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73b0cd50 | 1 | Copyright (C) 2001-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
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2 | See 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: | |
31098a38 | 9 | |
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: |
31098a38 | 19 | |
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. | |
31098a38 | 52 | |
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53 | * Prerequisites for Windows 9X |
54 | ||
55 | To run Emacs on Windows 9X (Windows 95/98/Me), you will need to have | |
56 | the Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU) installed. It can be | |
57 | downloaded from the Microsoft site, and comes in a form of a single | |
58 | dynamic library called UNICOWS.DLL. If this library is not | |
59 | accessible to Emacs, it will pop up a dialog saying that it cannot | |
60 | find the library, and will refuse to start up a GUI session. | |
61 | (However, it is still possible to use Emacs in text mode, even | |
62 | without UNICOWS.DLL, by invoking it as "emacs -nw", see below.) | |
63 | ||
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64 | * Starting Emacs |
65 | ||
66 | To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke | |
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67 | runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or from a command prompt. This |
68 | will start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have | |
69 | never used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this | |
70 | point (select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is | |
71 | quite different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects. | |
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72 | |
73 | If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command | |
74 | window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt. | |
75 | (Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in | |
76 | your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw | |
77 | (non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet | |
78 | server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely. | |
79 | ||
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80 | * EXE files included |
81 | ||
82 | Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory. | |
83 | ||
d9cce206 | 84 | + emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run |
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85 | as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application, |
86 | it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer. | |
87 | ||
88 | + runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application | |
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89 | without popping up a command prompt window. If you create a |
90 | desktop shortcut for invoking Emacs, make it point to this | |
91 | executable, not to emacs.exe. | |
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92 | |
93 | + emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can | |
d9cce206 | 94 | communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server' |
1c3f291e | 95 | node of the Emacs manual. |
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96 | |
97 | + emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open | |
98 | a command-line window. | |
99 | ||
100 | + addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs. | |
101 | Running this is optional. | |
102 | ||
103 | + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with | |
104 | the native shells in various versions of Windows. | |
105 | ||
106 | + ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the | |
d9cce206 | 107 | `Tags' node of the Emacs manual. |
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108 | |
109 | + ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the | |
110 | `Ebrowse' manual. | |
111 | ||
112 | + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers. | |
113 | ||
8cedc5ac | 114 | + hexl.exe - A tool for producing hex dumps of binary files. See the |
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115 | `Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual. |
116 | ||
117 | + movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from | |
118 | a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the | |
119 | `Movemail' node of the Emacs manual. | |
120 | ||
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121 | * Image support |
122 | ||
123 | Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the | |
124 | libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color | |
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125 | toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available |
126 | on the same place as you got this binary distribution from. The version | |
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127 | of libXpm bundled with this version of Emacs is 3.5.7, based on x.org's |
128 | libXpm library from X11R7.3. | |
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129 | |
130 | Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate | |
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131 | libraries. These libraries are all available as part of GTK |
132 | download for Windows (http://www.gtk.org/download-windows.html), or | |
133 | from the GnuWin32 project. Emacs will find them if the directory | |
134 | they are installed in is on the PATH. | |
135 | ||
136 | PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will | |
137 | be named libpng14.dll or libpng14-14.dll. LibPNG requires zlib, | |
138 | which should come from the same source as you got libpng. | |
139 | Starting with Emacs 23.3, the precompiled Emacs binaries are | |
140 | built with libpng 1.4.x and later, and are incompatible with | |
141 | earlier versions of libpng DLLs. So if you have libpng 1.2.x, | |
142 | the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download | |
143 | newer versions. | |
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144 | |
145 | JPEG: requires the Independant JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later, | |
146 | which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll. | |
147 | ||
148 | TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll | |
149 | or libtiff.dll. | |
150 | ||
151 | GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be | |
152 | called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll. | |
153 | ||
5be1c984 | 154 | If you have image support DLLs under different names, customize the |
3d4cad2c | 155 | value of `dynamic-library-alist'. |
5be1c984 | 156 | |
d9cce206 | 157 | In addition, Emacs can be compiled to support SVG. This precompiled |
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158 | distribution has not been compiled that way, since the SVG library |
159 | or one or more of its extensive dependencies appear to be | |
d9cce206 | 160 | unreliable under Windows. See nt/INSTALL in the src distribution if |
3deb93c6 | 161 | you wish to compile Emacs with SVG support. |
9ccbb53d | 162 | |
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163 | * GnuTLS support |
164 | ||
165 | In order to support GnuTLS at runtime, Emacs must be able to find | |
