emacs-home variable for Windows

emacs-home variable for Windows

[ken]

I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.

There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
 In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
the home directory.

Anybody?

tia.

-- 
War is a failure of the imagination.
        --William Blake

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[Lennart Borgman]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <gebser@mousecar.com> wrote:
>
> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
> of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.
>
> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
> I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
> the home directory.


There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[Andreas Politz]

ken <gebser@mousecar.com> writes:

> But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/ the home directory.
>
> Anybody?
>
> tia.

I do it with a batch-script.

set HOME=e:
start p:\\ath\\to\\emacs\\bin\\runemacs.exe

-ap

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[B. T. Raven]

Lennart Borgman wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <gebser@mousecar.com> wrote:
>> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
>> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
>> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
>> of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.
>>
>> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
>> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
>>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
>> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
>> I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
>> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
>> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
>> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
>> the home directory.
> 
> 
> There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.
> 
> 


Can this .el file be downloaded separately from EmacsW32 to use with the
standard Emacs w32 build? Is it somewhere in nXhtml 1.97 or has it been
removed?

Thanks,

Ed

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[ken]

On 10/13/2009 08:05 PM Andreas Politz wrote:
> ken <gebser@mousecar.com> writes:
> 
>> But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/ the home directory.
>>
>> Anybody?
>>
>> tia.
> 
> I do it with a batch-script.
> 
> set HOME=e:
> start p:\\ath\\to\\emacs\\bin\\runemacs.exe

Simple.  To the point.  I like it!

It's been a very long time since I created a batch file, never saw a
"start" command before.

I'm guessing this batch file then can become an iconized .lnk on my
desktop, yes?


Thanks, Andreas.

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[Lennart Borgman]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 6:50 AM, B. T. Raven <nihil@nihilo.net> wrote:
> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <gebser@mousecar.com> wrote:
>>> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
>>> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
>>> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
>>> of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.
>>>
>>> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
>>> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
>>>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
>>> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
>>> I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
>>> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
>>> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
>>> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
>>> the home directory.
>>
>>
>> There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.
>
>
> Can this .el file be downloaded separately from EmacsW32 to use with the
> standard Emacs w32 build? Is it somewhere in nXhtml 1.97 or has it been
> removed?

No, at the moment it is only in Emacs+EmacsW32 and I have not had time
to setup a repository for that.

However all that file does is to use the ideas from

  http://at-aka.blogspot.com/2006/06/portable-emacs-22050-on-usb.html

and reorganises them a bit. So just look there instead.

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[B. T. Raven]

Lennart Borgman wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 6:50 AM, B. T. Raven <nihil@nihilo.net> wrote:
>> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <gebser@mousecar.com> wrote:
>>>> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
>>>> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
>>>> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
>>>> of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.
>>>>
>>>> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
>>>> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
>>>>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
>>>> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
>>>> I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
>>>> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
>>>> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
>>>> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
>>>> the home directory.
>>>
>>> There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.
>>
>> Can this .el file be downloaded separately from EmacsW32 to use with the
>> standard Emacs w32 build? Is it somewhere in nXhtml 1.97 or has it been
>> removed?
> 
> No, at the moment it is only in Emacs+EmacsW32 and I have not had time
> to setup a repository for that.
> 
> However all that file does is to use the ideas from
> 
>   http://at-aka.blogspot.com/2006/06/portable-emacs-22050-on-usb.html
> 
> and reorganises them a bit. So just look there instead.
> 
> 

Thanks, Lennart. I almost understand the stuff at that link but I can't
see how the variable 'data-directory refers to the right drive letter
until after Emacs is launched from the flash drive. The drive letter
could be G:\ when plugged in today and H:\ tomorrow.

With GnuW32 utils I got as far as producing:

df -a | tail -1 > usbemacs.bat

with the result:

STORE N GO             4021232   1850100   2171132  47% G:\

I am at a loss as to where I should go from here.

