X Window System, Version 11
Release 4
Release Notes
Jim Fulton
X Consortium
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
ABSTRACT
--------
The X Window System is a portable, network-
transparent window system originally developed at
MIT. It can be used on a wide variety of raster
display devices, ranging from from simple mono-
chrome frame buffers to deep, true color graphics
processors. This document describes contents of
the fourth public release of X, Version 11 from
MIT and how it has changed from previous releases.
1. Overview
- --------
This is the fourth release of the X Window System, Version
11 from MIT. Substantial progress has been made in optimiz-
ing the sample server, window manager, and programming
libraries. In addition, major improvements to the user
interface of several of the key applications (in particular,
xmh, twm, xman, and xterm) should make release noticably
--- --- ---- -----
nicer to use. Sample implementations of the various new
Consortium Standards are included as well as prototype
implementations of several efforts currently under develop-
ment. No incompatible changes have been made to either the
core Protocol or to the Xlib programming library. The Xt
---- --
Intrinsics should be source compatible with the previous
----------
release. Changes have been made to the Xaw widget set, but
---
a configuration option for providing backwards compatibility
interfaces is available.
Several new sets of fonts have been added: a new fixed width
family of fonts, a Kanji and Kana font, the Lucida family
from Bigelow & Holmes and Sun Microsystems, a terminal emu-
lator font from Digital Equipment Corporation, and 100
dots-per-inch (dpi) versions of all 75dpi fonts.
-------------------------
X Window System is a trademark of MIT.
- ------ ------
c
Copyright 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 2 -
This release contains two types of software: that which is
supported by the staff of the X Consortium and which forms
the core of the X Window System, and that which has been
contributed by the user community and is provided as a pub-
lic service without support from MIT. The core distribution
also contains public implementations of certain software
management utilities that may not be available on all plat-
forms (such as patch and a cpp that can handle large numbers
----- ---
of symbols) as well as the tools that are used to build X
software.
The servers, libraries, and applications provided in this
release are sample rather than reference implementations.
------ ---------
The X Consortium standardizes specifications, not particular
instances of code. In particular, the document X Window
- ------
System Protocol, Version 11 is the final authority on what
------ -------- ------- --
is and is not part of the core X Window System protocol.
For additional information, see the XStandards(1) manual
---------- -
page.
Since the last release, the X Consortium has made signifi-
cant additions to the Xlib standard (see
mit/doc/Xlib/R4Xlib.tbl.ms) and to the X Toolkit Intrinsics
--- --- ---- ------ --- --
standard, and has approved the following specifications as
new standards:
Inter-Client Communications Conventions Manual
----- ------ -------------- ----------- ------
The Inter-Client Communications Conventions Manual
(ICCCM, whose specification may be found in
mit/doc/ICCCM/icccm.tbl.ms) establishes a set of
--- --- ----- ----- --- --
conventions that allow clients to cooperate in the
areas of selections, cut buffers, window manage-
ment, session management, and resources. Program-
ming interfaces have been added to both Xlib and
----
-------------------------
Technology.
Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell
this software and its documentation for any purpose is
hereby granted without fee, provided that the above
copyright notice appear in all copies and that both
that copyright notice and this permission notice appear
in supporting documentation, and that the name of
M.I.T. not be used in advertising or publicity
pertaining to distribution of the software without
specific, written prior permission. M.I.T. makes no
representations about the suitability of this software
for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
express or implied warranty.
This software is not subject to any license of the
American Telephone and Telegraph Company or of the
Regents of the University of California.
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 3 -
the Xt Intrinsics to simplify the task of writing
-- ----------
compliant applications. The core twm window
---
manager, as well as the user-contributed gwm,
---
olwm, and tekwm window managers, is intended to be
---- -----
be compliant.
X11 Non-rectangular Window Shape Extension
--- --- ----------- ------ ----- ---------
The SHAPE extension (whose specification may be
found in mit/doc/extensions/shape.ms) provides
--- --- ---------- ----- --
non-rectangular, disjoint windows. Samples of its
use may be found in the Xaw Command and Mailbox
---
widgets, in the twm window manager, and in the
---
oclock and xeyes clients.
------ -----
X Display Manager Control Protocol
- ------- ------- ------- --------
The X Display Manager Control Protocol (XDMCP)
(whose specification may be found in
mit/doc/XDMCP/xdmcp.ms) is a datagram-based proto-
--- --- ----- ----- --
col for managing remote displays (particularly X
terminals) in a network. Implementations of the
various elements of the protocol are provided in
the sample server and the xdm display manager.
---
Compound Text Encoding
-------- ---- --------
Compound Text (whose specification may be found in
mit/doc/CTEXT/ctext.tbl.ms) is an interchange for-
--- --- ----- ----- --- --
mat for multiple character set data such as
multi-lingual text. It is based on ISO standards
for encoding and combining characters and is
intended to be used in the following contexts:
inter-client communication using selections, win-
dow properties, and resources. Routines for pars-
ing Compound Text may be found in
mit/lib/Xmu/Xct.c.
--- --- --- --- -
X Logical Font Description Conventions
- ------- ---- ----------- -----------
The X Logical Font Description Conventions (XLFD,
whose specification may be found in
mit/doc/XLFD/xlfd.tbl.ms) are a set of guidelines
--- --- ---- ---- --- --
for naming fonts and font properties such that
fonts can be uniquely named and queried in a con-
sistent manner by applications. All of the text
fonts in the core distribution follow the XLFD
conventions. In addition, the new xfontsel pro-
--------
gram can be used to view and select fonts that
have XLFD names.
