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31098a38 AI |
1 | Precompiled Distributions of |
2 | Emacs for Windows NT and Windows 95/98/2000 | |
3 | ||
4 | Version 20.7 | |
5 | ||
6 | June 13, 2000 | |
177c0ea7 | 7 | |
31098a38 AI |
8 | This directory contains source and precompiled distributions for GNU |
9 | Emacs on Windows NT and Windows 95/98/2000. This port is a part of | |
10 | the standard GNU Emacs distribution from the Free Software Foundation; | |
11 | the precompiled distributions are provided here for convenience since, | |
12 | unlike Unix, the majority of Windows users do not have access to a | |
13 | compiler (and, besides, do you really want to compile Emacs when you | |
14 | don't have to?). | |
15 | ||
16 | If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing | |
17 | your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't | |
18 | already): | |
19 | ||
20 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html | |
21 | ||
22 | The above web document is a far more complete version of this README | |
23 | file. If you don't have access to the Web, however, then read on. | |
24 | ||
25 | ||
26 | * IMPORTANT LEGAL REMINDER | |
27 | ||
28 | If you want to redistribute any of the precompiled distributions of | |
29 | Emacs, be careful to check the implications of the GPL. For instance, | |
30 | if you put the emacs-20.7-bin-i386.tar.gz file from this directory on | |
31 | an Internet site, you must arrange to distribute the source files of | |
32 | the SAME version (i.e. emacs-20.7-src.tar.gz). | |
33 | ||
34 | Making a link to our copy of the source is NOT sufficient, since we | |
35 | might upgrade to a new version while you are still distributing the | |
36 | old binaries. | |
37 | ||
38 | ||
39 | * Distributions in .tar.gz format | |
40 | ||
41 | Emacs is distributed primarily as a set of large gzipped tar files | |
42 | (*.tar.gz). Because Emacs is quite large and therefore difficult to | |
43 | download over unreliable connections, it is provided in several | |
44 | combinations, ranging from the complete source plus executables, to | |
45 | just the minimal amount needed to run without any source, plus a | |
46 | couple of optional packages. Here are the combinations (i386 in the | |
47 | name indicates a tarball contains executables compiled for | |
48 | Intel-compatible x86 systems): | |
49 | ||
50 | + Primary precompiled distribution, including lisp source: | |
51 | ||
52 | emacs-20.7-fullbin-i386.tar.gz | |
53 | ||
54 | + Minimal precompiled distribution, which excludes lisp source: | |
55 | ||
56 | emacs-20.7-bin-i386.tar.gz | |
57 | ||
58 | You can download emacs-20.7-lisp.tar.gz to get the lisp source, if | |
59 | you later decide you want it - it is useful for understanding how | |
60 | packages work, and how they can best be setup or customized. | |
61 | ||
62 | ||
63 | NB. If you just want to run Emacs, get one of the distributions above. | |
64 | ||
65 | ||
66 | + Bare executables, only useful if you want to get the complete source | |
67 | release below, but can't compile Emacs yourself: | |
68 | ||
69 | emacs-20.7-barebin-i386.tar.gz (requires emacs-20.7-src.tar.gz) | |
70 | ||
71 | + Undumped executable, only needed for rebuilding Emacs after changing | |
72 | certain core lisp files: | |
73 | ||
74 | emacs-20.7-undumped-i386.tar.gz | |
75 | ||
76 | + Optional package providing the Library of Emacs Input Methods for | |
77 | typing non-ascii characters, notably Chinese, Japanese and Korean, | |
78 | but also including European and other character sets: | |
79 | ||
80 | emacs-20.7-leim.tar.gz | |
81 | ||
82 | + The complete official source for Emacs: | |
83 | ||
84 | emacs-20.7-src.tar.gz | |
85 | ||
86 | + The complete official source for LEIM: | |
87 | ||
88 | leim-20.7-src.tar.gz | |
89 | ||
90 | ||
91 | * Distributions in multi-file .zip format | |
92 | ||
93 | A second distribution in the form of multiple small .zip files is also | |
94 | provided, for the benefit of people who have unreliable internet | |
95 | connections, or who need to copy the distribution onto floppy disks: | |
96 | ||
97 | em207-b*.zip | |
98 | ||
99 | This is equivalent to getting emacs-20.7-bin-i386.tar.gz above. | |
100 | The lisp source is available as em207-l*.zip. | |
101 | ||
102 | ||
103 | * Distributions for non-x86 platforms | |
104 | ||
105 | I try to make this port available for all platforms supported by | |
106 | Windows (it should build on all supported Windows NT/9x platforms). | |
107 | However, I do not always have access to non-x86 platforms, and so I | |
108 | cannot guarantee to provide precompiled distributions for the other | |
109 | platforms myself. If you find there are no binaries for your | |
110 | platform, and you have access to a Microsoft compiler, then you can | |
111 | download the source and compile Emacs yourself (and, if you do, please | |
112 | consider contributing your executables; send me mail and we can make | |
113 | arrangements for making them available on this ftp server.) | |
114 | ||
115 | ||
116 | * Unpacking distributions | |
117 | ||
118 | Programs for handling the distribution file formats can be found in | |
177c0ea7 | 119 | the utilities directory: |
31098a38 AI |
120 | |
121 | ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/windows/emacs/utilities | |
122 | ||
123 | For gzipped tar files, you will need either gunzip.exe and tar.exe | |
124 | together, or djtarnt.exe. djtarnt.exe can also unpack .zip files. I | |
