3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please check http://faq.i3wm.org/ first, then
8 contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the mailing list.
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with $mod (Alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+$mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (Mod1) by default, with the Windows
30 key (Mod4) being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is $mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing $mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+J+ is left, +$mod+K+
52 is down, +$mod+L+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +$mod+K+ or +$mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
65 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
73 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
74 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
77 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
78 windows at the top of the container.
80 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
81 a single line which is vertically split.
83 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
84 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
86 image:modes.png[Container modes]
88 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
90 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
93 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
96 === Opening other applications
98 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
99 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
100 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
101 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
103 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
104 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
105 <<configuring>> for details.
109 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
110 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
111 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
113 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
114 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
115 depends on the application.
119 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
120 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
121 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
122 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
124 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
125 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
126 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
128 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
129 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
130 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
131 focus to that screen.
133 === Moving windows to workspaces
135 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
136 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
137 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
138 it does not yet exist.
142 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
143 and move it to the wanted size.
145 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
146 columns/rows with your keyboard.
148 === Restarting i3 inplace
150 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
151 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
155 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
156 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
160 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
161 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
162 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
163 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
164 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
165 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
167 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
168 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
169 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
170 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
171 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
173 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
175 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
179 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
180 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
181 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
182 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
183 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
184 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
186 === The tree consists of Containers
188 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
189 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
190 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
191 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
192 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
195 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
196 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
198 === Orientation and Split Containers
202 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
203 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
204 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
205 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
206 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
207 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
208 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
209 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
211 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
213 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
214 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
215 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
216 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
217 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
218 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
219 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
220 terminal and it will open below the current one:
222 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
223 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
227 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
232 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
233 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
234 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
236 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
237 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
238 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
239 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
240 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
242 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
244 === Implicit containers
246 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
249 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
250 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
251 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
252 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
254 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
255 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
256 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
257 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
258 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
259 (for example). You would end up having one tab called "another container" and
260 the other one being the terminal window you moved down.
265 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
266 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
268 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
269 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
272 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
273 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
274 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
275 can bind your keys to do useful things.
277 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
278 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
281 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
282 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
283 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
284 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
285 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
286 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
291 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
292 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
293 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
304 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
305 render window titles.
307 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
308 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
311 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
312 a variant, a stretch and a size.
313 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
314 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
316 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
317 and fall back to a working font.
320 ------------------------------
321 font <X core font description>
322 font pango:[family list] [style options] [size]
323 ------------------------------
326 --------------------------------------------------------------
327 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
328 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
329 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
330 font pango:Terminus 11px
331 --------------------------------------------------------------
335 === Keyboard bindings
337 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
338 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
339 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
341 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
342 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
343 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
344 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
345 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
347 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
348 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
349 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
351 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
352 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
353 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
356 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
357 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
358 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
359 after the keys have been released.
362 ----------------------------------
363 bindsym [--release] [Modifiers+]keysym command
364 bindcode [--release] [Modifiers+]keycode command
365 ----------------------------------
368 --------------------------------
370 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
373 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
375 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
376 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
378 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
379 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
381 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
382 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
383 --------------------------------
387 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
388 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
391 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
392 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
393 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
394 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
395 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
401 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
402 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
403 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
406 ----------------------------------
407 bindsym [--release] [--whole-window] [Modifiers+]button[n] command
408 ----------------------------------
410 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
411 window. If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, it will run when any part of the
412 window is clicked. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse
416 --------------------------------
417 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
418 bindsym --release button2 kill
420 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
421 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
423 # The right button toggles floating
424 bindsym button3 floating toggle
425 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
427 # The side buttons move the window around
428 bindsym button9 move left
429 bindsym button8 move right
430 --------------------------------
432 [[floating_modifier]]
434 === The floating modifier
436 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
437 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
438 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
439 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
440 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
441 it to the position you want.
443 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
444 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
445 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
446 ratio will be preserved).