This release been built on the following operating systems:
Ultrix 3.1 (both VAX and RISC), SunOS 4.0.3, HP-UX 6.5,
Domain/OS 10.1, A/UX 1.1, AIX RT-2.2 and PS/2-1.1, AOS-4.3,
UTEK 4.0, NEWS-OS 3.2, UNICOS 5.0.1, and UNIX System V,
Release 3.2 (AT&T 6386 WGS). It should work correctly, or
with a minor amount of work, on a variety of other systems
as well. Before building the release, see the README files
------
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 4 -
in mit/config/ and mit/server/ddx/*/, for any special
--- ------ --- ------ ---
instructions.
2. Building the Release
- -------- --- -------
The software in this release is divided into two distribu-
tions: one for the core software that is supported by the
----
staff of the X Consortium (located in the directory tree
./mit/), and one for user-contributed software containing
--- ---- -----------
everything else (located in the directory tree ./contrib/).
-------
Great pains have been taken to make the core distribution
easy to reconfigure, build and install on a wide range of
platforms. The user-contributed distribution, on the other
hand, has not been compiled or tested by the staff of the X
Consortium and will require building by hand. With the
addition of function prototypes in the Xlib include files,
it is virtually certain that some user-contributed will fail
to compile under picky compilers (such as hc).
--
Almost all Makefiles in the core software are generated
---------
automatically by a utility called imake. The program com-
-----
bines machine-independent descriptions (called Imakefiles)
----------
of targets to be built with machine-dependent sets of param-
eters. Initial versions of all of the Makefiles are
---------
included for those sites that cannot use imake (they will
-----
undoubtedly require patching for specific machines). How-
ever, on many systems, X should build correctly right off
the tape. For the user-contributed distribution, and for
your own applications, the xmkmf script in mit/util/scripts/
----- --- ---- -------
can be used to build a Makefile from an Imakefile once the
-------- ---------
core has been built and installed.
2.1. Installation Summary
- - ------------ -------
To load and install this release of the X Window System, you
-------------------------
| Ultrix and VAX are trademarks of Digital Equipment
Corporation; SunOS is a trademark of Sun Microsystems,
Inc.; HP-UX and Domain are trademarks of the Hewlett-
Packard Company; PostScript is a trademark of Adobe
Systems, Inc.; A/UX is a trademark of Apple Computer;
UNICOS is a trademark of Cray Research; AIX and AOS are
trademarks of the IBM Corporation; UNIX is a registered
trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories; OPEN LOOK is a
trademark of AT&T; Times, Helvetica, and New Century
Schoolbook are registered trademarks of Linotype;
Lucida is a registered trademark of Bigelow & Holmes;
and Charter is a registered trademark of Bitstream,
Inc.
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 5 -
will need to:
1. Finish reading these Release Notes.
2. Create a directory into which you will read the distri-
bution tapes (usually named something like
/usr/local/src/X or /src/R4/). You will need roughly
--- ----- --- - --- --
50 megabytes to hold the core software and up to 90
megabytes for the user-contributed software. Note that
compiling will require anywhere from 50 to 110% more
disk space, depending on your machine (e.g. RISC vs.
CISC and whether or not you have shared libraries).
3. Unload the core tape into the directory created in step
#2. Since the user-contributed software must be built
by hand, you may wait and load it in later. Each of
the tapes contains one (very large) UNIX tar file
---
stored at 1600 bits per inch.
4. Read the file mit/config/README for instructions on how
--- ------ ------
to configure the build for your particular site. Also,
make sure that you follow the directions in README
------
files in mit/server/ddx/ directories for which you plan
--- ------ ---
to build servers. In particular, you must make sure
that the OSMajorVersion and OSMinorVersion configura-
-------------- --------------
tion parameters, as well as those indicated at the top
of mit/config/site.def, are appropriate for your sys-
--- ------ ---- ---
tem.
5. If you plan to compile the release on more than one
machine and have a distributed file system, you may
wish to use the script mit/util/scripts/lndir.sh to
--- ---- ------- ----- --
create symbolic link trees on each of the target
machines. This allows all of the platforms on which
you wish to run X to share a single set of sources. In
either case, the phrase build tree will be used to
----- ----
refer to the directory tree in which you are compiling
(to distinguish it from the source tree which contains
------ ----
the actual files).
6. If you are building on a Macintosh II, make sure you
read the file mit/server/ddx/macII/README and follow
--- ------ --- ----- ------
the directions for running the X11R4 script in that
-----
directory. If you are using GNUC on the Mac (highly
recommended; sources are available for anonymous ftp
from the machine apple.com), you will need to remove
----- ---
the "-s" flag on the egrep command in the GNUC fixin-
- ----- ------
cludes script. Otherwise, you will have to build and
------
install the C preprocessor in mit/util/cpp/.
--- ---- ---
7. If you are running on a VAX or 680x0 processor, you
should consider using the GNU C compiler (available via
anonymous ftp from the machine prep.ai.mit.edu) to com-
---- -- --- ---
pile the server. It can result in up to a factor of 2
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 6 -
improvement in performance. See the HasGcc parameter
------
in the files sun.cf, ultrix.cf, macII.cf, and site.def
--- -- ------ -- ----- -- ---- ---
in mit/config/
--- ------
8. Check the imake configuration parameters in
-----
mit/config/imakemdep.h and mit/config/Imake.tmpl.
--- ------ --------- - --- ------ ----- ----
9. Once you are satisfied with the configuration, you are
ready to build the core distribution. Look at the .cf
--
file for your system. There may be a line in it that
sets an make variable named BootstrapCFlags. If you
---- ---------------
don't find such a variable, you can use the following
command to start the build:
% make World >& make.world &
If you do find the variable, you should append that
definition to the command line, using the make variable
----
BOOTSTRAPCFLAGS. This is used by imake to set particu-
-----
lar cpp symbols for all compiles (if you are porting to
---
a different platform, see mit/util/imake/imakemdep.h).
--- ---- ----- --------- -
Special BOOTSTRAPCFLAGS are required on the following
systems for which .cf files are supplied: MacII, AT&T
--
6386, IBM workstations, and the Tektronix 4310 series.
For example:
% make BOOTSTRAPCFLAGS=-DmacII World >& make.world &
Do not call the output file make.log as the make clean
---- --- ---- -----
done by make World removes all files of this name.
---- -----
This will rebuild all of the Makefiles and execute a
---------
make -k all to compile everything in the core distribu-
---- - ---
tion. This will take anywhere from 15 minutes (on a
Cray Y-MP) to 12 hours, depending on your machine.
10. When the make is done, check the log file for any prob-
----
lems. There should be no serious errors. A/UX pcc
---
users can ignore compiler warnings about enumeration
type clashes, and Apollo and IBM users can ignore
optimizer warnings. Most optimizers will also give
warnings about the C code that is generated by lex and
---
yacc in mit/clients/twm; these may be safely ignored.
---- --- ------- ---
11. If you are satisfied that everything has built
correctly, test the various critical programs (servers,
xterm, xinit, etc.) by hand. You may need to be root
----- -----
to run the server or xterm. A second workstation or
-----
terminal will be particularly useful if you run into
problems.
12. Make backup copies of your old X header files,
binaries, fonts, libraries, etc.
13. Go to the top of the build tree and type
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 7 -
# make install >& make.install
You will either have to do this as root, or have write
access to the appropriate directories (see
DIRS TO BUILD in the top level Imakefile and
- - ---------
mit/config/Imake.tmpl). The xterm program should be
--- ------ ----- ---- -----
installed setuid to root on most systems and the xload
-----
program should be installed setgid to whichever group
the file /dev/kmem belongs to (it is installed setuid
--- ----
to root by default).
14. If you would like to install the manual pages, type the
following at the top of the build tree:
# make install.man
15. If you would like to create and install lint libraries,
type the following at the top of the build tree:
% make install.ln
If you are installing X for the first time, you may also
need to do some of the steps listed below. Check the vari-
ous README files in the mit/server/ddx directories for addi-
--- ------ ---
tional instructions.
16. Add device drivers or reconfigure your kernel.
17. Create additional pseudoterminals. See your operating
system script /dev/MAKEDEV and site administrator for
--- -------
details.
18. Read the manual page for the Display Manager xdm and
---
configure it for your site. This program provides a
portable way of running X automatically and has many
hooks for creating a nice interface for novice users.
Warning: the -L flag is no longer supported by xterm.
If you are running xterm from /etc/init you will have
to convert to xdm or else save your old binary.
19. Make sure that all X11 users have the directory
/usr/bin/X11 in their search paths.
--- --- ---
20. Give it a try!
Release 4 of Version 11 of the X Window System should now be
ready to use.
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 8 -
2.2. Operating System Requirements
- - --------- ------ ------------
One of the reasons why X is so popular is that it does not
require very much operating system support. Although this
distribution only contains sample implementations for BSD
and UNIX derivative platforms, support for other operating
systems is available from a wide variety of vendors. The
servers in this release have been built on the following
systems:
Ultrix 3.1 (both VAX and RISC)
SunOS 4.0.3
HP-UX 6.5
Domain/OS 10.1
A/UX 1.1
AIX RT-2.2 and PS/2-1.1
IBM AOS-4.3
UTEK 4.0
The client libraries and applications have been built on all
of the above systems, plus:
NEWS-OS 3.2
UNICOS 5.0.1
UNIX System V, Release 3.2 (AT&T 6386 WGS)
If you are using versions prior to these, you may well run
into trouble. In particular, the server will not run on IBM
4.2A release 2 and there is no longer support for Apollo
SR9.7. The README files in the various mit/server/ddx/
------ --- ------ ---
describe particular requirements such as compilers,
libraries, preprocessors, etc. As was noted above, A/UX 1.0
users will need to build a new version of the C preproces-
sor.
You should verify that your networking and interprocess com-
munication facilities are working properly before trying to
use X. If programs such as talk and rlogin don't work, X
---- ------
probably won't either.
2.3. Reading in the Release Tapes
- - ------- -- --- ------- -----
This release may be obtained electronically from the Inter-
net, the UUNET Project, several consulting firms, and vari-
ous UUCP archive sites. In addition, a set of 2400 foot,
1600 BPI magnetic tapes (MIT does not distribute on car-
tridge tapes or floppy disks) and printed documentation is
available from the MIT Software Center; call (617) 258-8330
for details.
Each tape from MIT contains one large tar archive with
---
software and documentation for part of the release. If you
have a limited amount of disk space, you should load tape
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 9 -
#1, prune out any servers that you don't need, and generate
listings of the user-contributed tapes for later retrieval.
In particular, you will probably want to extract the mit/doc
--- ---
directory from tape #2. All filenames are given as relative
paths (i.e. beginning with a period instead of a slash) so
that the release may be placed anywhere in your file system.
Before reading in the tapes, make sure that you have enough
disk space. Each of the tapes contains roughly 35 mega-
bytes, split as follows:
Tape # Contents Status
---- -------- ------
1 core software for make World required
---- -----
2 core docs and contrib clients recommended
3 contrib libs and toolkits optional
4 contrib Andrew and games optional
The compiled versions of the programs will occupy yet again
as much disk space (particularly on RISC machines without
shared libraries), so plan accordingly.
