3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please check http://faq.i3wm.org/ first, then
8 contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your 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+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
26 Note that when starting i3 without a config file, i3-config-wizard will offer
27 you to create a config file in which the key positions (!) match what you see
28 in the image above, regardless of the keyboard layout you are using. If you
29 prefer to use a config file where the key letters match what you are seeing
30 above, just decline i3-config-wizard’s offer and base your config on
35 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
36 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (Mod1) by default, with the Windows
37 key (Mod4) being a popular alternative.
39 === Opening terminals and moving around
41 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
42 for this is $mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
43 pressing $mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
44 space available on your screen.
46 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
48 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
49 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
50 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
51 existing window (rotated displays).
53 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
55 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
56 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
57 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
58 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+J+ is left, +$mod+K+
59 is down, +$mod+L+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
60 terminals, use +$mod+K+ or +$mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
62 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
63 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
64 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
65 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
66 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
69 TODO: picture of the tree
71 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
72 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
74 === Changing the container layout
76 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
79 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
80 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
81 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
84 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
85 windows at the top of the container.
87 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
88 a single line which is vertically split.
90 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
91 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
93 image:modes.png[Container modes]
95 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
97 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
100 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
101 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
103 === Opening other applications
105 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
106 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
107 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
108 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
110 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
111 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
112 <<configuring>> for details.
116 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
117 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
118 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
119 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
120 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
121 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
122 depends on the application.
126 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
127 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
128 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
129 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
131 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
132 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
133 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
135 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
136 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
137 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
138 focus to that screen.
140 === Moving windows to workspaces
142 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
143 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
144 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
145 it does not yet exist.
149 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
150 and move it to the wanted size.
152 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
153 columns/rows with your keyboard.
155 === Restarting i3 inplace
157 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
158 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
162 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
163 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
167 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
168 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
169 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
170 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
171 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
172 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
174 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
175 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
176 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
177 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
178 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
180 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
182 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
186 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
187 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
188 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
189 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
190 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
191 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
193 === The tree consists of Containers
195 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
196 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
197 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
198 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
199 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
202 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
203 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
205 === Orientation and Split Containers
209 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
210 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
211 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
212 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
213 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
214 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
215 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
216 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
218 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
220 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
221 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
222 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
223 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
224 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
225 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
226 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
227 terminal and it will open below the current one:
229 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
230 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
234 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
239 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
240 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
241 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
243 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
244 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
245 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
246 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
247 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
249 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
251 === Implicit containers
253 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
256 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
257 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
258 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
259 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
261 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
262 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
263 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
264 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
265 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
266 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
267 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
273 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
274 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
276 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
277 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
280 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
281 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
282 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
283 can bind your keys to do useful things.
285 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
286 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
289 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
290 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
291 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
292 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
293 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
294 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
299 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
300 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
301 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
312 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
313 render window titles.
315 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
316 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
319 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
320 a variant, a stretch and a size.
321 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
322 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
324 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
325 and fall back to a working font.
328 ------------------------------
329 font <X core font description>
330 font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size>
331 ------------------------------
334 --------------------------------------------------------------
335 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
336 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
337 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
338 font pango:Terminus 11px
339 --------------------------------------------------------------
343 === Keyboard bindings
345 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
346 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
347 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
349 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
350 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
351 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
352 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
353 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
355 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
356 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
357 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
359 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
360 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
361 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
364 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
365 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
366 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
367 after the keys have been released.
370 ----------------------------------
371 bindsym [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
372 bindcode [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command
373 ----------------------------------
376 --------------------------------
378 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
381 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
383 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
384 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
386 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
387 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
389 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
390 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
391 --------------------------------
395 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
396 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
398 Group1, Group2, Group3, Group4::
399 When using multiple keyboard layouts (e.g. with `setxkbmap -layout us,ru`), you
400 can specify in which XKB group (also called “layout”) a keybinding should be
401 active. By default, keybindings are translated in Group1 and are active in all
402 groups. If you want to override keybindings in one of your layouts, specify the
403 corresponding group. For backwards compatibility, the group “Mode_switch” is an
410 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
411 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
412 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
415 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
416 bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command
417 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
419 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
420 window. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
423 If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
424 of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
425 when the border is clicked, specify the +--border+ flag.
