Emacs Builds

Nightly binary builds of Emacs for macOS as a self-contained Emacs.app, with native-compilation.

Features

Self-contained Emacs.app application bundle, with no external dependencies, built with the jimeh/build-emacs-for-macos build script.
Native-compilation (gccemacs). (Nightly builds)
SVG rendering via librsvg.
Various image formats are supported via macOS native image APIs.
Native JSON parsing via libjansson (Emacs 27.x and later).
Xwidget-webkit support is enabled, allowing access to a embedded WebKit-based browser with M-x xwidget-webkit-browse-url. (Emacs27.x and later)
Native XML parsing via libxml2.
Dynamic module loading. (Nightly builds)
Includes the fix-window-role and system-appearance patches from the excellent emacs-plus project.
Emacs source is fetched from the emacs-mirror/emacs GitHub repository.
Build creation is transparent and public through the use of GitHub Actions, allowing anyone to inspect git commit SHAs, full source code, and exact commands used to produce a build. This is especially important right now as builds are not yet signed and notarized.

System Requirements

Intel-based Mac running macOS 10.15.x or later.

Downloads

See the Releases page to download latest builds.

Nightly builds of Emacs are for the part just fine, but if you don't like living too close to the edge, see issue #7 Known Good Nightly Builds for a list of recent nightly builds which have been actively used by a living being without any issues.

Build Process

Building Emacs is done using the jimeh/build-emacs-for-macos build script, executed within a GitHub Actions workflow. This is why macOS 10.15.x or later is required, as it's the oldest version of macOS available in GitHub Actions.

Full history for all builds is available on GitHub Actions here.

Nightly builds are scheduled for 0:00 UTC every night, based on the latest commit from the master branch of the emacs-mirror/emacs repository. This means a nightly build will only be produced if there have been new commits since the last nightly build.

Untrusted Application

Currently builds are not signed or notarized, meaning macOS cannot verify Emacs.app came from a trusted developer, and by default you are not given an option to trust the app and open it.

Simplest way around this is to right-click (or control-click) on the Emacs app in Finder and select "Open". You will then be given the same warning as before, but with a "Open" button now available to trust and open the app. After that you can open the application like normal without any warnings.

Issues / To-Do

Please see Issues for details of things to come, or to report issues.