10 X Window System, Version 11
35 Copyright c 1996 X Consortium
37 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
38 copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
39 "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
40 without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, dis-
41 tribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit
42 persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the fol-
45 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
46 in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
48 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
49 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABIL-
50 ITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT
51 SHALL THE X CONSORTIUM BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABIL-
52 ITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
53 OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS
56 Except as contained in this notice, the name of the X Consortium shall
57 not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or
58 other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from
61 X Window System is a trademark of X Consortium, Inc.
65 1. What Is Release 6.3
68 This is the last X Consortium implementation of the X Window System. X
69 is a vendor-neutral, system-architecture neutral network-transparent
70 window system and user interface standard. X runs on a wide range of
71 computing and graphics machines. For an overview of X, see the X manual
74 R6.3 is an update to R6.1. It is compatible with R6 and R6.1 at the
75 source and protocol levels in all respects, and binaries are upward-
78 What about Release 6.2? Release 6.2 is a proper subset of Release 6.3
79 produced at the request of the OSF Common Desktop Environment program.
80 It was produced by the X Consortium and is being released by OSF simul-
81 taneously with CDE 2.1. Release 6.2 contains only the print extension
82 and the Xlib implementation of vertical writing and user-defined charac-
85 The X Consortium was an independent, not-for-profit membership corpora-
86 tion formed in 1993 as the successor to the MIT X Consortium and dis-
87 solved at the end of 1996. Refer to the Consortium man page for addi-
88 tional details about the X Consortium.
90 See xc/INSTALL.PS (PostScript) or xc/INSTALL.TXT (plain text) for
91 instructions on how to build and install this software.
94 1.1. Overview of the X Consortium Release
97 The X Consortium software and documentation in Release 6.3 is in direc-
98 tory xc/ and contains the following:
100 X Consortium Standards
101 The X Consortium produced standards: documents which define net-
102 work protocols, programming interfaces, and other aspects of the X
103 environment. See the XStandards manual page for a list of stan-
107 For most of our standards, we provide high-quality implementations
108 to demonstrate proof of concept and to give early adopters and ven-
109 dors a base to use. These are not reference implementations; the
110 written specifications define the standards.
113 A collection of bitmap and outline fonts are included in the dis-
114 tribution, contributed by various individuals and companies.
117 A number of libraries, such as Xmu and the Athena Widget Set, are
118 included. These are not standards, but are used in building X Con-
119 sortium applications and may be useful in building other applica-
123 We also provide a number of application programs. A few of these
124 programs, such as xdm (or its equivalent), should be considered
125 essential in almost all environments. The rest of the applications
126 carry no special status; they are simply programs that have been
127 developed and/or maintained by X Consortium staff. In some cases,
128 you will find better substitutes for these programs contributed by
132 1.2. Supported Systems
135 We built and tested this release on the following systems:
143 UNIX System V/386 Release 4.2 (Novell UnixWare) Version 2.02
145 We also built this release on the following and did some minimal test-
149 Linux 1.2.13 (Yggdrasil) and 2.0.0 (Slackware 3.1)
155 In all cases except SunOS we have used the vendor's compiler. On SunOS
159 1.2.1. Supported Display Devices
162 This release includes the necessary device-dependent support to build a
163 native X server for the following platforms:
165 XFree86: See the XF_* man pages for supported video cards
167 AIX: Xibm with Skyway display adapter
169 Digital Unix: Xdec on Alpha AXP with PMAG-B frame buffer
170 SunOS/Solaris: Xsun -- see the Xsun man page for supported frame buffers
173 In addition to the above, the Xvfb and Xnest servers can be built on
176 Native servers are not built on IRIX or Microsoft Windows NT.
182 The general layout under xc/ is as follows:
185 config/ config files, imake, makedepend, build utilities
186 doc/ all documentation other than per-program manual pages
187 fonts/ BDF, Speedo, Type1 fonts
188 include/ include files shared by multiple directories
190 nls/ national language support files
191 programs/ all programs, including the X server and rgb
192 util/ patch, compress, other utilities
193 bug-report bug reporting template
197 This file is xc/RELNOTES.*, in various formats. The documentation
198 source files RELNOTES.ms and INSTALL.ms are in the xc/doc/misc/ direc-
205 The X Consortium maintained a registry of certain X-related items to aid
206 in avoiding conflicts and to aid in sharing of such items.
208 The registry is in the file xc/registry in the distribution. The latest
209 version may also be available by sending a message to xstuff@x.org. The
210 message can have a subject line and no body, or a single-line body and
211 no subject; in either case the line should look like this:
217 1.5. Extensions Supported
220 The core distribution includes the following extensions: BIG-REQUESTS,
221 DOUBLE-BUFFER, LBX, MIT-SHM, MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD, Multi-Buffering,
222 RECORD, SECURITY, SHAPE, SYNC, X3D-PEX, XC-APPGROUP, XC-MISC, XFree86-
223 VidModeExtension, XIE, XInputExtension, XKEYBOARD, XpExtension (print-
224 ing), XTEST, and XTestExtension1.
226 Not all of these extensions are standards; see the XStandards manual
227 page. Some of these extensions are not supported on all platforms.
230 1.6. Implementation Parameters
233 Some of the specifications define some behavior as implementation-
234 dependent. Implementations of X Consortium standards need to document
235 how those parameters are implemented; this section does so.
