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Is there a variable like system-configuration-options that will provide the computed features of the running emacs? Specifically, I'm looking for X support (--with-x=yes|no).

Ultimately I'm trying to figure out why emacs isn't starting in GUI mode, but I recently had the bone-headed realization that I'd originally built emacs before installing any X environment. So I re-installed X and my ./configure call does mention X and GTK, so I would imagine that the support is there, but I'm not seeing emacs use a GUI. xeyes and even gedit work.

From ./configure:

...
checking for X... libraries , headers
...
checking for GTK... yes
checking whether GTK compiles... yes
...

After I ran make clean && make && make install, running emacs still opens in terminal mode :-(

If I can determine that emacs was indeed built with X support, I'll probably ask a separate question about why it's not working :-(

Sean Allred
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  • Is the Emacs version that is launching the one you expected, and of course, you want to avoid calling an alias that automatically uses the command-line argument `-nw`? – lawlist Aug 23 '18 at 03:32
  • I am launching the right emacs version (26.1) and `which emacs` produces `/usr/local/bin/emacs` (if memory serves; I'm building again now with an explicit `--with-x11` configuration option). According to the answer below, X11 was indeed *not* one of the features available in that emacs. – Sean Allred Aug 23 '18 at 11:38

1 Answers1

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I believe that if system-configuration-features includes X11 then Emacs was compiled with X support.

That value is set in configure by the HAVE_X11 variable being true (look for: emacs_config_features=), which in turn is based on window_system=x11 which you can trace back through a more complicated set of tests.

phils
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  • Ack, I should've remembered that variable! X11 was *not* one of the options there -- so that explains why it wasn't working. Reconfiguring/rebuilding emacs with an explicit `--with-x11` now pops up an X window as expected. Thanks so much! – Sean Allred Aug 23 '18 at 11:40