How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[sebastianeappen]

I unpacked a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3 on my Windows machine, but I have no idea on where to create a .emacs for customizing Emacs. I saw on the Find Init GNU Emacs manpage that the HOME environment variable is where Emacs tries to find the .emacs file, but I'm pretty sure that only works on GNU/Linux and/or Mac OS X, not Windows. Can someone help me with this issue?

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

sebastianeappen@gmail.com writes:

> I unpacked a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3 on my Windows machine,
> but I have no idea on where to create a .emacs for customizing
> Emacs. I saw on the Find Init GNU Emacs manpage that the HOME
> environment variable is where Emacs tries to find the .emacs file, but
> I'm pretty sure that only works on GNU/Linux and/or Mac OS X, not
> Windows. Can someone help me with this issue?

Type in emacs: C-x C-f ~/.emacs RET ;; This is my .emacs RET C-x C-s

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.  
You know you've been lisping too long when you see a recent picture of George 
Lucas and think "Wait, I thought John McCarthy was dead!" -- Dalek_Baldwin

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[sebastianeappen]

On Saturday, July 13, 2013 9:00:21 PM UTC-5, Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:
> sebastianeappen@gmail.com writes:
> 
> 
> 
> > I unpacked a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3 on my Windows machine,
> 
> > but I have no idea on where to create a .emacs for customizing
> 
> > Emacs. I saw on the Find Init GNU Emacs manpage that the HOME
> 
> > environment variable is where Emacs tries to find the .emacs file, but
> 
> > I'm pretty sure that only works on GNU/Linux and/or Mac OS X, not
> 
> > Windows. Can someone help me with this issue?
> 
> 
> 
> Type in emacs: C-x C-f ~/.emacs RET ;; This is my .emacs RET C-x C-s
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> __Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
> 
> A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.  
> 
> You know you've been lisping too long when you see a recent picture of George 
> 
> Lucas and think "Wait, I thought John McCarthy was dead!" -- Dalek_Baldwin

Thanks for the advice. I thought typing ~/ in C-x C-f wouldn't work on Windows, only on GNU/Linux and Mac OS X.

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Ken Goldman]

HOME definitely works on Windows.

On 7/13/2013 9:54 PM, sebastianeappen@gmail.com wrote:
> I saw on the Find Init GNU Emacs manpage that the
> HOME environment variable is where Emacs tries to find the .emacs
> file, but I'm pretty sure that only works on GNU/Linux and/or Mac OS
> X, not Windows. Can someone help me with this issue?
>

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Jude DaShiell]

On Sun, 14 Jul 2013, Ken Goldman wrote:

> HOME definitely works on Windows.
> 
> On 7/13/2013 9:54 PM, sebastianeappen@gmail.com wrote:
> > I saw on the Find Init GNU Emacs manpage that the
> > HOME environment variable is where Emacs tries to find the .emacs
> > file, but I'm pretty sure that only works on GNU/Linux and/or Mac OS
> > X, not Windows. Can someone help me with this issue?
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
A read through of the emacs-windows.faq file states that HOME works, but 
windows 7 at least isn't set up for emacs to find its .emacs file and some 
registry key editing is needed.  I'll find out how well the approach 
shared earlier on this list works when I have something to add to the 
.emacs I created.  If it shows up as I start emacs, then this approach has 
saved me registry key editing and that will be a good thing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
jude <jdashiel@shellworld.net> About to block another web browser version?  
Ask yourself what Tim Berners-lee would do.

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 23:37:46 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@shellworld.net>
> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> 
> A read through of the emacs-windows.faq file states that HOME works, but 
> windows 7 at least isn't set up for emacs to find its .emacs file and some 
> registry key editing is needed.

That's not true.  Just start Emacs, type "C-x C-f ~/.emacs RET" and
you will see that Emacs finds HOME very well on Windows 7.  Unless you
are using a very old version of Emacs (the latest is 24.3).

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Vagn Johansen]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 23:37:46 -0400 (EDT)
>> From: Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@shellworld.net>
>> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>> 
>> A read through of the emacs-windows.faq file states that HOME works, but 
>> windows 7 at least isn't set up for emacs to find its .emacs file and some 
>> registry key editing is needed.
>
> That's not true.  Just start Emacs, type "C-x C-f ~/.emacs RET" and
> you will see that Emacs finds HOME very well on Windows 7.  Unless you
> are using a very old version of Emacs (the latest is 24.3).

I assume you are not talking about the environment variable?

When I get a new Windows machine I always immediately set HOME in the
environment to

  c:/Users/<usersname>

so the .emacs file is read from a non-weird place.

