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 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
112 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
113 Bind key combo to action
119 Set window border thickness in pixels.
120 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
122 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
123 Disable by setting to 0
124 so a custom clock could be used in the
128 Border color of the currently focussed window.
130 Border color of unfocussed windows.
132 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
133 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
134 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
135 .It Ic disable_border
136 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
138 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
148 are relative to the window that is closed.
149 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
150 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
151 closed or vice versa.
152 Disable by setting to 0.
154 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
163 will make the window manager focus the window
164 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
165 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
166 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
167 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
169 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
170 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
171 for several keyboard layouts.
173 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
174 Defined in the format
175 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
176 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
177 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
178 maintaining default floating window behavior.
179 Possible stack_mode values are
194 for more information.
195 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
196 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
200 This setting is not retained at restart.
203 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
204 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
205 Define new action to spawn a program
210 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
211 Add "quirk" for windows with class
219 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
221 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
222 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
224 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
225 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
226 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
227 .It Ic spawn_position
228 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
239 are relative to the focused window.
241 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
243 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
244 If this value is greater than 0,
246 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
247 width above this number as the window is resized.
250 is currently supported.
253 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
254 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
256 section) to use an alternate copy of the
258 binary without the setgid bit set.
259 .It Ic title_class_enabled
260 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
261 Enable by setting to 1.
262 .It Ic title_name_enabled
263 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
264 Enable by setting to 1.
265 .It Ic urgent_enabled
266 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
267 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
269 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
270 .Pa xterm.urgentOnBell: true
273 .It Ic verbose_layout
274 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
276 Enable by setting to 1.
277 .It Ic window_name_enabled
278 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
279 Enable by setting to 1.
280 .It Ic workspace_limit
281 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
284 Colors need to be specified per the
286 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
290 To list the available fonts in your system see
297 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
298 as setting in the keyword
302 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
303 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
308 The default programs are described below:
310 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
313 .It Cm screenshot_all
315 .It Cm screenshot_wind
322 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
325 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
327 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
330 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
332 is the desired program, and
334 is zero or more arguments to the program.
336 The following variables represent settable values in
339 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
341 and may be used in the
343 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
345 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
349 .It Cm $bar_font_color
351 .It Cm $color_unfocus
355 .Bd -literal -offset indent
356 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
357 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
360 To undo the previous:
361 .Bd -literal -offset indent
367 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
369 The current mouse bindings are described below:
371 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
379 Resize window while maintaining it centered
382 The default key bindings are described below:
384 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
385 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
393 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
395 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
397 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
411 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
420 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
435 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
437 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
438 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
439 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
441 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
443 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
445 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
449 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
451 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
461 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
497 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
499 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
519 Swap the master and stacking areas.
527 Add windows to master area.
529 Remove windows from master area.
531 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
533 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
535 Move current window to master area.
537 Focus next window in workspace.
539 Focus previous window in workspace.
541 Focus on main window in workspace.
543 Swap with next window in workspace.
545 Swap with previous window in workspace.
547 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
549 Delete current window in workspace.
551 Destroy current window in workspace.
557 is 1 through workspace_limit.
559 Move current window to workspace
563 is 1 through workspace_limit.
565 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
567 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
569 Switch to next workspace.
571 Switch to previous workspace.
573 Switch to last visited workspace.
575 Move pointer to next region.
577 Move pointer to previous region.
578 .It Cm screenshot_all
579 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
583 .It Cm screenshot_wind
584 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
589 Toggle version in status bar.
591 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
598 Reinitialize physical screens
603 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
605 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
607 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
609 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
611 Shrink the width of a floating window.
613 Grow the width of a floating window.
615 Shrink the height of a floating window.
617 Grow the height of a floating window.
619 Move a floating window a step to the left.
621 Move a floating window a step to the right.
623 Move a floating window a step upwards.
625 Move a floating window a step downwards.
626 .It Cm name_workspace
627 Name the current workspace.
628 .It Cm search_workspace
629 Search for a workspace.
631 Search the windows in the current workspace.
634 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
636 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
639 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
641 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
642 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
643 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
645 .Bd -literal -offset indent
646 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
647 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
650 To use the currently defined
652 specify MOD as the modifier key.
654 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
656 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
657 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
658 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
659 In the fallowing example for å:
660 .Bd -literal -offset indent
661 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
662 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
663 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
664 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
665 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
666 XFilterEvent returns: False
669 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
670 .Bd -literal -offset indent
671 bind[program] = MOD+aring
673 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
674 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
676 These files can be used with the
678 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
681 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
682 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
683 Czech Republic keyboard layout
684 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
685 Spanish keyboard layout
686 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
687 French keyboard layout
688 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
689 Swiss French keyboard layout
690 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
691 Swedish keyboard layout
692 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
693 United States keyboard layout
697 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
698 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
700 The default quirks are described below:
702 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
703 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
710 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
711 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
713 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
721 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
731 The quirks themselves are described below:
733 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
735 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
737 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
739 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
741 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
743 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
745 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
747 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
751 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
753 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
758 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
760 is one of the quirks from the list above.
762 .Bd -literal -offset indent
763 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
764 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
773 and then clicking on the desired window.
774 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
775 .Bd -literal -offset indent
776 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
777 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
780 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
781 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
782 .Bd -literal -offset indent
783 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
787 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
788 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
790 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
791 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
793 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
795 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
797 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
799 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
803 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
804 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
807 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
808 This enables controlling windows as well as
810 itself from external scripts and programs.
813 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
814 From the terminal these events
815 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
820 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
822 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
823 property of the root window.
824 This can be used for example to retrieve the
825 title of the currently active window with
829 .Bd -literal -offset indent
830 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
831 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
834 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
839 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
840 .Bd -literal -offset indent
841 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
844 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
849 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
850 .Bd -literal -offset indent
851 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
854 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
855 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
856 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
858 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
861 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
863 .Bd -literal -offset indent
864 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
867 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
868 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
872 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
873 the window to be resize/moved):
874 .Bd -literal -offset indent
875 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
878 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
880 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
884 a HUP signal will restart it.
886 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
887 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
889 user specific settings.
890 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
896 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
902 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
903 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
904 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
905 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
906 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
907 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
908 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
909 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
910 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
911 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com