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 Mod1 (alt):*
23 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with Mod1 (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
25 *Keys to use with Shift+Mod1:*
27 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+Mod1",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 windows key (mod4) by default, with alt (mod1)
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 Win+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+.
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 container modes
80 A container can have the following modes:
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 +Mod1+e+ for default, +Mod1+h+ for stacking and
95 image:modes.png[Container modes]
97 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
99 To display a window fullscreen or to go out of fullscreen mode again, press
102 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will use all
103 available outputs. To use it, or to get out of it again, press +mod+Shift+f+.
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+p+ by default. Just type the name
109 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The application
110 typed 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 i3" 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 +Mod1+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 The most important change and reason for the name is that i3 stores all
186 information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the windows on them
187 in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by the X11 outputs,
188 then workspaces and finally the windows themselve. In previous versions of i3
189 we had multiple lists (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace.
190 That approach turned out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and
193 === The tree consists of Containers
195 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
196 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
197 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
198 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
199 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
202 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
203 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
205 === Orientation and Split Containers
209 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
210 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
211 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
212 workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
213 (most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
214 vertical (+Alt+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
215 configure your windows like this:
217 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
219 An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
220 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
221 orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
222 terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
223 window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
224 orientation. Instead, press +Alt+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
225 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +Alt+h+). Now you can open a new
226 terminal and it will open below the current one:
228 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
229 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
233 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
238 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
239 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
240 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
242 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
243 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
244 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
245 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
246 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
248 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
253 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
254 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
256 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
257 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
260 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
261 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
262 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
263 can bind your keys to do useful things.
265 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
266 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
271 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
272 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
273 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
282 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles and the internal
283 workspace bar. You can use +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description.
284 To see special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports
285 the ISO-10646 encoding.
287 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
288 and fall back to a working font.
291 ------------------------------
292 font <X core font description>
293 ------------------------------
296 --------------------------------------------------------------
297 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
298 --------------------------------------------------------------
302 === Keyboard bindings
304 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
305 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
306 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
308 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
309 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
310 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
311 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
313 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for some hotkeys
314 on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you switch to a
315 different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
317 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
318 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
319 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
323 ----------------------------------
324 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
325 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
326 ----------------------------------
329 --------------------------------
334 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
336 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
337 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
338 --------------------------------
342 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
343 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
346 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
347 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
348 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
349 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
350 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
352 [[floating_modifier]]
354 === The floating modifier
356 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
357 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
358 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
359 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
360 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
361 it to the position you want.
363 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
364 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
365 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional.
368 --------------------------------
369 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
370 --------------------------------
373 --------------------------------
374 floating_modifier Mod1
375 --------------------------------
377 === Layout mode for new containers
379 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
381 ///////////////////////////////
382 See also <<stack-limit>>.
383 //////////////////////////////
386 ---------------------------------------------
387 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
388 ---------------------------------------------
389 /////////////////////////////////////////////
390 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
391 /////////////////////////////////////////////
394 ---------------------
395 workspace_layout tabbed
396 ---------------------
398 === Border style for new windows
400 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
403 ---------------------------------------------
404 new_window <normal|1pixel|borderless>
405 ---------------------------------------------
408 ---------------------
410 ---------------------
414 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
415 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
416 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
417 variables can be handy.
425 ------------------------
427 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
428 ------------------------
430 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
431 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
432 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
433 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
436 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
440 It is recommended that you match on window classes wherever possible because
441 some applications first create their window, and then worry about setting the
442 correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window starts up
443 being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the title change.
444 As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the window (mapping
445 means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have to match on
446 'Firefox' in this case.
448 You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a `~` to specify that matching clients
449 should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a `~`, the client will
450 not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
453 ------------------------------------------------------------
454 assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] [workspace]
455 ------------------------------------------------------------
458 ----------------------
463 assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3
465 ----------------------
467 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
468 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
470 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
472 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure which
473 commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup (not when restarting i3
474 in-place however). These commands will be run in order.
482 --------------------------------
483 exec i3status | dzen2 -dock
484 --------------------------------
488 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
490 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
491 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
492 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
493 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
494 the second screen and so on).
497 ----------------------------------
498 workspace <number> output <output>
499 ----------------------------------
501 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
502 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
503 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
506 ---------------------------
507 workspace 1 output LVDS1
508 workspace 5 output VGA1
509 ---------------------------
513 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations and the
517 --------------------------------------------
518 colorclass border background text
519 --------------------------------------------
521 Where colorclass can be one of:
524 A client which currently has the focus.
525 client.focused_inactive::
526 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
527 the focus at the moment.
529 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
531 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
533 The current workspace in the bottom bar.
535 All other workspaces in the bottom bar.
537 A workspace which has at least one client with an activated urgency hint.
539 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
540 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
544 -----------------------
545 client.background color
546 -----------------------
548 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
549 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
550 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
551 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
552 area of the termianal and the i3 border.
554 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
557 --------------------------------------
558 # class border backgr. text
559 client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF
560 --------------------------------------
562 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
563 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
566 === Interprocess communication
568 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
569 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
570 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
572 To enable it, you have to configure a path where the unix socket will be
573 stored. The default path is +/tmp/i3-ipc.sock+.
575 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+.
578 ----------------------------
579 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
580 ----------------------------
582 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
585 === Disable focus follows mouse
587 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
588 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
589 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
590 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
591 to click on links in your browser window).
