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3.5 Install Code Permanently

When you install a function definition by evaluating it, it will stay installed until you quit Emacs. The next time you start a new session of Emacs, the function will not be installed unless you evaluate the function definition again.

At some point, you may want to have code installed automatically whenever you start a new session of Emacs. There are several ways of doing this:

• If you have code that is just for yourself, you can put the code for the function definition in your .emacs initialization file. When you start Emacs, your .emacs file is automatically evaluated and all the function definitions within it are installed. See Your .emacs File.
• Alternatively, you can put the function definitions that you want installed in one or more files of their own and use the load function to cause Emacs to evaluate and thereby install each of the functions in the files. See Loading Files.
• Thirdly, if you have code that your whole site will use, it is usual to put it in a file called site-init.el that is loaded when Emacs is built. This makes the code available to everyone who uses your machine. (See the INSTALL file that is part of the Emacs distribution.)

Finally, if you have code that everyone who uses Emacs may want, you can post it on a computer network or send a copy to the Free Software Foundation. (When you do this, please license the code and its documentation under a license that permits other people to run, copy, study, modify, and redistribute the code and which protects you from having your work taken from you.) If you send a copy of your code to the Free Software Foundation, and properly protect yourself and others, it may be included in the next release of Emacs. In large part, this is how Emacs has grown over the past years, by donations.