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X(1X)									 X(1X)

NAME
       X - a portable, network-transparent window system

SYNOPSIS
       The  X  Window System is a network transparent window system which runs
       on a wide range of computing and graphics machines.  It should be rela‐
       tively  straightforward to build the X Consortium software distribution
       on most ANSI C and POSIX compliant systems.  Commercial implementations
       are also available for a wide range of platforms.

       The  X Consortium requests that the following names be used when refer‐
       ring to this software:

				      X
				X Window System
				 X Version 11
			  X Window System, Version 11
				      X11

       X Window System is a trademark of X Consortium, Inc.

OPTIONS
       Most X programs attempt to use the same names for command line  options
       and  arguments.	All applications written with the X Toolkit Intrinsics
       automatically accept the following options: This option	specifies  the
       name  of	 the  X server to use.	This option specifies the initial size
       and location of the window.  Either option specifies the color  to  use
       for  the	 window	 background.  Either option specifies the color to use
       for the window border.  Either option specifies the width in pixels  of
       the  window  border.  Either option specifies the color to use for text
       or graphics.  Either option specifies the font to  use  for  displaying
       text.  This option indicates that the user would prefer that the appli‐
       cation's windows initially not be visible as  if	 the  windows  had  be
       immediately  iconified  by the user.  Window managers may choose not to
       honor the application's request.	 This option specifies the name	 under
       which  resources	 for  the application should be found.	This option is
       useful in shell aliases to distinguish between invocations of an appli‐
       cation,	without	 resorting  to	creating links to alter the executable
       file name.  Either option indicates that the  program  should  simulate
       reverse	video  if possible, often by swapping the foreground and back‐
       ground colors.  Not all programs honor this or implement it  correctly.
       It  is usually only used on monochrome displays.	 This option indicates
       that the program should not simulate reverse video.  This  is  used  to
       override	 any  defaults	since reverse video does not always work prop‐
       erly.  This option specifies the timeout in milliseconds	 within	 which
       two communicating applications must respond to one another for a selec‐
       tion request.  This option indicates that  requests  to	the  X	server
       should  be  sent	 synchronously, instead of asynchronously.  Since Xlib
       normally buffers requests to the server, errors do not necessarily  get
       reported	 immediately  after  they  occur.   This  option turns off the
       buffering so that the application can be debugged.  It should never  be
       used  with  a  working  program.	 This option specifies the title to be
       used for this window.  This information is sometimes used by  a	window
       manager	to  provide  some sort of header identifying the window.  This
       option specifies the  language,	territory,  and	 codeset  for  use  in
       resolving  resource  and	 other	filenames.   This  option  specifies a
       resource name and value to override any defaults.  It is also very use‐
       ful  for setting resources that do not have explicit command line argu‐
       ments.

DESCRIPTION
       X Window System servers run on  computers  with	bitmap	displays.  The
       server distributes user input to and accepts output requests from vari‐
       ous client programs through a variety of different interprocess	commu‐
       nication	 channels.   Although  the  most common case is for the client
       programs to be running on the same machine as the server,  clients  can
       be  run transparently from other machines (including machines with dif‐
       ferent architectures and operating systems) as well.

       X supports overlapping hierarchical subwindows and  text	 and  graphics
       operations,  on both monochrome and color displays. For a full explana‐
       tion of the functions that are available, see the Xlib -- C Language  X
       Interface  manual,  the	X  Window System Protocol specification, the X
       Toolkit Intrinsics -- C Language Interface manual, and various  toolkit
       documents.

       The number of programs that use X is quite large.  Programs provided in
       the  core  X  Consortium	 distribution  include:	 a  terminal  emulator
       (xterm), a window manager (twm), a display manager (xdm), a console re‐
       direct program (xconsole), a mail  interface  (xmh),  a	bitmap	editor
       (bitmap), resource listing/manipulation tools (appres, editres), access
       control programs (xauth, xhost, and iceauth), user  preference  setting
       programs	 (xrdb, xcmsdb, xset, xsetroot, xstdcmap, and xmodmap), clocks
       (xclock and oclock), a font  displayer  (xfd),  utilities  for  listing
       information  about  fonts,  windows,  and displays (xlsfonts, xwininfo,
       xlsclients, xdpyinfo, xlsatoms, and xprop), screen  image  manipulation
       utilities  (xwd,	 xwud,	and  xmag),  a performance measurement utility
       (x11perf), a font compiler (bdftopcf), a font server and related utili‐
       ties  (xfs, fsinfo, fslsfonts, fstobdf), an X Image Extension exerciser
       (xieperf), a  display  server  and  related  utilities  (Xserver,  rgb,
       mkfontdir),  remote  execution  utilities (rstart and xon), a clipboard
       manager (xclipboard), a	keyboard  description  compiler	 (xkbcomp),  a
       utility	to  terminate  clients (xkill), and a utility to cause part or
       all of the screen to be redrawn (xrefresh).

       Many other utilities, window managers, games, toolkits, and  so	forth.
       are included as user-contributed software in the X Consortium distribu‐
       tion, or are available using anonymous ftp on the  Internet.  See  your
       site administrator for details.

