1STARTX(1) General Commands Manual STARTX(1)
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6 startx - initialize an X session
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9 startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] [ display ] options
10 ... ]
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13 The startx script is a front end to xinit(1) that provides a somewhat
14 nicer user interface for running a single session of the X Window Sys‐
15 tem. It is often run with no arguments.
16 Arguments immediately following the startx command are used to start a
18 client in the same manner as xinit(1). The special argument '--' marks
19 the end of client arguments and the beginning of server options. It
20 may be convenient to specify server options with startx to change on a
21 per-session basis the default color depth, the server's notion of the
22 number of dots-per-inch the display device presents, or take advantage
23 of a different server layout, as permitted by the Xorg(1) server and
24 specified in the xorg.conf(5) configuration. Some examples of specify‐
25 ing server arguments follow; consult the manual page for your X server
26 to determine which arguments are legal.
27 startx -- -depth 16
29 startx -- -dpi 100
31 startx -- -layout Multihead
33 To determine the client to run, startx first looks for a file called
35 .xinitrc in the user's home directory. If that is not found, it uses
36 the file xinitrc in the xinit library directory. If command line
37 client options are given, they override this behavior and revert to the
38 xinit(1) behavior. To determine the server to run, startx first looks
39 for a file called .xserverrc in the user's home directory. If that is
40 not found, it uses the file xserverrc in the xinit library directory.
41 If command line server options are given, they override this behavior
42 and revert to the xinit(1) behavior. Users rarely need to provide a
43 .xserverrc file. See the xinit(1) manual page for more details on the
44 arguments.
45 The system-wide xinitrc and xserverrc files are found in the
47 /etc/X11/xinit directory.
48 The .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many clients
50 according to the user's preference. When this shell script exits,
51 startx kills the server and performs any other session shutdown needed.
52 Most of the clients started by .xinitrc should be run in the back‐
53 ground. The last client should run in the foreground; when it exits,
54 the session will exit. People often choose a session manager, window
55 manager, or xterm as the ''magic'' client.
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58 Below is a sample .xinitrc that starts several applications and leaves
59 the window manager running as the ''last'' application. Assuming that
60 the window manager has been configured properly, the user then chooses
61 the ''Exit'' menu item to shut down X.
62 xrdb -load $HOME/.Xresources
64 xsetroot -solid gray &
65 xbiff -geometry -430+5 &
66 oclock -geometry 75x75-0-0 &
67 xload -geometry -80-0 &
68 xterm -geometry +0+60 -ls &
69 xterm -geometry +0-100 &
70 xconsole -geometry -0+0 -fn 5x7 &
71 exec twm
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74 DISPLAY This variable gets set to the name of the dis‐
75 play to which clients should connect. Note
76 that this gets set, not read.
77 XAUTHORITY This variable, if not already defined, gets
79 set to $(HOME)/.Xauthority. This is to pre‐
80 vent the X server, if not given the -auth
81 argument, from automatically setting up inse‐
82 cure host-based authentication for the local
83 host. See the Xserver(1) and Xsecurity(7)
84 manual pages for more information on X
85 client/server authentication.
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88 $(HOME)/.xinitrc Client to run. Typically a shell script which
89 runs many programs in the background.
90 $(HOME)/.xserverrc Server to run. The default is X.
92 /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc Client to run if the user has no .xinitrc
94 file.
95 /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc Server to run if the user has no .xserverrc
97 file.
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100 xinit(1), X(7), Xserver(1), Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5)
101X Version 11 xinit 1.3.4 STARTX(1)