594 ----------------------------
595 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
596 ----------------------------
599 ----------------------
600 focus_follows_mouse no
601 ----------------------
605 === Manipulating layout
607 To change the layout of the current container to stacking, use +layout
608 stacking+, for default use +layout default+ and for tabbed, use +layout
609 tabbed+. To make the current client (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
610 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
611 (or +floating toggle+):
615 bindsym Mod1+s layout stacking
616 bindsym Mod1+l layout default
617 bindsym Mod1+w layout tabbed
620 bindsym Mod1+f fullscreen
622 # Toggle floating/tiling
623 bindsym Mod1+t floating toggle
626 === Focusing/Moving containers
628 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus down+ and +focus up+.
630 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
633 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
635 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
638 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
640 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
642 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
644 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
647 ----------------------
648 # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
649 bindsym Mod1+j focus left
650 bindsym Mod1+k focus down
651 bindsym Mod1+l focus up
652 bindsym Mod1+semicolon focus right
654 # Focus parent container
655 bindsym Mod1+u focus parent
657 # Focus last floating/tiling container
658 bindsym Mod1+g focus mode_toggle
660 # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
661 bindsym Mod1+j move left
662 bindsym Mod1+k move down
663 bindsym Mod1+l move up
664 bindsym Mod1+semicolon move right
665 ----------------------
667 === Changing workspaces/moving containers to workspaces
669 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
670 number or name of the workspace. To move containers, use +move workspace+.
672 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
673 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
674 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
678 -------------------------
679 bindsym Mod1+1 workspace 1
680 bindsym Mod1+2 workspace 2
683 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 move workspace 1
684 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 move workspace 2
686 -------------------------
690 === Resizing containers/windows
692 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
693 +resize+ command, I recommend using it inside a so called +mode+:
695 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
696 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
698 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
700 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
701 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
702 # more space on its left
704 bindsym j resize shrink left
705 bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
707 bindsym k resize grow bottom
708 bindsym Shift+k resize shrink bottom
710 bindsym l resize shrink top
711 bindsym Shift+l resize grow top
713 bindsym semicolon resize grow right
714 bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
716 bindcode 36 mode default
720 bindsym Mod1+r mode "resize"
721 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
723 === Jumping to specific windows
725 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
726 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
727 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
728 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
729 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
733 ----------------------------------------------------
734 [class="class"] focus
735 [title="title"] focus
736 ----------------------------------------------------
739 ------------------------------------------------
740 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
741 bindsym Mod1+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
742 ------------------------------------------------
744 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
748 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
749 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
750 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
751 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
752 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
755 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
756 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
757 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
758 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
761 ------------------------------
763 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
764 ------------------------------
766 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
767 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
769 ---------------------------------------
770 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
771 bindsym Mod1+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
773 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
774 bindsym Mod1+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
775 ---------------------------------------
777 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
778 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
779 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
781 === Changing border style
783 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
784 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
785 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
787 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
790 ----------------------------
791 bindsym Mod1+t border normal
792 bindsym Mod1+y border 1pixel
793 bindsym Mod1+u border none
794 ----------------------------
798 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
799 TODO: not yet implemented
800 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
802 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
803 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
804 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
805 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
807 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
808 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
809 you limited) automatically as needed.
812 --------------------------------
813 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
814 --------------------------------
818 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
821 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
825 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
826 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
828 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
830 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
831 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
832 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
833 your X session. However, your layout is not preserved at the moment, meaning
834 that all open windows will end up in a single container in default layout
835 after the restart. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
836 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
839 ----------------------------
840 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
841 bindsym Mod1+Shift+w reload
842 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
843 ----------------------------
849 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
850 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
851 handle multiple monitors.
853 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
854 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
856 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
857 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
858 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
859 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
860 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
861 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
862 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
864 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
865 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
866 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
867 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
868 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
869 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
870 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
871 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
873 === Configuring your monitors
875 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
876 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
877 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
878 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
879 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
881 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
882 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
883 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
885 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
887 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
888 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
892 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
894 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
895 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
896 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
897 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
899 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
900 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
901 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
903 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
904 -------------------------------------------
905 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
906 -------------------------------------------
907 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
908 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
909 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
910 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
912 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
913 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
914 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
917 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
919 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
920 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
922 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
924 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
926 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
927 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
931 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
932 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
933 only what you can see in xrandr.
935 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
937 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
939 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
940 have more than one monitor:
942 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
943 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
944 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
945 <<workspace_screen>>.
946 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
947 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
948 <<assign_workspace>>.
949 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
950 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
951 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
953 == i3 and the rest of your software world
955 === Displaying a status line
957 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
958 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
959 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
961 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
962 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
963 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
964 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states.
966 Regardless of which application you use to generate the status line, you
967 want to make sure that the application does one of the following things:
969 1. Register as a dock window using EWMH hints. This will make i3 position the
970 window above the workspace bar but below every other client. This is the
971 recommended way, but in case of dzen2, for example, you need to check out
972 the source of dzen2 from subversion, as the -dock option is not present
973 in the released versions.
974 2. Overlay the internal workspace bar. This method will not waste any space
975 on the workspace bar, however, it is rather hackish. Just configure
976 the output window to be over the workspace bar (say -x 200 and -y 780 if
977 your screen is 800 px height).
979 The planned solution for this problem is to make the workspace bar optional
980 and switch to a third party application completely (dzen2 for example)
981 which will then contain the workspace bar.
983 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
985 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
986 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
987 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
988 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
992 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
993 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
994 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
995 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
996 -----------------------------------------------------
997 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
998 -----------------------------------------------------
999 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1000 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1001 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1003 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1004 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1005 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1006 -----------------------------------------------------
1007 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1008 -----------------------------------------------------
1009 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1010 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1012 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1013 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1014 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).