3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
8 question(s) on the mailing list.
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with mod (alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with mod (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the alt key (Mod1) by default, with windows (Mod4)
30 being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +mod+J+ is left, +mod+K+
52 is down, +mod+L+ is up and `mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +mod+K+ or +mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +mod+v+. To split it horizontally, press
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
75 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
76 windows at the top of the container.
78 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
79 a single line which is vertically split.
81 To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+s+ for stacking and
84 image:modes.png[Container modes]
86 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
88 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
91 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
92 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen global+).
94 === Opening other applications
96 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
97 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
98 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
99 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
101 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
102 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
103 <<configuring>> for details.
107 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
108 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
109 can press +mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
110 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
111 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
113 depends on the application.
117 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
118 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
119 another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
120 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
122 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
123 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
124 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
126 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
127 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
128 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
129 focus to that screen.
131 === Moving windows to workspaces
133 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
134 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
135 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
136 it does not yet exist.
140 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
141 and move it to the wanted size.
143 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
144 columns/rows with your keyboard.
146 === Restarting i3 inplace
148 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
149 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
153 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
157 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
158 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
159 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
160 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
161 appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
163 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
164 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
165 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
166 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
168 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
170 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
174 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
175 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
176 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
177 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
178 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
179 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
181 === The tree consists of Containers
183 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
184 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
185 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
186 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
187 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
190 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
191 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
193 === Orientation and Split Containers
197 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
198 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
199 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
200 workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
201 (most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
202 vertical (+mod+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
203 configure your windows like this:
205 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
207 An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
208 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
209 orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
210 terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
211 window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
212 orientation. Instead, press +mod+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
213 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +mod+h+). Now you can open a new
214 terminal and it will open below the current one:
216 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
217 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
221 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
226 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
227 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
228 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
230 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
231 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
232 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
233 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
234 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
236 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
241 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
242 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
244 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
245 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
248 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
249 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
250 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
251 can bind your keys to do useful things.
253 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
254 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
257 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
258 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
259 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
260 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
261 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
262 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
267 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
268 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
269 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
278 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles. You can use
279 +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description. To see special characters
280 (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the ISO-10646 encoding.
282 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
283 and fall back to a working font.
286 ------------------------------
287 font <X core font description>
288 ------------------------------
291 --------------------------------------------------------------
292 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
293 --------------------------------------------------------------
297 === Keyboard bindings
299 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
300 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
301 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
303 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
304 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
305 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
306 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
307 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
309 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
310 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
311 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
313 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
314 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
315 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
319 ----------------------------------
320 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
321 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
322 ----------------------------------
325 --------------------------------
327 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
330 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
332 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
333 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
334 --------------------------------
338 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
339 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
342 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
343 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
344 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
345 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
346 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
348 [[floating_modifier]]
350 === The floating modifier
352 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
353 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
354 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
355 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
356 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
357 it to the position you want.
359 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
360 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
361 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
362 ratio will be preserved).
365 --------------------------------
366 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
367 --------------------------------
370 --------------------------------
371 floating_modifier Mod1
372 --------------------------------
374 === Constraining floating window size
376 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
377 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
378 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
379 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
380 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
381 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
384 ----------------------------------------
385 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
386 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
387 ----------------------------------------
390 --------------------------------------
391 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
392 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
393 --------------------------------------
395 === Orientation for new workspaces
397 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
398 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
399 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
401 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
405 ----------------------------------------------
406 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
407 ----------------------------------------------
410 ----------------------------
411 default_orientation vertical
412 ----------------------------
414 === Layout mode for new containers
416 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
418 ///////////////////////////////
419 See also <<stack-limit>>.
420 //////////////////////////////
423 ---------------------------------------------
424 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
425 ---------------------------------------------
426 /////////////////////////////////////////////
427 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
428 /////////////////////////////////////////////
431 ---------------------
432 workspace_layout tabbed
433 ---------------------
435 === Border style for new windows
437 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
440 ---------------------------------------------
441 new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
442 ---------------------------------------------
445 ---------------------
447 ---------------------
449 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
451 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
452 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
453 change their border style, for example.
456 -----------------------------
457 for_window <criteria> command
458 -----------------------------
461 ------------------------------------------------
462 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
463 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
465 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
466 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
468 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
469 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
470 # directory to ~/work
471 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
472 ------------------------------------------------
474 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
478 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
479 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
480 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
481 variables can be handy.