Create a directory into which you will put all of the
sources. In this directory, execute the appropriate operat-
ing system commands to read in the core tapes. If your site
is set up so that tar uses a 1600bpi tape drive by default,
---
you will probably type something like:
% mkdir /usr/local/src/X
% cd /usr/local/src/X
% tar xv
See your system administrator for help.
2.4. Using Symbolic Links
- - ----- -------- -----
This release uses links (symbolic, on machines that support
them) in several places to avoid duplication of certain
files (mostly header files). If you are building this
release on a system for which configuration files have not
been supplied, you should check the LN configuration parame-
ter in the appropriate mit/config/*.cf file. If your
--- ------ --
operating system does not support soft links, LN should be
set either to create hard links or to copy the source file.
If you need to move the release to another machine after it
has been built, use tar instead of cp or rcp so that you
--- -- ---
preserve dates and links. This is usually done with a com-
mand of the form:
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 10 -
% (chdir /usr/local/src/X; tar cf - .) | rsh othermachine "(chdir /moredisk/X; tar xpBf -)"
See your system administrator for help.
2.5. Configuring the Release
- - ----------- --- -------
This release makes extensive use of a utility called imake
-----
to generate machine-specific Makefiles from machine-
---------
independent Imakefiles. Another utility, called makedepend,
---------- ----------
is used to generate Makefile dependencies for C language
--------
files. Sample Makefiles are provided, although you are
---------
strongly urged to use imake and makedepend so that your
----- ----------
software works across releases.
The configuration files for imake are located in the direc-
-----
tory mit/config/. Makefiles are created from a template
--- ------ ---------
file named Imake.tmpl, a machine-specific .cf file, and a
----- ---- --
site-specific site.def file. With only a few exceptions,
---- ---
configuration parameters are cpp symbols that may be defined
---
on a per-server basis or for all servers in a given site.
The template file should not be modified.
---
The file mit/config/README describes each of the build
--- ------ ------
parameters. The defaults have been chosen to work properly
on a wide range of machines and to be easy to maintain. An
overview of the configuration system may be found in the
file mit/doc/config/usenixws/paper.ms. Site-specific confi-
--- --- ------ -------- ----- --
gurations should be described in the file site.def using the
---- ---
following syntax:
#ifndef BuildParameter
--------------
#define BuildParameter site-specific-value
-------------- ---- -------- -----
#endif
2.6. Compiling the Release
- - --------- --- -------
Once the configuration parameters are set, you should be
able to type the following command at the top of the build
tree to compile the core software:
% make World >& make.world &
Remember to set BOOTSTRAPCFLAGS if your system needs it.
Don't redirect the output to make.log as this particular
---- ---
file is deleted as part of the build process. This will
take anywhere up to 24 hours, depending on the machine used,
and should complete without any significant errors on most
machines.
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 11 -
If you need to restart the build after all of the Makefiles
---------
and dependencies have been created, type the following com-
mand at the top of the build tree:
% make -k >& make.out &
If you later decide to change any of the configuration
parameters, you'll need to do another full make World.
---- -----
2.7. Installing the Release
- - ---------- --- -------
If everything compiles successfully, you may install the
software by typing the following as root from the top of the
build tree:
# make install
If you would rather not do the installation as root, make
the necessary directories writable by you and do the install
from your account. Then, check the ownership and protec-
tions on xterm and xload in the BINDIR directory (usually
----- -----
/usr/bin/X11/): on most systems xterm must be installed
--- --- --- -----
setuid to root so that it can set the ownership of its pseu-
doterminal and update /etc/utmp, and xload needs to be
--- ---- -----
setuid to root or setgid to the group owning the file
/dev/kmem so that it can get the system load average.
--- ----
If your /etc/termcap and /usr/lib/terminfo databases don't
--- ------- --- --- --------
have entries for xterm, sample entries are provided in the
-----
directory mit/clients/xterm/. System V users may need to
--- ------- -----
compile and install the terminfo entry with the tic utility.
-------- ---
If you plan to use the xinit program to run X, you should
-----
create a link named X pointing to the appropriate server
-
program (usually named something like Xmachine in the direc-
--------
tory /usr/bin/X11/). However, xinit is not intended for
--- --- --- -----
most users; instead, site administrators are expected to
either configure xdm or provide user-friendly interfaces.
---
If you would like to have manual pages installed, check the
ManDirectoryRoot, ManDir and LibManDir configuration parame-
---------------- ------ ---------
ters in mit/config/ and type the following at the top of the
--- ------
build tree:
# make install.man
If you would like to have lint libraries created and
installed, type the following at the top of the build tree:
# make install.ln
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 12 -
Finally, make sure that all users have the BINDIR (usually
/usr/bin/X11/) in their PATH environment variable.
--- --- ---
2.8. Notes on Kernels and Special Files
- - ----- -- ------- --- ------- -----
On some machines, it may be necessary to rebuild the kernel
with a new device driver, or to at least reconfigure it. If
you have never run X before and are using a system not
listed in these notes, you might need verify that the CSR
addresses in your kernel configuration file match your
hardware. In addition, you should make sure that the kernel
autoconfigures the display when booting.
You may need to create special devices for your display,
mouse, or keyboard. For example,
# MAKEDEV cgfour # for Sun 3/60
# MAKEDEV displays # for displays on the RT/PC
The protection modes on the display device files should be
set so that only the server can open them. If the server is
started by /etc/init, the protections can be root
--- ----
read/write, everyone else no access; otherwise, they will
have to be read/write for everyone or else your server will
have to be setuid to root.
