3 At the time of this release (SXEmacs 22.1.10), SXEmacs has the
4 following idiosyncrasies:
9 ** User init file (C-h v user-init-file)
11 SXEmacs searches for its init file in `~/.sxemacs/init.el'.
12 Symlinking your old ~/.xemacs directory should be enough to get you up
15 $ ln -s ~/.xemacs ~/.sxemacs RET
17 BTW, unlike XEmacs, SXEmacs doesn't attempt to "migrate" your old init
18 file or Gnu/Emacs .emacs file.
22 The default location that SXEmacs searches for packages is
23 `$prefix/share/sxemacs/'. The same as for the user-init-file, a
24 symlink is all you need to get up and running.
26 $ ln -s /usr/local/lib/xemacs /usr/local/share/sxemacs RET
34 *** FFI is not included with your distro
36 Sadly, some Linux distributions (hello Fedora) don't ship a libffi
37 package, and their GCC does NOT include libffi or FFI headers either.
38 In this instance you have 2 options...
40 1) Get the standalone package of libffi at
41 <http://sourceware.org/libffi/>.
43 2) Compile your own GCC from source, making sure you enable the java
44 compiler. Enabling java in your GCC build is the only way to get
47 Obviously, option #1 there is the easiest and quickest path to
48 FFI-enabled SXEmacsen, and it is the option that we recommend.
50 Oh, and please nag your distro to have FFI included by default.
52 *** FFI is included in your GCC but you see missing header errors
54 Often libffi headers aren't completely installed. If you are getting
55 errors in effi.c that seem to be hinged from something like...
57 /usr/include/ffi.h:63:23: ffitarget.h: No such file or directory
59 You need to find `ffitarget.h' and put it in the same directory as
60 your `ffi.h'. Your libffi came with GCC, so you'll find it within
63 $ dirname $(gcc -print-libgcc-file-name)
64 /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.1
66 Using that example, ffitarget.h would be in...
68 /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.1/libffi/
70 Just copy or symlink the ffitarget.h there to /usr/include
72 *** FFI on SELinux enabled machines
74 If you are running with SELinux enabled and configure fails with
75 messages like the following in `config.log'...
77 error while loading shared libraries: /usr/local/lib/libffi.so.1:
78 cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied
80 You need to correct the default security context for `libffi.so'.
82 $ chcon -t textrel_shlib_t /usr/local/lib/libffi.so
86 The autoconf tests for PostgreSQL support have changed. SXEmacs'
87 configure script now uses `pg_config' to determine whether or not to
88 enable PostgreSQL. Because of this you may have to set you $PATH
89 environment to include the pgsql bin directory. It is normally
90 `/usr/local/pgsql/bin/'. Another popular directory on Solaris 9 is
91 `/opt/crw/postgresql/bin/'. Check with your site administrator.
93 Bash users can do it like this...
95 export PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH
97 *** Solaris 9 with 64-bit PostgreSQL
99 There has also been a report that on Solaris 9 you may also need to
100 configure with `--with-cflags='-mcpu=ultrasparc -m64''. Apparently
101 GCC on Solaris 9 defaults to building 32-bit, so you lose if you have
106 Tooltalk seems to be very broken, and to be honest, we don't know of
107 anyone who actually uses it. So we're defaulting it to `off'. It may
108 disappear entirely in a future release, but the jury is still out on
111 ** 64-bit test suite failure
113 We have had a couple of reports of the test suite failing on 64-bit
114 systems. The error is like this (or similar)...
116 Testing /usr/src/sxemacs/modules/ase/ase-heap-tests.el...
117 Loading ase_heap v0.0.0 (SXEmacs module: ase-heap)
118 Loaded module ase_heap v0.0.0 (SXEmacs module: ase-heap)Fatal error: assertion failed, file alloc.c, line 298, block != (void*)0xCAFEBABEDEADBEEF
119 make[3]: *** [check-am] Aborted
121 At this point we are not too sure exactly what the issue is. It looks
122 like it might be a bug in the malloc or free code of the libc. We do
123 know that not all 64-bit systems are affected, so far, only Fedora
124 Core 7, and Gentoo on x86_64.
126 One user has reported that using `-O1' in CFLAGS prevents it.
128 But even with this test failure, SXEmacs still runs and opperates
129 without incident. In fact, the failure can't be reproduced when
130 running the test suite interactively. With that in mind, it should be
131 safe to install if you see this failure.
133 We'll endeavour to get to the bottom of this one ASAP, if you think
134 you can help, let us know.
136 ** m4, libtool, autoconf, automake, and whatnot
138 SXEmacs tries to cope with any combination of versions of the above
139 programs. However, there is one lower bound, autoconf 2.60, and
140 unfortunately this has an impact on the other parts of the build
143 To cut it really short, here is the minimum known-to-work combination:
144 - autoconf 2.62, automake 1.9.6, libtool 1.5.22, m4 1.4.6
146 In general we support (as of April, 2010):
147 - autoconf >= 2.62, including current git versions
148 - automake 1.9.6, 1.10, 1.10a, 1.11.1, and current git versions
149 - libtool 1.5.N with N >= 22, libtool >= 2.1a (current CVS version)
150 - m4 1.4.M with M >= 6 plus current git versions
152 Note that many libtool packages shipped with the distros (OpenSuSE,
153 Debian, just to name two) are _broken_. Make sure you compile
154 your own libtool in case you want to rerun autogen.sh or bootstrap
155 the build chain, and double check that you use --enable-ltdl-install
158 If you are on a platform that has its own _non_gnu libtool (like OS/X
159 Leopard) add --program-prefix=g to your gnu libtool configure so it
160 installs as glibtool and doesn't clobber your other one.
162 Sometimes it helps just to copy over the libtool script manually:
163 cp -a $(type -p libtool) ${top_builddir}
165 *** ylwrap fails with sed errors
167 Some versions of the ylwrap script provided by autotools uses commas
168 as separators in sed commands. As such if your build path uses commas
169 the ylwrap will fail.
171 Sample message (where the build path was /Users/njsf/Projects/SXEmacs/nsx-up/,,mac):
173 /Users/njsf/Projects/SXEmacs/nsx-up/,,mac/lib-src/make-docfile --modname cl-loop -E cl-loop.doc.c ../../../modules/cl/cl-loop.c
174 /bin/sh ../../../ylwrap ../../../modules/cl/cl-loop-parser.y y.tab.c cl-loop-parser.c y.tab.h cl-loop-parser.h y.output
175 cl-loop-parser.output -- bison -y -d
176 sed: 1: "s,/Users/njsf/Projects/ ...": bad flag in substitute command: 'm'
177 sed: 1: "s,/Users/njsf/Projects/ ...": bad flag in substitute command: 'm'
179 The workaround is to use a path without commas in it.
182 *** Missing libltdl.la (Solaris 2.8)
184 We've had a report that missing libtool on Solaris 2.8 isn't detected
185 and so the included libtool still isn't used. If you see an error
186 about a missing libltdl.la all you need to do is configure SXEmacs
193 *** configure on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc.
195 Building SXEmacs on *BSD as far as we know requires the GNU Bourne
196 Again SHell (bash) versions 3 or 4.
198 bash is available for all tier 1 architectures as a binary package and
199 and for tier 2/3 as a port.
201 To run configure successfully...
203 CONFIG_SHELL=/path/to/bash $CONFIG_SHELL configure [option, ...]
205 ** bdwgc and gcc and code optimisation
207 There are some weird optimisation issues with the Boehm-Demers-Weiser
208 garbage collector (hereafter BDWGC) and the GCC C compilers of the 2 and
209 3 series. The build will crash like this:
211 Loading build-autoloads.el...
212 Loading loadup-el.el...
213 Loading loadup.el...make[3]: *** [auto-autoloads.el] Segmentation fault
215 make[3]: Leaving directory
217 The C backtrace will look like:
219 #0 0xbff9a2f0 in ?? ()
220 #1 0xb7eaf7d6 in GC_invoke_finalizers () at finalize.c:787
221 #2 0xb7eaf8ed in GC_notify_or_invoke_finalizers () at finalize.c:844
222 #3 0xb7eb2c8c in GC_generic_malloc (lb=32, k=0) at malloc.c:190
224 If this is true for you, you may want to try another optimisation level:
226 ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2"
228 If this still does not work out either dispense with BDWGC support or
229 use a recent C compiler. ATTOW, all GCC 4.x compilers (including SVN)
234 ENT is basically a conglomerate of internally and externally implemented
235 arithmetics. Hence it supports a number of libraries, some of which
236 overlap in their functionality, some others do not but then break at the
239 One of the most likely problems is the GMP vs. MPFR issue. In past
240 times, mpfr (a multiprecision library for floats with exact rounding
241 facilities) has been a part of the GMP distribution. Later on, mpfr got
242 separated from it and has been developed independently while the version
243 of mpfr which ships with GMP stayed the same. Now that scenario is
246 Inattentive distributions (like Fedora) still deliver packages of GMP
247 with the old'n'incompatible mpfr library. SXEmacs will disable the MPFR
248 support on such systems by default (at configure time). However, if you
249 install a supported version of mpfr in parallel to the packaged ones on
250 such a system SXEmacs autodetection correctly reports that a sane
251 version of mpfr is available and enables it. Nonetheless, the according
252 build may fail (or the build may even succeed but calling the binary may
255 number-mpfr.o: In function `ent_lt_BIGFR_T':
256 /home/martin/src/edit/sxemacs-main/src/number-mpfr.c:661: undefined
257 reference to `mpfr_less_p'
258 number-mpfr.o: In function `ent_gt_BIGFR_T':
259 /home/martin/src/edit/sxemacs-main/src/number-mpfr.c:671: undefined
260 reference to `mpfr_greater_p'
263 Especially note that we _only_ support the standalone version of MPFR,
264 and not the one distributed with GMP.
269 Badger your distributor and demand separate packages for GMP and
272 Remove the GMP package and install your own build -- available at
273 http://swox.com/gmp -- afterwards install your own build of mpfr (the
274 one from http://www.mpfr.org)
276 Reconfigure and rebuild SXEmacs afterwards.
282 We have identified 2 packages so far that don't work "out of the box"
283 with SXEmacs. In both of these the problem is with parsing version
284 information. Patches have been sent to the appropriate maintainer to
285 fix the problem and are included here in case the packages haven't
286 been updated by the time you install SXEmacs.
288 Update: The EFS, and Dired XEmacs packages that are currently
289 available from the "Pre-Releases" area of XEmacs package mirrors are
290 both now compatible with SXEmacs and do not need the patches mentioned
295 Here is the patch to make EFS work with SXEmacs:
297 (Note: the current EFS package that XEmacs distributes has this
301 ===================================================================
302 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/efs/ChangeLog,v
303 retrieving revision 1.41
304 diff -u -U0 -r1.41 ChangeLog
305 --- ChangeLog 4 Oct 2004 08:54:56 -0000 1.41
306 +++ ChangeLog 14 Jan 2005 02:43:10 -0000
308 +2005-01-14 Steve Youngs <steve@sxemacs.org>
310 + * efs-fnh.el (efs-handle-emacs-version): Use `emacs-*-version'
311 + variables for version info instead of string-matching through
315 ===================================================================
316 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/efs/efs-fnh.el,v
317 retrieving revision 1.13
318 diff -u -u -r1.13 efs-fnh.el
319 --- efs-fnh.el 2 Oct 2004 14:06:00 -0000 1.13
320 +++ efs-fnh.el 14 Jan 2005 02:42:59 -0000
322 (let ((ehev-match-data (match-data)))
324 (let ((xemacsp (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version))
326 - (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
327 - (error "efs does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
328 - (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
329 - (match-beginning 1)
331 - subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
332 - (match-beginning 2)
334 + (ver emacs-major-version)
335 + (subver emacs-minor-version))
337 + (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
338 + (error "efs does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
339 + (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
340 + (match-beginning 1)
342 + subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
343 + (match-beginning 2)
347 ;; XEmacs (emacs-version looks like \"19.xx XEmacs\")
351 Here is the patch to make Dired work with SXEmacs:
353 (Note: the current Dired package that XEmacs distributes has this
357 ===================================================================
358 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/dired/ChangeLog,v
359 retrieving revision 1.19
360 diff -u -U0 -r1.19 ChangeLog
361 --- ChangeLog 4 Oct 2004 08:54:24 -0000 1.19
362 +++ ChangeLog 14 Jan 2005 02:37:37 -0000
364 +2005-01-14 Steve Youngs <steve@sxemacs.org>
366 + * dired.el: Use `emacs-*-version' variables for finding version
367 + information instead of string-matching through `emacs-version'.
