I am running emacs 25.1 under Windows. It is a standalone binary, not running under cygwin
I have a .emacs file that works on both windows and linux. On Windows, however, the command:
(cd "c:/Users/xxx/git")
does not start emacs in that directory. The command works, because if I evaluate the buffer, it does go to that directory. It is as though something else is executing AFTER my script causing emacs to default to the stupid windows default, wherever the code is.
Any workaround to make emacs start in my desired directory?
Create a Windows shortcut to the Emacs executable, and use that to start Emacs. Create the shortcut by right-clicking the file runemacs.exe in folder bin and choosing Create shortcut.
Then fill out the Properties in the Shortcut tab:
Field Target has the command for starting Emacs: the location and name of the binary (executable) followed by whatever options you want and any file or directory that you want to start editing.
Field Start in has the directory that I want Emacs to start in.
For example:
Target: D:\Emacs-25.1\bin\runemacs.exe --debug-init "d:\usr\some-user-name\some-directory"
Start in: d:\usr\some-user-name\some-directory
Then just double-click your shortcut to start Emacs. Or single-click it, if you pin it to the Task Bar.
You can create as many such shortcuts as you want, either to the same Emacs executable (e.g. with different options or startup directories) or to different executables (e.g. different Emacs releases).
Try using emacs-startup-hook, which runs after processing the commandline and init.el.
(defun jpk/emacs-startup-hook ()
(cd "/some/path"))
(add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook #'jpk/emacs-startup-hook)
If that doesn't work, some package is setting the CWD, and you'll have to track it down.
I am a newbies in Singular. I just downloaded Singular4-0-2_64.dmg, mounted the image, right-ckick, show the package contents, then moved the contents folder to the Applications directory. double-clicking Contents/MacOS/Singular (or Esingular) I have Singular running in a terminal (or via emacs in a terminal). But when I try M-x singular in a running emacs, it says "cannot open load file : no such file or directory, singular".
Then I copied .emacs-general and .emacs-singular to the home directory. Adding the following lines to .emacs
(setq load-path (cons "" load-path))
(autoload 'singular "singular"
"Start Singular using default values." t)
(autoload 'singular-other "singular"
"Ask for arguments and start Singular." t)
changing singular-emacs-home-directory into /Applications/Singular.app/Contents/share/singular/emacs/ it still doesn't work.
Also when I replace .emacs with .emacs-singular, replacing the above directory, it gives the error:
Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading `/Users/Me/.emacs':
Symbol's value as variable is void: /Applications/Singular.app/Contents/share/singular/emacs
Am I not finding the right singular-emacs-home-directroty or is there any other problem?
I appreciate your help.
Also I must mention that I am a user of emacs for Macaulay2. For that I have changed .emacs and .emacs-Macaulay2 in order to teach emacs where to look for M2. Is there anything similar to be done for Singular? Shall I have a file .emacs-singular somewhere?
Thanks for your help.
Here are some basic settings that assume the Singular.app has been installed to the /Applications folder. I chose to set the absolute path to the executable, instead of setting the PATH in Emacs. The PATH in Emacs on OSX is (by default) not the same as what one would generally except to see in let's say Terminal.app. [But, setting the PATH is beyond the scope of this basic answer.]
My personal preference is to have all of the lisp and configuration files in a custom directory for purposes of editing and backup up. This limited example just leaves everything where they are.
In the Emacs master branch (February 7, 2016), there is no built-in variable named current-menubar -- the configuration files are looking for the existence of that variable. I did not spend the time to debug the built-in configuration files to find out what version of Emacs they were designed for, and I did not spend the time to make the Singular elisp libraries compatible with the latest Emacs master branch.
