5.12  How do I dock an arbitrary console application like mutt?

There are two key things to do if you want a program (such as mutt) to be able to start in a terminal window from the Dock or the Clip:

(1) Make the terminal window start the program you want to run instead of a shell. Both xterm and rxvt (and its descendants) are capable of doing this. For example:

        xterm -e mutt
        rxvt -e mutt
	gnome-terminal -e mutt

(2) Convince Window Maker that the resulting terminal window is not a regular terminal window, but rather some other program instance. Both xterm and rxvt are also capable of doing this. Make sure that -e is the last command option. For example:

        xterm -name muttTerm -e mutt 
        rxvt -name muttTerm -e mutt
	gnome-terminal --name=muttTerm -e mutt

This causes the instance of the terminal window that you start to have an <instance-name>.<class-name> pair of `muttTerm.XTerm' (usually rxvt's class is also XTerm; don't know about its descendants, such as wterm and Eterm).

Do not use spaces or periods in the instance name. For example, these are BAD instance names:

       xterm -name mutt.term -e mutt 
       rxvt -name 'mutt term' -e mutt

Window Maker will not like you if you use them.

With a different instance name, you can now do the following:

- Dock the resulting appicon in the dock, or clip it to the Clip.

- Assign a different icon and different window properties to the `special' terminal window running your program (make sure you choose the exact `muttTerm.XTerm' window specification in the Attributes editor).

- Specify different resource settings for muttTerm in your ~/.Xdefaults file (e.g., different default foreground and background colors).

There are a few other non-key things you can do to complete the process:

(3) Tell the terminal window to display a more meaningful or prettier title and icon title than what gets put there due to `-e'. For example:

        rxvt -title 'Mail (mutt)' -n 'Mail' -name muttTerm -e mutt 

Xterm works the same way.

(4) These are getting to be a lot of command-line options. Make a wrapper script to use so you don't have to remember them all:

        mkdir ~/bin
        cat >~/bin/muttTerm <<EOF
        #!/bin/sh
        rxvt -title 'Mail (mutt)' -n 'Mail' -name muttTerm -e mutt
        EOF
        chmod +x ~/bin/muttTerm

Now you can do the same thing as that really long command in [3] above using the simple:

        ~/bin/muttTerm

If you put ~/bin in your PATH, you can use the even simpler:

        muttTerm

(5) If you want to be sly, you can change the docked muttTerm to use your new wrapper script instead of the really long command; then, when you want to change anything in the really long command except for the instance name, you can just change the wrapper script, and it's done. Here's the procedure:

(a) [RightButtonDown] on the muttTerm dock tile

(b) Choose `Settings...'

(c) Replace the text in the `Application path and arguments' field with the following:

              muttTerm

(d) Choose `OK'

Note that Window Maker needs to know that ~/bin is on your PATH for this to work; you may need to exit your X session and start it again.

To change the instance name of the terminal window (e.g., from `muttTerm' to `mailTerm' or `blah' or `terminalWindowRunningMutt'), you need to do the following

(e) Change your muttTerm script (f) Undock your old muttTerm

(g) Run your muttTerm script

(h) Dock the resulting terminal window

(i) Do the stuff in [a] through [d] above again.

Good luck.

Thanks to Jim Knoble for this answer.

5.13  How do I get an appicon for Netscape?

If you are not using one of the latest Navigators, you can

1) Right click on the title bar

2) Click ``Attributes''

3) Select ``Advanced Options'' from the pull down menu

4) Select ``Emulate Application Icon''

5) Click Save

and older netscapes should now produce an application icon.

If you are using a newer rpm from Redhat Linux, try running

	grep irix `which netscape`

This seems to have been introduced in their 4.7 update. Comment out irix-session management restart netscape. Alternatively, you may run either

	/usr/lib/netscape/netscape-communicator

or

	/usr/lib/netscape/netscape-navigator

depending on which rpms you have installed.

5.14  How can I dock an application from a remote machine using ssh?

This answer asumes that you have already set up RSA authentication using ``ssh-keygen''. To be able to launch applications

 without being prompted for the password, you can use ``ssh-agent'' and

``ssh-add'' as follows.

With the addition to ~/.xsession of

	eval `ssh-agent`
	ssh-add /dev/null

just before

	exec wmaker

Then ssh will no longer prompt for the RSA-key passphrase. The ``/dev/null'' argument to ``ssh-add'' causes it to use the ``ssh-askpass'' graphical dialog.

The following procedure shows how to dock a remote xterm using ``ssh''. This procedure should work well for any well-behaved X11 application, including most Dock applets.

1) From a terminal window, start an ssh session with ``xterm'' as the command:

        ssh -a -C -X remote.example.net "xterm -name blah"

(The '-a' switch turns off agent forwarding, for security reasins and the '-X' switch turns on X11 forwarding, required for the remote xterm to run. The -C option turns on compression, very useful for things such as X)

2) When the remote xterm appears, find the appicon. If it's not already in the Clip, drag it there.

3) [RightButtonDown] on the appicon and choose 'Settings...' from the menu. Note that the 'Application path and arguments' field contains only:

        xterm -name blah

Change that to:

        ssh -a -C -X remote.example.net "xterm -name blah"

The backslashes and double quotes are critical. Change the contents of 'Command for files dropped with DND' in the same fashion, putting '%d' inside the double quotes.

If you wish, change the icon so that you can recognize the tile easily. Press 'OK'.

4) [RightButtonDown] on the appicon again and choose 'Keep Icon(s)'.

5) Exit the remote xterm. The new Clip tile should remain, with the three dots at the lower lefthand corner to indicate the app is no longer running.

6) [DoubleClick] on the new Clip tile. You should get the remote xterm again after a short while, depending on the speed of your network and of the remote machine.

7) You may either leave the remote application in the Clip, or drag it to the Dock.

[NOTE: You should be wary of docking something like ``wminet'' or ``wmnet'' in the manner, since you may create a feedback loop by causing additional network traffic, which the program monitors, causing yet more network traffic... ]

5.15  How do you make an omnipresent window not take focus whenever switching workspaces?

Typically, on applications like xmms, they are set to omnipresent so they will appear on every workspace. This causes the app to often get the focus unintentionally when switching workspaces.

To remedy this,

1) Bring up the ``Attributes'' menu. You can do this by [Right Clicking] on the title bar and seletcing ``Attributes''. Alternatively, you may hit 'Control+ESC' at the same time to bring up the title bar menu on apps that do not have a title bar.

2) In the ``Window Attributes'' menu, select ``Skip Window List''

3) Push ``Save'' and then hit the close dialog window icon in the upper right corner of the window frame.

Now the window will not take focus when switching workspaces.

[NOTE: this will also make the window non-focusable via keyboard window switching. The only way to shift focus to the window is via the mouse. ]

 

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