237 XFILESEARCHPATH default
238 This default can be set at build time by setting the imake vari-
239 ables XFileSearchPathDefault, XAppLoadDir, XFileSearchPathBase, and
240 ProjectRoot in site.def. See xc/config/cf/README for instructions
241 and xc/config/cf/X11.tmpl[2] for details of how these configuration
244 By default ProjectRoot is /usr/X11R6.3 and XFILESEARCHPATH has
247 /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/%L/%T/%N%C%S
248 /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/%l/%T/%N%C%S
249 /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/%T/%N%C%S
250 /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/%L/%T/%N%S
251 /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/%l/%T/%N%S
252 /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/%T/%N%S
255 XUSERFILESEARCHPATH default
256 If the environment variable XAPPLRESDIR is defined, the default
257 value of XUSERFILESEARCHPATH has the following components:
268 Otherwise it has these components:
279 Defaults to /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/XKeysymDB, assuming ProjectRoot is
283 Defaults to /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/Xcms.txt, assuming ProjectRoot is
287 Defaults to the directory /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/locale, assuming
288 ProjectRoot is set to /usr/X11R6.3. The XLOCALEDIR variable can
289 contain multiple colon-separated pathnames.
292 The Xlib error database file is /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/XErrorDB,
293 assuming ProjectRoot is set to /usr/X11R6.3.
296 The Xt error database file is /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/XtErrorDB,
297 assuming ProjectRoot is set to /usr/X11R6.3.
300 X locales supported are in locale.dir; the mapping between various
301 system locale names and X locale names is in locale.alias. Both
302 files are shipped in the xc/nls/X11/locale/ directory and installed
303 in the XLocaleDir directory (e.g. /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/locale/).
305 Input Methods supported
306 The core distribution does not include any input method servers.
307 However, Xlib supplies a default built-in input method that sup-
308 ports compose processing in 8-bit locales. Compose files are pro-
309 vided for Latin-1 and Latin-2. The built-in input method can sup-
310 port other locales, given suitable compose files. See
311 xc/nls/X11/locale/Compose/iso8859-* for the supported compositions.
313 There are input method servers available on the net.
317 2. What is Unchanged in Release 6.3
320 As this is an update release, there is a great deal of stability in the
321 standards, libraries, and clients. No existing standards other than the
322 ICE library specification have changed in a material way, though several
323 documents have been updated with editorial improvements. There is one
324 new interface added to the ICE library libICE; see below. The extension
325 library, libXext, is updated to include the LBX, security, and applica-
326 tion group extension interfaces. All previous interfaces in these and
327 all other libraries are unchanged.
331 3. What Is New in Release 6.3
334 This section describes changes in the X Consortium distribution since
337 All libraries, protocols, and servers are compatible with Release 6 and
338 Release 6.1. That is, R6 and R6.1 clients and applications will work
339 with R6.3 libraries and servers. Most R6.3 clients will work with R6.1
340 and R6 libraries except those that use the new interfaces in libICE,
343 The major new functionality in R6.3 is support for World Wide Web
344 integration, protection of data from ``untrusted'' client connections, a
345 bandwidth- and latency-optimized protocol for using X across the Inter-
346 net, a print protocol following the Xlib API, and support for vertical
347 text writing and user-defined characters in the Xlib implementation.
353 The following platforms have a newer operating system version supported:
359 Digital Unix 3.2C 4.0A
366 We also built on the following platforms, however full support is not
383 The following are new X Consortium standards in Release 6.3. Each is
384 described in its own section below.
386 Low Bandwidth X Extension
387 RX: X Remote Execution MIME type
389 Application Group Extension
391 Proxy Management Protocol
395 3.3. Low Bandwidth X Extension
398 The Low Bandwidth X extension (LBX) defines several compression and
399 local caching techniques to improve performance on wide area networks
400 and also on slower-speed connections. These reduce the amount of proto-
401 col data transported over the network and reduce the number of client-
402 to-server roundtrips required for common application startup operations.
404 LBX was referred to as X.fast in some materials but we elected to not go
405 through the implementation and change all the names. To avoid any con-
406 fusion with an external name different from the internal name in the
407 implementation, we elected to drop the ``X.fast'' moniker.
409 LBX is implemented in two pieces; an X server extension and a proxy
410 application. The X server extension provides the new optimized proto-
411 col. The proxy application, lbxproxy, translates a normal client X pro-
412 tocol stream into an LBX stream. This permits any existing application
413 to gain the benefit of the optimized protocol with no changes. The
414 proxy is especially useful when multiple applications are running on the
415 same local area network separated from the X server by a slower network.
416 In this case the full benefit of the local cache is shared by each
417 application using the same proxy process.
419 The specification for LBX is in xc/doc/specs/Xext/lbx.mif (FrameMaker
420 interchange source) and xc/doc/hardcopy/Xext/lbx.PS.Z (compressed
424 3.4. RX: X Remote eXecution
427 The remote execution (RX) service specifies a MIME format for invoking
428 applications remotely, for example via a World Wide Web browser. This
429 RX format specifies a syntax for listing network services required by
430 the application, for example an X display server. The requesting Web
431 browser must identify specific instances of the services in the request
432 to invoke the application.
434 The distribution contains a helper program (xrx) and a Netscape Naviga-
435 tor plug-in (libxrx) that demonstrate this protocol. The plug-in
436 requires Navigator 3.0.
