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>>. Another way to resize
170 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
172 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
174 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
178 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
179 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
180 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
181 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
182 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
183 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
185 === The tree consists of Containers
187 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
188 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
189 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
190 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
191 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
194 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
195 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
197 === Orientation and Split Containers
201 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
202 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
203 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
204 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
205 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
206 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
207 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
208 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
210 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
212 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
213 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
214 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
215 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
216 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
217 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
218 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
219 terminal and it will open below the current one:
221 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
222 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
226 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
231 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
232 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
233 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
235 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
236 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
237 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
238 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
239 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
241 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
243 === Implicit containers
245 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
248 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
249 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
250 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
251 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
253 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+k+ by default). The workspace
254 node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window you moved
255 down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom of the
256 screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the other two
257 terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode (for
258 example). You would end up having one tab called "another container" and the
259 other one being the terminal window you moved down.
264 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
265 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
267 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
268 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
271 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
272 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
273 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
274 can bind your keys to do useful things.
276 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
277 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
280 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
281 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
282 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
283 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
284 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
285 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
290 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
291 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
292 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
303 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
304 render window titles.
306 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
307 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
310 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
311 a variant, a stretch and a size.
312 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
313 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
315 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
316 and fall back to a working font.
319 ------------------------------
320 font <X core font description>
321 font pango:[family list] [style options] [size]
322 ------------------------------
325 --------------------------------------------------------------
326 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
327 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
328 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
329 font pango:Terminus 11px
330 --------------------------------------------------------------
334 === Keyboard bindings
336 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
337 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
338 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
340 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
341 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
342 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
343 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
344 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
346 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
347 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
348 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
350 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
351 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
352 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
355 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
356 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
357 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
358 after the keys have been released.
361 ----------------------------------
362 bindsym [--release] [Modifiers+]keysym command
363 bindcode [--release] [Modifiers+]keycode command
364 ----------------------------------
367 --------------------------------
369 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
372 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
374 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
375 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
377 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
378 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
380 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
381 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
382 --------------------------------
386 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
387 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
390 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
391 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
392 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
393 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
394 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
396 [[floating_modifier]]
398 === The floating modifier
400 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
401 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
402 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
403 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
404 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
405 it to the position you want.
407 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
408 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
409 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
410 ratio will be preserved).
413 --------------------------------
414 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
415 --------------------------------
418 --------------------------------
419 floating_modifier Mod1
420 --------------------------------
422 === Constraining floating window size
424 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
425 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
426 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
427 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
428 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
429 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
432 ----------------------------------------
433 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
434 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
435 ----------------------------------------
438 --------------------------------------
439 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
440 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
441 --------------------------------------
443 === Orientation for new workspaces
445 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
446 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
447 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
449 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
453 ----------------------------------------------
454 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
455 ----------------------------------------------
458 ----------------------------
459 default_orientation vertical
460 ----------------------------
462 === Layout mode for new containers
464 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
466 ///////////////////////////////
467 See also <<stack-limit>>.
468 //////////////////////////////
471 ---------------------------------------------
472 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
473 ---------------------------------------------
474 /////////////////////////////////////////////
475 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
476 /////////////////////////////////////////////
479 ---------------------
480 workspace_layout tabbed
481 ---------------------
483 === Border style for new windows
485 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
486 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
487 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
490 ---------------------------------------------
491 new_window <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
492 new_float <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
493 ---------------------------------------------
496 ---------------------
498 ---------------------
500 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
504 ---------------------
505 # The same as new_window none
510 ---------------------
513 === Hiding vertical borders
515 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
516 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
517 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
520 ----------------------------
521 hide_edge_borders <none|vertical|horizontal|both>
522 ----------------------------
525 ----------------------
526 hide_edge_borders vertical
527 ----------------------
529 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
531 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
532 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
533 change their border style, for example.
536 -----------------------------
537 for_window <criteria> command
538 -----------------------------
541 ------------------------------------------------
542 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
543 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
545 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
546 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
548 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
549 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
550 # directory to ~/work
551 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
552 ------------------------------------------------
554 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
558 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
559 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
560 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
561 variables can be handy.
569 ------------------------
571 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
572 ------------------------
574 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
575 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
576 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
577 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
578 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
579 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
581 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
585 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
586 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
587 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
588 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
589 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
590 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
591 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
592 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
593 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
594 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
596 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
597 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
601 ------------------------------------------------------------
602 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
603 ------------------------------------------------------------
606 ----------------------
607 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
608 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
610 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
611 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
613 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
614 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
616 # Assignment to a named workspace
617 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
619 # Start urxvt -name irssi
620 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
621 ----------------------
623 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
624 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
626 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
627 window, you will see the following output:
630 -----------------------------------
631 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
632 -----------------------------------
634 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
635 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
637 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
638 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
639 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
640 title when starting up.
