i3 User’s Guide
===============
Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
-May 2009
+May 2011
+
+*********************************************************************************
+This document is not yet finished. The tree branch is still in development. The
+information provided here should be correct, just not complete yet.
+*********************************************************************************
+
+This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
+window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
+question(s) on the mailing list.
+
+//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+== Default keybindings
+
+For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
+keybindings (click to see the full size image):
+
+*Keys to use with Mod1 (alt):*
+
+image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with Mod1 (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
+
+*Keys to use with Shift+Mod1:*
+
+image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+Mod1",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
+
+As i3 uses keycodes in the default configuration, it does not matter which
+keyboard layout you actually use. The key positions are what matters (of course
+you can also use keysymbols, see <<keybindings>>).
+
+The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
+are your homerow.
+//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+== Using i3
+
+Throughout this guide, the keyword +mod+ will be used to refer to the
+configured modifier. This is the windows key (mod4) by default, with alt (mod1)
+being a popular alternative.
+
+=== Opening terminals and moving around
+
+One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
+for this is mod+Enter, that is Win+Enter in the default configuration. By
+pressing mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
+space available on your screen.
+
+image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
+
+If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
+splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
+new window right to the old window (for widescreen) or below the old window
+(rotated displays).
+
+image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
+
+To move the focus between the two terminals, you use the direction keys which
+you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used for
+these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility
+with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +mod+J+ is left, +mod+K+ is down,
++mod+L+ is up and `mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the terminals,
+use +mod+K+ or +mod+L+.
+
+At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
+specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
+horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
+"window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
+or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
+windows.
+
+TODO: picture of the tree
+
+To split a window vertically, press +mod+v+. To split it horizontally, press
++mod+h+.
+
+=== Changing container modes
+
+A container can have the following modes:
+
+default::
+Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
+container.
+stacking::
+Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
+windows at the top of the container.
+tabbed::
+The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
+a single line which is vertically split.
+
+To switch modes, press +Mod1+e+ for default, +Mod1+h+ for stacking and
++Mod1+w+ for tabbed.
+
+image:modes.png[Container modes]
+
+=== Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
+
+To display a window fullscreen or to go out of fullscreen mode again, press
++mod+f+.
+
+There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will use all
+available outputs. To use it, or to get out of it again, press +mod+Shift+f+.
+
+=== Opening other applications
+
+Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
++dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+p+ by default. Just type the name
+(or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The application
+typed has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
+
+Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
+create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
+"Configuring i3" for details.
+
+=== Closing windows
+
+If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
+provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
+can press +Mod1+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
+the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
+any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
+the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
+depends on the application.
+
+=== Using workspaces
+
+Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
+the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
+another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
+you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
+
+A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
+applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
+work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
+
+If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
+startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
+created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
+focus to that screen.
+
+=== Moving windows to workspaces
+
+To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
++num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
+Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
+it does not yet exist.
+
+=== Resizing
+
+The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
+and move it to the wanted size.
+
+See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
+columns/rows with your keyboard.
+
+=== Restarting i3 inplace
+
+To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
+to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
+
+=== Exiting i3
+
+To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
+
+=== Floating
+
+Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
+are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
+paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
+windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
+appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
+
+You can enable floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
+dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
+around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
+can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
+
+For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
+
+Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
+
+== Tree
+
+The most important change and reason for the name is that i3 stores all
+information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the windows on them
+in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by the X11 outputs,
+then workspaces and finally the windows themselve. In previous versions of i3
+we had multiple lists (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace.
+That approach turned out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and
+implement.
+
+=== The tree consists of Containers
+
+The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
+host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
+like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
+simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
+single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
+like this:
+
+image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
+image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
+
+=== Orientation and Split Containers
+
+[[OrientationSplit]]
+
+It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
+layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
+orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
+workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
+(most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
+vertical (+Alt+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
+configure your windows like this:
+
+image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
+
+An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
+Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
+orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
+terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
+window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
+orientation. Instead, press +Alt+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
+open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +Alt+h+). Now you can open a new
+terminal and it will open below the current one:
+
+image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
+image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
+
+unfloat::[]
+
+You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
+of splits can be.
+
+=== Focus parent
+
+Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
+vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
+you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
+
+So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
+The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
+the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
+Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
+windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
+
+image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
-This document contains all information you need to configuring and using the i3 window
-manager. If it does not, please contact me on IRC, Jabber or E-Mail and I’ll help you out.
== Configuring i3
-TODO: document the other options, implement variables before
+This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
+ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
+
+While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
+quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
+to do.
