3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
5 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
6 window manager. If it does not, please check https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/
7 first, then contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full-size image):
15 *Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with $mod (Alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+$mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
26 Note that when starting i3 without a config file, i3-config-wizard will offer
27 you to create a config file in which the key positions (!) match what you see
28 in the image above, regardless of the keyboard layout you are using. If you
29 prefer to use a config file where the key letters match what you are seeing
30 above, just decline i3-config-wizard’s offer and base your config on
35 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
36 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (+Mod1+) by default, with the Windows
37 key (+Mod4+) being a popular alternative that largely prevents conflicts with
38 application-defined shortcuts.
40 === Opening terminals and moving around
42 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
43 for this is +$mod+Enter+, that is Alt+Enter (+Mod1+Enter+) in the default
44 configuration. By pressing +$mod+Enter+, a new terminal will be opened. It
45 will fill the whole space available on your screen.
47 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
49 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
50 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
51 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
52 existing window (rotated displays).
54 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
56 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
57 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
58 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
59 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+j+ is left, +$mod+k+
60 is down, +$mod+l+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
61 terminals, use +$mod+k+ or +$mod+l+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
63 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
64 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
65 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
66 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
67 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
70 TODO: picture of the tree
72 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
73 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
75 === Changing the container layout
77 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
80 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
81 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
82 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
85 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
86 windows at the top of the container.
88 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
89 a single line which is vertically split.
91 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
92 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
94 image:modes.png[Container modes]
96 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
98 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
101 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
102 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
104 === Opening other applications
106 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
107 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
108 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
109 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
111 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
112 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
113 <<configuring>> for details.
117 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
118 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+w+ to close), you
119 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
120 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
121 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
122 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
123 depends on the application.
127 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
128 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
129 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
130 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
132 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
133 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
134 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
136 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
137 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
138 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
139 focus to that screen.
141 === Moving windows to workspaces
143 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
144 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
145 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
146 it does not yet exist.
150 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
151 and move it to the wanted size.
153 You can also use <<binding_modes>> to define a mode for resizing via the
154 keyboard. To see an example for this, look at the
155 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config] provided
158 === Restarting i3 inplace
160 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
161 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
165 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
166 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
170 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
171 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
172 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
173 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
174 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
175 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
177 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
178 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
179 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
180 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
181 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
183 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see the resizing binding mode
184 provided by the i3 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config].
186 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
190 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
191 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
192 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
193 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
194 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
195 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
197 === The tree consists of Containers
199 The building blocks of our tree are so-called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
200 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
201 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
202 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
203 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
206 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
207 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
210 === Orientation and Split Containers
212 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
213 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
214 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
215 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
216 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
217 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
218 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
219 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
221 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
223 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
224 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
225 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
226 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
227 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
228 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
229 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
230 terminal and it will open below the current one:
232 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
233 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
237 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
242 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
243 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
244 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
246 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
247 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
248 the current +Container+. In default configuration, use +$mod+a+ to navigate one
249 +Container+ up the tree (you can repeat this multiple times until you get to the
250 +Workspace Container+). In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split Container+
251 which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new windows will be
252 opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
254 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
256 === Implicit containers
258 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
261 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
262 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
263 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
264 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
266 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
267 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
268 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
269 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
270 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
271 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
272 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
278 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
279 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
281 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
282 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
285 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
286 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
287 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
288 can bind your keys to do useful things.
290 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
291 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
294 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
295 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
296 wizard to use either Alt (+Mod1+) or Windows (+Mod4+) as modifier in the config
297 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
298 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
299 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
302 Since i3 4.0, a new configuration format is used. i3 will try to automatically
303 detect the format version of a config file based on a few different keywords,
304 but if you want to make sure that your config is read with the new format,
305 include the following line in your config file:
307 ---------------------
308 # i3 config file (v4)
309 ---------------------
313 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
314 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
315 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
325 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
326 render window titles.
328 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
329 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
332 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
333 a variant, a stretch and a size.
334 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
335 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
337 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
338 and fall back to a working font.
341 ------------------------------
342 font <X core font description>
343 font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size>
344 ------------------------------
347 --------------------------------------------------------------
348 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
349 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
350 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
351 font pango:Terminus 11px
352 --------------------------------------------------------------
355 === Keyboard bindings
357 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
358 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
359 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
361 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
362 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
363 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
364 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
365 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
367 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
368 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
369 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
371 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
372 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
373 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
376 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
377 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
378 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
379 after the keys have been released.
382 ----------------------------------
383 bindsym [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
384 bindcode [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command
385 ----------------------------------
388 --------------------------------
390 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
393 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
395 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
396 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
398 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
399 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
401 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
402 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
403 --------------------------------
407 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
408 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
410 Group1, Group2, Group3, Group4::
411 When using multiple keyboard layouts (e.g. with `setxkbmap -layout us,ru`), you
412 can specify in which XKB group (also called “layout”) a keybinding should be
413 active. By default, keybindings are translated in Group1 and are active in all
414 groups. If you want to override keybindings in one of your layouts, specify the
415 corresponding group. For backwards compatibility, the group “Mode_switch” is an
421 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
422 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
423 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
426 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
427 bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [--exclude-titlebar] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command
428 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
430 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
431 window. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
434 If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
435 of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
436 when the border is clicked, specify the +--border+ flag.
