Contains debugging functions to print unhandled X events.
src/ewmh.c::
-iFunctions to get/set certain EWMH properties easily.
+Functions to get/set certain EWMH properties easily.
src/floating.c::
Contains functions for floating mode (mostly resizing/dragging).
A workspace is identified by its name. Basically, you could think of
workspaces as different desks in your office, if you like the desktop
-methaphor. They just contain different sets of windows and are completely
+metaphor. They just contain different sets of windows and are completely
separate of each other. Other window managers also call this ``Virtual
desktops''.
whether this window is a dock (`_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK`), like dzen2 for
example. Docks are handled differently, they don’t have decorations and are not
assigned to a specific container. Instead, they are positioned at the bottom
-of the screen. To get the height which needs to be reserved for the window,
-the `_NET_WM_STRUT_PARTIAL` property is used.
+or top of the screen (in the appropriate dock area containers). To get the
+height which needs to be reserved for the window, the `_NET_WM_STRUT_PARTIAL`
+property is used.
Furthermore, the list of assignments (to other workspaces, which may be on
other screens) is checked. If the window matches one of the user’s criteria,
== Rendering (src/layout.c, render_layout() and render_container())
-*********************************************************************************
-This section has not been updated for v4.0 yet, sorry! We wanted to release on
-time, but we will update this soon. Please talk to us on IRC if you need to
-know stuff *NOW* :).
-*********************************************************************************
-
Rendering in i3 version 4 is the step which assigns the correct sizes for
borders, decoration windows, child windows and the stacking order of all
windows. In a separate step (+x_push_changes()+), these changes are pushed to
X11.
-/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-
-
-There are several entry points to rendering: `render_layout()`,
-`render_workspace()` and `render_container()`. The former one calls
-`render_workspace()` for every screen, which in turn will call
-`render_container()` for every container inside its layout table. Therefore, if
-you need to render only a single container, for example because a window was
-removed, added or changed its title, you should directly call
-render_container().
-
-Rendering consists of two steps: In the first one, in `render_workspace()`, each
-container gets its position (screen offset + offset in the table) and size
-(container's width times colspan/rowspan). Then, `render_container()` is called,
-which takes different approaches, depending on the mode the container is in:
-
-=== Common parts
-
-On the frame (the window which was created around the client’s window for the
-decorations), a black rectangle is drawn as a background for windows like
-MPlayer, which do not completely fit into the frame.
-
-=== Default mode
-
-Each clients gets the container’s width and an equal amount of height.
-
-=== Stack mode
-
-In stack mode, a window containing the decorations of all windows inside the
-container is placed at the top. The currently focused window is then given the
-whole remaining space.
-
-=== Tabbed mode
-
-Tabbed mode is like stack mode, except that the window decorations are drawn
-in one single line at the top of the container.
-
-=== Window decorations
+Keep in mind that all these properties (+rect+, +window_rect+ and +deco_rect+)
+are temporary, meaning they will be overwritten by calling +render_con+.
+Persistent position/size information is kept in +geometry+.
+
+The entry point for every rendering operation (except for the case of moving
+floating windows around) currently is +tree_render()+ which will re-render
+everything that’s necessary (for every output, only the currently displayed
+workspace is rendered). This behavior is expected to change in the future,
+since for a lot of updates, re-rendering everything is not actually necessary.
+Focus was on getting it working correct, not getting it work very fast.
+
+What +tree_render()+ actually does is calling +render_con()+ on the root
+container and then pushing the changes to X11. The following sections talk
+about the different rendering steps, in the order of "top of the tree" (root
+container) to the bottom.
+
+=== Rendering the root container
+
+The i3 root container (`con->type == CT_ROOT`) represents the X11 root window.
+It contains one child container for every output (like LVDS1, VGA1, …), which
+is available on your computer.
+
+Rendering the root will first render all tiling windows and then all floating
+windows. This is necessary because a floating window can be positioned in such
+a way that it is visible on two different outputs. Therefore, by first
+rendering all the tiling windows (of all outputs), we make sure that floating
+windows can never be obscured by tiling windows.
