Baffling phenomena with site-start.el

Baffling phenomena with site-start.el

[Harry Putnam]

I've piddled around with this for a while today, just wondering why
this might happen.

Briefly, the phenomena is that this line of code:
(setq inhibit-startup-message t)
Is ignored when inserted in site-start.el, but works (prevents splash
screen) when inserted in ~.emacs.

Too complicate things a
little.. /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.el is a symlink
to a cvs protected file.

But, so is ~/.emacs

Further, by putting this: 
  (message "hello world -- from ~/.site-start.el") (sit-for 1)
At the bottom of both files (with aproppriate names to output)

I can see in *Messages* buffer that both are being loaded:
   (emacs /home/hgp/somefile)
  Loading disp-table...done
  Loading tool-bar...done
  Loading image...done
  Loading tooltip...done
  Loading ~/.emacs-custom...done
  Loading skeleton...done
  Loading advice...done
  hello world -- from ~/.site-start.el
  Loading help-fns...done
  Loading bbdb-gnus...
  Loading easymenu...done
  Loading bbdb-gnus...done
  Loading diary-lib...
  Loading regexp-opt...done
  Loading diary-lib...done
  Preparing diary...
  Loading holidays...done
  Loading cal-hebrew...done
  Loading cal-islam...done
  Loading cal-china...done
  No diary entries for Saturday, February 8, 2003 
  Loading ~/.abbrev_defs...done
  hello world -- from ~/.emacs
  (New file)

But still the line of code only works if I put it in ~/.emacs

Any one have and idea what I'm seeing here?

Re: Baffling phenomena with site-start.el

[Eli Zaretskii]

On Sun, 9 Feb 2003, Harry Putnam wrote:

> Briefly, the phenomena is that this line of code:
> (setq inhibit-startup-message t)
> Is ignored when inserted in site-start.el, but works (prevents splash
> screen) when inserted in ~.emacs.

This is by design.  The following fragment from startup.el should explain 
why:

    ;; Run the site-start library if it exists.  The point of this file is
    ;; that it is run before .emacs.  There is no point in doing this after
    ;; .emacs; that is useless.
    (if site-run-file
        (load site-run-file t t))

    ;; Sites should not disable this.  Only individuals should disable
    ;; the startup message.
    (setq inhibit-startup-message nil)

    ;; Load that user's init file, or the default one, or none.

As you see, the startup code forcefully resets inhibit-startup-message 
after it loads site-start.el, to prevent site administrators from doing 
exactly what you wanted to do.

Re: Baffling phenomena with site-start.el

[Harry Putnam]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> writes:

> As you see, the startup code forcefully resets inhibit-startup-message 
> after it loads site-start.el, to prevent site administrators from doing 
> exactly what you wanted to do.

Seems a little heavy handed, but maybe it will cut down on the
traffic here, since users will get a glimpse of the splash screen
even if evil admins attempt to thwart it...

In my case, my only user is me....