I just put them in a central place, personally: (setq auto-save-file-name-transforms '((".*" "~/.emacs.d/autosave/" t))) (setq backup-directory-alist '((""

I just put them in a central place, personally: (setq auto-save-file-name-transforms '((".*" "~/.emacs.d/autosave/" t))) (setq backup-directory-alist '(("" . "~/.emacs.d/backup")))