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+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (Mod1) by default, with the Windows
30 key (Mod4) being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is $mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing $mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+J+ is left, +$mod+K+
52 is down, +$mod+L+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +$mod+K+ or +$mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
65 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
73 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
74 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
77 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
78 windows at the top of the container.
80 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
81 a single line which is vertically split.
83 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
84 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
86 image:modes.png[Container modes]
88 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
90 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
93 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
96 === Opening other applications
98 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
99 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
100 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
101 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
103 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
104 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
105 <<configuring>> for details.
109 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
110 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
111 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
113 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
114 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
115 depends on the application.
119 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
120 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
121 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
122 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
124 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
125 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
126 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
128 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
129 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
130 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
131 focus to that screen.
133 === Moving windows to workspaces
135 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
136 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
137 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
138 it does not yet exist.
142 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
143 and move it to the wanted size.
145 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
146 columns/rows with your keyboard.
148 === Restarting i3 inplace
150 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
151 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
155 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
156 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
160 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
161 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
162 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
163 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
164 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
165 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
167 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
168 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
169 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
170 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
171 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
173 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
175 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
179 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
180 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
181 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
182 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
183 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
184 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
186 === The tree consists of Containers
188 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
189 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
190 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
191 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
192 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
195 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
196 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
198 === Orientation and Split Containers
202 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
203 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
204 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
205 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
206 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
207 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
208 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
209 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
211 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
213 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
214 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
215 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
216 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
217 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
218 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
219 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
220 terminal and it will open below the current one:
222 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
223 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
227 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
232 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
233 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
234 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
236 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
237 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
238 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
239 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
240 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
242 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
244 === Implicit containers
246 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
249 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
250 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
251 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
252 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
254 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
255 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
256 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
257 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
258 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
259 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
260 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
266 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
267 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
269 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
270 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
273 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
274 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
275 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
276 can bind your keys to do useful things.
278 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
279 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
282 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
283 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
284 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
285 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
286 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
287 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
292 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
293 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
294 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
305 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
306 render window titles.
308 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
309 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
312 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
313 a variant, a stretch and a size.
314 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
315 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
317 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
318 and fall back to a working font.
321 ------------------------------
322 font <X core font description>
323 font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size>
324 ------------------------------
327 --------------------------------------------------------------
328 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
329 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
330 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
331 font pango:Terminus 11px
332 --------------------------------------------------------------
336 === Keyboard bindings
338 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
339 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
340 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
342 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
343 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
344 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
345 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
346 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
348 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
349 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
350 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
352 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
353 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
354 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
357 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
358 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
359 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
360 after the keys have been released.
363 ----------------------------------
364 bindsym [--release] [<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
365 bindcode [--release] [<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command
366 ----------------------------------
369 --------------------------------
371 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
374 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
376 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
377 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
379 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
380 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
382 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
383 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
384 --------------------------------
388 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
389 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
392 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
393 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
394 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
395 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
396 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
402 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
403 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
404 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
407 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
408 bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command
409 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
411 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
412 window. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
415 If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
416 of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
417 when the border is clicked, specify the +--border+ flag.
420 --------------------------------
421 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
422 bindsym --release button2 kill
424 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
425 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
427 # The right button toggles floating
428 bindsym button3 floating toggle
429 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
431 # The side buttons move the window around
432 bindsym button9 move left
433 bindsym button8 move right
434 --------------------------------
436 [[floating_modifier]]
438 === The floating modifier
440 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
441 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
442 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
443 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
444 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
445 it to the position you want.
447 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
448 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
449 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
450 ratio will be preserved).
