3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 This document contains all information you need to configuring and using the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact me on IRC, Jabber or E-Mail and
10 For a complete listing of the default keybindings, please see the manpage.
14 === Creating terminals and moving around
16 A very basic operation is to create a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
17 for that is Mod1+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
18 pressing Mod1+Enter, a new terminal will be created and it will fill the whole
19 space which is available on your screen.
21 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
23 It is important to keep in mind that i3 uses a table to manage your windows. At
24 the moment, you have exactly one column and one row which leaves you with one
25 cell. In this cell, there is a container in which your newly opened terminal is.
27 If you now open another terminal, you still have only one cell. However, the
28 container has both of your terminals. So, a container is just a group of clients
29 with a specific layout. You can resize containers as they directly resemble
30 columns/rows of the layout table.
32 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
34 To move the focus between the two terminals, you use the direction keys which
35 you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used for
36 these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility
37 with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +Mod1+J+ is left, +Mod1+K+ is down, +Mod1+L+
38 is up and `Mod1+;` is right. So, to switch between the terminals, use +Mod1+K+ or
41 To create a new row/column, you can simply move a terminal (or any other window)
42 to the direction you want to expand your table. So, let’s expand the table to
43 the right by pressing `Mod1+Shift+;`.
45 image:two_columns.png[Two columns]
47 === Changing mode of containers
49 A container can be in different modes:
52 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space of the
55 Only the focused client of the container is displayed and you get a list of
56 windows at the top of the container.
58 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
59 a single line which will be vertically split.
61 To switch the mode, press +Mod1+e+ for default, +Mod1+h+ for stacking and
64 image:modes.png[Container modes]
66 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
68 To display a window fullscreen or to go out of fullscreen mode again, press
71 === Opening other applications
73 Aside from opening applicatios from a terminal, you can also use the handy
74 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +Mod1+v+ by default. Just type the name
75 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. It has to be in
76 your +$PATH+ for that to work.
78 Furthermore, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can also
79 create a keybinding for it. See the section "Configuring i3" for details.
83 If an application does not provide a mechanism to close (most applications
84 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
85 can press +Mod1+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
86 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
87 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
88 it, your X server will kill the window and the behaviour depends on the
93 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
94 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
95 another workspace, press +Mod1+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
96 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
98 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
99 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one and the ones with which you
100 work on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
102 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen. If
103 you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you created it on.
104 When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set focus to this
107 === Moving windows to workspaces
109 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +Mod1+Shift+num+ where
110 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
111 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
112 it does not yet exist.
114 === Resizing columns/rows
116 To resize columns or rows just grab the border between the two columns/rows
117 and move it to the wanted size. Please keep in mind that each cell of the table
118 holds a +container+ and thus you cannot horizontally resize single windows.
120 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
121 columns/rows with your keyboard.
123 === Restarting i3 inplace
125 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get it into a clean state if it has a bug, to
126 reload your configuration or even to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you
127 can use +Mod1+Shift+r+. Be aware, though, that this kills your current layout
128 and all the windows you have opened will be put in a default container in only
129 one cell. Saving the layout will be implemented in a later version.
133 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +Mod1+Shift+e+.
137 Snapping is a mechanism to increase/decrease the colspan/rowspan of a container.
138 Colspan/rowspan is the amount of columns/rows a specific cell of the table
139 consumes. This is easier explained by giving an example, so take the following
142 image:snapping.png[Snapping example]
144 To use the full size of your screen, you can now snap container 3 downwards
145 by pressing +Mod1+Control+k+ (or snap container 2 rightwards).
149 Floating is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
150 are then not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
151 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
152 windows or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar).
154 You can enable floating for a window by pressing +Mod1+Shift+Space+. By
155 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse, you can move the window
156 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window.
158 Bindings for doing this with your keyboard will follow.
160 Floating clients are always on top of tiling clients.
164 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
165 ideal working environment, so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
167 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
168 quite flexible regarding to the things you usually want your window manager
171 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
172 you can set specific applications to start on a specific workspace, you can
173 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3 or bind
174 your keys to do useful stuff.
176 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +~/.i3/config+
177 and edit it with a text editor.
179 === General configuration
182 Specifies the default font you want i3 to use. Use an X core font
183 descriptor here, like
184 +-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1+. You can
185 use +xfontsel(1)+ to pick one.
187 === Keyboard bindings
189 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
190 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
191 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
193 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a" or "b",
194 but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These are the ones
195 you also use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current mapping of your
196 keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
198 * Keycodes however do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for some hotkeys
199 on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you switch to a
200 different keyboard layout.
