3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please check http://faq.i3wm.org/ first, then
8 contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the mailing list.
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with $mod (Alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+$mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (Mod1) by default, with the Windows
30 key (Mod4) being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is $mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing $mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+J+ is left, +$mod+K+
52 is down, +$mod+L+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +$mod+K+ or +$mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
65 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
73 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
74 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
77 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
78 windows at the top of the container.
80 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
81 a single line which is vertically split.
83 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
84 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
86 image:modes.png[Container modes]
88 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
90 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
93 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
96 === Opening other applications
98 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
99 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
100 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
101 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
103 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
104 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
105 <<configuring>> for details.
109 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
110 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
111 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
113 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
114 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
115 depends on the application.
119 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
120 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
121 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
122 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
124 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
125 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
126 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
128 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
129 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
130 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
131 focus to that screen.
133 === Moving windows to workspaces
135 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
136 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
137 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
138 it does not yet exist.
142 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
143 and move it to the wanted size.
145 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
146 columns/rows with your keyboard.
148 === Restarting i3 inplace
150 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
151 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
155 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
156 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
160 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
161 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
162 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
163 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
164 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
165 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
167 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
168 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
169 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
170 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
171 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
173 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
175 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
179 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
180 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
181 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
182 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
183 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
184 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
186 === The tree consists of Containers
188 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
189 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
190 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
191 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
192 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
195 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
196 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
198 === Orientation and Split Containers
202 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
203 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
204 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
205 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
206 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
207 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
208 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
209 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
211 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
213 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
214 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
215 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
216 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
217 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
218 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
219 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
220 terminal and it will open below the current one:
222 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
223 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
227 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
232 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
233 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
234 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
236 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
237 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
238 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
239 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
240 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
242 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
244 === Implicit containers
246 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
249 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
250 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
251 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
252 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
254 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
255 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
256 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
257 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
258 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
259 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
260 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
266 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
267 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
269 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
270 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
273 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
274 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
275 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
276 can bind your keys to do useful things.
278 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
279 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
282 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
283 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
284 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
285 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
286 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
287 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
292 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
293 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
294 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
305 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
306 render window titles.
308 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
309 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
312 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
313 a variant, a stretch and a size.
314 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
315 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
317 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
318 and fall back to a working font.
321 ------------------------------
322 font <X core font description>
323 font pango:[family list] [style options] [size]
324 ------------------------------
327 --------------------------------------------------------------
328 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
329 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
330 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
331 font pango:Terminus 11px
332 --------------------------------------------------------------
336 === Keyboard bindings
338 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
339 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
340 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
342 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
343 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
344 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
345 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
346 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
348 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
349 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
350 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
352 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
353 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
354 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
357 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
358 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
359 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
360 after the keys have been released.
363 ----------------------------------
364 bindsym [--release] [Modifiers+]keysym command
365 bindcode [--release] [Modifiers+]keycode command
366 ----------------------------------
369 --------------------------------
371 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
374 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
376 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
377 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
379 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
380 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
382 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
383 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
384 --------------------------------
388 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
389 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
392 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
393 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
394 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
395 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
396 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
402 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
403 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
404 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
407 ----------------------------------
408 bindsym [--release] [--whole-window] [Modifiers+]button[n] command
409 ----------------------------------
411 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
412 window. If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, it will run when any part of the
413 window is clicked. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse
417 --------------------------------
418 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
419 bindsym --release button2 kill
421 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
422 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
424 # The right button toggles floating
425 bindsym button3 floating toggle
426 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
428 # The side buttons move the window around
429 bindsym button9 move left
430 bindsym button8 move right
431 --------------------------------
433 [[floating_modifier]]
435 === The floating modifier
437 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
438 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
439 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
440 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
441 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
442 it to the position you want.
444 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
445 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
446 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
447 ratio will be preserved).
