I.e. before the first dump the load-path is: ("/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp" "/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp" "/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/progmodes" "/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/language" "/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/international" "/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/textmodes" "/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/vc") And before the second dump: ("/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp") After the build is done we get: 0. ./src/emacs -Q 1. C-\ TAB [No match] 2. C-g 3. M-: input-method-alist RET nil 4. M-: (seq-find (apply-partially #'string-search "leim") load-path) "/home/blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/leim" > What is the contents of that file in a build where input-method-alist > is empty? Here's ~blc/.local/src/emacs/lisp/leim/leim-list.el: