On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 11:40 AM, Danek Duvall <duv...@comfychair.org> wrote: > In my X resources file, I specify > > FvwmConsole*VT100*geometry: 40x4 > > as suggested in the FvwmConsole(1) manpage, but this doesn't work; the console > comes up with a different geometry entirely. > > I see that this is happening because of fix-hardcoded-xterm.patch, which is > there to conform to Debian policy > > > https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-customized-programs.html#s11.8.3 > > which implies that the -name option isn't required by x-terminal-emulator, and > so the patch removes its use. > > Unfortunately, that's the way that xterm lets you change the name under which > it > figures out which resources to use. At least, I don't know of a better way. > And this has been working for decades under other operating systems. > > It's not clear to me what the right answer is, or even a good answer. It > might > involve tweaking the policy a bit (which also seems to exclude gnome-terminal > as > a possible alternative, since its -t option is supposedly deprecated and may > be > removed). It may involve rewriting the manpage to at least be correct with > the > way the code actually works on Debian. >
I see the same thing. The -name option sets the terminal window's Resource which is used for its configuration via ~/.Xresources. The default is to not include this option, since the terminal x-terminal-emulator points at is unknown. I see the issue you mentioned, which is not all terminal emulators need to support the -name option, but further different terminal emulators may not all support the same resources in the ~/.Xresources file, so the resources used may need tailoring to the terminal emulator being used. I think it is best to keep it as it is, which is don't include -name by default so the FvwmConsole's resource defaults to the terminal that runs it. On my system this is xterm, so when configuring my resources I just have to configure all my xterms via "xterm*VT100*geometry: 40x4" and it also affects FvwmConsole. The -name option is there if the user wants to run FvwmConsole as it's own resource. I see this as a bug in the man page to clarify this. Namely the default is FvwmConsole's resource is that of the terminal x-terminal-emulator points uses. Also clarify that the example resources were written for xterm with the -name FvwmConsole flag. > For now, my workaround is to simply run FvwmConsole with the -name option > explictly added to the commandline. > I don't see this as a workaround, but how it should be handled in Debian. If you want FvwmConsole's terminal to use a different resource than your default terminal's resource for configuration, that is what the -name feature is for. You can also use it in conjunction with the -terminal option to ensure you are running a terminal that supports it. jaimos