428 --------------------------------
429 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
430 bindsym --release button2 kill
432 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
433 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
435 # The right button toggles floating
436 bindsym button3 floating toggle
437 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
439 # The side buttons move the window around
440 bindsym button9 move left
441 bindsym button8 move right
442 --------------------------------
444 [[floating_modifier]]
446 === The floating modifier
448 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
449 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
450 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
451 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
452 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
453 it to the position you want.
455 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
456 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
457 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
458 ratio will be preserved).
461 --------------------------------
462 floating_modifier <Modifier>
463 --------------------------------
466 --------------------------------
467 floating_modifier Mod1
468 --------------------------------
470 === Constraining floating window size
472 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
473 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
474 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
475 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
476 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
477 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
480 ----------------------------------------
481 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
482 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
483 ----------------------------------------
486 --------------------------------------
487 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
488 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
489 --------------------------------------
491 === Orientation for new workspaces
493 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
494 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
495 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
497 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
501 --------------------------------------------
502 default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto
503 --------------------------------------------
506 ----------------------------
507 default_orientation vertical
508 ----------------------------
510 === Layout mode for new containers
512 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
516 ---------------------------------------------
517 workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed
518 ---------------------------------------------
521 ---------------------
522 workspace_layout tabbed
523 ---------------------
525 === Border style for new windows
527 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
528 +normal+. Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
529 floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.
532 ---------------------------------------------
533 new_window normal|none|pixel
534 new_window normal|pixel <px>
535 new_float normal|none|pixel
536 new_float normal|pixel <px>
537 ---------------------------------------------
540 ---------------------
542 ---------------------
544 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
548 ---------------------
549 # The same as new_window none
554 ---------------------
557 === Hiding vertical borders
559 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
560 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
561 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
564 -----------------------------------------------
565 hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both
566 -----------------------------------------------
569 ----------------------
570 hide_edge_borders vertical
571 ----------------------
573 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
577 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
578 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
579 change their border style, for example.
582 -------------------------------
583 for_window <criteria> <command>
584 -------------------------------
587 ------------------------------------------------
588 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
589 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
591 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
592 for_window [class="urxvt"] border pixel 1
594 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
595 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
596 # directory to ~/work
597 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
598 ------------------------------------------------
600 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
602 === Don't focus window upon opening
606 When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
607 this from happening and can be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
609 Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
610 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
611 <<focus_on_window_activation>>.
619 -------------------------------
620 no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
621 -------------------------------
625 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
626 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
627 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
628 variables can be handy.
636 ------------------------
638 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
639 ------------------------
641 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
642 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
643 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
644 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
645 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
646 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
648 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
652 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
653 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
654 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
655 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
656 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
657 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
658 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
659 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
660 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
661 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
663 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
664 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
668 ------------------------------------------------------------
669 assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] <workspace>
670 ------------------------------------------------------------
673 ----------------------
674 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
675 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
677 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
678 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
680 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
681 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
683 # Assignment to a named workspace
684 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
686 # Start urxvt -name irssi
687 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
688 ----------------------
690 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
691 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
693 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
694 window, you will see the following output:
697 -----------------------------------
698 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
699 -----------------------------------
701 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
702 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
704 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
705 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
706 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
707 title when starting up.
709 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
710 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
711 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
712 file in the following way:
714 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
715 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
716 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
717 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
718 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
719 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
720 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
721 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
722 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
723 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
725 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
727 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
728 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
729 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
730 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
731 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
733 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
734 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
735 strings if they appear in your command.
738 ---------------------------------------
739 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
740 exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command>
741 ---------------------------------------
744 --------------------------------
746 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
748 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
749 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
750 --------------------------------
752 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
756 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
758 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
759 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
760 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
761 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
762 the second screen and so on).
765 -------------------------------------
766 workspace <workspace> output <output>
767 -------------------------------------
769 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
770 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
771 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
773 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
776 ---------------------------
777 workspace 1 output LVDS1
778 workspace 5 output VGA1
779 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
780 ---------------------------
784 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
787 ------------------------------------------------------
788 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator>
789 ------------------------------------------------------
791 Where colorclass can be one of:
794 A client which currently has the focus.
795 client.focused_inactive::
796 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
797 the focus at the moment.
799 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
801 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
803 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
804 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
806 Background color which will be used to paint the background of the
807 client window on top of which the client will be rendered. Only clients
808 which do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color. Note
809 that this colorclass only takes a single color.
