3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
8 question(s) on the mailing list.
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with mod (alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with mod (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the alt key (Mod1) by default, with windows (Mod4)
30 being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +mod+J+ is left, +mod+K+
52 is down, +mod+L+ is up and `mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +mod+K+ or +mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +mod+v+. To split it horizontally, press
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
75 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
76 windows at the top of the container.
78 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
79 a single line which is vertically split.
81 To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+s+ for stacking and
84 image:modes.png[Container modes]
86 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
88 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
91 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 === Opening other applications
96 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
97 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
98 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
99 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
101 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
102 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
103 <<configuring>> for details.
107 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
108 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
109 can press +mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
110 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
111 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
113 depends on the application.
117 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
118 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
119 another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
120 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
122 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
123 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
124 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
126 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
127 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
128 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
129 focus to that screen.
131 === Moving windows to workspaces
133 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
134 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
135 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
136 it does not yet exist.
140 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
141 and move it to the wanted size.
143 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
144 columns/rows with your keyboard.
146 === Restarting i3 inplace
148 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
149 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
153 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
157 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
158 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
159 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
160 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
161 appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
163 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
164 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
165 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
166 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
168 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
170 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
174 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
175 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
176 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
177 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
178 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
179 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
181 === The tree consists of Containers
183 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
184 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
185 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
186 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
187 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
190 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
191 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
193 === Orientation and Split Containers
197 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
198 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
199 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
200 workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
201 (most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
202 vertical (+mod+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
203 configure your windows like this:
205 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
207 An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
208 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
209 orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
210 terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
211 window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
212 orientation. Instead, press +mod+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
213 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +mod+h+). Now you can open a new
214 terminal and it will open below the current one:
216 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
217 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
221 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
226 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
227 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
228 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
230 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
231 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
232 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
233 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
234 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
236 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
241 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
242 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
244 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
245 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
248 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
249 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
250 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
251 can bind your keys to do useful things.
253 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
254 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
257 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
258 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
259 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
260 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
261 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
262 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
267 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
268 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
269 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
278 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles. You can use
279 +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description. To see special characters
280 (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the ISO-10646 encoding.
282 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
283 and fall back to a working font.
286 ------------------------------
287 font <X core font description>
288 ------------------------------
291 --------------------------------------------------------------
292 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
293 --------------------------------------------------------------
297 === Keyboard bindings
299 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
300 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
301 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
303 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
304 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
305 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
306 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
308 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
309 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
310 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
312 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
313 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
314 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
318 ----------------------------------
319 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
320 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
321 ----------------------------------
324 --------------------------------
329 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
331 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
332 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
333 --------------------------------
337 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
338 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
341 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
342 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
343 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
344 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
345 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
347 [[floating_modifier]]
349 === The floating modifier
351 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
352 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
353 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
354 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
355 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
356 it to the position you want.
358 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
359 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
360 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
361 ratio will be preserved).
364 --------------------------------
365 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
366 --------------------------------
369 --------------------------------
370 floating_modifier Mod1
371 --------------------------------
373 === Orientation for new workspaces
375 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
376 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
377 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
379 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
383 ----------------------------------------------
384 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
385 ----------------------------------------------
388 ----------------------------
389 default_orientation vertical
390 ----------------------------
392 === Layout mode for new containers
394 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
396 ///////////////////////////////
397 See also <<stack-limit>>.
398 //////////////////////////////
401 ---------------------------------------------
402 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
403 ---------------------------------------------
404 /////////////////////////////////////////////
405 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
406 /////////////////////////////////////////////
409 ---------------------
410 workspace_layout tabbed
411 ---------------------
413 === Border style for new windows
415 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
418 ---------------------------------------------
419 new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
420 ---------------------------------------------
423 ---------------------
425 ---------------------
427 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
429 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
430 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
431 change their border style, for example.
434 -----------------------------
435 for_window <criteria> command
436 -----------------------------
439 ------------------------------------------------
440 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
441 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
443 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
444 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
446 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
447 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
448 # directory to ~/work
449 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
450 ------------------------------------------------
452 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
456 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
457 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
458 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
459 variables can be handy.
