3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
8 question(s) on the mailing list.
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with mod (alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with mod (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the alt key (Mod1) by default, with windows (Mod4)
30 being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +mod+J+ is left, +mod+K+
52 is down, +mod+L+ is up and `mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +mod+K+ or +mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +mod+v+. To split it horizontally, press
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
73 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
74 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
77 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
78 windows at the top of the container.
80 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
81 a single line which is vertically split.
83 To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +mod+s+ for
84 stacking and +mod+w+ for tabbed.
86 image:modes.png[Container modes]
88 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
90 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
93 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen global+).
96 === Opening other applications
98 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
99 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
100 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
101 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
103 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
104 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
105 <<configuring>> for details.
109 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
110 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
111 can press +mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
113 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
114 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
115 depends on the application.
119 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
120 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
121 another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
122 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
124 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
125 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
126 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
128 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
129 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
130 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
131 focus to that screen.
133 === Moving windows to workspaces
135 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
136 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
137 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
138 it does not yet exist.
142 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
143 and move it to the wanted size.
145 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
146 columns/rows with your keyboard.
148 === Restarting i3 inplace
150 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
151 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
155 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
159 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
160 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
161 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
162 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
163 appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
165 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
166 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
167 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
168 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
170 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
172 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
176 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
177 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
178 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
179 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
180 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
181 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
183 === The tree consists of Containers
185 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
186 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
187 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
188 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
189 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
192 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
193 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
195 === Orientation and Split Containers
199 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
200 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
201 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
202 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
203 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
204 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
205 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+mod+l+ in the default config)
206 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
208 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
210 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
211 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
212 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
213 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
214 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
215 Instead, press +mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
216 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +mod+h+). Now you can open a new
217 terminal and it will open below the current one:
219 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
220 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
224 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
229 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
230 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
231 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
233 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
234 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
235 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
236 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
237 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
239 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
241 === Implicit containers
243 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
246 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
247 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
248 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
249 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
251 Now you move one of these terminals down (+mod+k+ by default). The workspace
252 node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window you moved
253 down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom of the
254 screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accomodate the other two
255 terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode (for
256 example). You would end up having one tab called "another container" and the
257 other one being the terminal window you moved down.
262 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
263 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
265 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
266 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
269 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
270 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
271 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
272 can bind your keys to do useful things.
274 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
275 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
278 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
279 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
280 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
281 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
282 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
283 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
288 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
289 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
290 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
299 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles. You can use
300 +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description. To see special characters
301 (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the ISO-10646 encoding.
303 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
304 and fall back to a working font.
307 ------------------------------
308 font <X core font description>
309 ------------------------------
312 --------------------------------------------------------------
313 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
314 --------------------------------------------------------------
318 === Keyboard bindings
320 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
321 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
322 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
324 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
325 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
326 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
327 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
328 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
330 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
331 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
332 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
334 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
335 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
336 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
340 ----------------------------------
341 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
342 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
343 ----------------------------------
346 --------------------------------
348 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
351 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
353 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
354 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
355 --------------------------------
359 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
360 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
363 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
364 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
365 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
366 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
367 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
369 [[floating_modifier]]
371 === The floating modifier
373 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
374 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
375 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
376 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
377 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
378 it to the position you want.
380 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
381 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
382 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
383 ratio will be preserved).
386 --------------------------------
387 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
388 --------------------------------
391 --------------------------------
392 floating_modifier Mod1
393 --------------------------------
395 === Constraining floating window size
397 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
398 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
399 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
400 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
401 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
402 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
405 ----------------------------------------
406 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
407 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
408 ----------------------------------------
411 --------------------------------------
412 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
413 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
414 --------------------------------------
416 === Orientation for new workspaces
418 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
419 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
420 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
422 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
426 ----------------------------------------------
427 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
428 ----------------------------------------------
431 ----------------------------
432 default_orientation vertical
433 ----------------------------
435 === Layout mode for new containers
437 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
439 ///////////////////////////////
440 See also <<stack-limit>>.
441 //////////////////////////////
444 ---------------------------------------------
445 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
446 ---------------------------------------------
447 /////////////////////////////////////////////
448 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
449 /////////////////////////////////////////////
452 ---------------------
453 workspace_layout tabbed
454 ---------------------
456 === Border style for new windows
458 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
462 ---------------------------------------------
463 new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
464 ---------------------------------------------
467 ---------------------
469 ---------------------
471 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
473 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
474 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
475 change their border style, for example.
478 -----------------------------
479 for_window <criteria> command
480 -----------------------------
483 ------------------------------------------------
484 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
485 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
487 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
488 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
490 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
491 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
492 # directory to ~/work
493 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
494 ------------------------------------------------
496 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
500 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
501 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
502 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
503 variables can be handy.
