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 Border color of the status bar(s) in screen
99 .It Ic bar_border_unfocus Ns Bq Ar x
100 Border color of the status bar(s) on unfocused region(s) in screen
102 .It Ic bar_border_width
103 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
104 Disable border by setting to 0.
105 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
106 Background color of the status bar(s) in screen
112 .It Ic bar_enabled_ws Ns Bq Ar x
119 Font used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD)
120 may be used to specify fonts. Fallback fonts may be specified by separating
121 each font with a comma. If all entries are XLFD syntax, font set will be
122 used. If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used. Note that if Xft is in
123 use, only the first font that successfully loads will be used regardless of
124 missing glyphs. The default is to use font set. Also note that dmenu does
125 not support Xft fonts.
128 .Bd -literal -offset indent
129 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
131 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,\
132 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
136 .Bd -literal -offset indent
137 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
139 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
140 -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
141 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
144 To list the available fonts in your system see
151 application can help with the XLFD setting.
153 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
154 Color of the font in status bar in screen
157 Set the bar_format string and overrides
162 The format is passed through
165 It may contain the following character sequences:
166 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
167 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
168 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
169 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
170 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
171 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
172 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
173 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
174 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
175 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
176 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
177 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
178 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
179 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
180 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
181 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
184 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for
185 example +64A. Any characters that don't match the specification are copied
188 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
194 Note that if the output is not
196 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
197 white-spaces in the default static format.
200 option for more details.
201 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
202 Bind key combo to action
208 Set window border thickness in pixels.
209 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
211 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
212 Disable by setting to 0
213 so a custom clock could be used in the
217 Border color of the currently focussed window.
219 Border color of unfocussed windows.
221 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
222 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
223 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
224 .It Ic disable_border
225 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
228 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
238 are relative to the window that is closed.
239 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
240 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
241 is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.
243 Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are
249 Window focus behavior with respect to the mouse cursor. Possible values:
251 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
253 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
256 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
257 and changes to layout.
259 Set window focus on window interaction only.
261 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
262 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
263 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
265 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
266 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
267 for several keyboard layouts.
269 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
270 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
271 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
272 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
273 maintaining default floating window behavior.
274 Possible stack_mode values are
291 for more information.
292 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
293 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
297 This setting is not retained at restart.
300 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
301 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
302 Define new action to spawn a program
307 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
308 Add "quirk" for windows with class
316 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
317 same space on the screen.
318 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
319 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
321 To make a region span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
322 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the region span two monitors with
323 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
324 .It Ic spawn_position
325 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
336 are relative to the focused window.
338 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
341 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
342 If this value is greater than 0,
344 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
345 width above this number as the window is resized.
348 is currently supported.
351 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
352 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
354 section) to use an alternate copy of the
356 binary without the setgid bit set.
357 .It Ic title_class_enabled
358 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
359 Enable by setting to 1.
360 .It Ic title_name_enabled
361 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
362 Enable by setting to 1.
363 .It Ic urgent_enabled
364 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
365 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
367 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
368 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
371 .It Ic verbose_layout
372 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the
373 status bar. Enable by setting to 1.
374 .It Ic window_name_enabled
375 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
376 Enable by setting to 1.
378 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
379 the bar, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
382 option for more details.
383 .It Ic workspace_limit
384 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
389 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
390 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
395 The default programs are described below:
397 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
400 .It Cm screenshot_all
402 .It Cm screenshot_wind
409 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
410 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
413 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
415 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
418 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
420 is the desired program, and
422 is zero or more arguments to the program.
