annotate nt/INSTALL @ 28064:34cb92c8c3e4

(comint-exec-1): Add the current-dir to the exec-path when the command has a directory component (such as "./testml"). Also fix a typo in the comment.

		      Building and Installing Emacs
		      on Windows NT and Windows 95

You need a compiler package to build and install Emacs on NT or Win95.
If you don't have one, precompiled versions are available in
ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/ntemacs/<version>.

Configuring:

(1) In previous versions, you needed to edit makefile.def
    to reflect the compiler package that you are using.  You should no
    longer have to do this if you have defined the INCLUDE and LIB 
    environment variables, as is customary for use with Windows compilers.
    (Unless you are using MSVCNT 1.1, in which case you will need
    to set MSVCNT11 to be a non-zero value at the top of makefile.def.)

(2) Choose the directory into which Emacs will be installed, and
    edit makefile.def to define INSTALL_DIR to be this directory.  
    (Alternatively, if you have INSTALL_DIR set as an environment
    variable, the build process will ignore the value in makefile.def
    and use the value of the environment variable instead.)  Note 
    that if it is not installed in the directory in which it is built,
    the ~16 MB of lisp files will be copied into the installation directory.

    Also, makefile.def is sometimes unpacked read-only; use
   
    > attrib -r makefile.def

    to make it writable.

(3) You may need to edit nt/paths.h to specify some other device
    instead of `C:'.

Building:

(4) The target to compile the sources is "all", and is recursive starting 
    one directory up.  The makefiles for the NT port are in files named 
    "makefile.nt".  To get things started, type in this directory:

    > nmake -f makefile.nt all

    or use the ebuild.bat file.

    When the files are compiled, you will see some warning messages declaring
    that some functions don't return a value, or that some data conversions
    will be lossy, etc.  You can safely ignore these messages.  The warnings
    may be fixed in the main FSF source at some point, but until then we
    will just live with them.

    NOTE: You should not have to edit src\paths.h to get Emacs to run
    correctly.  All of the variables in src\paths.h are configured
    during start up using the nt\emacs.bat file (which gets installed 
    as bin\emacs.bat -- see below).

Installing:

(5) Currently, Emacs requires a number of environment variables to be set
    for it to run correctly.  A batch file, emacs.bat, is provided that 
    sets these variables appropriately and then runs the executable
    (emacs.bat is generated using the definition of INSTALL_DIR in
    nt\makefile.def and the contents of nt\emacs.bat.in).

(6) The install process will install the files necessary to run Emacs in 
    INSTALL_DIR (which may be the directory in which it was built), 
    and create a program manager/folder icon in a folder called GNU Emacs.
    From this directory, type:

    > nmake -f makefile.nt install

    or use the install.bat file.

(7) Create the Emacs startup file.  This file can be named either .emacs,
    as on Unix, or _emacs.  Note that Emacs requires the environment 
    variable HOME to be set in order for it to locate the startup file.  
    HOME could be set, for example, in the System panel of the Control
    Panel on NT, or in autoexec.bat on Win95.

(8) Start up Emacs.

    The installation process should have run the addpm.exe program, which
    does two things.  First, it will create a set of registry keys that
    tell Emacs where to find its support files (lisp, info, etc.).
    Second, it will create a folder containing an icon linked to
    runemacs.exe (a wrapper program for invoking Emacs).  You can
    also invoke addpm.exe by hand, giving the absolute directory name
    of the installation directory as the first argument:

        addpm.exe %INSTALL_DIR%

    Now, to run Emacs, simply click on the icon in the newly created
    folder or invoke runemacs.exe from a command prompt.

    Another alternative for running Emacs is to use the emacs.bat batch
    file in the bin directory (this was the traditional method of invoking
    Emacs).  Edit the emacs.bat file to change the emacs_dir environment
    variable to point to the Emacs installation directory and invoke the
    emacs.bat file to run Emacs.

    Note that, on Win95, you are likely to get "Out of environment space"
    messages when invoking the emacs.bat batch file.  The problem is that
    the console process in which the script is executed runs out of memory
    in which to set the Emacs environment variables.  To get around this
    problem, create a shortcut icon to the emacs.bat script.  Then right
    click on the icon and select Properties.  In the dialog box that pops
    up, select the Memory tab and then change the Environment memory
    allocation from "Auto" to "1024".  Close the dialog box and then
    double click on the icon to start Emacs.

Debugging:

(9) You should be able to debug Emacs using the MSVC debugger as you would
    any other program.  To ensure that Emacs uses the lisp files associated
    with the source distribution that you are debugging, it is useful
    to set the Emacs environment variables to point Emacs to the
    source distribution.  You can use the debug.bat batch file in this
    directory to setup the environment and invoke msdev on the
    emacs.exe executable.

    Emacs functions implemented in C use a naming convention that
    reflects their names in lisp.  The names of the C routines are
    the lisp names prefixed with 'F', and with dashes converted to 
    underscores.  For example, the function call-process is implemented
    in C by Fcall_process.  Similarly, lisp variables are prefixed
    with 'V', again with dashes converted to underscores.  These 
    conventions enable you to easily set breakpoints or examine familiar
    lisp variables by name.

    Since Emacs data is often in the form of a lisp object, and the
    Lisp_Object type is difficult to examine manually in the debugger,
    Emacs provides a helper routine called debug_print that prints out
    a readable representation of a Lisp_Object.  The output from 
    debug_print is sent to stderr, and to the debugger via the
    OutputDebugString routine.  The output sent to stderr should be
    displayed in the console window that was opened when the emacs.exe
    executable was started.  The output sent to the debugger should be
    displayed in its "Debug" output window.

    When you are in the process of debugging Emacs and you would like
    to examine the contents of a Lisp_Object variable, popup the
    QuickWatch window (QuickWatch has an eyeglass symbol on its button
    in the toolbar).  In the text field at the top of the window, enter
    debug_print(<variable>) and hit return.  For example, start
    and run Emacs in the debugger until it is waiting for user input.
    Then click on the Break button in the debugger to halt execution.
    Emacs should halt in ZwUserGetMessage waiting for an input event.
    Use the Call Stack window to select the procedure w32_msp_pump
    up the call stack (see below for why you have to do this).  Open
    the QuickWatch window and enter debug_print(Vexec_path).  Evaluating
    this expression will then print out the contents of the lisp
    variable exec-path.

    If QuickWatch reports that the symbol is unknown, then check the
    call stack in the Call Stack window.  If the selected frame in the
    call stack is not an Emacs procedure, then the debugger won't
    recognize Emacs symbols.  Instead, select a frame that is inside
    an Emacs procedure and try using debug_print again.

    If QuickWatch invokes debug_print but nothing happens, then check
    the thread that is selected in the debugger.  If the selected
    thread is not the last thread to run (the "current" thread), then
    it cannot be used to execute debug_print.  Use the Debug menu
    to select the current thread and try using debug_print again.
    Note that the debugger halts execution (e.g., due to a breakpoint)
    in the context of the current thread, so this should only be a problem
    if you've explicitly switched threads.