Running .psqlrc from a custom location

Hi folks,

I use a hack to make psql automatically set search_path to the relevant
schema for the dump directory I am currently working in. I achieved this
by running a wrapper script that changed the HOME environment variable,
setting a variable on the command line, and having the .psqlrc in the
custom location use that variable to set the search path. I just
upgraded to 8.1 from 7.4 and my hack stopped working - apparently psql
does not use the $HOME variable any more.

My scripts are included below. I do not wish to run these commands every
time I use psql, only when I run it from the wrapper script. As far as I
am aware there is no way of setting search_path/schema from the command
line.

If somebody could suggest an alternative way of causing psql to run a
.psqlrc file from an arbitrary location, or even better, a way of
manually specifying search_path when starting psql, I will be eternally
indebted.

Thanks,

Netzach

--- BEGIN specialdirectory/spsql.sh
#!/bin/bash

[ -f dbname.txt ] && PGDATABASE=`cat dbname.txt`
[ -f schemaname.txt ] && SCHEMANAME=`(echo '-v schema='\`cat schemaname.txt\`)`
[ -f encoding.txt ] && PGENCODING=`(echo '-v encoding='"\`cat encoding.txt\`")`
[ -f user.txt ] && PGUSER=`(echo -U; cat user.txt; echo -h localhost)`
PGHOST=`[ -f host.txt ] && (echo '-h'; cat host.txt) || \
        [ -f user.txt ] && echo ' -h localhost'`

HOME=`dirname \`readlink $0 || echo $0\`` \
psql $SCHEMANAME $PGENCODING $PGHOST $PGUSER $PGDATABASE
--- END spsql.sh

--- BEGIN specialdirectory/.psqlrc
SET search_path TO :schema;
SET client_encoding TO :encoding;
--- END .psqlrc