811 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
813 *Examples (default colors)*:
814 ---------------------------------------------------------
815 # class border backgr. text indicator
816 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
817 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
818 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
819 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
820 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
822 client.background #ffffff
823 ---------------------------------------------------------
825 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
826 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
829 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
830 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
831 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
832 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
833 from single windows outside of a split container.
835 === Interprocess communication
837 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
838 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
839 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
841 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
842 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
843 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
844 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
846 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
847 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
848 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
849 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
850 user can create that directory.
853 ----------------------------
854 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
855 ----------------------------
857 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
860 === Focus follows mouse
862 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
863 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
864 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
865 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
866 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
867 links in your browser window).
870 --------------------------
871 focus_follows_mouse yes|no
872 --------------------------
875 ----------------------
876 focus_follows_mouse no
877 ----------------------
881 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
882 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
883 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
885 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
886 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
887 behavior described above.
890 -------------------------
891 mouse_warping output|none
892 -------------------------
899 === Popups during fullscreen mode
901 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
902 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
903 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
904 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
906 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
907 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
908 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
909 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
910 you go out of fullscreen).
911 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
914 -----------------------------------------------------
915 popup_during_fullscreen smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen
916 -----------------------------------------------------
919 ------------------------------
920 popup_during_fullscreen smart
921 ------------------------------
925 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
926 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
927 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
928 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
929 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
931 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
932 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
933 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
937 ---------------------------
938 force_focus_wrapping yes|no
939 ---------------------------
942 ------------------------
943 force_focus_wrapping yes
944 ------------------------
948 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
949 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
950 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
951 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
952 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
955 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
956 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
959 ---------------------
960 force_xinerama yes|no
961 ---------------------
968 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
969 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
971 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
973 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
974 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
976 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
977 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
978 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
981 ------------------------------------
982 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes|no
983 ------------------------------------
986 ---------------------------------
987 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
988 ---------------------------------
990 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
992 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
993 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
994 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
995 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
998 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
999 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
1000 value to 0 disables this feature.
1002 The default is 500ms.
1005 ---------------------------------------
1006 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
1007 ---------------------------------------
1010 ---------------------------------
1011 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
1012 ---------------------------------
1014 === Focus on window activation
1016 [[focus_on_window_activation]]
1018 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
1019 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
1021 Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
1022 from being focused, see <<no_focus>>.
1025 --------------------------------------------------
1026 focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none
1027 --------------------------------------------------
1029 The different modes will act as follows:
1032 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1033 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1035 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1037 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1039 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1041 === Drawing marks on window decoration
1043 If activated, marks on windows are drawn in their window decoration. However,
1044 any mark starting with an underscore in its name (+_+) will not be drawn even if
1045 this option is activated.
1047 The default for this option is +yes+.
1059 [[line_continuation]]
1061 === Line continuation
1063 Config files support line continuation, meaning when you end a line in a
1064 backslash character (`\`), the line-break will be ignored by the parser. This
1065 feature can be used to create more readable configuration files.
1073 == Configuring i3bar
1075 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1076 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1079 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1080 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1081 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1082 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1083 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1084 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1085 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1086 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1088 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1089 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1090 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1091 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1092 configuration infrastructure in place.
1094 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1095 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1098 ---------------------------
1100 status_command i3status
1102 ---------------------------
1106 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1107 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1108 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1109 tell i3 what to execute.
1111 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1112 have to have correct quoting etc.
1115 -----------------------
1116 i3bar_command <command>
1117 -----------------------
1120 -------------------------------------------------
1122 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1124 -------------------------------------------------
1127 === Statusline command
1129 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1130 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1131 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1133 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1134 have to have correct quoting etc. Note that for signal handling, depending on
1135 your shell (users of dash(1) are known to be affected), you have to use the
1136 shell’s exec command so that signals are passed to your program, not to the
1140 ------------------------
1141 status_command <command>
1142 ------------------------
1145 -------------------------------------------------
1147 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1149 # For dash(1) users who want signal handling to work:
1150 status_command exec ~/.bin/my_status_command
1152 -------------------------------------------------
1156 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1157 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1158 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1159 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1161 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1162 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1164 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1165 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1168 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1169 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1170 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1172 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1173 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1174 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1175 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1176 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1177 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1179 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1180 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1182 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1183 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1186 -------------------------
1187 mode dock|hide|invisible
1188 hidden_state hide|show
1190 ------------------------
1201 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1203 === Mouse button commands
1205 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1206 default behavior. This is useful, e.g., for disabling the scroll wheel action
1207 or running scripts that implement custom behavior for these buttons.