467 ------------------------
469 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
470 ------------------------
472 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
473 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
474 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
475 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
478 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
482 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
483 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
484 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
485 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
486 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
487 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
488 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
489 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
490 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
491 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
494 ------------------------------------------------------------
495 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
496 ------------------------------------------------------------
499 ----------------------
500 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
501 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
503 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
504 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
506 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
507 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
509 # Assignment to a named workspace
510 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
512 # Start urxvt -name irssi
513 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
514 ----------------------
516 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
517 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
519 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
520 window, you will see the following output:
523 -----------------------------------
524 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
525 -----------------------------------
527 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
528 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
530 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
531 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
532 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
533 title when starting up.
535 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
537 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
538 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
539 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
540 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
541 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
545 exec [--no-startup-id] command
546 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
550 --------------------------------
552 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
554 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
555 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
556 --------------------------------
558 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
562 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
564 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
565 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
566 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
567 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
568 the second screen and so on).
571 ----------------------------------
572 workspace <workspace> output <output>
573 ----------------------------------
575 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
576 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
577 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
579 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
582 ---------------------------
583 workspace 1 output LVDS1
584 workspace 5 output VGA1
585 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
586 ---------------------------
590 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
593 --------------------------------------------
594 colorclass border background text
595 --------------------------------------------
597 Where colorclass can be one of:
600 A client which currently has the focus.
601 client.focused_inactive::
602 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
603 the focus at the moment.
605 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
607 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
609 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
610 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
614 -----------------------
615 client.background color
616 -----------------------
618 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
619 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
620 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
621 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
622 area of the termianal and the i3 border.
624 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
626 *Examples (default colors)*:
627 -----------------------------------------------
628 # class border backgr. text
629 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
630 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
631 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888
632 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
633 -----------------------------------------------
635 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
636 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
639 === Interprocess communication
641 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
642 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
643 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
645 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
646 +/tmp/i3-%u/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username and +%p+ is the PID
649 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
650 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
651 does the right thing by default.
654 ----------------------------
655 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
656 ----------------------------
658 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
661 === Focus follows mouse
663 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
664 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
665 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
666 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
667 to click on links in your browser window).
670 ----------------------------
671 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
672 ----------------------------
675 ----------------------
676 focus_follows_mouse no
677 ----------------------
679 === Popups during fullscreen mode
681 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
682 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
683 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
684 There are two things which are possible to do in this situation:
686 1. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
687 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
688 you go out of fullscreen).
689 2. Leave fullscreen mode. This is the default.
692 -------------------------------------------------
693 popup_during_fullscreen <ignore|leave_fullscreen>
694 -------------------------------------------------
697 ------------------------------
698 popup_during_fullscreen ignore
699 ------------------------------
703 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
704 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
705 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
706 be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
707 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
709 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
710 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
711 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
715 -----------------------------
716 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
717 -----------------------------
720 ------------------------
721 force_focus_wrapping yes
722 ------------------------
726 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
727 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
728 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
729 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
730 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
733 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
734 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
737 -----------------------
738 force_xinerama <yes|no>
739 -----------------------
746 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
747 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
749 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
751 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
752 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
754 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
755 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
756 came from now, you can just press mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
759 --------------------------------------
760 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
761 --------------------------------------
764 ---------------------------------
765 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
766 ---------------------------------
770 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
771 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
774 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
775 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
776 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
777 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
778 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
779 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
780 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
781 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
783 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
784 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
785 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
786 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
787 configuration infrastructure in place.
789 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
790 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
793 ---------------------------
795 status_command i3status
797 ---------------------------
799 === Statusline command
801 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
802 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
803 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
805 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
806 have to have correct quoting etc.
809 ----------------------
810 status_command command
811 ----------------------
814 -------------------------------------------------
816 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
818 -------------------------------------------------
822 You can have i3bar either be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
823 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+
826 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
827 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
830 The default is dock mode.
846 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
848 The default is bottom.
851 ---------------------
852 position <top|bottom>
853 ---------------------
856 ---------------------
860 ---------------------
864 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
865 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
866 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
868 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
869 directive multiple times.