438 We have only been able to test the plug-in on HP-UX, IRIX, Digital Unix,
439 and Solaris2. Netscape Navigator binaries for other platforms are
440 either not available at all or were not available in time to be included
441 in the testing for this release.
443 The specification for the RX mime type is in xc/doc/specs/RX/RX.mif
444 (FrameMaker interchange source) and xc/doc/hardcopy/RX/RX.PS.Z
445 (compressed PostScript).
447 The following section describes the procedure to set up your environment
448 and try the examples provided in this distribution.
451 3.4.1. Preparing Your Web Server
454 In order to demonstrate the RX helper program and the RX Netscape plug-
455 in you need to have access to an HTTP server to install ``common gateway
456 interface'' (CGI) scripts. While CGI programs can be written in any
457 compiled or interpreted language, the sample CGI programs in the distri-
458 bution are written in perl.
460 If you don't currently have a web server the NCSA server is a good one
461 to try. Binaries for various systems are available at:
463 http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/setup/PreExec.html
465 If you don't have perl you can get the source code from:
466 ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/perl-4.036.tar.gz
468 You need to install the HTML, RX, and CGI sample files into your
469 server's HTML and CGI directories. The process can be partially
470 automated by adding the following definitions to your site.def or
474 WebServer defines the hostname and port of your web server, for
477 #define WebServer www.myorg.org:8001
479 HtmlDir defines the path at which HTML and RX documents are
480 installed, for example
482 #define HtmlDir /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs
484 CgiBinDir defines the path at which CGI programs are installed, for
487 #define CgiBinDir /usr/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin
489 ProxyManager defines the transport scheme, hostname, and port for CGI
490 programs to contact the Proxy Manager. See the proxymngr
491 man pages for further details. Typically the proxy
492 manager host will be the same as your web server, for
495 #define ProxyManager tcp/www.myorg.org:6500
497 Then make the Makefiles and build the directories with the following
500 cd xc/programs/xrx/htdocs
501 xmkmf ../../.. programs/xrx/htdocs
505 xmkmf ../../.. programs/xrx/cgi-bin
510 These directories are not automatically built or installed by the top
511 level Makefile because they install outside the ProjectRoot.
513 You also need to configure your web server so that files with the exten-
514 sion name ``rx'' are of the MIME type ``application/x-rx''. See your
515 HTTP server's configuration documentation for the right procedure to do
519 3.4.2. The RX Helper Program
522 The helper program, xrx, may be used with any Web browser to interpret
523 the new RX document type.
525 The RX helper program is installed in <ProjectRoot>/bin (e.g.
526 /usr/X11R6.3/bin/). You will need to configure your web browser to use
527 it for RX documents by adding a line to your $HOME/.mailcap:
529 application/x-rx; /X11/bin/xrx %s
531 You may need to refer to your web browser's documentation for exact
532 instructions on configuring helper applications.
534 The helper program is activated by your browser as soon as you retrieve
535 any document of the MIME type application/x-rx. All you need to do is to
536 point your browser at the URL:
537 http://your.web.server/xload.rx
539 The application (i.e. xload) should appear on your DISPLAY as a new
540 top-level client. The client will be running on your web server host
541 and connected to your X server. If your X server supports the SECURITY
542 extension the client will be running as an untrusted client.
545 3.4.3. The RX Netscape Navigator Plug-in
548 The Navigator plug-in supports all the functions of xrx and in addition
549 uses the new XC-APPGROUP extension, if your X server provides it, to
550 cause the remotely launched application to be embedded within the
551 browser page from which it was launched.
553 The HTML page links to an RX document via the EMBED tag, a Netscape
554 extension to HTML. The RX document provides the plug-in with the list
555 of services the application wants to use. Based on this information,
556 the plug-in sets the various requested services, including creating
557 authorization keys, and passes the relevant data to the application
558 through an HTTP GET request of the associated CGI script. The Web
559 server then executes the CGI script to start the application.
561 To be able to use the RX plug-in you need Netscape Navigator 3.0.
562 Binaries for various systems can be found at:
564 http://home.netscape.com/comprod/mirror/client_download.html
566 To complete the installation of the Netscape plug-in, find the file
567 named libxrx.so.6.3 or libxrx.sl.6.3 (or similar, depending on your
568 platform) in <ProjectRoot>/lib (e.g. /usr/X11R6.3/lib) and copy it to
569 either /usr/local/lib/netscape/plugins or $HOME/.netscape/plugins. Do
570 not install the symlinks libxrx.so or libxrx.sl; they may confuse
573 You should remove or comment out the line you may have previously added
574 in your mailcap file to use the RX helper program, otherwise the plug-in
575 will not be enabled. (The usual comment character for mailcap is
578 If you are already running Netscape Navigator, you need to exit and res-
579 tart it after copying the plug-in library so the new plug-in will be
580 found. Once this is done you can check that Navigator has successfully
581 loaded the plug-in by checking the ``About Plug-ins'' page from the Help
582 menu. This should show something like:
587 File name: /usr/guest/netscape/plugins/libxrx.sl.6.3
589 X Remote Activation Plug-in
591 Mime Type Description Suffixes Enabled
592 application/x-rx X Remote Activation Plug-inxrxYes
595 The plug-in will be activated by Netscape Navigator as soon as you
596 retrieve any document of the MIME type application/x-rx. Several sam-
597 ples are included in the distribution. The most basic one is xload. All
598 you need to do is point your browser at the page:
599 http://your.web.server/xload.html
601 If something goes wrong check on the all the previous steps listed above
602 and try again. Once xload is working you can try some of the other
603 examples in the distribution such as bitmap.html or dtcm.html.