438 If the +--exclude-titlebar+ flag is given, the titlebar will not be considered
442 --------------------------------
443 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
444 bindsym --release button2 kill
446 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
447 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
449 # The right button toggles floating
450 bindsym button3 floating toggle
451 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
453 # The side buttons move the window around
454 bindsym button9 move left
455 bindsym button8 move right
456 --------------------------------
461 You can have multiple sets of bindings by using different binding modes. When
462 you switch to another binding mode, all bindings from the current mode are
463 released and only the bindings defined in the new mode are valid for as long as
464 you stay in that binding mode. The only predefined binding mode is +default+,
465 which is the mode i3 starts out with and to which all bindings not defined in a
466 specific binding mode belong.
468 Working with binding modes consists of two parts: defining a binding mode and
469 switching to it. For these purposes, there are one config directive and one
470 command, both of which are called +mode+. The directive is used to define the
471 bindings belonging to a certain binding mode, while the command will switch to
474 It is recommended to use binding modes in combination with <<variables>> in
475 order to make maintenance easier. Below is an example of how to use a binding
478 Note that it is advisable to define bindings for switching back to the default
481 Note that it is possible to use <<pango_markup>> for binding modes, but you
482 need to enable it explicitly by passing the +--pango_markup+ flag to the mode
486 ----------------------------
488 mode [--pango_markup] <name>
492 ----------------------------
495 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
496 # Press $mod+o followed by either f, t, Escape or Return to launch firefox,
497 # thunderbird or return to the default mode, respectively.
498 set $mode_launcher Launch: [f]irefox [t]hunderbird
499 bindsym $mod+o mode "$mode_launcher"
501 mode "$mode_launcher" {
502 bindsym f exec firefox
503 bindsym t exec thunderbird
505 bindsym Escape mode "default"
506 bindsym Return mode "default"
508 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
510 [[floating_modifier]]
511 === The floating modifier
513 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
514 or configure the so-called floating modifier which you can then press and
515 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
516 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
517 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
518 it to the position you want.
520 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
521 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
522 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
523 ratio will be preserved).
526 --------------------------------
527 floating_modifier <Modifier>
528 --------------------------------
531 --------------------------------
532 floating_modifier Mod1
533 --------------------------------
535 === Constraining floating window size
537 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
538 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
539 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
540 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
541 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
542 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
545 ----------------------------------------
546 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
547 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
548 ----------------------------------------
551 --------------------------------------
552 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
553 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
554 --------------------------------------
556 === Orientation for new workspaces
558 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
559 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
560 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
562 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
566 --------------------------------------------
567 default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto
568 --------------------------------------------
571 ----------------------------
572 default_orientation vertical
573 ----------------------------
575 === Layout mode for new containers
577 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
581 ---------------------------------------------
582 workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed
583 ---------------------------------------------
586 ---------------------
587 workspace_layout tabbed
588 ---------------------
590 === Default border style for new windows
592 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
593 +normal+. Note that default_floating_border applies only to windows which are starting out as
594 floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.
597 ---------------------------------------------
598 default_border normal|none|pixel
599 default_border normal|pixel <px>
600 default_floating_border normal|none|pixel
601 default_floating_border normal|pixel <px>
602 ---------------------------------------------
604 Please note that +new_window+ and +new_float+ have been deprecated in favor of the above options
605 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the new options instead.
608 ---------------------
610 ---------------------
612 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
616 ---------------------
617 # The same as default_border none
618 default_border pixel 0
621 default_border pixel 3
622 ---------------------
625 [[_hiding_vertical_borders]]
626 === Hiding borders adjacent to the screen edges
628 You can hide container borders adjacent to the screen edges using
629 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
630 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. The "smart" setting hides borders on
631 workspaces with only one window visible, but keeps them on workspaces with
632 multiple windows visible. Default is none.
635 -----------------------------------------------
636 hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both|smart
637 -----------------------------------------------
640 ----------------------
641 hide_edge_borders vertical
642 ----------------------
645 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
647 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
648 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
649 change their border style, for example.
652 -------------------------------
653 for_window <criteria> <command>
654 -------------------------------
657 ------------------------------------------------
658 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
659 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
661 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
662 for_window [class="urxvt"] border pixel 1
664 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
665 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
666 # directory to ~/work
667 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
668 ------------------------------------------------
670 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
673 === Don't focus window upon opening
675 When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
676 this from happening and must be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
678 Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
679 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
680 <<focus_on_window_activation>>.
682 +no_focus+ will also be ignored for the first window on a workspace as there shouldn't be
683 a reason to not focus the window in this case. This allows for better usability in
684 combination with +workspace_layout+.
692 -------------------------------
693 no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
694 -------------------------------
699 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
700 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
701 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
702 variables can be handy.
710 ------------------------
712 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
713 ------------------------
715 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
716 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
717 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
718 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
719 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
720 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
722 Also see <<xresources>> to learn how to create variables based on resources
723 loaded from the X resource database.
728 <<variables>> can also be created using a value configured in the X resource
729 database. This is useful, for example, to avoid configuring color values within
730 the i3 configuration. Instead, the values can be configured, once, in the X
731 resource database to achieve an easily maintainable, consistent color theme
732 across many X applications.
734 Defining a resource will load this resource from the resource database and
735 assign its value to the specified variable. This is done verbatim and the value
736 must therefore be in the format that i3 uses. A fallback must be specified in
737 case the resource cannot be loaded from the database.
740 ----------------------------------------------------
741 set_from_resource $<name> <resource_name> <fallback>
742 ----------------------------------------------------
745 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
746 # The ~/.Xresources should contain a line such as
748 # and must be loaded properly, e.g., by using
750 # This value is picked up on by other applications (e.g., the URxvt terminal
751 # emulator) and can be used in i3 like this:
752 set_from_resource $black i3wm.color0 #000000
753 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
756 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
758 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
759 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
760 see <<command_criteria>>. The difference between +assign+ and
761 +for_window <criteria> move to workspace+ is that the former will only be
762 executed when the application maps the window (mapping means actually displaying
763 it on the screen) but the latter will be executed whenever a window changes its
764 properties to something that matches the specified criteria.
