Explain the function of .Xauthority please

[Member dirkd]

I have the nagging suspicion that the problem with firefox (post below) may be related to the .Xauthority file in my home folder (based on some discussions on the internet I read), but I don’t understand what it does, and what I can do with it. I do know that tampering with it is extremely dangerous. Merely changing its permissions was enough to break the firefox-52.9 browser on my Antix-17 environment. Changing them back, or replacing the file from a backup didn’t restore the browser’s functionality, and I had to start over with a fresh copy, along with some reboots, to eventually restore things to normal.

So who can teach me about the role and usage of this mysterious file?

[Member dirkd]

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It’s clear by now that ~/.Xauthority has nothing to do with the problem mentioned in
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/old-version-of-firefox-refuses-to-run/

But I’m still curious about it anyway :-).

[Anonymous]

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Use of the .Xauthority longstanding (decades) convention and has been thoroughly, repeatedly documented.
Here’s a recommended search query for use in your preferred web search engine:

.Xauthority linux

Also: .Xauthority debian
(and follow weblinks to peruse the DebianAdministrator’s Manual)

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