How do xsession, xinitrc and .i3/config play together?
There are three different ways of starting programs after logging in: ~/.xsession, ~/.xinitrc and ~/.i3/config (or the path to your i3 config file). What’s the difference?
2 answers
Michael has already explained the difference, but I'd like to add a few notes of background (IMHO, it's good to understand how things work step by step):
Based on The X Window User HOWTO:
- startx will start X by first invoking xinit.
- xinit will look for a ~/.xinitrc file in the user's home directory, to run as a shell script.
- xinitrc is used to set up a suitable X environment, and to launch other programs, a.k.a "clients" that we may want available as soon as X is started.
- The Window Manager, or desktop environment, is typically the last application started.
- The other, more common, approach is the "GUI log-in", where X is running before log-in. X includes xdm (X Display Manager) for this purpose.
- Now, ~/.xsession for xdm is the rough equivalent of ~/.xinitrc for startx.
- Depending on how you start X, either the ~/.xinitrc or the ~/.xsession file will be executed by the server.
- Finally, if you execute i3wm from ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession, then i3wm will read its initial configuration from ~/.i3/config.
- Done.
Given that, you may like to maintain single version of your personal startup script for X:
- Create the script ~/.xinitrc with your initial settings.
Make symbolic link for xdm equivalent:
$ ln -s $HOME/.xinitrc $HOME/.xsession
Also, Fluxbox manual includes an important explanation too:
When X11 is started, your .xinitrc or .xsession script is run, and when the script is done, X11 comes down. Let me repeat that, its important: when .xinitrc is finished, that is when X ends. It isn't when your window manager exits.*
Comments
You have to differentiate between what gets started after you log in but before you start i3:
~/.xsessionis the way to go when using a login manager (like gdm, kdm, xdm).~/.xinitrcwill be used when you use startx
The i3 configuration (usually ~/.i3/config) will of course be used in either case, additionally.
So, where should you put your auto-start entries?
- If you are setting a background image, you can do that in any place (either before i3 starts or afterwards).
- If you are launching a program, you should do that in your i3 configuration so that it will be launched with startup notification support.
Comments
`~/.xession` seems to be ignored with GDM on Ubuntu 12.04. I tried to define an environment variable with `export FOO=bar` in a newly created `.xession` (there was none), and `echo $FOO` from a terminal displays nothing, which suggests this file is not sourced.
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Asked: 2012-06-04 15:56:48 +0000
Seen: 10,188 times
Last updated: Jun 07 '12
Also see this related question: [Session's environment variables](https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4126/sessions-environment-variables/).