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>
7 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
8 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
9 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
11 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
12 .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
13 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
14 .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
15 .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
16 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
17 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
19 .Dd $Mdocdate: February 15 2012 $
24 .Nd window manager for X11
29 is a minimalistic window manager that tries to stay out of the way so that
30 valuable screen real estate can be used for much more important stuff.
31 It has sane defaults and does not require one to learn a language to do any
33 It was written by hackers for hackers and it strives to be small, compact and
38 starts up, it reads settings from its configuration file,
41 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
44 The following notation is used throughout this page:
46 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
60 is very simple in its use.
61 Most of the actions are initiated via key or mouse bindings.
64 section below for defaults and customizations.
65 .Sh CONFIGURATION FILES
67 first tries to open the user specific file,
68 .Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf .
69 If that file is unavailable,
70 it then tries to open the global configuration file
71 .Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf .
73 The format of the file is \*(Ltkeyword\*(Gt = \*(Ltsetting\*(Gt.
78 Enabling or disabling an option is done by using 1 or 0 respectively.
80 The file supports the following keywords:
83 Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day.
84 Defined in the format ws[<idx>]:application, e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an
87 External script that populates additional information in the status bar,
90 Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.
91 .It Ic bar_border Ns Bq Ar x
92 Color of the status bar border in screen
94 .It Ic bar_border_width
95 Set status bar border thickness in pixels.
96 Disable border by setting to 0.
97 .It Ic bar_color Ns Bq Ar x
98 Color of the status bar window in screen
101 Update frequency, in seconds, of external script that populates the status bar.
103 Enable or disable status bar.
106 .It Ic bar_font_color Ns Bq Ar x
107 Color of the font in status bar in screen
110 Set the bar_format string and overrides
115 The format is passed through
118 It may contain the following character sequences:
119 .Bl -column "Character sequence" "Replaced with" -offset indent
120 .It Sy "Character sequence" Ta Sy "Replaced with"
121 .It Li "+<" Ta "Pad with a space"
122 .It Li "+A" Ta "Output of the external script"
123 .It Li "+C" Ta "Window class"
124 .It Li "+D" Ta "Workspace name"
125 .It Li "+F" Ta "Floating indicator"
126 .It Li "+I" Ta "Workspace index"
127 .It Li "+N" Ta "Screen number"
128 .It Li "+P" Ta "Window class and title separated by a colon"
129 .It Li "+S" Ta "Stacking algorithm"
130 .It Li "+T" Ta "Window title"
131 .It Li "+U" Ta "Urgency hint"
132 .It Li "+V" Ta "Program version"
133 .It Li "+W" Ta "Window name"
134 .It Li "++" Ta "A literal" Ql +
137 All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example
139 Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.
141 Justify the status bar text. Possible values are
147 Note that if the output is not
149 justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the
150 white-spaces in the default static format.
153 option for more details.
154 .It Ic bind Ns Bq Ar x
155 Bind key combo to action
161 Set window border thickness in pixels.
162 Disable all borders by setting to 0.
164 Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar.
165 Disable by setting to 0
166 so a custom clock could be used in the
170 Border color of the currently focussed window.
172 Border color of unfocussed windows.
174 Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful.
175 This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized.
176 For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.
177 .It Ic disable_border
178 Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the screen.
180 Window to put focus when the focused window is closed.
190 are relative to the window that is closed.
191 .It Ic focus_close_wrap
192 Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is
193 closed or vice versa.
194 Disable by setting to 0.
196 Window to put focus when no window has been focused.
205 will make the window manager focus the window
206 under the mouse when switching workspaces and creating windows.
207 .It Ic keyboard_mapping
208 Clear all key bindings and load new key bindings from the specified file.
209 This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
211 .Sx KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
212 section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided
213 for several keyboard layouts.
215 Select layout to use at start-of-day.
216 Defined in the format
217 ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:layout:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g.
218 ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode and
219 shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while
220 maintaining default floating window behavior.
221 Possible stack_mode values are
238 for more information.
239 Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects.
240 One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the
244 This setting is not retained at restart.
247 Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.
248 .It Ic program Ns Bq Ar p
249 Define new action to spawn a program
254 .It Ic quirk Ns Bq Ar c:n
255 Add "quirk" for windows with class
263 Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same
265 Defined in the format screen[<idx>]:WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y,
266 e.g.\& screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.
268 To make a screen span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover
269 them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the screen span two monitors with
270 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.
271 .It Ic spawn_position
272 Position in stack to place newly spawned windows.
283 are relative to the focused window.
285 Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.
287 Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal.
288 If this value is greater than 0,
290 will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal
291 width above this number as the window is resized.
