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Help for Beginner?

Tom Fry
2016-01-27
2016-01-30
  • Tom Fry

    Tom Fry - 2016-01-27

    A well-known site has an Explain-like-I'm-5 section. Could someone explain a few things like I'm your 80-year-old grandmother?

    I'm not used to Windows command-line stuff nor sourceforge, but I'm trying really hard to get emacs on my Win 10 netbook.
    I followed the instructions, with mostly success but a few error messages along the way (eg cannot lock config).

    Now I'm at Configure; make; make install --> "chdir to the directory with the source code" -- where is the source code? What should I look for?

    I have a file ending in tar.xz where I downloaded it.
    But, I also have C:\msys64\home(myusername)\emacs\src which was apparently created when I followed the beginning instructions.
    Is one of these the place I am supposed to chdir to?

    I'm come this far; don't want to give up now.

    Also, in the very top line of the instructions,
    pacman -S base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain \ Is the $ prompt supposed to turn into a > after you press Enter? Does that just mean one is continuing the command? (You can tell what a beginner I am from that question).

    Many thanks in advance.

     
  • Tom Fry

    Tom Fry - 2016-01-28

    Update: I tried cd'ing to the src folder and running the long command. "No ./configure"
    Hmm. I searched for "configure" and found it only in a dir called Completions. Doesn't see like the right place, but I was aable to run that long command without an error.

    But then 'make' didn't work. It said make wasn't a valid command.
    uh-oh.

     
  • zklhp

    zklhp - 2016-01-30

    Hi Tom,

    Building the Linux-world software in MS-Windows is struggling. It is far more difficult than building a Windows software or building software in a Linux system.

    I followed the instructions, with mostly success but a few error messages along the way (eg cannot lock config).

    The “cannot lock” may relate to the pacman. If you see the messages that tell you to remove “/var/lib/pacman/db.lck”, you should delete the file by running the following command:

    rm /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
    

    If the pacman doesn’t work well and the needed package isn’t installed, the next steps will definitely fall.

    Now I'm at Configure; make; make install --> "chdir to the directory with the source code" -- where is the source code? What should I look for?

    First you should read the “Get the source code” part. Getting the source isn’t described because it is one of the basic skills for building softwares.

    I have a file ending in tar.xz where I downloaded it.
    But, I also have C:\msys64\home(myusername)\emacs\src which was apparently created when I followed the beginning instructions.
    Is one of these the place I am supposed to chdir to?

    For beginners, downloading and extracting the code is more simple than using git. Make sure the base-devel is installed. If not, using the following command to install it:

    pacman -S base-devel
    

    Then run the commands:

    cd ~
    wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/emacs-24.5.tar.xz
    tar xvf emacs-24.5.tar.xz 
    

    The first command will bring you to your home directory. There is no need to worry about where it is, you can just think that you are at home. :) The second command download the code as a compressed file. Then the last command will extract it. A directory named “emacs-24.5” will be created. This is the directory that you should chdir to. You can do it by:

    cd emacs-24.5
    

    Also, in the very top line of the instructions,
    pacman -S base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain \ Is the $ prompt supposed to turn into a > after you press Enter? Does that just mean one is continuing the command? (You can tell what a beginner I am from that question).

    Sorry for the long list. Maybe you can just install the mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain by:

    pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
    

    I’m not sure why the “>” is prompted.

    Then for the “configure; make; make install” part. Please make sure the following commands are run in the “black window” created by double click mingw64_shell.bat:

    cd ~/emacs-24.5
    ./autogen.sh
    ./configure
    make
    

    If everything is Ok, you can run the following command to start Emacs:

    ./src/emacs.exe
    

    If something happens, please tell me.

    In the end, I’m sorry for the poor document. I’m not native speaker, and I wrote the wiki according to my memory. The mistakes are my own. Please don’t give up. Just try again. Oh, the better document, INSTALL.W64, which is based on the wiki you read, is becoming offical document and should be more helpful.

    Sorry,
    Chris

     

    Last edit: zklhp 2016-01-30
  • Tom Fry

    Tom Fry - 2016-01-30

    Hi Chris

    Your English is excellent and don't worry- unlike computer languages it is very forgiving of small errors. :-)

    I really appreciate your response and I will carefully try it out.

    First you should read the “Get the source code” part. Getting the source isn’t described because it is one of the basic skills for building softwares.

    Getting the source code is probably something I already did. It's just that I'm such a newbie that I don't know what directory it's in. When I took the initial steps, a lot of stuff was created, and I don't know what's what.

    Building the Linux-world software in MS-Windows is (a struggle). It is far more difficult than building a Windows software or building software in a Linux system

    You can say that again. :-) In linux, I believe I typed one apt-get line and a minute later I had emacs.
    Since I have a new windows laptop, I really appreciate your submission & instructions.
    Cheers
    Tom

     

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