X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
NAME
X - a portable, network-transparent window system
SYNOPSIS
The X Window System is a network transparent window system developed at
MIT which runs on a wide range of computing and graphics machines. It
should be relatively straightforward to build the MIT software
distribution on most ANSI C and POSIX compliant systems. Commercial
implementations are also available for a wide range of platforms.
The X Consortium requests that the following names be used when referring
to this software:
X
X Window System
X Version 11
X Window System, Version 11
X11
X Window System is a trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
DESCRIPTION
X Window System servers run on computers with bitmap displays. The
server distributes user input to and accepts output requests from various
client programs through a variety of different interprocess communication
channels. Although the most common case is for the client programs to be
running on the same machine as the server, clients can be run
transparently from other machines (including machines with different
architectures and operating systems) as well.
X supports overlapping hierarchical subwindows and text and graphics
operations, on both monochrome and color displays. For a full
explanation of the functions that are available, see the Xlib - C
Language X Interface manual, the X Window System Protocol specification,
the X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface manual, and various
toolkit documents.
The number of programs that use X is quite large. Programs provided in
the core MIT distribution include: a terminal emulator (xterm), a window
manager (twm), a display manager (xdm), a console redirect program
(xconsole), mail managing utilities (xmh and xbiff), a manual page
browser (xman), a bitmap editor (bitmap), a resource editor (editres), a
ditroff previewer (xditview), access control programs (xauth and xhost),
user preference setting programs (xrdb, xcmsdb, xset, xsetroot, xstdcmap,
and xmodmap), a load monitor (xload), clocks (xclock and oclock), a font
displayer (xfd), utilities for listing information about fonts, windows,
and displays (xlsfonts, xfontsel, xwininfo, xlsclients, xdpyinfo, and
xprop), a diagnostic for seeing what events are generated and when (xev),
screen image manipulation utilities (xwd, xwud, xpr, and xmag), and
various demos (xeyes, ico, xgc, x11perf, etc.).
10/89 Page 1
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
Many other utilities, window managers, games, toolkits, etc. are included
as user-contributed software in the MIT distribution, or are available
using anonymous ftp on the Internet. See your site administrator for
details.
STARTING UP
There are two main ways of getting the X server and an initial set of
client applications started. The particular method used depends on what
operating system you are running and on whether or not you use other
window systems in addition to X.
xdm (the X Display Manager)
If you want to always have X running on your display, your site
administrator can set your machine up to use the X Display
Manager xdm. This program is typically started by the system at
boot time and takes care of keeping the server running and
getting users logged in. If you are running xdm, you will see a
window on the screen welcoming you to the system and asking for
your username and password. Simply type them in as you would at
a normal terminal, pressing the Return key after each. If you
make a mistake, xdm will display an error message and ask you to
try again. After you have successfully logged in, xdm will start
up your X environment. By default, if you have an executable
file named .xsession in your home directory, xdm will treat it as
a program (or shell script) to run to start up your initial
clients (such as terminal emulators, clocks, a window manager,
user settings for things like the background, the speed of the
pointer, etc.). Your site administrator can provide details.
xinit (run manually from the shell)
Sites that support more than one window system might choose to
use the xinit program for starting X manually. If this is true
for your machine, your site administrator will probably have
provided a program named "x11", "startx", or "xstart" that will
do site-specific initialization (such as loading convenient
default resources, running a window manager, displaying a clock,
and starting several terminal emulators) in a nice way. If not,
you can build such a script using the xinit program. This
utility simply runs one user-specified program to start the
server, runs another to start up any desired clients, and then
waits for either to finish. Since either or both of the user-
specified programs may be a shell script, this gives substantial
flexibility at the expense of a nice interface. For this reason,
xinit is not intended for end users.
DISPLAY NAMES
From the user's prospective, every X server has a display name of the
form:
hostname:displaynumber.screennumber
This information is used by the application to determine how it should
Page 2 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
connect to the server and which screen it should use by default (on
displays with multiple monitors):
hostname
The hostname specifies the name of the machine to which the
display is physically connected. If the hostname is not given,
the most efficient way of communicating to a server on the same
machine will be used.
displaynumber
The phrase "display" is usually used to refer to collection of
monitors that share a common keyboard and pointer (mouse, tablet,
etc.). Most workstations tend to only have one keyboard, and
therefore, only one display. Larger, multi-user systems,
however, will frequently have several displays so that more than
one person can be doing graphics work at once. To avoid
confusion, each display on a machine is assigned a display number
(beginning at 0) when the X server for that display is started.
