XRDB(1) General Commands Manual XRDB(1)
NAME
xrdb - X server resource database utility
SYNOPSIS
xrdb [-option ...] [filename]
DESCRIPTION
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 prop-
erty.)
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:
SERVERHOST=hostname
the hostname portion of the display to which you are connected.
SRVR_name
the SERVERHOST hostname string turned into a legal identifier.
For example, "my-dpy.lcs.mit.edu" becomes
SRVR_my_dpy_lcs_mit_edu.
HOST=hostname
the same as SERVERHOST.
DISPLAY_NUM=num
the number of the display on the server host.
CLIENTHOST=hostname
the name of the host on which xrdb is running.
CLNT_name
the CLIENTHOST hostname string turned into a legal identifier.
For example, "expo.lcs.mit.edu" becomes CLNT_expo_lcs_mit_edu.
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 literal specifying the vendor of the server.
VNDR_name
the VENDOR name string turned into a legal identifier. For ex-
ample, "MIT X Consortium" becomes VNDR_MIT_X_Consortium.
EXT_name
A symbol is defined for each protocol extension supported by the
server. Each extension string name is turned into a legal iden-
tifier. For example, "X3D-PEX" becomes EXT_X3D_PEX.
NUM_SCREENS=num
the total number of screens.
SCREEN_NUM=num
the number of the current screen (from zero).
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, True-
Color, DirectColor. This is the visual class of the root win-
dow.
CLASS_visualclass=visualid
the visual class of the root window in a form you can #ifdef on.
The value is the numeric id of the visual.
COLOR defined only if CLASS is one of StaticColor, PseudoColor, True-
Color, or DirectColor.
CLASS_visualclass_depth=num
A symbol is defined for each visual supported for the screen.
The symbol includes the class of the visual and its depth; the
value is the numeric id of the visual. (If more than one visual
has the same class and depth, the numeric id of the first one
reported by the server is used.)
HEIGHT=num
the height of the root window in pixels.
WIDTH=num
the width of the root window in pixels.
PLANES=num
the number of bit planes (the depth) of the root window.
X_RESOLUTION=num
the x resolution of the screen in pixels per meter.
Y_RESOLUTION=num
the y resolution of the screen in pixels per meter.
SRVR_name, CLNT_name, VNDR_name, and EXT_name identifiers are formed by
changing all characters other than letters and digits into underscores
(_).
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.
OPTIONS
xrdb program accepts the following options:
-help This option (or any unsupported option) will cause a brief de-
scription of the allowable options and parameters to be printed.
-version
This option will cause the xrdb version to be printed and the
program to exit without performing any other operations.
-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, -override 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 de-
fault mode of operation.
-global This option indicates that the operation should only be per-
formed on the screen-independent RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
-screen This option indicates that the operation should only be per-
formed 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, -override and -merge, the input file is processed for
each screen.
-n This option indicates that changes to the specified properties
(when used with -load, -override or -merge) or to the resource
file (when used with -edit) should be shown on the standard out-
put, 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.
-undef This option is passed to the C preprocessor if used. It prevents
it from predefining any system specific macros.
-E This option indicates that any cpp command run and the output
from it should be shown on standard output. If -nocpp was also
specified, the input file will be shown as read. The specified
changes will also be performed unless the -n option is also
specified.
-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 ap-
pear in the output from this option. The -edit option can be
used to merge the contents of properties back into the input re-
source file without damaging preprocessor commands.
-get name
This option indicates that the current content of the property
matching name should be printed onto the standard output.
-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 ac-
tion.
-override
This option indicates that the input should be added to, instead
of replacing, the current contents of the specified properties.
New entries override previous entries.
-merge This option indicates that the input should be merged and lexi-
cographically sorted with, instead of replacing, the current
contents of the specified properties.
-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 should never be nec-
essary under normal conditions, since xdm and xinit always act
as the first client.
-edit filename
This option indicates that the contents of the specified proper-
ties 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, pre-
serving 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.
FILES
Xrdb does not load any files on its own, but many desktop environments
use xrdb to load ~/.Xresources files on session startup to initialize
the resource database, as a generalized replacement for ~/.Xdefaults
files.
SEE ALSO
X(7), appres(1), listres(1), Xlib Resource Manager documentation, Xt re-
source documentation
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to figure out which display to use.
BUGS
The default for no arguments should be to query, not to overwrite, so
that it is consistent with other programs.
AUTHORS
Bob Scheifler, Phil Karlton, rewritten from the original by Jim Gettys
X Version 11 xrdb 1.2.2 XRDB(1)
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