Manual installation (what do I put in .emacs)

[chrissound]

I've cloned down the repo, copied it into .emacs.d, however what do I put in my .emacs file?

Opening emacs seems to have no difference with the steps I've taken alone.

[arbox]

Actually nothing. Since init.el is read during the Emacs initialization. You do not need the .emacs file.

[ghost]

Remove the .emacs file (or rename it to .emacs_backup) and clone the prelude repo into the .emacs.d folder.

user@computer$ ls ~/.emacs.d/
auto-save-list   core  init.el   modules   prelude-modules.el   projectile-bookmarks.eld  sample    themes  var
CONTRIBUTING.md`  elpa  init.elc  personal  prelude-modules.elc  README.md                 savefile  utils   vendor

[ghost]

It seems like emacs prioritizes the .emacs file over the .emacs.d directory because when I create an empty .emacs file, emacs does not load any settings in the directory.

[raxod502]

This is correct. Emacs prefers ~/.emacs, then ~/.emacs.el, then ~/.emacs.d/init.el. See https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Init-File.html.

[chrissound]

Yes to confirm it works when removing the empty ~/.emacs file. Thanks, everyone!