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 "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
119 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
120 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
121 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
122 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
123 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
124 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
125 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
126 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
127 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
128 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
129 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
130 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
131 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
134 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
136 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
138 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
143 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
144 Bind key combo to action
150 Set window border thickness in pixels.
151 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
153 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
154 Disable by setting to 0
155 so a custom clock could be used in the
159 Border color of the currently focussed window.
161 Border color of unfocussed windows.
163 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
164 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
165 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
166 .It Ic disable_border
167 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
169 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
179 are relative to the window that is closed.
180 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
181 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
182 closed or vice versa.
183 Disable by setting to 0.
185 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
194 will make the window manager focus the window
195 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
196 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
197 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
198 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
200 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
201 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
202 for several keyboard layouts.
204 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
205 Defined in the format
206 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
207 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
208 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
209 maintaining default floating window behavior.
210 Possible stack_mode values are
227 for more information.
228 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
229 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
233 This setting is not retained at restart.
236 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
237 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
238 Define new action to spawn a program
243 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
244 Add "quirk" for windows with class
252 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
254 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
255 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
257 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
258 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
259 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
260 .It Ic spawn_position
261 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
272 are relative to the focused window.
274 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
276 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
277 If this value is greater than 0,
279 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
280 width above this number as the window is resized.
283 is currently supported.
286 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
287 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
289 section) to use an alternate copy of the
291 binary without the setgid bit set.
292 .It Ic title_class_enabled
293 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
294 Enable by setting to 1.
295 .It Ic title_name_enabled
296 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
297 Enable by setting to 1.
298 .It Ic urgent_enabled
299 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
300 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
302 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
303 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
306 .It Ic verbose_layout
307 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
309 Enable by setting to 1.
310 .It Ic window_name_enabled
311 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
312 Enable by setting to 1.
314 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
315 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
318 option for more details.
319 .It Ic workspace_limit
320 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
323 Colors need to be specified per the
325 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
329 To list the available fonts in your system see
336 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
337 as setting in the keyword
341 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
342 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
347 The default programs are described below:
349 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
352 .It Cm screenshot_all
354 .It Cm screenshot_wind
361 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
364 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
366 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
369 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
371 is the desired program, and
373 is zero or more arguments to the program.
375 The following variables represent settable values in
378 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
380 and may be used in the
382 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
384 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
388 .It Cm $bar_font_color
390 .It Cm $color_unfocus
394 .Bd -literal -offset indent
395 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
396 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
399 To undo the previous:
400 .Bd -literal -offset indent
406 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
408 The current mouse bindings are described below:
410 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
418 Resize window while maintaining it centered
421 The default key bindings are described below:
423 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
424 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
432 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
434 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
436 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
450 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
459 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
474 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
476 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
477 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
478 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
480 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
482 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
484 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
488 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
490 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
500 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
536 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
538 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
558 Swap the master and stacking areas.
566 Add windows to master area.
568 Remove windows from master area.
570 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
572 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
574 Move current window to master area.
576 Focus next window in workspace.
578 Focus previous window in workspace.
580 Focus on main window in workspace.
582 Swap with next window in workspace.
584 Swap with previous window in workspace.
586 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
588 Delete current window in workspace.
590 Destroy current window in workspace.
596 is 1 through workspace_limit.
598 Move current window to workspace
602 is 1 through workspace_limit.
604 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
606 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
608 Switch to next workspace.
610 Switch to previous workspace.
612 Switch to last visited workspace.
614 Move pointer to next region.
616 Move pointer to previous region.
617 .It Cm screenshot_all
618 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
622 .It Cm screenshot_wind
623 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
628 Toggle version in status bar.
630 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
637 Reinitialize physical screens
642 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
644 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
646 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
648 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
650 Shrink the width of a floating window.
652 Grow the width of a floating window.
654 Shrink the height of a floating window.
656 Grow the height of a floating window.
658 Move a floating window a step to the left.
660 Move a floating window a step to the right.
662 Move a floating window a step upwards.
664 Move a floating window a step downwards.
665 .It Cm name_workspace
666 Name the current workspace.
667 .It Cm search_workspace
668 Search for a workspace.
670 Search the windows in the current workspace.
673 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
675 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
678 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
680 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
681 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
682 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
684 .Bd -literal -offset indent
685 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
686 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
689 To use the currently defined
691 specify MOD as the modifier key.
693 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
695 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
696 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
697 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
698 In the fallowing example for å:
699 .Bd -literal -offset indent
700 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
701 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
702 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
703 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
704 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
705 XFilterEvent returns: False
708 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
709 .Bd -literal -offset indent
710 bind[program] = MOD+aring
712 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
713 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
715 These files can be used with the
717 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
720 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
721 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
722 Czech Republic keyboard layout
723 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
724 Spanish keyboard layout
725 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
726 French keyboard layout
727 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
728 Swiss French keyboard layout
729 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
730 Swedish keyboard layout
731 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
732 United States keyboard layout
736 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
737 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
739 The default quirks are described below:
741 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
742 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
749 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
750 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
752 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
760 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
770 The quirks themselves are described below:
772 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
774 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
776 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
778 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
780 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
782 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
784 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
786 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
790 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
792 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
797 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
799 is one of the quirks from the list above.
801 .Bd -literal -offset indent
802 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
803 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
812 and then clicking on the desired window.
813 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
814 .Bd -literal -offset indent
815 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
816 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
819 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
820 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
821 .Bd -literal -offset indent
822 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
826 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
827 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
829 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
830 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
832 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
834 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
836 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
838 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
842 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
843 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
846 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
847 This enables controlling windows as well as
849 itself from external scripts and programs.
852 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
853 From the terminal these events
854 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
859 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
861 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
862 property of the root window.
863 This can be used for example to retrieve the
864 title of the currently active window with
868 .Bd -literal -offset indent
869 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
870 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
873 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
878 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
879 .Bd -literal -offset indent
880 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
883 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
888 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
889 .Bd -literal -offset indent
890 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
893 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
894 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
895 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
897 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
900 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
902 .Bd -literal -offset indent
903 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
906 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
907 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
911 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
912 the window to be resize/moved):
913 .Bd -literal -offset indent
914 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
917 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
919 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
923 a HUP signal will restart it.
925 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
926 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
928 user specific settings.
929 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
935 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
941 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
942 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
943 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
944 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
945 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
946 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
947 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
948 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
949 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
950 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com