scdm — The Simple Console Display Manager

scdm is a login manager for the console, a bit like CDM but simpler. It can be used instead of DM's like xdm, kdm etc. to choose and start terminal or X11 sessions.

I archived scdm because I don't use it anymore. Instead, I use this script to launch X sessions:

#!/bin/sh

config_file="$HOME/.xprofile"
xserver_args="${xserver_args:--nolisten tcp}"
vt="vt$(fgconsole)"

exec startx /bin/sh -- "$xserver_args" "$vt" <<EOF
test -e '$config_file' && . '$config_file' && exec "$@"
EOF

Installation

Nix

Ad-hoc installation:

$ nix-env -if https://github.com/jorsn/scdm/archive/<tag/commit>.tar.gz

For a declarative installation you can include the following line in a location where you define packages, e.g. in an overlay like this:

self: super:

{
    scdm = import (builtins.fetchTarball
        https://github.com/jorsn/scdm/archive/nix.tar.gz)
        { pkgs = super; };
}

Gentoo

An ebuild is available in this overlay.

Other *nixes

• Type make install. The default installation prefix is /usr/local.
• Or create a package for your distribution, publish and install this and tell me about it, e.g. via a pull request or just an email to johannes.rosenberger (at) jorsn.eu.

Configuration & Invocation

The configuration is almost self-explaining. It is documented in the example scdmrc.

To run scdm, use

$ scdm <rcfile>

scdm tries to source configuration files in this order, and uses the first existing one:

<rcfile specified on command line>
$HOME/.scdmrc
/etc/scdmrc

To autostart scdm when you log in your account, copy the content of /usr/share/doc/scdm/profile.sh to the tail of your shell profile (~/.profile, etc.) or copy the file to /etc/profile.d/ and make sure it is sourced after everything else, e.g. name the file 1000-scdm.sh (because it uses exec).

If you are using NixOS, you may want to append it to environment.loginShellInit in your configuration.nix.

Bugs & Enhancements

If you encounter any bugs or have ideas for enhancements, please send me an email or create an issue at GitHub.

Dependencies

scdm only depends on:

• a posix compliant shell (with utils)
• fgconsole, which is provided by busybox or the linux keyboard tools
• the coreutils
• startx(1) if you want to start X11 sessions

The first two points are fully covered by busybox.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2013--2018 Johannes Rosenberger

This code is released under a BSD Style License.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

For more details please read the 'LICENSE' file.