Node:Site-wide Init, Next:defcustom, Previous:Default Configuration, Up:Emacs Initialization
In addition to your personal initialization file, Emacs automatically
loads various site-wide initialization files, if they exist. These
have the same form as your .emacs file, but are loaded by
everyone.
Two site-wide initialization files, site-load.el and
site-init.el, are loaded into Emacs and then `dumped' if a
`dumped' version of Emacs is created, as is most common. (Dumped
copies of Emacs load more quickly. However, once a file is loaded and
dumped, a change to it does not lead to a change in Emacs unless you
load it yourself or re-dump Emacs. See Building Emacs, and the
INSTALL file.)
Three other site-wide initialization files are loaded automatically
each time you start Emacs, if they exist. These are
site-start.el, which is loaded before your .emacs
file, and default.el, and the terminal type file, which are both
loaded after your .emacs file.
Settings and definitions in your .emacs file will overwrite
conflicting settings and definitions in a site-start.el file,
if it exists; but the settings and definitions in a default.el
or terminal type file will overwrite those in your .emacs file.
(You can prevent interference from a terminal type file by setting
term-file-prefix to nil. See A Simple Extension.)
The INSTALL file that comes in the distribution contains
descriptions of the site-init.el and site-load.el files.
The loadup.el, startup.el, and loaddefs.el files
control loading. These files are in the lisp directory of the
Emacs distribution and are worth perusing.
The loaddefs.el file contains a good many suggestions as to
what to put into your own .emacs file, or into a site-wide
initialization file.