# Emacs loading through ~/.emacs.el

**URL:** <https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/emacs-loading-through-emacs-el/1743>\
**Category:** Emacs Lisp\
**Created:** [July 31, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/emacs-loading-through-emacs-el/1743 "2025-07-31T23:24:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Utah1991](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b2d939/32.png) [@Utah1991](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/Utah1991)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/emacs-loading-through-emacs-el/1743/1 "2025-07-31T23:24:25Z")

</div>

How do I change the initial file start up from ~/.emacs.el to ~/.emacs.d/init.el? The manual says you can use any of these files for start up but how do I go about changing the prioritization? It also says “You can use the command line switch ‘-q’ to prevent loading your init file”. Unfortunately, i’m not sure what that means. Thank you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ee59a6/32.png) [@wxie](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/wxie)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 2:42am UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/emacs-loading-through-emacs-el/1743/2 "2025-08-01T02:42:48Z")

</div>

Please check:

> **[Find Init (GNU Emacs Manual)](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html)**
>
> Find Init (GNU Emacs Manual)

Emacs looks for your init file using the filenames ~/.emacs.el, ~/.emacs, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el in that order; you can choose to use any one of these names. So, you can

```bash
mv ~/.emacs.el ~/.emacs.d/init.el

```

start emacs from console using

```auto
emacs -q

```

will not load your init file.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cd3a91e61c8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@cd3a91e61c8](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/cd3a91e61c8)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 12:09pm UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/emacs-loading-through-emacs-el/1743/3 "2025-08-01T12:09:41Z")

</div>

If you use emacs 29 or later you can specify the init directory:

`emacs --init-directory /tmp/.emacs.d`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfjb](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.systemcrafters.net/wolfjb/32/428_2.png) [@wolfjb](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/wolfjb)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/emacs-loading-through-emacs-el/1743/4 "2025-08-01T15:02:59Z")

</div>

You should generally not use `emacs -q` , unless you know what you are doing. Most of the time, you want your initialization file to be loaded. I use `-q` or `-Q` (they mean different things) when I need to test some configuration and I want a blank slate to start with. To get a better understanding of what `-q` does, see [Initial Options (GNU Emacs Manual)](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Initial-Options.html)