369 + * diff.el (diff-emacs-19-p): Ditto.
372 ===================================================================
373 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/dired/diff.el,v
374 retrieving revision 1.4
375 diff -u -u -r1.4 diff.el
376 --- diff.el 2 Oct 2004 14:06:17 -0000 1.4
377 +++ diff.el 14 Jan 2005 02:37:23 -0000
379 ;;; Internal variables
381 (defconst diff-emacs-19-p
382 - (let ((ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version 0 2))))
383 + (let ((ver emacs-major-version))
386 (or diff-emacs-19-p (require 'emacs-19))
388 ===================================================================
389 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/dired/dired.el,v
390 retrieving revision 1.7
391 diff -u -u -r1.7 dired.el
392 --- dired.el 2 Oct 2004 14:06:19 -0000 1.7
393 +++ dired.el 14 Jan 2005 02:37:25 -0000
395 ;; Testing against the string `Lucid' breaks InfoDock. How many years has
396 ;; it been since Lucid went away?
397 (let ((lucid-p (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version))
399 - (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
400 - (error "dired does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
401 - (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
403 - subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 2)
405 + (ver emacs-major-version)
406 + (subver emacs-minor-version))
408 + (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
409 + (error "dired does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
410 + (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
412 + subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 2)
417 @@ -6616,11 +6618,12 @@
418 ;;;; --------------------------------------------------------------
420 (let ((lucid-p (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version))
422 - (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\." emacs-version)
423 - (error "Weird emacs version %s" emacs-version))
424 - (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
426 + (ver emacs-major-version))
428 + (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\." emacs-version)
429 + (error "Weird emacs version %s" emacs-version))
430 + (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
433 ;; Reading with history.
437 * Problems with running SXEmacs
438 ===============================
442 *** ffi-wand.el refuses to load.
444 Can't load library `libMagickWand': libgomp.so.1: shared object cannot be
447 If you get that error when trying to load ffi-wand, it is because you
448 have a ImageMagick that is using OpenMP (currently only svn HEAD). To
449 fix this you will need to rebuild ImageMagick, making sure that you
450 configure it using --disable-openmp.
452 See: <http://issues.sxemacs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=104>
454 ** Multimedia Goodness
456 *** SXEmacs hangs or crashes during (init-asynchronousity).
458 This is most likely a known effect (we do not want to call it bug,
459 since there is no definite location) with certain (g)libc and kernel
460 combinations under Linux. If it crashes analyse the core file, it
461 should look like this:
463 #0 0x4014ebc4 in __sigsuspend (set=0xbffffbb4) at
464 ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/sigsuspend.c:48
465 #1 0x40101b34 in __pthread_wait_for_restart_signal (self=0x401116e0) at
467 #2 0x40101138 in __pthread_create_2_1 (thread=0x206f8dc, attr=0xbffffc58,
468 start_routine=0x20043ac <console>, arg=0xbffffd88) at restart.h:26
470 A definite fault-prone setup is using kernel 2.6.x in conjunction with
473 *** SXEmacs hangs or crashes before it ought to playback sound.
475 As before, this is most likely a suspicious (g)libc/kernel
478 *** SXEmacs dumps core when using the ALSA audio device
480 This has been reported to happen with old ALSA libraries (1.0.3 to be
481 precise). At the moment it is uncertain at which version these
482 problems disappear (no developer wants to downgrade to a non-working
483 ALSA :D). We highly suggest to use the version 1.0.10 and above, or
486 *** SXEmacs in async mode does not play simultaneous sounds with ALSA
488 This is due to missing (hardware-)mixing capabilities of your
489 soundcard. There is a user-space plugin called dmix, which can
490 effectively circumvent this issue.
492 *** SXEmacs dumps core when using the aRts audio device
494 Does it? Please report details (version number of aRts, backtrace,
497 *** SXEmacs crashes when using state sentinels with asynchronous sounds
499 This is a known bug (#13 in our bug database). At the moment the only
500 advise we can give is: do not use sentinels before 22.1.7.
501 Also see our bug database at http://issues.sxemacs.org
503 *** make-media-stream seems to recognise any file as valid audio
505 This is a known issue with fully-featured ffmpeg builds. The current
506 code in SXEmacs blindly relies on FFmpeg when it reports a file or
507 string as valid audio. There is no way to double-check that at the
508 moment. However, you can perform the additional check yourself if
509 you have taglib installed. Use the included ffi-taglib.el.
512 * Original XEmacs PROBLEMS File
513 ===============================
514 From here down is a reproduction of the original XEmacs PROBLEMS
515 file. Much of it is already fixed in SXEmacs (and in XEmacs too).
516 We're keeping it here for prosperity, or until somebody finds the time
517 to go through it all and remove the irrelevant stuff. :-)
519 Note: Some irrelevant stuff purged (mostly windows rubbish) 2010-04-01
521 This file describes various problems that have been encountered
522 in compiling, installing and running XEmacs. It has been updated for
525 This file is rather large, but we have tried to sort the entries by
526 their respective relevance for XEmacs, but may have not succeeded
527 completely in that task. The file is divided into four parts:
529 - Problems with building XEmacs
530 - Problems with running XEmacs
531 - Compatibility problems
534 Use `C-c C-f' to move to the next equal level of outline, and
535 `C-c C-b' to move to previous equal level. `C-h m' will give more
536 info about the Outline mode.
538 Also, Try finding the things you need using one of the search commands
539 XEmacs provides (e.g. `C-s').
543 WATCH OUT for your init file! (~/.xemacs/init.el or ~/.emacs) If
544 you observe strange problems, invoke XEmacs with the `-vanilla'
545 option and see if you can repeat the problem.
547 Note that most of the problems described here manifest at RUN
548 time, even those described as BUILD problems. It is quite unusual
549 for a released XEmacs to fail to build. So a "build problem"
550 requires you to tweak the build environment, then rebuild XEmacs.
551 A "runtime problem" is one that can be fixed by proper
552 configuration of the existing build. Compatibility problems and
553 Mule issues are generally runtime problems, but are treated
554 separately for convenience.
557 * Problems with building XEmacs
558 ===============================
562 Much general information is in INSTALL. If it's covered in
563 INSTALL, we don't repeat it here.
565 *** How do I configure to get the buffer tabs/progress bars?
567 These features depend on support for "native widgets". Use the
568 --with-widgets option to configure. Configuration of widgets is
569 automatic for "modern" toolkits (MS Windows, GTK, and Motif), but if
570 you are using Xt and the Athena widgets, you will probably want to
571 specify a "3d" widget set. See configure --usage, and don't forget to
572 install the corresponding development libraries.
574 *** I know I have libfoo installed, but configure doesn't find it.
576 Typical of Linux systems with package managers. To link with a shared
577 library, you only need the shared library. To compile objects that
578 link with it, you need the headers---and distros don't provide them with
579 the libraries. You need the additional "development" package, too.
581 *** When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __fixunsdfsi".
582 When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __main".
584 This means that you need to link with the gcc library. It may be called
585 "gcc-gnulib" or "libgcc.a"; figure out where it is, and define LIB_GCC in
586 config.h to point to it.
588 It may also work to use the GCC version of `ld' instead of the standard one.
590 *** src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile are truncated--most of the file missing.
592 This can happen if configure uses GNU sed version 2.03. That version
593 had a bug. GNU sed version 2.05 works properly.
597 Motif is the X11 version of the Gnus torture test: if there's a way to
598 crash, Motif will find it. With the open source release of Motif, it
599 seems like a good idea to collect all Motif-related issues in one
602 You should also look in your OS's section, as it may not be Motif's
605 *** XEmacs visibly repaints itty-bitty rectangles very slowly.
607 This should only be visible on a slow X connection (ISDN, maybe T1).
609 At least some versions of Motif apparently do not implement
610 XtExposeCompressMaximal properly, so it is disabled. If you wish to
611 experiment, you can remove the #ifdef LWLIB_NEEDS_MOTIF at line 238
612 (or so) of src/EmacsFrame.c, leaving only the line
614 /* compress_exposure */ XtExposeCompressMaximal | XtExposeNoRegion,
616 and recompile. This enables exposure compression, giving a 10:1 or
617 better speedup for some users. However, on some Motif platforms (Red
618 Hat Linux 9.0 and Solaris 2.8, at least), this causes XEmacs to hang
619 while displaying the progress bar (eg, in font-lock). A workaround
620 for that problem is to setq `progress-feedback-use-echo-area' to `t'.
622 *** XEmacs crashes on exit (#1).
624 The backtrace is something like:
627 #0 0xfeb9a480 in _libc_kill () from /usr/lib/libc.so.1
628 #1 0x000b0388 in fatal_error_signal ()
629 #2 <signal handler called>
630 #3 YowIter (ht=0xb, id=0x0, v=0x74682074, client=0x47e3c0)
632 #4 0xff26cc5c in _LTHashTableForEachItem (ht=0x4725e8,
633 iter=0xff26dda0 <YowIter>, ClientData=0x47e3c0) at Hash.c:671
634 #5 0xff2a4664 in destroy (w=0x496550) at Screen.c:352
635 #6 0xfef92118 in Phase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
636 #7 0xfef91940 in Recursive () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
637 #8 0xfef91e44 in XtPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
638 #9 0xfef91ae8 in _XtDoPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
639 #10 0xfef918cc in XtDestroyWidget () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
640 #11 0xfef91438 in CloseDisplay () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
641 #12 0xfef91394 in XtCloseDisplay () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
642 #13 0x0025b8b0 in x_delete_device ()
643 #14 0x000940b0 in delete_device_internal ()
644 #15 0x000806a0 in delete_console_internal ()
646 This is known to happen with Lesstif version 0.93.36. Similar
647 backtraces have also been observed on HP/UX and Solaris. There is a
648 patch for Lesstif. (This is not a solution; it just stops the crash.
649 It may or may not be harmless, but "it works for the author".)
651 Note that this backtrace looks a lot like the one in the next item.
652 However, this one is invulnerable to the Solaris patches mentioned there.
654 Frank McIngvale <frankm@hiwaay.net> says:
656 Ok, 0.93.34 works, and I tracked down the crash to a section
657 marked "experimental" in 0.93.36. Patch attached, "works for me".
