Losing ENV variables after running startx

Imon · 08-13-2004, 12:20 PM

Hi...a stupid question for my first post!

When I start xterm/rxvt sessions in my windows manager(s) (I'm using fluxbox & Window Maker) the contents of my PATH & PS1 variables are changed from what I have put into both /etc/profile & $HOME/.profile!

I guess it must be happening when I run the startx script..... I've tried calling .profile in .xinitrc but to no avail!

Were am I going wrong? (My distro is Slackware 10.0)

....also how do I change (increase) the font size in the same xterm windows?

btmiller · 08-13-2004, 02:16 PM

That's because non login shells such as those invoked by xterm don't read the profile startup scripts. When invoked as a nonlogin shell, bash reads .bashrc instead. To make login shells behave the same as non-login shells my .bash_profile looks like:

Code:

if [ -x /home/tim/.bashrc ]
then
  . /home/tim/.bashrc
fi

and then I put all my custom stuff into .bashrc -- replace "tim" with your user name in the above and this will work for you too.

Imon · 08-14-2004, 02:02 PM

Thanks btmiller....

Its easy now I know!!

....anyone any advice on the second part of my question? ie how do I increase the font size in the xterm session....the man entry isn't very helpful!

max_sipos · 08-14-2004, 02:12 PM

You can also start xterm with option -ls, to make it read the standard login files. As for the font size, try starting it with -fs # where # is the point size of the font. Experiment and it should work.

Best!
Max

Imon · 08-16-2004, 10:54 AM

Thanks Max, -ls also does the trick......

Imon · 08-16-2004, 11:00 AM

Thanks Max, -ls also does the trick.......so now I have two working methods.

The -fs option was more difficult, eventually, after much re-reading of 'man' I also tried using -fn 10x20....this has solved my problem.

Thanks to all for yur help.