1XSERVER(1) General Commands Manual XSERVER(1)
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6 Xserver - X Window System display server
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9 X [option ...]
10
12 X is the generic name for the X Window System display server. It is
13 frequently a link or a copy of the appropriate server binary for driv‐
14 ing the most frequently used server on a given machine.
15
17 The X server is usually started from the X Display Manager program
18 xdm(1) or a similar display manager program. This utility is run from
19 the system boot files and takes care of keeping the server running,
20 prompting for usernames and passwords, and starting up the user ses‐
21 sions.
22 Installations that run more than one window system may need to use the
24 xinit(1) utility instead of a display manager. However, xinit is to be
25 considered a tool for building startup scripts and is not intended for
26 use by end users. Site administrators are strongly urged to use a dis‐
27 play manager, or build other interfaces for novice users.
28 The X server may also be started directly by the user, though this
30 method is usually reserved for testing and is not recommended for nor‐
31 mal operation. On some platforms, the user must have special permis‐
32 sion to start the X server, often because access to certain devices
33 (e.g. /dev/mouse) is restricted.
34 When the X server starts up, it typically takes over the display. If
36 you are running on a workstation whose console is the display, you may
37 not be able to log into the console while the server is running.
38
40 Many X servers have device-specific command line options. See the man‐
41 ual pages for the individual servers for more details; a list of
42 server-specific manual pages is provided in the SEE ALSO section below.
43 All of the X servers accept the command line options described below.
45 Some X servers may have alternative ways of providing the parameters
46 described here, but the values provided via the command line options
47 should override values specified via other mechanisms.
48 :displaynumber
50 The X server runs as the given displaynumber, which by default
51 is 0. If multiple X servers are to run simultaneously on a
52 host, each must have a unique display number. See the DISPLAY
53 NAMES section of the X(7) manual page to learn how to specify
54 which display number clients should try to use.
55 -a number
57 sets pointer acceleration (i.e. the ratio of how much is
58 reported to how much the user actually moved the pointer).
59 -ac disables host-based access control mechanisms. Enables access
61 by any host, and permits any host to modify the access control
62 list. Use with extreme caution. This option exists primarily
63 for running test suites remotely.
64 -audit level
66 sets the audit trail level. The default level is 1, meaning
67 only connection rejections are reported. Level 2 additionally
68 reports all successful connections and disconnects. Level 4
69 enables messages from the SECURITY extension, if present,
70 including generation and revocation of authorizations and vio‐
71 lations of the security policy. Level 0 turns off the audit
72 trail. Audit lines are sent as standard error output.
73 -auth authorization-file
75 specifies a file which contains a collection of authorization
76 records used to authenticate access. See also the xdm(1) and
77 Xsecurity(7) manual pages.
78 -br sets the default root window to solid black instead of the
80 standard root weave pattern. This is the default unless
81 -retro or -wr is specified.
82 -bs disables backing store support on all screens.
84 -c turns off key-click.
86 c volume
88 sets key-click volume (allowable range: 0-100).
89 -cc class
91 sets the visual class for the root window of color screens.
92 The class numbers are as specified in the X protocol. Not
93 obeyed by all servers.
94 -core causes the server to generate a core dump on fatal errors.
96 -deferglyphs whichfonts
98 specifies the types of fonts for which the server should
99 attempt to use deferred glyph loading. whichfonts can be all
100 (all fonts), none (no fonts), or 16 (16 bit fonts only).
101 -dpi resolution
103 sets the resolution for all screens, in dots per inch. To be
104 used when the server cannot determine the screen size(s) from
105 the hardware.
106 dpms enables DPMS (display power management services), where sup‐
108 ported. The default state is platform and configuration spe‐
109 cific.
110 -dpms disables DPMS (display power management services). The default
112 state is platform and configuration specific.
113 -extensionextensionName
115 disables named extension. If an unknown extension name is
116 specified, a list of accepted extension names is printed.
117 +extensionextensionName
119 enables named extension. If an unknown extension name is
120 specified, a list of accepted extension names is printed.
121 -f volume
123 sets feep (bell) volume (allowable range: 0-100).
124 -fc cursorFont
126 sets default cursor font.
127 -fn font
129 sets the default font.
130 -fp fontPath
132 sets the search path for fonts. This path is a comma separated
133 list of directories which the X server searches for font data‐
134 bases. See the FONTS section of this manual page for more
135 information and the default list.
136 -help prints a usage message.
138 -I causes all remaining command line arguments to be ignored.
140 -maxbigreqsize size
142 sets the maximum big request to size MB.
143 -nocursor
145 disable the display of the pointer cursor.
