How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[Marcin Borkowski]

Hi all,

I'm on GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1, but I'd like to have an older Emacs
installed, too.  What is the fastest way to achive that?  (I would
prefer to compile from source - I have the Git repository anyway, though
only shallow clone, but I can clone the whole thing, too.)

TIA,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl>
> Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:23:43 +0200
> 
> I'm on GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1, but I'd like to have an older Emacs
> installed, too.  What is the fastest way to achive that?  (I would
> prefer to compile from source - I have the Git repository anyway, though
> only shallow clone, but I can clone the whole thing, too.)

Just do it, it's already supported.  When say "make install", 2
identical binaries are installed, one of them with the name
"emacs-X.Y.Z", the other called just "emacs".  The latter will be
overwritten on the next install, but the former stays.  And each
version has its own share/emacs/ subdirectory.

IOW, it should "just work".

Re: How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[Kaushal Modi]

I use this script to install the different versions of emacs on the same
machine without root access:
https://gist.github.com/kaushalmodi/8a39c21bf32ae5e4e31b

There's another little script (work proprietary) using which I update the
PATH, MANPATH and INFOPATH env vars.

I then set up version specific directories/files for stuff like elpa/,
custom.el, etc in my emacs config:
https://github.com/search?type=Code&q=extension:el+user:kaushalmodi+emacs-version-short


--
Kaushal Modi

On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 2:23 PM, Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm on GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1, but I'd like to have an older Emacs
> installed, too.  What is the fastest way to achive that?  (I would
> prefer to compile from source - I have the Git repository anyway, though
> only shallow clone, but I can clone the whole thing, too.)
>
> TIA,
>
> --
> Marcin Borkowski
> http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
> Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
> Adam Mickiewicz University
>
>

Re: How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[Bob Proulx]

Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> I'm on GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1, but I'd like to have an older Emacs
> installed, too.  What is the fastest way to achive that?  (I would
> prefer to compile from source - I have the Git repository anyway, though
> only shallow clone, but I can clone the whole thing, too.)

You have previously mentioned that you are running Ubuntu.  In which
case it should be the same as my Debian.  Just install the other
versions.  They will install side by side without conflict.

  apt-get install emacs24
  apt-get install emacs23
  ...

Or use one of the varients.  I am partial to emacs24-lucid for
graphical desktops and emacs24-nox for headless servers.

Bob

Re: How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[Emanuel Berg]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> writes:

> I'm on GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1, but I'd like to have an
> older Emacs installed, too. What is the fastest way
> to achive that? (I would prefer to compile from
> source - I have the Git repository anyway, though
> only shallow clone, but I can clone the whole
> thing, too.)

Generally speaking use your distro's package manager,
but as you say you want to compile it from the source,
then the answer is, get the source, and compile it.
Are you afraid the compilation process will mess up
the other version(s)? That shouldn't happen.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[Oleh Krehel]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm on GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1, but I'd like to have an older Emacs
> installed, too.  What is the fastest way to achive that?  (I would
> prefer to compile from source - I have the Git repository anyway, though
> only shallow clone, but I can clone the whole thing, too.)

I've soft-linked:

- /usr/local/bin/emacs to /usr/local/bin/emacs-24.5
- /usr/local/bin/newemacs to /home/oleh/git/gnu-emacs/src/emacs

This way I always have access to the newest git version with only "make"
(no "make install"). And also to the latest stable version in case the
git version breaks.

As for the Git repository, currently it's 742M in the compiled
state. I'm sure the download amount is much less.

    Oleh

Re: How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[Tassilo Horn]

Oleh Krehel <ohwoeowho@gmail.com> writes:

>> I'm on GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1, but I'd like to have an older Emacs
>> installed, too.  What is the fastest way to achive that?  (I would
>> prefer to compile from source - I have the Git repository anyway,
>> though only shallow clone, but I can clone the whole thing, too.)
>
> I've soft-linked:
>
> - /usr/local/bin/emacs to /usr/local/bin/emacs-24.5
> - /usr/local/bin/newemacs to /home/oleh/git/gnu-emacs/src/emacs

Same for me except that "emacs" is the bleeding edge version and for the
current release I have to use emacs-24.5.

> This way I always have access to the newest git version with only
> "make" (no "make install").  And also to the latest stable version in
> case the git version breaks.

Too bad my ~/.emacs already contains code which won't work on 24.5.  But
that's a good thing.  If the HEAD breaks, I'm forced to bisect for the
last working commit, and then most of the effort of a good bug report is
done already. ;-)

> As for the Git repository, currently it's 742M in the compiled
> state. I'm sure the download amount is much less.

Yes, mine which contains some local branches and stuff is about 800 MB,
too.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: How to install several Emacs versions on the same system?

[J G Miller]

On Wednesday, October 7th, 2015, at 16:28:20h +0200, Oleh Krehel wrote:

> This way I always have access to the newest git version with only "make"
> (no "make install"). And also to the latest stable version in case the
> git version breaks.

May I suggest that you have a look at the "stow" utility which allows
multiple versions of "locally installed from source" software to be present
on a system and allows for very easy removal.

    <http://blog.danieroux.COM/2005/08/07/using-gnu-stow-to-manage-source-installs/>

Latest version of stow at

    <https://github.COM/aspiers/stow>

Under a stow build (using prefix /usr/local) and install
(to install-prefix or DESTDIR /usr/local/stow/{package_name}
you can then see all your locally installed from source
software under /usr/local/stow.

You can activate/deactivate which ones appear in the path with the
stow/unstow method, or even have multiple versions present if they are have
version dependent installation directories and names eg
emacs-23, emacs-24 rather than just emacs.