i3 User’s Guide
===============
Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
-October 2011
+January 2012
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
press +mod+f+.
There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
-available outputs.
+available outputs (the command is +fullscreen global+).
=== Opening other applications
*Examples*:
--------------------------------
# Fullscreen
-bindsym mod+f f
+bindsym mod+f fullscreen
# Restart
bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
window, you will see the following output:
-*xwininfo*:
+*xprop*:
-----------------------------------
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
-----------------------------------
*Syntax*:
--------------------------------------------
-colorclass border background text
+colorclass border background text indicator
--------------------------------------------
Where colorclass can be one of:
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.
+area of the terminal and the i3 border.
Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
*Examples (default colors)*:
------------------------------------------------
-# class border backgr. text
-client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
-client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
-client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888
-client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
------------------------------------------------
+---------------------------------------------------------
+# class border backgr. text indicator
+client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
+client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
+client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
+client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
+---------------------------------------------------------
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.
+The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
+For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
+color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
+single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
+from single windows outside of a split container.
+
=== Interprocess communication
i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
(to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
-+/tmp/i3-%u/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username and +%p+ is the PID
-of i3.
++/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
+the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
+filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
-does the right thing by default.
+does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
+recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
+user can create that directory.
*Examples*:
----------------------------
-ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
+ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
----------------------------
You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
}
-------------------------------------------------
+[[status_command]]
=== Statusline command
i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
You can have i3bar either be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
(+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+
-mode).
+mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
save battery power.
-The default is dock mode.
+The default is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
+the windows key).
*Syntax*:
----------------
mode <dock|hide>
+modifier <Modifier>
----------------
*Example*:
----------------
bar {
mode hide
+ modifier Mod1
}
----------------
+Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
+
+[[i3bar_position]]
=== Position
This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
statusline::
Text color to be used for the statusline.
focused_workspace::
- Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
+ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
has focus.
active_workspace::
- Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
+ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
using multiple monitors.
inactive_workspace::
- Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
+ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
will be the case for most workspaces.
urgent_workspace::
- Text color/background color for workspaces which contain at least one
+ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
window with the urgency hint set.
*Syntax*:
background <color>
statusline <color>
- colorclass <foreground> <background>
+ colorclass <border> <background> <text>
}
----------------------------------------
-*Example*:
+*Example (default colors)*:
--------------------------------------
bar {
colors {
background #000000
statusline #ffffff
- focused_workspace #ffffff #285577
- active_workspace #ffffff #333333
- inactive_workspace #888888 #222222
- urgent_workspace #ffffff #900000
+ focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
+ active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
+ inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
+ urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
}
}
--------------------------------------
the following keybinding:
*Example*:
--------------------------------------------
-bindsym mod+x move workspace 3; workspace 3
--------------------------------------------
+--------------------------------------------------------
+bindsym mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
+--------------------------------------------------------
[[command_criteria]]
Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
title::
Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
+urgent::
+ Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
+ Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
+ (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
con_mark::
Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
con_id::
=== Focusing/Moving containers
-To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus down+ and +focus up+.
+To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
+down+ and +focus up+.
There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
mode_toggle::
Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
+output::
+ Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
+ corresponding output.
For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
-----------------------------------
focus <left|right|down|up>
focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
+focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
-----------------------------------
# Focus last floating/tiling container
bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
+# Focus the output right to the current one
+bindsym mod+x focus output right
+
+# Focus the big output
+bindsym mod+x focus output HDMI-2
+
# Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
bindsym mod+j move left
bindsym mod+k move down
To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
-+move workspace+.
++move container to 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. Similarily, you can use +move workspace next+ and +move workspace
-prev+ to move a container to the next/previous workspace.
+combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
+next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
+container to workspace next+ and +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
+container to the next/previous workspace.
[[back_and_forth]]
To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
back_and_forth+.
To move a container to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+, you can
-use the +move output+ command followed by the name of the target output. You
-may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr output name to
-move to the the next output in the specified direction.
+use the +move container to output+ command followed by the name of the target
+output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr
+output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
+
+To move a whole workspace to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+,
+you can use the +move workspace to output+ command followed by the name of the
+target output. You may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the
+xrandr output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
*Examples*:
-------------------------
bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
...
-bindsym mod+Shift+1 move workspace 1
-bindsym mod+Shift+2 move workspace 2
+bindsym mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
+bindsym mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
...
# switch between the current and the previously focused one
bindsym mod+b workspace back_and_forth
+
+# move the whole workspace to the next output
+bindsym mod+x move workspace to output right
-------------------------
==== Named workspaces
bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
----------------------------
+=== Scratchpad
+
+There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
+scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
+invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
+Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
+floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
+a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
+keybinding to toggle).
+
+As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
+editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
+running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
+player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
+
+*Syntax*:
+---------------
+move scratchpad
+
+scratchpad show
+---------------
+
+*Examples*:
+------------------------------------------------
+# Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
+bindsym mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
+
+# Show the first scratchpad window
+bindsym mod+minus scratchpad show
+
+# Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
+bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
+------------------------------------------------
+
[[multi_monitor]]
== Multiple monitors
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. Because
i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
-i3bar. Use a pipe to connect them: +i3status | i3bar -d+.
+i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
-on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can use +-d+ or +-dbottom+
-for positioning it at the bottom and +-dtop+ to position it at the top of the
-screen.
+on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
+see <<i3bar_position>>.
=== Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
projects / i3 / i3 / blobdiff