424 The following variables represent settable values in
427 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
429 and may be used in the
431 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
433 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
437 .It Cm $bar_font_color
439 .It Cm $color_unfocus
443 .Bd -literal -offset indent
444 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
445 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
448 To undo the previous:
449 .Bd -literal -offset indent
455 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
457 The current mouse bindings are described below:
459 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
467 Resize window while maintaining it centered
470 The default key bindings are described below:
472 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
473 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
481 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
483 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
485 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
499 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
508 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
525 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
527 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
528 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
529 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
531 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
533 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
535 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
537 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
539 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
543 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
545 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
555 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
591 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
593 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
613 Swap the master and stacking areas.
621 Add windows to master area.
623 Remove windows from master area.
625 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
627 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
629 Move current window to master area.
631 Focus next window in workspace.
633 Focus previous window in workspace.
635 Focus on main window in workspace.
637 Swap with next window in workspace.
639 Swap with previous window in workspace.
641 Toggle overall visibility of status bars.
643 Toggle status bar on current workspace.
645 Delete current window in workspace.
647 Destroy current window in workspace.
653 is 1 through workspace_limit.
655 Move current window to workspace
659 is 1 through workspace_limit.
667 Move current window to region
673 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
675 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
677 Switch to next workspace.
679 Switch to previous workspace.
681 Switch to last visited workspace.
683 Switch to next region.
685 Switch to previous region.
686 .It Cm screenshot_all
687 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
691 .It Cm screenshot_wind
692 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
697 Toggle version in status bar.
699 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
706 Reinitialize physical screens
711 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
713 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
715 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
717 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
719 Shrink the width of a floating window.
721 Grow the width of a floating window.
723 Shrink the height of a floating window.
725 Grow the height of a floating window.
727 Move a floating window a step to the left.
729 Move a floating window a step to the right.
731 Move a floating window a step upwards.
733 Move a floating window a step downwards.
734 .It Cm name_workspace
735 Name the current workspace.
736 .It Cm search_workspace
737 Search for a workspace.
739 Search the windows in the current workspace.
742 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
744 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
747 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
749 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
750 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
751 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
753 .Bd -literal -offset indent
754 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
755 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
758 To use the currently defined
760 specify MOD as the modifier key.
762 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
764 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
765 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
766 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
767 In the fallowing example for å:
768 .Bd -literal -offset indent
769 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
770 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
771 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
772 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
773 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
774 XFilterEvent returns: False
777 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
778 .Bd -literal -offset indent
779 bind[program] = MOD+aring
781 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
782 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
784 These files can be used with the
786 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
789 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
790 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
791 Czech Republic keyboard layout
792 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
793 Spanish keyboard layout
794 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
795 French keyboard layout
796 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
797 Swiss French keyboard layout
798 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
799 Swedish keyboard layout
800 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
801 United States keyboard layout
805 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
806 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
808 The default quirks are described below:
810 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
812 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
819 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
820 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
822 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
830 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
840 The quirks themselves are described below:
842 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
844 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
846 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
848 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
850 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
852 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
854 Remove border to allow window to use full region size.
856 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
857 application in the stack.
860 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
862 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
867 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
869 is one of the quirks from the list above.
871 .Bd -literal -offset indent
872 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
873 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
882 and then clicking on the desired window.
883 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
884 .Bd -literal -offset indent
885 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
886 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
889 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
890 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
891 .Bd -literal -offset indent
892 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
896 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
897 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
899 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
900 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
902 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
904 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
906 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
908 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
912 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
913 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
916 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
917 This enables controlling windows as well as
919 itself from external scripts and programs.
922 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
923 From the terminal these events
924 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
929 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
931 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
932 property of the root window.
933 This can be used for example to retrieve the
934 title of the currently active window with
938 .Bd -literal -offset indent
939 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
940 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
943 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
948 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
949 .Bd -literal -offset indent
950 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
953 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
958 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
959 .Bd -literal -offset indent
960 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
963 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
964 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
965 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
967 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
970 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
972 .Bd -literal -offset indent
973 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
976 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
977 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
981 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
982 the window to be resize/moved):
983 .Bd -literal -offset indent
984 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
987 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
989 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
993 a HUP signal will restart it.
995 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
996 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
998 user specific settings.
999 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
1005 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
1011 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
1013 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
1014 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
1015 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
1016 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
1017 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
1018 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
1019 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
1020 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
1021 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
1022 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org