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When I open Emacs, the *scratch* buffer is in Lisp Interaction mode, but I don't want that. How can I make the buffer have a text mode instead of Lisp Interaction?

new Q Open Wid
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    Note that for 99.99% of the users, the major mode of `*scratch*` is completely irrelevant because they never ever use that buffer. So my crystal ball tells me that this is an X/Y question where the answer is to use another buffer (one which will automatically have the mode you need) rather than try and change the mode used in the `*scratch*` buffer. – Stefan Jan 08 '18 at 23:21

2 Answers2

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You can customize the value of initial-major-mode, which defaults to lisp-interaction-mode. Here's the variable's docstring:

initial-major-mode is a variable defined in startup.el. Its value is lisp-interaction-mode

Documentation:

Major mode command symbol to use for the initial *scratch* buffer.

You can customize this variable.

For the customize interface you can follow the link from C-hv initial-major-mode RET, or use M-x customize-option RET initial-major-mode RET to get there directly.

Alternatively you could put something like this in your init file:

(setq initial-major-mode 'text-mode)
new Q Open Wid
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Dan
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Rather than changing the mode of an Emacs stalwart Scratch, configure initial-buffer-choice.

C-h v initial-buffer-choice

RichieHH
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