bug#25163: 26.0.50; Unable to access `user-emacs-directory' (~/.emacs.d/)

[Óscar Fuentes]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> The underlying problem is that Emacs uses user-emacs-directory and
>> user-emacs-directory-warning before any user-customization is made
>> effective.
>> 
>> Emacs not being aware of the user setting user-emacs-directory-warning
>> is annoying and can be solved by delaying the warning, but the part
>> about user-emacs-directory looks more concerning.
>
> Yes, those are my concerns exactly.
>
> More generally, Emacs supports only one method of pointing that
> directory to another place, and that is via the -u command-line
> option.  We could perhaps support other methods as well, like the one
> the OP uses, but IMO it will require more changes than just delaying
> the warning.

I guess that the OP is exceptional among the Emacs user base when he
resorts to --eval '(setq user-emacs-directory ...)' because he is not
aware of the correct and simple -u command line option. If that's the
case, his problem should be completely solved by using -u (without need
to set user-emacs-directory-warning).

I propose to change the docstring of user-emacs-directory to mention -u
as the correct method and recommend against setting that variable in any
way. Sadly, we cannot remove it altogether.

As for user-emacs-directory-warning, leave it alone. Actually, in this
case it was doing its job.