[1747] in athena10
Re: [Debathena] #153: Do something clever with ~/.xsession-errors
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Debathena Trac)
Tue Mar 17 14:08:46 2009
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
From: "Debathena Trac" <debathena@MIT.EDU>
Cc: debathena@mit.edu
To: jdreed@mit.edu, ghudson@mit.edu, wdc@mit.edu
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:08:27 -0000
Reply-To:
Message-ID: <052.d91ca09dbcf392875b3d335b58e898ac@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <043.144f1dc4a198a718d3a496f91dd6b2ee@mit.edu>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
#153: Do something clever with ~/.xsession-errors so that the dialog box is
useful-------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Reporter: jdreed | Owner:
Type: defect | Status: new
Priority: minor | Resolution:
Keywords: |
-------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Comment(by jdreed):
Here's a terrible idea (although it doesn't involve modifying any upstream
files):
We add the following at the top of /usr/athena/lib/init/xsession.tcsh
{{{
xconsole -daemon -file $HOME/.xsession-errors
echo "****** Running Athena Dotfiles ******"
}}}
and then right before the `exec` at the bottom:
{{{
pkill xconsole
}}}
This makes xconsole pop up in time for the user to see any output in it
before they acknowledge GNOME's "Your session lasted less than 10 seconds"
dialog. Of course, it makes xconsole pop up for all tcsh users, but it
quickly vanishes if all is well.
Basically, the problem I'm trying to solve is tcsh users who reference
undefined variables in their dotfiles. If we're going to drastically
change dotfile and shell behavior, we have to present the users with
useful error information. I'm less concerned about bash users because
undefined variables aren't fatal in bash. I'm also not that concerned
about all tcsh users seeing xconsole briefly pop up and vanish -- that
could be part of our "Here's why you want to switch to bash" campaign.
-- Ticket URL: <http://debathena.mit.edu/trac/ticket/153#comment:4>Debathena <http://debathena.mit.edu/>MIT Debian-Athena Project
