Re: getting the most out of TWM

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

On Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:52:13 GMT, Scott Alfter wrote:
>

Of the three, at least xterm needs to be
installed because the last line is "exec xterm" etc.

>
Does that mean that last xterm process ends up being the parent of all
the other processes?
>
I ask because I keep trying to make sense of this little gem from the
“Unix-Haters Handbook”:
>
    Unix teaches us about the transitory nature of all things, thus
    ridding us of samsaric attachments and hastening enlightenment.
>
    For instance, while trying to make sense of an X initialization
    script someone had given me, I came across a line that looked like
    an ordinary Unix shell command with the term “exec” prefaced to
    it. Curious as to what exec might do, I typed “exec ls” to a shell
    window. It listed a directory, then proceeded to kill the shell
    and every other window I had, leaving the screen almost totally
    black with a tiny white inactive cursor hanging at the bottom to
    remind me that nothing is absolute and all things partake of their
    opposite.
>
    In the past I might have gotten upset or angry at such an
    occurrence. That was before I found enlightenment through Unix.
    Now, I no longer have attachments to my processes. Both processes
    and the disapperance of processes are illusory. The world is Unix,
    Unix is the world, laboring ceaslessly for the salvation of all
    sentient beings.
>
I kept wondering how a process that ran under the GUI could be the
parent of everything else that ran under that GUI, including obviously
the window manager.

It's not the parent, it "holds" the X session.  In the case of "exec
xterm", when xterm exits, the x session ends.

Something in your .xinitrc has to keep running or X will come up and
then stop running.  I've seen mostly, users using the window manager
to hold the x session.

Personally, I use xlogout.  My .xinitrc ends like this:

exec xlogout -iconic

I start the window manager in a looping shell so that I can kill the
window manager without X ending and have xprompt ask me what I want to do next.

--
Dan Espen