value
497 deduced by the `configure' program to identify the
498 architecture and operating system of your machine,
499 like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'. Since
500 these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
501 operating system, and architecture in use, including
502 the configuration name in the path allows you to have
503 several versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and
504 operating systems installed at the same time; this is
505 useful for sites at which different kinds of machines
506 share the file system Emacs is installed on.
507
508 `/usr/local/share/info' holds the on-line documentation for Emacs,
509 known as "info files". Many other GNU programs are
510 documented using info files as well, so this directory
511 stands apart from the other, Emacs-specific directories.
512
513 `/usr/local/share/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
514 in `/usr/local/bin'.
515
516 Any version of Emacs, whether installed or not, also looks for Lisp
517 files in these directories.
518
519 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
520 files installed for Emacs version VERSION only.
521
522 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp' holds the local Emacs Lisp
523 files installed for all Emacs versions.
524
525 When Emacs is installed, it searches for its Lisp files
526 in `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp', then in
527 `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', and finally in
528 `/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/lisp'.
529
530 If these directories are not what you want, you can specify where to
531 install Emacs's libraries and data files or where Emacs should search
532 for its Lisp files by giving values for `make' variables as part of
533 the command. See the section below called `MAKE VARIABLES' for more
534 information on this.
535
536 7) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
537 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
538 Emacs info files.
539
540 8) If your system uses lock files to interlock access to mailer inbox files,
541 then you might need to make the movemail program setuid or setgid
542 to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
543
544 9) You are done! You can remove executables and object files from
545 the build directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the files
546 that `configure' created (so you can compile Emacs for a different
547 configuration), type `make distclean'. If you don't need some, or all
548 of the input methods from the Leim package, you can remove the
549 unneeded files in the leim subdirectories of your site's lisp
550 directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/).
551
552
553
554 MAKE VARIABLES
555
556 You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
557 files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
558 command line. For example, if you type
559
560 make install bindir=/usr/local/gnubin
561
562 the `bindir=/usr/local/gnubin' argument indicates that the Emacs
563 executable files should go in `/usr/local/gnubin', not
564 `/usr/local/bin'.
565
566 Here is a complete list of the variables you may want to set.
567
568 `bindir' indicates where to put executable programs that users can
569 run. This defaults to /usr/local/bin.
570
571 `datadir' indicates where to put the architecture-independent
572 read-only data files that Emacs refers to while it runs; it
573 defaults to /usr/local/share. We create the following
574 subdirectories under `datadir':
575 - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs Lisp library, and
576 - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the tutorials, DOC file, etc.
577 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
578 like `23.1' or `23.2'. Since these files vary from one version
579 of Emacs to another, including the version number in the path
580 allows you to have several versions of Emacs installed at the
581 same time; this means that you don't have to make Emacs
582 unavailable while installing a new version.
583
584 `libexecdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
585 Emacs refers to as it runs; it defaults to `/usr/local/libexec'.
586 We create the following subdirectories under `libexecdir':
587 - `emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME', containing executable
588 programs used by Emacs that users are not expected to run
589 themselves.
590 `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
591 and `CONFIGURATION-NAME' is the value deduced by the
592 `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
593 system of your machine, like `i686-pc-linux-gnu' or `sparc-sun-sunos'.
594 Since these files are specific to the version of Emacs,
595 operating system, and architecture in use, including the
596 configuration name in the path allows you to have several
597 versions of Emacs for any mix of machines and operating
598 systems installed at the same time; this is useful for sites
599 at which different kinds of machines share the file system
600 Emacs is installed on.
601
602 `infodir' indicates where to put the info files distributed with
603 Emacs; it defaults to `/usr/local/share/info'.
604
605 `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
606 utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
607 `/usr/local/share/man/man1'.
608
609 `prefix' doesn't give a path for any specific part of Emacs; instead,
610 its value is used to determine the defaults for all the
611 architecture-independent path variables - `datadir',
612 `sharedstatedir', `infodir', and `mandir'. Its default value is
613 `/usr/local'; the other variables add on `lib' or `man' to it
614 by default.
615
616 For example, suppose your site generally places GNU software
617 under `/usr/users/software/gnusoft' instead of `/usr/local'.
618 By including
619 `prefix=/usr/users/software/gnusoft'
620 in the arguments to `make', you can instruct the build process
621 to place all of the Emacs data files in the appropriate
622 directories under that path.
623
624 `exec_prefix' serves the same purpose as `prefix', but instead
625 determines the default values for the architecture-dependent
626 path variables - `bindir' and `libexecdir'.
627
628 The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
629 GNU software; the following variables are specific to Emacs.
630
631 `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
632 files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
633 running. Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
634 see), is `/usr/local/libexec/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION-NAME'
635 (where VERSION and CONFIGURATION-NAME are as described above).
