3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
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
75 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
76 windows at the top of the container.
78 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
79 a single line which is vertically split.
81 To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+s+ for stacking and
84 image:modes.png[Container modes]
86 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
88 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
91 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 === Opening other applications
96 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
97 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
98 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
99 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
101 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
102 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
103 <<configuring>> for details.
107 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
108 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
109 can press +mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
110 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
111 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
113 depends on the application.
117 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
118 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
119 another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
120 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
122 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
123 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
124 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
126 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
127 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
128 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
129 focus to that screen.
131 === Moving windows to workspaces
133 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
134 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
135 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
136 it does not yet exist.
140 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
141 and move it to the wanted size.
143 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
144 columns/rows with your keyboard.
146 === Restarting i3 inplace
148 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
149 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
153 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
157 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
158 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
159 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
160 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
161 appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
163 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
164 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
165 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
166 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
168 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
170 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
174 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
175 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
176 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
177 finally the windows themselve. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
178 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
179 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
181 === The tree consists of Containers
183 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
184 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
185 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
186 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
187 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
190 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
191 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
193 === Orientation and Split Containers
197 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
198 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
199 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
200 workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
201 (most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
202 vertical (+mod+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
203 configure your windows like this:
205 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
207 An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
208 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
209 orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
210 terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
211 window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
212 orientation. Instead, press +mod+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
213 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +mod+h+). Now you can open a new
214 terminal and it will open below the current one:
216 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
217 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
221 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
226 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
227 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
228 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
230 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
231 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
232 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
233 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
234 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
236 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
241 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
242 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
244 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
245 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
248 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
249 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
250 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
251 can bind your keys to do useful things.
253 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
254 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
257 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
258 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
259 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
260 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
261 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
262 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
267 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
268 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
269 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
278 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles. You can use
279 +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description. To see special characters
280 (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the ISO-10646 encoding.
282 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
283 and fall back to a working font.
286 ------------------------------
287 font <X core font description>
288 ------------------------------
291 --------------------------------------------------------------
292 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
293 --------------------------------------------------------------
297 === Keyboard bindings
299 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
300 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
301 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
303 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
304 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
305 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
306 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
308 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
309 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
310 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
312 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
313 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
314 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
318 ----------------------------------
319 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
320 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
321 ----------------------------------
324 --------------------------------
329 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
331 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
332 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
333 --------------------------------
337 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
338 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
341 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
342 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
343 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
344 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
345 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
347 [[floating_modifier]]
349 === The floating modifier
351 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
352 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
353 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
354 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
355 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
356 it to the position you want.
358 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
359 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
360 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional.
363 --------------------------------
364 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
365 --------------------------------
368 --------------------------------
369 floating_modifier Mod1
370 --------------------------------
372 === Orientation for new workspaces
374 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
375 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
376 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
378 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
382 ----------------------------------------------
383 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
384 ----------------------------------------------
387 ----------------------------
388 default_orientation vertical
389 ----------------------------
391 === Layout mode for new containers
393 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
395 ///////////////////////////////
396 See also <<stack-limit>>.
397 //////////////////////////////
400 ---------------------------------------------
401 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
402 ---------------------------------------------
403 /////////////////////////////////////////////
404 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
405 /////////////////////////////////////////////
408 ---------------------
409 workspace_layout tabbed
410 ---------------------
412 === Border style for new windows
414 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
417 ---------------------------------------------
418 new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
419 ---------------------------------------------
422 ---------------------
424 ---------------------
426 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
428 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
429 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
430 change their border style, for example.
433 -----------------------------
434 for_window <criteria> command
435 -----------------------------
438 ------------------------------------------------
439 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
440 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
442 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
443 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
445 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
446 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
447 # directory to ~/work
448 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
449 ------------------------------------------------
451 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
455 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
456 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
457 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
458 variables can be handy.
466 ------------------------
468 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
469 ------------------------
471 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
472 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
473 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
474 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
477 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
481 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
482 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
483 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
484 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
485 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
486 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
487 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
488 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
489 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
490 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
493 ------------------------------------------------------------
494 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
495 ------------------------------------------------------------
498 ----------------------
499 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
500 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
502 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
503 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
505 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
506 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
508 # Assignment to a named workspace
509 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
511 # Start urxvt -name irssi
512 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
513 ----------------------
515 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
516 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
518 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
519 window, you will see the following output:
522 -----------------------------------
523 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
524 -----------------------------------
526 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
527 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
529 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
530 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
531 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
532 title when starting up.
