Re: Tweeking xterm -title

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

"startx -- --"  fails

I does not start that xterm. I see 3 xterms instead of 4 xterms.

When I kill X11 (press CTRL-d), that last xterm often shows up;
then it too gets killed.

On Fri, Dec 27, 2024 at 12:08 PM Todd Gruhn <tgruhn2%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> "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>