636
637 `GZIP_PROG' is the name of the executable that compresses installed info,
638 manual, and .el files. It defaults to gzip. Setting it to
639 the empty string suppresses compression.
640
641 Remember that you must specify any variable values you need each time
642 you run `make' in the top directory. If you run `make' once to build
643 emacs, test it, and then run `make' again to install the files, you
644 must provide the same variable settings each time. To make the
645 settings persist, you can edit them into the `Makefile' in the top
646 directory, but be aware that running the `configure' program erases
647 `Makefile' and rebuilds it from `Makefile.in'.
648
649 The path for finding Lisp files is specified in src/epaths.h,
650 a file which is generated by running configure. To change the path,
651 you can edit the definition of PATH_LOADSEARCH in that file
652 before you run `make'.
653
654 The top-level Makefile stores the variable settings it used in the
655 Makefiles for the subdirectories, so you don't have to specify them
656 when running make in the subdirectories.
657
658
659 CONFIGURATION BY HAND
660
661 This should not be necessary and is not recommended. Instead of
662 running the `configure' program, you have to perform the following steps.
663
664 1) Copy `./src/config.in' to `./src/config.h'.
665
666 2) Edit `./src/config.h' to set the right options for your system.
667
668 3) Create `Makefile' files in various directories from the
669 corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard, just a matter
670 of editing in appropriate substitutions for the @...@ constructs.
671
672 The `configure' script is built from `configure.ac' by the
673 `autogen.sh' script, which checks that `autoconf' and other build
674 tools are sufficiently up to date and then runs the build tools.
675
676 BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
677
678 Once Emacs is configured, running `make' in the top directory performs
679 the following steps.
680
681 1) Run `make epaths-force' in the top directory. This produces
682 `./src/epaths.h' from the template file `./src/epaths.in', changing
683 the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
684
685 2) Go to directory `./lib' and run `make'. This creates include files
686 and libraries used in later steps.
687
688 3) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
689 executables named `etags', `make-docfile', and others.
690
691 4) Go to directory `./src' and run `make'. This refers to files in
692 the `./lisp', `./lib', and `./lib-src' subdirectories using names
693 `../lisp', `../lib', and `../lib-src'.
694
695 This creates a file `./src/emacs' which is the runnable Emacs,
696 which has another name that contains a version number.
697 Each time you do this, that version number increments in the last place.
698
699 It also creates a file in `./etc' whose name is `DOC' followed by the
700 current Emacs version. This file contains documentation strings for
701 all the functions in Emacs. Each time you run make to make a new
702 emacs, a new DOC file with a new name is made. You must keep the DOC
703 file for an Emacs version as long as you keep using that Emacs version.
704
705
706 INSTALLATION BY HAND
707
708 The steps below are done by running `make install' in the main
709 directory of the Emacs distribution.
710
711 1) Copy `./lisp' and its subdirectories, `./etc', and the executables
712 in `./lib-src' to their final destinations, as selected in `./src/epaths.h'.
713
714 Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
715 - The programs `hexl', `movemail', `profile', and `rcs2log'
716 are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
717 - The programs `etags', `ctags', and `emacsclient' are intended to be
718 run by users; they are handled below.
719 - The program `make-docfile' was used in building Emacs, and is
720 not needed any more.
721
722 2) Copy the files in `./info' to the place specified in
723 `./lisp/site-init.el' or `./lisp/info.el'. Note that if the
724 destination directory already contains a file named `dir', you
725 probably don't want to replace it with the `dir' file in the Emacs
726 distribution. Instead, you should make sure that the existing `dir'
727 file contains an appropriate menu entry for the Emacs info.
728
729 3) Copy `./src/emacs' to `/usr/local/bin', or to some other directory
730 in users' search paths. `./src/emacs' has an alternate name
731 `./src/emacs-EMACSVERSION'; you may wish to make a symbolic link named
732 `/usr/local/bin/emacs' pointing to that alternate name, as an easy way
733 of installing different versions.
734
735 You can delete `./src/temacs'.
736
737 4) Copy the programs `emacsclient', `ctags', and `etags' from `./lib-src'
738 to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are intended for users to run.
739
740 5) Copy the man pages in `./doc/man' into the appropriate man directory.
741
742 6) The files in the `./src' subdirectory, except for `emacs', are not
743 used by Emacs once it is built. However, it is very desirable to keep
744 the source on line for debugging.
745
746
747 PROBLEMS
748
749 See the file `./etc/PROBLEMS' for a list of various problems sometimes
750 encountered, and what to do about them.
751 \f
752 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
753
754 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
755 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
756 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
757 (at your option) any later version.
758
759 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
760 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
761 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
762 GNU General Public License for more details.
763
764 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
765 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.