SfinxLite specifications

The new version of Sfinx, tentatively called SfinxLite, is intended to accomplish two objectives :
  1. it should conform to UNIX / X11 standards;
  2. it should support most current SFINX extensions.

Ad 1. UNIX / X11 standards

In the current system, most of the standard initialization files, such as .login, .cshrc, .xsession, .xinitrc, .twmrc are owned by SFINX, and users cannot modify those files. Modifications are allowed in a few special files : .settings, .packages, .Xapplications and an optional set of xtwmrc input files. The formats for these files are not well-documented. On the SFINX level there is a confusing mixture of files which serve multiple purposes, such as the entanglement of .cshrc, .sfinxcshrc, .xsession and .xinitrc.
Moreover, this setup is not portable to other systems without installing SFINX on those systems; conversion from the SFINX initialization files to their more standard UNIX counterparts is not trivial.

The new system intends to give the user a basic set of configuration files which he or she is free to alter. For proper usage, a few commands should be left in at all time, to ensure that the system-wide configuration is being read as part of the user's initialization.
For example, a standard .cshrc file will include a line to read a file from the $OSdir directory with system-wide settings for the c-shell.

Ad 2. Backward compatibility with SFINX extensions

Although the setup and philosophy of SfinxLite will differ greatly from that of the current SFINX system, the switch should be easy for the average user. Therefore, if a user has made private settings in any of the specific SFINX files, these should be maintained in the new environment with a minimum of trouble on the side of the user.
At this time, full support for .settings and .Xapplications is intended, and only slight changes in the behaviour of xtwmrc and .packages .

David.Jansen@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Last modified: Fri Aug 25 13:09:42 MET DST 1995