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21 <a href="/"><h1 id="title">i3 - improved tiling WM</h1></a>
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29 <br style="clear: both">
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32 <h1>i3 User’s Guide</h1>
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33 <span id="author">Michael Stapelberg</span><br />
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34 <span id="email"><tt><<a href="mailto:michael@i3wm.org">michael@i3wm.org</a>></tt></span><br />
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36 <div id="toctitle">Table of Contents</div>
37 <noscript><p><b>JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to display the table of contents.</b></p></noscript>
41 <div class="sectionbody">
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42 <div class="paragraph"><p>This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
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43 window manager. If it does not, please check <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/">https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/</a>
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44 first, then contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the
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45 mailing list.</p></div>
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49 <h2 id="_default_keybindings">1. Default keybindings</h2>
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50 <div class="sectionbody">
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51 <div class="paragraph"><p>For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
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52 keybindings (click to see the full-size image):</p></div>
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53 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Keys to use with $mod (Alt):</strong></p></div>
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54 <div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
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55 <a class="image" href="keyboard-layer1.png">
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56 <img src="keyboard-layer1.png" alt="Keys to use with $mod (Alt)" width="600" />
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59 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Keys to use with Shift+$mod:</strong></p></div>
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60 <div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
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61 <a class="image" href="keyboard-layer2.png">
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62 <img src="keyboard-layer2.png" alt="Keys to use with Shift+$mod" width="600" />
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65 <div class="paragraph"><p>The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
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66 are your homerow.</p></div>
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67 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that when starting i3 without a config file, i3-config-wizard will offer
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68 you to create a config file in which the key positions (!) match what you see
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69 in the image above, regardless of the keyboard layout you are using. If you
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70 prefer to use a config file where the key letters match what you are seeing
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71 above, just decline i3-config-wizard’s offer and base your config on
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72 <tt>/etc/i3/config</tt>.</p></div>
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76 <h2 id="_using_i3">2. Using i3</h2>
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77 <div class="sectionbody">
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78 <div class="paragraph"><p>Throughout this guide, the keyword <tt>$mod</tt> will be used to refer to the
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79 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (<tt>Mod1</tt>) by default, with the Windows
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80 key (<tt>Mod4</tt>) being a popular alternative that largely prevents conflicts with
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81 application-defined shortcuts.</p></div>
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83 <h3 id="_opening_terminals_and_moving_around">2.1. Opening terminals and moving around</h3>
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84 <div class="paragraph"><p>One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
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85 for this is <tt>$mod+Enter</tt>, that is Alt+Enter (<tt>Mod1+Enter</tt>) in the default
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86 configuration. By pressing <tt>$mod+Enter</tt>, a new terminal will be opened. It
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87 will fill the whole space available on your screen.</p></div>
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88 <div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
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89 <img src="single_terminal.png" alt="Single terminal" />
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91 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
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92 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
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93 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
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94 existing window (rotated displays).</p></div>
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95 <div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
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96 <img src="two_terminals.png" alt="Two terminals" />
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98 <div class="paragraph"><p>To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
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99 which you may know from the editor <tt>vi</tt>. However, in i3, your homerow is used
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100 for these keys (in <tt>vi</tt>, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
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101 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, <tt>$mod+j</tt> is left, <tt>$mod+k</tt>
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102 is down, <tt>$mod+l</tt> is up and <tt>$mod+;</tt> is right. So, to switch between the
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103 terminals, use <tt>$mod+k</tt> or <tt>$mod+l</tt>. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.</p></div>
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104 <div class="paragraph"><p>At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
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105 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
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106 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
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107 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
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108 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
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110 <div class="paragraph"><p>TODO: picture of the tree</p></div>
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111 <div class="paragraph"><p>To split a window vertically, press <tt>$mod+v</tt> before you create the new window.
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112 To split it horizontally, press <tt>$mod+h</tt>.</p></div>
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114 <div class="sect2">
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115 <h3 id="_changing_the_container_layout">2.2. Changing the container layout</h3>
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116 <div class="paragraph"><p>A split container can have one of the following layouts:</p></div>
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117 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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118 <dt class="hdlist1">
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123 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
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124 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
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125 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
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129 <dt class="hdlist1">
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134 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
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135 windows at the top of the container.
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138 <dt class="hdlist1">
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143 The same principle as <tt>stacking</tt>, but the list of windows at the top is only
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144 a single line which is vertically split.
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148 <div class="paragraph"><p>To switch modes, press <tt>$mod+e</tt> for splith/splitv (it toggles), <tt>$mod+s</tt> for
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149 stacking and <tt>$mod+w</tt> for tabbed.</p></div>
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150 <div class="paragraph"><p><span class="image">
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151 <img src="modes.png" alt="Container modes" />
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154 <div class="sect2">
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155 <h3 id="_toggling_fullscreen_mode_for_a_window">2.3. Toggling fullscreen mode for a window</h3>
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156 <div class="paragraph"><p>To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
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157 press <tt>$mod+f</tt>.</p></div>
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158 <div class="paragraph"><p>There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
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159 available outputs (the command is <tt>fullscreen toggle global</tt>).</p></div>
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161 <div class="sect2">
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162 <h3 id="_opening_other_applications">2.4. Opening other applications</h3>
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163 <div class="paragraph"><p>Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
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164 <tt>dmenu</tt> which is opened by pressing <tt>$mod+d</tt> by default. Just type the name
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165 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
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166 application has to be in your <tt>$PATH</tt> for this to work.</p></div>
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167 <div class="paragraph"><p>Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
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168 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
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169 <a href="#configuring">[configuring]</a> for details.</p></div>
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171 <div class="sect2">
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172 <h3 id="_closing_windows">2.5. Closing windows</h3>
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173 <div class="paragraph"><p>If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
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174 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like <tt>Control+w</tt> to close), you
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175 can press <tt>$mod+Shift+q</tt> to kill a window. For applications which support
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176 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
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177 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
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178 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
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179 depends on the application.</p></div>
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181 <div class="sect2">
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182 <h3 id="_using_workspaces">2.6. Using workspaces</h3>
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183 <div class="paragraph"><p>Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
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184 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
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185 another workspace, press <tt>$mod+num</tt> where <tt>num</tt> is the number of the workspace
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186 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.</p></div>
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187 <div class="paragraph"><p>A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
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188 applications (<tt>mutt</tt>, <tt>irssi</tt>, …) on another one, and the ones with which you
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189 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.</p></div>
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190 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
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191 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
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192 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
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193 focus to that screen.</p></div>
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195 <div class="sect2">
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196 <h3 id="_moving_windows_to_workspaces">2.7. Moving windows to workspaces</h3>
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197 <div class="paragraph"><p>To move a window to another workspace, simply press <tt>$mod+Shift+num</tt> where
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198 <tt>num</tt> is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
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199 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
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200 it does not yet exist.</p></div>
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202 <div class="sect2">
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203 <h3 id="_resizing">2.8. Resizing</h3>
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204 <div class="paragraph"><p>The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
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205 and move it to the wanted size.</p></div>
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206 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can also use <a href="#binding_modes">[binding_modes]</a> to define a mode for resizing via the
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207 keyboard. To see an example for this, look at the
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208 <a href="https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes">default config</a> provided
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211 <div class="sect2">
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212 <h3 id="_restarting_i3_inplace">2.9. Restarting i3 inplace</h3>
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213 <div class="paragraph"><p>To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
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214 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use <tt>$mod+Shift+r</tt>.</p></div>
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216 <div class="sect2">
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217 <h3 id="_exiting_i3">2.10. Exiting i3</h3>
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218 <div class="paragraph"><p>To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use <tt>$mod+Shift+e</tt>.
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219 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.</p></div>
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221 <div class="sect2">
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222 <h3 id="_floating">2.11. Floating</h3>
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223 <div class="paragraph"><p>Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
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224 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
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225 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
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226 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
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227 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
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228 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.</p></div>
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229 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing <tt>$mod+Shift+Space</tt>. By
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230 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
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231 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
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232 can also do that by using the <a href="#floating_modifier">[floating_modifier]</a>. Another way to resize
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233 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.</p></div>
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234 <div class="paragraph"><p>For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see the resizing binding mode
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235 provided by the i3 <a href="https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes">default config</a>.</p></div>
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236 <div class="paragraph"><p>Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.</p></div>
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240 <div class="sect1">
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241 <h2 id="_tree">3. Tree</h2>
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242 <div class="sectionbody">
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243 <div class="paragraph"><p>i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
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244 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
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245 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
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246 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
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247 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
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248 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.</p></div>
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249 <div class="sect2">
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250 <h3 id="_the_tree_consists_of_containers">3.1. The tree consists of Containers</h3>
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251 <div class="paragraph"><p>The building blocks of our tree are so-called <tt>Containers</tt>. A <tt>Container</tt> can
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252 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
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253 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more <tt>Containers</tt>. A
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254 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
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255 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
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256 like this:</p></div>
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257 <div class="imageblock" style="float:right;">
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258 <div class="content">
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259 <img src="tree-layout2.png" alt="layout2" />
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262 <div class="imageblock">
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263 <div class="content">
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264 <img src="tree-shot4.png" alt="shot4" />
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266 <div class="title">Figure 1. Two terminals on standard workspace</div>
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269 <div class="sect2">
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270 <h3 id="OrientationSplit">3.2. Orientation and Split Containers</h3>
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271 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is only natural to use so-called <tt>Split Containers</tt> in order to build a
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272 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every <tt>Container</tt> has an
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273 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
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274 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
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275 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
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276 layout of the workspace <tt>Container</tt> is splith (most monitors are widescreen
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277 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (<tt>$mod+v</tt> in the default config)
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278 and <strong>then</strong> open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:</p></div>
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279 <div class="imageblock">
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280 <div class="content">
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281 <img src="tree-shot2.png" alt="shot2" />
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283 <div class="title">Figure 2. Vertical Workspace Orientation</div>
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285 <div class="paragraph"><p>An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
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286 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
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287 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
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288 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
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289 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
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290 Instead, press <tt>$mod+v</tt> to split the container with the splitv layout (to
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291 open a <tt>Horizontal Split Container</tt>, use <tt>$mod+h</tt>). Now you can open a new
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292 terminal and it will open below the current one:</p></div>
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293 <div class="imageblock" style="float:right;">
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294 <div class="content">
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295 <img src="tree-layout1.png" alt="Layout" />
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298 <div class="imageblock">
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299 <div class="content">
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300 <img src="tree-shot1.png" alt="shot" />
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302 <div class="title">Figure 3. Vertical Split Container</div>
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304 <div style="clear:both;"></div>
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305 <div class="paragraph"><p>You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
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306 of splits can be.</p></div>
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308 <div class="sect2">
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309 <h3 id="_focus_parent">3.3. Focus parent</h3>
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310 <div class="paragraph"><p>Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
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311 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
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312 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.</p></div>
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313 <div class="paragraph"><p>So, how can you open a new terminal window to the <strong>right</strong> of the current one?
