Getting the Most Out of X Resources

Several times, you've been told to add or modify a resource. How is this accomplished? The X distribution provides several programs you can use to add, modify, and view resources. The most simple method (but perhaps the most difficult) is to specify the resource for a program as an argument when the program is started. Most well-behaved X programs accept the xrm command line option for adding or modifying a single resource. The format works like this:

-xrm "resource"

Specifying resources on the command line can become tedious, to say the least. X provides considerably more sophisticated mechanisms to modify and examine resources. The most simple of these is xrdb. Xrdb is a command line utility that can load, query, and merge resources. Here are some of the common command line options:

Another very useful program that comes with the X distribution is editres. Editres can be used to interactively modify the resources of a particular program. After starting editres, pull down the “Commands” menu, select “Get Widget Tree”, and then click on the application you want to examine or modify. Now you should see something like what is pictured in Figure 1 (the actual hierarchy pictured is for xedit). Note that it won't look exactly like Figure 1, because I've modified my resources for editres.

Figure 1. editres, an interactive X resource editor

All widgets are laid out in a tree-like fashion, with the parent widgets on the left, and their children progressing to the right. Lines connect children to parents. You can use the box in the upper-left corner of editres to move the display around if the widget tree is larger than the window itself.

Using the “Tree” menu, you can switch between class and instance names and select certain widgets in particular. If you want to modify the resources of one particular widget, select it by clicking on it once with the left mouse button, and then, from the “Commands” menu, choose “Show Resource Box”. A popup box with all the available resources for the widget selected will be displayed, as shown in Figure 2. In the Resource Box, select a resource with the mouse, and then enter a value for the resource in the text field below. This is perhaps the easiest way to both find the names of the resources and experiment with setting them to different values.

Figure 2. Ascreen from editres showing the resource display screen

You can also make the resource string more loosely or tightly bound by adjusting which fields are highlighted at the top of the popup window. When you are ready to see the results of your changes, push the “Apply” button at the bottom of the window.

More detailed help with editres can be found on the editres manual page.

No article on X resources would be complete without detailed examples of how they can be used. To do this, we'll take a look at one simple X client—xclock—and then at a whole widget set—the Athena widgets (which are a stock part of any X11 distribution).

Let's try a couple of things with xclock. You can either make these changes with editres, so you can view them interactively, or you can add them to your .Xresources file, which you'll need to merge with xrdb. Remember, whenever you make changes to the resource database, the clients affected need to be restarted in order for the changes to take effect. If you think the normal black and white scheme of the clock is too dull, consider the following:

*xclock.foreground: steelblue*xclock.hands:      steelblue
*xclock.background: ivory

That should give you some ideas for starters. For a more extensive change in appearance, try:

*xclock.analog: 0

This will make the clock display in a digital fashion. Specifying 1 as the value for this resource will reset it to the normal analog display.

Let's go a step further. In the July, 1995 issue of Linux Journal, the Xaw3D widgets were introduced. The purpose of these widgets is to give the default Athena widgets a more three-dimensional look and feel. However, with no default resources, programs still can look washed out and dull. This is because no default colors have been specified for the widgets, so programs that don't change these resources explicitly will display them in black and white with unattractive, dithered shadowing. See Figure 3 for an example of this.

Figure 3. A “vanilla” xmailtool

A set of resources which make the Xaw3D widgets appear more like the popular Motif widgets appear in Listing 1.

Listing 1

! Good Xaw3d Defaults*customization:           -color
*shadowWidth:             3
*Form.background:         gray75
*MenuButton.background:   gray75
*SimpleMenu.background:   gray70
*TransientShell*Dialog.background: gray70
*Command.background:      gray75
*Label.background:        gray75
*ScrollbarBackground:     grey39
*Scrollbar*background:    gray75
*Scrollbar*width:         15
*Scrollbar*height:        15
*Scrollbar*shadowWidth:   2
*Scrollbar*cursorName:    top_left_arrow
*Scrollbar*pushThumb:     false
*shapeStyle:              Rectangle
*beNiceToColormap:        False
*SmeBSB*shadowWidth:      3
*highlightThickness:      0
*topShadowContrast:       40
*bottomShadowContrast:    60
! fix up a few of the default X clients who
! now look silly
*xclock*shadowWidth:      0
*xload*shadowWidth:       0
*xcalc*shadowWidth:       0

The first resource tells all programs that color is available and should be used. Then, the shadow width for all Athena widgets is set to 3 (which looks like Motif). Default colors are then selected for most of the common widgets (buttons, scrollbars, and the like), and shadow contrast levels are set. Finally, shadows on a few X clients is a bit overkill, so shadowWidth is reduced to 0 for these. Figure 4 shows how the program now looks more aesthetically pleasing as a result of these modifications.

Figure 4. xmailtool after resource changes

This should get you started. X resources are one of the most important aspects of X programs in general, so a basic understanding of them is essential—not only for using and customizing X programs, but also writing them. You should now be able to discover the resources hiding behind your own favorite programs, and it would be good practice for you to apply the techniques in this article to a different program of your own choosing right now. Remember this while you are tinkering with X resources: X may not be as simple to configure as MS Windows, but it is much more powerful.

Enjoy!