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1.2.1 Prerequisites

  • GNU Emacs 24 or higher

    Using preview-latex requires a version of Emacs compiled with image support.

    Windows​

    Precompiled versions are available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/.

    macOS​

    For an overview of precompiled versions of Emacs for macOS see for example https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsForMacOS.

    GNU/Linux​

    Most GNU/Linux distributions nowadays provide a recent variant of Emacs via their package repositories.

    Self-compiled​

    Compiling Emacs yourself requires a C compiler and a number of tools and development libraries. Details are beyond the scope of this manual. Instructions for checking out the source code can be found at https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=emacs.

  • A working TeX installation

    Well, AUCTeX would be pointless without that. Processing documentation requires TeX, LaTeX and Texinfo during installation. preview-latex requires Dvips for its operation in DVI mode. The default configuration of AUCTeX is tailored for teTeX or TeXlive-based distributions, but can be adapted easily.

  • A recent Ghostscript

    This is needed for operation of preview-latex in both DVI and PDF mode. Most versions of Ghostscript nowadays in use should work fine (version 7.0 and newer).

  • GNU make

    Recent AUCTeX uses GNU make specific capabilities in the Makefiles. If your OS’s default make command is not GNU make, you have to obtain it in order to build AUCTeX by yourself. GNU make is sometimes provided under the name gmake in your OS’s binary package system.

  • The texinfo package

    Strictly speaking, you can get away without it if you are building from the distribution tarball, have not modified any files and don’t need a printed version of the manual: the pregenerated info file is included in the tarball. At least version 4.0 is required.

For some known issues with various software, see (preview-latex)Known problems section ‘Known problems’ in the preview-latex manual.