On a Digital QVSS (VAXStation II) under older versions of
Ultrix, you may need to use adb to make sure that the kernel
---
variable qv def scrn is set to 2 so that the full width of
-----------
the VR-260 monitor is used (otherwise there will be an
unused black strip down the right edge of the screen). This
can be done by changing the value either in /vmunix directly
------
or in /sys/vaxuba/qv.o and relinking and reinstalling the
--- ------ -- -
kernel. You will need to reboot for the new value to take
effect.
For more information, see the appropriate README files and
------
manual pages in the mit/server/ddx/ directories.
--- ------ ---
2.9. Testing the Release
- - ------- --- -------
Even if you plan on using xdm to run X all the time, you
---
should first run it by hand from another terminal to check
that everything is installed and working properly. Error
messages from the X server will then appear on your termi-
nal, rather than being written to the xdm-errors or to
--- ------
/usr/adm/X?msgs (where ? is the number of the display).
--- --- - ----
The easiest way to test the server is to go to /usr/bin/X11
--- --- ---
(or wherever you have installed the various X programs), and
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 13 -
run xinit as follows:
-----
% cd /usr/bin/X11
% xinit
If all is well, you should see a gray stipple pattern cover-
ing the screen, a cursor shaped like an ``X'' that tracks
the pointer, and a terminal emulator window. Otherwise,
check the following:
1. If the gray background doesn't appear at all, check the
permissions on any special device files (usually stored
in /dev/) described in the README in the appropriate
--- ------
mit/server/ddx/ subdirectories.
--- ------ ---
2. If the background appears, but the cursor is a white
square that doesn't change, make sure that the fonts
have been installed (in particular, the font named
cursor.snf in the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/;
------ --- --- --- --- ----- ----
see the configuration parameter DefaultFontPath). Also
---------------
make sure that there is a file named fonts.dir in each
----- ---
font directory. This file is created by the mkfontdir
---------
program and is used by the server to find fonts in a
directory.
3. If the cursor appears but doesn't track the pointer,
make sure that any special device files (often named
something like /dev/mouse) are installed (see the
--- -----
server's README file).
------
4. If the server starts up and then goes black a few
seconds later, the initial client (usually xterm or
-----
xdm) is dying. Make sure that xterm is installed
--- -----
setuid to root and that you have created enough pseu-
doterminals. If you are running xinit, and have a
-----
file named .xinitrc in your home directory, make sure
-------
that it is executable and that the last program that it
starts is run in the foreground (i.e. that there is no
ampersand at the end of the line). Otherwise, the
.xinitrc will finish immediately, which xinit assumes
------- -----
means that you are through.
Once you have the initial window working properly, try run-
ning some other programs from the xterm. To position a new
-----
window with the twm window manager, press Button1 (usually
---
the left-most button on the pointer) when the flashing rec-
tangle appears:
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 14 -
% xclock -g 200x200-0+0 &
% twm &
% xlogo &
% xeyes &
...
X should now be ready to use. Read the manual pages for the
new programs, look at the new fonts, and have fun.
2.10. Creating Extra Pseudoterminals
- -- -------- ----- ---------------
Since each xterm will need a separate pseudoterminal, you
-----
should create a large number of them (you probably will want
at least 32 on a small, multiuser system). Each pty has two
devices, a master and a slave, which are usually named
/dev/tty[pqrstu][0-f] and /dev/pty[pqrstu][0-f]. If you
don't have at least the ``p'' and ``q'' lines configured (do
an ``ls /dev''), you should have your system administrator
add them. This is often done by running the MAKEDEV script
in /dev:
---
# cd /dev
# ./MAKEDEV pty0
# ./MAKEDEV pty1
2.11. Starting X from /etc/rc
- -- -------- - ---- --- --
The X Display Manager is used to run the X server and ini-
tial login window. It is normally started from the system
startup file /etc/rc, and is designed to be easily tailored
--- --
to the needs of each specific site. Xdm takes care of keep-
---
ing the server running, prompting for username and password
and managing the user's session. The sample configuration
currently uses shell scripts to provide a fairly simple
environment. This will be an area of continuing work in
future releases.
The key to xdm's flexibility is its extensive use of
---
resources, allowing site administrators to quickly and
easily test alternative setups. When xdm starts up, it
---
reads a configuration file (the default is
/usr/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-config but can be specified with the
--- --- --- --- --- ------
-config command line flag) listing the names of the various
------
datafiles, default parameters, and startup and shutdown pro-
grams to be run. Because it uses the standard X Toolkit
resource file format, any parameters that may be set in the
xdm-config file may also be specified on the command line
--- ------
using the standard -xrm option.
---
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 15 -
The default configuration contains the following lines:
DisplayManager.servers: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers
DisplayManager.errorLogFile: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-errors
DisplayManager*resources: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xresources
DisplayManager*startup: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xstartup
DisplayManager*session: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession
DisplayManager*reset: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xreset
The mit/servers file contains the list of servers to start.
--- -------
The errorLogFile is where output from xdm is redirected.
------------ ---
The resources file contains default resources for the xdm
--------- ---
login window. In particular, this is where special key
sequences can be specified (in the xlogin*login.translations
------ ----- ------------
resource). The startup file should be a program or execut-
-------
able script that is run after the user has provided a valid
password. It is a hook for doing site-specific initializa-
tion, logging, etc. The session entry is the name of a ses-
-------
sion manager program or executable script that is run to
start up the user's environment. A simple version has been
supplied that provides an xterm window and twm window
----- ---
manager if the user does not have an executable .xsession
--------
file in his or her home directory. Finally, the reset pro-
-----
gram or executable script is run after the user logs out.