450 --------------------------------
451 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
452 --------------------------------
455 --------------------------------
456 floating_modifier Mod1
457 --------------------------------
459 === Constraining floating window size
461 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
462 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
463 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
464 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
465 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
466 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
469 ----------------------------------------
470 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
471 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
472 ----------------------------------------
475 --------------------------------------
476 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
477 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
478 --------------------------------------
480 === Orientation for new workspaces
482 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
483 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
484 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
486 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
490 ----------------------------------------------
491 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
492 ----------------------------------------------
495 ----------------------------
496 default_orientation vertical
497 ----------------------------
499 === Layout mode for new containers
501 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
503 ///////////////////////////////
504 See also <<stack-limit>>.
505 //////////////////////////////
508 ---------------------------------------------
509 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
510 ---------------------------------------------
511 /////////////////////////////////////////////
512 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
513 /////////////////////////////////////////////
516 ---------------------
517 workspace_layout tabbed
518 ---------------------
520 === Border style for new windows
522 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
523 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
524 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
527 ---------------------------------------------
528 new_window <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
529 new_float <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
530 ---------------------------------------------
533 ---------------------
535 ---------------------
537 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
541 ---------------------
542 # The same as new_window none
547 ---------------------
550 === Hiding vertical borders
552 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
553 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
554 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
557 ----------------------------
558 hide_edge_borders <none|vertical|horizontal|both>
559 ----------------------------
562 ----------------------
563 hide_edge_borders vertical
564 ----------------------
566 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
568 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
569 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
570 change their border style, for example.
573 -----------------------------
574 for_window <criteria> command
575 -----------------------------
578 ------------------------------------------------
579 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
580 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
582 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
583 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
585 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
586 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
587 # directory to ~/work
588 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
589 ------------------------------------------------
591 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
593 === Don't focus window upon opening
597 When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
598 this from happening and can be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
600 Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
601 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
602 <<focus_on_window_activation>>.
610 -------------------------------
611 no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
612 -------------------------------
616 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
617 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
618 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
619 variables can be handy.
627 ------------------------
629 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
630 ------------------------
632 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
633 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
634 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
635 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
636 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
637 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
639 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
643 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
644 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
645 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
646 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
647 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
648 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
649 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
650 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
651 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
652 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
654 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
655 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
659 ------------------------------------------------------------
660 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
661 ------------------------------------------------------------
664 ----------------------
665 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
666 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
668 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
669 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
671 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
672 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
674 # Assignment to a named workspace
675 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
677 # Start urxvt -name irssi
678 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
679 ----------------------
681 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
682 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
684 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
685 window, you will see the following output:
688 -----------------------------------
689 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
690 -----------------------------------
692 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
693 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
695 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
696 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
697 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
698 title when starting up.
700 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
701 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
702 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
703 file in the following way:
705 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
706 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
707 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
708 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
709 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
710 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
711 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
712 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
713 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
714 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
716 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
718 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
719 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
720 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
721 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
722 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
726 exec [--no-startup-id] command
727 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
731 --------------------------------
733 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
735 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
736 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
737 --------------------------------
739 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
743 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
745 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
746 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
747 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
748 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
749 the second screen and so on).
752 ----------------------------------
753 workspace <workspace> output <output>
754 ----------------------------------
756 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
757 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
758 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
760 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
763 ---------------------------
764 workspace 1 output LVDS1
765 workspace 5 output VGA1
766 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
767 ---------------------------
771 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
774 --------------------------------------------
775 colorclass border background text indicator
776 --------------------------------------------
778 Where colorclass can be one of:
781 A client which currently has the focus.
782 client.focused_inactive::
783 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
784 the focus at the moment.
786 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
788 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
790 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
791 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
793 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
794 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
798 -----------------------
799 client.background color
800 -----------------------
802 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
805 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
807 *Examples (default colors)*:
808 ---------------------------------------------------------
809 # class border backgr. text indicator
810 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
811 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
812 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
813 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
814 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
815 ---------------------------------------------------------
817 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
818 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
821 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
822 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
823 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
824 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
825 from single windows outside of a split container.
