Correct required autoconf version

[bpt/emacs.git] / README

This directory tree holds version 21.0.99 of GNU Emacs, the extensible,
customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor.

You may encounter bugs in this release.  If you do, please report
them; your bug reports are valuable contributions to the FSF, since
they allow us to notice and fix problems on machines we don't have, or
in code we don't use often.  See the file BUGS for more information on
how to report bugs.

See the file etc/NEWS for information on new features and other
user-visible changes since the last version of Emacs.

The file INSTALL in this directory says how to bring up GNU Emacs on
Unix, once you have loaded the entire subtree of this directory.

The file etc/PROBLEMS contains information on many common problems that
occur in building, installing and running Emacs.

Reports of bugs in Emacs should be sent to the mailing list
bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.  See the "Bugs" section of the Emacs
manual for more information on how to report bugs.  (The file `BUGS'
in this directory explains how you can find and read that section
using the Info files that come with Emacs.)  See `etc/MAILINGLISTS'
for more information on mailing lists relating to GNU packages.

The `etc' subdirectory contains several other files, named in
capital letters, which you should look at when installing GNU Emacs.

The file `configure' is a shell script to acclimate Emacs to the
oddities of your processor and operating system.  It creates the file
`Makefile' (a script for the `make' program), which automates the
process of building and installing Emacs.  See INSTALL for more
detailed information.

The file `configure.in' is the input used by the autoconf program to
construct the `configure' script.  Since Emacs has configuration
requirements that autoconf can't meet, `configure.in' uses an unholy
marriage of custom-baked configuration code and autoconf macros; it
may be wise to avoid rebuilding `configure' from `configure.in' when
possible.

If you do want to rebuild `configure' from `configure.in', you will
need to install autoconf and GNU m4 (the version of m4 supplied with
your system might not be enough).

The file `Makefile.in' is a template used by `configure' to create
`Makefile'.

The file `make-dist' is a shell script to build a distribution tar
file from the current Emacs tree, containing only those files
appropriate for distribution.  If you make extensive changes to Emacs,
this script will help you distribute your version to others.

There are several subdirectories:

`src' holds the C code for Emacs (the Emacs Lisp interpreter and its
    primitives, the redisplay code, and some basic editing functions).
`lisp' holds the Emacs Lisp code for Emacs (most everything else).
`lib-src' holds the source code for some utility programs for use by
    or with Emacs, like movemail and etags.
`etc' holds miscellaneous architecture-independent data files
    Emacs uses, like the tutorial text and the Zippy the Pinhead quote
    database.  The contents of the `lisp', `info' and `man'
    subdirectories are architecture-independent too.

`info' holds the Info documentation tree for Emacs.
`man' holds the source code for the Emacs manual.  If you modify the
      manual sources, you will need the `makeinfo' program to produce
      an updated manual.  `makeinfo' is part of the GNU Texinfo
      package; you need version 4.0 or later of Texinfo.

   Note that the Emacs Lisp manual sources are distributed separately.
(They are twice as large as the Emacs manual in the man subdirectory.)

`msdos' holds configuration files for compiling Emacs under MSDOG.
`vms' holds instructions and useful files for running Emacs under VMS.
`nt' holds various command files and documentation files that pertain
     to running Emacs on Windows NT.
`mac' holds instructions, sources, and other useful files for building
      and running Emacs on the Mac.

   Building Emacs on non-Posix platforms requires to install tools
that aren't part of the standard distribution of the OS.  The
platform-specific README files and installation instructions should
list the required tools.