Xinit, startx, and related stuffs

xinit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The xinit program allows a user to manually start an X server. The startx script is a front-end for xinit.

By default, xinit and startx start an X server on display :0 and then start an xterm on it. When the xterm terminates, xinit and startx kill the X server. In general, xinit and startx can start an arbitrary server and run an arbitrary script. Typically, this script runs a number of programs and a window manager.

Two alternative methods for starting an X server is:

• by using a display manager and 
• by starting the X server and then manually starting one or more clients. On desktop linux systems, using a display manager is the most commonly used method.

"xinit"和“startx”就属于下一种，Gnome就是一个display manager，属于第一种。

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Xinit manul page http://www.xfree86.org/current/xinit.1.html: 

Xinit 从/HOME/.xinitrc或者/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc读取X的配置，Windows manager会作为最后一个启动的application：

Below is a sample .xinitrc that starts a clock, several terminals, 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 &
xclock -g 50x50-0+0 -bw 0 &
xload -g 50x50-50+0 -bw 0 &
xterm -g 80x24+0+0 &
xterm -g 80x24+0-0 &
twm

解读startx  

xinit的命令格式，及startx 的逐行解释。不过比较老。

GNOME Documentation Library

The GNOME Power Manager session daemon is a power management daemon for the GNOME desktop

GNOME Power Manager is usually started in GNOME startup, but you can manually start GNOME Power Manager by doing:
Command line
Type gnome-power-manager --verbose --no-daemon, then press Return: