Ubuntu Manpage: startx - initialize an X session

NAME

       startx - initialize an X session

SYNOPSIS

       startx [ [ client ] options ... ] [ -- [ server ] [ display ] options ... ]

DESCRIPTION

The startx script is a front end to xinit(1) that provides a somewhat nicer user interface for running a
single session of the X Window System. It is often run with no arguments.

Arguments immediately following the startx command are used to start a client in the same manner as
xinit(1). The special argument '--' marks the end of client arguments and the beginning of server
options. It may be convenient to specify server options with startx to change them on a per-session
basis. Some examples of specifying server arguments follow; consult the manual page for your X server to
determine which arguments are legal.

startx -- -depth 16

startx -- -dpi 100

startx -- -layout Multihead

Note that in the Debian system, what many people traditionally put in the .xinitrc file should go in
.xsession instead; this permits the same X environment to be presented whether startx, xdm, or xinit is
used to start the X session. All discussion of the .xinitrc file in the xinit(1) manual page applies
equally well to .xsession. Keep in mind that .xinitrc is used only by xinit(1) and completely ignored by
xdm(1).

To determine the client to run, startx first checks the environment variable XINITRC for a filename. If
that variable is unset, or does not contain a filename, it looks for a file called .xinitrc in the user's
home directory. If that is not found, it uses the file xinitrc in the xinit library directory. If
command line client options are given, they override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1) behavior.
To determine the server to run, startx checks the environment variable XSERVERRC for a filename. If that
variable is unset, or does not contain a filename, it looks for a file called .xserverrc in the user's
home directory. If that is not found, it uses the file xserverrc in the xinit library directory. If
command line server options are given, they override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1) behavior.
Users rarely need to provide a .xserverrc file. See the xinit(1) manual page for more details on the
arguments.

The system-wide xinitrc and xserverrc files are found in the /etc/X11/xinit directory.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       DISPLAY                  This variable gets set to the name  of  the  display  to  which  clients  should
                                connect.  Note that this gets set, not read.

       XAUTHORITY               This variable, if not already defined, gets set to $(HOME)/.Xauthority.  This is
                                to  prevent  the  X  server, if not given the -auth argument, from automatically
                                setting up insecure host-based authentication  for  the  local  host.   See  the
                                Xserver(1) and Xsecurity(7) manual pages for more information on X client/server
                                authentication.

       XINITRC                  This  variable  should  contain  the  location  of  an  xinitrc  file. If unset,
                                $(HOME)/.xinitrc or /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc will be used.

       XSERVERRC                This variable should  contain  the  location  of  an  xserver  file.  If  unset,
                                $(HOME)/.xinitrc or /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc will be used.

FILES

       $(HOME)/.xinitrc         Client  to  run.   Typically  a  shell  script  which  runs many programs in the
                                background.

       $(HOME)/.xserverrc       Server to run.  The default is X.

       /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc   Client to run if the user has no .xinitrc file.

       /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc Server to run if the user has no .xserverrc file.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

FILES

SEE ALSO