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 https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/
8 first, then contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the
11 == Default keybindings
13 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
14 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
16 *Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
18 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with $mod (Alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
20 *Keys to use with Shift+$mod:*
22 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
24 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
27 Note that when starting i3 without a config file, i3-config-wizard will offer
28 you to create a config file in which the key positions (!) match what you see
29 in the image above, regardless of the keyboard layout you are using. If you
30 prefer to use a config file where the key letters match what you are seeing
31 above, just decline i3-config-wizard’s offer and base your config on
36 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
37 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (+Mod1+) by default, with the Windows
38 key (+Mod4+) being a popular alternative.
40 === Opening terminals and moving around
42 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
43 for this is +$mod+Enter+, that is Alt+Enter (+Mod1+Enter+) in the default
44 configuration. By pressing +$mod+Enter+, a new terminal will be opened. It
45 will fill the whole space available on your screen.
47 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
49 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
50 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
51 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
52 existing window (rotated displays).
54 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
56 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
57 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
58 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
59 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+j+ is left, +$mod+k+
60 is down, +$mod+l+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
61 terminals, use +$mod+k+ or +$mod+l+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
63 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
64 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
65 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
66 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
67 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
70 TODO: picture of the tree
72 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
73 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
75 === Changing the container layout
77 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
80 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
81 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
82 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
85 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
86 windows at the top of the container.
88 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
89 a single line which is vertically split.
91 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
92 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
94 image:modes.png[Container modes]
96 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
98 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
101 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
102 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
104 === Opening other applications
106 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
107 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
108 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
109 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
111 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
112 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
113 <<configuring>> for details.
117 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
118 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+w+ to close), you
119 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
120 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
121 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
122 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
123 depends on the application.
127 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
128 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
129 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
130 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
132 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
133 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
134 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
136 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
137 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
138 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
139 focus to that screen.
141 === Moving windows to workspaces
143 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
144 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
145 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
146 it does not yet exist.
150 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
151 and move it to the wanted size.
153 You can also use <<binding_modes>> to define a mode for resizing via the
154 keyboard. To see an example for this, look at the
155 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/i3.config.keycodes[default config] provided
158 === Restarting i3 inplace
160 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
161 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
165 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
166 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
170 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
171 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
172 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
173 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
174 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
175 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
177 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
178 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
179 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
180 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
181 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
183 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see the resizing binding mode
184 provided by the i3 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/i3.config.keycodes[default config].
186 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
190 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
191 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
192 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
193 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
194 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
195 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
197 === The tree consists of Containers
199 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
200 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
201 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
202 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
203 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
206 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
207 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
210 === Orientation and Split Containers
212 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
213 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
214 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
215 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
216 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
217 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
218 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
219 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
221 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
223 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
224 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
225 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
226 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
227 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
228 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
229 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
230 terminal and it will open below the current one:
232 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
233 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
237 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
242 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
243 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
244 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
246 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
247 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
248 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
249 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
250 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
252 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
254 === Implicit containers
256 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
259 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
260 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
261 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
262 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
264 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
265 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
266 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
267 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
268 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
269 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
270 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
276 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
277 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
279 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
280 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
283 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
284 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
285 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
286 can bind your keys to do useful things.
288 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
289 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
292 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
293 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
294 wizard to use either Alt (+Mod1+) or Windows (+Mod4+) as modifier in the config
295 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
296 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
297 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
302 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
303 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
304 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
314 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
315 render window titles.
317 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
318 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
321 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
322 a variant, a stretch and a size.
323 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
324 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
326 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
327 and fall back to a working font.
330 ------------------------------
331 font <X core font description>
332 font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size>
333 ------------------------------
336 --------------------------------------------------------------
337 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
338 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
339 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
340 font pango:Terminus 11px
341 --------------------------------------------------------------
344 === Keyboard bindings
346 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
347 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
348 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
350 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
351 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
352 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
353 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
354 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
356 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
357 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
358 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
360 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
361 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
362 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
365 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
366 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
367 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
368 after the keys have been released.
