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

Xterm

In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it .xterm originated prior to the X Window System...

 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

X window manager

An X window manager is a window manager which runs on top of the X Window System, a windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems.Unlike the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows platforms which have historically provided a vendor-controlled, fixed set of ways to control how windows and panes display...

.

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

Desktop Linux

Desktop Linux, also called Linux on the desktop, refers to specialized Linux distributions with features designed for desktop personal computer users. These features include a graphical user interface and personal use applications....

systems, using a display manager is the most commonly used method.

External links

• xinit manual page
• startx manual page