202 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts because you try to
203 learn a different one, but you want to keep your bindings at the same place,
204 use keycodes. If you don’t switch layouts and like a clean and simple config
208 ----------------------------------
209 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
210 bind [Modifiers+]keycode command
211 ----------------------------------
214 --------------------------------
219 bind Mod1+Shift+r restart
221 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
222 bind 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
223 --------------------------------
227 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
228 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
231 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
232 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
233 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
234 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
235 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
237 === The floating modifier
239 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
240 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
241 click anywhere in the window itself. The most common setup is to configure
242 it as the same one you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Afterwards,
243 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button and drag
244 it to the position you want it at.
247 --------------------------------
248 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
249 --------------------------------
252 --------------------------------
253 floating_modifier Mod1
254 --------------------------------
256 === Layout mode for new containers
258 This option is only available when using the new lexer/parser (pass +-l+ to i3
259 when starting). It determines in which mode new containers will start. See also
263 ---------------------------------------------
264 new_container <default|stacking|tabbed>
265 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
266 ---------------------------------------------
269 ---------------------
271 ---------------------
273 === Border style for new windows
275 This option is only available when using the new lexer/parser (pass +-l+ to i3
276 when starting). It determines which border new windows will have.
279 ---------------------------------------------
280 new_window <bp|bn|bb>
281 ---------------------------------------------
284 ---------------------
286 ---------------------
290 As you learned in the previous section about keyboard bindings, you will have
291 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
292 yourself some typing and have the possibility to change the modifier you want
293 to use later, variables can be handy.
301 ------------------------
303 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
304 ------------------------
306 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing, there is no fancy
307 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
308 dynamic configuration, you should create a little script, like when configuring
311 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
313 It is recommended that you match on window classes whereever possible because
314 some applications first create their window and then care about setting the
315 correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind, as the window starts up
316 being named Firefox and only when Vimperator is loaded, the title changes. As
317 i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the window (mapping means
318 actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have to match on Firefox
321 You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a `~` to specify that matching clients
322 should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a `~`, the client will
323 not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
326 ------------------------------------------------------------
327 assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] [~ | workspace]
328 ------------------------------------------------------------
331 ----------------------
335 assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3
337 assign "xv/MPlayer" → ~
338 ----------------------
340 === Automatically starting applications on startup
342 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure which
343 commands will be performed by i3 on the first start (not when reloading inplace
344 however). The commands will be run in order.
352 --------------------------------
353 exec sudo i3status | dzen2 -dock
354 --------------------------------
356 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
358 If you use the assigning of clients to workspaces and start some clients
359 automatically, it might be handy to put the workspaces on specific screens.
360 Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens will determine the workspace
361 which i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens or when starting (e.g., by
362 default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for the second screen and so on).
365 ----------------------------------
366 workspace <number> screen <screen>
367 ----------------------------------
369 Screen can be either a number (starting at 0 for the first screen) or a
370 position. When using numbers, it is not guaranteed that your screens always
371 get the same number. Though, unless you upgrade your X server or drivers, the
372 order usually stays the same. When using positions, you have to specify the
373 exact pixel where the screen *starts*, not a pixel which is contained by the
374 screen. Thus, if your first screen has the dimensions 1280x800, you can match
375 the second screen right of it by specifying 1280. You cannot use 1281.
378 ---------------------------
382 workspace 1 screen 1280
383 workspace 2 screen x800
384 workspace 3 screen 1280x800
385 ---------------------------
389 If you always have a certain arrangement of workspaces, you might want to give
390 them names (of course UTF-8 is supported):
393 ---------------------------------------
394 workspace <number> <name>
395 workspace <number> screen <screen> name
396 ---------------------------------------
398 For more details about the screen-part of this command, see above.
401 --------------------------
404 workspace 3 i ♥ workspaces
405 --------------------------
409 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations and the
413 --------------------------------------------
414 colorclass border background text
415 --------------------------------------------
417 Where colorclass can be one of:
420 A client which currently has the focus.
421 client.focused_inactive::
422 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
423 the focus at the moment.
425 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
427 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
429 The current workspace in the bottom bar.
431 All other workspaces in the bottom bar.
433 A workspace which has at least one client with an activated urgency hint.
435 Colors are in HTML hex format, see below.
438 --------------------------------------
439 # class border backgr. text
440 client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF
441 --------------------------------------
443 === Interprocess communication
445 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. At the moment, this interface
446 is only useful for sending commands. To enable it, you have to configure a path
447 where the unix socket will be stored. The default path is +/tmp/i3-ipc.sock+.
