XAUTH(1) USER COMMANDS XAUTH(1) NAME xauth - X authority file utility SYNOPSIS xauth [ -f authfile ] [ -vqib ] [ command arg ... ] DESCRIPTION The xauth program is used to edit and display the authoriza- tion information used in connecting to the X server. This program is usually used to extract authorization records from one machine and merge them in on another (as is the case when using remote logins or granting access to other users). Commands (described below) may be entered interac- tively, on the xauth command line, or in scripts. Note that this program does not contact the X server. Normally xauth is not used to create the authority file entry in the first place; xdm does that. OPTIONS The following options may be used with xauth. They may be given individually (e.g., -q -i) or may combined (e.g., -qi). -f authfile This option specifies the name of the authority file to use. By default, xauth will use the file speci- fied by the XAUTHORITY environment variable or .Xau- thority in the user's home directory. -q This option indicates that xauth should operate quietly and not print unsolicited status messages. This is the default if an xauth command is is given on the command line or if the standard output is not directed to a terminal. -v This option indicates that xauth should operate ver- bosely and print status messages indicating the results of various operations (e.g., how many records have been read in or written out). This is the default if xauth is reading commands from its standard input and its standard output is directed to a terminal. -i This option indicates that xauth should ignore any authority file locks. Normally, xauth will refuse to read or edit any authority files that have been locked by other programs (usually xdm or another xauth). -b This option indicates that xauth should attempt to break any authority file locks before proceeding. Use this option only to clean up stale locks. X Version 11 Last change: Release 6 1 XAUTH(1) USER COMMANDS XAUTH(1) COMMANDS The following commands may be used to manipulate authority files: add displayname protocolname hexkey An authorization entry for the indicated display using the given protocol and key data is added to the authorization file. The data is specified as an even-lengthed string of hexadecimal digits, each pair representing one octet. The first digit of each pair gives the most significant 4 bits of the octet, and the second digit of the pair gives the least significant 4 bits. For example, a 32 charac- ter hexkey would represent a 128-bit value. A pro- tocol name consisting of just a single period is treated as an abbreviation for MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1. [n]extract filename displayname... Authorization entries for each of the specified displays are written to the indicated file. If the nextract command is used, the entries are written in a numeric format suitable for non-binary transmis- sion (such as secure electronic mail). The extracted entries can be read back in using the merge and nmerge commands. If the filename consists of just a single dash, the entries will be written to the standard output. [n]list [displayname...] Authorization entries for each of the specified displays (or all if no displays are named) are printed on the standard output. If the nlist com- mand is used, entries will be shown in the numeric format used by the nextract command; otherwise, they are shown in a textual format. Key data is always displayed in the hexadecimal format given in the description of the add command. [n]merge [filename...] Authorization entries are read from the specified files and are merged into the authorization data- base, superceding any matching existing entries. If the nmerge command is used, the numeric format given in the description of the extract command is used. If a filename consists of just a single dash, the standard input will be read if it hasn't been read before. remove displayname... Authorization entries matching the specified displays are removed from the authority file. X Version 11 Last change: Release 6 2 XAUTH(1) USER COMMANDS XAUTH(1) source filename The specified file is treated as a script containing xauth commands to execute. Blank lines and lines beginning with a sharp sign (#) are ignored. A sin- gle dash may be used to indicate the standard input, if it hasn't already been read. info Information describing the authorization file, whether or not any changes have been made, and from where xauth commands are being read is printed on the standard output. exit If any modifications have been made, the authority file is written out (if allowed), and the program exits. An end of file is treated as an implicit exit command. quit The program exits, ignoring any modifications. This may also be accomplished by pressing the interrupt character. help [string] A description of all commands that begin with the given string (or all commands if no string is given) is printed on the standard output. ? A short list of the valid commands is printed on the standard output. DISPLAY NAMES Display names for the add, [n]extract, [n]list, [n]merge, and remove commands use the same format as the DISPLAY environment variable and the common -display command line argument. Display-specific information (such as the screen number) is unnecessary and will be ignored. Same-machine connections (such as local-host sockets, shared memory, and the Internet Protocol hostname localhost) are referred to as hostname/unix:displaynumber so that local entries for dif- ferent machines may be stored in one authority file. EXAMPLE The most common use for xauth is to extract the entry for the current display, copy it to another machine, and merge it into the user's authority file on the remote machine: % xauth extract - $DISPLAY | rsh otherhost xauth merge - ENVIRONMENT This xauth program uses the following environment variables: XAUTHORITY to get the name of the authority file to use if the X Version 11 Last change: Release 6 3 XAUTH(1) USER COMMANDS XAUTH(1) -f option isn't used. HOME to get the user's home directory if XAUTHORITY isn't defined. FILES $HOME/.Xauthority default authority file if XAUTHORITY isn't defined. BUGS Users that have unsecure networks should take care to use encrypted file transfer mechanisms to copy authorization entries between machines. Similarly, the MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 protocol is not very useful in unsecure environments. Sites that are interested in additional security may need to use encrypted authorization mechanisms such as Kerberos. Spaces are currently not allowed in the protocol name. Quoting could be added for the truly perverse. AUTHOR Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium X Version 11 Last change: Release 6 4