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
243 will make the window manager focus the window under the mouse when switching
244 workspaces and creating windows.
245 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
246 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
247 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
249 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
250 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
251 for several keyboard layouts.
253 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
254 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
255 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
256 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
257 maintaining default floating window behavior.
258 Possible stack_mode values are
275 for more information.
276 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
277 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
281 This setting is not retained at restart.
284 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
285 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
286 Define new action to spawn a program
291 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
292 Add "quirk" for windows with class
300 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
301 same space on the screen.
302 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
303 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
305 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
306 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
307 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
308 .It Ic spawn_position
309 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
320 are relative to the focused window.
322 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
325 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
326 If this value is greater than 0,
328 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
329 width above this number as the window is resized.
332 is currently supported.
335 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
336 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
338 section) to use an alternate copy of the
340 binary without the setgid bit set.
341 .It Ic title_class_enabled
342 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
343 Enable by setting to 1.
344 .It Ic title_name_enabled
345 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
346 Enable by setting to 1.
347 .It Ic urgent_enabled
348 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
349 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
351 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
352 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
355 .It Ic verbose_layout
356 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the
357 status bar. Enable by setting to 1.
358 .It Ic window_name_enabled
359 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
360 Enable by setting to 1.
362 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
363 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
366 option for more details.
367 .It Ic workspace_limit
368 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
373 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
374 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
379 The default programs are described below:
381 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
384 .It Cm screenshot_all
386 .It Cm screenshot_wind
393 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
394 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
397 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
399 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
402 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
404 is the desired program, and
406 is zero or more arguments to the program.
408 The following variables represent settable values in
411 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
413 and may be used in the
415 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
417 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
421 .It Cm $bar_font_color
423 .It Cm $color_unfocus
427 .Bd -literal -offset indent
428 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
429 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
432 To undo the previous:
433 .Bd -literal -offset indent
439 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
441 The current mouse bindings are described below:
443 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
451 Resize window while maintaining it centered
454 The default key bindings are described below:
456 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
457 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
465 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
467 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
469 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
483 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
492 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
507 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
509 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
510 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
511 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
513 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
515 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
517 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
521 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
523 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
533 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
569 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
571 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
591 Swap the master and stacking areas.
599 Add windows to master area.
601 Remove windows from master area.
603 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
605 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
607 Move current window to master area.
609 Focus next window in workspace.
611 Focus previous window in workspace.
613 Focus on main window in workspace.
615 Swap with next window in workspace.
617 Swap with previous window in workspace.
619 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
621 Delete current window in workspace.
623 Destroy current window in workspace.
629 is 1 through workspace_limit.
631 Move current window to workspace
635 is 1 through workspace_limit.
637 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
639 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
641 Switch to next workspace.
643 Switch to previous workspace.
645 Switch to last visited workspace.
647 Move pointer to next region.
649 Move pointer to previous region.
650 .It Cm screenshot_all
651 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
655 .It Cm screenshot_wind
656 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
661 Toggle version in status bar.
663 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
670 Reinitialize physical screens
675 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
677 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
679 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
681 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
683 Shrink the width of a floating window.
685 Grow the width of a floating window.
687 Shrink the height of a floating window.
689 Grow the height of a floating window.
691 Move a floating window a step to the left.
693 Move a floating window a step to the right.
695 Move a floating window a step upwards.
697 Move a floating window a step downwards.
698 .It Cm name_workspace
699 Name the current workspace.
700 .It Cm search_workspace
701 Search for a workspace.
703 Search the windows in the current workspace.
706 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
708 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
711 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
713 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
714 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
715 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
717 .Bd -literal -offset indent
718 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
719 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
722 To use the currently defined
724 specify MOD as the modifier key.
726 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
728 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
729 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
730 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
731 In the fallowing example for å:
732 .Bd -literal -offset indent
733 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
734 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
735 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
736 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
737 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
738 XFilterEvent returns: False
741 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
742 .Bd -literal -offset indent
743 bind[program] = MOD+aring
745 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
746 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
748 These files can be used with the
750 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
753 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
754 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
755 Czech Republic keyboard layout
756 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
757 Spanish keyboard layout
758 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
759 French keyboard layout
760 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
761 Swiss French keyboard layout
762 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
763 Swedish keyboard layout
764 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
765 United States keyboard layout
769 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
770 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
772 The default quirks are described below:
774 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
776 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
783 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
784 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
786 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
794 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
804 The quirks themselves are described below:
806 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
808 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
810 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
812 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
814 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
816 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
818 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
820 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
821 application in the stack.
824 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
826 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
831 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
833 is one of the quirks from the list above.
835 .Bd -literal -offset indent
836 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
837 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
846 and then clicking on the desired window.
847 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
848 .Bd -literal -offset indent
849 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
850 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
853 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
854 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
855 .Bd -literal -offset indent
856 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
860 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
861 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
863 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
864 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
866 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
868 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
870 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
872 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
876 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
877 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
880 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
881 This enables controlling windows as well as
883 itself from external scripts and programs.
886 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
887 From the terminal these events
888 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
893 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
895 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
896 property of the root window.
897 This can be used for example to retrieve the
898 title of the currently active window with
902 .Bd -literal -offset indent
903 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
904 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
907 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
912 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
913 .Bd -literal -offset indent
914 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
917 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
922 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
923 .Bd -literal -offset indent
924 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
927 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
928 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
929 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
931 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
934 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
936 .Bd -literal -offset indent
937 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
940 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
941 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
945 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
946 the window to be resize/moved):
947 .Bd -literal -offset indent
948 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
951 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
953 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
957 a HUP signal will restart it.
959 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
960 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
962 user specific settings.
963 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
969 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
975 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
977 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
978 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
979 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
980 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
981 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
982 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
983 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
984 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
985 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
986 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org