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 split container contains multiple other split containers or windows.
83 Containers can be used in various layouts. The default mode is called "default"
84 and just resizes each client equally so that it fits.
87 A workspace is a set of containers. Other window managers call this "Virtual
90 In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By default,
91 screen 1 has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so on… However, when you
92 create a new workspace (by simply switching to it), it’ll be assigned the
93 screen you are currently on.
96 Using XRandR, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real monitors.
97 Furthermore, you can set them up in cloning mode or with positions (monitor 1
98 is left of monitor 2).
100 i3 uses the RandR API to query which outputs are available and which screens
101 are connected to these outputs.
105 Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:
108 Open a new terminal emulator window.
111 Open dmenu for starting any application by typing (part of) its name.
114 Direction keys (left, down, up, right). They are on your homerow (see the mark
115 on your "j" key). Alternatively, you can use the cursor keys.
118 Focus window in <direction>.
120 Mod1+Shift+<direction>::
121 Move window to <direction>.
124 Switch to workspace <number>.
126 Mod1+Shift+<number>::
127 Move window to workspace <number>.
130 Toggle fullscreen mode.
133 Enable stacking layout for the current container.
136 Enable default layout for the current container.
139 Enable tabbed layout for the current container.
142 Toggle tiling/floating for the current container.
145 Select the first tiling container if the current container is floating and
149 Kills the current window. This is equivalent to "clicking on the close button",
150 meaning a polite request to the application to close this window. For example,
151 Firefox will save its session upon such a request. If the application does not
152 support that, the window will be killed and it depends on the application what
156 Restarts i3 in place. Your layout will be preserved.
163 === \~/.i3/config (or ~/.config/i3/config)
165 When starting, i3 looks for configuration files in the following order:
167 1. ~/.config/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3/config if set)
168 2. /etc/xdg/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3/config if set)
172 You can specify a custom path using the -c option.
174 .Sample configuration
175 -------------------------------------------------------------
176 # i3 config file (v4)
178 # font for window titles. ISO 10646 = Unicode
179 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
181 # use Mouse+Mod1 to drag floating windows to their wanted position
182 floating_modifier Mod1
185 bindsym Mod1+Return exec /usr/bin/urxvt
187 # kill focused window
188 bindsym Mod1+Shift+q kill
190 # start dmenu (a program launcher)
191 bindsym Mod1+d exec /usr/bin/dmenu_run
194 bindsym Mod1+j focus left
195 bindsym Mod1+k focus down
196 bindsym Mod1+l focus up
197 bindsym Mod1+semicolon focus right
199 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
200 bindsym Mod1+Left focus left
201 bindsym Mod1+Down focus down
202 bindsym Mod1+Up focus up
203 bindsym Mod1+Right focus right
205 # move focused window
206 bindsym Mod1+Shift+j move left
207 bindsym Mod1+Shift+k move down
208 bindsym Mod1+Shift+l move up
209 bindsym Mod1+Shift+semicolon move right
211 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
212 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Left move left
213 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Down move down
214 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Up move up
215 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Right move right
217 # split in horizontal orientation
218 bindsym Mod1+h split h
220 # split in vertical orientation
221 bindsym Mod1+v split v
223 # enter fullscreen mode for the focused container
224 bindsym Mod1+f fullscreen
226 # change container layout (stacked, tabbed, default)
227 bindsym Mod1+s layout stacking
228 bindsym Mod1+w layout tabbed
229 bindsym Mod1+e layout default
231 # toggle tiling / floating
232 bindsym Mod1+Shift+space floating toggle
234 # change focus between tiling / floating windows
235 bindsym Mod1+space focus mode_toggle
237 # focus the parent container
238 bindsym Mod1+a focus parent
240 # focus the child container
241 #bindsym Mod1+d focus child
243 # switch to workspace
244 bindsym Mod1+1 workspace 1
245 bindsym Mod1+2 workspace 2
248 # move focused container to workspace
249 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 move workspace 1
250 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 move workspace 2
253 # reload the configuration file
254 bindsym Mod1+Shift+c reload
255 # restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3)
256 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
257 # exit i3 (logs you out of your X session)
258 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
260 # display workspace buttons plus a statusline generated by i3status
262 status_command i3status
264 -------------------------------------------------------------
268 This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It is run by
269 your login manager (xdm, slim, gdm, …) as soon as you login.
272 -------------------------------------------------------------
273 # Disable DPMS turning off the screen
280 # Enable zapping (C-A-<Bksp> kills X)
281 setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
283 # Enforce correct locales from the beginning:
284 # LC_ALL is unset since it overwrites everything
285 # LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 is used, except for:
286 # LC_MESSAGES=C never translates program output
287 # LC_TIME=en_DK leads to yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm date/time output
289 export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
291 export LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8
293 # Use XToolkit in java applications
294 export AWT_TOOLKIT=XToolkit
296 # Set background color
297 xsetroot -solid "#333333"
299 # Enable core dumps in case something goes wrong
302 # Start i3 and log to ~/.i3/logfile
303 echo "Starting at $(date)" >> ~/.i3/logfile
304 exec /usr/bin/i3 -V -d all >> ~/.i3/logfile
305 -------------------------------------------------------------
311 This variable overwrites the IPC socket path (placed in
312 /tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p by default, where %u is replaced with your UNIX
313 username, %p is replaced with i3’s PID and XXXXXX is a string of random
314 characters from the portable filename character set (see mkdtemp(3))). The IPC
315 socket is used by external programs like i3-msg(1) or i3bar(1).
319 There is still lot of work to do. Please check our bugtracker for up-to-date
320 information about tasks which are still not finished.
324 You should have a copy of the userguide (featuring nice screenshots/graphics
325 which is why this is not integrated into this manpage), the debugging guide,
326 and the "how to hack" guide. If you are building from source, run:
329 You can also access these documents online at http://i3wm.org/
331 i3-input(1), i3-msg(1), i3bar(1), i3-nagbar(1), i3-config-wizard(1),
332 i3-migrate-config-to-v4(1)
336 Michael Stapelberg and contributors