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(cvsbook.info)Installing pcl-cvs

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Installing pcl-cvs
------------------

If you don't normally deal with Emacs installation and site-maintenance
issues, the pcl-cvs installation procedure may seem a bit daunting.  A
little background on how Emacs works may help.

Most higher-level Emacs features are written in a language called "Emacs
Lisp" (Emacs itself is essentially an interpreter for this language).
People add new features to Emacs by distributing files of Emacs Lisp
code.  `pcl-cvs' is written in this language, and it depends on a
library of useful, generic Emacs Lisp functions called "Elib" (also
written in part by Per Cederqvist, but distributed separately from
pcl-cvs).

Elib is not included in the regular Emacs distribution (at least not FSF
Emacs; I don't know about XEmacs), so you may have to download and
install it yourself before you can use pcl-cvs.  You can get it from
`ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/emacs/elib-1.0.tar.gz'.  Installation
instructions are contained within the package.

Once Elib is installed, you're ready to build and install pcl-cvs.
These instructions applies both to Version 1.05 and the 2.x series
(although you should check the NEWS and INSTALL files in newer
distributions to see what's changed).

First, unpack pcl-cvs (I'm using Version 1.05, but it could just as
easily have been 2.9.6)

     floss$ zcat pcl-cvs-1.05.tar.gz | tar xvf -
     pcl-cvs-1.05/
     pcl-cvs-1.05/README
     pcl-cvs-1.05/NEWS
     pcl-cvs-1.05/INSTALL
     pcl-cvs-1.05/ChangeLog
     pcl-cvs-1.05/pcl-cvs.el
     pcl-cvs-1.05/pcl-cvs.texinfo
     pcl-cvs-1.05/compile-all.el
     pcl-cvs-1.05/pcl-cvs-lucid.el
     pcl-cvs-1.05/pcl-cvs-startup.el
     pcl-cvs-1.05/pcl-cvs.info
     pcl-cvs-1.05/Makefile
     pcl-cvs-1.05/texinfo.tex

and go into the source tree's top level:

     floss$ cd pcl-cvs-1.05/

A Makefile is supplied there.  According to the instructions in the
INSTALL file, you're supposed to edit a few paths at the top of the
Makefile and then run:

     floss$ make install

If that works, great.  However, this sometimes results in an error (the
pcl-cvs code itself is very portable, but its installation procedures
sometimes are not).  Do this if you get an error:

     floss$ make clean
     floss$ make

If all goes well, these commands accomplish a significant part of the
installation by byte-compiling all of the Emacs Lisp files.
(Byte-compiling converts a file of human-readable Emacs Lisp code - an
.el file - into a more compact and efficient representation - an .elc
file.  Emacs can load and run an .elc file with better performance than
it can a plain .el file.)

I'll proceed as though the byte-compilation stage has succeeded.  If the
byte compilation does not appear to succeed, don't worry: The .elc files
are a luxury, not a necessity.  They improve performance slightly, but
you can run pcl-cvs from the raw .el files with no problem.

If the make install failed, the next step is to get the Emacs Lisp
(whether .el or .elc) into a directory where Emacs can load it
automatically.  Emacs has a designated directory on the system for
locally installed Lisp.  To find this directory - it will have a file
named `default.el' in it - check the following locations, in this order:

  1. /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/

  2. /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/

  3. /usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp/

  4. /usr/local/lib/emacs/site-lisp/

Once you've found your site-lisp directory, copy all of the Lisp files
to it (you may have to be root to do this):

     floss# cp -f *.el *.elc /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/

The last step is to tell Emacs about the entry points to pcl-cvs (the
main one being the function cvs-update), so it will know to load the
pcl-cvs code on demand.  Because Emacs always reads the default.el file
when it starts up, that's where you need to list the pcl-cvs entry
points.

Fortunately, pcl-cvs provides the necessary content for default.el.
Simply put the contents of pcl-cvs-startup.el into default.el (or
perhaps into your .emacs, if you're just installing this for yourself)
and restart your Emacs.

You may also want to copy the .info files into your info tree and add
pcl-cvs to the table of contents in the dir file.