NAME

       gnome-session - Start the GNOME desktop environment

SYNOPSIS

       gnome-session [OPTION...]

DESCRIPTION

       The gnome-session program starts up the GNOME desktop environment. This command is typically executed by
       your login manager (either GDM, SDDM, lightdm, or other). It will load either your saved session, or it
       will provide a default session for the user as defined by the system administrator (or the default GNOME
       installation on your system). Note that gnome-session is a wrapper script for gnome-session-binary, which
       does the bulk of the work.

       The default session is defined in gnome.session, a .desktop-like file that is looked for in
       $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions and
       $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions.

OPTIONS

       --autostart=DIR
           The directory DIR to be searched for autostart .desktop files. This option can be used multiple
           times. When this option is present, then default autostart directories will not be searched.

       --session=SESSION
           Use the applications defined in SESSION.session. If not specified, gnome.session will be used.

       --failsafe
           Run in fail-safe mode. User-specified applications will not be started.

       --debug
           Enable debugging code.

       --whale
           Show the fail whale in a dialog for debugging it.

SESSION DEFINITION

       Sessions are defined in .session files, that are using a .desktop-like format, with the following keys in
       the GNOME Session group:

       Name
           Name of the session. This can be localized.

       RequiredComponents
           List of component identifiers (desktop files) that are required by the session. The required
           components will always run in the session.

       Here is an example of a session definition:

           [GNOME Session]
           Name=GNOME
           RequiredComponents=gnome-shell;gnome-settings-daemon;

       In systemd managed sessions, the RequiredComponents may be provided by systemd units instead. See the
       systemd section for more information on how this works.

       The .session files are looked for in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions,
       $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions and $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions.

SYSTEMD

       gnome-session will much of the session management over to systemd, if systemd is available. In this case,
       startup components that have X-GNOME-HiddenUnderSystemd=true set in their .desktop file will be ignored
       by gnome-session. It instead relies on the fact that these components are managed by systemd.

       systemd provides the two special targets for desktop integration: graphical-session.target and
       graphical-session-pre.target. These work across desktop environments, and should be used if possible.
       gnome-session provides the following additional GNOME-specific targets:

       gnome-session.target
           Generic unit that will be active throughout the session. Similar to graphical-session.target.

       gnome-session-pre.target
           Used for tasks that need to be done before session startup. Similar to graphical-session-pre.target.

       gnome-session-x11@SESSION.target, gnome-session-wayland@SESSION.target
           Main unit started for X11/wayland based session.  SESSION is set according to the session that is
           passed in via --session.

       gnome-session-x11.target, gnome-session-wayland.target
           Convenience units without the session embedded into the target.

       gnome-session@SESSION.target
           Convenience unit with just the SESSION information embedded.

       gnome-session-x11-services.target
           Special unit started when X11 services are needed. Programs will need to use the special
           GNOME_SETUP_DISPLAY environment variable instead of DISPLAY.

       Note that care must be taken to set appropriate After= rules. It is also strongly recommended to always
       do this in combination with BindsTo= or PartOf= on one of the core targets (e.g.
       graphical-session.target).

       Units are required to set CollectMode=inactive-or-failed. In addition, it is strongly recommended to set
       TimeoutStopSec=5 so that logout will not be delayed indefinitely in case the process does not stop
       properly.

ENVIRONMENT

       gnome-session sets several environment variables for use by the session:

       DISPLAY
           This variable is set to the X display being used by gnome-session. Note that if the --display option
           is used this might be different from the setting of the environment variable in gnome-session's
           environment.

       Behavior of gnome-session ifself can be modified via the following environment variables:

       GNOME_SESSION_AUTOSTART_DIR
           This variable specifies a list of directories to the searched for autostart files. This variable
           overrides all directories specified via the --autostart option, as well as all default autostart
           directories.

FILES

                 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart
                 $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart
                 /usr/share/gnome/autostart

       Applications defined via .desktop files in those directories will be started on login.

                 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions
                 $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions
                 $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions

       These directories contain the .session files that can be used with the --session option.

                 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/saved-sessions

       This directory contains the list of applications of the saved session.

BUGS

       If you find bugs in the gnome-session program, please report these on
       https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-session/issues.

SEE ALSO

       gnome-session-quit(1)

gnome-session                                                                                   GNOME-SESSION(1)