bug#49424: 27.2; Misdocumented default initialisation file

[Phil Sainty <psainty@orcon.net.nz>]

On 2021-07-07 21:17, Robert Pluim wrote:
> If nothing exists, Emacs will create ~/.emacs.d, and use ~/.emacs as
> as the init file. We can change that to use ~/.emacs.d/init.el if we
> want, people who already have init files will not be affected.
> </bold prediction of there being no consequences>

I know of people who have ~/.emacs.d under version control (used on
multiple machines), and on some machines additionally have a ~/.emacs
file for config which is local to that particular machine.  The .emacs
file simply loads the init.el file.

There are other ways of achieving the same thing; but I thought this
one was quite a neat approach when I heard it.

In other words, FYI some people's configs are definitely reliant on
the current precedence order.

In any case, while the sequence *could* be changed for those two
files, I don't think there's any notable benefit to doing so?  Even
ignoring cases like the one above, that change would undoubtedly
cause some confusion for no good reason.


-Phil