Re: Fluxbox on Debian

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005, Roberto Nicolini wrote:

>
>>> exec gkrellm -w
>>> exec fluxbox
>>
>> This won't work. You can only "exec" something once in a shell script -
>> the script will stop at that point and become whatever you "exec" instead.
>
> You're right, I forgot the & sign after the first line! :o(
> Apart from that, starting every line with "exec" works fine, also on more than
> two lines.
> But on Debian one necessarily has to use ~/.xsession: .xinitrc or .xinit won't
> work.
>
> Sorry for forgetting the & sign in my first message!

exec foo &

is nonsensical.

exec = replace current process with "foo"
  &   = do it in the background

You can't replace the current process in the background.
However, current shells seem to let you do this (presumably because users 
got confused a lot). Don't expect it to be portable.

If you think about it, requiring "exec" to run something in a shell script 
is redundant, unless it does something special (which it does).

Cheers,

  - Simon


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