I am starting this new thread because of a few more problems I see. In ~/.xinitrc.d/50-clients.sh I had just 'gkrellm &' which worked before. Now I have to add the path to the X client, /sw/bin/. PWD in GNU Emacs is /, but HOME is OK. When I launch uxterm the Programmes menu it has PWD=$HOME, when I launch it from ~/.xinitrc.d/50- clients.sh it has PWD=/. The value of PATH in ~/.xinitrc.d/50-clients.sh is PATH=/opt/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin although 'defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment PATH' gives /Users/pete/bin:/sw/lib/flex/bin:/sw/lib/freetype219/bin:/sw/lib/xft2/ bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/texlive/2009/bin/universal-darwin:/usr/ bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/sw/sbin:/usr/X11/bin:/sw/ bin:/Developer/Tools The command "bash -c 'echo $PATH'", hopefully reporting the PATH bash uses and not what the shell sees which is interpreting this command, gives: /opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/texlive/2010/bin/universal- darwin:/Users/pete/bin:/sw/lib/flex/bin:/sw/lib/freetype219/bin:/sw/ lib/xft2/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/texlive/2009/bin/universal- darwin:/usr/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/sw/sbin:/usr/X11/ bin:/sw/bin:/Developer/Tools which indeed is close to the environment in which GNU Emacs is running, because it's being launched as env PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2010/bin/universal-darwin:/Users/pete/ bin:/sw/lib/flex/bin:/sw/lib/freetype219/bin:/sw/lib/xft2/bin:/usr/ local/bin:/usr/local/texlive/2009/bin/universal-darwin:/usr/bin:/bin:/ sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/sw/sbin:/usr/X11/bin:/sw/bin:/ Developer/Tools MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf/doc/man:/usr/ local/share/man:/usr/local/clamXav/share/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/X11/ share/man:/sw/share/man:/usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf/doc/man:/opt/ local/share/man:/Developer/usr/llvm-gcc-4.2/share/man:/sw/lib/ perl5/5.8.8/man INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf/doc/info:/usr/ local/texlive/2009/texmf/doc/info:/usr/share/info:/usr/local/share/ info:/sw/share/info:/opt/local/share/info:/Applications/EmacsJCVS.app/ Contents/Resources/info:/Applications/EmacsJCVS.app/Contents/Resources/ extra/info emacs-24.0.50 -geometry 100x55+696+145 -T 'TeX Live 2010@24.0.50 ' -xrm 'Emacs*iconName: TeX Live-2010' --debug-init & The environment set up here is inherited by processes spawned by GNU Emacs, for example a pdflatex run. But not by tcsh running in *shell* buffer or running in uxterm. The *shell* buffer in NS Emacs 24.0.50 /has/ inherited the environment and PATH setting. The value of SHELL in ~/.xinitrc.d/50-clients.sh is /bin/tcsh, the value of X11_PREFS_DOMAIN is org.macports.X11, the script starts with echo "50-clients.sh" -- Greetings Pete "Klingons do not believe in indentation - except perhaps in the skulls of their project managers."