449 --------------------------------
450 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
451 --------------------------------
454 --------------------------------
455 floating_modifier Mod1
456 --------------------------------
458 === Constraining floating window size
460 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
461 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
462 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
463 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
464 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
465 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
468 ----------------------------------------
469 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
470 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
471 ----------------------------------------
474 --------------------------------------
475 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
476 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
477 --------------------------------------
479 === Orientation for new workspaces
481 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
482 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
483 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
485 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
489 ----------------------------------------------
490 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
491 ----------------------------------------------
494 ----------------------------
495 default_orientation vertical
496 ----------------------------
498 === Layout mode for new containers
500 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
502 ///////////////////////////////
503 See also <<stack-limit>>.
504 //////////////////////////////
507 ---------------------------------------------
508 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
509 ---------------------------------------------
510 /////////////////////////////////////////////
511 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
512 /////////////////////////////////////////////
515 ---------------------
516 workspace_layout tabbed
517 ---------------------
519 === Border style for new windows
521 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
522 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
523 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
526 ---------------------------------------------
527 new_window <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
528 new_float <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
529 ---------------------------------------------
532 ---------------------
534 ---------------------
536 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
540 ---------------------
541 # The same as new_window none
546 ---------------------
549 === Hiding vertical borders
551 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
552 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
553 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
556 ----------------------------
557 hide_edge_borders <none|vertical|horizontal|both>
558 ----------------------------
561 ----------------------
562 hide_edge_borders vertical
563 ----------------------
565 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
567 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
568 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
569 change their border style, for example.
572 -----------------------------
573 for_window <criteria> command
574 -----------------------------
577 ------------------------------------------------
578 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
579 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
581 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
582 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
584 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
585 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
586 # directory to ~/work
587 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
588 ------------------------------------------------
590 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
594 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
595 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
596 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
597 variables can be handy.
605 ------------------------
607 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
608 ------------------------
610 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
611 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
612 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
613 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
614 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
615 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
617 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
621 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
622 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
623 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
624 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
625 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
626 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
627 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
628 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
629 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
630 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
632 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
633 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
637 ------------------------------------------------------------
638 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
639 ------------------------------------------------------------
642 ----------------------
643 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
644 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
646 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
647 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
649 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
650 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
652 # Assignment to a named workspace
653 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
655 # Start urxvt -name irssi
656 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
657 ----------------------
659 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
660 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
662 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
663 window, you will see the following output:
666 -----------------------------------
667 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
668 -----------------------------------
670 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
671 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
673 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
674 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
675 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
676 title when starting up.
678 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
679 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
680 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
681 file in the following way:
683 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
684 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
685 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
686 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
687 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
688 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
689 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
690 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
691 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
692 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
694 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
696 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
697 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
698 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
699 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
700 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
704 exec [--no-startup-id] command
705 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
709 --------------------------------
711 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
713 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
714 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
715 --------------------------------
717 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
721 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
723 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
724 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
725 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
726 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
727 the second screen and so on).
730 ----------------------------------
731 workspace <workspace> output <output>
732 ----------------------------------
734 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
735 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
736 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
738 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
741 ---------------------------
742 workspace 1 output LVDS1
743 workspace 5 output VGA1
744 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
745 ---------------------------
749 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
752 --------------------------------------------
753 colorclass border background text indicator
754 --------------------------------------------
756 Where colorclass can be one of:
759 A client which currently has the focus.
760 client.focused_inactive::
761 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
762 the focus at the moment.
764 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
766 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
768 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
769 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
771 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
772 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
776 -----------------------
777 client.background color
778 -----------------------
780 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
783 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
785 *Examples (default colors)*:
786 ---------------------------------------------------------
787 # class border backgr. text indicator
788 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
789 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
790 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
791 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
792 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
793 ---------------------------------------------------------
795 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
796 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
799 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
800 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
801 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
802 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
803 from single windows outside of a split container.
805 === Interprocess communication
807 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
808 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
809 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
811 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
812 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
813 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
814 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
816 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
817 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
818 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
819 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
820 user can create that directory.
823 ----------------------------
824 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
825 ----------------------------
827 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
830 === Focus follows mouse
832 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
833 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
834 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
835 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
836 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
837 links in your browser window).
840 ----------------------------
841 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
842 ----------------------------
845 ----------------------
846 focus_follows_mouse no
847 ----------------------
851 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
852 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
853 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
855 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
856 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
857 behavior described above.
860 ---------------------------
861 mouse_warping <output|none>
862 ---------------------------
869 === Popups during fullscreen mode
871 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
872 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
873 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
874 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
876 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
877 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
878 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
879 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
880 you go out of fullscreen).
881 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
884 -------------------------------------------------
885 popup_during_fullscreen <smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen>
886 -------------------------------------------------
889 ------------------------------
890 popup_during_fullscreen smart
891 ------------------------------
895 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
896 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
897 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
898 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
899 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
901 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
902 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
903 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
907 -----------------------------
908 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
909 -----------------------------
912 ------------------------
913 force_focus_wrapping yes
914 ------------------------
918 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
919 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
920 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
921 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
922 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
925 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
926 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
929 -----------------------
930 force_xinerama <yes|no>
931 -----------------------
938 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
939 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
941 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
943 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
944 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
946 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
947 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
948 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
951 --------------------------------------
952 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
953 --------------------------------------
956 ---------------------------------
957 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
958 ---------------------------------
960 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
962 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
963 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
964 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
965 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
968 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
969 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
970 value to 0 disables this feature.