827 === Interprocess communication
829 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
830 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
831 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
833 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
834 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
835 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
836 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
838 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
839 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
840 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
841 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
842 user can create that directory.
845 ----------------------------
846 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
847 ----------------------------
849 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
852 === Focus follows mouse
854 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
855 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
856 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
857 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
858 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
859 links in your browser window).
862 ----------------------------
863 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
864 ----------------------------
867 ----------------------
868 focus_follows_mouse no
869 ----------------------
873 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
874 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
875 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
877 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
878 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
879 behavior described above.
882 ---------------------------
883 mouse_warping <output|none>
884 ---------------------------
891 === Popups during fullscreen mode
893 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
894 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
895 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
896 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
898 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
899 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
900 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
901 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
902 you go out of fullscreen).
903 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
906 -------------------------------------------------
907 popup_during_fullscreen <smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen>
908 -------------------------------------------------
911 ------------------------------
912 popup_during_fullscreen smart
913 ------------------------------
917 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
918 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
919 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
920 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
921 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
923 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
924 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
925 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
929 -----------------------------
930 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
931 -----------------------------
934 ------------------------
935 force_focus_wrapping yes
936 ------------------------
940 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
941 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
942 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
943 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
944 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
947 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
948 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
951 -----------------------
952 force_xinerama <yes|no>
953 -----------------------
960 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
961 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
963 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
965 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
966 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
968 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
969 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
970 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
973 --------------------------------------
974 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
975 --------------------------------------
978 ---------------------------------
979 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
980 ---------------------------------
982 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
984 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
985 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
986 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
987 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
990 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
991 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
992 value to 0 disables this feature.
994 The default is 500ms.
997 ---------------------------------------
998 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
999 ---------------------------------------
1002 ---------------------------------
1003 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
1004 ---------------------------------
1006 === Delaying exiting on zero displays
1008 Outputs may disappear momentarily and come back later. For example,
1009 using a docking station that does not announce the undock (e.g. ACPI Undock
1010 event triggered through manually pushing a button before actually ejecting
1011 the notebook). During the removal of the notebook from the docking station,
1012 all outputs disappear momentarily.
1014 To prevent i3 from exiting when no output is available momentarily, you can
1015 tell i3 to delay a certain time first and check available outputs again using
1016 the +delay_exit_on_zero_displays+ directive. Setting the value to 0 disables
1019 The default is 500ms.
1022 ----------------------------------------
1023 delay_exit_on_zero_displays <timeout> ms
1024 ----------------------------------------
1027 ----------------------------------
1028 delay_exit_on_zero_displays 500 ms
1029 ----------------------------------
1031 === Focus on window activation
1033 [[focus_on_window_activation]]
1035 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
1036 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
1038 Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
1039 from being focused, see <<no_focus>>.
1042 ----------------------------------------------------
1043 focus_on_window_activation <smart|urgent|focus|none>
1044 ----------------------------------------------------
1046 The different modes will act as follows:
1049 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1050 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1052 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1054 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1056 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1058 === Drawing marks on window decoration
1060 If activated, marks on windows are drawn in their window decoration. However,
1061 any mark starting with an underscore in its name (+_+) will not be drawn even if
1062 this option is activated.
1064 The default for this option is +yes+.
1076 == Configuring i3bar
1078 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1079 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1082 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1083 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1084 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1085 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1086 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1087 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1088 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1089 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1091 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1092 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1093 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1094 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1095 configuration infrastructure in place.
1097 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1098 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1101 ---------------------------
1103 status_command i3status
1105 ---------------------------
1109 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1110 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1111 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1112 tell i3 what to execute.
1114 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1115 have to have correct quoting etc.
1118 ----------------------
1119 i3bar_command command
1120 ----------------------
1123 -------------------------------------------------
1125 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1127 -------------------------------------------------
1130 === Statusline command
1132 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1133 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1134 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1136 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1137 have to have correct quoting etc.