+
+Essentially, though, this code path will just call +render_con()+ for every
+output and +x_raise_con(); render_con()+ for every floating window.
+
+In the special case of having a "global fullscreen" window (fullscreen mode
+spanning all outputs), a shortcut is taken and +x_raise_con(); render_con()+ is
+only called for the global fullscreen window.
+
+=== Rendering an output
+
+Output containers (`con->layout == L_OUTPUT`) represent a hardware output like
+LVDS1, VGA1, etc. An output container has three children (at the moment): One
+content container (having workspaces as children) and the top/bottom dock area
+containers.
+
+The rendering happens in the function +render_l_output()+ in the following
+steps:
+
+1. Find the content container (`con->type == CT_CON`)
+2. Get the currently visible workspace (+con_get_fullscreen_con(content,
+ CF_OUTPUT)+).
+3. If there is a fullscreened window on that workspace, directly render it and
+ return, thus ignoring the dock areas.
+4. Sum up the space used by all the dock windows (they have a variable height
+ only).
+5. Set the workspace rects (x/y/width/height) based on the position of the
+ output (stored in `con->rect`) and the usable space
+ (`con->rect.{width,height}` without the space used for dock windows).
+6. Recursively raise and render the output’s child containers (meaning dock
+ area containers and the content container).
+
+=== Rendering a workspace or split container
+
+From here on, there really is no difference anymore. All containers are of
+`con->type == CT_CON` (whether workspace or split container) and some of them
+have a `con->window`, meaning they represent an actual window instead of a
+split container.
+
+==== Default layout
+
+In default layout, containers are placed horizontally or vertically next to
+each other (depending on the `con->orientation`). If a child is a leaf node (as
+opposed to a split container) and has border style "normal", appropriate space
+will be reserved for its window decoration.
+
+==== Stacked layout
+
+In stacked layout, only the focused window is actually shown (this is achieved
+by calling +x_raise_con()+ in reverse focus order at the end of +render_con()+).
+
+The available space for the focused window is the size of the container minus
+the height of the window decoration for all windows inside this stacked
+container.
-The window decorations consist of a rectangle in the appropriate color (depends
-on whether this window is the currently focused one, the last focused one in a
-not focused container or not focused at all) forming the background.
-Afterwards, two lighter lines are drawn and the last step is drawing the
-window’s title (see WM_NAME) onto it.
+If border style is "1pixel" or "none", no window decoration height will be
+reserved (or displayed later on), unless there is more than one window inside
+the stacked container.
+
+==== Tabbed layout
+
+Tabbed layout works precisely like stacked layout, but the window decoration
+position/size is different: They are placed next to each other on a single line
+(fixed height).
+
+==== Dock area layout
+
+This is a special case. Users cannot chose the dock area layout, but it will be
+set for the dock area containers. In the dockarea layout (at the moment!),
+windows will be placed above each other.
+
+=== Rendering a window
+
+A window’s size and position will be determined in the following way:
+
+1. Subtract the border if border style is not "none" (but "normal" or "1pixel").
+2. Subtract the X11 border, if the window has an X11 border > 0.
+3. Obey the aspect ratio of the window (think MPlayer).
+4. Obey the height- and width-increments of the window (think terminal emulator
+ which can only be resized in one-line or one-character steps).
+
+== Pushing updates to X11 / Drawing
+
+A big problem with i3 before version 4 was that we just sent requests to X11
+anywhere in the source code. This was bad because nobody could understand the
+entirety of our interaction with X11, it lead to subtle bugs and a lot of edge
+cases which we had to consider all over again.
+
+Therefore, since version 4, we have a single file, +src/x.c+, which is
+responsible for repeatedly transferring parts of our tree datastructure to X11.
+
++src/x.c+ consists of multiple parts:
+
+1. The state pushing: +x_push_changes()+, which calls +x_push_node()+.
+2. State modification functions: +x_con_init+, +x_reinit+,
+ +x_reparent_child+, +x_move_win+, +x_con_kill+, +x_raise_con+, +x_set_name+
+ and +x_set_warp_to+.
