Re: emacs 23 & Debian

[Richard Riley]

Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null> writes:

> Richard Riley <rileyrgdev@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Ben Badgley <mortecanine@peoplepc.com> writes:
>>
>>> 1. Where and how may a person upgrade to version 23 for Debian?
>>>
>>> I'm a simple 'go grab a .deb and install it' sort at this point, 
>>> although am getting better with using the console. So, please avoid 
>>> saying cvs or git, subversion. Have a friend coming over for the weekend 
>>> who may better explain that voodoo to me
>>>
>>> 2. Why did the Debian Emacs release come over as a bit hindered?
>>>
>>> Noticed this on the Emacs Wiki threads about Emacs on Debian. It 
>>> couldn't sort out what was where, or its version. There was some code to 
>>> attempt correcting it posted as well.
>>>
>>> 3. And will future Debian releases of Emacs be so?
>>>
>>> Hope not on this end.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I have been through this.
>>
>> The bottom line for me was to dump debian emacs and follow the simple
>> enough instructions available from Google to get from cvs and
>> compile. It really is not that difficult. I know you said you didn't
>> want to hear but thats what i said at first. and the build has become a
>> LOT easier than a while ago.
>>
>> Why did I dump debian emacs? Because they do all sorts of smart stuff
>> with system files that simply confused me and anyone I asked for help
>> from. The general consensus was "you're on your own" when I mentioned
>> debian in #emacs irc channel!
>>
>> The only issue then is getting your "generally used" files from the
>> emacs wiki or elsewhere that does not ship with emacs. It doesn't take
>> long. I store it all in a ~/.emacs.d/lisp directory and add that to my
>> loadpath as is well documented elsewhere.
>>
>
> This is the disadvantage of that approach - you lose all that handy
> pre-packaged debian emacs elisp stuff. Its one of the main reasons I use
> Debian. 

Well, yes, but it comes with disadvantages as I outlined. And also this
handy prepackaged stuff can be notoriously out of date and then you get
into testing packages and extra source lines. The other main reason
which I neglected to mention is that by having ALL the elisp utilties I
use in my elisp directory it makes it very easy for me to Unison my
emacs config between my multiple machines - my emacs is identical on all
machines.


>
> Go to http://emacs.orebokech.com and you can get verson 23 of emacs that
> is built as a deb and works with the debian emacs infastructure. Updates
> happen regularly, so you stay pretty close to the head of the CVS
> tree. Even better, Romain ensures the packages are pretty stable before
> he releases them, so you don't get bitten by transient problems with
> CVS. 

Actually I got bitten with this package! Plus I like to use CVS.

>
>
>> So, uninstall all emacs stuff!
>>
>> Then:
>>
>> we go to the command line and install the stuff we need to build emacs:
>>
>> ,----
>> | sudo apt-get install build-essentials
>> `----
>>
>> then go here and read :
>>
>> http://savannah.gnu.org/cvs/?group=emacs
>>
>> Knowing what we want to do, we go to the command line change to a
>> directory where you want to build emacs and do:
>>
>> ,----
>> | cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/emacs co emacs
>> `----
>>
>> Then cd into out new emacs directory and:
>>
>> ,----
>> | ./configure
>> | make
>
> Actually, if your building from CVS sources, you should be doing make
> bootstrap rather than just make - at least for the first time. this will
> ensure all the .el files are re-built. This is documented in the
> INSTALL.CVS file in the root of the source tree. 

Thanks for pointing that out. I had thought it was built into the
makefile and dont think I have ever manually ran it! I'll check up.


>
>> | sudo make install
>> `----
>>
>> The ./configure stage MIGHT give errors - goto Google or back here for
>> specific help.
>>
>> Try it!
>>
>> regards
>>
>> Richard.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

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