STARTX(1)						      General Commands Manual							 STARTX(1)

NAME

       startx - initialize an X session

SYNOPSIS

       startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] options ... ]

DESCRIPTION

       The  startx  script is a front end to xinit 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 XFree86(1) server and specified in the XF86Config(5x) file.  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 /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 back-
       ground.	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(7x) 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), Xserver(1), XFree86(1)

X Version 11							    Release 6.6 							 STARTX(1)