Linux/IRAF Site Manager's Guide

Linux/IRAF Site Manager's Guide

4.1. The XFree86 environment

The graphics and image display tools provided with IRAF operate within the XFree86 windowing environment much like the standard tools provided with XFree86. To help illustrate the use of these tools, Linux/IRAF is distributed with a sample XFree86 environment already configured for the IRAF account. This consists of the following files in the IRAF account login directory, iraf$local.

.Xdefaults
Sets up the defaults for how the window system looks, e.g., defines the X resources controlling window colors, fonts, etc.
.fvwmrc
An example of a simple custom rootmenu for the fvwm window manager, including entries for xgterm and ximtool. Other window managers will rely on a different configuration file.
.xinitrc
Executed at window system start up time to create all the windows.

No one screen layout will suit all users or all applications. Everyone will wish to customize the workstation screen to suit their preferences and the type of work they are doing. However, the configuration provided works and should be useful as an example of how to make things function correctly.