+3. Expose event handling (drawing decorations): +x_deco_recurse()+ and
+ +x_draw_decoration()+.
+
+=== Pushing state to X11
+
+In general, the function +x_push_changes+ should be called to push state
+changes. Only when the scope of the state change is clearly defined (for
+example only the title of a window) and its impact is known beforehand, one can
+optimize this and call +x_push_node+ on the appropriate con directly.
+
++x_push_changes+ works in the following steps:
+
+1. Clear the eventmask for all mapped windows. This leads to not getting
+ useless ConfigureNotify or EnterNotify events which are caused by our
+ requests. In general, we only want to handle user input.
+2. Stack windows above each other, in reverse stack order (starting with the
+ most obscured/bottom window). This is relevant for floating windows which
+ can overlap each other, but also for tiling windows in stacked or tabbed
+ containers. We also update the +_NET_CLIENT_LIST_STACKING+ hint which is
+ necessary for tab drag and drop in Chromium.
+3. +x_push_node+ will be called for the root container, recursively calling
+ itself for the container’s children. This function actually pushes the
+ state, see the next paragraph.
+4. If the pointer needs to be warped to a different position (for example when
+ changing focus to a differnt output), it will be warped now.
+5. The eventmask is restored for all mapped windows.
+6. Window decorations will be rendered by calling +x_deco_recurse+ on the root
+ container, which then recursively calls itself for the children.
+7. If the input focus needs to be changed (because the user focused a different
+ window), it will be updated now.
+8. +x_push_node_unmaps+ will be called for the root container. This function
+ only pushes UnmapWindow requests. Separating the state pushing is necessary
+ to handle fullscreen windows (and workspace switches) in a smooth fashion:
+ The newly visible windows should be visible before the old windows are
+ unmapped.
+
++x_push_node+ works in the following steps:
+
+1. Update the window’s +WM_NAME+, if changed (the +WM_NAME+ is set on i3
+ containers mainly for debugging purposes).
+2. Reparents a child window into the i3 container if the container was created
+ for a specific managed window.
+3. If the size/position of the i3 container changed (due to opening a new
+ window or switching layouts for example), the window will be reconfigured.
+ Also, the pixmap which is used to draw the window decoration/border on is
+ reconfigured (pixmaps are size-dependent).
+4. Size/position for the child window is adjusted.
+5. The i3 container is mapped if it should be visible and was not yet mapped.
+ When mapping, +WM_STATE+ is set to +WM_STATE_NORMAL+. Also, the eventmask of
+ the child window is updated and the i3 container’s contents are copied from
+ the pixmap.
+6. +x_push_node+ is called recursively for all children of the current
+ container.
+
++x_push_node_unmaps+ handles the remaining case of an i3 container being
+unmapped if it should not be visible anymore. +WM_STATE+ will be set to
++WM_STATE_WITHDRAWN+.
+
+
+=== Drawing window decorations/borders/backgrounds
+
++x_draw_decoration+ draws window decorations. It is run for every leaf
+container (representing an actual X11 window) and for every non-leaf container
+which is in a stacked/tabbed container (because stacked/tabbed containers
+display a window decoration for split containers, which at the moment just says
+"another container").
+
+Then, parameters are collected to be able to determine whether this decoration
+drawing is actually necessary or was already done. This saves a substantial
+number of redraws (depending on your workload, but far over 50%).
+
+Assuming that we need to draw this decoration, we start by filling the empty
+space around the child window (think of MPlayer with a specific aspect ratio)
+in the user-configured client background color.
+
+Afterwards, we draw the appropriate border (in case of border styles "normal"
+and "1pixel") and the top bar (in case of border style "normal").
+
+The last step is drawing the window title on the top bar.
-=== Fullscreen windows
-For fullscreen windows, the `rect` (x, y, width, height) is not changed to
-allow the client to easily go back to its previous position. Instead,
-fullscreen windows are skipped when rendering.
+/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-=== Resizing containers
+== Resizing containers
By clicking and dragging the border of a container, you can resize the whole
column (respectively row) which this container is in. This is necessary to keep
projects / i3 / i3 / blobdiff