606 3.4.4. Trying Embedding With an Old X Server
609 The Netscape Navigator plug-in, libxrx, will work with an X server that
610 does not contain the application group or security extensions. The
611 application will be started as a separate top-level client.
613 If you wish to try out the embedding facilities without replacing your
614 desktop X server, you may use the Xnest server.
616 A typical Xnest session would look like the following:
622 These two commands start a ``nested'' server and a terminal emulator
623 within that server. Your favorite window manager and Netscape Navigator
624 can now be executed from the nested xterm window. You may wish to first
625 disable access control in the nested server by running ``xhost +'' in
629 3.4.5. Setting Up Your Own Applications To Run Over The Web
632 Based on the examples provided in the distribution it should be easy to
633 set up your web server to run your own applications. Every application
634 requires 3 additional files to identify it to Web browsers:
636 myapp.htmlAn HTML page to present the application embedded
637 myapp.rx The RX document describing the application
638 myapp.pl The CGI script to start the application
640 Note that the separate ``.rx'' file could be omitted by implementing the
641 CGI script such that if it is invoked without a QUERY_STRING it will
642 return the RX content. We decided not to do so in the distributed exam-
643 ples for purpose of clarity.
645 The xload demo provides a good starting point. Simply make a copy of
646 each of the files xload.rx, xload.html, and xload.pl. Then look inside
647 them for every instance of ``xload'' and change it to whatever is
648 appropriate for your application.
650 You will not be able to run the dtcm demo unless you have dtcm (a CDE
651 component) installed on your web server host. This example shows how a
652 CGI script would look when an X Print server is requested. The script
653 dtcm.pl is, for that reason, slightly more complicated than other exam-
657 3.5. Security Extension
660 The SECURITY extension contains new protocol needed to provide enhanced
661 X server security. This extension adds to the X protocol the concepts
662 of ``trusted'' and ``untrusted'' clients. The trust status of a client
663 is determined by the authorization used at connection setup. All
664 clients using host-based authorization are considered ``trusted''.
665 Clients using other authorization protocols may be either trusted or
666 untrusted depending on the data included in the connection authorization
669 The requests in the security extension permit a trusted client to create
670 multiple authorization entries for a single authorization protocol.
671 Each entry is tagged with the trust status to be associated with any
672 client presenting that authorization.
674 When a connection identifying an ``untrusted'' client is accepted, the
675 client is restricted from performing certain operations that would steal
676 or modify data that is held by the server for trusted clients. An
677 untrusted client performing a disallowed operation will receive protocol
678 errors. Such a client may be written to catch these errors and continue
681 When a client is untrusted, the server will also limit the extensions
682 that are available to the client. Each X protocol extension is respon-
683 sible for defining what operations are permitted to untrusted clients;
684 by default, the entire extension is hidden.
686 The specification for the SECURITY extension is in
687 xc/doc/specs/Xext/security.tex (LaTeX source) and
688 xc/doc/hardcopy/Xext/security.PS.Z (compressed PostScript).
691 3.5.1. Untrusted Application Behavior
694 Most applications work normally when run as untrusted clients, but since
695 the security extension changes the semantics of certain parts of the X
696 protocol, it is no surprise that some clients behave differently when
697 untrusted. We note the following significant behavior changes,
698 separated into two categories: changes that we expect could disappear or
699 mutate if the implementation were improved in a future release, and
700 changes we expect are permanent, legitimate defenses against data loss
704 3.5.1.1. Behaviors That Are Implementation-Dependent
707 The following behaviors when running the respective applications as
708 untrusted are not mandated by the security design but are side effects
709 of limitations in the current implementation.
711 oclock is square because the SHAPE extension hasn't been marked secure
712 yet. Similarly, Xaw applications that use oval buttons will have rec-
713 tangular buttons instead.
715 Any application that depends on an extension other than XC-MISC, LBX, or
716 BIG-REQUESTS will have different behavior, as no other extensions are
717 currently marked secure. The core clients affected are xieperf and all
720 emacs exits with a Window error when trying to use the QueryPointer
721 request on the root window when you click in a buffer.
723 FrameMaker, and xwd -root both exit with a Window error when trying to
724 use the GetWindowAttributes request on a window manager frame window.
726 All the remaining changes are involved in some way with window proper-
727 ties. Some of these behaviors can be modified with changes to the Secu-
728 rityPolicy file; see the Xserver man page.
730 Several clients exit with a Window error when trying to use the
731 DeleteProperty request on various properties on the root window. These
732 include xcmsdb -remove, xprop -root -remove, and xstdcmap -delete.
734 xprop exits with an Atom error when attempting to access protected pro-
737 The following two changes require, in addition, a ``trusted selection
738 intermediary'' to provide selection transfer from untrusted to trusted
739 clients (and vice-versa). R6.3 does not include such a trusted
742 xterm exits with an Atom error when it tries to store the property value
743 during a selection transfer (paste) to a trusted selection requester.
745 The ``copy 0 to PRIMARY'' button of xcutsel does not work.
747 Selection transfer from untrusted clients to trusted clients fails when
748 the untrusted client attempts to use SendEvent to generate the Selec-
749 tionNotify event for the requester. Most requesters will treat this as
750 a transfer timeout and continue. Xt-based applications will create an
751 additional Atom each time such a transfer is attempted.
