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: February 15 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,
65 .Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf .
66 If that file is unavailable,
67 it then tries to open the global configuration file
68 .Pa /etc/spectrwm.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 Set the bar_format string and override all of the
110 The format is passed through
113 It may contain the following character sequences:
114 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
115 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
116 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
117 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
118 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
119 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
120 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
121 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
122 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
123 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
124 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
125 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
126 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
129 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
131 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
136 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
137 Bind key combo to action
143 Set window border thickness in pixels.
144 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
146 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
147 Disable by setting to 0
148 so a custom clock could be used in the
152 Border color of the currently focussed window.
154 Border color of unfocussed windows.
156 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
157 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
158 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
159 .It Ic disable_border
160 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
162 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
172 are relative to the window that is closed.
173 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
174 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
175 closed or vice versa.
176 Disable by setting to 0.
178 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
187 will make the window manager focus the window
188 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
189 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
190 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
191 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
193 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
194 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
195 for several keyboard layouts.
197 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
198 Defined in the format
199 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
200 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
201 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
202 maintaining default floating window behavior.
203 Possible stack_mode values are
218 for more information.
219 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
220 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
224 This setting is not retained at restart.
227 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
228 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
229 Define new action to spawn a program
234 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
235 Add "quirk" for windows with class
243 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
245 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
246 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
248 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
249 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
250 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
251 .It Ic spawn_position
252 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
263 are relative to the focused window.
265 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
267 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
268 If this value is greater than 0,
270 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
271 width above this number as the window is resized.
274 is currently supported.
277 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
278 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
280 section) to use an alternate copy of the
282 binary without the setgid bit set.
283 .It Ic title_class_enabled
284 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
285 Enable by setting to 1.
286 .It Ic title_name_enabled
287 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
288 Enable by setting to 1.
289 .It Ic urgent_enabled
290 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
291 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
293 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
294 .Pa xterm.urgentOnBell: true
297 .It Ic verbose_layout
298 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
300 Enable by setting to 1.
301 .It Ic window_name_enabled
302 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
303 Enable by setting to 1.
304 .It Ic workspace_limit
305 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
308 Colors need to be specified per the
310 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
314 To list the available fonts in your system see
321 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
322 as setting in the keyword
326 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
327 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
332 The default programs are described below:
334 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
337 .It Cm screenshot_all
339 .It Cm screenshot_wind
346 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
349 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
351 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
354 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
356 is the desired program, and
358 is zero or more arguments to the program.
360 The following variables represent settable values in
363 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
365 and may be used in the
367 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
369 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
373 .It Cm $bar_font_color
375 .It Cm $color_unfocus
379 .Bd -literal -offset indent
380 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
381 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
384 To undo the previous:
385 .Bd -literal -offset indent
391 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
393 The current mouse bindings are described below:
395 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
403 Resize window while maintaining it centered
406 The default key bindings are described below:
408 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
409 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
417 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
419 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
421 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
435 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
444 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
459 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
461 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
462 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
463 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
465 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
467 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
469 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
473 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
475 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
485 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
521 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
523 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
543 Swap the master and stacking areas.
551 Add windows to master area.
553 Remove windows from master area.
555 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
557 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
559 Move current window to master area.
561 Focus next window in workspace.
563 Focus previous window in workspace.
565 Focus on main window in workspace.
567 Swap with next window in workspace.
569 Swap with previous window in workspace.
571 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
573 Delete current window in workspace.
575 Destroy current window in workspace.
581 is 1 through workspace_limit.
583 Move current window to workspace
587 is 1 through workspace_limit.
589 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
591 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
593 Switch to next workspace.
595 Switch to previous workspace.
597 Switch to last visited workspace.
599 Move pointer to next region.
601 Move pointer to previous region.
602 .It Cm screenshot_all
603 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
607 .It Cm screenshot_wind
608 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
613 Toggle version in status bar.
615 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
622 Reinitialize physical screens
627 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
629 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
631 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
633 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
635 Shrink the width of a floating window.
637 Grow the width of a floating window.
639 Shrink the height of a floating window.
641 Grow the height of a floating window.
643 Move a floating window a step to the left.
645 Move a floating window a step to the right.
647 Move a floating window a step upwards.
649 Move a floating window a step downwards.
650 .It Cm name_workspace
651 Name the current workspace.
652 .It Cm search_workspace
653 Search for a workspace.
655 Search the windows in the current workspace.
658 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
660 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
663 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
665 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
666 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
667 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
669 .Bd -literal -offset indent
670 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
671 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
674 To use the currently defined
676 specify MOD as the modifier key.
678 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
680 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
681 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
682 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
683 In the fallowing example for å:
684 .Bd -literal -offset indent
685 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
686 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
687 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
688 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
689 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
690 XFilterEvent returns: False
693 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
694 .Bd -literal -offset indent
695 bind[program] = MOD+aring
697 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
698 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
700 These files can be used with the
702 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
705 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
706 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
707 Czech Republic keyboard layout
708 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
709 Spanish keyboard layout
710 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
711 French keyboard layout
712 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
713 Swiss French keyboard layout
714 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
715 Swedish keyboard layout
716 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
717 United States keyboard layout
721 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
722 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
724 The default quirks are described below:
726 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
727 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
734 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
735 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
737 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
745 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
755 The quirks themselves are described below:
757 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
759 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
761 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
763 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
765 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
767 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
769 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
771 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
775 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
777 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
782 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
784 is one of the quirks from the list above.
786 .Bd -literal -offset indent
787 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
788 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
797 and then clicking on the desired window.
798 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
799 .Bd -literal -offset indent
800 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
801 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
804 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
805 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
806 .Bd -literal -offset indent
807 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
811 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
812 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
814 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
815 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
817 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
819 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
821 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
823 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
827 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
828 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
831 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
832 This enables controlling windows as well as
834 itself from external scripts and programs.
837 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
838 From the terminal these events
839 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
844 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
846 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
847 property of the root window.
848 This can be used for example to retrieve the
849 title of the currently active window with
853 .Bd -literal -offset indent
854 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
855 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
858 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
863 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
864 .Bd -literal -offset indent
865 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
868 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
873 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
874 .Bd -literal -offset indent
875 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
878 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
879 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
880 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
882 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
885 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
887 .Bd -literal -offset indent
888 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
891 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
892 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
896 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
897 the window to be resize/moved):
898 .Bd -literal -offset indent
899 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
902 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
904 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
908 a HUP signal will restart it.
910 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
911 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
913 user specific settings.
914 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
920 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
926 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
927 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
928 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
929 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
930 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
931 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
932 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
933 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
934 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
935 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com