Thanks again,

Ed

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[zugzwang]

On Oct 14, 4:49 pm, "B. T. Raven" <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
> Lennart Borgman wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 6:50 AM, B. T. Raven <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
> >> Lennart Borgman wrote:
> >>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <geb...@mousecar.com> wrote:
> >>>> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
> >>>> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
> >>>> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
> >>>> of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.
>
> >>>> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
> >>>> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
> >>>>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
> >>>> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
> >>>> I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
> >>>> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
> >>>> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
> >>>> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
> >>>> the home directory.
>
> >>> There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.
>
> >> Can this .el file be downloaded separately from EmacsW32 to use with the
> >> standard Emacs w32 build? Is it somewhere in nXhtml 1.97 or has it been
> >> removed?
>
> > No, at the moment it is only in Emacs+EmacsW32 and I have not had time
> > to setup a repository for that.
>
> > However all that file does is to use the ideas from
>
> >  http://at-aka.blogspot.com/2006/06/portable-emacs-22050-on-usb.html
>
> > and reorganises them a bit. So just look there instead.
>
> Thanks, Lennart. I almost understand the stuff at that link but I can't
> see how the variable 'data-directory refers to the right drive letter
> until after Emacs is launched from the flash drive. The drive letter
> could be G:\ when plugged in today and H:\ tomorrow.
>
> With GnuW32 utils I got as far as producing:
>
> df -a | tail -1 > usbemacs.bat
>
> with the result:
>
> STORE N GO             4021232   1850100   2171132  47% G:\
>
> I am at a loss as to where I should go from here.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Ed

I've never used emacs, and my Dos batch-writing skills are rusty, so
all I can offer is a conceptual solution.  Presumably, your emacs
distribution contains a directory not found on any other drive (e.g.
<drive_letter>:\MyEmacsDir\).  Any unique path will do.  Simply have
the desk icon start a batch file that begins as follows:

dir C:\MyEmacsDir\
If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'C'
and then goto Label_1:

dir D:\MyEmacsDir\
If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'D'
and then goto Label_1:

dir E:\MyEmacsDir\
If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'E'
and then goto Label_1:

...

Label_1:
set <Emacs_Home> to %variable_1%<desired_path>
execute %variable_1%:\<desired path_name + executable file_name>

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[Bernardo]

zugzwang said the following on 10/15/09 12:15:
> On Oct 14, 4:49 pm, "B. T. Raven" <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
>> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 6:50 AM, B. T. Raven <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
>>>> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <geb...@mousecar.com> wrote:
>>>>>> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
>>>>>> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
>>>>>> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
>>>>>> of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.
>>>>>> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
>>>>>> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
>>>>>>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
>>>>>> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
>>>>>> I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
>>>>>> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
>>>>>> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
>>>>>> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
>>>>>> the home directory.
>>>>> There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.
>>>> Can this .el file be downloaded separately from EmacsW32 to use with the
>>>> standard Emacs w32 build? Is it somewhere in nXhtml 1.97 or has it been
>>>> removed?
>>> No, at the moment it is only in Emacs+EmacsW32 and I have not had time
>>> to setup a repository for that.
>>> However all that file does is to use the ideas from
>>>  http://at-aka.blogspot.com/2006/06/portable-emacs-22050-on-usb.html
>>> and reorganises them a bit. So just look there instead.
>> Thanks, Lennart. I almost understand the stuff at that link but I can't
>> see how the variable 'data-directory refers to the right drive letter
>> until after Emacs is launched from the flash drive. The drive letter
>> could be G:\ when plugged in today and H:\ tomorrow.
>>
>> With GnuW32 utils I got as far as producing:
>>
>> df -a | tail -1 > usbemacs.bat
>>
>> with the result:
>>
>> STORE N GO             4021232   1850100   2171132  47% G:\
>>
>> I am at a loss as to where I should go from here.
>>
>> Thanks again,
>>
>> Ed
> 
> I've never used emacs, and my Dos batch-writing skills are rusty, so
> all I can offer is a conceptual solution.  Presumably, your emacs
> distribution contains a directory not found on any other drive (e.g.
> <drive_letter>:\MyEmacsDir\).  Any unique path will do.  Simply have
> the desk icon start a batch file that begins as follows:
> 
> dir C:\MyEmacsDir\
> If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'C'
> and then goto Label_1:
> 
> dir D:\MyEmacsDir\
> If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'D'
> and then goto Label_1:
> 
> dir E:\MyEmacsDir\
> If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'E'
> and then goto Label_1:
> 
> ...
> 
> Label_1:
> set <Emacs_Home> to %variable_1%<desired_path>
> execute %variable_1%:\<desired path_name + executable file_name>
> 
> 
it is simpler if you start with Andreas' batch file, copy it to the USB 
drive and modify the first line from:
   set HOME=e:
to
   set HOME=%CD%