754 3.5.1.2. Behaviors That Are Not Likely To Change
757 The following behaviors represent actions performed by the applications
758 that are disallowed by design.
760 editres will fail when pointed at a trusted client when it tries to read
761 window properties on a window owned by that client.
763 Xnest exits on startup with an Access error as it tries to use the
764 ChangeKeyboardControl request.
766 The new generate option to xauth fails because untrusted applications
767 are not allowed to create additional authorizations.
769 xhost cannot be used to modify the host access list.
771 xmag gets an unending stream of Drawable errors as it tries to use the
772 PolyRectangle request on the root window. If you click to select a
773 location to magnify, xmag gets a Drawable error as it tries to use the
774 GetImage request on the root window. xmag could be modified to exit
775 gracefully under these conditions.
777 netscape exits on startup with a Drawable error when trying to use the
778 GetImage request on the root window.
780 xmodmap exits with an Access error when trying to use the ChangeKey-
781 boardMapping request.
783 xset with the b, c, led, or r options exits with an Access error when
784 trying to use the ChangeKeyboardControl request. With the bc option, it
785 can't find the MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD extension and exits gracefully.
787 xsetroot exits with a Window error when trying to use the ChangeWin-
788 dowAttributes request on the root window.
791 3.6. Application Group Extension
794 The application group extension (XC-APPGROUP) provides new protocol to
795 implement Application Groups (``AppGroups''). The AppGroup facility
796 allows other clients to share the SubstructureRedirect mechanism with
797 the window manager. This allows another client called the ``application
798 group leader'', such as a web browser, to intercept a MapRequest made by
799 a third application and reparent its window into the web browser before
800 the window manager takes control. The AppGroup leader may also limit
801 the screens and visuals available to the applications in the group.
803 Users who have an XC-APPGROUP enhanced X server and an RX plug-in for
804 their Netscape Navigator web browser can run programs remotely over the
805 web and have the output appear as part of the presentation in their web
808 The only way for an application to become a member of an AppGroup is by
809 using an authorization generated using the new security extension.
810 Whenever an application connects to the server, the authorization that
811 it used to connect is tested to see if it belongs to an AppGroup. This
812 means that the Authorization data must be transmitted to the remote host
813 where the application will be run. In the case of RX, HTTP is used to
814 send the Authorization. Sites who have concerns about sending unen-
815 crypted authorization data such as MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 via HTTP should
816 configure their web servers and web browsers to use SHTTP or SSL.
818 The specification for the XC-APPGROUP extension is in
819 xc/doc/specs/Xext/AppGroup.mif (FrameMaker interchange source) and
820 xc/doc/hardcopy/Xext/AppGroup.PS.Z (compressed PostScript).
826 The print extension supports output to hardcopy devices using the core X
827 drawing requests. The print extension adds requests for job and page
828 control and defines how specific printer attributes are communicated
829 between the server and printing clients. Printer attribute specifica-
830 tions are modeled after the ISO 10175 specification.
832 An X client that wants to produce hardcopy output will typically open a
833 second connection to an X print server, produce a print job, and then
834 close the print server connection. The print server may be the same
835 process as the display server (the term ``video server'' is sometimes
836 used) although the implementation provided in R6.3 does not completely
837 support video and print servers in the same binary.
839 The specification for the print extension is in
840 xc/doc/specs/XPRINT/xp_proto.mif (FrameMaker interchange source) and
841 xc/doc/hardcopy/XPRINT/xp_proto.PS.Z (compressed PostScript). The
842 library API specification is in xc/doc/specs/XPRINT/xp_library.mif
843 (FrameMaker interchange source) and
844 xc/doc/hardcopy/XPRINT/xp_library.PS.Z (compressed PostScript).
847 3.7.1. Running an X Print Server
850 The print server is simply an X server with the print extension and spe-
851 cial DDX implementations. The X Print Server is started like any other
854 Here is a sample command line for use with a typical configuration:
859 The options used in the example are:
861 :1 On a host that is running a video display server you will need
862 to specify a different display from the default.
864 -ac Disable access control, since no simple mechanism for sharing
867 The X print server supports the following additional options:
869 -XpFile Points to the directory containing the print server configura-
872 XPCONFIGDIREnvironment variable specifying alternative location of the
873 print server configuration files.
875 The print server, Xprt, is built only if the config option XprtServer is
876 YES. Four printer DDXen are provided, each with a separate config
877 option to control whether or not it will be included: XpRasterDDX,
878 XpColorPclDDX, XpMonoPclDDX, XpPostScriptDDX; see xc/config/cf/README.
879 XprtServer defaults to the value of BuildServer (i.e. Xprt will be built
880 by default on all platforms that build a full X server). XpRasterDDX
881 and XpMonoPclDDX default to NO. XpColorPclDDX and XpPostScriptDDX
884 The print server is configured through a directory of configuration
885 files that define printer model types and instances of printer models.
886 An example configuration tree is provided in
887 xc/programs/Xserver/XpConfig/. See also xc/doc/specs/Xserver/Xprt.mif
888 (FrameMaker interchange source) and xc/doc/hardcopy/Xserver/Xprt.PS.Z
889 (compressed PostScript) for further instructions on configuring Xprt.
