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From: Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: getting the most out of TWM
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:34:25 -0400
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

> On Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:52:13 GMT, Scott Alfter wrote:
>
>> Of the three, at least xterm needs to be
>> installed because the last line is "exec xterm" etc.
>
> Does that mean that last xterm process ends up being the parent of all
> the other processes?
>
> I ask because I keep trying to make sense of this little gem from the
> “Unix-Haters Handbook”:
>
>     Unix teaches us about the transitory nature of all things, thus
>     ridding us of samsaric attachments and hastening enlightenment.
>
>     For instance, while trying to make sense of an X initialization
>     script someone had given me, I came across a line that looked like
>     an ordinary Unix shell command with the term “exec” prefaced to
>     it. Curious as to what exec might do, I typed “exec ls” to a shell
>     window. It listed a directory, then proceeded to kill the shell
>     and every other window I had, leaving the screen almost totally
>     black with a tiny white inactive cursor hanging at the bottom to
>     remind me that nothing is absolute and all things partake of their
>     opposite.
>
>     In the past I might have gotten upset or angry at such an
>     occurrence. That was before I found enlightenment through Unix.
>     Now, I no longer have attachments to my processes. Both processes
>     and the disapperance of processes are illusory. The world is Unix,
>     Unix is the world, laboring ceaslessly for the salvation of all
>     sentient beings.
>
> I kept wondering how a process that ran under the GUI could be the
> parent of everything else that ran under that GUI, including obviously
> the window manager.

It's not the parent, it "holds" the X session.  In the case of "exec
xterm", when xterm exits, the x session ends.

Something in your .xinitrc has to keep running or X will come up and
then stop running.  I've seen mostly, users using the window manager
to hold the x session.

Personally, I use xlogout.  My .xinitrc ends like this:

exec xlogout -iconic

I start the window manager in a looping shell so that I can kill the
window manager without X ending and have xprompt ask me what I want to do next.

-- 
Dan Espen