766 Thus, it is recommended that you match on window classes (and instances, when
767 appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible because some
768 applications first create their window, and then worry about setting the correct
769 title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window starts up being named
770 Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the title change. As i3 will
771 get the title as soon as the application maps the window, you’d need to have to
772 match on 'Firefox' in this case.
773 Another known issue is with Spotify, which doesn't set the class hints when
774 mapping the window, meaning you'll have to use a +for_window+ rule to assign
775 Spotify to a specific workspace.
776 Finally, using +assign [tiling]+ and +assign [floating]+ is not supported.
778 You can also assign a window to show up on a specific output. You can use RandR
779 names such as +VGA1+ or names relative to the output with the currently focused
780 workspace such as +left+ and +down+.
782 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
783 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
787 ------------------------------------------------------------
788 assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] [number] <workspace>
789 assign <criteria> [→] output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
790 ------------------------------------------------------------
793 ----------------------
794 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
795 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
797 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
798 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
800 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
801 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
803 # Assignment to a named workspace
804 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
806 # Assign to the workspace with number 2, regardless of name
807 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number 2
809 # You can also specify a number + name. If the workspace with number 2 exists, assign will skip the text part.
810 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number "2: work"
812 # Start urxvt -name irssi
813 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
815 # Assign urxvt to the output right of the current one
816 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output right
818 # Assign urxvt to the primary output
819 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output primary
820 ----------------------
822 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
823 -------------------------
824 xrandr --output <output> --primary
825 -------------------------
827 Also, the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
828 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
830 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
831 window, you will see the following output:
834 -----------------------------------
835 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
836 -----------------------------------
838 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
839 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
841 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
842 logfile first (see https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
843 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
844 title when starting up.
846 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
847 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
848 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
849 file in the following way:
851 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
852 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
853 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
854 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
855 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
856 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
857 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
858 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
859 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
860 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
862 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
864 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
865 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
866 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
867 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
868 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
870 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
871 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
872 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
875 ---------------------------------------
876 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
877 exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command>
878 ---------------------------------------
881 --------------------------------
883 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
885 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
886 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
887 --------------------------------
889 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
892 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
894 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
895 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
896 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
897 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
898 the second screen and so on).
901 -------------------------------------
902 workspace <workspace> output <output1> [output2]…
903 -------------------------------------
905 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
906 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
907 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
909 If your X server supports RandR 1.5 or newer, i3 will use RandR monitor objects
910 instead of output objects. Run +xrandr --listmonitors+ to see a list. Usually,
911 a monitor object contains exactly one output, and has the same name as the
912 output; but should that not be the case, you may specify the name of either the
913 monitor or the output in i3's configuration. For example, the Dell UP2414Q uses
914 two scalers internally, so its output names might be “DP1” and “DP2”, but the
915 monitor name is “Dell UP2414Q”.
917 (Note that even if you specify the name of an output which doesn't span the
918 entire monitor, i3 will still use the entire area of the containing monitor
919 rather than that of just the output's.)
921 You can specify multiple outputs. The first available will be used.
923 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
926 ---------------------------
927 workspace 1 output LVDS1
928 workspace 2 output primary
929 workspace 5 output VGA1 LVDS1
930 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
931 ---------------------------
935 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
938 --------------------------------------------------------------------
939 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator> <child_border>
940 --------------------------------------------------------------------
942 Where colorclass can be one of:
945 A client which currently has the focus.
946 client.focused_inactive::
947 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
948 the focus at the moment.
950 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
952 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
954 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
955 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
957 Background color which will be used to paint the background of the
958 client window on top of which the client will be rendered. Only clients
959 which do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color. Note
960 that this colorclass only takes a single color.
962 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
964 *Examples (default colors)*:
965 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
966 # class border backgr. text indicator child_border
967 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4 #285577
968 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50 #5f676a
969 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e #222222
970 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000 #900000
971 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000 #0c0c0c
973 client.background #ffffff
974 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
976 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
977 "child_border", and "border" color is only the two thin lines around the
980 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
981 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
982 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
983 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
984 from single windows outside of a split container.
986 === Interprocess communication
988 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
989 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
990 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
992 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
993 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
994 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
995 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
997 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
998 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
999 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
1000 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
1001 user can create that directory.
1004 ----------------------------
1005 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
1006 ----------------------------
1008 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
1009 <<list_of_commands>>.
1011 === Focus follows mouse
1013 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements as the mouse crosses
1014 window borders. However, if you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your
1015 way (like a touchpad on your laptop which you do not want to disable
1016 completely), you might want to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus
1017 only by using your keyboard. The mouse will still be useful inside the
1018 currently active window (for example to click on links in your browser window).
1021 --------------------------
1022 focus_follows_mouse yes|no
1023 --------------------------
1026 ----------------------
1027 focus_follows_mouse no
1028 ----------------------
1032 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
1033 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
1034 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
1036 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
1037 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
1038 behavior described above.
1041 -------------------------
1042 mouse_warping output|none
1043 -------------------------
1050 === Popups during fullscreen mode
1052 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
1053 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
1054 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
1055 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
1057 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
1058 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
1059 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
1060 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
1061 you go out of fullscreen).