371 ----------------------------------
372 bindsym [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
373 bindcode [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command
374 ----------------------------------
377 --------------------------------
379 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
382 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
384 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
385 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
387 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
388 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
390 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
391 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
392 --------------------------------
396 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
397 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
399 Group1, Group2, Group3, Group4::
400 When using multiple keyboard layouts (e.g. with `setxkbmap -layout us,ru`), you
401 can specify in which XKB group (also called “layout”) a keybinding should be
402 active. By default, keybindings are translated in Group1 and are active in all
403 groups. If you want to override keybindings in one of your layouts, specify the
404 corresponding group. For backwards compatibility, the group “Mode_switch” is an
410 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
411 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
412 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
415 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
416 bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command
417 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
419 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
420 window. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
423 If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
424 of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
425 when the border is clicked, specify the +--border+ flag.
428 --------------------------------
429 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
430 bindsym --release button2 kill
432 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
433 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
435 # The right button toggles floating
436 bindsym button3 floating toggle
437 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
439 # The side buttons move the window around
440 bindsym button9 move left
441 bindsym button8 move right
442 --------------------------------
447 You can have multiple sets of bindings by using different binding modes. When
448 you switch to another binding mode, all bindings from the current mode are
449 released and only the bindings defined in the new mode are valid for as long as
450 you stay in that binding mode. The only predefined binding mode is +default+,
451 which is the mode i3 starts out with and to which all bindings not defined in a
452 specific binding mode belong.
454 Working with binding modes consists of two parts: defining a binding mode and
455 switching to it. For these purposes, there are one config directive and one
456 command, both of which are called +mode+. The directive is used to define the
457 bindings belonging to a certain binding mode, while the command will switch to
460 It is recommended to use binding modes in combination with <<variables>> in
461 order to make maintenance easier. Below is an example of how to use a binding
464 Note that it is advisable to define bindings for switching back to the default
467 Note that it is possible to use <<pango_markup>> for binding modes, but you
468 need to enable it explicitly by passing the +--pango_markup+ flag to the mode
472 ----------------------------
474 mode [--pango_markup] <name>
478 ----------------------------
481 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
482 # Press $mod+o followed by either f, t, Esc or Return to launch firefox,
483 # thunderbird or return to the default mode, respectively.
484 set $mode_launcher Launch: [f]irefox [t]hunderbird
485 bindsym $mod+o mode "$mode_launcher"
487 mode "$mode_launcher" {
488 bindsym f exec firefox
489 bindsym t exec thunderbird
491 bindsym Esc mode "default"
492 bindsym Return mode "default"
494 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
496 [[floating_modifier]]
497 === The floating modifier
499 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
500 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
501 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
502 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
503 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
504 it to the position you want.
506 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
507 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
508 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
509 ratio will be preserved).
512 --------------------------------
513 floating_modifier <Modifier>
514 --------------------------------
517 --------------------------------
518 floating_modifier Mod1
519 --------------------------------
521 === Constraining floating window size
523 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
524 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
525 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
526 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
527 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
528 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
531 ----------------------------------------
532 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
533 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
534 ----------------------------------------
537 --------------------------------------
538 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
539 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
540 --------------------------------------
542 === Orientation for new workspaces
544 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
545 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
546 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
548 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
552 --------------------------------------------
553 default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto
554 --------------------------------------------
557 ----------------------------
558 default_orientation vertical
559 ----------------------------
561 === Layout mode for new containers
563 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
567 ---------------------------------------------
568 workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed
569 ---------------------------------------------
572 ---------------------
573 workspace_layout tabbed
574 ---------------------
576 === Border style for new windows
578 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
579 +normal+. Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
580 floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.
583 ---------------------------------------------
584 new_window normal|none|pixel
585 new_window normal|pixel <px>
586 new_float normal|none|pixel
587 new_float normal|pixel <px>
588 ---------------------------------------------
591 ---------------------
593 ---------------------
595 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
599 ---------------------
600 # The same as new_window none
605 ---------------------
608 === Hiding vertical borders
610 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
611 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
612 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
615 -----------------------------------------------
616 hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both
617 -----------------------------------------------
620 ----------------------
621 hide_edge_borders vertical
622 ----------------------
625 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
627 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
628 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
629 change their border style, for example.
632 -------------------------------
633 for_window <criteria> <command>
634 -------------------------------
637 ------------------------------------------------
638 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
639 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
641 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
642 for_window [class="urxvt"] border pixel 1
644 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
645 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
646 # directory to ~/work
647 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
648 ------------------------------------------------
650 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
653 === Don't focus window upon opening
655 When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
656 this from happening and must be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
658 Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
659 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
660 <<focus_on_window_activation>>.
