Ubuntu Manpage: startx - initialize an X session

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 first checks the environment variable XINITRC for a
filename. If that variable is unset, or does not contain a filename, it 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 checks the environment variable XSERVERRC for a filename. If that variable is
unset, or does not contain a filename, it 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.

       XINITRC                  This variable should contain the location of an xinitrc file.  If
                                unset, $(HOME)/.xinitrc or /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc will be used.

       XSERVERRC                This  variable should contain the location of an xserver file. If
                                unset, $(HOME)/.xinitrc or /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc will be used.

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.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

FILES

SEE ALSO