1 .\" Copyright (c) 2009-2012 Marco Peereboom <marco@peereboom.us>
2 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com>
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2011-2013 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.
213 .It Ic boundary_width
214 Set region containment boundary width in pixels. This is how far a window
215 must be dragged/resized beyond the region edge before it is allowed outside
216 the region. This has no effect when manipulating the window with key
217 bindings. Disable the window containment effect by setting to 0.
219 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
220 Disable by setting to 0
221 so a custom clock could be used in the
225 Border color of the currently focussed window.
227 Border color of unfocussed windows.
229 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
230 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
231 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
232 .It Ic disable_border
233 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
236 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
246 are relative to the window that is closed.
247 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
248 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
249 is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.
251 Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are
257 Window focus behavior with respect to the mouse cursor. Possible values:
259 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
261 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
264 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
265 and changes to layout.
267 Set window focus on window interaction only.
269 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
270 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
271 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
273 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
274 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
275 for several keyboard layouts.
277 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
278 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
279 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
280 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
281 maintaining default floating window behavior.
282 Possible stack_mode values are
299 for more information.
300 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
301 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
305 This setting is not retained at restart.
308 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
309 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
310 Define new action to spawn a program
315 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
316 Add "quirk" for windows with class
324 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
325 same space on the screen.
326 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
327 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
329 To make a region span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
330 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the region span two monitors with
331 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
332 .It Ic region_padding
333 Pixel width of empty space within region borders.
334 Disable by setting to 0.
335 .It Ic spawn_position
336 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
347 are relative to the focused window.
349 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
352 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
353 If this value is greater than 0,
355 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
356 width above this number as the window is resized.
359 is currently supported.
362 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
363 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
365 section) to use an alternate copy of the
367 binary without the setgid bit set.
369 Pixel width of empty space between tiled windows. Negative values cause overlap.
370 Set this to the opposite of border_width to collapse the border between tiles.
371 Disable by setting to 0.
372 .It Ic title_class_enabled
373 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
374 Enable by setting to 1.
375 .It Ic title_name_enabled
376 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
377 Enable by setting to 1.
378 .It Ic urgent_enabled
379 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
380 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
382 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
383 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
386 .It Ic verbose_layout
387 Enable or disable displaying the current master window count and stack column/row
388 count in the status bar.
389 Enable by setting to 1.
396 for more information.
397 .It Ic window_name_enabled
398 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
399 Enable by setting to 1.
401 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
402 the bar, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
405 option for more details.
406 .It Ic workspace_limit
407 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
412 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
413 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
418 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
420 .Dl program[<action>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
423 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
425 is the desired program, and
427 is zero or more arguments to the program.
429 Remember that when using # in your program call, it must be escaped with a
432 The following argument variables will be substituted for values at the time the program
435 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
439 .It Cm $bar_font_color
441 .It Cm $color_unfocus
443 -b if bar_at_bottom is enabled.
445 .It Cm $workspace_index
449 .Bd -literal -offset indent
450 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
451 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now M-S-b launches firefox
454 To cancel the previous, unbind it:
455 .Bd -literal -offset indent
460 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
464 dmenu_run $dmenu_bottom \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
465 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
469 initscreen.sh # optional
470 .It Cm screenshot_all
471 screenshot.sh full # optional
472 .It Cm screenshot_wind
473 screenshot.sh window # optional
476 Note that optional default programs will not be validated unless overridden.
477 If a default program fails validation, you can resolve the exception
478 by installing the program, modifying the program call or disabling the program
479 by freeing the respective key binding.
481 For example, to override
483 .Bd -literal -offset indent
484 program[lock] = xscreensaver-command --lock
489 and prevent it from being validated:
490 .Bd -literal -offset indent
491 bind[] = MOD+Shift+Delete
495 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
497 The current mouse bindings are described below:
499 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
507 Resize window while maintaining it centered
510 The default key bindings are described below:
512 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
513 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
521 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
523 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
525 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
539 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
548 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
565 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
567 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
568 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
569 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
571 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
573 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
575 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
577 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
579 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
583 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
585 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Up
587 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
589 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
599 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
635 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
637 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
657 Swap the master and stacking areas.
665 Add windows to master area.
667 Remove windows from master area.
669 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
671 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
673 Move current window to master area.
675 Focus next window in workspace.
677 Focus previous window in workspace.
679 Focus on main window in workspace.
681 Swap with next window in workspace.
683 Swap with previous window in workspace.
685 Toggle overall visibility of status bars.
687 Toggle status bar on current workspace.
689 Delete current window in workspace.
691 Destroy current window in workspace.
697 is 1 through workspace_limit.
