Mercurial > emacs
diff etc/PROBLEMS @ 25853:e96ffe544684
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author | Dave Love <fx@gnu.org> |
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date | Sun, 03 Oct 1999 12:39:42 +0000 |
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children | a7963e66c555 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/etc/PROBLEMS Sun Oct 03 12:39:42 1999 +0000 @@ -0,0 +1,2244 @@ +This file describes various problems that have been encountered +in compiling, installing and running GNU Emacs. + +* Error "conflicting types for `initstate'" compiling with GCC on Irix 6. + +Install GCC 2.95 or a newer version, and this problem should go away. +It is possible that this problem results from upgrading the operating +system without reinstalling GCC; so you could also try reinstalling +the same version of GCC, and telling us whether that fixes the problem. + +* On Solaris 7, Emacs gets a segmentation fault when starting up using X. + +This results from Sun patch 107058-01 (SunOS 5.7: Patch for +assembler), if you use GCC (version 2.7 or 2.8, at least). To work +around it, either uninstall the patch, or install the GNU Binutils. +Then recompile Emacs, and it should work. + +* With X11R6.4, public-patch-3, Emacs crashes at startup. + +Reportedly this patch in X fixes the problem. + + --- xc/lib/X11/imInt.c~ Wed Jun 30 13:31:56 1999 + +++ xc/lib/X11/imInt.c Thu Jul 1 15:10:27 1999 + @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ + -/* $TOG: imInt.c /main/5 1998/05/30 21:11:16 kaleb $ */ + +/* $TOG: imInt.c /main/5 1998/05/30 21:11:16 kaleb $ */ + /****************************************************************** + + Copyright 1992, 1993, 1994 by FUJITSU LIMITED + @@ -166,8 +166,8 @@ + _XimMakeImName(lcd) + XLCd lcd; + { + - char* begin; + - char* end; + + char* begin = NULL; + + char* end = NULL; + char* ret; + int i = 0; + char* ximmodifier = XIMMODIFIER; + @@ -182,7 +182,11 @@ + } + ret = Xmalloc(end - begin + 2); + if (ret != NULL) { + - (void)strncpy(ret, begin, end - begin + 1); + + if (begin != NULL) { + + (void)strncpy(ret, begin, end - begin + 1); + + } else { + + ret[0] = '\0'; + + } + ret[end - begin + 1] = '\0'; + } + return ret; + + +* On Solaris 2.7, the Compose key does not work *except* when the +system is quite heavily loaded. + +This is a bug in Motif in Solaris. Supposedly it has been fixed for +the next major release of Solaris. However, if someone with Sun +support complains to Sun about the bug, they may release a patch for +Solaris 2.7. If you do this, mention Sun bug #4188711. + +* Emacs crashes on Irix 6.5 on the SGI R10K, when compiled with GCC. + +This seems to be fixed in GCC 2.95. + +* Emacs crashes in utmpname on Irix 5.3. + +This problem is fixed in Patch 3175 for Irix 5.3. +It is also fixed in Irix versions 6.2 and up. + +* On Solaris, CTRL-t is ignored by Emacs when you use +the fr.ISO-8859-15 locale (and maybe other related locales). + +You can fix this by editing the file: + + /usr/openwin/lib/locale/iso8859-15/Compose + +Near the bottom there is a line that reads: + + Ctrl<t> <quotedbl> <Y> : "\276" threequarters + +that should read: + + Ctrl<T> <quotedbl> <Y> : "\276" threequarters + +Note the lower case <t>. Changing this line should make C-t work. + +* Emacs on Digital Unix 4.0 fails to build, giving error message + Invalid dimension for the charset-ID 160 + +This is due to a bug or an installation problem in GCC 2.8.0. +Installing a more recent version of GCC fixes the problem. + +* Buffers from `with-output-to-temp-buffer' get set up in Help mode. + +Changes in Emacs 20.4 to the hooks used by that function cause +problems for some packages, specifically BBDB. See the function's +documentation for the hooks involved. BBDB 2.00.06 fixes the problem. + +* Under X, C-v and/or other keys don't work. + +These may have been intercepted by your window manager. In +particular, AfterStep 1.6 is reported to steal C-v in its default +configuration. Various Meta keys are also likely to be taken by the +configuration of the `feel'. See the WM's documentation for how to +change this. + +* When using Exceed, fonts sometimes appear too tall. + +When the display is set to an Exceed X-server and fonts are specified +(either explicitly with the -fn option or implicitly with X resources) +then the fonts may appear "too tall". The actual character sizes are +correct but there is too much vertical spacing between rows, which +gives the appearance of "double spacing". + +To prevent this, turn off the Exceed's "automatic font substitution" +feature (in the font part of the configuration window). + +* On Solaris 7 or later, the compiler complains about the struct member `_ptr'. + +This suggests that you are trying to build Emacs in 64 bit mode +(e.g. with cc -xarch=v9). Emacs does not yet support this on Solaris. +Build Emacs in the default 32 bit mode instead. + +* Failure in unexec while dumping emacs on Digital Unix 4.0 + +This problem manifests itself as an error message + + unexec: Bad address, writing data section to ... + +The user suspects that this happened because his X libraries +were built for an older system version, + + ./configure --x-includes=/usr/include --x-libraries=/usr/shlib + +made the problem go away. + +* No visible display on mips-sgi-irix6.2 when compiling with GCC 2.8.1. + +This problem went away after installing the latest IRIX patches +as of 8 Dec 1998. + +The same problem has been reported on Irix 6.3. + +* As of version 20.4, Emacs doesn't work properly if configured for +the Motif toolkit and linked against the free LessTif library. The +next Emacs release is expected to work with LessTif. + +* Emacs gives the error, Couldn't find per display information. + +This can result if the X server runs out of memory because Emacs uses +a large number of fonts. On systems where this happens, C-h h is +likely to cause it. + +We do not know of a way to prevent the problem. + +* Emacs makes HPUX 11.0 crash. + +This is a bug in HPUX; HPUX patch PHKL_16260 is said to fix it. + +* Emacs crashes during dumping on the HPPA machine (HPUX 10.20). + +This seems to be due to a GCC bug; it is fixed in GCC 2.8.1. + +* The Hyperbole package causes *Help* buffers not to be displayed in +Help mode due to setting `temp-buffer-show-hook' rather than using +`add-hook'. Using `(add-hook 'temp-buffer-show-hook +'help-mode-maybe)' after loading Hyperbole should fix this. + +* Versions of the PSGML package earlier than 1.0.3 (stable) or 1.1.2 +(alpha) fail to parse DTD files correctly in Emacs 20.3 and later. +Here is a patch for psgml-parse.el from PSGML 1.0.1 and, probably, +earlier versions. + +--- psgml-parse.el 1998/08/21 19:18:18 1.1 ++++ psgml-parse.el 1998/08/21 19:20:00 +@@ -2383,7 +2383,7 @@ (defun sgml-push-to-entity (entity &opti + (setq sgml-buffer-parse-state nil)) + (cond + ((stringp entity) ; a file name +- (save-excursion (insert-file-contents entity)) ++ (insert-file-contents entity) + (setq default-directory (file-name-directory entity))) + ((consp (sgml-entity-text entity)) ; external id? + (let* ((extid (sgml-entity-text entity)) + +* Running TeX from AUXTeX package with Emacs 20.3 gives a Lisp error +about a read-only tex output buffer. + +This problem appeared for AUC TeX version 9.9j and some earlier +versions. Here is a patch for the file tex-buf.el in the AUC TeX +package. + +diff -c auctex/tex-buf.el~ auctex/tex-buf.el +*** auctex/tex-buf.el~ Wed Jul 29 18:35:32 1998 +--- auctex/tex-buf.el Sat Sep 5 15:20:38 1998 +*************** +*** 545,551 **** + (dir (TeX-master-directory))) + (TeX-process-check file) ; Check that no process is running + (setq TeX-command-buffer (current-buffer)) +! (with-output-to-temp-buffer buffer) + (set-buffer buffer) + (if dir (cd dir)) + (insert "Running `" name "' on `" file "' with ``" command "''\n") +- --- 545,552 ---- + (dir (TeX-master-directory))) + (TeX-process-check file) ; Check that no process is running + (setq TeX-command-buffer (current-buffer)) +! (let (temp-buffer-show-function temp-buffer-show-hook) +! (with-output-to-temp-buffer buffer)) + (set-buffer buffer) + (if dir (cd dir)) + (insert "Running `" name "' on `" file "' with ``" command "''\n") + +* On Irix 6.3, substituting environment variables in file names +in the minibuffer gives peculiar error messages such as + + Substituting nonexistent environment variable "" + +This is not an Emacs bug; it is caused by something in SGI patch +003082 August 11, 1998. + +* After a while, Emacs slips into unibyte mode. + +The VM mail package, which is not part of Emacs, sometimes does + (standard-display-european t) +That should be changed to + (standard-display-european 1 t) + +* Installing Emacs gets an error running `install-info'. + +You need to install a recent version of Texinfo; that package +supplies the `install-info' command. + +* Emacs does not recognize the AltGr key, on HPUX. + +To fix this, set up a file ~/.dt/sessions/sessionetc with executable +rights, containing this text: + +-------------------------------- +xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF +keysym Alt_L = Meta_L +keysym Alt_R = Meta_R +EOF + +xmodmap - << EOF +clear mod1 +keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol +add mod1 = Meta_L +keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch +add mod2 = Mode_switch +EOF +-------------------------------- + +* Emacs compiled with DJGPP for MS-DOS/MS-Windows cannot access files +in the directory with the special name `dev' under the root of any +drive, e.g. `c:/dev'. + +This is an unfortunate side-effect of the support for Unix-style +device names such as /dev/null in the DJGPP runtime library. A +work-around is to rename the problem directory to another name. + +* M-SPC seems to be ignored as input. + +See if your X server is set up to use this as a command +for character composition. + +* Emacs startup on GNU/Linux systems (and possibly other systems) is slow. + +This can happen if the system is misconfigured and Emacs can't get the +full qualified domain name, FQDN. You should have your FQDN in the +/etc/hosts file, something like this: + +127.0.0.1 localhost +129.187.137.82 nuc04.t30.physik.tu-muenchen.de nuc04 + +The way to set this up may vary on non-GNU systems. + +* Garbled display on non-X terminals when Emacs runs on Digital Unix 4.0. + +So far it appears that running `tset' triggers this problem (when TERM +is vt100, at least). If you do not run `tset', then Emacs displays +properly. If someone can tell us precisely which effect of running +`tset' actually causes the problem, we may be able to implement a fix +in Emacs. + +* When you run Ispell from Emacs, it reports a "misalignment" error. + +This can happen if you compiled Ispell to use ASCII characters only +and then try to use it from Emacs with non-ASCII characters, +specifically Latin-1. The solution is to recompile Ispell with +Latin-1 support. + +This can also happen if the version of Ispell installed on your +machine is old. + +* On Linux-based GNU systems using libc versions 5.4.19 through +5.4.22, Emacs crashes at startup with a segmentation fault. + +This problem happens if libc defines the symbol __malloc_initialized. +One known solution is to upgrade to a newer libc version. 