ICEWM-SESSION(1)

NAME
 icewm-session - X.Org session manager provider with IceWM

SYNOPSIS
icewm-session [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION
icewm-session is an implementation of a X.Org session manager and can be run from a X11 session setup. It runs icewm as default window manager and controls the life cycle of related support applications.

OPTIONS

  SPECIFIC OPTIONS

-c, --config=FILE
    Let IceWM load preferences from FILE.

-t, --theme=FILE
    Let IceWM load the theme FILE.

-i, --icewm=FILE
    Use FILE as the IceWM window manager.

-o, --output=FILE
    Redirect all output to FILE.

-a, --alpha
    Use a 32-bit visual for translucency.

-b, --nobg
    Do not start icewmbg.

-n, --notray
    Do not start icewmtray. This is only applicable if IceWM was explicitly configured to use an external icewmtray process.

-s, --sound
    Also start icesound.

  GENERAL OPTIONS

-d, --display=DISPLAY
    Use DISPLAY to connect to the X server. If this option is missing then DISPLAY is read from the environment variable "DISPLAY".

--sync
    Use a slower synchronous mode communication with the X11 server.

-h, --help
    Give a list of all supported options and exit.

-V, --version
    Print the program version and exit.

-C, --copying
    Print copying permissions and exit.

  DEBUGGING OPTIONS

-v, ---valgrind
    Let "/usr/bin/valgrind" run icewm. Thoroughly examines the execution of icewm.

-g, ---catchsegv
    Let "/usr/bin/catchsegv" run icewm. Gives a backtrace if icewm segfaults.

USAGE
On startup icewm-session executes the following steps. From the file env in the configuration directory it loads additional environment variables, if that file exists. Then it will start icewmbg to manage root background colors and images. It may also start icesound, if this was enabled at configuration time. Then icewm is started.

If there exists an executable script startup in the configuration directory, it will be executed. It may contain commands to initialize X11 settings with xset, load keyboard configuration, start a compositing manager like compton and load system tray applications.

When icewm exits, icewm-session will execute a shutdown script, if it exists in the configuration directory. When this finishes, icewm-session will terminate icewm, icewmbg and icesound. Finally, icewm-session will exit.

If the icewm process crashes then icewm-session will attempt to restart it. If two such crashes occur in a short period, then icewm-session will attempt to popup a dialog using either yad, xmessage, kdialog or zenity. This dialog presents a choice between restarting icewm, starting a terminal, or abort execution of icewm-session.

ENVIRONMENT

ICEWM_OPTIONS
    A space separated list of options which will be added to the command line invocation of icewm. This can be set in the env file.

SEE ALSO
icewm(1), icewm-env(5), icewm-shutdown(5), icewm-startup(5), icewmbg(1).

BUGS
Please report bugs at <https://github.com/bbidulock/icewm/issues>.

AUTHOR
Brian Bidulock <mailto:bidulock@openss7.org>.

See --copying for full copyright notice and copying permissions.

LICENSE
IceWM is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. See the COPYING file in the distribution or use the --copying flag to display copying permissions.