the message below came into webmaster(a)xemacs.org. as near as i can tell, he is having difficulties due to not properly installing the packages. is that a correct reading? ( the other suggestions [the change to gunzip.. and the link to the external libraries in the install doc] have been made. ) i'll let him know that the message was forwarded here. thanks, john. --[[message/rfc822]] From: Jens Elkner <elkner(a)ue.iff.fhg.de&gt; Message-Id: <199909060041.CAA06928(a)monster.ue.iff.fhg.de&gt; Subject: RFE: Install doc To: webmaster(a)xemacs.org Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 02:41:05 +0200 (MET DST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, I just installed from the scratch Xemacs 21.1.6 on solaris 2.7 sparc as described in your Installation doc comming with xemacs having FSF in mind. So I did: 1) utgz xemacs-21.1.6.tar.gz (utgz = gunzip -c $* | tar xvf -) 2) utgz xemacs-21.1.6-info.tar.gz 3) utgz xemacs-21.1.6-elc.tar.gz 4) cd xemacs-21.1.6 5) ./configure ... 6) make install To ensure, that lisp packages are ok, I tried to use the new package mechanism via menu as described "The XEmacs Packages Quick Start Guide". Unfortunately it didn't work. Thus I fiddled a little bit around, and found that xemacs requires packages from $prefix/lib/xemacs-21.1.6/ but looks them up in $prefix/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages (which doesnt exist at that point) and _NOT_ in $prefix/lib/xemacs-21.1.6/. So moving $prefix/lib/xemacs-21.1.6 to $prefix/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages gave me at least the Options/Manage Packages Filemenu. And to initiate Packages updates. Unfortunately it didn't work as well! After a little closer look I found out, that there must me something else with the xemacs-packages! Thus I downloaded xemacs-mule-sumo.tar.gz and xemacs-sumo.tar.gz, moved back the old packages ( mv $prefix/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages $prefix/lib/xemacs-21.1.6/ ) and installed the sumos - next error: "The XEmacs Packages Quick Start Guide" - Installing by Hand is wrong: cd $prefix/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages or cd $prefix/lib/xemacs/mule-packages is wrong, cd $prefix/lib/xemacs is right for both, xemacs-sumo.tar.gz and xemacs-mule-sumo.tar.gz since the xemacs-packages and mule-packages are already in the archive. After that everything works quite nice - even the update feature :) ---end of experience --- So I would recommend a QuickInstall.doc or an Overview section as described below at the very beginning of Installation file coming with the xemacs-X.Y.Z.tar.gz: Quick Install Overview ---------------------- 0) if you like, download and install optional libraries (see http://www.xemacs.org/Download/optLibs.html ) 1) cd $tmp 2) unpack xemacs-X.Y.Z.tar.gz 3) unpack xemacs-X.Y.Z-info.tar.gz 4) NOTE: if you want to install xemacs-*sumo.tar.gz packages, skip this step unpack xemacs-21.1.6-elc.tar.gz !!! xemacs team should be informed to fix that package, so that upgrading or installing packages works out from the scratch !!! 5) cd xemacs-X.Y.Z 6) ./configure --options (see INSTALLATION for detailed information) 7) make 8) make install 9) if you do not want to install xemacs-*sumo.tar.gz packages, you are done. 10) download xemacs-sumo.tar.gz and optional xemacs-mule-sumo.tar.gz 11) cd $prefix/lib/xemacs 12) unpack xemacs-sumo.tar.gz and optional xemacs-mule-sumo.tar.gz 13) take a breath and have a beer ;-) Please, just give a note to the xemacs team, if one chooses not to install+ the sumo packages, xemacs doesnt work as expected. So they should copy the initial lisp packages to $prefix/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages or they should change the default behavior, so that xemacs also looks up the $prefix/lib/xemacs-X.Y.Z path as well (maybe its only a bug in the current version). That's it. Have fun, Jens. BTW: Thanx for xemacs - I like programming, news reading and debugging in conjuction with Sun C++ Workshop >= 4.x very very much :) -- +---[ Jens Elkner ]------------------------------[ USG IFF FhG Magdeburg ] | Certified Master Unix Systems Administrator elkner(a)usg.iff.fhg.de | | Sandtorstr. 22 http://www.ue.iff.fhg.de | | 39106 Magdeburg GERMANY http://www.ims-gmbh.server.de | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ John S Jacobs Anderson Apprentice Geek jacobs(a)azstarnet.com Journeyman Molecular Biologist <URL:http://www.azstarnet.com/~jacobs/> <- GeneHack:bioinfo*linux*opinion