sorry for the idiot question, but....

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2005-08-10 13:06, Gary Kline <kline at tao.thought.org> wrote:
>On Wed, Aug 10, 2005 at 03:04:43PM +0300, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
>> On 2005-08-10 09:07, Stijn Hoop <stijn at win.tue.nl> wrote:
>> > There is a way to start gnome using the 'startx' method but I don't
>> > know it.
>>
>> 1. Copy over /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc to ~/.xinitrc and make
>>    sure it's executable by at least you, the owner of the file.
>>
>> 2. Replace the final commands (that spawn "a few useful programs") with:
>>
>> 	exec gnome-session
>>
>> 3. Done
>
> I should've read all responces evidently!  Giorgos, can I (dare I,
> can/should I) put my miscellanous commands into .xinitrc, or are these
> simply ignored by the parser?

The .xinitrc file is a shell script that is executed by startx.  All the
commands you put in there will be run, but watch out for one thing: you
are not allowed to start commands or programs that may "block" for any
amount of time.  The commands of the .xinitrc shell script are executed
by a /bin/sh instance in the order they appear, so if you use:

	xterm
	fluxbox

then fluxbox will only start *after* xterm finishes.

The solution to this minor "problem" is to start everything but the last
command in the background:

	xterm &
	fluxbox

To emphasize one more important aspect (that after the last command
exits, then the X session terminates too), I frequently prefix the last
command with "exec", as in:

	xterm &
	exec fluxbox

just as a tip to myself that when the last command exits X will exit too.

> Also: can I use .xsession instead of .xinitrc?  --I have several
> non-Gnome apps placed at various X+Y locations...

The .xsession script is used by "login managers", like XDM, GDM or KDM
instead of .xinitrc.  Only one of the two will run at any time.

- Giorgos