You can symlink ~/.emacs.d, this is what I do

1. Try to keep my emacs configuration ~/.emacs.d oriented i.e. all emacs related config files should live in that folder

2. Then I have an ~/.emacs_configs folder where all config folders (basically a folder with a init.el and rest of the configuration) live, so my personal config folder will be ~/emacs_configs/iqbal, a prelude distribution will be in ~/emacs_configs/prelude

3. Very early in my personal emacs config I set the user-emacs-directory to the full path to my config using the following

   (setq user-emacs-directory (file-truename "~/.emacs.d/"))

4. Then finally I symlink ~/.emacs.d to the configuration I actually want to use, eg. to use my configuration I will do ln -s ~/emacs_configs/iqbal .emacs.d. If you want to tryout some configuration just copy the configuration folder to ~/emacs_configs/whatever_name and change the symlink

The advantage of the 3rd step is that emacs started with my personal configuration can run unaffected even if I change the .emacs.d symlink while emacs it is running.

Another advantage is since the HOME is not changed external programs emacs might need to interact with are unaffected

You can symlink ~/.emacs.d, this is what I do

1. Try to keep my emacs configuration ~/.emacs.d oriented i.e. all emacs related config files should live in that folder

2. Then I have an ~/.emacs_configs folder where all config folders (basically a folder with a init.el and rest of the configuration) live, so my personal config folder will be ~/emacs_configs/iqbal, a prelude distribution will be in ~/emacs_configs/prelude

3. Very early in my personal emacs config I set the user-emacs-directory to the full path to my config using the following

    (setq user-emacs-directory (file-truename "~/.emacs.d/"))
   

4. Then finally I symlink ~/.emacs.d to the configuration I actually want to use, eg. to use my configuration I will do ln -s ~/emacs_configs/iqbal .emacs.d. If you want to tryout some configuration just copy the configuration folder to ~/emacs_configs/whatever_name and change the symlink

The advantage of the 3rd step is that emacs started with my personal configuration can run unaffected even if I change the .emacs.d symlink while emacs it is running.

Another advantage is since the HOME is not changed external programs emacs might need to interact with are unaffected