I propose that rather than putting that init snippet into `site-start', it ought to be put into a `debian-start.el', and then the `startup.el' codes that load `site-start.el' ought to be patched...
We could add a run-hooks in there at the right location, and send the patch for that upstream... then also add support in the build/dump setup for adding a distribution/builder specific extra dumped lisp. Other sites / distributions could make use of it too, I think. Maybe there's already a hook in there for that matter. We'd then dump in our `debian-start.elc', and at toplevel of it, do an `add-hook' to the new hook list, so that our Debian stuff runs at the right time during initialization. It can check for the `--no-site-file' switch, and whatever else it needs to do. I would also patch the location of `site-start.el' and `default.el', to locate them down under "/etc/$emacsflav/". Perhaps that location can be made build-time configurable, and the patch submitted upstream also? Other sites / distributions may find that useful also. We should distribute blank `site-start' and `default' programs with our emacsen packages -- ones with only a comment header, describing what this init program is for and when it is run with regards to the user init file. I think that there should also be a set of "/etc/$emacsflav/local-init.d/" directories supported, for local use only. Rob, are you aware that XEmacs now uses "auto-autoloads.el" programs? They are autogenerated by Makefile's in the `xemacs-packages' (the CVS controlled Lisp that's on cvs.xemacs.org, which used to ship with XEmacs but has now been unbundled...) at the same time they are byte-compiled. When XEmacs starts up, it computes a load path by recursing down several starting points, then loads all of the "auto-autoloads.el"'s that it finds there. Throughout the XEmacs lisp package code there are ";;;###autoload" markers used to generate the automatic autoloads programs. Because of that, I think that perhaps the "/etc/xemacs*/site-start.d" stuff may need adjusting... or maybe not - the maintainers of the elisp deb packages may already be aware of this. (?) In many cases, there's already a version of something shipped as part of the XEmacs packages. I think ideally there ought to be a separate package for each of the XEmacs package lisp programs. That will take a lot of work, and the effort MUST be co-ordinated with the XEmacs development team. I plan to do some work on this... I've a small start on it. Hopefully over the summer here, I'll have time for it. When new lisp is being installed, and when the XEmacs byte-compile happens, an auto-autoloads.el and a custom-load.el ought to be generated. Recipes for doing this are in the XEmacs `xemacs-packages' source, which you can get from CVS. (http://cvs.xemacs.org).
