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 +$mod+Shift+e+.
156 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
160 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
161 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
162 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
163 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
164 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
165 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
167 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
168 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
169 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
170 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
171 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
173 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
175 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
179 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
180 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
181 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
182 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
183 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
184 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
186 === The tree consists of Containers
188 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
189 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
190 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
191 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
192 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
195 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
196 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
198 === Orientation and Split Containers
202 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
203 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
204 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
205 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
206 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
207 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
208 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
209 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
211 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
213 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
214 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
215 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
216 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
217 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
218 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
219 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
220 terminal and it will open below the current one:
222 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
223 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
227 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
232 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
233 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
234 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
236 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
237 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
238 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
239 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
240 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
242 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
244 === Implicit containers
246 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
249 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
250 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
251 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
252 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
254 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
255 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
256 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
257 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
258 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
259 (for example). You would end up having one tab called "another container" and
260 the other one being the terminal window you moved down.
265 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
266 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
268 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
269 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
272 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
273 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
274 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
275 can bind your keys to do useful things.
277 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
278 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
281 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
282 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
283 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
284 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
285 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
286 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
291 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
292 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
293 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
304 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
305 render window titles.
307 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
308 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
311 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
312 a variant, a stretch and a size.
313 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
314 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
316 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
317 and fall back to a working font.
320 ------------------------------
321 font <X core font description>
322 font pango:[family list] [style options] [size]
323 ------------------------------
326 --------------------------------------------------------------
327 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
328 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
329 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
330 font pango:Terminus 11px
331 --------------------------------------------------------------
335 === Keyboard bindings
337 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
338 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
339 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
341 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
342 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
343 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
344 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
345 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
347 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
348 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
349 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
351 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
352 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
353 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
356 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
357 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
358 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
359 after the keys have been released.
362 ----------------------------------
363 bindsym [--release] [Modifiers+]keysym command
364 bindcode [--release] [Modifiers+]keycode command
365 ----------------------------------
368 --------------------------------
370 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
373 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
375 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
376 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
378 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
379 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
381 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
382 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
383 --------------------------------
387 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
388 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
391 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
392 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
393 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
394 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
395 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
401 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
402 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
403 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
406 ----------------------------------
407 bindsym [Modifiers+]button[n] command
408 ----------------------------------
410 If the binding has no modifiers, it will only run when you click on the
411 titlebar of the window. Otherwise, it will run when any part of the window is
415 --------------------------------
416 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
419 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
420 bindsym $mod+button2 kill
422 # The right button toggles floating
423 bindsym button3 floating toggle
424 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
426 # The side buttons move the window around
427 bindsym button9 move left
428 bindsym button8 move right
429 --------------------------------
431 [[floating_modifier]]
433 === The floating modifier
435 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
436 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
437 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
438 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
439 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
440 it to the position you want.
442 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
443 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
444 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
445 ratio will be preserved).
448 --------------------------------
449 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
450 --------------------------------
453 --------------------------------
454 floating_modifier Mod1
455 --------------------------------
457 === Constraining floating window size
459 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
460 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
461 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
462 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
463 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
464 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
467 ----------------------------------------
468 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
469 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
470 ----------------------------------------
473 --------------------------------------
474 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
475 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
476 --------------------------------------
478 === Orientation for new workspaces
480 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
481 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
482 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
484 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
488 ----------------------------------------------
489 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
490 ----------------------------------------------
493 ----------------------------
494 default_orientation vertical
495 ----------------------------
497 === Layout mode for new containers
499 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
501 ///////////////////////////////
502 See also <<stack-limit>>.
503 //////////////////////////////
506 ---------------------------------------------
507 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
508 ---------------------------------------------
509 /////////////////////////////////////////////
510 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
511 /////////////////////////////////////////////
514 ---------------------
515 workspace_layout tabbed
516 ---------------------
518 === Border style for new windows
520 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
521 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
522 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
525 ---------------------------------------------
526 new_window <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
527 new_float <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
528 ---------------------------------------------
531 ---------------------
533 ---------------------
535 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
539 ---------------------
540 # The same as new_window none
545 ---------------------
548 === Hiding vertical borders
550 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
551 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
552 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
555 ----------------------------
556 hide_edge_borders <none|vertical|horizontal|both>
557 ----------------------------
560 ----------------------
561 hide_edge_borders vertical
562 ----------------------
564 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
566 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
567 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
568 change their border style, for example.