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314 The solution is to use <tt>focus parent</tt>, which will focus the <tt>Parent Container</tt> of
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315 the current <tt>Container</tt>. In default configuration, use <tt>$mod+a</tt> to navigate one
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316 <tt>Container</tt> up the tree (you can repeat this multiple times until you get to the
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317 <tt>Workspace Container</tt>). In this case, you would focus the <tt>Vertical Split Container</tt>
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318 which is <strong>inside</strong> the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new windows will be
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319 opened to the right of the <tt>Vertical Split Container</tt>:</p></div>
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320 <div class="imageblock">
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321 <div class="content">
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322 <img src="tree-shot3.png" alt="shot3" />
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324 <div class="title">Figure 4. Focus parent, then open new terminal</div>
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327 <div class="sect2">
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328 <h3 id="_implicit_containers">3.4. Implicit containers</h3>
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329 <div class="paragraph"><p>In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
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331 <div class="paragraph"><p>One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
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332 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
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333 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
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334 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is <tt>horizontal</tt>.</p></div>
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335 <div class="paragraph"><p>Now you move one of these terminals down (<tt>$mod+Shift+k</tt> by default). The
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336 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to <tt>vertical</tt>. The terminal window
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337 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
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338 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
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339 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
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340 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
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341 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
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342 you moved down.</p></div>
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346 <div class="sect1">
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347 <h2 id="configuring">4. Configuring i3</h2>
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348 <div class="sectionbody">
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349 <div class="paragraph"><p>This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
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350 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.</p></div>
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351 <div class="paragraph"><p>While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
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352 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
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354 <div class="paragraph"><p>For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
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355 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
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356 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
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357 can bind your keys to do useful things.</p></div>
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358 <div class="paragraph"><p>To change the configuration of i3, copy <tt>/etc/i3/config</tt> to <tt>~/.i3/config</tt>
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359 (or <tt>~/.config/i3/config</tt> if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
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360 with a text editor.</p></div>
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361 <div class="paragraph"><p>On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
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362 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
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363 wizard to use either Alt (<tt>Mod1</tt>) or Windows (<tt>Mod4</tt>) as modifier in the config
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364 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
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365 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command <tt>i3-config-wizard</tt>.
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366 Please note that you must not have <tt>~/.i3/config</tt>, otherwise the wizard will
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368 <div class="paragraph"><p>Since i3 4.0, a new configuration format is used. i3 will try to automatically
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369 detect the format version of a config file based on a few different keywords,
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370 but if you want to make sure that your config is read with the new format,
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371 include the following line in your config file:</p></div>
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372 <div class="listingblock">
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373 <div class="content">
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374 <pre><tt># i3 config file (v4)</tt></pre>
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376 <div class="sect2">
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377 <h3 id="_comments">4.1. Comments</h3>
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378 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
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379 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
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380 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:</p></div>
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381 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
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382 <div class="listingblock">
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383 <div class="content">
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384 <pre><tt># This is a comment</tt></pre>
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387 <div class="sect2">
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388 <h3 id="fonts">4.2. Fonts</h3>
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389 <div class="paragraph"><p>i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
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390 render window titles.</p></div>
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391 <div class="paragraph"><p>To generate an X core font description, you can use <tt>xfontsel(1)</tt>. To see
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392 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
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393 ISO-10646 encoding.</p></div>
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394 <div class="paragraph"><p>A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
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395 a variant, a stretch and a size.
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396 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
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397 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.</p></div>
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398 <div class="paragraph"><p>If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
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399 and fall back to a working font.</p></div>
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400 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
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401 <div class="listingblock">
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402 <div class="content">
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403 <pre><tt>font <X core font description>
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404 font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size></tt></pre>
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406 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
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407 <div class="listingblock">
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408 <div class="content">
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409 <pre><tt>font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
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410 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
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411 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
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412 font pango:Terminus 11px</tt></pre>
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415 <div class="sect2">
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416 <h3 id="keybindings">4.3. Keyboard bindings</h3>
\r
417 <div class="paragraph"><p>A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
\r
418 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
\r
419 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).</p></div>
\r
420 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
423 A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
\r
424 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
\r
425 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
\r
426 mapping of your keys, use <tt>xmodmap -pke</tt>. To interactively enter a key and
\r
427 see what keysym it is configured to, use <tt>xev</tt>.
\r
432 Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
\r
433 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
\r
434 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using <tt>xmodmap</tt>).
\r
438 <div class="paragraph"><p>My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
\r
439 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
\r
440 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
\r
442 <div class="paragraph"><p>Some tools (such as <tt>import</tt> or <tt>xdotool</tt>) might be unable to run upon a
\r
443 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
\r
444 situations, the <tt>--release</tt> flag can be used, which will execute the command
\r
445 after the keys have been released.</p></div>
\r
446 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
447 <div class="listingblock">
\r
448 <div class="content">
\r
449 <pre><tt>bindsym [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
\r
450 bindcode [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command</tt></pre>
\r
452 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
453 <div class="listingblock">
\r
454 <div class="content">
\r
455 <pre><tt># Fullscreen
\r
456 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
\r
459 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
\r
461 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
\r
462 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
\r
464 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
\r
465 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
\r
467 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
\r
468 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png</tt></pre>
\r
470 <div class="paragraph"><p>Available Modifiers:</p></div>
\r
471 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
472 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
473 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control
\r
477 Standard modifiers, see <tt>xmodmap(1)</tt>
\r
480 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
481 Group1, Group2, Group3, Group4
\r
485 When using multiple keyboard layouts (e.g. with <tt>setxkbmap -layout us,ru</tt>), you
\r
486 can specify in which XKB group (also called “layout”) a keybinding should be
\r
487 active. By default, keybindings are translated in Group1 and are active in all
\r
488 groups. If you want to override keybindings in one of your layouts, specify the
\r
489 corresponding group. For backwards compatibility, the group “Mode_switch” is an
\r
495 <div class="sect2">
\r
496 <h3 id="mousebindings">4.4. Mouse bindings</h3>
\r
497 <div class="paragraph"><p>A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
\r
498 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>). You
\r
499 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.</p></div>
\r
500 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
501 <div class="listingblock">
\r
502 <div class="content">
\r
503 <pre><tt>bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [--exclude-titlebar] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command</tt></pre>
\r
505 <div class="paragraph"><p>By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
\r
506 window. If the <tt>--release</tt> flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
\r
507 is released.</p></div>
\r
508 <div class="paragraph"><p>If the <tt>--whole-window</tt> flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
\r
509 of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
\r
510 when the border is clicked, specify the <tt>--border</tt> flag.</p></div>
\r
511 <div class="paragraph"><p>If the <tt>--exclude-titlebar</tt> flag is given, the titlebar will not be considered
\r
512 for the keybinding.</p></div>
\r
513 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
514 <div class="listingblock">
\r
515 <div class="content">
\r
516 <pre><tt># The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
\r
517 bindsym --release button2 kill
\r
519 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
\r
520 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
\r
522 # The right button toggles floating
\r
523 bindsym button3 floating toggle
\r
524 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
\r
526 # The side buttons move the window around
\r
527 bindsym button9 move left
\r
528 bindsym button8 move right</tt></pre>
\r
531 <div class="sect2">
\r
532 <h3 id="binding_modes">4.5. Binding modes</h3>
\r
533 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can have multiple sets of bindings by using different binding modes. When
\r
534 you switch to another binding mode, all bindings from the current mode are
\r
535 released and only the bindings defined in the new mode are valid for as long as
\r
536 you stay in that binding mode. The only predefined binding mode is <tt>default</tt>,
\r
537 which is the mode i3 starts out with and to which all bindings not defined in a
\r
538 specific binding mode belong.</p></div>
\r
539 <div class="paragraph"><p>Working with binding modes consists of two parts: defining a binding mode and
\r
540 switching to it. For these purposes, there are one config directive and one
\r
541 command, both of which are called <tt>mode</tt>. The directive is used to define the
\r
542 bindings belonging to a certain binding mode, while the command will switch to
\r
543 the specified mode.</p></div>
\r
544 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is recommended to use binding modes in combination with <a href="#variables">[variables]</a> in
\r
545 order to make maintenance easier. Below is an example of how to use a binding
\r
547 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that it is advisable to define bindings for switching back to the default
\r
549 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that it is possible to use <a href="#pango_markup">[pango_markup]</a> for binding modes, but you
\r
550 need to enable it explicitly by passing the <tt>--pango_markup</tt> flag to the mode
\r
551 definition.</p></div>
\r
552 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
553 <div class="listingblock">
\r
554 <div class="content">
\r
555 <pre><tt># config directive
\r
556 mode [--pango_markup] <name>
\r
559 mode <name></tt></pre>
\r
561 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
562 <div class="listingblock">
\r
563 <div class="content">
\r
564 <pre><tt># Press $mod+o followed by either f, t, Escape or Return to launch firefox,
\r
565 # thunderbird or return to the default mode, respectively.
