1STARTX(1) General Commands Manual STARTX(1)
2
6 startx - initialize an X session
7
9 startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] [ display ] options
10 ... ]
11
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 them
21 on a per-session basis. Some examples of specifying server arguments
22 follow; consult the manual page for your X server to determine which
23 arguments are legal.
24 startx -- -depth 16
26 startx -- -dpi 100
28 startx -- -layout Multihead
30 To determine the client to run, startx first checks the environment
32 variable XINITRC for a filename. If that variable is unset, or does not
33 contain a filename, it looks for a file called .xinitrc in the user's
34 home directory. If that is not found, it uses the file xinitrc in the
35 xinit library directory. If command line client options are given,
36 they override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1) behavior. To
37 determine the server to run, startx checks the environment variable
38 XSERVERRC for a filename. If that variable is unset, or does not con‐
39 tain a filename, it looks for a file called .xserverrc in the user's
40 home directory. If that is not found, it uses the file xserverrc in
41 the xinit library directory. If command line server options are given,
42 they override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1) behavior. Users
43 rarely need to provide a .xserverrc file. See the xinit(1) manual page
44 for more details on the 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 ac‐
50 cording to the user's preference. When this shell script exits, startx
51 kills the server and performs any other session shutdown needed. Most
52 of the clients started by .xinitrc should be run in the background.
53 The last client should run in the foreground; when it exits, the ses‐
54 sion will exit. People often choose a session manager, window manager,
55 or xterm as the ''magic'' client.
56
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
72
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 ar‐
81 gument, from automatically setting up insecure
82 host-based authentication for the local host.
83 See the Xserver(1) and Xsecurity(7) manual
84 pages for more information on X client/server
85 authentication.
86 XINITRC This variable should contain the location of
88 an xinitrc file. If unset, $(HOME)/.xinitrc or
89 /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc will be used.
90 XSERVERRC This variable should contain the location of
92 an xserver file. If unset, $(HOME)/.xinitrc or
93 /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc will be used.
94
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.
106
108 xinit(1), X(7), Xserver(1), Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5)
109X Version 11 xinit 1.4.2 STARTX(1)