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Build Emacs From Source on macOS

Oct 18th, 2024

First do a git clone: $ git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/emacs.git

Make sure you have the tool texinfo and maybe gnutls installed via brew, macports or what-have-you.

Then in that cloned directory go:

$ ./autogen.sh

$ ./configure # on macOS --with-ns is enabled by default on this

$ make

This makes the emacs app at ./src/emacs.

Now run $ make install. This makes Emacs.app in the ./nextstep directory.

Move that to your Applications directory, or wherever you want.

I like to add this to my path like so in my ~/.config/fish/config.fish, export PATH="/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS:$PATH".

Now typing emacs in the terminal should open the gui app, including any files you have entered. If you want a non-gui experience in the terminal you can go emacs -nw.