\r
566 set $mode_launcher Launch: [f]irefox [t]hunderbird
\r
567 bindsym $mod+o mode "$mode_launcher"
\r
569 mode "$mode_launcher" {
\r
570 bindsym f exec firefox
\r
571 bindsym t exec thunderbird
\r
573 bindsym Escape mode "default"
\r
574 bindsym Return mode "default"
\r
578 <div class="sect2">
\r
579 <h3 id="floating_modifier">4.6. The floating modifier</h3>
\r
580 <div class="paragraph"><p>To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
\r
581 or configure the so-called floating modifier which you can then press and
\r
582 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
\r
583 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
\r
584 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
\r
585 it to the position you want.</p></div>
\r
586 <div class="paragraph"><p>When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
\r
587 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
\r
588 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
\r
589 ratio will be preserved).</p></div>
\r
590 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
591 <div class="listingblock">
\r
592 <div class="content">
\r
593 <pre><tt>floating_modifier <Modifier></tt></pre>
\r
595 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
596 <div class="listingblock">
\r
597 <div class="content">
\r
598 <pre><tt>floating_modifier Mod1</tt></pre>
\r
601 <div class="sect2">
\r
602 <h3 id="_constraining_floating_window_size">4.7. Constraining floating window size</h3>
\r
603 <div class="paragraph"><p>The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
\r
604 either dimension of <tt>floating_maximum_size</tt> is specified as -1, that dimension
\r
605 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
\r
606 <tt>floating_maximum_size</tt> is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
\r
607 value to constrain the maximum size. <tt>floating_minimum_size</tt> is treated in a
\r
608 manner analogous to <tt>floating_maximum_size</tt>.</p></div>
\r
609 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
610 <div class="listingblock">
\r
611 <div class="content">
\r
612 <pre><tt>floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
\r
613 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height></tt></pre>
\r
615 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
616 <div class="listingblock">
\r
617 <div class="content">
\r
618 <pre><tt>floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
\r
619 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1</tt></pre>
\r
622 <div class="sect2">
\r
623 <h3 id="_orientation_for_new_workspaces">4.8. Orientation for new workspaces</h3>
\r
624 <div class="paragraph"><p>New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
\r
625 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
\r
626 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.</p></div>
\r
627 <div class="paragraph"><p>With the <tt>default_orientation</tt> configuration directive, you can override that
\r
628 behavior.</p></div>
\r
629 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
630 <div class="listingblock">
\r
631 <div class="content">
\r
632 <pre><tt>default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto</tt></pre>
\r
634 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
635 <div class="listingblock">
\r
636 <div class="content">
\r
637 <pre><tt>default_orientation vertical</tt></pre>
\r
640 <div class="sect2">
\r
641 <h3 id="_layout_mode_for_new_containers">4.9. Layout mode for new containers</h3>
\r
642 <div class="paragraph"><p>This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
\r
644 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
645 <div class="listingblock">
\r
646 <div class="content">
\r
647 <pre><tt>workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed</tt></pre>
\r
649 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
650 <div class="listingblock">
\r
651 <div class="content">
\r
652 <pre><tt>workspace_layout tabbed</tt></pre>
\r
655 <div class="sect2">
\r
656 <h3 id="_window_title_alignment">4.10. Window title alignment</h3>
\r
657 <div class="paragraph"><p>This option determines the window title’s text alignment.
\r
658 Default is <tt>left</tt></p></div>
\r
659 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
660 <div class="listingblock">
\r
661 <div class="content">
\r
662 <pre><tt>title_align left|center|right</tt></pre>
\r
665 <div class="sect2">
\r
666 <h3 id="_default_border_style_for_new_windows">4.11. Default border style for new windows</h3>
\r
667 <div class="paragraph"><p>This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
\r
668 <tt>normal</tt>. Note that default_floating_border applies only to windows which are starting out as
\r
669 floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.</p></div>
\r
670 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
671 <div class="listingblock">
\r
672 <div class="content">
\r
673 <pre><tt>default_border normal|none|pixel
\r
674 default_border normal|pixel <px>
\r
675 default_floating_border normal|none|pixel
\r
676 default_floating_border normal|pixel <px></tt></pre>
\r
678 <div class="paragraph"><p>Please note that <tt>new_window</tt> and <tt>new_float</tt> have been deprecated in favor of the above options
\r
679 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the new options instead.</p></div>
\r
680 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
681 <div class="listingblock">
\r
682 <div class="content">
\r
683 <pre><tt>default_border pixel</tt></pre>
\r
685 <div class="paragraph"><p>The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
\r
687 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
688 <div class="listingblock">
\r
689 <div class="content">
\r
690 <pre><tt># The same as default_border none
\r
691 default_border pixel 0
\r
694 default_border pixel 3</tt></pre>
\r
697 <div class="sect2">
\r
698 <h3 id="_hiding_vertical_borders">4.12. Hiding borders adjacent to the screen edges</h3>
\r
699 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can hide container borders adjacent to the screen edges using
\r
700 <tt>hide_edge_borders</tt>. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
\r
701 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. The "smart" setting hides borders on
\r
702 workspaces with only one window visible, but keeps them on workspaces with
\r
703 multiple windows visible. Default is none.</p></div>
\r
704 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
705 <div class="listingblock">
\r
706 <div class="content">
\r
707 <pre><tt>hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both|smart</tt></pre>
\r
709 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
710 <div class="listingblock">
\r
711 <div class="content">
\r
712 <pre><tt>hide_edge_borders vertical</tt></pre>
\r
715 <div class="sect2">
\r
716 <h3 id="for_window">4.13. Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)</h3>
\r
717 <div class="paragraph"><p>With the <tt>for_window</tt> command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
\r
718 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
\r
719 change their border style, for example.</p></div>
\r
720 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
721 <div class="listingblock">
\r
722 <div class="content">
\r
723 <pre><tt>for_window <criteria> <command></tt></pre>
\r
725 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
726 <div class="listingblock">
\r
727 <div class="content">
\r
728 <pre><tt># enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
\r
729 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
\r
731 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
\r
732 for_window [class="urxvt"] border pixel 1
\r
734 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
\r
735 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
\r
736 # directory to ~/work
\r
737 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable</tt></pre>
\r
739 <div class="paragraph"><p>The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>.</p></div>
\r
741 <div class="sect2">
\r
742 <h3 id="no_focus">4.14. Don’t focus window upon opening</h3>
\r
743 <div class="paragraph"><p>When a new window appears, it will be focused. The <tt>no_focus</tt> directive allows preventing
\r
744 this from happening and must be used in combination with <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>.</p></div>
\r
745 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
\r
746 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
\r
747 <a href="#focus_on_window_activation">[focus_on_window_activation]</a>.</p></div>
\r
748 <div class="paragraph"><p><tt>no_focus</tt> will also be ignored for the first window on a workspace as there shouldn’t be
\r
749 a reason to not focus the window in this case. This allows for better usability in
\r
750 combination with <tt>workspace_layout</tt>.</p></div>
\r
751 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
752 <div class="listingblock">
\r
753 <div class="content">
\r
754 <pre><tt>no_focus <criteria></tt></pre>
\r
756 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
757 <div class="listingblock">
\r
758 <div class="content">
\r
759 <pre><tt>no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]</tt></pre>
\r
762 <div class="sect2">
\r
763 <h3 id="variables">4.15. Variables</h3>
\r
764 <div class="paragraph"><p>As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
\r
765 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
\r
766 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
\r
767 variables can be handy.</p></div>
\r
768 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
769 <div class="listingblock">
\r
770 <div class="content">
\r
771 <pre><tt>set $<name> <value></tt></pre>
\r
773 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
774 <div class="listingblock">
\r
775 <div class="content">
\r
776 <pre><tt>set $m Mod1
\r
777 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart</tt></pre>
\r
779 <div class="paragraph"><p>Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
\r
780 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
\r
781 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
\r
782 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
\r
783 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
\r
784 it before starting i3 (for example in your <tt>~/.xsession</tt> file).</p></div>
\r
785 <div class="paragraph"><p>Also see <a href="#xresources">[xresources]</a> to learn how to create variables based on resources
\r
786 loaded from the X resource database.</p></div>
\r
788 <div class="sect2">
\r
789 <h3 id="xresources">4.16. X resources</h3>
\r
790 <div class="paragraph"><p><a href="#variables">[variables]</a> can also be created using a value configured in the X resource
\r
791 database. This is useful, for example, to avoid configuring color values within
\r
792 the i3 configuration. Instead, the values can be configured, once, in the X
\r
793 resource database to achieve an easily maintainable, consistent color theme
\r
794 across many X applications.</p></div>
\r
795 <div class="paragraph"><p>Defining a resource will load this resource from the resource database and
\r
796 assign its value to the specified variable. This is done verbatim and the value
\r
797 must therefore be in the format that i3 uses. A fallback must be specified in
\r
798 case the resource cannot be loaded from the database.</p></div>
\r
799 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
800 <div class="listingblock">
\r
801 <div class="content">
\r
802 <pre><tt>set_from_resource $<name> <resource_name> <fallback></tt></pre>
\r
804 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
805 <div class="listingblock">
\r
806 <div class="content">
\r
807 <pre><tt># The ~/.Xresources should contain a line such as
\r
809 # and must be loaded properly, e.g., by using
\r
810 # xrdb ~/.Xresources
\r
811 # This value is picked up on by other applications (e.g., the URxvt terminal
\r
812 # emulator) and can be used in i3 like this:
\r
813 set_from_resource $black i3wm.color0 #000000</tt></pre>
\r
816 <div class="sect2">
\r
817 <h3 id="assign_workspace">4.17. Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces</h3>
\r
818 <div class="paragraph"><p>To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
\r
819 can use an <strong>assignment</strong>. You can match windows by using any criteria,
\r
820 see <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>. The difference between <tt>assign</tt> and
\r
821 <tt>for_window <criteria> move to workspace</tt> is that the former will only be
\r
822 executed when the application maps the window (mapping means actually displaying
\r
823 it on the screen) but the latter will be executed whenever a window changes its
\r
824 properties to something that matches the specified criteria.</p></div>
\r
825 <div class="paragraph"><p>Thus, it is recommended that you match on window classes (and instances, when
\r
826 appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible because some
\r
827 applications first create their window, and then worry about setting the correct
\r
828 title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window starts up being named
\r
829 Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the title change. As i3 will
\r
830 get the title as soon as the application maps the window, you’d need to have to
\r
831 match on <em>Firefox</em> in this case.
