X2Go Sessions File Format Specification
- Generic Sessions File Format
- Session Options en Detail

X2Go Sessions File Format Specification

Default path name

Linux, Mac OS X: $HOME/.x2goclient/sessions
Windows X2GoClient (non-portable mode): session profiles are stored in the Windows registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Obviously Nice\x2goclient\sessions)
Windows X2GoClient (portable mode): session profiles are stored in a file (location???)
Windows PyHoca-GUI: session profiles are stored in the file (%USERPROFILE%\.x2goclient\sessions)

Related command line options:

x2goclient: –portable, –home, –session-conf
pyhoca-gui: –client-rootdir

Generic Sessions File Format

[<unique-timestamp-for-session-1>]
<session1-option1>=<session1-value1>
<session1-option2>=<session1-value2>
...
<session1-optionN>=<session1-valueN>

[<unique-timestamp-for-session-2>]
<session2-option1>=<session2-value1>
<session2-option2>=<session2-value2>
...
<session2-optionN>=<session2-valueN>

...

[<unique-timestamp-for-session-M>]
<sessionM-option1>=<sessionM-value1>
<sessionM-option2>=<sessionM-value2>
...
<sessionM-optionN>=<sessionM-valueN>

Session Options en Detail

… in topical order.

General Session Options

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
name	String			Session profile name as shown in the application. PyHoca-GUI feature: using ,,/“ as a separator in the session profile name creates menus and submenus in the PyHoca-GUI applet (e.g. CUSTOMER-1/HOST-1, CUSTOMER-1/HOST-2, CUSTOMER-2/HOST-1, …)
icon	Filename	:/img/icons/128×128/x2gosession.png	:icons/128×128/x2gosession.png	Icon for Desktop Session Windows

Session Window Options

… only available with Python X2Go / PyHoca

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
setsessiontitle	Boolean	not supported	false	If disabled, the server-side provided session title is used
sessiontitle	String	not supported		Store a customized session window title in the session profile config

Connection Options

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
host	String			FQDN Hostname or IP Adress
user	String			Username on X2Go Server
autologin	Boolean	false	false	Use SSH agent or default key files for session logon
forwardsshagent	Boolean	not supported	false	Tunnel authentication requests back to the client side SSH agent, requires Paramiko/SSH (>= 1.9.0)
key	Filename			Filename to SSH private key file
krblogin	Boolean	false	not supported
pack	String	jpeg-16m	jpeg-16m	NX compression method
quality	[0..9]	9	9	NX compression quality
speed	[0..4]	2	2	0=Modem, 1=ISDN, 2=ADSL, 3=WAN, 4=LAN

SSH Proxy Options

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
usesshproxy	Boolean	false	false	Connect via a SSH proxy
sshproxytype	String	SSH	SSH	Also available: HTTP (X2Go Client only, not working on most systems as it relies on a not-yet released feature in libssh2
sshproxyhost	String			Format: <hostname>[:<port>]
sshproxyuser	String			Username for connecting to SSH proxy server
sshproxykeyfile	Filename			Filename of local SSH private key
sshproxytunnel	String		deprecated since 0.4.0.0	localhost:<port-on-proxy>:<x2goserver-hostname-or-ip>:<x2goserver-port>
sshproxyautologin	Boolean	false	false	Use SSH agent or default key files for SSH proxy logon
sshproxysameuser	Boolean	false	false	Use the same user name on the SSH proxy as on the X2Go Server
sshproxysamepass	Boolean	false	false	Password for X2Go Server and SSH proxy are identical

Display Options

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
width	pos. Integer	800	800	Geometry of non-fullscreen window
height	pos. Integer	600	600	Geometry of non-fullscreen window
dpi	Integer	96	96	Use the dpi value to manipulate the font size in a session
fullscreen	Boolean	false	false
maxdim	Boolean	not supported	false	Detect the maximum size for a new session window on the current screen
multidisp	Boolean	false	not supported
xinerama	Boolean	false	not supported

Keyboard Options

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
usekbd	Boolean	false	false	Do not send keyboard type and layout to server, use as is
layout	String	i18n dependent	i18n dependent	Keyboard Layout (en, de, …)
type	String	i18n dependent	i18n dependent	Keyboard type

