[gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[Mr G]

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Am I correct that the xgetdefault use flag is needed for an application if
I want it to read Xresources and Xdefaults? Does it enable anything else? I
tried searching the forum and the web but there is too many false positive
hits to sort through. Most references to it are very old so is it a
deprecated feature? The definition for the use flag is a little cryptic or
maybe I'm a little too dumb.

OT: This is my first post to this list and just want to say hi. I've been
stalking the list for several months now and this is by far the most
interesting and useful list I've ever subscribed to.

-- 
B G

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Re: [gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[Alan McKinnon]

On 27/05/2013 02:47, Mr G wrote:
> Am I correct that the xgetdefault use flag is needed for an application
> if I want it to read Xresources and Xdefaults? Does it enable anything
> else? I tried searching the forum and the web but there is too many
> false positive hits to sort through. Most references to it are very old
> so is it a deprecated feature? The definition for the use flag is a
> little cryptic or maybe I'm a little too dumb.
> 
> OT: This is my first post to this list and just want to say hi. I've
> been stalking the list for several months now and this is by far the
> most interesting and useful list I've ever subscribed to. 


Hello,

Welcome to gentoo-user :-)

USE flag xgetdefault is very little used, checking the definitions shows
this:

$ grep -r xgetdefault /var/portage/profiles/use.*
/var/portage/profiles/use.local.desc:x11-terms/aterm:xgetdefault -
Enable resources via X instead of aterm small version
/var/portage/profiles/use.local.desc:x11-terms/rxvt:xgetdefault - Enable
resources via X instead of rxvt small version


So it's not global, and is local to only two packages - aterm and rxvt.


You'll have to look in those app's docs or code to find out what they do
with ./configure --enable xgetdefault, but I suppose a reasonable
reading is that it uses Xresources in addition to $SOMETHING_ELSE.

So to answer your original question, that flag seems to only be valid
for aterm and rxvt and nothing else uses it; it will have no effect on
any other package at all. It especially will NOT enable Xresources
globally for all apps - it will do it just for those two



-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[Mr G]

> You'll have to look in those app's docs or code to find out what they do
> with ./configure --enable xgetdefault, but I suppose a reasonable
> reading is that it uses Xresources in addition to $SOMETHING_ELSE.


I didn't find anything concrete about what it does but I did find a
reference to the fact that rxvt doesn't read the $HOME/.Xresources
file if the operating system loads them into the X display. He also
does not seem to be a big Gentoo fan so I am guessing this flag has
something to do with this.  It's the reference to the "small version"
in the USE flag that was confusing me.

--
B G

Re: [gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[Alan McKinnon]

On 27/05/2013 18:01, Mr G wrote:
>> You'll have to look in those app's docs or code to find out what they do
>> with ./configure --enable xgetdefault, but I suppose a reasonable
>> reading is that it uses Xresources in addition to $SOMETHING_ELSE.
> 
> 
> I didn't find anything concrete about what it does but I did find a
> reference to the fact that rxvt doesn't read the $HOME/.Xresources
> file if the operating system loads them into the X display. He also
> does not seem to be a big Gentoo fan so I am guessing this flag has
> something to do with this.  It's the reference to the "small version"
> in the USE flag that was confusing me.


I also have no idea what "small version" means - it's not English, it
doesn't parse, and it makes no sense.


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[Mr G]

Seriously overthought that one. I am going to blame the long weekend.
Sorry for the noise

On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 11:58 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 27/05/2013 18:01, Mr G wrote:
>>> You'll have to look in those app's docs or code to find out what they do
>>> with ./configure --enable xgetdefault, but I suppose a reasonable
>>> reading is that it uses Xresources in addition to $SOMETHING_ELSE.
>>
>>
>> I didn't find anything concrete about what it does but I did find a
>> reference to the fact that rxvt doesn't read the $HOME/.Xresources
>> file if the operating system loads them into the X display. He also
>> does not seem to be a big Gentoo fan so I am guessing this flag has
>> something to do with this.  It's the reference to the "small version"
>> in the USE flag that was confusing me.
>
>
> I also have no idea what "small version" means - it's not English, it
> doesn't parse, and it makes no sense.
>
>
> --
> Alan McKinnon
> alan.mckinnon@gmail.com
>
>



-- 
B G

Re: [gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[Peter Humphrey]

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On Monday 27 May 2013 17:58:35 Alan McKinnon wrote:

> I also have no idea what "small version" means - it's not English, it
> doesn't parse, and it makes no sense.

It is understandable if there is a small version of aterm. Perhaps aterm 
itself rather than multi-aterm?

-- 
Peter

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Re: [gentoo-user] What does xgetdefault use flag do

[Mr G]

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On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 5:58 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org>
wrote:
> On Monday 27 May 2013 17:58:35 Alan McKinnon wrote:
>
>
>
>> I also have no idea what "small version" means - it's not English, it
>
>> doesn't parse, and it makes no sense.
>
>
>
> It is understandable if there is a small version of aterm. Perhaps aterm
> itself rather than multi-aterm?
>
>
>
> --
>
> Peter
>
>

I am still not sure if "small" means both small in size and small in
features or just small in features. I did not build it both ways and
compare, in fact, I built rxvt-unicode and the flag was completely
irrelevant. Wasn't having one of my good days evidently. I have built
several Gentoo systems over the last few months but they have been
gentoo-hardened servers and routers. This is/was my first attempt at a
desktop and it is exposing my lack of understanding of X in general. I am
one of those people who find that to be a good thing and have learned a lot
this week.

I believe now that what that flag does is allows you to build a terminal
that is small, as in lightweight on resources. You can build it so that it
would not read the xdefaults files and run as a very no frills terminal
even if you ran an xserver built with all the fixin's. Which is exactly
what the description says and caused me to be a bit embarrassed for even
have asked.

By the way, this install runs great. I have 320GB hard drive on a Dual Core
Dell laptop. I'm in the process of putting three seperate installs on it
which will be identical except for one will be gentoo-hardened with
SELinux, another using RBAC, and then this one as normal install. I believe
there are some situation where RBAC has an advantage over SELinux and vice
versa. I also want to try and build the RBAC system running LXC with
SELinux inside the containers. I believe this is possible and would further
isolate the containers from the base system.


--
B G

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