X Server resource database utilities.
xrdb [ -display Display ] [ -help ] [ -quiet ] [ -retain ] [ -cpp FileName | -nocpp ] [ -D Name=Value ] [ -I Directory] [ -U Name ] [ -all | -global | -screen | -screens ] [ -n ] [ -edit FileName | [ -backup String ] | -merge [ FileName ] | -load [ FileName ] | -query | -remove | symbols ] -override ]
The xrdb command gets or sets the contents of the RESOURCE_MANAGER property on the root window of screen 0 or the SCREEN_RESOURCES property on the root window of any or all screens, or everything combined. You normally run this program from your X startup file.
Most X clients use the RESOURCE_MANAGER and SCREEN_RESOURCES properties to get user preferences about color, fonts, and so on for applications. Having this information in the server (where it is available to all clients) instead of on disk solves the problem in previous versions of X that required you to maintain defaults files on every machine that you might use. It also allows for dynamic changing of defaults without editing files.
The RESOURCE_MANAGER property specifies resources that apply to all screens of the display. The SCREEN_RESOURCES property on each screen specifies additional (or overriding) resources to be used for that screen. (When there is only one screen, SCREEN_RESOURCES is normally not used; all resources are placed in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.)
For compatibility, if there is no RESOURCE_MANAGER property defined (either because the xrdb command was not run or if the property was removed), the resource manager looks for a file called .Xdefaults in your home directory.
The file name (or the standard input if - or no file name is given) is optionally passed through the C preprocessor with the following symbols defined, based on the capabilities of the server being used:
Comment lines begin with an ! (exclamation mark) and are ignored.
Since xrdb can be read from standard input, use it to change the contents of properties directly from a terminal or from a shell script.
xrdb -load myfile
xrdb -edit newfile
The xrdb command generalizes the ~/.Xdefaults files.