It is very easy to change CLisp\'s current working directory:
>cat ~/.clisprc.lisp ;;; The following lines added by ql:add-to-init-file: #-quicklisp
CL-USER> (sb-posix:chdir "/home/apugachev") 0 CL-USER> (sb-posix:getcwd) "/home/apugachev" CL-USER> (sb-posix:chdir "/tmp/") 0 CL-USER> (sb-posix:getcwd) "/tmp"