450 ----------------------------
451 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
452 ----------------------------
454 You can then use the i3-msg command to perform any command listed in the next
459 === Manipulating layout
461 To change the layout of the current container to stacking, use +s+, for default
462 use +d+ and for tabbed, use +T+. To make the current client (!) fullscreen,
463 use +f+, to make it floating (or tiling again) use +t+:
474 # Toggle floating/tiling
478 === Focussing/Moving/Snapping clients/containers/screens
480 To change the focus, use one of the +h+, +j+, +k+ and +l+ commands, meaning
481 respectively left, down, up, right. To focus a container, prefix it with +wc+,
482 to focus a screen, prefix it with +ws+.
484 The same principle applies for moving and snapping, just prefix the command
485 with +m+ when moving and with +s+ when snapping:
488 ----------------------
489 # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
493 bindsym Mod1+semicolon l
495 # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
499 bindsym Mod1+semicolon ml
501 # Snap client to the left, bottom, top, right:
505 bindsym Mod1+semicolon sl
507 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
510 ----------------------
512 === Changing workspaces/moving clients to workspaces
514 To change to a specific workspace, the command is just the number of the
515 workspace, e.g. +1+ or +3+. To move the current client to a specific workspace,
516 prefix the number with an +m+.
518 Furthermore, you can switch to the next and previous workspace with the
519 commands +nw+ and +pw+, which is handy for example if you have workspace
520 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key combination.
523 -------------------------
528 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 m1
529 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 m2
534 -------------------------
538 === Resizing columns/rows
540 If you want to resize columns/rows using your keyboard, you can use the
541 +resize+ command, I recommend using it a +mode+ (you need to use the new
542 lexer/parser for that, so pass +-l+ to i3 when starting):
544 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
545 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
547 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
549 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
550 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
551 # more space on its left
553 bindsym n resize left -10
554 bindsym Shift+n resize left +10
556 bindsym r resize bottom +10
557 bindsym Shift+r resize bottom -10
559 bindsym t resize top -10
560 bindsym Shift+t resize top +10
562 bindsym d resize right +10
563 bindsym Shift+d resize right -10
567 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
569 === Jumping to specific windows
571 Especially when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a specific
572 window, for example while currently working on workspace 3 you may want to jump to
573 your mailclient to mail your boss that you’ve achieved some important goal. Instead
574 of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient, it would be more convenient to
578 ----------------------------------------------------
579 jump ["]window class[/window title]["]
580 jump workspace [ column row ]
581 ----------------------------------------------------
583 You can either use the same matching algorithm as in the +assign+ command (see above)
584 or you can specify the position of the client if you always use the same layout.
587 --------------------------------------
588 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
589 bindsym Mod1+a jump "urxvt/VIM"
590 --------------------------------------
592 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
594 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
595 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
596 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
597 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards, that is, you do not need to ensure
598 that your windows have unique classes or titles and you do not need to change
599 your configuration file.
601 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
602 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key (or, you could bind it to a key and
603 only use the set of labels for which you created bindings). +i3-input+ is a
604 tool created for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the
605 command to i3. It can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for
615 ---------------------------------------
616 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
617 bindsym Mod1+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
619 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
620 bindsym Mod1+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
621 ---------------------------------------
623 === Traveling the focus stack
625 This mechanism can be thought of as the opposite of the +jump+ command. It travels
626 the focus stack and jumps to the window you focused before.
630 focus [number] | floating | tilling | ft
633 Where +number+ by default is 1 meaning that the next client in the focus stack will
636 The special values have the following meaning:
639 The next floating window is selected.
641 The next tiling window is selected.
643 If the current window is floating, the next tiling window will be selected
646 === Changing border style
648 To change the border of the current client, you can use +bn+ to use the normal
649 border (including window title), +bp+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
650 and +bb+ to make the client borderless. There also is +bt+ which will toggle
651 the different border styles.
662 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
664 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside (say, more than
665 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
666 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up only using half of the
667 titlebars of each window in the container.
669 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the amount of rows or columns
670 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
671 you limited) automatically as needed.
674 --------------------------------
675 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
676 --------------------------------
680 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
683 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
687 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
689 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
691 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
692 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
693 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
694 your X session. However, your layout is not preserved at the moment, meaning
695 that all open windows will be in a single container in default layout. To exit
696 i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command, however you don’t need to (e.g.,
697 simply killing your X session is fine aswell).
700 ----------------------------
701 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
702 bindsym Mod1+Shift+w reload
703 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
704 ----------------------------