What Is a Session Manager in the X Window System?

In the X Window System, an X session manager is a session management program. It can save and restore the state of running applications, including the window manager.

The Indigo Magic window manager provides an application model for managing windows, sessions, and desks. It also provides a set of APIs that developers can use to implement the window and session manager.

Window, Session, and Desk Management Overview

The window, session, and desk management system includes a menu, a tree with groups of servers, a splitter bar, and a client area. Users can connect to a server or group and switch between them with a single command.

Session Manager

A session manager is a program that controls the login process for applications. It is in charge of starting all the other pieces that make up a login session and then shutting it down gracefully when the user logs out.

Login managers are designed to support a restart strategy that allows the same co-primary or support windows and data files to be redisplayed and open when the application restarts. This requires an application that responds to the window manager's WM_SAVE_YOURSELF message and supports the "Run Once" policy.

File Groups

RDCMan's top-level unit of organization is a remote desktop file group, which contains a list of servers and configuration information. All the servers in a group can be connected or disconnected at once, and the configuration settings can be inherited from a parent group or stored in a credential store.