511 ------------------------
513 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
514 ------------------------
516 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
517 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
518 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
519 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
522 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
526 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
527 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
528 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
529 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
530 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
531 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
532 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
533 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
534 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
535 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
538 ------------------------------------------------------------
539 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
540 ------------------------------------------------------------
543 ----------------------
544 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
545 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
547 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
548 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
550 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
551 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
553 # Assignment to a named workspace
554 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
556 # Start urxvt -name irssi
557 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
558 ----------------------
560 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
561 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
563 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
564 window, you will see the following output:
567 -----------------------------------
568 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
569 -----------------------------------
571 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
572 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
574 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
575 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
576 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
577 title when starting up.
579 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
581 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
582 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
583 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
584 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
585 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
589 exec [--no-startup-id] command
590 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
594 --------------------------------
596 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
598 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
599 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
600 --------------------------------
602 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
606 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
608 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
609 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
610 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
611 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
612 the second screen and so on).
615 ----------------------------------
616 workspace <workspace> output <output>
617 ----------------------------------
619 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
620 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
621 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
623 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
626 ---------------------------
627 workspace 1 output LVDS1
628 workspace 5 output VGA1
629 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
630 ---------------------------
634 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
637 --------------------------------------------
638 colorclass border background text indicator
639 --------------------------------------------
641 Where colorclass can be one of:
644 A client which currently has the focus.
645 client.focused_inactive::
646 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
647 the focus at the moment.
649 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
651 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
653 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
654 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
658 -----------------------
659 client.background color
660 -----------------------
662 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
663 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
664 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
665 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
666 area of the terminal and the i3 border.
668 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
670 *Examples (default colors)*:
671 ---------------------------------------------------------
672 # class border backgr. text indicator
673 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
674 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
675 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
676 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
677 ---------------------------------------------------------
679 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
680 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
683 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
684 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
685 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
686 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
687 from single windows outside of a split container.
689 === Interprocess communication
691 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
692 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
693 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
695 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
696 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
697 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
698 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
700 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
701 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
702 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
703 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
704 user can create that directory.
707 ----------------------------
708 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
709 ----------------------------
711 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
714 === Focus follows mouse
716 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
717 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
718 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
719 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
720 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
721 links in your browser window).
724 ----------------------------
725 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
726 ----------------------------
729 ----------------------
730 focus_follows_mouse no
731 ----------------------
733 === Popups during fullscreen mode
735 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
736 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
737 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
738 There are two things which are possible to do in this situation:
740 1. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
741 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
742 you go out of fullscreen).
743 2. Leave fullscreen mode. This is the default.
746 -------------------------------------------------
747 popup_during_fullscreen <ignore|leave_fullscreen>
748 -------------------------------------------------
751 ------------------------------
752 popup_during_fullscreen ignore
753 ------------------------------
757 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
758 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
759 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
760 be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
761 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
763 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
764 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
765 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
769 -----------------------------
770 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
771 -----------------------------
774 ------------------------
775 force_focus_wrapping yes
776 ------------------------
780 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
781 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
782 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
783 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
784 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
787 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
788 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
791 -----------------------
792 force_xinerama <yes|no>
793 -----------------------
800 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
801 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
803 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
805 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
806 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
808 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
809 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
810 came from now, you can just press mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
813 --------------------------------------
814 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
815 --------------------------------------
818 ---------------------------------
819 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
820 ---------------------------------
824 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
825 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
828 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
829 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
830 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
831 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
832 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
833 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
834 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
835 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
837 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
838 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
839 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
840 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
841 configuration infrastructure in place.
843 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
844 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
847 ---------------------------
849 status_command i3status
851 ---------------------------
855 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
856 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
857 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
858 tell i3 what to execute.
860 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
861 have to have correct quoting etc.
864 ----------------------
865 i3bar_command command
866 ----------------------
869 -------------------------------------------------
871 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
873 -------------------------------------------------
876 === Statusline command
878 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
879 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
880 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
882 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
883 have to have correct quoting etc.
886 ----------------------
887 status_command command
888 ----------------------
891 -------------------------------------------------
893 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
895 -------------------------------------------------
899 You can have i3bar either be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
900 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+
901 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
903 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
904 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
907 The default is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
924 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
929 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
931 The default is bottom.
934 ---------------------
935 position <top|bottom>
936 ---------------------
939 ---------------------
943 ---------------------
947 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
948 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
949 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
951 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
952 directive multiple times.
