short description of the problem:
I would like to automagically change the working directory from $HOME to, for example, /proj/$USER after the $USER logs into the machine via the graphical (GUI) login (aka gdm). So, when the $USER opens new terminal, he/she should be in /proj/$USER and __not__ in $HOME
[side note: I am using tsch as my $SHELL]

oo: no, putting 'cd /proj/$USER' into .cshrc is _not_ the solution

oo: yes, putting 'cd /proj/$USER' into .login works if the user logs into the machine using CLI login and then starts the desktop with 'startx' OR if he/she logs to the machine via ssh|telnet. It does not work for gdm (aka graphical login)

oo: no, adding 'cd /proj/$USER' to the file Default or Xsession does __not__ work.

/etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default
/etc/gdm/Xsession

oo: yes, I did read all relevant posts in 'Click Here to Find Similar Threads'.

oo: no, I do not want to change variable $HOME to point to /proj/$USER

oo: no, I do not want to modify /etc/passwd file

Simply put, I am out of ideas. Any hint, RTFM pointer or solution is appreciated.

Igor

put it in ~/.tcshrc???

Nope, it will not work. '.cshrc' or '.tcshrc' make NO difference.

For example, let suppose, the user will launch the following scrip from /aaa/bbb/cccc. The sript will NOT create the test_file in the current working directory. The file will be created in /proj/$USER, which does not make sense... it is not intuitive.

-------------------------------
#!/bin/tcsh

echo "Hello World" > test_file

exit
--------------------------------

Yes, I know, #!/bin/tcsh -f can solve the problem. My users wrote a lot of scripts already without a switch -f so, most of them will not work correctly anymore