Audio Options

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
sound	Boolean	true	true	Enable sound
soundtunnel	Boolean	true	true	Python X2Go always tunnels sound through SSH
defsndport	Boolean	true	true
soundsystem	String	pulse	pulse	Possible values: none, pulse, arts, esd
sndport	Pos. Integer	depends on soundsystem	depends on soundsystem	pulse: 4713, esd: 16001
startsoundsystem	Boolean	false	false	Start sound system's daemon for started sessions

Local Folder Sharing / X2Go Printing

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
useexports	Boolean	true	true
export	String			Format: ”<folder1>:[0 or 1];<folder2>:[0 or 1];“
useiconv	Boolean	false	false
iconvfrom	String	UTF-8	UTF-8	Encoding names as understood by the iconv tool
iconvto	String	UTF-8	UTF-8	Encoding names as understood by the iconv tool
fstunnel	Boolean	true	true	On Python X2Go, file systems are always tunneled through SSH
print	Boolean	true	true

Use ~ in the folder path to refer to the User Home Directory ($HOME or %HomePath%)¹⁾.

MIME Box Options

… only available with Python X2Go / PyHoca

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
usemimebox	Boolean	not supported	false	Enable MIME box support
mimeboxaction	String	not supported	OPEN	Possible values: OPEN, OPENWITH, SAVEAS
mimeboxextensions	List	not supported		Comma-separated list of allowed file extensions. If left empty, all file extensions are allowd (not recommended!). However, some extensions are always blacklisted: .lock, .sys, .swp, .exe, .com, .cmd, .ps1, .ps2, .bat, .js, .py, .pl, .sh

Session Command Options

Option name	Data Type	Default value X2Go Client	Default value Python X2Go	Comment
autostart	Boolean	false	false
xdmcpserver	String	localhost	localhost	Only used if `command=XDMCP`
rdpserver	String			FQDN Hostname or IP of Windows server, only used if `command=RDP`
rdpoptions	String		-u X2GO_USER -p X2GO_PASSWORD	RDP options for `command=RDP`
applications	List	WWWBROWSER, MAILCLIENT, OFFICE, TERMINAL	dito	List of generic commands offered by X2Go Client / Pyhoca-GUI for quick-launching. Commands are handed over to the server script `x2goruncommand` which then decides what application to launch.
rootless	Boolean	depends on session command	depends on session command
command	String	KDE	TERMINAL	Command to be launched on X2Go Server, see below
published	Boolean	false	false	Enable ,,published applications” mode of X2Go

Possible Session Command Combinations

Desktop sessions: (command=[KDE,GNOME,LXDE,…]):
- KDE (startkde)
- GNOME (gnome-session)
- LXDE (lxde-session)
- XFCE4 (xfce4-session, Python X2Go only)
- TRINITY (starttrinity, Python X2Go only, don't miss the README.Trinity-Desktop file!!)
- UNITY (unity-2d-launcher, Python X2Go only, very experimental and not well supported)

Single Applications (command=[TERMINAL,WWWBROWSER,OFFICE,MAILCLIENT]):
- TERMINAL (find terminal application on server and launch)
- WWWBROWSER (find browser on server …)
- OFFICE (find office application on server …)
- MAILCLIENT (find mail client on server …)

Remote Desktop (command=RDP):
- Setting the command to RDP will turn X2Go into an RDP proxy (RDP via NX). RDP will receive a performance improvement on WAN connections and X2Go will guarantee SSH encryption (whereas RDP drops encryption if the bandwidth won't suffice).
- Make sure to use the options rdpserver and rdpoptions properly.

XDMCP (command=XDMCP):
- Do an XDMCP query for the XDMCP server specified by the xdmcpserver option. Useful if you have a complex terminal server setup behind one X2Go gateway (e.g. handled by an XDMCP chooser).

Other applications (command=<unix-application-on-server>):
- Specify any application (by its name) that is available via $PATH. No full path names are allowed here, the path will be stripped off of the file name provided. Make sure your $PATH environment variable resolves to the wanted application properly.

Published applications mode (command=, published=true):
- Leave the command option empty and enable the option published

¹⁾

Supported in X2GO Client >= 4.0.1.2

Table of Contents

X2Go Sessions File Format Specification

Generic Sessions File Format

Session Options en Detail

General Session Options

Session Window Options

Connection Options

SSH Proxy Options

Display Options

Keyboard Options

Audio Options

Local Folder Sharing / X2Go Printing

MIME Box Options

Session Command Options

Possible Session Command Combinations