972 The default is 500ms.
975 ---------------------------------------
976 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
977 ---------------------------------------
980 ---------------------------------
981 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
982 ---------------------------------
984 === Focus on window activation
986 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
987 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
989 Note that this does not apply to any window that is opened, i.e., typically opening
990 an application will focus that window independent of this configuration.
993 ----------------------------------------------------
994 focus_on_window_activation <smart|urgent|focus|none>
995 ----------------------------------------------------
997 The different modes will act as follows:
1000 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1001 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1003 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1005 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1007 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1009 == Configuring i3bar
1011 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1012 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1015 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1016 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1017 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1018 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1019 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1020 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1021 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1022 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1024 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1025 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1026 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1027 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1028 configuration infrastructure in place.
1030 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1031 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1034 ---------------------------
1036 status_command i3status
1038 ---------------------------
1042 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1043 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1044 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1045 tell i3 what to execute.
1047 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1048 have to have correct quoting etc.
1051 ----------------------
1052 i3bar_command command
1053 ----------------------
1056 -------------------------------------------------
1058 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1060 -------------------------------------------------
1063 === Statusline command
1065 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1066 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1067 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1069 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1070 have to have correct quoting etc.
1073 ----------------------
1074 status_command command
1075 ----------------------
1078 -------------------------------------------------
1080 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1082 -------------------------------------------------
1086 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1087 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1088 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1089 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1091 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1092 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1094 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1095 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1098 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1099 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1100 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1102 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1103 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1104 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1105 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1106 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1107 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1109 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1110 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1112 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1113 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1117 mode <dock|hide|invisible>
1118 hidden_state <hide|show>
1131 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1133 === Mouse button commands
1135 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1136 default behavior. Currently only the mouse wheel buttons are supported. This is
1137 useful for disabling the scroll wheel action or running scripts that implement
1138 custom behavior for these buttons.
1141 ---------------------
1142 wheel_up_cmd <command>
1143 wheel_down_cmd <command>
1144 ---------------------
1147 ---------------------
1150 wheel_down_cmd exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1152 ---------------------
1156 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1157 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1158 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1161 ---------------------
1163 ---------------------
1166 ---------------------
1170 ---------------------
1175 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1177 The default is bottom.
1180 ---------------------
1181 position <top|bottom>
1182 ---------------------
1185 ---------------------
1189 ---------------------
1193 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1194 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1195 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1197 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1198 directive multiple times.
1206 -------------------------------
1207 # big monitor: everything
1209 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1212 status_command i3status
1215 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1218 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1224 -------------------------------
1228 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1229 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1231 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1232 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1235 -------------------------
1236 tray_output <none|primary|output>
1237 -------------------------
1240 -------------------------
1241 # disable system tray
1246 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1249 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1253 -------------------------
1255 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1256 -------------------------
1257 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1258 -------------------------
1262 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1265 ---------------------
1267 ---------------------
1270 --------------------------------------------------------------
1272 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1273 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1275 --------------------------------------------------------------
1277 === Custom separator symbol
1279 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1280 one pixel thick separator. Note that you may have to adjust the +sep_block_width+
1284 -------------------------
1285 separator_symbol <symbol>
1286 -------------------------
1289 ------------------------
1291 separator_symbol ":|:"
1293 ------------------------
1295 === Workspace buttons
1297 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1298 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1300 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1303 --------------------------
1304 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1305 --------------------------
1308 ------------------------
1310 workspace_buttons no
1312 ------------------------
1314 === Strip workspace numbers
1316 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1317 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1318 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1320 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1321 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1322 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1323 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1325 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1328 ----------------------------------
1329 strip_workspace_numbers <yes|no>
1330 ----------------------------------
1333 ----------------------------
1335 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1337 ----------------------------
1339 === Binding Mode indicator
1341 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1342 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1343 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1344 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1346 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1349 -------------------------------
1350 binding_mode_indicator <yes|no>
1351 -------------------------------
1354 -----------------------------
1356 binding_mode_indicator no
1358 -----------------------------
1362 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1363 be configured at the moment:
1366 Background color of the bar.
1368 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1370 Text color to be used for the separator.
1372 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1375 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1376 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1377 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1378 using multiple monitors.
