3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please check http://faq.i3wm.org/ first, then
8 contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the mailing list.
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with $mod (Alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+$mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (Mod1) by default, with the Windows
30 key (Mod4) being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is $mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing $mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+J+ is left, +$mod+K+
52 is down, +$mod+L+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +$mod+K+ or +$mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
65 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
73 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
74 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
77 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
78 windows at the top of the container.
80 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
81 a single line which is vertically split.
83 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
84 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
86 image:modes.png[Container modes]
88 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
90 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
93 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen global+).
96 === Opening other applications
98 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
99 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
100 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
101 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
103 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
104 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
105 <<configuring>> for details.
109 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
110 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
111 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
113 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
114 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
115 depends on the application.
119 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
120 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
121 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
122 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
124 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
125 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
126 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
128 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
129 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
130 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
131 focus to that screen.
133 === Moving windows to workspaces
135 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
136 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
137 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
138 it does not yet exist.
142 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
143 and move it to the wanted size.
145 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
146 columns/rows with your keyboard.
148 === Restarting i3 inplace
150 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
151 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
155 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
159 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
160 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
161 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
162 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
163 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
164 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
166 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
167 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
168 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
169 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
171 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
173 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
177 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
178 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
179 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
180 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
181 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
182 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
184 === The tree consists of Containers
186 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
187 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
188 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
189 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
190 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
193 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
194 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
196 === Orientation and Split Containers
200 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
201 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
202 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
203 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
204 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
205 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
206 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+l+ in the default config)
207 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
209 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
211 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
212 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
213 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
214 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
215 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
216 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
217 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
218 terminal and it will open below the current one:
220 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
221 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
225 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
230 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
231 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
232 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
234 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
235 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
236 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
237 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
238 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
240 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
242 === Implicit containers
244 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
247 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
248 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
249 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
250 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
252 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+k+ by default). The workspace
253 node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window you moved
254 down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom of the
255 screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the other two
256 terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode (for
257 example). You would end up having one tab called "another container" and the
258 other one being the terminal window you moved down.
263 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
264 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
266 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
267 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
270 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
271 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
272 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
273 can bind your keys to do useful things.
275 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
276 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
279 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
280 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
281 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
282 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
283 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
284 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
289 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
290 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
291 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
302 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
303 render window titles.
305 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
306 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
309 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
310 a variant, a stretch and a size.
311 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
312 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
314 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
315 and fall back to a working font.
318 ------------------------------
319 font <X core font description>
320 font pango:[family list] [style options] [size]
321 ------------------------------
324 --------------------------------------------------------------
325 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
326 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
327 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
328 font pango:Terminus 11px
329 --------------------------------------------------------------
333 === Keyboard bindings
335 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
336 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
337 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
339 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
340 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
341 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
342 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
343 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
345 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
346 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
347 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
349 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
350 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
351 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
354 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
355 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
356 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
357 after the keys have been released.
360 ----------------------------------
361 bindsym [--release] [Modifiers+]keysym command
362 bindcode [--release] [Modifiers+]keycode command
363 ----------------------------------
366 --------------------------------
368 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
371 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
373 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
374 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
376 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
377 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
379 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
380 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
381 --------------------------------
385 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
386 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
389 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
390 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
391 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
392 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
393 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
395 [[floating_modifier]]
397 === The floating modifier
399 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
400 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
401 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
402 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
403 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
404 it to the position you want.
406 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
407 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
408 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
409 ratio will be preserved).
