X Windows System Administrator's Guide, Vol 8 (Definitive Guides to the X Window System)

D

Resources and Keysym Mappings

Resources and keysym mappings are topics that the administrator needs to be familiar with in order to configure applications and set up user environments. This appendix gives some background material on both of those topics.

In This Appendix:

Using Resources

Resource Definition Syntax

Loose and Tight Bindings

The -name Command-line Option

xterm Versus XTerm

Where Resources Are Defined

Advantages of xrdb

Translation Tables

Defining Keys and Button Presses With xmodmap

Using xev to Learn Keysym Mappings

Related Documentation

D

Resources and Keysym Mappings

Two important pieces to the X puzzle are resources and keysym mappings. Although these two issues are unrelated, they both come into play when administrators have to debug user environments or configure applications system-wide. This appendix gives some background material on both of those topics.

Resources are covered in detail in Volume Three, X Window System User's Guide, by Valerie Quercia and Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly & Associates, 1990). Some of the material in this chapter repeats what you'll find there, but we also give some useful tips and advanced information for administrators. Even if you are familiar with how to use resources, you may want to scan this appendix.

D.1 Using Resources

Resources are tricky to deal with, but understanding how they work is extremely important for X administration. They are used for configuring not only everyday clients like xterm and xclock, but also special ...