1 .\" Copyright (c) 2009-2012 Marco Peereboom <marco@peereboom.us>
2 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com>
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2011-2015 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
57 is very simple in its use.
58 Most of the actions are initiated via key or pointer 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
72 .Dl Ar keyword Li = Ar setting
78 Enabling or disabling an option is done by using 1 or 0 respectively.
80 Colors need to be specified per the
84 Comments begin with a #.
87 is desired in an option, then it must be escaped with a backslash, i.e. \e#
89 The file supports the following keywords:
92 Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day.
94 .Li ws Ns Bo Ar idx Bc : Ns Ar application ,
95 e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an
99 Note that workspace mapping is handled via
103 spawns windows via a daemon, ensure the daemon is started
108 For example, starting
112 .Bd -literal -offset indent
113 LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libswmhack.so.0.0 urxvtd -q -o -f
116 Spawned programs automatically have
120 External script that populates additional information in the status bar,
121 such as battery life.
123 Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.
124 .It Ic bar_border Ns Bq Ar x
125 Border color of the status bar(s) in screen
127 .It Ic bar_border_unfocus Ns Bq Ar x
128 Border color of the status bar(s) on unfocused region(s) in screen
130 .It Ic bar_border_width
131 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
132 Disable border by setting to 0.
133 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
134 Background color of the status bar(s) in screen
140 .It Ic bar_enabled_ws Ns Bq Ar x
147 Font used in the status bar.
148 Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD) may be used to specify fonts.
149 Fallback fonts may be specified by separating each font with a comma.
150 If all entries are in XLFD syntax, font set will be used.
151 If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used.
152 Note that if Xft is in use, only the first font that successfully loads will
153 be used regardless of missing glyphs.
154 The default is to use font set.
157 does not support Xft fonts.
160 .Bd -literal -offset indent
161 bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
163 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,\
164 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
168 .Bd -literal -offset indent
169 bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
171 bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
172 -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\
173 -*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
176 To list the available fonts in your system see
183 application can help with the XLFD setting.
184 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
185 Color of the font in status bar in screen
188 Set the bar format string, overriding
193 The format is passed through
196 It may contain the following character sequences:
197 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
198 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
199 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
200 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
201 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class (from WM_CLASS)"
202 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
203 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
204 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
205 .It Li "+M" Ta "Number of iconic (minimized) windows in workspace"
206 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
207 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and instance separated by a colon"
208 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
209 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window instance (from WM_CLASS)"
210 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
211 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
212 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name (from _NET_WM_NAME/WM_NAME)"
213 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
216 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for
218 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
220 Justify the status bar text.
227 Note that if the output is not left justified, it may not be properly
228 aligned in some circumstances, due to the white-spaces in the default
232 option for more details.
233 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
234 Bind key or button combo to action
240 Set window border thickness in pixels.
241 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
242 .It Ic boundary_width
243 Set region containment boundary width in pixels.
244 This is how far a window must be dragged/resized (with the pointer)
245 beyond the region edge before it is allowed outside the region.
246 Disable the window containment effect by setting to 0.
248 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
249 Disable by setting to 0
250 so a custom clock could be used in the
253 .It Ic iconic_enabled
254 Display the number of iconic (minimized) windows in the status bar.
255 Enable by setting to 1.
257 Border color of the currently focused window.
259 .It Ic color_focus_maximized
260 Border color of the currently focused, maximized window.
261 Defaults to the value of
264 Border color of unfocused windows, default is rgb:88/88/88.
265 .It Ic color_unfocus_maximized
266 Border color of unfocused, maximized windows.
267 Defaults to the value of
270 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
271 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
272 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
273 .It Ic disable_border
274 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the
277 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
287 are relative to the window that is closed.
288 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
289 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window
290 is closed or vice versa.
291 Disable by setting to 0.
293 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
300 Window focus behavior with respect to the pointer.
303 .Bl -tag -width "default" -offset indent -compact
305 Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and
308 Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches
309 and changes to layout.
311 Set window focus on window interaction only.
313 .It Ic maximize_hide_bar
316 will also hide/restore the bar visibility of the affected workspace.
318 .It Ic java_workaround
319 Workaround a Java GUI rendering issue on non-reparenting window managers by
320 impersonating the LG3D window manager, written by Sun.
322 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
323 Clear all key bindings (not button bindings) and load new bindings from the
325 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
327 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
328 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
329 for several keyboard layouts.
331 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
332 Defined in the format
333 .Li ws Ns Bo Ar idx Bc : Ns Ar master_grow : Ns Ar master_add : Ns Ar stack_inc : Ns Ar always_raise : Ns Ar stack_mode ,
334 e.g. ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack
335 mode, shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the
336 stack, while maintaining default floating window behavior.
