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1 | Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, |
2 | 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. | |
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3 | See the end of the file for license conditions. |
4 | ||
7ee43737 | 5 | Emacs for Windows |
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7 | This README file describes how to set up and run a precompiled |
8 | version of GNU Emacs for Windows. This distribution can be found on | |
9 | the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors: | |
31098a38 | 10 | |
6e3645dc | 11 | ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/ |
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12 | |
13 | This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs | |
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14 | source distribution and a barebin distribution which can be installed |
15 | over it, as well as older releases of Emacs for Windows. | |
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16 | |
17 | Answers to frequently asked questions, and further information about | |
18 | this port of GNU Emacs and related software packages can be found via | |
6e3645dc | 19 | http: |
31098a38 | 20 | |
3deb93c6 | 21 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ |
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22 | |
23 | * Preliminaries | |
24 | ||
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25 | Along with this file should be six subdirectories (bin, etc, info, |
26 | lisp, leim, site-lisp). If you have downloaded the barebin | |
27 | distribution, then it will contain only the bin directory and the | |
28 | built in documentation in etc/DOC-X, the rest of the subdirectories | |
29 | are in the src distribution, which the barebin distribution is | |
30 | designed to be used with. | |
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31 | |
32 | * Setting up Emacs | |
33 | ||
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34 | To install Emacs, simply unpack all the files into a directory of |
35 | your choice, but note that you might encounter minor problems if | |
36 | there is a space anywhere in the directory name. To complete the | |
37 | installation process, you can optionally run the program addpm.exe | |
38 | in the bin subdirectory. This will put an icon for Emacs in the | |
39 | Start Menu under "Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs". | |
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40 | |
41 | Some users have reported that the Start Menu item is not created for | |
42 | them. If this happens, just create your own shortcut to runemacs.exe, | |
43 | eg. by dragging it on to the desktop or the Start button. | |
44 | ||
45 | Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to | |
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46 | locate all of its files without needing any information to be set in |
47 | the environment or the registry, although such settings will still | |
48 | be obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a | |
49 | machine which disallows registry changes, or on which software | |
50 | should not be installed. For instance, you can now run Emacs | |
51 | directly from a CD or USB flash drive without copying or installing | |
52 | anything on the machine itself. | |
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53 | |
54 | * Starting Emacs | |
55 | ||
56 | To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke | |
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57 | runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or from a command prompt. This |
58 | will start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have | |
59 | never used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this | |
60 | point (select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is | |
61 | quite different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects. | |
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62 | |
63 | If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command | |
64 | window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt. | |
65 | (Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in | |
66 | your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw | |
67 | (non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet | |
68 | server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely. | |
69 | ||
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70 | * EXE files included |
71 | ||
72 | Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory. | |
73 | ||
d9cce206 | 74 | + emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run |
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75 | as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application, |
76 | it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer. | |
77 | ||
78 | + runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application | |
79 | without popping up a command prompt window. | |
80 | ||
81 | + emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can | |
d9cce206 | 82 | communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server' |
1c3f291e | 83 | node of the Emacs manual. |
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84 | |
85 | + emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open | |
86 | a command-line window. | |
87 | ||
88 | + addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs. | |
89 | Running this is optional. | |
90 | ||
91 | + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with | |
92 | the native shells in various versions of Windows. | |
93 | ||
94 | + ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the | |
d9cce206 | 95 | `Tags' node of the Emacs manual. |
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96 | |
97 | + ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the | |
98 | `Ebrowse' manual. | |
99 | ||
100 | + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers. | |
101 | ||
102 | + hexl.exe - A tool for converting files to hex dumps. See the | |
103 | `Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual. | |
104 | ||
105 | + movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from | |
106 | a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the | |
107 | `Movemail' node of the Emacs manual. | |
108 | ||
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109 | * Image support |
110 | ||
111 | Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the | |
112 | libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color | |
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113 | toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available |
114 | on the same place as you got this binary distribution from. The version | |
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115 | of libXpm bundled with this version of Emacs is 3.5.7, based on x.org's |
116 | libXpm library from X11R7.3. | |
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117 | |
118 | Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate | |
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119 | libraries. These libraries are all available as part of GTK |
120 | download for Windows (http://www.gtk.org/download-windows.html), or | |
121 | from the GnuWin32 project. Emacs will find them if the directory | |
122 | they are installed in is on the PATH. | |
123 | ||
124 | PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will | |
125 | be named libpng14.dll or libpng14-14.dll. LibPNG requires zlib, | |
126 | which should come from the same source as you got libpng. | |
127 | Starting with Emacs 23.3, the precompiled Emacs binaries are | |
128 | built with libpng 1.4.x and later, and are incompatible with | |
129 | earlier versions of libpng DLLs. So if you have libpng 1.2.x, | |
130 | the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download | |