960 -------------------------------
961 # big monitor: everything
963 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
966 status_command i3status
969 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
972 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
978 -------------------------------
982 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
983 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
985 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
986 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
989 -------------------------
990 tray_output <none|primary|output>
991 -------------------------
994 -------------------------
995 # disable system tray
1000 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1003 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1007 -------------------------
1009 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1010 -------------------------
1011 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1012 -------------------------
1016 Specifies the font (again, X core font, not Xft, just like in i3) to be used in
1020 ---------------------
1022 ---------------------
1025 --------------------------------------------------------------
1027 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1029 --------------------------------------------------------------
1031 === Workspace buttons
1033 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1034 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1036 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1039 --------------------------
1040 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1041 --------------------------
1044 --------------------
1046 workspace_buttons no
1048 --------------------
1052 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1053 be configured at the moment:
1056 Background color of the bar.
1058 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1060 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1063 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1064 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1065 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1066 using multiple monitors.
1067 inactive_workspace::
1068 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1069 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1070 will be the case for most workspaces.
1072 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1073 window with the urgency hint set.
1076 ----------------------------------------
1081 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1083 ----------------------------------------
1085 *Example (default colors)*:
1086 --------------------------------------
1092 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1093 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1094 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1095 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1098 --------------------------------------
1102 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1103 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1104 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1107 --------------------------
1108 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1110 --------------------------
1112 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1113 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1114 the following keybinding:
1117 --------------------------------------------------------
1118 bindsym mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1119 --------------------------------------------------------
1121 [[command_criteria]]
1123 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers
1124 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
1125 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
1126 which have the class Firefox, use:
1129 ------------------------------------
1130 bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1132 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1133 bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1134 ------------------------------------
1136 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1139 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1141 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1143 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1145 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1147 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1149 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1150 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1151 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1153 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1155 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1156 interface. Handy for scripting.
1158 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1159 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1160 information on how to use them.
1164 === Executing applications (exec)
1166 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1167 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1168 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1169 searched in your $PATH.
1172 ------------------------------
1173 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1174 ------------------------------
1177 ------------------------------
1179 bindsym mod+g exec gimp
1181 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1182 bindsym mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1183 ------------------------------
1185 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1186 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1187 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1188 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1189 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1190 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1191 cursor for 60 seconds.
1193 === Splitting containers
1195 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1196 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1197 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1198 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1200 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1201 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1202 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1203 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1204 to splith or vice-versa.
1207 ---------------------------
1208 split <vertical|horizontal>
1209 ---------------------------
1212 ------------------------------
1213 bindsym mod+v split vertical
1214 bindsym mod+h split horizontal
1215 ------------------------------
1217 === Manipulating layout
1219 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+ or +layout tabbed+ to change the
1220 current container layout to splith/splitv, stacking or tabbed layout,
1223 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1224 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1225 (or +floating toggle+):
1229 layout <tabbed|stacking>
1230 layout toggle [split|all]
1235 bindsym mod+s layout stacking
1236 bindsym mod+l layout toggle split
1237 bindsym mod+w layout tabbed
1239 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1240 bindsym mod+x layout toggle
1242 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1243 bindsym mod+x layout toggle all
1246 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
1248 # Toggle floating/tiling
1249 bindsym mod+t floating toggle
1252 === Focusing/Moving containers
1254 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1255 down+ and +focus up+.
1257 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1260 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1262 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1265 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1267 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1269 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1271 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1272 corresponding output.
1274 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1277 -----------------------------------
1278 focus <left|right|down|up>
1279 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1280 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1281 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1282 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1283 -----------------------------------
1285 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1286 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1289 ----------------------
1290 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1291 bindsym mod+j focus left
1292 bindsym mod+k focus down
1293 bindsym mod+l focus up
1294 bindsym mod+semicolon focus right
1296 # Focus parent container
1297 bindsym mod+u focus parent
1299 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1300 bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
1302 # Focus the output right to the current one
1303 bindsym mod+x focus output right
1305 # Focus the big output
1306 bindsym mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1308 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1309 bindsym mod+j move left
1310 bindsym mod+k move down
1311 bindsym mod+l move up
1312 bindsym mod+semicolon move right
1314 # Move container, but make floating containers
1315 # move more than the default
1316 bindsym mod+j move left 20 px
1318 # Move floating container to the center
1320 bindsym mod+c move absolute position center
1321 ----------------------
1323 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1325 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1326 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1327 +move container to workspace+.
