Question

I need to have different setup in .emacs depending on my system (Mac or PC).

This post teaches how to know the system that my emacs is running.

• How can I check the variable ‘system-type’ is to set what in emacs?
• What code should I have in .emacs to have different setup for PC and Mac?

???
(when (eq system-type 'windows-nt') 
)

Answer 1

You can do this:

(if (equal system-type 'windows-nt)
    (progn
         (... various windows-nt stuff ...)))
(if (equal system-type 'darwin)
    (progn
         (... various mac stuff ...)))

What I do in my .emacs is set a variable (I call it this-config) based on machine type and name. Then I use the same .emacs everywhere.

Using this code, I can pull the machine name out:

(defvar this-machine "default")
(if (getenv "HOST")
    (setq this-machine (getenv "HOST")))
(if (string-match "default" this-machine)
    (if (getenv "HOSTNAME")
        (setq this-machine (getenv "HOSTNAME"))))
(if (string-match "default" this-machine)
    (setq this-machine system-name))

You can then set this-config based on system-type and/or machine name.

Then I use this code:

(cond ((or (equal this-machine "machineX")
           (equal this-machine "machineY"))
       (do some setup for machineX and machineY))

Edit: system-type returns a symbol, not a string