=head1 NAME

gdm3 - GNOME Display Manager

=head1 SYNOPSIS

gdm3

=head1 DESCRIPTION

B<gdm3> 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<gdm3> reads F</etc/gdm3/daemon.conf> for its configuration. For each
local display, gdm starts an X server and runs a minimal GNOME session
including a graphical greeter. If configured so, the main gdm process
also listens for XDMCP requests from remote displays. These requests
can either be direct, causing B<gdm3> to start a session on the remote
display, or indirect, causing a chooser to be opened.

When managing a display, B<gdm3> attempts to execute
F</etc/gdm3/Init/>I<display>, or F</etc/gdm3/Init/Default> if that does
not exist. When a user logs in, B<gdm3> first attempts
F</etc/gdm3/PreSession/>I<display> (or F</etc/gdm3/PreSession/Default>),
and then one of the sessions defined in F</usr/share/xsessions>. When 
the session has completed, B<gdm> attempts to run
F</etc/gdm3/PostSession/>I<display>, or
F</etc/gdm3/PostSession/>I<Default>.

B<gdm3> maintains information about the displays it is managing in
F</var/lib/gdm3>. This includes xauth information, so this directory
is not readable to normal users.

B<gdm3> uses PAM to perform authentication using the config file
F</etc/pam.d/gdm3>.

=head1 ENVIRONMENT

=over 4

=item XAUTHORITY

Upon session startup, GDM sets the XAUTHORITY environment variable to a
session-specific file in F</var/run/gdm3>.

Applications and scripts that assume this file is set to F<~/.Xauthority>
will not work. To access the display you need both DISPLAY and
XAUTHORITY variables.

=back

=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>,
Ryan Murray <rmurray@debian.org>, Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org> and 
Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>.

=cut