STARTING UP
       There  are  two main ways of getting the X server and an initial set of
       client applications started.  The particular  method  used  depends  on
       what  operating system you are running and whether or not you use other
       window systems in addition to X.	 If you want to always have X  running
       on your display, your site administrator can set your machine up to use
       the X Display Manager xdm.  This program is typically  started  by  the
       system  at  boot	 time and takes care of keeping the server running and
       getting users logged in.	 If you are running xdm, you will see a window
       on  the screen welcoming you to the system and asking for your username
       and password.  Simply type them in as you would at a  normal  terminal,
       pressing	 the  Return  key after each.  If you make a mistake, xdm will
       display an error message and ask you to try again.  After you have suc‐
       cessfully logged in, xdm will start up your X environment.  By default,
       if you have an executable file named in your home directory,  xdm  will
       treat it as a program (or shell script) to run to start up your initial
       clients (such as terminal emulators, clocks,  a	window	manager,  user
       settings	 for things like the background, the speed of the pointer, and
       so forth.). Your site administrator can provide details.

DISPLAY NAMES
       From the user's prospective, every X server has a display name  of  the
       form:

       hostname:displaynumber.screennumber

       This  information is used by the application to determine how it should
       connect to the server and which screen it should	 use  by  default  (on
       displays	 with  multiple	 monitors): The hostname specifies the name of
       the machine to which the display is physically connected.  If the host‐
       name  is not given, the most efficient way of communicating to a server
       on the same machine will be used.  The phrase "display" is usually used
       to  refer  to  collection  of monitors that share a common keyboard and
       pointer (mouse, tablet, and so forth.).	Most workstations tend to only
       have one keyboard, and therefore, only one display.  Larger, multi-user
       systems, however, frequently have several displays so  that  more  than
       one  person  can	 be  doing graphics work at once.  To avoid confusion,
       each display on a machine is assigned a display number (beginning at 0)
       when the X server for that display is started.  The display number must
       always be given in a display name.  Some displays share a  single  key‐
       board  and  pointer  among two or more monitors. Since each monitor has
       its own set of windows, each screen is assigned a screen number (begin‐
       ning  at	 0)  when  the	X  server for that display is started.	If the
       screen number is not given, screen 0 will be used.

       On POSIX systems, the default display name is stored  in	 your  DISPLAY
       environment  variable.  This variable is set automatically by the xterm
       terminal emulator.  However, when you log into  another	machine	 on  a
       network, you will need to set DISPLAY by hand to point to your display.
       For example,

	   % setenv DISPLAY myws:0
	   $ DISPLAY=myws:0; export DISPLAY

       The xon script can be used to start an X program on a  remote  machine;
       it automatically sets the DISPLAY variable correctly.

       Finally,	 most X programs accept a command line option of -display dis‐
       playname to temporarily override the contents of DISPLAY.  This is most
       commonly used to pop windows on another person's screen or as part of a
       "remote shell" command to start an xterm pointing back to your display.
       For example,

	   % xeyes -display joesws:0 -geometry 1000x1000+0+0
	   % rsh big xterm -display myws:0 -ls </dev/null &

       X  servers  listen for connections on a variety of different communica‐
       tions channels (network byte streams, shared memory,  and  so  forth.).
       Since  there can be more than one way of contacting a given server, the
       hostname part of the display name is used  to  determine	 the  type  of
       channel	(also  called a transport layer) to be used.  X servers gener‐
       ally support the following types of connections: The hostname  part  of
       the  display  name should be the empty string. For example: :0, :1, and
       :0.1.  The most efficient local transport will be chosen.  The hostname
       part  of	 the  display  name  should be the server machine's IP address
       name.  Full Internet names, abbreviated names, and IP addresses are all
       allowed.	  For example: x.org:0, expo:0, 198.112.45.11:0, bigmachine:1,
       and hydra:0.1.  The hostname part of the display	 name  should  be  the
       server  machine's  nodename, followed by two colons instead of one. For
       example: myws::0, big::1, and hydra::0.1.

ACCESS CONTROL
       An X server can use several types of access control.   Mechanisms  pro‐
       vided in Release 6 are:

	   Host Access	    Simple host-based access control.
	   MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1	   Shared plain-text "cookies".
	   MIT-KERBEROS-5   Kerberos Version 5 user-to-user.

       xdm  initializes	 access	 control for the server and also places autho‐
       rization information in a file accessible to the	 user.	Normally,  the
       list  of	 hosts	from  which  connections are always accepted should be
       empty, so that only clients with are explicitly authorized can  connect
       to  the	display.   When you add entries to the host list (with xhost),
       the server no longer performs any  authorization	 on  connections  from
       those machines.	Be careful with this.

       The  file  from which Xlib extracts authorization data can be specified
       with the environment variable XAUTHORITY, and defaults to the  file  in
       the  home  directory.  xdm uses $HOME/.Xauthority and will create it or
       merge in authorization records if it already exists when	 a  user  logs
       in.