1379 inactive_workspace::
1380 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1381 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1382 will be the case for most workspaces.
1384 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1385 contains a window with the urgency hint set. Also applies to +mode+ indicators.
1388 ----------------------------------------
1394 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1396 ----------------------------------------
1398 *Example (default colors)*:
1399 --------------------------------------
1406 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1407 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1408 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1409 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1412 --------------------------------------
1416 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1417 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1418 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1421 --------------------------
1422 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1424 --------------------------
1426 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1427 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1428 the following keybinding:
1431 --------------------------------------------------------
1432 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1433 --------------------------------------------------------
1435 [[command_criteria]]
1437 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1438 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1439 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1442 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1443 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1444 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1448 ------------------------------------
1449 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1450 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1452 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1453 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1455 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1456 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1458 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1459 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1460 ------------------------------------
1462 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1465 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1467 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1469 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1471 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1473 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1475 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1476 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1477 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1479 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1481 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1482 interface. Handy for scripting.
1484 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1485 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1486 information on how to use them.
1490 === Executing applications (exec)
1492 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1493 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1494 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1495 searched in your $PATH.
1498 ------------------------------
1499 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1500 ------------------------------
1503 ------------------------------
1505 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1507 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1508 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1509 ------------------------------
1511 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1512 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1513 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1514 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1515 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1516 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1517 cursor for 60 seconds.
1519 === Splitting containers
1521 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1522 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1523 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1524 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1526 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1527 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1528 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1529 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1530 to splith or vice-versa.
1533 ---------------------------
1534 split <vertical|horizontal>
1535 ---------------------------
1538 ------------------------------
1539 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1540 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1541 ------------------------------
1543 === Manipulating layout
1545 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1546 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1547 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1549 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1550 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1551 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1552 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1554 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1555 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1559 layout <default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith>
1560 layout toggle [split|all]
1565 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1566 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1567 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1569 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1570 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1572 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1573 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1576 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1578 # Toggle floating/tiling
1579 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1582 === Focusing/Moving containers
1584 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1585 down+ and +focus up+.
1587 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1590 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1592 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1595 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1597 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1599 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1601 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1602 corresponding output.
1604 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1607 -----------------------------------
1608 focus <left|right|down|up>
1609 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1610 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1611 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1612 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1613 -----------------------------------
1615 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1616 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1619 ----------------------
1620 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1621 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1622 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1623 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1624 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1626 # Focus parent container
1627 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1629 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1630 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1632 # Focus the output right to the current one
1633 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1635 # Focus the big output
1636 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1638 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1639 bindsym $mod+j move left
1640 bindsym $mod+k move down
1641 bindsym $mod+l move up
1642 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1644 # Move container, but make floating containers
1645 # move more than the default
1646 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1648 # Move floating container to the center
1650 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1651 ----------------------
1653 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1655 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1656 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1657 +move container to workspace+.
1659 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1660 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1661 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1662 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1663 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1664 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1665 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1666 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1668 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1671 Workspace names are parsed as
1672 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
1676 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1677 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1678 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1681 -----------------------------------
1682 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1683 workspace back_and_forth
1685 workspace number <name>
1687 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1688 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1689 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1690 -----------------------------------
1693 -------------------------
1694 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1695 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1696 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
1699 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1700 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1703 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1704 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1705 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1707 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1708 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1710 # move firefox to current workspace
1711 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1712 -------------------------
1714 ==== Named workspaces
1716 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1717 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1720 -------------------------
1721 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1723 -------------------------
1725 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1729 -------------------------
1730 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1731 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1733 -------------------------
1735 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1736 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1737 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1738 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1739 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1740 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1741 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1742 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1744 ==== Renaming workspaces
1746 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1747 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1748 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1749 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1750 rename command with +i3-input+.
1753 ----------------------------------------------------
1754 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1755 rename workspace to <new_name>
1756 ----------------------------------------------------
1759 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1760 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1761 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1762 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1763 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1764 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1765 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1767 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1769 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1772 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1776 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1777 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1778 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1781 --------------------------------------------------------
1782 move container to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1783 move workspace to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1784 --------------------------------------------------------
1787 --------------------------------------------------------
1788 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1789 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1790 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1792 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1793 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1794 --------------------------------------------------------
1798 === Resizing containers/windows
1800 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1804 ---------------------------------------------------------
1805 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1806 ---------------------------------------------------------
1808 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1809 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1810 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1811 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1812 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1813 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1814 default is 10 percentage points).
