3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 *********************************************************************************
7 This document is not yet finished. The tree branch is still in development. The
8 information provided here should be correct, just not complete yet.
9 *********************************************************************************
11 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
12 window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
13 question(s) on the mailing list.
15 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
16 == Default keybindings
18 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
19 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
21 *Keys to use with mod (alt):*
23 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with mod (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
25 *Keys to use with Shift+mod:*
27 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
29 As i3 uses keycodes in the default configuration, it does not matter which
30 keyboard layout you actually use. The key positions are what matters (of course
31 you can also use keysymbols, see <<keybindings>>).
33 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
35 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
39 Throughout this guide, the keyword +mod+ will be used to refer to the
40 configured modifier. This is the alt key (Mod1) by default, with windows (Mod4)
41 being a popular alternative.
43 === Opening terminals and moving around
45 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
46 for this is mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
47 pressing mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
48 space available on your screen.
50 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
52 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
53 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
54 new window right to the old window (for widescreen) or below the old window
57 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
59 To move the focus between the two terminals, you use the direction keys which
60 you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used for
61 these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility
62 with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +mod+J+ is left, +mod+K+ is down,
63 +mod+L+ is up and `mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the terminals,
64 use +mod+K+ or +mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
66 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
67 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
68 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
69 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
70 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
73 TODO: picture of the tree
75 To split a window vertically, press +mod+v+. To split it horizontally, press
78 === Changing the container layout
80 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
83 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
86 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
87 windows at the top of the container.
89 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
90 a single line which is vertically split.
92 To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+h+ for stacking and
95 image:modes.png[Container modes]
97 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
99 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
102 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will use all
105 === Opening other applications
107 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
108 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
109 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
110 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
112 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
113 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
114 <<configuring>> for details.
118 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
119 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
120 can press +mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
121 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
122 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
123 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
124 depends on the application.
128 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
129 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
130 another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
131 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
133 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
134 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
135 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
137 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
138 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
139 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
140 focus to that screen.
142 === Moving windows to workspaces
144 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
145 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
146 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
147 it does not yet exist.
151 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
152 and move it to the wanted size.
154 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
155 columns/rows with your keyboard.
157 === Restarting i3 inplace
159 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
160 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
164 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
168 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
169 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
170 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
171 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
172 appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
174 You can enable floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
175 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
176 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
177 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
179 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
181 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
185 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
186 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
187 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
188 finally the windows themselve. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
189 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
190 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
192 === The tree consists of Containers
194 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
195 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
196 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
197 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
198 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
201 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
202 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
204 === Orientation and Split Containers
208 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
209 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
210 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
211 workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
212 (most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
213 vertical (+mod+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
214 configure your windows like this:
216 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
218 An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
219 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
220 orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
221 terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
222 window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
223 orientation. Instead, press +mod+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
224 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +mod+h+). Now you can open a new
225 terminal and it will open below the current one:
227 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
228 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
232 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
237 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
238 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
239 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
241 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
242 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
243 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
244 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
245 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
247 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
252 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
253 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
255 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
256 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
259 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
260 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
261 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
262 can bind your keys to do useful things.
264 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
265 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
268 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
269 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
270 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
271 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
272 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
273 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
278 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
279 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
280 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
289 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles. You can use
290 +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description. To see special characters
291 (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the ISO-10646 encoding.
293 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
294 and fall back to a working font.
297 ------------------------------
298 font <X core font description>
299 ------------------------------
302 --------------------------------------------------------------
303 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
304 --------------------------------------------------------------
308 === Keyboard bindings
310 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
311 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
312 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
314 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
315 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
316 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
317 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
319 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
320 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
321 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
323 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
324 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
325 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
329 ----------------------------------
330 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
331 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
332 ----------------------------------
335 --------------------------------
340 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
342 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
343 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
344 --------------------------------
348 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
349 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
352 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
353 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
354 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
355 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
356 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
358 [[floating_modifier]]
360 === The floating modifier
362 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
363 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
364 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
365 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
366 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
367 it to the position you want.
369 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
370 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
371 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional.
