XINIT(1)
NAME
xinit - X window system initializer
SYNOPSIS
xinit [[client] options] [-- [server] [display] options]
DESCRIPTION
Xinit is intended to be used when the X window system server is not run automatically from init(8), and the window system must be started from a shell running on the display. This might be true, for example, if a normal login is run in a glass-tty emulator on a workstation console, so that different window systems can easily be run on the display at different times.
Xinit starts up the server and a single client application, which is typically xterm(1). When the client eventually terminates, xinit automatically kills off the server and then itself terminates.
By default, xinit expects the server to exist in an executable named “X” in the search path, and for xterm(1) to also exist in the search path. It starts up the X server on display 0, and then starts up
xterm =+1+1 -n login unix:0
A different client and/or server can be specified in the command line, and command line options can be passed to both the server and the client. The client and its options come first in the command line. The server and its options must be preceded by “--”. If the first argument to xinit begins with ‘/’ or a letter, it is taken to be the client program to use instead of xterm, and none of the default xterm options are used. Otherwise, the first and subsequent arguments are simply appended as further options to the default xterm command line.
Following the “--” argument, if the next argument begins with ‘/’ or a letter, it is taken to be the server program to use instead of “X”. If the next argument begins with a digit, it is taken to be the display number; otherwise display 0 is assumed. The remaining arguments are added as options to the server command line.
Examples: xinit =80x65+10+10 -fn 8x13 -j -fg white -bg navy
xinit -e widgets -- Xsun -l -c
xinit rsh fasthost cpupig workstation:1 -- 1 -a 2 -t 5
AUTHOR
Copyright (c) 1986 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See X(1) for a complete copyright notice.
Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science