1 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
2 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end of the file for license conditions.
7 This README file describes how to set up and run a precompiled
8 version of GNU Emacs for Windows. This distribution can be found on
9 the ftp.gnu.org server and its mirrors:
11 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
13 This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs
14 source distribution and a barebin distribution which can be installed
15 over it, as well as older releases of Emacs for Windows.
17 Answers to frequently asked questions, and further information about
18 this port of GNU Emacs and related software packages can be found via
21 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
25 Along with this file should be six subdirectories (bin, etc, info,
26 lisp, leim, site-lisp). If you have downloaded the barebin
27 distribution, then it will contain only the bin directory and the
28 built in documentation in etc/DOC-X, the rest of the subdirectories
29 are in the src distribution, which the barebin distribution is
30 designed to be used with.
34 To install Emacs, simply unpack all the files into a directory of
35 your choice, but note that you might encounter minor problems if
36 there is a space anywhere in the directory name. To complete the
37 installation process, you can optionally run the program addpm.exe
38 in the bin subdirectory. This will put an icon for Emacs in the
39 Start Menu under "Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs".
41 Some users have reported that the Start Menu item is not created for
42 them. If this happens, just create your own shortcut to runemacs.exe,
43 eg. by dragging it on to the desktop or the Start button.
45 Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to
46 locate all of its files without needing any information to be set in
47 the environment or the registry, although such settings will still
48 be obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a
49 machine which disallows registry changes, or on which software
50 should not be installed. For instance, you can now run Emacs
51 directly from a CD or USB flash drive without copying or installing
52 anything on the machine itself.
56 To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
57 runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or from a command prompt. This
58 will start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have
59 never used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this
60 point (select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is
61 quite different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects.
63 If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command
64 window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt.
65 (Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in
66 your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw
67 (non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet
68 server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely.
72 Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory.
74 + emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run
75 as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application,
76 it will pop up a command prompt window if run directly from Explorer.
78 + runemacs.exe - A wrapper for running Emacs as a GUI application
79 without popping up a command prompt window.
81 + emacsclient.exe - A command-line client program that can
82 communicate with a running Emacs process. See the `Emacs Server'
83 node of the Emacs manual.
85 + emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open
86 a command-line window.
88 + addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
89 Running this is optional.
91 + cmdproxy.exe - Used internally by Emacs to work around problems with
92 the native shells in various versions of Windows.
94 + ctags.exe, etags.exe - Tools for generating tag files. See the
95 `Tags' node of the Emacs manual.
97 + ebrowse.exe - A tool for generating C++ browse information. See the
100 + ddeclient.exe - A tool for interacting with DDE servers.
102 + hexl.exe - A tool for converting files to hex dumps. See the
103 `Editing Binary Files' node of the Emacs manual.
105 + movemail.exe - A helper application for safely moving mail from
106 a mail spool or POP server to a local user mailbox. See the
107 `Movemail' node of the Emacs manual.
111 Emacs has built in support for XBM and PPM/PGM/PBM images, and the
112 libXpm library is bundled, providing XPM support (required for color
113 toolbar icons and splash screen). Source for libXpm should be available
114 on the same place as you got this binary distribution from. The version
115 of libXpm bundled with this version of Emacs is 3.5.7, based on x.org's
116 libXpm library from X11R7.3.
118 Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate
119 libraries. These libraries are all available as part of GTK
120 download for Windows (http://www.gtk.org/download-windows.html), or
121 from the GnuWin32 project. Emacs will find them if the directory
122 they are installed in is on the PATH.
124 PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will
125 be named libpng14.dll or libpng14-14.dll. LibPNG requires zlib,
126 which should come from the same source as you got libpng.
127 Starting with Emacs 23.3, the precompiled Emacs binaries are
128 built with libpng 1.4.x and later, and are incompatible with
129 earlier versions of libpng DLLs. So if you have libpng 1.2.x,
130 the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download
133 JPEG: requires the Independant JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
134 which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll.
136 TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll
139 GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
140 called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.
142 If you have image support DLLs under different names, customize the
143 value of `dynamic-library-alist'.
145 In addition, Emacs can be compiled to support SVG. This precompiled
146 distribution has not been compiled that way, since the SVG library
147 or one or more of its extensive dependencies appear to be
148 unreliable under Windows. See nt/INSTALL in the src distribution if
149 you wish to compile Emacs with SVG support.
153 If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files
154 and subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs
155 does not install or update any files in system directories or
156 anywhere else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the
157 registry entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the
158 registry entries using regedit. All of the settings are written
159 under the Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you
160 didn't have administrator privileges when you installed, the same
161 key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just delete the whole Software\GNU\Emacs
164 The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Task bar
165 and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start
166 Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with
167 administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button
168 and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.)
172 Unpacking the distributions
174 If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of
175 possible causes. Check the following for indications that the
176 distribution was not corrupted by the tools used to unpack it:
178 * Be sure to disable CR/LF translation or the executables will
179 be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this
180 translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it.
181 (I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific
182 commands necessary to disable it.)
184 * Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example,
185 there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been
186 truncated to abbrevli.elc, your distribution has been corrupted
187 while unpacking and Emacs will not start.
189 If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
190 still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
195 Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you
196 are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or
197 McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector
198 scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties).
200 * Further information
202 If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
203 your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
206 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/
208 This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information
209 about the Windows port and related software packages.
211 In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues
212 related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about the
213 list, see this Web page:
215 http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows
217 To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
218 help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
219 To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
220 find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as
223 Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
224 overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
225 These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't
226 specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
227 for seeking help are:
232 There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
233 updated Emacs packages on this group:
239 If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear
240 about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug
241 is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether
242 the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by
243 invoking Emacs with the "-Q" option.
245 If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs, use the built in bug
246 reporting facility to report it (from the menu; Help -> Send Bug Report).
247 If you have not yet configured Emacs for mail, then when you press
248 C-c C-c to send the report, it will ask you to paste the text of the
249 report into your mail client. If the bug is related to subprocesses,
250 also specify which shell you are using (e.g., include the values of
251 `shell-file-name' and `explicit-shell-file-name' in your message).
256 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
258 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
259 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
260 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
261 (at your option) any later version.
263 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
264 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
265 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
266 GNU General Public License for more details.
268 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
269 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.