XRDB(1) X Version 11(Release 5) 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 standard 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:
BITSPERRGB=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, PseudoColor,
TrueColor, DirectColor. This is the visual class of the root
window of the default screen.
COLOR defined only if CLASS is one of StaticColor, PseudoColor,
TrueColor, or DirectColor.
HEIGHT=num
the height of the default screen in pixels.
SERVERHOST=hostname
the hostname portion of the display to which you are connected.
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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.
XRESOLUTION=num
the x resolution of the default screen in pixels per meter.
YRESOLUTION=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 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
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for the -global option.
-all This option indicates that operation should be performed 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 performed.
-quiet This option indicates that warning about duplicate entries should
not be displayed.
-cpp filename
This option specifies the pathname of the C preprocessor 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 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 commands 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
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merge the contents of properties 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 contents 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,
preserving 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.
-Dname[=value]
This option is passed through to the preprocessor and is used to
define symbols for use with conditionals such as #ifdef.
-Uname This option is passed through to the preprocessor and is used to
remove any definitions of this symbol.
-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 documentation
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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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