Objectives

Note that the ".tcshrc" (or if not found, ".cshrc") file is run before either type of login initialization file. This may seem counterintuitive and has been the cause of much unexpected behavior when users are crafting their initialization files. The way to keep this straight is to remember that the C shell always runs its own initialization file immediately upon starting, then determines if the shell is a login shell which would require running the other initialization files.

Once an interactive shell starts and finishes running all the appropriate initialization files, it displays its prompt and awaits user commands. The standard C shell prompt is %, although it may be changed by setting the local variable $prompt, described shortly.

The ".login" file typically contains commands that set environment variables such as TERM , which contains the type of your terminal, and PATH, which tells the shell where to search for executable files. Put things in your ".login" file that need to be set only once (environment variables whose values are inherited by other shells) or make sense only for an interactive session only (like specifying terminal settings). Here's an example of a ".login" file:

echo -n "Enter your terminal type (default is vt100): "
set termtype = $<
set term = vt100
if ("$termtype" != "") set term = "$termtype"
unset termtype
set path=(. /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin )
stty erase "^?" kill "^U" intr "^C" eof "^D" crt crterase
set cdpath = (~)
set history = 40
set notify
set prompt = "! % "
set savehist = 32

The ".tcshrc" file generally contains commands that set common aliases (discussed later) or anything else that only applies to the current shell. The "rc" suffix stands for " r un c ommands." Here's an example of a ".tcshrc" file:

alias h history
alias ll ls -l
alias ls ls -F
alias rm rm -i
alias m more