Customizing your shell environment: The .tcshrc file
So far, we have discussed customization that is set up inside your .login
file. However, the shell reads this file only when you log into the shell or when you enter the
tcsh command with the –l option. Note that the option
is a lowercase "L".
To always have a customized shell session, you need to have a special shell script that
customizes your shell variables each time you start the shell; this is the purpose of the
.tcshrc file (also known as a startup script).
For example, you might put all your alias definitions and other
setup instructions into this file. You want these instructions run
when your shell starts after you login and whenever you explicitly
create the shell during a session (for example, as a child shell to
run a shell script).