1062 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
1065 -----------------------------------------------------
1066 popup_during_fullscreen smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen
1067 -----------------------------------------------------
1070 ------------------------------
1071 popup_during_fullscreen smart
1072 ------------------------------
1076 By default, when in a container with several windows or child containers, the
1077 opposite window will be focused when trying to move the focus over the edge of
1078 a container (and there are no other containers in that direction) -- the focus
1081 If desired, you can disable this behavior by setting the +focus_wrapping+
1082 configuration directive to the value +no+.
1084 When enabled, focus wrapping does not occur by default if there is another
1085 window or container in the specified direction, and focus will instead be set
1086 on that window or container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate
1087 to all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
1089 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
1090 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can instead set +focus_wrapping+
1091 to the value +force+.
1094 ---------------------------
1095 focus_wrapping yes|no|force
1097 # Legacy syntax, equivalent to "focus_wrapping force"
1098 force_focus_wrapping yes
1099 ---------------------------
1103 # Disable focus wrapping
1106 # Force focus wrapping
1107 focus_wrapping force
1110 === Forcing Xinerama
1112 As explained in-depth in <https://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
1113 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
1114 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
1115 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
1116 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
1119 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
1120 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
1123 ---------------------
1124 force_xinerama yes|no
1125 ---------------------
1132 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
1133 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
1135 [[workspace_auto_back_and_forth]]
1136 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
1138 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
1139 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
1141 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
1142 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
1143 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
1146 ------------------------------------
1147 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes|no
1148 ------------------------------------
1151 ---------------------------------
1152 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
1153 ---------------------------------
1155 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
1157 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
1158 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
1159 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
1160 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
1163 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
1164 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
1165 value to 0 disables this feature.
1167 The default is 500ms.
1170 ---------------------------------------
1171 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
1172 ---------------------------------------
1175 ---------------------------------
1176 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
1177 ---------------------------------
1179 [[focus_on_window_activation]]
1180 === Focus on window activation
1182 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
1183 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
1185 Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
1186 from being focused, see <<no_focus>>.
1189 --------------------------------------------------
1190 focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none
1191 --------------------------------------------------
1193 The different modes will act as follows:
1196 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1197 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1199 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1201 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1203 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1206 === Drawing marks on window decoration
1208 If activated, marks (see <<vim_like_marks>>) on windows are drawn in their window
1209 decoration. However, any mark starting with an underscore in its name (+_+) will
1210 not be drawn even if this option is activated.
1212 The default for this option is +yes+.
1224 [[line_continuation]]
1225 === Line continuation
1227 Config files support line continuation, meaning when you end a line in a
1228 backslash character (`\`), the line-break will be ignored by the parser. This
1229 feature can be used to create more readable configuration files.
1230 Commented lines are not continued.
1237 # this line is not continued \
1238 bindsym Mod1+F fullscreen toggle
1241 == Configuring i3bar
1243 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1244 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1247 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1248 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1249 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1250 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1251 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1252 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1253 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1254 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1256 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1257 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1258 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1259 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1260 configuration infrastructure in place.
1262 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1263 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1266 ---------------------------
1268 status_command i3status
1270 ---------------------------
1274 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1275 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1276 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1277 tell i3 what to execute.
1279 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1280 have to have correct quoting etc.
1283 -----------------------
1284 i3bar_command <command>
1285 -----------------------
1288 -------------------------------------------------
1290 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1292 -------------------------------------------------
1295 === Statusline command
1297 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1298 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1299 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1301 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1302 have to have correct quoting etc. Note that for signal handling, depending on
1303 your shell (users of dash(1) are known to be affected), you have to use the
1304 shell’s exec command so that signals are passed to your program, not to the
1308 ------------------------
1309 status_command <command>
1310 ------------------------
1313 -------------------------------------------------
1315 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1317 # For dash(1) users who want signal handling to work:
1318 status_command exec ~/.bin/my_status_command
1320 -------------------------------------------------
1324 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1325 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1326 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1327 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1329 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1330 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1332 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1333 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1336 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1337 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1338 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1340 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1341 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1342 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1343 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1344 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1345 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1347 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1348 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1350 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1351 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1354 -------------------------
1355 mode dock|hide|invisible
1356 hidden_state hide|show
1357 modifier <Modifier>|none
1358 ------------------------
1369 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+). You can
1370 also use "none" if you don't want any modifier to trigger this behavior.
1372 === Mouse button commands
1374 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1375 default behavior. This is useful, e.g., for disabling the scroll wheel action
1376 or running scripts that implement custom behavior for these buttons.
1378 A button is always named +button<n>+, where 1 to 5 are default buttons as follows and higher
1379 numbers can be special buttons on devices offering more buttons:
1384 Middle mouse button.
1392 Please note that the old +wheel_up_cmd+ and +wheel_down_cmd+ commands are deprecated
1393 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the more general
1394 +bindsym+ with +button4+ and +button5+ instead.
1397 ----------------------------
1398 bindsym [--release] button<n> <command>
1399 ----------------------------
1402 ---------------------------------------------------------
1404 # disable clicking on workspace buttons
1406 # Take a screenshot by right clicking on the bar
1407 bindsym --release button3 exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
1408 # execute custom script when scrolling downwards
1409 bindsym button5 exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1411 ---------------------------------------------------------
1415 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1416 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1417 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1420 ---------------------
1422 ---------------------
1425 ---------------------
1429 ---------------------
1434 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1436 The default is bottom.
1444 ---------------------
1448 ---------------------
1452 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1453 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1454 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1456 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1457 directive multiple times.
