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 this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
249 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
250 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
252 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
254 === Implicit containers
256 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
259 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
260 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
261 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
262 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
264 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
265 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
266 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
267 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
268 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
269 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
270 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
276 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
277 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
279 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
280 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
283 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
284 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
285 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
286 can bind your keys to do useful things.
288 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
289 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
292 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
293 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
294 wizard to use either Alt (+Mod1+) or Windows (+Mod4+) as modifier in the config
295 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
296 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
297 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
300 Since i3 4.0, a new configuration format is used. i3 will try to automatically
301 detect the format version of a config file based on a few different keywords,
302 but if you want to make sure that your config is read with the new format,
303 include the following line in your config file:
305 ---------------------
306 # i3 config file (v4)
307 ---------------------
311 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
312 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
313 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
323 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
324 render window titles.
326 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
327 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
330 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
331 a variant, a stretch and a size.
332 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
333 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
335 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
336 and fall back to a working font.
339 ------------------------------
340 font <X core font description>
341 font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size>
342 ------------------------------
345 --------------------------------------------------------------
346 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
347 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
348 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
349 font pango:Terminus 11px
350 --------------------------------------------------------------
353 === Keyboard bindings
355 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
356 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
357 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
359 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
360 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
361 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
362 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
363 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
365 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
366 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
367 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
369 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
370 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
371 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
374 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
375 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
376 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
377 after the keys have been released.
380 ----------------------------------
381 bindsym [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
382 bindcode [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command
383 ----------------------------------
386 --------------------------------
388 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
391 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
393 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
394 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
396 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
397 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
399 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
400 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
401 --------------------------------
405 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
406 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
408 Group1, Group2, Group3, Group4::
409 When using multiple keyboard layouts (e.g. with `setxkbmap -layout us,ru`), you
410 can specify in which XKB group (also called “layout”) a keybinding should be
411 active. By default, keybindings are translated in Group1 and are active in all
412 groups. If you want to override keybindings in one of your layouts, specify the
413 corresponding group. For backwards compatibility, the group “Mode_switch” is an
419 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
420 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
421 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
424 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
425 bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [--exclude-titlebar] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command
426 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
428 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
429 window. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
432 If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
433 of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
434 when the border is clicked, specify the +--border+ flag.
436 If the +--exclude-titlebar+ flag is given, the titlebar will not be considered
440 --------------------------------
441 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
442 bindsym --release button2 kill
444 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
445 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
447 # The right button toggles floating
448 bindsym button3 floating toggle
449 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
451 # The side buttons move the window around
452 bindsym button9 move left
453 bindsym button8 move right
454 --------------------------------
459 You can have multiple sets of bindings by using different binding modes. When
460 you switch to another binding mode, all bindings from the current mode are
461 released and only the bindings defined in the new mode are valid for as long as
462 you stay in that binding mode. The only predefined binding mode is +default+,
463 which is the mode i3 starts out with and to which all bindings not defined in a
464 specific binding mode belong.
466 Working with binding modes consists of two parts: defining a binding mode and
467 switching to it. For these purposes, there are one config directive and one
468 command, both of which are called +mode+. The directive is used to define the
469 bindings belonging to a certain binding mode, while the command will switch to
472 It is recommended to use binding modes in combination with <<variables>> in
473 order to make maintenance easier. Below is an example of how to use a binding
476 Note that it is advisable to define bindings for switching back to the default
479 Note that it is possible to use <<pango_markup>> for binding modes, but you
480 need to enable it explicitly by passing the +--pango_markup+ flag to the mode
484 ----------------------------
486 mode [--pango_markup] <name>
490 ----------------------------
493 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
494 # Press $mod+o followed by either f, t, Escape or Return to launch firefox,
495 # thunderbird or return to the default mode, respectively.
496 set $mode_launcher Launch: [f]irefox [t]hunderbird
497 bindsym $mod+o mode "$mode_launcher"
499 mode "$mode_launcher" {
500 bindsym f exec firefox
501 bindsym t exec thunderbird
503 bindsym Escape mode "default"
504 bindsym Return mode "default"
506 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
508 [[floating_modifier]]
509 === The floating modifier
511 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
512 or configure the so-called floating modifier which you can then press and
513 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
514 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
515 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
516 it to the position you want.
518 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
519 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
520 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
521 ratio will be preserved).
524 --------------------------------
525 floating_modifier <Modifier>
526 --------------------------------
529 --------------------------------
530 floating_modifier Mod1
531 --------------------------------
533 === Constraining floating window size
535 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
536 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
537 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
538 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
539 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
540 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
543 ----------------------------------------
544 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
545 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
546 ----------------------------------------
549 --------------------------------------
550 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
551 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
552 --------------------------------------
554 === Orientation for new workspaces
556 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
557 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
558 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
560 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
564 --------------------------------------------
565 default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto
566 --------------------------------------------
569 ----------------------------
570 default_orientation vertical
571 ----------------------------
573 === Layout mode for new containers
575 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
579 ---------------------------------------------
580 workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed
581 ---------------------------------------------
584 ---------------------
585 workspace_layout tabbed
586 ---------------------
588 === Default border style for new windows
590 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
591 +normal+. Note that default_floating_border applies only to windows which are starting out as
592 floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.