489 ------------------------
491 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
492 ------------------------
494 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
495 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
496 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
497 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
500 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
504 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
505 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
506 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
507 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
508 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
509 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
510 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
511 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
512 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
513 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
516 ------------------------------------------------------------
517 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
518 ------------------------------------------------------------
521 ----------------------
522 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
523 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
525 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
526 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
528 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
529 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
531 # Assignment to a named workspace
532 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
534 # Start urxvt -name irssi
535 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
536 ----------------------
538 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
539 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
541 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
542 window, you will see the following output:
545 -----------------------------------
546 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
547 -----------------------------------
549 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
550 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
552 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
553 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
554 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
555 title when starting up.
557 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
559 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
560 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
561 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
562 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
563 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
567 exec [--no-startup-id] command
568 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
572 --------------------------------
574 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
576 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
577 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
578 --------------------------------
580 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
584 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
586 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
587 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
588 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
589 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
590 the second screen and so on).
593 ----------------------------------
594 workspace <workspace> output <output>
595 ----------------------------------
597 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
598 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
599 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
601 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
604 ---------------------------
605 workspace 1 output LVDS1
606 workspace 5 output VGA1
607 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
608 ---------------------------
612 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
615 --------------------------------------------
616 colorclass border background text indicator
617 --------------------------------------------
619 Where colorclass can be one of:
622 A client which currently has the focus.
623 client.focused_inactive::
624 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
625 the focus at the moment.
627 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
629 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
631 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
632 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
636 -----------------------
637 client.background color
638 -----------------------
640 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
641 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
642 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
643 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
644 area of the terminal and the i3 border.
646 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
648 *Examples (default colors)*:
649 ---------------------------------------------------------
650 # class border backgr. text indicator
651 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
652 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
653 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
654 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
655 ---------------------------------------------------------
657 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
658 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
661 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
662 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
663 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
664 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
665 from single windows outside of a split container.
667 === Interprocess communication
669 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
670 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
671 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
673 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
674 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
675 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
676 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
678 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
679 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
680 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
681 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
682 user can create that directory.
685 ----------------------------
686 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
687 ----------------------------
689 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
692 === Focus follows mouse
694 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
695 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
696 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
697 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
698 to click on links in your browser window).
701 ----------------------------
702 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
703 ----------------------------
706 ----------------------
707 focus_follows_mouse no
708 ----------------------
710 === Popups during fullscreen mode
712 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
713 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
714 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
715 There are two things which are possible to do in this situation:
717 1. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
718 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
719 you go out of fullscreen).
720 2. Leave fullscreen mode. This is the default.
723 -------------------------------------------------
724 popup_during_fullscreen <ignore|leave_fullscreen>
725 -------------------------------------------------
728 ------------------------------
729 popup_during_fullscreen ignore
730 ------------------------------
734 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
735 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
736 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
737 be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
738 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
740 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
741 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
742 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
746 -----------------------------
747 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
748 -----------------------------
751 ------------------------
752 force_focus_wrapping yes
753 ------------------------
757 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
758 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
759 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
760 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
761 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
764 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
765 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
768 -----------------------
769 force_xinerama <yes|no>
770 -----------------------
777 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
778 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
780 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
782 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
783 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
785 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
786 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
787 came from now, you can just press mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
790 --------------------------------------
791 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
792 --------------------------------------
795 ---------------------------------
796 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
797 ---------------------------------
801 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
802 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
805 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
806 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
807 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
808 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
809 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
810 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
811 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
812 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
814 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
815 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
816 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
817 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
818 configuration infrastructure in place.
820 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
821 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
824 ---------------------------
826 status_command i3status
828 ---------------------------
832 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
833 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
834 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
835 tell i3 what to execute.
837 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
838 have to have correct quoting etc.
841 ----------------------
842 i3bar_command command
843 ----------------------
846 -------------------------------------------------
848 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
850 -------------------------------------------------
853 === Statusline command
855 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
856 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
857 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
859 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
860 have to have correct quoting etc.
863 ----------------------
864 status_command command
865 ----------------------
868 -------------------------------------------------
870 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
872 -------------------------------------------------
876 You can have i3bar either be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
877 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+
878 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
880 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
881 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
884 The default is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
901 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
906 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
908 The default is bottom.
911 ---------------------
912 position <top|bottom>
913 ---------------------
916 ---------------------
920 ---------------------
924 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
925 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
926 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
928 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
929 directive multiple times.