5.4.33 is +known to work. + +* On Windows, you cannot use the right-hand ALT key and the left-hand +CTRL key together to type a Control-Meta character. + +This is a consequence of a misfeature beyond Emacs's control. + +Under Windows, the AltGr key on international keyboards generates key +events with the modifiers Right-Alt and Left-Ctrl. Since Emacs cannot +distinguish AltGr from an explicit Right-Alt and Left-Ctrl +combination, whenever it sees Right-Alt and Left-Ctrl it assumes that +AltGr has been pressed. + +* Under some Windows X-servers, Emacs' display is incorrect + +The symptoms are that Emacs does not completely erase blank areas of the +screen during scrolling or some other screen operations (e.g., selective +display or when killing a region). M-x recenter will cause the screen +to be completely redisplayed and the "extra" characters will disappear. + +This is known to occur under Exceed 6, and possibly earlier versions as +well. The problem lies in the X-server settings. + +There are reports that you can solve the problem with Exceed by +running `Xconfig' from within NT, choosing "X selection", then +un-checking the boxes "auto-copy X selection" and "auto-paste to X +selection". + +Of this does not work, please inform bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. Then +please call support for your X-server and see if you can get a fix. +If you do, please send it to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org so we can list it +here. + +* On Solaris 2, Emacs dumps core when built with Motif. + +The Solaris Motif libraries are buggy, at least up through Solaris 2.5.1. +Install the current Motif runtime library patch appropriate for your host. +(Make sure the patch is current; some older patch versions still have the bug.) +You should install the other patches recommended by Sun for your host, too. +You can obtain Sun patches from ftp://sunsolve.sun.com/pub/patches/; +look for files with names ending in `.PatchReport' to see which patches +are currently recommended for your host. + +On Solaris 2.6, Emacs is said to work with Motif when Solaris patch +105284-12 is installed, but fail when 105284-15 is installed. +105284-18 might fix it again. + +* On Solaris 2.6, the Compose key does not work. + +One workaround is to use a locale that allows non-ASCII characters. +For example, before invoking emacs, set the LC_ALL environment +variable to "en_US" (American English). The directory /usr/lib/locale +lists the supported locales; any locale other than "C" or "POSIX" +should do. + +pen@lysator.liu.se says (Feb 1998) that this is a bug in the Solaris +2.6 X libraries, and that the Compose key does work if you link with +the MIT X11 libraries instead. + +Sun has accepted this as a bug; see Sun bug 4188711. + +* Emacs does not know your host's fully-qualified domain name. + +You need to configure your machine with a fully qualified domain name, +either in /etc/hosts, /etc/hostname, the NIS, or wherever your system +calls for specifying this. + +If you cannot fix the configuration, you can set the Lisp variable +mail-host-address to the value you want. + +* Error 12 (virtual memory exceeded) when dumping Emacs, on UnixWare 2.1 + +Paul Abrahams (abrahams@acm.org) reports that with the installed +virtual memory settings for UnixWare 2.1.2, an Error 12 occurs during +the "make" that builds Emacs, when running temacs to dump emacs. That +error indicates that the per-process virtual memory limit has been +exceeded. The default limit is probably 32MB. Raising the virtual +memory limit to 40MB should make it possible to finish building Emacs. + +You can do this with the command `ulimit' (sh) or `limit' (csh). +But you have to be root to do it. + +According to Martin Sohnius, you can also retune this in the kernel: + + # /etc/conf/bin/idtune SDATLIM 33554432 ## soft data size limit + # /etc/conf/bin/idtune HDATLIM 33554432 ## hard " + # /etc/conf/bin/idtune SVMMSIZE unlimited ## soft process size limit + # /etc/conf/bin/idtune HVMMSIZE unlimited ## hard " + # /etc/conf/bin/idbuild -B + +(He recommends you not change the stack limit, though.) +These changes take effect when you reboot. + +* Redisplay using X11 is much slower than previous Emacs versions. + +We've noticed that certain X servers draw the text much slower when +scroll bars are on the left. We don't know why this happens. If this +happens to you, you can work around it by putting the scroll bars +on the right (as they were in Emacs 19). + +Here's how to do this: + + (set-scroll-bar-mode 'right) + +If you're not sure whether (or how much) this problem affects you, +try that and see how much difference it makes. To set things back +to normal, do + + (set-scroll-bar-mode 'left) + +* Under X11, some characters appear as hollow boxes. + +Each X11 font covers just a fraction of the characters that Emacs +supports. To display the whole range of Emacs characters requires +many different fonts, collected into a fontset. + +If some of the fonts called for in your fontset do not exist on your X +server, then the characters that have no font appear as hollow boxes. +You can remedy the problem by installing additional fonts. + +The intlfonts distribution includes a full spectrum of fonts that can +display all the characters Emacs supports. + +* Under X11, some characters appear improperly aligned in their lines. + +You may have bad X11 fonts; try installing the intlfonts distribution. + +* Certain fonts make each line take one pixel more than it "should". + +This is because these fonts contain characters a little taller +than the font's nominal height. Emacs needs to make sure that +lines do not overlap. + +* You request inverse video, and the first Emacs frame is in inverse +video, but later frames are not in inverse video. + +This can happen if you have an old version of the custom library in +your search path for Lisp packages. Use M-x list-load-path-shadows to +check whether this is true. If it is, delete the old custom library. + +* In FreeBSD 2.1.5, useless symbolic links remain in /tmp or other +directories that have the +t bit. + +This is because of a kernel bug in FreeBSD 2.1.5 (fixed in 2.2). +Emacs uses symbolic links to implement file locks. In a directory +with +t bit, the directory owner becomes the owner of the symbolic +link, so that it cannot be removed by anyone else. + +If you don't like those useless links, you can let Emacs not to using +file lock by adding #undef CLASH_DETECTION to config.h. + +* When using M-x dbx with the SparcWorks debugger, the `up' and `down' +commands do not move the arrow in Emacs. + +You can fix this by adding the following line to `~/.dbxinit': + + dbxenv output_short_file_name off + +* Emacs says it has saved a file, but the file does not actually +appear on disk. + +This can happen on certain systems when you are using NFS, if the +remote disk is full. It is due to a bug in NFS (or certain NFS +implementations), and there is apparently nothing Emacs can do to +detect the problem. Emacs checks the failure codes of all the system +calls involved in writing a file, including `close'; but in the case +where the problem occurs, none of those system calls fails. + +* "Compose Character" key does strange things when used as a Meta key. + +If you define one key to serve as both Meta and Compose Character, you +will get strange results. In previous Emacs versions, this "worked" +in that the key acted as Meta--that's because the older Emacs versions +did not try to support Compose Character. Now Emacs tries to do +character composition in the standard X way. This means that you +must pick one meaning or the other for any given key. + +You can use both functions (Meta, and Compose Character) if you assign +them to two different keys. + +* Emacs gets a segmentation fault at startup, on AIX4.2. + +If you are using IBM's xlc compiler, compile emacs.c +without optimization; that should avoid the problem. + +* movemail compiled with POP support can't connect to the POP server. + +Make sure that the `pop' entry in /etc/services, or in the services +NIS map if your machine uses NIS, has the same port number as the +entry on the POP server. A common error is for the POP server to be +listening on port 110, the assigned port for the POP3 protocol, while +the client is trying to connect on port 109, the assigned port for the +old POP protocol. + +* Emacs crashes in x-popup-dialog. + +This can happen if the dialog widget cannot find the font it wants to +use. You can work around the problem by specifying another font with +an X resource--for example, `Emacs.dialog*.font: 9x15' (or any font that +happens to exist on your X server). + +* Emacs crashes when you use Bibtex mode. + +This happens if your system puts a small limit on stack size. You can +prevent the problem by using a suitable shell command (often `ulimit') +to raise the stack size limit before you run Emacs. + +Patches to raise the stack size limit automatically in `main' +(src/emacs.c) on various systems would be greatly appreciated. + +* Emacs crashes with SIGBUS or SIGSEGV on HPUX 9 after you delete a frame. + +We think this is due to a bug in the X libraries provided by HP. With +the alternative X libraries in /usr/contrib/mitX11R5/lib, the problem +does not happen. + +* Emacs crashes with SIGBUS or SIGSEGV on Solaris after you delete a frame. + +We suspect that this is a similar bug in the X libraries provided by +Sun. There is a report that one of these patches fixes the bug and +makes the problem stop: + +105216-01 105393-01 105518-01 105621-01 105665-01 105615-02 105216-02 +105667-01 105401-08 105615-03 105621-02 105686-02 105736-01 105755-03 +106033-01 105379-01 105786-01 105181-04 105379-03 105786-04 105845-01 +105284-05 105669-02 105837-01 105837-02 105558-01 106125-02 105407-01 + +Another person using a newer system (kernel patch level Generic_105181-06) +suspects that the bug was fixed by one of these more recent patches: + +106040-07 SunOS 5.6: X Input & Output Method patch +106222-01 OpenWindows 3.6: filemgr (ff.core) fixes +105284-12 Motif 1.2.7: sparc Runtime library patch + +* Problems running Perl under Emacs on Windows NT/95. + +`perl -de 0' just hangs when executed in an Emacs subshell. +The fault lies with Perl (indirectly with Windows NT/95). + +The problem is that the Perl debugger explicitly opens a connection to +"CON", which is the DOS/NT equivalent of "/dev/tty", for interacting +with the user. + +On Unix, this is okay, because Emacs (or the shell?) creates a +pseudo-tty so that /dev/tty is really the pipe Emacs is using to +communicate with the subprocess. + +On NT, this fails because CON always refers to the handle for the +relevant console (approximately equivalent to a tty), and cannot be +redirected to refer to the pipe Emacs assigned to the subprocess as +stdin. + +A workaround is to modify perldb.pl to use STDIN/STDOUT instead of CON. + +For Perl 4: + + *** PERL/LIB/PERLDB.PL.orig Wed May 26 08:24:18 1993 + --- PERL/LIB/PERLDB.PL Mon Jul 01 15:28:16 1996 + *************** + *** 68,74 **** + $rcfile=".perldb"; + } + else { + ! $console = "con"; + $rcfile="perldb.ini"; + } + + --- 68,74 ---- + $rcfile=".perldb"; + } + else { + ! $console = ""; + $rcfile="perldb.ini"; + } + + + For Perl 5: + *** perl/5.001/lib/perl5db.pl.orig Sun Jun 04 21:13:40 1995 + --- perl/5.001/lib/perl5db.pl Mon Jul 01 17:00:08 1996 + *************** + *** 22,28 **** + $rcfile=".perldb"; + } + elsif (-e "con") { + ! $console = "con"; + $rcfile="perldb.ini"; + } + else { + --- 22,28 ---- + $rcfile=".perldb"; + } + elsif (-e "con") { + ! $console = ""; + $rcfile="perldb.ini"; + } + else { + +* Problems running DOS programs on Windows NT versions earlier than 3.51. + +Some DOS programs, such as pkzip/pkunzip will not work at all, while +others will only work if their stdin is redirected from a file or NUL. + +When a DOS program does not work, a new process is actually created, but +hangs. It cannot be interrupted from Emacs, and might need to be killed +by an external program if Emacs is hung waiting for the process to +finish. If Emacs is not waiting for it, you should be able to kill the +instance of ntvdm that is running the hung process from Emacs, if you +can find out the process id. + +It is safe to run most DOS programs using call-process (eg. M-! and +M-|) since stdin is then redirected from a file, but not with +start-process since that redirects stdin to a pipe. Also, running DOS +programs in a shell buffer prompt without redirecting stdin does not +work. + +* Problems on MS-DOG if DJGPP v2.0 is used to compile Emacs: + +There are two DJGPP library bugs which cause problems: + + * Running `shell-command' (or `compile', or `grep') you get + `Searching for program: permission denied (EACCES), c:/command.com'; + * After you shell to DOS, Ctrl-Break kills Emacs. + +To work around these bugs, you can use two files in the msdos +subdirectory: `is_exec.c' and `sigaction.c'. Compile them and link +them into the Emacs executable `temacs'; then they will replace the +incorrect library functions. + +* When compiling with DJGPP on Windows 95, Make fails for some targets +like make-docfile. + +This can happen if long file name support (the setting of environment +variable LFN) when Emacs distribution was unpacked and during +compilation are not the same. See the MSDOG section of INSTALL for +the explanation of how to avoid this problem. + +* Emacs compiled for MSDOS cannot find some Lisp files, or other +run-time support files, when long filename support is enabled. +(Usually, this problem will manifest itself when Emacs exits +immediately after flashing the startup screen, because it cannot find +the Lisp files it needs to load at startup. Redirect Emacs stdout +and stderr to a file to see the error message printed by Emacs.) + +This can happen if the Emacs distribution was unzipped without LFN +support, thus causing long filenames to be truncated to the first 6 +characters and a numeric tail that Windows 95 normally attaches to it. +You should unzip the files again with a utility that supports long +filenames (such as djtar from DJGPP or InfoZip's UnZip program +compiled with DJGPP v2). The MSDOG section of the file INSTALL +explains this issue in more detail. + +* Emacs compiled with DJGPP complains at startup: + + "Wrong type of argument: internal-facep, msdos-menu-active-face" + +This can happen if you define an environment variable `TERM'. Emacs +on MSDOS uses an internal terminal emulator which is disabled if the +value of `TERM' is anything but the string "internal". Emacs then +works as if its terminal were a dumb glass teletype that doesn't +support faces. To work around this, arrange for `TERM' to be +undefined when Emacs runs. The best way to do that is to add an +[emacs] section to the DJGPP.ENV file which defines an empty value for +`TERM'; this way, only Emacs gets the empty value, while the rest of +your system works as before. + +* On Windows 95, Alt-f6 does not get through to Emacs. + +This character seems to be trapped by the kernel in Windows 95. +You can enter M-f6 by typing ESC f6. + +* Typing Alt-Shift has strange effects on Windows 95. + +This combination of keys is a command to change keyboard layout. If +you proceed to type another non-modifier key before you let go of Alt +and Shift, the Alt and Shift act as modifiers in the usual way. + +* `tparam' reported as a multiply-defined symbol when linking with ncurses. + +This problem results from an incompatible change in ncurses, in +version 1.9.9e approximately. This version is unable to provide a +definition of tparm without also defining tparam. This is also +incompatible with Terminfo; as a result, the Emacs Terminfo support +does not work with this version of ncurses. + +The fix is to install a newer version of ncurses, such as version 4.2. + +* Strange results from format %d in a few cases, on a Sun. + +Sun compiler version SC3.0 has been found to miscompile part of +editfns.c. The workaround is to compile with some other compiler such +as GCC. + +* Output from subprocess (such as man or diff) is randomly truncated +on GNU/Linux systems. + +This is due to a kernel bug which seems to be fixed in Linux version +1.3.75. + +* Error messages `internal facep []' happen on GNU/Linux systems. + +There is a report that replacing libc.so.5.0.9 with libc.so.5.2.16 +caused this to start happening. People are not sure why, but the +problem seems unlikely to be in Emacs itself. Some suspect that it +is actually Xlib which won't work with libc.so.5.2.16. + +Using the old library version is a workaround. + +* On Solaris, Emacs crashes if you use (display-time). + +This can happen if you configure Emacs without specifying the precise +version of Solaris that you are using. + +* Emacs dumps core on startup, on Solaris. + +Bill Sebok says that the cause of this is Solaris 2.4 vendor patch +102303-05, which extends the Solaris linker to deal with the Solaris +Common Desktop Environment's linking needs. You can fix the problem +by removing this patch and installing patch 102049-02 instead. +However, that linker version won't work with CDE. + +Solaris 2.5 comes with a linker that has this bug. It is reported that if +you install all the latest patches (as of June 1996), the bug is fixed. +We suspect the crucial patch is one of these, but we don't know +for certain. + + 103093-03: [README] SunOS 5.5: kernel patch (2140557 bytes) + 102832-01: [README] OpenWindows 3.5: Xview Jumbo Patch (4181613 bytes) + 103242-04: [README] SunOS 5.5: linker patch (595363 bytes) + +(One user reports that the bug was fixed by those patches together +with patches 102980-04, 103279-01, 103300-02, and 103468-01.) + +If you can determine which patch does fix the bug, please tell +bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. + +Meanwhile, the GNU linker links Emacs properly on both Solaris 2.4 and +Solaris 2.5. + +* Emacs dumps core if lisp-complete-symbol is called, on Solaris. + +If you compile Emacs with the -fast or -xO4 option with version 3.0.2 +of the Sun C compiler, Emacs dumps core when lisp-complete-symbol is +called. The problem does not happen if you compile with GCC. + +* "Cannot find callback list" messages from dialog boxes on HPUX, in +Emacs built with Motif. + +This problem resulted from a bug in GCC 2.4.5. Newer GCC versions +such as 2.7.0 fix the problem. + +* On Irix 6.0, make tries (and fails) to build a program named unexelfsgi + +A compiler bug inserts spaces into the string "unexelfsgi . o" +in src/Makefile. Edit src/Makefile, after configure is run, +find that string, and take out the spaces. + +Compiler fixes in Irix 6.0.1 should eliminate this problem. + +* "out of virtual swap space" on Irix 5.3 + +This message occurs when the system runs out of swap space due to too +many large programs running. The solution is either to provide more +swap space or to reduce the number of large programs being run. You +can check the current status of the swap space by executing the +command `swap -l'. + +You can increase swap space by changing the file /etc/fstab. Adding a +line like this: + +/usr/swap/swap.more swap swap pri=3 0 0 + +where /usr/swap/swap.more is a file previously created (for instance +by using /etc/mkfile), will increase the swap space by the size of +that file. Execute `swap -m' or reboot the machine to activate the +new swap area. See the manpages for `swap' and `fstab' for further +information. + +The objectserver daemon can use up lots of memory because it can be +swamped with NIS information. It collects information about all users +on the network that can log on to the host. + +If you want to disable the objectserver completely, you can execute +the command `chkconfig objectserver off' and reboot. That may disable +some of the window system functionality, such as responding CDROM +icons. + +You can also remove NIS support from the objectserver. The SGI `admin' +FAQ has a detailed description on how to do that; see question 35 +("Why isn't the objectserver working?"). The admin FAQ can be found at +ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/faq/. + +* With certain fonts, when the cursor appears on a character, the +character doesn't appear--you get a solid box instead. + +One user on a Linux-based GNU system reported that this problem went +away with installation of a new X server. The failing server was +XFree86 3.1.1. XFree86 3.1.2 works. + +* On SunOS 4.1.3, Emacs unpredictably crashes in _yp_dobind_soft. + +This happens if you configure Emacs specifying just `sparc-sun-sunos4' +on a system that is version 4.1.3. You must specify the precise +version number (or let configure figure out the configuration, which +it can do perfectly well for SunOS). + +* On SunOS 4, Emacs processes keep going after you kill the X server +(or log out, if you logged in using X). + +Someone reported that recompiling with GCC 2.7.0 fixed this problem. + +* On AIX 4, some programs fail when run in a Shell buffer +with an error message like No terminfo entry for "unknown". + +On AIX, many terminal type definitions are not installed by default. +`unknown' is one of them. Install the "Special Generic Terminal +Definitions" to make them defined. + +* On SunOS, you get linker errors + ld: Undefined symbol + _get_wmShellWidgetClass + _get_applicationShellWidgetClass + +The fix to this is to install patch 100573 for OpenWindows 3.0 +or link libXmu statically. + +* On AIX 4.1.2, linker error messages such as + ld: 0711-212 SEVERE ERROR: Symbol .