595 ---------------------------------------------
596 default_border normal|none|pixel
597 default_border normal|pixel <px>
598 default_floating_border normal|none|pixel
599 default_floating_border normal|pixel <px>
600 ---------------------------------------------
602 Please note that +new_window+ and +new_float+ have been deprecated in favor of the above options
603 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the new options instead.
606 ---------------------
608 ---------------------
610 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
614 ---------------------
615 # The same as default_border none
616 default_border pixel 0
619 default_border pixel 3
620 ---------------------
623 [[_hiding_vertical_borders]]
624 === Hiding borders adjacent to the screen edges
626 You can hide container borders adjacent to the screen edges using
627 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
628 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. The "smart" setting hides borders on
629 workspaces with only one window visible, but keeps them on workspaces with
630 multiple windows visible. Default is none.
633 -----------------------------------------------
634 hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both|smart
635 -----------------------------------------------
638 ----------------------
639 hide_edge_borders vertical
640 ----------------------
643 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
645 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
646 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
647 change their border style, for example.
650 -------------------------------
651 for_window <criteria> <command>
652 -------------------------------
655 ------------------------------------------------
656 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
657 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
659 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
660 for_window [class="urxvt"] border pixel 1
662 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
663 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
664 # directory to ~/work
665 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
666 ------------------------------------------------
668 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
671 === Don't focus window upon opening
673 When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
674 this from happening and must be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
676 Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
677 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
678 <<focus_on_window_activation>>.
680 +no_focus+ will also be ignored for the first window on a workspace as there shouldn't be
681 a reason to not focus the window in this case. This allows for better usability in
682 combination with +workspace_layout+.
690 -------------------------------
691 no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
692 -------------------------------
697 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
698 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
699 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
700 variables can be handy.
708 ------------------------
710 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
711 ------------------------
713 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
714 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
715 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
716 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
717 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
718 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
720 Also see <<xresources>> to learn how to create variables based on resources
721 loaded from the X resource database.
726 <<variables>> can also be created using a value configured in the X resource
727 database. This is useful, for example, to avoid configuring color values within
728 the i3 configuration. Instead, the values can be configured, once, in the X
729 resource database to achieve an easily maintainable, consistent color theme
730 across many X applications.
732 Defining a resource will load this resource from the resource database and
733 assign its value to the specified variable. This is done verbatim and the value
734 must therefore be in the format that i3 uses. A fallback must be specified in
735 case the resource cannot be loaded from the database.
738 ----------------------------------------------------
739 set_from_resource $<name> <resource_name> <fallback>
740 ----------------------------------------------------
743 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
744 # The ~/.Xresources should contain a line such as
746 # and must be loaded properly, e.g., by using
748 # This value is picked up on by other applications (e.g., the URxvt terminal
749 # emulator) and can be used in i3 like this:
750 set_from_resource $black i3wm.color0 #000000
751 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
754 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
756 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
757 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
758 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
759 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
760 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
761 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
762 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
763 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
764 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
765 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
767 You can also assign a window to show up on a specific output. You can use RandR
768 names such as +VGA1+ or names relative to the output with the currently focused
769 workspace such as +left+ and +down+.
771 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
772 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
776 ------------------------------------------------------------
777 assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] [number] <workspace>
778 assign <criteria> [→] output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
779 ------------------------------------------------------------
782 ----------------------
783 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
784 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
786 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
787 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
789 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
790 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
792 # Assignment to a named workspace
793 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
795 # Assign to the workspace with number 2, regardless of name
796 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number 2
798 # You can also specify a number + name. If the workspace with number 2 exists, assign will skip the text part.
799 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number "2: work"
801 # Start urxvt -name irssi
802 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
804 # Assign urxvt to the output right of the current one
805 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output right
807 # Assign urxvt to the primary output
808 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output primary
809 ----------------------
811 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
812 -------------------------
813 xrandr --output <output> --primary
814 -------------------------
816 Also, the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
817 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
819 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
820 window, you will see the following output:
823 -----------------------------------
824 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
825 -----------------------------------
827 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
828 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
830 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
831 logfile first (see https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
832 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
833 title when starting up.
835 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
836 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
837 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
838 file in the following way:
840 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
841 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
842 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
843 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
844 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
845 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
846 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
847 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
848 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
849 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
851 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
853 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
854 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
855 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
856 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
857 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
859 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
860 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
861 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
864 ---------------------------------------
865 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
866 exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command>
867 ---------------------------------------
870 --------------------------------
872 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
874 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
875 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
876 --------------------------------
878 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
881 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
883 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
884 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
885 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
886 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
887 the second screen and so on).
