appres

appres [options] application_name application_class

-help
    Display a brief summary of the command options.

-version
    Display the program's version number.

application_name
    The name of the application whose resources are to be displayed.

application_class
    The class of the application whose resources are to be displayed.
Often, both are the same.

-xrm resource_string
    Specifies a resource string to be added to the resource database.

The appres command is a utility that is part of the X Window System. It is used to display the resource database of an application. This is achieved by querying the X server for the resources associated with a given application name and class. It is primarily used by developers to understand how their applications are configured and how resources are being applied.
The command helps in debugging resource settings and verifying that the intended configurations are being used. The resources listed show the settings that an application will use or is using. The format of the output is the standard X resource format, making it easy to parse and use in other scripts or programs.

The appres command relies on the application correctly registering its name and class with the X server. If an application doesn't follow standard conventions, appres might not be able to find its resources. Also, the output reflects the resources visible at the time the command is executed, and may not reflect resources used prior to execution.

The application name is usually the executable name (e.g., 'xclock'), while the class is often the capitalized version of the name (e.g., 'XClock'). Using the correct combination of name and class is essential for appres to work correctly. You can often find these values by examining the application's source code or documentation.

To view the resources for the 'xclock' application (assuming it has a class of 'XClock'), you would run: appres xclock XClock. This will output the resources associated with xclock from the X server's resource database.

xrdb(1), X(7)