412 --------------------------------
413 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
414 --------------------------------
417 --------------------------------
418 floating_modifier Mod1
419 --------------------------------
421 === Constraining floating window size
423 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
424 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
425 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
426 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
427 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
428 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
431 ----------------------------------------
432 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
433 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
434 ----------------------------------------
437 --------------------------------------
438 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
439 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
440 --------------------------------------
442 === Orientation for new workspaces
444 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
445 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
446 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
448 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
452 ----------------------------------------------
453 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
454 ----------------------------------------------
457 ----------------------------
458 default_orientation vertical
459 ----------------------------
461 === Layout mode for new containers
463 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
465 ///////////////////////////////
466 See also <<stack-limit>>.
467 //////////////////////////////
470 ---------------------------------------------
471 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
472 ---------------------------------------------
473 /////////////////////////////////////////////
474 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
475 /////////////////////////////////////////////
478 ---------------------
479 workspace_layout tabbed
480 ---------------------
482 === Border style for new windows
484 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
485 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
486 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
489 ---------------------------------------------
490 new_window <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
491 new_float <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
492 ---------------------------------------------
495 ---------------------
497 ---------------------
499 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
503 ---------------------
504 # The same as new_window none
509 ---------------------
512 === Hiding vertical borders
514 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
515 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
516 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
519 ----------------------------
520 hide_edge_borders <none|vertical|horizontal|both>
521 ----------------------------
524 ----------------------
525 hide_edge_borders vertical
526 ----------------------
528 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
530 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
531 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
532 change their border style, for example.
535 -----------------------------
536 for_window <criteria> command
537 -----------------------------
540 ------------------------------------------------
541 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
542 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
544 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
545 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
547 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
548 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
549 # directory to ~/work
550 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
551 ------------------------------------------------
553 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
557 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
558 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
559 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
560 variables can be handy.
568 ------------------------
570 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
571 ------------------------
573 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
574 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
575 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
576 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
577 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
578 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
580 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
584 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
585 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
586 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
587 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
588 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
589 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
590 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
591 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
592 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
593 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
595 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
596 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
600 ------------------------------------------------------------
601 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
602 ------------------------------------------------------------
605 ----------------------
606 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
607 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
609 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
610 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
612 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
613 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
615 # Assignment to a named workspace
616 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
618 # Start urxvt -name irssi
619 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
620 ----------------------
622 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
623 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
625 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
626 window, you will see the following output:
629 -----------------------------------
630 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
631 -----------------------------------
633 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
634 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
636 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
637 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
638 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
639 title when starting up.
641 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
642 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
643 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
644 file in the following way:
646 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
647 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
648 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
649 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
650 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
651 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
652 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
653 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
654 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
655 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
657 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
659 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
660 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
661 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
662 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
663 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
667 exec [--no-startup-id] command
668 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
672 --------------------------------
674 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
676 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
677 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
678 --------------------------------
680 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
684 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
686 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
687 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
688 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
689 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
690 the second screen and so on).
693 ----------------------------------
694 workspace <workspace> output <output>
695 ----------------------------------
697 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
698 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
699 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
701 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
704 ---------------------------
705 workspace 1 output LVDS1
706 workspace 5 output VGA1
707 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
708 ---------------------------
712 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
715 --------------------------------------------
716 colorclass border background text indicator
717 --------------------------------------------
719 Where colorclass can be one of:
722 A client which currently has the focus.
723 client.focused_inactive::
724 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
725 the focus at the moment.
727 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
729 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
731 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
732 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
736 -----------------------
737 client.background color
738 -----------------------
740 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
743 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
745 *Examples (default colors)*:
746 ---------------------------------------------------------
747 # class border backgr. text indicator
748 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
749 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
750 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
751 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
752 ---------------------------------------------------------
754 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
755 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
758 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
759 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
760 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
761 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
762 from single windows outside of a split container.
764 === Interprocess communication
766 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
767 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
768 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
770 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
771 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
772 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
773 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
775 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
776 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
777 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
778 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
779 user can create that directory.
782 ----------------------------
783 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
784 ----------------------------
786 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
789 === Focus follows mouse
791 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
792 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
793 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
794 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
795 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
796 links in your browser window).
799 ----------------------------
800 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
801 ----------------------------
804 ----------------------
805 focus_follows_mouse no
806 ----------------------
808 === Popups during fullscreen mode
810 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
811 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
812 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
813 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
815 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
816 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
817 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
818 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
819 you go out of fullscreen).