571 -----------------------------
572 for_window <criteria> command
573 -----------------------------
576 ------------------------------------------------
577 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
578 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
580 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
581 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
583 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
584 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
585 # directory to ~/work
586 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
587 ------------------------------------------------
589 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
593 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
594 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
595 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
596 variables can be handy.
604 ------------------------
606 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
607 ------------------------
609 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
610 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
611 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
612 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
613 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
614 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
616 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
620 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
621 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
622 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
623 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
624 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
625 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
626 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
627 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
628 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
629 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
631 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
632 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
636 ------------------------------------------------------------
637 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
638 ------------------------------------------------------------
641 ----------------------
642 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
643 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
645 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
646 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
648 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
649 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
651 # Assignment to a named workspace
652 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
654 # Start urxvt -name irssi
655 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
656 ----------------------
658 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
659 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
661 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
662 window, you will see the following output:
665 -----------------------------------
666 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
667 -----------------------------------
669 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
670 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
672 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
673 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
674 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
675 title when starting up.
677 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
678 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
679 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
680 file in the following way:
682 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
683 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
684 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
685 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
686 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
687 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
688 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
689 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
690 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
691 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
693 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
695 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
696 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
697 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
698 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
699 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
703 exec [--no-startup-id] command
704 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
708 --------------------------------
710 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
712 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
713 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
714 --------------------------------
716 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
720 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
722 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
723 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
724 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
725 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
726 the second screen and so on).
729 ----------------------------------
730 workspace <workspace> output <output>
731 ----------------------------------
733 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
734 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
735 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
737 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
740 ---------------------------
741 workspace 1 output LVDS1
742 workspace 5 output VGA1
743 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
744 ---------------------------
748 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
751 --------------------------------------------
752 colorclass border background text indicator
753 --------------------------------------------
755 Where colorclass can be one of:
758 A client which currently has the focus.
759 client.focused_inactive::
760 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
761 the focus at the moment.
763 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
765 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
767 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
768 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
770 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
771 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
775 -----------------------
776 client.background color
777 -----------------------
779 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
782 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
784 *Examples (default colors)*:
785 ---------------------------------------------------------
786 # class border backgr. text indicator
787 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
788 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
789 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
790 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
791 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
792 ---------------------------------------------------------
794 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
795 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
798 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
799 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
800 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
801 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
802 from single windows outside of a split container.
804 === Interprocess communication
806 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
807 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
808 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
810 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
811 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
812 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
813 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
815 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
816 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
817 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
818 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
819 user can create that directory.
822 ----------------------------
823 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
824 ----------------------------
826 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
829 === Focus follows mouse
831 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
832 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
833 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
834 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
835 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
836 links in your browser window).
839 ----------------------------
840 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
841 ----------------------------
844 ----------------------
845 focus_follows_mouse no
846 ----------------------
850 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
851 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
852 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
854 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
855 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
856 behavior described above.
859 ---------------------------
860 mouse_warping <output|none>
861 ---------------------------
868 === Popups during fullscreen mode
870 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
871 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
872 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
873 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
875 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
876 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
877 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
878 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
879 you go out of fullscreen).
880 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
883 -------------------------------------------------
884 popup_during_fullscreen <smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen>
885 -------------------------------------------------
888 ------------------------------
889 popup_during_fullscreen smart
890 ------------------------------
894 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
895 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
896 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
897 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
898 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
900 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
901 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
902 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
906 -----------------------------
907 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
908 -----------------------------
911 ------------------------
912 force_focus_wrapping yes
913 ------------------------
917 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
918 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
919 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
920 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
921 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
924 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
925 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
928 -----------------------
929 force_xinerama <yes|no>
930 -----------------------
937 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
938 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
940 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
942 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
943 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
945 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
946 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
947 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
950 --------------------------------------
951 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
952 --------------------------------------
955 ---------------------------------
956 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
957 ---------------------------------
959 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
961 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
962 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
963 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
964 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
967 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
968 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
969 value to 0 disables this feature.
