STARTX(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual STARTX(1)
NAME
startx - initialize an X session
SYNOPSIS
startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] options
... ]
DESCRIPTION
The startx script is a front end to xinit that provides a
somewhat nicer user interface for running a single session
of the X Window System. It is often run with no arguments.
Arguments immediately following the startx command are used
to start a client in the same manner as xinit(1). The spe-
cial argument '--' marks the end of client arguments and the
beginning of server options. It may be convenient to specify
server options with startx to change on a per-session basis
the default color depth, the server's notion of the number
of dots-per-inch the display device presents, or take advan-
tage of a different server layout, as permitted by the
XFree86(1) server and specified in the XF86Config(5) file.
Some examples of specifying server arguments follow; consult
the manual page for your X server to determine which argu-
ments are legal.
startx -- -depth 16
startx -- -dpi 100
startx -- -layout Multihead
To determine the client to run, startx first looks for a
file called .xinitrc in the user's home directory. If that
is not found, it uses the file xinitrc in the xinit library
directory. If command line client options are given, they
override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1) behavior.
To determine the server to run, startx first looks for a
file called .xserverrc in the user's home directory. If
that is not found, it uses the file xserverrc in the xinit
library directory. If command line server options are given,
they override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1)
behavior. Users rarely need to provide a .xserverrc file.
See the xinit(1) manual page for more details on the argu-
ments.
The system-wide xinitrc and xserverrc files are found in the
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit directory.
The .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many
clients according to the user's preference. When this shell
script exits, startx kills the server and performs any other
session shutdown needed. Most of the clients started by
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.xinitrc should be run in the background. The last client
should run in the foreground; when it exits, the session
will exit. People often choose a session manager, window
manager, or xterm as the ''magic'' client.
EXAMPLE
Below is a sample .xinitrc that starts several applications
and leaves the window manager running as the ''last'' appli-
cation. Assuming that the window manager has been config-
ured properly, the user then chooses the ''Exit'' menu item
to shut down X.
xrdb -load $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid gray &
xbiff -geometry -430+5 &
oclock -geometry 75x75-0-0 &
xload -geometry -80-0 &
xterm -geometry +0+60 -ls &
xterm -geometry +0-100 &
xconsole -geometry -0+0 -fn 5x7 &
exec twm
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DISPLAY This variable gets set to the name
of the display to which clients
should connect. Note that this
gets set, not read.
XAUTHORITY This variable, if not already
defined, gets set to
$(HOME)/.Xauthority. This is to
prevent the X server, if not given
the -auth argument, from automati-
cally setting up insecure host-
based authentication for the local
host. See the Xserver(1) and
Xsecurity(7) manual pages for more
information on X client/server
authentication.
FILES
$(HOME)/.xinitrc Client to run. Typically a shell
script which runs many programs in
the background.
$(HOME)/.xserverrc Server to run. The default is X.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc
Client to run if the user has no
.xinitrc file.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xserverrc
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Server to run if the user has no
.xserverrc file.
SEE ALSO
xinit(1), Xserver(1), XFree86(1)
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