659 diff -u -r lesstif-0.93.36/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c lesstif-0.93.36-mod/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c
660 --- lesstif-0.93.36/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c 2002-08-05 14:53:24.000000000 -0500
661 +++ lesstif-0.93.36-mod/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c 2002-11-11 11:13:12.000000000 -0600
662 @@ -1166,5 +1166,4 @@
663 DEBUGOUT(_LtDebug0(__FILE__, NULL, "_LtImageCacheScreenDestroy (XmGetPixmapByDepth) %p\n",
666 - (void) _LTHashTableForEachItem(PixmapCache, YowIter, (XtPointer)s);
669 *** XEmacs crashes on exit (#2)
671 Especially frequent with multiple frames. Crashes that produce C
672 backtraces like this:
674 #0 0xfec9a118 in _libc_kill () from /usr/lib/libc.so.1
675 #1 0x77f48 in fatal_error_signal (sig=11)
676 at /codes/rpluim/xemacs-21.4/src/emacs.c:539
677 #2 <signal handler called>
678 #3 0xfee929f4 in XFindContext () from /usr/openwin/lib/libX11.so.4
679 #4 0xfee92930 in XFindContext () from /usr/openwin/lib/libX11.so.4
680 #5 0xff297e54 in DisplayDestroy () from /usr/dt/lib/libXm.so.4
681 #6 0xfefbece0 in XtCallCallbackList () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
682 #7 0xfefc486c in XtPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
683 #8 0xfefc45d0 in _XtDoPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
684 #9 0xfefc43b4 in XtDestroyWidget () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
685 #10 0x15cf9c in x_delete_device (d=0x523f00)
687 are caused by buggy Motif libraries. Installing the following patches
688 has been reported to solve the problem on Solaris 2.7:
692 For information (although they have not been confirmed to work), the
693 equivalent patches for Solaris 2.8 are:
697 *** On HP-UX 11.0 XEmacs causes excessive X11 errors when running.
698 (also appears on AIX as reported in comp.emacs.xemacs)
700 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
702 Unfortunately, XEmacs releases prior to 21.0 don't work with
703 Motif2.1. It will compile but you will get excessive X11 errors like
705 xemacs: X Error of failed request: BadGC (invalid GC parameter)
707 and finally XEmacs gets killed. A workaround is to use the
708 Motif1.2_R6 libraries. You can the following line to your call to
711 --x-libraries="/usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6 -L/usr/lib/X11R6"
713 Make sure /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.sl is a link to
714 /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.3.
716 *** On HP-UX 11.0: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor
718 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
720 XEmacs dies without core file and reports:
722 Error: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor.
724 This is a bug. Please apply the patch PHSS_19964 (check if
725 superseded). The other alternative is to link with Motif1.2_R6 (see
728 *** Motif dialog boxes lose on Irix.
730 Larry Auton <lda@control.att.com> writes:
731 Beware of not specifying
733 --with-dialogs=athena
735 if it builds with the motif dialogs [boom!] you're a dead man.
739 *** IBM compiler fails: "The character # is not a valid C source character."
741 Most recently observed in 21.5.9, due to USE_KKCC ifdefs (they just
742 happen to tickle the implementation).
744 Valdis Kletnieks says:
746 The problem is that IBM defines a *MACRO* called 'memcpy', and we
747 have stuck a #ifdef/#endif inside the macro call. As a workaround,
748 try adding '-U__STR__' to your CFLAGS - this will cause string.h to
749 not do a #define for strcpy() to __strcpy() - it uses this for
750 automatic inlining support.
752 (For the record, the same issue affects a number of other functions
753 defined in string.h - basically anything the compiler knows how to
756 *** On AIX 4.3, you must specify --with-dialogs=athena with configure
758 *** The libXt shipped with AIX 4.3 up to 4.3.2 is broken. This causes
759 xemacs -nw to fail in various ways. The official APAR is this:
761 APAR NUMBER: <IX89470> RESOLVED AS: PROGRAM ERROR
764 <IX89470>: LIBXT.A INCORRECT HANDLING OF EXCEPTIONS IN XTAPPADDINPUT
766 The solution is to install X11.base.lib at version >=4.3.2.5.
768 *** On AIX, you get this compiler error message:
770 Processing include file ./XMenuInt.h
771 1501-106: (S) Include file X11/Xlib.h not found.
773 This means your system was installed with only the X11 runtime i.d
774 libraries. You have to find your sipo (bootable tape) and install
777 *** On AIX 4.1.2, linker error messages such as
778 ld: 0711-212 SEVERE ERROR: Symbol .__quous, found in the global symbol table
779 of archive /usr/lib/libIM.a, was not defined in archive member shr.o.
781 This is a problem in libIM.a. You can work around it by executing
782 these shell commands in the src subdirectory of the directory where
785 cp /usr/lib/libIM.a .
789 Then change -lIM to ./libIM.a in the command to link temacs (in
792 *** Excessive optimization on AIX 4.2 can lead to compiler failure.
794 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu writes:
795 At least at the b34 level, and the latest-and-greatest IBM xlc
796 (3.1.4.4), there are problems with -O3. I haven't investigated
801 *** Dumping error when using GNU binutils / GNU ld on a Sun.
803 Errors similar to the following:
805 Dumping under the name xemacs unexec():
806 dldump(/space/rpluim/xemacs-obj/src/xemacs): ld.so.1: ./temacs:
807 fatal: /space/rpluim/xemacs-obj/src/xemacs: unknown dynamic entry:
810 are caused by using GNU ld. There are several workarounds available:
812 In XEmacs 21.2 or later, configure using the new portable dumper
815 Alternatively, you can link using the Sun version of ld, which is
816 normally held in /usr/ccs/bin. This can be done by one of:
818 - building gcc with these configure flags:
819 configure --with-ld=/usr/ccs/bin/ld --with-as=/usr/ccs/bin/as
821 - adding -B/usr/ccs/bin/ to CFLAGS used to configure XEmacs
822 (Note: The trailing '/' there is significant.)
824 - uninstalling GNU ld.
826 The Solaris2 FAQ claims:
828 When you install gcc, don't make the mistake of installing
829 GNU binutils or GNU libc, they are not as capable as their
830 counterparts you get with Solaris 2.x.
832 *** Link failure when using acc on a Sun.
834 To use acc, you need additional options just before the libraries, such as
836 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1/values-Xt.o -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1/cg87 -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1
838 and you need to add -lansi just before -lc.
840 The precise file names depend on the compiler version, so we
841 cannot easily arrange to supply them.
843 *** Problems finding X11 libraries on Solaris with Openwindows
845 Some users have reported problems in this area. The reported solution
846 is to define the environment variable OPENWINHOME, even if you must set
847 it to `/usr/openwin'.
849 *** Sed problems on Solaris 2.5
851 There have been reports of Sun sed truncating very lines in the
852 Makefile during configuration. The workaround is to use GNU sed or,
853 even better, think of a better way to generate Makefile, and send us a
856 *** On Solaris 2 I get undefined symbols from libcurses.a.
858 You probably have /usr/ucblib/ on your LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Do the link with
859 LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset. Generally, avoid using any ucb* stuff when
862 *** On Solaris 2 I cannot make alloc.o, glyphs.o or process.o.
864 The SparcWorks C compiler may have difficulty building those modules
865 with optimization level -xO4. Try using only "-fast" optimization
866 for just those modules. (Or use gcc).
868 *** Solaris 2.3 /bin/sh coredumps during configuration.
870 This only occurs if you have LANG != C. This is a known bug with
871 /bin/sh fixed by installing Patch-ID# 101613-01. Or, you can use
872 bash by setting the environment variable CONFIG_SHELL to /bin/bash
874 *** Solaris 2.x configure/Makefile syntax "errors"
876 This is a known bug with /bin/sh and /bin/test, i.e. they do not
877 support the XPG4 standard. You can use bash as a workaround or an
878 XPG4-compliant Bourne shell such as the Sun-supplied /usr/xpg4/bin/sh
879 by setting the environment variable CONFIG_SHELL to /usr/xpg4/bin/sh
881 *** On SunOS, you get linker errors
883 _get_wmShellWidgetClass
884 _get_applicationShellWidgetClass
886 The fix to this is to install patch 100573 for OpenWindows 3.0
887 or link libXmu statically.
889 *** On Sunos 4, you get the error ld: Undefined symbol __lib_version.
891 This is the result of using cc or gcc with the shared library meant
892 for acc (the Sunpro compiler). Check your LD_LIBRARY_PATH and delete
893 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1 or some similar directory.
895 *** Undefined symbols when linking on Sunos 4.1.
897 If you get the undefined symbols _atowc _wcslen, _iswprint, _iswspace,
898 _iswcntrl, _wcscpy, and _wcsncpy, then you need to add -lXwchar after
899 -lXaw in the command that links temacs.
901 This problem seems to arise only when the international language
902 extensions to X11R5 are installed.
904 *** On a Sun running SunOS 4.1.1, you get this error message from GNU ld:
906 /lib/libc.a(_Q_sub.o): Undefined symbol __Q_get_rp_rd referenced from text segment
908 The problem is in the Sun shared C library, not in GNU ld.
910 The solution is to install Patch-ID# 100267-03 from Sun.
912 *** SunOS 4.1.2: undefined symbol _get_wmShellWidgetClass
914 Apparently the version of libXmu.so.a that Sun ships is hosed: it's missing
915 some stuff that is in libXmu.a (the static version). Sun has a patch for
916 this, but a workaround is to use the static version of libXmu, by changing
917 the link command from "-lXmu" to "-Bstatic -lXmu -Bdynamic". If you have
918 OpenWindows 3.0, ask Sun for these patches:
919 100512-02 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 libXt Jumbo patch
920 100573-03 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 undefined symbols with shared libXmu
922 *** Random other SunOS 4.1.[12] link errors.
924 The X headers and libraries that Sun ships in /usr/{include,lib}/X11 are
925 broken. Use the ones in /usr/openwin/{include,lib} instead.
929 See also Intel Architecture General, above.
931 *** Under Linux, you get "too many arguments to function `getpgrp'".
933 You have probably installed LessTiff under `/usr/local' and `libXm.so'
934 could not be found when linking `getpgrp()' test program, making XEmacs
935 think that `getpgrp()' takes an argument. Try adding `/usr/local/lib'
936 in `/etc/ld.so.conf' and run `ldconfig'. Then run XEmacs's `configure'
937 again. As with all problems of this type, reading the config.log file
938 generated from configure and seeing the log of how the test failed can
941 *** `Error: No ExtNode to pop!' on Linux systems with Lesstif.
943 This error message has been observed with lesstif-0.75a. It does not
944 appear to cause any harm.
948 *** More coredumping in Irix (6.5 known to be vulnerable)
950 No fix is known yet. Here's the best information we have:
952 Valdis Kletnieks <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu> writes:
954 Were xemacs and [any 3rd party, locally-compiled] libraries [you use]
955 all compiled with the same ABI ( -o32, -n32, -64) and
956 mips2/mips3/mips4 flags, and are they appropriate for the machine in
957 question? I know the IP30 implies an Octane, so it should be an R10K
958 chipset and above such nonsense, but I've seen the most astoundingly
959 bizzare crashes when somebody managed to compile with -mips4 and get
960 it to run on an R4400 or R5K system. ;)
962 Also, since you're using gcc, try re-running fixincludes and *then*
963 rebuilding xemacs and [any] libraries - mismatched headers can do that
964 sort of thing to you with little or no clue what's wrong (often you
965 get screwed when one routine does an malloc(sizeof(foo_struct)) and
966 passes the result to something that things foo_struct is a bit bigger,
969 Here's typical crash backtrace. With --pdump, this occurs usually at
970 startup under X windows and xemacs -nw at least starts, while without
971 --pdump a similar crash is observed during build.
973 #0 0x0fa460b8 in kill () at regcomp.c:637
974 637 regcomp.c: No such file or directory.
977 #0 0x0fa460b8 in kill () at regcomp.c:637
978 #1 0x10087f34 in fatal_error_signal ()
981 This is confusing because there is no such file in the XEmacs
982 distribution. This is seen on (at least) the following configurations:
984 uname -a: IRIX64 oct202 6.5 01091821 IP30
985 XEmacs 21.4.9 "Informed Management" configured for `mips-sgi-irix6.5'.
986 XEmacs 21.5-b9 "brussels sprouts" configured for `mips-sgi-irix6.5'.
988 *** On Irix 6.5, the MIPSpro compiler gets an internal compiler error
990 The MIPSpro Compiler (at least version 7.2.1) can't seem to handle the
991 union type properly, and fails to compile src/glyphs.c. To avoid this
992 problem, always build ---use-union-type=no (but that's the default, so
993 you should only see this problem if you're an XEmacs maintainer).
