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STARTX(1)		     General Commands Manual		       STARTX(1)

NAME
     startx - initialize an X session

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

DESCRIPTION
     The  startx  script  is a front end to xinit 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 on a per-session
     basis  the  default color depth, the server's notion of the number of dots-
     per-inch the display device presents, or  take  advantage	of  a  different
     server  layout,  as permitted by the XFree86(1) server and specified in the
     XF86Config(5) file.  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

     To determine the client to run, startx first looks for a file called .xini-
     trc 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  first  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  op-
     tions are given, they override this behavior and revert to the xinit(1) be-
     havior.   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
     /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit directory.

     The  .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many clients accord-
     ing to the user's preference.  When this shell script exits,  startx  kills
     the  server  and  performs  any other session shutdown needed.  Most of the
     clients started by .xinitrc should be run	in  the  background.   The  last
     client  should run in the foreground; when it exits, the session will exit.
     People often choose a session manager, window  manager,  or  xterm  as  the
     ''magic'' client.

EXAMPLE
     Below  is a sample .xinitrc that starts several applications and leaves the
     window manager running as the ''last'' application.  Assuming that the win-
     dow manager has  been  configured	properly,  the	user  then  chooses  the
     ''Exit'' menu item to shut down X.

	 xrdb -load $HOME/.Xresources
	 xsetroot -solid gray &
	 xbiff -geometry -430+5 &
	 oclock -geometry 75x75-0-0 &
	 xload -geometry -80-0 &
	 xterm -geometry +0+60 -ls &
	 xterm -geometry +0-100 &
	 xconsole -geometry -0+0 -fn 5x7 &
	 exec twm

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  au-
			      tomatically setting up insecure host-based authen-
			      tication	for  the local host.  See the Xserver(1)
			      and Xsecurity(7) manual pages for more information
			      on X client/server authentication.

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.

     /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc
			      Client to run if the user has no .xinitrc file.

     /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xserverrc
			      Server to run if the user has no .xserverrc file.

SEE ALSO
     xinit(1), Xserver(1), XFree86(1)

X Version 11			   Release 6.6			       STARTX(1)
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