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 Colors need to be specified per the
85 The file supports the following keywords:
88 Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day.
89 Defined in the format ws[<idx>]:application, e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an
92 External script that populates additional information in the status bar,
95 Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.
96 .It Ic bar_border Ns Bq Ar x
97 Color of the status bar border in screen
99 .It Ic bar_border_width
100 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
101 Disable border by setting to 0.
102 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
103 Color of the status bar window in screen
106 Update frequency, in seconds, of external script that populates the status
109 Enable or disable status bar.
111 Font used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD)
112 may be used to specify fonts. Fallback fonts may be specified by separating
113 each font with a comma. If all entries are XLFD syntax, font set will be
114 used. If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used. Note that if Xft is in
115 use, only the first font that successfully loads will be used regardless of
116 missing glyphs. The default is to use font set. Also note that dmenu does
117 not support Xft fonts.
120 .Bd -literal -offset indent
121 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
123 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,\
124 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
128 .Bd -literal -offset indent
129 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
131 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
132 -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
133 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
136 To list the available fonts in your system see
143 application can help with the XLFD setting.
145 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
146 Color of the font in status bar in screen
149 Set the bar_format string and overrides
154 The format is passed through
157 It may contain the following character sequences:
158 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
159 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
160 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
161 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
162 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
163 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
164 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
165 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
166 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
167 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
168 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
169 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
170 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
171 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
172 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
173 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
176 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for
177 example +64A. Any characters that don't match the specification are copied
180 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
186 Note that if the output is not
188 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
189 white-spaces in the default static format.
192 option for more details.
193 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
194 Bind key combo to action
200 Set window border thickness in pixels.
201 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
203 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
204 Disable by setting to 0
205 so a custom clock could be used in the
209 Border color of the currently focussed window.
211 Border color of unfocussed windows.
213 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
214 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
215 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
216 .It Ic disable_border
217 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
220 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
230 are relative to the window that is closed.
231 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
232 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
233 is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.
235 Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are
241 Window focus behavior with respect to the mouse cursor. Possible values:
243 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
245 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
248 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
249 and changes to layout.
251 Set window focus on window interaction only.
253 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
254 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
255 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
257 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
258 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
259 for several keyboard layouts.
261 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
262 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
263 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
264 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
265 maintaining default floating window behavior.
266 Possible stack_mode values are
283 for more information.
284 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
285 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
289 This setting is not retained at restart.
292 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
293 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
294 Define new action to spawn a program
299 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
300 Add "quirk" for windows with class
308 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
309 same space on the screen.
310 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
311 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
313 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
314 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
315 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
316 .It Ic spawn_position
317 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
328 are relative to the focused window.
330 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
333 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
334 If this value is greater than 0,
336 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
337 width above this number as the window is resized.
340 is currently supported.
343 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
344 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
346 section) to use an alternate copy of the
348 binary without the setgid bit set.
349 .It Ic title_class_enabled
350 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
351 Enable by setting to 1.
352 .It Ic title_name_enabled
353 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
354 Enable by setting to 1.
355 .It Ic urgent_enabled
356 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
357 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
359 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
360 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
363 .It Ic verbose_layout
364 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the
365 status bar. Enable by setting to 1.
366 .It Ic window_name_enabled
367 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
368 Enable by setting to 1.
370 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
371 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
374 option for more details.
375 .It Ic workspace_limit
376 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
381 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
382 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
387 The default programs are described below:
389 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
392 .It Cm screenshot_all
394 .It Cm screenshot_wind
401 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
402 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
405 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
407 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
410 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
412 is the desired program, and
414 is zero or more arguments to the program.
