Emacs Mac Port

What is Emacs Mac Port?

The official repository of Emacs Mac port: https://bitbucket.org/mituharu/emacs-mac/overview

This is "Mac port" addition to GNU Emacs 29. This provides a native GUI support for OS X 10.10 - macOS 13. Note that Emacs 23 and later already contain the official GUI support via the NS (Cocoa) port. So if it is good enough for you, then you don't need to try this.

Please see the full feature list here.

Emacs Mac Port 30 and above (the experimental repo)

Development from the official repository slowed down after Emacs 29 (29.4-mac-10.1) because the developer has been busy. @jdtsmith forked from upstream and is doing experimental development for Emacs 30 and master.

I highly recommend that who want to use Emacs mac port >=30 read @jdtsmith's README.md before deciding to install from this tap via formula/casks. The README file provides very detailed and comprehensive instructions for building Emacs Mac Port from source code and for debugging.

About this Homebrew tap

This Homebrew tap provides a collection of useful Homebrew formulas and casks with popular patches, making it easier to install Emacs Mac port on your Mac machine, either building from source code or installing pre-built binaries from casks.

If you encounter an issue

• If it is:

  • a build error when installing/upgrading any of the formulas
  • Emacs.app from formula or cask fails to start or freezes
  • other issues you are not certain about

  Feel free to open an issue to this repo.

• If it is a bug while using Emacs or related to a feature of Emacs Mac Port 30 and above, please refer to the upstream repo: https://github.com/jdtsmith/emacs-mac/tree/emacs-mac-30_1_exp

• If it is any issue with Emacs Mac Port 28 and 29, please read the following note from the developer first:

  If you find a bug, then please try to reproduce it with some official builds such as X11 or NS (Cocoa). If it turns out to be specific to the Mac port, then please report it to mituharu+bug-gnu-emacs-mac@math.s.chiba-u.ac.jp. Otherwise (i.e., it is also reproducible with official ones), report it using M-x report-emacs-bug USING THE OFFICIAL BUILD as such.

Installation options

Homebrew

If you prefer to install with Homebrew, please enable this tap by:

$ brew tap railwaycat/emacsmacport

Formula

This tap provides the following formulas:

• emacs-mac: install the latest version of Emacs mac port 29.
• emacs-mac@28: install Emacs mac port 28.
• emacs-mac@30exp: install Emacs mac port 30 based on the experimental repo.
• emacs-mac@31exp: install Emacs mac port 31(master) based on the experimental repo. This formula is --HEAD only.

Cask

This tap provides the following casks, based on Emacs 29:

• emacs-mac
• emacs-mac-spacemacs-icon

and the following casks, based on Emacs 28:

• emacs-mac-28
• emacs-mac-28-spacemacs-icon

All of these casks can be installed by brew install --cask command.

Pre-built Download

Pre-built bundles available on the release page:

https://github.com/railwaycat/homebrew-emacsmacport/releases

Bundles are the same as those from Homebrew Cask.

Support macOS versions:

• Intel Mac
  • Ventura (macOS13) and later
• Apple Silicon Mac
  • Sonoma (macOS14)
  • Sequoia (macOS15) and later

For macOS versions not be listed above, please install from Homebrew formula (install without --cask).

All bundles are built by GitHub Actions and available for all macOS versions GitHub hosted runners have.

Useful links

• Emacs mac port on MacPorts (not be maintained by the maintainer of this repo):

  • emacs-mac-app
  • emacs-mac-app-devel

• Switch meta and option key - https://gist.github.com/3498096

• For helper scripts/Apps to start Emacs.app, see this document.