NAME

startx - X Window System initializer

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

The startx program is used to start the X Window System server and initial client programs.  It is intended for people who do not want to use the preferred interface, xdm(1).  The typical reason for avoiding xdm is to be able to kill and restart X several times in the same session without logging in each time. 

The action of startx is to start the X server, and then run an initial client program.  When this client exits, the X server is automatically closed down.  Typical choices for the initial client program are xterm(1), xsm(1) or a window manager with an exit option. 

The arguments are in the same format as those of xinit(1).  The first argument is the name of the initial client program, which must be a full pathname or start with a dot.  Following this is a list of arguments to be passed to the client. 

If no client is specified, then the shell script ~/.xinitrc is used, if present, or else /usr/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc. 

The client arguments are terminated by ‘--’.  Following this is the command line to execute the X server.  The command name must be a full pathname or start with a dot.  If no server command is specified, then the shell script ~/.xserverrc is used, if present, or else /usr/lib/X11/xinit/xserverrc.  If you write such a script, it should use the shell’s exec command to start the server.  This is to improve the session startup time as explained in the BUGS section of xinit(1). 

The .xinitrc file is usually a shell script containing a number of commands to load resources, start frequently-used tools and run a window manager.  The last command in the script should be run in the foreground, and this command is the one whose termination will end the session. 

NOTES

You might find it convenient to make ~/.xinitrc a symbolic link to xdm’s session file, ~/.xsession.  Then you should get an identical session whether you start with xdm or startx. 

startx is a shell script which does a little argument processing and then calls xinit(1) to do the bulk of the work. 

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

DISPLAY
This variable gets set to the name of the display to which clients should connect.

SEE ALSO

xinit(1), X(1), Xserver(1), xterm(1), xrdb(1)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1988, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions. 

AUTHOR

Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science

X Version 11  —  Release 4