urxvt -cd "/abs/path" not loading user zsh config

Question

When I run urxvt -cd "/absolute/path" to start a terminal in a directory, it doesn't load my user zsh settings, it only loads the global ones in /etc.

Here's some context: Running latest stable versions of rxvt-unicode and zsh (on Arch Linux). I've got ZDOTDIR=~/.zsh in case that makes a difference (but I doubt it, since I tried symlinking ~/.zshrc to ~/.zsh/.zshrc.) If I just run urxvt then it works fine, but it's with the -cd flag that it messes up.

The reason I'm trying to do this is to start a terminal in the current location from Thunar AND have it read my user zsh configuration file. So if you know another way of doing this then that will work too.

Answer 1

Try adding -ls to its options to run it as login shell, like:

urxvt -ls -cd "/absolute/path"

Otherwise it will spawn a subshell. If that doesn't work for you, it still possible to use:

urxvt -e /where/is/your/zsh -i -l -c "cd /where/you/want/it"

Or (regarding the Thunar custom action):

urxvt -cd %f -e /where/is/your/zsh -i -l