\r
832 Another known issue is with Spotify, which doesn’t set the class hints when
\r
833 mapping the window, meaning you’ll have to use a <tt>for_window</tt> rule to assign
\r
834 Spotify to a specific workspace.
\r
835 Finally, using <tt>assign [tiling]</tt> and <tt>assign [floating]</tt> is not supported.</p></div>
\r
836 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can also assign a window to show up on a specific output. You can use RandR
\r
837 names such as <tt>VGA1</tt> or names relative to the output with the currently focused
\r
838 workspace such as <tt>left</tt> and <tt>down</tt>.</p></div>
\r
839 <div class="paragraph"><p>Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
\r
840 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
\r
841 considered.</p></div>
\r
842 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
843 <div class="listingblock">
\r
844 <div class="content">
\r
845 <pre><tt>assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] [number] <workspace>
\r
846 assign <criteria> [→] output left|right|up|down|primary|<output></tt></pre>
\r
848 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
849 <div class="listingblock">
\r
850 <div class="content">
\r
851 <pre><tt># Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
\r
852 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
\r
854 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
\r
855 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
\r
857 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
\r
858 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
\r
860 # Assignment to a named workspace
\r
861 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
\r
863 # Assign to the workspace with number 2, regardless of name
\r
864 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number 2
\r
866 # You can also specify a number + name. If the workspace with number 2 exists, assign will skip the text part.
\r
867 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number "2: work"
\r
869 # Start urxvt -name irssi
\r
870 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
\r
872 # Assign urxvt to the output right of the current one
\r
873 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output right
\r
875 # Assign urxvt to the primary output
\r
876 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output primary</tt></pre>
\r
878 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:</p></div>
\r
879 <div class="listingblock">
\r
880 <div class="content">
\r
881 <pre><tt>xrandr --output <output> --primary</tt></pre>
\r
883 <div class="paragraph"><p>Also, the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
\r
884 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not <tt>-></tt> or something like that.</p></div>
\r
885 <div class="paragraph"><p>To get the class and instance, you can use <tt>xprop</tt>. After clicking on the
\r
886 window, you will see the following output:</p></div>
\r
887 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>xprop</strong>:</p></div>
\r
888 <div class="listingblock">
\r
889 <div class="content">
\r
890 <pre><tt>WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"</tt></pre>
\r
892 <div class="paragraph"><p>The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
\r
893 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).</p></div>
\r
894 <div class="paragraph"><p>Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
\r
895 logfile first (see <a href="https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html">https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html</a>). It includes more
\r
896 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
\r
897 title when starting up.</p></div>
\r
898 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
\r
899 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
\r
900 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <a href="#exec">[exec]</a>) in your config
\r
901 file in the following way:</p></div>
\r
902 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)</strong>:</p></div>
\r
903 <div class="listingblock">
\r
904 <div class="content">
\r
905 <pre><tt># Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
\r
906 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
\r
907 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
\r
908 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
\r
909 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
\r
910 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
\r
911 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'</tt></pre>
\r
914 <div class="sect2">
\r
915 <h3 id="_automatically_starting_applications_on_i3_startup">4.18. Automatically starting applications on i3 startup</h3>
\r
916 <div class="paragraph"><p>By using the <tt>exec</tt> keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
\r
917 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. <tt>exec</tt>
\r
918 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
\r
919 also when restarting i3 you should use the <tt>exec_always</tt>
\r
920 keyword. These commands will be run in order.</p></div>
\r
921 <div class="paragraph"><p>See <a href="#command_chaining">[command_chaining]</a> for details on the special meaning of <tt>;</tt> (semicolon)
\r
922 and <tt>,</tt> (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
\r
923 strings (as shown in <a href="#exec_quoting">[exec_quoting]</a>) if they appear in your command.</p></div>
\r
924 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
925 <div class="listingblock">
\r
926 <div class="content">
\r
927 <pre><tt>exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
\r
928 exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command></tt></pre>
\r
930 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
931 <div class="listingblock">
\r
932 <div class="content">
\r
933 <pre><tt>exec chromium
\r
934 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
\r
936 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
\r
937 exec --no-startup-id urxvt</tt></pre>
\r
939 <div class="paragraph"><p>The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <a href="#exec">[exec]</a>.</p></div>
\r
941 <div class="sect2">
\r
942 <h3 id="workspace_screen">4.19. Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens</h3>
\r
943 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
\r
944 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
\r
945 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
\r
946 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
\r
947 the second screen and so on).</p></div>
\r
948 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
949 <div class="listingblock">
\r
950 <div class="content">
\r
951 <pre><tt>workspace <workspace> output <output1> [output2]…</tt></pre>
\r
953 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <em>output</em> is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
\r
954 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
\r
955 available outputs by running <tt>xrandr --current</tt>.</p></div>
\r
956 <div class="paragraph"><p>If your X server supports RandR 1.5 or newer, i3 will use RandR monitor objects
\r
957 instead of output objects. Run <tt>xrandr --listmonitors</tt> to see a list. Usually,
\r
958 a monitor object contains exactly one output, and has the same name as the
\r
959 output; but should that not be the case, you may specify the name of either the
\r
960 monitor or the output in i3’s configuration. For example, the Dell UP2414Q uses
\r
961 two scalers internally, so its output names might be “DP1” and “DP2”, but the
\r
962 monitor name is “Dell UP2414Q”.</p></div>
\r
963 <div class="paragraph"><p>(Note that even if you specify the name of an output which doesn’t span the
\r
964 entire monitor, i3 will still use the entire area of the containing monitor
\r
965 rather than that of just the output’s.)</p></div>
\r
966 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can specify multiple outputs. The first available will be used.</p></div>
\r
967 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:</p></div>
\r
968 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
969 <div class="listingblock">
\r
970 <div class="content">
\r
971 <pre><tt>workspace 1 output LVDS1
\r
972 workspace 2 output primary
\r
973 workspace 5 output VGA1 LVDS1
\r
974 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1</tt></pre>
\r
977 <div class="sect2">
\r
978 <h3 id="_changing_colors">4.20. Changing colors</h3>
\r
979 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.</p></div>
\r
980 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
981 <div class="listingblock">
\r
982 <div class="content">
\r
983 <pre><tt><colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator> <child_border></tt></pre>
\r
985 <div class="paragraph"><p>Where colorclass can be one of:</p></div>
\r
986 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
987 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
992 A client which currently has the focus.
\r
995 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
996 client.focused_inactive
\r
1000 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
\r
1001 the focus at the moment.
\r
1004 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1009 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
\r
1012 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1017 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
\r
1020 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1021 client.placeholder
\r
1025 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
\r
1026 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
\r
1029 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1034 Background color which will be used to paint the background of the
\r
1035 client window on top of which the client will be rendered. Only clients
\r
1036 which do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color. Note
\r
1037 that this colorclass only takes a single color.