It is a hook for cleaning up after the startup program.
-------
To run xdm using the default configuration, add the follow-
---
ing line to your system boot file (usually named /etc/rc or
--- --
/etc/rc.local):
--- -- -----
/usr/bin/X11/xdm
Most sites will undoubtedly want to build their own confi-
gurations. We recommend that you place any site-specific
xdm-config and other xdm files in a different directory so
--- ------ ---
that they are not overwritten if somebody ever does a make
----
install. If you were to store the files in
-------
/usr/local/lib/xdm, the following command could be used to
--- ----- --- ---
start xdm:
---
/usr/bin/X11/xdm -config /usr/local/lib/xdm/xdm-config
Many servers set the keyboard to do non-blocking I/O under
the assumption that they are the only programs attempting to
read from the keyboard. Unfortunately, some versions of
/etc/getty (A/UX's in particular) will immediately see a
--- -----
continuous stream of zero-length reads which they interpret
as end-of-file indicators. Eventually, /etc/init will dis-
--- ----
able logins on that line until somebody types the following
as root:
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 16 -
# kill -HUP 1
Under A/UX, one alternative is to disable logins on the con-
sole and always run xdm from /etc/inittab. However, make
--- --- -------
sure that you save a copy of the old /etc/inittab in case
--- -------
something goes wrong and you have to restore logins from
over the network or from single-user mode.
Another less drastic approach is to set up an account whose
shell is the xdmshell program found in mit/clients/xdm/.
-------- --- ------- ---
This program is not installed by default so that site
administrators will examine it to see if it meets their
needs. The xdmshell utility makes sure that it is being run
--------
from the appropriate type of terminal, starts xdm, waits for
---
it to finish, and then resets the console if necessary. If
the xdm resources file (specified by the
---
DisplayManager*resources entry in the xdm-config file) con-
-------------- --------- --- ------
tains a binding to the abort-display action similar to the
----- -------
following
xlogin*login.translations: #override Ctrl<Key>R: abort-display()
the console can then by restored by pressing the indicated
key (Control-R in the above example) in the xdm login win-
---
dow.
The xdmshell program is usually installed setuid to root but
--------
executable only by members of a special group, of which the
account which has xdmshell as its shell is the only member:
--------
% grep xdm /etc/passwd
x:aB9i7vhDVa82z:101:51:Account for starting up X:/tmp:/etc/xdmshell
% grep 51 /etc/group
xdmgrp:*:51:
% ls -lg /etc/xdmshell
-rws--x--- 1 root xdmgrp 20338 Nov 1 01:32 /etc/xdmshell
If the xdm resources have not been configured to have a key
---
bound to the abort-display() action, there will be no way
----- -------
for general users to login to the console directly. Whether
or not this is desirable depends on the particular site.
3. How to Report Bugs or Request Enhancements
- --- -- ------ ---- -- ------- ------------
If you find a reproducible bug in the core distribution sup-
------------
ported by MIT (i.e. not in contrib/) or would like to sug-
-------
gest an enhancement (preferably with sample code), please
fill in a copy of the form located in mit/doc/bugs/bug-
--- --- ---- ---
report and mail it to:
------
xbugs@expo.lcs.mit.edu
----- ---- --- --- ---
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 17 -
Please fill in all sections (even if the bug appears on all
systems) and please include any test cases; a small sample
program is almost always the best information we can
receive. Sites that do not have access to the various net-
works may send printed copies of bug reports and tests cases
to:
X Bugs
X Consortium
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
room NE43-218
545 Technology Square
Cambridge, MA 02139
Bug reports that are not sent in electronic form cannot be
guaranteed a response. Also, any media containing bug
reports, contributions, etc. will not be returned.
Bugs in user-contributed software should be sent to the
author of the particular program, not to the address listed
above. The X Consortium will not track or forward bugs in
code located in contrib/.
-------
4. What's New in this Release
- ---- - --- -- ---- -------
The primary focus of this release has been optimization of
the server and improvements in the key applications.
4.1. Changes to the core distribution
- - ------- -- --- ---- ------------
The following additions, deletions, and modifications have
been made to the software in the core distribution. Widget
writers should read the new X Toolkit Intrinsics specifica-
tion. Application developers who use the Athena Widget Set
should read the list of changes in the file
mit/lib/Xaw/CHANGES and the conversion document
--- --- --- -------
mit/doc/Xaw/ConvertToR4, and read the new Athena Widget Set
--- --- --- ----------- ------ ------ ---
documentation.
many, many bugs fixed
A large number of bugs have been fixed in the server,
the libraries, and the clients. Servers are now robust
enough that they have been known to run for more than 3
months without experiencing any problems. The server
is now much stricter about disallowing extraneous bits
in masks (particularly the do not propagate mask window
---------------------
attribute), causing some improperly coded applications
to generate protocol errors. A new, non-standard
extension is provided (see xset bc) to enable
---- --
backwards-compatibility for broken clients.
server optimized, data space reduced
A substantial number of optimizations to both the
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 18 -
device-independent (dix) and device-dependent (ddx)
code. The monochrome (mfb) and color (cfb) frame
buffer code is now capable of driving many displays at
memory speeds. In addition, the amount of heap memory
that is used by the server has been reduced by roughly
two-thirds since the last release.
SHAPE extension
Non-rectangular windows are now supported by the new
SHAPE extension. Round windows such as round clocks
(see oclock), oval buttons (see xmh and xcalc), and
------ --- -----
shaped desktop icons (see xbiff) are now possible.