Add the following lines of code to the .emacs file in the home directory, save the file, and restart Emacs. Then type M-x singular RET
(add-to-list 'load-path "/Applications/Singular.app/Contents/share/singular/emacs/")
(require 'singular)
(setq singular-emacs-home-directory "/Applications/Singular.app/Contents/share/singular/emacs/")
(defvar current-menubar nil)
(setq singular-executable-default "/Applications/Singular.app/Contents/MacOS/Singular")
(load-file "/Applications/Singular.app/Contents/share/singular/emacs/.emacs-general")
(load-file "/Applications/Singular.app/Contents/share/singular/emacs/.emacs-singular")
I'm trying to run Emacs v22.2 on a Windows 7 computer. However, the init file isn't loaded at start up (loading it manually with M-x load-file works fine).
I've tried using both:
~\.emacs, ~\_emacs
~\.emacs.d.init.el
but the problem persists.
Evaluating (insert (getenv "HOME")) returns the expected value.
Depending on how you open emacs in Windows 7, it will look in different places for the .emacs file. If call it from within a shell (in cygwin, Msys, etc) it will look in the $HOME (~) location, if you run it form the installation directory by clicking on the icon, it looks for this file in the %APPDATA% location ( usually C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming ). This can lead you in a merry chase all over the place. I found that it is best to determine where you want the file to be stored, and the create symbolic links ( using windows mklink utility ) to all other possible locations.
I faced a similar issue(on windows 10). The problem was that Emacs was reading ~\.emacs instead of ~\.emacs.d\init.el on startup. Shifting the contents of ~\.emacs to ~\.emacs.d\init.el and deleting ~\.emacs solved the issue.
I just installed the patched version of Emacs on Windows 7, specified the environment variable HOME=c:\klang, checked out my decade old configuration files from github and added
(and (= emacs-major-version 23)
(defun server-ensure-safe-dir (dir) "Noop" t))
to ~/.emacs.d/init.el and was up and running.
What you are missing is some component from mule.el, just install the new version of emacs to fix it.
If HOME is not set in the genereal environment, (getenv "APPDATA") will probably take over and emacs will try to read your init file somewhere under that directory.
I've just managed to solve the same problem (lcollado and klang's answer gave me a small hint on how to fix it).
I had set up a configuration file at C:\Users\Edwin\.emacs.d\init.el and when I tried to get Emacs to load it, it didn't. My initial thought was to make an init.el file at C:\Users\Edwin\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\init.el which would load my original configuration file. However, I wanted a simpler solution.
Then I remembered that Symbolic Links exist. So I did a few searches on how to make a symbolic link in Windows and the difference between Hard Links and Soft Links.
My first attempt was to make a soft link that pointed to my init.el. But Emacs ignored the link and started without the init.el.
The next attempt that did work was a hard link. The steps that I did was as follows:
Open Command Prompt with Administrative Privileges.
a. Press Windows + R.
b. Type "cmd.exe" and press Shift + Enter.
c. Tap "Yes" when Windows asks for Administrative Privileges.
Go to your home directory.
a. Type cd C:\Users\<your name>.
Run the following command to make a hard link in C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\init.el:
:: mklink /h Destination Source
:: Destination - Where do you want the hard link to be and what will be it's name?
:: Source - What file do you want to link?
mklink /h AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\init.el .emacs.d\init.el
I am having a difficult time loading ruby-mode in emacs on my mac.
The .emacs file is located at ~/.emacs I've added several commands to it (many pasted from this site) and none seem to get loaded. Any advise? I"m not sure if the file isn't loading or I have the command syntax wrong.
All I need is the following
4 space indent (auto-intedent would be great as well)
ruby mode loaded for .rb files.
Thanks!
Put the line (warn "Loading .emacs") as the first line of .emacs. When you start emacs does it show you that message in a warning buffer? If so, it at least started loading the file.
If this does nothing, try opening the file in emacs, and running M-x eval-buffer.
Also, at startup, does the Messages buffer indicate any errors in your .emacs? This is the most common reason for a .emacs not to take effect.
This is how emacs finds the .emacs file.
