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What path does Emacs use?
By default, emacs copies the value of (getenv “PATH”) to exec-path . So, their values should be identical.
What is exec-path?
The exec-path is used by emacs itself to find programs it needs for its features, such as spell checking, file compression, compiling, grep, diff, etc.
Does Emacs work on Windows?
Download & Install Emacs runs on several operating systems regardless of the machine type. The main ones are: GNU, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, MacOS, MS Windows and Solaris.
How does PATH work?
PATH works in a similar way — it’s a global variable that contains a string of different paths separated by a : . When you type the name of an program without using the absolute path, your computer then uses this variable to understand what directories it should look in to find the executable you’re requesting.
What does adding to PATH do?
1 Answer. Adding a directory to your PATH expands the # of directories that are searched when, from any directory, you enter a command in the shell. See http://www.linfo.org/path_env_var.html for more: “A user’s PATH consists of a series of colon-separated absolute paths that are stored in plain text files.
What is the value of the Exec PATH variable in Emacs?
Emacs has a variable named exec-path. Its value is a list of dir paths. Emacs uses exec-path to find executable binary programs. For example, when spell checking, emacs will try to find ispell or aspell in exec-path.
Where does Emacs search for executables on Mac?
It contains a list of directories Emacs will search for executables. Here’s an example of appending the /sw/bin directory to the exec-path and PATH variables (useful for Mac OS X users running LaTeX ): I found there are difference between ‘exec-path’ and PATH.
What does Emacs do when you compress a file?
For example, when spell checking, emacs will try to find ispell or aspell in exec-path. When you press Z to compress file in dired, emacs will try to find gzip or gunzip in exec-path. When you call any of emacs commands: { diff, grep, shell }, emacs will try to find the program in exec-path too.
Why is the getenv value identical in Emacs?
If emacs complains that it cannot find ispell, aspell, ftp, gzip, etc, the problem is probably with your exec-path. By default, emacs copies the value of (getenv “PATH”) to exec-path. So, their values should be identical.