startx(1)
- NetBSD Manual Pages
STARTX(1) 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 argu
ments.
Arguments immediately following the startx command are
used to start a client in the same manner as xinit(1).
The special argument '--' marks the end of client argu
ments and the beginning of server options. It may be con
venient 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 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 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 /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 .xinitrc should be run in the background. The
X Version 11 Release 6.6 1
STARTX(1) STARTX(1)
last client should run in the foreground; when it exits,
the session will exit. People often choose a session man
ager, window manager, or xterm as the ''magic'' client.
EXAMPLE
Below is a sample .xinitrc that starts several applica
tions 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.
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
automatically 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
Server to run if the user has no
.xserverrc file.
X Version 11 Release 6.6 2
STARTX(1) STARTX(1)
SEE ALSO
xinit(1), Xserver(1), XFree86(1)
X Version 11 Release 6.6 3
Powered by man-cgi (2024-03-20).
Maintained for NetBSD
by Kimmo Suominen.
Based on man-cgi by Panagiotis Christias.