Tech Blog

I have been working on my Arch Linux box for a while now and have found that I could run Compiz-Fusion Standalone.
It is up and running great!
The only issue I had was finding a way to log out (or log off) of my current session gracefully.

It seems everyone who is running Fusion Standalone has simply been killing their Xserver.
This isn't graceful and can lead to data loss, from what I've read. So, I did something about it.
I wrote this simple bash script to do a log off regardless of what WM or DE you are using.
Thus far, it works great!

First things first, my standard warning, this does require root privleges, and as such, can cause irreversible damage to your system. I take no responsibility for such. If you can follow simple instructions though, you should have no issues.

Ok then, now, we need to open up your favorite editor as root:

sudo nano /usr/bin/endsession

(remember, replace nano with your editor of choice)

Next, copy the below into the file and save it:

#!/bin/bash
##
## WM/DE independent Session Ender
## Rationale: I was using a Fusion Standalone session
## and quickly realized there was no way to log out
## of my current session without killing the X server.
## This script allows us to do that, regardless of WM/DE.
##
## By: PiklesOnFire

## User Defined Locations:
## Location of Zenity:
ZenLoc="/usr/bin/zenity"

## Location of Xmessage:
XmesLoc="/usr/bin/xmessage"
## End Editable Content




## Do not edit Below this line unless you are fixing a bug
## Or adding/changing functionality


function Quit {
	exit 0
}

function Error {
	exit 1
}

## This cleanly ends only the current user's session:
function EndSession {
	skill -TERM -u $(whoami)&
	sleep 5 &&
	skill -KILL -u $(whoami) &&
	## Following line only added for bash compatibility
	Quit
}

## Check for Zenity, if fail, check for Xmessage, 
## if fail, exit with error
function CheckLoc {
	if [ -f $ZenLoc ]; then
		ZenPrompt
	else
		if [ -f $XmesLoc ]; then
			XPrompt
		else
			Error
		fi
	fi
}

## Use Xmessage to confirm:
function XPrompt {
	answer=$(xmessage  "Are you sure you want to shutdown? " \
	-buttons yes,no -print)
	if [ $answer = "yes" ]; then
		EndSession
	else
		Quit
	fi
}

## Use Zenity to confirm:
function ZenPrompt {
	zenity --question --title "Log Off Confirmation" \
	--text "Are you sure you want to end your current session?"

	if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then
		EndSession
	else
		Quit
	fi
}

CheckLoc

Now we need to make it executable:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/endsession

All that's left to do is create a shortcut to this file on your panel/desktop/shortcut key (whatever you prefer) and give it an icon if you like.

(As a side note, you don't have to use /usr/bin/endsession - the file can be called whatever you want, just make sure it's in your user's $PATH. If on a multi user system, the location I mentioned should be good.)

Hope this simple bash script comes in handy for other users as well and fuels the Fusion Revolution

Happy Hacking
~PiklesOnFire~