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 Comments begin with a #. When a literal '#' is desired in an option, then it
86 must be escaped with a backslash. i.e. \e#
88 The file supports the following keywords:
91 Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day.
92 Defined in the format ws[<idx>]:application, e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an
95 External script that populates additional information in the status bar,
98 Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.
99 .It Ic bar_border Ns Bq Ar x
100 Border color of the status bar(s) in screen
102 .It Ic bar_border_unfocus Ns Bq Ar x
103 Border color of the status bar(s) on unfocused region(s) in screen
105 .It Ic bar_border_width
106 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
107 Disable border by setting to 0.
108 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
109 Background color of the status bar(s) in screen
115 .It Ic bar_enabled_ws Ns Bq Ar x
122 Font used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD)
123 may be used to specify fonts. Fallback fonts may be specified by separating
124 each font with a comma. If all entries are XLFD syntax, font set will be
125 used. If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used. Note that if Xft is in
126 use, only the first font that successfully loads will be used regardless of
127 missing glyphs. The default is to use font set. Also note that dmenu does
128 not support Xft fonts.
131 .Bd -literal -offset indent
132 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
134 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,\
135 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
139 .Bd -literal -offset indent
140 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
142 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
143 -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
144 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
147 To list the available fonts in your system see
154 application can help with the XLFD setting.
156 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
157 Color of the font in status bar in screen
160 Set the bar_format string and overrides
165 The format is passed through
168 It may contain the following character sequences:
169 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
170 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
171 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
172 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
173 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
174 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
175 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
176 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
177 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
178 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
179 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
180 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
181 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
182 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
183 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
184 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
187 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for
188 example +64A. Any characters that don't match the specification are copied
191 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
197 Note that if the output is not
199 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
200 white-spaces in the default static format.
203 option for more details.
204 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
205 Bind key combo to action
211 Set window border thickness in pixels.
212 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
214 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
215 Disable by setting to 0
216 so a custom clock could be used in the
220 Border color of the currently focussed window.
222 Border color of unfocussed windows.
224 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
225 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
226 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
227 .It Ic disable_border
228 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
231 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
241 are relative to the window that is closed.
242 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
243 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
244 is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.
246 Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are
252 Window focus behavior with respect to the mouse cursor. Possible values:
254 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
256 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
259 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
260 and changes to layout.
262 Set window focus on window interaction only.
264 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
265 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
266 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
268 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
269 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
270 for several keyboard layouts.
272 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
273 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
274 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
275 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
276 maintaining default floating window behavior.
277 Possible stack_mode values are
294 for more information.
295 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
296 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
300 This setting is not retained at restart.
303 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
304 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
305 Define new action to spawn a program
310 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
311 Add "quirk" for windows with class
319 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
320 same space on the screen.
321 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
322 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
324 To make a region span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
325 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the region span two monitors with
326 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
327 .It Ic region_padding
328 Pixel width of empty space within region borders.
329 Disable by setting to 0.
330 .It Ic spawn_position
331 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
342 are relative to the focused window.
344 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
347 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
348 If this value is greater than 0,
350 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
351 width above this number as the window is resized.
354 is currently supported.
357 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
358 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
360 section) to use an alternate copy of the
362 binary without the setgid bit set.
364 Pixel width of empty space between tiled windows.
365 Disable by setting to 0.
366 .It Ic title_class_enabled
367 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
368 Enable by setting to 1.
369 .It Ic title_name_enabled
370 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
371 Enable by setting to 1.
372 .It Ic urgent_enabled
373 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
374 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
376 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
377 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
380 .It Ic verbose_layout
381 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the
382 status bar. Enable by setting to 1.
383 .It Ic window_name_enabled
384 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
385 Enable by setting to 1.
387 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
388 the bar, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
391 option for more details.
392 .It Ic workspace_limit
393 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
398 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
399 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
404 The default programs are described below:
406 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
409 .It Cm screenshot_all
411 .It Cm screenshot_wind
418 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
419 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
422 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
424 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
427 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
429 is the desired program, and
431 is zero or more arguments to the program.
