How do I make Emacs start without so much fanfare?

Question

Every time I start Emacs I see a page of help text and a bunch of messages suggesting that I try the tutorial. How do I stop this from happening?

Alternatively (if you believe the information displayed might still be useful to you, but want to be able to get rid of it quickly), note that typing `q` will kill that buffer. — phils, Jun 17 '12 at 21:29
Any update for emacs 27.1? Apparently none of the answers below work — Daniel Vartanov, Dec 12 '20 at 12:40

paxdiablo · Answer 1 · 2014-09-23T22:51:00.467

22

Emacs has a couple of variables which inhibit these actions. If you edit your emacs control file (.emacs) and insert the following:

;; inhibit-startup-echo-area-message MUST be set to a hardcoded 
;; string of your login name 
(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "USERNAME")
(setq inhibit-startup-message t)

that should solve your problem. They basically set the inhibit parameters to true to prevent the behavior you want to get rid of.

edited Sep 23 '14 at 22:51

answered Sep 28 '08 at 02:04

paxdiablo

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Do `M-x describe-variable` and enter `user-login-name`; pass whatever is shown as arg. to the function as constant string. Say if it shows `JoeCoder` then in `.emacs` call `(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "JoeCoder")` additionally put `(setq inhibit-startup-message t)`. Oh, also it works only when the former `setq` is independant i.e. no other symbols should be set in this call; see [here](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Startup-Summary.html#index-inhibit_002dstartup_002decho_002darea_002dmessage) for the reason. – legends2k May 27 '15 at 14:15

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '08 at 02:02

10

Put the following in your .emacs:

(setq inhibit-startup-message t)
(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message t)

answered Sep 28 '08 at 02:02

jfm3

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rgtk · Answer 3 · 2016-03-31T18:38:37.343

3

You can customize message in minibuffer therefore remove fanfare:

;; Hide advertisement from minibuffer
(defun display-startup-echo-area-message ()
  (message ""))

edited Mar 31 '16 at 18:38

answered Feb 15 '15 at 20:48

rgtk

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Your example is good for users who wish to put a *different* message. If a user just wishes to suppress the message entirely, the following could be used: `(defun display-startup-echo-area-message () )` – lawlist Feb 15 '15 at 21:06

Vebjorn Ljosa · Answer 4 · 2012-06-17T09:00:54.663

2

Put the following in your personal init file (ususally ~/.emacs.el):

(setq inhibit-startup-message t)

(Or (setq inhibit-startup-screen t) in with older Emacs versions.)

You can also turn off the message "For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a." in the echo with the variable inhibit-startup-echo-area-message, but it is not enough to set it to t; you must set it to your username. See the documentation for inhibit-startup-echo-area-message.

edited Jun 17 '12 at 09:00

answered Oct 16 '08 at 14:46

Vebjorn Ljosa

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Yeah, not even `(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message (user-login-name))` works, ffs. – trojanfoe May 18 '11 at 10:51
@VebjornLjosa: When I put my name there, it gets away with the GNU standard message but instead I get a three-line message: "#[nil "\300C\207" [t] 2]" – Emanuel Berg Jun 15 '12 at 17:33
@EmanuelBerg, yes those three lines are whatever is left in the buffer from before (i.e., the last entry in the `*Messages*` buffer). – Vebjorn Ljosa Jun 15 '12 at 19:46
Alright, but then it is not meaningful to use the fix as that cryptic message is three-lines, and even more annoying than the GNU one. Or did you find a way to circumvent this, possibly by appending a blank line to the *Messages* buffer? – Emanuel Berg Jun 16 '12 at 13:10
@EmanuelBerg: Doing `(delete-minibuffer-contents)` in `.emacs.el` may not help because the message you see may be produced in one of the hooks that run later. See http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Startup-Summary.html. – Vebjorn Ljosa Jun 17 '12 at 09:02
Got it, `(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message (lambda () (user-login-name)))` `(add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook (lambda () (message "Custom message")))` – Carlo Espino Jan 28 '14 at 22:39
@trojanfoe See my comment on paxdiablo's answer. – legends2k May 27 '15 at 14:11

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 15 '17 at 02:57

0

If your init file is byte-compiled, use the following form instead:

(eval '(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "YOUR-USER-NAME"))

edited Jun 15 '17 at 02:57

Pang

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answered Jun 14 '17 at 18:56

dodona

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 27 '18 at 06:17

0

Add the below to your init file

(setq inhibit-startup-message t
inhibit-startup-echo-area-message t)

answered Jul 27 '18 at 06:17

How do I make Emacs start without so much fanfare?

6 Answers6

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