1461 output primary|<output>
1465 -------------------------------
1466 # big monitor: everything
1468 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1471 status_command i3status
1474 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1477 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1484 # show bar on the primary monitor and on HDMI2
1488 status_command i3status
1491 -------------------------------
1492 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1493 -------------------------
1494 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1495 -------------------------
1499 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1500 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1502 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1503 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1505 You can use multiple +tray_output+ directives in your config to specify a list
1506 of outputs on which you want the tray to appear. The first available output in
1507 that list as defined by the order of the directives will be used for the tray
1511 ---------------------------------
1512 tray_output none|primary|<output>
1513 ---------------------------------
1516 -------------------------
1517 # disable system tray
1522 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1527 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1531 -------------------------
1533 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1534 -------------------------
1535 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1536 -------------------------
1538 Note that when you use multiple bar configuration blocks, either specify
1539 `tray_output primary` in all of them or explicitly specify `tray_output none`
1540 in bars which should not display the tray, otherwise the different instances
1541 might race each other in trying to display tray icons.
1545 The tray is shown on the right-hand side of the bar. By default, a padding of 2
1546 pixels is used for the upper, lower and right-hand side of the tray area and
1547 between the individual icons.
1550 -------------------------
1551 tray_padding <px> [px]
1552 -------------------------
1555 -------------------------
1558 -------------------------
1562 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1565 ---------------------
1567 ---------------------
1570 --------------------------------------------------------------
1572 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1573 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1575 --------------------------------------------------------------
1577 === Custom separator symbol
1579 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1580 one pixel thick separator.
1583 -------------------------
1584 separator_symbol <symbol>
1585 -------------------------
1588 ------------------------
1590 separator_symbol ":|:"
1592 ------------------------
1594 === Workspace buttons
1596 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1597 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1599 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1602 ------------------------
1603 workspace_buttons yes|no
1604 ------------------------
1607 ------------------------
1609 workspace_buttons no
1611 ------------------------
1613 === Strip workspace numbers/name
1615 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1616 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1617 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1619 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1620 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1621 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1622 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1624 When +strip_workspace_name+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1625 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the number.
1627 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1630 ------------------------------
1631 strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
1632 strip_workspace_name yes|no
1633 ------------------------------
1636 ----------------------------
1638 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1640 ----------------------------
1642 === Binding Mode indicator
1644 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1645 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1646 to see the current binding mode indicator. See <<binding_modes>> to learn what
1647 modes are and how to use them.
1649 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1652 -----------------------------
1653 binding_mode_indicator yes|no
1654 -----------------------------
1657 -----------------------------
1659 binding_mode_indicator no
1661 -----------------------------
1665 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1666 be configured at the moment:
1669 Background color of the bar.
1671 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1673 Text color to be used for the separator.
1674 focused_background::
1675 Background color of the bar on the currently focused monitor output. If
1676 not used, the color will be taken from +background+.
1677 focused_statusline::
1678 Text color to be used for the statusline on the currently focused
1679 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +statusline+.
1681 Text color to be used for the separator on the currently focused
1682 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +separator+.
1684 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1687 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1688 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1689 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1690 using multiple monitors.
1691 inactive_workspace::
1692 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1693 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1694 will be the case for most workspaces.
1696 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1697 contains a window with the urgency hint set.
1699 Border, background and text color for the binding mode indicator. If not used,
1700 the colors will be taken from +urgent_workspace+.
1703 ----------------------------------------
1709 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text>
1711 ----------------------------------------
1713 *Example (default colors)*:
1714 --------------------------------------
1721 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1722 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1723 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1724 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1725 binding_mode #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1728 --------------------------------------
1730 [[list_of_commands]]
1733 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1734 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1735 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1738 --------------------------
1739 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1741 --------------------------
1743 [[command_chaining]]
1745 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1746 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1747 the following keybinding:
1750 --------------------------------------------------------
1751 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1752 --------------------------------------------------------
1754 [[command_criteria]]
1756 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1757 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1758 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1761 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1762 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1763 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1767 ------------------------------------
1768 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1769 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1771 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1772 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1774 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1775 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1777 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1778 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1780 # move all floating windows to the scratchpad
1781 bindsym $mod+x [floating] move scratchpad
1782 ------------------------------------
1784 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1787 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1788 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1789 class as the currently focused window.
1791 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1792 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1793 instance as the currently focused window.
1795 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE). Use the special value
1796 +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window role as the
1797 currently focused window.
1799 Compare the window type (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE). Possible values are
1800 +normal+, +dialog+, +utility+, +toolbar+, +splash+, +menu+, +dropdown_menu+,
1801 +popup_menu+, +tooltip+ and +notification+.
1803 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1805 Compares the X11 window title (\_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1806 Use the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the
1807 same window title as the currently focused window.
1809 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1810 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1811 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1813 Compares the workspace name of the workspace the window belongs to. Use
1814 the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows in the currently
1817 Compares the marks set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>. A
1818 match is made if any of the container's marks matches the specified
1821 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1822 interface. Handy for scripting. Use the special value +\_\_focused__+
1823 to match only the currently focused window.
1825 Only matches floating windows. This criterion requires no value.
1827 Only matches tiling windows. This criterion requires no value.
1829 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+, +workspace+ and +mark+ are
1830 actually regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1831 information on how to use them.
1834 === Executing applications (exec)
1836 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1837 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1838 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1839 searched in your +$PATH+.
1841 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
1842 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
1843 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
1846 --------------------------------
1847 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
1848 --------------------------------
1851 ------------------------------
1853 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1855 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1856 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1857 ------------------------------
1859 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1860 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1861 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1862 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1863 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1864 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1865 cursor for 60 seconds.
