Re: Diff window managers for diff users

[Charles Briscoe-Smith <cpbs@debian.org>]

In article <[🔎] 34E6F896.2773@mail.infoave.net>,
David R Baker <dabaker@InfoAve.Net> wrote:
>If you and your wife log on as distinct users with distinct home
>directories, then you can have different ".xsession" files.  This file,
>if present, will determine what window manager is used.  There is a
>default one somewhere under /etc/X11 that is used if it not present.

Actually, that's not -quite- right.  There's a file called
/etc/X11/Xsession which is always called to start your session, whether or
not you have a .xsession file.  There's a lot of gunk in /etc/X11/Xsession
that you don't want in your .xsession file, so here's a .xsession file
that duplicates what happens by default:

    #! /bin/sh
    xterm -ls &
    if [ -e /etc/X11/window-managers ]
    then
      for i in `sed 's/#.*//' /etc/X11/window-managers`
      do
        if [ -x $i ]
        then
          exec $i
        fi
      done
    fi
    if [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/fvwm ]
    then
      exec fvwm
    fi
    exec twm

What this effectively says is

    start an xterm

    if /etc/X11/window-managers exists
      try in turn to start each window manager listed there

    if they all fail, but fvwm is installed,
      try starting fvwm

    if all else fails,
      run twm

So, a useful .xsession file could just be:

    #! /bin/sh
    exec afterstep

...although some would undoubtedly add a "xterm -ls &" between those
two lines.

Remember to "chmod +x .xsession" !

-- 
Charles Briscoe-Smith
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