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
108 .It Ic bar_enabled_ws Ns Bq Ar x
115 Font used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD)
116 may be used to specify fonts. Fallback fonts may be specified by separating
117 each font with a comma. If all entries are XLFD syntax, font set will be
118 used. If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used. Note that if Xft is in
119 use, only the first font that successfully loads will be used regardless of
120 missing glyphs. The default is to use font set. Also note that dmenu does
121 not support Xft fonts.
124 .Bd -literal -offset indent
125 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
127 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,\
128 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
132 .Bd -literal -offset indent
133 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
135 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
136 -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
137 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
140 To list the available fonts in your system see
147 application can help with the XLFD setting.
149 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
150 Color of the font in status bar in screen
153 Set the bar_format string and overrides
158 The format is passed through
161 It may contain the following character sequences:
162 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
163 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
164 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
165 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
166 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
167 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
168 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
169 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
170 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
171 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
172 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
173 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
174 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
175 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
176 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
177 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
180 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for
181 example +64A. Any characters that don't match the specification are copied
184 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
190 Note that if the output is not
192 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
193 white-spaces in the default static format.
196 option for more details.
197 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
198 Bind key combo to action
204 Set window border thickness in pixels.
205 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
207 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
208 Disable by setting to 0
209 so a custom clock could be used in the
213 Border color of the currently focussed window.
215 Border color of unfocussed windows.
217 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
218 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
219 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
220 .It Ic disable_border
221 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
224 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
234 are relative to the window that is closed.
235 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
236 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
237 is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.
239 Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are
245 Window focus behavior with respect to the mouse cursor. Possible values:
247 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
249 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
252 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
253 and changes to layout.
255 Set window focus on window interaction only.
257 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
258 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
259 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
261 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
262 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
263 for several keyboard layouts.
265 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
266 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
267 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
268 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
269 maintaining default floating window behavior.
270 Possible stack_mode values are
287 for more information.
288 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
289 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
293 This setting is not retained at restart.
296 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
297 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
298 Define new action to spawn a program
303 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
304 Add "quirk" for windows with class
312 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
313 same space on the screen.
314 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
315 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
317 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
318 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
319 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
320 .It Ic spawn_position
321 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
332 are relative to the focused window.
334 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
337 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
338 If this value is greater than 0,
340 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
341 width above this number as the window is resized.
344 is currently supported.
347 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
348 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
350 section) to use an alternate copy of the
352 binary without the setgid bit set.
353 .It Ic title_class_enabled
354 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
355 Enable by setting to 1.
356 .It Ic title_name_enabled
357 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
358 Enable by setting to 1.
359 .It Ic urgent_enabled
360 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
361 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
363 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
364 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
367 .It Ic verbose_layout
368 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the
369 status bar. Enable by setting to 1.
370 .It Ic window_name_enabled
371 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
372 Enable by setting to 1.
374 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
375 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
378 option for more details.
379 .It Ic workspace_limit
380 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
385 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
386 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
391 The default programs are described below:
393 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
396 .It Cm screenshot_all
398 .It Cm screenshot_wind
405 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
406 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
409 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
411 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
414 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
416 is the desired program, and
418 is zero or more arguments to the program.
420 The following variables represent settable values in
423 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
425 and may be used in the
427 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
429 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
433 .It Cm $bar_font_color
435 .It Cm $color_unfocus
439 .Bd -literal -offset indent
440 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
441 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
444 To undo the previous:
445 .Bd -literal -offset indent
451 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
453 The current mouse bindings are described below:
455 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
463 Resize window while maintaining it centered
466 The default key bindings are described below:
468 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
469 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
477 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
479 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
481 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
495 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
504 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
521 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
523 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
524 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
525 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
527 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
529 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
531 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
535 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
537 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
547 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
583 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
585 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
605 Swap the master and stacking areas.
613 Add windows to master area.
615 Remove windows from master area.
617 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
619 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
621 Move current window to master area.
623 Focus next window in workspace.
625 Focus previous window in workspace.
627 Focus on main window in workspace.
629 Swap with next window in workspace.
631 Swap with previous window in workspace.
633 Toggle overall visibility of status bars.
635 Toggle status bar on current workspace.
637 Delete current window in workspace.
639 Destroy current window in workspace.
645 is 1 through workspace_limit.
647 Move current window to workspace
651 is 1 through workspace_limit.
653 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
655 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
657 Switch to next workspace.
659 Switch to previous workspace.
661 Switch to last visited workspace.
663 Move pointer to next region.
665 Move pointer to previous region.
666 .It Cm screenshot_all
667 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
671 .It Cm screenshot_wind
672 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
677 Toggle version in status bar.
679 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
686 Reinitialize physical screens
691 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
693 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
695 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
697 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
699 Shrink the width of a floating window.
701 Grow the width of a floating window.
703 Shrink the height of a floating window.
705 Grow the height of a floating window.
707 Move a floating window a step to the left.
709 Move a floating window a step to the right.
711 Move a floating window a step upwards.
713 Move a floating window a step downwards.
714 .It Cm name_workspace
715 Name the current workspace.
716 .It Cm search_workspace
717 Search for a workspace.
719 Search the windows in the current workspace.
722 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
724 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
727 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
729 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
730 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
731 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
733 .Bd -literal -offset indent
734 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
735 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
738 To use the currently defined
740 specify MOD as the modifier key.
742 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
744 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
745 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
746 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
747 In the fallowing example for å:
748 .Bd -literal -offset indent
749 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
750 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
751 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
752 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
753 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
754 XFilterEvent returns: False
757 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
758 .Bd -literal -offset indent
759 bind[program] = MOD+aring
761 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
762 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
764 These files can be used with the
766 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
769 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
770 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
771 Czech Republic keyboard layout
772 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
773 Spanish keyboard layout
774 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
775 French keyboard layout
776 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
777 Swiss French keyboard layout
778 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
779 Swedish keyboard layout
780 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
781 United States keyboard layout
785 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
786 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
788 The default quirks are described below:
790 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
792 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
799 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
800 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
802 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
810 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
820 The quirks themselves are described below:
822 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
824 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
826 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
828 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
830 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
832 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
834 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
836 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
837 application in the stack.
840 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
842 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
847 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
849 is one of the quirks from the list above.
851 .Bd -literal -offset indent
852 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
853 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
862 and then clicking on the desired window.
863 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
864 .Bd -literal -offset indent
865 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
866 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
869 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
870 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
871 .Bd -literal -offset indent
872 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
876 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
877 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
879 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
880 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
882 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
884 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
886 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
888 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
892 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
893 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
896 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
897 This enables controlling windows as well as
899 itself from external scripts and programs.
902 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
903 From the terminal these events
904 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
909 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
911 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
912 property of the root window.
913 This can be used for example to retrieve the
914 title of the currently active window with
918 .Bd -literal -offset indent
919 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
920 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
923 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
928 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
929 .Bd -literal -offset indent
930 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
933 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
938 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
939 .Bd -literal -offset indent
940 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
943 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
944 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
945 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
947 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
950 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
952 .Bd -literal -offset indent
953 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
956 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
957 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
961 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
962 the window to be resize/moved):
963 .Bd -literal -offset indent
964 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
967 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
969 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
973 a HUP signal will restart it.
975 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
976 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
978 user specific settings.
979 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
985 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
991 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
993 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
994 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
995 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
996 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
997 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
998 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
999 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
1000 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
1001 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
1002 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org