[X2Go-User] Questions about sessions

[Mihai Moldovan]

On 03.03.2015 06:03 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 8:56 AM, Mihai Moldovan <ionic at ionic.de> wrote:
>> A suspended session has been gracefully suspended within the client.
>>
>> A running session could either be an active one currently used, or one
>> that is still waiting for a timeout of the client crashed or the
>> connection was dropped prematurely for any reason.
>> Running sessions should switch into suspended state after a (rather
>> long?) timeout.
>>
>> You cannot attach to running sessions, but you can forcefully suspend a
>> running session from the client and then attach to it.
> Is there some reason for that?   I preferred the NX/freenx approach
> where the new connection would automatically grab the existing session
> (since you obviously wouldn't be trying to reconnect if you already
> had a running client on the computer you are currently using).

I don't know. I can only guess, that running sessions are to be left
alone (in case it's being worked on from some other machine) and that in
most cases a new session makes more sense than sharing a session. I also
do not know how well session sharing works in general.
(That's just not my use case, sorry.)


>> If there is a suspended session, there multiple two cases:
>>   1.) the session you currently want to start matches the already
>> existing, suspended session (same settings, including the
>> "application"/"desktop" to start) => this session will then be attached
>> to without prior notification, you will NOT see the session list beforehand
>>   2.) the session to start matches a "running" session on the server.
>> You will be presented with the list (and able to forcefully suspend the
>> running session, if that's what you're after.)
>>   3.) the new session differs in session setting details. In this case,
>> you will get the session list.
>>
>> I don't like this, because it's inconvenient if you explicitly want to
>> start a new session with the same characteristics. In my opinion, the
>> session list should always be provided if one session (no matter the
>> settings or state) is running on the server.
> I disagree - I _always_ want to reconnect to my existing session,
> across different clients and I'd rather not have to do unnecessary
> work suspending/retrying or picking one session from a list of one
> just because my laptop and mac screen sizes don't match my windows
> desktop where the session was likely started.   If you are going to
> change this behavior, can you please make it configurable so people
> who only start one desktop session per host can always reconnect
> without extra confusion, including automatically grabbing the session
> you forgot to suspend before leaving your desk?

There's one point you're missing: it is currently *impossible* to start
a new session without knowing the exact workaround, if another session
with the same characteristics is running.

Maybe that's an edge case not concerning most users. When it comes to
myself, I do need it quite often. For instance, I use to start multiple
rootless xterm sessions for testing purposes when trying to reproduce
bugs or test new features/whatnot and *don't* want to disturb other
xterm sessions that are supposed to fulfill a particular purpose (e.g.,
"video editing".)

If there is one xterm session started, it is currently impossible to
start another one, without first starting some session that is not of
xterm type.


> Aside from always wanting access to my same set of open windows and
> long-running programs, I've had problems with  some desktop
> environments and GUI applications with concurrent sessions for the
> same user.   Some of them maintain hidden files that don't handle
> concurrent updates gracefully, and some (like firefox) may try to open
> a new instance as a new window in an already running session (which
> may not be the one you are displaying).    So - starting a new session
> if you already have one just seems wrong, especially if the session is
> of the same desktop environment type.

That's true for desktop sessions and specific applications which are
supposed to be started only once, yes.

There are valid reasons for multiple sessions, though, as outlined
above. I can't say how widespread those use cases are, though. It may be
only me, in the worst case, and I acknowledge that.



Mihai

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