CLI - UNIX command and/or switch to open a package
 

Please: Is there a way with the CLI to open a GUI package and minimise it??

Phidor

A GUI program needs to have X-Window running in order to work. So if you have your CLI running in a terminal which is running on top of your GUI (Gnome or KDE or whatever) then you can start a GUI program from the command line. If your CLI is running directly on top of the kernel with no X-Window present then the GUI program will fail because it can't find X-Window.

So if you are running a terminal on top of a GUI desktop then you can simply type in the name of the GUI program you want to run. For example if you want to run gedit then type in:

gedit

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Steve Stites

CLI running packages
 

Many thanks. Yes, I realised that bit. I want to minimise as I open it as well - can this also be done from the CLI??? Phidor

That depends on whether the program supports such a command-line option and/or the window manager supports minimized windows. You might be able to do this by starting the program with a tool like Xautomation, xwit or wmctrl.

Thanks gnashley - wmctrl will apparently handle the package I want to use (Claws-mail) OK. I installed wmctrl OK, read over the 'man wmctrl' page and tried 'wmctrl -h' but totally unfamiliar with reading manuals/instructions I had a go at trial and error to get things to work. Hopeless. I've arbitrarily tried about 50 different choices, such as
'claws-mail wmctrl -r 1 -e 1 -b 1' and each time I get Claws-mail opening at last used window size but I want to minimise it.
How do I do it please? Any odd clue along the way on how ON EARTH the manual is read/understood would be helpful. Phidor.