OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Joe Riel]

Is there way that specifies the path to the .emacs.d
directory that works on Linux, Windows, and Mac?
Currently I use

  (format "%s/.emacs.d" (getenv "HOME"))

However, I doubt that is necessarily correct on Windows.


-- 
Joe Riel

Re: OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Steven Degutis]

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For unix it's `user-emacs-directory` but on Windows it's trickier:
http://emacswiki.org/emacs/DotEmacsDotD

I can't vouch that's an up-to-date article though.

-Steven


On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 7:01 PM, Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> wrote:

> Is there way that specifies the path to the .emacs.d
> directory that works on Linux, Windows, and Mac?
> Currently I use
>
>   (format "%s/.emacs.d" (getenv "HOME"))
>
> However, I doubt that is necessarily correct on Windows.
>
>
> --
> Joe Riel
>
>
>

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Re: OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2013 17:01:19 -0700
> From: Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com>
> 
> Is there way that specifies the path to the .emacs.d
> directory that works on Linux, Windows, and Mac?
> Currently I use
> 
>   (format "%s/.emacs.d" (getenv "HOME"))
> 
> However, I doubt that is necessarily correct on Windows.

Inside Emacs, it is correct on Windows as well.

Re: OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Stefan Monnier]

> Is there way that specifies the path to the .emacs.d
> directory that works on Linux, Windows, and Mac?

AFAIK "~/.emacs.d" should work.


        Stefan

Re: OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Oleksandr Gavenko]

On 2013-04-04, Stefan Monnier wrote:

>> Is there way that specifies the path to the .emacs.d
>> directory that works on Linux, Windows, and Mac?
>
> AFAIK "~/.emacs.d" should work.
>
I see many times such code:

  (expand-file-name "~/.emacs.d")

-- 
Best regards!

RE: OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Ludwig, Mark]

> From: Oleksandr Gavenko
> Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 3:56 PM
> 
> On 2013-04-04, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> 
> >> Is there way that specifies the path to the .emacs.d directory that
> >> works on Linux, Windows, and Mac?
> >
> > AFAIK "~/.emacs.d" should work.
> >
> I see many times such code:
> 
>   (expand-file-name "~/.emacs.d")

It is a little-known fact that the Windows kernel accepts forward slashes;
you can pass them to every API that takes a file path.  (You can pass 
path strings that mix forward and backward slashes.)

You can even use forward slashes as file path arguments to some external 
commands in command shells.  You can never use them in internal commands.

Cheers,
Mark

Re: OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "Ludwig, Mark" <ludwig.mark@siemens.com>
> Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 21:04:25 +0000
> 
> You can even use forward slashes as file path arguments to some external 
> commands in command shells.  You can never use them in internal commands.

Not entirely true, the last sentence.  Many commands internal to
cmd.exe will accept file names with forward slashes, especially if
they are quoted.  E.g., 'cd' accepts them even without quotes.

RE: OS independent way to specify location of .emacs.d directory

[Ludwig, Mark]

> From: Eli Zaretskii
> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2013 1:00 AM
> 
> > From: "Ludwig, Mark" <ludwig.mark@siemens.com>
> > Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 21:04:25 +0000
> >
> > You can even use forward slashes as file path arguments to some
> > external commands in command shells.  You can never use them in internal
> commands.
> 
> Not entirely true, the last sentence.  Many commands internal to cmd.exe will
> accept file names with forward slashes, especially if they are quoted.  E.g., 'cd'
> accepts them even without quotes.

Thanks for pointing to this.  I know I've had problems before with CD, and it's apparently improved in later releases.  For example, in Windows 7, forward slashes appear to work consistently.  
In WinXP, for another example, it has some subtlety.  (It appears that leading slashes can sometimes be forward, and quoting doesn't seem to help.)  Here's a transcript from WinXP:

=============================================================================== 
D:\>cd /scratch

D:\Scratch>cd /scratch
The system cannot find the path specified.

D:\Scratch>cd /

D:\Scratch>cd \

D:\>cd /scratch/mrl

D:\Scratch\mrl>cd /scratch/mrl
The system cannot find the path specified.

D:\Scratch\mrl>cd \scratch/mrl

D:\Scratch\mrl>cd \

D:\>cd scratch/mrl

D:\Scratch\mrl>cd ..

D:\Scratch>cd ./mrl

D:\Scratch\mrl>cd "/scratch/mrl"
The system cannot find the path specified.

D:\Scratch\mrl>
===============================================================================

Cheers,
Mark