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
106 Update frequency, in seconds, of external script that populates the status
109 Enable or disable status bar.
111 Font used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD)
112 may be used to specify fonts. Fallback fonts may be specified by separating
113 each font with a comma. If all entries are XLFD syntax, font set will be
114 used. If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used. Note that if Xft is in
115 use, only the first font that successfully loads will be used regardless of
116 missing glyphs. The default is to use font set. Also note that dmenu does
117 not support Xft fonts.
120 .Bd -literal -offset indent
121 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
123 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,\
124 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
128 .Bd -literal -offset indent
129 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
131 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
132 -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
133 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
136 To list the available fonts in your system see
143 application can help with the XLFD setting.
145 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
146 Color of the font in status bar in screen
149 Set the bar_format string and overrides
154 The format is passed through
157 It may contain the following character sequences:
158 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
159 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
160 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
161 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
162 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
163 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
164 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
165 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
166 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
167 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
168 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
169 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
170 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
171 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
172 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
173 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
176 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for
177 example +64A. Any characters that don't match the specification are copied
180 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
186 Note that if the output is not
188 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
189 white-spaces in the default static format.
192 option for more details.
193 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
194 Bind key combo to action
200 Set window border thickness in pixels.
201 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
203 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
204 Disable by setting to 0
205 so a custom clock could be used in the
209 Border color of the currently focussed window.
211 Border color of unfocussed windows.
213 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
214 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
215 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
216 .It Ic disable_border
217 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
220 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
230 are relative to the window that is closed.
231 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
232 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
233 is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.
235 Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are
241 Window focus behavior with respect to the mouse cursor. Possible values:
243 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
245 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
248 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
249 and changes to layout.
251 Set window focus on window interaction only.
253 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
254 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
255 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
257 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
258 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
259 for several keyboard layouts.
261 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
262 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
263 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
264 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
265 maintaining default floating window behavior.
266 Possible stack_mode values are
283 for more information.
284 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
285 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
289 This setting is not retained at restart.
292 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
293 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
294 Define new action to spawn a program
299 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
300 Add "quirk" for windows with class
308 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
309 same space on the screen.
310 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
311 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
313 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
314 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
315 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
316 .It Ic spawn_position
317 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
328 are relative to the focused window.
330 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
333 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
334 If this value is greater than 0,
336 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
337 width above this number as the window is resized.
340 is currently supported.
343 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
344 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
346 section) to use an alternate copy of the
348 binary without the setgid bit set.
349 .It Ic title_class_enabled
350 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
351 Enable by setting to 1.
352 .It Ic title_name_enabled
353 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
354 Enable by setting to 1.
355 .It Ic urgent_enabled
356 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
357 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
359 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
360 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
363 .It Ic verbose_layout
364 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the
365 status bar. Enable by setting to 1.
366 .It Ic window_name_enabled
367 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
368 Enable by setting to 1.
370 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
371 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
374 option for more details.
375 .It Ic workspace_limit
376 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
381 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
382 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
387 The default programs are described below:
389 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
392 .It Cm screenshot_all
394 .It Cm screenshot_wind
401 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
402 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
405 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
407 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
410 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
412 is the desired program, and
414 is zero or more arguments to the program.
416 The following variables represent settable values in
419 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
421 and may be used in the
423 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
425 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
429 .It Cm $bar_font_color
431 .It Cm $color_unfocus
435 .Bd -literal -offset indent
436 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
437 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
440 To undo the previous:
441 .Bd -literal -offset indent
447 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
449 The current mouse bindings are described below:
451 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
459 Resize window while maintaining it centered
462 The default key bindings are described below:
464 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
465 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
473 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
475 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
477 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
491 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
500 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
517 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
519 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
520 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
521 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
523 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
525 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
527 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
531 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
533 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
543 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
579 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
581 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
601 Swap the master and stacking areas.
609 Add windows to master area.
611 Remove windows from master area.
613 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
615 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
617 Move current window to master area.
619 Focus next window in workspace.
621 Focus previous window in workspace.
623 Focus on main window in workspace.
625 Swap with next window in workspace.
627 Swap with previous window in workspace.
629 Toggle overall visibility of status bars.
631 Toggle status bar on current workspace.
633 Delete current window in workspace.
635 Destroy current window in workspace.
641 is 1 through workspace_limit.
643 Move current window to workspace
647 is 1 through workspace_limit.
649 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
651 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
653 Switch to next workspace.
655 Switch to previous workspace.
657 Switch to last visited workspace.
659 Move pointer to next region.
661 Move pointer to previous region.
662 .It Cm screenshot_all
663 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
667 .It Cm screenshot_wind
668 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
673 Toggle version in status bar.
675 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
682 Reinitialize physical screens
687 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
689 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
691 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
693 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
695 Shrink the width of a floating window.
697 Grow the width of a floating window.
699 Shrink the height of a floating window.
701 Grow the height of a floating window.
703 Move a floating window a step to the left.
705 Move a floating window a step to the right.
707 Move a floating window a step upwards.
709 Move a floating window a step downwards.
710 .It Cm name_workspace
711 Name the current workspace.
712 .It Cm search_workspace
713 Search for a workspace.
715 Search the windows in the current workspace.
718 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
720 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
723 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
725 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
726 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
727 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
729 .Bd -literal -offset indent
730 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
731 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
734 To use the currently defined
736 specify MOD as the modifier key.
738 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
740 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
741 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
742 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
743 In the fallowing example for å:
744 .Bd -literal -offset indent
745 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
746 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
747 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
748 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
749 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
750 XFilterEvent returns: False
753 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
754 .Bd -literal -offset indent
755 bind[program] = MOD+aring
757 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
758 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
760 These files can be used with the
762 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
765 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
766 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
767 Czech Republic keyboard layout
768 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
769 Spanish keyboard layout
770 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
771 French keyboard layout
772 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
773 Swiss French keyboard layout
774 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
775 Swedish keyboard layout
776 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
777 United States keyboard layout
781 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
782 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
784 The default quirks are described below:
786 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
788 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
795 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
796 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
798 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
806 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
816 The quirks themselves are described below:
818 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
820 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
822 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
824 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
826 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
828 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
830 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
832 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
833 application in the stack.
836 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
838 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
843 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
845 is one of the quirks from the list above.
847 .Bd -literal -offset indent
848 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
849 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
858 and then clicking on the desired window.
859 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
860 .Bd -literal -offset indent
861 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
862 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
865 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
866 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
867 .Bd -literal -offset indent
868 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
872 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
873 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
875 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
876 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
878 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
880 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
882 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
884 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
888 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
889 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
892 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
893 This enables controlling windows as well as
895 itself from external scripts and programs.
898 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
899 From the terminal these events
900 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
905 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
907 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
908 property of the root window.
909 This can be used for example to retrieve the
910 title of the currently active window with
914 .Bd -literal -offset indent
915 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
916 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
919 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
924 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
925 .Bd -literal -offset indent
926 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
929 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
934 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
935 .Bd -literal -offset indent
936 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
939 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
940 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
941 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
943 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
946 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
948 .Bd -literal -offset indent
949 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
952 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
953 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
957 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
958 the window to be resize/moved):
959 .Bd -literal -offset indent
960 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
963 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
965 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
969 a HUP signal will restart it.
971 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
972 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
974 user specific settings.
975 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
981 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
987 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
989 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
990 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
991 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
992 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
993 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
994 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
995 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
996 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
997 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
998 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org