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Compile TeXmacs from the source code
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1.Verify the TeXmacs dependencies

Before you install TeXmacs on your system, you have to make sure that the other programs on which TeXmacs depends, namely TeX and Guile/Scheme (from the Gnome project) have been installed correctly. You can do this by checking whether the latex and guile-config binaries exists in your path

    which latex
    which guile-config

If one of these commands yields an error message, then click here. On some systems, you also need to make sure that you installed the development packages (i.e. X11-dev or X11-devel) for Xlib.

2.Download and unpack the source code

Download the latest version (3.8 Mb) of the source code, or the latest stable version (3.8 Mb), cd into the directory where you wish to compile TeXmacs and type

    tar -zxvf TeXmacs-1.0.7.2-src.tar.gz

All files will be unpacked into the directory TeXmacs-1.0.7.2-src, which is the 'installation directory'. If you do not have ftp access, then you might wish to download from the web.

3.Compile, install and run

TeXmacs supports the standard GNU compilation and installation procedure. Assuming that you logged yourself in as root, cd into the installation directory and type

    ./configure
    make
    make install

The first command examines your particular system configuration. The second command launches the compilation. The last command installs TeXmacs in /usr/local.

If everything works fine, you should be able to run TeXmacs by

    texmacs &

If this does not work, you should make sure that /usr/local/bin is in your PATH. Depending on your shell, you can ensure this by typing

    export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH   or
    setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH

If you are interested by packaging TeXmacs for some Linux or Unix distribution, then please take a look at our suggestions.

4.Extra fonts?

You may optionally download a tarball (5.8 Mb) with extra Type 1 fonts. These fonts should be unpacked in the directory ~/.TeXmacs (which you should create if it does not already exist) using

    gunzip -c TeXmacs-extra-fonts-1.0-noarch.tar.gz | tar xvf -

Although TeXmacs is able to automatically generate bitmap analogues for the extra fonts, this process may take some time at a first run. Type 1 fonts are also rendered better by certain Pdf viewers and they are often preferred by publishers.

Chinese, Japanese and Korean users also need to separately download extra CJK fonts, whenever these languages do not correctly show up in the language menus.

5.Be cool...

Please let us know if you like or dislike the program. It is very useful for us to have a rough idea about the number of permanent users and for what applications you are interested in TeXmacs. Furthermore, we are glad to receive your suggestions and problems, no matter how silly they may seem to you. You may also subscribe to the texmacs-users or texmacs-info mailing lists. If you really like the program, then please consider donating money or services to us. Of course, you may also contribute yourself.

Appendix A.Configuration options

If you cannot log yourself in as root, or if you want to install TeXmacs elsewhere than in /usr/local, then you should use

    ./configure --prefix=[target directory]

instead of ./configure. In this case, TeXmacs will be installed in [target directory] and you will have to set your PATH accordingly, as to contain [target directory]/bin. Other options supported by configure are

Appendix B.Static compilation

By default, we build TeXmacs using dynamically linked libraries. If you rather want to build the static version, use

    make STATIC_TEXMACS

Appendix C.Possible problems

This webpage is part of GNU TeXmacs and the larger GNU project. Verbatim copying and distribution of it is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. For more information or questions, please contact Joris van der Hoeven.

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