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a4a9692d | 1 | Building and Installing Emacs |
6d76a603 | 2 | on Windows NT/2000 and Windows 95/98/ME |
a4a9692d | 3 | |
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4 | To compile Emacs, you will need either Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0 or |
5 | later, or a Windows port of GCC 2.95 or later with Mingw and W32 API | |
6 | support and a port of GNU make. You can use the Cygwin ports of GCC, | |
7 | but Emacs requires the Mingw headers and libraries to build. | |
8 | ||
4bcec9a2 | 9 | If you build Emacs on Windows 9X or ME, not on Windows 2000 or |
6d76a603 | 10 | Windows NT, we suggest to install the Cygwin port of Bash. |
4bcec9a2 | 11 | |
da179dd0 | 12 | Please see http://www.mingw.org for pointers to GCC/Mingw binaries. |
a4a9692d | 13 | |
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14 | For reference, here is a list of which builds of GNU make are known |
15 | to work or not, and whether they work in the presence and/or absence | |
16 | of sh.exe, the Cygwin port of Bash. | |
17 | ||
18 | sh exists no sh | |
19 | ||
20 | cygwin b20.1 make (3.75): okay[1] fails[2] | |
21 | MSVC compiled gmake 3.77: okay okay | |
22 | MSVC compiled gmake 3.78.1: okay okay | |
23 | MSVC compiled gmake 3.79.1: okay okay | |
bf95665f | 24 | mingw32/gcc-2.92.2 make (3.77): okay okay[4] |
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25 | cygwin compiled gmake 3.77: okay[1] fails[2] |
26 | cygwin compiled gmake 3.78.1: okay fails[2] | |
27 | cygwin compiled gmake 3.79.1: couldn't build make[3] | |
28 | ||
29 | Notes: | |
30 | ||
31 | [1] doesn't cope with makefiles with DOS line endings, so must mount | |
32 | emacs source with text!=binary. | |
33 | [2] fails when needs to invoke shell commands; okay invoking gcc etc. | |
34 | [3] requires LC_MESSAGES support to build; maybe 2.95.x update to | |
35 | cygwin provides this? | |
36 | [4] may fail on Windows 9X and Windows ME; if so, install Bash. | |
37 | ||
6d76a603 | 38 | * Configuring |
a4a9692d | 39 | |
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40 | Configuration of Emacs is now handled by running configure.bat in the |
41 | nt subdirectory. It will detect which compiler you have available, | |
42 | and generate makefiles accordingly. You can override the compiler | |
43 | detection, and control optimization and debug settings, by specifying | |
44 | options on the command line when invoking configure. | |
a4a9692d | 45 | |
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46 | To configure Emacs to build with GCC or MSVC, whichever is available, |
47 | simply change to the nt subdirectory and run `configure' with no | |
48 | options. To see what options are available, run `configure --help'. | |
a4a9692d | 49 | |
17d4e22c AI |
50 | N.B. It is normal to see a few error messages output while configure |
51 | is running, when gcc support is being tested. These cannot be | |
52 | surpressed because of limitations in the Windows 9x command.com shell. | |
53 | ||
6d76a603 | 54 | * Building |
a4a9692d | 55 | |
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56 | After running configure, simply run the appropriate `make' program for |
57 | your compiler to build Emacs. For MSVC, this is nmake; for GCC, it is | |
58 | GNU make. | |
a4a9692d | 59 | |
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60 | As the files are compiled, you will see some warning messages |
61 | declaring that some functions don't return a value, or that some data | |
62 | conversions will be lossy, etc. You can safely ignore these messages. | |
63 | The warnings may be fixed in the main FSF source at some point, but | |
64 | until then we will just live with them. | |
a4a9692d | 65 | |
6d76a603 | 66 | * Installing |
a4a9692d | 67 | |
da179dd0 | 68 | To install Emacs after it has compiled, simply run `make install'. |
a4a9692d | 69 | |
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70 | By default, Emacs will be installed in the location where it was |
71 | built, but a different location can be specified either using the | |
72 | --prefix option to configure, or by setting INSTALL_DIR when running | |
73 | make, like so: | |
a4a9692d | 74 | |
da179dd0 | 75 | make install INSTALL_DIR=D:/emacs |
a4a9692d | 76 | |
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77 | The install process will run addpm to setup the registry entries, and |
78 | to create a Start menu icon for Emacs. | |
a4a9692d | 79 | |
6d76a603 | 80 | * Trouble-shooting |
a4a9692d | 81 | |
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82 | The main problems that are likely to be encountered when building |
83 | Emacs stem from using an old version of GCC, or old Mingw or W32 API | |
84 | headers. Additionally, cygwin ports of GNU make may require the Emacs | |
85 | source tree to be mounted with text!=binary, because the makefiles | |
86 | generated by configure.bat necessarily use DOS line endings. Also, | |
87 | cygwin ports of make must run in UNIX mode, either by specifying | |
88 | --unix on the command line, or MAKE_MODE=UNIX in the environment. | |
a4a9692d | 89 | |
