Bug#283764: X clients will not start. Fix found.

[David Lawyer <dave@lafn.org>]

On Sat, Dec 18, 2004 at 08:37:34PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> retitle 283764 xfree86-common: Xsession can barf if user has aliased ls to force colors on
> thanks
> 
> On Tue, Nov 30, 2004 at 11:14:40PM -0800, David Lawyer wrote:
> > Package: xfree86-common
> > Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1.-1
> 
> Version *what*?
dpkg --status shows: Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-1

> 
> > When I type "startx" at the console, x starts and quits.  But if I type
> > "startx" at a dumb terminal on a serial port, x starts OK and goes to
> > the icewm (ice window manager which I have installed).  So why can I
> > start X from a dumb terminal but not from the console? 
> > 
> > It took me some time to determine why.  The error is in the file
> > /etc/X11/Xsession.  The run_parts() function has
> > 	for F in $(ls $1); do
> > it should be:
> > 	for F in $(command ls $1); do
> > 
> > This is because I have in my /etc/profile:
> > 
> > if [ $TERM = linux -o $TERM = xterm ]; then
> >     if [ $TERM = linux ]; then
> >        eval `dircolors`;
> >        ls () { command ls --color $* ; }
> >     fi
> > else     
> >     ls () { command ls -F $* ; }
> >     .....
> > 
> > So when I use a dumb terminal and $TERM = my-dumb-terminal (or whatever)
> > then ls() is defined differently.  But at the console, ls() is made
> > to support colors and the run_parts() can't seem to cope with the
> > control codes which are embedded in the file names to create colors.
> > One word "command" fixes it.
> > 
> > What was frustrating was that there were no error messages.
> 
> Ah.  Thanks for the analysis.  This report brings to mind two rules, one of
> which you should probably learn, and the other of which I should have
> remembered:
> 
> 1) Don't override the names of Unix commands, even in your interactive
>    shell environment.  It promotes bad habits.
> 2) Never use "ls" when "echo" will suffice.
> 
> Thanks again.
> 
> -- 
> G. Branden Robinson                |      "I came, I saw, she conquered."
> Debian GNU/Linux                   |      The original Latin seems to have
> branden@debian.org                 |      been garbled.
> http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |      -- Robert Heinlein


			David Lawyer