3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
8 question(s) on the mailing list.
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with mod (alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with mod (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the alt key (Mod1) by default, with windows (Mod4)
30 being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +mod+J+ is left, +mod+K+
52 is down, +mod+L+ is up and `mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +mod+K+ or +mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +mod+v+. To split it horizontally, press
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
75 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
76 windows at the top of the container.
78 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
79 a single line which is vertically split.
81 To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+s+ for stacking and
84 image:modes.png[Container modes]
86 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
88 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
91 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
92 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen global+).
94 === Opening other applications
96 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
97 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
98 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
99 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
101 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
102 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
103 <<configuring>> for details.
107 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
108 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
109 can press +mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
110 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
111 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
113 depends on the application.
117 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
118 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
119 another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
120 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
122 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
123 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
124 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
126 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
127 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
128 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
129 focus to that screen.
131 === Moving windows to workspaces
133 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
134 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
135 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
136 it does not yet exist.
140 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
141 and move it to the wanted size.
143 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
144 columns/rows with your keyboard.
146 === Restarting i3 inplace
148 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
149 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
153 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
157 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
158 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
159 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
160 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
161 appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
163 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
164 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
165 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
166 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
168 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
170 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
174 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
175 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
176 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
177 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
178 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
179 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
181 === The tree consists of Containers
183 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
184 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
185 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
186 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
187 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
190 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
191 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
193 === Orientation and Split Containers
197 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
198 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
199 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
200 workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
201 (most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
202 vertical (+mod+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
203 configure your windows like this:
205 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
207 An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
208 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
209 orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
210 terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
211 window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
212 orientation. Instead, press +mod+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
213 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +mod+h+). Now you can open a new
214 terminal and it will open below the current one:
216 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
217 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
221 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
226 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
227 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
228 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
230 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
231 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
232 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
233 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
234 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
236 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
241 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
242 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
244 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
245 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
248 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
249 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
250 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
251 can bind your keys to do useful things.
253 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
254 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
257 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
258 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
259 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
260 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
261 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
262 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
267 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
268 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
269 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
278 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles. You can use
279 +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description. To see special characters
280 (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the ISO-10646 encoding.
282 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
283 and fall back to a working font.
286 ------------------------------
287 font <X core font description>
288 ------------------------------
291 --------------------------------------------------------------
292 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
293 --------------------------------------------------------------
297 === Keyboard bindings
299 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
300 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
301 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
303 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
304 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
305 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
306 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
308 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
309 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
310 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
312 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
313 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
314 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
318 ----------------------------------
319 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
320 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
321 ----------------------------------
324 --------------------------------
326 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
329 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
331 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
332 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
333 --------------------------------
337 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
338 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
341 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
342 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
343 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
344 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
345 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
347 [[floating_modifier]]
349 === The floating modifier
351 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
352 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
353 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
354 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
355 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
356 it to the position you want.
358 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
359 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
360 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
361 ratio will be preserved).
364 --------------------------------
365 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
366 --------------------------------
369 --------------------------------
370 floating_modifier Mod1
371 --------------------------------
373 === Constraining floating window size
375 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
376 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
377 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
378 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
379 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
380 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
383 ----------------------------------------
384 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
385 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
386 ----------------------------------------
389 --------------------------------------
390 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
391 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
392 --------------------------------------
394 === Orientation for new workspaces
396 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
397 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
398 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
400 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
404 ----------------------------------------------
405 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
406 ----------------------------------------------
409 ----------------------------
410 default_orientation vertical
411 ----------------------------
413 === Layout mode for new containers
415 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
417 ///////////////////////////////
418 See also <<stack-limit>>.
419 //////////////////////////////
422 ---------------------------------------------
423 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
424 ---------------------------------------------
425 /////////////////////////////////////////////
426 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
427 /////////////////////////////////////////////
430 ---------------------
431 workspace_layout tabbed
432 ---------------------
434 === Border style for new windows
436 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
439 ---------------------------------------------
440 new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
441 ---------------------------------------------
444 ---------------------
446 ---------------------
448 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
450 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
451 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
452 change their border style, for example.
455 -----------------------------
456 for_window <criteria> command
457 -----------------------------
460 ------------------------------------------------
461 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
462 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
464 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
465 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
467 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
468 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
469 # directory to ~/work
470 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
471 ------------------------------------------------
473 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
477 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
478 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
479 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
480 variables can be handy.
