Specifying The Server Or Display

Firstly, remember that in X the terms server and display are synonymous. Most clients allow the user to specify the server to which a connection is to be made. Normally, by default, a client attempts to connect to the server specified by the user's environment variable DISPLAY. However, the command line option -display can be used on a per client basis to override the DISPLAY environment variable. For instance, if all clients on a particular computer are required to connect to the same remote server, setting the DISPLAY environment variable is convenient. However, if one of the clients is required to connect to a different server, invoking the client with the -display command line option is probably more appropriate. The following example commands illustrate how to specify a server. Example 1 shows how to set the DISPLAY environment variable and example 2 shows how to invoke a client (called xterm) with the -display command line option.

1. setenv DISPLAY hp:0.1 (C-Shell syntax)
2. xclock -display sun:0.0