877 -------------------------------
878 # big monitor: everything
880 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
883 status_command i3status
886 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
889 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
895 -------------------------------
899 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
900 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
902 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
903 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
906 -------------------------
907 tray_output <none|output>
908 -------------------------
911 -------------------------
912 # disable system tray
917 # show tray icons on the big monitor
921 -------------------------
925 Specifies the font (again, X core font, not Xft, just like in i3) to be used in
929 ---------------------
931 ---------------------
934 --------------------------------------------------------------
936 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
938 --------------------------------------------------------------
940 === Workspace buttons
942 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
943 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
945 The default is to show workspace buttons.
948 --------------------------
949 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
950 --------------------------
961 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
962 be configured at the moment:
965 Background color of the bar.
967 Text color to be used for the statusline.
969 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
972 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
973 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
974 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
975 using multiple monitors.
977 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
978 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
979 will be the case for most workspaces.
981 Text color/background color for workspaces which contain at least one
982 window with the urgency hint set.
985 ----------------------------------------
990 colorclass <foreground> <background>
992 ----------------------------------------
995 --------------------------------------
1001 focused_workspace #ffffff #285577
1002 active_workspace #ffffff #333333
1003 inactive_workspace #888888 #222222
1004 urgent_workspace #ffffff #900000
1007 --------------------------------------
1011 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1012 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1013 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1016 --------------------------
1017 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1019 --------------------------
1021 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1022 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1023 the following keybinding:
1026 -------------------------------------------
1027 bindsym mod+x move workspace 3; workspace 3
1028 -------------------------------------------
1030 [[command_criteria]]
1032 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers
1033 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
1034 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
1035 which have the class Firefox, use:
1038 ------------------------------------
1039 bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1041 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1042 bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1043 ------------------------------------
1045 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1048 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1050 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1052 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1054 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1056 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1058 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1060 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1061 interface. Handy for scripting.
1063 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1064 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1065 information on how to use them.
1069 === Executing applications (exec)
1071 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1072 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1073 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1074 searched in your $PATH.
1077 ------------------------------
1078 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1079 ------------------------------
1082 ------------------------------
1084 bindsym mod+g exec gimp
1086 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1087 bindsym mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1088 ------------------------------
1090 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1091 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1092 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1093 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1094 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1095 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1096 cursor for 60 seconds.
1098 === Splitting containers
1100 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1101 can contain multiple windows. Every split container has an orientation, it is
1102 either split horizontally (a new window gets placed to the right of the current
1103 one) or vertically (a new window gets placed below the current one).
1105 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1106 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1107 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
1110 ---------------------------
1111 split <vertical|horizontal>
1112 ---------------------------
1115 ------------------------------
1116 bindsym mod+v split vertical
1117 bindsym mod+h split horizontal
1118 ------------------------------
1120 === Manipulating layout
1122 Use +layout default+, +layout stacking+ or +layout tabbed+ to change the
1123 current container layout to default, stacking or tabbed layout, respectively.
1125 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1126 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1127 (or +floating toggle+):
1131 bindsym mod+s layout stacking
1132 bindsym mod+l layout default
1133 bindsym mod+w layout tabbed
1136 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
1138 # Toggle floating/tiling
1139 bindsym mod+t floating toggle
1142 === Focusing/Moving containers
1144 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus down+ and +focus up+.
1146 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1149 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1151 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1154 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1156 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1158 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1160 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1163 -----------------------------------
1164 focus <left|right|down|up>
1165 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1166 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1167 -----------------------------------
1169 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1170 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1173 ----------------------
1174 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1175 bindsym mod+j focus left
1176 bindsym mod+k focus down
1177 bindsym mod+l focus up
1178 bindsym mod+semicolon focus right
1180 # Focus parent container
1181 bindsym mod+u focus parent
1183 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1184 bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
1186 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1187 bindsym mod+j move left
1188 bindsym mod+k move down
1189 bindsym mod+l move up
1190 bindsym mod+semicolon move right
1192 # Move container, but make floating containers
1193 # move more than the default
1194 bindsym mod+j move left 20 px
1195 ----------------------
1197 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1199 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1200 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1203 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1204 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1205 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1206 combination. Similarily, you can use +move workspace next+ and +move workspace
1207 prev+ to move a container to the next/previous workspace.
1210 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1213 To move a container to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+, you can
1214 use the +move output+ command followed by the name of the target output. You
1215 may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr output name to
1216 move to the the next output in the specified direction.
1219 -------------------------
1220 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1
1221 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
1224 bindsym mod+Shift+1 move workspace 1
1225 bindsym mod+Shift+2 move workspace 2
1228 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1229 bindsym mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1230 -------------------------
1232 ==== Named workspaces
1234 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1235 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1238 -------------------------
1239 bindsym mod+1 workspace mail
1241 -------------------------
1243 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1247 -------------------------
1248 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1249 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2: www
1251 -------------------------
1253 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1254 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1255 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1256 will order them numerically.
