On Thu, Feb 08, 2001 at 05:27:12PM -0500, M L Riechers wrote:
> > what about the .Xdefaults?
> 
> The .Xdefaults files are still there, but, I believe I'm correct in
> stating that the only time the .Xdefaults come into play is when the X
> server, or xdm, or xinit starts, it dumps the contents of .Xdefaults
> to the X server. This, I believe, happens about one time per
> initiation of the X window system.

no - unless you did something like an "xrdb -merge", the .Xdefaults
file is loaded dynamically for each application as it is started.
Equivalently, you can set $XAPPLRESDIR to point to your own app-defaults
directory (so you can maintain resource files individually).

Some of the pre-packaged window managers do use xrdb (I noticed this a few
weeks ago for TurboLinux, which did that to break my backspace/delete
key).

Normally I run Slackware, which has few broken things to fix after a new
install than the other systems.

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@herndon4.his.com>
http://dickey.his.com
ftp://dickey.his.com