The default value for auto-mode-alist currently contains the following:
;; .emacs or .gnus or .viper following a directory delimiter in
;; Unix, MSDOG or VMS syntax.
("[]>:/\\]\\..*\\(emacs\\|gnus\\|viper\\)\\'" . emacs-lisp-mode)
("\\`\\..*emacs\\'" . emacs-lisp-mode)
;; _emacs following a directory delimiter
;; in MsDos syntax
("[:/]_emacs\\'" . emacs-lisp-mode)
There are two non-standard spellings:
s/MSDOG/MS-DOS/
s/MsDos/MS-DOS/
Further, the second line looks like it will only match a .emacs in the root directory, presumably because the first line will not.
Given that VMS support has been removed, can we replace the first two pattern lines with a line that uses the pattern used above:
\\(/\\|\\`\\)
to match either start of line or directory separator? And can we then also remove the third line, as MS-DOS syntax is not treated specially anywhere else in this default value?