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 bar.
108 Enable or disable status bar.
110 Font used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD) may be used
114 .Bd -literal -offset indent
115 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
119 .Bd -literal -offset indent
120 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
123 To list the available fonts in your system see
130 application can help with the XLFD setting.
132 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
133 Color of the font in status bar in screen
136 Set the bar_format string and overrides
141 The format is passed through
144 It may contain the following character sequences:
145 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
146 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
147 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
148 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
149 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
150 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
151 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
152 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
153 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
154 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
155 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
156 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
157 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
158 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
159 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
160 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
163 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
165 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
167 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
173 Note that if the output is not
175 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
176 white-spaces in the default static format.
179 option for more details.
180 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
181 Bind key combo to action
187 Set window border thickness in pixels.
188 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
190 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
191 Disable by setting to 0
192 so a custom clock could be used in the
196 Border color of the currently focussed window.
198 Border color of unfocussed windows.
200 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
201 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
202 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
203 .It Ic disable_border
204 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
206 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
216 are relative to the window that is closed.
217 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
218 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
219 closed or vice versa.
220 Disable by setting to 0.
222 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
231 will make the window manager focus the window
232 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
233 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
234 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
235 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
237 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
238 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
239 for several keyboard layouts.
241 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
242 Defined in the format
243 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
244 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
245 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
246 maintaining default floating window behavior.
247 Possible stack_mode values are
264 for more information.
265 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
266 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
270 This setting is not retained at restart.
273 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
274 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
275 Define new action to spawn a program
280 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
281 Add "quirk" for windows with class
289 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
291 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
292 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
294 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
295 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
296 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
297 .It Ic spawn_position
298 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
309 are relative to the focused window.
311 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
313 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
314 If this value is greater than 0,
316 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
317 width above this number as the window is resized.
320 is currently supported.
323 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
324 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
326 section) to use an alternate copy of the
328 binary without the setgid bit set.
329 .It Ic title_class_enabled
330 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
331 Enable by setting to 1.
332 .It Ic title_name_enabled
333 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
334 Enable by setting to 1.
335 .It Ic urgent_enabled
336 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
337 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
339 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
340 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
343 .It Ic verbose_layout
344 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
346 Enable by setting to 1.
347 .It Ic window_name_enabled
348 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
349 Enable by setting to 1.
351 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
352 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
355 option for more details.
356 .It Ic workspace_limit
357 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22, default is 10.
361 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
362 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
367 The default programs are described below:
369 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
372 .It Cm screenshot_all
374 .It Cm screenshot_wind
381 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
384 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
386 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
389 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
391 is the desired program, and
393 is zero or more arguments to the program.
395 The following variables represent settable values in
398 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
400 and may be used in the
402 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
404 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
408 .It Cm $bar_font_color
410 .It Cm $color_unfocus
414 .Bd -literal -offset indent
415 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
416 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
419 To undo the previous:
420 .Bd -literal -offset indent
426 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
428 The current mouse bindings are described below:
430 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
438 Resize window while maintaining it centered
441 The default key bindings are described below:
443 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
444 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
452 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
454 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
456 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
470 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
479 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
494 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
496 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
497 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
498 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
500 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
502 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
504 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
508 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
510 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
520 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
556 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
558 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
578 Swap the master and stacking areas.
586 Add windows to master area.
588 Remove windows from master area.
590 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
592 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
594 Move current window to master area.
596 Focus next window in workspace.
598 Focus previous window in workspace.
600 Focus on main window in workspace.
602 Swap with next window in workspace.
604 Swap with previous window in workspace.
606 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
608 Delete current window in workspace.
610 Destroy current window in workspace.
616 is 1 through workspace_limit.
618 Move current window to workspace
622 is 1 through workspace_limit.
624 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
626 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
628 Switch to next workspace.
630 Switch to previous workspace.
632 Switch to last visited workspace.
634 Move pointer to next region.
636 Move pointer to previous region.
637 .It Cm screenshot_all
638 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
642 .It Cm screenshot_wind
643 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
648 Toggle version in status bar.
650 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
657 Reinitialize physical screens
662 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
664 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
666 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
668 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
670 Shrink the width of a floating window.
672 Grow the width of a floating window.
674 Shrink the height of a floating window.
676 Grow the height of a floating window.
678 Move a floating window a step to the left.
680 Move a floating window a step to the right.
682 Move a floating window a step upwards.
684 Move a floating window a step downwards.
685 .It Cm name_workspace
686 Name the current workspace.
687 .It Cm search_workspace
688 Search for a workspace.
690 Search the windows in the current workspace.
693 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
695 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
698 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
700 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
701 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
702 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
704 .Bd -literal -offset indent
705 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
706 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
709 To use the currently defined
711 specify MOD as the modifier key.
713 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
715 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
716 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
717 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
718 In the fallowing example for å:
719 .Bd -literal -offset indent
720 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
721 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
722 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
723 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
724 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
725 XFilterEvent returns: False
728 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
729 .Bd -literal -offset indent
730 bind[program] = MOD+aring
732 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
733 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
735 These files can be used with the
737 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
740 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
741 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
742 Czech Republic keyboard layout
743 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
744 Spanish keyboard layout
745 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
746 French keyboard layout
747 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
748 Swiss French keyboard layout
749 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
750 Swedish keyboard layout
751 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
752 United States keyboard layout
756 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
757 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
759 The default quirks are described below:
761 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
762 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
769 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
770 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
772 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
780 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
790 The quirks themselves are described below:
792 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
794 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
796 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
798 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
800 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
802 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
804 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
806 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
810 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
812 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
817 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
819 is one of the quirks from the list above.
821 .Bd -literal -offset indent
822 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
823 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
832 and then clicking on the desired window.
833 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
834 .Bd -literal -offset indent
835 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
836 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
839 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
840 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
841 .Bd -literal -offset indent
842 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
846 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
847 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
849 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
850 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
852 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
854 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
856 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
858 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
862 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
863 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
866 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
867 This enables controlling windows as well as
869 itself from external scripts and programs.
872 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
873 From the terminal these events
874 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
879 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
881 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
882 property of the root window.
883 This can be used for example to retrieve the
884 title of the currently active window with
888 .Bd -literal -offset indent
889 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
890 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
893 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
898 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
899 .Bd -literal -offset indent
900 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
903 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
908 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
909 .Bd -literal -offset indent
910 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
913 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
914 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
915 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
917 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
920 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
922 .Bd -literal -offset indent
923 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
926 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
927 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
931 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
932 the window to be resize/moved):
933 .Bd -literal -offset indent
934 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
937 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
939 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
943 a HUP signal will restart it.
945 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
946 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
948 user specific settings.
949 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
955 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
961 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
962 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
963 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
964 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
965 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
966 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
967 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
968 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
969 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
970 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
971 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org