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.xsession and kdm/wdm



Hello,

when choosing a window manager like twm with kdm or wdm (maybe also others, 
but not xdm), this window manager is executed without taking into account the 
user .xsession. 

The user .xsession is only taken into account when using the default "window 
manager". 

By the way, some of the more complex window managers/desktop environments have 
their own mechanisms for startup scripts, like KDE's Autostart folder and 
GNOME's .gnomerc (IIRC).

Now it would be quite helpful if this information could be found in the man 
page of Xsession or the xfree86-common FAQ, preferably both (attached are the 
relevant portions of both)

I had a look at both but did not find an appropriate wording for that; maybe 
that's because I'm not a native (English :)) speaker. Perhaps someone on this 
list finds something good.

If nothing comes up, I'll give it another try myself. Should I generate a 
patch (my reference is the man page/FAQ from woody).

Ideas and comments?

-Malte #8-)

---- Xsession man page ----

3) Determine startup program.  The X client to  launch  as
the  controlling  process  (the  one  that,  upon exiting,
causes the X server to exit as well) is  determined  next.
If  the  line  "allow-user-xsession"  is  present in Xses­
sion.options, a user-specified session program  or  script
is  used.  If a program or failsafe argument was given and
is allowed (see above), it is  used  instead.   Otherwise,
two  historically popular names for user X session scripts
are  searched  for:  $HOME/.xsession  and  $HOME/.Xsession
(note  the  difference  in  case).  The first one found is
used.  If the script is not executable, it is marked to be
executed  with  the  Bourne  shell interpreter, sh(1).  If
"allow-user-xsession" is not specified, or no user X  ses­
sion program can be located, and no failsafe session is to
be  run,  the  following  programs   are   searched   for:
/usr/bin/x-session-manager, /usr/bin/x-window-manager, and
/usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator.   The  first  one  found  is
used.  If none are found, Xsession aborts with an error.

---- xfree86-common FAQ ----

*) How do I customize my X session?

On a Debian GNU/Linux system, the file $HOME/.xsession is used (if present) to 
setup the user's X session.  The file 
/usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/examples/xsession is an example file that may 
be used directly and contains a great deal of explicit instruction on 
customization.

Note that the system administrator can configure the X Window System such that 
users' .xsession files in their $HOME directories are ignored.  See the 
Xsession.options(5) manual page for more information.



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