Copy README.W32 when installing Windows build (bug#14757).
[bpt/emacs.git] / nt / README
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d3776990 1 Emacs for Windows NT/2000 and Windows 95/98/ME
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ba318903 3 Copyright (C) 2001-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7f6d64f8 4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
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6 This directory contains support for compiling and running GNU Emacs on
7 Windows NT, Windows 95, and their successors. This port supports all
8 of the major functionality of the Unix version, including
9 subprocesses, windowing features (fonts, colors, scroll bars, multiple
10 frames, etc.), and networking support.
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d3776990 12 Precompiled distributions are also available; ftp to
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eab17b5d 14 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
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d3776990 16 for the latest precompiled distributions.
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17
18* Building and installing
19
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20 See the INSTALL file in this directory for detailed instructions on
21 building and installing Emacs on your system.
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23* EXE files produced
24
25 Building and installing Emacs will produce the following executable
26 files in the bin directory.
27
c8740fa2 28 + emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run
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29 as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application,
30 it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
31
32 + runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
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33 without popping up a command prompt window. If you create a
34 desktop shortcut for invoking Emacs, make it point to this
35 executable, not to emacs.exe.
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36
37 + emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
c8740fa2 38 communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
53964682 39 node of the Emacs manual.
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40
41 + emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open
42 a command-line window.
43
44 + addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
45 Running this is optional.
46
ece646ab 47 + ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the
c8740fa2 48 `Tags' node of the Emacs manual.
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49
50 + ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the
51 `Ebrowse' manual.
52
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53 Several helper programs are installed in a version-specific
54 subdirectory of the libexec directory:
55
56 + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
57 the native shells in various versions of Windows.
58
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59 + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers. To be
60 invoked as "ddeclient SERVER [TOPIC]", where SERVER is the DDE
61 server name, and sends each line of its standard input to the DDE
62 server using the DdeClientTransaction API. This program is
63 supposed to be invoked via the 'call-process-region' Emacs
64 primitive.
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c8740fa2 66 + hexl.exe - A tool for producing hex dumps of binary files. See the
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67 `Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
68
69 + movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
70 a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the
71 `Movemail' node of the Emacs manual.
72
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73 + profile.exe - A helper program that generates periodic events for
74 profiling Emacs Lisp code.
75
76 + update-game-score.exe - A utility for updating the score files of
77 Emacs games.
78
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79* Further information
80
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81 The FAQ for the MS Windows port of Emacs is distributed with Emacs
82 (info manual "efaq-w32"), and also available at
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63e984f8 84 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/efaq-w32.html
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d3776990 86 There is also a mailing list for discussing issues related to this
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87 port of Emacs. For information about the list, see this Web page:
88
89 http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows
90
91 To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
92 help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
93 To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
94 find at http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as
95 explained there.
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97 Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
98 overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
33d69478 99 These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't
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100 specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
101 for seeking help are:
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103 gnu.emacs.help
104 comp.emacs
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106 There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
107 updated Emacs packages on this group:
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d3776990 109 gnu.emacs.sources
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d3776990 111* Reporting bugs
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113 If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear
114 about it. First check the file etc/PROBLEMS and the FAQ on the web
115 page above to see if the bug is already known and if there are any
116 workarounds. If not, then check whether the bug has something to do
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117 with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by invoking Emacs with the "-Q"
118 option.
119
120 Use the built in bug reporting functionality in Emacs so that it
121 will be seen by the right people. You can use the command M-x
63e984f8 122 report-emacs-bug to create and send the bug report.
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123\f
124This file is part of GNU Emacs.
125
eef0be9e 126GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
7f6d64f8 127it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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128the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
129(at your option) any later version.
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130
131GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
132but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
133MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
134GNU General Public License for more details.
135
136You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
eef0be9e 137along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.