annotate admin/nt/README-ftp-server @ 77866:fadb06e1e355

Changes suggested by Eli to clarify the purpose of the various files, including 21.3. Add notes on obtaining image support.

		      Precompiled Distributions of
			   Emacs for Windows

			      Version 22.1

			     May 22, 2007
		
  This directory contains source and precompiled distributions for GNU
  Emacs on Windows NT/2000/XP and Windows 95/98/Me.  This port is a
  part of the standard GNU Emacs distribution from the Free Software
  Foundation; the precompiled distributions are provided here for
  convenience since the majority of Windows users are not accustomed
  to compiling programs themselves.

  If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
  your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
  already):

	http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html

  The above web document is a far more complete version of this README
  file.  If you don't have access to the Web, however, then read on.


* IMPORTANT LEGAL REMINDER

  If you want to redistribute any of the precompiled distributions of
  Emacs, be careful to check the implications of the GPL.  For instance,
  if you put the emacs-22.1-bin-i386.tar.gz file from this directory on
  an Internet site, you must arrange to distribute the source files of
  the SAME version (i.e. ../emacs-22.1.tar.gz).

  Making a link to our copy of the source is NOT sufficient, since we
  might upgrade to a new version while you are still distributing the
  old binaries.


* Files in this directory

  + emacs-22.1-bin-i386.zip
    Windows binaries of Emacs-22.1, with all lisp code and documentation
    included.

    Download this file if you want a single installation package, and
    are not interested in the C source code for Emacs. After
    unpacking, you can optionally run the file bin/addpm.exe to have
    Emacs add icons to the Start Menu.

    If you need the C source code at a later date, it will be safe to
    unpack the source distribution on top of this installation.

  + emacs-22.1-barebin-i386.zip
    Windows binaries of Emacs-22.1, without lisp code or documentation.

    Download this file if you already have the source distribution, or
    if you need to redump the emacs.exe executable.

    Unpack this over the top of either the source distribution or the
    bin distribution above. It contains the bin subdirectory and etc/DOC
    file, plus temacs.exe and dump.bat, which are required if you want to
    redump emacs without recompiling it.

  + emacs-21.3-bin-i386.tar.gz
    Windows binaries of Emacs 21.3, with compiled lisp code and some
    documentation included.

    This is provided for users who require the older version.

  + emacs-21.3-leim.tar.gz
    Compiled lisp input methods. This optional addition to Emacs-21.3
    is required if you want to enter languages that are not directly
    supported by your keyboard.

* Image support

  Emacs 22.1 contains support for images, however for most image formats
  supporting libraries are required.  This distribution has been tested
  with the libraries that are distributed with GTK for Windows, and the
  libraries found at http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. The following image
  formats are supported:

      PBM/PGM/PPM: Supported natively by Emacs. This format is used for
      the black and white versions of the toolbar icons.

      XPM: requires a Windows port of the XPM library 3.4 or later,
      which will be named xpm4.dll, libxpm-nox4.dll or
      libxpm.dll. This format is used for the color versions of the
      toolbar icons, and other images in Emacs.

      PNG: requires the PNG reference library 1.2 or later, which will
      be named libpng13d.dll, libpng13.dll, libpng12d.dll, libpng12.dll
      or libpng.dll. LibPNG requires zlib, which should come from the same
      source as you got libpng.

      JPEG: requires the Independant JPEG Group's libjpeg 6b or later,
      which will be called jpeg62.dll, libjpeg.dll, jpeg-62.dll or jpeg.dll.

      TIFF: requires libTIFF 3.0 or later, which will be called libtiff3.dll
      or libtiff.dll.

      GIF: requires libungif or giflib 4.1 or later, which will be
      called giflib4.dll, libungif4.dll or libungif.dll.

* Distributions in .tar.gz and .zip format

  Emacs is distributed primarily as source code in a large gzipped tar file
  (*.tar.gz).  Because Emacs is quite large and therefore difficult to
  download over unreliable connections, the Windows binaries are provided
  in several combinations, ranging from the complete source plus executables,
  to just the minimal amount needed to run without any source, plus a
  couple of optional packages.  Formerly, we used the same .tar.gz format
  but since there are no longer legal problems with .zip files, and the
  latest versions of Windows support these natively, the Windows binaries
  of Emacs are now distributed as .zip files.

