diff --git a/doc/emacs/modes.texi b/doc/emacs/modes.texi
index c348130807c..56b779f8de6 100644
--- a/doc/emacs/modes.texi
+++ b/doc/emacs/modes.texi
@@ -454,6 +454,13 @@ Choosing Modes
 files, HTML/XML/SGML files, PostScript files, and Unix style Conf
 files.
 
+@vindex major-mode-remap-alist
+  Once a major mode is found, Emacs does a final check to see if the
+mode has been remapped by @code{major-mode-remap-alist}, in which case
+it uses the remapped mode instead.  This is used when several
+different major modes can be used for the same file type, so you can
+specify which mode you prefer.
+
 @findex normal-mode
   If you have changed the major mode of a buffer, you can return to
 the major mode Emacs would have chosen automatically, by typing
diff --git a/doc/lispref/functions.texi b/doc/lispref/functions.texi
index 983dfe2ec59..8e34fdf3640 100644
--- a/doc/lispref/functions.texi
+++ b/doc/lispref/functions.texi
@@ -2476,11 +2476,11 @@ Declare Form
 expander will call @var{expander} with that form as well as with
 @var{args}@dots{}, and @var{expander} can either return a new expression to use
 instead of the function call, or it can return just the form unchanged,
-to indicate that the function call should be left alone.  @var{expander} can
-be a symbol, or it can be a form @code{(lambda (@var{arg}) @var{body})} in
-which case @var{arg} will hold the original function call expression, and the
-(unevaluated) arguments to the function can be accessed using the function's
-formal arguments.
+to indicate that the function call should be left alone.
+
+To avoid syntactic redundancy, when @var{expander} is of the form
+@code{(lambda (@var{arg}) @var{body})} the function's formal arguments
+are automatically added to the lambda's list of arguments.
 
 @item (gv-expander @var{expander})
 Declare @var{expander} to be the function to handle calls to the macro (or
diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 0a5b7bc29c5..02b4ef97583 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -442,6 +442,15 @@ option) and can be set to nil to disable Just-in-time Lock mode.
 
 * Changes in Emacs 29.1
 
++++
+** New variable 'major-mode-remap-alist' to specify your favorite major modes.
+This variable lets you remap the default modes (e.g. 'perl-mode' or
+'latex-mode') to your favorite ones (e.g. 'cperl-mode' or
+'LaTeX-mode') without having to use 'defalias', which can have
+undesirable side effects.
+This applies to all modes specified via 'auto-mode-alist', file-local
+variables, etc...
+
 ---
 ** Emacs now supports Unicode Standard version 15.0.
 
diff --git a/lisp/files.el b/lisp/files.el
index 1e1ec6127de..939d734a83d 100644
--- a/lisp/files.el
+++ b/lisp/files.el
@@ -3331,6 +3331,7 @@ set-auto-mode
 matches the buffer beginning against `magic-mode-alist',
 compares the file name against the entries in `auto-mode-alist',
 then matches the buffer beginning against `magic-fallback-mode-alist'.
+It also obeys `major-mode-remap-alist'.
 
 If `enable-local-variables' is nil, or if the file name matches
 `inhibit-local-variables-regexps', this function does not check
@@ -3468,6 +3469,17 @@ set-auto-mode
     (unless done
       (set-buffer-major-mode (current-buffer)))))
 
+(defvar-local set-auto-mode--last nil
+  "Remember the mode we have set via `set-auto-mode-0'.")
+
+(defcustom major-mode-remap-alist nil
+  "Alist mapping file-specified mode to actual mode.
+Every entry is of the form (MODE . FUNCTION) which means that in order
+to activate the major mode MODE (specified via something like
+`auto-mode-alist', file-local variables, ...) we should actually call
+FUNCTION instead."
+  :type '(alist (symbol) (function)))
+
 ;; When `keep-mode-if-same' is set, we are working on behalf of
 ;; set-visited-file-name.  In that case, if the major mode specified is the
 ;; same one we already have, don't actually reset it.  We don't want to lose
@@ -3478,10 +3490,15 @@ set-auto-mode-0
 any aliases and compared to current major mode.  If they are the
 same, do nothing and return nil."
   (unless (and keep-mode-if-same
-	       (eq (indirect-function mode)
-		   (indirect-function major-mode)))
+	       (or (eq (indirect-function mode)
+		       (indirect-function major-mode))
+		   (and set-auto-mode--last
+		        (eq mode (car set-auto-mode--last))
+		        (eq major-mode (cdr set-auto-mode--last)))))
     (when mode
-      (funcall mode)
+      (funcall (alist-get mode major-mode-remap-alist mode))
+      (unless (eq mode major-mode)
+        (setq set-auto-mode--last (cons mode major-mode)))
       mode)))
 
 (defvar file-auto-mode-skip "^\\(#!\\|'\\\\\"\\)"
@@ -3511,7 +3528,8 @@ set-auto-mode-1
                             ;; interpreter invocation.  The same holds
                             ;; for '\" in man pages (preprocessor
                             ;; magic for the `man' program).
-                            (and (looking-at file-auto-mode-skip) 2)) t)
+                            (and (looking-at file-auto-mode-skip) 2))
+                     t)
      (progn
        (skip-chars-forward " \t")
        (setq beg (point))
diff --git a/lisp/progmodes/cperl-mode.el b/lisp/progmodes/cperl-mode.el
index fa428642fa4..20a73e238e9 100644
--- a/lisp/progmodes/cperl-mode.el
+++ b/lisp/progmodes/cperl-mode.el
@@ -632,7 +632,7 @@ cperl-tips
 If your Emacs does not default to `cperl-mode' on Perl files, and you
 want it to: put the following into your .emacs file:
 
-  (defalias \\='perl-mode \\='cperl-mode)
+  (add-to-list \\='major-mode-remap-alist \\='(perl-mode . cperl-mode))
 
 Get perl5-info from
   $CPAN/doc/manual/info/perl5-old/perl5-info.tar.gz