Reputation: 3584

Emacs: Creating directory: permission denied

I'm using emacs on a Linux box where I have no home directory. When using emacs I will sometimes get the warning:

Creating directory: permission denied, /home/username

I don't know what it is trying to access in the home directory. I've set make-backup-files to nil.

My question is:

What is emacs trying to do in my home directory?
Can I make it stop doing this so I can use emacs without hitting this non-existent directory?
Or alternatively, can I point this to some other directory?

Upvotes: 2

Answers (3)

Reputation: 5301

You can run M-x toggle-debug-on-error and then you should get a backtrace the next time the error occurs (if it's an error).

Upvotes: 1

Reputation: 3584

Oops, didn't think of the very low-tech solution:

$ HOME=/tmp emacs

Upvotes: 3

Reputation: 12566

Are you editing a file in your home directory? Maybe it's trying to create the auto backup copy?

Upvotes: 0