Regarding X client

[Vito Caputo]

On Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 05:35:35PM -0400, Chris Sorenson wrote:
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2023 15:51:16 +0300
> > From: Riza Dindir
> > To: xorg
> > Subject: Regarding X client
> > Message-ID:
> >
> > Hello All,
> >
> > I want to run two applications on X client, and have an xinitrc file
> > that starts a GTK application and another that starts xterm. Like so
> >
> > my-gui-app &
> > xterm
> >
> > I do not want to use a window manager for this.
> >
> > When I start the client with startx, it displays both of the
> > applications but the xterm does not have focus.
> >
> > If I click on the xterm window, the focus is not given to the xterm window.
> >
> > Is this default behavior? How can I focus on the xterm window? Using a
> > mouse? Or some other way?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Riza
> >
> 
> Please post the entirety of you xinitrc file. You're saying you're starting X without a window manager? That's not even possible anymore, it was way back in the day but now X just immediately exits if there's no window manager to communicate with, or, at least that's what happens with my distribution (Slackware 15.0).


This doesn't make sense to me.

Xorg just wants something to execute IIRC.  When that immediate child
exits, Xorg takes that as indication it should exit too.

Usually that's a WM process, but it can be practically anything.

It's not like Xorg has any way of knowing the thing it's launched is a
Window Manager, which is just another X client that selects what was
it..  substructure redirection?  Window Manager X clients aren't even
really a differentiated thing beyond implicit by that event mask
heuristic, if memory serves.

I used to run Xorg with an xterm as the child during the early stages
of WM development.  That way I could have the WM crash all day long
with it just leaving me at my child-of-Xorg xterm process for
debug+restart...  xterm was in essence the "WM" in terms of the
process heirarchy.

Regards,
Vito Caputo