294 is currently supported.
297 binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems.
298 Users may need to set program[term] (see the
300 section) to use an alternate copy of the
302 binary without the setgid bit set.
303 .It Ic title_class_enabled
304 Enable or disable displaying the window class in the status bar.
305 Enable by setting to 1.
306 .It Ic title_name_enabled
307 Enable or disable displaying the window title in the status bar.
308 Enable by setting to 1.
309 .It Ic urgent_enabled
310 Enable or disable the urgency hint.
311 Note that many terminal emulators require this to be enabled for it to
313 In xterm, for example, one needs to add the following line
314 .Pa xterm.bellIsUrgent: true
317 .It Ic verbose_layout
318 Enable or disable displaying the current master and stack values in the status
320 Enable by setting to 1.
321 .It Ic window_name_enabled
322 Enable or disable displaying the window name in the status bar.
323 Enable by setting to 1.
325 To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off
326 the screen, it's limited to 64 characters, by default.
329 option for more details.
330 .It Ic workspace_limit
331 Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22.
334 Colors need to be specified per the
336 specification and fonts need to be specified per the
340 To list the available fonts in your system see
347 application can help you to show the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") used
348 as setting in the keyword
352 allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then
353 bind them the same as with built-in actions.
358 The default programs are described below:
360 .Bl -tag -width "screenshot_wind" -offset indent -compact
363 .It Cm screenshot_all
365 .It Cm screenshot_wind
372 dmenu_run \-fn $bar_font \-nb $bar_color \-nf $bar_font_color \-sb $bar_border \-sf $bar_color
375 Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:
377 .Dl program[<name>] = <progpath> [<arg> [... <arg>]]
380 is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword,
382 is the desired program, and
384 is zero or more arguments to the program.
386 The following variables represent settable values in
389 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES
391 and may be used in the
393 fields and will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:
395 .Bl -tag -width "$bar_font_color" -offset indent -compact
399 .It Cm $bar_font_color
401 .It Cm $color_unfocus
405 .Bd -literal -offset indent
406 program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
407 bind[ff] = Mod+Shift+b # Now Mod+Shift+B launches firefox
410 To undo the previous:
411 .Bd -literal -offset indent
417 provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.
419 The current mouse bindings are described below:
421 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
429 Resize window while maintaining it centered
432 The default key bindings are described below:
434 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
435 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Return
443 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Space
445 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm \e
447 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Space
461 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Return
470 .Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm TAB
485 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
487 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Ar 1-9,0,F1-F12
488 .Pf mvws_ Ns Aq Ar 1-22
489 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Right
491 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Left
493 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Up
495 .It Cm M- Ns Aq Cm Down
499 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Right
501 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Left
511 .It Cm M-S- Ns Aq Cm Delete
547 The action names and descriptions are listed below:
549 .Bl -tag -width "M-j, M-<TAB>XXXX" -offset indent -compact
569 Swap the master and stacking areas.
577 Add windows to master area.
579 Remove windows from master area.
581 Add columns/rows to stacking area.
583 Remove columns/rows from stacking area.
585 Move current window to master area.
587 Focus next window in workspace.
589 Focus previous window in workspace.
591 Focus on main window in workspace.
593 Swap with next window in workspace.
595 Swap with previous window in workspace.
597 Toggle status bar in all workspaces.
599 Delete current window in workspace.
601 Destroy current window in workspace.
607 is 1 through workspace_limit.
609 Move current window to workspace
613 is 1 through workspace_limit.
615 Switch to next workspace with a window in it.
617 Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.
619 Switch to next workspace.
621 Switch to previous workspace.
623 Switch to last visited workspace.
625 Move pointer to next region.
627 Move pointer to previous region.
628 .It Cm screenshot_all
629 Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled)
633 .It Cm screenshot_wind
634 Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled)
639 Toggle version in status bar.
641 Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.
648 Reinitialize physical screens
653 Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.
655 Maximize (map) window returned by dmenu selection.
657 When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.
659 Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).
661 Shrink the width of a floating window.
663 Grow the width of a floating window.
665 Shrink the height of a floating window.
667 Grow the height of a floating window.
669 Move a floating window a step to the left.
671 Move a floating window a step to the right.
673 Move a floating window a step upwards.
675 Move a floating window a step downwards.
676 .It Cm name_workspace
677 Name the current workspace.
678 .It Cm search_workspace
679 Search for a workspace.
681 Search the windows in the current workspace.
684 Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:
686 .Dl bind[<action>] = <keys>
689 is one of the actions listed above (or empty) and
691 is in the form of zero or more modifier keys
692 (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys
693 (b, space, etc.), separated by "+".
