Re: Default emacs init file location confusion

[Stefan Monnier]

>> The confusion is that once I start Emacs without any configuration, the
>> $HOME/.config/emacs will be created,
>> and after that the $HOME/.emacs.d will never be used, even though I don't
>> actually have a configuration yet.
>> All I did was to start Emacs once.
>
> But Emacs did that with ~/.emacs.d/ as well: it would create it if it
> didn't exist when you first started.  It did that silently without any
> warning.  How is this situation different?

It's different because the existence of ~/.emacs.d/ did not
significantly change Emacs's behavior in most cases, whereas the
existence of ~/.config/emacs has the effect of ignoring all of
~/.emacs.d.

That's why I originally suggested that if ~/.emacs.d/ exists we should
use it in preference to ~/.config/emacs/ rather than the reverse.

We could also be smarter: if both exist and one of the two is empty,
then prefer the non-empty one.

In any case, we should probably be more proactive about the problem: if
both exist we should emit a clear and visible warning.

> The way to prevent the above is described in NEWS, btw.

I think this effect is sufficiently major that we can't just say "you
should have read the NEWS".


        Stefan