892 3.7.2. Specifying The Print Server To A Client
895 By convention, clients locate the print server using the environment
896 variable XPRINTER. The syntax of XPRINTER is an augmented DISPLAY; i.e.
898 printerName@host:display
900 where ``printerName'' is one of the printer instances listed in the
901 print server configuration files. The use of XPRINTER and its syntax is
902 an application convention only; there is nothing in the supplied
903 libraries that uses (or parses) this environment variable.
906 3.8. Proxy Management Protocol
909 The Proxy Management Protocol is an ICE based protocol that provides a
910 way for application servers to easily locate proxy services such as the
911 LBX proxy and the X firewall proxy.
913 Typically, a service called a ``proxy manager'' is responsible for
914 resolving requests for proxy services, starting new proxies when
915 appropriate, and keeping track of all of the available proxy services.
916 The proxy manager strives to reuse existing proxy processes whenever
919 The Proxy Management Protocol is described in xc/doc/specs/PM/PM_spec.
925 As in R6.1, the top-level Makefile is no longer over-ridden by the first
926 build. Instead a new file xmakefile is created. Thus is it not neces-
927 sary to take any additional steps to reset the builds.
929 The file xc/config/cf/README provides more guidance on how to write an
930 Imakefile, including a list of variables that may be set in an
931 Imakefile. This file is strongly recommended reading for Imakefile
934 The LaTeX text processor is supported as of R6.1. If you have LaTeX on
935 your system, turn on HasLatex to have the MakeLatexDoc rule use it.
937 Also since R6.1, with System V Release 4 (SVR4) compilers we now use the
938 -Xa (ANSI C with native extensions) compiler flag rather than -Xc (limit
939 environment to that specified in the standard). This provides access to
940 the full richness of the platform. Unfortunately, it also defines the
941 preprocessor symbol __STDC__ to 0, instead of 1 as specified by the
942 standard. Therefore we use "#ifdef __STDC__" in our sources rather than
943 "#if __STDC__". On HP-UX systems we use the -Ae compiler option instead
944 of -Aa, also to access the full environment offered by the platform.
946 As in R6.1, the imake variables InstallXdmConfig, InstallXinitConfig,
947 and InstallAppDefFiles suppress overwriting existing files; if the files
948 didn't previously exist, the files are always installed. This interpre-
949 tation makes bootstrapping a new system easier than in R6 and earlier
952 A new configuration build option, GzipFontCompression, has been added to
953 use gzip rather than compress for font compression. It defaults to NO.
955 The build creates a new directory xc/exports into which the header
956 files, libraries, and certain build utility binaries are symlinked.
957 This greatly simplifies Imakefile construction and supports multiple
958 development projects (such as X, Motif, and CDE) on a single system.
960 Imake rules and template files for building Motif and CDE were contri-
961 buted by the OSF CDE/Motif project and are included in R6.3.
967 Additional X server internals documentation is provided in the
968 /xc/doc/specs/Xserver/ directory for the XC-APPGROUP and SECURITY exten-
969 sions. An analysis and rationale for the SECURITY extension will also
970 be found in that directory. Specifications for the other new standards
971 are in /xc/doc/specs/RX/, /xc/doc/specs/XPRINT/, and
978 xc/include/Xos_r.h is a new header file to promote portable source code
979 using thread-safe implementations of getpwnam, getpwuid, gethostbyname,
980 gethostbyaddr, and getservbyname. It is not required by any X Consor-
987 The security, LBX, printing, and AppGroup extensions are all new. In
988 R6.3 only MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 is supported in the security extension.
989 Parts of the security policy are configured at run-time from the file
990 /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy. Site-defined policy
991 strings used by xfwp and rules for property access by untrusted clients
992 are defined there. See the Xserver man page for full details.
995 3.12.1. New Device Support
998 Support has been added for the Sun TCX frame buffer as a dumb 8-bit
999 frame buffer on Solaris 2.5.
1001 New XFree86 servers based on XFree86 3.2 are included.
1004 3.12.2. Internal Changes
1007 The security extension provides new internal resource ID lookup inter-
1008 faces that incorporate the access control lookup. In order to be
1009 declared secure and therefore be made available to untrusted clients,
1010 other extensions should, at a minimum, be changed to use these inter-
1011 faces. Depending on what the extension does, more may need to be done
1012 in its implementation before it can appropriately be labeled ``secure''.
1014 Refer to the documents xc/doc/specs/Xserver/appgroup.ms and
1015 xc/doc/specs/Xserver/secint.tex for implementation details of the appli-
1016 cation group and security extensions, respectively.
1019 3.13. ICE Library Addition
1022 To support proxy managers and firewall proxies using ICE on well-known
1023 TCP ports, an additional interface has been added to the ICE library.
1024 This new interface, IceListenForWellKnownConnections, has equivalent
1025 calling parameters to IceListenForConnections plus an ICE network id
1029 3.14. Xlib Vertical Writing and User-Defined Characters
1032 The Xlib output method implementation has been enhanced to support the
1033 XOM value drawing direction XOMOrientation_TTB_RTL. Vertical writing
1034 information and other locale specific information is read from the file
1035 <XLocaleDir>/%L/XLC_LOCALE where the XLocaleDir configuration option
1036 defaults to /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/locale.