433 Remember that when using # in your program call, it must be escaped with a
436 The following argument variables will be substituted for values at the time the program
439 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
443 .It Cm $bar_font_color
445 .It Cm $color_unfocus
447 .It Cm $workspace_index
451 .Bd -literal -offset indent
452 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
453 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
456 To undo the previous:
457 .Bd -literal -offset indent
463 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
465 The current mouse bindings are described below:
467 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
475 Resize window while maintaining it centered
478 The default key bindings are described below:
480 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
481 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
489 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
491 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
493 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
507 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
516 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
533 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
535 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
536 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
537 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
539 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
541 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
543 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
545 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
547 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
551 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
553 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
563 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
599 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
601 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
621 Swap the master and stacking areas.
629 Add windows to master area.
631 Remove windows from master area.
633 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
635 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
637 Move current window to master area.
639 Focus next window in workspace.
641 Focus previous window in workspace.
643 Focus on main window in workspace.
645 Swap with next window in workspace.
647 Swap with previous window in workspace.
649 Toggle overall visibility of status bars.
651 Toggle status bar on current workspace.
653 Delete current window in workspace.
655 Destroy current window in workspace.
661 is 1 through workspace_limit.
663 Move current window to workspace
667 is 1 through workspace_limit.
675 Move current window to region
681 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
683 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
685 Switch to next workspace.
687 Switch to previous workspace.
689 Switch to last visited workspace.
691 Switch to next region.
693 Switch to previous region.
694 .It Cm screenshot_all
695 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
699 .It Cm screenshot_wind
700 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
705 Toggle version in status bar.
707 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
714 Reinitialize physical screens
719 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
721 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
723 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
725 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
727 Shrink the width of a floating window.
729 Grow the width of a floating window.
731 Shrink the height of a floating window.
733 Grow the height of a floating window.
735 Move a floating window a step to the left.
737 Move a floating window a step to the right.
739 Move a floating window a step upwards.
741 Move a floating window a step downwards.
742 .It Cm name_workspace
743 Name the current workspace.
744 .It Cm search_workspace
745 Search for a workspace.
747 Search the windows in the current workspace.
750 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
752 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
755 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
757 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
758 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
759 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
761 .Bd -literal -offset indent
762 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
763 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
766 To use the currently defined
768 specify MOD as the modifier key.
770 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
772 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
773 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
774 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
775 In the fallowing example for å:
776 .Bd -literal -offset indent
777 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
778 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
779 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
780 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
781 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
782 XFilterEvent returns: False
785 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
786 .Bd -literal -offset indent
787 bind[program] = MOD+aring
789 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
790 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
792 These files can be used with the
794 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
797 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
798 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
799 Czech Republic keyboard layout
800 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
801 Spanish keyboard layout
802 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
803 French keyboard layout
804 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
805 Swiss French keyboard layout
806 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
807 Swedish keyboard layout
808 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
809 United States keyboard layout
813 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
814 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
816 The default quirks are described below:
818 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
820 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
827 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
828 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
830 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
838 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
848 The quirks themselves are described below:
850 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
852 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
854 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
856 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
858 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
860 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
862 Remove border to allow window to use full region size.
864 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
865 application in the stack.
868 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
870 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
875 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
877 is one of the quirks from the list above.
879 .Bd -literal -offset indent
880 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
881 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
890 and then clicking on the desired window.
891 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
892 .Bd -literal -offset indent
893 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
894 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
897 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
898 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
899 .Bd -literal -offset indent
900 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
904 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
905 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
907 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
908 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
910 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
912 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
914 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
916 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
920 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
921 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
924 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
925 This enables controlling windows as well as
927 itself from external scripts and programs.
930 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
931 From the terminal these events
932 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
937 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
939 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
940 property of the root window.
941 This can be used for example to retrieve the
942 title of the currently active window with
946 .Bd -literal -offset indent
947 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
948 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
951 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
956 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
957 .Bd -literal -offset indent
958 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
961 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
966 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
967 .Bd -literal -offset indent
968 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
971 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
972 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
973 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
975 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
978 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
980 .Bd -literal -offset indent
981 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
984 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
985 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
989 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
990 the window to be resize/moved):
991 .Bd -literal -offset indent
992 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
995 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
997 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
1001 a HUP signal will restart it.
1003 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
1004 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
1006 user specific settings.
1007 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
1013 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
1019 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
1021 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
1022 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
1023 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
1024 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
1025 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
1026 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
1027 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
1028 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
1029 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
1030 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org