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 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 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  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  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)

X Version 11                                       xinit 1.3.4                                         STARTX(1)