-- 
Vagn Johansen

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Vagn Johansen <gonz808@hotmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 18:08:26 +0200
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >> Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 23:37:46 -0400 (EDT)
> >> From: Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@shellworld.net>
> >> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> >> 
> >> A read through of the emacs-windows.faq file states that HOME works, but 
> >> windows 7 at least isn't set up for emacs to find its .emacs file and some 
> >> registry key editing is needed.
> >
> > That's not true.  Just start Emacs, type "C-x C-f ~/.emacs RET" and
> > you will see that Emacs finds HOME very well on Windows 7.  Unless you
> > are using a very old version of Emacs (the latest is 24.3).
> 
> I assume you are not talking about the environment variable?

Yes, I am.

> When I get a new Windows machine I always immediately set HOME in the
> environment to
> 
>   c:/Users/<usersname>
> 
> so the .emacs file is read from a non-weird place.

You don't have to.  Emacs does that by default (on Windows 7).

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Ken Goldman]

I am on Windows 7, emacs works, HOME works, and I did not touch the 
registry.

On 7/14/2013 11:37 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:

> A read through of the emacs-windows.faq file states that HOME works, but
> windows 7 at least isn't set up for emacs to find its .emacs file and some
> registry key editing is needed.
>
>

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Vagn Johansen]

Ken Goldman <kgoldman@us.ibm.com> writes:

> I am on Windows 7, emacs works, HOME works, and I did not touch the
> registry.
>

What is the value of HOME?

-- 
Vagn Johansen

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Juanma Barranquero]

On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 10:45 AM, Vagn Johansen <gonz808@hotmail.com> wrote:

> What is the value of HOME?

C:\> unset HOME & emacs -Q -batch --eval "(princ (getenv \"HOME\"))"
C:\Users\USERNAME\Appdata\Roaming

which is the value of APPDATA

You can take a look at w32.c:init_environment(), around line 2060 or so:

        if (get_folder_path != NULL)
          {
            profile_result = get_folder_path (NULL, CSIDL_APPDATA, NULL,
                                              0, default_home);

  Juanma

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Vagn Johansen]

Juanma Barranquero <lekktu@gmail.com> writes:

> On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 10:45 AM, Vagn Johansen <gonz808@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> What is the value of HOME?
>
> C:\> unset HOME & emacs -Q -batch --eval "(princ (getenv \"HOME\"))"
> C:\Users\USERNAME\Appdata\Roaming
>

I suspected as much. When I replied to Eli that always "had to" set HOME
it is because I change it to C:\Users\USERNAME (a personal preference).
-- 
Vagn Johansen

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Vagn Johansen <gonz808@hotmail.com>
> Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 16:59:51 +0200
> 
> When I replied to Eli that always "had to" set HOME it is because I
> change it to C:\Users\USERNAME (a personal preference).

That's against Windows guidelines: that directory should not generally
store user files.  See this page:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762494%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

which says:

    CSIDL_PROFILE
    FOLDERID_Profile

	   Version 5.0. The user's profile folder. A typical path is
	   C:\Users\username. Applications should not create files or
	   folders at this level; they should put their data under the
	   locations referred to by CSIDL_APPDATA or
	   CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA. However, if you are creating a new Known
	   Folder the profile root referred to by CSIDL_PROFILE is
	   appropriate.

You can, of course, do what you want on your systems, but Emacs tries
to be a good citizen.

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Yuri Khan]

On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 9:59 PM, Vagn Johansen <gonz808@hotmail.com> wrote:

>> C:\Users\USERNAME\Appdata\Roaming
>
> I suspected as much. When I replied to Eli that always "had to" set HOME
> it is because I change it to C:\Users\USERNAME (a personal preference).

The default has to be Appdata\Roaming because, in a Windows domain,
the Roaming part of the profile follows the user no matter which
machine they log into, while the Local part is separate for each
machine.

Re: How do you create a .emacs for a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3?

[Alan]

On Saturday, July 13, 2013 8:54:38 PM UTC-5, sebasti...@gmail.com wrote:
> I unpacked a pre-compiled version of Emacs 24.3 on my Windows machine, but I have no idea on where to create a .emacs for customizing Emacs. I saw on the Find Init GNU Emacs manpage that the HOME environment variable is where Emacs tries to find the .emacs file, but I'm pretty sure that only works on GNU/Linux and/or Mac OS X, not Windows. Can someone help me with this issue?

You can define the HOME environmental variable in Windows, if you wish to do so.  There are user environmental variables that can be defined, as well as system ones. For Windows XP Home, Control Panel, System, Environmental Variables is where you can define user environmental variables and/or change values of system environmental variables (use caution!).