__quous, found in the global symbol table + of archive /usr/lib/libIM.a, was not defined in archive member shr.o. + +This is a problem in libIM.a. You can work around it by executing +these shell commands in the src subdirectory of the directory where +you build Emacs: + + cp /usr/lib/libIM.a . + chmod 664 libIM.a + ranlib libIM.a + +Then change -lIM to ./libIM.a in the command to link temacs (in +Makefile). + +* Unpredictable segmentation faults on Solaris 2.3 and 2.4. + +A user reported that this happened in 19.29 when it was compiled with +the Sun compiler, but not when he recompiled with GCC 2.7.0. + +We do not know whether something in Emacs is partly to blame for this. + +* Emacs exits with "X protocol error" when run with an X server for +Windows. + +A certain X server for Windows had a bug which caused this. +Supposedly the newer 32-bit version of this server doesn't have the +problem. + +* Emacs crashes at startup on MSDOS. + +Some users report that Emacs 19.29 requires dpmi memory management, +and crashes on startup if the system does not have it. We don't yet +know why this happens--perhaps these machines don't have enough real +memory, or perhaps something is wrong in Emacs or the compiler. +However, arranging to use dpmi support is a workaround. + +You can find out if you have a dpmi host by running go32 without +arguments; it will tell you if it uses dpmi memory. For more +information about dpmi memory, consult the djgpp FAQ. (djgpp +is the GNU C compiler as packaged for MSDOS.) + +Compiling Emacs under MSDOS is extremely sensitive for proper memory +configuration. If you experience problems during compilation, consider +removing some or all memory resident programs (notably disk caches) +and make sure that your memory managers are properly configured. See +the djgpp faq for configuration hints. + +* A position you specified in .Xdefaults is ignored, using twm. + +twm normally ignores "program-specified" positions. +You can tell it to obey them with this command in your `.twmrc' file: + + UsePPosition "on" #allow clients to request a position + +* Compiling lib-src says there is no rule to make test-distrib.c. + +This results from a bug in a VERY old version of GNU Sed. To solve +the problem, install the current version of GNU Sed, then rerun +Emacs's configure script. + +* Compiling wakeup, in lib-src, says it can't make wakeup.c. + +This results from a bug in GNU Sed version 2.03. To solve the +problem, install the current version of GNU Sed, then rerun Emacs's +configure script. + +* On Sunos 4.1.1, there are errors compiling sysdep.c. + +If you get errors such as + + "sysdep.c", line 2017: undefined structure or union + "sysdep.c", line 2017: undefined structure or union + "sysdep.c", line 2019: nodename undefined + +This can result from defining LD_LIBRARY_PATH. It is very tricky +to use that environment variable with Emacs. The Emacs configure +script links many test programs with the system libraries; you must +make sure that the libraries available to configure are the same +ones available when you build Emacs. + +* The right Alt key works wrong on German HP keyboards (and perhaps +other non-English HP keyboards too). + +This is because HPUX defines the modifiers wrong in X. Here is a +shell script to fix the problem; be sure that it is run after VUE +configures the X server. + + xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF + keysym Alt_L = Meta_L + keysym Alt_R = Meta_R + EOF + + xmodmap - << EOF + clear mod1 + keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol + add mod1 = Meta_L + keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch + add mod2 = Mode_switch + EOF + +* The Emacs window disappears when you type M-q. + +Some versions of the Open Look window manager interpret M-q as a quit +command for whatever window you are typing at. If you want to use +Emacs with that window manager, you should try to configure the window +manager to use some other command. You can disable the +shortcut keys entirely by adding this line to ~/.OWdefaults: + + OpenWindows.WindowMenuAccelerators: False + +* Emacs does not notice when you release the mouse. + +There are reports that this happened with (some) Microsoft mice and +that replacing the mouse made it stop. + +* Trouble using ptys on IRIX, or running out of ptys. + +The program mkpts (which may be in `/usr/adm' or `/usr/sbin') needs to +be set-UID to root, or non-root programs like Emacs will not be able +to allocate ptys reliably. + +* On Irix 5.2, unexelfsgi.c can't find cmplrs/stsupport.h. + +The file cmplrs/stsupport.h was included in the wrong file set in the +Irix 5.2 distribution. You can find it in the optional fileset +compiler_dev, or copy it from some other Irix 5.2 system. A kludgy +workaround is to change unexelfsgi.c to include sym.h instead of +syms.h. + +* Slow startup on Linux-based GNU systems. + +People using systems based on the Linux kernel sometimes report that +startup takes 10 to 15 seconds longer than `usual'. + +This is because Emacs looks up the host name when it starts. +Normally, this takes negligible time; the extra delay is due to +improper system configuration. This problem can occur for both +networked and non-networked machines. + +Here is how to fix the configuration. It requires being root. + +** Networked Case + +First, make sure the files `/etc/hosts' and `/etc/host.conf' both +exist. The first line in the `/etc/hosts' file should look like this +(replace HOSTNAME with your host name): + + 127.0.0.1 HOSTNAME + +Also make sure that the `/etc/host.conf' files contains the following +lines: + + order hosts, bind + multi on + +Any changes, permanent and temporary, to the host name should be +indicated in the `/etc/hosts' file, since it acts a limited local +database of addresses and names (e.g., some SLIP connections +dynamically allocate ip addresses). + +** Non-Networked Case + +The solution described in the networked case applies here as well. +However, if you never intend to network your machine, you can use a +simpler solution: create an empty `/etc/host.conf' file. The command +`touch /etc/host.conf' suffices to create the file. The `/etc/hosts' +file is not necessary with this approach. + +* On Solaris 2.4, Dired hangs and C-g does not work. Or Emacs hangs +forever waiting for termination of a subprocess that is a zombie. + +casper@fwi.uva.nl says the problem is in X11R6. Rebuild libX11.so +after changing the file xc/config/cf/sunLib.tmpl. Change the lines + + #if ThreadedX + #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread + #endif + +to: + + #if OSMinorVersion < 4 + #if ThreadedX + #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread + #endif + #endif + +Be sure also to edit x/config/cf/sun.cf so that OSMinorVersion is 4 +(as it should be for Solaris 2.4). The file has three definitions for +OSMinorVersion: the first is for x86, the second for SPARC under +Solaris, and the third for SunOS 4. Make sure to update the +definition for your type of machine and system. + +Then do `make Everything' in the top directory of X11R6, to rebuild +the makefiles and rebuild X. The X built this way work only on +Solaris 2.4, not on 2.3. + +For multithreaded X to work it is necessary to install patch +101925-02 to fix problems in header files [2.4]. You need +to reinstall gcc or re-run just-fixinc after installing that +patch. + +However, Frank Rust <frust@iti.cs.tu-bs.de> used a simpler solution: +he changed + #define ThreadedX YES +to + #define ThreadedX NO +in sun.cf and did `make World' to rebuild X11R6. Removing all +`-DXTHREAD*' flags and `-lthread' entries from lib/X11/Makefile and +typing 'make install' in that directory also seemed to work. + +* With M-x enable-flow-control, you need to type C-\ twice + to do incremental search--a single C-\ gets no response. + +This has been traced to communicating with your machine via kermit, +with C-\ as the kermit escape character. One solution is to use +another escape character in kermit. One user did + + set escape-character 17 + +in his .kermrc file, to make C-q the kermit escape character. + +* The Motif version of Emacs paints the screen a solid color. + +This has been observed to result from the following X resource: + + Emacs*default.attributeFont: -*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-* + +That the resource has this effect indicates a bug in something, but we +do not yet know what. If it is an Emacs bug, we hope someone can +explain what the bug is so we can fix it. In the mean time, removing +the resource prevents the problem. + +* Emacs gets hung shortly after startup, on Sunos 4.1.3. + +We think this is due to a bug in Sunos. The word is that +one of these Sunos patches fixes the bug: + +100075-11 100224-06 100347-03 100482-05 100557-02 100623-03 100804-03 101080-01 +100103-12 100249-09 100496-02 100564-07 100630-02 100891-10 101134-01 +100170-09 100296-04 100377-09 100507-04 100567-04 100650-02 101070-01 101145-01 +100173-10 100305-15 100383-06 100513-04 100570-05 100689-01 101071-03 101200-02 +100178-09 100338-05 100421-03 100536-02 100584-05 100784-01 101072-01 101207-01 + +We don't know which of these patches really matter. If you find out +which ones, please inform bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. + +* Emacs aborts while starting up, only when run without X. + +This problem often results from compiling Emacs with GCC when GCC was +installed incorrectly. The usual error in installing GCC is to +specify --includedir=/usr/include. Installation of GCC makes +corrected copies of the system header files. GCC is supposed to use +the corrected copies in preference to the original system headers. +Specifying --includedir=/usr/include causes the original system header +files to be used. On some systems, the definition of ioctl in the +original system header files is invalid for ANSI C and causes Emacs +not to work. + +The fix is to reinstall GCC, and this time do not specify --includedir +when you configure it. Then recompile Emacs. Specifying --includedir +is appropriate only in very special cases and it should *never* be the +same directory where system header files are kept. + +* On Solaris 2.x, GCC complains "64 bit integer types not supported" + +This suggests that GCC is not installed correctly. Most likely you +are using GCC 2.7.2.3 (or earlier) on Solaris 2.6 (or later); this +does not work without patching. To run GCC 2.7.2.3 on Solaris 2.6 or +later, you must patch fixinc.svr4 and reinstall GCC from scratch as +described in the Solaris FAQ +<http://www.wins.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2.html>. A better fix is +to upgrade to GCC 2.8.1 or later. + +* The Compose key on a DEC keyboard does not work as Meta key. + +This shell command should fix it: + + xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xb1 = Meta_L' + +* Regular expressions matching bugs on SCO systems. + +On SCO, there are problems in regexp matching when Emacs is compiled +with the system compiler. The compiler version is "Microsoft C +version 6", SCO 4.2.0h Dev Sys Maintenance Supplement 01/06/93; Quick +C Compiler Version 1.00.46 (Beta). The solution is to compile with +GCC. + +* On Sunos 4, you get the error ld: Undefined symbol __lib_version. + +This is the result of using cc or gcc with the shared library meant +for acc (the Sunpro compiler). Check your LD_LIBRARY_PATH and delete +/usr/lang/SC2.0.1 or some similar directory. + +* You can't select from submenus (in the X toolkit version). + +On certain systems, mouse-tracking and selection in top-level menus +works properly with the X toolkit, but neither of them works when you +bring up a submenu (such as Bookmarks or Compare or Apply Patch, in +the Files menu). + +This works on most systems. There is speculation that the failure is +due to bugs in old versions of X toolkit libraries, but no one really +knows. If someone debugs this and finds the precise cause, perhaps a +workaround can be found. + +* Unusable default font on SCO 3.2v4. + +The Open Desktop environment comes with default X resource settings +that tell Emacs to use a variable-width font. Emacs cannot use such +fonts, so it does not work. + +This is caused by the file /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/ScoTerm, which is +the application-specific resource file for the `scoterm' terminal +emulator program. It contains several extremely general X resources +that affect other programs besides `scoterm'. In particular, these +resources affect Emacs also: + + *Font: -*-helvetica-medium-r-*--12-*-p-* + *Background: scoBackground + *Foreground: scoForeground + +The best solution is to create an application-specific resource file for +Emacs, /usr/lib/X11/sco/startup/Emacs, with the following contents: + + Emacs*Font: -*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1 + Emacs*Background: white + Emacs*Foreground: black + +(These settings mimic the Emacs defaults, but you can change them to +suit your needs.) This resource file is only read when the X server +starts up, so you should restart it by logging out of the Open Desktop +environment or by running `scologin stop; scologin start` from the shell +as root. Alternatively, you can put these settings in the +/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Emacs resource file and simply restart Emacs, +but then they will not affect remote invocations of Emacs that use the +Open Desktop display. + +These resource files are not normally shared across a network of SCO +machines; you must create the file on each machine individually. + +* rcs2log gives you the awk error message "too many fields". + +This is due to an arbitrary limit in certain versions of awk. +The solution is to use gawk (GNU awk). + +* Emacs is slow using X11R5 on HP/UX. + +This happens if you use the MIT versions of the X libraries--it +doesn't run as fast as HP's version. People sometimes use the version +because they see the HP version doesn't have the libraries libXaw.a, +libXmu.a, libXext.a and others. HP/UX normally doesn't come with +those libraries installed. To get good performance, you need to +install them and rebuild Emacs. + +* Loading fonts is very slow. + +You might be getting scalable fonts instead of precomputed bitmaps. +Known scalable font directories are "Type1" and "Speedo". A font +directory contains scalable fonts if it contains the file +"fonts.scale". + +If this is so, re-order your X windows font path to put the scalable +font directories last. See the documentation of `xset' for details. + +With some X servers, it may be necessary to take the scalable font +directories out of your path entirely, at least for Emacs 19.26. +Changes in the future may make this unnecessary. + +* On AIX 3.2.4, releasing Ctrl/Act key has no effect, if Shift is down. + +Due to a feature of AIX, pressing or releasing the Ctrl/Act key is +ignored when the Shift, Alt or AltGr keys are held down. This can +lead to the keyboard being "control-locked"--ordinary letters are +treated as control characters. + +You can get out of this "control-locked" state by pressing and +releasing Ctrl/Act while not pressing or holding any other keys. + +* display-time causes kernel problems on ISC systems. + +Under Interactive Unix versions 3.0.1 and 4.0 (and probably other +versions), display-time causes the loss of large numbers of STREVENT +cells. Eventually the kernel's supply of these cells is exhausted. +This makes emacs and the whole system run slow, and can make other +processes die, in particular pcnfsd. + +Other emacs functions that communicate with remote processes may have +the same problem. Display-time seems to be far the worst. + +The only known fix: Don't run display-time. + +* On Solaris, C-x doesn't get through to Emacs when you use the console. + +This is a Solaris feature (at least on Intel x86 cpus). Type C-r +C-r C-t, to toggle whether C-x gets through to Emacs. + +* Error message `Symbol's value as variable is void: x', followed by + segmentation fault and core dump. + +This has been tracked to a bug in tar! People report that tar erroneously +added a line like this at the beginning of files of Lisp code: + + x FILENAME, N bytes, B tape blocks + +If your tar has this problem, install GNU tar--if you can manage to +untar it :-). + +* Link failure when using acc on a Sun. + +To use acc, you need additional options just before the libraries, such as + + /usr/lang/SC2.0.1/values-Xt.o -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1/cg87 -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1 + +and you need to add -lansi just before -lc. + +The precise file names depend on the compiler version, so we +cannot easily arrange to supply them. + +* Link failure on IBM AIX 1.3 ptf 0013. + +There is a real duplicate definition of the function `_slibc_free' in +the library /lib/libc_s.a (just do nm on it to verify). The +workaround/fix is: + + cd /lib + ar xv libc_s.a NLtmtime.o + ar dv libc_s.a NLtmtime.o + +* Undefined symbols _dlopen, _dlsym and/or _dlclose on a Sun. + +If you see undefined symbols _dlopen, _dlsym, or _dlclose when linking +with -lX11, compile and link against the file mit/util/misc/dlsym.c in +the MIT X11R5 distribution. Alternatively, link temacs using shared +libraries with s/sunos4shr.h. (This doesn't work if you use the X +toolkit.) + +If you get the additional error that the linker could not find +lib_version.o, try extracting it from X11/usr/lib/X11/libvim.a in +X11R4, then use it in the link. + +* Error messages `Wrong number of arguments: #<subr where-is-internal>, 5' + +This typically results from having the powerkey library loaded. +Powerkey was designed for Emacs 19.22. It is obsolete now because +Emacs 19 now has this feature built in; and powerkey also calls +where-is-internal in an obsolete way. + +So the fix is to arrange not to load powerkey. + +* In Shell mode, you get a ^M at the end of every line. + +This happens to people who use tcsh, because it is trying to be too +smart. It sees that the Shell uses terminal type `unknown' and turns +on the flag to output ^M at the end of each line. You can fix the +problem by adding this to your .cshrc file: + + if ($?EMACS) then + if ($EMACS == "t") then + unset edit + stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z + endif + endif + +* An error message such as `X protocol error: BadMatch (invalid +parameter attributes) on protocol request 93'. + +This comes from having an invalid X resource, such as + emacs*Cursor: black +(which is invalid because it specifies a color name for something +that isn't a color.) + +The fix is to correct your X resources. + +* Undefined symbols when linking on Sunos 4.1 using --with-x-toolkit. + +If you get the undefined symbols _atowc _wcslen, _iswprint, _iswspace, +_iswcntrl, _wcscpy, and _wcsncpy, then you need to add -lXwchar after +-lXaw in the command that links temacs. + +This problem seems to arise only when the international language +extensions to X11R5 are installed. + +* Typing C-c C-c in Shell mode kills your X server. + +This happens with Linux kernel 1.0 thru 1.04, approximately. The workaround is +to define SIGNALS_VIA_CHARACTERS in config.h and recompile Emacs. +Newer Linux kernel versions don't have this problem. + +* src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile are truncated--most of the file missing. + +This can happen if configure uses GNU sed version 2.03. That version +had a bug. GNU sed version 2.05 works properly. + +* Slow startup on X11R6 with X windows. + +If Emacs takes two minutes to start up on X11R6, see if your X +resources specify any Adobe fonts. That causes the type-1 font +renderer to start up, even if the font you asked for is not a type-1 +font. + +One way to avoid this problem is to eliminate the type-1 fonts from +your font path, like this: + + xset -fp /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/ + +* Pull-down menus appear in the wrong place, in the toolkit version of Emacs. + +An X resource of this form can cause the problem: + + Emacs*geometry: 80x55+0+0 + +This resource is supposed to apply, and does apply, to the menus +individually as well as to Emacs frames. If that is not what you +want, rewrite the resource. + +To check thoroughly for such resource specifications, use `xrdb +-query' to see what resources the X server records, and also look at +the user's ~/.Xdefaults and ~/.Xdefaults-* files. + +* --with-x-toolkit version crashes when used with shared libraries. + +On some systems, including Sunos 4 and DGUX 5.4.2 and perhaps others, +unexec doesn't work properly with the shared library for the X +toolkit. You might be able to work around this by using a nonshared +libXt.a library. The real fix is to upgrade the various versions of +unexec and/or ralloc. We think this has been fixed on Sunos 4 +and Solaris in version 19.29. + +* `make install' fails on install-doc with `Error 141'. + +This happens on Ultrix 4.2 due to failure of a pipeline of tar +commands. We don't know why they fail, but the bug seems not to be in +Emacs. The workaround is to run the shell command in install-doc by +hand. + +* --with-x-toolkit option configures wrong on BSD/386. + +This problem is due to bugs in the shell in version 1.0 of BSD/386. +The workaround is to edit the configure file to use some other shell, +such as bash. + +* Subprocesses remain, hanging but not zombies, on Sunos 5.3. + +A bug in Sunos 5.3 causes Emacs subprocesses to remain after Emacs +exits. Sun patch # 101415-02 is part of the fix for this, but it only +applies to ptys, and doesn't fix the problem with subprocesses +communicating through pipes. + +* Mail is lost when sent to local aliases. + +Many emacs mail user agents (VM and rmail, for instance) use the +sendmail.el library. This library can arrange for mail to be +delivered by passing messages to the /usr/lib/sendmail (usually) +program . In doing so, it passes the '-t' flag to sendmail, which +means that the name of the recipient of the message is not on the +command line and, therefore, that sendmail must parse the message to +obtain the destination address. + +There is a bug in the SunOS4.1.1 and SunOS4.1.3 versions of sendmail. +In short, when given the -t flag, the SunOS sendmail won't recognize +non-local (i.e. NIS) aliases. It has been reported that the Solaris +2.x versions of sendmail do not have this bug. For those using SunOS +4.1, the best fix is to install sendmail V8 or IDA sendmail (which +have other advantages over the regular sendmail as well). At the time +of this writing, these official versions are available: + + Sendmail V8 on ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in /ucb/sendmail: + sendmail.8.6.9.base.tar.Z (the base system source & documentation) + sendmail.8.6.9.cf.tar.Z (configuration files) + sendmail.8.6.9.misc.tar.Z (miscellaneous support programs) + sendmail.8.6.9.xdoc.tar.Z (extended documentation, with postscript) + + IDA sendmail on vixen.cso.uiuc.edu in /pub: + sendmail-5.67b+IDA-1.5.tar.gz + +* On AIX, you get this message when running Emacs: + + Could not load program emacs + Symbol smtcheckinit in csh is undefined + Error was: Exec format error + +or this one: + + Could not load program .emacs + Symbol _system_con in csh is undefined + Symbol _fp_trapsta in csh is undefined + Error was: Exec format error + +These can happen when you try to run on AIX 3.2.5 a program that was +compiled with 3.2.4. The fix is to recompile. + +* On AIX, you get this compiler error message: + + Processing include file ./XMenuInt.h + 1501-106: (S) Include file X11/Xlib.h not found. + +This means your system was installed with only the X11 runtime i.d +libraries. You have to find your sipo (bootable tape) and install +X11Dev... with smit. + +* You "lose characters" after typing Compose Character key. + +This is because the Compose Character key is defined as the keysym +Multi_key, and Emacs (seeing