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man : Xserver(1)
XSERVER(1) XSERVER(1)
NAME
Xserver - X Window System display server
SYNOPSIS
X [option ...]
DESCRIPTION
X is the generic name for the X Window System display
server. It is frequently a link or a copy of the appro-
priate server binary for driving the most frequently used
server on a given machine.
STARTING THE SERVER
The X server is usually started from the X Display Manager
program xdm(1) or a similar display manager program. This
utility is run from the system boot files and takes care
of keeping the server running, prompting for usernames and
passwords, and starting up the user sessions.
Installations that run more than one window system may
need to use the xinit(1) utility instead of a display man-
ager. However, xinit is to be considered a tool for
building startup scripts and is not intended for use by
end users. Site administrators are strongly urged to use
a display manager, or build other interfaces for novice
users.
The X server may also be started directly by the user,
though this method is usually reserved for testing and is
not recommended for normal operation. On some platforms,
the user must have special permission to start the X
server, often because access to certain devices (e.g.
/dev/mouse) is restricted.
When the X server starts up, it typically takes over the
display. If you are running on a workstation whose con-
sole is the display, you may not be able to log into the
console while the server is running.
OPTIONS
Many X servers have device-specific command line options.
See the manual pages for the individual servers for more
details; a list of server-specific manual pages is pro-
vided in the SEE ALSO section below.
All of the X servers accept the command line options
described below. Some X servers may have alternative ways
of providing the parameters described here, but the values
provided via the command line options should override val-
ues specified via other mechanisms.
:displaynumber
The X server runs as the given displaynumber,
which by default is 0. If multiple X servers are
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XSERVER(1) XSERVER(1)
to run simultaneously on a host, each must have a
unique display number. See the DISPLAY NAMES sec-
tion of the X(7) manual page to learn how to spec-
ify which display number clients should try to
use.
-a number
sets pointer acceleration (i.e. the ratio of how
much is reported to how much the user actually
moved the pointer).
-ac disables host-based access control mechanisms.
Enables access by any host, and permits any host
to modify the access control list. Use with
extreme caution. This option exists primarily for
running test suites remotely.
-audit level
sets the audit trail level. The default level is
1, meaning only connection rejections are
reported. Level 2 additionally reports all suc-
cessful connections and disconnects. Level 4
enables messages from the SECURITY extension, if
present, including generation and revocation of
authorizations and violations of the security pol-
icy. Level 0 turns off the audit trail. Audit
lines are sent as standard error output.
-auth authorization-file
specifies a file which contains a collection of
authorization records used to authenticate access.
See also the xdm(1) and Xsecurity(7) manual pages.
-bs disables backing store support on all screens.
-br sets the default root window to solid black
instead of the standard root weave pattern.
-c turns off key-click.
c volume
sets key-click volume (allowable range: 0-100).
-cc class
sets the visual class for the root window of color
screens. The class numbers are as specified in
the X protocol. Not obeyed by all servers.
-co filename
sets name of RGB color database. The default is
/usr/X11R6/share/X11/rgb.
-core causes the server to generate a core dump on fatal
errors.
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-deferglyphs whichfonts
specifies the types of fonts for which the server
should attempt to use deferred glyph loading.
whichfonts can be all (all fonts), none (no
fonts), or 16 (16 bit fonts only).
-dpi resolution
sets the resolution for all screens, in dots per
inch. To be used when the server cannot determine
the screen size(s) from the hardware.
dpms enables DPMS (display power management services),
where supported. The default state is platform
and configuration specific.
-dpms disables DPMS (display power management services).
The default state is platform and configuration
specific.
-extensionextensionName
disables named extension. If an unknown exten-
sion name is specified, a list of accepted exten-
sion names is printed.
+extensionextensionName
enables named extension. If an unknown extension
name is specified, a list of accepted extension
names is printed.
-f volume
sets feep (bell) volume (allowable range: 0-100).
-fc cursorFont
sets default cursor font.
-fn font
sets the default font.
-fp fontPath
sets the search path for fonts. This path is a
comma separated list of directories which the X
server searches for font databases. See the FONTS
section of this manual page for more information
and the default list.
-help prints a usage message.
-I causes all remaining command line arguments to be
ignored.
