1 .\" Copyright (c) 2009-2012 Marco Peereboom <marco@peereboom.us>
2 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com>
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2011-2012 Reginald Kennedy <rk@rejii.com>
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2011-2012 Lawrence Teo <lteo@lteo.net>
5 .\" Copyright (c) 2011-2012 Tiago Cunha <tcunha@gmx.com>
6 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 David Hill <dhill@mindcry.org>
8 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
9 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
10 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
12 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
13 .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
14 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
15 .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
16 .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
17 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
18 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
20 .Dd $Mdocdate: February 15 2012 $
25 .Nd window manager for X11
30 is a minimalistic window manager that tries to stay out of the way so that
31 valuable screen real estate can be used for much more important stuff.
32 It has sane defaults and does not require one to learn a language to do any
34 It was written by hackers for hackers and it strives to be small, compact and
39 starts up, it reads settings from its configuration file,
42 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
45 The following notation is used throughout this page:
47 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
61 is very simple in its use.
62 Most of the actions are initiated via key or mouse bindings.
65 section below for defaults and customizations.
66 .Sh CONFIGURATION FILES
68 first tries to open the user specific file,
69 .Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf .
70 If that file is unavailable,
71 it then tries to open the global configuration file
72 .Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf .
74 The format of the file is \*(Ltkeyword\*(Gt = \*(Ltsetting\*(Gt.
79 Enabling or disabling an option is done by using 1 or 0 respectively.
81 The file supports the following keywords:
84 Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day.
85 Defined in the format ws[<idx>]:application, e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an
88 External script that populates additional information in the status bar,
91 Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.
92 .It Ic bar_border Ns Bq Ar x
93 Color of the status bar border in screen
95 .It Ic bar_border_width
96 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
97 Disable border by setting to 0.
98 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
99 Color of the status bar window in screen
102 Update frequency, in seconds, of external script that populates the status bar.
104 Enable or disable status bar.
107 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
108 Color of the font in status bar in screen
111 Set the bar_format string and overrides
116 The format is passed through
119 It may contain the following character sequences:
120 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
121 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
122 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
123 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
124 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
125 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
126 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
127 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
128 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
129 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
130 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
131 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
132 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
133 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
134 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
135 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
138 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
140 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
142 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
148 Note that if the output is not
150 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
151 white-spaces in the default static format.
154 option for more details.
155 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
156 Bind key combo to action
162 Set window border thickness in pixels.
163 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
165 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
166 Disable by setting to 0
167 so a custom clock could be used in the
171 Border color of the currently focussed window.
173 Border color of unfocussed windows.
175 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
176 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
177 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
178 .It Ic disable_border
179 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
181 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
191 are relative to the window that is closed.
192 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
193 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
194 closed or vice versa.
195 Disable by setting to 0.
197 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
206 will make the window manager focus the window
207 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
208 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
209 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
210 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
212 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
213 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
214 for several keyboard layouts.
216 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
217 Defined in the format
218 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
219 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
220 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
221 maintaining default floating window behavior.
222 Possible stack_mode values are
239 for more information.
240 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
241 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
245 This setting is not retained at restart.
248 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
249 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
250 Define new action to spawn a program
255 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
256 Add "quirk" for windows with class
264 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
266 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
267 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
269 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
270 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
271 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
272 .It Ic spawn_position
273 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
284 are relative to the focused window.
286 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
288 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
289 If this value is greater than 0,
291 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
292 width above this number as the window is resized.
295 is currently supported.
298 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
299 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
301 section) to use an alternate copy of the
303 binary without the setgid bit set.
304 .It Ic title_class_enabled
305 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
306 Enable by setting to 1.
307 .It Ic title_name_enabled
308 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
309 Enable by setting to 1.
310 .It Ic urgent_enabled
311 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
312 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
314 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
315 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
318 .It Ic verbose_layout
319 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
321 Enable by setting to 1.
322 .It Ic window_name_enabled
323 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
324 Enable by setting to 1.
326 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
327 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
330 option for more details.
331 .It Ic workspace_limit
332 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22, default is 10.
335 Colors need to be specified per the
337 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
341 To list the available fonts in your system see
348 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
349 as setting in the keyword
353 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
354 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
359 The default programs are described below:
361 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
364 .It Cm screenshot_all
366 .It Cm screenshot_wind
373 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
376 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
378 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
381 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
383 is the desired program, and
385 is zero or more arguments to the program.