that) does the proper X11 +character-composition processing. If you don't want your Compose key +to do that, you can redefine it with xmodmap. + +For example, here's one way to turn it into a Meta key: + + xmodmap -e "keysym Multi_key = Meta_L" + +If all users at your site of a particular keyboard prefer Meta to +Compose, you can make the remapping happen automatically by adding the +xmodmap command to the xdm setup script for that display. + +* C-z just refreshes the screen instead of suspending Emacs. + +You are probably using a shell that doesn't support job control, even +though the system itself is capable of it. Either use a different shell, +or set the variable `cannot-suspend' to a non-nil value. + +* Watch out for .emacs files and EMACSLOADPATH environment vars + +These control the actions of Emacs. +~/.emacs is your Emacs init file. +EMACSLOADPATH overrides which directories the function +"load" will search. + +If you observe strange problems, check for these and get rid +of them, then try again. + +* After running emacs once, subsequent invocations crash. + +Some versions of SVR4 have a serious bug in the implementation of the +mmap () system call in the kernel; this causes emacs to run correctly +the first time, and then crash when run a second time. + +Contact your vendor and ask for the mmap bug fix; in the mean time, +you may be able to work around the problem by adding a line to your +operating system description file (whose name is reported by the +configure script) that reads: +#define SYSTEM_MALLOC +This makes Emacs use memory less efficiently, but seems to work around +the kernel bug. + +* Inability to send an Alt-modified key, when Emacs is communicating +directly with an X server. + +If you have tried to bind an Alt-modified key as a command, and it +does not work to type the command, the first thing you should check is +whether the key is getting through to Emacs. To do this, type C-h c +followed by the Alt-modified key. C-h c should say what kind of event +it read. If it says it read an Alt-modified key, then make sure you +have made the key binding correctly. + +If C-h c reports an event that doesn't have the Alt modifier, it may +be because your X server has no key for the Alt modifier. The X +server that comes from MIT does not set up the Alt modifier by +default. + +If your keyboard has keys named Alt, you can enable them as follows: + + xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_L' + xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_R' + +If the keyboard has just one key named Alt, then only one of those +commands is needed. The modifier `mod2' is a reasonable choice if you +are using an unmodified MIT version of X. Otherwise, choose any +modifier bit not otherwise used. + +If your keyboard does not have keys named Alt, you can use some other +keys. Use the keysym command in xmodmap to turn a function key (or +some other 'spare' key) into Alt_L or into Alt_R, and then use the +commands show above to make them modifier keys. + +Note that if you have Alt keys but no Meta keys, Emacs translates Alt +into Meta. This is because of the great importance of Meta in Emacs. + +* `Pid xxx killed due to text modification or page I/O error' + +On HP/UX, you can get that error when the Emacs executable is on an NFS +file system. HP/UX responds this way if it tries to swap in a page and +does not get a response from the server within a timeout whose default +value is just ten seconds. + +If this happens to you, extend the timeout period. + +* `expand-file-name' fails to work on any but the machine you dumped Emacs on. + +On Ultrix, if you use any of the functions which look up information +in the passwd database before dumping Emacs (say, by using +expand-file-name in site-init.el), then those functions will not work +in the dumped Emacs on any host but the one Emacs was dumped on. + +The solution? Don't use expand-file-name in site-init.el, or in +anything it loads. Yuck - some solution. + +I'm not sure why this happens; if you can find out exactly what is +going on, and perhaps find a fix or a workaround, please let us know. +Perhaps the YP functions cache some information, the cache is included +in the dumped Emacs, and is then inaccurate on any other host. + +* On some variants of SVR4, Emacs does not work at all with X. + +Try defining BROKEN_FIONREAD in your config.h file. If this solves +the problem, please send a bug report to tell us this is needed; be +sure to say exactly what type of machine and system you are using. + +* Linking says that the functions insque and remque are undefined. + +Change oldXMenu/Makefile by adding insque.o to the variable OBJS. + +* Emacs fails to understand most Internet host names, even though +the names work properly with other programs on the same system. +* Emacs won't work with X-windows if the value of DISPLAY is HOSTNAME:0. +* GNUs can't make contact with the specified host for nntp. + +This typically happens on Suns and other systems that use shared +libraries. The cause is that the site has installed a version of the +shared library which uses a name server--but has not installed a +similar version of the unshared library which Emacs uses. + +The result is that most programs, using the shared library, work with +the nameserver, but Emacs does not. + +The fix is to install an unshared library that corresponds to what you +installed in the shared library, and then relink Emacs. + +On SunOS 4.1, simply define HAVE_RES_INIT. + +If you have already installed the name resolver in the file libresolv.a, +then you need to compile Emacs to use that library. The easiest way to +do this is to add to config.h a definition of LIBS_SYSTEM, LIBS_MACHINE +or LIB_STANDARD which uses -lresolv. Watch out! If you redefine a macro +that is already in use in your configuration to supply some other libraries, +be careful not to lose the others. + +Thus, you could start by adding this to config.h: + +#define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv + +Then if this gives you an error for redefining a macro, and you see that +the s- file defines LIBS_SYSTEM as -lfoo -lbar, you could change config.h +again to say this: + +#define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv -lfoo -lbar + +* On a Sun running SunOS 4.1.1, you get this error message from GNU ld: + + /lib/libc.a(_Q_sub.o): Undefined symbol __Q_get_rp_rd referenced from text segment + +The problem is in the Sun shared C library, not in GNU ld. + +The solution is to install Patch-ID# 100267-03 from Sun. + +* Self documentation messages are garbled. + +This means that the file `etc/DOC-...' doesn't properly correspond +with the Emacs executable. Redumping Emacs and then installing the +corresponding pair of files should fix the problem. + +* Trouble using ptys on AIX. + +People often install the pty devices on AIX incorrectly. +Use `smit pty' to reinstall them properly. + +* Shell mode on HP/UX gives the message, "`tty`: Ambiguous". + +christos@theory.tn.cornell.edu says: + +The problem is that in your .cshrc you have something that tries to +execute `tty`. If you are not running the shell on a real tty then +tty will print "not a tty". Csh expects one word in some places, +but tty is giving it back 3. + +The solution is to add a pair of quotes around `tty` to make it a single +word: + +if (`tty` == "/dev/console") + +should be changed to: + +if ("`tty`" == "/dev/console") + +Even better, move things that set up terminal sections out of .cshrc +and into .login. + +* Using X Windows, control-shift-leftbutton makes Emacs hang. + +Use the shell command `xset bc' to make the old X Menu package work. + +* Emacs running under X Windows does not handle mouse clicks. +* `emacs -geometry 80x20' finds a file named `80x20'. + +One cause of such problems is having (setq term-file-prefix nil) in +your .emacs file. Another cause is a bad value of EMACSLOADPATH in +the environment. + +* Emacs gets error message from linker on Sun. + +If the error message says that a symbol such as `f68881_used' or +`ffpa_used' or `start_float' is undefined, this probably indicates +that you have compiled some libraries, such as the X libraries, +with a floating point option other than the default. + +It's not terribly hard to make this work with small changes in +crt0.c together with linking with Fcrt1.o, Wcrt1.o or Mcrt1.o. +However, the easiest approach is to build Xlib with the default +floating point option: -fsoft. + +* Emacs fails to get default settings from X Windows server. + +The X library in X11R4 has a bug; it interchanges the 2nd and 3rd +arguments to XGetDefaults. Define the macro XBACKWARDS in config.h to +tell Emacs to compensate for this. + +I don't believe there is any way Emacs can determine for itself +whether this problem is present on a given system. + +* Keyboard input gets confused after a beep when using a DECserver + as a concentrator. + +This problem seems to be a matter of configuring the DECserver to use +7 bit characters rather than 8 bit characters. + +* M-x shell persistently reports "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1". + +This happened on Suns as a result of what is said to be a bug in Sunos +version 4.0.x. The only fix was to reboot the machine. + +* Programs running under terminal emulator do not recognize `emacs' + terminal type. + +The cause of this is a shell startup file that sets the TERMCAP +environment variable. The terminal emulator uses that variable to +provide the information on the special terminal type that Emacs +emulates. + +Rewrite your shell startup file so that it does not change TERMCAP +in such a case. You could use the following conditional which sets +it only if it is undefined. + + if ( ! ${?TERMCAP} ) setenv TERMCAP ~/my-termcap-file + +Or you could set TERMCAP only when you set TERM--which should not +happen in a non-login shell. + +* X Windows doesn't work if DISPLAY uses a hostname. + +People have reported kernel bugs in certain systems that cause Emacs +not to work with X Windows if DISPLAY is set using a host name. But +the problem does not occur if DISPLAY is set to `unix:0.0'. I think +the bug has to do with SIGIO or FIONREAD. + +You may be able to compensate for the bug by doing (set-input-mode nil nil). +However, that has the disadvantage of turning off interrupts, so that +you are unable to quit out of a Lisp program by typing C-g. + +The easy way to do this is to put + + (setq x-sigio-bug t) + +in your site-init.el file. + +* Problem with remote X server on Suns. + +On a Sun, running Emacs on one machine with the X server on another +may not work if you have used the unshared system libraries. This +is because the unshared libraries fail to use YP for host name lookup. +As a result, the host name you specify may not be recognized. + +* Shell mode ignores interrupts on Apollo Domain + +You may find that M-x shell prints the following message: + + Warning: no access to tty; thus no job control in this shell... + +This can happen if there are not enough ptys on your system. +Here is how to make more of them. + + % cd /dev + % ls pty* + # shows how many pty's you have. I had 8, named pty0 to pty7) + % /etc/crpty 8 + # creates eight new pty's + +* Fatal signal in the command temacs -l loadup inc dump + +This command is the final stage of building Emacs. It is