startx
(1)
Name
startx - initialize an X session
Synopsis
/usr/bin/startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] [
display ] options ... ]
Description
User Commands STARTX(1)
NAME
startx - initialize an X session
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] [
display ] options ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The startx script is a front end to xinit(1) 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 spec-
ify 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
Xorg(1) server and specified in the xorg.conf(4) configura-
tion. Some examples of specifying server arguments follow;
consult the manual page for your X server to determine which
arguments 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 arguments.
The system-wide xinitrc and xserverrc files are found in the
/etc/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
X Version 11 Last change: xinit 1.3.3 1
User Commands STARTX(1)
.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)/.Xau-
thority. This is to prevent the X
server, if not given the -auth
argument, from automatically set-
ting up insecure host-based authen-
tication for the local host. See
the Xserver(1) and Xsecurity(5)
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.
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc Client to run if the user has no
.xinitrc file.
/etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc Server to run if the user has no
.xserverrc file.
X Version 11 Last change: xinit 1.3.3 2
User Commands STARTX(1)
SEE ALSO
xinit(1), X(5), Xserver(1), Xorg(1), xorg.conf(4)
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |x11/session/xinit |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Committed |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
X Version 11 Last change: xinit 1.3.3 3