-----
This extension is a Consortium standard.
prototype extensions
Prototypes of two extensions that are currently under
development are provided in this release. The Multi-
-----
Buffering extension provides the ability to do simple
---------
animation (see ico -dbl), and the XInputExtension pro-
--- --- ---------------
vides access to alternate input devices. These exten-
sions are draft Consortium standards and are subject to
change.
build configuration moved and simplified
The configuration files have been moved to mit/config/
--- ------
and have been rewritten to make better use of prepro-
cessor symbols and macros. Support for System V with
and without the STREAMS transport layers has been
added.
new servers
New support has been added to the sample server for the
following platforms: Sun cgthree and cgsix frame
------- -----
buffers, Digital DECstation frame buffers, Tektronix
4319 frame buffer, and all HP framebuffers. Reorgani-
zations within the machine-independent (mi) graphics
code make porting to new platforms even easier than it
was before.
security hooks
Programming hooks in Xlib and the server are provided
----
for passing authorization information at connection
setup time. A sample implementation (called MIT-
MAGIC-COOKIE-1) based on secret tokens is used by xdm
---
and the server to provide greater security than the
host-based mechanism.
new fonts
Adobe Systems and Digital Equipment Corporation have
jointly donated 100dpi versions of the 75dpi fonts that
they provided in the last release. In addition, Digi-
tal has donated a set of terminal emulator fonts.
Bigelow & Holmes and Sun Microsystems have jointly
donated a collection of fonts from the Lucida family.
------
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 19 -
Sun has also donated a set of OPEN LOOK glyph fonts.
Sony has donated a set of Kanji and Kana fonts, and
several individuals have donated additional fixed-width
fonts.
ICCCM support
Xlib, the X Toolkit Intrinsics, twm, and various
---- - ------- ---------- ---
clients are now hoped to be ICCCM-compliant. The fol-
lowing window managers in contrib/windowmgrs/ also
------- ----------
claim to be compliant: gwm, olwm, and tekwm.
--- ---- -----
new rgb color database
A new color database containing many new colors, gray
scales, and color spectra tuned for some of the common
monitors is included.
function prototypes
ANSI C function prototypes have been added to the Xlib
----
and Xt header files; the include files should now also
--
be usable from C++ without modification. The Xlib pro-
----
totypes are enabled by default (on systems that support
them), while the Xt prototypes are disabled (they were
--
added too late in our release cycle). Picky compilers
(such as hc) will now catch many type incompatibili-
--
ties.
shared libraries
Support for SunOS-style shared libraries has been added
to Xlib, Xt, Xaw, and Xmu. This substantially reduces
---- -- --- ---
the amount of disk spaced used for executable programs.
new Xt Intrinsics
The X Toolkit Intrinsics now provide windowless
- ------- ----------
objects, varargs-style interfaces, better caching of
resources, fallback resources, locale-driven finding of
data files.
Athena widget enhancements
Most of the Xaw library has been rewritten to substan-
---
tially improve functionality, robustness, and perfor-
mance. New SimpleMenu and MenuButton widgets support
pop-up and pull-down menus. The Text widget has been
rewritten and is now quite usable for general editing.
The VPaned widget has been generalized to include hor-
izontal paning (and is now called Paned). The Label
widget now supports multi-line labels. A new Toggle
widget has been provided for implementing radio-
buttons. Finally, the Command widget has been enhanced
to use the SHAPE extension to provide true round but-
tons.
standard colormap routines
A new set of routines for manipulating standard color-
maps (see the XStandardColormap structure in the Xlib
----------------- ----
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 20 -
documentation) has been added to the Xmu library. The
---
xstdcmap client uses these routines to create standard
--------
colormaps.
additional converters
A variety of new converters have been added to Xmu. In
---
addition, multi-display programs should now be able to
use these converters (and might find the utilities for
managing the multiple display data structures useful).
new window manager
The uwm window manager has been moved from the core
---
distribution to the user-contributed distribution. A
substantially rewritten version of the twm window
---
manager is now supported.
improvements in xdm
The xdm display manager has been rewritten to reduce
---
the number of processes it requires and to make it much
more robust. This is now the only supported means for
starting the server at boot time (the -L command line
-
option has been removed from xterm).
-----
new utilities
Several new utility programs have been provided:
appres for determining which resources are loaded into
------
particular applications, listres for printing the
-------
resource hierarchy for a widget, oclock for people who
------
like truly round clocks, xauth for manipulating author-
-----
ization files, xditview for previewing ditroff files,
-------- -------
xfontsel for interactively selecting fonts, xlsatoms
-------- --------
for determining the value of various atoms, xlsclients
----------
for listing the clients currenting being run, and
xstdcmap for manipulating standard colormaps.
--------
new demos
A new demo of how various GC attributes (xgc) affect
---
what is displayed on the screen is provided.
new features in xterm
-----
The following features have been added to xterm: 8-bit
-----
input and output, on-the-fly changing of the current
font through escape sequences and a new menu, new
resources for controlling whether or not synthetic key
events are ignored, increased portability, and improved
menus using the new Athena SimpleMenu widget.
new CLX and documentation
A substantially improved version of CLX, the Common
Lisp interface to X, is provided. In addition,
comprehensive documentation of the CLX interface is
provided, courtesy of Texas Instruments.
sample copyright notice in mit/COPYRIGHTS
--- ----------
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 21 -
The file mit/COPYRIGHTS in the top level directory con-
--- ----------
tains a sample copyright notice recommended for people
who are interested in contributing software to the pub-
lic releases.
