3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
8 i3 - an improved dynamic, tiling window manager
12 i3 [-a] [-c configfile] [-C] [-d all] [-v] [-V]
20 Specifies an alternate configuration file path.
23 Check the configuration file for validity and exit.
26 Enables debug logging.
27 The 'all' parameter is present for historical reasons.
30 Display version number (and date of the last commit).
36 Use Xinerama instead of RandR. This option should only be used if you are stuck
37 with the old nVidia closed source driver (older than 302.17) which does not
41 Retrieve the i3 IPC socket path from X11, print it, then exit.
43 --shmlog-size <limit>::
44 Limits the size of the i3 SHM log to <limit> bytes. Setting this to 0 disables
45 SHM logging entirely. The default is 0 bytes.
51 i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time, didn’t
52 provide some features we wanted (multi-monitor done right, for example), had
53 some bugs, didn’t progress since quite some time and wasn’t easy to hack at all
54 (source code comments/documentation completely lacking). Still, we think the
55 wmii developers and contributors did a great job. Thank you for inspiring us to
58 Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and developers.
60 === IMPORTANT NOTE TO nVidia BINARY DRIVER USERS
62 If you are using the nVidia binary graphics driver (also known as 'blob')
63 before version 302.17, you need to use the +--force-xinerama+ flag (in your
64 ~/.xsession) when starting i3, like so:
66 ----------------------------------------------
67 exec i3 --force-xinerama -V >>~/.i3/i3log 2>&1
68 ----------------------------------------------
70 See also docs/multi-monitor for the full explanation.
75 i3 keeps your layout in a tree data structure.
78 An X11 window, like the Firefox browser window or a terminal emulator.
81 A window which "floats" on top of other windows. This style is used by i3 to
82 display X11 windows with type "dialog", such as the "Print" or "Open File"
83 dialog boxes in many GUI applications. Use of floating windows can be
84 fine-tuned with the for_window command (see HTML userguide).
87 A split container contains multiple other split containers or windows.
89 Containers can be used in various layouts. The default mode is called "default"
90 and just resizes each client equally so that it fits.
93 A workspace is a set of containers. Other window managers call this "Virtual
96 In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By default,
97 screen 1 has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so on… However, when you
98 create a new workspace (by simply switching to it), it’ll be assigned the
99 screen you are currently on.
102 Using XRandR, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real monitors.
103 Furthermore, you can set them up in cloning mode or with positions (monitor 1
104 is left of monitor 2).
106 i3 uses the RandR API to query which outputs are available and which screens
107 are connected to these outputs.
111 Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:
114 Open a new terminal emulator window.
117 Open dmenu for starting any application by typing (part of) its name.
120 Direction keys (left, down, up, right). They are on your homerow (see the mark
121 on your "j" key). Alternatively, you can use the cursor keys.
124 Focus window in <direction>.
126 Mod1+Shift+<direction>::
127 Move window to <direction>.
130 Switch to workspace <number>.
132 Mod1+Shift+<number>::
133 Move window to workspace <number>.
136 Toggle fullscreen mode.
139 Enable stacking layout for the current container.
142 Enable default layout for the current container.
145 Enable tabbed layout for the current container.
148 Toggle tiling/floating for the current container.
151 Select the first tiling container if the current container is floating and
155 Kills the current window. This is equivalent to "clicking on the close button",
156 meaning a polite request to the application to close this window. For example,
157 Firefox will save its session upon such a request. If the application does not
158 support that, the window will be killed and it depends on the application what
162 Restarts i3 in place. Your layout will be preserved.
169 === \~/.i3/config (or ~/.config/i3/config)
171 When starting, i3 looks for configuration files in the following order:
174 2. ~/.config/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3/config if set)
176 4. /etc/xdg/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3/config if set)
178 You can specify a custom path using the -c option.
180 .Sample configuration
181 -------------------------------------------------------------
182 # i3 config file (v4)
184 # Font for window titles. Will also be used by the bar unless a different font
185 # is used in the bar {} block below.
186 # This font is widely installed, provides lots of unicode glyphs, right-to-left
187 # text rendering and scalability on retina/hidpi displays (thanks to pango).