1209 A button is always named +button<n>+, where 1 to 5 are default buttons as follows and higher
1210 numbers can be special buttons on devices offering more buttons:
1215 Middle mouse button.
1223 Please note that the old +wheel_up_cmd+ and +wheel_down_cmd+ commands are deprecated
1224 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the more general
1225 +bindsym+ with +button4+ and +button5+ instead.
1228 ----------------------------
1229 bindsym button<n> <command>
1230 ----------------------------
1233 ---------------------------------------------------------
1235 # disable clicking on workspace buttons
1237 # execute custom script when scrolling downwards
1238 bindsym button5 exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1240 ---------------------------------------------------------
1244 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1245 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1246 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1249 ---------------------
1251 ---------------------
1254 ---------------------
1258 ---------------------
1263 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1265 The default is bottom.
1273 ---------------------
1277 ---------------------
1281 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1282 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1283 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1285 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1286 directive multiple times.
1294 -------------------------------
1295 # big monitor: everything
1297 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1300 status_command i3status
1303 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1306 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1312 -------------------------------
1316 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1317 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1319 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1320 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1323 ---------------------------------
1324 tray_output none|primary|<output>
1325 ---------------------------------
1328 -------------------------
1329 # disable system tray
1334 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1339 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1343 -------------------------
1345 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1346 -------------------------
1347 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1348 -------------------------
1350 Note that when you use multiple bar configuration blocks, either specify
1351 `tray_output primary` in all of them or explicitly specify `tray_output none`
1352 in bars which should not display the tray, otherwise the different instances
1353 might race each other in trying to display tray icons.
1357 The tray is shown on the right-hand side of the bar. By default, a padding of 2
1358 pixels is used for the upper, lower and right-hand side of the tray area and
1359 between the individual icons.
1362 -------------------------
1363 tray_padding <px> [px]
1364 -------------------------
1367 -------------------------
1370 -------------------------
1374 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1377 ---------------------
1379 ---------------------
1382 --------------------------------------------------------------
1384 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1385 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1387 --------------------------------------------------------------
1389 === Custom separator symbol
1391 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1392 one pixel thick separator.
1395 -------------------------
1396 separator_symbol <symbol>
1397 -------------------------
1400 ------------------------
1402 separator_symbol ":|:"
1404 ------------------------
1406 === Workspace buttons
1408 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1409 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1411 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1414 ------------------------
1415 workspace_buttons yes|no
1416 ------------------------
1419 ------------------------
1421 workspace_buttons no
1423 ------------------------
1425 === Strip workspace numbers
1427 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1428 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1429 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1431 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1432 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1433 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1434 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1436 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1439 ------------------------------
1440 strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
1441 ------------------------------
1444 ----------------------------
1446 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1448 ----------------------------
1450 === Binding Mode indicator
1452 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1453 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1454 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1455 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1457 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1460 -----------------------------
1461 binding_mode_indicator yes|no
1462 -----------------------------
1465 -----------------------------
1467 binding_mode_indicator no
1469 -----------------------------
1473 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1474 be configured at the moment:
1477 Background color of the bar.
1479 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1481 Text color to be used for the separator.
1483 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1486 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1487 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1488 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1489 using multiple monitors.
1490 inactive_workspace::
1491 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1492 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1493 will be the case for most workspaces.
1495 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1496 contains a window with the urgency hint set.
1498 Border, background and text color for the binding mode indicator. If not used,
1499 the colors will be taken from +urgent_workspace+.
1502 ----------------------------------------
1508 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text>
1510 ----------------------------------------
1512 *Example (default colors)*:
1513 --------------------------------------
1520 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1521 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1522 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1523 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1524 binding_mode #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1527 --------------------------------------
1531 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1532 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1533 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1536 --------------------------
1537 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1539 --------------------------
1541 [[command_chaining]]
1543 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1544 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1545 the following keybinding:
1548 --------------------------------------------------------
1549 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1550 --------------------------------------------------------
1552 [[command_criteria]]
1554 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1555 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1556 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1559 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1560 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1561 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1565 ------------------------------------
1566 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1567 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1569 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1570 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1572 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1573 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1575 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1576 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1577 ------------------------------------
1579 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1582 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1583 special value +__focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1584 class as the currently focused window.