995 *** Linking with -rpath on IRIX.
997 Darrell Kindred <dkindred@cmu.edu> writes:
998 There are a couple of problems [with use of -rpath with Irix ld], though:
1000 1. The ld in IRIX 5.3 ignores all but the last -rpath
1001 spec, so the patched configure spits out a warning
1002 if --x-libraries or --site-runtime-libraries are
1003 specified under irix 5.x, and it only adds -rpath
1004 entries for the --site-runtime-libraries. This bug was
1005 fixed sometime between 5.3 and 6.2.
1007 2. IRIX gcc 2.7.2 doesn't accept -rpath directly, so
1008 it would have to be prefixed by -Xlinker or "-Wl,".
1009 This would be fine, except that configure compiles with
1010 ${CC-cc} $CFLAGS $LDFLAGS ...
1011 rather than quoting $LDFLAGS with prefix-args, like
1012 src/Makefile does. So if you specify --x-libraries
1013 or --site-runtime-libraries, you must use --use-gcc=no,
1014 or configure will fail.
1016 *** On Irix 6.3, the SGI ld quits with segmentation fault when linking temacs
1018 This occurs if you use the SGI linker version 7.1. Installing the
1019 patch SG0001872 fixes this problem.
1021 *** On Irix 6.0, make tries (and fails) to build a program named unexelfsgi
1023 A compiler bug inserts spaces into the string "unexelfsgi . o"
1024 in src/Makefile. Edit src/Makefile, after configure is run,
1025 find that string, and take out the spaces.
1027 Compiler fixes in Irix 6.0.1 should eliminate this problem.
1029 *** On Irix 5.2, unexelfsgi.c can't find cmplrs/stsupport.h.
1031 The file cmplrs/stsupport.h was included in the wrong file set in the
1032 Irix 5.2 distribution. You can find it in the optional fileset
1033 compiler_dev, or copy it from some other Irix 5.2 system. A kludgy
1034 workaround is to change unexelfsgi.c to include sym.h instead of
1037 *** Coredumping in Irix 6.2
1039 Pete Forman <gsez020@compo.bedford.waii.com> writes:
1040 A problem noted by myself and others (I've lost the references) was
1041 that XEmacs coredumped when the cut or copy toolbar buttons were
1042 pressed. This has been fixed by loading the SGI patchset (Feb 98)
1043 without having to recompile XEmacs.
1045 My versions are XEmacs 20.3 (problem first noted in 19.15) and IRIX
1046 6.2, compiled using -n32. I'd guess that the relevant individual
1047 patch was "SG0002580: multiple fixes for X libraries". SGI recommends
1048 that the complete patch set be installed rather than parts of it.
1050 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS
1051 *** On Digital UNIX, the DEC C compiler might have a problem compiling
1054 In particular, src/extents.c and src/faces.c might cause the DEC C
1055 compiler to abort. When this happens: cd src, compile the files by
1056 hand, cd .., and redo the "make" command. When recompiling the files by
1057 hand, use the old C compiler for the following versions of Digital UNIX:
1058 - V3.n: Remove "-migrate" from the compile command.
1059 - V4.n: Add "-oldc" to the compile command.
1061 A related compiler bug has been fixed by the DEC compiler team. The
1062 new versions of the compiler should run fine.
1064 *** Under some versions of OSF XEmacs runs fine if built without
1065 optimization but will crash randomly if built with optimization.
1067 Using 'cc -g' is not sufficient to eliminate all optimization. Try
1068 'cc -g -O0' instead.
1070 *** Compilation errors on VMS.
1072 Sorry, XEmacs does not work under VMS. You might consider working on
1073 the port if you really want to have XEmacs work under VMS.
1076 *** On HPUX, the HP C compiler might have a problem compiling some files
1079 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
1081 Had to drop once again to level 2 optimization, at least to
1082 compile lstream.c. Otherwise, I get a "variable is void: \if"
1083 problem while dumping (this is a problem I already reported
1084 with vanilla hpux 10.01 and 9.07, which went away after
1085 applying patches for the C compiler). Trouble is I still
1086 haven't found the same patch for hpux 10.10, and I don't
1087 remember the patch numbers. I think potential XEmacs builders
1088 on HP should be warned about this.
1090 *** I don't have `xmkmf' and `imake' on my HP.
1092 You can get these standard X tools by anonymous FTP to
1093 hpcvaaz.cv.hp.com. Essentially all X programs need these.
1095 *** On HP-UX, problems with make
1097 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
1099 Some releases of XEmacs (e.g. 20.4) require GNU make to build
1100 successfully. You don't need GNU make when building 21.x.
1102 *** On HP-UX 9.05 XEmacs won't compile or coredump during the build.
1104 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
1106 This might be a sed problem. For your own safety make sure to use
1107 GNU sed while dumping XEmacs.
1111 *** Native cc on SCO OpenServer 5 is now OK. Icc may still throw you
1112 a curve. Here is what Robert Lipe <robertl@arnet.com> says:
1114 Unlike XEmacs 19.13, building with the native cc on SCO OpenServer 5
1115 now produces a functional binary. I will typically build this
1116 configuration for COFF with:
1118 /path_to_xemacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
1119 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
1120 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas
1122 This version now supports ELF builds. I highly recommend this to
1123 reduce the in-core footprint of XEmacs. This is now how I compile
1124 all my test releases. Build it like this:
1126 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
1127 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
1128 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic
1130 The compiler known as icc [ supplied with the OpenServer 5 Development
1131 System ] generates a working binary, but it takes forever to generate
1132 XEmacs. ICC also whines more about the code than /bin/cc does. I do
1133 believe all its whining is legitimate, however. Note that you do
1134 have to 'cd src ; make LD=icc' to avoid linker errors.
1136 The way I handle the build procedure is:
1138 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
1139 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
1140 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic --compiler="icc"
1142 NOTE I have the xpm, xface, and audio libraries and includes in
1143 /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/include. If you don't have these,
1144 don't include the "--with-*" arguments in any of my examples.
1146 In previous versions of XEmacs, you had to override the defaults while
1147 compiling font-lock.o and extents.o when building with icc. This seems
1148 to no longer be true, but I'm including this old information in case it
1149 resurfaces. The process I used was:
1152 [ procure pizza, beer, repeat ]
1154 make CC="icc -W0,-mP1COPT_max_tree_size=3000" font-lock.o extents.o
1157 If you want sound support, get the tls566 supplement from
1158 ftp.sco.com:/TLS or any of its mirrors. It works just groovy
1161 The M-x manual-entry is known not to work. If you know Lisp and would
1162 like help in making it work, e-mail me at <robertl@dgii.com>.
1163 (UNCHECKED for 19.15 -- it might work).
1165 In earlier releases, gnuserv/gnuclient/gnudoit would open a frame
1166 just fine, but the client would lock up and the server would
1167 terminate when you used C-x # to close the frame. This is now
1170 In etc/ there are two files of note. emacskeys.sco and emacsstrs.sco.
1171 The comments at the top of emacskeys.sco describe its function, and
1172 the emacstrs.sco is a suitable candidate for /usr/lib/keyboard/strings
1173 to take advantage of the keyboard map in emacskeys.sco.
1175 Note: Much of the above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0
1178 * Problems with running XEmacs
1179 ==============================
1182 *** XEmacs consistently crashes in a particular strange place.
1184 One known case is on Red Hat Linux, compiled with GCC, attempting to
1185 render PNG images. The problem is that XEmacs code is not compliant
1186 with ANSI rules about aliasing. Adding -fno-strict-aliasing to CFLAGS
1187 may help (or the equivalent for your compiler). (Some versions of
1188 XEmacs may already do this automatically, but if you specify CFLAGS or
1189 --cflags yourself, you will have to add this flag by hand.)
1191 If you diagnose this bug for some other symptoms or systems, please
1192 let us know (if you can send mail from the affected system, use M-x
1193 report-xemacs-bug) so we can update this entry.
1195 *** Changes made to .el files do not take effect.
1197 You may have forgotten to recompile them into .elc files. Then the
1198 old .elc files will be loaded, and your changes will not be seen. To
1199 fix this, do `M-x byte-recompile-directory' and specify the directory
1200 that contains the Lisp files.
1202 Note that you will get a warning when loading a .elc file that is
1203 older than the corresponding .el file.
1205 *** VM appears to hang in large folders.
1207 This is normal (trust us) when upgrading to VM-6.22 from earlier
1208 versions. Let VM finish what it is doing and all will be well.
1210 *** Starting with 21.4.x, killing text is absurdly slow.
1212 See FAQ Q3.10.6. Should be available on the web near
1213 http://www.xemacs.org/faq/xemacs-faq.html#SEC160.
1215 *** Whenever I try to retrieve a remote file, I have problems.
1217 A typical error: FTP Error: USER request failed; 500 AUTH not understood.
1218 Thanks to giacomo boffi <giacomo.boffi@polimi.it> on comp.emacs.xemacs:
1220 tell your ftp client to not attempt AUTH authentication (or do not
1221 use FTP servers that don't understand AUTH)
1223 and notes that you need to add an element (often "-u") to
1224 `efs-ftp-program-args'. Use M-x customize-variable, and verify the
1225 needed flag with `man ftp' or other local documentation.
1227 *** gnuserv is running, some clients can connect, but others cannot.
1229 The code in gnuslib.c respects the value of TMPDIR. If the server and
1230 the client have different values in their environment, you lose.
1231 One program known to set TMPDIR and manifest this problem is exmh.
1232 You can defeat the use of TMPDIR by unsetting USE_TMPDIR at the top of
1233 gnuserv.h at build time.
1237 *** You type Control-H (Backspace) expecting to delete characters.
1239 Emacs has traditionally used Control-H for help; unfortunately this
1240 interferes with its use as Backspace on TTY's. As of XEmacs 21,
1241 XEmacs looks at the "erase" setting of TTY structures and maps C-h to
1242 backspace when erase is set to C-h. This is sort of a special hack,
1243 but it makes it possible for you to use the standard:
1247 to get your backspace key to erase characters. The erase setting is
1248 recorded in the Lisp variable `tty-erase-char', which you can use to
1249 tune the settings in your .emacs.
1251 A major drawback of this is that when C-h becomes backspace, it no
1252 longer invokes help. In that case, you need to use f1 for help, or
1253 bind another key. An example of the latter is the following code,
1254 which moves help to Meta-? (ESC ?):
1256 (global-set-key "\M-?" 'help-command)
1258 *** At startup I get a warning on stderr about missing charsets:
1260 Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
1262 You need to specify appropriate charsets for your locale (usually the
1263 value of the LANG environment variable) in .Xresources. See
1264 etc/Emacs.ad for the relevant resources (mostly menubar fonts and
1265 fontsets). Do not edit this file, it's purely informative.
1267 If you have no satisfactory fonts for iso-8859-1, XEmacs will crash.
1269 It looks like XFree86 4.x (the usual server on Linux and *BSD) has
1270 some braindamage where .UTF-8 locales will always generate this
1271 message, because the XFree86 (font)server doesn't know that UTF-8 will
1272 use the ISO10646-1 font registry (or a Cmap or something).
1274 If you are not using a .UTF-8 locale and see this warning for a
1275 character set not listed in the default in Emacs.ad, please let
1276 xemacs-beta@xemacs.org know about it, so we can add fonts to the
1277 appropriate fontsets and stifle this warning. (Unfortunately it's
1278 buried in Xlib, so we can't easily get rid of it otherwise.)
1280 *** Mail agents (VM, Gnus, rmail) cannot get new mail
1282 rmail and VM get new mail from /usr/spool/mail/$USER using a program
1283 called `movemail'. This program interlocks with /bin/mail using the
1284 protocol defined by /bin/mail.
