I'm moving all my configs to usehttps://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html`XDG_CONFIG_HOME`https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.htmlon Linux at its more consistent and much easier to backup. Emacshttps://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html`XDG_CONFIG_HOME`https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html for several years now, so I've moved Emacs and Spacemacs configurations and everything seems to work so far... although I'll have more certainty after running for a few days. Emacs is straight forward. • Set XDG_CONFIG_HOME (typically $HOME/.config) and move ~/.emacs.d directory to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs Spacemas is also straight forward. • Set SPACEMACSDIR to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/spacemacs If starting Emacs from a desktop launcher, the XDG_CONFIG_HOME should be set in your .profile (or sourced by that file). Otherwise add XDG_CONFIG_HOME to a resource file (e.g. .bashrc for bash, or .zshrc or .zshenv for zsh) There is a https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/3589#issuecomment-1120211297