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XSM(1) XSM(1)
NAME
xsm - X Session Manager
SYNOPSIS
xsm [-display display] [-session sessionName] [-verbose]
DESCRIPTION
xsm is a session manager. A session is a group of applications, each
of which has a particular state. xsm allows you to create arbitrary
sessions - for example, you might have a "light" session, a "develop-
ment" session, or an "xterminal" session. Each session can have its
own set of applications. Within a session, you can perform a "check-
point" to save application state, or a "shutdown" to save state and
exit the session. When you log back in to the system, you can load a
specific session, and you can delete sessions you no longer want to
keep.
Some session managers simply allow you to manually specify a list of
applications to be started in a session. xsm is more powerful because
it lets you run applications and have them automatically become part
of the session. On a simple level, xsm is useful because it gives you
this ability to easily define which applications are in a session.
The true power of xsm, however, can be taken advantage of when more
and more applications learn to save and restore their state.
OPTIONS
-display display
Causes xsm to connect to the specified X display.
-session sessionName
Causes xsm to load the specified session, bypassing the ses-
sion menu.
-verbose
Turns on debugging information.
SETUP
.xsession file
Using xsm requires a change to your .xsession file:
The last program executed by your .xsession file should be xsm. With
this configuration, when the user chooses to shut down the session
using xsm, the session will truly be over.
Since the goal of the session manager is to restart clients when log-
ging into a session, your .xsession file, in general, should not
directly start up applications. Rather, the applications should be
started within a session. When xsm shuts down the session, xsm will
know to restart these applications. Note however that there are some
types of applications that are not "session aware". xsm allows you to
manually add these applications to your session (see the section
titled Client List).
SM_SAVE_DIR environment variable
If the SM_SAVE_DIR environment variable is defined, xsm will save all
configuration files in this directory. Otherwise, they will be stored
in the user's home directory. Session aware applications are also
encouraged to save their checkpoint files in the SM_SAVE_DIR direc-
tory, although the user should not depend on this convention.
Default Startup Applications
The first time xsm is started, it will need to locate a list of appli-
cations to start up. For example, this list might include a window
manager, a session management proxy, and an xterm. xsm will first
look for the file .xsmstartup in the user's home directory. If that
file does not exists, it will look for the system.xsm file that was
set up at installation time. Note that xsm provides a "fail safe"
option when the user chooses a session to start up. The fail safe
option simply loads the default applications described above.
Each line in the startup file should contain a command to start an
application. A sample startup file might look this:
twm
smproxy
xterm
STARTING A SESSION
When xsm starts up, it first checks to see if the user previously
saved any sessions. If no saved sessions exist, xsm starts up a set
of default applications (as described above in the section titled
Default Startup Applications). If at least one session exists, a ses-
sion menu is presented. The [-session sessionName] option forces the
specified session to be loaded, bypassing the session menu.
The session menu
The session menu presents the user with a list of sessions to choose
from. The user can change the currently selected session with the
mouse, or by using the up and down arrows on the keyboard. Note that
sessions which are locked (i.e. running on a different display) can
not be loaded or deleted.
The following operations can be performed from the session menu:
Load Session Pressing this button will load the currently
selected session. Alternatively, hitting the
Return key will also load the currently selected
session, or the user can double click a session
from the list.
Delete Session This operation will delete the currently
selected session, along with all of the applica-
tion checkpoint files associated with the ses-
sion. After pressing this button, the user will
be asked to press the button a second time in
order to confirm the operation.
Default/Fail Safe xsm will start up a set of default applications
(as described above in the section titled
Default Startup Applications). This is useful
when the user wants to start a fresh session, or
if the session configuration files were cor-
rupted and the user wants a "fail safe" session.
Cancel Pressing this button will cause xsm to exit. It
can also be used to cancel a "Delete Session"
operation.
CONTROLLING A SESSION
After xsm determines which session to load, it brings up its main win-
dow, then starts up all applications that are part of the session.
The title bar for the session manager's main window will contain the
name of the session that was loaded.
The following options are available from xsm's main window:
Client List Pressing this button brings up a window containing a
list of all clients that are in the current session.
For each client, the host machine that the client is
running on is presented. As clients are added and
removed from the session, this list is updated to
reflect the changes. The user is able to control
how these clients are restarted (see below).
By pressing the View Properties button, the user can
view the session management properties associated
with the currently selected client.
By pressing the Clone button, the user can start a
copy of the selected application.
By pressing the Kill Client button, the user can
remove a client from the session.
By selecting a restart hint from the Restart Hint
menu, the user can control the restarting of a
client. The following hints are available:
- The Restart If Running hint indicates that the
client should be restarted in the next session if it
is connected to the session manager at the end of
the current session.
- The Restart Anyway hint indicates that the client
should be restarted in the next session even if it
exits before the current session is terminated.