1286 There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses
1287 the `flock' system call. The other involves creating a lock file;
1288 `movemail' must be able to write in /usr/spool/mail in order to do
1289 this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining, the
1290 macro MAIL_USE_FLOCK in config.h or the m- or s- file it includes. IF
1291 YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR SYSTEM,
1294 If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions
1295 prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail,
1296 you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as
1297 `mail'. To do this, use the following commands (as root) after doing
1303 Installation normally copies movemail from the build directory to an
1304 installation directory which is usually under /usr/local/lib. The
1305 installed copy of movemail is usually in the directory
1306 /usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/TARGET. You must change the group and
1307 mode of the installed copy; changing the group and mode of the build
1308 directory copy is ineffective.
1310 *** Things which should be bold or italic (such as the initial
1311 copyright notice) are not.
1313 The fonts of the "bold" and "italic" faces are generated from the font
1314 of the "default" face; in this way, your bold and italic fonts will
1315 have the appropriate size and family. However, emacs can only be
1316 clever in this way if you have specified the default font using the
1317 XLFD (X Logical Font Description) format, which looks like
1319 *-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*
1321 if you use any of the other, less strict font name formats, some of
1324 lucidasanstypewriter-12
1328 then emacs won't be able to guess the names of the "bold" and "italic"
1329 versions. All X fonts can be referred to via XLFD-style names, so you
1330 should use those forms. See the man pages for X(1), xlsfonts(1), and
1333 *** The dumped Emacs crashes when run, trying to write pure data.
1335 Two causes have been seen for such problems.
1337 1) On a system where getpagesize is not a system call, it is defined
1338 as a macro. If the definition (in both unexec.c and malloc.c) is wrong,
1339 it can cause problems like this. You might be able to find the correct
1340 value in the man page for a.out (5).
1342 2) Some systems allocate variables declared static among the
1343 initialized variables. Emacs makes all initialized variables in most
1344 of its files pure after dumping, but the variables declared static and
1345 not initialized are not supposed to be pure. On these systems you
1346 may need to add "#define static" to the m- or the s- file.
1348 *** Reading and writing files is very very slow.
1350 Try evaluating the form (setq lock-directory nil) and see if that helps.
1351 There is a problem with file-locking on some systems (possibly related
1352 to NFS) that I don't understand. Please send mail to the address
1353 xemacs-beta@xemacs.org if you figure this one out.
1355 *** When emacs starts up, I get lots of warnings about unknown keysyms.
1357 If you are running the prebuilt binaries, the Motif library expects to find
1358 certain thing in the XKeysymDB file. This file is normally in /usr/lib/X11/
1359 or in /usr/openwin/lib/. If you keep yours in a different place, set the
1360 environment variable $XKEYSYMDB to point to it before starting emacs. If
1361 you still have the problem after doing that, perhaps your version of X is
1362 too old. There is a copy of the MIT X11R5 XKeysymDB file in the emacs `etc'
1363 directory. Try using that one.
1365 *** My X resources used to work, and now some of them are being ignored.
1367 Check the resources in .../etc/Emacs.ad (which is the same as the file
1368 sample.Xresources). Perhaps some of the default resources built in to
1369 emacs are now overriding your existing resources. Copy and edit the
1370 resources in Emacs.ad as necessary.
1372 *** I have focus problems when I use `M-o' to switch to another screen
1373 without using the mouse.
1375 The focus issues with a program like XEmacs, which has multiple
1376 homogeneous top-level windows, are very complicated, and as a result,
1377 most window managers don't implement them correctly.
1379 The R4/R5 version of twm (and all of its descendants) had buggy focus
1380 handling. Sufficiently recent versions of tvtwm have been fixed. In
1381 addition, if you're using twm, make sure you have not specified
1382 "NoTitleFocus" in your .tvtwmrc file. The very nature of this option
1383 makes twm do some illegal focus tricks, even with the patch.
1385 It is known that olwm and olvwm are buggy, and in different ways. If
1386 you're using click-to-type mode, try using point-to-type, or vice
1389 In older versions of NCDwm, one could not even type at XEmacs windows.
1390 This has been fixed in newer versions (2.4.3, and possibly earlier).
1392 (Many people suggest that XEmacs should warp the mouse when focusing
1393 on another screen in point-to-type mode. This is not ICCCM-compliant
1394 behavior. Implementing such policy is the responsibility of the
1395 window manager itself, it is not legal for a client to do this.)
1397 *** Emacs spontaneously displays "I-search: " at the bottom of the screen.
1399 This means that Control-S/Control-Q (XON/XOFF) "flow control" is being
1400 used. C-s/C-q flow control is bad for Emacs editors because it takes
1401 away C-s and C-q as user commands. Since editors do not output long
1402 streams of text without user commands, there is no need for a
1403 user-issuable "stop output" command in an editor; therefore, a
1404 properly designed flow control mechanism would transmit all possible
1405 input characters without interference. Designing such a mechanism is
1406 easy, for a person with at least half a brain.
1408 There are three possible reasons why flow control could be taking place:
1410 1) Terminal has not been told to disable flow control
1411 2) Insufficient padding for the terminal in use
1412 3) Some sort of terminal concentrator or line switch is responsible
1414 First of all, many terminals have a set-up mode which controls whether
1415 they generate XON/XOFF flow control characters. This must be set to
1416 "no XON/XOFF" in order for Emacs to work. Sometimes there is an
1417 escape sequence that the computer can send to turn flow control off
1418 and on. If so, perhaps the termcap `ti' string should turn flow
1419 control off, and the `te' string should turn it on.
1421 Once the terminal has been told "no flow control", you may find it
1422 needs more padding. The amount of padding Emacs sends is controlled
1423 by the termcap entry for the terminal in use, and by the output baud
1424 rate as known by the kernel. The shell command `stty' will print
1425 your output baud rate; `stty' with suitable arguments will set it if
1426 it is wrong. Setting to a higher speed causes increased padding. If
1427 the results are wrong for the correct speed, there is probably a
1428 problem in the termcap entry. You must speak to a local Unix wizard
1429 to fix this. Perhaps you are just using the wrong terminal type.
1431 For terminals that lack a "no flow control" mode, sometimes just
1432 giving lots of padding will prevent actual generation of flow control
1433 codes. You might as well try it.
1435 If you are really unlucky, your terminal is connected to the computer
1436 through a concentrator which sends XON/XOFF flow control to the
1437 computer, or it insists on sending flow control itself no matter how
1438 much padding you give it. Unless you can figure out how to turn flow
1439 control off on this concentrator (again, refer to your local wizard),
1440 you are screwed! You should have the terminal or concentrator
1441 replaced with a properly designed one. In the mean time, some drastic
1442 measures can make Emacs semi-work.
1444 You can make Emacs ignore C-s and C-q and let the operating system
1445 handle them. To do this on a per-session basis, just type M-x
1446 enable-flow-control RET. You will see a message that C-\ and C-^ are
1447 now translated to C-s and C-q. (Use the same command M-x
1448 enable-flow-control to turn *off* this special mode. It toggles flow
1451 If C-\ and C-^ are inconvenient for you (for example, if one of them
1452 is the escape character of your terminal concentrator), you can choose
1453 other characters by setting the variables flow-control-c-s-replacement
1454 and flow-control-c-q-replacement. But choose carefully, since all
1455 other control characters are already used by emacs.
1457 IMPORTANT: if you type C-s by accident while flow control is enabled,
1458 Emacs output will freeze, and you will have to remember to type C-q in
1461 If you work in an environment where a majority of terminals of a
1462 certain type are flow control hobbled, you can use the function
1463 `enable-flow-control-on' to turn on this flow control avoidance scheme
1464 automatically. Here is an example:
1466 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
1468 If this isn't quite correct (e.g. you have a mixture of flow-control hobbled
1469 and good vt200 terminals), you can still run enable-flow-control
1472 I have no intention of ever redesigning the Emacs command set for the
1473 assumption that terminals use C-s/C-q flow control. XON/XOFF flow
1474 control technique is a bad design, and terminals that need it are bad
1475 merchandise and should not be purchased. Now that X is becoming
1476 widespread, XON/XOFF seems to be on the way out. If you can get some
1477 use out of GNU Emacs on inferior terminals, more power to you, but I
1478 will not make Emacs worse for properly designed systems for the sake
1479 of inferior systems.
1481 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely.
1483 For some reason, your system is using brain-damaged C-s/C-q flow
1484 control despite Emacs's attempts to turn it off. Perhaps your
1485 terminal is connected to the computer through a concentrator
1486 that wants to use flow control.
1488 You should first try to tell the concentrator not to use flow control.
1489 If you succeed in this, try making the terminal work without
1490 flow control, as described in the preceding section.
1492 If that line of approach is not successful, map some other characters
1493 into C-s and C-q using keyboard-translate-table. The example above
1494 shows how to do this with C-^ and C-\.
1496 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely on a net
1499 Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
1500 control characters to the remote system to which they connect.
1501 On such systems, emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow
1502 control on the local system.
1504 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
1505 (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the
1506 stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems,
1507 `stty start u stop u' will do this.
1509 Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way
1510 around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and
1511 issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
1513 If none of these methods work, the best solution is to type
1514 `M-x enable-flow-control' at the beginning of your emacs session, or
1515 if you expect the problem to continue, add a line such as the
1516 following to your .emacs (on the host running rlogind):
1518 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
1520 See the entry about spontaneous display of I-search (above) for more
1523 *** TTY redisplay is slow.
1525 XEmacs has fairly new TTY redisplay support (beginning from 19.12),
1526 which doesn't include some basic TTY optimizations -- like using
1527 scrolling regions to move around blocks of text. This is why
1528 redisplay on the traditional terminals, or over slow lines can be very
1531 If you are interested in fixing this, please let us know at
1532 <xemacs-beta@xemacs.org>.
1534 *** Screen is updated wrong, but only on one kind of terminal.
1536 This could mean that the termcap entry you are using for that terminal
1537 is wrong, or it could mean that Emacs has a bug handing the
1538 combination of features specified for that terminal.
1540 The first step in tracking this down is to record what characters
1541 Emacs is sending to the terminal. Execute the Lisp expression
1542 (open-termscript "./emacs-script") to make Emacs write all terminal
1543 output into the file ~/emacs-script as well; then do what makes the
1544 screen update wrong, and look at the file and decode the characters
1545 using the manual for the terminal. There are several possibilities:
1547 1) The characters sent are correct, according to the terminal manual.
1549 In this case, there is no obvious bug in Emacs, and most likely you
1550 need more padding, or possibly the terminal manual is wrong.
1552 2) The characters sent are incorrect, due to an obscure aspect of the
1553 terminal behavior not described in an obvious way by termcap.
1555 This case is hard. It will be necessary to think of a way for Emacs
1556 to distinguish between terminals with this kind of behavior and other
1557 terminals that behave subtly differently but are classified the same
1558 by termcap; or else find an algorithm for Emacs to use that avoids the
1559 difference. Such changes must be tested on many kinds of terminals.
1561 3) The termcap entry is wrong.
1563 See the file etc/TERMS for information on changes that are known to be
1564 needed in commonly used termcap entries for certain terminals.
1566 4) The characters sent are incorrect, and clearly cannot be right for
1567 any terminal with the termcap entry you were using.
1569 This is unambiguously an Emacs bug, and can probably be fixed in
1570 termcap.c, terminfo.c, tparam.c, cm.c, redisplay-tty.c,
1571 redisplay-output.c, or redisplay.c.
1573 *** My buffers are full of \000 characters or otherwise corrupt.
