xrdb(1) manual page
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xrdb - X server resource database utility
xrdb [-option ...]
[filename]
Xrdb is used to get or set the contents of the RESOURCE_MANAGER
property on the root window of screen 0, or the SCREEN_RESOURCES property
on the root window of any or all screens, or everything combined. You would
normally run this program from your X startup file.
Most X clients use the
RESOURCE_MANAGER and SCREEN_RESOURCES properties to get user preferences
about color, fonts, and so on for applications. Having this information
in the server (where it is available to all clients) instead of on disk,
solves the problem in previous versions of X that required you to maintain
defaults files on every machine that you might use. It also allows for dynamic
changing of defaults without editing files.
The RESOURCE_MANAGER property
is used for resources that apply to all screens of the display. The SCREEN_RESOURCES
property on each screen specifies additional (or overriding) resources
to be used for that screen. (When there is only one screen, SCREEN_RESOURCES
is normally not used, all resources are just placed in the RESOURCE_MANAGER
property.)
The file specified by filename (or the contents from standard
input if - or no filename is given) is optionally passed through the C preprocessor
with the following symbols defined, based on the capabilities of the server
being used:
- BITS_PER_RGB=num
- the number of significant bits in an RGB color
specification. This is the log base 2 of the number of distinct shades
of each primary that the hardware can generate. Note that it usually is
not related to PLANES.
- CLASS=visualclass
- one of StaticGray, GrayScale, StaticColor,
PseudoColor, TrueColor, DirectColor. This is the visual class of the root
window of the default screen.
- COLOR
- defined only if CLASS is one of StaticColor,
PseudoColor, TrueColor, or DirectColor.
- HEIGHT=num
- the height of the default
screen in pixels.
- SERVERHOST=hostname
- the hostname portion of the display
to which you are connected.
- HOST=hostname
- the same as SERVERHOST.
- CLIENTHOST=hostname
- the name of the host on which xrdb is running.
- PLANES=num
- the number of
bit planes (the depth) of the root window of the default screen.
- RELEASE=num
- the vendor release number for the server. The interpretation of this number
will vary depending on VENDOR.
- REVISION=num
- the X protocol minor version
supported by this server (currently 0).
- VERSION=num
- the X protocol major
version supported by this server (should always be 11).
- VENDOR=vendor
- a
string specifying the vendor of the server.
- WIDTH=num
- the width of the default
screen in pixels.
- X_RESOLUTION=num
- the x resolution of the default screen
in pixels per meter.
- Y_RESOLUTION=num
- the y resolution of the default screen
in pixels per meter.
Lines that begin with an exclamation mark (!) are ignored
and may be used as comments.
Note that since xrdb can read from standard
input, it can be used to the change the contents of properties directly
from a terminal or from a shell script.
xrdb program accepts the
following options:
- -help
- This option (or any unsupported option) will cause
a brief description of the allowable options and parameters to be printed.
- -display display
- This option specifies the X server to be used; see X(7)
.
It also specifies the screen to use for the -screen option, and it specifies
the screen from which preprocessor symbols are derived for the -global option.
- -all
- This option indicates that operation should be performed on the screen-independent
resource property (RESOURCE_MANAGER), as well as the screen-specific property
(SCREEN_RESOURCES) on every screen of the display. For example, when used
in conjunction with -query, the contents of all properties are output. For
-load and -merge, the input file is processed once for each screen. The resources
which occur in common in the output for every screen are collected, and
these are applied as the screen-independent resources. The remaining resources
are applied for each individual per-screen property. This the default mode
of operation.
- -global
- This option indicates that the operation should only
be performed on the screen-independent RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
- -screen
- This option indicates that the operation should only be performed on the
SCREEN_RESOURCES property of the default screen of the display.
- -screens
- This option indicates that the operation should be performed on the SCREEN_RESOURCES
property of each screen of the display. For -load and -merge, the input file
is processed for each screen.
- -n
- This option indicates that changes to the
specified properties (when used with -load or -merge) or to the resource
file (when used with -edit) should be shown on the standard output, but
should not be performed.
- -quiet
- This option indicates that warning about
duplicate entries should not be displayed.
- -cpp filename
- This option specifies
the pathname of the C preprocessor program to be used. Although xrdb was
designed to use CPP, any program that acts as a filter and accepts the
-D, -I, and -U options may be used.
- -nocpp
- This option indicates that xrdb should
not run the input file through a preprocessor before loading it into properties.
- -symbols
- This option indicates that the symbols that are defined for the
preprocessor should be printed onto the standard output.
- -query
- This option
indicates that the current contents of the specified properties should
be printed onto the standard output. Note that since preprocessor commands
in the input resource file are part of the input file, not part of the
property, they won’t appear in the output from this option. The -edit option
can be used to merge the contents of properties back into the input resource
file without damaging preprocessor commands.
- -load
- This option indicates
that the input should be loaded as the new value of the specified properties,
replacing whatever was there (i.e. the old contents are removed). This is
the default action.
- -merge
- This option indicates that the input should be
merged with, instead of replacing, the current contents of the specified
properties. Note that this option does a lexicographic sorted merge of
the two inputs, which is almost certainly not what you want, but remains
for backward compatibility.
- -remove
- This option indicates that the specified
properties should be removed from the server.
- -retain
- This option indicates
that the server should be instructed not to reset if xrdb is the first
client. This never be necessary under normal conditions, since xdm(1)
and
xinit(1)
always act as the first client.
- -edit filename
- This option indicates
that the contents of the specified properties should be edited into the
given file, replacing any values already listed there. This allows you
to put changes that you have made to your defaults back into your resource
file, preserving any comments or preprocessor lines.
- -backup string
- This
option specifies a suffix to be appended to the filename used with -edit
to generate a backup file.
- -Dname[=value]
- This option is passed through to
the preprocessor and is used to define symbols for use with conditionals
such as #ifdef.
- -Uname
- This option is passed through to the preprocessor
and is used to remove any definitions of this symbol.
- -Idirectory
- This option
is passed through to the preprocessor and is used to specify a directory
to search for files that are referenced with #include.
Generalizes
~/.Xdefaults files.
X11(7)
, Xlib Resource Manager documentation,
Xt resource documentation
- DISPLAY
- to figure out which display
to use.
The default for no arguments should be to query, not to overwrite,
so that it is consistent with other programs.
By default, xrdb
passes its input through the cpp(1)
pre-processor. The cpp pre-processor
defines the symbol "sun" with the value "1". This means that any unquoted
appearance of the string "sun" in the input will be converted to the string
"1". To avoid this behavior, invoke the command with the option -nocpp
or the option -Usun . Alternatively, precede a group of lines that contain
the string "sun" with the line #undef sun and follow them by #define sun
1
Copyright 1991, Digital Equipment Corporation and MIT.
Bob
Scheifler, Phil Karlton, rewritten from the original by Jim Gettys
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