From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Dan Mack Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Compiling Emacs from Source Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2017 10:32:33 -0600 Message-ID: References: <87d14w4byu.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1510159265 29472 195.159.176.226 (8 Nov 2017 16:41:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2017 16:41:05 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.3 (darwin) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Robert Thorpe Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Nov 08 17:40:59 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eCTPO-0007KS-CA for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 17:40:58 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:60757 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCTPV-0007Zg-Iq for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 11:41:05 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:50043) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCTHM-0005GC-7f for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 11:32:41 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCTHJ-00075W-3W for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 11:32:40 -0500 Original-Received: from gw.macktronics.com ([209.181.253.70]:18919 helo=borg.macktronics.com) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCTHI-00074T-TO for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 11:32:37 -0500 Original-Received: from pandora.lan (olive.macktronics.com [209.181.253.66]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by borg.macktronics.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 40BFD75B; Wed, 8 Nov 2017 10:32:34 -0600 (CST) In-Reply-To: <87d14w4byu.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> (Robert Thorpe's message of "Sun, 05 Nov 2017 22:06:33 +0000") X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: FreeBSD 9.x [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 209.181.253.70 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 08 Nov 2017 11:40:23 -0500 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:114813 Archived-At: Robert Thorpe writes: > 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? > > BR, > Robert Thorpe My two cents - The GNU software build process has been refreshingly consistent for decades. If you use the tar-balls from https://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/, you can usually just follow the basic algorithm: - untar the tarball - cd pkg-ver.min/ - ./configure --help Often, the "special" non universial options to configure will be documented in the output if you pass "--help" - this might vary from package to package but has served me well since around 1990 or so. The GNU pakcages usually have a "INSTALL" file which gives build instructions as well. Also, if you are building from source on MacOS you can start with the build scripts here: https://github.com/caldwell/build-emacs.git As for cherry picking options, this can really vary based on how you are going to use Emacs and your platform. As above, I usually take the time to read the output of configure with --help first and read through the output and think about which ones I want on/off/set/unset etc. After a few builds, I come up with my personal "standard" - YMMV. Good luck, Dan