The urxvtc script on the wiki is also not incredibly specific about which "urxvtc" one should be pointing to in the script. One should absolutely link /usr/bin/urxvtc and NOT the script itself, which will lead to infinite recursion, and as you state, "memory skyrocketing" and "many processes waiting". I, for one, say that the wiki should be ammended to point users to this, and specifically tell them exactly what urxvtc they should be pointing at. If installed through the repos, the file will always be in the same place, and the expectation of that script should not be that it may be installed in some different location. jeoshua@atom-ant ~ $ cat /usr/local/bin/urxvtc #!/bin/sh /usr/bin/urxvtc "$@" if [ $? -eq 2 ]; then /usr/bin/urxvtd -q -o -f /usr/bin/urxvtc "$@" fi