From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 5 23:48:04 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EC370106566C for ; Thu, 5 Nov 2009 23:48:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@optimis.net) Received: from mail.optimis.net (mail.optimis.net [69.104.191.124]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BD1AE8FC0A for ; Thu, 5 Nov 2009 23:48:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: from marvin.optimis.net (marvin.optimis.net [192.168.1.3]) by mail.optimis.net (8.14.3/8.14.2) with ESMTP id nA5Nm4Pl094405 for ; Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:48:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd@optimis.net) Received: from marvin.optimis.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by marvin.optimis.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id nA5Nm48E024983 for ; Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:48:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd@optimis.net) Received: (from george@localhost) by marvin.optimis.net (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id nA5Nm46h024982 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:48:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd@optimis.net) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:48:04 -0800 From: George Davidovich To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20091105234804.GA24198@marvin.optimis.net> References: <20091105001628.3cd0319a.freebsd@edvax.de> <424233.42925.qm@web24816.mail.ird.yahoo.com> <20091105224944.a6ce3874.freebsd@edvax.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20091105224944.a6ce3874.freebsd@edvax.de> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.19 (2009-01-05) Subject: Re: SLIM and XFCE4 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:48:05 -0000 On Thu, Nov 05, 2009 at 10:49:44PM +0100, Polytropon wrote: > On Wed, 4 Nov 2009 23:01:19 -0800 (PST), Alexandre L. wrote: > > mmm. I don't know. But with this config file, XFCE4 launch is OK > > (or seems OK). > > That may be possible, as well as correct. > > I have learned - many many years ago, so it may already have changed - > that .xinitrc is a SHELL SCRIPT that is executed on X startup. So all > the "rules" for shell scripts do apply, such as declaring the > interpreter with the #! special comment. Furthermore, .xinitrc serves > as a kind of "init process", so that the "exec" statement is needed to > replace the .xinitrc process by the window manager. That's always been my understanding, but if you examine the startx script, you'll see otherwise. From xinit(1): If no specific client program is given on the command line, xinit will look for a file in the user's home directory called .xinitrc to run as a shell script to start up client programs ... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The interpretation being that .xinitrc can be an ordinary file, but should be written to follow certain syntax rules (not unlike /etc/rc.conf). An example to illustrate: $ echo 'var="Hello World"; echo $var' > filename $ sh filename Hello World Put simply, .xinitrc does not need a shebang line, and does not need to be executable. A simple 'exec ...' statement as the final line will suffice. -- George