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Copyright (C) 2001-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end of the file for license conditions.
Emacs for Windows
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/
This server contains other distributions, including the full Emacs
source distribution, as well as older releases of Emacs for Windows.
Information on how to compile Emacs from sources on Windows is in
the files README and INSTALL in the nt/ sub-directory of the
top-level Emacs directory in the source distribution. If you
received this file as part of the Emacs source distribution, and are
looking for information on how to build Emacs on MS-Windows, please
read those 2 files and not this one.
* Preliminaries
The binary distribution has these top-level directories:
+ bin
+ libexec
+ share
+ var
* Setting up Emacs
To install Emacs, simply unpack the binary package into a directory
of your choice. To complete the installation process, you can
optionally run the program addpm.exe in the bin subdirectory. This
will put an icon for Emacs in the Start Menu under
"Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs".
Some users have reported that the Start Menu item is not created for
them. If this happens, just create your own shortcut to runemacs.exe,
eg. by dragging it on to the desktop or the Start button.
Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to
locate all of its files without needing any information to be set in
the environment or the registry, although such settings will still
be obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a
machine which disallows registry changes, or on which software
should not be installed. For instance, you can now run 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.
* Starting Emacs
To run Emacs, simply select Emacs from the Start Menu, or invoke
runemacs.exe directly from Explorer or from a command prompt. This
will start Emacs in its default GUI mode, ready to use. If you have
never used Emacs before, you should follow the tutorial at this
point (select Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu), since Emacs is
quite different from ordinary Windows applications in many respects.
If you want to use Emacs in tty or character mode within a command
window, you can start it by typing "emacs -nw" at the command prompt.
(Obviously, you need to ensure that the Emacs bin subdirectory is in
your PATH first, or specify the path to emacs.exe.) The -nw
(non-windowed) mode of operation is most useful if you have a telnet
server on your machine, allowing you to run Emacs remotely.
* EXE files included
Emacs comes with the following executable files in the bin directory.
+ emacs.exe - The main Emacs executable. As this is designed to run
as both a text-mode application (emacs -nw) and as a GUI application,
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. 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'
node of the Emacs manual.
+ emacsclientw.exe - A version of emacsclient that does not open
a command-line window.
+ addpm.exe - A basic installer that creates Start Menu icons for Emacs.
Running this is optional.
+ 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.
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 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
from the same place from which you got this binary distribution.
Emacs can also support some other image formats with appropriate
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
-- the GTK project site; offers much fatter builds, but includes
64-bit DLLs (from the 2nd URL)
3. GnuWin32 project -- very old builds, not recommended
The libraries to download are mentioned below. Some libraries
depend on others that need to be downloaded separately from the same
site; please consult the download instructions on each site for the
details. In general, the ezwinports site mentioned above has all
the dependencies bundled in the same zip archive, so installing from
there is the easiest.
Emacs will find these libraries if the directory they are installed
in is on the PATH or in the same directory where you have emacs.exe.
Here are some specific comments about each image type:
PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.4 or later, which will
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
earlier versions of libpng DLLs. So if you have libpng 1.2.x,
the PNG support will not work, and you will have to download
newer versions.
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 libtiffN.dll
or libtiff-N.dll or libtiff.dll.
GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
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.mm-x-w32-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'.
* GnuTLS support
GnuTLS provides SSL/TLS network support for Emacs (https, imaps and
so on.)
In order to support GnuTLS at runtime, Emacs must be able to find
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
libxml2 provides HTML parsing support for Emacs, which is necessary
to use the built-in eww browser.
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
header files) at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/files/.
* Uninstalling Emacs
If you should need to uninstall Emacs, simply delete all the files
and subdirectories from the directory where it was unpacked (Emacs
does not install or update any files in system directories or
anywhere else). If you ran the addpm.exe program to create the
registry entries and the Start menu icon, then you can remove the
registry entries using regedit. All of the settings are written
under the Software\GNU\Emacs key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, or if you
didn't have administrator privileges when you installed, the same
key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Just delete the whole Software\GNU\Emacs
key.
The Start menu entry can be removed by right-clicking on the Taskbar
and selecting Properties, then using the Remove option on the Start
Menu Programs page. (If you installed under an account with
administrator privileges, then you need to click the Advanced button
and look for the Gnu Emacs menu item under All Users.)
* Troubleshooting
Unpacking the distributions
If you encounter trouble trying to run Emacs, there are a number of
possible causes. Check the following for indications that the
distribution was not corrupted by the tools used to unpack it:
* Be sure to disable CR/LF translation or the executables will
be unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this
translation by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it.
(I don't have WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific
commands necessary to disable it.)
* Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example,
there should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.elc; if this has been
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.
Virus scanners
Some virus scanners interfere with Emacs' use of subprocesses. If you
are unable to use subprocesses and you use Dr. Solomon's WinGuard or
McAfee's Vshield, turn off "Scan all files" (WinGuard) or "boot sector
scanning" (McAfee exclusion properties).
* Further information
The FAQ for the MS Windows port of Emacs is distributed with Emacs
(info manual "efaq-w32"), and also available at
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
list, see this Web page:
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows
To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
help-emacs-windows@gnu.org. (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
find at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows as
explained there.
Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
These are particularly good for help with general issues which aren't
specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
for seeking help are:
gnu.emacs.help
comp.emacs
There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
updated Emacs packages on this group:
gnu.emacs.sources
* Reporting bugs
If you encounter a bug in this port of Emacs, we would like to hear
about it. First check the FAQ on the web page above to see if the bug
is already known and if there are any workarounds. Then check whether
the bug has something to do with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by
invoking Emacs with the "-Q" option.
If you decide that it is a bug in Emacs, use the built in bug
reporting facility to report it (from the menu; Help -> Send Bug Report).
If you have not yet configured Emacs for mail, then when you press
C-c C-c to send the report, it will ask you to paste the text of the
report into your mail client. If the bug is related to subprocesses,
also specify which shell you are using (e.g., include the values of
`shell-file-name' and `explicit-shell-file-name' in your message).
Enjoy!
This file is part of GNU Emacs.
GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.