== Using i3
Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
-configured modifier. This is the Alt key (Mod1) by default, with the Windows
-key (Mod4) being a popular alternative.
+configured modifier. This is the Alt key (+Mod1+) by default, with the Windows
+key (+Mod4+) 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 Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
-pressing $mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
-space available on your screen.
+for this is +$mod+Enter+, that is Alt+Enter (+Mod1+Enter+) in the default
+configuration. By pressing +$mod+Enter+, a new terminal will be opened. It
+will fill the whole space available on your screen.
image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
-compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$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 +$mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
+compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$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 +$mod+l+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
=== Closing windows
If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
-provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
+provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+w+ to close), you
can press +$mod+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
On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
-wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
+wizard to use either Alt (+Mod1+) or Windows (+Mod4+) as modifier in the config
file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
Text color to be used for the statusline.
separator::
Text color to be used for the separator.
+focused_background::
+ Background color of the bar on the currently focused monitor output. If
+ not used, the color will be taken from +background+.
+focused_statusline::
+ Text color to be used for the statusline on the currently focused
+ monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +statusline+.
+focused_separator::
+ Text color to be used for the separator on the currently focused
+ monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +separator+.
focused_workspace::
Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
has focus.
the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows in the currently
focused workspace.
con_mark::
- Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
+ Compares the marks set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>. A
+ match is made if any of the container's marks matches the specified
+ mark.
con_id::
Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
- interface. Handy for scripting.
+ interface. Handy for scripting. Use the special value +\_\_focused__+
+ to match only the currently focused window.
The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+, +workspace+ and +mark+ are
actually regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
=== Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
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 container to workspace+.
+number or name of the workspace. Pass the optional flag
++--no-auto-back-and-forth+ to disable <<back_and_forth>> for this specific call
+only.
+
+To move containers to specific workspaces, use +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 using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
*Syntax*:
------------------------------------
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
workspace back_and_forth
-workspace <name>
-workspace number <name>
+workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] <name>
+workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] number <name>
-move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
-move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
+move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
+move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current
------------------------------------
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Examples*:
-------------------------
can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
-this mark, add it if the window has none or replace the current mark if it has
-another mark.
+this mark or add it otherwise. Note that you may need to use this in
+combination with +--add+ (see below) as any other marks will otherwise be
+removed.
+
+By default, a window can only have one mark. You can use the +--add+ flag to
+put more than one mark on a window.
Refer to <<show_marks>> if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
*Syntax*:
-------------------------------
-mark [--toggle] <identifier>
+----------------------------------------------
+mark [--add|--replace] [--toggle] <identifier>
[con_mark="identifier"] focus
unmark <identifier>
-------------------------------
+----------------------------------------------
*Example (in a terminal)*:
-------------------------------
-$ i3-msg mark irssi
-$ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
-$ i3-msg unmark irssi
-------------------------------
+---------------------------------------------------------
+# marks the focused container
+mark irssi
+
+# focus the container with the mark "irssi"
+'[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
+
+# remove the mark "irssi" from whichever container has it
+unmark irssi
+
+# remove all marks on all firefox windows
+[class="(?i)firefox"] unmark
+---------------------------------------------------------
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TODO: make i3-input replace %s
projects / i3 / i3 / blobdiff