534 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
536 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
537 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
538 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
539 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
540 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
544 exec [--no-startup-id] command
545 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
549 --------------------------------
551 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
553 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
554 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
555 --------------------------------
557 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
561 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
563 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
564 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
565 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
566 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
567 the second screen and so on).
570 ----------------------------------
571 workspace <number> output <output>
572 ----------------------------------
574 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
575 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
576 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
579 ---------------------------
580 workspace 1 output LVDS1
581 workspace 5 output VGA1
582 ---------------------------
586 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
589 --------------------------------------------
590 colorclass border background text
591 --------------------------------------------
593 Where colorclass can be one of:
596 A client which currently has the focus.
597 client.focused_inactive::
598 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
599 the focus at the moment.
601 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
603 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
605 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
606 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
610 -----------------------
611 client.background color
612 -----------------------
614 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
615 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
616 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
617 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
618 area of the termianal and the i3 border.
620 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
622 *Examples (default colors)*:
623 -----------------------------------------------
624 # class border backgr. text
625 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
626 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
627 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888
628 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
629 -----------------------------------------------
631 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
632 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
635 === Interprocess communication
637 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
638 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
639 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
641 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
642 +/tmp/i3-%u/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username and +%p+ is the PID
645 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
646 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
647 does the right thing by default.
650 ----------------------------
651 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
652 ----------------------------
654 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
657 === Focus follows mouse
659 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
660 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
661 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
662 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
663 to click on links in your browser window).
666 ----------------------------
667 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
668 ----------------------------
671 ----------------------
672 focus_follows_mouse no
673 ----------------------
675 === Popups during fullscreen mode
677 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
678 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
679 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
680 There are two things which are possible to do in this situation:
682 1. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
683 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
684 you go out of fullscreen).
685 2. Leave fullscreen mode. This is the default.
688 -------------------------------------------------
689 popup_during_fullscreen <ignore|leave_fullscreen>
690 -------------------------------------------------
693 ------------------------------
694 popup_during_fullscreen ignore
695 ------------------------------
699 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
700 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
701 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
702 be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
703 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
705 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
706 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
707 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
711 -----------------------------
712 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
713 -----------------------------
716 ------------------------
717 force_focus_wrapping yes
718 ------------------------
722 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
723 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
724 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
725 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
726 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
729 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
730 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
733 -----------------------
734 force_xinerama <yes|no>
735 -----------------------
742 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
743 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
745 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
747 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
748 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
750 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
751 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
752 came from now, you can just press mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
755 --------------------------------------
756 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
757 --------------------------------------
760 ---------------------------------
761 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
762 ---------------------------------
766 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
767 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
770 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
771 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
772 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
773 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
774 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
775 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
776 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
777 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
779 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
780 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
781 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
782 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
783 configuration infrastructure in place.
785 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
786 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
789 ---------------------------
791 status_command i3status
793 ---------------------------
795 === Statusline command
797 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
798 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
799 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
801 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
802 have to have correct quoting etc.
805 ----------------------
806 status_command command
807 ----------------------
810 -------------------------------------------------
811 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
812 -------------------------------------------------
816 You can have i3bar either be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
817 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+
820 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
821 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
824 The default is dock mode.
838 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
840 The default is bottom.
843 ---------------------
844 position <top|bottom>
845 ---------------------
848 ---------------------
850 ---------------------
854 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
855 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
856 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
864 -------------------------------
865 # big monitor: everything
868 status_command i3status
871 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
874 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
880 -------------------------------
884 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
885 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
887 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
888 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
891 -------------------------
892 tray_output <none|output>
893 -------------------------
896 -------------------------
897 # disable system tray
900 # show tray icons on the big monitor
902 -------------------------
906 Specifies the font (again, X core font, not Xft, just like in i3) to be used in
910 ---------------------
912 ---------------------
915 --------------------------------------------------------------
916 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
917 --------------------------------------------------------------
919 === Workspace buttons
921 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
922 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
924 The default is to show workspace buttons.
927 --------------------------
928 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
929 --------------------------
938 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
939 be configured at the moment:
942 Background color of the bar.
944 Text color to be used for the statusline.
946 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
949 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
950 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
951 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
952 using multiple monitors.
