diff -aurN awesfx-0.5.0.orig/awelib/optfile.c awesfx-0.5.0/awelib/optfile.c
--- awesfx-0.5.0.orig/awelib/optfile.c	2004-01-22 19:06:51.000000000 +0100
+++ awesfx-0.5.0/awelib/optfile.c	2004-02-06 19:08:05.631829376 +0100
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 
 #define SYSTEM_RCFILE		"/etc/sfxloadrc"
 #define RCFILE			".sfxloadrc"
+#define ETC_DIR_RCFILE		".sfxloadrc"
 
 #define DEFAULT_ID	"default"
 
@@ -50,6 +51,11 @@
 	OptionFile *rec;
 
 	*rcfile = 0;
+	if ((p = getenv("HOME_ETC")) != NULL && *p) {
+		snprintf(rcfile, sizeof(rcfile), "%s/%s", p, ETC_DIR_RCFILE);
+		if (access(rcfile, R_OK) != 0)
+			rcfile[0] = 0;
+	} else
 	if ((p = getenv("HOME")) != NULL && *p) {
 		snprintf(rcfile, sizeof(rcfile), "%s/%s", p, RCFILE);
 		if (access(rcfile, R_OK) != 0)