[gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Kevin O'Gorman]

Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?

I want to have scripts that run graphical tools if the
infrastructure is present, and text tools otherwise.
For me this is particularly useful for tools I don't use
all that often, and can forget that a graphical version
exists.

++ kevin

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Kevin O'Gorman, PhD

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Nick Rout]

One way is test if $DISPLAY is set, if it is then you are running in X

On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 13:34 -0800, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
> if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?
> 
> I want to have scripts that run graphical tools if the
> infrastructure is present, and text tools otherwise.
> For me this is particularly useful for tools I don't use
> all that often, and can forget that a graphical version
> exists.
> 
> ++ kevin
> 
-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>


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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Matan Peled]

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Kevin O'Gorman wrote:

>Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
>if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?
>
>I want to have scripts that run graphical tools if the
>infrastructure is present, and text tools otherwise.
>For me this is particularly useful for tools I don't use
>all that often, and can forget that a graphical version
>exists.
>
>++ kevin
>
>  
>
Another way would be to check ${TERM} - on a tty, its "linux", and in X 
it specifies the terminal emulator (rxvt, xterm, Eterm, etc.).

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Peter Gordon]

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Hash: SHA1

Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
| Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
| if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?
|
| I want to have scripts that run graphical tools if the
| infrastructure is present, and text tools otherwise.
| For me this is particularly useful for tools I don't use
| all that often, and can forget that a graphical version
| exists.

One way to do it (though I don't know how to do this in Bash) is to check X's
Process ID (PID). If `pidof X` returns an integer, than that's the PID of the
currently running X server. If X is not running it will return an empty string.

/home/peter $ pidof X
12521

/home/peter $ pidof non-running-app


/home/peter $

Hope this helps!

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Collins Richey]

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 14:54:47 -0800, Peter Gordon
<admin@ramshacklestudios.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> | Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
> | if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?
> |
> | I want to have scripts that run graphical tools if the
> | infrastructure is present, and text tools otherwise.
> | For me this is particularly useful for tools I don't use
> | all that often, and can forget that a graphical version
> | exists.
> 
> One way to do it (though I don't know how to do this in Bash) is to check X's
> Process ID (PID). If `pidof X` returns an integer, than that's the PID of the
> currently running X server. If X is not running it will return an empty string.
> 
> /home/peter $ pidof X
> 12521
> 
> /home/peter $ pidof non-running-app
> 
> /home/peter $
> 
> Hope this helps!
> 

For the normal non-root user case, this would be '/sbin/pidof X',
unless you have monkeyed with the standard $PATH setup.

-- 
 Collins

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Bastian Balthazar Bux]

Matan Peled wrote:

> Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
>
>> Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
>> if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?
>>
>> I want to have scripts that run graphical tools if the
>> infrastructure is present, and text tools otherwise.
>> For me this is particularly useful for tools I don't use
>> all that often, and can forget that a graphical version
>> exists.
>>
>> ++ kevin
>>
>>  
>>
> Another way would be to check ${TERM} - on a tty, its "linux", and in 
> X it specifies the terminal emulator (rxvt, xterm, Eterm, etc.).

dangerous, if you login via telnet or ssh it's a choiche of the client 
and thae coise is pretty large

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Peter Gordon]

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Collins Richey wrote:
| For the normal non-root user case, this would be '/sbin/pidof X',
| unless you have monkeyed with the standard $PATH setup.

What do you mean? I have done nothing with my $PATH and let Portage handle it as
needed. On my system, /usr/bin/pidof is a symlink to /bin/pidof

/home/peter $ ls -al `which pidof`
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 10 Apr  9  2004 /usr/bin/pidof -> /bin/pidof



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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Uwe Thiem]

On Sunday 05 December 2004 00:54, Peter Gordon wrote:
> Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> | Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
> | if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?
> |
> | I want to have scripts that run graphical tools if the
> | infrastructure is present, and text tools otherwise.
> | For me this is particularly useful for tools I don't use
> | all that often, and can forget that a graphical version
> | exists.
>
> One way to do it (though I don't know how to do this in Bash) is to check
> X's Process ID (PID). If `pidof X` returns an integer, than that's the PID
> of the currently running X server. If X is not running it will return an
> empty string.