416 The following variables represent settable values in
419 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
421 and may be used in the
423 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
425 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
429 .It Cm $bar_font_color
431 .It Cm $color_unfocus
435 .Bd -literal -offset indent
436 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
437 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
440 To undo the previous:
441 .Bd -literal -offset indent
447 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
449 The current mouse bindings are described below:
451 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
459 Resize window while maintaining it centered
462 The default key bindings are described below:
464 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
465 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
473 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
475 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
477 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
491 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
500 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
515 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
517 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
518 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
519 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
521 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
523 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
525 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
529 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
531 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
541 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
577 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
579 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
599 Swap the master and stacking areas.
607 Add windows to master area.
609 Remove windows from master area.
611 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
613 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
615 Move current window to master area.
617 Focus next window in workspace.
619 Focus previous window in workspace.
621 Focus on main window in workspace.
623 Swap with next window in workspace.
625 Swap with previous window in workspace.
627 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
629 Delete current window in workspace.
631 Destroy current window in workspace.
637 is 1 through workspace_limit.
639 Move current window to workspace
643 is 1 through workspace_limit.
645 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
647 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
649 Switch to next workspace.
651 Switch to previous workspace.
653 Switch to last visited workspace.
655 Move pointer to next region.
657 Move pointer to previous region.
658 .It Cm screenshot_all
659 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
663 .It Cm screenshot_wind
664 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
669 Toggle version in status bar.
671 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
678 Reinitialize physical screens
683 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
685 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
687 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
689 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
691 Shrink the width of a floating window.
693 Grow the width of a floating window.
695 Shrink the height of a floating window.
697 Grow the height of a floating window.
699 Move a floating window a step to the left.
701 Move a floating window a step to the right.
703 Move a floating window a step upwards.
705 Move a floating window a step downwards.
706 .It Cm name_workspace
707 Name the current workspace.
708 .It Cm search_workspace
709 Search for a workspace.
711 Search the windows in the current workspace.
714 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
716 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
719 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
721 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
722 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
723 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
725 .Bd -literal -offset indent
726 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
727 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
730 To use the currently defined
732 specify MOD as the modifier key.
734 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
736 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
737 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
738 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
739 In the fallowing example for å:
740 .Bd -literal -offset indent
741 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
742 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
743 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
744 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
745 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
746 XFilterEvent returns: False
749 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
750 .Bd -literal -offset indent
751 bind[program] = MOD+aring
753 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
754 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
756 These files can be used with the
758 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
761 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
762 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
763 Czech Republic keyboard layout
764 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
765 Spanish keyboard layout
766 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
767 French keyboard layout
768 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
769 Swiss French keyboard layout
770 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
771 Swedish keyboard layout
772 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
773 United States keyboard layout
777 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
778 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
780 The default quirks are described below:
782 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
784 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
791 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
792 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
794 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
802 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
812 The quirks themselves are described below:
814 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
816 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
818 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
820 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
822 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
824 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
826 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
828 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
829 application in the stack.
832 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
834 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
839 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
841 is one of the quirks from the list above.
843 .Bd -literal -offset indent
844 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
845 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
854 and then clicking on the desired window.
855 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
856 .Bd -literal -offset indent
857 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
858 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
861 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
862 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
863 .Bd -literal -offset indent
864 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
868 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
869 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
871 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
872 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
874 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
876 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
878 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
880 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
884 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
885 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
888 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
889 This enables controlling windows as well as
891 itself from external scripts and programs.
894 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
895 From the terminal these events
896 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
901 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
903 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
904 property of the root window.
905 This can be used for example to retrieve the
906 title of the currently active window with
910 .Bd -literal -offset indent
911 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
912 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
915 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
920 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
921 .Bd -literal -offset indent
922 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
925 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
930 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
931 .Bd -literal -offset indent
932 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
935 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
936 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
937 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
939 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
942 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
944 .Bd -literal -offset indent
945 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
948 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
949 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
953 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
954 the window to be resize/moved):
955 .Bd -literal -offset indent
956 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
959 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
961 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
965 a HUP signal will restart it.
967 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
968 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
970 user specific settings.
971 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
977 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
983 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
985 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
986 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
987 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
988 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
989 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
990 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
991 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
992 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
993 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
994 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org