971 The default is 500ms.
974 ---------------------------------------
975 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
976 ---------------------------------------
979 ---------------------------------
980 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
981 ---------------------------------
985 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
986 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
989 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
990 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
991 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
992 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
993 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
994 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
995 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
996 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
998 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
999 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1000 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1001 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1002 configuration infrastructure in place.
1004 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1005 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1008 ---------------------------
1010 status_command i3status
1012 ---------------------------
1016 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1017 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1018 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1019 tell i3 what to execute.
1021 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1022 have to have correct quoting etc.
1025 ----------------------
1026 i3bar_command command
1027 ----------------------
1030 -------------------------------------------------
1032 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1034 -------------------------------------------------
1037 === Statusline command
1039 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1040 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1041 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1043 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1044 have to have correct quoting etc.
1047 ----------------------
1048 status_command command
1049 ----------------------
1052 -------------------------------------------------
1054 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1056 -------------------------------------------------
1060 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1061 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1062 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1063 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1065 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1066 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1068 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1069 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1072 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1073 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1074 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1076 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1077 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1078 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1079 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1080 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1081 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1083 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1084 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1086 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1087 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1091 mode <dock|hide|invisible>
1092 hidden_state <hide|show>
1105 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1107 === Mouse button commands
1109 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1110 default behavior. Currently only the mouse wheel buttons are supported. This is
1111 useful for disabling the scroll wheel action or running scripts that implement
1112 custom behavior for these buttons.
1115 ---------------------
1116 wheel_up_cmd <command>
1117 wheel_down_cmd <command>
1118 ---------------------
1121 ---------------------
1124 wheel_down_cmd exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1126 ---------------------
1130 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1131 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1132 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1135 ---------------------
1137 ---------------------
1140 ---------------------
1144 ---------------------
1149 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1151 The default is bottom.
1154 ---------------------
1155 position <top|bottom>
1156 ---------------------
1159 ---------------------
1163 ---------------------
1167 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1168 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1169 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1171 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1172 directive multiple times.
1180 -------------------------------
1181 # big monitor: everything
1183 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1186 status_command i3status
1189 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1192 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1198 -------------------------------
1202 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1203 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1205 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1206 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1209 -------------------------
1210 tray_output <none|primary|output>
1211 -------------------------
1214 -------------------------
1215 # disable system tray
1220 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1223 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1227 -------------------------
1229 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1230 -------------------------
1231 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1232 -------------------------
1236 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1239 ---------------------
1241 ---------------------
1244 --------------------------------------------------------------
1246 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1247 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1249 --------------------------------------------------------------
1251 === Workspace buttons
1253 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1254 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1256 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1259 --------------------------
1260 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1261 --------------------------
1264 ------------------------
1266 workspace_buttons no
1268 ------------------------
1270 === Strip workspace numbers
1272 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1273 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1274 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1276 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1277 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1278 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1279 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1281 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1284 ----------------------------------
1285 strip_workspace_numbers <yes|no>
1286 ----------------------------------
1289 ----------------------------
1291 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1293 ----------------------------
1295 === Binding Mode indicator
1297 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1298 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1299 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1300 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1302 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1305 -------------------------------
1306 binding_mode_indicator <yes|no>
1307 -------------------------------
1310 -----------------------------
1312 binding_mode_indicator no
1314 -----------------------------
1318 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1319 be configured at the moment:
1322 Background color of the bar.
1324 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1326 Text color to be used for the separator.
1328 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1331 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1332 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1333 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1334 using multiple monitors.
1335 inactive_workspace::
1336 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1337 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1338 will be the case for most workspaces.
1340 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1341 contains a window with the urgency hint set. Also applies to +mode+ indicators.
