Dealing with multiple (X) window systems on Sun's

[salzman%gaucho at rand.org]

There has been some recent discussion on this subject. For instance:

>crdgw1!montnaro at uunet.uu.net (Skip Montanaro) writes:
>
>The problems identified by Chris Quenelle (<9005291632.AA06491 at ssiwest.com>)
>regarding LD_LIBRARY_PATH are only part of the problem related to multiple
>window systems on Suns. At GE CRD users can choose between Suntools, Quest
>X11R3, MIT X11R3, MIT X11R4, and Sun's OpenWindows. Some people (like
>myself) go back and forth between two or three of them with some regularity.

We have the same problem here. We run OpenWindows (various versions,
including very recent betas), MIT X11R4, Suntools, Sundesk (the suntools
OPEN LOOK deskset stuff), and (I hate to admit it) X10 (don't ask why).

I've set up something that's worked quite well for our environment. It's a
combination of csh aliases, shell scripts and a C program called
'setpath'.  Basically you 'source /usr/local/lib/xaliases.csh' in your
.cshrc, type one of 'x11', 'x11news', 'x10', or 'suntools' and you're off
and running.

I've uploaded my scripts and 'setpath' to expo.lcs.mit.edu in
contrib/sun-xaliases.shar.Z. I'll eventually post this stuff to
comp.sources.x when I get an Imakefile for it and do some other cleaning
up. Included in the distribution are man pages for the scripts and aliases
and setpath, a README, INSTALL doc, and a text file describing the
included system.twmrc file (writing the manuals took longer than writing
the scripts! :-( 

The aliases hack your path's (PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, MANPATH), set some
environment variables (e.g. XVERSION for the type of server you're
running), and run a script called 'xstart'. xstart looks at XVERSION and
other things to figure out what to do next. It eventually starts xinit
with the proper server arg's and uses a script 'xsetup' as the xinit
client.  xsetup checks for one of several init files: .xsetup,
.x1[10]setup, .openwin-init, .xinitrc depending on what XVERSION is set
to. A .xsetup file is like a .xinitrc except that there's no 'last
command' - xsetup provides one for you (xterm -C ...). The purpose of that
is to make .xsetup more like a .suntools file, so people that are comming
from suntools don't go into culture shock. .xsetup will be read for MIT
X11R4 or OpenWindows.  If you want seperate init files you can use
.x11setup or .openwin-init. If it finds a .xinitrc (and no .xsetup files
exist) it will use that - and behave just as if you typed 'xinit' - so
people with already configured environments (e.g. people who already know
what they're doing) don't get hosed. 

Besides dealing with the path problems, the scripts also provide a default
environment for first timers that have no dot files. A system.xsetup file
is read for that purpose - and you can put what you want in there (I have
an xterm, console xterm and twm - better than what 'xinit' alone gives).

The magic behind getting the path's setup properly is a little program I
hacked together called 'setpath' - inspired by a builtin function of the
CMU version of csh that comes with the MACH 2.0 distribution. It's used
like tset - with eval in backquotes. You can string up as many path edits
as you want in one command. If you're adding a path element (or inserting
it somewhere in the middle), it removes it first then adds it (to insure
ordering is as intended - and to avoid duplicates!!!). Here's an example
of how it's used in xaliases (you'll get the idea):

    alias setx11 'eval `setpath remove /usr/local/X10/bin '\
			'remove $OPENWINHOME/bin '\
			'remove $SUNDESK/bin '\
			'add +/usr/local/bin /usr/local/X11/bin'\
			'add -/usr/local/X11/bin $ANDREWDIR/bin' \
			'add -/usr/local/X11/bin $GUIDEHOME/bin'\
			'add -/usr/local/X11/bin $OPENWINHOME/bin/xview`; '\
		  'eval `setpath -e LD_LIBRARY_PATH '\
			'add +/usr/local/lib /usr/local/X11/lib '\
			'add -/usr/local/X11/lib $OPENWINHOME/lib` ; '\
		  'alias X x11; ' \
		  'setenv XVERSION X11' 
    alias _runx   '/bin/rm -f ~/,xerrs ; /usr/local/bin/xstart \!* >& ~/,xerrs'
    alias x11     'setx11; _runx'

there are similar aliases for x11news, suntools, etc.

If you play with the stuff I've uploaded to expo, please send e-mail and
let me know what you think. All suggestions, criticisms, etc. are welcome.
Enjoy!

* Isaac J. Salzman                                            ----     
* The RAND Corporation - Information Sciences Dept.          /o o/  /  
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