3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
8 i3 - an improved dynamic, tiling window manager
12 i3 [-c configfile] [-a]
17 Specifies an alternate configuration file path
26 i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time, didn’t
27 provide some features we wanted (Xinerama done right, for example), had some
28 bugs, didn’t progress since quite some time and wasn’t easy to hack at all
29 (source code comments/documentation completely lacking). Still, we think the
30 wmii developers and contributors did a great job. Thank you for inspiring us to
33 Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and developers.
38 A client is X11-speak for a window.
41 Your workspace is managed using a table. You can move windows around and create new columns
42 (move a client to the right) or rows (move it to the bottom) implicitly.
44 By "snapping" a client in a specific direction, you increase its colspan/rowspan.
47 A container contains a variable number of clients. Each cell of the table is a container.
49 Containers can be used in various modes. The default mode is called "default" and just
50 resizes each client equally so that it fits.
53 A workspace is a set of clients (technically speaking, it’s just a table). Other window
54 managers call this "Virtual Desktops".
56 In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By default, screen 1
57 has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so on… However, when you create a new
58 workspace (by simply switching to it), it’ll be assigned the screen you are currently
62 Using Xinerama, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real monitors. Furthermore,
63 you can set them up in cloning mode or with positions (monitor 1 is left of monitor 2).
65 A virtual screen is the result of your Xinerama setup. For example, if you have attached
66 two real monitors (let’s say your laptop screen and a video projector) and enabled cloning, i3
67 will use one virtual screen with the size of the smallest screen you have attached (so
68 that you can see all your windows on each screen all the time).
69 If you have two monitors attached, one configured to be left of the other, i3 will use
74 Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:
77 Direction keys (left, down, up, right). They are on your homerow (see the mark on your "j" key).
80 Focus window in <direction>.
83 Focus container in <direction>.
85 Mod1+Shift+<direction>::
86 Move window to <direction>.
88 Mod3+Shift+<direction>::
89 Move container to <direction>.
91 Mod1+Control+<direction>::
92 Snap container to <direction>.
95 Switch to workspace <number>.
98 Move window to workspace <number>.
101 Toggle fullscreen mode.
104 Enable stacking layout for the current container.
107 Enable default layout for the current container.
110 Toggle tiling/floating for the current window.
113 Select the first tiling window if the current window is floating and vice-versa.
116 Kills the current window. This is equivalent to "clicking on the close button", meaning a polite
117 request to the application to close this window. For example, Firefox will save its session
118 upon such a request. If the application does not support that, the window will be killed and
119 it depends on the application what happens.
122 Restarts i3 in place (without losing any windows, but the layout).
131 When starting, i3 looks for ~/.i3/config and loads the configuration. If ~/.i3/config is not found,
132 i3 tries /etc/i3/config. You can specify a custom path using the -c option.
134 At the moment, you can specify only the path to your favorite terminal emulator, the font and keybindings.
136 At the moment, you have to bind to keycodes (find them out via xev(1)).
138 .Sample configuration
139 -------------------------------------------------------------
140 terminal /usr/bin/urxvt
141 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
143 # Start terminal (Mod1+Enter)
144 bind Mod1+36 exec /usr/bin/urxvt
146 # Start dmenu (Mod1+v)
147 bind Mod1+55 exec /usr/bin/dmenu_run
149 # Kill current client (Mod1+Shift+q)
150 bind Mod1+Shift+24 kill
153 bind Mod1+73 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
156 bind Mod1+68 exec /usr/bin/i3lock
158 # Restart i3 inplace (Mod1+Shift+r)
159 bind Mod1+Shift+27 restart
161 # Exit i3 (Mod1+Shift+e)
162 bind Mod1+Shift+26 exit
165 bind Mod1+97 exec sudo sh -c "echo up > /proc/acpi/ibm/brightness"
166 bind Mod1+103 exec sudo sh -c "echo down > /proc/acpi/ibm/brightness"
168 # Fullscreen (Mod1+f)
177 # Toggle tiling/floating of the current window (Mod1+Shift+Space)
180 # Go into the tiling layer / floating layer, depending on whether
181 # the current window is tiling / floating (Mod1+t)
182 bind Mod1+28 focus ft
184 # Focus (Mod1+j/k/l/;)
190 # Focus Container (Mod3+j/k/l/;)
196 # Snap (Mod1+Control+j/k/l/;)
197 bind Mod1+Control+44 sh
198 bind Mod1+Control+45 sj
199 bind Mod1+Control+46 sk
200 bind Mod1+Control+47 sl
202 # Move (Mod1+Shift+j/k/l/;)
203 bind Mod1+Shift+44 mh
204 bind Mod1+Shift+45 mj
205 bind Mod1+Shift+46 mk
206 bind Mod1+Shift+47 ml
208 # Move Container (Mod3+Shift+j/k/l/;)
209 bind Mod3+Shift+44 wcmh
210 bind Mod3+Shift+45 wcmj
211 bind Mod3+Shift+46 wcmk
212 bind Mod3+Shift+47 wcml
223 -------------------------------------------------------------
227 This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It is run by
228 your login manager (xdm, slim, gdm, …) as soon as you login.
231 -------------------------------------------------------------
232 # Disable DPMS turning off the screen
239 # Enable zapping (C-A-<Bksp> kills X)
240 setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
242 # Enforce correct locales from the beginning
244 export LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8
245 export LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
246 export LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
247 export LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
249 export LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
250 export LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
251 export LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
252 export LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
253 export LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
254 export LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
256 # Use XToolkit in java applications
257 export AWT_TOOLKIT=XToolkit
259 # Set background color
260 xsetroot -solid "#333333"
262 # Enable core dumps in case something goes wrong
265 # Start i3 and log to ~/.i3/logfile
266 echo "Starting at $(date)" >> ~/.i3/logfile
267 exec /usr/bin/i3 >> ~/.i3/logfile
268 -------------------------------------------------------------
272 There is still lot of work to do. Please check our bugtracker for up-to-date information
273 about tasks which are still not finished.
277 You should have a copy of the userguide (featuring nice screenshots/graphics which is why this
278 is not integrated into this manpage), the debugging guide and the "how to hack" guide. If you
279 are building from source, run +make -C docs+.
281 You can also access these documents online at http://i3.zekjur.net/
285 Michael Stapelberg and contributors