954 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
955 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
956 will be the case for most workspaces.
958 Text color/background color for workspaces which contain at least one
959 window with the urgency hint set.
962 ----------------------------------------
967 colorclass <foreground> <background>
969 ----------------------------------------
972 --------------------------------------
977 focused_workspace #ffffff #285577
978 active_workspace #888888 #222222
979 inactive_workspace #888888 #222222
980 urgent_workspace #ffffff #900000
982 --------------------------------------
986 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
987 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
988 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
991 --------------------------
992 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
994 --------------------------
996 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
997 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
998 the following keybinding:
1001 -------------------------------------------
1002 bindsym mod+x move workspace 3; workspace 3
1003 -------------------------------------------
1005 [[command_criteria]]
1007 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers
1008 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
1009 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
1010 which have the class Firefox, use:
1013 ------------------------------------
1014 bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1016 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1017 bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1018 ------------------------------------
1020 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1023 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1025 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1027 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1029 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1031 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1033 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1035 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1036 interface. Handy for scripting.
1038 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1039 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1040 information on how to use them.
1044 === Executing applications (exec)
1046 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1047 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1048 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1049 searched in your $PATH.
1052 ------------------------------
1053 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1054 ------------------------------
1057 ------------------------------
1059 bindsym mod+g exec gimp
1061 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1062 bindsym mod+enter exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1063 ------------------------------
1065 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1066 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1067 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1068 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1069 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1070 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1071 cursor for 60 seconds.
1073 === Splitting containers
1075 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1076 can contain multiple windows. Every split container has an orientation, it is
1077 either split horizontally (a new window gets placed to the right of the current
1078 one) or vertically (a new window gets placed below the current one).
1080 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1081 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1082 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
1085 ---------------------------
1086 split <vertical|horizontal>
1087 ---------------------------
1090 ------------------------------
1091 bindsym mod+v split vertical
1092 bindsym mod+h split horizontal
1093 ------------------------------
1095 === Manipulating layout
1097 Use +layout default+, +layout stacking+ or +layout tabbed+ to change the
1098 current container layout to default, stacking or tabbed layout, respectively.
1100 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1101 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1102 (or +floating toggle+):
1106 bindsym mod+s layout stacking
1107 bindsym mod+l layout default
1108 bindsym mod+w layout tabbed
1111 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
1113 # Toggle floating/tiling
1114 bindsym mod+t floating toggle
1117 === Focusing/Moving containers
1119 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus down+ and +focus up+.
1121 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1124 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1126 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1129 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1131 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1133 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1135 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1138 ----------------------
1139 # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
1140 bindsym mod+j focus left
1141 bindsym mod+k focus down
1142 bindsym mod+l focus up
1143 bindsym mod+semicolon focus right
1145 # Focus parent container
1146 bindsym mod+u focus parent
1148 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1149 bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
1151 # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
1152 bindsym mod+j move left
1153 bindsym mod+k move down
1154 bindsym mod+l move up
1155 bindsym mod+semicolon move right
1156 ----------------------
1158 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1160 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1161 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1164 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1165 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1166 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1167 combination. Similarily, you can use +move workspace next+ and +move workspace
1168 prev+ to move a container to the next/previous workspace.
1171 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1174 To move a container to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+, you can
1175 use the +move output+ command followed by the name of the target output. You
1176 may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr output name to
1177 move to the the next output in the specified direction.
1180 -------------------------
1181 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1
1182 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
1185 bindsym mod+Shift+1 move workspace 1
1186 bindsym mod+Shift+2 move workspace 2
1189 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1190 bindsym mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1191 -------------------------
1193 ==== Named workspaces
1195 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1196 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1199 -------------------------
1200 bindsym mod+1 workspace mail
1202 -------------------------
1204 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1208 -------------------------
1209 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1210 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2: www
1212 -------------------------
1214 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1215 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1216 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1217 will order them numerically.
