README revision 8108eb18 
1$Xorg: README,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:55:04 cpqbld Exp $
2
3README file for the X Session Manager (xsm)
4-------------------------------------------
5
6xsm is a session manager.  A session is a group of applications, each
7of which has a particular state.  xsm allows you to create arbitrary
8sessions - for example, you might have a "light" session, a "development"
9session, or an "xterminal" session.  Each session can have its own set of
10applications.  Within a session, you can perform a "checkpoint" to save
11application state, or a "shutdown" to save state and exit the session.  When
12you log back in to the system, you can load a specific session, and you can
13delete sessions you no longer want to keep.
14
15Some session managers simply allow you to manually specify a list of
16applications to be started in a session.  xsm is more powerful because it
17lets you run applications and have them automatically become part of the
18session.  On a simple level, xsm is useful because it gives you this ability
19to easily define which applications are in a session.  The true power of
20xsm, however, can be taken advantage of when more and more applications
21learn to save and restore their state.
22
23This README file discusses the necessary steps you must take to run xsm.  To
24learn more about the details of xsm's functionality, read the xsm man page.
25
26Before building xsm, you should make sure you have the following libraries
27built on your system with all fix-trackers patches applied:
28
29libICE - the Inter Client Exchange Library
30libSM  - the Session Management Library
31libXt  - the X Toolkit with support for session management
32
33To build these libraries, you would change your current directory to
34lib/ICE, lib/SM, or lib/Xt and do the following:
35
36make Makefile
37make includes
38make depend
39make
40
41
42Once you are sure all of the required libraries are built, you are ready
43to build xsm.
44
45Change your current directory to workInProgress
46
47make Makefiles SUBDIRS=xsm
48cd xsm
49make includes
50make depend
51make install
52
53
54Before you can run xsm, you must make sure that the following programs are
55built and installed on your system with all fix-trackers patches applied:
56
57smproxy - the session manager proxy for applications that don't support
58          R6 style session management
59iceauth - handles storing/retrieving ICE authentication information
60rstart  - allows xsm to start applications on remote machines
61twm     - window manager that support R6 style session management - takes
62          care of saving window configurations in a session
63
64To build and install these programs, you would change your current directory
65to programs/smproxy, programs/iceauth, programs/rstart, or programs/twm and
66do the following:
67
68make Makefile
69make includes
70make depend
71make install
72
73
74Note that to install rstart, you will need to have root privileges because
75the program must be installed in a system wide default path.
76
77*** rstart and iceauth should be installed on each machine that you expect
78    to run applications on that will be part of your session ***
79
80Also note that twm is the default window manager that xsm starts up.  If you
81would like to use a different window manager, follow the instructions in the
82xsm man page for defining the default startup applications.  Be aware that if
83the window manager you choose has not been modified to support R6 style
84session management, window configurations will not be saved in your sessions.
85
86Once again, for more information about actually using xsm, please read the
87xsm man page.
88
89To learn more about making your applications "session aware", consult the
90X Toolkit Intrinsics documentation.
91