699 Move current window to workspace
703 is 1 through workspace_limit.
711 Move current window to region
717 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
719 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
721 Switch to next workspace.
723 Switch to previous workspace.
725 Switch to next workspace with the current window.
727 Switch to previous workspace with the current window.
729 Switch to last visited workspace.
731 Switch to next region.
733 Switch to previous region.
734 .It Cm screenshot_all
735 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
739 .It Cm screenshot_wind
740 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
745 Toggle version in status bar.
747 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
754 Reinitialize physical screens
759 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
761 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
763 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
765 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
767 Shrink the width of a floating window.
769 Grow the width of a floating window.
771 Shrink the height of a floating window.
773 Grow the height of a floating window.
775 Move a floating window a step to the left.
777 Move a floating window a step to the right.
779 Move a floating window a step upwards.
781 Move a floating window a step downwards.
782 .It Cm name_workspace
783 Name the current workspace.
784 .It Cm search_workspace
785 Search for a workspace.
787 Search the windows in the current workspace.
790 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
792 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
795 is one of the actions listed above (or empty to unbind) and
797 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
798 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
799 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
802 .Bd -literal -offset indent
803 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
804 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
807 To use the currently defined
809 specify MOD as the modifier key.
811 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
813 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
814 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
815 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
816 In the fallowing example for å:
817 .Bd -literal -offset indent
818 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
819 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
820 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
821 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
822 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
823 XFilterEvent returns: False
826 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
827 .Bd -literal -offset indent
828 bind[program] = MOD+aring
830 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
831 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
833 These files can be used with the
835 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
838 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
839 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
840 Czech Republic keyboard layout
841 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
842 Spanish keyboard layout
843 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
844 French keyboard layout
845 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
846 Swiss French keyboard layout
847 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
848 Swedish keyboard layout
849 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
850 United States keyboard layout
854 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
855 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
857 The default quirks are described below:
859 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
861 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
868 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
869 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
871 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
879 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
889 The quirks themselves are described below:
891 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
893 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
895 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
897 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
899 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
901 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
903 Remove border to allow window to use full region size.
905 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
906 application in the stack.
908 Don't change focus to the window when it first appears on the screen.
912 .It FOCUSONMAP_SINGLE
913 When the window first appears on the screen, change focus to the window
914 if there are no other windows on the workspace with the same class/name.
920 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
922 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
927 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
929 is one of the quirks from the list above.
931 .Bd -literal -offset indent
932 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
933 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
942 and then clicking on the desired window.
943 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
944 .Bd -literal -offset indent
945 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
946 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
949 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
950 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
951 .Bd -literal -offset indent
952 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
956 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
957 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
959 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
960 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
962 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
964 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
966 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
968 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
972 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
973 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
976 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
977 This enables controlling windows as well as
979 itself from external scripts and programs.
982 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
983 From the terminal these events
984 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
989 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
991 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
992 property of the root window.
993 This can be used for example to retrieve the
994 title of the currently active window with
998 .Bd -literal -offset indent
999 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
1000 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
1003 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
1008 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
1009 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1010 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
1013 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
1018 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
1019 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1020 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
1023 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
1024 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
1025 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
1027 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
1030 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
1032 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1033 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
1036 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
1037 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
1041 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
1042 the window to be resize/moved):
1043 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1044 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
1047 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
1049 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
1053 a HUP signal will restart it.
1055 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
1056 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
1058 user specific settings.
1059 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
1065 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
1071 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
1073 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
1074 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
1075 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
1076 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
1077 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
1078 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
1079 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
1080 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
1081 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
1082 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org