This manual page is for Mac OS X version 10.6.3

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STARTX(1)                                                                                          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 run-ning running
       ning 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 Xquartz(1)  server  and
       specified  in  the  defaults(1)  configuration.  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  .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 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 direc-tory. directory.
       tory.  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 /usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit directory.

       The .xinitrc is typically a shell script which starts many clients according to  the  user's  prefer-ence. preference.
       ence.   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 window 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 auto-matically automatically
                                matically  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.

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

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

SEE ALSO
       xinit(1), X(7), Xserver(1), Xquartz(1), defaults(1)



X Version 11                                     xinit 1.2.0                                       STARTX(1)