374 --------------------------------
375 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
376 --------------------------------
379 --------------------------------
380 floating_modifier Mod1
381 --------------------------------
383 === Layout mode for new containers
385 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
387 ///////////////////////////////
388 See also <<stack-limit>>.
389 //////////////////////////////
392 ---------------------------------------------
393 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
394 ---------------------------------------------
395 /////////////////////////////////////////////
396 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
397 /////////////////////////////////////////////
400 ---------------------
401 workspace_layout tabbed
402 ---------------------
404 === Border style for new windows
406 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
409 ---------------------------------------------
410 new_window <normal|1pixel|borderless>
411 ---------------------------------------------
414 ---------------------
416 ---------------------
420 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
421 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
422 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
423 variables can be handy.
431 ------------------------
433 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
434 ------------------------
436 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
437 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
438 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
439 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
442 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
446 It is recommended that you match on window classes insetead of window titles
447 whenever possible because some applications first create their window, and then
448 worry about setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind.
449 The window starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded
450 does the title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps
451 the window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to
452 have to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
454 You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a `~` to specify that matching clients
455 should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a `~`, the client will
456 not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
459 ------------------------------------------------------------
460 assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] [workspace]
461 ------------------------------------------------------------
464 ----------------------
469 assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3
471 ----------------------
473 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
474 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
476 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
478 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
479 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
480 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
481 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
482 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
491 --------------------------------
492 exec i3status | dzen2 -dock
493 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
494 --------------------------------
498 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
500 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
501 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
502 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
503 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
504 the second screen and so on).
507 ----------------------------------
508 workspace <number> output <output>
509 ----------------------------------
511 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
512 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
513 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
516 ---------------------------
517 workspace 1 output LVDS1
518 workspace 5 output VGA1
519 ---------------------------
523 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations and the
527 --------------------------------------------
528 colorclass border background text
529 --------------------------------------------
531 Where colorclass can be one of:
534 A client which currently has the focus.
535 client.focused_inactive::
536 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
537 the focus at the moment.
539 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
541 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
543 The current workspace in the bottom bar.
545 All other workspaces in the bottom bar.
547 A workspace which has at least one client with an activated urgency hint.
549 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
550 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
554 -----------------------
555 client.background color
556 -----------------------
558 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
559 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
560 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
561 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
562 area of the termianal and the i3 border.
564 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
567 --------------------------------------
568 # class border backgr. text
569 client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF
570 --------------------------------------
572 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
573 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
576 === Interprocess communication
578 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
579 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
580 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
582 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
583 +/tmp/i3-%u/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username and +%p+ is the PID
586 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
587 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive.
590 ----------------------------
591 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
592 ----------------------------
594 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
597 === Disable focus follows mouse
599 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
600 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
601 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
602 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
603 to click on links in your browser window).
606 ----------------------------
607 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
608 ----------------------------
611 ----------------------
612 focus_follows_mouse no
613 ----------------------
617 === Manipulating layout
619 To change the layout of the current container to stacking, use +layout
620 stacking+, for default use +layout default+ and for tabbed, use +layout
621 tabbed+. To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
622 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
623 (or +floating toggle+):
627 bindsym mod+s layout stacking
628 bindsym mod+l layout default
629 bindsym mod+w layout tabbed
632 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
634 # Toggle floating/tiling
635 bindsym mod+t floating toggle
638 === Focusing/Moving containers
640 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus down+ and +focus up+.
642 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
645 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
647 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
650 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
652 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
654 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
656 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
659 ----------------------
660 # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
661 bindsym mod+j focus left
662 bindsym mod+k focus down
663 bindsym mod+l focus up
664 bindsym mod+semicolon focus right
666 # Focus parent container
667 bindsym mod+u focus parent
669 # Focus last floating/tiling container
670 bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
672 # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
673 bindsym mod+j move left
674 bindsym mod+k move down
675 bindsym mod+l move up
676 bindsym mod+semicolon move right
677 ----------------------
679 === Changing workspaces/moving containers to workspaces
681 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
682 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
685 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
686 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
687 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
691 -------------------------
692 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1
693 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
696 bindsym mod+Shift+1 move workspace 1
697 bindsym mod+Shift+2 move workspace 2
699 -------------------------
703 === Resizing containers/windows
705 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
706 +resize+ command, I recommend using it inside a so called +mode+:
708 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
709 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
711 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
713 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
714 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
715 # more space on its left
717 bindsym j resize shrink left
718 bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
720 bindsym k resize grow bottom
721 bindsym Shift+k resize shrink bottom
723 bindsym l resize shrink top
724 bindsym Shift+l resize grow top
726 bindsym semicolon resize grow right
727 bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
729 bindcode 36 mode default
733 bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
734 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
736 === Jumping to specific windows
738 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
739 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
740 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
741 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
742 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
743 with criteria for that.