166 | the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so is not an error, | |
167 | but GnuTLS won't be available to the running session. | |
168 | ||
169 | You can get pre-built binaries (including any required DLL and the | |
170 | gnutls.h file) and an installer at http://josefsson.org/gnutls4win/. | |
171 | ||
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172 | * Uninstalling Emacs |
173 | ||
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174 | If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files |
175 | and subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs | |
176 | does not install or update any files in system directories or | |
177 | anywhere else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the | |
178 | registry entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the | |
179 | registry entries using regedit. All of the settings are written | |
180 | under the Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you | |
181 | didn't have administrator privileges when you installed, the same | |
182 | key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just delete the whole Software\GNU\Emacs | |
183 | key. | |
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184 | |
185 | The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Task bar | |
186 | and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start | |
187 | Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with | |
188 | administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button | |
189 | and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.) | |
190 | ||
191 | * Troubleshooting | |
192 | ||
193 | Unpacking the distributions | |
194 | ||
195 | If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of | |
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196 | possible causes. Check the following for indications that the |
197 | distribution was not corrupted by the tools used to unpack it: | |
31098a38 | 198 | |
3deb93c6 | 199 | * Be sure to disable CR/LF translation or the executables will |
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200 | be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this |
201 | translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it. | |
202 | (I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific | |
203 | commands necessary to disable it.) | |
204 | ||
205 | * Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example, | |
206 | there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been | |
207 | truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted | |
208 | while unpacking and Emacs will not start. | |
209 | ||
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210 | * On Windows 9X, make sure you have the UNICOWS.DLL library either |
211 | in the same directory where you have emacs.exe or in the | |
212 | directory where system-wide DLLs are kept. | |
213 | ||
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214 | If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are |
215 | still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information | |
216 | below. | |
217 | ||
218 | Virus scanners | |
219 | ||
220 | Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you | |
221 | are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or | |
222 | McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector | |
223 | scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties). | |
224 | ||
225 | * Further information | |
226 | ||
227 | If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing | |
d9cce206 | 228 | your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't |
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229 | already): |
230 | ||
3deb93c6 | 231 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ |
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232 | |
233 | This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information | |
234 | about the Windows port and related software packages. | |
235 | ||
236 | In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues | |
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237 | related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the |
238 | list, see this Web page: | |
239 | ||
6e3645dc | 240 | http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows |
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241 | |
242 | To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to | |
243 | help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.) | |
244 | To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you | |
6e3645dc | 245 | find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as |
72d40630 | 246 | explained there. |
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247 | |
248 | Another valuable source of information and help which should not be | |
249 | overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs. | |
d9cce206 | 250 | These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't |
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251 | specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use |
252 | for seeking help are: | |
253 | ||
254 | gnu.emacs.help | |
255 | comp.emacs | |
256 | ||
257 | There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or | |
258 | updated Emacs packages on this group: | |
259 | ||
260 | gnu.emacs.sources | |
261 | ||
262 | * Reporting bugs | |
263 | ||
264 | If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear | |
265 | about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug | |
266 | is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether | |
267 | the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by | |
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268 | invoking Emacs with the "-Q" option. |
269 | ||
270 | If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs, use the built in bug | |
271 | reporting facility to report it (from the menu; Help -> Send Bug Report). | |
272 | If you have not yet configured Emacs for mail, then when you press | |
273 | C-c C-c to send the report, it will ask you to paste the text of the | |
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274 | report into your mail client. If the bug is related to subprocesses, |
275 | also specify which shell you are using (e.g., include the values of | |
276 | `shell-file-name' and `explicit-shell-file-name' in your message). | |
31098a38 | 277 | |
678c6e62 | 278 | Enjoy! |
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279 | |
280 | \f | |
281 | This file is part of GNU Emacs. | |
282 | ||
9ad5de0c | 283 | GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify |
892df15e | 284 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
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285 | the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or |
286 | (at your option) any later version. | |
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287 | |
288 | GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, | |
289 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | |
290 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the | |
291 | GNU General Public License for more details. | |
292 | ||
293 | You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License | |
9ad5de0c | 294 | along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. |