Subject: bug#72294: 29.2; Emacs --init-directory=... puts user-init-file elsewhere

From: Sean Devlin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:12:07 -0400

Hi folks,

Recipe:

1. emacs --init-directory=/tmp/emacs
2. M-: user-init-file RET

The user-init-file is ~/.emacs, despite the flag to use /tmp/emacs as
the init directory.

Maybe this is intended behavior, but I found it confusing. The manual
says this about the flag:

"Specify the directory to use when looking for the Emacs init files."

I interpreted this to mean all init files, including the user-init-file.

A workaround is to create /tmp/emacs/init.el before starting Emacs:

1. mkdir -p /tmp/emacs
2. touch /tmp/emacs/init.el
3. emacs --init-directory=/tmp/emacs

Thanks!

In GNU Emacs 29.2 (build 1, aarch64-apple-darwin21.6.0, NS
appkit-2113.60 Version 12.6.6 (Build 21G646)) of 2024-01-18 built on
armbob.lan
Windowing system distributor 'Apple'
System Description:  macOS

Configured using:
'configure --with-ns '--enable-locallisppath=/Library/Application
Support/Emacs/${version}/site-lisp:/Library/Application
Support/Emacs/site-lisp' --with-modules 'CFLAGS=-DFD_SETSIZE=10000
-DDARWIN_UNLIMITED_SELECT' --with-x-toolkit=no'

Configured features:
ACL GLIB GMP GNUTLS JPEG JSON LIBXML2 MODULES NOTIFY KQUEUE NS PDUMPER
PNG RSVG SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS TREE_SITTER ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Fundamental

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  buffer-read-only: t
  line-number-mode: t
  indent-tabs-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message mailcap yank-media puny dired
dired-loaddefs rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache epa derived epg rfc6068
epg-config gnus-util text-property-search time-date subr-x mm-decode
mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader
sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils
cl-extra cl-print byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile thingatpt help-fns
radix-tree help-mode cl-loaddefs cl-lib rmc iso-transl tooltip cconv
eldoc paren electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type
elisp-mode mwheel term/ns-win ns-win ucs-normalize mule-util
term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe
tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register
page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch easymenu timer select
scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax font-core term/tty-colors
frame minibuffer nadvice seq simple cl-generic indonesian philippine
cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao
korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech
european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite emoji-zwj charscript
charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help abbrev obarray oclosure
cl-preloaded button loaddefs theme-loaddefs faces cus-face macroexp
files window text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env
code-pages mule custom widget keymap hashtable-print-readable backquote
threads kqueue cocoa ns multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 53484 8633)
(symbols 48 5930 0)
(strings 32 18349 1801)
(string-bytes 1 515950)
(vectors 16 12602)
(vector-slots 8 182812 16189)
(floats 8 28 22)
(intervals 56 232 1)
(buffers 984 12))