Ubuntu – How to upgrade to the latest Emacs

emacsupgrade

I have Emacs 24.3.1 and I'd like to upgrade to the latest Emacs 24.4.x. All documentation that I have visited suggests building from a tarball or source. Is there a reason why there are no package manager options to upgrade my Emacs? If not, how do I upgrade my Emacs using the package manager?

Here is some info about my Emacs, which I believe comes default on Ubuntu 14.04:

emacs:
  Installed: 45.0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 45.0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 45.0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Best Answer

Emacs 24.4 is still relatively new. Ubuntu is considered a stable distro, and for that reason software sometimes lags behind. If Emacs 24.4 isn't packaged, you'll need to build it yourself.

You can find comprehensive instructions on how to install GNU Emacs 24.4 on Ubuntu in this guide: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2014/10/emacs-24-4-released-install-in-ubuntu-14-04/

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