453 --------------------------------
454 floating_modifier <Modifier>
455 --------------------------------
458 --------------------------------
459 floating_modifier Mod1
460 --------------------------------
462 === Constraining floating window size
464 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
465 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
466 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
467 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
468 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
469 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
472 ----------------------------------------
473 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
474 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
475 ----------------------------------------
478 --------------------------------------
479 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
480 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
481 --------------------------------------
483 === Orientation for new workspaces
485 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
486 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
487 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
489 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
493 --------------------------------------------
494 default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto
495 --------------------------------------------
498 ----------------------------
499 default_orientation vertical
500 ----------------------------
502 === Layout mode for new containers
504 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
506 ///////////////////////////////
507 See also <<stack-limit>>.
508 //////////////////////////////
511 ---------------------------------------------
512 workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed
513 ---------------------------------------------
514 /////////////////////////////////////////////
515 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
516 /////////////////////////////////////////////
519 ---------------------
520 workspace_layout tabbed
521 ---------------------
523 === Border style for new windows
525 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
526 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
527 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
530 ---------------------------------------------
531 new_window normal|1pixel|none|pixel
532 new_window normal|pixel <px>
533 new_float normal|1pixel|none|pixel
534 new_float normal|pixel <px>
535 ---------------------------------------------
538 ---------------------
540 ---------------------
542 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
546 ---------------------
547 # The same as new_window none
552 ---------------------
555 === Hiding vertical borders
557 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
558 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
559 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
562 -----------------------------------------------
563 hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both
564 -----------------------------------------------
567 ----------------------
568 hide_edge_borders vertical
569 ----------------------
571 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
573 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
574 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
575 change their border style, for example.
578 -------------------------------
579 for_window <criteria> <command>
580 -------------------------------
583 ------------------------------------------------
584 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
585 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
587 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
588 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
590 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
591 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
592 # directory to ~/work
593 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
594 ------------------------------------------------
596 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
598 === Don't focus window upon opening
602 When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
603 this from happening and can be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
605 Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
606 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
607 <<focus_on_window_activation>>.
615 -------------------------------
616 no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
617 -------------------------------
621 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
622 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
623 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
624 variables can be handy.
632 ------------------------
634 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
635 ------------------------
637 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
638 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
639 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
640 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
641 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
642 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
644 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
648 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
649 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
650 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
651 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
652 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
653 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
654 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
655 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
656 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
657 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
659 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
660 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
664 ------------------------------------------------------------
665 assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] <workspace>
666 ------------------------------------------------------------
669 ----------------------
670 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
671 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
673 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
674 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
676 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
677 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
679 # Assignment to a named workspace
680 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
682 # Start urxvt -name irssi
683 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
684 ----------------------
686 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
687 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
689 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
690 window, you will see the following output:
693 -----------------------------------
694 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
695 -----------------------------------
697 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
698 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
700 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
701 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
702 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
703 title when starting up.
705 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
706 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
707 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
708 file in the following way:
710 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
711 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
712 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
713 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
714 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
715 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
716 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
717 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
718 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
719 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
721 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
723 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
724 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
725 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
726 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
727 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
729 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
730 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
731 strings if they appear in your command.
734 ---------------------------------------
735 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
736 exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command>
737 ---------------------------------------
740 --------------------------------
742 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
744 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
745 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
746 --------------------------------
748 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
752 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
754 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
755 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
756 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
757 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
758 the second screen and so on).
761 -------------------------------------
762 workspace <workspace> output <output>
763 -------------------------------------
765 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
766 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
767 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
769 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
772 ---------------------------
773 workspace 1 output LVDS1
774 workspace 5 output VGA1
775 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
776 ---------------------------
780 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
783 ------------------------------------------------------
784 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator>
785 ------------------------------------------------------
787 Where colorclass can be one of:
790 A client which currently has the focus.
791 client.focused_inactive::
792 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
793 the focus at the moment.
795 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
797 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
799 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
800 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
802 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
803 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
807 -------------------------
808 client.background <color>
809 -------------------------
811 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
814 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
816 *Examples (default colors)*:
817 ---------------------------------------------------------
818 # class border backgr. text indicator
819 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
820 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
821 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
822 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
823 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
824 ---------------------------------------------------------
826 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
827 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
830 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
831 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
832 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
833 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
834 from single windows outside of a split container.
836 === Interprocess communication
838 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
839 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
840 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
842 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
843 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
844 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
845 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
847 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
848 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
849 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
850 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
851 user can create that directory.
854 ----------------------------
855 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
856 ----------------------------
858 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
861 === Focus follows mouse
863 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
864 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
865 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
866 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
867 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
868 links in your browser window).
871 --------------------------
872 focus_follows_mouse yes|no
873 --------------------------
876 ----------------------
877 focus_follows_mouse no
878 ----------------------
882 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
883 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
884 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
886 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
887 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
888 behavior described above.
891 -------------------------
892 mouse_warping output|none
893 -------------------------
900 === Popups during fullscreen mode
902 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
903 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
904 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
905 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
907 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
908 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
909 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
910 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
911 you go out of fullscreen).