-maxbigreqsize size
sets the maximum big request to size MB.
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-nolisten trans-type
disables a transport type. For example, TCP/IP
connections can be disabled with -nolisten tcp.
This option may be issued multiple times to dis-
able listening to different transport types.
-noreset
prevents a server reset when the last client con-
nection is closed. This overrides a previous
-terminate command line option.
-p minutes
sets screen-saver pattern cycle time in minutes.
-pn permits the server to continue running if it fails
to establish all of its well-known sockets (con-
nection points for clients), but establishes at
least one. This option is set by default.
-nopn causes the server to exit if it fails to establish
all of its well-known sockets (connection points
for clients).
-r turns off auto-repeat.
r turns on auto-repeat.
-s minutes
sets screen-saver timeout time in minutes.
-su disables save under support on all screens.
-t number
sets pointer acceleration threshold in pixels
(i.e. after how many pixels pointer acceleration
should take effect).
-terminate
causes the server to terminate at server reset,
instead of continuing to run. This overrides a
previous -noreset command line option.
-to seconds
sets default connection timeout in seconds.
-tst disables all testing extensions (e.g., XTEST,
XTrap, XTestExtension1, RECORD).
ttyxx ignored, for servers started the ancient way (from
init).
v sets video-off screen-saver preference.
-v sets video-on screen-saver preference.
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-wm forces the default backing-store of all windows to
be WhenMapped. This is a backdoor way of getting
backing-store to apply to all windows. Although
all mapped windows will have backing store, the
backing store attribute value reported by the
server for a window will be the last value estab-
lished by a client. If it has never been set by a
client, the server will report the default value,
NotUseful. This behavior is required by the X
protocol, which allows the server to exceed the
client's backing store expectations but does not
provide a way to tell the client that it is doing
so.
-wr sets the default root window to solid white
instead of the standard root weave pattern.
-x extension
loads the specified extension at init. This is a
no-op for most implementations.
[+-]xinerama
enables(+) or disables(-) the XINERAMA extension.
The default state is platform and configuration
specific.
SERVER DEPENDENT OPTIONS
Some X servers accept the following options:
-ld kilobytes
sets the data space limit of the server to the
specified number of kilobytes. A value of zero
makes the data size as large as possible. The
default value of -1 leaves the data space limit
unchanged.
-lf files
sets the number-of-open-files limit of the server
to the specified number. A value of zero makes
the limit as large as possible. The default value
of -1 leaves the limit unchanged.
-ls kilobytes
sets the stack space limit of the server to the
specified number of kilobytes. A value of zero
makes the stack size as large as possible. The
default value of -1 leaves the stack space limit
unchanged.
-logo turns on the X Window System logo display in the
screen-saver. There is currently no way to change
this from a client.
nologo turns off the X Window System logo display in the
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screen-saver. There is currently no way to change
this from a client.
-render default|mono|gray|color sets the color allocation
policy that will be used by the render extension.
default selects the default policy defined for the
display depth of the X server.
mono don't use any color cell.
gray use a gray map of 13 color cells for the X
render extension.
color use a color cube of at most 4*4*4 colors
(that is 64 color cells).
-dumbSched
disables smart scheduling on platforms that sup-
port the smart scheduler.
-schedInterval interval
sets the smart scheduler's scheduling interval to
interval milliseconds.
XDMCP OPTIONS
X servers that support XDMCP have the following options.
See the X Display Manager Control Protocol specification
for more information.
-query hostname
enables XDMCP and sends Query packets to the spec-
ified hostname.
-broadcast
enable XDMCP and broadcasts BroadcastQuery packets
to the network. The first responding display man-
ager will be chosen for the session.
-multicast [address [hop count]]
Enable XDMCP and multicast BroadcastQuery packets
to the network. The first responding display
manager is chosen for the session. If an address
is specified, the multicast is sent to that
address. If no address is specified, the multi-
cast is sent to the default XDMCP IPv6 multicast
group. If a hop count is specified, it is used as
the maximum hop count for the multicast. If no
hop count is specified, the multicast is set to a
maximum of 1 hop, to prevent the multicast from
being routed beyond the local network.