double clicking on this batch file should work regardless of the drive 
name letter

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[B. T. Raven]

zugzwang wrote:
> On Oct 14, 4:49 pm, "B. T. Raven" <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
>> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 6:50 AM, B. T. Raven <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
>>>> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <geb...@mousecar.com> wrote:
>>>>>> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
>>>>>> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
>>>>>> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
>>>>>> of decent editors from Windows, I *need* it.
>>>>>> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
>>>>>> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
>>>>>>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change some variable
>>>>>> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
>>>>>> I prefer to have the variable defined in my .emacs (which is at the
>>>>>> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
>>>>>> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
>>>>>> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
>>>>>> the home directory.
>>>>> There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.
>>>> Can this .el file be downloaded separately from EmacsW32 to use with the
>>>> standard Emacs w32 build? Is it somewhere in nXhtml 1.97 or has it been
>>>> removed?
>>> No, at the moment it is only in Emacs+EmacsW32 and I have not had time
>>> to setup a repository for that.
>>> However all that file does is to use the ideas from
>>>  http://at-aka.blogspot.com/2006/06/portable-emacs-22050-on-usb.html
>>> and reorganises them a bit. So just look there instead.
>> Thanks, Lennart. I almost understand the stuff at that link but I can't
>> see how the variable 'data-directory refers to the right drive letter
>> until after Emacs is launched from the flash drive. The drive letter
>> could be G:\ when plugged in today and H:\ tomorrow.
>>
>> With GnuW32 utils I got as far as producing:
>>
>> df -a | tail -1 > usbemacs.bat
>>
>> with the result:
>>
>> STORE N GO             4021232   1850100   2171132  47% G:\
>>
>> I am at a loss as to where I should go from here.
>>
>> Thanks again,
>>
>> Ed
> 
> I've never used emacs, and my Dos batch-writing skills are rusty, so
> all I can offer is a conceptual solution.  Presumably, your emacs
> distribution contains a directory not found on any other drive (e.g.
> <drive_letter>:\MyEmacsDir\).  Any unique path will do.  Simply have
> the desk icon start a batch file that begins as follows:
> 
> dir C:\MyEmacsDir\
> If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'C'
> and then goto Label_1:
> 
> dir D:\MyEmacsDir\
> If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'D'
> and then goto Label_1:
> 
> dir E:\MyEmacsDir\
> If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'E'
> and then goto Label_1:
> 
> ...
> 
> Label_1:
> set <Emacs_Home> to %variable_1%<desired_path>
> execute %variable_1%:\<desired path_name + executable file_name>
> 

Thanks "forced move." ;-) Newer batch commands allow:

If exist e:\emacs set HOME e:\

but I want to set it to the drive letter of the last device plugged into
a usb port.