912 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
915 -----------------------------------------------------
916 popup_during_fullscreen smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen
917 -----------------------------------------------------
920 ------------------------------
921 popup_during_fullscreen smart
922 ------------------------------
926 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
927 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
928 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
929 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
930 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
932 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
933 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
934 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
938 ---------------------------
939 force_focus_wrapping yes|no
940 ---------------------------
943 ------------------------
944 force_focus_wrapping yes
945 ------------------------
949 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
950 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
951 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
952 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
953 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
956 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
957 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
960 ---------------------
961 force_xinerama yes|no
962 ---------------------
969 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
970 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
972 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
974 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
975 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
977 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
978 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
979 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
982 ------------------------------------
983 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes|no
984 ------------------------------------
987 ---------------------------------
988 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
989 ---------------------------------
991 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
993 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
994 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
995 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
996 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
999 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
1000 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
1001 value to 0 disables this feature.
1003 The default is 500ms.
1006 ---------------------------------------
1007 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
1008 ---------------------------------------
1011 ---------------------------------
1012 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
1013 ---------------------------------
1015 === Delaying exiting on zero displays
1017 Outputs may disappear momentarily and come back later. For example,
1018 using a docking station that does not announce the undock (e.g. ACPI Undock
1019 event triggered through manually pushing a button before actually ejecting
1020 the notebook). During the removal of the notebook from the docking station,
1021 all outputs disappear momentarily.
1023 To prevent i3 from exiting when no output is available momentarily, you can
1024 tell i3 to delay a certain time first and check available outputs again using
1025 the +delay_exit_on_zero_displays+ directive. Setting the value to 0 disables
1028 The default is 500ms.
1031 ----------------------------------------
1032 delay_exit_on_zero_displays <timeout> ms
1033 ----------------------------------------
1036 ----------------------------------
1037 delay_exit_on_zero_displays 500 ms
1038 ----------------------------------
1040 === Focus on window activation
1042 [[focus_on_window_activation]]
1044 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
1045 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
1047 Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
1048 from being focused, see <<no_focus>>.
1051 --------------------------------------------------
1052 focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none
1053 --------------------------------------------------
1055 The different modes will act as follows:
1058 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1059 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1061 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1063 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1065 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1067 === Drawing marks on window decoration
1069 If activated, marks on windows are drawn in their window decoration. However,
1070 any mark starting with an underscore in its name (+_+) will not be drawn even if
1071 this option is activated.
1073 The default for this option is +yes+.
1085 == Configuring i3bar
1087 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1088 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1091 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1092 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1093 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1094 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1095 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1096 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1097 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1098 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1100 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1101 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1102 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1103 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1104 configuration infrastructure in place.
1106 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1107 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1110 ---------------------------
1112 status_command i3status
1114 ---------------------------
1118 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1119 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1120 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1121 tell i3 what to execute.
1123 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1124 have to have correct quoting etc.
1127 -----------------------
1128 i3bar_command <command>
1129 -----------------------
1132 -------------------------------------------------
1134 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1136 -------------------------------------------------
1139 === Statusline command
1141 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1142 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1143 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1145 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1146 have to have correct quoting etc.
1149 ------------------------
1150 status_command <command>
1151 ------------------------
1154 -------------------------------------------------
1156 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1158 -------------------------------------------------
1162 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1163 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1164 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1165 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1167 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1168 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1170 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1171 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1174 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1175 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1176 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1178 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1179 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1180 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1181 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1182 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1183 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1185 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1186 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1188 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1189 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1192 -------------------------
1193 mode dock|hide|invisible
1194 hidden_state hide|show
1196 ------------------------
1207 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1209 === Mouse button commands
1211 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1212 default behavior. Currently only the mouse wheel buttons are supported. This is
1213 useful for disabling the scroll wheel action or running scripts that implement
1214 custom behavior for these buttons.
1217 ---------------------
1218 wheel_up_cmd <command>
1219 wheel_down_cmd <command>
1220 ---------------------
1223 ---------------------
1226 wheel_down_cmd exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1228 ---------------------
1232 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1233 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1234 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1237 ---------------------
1239 ---------------------
1242 ---------------------
1246 ---------------------
1251 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1253 The default is bottom.
1261 ---------------------
1265 ---------------------
1269 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1270 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1271 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1273 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1274 directive multiple times.
