emacs-builds/README.md

<p align="center">
  <img width="192px" src="https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/raw/emacs-27.2/etc/images/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/emacs.svg" alt="Logo">
</p>

<h1 align="center">
  Emacs Builds
</h1>

<p align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/releases/latest"><img alt="GitHub release (stable)" src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fjimeh%2Fhomebrew-emacs-builds%2Fmeta%2FCasks%2Femacs-app%2Fshield.json"></a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/releases?q=pretest&expanded=true"><img alt="GitHub release (pretest)" src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fjimeh%2Fhomebrew-emacs-builds%2Fmeta%2FCasks%2Femacs-app-pretest%2Fshield.json"></a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/releases?q=master&expanded=true"><img alt="GitHub release (nightly)" src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fjimeh%2Fhomebrew-emacs-builds%2Fmeta%2FCasks%2Femacs-app-nightly%2Fshield.json"></a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/releases?q=master&expanded=true"><img alt="GitHub release (monthly)" src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fjimeh%2Fhomebrew-emacs-builds%2Fmeta%2FCasks%2Femacs-app-monthly%2Fshield.json"></a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/issues/7"><img alt="GitHub release (known good nightly)" src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fjimeh%2Fhomebrew-emacs-builds%2Fmeta%2FCasks%2Femacs-app-good%2Fshield.json"></a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/issues"><img alt="GitHub issues" src="https://img.shields.io/github/issues-raw/jimeh/emacs-builds?style=flat&logo=github&logoColor=white"></a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/pulls"><img alt="GitHub pull requests" src="https://img.shields.io/github/issues-pr-raw/jimeh/emacs-builds?style=flat&logo=github&logoColor=white"></a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/releases"><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fjimeh%2Femacs-builds%2Fmeta%2Ftotal-downloads%2Fshield.json"></a>
</p>

<p align="center">
  <strong>
    Self-contained Emacs.app builds for macOS, with native-compilation support.
  </strong>
</p>

## Features

- Self-contained Emacs.app application bundle, with no external dependencies.
- Native compilation ([gccemacs][]).
- Native JSON parsing.
- SVG rendering via librsvg.
- Various image formats are supported via macOS native image APIs.
- Xwidget-webkit support, allowing access to a embedded WebKit-based browser
  with `M-x xwidget-webkit-browse-url`.
- Native XML parsing via libxml2.
- Dynamic module loading.
- Includes the [fix-window-role][], [system-appearance][], and
  [round-undecorated-frame][] 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.
- Emacs.app is signed with a developer certificate and notarized by Apple.
- Uses [build-emacs-for-macos][] to build the self-contained application bundle.

[build-emacs-for-macos]: https://github.com/jimeh/build-emacs-for-macos
[gccemacs]: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GccEmacs
[fix-window-role]:
  https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus/blob/master/patches/emacs-28/fix-window-role.patch
[system-appearance]:
  https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus/blob/master/patches/emacs-28/system-appearance.patch
[round-undecorated-frame]:
  https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus/blob/master/patches/emacs-29/round-undecorated-frame.patch
[emacs-plus]: https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus
[emacs-mirror/emacs]: https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs

## System Requirements

- Builds produced after 2024-11-30:
  - macOS 11 or later.
- Builds produced before 2024-11-30:
  - macOS 13 Ventura or later for Apple Silicon builds.
  - macOS 12 Monterey or later for Intel builds.
- Xcode Command Line Tools to use native compilation in Emacs, available since
  Emacs 28.x builds.

## Installation

### Manual Download

See the [Releases][] page to download latest builds, or [here][latest] for the
latest stable release.

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

[releases]: https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/releases
[latest]: https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/releases/latest
[7]: https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/issues/7

### Homebrew Cask

1. Install the
   [`jimeh/emacs-builds`](https://github.com/jimeh/homebrew-emacs-builds)
   Homebrew tap:
   ```
   brew tap jimeh/emacs-builds
   ```
2. Install one of the available casks:
   - `emacs-app` — Latest stable release of Emacs.
     ```
     brew install --cask emacs-app
     ```
   - `emacs-app-pretest` — Latest pretest build of Emacs.
     ```
     brew install --cask emacs-app-pretest
     ```
   - `emacs-app-nightly` — Build of Emacs from the `master` branch, updated
     every night.
     ```
     brew install --cask emacs-app-nightly
     ```
   - `emacs-app-monthly` — Build of Emacs from the `master` branch, updated on
     the 1st of each month. These includes native Apple Silicon support.
     ```
     brew install --cask emacs-app-monthly
     ```
   - `emacs-app-good` for the latest known good nightly build listed on [#7][7]:
     ```
     brew install --cask emacs-app-good
     ```

[7]: https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/issues/7

## Apple Silicon

As of 2024-11-30, all builds include both Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel
(x86_64) artifacts.