       If  you	use  several machines and share a common home directory across
       all of the machines by means of a network file system, you never really
       have  to	 worry	about authorization files, the system should work cor‐
       rectly by default.  Otherwise, as the authorization files are  machine-
       independent,  you  can  simply  copy the files to share them. To manage
       authorization files, use xauth. This  program  allows  you  to  extract
       records	and  insert  them  into other files.  Using this, you can send
       authorization to remote machines when you login, if the remote  machine
       does  not  share	 a common home directory with your local machine. Note
       that authorization information transmitted “in  the  clear”  through  a
       network	file  system  or using ftp or rcp can be “stolen” by a network
       eavesdropper, and as such may enable unauthorized access. In many envi‐
       ronments,  this	level  of security is not a concern, but if it is, you
       need to know the exact semantics of the particular  authorization  data
       to know if this is actually a problem.

       For  more  information  on access control, see the XSecurity(1X) manual
       page.

GEOMETRY SPECIFICATIONS
       One of the advantages of using window systems instead of hardwired ter‐
       minals  is that applications do not have to be restricted to a particu‐
       lar size or location on the screen. Although the layout of windows on a
       display	is  controlled	by the window manager that the user is running
       (described below), most X programs accept a command  line  argument  of
       the  form  -geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT+XOFF+YOFF (where WIDTH, HEIGHT, XOFF,
       and YOFF are numbers) for specifying a preferred size and location  for
       this application's main window.

       The  WIDTH  and	HEIGHT parts of the geometry specification are usually
       measured in either pixels or characters, depending on the  application.
       The  XOFF and YOFF parts are measured in pixels and are used to specify
       the distance of the window from the left or right and  top  and	bottom
       edges  of the screen, respectively.  Both types of offsets are measured
       from the indicated edge of the screen to the corresponding edge of  the
       window.	 The X offset may be specified in the following ways: The left
       edge of the window is to be placed XOFF pixels in from the left edge of
       the  screen  (that  is, the X coordinate of the window's origin will be
       XOFF).  XOFF may be negative, in which case the window's left edge will
       be  off	the screen.  The right edge of the window is to be placed XOFF
       pixels in from the right edge of the screen.  XOFF may be negative,  in
       which case the window's right edge will be off the screen.

       The  Y offset has similar meanings: The top edge of the window is to be
       YOFF pixels below the top edge of the screen (that is, the Y coordinate
       of  the	window's origin will be YOFF).	YOFF may be negative, in which
       case the window's top edge will be off the screen.  The bottom edge  of
       the  window  is	to be YOFF pixels above the bottom edge of the screen.
       YOFF may be negative, in which case the window's bottom	edge  will  be
       off the screen.

       Offsets	must  be  given	 as pairs; in other words, in order to specify
       either XOFF or YOFF both must be present.  Windows can be placed in the
       four  corners  of  the screen using the following specifications: upper
       left hand corner.  upper right hand corner.  lower right	 hand  corner.
       lower left hand corner.

       In the following examples, a terminal emulator is placed in roughly the
       center of the screen and a load average monitor, mailbox, and clock are
       placed in the upper right hand corner:

	   xterm -fn 6x10 -geometry 80x24+30+200 &
	   xclock -geometry 48x48-0+0 &
	   xload -geometry 48x48-96+0 &
	   xbiff -geometry 48x48-48+0 &

WINDOW MANAGERS
       The  layout  of windows on the screen is controlled by special programs
       called window managers.	Although many window managers will honor geom‐
       etry specifications as given, others may choose to ignore them (requir‐
       ing the user to explicitly draw the window's region on the screen  with
       the pointer, for example).

       Since  window  managers are regular (albeit complex) client programs, a
       variety of different user interfaces can be built.   The	 X  Consortium
       distribution comes with a window manager named twm which supports over‐
       lapping windows, popup menus, point-and-click  or  click-to-type	 input
       models,	title  bars,  nice icons (and an icon manager for those who do
       not like separate icon windows).

       See the user-contributed software in the X Consortium distribution  for
       other popular window managers.

FONT NAMES
       Collections  of	characters  for	 displaying  text and symbols in X are
       known as fonts.	A font typically contains images that share  a	common
       appearance  and	look  nice together (for example, a single size, bold‐
       ness, slant, and character set).	 Similarly, collections of fonts  that
       are  based  on  a  common  type face (the variations are usually called
       roman, bold, italic, bold italic, oblique, and bold oblique) are called
       families.

       Fonts  come  in	various	 sizes.	 The X server supports scalable fonts,
       meaning it is possible to create a font of arbitrary size from a single
       source  for  the	 font.	The server supports scaling from outline fonts
       and bitmap fonts.  Scaling from outline fonts usually produces signifi‐
       cantly better results than scaling from bitmap fonts.