1038 The X[mb|wc]TextEscapement functions now return the text escapement in
1039 pixels for the vertical or horizontal direction depending on the
1040 XNOrientation XOCValue.
1042 The X[mb|wc]DrawString functions will now render a character string in
1043 the vertical or horizontal direction depending on the XNOrientation
1046 The Xlib NLS database implementation has been enhanced to support
1047 extended segments used for interchanging non-standard code sets. Sup-
1048 port has been added for control sequences and encoding names used in
1049 extended segments and conversion of glyph indexes when interchanging
1050 data in extended segments.
1053 3.15. Xt Geometry Management Debugger
1056 Daniel Dardailler's ``GeoTattler'' code has been merged into the Xt
1057 Intrinsics library implementation. This is not a standard. If libXt is
1058 compiled with the XT_GEO_TATTLER symbol defined (currently there is no
1059 build configuration support to do this) then a ``geoTattler'' resource
1060 may be specified for any widget in an application. If the geoTattler
1061 resource for a widget instance is True then libXt will generate debug-
1062 ging information to stdout when the widget makes geometry change
1065 For example, if the resources specify:
1067 myapp*draw.XmScale.geoTattler: ON
1068 *XmScrollBar.geoTattler:ON
1069 *XmRowColumn.exit_button.geoTattler:ON
1071 then geometry management debugging information will be generated for all
1072 the XmScale children of the widget named draw, all the XmScrollBars, and
1073 the widget named exit_button in any XmRowColumn.
1078 There are new core programs lbxproxy, proxymngr, xfindproxy, xfwp, Xprt,
1082 lbxproxy The lbxproxy program is used to ``translate'' X protocol to
1083 LBX protocol. It should be executed on the same host as the
1084 client application or on a host connected to the client host
1085 by a fast network. lbxproxy appears to the clients using it
1086 as another X server; that is, the clients connect through it
1087 using the conventional DISPLAY syntax, specifying the proxy
1088 host in place of the server. lbxproxy can be used stand-
1089 alone or in conjunction with proxymngr and xfindproxy. See
1090 the lbxproxy man page for further details.
1092 proxymngr proxymngr is a process that runs continuously to control
1093 other proxy applications, such as lbxproxy and xfwp. It
1094 maintains a list of active proxy processes and responds to
1095 queries from xfindproxy. See the proxymngr man pages for
1098 xfindproxy xfindproxy is used to locate a running proxy process for a
1099 given network service, such as lbxproxy or xfwp, or to
1100 request that a proxy be started if one is not already run-
1101 ning. xfindproxy communicates with proxymngr to perform the
1104 xfwp xfwp is the X firewall application proxy. It is designed to
1105 run on a network firewall host and relay X protocol between
1106 applications (typically outside the firewall) and the X
1107 server (inside the firewall). xfwp appears to the clients
1108 using it as another X server; that is, clients connect
1109 through it using the conventional DISPLAY syntax. xfwp will
1110 not do anything useful without proxymngr and xfindproxy or
1111 xrx. See the xfwp man page for further details.
1113 Xprt Xprt is the print server, built as part of the Xserver build
1114 if the XprtServer config option is YES. The print server
1115 supports printing to PostScript and PCL devices, as well as
1116 raster output to an xwd format file (and thence to any
1117 printer that xpr supports). The print extension was
1118 designed to be integrated with the ``video'' server in a
1119 single process but the R6.3 implementation does not support
1120 a combined video and print server. Details of configuration
1121 for Xprt are in xc/doc/specs/Xserver/Xprt.mif (FrameMaker
1122 interchange source) and xc/doc/hardcopy/Xserver/Xprt.PS.Z
1123 (compressed PostScript).
1125 xrx, libxrx xrx is the Web browser helper application that interprets
1126 documents in the RX MIME type to remotely launch applica-
1127 tions via the Web. Its companion libxrx is a plug-in for
1128 Netscape Navigator 3.0 that supports in addition the capa-
1129 bility to visually embed the remote applications in the
1130 associated browser Web page window. See the xrx man page
1131 for further details.
1134 3.16.1. Using The LBX Proxy
1137 The implementation of lbxproxy provided here will support an arbitrary
1138 number of clients connecting to the same X server. A separate lbxproxy
1139 process is required for each separate X server process. A typical com-
1140 mand line to invoke lbxproxy is
1141 lbxproxy :22 -display myhost:0
1144 This command runs a proxy with the X server ``myhost:0'' as the target.
1145 Clients must connect to the proxy using ``proxyhost:22'' as the DISPLAY.
1146 The .Xauthority file for these clients must contain an entry for server
1147 ``proxyhost:22'' with the same MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE as ``myhost:0'', or the
1148 X server must be configured to permit connections from any host on the
1151 Here is an example showing how to setup the appropriate .Xauthority
1154 % lbxproxy :22 -display myws:0
1156 myws:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 7fd231ccdce2
1157 myws/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 7fd231ccdce2
1158 % xauth -f $HOME/proxyauth add proxyhost:22 . 7fd231ccdce2
1159 xauth: creating new authority file /usr/myself/proxyauth
1160 % xauth -f $HOME/proxyauth add proxyhost/unix:22 . 7fd231ccdce2
1161 % setenv XAUTHORITY $HOME/proxyauth
1164 In this example, the authorization token for display 0 is copied into a
1165 new file ``proxyauth'' and associated with the LBX proxy server display
1166 number (22). The new authority file may then be copied to another host
1167 and used as the value of the XAUTHORITY environment variable.
