Bug#213676: /usr/X11R6/man/man1/startx.1x.gz: no mention of how to stop x

[Chris Waters <xtifr@debian.org>]

On Fri, Oct 03, 2003 at 07:18:56AM +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote:

> Pages that say how to start something should say how to stop it.

I think you'll find that the _vast majority_ of man pages do NOT tell
you how to stop something.  Most just tell you how to start it and how
to use it.  Furthermore, startx merely launches the X server, and I
don't think documentation about the X server belongs in the startx man
page.  That's like asking for the documentation for login(1) to
explain how to exit from a shell.  And finally, there really is no
"way to stop it".  It normally stops on its own after the programs it
launches finish running.  The ctrl-alt-backspace is (besides being a
feature of the xserver, not of startx) generally only for emergencies,
not something one would normally use for routine shutdown.  The "way
to stop it" is to end whatever program is preventing it from stopping,
but there's no way to be sure what that program is (since it changes
dynamically, depending on how you have the system configured, and what
software you've installed, and whether and how you've edited certain
files in your home directory).

Or to put it another way, by the time you see anything on your screen,
startx has already stopped.  So there's no need to stop it; it did its
thing, and it's done already.

Or yet another way, if you want to get technical: the X server stops
when the /etc/X11/Xsession script finishes.  So, all you've got to do
to "stopx" is figure out what is preventing that script from
finishing, and arrange for it to finally finish.  That's the CORRECT
answer, but I doubt it's very useful.  Normally, the script will be
waiting for a window manager, but not necessarily, and even if it is a
window manager, how to shut down the window manager (so the Xsession
script can continue and finish) varies from window manager to window
manager.

Anyway, if you're such a novice, how did you manage to not install xdm
or one of the other X-based login systems that normally get installed
by default and would make all this pretty much moot?
-- 
Chris Waters           |  Pneumonoultra-        osis is too long
xtifr@debian.org       |  microscopicsilico-    to fit into a single
or xtifr@speakeasy.net |  volcaniconi-          standalone haiku