1282 -------------------------------
1283 # big monitor: everything
1285 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1288 status_command i3status
1291 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1294 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1300 -------------------------------
1304 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1305 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1307 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1308 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1311 ---------------------------------
1312 tray_output none|primary|<output>
1313 ---------------------------------
1316 -------------------------
1317 # disable system tray
1322 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1325 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1329 -------------------------
1331 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1332 -------------------------
1333 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1334 -------------------------
1338 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1341 ---------------------
1343 ---------------------
1346 --------------------------------------------------------------
1348 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1349 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1351 --------------------------------------------------------------
1353 === Custom separator symbol
1355 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1356 one pixel thick separator.
1359 -------------------------
1360 separator_symbol <symbol>
1361 -------------------------
1364 ------------------------
1366 separator_symbol ":|:"
1368 ------------------------
1370 === Workspace buttons
1372 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1373 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1375 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1378 ------------------------
1379 workspace_buttons yes|no
1380 ------------------------
1383 ------------------------
1385 workspace_buttons no
1387 ------------------------
1389 === Strip workspace numbers
1391 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1392 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1393 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1395 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1396 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1397 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1398 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1400 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1403 ------------------------------
1404 strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
1405 ------------------------------
1408 ----------------------------
1410 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1412 ----------------------------
1414 === Binding Mode indicator
1416 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1417 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1418 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1419 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1421 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1424 -----------------------------
1425 binding_mode_indicator yes|no
1426 -----------------------------
1429 -----------------------------
1431 binding_mode_indicator no
1433 -----------------------------
1437 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1438 be configured at the moment:
1441 Background color of the bar.
1443 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1445 Text color to be used for the separator.
1447 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1450 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1451 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1452 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1453 using multiple monitors.
1454 inactive_workspace::
1455 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1456 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1457 will be the case for most workspaces.
1459 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1460 contains a window with the urgency hint set. Also applies to +mode+ indicators.
1463 ----------------------------------------
1469 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text>
1471 ----------------------------------------
1473 *Example (default colors)*:
1474 --------------------------------------
1481 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1482 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1483 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1484 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1487 --------------------------------------
1491 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1492 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1493 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1496 --------------------------
1497 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1499 --------------------------
1501 [[command_chaining]]
1503 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1504 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1505 the following keybinding:
1508 --------------------------------------------------------
1509 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1510 --------------------------------------------------------
1512 [[command_criteria]]
1514 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1515 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1516 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1519 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1520 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1521 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1525 ------------------------------------
1526 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1527 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1529 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1530 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1532 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1533 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1535 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1536 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1537 ------------------------------------
1539 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1542 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1544 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1546 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1548 Compare the window type (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE). Possible values are
1549 +normal+, +dialog+, +utility+, +toolbar+, +splash+, +menu+, +dropdown_menu+,
1550 +popup_menu+ and +toolti+.
1552 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1554 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1556 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1557 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1558 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1560 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1562 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1563 interface. Handy for scripting.
1565 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1566 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1567 information on how to use them.
1571 === Executing applications (exec)
1573 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1574 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1575 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1576 searched in your +$PATH+.
1578 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
1579 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
1580 strings if they appear in your command.
1583 --------------------------------
1584 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
1585 --------------------------------
1588 ------------------------------
1590 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1592 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1593 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1594 ------------------------------
1596 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1597 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1598 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1599 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1600 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1601 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1602 cursor for 60 seconds.
1604 === Splitting containers
1606 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1607 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1608 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1609 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1611 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1612 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1613 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1614 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1615 to splith or vice-versa.
1618 -------------------------
1619 split vertical|horizontal
1620 -------------------------
1623 ------------------------------
1624 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1625 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1626 ------------------------------
1628 === Manipulating layout
1630 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1631 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1632 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1634 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1635 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1636 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1637 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1639 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1640 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1643 --------------------------------------------
1644 layout default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith
1645 layout toggle [split|all]
1646 --------------------------------------------
1650 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1651 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1652 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1654 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1655 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1657 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1658 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1661 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1663 # Toggle floating/tiling
1664 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1667 [[_focusing_moving_containers]]
1669 === Focusing containers
1671 To change focus, you can use the +focus+ command. The following options are
1674 left|right|up|down::
1675 Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
1677 Sets focus to the parent container of the current container.
1679 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1682 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1684 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1686 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1688 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1689 corresponding output.