357 for more information.
358 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
359 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting
364 This setting is not retained at restart.
367 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
369 Set the name of a workspace at start-of-day.
370 Defined in the format
371 .Li ws Ns Bo Ar idx Bc : Ns Ar name ,
372 e.g. ws[1]:Console sets the name of workspace 1 to
374 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
375 Define new action to spawn a program
380 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c Ns Li : Ns Ar i Ns Li : Ns Ar n
381 Add "quirk" for windows with class
391 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the
392 same space on the screen.
393 Defined in the format
394 .Li screen Ns Bo Ar idx Ns Bc : Ns Ar width Ns x Ns Ar height Ns + Ns Ar x Ns + Ns Ar y ,
395 e.g. screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
397 To make a region span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
398 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the region span two monitors with
399 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
400 .It Ic region_padding
401 Pixel width of empty space within region borders.
402 Disable by setting to 0.
403 .It Ic spawn_position
404 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
415 are relative to the focused window.
417 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status
420 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
421 If this value is greater than 0,
423 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
424 width above this number as the window is resized.
427 is currently supported.
430 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
431 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
433 section) to use an alternate copy of the
435 binary without the setgid bit set.
437 Pixel width of empty space between tiled windows.
438 Negative values cause overlap.
439 Set this to the opposite of
441 to collapse the border between tiles.
442 Disable by setting to 0.
443 .It Ic urgent_collapse
444 Minimizes the space consumed by the urgency hint indicator by removing the
445 placeholders for non-urgent workspaces, the trailing space when there are
446 urgent windows and the default leading space.
447 Enable by setting to 1.
448 .It Ic urgent_enabled
449 Enable or disable the urgency hint indicator in the status bar.
450 Note that many terminal emulators require an explicit setting for the bell
451 character to trigger urgency on the window.
454 for example, one needs to add the following line to
456 .Bd -literal -offset indent
457 xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
459 .It Ic verbose_layout
460 Enable or disable displaying the current master window count and stack column/row
461 count in the status bar.
462 Enable by setting to 1.
469 for more information.
470 .It Ic workspace_clamp
471 Prevents workspaces from being swapped when attempting to switch to a workspace
472 that is mapped to another region.
475 if you want to focus on the region containing the workspace and
477 if you want to also send the pointer.
478 Enable by setting to 1.
479 .It Ic window_class_enabled
480 Enable or disable displaying the window class name (from WM_CLASS) in the
482 Enable by setting to 1.
483 .It Ic window_instance_enabled
484 Enable or disable displaying the window instance name (from WM_CLASS) in the
486 Enable by setting to 1.
487 .It Ic window_name_enabled
488 Enable or disable displaying the window display name (from _NET_WM_NAME/WM_NAME)
490 Enable by setting to 1.
492 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
493 the bar, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
496 option for more details.
498 Focus on the target window/workspace/region when clamped.
499 For example, when attempting to switch to a workspace that is mapped on another
502 is enabled, focus on the region with the target workspace.
503 Enable by setting to 1.
505 Centers the pointer on the focused window when using bindings to
506 change focus, switch workspaces, change regions, etc.
507 Enable by setting to 1.
508 .It Ic workspace_limit
509 Set the total number of workspaces available.
510 Minimum is 1, maximum is 22, default is 10.
514 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and
515 then bind them the same as with built-in actions.
520 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
522 .Dl program Ns Bo Ar action Bc = Ar progpath Op Ar arg Op Ar arg ...
525 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
527 is the desired program, and
529 is zero or more arguments to the program.
531 Remember that when using
533 in your program call, it must be escaped with a backslash, i.e. \e#
535 The following argument variables will be substituted for values at the time the program
538 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
542 .It Cm $bar_font_color
544 .It Cm $color_unfocus
550 .It Cm $workspace_index
554 .Bd -literal -offset indent
555 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
556 bind[ff] = MOD+Shift+b # Now M-S-b launches firefox
559 To cancel the previous, unbind it:
560 .Bd -literal -offset indent
565 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
569 dmenu_run $dmenu_bottom \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb
570 $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
574 initscreen.sh # optional
575 .It Cm screenshot_all
576 screenshot.sh full # optional
577 .It Cm screenshot_wind
578 screenshot.sh window # optional
581 Note that optional default programs will not be validated unless overridden.
582 If a default program fails validation, you can resolve the exception
583 by installing the program, modifying the program call or disabling the program
584 by freeing the respective binding.
