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- GNU Emacs Installation Guide
- Copyright (c) 1992, 1994 Free software Foundation, Inc.
-
- Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
- of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
- copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
- and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
- for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
-
- Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
- of this document, or of portions of it,
- under the above conditions, provided also that they
- carry prominent notices stating who last changed them,
- and that any new or changed statements about the activities
- of the Free Software Foundation are approved by the Foundation.
-
-
- BUILDING AND INSTALLATION:
- (This is for a Unix or Unix-like system. For MSDOS, see below;
- search for MSDOG.)
-
- 1) Make sure your system has enough swapping space allocated to handle
- a program whose pure code is 900k bytes and whose data area is at
- least 400k and can reach 8Mb 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.in', or possibly when
- running the final dumped Emacs.
-
- Building Emacs requires about 50 Mb of disk space (including the Emacs
- sources). Once installed, Emacs occupies about 20 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 50+20 Mb.
-
- 2) Consult `./etc/MACHINES' to see what configuration name you should
- give to the `configure' program. That file sometimes offers hints for
- getting around some possible installation problems.
-
- 3) In the top directory of the Emacs distribution, run the program
- `configure' as follows:
-
- ./configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...
-
- The CONFIGURATION-NAME argument should be a configuration name given
- in `./etc/MACHINES'. If omitted, `configure' will try to guess your
- system type by inspecting its environment; if it cannot, you must find
- the appropriate configuration name in `./etc/MACHINES' and specify it
- explicitly.
-
- The `--with-x', `--with-x11', and `--with-x10' options specify which
- window system Emacs should support. If you don't want X support,
- specify `--with-x=no'. If all of these options are omitted,
- `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your system has
- X11, 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, your
- compiler should be able to find these by default; these options should
- only be necessary if you have your X Window System files installed in
- unusual places.
-
- You can specify toolkit operation when you configure Emacs; use the
- option --with-x-toolkit.
-
- Note: on some systems, it does not work to use the toolkit with shared
- libraries.
-
- The `--run-in-place' option sets up default values for the path
- variables in `./Makefile' so that Emacs will expect to find its data
- files (lisp libraries, runnable programs, and the like) in the same
- locations they occupy while Emacs builds. If you use `--run-in-place'
- then you don't need to do `make install'.
-
- `--run-in-place' is pretty much obsolete now. If you put the Emacs
- executable in a subdirectory named src, which has siblings named lisp,
- lib-src, etc, info and so on, Emacs automatically uses those sibling
- directories if the standard installation directory names don't contain
- what Emacs needs.
-
- The `--with-gcc' option specifies that the build process should
- compile Emacs using GCC. If you don't want to use GCC, specify
- `--with-gcc=no'. If this option is omitted, `configure' will search
- for GCC in your load path, and use it if present.
-
- The `--srcdir=DIR' option specifies that the configuration and build
- processes should look for the Emacs source code in DIR, when DIR is
- not the current directory.
-
- You can use `--srcdir' to build Emacs for several different machine
- types from a single source directory. Make separate build directories
- for the different configuration types, and in each one, build Emacs
- specifying the common source directory with `--srcdir'.
-
- 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/lib/emacs/VERSION
- (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.7').
- - The architecture-dependent files go in
- PREFIXDIR/lib/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
- (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
- 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/lib/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
- EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
-
- For example, the command
-
- ./configure mips-dec-ultrix --with-x11
-
- configures Emacs to build for a DECstation running Ultrix, with
- support for the X11 window system.
-
- The `configure' program does not accept abbreviations for its
- options.
-
- Note that `configure' doesn't do any compilation or installation
- itself. It just creates the files that influence those things:
- `./Makefile', `build-install', 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
- leaves a copy in the file `config.status'. That file is also a shell
- script which, when run, recreates the same configuration; it contains
- the verbal description as a comment. If `configure' exits with an
- error after disturbing the status quo, it removes `config.status'.
-
- The work of `configure' can be done by editing various files in the
- distribution, but using `configure' is supposed to be simpler. See
- the section called "CONFIGURATION BY HAND" below if you want to do the
- configuration yourself.
-
- 4) Look at `./lisp/paths.el'; if some of those values are not right
- for your system, edit the file `./lisp/site-init.el' containing Emacs
- Lisp code to override them; you probably don't want 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 (which is "/usr/local/inews").
