EMPTTY(1) emptty EMPTTY(1)

emptty - Dead simple CLI Display Manager on TTY

emptty [-v] [--version] [-d] [--daemon] [-c PATH] [--config PATH] [-i] [--ignore-config] [-t TTY] [--tty TTY] [-u defaultUser] [--default-user defaultUser] [-a [session]] [--autologin [session]]

emptty Simple CLI Display Manager, that allows one to select DE/WM after login, use predefined config or allows autologin, if selected user is part of nopasswdlogin group.

Display the version of the program.
Starts emptty as daemon, that does not require agetty.
Loads configuration from specified path.
Skips loading of configuration from file, loads only argument configuration.
Overrides loaded configuration by setting defined TTY. May be specified as a number (e.g. "7") or a TTY name (e.g. "tty7").
Overrides loaded configuration by setting defined defaultUser.
Overrides loaded configuration by enabling autologin. If session is defined, it overrides autologin session.

/etc/emptty/conf

TTY, where emptty will start.
Enables switching to defined TTY number. Default is true.
Enables printing of /etc/issue in daemon mode.
Enables printing of default motd, static motd or dynamic motd.
Preselected user, if AUTOLOGIN is enabled, this user is logged in.
Preselected desktop session, if user does not use `emptty` file. Has lower priority than AUTOLOGIN_SESSION
Optional environment of preselected desktop session, if user does not use `emptty` file. Possible values are "xorg" and "wayland".
Enables Autologin, if DEFAULT_USER is defined. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.

NOTE: to enable autologin DEFAULT_USER must be in group nopasswdlogin , otherwise user will NOT be authorized.

The default session used, if Autologin is enabled. If session is not found in list of session, it proceeds to manual selection.
Optional environment of autologin desktop session. Possible values are "xorg" and "wayland".
If Autologin is enabled and session does not start correctly, the number of retries in short period is kept to eventually stop the infinite loop of restarts. -1 is for infinite retries, 0 is for no retry. Default value is 2.
defines locale for all users. Default value is "en_US.UTF-8"
Starts "dbus-launch" before desktop command. After end of session "dbus-daemon" is interrupted. Default value is true. If user config is handled as script (does not contain Exec option), this config is overridden to false.
Starts "dbus-launch" before desktop command in any case, DBUS_LAUNCH value is ignored. It also starts even if XINITRC_LAUNCH is set to `true`. After end of session "dbus-daemon" is interrupted. Default value is false.
Starts Xorg desktop with calling ~/.xinitrc script with session exec as argument, if is true, file exists and selected WM/DE is Xorg session, it overrides DBUS_LAUNCH. If user config is handled as script (does not contain Exec option), this config is overridden to false.
Prints available WM/DE each on new line instead of printing on single line.
Defines how logging is handled. Possible values are "rotate", "appending" or "disabled". Default value is "rotate".
Overrides path of log file. Default value is /var/log/emptty/[TTY_NUMBER].log

NOTE: It expects existence of directories to defined logging file.

Arguments passed to Xorg server.
Allows using dynamic motd script to generate custom MOTD. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.

NOTE: Be sure, that dynamic motd has correct content and permissions (e.g. 744), the script is started as default user; in daemon mode it means root

Allows overriding default path to dynamic motd. Default value is "/etc/emptty/motd-gen.sh".
Allows overriding default path to static motd. Default value is "/etc/emptty/motd".
Foreground color, available only in daemon mode. List of colors is listed below.
Background color, available only in daemon mode. List of colors is listed below.
Script started before Display (Xorg/Wayland) starts.

NOTE: The script is started as default user; in daemon mode it means root

Script started after Display (Xorg/Wayland) stops.

NOTE: The script is started as default user; in daemon mode it means root

Enables numlock in daemon mode. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.
Defines how logging of session errors is handled. Possible values are "rotate", "appending" or "disabled". Default value is "disabled".
Overrides path of session errors log file. Default value is /var/log/emptty/session-errors.[TTY_NUMBER].log

NOTE: It expects existence of directories to defined logging file.

Disallows setting of fallback values for all XDG environmental variables and leaves it on Login Controls. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.

NOTE: Be aware, that setting to "true" could lead to unexpected behaviour.

