Install xlsclients with Homebrew, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• xlsclients

Project history

The utility predates the modern modular X.Org repository layout. Its man page carries Open Group copyright years from 1991, 1994, and 1998 and credits Jim Fulton of the MIT X Consortium, placing it in the classic X11 client-tool lineage before X.Org moved individual applications into separate app modules.

In the modular X.Org era, xlsclients became its own app module. The current README describes it as a utility for listing client applications running on an X11 server, and notes that version 1.1 and later switched from libX11 to libxcb for more efficient X server communication. The freedesktop.org GitLab project is the current upstream development repository.

Adoption history

xlsclients remained useful because X11's network-transparent client/server model makes connected clients an observable part of the desktop session. X.Org manual sets from older releases and current X.Org documentation both include xlsclients among the standard section-1 X commands.

The X11R7.7 consolidated changelog records xlsclients as an app module moving from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2, showing the tool's survival through the split from monolithic X distributions into separately released X.Org components.

How it is used

Typical use is diagnostic: run xlsclients against the default display or an explicit DISPLAY to see host and command information for clients, use the long format for window name, icon name, and class hints, or snapshot a session for rough reconstruction scripts.

For package users, xlsclients is a compact example of an X11 introspection command: it is not a desktop environment feature, but a low-level probe that still works wherever X11 client properties are present.

Why package nerds care

xlsclients is package-nerd interesting because it is the kind of tiny X.Org app that explains why X11 packaging is so granular: a single binary, a man page, and one narrow protocol job, released independently from the server and desktop stack.

It also marks the libX11-to-XCB modernization pattern seen across X.Org tools, where old utilities kept their command-line behavior while swapping lower-level client-library plumbing.

Timeline

• 1991-1998: Man page copyright years place xlsclients in the classic Open Group / MIT X Consortium X11 utility lineage.
• 2005: The app module's autotools metadata includes Red Hat copyright, matching the modular X.Org packaging era.
• X11R7.7: X.Org changelog records app/xlsclients moving from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2.
• 2018-07-29: freedesktop.org GitLab project record created for xorg/app/xlsclients.
• 2025-04-05: Current upstream man page date for xlsclients.

Related projects

• Related X.Org inspection tools include xprop, xwininfo, xlsatoms, xlsfonts, xkill, and the X.Org app-module family. At the library layer it sits on XCB in current releases, after earlier Xlib-based implementations.

Sources

• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/api/v4/projects/xorg%2Fapp%2Fxlsclients
• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/xlsclients
• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/xlsclients/-/raw/master/README.md
• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/xlsclients/-/raw/master/configure.ac
• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/xlsclients/-/raw/master/man/xlsclients.man
• https://www.x.org/archive/X11R6.7.0/doc/xlsclients.1.html
• https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/changelog.txt
• https://www.x.org/wiki/UserDocumentation/GettingStarted