1692 ----------------------------------------------
1693 focus left|right|down|up
1694 focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
1695 focus output left|right|up|down|<output>
1696 ----------------------------------------------
1699 -------------------------------------------------
1700 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
1701 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1702 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1703 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1704 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1706 # Focus parent container
1707 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1709 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1710 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1712 # Focus the output right to the current one
1713 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1715 # Focus the big output
1716 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1717 -------------------------------------------------
1719 === Moving containers
1721 Use the +move+ command to move a container.
1724 -----------------------------------------------------
1725 # Moves the container into the given direction.
1726 # The optional pixel argument specifies how far the
1727 # container should be moved if it is floating and
1728 # defaults to 10 pixels.
1729 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1731 # Moves the container either to a specific location
1732 # or to the center of the screen. If 'absolute' is
1733 # used, it is moved to the center of all outputs.
1734 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1736 # Moves the container to the current position of the
1737 # mouse cursor. Only affects floating containers.
1739 -----------------------------------------------------
1742 -------------------------------------------------------
1743 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right
1744 bindsym $mod+j move left
1745 bindsym $mod+k move down
1746 bindsym $mod+l move up
1747 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1749 # Move container, but make floating containers
1750 # move more than the default
1751 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1753 # Move floating container to the center of all outputs
1754 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1756 # Move container to the current position of the cursor
1757 bindsym $mod+m move position mouse
1758 -------------------------------------------------------
1760 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1762 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1763 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1764 +move container to workspace+.
1766 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1767 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1768 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1769 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1770 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1771 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1772 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1773 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1775 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1778 Workspace names are parsed as
1779 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
1783 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1784 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1785 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1788 -----------------------------------
1789 workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
1790 workspace back_and_forth
1792 workspace number <name>
1794 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1795 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1796 move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current
1797 -----------------------------------
1800 -------------------------
1801 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1802 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1803 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
1806 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1807 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1810 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1811 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1812 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1814 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1815 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1817 # move firefox to current workspace
1818 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1819 -------------------------
1821 ==== Named workspaces
1823 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1824 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1827 -------------------------
1828 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1830 -------------------------
1832 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1836 -------------------------
1837 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1838 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1840 -------------------------
1842 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1843 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1844 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1845 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1846 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1847 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1848 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1849 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1851 ==== Renaming workspaces
1853 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1854 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1855 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1856 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1857 rename command with +i3-input+.
1860 ----------------------------------------------------
1861 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1862 rename workspace to <new_name>
1863 ----------------------------------------------------
1866 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1867 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1868 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1869 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1870 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1871 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1872 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1874 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1876 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1879 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1883 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1884 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1885 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1888 ----------------------------------------------------
1889 move container to output left|right|down|up|<output>
1890 move workspace to output left|right|down|up|<output>
1891 ----------------------------------------------------
1894 --------------------------------------------------------
1895 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1896 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1897 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1899 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1900 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1901 --------------------------------------------------------
1903 === Moving containers/workspaces to marks
1905 To move a container to another container with a specific mark (see <<vim_like_marks>>),
1906 you can use the following command.
1908 The window will be moved right after the marked container in the tree, i.e., it ends up
1909 in the same position as if you had opened a new window when the marked container was
1910 focused. If the mark is on a split container, the window will appear as a new child
1911 after the currently focused child within that container.
1914 ------------------------------------
1915 move window|container to mark <mark>
1916 ------------------------------------
1919 --------------------------------------------------------
1920 for_window [instance="tabme"] move window to mark target
1921 --------------------------------------------------------
1925 === Resizing containers/windows
1927 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1931 -------------------------------------------------------
1932 resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1933 -------------------------------------------------------
1935 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1936 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1937 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1938 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1939 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1940 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1941 default is 10 percentage points).
1943 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1945 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1946 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1948 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1950 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1951 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1952 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1953 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1954 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1955 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1956 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1957 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1959 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1960 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1961 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1962 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1963 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1965 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1966 bindsym Return mode "default"
1967 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1971 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1972 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1974 === Jumping to specific windows
1976 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1977 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1978 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1979 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1980 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1981 with criteria for that.