- The Restart Immediately hint is similar to the
Restart Anyway hint, but in addition, the client is
meant to run continuously. If the client exits, the
session manager will try to restart it in the cur-
rent session.
- The Restart Never hint indicates that the client
should not be restarted in the next session.
Note that all X applications may not be "session
aware". Applications that are not session aware are
ones that do not support the X Session Management
Protocol or they can not be detected by the Session
Management Proxy (see the section titled THE PROXY).
xsm allows the user to manually add such applica-
tions to the session. The bottom of the Client List
window contains a text entry field in which applica-
tion commands can be typed in. Each command should
go on its own line. This information will be saved
with the session at checkpoint or shutdown time.
When the session is restarted, xsm will restart
these applications in addition to the regular "ses-
sion aware" applications.
Pressing the Done button removes the Client List
window.
Session Log... The Session Log window presents useful information
about the session. For example, when a session is
restarted, all of the restart commands will be
displayed in the log window.
Checkpoint By performing a checkpoint, all applications that
are in the session are asked to save their state.
Not every application will save its complete state,
but at a minimum, the session manager is guaranteed
that it will receive the command required to restart
the application (along with all command line
options). A window manager participating in the
session should guarantee that the applications will
come back up with the same window configurations.
If the session being checkpointed was never assigned
a name, the user will be required to specify a ses-
sion name. Otherwise, the user can perform the
checkpoint using the current session name, or a new
session name can be specified. If the session name
specified already exists, the user will be given the
opportunity to specify a different name or to over-
write the already existing session. Note that a
session which is locked can not be overwritten.
When performing a checkpoint, the user must specify
a Save Type which informs the applications in the
session how much state they should save.
The Local type indicates that the application should
save enough information to restore the state as seen
by the user. It should not affect the state as seen
by other users. For example, an editor would create
a temporary file containing the contents of its
editing buffer, the location of the cursor, etc...
The Global type indicates that the application
should commit all of its data to permanent, globally
accessible storage. For example, the editor would
simply save the edited file.
The Both type indicates that the application should
do both of these. For example, the editor would
save the edited file, then create a temporary file
with information such as the location of the cursor,
etc...
In addition to the Save Type, the user must specify
an Interact Style.
The None type indicates that the application should
not interact with the user while saving state.
The Errors type indicates that the application may
interact with the user only if an error condition
arises.
The Any type indicates that the application may
interact with the user for any purpose. Note that
xsm will only allow one application to interact with
the user at a time.
After the checkpoint is completed, xsm will, if nec-
essary, display a window containing the list of
applications which did not report a successful save
of state.
Shutdown A shutdown provides all of the options found in a
checkpoint, but in addition, can cause the session
to exit. Note that if the interaction style is
Errors or Any, the user may cancel the shutdown.
The user may also cancel the shutdown if any of the
applications report an unsuccessful save of state.
The user may choose to shutdown the session with our
without performing a checkpoint.
HOW XSM RESPONDS TO SIGNALS
xsm will respond to a SIGTERM signal by performing a shutdown with the
following options: fast, no interaction, save type local. This allows
the user's session to be saved when the system is being shutdown. It
can also be used to perform a remote shutdown of a session.
xsm will respond to a SIGUSR1 signal by performing a checkpoint with
the following options: no interaction, save type local. This signal
can be used to perform a remote checkpoint of a session.
THE PROXY
Since not all applications have been ported to support the X Session
Management Protocol, a proxy service exists to allow "old" clients to
work with the session manager. In order for the proxy to detect an
application joining a session, one of the following must be true:
- The application maps a top level window containing the
WM_CLIENT_LEADER property. This property provides a pointer to the
client leader window which contains the WM_CLASS, WM_NAME, WM_COMMAND,
and WM_CLIENT_MACHINE properties.
or ...
- The application maps a top level window which does not contain the
WM_CLIENT_LEADER property. However, this top level window contains
the WM_CLASS, WM_NAME, WM_COMMAND, and WM_CLIENT_MACHINE properties.
An application that support the WM_SAVE_YOURSELF protocol will receive
a WM_SAVE_YOURSELF client message each time the session manager issues
a checkpoint or shutdown. This allows the application to save state.
If an application does not support the WM_SAVE_YOURSELF protocol, then
the proxy will provide enough information to the session manager to
restart the application (using WM_COMMAND), but no state will be
restored.
REMOTE APPLICATIONS
xsm requires a remote execution protocol in order to restart applica-
tions on remote machines. Currently, xsm supports the rstart proto-
col. In order to restart an application on remote machine X, machine
X must have rstart installed. In the future, additional remote execu-
tion protocols may be supported.
SEE ALSO
smproxy(1), rstart(1)
AUTHORS
Ralph Mor, X Consortium
Jordan Brown, Quarterdeck Office Systems
XSM(1)
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