InitFile

Your init file contains personal EmacsLisp code that you want to execute when you start Emacs.

See the Emacs manual (‘C-h r’), node Init File.

• For GnuEmacs, your init file is ~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el. You can choose to use any of these names. ~/ stands for your home directory.
  • Since version 27.1, if both all of the above files and the directory ~/.emacs.d do not exist, GnuEmacs will find (but not create) the config file emacs/init.el you put in an XDG-compatible location. Namely:
    • ~/.config/emacs/init.el if the environment variable XDG_CONFIG_HOME is unset, and
    • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/init.el if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set.
• For XEmacs, it is ~/.xemacs or ~/.xemacs/init.el.
• For AquamacsEmacs, it is ~/.emacs or ~/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Preferences.el

If you do not know where your init file is located, you can check the variable user-init-file:

   M-x describe-variable RET user-init-file RET

Or if you do not have one and want to create it, then just open it for editing in Emacs:

   C-x C-f ~/.emacs.d/init.el RET

When you add Emacs Lisp code to your init file, it is not evaluated until you restart Emacs. Rather than restarting Emacs, you can use ‘M-x eval-buffer’ to evaluate everything, or ‘M-x eval-region’ to evaluate a part you select, or just ‘C-x C-e’ (command ‘eval-last-sexp’) to evaluate the Emacs Lisp expression immediately before your cursor. See EvaluatingExpressions.

If it seems like your init file is not being read, type ‘C-h e’ to see if there is a chance there was a problem with it loading. See DebugFileLoading for more troubleshooting tips.

It’s often better to break up a lengthy init file into a number of EmacsLisp libraries and a small, top-level init file that loads those libraries, especially if you define commands and other functions. Some of the init files posted on EmacsWiki are organized in this way, as a set of library files.

For info about how to load an EmacsLisp file automatically when you start Emacs, see InstallingPackages.

You can also have a separate CustomFile reserved strictly for customizations recorded by Customize.

Start Emacs with a specific init file:

   emacs -q -l ~/my-init-file.el

For more information about init files and custom files (Emacs 22 or later):

C-h r i init-file RET or M-: (info "(emacs) Init File")

M-: (info "(emacs) Saving Customizations")

M-: (info "(elisp) Init File")

See the pages in CategoryDotEmacs for configuration suggestions and tips.

CategoryHelp CategoryDotEmacs CategoryGlossary