-terminal::
- Specifies the terminal emulator program you prefer. It will be started by default when
- you press Mod1+Enter, but you can overwrite this. Refer to it as +$terminal+ to keep things
- modular.
-font::
- Specifies the default font you want i3 to use. Use an X core font descriptor here, like
- +-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1+. You can use +xfontsel(1)+
- to pick one.
+For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
+you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
+automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
+can bind your keys to do useful things.
+
+To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
+(or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
+with a text editor.
+
+=== Comments
+
+It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
+properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
+a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
+
+*Examples*:
+-------------------
+# This is a comment
+-------------------
+
+=== Fonts
+
+i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles and the internal
+workspace bar. You can use +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description.
+To see special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports
+the ISO-10646 encoding.
+
+If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
+and fall back to a working font.
+
+*Syntax*:
+------------------------------
+font <X core font description>
+------------------------------
+
+*Examples*:
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[[keybindings]]
=== Keyboard bindings
-TODO
+A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
+specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
+also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
+
+* A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
+ or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
+ are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
+ mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
+
+* Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for some hotkeys
+ on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you switch to a
+ different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
+
+My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
+your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
+If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
+keysyms.
*Syntax*:
---------------------------------
-bind [Modifiers+]keycode command
---------------------------------
+----------------------------------
+bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
+bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
+----------------------------------
*Examples*:
--------------------------------
# Fullscreen
-bind Mod1+41 f
+bindsym Mod1+f f
# Restart
-bind Mod1+Shift+27 restart
+bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
+
+# Notebook-specific hotkeys
+bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
--------------------------------
+Available Modifiers:
+
+Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
+Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
+
+Mode_switch::
+Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
+you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
+umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
+bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
+workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
+
+[[floating_modifier]]
+
+=== The floating modifier
+
+To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
+or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
+click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
+use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
+you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
+it to the position you want.
+
+When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
+pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
+you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional.
+
+*Syntax*:
+--------------------------------
+floating_modifier <Modifiers>
+--------------------------------
+
+*Examples*:
+--------------------------------
+floating_modifier Mod1
+--------------------------------
+
+=== Layout mode for new containers
+
+This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
+start.
+///////////////////////////////
+See also <<stack-limit>>.
+//////////////////////////////
+
+*Syntax*:
+---------------------------------------------
+workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
+---------------------------------------------
+/////////////////////////////////////////////
+new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
+/////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+*Examples*:
+---------------------
+workspace_layout tabbed
+---------------------
+
+=== Border style for new windows
+
+This option determines which border style new windows will have.
+
+*Syntax*:
+---------------------------------------------
+new_window <normal|1pixel|borderless>
+---------------------------------------------
+
+*Examples*:
+---------------------
+new_window 1pixel
+---------------------
+
+=== Variables
+
+As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
+to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
+yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
+variables can be handy.
+
+*Syntax*:
+--------------
+set name value
+--------------
+
+*Examples*:
+------------------------
+set $m Mod1
+bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
+------------------------
+
+Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
+handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
+dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
+configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
++.xsession+ file).
+
=== Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
-It is recommended that you match on window classes whereever possible because some applications
-first create their window and then care about setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator
-comes to mind, as the window starts up being named Firefox and only when Vimperator is loaded,
-the title changes. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the window (mapping
-means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have to match on Firefox in this case.
+[[assign_workspace]]
+
+It is recommended that you match on window classes wherever possible because
+some applications first create their window, and then worry about setting the
+correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window starts up
+being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the title change.
+As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the window (mapping
+means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have to match on
+'Firefox' in this case.
+
+You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a `~` to specify that matching clients
+should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a `~`, the client will
+not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
*Syntax*:
-----------------------------------------------------
-assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] workspace
-----------------------------------------------------
+------------------------------------------------------------
+assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] [workspace]
+------------------------------------------------------------
*Examples*:
----------------------
assign urxvt 2
assign urxvt → 2
+assign urxvt → work
assign "urxvt" → 2
assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3
+assign "gecko" → 4
+----------------------
+
+Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
+use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
+
+=== Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
+
+By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure which
+commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup (not when restarting i3
+in-place however). These commands will be run in order.
+
+*Syntax*:
+------------
+exec command
+------------
+
+*Examples*:
+--------------------------------
+exec i3status | dzen2 -dock
+--------------------------------
+
+[[workspace_screen]]
+
+=== Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
+
+If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
+workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
+will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
+or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
+the second screen and so on).
