After 
the necessary system initialisation the system consults (see
consult/1) 
the user's startup file. The base-name of this file follows conventions 
of the operating system. On MS-Windows, it is the file
pl.ini and on Unix systems .plrc. The file is 
searched using the file_search_path/2 
clauses for user_profile. The table below shows the default 
value for this search-path. The phrase <appdata> refers 
to the Windows CSIDL name for the folder. The actual name depends on the 
Windows language. English versions typically use
ApplicationData. See also win_folder/2
| Unix | Windows | |
| local | . | . | 
| home |  | <appdata>/SWI-Prolog | 
After the first startup file is found it is loaded and Prolog stops 
looking for further startup files. The name of the startup file can be 
changed with the `-f file' option. If File 
denotes an absolute path, this file is loaded, otherwise the file is 
searched for using the same conventions as for the default startup file. 
Finally, if file is
none, no file is loaded.
See also the -s (script) and -F (system-wide initialisation) in section 2.4 and section 2.3.