-Copyright (C) 2001-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 2001-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end of the file for license conditions.
Emacs for Windows
- This README file describes how to set up and run a precompiled
- version of GNU Emacs for Windows. This distribution can be found on
- the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors:
+ This README.W32 file describes how to set up and run a precompiled
+ distribution of GNU Emacs for Windows. You can find the precompiled
+ distribution on the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors:
- ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs
source distribution and a barebin distribution which can be installed
over it, as well as older releases of Emacs for Windows.
- Answers to frequently asked questions, and further information about
- this port of GNU Emacs and related software packages can be found via
- http:
-
- http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
+ Information on how to compile Emacs from sources on Windows is in
+ the files README and INSTALL in this directory. If you received
+ this file as part of the Emacs source distribution, please read
+ those 2 files and not this one.
* Preliminaries
- Along with this file should be six subdirectories (bin, etc, info,
- lisp, leim, site-lisp). If you have downloaded the barebin
- distribution, then it will contain only the bin directory and the
- built in documentation in etc/DOC-X, the rest of the subdirectories
- are in the src distribution, which the barebin distribution is
- designed to be used with.
+ Along with this file should be four subdirectories (bin, libexec,
+ share, and var).
* Setting up Emacs
directly from a CD or USB flash drive without copying or installing
anything on the machine itself.
+* Prerequisites for Windows 9X
+
+ To run Emacs on Windows 9X (Windows 95/98/Me), you will need to have
+ the Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU) installed. It can be
+ downloaded from the Microsoft site, and comes in a form of a single
+ dynamic library called UNICOWS.DLL. If this library is not
+ accessible to Emacs, it will pop up a dialog saying that it cannot
+ find the library, and will refuse to start up a GUI session.
+ (However, it is still possible to use Emacs in text mode, even
+ without UNICOWS.DLL, by invoking it as "emacs -nw", see below.)
+
* Starting Emacs
To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
+ runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
- without popping up a command prompt window.
+ without popping up a command prompt window. If you create a
+ desktop shortcut for invoking Emacs, make it point to this
+ executable, not to emacs.exe.
+ emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
+ addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
Running this is optional.
- + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
- the native shells in various versions of Windows.
-
+ ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the
`Tags' node of the Emacs manual.
+ ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the
`Ebrowse' manual.
- + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers.
+ Several helper programs are in a version-specific subdirectory of
+ the libexec directory:
+
+ + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
+ the native shells in various versions of Windows.
+
+ + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers. To be
+ invoked as "ddeclient SERVER [TOPIC]", where SERVER is the DDE
+ server name, and sends each line of its standard input to the DDE
+ server using the DdeClientTransaction API. This program is
+ supposed to be invoked via the 'call-process-region' Emacs
+ primitive.
- + hexl.exe - A tool for converting files to hex dumps. See the
+ + hexl.exe - A tool for producing hex dumps of binary files. See the
`Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
+ movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the
`Movemail' node of the Emacs manual.
+ + profile.exe - A helper program that generates periodic events for
+ profiling Emacs Lisp code.
+
+ + update-game-score.exe - A utility for updating the score files of
+ Emacs games.
+
* Image support
Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the
- libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color
- toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available
- on the same place as you got this binary distribution from. The version
- of libXpm bundled with this version of Emacs is 3.5.7, based on x.org's
- libXpm library from X11R7.3.
+ libraries. These libraries are all available on the following sites:
+
+ 1. http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/
+ -- leaner, more up-to-date builds, only for 32-bit Emacs
+ 2. http://www.gtk.org/download/win32.php
+ http://www.gtk.org/download/win64.php
+ -- GTK project site; offers much fatter builds, but includes 64-bit
+ DLLs
+ 3. GnuWin32 project -- very old builds, not recommended
+
+ Emacs will find these libraries if the directory they are installed
+ in is on the PATH.
Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate
libraries. These libraries are all available as part of GTK
- download for Windows (http://www.gtk.org/download-windows.html), or
+ download for Windows (http://www.gtk.org/download/win32.php), or
from the GnuWin32 project. Emacs will find them if the directory
they are installed in is on the PATH.
PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will
- be named libpng14.dll or libpng14-14.dll. LibPNG requires zlib,
+ be named libpngNN.dll or libpngNN-NN.dll. LibPNG requires zlib,
which should come from the same source as you got libpng.
Starting with Emacs 23.3, the precompiled Emacs binaries are
built with libpng 1.4.x and later, and are incompatible with
the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download
newer versions.
- JPEG: requires the Independant JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
+ JPEG: requires the Independent JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll.
TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll
or libtiff.dll.
GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
- called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.
+ called libgif-6.dll, giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.
+
+ SVG: requires librsvg 2.x whose DLL will be called
+ librsvg-2-2.dll. SVG also requires several dependency DLLs,
+ such as Pango, Cairo, and Glib, all of them found on the
+ above-mentioned sites. If you download from the ezwinports
+ site, you need only librsvg-2.nn.x-bin.zip, it comes with all
+ the other dependencies bundled.
If you have image support DLLs under different names, customize the
value of `dynamic-library-alist'.
the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so is not an error,
but GnuTLS won't be available to the running session.
+ You can get pre-built binaries (including any dependency DLLs) at
+ http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/.
+
+* libxml2 support
+
+ In order to support libxml2 at runtime, a libxml2-enabled Emacs must
+ be able to find the relevant DLLs during startup; failure to do so
+ is not an error, but libxml2 features won't be available to the
+ running session.
+
You can get pre-built binaries (including any required DLL and the
- gnutls.h file) and an installer at http://josefsson.org/gnutls4win/.
+ header files) at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/.
* Uninstalling Emacs
truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted
while unpacking and Emacs will not start.
+ * On Windows 9X, make sure you have the UNICOWS.DLL library either
+ in the same directory where you have emacs.exe or in the
+ directory where system-wide DLLs are kept.
+
If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
below.
* Further information
- If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
- your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
- already):
-
- http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
+ The FAQ for the MS Windows port of Emacs is distributed with Emacs
+ (info manual "efaq-w32"), and also available at
- This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information
- about the Windows port and related software packages.
+ http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/efaq-w32.html
In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues
related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the
HCoop / bpt / emacs.git / blobdiff