XRDB(1) User Commands 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
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:

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
example, "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 identifier. 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,
TrueColor, DirectColor. This is the visual class of the root
window.

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,
TrueColor, 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
description 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 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, -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 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.

-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 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.

-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 action.

-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
lexicographically 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 necessary under normal conditions, since xdm and xinit
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.

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
resource 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)