387 The following variables represent settable values in
390 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
392 and may be used in the
394 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
396 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
400 .It Cm $bar_font_color
402 .It Cm $color_unfocus
406 .Bd -literal -offset indent
407 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
408 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
411 To undo the previous:
412 .Bd -literal -offset indent
418 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
420 The current mouse bindings are described below:
422 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
430 Resize window while maintaining it centered
433 The default key bindings are described below:
435 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
436 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
444 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
446 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
448 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
462 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
471 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
486 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
488 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
489 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
490 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
492 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
494 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
496 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
500 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
502 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
512 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
548 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
550 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
570 Swap the master and stacking areas.
578 Add windows to master area.
580 Remove windows from master area.
582 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
584 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
586 Move current window to master area.
588 Focus next window in workspace.
590 Focus previous window in workspace.
592 Focus on main window in workspace.
594 Swap with next window in workspace.
596 Swap with previous window in workspace.
598 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
600 Delete current window in workspace.
602 Destroy current window in workspace.
608 is 1 through workspace_limit.
610 Move current window to workspace
614 is 1 through workspace_limit.
616 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
618 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
620 Switch to next workspace.
622 Switch to previous workspace.
624 Switch to last visited workspace.
626 Move pointer to next region.
628 Move pointer to previous region.
629 .It Cm screenshot_all
630 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
634 .It Cm screenshot_wind
635 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
640 Toggle version in status bar.
642 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
649 Reinitialize physical screens
654 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
656 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
658 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
660 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
662 Shrink the width of a floating window.
664 Grow the width of a floating window.
666 Shrink the height of a floating window.
668 Grow the height of a floating window.
670 Move a floating window a step to the left.
672 Move a floating window a step to the right.
674 Move a floating window a step upwards.
676 Move a floating window a step downwards.
677 .It Cm name_workspace
678 Name the current workspace.
679 .It Cm search_workspace
680 Search for a workspace.
682 Search the windows in the current workspace.
685 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
687 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
690 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
692 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
693 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
694 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
696 .Bd -literal -offset indent
697 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
698 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
701 To use the currently defined
703 specify MOD as the modifier key.
705 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
707 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
708 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
709 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
710 In the fallowing example for å:
711 .Bd -literal -offset indent
712 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
713 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
714 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
715 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
716 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
717 XFilterEvent returns: False
720 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
721 .Bd -literal -offset indent
722 bind[program] = MOD+aring
724 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
725 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
727 These files can be used with the
729 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
732 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
733 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
734 Czech Republic keyboard layout
735 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
736 Spanish keyboard layout
737 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
738 French keyboard layout
739 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
740 Swiss French keyboard layout
741 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
742 Swedish keyboard layout
743 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
744 United States keyboard layout
748 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
749 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
751 The default quirks are described below:
753 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
754 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
761 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
762 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
764 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
772 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
782 The quirks themselves are described below:
784 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
786 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
788 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
790 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
792 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
794 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
796 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
798 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
802 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
804 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
809 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
811 is one of the quirks from the list above.
813 .Bd -literal -offset indent
814 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
815 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
824 and then clicking on the desired window.
825 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
826 .Bd -literal -offset indent
827 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
828 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
831 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
832 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
833 .Bd -literal -offset indent
834 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
838 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
839 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
841 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
842 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
844 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
846 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
848 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
850 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
854 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
855 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
858 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
859 This enables controlling windows as well as
861 itself from external scripts and programs.
864 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
865 From the terminal these events
866 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
871 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
873 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
874 property of the root window.
875 This can be used for example to retrieve the
876 title of the currently active window with
880 .Bd -literal -offset indent
881 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
882 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
885 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
890 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
891 .Bd -literal -offset indent
892 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
895 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
900 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
901 .Bd -literal -offset indent
902 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
905 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
906 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
907 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
909 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
912 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
914 .Bd -literal -offset indent
915 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
918 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
919 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
923 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
924 the window to be resize/moved):
925 .Bd -literal -offset indent
926 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
929 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
931 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
935 a HUP signal will restart it.
937 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
938 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
940 user specific settings.
941 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
947 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
953 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
954 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
955 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
956 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
957 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
958 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
959 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
960 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
961 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
962 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
963 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org