1575 Some compilers have trouble with gmalloc.c and ralloc.c; try recompiling
1576 without optimization. If that doesn't work, try recompiling with
1577 SYSTEM_MALLOC defined, and/or with REL_ALLOC undefined.
1579 *** A position you specified in .Xresources is ignored, using twm.
1581 twm normally ignores "program-specified" positions.
1582 You can tell it to obey them with this command in your `.twmrc' file:
1584 UsePPosition "on" #allow clents to request a position
1586 *** With M-x enable-flow-control, you need to type C-\ twice to do
1587 incremental search--a single C-\ gets no response.
1589 This has been traced to communicating with your machine via kermit,
1590 with C-\ as the kermit escape character. One solution is to use
1591 another escape character in kermit. One user did
1593 set escape-character 17
1595 in his .kermrc file, to make C-q the kermit escape character.
1597 *** The Motif version of Emacs paints the screen a solid color.
1599 This has been observed to result from the following X resource:
1601 Emacs*default.attributeFont: -*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*
1603 That the resource has this effect indicates a bug in something, but we
1604 do not yet know what. If it is an Emacs bug, we hope someone can
1605 explain what the bug is so we can fix it. In the mean time, removing
1606 the resource prevents the problem.
1608 *** After running emacs once, subsequent invocations crash.
1610 Some versions of SVR4 have a serious bug in the implementation of the
1611 mmap () system call in the kernel; this causes emacs to run correctly
1612 the first time, and then crash when run a second time.
1614 Contact your vendor and ask for the mmap bug fix; in the mean time,
1615 you may be able to work around the problem by adding a line to your
1616 operating system description file (whose name is reported by the
1617 configure script) that reads:
1618 #define SYSTEM_MALLOC
1619 This makes Emacs use memory less efficiently, but seems to work around
1622 *** Inability to send an Alt-modified key, when Emacs is communicating
1623 directly with an X server.
1625 If you have tried to bind an Alt-modified key as a command, and it
1626 does not work to type the command, the first thing you should check is
1627 whether the key is getting through to Emacs. To do this, type C-h c
1628 followed by the Alt-modified key. C-h c should say what kind of event
1629 it read. If it says it read an Alt-modified key, then make sure you
1630 have made the key binding correctly.
1632 If C-h c reports an event that doesn't have the Alt modifier, it may
1633 be because your X server has no key for the Alt modifier. The X
1634 server that comes from MIT does not set up the Alt modifier by
1637 If your keyboard has keys named Alt, you can enable them as follows:
1639 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_L'
1640 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_R'
1642 If the keyboard has just one key named Alt, then only one of those
1643 commands is needed. The modifier `mod2' is a reasonable choice if you
1644 are using an unmodified MIT version of X. Otherwise, choose any
1645 modifier bit not otherwise used.
1647 If your keyboard does not have keys named Alt, you can use some other
1648 keys. Use the keysym command in xmodmap to turn a function key (or
1649 some other 'spare' key) into Alt_L or into Alt_R, and then use the
1650 commands show above to make them modifier keys.
1652 Note that if you have Alt keys but no Meta keys, Emacs translates Alt
1653 into Meta. This is because of the great importance of Meta in Emacs.
1655 *** In Shell mode, you get a ^M at the end of every line.
1657 This happens to people who use tcsh, because it is trying to be too
1658 smart. It sees that the Shell uses terminal type `unknown' and turns
1659 on the flag to output ^M at the end of each line. You can fix the
1660 problem by adding this to your .cshrc file:
1663 if ($EMACS == "t") then
1665 stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z
1669 *** An error message such as `X protocol error: BadMatch (invalid
1670 parameter attributes) on protocol request 93'.
1672 This comes from having an invalid X resource, such as
1674 (which is invalid because it specifies a color name for something
1675 that isn't a color.)
1677 The fix is to correct your X resources.
1679 *** Once you pull down a menu from the menubar, it won't go away.
1681 It has been claimed that this is caused by a bug in certain very old
1682 (1990?) versions of the twm window manager. It doesn't happen with
1683 recent vintages, or with other window managers.
1685 *** Emacs ignores the "help" key when running OLWM.
1687 OLWM grabs the help key, and retransmits it to the appropriate client
1688 using XSendEvent. Allowing emacs to react to synthetic events is a
1689 security hole, so this is turned off by default. You can enable it by
1690 setting the variable x-allow-sendevents to t. You can also cause fix
1691 this by telling OLWM to not grab the help key, with the null binding
1692 "OpenWindows.KeyboardCommand.Help:".
1694 *** Programs running under terminal emulator do not recognize `emacs'
1697 The cause of this is a shell startup file that sets the TERMCAP
1698 environment variable. The terminal emulator uses that variable to
1699 provide the information on the special terminal type that Emacs
1702 Rewrite your shell startup file so that it does not change TERMCAP
1703 in such a case. You could use the following conditional which sets
1704 it only if it is undefined.
1706 if ( ! ${?TERMCAP} ) setenv TERMCAP ~/my-termcap-file
1708 Or you could set TERMCAP only when you set TERM--which should not
1709 happen in a non-login shell.
1711 *** The popup menu appears at the bottom/right of my screen.
1713 You probably have something like the following in your ~/.Xresources
1715 Emacs.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1717 Use the following instead
1719 Emacs*EmacsFrame.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1721 *** When I try to use the PostgreSQL functions, I get a message about
1724 The only known case in which this happens is if you are using gcc, you
1725 configured with --error-checking=all and --with-modules, and you
1726 compiled with no optimization. If you encounter this problem in any
1727 other situation, please inform xemacs-beta@xemacs.org.
1729 This problem stems from a gcc bug. With no optimization, functions
1730 declared `extern inline' sometimes are not completely compiled away. An
1731 undefined symbol with the function's name is put into the resulting
1732 object file. In this case, when the postgresql module is loaded, the
1733 linker is unable to resolve that symbol, so the module load fails. The
1734 workaround is to recompile the module with optimization turned on. Any
1735 optimization level, including -Os, appears to work.
1737 *** C-z just refreshes the screen instead of suspending Emacs.
1739 You are probably using a shell that doesn't support job control, even
1740 though the system itself is capable of it. Try using a different
1744 *** XEmacs crashes on MacOS within font-lock, or when dealing
1745 with large compilation buffers, or in other regex applications.
1747 The default stack size under MacOS/X is rather small (512k as opposed
1748 to Solaris 8M), hosing the regexp code, which uses alloca()
1749 extensively, overflowing the stack when complex regexps are used.
1752 1) Increase your stack size, using `ulimit -s 8192' or a (t)csh
1755 2) Recompile regex.c with REGEX_MALLOC defined.
1758 *** Your Delete key sends a Backspace to the terminal, using an AIXterm.
1760 The solution is to include in your .Xresources the lines:
1762 *aixterm.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7f)
1763 aixterm*ttyModes: erase ^?
1765 This makes your Backspace key send DEL (ASCII 127).
1767 *** On AIX 4, some programs fail when run in a Shell buffer
1768 with an error message like No terminfo entry for "unknown".
1770 On AIX, many terminal type definitions are not installed by default.
1771 `unknown' is one of them. Install the "Special Generic Terminal
1772 Definitions" to make them defined.
1774 *** On AIX, you get this message when running Emacs:
1776 Could not load program emacs
1777 Symbol smtcheckinit in csh is undefined
1778 Error was: Exec format error
1782 Could not load program .emacs
1783 Symbol _system_con in csh is undefined
1784 Symbol _fp_trapsta in csh is undefined
1785 Error was: Exec format error
1787 These can happen when you try to run on AIX 3.2.5 a program that was
1788 compiled with 3.2.4. The fix is to recompile.
1790 *** Trouble using ptys on AIX.
1792 People often install the pty devices on AIX incorrectly.
1793 Use `smit pty' to reinstall them properly.
1797 *** The Emacs window disappears when you type M-q.
1799 Some versions of the Open Look window manager interpret M-q as a quit
1800 command for whatever window you are typing at. If you want to use
1801 Emacs with that window manager, you should try to configure the window
1802 manager to use some other command. You can disable the
1803 shortcut keys entirely by adding this line to ~/.OWdefaults:
1805 OpenWindows.WindowMenuAccelerators: False
1807 *** When Emacs tries to ring the bell, you get an error like
1809 audio: sst_open: SETQSIZE" Invalid argument
1810 audio: sst_close: SETREG MMR2, Invalid argument
1812 you have probably compiled using an ANSI C compiler, but with non-ANSI
1813 include files. In particular, on Suns, the file
1814 /usr/include/sun/audioio.h uses the _IOW macro to define the constant
1815 AUDIOSETQSIZE. _IOW in turn uses a K&R preprocessor feature that is
1816 now explicitly forbidden in ANSI preprocessors, namely substitution
1817 inside character constants. All ANSI C compilers must provide a
1818 workaround for this problem. Lucid's C compiler is shipped with a new
1819 set of system include files. If you are using GCC, there is a script
1820 called fixincludes that creates new versions of some system include
1821 files that use this obsolete feature.
1823 *** On Solaris 2.6, XEmacs dumps core when exiting.
1825 This happens if you're XEmacs is running on the same machine as the X
1826 server, and the optimized memory transport has been turned on by
1827 setting the environment variable XSUNTRANSPORT. The crash occurs
1828 during the call to XCloseDisplay.
1830 If this describes your situation, you need to undefine the
1831 XSUNTRANSPORT environment variable.
1833 *** On Solaris, C-x doesn't get through to Emacs when you use the console.
1835 This is a Solaris feature (at least on Intel x86 cpus). Type C-r
1836 C-r C-t, to toggle whether C-x gets through to Emacs.
1838 *** On Solaris 2.4, Dired hangs and C-g does not work. Or Emacs hangs
1839 forever waiting for termination of a subprocess that is a zombie.
1841 casper@fwi.uva.nl says the problem is in X11R6. Rebuild libX11.so
1842 after changing the file xc/config/cf/sunLib.tmpl. Change the lines
1845 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1850 #if OSMinorVersion < 4
1852 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1856 Be sure also to edit x/config/cf/sun.cf so that OSMinorVersion is 4
1857 (as it should be for Solaris 2.4). The file has three definitions for
1858 OSMinorVersion: the first is for x86, the second for SPARC under
1859 Solaris, and the third for SunOS 4. Make sure to update the
1860 definition for your type of machine and system.
1862 Then do `make Everything' in the top directory of X11R6, to rebuild
1863 the makefiles and rebuild X. The X built this way work only on
1864 Solaris 2.4, not on 2.3.
1866 For multithreaded X to work it necessary to install patch
1867 101925-02 to fix problems in header files [2.4]. You need
1868 to reinstall gcc or re-run just-fixinc after installing that
1871 However, Frank Rust <frust@iti.cs.tu-bs.de> used a simpler solution:
1873 #define ThreadedX YES
1875 #define ThreadedX NO
1876 in sun.cf and did `make World' to rebuild X11R6. Removing all
1877 `-DXTHREAD*' flags and `-lthread' entries from lib/X11/Makefile and
1878 typing 'make install' in that directory also seemed to work.
1880 *** On SunOS 4.1.3, Emacs unpredictably crashes in _yp_dobind_soft.
1882 This happens if you configure Emacs specifying just `sparc-sun-sunos4'
1883 on a system that is version 4.1.3. You must specify the precise
1884 version number (or let configure figure out the configuration, which
1885 it can do perfectly well for SunOS).
1887 *** Mail is lost when sent to local aliases.
1889 Many emacs mail user agents (VM and rmail, for instance) use the
1890 sendmail.el library. This library can arrange for mail to be
1891 delivered by passing messages to the /usr/lib/sendmail (usually)
1892 program . In doing so, it passes the '-t' flag to sendmail, which
1893 means that the name of the recipient of the message is not on the
1894 command line and, therefore, that sendmail must parse the message to
1895 obtain the destination address.
