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 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 specify-
       ing 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

       Note  that  in the Debian system, what many people traditionally put in
       the .xinitrc file should go in .xsession instead; this permits the same
       X  environment to be presented whether startx, xdm, or xinit is used to
       start the X session.  All  discussion  of  the  .xinitrc  file  in  the
       xinit(1)  manual  page applies equally well to .xsession.  Keep in mind
       that .xinitrc is used  only  by  xinit(1)  and  completely  ignored  by
       xdm(1).

       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
       /etc/X11/xinit directory.

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
                                argument,  from automatically setting up inse-
                                cure 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.

       /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 1.3.4                        STARTX(1)
