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 "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
119 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
120 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
121 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
122 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
123 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
124 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
125 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
126 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
127 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
128 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
129 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
130 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
131 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
134 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
136 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
138 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
144 Note that if the output is not
146 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
147 white-spaces in the default static format.
150 option for more details.
151 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
152 Bind key combo to action
158 Set window border thickness in pixels.
159 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
161 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
162 Disable by setting to 0
163 so a custom clock could be used in the
167 Border color of the currently focussed window.
169 Border color of unfocussed windows.
171 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
172 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
173 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
174 .It Ic disable_border
175 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
177 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
187 are relative to the window that is closed.
188 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
189 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
190 closed or vice versa.
191 Disable by setting to 0.
193 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
202 will make the window manager focus the window
203 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
204 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
205 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
206 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
208 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
209 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
210 for several keyboard layouts.
212 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
213 Defined in the format
214 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
215 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
216 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
217 maintaining default floating window behavior.
218 Possible stack_mode values are
235 for more information.
236 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
237 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
241 This setting is not retained at restart.
244 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
245 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
246 Define new action to spawn a program
251 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
252 Add "quirk" for windows with class
260 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
262 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
263 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
265 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
266 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
267 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
268 .It Ic spawn_position
269 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
280 are relative to the focused window.
282 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
284 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
285 If this value is greater than 0,
287 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
288 width above this number as the window is resized.
291 is currently supported.
294 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
295 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
297 section) to use an alternate copy of the
299 binary without the setgid bit set.
300 .It Ic title_class_enabled
301 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
302 Enable by setting to 1.
303 .It Ic title_name_enabled
304 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
305 Enable by setting to 1.
306 .It Ic urgent_enabled
307 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
308 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
310 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
311 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
314 .It Ic verbose_layout
315 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
317 Enable by setting to 1.
318 .It Ic window_name_enabled
319 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
320 Enable by setting to 1.
322 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
323 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
326 option for more details.
327 .It Ic workspace_limit
328 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
331 Colors need to be specified per the
333 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
337 To list the available fonts in your system see
344 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
345 as setting in the keyword
349 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
350 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
355 The default programs are described below:
357 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
360 .It Cm screenshot_all
362 .It Cm screenshot_wind
369 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
372 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
374 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
377 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
379 is the desired program, and
381 is zero or more arguments to the program.
383 The following variables represent settable values in
386 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
388 and may be used in the
390 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
392 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
396 .It Cm $bar_font_color
398 .It Cm $color_unfocus
402 .Bd -literal -offset indent
403 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
404 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
407 To undo the previous:
408 .Bd -literal -offset indent
414 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
416 The current mouse bindings are described below:
418 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
426 Resize window while maintaining it centered
429 The default key bindings are described below:
431 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
432 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
440 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
442 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
444 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
458 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
467 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
482 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
484 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
485 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
486 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
488 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
490 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
492 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
496 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
498 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
508 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
544 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
546 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
566 Swap the master and stacking areas.
574 Add windows to master area.
576 Remove windows from master area.
578 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
580 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
582 Move current window to master area.
584 Focus next window in workspace.
586 Focus previous window in workspace.
588 Focus on main window in workspace.
590 Swap with next window in workspace.
592 Swap with previous window in workspace.
594 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
596 Delete current window in workspace.
598 Destroy current window in workspace.
604 is 1 through workspace_limit.
606 Move current window to workspace
610 is 1 through workspace_limit.
612 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
614 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
616 Switch to next workspace.
618 Switch to previous workspace.
620 Switch to last visited workspace.
622 Move pointer to next region.
624 Move pointer to previous region.
625 .It Cm screenshot_all
626 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
630 .It Cm screenshot_wind
631 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
636 Toggle version in status bar.
638 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
645 Reinitialize physical screens
650 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
652 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
654 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
656 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
658 Shrink the width of a floating window.
660 Grow the width of a floating window.
662 Shrink the height of a floating window.
664 Grow the height of a floating window.
666 Move a floating window a step to the left.
668 Move a floating window a step to the right.
670 Move a floating window a step upwards.
672 Move a floating window a step downwards.
673 .It Cm name_workspace
674 Name the current workspace.
675 .It Cm search_workspace
676 Search for a workspace.
678 Search the windows in the current workspace.
681 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
683 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
686 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
688 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
689 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
690 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
692 .Bd -literal -offset indent
693 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
694 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
697 To use the currently defined
699 specify MOD as the modifier key.
701 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
703 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
704 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
705 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
706 In the fallowing example for å:
707 .Bd -literal -offset indent
708 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
709 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
710 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
711 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
712 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
713 XFilterEvent returns: False
716 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
717 .Bd -literal -offset indent
718 bind[program] = MOD+aring
720 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
721 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
723 These files can be used with the
725 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
728 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
729 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
730 Czech Republic keyboard layout
731 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
732 Spanish keyboard layout
733 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
734 French keyboard layout
735 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
736 Swiss French keyboard layout
737 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
738 Swedish keyboard layout
739 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
740 United States keyboard layout
744 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
745 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
747 The default quirks are described below:
749 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
750 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
757 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
758 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
760 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
768 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
778 The quirks themselves are described below:
780 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
782 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
784 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
786 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
788 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
790 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
792 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
794 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
798 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
800 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
805 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
807 is one of the quirks from the list above.
809 .Bd -literal -offset indent
810 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
811 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
820 and then clicking on the desired window.
821 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
822 .Bd -literal -offset indent
823 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
824 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
827 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
828 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
829 .Bd -literal -offset indent
830 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
834 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
835 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
837 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
838 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
840 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
842 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
844 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
846 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
850 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
851 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
854 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
855 This enables controlling windows as well as
857 itself from external scripts and programs.
860 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
861 From the terminal these events
862 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
867 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
869 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
870 property of the root window.
871 This can be used for example to retrieve the
872 title of the currently active window with
876 .Bd -literal -offset indent
877 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
878 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
881 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
886 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
887 .Bd -literal -offset indent
888 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
891 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
896 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
897 .Bd -literal -offset indent
898 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
901 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
902 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
903 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
905 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
908 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
910 .Bd -literal -offset indent
911 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
914 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
915 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
919 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
920 the window to be resize/moved):
921 .Bd -literal -offset indent
922 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
925 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
927 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
931 a HUP signal will restart it.
933 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
934 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
936 user specific settings.
937 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
943 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
949 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
950 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
951 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
952 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
953 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
954 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
955 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
956 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
957 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
958 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com