746 ----------------------------------------------------
747 [class="class"] focus
748 [title="title"] focus
749 ----------------------------------------------------
752 ------------------------------------------------
753 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
754 bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
755 ------------------------------------------------
757 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
761 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
762 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
763 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
764 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
765 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
768 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
769 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
770 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
771 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
774 ------------------------------
776 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
777 ------------------------------
779 *Example (in a terminal)*:
780 ------------------------------
782 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
783 ------------------------------
785 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
786 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
788 ---------------------------------------
789 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
790 bindsym mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
792 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
793 bindsym mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
794 ---------------------------------------
796 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
797 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
798 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
800 === Changing border style
802 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
803 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
804 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
806 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
809 ----------------------------
810 bindsym mod+t border normal
811 bindsym mod+y border 1pixel
812 bindsym mod+u border none
813 ----------------------------
817 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
818 TODO: not yet implemented
819 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
821 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
822 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
823 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
824 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
826 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
827 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
828 you limited) automatically as needed.
831 --------------------------------
832 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
833 --------------------------------
837 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
840 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
844 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
845 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
847 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
849 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
850 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
851 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
852 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
853 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
856 ----------------------------
857 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
858 bindsym mod+Shift+w reload
859 bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
860 ----------------------------
866 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
867 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
868 handle multiple monitors.
870 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
871 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
873 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
874 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
875 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
876 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
877 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
878 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
879 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
881 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
882 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
883 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
884 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
885 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
886 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
887 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
888 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
890 === Configuring your monitors
892 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
893 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
894 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
895 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
896 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
898 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
899 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
900 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
902 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
904 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
905 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
909 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
911 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
912 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
913 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
914 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
916 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
917 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
918 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
920 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
921 -------------------------------------------
922 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
923 -------------------------------------------
924 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
925 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
926 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
927 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
929 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
930 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
931 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
934 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
936 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
937 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
939 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
941 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
943 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
944 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
948 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
949 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
950 only what you can see in xrandr.
952 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
954 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
956 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
957 have more than one monitor:
959 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
960 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
961 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
962 <<workspace_screen>>.
963 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
964 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
965 <<assign_workspace>>.
966 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
967 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
968 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
970 == i3 and the rest of your software world
972 === Displaying a status line
974 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
975 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
976 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
978 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
979 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
980 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
981 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states.
983 Regardless of which application you use to generate the status line, you
984 want to make sure that the application does one of the following things:
986 1. Register as a dock window using EWMH hints. This will make i3 position the
987 window above the workspace bar but below every other client. This is the
988 recommended way, but in case of dzen2, for example, you need to check out
989 the source of dzen2 from subversion, as the -dock option is not present
990 in the released versions.
991 2. Overlay the internal workspace bar. This method will not waste any space
992 on the workspace bar, however, it is rather hackish. Just configure
993 the output window to be over the workspace bar (say -x 200 and -y 780 if
994 your screen is 800 px height).
996 The planned solution for this problem is to make the workspace bar optional
997 and switch to a third party application completely (dzen2 for example)
998 which will then contain the workspace bar.
1000 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
1002 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
1003 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
1004 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
1005 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
1009 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
1010 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
1011 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
1012 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
1013 -----------------------------------------------------
1014 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
1015 -----------------------------------------------------
1016 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1017 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1018 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1020 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1021 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1022 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1023 -----------------------------------------------------
1024 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1025 -----------------------------------------------------
1026 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1027 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1029 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1030 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1031 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).