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STARTX(1)              DragonFly 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
       System.  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 on a
       per-session basis the default color depth, the server's notion of the
       number of dots-per-inch the display device presents, or take advantage
       of a different server layout, as permitted by the Xorg(1) server and
       specified in the xorg.conf(5) configuration.  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 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 first 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
       /usr/local/etc/X11/xinit directory.

       The .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many clients
       according 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 session 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
                                display 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
                                prevent the X server, if not given the -auth
                                argument, 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.


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.

       /usr/local/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
                                Client to run if the user has no .xinitrc
                                file.

       /usr/local/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 1.3.4                        STARTX(1)

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