3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 This document contains all information you need to configuring and using the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact me on IRC, Jabber or E-Mail and
10 For a complete listing of the default keybindings, please see the manpage.
14 === Creating terminals and moving around
16 A very basic operation is to create a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
17 for that is Mod1+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
18 pressing Mod1+Enter, a new terminal will be created and it will fill the whole
19 space which is available on your screen.
21 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
23 It is important to keep in mind that i3 uses a table to manage your windows. At
24 the moment, you have exactly one column and one row which leaves you with one
25 cell. In this cell, there is a container in which your newly opened terminal is.
27 If you now open another terminal, you still have only one cell. However, the
28 container has both of your terminals. So, a container is just a group of clients
29 with a specific layout. You can resize containers as they directly resemble
30 columns/rows of the layout table.
32 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
34 To move the focus between the two terminals, you use the direction keys which
35 you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used for
36 these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility
37 with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +Mod1+J+ is left, +Mod1+K+ is down, +Mod1+L+
38 is up and `Mod1+;` is right. So, to switch between the terminals, use +Mod1+K+ or
41 To create a new row/column, you can simply move a terminal (or any other window)
42 to the direction you want to expand your table. So, let’s expand the table to
43 the right by pressing `Mod1+Shift+;`.
45 image:two_columns.png[Two columns]
47 === Changing mode of containers
49 A container can be in two modes at the moment (more to be implemented later):
50 +default+ or +stacking+. In default mode, clients are sized so that every client
51 gets an equal amount of space of the container. In stacking mode, only one
52 focused client of the container is displayed and you get a list of windows
53 at the top of the container.
55 To switch the mode, press +Mod1+h+ for stacking and +Mod1+e+ for default.
57 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
59 To display a window fullscreen or to go out of fullscreen mode again, press
62 === Opening other applications
64 Aside from opening applicatios from a terminal, you can also use the handy
65 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +Mod1+v+ by default. Just type the name
66 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. It has to be in
67 your +$PATH+ for that to work.
69 Furthermore, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can also
70 create a keybinding for it. See the section "Configuring i3" for details.
74 If an application does not provide a mechanism to close (most applications
75 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
76 can press +Mod1+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
77 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
78 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
79 it, your X server will kill the window and the behaviour depends on the
84 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
85 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
86 another workspace, press +Mod1+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
87 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
89 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
90 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one and the ones with which you
91 work on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
93 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen. If
94 you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you created it on.
95 When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set focus to this
98 === Moving windows to workspaces
100 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +Mod1+Shift+num+ where
101 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
102 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
103 it does not yet exist.
107 To resize columns just grab the border between the two columns and move it to
110 A command for doing this via keyboard will be implemented soon.
112 === Restarting i3 inplace
114 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get it into a clean state if it has a bug, to
115 reload your configuration or even to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you
116 can use +Mod1+Shift+r+. Be aware, though, that this kills your current layout
117 and all the windows you have opened will be put in a default container in only
118 one cell. Saving the layout will be implemented in a later version.
122 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +Mod1+Shift+e+.
126 Snapping is a mechanism to increase/decrease the colspan/rowspan of a container.
127 Colspan/rowspan is the amount of columns/rows a specific cell of the table
128 consumes. This is easier explained by giving an example, so take the following
131 image:snapping.png[Snapping example]
133 To use the full size of your screen, you can now snap container 3 downwards
134 by pressing +Mod1+Control+k+ (or snap container 2 rightwards).
138 Floating is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
139 are then not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
140 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
141 windows or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar).
143 You can enable floating for a window by pressing +Mod1+Shift+Space+. By
144 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse, you can move the window
145 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window.
147 Bindings for doing this with your keyboard will follow.
149 Floating clients are always on top of tiling clients.
153 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
154 ideal working environment, so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
156 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
157 quite flexible regarding to the things you usually want your window manager
160 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
161 you can set specific applications to start on a specific workspace, you can
162 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3 or bind
163 your keys to do useful stuff.