-
- Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
- not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
- something up in the system's password and user information database.
- See `./PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
-
- 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.in if you wish to figure out how to do that). For all
- else, use site-init.el.
-
- Note that, on some systems, the code you place in site-init.el must
- not use expand-file-name or any other function which may look
- something up in the system's password and user information database.
- See `./PROBLEMS' for more details on which systems this affects.
-
- 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. The files `./etc/termcap.ucb'
- and `./etc/termcap.dat' may already contain appropriately-modified
- entries.
-
- 7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution to finish
- building Emacs in the standard way. The final executable file will be
- named `src/emacs'. If you want to have Emacs's executable programs
- and data files installed as well, run `make install'.
-
- By default, Emacs installs its files in the following directories:
-
- `/usr/local/bin' holds the executable programs users normally run -
- `emacs', `etags', `ctags', `b2m', `emacsclient',
- and `rcs-checkin'.
-
- `/usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp library;
- `VERSION' stands for the number of the Emacs version
- you are installing, like `18.59' or `19.0'. 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; this means that you don't have to
- make Emacs unavailable while installing a new
- version.
-
- Emacs searches for its lisp files in
- `/usr/local/lib/emacs/site-lisp', then in this
- directory.
-
- `/usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/etc' holds the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
- file, the `yow' database, and other
- architecture-independent files Emacs might need while
- running. VERSION is as specified for `.../lisp'.
-
- `/usr/local/lib/emacs/lock' contains files indicating who is editing
- what, so Emacs can detect editing clashes between
- users.
-
- `/usr/local/lib/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 argument
- you gave to the `configure' program to identify the
- architecture and operating system of your machine,
- like `mips-dec-ultrix' 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/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/man/man1' holds the man pages for the programs installed
- in `/usr/local/bin'.
-
- 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/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 program arch-lib/movemail setuid or setgid
- to enable it to write the lock files. We believe this is safe.
-
- 10) You are done!
-
-
- 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/lib. We create the following
- subdirectories under `datadir':
- - `emacs/VERSION/lisp', containing the Emacs lisp library, and
- - `emacs/VERSION/etc', containing the Emacs tutorial, the DOC
- file, and the `yow' database.
- `VERSION' is the number of the Emacs version you are installing,
- like `18.59' or `19.0'. 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.
-
- `statedir' indicates where to put architecture-independent data files
- that Emacs modifies while it runs; it defaults to
- /usr/local/lib as well. We create the following
- subdirectories under `statedir':
- - `emacs/lock', containing files indicating who is editing
- what, so Emacs can detect editing clashes between
- users.
-
- `libdir' indicates where to put architecture-specific data files that
- Emacs refers to as it runs; it too defaults to `/usr/local/lib'.
- We create the following subdirectories under `libdir':
- - `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 argument you gave to the
- `configure' program to identify the architecture and operating
- system of your machine, like `mips-dec-ultrix' 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/info'.
-
- `mandir' indicates where to put the man pages for Emacs and its
- utilities (like `etags'); it defaults to
- `/usr/local/man/man1'.
-
- `manext' gives the extension the man pages should be installed with.
- It should contain a period, followed by the appropriate
- digit. It defaults to `.1'. For example given the default
- values for `mandir' and `manext', the Emacs man page would be
- installed as `/usr/local/man/man1/emacs.1'.
-
- `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',
- `statedir', `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 `libdir'.
-
- The above variables serve analogous purposes in the makefiles for all
- GNU software; here are some variables specific to Emacs.
-
- `lispdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects its lisp
- library. Its default value, based on `datadir' (see above),
- is `/usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/lisp' (where `VERSION' is as
- described above).
-
- `locallisppath' indicates where Emacs should search for lisp files
- specific to your site. It should be a colon-separated list of
- directories; Emacs checks them in order before checking
- `lispdir'. Its default value, based on `datadir' (see above),
- is `/usr/local/lib/emacs/site-lisp'.
-
- `lisppath' is the complete list of directories Emacs should search for
- its lisp files; its default value is the concatenation of
- `lispdir' and `locallisppath'. It should be a colon-separated
- list of directories; Emacs checks them in the order they
- appear.