## Use Emacs.app as `emacs` CLI Tool

### Installed via Homebrew Cask

The cask installation method sets up CLI usage automatically by exposing a
`emacs` command. However it will launch Emacs into GUI mode. To instead have
`emacs` in your terminal open a terminal instance of Emacs, add the following
alias to your shell setup:

```bash
alias emacs="emacs -nw"
```

### Installed Manually

Builds come with a custom `emacs` shell script launcher for use from the command
line, located next to `emacsclient` in `Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin`.

The custom `emacs` script makes sure to use the main
`Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs` executable from the correct path, ensuring it
finds all the relevant dependencies within the Emacs.app bundle, regardless of
if it's exposed via `PATH` or symlinked from elsewhere.

To use it, simply add `Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin` to your `PATH`. For
example, if you place Emacs.app in `/Applications`:

```bash
if [ -d "/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin" ]; then
  export PATH="/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin:$PATH"
  alias emacs="emacs -nw" # Always launch "emacs" in terminal mode.
fi
```

If you want `emacs` in your terminal to launch a GUI instance of Emacs, don't
use the alias from the above example.

## Build Process

Building Emacs is done using the [jimeh/build-emacs-for-macos][] build script,
executed within a GitHub Actions [workflow][].

[jimeh/build-emacs-for-macos]: https://github.com/jimeh/build-emacs-for-macos
[workflow]:
  https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/blob/main/.github/workflows/nightly-master.yml

Full history for all builds is available on GitHub Actions [here][actions].
Build logs are only retained by GitHub for 90 days though.

[actions]: https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/actions

Nightly builds are scheduled for 23:00 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.

## Application Signing / Trust

As of June 21st, 2021, all builds are fully signed and notarized. The signing
certificate used is: `Developer ID Application: Jim Myhrberg (5HX66GF82Z)`

To verify the application signature and notarization, you can use `spctl`:

```bash
$ spctl -vvv --assess --type exec /Applications/Emacs.app
/Applications/Emacs.app: accepted
source=Notarized Developer ID
origin=Developer ID Application: Jim Myhrberg (5HX66GF82Z)
```

All builds also come with a SHA256 checksum file, which itself can be double
checked against the SHA256 checksum log output from the packaging step of the
GitHub Actions workflow run which produced the build.

[emacs-mirror/emacs]: https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs

## Issues / To-Do

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

[issues]: https://github.com/jimeh/emacs-builds/issues

## News / Recent Changes

### 2024-12-01 — Apple Silicon builds all the time, more stability via Nix

GitHub's standard runner for macOS 14 and later runs on Apple Silicon, and are
free to use for public repositories. As such we now use `runs-on: macos-13` for
Intel builds, and `runs-on: macos-14` for Apple Silicon builds. And we do so on
all builds, nightlies, pretests, and stable.

Additionally, macOS 11 Big Sur is now the minimum required version again, for
both Intel and Apple Silicon builds. This is due to switching from Homebrew to
Nix for managing build-time dependencies. And it supports easily switching
between different macOS SDK versions, meaning we can target an SDK that is older
than the OS we are creating the builds on.

### 2023-11-22 — Apple Silicon builds, drop macOS 11 support

Apple Silicon builds are now available, but limited to stable releases, and
nightly builds on the 1st of each month due to the cost of using M1-based
runners on GitHub Actions. Apple Silicon builds also require macOS 13 Ventura,
as that is the oldest macOS version available on M1-based runners.

Additionally, Intel builds minimum required macOS version has been increased
from macOS 11 Big Sur, to macOS 12 Monterey. This was needed as Homebrew no
longer supports Big Sur, leading to very lengthy and error prone builds as all
Homebrew dependencies had to be installed from source.

If dropping support for macOS 11 turns out to be a big issue, it may be possible
to offer macOS 11 compatible builds on a less frequent schedule similar to what
we're doing with Apple Silicon.