=head1 NAME

gdm - GNOME Display Manager

=head1 SYNOPSIS

gdm

=head1 DESCRIPTION

B<gdm> is the equivalent of xdm(1x) or wdm(1x), but uses the GNOME
libraries to provide a GNOME look-and-feel. It provides the GNOME
equivalent of a "login:" prompt.

B<gdm> reads F</etc/gdm/gdm.conf> for its configuration. For each
local display, gdm starts an X server and runs gdmlogin(8x) on that
display. The main gdm process also listens for XDMCP requests from
remote displays. These requests can either be direct, causing B<gdm>
to start a gdmlogin(8x) on the remote display, or indirect, causing
a gdmchooser(8x) to be opened.

When managing a display, B<gdm> attempts to execute
F</etc/gdm/Init/>I<display>, or F</etc/gdm/Init/Default> if that does
not exist. When a user logs in, B<gdm> first attempts
F</etc/gdm/PreSession/>I<display> (or F</etc/gdm/PreSession/Default>),
and then one of the sessions in F</etc/gdm/Sessions>. When the session
has completed, B<gdm> attempts to run
F</etc/gdm/PostSession/>I<display>, or
F</etc/gdm/PostSession/>I<Default>. Of all these files, only the
F</etc/gdm/Sessions> one is required to exist.

B<gdm> maintains information about the displays it is managing in
F</var/lib/gdm>. This includes xauth information, so this directory
is not readable to normal users.

B<gdm> uses PAM to perform authentication using the config file
F</etc/pam.d/gdm>.

=head1 AUTHOR

Martin Kasper Petersen <mkp@SunSITE.auc.dk>

This manual page written by Steve Haslam <araqnid@debian.org> for
Debian GNU/Linux. Updated by Raphaël Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>.
Updated by Ryan Murray <rmurray@debian.org>.

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