1140 ----------------------
1141 status_command command
1142 ----------------------
1145 -------------------------------------------------
1147 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1149 -------------------------------------------------
1153 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1154 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1155 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1156 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1158 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1159 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1161 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1162 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1165 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1166 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1167 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1169 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1170 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1171 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1172 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1173 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1174 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1176 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1177 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1179 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1180 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1184 mode <dock|hide|invisible>
1185 hidden_state <hide|show>
1198 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1200 === Mouse button commands
1202 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1203 default behavior. Currently only the mouse wheel buttons are supported. This is
1204 useful for disabling the scroll wheel action or running scripts that implement
1205 custom behavior for these buttons.
1208 ---------------------
1209 wheel_up_cmd <command>
1210 wheel_down_cmd <command>
1211 ---------------------
1214 ---------------------
1217 wheel_down_cmd exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1219 ---------------------
1223 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1224 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1225 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1228 ---------------------
1230 ---------------------
1233 ---------------------
1237 ---------------------
1242 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1244 The default is bottom.
1247 ---------------------
1248 position <top|bottom>
1249 ---------------------
1252 ---------------------
1256 ---------------------
1260 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1261 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1262 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1264 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1265 directive multiple times.
1273 -------------------------------
1274 # big monitor: everything
1276 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1279 status_command i3status
1282 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1285 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1291 -------------------------------
1295 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1296 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1298 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1299 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1302 -------------------------
1303 tray_output <none|primary|output>
1304 -------------------------
1307 -------------------------
1308 # disable system tray
1313 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1316 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1320 -------------------------
1322 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1323 -------------------------
1324 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1325 -------------------------
1329 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1332 ---------------------
1334 ---------------------
1337 --------------------------------------------------------------
1339 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1340 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1342 --------------------------------------------------------------
1344 === Custom separator symbol
1346 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1347 one pixel thick separator.
1350 -------------------------
1351 separator_symbol <symbol>
1352 -------------------------
1355 ------------------------
1357 separator_symbol ":|:"
1359 ------------------------
1361 === Workspace buttons
1363 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1364 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1366 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1369 --------------------------
1370 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1371 --------------------------
1374 ------------------------
1376 workspace_buttons no
1378 ------------------------
1380 === Strip workspace numbers
1382 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1383 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1384 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1386 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1387 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1388 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1389 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1391 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1394 ----------------------------------
1395 strip_workspace_numbers <yes|no>
1396 ----------------------------------
1399 ----------------------------
1401 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1403 ----------------------------
1405 === Binding Mode indicator
1407 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1408 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1409 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1410 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1412 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1415 -------------------------------
1416 binding_mode_indicator <yes|no>
1417 -------------------------------
1420 -----------------------------
1422 binding_mode_indicator no
1424 -----------------------------
1428 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1429 be configured at the moment:
1432 Background color of the bar.
1434 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1436 Text color to be used for the separator.
1438 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1441 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1442 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1443 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1444 using multiple monitors.
1445 inactive_workspace::
1446 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1447 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1448 will be the case for most workspaces.
1450 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1451 contains a window with the urgency hint set. Also applies to +mode+ indicators.
1454 ----------------------------------------
1460 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1462 ----------------------------------------
1464 *Example (default colors)*:
1465 --------------------------------------
1472 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1473 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1474 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1475 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1478 --------------------------------------
1482 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1483 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1484 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1487 --------------------------
1488 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1490 --------------------------
1492 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1493 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1494 the following keybinding:
1497 --------------------------------------------------------
1498 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1499 --------------------------------------------------------
1501 [[command_criteria]]
1503 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1504 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1505 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1508 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1509 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1510 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1514 ------------------------------------
1515 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1516 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1518 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1519 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1521 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1522 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1524 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1525 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1526 ------------------------------------
1528 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1531 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1533 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1535 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1537 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1539 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1541 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1542 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1543 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1545 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1547 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1548 interface. Handy for scripting.
1550 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1551 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1552 information on how to use them.
1556 === Executing applications (exec)
1558 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1559 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1560 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1561 searched in your $PATH.
