[SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

lignamorren · 2018-03-05 03:31:06

Hi,

this is my first actual post to this forum, so please be gentle.

I'm running fvwm 2.6.7 on an up-to-date arch install (4.15.6). I log in at the virtual console as an ordinary user, then start X with, you guessed it, startx. My .xinitrc is almost unchanged from /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc; mainly, I replaced the end bit that starts twm with a simple "fvwm" by itself, no arguments or redirection. Similarly, my .fvwm/config is essentially unchanged from the one you get by selecting "Copy Config" from the root menu.

I found that FvwmConsole (run from the root menu as well) showed none of the output I would expect. It seems to all go to stdout/stderr; this is confirmed by redirecting stdout and stderr from fvwm by changing the invocation in .xinitrc to "fvwm > fvwm.log 2>&1", after which the expected output shows up in my fvwm.log file. Shouldn't all that output show up in the FvwmConsole window? Would this be different if I ran fvwm from a display manager?

Last edited by lignamorren (2018-03-05 09:56:18)

Scimmia · 2018-03-05 03:40:36

What, exactly, do you think that '>fvwm.log 2>&1' does?

lignamorren · 2018-03-05 03:53:12

I think it redirects stdout and stderr to the file fvwm.log, exactly. As I intended. Without that, with a bare "fvwm" by itself in my .xinitrc, stdout and stderr are nowhere to be found, not even in .local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log.

Scimmia · 2018-03-05 04:53:22

Right. So you're redirecting them to the log, of course they're not available elsewhere.

lignamorren · 2018-03-05 05:14:28

Apparently I wasn't clear when I wrote "with a bare "fvwm" by itself in my .xinitrc, stdout and stderr are nowhere to be found, not even in .local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log." If I don't redirect the output from fvwm (or xinit, by starting it with "startx > startx.log 2>&1"), the output goes into the void.

The point is, shouldn't FvwmConsole itself be displaying this output? What use is a console that lets you enter, say, "echo $[vp.width]" but doesn't show you the result?

lignamorren · 2018-03-05 05:22:08

I've edited the original post to make the sequence clear. I realize that the original post was ambiguous; before I even added the redirect to fvwm.log, I saw no output in FvwmConsole. The redirect was how I discovered that there even *was* any output -- a little trick I've picked up in three decades of working with Unix. My apologies for being unclear.

seth · 2018-03-05 09:11:07

man FvwmConsole

DESCRIPTION
FvwmConsole allows the user to type fvwm configuration commands interactively, and have them executed immediately. This tool is particularly useful for testing new configuration ideas, or for implementing temporary changes to your environment.

Stuff should end up in ~/.xsession-errors? You could tail that in an xterm or so.

lignamorren · 2018-03-05 09:54:28

~/.xsession-errors isn't updated by X or fvwm when you start them directly from xinit. My .xsession-errors hasn't changed since before I installed Arch on this machine, when it was running Ubuntu.

Well, since I can get access to fvwm output by means of output redirection from fvwm or startx, I'll have to be satisfied with that. That'll do as a workaround, so I'll flag this as SOLVED.

It does seem like a bug, though, that something called a "console" is write-only and not a place to see error messages or other output.

Does anyone know if this is true when you run fvwm in the context of a display manager?

Thanks.

Last edited by lignamorren (2018-03-05 09:55:55)

seth · 2018-03-05 13:07:57

less /proc/`pidof fvwm`/fd/2

?
You could also redirect all output in xinitrc.

lignamorren · 2018-03-05 23:42:57

Two good ideas, seth. In fact I tried the second one before my first post, and it's the solution I came back to, together with a tweak to my fvwm config that adds an "Fvwm Output" window just above the FvwmConsole one. The following is in the AddToFunc StartFunction block:

+ I Test (Init) Exec exec $[infostore.terminal] -g 116x11+0+834 \
  -n "Fvwm Output" -T "Fvwm Output" -e tail -f ~/.fvwm.log
+ I Test (Init) Module FvwmConsole -terminal $[infostore.terminal] \
  -geometry 116x3+0-0

Arch Linux

#1 2018-03-05 03:31:06

[SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#2 2018-03-05 03:40:36

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#3 2018-03-05 03:53:12

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#4 2018-03-05 04:53:22

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#5 2018-03-05 05:14:28

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#6 2018-03-05 05:22:08

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#7 2018-03-05 09:11:07

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#8 2018-03-05 09:54:28

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#9 2018-03-05 13:07:57

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

#10 2018-03-05 23:42:57

Re: [SOLVED] No stdout/stderr in FvwmConsole

Board footer