820 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
823 -------------------------------------------------
824 popup_during_fullscreen <smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen>
825 -------------------------------------------------
828 ------------------------------
829 popup_during_fullscreen smart
830 ------------------------------
834 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
835 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
836 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
837 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
838 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
840 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
841 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
842 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
846 -----------------------------
847 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
848 -----------------------------
851 ------------------------
852 force_focus_wrapping yes
853 ------------------------
857 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
858 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
859 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
860 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
861 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
864 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
865 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
868 -----------------------
869 force_xinerama <yes|no>
870 -----------------------
877 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
878 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
880 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
882 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
883 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
885 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
886 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
887 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
890 --------------------------------------
891 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
892 --------------------------------------
895 ---------------------------------
896 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
897 ---------------------------------
899 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
901 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
902 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
903 window decoration color would be immediately reseted to +client.focused+. This
904 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
907 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
908 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
909 value to 0 disables this feature.
911 The default is 500ms.
914 ---------------------------------------
915 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
916 ---------------------------------------
919 ---------------------------------
920 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
921 ---------------------------------
925 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
926 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
929 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
930 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
931 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
932 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
933 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
934 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
935 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
936 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
938 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
939 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
940 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
941 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
942 configuration infrastructure in place.
944 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
945 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
948 ---------------------------
950 status_command i3status
952 ---------------------------
956 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
957 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
958 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
959 tell i3 what to execute.
961 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
962 have to have correct quoting etc.
965 ----------------------
966 i3bar_command command
967 ----------------------
970 -------------------------------------------------
972 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
974 -------------------------------------------------
977 === Statusline command
979 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
980 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
981 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
983 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
984 have to have correct quoting etc.
987 ----------------------
988 status_command command
989 ----------------------
992 -------------------------------------------------
994 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
996 -------------------------------------------------
1000 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1001 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1002 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1003 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1005 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1006 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1008 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1009 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1012 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1013 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1014 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1016 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1017 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1018 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1019 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1020 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1021 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1023 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1024 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1026 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1027 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1031 mode <dock|hide|invisible>
1032 hidden_state <hide|show>
1045 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1049 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1050 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1051 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1054 ---------------------
1056 ---------------------
1059 ---------------------
1063 ---------------------
1068 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1070 The default is bottom.
1073 ---------------------
1074 position <top|bottom>
1075 ---------------------
1078 ---------------------
1082 ---------------------
1086 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1087 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1088 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1090 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1091 directive multiple times.
1099 -------------------------------
1100 # big monitor: everything
1102 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1105 status_command i3status
1108 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1111 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1117 -------------------------------
1121 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1122 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1124 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1125 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1128 -------------------------
1129 tray_output <none|primary|output>
1130 -------------------------
1133 -------------------------
1134 # disable system tray
1139 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1142 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1146 -------------------------
1148 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1149 -------------------------
1150 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1151 -------------------------
1155 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1158 ---------------------
1160 ---------------------
1163 --------------------------------------------------------------
1165 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1166 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1168 --------------------------------------------------------------
1170 === Workspace buttons
1172 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1173 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1175 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1178 --------------------------
1179 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1180 --------------------------
1183 ------------------------
1185 workspace_buttons no
1187 ------------------------
1189 === Binding Mode indicator
1191 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1192 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1193 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1194 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1196 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1199 -------------------------------
1200 binding_mode_indicator <yes|no>
1201 -------------------------------
1204 -----------------------------
1206 binding_mode_indicator no
1208 -----------------------------
1212 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1213 be configured at the moment:
1216 Background color of the bar.
1218 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1220 Text color to be used for the separator.
1222 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1225 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1226 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1227 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1228 using multiple monitors.
1229 inactive_workspace::
1230 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1231 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1232 will be the case for most workspaces.
1234 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1235 contains a window with the urgency hint set. Also applies to +mode+ indicators.
1238 ----------------------------------------
1244 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1246 ----------------------------------------
1248 *Example (default colors)*:
1249 --------------------------------------
1256 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1257 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1258 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1259 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1262 --------------------------------------
1266 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1267 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1268 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1271 --------------------------
1272 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1274 --------------------------
1276 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1277 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1278 the following keybinding:
1281 --------------------------------------------------------
1282 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1283 --------------------------------------------------------
1285 [[command_criteria]]
1287 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1288 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
1289 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
1290 which have the class Firefox, use:
1293 ------------------------------------
1294 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1296 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1297 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1298 ------------------------------------
1300 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1303 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1305 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1307 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1309 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1311 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1313 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1314 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1315 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1317 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1319 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1320 interface. Handy for scripting.
