3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
4 v3.delta, November 2009
8 i3 - an improved dynamic, tiling window manager
12 i3 [-a] [-c configfile] [-C] [-d <loglevel>] [-v] [-V]
20 Specifies an alternate configuration file path.
23 Check the configuration file for validity and exit.
26 Specifies the debug loglevel. To see the most output, use -d all.
29 Display version number (and date of the last commit).
38 i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time, didn’t
39 provide some features we wanted (Xinerama done right, for example), had some
40 bugs, didn’t progress since quite some time and wasn’t easy to hack at all
41 (source code comments/documentation completely lacking). Still, we think the
42 wmii developers and contributors did a great job. Thank you for inspiring us to
45 Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and developers.
50 A client is X11-speak for a window.
53 Your workspace is managed using a table. You can move windows around and create new columns
54 (move a client to the right) or rows (move it to the bottom) implicitly.
56 By "snapping" a client in a specific direction, you increase its colspan/rowspan.
59 A container contains a variable number of clients. Each cell of the table is a container.
61 Containers can be used in various modes. The default mode is called "default" and just
62 resizes each client equally so that it fits.
65 A workspace is a set of clients (technically speaking, it’s just a table). Other window
66 managers call this "Virtual Desktops".
68 In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By default, screen 1
69 has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so on… However, when you create a new
70 workspace (by simply switching to it), it’ll be assigned the screen you are currently
74 Using Xinerama, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real monitors. Furthermore,
75 you can set them up in cloning mode or with positions (monitor 1 is left of monitor 2).
77 A virtual screen is the result of your Xinerama setup. For example, if you have attached
78 two real monitors (let’s say your laptop screen and a video projector) and enabled cloning, i3
79 will use one virtual screen with the size of the smallest screen you have attached (so
80 that you can see all your windows on each screen all the time).
81 If you have two monitors attached, one configured to be left of the other, i3 will use
86 Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:
89 Direction keys (left, down, up, right). They are on your homerow (see the mark
90 on your "j" key). Alternatively, you can use the cursor keys.
93 Focus window in <direction>.
96 Focus container in <direction>.
98 Mod1+Shift+<direction>::
99 Move window to <direction>.
101 Mod3+Shift+<direction>::
102 Move container to <direction>.
104 Mod1+Control+<direction>::
105 Snap container to <direction>.
108 Switch to workspace <number>.
110 Mod1+Shift+<number>::
111 Move window to workspace <number>.
114 Toggle fullscreen mode.
117 Enable stacking layout for the current container.
120 Enable default layout for the current container.
123 Toggle tiling/floating for the current window.
126 Select the first tiling window if the current window is floating and vice-versa.
129 Kills the current window. This is equivalent to "clicking on the close button", meaning a polite
130 request to the application to close this window. For example, Firefox will save its session
131 upon such a request. If the application does not support that, the window will be killed and
132 it depends on the application what happens.
135 Restarts i3 in place (without losing any windows, but the layout).
144 When starting, i3 looks for ~/.i3/config and loads the configuration. If ~/.i3/config is not found,
145 i3 tries /etc/i3/config. You can specify a custom path using the -c option.
147 At the moment, you can specify only the path to your favorite terminal emulator, the font and keybindings.
149 At the moment, you have to bind to keycodes (find them out via xev(1)).
151 .Sample configuration
152 -------------------------------------------------------------
153 terminal /usr/bin/urxvt
154 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
156 # Start terminal (Mod1+Enter)
157 bind Mod1+36 exec /usr/bin/urxvt
159 # Start dmenu (Mod1+v)
160 bind Mod1+55 exec /usr/bin/dmenu_run
162 # Kill current client (Mod1+Shift+q)
163 bind Mod1+Shift+24 kill
166 bind Mod1+73 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
169 bind Mod1+68 exec /usr/bin/i3lock
171 # Restart i3 inplace (Mod1+Shift+r)
172 bind Mod1+Shift+27 restart
174 # Exit i3 (Mod1+Shift+e)
175 bind Mod1+Shift+26 exit
178 bind Mod1+97 exec sudo sh -c "echo up > /proc/acpi/ibm/brightness"
179 bind Mod1+103 exec sudo sh -c "echo down > /proc/acpi/ibm/brightness"
181 # Fullscreen (Mod1+f)
190 # Toggle tiling/floating of the current window (Mod1+Shift+Space)
193 # Go into the tiling layer / floating layer, depending on whether
194 # the current window is tiling / floating (Mod1+t)
195 bind Mod1+28 focus ft
197 # Focus (Mod1+j/k/l/;)
203 # Focus Container (Mod3+j/k/l/;)
209 # Snap (Mod1+Control+j/k/l/;)
210 bind Mod1+Control+44 sh
211 bind Mod1+Control+45 sj
212 bind Mod1+Control+46 sk
213 bind Mod1+Control+47 sl
215 # Move (Mod1+Shift+j/k/l/;)
216 bind Mod1+Shift+44 mh
217 bind Mod1+Shift+45 mj
218 bind Mod1+Shift+46 mk
219 bind Mod1+Shift+47 ml
221 # Move Container (Mod3+Shift+j/k/l/;)
222 bind Mod3+Shift+44 wcmh
223 bind Mod3+Shift+45 wcmj
224 bind Mod3+Shift+46 wcmk
225 bind Mod3+Shift+47 wcml
236 -------------------------------------------------------------
240 This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It is run by
241 your login manager (xdm, slim, gdm, …) as soon as you login.
244 -------------------------------------------------------------
245 # Disable DPMS turning off the screen
252 # Enable zapping (C-A-<Bksp> kills X)
253 setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
255 # Enforce correct locales from the beginning
257 export LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8
258 export LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
259 export LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
260 export LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
262 export LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
263 export LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
264 export LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
265 export LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
266 export LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
267 export LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
269 # Use XToolkit in java applications
270 export AWT_TOOLKIT=XToolkit
272 # Set background color
273 xsetroot -solid "#333333"
275 # Enable core dumps in case something goes wrong
278 # Start i3 and log to ~/.i3/logfile
279 echo "Starting at $(date)" >> ~/.i3/logfile
280 exec /usr/bin/i3 >> ~/.i3/logfile
281 -------------------------------------------------------------
285 There is still lot of work to do. Please check our bugtracker for up-to-date information
286 about tasks which are still not finished.
290 You should have a copy of the userguide (featuring nice screenshots/graphics which is why this
291 is not integrated into this manpage), the debugging guide and the "how to hack" guide. If you
292 are building from source, run +make -C docs+.
294 You can also access these documents online at http://i3.zekjur.net/
296 i3-input(1), i3-msg(1)
300 Michael Stapelberg and contributors