X resources
Also known as the ~/.Xresources file.
Introduction
X resources are configuration options for X applications such as the rxvt-unicode terminal emulator. They can also be used for setting the cursor theme. X resources can be set in ~/.Xresources.
While most display managers will automatically load this configuration file on startup, it is possible to load the configuration manually by running:
user $xrdb ~/.XresourcesThe xrdb command is provided by the x11-apps/xrdb package.
Syntax
Configuration options in the ~/.Xresources file should respect the following component syntax:
name.Class.resource: value
In many options the Class component is not used.
Examples of existing configuration options:
Xcursor.theme: redglassxscreensaver.Dialog.background: #111111
Comments
Comments start with an exclamation mark or with double slashes. For example:
! This is a comment
// This is also a comment
/* Multiline comments
are supported
as well */
Wildcards
It is possible to use ? and * wildcards to apply a single rule to multiple configuration options. The ? matches any single component. The * matches zero or more components. For example:
*background: #000000 - Set the given value to all programs/classes which contain a component named background.
Constants
Constants can be defined in the following way:
#define name value (for example #define black #000000).
Includes
The main ~/.Xresources file can be composed of multiple sub-files (e.g. on a per-application basis). The includes can be defined as:
#include "file_name"
Example of including application sub-files:
~/.Xresources#include ".Xresources.d/urxvt"
#include ".Xresources.d/xft"
See also
- Cursor themes — provides instructions for cursor theme management on an X11-based system.
- Rxvt-unicode — a fast and lightweight terminal emulator with Xft and Unicode support.