-indirect hostname
enables XDMCP and send IndirectQuery packets to
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the specified hostname.
-port port-number
uses the specified port-number for XDMCP packets,
instead of the default. This option must be spec-
ified before any -query, -broadcast, -multicast,
or -indirect options.
-from local-address
specifies the local address to connect from (use-
ful if the connecting host has multiple network
interfaces). The local-address may be expressed
in any form acceptable to the host platform's
gethostbyname(3) implementation.
-once causes the server to terminate (rather than reset)
when the XDMCP session ends.
-class display-class
XDMCP has an additional display qualifier used in
resource lookup for display-specific options.
This option sets that value, by default it is
"MIT-Unspecified" (not a very useful value).
-cookie xdm-auth-bits
When testing XDM-AUTHENTICATION-1, a private key
is shared between the server and the manager.
This option sets the value of that private data
(not that it is very private, being on the command
line!).
-displayID display-id
Yet another XDMCP specific value, this one allows
the display manager to identify each display so
that it can locate the shared key.
XKEYBOARD OPTIONS
X servers that support the XKEYBOARD (a.k.a. "XKB") exten-
sion accept the following options. All layout files spec-
ified on the command line must be located in the XKB base
directory or a subdirectory, and specified as the relative
path from the XKB base directory. The default XKB base
directory is /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb.
[+-]kb enables(+) or disables(-) the XKEYBOARD extension.
[+-]accessx [ timeout [ timeout_mask [ feedback [
options_mask ] ] ] ]
enables(+) or disables(-) AccessX key sequences.
-xkbdir directory
base directory for keyboard layout files. This
option is not available for setuid X servers
(i.e., when the X server's real and effective uids
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are different).
-ardelay milliseconds
sets the autorepeat delay (length of time in mil-
liseconds that a key must be depressed before
autorepeat starts).
-arinterval milliseconds
sets the autorepeat interval (length of time in
milliseconds that should elapse between autore-
peat-generated keystrokes).
-xkbmap filename
loads keyboard description in filename on server
startup.
NETWORK CONNECTIONS
The X server supports client connections via a platform-
dependent subset of the following transport types: TCPIP,
Unix Domain sockets, DECnet, and several varieties of SVR4
local connections. See the DISPLAY NAMES section of the
X(7) manual page to learn how to specify which transport
type clients should try to use.
GRANTING ACCESS
The X server implements a platform-dependent subset of the
following authorization protocols: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1,
XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1, XDM-AUTHORIZATION-2, SUN-DES-1, and
MIT-KERBEROS-5. See the Xsecurity(7) manual page for
information on the operation of these protocols.
Authorization data required by the above protocols is
passed to the server in a private file named with the
-auth command line option. Each time the server is about
to accept the first connection after a reset (or when the
server is starting), it reads this file. If this file
contains any authorization records, the local host is not
automatically allowed access to the server, and only
clients which send one of the authorization records con-
tained in the file in the connection setup information
will be allowed access. See the Xau manual page for a
description of the binary format of this file. See
xauth(1) for maintenance of this file, and distribution of
its contents to remote hosts.
The X server also uses a host-based access control list
for deciding whether or not to accept connections from
clients on a particular machine. If no other authoriza-
tion mechanism is being used, this list initially consists
of the host on which the server is running as well as any
machines listed in the file /etc/Xn.hosts, where n is the
display number of the server. Each line of the file
should contain either an Internet hostname (e.g.
expo.lcs.mit.edu) or a DECnet hostname in double colon
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format (e.g. hydra::) or a complete name in the format
family:name as described in the xhost(1) manual page.
There should be no leading or trailing spaces on any
lines. For example:
joesworkstation
corporate.company.com
star::
inet:bigcpu
local:
Users can add or remove hosts from this list and enable or
disable access control using the xhost command from the
same machine as the server.
If the X FireWall Proxy (xfwp) is being used without a
sitepolicy, host-based authorization must be turned on for
clients to be able to connect to the X server via the
xfwp. If xfwp is run without a configuration file and
thus no sitepolicy is defined, if xfwp is using an X
server where xhost + has been run to turn off host-based
authorization checks, when a client tries to connect to
this X server via xfwp, the X server will deny the connec-
tion. See xfwp(1) for more information about this proxy.