1586 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1587 special value +__focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1588 instance as the currently focused window.
1590 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE). Use the special value
1591 +__focused__+ to match all windows having the same window role as the
1592 currently focused window.
1594 Compare the window type (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE). Possible values are
1595 +normal+, +dialog+, +utility+, +toolbar+, +splash+, +menu+, +dropdown_menu+,
1596 +popup_menu+ and +tooltip+.
1598 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1600 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1601 Use the special value +__focused__+ to match all windows having the
1602 same window title as the currently focused window.
1604 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1605 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1606 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1608 Compares the workspace name of the workspace the window belongs to. Use
1609 the special value +__focused__+ to match all windows in the currently
1612 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1614 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1615 interface. Handy for scripting.
1617 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+, +workspace+ and +mark+ are
1618 actually regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1619 information on how to use them.
1623 === Executing applications (exec)
1625 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1626 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1627 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1628 searched in your +$PATH+.
1630 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
1631 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
1632 strings if they appear in your command.
1635 --------------------------------
1636 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
1637 --------------------------------
1640 ------------------------------
1642 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1644 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1645 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1646 ------------------------------
1648 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1649 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1650 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1651 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1652 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1653 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1654 cursor for 60 seconds.
1656 === Splitting containers
1658 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1659 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1660 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1661 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1663 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1664 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1665 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1666 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1667 to splith or vice-versa.
1670 -------------------------
1671 split vertical|horizontal
1672 -------------------------
1675 ------------------------------
1676 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1677 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1678 ------------------------------
1680 === Manipulating layout
1682 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1683 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1684 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1686 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1687 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1688 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1689 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1691 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1692 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1695 --------------------------------------------
1696 layout default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith
1697 layout toggle [split|all]
1698 --------------------------------------------
1702 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1703 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1704 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1706 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1707 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1709 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1710 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1713 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1715 # Toggle floating/tiling
1716 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1719 [[_focusing_moving_containers]]
1721 === Focusing containers
1723 To change focus, you can use the +focus+ command. The following options are
1726 left|right|up|down::
1727 Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
1729 Sets focus to the parent container of the current container.
1731 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1734 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1736 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1738 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1740 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1741 corresponding output.
1744 ----------------------------------------------
1745 focus left|right|down|up
1746 focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
1747 focus output left|right|up|down|<output>
1748 ----------------------------------------------
1751 -------------------------------------------------
1752 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
1753 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1754 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1755 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1756 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1758 # Focus parent container
1759 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1761 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1762 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1764 # Focus the output right to the current one
1765 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1767 # Focus the big output
1768 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1769 -------------------------------------------------
1771 === Moving containers
1773 Use the +move+ command to move a container.
1776 -----------------------------------------------------
1777 # Moves the container into the given direction.
1778 # The optional pixel argument specifies how far the
1779 # container should be moved if it is floating and
1780 # defaults to 10 pixels.
1781 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1783 # Moves the container either to a specific location
1784 # or to the center of the screen. If 'absolute' is
1785 # used, it is moved to the center of all outputs.
1786 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1788 # Moves the container to the current position of the
1789 # mouse cursor. Only affects floating containers.
1791 -----------------------------------------------------
1794 -------------------------------------------------------
1795 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right
1796 bindsym $mod+j move left
1797 bindsym $mod+k move down
1798 bindsym $mod+l move up
1799 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1801 # Move container, but make floating containers
1802 # move more than the default
1803 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1805 # Move floating container to the center of all outputs
1806 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1808 # Move container to the current position of the cursor
1809 bindsym $mod+m move position mouse
1810 -------------------------------------------------------
1812 === Sticky floating windows
1814 If you want a window to stick to the glass, i.e., have it stay on screen even
1815 if you switch to another workspace, you can use the +sticky+ command. For
1816 example, this can be useful for notepads, a media player or a video chat
1819 Note that while any window can be made sticky through this command, it will
1820 only take effect if the window is floating.