146 -nolisten trans-type
148 disables a transport type. For example, TCP/IP connections can
149 be disabled with -nolisten tcp. This option may be issued mul‐
150 tiple times to disable listening to different transport types.
151 -noreset
153 prevents a server reset when the last client connection is
154 closed. This overrides a previous -terminate command line
155 option.
156 -p minutes
158 sets screen-saver pattern cycle time in minutes.
159 -pn permits the server to continue running if it fails to establish
161 all of its well-known sockets (connection points for clients),
162 but establishes at least one. This option is set by default.
163 -nopn causes the server to exit if it fails to establish all of its
165 well-known sockets (connection points for clients).
166 -r turns off auto-repeat.
168 r turns on auto-repeat.
170 -retro starts the stipple with the classic stipple and cursor visible.
172 The default is to start with a black root window, and to sup‐
173 press display of the cursor until the first time an application
174 calls XDefineCursor(). For the Xorg server, this also sets the
175 default for the DontZap option to FALSE. For kdrive servers,
176 this implies -zap.
177 -s minutes
179 sets screen-saver timeout time in minutes.
180 -su disables save under support on all screens.
182 -t number
184 sets pointer acceleration threshold in pixels (i.e. after how
185 many pixels pointer acceleration should take effect).
186 -terminate
188 causes the server to terminate at server reset, instead of con‐
189 tinuing to run. This overrides a previous -noreset command
190 line option.
191 -to seconds
193 sets default connection timeout in seconds.
194 -tst disables all testing extensions (e.g., XTEST, XTrap, XTestEx‐
196 tension1, RECORD).
197 ttyxx ignored, for servers started the ancient way (from init).
199 v sets video-off screen-saver preference.
201 -v sets video-on screen-saver preference.
203 -wm forces the default backing-store of all windows to be When‐
205 Mapped. This is a backdoor way of getting backing-store to
206 apply to all windows. Although all mapped windows will have
207 backing store, the backing store attribute value reported by
208 the server for a window will be the last value established by a
209 client. If it has never been set by a client, the server will
210 report the default value, NotUseful. This behavior is required
211 by the X protocol, which allows the server to exceed the
212 client's backing store expectations but does not provide a way
213 to tell the client that it is doing so.
214 -wr sets the default root window to solid white instead of the
216 standard root weave pattern.
217 -x extension
219 loads the specified extension at init. This is a no-op for
220 most implementations.
221 [+-]xinerama
223 enables(+) or disables(-) the XINERAMA extension. The default
224 state is platform and configuration specific.
225
227 Some X servers accept the following options:
228 -ld kilobytes
230 sets the data space limit of the server to the specified number
231 of kilobytes. A value of zero makes the data size as large as
232 possible. The default value of -1 leaves the data space limit
233 unchanged.
234 -lf files
236 sets the number-of-open-files limit of the server to the speci‐
237 fied number. A value of zero makes the limit as large as pos‐
238 sible. The default value of -1 leaves the limit unchanged.
239 -ls kilobytes
241 sets the stack space limit of the server to the specified num‐
242 ber of kilobytes. A value of zero makes the stack size as
243 large as possible. The default value of -1 leaves the stack
244 space limit unchanged.
245 -logo turns on the X Window System logo display in the screen-saver.
247 There is currently no way to change this from a client.
248 nologo turns off the X Window System logo display in the screen-saver.
250 There is currently no way to change this from a client.
251 -render default|mono|gray|color sets the color allocation policy that
253 will be used by the render extension.
254 default selects the default policy defined for the display
256 depth of the X server.
257 mono don't use any color cell.
259 gray use a gray map of 13 color cells for the X render
261 extension.
262 color use a color cube of at most 4*4*4 colors (that is 64
264 color cells).
265 -dumbSched
267 disables smart scheduling on platforms that support the smart
268 scheduler.
269 -schedInterval interval
271 sets the smart scheduler's scheduling interval to interval mil‐
272 liseconds.
273
275 X servers that support XDMCP have the following options. See the X
276 Display Manager Control Protocol specification for more information.
277 -query hostname
279 enables XDMCP and sends Query packets to the specified host‐
280 name.
281 -broadcast
283 enable XDMCP and broadcasts BroadcastQuery packets to the net‐
284 work. The first responding display manager will be chosen for
285 the session.
286 -multicast [address [hop count]]
288 Enable XDMCP and multicast BroadcastQuery packets to the net‐
289 work. The first responding display manager is chosen for the
290 session. If an address is specified, the multicast is sent to
291 that address. If no address is specified, the multicast is
292 sent to the default XDMCP IPv6 multicast group. If a hop count
293 is specified, it is used as the maximum hop count for the mul‐
294 ticast. If no hop count is specified, the multicast is set to
295 a maximum of 1 hop, to prevent the multicast from being routed
296 beyond the local network.
