This is a related comment on X security. >>>>> "dpk" == dpk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > If you are trying to run X applications between to machines > you have to set the display and xhost variables.
Not to be overly picky here, but xhost is not exactly a "variable". For details, see the xhost man page or the X security faq. More importantly, I think it's worth pointing out that xhost does more than what you pointed out. In particular, it enables access to the local display for /all/ users on the remote machine. [...] > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> xhost remote.machine > remote.machine being added to access control list > Then you will be able to run X applications from the remote ^^^ = everybody on remote machine > machine having the display/interface to your X windows > environment. If you are working with single user machines, this may not be a problem, but when your work on multi-user systems, you may not want to open yourself up to this. A somewhat more secure way of handling display access is to use xauth. If the display that you want to use has been setup using xdm, you can get a "cookie" with the xauth command, i.e. host> xauth list $DISPLAY host.some.place.blah:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 9087132 The cookie value will vary - normally it's longer. On a remote host, you can add this cookie (authorization record) to the authority file on the remote host: otherhost> xauth add host.some.place.blah:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 9087132 This provides access authorization for the remote host to uyse the display host.some.place.blah:0, but only for the user who has the correct record in her authorization file. Regards, Mike P.S. Suggested readings: xauth, xhost, Xsecurity man pages (I don't think that the Xsecurity man page is not part of the standard debian distribution) and the X Security faq available at an archive near you. P.P.S. In case you have not logged in using xdm, you can make your own cookie. Just make sure that it is fairly unique and private (that is, stored only in your authorization file). I use the following alias in my .bashrc: alias bake-cookie= "xauth add ${HOST}:0 . `date +"%y%m%d%H%M%S"``date +"%y%m%d%H%M%S"`" -- Michael A. Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nuclear Physics Lab, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign PGP public key available on request