1823 ----------------------------
1824 sticky enable|disable|toggle
1825 ----------------------------
1828 ------------------------------------------------------
1829 # make a terminal sticky that was started as a notepad
1830 for_window [instance=notepad] sticky enable
1831 ------------------------------------------------------
1833 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1835 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1836 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1837 +move container to workspace+.
1839 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1840 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1841 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1842 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1843 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1844 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1845 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1846 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1848 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1851 Workspace names are parsed as
1852 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
1856 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1857 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1858 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1861 -----------------------------------
1862 workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
1863 workspace back_and_forth
1865 workspace number <name>
1867 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1868 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1869 move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current
1870 -----------------------------------
1873 -------------------------
1874 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1875 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1876 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
1879 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1880 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1883 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1884 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1885 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1887 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1888 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1890 # move firefox to current workspace
1891 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1892 -------------------------
1894 ==== Named workspaces
1896 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1897 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1900 -------------------------
1901 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1903 -------------------------
1905 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1909 -------------------------
1910 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1911 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1913 -------------------------
1915 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1916 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1917 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1918 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1919 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1920 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1921 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1922 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1924 ==== Renaming workspaces
1926 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1927 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1928 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1929 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1930 rename command with +i3-input+.
1933 ----------------------------------------------------
1934 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1935 rename workspace to <new_name>
1936 ----------------------------------------------------
1939 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1940 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1941 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1942 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1943 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"'
1944 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1945 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1947 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1949 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1952 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1956 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1957 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1958 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1961 ----------------------------------------------------
1962 move container to output left|right|down|up|<output>
1963 move workspace to output left|right|down|up|<output>
1964 ----------------------------------------------------
1967 --------------------------------------------------------
1968 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1969 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1970 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1972 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1973 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1974 --------------------------------------------------------
1976 === Moving containers/workspaces to marks
1978 To move a container to another container with a specific mark (see <<vim_like_marks>>),
1979 you can use the following command.
1981 The window will be moved right after the marked container in the tree, i.e., it ends up
1982 in the same position as if you had opened a new window when the marked container was
1983 focused. If the mark is on a split container, the window will appear as a new child
1984 after the currently focused child within that container.
1987 ------------------------------------
1988 move window|container to mark <mark>
1989 ------------------------------------
1992 --------------------------------------------------------
1993 for_window [instance="tabme"] move window to mark target
1994 --------------------------------------------------------
1998 === Resizing containers/windows
2000 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
2004 -------------------------------------------------------
2005 resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
2006 resize set <width> [px] <height> [px]
2007 -------------------------------------------------------
2009 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
2010 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
2011 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
2012 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
2013 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
2014 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
2015 default is 10 percentage points). Note that +resize set+ will only work for
2016 floating containers.
2018 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
2020 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
2021 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2023 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
2025 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
2026 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
2027 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
2028 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
2029 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
2030 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
2031 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
2032 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
2034 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
2035 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
2036 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
2037 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
2038 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
2040 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
2041 bindsym Return mode "default"
2042 bindsym Escape mode "default"
2046 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
2047 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2049 *Example 2 - setting urxvt size to 640x480:*
2050 ------------------------------------------------
2051 for_window [class="urxvt"] resize set 640 480
2052 ------------------------------------------------
2054 === Jumping to specific windows
2056 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
2057 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
2058 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
2059 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
2060 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
2061 with criteria for that.
2064 ----------------------------------------------------
2065 [class="class"] focus
2066 [title="title"] focus
2067 ----------------------------------------------------
2070 ------------------------------------------------
2071 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
2072 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
2073 ------------------------------------------------
2075 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
2079 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
2080 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
2081 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
2082 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
2083 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
2084 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
2085 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
2087 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
2088 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
2089 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
2090 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
2092 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
2093 this mark, add it if the window has none or replace the current mark if it has
2096 Refer to +show_marks+ if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
2099 ------------------------------
2100 mark [--toggle] <identifier>
2101 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
2103 ------------------------------
2105 *Example (in a terminal)*:
2106 ------------------------------
2108 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
2109 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
2110 ------------------------------
2112 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2113 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
2115 ---------------------------------------
2116 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
2117 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
2119 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
2120 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
2121 ---------------------------------------
2123 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
2124 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
2125 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2127 === Window title format
2129 By default, i3 will simply print the X11 window title. Using +title_format+,
2130 this can be customized by setting the format to the desired output. This
2132 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2133 and the following placeholders which will be replaced:
2136 The X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
2138 The X11 window class (second part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2139 +class+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2141 The X11 window instance (first part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2142 +instance+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2144 Using the <<for_window>> directive, you can set the title format for any window
2145 based on <<command_criteria>>.