The X protocol intrinsically does not have any notion of
window operation permissions or place any restrictions on
what a client can do; if a program can connect to a dis-
play, it has full run of the screen. X servers that sup-
port the SECURITY extension fare better because clients
can be designated untrusted via the authorization they use
to connect; see the xauth(1) manual page for details.
Restrictions are imposed on untrusted clients that curtail
the mischief they can do. See the SECURITY extension
specification for a complete list of these restrictions.
Sites that have better authentication and authorization
systems might wish to make use of the hooks in the
libraries and the server to provide additional security
models.
SIGNALS
The X server attaches special meaning to the following
signals:
SIGHUP This signal causes the server to close all exist-
ing connections, free all resources, and restore
all defaults. It is sent by the display manager
whenever the main user's main application (usually
an xterm or window manager) exits to force the
server to clean up and prepare for the next user.
SIGTERM This signal causes the server to exit cleanly.
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SIGUSR1 This signal is used quite differently from either
of the above. When the server starts, it checks
to see if it has inherited SIGUSR1 as SIG_IGN
instead of the usual SIG_DFL. In this case, the
server sends a SIGUSR1 to its parent process after
it has set up the various connection schemes. Xdm
uses this feature to recognize when connecting to
the server is possible.
FONTS
The X server can obtain fonts from directories and/or from
font servers. The list of directories and font servers
the X server uses when trying to open a font is controlled
by the font path.
The default font path is /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/OTF,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/ .
A special kind of directory can be specified using the
catalogue: prefix. Directories specified this way can con-
tain symlinks pointing to the real font directories. See
the FONTPATH.D section for details.
The font path can be set with the -fp option or by xset(1)
after the server has started.
FONTPATH.D
You can specify a special kind of font path in the form
catalogue:<dir>. The directory specified after the cata-
logue: prefix will be scanned for symlinks and each sym-
link destination will be added as a local fontfile FPE.
The symlink can be suffixed by attributes such as
'unscaled', which will be passed through to the underlying
fontfile FPE. The only exception is the newly introduced
'pri' attribute, which will be used for ordering the font
paths specified by the symlinks.
An example configuration:
75dpi:unscaled:pri=20 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi
ghostscript:pri=60 -> /usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript
misc:unscaled:pri=10 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc
type1:pri=40 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1
type1:pri=50 -> /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1
This will add /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc as the first FPE
with the attribute the attribute unscaled etc. This is
functionally equivalent to setting the following font
path:
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/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,
/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript
FILES
/etc/Xn.hosts Initial access control list
for display number n
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi
Bitmap font directories
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
Outline font directories
/usr/X11R6/share/X11/rgb.txt Color database
/tmp/.X11-unix/Xn Unix domain socket for dis-
play number n
/tmp/rcXn Kerberos 5 replay cache for
display number n
/usr/adm/Xnmsgs Error log file for display
number n if run from init(8)
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-errors
Default error log file if
the server is run from
xdm(1)
SEE ALSO
General information: X(7)
Protocols: X Window System Protocol, The X Font Service
Protocol, X Display Manager Control Protocol
Fonts: bdftopcf(1), mkfontdir(1), mkfontscale(1), xfs(1),
xlsfonts(1), xfontsel(1), xfd(1), X Logical Font Descrip-
tion Conventions
Security: Xsecurity(7), xauth(1), Xau(1), xdm(1),
xhost(1), xfwp(1), Security Extension Specification
Starting the server: xdm(1), xinit(1)
Controlling the server once started: xset(1), xsetroot(1),
xhost(1)
Server-specific man pages: Xorg(1), Xdmx(1), Xnest(1),
Xvfb(1), XDarwin(1), XWin(1).
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Server internal documentation: Definition of the Porting
Layer for the X v11 Sample Server
AUTHORS
The sample server was originally written by Susan Ange-
branndt, Raymond Drewry, Philip Karlton, and Todd Newman,
from Digital Equipment Corporation, with support from a
large cast. It has since been extensively rewritten by
Keith Packard and Bob Scheifler, from MIT. Dave Wiggins
took over post-R5 and made substantial improvements.
X Version 11 xorg-server 1.5.3 12
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