488 ------------------------
490 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
491 ------------------------
493 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
494 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
495 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
496 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
499 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
503 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
504 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
505 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
506 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
507 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
508 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
509 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
510 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
511 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
512 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
515 ------------------------------------------------------------
516 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
517 ------------------------------------------------------------
520 ----------------------
521 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
522 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
524 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
525 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
527 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
528 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
530 # Assignment to a named workspace
531 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
533 # Start urxvt -name irssi
534 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
535 ----------------------
537 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
538 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
540 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
541 window, you will see the following output:
544 -----------------------------------
545 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
546 -----------------------------------
548 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
549 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
551 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
552 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
553 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
554 title when starting up.
556 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
558 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
559 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
560 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
561 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
562 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
566 exec [--no-startup-id] command
567 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
571 --------------------------------
573 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
575 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
576 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
577 --------------------------------
579 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
583 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
585 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
586 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
587 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
588 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
589 the second screen and so on).
592 ----------------------------------
593 workspace <workspace> output <output>
594 ----------------------------------
596 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
597 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
598 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
600 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
603 ---------------------------
604 workspace 1 output LVDS1
605 workspace 5 output VGA1
606 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
607 ---------------------------
611 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
614 --------------------------------------------
615 colorclass border background text indicator
616 --------------------------------------------
618 Where colorclass can be one of:
621 A client which currently has the focus.
622 client.focused_inactive::
623 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
624 the focus at the moment.
626 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
628 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
630 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
631 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
635 -----------------------
636 client.background color
637 -----------------------
639 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
640 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
641 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
642 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
643 area of the terminal and the i3 border.
645 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
647 *Examples (default colors)*:
648 ---------------------------------------------------------
649 # class border backgr. text indicator
650 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
651 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
652 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
653 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
654 ---------------------------------------------------------
656 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
657 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
660 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
661 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
662 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
663 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
664 from single windows outside of a split container.
666 === Interprocess communication
668 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
669 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
670 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
672 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
673 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
674 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
675 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
677 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
678 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
679 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
680 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
681 user can create that directory.
684 ----------------------------
685 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
686 ----------------------------
688 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
691 === Focus follows mouse
693 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
694 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
695 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
696 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
697 to click on links in your browser window).
700 ----------------------------
701 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
702 ----------------------------
705 ----------------------
706 focus_follows_mouse no
707 ----------------------
709 === Popups during fullscreen mode
711 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
712 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
713 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
714 There are two things which are possible to do in this situation:
716 1. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
717 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
718 you go out of fullscreen).
719 2. Leave fullscreen mode. This is the default.
722 -------------------------------------------------
723 popup_during_fullscreen <ignore|leave_fullscreen>
724 -------------------------------------------------
727 ------------------------------
728 popup_during_fullscreen ignore
729 ------------------------------
733 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
734 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
735 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
736 be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
737 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
739 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
740 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
741 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
745 -----------------------------
746 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
747 -----------------------------
750 ------------------------
751 force_focus_wrapping yes
752 ------------------------
756 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
757 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
758 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
759 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
760 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
763 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
764 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
767 -----------------------
768 force_xinerama <yes|no>
769 -----------------------
776 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
777 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
779 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
781 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
782 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
784 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
785 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
786 came from now, you can just press mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
789 --------------------------------------
790 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
791 --------------------------------------
794 ---------------------------------
795 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
796 ---------------------------------
800 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
801 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
804 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
805 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
806 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
807 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
808 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
809 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
810 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
811 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
813 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
814 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
815 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
816 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
817 configuration infrastructure in place.
819 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
820 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
823 ---------------------------
825 status_command i3status
827 ---------------------------
831 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
832 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
833 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
834 tell i3 what to execute.
836 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
837 have to have correct quoting etc.
840 ----------------------
841 i3bar_command command
842 ----------------------
845 -------------------------------------------------
847 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
849 -------------------------------------------------
852 === Statusline command
854 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
855 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
856 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
858 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
859 have to have correct quoting etc.
862 ----------------------
863 status_command command
864 ----------------------
867 -------------------------------------------------
869 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
871 -------------------------------------------------
875 You can have i3bar either be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
876 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+
877 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
879 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
880 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
883 The default is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
900 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
905 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
907 The default is bottom.
910 ---------------------
911 position <top|bottom>
912 ---------------------
915 ---------------------
919 ---------------------
923 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
924 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
925 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
927 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
928 directive multiple times.