1897 There is a bug in the SunOS4.1.1 and SunOS4.1.3 versions of sendmail.
1898 In short, when given the -t flag, the SunOS sendmail won't recognize
1899 non-local (i.e. NIS) aliases. It has been reported that the Solaris
1900 2.x versions of sendmail do not have this bug. For those using SunOS
1901 4.1, the best fix is to install sendmail V8 or IDA sendmail (which
1902 have other advantages over the regular sendmail as well). At the time
1903 of this writing, these official versions are available:
1905 Sendmail V8 on ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in /ucb/sendmail:
1906 sendmail.8.6.9.base.tar.Z (the base system source & documentation)
1907 sendmail.8.6.9.cf.tar.Z (configuration files)
1908 sendmail.8.6.9.misc.tar.Z (miscellaneous support programs)
1909 sendmail.8.6.9.xdoc.tar.Z (extended documentation, with postscript)
1911 IDA sendmail on vixen.cso.uiuc.edu in /pub:
1912 sendmail-5.67b+IDA-1.5.tar.gz
1914 *** Emacs fails to understand most Internet host names, even though
1915 the names work properly with other programs on the same system.
1916 Emacs won't work with X-windows if the value of DISPLAY is HOSTNAME:0.
1917 Gnus can't make contact with the specified host for nntp.
1919 This typically happens on Suns and other systems that use shared
1920 libraries. The cause is that the site has installed a version of the
1921 shared library which uses a name server--but has not installed a
1922 similar version of the unshared library which Emacs uses.
1924 The result is that most programs, using the shared library, work with
1925 the nameserver, but Emacs does not.
1927 The fix is to install an unshared library that corresponds to what you
1928 installed in the shared library, and then relink Emacs.
1930 On SunOS 4.1, simply define HAVE_RES_INIT.
1932 If you have already installed the name resolver in the file libresolv.a,
1933 then you need to compile Emacs to use that library. The easiest way to
1934 do this is to add to config.h a definition of LIBS_SYSTEM, LIBS_MACHINE
1935 or LIB_STANDARD which uses -lresolv. Watch out! If you redefine a macro
1936 that is already in use in your configuration to supply some other libraries,
1937 be careful not to lose the others.
1939 Thus, you could start by adding this to config.h:
1941 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
1943 Then if this gives you an error for redefining a macro, and you see that
1944 the s- file defines LIBS_SYSTEM as -lfoo -lbar, you could change config.h
1947 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv -lfoo -lbar
1949 *** With process-connection-type set to t, each line of subprocess
1950 output is terminated with a ^M, making ange-ftp and GNUS not work.
1952 On SunOS systems, this problem has been seen to be a result of an
1953 incomplete installation of gcc 2.2 which allowed some non-ANSI
1954 compatible include files into the compilation. In particular this
1955 affected virtually all ioctl() calls.
1959 *** XEmacs crashes on startup, in make-frame.
1961 Typically the Lisp backtrace includes
1963 make-frame(nil #<x-device on ":0.0" 0x2558>)
1965 somewhere near the top. The problem is due to an improvement in GNU
1966 ld that sorts the ELF reloc sections in the executable, giving
1967 dramatic speedups in startup for large executables. It also confuses
1968 the traditional unexec code in XEmacs, leading to the core dump. The
1969 solution is to use the --pdump or --ldflags='-z nocombreloc' options
1970 to configure. Recent 21.4 and 12.5 autodetect this in configure.
1972 Red Hat and SuSE (at least) distributed a prerelease version of ld
1973 (versions around 2.11.90.x.y) where autodetection is impossible. The
1974 recommended procedure is to upgrade to binutils >= 2.12 and rerun
1975 configure. Otherwise you must apply the flags by hand. --pdump is
1978 *** I want XEmacs to use the Alt key, not the XXX key, for Meta commands
1980 For historical reasons, XEmacs looks for a Meta key, then an Alt key.
1981 It binds Meta commands to the X11 modifier bit attached to the first
1982 of these it finds. On PCs, the Windows key is often assigned the Meta
1983 bit, but many desktop environments go to great lengths to get all apps
1984 to use the Alt key, and reserve the Windows key to (sensibly enough)
1987 One correct way to implement this was suggested on comp.emacs.xemacs
1988 (by Kilian Foth and in more detail by Michael Piotrowski): unmap the
1989 Meta modifier using xmodmap or xkb, and then map the Meta/Windows key
1990 to the Super or Hyper keysym and an appropriate mod bit. XEmacs will
1991 not find the Meta keysym, and default to using the Alt key for Meta
1992 keybindings. Typically few applications use the (X11) Meta modifier;
1993 it is tedious but not too much so to teach the ones you need to use
1994 Super instead of Meta. There may be further useful hints in the
1995 discussion of keymapping on non-Linux platforms.
1997 *** The color-gcc wrapper
1999 This wrapper colorizes the error messages from gcc. By default XEmacs
2000 does not interpret the escape sequences used to generate colors,
2001 resulting in a cluttered, hard-to-read buffer. You can remove the
2002 wrapper, or defeat the wrapper colorization in Emacs process buffers
2003 by editing the "nocolor" attribute in /etc/colorgccrc:
2005 $ diff -u /etc/colorgccrc.old /etc/colorgccrc
2006 --- /etc/colorgccrc.old Tue Dec 26 02:17:46 2000
2007 +++ /etc/colorgccrc Tue Dec 26 02:15:48 2000
2010 +nocolor: dumb emacs
2012 If you want colorization in your Emacs buffers, you may get good
2013 results from the ansi-color.el library:
2015 http://www.geocities.com/kensanata/color-emacs.html#ansicolors
2017 This is written for the mainline GNU Emacs but the author has made
2018 efforts to adapt it to XEmacs. YMMV.
2020 *** Slow startup on Linux.
2022 People using systems based on the Linux kernel sometimes report that
2023 startup takes 10 to 15 seconds longer than `usual'. There are two
2024 problems, one older, one newer.
2026 **** Old problem: IPv4 host lookup
2028 On older systems, this is because Emacs looks up the host name when it
2029 starts. Normally, this takes negligible time; the extra delay is due
2030 to improper system configuration. (Recent Linux distros usually have
2031 this configuration correct "out of the box".) This problem can occur
2032 for both networked and non-networked machines.
2034 Here is how to fix the configuration. It requires being root.
2036 ***** Networked Case
2038 First, make sure the files `/etc/hosts' and `/etc/host.conf' both
2039 exist. The first line in the `/etc/hosts' file should look like this
2040 (replace HOSTNAME with your host name):
2042 127.0.0.1 localhost HOSTNAME
2044 Also make sure that the `/etc/host.conf' files contains the following
2050 Any changes, permanent and temporary, to the host name should be
2051 indicated in the `/etc/hosts' file, since it acts a limited local
2052 database of addresses and names (e.g., some SLIP connections
2053 dynamically allocate ip addresses).
2055 ***** Non-Networked Case
2057 The solution described in the networked case applies here as well.
2058 However, if you never intend to network your machine, you can use a
2059 simpler solution: create an empty `/etc/host.conf' file. The command
2060 `touch /etc/host.conf' suffices to create the file. The `/etc/hosts'
2061 file is not necessary with this approach.
2063 **** New problem: IPv6 CNAME lookup
2065 A newer problem is due to XEmacs changing to use the modern
2066 getaddrinfo() interface from the older gethostbyname() interface. The
2067 solution above is insufficient, because getaddrinfo() by default tries
2068 to get IPv6 information for localhost. This always involves a dns
2069 lookup to get the CNAME, and the strategies above don't work. It then
2070 falls back to IPv4 behavior. This is good[tm] according the people at
2071 WIDE who know about IPv6.
2073 ***** Robust network case
2075 Configure your network so that there are no nameservers configured
2076 until the network is actually running. getaddrinfo() will not try to
2077 access a nameserver that isn't configured.
2079 ***** Flaky network case
2081 If you have a flaky modem or DSL connection that can be relied on only
2082 to go down whenever you want to bring XEmacs up, you need to force
2083 IPv4 behavior. Explicitly setting DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0 (or whatever
2084 is appropriate) works in most cases.
2086 If you cannot or do not want to do that, you can hard code IPv4
2087 behavior in src/process-unix.c. This is bad[tm], on your own head be
2088 it. Use the configure option `--with-ipv6-cname=no'.
2092 The Mandrake Linux distribution is attempting to comprehensively
2093 update the user interface, and make it consistent across
2094 applications. This is very difficult, and will occasionally cause
2095 conflicts with applications like Emacs with their own long-established
2096 interfaces. Known issues specific to Mandrake or especially common:
2098 Some versions of XEmacs (21.1.9 is known) distributed with Mandrake
2099 were patched to make the Meta and Alt keysyms synonymous. These
2100 normally work as expected in the Mandrake environment. However,
2101 custom-built XEmacsen (including all 21.2 betas) will "inexplicably"
2102 not respect the "Alt-invokes-Meta-commands" convention. See "I want
2103 XEmacs to use the Alt key" below.
2105 The color-gcc wrapper (see below) is in common use on the Mandrake
2108 *** You get crashes in a non-C locale with Linux GNU Libc 2.0.
2110 Internationalization was not the top priority for GNU Libc 2.0.
2111 As of this writing (1998-12-28) you may get crashes while running
2112 XEmacs in a non-C locale. For example, `LC_ALL=en_US xemacs' crashes
2113 while `LC_ALL=C xemacs' runs fine. This happens for example with GNU
2114 libc 2.0.7. Installing libintl.a and libintl.h built from gettext
2115 0.10.35 and re-building XEmacs solves the crashes. Presumably soon
2116 everyone will upgrade to GNU Libc 2.1 and this problem will go away.
2118 *** `C-z', or `M-x suspend-emacs' hangs instead of suspending.
2120 If you build with `gpm' support on Linux, you cannot suspend XEmacs
2121 because gpm installs a buggy SIGTSTP handler. Either compile with
2122 `--with-gpm=no', or don't suspend XEmacs on the Linux console until
2125 *** With certain fonts, when the cursor appears on a character, the
2126 character doesn't appear--you get a solid box instead.
2128 One user on a Linux system reported that this problem went away with
2129 installation of a new X server. The failing server was XFree86 3.1.1.
2130 XFree86 3.1.2 works.
2133 *** On Irix, I don't see the toolbar icons and I'm getting lots of
2134 entries in the warnings buffer.
2136 SGI ships a really old Xpm library in /usr/lib which does not work at
2137 all well with XEmacs. The solution is to install your own copy of the
2138 latest version of Xpm somewhere and then use the --site-includes and
2139 --site-libraries flags to tell configure where to find it.
2141 *** Trouble using ptys on IRIX, or running out of ptys.
2143 The program mkpts (which may be in `/usr/adm' or `/usr/sbin') needs to
2144 be set-UID to root, or non-root programs like Emacs will not be able
2145 to allocate ptys reliably.
2147 *** Beware of the default image & graphics library on Irix
2149 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
2151 You *have* to compile your own jpeg lib. The one delivered with SGI
2152 systems is a C++ lib, which apparently XEmacs cannot cope with.
2155 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS/Ultrix
2156 *** XEmacs crashes on Digital Unix within font-lock, or when dealing
2157 with large compilation buffers, or in other regex applications.
2159 The default stack size under Digital Unix is rather small (2M as
2160 opposed to Solaris 8M), hosing the regexp code, which uses alloca()
2161 extensively, overflowing the stack when complex regexps are used.
2164 1) Increase your stack size, using `ulimit -s 8192' or a (t)csh
2167 2) Recompile regex.c with REGEX_MALLOC defined.
2169 *** The `Alt' key doesn't behave as `Meta' when running DECwindows.
2171 The default DEC keyboard mapping has the Alt keys set up to generate the
2172 keysym `Multi_key', which has a meaning to xemacs which is distinct from that
2173 of the `Meta_L' and `Meta-R' keysyms. A second problem is that certain keys
2174 have the Mod2 modifier attached to them for no adequately explored reason.
