xinit ☆

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Description:
Start the X Window System server

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: x11 x-window-system display-manager session-manager linux unix

Install: brew install xinit

About:
Xinit is the standard utility for starting the X Window System server and initializing a user's X session. It executes the user's xinitrc script to launch the window manager and client applications. This tool is essential for managing the startup sequence of X sessions on Unix-like systems.

Key Features:

Launches the X server (Xorg)
Executes user-defined startup scripts (.xinitrc)
Manages the X session lifecycle
Provides a lightweight alternative to display managers

Use Cases:

Starting X sessions on minimal Linux/Unix installations
Customizing X startup sequences without a display manager
Debugging X server initialization issues

Alternatives:

startx – startx is a shell script wrapper often used for convenience, but xinit is the underlying mechanism that startx calls.
Display Managers (GDM, LightDM, SDDM) – Display managers provide graphical login screens, while xinit offers a script-based, lightweight approach for direct session management.

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 15, 2025 11:14am		0	VERSION_BUMP	50e9c6be
Nov 20, 2024 12:39am		0	VERSION_BUMP	626d8acc