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.TH STARTX 1 "xinit 1.4.2" "X Version 11"
.SH NAME
startx \- initialize an X session
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B startx
[ [
.I client
]
.I options
\&\.\|.\|. ] [
.B \-\^\-
[
.I server
] [
.I display
]
.I options
\&.\|.\|. ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
The \fBstartx\fP script is a front end to
.BR 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.
.PP
Arguments immediately following the
.I startx
command are used to start a client in the same manner as
.BR xinit (1).
The special argument
.RB '\-\^\-'
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.
.RS
.PP
startx \-\^\- \-depth 16
.PP
startx \-\^\- \-dpi 100
.PP
startx \-\^\- \-layout Multihead
.RE
.PP
Note that in the Debian system, what many people traditionally put in the
.I .xinitrc
file should go in
.I .xsession
instead; this permits the same X environment to be presented whether
.IR startx ,
.IR xdm ,
or
.I xinit
is used to start the X session. All discussion of the
.I .xinitrc
file in the
.IR xinit (1)
manual page applies equally well to
.IR .xsession.
Keep in mind that
.I .xinitrc
is used only by
.IR xinit (1)
and completely ignored by
.IR xdm (1).
.PP
To determine the client to run,
.B startx
first checks the environment variable
.I XINITRC
for a filename. If that variable is unset, or does not contain a filename,
it looks for a file called
.I .xinitrc
in the user's home directory.  If that is not found, it uses
the file
.I xinitrc
in the
.I xinit
library directory.
If command line client options are given, they override this
behavior and revert to the
.BR xinit (1)
behavior.
To determine the server to run,
.B startx
checks the environment variable
.I XSERVERRC
for a filename. If that variable is unset, or does not contain a filename,
it looks for a file called
.I .xserverrc
in the user's home directory.  If that is not found, it uses
the file
.I xserverrc
in the
.I xinit
library directory.
If command line server options are given, they override this
behavior and revert to the
.BR xinit (1)
behavior.  Users rarely need to provide a
.I .xserverrc
file.
See the
.BR xinit (1)
manual page for more details on the arguments.
.PP
The system-wide
.I xinitrc
and
.I xserverrc
files are found in the
.I /etc/X11/xinit
directory.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
.TP 25
DISPLAY
This variable gets set to the name of the display to which clients should
connect.  Note that this gets
.IR set ,
not read.
.TP 25
XAUTHORITY
This variable, if not already defined, gets set to
.IR $(HOME)/.Xauthority .
This is to prevent the X server, if not given the
.I \-auth
argument, from automatically setting up insecure host-based authentication
for the local host.  See the
.BR Xserver (1)
and
.IR Xsecurity (7)
manual pages for more information on X client/server authentication.
.TP 25
XINITRC
This variable should contain the location of an xinitrc file. If unset,
.I $(HOME)/.xinitrc
or
.I /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
will be used.
.TP 25
XSERVERRC
This variable should contain the location of an xserver file. If unset,
.I $(HOME)/.xinitrc
or
.I /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc
will be used.
.SH FILES
.TP 25
.I $(HOME)/.xinitrc
Client to run.  Typically a shell script which runs many programs in
the background.
.TP 25
.I $(HOME)/.xserverrc
Server to run.  The default is
.IR X .
.TP 25
.I /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
Client to run if the user has no
.I .xinitrc
file.
.TP 25
.I /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc
Server to run if the user has no
.I .xserverrc
file.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR xinit (1),
.BR X (7),
.BR Xserver (1),
.BR Xorg (1),
.BR xorg.conf (5)