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I moved .emacs.d folder from home directory to a folder called dot_files so that it will be easy to sync various dot files. From there I have linked it to home so that emacs can load that configuration files. But when I start emacs, it is throwing this warning and not loading it.

Warning (initialization): Unable to create user-emacs-directory' (~/.emacs.d/).

Any data that would normally be written there may be lost!

If you never want to see this message again, customize the variable `user-emacs-directory-warning'.

How can I link emacs config so that it works normally?

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  • When you say "link", what kind of link did you make? Can you post the output of ls -la ~ | grep emacs?
    – wvxvw
    Aug 21, 2015 at 9:49
  • I have used ln -s /source /target to create link.
    – Chillar Anand
    Aug 21, 2015 at 9:53
  • You have created symbolic link. Try hard link instead, that is, invoke ln without -s flag.
    – Mark Karpov
    Aug 21, 2015 at 9:55
  • @Mark ln: ‘anand/dotfiles/emacs.d’: hard link not allowed for directory
    – Chillar Anand
    Aug 21, 2015 at 9:56
  • There should be no need for a hard link. Symlinks usually work fine in this scenario. Perhaps there's a permissions issue?
    – phils
    Aug 21, 2015 at 9:59

2 Answers 2

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Symlinks usually work fine in this scenario, so that's unlikely to be a problem.

You should check the file and directory permissions.

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A patch which allows you to specify .emacs.d location via `EMACS_USER_DIRECTORY' environment variable is available in https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=15539 but it's not yet merged. This should eliminate the need for you to use symlinks.

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