642 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
643 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
644 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
645 file in the following way:
647 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
648 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
649 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
650 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
651 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
652 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
653 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
654 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
655 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
656 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
658 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
660 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
661 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
662 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
663 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
664 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
668 exec [--no-startup-id] command
669 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
673 --------------------------------
675 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
677 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
678 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
679 --------------------------------
681 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
685 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
687 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
688 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
689 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
690 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
691 the second screen and so on).
694 ----------------------------------
695 workspace <workspace> output <output>
696 ----------------------------------
698 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
699 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
700 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
702 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
705 ---------------------------
706 workspace 1 output LVDS1
707 workspace 5 output VGA1
708 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
709 ---------------------------
713 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
716 --------------------------------------------
717 colorclass border background text indicator
718 --------------------------------------------
720 Where colorclass can be one of:
723 A client which currently has the focus.
724 client.focused_inactive::
725 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
726 the focus at the moment.
728 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
730 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
732 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
733 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
735 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
736 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
740 -----------------------
741 client.background color
742 -----------------------
744 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
747 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
749 *Examples (default colors)*:
750 ---------------------------------------------------------
751 # class border backgr. text indicator
752 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
753 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
754 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
755 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
756 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
757 ---------------------------------------------------------
759 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
760 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
763 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
764 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
765 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
766 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
767 from single windows outside of a split container.
769 === Interprocess communication
771 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
772 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
773 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
775 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
776 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
777 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
778 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
780 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
781 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
782 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
783 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
784 user can create that directory.
787 ----------------------------
788 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
789 ----------------------------
791 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
794 === Focus follows mouse
796 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
797 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
798 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
799 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
800 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
801 links in your browser window).
804 ----------------------------
805 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
806 ----------------------------
809 ----------------------
810 focus_follows_mouse no
811 ----------------------
813 === Popups during fullscreen mode
815 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
816 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
817 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
818 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
820 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
821 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
822 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
823 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
824 you go out of fullscreen).
825 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
828 -------------------------------------------------
829 popup_during_fullscreen <smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen>
830 -------------------------------------------------
833 ------------------------------
834 popup_during_fullscreen smart
835 ------------------------------
839 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
840 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
841 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
842 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
843 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
845 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
846 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
847 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
851 -----------------------------
852 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
853 -----------------------------
856 ------------------------
857 force_focus_wrapping yes
858 ------------------------
862 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
863 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
864 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
865 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
866 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
869 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
870 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
873 -----------------------
874 force_xinerama <yes|no>
875 -----------------------
882 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
883 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
885 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
887 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
888 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
890 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
891 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
892 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
895 --------------------------------------
896 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
897 --------------------------------------
900 ---------------------------------
901 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
902 ---------------------------------
904 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
906 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
907 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
908 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
909 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
912 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
913 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
914 value to 0 disables this feature.
916 The default is 500ms.
919 ---------------------------------------
920 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
921 ---------------------------------------
924 ---------------------------------
925 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
926 ---------------------------------
930 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
931 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
934 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
935 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
936 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
937 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
938 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
939 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
940 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
941 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
943 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
944 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
945 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
946 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
947 configuration infrastructure in place.
949 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
950 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
953 ---------------------------
955 status_command i3status
957 ---------------------------
961 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
962 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
963 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
964 tell i3 what to execute.
966 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
967 have to have correct quoting etc.
970 ----------------------
971 i3bar_command command
972 ----------------------
975 -------------------------------------------------
977 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
979 -------------------------------------------------
982 === Statusline command
984 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
985 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
986 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
988 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
989 have to have correct quoting etc.
992 ----------------------
993 status_command command
994 ----------------------
997 -------------------------------------------------
999 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1001 -------------------------------------------------
1005 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1006 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1007 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1008 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1010 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1011 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1013 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1014 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1017 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1018 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1019 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1021 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1022 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1023 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1024 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1025 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1026 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1028 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1029 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1031 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1032 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1036 mode <dock|hide|invisible>
1037 hidden_state <hide|show>
1050 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1054 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1055 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1056 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1059 ---------------------
1061 ---------------------
1064 ---------------------
1068 ---------------------
1073 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1075 The default is bottom.
1078 ---------------------
1079 position <top|bottom>
1080 ---------------------
1083 ---------------------
1087 ---------------------
1091 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1092 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1093 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1095 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1096 directive multiple times.
