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STARTX(1) General Commands Manual STARTX(1) NAME startx - initialize an X session SYNOPSIS startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] [ display ] options ... ] DESCRIPTION The startx script is a front end to xinit(1) that provides a somewhat nicer user interface for running a single session of the X Window Sys- tem. It is often run with no arguments. 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 arguments and the beginning of server options. It may be convenient to specify server options with startx to change them on a per-session basis. 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 checks the environment variable XINITRC for a filename. If that variable is unset, or does not contain a filename, it 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 checks the environment variable XSERVERRC for a filename. If that variable is unset, or does not con- tain a filename, it 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 /etc/X11/xinit directory. The .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many clients ac- cording 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 last client should run in the foreground; when it exits, the ses- sion will exit. People often choose a session manager, window manager, or xterm as the ''magic'' client. EXAMPLE Below is a sample .xinitrc that starts several applications 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 dis- play 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 pre- vent the X server, if not given the -auth ar- gument, 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. XINITRC This variable should contain the location of an xinitrc file. If unset, $(HOME)/.xinitrc or /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc will be used. XSERVERRC This variable should contain the location of an xserver file. If unset, $(HOME)/.xinitrc or /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc will be used. 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. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc Client to run if the user has no .xinitrc file. /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc Server to run if the user has no .xserverrc file. SEE ALSO xinit(1), X(7), Xserver(1), Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5) X Version 11 xinit 1.4.2 STARTX(1)