Re: Saving sessions before a system shutdown

[José Alburquerque <jaalburquerque cox net>]

Ted Gould wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-11-26 at 20:21 -0500, José Alburquerque wrote:
>   
> > Ted Gould wrote:
> >     
> > > I don't know if you've already gotten an answer, but I don't think there
> > > is a generic way to do this currently.  But, I think the part you're
> > > looking for is probably the command: "gnome-session-save".  I believe if
> > > you run this with "--kill" and "--silent" on all users currently logged
> > > in you should get what you're looking for.
> > >       
> > Thanks for answering.  A developer from this list did give a similar 
> > answer off-list, but, again, I appreciate your suggestion.  :-)
> >     
>
> For those finding this thread on Google, did it work?  Any advice from
> your experiences?
>
> 		--Ted
>
>   
I haven't gotten around to implement the solution I'm thinking about.  
As I mentioned the other developer suggested that I use 
gnome-session-save (as you suggest).  With his permission (please), our 
conversation on this is below:

------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Saving sessions before a system shutdown
Date: 	Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:35:39 -0400
From: 	José Alburquerque <jaalburquerque cox net>
To: 	Kamil Leduchowski <nierozwazny o2 pl>
References: 	<471FA62E 6080301 cox net> 
<1193267148 6726 10 camel softmachine>



Kamil Leduchowski wrote:
> Dnia 24-10-2007, Śr o godzinie 16:08 -0400, José Alburquerque pisze:
>
>   
> > Does anyone think it's possible to insert some script in /etc/init.d
> > that might save the session before a shutdown?  In other words is there
> > some way to save the session(s) (if there are more than one) just before
> > a shutdown?
> >     
>
> Try adding gnome-session-save --silent to your logout script/cron
> command this should do the trick for you. Btw gnome-devel-list is for
> developer issues. In future I recommend using gnome-list gnome org
>
>   
I understand this is a developer's list, I just thought that I could 
find a bit of wisdom here; also I don't get answers in gnome-list!

BTW, your solution assumes that the script runs from within the gnome 
session.  For example, if I have a gnome session running and login in a 
virtual console as the same user and use the gnome-session-save command 
above, it fails because it "cannot open display".

I know about the "gnome-session-save" command, but what I'm sort of 
looking for is an idea as to how a root script (not a script within the 
session) can "safely" save the sessions of users logged in just before 
shutting down.  I was sort of looking for pointers from smart people 
about what paths I might follow to attempt to "tackle" this 
"theoretical" problem.  I hope I didn't bother any of the developers or 
you.  Any ideas on this?  Thanks.

-Jose

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Saving sessions before a system shutdown
Date: 	Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:00:14 -0400
From: 	José Alburquerque <jaalburquerque cox net>
To: 	Kamil Leduchowski <nierozwazny o2 pl>
References: 	<471FA62E 6080301 cox net> 
<1193267148 6726 10 camel softmachine> <471FD6CB 8030903 cox net> 
<1193828970 6709 12 camel softmachine>



Kamil Leduchowski wrote:
> Dnia 24-10-2007, Śr o godzinie 19:35 -0400, José Alburquerque pisze: 
>   
> > Kamil Leduchowski wrote:
> >     
> > > Dnia 24-10-2007, Śr o godzinie 16:08 -0400, José Alburquerque pisze:
> > >       
> > BTW, your solution assumes that the script runs from within the gnome 
> > session.  For example, if I have a gnome session running and login in a 
> > virtual console as the same user and use the gnome-session-save command 
> > above, it fails because it "cannot open display".
> >
> >     
>
> Hello. Yes you are right it is a bit more complicated. "cannont open
> display" can be avoided by adding a --display option to save session
> command, in example:
>
> gnome-session-save --silent --kill --display=:0
>
> (if you use only one display that is) but this alone ain't enough.
> There's one more thing you need and that's a functional SESSION_MANAGER
> value created when X starts (for example it might look like
> local/softmachine:/tmp/.ICE-unix/5845) and it points to a socket on your
> local machine, but it isn't stored anywhere outside X session. In order
> to make gnome-session-save working outside you need to export it first
> on non-X terminal:
>
> export SESSION_MANAGER=local/softmachine:/tmp/.ICE-unix/5845
>
> and then call the session save command (the one listed above will save
> and end your gnome session without asking for a confirm on X). I hope
> this will help a bit.
>   
Thanks a lot.  It does help.  I'm thinking that maybe I can insert some 
commands somewhere when the session starts to store these values 
somewhere (on a per-user basis).  I can then use the values in a 
"general" script to save all the running sessions.  Last question if you 
can answer (and thanks for your reply!):  Would you have an idea as to 
where in the session start process I might be able to "export" these 
values on a per-user basis?  If I can figure this out, I'm sure I'll be 
able to write a general session saving script.  Again, thanks for 
pointers they've been really helpful.

-Jose


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Saving sessions before a system shutdown
Date: 	Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:57:57 -0500
From: 	José Alburquerque <jaalburquerque cox net>
To: 	Kamil Leduchowski <nierozwazny o2 pl>
References: 	<471FA62E 6080301 cox net> 
<1193267148 6726 10 camel softmachine> <471FD6CB 8030903 cox net> 
<1193828970 6709 12 camel softmachine> <4728D0BE 1040302 cox net>



José Alburquerque wrote:
> Thanks a lot.  It does help.  I'm thinking that maybe I can insert 
> some commands somewhere when the session starts to store these values 
> somewhere (on a per-user basis).  I can then use the values in a 
> "general" script to save all the running sessions.  Last question if 
> you can answer (and thanks for your reply!):  Would you have an idea 
> as to where in the session start process I might be able to "export" 
> these values on a per-user basis?  If I can figure this out, I'm sure 
> I'll be able to write a general session saving script.  Again, thanks 
> for pointers they've been really helpful.
>
> -Jose

Don't bother, I figured this out thanks to your previous pointers.  Thanks.

-Jose

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Based on the above e-mails, I thought that using an x (or gnome-session) 
startup script of some sort, I could save session information for a user 
when he/she logs in.  The script run just before shutdown could use this 
information to save the sessions for the user that wants this.  Also I 
found the following link useful:

http://gnome-hacks.org/hacks.html?id=34

HTH.

-Jose