The display number must always be given in a display name.
screennumber
Some displays share a single keyboard and pointer among two or
more monitors. Since each monitor has its own set of windows,
each screen is assigned a screen number (beginning at 0) when the
X server for that display is started. If the screen number is
not given, then screen 0 will be used.
On POSIX systems, the default display name is stored in your DISPLAY
environment variable. This variable is set automatically by the xterm
terminal emulator. However, when you log into another machine on a
network, you'll need to set DISPLAY by hand to point to your display.
For example,
% setenv DISPLAY myws:0
$ DISPLAY=myws:0; export DISPLAY
The xon script can be used to start an X program on a remote machine; it
automatically sets the DISPLAY variable correctly.
Finally, most X programs accept a command line option of -display
displayname to temporarily override the contents of DISPLAY. This is
most commonly used to pop windows on another person's screen or as part
of a "remote shell" command to start an xterm pointing back to your
display. For example,
% xeyes -display joesws:0 -geometry 1000x1000+0+0
% rsh big xterm -display myws:0 -ls </dev/null &
X servers listen for connections on a variety of different communications
channels (network byte streams, shared memory, etc.). Since there can be
more than one way of contacting a given server, The hostname part of the
display name is used to determine the type of channel (also called a
transport layer) to be used. X servers generally support the following
10/89 Page 3
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
types of connections:
local
The hostname part of the display name should be the empty string.
For example: :0, :1, and :0.1. The most efficient local
transport will be chosen.
TCP/IP
The hostname part of the display name should be the server
machine's IP address name. Full Internet names, abbreviated
names, and IP addresses are all allowed. For example:
expo.lcs.mit.edu:0, expo:0, 18.30.0.212:0, bigmachine:1, and
hydra:0.1.
DECnet
The hostname part of the display name should be the server
machine's nodename followed by two colons instead of one. For
example: myws::0, big::1, and hydra::0.1.
ACCESS CONTROL
An X server can use several types of access control. Mechanisms provided
in Release 5 are:
Host Access Simple host-based access control.
MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 Shared plain-text "cookies".
XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 Secure DES based private-keys.
SUN-DES-1 Based on Sun's secure rpc system.
Xdm initializes access control for the server, and also places
authorization information in a file accessible to the user. Normally,
the list of hosts from which connections are always accepted should be
empty, so that only clients with are explicitly authorized can connect to
the display. When you add entries to the host list (with xhost), the
server no longer performs any authorization on connections from those
machines. Be careful with this.
The file from which Xlib extracts authorization data can be specified
with the environment variable XAUTHORITY, and defaults to the file
.Xauthority in the home directory. Xdm uses $HOME/.Xauthority and will
create it or merge in authorization records if it already exists when a
user logs in.
If you use several machines, and share a common home directory across all
of the machines by means of a network file system, then you never really
have to worry about authorization files, the system should work correctly
by default. Otherwise, as the authorization files are machine-
independent, you can simply copy the files to share them. To manage
authorization files, use xauth. This program allows you to extract
records and insert them into other files. Using this, you can send
authorization to remote machines when you login, if the remote machine
does not share a common home directory with your local machine. Note
that authorization information transmitted ``in the clear'' through a
network file system or using ftp or rcp can be ``stolen'' by a network
Page 4 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
eavesdropper, and as such may enable unauthorized access. In many
environments this level of security is not a concern, but if it is, you
need to know the exact semantics of the particular authorization data to
know if this is actually a problem.
For more information on access control, see the Xsecurity manual page.
GEOMETRY SPECIFICATIONS
One of the advantages of using window systems instead of hardwired
terminals is that applications don't have to be restricted to a
particular size or location on the screen. Although the layout of
windows on a display is controlled by the window manager that the user is
running (described below), most X programs accept a command line argument
of the form -geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT+XOFF+YOFF (where WIDTH, HEIGHT, XOFF,
and YOFF are numbers) for specifying a preferred size and location for
this application's main window.
The WIDTH and HEIGHT parts of the geometry specification are usually
measured in either pixels or characters, depending on the application.
The XOFF and YOFF parts are measured in pixels and are used to specify
the distance of the window from the left or right and top and bottom
edges of the screen, respectively. Both types of offsets are measured
from the indicated edge of the screen to the corresponding edge of the
window. The X offset may be specified in the following ways:
+XOFF The left edge of the window is to be placed XOFF pixels in from
the left edge of the screen (i.e. the X coordinate of the
window's origin will be XOFF). XOFF may be negative, in which
case the window's left edge will be off the screen.
-XOFF The right edge of the window is to be placed XOFF pixels in from
the right edge of the screen. XOFF may be negative, in which
case the window's right edge will be off the screen.