890 -------------------------------------
891 workspace <workspace> output <output>
892 -------------------------------------
894 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
895 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
896 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
898 If your X server supports RandR 1.5 or newer, i3 will use RandR monitor objects
899 instead of output objects. Run +xrandr --listmonitors+ to see a list. Usually,
900 a monitor object contains exactly one output, and has the same name as the
901 output; but should that not be the case, you may specify the name of either the
902 monitor or the output in i3's configuration. For example, the Dell UP2414Q uses
903 two scalers internally, so its output names might be “DP1” and “DP2”, but the
904 monitor name is “Dell UP2414Q”.
906 (Note that even if you specify the name of an output which doesn't span the
907 entire monitor, i3 will still use the entire area of the containing monitor
908 rather than that of just the output's.)
910 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
913 ---------------------------
914 workspace 1 output LVDS1
915 workspace 5 output VGA1
916 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
917 ---------------------------
921 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
924 --------------------------------------------------------------------
925 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator> <child_border>
926 --------------------------------------------------------------------
928 Where colorclass can be one of:
931 A client which currently has the focus.
932 client.focused_inactive::
933 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
934 the focus at the moment.
936 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
938 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
940 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
941 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
943 Background color which will be used to paint the background of the
944 client window on top of which the client will be rendered. Only clients
945 which do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color. Note
946 that this colorclass only takes a single color.
948 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
950 *Examples (default colors)*:
951 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
952 # class border backgr. text indicator child_border
953 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4 #285577
954 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50 #5f676a
955 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e #222222
956 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000 #900000
957 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000 #0c0c0c
959 client.background #ffffff
960 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
962 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
963 "child_border", and "border" color is only the two thin lines around the
966 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
967 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
968 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
969 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
970 from single windows outside of a split container.
972 === Interprocess communication
974 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
975 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
976 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
978 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
979 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
980 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
981 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
983 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
984 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
985 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
986 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
987 user can create that directory.
990 ----------------------------
991 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
992 ----------------------------
994 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
997 === Focus follows mouse
999 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements as the mouse crosses
1000 window borders. However, if you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your
1001 way (like a touchpad on your laptop which you do not want to disable
1002 completely), you might want to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus
1003 only by using your keyboard. The mouse will still be useful inside the
1004 currently active window (for example to click on links in your browser window).
1007 --------------------------
1008 focus_follows_mouse yes|no
1009 --------------------------
1012 ----------------------
1013 focus_follows_mouse no
1014 ----------------------
1018 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
1019 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
1020 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
1022 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
1023 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
1024 behavior described above.
1027 -------------------------
1028 mouse_warping output|none
1029 -------------------------
1036 === Popups during fullscreen mode
1038 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
1039 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
1040 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
1041 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
1043 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
1044 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
1045 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
1046 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
1047 you go out of fullscreen).
1048 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
1051 -----------------------------------------------------
1052 popup_during_fullscreen smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen
1053 -----------------------------------------------------
1056 ------------------------------
1057 popup_during_fullscreen smart
1058 ------------------------------
1062 By default, when in a container with several windows or child containers, the
1063 opposite window will be focused when trying to move the focus over the edge of
1064 a container (and there are no other containers in that direction) -- the focus
1067 If desired, you can disable this behavior by setting the +focus_wrapping+
1068 configuration directive to the value +no+.
1070 When enabled, focus wrapping does not occur by default if there is another
1071 window or container in the specified direction, and focus will instead be set
1072 on that window or container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate
1073 to all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
1075 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
1076 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can instead set +focus_wrapping+
1077 to the value +force+.
1080 ---------------------------
1081 focus_wrapping yes|no|force
1083 # Legacy syntax, equivalent to "focus_wrapping force"
1084 force_focus_wrapping yes
1085 ---------------------------
1089 # Disable focus wrapping
1092 # Force focus wrapping
1093 focus_wrapping force
1096 === Forcing Xinerama
1098 As explained in-depth in <https://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
1099 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
1100 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
1101 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
1102 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
1105 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
1106 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
1109 ---------------------
1110 force_xinerama yes|no
1111 ---------------------
1118 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
1119 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
1121 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
1123 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
1124 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
1126 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
1127 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
1128 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
1131 ------------------------------------
1132 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes|no
1133 ------------------------------------
1136 ---------------------------------
1137 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
1138 ---------------------------------
1140 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
1142 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
1143 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
1144 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
1145 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
1148 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
1149 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
1150 value to 0 disables this feature.
1152 The default is 500ms.
1155 ---------------------------------------
1156 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
1157 ---------------------------------------
1160 ---------------------------------
1161 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
1162 ---------------------------------
1164 [[focus_on_window_activation]]
1165 === Focus on window activation
1167 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
1168 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
1170 Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
1171 from being focused, see <<no_focus>>.
1174 --------------------------------------------------
1175 focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none
1176 --------------------------------------------------
1178 The different modes will act as follows:
1181 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1182 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1184 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1186 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1188 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1191 === Drawing marks on window decoration
1193 If activated, marks (see <<vim_like_marks>>) on windows are drawn in their window
1194 decoration. However, any mark starting with an underscore in its name (+_+) will
1195 not be drawn even if this option is activated.
