Re: Re: Modifying the environment

Circa 2005-06-15 dixit Glenn Morris:

: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.
: 
: Jim Knoble wrote:
: 
: > Several options:
: >
: >     (a) If you're using a genuine xterm, you can start them with the
: >         '-ls' option, which causes the shell they start to be a "login"
: >         shell.
: [...]
: >     (b) Some shells (notably bash, csh, tcsh, sometimes pdksh, maybe
: >         zsh) read an "interactive" startup file as well, in which case
: 
: I don't really like either of these options (maybe this makes the
: problem my own fault!). I believe env-vars belong in .profile rather
: than .bashrc, and I also don't like making every terminal a login one
: (because it's basically overkill).
: 
: And of course neither of these approaches work for things like
: editors, web browsers, etc, started directly from the window manager.
: 
: >     (c) Don't use applications directly.  Write "wrapper" scripts which
: >         set environment variables from a file (or directory) in your
: >         home directory.
: 
: Oof. I was really hoping for a general, simple solution - a "setenv"
: command for WM, basically. Emacs has one... :)

Perhaps this is more what you're looking for:

    (d) Don't use the WindowMaker executable directly.  Write a wrapper
        script around .../wmaker which sets environment variables,
        either within the script or by sourcing a file such as
        ~/.environment.sh.  Then, use something like 'selectwm':

            http://freshmeat.net/projects/selectwm/

        Make sure you tell selectwm to appear again when the window
        manager exits.  Then, you can exit Window Maker and restart it
        (using the wrapper script) from selectwm.  This *should* allow
        you to keep all your application windows open without losing
        what you were doing.

Good luck.

-- 
jim knoble  |  [email protected]  |  http://www.pobox.com/~jmknoble/
(GnuPG fingerprint: 809F:09B9:9686:D035:4AB0::9455:124B:0A62:DD6A:76D6)
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