1169 The proxymngr daemon is usually configured to invoke lbxproxy automati-
1170 cally when a user or a CGI script runs xfindproxy -name LBX.
1172 See the lbxproxy man page for further details.
1175 3.17. Major Additions to Existing Programs
1178 The generate option of xauth is used to obtain additional authorization
1179 tokens for client connections. These authorization tokens may specify
1180 that the client using them is to be restricted in the operations that
1181 may be performed in the X server. The authorization tokens may be
1182 independently revoked. Refer to the SECURITY extension for further
1183 details on authorizations.
1185 The xauth man page gives full details on the new generate command. Here
1188 xauth -f untrusted-auth-file g :0 . timeout 0
1189 setenv XAUTHORITY untrusted-auth-file
1191 This will cause xauth to contact server ``:0'' to get a long-lasting
1192 untrusted cookie which it then stores in untrusted-auth-file. By set-
1193 ting XAUTHORITY to point to untrusted-auth-file, subsequent applications
1194 run from this shell to server :0 will be untrusted. The ``g'' is short
1195 for ``generate'', and the ``.'' is short for ``MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1''. If
1196 you omit the -f argument, xauth will use $XAUTHORITY (or ~/.Xauthority),
1197 which may not be what you want, especially if you are creating an
1198 untrusted auth. This is because xauth will replace the trusted auth in
1199 ~/.Xauthority (put there by xdm) with the untrusted one, preventing you
1200 from making any further trusted connections to the server.
1202 The xterm terminal emulator now supports the active icon mode that was
1203 in X version 10 Release 4. See the xterm man page for further details.
1204 There is support in the xterm source to build xterm without the active
1205 icon mode for those who may care for some reason to not provide it.
1211 As noted previously under "Configuration Files", for pragmatic reasons
1212 we changed the way we use __STDC__ to test for standard C compilers.
1213 R6.1 was officially the last release that supported traditional K&R C.
1214 R6.3 assumes a standard C compiler and environment. We have not inten-
1215 tionally removed any K&R C support from old code; most of the release
1216 will continue to build on older platforms.
1223 There are no examples in this release showing how to use the print
1224 extension. CDE 2.1 has several such applications.
1226 lbxproxy fails to start on SCO Open Server.
1228 x11perf running through lbxproxy will tickle a drawing bug in cfb-based
1229 X servers that causes some lines and curves to be drawn to the wrong
1230 coordinates and outside the window boundaries. Use the -nogfx option to
1231 lbxproxy as a workaround on affected servers.
1233 If proxymngr exits abnormally all managed proxies die.
1235 Documentation is missing on how to use the vertical writing and user-
1236 defined character support.
1238 Documentation is sparse on how to configure Xprt.
1240 There are no example fonts in the release with vertical text escapement
1241 (``vertical writing fonts'').
1245 5. Filing Bug Reports
1248 If you find a reproducible bug in software in the xc/ directory, or find
1249 bugs in the xc documentation, please send a bug report to The Open Group
1250 using the form in the file xc/bug-report and this destination address:
1255 Please try to provide all of the information requested on the form if it
1256 is applicable; the little extra time you spend on the report will make
1257 it much easier for someone to reproduce, find, and fix the bug.
1259 Bugs in the contributed software that is available on the net are not
1260 handled on any official basis. Consult the documentation for the indi-
1261 vidual software to see where (if anywhere) to report the bug. Many
1262 authors of contributed software subscribe to the mailing list "contrib-
1263 bugs" hosted at x.org, so this might be a useful place to report bugs.
1264 (To subscribe to contrib-bugs yourself, send email to contrib-bugs-
1272 Release 6.3 of X Version 11 was brought to you by the X staff at the X
1273 Consortium, Inc.: Donna Converse (emeritus), Jim Fournier, Stephen Gil-
1274 dea (emeritus), Kaleb Keithley, Matt Landau (emeritus), Arnaud Le Hors,
1275 Ralph Mor (emeritus), Bob Scheifler, Ralph Swick, Ray Tice, Mark Welch
1276 (emeritus), and Dave Wiggins (emeritus). Kevin Samborn and George Tsang
1277 (emeritus) of the CDE staff at X Consortium, Inc. worked hard on the
1278 print extension, including the PostScript driver; David Kaelbling of the
1279 CDE staff converged the X, Motif, and CDE imake/config support and
1280 helped with Xos_r.h; and Daniel Dardailler (emeritus) of the CDE staff
1281 contributed the libXt geometry tracing code. Also, contractors Reed
1282 Augliere, Roger Helmendach (Liberty Systems), and Ann Pichey each worked
1283 on critical components.
1285 Several companies and individuals have cooperated and worked extremely
1286 hard to make this release a reality, and our thanks go out to them. You
1287 will find many of them listed in the acknowledgements in the individual
1290 Ken Raeburn of XFree86 and Cygnus Support contributed the gzip font
1291 compression support.
1293 The Common Desktop Environment sponsors Digital Equipment Corp, Fujitsu,
1294 Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Novell, and SunSoft jointly contributed
1295 the print extension and the Xlib vertical writing and user-defined char-
1296 acter support. Axel Deininger, Harry Phinney, Tom Gilg, Charles Prince,
1297 and Jim Miller all from Hewlett-Packard did the print extension and PCL
1298 and raster drivers. Fujitsu did the Xlib vertical writing and user-
1299 defined character support.