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Re: Accepting .Xdefaults by default



[CCing debian-x]

On Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at 12:26:23AM +0100, Henning Makholm wrote:
> Scripsit Jacobo221 <jacobo221@hotmail.com>
> 
> > Currently, Debian doesn't support ~/.Xdefaults but does support
> > ~/.Xresources. The ways to walk around this are to soft link or to change
> > it's name.
> 
> Beware! The intended semantics of .Xresources and .Xdefaults is *not
> the same*!
> 
> .Xresources is meant to be loaded into the X *server* when a user logs
> in. It will affect all clients started during the X session, even
> clients running on remote machines.
> 
> .Xdefaults is loaded locally by each *client* as it starts up. Settings
> in it will affect all clients *running* on that machine and account,
> even if they connect to a remote server.
> 
> Each kind of settings is useful, and I daresay that there are Debian
> users out there who depend on the ability to define either kind of
> settings - even though the vast majority are probably not aware of the
> difference, and many of them misuse the files because they don't know
> the difference.

All true.  Thanks for offering this clarification.

> If you read the manpage X(7x) you'll find that Debian does not use the
> name .Xdefaults bu default, but instead .Xdefaults-<hostname>. That is
> presumably intentional.

It is.  The reason is that because the application-defaults are loaded
client-side, you may want to customize them on a per-host basis.  You
already get this with the server-side resources because your X session
runs out of $HOME.

> You should be able to override this by setting $XENVIRONMENT in your
> .profile or .login file. If that does not work (and you're sure its
> not your own fault, or the individual application's), file a bug
> report against libXt6.

The package's name is libxt6 (all lowercase), but yes.  It's also worth
noting that, as far as I know, *only* Xt-based applications use
application-defaults.  So if an X client isn't linked against libXt,
please don't blame libXt.  :)

Thanks again.

-- 
G. Branden Robinson                |    It may be difficult to to determine
Debian GNU/Linux                   |    where religious beliefs end and
branden@debian.org                 |    mental illness begins.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |    -- Elaine Cassel

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