Subject: FVWM: disappearing xterm -e

From: Sue Blake <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 13:12:19 +1100

This problem is caused by wanting to distribute a fvwm2rc alone,
without any additional files, to people with no unix skills (yet)
and only a basic setup including XFree86 and the contrib programs.
I can't use any additional scripts or install more untilities.

I want to be able to run commandline stuff from a menu, and have the
xterm remain for viewing output. For example, ping works nicely until
it is terminated, then the xterm disappears before you can see the
summary. I solved this for ping by setting the number of pings and
redirecting the output to xmessage.

It's not so easy for other programs, especially those that require
user input. xmessage won't display until the end of the output, and
xterm disappears the instant it believes there's nothing more to do.

For example, I'd like to be able to su and run a command with
parameters as root, and view the output before the xterm quits. The
obvious solution would be to call a script, but I can't provide them
with a second file. I tried various types of quoting and using the
shell command 'read' to pause, but all attempts either produced an
xterm saying "can't execvp" or did absolutely nothing. Is there any
way around this?

If these things cannot be done without an extra file, I'll just leave
them out, but if it is possible I'd really like to know.

TIA

-- 

Regards,
        -*Sue*-

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From: David Shochat <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 06:03:13 -0500

I don't understand why you can't include just one more file, but I'll
accept your statement that you can't. Given that constraint, how about
creating a script on the fly using a series of commands in the fvwm2rc?
You could probably even build a program in a high level language (line
by line), compile, link, execute and delete it when you're done. All
from within fvwm2rc. This is an old trick which I first saw as a way of
getting a build date compiled into a program.

-- David