1 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Marco Peereboom <marco@peereboom.us>
2 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com>
4 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
5 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
6 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
8 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
9 .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
10 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
11 .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
12 .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
13 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
14 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
16 .Dd $Mdocdate: January 25 2012 $
21 .Nd window manager for X11
26 is a minimalistic window manager that tries to stay out of the way so that
27 valuable screen real estate can be used for much more important stuff.
28 It has sane defaults and does not require one to learn a language to do any
30 It was written by hackers for hackers and it strives to be small, compact and
35 starts up, it reads settings from its configuration file,
38 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
41 The following notation is used throughout this page:
43 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
57 is very simple in its use.
58 Most of the actions are initiated via key or mouse bindings.
61 section below for defaults and customizations.
62 .Sh CONFIGURATION FILES
64 first tries to open the user specific file,
66 If that file is unavailable,
67 it then tries to open the global configuration file
68 .Pa /etc/scrotwm.conf .
70 The format of the file is \*(Ltkeyword\*(Gt = \*(Ltsetting\*(Gt.
75 Enabling or disabling an option is done by using 1 or 0 respectively.
77 The file supports the following keywords:
80 Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day.
81 Defined in the format ws[<idx>]:application, e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an
84 External script that populates additional information in the status bar,
87 Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.
88 .It Ic bar_border Ns Bq Ar x
89 Color of the status bar border in screen
91 .It Ic bar_border_width
92 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
93 Disable border by setting to 0.
94 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
95 Color of the status bar window in screen
98 Update frequency, in seconds, of external script that populates the status bar.
100 Enable or disable status bar.
103 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
104 Color of the font in status bar in screen
107 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
112 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
113 Bind key combo to action
119 Set window border thickness in pixels.
120 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
122 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
123 Disable by setting to 0
124 so a custom clock could be used in the
128 Border color of the currently focussed window.
130 Border color of unfocussed windows.
132 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
133 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
134 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
135 .It Ic disable_border
136 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
140 will make the window manager focus the window
141 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
142 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
143 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
144 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
146 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
147 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
148 for several keyboard layouts.
150 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
151 Defined in the format
152 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
153 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
154 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
155 maintaining default floating window behavior.
156 Possible stack_mode values are
171 for more information.
172 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
173 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
177 This setting is not retained at restart.
180 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
181 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
182 Define new action to spawn a program
187 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
188 Add "quirk" for windows with class
196 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
198 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
199 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
201 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
202 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
203 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
205 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
207 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
208 If this value is greater than 0,
210 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
211 width above this number as the window is resized.
214 is currently supported.
217 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
218 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
220 section) to use an alternate copy of the
222 binary without the setgid bit set.
223 .It Ic title_class_enabled
224 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
225 Enable by setting to 1.
226 .It Ic title_name_enabled
227 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
228 Enable by setting to 1.
229 .It Ic urgent_enabled
230 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
231 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
233 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
234 .Pa xterm.urgentOnBell: true
237 .It Ic verbose_layout
238 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
240 Enable by setting to 1.
241 .It Ic window_name_enabled
242 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
243 Enable by setting to 1.
246 Colors need to be specified per the
248 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
252 To list the available fonts in your system see
259 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
260 as setting in the keyword
264 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
265 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
270 The default programs are described below:
272 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
275 .It Cm screenshot_all
277 .It Cm screenshot_wind
284 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
287 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
289 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
292 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
294 is the desired program, and
296 is zero or more arguments to the program.
298 The following variables represent settable values in
301 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
303 and may be used in the
305 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
307 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
311 .It Cm $bar_font_color
313 .It Cm $color_unfocus
317 .Bd -literal -offset indent
318 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://scrotwm.org/
319 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
322 To undo the previous:
323 .Bd -literal -offset indent
329 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
331 The current mouse bindings are described below:
333 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
341 Resize window while maintaining it centered
344 The default key bindings are described below:
346 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
347 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
355 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
357 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
359 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
373 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
382 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
399 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar n
401 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
403 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
405 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
407 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
411 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
413 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
423 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
459 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
461 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
481 Swap the master and stacking areas.
489 Add windows to master area.
491 Remove windows from master area.
493 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
495 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
497 Move current window to master area.
499 Focus next window in workspace.
501 Focus previous window in workspace.
503 Focus on main window in workspace.
505 Swap with next window in workspace.
507 Swap with previous window in workspace.
509 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
511 Delete current window in workspace.
513 Destroy current window in workspace.
521 Move current window to workspace
527 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
529 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
531 Switch to next workspace.
533 Switch to previous workspace.
535 Switch to last visited workspace.
537 Move pointer to next region.
539 Move pointer to previous region.
540 .It Cm screenshot_all
541 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
545 .It Cm screenshot_wind
546 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
551 Toggle version in status bar.
553 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
560 Reinitialize physical screens
565 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
567 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
569 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
571 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
573 Shrink the width of a floating window.
575 Grow the width of a floating window.
577 Shrink the height of a floating window.
579 Grow the height of a floating window.
581 Move a floating window a step to the left.
583 Move a floating window a step to the right.
585 Move a floating window a step upwards.
587 Move a floating window a step downwards.
588 .It Cm name_workspace
589 Name the current workspace.
590 .It Cm search_workspace
591 Search for a workspace.
593 Search the windows in the current workspace.
596 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
598 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
601 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
603 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
604 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
605 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
607 .Bd -literal -offset indent
608 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
609 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
612 To use the currently defined
614 specify MOD as the modifier key.
616 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
617 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
618 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
620 These files can be used with the
622 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
625 .Bl -tag -width "scrotwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
626 .It Cm scrotwm_cz.conf
627 Czech Republic keyboard layout
628 .It Cm scrotwm_es.conf
629 Spanish keyboard layout
630 .It Cm scrotwm_fr.conf
631 French keyboard layout
632 .It Cm scrotwm_fr_ch.conf
633 Swiss French keyboard layout
634 .It Cm scrotwm_se.conf
635 Swedish keyboard layout
636 .It Cm scrotwm_us.conf
637 United States keyboard layout
641 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
642 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
644 The default quirks are described below:
646 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
647 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
654 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
655 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
657 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
665 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
675 The quirks themselves are described below:
677 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
679 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
681 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
683 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
685 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
687 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
689 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
691 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
695 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
697 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
702 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
704 is one of the quirks from the list above.
706 .Bd -literal -offset indent
707 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
708 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
715 by running xprop(1) and then clicking on the desired window.
716 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
717 .Bd -literal -offset indent
718 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
719 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
722 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
723 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
724 .Bd -literal -offset indent
725 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
729 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
730 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
732 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
733 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
735 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
737 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
739 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
741 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
745 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
746 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
749 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
750 This enables controlling windows as well as
752 itself from external scripts and programs.
755 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
756 From the terminal these events
757 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
762 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
764 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
765 property of the root window.
766 This can be used for example to retrieve the
767 title of the currently active window with
771 .Bd -literal -offset indent
772 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
773 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
776 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
781 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
782 .Bd -literal -offset indent
783 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
786 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
791 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
792 .Bd -literal -offset indent
793 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
796 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
797 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
798 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
800 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
803 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
805 .Bd -literal -offset indent
806 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
809 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
810 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
814 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
815 the window to be resize/moved):
816 .Bd -literal -offset indent
817 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
820 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
822 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
826 a HUP signal will restart it.
828 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/scrotwm.confXXX" -compact
829 .It Pa ~/.scrotwm.conf
831 user specific settings.
832 .It Pa /etc/scrotwm.conf
838 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
844 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
845 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
846 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
847 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
848 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
849 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
850 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
851 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com