662 +no_focus+ will also be ignored for the first window on a workspace as there shouldn't be
663 a reason to not focus the window in this case. This allows for better usability in
664 combination with +workspace_layout+.
672 -------------------------------
673 no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
674 -------------------------------
679 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
680 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
681 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
682 variables can be handy.
690 ------------------------
692 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
693 ------------------------
695 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
696 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
697 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
698 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
699 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
700 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
703 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
705 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
706 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
707 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
708 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
709 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
710 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
711 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
712 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
713 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
714 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
716 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
717 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
721 ------------------------------------------------------------
722 assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] <workspace>
723 ------------------------------------------------------------
726 ----------------------
727 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
728 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
730 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
731 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
733 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
734 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
736 # Assignment to a named workspace
737 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
739 # Start urxvt -name irssi
740 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
741 ----------------------
743 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
744 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
746 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
747 window, you will see the following output:
750 -----------------------------------
751 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
752 -----------------------------------
754 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
755 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
757 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
758 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
759 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
760 title when starting up.
762 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
763 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
764 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
765 file in the following way:
767 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
768 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
769 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
770 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
771 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
772 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
773 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
774 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
775 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
776 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
778 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
780 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
781 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
782 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
783 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
784 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
786 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
787 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
788 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
791 ---------------------------------------
792 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
793 exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command>
794 ---------------------------------------
797 --------------------------------
799 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
801 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
802 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
803 --------------------------------
805 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
808 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
810 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
811 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
812 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
813 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
814 the second screen and so on).
817 -------------------------------------
818 workspace <workspace> output <output>
819 -------------------------------------
821 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
822 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
823 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
825 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
828 ---------------------------
829 workspace 1 output LVDS1
830 workspace 5 output VGA1
831 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
832 ---------------------------
836 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
839 ------------------------------------------------------
840 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator>
841 ------------------------------------------------------
843 Where colorclass can be one of:
846 A client which currently has the focus.
847 client.focused_inactive::
848 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
849 the focus at the moment.
851 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
853 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
855 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
856 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
858 Background color which will be used to paint the background of the
859 client window on top of which the client will be rendered. Only clients
860 which do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color. Note
861 that this colorclass only takes a single color.
863 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
865 *Examples (default colors)*:
866 ---------------------------------------------------------
867 # class border backgr. text indicator
868 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
869 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
870 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
871 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
872 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
874 client.background #ffffff
875 ---------------------------------------------------------
877 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
878 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
881 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
882 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
883 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
884 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
885 from single windows outside of a split container.
887 === Interprocess communication
889 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
890 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
891 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
893 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
894 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
895 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
896 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
898 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
899 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
900 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
901 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
902 user can create that directory.
905 ----------------------------
906 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
907 ----------------------------
909 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
912 === Focus follows mouse
914 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
915 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
916 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
917 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
918 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
919 links in your browser window).
922 --------------------------
923 focus_follows_mouse yes|no
924 --------------------------
927 ----------------------
928 focus_follows_mouse no
929 ----------------------
933 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
934 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
935 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
937 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
938 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
939 behavior described above.
942 -------------------------
943 mouse_warping output|none
944 -------------------------
951 === Popups during fullscreen mode
953 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
954 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
955 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
956 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
958 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
959 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
960 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
961 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
962 you go out of fullscreen).
963 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
966 -----------------------------------------------------
967 popup_during_fullscreen smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen
968 -----------------------------------------------------
971 ------------------------------
972 popup_during_fullscreen smart
973 ------------------------------
977 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
978 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
979 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
980 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
981 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
983 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
984 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
985 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
989 ---------------------------
990 force_focus_wrapping yes|no
991 ---------------------------
994 ------------------------
995 force_focus_wrapping yes
996 ------------------------
1000 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
1001 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
1002 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
1003 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
1004 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
1007 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
1008 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
1011 ---------------------
1012 force_xinerama yes|no
1013 ---------------------
1020 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
1021 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
1023 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
1025 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
1026 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
1028 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
1029 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
1030 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
1033 ------------------------------------
1034 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes|no
1035 ------------------------------------
1038 ---------------------------------
1039 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
1040 ---------------------------------
1042 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
1044 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
1045 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
1046 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
1047 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
1050 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
1051 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
1052 value to 0 disables this feature.
