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Emacs for Windows NT/2000 and Windows 95/98/ME
Copyright (C) 2001-2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end of the file for license conditions.
This directory contains support for compiling and running GNU Emacs on
Windows NT, Windows 95, and their successors. This port supports all
of the major functionality of the Unix version, including
subprocesses, windowing features (fonts, colors, scroll bars, multiple
frames, etc.), and networking support.
Precompiled distributions are also available; see:
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
for the latest precompiled distributions.
* Building and installing
See the INSTALL file in this directory for detailed instructions on
building and installing Emacs on your system.
* EXE files produced
Building and installing Emacs will produce 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 installed 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.
* Further information
The Emacs User manual describes Windows-specific issues in the
appendix named "Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS". You can read
it in Emacs by typing
C-h r g Microsoft Windows RET
This appendix is also available (as part of the entire manual) at
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/emacs.html#Microsoft-Windows
In addition to the manual, there is a mailing list for discussing
issues related to the Windows port of Emacs. For information about
the list, see this Web page:
https://mail.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 https://mail.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 file etc/PROBLEMS and the FAQ on the web
page above to see if the bug is already known and if there are any
workarounds. If not, then check whether the bug has something to do
with code in your .emacs file, e.g. by invoking Emacs with the "-Q"
option.
Use the built in bug reporting functionality in Emacs so that it
will be seen by the right people. You can use the command M-x
report-emacs-bug to create and send the bug report.
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 <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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