XRDB(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual XRDB(1)
NAME
xrdb - X server resource database utility
SYNOPSIS
xrdb [-option ...] [filename]
DESCRIPTION
Xrdb is used to get or set the contents of the
RESOURCE_MANAGER property on the root window of screen 0, or
the SCREEN_RESOURCES property on the root window of any or
all screens, or everything combined. You would normally run
this program from your X startup file.
Most X clients use the RESOURCE_MANAGER and SCREEN_RESOURCES
properties to get user preferences about color, fonts, and
so on for applications. Having this information in the
server (where it is available to all clients) instead of on
disk, solves the problem in previous versions of X that
required you to maintain defaults files on every machine
that you might use. It also allows for dynamic changing of
defaults without editing files.
The RESOURCE_MANAGER property is used for resources that
apply to all screens of the display. The SCREEN_RESOURCES
property on each screen specifies additional (or overriding)
resources to be used for that screen. (When there is only
one screen, SCREEN_RESOURCES is normally not used, all
resources are just placed in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.)
The file specified by filename (or the contents from stan-
dard input if - or no filename is given) is optionally
passed through the C preprocessor with the following symbols
defined, based on the capabilities of the server being used:
BITS_PER_RGB=num
the number of significant bits in an RGB color
specification. This is the log base 2 of the number
of distinct shades of each primary that the hardware
can generate. Note that it usually is not related
to PLANES.
CLASS=visualclass
one of StaticGray, GrayScale, StaticColor, Pseu-
doColor, TrueColor, DirectColor. This is the visual
class of the root window of the default screen.
COLOR defined only if CLASS is one of StaticColor, Pseu-
doColor, TrueColor, or DirectColor.
HEIGHT=num
the height of the default screen in pixels.
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SERVERHOST=hostname
the hostname portion of the display to which you are
connected.
HOST=hostname
the same as SERVERHOST.
CLIENTHOST=hostname
the name of the host on which xrdb is running.
PLANES=num
the number of bit planes (the depth) of the root
window of the default screen.
RELEASE=num
the vendor release number for the server. The
interpretation of this number will vary depending on
VENDOR.
REVISION=num
the X protocol minor version supported by this
server (currently 0).
VERSION=num
the X protocol major version supported by this
server (should always be 11).
VENDOR=vendor
a string specifying the vendor of the server.
WIDTH=num
the width of the default screen in pixels.
X_RESOLUTION=num
the x resolution of the default screen in pixels per
meter.
Y_RESOLUTION=num
the y resolution of the default screen in pixels per
meter.
Lines that begin with an exclamation mark (!) are ignored
and may be used as comments.
Note that since xrdb can read from standard input, it can be
used to the change the contents of properties directly from
a terminal or from a shell script.
OPTIONS
xrdb program accepts the following options:
-help This option (or any unsupported option) will cause a
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brief description of the allowable options and
parameters to be printed.
-display display
This option specifies the X server to be used; see
X(1). It also specifies the screen to use for the
-screen option, and it specifies the screen from
which preprocessor symbols are derived for the -glo-
bal option.
-all This option indicates that operation should be per-
formed on the screen-independent resource property
(RESOURCE_MANAGER), as well as the screen-specific
property (SCREEN_RESOURCES) on every screen of the
display. For example, when used in conjunction with
-query, the contents of all properties are output.
For -load and -merge, the input file is processed
once for each screen. The resources which occur in
common in the output for every screen are collected,
and these are applied as the screen-independent
resources. The remaining resources are applied for
each individual per-screen property. This the
default mode of operation.
-global This option indicates that the operation should only
be performed on the screen-independent
RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
-screen This option indicates that the operation should only
be performed on the SCREEN_RESOURCES property of the
default screen of the display.
-screens
This option indicates that the operation should be
performed on the SCREEN_RESOURCES property of each
screen of the display. For -load and -merge, the
input file is processed for each screen.
-n This option indicates that changes to the specified
properties (when used with -load or -merge) or to
the resource file (when used with -edit) should be
shown on the standard output, but should not be per-
formed.
-quiet This option indicates that warning about duplicate
entries should not be displayed.
-cpp filename
This option specifies the pathname of the C prepro-
cessor program to be used. Although xrdb was
designed to use CPP, any program that acts as a
filter and accepts the -D, -I, and -U options may be
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used.
-nocpp This option indicates that xrdb should not run the
input file through a preprocessor before loading it
into properties.
-symbols
This option indicates that the symbols that are
defined for the preprocessor should be printed onto
the standard output.
-query This option indicates that the current contents of
the specified properties should be printed onto the
standard output. Note that since preprocessor com-
mands in the input resource file are part of the
input file, not part of the property, they won't
appear in the output from this option. The -edit
option can be used to merge the contents of proper-
ties back into the input resource file without
damaging preprocessor commands.
-load This option indicates that the input should be
loaded as the new value of the specified properties,
replacing whatever was there (i.e. the old contents
are removed). This is the default action.
-merge This option indicates that the input should be
merged with, instead of replacing, the current con-
tents of the specified properties. Note that this
option does a lexicographic sorted merge of the two
inputs, which is almost certainly not what you want,
but remains for backward compatibility.
-remove This option indicates that the specified properties
should be removed from the server.
-retain This option indicates that the server should be
instructed not to reset if xrdb is the first client.
This never be necessary under normal conditions,
since xdm and xinit always act as the first client.
-edit filename
This option indicates that the contents of the
specified properties should be edited into the given
file, replacing any values already listed there.
This allows you to put changes that you have made to
your defaults back into your resource file, preserv-
ing any comments or preprocessor lines.
-backup string
This option specifies a suffix to be appended to the
filename used with -edit to generate a backup file.
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-Dname[=value]
This option is passed through to the preprocessor
and is used to define symbols for use with condi-
tionals such as #ifdef.
-Uname This option is passed through to the preprocessor
and is used to remove any definitions of this sym-
bol.
-Idirectory
This option is passed through to the preprocessor
and is used to specify a directory to search for
files that are referenced with #include.
FILES
Generalizes ~/.Xdefaults files.
SEE ALSO
X(1), Xlib Resource Manager documentation, Xt resource docu-
mentation
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to figure out which display to use.
BUGS
The default for no arguments should be to query, not to
overwrite, so that it is consistent with other programs.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1991, Digital Equipment Corporation and MIT.
AUTHORS
Bob Scheifler, Phil Karlton, rewritten from the original by
Jim Gettys
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