1054 The default is 500ms.
1057 ---------------------------------------
1058 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
1059 ---------------------------------------
1062 ---------------------------------
1063 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
1064 ---------------------------------
1066 [[focus_on_window_activation]]
1067 === Focus on window activation
1069 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
1070 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
1072 Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
1073 from being focused, see <<no_focus>>.
1076 --------------------------------------------------
1077 focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none
1078 --------------------------------------------------
1080 The different modes will act as follows:
1083 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1084 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1086 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1088 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1090 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1093 === Drawing marks on window decoration
1095 If activated, marks on windows are drawn in their window decoration. However,
1096 any mark starting with an underscore in its name (+_+) will not be drawn even if
1097 this option is activated.
1099 The default for this option is +yes+.
1111 [[line_continuation]]
1112 === Line continuation
1114 Config files support line continuation, meaning when you end a line in a
1115 backslash character (`\`), the line-break will be ignored by the parser. This
1116 feature can be used to create more readable configuration files.
1124 == Configuring i3bar
1126 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1127 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1130 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1131 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1132 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1133 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1134 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1135 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1136 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1137 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1139 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1140 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1141 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1142 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1143 configuration infrastructure in place.
1145 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1146 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1149 ---------------------------
1151 status_command i3status
1153 ---------------------------
1157 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1158 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1159 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1160 tell i3 what to execute.
1162 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1163 have to have correct quoting etc.
1166 -----------------------
1167 i3bar_command <command>
1168 -----------------------
1171 -------------------------------------------------
1173 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1175 -------------------------------------------------
1178 === Statusline command
1180 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1181 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1182 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1184 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1185 have to have correct quoting etc. Note that for signal handling, depending on
1186 your shell (users of dash(1) are known to be affected), you have to use the
1187 shell’s exec command so that signals are passed to your program, not to the
1191 ------------------------
1192 status_command <command>
1193 ------------------------
1196 -------------------------------------------------
1198 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1200 # For dash(1) users who want signal handling to work:
1201 status_command exec ~/.bin/my_status_command
1203 -------------------------------------------------
1207 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1208 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1209 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1210 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1212 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1213 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1215 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1216 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1219 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1220 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1221 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1223 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1224 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1225 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1226 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1227 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1228 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1230 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1231 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1233 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1234 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1237 -------------------------
1238 mode dock|hide|invisible
1239 hidden_state hide|show
1241 ------------------------
1252 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1254 === Mouse button commands
1256 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1257 default behavior. This is useful, e.g., for disabling the scroll wheel action
1258 or running scripts that implement custom behavior for these buttons.
1260 A button is always named +button<n>+, where 1 to 5 are default buttons as follows and higher
1261 numbers can be special buttons on devices offering more buttons:
1266 Middle mouse button.
1274 Please note that the old +wheel_up_cmd+ and +wheel_down_cmd+ commands are deprecated
1275 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the more general
1276 +bindsym+ with +button4+ and +button5+ instead.
1279 ----------------------------
1280 bindsym button<n> <command>
1281 ----------------------------
1284 ---------------------------------------------------------
1286 # disable clicking on workspace buttons
1288 # execute custom script when scrolling downwards
1289 bindsym button5 exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1291 ---------------------------------------------------------
1295 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1296 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1297 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1300 ---------------------
1302 ---------------------
1305 ---------------------
1309 ---------------------
1314 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1316 The default is bottom.
1324 ---------------------
1328 ---------------------
1332 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1333 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1334 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1336 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1337 directive multiple times.
1345 -------------------------------
1346 # big monitor: everything
1348 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1351 status_command i3status
1354 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1357 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1363 -------------------------------
1367 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1368 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1370 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1371 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1373 You can use mutliple +tray_output+ directives in your config to specify a list
1374 of outputs on which you want the tray to appear. The first available output in
1375 that list as defined by the order of the directives will be used for the tray
1379 ---------------------------------
1380 tray_output none|primary|<output>
1381 ---------------------------------
1384 -------------------------
1385 # disable system tray
1390 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1395 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1399 -------------------------
1401 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1402 -------------------------
1403 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1404 -------------------------
1406 Note that when you use multiple bar configuration blocks, either specify
1407 `tray_output primary` in all of them or explicitly specify `tray_output none`
1408 in bars which should not display the tray, otherwise the different instances
1409 might race each other in trying to display tray icons.