1197 The default for this option is +yes+.
1209 [[line_continuation]]
1210 === Line continuation
1212 Config files support line continuation, meaning when you end a line in a
1213 backslash character (`\`), the line-break will be ignored by the parser. This
1214 feature can be used to create more readable configuration files.
1215 Commented lines are not continued.
1222 # this line is not continued \
1223 bindsym Mod1+F fullscreen toggle
1226 == Configuring i3bar
1228 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1229 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1232 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1233 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1234 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1235 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1236 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1237 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1238 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1239 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1241 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1242 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1243 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1244 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1245 configuration infrastructure in place.
1247 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1248 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1251 ---------------------------
1253 status_command i3status
1255 ---------------------------
1259 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1260 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1261 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1262 tell i3 what to execute.
1264 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1265 have to have correct quoting etc.
1268 -----------------------
1269 i3bar_command <command>
1270 -----------------------
1273 -------------------------------------------------
1275 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1277 -------------------------------------------------
1280 === Statusline command
1282 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1283 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1284 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1286 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1287 have to have correct quoting etc. Note that for signal handling, depending on
1288 your shell (users of dash(1) are known to be affected), you have to use the
1289 shell’s exec command so that signals are passed to your program, not to the
1293 ------------------------
1294 status_command <command>
1295 ------------------------
1298 -------------------------------------------------
1300 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1302 # For dash(1) users who want signal handling to work:
1303 status_command exec ~/.bin/my_status_command
1305 -------------------------------------------------
1309 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1310 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1311 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1312 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1314 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1315 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1317 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1318 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1321 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1322 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1323 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1325 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1326 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1327 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1328 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1329 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1330 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1332 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1333 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1335 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1336 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1339 -------------------------
1340 mode dock|hide|invisible
1341 hidden_state hide|show
1342 modifier <Modifier>|none
1343 ------------------------
1354 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+). You can
1355 also use "none" if you don't want any modifier to trigger this behavior.
1357 === Mouse button commands
1359 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1360 default behavior. This is useful, e.g., for disabling the scroll wheel action
1361 or running scripts that implement custom behavior for these buttons.
1363 A button is always named +button<n>+, where 1 to 5 are default buttons as follows and higher
1364 numbers can be special buttons on devices offering more buttons:
1369 Middle mouse button.
1377 Please note that the old +wheel_up_cmd+ and +wheel_down_cmd+ commands are deprecated
1378 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the more general
1379 +bindsym+ with +button4+ and +button5+ instead.
1382 ----------------------------
1383 bindsym [--release] button<n> <command>
1384 ----------------------------
1387 ---------------------------------------------------------
1389 # disable clicking on workspace buttons
1391 # Take a screenshot by right clicking on the bar
1392 bindsym --release button3 exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
1393 # execute custom script when scrolling downwards
1394 bindsym button5 exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1396 ---------------------------------------------------------
1400 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1401 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1402 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1405 ---------------------
1407 ---------------------
1410 ---------------------
1414 ---------------------
1419 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1421 The default is bottom.
1429 ---------------------
1433 ---------------------
1437 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1438 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1439 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1441 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1442 directive multiple times.
1446 output primary|<output>
1450 -------------------------------
1451 # big monitor: everything
1453 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1456 status_command i3status
1459 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1462 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1469 # show bar on the primary monitor and on HDMI2
1473 status_command i3status
1476 -------------------------------
1477 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1478 -------------------------
1479 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1480 -------------------------
1484 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1485 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1487 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1488 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1490 You can use multiple +tray_output+ directives in your config to specify a list
1491 of outputs on which you want the tray to appear. The first available output in
1492 that list as defined by the order of the directives will be used for the tray
1496 ---------------------------------
1497 tray_output none|primary|<output>
1498 ---------------------------------
1501 -------------------------
1502 # disable system tray
1507 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1512 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1516 -------------------------
1518 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1519 -------------------------
1520 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1521 -------------------------
1523 Note that when you use multiple bar configuration blocks, either specify
1524 `tray_output primary` in all of them or explicitly specify `tray_output none`
1525 in bars which should not display the tray, otherwise the different instances
1526 might race each other in trying to display tray icons.
1530 The tray is shown on the right-hand side of the bar. By default, a padding of 2
1531 pixels is used for the upper, lower and right-hand side of the tray area and
1532 between the individual icons.
1535 -------------------------
1536 tray_padding <px> [px]
1537 -------------------------
1540 -------------------------
1543 -------------------------
1547 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1550 ---------------------
1552 ---------------------
1555 --------------------------------------------------------------
1557 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1558 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1560 --------------------------------------------------------------
1562 === Custom separator symbol
1564 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1565 one pixel thick separator.
1568 -------------------------
1569 separator_symbol <symbol>
1570 -------------------------
1573 ------------------------
1575 separator_symbol ":|:"
1577 ------------------------
1579 === Workspace buttons
1581 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1582 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1584 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1587 ------------------------
1588 workspace_buttons yes|no
1589 ------------------------
1592 ------------------------
1594 workspace_buttons no
1596 ------------------------
1598 === Strip workspace numbers/name
1600 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1601 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1602 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1604 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1605 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1606 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1607 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1609 When +strip_workspace_name+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1610 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the number.