188 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 8
189 # Before i3 v4.8, we used to recommend this one as the default:
190 # font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
191 # The font above is very space-efficient, that is, it looks good, sharp and
192 # clear in small sizes. However, its unicode glyph coverage is limited, the old
193 # X core fonts rendering does not support right-to-left and this being a bitmap
194 # font, it doesn’t scale on retina/hidpi displays.
196 # use Mouse+Mod1 to drag floating windows to their wanted position
197 floating_modifier Mod1
200 bindsym Mod1+Return exec /usr/bin/urxvt
202 # kill focused window
203 bindsym Mod1+Shift+q kill
205 # start dmenu (a program launcher)
206 bindsym Mod1+d exec /usr/bin/dmenu_run
209 bindsym Mod1+j focus left
210 bindsym Mod1+k focus down
211 bindsym Mod1+l focus up
212 bindsym Mod1+semicolon focus right
214 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
215 bindsym Mod1+Left focus left
216 bindsym Mod1+Down focus down
217 bindsym Mod1+Up focus up
218 bindsym Mod1+Right focus right
220 # move focused window
221 bindsym Mod1+Shift+j move left
222 bindsym Mod1+Shift+k move down
223 bindsym Mod1+Shift+l move up
224 bindsym Mod1+Shift+semicolon move right
226 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
227 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Left move left
228 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Down move down
229 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Up move up
230 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Right move right
232 # split in horizontal orientation
233 bindsym Mod1+h split h
235 # split in vertical orientation
236 bindsym Mod1+v split v
238 # enter fullscreen mode for the focused container
239 bindsym Mod1+f fullscreen toggle
241 # change container layout (stacked, tabbed, default)
242 bindsym Mod1+s layout stacking
243 bindsym Mod1+w layout tabbed
244 bindsym Mod1+e layout default
246 # toggle tiling / floating
247 bindsym Mod1+Shift+space floating toggle
249 # change focus between tiling / floating windows
250 bindsym Mod1+space focus mode_toggle
252 # focus the parent container
253 bindsym Mod1+a focus parent
255 # focus the child container
256 #bindsym Mod1+d focus child
258 # switch to workspace
259 bindsym Mod1+1 workspace 1
260 bindsym Mod1+2 workspace 2
263 # move focused container to workspace
264 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 move workspace 1
265 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 move workspace 2
268 # reload the configuration file
269 bindsym Mod1+Shift+c reload
270 # restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3)
271 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
272 # exit i3 (logs you out of your X session)
273 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
275 # display workspace buttons plus a statusline generated by i3status
277 status_command i3status
279 -------------------------------------------------------------
283 This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It is run by
284 your login manager (xdm, slim, gdm, …) as soon as you login.
287 -------------------------------------------------------------
288 # Disable DPMS turning off the screen
295 # Enable zapping (C-A-<Bksp> kills X)
296 setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
298 # Enforce correct locales from the beginning:
299 # LC_ALL is unset since it overwrites everything
300 # LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 is used, except for:
301 # LC_MESSAGES=C never translates program output
302 # LC_TIME=en_DK leads to yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm date/time output
304 export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
306 export LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8
308 # Use XToolkit in java applications
309 export AWT_TOOLKIT=XToolkit
311 # Set background color
312 xsetroot -solid "#333333"
314 # Enable core dumps in case something goes wrong
317 # Start i3 and log to ~/.i3/logfile
318 echo "Starting at $(date)" >> ~/.i3/logfile
319 exec /usr/bin/i3 -V -d all >> ~/.i3/logfile
320 -------------------------------------------------------------
326 This variable overwrites the IPC socket path (placed in
327 /tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p by default, where %u is replaced with your UNIX
328 username, %p is replaced with i3’s PID and XXXXXX is a string of random
329 characters from the portable filename character set (see mkdtemp(3))). The IPC
330 socket is used by external programs like i3-msg(1) or i3bar(1).
334 There is still lot of work to do. Please check our bugtracker for up-to-date
335 information about tasks which are still not finished.
339 You should have a copy of the userguide (featuring nice screenshots/graphics
340 which is why this is not integrated into this manpage), the debugging guide,
341 and the "how to hack" guide. If you are building from source, run:
344 You can also access these documents online at https://i3wm.org/
346 i3-input(1), i3-msg(1), i3bar(1), i3-nagbar(1), i3-config-wizard(1),
347 i3-migrate-config-to-v4(1)
351 Michael Stapelberg and contributors