* Distributions for non-x86 platforms

  Distributions for non-x86 platforms are no longer supplied. Older
  platforms supported by Windows NT no longer seem to be in demand,
  and Emacs is yet to be ported to 64bit Windows platforms. If you are
  willing to help port Emacs 23 to 64bit versions of Windows, your
  contribution will be welcome on the emacs-devel mailing list.

* Unpacking distributions

  Ports of GNU gzip and GNU tar for handling the source distribution file
  format can be found in several places that distribute ports of GNU
  programs, for example:

    Cygwin:   http://www.cygwin.com/
    GnuWin32: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/

  Many other popular file compression utilities for Windows are also
  able to handle gzipped tar files.

  Open a command prompt (MSDOS) window.  Decide on a directory in which
  to place Emacs.  Move the distribution to that directory, and then
  unpack it as follows.

  If you have the gzipped tar version, use gunzip to uncompress the tar
  file on the fly, and pipe the output through tar with the "xvf" flags
  to extract the files from the tar file:

    % gunzip -c some.tar.gz | tar xvf -

  You may see messages from tar about not being able to change the
  modification time on directories, and from gunzip complaining about a
  broken pipe.  These messages are harmless and you can ignore them.  On
  Windows NT, unpacking tarballs this way leaves them in compressed
  form, taking up less space on disk.  Unfortunately, on Windows 95 and
  98, a large temporary file is created, so it is better to use the
  djtarnt.exe program, which performs the equivalent operation in one
  step:

    % djtarnt -x some.tar.gz

  You may be prompted to rename or overwrite directories when using
  djtarnt: simply type return to continue (this is harmless).

  Zip files can be unpacked using unzip.exe from info-zip.org
  if you do not already have other tools to do this.

    % unzip some.zip

  Once you have unpacked a precompiled distribution of Emacs, it should
  have the following subdirectories:

	bin	etc	info	lisp	site-lisp


* Unpacking with other tools

  If you do use other utility programs to unpack the distribution, check
  the following to be sure the distribution was not corrupted:

  + Be sure to disable the CR/LF translation or the executables will
    be unusable.  Older versions of WinZip would enable this
    translation by default when unpacking .tar files.  If you are
    using WinZip, disable it.  (I don't have WinZip myself, and I do
    not know the specific commands necessary to disable it.)

  + Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3.  For example, there
    should be a file lisp/abbrevlist.el; if this has been truncated to
    abbrevli.el, your distribution has been corrupted while unpacking
    and Emacs will not start.

  + I've also had reports that some older "gnuwin32" port of tar
    corrupts the executables.  Use the latest version from the gnuwin32
    site or another port of tar instead.

  If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
  still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
  below.


* Compiling from source

  If you would like to compile Emacs from source, download the source
  distribution, unpack it in the same manner as a precompiled
  distribution, and look in the file nt/INSTALL for detailed
  directions.  You can either use the Microsoft compiler included with
  Visual C++ 2003 or earlier, or GCC 2.95 or later with MinGW support,
  to compile the source.  The port of GCC included in Cygwin is
  supported, but check the nt/INSTALL file if you have trouble since
  some builds of GNU make aren't supported.


* Further information

  If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
  your favorite web browser to following the document (if you haven't
  already):

	http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html

  This document serves as an FAQ and a source for further information
  about the Windows port and related software packages. Note that as
  of writing, most of the information in that FAQ was for Emacs-21.3
  and earlier versions, so some information may not be relevant to
  Emacs-22.1.

  In addition to the FAQ, there is a mailing list for discussing issues
  related to the Windows port of Emacs.  For information about the
  list, see this Web page:

	http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-emacs-windows

  To ask questions on the mailing list, send email to
  [e-mail].  (You don't need to subscribe for that.)
  To subscribe to the list or unsubscribe from it, fill the form you
  find at http://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 particuarly 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

  Enjoy!

  Jason Rumney
  ([e-mail])

  Most of this README was contributed by former maintainer Andrew Innes
  ([e-mail])