Re: Emacs and XDG Base Dir Spec was: persistent storage for Emacs packages

[Tyler Smith]

Another issue here is what is meant by 'package' in this context.

I have packages from elpa, melpa, etc in ~/.emacs.d/elpa. That directory also includes development versions of packages I'm working on, installed via package-install-file. Then there's all the bits and pieces of elisp that I've either written myself or found online. These are stored either in ~/.emacs.d/ or a subdirectory.

I also keep the emacs sources in .emacs.d/trunk, as I'm using the latest development version.

Everything in that directory is backed up in a private bitbucket repository, set to ignore .emacs.d/trunk and .emacs.d/elpa.

From Stefan's comment it sounds as if I should pull everything out of .emacs.d except init and elpa. But it's convenient for me to have emacs in its own contained world on my computer. Is there a risk of breaking something with this approach?

Tyler

On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 2:09 PM, Josh <address@hidden> wrote:

On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 6:19 AM, Tyler Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 8:58 AM, Stefan Monnier <address@hidden>
> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Still, we have the problem with ~/.emacs.d that many users put their
>> elisp packages in there and then add it to their load-path.
>>
> That's exactly what I do. What is wrong with this, and what is the preferred
> alternative?

That's a good question:

    package-user-dir is a variable defined in `package.el'.
    Its value is "~/.emacs.d/elpa"

      This variable may be risky if used as a file-local variable.

    Documentation:
    Directory containing the user's Emacs Lisp packages.
    The directory name should be absolute.
    Apart from this directory, Emacs also looks for system-wide
    packages in `package-directory-list'.