1 .\" Copyright (c) 2009-2012 Marco Peereboom <marco@peereboom.us>
2 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com>
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2011-2013 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 Comments begin with a #. When a literal '#' is desired in an option, then it
86 must be escaped with a backslash. i.e. \e#
88 The file supports the following keywords:
91 Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day.
92 Defined in the format ws[<idx>]:application, e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an
95 External script that populates additional information in the status bar,
98 Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.
99 .It Ic bar_border Ns Bq Ar x
100 Border color of the status bar(s) in screen
102 .It Ic bar_border_unfocus Ns Bq Ar x
103 Border color of the status bar(s) on unfocused region(s) in screen
105 .It Ic bar_border_width
106 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
107 Disable border by setting to 0.
108 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
109 Background color of the status bar(s) in screen
115 .It Ic bar_enabled_ws Ns Bq Ar x
122 Font used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD)
123 may be used to specify fonts. Fallback fonts may be specified by separating
124 each font with a comma. If all entries are XLFD syntax, font set will be
125 used. If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used. Note that if Xft is in
126 use, only the first font that successfully loads will be used regardless of
127 missing glyphs. The default is to use font set. Also note that dmenu does
128 not support Xft fonts.
131 .Bd -literal -offset indent
132 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
134 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,\
135 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
139 .Bd -literal -offset indent
140 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
142 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
143 -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
144 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
147 To list the available fonts in your system see
154 application can help with the XLFD setting.
156 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
157 Color of the font in status bar in screen
160 Set the bar_format string and overrides
165 The format is passed through
168 It may contain the following character sequences:
169 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
170 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
171 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
172 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
173 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
174 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
175 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
176 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
177 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
178 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
179 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
180 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
181 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
182 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
183 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
184 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
187 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for
188 example +64A. Any characters that don't match the specification are copied
191 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
197 Note that if the output is not
199 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
200 white-spaces in the default static format.
203 option for more details.
204 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
205 Bind key combo to action
211 Set window border thickness in pixels.
212 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
213 .It Ic boundary_width
214 Set region containment boundary width in pixels. This is how far a window
215 must be dragged/resized beyond the region edge before it is allowed outside
216 the region. This has no effect when manipulating the window with key
217 bindings. Disable the window containment effect by setting to 0.
219 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
220 Disable by setting to 0
221 so a custom clock could be used in the
225 Border color of the currently focussed window.
227 Border color of unfocussed windows.
229 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
230 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
231 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
232 .It Ic disable_border
233 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
236 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
246 are relative to the window that is closed.
247 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
248 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
249 is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.
251 Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are
257 Window focus behavior with respect to the mouse cursor. Possible values:
259 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
261 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
264 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
265 and changes to layout.
267 Set window focus on window interaction only.
269 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
270 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
271 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
273 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
274 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
275 for several keyboard layouts.
277 Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format
278 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
279 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
280 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
281 maintaining default floating window behavior.
282 Possible stack_mode values are
299 for more information.
300 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One
301 should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
305 This setting is not retained at restart.
308 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
309 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
310 Define new action to spawn a program
315 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
316 Add "quirk" for windows with class
324 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
325 same space on the screen.
326 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
327 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
329 To make a region span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
330 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the region span two monitors with
331 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
332 .It Ic region_padding
333 Pixel width of empty space within region borders.
334 Disable by setting to 0.
335 .It Ic spawn_position
336 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
347 are relative to the focused window.
349 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
352 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
353 If this value is greater than 0,
355 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
356 width above this number as the window is resized.
359 is currently supported.
362 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
363 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
365 section) to use an alternate copy of the
367 binary without the setgid bit set.
369 Pixel width of empty space between tiled windows. Negative values cause overlap.
370 Set this to the opposite of border_width to collapse the border between tiles.
371 Disable by setting to 0.
372 .It Ic title_class_enabled
373 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
374 Enable by setting to 1.
375 .It Ic title_name_enabled
376 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
377 Enable by setting to 1.
378 .It Ic urgent_enabled
379 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
380 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
382 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
383 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
386 .It Ic verbose_layout
387 Enable or disable displaying the current master window count and stack column/row
388 count in the status bar.
389 Enable by setting to 1.
396 for more information.
397 .It Ic window_name_enabled
398 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
399 Enable by setting to 1.
401 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
402 the bar, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
405 option for more details.
406 .It Ic workspace_limit
407 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22,
412 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
413 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
418 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
420 .Dl program[<action>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
423 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
425 is the desired program, and
427 is zero or more arguments to the program.
429 Remember that when using # in your program call, it must be escaped with a
432 The following argument variables will be substituted for values at the time the program
435 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
439 .It Cm $bar_font_color
441 .It Cm $color_unfocus
443 .It Cm $workspace_index
447 .Bd -literal -offset indent
448 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
449 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now M-S-b launches firefox
452 To cancel the previous, unbind it:
453 .Bd -literal -offset indent
458 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
462 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
463 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
467 initscreen.sh # optional
468 .It Cm screenshot_all
469 screenshot.sh full # optional
470 .It Cm screenshot_wind
471 screenshot.sh window # optional
474 Note that optional default programs will not be validated unless overridden.
475 If a default program fails validation, you can resolve the exception
476 by installing the program, modifying the program call or disabling the program
477 by freeing the respective key binding.
