nt/README.W32: Add information about GnuTLS libraries.
[bpt/emacs.git] / nt / README.W32
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73b0cd50 1Copyright (C) 2001-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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2See the end of the file for license conditions.
3
7ee43737 4 Emacs for Windows
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6 This README file describes how to set up and run a precompiled
7 version of GNU Emacs for Windows. This distribution can be found on
8 the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors:
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6e3645dc 10 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
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11
12 This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs
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13 source distribution and a barebin distribution which can be installed
14 over it, as well as older releases of Emacs for Windows.
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15
16 Answers to frequently asked questions, and further information about
17 this port of GNU Emacs and related software packages can be found via
6e3645dc 18 http:
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3deb93c6 20 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
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21
22* Preliminaries
23
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24 Along with this file should be six subdirectories (bin, etc, info,
25 lisp, leim, site-lisp). If you have downloaded the barebin
26 distribution, then it will contain only the bin directory and the
27 built in documentation in etc/DOC-X, the rest of the subdirectories
28 are in the src distribution, which the barebin distribution is
29 designed to be used with.
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30
31* Setting up Emacs
32
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33 To install Emacs, simply unpack all the files into a directory of
34 your choice, but note that you might encounter minor problems if
35 there is a space anywhere in the directory name. To complete the
36 installation process, you can optionally run the program addpm.exe
37 in the bin subdirectory. This will put an icon for Emacs in the
38 Start Menu under "Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs".
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39
40 Some users have reported that the Start Menu item is not created for
41 them. If this happens, just create your own shortcut to runemacs.exe,
42 eg. by dragging it on to the desktop or the Start button.
43
44 Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to
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45 locate all of its files without needing any information to be set in
46 the environment or the registry, although such settings will still
47 be obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a
48 machine which disallows registry changes, or on which software
49 should not be installed. For instance, you can now run Emacs
50 directly from a CD or USB flash drive without copying or installing
51 anything on the machine itself.
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52
53* Starting Emacs
54
55 To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
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56 runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or from a command prompt. This
57 will start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have
58 never used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this
59 point (select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is
60 quite different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects.
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61
62 If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command
63 window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt.
64 (Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in
65 your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw
66 (non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet
67 server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely.
68
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69* EXE files included
70
71 Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory.
72
d9cce206 73 + emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run
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74 as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application,
75 it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
76
77 + runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
78 without popping up a command prompt window.
79
80 + emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
d9cce206 81 communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
1c3f291e 82 node of the Emacs manual.
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83
84 + emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open
85 a command-line window.
86
87 + addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
88 Running this is optional.
89
90 + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
91 the native shells in various versions of Windows.
92
93 + ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the
d9cce206 94 `Tags' node of the Emacs manual.
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95
96 + ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the
97 `Ebrowse' manual.
98
99 + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers.
100
101 + hexl.exe - A tool for converting files to hex dumps. See the
102 `Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
103
104 + movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
105 a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the
106 `Movemail' node of the Emacs manual.
107
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108* Image support
109
110 Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the
111 libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color
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112 toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available
113 on the same place as you got this binary distribution from. The version
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114 of libXpm bundled with this version of Emacs is 3.5.7, based on x.org's
115 libXpm library from X11R7.3.
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116
117 Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate
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118 libraries. These libraries are all available as part of GTK
119 download for Windows (http://www.gtk.org/download-windows.html), or
120 from the GnuWin32 project. Emacs will find them if the directory
121 they are installed in is on the PATH.
122
123 PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will
124 be named libpng14.dll or libpng14-14.dll. LibPNG requires zlib,
125 which should come from the same source as you got libpng.
126 Starting with Emacs 23.3, the precompiled Emacs binaries are
127 built with libpng 1.4.x and later, and are incompatible with
128 earlier versions of libpng DLLs. So if you have libpng 1.2.x,
129 the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download
130 newer versions.
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131
132 JPEG: requires the Independant JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
133 which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll.
134
135 TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll
136 or libtiff.dll.
137
138 GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
139 called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.
140
5be1c984 141 If you have image support DLLs under different names, customize the
3d4cad2c 142 value of `dynamic-library-alist'.
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d9cce206 144 In addition, Emacs can be compiled to support SVG. This precompiled
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145 distribution has not been compiled that way, since the SVG library
146 or one or more of its extensive dependencies appear to be
d9cce206 147 unreliable under Windows. See nt/INSTALL in the src distribution if
3deb93c6 148 you wish to compile Emacs with SVG support.
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150* GnuTLS support
151
152 In order to support GnuTLS at runtime, Emacs must be able to find
153 the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so is not an error,
154 but GnuTLS won't be available to the running session.
155
156 You can get pre-built binaries (including any required DLL and the
157 gnutls.h file) and an installer at http://josefsson.org/gnutls4win/.
158
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159* Uninstalling Emacs
160
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161 If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files
162 and subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs
163 does not install or update any files in system directories or
164 anywhere else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the
165 registry entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the
166 registry entries using regedit. All of the settings are written
167 under the Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you
168 didn't have administrator privileges when you installed, the same
169 key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just delete the whole Software\GNU\Emacs
170 key.
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171
172 The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Task bar
173 and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start
174 Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with
175 administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button
176 and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.)
177
178* Troubleshooting
179
180 Unpacking the distributions
181
182 If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of
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183 possible causes. Check the following for indications that the
184 distribution was not corrupted by the tools used to unpack it:
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3deb93c6 186 * Be sure to disable CR/LF translation or the executables will
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187 be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this
188 translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it.
189 (I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific
190 commands necessary to disable it.)
191
192 * Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example,
193 there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been
194 truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted
195 while unpacking and Emacs will not start.
196
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197 If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
198 still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
199 below.
200
201 Virus scanners
202
203 Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you
204 are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or
205 McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector
206 scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties).
207
208* Further information
209
210 If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
d9cce206 211 your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
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212 already):
213
3deb93c6 214 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
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215
216 This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information
217 about the Windows port and related software packages.
218
219 In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues
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220 related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the
221 list, see this Web page:
222
6e3645dc 223 http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows
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224
225 To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
226 help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
227 To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
6e3645dc 228 find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as
72d40630 229 explained there.
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230
231 Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
232 overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
d9cce206 233 These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't
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234 specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
235 for seeking help are:
236
237 gnu.emacs.help
238 comp.emacs
239
240 There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
241 updated Emacs packages on this group:
242
243 gnu.emacs.sources
244
245* Reporting bugs
246
247 If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear
248 about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug
249 is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether
250 the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by
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251 invoking Emacs with the "-Q" option.
252
253 If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs, use the built in bug
254 reporting facility to report it (from the menu; Help -> Send Bug Report).
255 If you have not yet configured Emacs for mail, then when you press
256 C-c C-c to send the report, it will ask you to paste the text of the
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257 report into your mail client. If the bug is related to subprocesses,
258 also specify which shell you are using (e.g., include the values of
259 `shell-file-name' and `explicit-shell-file-name' in your message).
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678c6e62 261 Enjoy!
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262
263\f
264This file is part of GNU Emacs.
265
9ad5de0c 266GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
892df15e 267it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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268the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
269(at your option) any later version.
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270
271GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
272but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
273MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
274GNU General Public License for more details.
275
276You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
9ad5de0c 277along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.