Problem with xprompt under X

Using the twm window manager with the old default .twmrc, commands accessible via the mouse which use xprompt (which is typically used to prompt in a little window for a host name), hang the session. You can get out of this situation immediately by logging in from somewhere else and killing the xprompt process.

To set things up so that you don't encounter this problem again, you must background all usages of xprompt in your .twmrc file. You probably have some lines in your .twmrc like

   "Rlogin"   !"rhost=`xprompt -re -p Host` ; test $rhost && xterm -s -title $rhost -e rlogin $rhost &"
To background the command, you should put everything within the double quotes (except the & at the end) in parentheses, like
   "Rlogin"   !"(rhost=`xprompt -re -p Host` ; test $rhost && xterm -s -title $rhost -e rlogin $rhost) &"

This page last updated 1/26/95.