The Y offset has similar meanings:
+YOFF The top edge of the window is to be YOFF pixels below the top
edge of the screen (i.e. the Y coordinate of the window's origin
will be YOFF). YOFF may be negative, in which case the window's
top edge will be off the screen.
-YOFF The bottom edge of the window is to be YOFF pixels above the
bottom edge of the screen. YOFF may be negative, in which case
the window's bottom edge will be off the screen.
Offsets must be given as pairs; in other words, in order to specify
either XOFF or YOFF both must be present. Windows can be placed in the
four corners of the screen using the following specifications:
+0+0 upper left hand corner.
10/89 Page 5
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
-0+0 upper right hand corner.
-0-0 lower right hand corner.
+0-0 lower left hand corner.
In the following examples, a terminal emulator will be placed in roughly
the center of the screen and a load average monitor, mailbox, and clock
will be placed in the upper right hand corner:
xterm -fn 6x10 -geometry 80x24+30+200 &
xclock -geometry 48x48-0+0 &
xload -geometry 48x48-96+0 &
xbiff -geometry 48x48-48+0 &
WINDOW MANAGERS
The layout of windows on the screen is controlled by special programs
called window managers. Although many window managers will honor
geometry specifications as given, others may choose to ignore them
(requiring the user to explicitly draw the window's region on the screen
with the pointer, for example).
Since window managers are regular (albeit complex) client programs, a
variety of different user interfaces can be built. The MIT distribution
comes with a window manager named twm which supports overlapping windows,
popup menus, point-and-click or click-to-type input models, title bars,
nice icons (and an icon manager for those who don't like separate icon
windows).
See the user-contributed software in the MIT distribution for other
popular window managers.
FONT NAMES
Collections of characters for displaying text and symbols in X are known
as fonts. A font typically contains images that share a common
appearance and look nice together (for example, a single size, boldness,
slant, and character set). Similarly, collections of fonts that are
based on a common type face (the variations are usually called roman,
bold, italic, bold italic, oblique, and bold oblique) are called
families.
Fonts come in various sizes. The X server supports scalable fonts,
meaning it is possible to create a font of arbitrary size from a single
source for the font. The server supports scaling from outline fonts and
bitmap fonts. Scaling from outline fonts usually produces significantly
better results than scaling from bitmap fonts.
An X server can obtain fonts from individual files stored in directories
in the file system, or from one or more font servers, or from a mixtures
of directories and font servers. The list of places the server looks
when trying to find a font is controlled by its font path. Although most
installations will choose to have the server start up with all of the
Page 6 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
commonly used font directories in the font path, the font path can be
changed at any time with the xset program. However, it is important to
remember that the directory names are on the server's machine, not on the
application's. The most common fonts use by X servers and font servers
can be found in four directories:
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc
This directory contains many miscellaneous bitmap fonts that are
useful on all systems. It contains a family of fixed-width
fonts, a family of fixed-width fonts from Dale Schumacher,
several Kana fonts from Sony Corporation, two JIS Kanji fonts,
two Hangul fonts from Daewoo Electronics, two Hebrew fonts from
Joseph Friedman, the standard cursor font, two cursor fonts from
Digital Equipment Corporation, and cursor and glyph fonts from
Sun Microsystems. It also has various font name aliases for the
fonts, including fixed and variable.
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo
This directory contains outline fonts for Bitstream's Speedo
rasterizer. A single font face, in normal, bold, italic, and
bold italic, is provided, contributed by Bitstream, Inc.
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi
This directory contains bitmap fonts contributed by Adobe
Systems, Inc., Digital Equipment Corporation, Bitstream, Inc.,
Bigelow and Holmes, and Sun Microsystems, Inc. for 75 dots per
inch displays. An integrated selection of sizes, styles, and
weights are provided for each family.
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi
This directory contains 100 dots per inch versions of some of the
fonts in the 75dpi directory.