+
+*Syntax*:
+----------------------------------
+workspace <number> output <output>
+----------------------------------
+
+The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
+laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
+available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
+
+*Examples*:
+---------------------------
+workspace 1 output LVDS1
+workspace 5 output VGA1
+---------------------------
+
+=== Changing colors
+
+You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations and the
+bottom bar.
+
+*Syntax*:
+--------------------------------------------
+colorclass border background text
+--------------------------------------------
+
+Where colorclass can be one of:
+
+client.focused::
+ A client which currently has the focus.
+client.focused_inactive::
+ A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
+ the focus at the moment.
+client.unfocused::
+ A client which is not the focused one of its container.
+client.urgent::
+ A client which has its urgency hint activated.
+bar.focused::
+ The current workspace in the bottom bar.
+bar.unfocused::
+ All other workspaces in the bottom bar.
+bar.urgent::
+ A workspace which has at least one client with an activated urgency hint.
+
+You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
+windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
+will be rendered.
+
+*Syntax*:
+-----------------------
+client.background color
+-----------------------
+
+Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
+used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
+most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
+terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
+area of the termianal and the i3 border.
+
+Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
+
+*Examples*:
+--------------------------------------
+# class border backgr. text
+client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF
+--------------------------------------
+
+Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
+background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
+the window.
+
+=== Interprocess communication
+
+i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
+programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
+(to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
+
+To enable it, you have to configure a path where the unix socket will be
+stored. The default path is +/tmp/i3-ipc.sock+.
+
+You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+.
+
+*Examples*:
+----------------------------
+ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
+----------------------------
+
+You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
+the next section.
+
+=== Disable focus follows mouse
+
+If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
+on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
+to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
+The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
+to click on links in your browser window).
+
+*Syntax*:
+----------------------------
+focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
+----------------------------
+
+*Examples*:
+----------------------
+focus_follows_mouse no
+----------------------
+
+== List of commands
+
+=== Manipulating layout
+
+To change the layout of the current container to stacking, use +layout
+stacking+, for default use +layout default+ and for tabbed, use +layout
+tabbed+. To make the current client (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
+it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
+(or +floating toggle+):
+
+*Examples*:
+--------------
+bindsym Mod1+s layout stacking
+bindsym Mod1+l layout default
+bindsym Mod1+w layout tabbed
+
+# Toggle fullscreen
+bindsym Mod1+f fullscreen
+
+# Toggle floating/tiling
+bindsym Mod1+t floating toggle
+--------------
+
+=== Focusing/Moving containers
+
+To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus down+ and +focus up+.
+
+For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
+
+*Examples*:
+----------------------
+# Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
+bindsym Mod1+j focus left
+bindsym Mod1+k focus down
+bindsym Mod1+l focus up
+bindsym Mod1+semicolon focus right
+
+# Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
+bindsym Mod1+j move left
+bindsym Mod1+k move down
+bindsym Mod1+l move up
+bindsym Mod1+semicolon move right
----------------------
+
+=== Changing workspaces/moving containers to workspaces
+
+To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
+number or name of the workspace. To move containers, use +move workspace+.
+
+You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
++workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
+workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
+combination.
+
+*Examples*:
+-------------------------
+bindsym Mod1+1 workspace 1
+bindsym Mod1+2 workspace 2
+...
+
+bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 move workspace 1
+bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 move workspace 2
+...
+-------------------------
+
+[[resizingconfig]]
+
+=== Resizing containers/windows
+
+If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
++resize+ command, I recommend using it inside a so called +mode+:
+
+.Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+mode "resize" {
+ # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
+
+ # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
+ # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
+ # more space on its left
+
+ bindsym j resize shrink left
+ bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
+
+ bindsym k resize grow bottom
+ bindsym Shift+k resize shrink bottom
+
+ bindsym l resize shrink top
+ bindsym Shift+l resize grow top
+
+ bindsym semicolon resize grow right
+ bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
+
+ bindcode 36 mode default
+}
+
+# Enter resize mode
+bindsym Mod1+r mode "resize"
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+=== Jumping to specific windows
+
+Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
+specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
+jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
+important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
+it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
+for that.
+
+*Syntax*:
+----------------------------------------------------
+[class="class"] focus
+[title="title"] focus
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+*Examples*:
+------------------------------------------------
+# Get me to the next open VIM instance
+bindsym Mod1+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
+------------------------------------------------
+
+=== VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
+
+[[vim_like_marks]]
+
+This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
+specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
+focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
+an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
+windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
+configuration file.