2175 The correct fix is to pass this file to xmodmap upon starting X:
2178 keysym Multi_key = Alt_L
2182 *** The Compose key on a DEC keyboard does not work as Meta key.
2184 This shell command should fix it:
2186 xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xb1 = Meta_L'
2188 *** `expand-file-name' fails to work on any but the machine you dumped
2191 On Ultrix, if you use any of the functions which look up information
2192 in the passwd database before dumping Emacs (say, by using
2193 expand-file-name in site-init.el), then those functions will not work
2194 in the dumped Emacs on any host but the one Emacs was dumped on.
2196 The solution? Don't use expand-file-name in site-init.el, or in
2197 anything it loads. Yuck - some solution.
2199 I'm not sure why this happens; if you can find out exactly what is
2200 going on, and perhaps find a fix or a workaround, please let us know.
2201 Perhaps the YP functions cache some information, the cache is included
2202 in the dumped Emacs, and is then inaccurate on any other host.
2206 *** I get complaints about the mapping of my HP keyboard at startup,
2207 but I haven't changed anything.
2209 The default HP keymap is set up to have Mod1 assigned to two different keys:
2210 Meta_L and Mode_switch (even though there is not actually a Mode_switch key on
2211 the keyboard -- it uses an "imaginary" keycode.) There actually is a reason
2212 for this, but it's not a good one. The correct fix is to execute this command
2215 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
2217 *** On HP-UX, you get "poll: Interrupted system call" message in the
2218 window where XEmacs was launched.
2220 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
2222 I get a very strange problem when linking libc.a dynamically: every
2223 event (mouse, keyboard, expose...) results in a "poll: Interrupted
2224 system call" message in the window where XEmacs was
2225 launched. Forcing a static link of libc.a alone by adding
2226 /usr/lib/libc.a at the end of the link line solves this. Note that
2227 my 9.07 build of 19.14b17 and my (old) build of 19.13 both exhibit
2228 the same behavior. I've tried various hpux patches to no avail. If
2229 this problem cannot be solved before the release date, binary kits
2230 for HP *must* be linked statically against libc, otherwise this
2231 problem will show up. (This is directed at whoever will volunteer
2232 for this kit, as I won't be available to do it, unless 19.14 gets
2233 delayed until mid-june ;-). I think this problem will be an FAQ soon
2234 after the release otherwise.
2236 Note: The above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0 and
2239 *** The right Alt key works wrong on German HP keyboards (and perhaps
2240 other non-English HP keyboards too).
2242 This is because HP-UX defines the modifiers wrong in X. Here is a
2243 shell script to fix the problem; be sure that it is run after VUE
2244 configures the X server.
2246 xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF
2247 keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
2248 keysym Alt_R = Meta_R
2253 keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol
2255 keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch
2256 add mod2 = Mode_switch
2260 *** XEmacs dumps core at startup when native audio is used. Native
2261 audio does not work with recent versions of HP-UX.
2263 Under HP-UX 10.20 and later (e.g., HP-UX 11.XX), with native audio
2264 enabled, the dumped XEmacs binary ("xemacs") core dumps at startup if
2265 recent versions of the libAlib.sl audio shared library is used. Note
2266 that "temacs" will run, but "xemacs" will dump core. This, of course,
2267 causes the XEmacs build to fail. If GNU malloc is enabled, a stack
2268 trace will show XEmacs to have crashed in the "first" call to malloc().
2270 This bug currently exists in all versions of XEmacs, when the undump
2271 mechanism is used. It is not known if using the experimental portable
2272 dumper will allow native audio to work.
2276 Recent versions of the HP-UX 10.20 (and later) audio shared library (in
2277 /opt/audio/lib), pulls in the libdce shared library, which pulls in a
2278 thread (libcma) library. This prevents the HP-UX undump() routine (in
2279 unexhp9k800.c) from properly working. What's happening is that some
2280 initialization routines are being called in the libcma library, *BEFORE*
2281 main() is called, and these initialization routines are calling
2282 malloc(). Unfortunately, in order for the undumper to work, XEmacs must
2283 adjust (move upwards) the sbrk() value *BEFORE* the first call to
2284 malloc(); if malloc() is called before XEmacs has properly adjusted sbrk
2285 (which is what is happening), dumped memory that is being used by
2286 XEmacs, is improperly re-allocated for use by malloc() and the dumped
2287 memory is corrupted. This causes XEmacs to die an horrible death.
2289 It is believed that versions of the audio library past December 1998
2290 will trigger this problem. Under HP-UX 10.20, you probably have to
2291 install audio library patches to encounter this. It's probable that
2292 recent "fresh, out-of-the-box" HP-UX 11.XX workstations also have this
2293 problem. For HP-UX 10.20, it's believed that audio patch PHSS_17121 (or
2294 a superceeding one, like PHSS_17554, PHSS_17971, PHSS_18777, PHSS_21481,
2295 or PHSS_21662, etc.) will trigger this.
2297 To check if your audio library will cause problems for XEmacs, run
2298 "chatr /opt/audio/lib/libAlib.sl". If "libdce" appears in the displayed
2299 shared library list, XEmacs will probably encounter problems if audio is
2304 Don't enable native audio. Re-run configure without native audio
2307 If your site supports it, try using NAS (Network Audio Support).
2309 Try using the experimental portable dumper. It may work, or it may
2313 *** `Pid xxx killed due to text modification or page I/O error'
2315 On HP-UX, you can get that error when the Emacs executable is on an NFS
2316 file system. HP-UX responds this way if it tries to swap in a page and
2317 does not get a response from the server within a timeout whose default
2318 value is just ten seconds.
2320 If this happens to you, extend the timeout period.
2322 *** Shell mode on HP-UX gives the message, "`tty`: Ambiguous".
2324 christos@theory.tn.cornell.edu says:
2326 The problem is that in your .cshrc you have something that tries to
2327 execute `tty`. If you are not running the shell on a real tty then tty
2328 will print "not a tty". Csh expects one word in some places, but tty
2329 is giving it back 3.
2331 The solution is to add a pair of quotes around `tty` to make it a
2334 if (`tty` == "/dev/console")
2336 should be changed to:
2338 if ("`tty`" == "/dev/console")
2340 Even better, move things that set up terminal sections out of .cshrc
2345 *** Regular expressions matching bugs on SCO systems.
2347 On SCO, there are problems in regexp matching when Emacs is compiled
2348 with the system compiler. The compiler version is "Microsoft C
2349 version 6", SCO 4.2.0h Dev Sys Maintenance Supplement 01/06/93; Quick
2350 C Compiler Version 1.00.46 (Beta). The solution is to compile with
2354 * Compatibility problems (with Emacs 18, GNU Emacs, or previous XEmacs/lemacs)
2355 ==============================================================================
2357 *** "Symbol's value as variable is void: unread-command-char".
2358 "Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<keymap 143 entries>"
2359 "Wrong type argument: stringp, [#<keypress-event return>]"
2361 There are a few incompatible changes in XEmacs, and these are the
2362 symptoms. Some of the emacs-lisp code you are running needs to be
2363 updated to be compatible with XEmacs.
2365 The code should not treat keymaps as arrays (use `define-key', etc.),
2366 should not use obsolete variables like `unread-command-char' (use
2367 `unread-command-events'). Many (most) of the new ways of doing things
2368 are compatible in GNU Emacs and XEmacs.
2370 Modern Emacs packages (Gnus, VM, W3, efs, etc) are written to support
2371 GNU Emacs and XEmacs. We have provided modified versions of several
2372 popular emacs packages (dired, etc) which are compatible with this
2373 version of emacs. Check to make sure you have not set your load-path
2374 so that your private copies of these packages are being found before
2375 the versions in the lisp directory.
2377 Make sure that your load-path and your $EMACSLOADPATH environment
2378 variable are not pointing at an Emacs18 lisp directory. This will
2381 ** Some packages that worked before now cause the error
2382 Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<face ... >
2384 Code which uses the `face' accessor functions must be recompiled with
2385 xemacs 19.9 or later. The functions whose callers must be recompiled
2386 are: face-font, face-foreground, face-background,
2387 face-background-pixmap, and face-underline-p. The .elc files
2388 generated by version 19.9 will work in 19.6 and 19.8, but older .elc
2389 files which contain calls to these functions will not work in 19.9.
2391 ** Signaling: (error "Byte code stack underflow (byte compiler bug), pc 38")
2393 This error is given when XEmacs 20 is compiled without MULE support
2394 but is attempting to load a .elc which requires MULE support. The fix
2395 is to rebytecompile the offending file.
2397 ** Signaling: (wrong-type-argument ...) when loading mail-abbrevs
2399 The is seen when installing the Insidious Big Brother Data Base (bbdb)
2400 which includes an outdated copy of mail-abbrevs.el. Remove the copy
2401 that comes with bbdb and use the one that comes with XEmacs.
2407 ** A reminder: XEmacs/Mule work does not currently receive *any*
2408 funding, and all work is done by volunteers. If you think you can
2409 help, please contact the XEmacs maintainers.
2411 ** XEmacs/Mule doesn't support TTY's satisfactorily.
2413 This is a major problem, which we plan to address in a future release
2414 of XEmacs. Basically, XEmacs should have primitives to be told
2415 whether the terminal can handle international output, and which
2416 locale. Also, it should be able to do approximations of characters to
2417 the nearest supported by the locale.
2419 ** Internationalized (Asian) Isearch doesn't work.
2421 Currently, Isearch doesn't directly support any of the input methods
2422 that are not XIM based (like egg, canna and quail) (and there are
2423 potential problems with XIM version too...). If you're using egg
2424 there is a workaround. Hitting <RET> right after C-s to invoke
2425 Isearch will put Isearch in string mode, where a complete string can
2426 be typed into the minibuffer and then processed by Isearch afterwards.
2427 Since egg is now supported in the minibuffer using string mode you can
2428 now use egg to input your Japanese, Korean or Chinese string, then hit
2429 return to send that to Isearch and then use standard Isearch commands
2432 ** Using egg and mousing around while in 'fence' mode screws up my
2435 Don't do this. The fence modes of egg and canna are currently very
2436 modal, and messing with where they expect point to be and what they
2437 think is the current buffer is just asking for trouble. If you're
2438 lucky they will realize that something is awry, and simply delete the
2439 fence, but worst case can trash other buffers too. We've tried to
2440 protect against this where we can, but there still are many ways to
2441 shoot yourself in the foot. So just finish what you are typing into
2442 the fence before reaching for the mouse.
2444 ** Not all languages in Quail are supported like Devanagari and Indian
2445 languages, Lao and Tibetan.
2447 Quail requires more work and testing. Although it has been ported to
2448 XEmacs, it works really well for Japanese and for the European
2451 ** Right-to-left mode is not yet implemented, so languages like
2452 Arabic, Hebrew and Thai don't work.
2454 Getting this right requires more work. It may be implemented in a
2455 future XEmacs version, but don't hold your breath. If you know
2456 someone who is ready to implement this, please let us know.
2458 ** We need more developers and native language testers. It's extremely
2459 difficult (and not particularly productive) to address languages that
2460 nobody is using and testing.
2462 ** The kWnn and cWnn support for Chinese and Korean needs developers
2463 and testers. It probably doesn't work.
2465 ** There are no `native XEmacs' TUTORIALs for any Asian languages,
2466 including Japanese. FSF Emacs and XEmacs tutorials are quite similar,
2467 so it should be sufficient to skim through the differences and apply
2468 them to the Japanese version.
2470 ** We only have localized menus translated for Japanese, and the
2471 Japanese menus are developing bitrot (the Mule menu appears in
2474 ** XIM is untested for any language other than Japanese.