X server

The X server allows different clients to display their X applications on it. X applications means graphical windowed applications in unix/linux. Thus, the application process is resident on the client side, but its display and I/O interaction is resident on the server side.

Example

In this example we will pop up a windowed clock on a X server based system whose ip address isserver_ip:

X server side

Usually you sit behind the X server side:

> startx
> printenv | grep DISPLAY
> xhosts + <client_ip>

Simply note down the value of the environment variable DISPLAY for future reference.

X client side

Connect to the client side using ssh

> ssh <client_ip>

Then perform the following commands using the previously annotated value for the DISPLAY environment variable

> export DISPLAY= server_ip:port.number
> xclock

or

> xclock -display server_ip:port.number

And lo, a clock should have popped up in your X server terminal! Neat, uh?

External References

• Background