297 -indirect hostname
299 enables XDMCP and send IndirectQuery packets to the specified
300 hostname.
301 -port port-number
303 uses the specified port-number for XDMCP packets, instead of
304 the default. This option must be specified before any -query,
305 -broadcast, -multicast, or -indirect options.
306 -from local-address
308 specifies the local address to connect from (useful if the con‐
309 necting host has multiple network interfaces). The local-
310 address may be expressed in any form acceptable to the host
311 platform's gethostbyname(3) implementation.
312 -once causes the server to terminate (rather than reset) when the
314 XDMCP session ends.
315 -class display-class
317 XDMCP has an additional display qualifier used in resource
318 lookup for display-specific options. This option sets that
319 value, by default it is "MIT-Unspecified" (not a very useful
320 value).
321 -cookie xdm-auth-bits
323 When testing XDM-AUTHENTICATION-1, a private key is shared
324 between the server and the manager. This option sets the value
325 of that private data (not that it is very private, being on the
326 command line!).
327 -displayID display-id
329 Yet another XDMCP specific value, this one allows the display
330 manager to identify each display so that it can locate the
331 shared key.
332
334 X servers that support the XKEYBOARD (a.k.a. "XKB") extension accept
335 the following options. All layout files specified on the command line
336 must be located in the XKB base directory or a subdirectory, and speci‐
337 fied as the relative path from the XKB base directory. The default XKB
338 base directory is /usr/lib/X11/xkb.
339 [+-]accessx [ timeout [ timeout_mask [ feedback [ options_mask ] ] ] ]
341 enables(+) or disables(-) AccessX key sequences.
342 -xkbdir directory
344 base directory for keyboard layout files. This option is not
345 available for setuid X servers (i.e., when the X server's real
346 and effective uids are different).
347 -ardelay milliseconds
349 sets the autorepeat delay (length of time in milliseconds that
350 a key must be depressed before autorepeat starts).
351 -arinterval milliseconds
353 sets the autorepeat interval (length of time in milliseconds
354 that should elapse between autorepeat-generated keystrokes).
355 -xkbmap filename
357 loads keyboard description in filename on server startup.
358
360 The X server supports client connections via a platform-dependent sub‐
361 set of the following transport types: TCPIP, Unix Domain sockets, DEC‐
362 net, and several varieties of SVR4 local connections. See the DISPLAY
363 NAMES section of the X(7) manual page to learn how to specify which
364 transport type clients should try to use.
365
367 The X server implements a platform-dependent subset of the following
368 authorization protocols: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1, XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1, XDM-
369 AUTHORIZATION-2, SUN-DES-1, and MIT-KERBEROS-5. See the Xsecurity(7)
370 manual page for information on the operation of these protocols.
371 Authorization data required by the above protocols is passed to the
373 server in a private file named with the -auth command line option.
374 Each time the server is about to accept the first connection after a
375 reset (or when the server is starting), it reads this file. If this
376 file contains any authorization records, the local host is not automat‐
377 ically allowed access to the server, and only clients which send one of
378 the authorization records contained in the file in the connection setup
379 information will be allowed access. See the Xau manual page for a
380 description of the binary format of this file. See xauth(1) for main‐
381 tenance of this file, and distribution of its contents to remote hosts.
382 The X server also uses a host-based access control list for deciding
384 whether or not to accept connections from clients on a particular
385 machine. If no other authorization mechanism is being used, this list
386 initially consists of the host on which the server is running as well
387 as any machines listed in the file /etc/Xn.hosts, where n is the dis‐
388 play number of the server. Each line of the file should contain either
389 an Internet hostname (e.g. expo.lcs.mit.edu) or a DECnet hostname in
390 double colon format (e.g. hydra::) or a complete name in the format
391 family:name as described in the xhost(1) manual page. There should be
392 no leading or trailing spaces on any lines. For example:
393 joesworkstation
395 corporate.company.com
396 star::
397 inet:bigcpu
398 local:
399 Users can add or remove hosts from this list and enable or disable
401 access control using the xhost command from the same machine as the
402 server.
403 If the X FireWall Proxy (xfwp) is being used without a sitepolicy,
405 host-based authorization must be turned on for clients to be able to
406 connect to the X server via the xfwp. If xfwp is run without a config‐
407 uration file and thus no sitepolicy is defined, if xfwp is using an X
408 server where xhost + has been run to turn off host-based authorization
409 checks, when a client tries to connect to this X server via xfwp, the X
410 server will deny the connection. See xfwp(1) for more information
411 about this proxy.
