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 looks for the following files,
35 in order:
36 $(HOME)/.startxrc
38 /usr/lib64/sys.startxrc
40 $(HOME)/.xinitrc
42 /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
44 If command line client options are given, they override this behavior
46 and revert to the xinit(1) behavior. To determine the server to run,
47 startx first looks for a file called .xserverrc in the user's home
48 directory. If that is not found, it uses the file xserverrc in the
49 xinit library directory. If command line server options are given,
50 they override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1) behavior. Users
51 rarely need to provide a .xserverrc file. See the xinit(1) manual page
52 for more details on the arguments.
53 The system-wide xinitrc and xserverrc files are found in the
55 /etc/X11/xinit directory.
56 The .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many clients
58 according to the user's preference. When this shell script exits,
59 startx kills the server and performs any other session shutdown needed.
60 Most of the clients started by .xinitrc should be run in the back‐
61 ground. The last client should run in the foreground; when it exits,
62 the session will exit. People often choose a session manager, window
63 manager, or xterm as the ''magic'' client.
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66 Below is a sample .xinitrc that starts several applications and leaves
67 the window manager running as the ''last'' application. Assuming that
68 the window manager has been configured properly, the user then chooses
69 the ''Exit'' menu item to shut down X.
70 xrdb -load $HOME/.Xresources
72 xsetroot -solid gray &
73 xbiff -geometry -430+5 &
74 oclock -geometry 75x75-0-0 &
75 xload -geometry -80-0 &
76 xterm -geometry +0+60 -ls &
77 xterm -geometry +0-100 &
78 xconsole -geometry -0+0 -fn 5x7 &
79 exec twm
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82 DISPLAY This variable gets set to the name of the dis‐
83 play to which clients should connect. Note
84 that this gets set, not read.
85 XAUTHORITY This variable, if not already defined, gets
87 set to $(HOME)/.Xauthority. This is to pre‐
88 vent the X server, if not given the -auth
89 argument, from automatically setting up inse‐
90 cure host-based authentication for the local
91 host. See the Xserver(1) and Xsecurity(7)
92 manual pages for more information on X
93 client/server authentication.
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96 $(HOME)/.xinitrc Client to run. Typically a shell script which
97 runs many programs in the background.
98 $(HOME)/.xserverrc Server to run. The default is X.
100 /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc Client to run if the user has no .xinitrc
102 file.
103 /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc Server to run if the user has no .xserverrc
105 file.
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108 xinit(1), X(7), Xserver(1), Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5)
109X Version 11 xinit 1.4.0 STARTX(1)