1413 The tray is shown on the right-hand side of the bar. By default, a padding of 2
1414 pixels is used for the upper, lower and right-hand side of the tray area and
1415 between the individual icons.
1418 -------------------------
1419 tray_padding <px> [px]
1420 -------------------------
1423 -------------------------
1426 -------------------------
1430 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1433 ---------------------
1435 ---------------------
1438 --------------------------------------------------------------
1440 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1441 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1443 --------------------------------------------------------------
1445 === Custom separator symbol
1447 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1448 one pixel thick separator.
1451 -------------------------
1452 separator_symbol <symbol>
1453 -------------------------
1456 ------------------------
1458 separator_symbol ":|:"
1460 ------------------------
1462 === Workspace buttons
1464 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1465 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1467 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1470 ------------------------
1471 workspace_buttons yes|no
1472 ------------------------
1475 ------------------------
1477 workspace_buttons no
1479 ------------------------
1481 === Strip workspace numbers
1483 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1484 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1485 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1487 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1488 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1489 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1490 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1492 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1495 ------------------------------
1496 strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
1497 ------------------------------
1500 ----------------------------
1502 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1504 ----------------------------
1506 === Binding Mode indicator
1508 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1509 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1510 to see the current binding mode indicator. See <<binding_modes>> to learn what
1511 modes are and how to use them.
1513 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1516 -----------------------------
1517 binding_mode_indicator yes|no
1518 -----------------------------
1521 -----------------------------
1523 binding_mode_indicator no
1525 -----------------------------
1529 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1530 be configured at the moment:
1533 Background color of the bar.
1535 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1537 Text color to be used for the separator.
1538 focused_background::
1539 Background color of the bar on the currently focused monitor output. If
1540 not used, the color will be taken from +background+.
1541 focused_statusline::
1542 Text color to be used for the statusline on the currently focused
1543 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +statusline+.
1545 Text color to be used for the separator on the currently focused
1546 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +separator+.
1548 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1551 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1552 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1553 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1554 using multiple monitors.
1555 inactive_workspace::
1556 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1557 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1558 will be the case for most workspaces.
1560 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1561 contains a window with the urgency hint set.
1563 Border, background and text color for the binding mode indicator. If not used,
1564 the colors will be taken from +urgent_workspace+.
1567 ----------------------------------------
1573 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text>
1575 ----------------------------------------
1577 *Example (default colors)*:
1578 --------------------------------------
1585 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1586 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1587 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1588 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1589 binding_mode #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1592 --------------------------------------
1596 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1597 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1598 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1601 --------------------------
1602 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1604 --------------------------
1606 [[command_chaining]]
1608 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1609 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1610 the following keybinding:
1613 --------------------------------------------------------
1614 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1615 --------------------------------------------------------
1617 [[command_criteria]]
1619 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1620 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1621 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1624 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1625 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1626 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1630 ------------------------------------
1631 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1632 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1634 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1635 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1637 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1638 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1640 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1641 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1642 ------------------------------------
1644 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1647 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1648 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1649 class as the currently focused window.
1651 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1652 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1653 instance as the currently focused window.
1655 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE). Use the special value
1656 +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window role as the
1657 currently focused window.
1659 Compare the window type (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE). Possible values are
1660 +normal+, +dialog+, +utility+, +toolbar+, +splash+, +menu+, +dropdown_menu+,
1661 +popup_menu+, +tooltip+ and +notification+.
1663 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1665 Compares the X11 window title (\_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1666 Use the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the
1667 same window title as the currently focused window.
1669 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1670 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1671 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1673 Compares the workspace name of the workspace the window belongs to. Use
1674 the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows in the currently
1677 Compares the marks set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>. A
1678 match is made if any of the container's marks matches the specified
1681 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1682 interface. Handy for scripting. Use the special value +\_\_focused__+
1683 to match only the currently focused window.
1685 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+, +workspace+ and +mark+ are
1686 actually regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1687 information on how to use them.
1690 === Executing applications (exec)
1692 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1693 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1694 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1695 searched in your +$PATH+.
1697 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
1698 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
1699 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
1702 --------------------------------
1703 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
1704 --------------------------------
1707 ------------------------------
1709 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1711 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1712 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1713 ------------------------------
1715 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1716 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1717 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1718 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1719 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1720 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1721 cursor for 60 seconds.