57.6.4 How Emacs Finds Your Init File
Normally Emacs uses the environment variable HOME (see HOME) to find .emacs; that's what ‘~’ means in a file name. If .emacs is not found inside ~/ (nor .emacs.el), Emacs looks for ~/.emacs.d/init.el (which, like ~/.emacs.el, can be byte-compiled).
However, if you run Emacs from a shell started by su, Emacs tries to find your own .emacs, not that of the user you are currently pretending to be. The idea is that you should get your own editor customizations even if you are running as the super user.
More precisely, Emacs first determines which user's init file to use. It gets your user name from the environment variables LOGNAME and USER; if neither of those exists, it uses effective user-ID. If that user name matches the real user-ID, then Emacs uses HOME; otherwise, it looks up the home directory corresponding to that user name in the system's data base of users.
From http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html#Find-Init
I tried looking for the .emacs file for my Windows installation for Emacs, but I could not find it. Does it have the same filename under Windows as in Unix?
Do I have to create it myself? If so, under what specific directory does it go?
Copy and pasted from the Emacs FAQ, http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/:
Where do I put my init file?
On Windows, the .emacs file may be called _emacs for backward compatibility with DOS and FAT filesystems where filenames could not start with a dot. Some users prefer to continue using such a name, because Windows Explorer cannot create a file with a name starting with a dot, even though the filesystem and most other programs can handle it. In Emacs 22 and later, the init file may also be called .emacs.d/init.el. Many of the other files that are created by Lisp packages are now stored in the .emacs.d directory too, so this keeps all your Emacs related files in one place.
All the files mentioned above should go in your HOME directory. The HOME directory is determined by following the steps below:
If the environment variable HOME is set, use the directory it indicates.
If the registry entry HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs\HOME is set, use the directory it indicates.
If the registry entry HKLM\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs\HOME is set, use the directory it indicates. Not recommended, as it results in users sharing the same HOME directory.
If C:\.emacs exists, then use C:/. This is for backward compatibility, as previous versions defaulted to C:/ if HOME was not set.
Use the user's AppData directory, usually a directory called Application Data under the user's profile directory, the location of which varies according to Windows version and whether the computer is part of a domain.
Within Emacs, ~ at the beginning of a file name is expanded to your HOME directory, so you can always find your .emacs file with C-x C-f ~/.emacs.
There's further information at HOME and Startup Directories on MS-Windows.
It should be stored in the variable user-init-file. Use C-H v user-init-file RET to check. You can also open it directly by using M-x eval-expression RET (find-file user-init-file) RET
Open the file like this in Emacs for Windows:
C-x C-f ~/.emacs
More information in the Emacs Wiki
On my Vista box it's in C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\
Note that it may NOT be enough to just type Ctrl-x Ctrl-f ~/.emacs and create the file.
It may be that your Emacs application uses a different place to store your init file, and if so, then creating the file ~/.emacs simply creates a useless file which your Emacs application ignores.
Also, you may want to do more than just access the .emacs init file, but you may want to know where it is, i.e., its pathname.
To get at this there are two methods:
Easy way: type Ctrl + H V user-init-file Return
Slightly trickier way:
You can find out where your system is storing its own .emacs file by:
Click options and scroll down to "Set Default Font..."
Change the font setting and click okay
On the options menu, go down to "Save Options"
When the options are saved, the system saves its .emacs file,
and you can read the file path in the minibuffer at the bottom of the Emacs screen
In Windows 7 put your init.el file in C:\Users\user-name\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\, where user-name is your user/login folder.
Take care so your init.el file won't be named init.el.txt. This is something Windows does if you create your file with some editor like Notepad.
On versions of Emacs on Windows above 22, it seems to have moved to
~/.emacs.d/init.el
, ~ being the value of your environment variable HOME (see Control Panel → System → Advanced → Environment variables).
The file itself might not exist. In that case just create it.
You must create an emacs initialization file. One is not automatically created.
I had a similar issue and this answer tracks down what I did.
My issue was my ~/.emacs.el file was not loading. Strange because this has always worked for me.
