Now it's possible to load packages defined with the file variable utop-package-list, therefore they can be loaded at startup to the toplevel. Desirable user interface has been implemented as part of it. To enable put something like:

Ignore-this: cd594a9e2a71feadba95000a15838d82

(add-hook 'typerex-mode-hook 'utop-setup-ocaml-buffer)
(add-hook 'hack-local-variables-hook 'utop-query-load-package-list)

in your .emacs

darcs-hash:20120315031645-33bd9-c602dacabd15aaa3a63fd3c4146e7f81f16e567d

src/lib/uTop_main.ml

@@ -848,3 +848,7 @@ let main () =
     Printexc.print_backtrace stderr;
     flush stderr;
     exit 2
+
+(* Local variables: *)
+(* utop-package-list: ("camomile" "lwt" "lwt.react" "lambda-term" "zed") *)
+(* End: *)

src/top/utop.el

@@ -181,6 +181,10 @@ before the end of prompt.")
   "The position of the cursor in the phrase sent to OCaml (where
 to add the newline character if it is not accepted).")
 
+(defvar utop-package-list nil
+  "List of packages to load when visiting OCaml buffer.
+Useful as file variable.")
+
 ;; +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
 ;; | Compability                                                     |
 ;; +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
@@ -754,6 +758,7 @@ To automatically do that just add these lines to your .emacs:
   (utop-choose-defun "run-caml" () (interactive) (utop))
   ;; Redefine this variable so menu will work
   (set (utop-choose "interactive-buffer-name") utop-buffer-name)
+  (make-local-variable 'utop-package-list)
   nil)
 
 ;; +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
@@ -880,12 +885,13 @@ defaults to 0."
     (insert-char ?\s (- width (length (elt cols 0))))
     (insert (elt cols 1) "\n")))
 
+(defun utop-load-package (package)
+  (when (y-or-n-p (format "Load package `%s'? " package))
+    ;; Load it
+    (utop-send-string (format "require:%s\n" package))))
+
 (defun utop-require-package-button-action (button)
-  (let ((package (button-label button)))
+  (utop-load-package (button-label button)))
-    (when (y-or-n-p (format "Load package `%s'? " package))
-      ;; Handle loading of packages
-      (utop-send-string (format "require:%s\n" package))
-      )))
 
 (defun utop-list-ocaml-packages (&optional buffer)
   "Display a list of all ocaml findlib packages"
@@ -898,6 +904,14 @@ defaults to 0."
     (tabulated-list-print t)
   (display-buffer buffer)))
 
+(defun utop-query-load-package-list ()
+  "Load packages defined in utop-package-list buffer local variable."
+  (when (and utop-package-list
+             (y-or-n-p
+              "You've defined utop-package-list variable, but uTop toplevel is not running, would you like me to start the toplevel?"))
+    (with-current-buffer (utop))
+    (mapc 'utop-load-package utop-package-list)))
+
 ;; +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
 ;; | Menu                                                            |
 ;; +-----------------------------------------------------------------+