Re: Compiling emacs 24 under Debian

[Tim X]

Richard Riley <rileyrg@googlemail.com> writes:

> Could someone please share the secret for making emacs 24 under Debian
> (testing) so that it can still see the system installed libraries that
> are not part of emacs proper?
>
> I have this but I'm not altogether sure its good enough:-
>
> (setq load-path (append load-path '("/usr/local/emacs/site-lisp"
> "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp")))
> (load-library "debian-startup")
> (debian-startup 'emacs23)
> (load-library "/etc/emacs/site-start")
>

The most reliable way I've found is to edit lisp/startuo.el and add the
debian-emacs-flavor variable and modify the code further down where the
site-start library is loaded. If you do a diff on the startup.el file
from debian's emacs and the one from emacs bzr, you will quickly see the
necessary changes. 

There are some other differences, but I've found these to be cosmetic.
The startup.el file rarely changes and bzr will auto merge if possible
when you do a bzr pull to update. 

As there can be byte code issues between versions of emacs, I also tend
to install the emacs-snapshot and set the debian-emacs-flavor to
'emacs-snapshot. I also have 2 simple bash script that I run to setup
appropriate symlinks and /etc/alternatives. Not necessary, but handy if
you want to easily and consistently move between different versions of
emacs such that running 'emacs' will give consistent version results. I
install emacs into the default /usr/local tree. After running make
install, I rm /usr/local/share/emacs/24.0.50/site-lisp and replace it
with a sym link to /usr/share/emacs-snapshot/site-lisp

I use load-path-shadow to verify everything is consistent and loading
what I think it is after each new build of emacs. 

#!/bin/bash

#       Filename: setup-emacs.sh
#  Creation Date: Monday, 05 July 2010 10:33 AM EST
#  Last Modified: Tuesday, 06 July 2010 06:06 PM EST
#    Description: Simple script to setup emacs24 and make it the default 
alterntaive
# 

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/b2m ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/b2m.emacs24 ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/b2m.emacs24
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/b2m /usr/local/bin/b2m.emacs24
fi

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/ctags ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/ctags.emacs24 ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/ctags.emacs24
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/ctags /usr/local/bin/ctags.emacs24
fi

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/ebrowse ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/ebrowse.emacs24 ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/ebrowse.emacs24
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/ebrowse /usr/local/bin/ebrowse.emacs24
fi

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/emacs ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/emacs24-x ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/emacs24-x
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/emacs /usr/local/bin/emacs24-x
fi

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/emacsclient ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/emacsclient.emacs24 ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/emacsclient.emacs24
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/emacsclient /usr/local/bin/emacsclient.emacs24
fi

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/etags ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/etags.emacs24 ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/etags.emacs24
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/etags /usr/local/bin/etags.emacs24
fi

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/grep-changelog ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/grep-changelog.emacs24 ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/grep-changelog.emacs24
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/grep-changelog /usr/local/bin/grep-changelog.emacs24
fi

if [ -f /usr/local/bin/rcs-checkin ]; then
    if [ -f /usr/local/bin/rcs-checkin.emacs24 ]; then
        rm /usr/local/bin/rcs-checkin.emacs24
    fi
    mv /usr/local/bin/rcs-checkin /usr/local/bin/rcs-checkin.emacs24
fi

#!/bin/bash
#       Filename: emacs-alternative.sh
#  Creation Date: Monday, 05 July 2010 10:54 AM EST
#  Last Modified: Monday, 05 July 2010 11:38 AM EST
#    Description: Switch between alternative emacs versions
# 

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Error: Wrong # arguments"
    echo "Usage: $0 < 23 | 24 | emacs-snapshot >"
    exit 1
fi

EMACS_VERSION=$1

echo "Configureing for emacs $EMACS_VERSION"

cd /etc/alternatives

if [ $EMACS_VERSION == "23" ]; then
    echo "Configureing for Ubuntu emacs 23"
    rm b2m
    ln -s /usr/bin/b2m.emacs23 b2m
    rm ctags
    ln -s /usr/bin/ctags.emacs23 ctags
    rm ebrowse
    ln -s /usr/bin/ebrowse.emacs23 ebrowse
    rm emacs
    ln -s /usr/bin/emacs23-x emacs
    rm emacsclient
    ln -s /usr/bin/emacsclient.emacs23 emacsclient
    rm etags
    ln -s /usr/bin/etags.emacs23 etags
    rm grep-changelog
    ln -s /usr/bin/grep-changelog.emacs23 grep-changelog
    rm rcs-checkin
    ln -s /usr/bin/rcs-checkin.emacs23 rcs-checkin 
elif [ $EMACS_VERSION == "emacs-snapshot" ]; then
    echo "Configureing for Ubuntu emacs-snapshot"
    rm b2m
    ln -s /usr/bin/b2m.emacs-snapshot b2m
    rm ctags
    ln -s /usr/bin/ctags.emacs-snapshot ctags
    rm ebrowse
    ln -s /usr/bin/ebrowse.emacs-snapshot ebrowse
    rm emacs
    ln -s /usr/bin/emacs-snapshot-x emacs
    rm emacsclient
    ln -s /usr/bin/emacsclient.emacs-snapshot emacsclient
    rm etags
    ln -s /usr/bin/etags.emacs-snapshot etags
    rm grep-changelog
    ln -s /usr/bin/grep-changelog.emacs-snapshot grep-changelog
    rm rcs-checkin
    ln -s /usr/bin/rcs-checkin.emacs-snapshot rcs-checkin 
elif [ $EMACS_VERSION == "24" ]; then
    echo "Configuring for local emacs 24"
    rm b2m
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/b2m.emacs24 b2m
    rm ctags
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/ctags.emacs24 ctags
    rm ebrowse
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/ebrowse.emacs24 ebrowse
    rm emacs
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/emacs24-x emacs
    rm emacsclient 
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/emacsclient.emacs24 emacsclient
    rm etags
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/etags.emacs24 etags
    rm grep-changelog
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/grep-changelog.emacs24 grep-changelog
    rm rcs-checkin
    ln -s /usr/local/bin/rcs-checkin.emacs24 rcs-checkin
else
    echo "Unknown emacs version $EMACS_VERSION"
    exit 1
fi






-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au