Novell Documentation: Novell Linux Desktop

E.7 Session Management

A session occurs between the time that a user logs in to the GNOME Desktop and the time that the user logs out. The session manager starts after the login manager authenticates the user. The session manager lets the user manage the session. For example, a user can save the state of a session and return to that session the next time that he logs in.

At a minimum, the following applications run in a session:

The session manager, gnome-session.
The GConf X settings daemon, gnome-settings-daemon.
The gnome-panel application, which runs the panels in the GNOME Desktop.
The Metacity window manager.

The following table lists the files that contain default session information:

Table E-16 Default Session Information Files

File	Description
/opt/gnome/share/gnome/default.session	Default session file. Default session details are stored in this file.
$HOME/.gnome2/session	User session file. When a user modifies the session, the details are stored in this file.

To set default session details for all users, modify the default session file.

To restore the default session settings for a user, delete the session file from the home directory of the user. If no user session file is present, the default settings in /opt/gnome/share/gnome/default.session are used.

To save the current session as the default session, users can run the gnome-session-save command.