       An  X  server can obtain fonts from individual files stored in directo‐
       ries in the file system, or from one or more font servers,  or  from  a
       mixtures of directories and font servers. The list of places the server
       looks when trying to find a  font  is  controlled  by  its  font	 path.
       Although	 most  installations  will  choose to have the server start up
       with all of the commonly used font directories in the  font  path,  the
       font path can be changed at any time with the xset program. However, it
       is important to remember that the directory names are on	 the  server's
       machine, not on the application's.

       Bitmap  font  files  are	 usually  created  by compiling a textual font
       description into binary form, using bdftopcf. Font databases  are  cre‐
       ated  by	 running the mkfontdir program in the directory containing the
       source or compiled versions of the fonts. Whenever fonts are added to a
       directory,  mkfontdir  should  be rerun so that the server can find the
       new fonts.  To make the server reread the font database, reset the font
       path  with  the	xset program.  For example, to add a font to a private
       directory, the following commands could be used:

	   % cp newfont.pcf ~/myfonts
	   % mkfontdir ~/myfonts
	   % xset fp rehash

       The xfontsel and xlsfonts programs can be used to  browse  through  the
       fonts  available on a server. Font names tend to be fairly long as they
       contain all of the information needed to uniquely  identify  individual
       fonts.	However,  the  X server supports wildcarding of font names, so
       the full specification

	   -adobe-courier-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-m-60-iso8859-1

       might be abbreviated as:

	   -*-courier-medium-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1

       Because the shell also has special meanings for	*  and	?,  wildcarded
       font names should be quoted:
	   % xlsfonts -fn '-*-courier-medium-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-*-*'

       The  xlsfonts program can be used to list all of the fonts that match a
       given pattern.  With no arguments, it lists all available  fonts.  This
       will  usually  list the same font at many different sizes.  To see just
       the base scalable font names, try using one of the following patterns:

	    -*-*-*-*-*-*-0-0-0-0-*-0-*-*	-*-*-*-*-*-*-0-0-75-75-*-0-*-*
	    -*-*-*-*-*-*-0-0-100-100-*-0-*-*

       To  convert  one of the resulting names into a font at a specific size,
       replace one of the first two zeros with a nonzero value. The field con‐
       taining	the  first  zero is for the pixel size; replace it with a spe‐
       cific height in pixels to name a font at that size. Alternatively,  the
       field containing the second zero is for the point size; replace it with
       a specific size in decipoints (there are 722.7 decipoints to the	 inch)
       to  name	 a font at that size. The last zero is an average width field,
       measured in tenths of pixels; some servers will anamorphically scale if
       this value is specified.

FONT SERVER NAMES
       One  of	the  following	forms  can  be used to name a font server that
       accepts TCP connections:

	     tcp/hostname:port
	   tcp/hostname:port/cataloguelist

       The hostname specifies the name (or decimal  numeric  address)  of  the
       machine	on  which the font server is running.  The port is the decimal
       TCP port on which the font server is  listening	for  connections.  The
       cataloguelist  specifies a list of catalogue names, with '+' as a sepa‐
       rator.

       Examples: tcp/x.org:7100, tcp/198.112.45.11:7100/all.

       One of the following forms can be used  to  name	 a  font  server  that
       accepts DECnet connections:

	     decnet/nodename::font$objname
	   decnet/nodename::font$objname/cataloguelist

       The  nodename  specifies	 the  name (or decimal numeric address) of the
       machine on which the font server is running. The objname is  a  normal,
       case-insensitive DECnet object name. The cataloguelist specifies a list
       of catalogue names, with '+' as a separator.

       Examples: DECnet/SRVNOD::FONT$DEFAULT,  decnet/44.70::font$special/sym‐
       bols.

COLOR NAMES
       Most  applications provide ways of tailoring (usually through resources
       or command line arguments) the colors of various elements in  the  text
       and  graphics  they  display.  A	 color	can  be specified either by an
       abstract color name, or by a numerical color specification. The numeri‐
       cal specification can identify a color in either device-dependent (RGB)
       or device-independent terms.  Color strings are case-insensitive.

       X supports the use of abstract color names, for example, "red", "blue".
       A  value	 for  this  abstract name is obtained by searching one or more
       color name databases.  Xlib first searches  zero	 or  more  client-side
       databases;  the	number,	 location,  and	 content of these databases is
       implementation dependent. If the name is not found, the color is looked
       up  in  the X server's database. The text form of this database is com‐
       monly stored in the  file  <XRoot>/lib/X11/rgb.txt,  where  <XRoot>  is
       replaced by the root of the X11 install tree.

       A  numerical  color  specification consists of a color space name and a
       set of values in the following syntax:

	   <color_space_name>:<value>/.../<value>

       An RGB Device specification is identified by the prefix "rgb:" and  has
       the following syntax:

	   rgb:<red>/<green>/<blue>

	       <red>, <green>, <blue> := h | hh | hhh | hhhh
	       h := single hexadecimal digits

       Note  that  h indicates the value scaled in 4 bits, hh the value scaled
       in 8 bits, hhh the value scaled in 12 bits, and hhhh the	 value	scaled
       in  16  bits,  respectively.  These values are passed directly to the X
       server, and are assumed to be gamma corrected.

