Variable: inhibit-startup-echo-area-message

inhibit-startup-echo-area-message is a customizable variable defined in startup.el.gz.

Value

nil

Documentation

Non-nil inhibits the initial startup echo area message.

The startup message is in the echo area as it provides information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system in general, which we want all users to see. As this is the least intrusive startup message, this variable gets specialized treatment to prevent the message from being disabled site-wide by systems administrators, while still allowing individual users to do so.

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"))
Thus, someone else using a copy of your init file will see the startup message unless he personally acts to inhibit it.

Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 19.24.

Source Code

;; Defined in /usr/src/emacs/lisp/startup.el.gz
;; The mechanism used to ensure that only end users can disable this
;; message is not complex.  Clearly, it is possible for a determined
;; system administrator to inhibit this message anyway, but at least
;; they will do so with knowledge of why the Emacs developers think
;; this is a bad idea.
(defcustom inhibit-startup-echo-area-message nil
  "Non-nil inhibits the initial startup echo area message.

The startup message is in the echo area as it provides information
about GNU Emacs and the GNU system in general, which we want all
users to see.  As this is the least intrusive startup message,
this variable gets specialized treatment to prevent the message
from being disabled site-wide by systems administrators, while
still allowing individual users to do so.

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\"))
Thus, someone else using a copy of your init file will see the
startup message unless he personally acts to inhibit it."
  :type '(choice (const :tag "Don't inhibit")
		 (string :tag "Enter your user name, to inhibit")))