This page describes the ViewStation's Xhost client manual page.
Xhost Manual Page
This is the ViewStation's xhost local client man page.
NAME
xhost - server access control program for X
SYNOPSIS
xhost [ [+ -] hostname ...]
DESCRIPTION
The xhost program is used to add and delete hosts to the list
of machines that are allowed to make connections to the X server. This
provides a rudimentary form of privacy control and security. It is only
sufficient for a workstation (single user) environment, although it
does limit the worst abuses. Environments which require more
sophisticated measures should use the hooks in the protocol for passing
authentication data to the server.
The server initially allows network connections only from
programs running on the same machine or from machines listed in the
file /etc/X*.hosts (where * is the display number of the server). The
xhost program is usually run either from a startup file or
interactively to give access to other users.
Hostnames that are followed by two colons (::) are used in
checking DECnet connections; all other hostnames are used for TCP/IP
connections.
OPTIONS
Xhost accepts the following command line options described below.
For security, the options that effect access control may only be run
from the same machine as the server.
[+]hostname
The given hostname (the plus sign is optional) is added to the list
of machines that are allowed to connect to the X server.
-hostname
The given hostname is removed from the list of machines that
are allowed to connect to the server. Existing connections are not
broken, but new connection attempts will be denied. Note that the
current machine is allowed to be removed; however, further connections
(including attempts to add it back) will not be permitted. Resetting the
server (thereby breaking all connections) is the only way to allow
local connections again.
+
Access is granted to everyone, even if they aren't on the list
of allowed hosts (i.e. access control is turned off).
-
Access is restricted to only those machines on the list of
allowed hosts (i.e. access control is turned on).
nothing
If no command line arguments are given, the list of hosts that are
allowed to connect is printed on the standard output along with a
message indicating whether or not access control is currently enabled.
This is the only option that may be used from machines other than the
one on which the server is running.
FILES
/etc/X*.hosts
SEE ALSO
X(1), Xserver(1)
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to get the default host and
display to use.
BUGS
You can't specify a display on the command line because
-display is a valid command line argument (indicating that you want to
remove the machine named ``display'' from the access list).
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1988, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.
AUTHORS
Bob Scheifler, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science,
Jim Gettys, MIT Project Athena (DEC).
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