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  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

       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 looks for the following files, in order:

              $(HOME)/.startxrc

              /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sys.startxrc

              $(HOME)/.xinitrc

              /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

       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 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.

       /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)