Manual: startx

STARTX(1)					   General Commands Manual					   STARTX(1)

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 ses‐
       sion 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 argu‐
       ments 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	 in‐
       stead;  this permits the same X environment to be presented whether startx, xdm, or xinit is used to start the X ses‐
       sion. 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.

SEE ALSO
       xinit(1), X(7), Xserver(1), Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5)

X Version 11						 xinit 1.4.2						   STARTX(1)