937 -------------------------------
938 # big monitor: everything
940 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
943 status_command i3status
946 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
949 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
955 -------------------------------
959 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
960 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
962 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
963 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
966 -------------------------
967 tray_output <none|output>
968 -------------------------
971 -------------------------
972 # disable system tray
977 # show tray icons on the big monitor
981 -------------------------
985 Specifies the font (again, X core font, not Xft, just like in i3) to be used in
989 ---------------------
991 ---------------------
994 --------------------------------------------------------------
996 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
998 --------------------------------------------------------------
1000 === Workspace buttons
1002 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1003 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1005 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1008 --------------------------
1009 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1010 --------------------------
1013 --------------------
1015 workspace_buttons no
1017 --------------------
1021 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1022 be configured at the moment:
1025 Background color of the bar.
1027 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1029 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1032 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1033 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1034 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1035 using multiple monitors.
1036 inactive_workspace::
1037 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1038 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1039 will be the case for most workspaces.
1041 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1042 window with the urgency hint set.
1045 ----------------------------------------
1050 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1052 ----------------------------------------
1054 *Example (default colors)*:
1055 --------------------------------------
1061 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1062 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1063 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1064 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1067 --------------------------------------
1071 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1072 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1073 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1076 --------------------------
1077 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1079 --------------------------
1081 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1082 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1083 the following keybinding:
1086 --------------------------------------------------------
1087 bindsym mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1088 --------------------------------------------------------
1090 [[command_criteria]]
1092 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers
1093 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
1094 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
1095 which have the class Firefox, use:
1098 ------------------------------------
1099 bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1101 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1102 bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1103 ------------------------------------
1105 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1108 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1110 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1112 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1114 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1116 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1118 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1119 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1120 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1122 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1124 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1125 interface. Handy for scripting.
1127 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1128 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1129 information on how to use them.
1133 === Executing applications (exec)
1135 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1136 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1137 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1138 searched in your $PATH.
1141 ------------------------------
1142 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1143 ------------------------------
1146 ------------------------------
1148 bindsym mod+g exec gimp
1150 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1151 bindsym mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1152 ------------------------------
1154 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1155 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1156 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1157 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1158 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1159 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1160 cursor for 60 seconds.
1162 === Splitting containers
1164 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1165 can contain multiple windows. Every split container has an orientation, it is
1166 either split horizontally (a new window gets placed to the right of the current
1167 one) or vertically (a new window gets placed below the current one).
1169 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1170 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1171 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
1174 ---------------------------
1175 split <vertical|horizontal>
1176 ---------------------------
1179 ------------------------------
1180 bindsym mod+v split vertical
1181 bindsym mod+h split horizontal
1182 ------------------------------
1184 === Manipulating layout
1186 Use +layout default+, +layout stacking+ or +layout tabbed+ to change the
1187 current container layout to default, stacking or tabbed layout, respectively.
1189 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1190 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1191 (or +floating toggle+):
1195 bindsym mod+s layout stacking
1196 bindsym mod+l layout default
1197 bindsym mod+w layout tabbed
1200 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
1202 # Toggle floating/tiling
1203 bindsym mod+t floating toggle
1206 === Focusing/Moving containers
1208 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1209 down+ and +focus up+.
1211 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1214 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1216 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1219 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1221 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1223 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1225 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1226 corresponding output.
1228 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1231 -----------------------------------
1232 focus <left|right|down|up>
1233 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1234 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1235 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1236 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1237 -----------------------------------
1239 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1240 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1243 ----------------------
1244 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1245 bindsym mod+j focus left
1246 bindsym mod+k focus down
1247 bindsym mod+l focus up
1248 bindsym mod+semicolon focus right
1250 # Focus parent container
1251 bindsym mod+u focus parent
1253 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1254 bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
1256 # Focus the output right to the current one
1257 bindsym mod+x focus output right
1259 # Focus the big output
1260 bindsym mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1262 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1263 bindsym mod+j move left
1264 bindsym mod+k move down
1265 bindsym mod+l move up
1266 bindsym mod+semicolon move right
1268 # Move container, but make floating containers
1269 # move more than the default
1270 bindsym mod+j move left 20 px
1272 # Move floating container to the center
1274 bindsym mod+c move absolute position center
1275 ----------------------
1277 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1279 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1280 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1281 +move container to workspace+.
1283 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1284 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1285 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1286 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1287 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1288 container to workspace next+ and +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1289 container to the next/previous workspace.
1292 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1295 To move a container to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+, you can
1296 use the +move container to output+ command followed by the name of the target
1297 output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr
1298 output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
1300 To move a whole workspace to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+,
1301 you can use the +move workspace to output+ command followed by the name of the
1302 target output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the
1303 xrandr output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
1306 -------------------------
1307 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1
1308 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
1311 bindsym mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1312 bindsym mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1315 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1316 bindsym mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1318 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1319 bindsym mod+x move workspace to output right
1320 -------------------------
1322 ==== Named workspaces
1324 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1325 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1328 -------------------------
1329 bindsym mod+1 workspace mail
1331 -------------------------
1333 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1337 -------------------------
1338 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1339 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2: www
1341 -------------------------
1343 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1344 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1345 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1346 will order them numerically.