479 For example, to override
481 .Bd -literal -offset indent
482 program[lock] = xscreensaver-command --lock
487 and prevent it from being validated:
488 .Bd -literal -offset indent
489 bind[] = MOD+Shift+Delete
493 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
495 The current mouse bindings are described below:
497 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
505 Resize window while maintaining it centered
508 The default key bindings are described below:
510 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
511 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
519 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
521 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
523 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
537 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
546 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
563 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
565 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
566 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
567 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
569 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
571 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
573 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
575 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
577 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
581 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
583 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Up
585 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
587 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
597 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
633 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
635 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
655 Swap the master and stacking areas.
663 Add windows to master area.
665 Remove windows from master area.
667 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
669 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
671 Move current window to master area.
673 Focus next window in workspace.
675 Focus previous window in workspace.
677 Focus on main window in workspace.
679 Swap with next window in workspace.
681 Swap with previous window in workspace.
683 Toggle overall visibility of status bars.
685 Toggle status bar on current workspace.
687 Delete current window in workspace.
689 Destroy current window in workspace.
695 is 1 through workspace_limit.
697 Move current window to workspace
701 is 1 through workspace_limit.
709 Move current window to region
715 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
717 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
719 Switch to next workspace.
721 Switch to previous workspace.
723 Switch to next workspace with the current window.
725 Switch to previous workspace with the current window.
727 Switch to last visited workspace.
729 Switch to next region.
731 Switch to previous region.
732 .It Cm screenshot_all
733 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
737 .It Cm screenshot_wind
738 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
743 Toggle version in status bar.
745 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
752 Reinitialize physical screens
757 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
759 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
761 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
763 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
765 Shrink the width of a floating window.
767 Grow the width of a floating window.
769 Shrink the height of a floating window.
771 Grow the height of a floating window.
773 Move a floating window a step to the left.
775 Move a floating window a step to the right.
777 Move a floating window a step upwards.
779 Move a floating window a step downwards.
780 .It Cm name_workspace
781 Name the current workspace.
782 .It Cm search_workspace
783 Search for a workspace.
785 Search the windows in the current workspace.
788 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
790 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
793 is one of the actions listed above (or empty to unbind) and
795 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
796 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
797 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
800 .Bd -literal -offset indent
801 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
802 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
805 To use the currently defined
807 specify MOD as the modifier key.
809 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
811 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
812 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
813 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
814 In the fallowing example for å:
815 .Bd -literal -offset indent
816 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
817 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
818 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
819 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
820 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
821 XFilterEvent returns: False
824 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
825 .Bd -literal -offset indent
826 bind[program] = MOD+aring
828 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
829 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
831 These files can be used with the
833 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
836 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
837 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
838 Czech Republic keyboard layout
839 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
840 Spanish keyboard layout
841 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
842 French keyboard layout
843 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
844 Swiss French keyboard layout
845 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
846 Swedish keyboard layout
847 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
848 United States keyboard layout
852 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
853 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
855 The default quirks are described below:
857 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
859 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
866 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
867 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
869 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
877 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
887 The quirks themselves are described below:
889 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
891 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
893 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
895 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
897 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
899 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
901 Remove border to allow window to use full region size.
903 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
904 application in the stack.
906 Don't change focus to the window when it first appears on the screen.
910 .It FOCUSONMAP_SINGLE
911 When the window first appears on the screen, change focus to the window
912 if there are no other windows on the workspace with the same class/name.
918 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
920 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
925 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
927 is one of the quirks from the list above.
929 .Bd -literal -offset indent
930 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
931 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
940 and then clicking on the desired window.
941 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
942 .Bd -literal -offset indent
943 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
944 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
947 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
948 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
949 .Bd -literal -offset indent
950 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
954 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
955 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
957 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
958 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
960 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
962 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
964 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
966 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
970 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
971 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
974 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
975 This enables controlling windows as well as
977 itself from external scripts and programs.
980 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
981 From the terminal these events
982 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
987 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
989 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
990 property of the root window.
991 This can be used for example to retrieve the
992 title of the currently active window with
996 .Bd -literal -offset indent
997 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
998 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
1001 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
1006 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
1007 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1008 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
1011 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
1016 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
1017 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1018 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
1021 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
1022 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
1023 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
1025 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
1028 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
1030 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1031 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
1034 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
1035 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
1039 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
1040 the window to be resize/moved):
1041 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1042 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
1045 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
1047 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
1051 a HUP signal will restart it.
1053 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
1054 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
1056 user specific settings.
1057 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
1063 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
1069 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
1071 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
1072 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
1073 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
1074 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
1075 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
1076 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
1077 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
1078 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
1079 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
1080 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org