\r
1041 <div class="paragraph"><p>Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:</p></div>
\r
1042 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples (default colors)</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1043 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1044 <div class="content">
\r
1045 <pre><tt># class border backgr. text indicator child_border
\r
1046 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4 #285577
\r
1047 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50 #5f676a
\r
1048 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e #222222
\r
1049 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000 #900000
\r
1050 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000 #0c0c0c
\r
1052 client.background #ffffff</tt></pre>
\r
1054 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
\r
1055 "child_border", and "border" color is only the two thin lines around the
\r
1056 titlebar.</p></div>
\r
1057 <div class="paragraph"><p>The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
\r
1058 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
\r
1059 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
\r
1060 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
\r
1061 from single windows outside of a split container.</p></div>
\r
1063 <div class="sect2">
\r
1064 <h3 id="_interprocess_communication">4.21. Interprocess communication</h3>
\r
1065 <div class="paragraph"><p>i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
\r
1066 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
\r
1067 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.</p></div>
\r
1068 <div class="paragraph"><p>The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
\r
1069 <tt>/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p</tt> where <tt>%u</tt> is your UNIX username, <tt>%p</tt> is
\r
1070 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
\r
1071 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).</p></div>
\r
1072 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can override the default path through the environment-variable <tt>I3SOCK</tt> or
\r
1073 by specifying the <tt>ipc-socket</tt> directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
\r
1074 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
\r
1075 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
\r
1076 user can create that directory.</p></div>
\r
1077 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1078 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1079 <div class="content">
\r
1080 <pre><tt>ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock</tt></pre>
\r
1082 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can then use the <tt>i3-msg</tt> application to perform any command listed in
\r
1083 <a href="#list_of_commands">[list_of_commands]</a>.</p></div>
\r
1085 <div class="sect2">
\r
1086 <h3 id="_focus_follows_mouse">4.22. Focus follows mouse</h3>
\r
1087 <div class="paragraph"><p>By default, window focus follows your mouse movements as the mouse crosses
\r
1088 window borders. However, if you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your
\r
1089 way (like a touchpad on your laptop which you do not want to disable
\r
1090 completely), you might want to disable <em>focus follows mouse</em> and control focus
\r
1091 only by using your keyboard. The mouse will still be useful inside the
\r
1092 currently active window (for example to click on links in your browser window).</p></div>
\r
1093 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1094 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1095 <div class="content">
\r
1096 <pre><tt>focus_follows_mouse yes|no</tt></pre>
\r
1098 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1099 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1100 <div class="content">
\r
1101 <pre><tt>focus_follows_mouse no</tt></pre>
\r
1104 <div class="sect2">
\r
1105 <h3 id="_mouse_warping">4.23. Mouse warping</h3>
\r
1106 <div class="paragraph"><p>By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
\r
1107 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
\r
1108 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.</p></div>
\r
1109 <div class="paragraph"><p>With the <tt>mouse_warping</tt> option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
\r
1110 be warped. <tt>none</tt> disables warping entirely, whereas <tt>output</tt> is the default
\r
1111 behavior described above.</p></div>
\r
1112 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1113 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1114 <div class="content">
\r
1115 <pre><tt>mouse_warping output|none</tt></pre>
\r
1117 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1118 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1119 <div class="content">
\r
1120 <pre><tt>mouse_warping none</tt></pre>
\r
1123 <div class="sect2">
\r
1124 <h3 id="_popups_during_fullscreen_mode">4.24. Popups during fullscreen mode</h3>
\r
1125 <div class="paragraph"><p>When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
\r
1126 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
\r
1127 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
\r
1128 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:</p></div>
\r
1129 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
\r
1132 Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
\r
1133 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
\r
1138 Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
\r
1139 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
\r
1140 you go out of fullscreen).
\r
1145 Leave fullscreen mode.
\r
1149 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1150 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1151 <div class="content">
\r
1152 <pre><tt>popup_during_fullscreen smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen</tt></pre>
\r
1154 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1155 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1156 <div class="content">
\r
1157 <pre><tt>popup_during_fullscreen smart</tt></pre>
\r
1160 <div class="sect2">
\r
1161 <h3 id="_focus_wrapping">4.25. Focus wrapping</h3>
\r
1162 <div class="paragraph"><p>By default, when in a container with several windows or child containers, the
\r
1163 opposite window will be focused when trying to move the focus over the edge of
\r
1164 a container (and there are no other containers in that direction) — the focus
\r
1166 <div class="paragraph"><p>If desired, you can disable this behavior by setting the <tt>focus_wrapping</tt>
\r
1167 configuration directive to the value <tt>no</tt>.</p></div>
\r
1168 <div class="paragraph"><p>When enabled, focus wrapping does not occur by default if there is another
\r
1169 window or container in the specified direction, and focus will instead be set
\r
1170 on that window or container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate
\r
1171 to all your windows without having to use <tt>focus parent</tt>.</p></div>
\r
1172 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want the focus to <strong>always</strong> wrap and you are aware of using <tt>focus
\r
1173 parent</tt> to switch to different containers, you can instead set <tt>focus_wrapping</tt>
\r
1174 to the value <tt>force</tt>.</p></div>
\r
1175 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1176 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1177 <div class="content">
\r
1178 <pre><tt>focus_wrapping yes|no|force
\r
1180 # Legacy syntax, equivalent to "focus_wrapping force"
\r
1181 force_focus_wrapping yes</tt></pre>
\r
1183 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1184 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1185 <div class="content">
\r
1186 <pre><tt># Disable focus wrapping
\r
1189 # Force focus wrapping
\r
1190 focus_wrapping force</tt></pre>
\r
1193 <div class="sect2">
\r
1194 <h3 id="_forcing_xinerama">4.26. Forcing Xinerama</h3>
\r
1195 <div class="paragraph"><p>As explained in-depth in <a href="https://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html">https://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html</a>, some X11
\r
1196 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
\r
1197 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
\r
1198 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
\r
1199 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
\r
1200 that’s it).</p></div>
\r
1201 <div class="paragraph"><p>For people who cannot modify their <tt>~/.xsession</tt> to add the
\r
1202 <tt>--force-xinerama</tt> commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:</p></div>
\r
1203 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1204 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1205 <div class="content">
\r
1206 <pre><tt>force_xinerama yes|no</tt></pre>
\r
1208 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1209 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1210 <div class="content">
\r
1211 <pre><tt>force_xinerama yes</tt></pre>
\r
1213 <div class="paragraph"><p>Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like <tt>HDMI1</tt>) when using
\r
1214 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: <tt>xinerama-0</tt>, <tt>xinerama-1</tt>, …</p></div>
\r
1216 <div class="sect2">
\r
1217 <h3 id="workspace_auto_back_and_forth">4.27. Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace</h3>
\r
1218 <div class="paragraph"><p>This configuration directive enables automatic <tt>workspace back_and_forth</tt> (see
\r
1219 <a href="#back_and_forth">[back_and_forth]</a>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.</p></div>
\r
1220 <div class="paragraph"><p>For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
\r
1221 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
\r
1222 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".</p></div>
\r
1223 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1224 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1225 <div class="content">
\r
1226 <pre><tt>workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes|no</tt></pre>
\r
1228 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1229 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1230 <div class="content">
\r
1231 <pre><tt>workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes</tt></pre>
\r
1234 <div class="sect2">
\r
1235 <h3 id="_delaying_urgency_hint_reset_on_workspace_change">4.28. Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change</h3>
\r
1236 <div class="paragraph"><p>If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
\r
1237 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
\r
1238 window decoration color would be immediately reset to <tt>client.focused</tt>. This
\r
1239 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
\r
1241 <div class="paragraph"><p>In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
\r
1242 by a certain time using the <tt>force_display_urgency_hint</tt> directive. Setting the
\r
1243 value to 0 disables this feature.</p></div>
\r
1244 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default is 500ms.</p></div>
\r
1245 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1246 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1247 <div class="content">
\r
1248 <pre><tt>force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms</tt></pre>
\r
1250 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1251 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1252 <div class="content">
\r
1253 <pre><tt>force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms</tt></pre>
\r
1256 <div class="sect2">
\r
1257 <h3 id="focus_on_window_activation">4.29. Focus on window activation</h3>
\r
1258 <div class="paragraph"><p>If a window is activated, e.g., via <tt>google-chrome www.google.com</tt>, it may request
\r
1259 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.</p></div>
\r
1260 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
\r
1261 from being focused, see <a href="#no_focus">[no_focus]</a>.</p></div>
\r
1262 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1263 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1264 <div class="content">
\r
1265 <pre><tt>focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none</tt></pre>
\r
1267 <div class="paragraph"><p>The different modes will act as follows:</p></div>
\r
1268 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1269 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1274 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
\r
1275 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
\r
1278 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1283 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
\r
1286 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1291 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
\r
1294 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1299 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
\r
1304 <div class="sect2">
\r
1305 <h3 id="show_marks">4.30. Drawing marks on window decoration</h3>
\r
1306 <div class="paragraph"><p>If activated, marks (see <a href="#vim_like_marks">[vim_like_marks]</a>) on windows are drawn in their window
\r
1307 decoration. However, any mark starting with an underscore in its name (<tt>_</tt>) will
\r
1308 not be drawn even if this option is activated.</p></div>
\r
1309 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default for this option is <tt>yes</tt>.</p></div>
\r
1310 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1311 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1312 <div class="content">
\r
1313 <pre><tt>show_marks yes|no</tt></pre>
\r
1315 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1316 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1317 <div class="content">
\r
1318 <pre><tt>show_marks yes</tt></pre>
\r
1321 <div class="sect2">
\r
1322 <h3 id="line_continuation">4.31. Line continuation</h3>
\r
1323 <div class="paragraph"><p>Config files support line continuation, meaning when you end a line in a
\r
1324 backslash character (<tt>\</tt>), the line-break will be ignored by the parser. This
\r
1325 feature can be used to create more readable configuration files.
