XSTART(1) X11 R4.11MU05 XSTART(1)
NAME
xstart - X Window System startup tool
SYNOPSIS
xstart [-xdefaults ResourceFile] [-log ErrorLogFile] [-client
ProgramOrShellscript]
[-- [Xserver] [display#] ServerOptions]
If used on the command line, the -- option must appear last.
Other options may appear in any order.
DESCRIPTION
The xstart program is used to start the X Window System display
server program, set the server's resources, and start a X client
program or a executable shell script of X client programs.
xstart will first check if the X server is already running, in which
case xstart exits with an error message. Options are then read in
(see below), environment variables set, the server started, xrdb(1)
is run to set server resources, and a client or shell script is run.
Unless otherwise specified on the command line, xstart assumes that
the server and client program are in the current search path. Once
these steps have been completed, xstart will terminate. The X window
desktop will continue to run until terminated by the user or another
program.
Three environment variables will be set:
DISPLAY has the format: hostname:display#, and will be set according
to the display# option of the x server (unix:display# if
specified with the server option; unix:0 if not specified.)
If DISPLAY is defined in the environment before invocation of
xstart, hostname will not be changed, but display# will be
set to match the display# that the x server is started with.
RDISPLAY
is set to hostname:display# where hostname is the name of the
machine running xstart and display# is the same as for the
DISPLAY environment variable (note that this variable will
have the same value as DISPLAY unless DISPLAY is
unix:display#.) This value is provided for users who may
want to use rsh(1) from a remote machine.
XSERVERPID
is set to the process id of the server, so that it may be
terminated (by some other client or the user) when the
session is over.
xstart runs xrdb to set the contents of the RESOURCE_MANAGER property
on the root window. Resources set by xrdb will be read first from
`/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xdefaults' and then from
`$HOME/.Xdefaults' (or from the file specified with the -xdefaults
option on the command line), with the information from the
`/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xdefaults' file having lower priority.
OPTIONS
There are four places where options can be specified:
On the command line.
Options which appear on the command line will override all
other options. This is where the user puts options which may
change upon each invocation of xstart.
The resource file in the user's home directory ($HOME/.Xdefaults).
This is where the user puts frequently-used xstart options
and server resources. Settings in this file override those
in the `/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xdefaults' file and built-
in options.
In /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xdefaults.
This resource file can only be modified by a system
administrator. It provides a base set of X resource
settings. These values will override the values built-in to
the xstart program.
Built-in to the xstart program.
Any xstart options not specified in one of the three above
ways will be assigned default values by xstart (as noted
below).
All xstart options which can be specified in `$HOME/.Xdefaults' can
also be specified on the command line. All options on the command
line must be preceded by a dash and have white space separating the
option name and value. Options in files must be preceded by
`xstart.', and have a colon separating the option name and value.
Whenever a value is given for an option which cannot be used, (ie.
cannot find client file) xstart will terminate the server if it is
running and exit with an error message.
Available options are:
-log The name of the file to log xstart and X server errors. The
default value is not to redirect error output.
-client The filename of a client program or shell script containing X
client programs. The default value is
`/usr/lib/X11/xstart/xstart.sh'. If both the user specified
client and the default client file is not given, xstart will
start three X clients, `twm' (a window manager), `xterm' and
`xclock'. If the user specified client is a shell script,
the file must have execute permission by the owner.
-- (server or display number, and server options)
This must be the last argument to xstart if given on the
command line. This option is specified as `xstart.server:' in
the resource file. Either an X server program may be
specified (by pathname), or a display number on which to
start the default server. Following these arguments may be a
list of options to the specified or default server. If no
`--' argument is specified, the default is to run the display
server `X' on display `unix:0'.
The last option is available on the command line only:
-xdefaults
Specify a user's resource file other than `$HOME/.Xdefaults'.
The `$HOME/.Xdefaults' file will not be read if this option
is used.
FILES
$HOME/.Xdefaults User's resource specification
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xdefaults
System resource specification
/usr/lib/X11/xstart/xstart.sh Default X client script
EXAMPLE
xstart -xdefaults ~/.MyXDefaults -- :1 -a 2 >& Xerrors
Read `~/.MyXDefaults' rather than `$HOME/.Xdefaults'. The log and
client options will be read from `/usr/lib/X11/app-
defaults/Xdefaults' if they are not specified in `~/.MyXDefaults'.
If they are still not specified, error messages will be put in
'Xerrors', and clients will be read from the
`/usr/lib/X11/xstart/xstart.sh' file (if this file does not exist,
xstart will start a console, vtterm, and twm.) Start up the `X'
server on display `unix:1' with pointer acceleration of `2'.
An example shell script:
#!/bin/sh
twm &
xterm -vb &
xclock &
rsh SomeMachine xterm &
xbiff &
XSTART(1) X11 R4.11MU05 XSTART(1)
An example user's resource file:
xstart.server: Xdg -c -l
xstart.log: /user/jones/Xerrors
xstart.client: /user/jones/xstart.sh
SEE ALSO
X(1), Xserver(1), xrdb(1), twm(1), xclock(1), xterm(1), rsh(1).
BUGS
When giving options to xstart for the server, xstart will assume the
first sequence of characters is the server unless the first character
of that sequence is a : or a -. It is thus impossible to only
specify an option that does not start with a -. Example of bad line:
xstart.server:v
The c pre-processor is run by xrdb after xstart has read the resource
file.
COPYRIGHT
Data General Corporation, 1989.
See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.
Licensed material--property of copyright holder(s)