125 | strongly urge you to use these utilities since they were the ones used | |
126 | to create the distributions; the most common problem people have in | |
127 | trying to get Emacs to run is due to some other utility program | |
128 | corrupting the distribution while unpacking. | |
129 | ||
130 | Open a command prompt (MSDOS) window. Decide on a directory in which | |
131 | to place Emacs. Move the distribution to that directory, and then | |
132 | unpack it as follows. | |
133 | ||
134 | If you have the gzipped tar version, use gunzip to uncompress the tar | |
135 | file on the fly, and pipe the output through tar with the "xvf" flags | |
136 | to extract the files from the tar file: | |
137 | ||
138 | % gunzip -c some.tar.gz | tar xvf - | |
139 | ||
140 | You may see messages from tar about not being able to change the | |
141 | modification time on directories, and from gunzip complaining about a | |
142 | broken pipe. These messages are harmless and you can ignore them. On | |
143 | Windows NT, unpacking tarballs this way leaves them in compressed | |
144 | form, taking up less space on disk. Unfortunately, on Windows 95 and | |
145 | 98, a large temporary file is created, so it is better to use the | |
146 | djtarnt.exe program, which performs the equivalent operation in one | |
147 | step: | |
148 | ||
149 | % djtarnt -x some.tar.gz | |
150 | ||
151 | You may be prompted to rename or overwrite directories when using | |
152 | djtarnt: simply type return to continue (this is harmless). | |
153 | ||
154 | If you have the multi-file .zip distribution, use djtarnt to unpack | |
155 | all of the .zip files: | |
156 | ||
157 | % djtarnt -x *.zip | |
158 | ||
159 | Once you have unpacked a precompiled distribution of Emacs, it should | |
160 | have the following subdirectories: | |
161 | ||
162 | bin etc info lisp lock site-lisp | |
163 | ||
164 | If your utility failed to create the lock directory, then you can | |
165 | simply create it by hand (it is initially empty). | |
166 | ||
167 | ||
168 | * Unpacking with other tools | |
169 | ||
170 | If you do use other utility programs to unpack the distribution, check | |
171 | the following to be sure the distribution was not corrupted: | |
172 | ||
173 | + Be sure to disable the CR/LF translation or the executables will be | |
174 | unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this translation | |
175 | by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it. (I don't have | |
176 | WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific commands necessary | |
177 | to disable it.) | |
178 | ||
179 | + Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example, there | |
180 | should be a file lisp/abbrevlist.el; if this has been truncated to | |
181 | abbrevli.el, your distribution has been corrupted while unpacking | |
182 | and Emacs will not start. | |
183 | ||
184 | + I've been told that some utilities (WinZip again?) don't create the | |
185 | lock subdirectory. The lock subdirectory needs to be created. | |
186 | ||
187 | + I've also had reports that the "gnu-win32" port of tar corrupts the | |
188 | executables. Use the version of tar or djtarnt in the utilities | |
189 | directory instead. | |
190 | ||
191 | If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are | |
192 | still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information | |
193 | below. | |
194 | ||
195 | ||
196 | * Compiling from source | |
197 | ||
198 | If you would like to compile Emacs from source, download the source | |
199 | distribution, unpack it in the same manner as a precompiled | |
200 | distribution, and look in the file nt/INSTALL for detailed directions. | |
201 | Note, though, that you must have a Microsoft compiler to compile the | |
202 | source. (Support for compiling with gcc 2.95 or later will be | |
203 | available in a future release.) | |
204 | ||
205 | ||
206 | * Further information | |
207 | ||
208 | There is a web page that serves as a FAQ at: | |
209 | ||
210 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html | |
211 | ||
212 | There is also a mailing list for discussing issues related to this | |
213 | port of Emacs. For information about the list, send a message to | |
214 | ntemacs-users-request@cs.washington.edu with the word "info" in the | |
215 | *body* of the message. To subscribe to the list, send a message to | |
216 | the same address with the word "subscribe" in the body of the message; | |
217 | similarly, to unsubscribe from the list, send a message with the word | |
218 | "unsubscribe" in the message body. | |
219 | ||
220 | Another valuable source of information and help which should not be | |
221 | overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs. | |
222 | These are particuarly good for help with general issues which aren't | |
223 | specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use | |
224 | for seeking help are: | |
225 | ||
226 | gnu.emacs.help | |
227 | comp.emacs | |
228 | ||
229 | There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or | |
230 | updated Emacs packages on this group: | |
231 | ||
232 | gnu.emacs.sources | |
233 | ||
234 | You are also always welcome to send me mail directly. If you don't | |
235 | hear from me immediately, however, don't worry; it sometimes takes me | |
236 | a few days (or longer) to get to all of my mail regarding Emacs. | |
237 | ||
238 | Enjoy! | |
239 | ||
240 | Andrew Innes | |
241 | (andrewi@gnu.org) |