.\" $Xorg: startx.man,v 1.4 2001/02/09 02:05:49 xorgcvs Exp $ .\" $XdotOrg$ .\" Copyright 1993, 1998 The Open Group .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its .\" documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that .\" the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting .\" documentation. .\" .\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included .\" in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS .\" OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE OPEN GROUP BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR .\" OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, .\" ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR .\" OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. .\" .\" Except as contained in this notice, the name of The Open Group shall .\" not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or .\" other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization .\" from The Open Group. .\" .\" $XFree86: xc/programs/xinit/startx.man,v 1.7 2001/04/19 15:08:32 dawes Exp $ .\" .TH STARTX __appmansuffix__ __xorgversion__ .SH NAME startx \- initialize an X session .SH SYNOPSIS .B startx [ [ .I client ] .I options \&\.\|.\|. ] [ .B \-\^\- [ .I server ] [ .I display ] .I options \&.\|.\|. ] .SH DESCRIPTION The \fBstartx\fP script is a front end to .BR xinit (__appmansuffix__) that provides a somewhat nicer user interface for running a single session of the X Window System. It is often run with no arguments. .PP Arguments immediately following the .I startx command are used to start a client in the same manner as .BR xinit (__appmansuffix__). The special argument .RB '--' 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 advantage of a different server layout, as permitted by the .BR __XSERVERNAME__ (__appmansuffix__) server and specified in the .BR __XCONFIGFILE__ (__filemansuffix__) file. Some examples of specifying server arguments follow; consult the manual page for your X server to determine which arguments are legal. .RS .PP startx -- -depth 16 .PP startx -- -dpi 100 .PP startx -- -layout Multihead .RE #ifdef __SCOMAN__ .PP To determine the client to run, .B startx looks for the following files, in order: .RS .PP .I $(HOME)/.startxrc .PP .I __libdir__/sys.startxrc .PP .I $(HOME)/.xinitrc .PP .I __xinitdir__/xinitrc .RE .PP #else .PP To determine the client to run, .B startx first looks for a file called .I .xinitrc in the user's home directory. If that is not found, it uses the file .I xinitrc in the .I xinit library directory. #endif If command line client options are given, they override this behavior and revert to the .BR xinit (__appmansuffix__) behavior. To determine the server to run, .B startx first looks for a file called .I .xserverrc in the user's home directory. If that is not found, it uses the file .I xserverrc in the .I xinit library directory. If command line server options are given, they override this behavior and revert to the .BR xinit (__appmansuffix__) behavior. Users rarely need to provide a .I .xserverrc file. See the .BR xinit (__appmansuffix__) manual page for more details on the arguments. .PP The system-wide .I xinitrc and .I xserverrc files are found in the .I __xinitdir__ directory. .PP The .I .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many clients according to the user's preference. When this shell script exits, .B startx kills the server and performs any other session shutdown needed. Most of the clients started by .I .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 \fIxterm\fP as the ''magic'' client. .SH EXAMPLE .PP Below is a sample \fI\.xinitrc\fP that starts several applications and leaves the window manager running as the ''last'' application. Assuming that the window manager has been configured properly, the user then chooses the ''Exit'' menu item to shut down X. .sp .in +4 .nf 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 .fi .in -4 .SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" .TP 25 DISPLAY This variable gets set to the name of the display to which clients should connect. Note that this gets .IR set , not read. .TP 25 XAUTHORITY This variable, if not already defined, gets set to .IR $(HOME)/.Xauthority . This is to prevent the X server, if not given the .I \-auth argument, from automatically setting up insecure host-based authentication for the local host. See the .BR Xserver (__appmansuffix__) and .IR Xsecurity (__miscmansuffix__) manual pages for more information on X client/server authentication. .SH FILES #ifdef __SCOMAN__ .TP 25 .I $(HOME)/.startxrc Client to run. Typically a shell script which runs many programs in the background. .TP 25 .I __libdir__/sys.startxrc Client to use if the user has no .I .startxrc file. #endif .TP 25 .I $(HOME)/.xinitrc Client to run. Typically a shell script which runs many programs in the background. .TP 25 .I $(HOME)/.xserverrc Server to run. The default is .IR X . .TP 25 .I __xinitdir__/xinitrc Client to run if the user has no .I .xinitrc file. .TP 25 .I __xinitdir__/xserverrc Server to run if the user has no .I .xserverrc file. .SH "SEE ALSO" .BR xinit (__appmansuffix__), .BR Xserver (__appmansuffix__), .BR __XSERVERNAME__ (__appmansuffix__)