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 "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
119 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
120 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
121 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
122 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
123 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
124 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
125 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
126 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
127 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
128 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
131 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
133 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
135 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
140 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
141 Bind key combo to action
147 Set window border thickness in pixels.
148 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
150 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
151 Disable by setting to 0
152 so a custom clock could be used in the
156 Border color of the currently focussed window.
158 Border color of unfocussed windows.
160 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
161 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
162 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
163 .It Ic disable_border
164 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
166 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
176 are relative to the window that is closed.
177 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
178 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
179 closed or vice versa.
180 Disable by setting to 0.
182 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
191 will make the window manager focus the window
192 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
193 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
194 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
195 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
197 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
198 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
199 for several keyboard layouts.
201 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
202 Defined in the format
203 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
204 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
205 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
206 maintaining default floating window behavior.
207 Possible stack_mode values are
222 for more information.
223 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
224 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
228 This setting is not retained at restart.
231 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
232 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
233 Define new action to spawn a program
238 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
239 Add "quirk" for windows with class
247 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
249 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
250 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
252 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
253 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
254 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
255 .It Ic spawn_position
256 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
267 are relative to the focused window.
269 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
271 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
272 If this value is greater than 0,
274 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
275 width above this number as the window is resized.
278 is currently supported.
281 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
282 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
284 section) to use an alternate copy of the
286 binary without the setgid bit set.
287 .It Ic title_class_enabled
288 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
289 Enable by setting to 1.
290 .It Ic title_name_enabled
291 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
292 Enable by setting to 1.
293 .It Ic urgent_enabled
294 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
295 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
297 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
298 .Pa xterm.urgentOnBell: true
301 .It Ic verbose_layout
302 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
304 Enable by setting to 1.
305 .It Ic window_name_enabled
306 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
307 Enable by setting to 1.
309 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
310 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
313 option for more details.
314 .It Ic workspace_limit
315 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
318 Colors need to be specified per the
320 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
324 To list the available fonts in your system see
331 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
332 as setting in the keyword
336 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
337 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
342 The default programs are described below:
344 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
347 .It Cm screenshot_all
349 .It Cm screenshot_wind
356 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
359 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
361 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
364 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
366 is the desired program, and
368 is zero or more arguments to the program.
370 The following variables represent settable values in
373 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
375 and may be used in the
377 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
379 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
383 .It Cm $bar_font_color
385 .It Cm $color_unfocus
389 .Bd -literal -offset indent
390 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
391 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
394 To undo the previous:
395 .Bd -literal -offset indent
401 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
403 The current mouse bindings are described below:
405 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
413 Resize window while maintaining it centered
416 The default key bindings are described below:
418 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
419 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
427 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
429 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
431 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
445 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
454 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
469 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
471 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
472 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
473 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
475 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
477 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
479 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
483 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
485 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
495 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
531 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
533 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
553 Swap the master and stacking areas.
561 Add windows to master area.
563 Remove windows from master area.
565 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
567 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
569 Move current window to master area.
571 Focus next window in workspace.
573 Focus previous window in workspace.
575 Focus on main window in workspace.
577 Swap with next window in workspace.
579 Swap with previous window in workspace.
581 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
583 Delete current window in workspace.
585 Destroy current window in workspace.
591 is 1 through workspace_limit.
593 Move current window to workspace
597 is 1 through workspace_limit.
599 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
601 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
603 Switch to next workspace.
605 Switch to previous workspace.
607 Switch to last visited workspace.
609 Move pointer to next region.
611 Move pointer to previous region.
612 .It Cm screenshot_all
613 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
617 .It Cm screenshot_wind
618 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
623 Toggle version in status bar.
625 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
632 Reinitialize physical screens
637 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
639 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
641 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
643 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
645 Shrink the width of a floating window.
647 Grow the width of a floating window.
649 Shrink the height of a floating window.
651 Grow the height of a floating window.
653 Move a floating window a step to the left.
655 Move a floating window a step to the right.
657 Move a floating window a step upwards.
659 Move a floating window a step downwards.
660 .It Cm name_workspace
661 Name the current workspace.
662 .It Cm search_workspace
663 Search for a workspace.
665 Search the windows in the current workspace.
668 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
670 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
673 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
675 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
676 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
677 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
679 .Bd -literal -offset indent
680 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
681 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
684 To use the currently defined
686 specify MOD as the modifier key.
688 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
690 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
691 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
692 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
693 In the fallowing example for å:
694 .Bd -literal -offset indent
695 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
696 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
697 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
698 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
699 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
700 XFilterEvent returns: False
703 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
704 .Bd -literal -offset indent
705 bind[program] = MOD+aring
707 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
708 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
710 These files can be used with the
712 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
715 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
716 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
717 Czech Republic keyboard layout
718 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
719 Spanish keyboard layout
720 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
721 French keyboard layout
722 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
723 Swiss French keyboard layout
724 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
725 Swedish keyboard layout
726 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
727 United States keyboard layout
731 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
732 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
734 The default quirks are described below:
736 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
737 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
744 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
745 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
747 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
755 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
765 The quirks themselves are described below:
767 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
769 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
771 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
773 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
775 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
777 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
779 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
781 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
785 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
787 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
792 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
794 is one of the quirks from the list above.
796 .Bd -literal -offset indent
797 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
798 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
807 and then clicking on the desired window.
808 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
809 .Bd -literal -offset indent
810 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
811 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
814 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
815 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
816 .Bd -literal -offset indent
817 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
821 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
822 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
824 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
825 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
827 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
829 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
831 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
833 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
837 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
838 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
841 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
842 This enables controlling windows as well as
844 itself from external scripts and programs.
847 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
848 From the terminal these events
849 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
854 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
856 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
857 property of the root window.
858 This can be used for example to retrieve the
859 title of the currently active window with
863 .Bd -literal -offset indent
864 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
865 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
868 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
873 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
874 .Bd -literal -offset indent
875 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
878 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
883 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
884 .Bd -literal -offset indent
885 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
888 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
889 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
890 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
892 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
895 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
897 .Bd -literal -offset indent
898 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
901 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
902 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
906 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
907 the window to be resize/moved):
908 .Bd -literal -offset indent
909 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
912 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
914 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
918 a HUP signal will restart it.
920 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
921 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
923 user specific settings.
924 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
930 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
936 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
937 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
938 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
939 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
940 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
941 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
942 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
943 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
944 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
945 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com