run by the +Makefile in the src subdirectory, or by build.com on VMS. + +It has been known to get fatal errors due to insufficient swapping +space available on the machine. + +On 68000's, it has also happened because of bugs in the +subroutine `alloca'. Verify that `alloca' works right, even +for large blocks (many pages). + +* test-distrib says that the distribution has been clobbered +* or, temacs prints "Command key out of range 0-127" +* or, temacs runs and dumps emacs, but emacs totally fails to work. +* or, temacs gets errors dumping emacs + +This can be because the .elc files have been garbled. Do not be +fooled by the fact that most of a .elc file is text: these are +binary files and can contain all 256 byte values. + +In particular `shar' cannot be used for transmitting GNU Emacs. +It typically truncates "lines". What appear to be "lines" in +a binary file can of course be of any length. Even once `shar' +itself is made to work correctly, `sh' discards null characters +when unpacking the shell archive. + +I have also seen character \177 changed into \377. I do not know +what transfer means caused this problem. Various network +file transfer programs are suspected of clobbering the high bit. + +If you have a copy of Emacs that has been damaged in its +nonprinting characters, you can fix them: + + 1) Record the names of all the .elc files. + 2) Delete all the .elc files. + 3) Recompile alloc.c with a value of PURESIZE twice as large. + (See puresize.h.) You might as well save the old alloc.o. + 4) Remake emacs. It should work now. + 5) Running emacs, do Meta-x byte-compile-file repeatedly + to recreate all the .elc files that used to exist. + You may need to increase the value of the variable + max-lisp-eval-depth to succeed in running the compiler interpreted + on certain .el files. 400 was sufficient as of last report. + 6) Reinstall the old alloc.o (undoing changes to alloc.c if any) + and remake temacs. + 7) Remake emacs. It should work now, with valid .elc files. + +* temacs prints "Pure Lisp storage exhausted" + +This means that the Lisp code loaded from the .elc and .el +files during temacs -l loadup inc dump took up more +space than was allocated. + +This could be caused by + 1) adding code to the preloaded Lisp files + 2) adding more preloaded files in loadup.el + 3) having a site-init.el or site-load.el which loads files. + Note that ANY site-init.el or site-load.el is nonstandard; + if you have received Emacs from some other site + and it contains a site-init.el or site-load.el file, consider + deleting that file. + 4) getting the wrong .el or .elc files + (not from the directory you expected). + 5) deleting some .elc files that are supposed to exist. + This would cause the source files (.el files) to be + loaded instead. They take up more room, so you lose. + 6) a bug in the Emacs distribution which underestimates + the space required. + +If the need for more space is legitimate, change the definition +of PURESIZE in puresize.h. + +But in some of the cases listed above, this problem is a consequence +of something else that is wrong. Be sure to check and fix the real +problem. + +* Changes made to .el files do not take effect. + +You may have forgotten to recompile them into .elc files. +Then the old .elc files will be loaded, and your changes +will not be seen. To fix this, do M-x byte-recompile-directory +and specify the directory that contains the Lisp files. + +Emacs should print a warning when loading a .elc file which is older +than the corresponding .el file. + +* The dumped Emacs crashes when run, trying to write pure data. + +Two causes have been seen for such problems. + +1) On a system where getpagesize is not a system call, it is defined +as a macro. If the definition (in both unexec.c and malloc.c) is wrong, +it can cause problems like this. You might be able to find the correct +value in the man page for a.out (5). + +2) Some systems allocate variables declared static among the +initialized variables. Emacs makes all initialized variables in most +of its files pure after dumping, but the variables declared static and +not initialized are not supposed to be pure. On these systems you +may need to add "#define static" to the m- or the s- file. + +* Compilation errors on VMS. + +You will get warnings when compiling on VMS because there are +variable names longer than 32 (or whatever it is) characters. +This is not an error. Ignore it. + +VAX C does not support #if defined(foo). Uses of this construct +were removed, but some may have crept back in. They must be rewritten. + +There is a bug in the C compiler which fails to sign extend characters +in conditional expressions. The bug is: + char c = -1, d = 1; + int i; + + i = d ? c : d; +The result is i == 255; the fix is to typecast the char in the +conditional expression as an (int). Known occurrences of such +constructs in Emacs have been fixed. + +* rmail gets error getting new mail + +rmail gets new mail from /usr/spool/mail/$USER using a program +called `movemail'. This program interlocks with /bin/mail using +the protocol defined by /bin/mail. + +There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses +the `flock' system call. The other involves creating a lock file; +`movemail' must be able to write in /usr/spool/mail in order to do +this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining, +the macro MAIL_USE_FLOCK in config.h or the m- or s- file it includes. +IF YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR +SYSTEM, YOU CAN LOSE MAIL! + +If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions +prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail, +you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as +`mail'. You can use these commands (as root): + + chgrp mail movemail + chmod 2755 movemail + +If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions +prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail, +you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as +`mail'. To do this, use the following commands (as root) after doing the +make install. + + chgrp mail movemail + chmod 2755 movemail + +Installation normally copies movemail from the build directory to an +installation directory which is usually under /usr/local/lib. The +installed copy of movemail is usually in the directory +/usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/TARGET. You must change the group and +mode of the installed copy; changing the group and mode of the build +directory copy is ineffective. + +* Emacs spontaneously displays "I-search: " at the bottom of the screen. + +This means that Control-S/Control-Q (XON/XOFF) "flow control" is being +used. C-s/C-q flow control is bad for Emacs editors because it takes +away C-s and C-q as user commands. Since editors do not output long +streams of text without user commands, there is no need for a +user-issuable "stop output" command in an editor; therefore, a +properly designed flow control mechanism would transmit all possible +input characters without interference. Designing such a mechanism is +easy, for a person with at least half a brain. + +There are three possible reasons why flow control could be taking place: + + 1) Terminal has not been told to disable flow control + 2) Insufficient padding for the terminal in use + 3) Some sort of terminal concentrator or line switch is responsible + +First of all, many terminals have a set-up mode which controls whether +they generate XON/XOFF flow control characters. This must be set to +"no XON/XOFF" in order for Emacs to work. Sometimes there is an +escape sequence that the computer can send to turn flow control off +and on. If so, perhaps the termcap `ti' string should turn flow +control off, and the `te' string should turn it on. + +Once the terminal has been told "no flow control", you may find it +needs more padding. The amount of padding Emacs sends is controlled +by the termcap entry for the terminal in use, and by the output baud +rate as known by the kernel. The shell command `stty' will print +your output baud rate; `stty' with suitable arguments will set it if +it is wrong. Setting to a higher speed causes increased padding. If +the results are wrong for the correct speed, there is probably a +problem in the termcap entry. You must speak to a local Unix wizard +to fix this. Perhaps you are just using the wrong terminal type. + +For terminals that lack a "no flow control" mode, sometimes just +giving lots of padding will prevent actual generation of flow control +codes. You might as well try it. + +If you are really unlucky, your terminal is connected to the computer +through a concentrator which sends XON/XOFF flow control to the +computer, or it insists on sending flow control itself no matter how +much padding you give it. Unless you can figure out how to turn flow +control off on this concentrator (again, refer to your local wizard), +you are screwed! You should have the terminal or concentrator +replaced with a properly designed one. In the mean time, some drastic +measures can make Emacs semi-work. + +You can make Emacs ignore C-s and C-q and let the operating system +handle them. To do this on a per-session basis, just type M-x +enable-flow-control RET. You will see a message that C-\ and C-^ are +now translated to C-s and C-q. (Use the same command M-x +enable-flow-control to turn *off* this special mode. It toggles flow +control handling.) + +If C-\ and C-^ are inconvenient for you (for example, if one of them +is the escape character of your terminal concentrator), you can choose +other characters by setting the variables flow-control-c-s-replacement +and flow-control-c-q-replacement. But choose carefully, since all +other control characters are already used by emacs. + +IMPORTANT: if you type C-s by accident while flow control is enabled, +Emacs output will freeze, and you will have to remember to type C-q in +order to continue. + +If you work in an environment where a majority of terminals of a +certain type are flow control hobbled, you can use the function +`enable-flow-control-on' to turn on this flow control avoidance scheme +automatically. Here is an example: + +(enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131") + +If this isn't quite correct (e.g. you have a mixture of flow-control hobbled +and good vt200 terminals), you can still run enable-flow-control +manually. + +I have no intention of ever redesigning the Emacs command set for the +assumption that terminals use C-s/C-q flow control. XON/XOFF flow +control technique is a bad design, and terminals that need it are bad +merchandise and should not be purchased. Now that X is becoming +widespread, XON/XOFF seems to be on the way out. If you can get some +use out of GNU Emacs on inferior terminals, more power to you, but I +will not make Emacs worse for properly designed systems for the sake +of inferior systems. + +* Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely. + +For some reason, your system is using brain-damaged C-s/C-q flow +control despite Emacs's attempts to turn it off. Perhaps your +terminal is connected to the computer through a concentrator +that wants to use flow control. + +You should first try to tell the concentrator not to use flow control. +If you succeed in this, try making the terminal work without +flow control, as