1816 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1818 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1819 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1821 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1823 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1824 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1825 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1826 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1827 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1828 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1829 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1830 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1832 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1833 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1834 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1835 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1836 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1838 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1839 bindsym Return mode "default"
1840 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1844 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1845 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1847 === Jumping to specific windows
1849 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1850 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1851 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1852 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1853 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1854 with criteria for that.
1857 ----------------------------------------------------
1858 [class="class"] focus
1859 [title="title"] focus
1860 ----------------------------------------------------
1863 ------------------------------------------------
1864 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1865 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1866 ------------------------------------------------
1868 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1872 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1873 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1874 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1875 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
1876 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
1877 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
1878 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
1880 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1881 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1882 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1883 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1885 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
1886 this mark, add it if the window has none or replace the current mark if it has
1890 ------------------------------
1891 mark [--toggle] identifier
1892 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1894 ------------------------------
1896 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1897 ------------------------------
1899 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1900 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
1901 ------------------------------
1903 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1904 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1906 ---------------------------------------
1907 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1908 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1910 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1911 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1912 ---------------------------------------
1914 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1915 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1916 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1918 === Changing border style
1920 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1921 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1922 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1924 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1927 ----------------------------
1928 bindsym $mod+t border normal
1929 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
1930 bindsym $mod+u border none
1931 ----------------------------
1935 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1936 TODO: not yet implemented
1937 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1939 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1940 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1941 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1942 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1944 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1945 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1946 you limited) automatically as needed.
1949 --------------------------------
1950 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1951 --------------------------------
1955 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1958 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1962 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1963 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1967 === Enabling shared memory logging
1969 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
1970 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
1971 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
1973 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
1974 discarded and a new one will be started.
1977 ------------------------------
1978 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
1979 shmlog <on|off|toggle>
1980 ------------------------------
1984 # Enable/disable logging
1985 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
1987 # or, from a terminal:
1988 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
1989 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
1992 === Enabling debug logging
1994 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
1995 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
1996 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
1997 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2000 ------------------------
2001 debuglog <on|off|toggle>
2002 ------------------------
2005 ------------------------
2006 # Enable/disable logging
2007 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2008 ------------------------
2010 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2012 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2013 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2014 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2015 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2016 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2019 ----------------------------
2020 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2021 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2022 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2023 ----------------------------
2027 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2028 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2029 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2030 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2031 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2032 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2033 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2034 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2035 (+floating toggle+).
2037 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2038 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2039 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2040 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2050 ------------------------------------------------
2051 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2052 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2054 # Show the first scratchpad window
2055 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2057 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2058 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2059 ------------------------------------------------
2063 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2064 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2065 the middle mouse button.
2067 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2068 for debugging purposes.
2076 ----------------------------------------------
2077 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2078 # with the middle mouse button
2080 ----------------------------------------------
2084 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2085 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2086 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2087 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2088 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2089 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2090 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2094 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2096 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2100 ------------------------------------------------
2101 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2102 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2104 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2105 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2107 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2108 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2110 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2111 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2112 ------------------------------------------------
2116 == Multiple monitors
2118 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2119 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2120 handle multiple monitors.
2122 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2123 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2125 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2126 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2127 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2128 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2129 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2130 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2131 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2133 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2134 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2135 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2136 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2137 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2138 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2139 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2140 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2142 === Configuring your monitors
2144 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2145 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2146 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2147 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2148 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2150 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2151 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2152 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2153 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2154 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2156 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2157 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2161 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2163 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2164 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2165 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2166 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2168 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2169 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2170 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2172 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2173 -------------------------------------------
2174 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2175 -------------------------------------------
2176 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2177 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2178 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2179 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2181 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2182 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2183 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2186 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2188 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2189 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2191 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2192 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2193 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2195 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2196 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2200 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2201 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2202 only what you can see in xrandr.
2204 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2206 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2208 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2209 have more than one monitor:
2211 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2212 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2213 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2214 <<workspace_screen>>.
2215 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2216 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2217 <<assign_workspace>>.
2218 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2219 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2220 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2221 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2222 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2224 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2226 === Displaying a status line
2228 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2229 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2230 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2232 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2233 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2234 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2235 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2236 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2237 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2239 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2240 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2241 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2242 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2243 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2245 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2247 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2248 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2249 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2250 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2254 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2255 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2256 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2257 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2258 -----------------------------------------------------
2259 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2260 -----------------------------------------------------
2261 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2262 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2263 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2265 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2266 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2267 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2268 -----------------------------------------------------
2269 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2270 -----------------------------------------------------
2271 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2272 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2274 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2275 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2276 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).