+
+As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
+window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
+for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
+can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
+
+*Syntax*:
+------------------------------
+mark <identifier>
+[con_mark="identifier"] focus
+------------------------------
+
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+TODO: make i3-input replace %s
+*Examples*:
+---------------------------------------
+# Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
+bindsym Mod1+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
+
+# Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
+bindsym Mod1+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
+---------------------------------------
+
+Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
+seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+TODO: not yet implemented
+=== Traveling the focus stack
+
+This mechanism can be thought of as the opposite of the +jump+ command.
+It travels the focus stack and jumps to the window which had focus previously.
+
+*Syntax*:
+--------------
+focus [number] | floating | tiling | ft
+--------------
+
+Where +number+ by default is 1 meaning that the next client in the focus stack
+will be selected.
+
+The special values have the following meaning:
+
+floating::
+ The next floating window is selected.
+tiling::
+ The next tiling window is selected.
+ft::
+ If the current window is floating, the next tiling window will be
+ selected; and vice-versa.
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+=== Changing border style
+
+To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
+border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
+and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
+
+There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
+
+*Examples*:
+----------------------------
+bindsym Mod1+t border normal
+bindsym Mod1+y border 1pixel
+bindsym Mod1+u border none
+----------------------------
+
+[[stack-limit]]
+
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+TODO: not yet implemented
+=== Changing the stack-limit of a container
+
+If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
+10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
+Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
+lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
+
+Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
+in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
+you limited) automatically as needed.
+
+*Syntax*:
+--------------------------------
+stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
+--------------------------------
+
+*Examples*:
+-------------------
+# I always want to have two window titles in one line
+stack-limit cols 2
+
+# Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
+stack-limit rows 5
+-------------------
+
+image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+=== Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
+
+You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
+restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
+(if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
+your X session. However, your layout is not preserved at the moment, meaning
+that all open windows will end up in a single container in default layout
+after the restart. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
+however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
+
+*Examples*:
+----------------------------
+bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
+bindsym Mod1+Shift+w reload
+bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
+----------------------------
+
+[[multi_monitor]]
+
+== Multiple monitors
+
+As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
+with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
+handle multiple monitors.
+
+When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
+workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
+
+When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
+workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
+would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
+switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
+need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
+where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
+active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
+
+The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
+users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
+They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
+several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
+and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
+create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
+screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
+screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
+
+=== Configuring your monitors
+
+To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
+a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
+you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
+Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+$ xrandr
+Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
+VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
+LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
+ 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
+ 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
+ 832x624 74.6
+ 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
+ 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
+ 720x400 85.0
+ 640x400 85.1
+ 640x350 85.1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
+course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
+connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
+check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
+
+The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
+combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
+to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
+
+So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
+-------------------------------------------
+xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
+-------------------------------------------
+This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
+connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
+When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+$ xrandr
+Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
+VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
+ 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
+ 1280x960 60.0
+ 1152x864 75.0
+ 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
+ 832x624 74.6
+ 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
+ 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
+ 720x400 70.1
+LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
+ 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
+ 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
+ 832x624 74.6
+ 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
+ 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
+ 720x400 85.0
+ 640x400 85.1
+ 640x350 85.1
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
+only what you can see in xrandr.
+
+See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
+
+=== Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
+
+There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
+have more than one monitor:
+
+1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
+ allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
+ 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
+ <<workspace_screen>>.
+2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
+ (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
+ <<assign_workspace>>.
+3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
+ track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
+ quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
+
+== i3 and the rest of your software world
+
+=== Displaying a status line
+
+A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
+some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
+approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
+
+If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
+(self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
+this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
+possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states.
+
+Regardless of which application you use to generate the status line, you
+want to make sure that the application does one of the following things:
+
+1. Register as a dock window using EWMH hints. This will make i3 position the
+ window above the workspace bar but below every other client. This is the
+ recommended way, but in case of dzen2, for example, you need to check out
+ the source of dzen2 from subversion, as the -dock option is not present
+ in the released versions.
+2. Overlay the internal workspace bar. This method will not waste any space
+ on the workspace bar, however, it is rather hackish. Just configure
+ the output window to be over the workspace bar (say -x 200 and -y 780 if
+ your screen is 800 px height).
+
+The planned solution for this problem is to make the workspace bar optional
+and switch to a third party application completely (dzen2 for example)
+which will then contain the workspace bar.
+
+=== Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
+
+When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
+on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
+simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
+which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
+slides.
+
+[[presentations]]
+==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
+This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
+turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
+clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
+-----------------------------------------------------
+xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
+-----------------------------------------------------
+i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
+your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
+our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
+
+==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
+This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
+somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
+-----------------------------------------------------
+xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
+-----------------------------------------------------
+Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
+and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
+
+Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
+display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
+software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).
projects / i3 / i3 / blobdiff