Difference between revisions of "Installing Emacs on OS X"

Latest revision as of 00:07, 27 December 2020

OS X comes with a preinstalled version of Emacs, but alas it is the outdated Emacs 22. Fortunately, obtaining a newer release is really simple. There are several popular ways to do it.

Emacs 24

As a binary package

Simply download a binary from Emacs for OSX.

The above binary distribution bundled with up-to-date versions AUCTeX, ESS and a few other useful tools is available from Vincent Goulet's web site.

MacPorts

If you have MacPorts installed, you can just do:

$ sudo port install emacs

to install Emacs 24. The MacPorts installer updates your PATH environment variable, so the MacPorts build of Emacs should be found by your shell before the (outdated) build that comes with Mac OS when you type 'emacs'. If you prefer the Emacs.app build, that's available by executing:

$ sudo port install emacs-app

Homebrew : emacs

Emacs 27 is also available via brew.sh. The specific page about the emacs formula is emacs. Note that this package is a non-graphical package, it used to have a --cocoa option but it is not available currently.

Just type the following incantation in your shell and you’re done:

$ brew update
$ brew install emacs

Chances are good you have an older version of Emacs installed by default with OS X. It's suggested you to remove that older Emacs version to avoid conflicts with the new one. Do this:

$ sudo rm /usr/bin/emacs
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/share/emacs

That’s all folks! You may now proceed to the configuration section.

Homebrew : emacsmacport

Another brew package which has graphical support. The sources are at homebrew-emacsmacport.

The installation instructions are

$ brew tap railwaycat/emacsmacport
$ brew install emacs-mac

Emacs tips for Mac OS X

You may follow Emacs for Mac OS X, Tips on how to create scripts for running emacs and emacsclient.

Rudix

Emacs is easy to install directly from Rudix as a .pkg or with the Rudix command line tool:

% sudo rudix install emacs

Emacs 27

Binaries for Emacs 27 are still available from Emacs for OSX.

Aquamacs

A near-OS-X-native port of GNU Emacs, integrating Emacs with all the features of Mac OS X. Available here. As of December 2020, the latest version (3.5) is based on Emacs 25.3. Comes bundled with some handy packages like AUCTeX.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-OSX comes with a preinstalled version of Emacs, but alas it the oudated Emacs 22. Obtaining a newer Emacs on OS X is really simple. There are several popular ways to do it.
+OS X comes with a preinstalled version of Emacs, but alas it is the outdated Emacs 22. Fortunately, obtaining a newer release is really simple. There are several popular ways to do it.
 == Emacs 24 ==
@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 === As a binary package ===
-Simply download a binary from [http://emacsformacosx.com Emacs for OSX]
+Simply download a binary from [http://emacsformacosx.com Emacs for OSX].
-=== Build it from source ===
+The above binary distribution bundled with up-to-date versions [http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/ AUCTeX], [http://ess.r-project.org ESS] and a few other useful tools is available
+from [http://vgoulet.act.ulaval.ca/en/emacs/mac/ Vincent Goulet's web site].
-The second easy way to obtain Emacs 24 is via [http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ homebrew]. Just type the following incantation in your shell and you’re done:
+=== MacPorts ===
+If you have [https://www.macports.org/ MacPorts] installed, you can just do:
+<source lang="bash">
+$ sudo port install emacs
+</source>
+to install Emacs 24. The MacPorts installer updates your PATH environment variable, so the MacPorts build of Emacs should be found by your shell before the (outdated) build that comes with Mac OS when you type 'emacs'. If you prefer the Emacs.app build, that's available by executing:
+<source lang="bash">
+$ sudo port install emacs-app
+</source>
+=== Homebrew : emacs ===
+Emacs 27 is also available via [https://brew.sh brew.sh].
+The specific page about the emacs formula is [https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/emacs emacs].
+Note that this package is a non-graphical package, it used to have a --cocoa option but it is not available currently.
+Just type the following incantation in your shell and you’re done:
 <source lang="bash">
 $ brew update
-$ brew install emacs --cocoa
+$ brew install emacs
-$ ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/24.2/Emacs.app /Applications
-or
-$ cp -r /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/Emacs.app /Applications/
 </source>
-The second step is optional, but it’s recommended if you like to start Emacs from the launchpad or from Spotlight.
 Chances are good you have an older version of Emacs installed by default with OS X. It's suggested you to remove that older Emacs version to avoid conflicts with the new one. Do this:
@@ Line 27: / Line 44: @@
 </source>
-Or just create an alias in your shell and when you invoke 'emacs' it will run the newly installed version:
+That’s all folks! You may now proceed to the configuration section.
+=== Homebrew : emacsmacport ===
+Another brew package which has graphical support.
+The sources are at [https://github.com/railwaycat/homebrew-emacsmacport homebrew-emacsmacport].
+The installation instructions are
 <source lang="bash">
-$ alias emacs="/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/24.1/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs -nw"
+$ brew tap railwaycat/emacsmacport
+$ brew install emacs-mac
 </source>
-To make it permanent, if using bash, add that line to ~/.bash_profile.
+=== Emacs tips for Mac OS X ===
-That’s all folk! You may now proceed to the configuration section.
+You may follow [https://emacsformacosx.com/tips Emacs for Mac OS X, Tips] on how to create scripts for running emacs and emacsclient.
-== Emacs 23 ==
+=== Rudix ===
-=== As a binary package ===
+Emacs is easy to install directly from [http://rudix.org Rudix] as a .pkg or with the Rudix command line tool:
-Simply download a binary from [http://emacsformacosx.com/builds Emacs for OSX].
-=== Use a package manager (Emacs 23 only at time of writing) ===
-* Fink
-* MacPorts
 <source lang="bash">
-port install emacs
+% sudo rudix install emacs
 </source>
-You can add <tt>+<variant> [+<variant>...]</tt> where <tt>variant</tt> is one or more of:
+== Emacs 27 ==
-* dbus: Builds emacs with D-Bus support
-* gtk: Builds emacs as an X11 program with GTK+2 widgets
+Binaries for Emacs 27 are still available from [http://emacsformacosx.com/builds Emacs for OSX].
-* motif: Builds emacs as an X11 program with Motif
-* universal: Build for multiple architectures
-* x11: Builds emacs as a X11 program with Lucid widgets
-The gtk, motif and x11 variants require (depend on) MacPorts' X11 libraries. They're mutually exclusive.
 == Aquamacs ==
-A near-OS-X-native port of GNU Emacs, integrating Emacs with all the features of Mac OS X.
+A near-OS-X-native port of GNU Emacs, integrating Emacs with all the features of Mac OS X. Available [http://aquamacs.org/ here]. As of December 2020, the latest version (3.5) is based on Emacs 25.3. Comes bundled with some handy packages like [[AUCTeX]].
-[[Category:OS X]][[Category:Beginner]][[Category:Install Or Upgrade]][[Category:Emacs-23]][[Category:Emacs-23.4]][[Category:Emacs-24]]
+[[Category:OS X]][[Category:Beginner]][[Category:Install Or Upgrade]][[Category:Emacs-25]]