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4.1.2.5 Emacs For Mac OS Wiki

EmacsForMacOS Wiki

1. Distributions
   1. Vanilla

      These builds are based on the development version of GNU Emacs and do not contain any additional packages or patches. Popular Mac keyboard shortcuts are available though (e.g. Command-O for opening a file); these are mapped to the Super modifier (i.e., the Apple/Command key functions as Super).

      EmacsForMacOS

   2. Extras
      1. Mitsuhara Yamamoto’s Mac Port

         Mac Port

         Based on the latest stable release of GNU Emacs (26.1 as of 2018-06-14) and claims to incorporate most of the features of Carbon Emacs and the Carbon+AppKit port from Emacs 22.3. It has improved C-g support, an emulation of ‘select’ that doesn’t require periodic polling, full screen support, subpixel font rendering, and smooth (pixel) scrolling. See the readme for more details. Available via Homebrew and MacPorts (as emacs-mac-app), as discussed below, or prebuilt binaries.

      2. Aquamacs
         • Aquamacs
         • Github Aquamacs-Emacs

         Is a convenient distribution based on GNU Emacs 25.1.

         Aquamacs comes preconfigured with a large number of packages and differs from other Emacsen in that it feels more like a Mac OS X application.

         OS X standard keyboard shortcuts are supported, files open in separate windows or tabs, nice fonts are available, and it has a convenient drag&drop installer.

         Hundreds of file types are supported (C, Java, HTML, Python, Ruby, AppleScript, XML, R (Splus), LaTeX (AUCTeX) etc.).

         All these extra modes come included and readily configured – no InitFile hacking.

         Spell checking is easy to install (e.g., CocoAspell) and asian input methods are also supplied, and options to deal with the missing Meta key on Mac keyboards.

         Aquamacs is based on Cocoa, the modern user interface framework in OS X.

         It is a ready-to-use Universal App for PPC and Intel Macs that works well on all recent Mac OS X versions. Recommended for Mac users who want an Emacs that is tailored to the Mac.

         Experimental versions based on GNU Emacs 25 are also available.

      3. Emacs Modified for macOS
         • Emacs Modified for macOS

         Emacs Modified for macOS is a distribution of GNU Emacs 26.1 (released May 28, 2018) bundled with a few select packages for R developers and LaTeX users. The distribution is based on the latest stable release of GNU Emacs compiled by David Caldwell and distributed on Emacs for Mac OS X.

         1. Philosophy

            This distribution of Emacs is based on the NeXTstep port part of the official sources of GNU Emacs. Other than the additions mentioned above and the minor configurations found in the site-start.el file, this is a stock distribution of Emacs. Users of Emacs on other platforms will appreciate the similar look and feel of the application.

         2. vs. Aquamacs

            Those looking for a more Mac-like version of Emacs may consider Aquamacs. I used Aquamacs myself for two years, but I got tired of disabling the newer “features” in each release of the application. For me Aquamacs insists too much on opening new frames and on playing with fonts. Moreover, ESS is not kept up to date on a regular basis.

   3. Building From Source
      • To download emacs using git, use this command:

        git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/emacs.git
        

      • Tarball Available from the GNU Savannah emacs page. Click on “Download Area” under “Quick Overview”.
      1. Building
         • There are many options for building emacs (such as whether to build for the X11 GUI or the Cocoa GUI), which are discussed in the INSTALL file.
         • There is also a script (emacs/mac/make-package) to create a Mac OS X package for use by the installer.
         • The “normal” way to build Emacs under Mac OS X is:

         ./configure --with-ns
          make install
         

         • When the build is complete, you should see Emacs.app in ./nextstep/Emacs.app. Simply copy it to your applications folder and open it to run.
         • For more detailed instructions, see the nextstep/INSTALL file.
         • Additionally, you may benefit from reading the build script here: http://github.com/ieure/emacs-nightly.