1344 ----------------------------------------
1350 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1352 ----------------------------------------
1354 *Example (default colors)*:
1355 --------------------------------------
1362 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1363 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1364 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1365 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1368 --------------------------------------
1372 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1373 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1374 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1377 --------------------------
1378 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1380 --------------------------
1382 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1383 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1384 the following keybinding:
1387 --------------------------------------------------------
1388 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1389 --------------------------------------------------------
1391 [[command_criteria]]
1393 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1394 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1395 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1398 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1399 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1400 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1404 ------------------------------------
1405 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1406 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1408 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1409 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1411 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1412 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1414 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1415 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1416 ------------------------------------
1418 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1421 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1423 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1425 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1427 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1429 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1431 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1432 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1433 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1435 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1437 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1438 interface. Handy for scripting.
1440 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1441 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1442 information on how to use them.
1446 === Executing applications (exec)
1448 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1449 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1450 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1451 searched in your $PATH.
1454 ------------------------------
1455 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1456 ------------------------------
1459 ------------------------------
1461 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1463 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1464 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1465 ------------------------------
1467 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1468 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1469 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1470 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1471 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1472 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1473 cursor for 60 seconds.
1475 === Splitting containers
1477 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1478 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1479 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1480 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1482 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1483 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1484 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1485 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1486 to splith or vice-versa.
1489 ---------------------------
1490 split <vertical|horizontal>
1491 ---------------------------
1494 ------------------------------
1495 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1496 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1497 ------------------------------
1499 === Manipulating layout
1501 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1502 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1503 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1505 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1506 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1507 (or +floating toggle+):
1511 layout <default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith>
1512 layout toggle [split|all]
1517 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1518 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1519 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1521 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1522 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1524 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1525 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1528 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
1530 # Toggle floating/tiling
1531 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1534 === Focusing/Moving containers
1536 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1537 down+ and +focus up+.
1539 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1542 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1544 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1547 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1549 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1551 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1553 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1554 corresponding output.
1556 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1559 -----------------------------------
1560 focus <left|right|down|up>
1561 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1562 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1563 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1564 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1565 -----------------------------------
1567 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1568 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1571 ----------------------
1572 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1573 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1574 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1575 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1576 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1578 # Focus parent container
1579 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1581 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1582 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1584 # Focus the output right to the current one
1585 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1587 # Focus the big output
1588 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1590 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1591 bindsym $mod+j move left
1592 bindsym $mod+k move down
1593 bindsym $mod+l move up
1594 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1596 # Move container, but make floating containers
1597 # move more than the default
1598 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1600 # Move floating container to the center
1602 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1603 ----------------------
1605 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1607 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1608 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1609 +move container to workspace+.
1611 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1612 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1613 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1614 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1615 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1616 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1617 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1618 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1620 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1624 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1625 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1626 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1629 -----------------------------------
1630 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1631 workspace back_and_forth
1633 workspace number <name>
1635 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1636 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1637 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1638 -----------------------------------
1641 -------------------------
1642 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1643 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1646 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1647 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1650 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1651 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1652 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1654 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1655 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1657 # move firefox to current workspace
1658 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1659 -------------------------
1661 ==== Named workspaces
1663 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1664 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1667 -------------------------
1668 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1670 -------------------------
1672 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1676 -------------------------
1677 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1678 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1680 -------------------------
1682 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1683 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1684 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1685 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1686 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1687 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1688 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1689 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1691 ==== Renaming workspaces
1693 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1694 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1695 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1696 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1697 rename command with +i3-input+.
1700 ----------------------------------------------------
1701 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1702 rename workspace to <new_name>
1703 ----------------------------------------------------
1706 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1707 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1708 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1709 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1710 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1711 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1712 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1714 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1716 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1719 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1723 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1724 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1725 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1728 --------------------------------------------------------
1729 move container to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1730 move workspace to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1731 --------------------------------------------------------
1734 --------------------------------------------------------
1735 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1736 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1737 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1739 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1740 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1741 --------------------------------------------------------
1745 === Resizing containers/windows
1747 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1751 ---------------------------------------------------------
1752 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1753 ---------------------------------------------------------
1755 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1756 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1757 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1758 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1759 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1760 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1761 default is 10 percentage points).
1763 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1765 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1766 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1768 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1770 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1771 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1772 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1773 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1774 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1775 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1776 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1777 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1779 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1780 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1781 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1782 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1783 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1785 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1786 bindsym Return mode "default"
1787 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1791 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1792 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1794 === Jumping to specific windows
1796 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1797 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1798 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1799 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1800 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1801 with criteria for that.
