3 AUTHOR: Andreas Klauer <andykl@epost.de>
6 Downloading and Installing GNU Emacs 2
14 All information you need can be found at the GNU Emacs page:
15 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html
17 There is also a FAQ available:
18 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-faq.text
21 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 Emacs is the extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time display
23 editor. If this seems to be a bit of a mouthful, an easier explanation is Emacs
24 is a text editor and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp
25 (``elisp'', for short), a dialect of the Lisp programming language with
26 extensions to support text editing.
28 Some of the features of GNU Emacs include:
29 o Content sensitive major modes for a wide variety of file types, from plain
30 text to source code to HTML files.
31 o Complete online documentation, including a tutorial for new users.
32 o Highly extensible through the Emacs Lisp language.
33 o Support for many languages and their scripts, including all the European
34 ``Latin'' scripts, Russian, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai,
35 Vietnamese, Lao, Ethiopian, and some Indian scripts. (Sorry, Mayan
36 hieroglyphs are not supported.)
37 o A large number of extensions which add other functionality. The GNU Emacs
38 distribution includes many extensions; many others are available
39 separately -- even a web browser.
40 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
42 Please note that this hint doesn't cover the extensions, just because there are
43 far too many of them - Emacs is an operating system that comes with an editor
46 If you want any extensions, visit the GNU Emacs page.
49 II. Where to get & What to get
50 -------------------------------
52 You can get all these files on ftp.gnu.org or on one of its mirrors
53 (visit http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html for a complete mirror list)
55 Required: emacs-20.7.tar.gz (around 15 Megabytes)
56 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.7.tar.gz
58 Note: If there is a newer version available, take the newer version -
59 if this hint does no longer work with a newer version, please send me
60 an E-Mail, so that I can update it: andykl@epost.de
62 Description: This package contains the Emacs editor ;o)
63 It comes with a very good README and INSTALL - File, which should
64 make this hint unneccessary; but the old emacs hint wasn't good
65 enough to help a newbie out.
68 Optional: leim-20.7.tar.gz (around 3.3 Megabytes) [requires X11]
69 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/leim-20.7.tar.gz
71 Note: The package should have the same version number as the emacs package.
73 Description: LEIM stands for Libraries of Emacs Input Methods.
74 This package supports Chinese & Japanese and other input methods.
75 You should read the INSTALL file that comes with the emacs package
76 and the README that is included in this package if you are
80 Optional: intlfonts-1.2.tar.gz (around 25 Megabytes) [requires X11]
82 Note: This package can be installed after the installation of Emacs.
84 Description: It contains a whole bunch of X11 fonts - Chinese, Japanese, but
85 also European (Greek etc.) and other fonts.
86 Get it if you plan to use Emacs in X11 and want support for those
87 languages. Otherwise, Emacs will print hollow boxes if there is
91 III. How to install it
92 ----------------------
94 I unpacked my sources in /usr/src and was root all the time during the
95 installation. You can put the sources somewhere else and don't need to be root
96 when installing, just as you like.
97 But please don't forget: When I'm talking of /usr/src, I mean the directory
98 where your sources are located.
99 If you encounter weird problems without being root,
100 switching to root may help - I don't know exactly
101 where root privileges are required and where not.
103 1. Unpack the emacs tarball:
106 > tar xvfz /usr/src/emacs-20.7.tar.gz
108 This will create a directory /usr/src/emacs-20.7/ and put the emacs sources
111 You probably should read /usr/src/emacs-20.7/README and
112 /usr/src/emacs-20.7/INSTALL now.
115 2. If you decided to download LEIM, unpack it:
118 > tar xvfz /usr/src/leim-20.7.tar.gz
120 The LEIM package will create a directory /usr/src/emacs-20.7/leim.
121 It will be automatically included in the Emacs installation.
124 3. Run the Emacs configure script
126 > cd /usr/src/emacs-20.7
128 Please read the configure help first:
131 This gives you a list of all possible options.
132 Please choose the options that fit your needs.
135 If you want gcc to be run with any optimization flags,
137 > export CFLAGS='-yourflags'
139 I used: (may not work on your system)
140 > export CFLAGS='-O2 -march=i686'
143 I used the following command (may not work on your system):
144 > ./configure i686-unknown-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --with-gcc --with-x
146 This will install Emacs in /usr/* and not in /usr/local/* and also use GCC
147 and enable the Emacs X11 interface.