1868 If the command to be executed contains a +;+ (semicolon) and/or a +,+ (comma),
1869 the entire command must be quoted. For example, to have a keybinding for the
1870 shell command +notify-send Hello, i3+, you would add an entry to your
1871 configuration file like this:
1874 ------------------------------
1875 # Execute a command with a comma in it
1876 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send Hello, i3"
1877 ------------------------------
1879 If however a command with a comma and/or semicolon itself requires quotes, you
1880 must escape the internal quotation marks with double backslashes, like this:
1883 ------------------------------
1884 # Execute a command with a comma, semicolon and internal quotes
1885 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send \\"Hello, i3; from $USER\\""
1886 ------------------------------
1888 === Splitting containers
1890 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1891 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1892 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1893 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1895 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1896 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1897 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
1898 The +toggle+ option will toggle the orientation of the split container if it
1899 contains a single window. Otherwise it makes the current window a split
1900 container with opposite orientation compared to the parent container.
1901 Use +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from
1902 splitv to splith or vice-versa. You can also define a custom sequence of layouts
1903 to cycle through with +layout toggle+, see <<manipulating_layout>>.
1906 --------------------------------
1907 split vertical|horizontal|toggle
1908 --------------------------------
1911 -------------------------------
1912 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1913 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1914 bindsym $mod+t split toggle
1915 -------------------------------
1917 === Manipulating layout
1919 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1920 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1921 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1923 Specify up to four layouts after +layout toggle+ to cycle through them. Every
1924 time the command is executed, the layout specified after the currently active
1925 one will be applied. If the currently active layout is not in the list, the
1926 first layout in the list will be activated.
1928 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1929 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1930 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1931 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1933 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1934 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1937 --------------------------------------------
1938 layout default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith
1939 layout toggle [split|all]
1940 layout toggle [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith] [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith]…
1941 --------------------------------------------
1945 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1946 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1947 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1949 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1950 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1952 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1953 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1955 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith:
1956 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle stacking tabbed splith
1958 # Toggle between splitv/tabbed
1959 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle splitv tabbed
1961 # Toggle between last split layout/tabbed/stacking
1962 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle split tabbed stacking
1965 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1967 # Toggle floating/tiling
1968 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1971 [[_focusing_moving_containers]]
1972 === Focusing containers
1974 To change focus, you can use the +focus+ command. The following options are
1978 Sets focus to the container that matches the specified criteria.
1979 See <<command_criteria>>.
1980 left|right|up|down::
1981 Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
1983 Sets focus to the parent container of the current container.
1985 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1988 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1990 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1992 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1994 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1995 corresponding output.
1998 ----------------------------------------------
2000 focus left|right|down|up
2001 focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
2002 focus output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
2003 ----------------------------------------------
2006 -------------------------------------------------
2008 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] focus
2010 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
2011 bindsym $mod+j focus left
2012 bindsym $mod+k focus down
2013 bindsym $mod+l focus up
2014 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
2016 # Focus parent container
2017 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
2019 # Focus last floating/tiling container
2020 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
2022 # Focus the output right to the current one
2023 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
2025 # Focus the big output
2026 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
2028 # Focus the primary output
2029 bindsym $mod+x focus output primary
2030 -------------------------------------------------
2032 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
2033 -------------------------
2034 xrandr --output <output> --primary
2035 -------------------------
2037 === Moving containers
2039 Use the +move+ command to move a container.
2042 -----------------------------------------------------
2043 # Moves the container into the given direction.
2044 # The optional pixel argument specifies how far the
2045 # container should be moved if it is floating and
2046 # defaults to 10 pixels.
2047 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
2049 # Moves the container to the specified pos_x and pos_y
2050 # coordinates on the screen.
2051 move position <pos_x> [px] <pos_y> [px]
2053 # Moves the container to the center of the screen.
2054 # If 'absolute' is used, it is moved to the center of
2056 move [absolute] position center
2058 # Moves the container to the current position of the
2059 # mouse cursor. Only affects floating containers.
2061 -----------------------------------------------------
2064 -------------------------------------------------------
2065 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right
2066 bindsym $mod+j move left
2067 bindsym $mod+k move down
2068 bindsym $mod+l move up
2069 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
2071 # Move container, but make floating containers
2072 # move more than the default
2073 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
2075 # Move floating container to the center of all outputs
2076 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
2078 # Move container to the current position of the cursor
2079 bindsym $mod+m move position mouse
2080 -------------------------------------------------------
2082 === Swapping containers
2084 Two containers can be swapped (i.e., move to each other's position) by using
2085 the +swap+ command. They will assume the position and geometry of the container
2086 they are swapped with.
2088 The first container to participate in the swapping can be selected through the
2089 normal command criteria process with the focused window being the usual
2090 fallback if no criteria are specified. The second container can be selected
2091 using one of the following methods:
2093 +id+:: The X11 window ID of a client window.
2094 +con_id+:: The i3 container ID of a container.
2095 +mark+:: A container with the specified mark, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
2097 Note that swapping does not work with all containers. Most notably, swapping
2098 floating containers or containers that have a parent-child relationship to one
2099 another does not work.
2102 ----------------------------------------
2103 swap container with id|con_id|mark <arg>
2104 ----------------------------------------
2107 -----------------------------------------------------------------
2108 # Swaps the focused container with the container marked »swapee«.
2109 swap container with mark swapee
2111 # Swaps container marked »A« and »B«
2112 [con_mark="^A$"] swap container with mark B
2113 -----------------------------------------------------------------
2115 === Sticky floating windows
2117 If you want a window to stick to the glass, i.e., have it stay on screen even
2118 if you switch to another workspace, you can use the +sticky+ command. For
2119 example, this can be useful for notepads, a media player or a video chat
2122 Note that while any window can be made sticky through this command, it will
2123 only take effect if the window is floating.