165 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +~/.i3/config+
166 and edit it with a text editor.
168 === General configuration
171 Specifies the terminal emulator program you prefer. It will be started
172 by default when you press Mod1+Enter, but you can overwrite this. Refer
173 to it as +$terminal+ to keep things modular.
175 Specifies the default font you want i3 to use. Use an X core font
176 descriptor here, like
177 +-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1+. You can
178 use +xfontsel(1)+ to pick one.
180 === Keyboard bindings
182 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
183 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
184 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
186 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a" or "b",
187 but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These are the ones
188 you also use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current mapping of your
189 keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
191 * Keycodes however do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for some hotkeys
192 on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you switch to a
193 different keyboard layout.
195 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts because you try to
196 learn a different one, but you want to keep your bindings at the same place,
197 use keycodes. If you don’t switch layouts and like a clean and simple config
201 ----------------------------------
202 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
203 bind [Modifiers+]keycode command
204 ----------------------------------
207 --------------------------------
212 bind Mod1+Shift+r restart
214 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
215 bind 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
216 --------------------------------
220 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
221 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
224 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
225 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
226 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
227 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
228 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
230 === The floating modifier
232 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
233 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
234 click anywhere in the window itself. The most common setup is to configure
235 it as the same one you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Afterwards,
236 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button and drag
237 it to the position you want it at.
240 --------------------------------
241 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
242 --------------------------------
245 --------------------------------
246 floating_modifier Mod1
247 --------------------------------
252 As you learned in the previous section about keyboard bindings, you will have
253 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
254 yourself some typing and have the possibility to change the modifier you want
255 to use later, variables can be handy.
263 ------------------------
265 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
266 ------------------------
268 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing, there is no fancy
269 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
270 dynamic configuration, you should create a little script, like when configuring
273 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
275 It is recommended that you match on window classes whereever possible because
276 some applications first create their window and then care about setting the
277 correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind, as the window starts up
278 being named Firefox and only when Vimperator is loaded, the title changes. As
279 i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the window (mapping means
280 actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have to match on Firefox
283 You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a `~` to specify that matching clients
284 should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a `~`, the client will
285 not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
288 ------------------------------------------------------------
289 assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] [~ | workspace]
290 ------------------------------------------------------------
293 ----------------------
297 assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3
299 assign "xv/MPlayer" → ~
300 ----------------------
302 === Automatically starting applications on startup
304 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure which
305 commands will be performed by i3 on the first start (not when reloading inplace
306 however). The commands will be run in order.
314 --------------------------------
315 exec sudo i3status | dzen2 -dock
316 --------------------------------
318 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
320 If you use the assigning of clients to workspaces and start some clients
321 automatically, it might be handy to put the workspaces on specific screens.
322 Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens will determine the workspace
323 which i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens or when starting (e.g., by
324 default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for the second screen and so on).
327 ----------------------------------
328 workspace <number> screen <screen>
329 ----------------------------------
331 Screen can be either a number (starting at 0 for the first screen) or a
332 position. When using numbers, it is not guaranteed that your screens always
333 get the same number. Though, unless you upgrade your X server or drivers, the
334 order usually stays the same. When using positions, you have to specify the
335 exact pixel where the screen *starts*, not a pixel which is contained by the
336 screen. Thus, if your first screen has the dimensions 1280x800, you can match
337 the second screen right of it by specifying 1280. You cannot use 1281.
340 ---------------------------
344 workspace 1 screen 1280
345 workspace 2 screen x800
346 workspace 3 screen 1280x800
347 ---------------------------
351 If you always have a certain arrangement of workspaces, you might want to give
352 them names (of course UTF-8 is supported):
355 ---------------------------------------
356 workspace <number> <name>
357 workspace <number> screen <screen> name
358 ---------------------------------------
360 For more details about the screen-part of this command, see above.
363 --------------------------
366 workspace 3 i ♥ workspaces
367 --------------------------
371 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations and the
375 --------------------------------------------
376 colorclass border background text
377 --------------------------------------------
379 Where colorclass can be one of:
382 A client which currently has the focus.
383 client.focused_inactive::
384 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
385 the focus at the moment.
