[PATCH Weston 1/1] desktop-shell: implement autolaunch

[Bryce Harrington]

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 01:18:51PM +0300, Pekka Paalanen wrote:
> > And, while you're at it - as this was written for kiosk mode, it spawns a
> > shell script which just restarts the video player in a loop. Can we please
> > add an autostart param to weston_client_run/start (as a new enum with
> > WESTON_CLIENT_RESTART, not bool) and to the config (as a bool) which lifts
> > most of
> > desktop_shell_client_destroy/check_desktop_shell_crash_too_early/respawn_desktop_shell_process?
> 
> I'm not sure that's feasible. Watching the process exit is not used to
> trigger respawn for weston-desktop-shell, but losing the wl_client is.
> These two events happen in arbitrary order, and we recently fixed a
> related bug by exactly not respawning based on process exit. We want
> weston-desktop-shell to respawn if the compositor disconnects it, even
> if the actual process gets left behind due to malfunction.
> 
> Restart for autolaunch OTOH would be based on process exit rather than
> losing the connection.
> 
> IOW, weston_client_start() and the existing respawn mechanism are
> intended for special purpose known clients, while the panel
> launchers and the autolaunch feature are meant for running arbitrary
> programs (that might not even be clients themselves/directly or at all).
> 
> I'm not sure if adding restart to autolaunch is in scope... there are
> many aspects to configure for restart (delays, when to give up)
> so I'd rather maybe keep with the script. Or systemd user session.
> After all, the autolaunch is just a quick'n'useful hack when no session
> manager (systemd or other) is available.

Hmm, the several special cases / hacks here maybe suggests some
generalization is needed?

Also, for X, there is typically a .xinitrc, .gnomerc, or similar that's
executed as a shell script during system launch.  Do we have plans for
adding something similar for weston?  Like a .westonrc?

If not, perhaps this feature gives us a place for hanging startup
scripts?

(Not saying that shell scripts are the best way to do autostart of
applications, but it has been a tradition...)

Bryce