1564 ------------------------------
1565 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1566 ------------------------------
1569 ------------------------------
1571 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1573 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1574 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1575 ------------------------------
1577 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1578 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1579 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1580 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1581 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1582 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1583 cursor for 60 seconds.
1585 === Splitting containers
1587 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1588 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1589 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1590 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1592 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1593 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1594 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1595 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1596 to splith or vice-versa.
1599 ---------------------------
1600 split <vertical|horizontal>
1601 ---------------------------
1604 ------------------------------
1605 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1606 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1607 ------------------------------
1609 === Manipulating layout
1611 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1612 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1613 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1615 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1616 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1617 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1618 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1620 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1621 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1625 layout <default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith>
1626 layout toggle [split|all]
1631 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1632 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1633 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1635 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1636 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1638 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1639 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1642 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1644 # Toggle floating/tiling
1645 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1648 === Focusing/Moving containers
1650 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1651 down+ and +focus up+.
1653 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1656 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1658 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1661 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1663 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1665 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1667 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1668 corresponding output.
1670 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1673 -----------------------------------
1674 focus <left|right|down|up>
1675 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1676 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1677 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1678 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1679 -----------------------------------
1681 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1682 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1685 ----------------------
1686 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1687 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1688 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1689 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1690 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1692 # Focus parent container
1693 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1695 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1696 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1698 # Focus the output right to the current one
1699 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1701 # Focus the big output
1702 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1704 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1705 bindsym $mod+j move left
1706 bindsym $mod+k move down
1707 bindsym $mod+l move up
1708 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1710 # Move container, but make floating containers
1711 # move more than the default
1712 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1714 # Move floating container to the center
1716 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1717 ----------------------
1719 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1721 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1722 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1723 +move container to workspace+.
1725 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1726 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1727 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1728 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1729 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1730 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1731 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1732 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1734 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1737 Workspace names are parsed as
1738 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
1742 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1743 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1744 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1747 -----------------------------------
1748 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1749 workspace back_and_forth
1751 workspace number <name>
1753 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1754 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1755 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1756 -----------------------------------
1759 -------------------------
1760 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1761 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1762 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
1765 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1766 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1769 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1770 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1771 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1773 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1774 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1776 # move firefox to current workspace
1777 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1778 -------------------------
1780 ==== Named workspaces
1782 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1783 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1786 -------------------------
1787 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1789 -------------------------
1791 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1795 -------------------------
1796 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1797 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1799 -------------------------
1801 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1802 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1803 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1804 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1805 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1806 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1807 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1808 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1810 ==== Renaming workspaces
1812 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1813 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1814 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1815 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1816 rename command with +i3-input+.
1819 ----------------------------------------------------
1820 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1821 rename workspace to <new_name>
1822 ----------------------------------------------------
1825 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1826 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1827 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1828 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1829 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1830 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1831 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1833 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1835 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1838 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1842 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1843 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1844 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1847 --------------------------------------------------------
1848 move container to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1849 move workspace to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1850 --------------------------------------------------------
1853 --------------------------------------------------------
1854 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1855 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1856 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1858 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1859 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1860 --------------------------------------------------------
1864 === Resizing containers/windows
1866 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1870 ---------------------------------------------------------
1871 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1872 ---------------------------------------------------------
1874 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1875 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1876 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1877 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1878 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1879 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1880 default is 10 percentage points).
1882 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1884 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1885 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1887 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1889 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1890 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1891 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1892 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1893 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1894 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1895 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1896 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1898 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1899 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1900 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1901 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1902 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1904 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1905 bindsym Return mode "default"
1906 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1910 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1911 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1913 === Jumping to specific windows
1915 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1916 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1917 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1918 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1919 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1920 with criteria for that.