The $DISPLAY method is safer. X could be running for another user, or X is 
running for you but the script isn't running in a login shell, or or or.

Uwe

-- 
Alternative phrasing of the First Law of Thermodynamics:
If you eat it, and you don't burn it off, you'll sit on it.

http://www.uwix.iway.na (last updated: 20.06.2004)

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Marko Vallius]

On Sat, Dec 04, 2004 at 02:54:47PM -0800, Peter Gordon wrote:
> Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> | Is there a way for a script (bash, for instance) to know
> | if it's running under X, such as in an xterm or konsole?
> 
> One way to do it (though I don't know how to do this in Bash) is to
> check X's Process ID (PID). If `pidof X` returns an integer, than
> that's the PID of the currently running X server. If X is not running
> it will return an empty string.

That doesn't really work. `pidof X` does often return the PID of the
currently running X server, yes, but it does not tell you if you are
running under it (it can be some other user's X, for example). On the
other hand, the X server's process name probably is X only if you're
running XFree or X.org. What if you're running Xvnc? :)

You can also log in remotely and run X applications. Running `pidof X`
will then make absolutely no sense, as *your* X server is running on
the machine you logged in from...

Checking if $DISPLAY is set is the way to go. If it's not set, you
cannot start any X apps anyway. (Well, sometimes you can if you know
what your display is, but if we knew that we wouldn't be having this
conversation.)

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Collins Richey]

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 23:31:36 -0800, Peter Gordon
<admin@ramshacklestudios.com> wrote:
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> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Collins Richey wrote:
> | For the normal non-root user case, this would be '/sbin/pidof X',
> | unless you have monkeyed with the standard $PATH setup.
> 
> What do you mean? I have done nothing with my $PATH and let Portage handle it as
> needed. On my system, /usr/bin/pidof is a symlink to /bin/pidof
> 
> /home/peter $ ls -al `which pidof`
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 10 Apr  9  2004 /usr/bin/pidof -> /bin/pidof
> 

Sorry for the confusion. I was running from a Fedora Core 3 system to
check out what many local users here are experiencing (nothing
expecially good, except that xscreensaver runs ok, whereas it fails on
my gentoo system). Apparently Red Hat (and some other systems) have
/sbin/pidof. 'which pidof' from a normal user finds nothing.

-- 
 Collins

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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[cdemarco]

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On Sun, Dec 05, 2004 at 10:43:05AM +1300, Nick Rout wrote:

> One way is test if $DISPLAY is set, if it is then you are running in
> X

If you login via SSH and have X forwarding enabled, you might not want
to burn bandwidth on an X app.


The *safest* way IMHO is to set an env var, e.g. "GOT_X='yes'" in your
.xsession/.xinitrc!


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Re: [gentoo-user] Can a script tell if it's running under X?

[Iain Buchanan]

On Mon, 2004-12-06 at 10:07 +0800, cdemarco@fastmail.fm wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 05, 2004 at 10:43:05AM +1300, Nick Rout wrote:
> 
> > One way is test if $DISPLAY is set, if it is then you are running in
> > X
> 
> If you login via SSH and have X forwarding enabled, you might not want
> to burn bandwidth on an X app.

If you don't want to use X in this case, then you probably won't have
$DISPLAY set :)  Its a good idea IMHO to stick to conventions - how
annoying would it be if each app had its own $DISPLAY like variable that
you had to set?

You can always add a --nox or -nw or whatever (like emacs etc) if the
user wants to override it...

HTH,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

You know you're using the computer too much when:
u type amd instead of and 
        -- DEaigo


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