149 I also specified my host type: i686-unknown-linux-gnu
150 Information on available host types can be found in:
151 /usr/src/emacs-20.7/etc/MACHINES
153 If unsure, just use the following:
154 > ./configure --prefix=/usr
156 Emacs will then be installed in your /usr directory.
158 [3b. This part is hard for newbies :o( ]
160 The installation instructions that come with the emacs package now recommend
161 to look at /usr/src/emacs-20.7/lisp/paths.el.
163 The file contains paths to various external programs (sendmail p.e.).
164 If those are not correct and you want emacs to be able to use them, you
165 should modify the file site-init.el (not the paths.el file).
167 For further information read /usr/src/emacs-20.7/INSTALL
169 In most cases (especially on your LFS system), the paths in paths.el should
170 be correct - it looks for the binaries in the /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin
171 directories and checks all 'usual' locations.
173 It is quite safe not to look at paths.el, unless you've installed programs
174 like sendmail in unusual locations.
177 [ Note: There are a few more steps you could do if you want, such as adding
178 special termcap entries and so on.
179 I didn't need any of those, so I just say that the normal user won't
180 need them; but you may take a look at the INSTALL file if interested ]
184 Now this should be quite easy:
186 > cd /usr/src/emacs-20.7
189 If the configure - script ran without errors, the make shouldn't produce any,
192 If make exits with an error message, it may be due to some optimization flags
193 that you may have added in Part 3. Then try to remove them and run configure
196 If that doesn't solve the problem, send it to the lfs-apps mailing list to
199 The compilation took 10 Minutes on my PII-233.
208 This installs Emacs in the directories you specified in the configure call
209 (Default: /usr/local/..., with --prefix=/usr in /usr/... and so on)
211 prefix/bin now contains:
213 emacs, etags, ctags, b2m, emacs-client, rcs-checkin
214 (Sorry, I'm too lazy to describe them, go to www.gnu.org, there's the
215 manual, FAQ, just everything)
217 prefix/share/emacs/VERSION/ contains the emacs lisp library and other emacs
220 There also should be manpages installed - read the INSTALL file for further
223 If 'make install' was successful, you can delete the sources if you want to:
224 > rm -R /usr/src/emacs-20.7
227 For the people who decided not to install the intlfonts:
229 Congratulations, you've done it!
230 If this hint helped you out, I'd be glad if you'd send a short note to
231 andykl@epost.de, so that I know that this work had some use ;o)
238 You'll have to unpack the intlfonts package first.
241 > tar xvfz intlfonts-1.2.tar.gz
243 This will create the /usr/src/intlfonts-1.2/ directory.
244 Go into this directory and run the configure script:
245 [If you used a --prefix= parameter when installing emacs,
246 you probably should use the same prefix option here!]
248 Note: You may also want to take a look on ./configure --help first;
249 Type1/TTF Fonts are not installed by default - if your X
250 supports those, you may want to install them, too.
252 > cd /usr/src/intlfonts-1.2
255 The fonts will be installed in the prefix directory you specified
256 (Default: /usr/local): /prefix/share/emacs/fonts.
258 To do this, you need to run:
262 Now, the X server needs to know about the new fonts.
264 This is done by adding /prefix/share/emacs/fonts to the known font paths.
266 I did it by adding FontPath "/usr/share/emacs/fonts/" to my XF86Config file.
267 But this depends on how you configured your X. You may want to add
268 xset +fp /usr/share/emacs/fonts/ in some .xinitrc Files instead.
270 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
272 Congratulations, you now have a running emacs.
274 Manuals, FAQs, How-to-Configure and similar stuff can be found at:
275 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs.
277 I hope this hint helped you a little :)
280 Also known as: menaures@UNItopia.de
281 E-Mail: andykl@epost.de
283 If you manage to get the Emacs Webbrowser running and you speak german,
284 visit www.unitopia.de ;o)