xref: /xsrc/external/mit/xsm/dist

README file for the X Session Manager (xsm)
-------------------------------------------

xsm is a session manager.  A session is a group of applications, each
of which has a particular state.  xsm allows you to create arbitrary
sessions - for example, you might have a "light" session, a "development"
session, or an "xterminal" session.  Each session can have its own set of
applications.  Within a session, you can perform a "checkpoint" to save
application state, or a "shutdown" to save state and exit the session.  When
you log back in to the system, you can load a specific session, and you can
delete sessions you no longer want to keep.

Some session managers simply allow you to manually specify a list of
applications to be started in a session.  xsm is more powerful because it
lets you run applications and have them automatically become part of the
session.  On a simple level, xsm is useful because it gives you this ability
to easily define which applications are in a session.  The true power of
xsm, however, can be taken advantage of when more and more applications
learn to save and restore their state.

This README file discusses the necessary steps you must take to run xsm.  To
learn more about the details of xsm's functionality, read the xsm man page.

Before building xsm, you should make sure you have the following libraries
built on your system:

libICE - the Inter Client Exchange Library
libSM  - the Session Management Library
libXt  - the X Toolkit with support for session management

Once you are sure all of the required libraries are built, you are ready
to build xsm.

Before you can run xsm, you must make sure that the following programs are
built and installed on your system:

smproxy - the session manager proxy for applications that don't support
          R6 style session management
iceauth - handles storing/retrieving ICE authentication information
rstart  - allows xsm to start applications on remote machines
twm     - window manager that support R6 style session management - takes
          care of saving window configurations in a session

Note that to install rstart, you will need to have root privileges because
the program must be installed in a system wide default path.

*** rstart and iceauth should be installed on each machine that you expect
    to run applications on that will be part of your session ***

Also note that twm is the default window manager that xsm starts up.  If you
would like to use a different window manager, follow the instructions in the
xsm man page for defining the default startup applications.  Be aware that if
the window manager you choose has not been modified to support R6 style
session management, window configurations will not be saved in your sessions.

Once again, for more information about actually using xsm, please read the
xsm man page.

To learn more about making your applications "session aware", consult the
X Toolkit Intrinsics documentation.