enlightenment DR16 startup script question

[adsmith]

I just playing with e16 here, after years of faithfully using WindowMaker. (I just got sick of WM's unmutable titlebar design)

Okay, so simple question (yes, I've googled!):

How to I run scripts at startup? Some things I can do from .xsession, but this isn't true for all programs, just things like xmodmap. Other things I can use the "Remember" tool, but that only works for specific windows.

I.e, What is the equivalent of WindowMaker's "~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/autostart" ?



Thanks,

[boneyfrog]

the restart application on login radio button in the remember options submenu is the only way that i know of having programs start automagicly on login for 16.7 and prior the information about what is reloaded is read from the triple dot (...) file that has snapshots in its name i cant remmeber exactly what it is called right now, if you are using the CVS version of dr16 (16. it is in .e16/e_config--1.0.snapshots. if you are going to edit it make sure that enlightenment isnt running or things may get screwy next time you reboot.

just out of curiosity what programs are you looking at autoloading on startup?

[adsmith]

Okay, thanks.

Some things I've done before include messing with checking that mpd is running, starting some root-tail stuff for log watching, various ssh-agent manipulation, and conky.

conky I could do by running it in its own window, borderless, and Remembering it, but the others I'm not sure about.


hmm.. very hackish, but maybe I should just make a named xterm which forks all my scripts and closes itself, and Remeber it...

[kastorff]

There's a file that ends with .snapshots.0 (at least mine does) in your ~/.enlightenment directory. Add something similar to this at the end:

[boneyfrog]

[adsmith]

Thanks kastorff!

[bluedevils]

I'm confused. Why wouldn't you just start scripts in .xinitrc?

[adsmith]

[bluedevils]

I found this: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:8wF4ywK0k-sJ:fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docbook/cs/html/app-setup.html+xinitrc+xsession+start+programs&hl=en&client=firefox-a

Appendix A. Setting up .xinitrc/.xsession

Contributed by Verin.
The place of xinit in things

A window manager is just one more application for X11, like netscape or gimp or xterm. Many people new to X11 come to believe that X11 runs the window manager and the window manager runs programs. But that's not true. If configured right, you can run all your applications under X11, kill the window manager, and start another window manager up.

The real program that X11 runs, that runs other programs, is your .xinitrc or .xsession script. When X11 is started, your .xinitrc or .xsession script is run, and when the script is done, X11 comes down. Let me repeat that, its important: when .xinitrc is finished, that is when X ends. It isn't when your window manager exits.
Script layout

Well, first realize something you already know. When you type a command in a shell, you can't do anything else until that command is done, when it exits. Your .xinitrc or .xsession script is just the same. When it starts going through it, if it hits any program that takes a long time to run (like most X11 programs), it stops right there until that program is finished.

Ideally, you should only have one place where the script 'hangs'. And usually you want this to be at the end. So, if you have any programs you want to run under X11 before you get to this 'hang' spot, you should background them. You put an & at the end of the line. So, say you want xclock to run in addition to other things, put this line before your 'hang' spot:

xclock &

Now, the next thing is the exec thing you see, where lots of sources recommend how to add your window manager to your script. But honestly, its not really necessary, if you put your window manager on the last line of your script, it will hang there just fine without the exec.

So why the exec? Well, lets say you want to put lots of window manager start lines in your script, and you want only one to work. Well, with exec you can put your chosen start-line at the top. Because this is what exec means:

"Replace myself with this program, i.e. start it and terminate myself immediately when it finishes. "

So if you put an exec wmaker line atop of a exec enlightenment line, when wmaker is done, so is the script, it never gets to the next line.

See what I mean by being unnecessary? You could just put a bunch of commented-out window manager lines, and it would work just the same.
Another way to do things

[adsmith]

clever -- I do a lot of bash scripting, but I forgot about "wait" in this context ... cool, I'll try it

[bytenirvana]

[kastorff]

[bytenirvana]

[kastorff]

[bytenirvana]

yes - I changed it now and it works.

curiously after a restart conky changes the desktop. can I tell it somehow on which desktop it has to appear?

[kastorff]