Re: Compiling Emacs from Source

[John Mastro <john.b.mastro@gmail.com>]

Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> wrote:
>> Recently there was some discussion about
>> upgrading Emacs. Package managers and distros
>> were discussed.
>>
>> I have a more basic question. The distro I'm
>> using doesn't provide Emacs 25, I'm still on
>> 24.4. So, I want to compile Emacs 25.
>>
>> The problem for me is the configuration
>> flags. I don't understand them that well.
>> What configuration flags would this
>> list recommend?
>
> I think it is very difficult to give a good
> answer *in general*... Isn't there a tutorial
> somewhere how to compile Emacs? Or even better,
> a script that figures it out for you :)
>
> I'm going to compile the latest version right
> now because I have an issue with Gnus and
> SSL/TLS, and got the suggestion I upgrade
> Emacs, so if that makes me any wiser with
> respect to this question I'll get back with
> details :)

For no-X builds, I use:

./configure --with-xml2 --with-zlib --with-gnutls \
    --with-x-toolkit=no --without-xpm --without-jpeg --without-tiff \
    --without-gif --without-png --without-pop --without-compress-install

For builds with X support, I use:

./configure --with-xml2 --with-zlib --with-gnutls --with-imagemagick \
    --with-x-toolkit=lucid --with-xft --with-libotf --with-m17n-flt \
    --without-pop --without-compress-install

To be honest, I don't know if e.g. "--with-gnutls" is really necessary
or if it would be auto-detected, so much of this may be redundant.

        John