-
- `etcdir' indicates where Emacs should install and expect the rest of
- its architecture-independent data, like the tutorial, DOC
- file, and yow database. Its default value, based on `datadir'
- (which see), is `/usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/etc'.
-
- `lockdir' indicates the directory where Emacs keeps track of its
- locking information. Its default value, based on `statedir'
- (which see), is `/usr/local/lib/emacs/lock'.
-
- `archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the
- executable files and other architecture-dependent data it uses
- while running. Its default value, based on `libdir' (which
- see), is `/usr/local/lib/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 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
-
- Instead of running the `configure' program, you have to perform the
- following steps.
-
- 1) Copy `./src/config.h.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. Occasionally you may need to
- redefine parameters used in `./lib-src/movemail.c'.
-
- 3) Create src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile from the corresponding
- `Makefile.in.in' files. First copy `Makefile.in.in' to `Makefile.in',
- then edit in appropriate substituions for the @...@ constructs,
- and then copy the shell commands near the end of `configure'
- that run cpp to construct `Makefile'.
-
- 4) Create `Makefile' files in various other directories
- from the corresponding `Makefile.in' files. This isn't so hard,
- just a matter of substitution.
-
- 5) If you're going to use the build-install script to build Emacs,
- copy `./build-ins.in' to `./build-install', and edit the
- definitions found at the top of the script.
-
- The `configure' script is built from `configure.in' by the `autoconf'
- program. However, since Emacs has configuration requirements that
- autoconf can't meet, `configure.in' uses an marriage of custom-baked
- configuration code and autoconf macros. New versions of autoconf
- could very well break this arrangement, so it may be wise to avoid
- rebuilding `configure' from `configure.in' when possible.
-
-
- BUILDING GNU EMACS BY HAND
-
- Once Emacs is configured, running `make' or running the shell script
- `build-install' in the top directory performs the following steps.
-
- 1) Run `make src/paths.h' in the top directory. This produces
- `./src/paths.h' from the template file `./src/paths.h.in', changing
- the paths to the values specified in `./Makefile'.
-
- 2) Go to directory `./lib-src' and run `make'. This creates
- executables named `ctags' and `etags' and `wakeup' and `make-docfile'
- and `digest-doc' and `test-distrib'. 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 the shell script `build-install' or 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/paths.h'.
-
- Strictly speaking, not all of the executables in `./lib-src' need be copied.
- - The programs `cvtmail', `emacsserver', `fakemail', `hexl',
- `movemail', `profile', `rcs2log', `timer', `vcdiff', `wakeup',
- and `yow' are used by Emacs; they do need to be copied.
- - The programs `etags', `ctags', `emacsclient', `b2m', and `rcs-checkin'
- are intended to be run by users; they are handled below.
- - The programs `make-docfile', `make-path', and `test-distrib' were
- used in building Emacs, and are not needed any more.
- - The programs `digest-doc' and `sorted-doc' convert a `DOC' file into
- a file for users to read. There is no important reason to move them.
-
- 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) Create a directory for Emacs to use for clash detection, named as
- indicated by the PATH_LOCK macro in `./src/paths.h'.
-
- 4) 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'.
-
- 5) Copy the programs `b2m', `emacsclient', `ctags', `etags', and
- `rcs-checkin' from `./lib-src' to `/usr/local/bin'. These programs are
- intended for users to run.
-
- 6) Copy the man pages in `./etc' for emacs, ctags, and etags into the
- appropriate man directories.
-
- 7) 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 PROBLEMS in this directory for a list of various
- problems sometimes encountered, and what to do about them.
-
-
- Installation on MSDOG (a.k.a. MSDOS)
-
- To install on MSDOG, you need to have the GNU C compiler for MSDOG
- (also known as djgpp), GNU Make, rm, mv, chmod, and sed. Type these
- commands:
-
- config msdos
- make install
-
- To save disk space, Emacs is built with the idea that you will execute
- it from the same place in the file system where you built it. As the
- /usr/local/ subtree does not exist on most MSDOG systems, the
- executables are placed in /emacs/bin/.
-
- MSDOG is a not a multitasking operating system, so Emacs features such
- as asynchronous subprocesses that depend on multitasking will not
- work. Synchronous subprocesses do work.
-