Pann McCuaig wrote:
> Thanks for the response, but this method is login-shell-specific; I
> don't believe tcsh (and there may be others) sources /etc/profile.
>
>   

Try putting a .csh script in /etc/csh.cshrc or /etc/profile.d, most 
login shells look for ENV scripts in this common area now.
# less /etc/csh.cshrc
...
if ( -d /etc/profile.d ) then
        set nonomatch
        foreach i ( /etc/profile.d/*.csh )
                if ( -r $i ) then
                        source $i
                endif
        end
-----------------------

echo "setenv TMOUT 900" > /etc/etc/profile.d/tmout.csh
echo "export TMOUT=900" > /etc/etc/profile.d/tmout.sh
Look at /etc/profile.d/colorls.csh for more tips...

There is a package on SUSE called autolog that you may be able to build 
for RHEL/SL
http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=autolog

-HTH Art@JAX