1923 ----------------------------------------------------
1924 [class="class"] focus
1925 [title="title"] focus
1926 ----------------------------------------------------
1929 ------------------------------------------------
1930 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1931 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1932 ------------------------------------------------
1934 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1938 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1939 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1940 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1941 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
1942 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
1943 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
1944 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
1946 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1947 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1948 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1949 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1951 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
1952 this mark, add it if the window has none or replace the current mark if it has
1955 Refer to +show_marks+ if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
1958 ------------------------------
1959 mark [--toggle] identifier
1960 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1962 ------------------------------
1964 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1965 ------------------------------
1967 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1968 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
1969 ------------------------------
1971 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1972 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1974 ---------------------------------------
1975 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1976 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1978 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1979 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1980 ---------------------------------------
1982 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1983 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1984 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1986 === Changing border style
1988 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1989 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1990 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1992 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1995 ----------------------------
1996 bindsym $mod+t border normal
1997 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
1998 bindsym $mod+u border none
1999 ----------------------------
2003 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2004 TODO: not yet implemented
2005 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
2007 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
2008 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
2009 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
2010 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
2012 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
2013 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
2014 you limited) automatically as needed.
2017 --------------------------------
2018 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
2019 --------------------------------
2023 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
2026 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
2030 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
2031 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2035 === Enabling shared memory logging
2037 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
2038 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
2039 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
2041 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
2042 discarded and a new one will be started.
2045 ------------------------------
2046 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
2047 shmlog <on|off|toggle>
2048 ------------------------------
2052 # Enable/disable logging
2053 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
2055 # or, from a terminal:
2056 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
2057 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
2060 === Enabling debug logging
2062 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
2063 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
2064 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
2065 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2068 ------------------------
2069 debuglog <on|off|toggle>
2070 ------------------------
2073 ------------------------
2074 # Enable/disable logging
2075 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2076 ------------------------
2078 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2080 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2081 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2082 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2083 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2084 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2087 ----------------------------
2088 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2089 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2090 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2091 ----------------------------
2095 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2096 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2097 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2098 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2099 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2100 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2101 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2102 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2103 (+floating toggle+).
2105 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2106 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2107 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2108 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2118 ------------------------------------------------
2119 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2120 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2122 # Show the first scratchpad window
2123 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2125 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2126 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2127 ------------------------------------------------
2131 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2132 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2133 the middle mouse button.
2135 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2136 for debugging purposes.
2144 ----------------------------------------------
2145 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2146 # with the middle mouse button
2148 ----------------------------------------------
2152 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2153 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2154 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2155 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2156 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2157 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2158 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2162 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2164 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2168 ------------------------------------------------
2169 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2170 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2172 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2173 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2175 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2176 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2178 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2179 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2180 ------------------------------------------------
2184 == Multiple monitors
2186 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2187 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2188 handle multiple monitors.
2190 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2191 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2193 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2194 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2195 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2196 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2197 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2198 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2199 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2201 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2202 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2203 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2204 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2205 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2206 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2207 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2208 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2210 === Configuring your monitors
2212 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2213 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2214 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2215 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2216 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2218 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2219 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2220 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2221 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2222 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2224 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2225 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2229 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2231 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2232 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2233 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2234 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2236 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2237 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2238 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2240 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2241 -------------------------------------------
2242 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2243 -------------------------------------------
2244 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2245 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2246 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2247 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2249 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2250 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2251 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2254 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2256 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2257 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2259 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2260 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2261 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2263 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2264 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2268 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2269 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2270 only what you can see in xrandr.
2272 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2274 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2276 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2277 have more than one monitor:
2279 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2280 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2281 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2282 <<workspace_screen>>.
2283 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2284 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2285 <<assign_workspace>>.
2286 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2287 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2288 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2289 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2290 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2292 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2294 === Displaying a status line
2296 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2297 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2298 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2300 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2301 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2302 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2303 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2304 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2305 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2307 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2308 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2309 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2310 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2311 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2313 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2315 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2316 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2317 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2318 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2322 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2323 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2324 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2325 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2326 -----------------------------------------------------
2327 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2328 -----------------------------------------------------
2329 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2330 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2331 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2333 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2334 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2335 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2336 -----------------------------------------------------
2337 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2338 -----------------------------------------------------
2339 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2340 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2342 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2343 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2344 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).