586 For example, to override
588 .Bd -literal -offset indent
589 program[lock] = xscreensaver\-command \-lock
594 and prevent it from being validated:
595 .Bd -literal -offset indent
596 bind[] = MOD+Shift+Delete
600 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or pointer bindings.
602 The default bindings are listed below:
604 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
605 .It Cm Ns Aq Cm Button1
607 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Button1
609 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Button3
611 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Button3
613 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
621 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
625 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
641 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
650 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
669 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
671 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
672 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
673 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
675 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar Keypad 1-9
681 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
683 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
685 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
687 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
691 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Down
693 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Up
695 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
697 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
711 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
753 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
755 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
757 Focus window/region under pointer.
759 Move window with pointer while binding is pressed.
761 Resize window with pointer while binding is pressed.
762 .It Cm resize_centered
765 but keep window centered.
785 Swap the master and stacking areas.
789 Balance master/stacking area.
795 Add windows to master area.
797 Remove windows from master area.
799 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
801 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
803 Move current window to master area.
805 Focus next window in workspace.
807 Focus previous window in workspace.
809 Focus on main window in workspace.
811 Focus on next window with the urgency hint flag set.
812 The workspace is switched if needed.
814 Swap with next window in workspace.
816 Swap with previous window in workspace.
818 Toggle overall visibility of status bars.
820 Toggle status bar on current workspace.
822 Delete current window in workspace.
824 Destroy current window in workspace.
831 .Ic workspace_limit .
833 Move current window to workspace
838 .Ic workspace_limit .
846 Move current window to region
852 Move current window to workspace in next region.
854 Move current window to workspace in previous region.
856 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
858 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
860 Switch to next workspace.
862 Switch to previous workspace.
864 Switch to next workspace with the current window.
866 Switch to previous workspace with the current window.
868 Switch to last visited workspace.
870 Switch to next region.
872 Switch to previous region.
874 Switch region to next screen.
876 Switch region to previous screen.
877 .It Cm screenshot_all
878 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
882 .It Cm screenshot_wind
883 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
888 Toggle version in status bar.
890 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
897 Reinitialize physical screens
902 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
904 Restore (map) window returned by
907 .It Cm maximize_toggle
908 Toggle maximization of focused window.
909 .It Cm fullscreen_toggle
910 Toggle fullscreen state of focused window.
912 Raise the current window.
914 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
916 Fake a middle mouse button click (Button2).
918 Shrink the width of a floating window.
920 Grow the width of a floating window.
922 Shrink the height of a floating window.
924 Grow the height of a floating window.
926 Move a floating window a step to the left.
928 Move a floating window a step to the right.
930 Move a floating window a step upwards.
932 Move a floating window a step downwards.
933 .It Cm name_workspace
934 Name the current workspace.
935 .It Cm search_workspace
936 Search for a workspace.
938 Search the windows in the current workspace.
941 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
943 .Dl bind Ns Bo Ar action Bc = Ar combo
946 is one of the actions listed above (or empty to unbind) and
948 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys and/or special arguments
949 (Mod1, Shift, MOD, etc.) and a normal key (b, Space, etc.)
950 or a button (Button1 .. Button255), separated by
952 Multiple key/button combinations may be bound to the same action.
955 .Bl -tag -width "anymodxxxx" -offset indent -compact
957 Substituted for the currently defined
960 Select all modifier combinations not handled by another binding.
962 Reprocess binding press/release events for other programs to handle. Unavailable for
966 .Ic resize_centered .
971 .Bd -literal -offset indent
972 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
973 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
974 bind[move] = MOD+Button3 # Bind move to M-Button3
975 bind[] = MOD+Button1 # Unbind default move binding.
980 .Bd -literal -offset indent
981 bind[focus] = ANYMOD+Button3
982 bind[move] = MOD+Button3
985 In the above example,
986 .Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Button3
991 pressed with any other combination of modifiers
992 sets focus to the window/region under the pointer.
996 .Bd -literal -offset indent
997 bind[focus] = REPLAY+Button3
1000 In the above example, when
1002 is pressed without any modifier(s), focus is set to the window under the
1003 pointer and the button press is passed to the window.
1005 To bind non-latin characters such as \[oa] or \[*p] you must enter the xkb
1006 character name instead of the character itself.