1612 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1615 ------------------------------
1616 strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
1617 strip_workspace_name yes|no
1618 ------------------------------
1621 ----------------------------
1623 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1625 ----------------------------
1627 === Binding Mode indicator
1629 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1630 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1631 to see the current binding mode indicator. See <<binding_modes>> to learn what
1632 modes are and how to use them.
1634 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1637 -----------------------------
1638 binding_mode_indicator yes|no
1639 -----------------------------
1642 -----------------------------
1644 binding_mode_indicator no
1646 -----------------------------
1650 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1651 be configured at the moment:
1654 Background color of the bar.
1656 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1658 Text color to be used for the separator.
1659 focused_background::
1660 Background color of the bar on the currently focused monitor output. If
1661 not used, the color will be taken from +background+.
1662 focused_statusline::
1663 Text color to be used for the statusline on the currently focused
1664 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +statusline+.
1666 Text color to be used for the separator on the currently focused
1667 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +separator+.
1669 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1672 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1673 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1674 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1675 using multiple monitors.
1676 inactive_workspace::
1677 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1678 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1679 will be the case for most workspaces.
1681 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1682 contains a window with the urgency hint set.
1684 Border, background and text color for the binding mode indicator. If not used,
1685 the colors will be taken from +urgent_workspace+.
1688 ----------------------------------------
1694 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text>
1696 ----------------------------------------
1698 *Example (default colors)*:
1699 --------------------------------------
1706 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1707 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1708 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1709 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1710 binding_mode #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1713 --------------------------------------
1717 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1718 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1719 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1722 --------------------------
1723 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1725 --------------------------
1727 [[command_chaining]]
1729 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1730 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1731 the following keybinding:
1734 --------------------------------------------------------
1735 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1736 --------------------------------------------------------
1738 [[command_criteria]]
1740 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1741 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1742 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1745 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1746 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1747 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1751 ------------------------------------
1752 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1753 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1755 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1756 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1758 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1759 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1761 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1762 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1764 # move all floating windows to the scratchpad
1765 bindsym $mod+x [floating] move scratchpad
1766 ------------------------------------
1768 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1771 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1772 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1773 class as the currently focused window.
1775 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1776 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1777 instance as the currently focused window.
1779 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE). Use the special value
1780 +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window role as the
1781 currently focused window.
1783 Compare the window type (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE). Possible values are
1784 +normal+, +dialog+, +utility+, +toolbar+, +splash+, +menu+, +dropdown_menu+,
1785 +popup_menu+, +tooltip+ and +notification+.
1787 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1789 Compares the X11 window title (\_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1790 Use the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the
1791 same window title as the currently focused window.
1793 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1794 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1795 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1797 Compares the workspace name of the workspace the window belongs to. Use
1798 the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows in the currently
1801 Compares the marks set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>. A
1802 match is made if any of the container's marks matches the specified
1805 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1806 interface. Handy for scripting. Use the special value +\_\_focused__+
1807 to match only the currently focused window.
1809 Only matches floating windows. This criterion requires no value.
1811 Only matches tiling windows. This criterion requires no value.
1813 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+, +workspace+ and +mark+ are
1814 actually regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1815 information on how to use them.
1818 === Executing applications (exec)
1820 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1821 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1822 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1823 searched in your +$PATH+.
1825 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
1826 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
1827 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
1830 --------------------------------
1831 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
1832 --------------------------------
1835 ------------------------------
1837 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1839 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1840 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1841 ------------------------------
1843 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1844 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1845 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1846 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1847 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1848 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1849 cursor for 60 seconds.
1852 If the command to be executed contains a +;+ (semicolon) and/or a +,+ (comma),
1853 the entire command must be quoted. For example, to have a keybinding for the
1854 shell command +notify-send Hello, i3+, you would add an entry to your
1855 configuration file like this:
1858 ------------------------------
1859 # Execute a command with a comma in it
1860 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send Hello, i3"
1861 ------------------------------
1863 If however a command with a comma and/or semicolon itself requires quotes, you
1864 must escape the internal quotation marks with double backslashes, like this:
1867 ------------------------------
1868 # Execute a command with a comma, semicolon and internal quotes
1869 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send \\"Hello, i3; from $USER\\""
1870 ------------------------------
1872 === Splitting containers
1874 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1875 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1876 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1877 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1879 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1880 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1881 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
1882 The +toggle+ option will toggle the orientation of the split container if it
1883 contains a single window. Otherwise it makes the current window a split
1884 container with opposite orientation compared to the parent container.
1885 Use +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from
1886 splitv to splith or vice-versa. You can also define a custom sequence of layouts
1887 to cycle through with +layout toggle+, see <<manipulating_layout>>.
1890 --------------------------------
1891 split vertical|horizontal|toggle
1892 --------------------------------
1895 -------------------------------
1896 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1897 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1898 bindsym $mod+t split toggle
1899 -------------------------------
1901 === Manipulating layout
1903 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1904 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1905 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1907 Specify up to four layouts after +layout toggle+ to cycle through them. Every
1908 time the command is executed, the layout specified after the currently active
1909 one will be applied. If the currently active layout is not in the list, the
1910 first layout in the list will be activated.