1322 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1323 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1324 information on how to use them.
1328 === Executing applications (exec)
1330 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1331 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1332 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1333 searched in your $PATH.
1336 ------------------------------
1337 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1338 ------------------------------
1341 ------------------------------
1343 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1345 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1346 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1347 ------------------------------
1349 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1350 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1351 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1352 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1353 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1354 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1355 cursor for 60 seconds.
1357 === Splitting containers
1359 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1360 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1361 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1362 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1364 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1365 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1366 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1367 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1368 to splith or vice-versa.
1371 ---------------------------
1372 split <vertical|horizontal>
1373 ---------------------------
1376 ------------------------------
1377 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1378 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1379 ------------------------------
1381 === Manipulating layout
1383 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1384 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1385 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1387 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1388 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1389 (or +floating toggle+):
1393 layout <default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith>
1394 layout toggle [split|all]
1399 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1400 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1401 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1403 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1404 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1406 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1407 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1410 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
1412 # Toggle floating/tiling
1413 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1416 === Focusing/Moving containers
1418 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1419 down+ and +focus up+.
1421 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1424 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1426 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1429 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1431 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1433 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1435 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1436 corresponding output.
1438 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1441 -----------------------------------
1442 focus <left|right|down|up>
1443 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1444 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1445 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1446 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1447 -----------------------------------
1449 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1450 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1453 ----------------------
1454 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1455 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1456 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1457 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1458 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1460 # Focus parent container
1461 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1463 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1464 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1466 # Focus the output right to the current one
1467 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1469 # Focus the big output
1470 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1472 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1473 bindsym $mod+j move left
1474 bindsym $mod+k move down
1475 bindsym $mod+l move up
1476 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1478 # Move container, but make floating containers
1479 # move more than the default
1480 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1482 # Move floating container to the center
1484 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1485 ----------------------
1487 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1489 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1490 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1491 +move container to workspace+.
1493 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1494 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1495 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1496 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1497 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1498 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1499 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1500 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1502 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1506 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1507 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1508 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1511 -----------------------------------
1512 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1513 workspace back_and_forth
1515 workspace number <name>
1517 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1518 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1519 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1520 -----------------------------------
1523 -------------------------
1524 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1525 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1528 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1529 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1532 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1533 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1534 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1536 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1537 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1539 # move firefox to current workspace
1540 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1541 -------------------------
1543 ==== Named workspaces
1545 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1546 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1549 -------------------------
1550 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1552 -------------------------
1554 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1558 -------------------------
1559 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1560 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1562 -------------------------
1564 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1565 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1566 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1567 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1568 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1569 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1570 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1571 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1573 ==== Renaming workspaces
1575 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1576 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1577 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1578 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1579 rename command with +i3-input+.
1582 ----------------------------------------------------
1583 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1584 rename workspace to <new_name>
1585 ----------------------------------------------------
1588 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1589 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1590 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1591 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1592 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1593 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1594 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1596 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1598 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1601 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1605 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1606 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1607 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1610 --------------------------------------------------------
1611 move container to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1612 move workspace to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1613 --------------------------------------------------------
1616 --------------------------------------------------------
1617 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1618 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1619 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1621 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1622 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1623 --------------------------------------------------------
1627 === Resizing containers/windows
1629 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1633 ---------------------------------------------------------
1634 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1635 ---------------------------------------------------------
1637 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1638 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1639 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1640 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1641 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1642 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1643 default is 10 percentage points).
1645 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1647 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1648 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1650 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1652 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1653 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1654 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1655 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1656 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1657 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1658 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1659 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1661 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1662 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1663 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1664 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1665 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1667 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1668 bindsym Return mode "default"
1669 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1673 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1674 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1676 === Jumping to specific windows
1678 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1679 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1680 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1681 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1682 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1683 with criteria for that.