131 | newer versions. | |
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132 | |
133 | JPEG: requires the Independant JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later, | |
134 | which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll. | |
135 | ||
136 | TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll | |
137 | or libtiff.dll. | |
138 | ||
139 | GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be | |
140 | called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll. | |
141 | ||
5be1c984 | 142 | If you have image support DLLs under different names, customize the |
3d4cad2c | 143 | value of `dynamic-library-alist'. |
5be1c984 | 144 | |
d9cce206 | 145 | In addition, Emacs can be compiled to support SVG. This precompiled |
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146 | distribution has not been compiled that way, since the SVG library |
147 | or one or more of its extensive dependencies appear to be | |
d9cce206 | 148 | unreliable under Windows. See nt/INSTALL in the src distribution if |
3deb93c6 | 149 | you wish to compile Emacs with SVG support. |
9ccbb53d | 150 | |
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151 | * Uninstalling Emacs |
152 | ||
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153 | If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files |
154 | and subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs | |
155 | does not install or update any files in system directories or | |
156 | anywhere else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the | |
157 | registry entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the | |
158 | registry entries using regedit. All of the settings are written | |
159 | under the Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you | |
160 | didn't have administrator privileges when you installed, the same | |
161 | key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just delete the whole Software\GNU\Emacs | |
162 | key. | |
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163 | |
164 | The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Task bar | |
165 | and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start | |
166 | Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with | |
167 | administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button | |
168 | and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.) | |
169 | ||
170 | * Troubleshooting | |
171 | ||
172 | Unpacking the distributions | |
173 | ||
174 | If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of | |
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175 | possible causes. Check the following for indications that the |
176 | distribution was not corrupted by the tools used to unpack it: | |
31098a38 | 177 | |
3deb93c6 | 178 | * Be sure to disable CR/LF translation or the executables will |
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179 | be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this |
180 | translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it. | |
181 | (I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific | |
182 | commands necessary to disable it.) | |
183 | ||
184 | * Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example, | |
185 | there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been | |
186 | truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted | |
187 | while unpacking and Emacs will not start. | |
188 | ||
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189 | If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are |
190 | still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information | |
191 | below. | |
192 | ||
193 | Virus scanners | |
194 | ||
195 | Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you | |
196 | are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or | |
197 | McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector | |
198 | scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties). | |
199 | ||
200 | * Further information | |
201 | ||
202 | If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing | |
d9cce206 | 203 | your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't |
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204 | already): |
205 | ||
3deb93c6 | 206 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ |
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207 | |
208 | This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information | |
209 | about the Windows port and related software packages. | |
210 | ||
211 | In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues | |
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212 | related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the |
213 | list, see this Web page: | |
214 | ||
6e3645dc | 215 | http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows |
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216 | |
217 | To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to | |
218 | help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.) | |
219 | To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you | |
6e3645dc | 220 | find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as |
72d40630 | 221 | explained there. |
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222 | |
223 | Another valuable source of information and help which should not be | |
224 | overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs. | |
d9cce206 | 225 | These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't |
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226 | specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use |
227 | for seeking help are: | |
228 | ||
229 | gnu.emacs.help | |
230 | comp.emacs | |
231 | ||
232 | There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or | |
233 | updated Emacs packages on this group: | |
234 | ||
235 | gnu.emacs.sources | |
236 | ||
237 | * Reporting bugs | |
238 | ||
239 | If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear | |
240 | about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug | |
241 | is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether | |
242 | the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by | |
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243 | invoking Emacs with the "-Q" option. |
244 | ||
245 | If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs, use the built in bug | |
246 | reporting facility to report it (from the menu; Help -> Send Bug Report). | |
247 | If you have not yet configured Emacs for mail, then when you press | |
248 | C-c C-c to send the report, it will ask you to paste the text of the | |
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249 | report into your mail client. If the bug is related to subprocesses, |
250 | also specify which shell you are using (e.g., include the values of | |
251 | `shell-file-name' and `explicit-shell-file-name' in your message). | |
31098a38 | 252 | |
678c6e62 | 253 | Enjoy! |
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254 | |
255 | \f | |
256 | This file is part of GNU Emacs. | |
257 | ||
9ad5de0c | 258 | GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify |
892df15e | 259 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
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260 | the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or |
261 | (at your option) any later version. | |
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262 | |
263 | GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, | |
264 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | |
265 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the | |
266 | GNU General Public License for more details. | |
267 | ||
268 | You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License | |
9ad5de0c | 269 | along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. |