Re: help request on emacs 20.6 installation problems

[Eli Zaretskii]

On Wed, 29 Nov 2000 lacamera@usgs.gov wrote:

> I prefer to extract files using WinZip

Actually, I suggest not to use WinZip: it's evil.  The details are
subtle and not really important, but their consequences can be dire in
some cases.  I can tell horror stories about people who got their
unpacked distributions messed up beyond recognition because of some
obscure options in WinZip they turned on.

Use djtarnt.exe, and you will be spared those problems.

> to avoid what seems to be the multi-step DOS process outlined on
> your site (to avoid complications with tape-backup
> software/devices).

I'm confused: what tape-backup software/devices?  You don't need to
mess with any devices, just unpack the .tar.gz file(s).

> I couldn't
> locate any multiple-zipped files for downloading or what seemed to be a
> reliable onestep untarring/unzipping process for windows on your site (such
> as djtarnt.exe).

Again, I'm confused: are you saying that you cannot locate djtarnt.exe
on the GNU ftp site?

> Does djtarnt.exe incorporate tar 1.11.2a and is it tested?

djtarnt.exe does not incorporate GNU Tar 1.12.  It is a separate
program, with different code, and it doesn't support all of the
features of Tar.  For example, it cannot create archives, only unpack
them.  It does, however, have one advantage for non-Unix platforms: it
unzips and untars .tar.gz archives in one go, without requiring you to
have a separate gzip program to be installed, and without wasting disk
space or memory for storing the intermediate uncompressed archive.

And yes, djtarnt.exe *is* tested.  That's why it is on the ftp site.

> If so, can I put the downloaded tar.gz file, djtrarnt, and
> subdirectories/files created using djtarnt in a directory of my choice,
> specify an alternate location from which emacs is to be installed/run
> during setup, and subsequently delete files in the initial location?

Yes.  Assuming you want Emacs to be unpacked in the directory d:\gnu,
and that the downloaded .tar.gz files and djtarnt.exe are in c:\temp,
here's the cookbook-style recipe:

  cd d:\
  d:
  mkdir gnu
  cd gnu
  c:\temp\djtarnt -x c:\temp\emacs-20.6-bin-i1386.tar.gz

(If you downloaded more .tar.gz files, unpack them with additional
djtarnt commands as above.)  After djtarnt.exe finishes, follow the
rest of the installation instructions, such as running addpm etc.