936 -------------------------------
937 # big monitor: everything
939 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
942 status_command i3status
945 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
948 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
954 -------------------------------
958 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
959 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
961 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
962 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
965 -------------------------
966 tray_output <none|output>
967 -------------------------
970 -------------------------
971 # disable system tray
976 # show tray icons on the big monitor
980 -------------------------
984 Specifies the font (again, X core font, not Xft, just like in i3) to be used in
988 ---------------------
990 ---------------------
993 --------------------------------------------------------------
995 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
997 --------------------------------------------------------------
999 === Workspace buttons
1001 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1002 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1004 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1007 --------------------------
1008 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1009 --------------------------
1012 --------------------
1014 workspace_buttons no
1016 --------------------
1020 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1021 be configured at the moment:
1024 Background color of the bar.
1026 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1028 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1031 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1032 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1033 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1034 using multiple monitors.
1035 inactive_workspace::
1036 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1037 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1038 will be the case for most workspaces.
1040 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1041 window with the urgency hint set.
1044 ----------------------------------------
1049 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1051 ----------------------------------------
1053 *Example (default colors)*:
1054 --------------------------------------
1060 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1061 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1062 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1063 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1066 --------------------------------------
1070 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1071 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1072 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1075 --------------------------
1076 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1078 --------------------------
1080 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1081 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1082 the following keybinding:
1085 --------------------------------------------------------
1086 bindsym mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1087 --------------------------------------------------------
1089 [[command_criteria]]
1091 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers
1092 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
1093 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
1094 which have the class Firefox, use:
1097 ------------------------------------
1098 bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1100 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1101 bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1102 ------------------------------------
1104 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1107 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1109 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1111 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1113 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1115 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1117 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1118 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1119 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1121 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1123 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1124 interface. Handy for scripting.
1126 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1127 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1128 information on how to use them.
1132 === Executing applications (exec)
1134 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1135 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1136 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1137 searched in your $PATH.
1140 ------------------------------
1141 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1142 ------------------------------
1145 ------------------------------
1147 bindsym mod+g exec gimp
1149 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1150 bindsym mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1151 ------------------------------
1153 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1154 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1155 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1156 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1157 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1158 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1159 cursor for 60 seconds.
1161 === Splitting containers
1163 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1164 can contain multiple windows. Every split container has an orientation, it is
1165 either split horizontally (a new window gets placed to the right of the current
1166 one) or vertically (a new window gets placed below the current one).
1168 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1169 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1170 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
1173 ---------------------------
1174 split <vertical|horizontal>
1175 ---------------------------
1178 ------------------------------
1179 bindsym mod+v split vertical
1180 bindsym mod+h split horizontal
1181 ------------------------------
1183 === Manipulating layout
1185 Use +layout default+, +layout stacking+ or +layout tabbed+ to change the
1186 current container layout to default, stacking or tabbed layout, respectively.
1188 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1189 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1190 (or +floating toggle+):
1194 bindsym mod+s layout stacking
1195 bindsym mod+l layout default
1196 bindsym mod+w layout tabbed
1199 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
1201 # Toggle floating/tiling
1202 bindsym mod+t floating toggle
1205 === Focusing/Moving containers
1207 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1208 down+ and +focus up+.
1210 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1213 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1215 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1218 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1220 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1222 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1224 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1225 corresponding output.
1227 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1230 -----------------------------------
1231 focus <left|right|down|up>
1232 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1233 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1234 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1235 -----------------------------------
1237 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1238 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1241 ----------------------
1242 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1243 bindsym mod+j focus left
1244 bindsym mod+k focus down
1245 bindsym mod+l focus up
1246 bindsym mod+semicolon focus right
1248 # Focus parent container
1249 bindsym mod+u focus parent
1251 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1252 bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
1254 # Focus the output right to the current one
1255 bindsym mod+x focus output right
1257 # Focus the big output
1258 bindsym mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1260 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1261 bindsym mod+j move left
1262 bindsym mod+k move down
1263 bindsym mod+l move up
1264 bindsym mod+semicolon move right
1266 # Move container, but make floating containers
1267 # move more than the default
1268 bindsym mod+j move left 20 px
1269 ----------------------
1271 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1273 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1274 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1275 +move container to workspace+.
1277 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1278 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1279 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1280 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1281 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1282 container to workspace next+ and +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1283 container to the next/previous workspace.
1286 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1289 To move a container to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+, you can
1290 use the +move container to output+ command followed by the name of the target
1291 output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr
1292 output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
1294 To move a whole workspace to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+,
1295 you can use the +move workspace to output+ command followed by the name of the
1296 target output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the
1297 xrandr output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
1300 -------------------------
1301 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1
1302 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
1305 bindsym mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1306 bindsym mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1309 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1310 bindsym mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1312 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1313 bindsym mod+x move workspace to output right
1314 -------------------------
1316 ==== Named workspaces
1318 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1319 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1322 -------------------------
1323 bindsym mod+1 workspace mail
1325 -------------------------
1327 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1331 -------------------------
1332 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1333 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2: www
1335 -------------------------
1337 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1338 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1339 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1340 will order them numerically.