1804 ----------------------------------------------------
1805 [class="class"] focus
1806 [title="title"] focus
1807 ----------------------------------------------------
1810 ------------------------------------------------
1811 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1812 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1813 ------------------------------------------------
1815 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1819 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1820 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1821 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1822 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
1823 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
1824 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
1825 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
1827 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1828 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1829 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1830 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1833 ------------------------------
1835 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1837 ------------------------------
1839 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1840 ------------------------------
1842 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1843 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
1844 ------------------------------
1846 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1847 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1849 ---------------------------------------
1850 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1851 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1853 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1854 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1855 ---------------------------------------
1857 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1858 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1859 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1861 === Changing border style
1863 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1864 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1865 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1867 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1870 ----------------------------
1871 bindsym $mod+t border normal
1872 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
1873 bindsym $mod+u border none
1874 ----------------------------
1878 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1879 TODO: not yet implemented
1880 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1882 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1883 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1884 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1885 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1887 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1888 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1889 you limited) automatically as needed.
1892 --------------------------------
1893 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1894 --------------------------------
1898 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1901 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1905 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1906 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1910 === Enabling shared memory logging
1912 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
1913 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
1914 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
1916 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
1917 discarded and a new one will be started.
1920 ------------------------------
1921 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
1922 shmlog <on|off|toggle>
1923 ------------------------------
1927 # Enable/disable logging
1928 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
1930 # or, from a terminal:
1931 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
1932 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
1935 === Enabling debug logging
1937 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
1938 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
1939 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
1940 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
1943 ------------------------
1944 debuglog <on|off|toggle>
1945 ------------------------
1948 ------------------------
1949 # Enable/disable logging
1950 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
1951 ------------------------
1953 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1955 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1956 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1957 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1958 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1959 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1962 ----------------------------
1963 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
1964 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
1965 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
1966 ----------------------------
1970 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1971 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1972 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1973 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1974 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1975 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1976 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
1977 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
1978 (+floating toggle+).
1980 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1981 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1982 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1983 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1993 ------------------------------------------------
1994 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1995 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1997 # Show the first scratchpad window
1998 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2000 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2001 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2002 ------------------------------------------------
2006 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2007 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2008 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2009 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2010 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2011 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2012 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2016 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2018 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2022 ------------------------------------------------
2023 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2024 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2026 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2027 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2029 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2030 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2032 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2033 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2034 ------------------------------------------------
2038 == Multiple monitors
2040 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2041 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2042 handle multiple monitors.
2044 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2045 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2047 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2048 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2049 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2050 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2051 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2052 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2053 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2055 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2056 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2057 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2058 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2059 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2060 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2061 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2062 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2064 === Configuring your monitors
2066 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2067 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2068 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2069 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2070 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2072 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2073 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2074 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2075 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2076 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2078 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2079 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2083 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2085 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2086 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2087 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2088 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2090 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2091 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2092 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2094 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2095 -------------------------------------------
2096 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2097 -------------------------------------------
2098 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2099 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2100 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2101 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2103 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2104 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2105 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2108 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2110 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2111 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2113 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2114 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2115 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2117 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2118 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2122 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2123 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2124 only what you can see in xrandr.
2126 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2128 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2130 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2131 have more than one monitor:
2133 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2134 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2135 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2136 <<workspace_screen>>.
2137 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2138 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2139 <<assign_workspace>>.
2140 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2141 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2142 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2143 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2144 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2146 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2148 === Displaying a status line
2150 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2151 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2152 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2154 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2155 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2156 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2157 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2158 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2159 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2161 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2162 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2163 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2164 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2165 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2167 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2169 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2170 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2171 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2172 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2176 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2177 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2178 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2179 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2180 -----------------------------------------------------
2181 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2182 -----------------------------------------------------
2183 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2184 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2185 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2187 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2188 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2189 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2190 -----------------------------------------------------
2191 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2192 -----------------------------------------------------
2193 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2194 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2196 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2197 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2198 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).