       The eight primary colors can be represented as:

	   black			    rgb:0/0/0
	   red				    rgb:ffff/0/0
	   green			    rgb:0/ffff/0
	   blue				    rgb:0/0/ffff
	   yellow			    rgb:ffff/ffff/0
	   magenta			    rgb:ffff/0/ffff
	   cyan				    rgb:0/ffff/ffff
	   white			    rgb:ffff/ffff/ffff

       For backward compatibility, an older syntax  for	 RGB  Device  is  sup‐
       ported,	but its continued use is not encouraged. The syntax is an ini‐
       tial sharp sign character followed by a numeric specification,  in  one
       of the following formats:

	   #RGB				    (4 bits each)
	   #RRGGBB			    (8 bits each)
	   #RRRGGGBBB			    (12 bits each)
	   #RRRRGGGGBBBB		    (16 bits each)

       The R, G, and B represent single hexadecimal digits. When fewer than 16
       bits each are specified, they represent the  most-significant  bits  of
       the  value  (unlike the "rgb:" syntax, in which values are scaled). For
       example, #3a7 is the same as #3000a0007000.

       An RGB intensity specification is identified by the prefix "rgbi:"  and
       has the following syntax:

	   rgbi:<red>/<green>/<blue>

       The red, green, and blue are floating point values between 0.0 and 1.0,
       inclusive. They represent linear intensity values, with 1.0  indicating
       full  intensity,	 0.5  half  intensity, and so on. These values will be
       gamma corrected by Xlib before being sent to the X  server.  The	 input
       format for these values is an optional sign, a string of numbers possi‐
       bly containing a decimal point, and an optional exponent field contain‐
       ing an E or e followed by a possibly signed integer string.

       The  standard device-independent string specifications have the follow‐
       ing syntax:

	   CIEXYZ:<X>/<Y>/<Z>(none, 1, none)
	 CIEuvY:<u>/<v>/<Y>(~.6, ~.6, 1)
	 CIExyY:<x>/<y>/<Y>(~.75, ~.85, 1)
	 CIELab:<L>/<a>/<b>(100, none, none)
	 CIELuv:<L>/<u>/<v>(100, none, none)
	 TekHVC:<H>/<V>/<C>(360, 100, 100)

       All of the values (C, H, V, X, Y, Z, a, b, u, v,	 y,  x)	 are  floating
       point  values.	Some  of the values are constrained to be between zero
       and some upper bound; the upper bounds are given in parentheses	above.
       The syntax for these values is an optional '+' or '-' sign, a string of
       digits possibly containing a decimal point, and	an  optional  exponent
       field  consisting  of  an 'E' or 'e' followed by an optional '+' or '-'
       followed by a string of digits.

       For more information on device independent color, see the  Xlib	refer‐
       ence manual.

KEYBOARDS
       The  X keyboard model is broken into two layers:	 server-specific codes
       (called keycodes) which represent the physical keys,  and  server-inde‐
       pendent	symbols	 (called keysyms) which represent the letters or words
       that appear on the keys. Two tables are kept in the server for convert‐
       ing  keycodes  to  keysyms: Some keys (such as Shift, Control, and Caps
       Lock) are known as modifier and are used to  select  different  symbols
       that  are attached to a single key (such as Shift-a generates a capital
       A, and Control-l generates a control character ^L).  The server keeps a
       list  of keycodes corresponding to the various modifier keys.  Whenever
       a key is pressed or released, the server generates an event  that  con‐
       tains the keycode of the indicated key as well as a mask that specifies
       which of the modifier keys are currently pressed. Most servers  set  up
       this  list  to  initially contain the various shift, control, and shift
       lock keys on the keyboard.  Applications translate event	 keycodes  and
       modifier masks into keysyms using a keysym table which contains one row
       for each keycode and one column for various modifier states.  This  ta‐
       ble  is	initialized  by	 the server to correspond to normal typewriter
       conventions.  The exact semantics of how the table  is  interpreted  to
       produce	keysyms depends on the particular program, libraries, and lan‐
       guage input method used, but the following conventions  for  the	 first
       four keysyms in each row are generally adhered to:

       The  first  four	 elements  of  the  list  are split into two groups of
       keysyms.	 Group 1 contains the first and second keysyms; Group  2  con‐
       tains  the  third  and  fourth keysyms. Within each group, if the first
       element is alphabetic and the second  element  is  the  special	keysym
       NoSymbol,  then	the group is treated as equivalent to a group in which
       the first element is the lowercase letter and the second element is the
       uppercase letter.

       Switching between groups is controlled by the keysym named MODE SWITCH,
       by attaching that keysym to some key and attaching that key to any  one
       of  the modifiers Mod1 through Mod5. This modifier is called the “group
       modifier.”  Group 1 is used when the group modifier is off, and Group 2
       is used when the group modifier is on.

