Far safer in my opinion to do the following:

Make yourself an .xinitrc file ('cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/') if you don't already have your own in your home directory and edit the 'xterm &' line to 'open -a iTerm' or whatever in order to have an iTerm window start up alongside X11.app.

Then edit your X11.app Applications menu to add an iTerm menu option again using 'open -a'.

This leaves the xterm binary intact for other users too.

# if we're NOT ssh'd in
if [ ! ${SSH_TTY} ]; then
# make sure X is running
if [ "`ps -x | awk '{print $5}' | grep X11`" = "" ]; then
open /Applications/Utilities/X11.app &
# then refocus Terminal.app
osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to activate'
fi
# if DISPLAY isn't set
if [ x${DISPLAY} = x ]; then
export DISPLAY=:0
fi
fi

Sorry, but this hint is a terrible idea. There are plenty of good ways to use iTerm, Terminal, or whatever terminal you want with X but this isn't one of them. Any time you find yourself replacing a system file with a script it's a pretty good hint that you're doing something wrong. To do it right:

• Method 1: Write your own $HOME/.xinitrc file that launches iTerm. Use /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc as an example. With this technique you will only be able to launch X11 apps from the iTerm session that you launch with X11, and only if it's not already running before you start X11.
• Method 2: Make any one iTerm know about the server. In an iTerm window type

  export DISPLAY=:0

  and you should now be able to use X11 programs in that window, provided the X11 server is running.
• Method 3: Make all iTerms know about the server. Create a file called $HOME/.MacOSX/environment.plist with these contents:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" 
  "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
  <plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
          <key>DISPLAY</key>
          <string>:0</string>
  </dict>
  </plist>
  

  Log out and log in again. Now any iTerm, Terminal.app, glTerm, or whatever should be able to launch X11 programs whenever the X11 server is running. This method is the same as the above method, but it applies to all programs. A similar technique would be to put

  export DISPLAY=:0

  in your $HOME/.bash_profile file, but that can cause complications if you're connecting to your machine remotely and it only works if you use bash as your shell.

if ($?REMOTEHOST) then
   setenv DISPLAY ${REMOTEHOST}:0.0
else
   setenv DISPLAY :0.0
endif

if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ]; then
    if [ -n "$REMOTEHOST" ]; then
        export DISPLAY=$REMOTEHOST:0.0
    else
        export DISPLAY=:0.0
    fi
fi

# try to figure out DISPLAY cleverly
DISPLAY=""
for x in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
do
  if [ -O /tmp/.X$x-lock ]
      then
      DISPLAY=:$x.0
      break
  fi
done
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ]
    then
    echo "$USER has no X11 DISPLAY open" 1>&2
    exit 1
fi
export DISPLAY

Good idea but there's one flaw with what you're doing:

The DISPLAY variable is only 0 if you are the first user running X11.app. If you FUS to another user and start another X11.app the DISPLAY variable will be 1. To do things properly you probably need a clever Applescript to switch to X11.app and try to get the variable from there and pass it back.

If you're the sole user on your machine you'll be fine - but beware if you aren't!!

A possible alternative to the problems with the DISPLAY variable taking on other values - arrange for your .xinitrc file to place the DISPLAY variable in a file like '.x11appdisplay' in your home directory, and parse its contents if the X11.app is found to be running on the start of a shell. I'll leave the details of this as an exercise for the reader based on other posted scripts!

Agreed. This hint is _NOT_ how you're supposed to do things in X11! If you want to control the startup of X items, use .xinitrc ...do not arbitrarily overwrite binaries in your system except in worst case scenario troubleshooting.

Actually, you can use focus-follow-mouse with iTerm. I'm using iTerm ver 0.8.0 under OS X 10.3.5 and it works great. Just go to preferences and select "Focus follow mouse".

I haven't had any problems with stability. Never crashed once...

tell application "Terminal"
	activate
	do script with command "setenv DISPLAY :0 ; clear ; echo 'Terminal linked to X11.'"
	tell window frontmost
		set background color to {0, 0, -32638, -4648}
		set normal text color to {-7118, -7118, -7118}
	end tell
end tell

The applescript section to define text and background colours is also very useful. The best way to use them is to set up a terminal window colours and transparency as you want them, and use the following code to find out the settings:

tell application "Terminal" to set x to the background color of the front window

Replace "background color" with any of the 'window properties' that are found in the dictionary for Terminal.app (use the script editor for this). Paste the script into a script editor window, run it, and the setting you need to use will be in the 'result' box at the bottom.

[ Reply to This | # ]

This is by far one of the stupidest posts that I have seen on here in a long time. This is inherently broken and should never, at any time, be done by anybody.

Rob, I am amazed you let this one through. Did you read it?

JP

---
Pell

I am unworthy ! - and I do apologize !
I was not aware that the upcoming terminal window is caused by the .xinitrc. I should have known, though, and it seems that I had some kind of oxygen insufficience in my brain when submitting that hint... When I read the first reply to the hint, I banged my head on the desk and changed my setup immedeately...

Anyway, this is why we love macosxhints... There are so many excellent guys out there and it's so good to get comments and helpful advice.

I apologize again and agree that the original hint should at least get a remark to read through the comments, first...

Thanks for your contribution,
Joachim.

[ Reply to This | # ]