If set true, it will not use .emptty-xauth file, but the standard ~/.Xauthority file. This allows handling xauth issues. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.
If set true, Xorg will be started as rootless, if system allows and emptty is running in daemon mode. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.
If set true, environmental groups are printed to differ Xorg/Wayland/Custom/UserCustom desktops. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.
If set true, "hostname login:" is not displayed. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.
If set true, "Password:" is not displayed. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.
Path to directory, where Xorg sessions' desktop files are stored. Default value is "/usr/share/xsessions/".
Path to directory, where Wayland sessions' desktop files are stored. Default value is "/usr/share/wayland-sessions/".
Enables funtionality of saving last successfully logged in user for next login. Possible values are "false", "per-tty" or "global". Default value is false.
If set to "true" and only one desktop is available, it automatically select that desktop. Possible values are "true" or "false". Default value is false.
If set to "true" and no default user is selected, it allows to enter commands into login input. Possible values are "true" or "false", Default value is true.
Command to be used to perform poweroff. Default value is "poweroff".
Command to be used to perform reboot. Default value is "reboot".
Command to be used to perform suspend. Default value is blank, but it tries to use "systemctl suspend", "loginctl suspend" or "zzz".

If commands are allowed and default user is not defined, there could be used commands in login input. All of these commands need to start with colon ":". Escape characters are ignored to prevent issues with muscle memory from VI.
- :help, :? - prints available commands
- :poweroff, :shutdown - processess poweroff command
- :reboot - processes reboot command
- :suspend, :zzz - processes suspend command

DYNAMIC MOTD

Optional file stored by default as /etc/emptty/motd-gen.sh. Could be overridden.

If DYNAMIC_MOTD is set to true, this file exists and is executable for its owner, the result is printed as your own MOTD. Be very careful with this script!

Optional file stored by default as /etc/emptty/motd. Could be overridden.

Custom file, that prints your own MOTD. Reading this file supports colors (e.g. \x1b[31m or \033[32m )

Optional file stored as ${HOME}/.config/emptty or ${HOME}/.emptty

Configuration file stored as ${HOME}/.config/emptty has higher priority on loading.

Optional name to be used as Session Name.
Defines command to start Desktop Environment/Window Manager. This value does not need to be defined, if user config is presented as shell script (with shebang at the start and execution permissions).
Selects, which environment should be defined for following command. Possible values are "xorg" and "wayland", "xorg" is default.
Defines locale for logged user, has higher priority than LANG from global configuration
Requires selection of desktop, basically turns emptty file into .xinitrc for Xorg and Wayland. In this case Exec is skipped. Possible values are "false" for never using selection, "true" for always showing selection or "auto" for showing selection or first option autoselect, if there is no other desktop. Default value is false.
Defines custom shell to be used to start the session. This allows starting the session with non-interactive shell e.g. "/bin/bash --login"
Value passed into XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP variable.

Optional script file stored as ${HOME}/.config/emptty-exit, that is handled as shell script and is started, when session is going to end. Script is started even if emptty is being terminated. The default timeout to finish script is 3 seconds, but it is configurable from the script itself.

Optional custom timeout for script to finish its run, number represents seconds. Default is 3.

Optional folders for custom sessions, that could be available system-wide (in case of /etc/emptty/custom-sessions/) or user-specific (in case of ${HOME}/.config/emptty-custom-sessions/), but do not have .desktop file stored on standard paths for Xorg or Wayland sessions. Expected suffix of each file is ".desktop".

Defines name of Desktop Environment/Window Manager.
Defines command to start Desktop Environment/Window Manager. It could contain multiple arguments same as in *.desktop files.
Selects, which environment should be defined for following command. Possible values are "xorg" and "wayland", "xorg" is default.
Value passed into XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP variable.
Boolean value, that controls visibility of desktop session.

The last user selection of session is stored into ~/.cache/emptty/last-session

As it is mentioned in configuration, there are three options to handle logging of emptty. The logs contains not just logs from emptty, but also from Xorg (if used) and user's WM/DE. Described log location could differ according configuration LOGGING_FILE , that is stored in /etc/emptty/conf

This option provides simple solution, when current instance of emptty logs into /var/log/emptty/[TTY_NUMBER].log and the previous version is stored as /var/log/emptty/[TTY_NUMBER].log.old

NOTE: Current instance always move previous log into old file, if emptty crashes and is started again, previous log is in /var/log/emptty/[TTY_NUMBER].log.old

This option provides functionality that logs everything into /var/log/emptty/[TTY_NUMBER].log and does not handle log rotation by itself. It leaves the option for user to handle it themselves (e.g. with logrotate).

NOTE: Appending without roration could cause large log file, be sure that log file is rotated.

This option points all log into /dev/null , so no log is available.

NOTE: If any issue starts to appear and you want to report it, ensure you do not use this option.

Please, be aware that LIGHT_ colors could be unavailable as background color.

BLACK, RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, PURPLE, CYAN, WHITE

LIGHT_BLACK, LIGHT_RED, LIGHT_GREEN, LIGHT_YELLOW, LIGHT_BLUE, LIGHT_PURPLE, LIGHT_CYAN, LIGHT_WHITE

August 2024 emptty 0.13.0