1260 === Resizing containers/windows
1262 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1266 ---------------------------------------------------------
1267 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
1268 ---------------------------------------------------------
1270 Direction can be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. The optional pixel
1271 argument specifies by how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or
1272 shrunk (the default is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points
1273 and specifies by how many percentage points a *tiling container* should be
1274 grown or shrunk (the default is 10 percentage points).
1276 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1278 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1279 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1281 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1283 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
1284 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
1285 # more space on its left
1287 bindsym j resize shrink left
1288 bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
1290 bindsym k resize grow down
1291 bindsym Shift+k resize shrink down
1293 bindsym l resize shrink up
1294 bindsym Shift+l resize grow up
1296 bindsym semicolon resize grow right
1297 bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
1299 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1300 bindsym Return mode "default"
1301 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1305 bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
1306 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1308 === Jumping to specific windows
1310 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1311 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1312 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1313 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
1314 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1315 with criteria for that.
1318 ----------------------------------------------------
1319 [class="class"] focus
1320 [title="title"] focus
1321 ----------------------------------------------------
1324 ------------------------------------------------
1325 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1326 bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1327 ------------------------------------------------
1329 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1333 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1334 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1335 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1336 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
1337 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
1340 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1341 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1342 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1343 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1346 ------------------------------
1348 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1349 ------------------------------
1351 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1352 ------------------------------
1354 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1355 ------------------------------
1357 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1358 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1360 ---------------------------------------
1361 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1362 bindsym mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1364 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1365 bindsym mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1366 ---------------------------------------
1368 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1369 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1370 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1372 === Changing border style
1374 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1375 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1376 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1378 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1381 ----------------------------
1382 bindsym mod+t border normal
1383 bindsym mod+y border 1pixel
1384 bindsym mod+u border none
1385 ----------------------------
1389 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1390 TODO: not yet implemented
1391 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1393 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1394 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1395 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1396 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1398 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1399 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1400 you limited) automatically as needed.
1403 --------------------------------
1404 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1405 --------------------------------
1409 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1412 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1416 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1417 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1419 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1421 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1422 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1423 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1424 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1425 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1428 ----------------------------
1429 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
1430 bindsym mod+Shift+w reload
1431 bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
1432 ----------------------------
1436 == Multiple monitors
1438 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1439 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1440 handle multiple monitors.
1442 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1443 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1445 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1446 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1447 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1448 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1449 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1450 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1451 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1453 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1454 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1455 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1456 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1457 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1458 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1459 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1460 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1462 === Configuring your monitors
1464 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1465 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1466 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1467 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1468 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1470 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1471 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1472 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1473 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1474 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1476 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1477 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1481 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1483 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1484 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1485 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1486 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1488 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1489 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1490 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1492 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1493 -------------------------------------------
1494 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1495 -------------------------------------------
1496 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1497 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1498 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1499 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1501 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1502 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1503 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1506 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1508 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1509 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1511 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1512 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1513 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1515 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1516 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1520 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1521 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
1522 only what you can see in xrandr.
1524 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
1526 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
1528 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
1529 have more than one monitor:
1531 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
1532 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
1533 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
1534 <<workspace_screen>>.
1535 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
1536 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
1537 <<assign_workspace>>.
1538 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
1539 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
1540 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
1542 == i3 and the rest of your software world
1544 === Displaying a status line
1546 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
1547 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
1548 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
1550 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
1551 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
1552 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
1553 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
1554 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
1555 i3bar. Use a pipe to connect them: +i3status | i3bar -d+.
1557 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
1558 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
1559 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
1560 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can use +-d+ or +-dbottom+
1561 for positioning it at the bottom and +-dtop+ to position it at the top of the
1564 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
1566 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
1567 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
1568 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
1569 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
1573 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
1574 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
1575 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
1576 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
1577 -----------------------------------------------------
1578 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
1579 -----------------------------------------------------
1580 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1581 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1582 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1584 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1585 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1586 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1587 -----------------------------------------------------
1588 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1589 -----------------------------------------------------
1590 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1591 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1593 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1594 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1595 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).