1350 === Resizing containers/windows
1352 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1356 ---------------------------------------------------------
1357 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
1358 ---------------------------------------------------------
1360 Direction can be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. The optional pixel
1361 argument specifies by how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or
1362 shrunk (the default is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points
1363 and specifies by how many percentage points a *tiling container* should be
1364 grown or shrunk (the default is 10 percentage points).
1366 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1368 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1369 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1371 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1373 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
1374 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
1375 # more space on its left
1377 bindsym j resize shrink left
1378 bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
1380 bindsym k resize grow down
1381 bindsym Shift+k resize shrink down
1383 bindsym l resize shrink up
1384 bindsym Shift+l resize grow up
1386 bindsym semicolon resize grow right
1387 bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
1389 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1390 bindsym Return mode "default"
1391 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1395 bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
1396 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1398 === Jumping to specific windows
1400 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1401 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1402 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1403 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
1404 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1405 with criteria for that.
1408 ----------------------------------------------------
1409 [class="class"] focus
1410 [title="title"] focus
1411 ----------------------------------------------------
1414 ------------------------------------------------
1415 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1416 bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1417 ------------------------------------------------
1419 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1423 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1424 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1425 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1426 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
1427 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
1430 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1431 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1432 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1433 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1436 ------------------------------
1438 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1439 ------------------------------
1441 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1442 ------------------------------
1444 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1445 ------------------------------
1447 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1448 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1450 ---------------------------------------
1451 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1452 bindsym mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1454 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1455 bindsym mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1456 ---------------------------------------
1458 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1459 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1460 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1462 === Changing border style
1464 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1465 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1466 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1468 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1471 ----------------------------
1472 bindsym mod+t border normal
1473 bindsym mod+y border 1pixel
1474 bindsym mod+u border none
1475 ----------------------------
1479 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1480 TODO: not yet implemented
1481 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1483 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1484 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1485 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1486 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1488 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1489 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1490 you limited) automatically as needed.
1493 --------------------------------
1494 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1495 --------------------------------
1499 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1502 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1506 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1507 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1509 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1511 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1512 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1513 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1514 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1515 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1518 ----------------------------
1519 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
1520 bindsym mod+Shift+w reload
1521 bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
1522 ----------------------------
1526 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1527 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1528 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1529 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1530 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1531 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1532 keybinding to toggle).
1534 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1535 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1536 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1537 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1547 ------------------------------------------------
1548 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1549 bindsym mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1551 # Show the first scratchpad window
1552 bindsym mod+minus scratchpad show
1554 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
1555 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
1556 ------------------------------------------------
1560 == Multiple monitors
1562 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1563 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1564 handle multiple monitors.
1566 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1567 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1569 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1570 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1571 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1572 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1573 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1574 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1575 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1577 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1578 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1579 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1580 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1581 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1582 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1583 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1584 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1586 === Configuring your monitors
1588 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1589 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1590 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1591 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1592 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1594 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1595 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1596 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1597 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1598 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1600 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1601 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1605 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1607 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1608 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1609 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1610 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1612 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1613 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1614 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1616 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1617 -------------------------------------------
1618 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1619 -------------------------------------------
1620 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1621 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1622 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1623 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1625 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1626 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1627 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1630 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1632 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1633 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1635 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1636 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1637 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1639 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1640 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1644 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1645 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
1646 only what you can see in xrandr.
1648 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
1650 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
1652 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
1653 have more than one monitor:
1655 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
1656 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
1657 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
1658 <<workspace_screen>>.
1659 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
1660 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
1661 <<assign_workspace>>.
1662 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
1663 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
1664 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
1666 == i3 and the rest of your software world
1668 === Displaying a status line
1670 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
1671 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
1672 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
1674 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
1675 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
1676 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
1677 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
1678 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
1679 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
1681 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
1682 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
1683 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
1684 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
1685 see <<i3bar_position>>.
1687 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
1689 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
1690 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
1691 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
1692 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
1696 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
1697 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
1698 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
1699 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
1700 -----------------------------------------------------
1701 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
1702 -----------------------------------------------------
1703 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1704 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1705 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1707 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1708 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1709 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1710 -----------------------------------------------------
1711 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1712 -----------------------------------------------------
1713 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1714 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1716 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1717 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1718 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).