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 overrides
112 The format is passed through
115 It may contain the following character sequences:
116 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
117 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
118 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
119 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
120 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
121 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
122 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
123 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
124 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
125 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
126 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
127 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
128 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
129 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
130 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
133 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
135 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
137 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
142 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
143 Bind key combo to action
149 Set window border thickness in pixels.
150 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
152 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
153 Disable by setting to 0
154 so a custom clock could be used in the
158 Border color of the currently focussed window.
160 Border color of unfocussed windows.
162 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
163 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
164 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
165 .It Ic disable_border
166 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
168 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
178 are relative to the window that is closed.
179 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
180 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
181 closed or vice versa.
182 Disable by setting to 0.
184 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
193 will make the window manager focus the window
194 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
195 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
196 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
197 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
199 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
200 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
201 for several keyboard layouts.
203 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
204 Defined in the format
205 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
206 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
207 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
208 maintaining default floating window behavior.
209 Possible stack_mode values are
226 for more information.
227 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
228 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
232 This setting is not retained at restart.
235 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
236 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
237 Define new action to spawn a program
242 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
243 Add "quirk" for windows with class
251 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
253 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
254 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
256 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
257 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
258 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
259 .It Ic spawn_position
260 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
271 are relative to the focused window.
273 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
275 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
276 If this value is greater than 0,
278 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
279 width above this number as the window is resized.
282 is currently supported.
285 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
286 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
288 section) to use an alternate copy of the
290 binary without the setgid bit set.
291 .It Ic title_class_enabled
292 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
293 Enable by setting to 1.
294 .It Ic title_name_enabled
295 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
296 Enable by setting to 1.
297 .It Ic urgent_enabled
298 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
299 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
301 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
302 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
305 .It Ic verbose_layout
306 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
308 Enable by setting to 1.
309 .It Ic window_name_enabled
310 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
311 Enable by setting to 1.
313 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
314 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
317 option for more details.
318 .It Ic workspace_limit
319 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
322 Colors need to be specified per the
324 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
328 To list the available fonts in your system see
335 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
336 as setting in the keyword
340 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
341 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
346 The default programs are described below:
348 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
351 .It Cm screenshot_all
353 .It Cm screenshot_wind
360 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
363 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
365 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
368 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
370 is the desired program, and
372 is zero or more arguments to the program.
374 The following variables represent settable values in
377 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
379 and may be used in the
381 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
383 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
387 .It Cm $bar_font_color
389 .It Cm $color_unfocus
393 .Bd -literal -offset indent
394 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
395 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
398 To undo the previous:
399 .Bd -literal -offset indent
405 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
407 The current mouse bindings are described below:
409 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
417 Resize window while maintaining it centered
420 The default key bindings are described below:
422 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
423 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
431 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
433 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
435 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
449 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
458 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
473 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
475 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
476 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
477 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
479 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
481 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
483 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
487 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
489 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
499 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
535 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
537 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
557 Swap the master and stacking areas.
565 Add windows to master area.
567 Remove windows from master area.
569 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
571 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
573 Move current window to master area.
575 Focus next window in workspace.
577 Focus previous window in workspace.
579 Focus on main window in workspace.
581 Swap with next window in workspace.
583 Swap with previous window in workspace.
585 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
587 Delete current window in workspace.
589 Destroy current window in workspace.
595 is 1 through workspace_limit.
597 Move current window to workspace
601 is 1 through workspace_limit.
603 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
605 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
607 Switch to next workspace.
609 Switch to previous workspace.
611 Switch to last visited workspace.
613 Move pointer to next region.
615 Move pointer to previous region.
616 .It Cm screenshot_all
617 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
621 .It Cm screenshot_wind
622 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
627 Toggle version in status bar.
629 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
636 Reinitialize physical screens
641 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
643 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
645 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
647 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
649 Shrink the width of a floating window.
651 Grow the width of a floating window.
653 Shrink the height of a floating window.
655 Grow the height of a floating window.
657 Move a floating window a step to the left.
659 Move a floating window a step to the right.
661 Move a floating window a step upwards.
663 Move a floating window a step downwards.
664 .It Cm name_workspace
665 Name the current workspace.
666 .It Cm search_workspace
667 Search for a workspace.
669 Search the windows in the current workspace.
672 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
674 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
677 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
679 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
680 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
681 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
683 .Bd -literal -offset indent
684 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
685 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
688 To use the currently defined
690 specify MOD as the modifier key.
692 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
694 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
695 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
696 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
697 In the fallowing example for å:
698 .Bd -literal -offset indent
699 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
700 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
701 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
702 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
703 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
704 XFilterEvent returns: False
707 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
708 .Bd -literal -offset indent
709 bind[program] = MOD+aring
711 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
712 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
714 These files can be used with the
716 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
719 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
720 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
721 Czech Republic keyboard layout
722 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
723 Spanish keyboard layout
724 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
725 French keyboard layout
726 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
727 Swiss French keyboard layout
728 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
729 Swedish keyboard layout
730 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
731 United States keyboard layout
735 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
736 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
738 The default quirks are described below:
740 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
741 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
748 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
749 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
751 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
759 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
769 The quirks themselves are described below:
771 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
773 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
775 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
777 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
779 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
781 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
783 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
785 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
789 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
791 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
796 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
798 is one of the quirks from the list above.
800 .Bd -literal -offset indent
801 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
802 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
811 and then clicking on the desired window.
812 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
813 .Bd -literal -offset indent
814 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
815 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
818 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
819 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
820 .Bd -literal -offset indent
821 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
825 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
826 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
828 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
829 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
831 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
833 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
835 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
837 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
841 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
842 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
845 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
846 This enables controlling windows as well as
848 itself from external scripts and programs.
851 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
852 From the terminal these events
853 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
858 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
860 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
861 property of the root window.
862 This can be used for example to retrieve the
863 title of the currently active window with
867 .Bd -literal -offset indent
868 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
869 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
872 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
877 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
878 .Bd -literal -offset indent
879 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
882 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
887 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
888 .Bd -literal -offset indent
889 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
892 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
893 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
894 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
896 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
899 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
901 .Bd -literal -offset indent
902 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
905 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
906 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
910 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
911 the window to be resize/moved):
912 .Bd -literal -offset indent
913 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
916 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
918 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
922 a HUP signal will restart it.
924 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
925 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
927 user specific settings.
928 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
934 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
940 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
941 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
942 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
943 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
944 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
945 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
946 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
947 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
948 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
949 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com