Mysteries of xinitrc - what can and cannot be there
Please,
can someone shed some light for me on .xinitrc file? I struggle to find a good manual to answer a couple of my practical questions:
- It declared itself as general Bash script but in fact it is not.
- Why some command require
execand some not? - What is this
execcommand anyway? - Is it a binary or a syntactic construct specific to
xinitrc? - What can be run by exec and what not?
- How to set environmental variables correctly?
Most users of mainstream distros does not have to even know about xinitrc, and same was true for me, until I had to setup Kodi "makeshift" shell; using super minimalist window manager TWM and launching Kodi full screen, because kodi-standalone shell does not work for me.
But back to the xinitrc:
Working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec xterm
Why twm and sleep do not need exec but xterm does?
Not working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0
Here exec executed only WINDOWING=x11 but ignored the rest of the line. I made it working only by wrapping WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0 into another Bash script, this time an ordinary one, and that one put as the only argument to exec; then it finally worked.
xorg
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
migrated from serverfault.com 1 hour ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
add a comment |
Please,
can someone shed some light for me on .xinitrc file? I struggle to find a good manual to answer a couple of my practical questions:
- It declared itself as general Bash script but in fact it is not.
- Why some command require
execand some not? - What is this
execcommand anyway? - Is it a binary or a syntactic construct specific to
xinitrc? - What can be run by exec and what not?
- How to set environmental variables correctly?
Most users of mainstream distros does not have to even know about xinitrc, and same was true for me, until I had to setup Kodi "makeshift" shell; using super minimalist window manager TWM and launching Kodi full screen, because kodi-standalone shell does not work for me.
But back to the xinitrc:
Working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec xterm
Why twm and sleep do not need exec but xterm does?
Not working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0
Here exec executed only WINDOWING=x11 but ignored the rest of the line. I made it working only by wrapping WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0 into another Bash script, this time an ordinary one, and that one put as the only argument to exec; then it finally worked.
xorg
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
migrated from serverfault.com 1 hour ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
stackoverflow.com/q/22869637/1068283
– Michael Hampton
1 hour ago
add a comment |
Please,
can someone shed some light for me on .xinitrc file? I struggle to find a good manual to answer a couple of my practical questions:
- It declared itself as general Bash script but in fact it is not.
- Why some command require
execand some not? - What is this
execcommand anyway? - Is it a binary or a syntactic construct specific to
xinitrc? - What can be run by exec and what not?
- How to set environmental variables correctly?
Most users of mainstream distros does not have to even know about xinitrc, and same was true for me, until I had to setup Kodi "makeshift" shell; using super minimalist window manager TWM and launching Kodi full screen, because kodi-standalone shell does not work for me.
But back to the xinitrc:
Working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec xterm
Why twm and sleep do not need exec but xterm does?
Not working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0
Here exec executed only WINDOWING=x11 but ignored the rest of the line. I made it working only by wrapping WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0 into another Bash script, this time an ordinary one, and that one put as the only argument to exec; then it finally worked.
xorg
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
Please,
can someone shed some light for me on .xinitrc file? I struggle to find a good manual to answer a couple of my practical questions:
- It declared itself as general Bash script but in fact it is not.
- Why some command require
execand some not? - What is this
execcommand anyway? - Is it a binary or a syntactic construct specific to
xinitrc? - What can be run by exec and what not?
- How to set environmental variables correctly?
Most users of mainstream distros does not have to even know about xinitrc, and same was true for me, until I had to setup Kodi "makeshift" shell; using super minimalist window manager TWM and launching Kodi full screen, because kodi-standalone shell does not work for me.
But back to the xinitrc:
Working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec xterm
Why twm and sleep do not need exec but xterm does?
Not working example:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/twm &
sleep 1
exec WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0
Here exec executed only WINDOWING=x11 but ignored the rest of the line. I made it working only by wrapping WINDOWING=x11 /usr/bin/kodi -geometry +0+0 into another Bash script, this time an ordinary one, and that one put as the only argument to exec; then it finally worked.
xorg
xorg
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
asked 5 hours ago
EspinosaEspinosa
1213
1213
migrated from serverfault.com 1 hour ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
migrated from serverfault.com 1 hour ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
stackoverflow.com/q/22869637/1068283
– Michael Hampton
1 hour ago
add a comment |
stackoverflow.com/q/22869637/1068283
– Michael Hampton
1 hour ago
stackoverflow.com/q/22869637/1068283
– Michael Hampton
1 hour ago
stackoverflow.com/q/22869637/1068283
– Michael Hampton
1 hour ago
add a comment |
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stackoverflow.com/q/22869637/1068283
– Michael Hampton
1 hour ago