1104 -------------------------------
1105 # big monitor: everything
1107 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1110 status_command i3status
1113 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1116 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1122 -------------------------------
1126 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1127 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1129 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1130 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1133 -------------------------
1134 tray_output <none|primary|output>
1135 -------------------------
1138 -------------------------
1139 # disable system tray
1144 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1147 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1151 -------------------------
1153 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1154 -------------------------
1155 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1156 -------------------------
1160 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1163 ---------------------
1165 ---------------------
1168 --------------------------------------------------------------
1170 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1171 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1173 --------------------------------------------------------------
1175 === Workspace buttons
1177 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1178 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1180 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1183 --------------------------
1184 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1185 --------------------------
1188 ------------------------
1190 workspace_buttons no
1192 ------------------------
1194 === Binding Mode indicator
1196 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1197 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1198 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1199 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1201 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1204 -------------------------------
1205 binding_mode_indicator <yes|no>
1206 -------------------------------
1209 -----------------------------
1211 binding_mode_indicator no
1213 -----------------------------
1217 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1218 be configured at the moment:
1221 Background color of the bar.
1223 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1225 Text color to be used for the separator.
1227 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1230 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1231 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1232 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1233 using multiple monitors.
1234 inactive_workspace::
1235 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1236 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1237 will be the case for most workspaces.
1239 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1240 contains a window with the urgency hint set. Also applies to +mode+ indicators.
1243 ----------------------------------------
1249 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1251 ----------------------------------------
1253 *Example (default colors)*:
1254 --------------------------------------
1261 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1262 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1263 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1264 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1267 --------------------------------------
1271 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1272 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1273 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1276 --------------------------
1277 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1279 --------------------------
1281 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1282 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1283 the following keybinding:
1286 --------------------------------------------------------
1287 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1288 --------------------------------------------------------
1290 [[command_criteria]]
1292 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1293 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1294 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1297 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1298 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1299 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1303 ------------------------------------
1304 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1305 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1307 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1308 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1310 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1311 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1313 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1314 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1315 ------------------------------------
1317 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1320 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1322 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1324 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1326 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1328 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1330 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1331 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1332 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1334 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1336 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1337 interface. Handy for scripting.
1339 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1340 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1341 information on how to use them.
1345 === Executing applications (exec)
1347 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1348 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1349 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1350 searched in your $PATH.
1353 ------------------------------
1354 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1355 ------------------------------
1358 ------------------------------
1360 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1362 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1363 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1364 ------------------------------
1366 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1367 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1368 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1369 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1370 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1371 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1372 cursor for 60 seconds.
1374 === Splitting containers
1376 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1377 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1378 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1379 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1381 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1382 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1383 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1384 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1385 to splith or vice-versa.
1388 ---------------------------
1389 split <vertical|horizontal>
1390 ---------------------------
1393 ------------------------------
1394 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1395 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1396 ------------------------------
1398 === Manipulating layout
1400 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1401 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1402 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1404 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1405 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1406 (or +floating toggle+):
1410 layout <default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith>
1411 layout toggle [split|all]
1416 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1417 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1418 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1420 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1421 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1423 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1424 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1427 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
1429 # Toggle floating/tiling
1430 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1433 === Focusing/Moving containers
1435 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1436 down+ and +focus up+.
1438 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1441 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1443 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1446 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1448 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1450 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1452 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1453 corresponding output.
1455 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1458 -----------------------------------
1459 focus <left|right|down|up>
1460 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1461 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1462 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1463 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1464 -----------------------------------
1466 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1467 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1470 ----------------------
1471 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1472 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1473 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1474 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1475 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1477 # Focus parent container
1478 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1480 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1481 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1483 # Focus the output right to the current one
1484 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1486 # Focus the big output
1487 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1489 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1490 bindsym $mod+j move left
1491 bindsym $mod+k move down
1492 bindsym $mod+l move up
1493 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1495 # Move container, but make floating containers
1496 # move more than the default
1497 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1499 # Move floating container to the center
1501 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1502 ----------------------
1504 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1506 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1507 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1508 +move container to workspace+.
1510 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1511 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1512 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1513 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1514 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1515 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1516 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1517 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1519 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1523 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1524 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1525 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1528 -----------------------------------
1529 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1530 workspace back_and_forth
1532 workspace number <name>
1534 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1535 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1536 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1537 -----------------------------------
1540 -------------------------
1541 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1542 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1545 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1546 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1549 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1550 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1551 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1553 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1554 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1556 # move firefox to current workspace
1557 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1558 -------------------------
1560 ==== Named workspaces
1562 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1563 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1566 -------------------------
1567 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1569 -------------------------
1571 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1575 -------------------------
1576 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1577 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1579 -------------------------
1581 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1582 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1583 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1584 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1585 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1586 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1587 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1588 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1590 ==== Renaming workspaces
1592 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1593 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1594 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1595 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1596 rename command with +i3-input+.