1329 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1330 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1331 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1332 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1333 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1334 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1335 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1336 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1339 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1342 To move a container to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+, you can
1343 use the +move container to output+ command followed by the name of the target
1344 output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr
1345 output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
1347 To move a whole workspace to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+,
1348 you can use the +move workspace to output+ command followed by the name of the
1349 target output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the
1350 xrandr output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
1353 -----------------------------------
1354 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1355 workspace back_and_forth
1357 workspace number <number>
1359 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1360 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <number>
1361 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1362 -----------------------------------
1365 -------------------------
1366 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1
1367 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
1370 bindsym mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1371 bindsym mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1374 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1375 bindsym mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1377 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1378 bindsym mod+x move workspace to output right
1380 # move firefox to current workspace
1381 bindsym mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1382 -------------------------
1384 ==== Named workspaces
1386 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1387 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1390 -------------------------
1391 bindsym mod+1 workspace mail
1393 -------------------------
1395 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1399 -------------------------
1400 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1401 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2: www
1403 -------------------------
1405 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1406 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1407 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1408 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1409 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1410 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1413 === Renaming workspaces
1415 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1416 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1417 reflect what’s actually on them.
1420 ----------------------------------------------------
1421 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1422 ----------------------------------------------------
1425 ------------------------------------------------
1426 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1427 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1428 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1429 ------------------------------------------------
1433 === Resizing containers/windows
1435 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1439 ---------------------------------------------------------
1440 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
1441 ---------------------------------------------------------
1443 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1444 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1445 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1446 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1447 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1448 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1449 default is 10 percentage points).
1451 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1453 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1454 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1456 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1458 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1459 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1460 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1461 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1462 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1463 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1464 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1465 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1467 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1468 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1469 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1470 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1471 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1473 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1474 bindsym Return mode "default"
1475 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1479 bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
1480 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1482 === Jumping to specific windows
1484 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1485 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1486 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1487 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
1488 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1489 with criteria for that.
1492 ----------------------------------------------------
1493 [class="class"] focus
1494 [title="title"] focus
1495 ----------------------------------------------------
1498 ------------------------------------------------
1499 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1500 bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1501 ------------------------------------------------
1503 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1507 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1508 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1509 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1510 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
1511 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
1514 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1515 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1516 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1517 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1520 ------------------------------
1522 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1523 ------------------------------
1525 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1526 ------------------------------
1528 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1529 ------------------------------
1531 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1532 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1534 ---------------------------------------
1535 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1536 bindsym mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1538 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1539 bindsym mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1540 ---------------------------------------
1542 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1543 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1544 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1546 === Changing border style
1548 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1549 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1550 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1552 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1555 ----------------------------
1556 bindsym mod+t border normal
1557 bindsym mod+y border 1pixel
1558 bindsym mod+u border none
1559 ----------------------------
1563 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1564 TODO: not yet implemented
1565 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1567 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1568 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1569 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1570 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1572 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1573 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1574 you limited) automatically as needed.
1577 --------------------------------
1578 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1579 --------------------------------
1583 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1586 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1590 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1591 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1593 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1595 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1596 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1597 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1598 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1599 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1602 ----------------------------
1603 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
1604 bindsym mod+Shift+w reload
1605 bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
1606 ----------------------------
1610 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1611 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1612 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1613 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1614 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1615 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1616 keybinding to toggle).
1618 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1619 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1620 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1621 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1631 ------------------------------------------------
1632 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1633 bindsym mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1635 # Show the first scratchpad window
1636 bindsym mod+minus scratchpad show
1638 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
1639 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
1640 ------------------------------------------------
1644 == Multiple monitors
1646 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1647 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1648 handle multiple monitors.
1650 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1651 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1653 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1654 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1655 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1656 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1657 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1658 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1659 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1661 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1662 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1663 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1664 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1665 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1666 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1667 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1668 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1670 === Configuring your monitors
1672 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1673 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1674 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1675 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1676 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1678 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1679 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1680 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1681 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1682 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1684 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1685 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1689 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1691 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1692 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1693 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1694 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1696 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1697 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1698 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1700 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1701 -------------------------------------------
1702 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1703 -------------------------------------------
1704 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1705 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1706 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1707 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1709 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1710 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1711 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1714 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1716 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1717 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1719 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1720 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1721 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1723 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1724 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1728 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1729 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
1730 only what you can see in xrandr.
1732 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
1734 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
1736 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
1737 have more than one monitor:
1739 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
1740 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
1741 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
1742 <<workspace_screen>>.
1743 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
1744 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
1745 <<assign_workspace>>.
1746 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
1747 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
1748 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
1750 == i3 and the rest of your software world
1752 === Displaying a status line
1754 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
1755 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
1756 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
1758 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
1759 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
1760 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
1761 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
1762 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
1763 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
1765 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
1766 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
1767 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
1768 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
1769 see <<i3bar_position>>.
1771 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
1773 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
1774 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
1775 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
1776 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
1780 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
1781 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
1782 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
1783 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
1784 -----------------------------------------------------
1785 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
1786 -----------------------------------------------------
1787 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1788 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1789 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1791 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1792 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1793 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1794 -----------------------------------------------------
1795 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1796 -----------------------------------------------------
1797 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1798 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1800 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1801 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1802 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).