       Within  a group, the modifier state determines which keysym to use. The
       first keysym is used when the Shift and Lock  modifiers	are  off.  The
       second keysym is used when the Shift modifier is on, when the Lock mod‐
       ifier is on and the second keysym is uppercase alphabetic, or when  the
       Lock  modifier  is  on and is interpreted as ShiftLock. Otherwise, when
       the Lock modifier is on and is interpreted as CapsLock,	the  state  of
       the  Shift  modifier  is	 applied first to select a keysym; but if that
       keysym is lowercase alphabetic, then the corresponding uppercase keysym
       is used instead.

RESOURCES
       To make the tailoring of applications to personal preferences easier, X
       provides a mechanism for storing default values for  program  resources
       (for  example, background color, window title, and so forth.) Resources
       are specified as strings that are read in from various places  when  an
       application  is	run.   Program	components are named in a hierarchical
       fashion, with each node in the hierarchy identified by a class  and  an
       instance	 name.	At the top level is the class and instance name of the
       application itself. By convention, the class name of the application is
       the  same  as  the program name, but with  the first letter capitalized
       (for example, Bitmap or Emacs) although some programs that  begin  with
       the  letter  “x”	 also capitalize the second letter for historical rea‐
       sons.

       The precise syntax for resources is:

       ResourceLine	=     Comment |	 IncludeFile  |	 ResourceSpec  |
			      <empty line>
       Comment		=     "!"  {<any  character  except null or new‐
			      line>}
       IncludeFile	=     "#" WhiteSpace "include" WhiteSpace  File‐
			      Name WhiteSpace
       FileName		=     <valid filename for operating system>
       ResourceSpec	=     WhiteSpace   ResourceName	 WhiteSpace  ":"
			      WhiteSpace Value
       ResourceName	=     [Binding] {Component  Binding}  Component‐
			      Name
       Binding		=     "." | "*"
       WhiteSpace	=     {<space> | <horizontal tab>}
       Component	=     "?" | ComponentName
       ComponentName	=     NameChar {NameChar}
       NameChar		=     "a"-"z" | "A"-"Z" | "0"-"9" | "_" | "-"
       Value		=     {<any  character	except null or unescaped
			      newline>}

       Elements separated by vertical bar (|) are alternatives.	 Curly	braces
       ({...})	indicate  zero	or  more repetitions of the enclosed elements.
       Square brackets ([...]) indicate that the enclosed element is optional.
       Quotes ("...")  are used around literal characters.

       IncludeFile  lines  are interpreted by replacing the line with the con‐
       tents of the specified file.  The word "include" must be in  lowercase.
       The  filename  is  interpreted relative to the directory of the file in
       which the line occurs (for example, if the filename contains no	direc‐
       tory or contains a relative directory specification).

       If a ResourceName contains a contiguous sequence of two or more Binding
       characters, the sequence will be replaced with single "." character  if
       the  sequence contains only "." characters, otherwise the sequence will
       be replaced with a single "*" character.

       A resource database never contains more than  one  entry	 for  a	 given
       ResourceName.  If a resource file contains multiple lines with the same
       ResourceName, the last line in the file is used.

       Any whitespace character before	or  after  the	name  or  colon	 in  a
       ResourceSpec  are  ignored.  To allow a Value to begin with whitespace,
       the two-character sequence “\space” (backslash followed	by  space)  is
       recognized  and	replaced  by  a space character, and the two-character
       sequence “\tab” (backslash followed by horizontal  tab)	is  recognized
       and replaced by a horizontal tab character. To allow a Value to contain
       embedded newline characters, the two-character sequence “\n” is	recog‐
       nized  and replaced by a newline character. To allow a Value to be bro‐
       ken across multiple lines in a text file,  the  two-character  sequence
       “\newline”  (backslash  followed	 by newline) is recognized and removed
       from the value. To allow a Value to contain arbitrary character	codes,
       the  four-character  sequence “\nnn”, where each n is a digit character
       in the range of “0”-“7”, is recognized and replaced with a single  byte
       that  contains  the octal value specified by the sequence. Finally, the
       two-character sequence “\\” is recognized and replaced  with  a	single
       backslash.

       When  an	 application looks for the value of a resource, it specifies a
       complete path in the hierarchy, with both  class	 and  instance	names.
       However,	 resource  values are usually given with only partially speci‐
       fied names and classes, using pattern matching constructs. An  asterisk
       (*) is a loose binding and is used to represent any number of interven‐
       ing components, including none.	A period (.) is a tight binding and is
       used  to	 separate immediately adjacent components. A question mark (?)
       is used to match any single component name or class. A  database	 entry
       cannot  end  in	a  loose binding; the final component (which cannot be
       "?") must be specified. The  lookup  algorithm  searches	 the  resource
       database for the entry that most closely matches (is most specific for)
       the full name and class being queried.  When  more  than	 one  database
       entry  matches  the  full  name and class, precedence rules are used to
       select just one.

