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 "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
119 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
120 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
121 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
122 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
123 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
124 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
125 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
126 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
127 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
128 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
129 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
132 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
134 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
136 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
141 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
142 Bind key combo to action
148 Set window border thickness in pixels.
149 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
151 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
152 Disable by setting to 0
153 so a custom clock could be used in the
157 Border color of the currently focussed window.
159 Border color of unfocussed windows.
161 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
162 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
163 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
164 .It Ic disable_border
165 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
167 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
177 are relative to the window that is closed.
178 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
179 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
180 closed or vice versa.
181 Disable by setting to 0.
183 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
192 will make the window manager focus the window
193 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
194 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
195 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
196 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
198 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
199 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
200 for several keyboard layouts.
202 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
203 Defined in the format
204 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
205 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
206 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
207 maintaining default floating window behavior.
208 Possible stack_mode values are
223 for more information.
224 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
225 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
229 This setting is not retained at restart.
232 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
233 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
234 Define new action to spawn a program
239 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
240 Add "quirk" for windows with class
248 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
250 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
251 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
253 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
254 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
255 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
256 .It Ic spawn_position
257 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
268 are relative to the focused window.
270 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
272 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
273 If this value is greater than 0,
275 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
276 width above this number as the window is resized.
279 is currently supported.
282 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
283 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
285 section) to use an alternate copy of the
287 binary without the setgid bit set.
288 .It Ic title_class_enabled
289 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
290 Enable by setting to 1.
291 .It Ic title_name_enabled
292 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
293 Enable by setting to 1.
294 .It Ic urgent_enabled
295 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
296 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
298 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
299 .Pa xterm.urgentOnBell: true
302 .It Ic verbose_layout
303 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
305 Enable by setting to 1.
306 .It Ic window_name_enabled
307 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
308 Enable by setting to 1.
310 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
311 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
314 option for more details.
315 .It Ic workspace_limit
316 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
319 Colors need to be specified per the
321 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
325 To list the available fonts in your system see
332 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
333 as setting in the keyword
337 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
338 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
343 The default programs are described below:
345 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
348 .It Cm screenshot_all
350 .It Cm screenshot_wind
357 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
360 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
362 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
365 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
367 is the desired program, and
369 is zero or more arguments to the program.
371 The following variables represent settable values in
374 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
376 and may be used in the
378 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
380 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
384 .It Cm $bar_font_color
386 .It Cm $color_unfocus
390 .Bd -literal -offset indent
391 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
392 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
395 To undo the previous:
396 .Bd -literal -offset indent
402 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
404 The current mouse bindings are described below:
406 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
414 Resize window while maintaining it centered
417 The default key bindings are described below:
419 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
420 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
428 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
430 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
432 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
446 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
455 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
470 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
472 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
473 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
474 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
476 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
478 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
480 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
484 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
486 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
496 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
532 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
534 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
554 Swap the master and stacking areas.
562 Add windows to master area.
564 Remove windows from master area.
566 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
568 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
570 Move current window to master area.
572 Focus next window in workspace.
574 Focus previous window in workspace.
576 Focus on main window in workspace.
578 Swap with next window in workspace.
580 Swap with previous window in workspace.
582 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
584 Delete current window in workspace.
586 Destroy current window in workspace.
592 is 1 through workspace_limit.
594 Move current window to workspace
598 is 1 through workspace_limit.
600 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
602 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
604 Switch to next workspace.
606 Switch to previous workspace.
608 Switch to last visited workspace.
610 Move pointer to next region.
612 Move pointer to previous region.
613 .It Cm screenshot_all
614 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
618 .It Cm screenshot_wind
619 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
624 Toggle version in status bar.
626 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
633 Reinitialize physical screens
638 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
640 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
642 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
644 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
646 Shrink the width of a floating window.
648 Grow the width of a floating window.
650 Shrink the height of a floating window.
652 Grow the height of a floating window.
654 Move a floating window a step to the left.
656 Move a floating window a step to the right.
658 Move a floating window a step upwards.
660 Move a floating window a step downwards.
661 .It Cm name_workspace
662 Name the current workspace.
663 .It Cm search_workspace
664 Search for a workspace.
666 Search the windows in the current workspace.
669 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
671 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
674 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
676 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
677 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
678 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
680 .Bd -literal -offset indent
681 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
682 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
685 To use the currently defined
687 specify MOD as the modifier key.
689 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
691 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
692 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
693 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
694 In the fallowing example for å:
695 .Bd -literal -offset indent
696 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
697 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
698 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
699 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
700 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
701 XFilterEvent returns: False
704 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
705 .Bd -literal -offset indent
706 bind[program] = MOD+aring
708 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
709 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
711 These files can be used with the
713 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
716 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
717 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
718 Czech Republic keyboard layout
719 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
720 Spanish keyboard layout
721 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
722 French keyboard layout
723 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
724 Swiss French keyboard layout
725 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
726 Swedish keyboard layout
727 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
728 United States keyboard layout
732 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
733 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
735 The default quirks are described below:
737 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
738 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
745 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
746 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
748 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
756 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
766 The quirks themselves are described below:
768 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
770 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
772 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
774 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
776 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
778 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
780 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
782 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
786 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
788 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
793 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
795 is one of the quirks from the list above.
797 .Bd -literal -offset indent
798 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
799 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
808 and then clicking on the desired window.
809 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
810 .Bd -literal -offset indent
811 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
812 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
815 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
816 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
817 .Bd -literal -offset indent
818 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
822 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
823 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
825 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
826 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
828 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
830 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
832 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
834 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
838 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
839 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
842 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
843 This enables controlling windows as well as
845 itself from external scripts and programs.
848 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
849 From the terminal these events
850 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
855 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
857 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
858 property of the root window.
859 This can be used for example to retrieve the
860 title of the currently active window with
864 .Bd -literal -offset indent
865 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
866 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
869 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
874 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
875 .Bd -literal -offset indent
876 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
879 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
884 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
885 .Bd -literal -offset indent
886 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
889 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
890 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
891 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
893 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
896 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
898 .Bd -literal -offset indent
899 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
902 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
903 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
907 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
908 the window to be resize/moved):
909 .Bd -literal -offset indent
910 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
913 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
915 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
919 a HUP signal will restart it.
921 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
922 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
924 user specific settings.
925 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
931 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
937 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
938 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
939 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
940 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
941 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
942 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
943 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
944 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
945 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
946 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com