387 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
389 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
391 The current workspace in the bottom bar.
393 All other workspaces in the bottom bar.
395 A workspace which has at least one client with an activated urgency hint.
397 Colors are in HTML hex format, see below.
400 --------------------------------------
401 # class border backgr. text
402 client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF
403 --------------------------------------
405 === Interprocess communication
407 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. At the moment, this interface
408 is only useful for sending commands. To enable it, you have to configure a path
409 where the unix socket will be stored. The default path is +/tmp/i3-ipc.sock+.
412 ----------------------------
413 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
414 ----------------------------
416 You can then use the i3-msg command to perform any command listed in the next
421 === Manipulating layout
423 To change the layout of the current container to stacking or back to default
424 layout, use +s+ or +d+. To make the current client (!) fullscreen, use +f+, to
425 make it floating (or tiling again) use +t+:
435 # Toggle floating/tiling
439 === Focussing/Moving/Snapping clients/containers/screens
441 To change the focus, use one of the +h+, +j+, +k+ and +l+ commands, meaning
442 respectively left, down, up, right. To focus a container, prefix it with +wc+,
443 to focus a screen, prefix it with +ws+.
445 The same principle applies for moving and snapping, just prefix the command
446 with +m+ when moving and with +s+ when snapping:
449 ----------------------
450 # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
454 bindsym Mod1+semicolon l
456 # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
460 bindsym Mod1+semicolon ml
462 # Snap client to the left, bottom, top, right:
466 bindsym Mod1+semicolon sl
468 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
471 ----------------------
473 === Changing workspaces/moving clients to workspaces
475 To change to a specific workspace, the command is just the number of the
476 workspace, e.g. +1+ or +3+. To move the current client to a specific workspace,
477 prefix the number with an +m+.
479 Furthermore, you can switch to the next and previous workspace with the
480 commands +nw+ and +pw+, which is handy for example if you have workspace
481 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key combination.
484 -------------------------
489 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 m1
490 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 m2
495 -------------------------
497 === Jumping to specific windows
499 Especially when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a specific
500 window, for example while currently working on workspace 3 you may want to jump to
501 your mailclient to mail your boss that you’ve achieved some important goal. Instead
502 of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient, it would be more convenient to
506 ----------------------------------------------------
507 jump ["]window class[/window title]["]
508 jump workspace [ column row ]
509 ----------------------------------------------------
511 You can either use the same matching algorithm as in the +assign+ command (see above)
512 or you can specify the position of the client if you always use the same layout.
515 --------------------------------------
516 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
517 bindsym Mod1+a jump "urxvt/VIM"
518 --------------------------------------
520 === Traveling the focus stack
522 This mechanism can be thought of as the opposite of the +jump+ command. It travels
523 the focus stack and jumps to the window you focused before.
527 focus [number] | floating | tilling | ft
530 Where +number+ by default is 1 meaning that the next client in the focus stack will
533 The special values have the following meaning:
536 The next floating window is selected.
538 The next tiling window is selected.
540 If the current window is floating, the next tiling window will be selected
543 === Changing border style
545 To change the border of the current client, you can use +bn+ to use the normal
546 border (including window title), +bp+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
547 and +bb+ to make the client borderless.
556 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
558 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
559 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
560 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
561 your X session. However, your layout is not preserved at the moment, meaning
562 that all open windows will be in a single container in default layout. To exit
563 i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command, however you don’t need to (e.g.,
564 simply killing your X session is fine aswell).
567 ----------------------------
568 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
569 bindsym Mod1+Shift+w reload
570 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
571 ----------------------------