xrdb is a program used for accessing the X resources

X resources

In the X Window System, the X resources are parameters of computer programs such as the name of the font used in the buttons, the background color of menus, etc. They are used in conjunction with or as an alternative to command line parameters and configuration files.- Format :At the X protocol...

 of a server. Its main use is to read a set of resources from a file and store them in the server at startup.

This program can access the resources in both read and write mode. In particular, it can read the resources stored in the server and can store a set of resources on the server, replacing or adding to the previous ones. It can operate either on the general display resources or on the ones specific to a screen. The main use of xrdb is however to load the resources when the X server is started. For example, the instruction xrdb -load $HOME/.Xresources can be placed in scripts that are executed when the server is started to read the user preferences from the file .Xresources in his home directory.

The original version of xrdb was written by Jim Gettys

Jim Gettys

Jim Gettys is an American computer programmer at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, USA. Until January 2009, he was the Vice President of Software at the One Laptop per Child project, working on the software for the OLPC XO-1. He is one of the original developers of the X Window System at MIT and worked on...

and later rewritten by Bob Scheifler and Phil Karlton.

External links

• xrdb man page
• Using the xrdb Client Program
• http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/xrdb/