Re: emacs-home variable for Windows

[Henri Fischer]

On Oct 15, 3:03 am, "B. T. Raven" <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
> zugzwang wrote:
> > On Oct 14, 4:49 pm, "B. T. Raven" <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
> >> Lennart Borgman wrote:
> >>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 6:50 AM, B. T. Raven <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:
> >>>> Lennart Borgman wrote:
> >>>>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 2:00 AM, ken <geb...@mousecar.com> wrote:
> >>>>>> I carry a USB stick to the job.  It's got emacs installed on it and
> >>>>>> there's a link on my desktop that I click (after inserting the stick)
> >>>>>> and emacs fires up.  It's nice.  I use it every day.  With the paucity
> >>>>>> of decent editors fromWindows, I *need* it.
> >>>>>> There's a couple minor hassles though that I'd like to dispense with.
> >>>>>> One is that I don't know a way to tell emacs what the HOME directory is.
> >>>>>>  In the past I've just gone into the registry and change somevariable
> >>>>>> there.  I don't remember where that is or how to do it though.  Besides,
> >>>>>> I prefer to have thevariabledefined in my .emacs (which is at the
> >>>>>> top-level directory on the USB stick).  (After emacs loads, I do "M-x
> >>>>>> loadfile RETURN e:/.emacs" and that little task loads up the rest of the
> >>>>>> stuff emacs needs to know.  But I don't know how tell emacs to make e:/
> >>>>>> the home directory.
> >>>>> There is a library usb-setup.el in Emacs+EmacsW32 for this.
> >>>> Can this .el file be downloaded separately from EmacsW32 to use with the
> >>>> standard Emacs w32 build? Is it somewhere in nXhtml 1.97 or has it been
> >>>> removed?
> >>> No, at the moment it is only in Emacs+EmacsW32 and I have not had time
> >>> to setup a repository for that.
> >>> However all that file does is to use the ideas from
> >>>  http://at-aka.blogspot.com/2006/06/portable-emacs-22050-on-usb.html
> >>> and reorganises them a bit. So just look there instead.
> >> Thanks, Lennart. I almost understand the stuff at that link but I can't
> >> see how thevariable'data-directory refers to the right drive letter
> >> until after Emacs is launched from the flash drive. The drive letter
> >> could be G:\ when plugged in today and H:\ tomorrow.
>
> >> With GnuW32 utils I got as far as producing:
>
> >> df -a | tail -1 > usbemacs.bat
>
> >> with the result:
>
> >> STORE N GO             4021232   1850100   2171132  47% G:\
>
> >> I am at a loss as to where I should go from here.
>
> >> Thanks again,
>
> >> Ed
>
> > I've never used emacs, and my Dos batch-writing skills are rusty, so
> > all I can offer is a conceptual solution.  Presumably, your emacs
> > distribution contains a directory not found on any other drive (e.g.
> > <drive_letter>:\MyEmacsDir\).  Any unique path will do.  Simply have
> > the desk icon start a batch file that begins as follows:
>
> > dir C:\MyEmacsDir\
> > If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'C'
> > and then goto Label_1:
>
> > dir D:\MyEmacsDir\
> > If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'D'
> > and then goto Label_1:
>
> > dir E:\MyEmacsDir\
> > If error: directory not exist, continue : else set variable_1 to 'E'
> > and then goto Label_1:
>
> > ...
>
> > Label_1:
> > set <Emacs_Home> to %variable_1%<desired_path>
> > execute %variable_1%:\<desired path_name + executable file_name>
>
> Thanks "forced move." ;-) Newer batch commands allow:
>
> If exist e:\emacs set HOME e:\
>
> but I want to set it to the drive letter of the last device plugged into
> a usb port.

To make sure home is on my USB I have the following in site-
lisp>subdirs.el:

(if (and invocation-directory
   (eq (string-match "[a-zA-Z]:" invocation-directory) 0))
  (let ((drive (substring invocation-directory 0 1)))
    (setenv "HOME" (concat drive ":/home"))))

Henri