1009 focus the window and press the specific key and in the terminal output read
1011 In the following example for \[oa]:
1012 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1013 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
1014 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
1015 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
1016 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "\[oa]"
1017 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "\[oa]"
1018 XFilterEvent returns: False
1021 The xkb name is aring.
1025 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1026 bind[program] = MOD+aring
1028 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
1029 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
1031 These files can be used with the
1032 .Ic keyboard_mapping
1033 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
1036 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
1037 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
1038 Czech Republic keyboard layout
1039 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
1040 Spanish keyboard layout
1041 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
1042 French keyboard layout
1043 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
1044 Swiss French keyboard layout
1045 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
1046 Swedish keyboard layout
1047 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
1048 United States keyboard layout
1052 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
1053 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
1055 The default quirks are described below:
1057 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent \
1059 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
1066 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
1067 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
1069 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
1073 .It xine:Xine Window
1077 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
1081 .It Xitk:Xine Window
1087 The quirks themselves are described below:
1089 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
1091 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
1093 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
1094 .It FOCUSONMAP_SINGLE
1095 When the window first appears on the screen, change focus to the window
1096 if there are no other windows on the workspace with the same WM_CLASS
1097 class/instance value.
1103 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous
1104 application in the stack.
1106 Remove border to allow window to use full region size.
1108 Ignore the PID when determining the initial workspace for a new window.
1109 Especially useful for terminal windows that share a process.
1111 Ignore the spawn workspace when determining the initial workspace for a
1114 Remove border when window is unfocused and floating.
1116 Remove from normal focus cycle (focus_prev or focus_next). The window can
1117 still be focused using search_win.
1119 Don't change focus to the window when it first appears on the screen.
1125 When an application requests focus on the window via a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
1126 client message (source indication of 1), comply with the request.
1127 Note that a source indication of 0 (unspecified) or 2 (pager) are always
1130 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using
1133 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
1135 Force a new window to appear on workspace
1140 fonts when resizing.
1143 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
1145 .Dl quirk Ns Bo Ar class Ns Bo : Ns Ar instance Ns Bo : Ns Ar name Bc Bc Bc = Ar quirk Op + Ar quirk ...
1151 (optional) are patterns used to determine which window(s) the quirk(s) apply
1154 is one of the quirks from the list above.
1156 Note that patterns are interpreted as POSIX Extended Regular Expressions.
1157 Any ':', '[' or ']' must be escaped with '\\'.
1160 for more information on POSIX Extended Regular Expressions.
1163 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1164 quirk[MPlayer] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV # Float all windows having a \
1166 quirk[.*] = FLOAT # Float all windows by default.
1167 quirk[.*:.*:.*] = FLOAT # Same as above.
1168 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT # Float all Firefox browser windows.
1169 quirk[::Console] = FLOAT # Float windows with WM_CLASS not set and a \
1170 window name of 'Console'.
1171 quirk[\\[0-9\\].*:.*:\\[\\[\\:alnum\\:\\]\\]*] = FLOAT # Float windows with WM_CLASS \
1172 class beginning with a number, any WM_CLASS instance and a \
1173 _NET_WM_NAME/WM_NAME either blank or containing alphanumeric characters without spaces.
1174 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
1184 and then clicking on the desired window.
1185 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
1186 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1187 $ xprop | grep \-E "^(WM_CLASS|_NET_WM_NAME|WM_NAME)"
1188 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
1189 WM_NAME(STRING) = "spectrwm - ConformalOpenSource"
1190 _NET_WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "spectrwm - ConformalOpenSource"
1195 displays WM_CLASS as:
1196 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1197 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "<instance>", "<class>"
1200 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
1201 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1202 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
1206 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
1207 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
1209 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
1210 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
1212 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
1214 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
1216 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
1218 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
1222 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
1223 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
1226 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
1227 This enables controlling windows as well as
1229 itself from external scripts and programs.
1232 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
1233 From the terminal these events
1234 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
1239 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
1241 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
1242 property of the root window.
1243 This can be used for example to retrieve the
1244 title of the currently active window with
1248 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1249 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
1250 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID _NET_WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
1253 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
1258 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
1259 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1260 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
1263 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
1268 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
1269 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1270 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
1273 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
1274 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
1275 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
1277 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
1280 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be
1281 floated or un-floated):
1282 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1283 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
1286 Windows can also be iconified and un-iconified by substituting
1287 _NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN for _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE in the previous example:
1288 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1289 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN
1292 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
1293 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
1297 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
1298 the window to be resize/moved):
1299 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1300 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
1303 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
1305 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
1309 a HUP signal will restart it.
1311 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
1312 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
1314 user specific settings.
1315 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
1321 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
1327 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset \
1329 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
1330 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
1331 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
1332 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
1333 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
1334 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
1335 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
1336 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
1337 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com
1338 .It Cm David Hill Aq dhill@mindcry.org