       The full name and class are scanned from left to	 right	(from  highest
       level  in  the  hierarchy  to lowest), one component at a time. At each
       level, the corresponding component  and/or  binding  of	each  matching
       entry  is  determined,  and  these matching components and bindings are
       compared according to precedence rules. Each of the rules is applied at
       each  level,  before  moving  to the next level, until a rule selects a
       single entry over all others. The rules (in order of  precedence)  are:
       An  entry  that	contains a matching component (whether name, class, or
       "?") takes precedence over entries  that	 elide	the  level  (that  is,
       entries	that  match  the  level	 in a loose binding).  An entry with a
       matching name takes precedence over both entries with a matching	 class
       and  entries that match using "?". An entry with a matching class takes
       precedence over entries that match using "?".  An entry preceded	 by  a
       tight  binding  takes precedence over entries preceded by a loose bind‐
       ing.

       Programs based on the X Tookit Intrinsics  obtain  resources  from  the
       following  sources (other programs usually support some subset of these
       sources): Any global resources that should be available to  clients  on
       all  machines  should be stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property on the
       root window of the first screen using the xrdb program.	This  is  fre‐
       quently	taken  care  of	 when the user starts up X through the display
       manager.	 Any resources specific to a given screen (for	example,  col‐
       ors)  that  should  be  available  to clients on all machines should be
       stored in the SCREEN_RESOURCES property on  the	root  window  of  that
       screen.	The  xrdb  program will sort resources automatically and place
       them in RESOURCE_MANAGER or SCREEN_RESOURCES, as appropriate.  Directo‐
       ries named by the environment variable XUSERFILESEARCHPATH or the envi‐
       ronment variable XAPPLRESDIR (which names a single directory and should
       end  with a '/' on POSIX systems), plus directories in a standard place
       (usually under <XRoot>/lib/X11/, but this can be	 overridden  with  the
       XFILESEARCHPATH environment variable) are searched for application-spe‐
       cific resources. For example, application default resources are usually
       kept  in <XRoot>/lib/X11/app-defaults/. See the X Toolkit Intrinsics --
       C Language Interface manual for details.	 Any  user-  and  machine-spe‐
       cific  resources	 may be specified by setting the XENVIRONMENT environ‐
       ment variable to the name of a resource file to be loaded by all appli‐
       cations.	  If  this  variable  is not defined, a file named $HOME/.Xde‐
       faults-hostname is looked for instead, where hostname is	 the  name  of
       the  host  where	 the  application is executing.	 Resources can also be
       specified from the  command  line.   The	 resourcestring	 is  a	single
       resource	 name  and value as shown above.  Note that if the string con‐
       tains characters interpreted by the shell (for example, asterisk), they
       must  be	 quoted. Any number of -xrm arguments may be given on the com‐
       mand line.

       Program resources are organized into groups  called  classes,  so  that
       collections   of	  individual  resources	 (each	of  which  are	called
       instances) can be set all at once.  By convention, the instance name of
       a  resource begins with a lowercase letter and class name with an upper
       case letter. Multiple word resources are concatenated  with  the	 first
       letter  of the succeeding words capitalized.  Applications written with
       the X Toolkit Intrinsics will have at least  the	 following  resources:
       This  resource  specifies  the  color to use for the window background.
       This resource specifies the width in pixels of the window border.  This
       resource specifies the color to use for the window border.

       Most applications using the X Toolkit Intrinsics also have the resource
       foreground (class Foreground), specifying the color to use for text and
       graphics within the window.

       By combining class and instance specifications, application preferences
       can be set quickly and easily.  Users of color displays will frequently
       want  to	 set Background and Foreground classes to particular defaults.
       Specific color instances such as text cursors can  then	be  overridden
       without having to define all of the related resources.  For example,

	   bitmap*Dashed:  off
	   XTerm*cursorColor:  gold
	   XTerm*multiScroll:  on
	   XTerm*jumpScroll:  on
	   XTerm*reverseWrap:  on
	   XTerm*curses:  on
	   XTerm*Font:	6x10
	   XTerm*scrollBar: on
	   XTerm*scrollbar*thickness: 5
	   XTerm*multiClickTime: 500
	   XTerm*charClass:  33:48,37:48,45-47:48,64:48
	   XTerm*cutNewline: off
	   XTerm*cutToBeginningOfLine: off
	   XTerm*titeInhibit:  on
	   XTerm*ttyModes:  intr ^c erase ^? kill ^u
	   XLoad*Background: gold
	   XLoad*Foreground: red
	   XLoad*highlight: black
	   XLoad*borderWidth: 0
	   emacs*Geometry:  80x65-0-0
	   emacs*Background:  rgb:5b/76/86
	   emacs*Foreground:  white
	   emacs*Cursor:  white
	   emacs*BorderColor:  white
	   emacs*Font:	6x10
	   xmag*geometry: -0-0
	   xmag*borderColor:  white

       If these resources were stored in a file called in your home directory,
       they could be added to any existing resources in the  server  with  the
       following command:

	   % xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources

       This  is	 frequently  how user-friendly startup scripts merge user-spe‐
       cific defaults into any site-wide defaults.  All sites  are  encouraged
       to  set	up convenient ways of automatically loading resources. See the
       Xlib manual section Resource Manager Functions for more information.