412 The X protocol intrinsically does not have any notion of window opera‐
414 tion permissions or place any restrictions on what a client can do; if
415 a program can connect to a display, it has full run of the screen. X
416 servers that support the SECURITY extension fare better because clients
417 can be designated untrusted via the authorization they use to connect;
418 see the xauth(1) manual page for details. Restrictions are imposed on
419 untrusted clients that curtail the mischief they can do. See the SECU‐
420 RITY extension specification for a complete list of these restrictions.
421 Sites that have better authentication and authorization systems might
423 wish to make use of the hooks in the libraries and the server to pro‐
424 vide additional security models.
425
427 The X server attaches special meaning to the following signals:
428 SIGHUP This signal causes the server to close all existing connec‐
430 tions, free all resources, and restore all defaults. It is
431 sent by the display manager whenever the main user's main
432 application (usually an xterm or window manager) exits to force
433 the server to clean up and prepare for the next user.
434 SIGTERM This signal causes the server to exit cleanly.
436 SIGUSR1 This signal is used quite differently from either of the above.
438 When the server starts, it checks to see if it has inherited
439 SIGUSR1 as SIG_IGN instead of the usual SIG_DFL. In this case,
440 the server sends a SIGUSR1 to its parent process after it has
441 set up the various connection schemes. Xdm uses this feature
442 to recognize when connecting to the server is possible.
443
445 The X server can obtain fonts from directories and/or from font
446 servers. The list of directories and font servers the X server uses
447 when trying to open a font is controlled by the font path.
448 The default font path is catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d, built-ins .
450 A special kind of directory can be specified using the catalogue: pre‐
452 fix. Directories specified this way can contain symlinks pointing to
453 the real font directories. See the FONTPATH.D section for details.
454 The font path can be set with the -fp option or by xset(1) after the
456 server has started.
457
459 You can specify a special kind of font path in the form cata‐
460 logue:<dir>. The directory specified after the catalogue: prefix will
461 be scanned for symlinks and each symlink destination will be added as a
462 local fontfile FPE.
463 The symlink can be suffixed by attributes such as 'unscaled', which
465 will be passed through to the underlying fontfile FPE. The only excep‐
466 tion is the newly introduced 'pri' attribute, which will be used for
467 ordering the font paths specified by the symlinks.
468 An example configuration:
470 75dpi:unscaled:pri=20 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi
472 ghostscript:pri=60 -> /usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript
473 misc:unscaled:pri=10 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc
474 type1:pri=40 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1
475 type1:pri=50 -> /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1
476 This will add /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc as the first FPE with the
478 attribute the attribute unscaled etc. This is functionally equivalent
479 to setting the following font path:
480 /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
482 /usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,
483 /usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1,
484 /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1,
485 /usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript
486
489 /etc/Xn.hosts Initial access control list for display
490 number n
491 /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi
493 Bitmap font directories
494 /usr/share/fonts/X11/TTF,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1
496 Outline font directories
497 /tmp/.X11-unix/Xn Unix domain socket for display number n
499 /usr/adm/Xnmsgs Error log file for display number n if
501 run from init(8)
502 /usr/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-errors Default error log file if the server is
504 run from xdm(1)
505
507 General information: X(7)
508 Protocols: X Window System Protocol, The X Font Service Protocol, X
510 Display Manager Control Protocol
511 Fonts: bdftopcf(1), mkfontdir(1), mkfontscale(1), xfs(1), xlsfonts(1),
513 xfontsel(1), xfd(1), X Logical Font Description Conventions
514 Security: Xsecurity(7), xauth(1), Xau(1), xdm(1), xhost(1), xfwp(1),
516 Security Extension Specification
517 Starting the server: startx(1), xdm(1), xinit(1)
519 Controlling the server once started: xset(1), xsetroot(1), xhost(1),
521 xinput(1), xrandr(1)
522 Server-specific man pages: Xorg(1), Xdmx(1), Xephyr(1), Xnest(1),
524 Xvfb(1), Xquartz(1), XWin(1).
525 Server internal documentation: Definition of the Porting Layer for the
527 X v11 Sample Server
528
530 The sample server was originally written by Susan Angebranndt, Raymond
531 Drewry, Philip Karlton, and Todd Newman, from Digital Equipment Corpo‐
532 ration, with support from a large cast. It has since been extensively
533 rewritten by Keith Packard and Bob Scheifler, from MIT. Dave Wiggins
534 took over post-R5 and made substantial improvements.
535X Version 11 xorg-server 1.9.5 XSERVER(1)