\r
1326 Commented lines are not continued.</p></div>
\r
1327 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1328 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1329 <div class="content">
\r
1330 <pre><tt>bindsym Mod1+f \
\r
1333 # this line is not continued \
\r
1334 bindsym Mod1+F fullscreen toggle</tt></pre>
\r
1339 <div class="sect1">
\r
1340 <h2 id="_configuring_i3bar">5. Configuring i3bar</h2>
\r
1341 <div class="sectionbody">
\r
1342 <div class="paragraph"><p>The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
\r
1343 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
\r
1344 several advantages:</p></div>
\r
1345 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
\r
1348 It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
\r
1349 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
\r
1350 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
\r
1355 It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
\r
1356 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
\r
1357 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
\r
1362 It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
\r
1363 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
\r
1367 <div class="paragraph"><p>That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
\r
1368 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
\r
1369 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
\r
1370 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
\r
1371 configuration infrastructure in place.</p></div>
\r
1372 <div class="paragraph"><p>Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a <tt>bar</tt> block. You can have
\r
1373 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):</p></div>
\r
1374 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1375 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1376 <div class="content">
\r
1378 status_command i3status
\r
1381 <div class="sect2">
\r
1382 <h3 id="_i3bar_command">5.1. i3bar command</h3>
\r
1383 <div class="paragraph"><p>By default i3 will just pass <tt>i3bar</tt> and let your shell handle the execution,
\r
1384 searching your <tt>$PATH</tt> for a correct version.
\r
1385 If you have a different <tt>i3bar</tt> somewhere or the binary is not in your <tt>$PATH</tt> you can
\r
1386 tell i3 what to execute.</p></div>
\r
1387 <div class="paragraph"><p>The specified command will be passed to <tt>sh -c</tt>, so you can use globbing and
\r
1388 have to have correct quoting etc.</p></div>
\r
1389 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1390 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1391 <div class="content">
\r
1392 <pre><tt>i3bar_command <command></tt></pre>
\r
1394 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1395 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1396 <div class="content">
\r
1398 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
\r
1402 <div class="sect2">
\r
1403 <h3 id="status_command">5.2. Statusline command</h3>
\r
1404 <div class="paragraph"><p>i3bar can run a program and display every line of its <tt>stdout</tt> output on the
\r
1405 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
\r
1406 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.</p></div>
\r
1407 <div class="paragraph"><p>The specified command will be passed to <tt>sh -c</tt>, so you can use globbing and
\r
1408 have to have correct quoting etc. Note that for signal handling, depending on
\r
1409 your shell (users of dash(1) are known to be affected), you have to use the
\r
1410 shell’s exec command so that signals are passed to your program, not to the
\r
1412 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1413 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1414 <div class="content">
\r
1415 <pre><tt>status_command <command></tt></pre>
\r
1417 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1418 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1419 <div class="content">
\r
1421 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
\r
1423 # For dash(1) users who want signal handling to work:
\r
1424 status_command exec ~/.bin/my_status_command
\r
1428 <div class="sect2">
\r
1429 <h3 id="_display_mode">5.3. Display mode</h3>
\r
1430 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
\r
1431 (<tt>dock</tt> mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (<tt>hide</tt> mode).
\r
1432 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (<tt>invisible</tt>
\r
1433 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the <tt>modifier</tt> option.</p></div>
\r
1434 <div class="paragraph"><p>The mode option can be changed during runtime through the <tt>bar mode</tt> command.
\r
1435 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.</p></div>
\r
1436 <div class="paragraph"><p>The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
\r
1437 i3bar sends the <tt>SIGSTOP</tt> and <tt>SIGCONT</tt> signals to the statusline process to
\r
1438 save battery power.</p></div>
\r
1439 <div class="paragraph"><p>Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
\r
1440 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
\r
1441 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.</p></div>
\r
1442 <div class="paragraph"><p>In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
\r
1443 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
\r
1444 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
\r
1445 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
\r
1446 pressing the modifier key (<tt>hide</tt> state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
\r
1447 currently visible workspace (<tt>show</tt> state).</p></div>
\r
1448 <div class="paragraph"><p>Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
\r
1449 done by using the <tt>bar hidden_state</tt> command.</p></div>
\r
1450 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
\r
1451 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.</p></div>
\r
1452 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1453 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1454 <div class="content">
\r
1455 <pre><tt>mode dock|hide|invisible
\r
1456 hidden_state hide|show
\r
1457 modifier <Modifier>|none</tt></pre>
\r
1459 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1460 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1461 <div class="content">
\r
1468 <div class="paragraph"><p>Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see <tt>xmodmap(1)</tt>). You can
\r
1469 also use "none" if you don’t want any modifier to trigger this behavior.</p></div>
\r
1471 <div class="sect2">
\r
1472 <h3 id="_mouse_button_commands">5.4. Mouse button commands</h3>
\r
1473 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
\r
1474 default behavior. This is useful, e.g., for disabling the scroll wheel action
\r
1475 or running scripts that implement custom behavior for these buttons.</p></div>
\r
1476 <div class="paragraph"><p>A button is always named <tt>button<n></tt>, where 1 to 5 are default buttons as follows and higher
\r
1477 numbers can be special buttons on devices offering more buttons:</p></div>
\r
1478 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1479 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1484 Left mouse button.
\r
1487 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1492 Middle mouse button.
\r
1495 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1500 Right mouse button.
\r
1503 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1511 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1516 Scroll wheel down.
\r
1520 <div class="paragraph"><p>Please note that the old <tt>wheel_up_cmd</tt> and <tt>wheel_down_cmd</tt> commands are deprecated
\r
1521 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the more general
\r
1522 <tt>bindsym</tt> with <tt>button4</tt> and <tt>button5</tt> instead.</p></div>
\r
1523 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1524 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1525 <div class="content">
\r
1526 <pre><tt>bindsym [--release] button<n> <command></tt></pre>
\r
1528 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1529 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1530 <div class="content">
\r
1532 # disable clicking on workspace buttons
\r
1533 bindsym button1 nop
\r
1534 # Take a screenshot by right clicking on the bar
\r
1535 bindsym --release button3 exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
\r
1536 # execute custom script when scrolling downwards
\r
1537 bindsym button5 exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
\r
1541 <div class="sect2">
\r
1542 <h3 id="_bar_id">5.5. Bar ID</h3>
\r
1543 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
\r
1544 the ID is set to <em>bar-x</em>, where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
\r
1545 bar block in the config file (<em>bar-0</em>, <em>bar-1</em>, …).</p></div>
\r
1546 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1547 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1548 <div class="content">
\r
1549 <pre><tt>id <bar_id></tt></pre>
\r
1551 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1552 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1553 <div class="content">
\r
1559 <div class="sect2">
\r
1560 <h3 id="i3bar_position">5.6. Position</h3>
\r
1561 <div class="paragraph"><p>This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.</p></div>
\r
1562 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default is bottom.</p></div>
\r
1563 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1564 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1565 <div class="content">
\r
1566 <pre><tt>position top|bottom</tt></pre>
\r
1568 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1569 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1570 <div class="content">
\r
1576 <div class="sect2">
\r
1577 <h3 id="_output_s">5.7. Output(s)</h3>
\r
1578 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
\r
1579 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
\r
1580 options for different outputs by using multiple <em>bar</em> blocks.</p></div>
\r
1581 <div class="paragraph"><p>To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
\r
1582 directive multiple times.</p></div>
\r
1583 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1584 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1585 <div class="content">
\r
1586 <pre><tt>output primary|<output></tt></pre>
\r
1588 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1589 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1590 <div class="content">
\r
1591 <pre><tt># big monitor: everything
\r
1593 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
\r
1596 status_command i3status
\r
1599 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
\r
1602 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
\r
1604 background #000000
\r
1605 statusline #ffffff
\r
1609 # show bar on the primary monitor and on HDMI2
\r
1613 status_command i3status
\r
1616 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:</p></div>
\r
1617 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1618 <div class="content">
\r
1619 <pre><tt>xrandr --output <output> --primary</tt></pre>
\r
1622 <div class="sect2">
\r
1623 <h3 id="_tray_output">5.8. Tray output</h3>
\r
1624 <div class="paragraph"><p>i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
\r
1625 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.</p></div>
\r
1626 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
\r
1627 you can turn off the functionality entirely.</p></div>
\r
1628 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can use multiple <tt>tray_output</tt> directives in your config to specify a list
\r
1629 of outputs on which you want the tray to appear. The first available output in
\r
1630 that list as defined by the order of the directives will be used for the tray
\r
1632 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1633 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1634 <div class="content">
\r
1635 <pre><tt>tray_output none|primary|<output></tt></pre>
\r
1637 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1638 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1639 <div class="content">
\r
1640 <pre><tt># disable system tray
\r
1645 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
\r
1647 tray_output primary
\r
1650 # show tray icons on the big monitor
\r
1655 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:</p></div>
\r
1656 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1657 <div class="content">
\r
1658 <pre><tt>xrandr --output <output> --primary</tt></pre>
\r
1660 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that when you use multiple bar configuration blocks, either specify
\r
1661 <tt>tray_output primary</tt> in all of them or explicitly specify <tt>tray_output none</tt>
\r
1662 in bars which should not display the tray, otherwise the different instances
\r
1663 might race each other in trying to display tray icons.</p></div>
\r
1665 <div class="sect2">
\r
1666 <h3 id="_tray_padding">5.9. Tray padding</h3>
\r
1667 <div class="paragraph"><p>The tray is shown on the right-hand side of the bar. By default, a padding of 2