1912 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1913 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1914 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1915 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1917 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1918 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1921 --------------------------------------------
1922 layout default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith
1923 layout toggle [split|all]
1924 layout toggle [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith] [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith]…
1925 --------------------------------------------
1929 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1930 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1931 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1933 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1934 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1936 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1937 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1939 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith:
1940 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle stacking tabbed splith
1942 # Toggle between splitv/tabbed
1943 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle splitv tabbed
1945 # Toggle between last split layout/tabbed/stacking
1946 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle split tabbed stacking
1949 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1951 # Toggle floating/tiling
1952 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1955 [[_focusing_moving_containers]]
1956 === Focusing containers
1958 To change focus, you can use the +focus+ command. The following options are
1962 Sets focus to the container that matches the specified criteria.
1963 See <<command_criteria>>.
1964 left|right|up|down::
1965 Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
1967 Sets focus to the parent container of the current container.
1969 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1972 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1974 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1976 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1978 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1979 corresponding output.
1982 ----------------------------------------------
1984 focus left|right|down|up
1985 focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
1986 focus output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
1987 ----------------------------------------------
1990 -------------------------------------------------
1992 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] focus
1994 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
1995 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1996 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1997 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1998 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
2000 # Focus parent container
2001 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
2003 # Focus last floating/tiling container
2004 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
2006 # Focus the output right to the current one
2007 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
2009 # Focus the big output
2010 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
2012 # Focus the primary output
2013 bindsym $mod+x focus output primary
2014 -------------------------------------------------
2016 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
2017 -------------------------
2018 xrandr --output <output> --primary
2019 -------------------------
2021 === Moving containers
2023 Use the +move+ command to move a container.
2026 -----------------------------------------------------
2027 # Moves the container into the given direction.
2028 # The optional pixel argument specifies how far the
2029 # container should be moved if it is floating and
2030 # defaults to 10 pixels.
2031 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
2033 # Moves the container to the specified pos_x and pos_y
2034 # coordinates on the screen.
2035 move position <pos_x> [px] <pos_y> [px]
2037 # Moves the container to the center of the screen.
2038 # If 'absolute' is used, it is moved to the center of
2040 move [absolute] position center
2042 # Moves the container to the current position of the
2043 # mouse cursor. Only affects floating containers.
2045 -----------------------------------------------------
2048 -------------------------------------------------------
2049 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right
2050 bindsym $mod+j move left
2051 bindsym $mod+k move down
2052 bindsym $mod+l move up
2053 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
2055 # Move container, but make floating containers
2056 # move more than the default
2057 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
2059 # Move floating container to the center of all outputs
2060 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
2062 # Move container to the current position of the cursor
2063 bindsym $mod+m move position mouse
2064 -------------------------------------------------------
2066 === Swapping containers
2068 Two containers can be swapped (i.e., move to each other's position) by using
2069 the +swap+ command. They will assume the position and geometry of the container
2070 they are swapped with.
2072 The first container to participate in the swapping can be selected through the
2073 normal command criteria process with the focused window being the usual
2074 fallback if no criteria are specified. The second container can be selected
2075 using one of the following methods:
2077 +id+:: The X11 window ID of a client window.
2078 +con_id+:: The i3 container ID of a container.
2079 +mark+:: A container with the specified mark, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
2081 Note that swapping does not work with all containers. Most notably, swapping
2082 floating containers or containers that have a parent-child relationship to one
2083 another does not work.
2086 ----------------------------------------
2087 swap container with id|con_id|mark <arg>
2088 ----------------------------------------
2091 -----------------------------------------------------------------
2092 # Swaps the focused container with the container marked »swapee«.
2093 swap container with mark swapee
2095 # Swaps container marked »A« and »B«
2096 [con_mark="^A$"] swap container with mark B
2097 -----------------------------------------------------------------
2099 === Sticky floating windows
2101 If you want a window to stick to the glass, i.e., have it stay on screen even
2102 if you switch to another workspace, you can use the +sticky+ command. For
2103 example, this can be useful for notepads, a media player or a video chat
2106 Note that while any window can be made sticky through this command, it will
2107 only take effect if the window is floating.
2110 ----------------------------
2111 sticky enable|disable|toggle
2112 ----------------------------
2115 ------------------------------------------------------
2116 # make a terminal sticky that was started as a notepad
2117 for_window [instance=notepad] sticky enable
2118 ------------------------------------------------------
2120 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
2122 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
2123 number or name of the workspace. Pass the optional flag
2124 +--no-auto-back-and-forth+ to disable <<back_and_forth>> for this specific call
2127 To move containers to specific workspaces, use +move container to workspace+.
2129 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
2130 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
2131 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
2132 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
2133 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
2134 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
2135 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
2136 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
2138 +workspace next+ cycles through either numbered or named workspaces. But when it
2139 reaches the last numbered/named workspace, it looks for named workspaces after
2140 exhausting numbered ones and looks for numbered ones after exhausting named ones.
