Environment KRB5CCNAME specifies the default credentials cache according to manual page. But it is ignored if file /tmp/krb5cc_%{uid} exist and contain valid ticket (even expired one) for principal. For example: # printenv | grep KRB5CCNAME # kinit some_principal # ls -la /tmp/krb5cc_0 -rw------- 1 root wheel 2071 May 23 16:57 krb5cc_0 # setenv KRB5CCNAME /tmp/krb5cc_test # kinit some_principal # ls -la /tmp/krb5cc_test ls: /tmp/krb5cc_test: No such file or directory # ls -la /tmp/krb5cc_0 -rw------- 1 root wheel 2071 May 23 17:00 /tmp/krb5cc_0 # rm /tmp/krb5cc_0 # kinit some_principal # ls -la /tmp/krb5cc_test -rw------- 1 root wheel 2071 May 23 17:03 /tmp/krb5cc_test