1724 If the command to be executed contains a +;+ (semicolon) and/or a +,+ (comma),
1725 the entire command must be quoted. For example, to have a keybinding for the
1726 shell command +notify-send Hello, i3+, you would add an entry to your
1727 configuration file like this:
1730 ------------------------------
1731 # Execute a command with a comma in it
1732 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send Hello, i3"
1733 ------------------------------
1735 If however a command with a comma and/or semicolon itself requires quotes, you
1736 must escape the internal quotation marks with double backslashes, like this:
1739 ------------------------------
1740 # Execute a command with a comma, semicolon and internal quotes
1741 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send \\"Hello, i3; from $USER\\""
1742 ------------------------------
1744 === Splitting containers
1746 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1747 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1748 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1749 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1751 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1752 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1753 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1754 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1755 to splith or vice-versa.
1758 -------------------------
1759 split vertical|horizontal
1760 -------------------------
1763 ------------------------------
1764 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1765 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1766 ------------------------------
1768 === Manipulating layout
1770 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1771 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1772 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1774 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1775 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1776 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1777 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1779 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1780 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1783 --------------------------------------------
1784 layout default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith
1785 layout toggle [split|all]
1786 --------------------------------------------
1790 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1791 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1792 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1794 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1795 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1797 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1798 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1801 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1803 # Toggle floating/tiling
1804 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1807 [[_focusing_moving_containers]]
1808 === Focusing containers
1810 To change focus, you can use the +focus+ command. The following options are
1813 left|right|up|down::
1814 Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
1816 Sets focus to the parent container of the current container.
1818 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1821 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1823 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1825 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1827 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1828 corresponding output.
1831 ----------------------------------------------
1832 focus left|right|down|up
1833 focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
1834 focus output left|right|up|down|<output>
1835 ----------------------------------------------
1838 -------------------------------------------------
1839 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
1840 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1841 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1842 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1843 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1845 # Focus parent container
1846 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1848 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1849 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1851 # Focus the output right to the current one
1852 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1854 # Focus the big output
1855 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1856 -------------------------------------------------
1858 === Moving containers
1860 Use the +move+ command to move a container.
1863 -----------------------------------------------------
1864 # Moves the container into the given direction.
1865 # The optional pixel argument specifies how far the
1866 # container should be moved if it is floating and
1867 # defaults to 10 pixels.
1868 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1870 # Moves the container either to a specific location
1871 # or to the center of the screen. If 'absolute' is
1872 # used, it is moved to the center of all outputs.
1873 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1875 # Moves the container to the current position of the
1876 # mouse cursor. Only affects floating containers.
1878 -----------------------------------------------------
1881 -------------------------------------------------------
1882 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right
1883 bindsym $mod+j move left
1884 bindsym $mod+k move down
1885 bindsym $mod+l move up
1886 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1888 # Move container, but make floating containers
1889 # move more than the default
1890 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1892 # Move floating container to the center of all outputs
1893 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1895 # Move container to the current position of the cursor
1896 bindsym $mod+m move position mouse
1897 -------------------------------------------------------
1899 === Sticky floating windows
1901 If you want a window to stick to the glass, i.e., have it stay on screen even
1902 if you switch to another workspace, you can use the +sticky+ command. For
1903 example, this can be useful for notepads, a media player or a video chat
1906 Note that while any window can be made sticky through this command, it will
1907 only take effect if the window is floating.
1910 ----------------------------
1911 sticky enable|disable|toggle
1912 ----------------------------
1915 ------------------------------------------------------
1916 # make a terminal sticky that was started as a notepad
1917 for_window [instance=notepad] sticky enable
1918 ------------------------------------------------------
1920 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1922 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1923 number or name of the workspace. Pass the optional flag
1924 +--no-auto-back-and-forth+ to disable <<back_and_forth>> for this specific call
1927 To move containers to specific workspaces, use +move container to workspace+.
1929 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1930 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1931 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1932 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1933 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1934 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1935 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1936 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1938 +workspace next+ cycles through either numbered or named workspaces. But when it
1939 reaches the last numbered/named workspace, it looks for named workspaces after
1940 exhausting numbered ones and looks for numbered ones after exhausting named ones.