described in the preceding section. + +If that line of approach is not successful, map some other characters +into C-s and C-q using keyboard-translate-table. The example above +shows how to do this with C-^ and C-\. + +* Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely on a net connection. + +Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow +control characters to the remote system to which they connect. +On such systems, emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow +control on the local system. + +One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host +(the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the +stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, +"stty start u stop u" will do this. + +Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way +around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and +issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell. + +If none of these methods work, the best solution is to type +M-x enable-flow-control at the beginning of your emacs session, or +if you expect the problem to continue, add a line such as the +following to your .emacs (on the host running rlogind): + +(enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131") + +See the entry about spontaneous display of I-search (above) for more +info. + +* Screen is updated wrong, but only on one kind of terminal. + +This could mean that the termcap entry you are using for that +terminal is wrong, or it could mean that Emacs has a bug handing +the combination of features specified for that terminal. + +The first step in tracking this down is to record what characters +Emacs is sending to the terminal. Execute the Lisp expression +(open-termscript "./emacs-script") to make Emacs write all +terminal output into the file ~/emacs-script as well; then do +what makes the screen update wrong, and look at the file +and decode the characters using the manual for the terminal. +There are several possibilities: + +1) The characters sent are correct, according to the terminal manual. + +In this case, there is no obvious bug in Emacs, and most likely you +need more padding, or possibly the terminal manual is wrong. + +2) The characters sent are incorrect, due to an obscure aspect + of the terminal behavior not described in an obvious way + by termcap. + +This case is hard. It will be necessary to think of a way for +Emacs to distinguish between terminals with this kind of behavior +and other terminals that behave subtly differently but are +classified the same by termcap; or else find an algorithm for +Emacs to use that avoids the difference. Such changes must be +tested on many kinds of terminals. + +3) The termcap entry is wrong. + +See the file etc/TERMS for information on changes +that are known to be needed in commonly used termcap entries +for certain terminals. + +4) The characters sent are incorrect, and clearly cannot be + right for any terminal with the termcap entry you were using. + +This is unambiguously an Emacs bug, and can probably be fixed +in termcap.c, tparam.c, term.c, scroll.c, cm.c or dispnew.c. + +* Output from Control-V is slow. + +On many bit-map terminals, scrolling operations are fairly slow. +Often the termcap entry for the type of terminal in use fails +to inform Emacs of this. The two lines at the bottom of the screen +before a Control-V command are supposed to appear at the top after +the Control-V command. If Emacs thinks scrolling the lines is fast, +it will scroll them to the top of the screen. + +If scrolling is slow but Emacs thinks it is fast, the usual reason is +that the termcap entry for the terminal you are using does not +specify any padding time for the `al' and `dl' strings. Emacs +concludes that these operations take only as much time as it takes to +send the commands at whatever line speed you are using. You must +fix the termcap entry to specify, for the `al' and `dl', as much +time as the operations really take. + +Currently Emacs thinks in terms of serial lines which send characters +at a fixed rate, so that any operation which takes time for the +terminal to execute must also be padded. With bit-map terminals +operated across networks, often the network provides some sort of +flow control so that padding is never needed no matter how slow +an operation is. You must still specify a padding time if you want +Emacs to realize that the operation takes a long time. This will +cause padding characters to be sent unnecessarily, but they do +not really cost much. They will be transmitted while the scrolling +is happening and then discarded quickly by the terminal. + +Most bit-map terminals provide commands for inserting or deleting +multiple lines at once. Define the `AL' and `DL' strings in the +termcap entry to say how to do these things, and you will have +fast output without wasted padding characters. These strings should +each contain a single %-spec saying how to send the number of lines +to be scrolled. These %-specs are like those in the termcap +`cm' string. + +You should also define the `IC' and `DC' strings if your terminal +has a command to insert or delete multiple characters. These +take the number of positions to insert or delete as an argument. + +A `cs' string to set the scrolling region will reduce the amount +of motion you see on the screen when part of the screen is scrolled. + +* Your Delete key sends a Backspace to the terminal, using an AIXterm. + +The solution is to include in your .Xdefaults the lines: + + *aixterm.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7f) + aixterm*ttyModes: erase ^? + +This makes your Backspace key send DEL (ASCII 127). + +* You type Control-H (Backspace) expecting to delete characters. + +Put `stty dec' in your .login file and your problems will disappear +after a day or two. + +The choice of Backspace for erasure was based on confusion, caused by +the fact that backspacing causes erasure (later, when you type another +character) on most display terminals. But it is a mistake. Deletion +of text is not the same thing as backspacing followed by failure to +overprint. I do not wish to propagate this confusion by conforming +to it. + +For this reason, I believe `stty dec' is the right mode to use, +and I have designed Emacs to go with that. If there were a thousand +other control characters, I would define Control-h to delete as well; +but there are not very many other control characters, and I think +that providing the most mnemonic possible Help character is more +important than adapting to people who don't use `stty dec'. + +If you are obstinate about confusing buggy overprinting with deletion, +you can redefine Backspace in your .emacs file: + (global-set-key "\b" 'delete-backward-char) +You can probably access help-command via f1. + +* Editing files through RFS gives spurious "file has changed" warnings. +It is possible that a change in Emacs 18.37 gets around this problem, +but in case not, here is a description of how to fix the RFS bug that +causes it. + + There was a serious pair of bugs in the handling of the fsync() system + call in the RFS server. + + The first is that the fsync() call is handled as another name for the + close() system call (!!). It appears that fsync() is not used by very + many programs; Emacs version 18 does an fsync() before closing files + to make sure that the bits are on the disk. + + This is fixed by the enclosed patch to the RFS server. + + The second, more serious problem, is that fsync() is treated as a + non-blocking system call (i.e., it's implemented as a message that + gets sent to the remote system without waiting for a reply). Fsync is + a useful tool for building atomic file transactions. Implementing it + as a non-blocking RPC call (when the local call blocks until the sync + is done) is a bad idea; unfortunately, changing it will break the RFS + protocol. No fix was supplied for this problem. + + (as always, your line numbers may vary) + + % rcsdiff -c -r1.2 serversyscall.c + RCS file: RCS/serversyscall.c,v + retrieving revision 1.2 + diff -c -r1.2 serversyscall.c + *** /tmp/,RCSt1003677 Wed Jan 28 15:15:02 1987 + --- serversyscall.c Wed Jan 28 15:14:48 1987 + *************** + *** 163,169 **** + /* + * No return sent for close or fsync! + */ + ! if (syscall == RSYS_close || syscall == RSYS_fsync) + proc->p_returnval = deallocate_fd(proc, msg->m_args[0]); + else + { + --- 166,172 ---- + /* + * No return sent for close or fsync! + */ + ! if (syscall == RSYS_close) + proc->p_returnval = deallocate_fd(proc, msg->m_args[0]); + else + { + +* Vax C compiler bugs affecting Emacs. + +You may get one of these problems compiling Emacs: + + foo.c line nnn: compiler error: no table entry for op STASG + foo.c: fatal error in /lib/ccom + +These are due to bugs in the C compiler; the code is valid C. +Unfortunately, the bugs are unpredictable: the same construct +may compile properly or trigger one of these bugs, depending +on what else is in the source file being compiled. Even changes +in header files that should not affect the file being compiled +can affect whether the bug happens. In addition, sometimes files +that compile correctly on one machine get this bug on another machine. + +As a result, it is hard for me to make sure this bug will not affect +you. I have attempted to find and alter these constructs, but more +can always appear. However, I can tell you how to deal with it if it +should happen. The bug comes from having an indexed reference to an +array of Lisp_Objects, as an argument in a function call: + Lisp_Object *args; + ... + ... foo (5, args[i], ...)... +putting the argument into a temporary variable first, as in + Lisp_Object *args; + Lisp_Object tem; + ... + tem = args[i]; + ... foo (r, tem, ...)... +causes the problem to go away. +The `contents' field of a Lisp vector is an array of Lisp_Objects, +so you may see the problem happening with indexed references to that. + +* 68000 C compiler problems + +Various 68000 compilers have different problems. +These are some that have been observed. + +** Using value of assignment expression on union type loses. +This means that x = y = z; or foo (x = z); does not work +if x is of type Lisp_Object. + +** "cannot reclaim" error. + +This means that an expression is too complicated. You get the correct +line number in the error message. The code must be rewritten with +simpler expressions. + +** XCONS, XSTRING, etc macros produce incorrect code. + +If temacs fails to run at all, this may be the cause. +Compile this test program and look at the assembler code: + +struct foo { char x; unsigned int y : 24; }; + +lose (arg) + struct foo arg; +{ + test ((int *) arg.y); +} + +If the code is incorrect, your compiler has this problem. +In the XCONS, etc., macros in lisp.h you must replace (a).u.val with +((a).u.val + coercedummy) where coercedummy is declared as int. + +This problem will not happen if the m-...h file for your type +of machine defines NO_UNION_TYPE. That is the recommended setting now. + +* C compilers lose on returning unions + +I hear that some C compilers cannot handle returning a union type. +Most of the functions in GNU Emacs return type Lisp_Object, which is +defined as a union on some rare architectures. + +This problem will not happen if the m-...h file for your type +of machine defines NO_UNION_TYPE. +