2126 ----------------------------
2127 sticky enable|disable|toggle
2128 ----------------------------
2131 ------------------------------------------------------
2132 # make a terminal sticky that was started as a notepad
2133 for_window [instance=notepad] sticky enable
2134 ------------------------------------------------------
2136 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
2138 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
2139 number or name of the workspace. Pass the optional flag
2140 +--no-auto-back-and-forth+ to disable <<workspace_auto_back_and_forth>> for this
2143 To move containers to specific workspaces, use +move container to workspace+.
2145 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
2146 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
2147 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
2148 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
2149 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
2150 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
2151 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
2152 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
2154 +workspace next+ cycles through either numbered or named workspaces. But when it
2155 reaches the last numbered/named workspace, it looks for named workspaces after
2156 exhausting numbered ones and looks for numbered ones after exhausting named ones.
2158 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
2161 Workspace names are parsed as
2162 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2166 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
2167 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
2168 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
2171 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2172 workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
2173 workspace back_and_forth
2174 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] <name>
2175 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] number <name>
2177 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
2178 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
2179 move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current
2180 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2183 -------------------------
2184 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
2185 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
2186 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
2189 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
2190 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
2193 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
2194 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
2195 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
2197 # move the whole workspace to the next output
2198 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
2200 # move firefox to current workspace
2201 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
2202 -------------------------
2204 ==== Named workspaces
2206 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
2207 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
2210 -------------------------
2211 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
2213 -------------------------
2215 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
2219 -------------------------
2220 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
2221 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
2223 -------------------------
2225 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
2226 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
2227 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
2228 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
2229 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
2230 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
2231 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
2232 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
2234 ==== Renaming workspaces
2236 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
2237 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
2238 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
2239 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
2240 rename command with +i3-input+.
2243 ----------------------------------------------------
2244 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
2245 rename workspace to <new_name>
2246 ----------------------------------------------------
2249 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2250 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
2251 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
2252 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
2253 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"'
2254 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
2255 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2257 If you want to rename workspaces on demand while keeping the navigation stable,
2258 you can use a setup like this:
2261 -------------------------
2262 bindsym $mod+1 workspace number "1: www"
2263 bindsym $mod+2 workspace number "2: mail"
2265 -------------------------
2267 If a workspace does not exist, the command +workspace number "1: mail"+ will
2268 create workspace "1: mail".
2270 If a workspace with number 1 does already exist, the command will switch to this
2271 workspace and ignore the text part. So even when the workspace has been renamed
2272 to "1: web", the above command will still switch to it.
2274 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
2276 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
2280 === [[_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs]]Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
2282 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
2283 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
2284 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
2287 ------------------------------------------------------------
2288 move container to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output>
2289 move workspace to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output>
2290 ------------------------------------------------------------
2293 --------------------------------------------------------
2294 # Move the current workspace to the next output
2295 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
2296 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
2298 # Put this window on the presentation output.
2299 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
2301 # Put this window on the primary output.
2302 bindsym $mod+x move container to output primary
2303 --------------------------------------------------------
2305 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
2306 -------------------------
2307 xrandr --output <output> --primary
2308 -------------------------
2310 === Moving containers/windows to marks
2312 To move a container to another container with a specific mark (see <<vim_like_marks>>),
2313 you can use the following command.
2315 The window will be moved right after the marked container in the tree, i.e., it ends up
2316 in the same position as if you had opened a new window when the marked container was
2317 focused. If the mark is on a split container, the window will appear as a new child
2318 after the currently focused child within that container.
2321 ------------------------------------
2322 move window|container to mark <mark>
2323 ------------------------------------
2326 --------------------------------------------------------
2327 for_window [instance="tabme"] move window to mark target
2328 --------------------------------------------------------
2331 === Resizing containers/windows
2333 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
2337 -------------------------------------------------------
2338 resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
2339 resize set [width] <width> [px | ppt]
2340 resize set height <height> [px | ppt]
2341 resize set [width] <width> [px | ppt] [height] <height> [px | ppt]
2342 -------------------------------------------------------
2344 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
2345 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give space
2346 from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by how many
2347 pixels a container should be grown or shrunk (the default is 10 pixels). The
2348 optional ppt argument means "percentage points", and if specified it indicates
2349 that a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk by that many points, instead
2350 of by the +px+ value.
2352 Note about +resize set+: a value of 0 for <width> or <height> means "do not
2353 resize in this direction".
2355 It is recommended to define bindings for resizing in a dedicated binding mode.
2356 See <<binding_modes>> and the example in the i3
2357 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config] for more
2361 ------------------------------------------------
2362 for_window [class="urxvt"] resize set 640 480
2363 ------------------------------------------------
2365 === Jumping to specific windows
2367 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
2368 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
2369 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
2370 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
2371 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
2372 with criteria for that.
2375 ----------------------------------------------------
2376 [class="class"] focus
2377 [title="title"] focus
2378 ----------------------------------------------------
2381 ------------------------------------------------
2382 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
2383 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
2384 ------------------------------------------------
2387 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
2389 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
2390 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
2391 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
2392 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
2393 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
2394 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
2395 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
2397 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
2398 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
2399 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
2400 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
2402 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
2403 this mark or add it otherwise. Note that you may need to use this in
2404 combination with +--add+ (see below) as any other marks will otherwise be
2407 By default, a window can only have one mark. You can use the +--add+ flag to
2408 put more than one mark on a window.