\r
1668 pixels is used for the upper, lower and right-hand side of the tray area and
\r
1669 between the individual icons.</p></div>
\r
1670 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1671 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1672 <div class="content">
\r
1673 <pre><tt>tray_padding <px> [px]</tt></pre>
\r
1675 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1676 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1677 <div class="content">
\r
1678 <pre><tt># Obey Fitts's law
\r
1679 tray_padding 0</tt></pre>
\r
1682 <div class="sect2">
\r
1683 <h3 id="_font">5.10. Font</h3>
\r
1684 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <a href="#fonts">[fonts]</a>.</p></div>
\r
1685 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1686 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1687 <div class="content">
\r
1688 <pre><tt>font <font></tt></pre>
\r
1690 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1691 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1692 <div class="content">
\r
1694 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
\r
1695 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
\r
1699 <div class="sect2">
\r
1700 <h3 id="_custom_separator_symbol">5.11. Custom separator symbol</h3>
\r
1701 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
\r
1702 one pixel thick separator.</p></div>
\r
1703 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1704 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1705 <div class="content">
\r
1706 <pre><tt>separator_symbol <symbol></tt></pre>
\r
1708 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1709 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1710 <div class="content">
\r
1712 separator_symbol ":|:"
\r
1716 <div class="sect2">
\r
1717 <h3 id="_workspace_buttons">5.12. Workspace buttons</h3>
\r
1718 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
\r
1719 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.</p></div>
\r
1720 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default is to show workspace buttons.</p></div>
\r
1721 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1722 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1723 <div class="content">
\r
1724 <pre><tt>workspace_buttons yes|no</tt></pre>
\r
1726 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1727 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1728 <div class="content">
\r
1730 workspace_buttons no
\r
1734 <div class="sect2">
\r
1735 <h3 id="_strip_workspace_numbers_name">5.13. Strip workspace numbers/name</h3>
\r
1736 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
\r
1737 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
\r
1738 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.</p></div>
\r
1739 <div class="paragraph"><p>When <tt>strip_workspace_numbers</tt> is set to <tt>yes</tt>, any workspace that has a name of
\r
1740 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
\r
1741 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
\r
1742 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", …</p></div>
\r
1743 <div class="paragraph"><p>When <tt>strip_workspace_name</tt> is set to <tt>yes</tt>, any workspace that has a name of
\r
1744 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the number.</p></div>
\r
1745 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.</p></div>
\r
1746 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1747 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1748 <div class="content">
\r
1749 <pre><tt>strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
\r
1750 strip_workspace_name yes|no</tt></pre>
\r
1752 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1753 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1754 <div class="content">
\r
1756 strip_workspace_numbers yes
\r
1760 <div class="sect2">
\r
1761 <h3 id="_binding_mode_indicator">5.14. Binding Mode indicator</h3>
\r
1762 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
\r
1763 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
\r
1764 to see the current binding mode indicator. See <a href="#binding_modes">[binding_modes]</a> to learn what
\r
1765 modes are and how to use them.</p></div>
\r
1766 <div class="paragraph"><p>The default is to show the mode indicator.</p></div>
\r
1767 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1768 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1769 <div class="content">
\r
1770 <pre><tt>binding_mode_indicator yes|no</tt></pre>
\r
1772 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1773 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1774 <div class="content">
\r
1776 binding_mode_indicator no
\r
1780 <div class="sect2">
\r
1781 <h3 id="_colors">5.15. Colors</h3>
\r
1782 <div class="paragraph"><p>As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
\r
1783 be configured at the moment:</p></div>
\r
1784 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1785 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1790 Background color of the bar.
\r
1793 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1798 Text color to be used for the statusline.
\r
1801 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1806 Text color to be used for the separator.
\r
1809 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1810 focused_background
\r
1814 Background color of the bar on the currently focused monitor output. If
\r
1815 not used, the color will be taken from <tt>background</tt>.
\r
1818 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1819 focused_statusline
\r
1823 Text color to be used for the statusline on the currently focused
\r
1824 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from <tt>statusline</tt>.
\r
1827 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1832 Text color to be used for the separator on the currently focused
\r
1833 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from <tt>separator</tt>.
\r
1836 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1841 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
\r
1845 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1850 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
\r
1851 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
\r
1852 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
\r
1853 using multiple monitors.
\r
1856 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1857 inactive_workspace
\r
1861 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
\r
1862 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
\r
1863 will be the case for most workspaces.
\r
1866 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1871 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
\r
1872 contains a window with the urgency hint set.
\r
1875 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1880 Border, background and text color for the binding mode indicator. If not used,
\r
1881 the colors will be taken from <tt>urgent_workspace</tt>.
\r
1885 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1886 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1887 <div class="content">
\r
1889 background <color>
\r
1890 statusline <color>
\r
1891 separator <color>
\r
1893 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text>
\r
1896 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example (default colors)</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1897 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1898 <div class="content">
\r
1901 background #000000
\r
1902 statusline #ffffff
\r
1905 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
\r
1906 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
\r
1907 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
\r
1908 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
\r
1909 binding_mode #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
\r
1916 <div class="sect1">
\r
1917 <h2 id="list_of_commands">6. List of commands</h2>
\r
1918 <div class="sectionbody">
\r
1919 <div class="paragraph"><p>Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
\r
1920 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
\r
1921 do this is to use the <tt>i3-msg</tt> utility:</p></div>
\r
1922 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1923 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1924 <div class="content">
\r
1925 <pre><tt># execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
\r
1926 i3-msg border none</tt></pre>
\r
1928 <div class="paragraph" id="command_chaining"><p>Commands can be chained by using <tt>;</tt> (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
\r
1929 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
\r
1930 the following keybinding:</p></div>
\r
1931 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1932 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1933 <div class="content">
\r
1934 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3</tt></pre>
\r
1936 <div class="paragraph" id="command_criteria"><p>Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
\r
1937 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
\r
1938 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
\r
1939 by space.</p></div>
\r
1940 <div class="paragraph"><p>When using multiple commands, separate them by using a <tt>,</tt> (a comma) instead of
\r
1941 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
\r
1942 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
\r
1943 matched window(s).</p></div>
\r
1944 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
1945 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1946 <div class="content">
\r
1947 <pre><tt># if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
\r
1948 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
\r
1950 # same thing, but case-insensitive
\r
1951 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
\r
1953 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
\r
1954 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
\r
1956 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
\r
1957 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
\r
1959 # move all floating windows to the scratchpad
\r
1960 bindsym $mod+x [floating] move scratchpad</tt></pre>
\r
1962 <div class="paragraph"><p>The criteria which are currently implemented are:</p></div>
\r
1963 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1964 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1969 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS). Use the
\r
1970 special value <tt>__focused__</tt> to match all windows having the same window
\r
1971 class as the currently focused window.
\r
1974 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1979 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS). Use the
\r
1980 special value <tt>__focused__</tt> to match all windows having the same window
\r
1981 instance as the currently focused window.
\r
1984 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1989 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE). Use the special value
\r
1990 <tt>__focused__</tt> to match all windows having the same window role as the
\r
1991 currently focused window.
\r
1994 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1999 Compare the window type (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE). Possible values are
\r
2000 <tt>normal</tt>, <tt>dialog</tt>, <tt>utility</tt>, <tt>toolbar</tt>, <tt>splash</tt>, <tt>menu</tt>, <tt>dropdown_menu</tt>,
\r
2001 <tt>popup_menu</tt>, <tt>tooltip</tt> and <tt>notification</tt>.
\r
2004 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2009 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via <tt>xwininfo</tt> for example.
\r
2012 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2017 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
\r
2018 Use the special value <tt>__focused__</tt> to match all windows having the
\r
2019 same window title as the currently focused window.
\r
2022 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2027 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
\r
2028 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
\r
2029 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
\r
2032 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2037 Compares the workspace name of the workspace the window belongs to. Use
\r
2038 the special value <tt>__focused__</tt> to match all windows in the currently
\r
2039 focused workspace.
\r
2042 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2047 Compares the marks set for this container, see <a href="#vim_like_marks">[vim_like_marks]</a>. A
\r
2048 match is made if any of the container’s marks matches the specified
\r
2052 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2057 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
\r
2058 interface. Handy for scripting. Use the special value <tt>__focused__</tt>
\r
2059 to match only the currently focused window.
\r
2062 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2067 Only matches floating windows. This criterion requires no value.
\r
2070 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2075 Only matches tiling windows. This criterion requires no value.
