See the file VMSINSTALL for VMS installation information.

* Deficiencies of VMS GNU Emacs

Most of the  GNU Emacs features which on Unix work by running a Unix
utility in a subprocess now work on VMS.

These include Dired, listing a file directory, reading and sending mail,
reading and posting netnews, spelling correction, displaying the time and
load in the mode line, queueing output for printing, running the CLI in
a bufer and the `sort-columns' command.  Some very Unix-specific features,
like the commands to view Unix manual pages do not work.

* Specifying terminal type.

To specify a terminal type for Emacs that is not known to VMS, define the
logical name EMACS_TERM with the terminal type as value.  Terminal types are
looked up in the termcap data base, which is found as the file
`[etc]termcap.dat' in the Emacs distribution.

* Specifying file names.

GNU Emacs accepts both Unix and VMS file name syntax.  Most Lisp code that
runs in Emacs uses Unix syntax so it can run everywhere.  Users on VMS will
generally type file names with VMS syntax.

The EMACSLOADPATH logical name, if you use it, may contain directory names
in either Unix or VMS syntax, but not mixed.  This is NOT a VMS logical name
with multiple equivalences.

find-file prompts with the current directory.  You can then type a relative
directory spec to get somewhere else in the hirearchy.  For instance:

Find File: emacs_library:[src][-.lisp]startup.el

is converted to emacs_library:[lisp]startup.el by expand-file-name.  The
basic rule is:
  ][-     is treated like /.. (dir:[file.sub][-.other] ==> dir:[file.other],
                               dir:[file.sub][-] ==> dir:[file])
  ][.     elides the ][ (dir:[file][.sub] ==> dir:[file.sub])
  ][alpha backs up to the previous [ (dir:[file][other] ==> dir:[other])
a colon appearing after a ] forces a new "root" disk.
        (dev:[file]dev2:[other] ==> dev2:[other])
expand-file-name also tries to be smart about decnet node names, but this is
not yet known to work.

* A possible problem.

For VMS versions 4.4 and up, make sure the file SYS$SYSTEM:RIGHTSLIST.DAT
has WORLD:R access.  Emacs reads this file to check file access.  If this
file does not have appropriate access, Emacs may think that you cannot write
any files.  [don't think this is true anymore -rbr 7 nov 92]