Xinit

{{redirect-distinguish|startx|StartX}}

{{lowercase|title=xinit}}

{{No footnotes|date=October 2018}}

{{Infobox software

| name = xinit

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| programming language = C

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|P348|P548=Q2804309}}

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}|df=yes}}

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| website = [http://www.x.org/archive/X11R6.8.2/doc/xinit.1.html xinit manual page]

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The xinit program allows a user to manually start an X display server. The startx script is a front-end for xinit.

By default, xinit and startx start an X display server pointing to a display device that is enumerated as :0 and then start an xterm on it. When the xterm terminates, xinit and startx kill the X display 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.

Two alternative methods for starting an X display server are by using a display manager and by starting the X server and then manually starting one or more clients. On desktop Linux systems, a display manager is the most commonly used method.