Re: Tweeking xterm -title

[Todd Gruhn <tgruhn2%gmail.com@localhost>]

"startx -- -- " is always used because that is what I learned around 2005.

Does this matter? Does it change how X starts?

On Thu, Dec 26, 2024 at 9:22 PM Greg A. Woods <woods%planix.ca@localhost> wrote:
>
> At Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:39:41 -0500, Todd Gruhn <tgruhn2%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
> Subject: Tweeking xterm -title
> >
> > (/usr/pkg/bin/xterm    -geometry 80x46+0+0    -title  "$(date "+%A
> > ----- %d - %B - %Y")"  )  &
> >
> >
> > Print todays-name and date.
>
> Note that, as I think others may have mentioned before, that'll just set
> the title to the date time you start the xterm.  It won't keep it
> updated.
>
> I've long put the current time in my shell prompt, but never in a window
> title.  I run an xclock (or actually two, one with a dial, one digital)
> to see the current date and time.
>
> Note you can very easily update the title of your xterm from within by
> generating output using the appropriate shell function.
>
> I have my shell environment set up such that I wrap some commands, most
> especially "cd" with an alias and/or a function (depending on the shell
> type) such that the wrapper can call a function to change the window
> title every time I change directories in the shell session.
>
> The guts of that shell function boil down to a "printf" command
> (nominally, or an "echo" command if the host system has no printf(1))
> that sets the title to the value of a shell variable:
>
>         printf "\033]0;%s\007" "${TBANNER}"
>
> As I may have mentioned before, all the gory details to my login setup
> can be found here:
>
>         https://github.com/robohack/dotfiles
>
> If you have any questions, let me know!
>
>
> > How do I print it as black-text in the xterm-frame??
>
> I think that'll depend on which window manager you use.  In X11 the
> window manager is in charge of the window decorations (frame border,
> title, etc.).  For ctwm(1) the "TitleForeground" and "TitleBackground"
> lists are used to set the colours of the window titles.
>
>
> > AND why can I only do this on the first xterm ??
>
> I'm not sure what you mean.  Are you not starting all xterms with the
> same "-title" argument every time?
>
>
> > startx -- --   fails for some reason.
>
> Why specify the '--' option when you have no other options?
>
> Why specify the '--' option twice?
>
> The output from startx should directly show any obvious errors on the
> terminal shell session where you run it from.  (There may/will also be
> logs generated by the Xserver program itself.)
>
> "startx" is just a shell script, so you can run it with "sh -x" to see
> what it is doing and how far it gets.
>
> --
>                                         Greg A. Woods <gwoods%acm.org@localhost>
>
> Kelowna, BC     +1 250 762-7675           RoboHack <woods%robohack.ca@localhost>
> Planix, Inc. <woods%planix.com@localhost>     Avoncote Farms <woods%avoncote.ca@localhost>