Moving the .emacs file and the .emacs.d/ directory?
reddit / emacs

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Reikimann · 2022-02-01 16:37

Sup guys!
I just installed Emacs and I'm really excited to get to know this
program.
However, I like to keep my $HOME directory clean. So I was wondering
if I could move these folders/files to somewhere else (I use arch,
btw).
I have tried to find this information elsewhere, but I can't seem to
locate it.

Thx

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chiraagnataraj · 2022-02-01 16:51

I moved it to `~/.config` and then setup a symlink from `~/.emacs.d`
to `~/.config/emacs.d`.

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plastashite · 2022-02-01 17:00

Don't symlink. Move it explicitly. Emacs will then pick up the config
directory automatically. (I just read about this when installing
chemacs2 from github) ie Emacs 27+ honors  the XDG standard.

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rpluim · 2022-02-01 17:09

Strictly speaking emacs will look in "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs" or
"~/.config/emacs" for init.el

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_viz_ · 2022-02-01 17:28

From NEWS.27,

** Emacs can now use the XDG convention for init files.

The 'XDG_CONFIG_HOME' environment variable (which defaults to
"~/.config") specifies the XDG configuration parent directory.  Emacs
checks for "init.el" and other configuration files inside the "emacs"
subdirectory of 'XDG_CONFIG_HOME', i.e.
"$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/init.el"

However, Emacs will still initially look for init files in their
traditional locations if "~/.emacs.d" or "~/.emacs" exist, even if
"$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs" also exists.  This means that you must delete
or rename any existing "~/.emacs.d" and "~/.emacs" to enable use of
the XDG directory.

If "~/.emacs.d" does not exist, and Emacs has decided to use it
(i.e. "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs" does not exist), Emacs will create it.
Emacs will never create "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs".

Whichever directory Emacs decides to use, it will set
'user-emacs-directory' to point to it.

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Reikimann · 2022-02-01 17:48

Does this mean I can do this: mv .emacs.d .emacs ~/.config/emacs/  ?
And what happens when you install a package?

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chiraagnataraj · 2022-02-01 18:05

Ah, cool. When I did this originally, Emacs would not have picked it
up and I haven't bothered removing the symlink since.

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nv-elisp · 2022-02-01 18:23

> (I use arch, btw)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/emacs#Customization

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Lalylulelo · 2022-02-01 21:17

If you have any hardlink to \~/.emacs.d in your init file, I guess it
will be a mess. But if you don't, the emacs base directory is stored
in user-emacs-directory and this variable is used as a prefix for
everything. I manage several configurations in an \~/.emacs-conf/
directory, and my main one is well recognized in  \~/.emacs-
conf/default. I let any better-informed emacs user correct me if I'm
wrong.

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akirakom · 2022-02-02 05:17

You have to rename `.emacs` to `init.el` if you put it in `user-emacs-
directory` (`~/.emacs` or `~/.config/emacs`).