2410 Refer to <<show_marks>> if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
2413 ----------------------------------------------
2414 mark [--add|--replace] [--toggle] <identifier>
2415 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
2417 ----------------------------------------------
2419 *Example (in a terminal)*:
2420 ---------------------------------------------------------
2421 # marks the focused container
2424 # focus the container with the mark "irssi"
2425 '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
2427 # remove the mark "irssi" from whichever container has it
2430 # remove all marks on all firefox windows
2431 [class="(?i)firefox"] unmark
2432 ---------------------------------------------------------
2434 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2435 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
2437 ---------------------------------------
2438 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
2439 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -F 'mark %s' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
2441 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
2442 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -F '[con_mark="%s"] focus' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
2443 ---------------------------------------
2445 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
2446 separate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
2447 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2450 === Window title format
2452 By default, i3 will simply print the X11 window title. Using +title_format+,
2453 this can be customized by setting the format to the desired output. This
2455 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2456 and the following placeholders which will be replaced:
2459 For normal windows, this is the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME
2460 as fallback). When used on containers without a window (e.g., a split
2461 container inside a tabbed/stacked layout), this will be the tree
2462 representation of the container (e.g., "H[xterm xterm]").
2464 The X11 window class (second part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2465 +class+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2467 The X11 window instance (first part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2468 +instance+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2470 Using the <<for_window>> directive, you can set the title format for any window
2471 based on <<command_criteria>>.
2474 ---------------------
2475 title_format <format>
2476 ---------------------
2479 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2480 # give the focused window a prefix
2481 bindsym $mod+p title_format "Important | %title"
2483 # print all window titles bold
2484 for_window [class=".*"] title_format "<b>%title</b>"
2486 # print window titles of firefox windows red
2487 for_window [class="(?i)firefox"] title_format "<span foreground='red'>%title</span>"
2488 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2490 === Changing border style
2492 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
2493 border (including window title), +border pixel 1+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
2494 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
2496 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles. The
2497 optional pixel argument can be used to specify the border width when switching
2498 to the normal and pixel styles.
2500 Note that "pixel" refers to logical pixel. On HiDPI displays, a logical pixel
2501 may be represented by multiple physical pixels, so +pixel 1+ might not
2502 necessarily translate into a single pixel row wide border.
2505 -----------------------------------------------
2506 border normal|pixel|toggle [<n>]
2509 # legacy syntax, equivalent to "border pixel 1"
2511 -----------------------------------------------
2514 ----------------------------------------------
2515 # use window title, but no border
2516 bindsym $mod+t border normal 0
2517 # use no window title and a thick border
2518 bindsym $mod+y border pixel 3
2519 # use neither window title nor border
2520 bindsym $mod+u border none
2521 ----------------------------------------------
2524 === Enabling shared memory logging
2526 As described in https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
2527 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
2528 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
2530 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
2531 discarded and a new one will be started.
2534 ------------------------------
2535 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
2536 shmlog on|off|toggle
2537 ------------------------------
2541 # Enable/disable logging
2542 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
2544 # or, from a terminal:
2545 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
2546 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
2549 === Enabling debug logging
2551 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
2552 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
2553 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
2554 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2557 ----------------------
2558 debuglog on|off|toggle
2559 ----------------------
2562 ------------------------
2563 # Enable/disable logging
2564 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2565 ------------------------
2567 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2569 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2570 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2571 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2572 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2573 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2576 ----------------------------
2577 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2578 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2579 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2580 ----------------------------
2584 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2585 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2586 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2587 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2588 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2589 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2590 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2591 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2592 (+floating toggle+).
2594 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2595 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2596 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2597 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2607 ------------------------------------------------
2608 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2609 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2611 # Show the first scratchpad window
2612 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2614 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2615 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2616 ------------------------------------------------
2620 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2621 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2622 the middle mouse button.
2624 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2625 for debugging purposes.
2633 ----------------------------------------------
2634 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2635 # with the middle mouse button
2637 ----------------------------------------------
2641 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2642 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2643 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2644 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2645 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2646 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2647 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2651 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2653 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2657 ------------------------------------------------
2658 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2659 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2661 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2662 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2664 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2665 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2667 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2668 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2669 ------------------------------------------------
2672 == Multiple monitors
2674 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2675 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2676 handle multiple monitors.
2678 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2679 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2681 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2682 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2683 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2684 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2685 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2686 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2687 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2689 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2690 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2691 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2692 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2693 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2694 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2695 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2696 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2698 === Configuring your monitors
2700 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2701 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2702 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2703 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2704 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2706 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2707 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2708 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2709 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2710 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2712 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2713 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2717 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2719 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2720 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2721 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2722 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2724 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2725 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2726 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2728 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2729 -------------------------------------------
2730 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2731 -------------------------------------------
2732 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2733 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2734 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2735 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2737 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2738 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2739 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2742 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2744 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2745 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2747 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2748 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2749 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2751 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2752 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2756 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2757 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2758 only what you can see in xrandr.
2760 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2762 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2764 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2765 have more than one monitor:
2767 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2768 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2769 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2770 <<workspace_screen>>.
2771 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2772 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2773 <<assign_workspace>>.
2774 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2775 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2776 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2777 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2778 see <<move_to_outputs>>.
2780 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2782 === Displaying a status line
2784 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2785 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2786 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2788 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2789 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2790 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2791 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2792 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2793 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2795 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2796 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2797 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2798 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2799 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2802 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2804 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2805 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2806 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2807 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2810 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2811 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2812 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2813 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2814 -----------------------------------------------------
2815 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2816 -----------------------------------------------------
2817 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2818 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2819 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2821 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2822 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2823 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2824 -----------------------------------------------------
2825 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2826 -----------------------------------------------------
2827 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2828 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2830 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2831 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2832 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).