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diff --git a/doc/man/gnome-session.1 b/doc/man/gnome-session.1 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f6f360 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/man/gnome-session.1 @@ -0,0 +1,184 @@ +.\" +.\" gnome-session manual page. +.\" (C) 2000 Miguel de Icaza (miguel@helixcode.com) +.\" (C) 2009-2010 Vincent Untz (vuntz@gnome.org) +.\" (C) 2019 Benjamin Berg (bberg@redhat.com) +.\" (C) 2020 Sebastian Geiger (sbastig@gmx.net) +.\" +.TH GNOME-SESSION 1 "May 2020" "GNOME" +.SH NAME +gnome-session \- Start the GNOME desktop environment +.SH SYNOPSIS +.B gnome-session [\-a|\-\-autostart=DIR] [\-\-session=SESSION] [\-\-failsafe|\-f] [\-\-debug] [\-\-whale] +.SH DESCRIPTION +The \fIgnome-session\fP program starts up the GNOME desktop +environment. This command is typically executed by your login manager +(either gdm, xdm, or from your X startup scripts). It will load +either your saved session, or it will provide a default session for the +user as defined by the system administrator (or the default GNOME +installation on your system). Note that \fIgnome-session\fP is a wrapper +script for \fIgnome-session-binary\fP. +.PP +The default session is defined in \fBgnome.session\fP, a .desktop-like +file that is looked for in +\fB$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions\fP, +\fB$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions\fP and +\fB$XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions\fP. +.PP +When saving a session, \fIgnome-session\fP saves the currently running +applications in the \fB$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/saved-session\fP +directory. Saving sessions is only supported with the legacy non-systemd +startup method. +.PP +\fIgnome-session\fP is an X11R6 session manager. It can manage GNOME +applications as well as any X11R6 SM compliant application. +.SH OPTIONS +The following options are supported: +.TP +.I "--autostart=DIR" +The directory \fBDIR\fP to be searched for autostart .desktop files. This option can be used multiple times. +When this option is present, then default autostart directories will not be searched. +.TP +.I "--session=SESSION" +Use the applications defined in \fBSESSION.session\fP. If not specified, +\fBgnome.session\fP will be used. +.TP +.I "--builtin" +Use the legacy non-systemd method of managing the user session. This is the +opposite of the \fI--systemd\fP option. +.TP +.I "--systemd" +Use the systemd method of managing the user session. This is the opposite of +the \fI--builtin\fP option. +.TP +.I "--failsafe" +Run in fail-safe mode. User-specified applications will not be started. +.TP +.I "--debug" +Enable debugging code. +.TP +.I "--whale" +Show the fail whale in a dialog for debugging it. +.SH SESSION DEFINITION +Sessions are defined in \fB.session\fP files, that are using a .desktop-like +format, with the following keys in the \fBGNOME Session\fP group: +.TP +.I Name +Name of the session. This can be localized. +.TP +.I RequiredComponents +List of component identifiers (desktop files) that are required by the session. The required components will always run in the session. +.PP +Here is an example of a session definition: +.PP +.in +4n +.nf +[GNOME Session] +Name=GNOME +RequiredComponents=gnome-shell;gnome-settings-daemon; +.in +.fi +.PP +In \fBsystemd\fP managed sessions the RequiredComponents may be provided by +systemd units instead. In this case the corresponding \fB.desktop\fP file needs +to contain \fBX-GNOME-HiddenUnderSystemd=true\fP. \fIgnome-session\fP will +ignore these components and rely on \fIsystemd\fP to manage them appropriately, +see the \fIsystemd\fP for more information on how this works. +.PP +The \fB.session\fP files are looked for in +\fB$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions\fP, +\fB$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions\fP and +\fB$XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions\fP. +.SH systemd +\fIgnome-session\fP can pass much of the session management over to systemd +(see the \fI--systemd\fP option which may be the default since 3.34). In this +case, startup components that have \fBX-GNOME-HiddenUnderSystemd=true\fP +set in their \fB.desktop\fP file will be ignored by \fIgnome-session\fP. It +instead relies on the fact that these components are managed by systemd. +.PP +As of GNOME 3.34 the systemd support is new and the customizing the +configuration is not yet easily possible. With GNOME 3.34 it may be best to use +\fI--builtin\fP if session customizations are required. This is due to the way +that GNOME currently defines the components that will be started on each session +type. +.PP +\fBsystemd\fP provides the two special targets \fBgraphical-session.target\fP +and \fBgraphical-session-pre.target\fP which are fully functional and should be +used. \fIgnome-session\fP provides the following main targets: +.TP +.I "gnome-session.target" +Generic unit that will be active throughout the session. Similar to +\fBgraphical-session.target\fP. +.TP +.I "gnome-session-pre.target" +Used for tasks that need to be done before session startup. Similar to +\fBgraphical-session-pre.target\fP. +.TP +.I "gnome-session-x11@SESSION.target" "gnome-session-wayland@SESSION.target" +Main unit started for X11/wayland based session. \fBSESSION\fP is set according +to the session that is passed in \fI--session\fP. +.TP +.I "gnome-session-x11.target" "gnome-session-wayland.target" +Convenience units without the session embedded into the target. +.TP +.I "gnome-session@SESSION.target" +Convenience unit with just the \fBSESSION\fP information embedded. +.TP +.I "gnome-session-x11-services.target" +Special unit started when X11 services are needed. This will be used from GNOME +3.36 onwards. Programs will need to use the special \fBGNOME_SETUP_DISPLAY\fP +environment variable instead of \fIDISPLAY\fP. +.PP +Note that care must be taken to set appropriate \fBAfter=\fP rules. It is also +strongly recommended to always do this in combination with \fBBindsTo=\fP or +\fBPartOf=\fP on one of the core targets (e.g. \fBgraphical-session.target\fP). +.PP +Units are required to set \fBCollectMode=inactive-or-failed\fP. In addition, it +is strongly recommended to set \fBTimeoutStopSec=5\fP so that logout +will not be delayed indefinitely in case the process does not stop properly. +.SH ENVIRONMENT +\fIgnome-session\fP sets several environment variables for the use of +its child processes: +.PP +.B SESSION_MANAGER +.IP +This variable is used by session-manager aware clients to contact +gnome-session. +.PP +.B DISPLAY +.IP +This variable is set to the X display being used by +\fIgnome-session\fP. Note that if the \fI--display\fP option is used +this might be different from the setting of the environment variable +when gnome-session is invoked. +.PP +Behavior of \fIgnome-session\fP ifself can be modified via the following environment variable: +.PP +.B GNOME_SESSION_AUTOSTART_DIR +.IP +This variable specifies a list of directories to the searched for autostart +files. This variable overrides all directories specified via the +\fI--autostart\fP option, as well as all default autostart directories. +.SH FILES +.PP +.B $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart +.B $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart +.B /usr/share/gnome/autostart +.IP +Applications defined via .desktop files in those directories will be started on login. +.PP +.B $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions +.B $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions +.B $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions +.IP +These directories contain the \fB.session\fP files that can be used +with the \fI--session\fP option. +.PP +.B $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/saved-session +.IP +This directory contains the list of applications of the saved session. +.SH BUGS +If you find bugs in the \fIgnome-session\fP program, please report +these on https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-session/issues. +.SH SEE ALSO +.BR gnome-session-quit(1) |