1942 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1945 Workspace names are parsed as
1946 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
1950 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1951 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1952 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1955 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1956 workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
1957 workspace back_and_forth
1958 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] <name>
1959 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] number <name>
1961 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1962 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1963 move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current
1964 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1967 -------------------------
1968 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1969 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1970 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
1973 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1974 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1977 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1978 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1979 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1981 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1982 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1984 # move firefox to current workspace
1985 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1986 -------------------------
1988 ==== Named workspaces
1990 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1991 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1994 -------------------------
1995 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1997 -------------------------
1999 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
2003 -------------------------
2004 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
2005 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
2007 -------------------------
2009 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
2010 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
2011 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
2012 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
2013 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
2014 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
2015 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
2016 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
2018 ==== Renaming workspaces
2020 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
2021 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
2022 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
2023 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
2024 rename command with +i3-input+.
2027 ----------------------------------------------------
2028 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
2029 rename workspace to <new_name>
2030 ----------------------------------------------------
2033 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2034 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
2035 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
2036 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
2037 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"'
2038 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
2039 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2041 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
2043 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
2047 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
2049 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
2050 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
2051 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
2054 ----------------------------------------------------
2055 move container to output left|right|down|up|<output>
2056 move workspace to output left|right|down|up|<output>
2057 ----------------------------------------------------
2060 --------------------------------------------------------
2061 # Move the current workspace to the next output
2062 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
2063 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
2065 # Put this window on the presentation output.
2066 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
2067 --------------------------------------------------------
2069 === Moving containers/windows to marks
2071 To move a container to another container with a specific mark (see <<vim_like_marks>>),
2072 you can use the following command.
2074 The window will be moved right after the marked container in the tree, i.e., it ends up
2075 in the same position as if you had opened a new window when the marked container was
2076 focused. If the mark is on a split container, the window will appear as a new child
2077 after the currently focused child within that container.
2080 ------------------------------------
2081 move window|container to mark <mark>
2082 ------------------------------------
2085 --------------------------------------------------------
2086 for_window [instance="tabme"] move window to mark target
2087 --------------------------------------------------------
2090 === Resizing containers/windows
2092 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
2096 -------------------------------------------------------
2097 resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
2098 resize set <width> [px] <height> [px]
2099 -------------------------------------------------------
2101 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
2102 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
2103 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
2104 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
2105 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
2106 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
2107 default is 10 percentage points). Note that +resize set+ will only work for
2108 floating containers.
2110 It is recommended to define bindings for resizing in a dedicated binding mode.
2111 See <<binding_modes>> and the example in the i3
2112 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/i3.config.keycodes[default config] for more
2116 ------------------------------------------------
2117 for_window [class="urxvt"] resize set 640 480
2118 ------------------------------------------------
2120 === Jumping to specific windows
2122 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
2123 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
2124 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
2125 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
2126 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
2127 with criteria for that.
2130 ----------------------------------------------------
2131 [class="class"] focus
2132 [title="title"] focus
2133 ----------------------------------------------------
2136 ------------------------------------------------
2137 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
2138 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
2139 ------------------------------------------------
2142 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
2144 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
2145 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
2146 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
2147 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
2148 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
2149 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
2150 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
2152 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
2153 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
2154 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
2155 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
2157 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
2158 this mark or add it otherwise. Note that you may need to use this in
2159 combination with +--add+ (see below) as any other marks will otherwise be
2162 By default, a window can only have one mark. You can use the +--add+ flag to
2163 put more than one mark on a window.
2165 Refer to <<show_marks>> if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
2168 ----------------------------------------------
2169 mark [--add|--replace] [--toggle] <identifier>
2170 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
2172 ----------------------------------------------
2174 *Example (in a terminal)*:
2175 ---------------------------------------------------------
2176 # marks the focused container
2179 # focus the container with the mark "irssi"
2180 '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
2182 # remove the mark "irssi" from whichever container has it
2185 # remove all marks on all firefox windows
2186 [class="(?i)firefox"] unmark
2187 ---------------------------------------------------------
2189 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2190 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
2192 ---------------------------------------
2193 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
2194 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
2196 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
2197 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
2198 ---------------------------------------
2200 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
2201 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
2202 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2205 === Window title format
2207 By default, i3 will simply print the X11 window title. Using +title_format+,
2208 this can be customized by setting the format to the desired output. This
2210 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2211 and the following placeholders which will be replaced:
2214 The X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
2216 The X11 window class (second part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2217 +class+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2219 The X11 window instance (first part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2220 +instance+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2222 Using the <<for_window>> directive, you can set the title format for any window
2223 based on <<command_criteria>>.
