Emacs-Portable

Description

emacs-portable is a containerized version of Emacs, tailored for use with Distrobox. This project is particularly useful for immutable Linux distributions, and it has been tested on Fedora Silverblue Bluefin (projectbluefin.io). Based on Debian 12, it includes Emacs 29.1 with native compilation and the Lucid X toolkit for enhanced stability. The container also packs tools commonly used by various Emacs packages, like rg, fd, git, pandoc, and shellcheck, and has been specifically tested with Doom Emacs.

Building the Image

To build the emacs-portable image:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/rafaelpalomar/emacs-portable.git
   cd emacs-portable

2. Build the container image:

   podman build -t quay.io/rafael_palomar/emacs-portable:latest .

3. Optionally, push the image to Quay.io (requires authentication):

   podman push quay.io/rafael_palomar/emacs-portable:latest

Using emacs-portable with Distrobox

To use emacs-portable with Distrobox:

1. Create a new Distrobox container:

   distrobox create -i quay.io/rafael_palomar/emacs-portable:latest -n emacs-portable

2. Enter the Distrobox container:

   distrobox enter emacs-portable

Installing Doom Emacs

To install Doom Emacs inside your emacs-portable container:

1. Clone the Doom Emacs project on the host:

   git clone https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs.git

2. Enter the Distrobox container:

   distrobox enter emacs-portable

3. Navigate to the Doom directory and run the installation script:

   cd doomemacs
   ./bin/doom install

Exporting .desktop Application

To export emacs-portable as a .desktop application:

1. Enter the Distrobox container:

   distrobox enter emacs-portable

2. Export the Emacs application:

   distrobox-export --app emacs

Experimental: Emacs Daemon via Systemd User Service

Inside the distrobox, you can enable an experimental systemd user service for Emacs:

1. Enter the Distrobox container:

   distrobox enter emacs-portable

2. Enable and start the emacs.service:

   systemctl --user enable emacs.service
   systemctl --user start emacs.service

Subsequent uses of the distrobox will start the emacs server automatically.

Verifying the Image with Cosign

To verify the signed container image:

1. Download the cosign.pub key from the repository.

2. Run the following command to verify the signature:

   cosign verify --key cosign.pub quay.io/rafael_palomar/emacs-portable:latest

Contributions and Feedback

Your contributions and feedback are welcome! Feel free to open issues or pull requests on GitHub.