tlug: Beginner Q: rpm's and xemacs

[Matt Gushee <matt@example.com>]

Stephen J. Turnbull writes:
 > >>>>> "Darren" == Darren Cook <darren@example.com> writes:
 > 
 >     Darren> I want to install Xemacs on my Linux system, so on one of
 >     Darren> the CD's I bought I found xemacs-20.4-1.i386.rpm (in the
 >     Darren> redhat/contrib/i386 directory).
 > 
 > Go to jail.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.
 > 
 > Blow off the Redhat contrib directory, _especially_ that RPM.  )It's
 > poison.

I'm not sure that's a totally fair thing to say. As a 2-year Redhat
user, I've found a lot of good stuff in the contrib
directory. However, I've had a lot of trouble with the *binary*
packages, so I've made a policy that if it isn't in the main
distribution, I *always* build it from an SRPM (if not from a tar
archive). If you haven't built an SRPM before, it's usually quite easy
... goes something like:

$ rpm -i foo.src.rpm
$ cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
$ rpm -bb foo.spec
< coffee break >
$ cd /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386
$ rpm -i foo.rpm

This is, of course, the simplest case ... the benefit being that
(assuming you have all the necessary libraries -- and if not the error 
messages will say so) you know the program will install and run on
your system. You can get into all kinds of customization by editing
the spec file ('foo.spec' above), once you learn how.

But about XEmacs: I haven't tried the RPM you're talking about, but
have had bad luck with the RPMs I have tried.

I wonder if you really want an RPM of XEmacs anyway. From what Steve
said, I would guess that the TL-J RPM is statically linked. Which
probably means sluggish, real sluggish -- especially with MULE.

Building XEmacs from source is usually much easier than you might
expect -- and if you have a Pentium w/ plenty of RAM, doesn't take
much time either. The main problem is finding enough disk space. Of
course, I suppose you could build it from SRPMS -- might be a good
compromise between ease of installation and satisfying results.

Just a thought.

Matt Gushee
Oshamanbe, Hokkaido
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