10.3: Copy and paste from X11 with other window managers

Nov 27, '03 02:50:00PM

Contributed by: lolopb

As you may know, you can copy and paste between Apple's X11 and Aqua by just using the copy function of your X11 App and Command-V in Aqua. But, this fails if you don't use quartz-wm (which is the default window manager), but a better X11 window manager (windowmaker in my case). But you can run quartz-wm in a silent mode and enable this copy-paste functionnality by adding this to your ~/.xinitrc:

# start the  quartz-wm with copy-paste functionnality

quartz-wm --only-proxy &
  
#exec your wm
exec wmaker
Change the last line to launch your window maanger, and relaunch X11.app. You can also read quartz-wm manual to find two hidden Defaults commands. I didn't try this with KDE or Gnome, only with Windowmaker, the only alternative window manager I have on my computer.

[robg adds: For those too lazy to fire up X11 to read the quartz-wm man pages, here are the hidden commands:
CUSTOMIZATION
    quartz-wm can be customized using the defaults(1) command.  The  avail-
    able options are:

    defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_ffm -bool true
          Enables  focus-follows-mouse  mode.  Windows belonging to the X
          server may then be focused by moving the pointer over them,  as
          well as the default mode of clicking in them.

    defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_click_through -bool true
          Disables  the  default behavior of swallowing window-activating
          mouse events.
I know a few people have been asking about those features in X11 ... I had no idea they were already there!]

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