How to change default minibuffer message?

Question

After the init file has done loading I get this message in the minibuffer:

For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

What is it being triggered by and how do I change it?

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 29 '14 at 06:22

24

display-startup-echo-area-message triggers this little advertisement unless you're using customize and have set it there or have it set in your user-init-file (because it actually goes ahead and scans this file for something looking like that, see the definition of display-startup-echo-area-message for the gory details).

There is a way to replace it with something completely different though, simply by redefining it in your Emacs configuration:

(defun display-startup-echo-area-message ()
  (message "Let the hacking begin!"))

answered Sep 29 '14 at 06:22

wasamasa

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Is there any way to completely disable it? – alper Jun 14 '20 at 15:04
Call `message` with `nil` or the empty string. – wasamasa Jun 14 '20 at 16:37
Should I put `'` before `nil` as: `'nil` – alper Jun 15 '20 at 05:27
No need, `nil` doesn't require quoting. – wasamasa Jun 15 '20 at 09:53
This works like a charm. `(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message t)` does not work for me. – jdhao Oct 13 '21 at 09:33

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '14 at 04:51

4

This is being triggered by display-startup-echo-area-message, which gets called at startup time.

This particular message is made intentionally difficult to remove (I guess because the GNU project feels they need the advertisement). You can still disable it by customizing inhibit-startup-echo-area-message:

M-x customize-variable inhibit-startup-echo-area-message RET

answered Sep 29 '14 at 04:51

Sigma

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Sorry but, am I the only one who tried this tip without seeing any changes? – Nsukami _ Sep 29 '14 at 23:44
FYI: it was made intentionally difficult for the case where Emacs is installed by a sysadmin on a machine shared by many users, so the sysadmin can't just set inhibit-startup-echo-area-message to t globally. It's probably a relatively rare use-case nowadays. – Stefan Oct 31 '14 at 19:32

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 19 '17 at 23:28

If you use an Emacs config shared between machines (eg. through version control) and can't enter your username explicitly, you can use:

(put 'inhibit-startup-echo-area-message 'saved-value t)
(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message (user-login-name))

...as per advice from the bug mailing list. This sets the saved-value property on the variable inhibit-startup-echo-area-message before setting it to your login name, which circumvents the intended safety feature (of leaving a user with no instructions for getting help if they copy and paste init code).

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 30 '14 at 02:10

2

The Help Text for inhibit-startup-echo-area-message states:

Non-nil inhibits the initial startup echo area message. Setting this variable takes effect only if you do it with the customization buffer or if your init file contains a line of this form:
(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "YOUR-USER-NAME")
If your init file is byte-compiled, use the following form instead:
(eval '(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "YOUR-USER-NAME"))

edited Sep 30 '14 at 02:10

Kaushal Modi

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answered Sep 30 '14 at 01:01

Colin Bell

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This does not work. The annoying message is still shown. – jdhao Oct 13 '21 at 09:25

How to change default minibuffer message?

4 Answers4