Bitmap font files are usually created by compiling a textual font
description into binary form, using bdftopcf. Font databases are created
by running the mkfontdir program in the directory containing the source
or compiled versions of the fonts. Whenever fonts are added to a
directory, mkfontdir should be rerun so that the server can find the new
fonts. To make the server reread the font database, reset the font path
with the xset program. For example, to add a font to a private
directory, the following commands could be used:
% cp newfont.pcf ~/myfonts
% mkfontdir ~/myfonts
% xset fp rehash
The xfontsel and xlsfonts programs can be used to browse through the
fonts available on a server. Font names tend to be fairly long as they
contain all of the information needed to uniquely identify individual
fonts. However, the X server supports wildcarding of font names, so the
full specification
10/89 Page 7
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
-adobe-courier-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-m-60-iso8859-1
might be abbreviated as:
-*-courier-medium-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
Because the shell also has special meanings for * and ?, wildcarded font
names should be quoted:
% xlsfonts -fn '-*-courier-medium-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-*-*'
The xlsfonts program can be used to list all of the fonts that match a
given pattern. With no arguments, it lists all available fonts. This
will usually list the same font at many different sizes. To see just the
base scalable font names, try using one of the following patterns:
-*-*-*-*-*-*-0-0-0-0-*-0-*-*
-*-*-*-*-*-*-0-0-75-75-*-0-*-*
-*-*-*-*-*-*-0-0-100-100-*-0-*-*
To convert one of the resulting names into a font at a specific size,
replace one of the first two zeros with a nonzero value. The field
containing the first zero is for the pixel size; replace it with a
specific height in pixels to name a font at that size. Alternatively,
the field containing the second zero is for the point size; replace it
with a specific size in decipoints (there are 722.7 decipoints to the
inch) to name a font at that size. The last zero is an average width
field, measured in tenths of pixels; some servers will anamorphically
scale if this value is specified.
FONT SERVER NAMES
One of the following forms can be used to name a font server that accepts
TCP connections:
tcp/hostname:port
tcp/hostname:port/cataloguelist
The hostname specifies the name (or decimal numeric address) of the
machine on which the font server is running. The port is the decimal TCP
port on which the font server is listening for connections. The
cataloguelist specifies a list of catalogue names, with '+' as a
separator.
Examples: tcp/expo.lcs.mit.edu:7000, tcp/18.30.0.212:7001/all.
One of the following forms can be used to name a font server that accepts
DECnet connections:
decnet/nodename::font$objname
decnet/nodename::font$objname/cataloguelist
Page 8 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
The nodename specifies the name (or decimal numeric address) of the
machine on which the font server is running. The objname is a normal,
case-insensitive DECnet object name. The cataloguelist specifies a list
of catalogue names, with '+' as a separator.
Examples: DECnet/SRVNOD::FONT$DEFAULT,
decnet/44.70::font$special/symbols.
COLOR NAMES
Most applications provide ways of tailoring (usually through resources or
command line arguments) the colors of various elements in the text and
graphics they display. A color can be specified either by an abstract
color name, or by a numerical color specification. The numerical
specification can identify a color in either device-dependent (RGB) or
device-independent terms. Color strings are case-insensitive.
X supports the use of abstract color names, for example, "red", "blue".
A value for this abstract name is obtained by searching one or more color
name databases. Xlib first searches zero or more client-side databases;
the number, location, and content of these databases is implementation
dependent. If the name is not found, the color is looked up in the X
server's database. The text form of this database is commonly stored in
the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt.
A numerical color specification consists of a color space name and a set
of values in the following syntax:
<color_space_name>:<value>/.../<value>
An RGB Device specification is identified by the prefix "rgb:" and has
the following syntax:
rgb:<red>/<green>/<blue>
<red>, <green>, <blue> := h | hh | hhh | hhhh
h := single hexadecimal digits
Note that h indicates the value scaled in 4 bits, hh the value scaled in
8 bits, hhh the value scaled in 12 bits, and hhhh the value scaled in 16
bits, respectively. These values are passed directly to the X server,
and are assumed to be gamma corrected.
The eight primary colors can be represented as:
black rgb:0/0/0
red rgb:ffff/0/0
green rgb:0/ffff/0
blue rgb:0/0/ffff
yellow rgb:ffff/ffff/0
magenta rgb:ffff/0/ffff
cyan rgb:0/ffff/ffff
white rgb:ffff/ffff/ffff
10/89 Page 9
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
For backward compatibility, an older syntax for RGB Device is supported,
but its continued use is not encouraged. The syntax is an initial sharp
sign character followed by a numeric specification, in one of the
following formats:
#RGB (4 bits each)
#RRGGBB (8 bits each)
#RRRGGGBBB (12 bits each)
#RRRRGGGGBBBB (16 bits each)
The R, G, and B represent single hexadecimal digits. When fewer than 16
bits each are specified, they represent the most-significant bits of the
value (unlike the "rgb:" syntax, in which values are scaled). For
example, #3a7 is the same as #3000a0007000.
An RGB intensity specification is identified by the prefix "rgbi:" and
has the following syntax:
rgbi:<red>/<green>/<blue>
The red, green, and blue are floating point values between 0.0 and 1.0,
inclusive. They represent linear intensity values, with 1.0 indicating
full intensity, 0.5 half intensity, and so on. These values will be
gamma corrected by Xlib before being sent to the X server. The input
format for these values is an optional sign, a string of numbers possibly
containing a decimal point, and an optional exponent field containing an
E or e followed by a possibly signed integer string.
