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 switching 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)