dtappgather(1) USER COMMANDS dtappgather(1)NAMEdtappgather - gather application files for presentation by
the Application Manager
SYNOPSIS
[ -r ]
DESCRIPTION
The Application Manager presents personal, system, and fac-
tory applications in an easy-to-access window. The Applica-
tion Manager is implemented as a special File Manager view
of a subdirectory that is built on a per-user, per-session
basis. The dtappgather utility is responsible for creating
and refreshing the user's Application Manager subdirectory.
The dtappgather utility is run at login and whenever the
user invokes the ReloadApps action. The user's individual
subdirectory for the Application Manager,
/var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/$DTUSERSESSION, is opened when
the user presses the Application Manager control on the
Front Panel.
The sequence of events is as follows:
o When the user logs in, the Xsession script
sources in the Xsession.d script that sets the
DTUSERSESSION environment variable.
o Xsession then invokes the dtsearchpath utility to
set the DTAPPSEARCHPATH environment variable.
o After dtsearchpath returns with the DTAPPSEAR-
CHPATH assembled, the Xsession script calls
dtappgather.
o As its main function, dtappgather traverses the
DTAPPSEARCHPATH, examining each possible source
of applications and, where there are existing
source subdirectories, creates symbolic links
between the source and the user's DTUSERSESSION
subdirectory.
o Finally, dtappgather turns off write permissions
on the resulting subdirectory to ensure its
integrity.
A similar sequence occurs when the user double-
clicks the ReloadApps action after logging in.
Although the value of the DTAPPSEARCHPATH can be
modified in a local shell, the Application
Manager view based on its value is not functional
Unix System LaboratoLast change: 1 August 1995 1
dtappgather(1) USER COMMANDS dtappgather(1)
until you log out and log back in. Since this
can be a tedious venture, you can verify the
Application Manager view by executing dtsear-
chpath(1) and dtappgather in the local shell.
For example, to add host trout as a system-wide
application server, set the dtsearchpath(1) input
environment variable, DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS:
DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS=trout:
Then, execute dtsearchpath(1) to update the
DTAPPSEARCHPATH environment variable.
eval `dtsearchpath`
Finally, gather the new applications by executing
dtappgather. The Application Manager will show
the new application groups but will not be func-
tional.
OPTIONS
The -r option causes dtappgather to retain the previous con-
tents of the Application Manager, although discarding broken
links. At login, dtappgather destroys the user's previous
DTUSERSESSION subdirectory before creating a new one. At
ReloadApps time, the -r option is used to minimize visual
disruption of any opened Application Manager views.
RETURN VALUES
The command always returns 0 (zero) for successful comple-
tion.
ENVIRONMENT
DTAPPSEARCHPATH
Set by the dtsearchpath(1) utility.
DTAPPSEARCHPATH controls the places where
dtappgather will gather applications. The
default locations consist of
$HOME/.dt/appmanager (for end users),
/etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/$LANG (for
system administrators), and
/usr/dt/appconfig/appmanager/$LANG (for
factory applications).
DTUSERSESSION Controls the location of the end user's
subdirectory where the Application Manager
will be rooted. The subdirectory name
includes both the user's $LOGNAME and
$DISPLAY in order to ensure the user's
view of the Application Manager remains
consistent across sessions.
Unix System LaboratoLast change: 1 August 1995 2
dtappgather(1) USER COMMANDS dtappgather(1)LOCALES
When searching for system administrator and factory default
Application Manager files, dtappgather always uses a value
of $LANG equal to C. When the user picks a language at
login, the corresponding $LANG subdirectories are searched.
If multiple $LANG subdirectories exist in
/etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager, all $LANG subdirectories will
appear in the Application Manager; however, if multiple
$LANG subdirectories exist in /usr/dt/appconfig/appmanager
then the language-specific subdirectory based on the current
value of $LANG is chosen instead of the C subdirectory.
Regardless of locale, all the action files that exist under
the user's $HOME/.dt/appmanager subdirectory will be symbol-
ically linked to the user's Application Manager subdirec-
tory.
FILES
/usr/dt/bin/Xsession
Among its tasks at login, the Xsession
script invokes dtsearchpath(1), and then
dtappgather.
/var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/$DTUSERSESSION
This subdirectory is where dtappgather
assembles the Application Manager view for
the particular user and TED session.
NOTES
In the case of multiple search locations having the same
name, dtappgather picks only the first and discards the
rest. For example, if the system administrator sets
DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS=tuna:,trout:
and if both hosts, tuna and trout, have an
/etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/C/Editors folder, then only the
Editors folder from tuna (the first host) will appear in the
user's Application Manager.
After building the user's DTUSERSESSION, dtappgather turns
off write permissions on that subdirectory to disallow
alteration by the end user. Although the end user can
resize the window and rearrange the icons within the window,
the Application Manager is intended to be a read-only source
of local and networked applications.
SEE ALSOdtappintegrate(1), dtsearchpath(1).
Unix System LaboratoLast change: 1 August 1995 3