1686 ----------------------------------------------------
1687 [class="class"] focus
1688 [title="title"] focus
1689 ----------------------------------------------------
1692 ------------------------------------------------
1693 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1694 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1695 ------------------------------------------------
1697 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1701 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1702 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1703 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1704 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
1705 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
1706 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
1707 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
1709 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1710 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1711 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1712 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1715 ------------------------------
1717 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1719 ------------------------------
1721 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1722 ------------------------------
1724 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1725 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
1726 ------------------------------
1728 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1729 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1731 ---------------------------------------
1732 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1733 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1735 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1736 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1737 ---------------------------------------
1739 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1740 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1741 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1743 === Changing border style
1745 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1746 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1747 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1749 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1752 ----------------------------
1753 bindsym $mod+t border normal
1754 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
1755 bindsym $mod+u border none
1756 ----------------------------
1760 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1761 TODO: not yet implemented
1762 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1764 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1765 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1766 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1767 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1769 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1770 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1771 you limited) automatically as needed.
1774 --------------------------------
1775 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1776 --------------------------------
1780 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1783 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1787 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1788 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1792 === Enabling shared memory logging
1794 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
1795 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
1796 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
1798 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
1799 discarded and a new one will be started.
1802 ------------------------------
1803 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
1804 shmlog <on|off|toggle>
1805 ------------------------------
1809 # Enable/disable logging
1810 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
1812 # or, from a terminal:
1813 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
1814 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
1817 === Enabling debug logging
1819 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
1820 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
1821 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
1822 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
1825 ------------------------
1826 debuglog <on|off|toggle>
1827 ------------------------
1830 ------------------------
1831 # Enable/disable logging
1832 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
1833 ------------------------
1835 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1837 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1838 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1839 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1840 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1841 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1844 ----------------------------
1845 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
1846 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
1847 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
1848 ----------------------------
1852 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1853 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1854 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1855 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1856 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1857 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1858 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
1859 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
1860 (+floating toggle+).
1862 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1863 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1864 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1865 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1875 ------------------------------------------------
1876 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1877 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1879 # Show the first scratchpad window
1880 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
1882 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
1883 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
1884 ------------------------------------------------
1888 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
1889 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
1890 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
1891 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
1892 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
1893 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
1894 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
1898 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
1900 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
1904 ------------------------------------------------
1905 # Toggle between hide state and show state
1906 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
1908 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
1909 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
1911 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
1912 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
1914 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
1915 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
1916 ------------------------------------------------
1920 == Multiple monitors
1922 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1923 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1924 handle multiple monitors.
1926 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1927 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1929 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1930 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1931 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1932 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1933 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1934 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1935 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1937 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1938 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1939 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1940 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1941 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1942 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1943 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1944 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1946 === Configuring your monitors
1948 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1949 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1950 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1951 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1952 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1954 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1955 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1956 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1957 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1958 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1960 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1961 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1965 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1967 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1968 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1969 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1970 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1972 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1973 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1974 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1976 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1977 -------------------------------------------
1978 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1979 -------------------------------------------
1980 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1981 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1982 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1983 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1985 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1986 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1987 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1990 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1992 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1993 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1995 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1996 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1997 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1999 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2000 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2005 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2006 only what you can see in xrandr.
2008 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2010 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2012 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2013 have more than one monitor:
2015 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2016 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2017 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2018 <<workspace_screen>>.
2019 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2020 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2021 <<assign_workspace>>.
2022 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2023 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2024 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2025 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2026 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2028 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2030 === Displaying a status line
2032 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2033 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2034 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2036 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2037 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2038 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2039 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2040 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2041 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2043 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2044 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2045 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2046 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2047 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2049 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2051 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2052 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2053 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2054 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2058 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2059 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2060 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2061 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2062 -----------------------------------------------------
2063 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2064 -----------------------------------------------------
2065 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2066 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2067 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2069 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2070 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2071 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2072 -----------------------------------------------------
2073 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2074 -----------------------------------------------------
2075 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2076 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2078 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2079 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2080 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).