X Standards in mit/Standards.man
--- --------- ---
The XStandards(1) manual page contains a description of
---------- -
what is and is not an MIT X Consortium standard for the
X Window System. For further information about the X
Consortium, see the manual page XConsortium(1).
----------- -
4.2. Highlights of the User-Contributed Distribution
- - ---------- -- --- ---- ----------- ------------
The user-contributed distribution is set up in a tree very
similar to that used by the core distribution. New versions
of several packages are available, and a variety of new
donations have been received. Since this is not a superset
of the previous user-contributed tape, sites are encouraged
to save any R3 user-contributed software that they use.
Note that this distribution is of no relation to the /con-
----
trib directory available for anonymous ftp on
----
expo.lcs.mit.edu.
---- --- --- ---
XView and olwm
The XView toolkit and an ICCCM-compliant OPEN LOOK win-
-----
dow manager from Sun Microsystems have been added to
this release. This toolkit implements the OPEN LOOK
graphical user interface guidelines and the SunView
application programming interface.
Gwm
The Generic Window Manager from Groupe Bull has been
------- ------ -------
added. Unlike other window managers, gwm provides a
---
programming language for tailoring its user interface.
It is believed to be ICCCM-compliant.
Tektronix Window Manager
The Tektronix Window Manager, derived from the awm win-
--------- ------ ------- ---
dow manager in the previous release, is also new to
this release. Like gwm and olwm, tekwm is believed to
--- ---- -----
be ICCCM-compliant.
Sigma toolkit and window manager
The Sigma Project has donated its Sigma User Interface
Toolkit (SUIT) and window manager (m swm).
-----
toolkits updated
New versions of InterViews, Xw, andrew, and clue are
---------- -- ------ ----
included. New toolkits include: xgks and Xcu.
---- ---
Serpent UIMS
The Serpent user interface management system is
-------
included in this release.
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 22 -
new libraries
Several libraries for doing Japanese input (see XJ and
--
Wnn), multi-language input (see mlx and im), and com-
--- --- --
pose processing (see XCompose) are provided.
--------
new programming examples
The examples from the O'Reilly and Associates books on
Xlib and Xt have been provided.
---- --
new demos
A variety of eye-catching demos have been added.
new clients
A number of useful packages have been added: image
analysis (see NCSA and img), multi-language libraries
---- ---
and utilities (see kinput, kterm, and mlxterm), a user
------ ----- -------
interface prototyping system (see winterp), plus
-------
improved versions of xfed, xcolors, xpic, xplaces, xtek
---- ------- ---- ------- ----
(formerly texx), xtroff, and xwebster.
---- ------ --------
games
A variety of new games have been contributed since the
new release.
5. Writing Portable X Software
- ------- -------- - --------
A favorite saying around here goes: There's no such thing
as portable software, only software that has been ported.
However, there are few rules of thumb that go a long way
towards making programs written for X easy to getting run-
ning on a wide variety of machines:
1. Keep all source filenames to 12 characters or less.
This is the maximum number of characters that older
System V file systems allow when using a source code
control system.
2. Use Imakefiles. They are the only way to generate
----------
correct Makefiles. The xmkmf shell script in
--------- -----
mit/util/scripts/ makes it trivial create Makefiles
--- ---- ------- ---------
outside of the core source tree. The easiest way to
construct an Imakefile is to start with one that does
---------
something similar and modify it. The various macros
that are used are defined in the file
mit/config/Imake.rules.
--- ------ ----- -----
3. If you absolutely must use Makefiles instead of
---------
Imakefiles, link against -lX11 instead of -lX. If you
---------- ---- --
are using imake, use the symbolic names $(XAWLIB),
-----
$(XMULIB), $(XTOOLLIB), $(EXTENSIONLIB), and $(XLIB).
Xaw clients may use the symbol XawClientLibs to refer
--- -------------
to the appropriate libraries.
4. Include header files using the syntax <X11/file.h>
--- ---- -
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4
- 23 -
instead of "X11/file.h", <X/file.h>, or "X/file.h".
--- ---- - - ---- - - ---- -
5. Include <X11/Xos.h> if you need types.h, string.h or
--- --- - ----- - ------ -
strings.h (then use the routines index and rindex
------- - ----- ------
instead of strchr and strrchr), file.h, time.h, or
------ ------- ---- - ---- -
unistd.h.
------ -
6. If you need to put in System V vs. BSD dependencies,
use #ifdef SYSV. If you need SVR3 vs. SVR2, use #ifdef
----- ---- -----
USG.
---
7. Do not assume that the root window's Visual (returned
by the DefaultVisual macro) is the only one available.
-------------
Some color screens may use a black and white window for
the root or could provide StaticColor as well as Pseu-
doColor visuals. Unfortunately, most libraries do not
have adequate support for locating visuals to use. In
the mean time, use XGetVisualInfo().
--------------
8. Use -display displayname to specify the X server to
------- -----------
contact. Do not simply assume that if a command line
argument has a colon in it that it is a displayname.
-----------
If you accept command line abbreviations, make sure
that you also accept the full -display.
-------
9. Use -geometry geomspec to specify window geometry. Do
-------- --------
not simply assume that if a command line argument
begins with an equal sign that it is a window geometry.
If you accept command line abbreviations, make sure
that you also accept the full -geometry.
--------
10. Use the .man suffix for program manual page sources.
---
11. If you are interested in contributing software to the
MIT public release, please use a copyright notice that
is no more restrictive than the one shown in the files
./COPYRIGHTS and contrib/COPYRIGHTS.
---------- ------- ----------
We hope you enjoy Release 4.
X Window System Release Notes X, Version 11, Release 4