CHOOSEWM(1)						      General Commands Manual						       CHOOSEWM(1)

NAME

       choosewm - Select a window manager to be used.

SYNOPSIS

       choosewm [-f] [-p] [-t]
       choosewm [-t] -c

DESCRIPTION

       choosewm  presents  a window to let the user choose a window manager to start.  By default it shows everything registered as window manager
       at the Debian menu system, but it allows global and local configuration to change that data.

OPTIONS

       -c, --config
	      Allow the user to change the default.  Beside telling choosewm to not start the chosen window manger, this mostly changes  the  text
	      of some buttons and labels

       -f, --force
	      Show the selection window unconditionally.

       -p, --print
	      Do not start the window-manager, but print it to stdout.

       -t, --text
	      Do  not ask by opening an X11 window, but ask on the terminal.  Needs a terminal as stdin.  This is activated by default with -c and
	      DISPLAY not set.

CONFIG FILES

       After reading /var/lib/choosewm/windowmanagers, treating anything before a equal (=) sign in a line a name and  everything  after  that	as
       window  manager	path,  choosewm  checks /etc/X11/choosewm/config and after that by default .choosewm/config in the user's $HOME-directory.
       Lines containing only spaces or starting with a # are ignored.  Every other line may contain one of the following commands:

       add: name=path
	      Add an additional window manager to the list. name will be shown in the list, path will be started.

	      This option is only useful to add something that should be only added to this list.  If you installed  a	window	manager  by  hand,
	      please consider to register it in the Debian menu instead.  That way all potent enough window managers will be able to offer switch-
	      ing to that window manager by menu.

       remove: path
	      Do not list the window manager with path in the list to choose from.

       default: defaultwindowmanagerpath
	      Use the window manager defaultwindowmanagerpath as default, when no last selection of the window manager is available.

       userconf: filename
	      Read the user's config from $(HOME)/filename.  If filename is -, no user config is read.

	      Default is .choosewm/config

       dontaskfile: filename
	      Create the file $(HOME)/filename, if the user selected to not be asked about the window manger, and do  not  ask	if  this  file	is
	      present.	(Unless -f is command line argument.)

	      Default is .choosewm/dontask

       lastdecisionfile: filename
	      Read the last decision from the file $(HOME)/filename, and save the decision of the user there.

	      Default is .choosewm/lastwm

       inalias: oldold=newpath
	      If the last decision is oldpath, change it to newpath.

       askalias: oldold=newpath
	      If the last decision is oldpath, change it to newpath and force showing of the selection window.

       outalias: path=output
	      If the user has chosen path as window manager, write instead output to the file as new last decision.

       sTAG: text
	      Are used to set strings to be shown to the user in labels, buttons or headers.  The CONFIGTAG variants are used with -c.

	      The following are the currently definied Tags and their default values:
	      sCONFIGHEADER: Choose default Window Manager
	      sHEADER: Choose Window Manager
	      sCONFIGWELCOME: Please choose the default window manager and whether to reask at start time.
	      sWELCOME: Welcome, please select a Window manager to use.
	      sCONFIGASK: _Ask when starting
	      sASK: _Ask again at every login
	      sCONFIGSELECT: _Select
	      sSELECT: _Start
	      sCONFIGCANCEL: _Cancel
	      sCANCEL: _Log out

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       HOME   The current home directory of the current user.

       DEFAULTWINDOWMANAGER
	      If  no  default  is  specified  in the config files nor by the user's last choice, the content of this environment variable is tried
	      before the path /etc/alternatives/x-window-manager is pointing to is tried.

FILES

       /etc/X11/choosewm/config
	      Global config file read.

       /var/lib/choosewm/windowmanagers
	      Default system window manager file.

       /etc/alternatives/x-window-manager
	      Default link to compute a default.

       $(HOME)/.choosewm/config
	      Default user config file.

       $(HOME)/.choosewm/lastwm
	      Default file to store the users default.

       $(HOME)/.choosewm/dontask
	      Default file to signal not asking when existant.

SEE ALSO

       update-menus(1), xsession(1).

AUTHOR

       choosewm was written by Bernhard R. Link <brlink@debian.org>.

       This manual page was written by Bernhard R. Link.

								    2009-06-11							       CHOOSEWM(1)