GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 598917
Orca Multiple Instances
Last modified: 2010-08-01 23:08:49 UTC
Running multiple instances of orca on different X session on single computer Test Case ---------- 1) startx -- :1 2) open xterm 3) type orca 1) startx -- :2 2) open xterm 3) type orca The first instance of orca is killed with return code 137.
Issue resolved. If you need to launch multiple instances of orca for multi-head systems under one useraccount (live session user) then you should avoid using the /usr/bin/orca shell script. The cleanup() function in this shell script kills all the previous orca processes under current username, instead you should launch orca manually with "python -c 'import orca.orca; orca.orca.main()'". To avoid conflicts use different user perferences directory for each instance with '-u, --user-prefs-dir' option.
An alternative might be to provide a "--no-exit" feature or something that can be passed on the command line to tell the orca shell script to not do a cleanup. I'd be happy to review a patch for this.
Created attachment 147206 [details] [review] adds '-z' no exit option A quick patch for adding '-z' no-exit option to orca.
Created attachment 147397 [details] [review] Patch that was committed Thanks Arky! I had to modify the patch a little bit since it would do a clean up if any other command line option was included on the command line. I also updated the man page.
Patch committed to master for 2.29.2. Closing. Thanks!
I had a discussion with a GNOME community member about better ways for handling multiple instances. The common way used across many applications is to provide a --replace option. When the --replace option is used, the other process will be killed and a new one will be started. The default is that --replace is not used. In this case, if a process is already running, the new one will not be launched. I'll work up a patch for this.
Created attachment 147704 [details] [review] Add --replace option
Willie, When orca stops speaking (for whatever reason) blind users do alt+F2 and type 'orca' in run dialog box. Now users have to do 'orca --replace' ? Please correct me if I am wrong, user might be not happy with this.
(In reply to comment #8) > Willie, When orca stops speaking (for whatever reason) blind users do alt+F2 > and type 'orca' in run dialog box. > > Now users have to do 'orca --replace' ? Please correct me if I am wrong, user > might be not happy with this. Not a big problem, at least for me. I've a shortcut key to run orca and what I did was to append the --replace switch to the orca command.
(In reply to comment #8) > Willie, When orca stops speaking (for whatever reason) blind users do alt+F2 > and type 'orca' in run dialog box. > > Now users have to do 'orca --replace' ? Please correct me if I am wrong, user > might be not happy with this. Correct - a user will now need to type "orca --replace". This is consistent with the way other folks handle singleton instances of their applications, and I'll mention the change in the NEWS for the next release of Orca. I suspect some users will be unhappy, but this response makes me feel comfortable (thanks Jose!): > Not a big problem, at least for me. > I've a shortcut key to run orca and what I did was to append the --replace > switch to the orca command.