Change default location of vimrc

Question

In Vim, is it possible to change the default location of the user vimrc file, i.e., from $HOME/.vimrc to some other location ?

Answer 1

I see two options, depending on your needs.

1. Have ~/.vimrc import the other location
2. create an alias in your bashrc alias vim="vim -u otherlocation"

Answer 2

In linux: You can edit .bashrc or .zshrc startup script and add the following lines to change the default location of .vimrc file

export VIMINIT='source $MYVIMRC'
export MYVIMRC='~/.vim/.vimrc'  # Note the . (dot) before vimrc. If that is what you have called it.