The standard device-independent string specifications have the following
syntax:
CIEXYZ:<X>/<Y>/<Z> (none, 1, none)
CIEuvY:<u>/<v>/<Y> (~.6, ~.6, 1)
CIExyY:<x>/<y>/<Y> (~.75, ~.85, 1)
CIELab:<L>/<a>/<b> (100, none, none)
CIELuv:<L>/<u>/<v> (100, none, none)
TekHVC:<H>/<V>/<C> (360, 100, 100)
All of the values (C, H, V, X, Y, Z, a, b, u, v, y, x) are floating point
values. Some of the values are constrained to be between zero and some
upper bound; the upper bounds are given in parentheses above. The syntax
for these values is an optional '+' or '-' sign, a string of digits
possibly containing a decimal point, and an optional exponent field
consisting of an 'E' or 'e' followed by an optional '+' or '-' followed
by a string of digits.
For more information on device independent color, see the Xlib reference
manual.
KEYBOARDS
Page 10 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
The X keyboard model is broken into two layers: server-specific codes
(called keycodes) which represent the physical keys, and server-
independent symbols (called keysyms) which represent the letters or words
that appear on the keys. Two tables are kept in the server for converting
keycodes to keysyms:
modifier list
Some keys (such as Shift, Control, and Caps Lock) are known as
modifier and are used to select different symbols that are
attached to a single key (such as Shift-a generates a capital A,
and Control-l generates a control character ^L). The server
keeps a list of keycodes corresponding to the various modifier
keys. Whenever a key is pressed or released, the server
generates an event that contains the keycode of the indicated key
as well as a mask that specifies which of the modifier keys are
currently pressed. Most servers set up this list to initially
contain the various shift, control, and shift lock keys on the
keyboard.
keymap table
Applications translate event keycodes and modifier masks into
keysyms using a keysym table which contains one row for each
keycode and one column for various modifier states. This table
is initialized by the server to correspond to normal typewriter
conventions. The exact semantics of how the table is interpreted
to produce keysyms depends on the particular program, libraries,
and language input method used, but the following conventions for
the first four keysyms in each row are generally adhered to:
The first four elements of the list are split into two groups of keysyms.
Group 1 contains the first and second keysyms; Group 2 contains the third
and fourth keysyms. Within each group, if the first element is
alphabetic and the the second element is the special keysym NoSymbol,
then the group is treated as equivalent to a group in which the first
element is the lowercase letter and the second element is the uppercase
letter.
Switching between groups is controlled by the keysym named MODE SWITCH,
by attaching that keysym to some key and attaching that key to any one of
the modifiers Mod1 through Mod5. This modifier is called the ``group
modifier.'' Group 1 is used when the group modifier is off, and Group 2
is used when the group modifier is on.
Within a group, the modifier state determines which keysym to use. The
first keysym is used when the Shift and Lock modifiers are off. The
second keysym is used when the Shift modifier is on, when the Lock
modifier is on and the second keysym is uppercase alphabetic, or when the
Lock modifier is on and is interpreted as ShiftLock. Otherwise, when the
Lock modifier is on and is interpreted as CapsLock, the state of the
Shift modifier is applied first to select a keysym; but if that keysym is
lowercase alphabetic, then the corresponding uppercase keysym is used
instead.
10/89 Page 11
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
OPTIONS
Most X programs attempt to use the same names for command line options
and arguments. All applications written with the X Toolkit Intrinsics
automatically accept the following options:
-display display
This option specifies the name of the X server to use.
-geometry geometry
This option specifies the initial size and location of the
window.
-bg color, -background color
Either option specifies the color to use for the window
background.
-bd color, -bordercolor color
Either option specifies the color to use for the window border.
-bw number, -borderwidth number
Either option specifies the width in pixels of the window border.
-fg color, -foreground color
Either option specifies the color to use for text or graphics.
-fn font, -font font
Either option specifies the font to use for displaying text.
-iconic
This option indicates that the user would prefer that the
application's windows initially not be visible as if the windows
had be immediately iconified by the user. Window managers may
choose not to honor the application's request.
-name
This option specifies the name under which resources for the
application should be found. This option is useful in shell
aliases to distinguish between invocations of an application,
without resorting to creating links to alter the executable file
name.
-rv, -reverse
Either option indicates that the program should simulate reverse
video if possible, often by swapping the foreground and
background colors. Not all programs honor this or implement it
correctly. It is usually only used on monochrome displays.
+rv
This option indicates that the program should not simulate
reverse video. This is used to override any defaults since
reverse video doesn't always work properly.
