1.2 Installation

Org is included in all recent distributions of GNU Emacs, so you probably do not need to install it. Most users will simply activate Org and begin exploring its many features.

If, for one reason or another, you want to install Org on top of this pre-packaged version, you can use the Emacs package system or clone Org’s git repository.

We strongly recommend sticking to a single installation method.

Using Emacs packaging system

Recent Emacs distributions include a packaging system which lets you install Elisp libraries. You can install Org from the “package menu”, with M-x list-packages. See (emacs)Package Menu.

Important: You need to do this in a session where no ‘.org’ file has been visited, i.e., where no Org built-in function have been loaded. Otherwise autoload Org functions will mess up the installation.

Using Org’s git repository

You can clone Org’s repository and install Org like this:

$ cd ~/src/
$ git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/emacs/org-mode.git
$ cd org-mode/
$ make autoloads

Note that in this case, ‘make autoloads’ is mandatory: it defines Org’s version in ‘org-version.el’ and Org’s autoloads in ‘org-loaddefs.el’.

Remember to add the correct load path as described in the method above.

You can also compile with ‘make’, generate the documentation with ‘make doc’, create a local configuration with ‘make config’ and install Org with ‘make install’. Please run ‘make help’ to get the list of compilation/installation options.

For more detailed explanations on Org’s build system, please check the Org Build System page on Worg.

Installing Org’s contributed packages

Org’s repository used to contain ‘contrib/’ directory for add-ons contributed by others. As of Org 9.5, the directory has bee moved to this new dedicated org-contrib repository, which you can install separately.