695 .Bd -literal -offset indent
696 bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
697 bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
700 To use the currently defined
702 specify MOD as the modifier key.
704 Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.
706 To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb
707 character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window
708 and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name.
709 In the fallowing example for å:
710 .Bd -literal -offset indent
711 KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
712 root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
713 state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
714 XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
715 XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
716 XFilterEvent returns: False
719 The xkb name is aring. In other words, in .spectrwm.conf add:
720 .Bd -literal -offset indent
721 bind[program] = MOD+aring
723 .Sh KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES
724 Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed
726 These files can be used with the
728 setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified
731 .Bl -tag -width "spectrwm_XX.confXXX" -offset indent -compact
732 .It Cm spectrwm_cz.conf
733 Czech Republic keyboard layout
734 .It Cm spectrwm_es.conf
735 Spanish keyboard layout
736 .It Cm spectrwm_fr.conf
737 French keyboard layout
738 .It Cm spectrwm_fr_ch.conf
739 Swiss French keyboard layout
740 .It Cm spectrwm_se.conf
741 Swedish keyboard layout
742 .It Cm spectrwm_us.conf
743 United States keyboard layout
747 provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially
748 in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.
750 The default quirks are described below:
752 .Bl -tag -width "OpenOffice.org N.M:VCLSalFrame<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
753 .It Firefox\-bin:firefox\-bin
760 FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
761 .It OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame
763 .It OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame
771 .It xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window
781 The quirks themselves are described below:
783 .Bl -tag -width "XTERM_FONTADJ<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
785 This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.
787 Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio
789 .Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .
791 Allow window to position itself, uncentered.
793 Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.
795 Remove border to allow window to use full screen size.
797 On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application
801 Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:
803 .Dl quirk[<class>:<name>] = <quirk> [ + <quirk> ... ]
808 specify the window to which the quirk(s) apply, and
810 is one of the quirks from the list above.
812 .Bd -literal -offset indent
813 quirk[MPlayer:xv] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
814 quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk
823 and then clicking on the desired window.
824 In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:
825 .Bd -literal -offset indent
826 $ xprop | grep WM_CLASS
827 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
830 Note that grepping for WM_CLASS flips class and name.
831 In the example above the quirk entry would be:
832 .Bd -literal -offset indent
833 quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT
837 also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value
838 of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:
840 .Bl -tag -width "_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR<TAB>XXX" -offset indent -compact
841 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK
843 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR
845 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY
847 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH
849 .It _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG
853 In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window.
854 Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.
857 partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification.
858 This enables controlling windows as well as
860 itself from external scripts and programs.
863 responding to certain ClientMessage events.
864 From the terminal these events
865 can be conveniently sent using tools such as
870 actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.
872 The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
873 property of the root window.
874 This can be used for example to retrieve the
875 title of the currently active window with
879 .Bd -literal -offset indent
880 $ WINDOWID=`xprop \-root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep \-o "0x.*"`
881 $ xprop \-id $WINDOWID WM_NAME | grep \-o "\\".*\\""
884 A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message
889 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):
890 .Bd -literal -offset indent
891 $ wmctrl \-i \-a 0x4a0000b
894 Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message
899 (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):
900 .Bd -literal -offset indent
901 $ wmctrl \-i \-c 0x4a0000b
904 Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the
905 _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window.
906 This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the
908 For example, the following toggles the floating state of
911 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window floated
913 .Bd -literal -offset indent
914 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE
917 Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a
918 _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window.
922 to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of
923 the window to be resize/moved):
924 .Bd -literal -offset indent
925 $ wmctrl \-i \-r 0x4a0000b \-e 0,100,50,640,480
928 This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.
930 Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.
934 a HUP signal will restart it.
936 .Bl -tag -width "/etc/spectrwm.confXXX" -compact
937 .It Pa ~/.spectrwm.conf
939 user specific settings.
940 .It Pa /etc/spectrwm.conf
946 was inspired by xmonad & dwm.
952 .Bl -tag -width "Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com " -offset indent -compact
953 .It Cm Marco Peereboom Aq marco@peereboom.us
954 .It Cm Ryan Thomas McBride Aq mcbride@countersiege.com
955 .It Cm Darrin Chandler Aq dwchandler@stilyagin.com
956 .It Cm Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq pyr@spootnik.org
957 .It Cm Tuukka Kataja Aq stuge@xor.fi
958 .It Cm Jason L. Wright Aq jason@thought.net
959 .It Cm Reginald Kennedy Aq rk@rejii.com
960 .It Cm Lawrence Teo Aq lteo@lteo.net
961 .It Cm Tiago Cunha Aq tcunha@gmx.com