1221 === Resizing containers/windows
1223 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1227 ---------------------------------------------------------
1228 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
1229 ---------------------------------------------------------
1231 Direction can be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. The optional pixel
1232 argument specifies by how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or
1233 shrinked (the default is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points
1234 and specifies by how many percentage points a *tiling container* should be
1235 grown or shrinked (the default is 10 percentage points).
1237 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1239 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1240 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1242 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1244 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
1245 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
1246 # more space on its left
1248 bindsym j resize shrink left
1249 bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
1251 bindsym k resize grow down
1252 bindsym Shift+k resize shrink down
1254 bindsym l resize shrink up
1255 bindsym Shift+l resize grow up
1257 bindsym semicolon resize grow right
1258 bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
1260 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1261 bindsym Return mode "default"
1262 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1266 bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
1267 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1269 === Jumping to specific windows
1271 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1272 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1273 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1274 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
1275 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1276 with criteria for that.
1279 ----------------------------------------------------
1280 [class="class"] focus
1281 [title="title"] focus
1282 ----------------------------------------------------
1285 ------------------------------------------------
1286 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1287 bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1288 ------------------------------------------------
1290 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1294 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1295 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1296 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1297 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
1298 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
1301 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1302 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1303 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1304 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1307 ------------------------------
1309 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1310 ------------------------------
1312 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1313 ------------------------------
1315 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1316 ------------------------------
1318 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1319 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1321 ---------------------------------------
1322 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1323 bindsym mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1325 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1326 bindsym mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1327 ---------------------------------------
1329 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1330 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1331 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1333 === Changing border style
1335 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1336 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1337 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1339 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1342 ----------------------------
1343 bindsym mod+t border normal
1344 bindsym mod+y border 1pixel
1345 bindsym mod+u border none
1346 ----------------------------
1350 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1351 TODO: not yet implemented
1352 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1354 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1355 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1356 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1357 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1359 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1360 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1361 you limited) automatically as needed.
1364 --------------------------------
1365 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1366 --------------------------------
1370 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1373 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1377 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1378 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1380 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1382 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1383 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1384 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1385 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1386 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1389 ----------------------------
1390 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
1391 bindsym mod+Shift+w reload
1392 bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
1393 ----------------------------
1397 == Multiple monitors
1399 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1400 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1401 handle multiple monitors.
1403 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1404 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1406 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1407 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1408 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1409 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1410 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1411 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1412 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1414 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1415 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1416 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1417 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1418 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1419 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1420 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1421 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1423 === Configuring your monitors
1425 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1426 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1427 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1428 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1429 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1431 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1432 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1433 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1434 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1435 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1437 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1438 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1442 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1444 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1445 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1446 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1447 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1449 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1450 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1451 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1453 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1454 -------------------------------------------
1455 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1456 -------------------------------------------
1457 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1458 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1459 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1460 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1462 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1463 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1464 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1467 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1469 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1470 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1472 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1473 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1474 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1476 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1477 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1481 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1482 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
1483 only what you can see in xrandr.
1485 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
1487 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
1489 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
1490 have more than one monitor:
1492 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
1493 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
1494 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
1495 <<workspace_screen>>.
1496 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
1497 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
1498 <<assign_workspace>>.
1499 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
1500 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
1501 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
1503 == i3 and the rest of your software world
1505 === Displaying a status line
1507 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
1508 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
1509 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
1511 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
1512 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
1513 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
1514 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
1515 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
1516 i3bar. Use a pipe to connect them: +i3status | i3bar -d+.
1518 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
1519 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
1520 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
1521 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can use +-d+ or +-dbottom+
1522 for positioning it at the bottom and +-dtop+ to position it at the top of the
1525 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
1527 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
1528 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
1529 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
1530 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
1534 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
1535 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
1536 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
1537 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
1538 -----------------------------------------------------
1539 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
1540 -----------------------------------------------------
1541 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1542 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1543 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1545 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1546 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1547 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1548 -----------------------------------------------------
1549 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1550 -----------------------------------------------------
1551 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1552 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1554 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1555 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1556 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).