2226 ---------------------
2227 title_format <format>
2228 ---------------------
2231 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2232 # give the focused window a prefix
2233 bindsym $mod+p title_format "Important | %title"
2235 # print all window titles bold
2236 for_window [class=".*"] title_format "<b>%title</b>"
2238 # print window titles of firefox windows red
2239 for_window [class="(?i)firefox"] title_format "<span foreground='red'>%title</span>"
2240 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2242 === Changing border style
2244 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
2245 border (including window title), +border pixel 1+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
2246 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
2248 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
2251 -----------------------------------------------
2252 border normal|pixel [<n>]
2255 # legacy syntax, equivalent to "border pixel 1"
2257 -----------------------------------------------
2260 ----------------------------------------------
2261 # use window title, but no border
2262 bindsym $mod+t border normal 0
2263 # use no window title and a thick border
2264 bindsym $mod+y border pixel 3
2265 # use neither window title nor border
2266 bindsym $mod+u border none
2267 ----------------------------------------------
2270 === Enabling shared memory logging
2272 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
2273 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
2274 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
2276 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
2277 discarded and a new one will be started.
2280 ------------------------------
2281 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
2282 shmlog on|off|toggle
2283 ------------------------------
2287 # Enable/disable logging
2288 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
2290 # or, from a terminal:
2291 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
2292 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
2295 === Enabling debug logging
2297 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
2298 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
2299 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
2300 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2303 ----------------------
2304 debuglog on|off|toggle
2305 ----------------------
2308 ------------------------
2309 # Enable/disable logging
2310 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2311 ------------------------
2313 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2315 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2316 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2317 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2318 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2319 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2322 ----------------------------
2323 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2324 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2325 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2326 ----------------------------
2330 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2331 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2332 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2333 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2334 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2335 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2336 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2337 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2338 (+floating toggle+).
2340 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2341 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2342 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2343 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2353 ------------------------------------------------
2354 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2355 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2357 # Show the first scratchpad window
2358 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2360 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2361 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2362 ------------------------------------------------
2366 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2367 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2368 the middle mouse button.
2370 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2371 for debugging purposes.
2379 ----------------------------------------------
2380 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2381 # with the middle mouse button
2383 ----------------------------------------------
2387 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2388 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2389 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2390 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2391 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2392 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2393 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2397 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2399 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2403 ------------------------------------------------
2404 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2405 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2407 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2408 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2410 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2411 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2413 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2414 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2415 ------------------------------------------------
2418 == Multiple monitors
2420 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2421 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2422 handle multiple monitors.
2424 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2425 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2427 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2428 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2429 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2430 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2431 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2432 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2433 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2435 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2436 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2437 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2438 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2439 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2440 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2441 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2442 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2444 === Configuring your monitors
2446 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2447 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2448 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2449 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2450 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2452 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2453 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2454 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2455 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2456 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2458 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2459 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2463 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2465 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2466 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2467 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2468 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2470 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2471 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2472 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2474 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2475 -------------------------------------------
2476 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2477 -------------------------------------------
2478 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2479 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2480 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2481 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2483 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2484 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2485 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2488 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2490 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2491 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2493 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2494 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2495 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2497 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2498 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2502 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2503 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2504 only what you can see in xrandr.
2506 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2508 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2510 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2511 have more than one monitor:
2513 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2514 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2515 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2516 <<workspace_screen>>.
2517 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2518 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2519 <<assign_workspace>>.
2520 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2521 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2522 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2523 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2524 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2526 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2528 === Displaying a status line
2530 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2531 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2532 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2534 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2535 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2536 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2537 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2538 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2539 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2541 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2542 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2543 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2544 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2545 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2548 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2550 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2551 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2552 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2553 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2556 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2557 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2558 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2559 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2560 -----------------------------------------------------
2561 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2562 -----------------------------------------------------
2563 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2564 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2565 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2567 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2568 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2569 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2570 -----------------------------------------------------
2571 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2572 -----------------------------------------------------
2573 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2574 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2576 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2577 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2578 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).