NAME

budgie-session - Start the budgie desktop environment

SYNOPSIS

budgie-session [-a|--autostart=DIR] [--session=SESSION] [--failsafe|-f] [--debug] [--whale]

DESCRIPTION

The budgie-session program starts up the budgie desktop environment. This command is typically executed by your login manager (either gdm, xdm, or from your X startup scripts). It will load either your saved session, or the default budgie installation on your system. Note that budgie-session is a wrapper script for budgie-session-binary.

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/budgie-session/sessions, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/budgie-session/sessions and $XDG_DATA_DIRS/budgie-session/sessions.

When saving a session, budgie-session saves the currently running applications in the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/budgie-session/saved-session directory. Saving sessions is only supported with the legacy non-systemd startup method.

budgie-session is an X11R6 session manager. It can manage budgie applications as well as any X11R6 SM compliant application.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

--autostart=DIR: The directory DIR to be searched for autostart .desktop files. This option can be used multiple times. When this option is present, then default autostart directories will not be searched.
--session=SESSION: Use the applications defined in SESSION.session. If not specified, budgie.session will be used.
--builtin: Use the legacy non-systemd method of managing the user session.
--failsafe: Run in fail-safe mode. User-specified applications will not be started.
--debug: Enable debugging code.
--whale: Show the fail whale in a dialog for debugging it.

SESSION DEFINITION

Sessions are defined in .session files, that are using a .desktop-like format, with the following keys in the budgie Session group:

Name: Name of the session. This can be localized.
RequiredComponents: List of component identifiers (desktop files) that are required by the session. The required components will always run in the session.

Here is an example of a session definition:

[budgie Session]
Name=budgie
RequiredComponents=budgie-desktop;gnome-settings-daemon;

The .session files are looked for in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/budgie-session/sessions, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/budgie-session/sessions and $XDG_DATA_DIRS/budgie-session/sessions.

It is best to use --builtin if session customizations are required. This is due to the way that budgie currently defines the components that will be started on each session type.

ENVIRONMENT

budgie-session sets several environment variables for the use of its child processes:

SESSION_MANAGER

: This variable is used by session-manager aware clients to contact budgie-session.

DISPLAY

: This variable is set to the X display being used by budgie-session. Note that if the --display option is used this might be different from the setting of the environment variable when budgie-session is invoked.

Behavior of budgie-session ifself can be modified via the following environment variable:

GNOME_SESSION_AUTOSTART_DIR

: This variable specifies a list of directories to the searched for autostart files. This variable overrides all directories specified via the --autostart option, as well as all default autostart directories.

FILES

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart /usr/share/gnome/autostart

: Applications defined via .desktop files in those directories will be started on login.

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/budgie-session/sessions $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/budgie-session/sessions $XDG_DATA_DIRS/budgie-session/sessions

: These directories contain the .session files that can be used with the --session option.

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/budgie-session/saved-session

: This directory contains the list of applications of the saved session.

BUGS

If you find bugs in the budgie-session program, please report these on https://github.com/buddiesofbudgie/budgie-session/issues.