Spacemacs - move org-mode customization to separate file

Question

I have several hundred lines of customization code for org-mode in a private layer. In Spacemacs, customization code typically goes in a function called $LAYER/init-$PACKAGE or in my case, joe/post-init-org.

However, this adds three layers of indentation and is annoying to re-eval code segments when modifying a config.

(defun joe/post-init-org ()
  "Init org."
  (use-package org
    :config
    (progn
      ;; Extensive list of customization...
      )))

Is there a proper way to do this in Spacemacs? Or should I just do something like:

(defun joe/post-init-org ()
  "Init org."
  (use-package org
    :config
    (progn
      (load "~/path/to/my/file")
      )))

d12frosted · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-23T10:10:34.163

AFAIK, there is no 'proper' way of doing this. What I use in such cases is not load but require. Every private layer that has such configurations files (features / packages) has a folder named extra. And I just add that folder to load path using add-to-load-path. After that I use require to load configurations inside of :config just like you use load.

I understand that this might sound like a total overhead, but Spacemacs is about lazy loading and such approach doesn't break this principle. If you don't care about lazy loading - you can force load org and configure without any indentations.

Also, it's pretty easy to automate the step where you add extra folder to load-path using following snippet.

(defun d12-layers/add-extra-to-load-path (layer)
  "Add 'extra' folder to `load-path' for a given LAYER.

Load-path is modified only when such folder exists."
  (let* ((layer-path (configuration-layer/get-layer-path layer))
         (layer-root (format "%s%s/" layer-path layer))
         (extra-path (concat layer-root "extra/")))
    (when (file-exists-p extra-path)
        (add-to-load-path extra-path))))

(mapc #'d12-layers/add-extra-to-load-path (configuration-layer/get-layers-list))

This saves you from using layer name somewhere except of list of layers.

Updated

Forgot to say, how to use this. Just put declaration of d12-layers/add-extra-to-load-path function somewhere in .spacemacs or $SPACEMACSDIR/init.el (based on what you're using) and then place following snippet in your dotspacemacs/user-init function:

(configuration-layer//declare-layers)
(mapc #'d12-layers/add-extra-to-load-path
      (configuration-layer/get-layers-list))

I understand that using 'private' configuration-layer//declare-layers function is far from good, but it's better to setup load-path before layers are loaded, so we can require in config.el and funcs.el.

Nice approach. I like that it works automatically. – Joe May 24 '16 at 20:34 — Joe, May 24 '16 at 20:34
Glad that you like it :) Have fun with Spacemacs! – d12frosted May 24 '16 at 20:35 — d12frosted, May 24 '16 at 20:35

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 24 '16 at 00:20

0

Below is the way set up all my customizations for layers. I am using the .spacemacs.d directory and the init.el, but this should also work fine in .spacemacs file. It does not separate them into their own files, but I like to keep mine all in the init file.

(spacemacs|use-package-add-hook org-mode
  :post-config
  (progn
      ;; custom settings follow
    ))

answered May 24 '16 at 00:20

MaDhAt2r

21
4

1

But this doesn't fix the initial problem - indentation and evaluation bizarre. As far as I understand, the problem of OP is not the layers system, but code organisation - your configs are nested. `spacemacs|use-package-add-hook` just allows to avoid creating layer for custom configuration of specific package. – d12frosted May 24 '16 at 07:12
@d12frosted you are correct, I misread the OP. My bad. – MaDhAt2r May 24 '16 at 11:57
Don't worry :) Though `spacemacs|use-package-add-hook` is really good macro if you have to make a minor configuration for package that you don't want to configure in any of private layers. – d12frosted May 24 '16 at 12:02

Spacemacs - move org-mode customization to separate file

2 Answers2