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)