Page 12 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
-selectionTimeout
This option specifies the timeout in milliseconds within which
two communicating applications must respond to one another for a
selection request.
-synchronous
This option indicates that requests to the X server should be
sent synchronously, instead of asynchronously. Since Xlib
normally buffers requests to the server, errors do not
necessarily get reported immediately after they occur. This
option turns off the buffering so that the application can be
debugged. It should never be used with a working program.
-title string
This option specifies the title to be used for this window. This
information is sometimes used by a window manager to provide some
sort of header identifying the window.
-xnllanguage language[territory][.codeset]
This option specifies the language, territory, and codeset for
use in resolving resource and other filenames.
-xrm resourcestring
This option specifies a resource name and value to override any
defaults. It is also very useful for setting resources that
don't have explicit command line arguments.
RESOURCES
To make the tailoring of applications to personal preferences easier, X
provides a mechanism for storing default values for program resources
(e.g. background color, window title, etc.) Resources are specified as
strings that are read in from various places when an application is run.
Program components are named in a hierarchical fashion, with each node in
the hierarchy identified by a class and an instance name. At the top
level is the class and instance name of the application itself. By
convention, the class name of the application is the same as the program
name, but with the first letter capitalized (e.g. Bitmap or Emacs)
although some programs that begin with the letter ``x'' also capitalize
the second letter for historical reasons.
The precise syntax for resources is:
ResourceLine = Comment | IncludeFile | ResourceSpec | <empty line>
Comment = "!" {<any character except null or newline>}
IncludeFile = "#" WhiteSpace "include" WhiteSpace FileName WhiteSpace
FileName = <valid filename for operating system>
ResourceSpec = WhiteSpace ResourceName WhiteSpace ":" WhiteSpace Value
ResourceName = [Binding] {Component Binding} ComponentName
Binding = "." | "*"
WhiteSpace = {<space> | <horizontal tab>}
Component = "?" | ComponentName
ComponentName = NameChar {NameChar}
10/89 Page 13
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
NameChar = "a"-"z" | "A"-"Z" | "0"-"9" | "_" | "-"
Value = {<any character except null or unescaped newline>}
Elements separated by vertical bar (|) are alternatives. Curly braces
({...}) indicate zero or more repetitions of the enclosed elements.
Square brackets ([...]) indicate that the enclosed element is optional.
Quotes ("...") are used around literal characters.
IncludeFile lines are interpreted by replacing the line with the contents
of the specified file. The word "include" must be in lowercase. The
filename is interpreted relative to the directory of the file in which
the line occurs (for example, if the filename contains no directory or
contains a relative directory specification).
If a ResourceName contains a contiguous sequence of two or more Binding
characters, the sequence will be replaced with single "." character if
the sequence contains only "." characters, otherwise the sequence will be
replaced with a single "*" character.
A resource database never contains more than one entry for a given
ResourceName. If a resource file contains multiple lines with the same
ResourceName, the last line in the file is used.
Any whitespace character before or after the name or colon in a
ResourceSpec are ignored. To allow a Value to begin with whitespace, the
two-character sequence ``\space'' (backslash followed by space) is
recognized and replaced by a space character, and the two-character
sequence ``\tab'' (backslash followed by horizontal tab) is recognized
and replaced by a horizontal tab character. To allow a Value to contain
embedded newline characters, the two-character sequence ``\n'' is
recognized and replaced by a newline character. To allow a Value to be
broken across multiple lines in a text file, the two-character sequence
``\newline'' (backslash followed by newline) is recognized and removed
from the value. To allow a Value to contain arbitrary character codes,
the four-character sequence ``\nnn'', where each n is a digit character
in the range of ``0''-``7'', is recognized and replaced with a single
byte that contains the octal value specified by the sequence. Finally,
the two-character sequence ``\\'' is recognized and replaced with a
single backslash.
When an application looks for the value of a resource, it specifies a
complete path in the hierarchy, with both class and instance names.
However, resource values are usually given with only partially specified
names and classes, using pattern matching constructs. An asterisk (*) is
a loose binding and is used to represent any number of intervening
components, including none. A period (.) is a tight binding and is used
to separate immediately adjacent components. A question mark (?) is used
to match any single component name or class. A database entry cannot end
in a loose binding; the final component (which cannot be "?") must be
specified. The lookup algorithm searches the resource database for the
entry that most closely matches (is most specific for) the full name and
class being queried. When more than one database entry matches the full
Page 14 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
name and class, precedence rules are used to select just one.
