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Re: 2.1.1 and xterm
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Re: 2.1.1 and xterm

  • Subject: Re: 2.1.1 and xterm
  • From: "John Koren" <email@hidden>
  • Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:59:51 -0800
Merl

I understand that when DISPLAY is set to /tmp/launch-xxxx/:0 then X11 windows are channeled through this socket. But what is the benefit of doing it that way? What was wrong with the 'localhost'? Why can't launchd set the DISPLAY to ':0'?

As I mentioned earlier going through localhost still seems to work.
If you go to terminal.app or xterm and set DISPLAY to ':0' or 'localhost:0' or 'your_computer_name:0' and try to launch an X application it will open correctly on your local screen. I.e., the special socket seems to be superfluous.

I am just trying to understand the reason for doing it this way - just curiosity.

-John

On Dec 15, 2007 4:17 PM, Merle Reinhart <email@hidden> wrote:
John,

My apologies if I'm still not understanding your questions.

What the /tmp/launch-xxxx/:0 format is pointing at is a unix socket
which launchd is watching (do an ls on that file and you'll see that
it is a socket; with lsof you can see that launchd is listening on it;
and if you look at the launchd agent org.x.X11.plist, you will see
that when that socket is touched, X11.app is launched).  If you leave
it as such, then the system (in this case launchd) will noticed that
something has touched the socket (in this case, your command trying to
connect to the Xserver) and will start the Xserver for you if it is
not already running.  If you change DISPLAY to be :0 then you'd see
the all too familiar, unable to connect to display, message, unless
you manually started the Xserver ahead of time.

It is one of those things that until you actually try it, it is hard
to understand why it is any better.  But I found it to be an enormous
time saver as I don't have to remember to manually start X11, etc.  I
just fire up Terminal and start using it and the system just does the
right thing and if necessary starts the Xserver for me.

As you point out, if the change is painful, you can still use the old
way of manually starting up everything ahead of time.

In my opinion, this is one of those interoperability things that makes
a hugh stride forward for X11 apps being first-class citizens on the
Mac.  Yes, it takes a bit to get used to, but once you have, I at
least don't want to go back (it is painful to go back to Tiger at work
where I have to remember to start X11.app before starting up for the
day).

Also, I notice you talk about using xterm.  I tend to use Terminal
which runs without X11 being run.  For the way I work, I have always
found xterm to be a hindrance so I use Terminal instead.  This may be
some of the wide differences of opinion with the automagic launching
capability of X11 (if you use xterm, then there are few if any
advantages to the new way of using X11, but it is a huge advantage for
those of us that use Terminal).

The current way X11.app is setup, both situations are supported, so we
both get our cakes.

Merle



On Dec 15, 2007, at 6:48 PM, John Koren wrote:

> Thanks, Merle. It's either I do not understand your answer or I was
> not clear in my question.
>
> What I was trying to ask is why the DISPLAY variable value that
> launchd assigns needs to be so obscurely complicated ( e.g. /tmp/
> launch-0l2xbx/:0) when setting it to standard ':0' seems to work as
> well.
>
> After X11 starts, I can execute in xterm 'setenv DISPLAY :0' (csh)
> and pop new X windows as well as with the '/tmp/launch-0l2xbx/:0'
> that launchd assigned. Hence what do we gain from the '/tmp/
> launch-0l2xbx' prefix?
>
> -John
>
> On Dec 15, 2007 3:24 PM, Merle Reinhart <email@hidden> wrote:
> The advantage is that it eliminates the extra manual step of having
> to start the X11 server prior to executing a command or app that uses
> X11 for its display.
>
> Merle
>
>
> On Dec 15, 2007, at 5:59 PM, John Koren wrote:
>
> > I also wanted to ask, what is the benefit of the obscure DISPLAY
> > variables such as 'DISPLAY=/tmp/launch-0l2xbx/:0' that the new
> > 'lauchd' sets? When I reset the DISPLAY to a simple ':0' it still
> > seems to work perfectly. I am just curious.
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  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: 2.1.1 and xterm
      • From: Harald Hanche-Olsen <email@hidden>
    • Re: 2.1.1 and xterm
      • From: William Mortensen <email@hidden>
    • Re: 2.1.1 and xterm
      • From: Merle Reinhart <email@hidden>
References: 
 >Re: 2.1.1 and xterm (From: "John Koren" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: 2.1.1 and xterm (From: Merle Reinhart <email@hidden>)
 >Re: 2.1.1 and xterm (From: "John Koren" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: 2.1.1 and xterm (From: Merle Reinhart <email@hidden>)

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