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90 | When configure runs, it attempts to detect when GCC itself, or the |
91 | headers it is using, are not suitable for building Emacs. GCC version | |
92 | 2.95 or later is needed, because that is when the Windows port gained | |
93 | sufficient support for anonymous structs and unions to cope with some | |
94 | definitions from winnt.h that are used by addsection.c. The W32 API | |
95 | headers that come with Cygwin b20.1 are incomplete, and do not include | |
96 | some definitions required by addsection.c, for instance. Also, older | |
97 | releases of the W32 API headers from Anders Norlander contain a typo | |
98 | in the definition of IMAGE_FIRST_SECTION in winnt.h, which | |
99 | addsection.c relies on. Versions of w32api-xxx.zip from at least | |
100 | 1999-11-18 onwards are okay. | |
a4a9692d | 101 | |
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102 | If configure succeeds, but make fails, install the Cygwin port of |
103 | Bash, even if the table above indicates that Emacs should be able to | |
104 | build without sh.exe. (Some versions of Windows shells are too dumb | |
105 | for Makefile's used by Emacs.) | |
106 | ||
6d76a603 AI |
107 | If you are using a recent Cygwin build of GCC, such as Cygwin version |
108 | 1.1.8, you may need to specify some extra compiler flags like so: | |
109 | ||
110 | configure --with-gcc --cflags -mwin32 --cflags -D__MSVCRT__ | |
111 | ||
112 | We will attempt to auto-detect the need for these flags in a future | |
113 | release. | |
114 | ||
115 | * Debugging | |
a4a9692d | 116 | |
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117 | You should be able to debug Emacs using the debugger that is |
118 | appropriate for the compiler you used, namely DevStudio or Windbg if | |
119 | compiled with MSVC, or gdb if compiled with gcc. | |
120 | ||
121 | Emacs functions implemented in C use a naming convention that reflects | |
122 | their names in lisp. The names of the C routines are the lisp names | |
123 | prefixed with 'F', and with dashes converted to underscores. For | |
124 | example, the function call-process is implemented in C by | |
125 | Fcall_process. Similarly, lisp variables are prefixed with 'V', again | |
126 | with dashes converted to underscores. These conventions enable you to | |
127 | easily set breakpoints or examine familiar lisp variables by name. | |
128 | ||
129 | Since Emacs data is often in the form of a lisp object, and the | |
130 | Lisp_Object type is difficult to examine manually in the MSVC | |
131 | debugger, Emacs provides a helper routine called debug_print that | |
132 | prints out a readable representation of a Lisp_Object. (If you are | |
133 | using gdb, there is a .gdbinit file in the src directory which | |
134 | provides definitions that are useful for examining lisp objects. The | |
135 | following tips are mainly of interest when using MSVC.) The output | |
136 | from debug_print is sent to stderr, and to the debugger via the | |
137 | OutputDebugString routine. The output sent to stderr should be | |
138 | displayed in the console window that was opened when the emacs.exe | |
139 | executable was started. The output sent to the debugger should be | |
140 | displayed in its "Debug" output window. | |
141 | ||
142 | When you are in the process of debugging Emacs and you would like to | |
143 | examine the contents of a Lisp_Object variable, popup the QuickWatch | |
144 | window (QuickWatch has an eyeglass symbol on its button in the | |
145 | toolbar). In the text field at the top of the window, enter | |
146 | debug_print(<variable>) and hit return. For example, start and run | |
147 | Emacs in the debugger until it is waiting for user input. Then click | |
148 | on the Break button in the debugger to halt execution. Emacs should | |
149 | halt in ZwUserGetMessage waiting for an input event. Use the Call | |
150 | Stack window to select the procedure w32_msp_pump up the call stack | |
151 | (see below for why you have to do this). Open the QuickWatch window | |
152 | and enter debug_print(Vexec_path). Evaluating this expression will | |
153 | then print out the contents of the lisp variable exec-path. | |
154 | ||
155 | If QuickWatch reports that the symbol is unknown, then check the call | |
156 | stack in the Call Stack window. If the selected frame in the call | |
157 | stack is not an Emacs procedure, then the debugger won't recognize | |
158 | Emacs symbols. Instead, select a frame that is inside an Emacs | |
159 | procedure and try using debug_print again. | |
160 | ||
161 | If QuickWatch invokes debug_print but nothing happens, then check the | |
162 | thread that is selected in the debugger. If the selected thread is | |
163 | not the last thread to run (the "current" thread), then it cannot be | |
164 | used to execute debug_print. Use the Debug menu to select the current | |
165 | thread and try using debug_print again. Note that the debugger halts | |
166 | execution (e.g., due to a breakpoint) in the context of the current | |
167 | thread, so this should only be a problem if you've explicitly switched | |
168 | threads. |