Installing Emacs on BSD

Emacs is available among BSD variants including FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and PC-BSD

FreeBSD

Install

Emacs 23

To install the latest stable version of Emacs, with all the latest features, there are two approaches: using a pre built package or building from the ports.

To fetch and install the package run:

# pkg_add -r emacs

Or use the ports:

# cd /usr/ports/editors/emacs

# make install

Emacs 24

To install the latest development version of Emacs, with all the latest features, there are two approaches: using a pre built package or building from the ports.

To fetch and install the package run:

# pkg_add -r emacs-devel

Or use the ports:

# cd /usr/ports/editors/emacs-devel

# make install

Related documentation

Using Emacs as a Development Environment from the official FreeBSD project documentation. Some of the config tweaks are a bit dated and might need updating. But overall it's a good starting point.

OpenBSD

After setting PKG_PATH to something appropriate (generally protocol://mirrorsite/pub/OpenBSD/`uname -r`/packages/`uname -m`/), execute as root or with sudo

# pkg_add -i emacs

Using the -i (interactive) option tells pkg_add to prompt you for which version to install. Emacs 21, 22, and 23 are available in packages.

You can also install from the ports tree, in editors/emacs21, editors/emacs22, or editors/emacs23; however, "The [OpenBSD] ports tree is meant for advanced users. Everyone is encouraged to use the pre-compiled binary packages."<ref>OpenBSD FAQ, section 15.3</ref>

No premade port or package for Emacs 24 seems to be publicly available currently.