The full name and class are scanned from left to right (from highest
level in the hierarchy to lowest), one component at a time. At each
level, the corresponding component and/or binding of each matching entry
is determined, and these matching components and bindings are compared
according to precedence rules. Each of the rules is applied at each
level, before moving to the next level, until a rule selects a single
entry over all others. The rules (in order of precedence) are:
1. An entry that contains a matching component (whether name, class, or
"?") takes precedence over entries that elide the level (that is,
entries that match the level in a loose binding).
2. An entry with a matching name takes precedence over both entries
with a matching class and entries that match using "?". An entry
with a matching class takes precedence over entries that match using
"?".
3. An entry preceded by a tight binding takes precedence over entries
preceded by a loose binding.
Programs based on the X Tookit Intrinsics obtain resources from the
following sources (other programs usually support some subset of these
sources):
RESOURCEMANAGER root window property
Any global resources that should be available to clients on all
machines should be stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property on the
root window of the first screen using the xrdb program. This is
frequently taken care of when the user starts up X through the
display manager or xinit.
SCREENRESOURCES root window property
Any resources specific to a given screen (e.g. colors) that
should be available to clients on all machines should be stored
in the SCREEN_RESOURCES property on the root window of that
screen. The xrdb program will sort resources automatically and
place them in RESOURCE_MANAGER or SCREEN_RESOURCES, as
appropriate.
application-specific files
Directories named by the environment variable XUSERFILESEARCHPATH
or the environment variable XAPPLRESDIR, plus directories in a
standard place (usually under /usr/lib/X11/, but this can be
overridden with the XFILESEARCHPATH environment variable) are
searched for for application-specific resources. For example,
application default resources are usually kept in
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/. See the X Toolkit Intrinsics - C
Language Interface manual for details.
10/89 Page 15
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
XENVIRONMENT
Any user- and machine-specific resources may be specified by
setting the XENVIRONMENT environment variable to the name of a
resource file to be loaded by all applications. If this variable
is not defined, a file named $HOME/.Xdefaults-hostname is looked
for instead, where hostname is the name of the host where the
application is executing.
-xrm resourcestring
Resources can also be specified from the command line. The
resourcestring is a single resource name and value as shown
above. Note that if the string contains characters interpreted
by the shell (e.g., asterisk), they must be quoted. Any number
of -xrm arguments may be given on the command line.
Program resources are organized into groups called classes, so that
collections of individual resources (each of which are called instances)
can be set all at once. By convention, the instance name of a resource
begins with a lowercase letter and class name with an upper case letter.
Multiple word resources are concatenated with the first letter of the
succeeding words capitalized. Applications written with the X Toolkit
Intrinsics will have at least the following resources:
background (class Background)
This resource specifies the color to use for the window
background.
borderWidth (class BorderWidth)
This resource specifies the width in pixels of the window border.
borderColor (class BorderColor)
This resource specifies the color to use for the window border.
Most applications using the X Toolkit Intrinsics also have the resource
foreground (class Foreground), specifying the color to use for text and
graphics within the window.
By combining class and instance specifications, application preferences
can be set quickly and easily. Users of color displays will frequently
want to set Background and Foreground classes to particular defaults.
Specific color instances such as text cursors can then be overridden
without having to define all of the related resources. For example,
bitmap*Dashed: off
XTerm*cursorColor: gold
XTerm*multiScroll: on
XTerm*jumpScroll: on
XTerm*reverseWrap: on
XTerm*curses: on
XTerm*Font: 6x10
XTerm*scrollBar: on
XTerm*scrollbar*thickness: 5
Page 16 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
XTerm*multiClickTime: 500
XTerm*charClass: 33:48,37:48,45-47:48,64:48
XTerm*cutNewline: off
XTerm*cutToBeginningOfLine: off
XTerm*titeInhibit: on
XTerm*ttyModes: intr ^c erase ^? kill ^u
XLoad*Background: gold
XLoad*Foreground: red
XLoad*highlight: black
XLoad*borderWidth: 0
emacs*Geometry: 80x65-0-0
emacs*Background: rgb:5b/76/86
emacs*Foreground: white
emacs*Cursor: white
emacs*BorderColor: white
emacs*Font: 6x10
xmag*geometry: -0-0
xmag*borderColor: white
If these resources were stored in a file called .Xresources in your home
directory, they could be added to any existing resources in the server
with the following command:
% xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources
This is frequently how user-friendly startup scripts merge user-specific
defaults into any site-wide defaults. All sites are encouraged to set up
convenient ways of automatically loading resources. See the Xlib manual
section Resource Manager Functions for more information.
EXAMPLES
The following is a collection of sample command lines for some of the
more frequently used commands. For more information on a particular
command, please refer to that command's manual page.
% xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
% xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
% mkfontdir /usr/local/lib/X11/otherfonts
% xset fp+ /usr/local/lib/X11/otherfonts
% xmodmap $HOME/.keymap.km
% xsetroot -solid 'rgbi:.8/.8/.8'
% xset b 100 400 c 50 s 1800 r on
% xset q
% twm
% xmag
% xclock -geometry 48x48-0+0 -bg blue -fg white
% xeyes -geometry 48x48-48+0
% xbiff -update 20
% xlsfonts '*helvetica*'
% xwininfo -root
% xdpyinfo -display joesworkstation:0
% xhost -joesworkstation
10/89 Page 17
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
% xrefresh
% xwd | xwud
% bitmap companylogo.bm 32x32
% xcalc -bg blue -fg magenta
% xterm -geometry 80x66-0-0 -name myxterm $*
% xon filesysmachine xload
DIAGNOSTICS
A wide variety of error messages are generated from various programs.
The default error handler in Xlib (also used by many toolkits) uses
standard resources to construct diagnostic messages when errors occur.
The defaults for these messages are usually stored in
/usr/lib/X11/XErrorDB. If this file is not present, error messages will
be rather terse and cryptic.
When the X Toolkit Intrinsics encounter errors converting resource
strings to the appropriate internal format, no error messages are usually
printed. This is convenient when it is desirable to have one set of
resources across a variety of displays (e.g. color vs. monochrome, lots
of fonts vs. very few, etc.), although it can pose problems for trying to
determine why an application might be failing. This behavior can be
overridden by the setting the StringConversionsWarning resource.
To force the X Toolkit Intrinsics to always print string conversion error
messages, the following resource should be placed in the file that gets
loaded onto the RESOURCE_MANAGER property using the xrdb program
(frequently called .Xresources or .Xres in the user's home directory):
*StringConversionWarnings: on
To have conversion messages printed for just a particular application,
the appropriate instance name can be placed before the asterisk:
xterm*StringConversionWarnings: on
SEE ALSO
XConsortium(1), XStandards(1), Xsecurity(1), appres(1), auto_box(1),
bdftopcf(1), beach_ball(1), bitmap(1), editres(1), fs(1), fsinfo(1),
fslsfonts(1), fstobdf(1), ico(1), imake(1), listres(1), lndir(1),
makedepend(1), maze(1), mkdirhier(1), mkfontdir(1), oclock(1), plbpex(1),
puzzle(1), resize(1), showfont(1), showrgb(1), twm(1), viewres(1),
x11perf(1), x11perfcomp(1), xauth(1), xbiff(1), xcalc(1), xclipboard(1),
xclock(1), xcmsdb(1), xcmstest(1), xconsole(1), xcutsel(1), xditview(1),
xdm(1), xdpr(1), xdpyinfo(1), xedit(1), xev(1), xeyes(1), xfd(1),
xfontsel(1), xgas(1), xgc(1), xhost(1), xinit(1), xkill(1), xload(1),
xlogo(1), xlsatoms(1), xlsclients(1), xlsfonts(1), xmag(1), xman(1),
xmh(1), xmkmf(1), xmodmap(1), xon(1), xpr(1), xprop(1), xrdb(1),
xrefresh(1), xset(1), xsetroot(1), xstdcmap(1), xterm(1), xwd(1),
xwininfo(1), xwud(1), Xserver(1), Xdec(1), XmacII(1), Xmips(1), Xqdss(1),
Xqvss(1), Xsun(1), X386(1), kbd_mode(1), Xlib - C Language X Interface,
and X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface
Page 18 10/89
X(1) X Version 11(Release 5) X(1)
COPYRIGHT
The following copyright and permission notice outlines the rights and
restrictions covering most parts of the core distribution of the X Window
System from MIT. Other parts have additional or different copyrights and
permissions; see the individual source files.
Copyright 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and
its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the name of MIT not be used in advertising or
publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific,
written prior permission. MIT makes no representations about the
suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is"
without express or implied warranty.
TRADEMARKS
X Window System is a trademark of MIT.
AUTHORS
A cast of thousands, literally. The MIT Release 5 distribution is
brought to you by the MIT X Consortium. The names of all people who made
it a reality will be found in the individual documents and source files.
The staff members at MIT responsible for this release are: Donna
Converse (MIT X Consortium), Stephen Gildea (MIT X Consortium), Susan
Hardy (MIT X Consortium), Jay Hersh (MIT X Consortium), Keith Packard
(MIT X Consortium), David Sternlicht (MIT X Consortium), Bob Scheifler
(MIT X Consortium), and Ralph Swick (Digital/MIT Project Athena).
10/89 Page 19