1599 ----------------------------------------------------
1600 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1601 rename workspace to <new_name>
1602 ----------------------------------------------------
1605 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1606 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1607 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1608 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1609 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1610 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1611 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1613 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1615 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1618 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1622 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1623 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1624 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1627 --------------------------------------------------------
1628 move container to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1629 move workspace to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1630 --------------------------------------------------------
1633 --------------------------------------------------------
1634 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1635 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1636 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1638 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1639 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1640 --------------------------------------------------------
1644 === Resizing containers/windows
1646 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1650 ---------------------------------------------------------
1651 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1652 ---------------------------------------------------------
1654 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1655 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1656 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1657 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1658 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1659 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1660 default is 10 percentage points).
1662 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1664 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1665 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1667 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1669 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1670 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1671 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1672 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1673 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1674 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1675 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1676 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1678 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1679 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1680 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1681 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1682 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1684 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1685 bindsym Return mode "default"
1686 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1690 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1691 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1693 === Jumping to specific windows
1695 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1696 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1697 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1698 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1699 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1700 with criteria for that.
1703 ----------------------------------------------------
1704 [class="class"] focus
1705 [title="title"] focus
1706 ----------------------------------------------------
1709 ------------------------------------------------
1710 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1711 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1712 ------------------------------------------------
1714 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1718 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1719 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1720 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1721 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
1722 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
1723 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
1724 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
1726 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1727 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1728 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1729 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1732 ------------------------------
1734 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1736 ------------------------------
1738 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1739 ------------------------------
1741 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1742 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
1743 ------------------------------
1745 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1746 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1748 ---------------------------------------
1749 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1750 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1752 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1753 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1754 ---------------------------------------
1756 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1757 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1758 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1760 === Changing border style
1762 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1763 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1764 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1766 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1769 ----------------------------
1770 bindsym $mod+t border normal
1771 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
1772 bindsym $mod+u border none
1773 ----------------------------
1777 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1778 TODO: not yet implemented
1779 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1781 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1782 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1783 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1784 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1786 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1787 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1788 you limited) automatically as needed.
1791 --------------------------------
1792 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1793 --------------------------------
1797 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1800 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1804 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1805 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1809 === Enabling shared memory logging
1811 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
1812 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
1813 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
1815 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
1816 discarded and a new one will be started.
1819 ------------------------------
1820 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
1821 shmlog <on|off|toggle>
1822 ------------------------------
1826 # Enable/disable logging
1827 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
1829 # or, from a terminal:
1830 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
1831 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
1834 === Enabling debug logging
1836 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
1837 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
1838 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
1839 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
1842 ------------------------
1843 debuglog <on|off|toggle>
1844 ------------------------
1847 ------------------------
1848 # Enable/disable logging
1849 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
1850 ------------------------
1852 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1854 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1855 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1856 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1857 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1858 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1861 ----------------------------
1862 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
1863 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
1864 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
1865 ----------------------------
1869 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1870 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1871 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1872 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1873 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1874 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1875 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
1876 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
1877 (+floating toggle+).
1879 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1880 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1881 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1882 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1892 ------------------------------------------------
1893 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1894 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1896 # Show the first scratchpad window
1897 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
1899 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
1900 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
1901 ------------------------------------------------
1905 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
1906 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
1907 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
1908 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
1909 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
1910 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
1911 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
1915 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
1917 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
1921 ------------------------------------------------
1922 # Toggle between hide state and show state
1923 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
1925 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
1926 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
1928 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
1929 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
1931 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
1932 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
1933 ------------------------------------------------
1937 == Multiple monitors
1939 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1940 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1941 handle multiple monitors.
1943 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1944 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1946 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1947 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1948 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1949 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1950 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1951 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1952 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1954 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1955 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1956 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1957 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1958 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1959 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1960 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1961 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1963 === Configuring your monitors
1965 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1966 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1967 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1968 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1969 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1971 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1972 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1973 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1974 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1975 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1977 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1978 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1982 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1984 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1985 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1986 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1987 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1989 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1990 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1991 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1993 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1994 -------------------------------------------
1995 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1996 -------------------------------------------
1997 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1998 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1999 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2003 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2004 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2007 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2009 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2010 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2012 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2013 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2014 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2016 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2017 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2021 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2023 only what you can see in xrandr.
2025 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2027 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2029 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2030 have more than one monitor:
2032 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2033 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2034 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2035 <<workspace_screen>>.
2036 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2037 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2038 <<assign_workspace>>.
2039 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2040 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2041 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2042 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2043 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2045 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2047 === Displaying a status line
2049 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2050 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2051 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2053 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2054 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2055 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2056 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2057 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2058 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2060 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2061 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2062 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2063 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2064 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2066 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2068 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2069 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2070 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2071 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2075 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2076 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2077 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2078 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2079 -----------------------------------------------------
2080 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2081 -----------------------------------------------------
2082 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2083 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2084 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2086 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2087 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2088 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2089 -----------------------------------------------------
2090 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2091 -----------------------------------------------------
2092 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2093 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2095 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2096 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2097 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).