This question/answer helped me but I had to put my init file in the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\init.el because this is apparently the default behavior on Windows.
To troubleshoot this, I ran the following in the emacs *scratch* buffer.
user-emacs-directory
"~/.emacs.d/"
When I saw user-emacs-directory was ~/.emacs.d, I simply moved my .emacs.el file to %USERPROFILE%\.emacs.d\init.el. But this still didn't work.
I continued with expand-file-name as shown below:
(expand-file-name user-emacs-directory)
"c:/Users/pats/AppData/Roaming/.emacs.d/"
Got to love how Windows works. (not) So I moved my emacs.el file to the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\init.el and this worked. The file was now being read. But I got other errors because my initialization file loaded other (personal emacs) files (in ~/myenv/emacs/*.el.
Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading ‘c:/Users/pats/AppData/Roaming/.emacs.d/init.el’:
Hum... Seems like all my files ~/myenv/emacs/*.el would need to be moved in order for this to work but I didn't want to do that. Then I realized that because the HOME environment variable was not set, emacs was performing its default behavior.
SOLUTION
Once I set my windows HOME environment variable to %USERPROFILE% everything began to work like it has for the past 25 years. :-)
To set the HOME environment variable, I typed WindowsKey+"edit environment variables for your account" to open the Environment Variables dialog box, and entered HOME=%USERPROFILE%.
Now my emacs initialization file .emacs.el is is back to its rightful place $HOME/.emacs.el and not in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\init.el
To be fair, if Windows had just one place to put files for user installed packages the solution of making HOME=%USERPROFILE\AppData\Roaming might be acceptable, but because some applications use %USERPROFILE%, some use %USERPROFILE\AppData\Roaming and others use %USERPROFILE\AppData\Local it just makes it difficult to know where to find your configuration files.
I prefer having everything in my %USERPROFILE% or $HOME directory.
Another similar question was here:
Emacs init.el file doesn't load
As kanja answered, the path to this file is stored in the user-init-file variable (or if no init file exists, the variable contains the default value for where to create it).
So regardless of which of the possible init file names you are using, and which directory it is in, you should be able to visit your init file with:
M-: (find-file user-init-file) RET
Or display its full path in the echo area with:
M-: (expand-file-name user-init-file) RET
On Emacs 23 and Windows 7 it only works if you set:
HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs\HOME
After Emacs 27.1, emacs has started respecting the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. The init file or the init directory can now be found in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/init.el.
In Windows $XDG_CONFIG_HOME could translate to %LOCALAPPDATA%.
In any case you can use the following emacs variables to find out the location of the your initialization file by M-x eval-expression
user-init-file
or the emacs configuration directory
user-emacs-directory
I've found that Emacs 22 will occasionally open either "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\.emacs", or just "C:\Documents and Settings\username\.emacs" on my XP machine. I haven't found an explanation for why it occasionally changes it's mind.
~ will always point to whatever the current instance of emacs thinks is HOME, but kanja's tip (C-h v user-init-file) will always tell you what ~/.emacs actually maps to.
On Windows 8.1, if Emacs is started from Windows Explorer, a shortcut or from cmd console it uses C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming.emacs init file. When I start Emacs from PowerShell, Emacs looks for its init file in C:\Users\<USER> folder. The fix to this issue was to set the HOME user environment variable (Control Panel\System and Security\System->Advanced system settings->Advanced->Environment variables) to C:\Users\<USER>. After this change, no matter how I start Emacs, it uses the same init file (see the accepted answer of this question)
On Windows XP it's:
C:\Documents and Settings\yourusernamehere\Application Data\
There is a list of directories based on your Windows version and extra information:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Windows-HOME.html
For WIndows7& Emacs26.3：
if HOME environment is set, then the .emacs file should be in that folder.
otherwise, it should be in c:\.
In both cases, if .emacs is not there, _emacs should be used.
This is because we cannot create .emacs file according to the windows file naming rules.(but we can download or copy it from somewhere else).