.xinitrc vs. .Xdefaults vs .Xsession

frankie_DJ · 08-01-2005, 07:45 AM

Can someone please explain to me differences between the following configuration files:

.xinitrc, .Xdefaults and .Xsession

What about .Xresources?

Thanks.

foo_bar_foo · 08-01-2005, 04:28 PM

.Xdefaults is the old version of .Xresources
.Xresources is used by xrdb the x preference database utility
Most X clients use the RESOURCE_MANAGER and SCREEN_RESOURCES properties to get user preferences
see man xrdb
xinit (/usr/X11R6/bin/xinit) the program that starts x gets or can get it's argumants/parameters from xinitrc (/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc)
like what programs to start what window managers to run and like that
xinit itself i believe needs a client program as an argument to start x.
when the client dies x dies.
try
emacs `which startx`
emacs /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc
look in /etc/X11/xdm/
emacs /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession
or find where these files are on your machine and read them
to begin to understand

basically versions of files in your $HOME override defaults
by default Xsession is only used if you use a display manager i think (xdm,gdm.kdm)
but these scripts can be written a million ways and i bet in some distros are quite different

frankie_DJ · 08-01-2005, 10:01 PM

Thanks for a response.

A quick follow up question before I check the files you recommended: My main confusion is with their functionality. My machine doesn't have any of the .X* files by default, but automatically writes .xinitrc when I first use startx for a particular user.

Does it mean that I don't really use or need to use .Xdefaults? Cause it seems that I can set all the preferences in .xinitrc.

Also, are .Xdefaults (.Xresources) and .Xsession also two versions of the same thing or do they do different jobs?

foo_bar_foo · 08-02-2005, 02:23 AM

well Xsession has something to do with display manager sessions so it's not the same as
.Xresources
(.Xdefaults does nothing anymore it's defunct like a dinocritter)

perhaps an example of what .Xresources can do is in order
make this a file ~/.Xresources
read it in with this command
xrdb ~/.Xresources (this is what the xinit files do at login)
now in a terminal type
xterm
and in another terminal type
xterm -name xterm-big
that's what ~/.Xresources can do and the posibilities are endless

Code:

#ifdef COLOR
*customization: -color
#endif
xterm*background: Black
xterm*geometry: 80x10+160+60
xterm*foreground: Wheat
xterm*cursorColor: Orchid
XTerm*reverseVideo: false
XTerm*rightScrollBar: true
XTerm*reverseWrap: true
xterm*font: *fixed-bold-r-*-15-*-*
XTerm*fullCursor: true
XTerm*scrollTtyOutput: off
XTerm*scrollKey: on
XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override\n\
	<KeyPress>Prior : scroll-back(1,page)\n\
	<KeyPress>Next : scroll-forw(1,page)
XTerm*titleBar: false
XTerm*loginShell:            true
! Use color for underline attribute
XTerm*VT100*colorULMode: on
XTerm*VT100*underLine: off
! Use color for the bold attribute
XTerm*VT100*colorBDMode: on
! Love that scrollback
XTerm*VT100*saveLines: 5000
XTerm*VT100*scrollBar: true
xterm-big*geometry: 90x30+40+10
xterm-big*font:  -*-lucidatypewriter-bold-r-normal-sans-17-*-*-*-*-*-*
xterm-big*background: Blue3
xterm-big*foreground: Black
xterm-big*cursorColor: Orange

frankie_DJ · 08-02-2005, 06:39 AM

I see. Thanks a lot.