eww ---> libxml2 library not found

Question

Windows 10 (64 bit), Emacs 25.1.

I try to open in Emacs some web page. E.g. www.google.com.

So M-x eww

Enter URL: www.google.com  

But I get error: libxml2 library not found

Answer 1

As @Drew noted, Emacs doesn't include this library so on Windows you need to install it separately.

See the Emacs README.w32 section "Optional dependency libraries" for more information. As of Emacs 25 it looks like you can download the dependencies from the GNU FTP server (or a mirror). E.g. http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-25-x86_64-deps.zip

This is the easiest way to go: download the appropriate emacs-deps zip file and extract it over the top of your emacs installation.

You can also download the necessary libraries from https://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports, or install msys2. If you go that route you'll need to decide which libraries you need -- libxml2, gnutls, etc.

However you choose to obtain the libraries, I've found it easiest to copy the dlls to your emacs/bin dir. The README.w32 suggests you can just add the dir containing the dlls to your PATH but I recall not having that work for me in the past.

Answer 2

I believe that libxml2 is an optional package that you can install along with Emacs. It is the XML support library, and required for HTML and XML support in Emacs.

For Microsoft Windows 64-bit Emacs, the file nt/INSTALL.w64 says this:

** Download and install the necessary packages

Run msys2_shell.bat in your MSYS2 directory and you will see a BASH window opened.

In the BASH prompt, use the following command to install the necessary packages (you can copy and paste it into the shell with Shift + Insert):

   pacman -S base-devel \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-xpm-nox \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-libtiff \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-giflib \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-libpng \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-libjpeg-turbo \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-librsvg \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-libxml2 \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-gnutls \
   mingw-w64-x86_64-zlib