1344 === Resizing containers/windows
1346 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1350 ---------------------------------------------------------
1351 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
1352 ---------------------------------------------------------
1354 Direction can be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. The optional pixel
1355 argument specifies by how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or
1356 shrunk (the default is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points
1357 and specifies by how many percentage points a *tiling container* should be
1358 grown or shrunk (the default is 10 percentage points).
1360 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1362 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1363 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1365 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1367 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
1368 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
1369 # more space on its left
1371 bindsym j resize shrink left
1372 bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
1374 bindsym k resize grow down
1375 bindsym Shift+k resize shrink down
1377 bindsym l resize shrink up
1378 bindsym Shift+l resize grow up
1380 bindsym semicolon resize grow right
1381 bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
1383 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1384 bindsym Return mode "default"
1385 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1389 bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
1390 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1392 === Jumping to specific windows
1394 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1395 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1396 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1397 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
1398 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1399 with criteria for that.
1402 ----------------------------------------------------
1403 [class="class"] focus
1404 [title="title"] focus
1405 ----------------------------------------------------
1408 ------------------------------------------------
1409 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1410 bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1411 ------------------------------------------------
1413 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1417 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1418 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1419 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1420 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
1421 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
1424 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1425 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1426 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1427 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1430 ------------------------------
1432 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1433 ------------------------------
1435 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1436 ------------------------------
1438 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1439 ------------------------------
1441 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1442 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1444 ---------------------------------------
1445 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1446 bindsym mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1448 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1449 bindsym mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1450 ---------------------------------------
1452 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1453 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1454 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1456 === Changing border style
1458 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1459 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1460 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1462 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1465 ----------------------------
1466 bindsym mod+t border normal
1467 bindsym mod+y border 1pixel
1468 bindsym mod+u border none
1469 ----------------------------
1473 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1474 TODO: not yet implemented
1475 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1477 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1478 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1479 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1480 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1482 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1483 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1484 you limited) automatically as needed.
1487 --------------------------------
1488 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1489 --------------------------------
1493 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1496 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1500 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1501 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1503 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1505 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1506 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1507 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1508 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1509 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1512 ----------------------------
1513 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
1514 bindsym mod+Shift+w reload
1515 bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
1516 ----------------------------
1520 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1521 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1522 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1523 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1524 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1525 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1526 keybinding to toggle).
1528 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1529 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1530 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1531 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1541 ------------------------------------------------
1542 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1543 bindsym mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1545 # Show the first scratchpad window
1546 bindsym mod+minus scratchpad show
1548 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
1549 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
1550 ------------------------------------------------
1554 == Multiple monitors
1556 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1557 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1558 handle multiple monitors.
1560 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1561 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1563 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1564 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1565 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1566 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1567 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1568 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1569 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1571 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1572 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1573 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1574 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1575 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1576 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1577 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1578 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1580 === Configuring your monitors
1582 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1583 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1584 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1585 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1586 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1588 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1589 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1590 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1591 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1592 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1594 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1595 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1599 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1601 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1602 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1603 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1604 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1606 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1607 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1608 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1610 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1611 -------------------------------------------
1612 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1613 -------------------------------------------
1614 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1615 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1616 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1617 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1619 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1620 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1621 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1624 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1626 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1627 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1629 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1630 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1631 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1633 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1634 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1638 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1639 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
1640 only what you can see in xrandr.
1642 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
1644 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
1646 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
1647 have more than one monitor:
1649 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
1650 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
1651 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
1652 <<workspace_screen>>.
1653 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
1654 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
1655 <<assign_workspace>>.
1656 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
1657 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
1658 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
1660 == i3 and the rest of your software world
1662 === Displaying a status line
1664 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
1665 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
1666 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
1668 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
1669 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
1670 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
1671 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
1672 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
1673 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
1675 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
1676 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
1677 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
1678 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
1679 see <<i3bar_position>>.
1681 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
1683 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
1684 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
1685 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
1686 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
1690 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
1691 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
1692 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
1693 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
1694 -----------------------------------------------------
1695 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
1696 -----------------------------------------------------
1697 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1698 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1699 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1701 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1702 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1703 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1704 -----------------------------------------------------
1705 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1706 -----------------------------------------------------
1707 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1708 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1710 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1711 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1712 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).