2142 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
2145 Workspace names are parsed as
2146 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2150 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
2151 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
2152 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
2155 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2156 workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
2157 workspace back_and_forth
2158 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] <name>
2159 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] number <name>
2161 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
2162 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
2163 move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current
2164 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2167 -------------------------
2168 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
2169 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
2170 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
2173 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
2174 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
2177 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
2178 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
2179 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
2181 # move the whole workspace to the next output
2182 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
2184 # move firefox to current workspace
2185 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
2186 -------------------------
2188 ==== Named workspaces
2190 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
2191 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
2194 -------------------------
2195 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
2197 -------------------------
2199 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
2203 -------------------------
2204 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
2205 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
2207 -------------------------
2209 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
2210 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
2211 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
2212 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
2213 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
2214 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
2215 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
2216 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
2218 ==== Renaming workspaces
2220 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
2221 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
2222 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
2223 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
2224 rename command with +i3-input+.
2227 ----------------------------------------------------
2228 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
2229 rename workspace to <new_name>
2230 ----------------------------------------------------
2233 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2234 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
2235 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
2236 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
2237 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"'
2238 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
2239 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2241 If you want to rename workspaces on demand while keeping the navigation stable,
2242 you can use a setup like this:
2245 -------------------------
2246 bindsym $mod+1 workspace number "1: www"
2247 bindsym $mod+2 workspace number "2: mail"
2249 -------------------------
2251 If a workspace does not exist, the command +workspace number "1: mail"+ will
2252 create workspace "1: mail".
2254 If a workspace with number 1 does already exist, the command will switch to this
2255 workspace and ignore the text part. So even when the workspace has been renamed
2256 to "1: web", the above command will still switch to it.
2258 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
2260 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
2264 === [[_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs]]Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
2266 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
2267 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
2268 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
2271 ------------------------------------------------------------
2272 move container to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output>
2273 move workspace to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output>
2274 ------------------------------------------------------------
2277 --------------------------------------------------------
2278 # Move the current workspace to the next output
2279 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
2280 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
2282 # Put this window on the presentation output.
2283 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
2285 # Put this window on the primary output.
2286 bindsym $mod+x move container to output primary
2287 --------------------------------------------------------
2289 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
2290 -------------------------
2291 xrandr --output <output> --primary
2292 -------------------------
2294 === Moving containers/windows to marks
2296 To move a container to another container with a specific mark (see <<vim_like_marks>>),
2297 you can use the following command.
2299 The window will be moved right after the marked container in the tree, i.e., it ends up
2300 in the same position as if you had opened a new window when the marked container was
2301 focused. If the mark is on a split container, the window will appear as a new child
2302 after the currently focused child within that container.
2305 ------------------------------------
2306 move window|container to mark <mark>
2307 ------------------------------------
2310 --------------------------------------------------------
2311 for_window [instance="tabme"] move window to mark target
2312 --------------------------------------------------------
2315 === Resizing containers/windows
2317 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
2321 -------------------------------------------------------
2322 resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
2323 resize set <width> [px | ppt] <height> [px | ppt]
2324 -------------------------------------------------------
2326 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
2327 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
2328 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
2329 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
2330 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
2331 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
2332 default is 10 percentage points).
2334 Notes about +resize set+: a value of 0 for <width> or <height> means "do
2335 not resize in this direction", and resizing a tiling container by +px+ is not
2338 It is recommended to define bindings for resizing in a dedicated binding mode.
2339 See <<binding_modes>> and the example in the i3
2340 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config] for more
2344 ------------------------------------------------
2345 for_window [class="urxvt"] resize set 640 480
2346 ------------------------------------------------
2348 === Jumping to specific windows
2350 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
2351 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
2352 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
2353 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
2354 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
2355 with criteria for that.
2358 ----------------------------------------------------
2359 [class="class"] focus
2360 [title="title"] focus
2361 ----------------------------------------------------
2364 ------------------------------------------------
2365 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
2366 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
2367 ------------------------------------------------
2370 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
2372 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
2373 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
2374 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
2375 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
2376 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
2377 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
2378 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
2380 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
2381 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
2382 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
2383 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
2385 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
2386 this mark or add it otherwise. Note that you may need to use this in
2387 combination with +--add+ (see below) as any other marks will otherwise be
2390 By default, a window can only have one mark. You can use the +--add+ flag to
2391 put more than one mark on a window.
2393 Refer to <<show_marks>> if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
2396 ----------------------------------------------
2397 mark [--add|--replace] [--toggle] <identifier>
2398 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
2400 ----------------------------------------------
2402 *Example (in a terminal)*:
2403 ---------------------------------------------------------
2404 # marks the focused container
2407 # focus the container with the mark "irssi"
2408 '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
2410 # remove the mark "irssi" from whichever container has it
2413 # remove all marks on all firefox windows
2414 [class="(?i)firefox"] unmark
2415 ---------------------------------------------------------
2417 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2418 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
2420 ---------------------------------------
2421 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
2422 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -F 'mark %s' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
2424 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
2425 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -F '[con_mark="%s"] focus' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
2426 ---------------------------------------
2428 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
2429 separate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
2430 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2433 === Window title format
2435 By default, i3 will simply print the X11 window title. Using +title_format+,
2436 this can be customized by setting the format to the desired output. This
2438 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2439 and the following placeholders which will be replaced:
2442 For normal windows, this is the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME
2443 as fallback). When used on containers without a window (e.g., a split
2444 container inside a tabbed/stacked layout), this will be the tree
2445 representation of the container (e.g., "H[xterm xterm]").