EXAMPLES
       The following is a collection of sample command lines for some  of  the
       more  frequently	 used  commands.  For more information on a particular
       command, please refer to that command's manual page.

	   %  xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
	   %  xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
	   %  mkfontdir /usr/local/lib/X11/otherfonts
	   %  xset fp+ /usr/local/lib/X11/otherfonts
	   %  xmodmap $HOME/.keymap.km
	   %  xsetroot -solid 'rgbi:.8/.8/.8'
	   %  xset b 100 400 c 50 s 1800 r on
	   %  xset q
	   %  twm
	   %  xmag
	   %  xclock -geometry 48x48-0+0 -bg blue -fg white
	   %  xeyes -geometry 48x48-48+0
	   %  xbiff -update 20
	   %  xlsfonts '*helvetica*'
	   %  xwininfo -root
	   %  xdpyinfo -display joesworkstation:0
	   %  xhost -joesworkstation
	   %  xrefresh
	   %  xwd | xwud
	   %  bitmap companylogo.bm 32x32
	   %  xcalc -bg blue -fg magenta
	   %  xterm -geometry 80x66-0-0 -name myxterm $*
	   %  xon filesysmachine xload

DIAGNOSTICS
       A wide variety of error messages are generated from  various  programs.
       The  default  error  handler  in Xlib (also used by many toolkits) uses
       standard resources to construct diagnostic messages when errors	occur.
       The    defaults	  for	these	messages   are	 usually   stored   in
       <XRoot>/lib/X11/XErrorDB. If this file is not present,  error  messages
       will be rather terse and cryptic.

       When  the  X  Toolkit  Intrinsics  encounter errors converting resource
       strings to the appropriate internal format, no error messages are  usu‐
       ally  printed.  This is convenient when it is desirable to have one set
       of resources across a variety of displays (for example, color vs. mono‐
       chrome,	lots  of  fonts vs.  very few, and so forth.), although it can
       pose problems for trying to determine why an application might be fail‐
       ing.   This behavior can be overridden by the setting the StringConver‐
       sionsWarning resource.

       To force the X Toolkit Intrinsics to  always  print  string  conversion
       error  messages,	 the  following	 resource should be placed in the file
       that gets loaded onto the RESOURCE_MANAGER property using the xrdb pro‐
       gram (frequently called or in the user's home directory):

	   *StringConversionWarnings: on

       To  have conversion messages printed for just a particular application,
       the appropriate instance name can be placed before the asterisk:

	   xterm*StringConversionWarnings: on

TRADEMARKS
       X Window System is a trademark of X Consortium, Inc. Fresco is a regis‐
       tered trademark of X Consortium, Inc.

SEE ALSO
       XConsortium(1X),	    XStandards(1X),	XSecurity(1X),	   appres(1X),
       bdftopcf(1X),  bitmap(1X),  editres(1X),	  fsinfo(1X),	fslsfonts(1X),
       fstobdf(1X),	ico(1X),    imake(1X),	  makedepend(1X),    maze(1X),
       mkdirhier(1X),  mkfontdir(1X),  oclock(1X),   puzzle(1X),   resize(1X),
       rstart(1X),    showfont(1X),    showrgb(1X),    twm(1X),	  viewres(1X),
       x11perf(1X), x11perfcomp(1X), xauth(1X), xbiff(1X),  xcalc(1X),	xclip‐
       board(1X),  xclock(1X), xcmsdb(1X), xconsole(1X), xcutsel(1X), xdm(1X),
       xdpr(1X),  xdpyinfo(1X),	 xedit(1X),   xev(1X),	 xeyes(1X),   xfd(1X),
       xfs(1X),	 xfontsel(1X),	xgc(1X),  xhost(1X), xieperf(1X), xkbcomp(1X),
       xkill(1X),  xlogo(1X),  xlsatoms(1X),   xlsclients(1X),	 xlsfonts(1X),
       xmag(1X), xmh(1X), xmkmf(1X), xmodmap(1X), xon(1X), xpr(1X), xprop(1X),
       xrdb(1X),   xrefresh(1X),   xset(1X),	xsetroot(1X),	 xstdcmap(1X),
       xterm(1X), xwd(1X), xwininfo(1X), xwud(1X), Xserver(1X), Xdec(1X), Xlib
       -- C Language X Interface, and  X  Toolkit  Intrinsics  --  C  Language
       Interface

AUTHORS
       A  cast of thousands, literally.	 The Release 6 distribution is brought
       to you by X Consortium, Inc.  The names of all people  who  made	 it  a
       reality	will  be  found	 in the individual documents and source files.
       The staff members at the X Consortium responsible for this release are:
       Donna  Converse,	 Gary Cutbill, Stephen Gildea, Jay Hersh, Kaleb Keith‐
       ley, Matt Landau, Ralph Mor, Janet  O'Halloran,	Bob  Scheifler,	 Ralph
       Swick, and Dave Wiggins.

       The X Window System standard was originally developed at the Laboratory
       for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  and
       all  rights  thereto  were  assigned  to the X Consortium on January 1,
       1994.

									 X(1X)
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