Re: DISPLAY environment variable

["Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH" <allbery ece cmu edu>]

On Tuesday, April 04, 2000 3:38 PM -0700, Derek Simkowiak 
<dereks@kd-dev.com> wrote:
+-----
| 	 The DISPLAY variable is in the format
| "hostname:servernum.dispnum".  So if you export your DISPLAY variable to
+--->8

What it's not telling you is that back in the old days, there was no 
support for AF_UNIX connections to servers, only TCP/IP.  When AF_UNIX was 
added, the :display.screen version of $DISPLAY was added --- but older 
programs wouldn't accept it.  Thus, the hostname "unix" was decreed to be 
the same as having no hostname, enabling old programs to use faster AF_UNIX 
socket connections.

This usage is deprecated but still legal.

-- 
brandon s. allbery     [os/2][linux][solaris][japh]    allbery@kf8nh.apk.net
system administrator        [WAY too many hats]          allbery@ece.cmu.edu
electrical and computer engineering                                    KF8NH
carnegie mellon university      ["better check the oblivious first" -ke6sls]