2148 ---------------------
2149 title_format <format>
2150 ---------------------
2153 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2154 # give the focused window a prefix
2155 bindsym $mod+p title_format "Important | %title"
2157 # print all window titles bold
2158 for_window [class=".*"] title_format "<b>%title</b>"
2160 # print window titles of firefox windows red
2161 for_window [class="(?i)firefox"] title_format "<span foreground='red'>%title</span>"
2162 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2164 === Changing border style
2166 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
2167 border (including window title), +border pixel 1+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
2168 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
2170 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
2173 -----------------------------------------------
2174 border normal|pixel [<n>]
2177 # legacy syntax, equivalent to "border pixel 1"
2179 -----------------------------------------------
2182 ----------------------------------------------
2183 # use window title, but no border
2184 bindsym $mod+t border normal 0
2185 # use no window title and a thick border
2186 bindsym $mod+y border pixel 3
2187 # use neither window title nor border
2188 bindsym $mod+u border none
2189 ----------------------------------------------
2193 === Enabling shared memory logging
2195 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
2196 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
2197 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
2199 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
2200 discarded and a new one will be started.
2203 ------------------------------
2204 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
2205 shmlog on|off|toggle
2206 ------------------------------
2210 # Enable/disable logging
2211 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
2213 # or, from a terminal:
2214 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
2215 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
2218 === Enabling debug logging
2220 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
2221 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
2222 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
2223 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2226 ----------------------
2227 debuglog on|off|toggle
2228 ----------------------
2231 ------------------------
2232 # Enable/disable logging
2233 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2234 ------------------------
2236 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2238 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2239 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2240 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2241 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2242 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2245 ----------------------------
2246 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2247 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2248 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2249 ----------------------------
2253 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2254 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2255 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2256 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2257 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2258 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2259 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2260 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2261 (+floating toggle+).
2263 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2264 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2265 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2266 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2276 ------------------------------------------------
2277 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2278 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2280 # Show the first scratchpad window
2281 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2283 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2284 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2285 ------------------------------------------------
2289 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2290 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2291 the middle mouse button.
2293 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2294 for debugging purposes.
2302 ----------------------------------------------
2303 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2304 # with the middle mouse button
2306 ----------------------------------------------
2310 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2311 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2312 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2313 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2314 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2315 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2316 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2320 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2322 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2326 ------------------------------------------------
2327 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2328 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2330 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2331 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2333 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2334 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2336 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2337 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2338 ------------------------------------------------
2342 == Multiple monitors
2344 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2345 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2346 handle multiple monitors.
2348 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2349 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2351 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2352 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2353 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2354 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2355 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2356 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2357 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2359 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2360 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2361 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2362 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2363 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2364 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2365 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2366 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2368 === Configuring your monitors
2370 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2371 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2372 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2373 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2374 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2376 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2377 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2378 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2379 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2380 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2382 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2383 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2387 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2389 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2390 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2391 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2392 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2394 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2395 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2396 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2398 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2399 -------------------------------------------
2400 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2401 -------------------------------------------
2402 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2403 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2404 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2405 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2407 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2408 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2409 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2412 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2414 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2415 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2417 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2418 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2419 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2421 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2422 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2426 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2427 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2428 only what you can see in xrandr.
2430 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2432 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2434 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2435 have more than one monitor:
2437 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2438 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2439 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2440 <<workspace_screen>>.
2441 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2442 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2443 <<assign_workspace>>.
2444 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2445 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2446 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2447 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2448 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2450 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2452 === Displaying a status line
2454 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2455 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2456 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2458 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2459 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2460 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2461 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2462 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2463 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2465 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2466 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2467 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2468 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2469 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2471 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2473 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2474 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2475 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2476 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2480 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2481 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2482 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2483 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2484 -----------------------------------------------------
2485 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2486 -----------------------------------------------------
2487 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2488 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2489 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2491 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2492 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2493 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2494 -----------------------------------------------------
2495 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2496 -----------------------------------------------------
2497 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2498 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2500 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2501 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2502 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).