1984 ----------------------------------------------------
1985 [class="class"] focus
1986 [title="title"] focus
1987 ----------------------------------------------------
1990 ------------------------------------------------
1991 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1992 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1993 ------------------------------------------------
1995 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1999 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
2000 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
2001 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
2002 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
2003 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
2004 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
2005 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
2007 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
2008 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
2009 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
2010 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
2012 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
2013 this mark, add it if the window has none or replace the current mark if it has
2016 Refer to +show_marks+ if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
2019 ------------------------------
2020 mark [--toggle] <identifier>
2021 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
2023 ------------------------------
2025 *Example (in a terminal)*:
2026 ------------------------------
2028 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
2029 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
2030 ------------------------------
2032 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2033 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
2035 ---------------------------------------
2036 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
2037 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
2039 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
2040 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
2041 ---------------------------------------
2043 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
2044 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
2045 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2047 === Changing border style
2049 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
2050 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
2051 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
2053 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
2056 ----------------------------
2057 bindsym $mod+t border normal
2058 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
2059 bindsym $mod+u border none
2060 ----------------------------
2064 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2065 TODO: not yet implemented
2066 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
2068 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
2069 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
2070 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
2071 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
2073 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
2074 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
2075 you limited) automatically as needed.
2078 -----------------------------
2079 stack-limit cols|rows <value>
2080 -----------------------------
2084 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
2087 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
2091 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
2092 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2096 === Enabling shared memory logging
2098 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
2099 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
2100 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
2102 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
2103 discarded and a new one will be started.
2106 ------------------------------
2107 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
2108 shmlog on|off|toggle
2109 ------------------------------
2113 # Enable/disable logging
2114 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
2116 # or, from a terminal:
2117 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
2118 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
2121 === Enabling debug logging
2123 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
2124 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
2125 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
2126 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2129 ----------------------
2130 debuglog on|off|toggle
2131 ----------------------
2134 ------------------------
2135 # Enable/disable logging
2136 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2137 ------------------------
2139 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2141 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2142 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2143 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2144 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2145 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2148 ----------------------------
2149 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2150 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2151 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2152 ----------------------------
2156 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2157 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2158 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2159 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2160 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2161 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2162 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2163 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2164 (+floating toggle+).
2166 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2167 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2168 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2169 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2179 ------------------------------------------------
2180 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2181 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2183 # Show the first scratchpad window
2184 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2186 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2187 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2188 ------------------------------------------------
2192 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2193 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2194 the middle mouse button.
2196 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2197 for debugging purposes.
2205 ----------------------------------------------
2206 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2207 # with the middle mouse button
2209 ----------------------------------------------
2213 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2214 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2215 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2216 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2217 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2218 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2219 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2223 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2225 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2229 ------------------------------------------------
2230 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2231 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2233 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2234 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2236 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2237 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2239 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2240 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2241 ------------------------------------------------
2245 == Multiple monitors
2247 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2248 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2249 handle multiple monitors.
2251 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2252 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2254 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2255 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2256 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2257 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2258 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2259 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2260 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2262 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2263 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2264 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2265 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2266 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2267 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2268 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2269 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2271 === Configuring your monitors
2273 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2274 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2275 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2276 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2277 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2279 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2280 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2281 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2282 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2283 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2285 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2286 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2290 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2292 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2293 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2294 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2295 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2297 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2298 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2299 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2301 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2302 -------------------------------------------
2303 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2304 -------------------------------------------
2305 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2306 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2307 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2308 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2310 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2311 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2312 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2315 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2317 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2318 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2320 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2321 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2322 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2324 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2325 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2329 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2330 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2331 only what you can see in xrandr.
2333 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2335 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2337 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2338 have more than one monitor:
2340 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2341 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2342 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2343 <<workspace_screen>>.
2344 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2345 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2346 <<assign_workspace>>.
2347 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2348 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2349 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2350 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2351 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2353 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2355 === Displaying a status line
2357 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2358 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2359 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2361 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2362 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2363 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2364 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2365 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2366 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2368 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2369 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2370 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2371 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2372 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2374 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2376 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2377 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2378 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2379 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2383 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2384 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2385 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2386 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2387 -----------------------------------------------------
2388 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2389 -----------------------------------------------------
2390 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2391 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2392 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2394 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2395 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2396 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2397 -----------------------------------------------------
2398 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2399 -----------------------------------------------------
2400 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2401 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2403 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2404 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2405 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).