2447 The X11 window class (second part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2448 +class+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2450 The X11 window instance (first part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2451 +instance+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2453 Using the <<for_window>> directive, you can set the title format for any window
2454 based on <<command_criteria>>.
2457 ---------------------
2458 title_format <format>
2459 ---------------------
2462 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2463 # give the focused window a prefix
2464 bindsym $mod+p title_format "Important | %title"
2466 # print all window titles bold
2467 for_window [class=".*"] title_format "<b>%title</b>"
2469 # print window titles of firefox windows red
2470 for_window [class="(?i)firefox"] title_format "<span foreground='red'>%title</span>"
2471 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2473 === Changing border style
2475 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
2476 border (including window title), +border pixel 1+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
2477 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
2479 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
2481 Note that "pixel" refers to logical pixel. On HiDPI displays, a logical pixel
2482 may be represented by multiple physical pixels, so +pixel 1+ might not
2483 necessarily translate into a single pixel row wide border.
2486 -----------------------------------------------
2487 border normal|pixel [<n>]
2490 # legacy syntax, equivalent to "border pixel 1"
2492 -----------------------------------------------
2495 ----------------------------------------------
2496 # use window title, but no border
2497 bindsym $mod+t border normal 0
2498 # use no window title and a thick border
2499 bindsym $mod+y border pixel 3
2500 # use neither window title nor border
2501 bindsym $mod+u border none
2502 ----------------------------------------------
2505 === Enabling shared memory logging
2507 As described in https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
2508 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
2509 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
2511 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
2512 discarded and a new one will be started.
2515 ------------------------------
2516 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
2517 shmlog on|off|toggle
2518 ------------------------------
2522 # Enable/disable logging
2523 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
2525 # or, from a terminal:
2526 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
2527 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
2530 === Enabling debug logging
2532 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
2533 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
2534 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
2535 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2538 ----------------------
2539 debuglog on|off|toggle
2540 ----------------------
2543 ------------------------
2544 # Enable/disable logging
2545 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2546 ------------------------
2548 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2550 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2551 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2552 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2553 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2554 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2557 ----------------------------
2558 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2559 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2560 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2561 ----------------------------
2565 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2566 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2567 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2568 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2569 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2570 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2571 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2572 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2573 (+floating toggle+).
2575 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2576 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2577 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2578 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2588 ------------------------------------------------
2589 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2590 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2592 # Show the first scratchpad window
2593 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2595 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2596 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2597 ------------------------------------------------
2601 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2602 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2603 the middle mouse button.
2605 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2606 for debugging purposes.
2614 ----------------------------------------------
2615 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2616 # with the middle mouse button
2618 ----------------------------------------------
2622 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2623 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2624 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2625 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2626 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2627 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2628 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2632 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2634 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2638 ------------------------------------------------
2639 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2640 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2642 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2643 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2645 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2646 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2648 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2649 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2650 ------------------------------------------------
2653 == Multiple monitors
2655 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2656 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2657 handle multiple monitors.
2659 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2660 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2662 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2663 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2664 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2665 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2666 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2667 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2668 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2670 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2671 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2672 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2673 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2674 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2675 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2676 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2677 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2679 === Configuring your monitors
2681 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2682 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2683 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2684 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2685 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2687 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2688 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2689 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2690 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2691 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2693 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2694 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2698 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2700 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2701 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2702 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2703 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2705 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2706 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2707 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2709 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2710 -------------------------------------------
2711 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2712 -------------------------------------------
2713 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2714 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2715 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2716 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2718 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2719 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2720 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2723 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2725 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2726 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2728 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2729 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2730 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2732 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2733 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2737 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2738 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2739 only what you can see in xrandr.
2741 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2743 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2745 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2746 have more than one monitor:
2748 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2749 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2750 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2751 <<workspace_screen>>.
2752 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2753 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2754 <<assign_workspace>>.
2755 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2756 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2757 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2758 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2759 see <<move_to_outputs>>.
2761 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2763 === Displaying a status line
2765 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2766 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2767 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2769 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2770 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2771 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2772 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2773 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2774 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2776 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2777 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2778 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2779 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2780 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2783 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2785 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2786 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2787 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2788 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2791 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2792 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2793 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2794 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2795 -----------------------------------------------------
2796 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2797 -----------------------------------------------------
2798 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2799 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2800 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2802 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2803 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2804 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2805 -----------------------------------------------------
2806 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2807 -----------------------------------------------------
2808 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2809 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2811 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2812 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2813 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).