\r
2079 <div class="paragraph"><p>The criteria <tt>class</tt>, <tt>instance</tt>, <tt>role</tt>, <tt>title</tt>, <tt>workspace</tt> and <tt>mark</tt> are
\r
2080 actually regular expressions (PCRE). See <tt>pcresyntax(3)</tt> or <tt>perldoc perlre</tt> for
\r
2081 information on how to use them.</p></div>
\r
2082 <div class="sect2">
\r
2083 <h3 id="exec">6.1. Executing applications (exec)</h3>
\r
2084 <div class="paragraph"><p>What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
\r
2085 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
\r
2086 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
\r
2087 searched in your <tt>$PATH</tt>.</p></div>
\r
2088 <div class="paragraph"><p>See <a href="#command_chaining">[command_chaining]</a> for details on the special meaning of <tt>;</tt> (semicolon)
\r
2089 and <tt>,</tt> (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
\r
2090 strings (as shown in <a href="#exec_quoting">[exec_quoting]</a>) if they appear in your command.</p></div>
\r
2091 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2092 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2093 <div class="content">
\r
2094 <pre><tt>exec [--no-startup-id] <command></tt></pre>
\r
2096 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2097 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2098 <div class="content">
\r
2099 <pre><tt># Start the GIMP
\r
2100 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
\r
2102 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
\r
2103 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt</tt></pre>
\r
2105 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <tt>--no-startup-id</tt> parameter disables startup-notification support for this
\r
2106 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
\r
2107 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
\r
2108 will change the X11 cursor to <tt>watch</tt> (a clock) while the application is
\r
2109 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
\r
2110 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
\r
2111 cursor for 60 seconds.</p></div>
\r
2112 <div class="paragraph" id="exec_quoting"><p>If the command to be executed contains a <tt>;</tt> (semicolon) and/or a <tt>,</tt> (comma),
\r
2113 the entire command must be quoted. For example, to have a keybinding for the
\r
2114 shell command <tt>notify-send Hello, i3</tt>, you would add an entry to your
\r
2115 configuration file like this:</p></div>
\r
2116 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2117 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2118 <div class="content">
\r
2119 <pre><tt># Execute a command with a comma in it
\r
2120 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send Hello, i3"</tt></pre>
\r
2122 <div class="paragraph"><p>If however a command with a comma and/or semicolon itself requires quotes, you
\r
2123 must escape the internal quotation marks with double backslashes, like this:</p></div>
\r
2124 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2125 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2126 <div class="content">
\r
2127 <pre><tt># Execute a command with a comma, semicolon and internal quotes
\r
2128 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send \\"Hello, i3; from $USER\\""</tt></pre>
\r
2131 <div class="sect2">
\r
2132 <h3 id="_splitting_containers">6.2. Splitting containers</h3>
\r
2133 <div class="paragraph"><p>The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
\r
2134 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
\r
2135 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
\r
2136 get placed below the current one (splitv).</p></div>
\r
2137 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
\r
2138 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
\r
2139 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
\r
2140 The <tt>toggle</tt> option will toggle the orientation of the split container if it
\r
2141 contains a single window. Otherwise it makes the current window a split
\r
2142 container with opposite orientation compared to the parent container.
\r
2143 Use <tt>layout toggle split</tt> to change the layout of any split container from
\r
2144 splitv to splith or vice-versa. You can also define a custom sequence of layouts
\r
2145 to cycle through with <tt>layout toggle</tt>, see <a href="#manipulating_layout">[manipulating_layout]</a>.</p></div>
\r
2146 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2147 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2148 <div class="content">
\r
2149 <pre><tt>split vertical|horizontal|toggle</tt></pre>
\r
2151 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2152 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2153 <div class="content">
\r
2154 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+v split vertical
\r
2155 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
\r
2156 bindsym $mod+t split toggle</tt></pre>
\r
2159 <div class="sect2">
\r
2160 <h3 id="_manipulating_layout">6.3. Manipulating layout</h3>
\r
2161 <div class="paragraph"><p>Use <tt>layout toggle split</tt>, <tt>layout stacking</tt>, <tt>layout tabbed</tt>, <tt>layout splitv</tt>
\r
2162 or <tt>layout splith</tt> to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
\r
2163 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.</p></div>
\r
2164 <div class="paragraph"><p>Specify up to four layouts after <tt>layout toggle</tt> to cycle through them. Every
\r
2165 time the command is executed, the layout specified after the currently active
\r
2166 one will be applied. If the currently active layout is not in the list, the
\r
2167 first layout in the list will be activated.</p></div>
\r
2168 <div class="paragraph"><p>To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use <tt>fullscreen enable</tt> (or
\r
2169 <tt>fullscreen enable global</tt> for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
\r
2170 mode use <tt>fullscreen disable</tt>, and to toggle between these two states use
\r
2171 <tt>fullscreen toggle</tt> (or <tt>fullscreen toggle global</tt>).</p></div>
\r
2172 <div class="paragraph"><p>Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use <tt>floating
\r
2173 enable</tt> respectively <tt>floating disable</tt> (or <tt>floating toggle</tt>):</p></div>
\r
2174 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2175 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2176 <div class="content">
\r
2177 <pre><tt>layout default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith
\r
2178 layout toggle [split|all]
\r
2179 layout toggle [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith] [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith]…</tt></pre>
\r
2181 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2182 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2183 <div class="content">
\r
2184 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
\r
2185 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
\r
2186 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
\r
2188 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
\r
2189 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
\r
2191 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
\r
2192 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
\r
2194 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith:
\r
2195 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle stacking tabbed splith
\r
2197 # Toggle between splitv/tabbed
\r
2198 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle splitv tabbed
\r
2200 # Toggle between last split layout/tabbed/stacking
\r
2201 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle split tabbed stacking
\r
2203 # Toggle fullscreen
\r
2204 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
\r
2206 # Toggle floating/tiling
\r
2207 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle</tt></pre>
\r
2210 <div class="sect2">
\r
2211 <h3 id="_focusing_moving_containers">6.4. Focusing containers</h3>
\r
2212 <div class="paragraph"><p>To change focus, you can use the <tt>focus</tt> command. The following options are
\r
2213 available:</p></div>
\r
2214 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
2215 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2220 Sets focus to the container that matches the specified criteria.
\r
2221 See <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>.
\r
2224 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2225 left|right|up|down
\r
2229 Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
\r
2232 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2237 Sets focus to the parent container of the current container.
\r
2240 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2245 The opposite of <tt>focus parent</tt>, sets the focus to the last focused
\r
2249 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2254 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
\r
2257 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2262 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
\r
2265 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2270 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
\r
2273 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2278 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
\r
2279 corresponding output.
\r
2283 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2284 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2285 <div class="content">
\r
2286 <pre><tt><criteria> focus
\r
2287 focus left|right|down|up
\r
2288 focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
\r
2289 focus output left|right|up|down|primary|<output></tt></pre>
\r
2291 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2292 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2293 <div class="content">
\r
2294 <pre><tt># Focus firefox
\r
2295 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] focus
\r
2297 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
\r
2298 bindsym $mod+j focus left
\r
2299 bindsym $mod+k focus down
\r
2300 bindsym $mod+l focus up
\r
2301 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
\r
2303 # Focus parent container
\r
2304 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
\r
2306 # Focus last floating/tiling container
\r
2307 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
\r
2309 # Focus the output right to the current one
\r
2310 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
\r
2312 # Focus the big output
\r
2313 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
\r
2315 # Focus the primary output
\r
2316 bindsym $mod+x focus output primary</tt></pre>
\r
2318 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:</p></div>
\r
2319 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2320 <div class="content">
\r
2321 <pre><tt>xrandr --output <output> --primary</tt></pre>
\r
2324 <div class="sect2">
\r
2325 <h3 id="_moving_containers">6.5. Moving containers</h3>
\r
2326 <div class="paragraph"><p>Use the <tt>move</tt> command to move a container.</p></div>
\r
2327 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2328 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2329 <div class="content">
\r
2330 <pre><tt># Moves the container into the given direction.
\r
2331 # The optional pixel argument specifies how far the
\r
2332 # container should be moved if it is floating and
\r
2333 # defaults to 10 pixels.
\r
2334 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
\r
2336 # Moves the container to the specified pos_x and pos_y
\r
2337 # coordinates on the screen.
\r
2338 move position <pos_x> [px] <pos_y> [px]
\r
2340 # Moves the container to the center of the screen.
\r
2341 # If 'absolute' is used, it is moved to the center of
\r
2343 move [absolute] position center
\r
2345 # Moves the container to the current position of the
\r
2346 # mouse cursor. Only affects floating containers.
\r
2347 move position mouse</tt></pre>
\r
2349 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2350 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2351 <div class="content">
\r
2352 <pre><tt># Move container to the left, bottom, top, right
\r
2353 bindsym $mod+j move left
\r
2354 bindsym $mod+k move down
\r
2355 bindsym $mod+l move up
\r
2356 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
\r
2358 # Move container, but make floating containers
\r
2359 # move more than the default
\r
2360 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
\r
2362 # Move floating container to the center of all outputs
\r
2363 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
\r
2365 # Move container to the current position of the cursor
\r
2366 bindsym $mod+m move position mouse</tt></pre>
\r
2369 <div class="sect2">
\r
2370 <h3 id="_swapping_containers">6.6. Swapping containers</h3>
\r
2371 <div class="paragraph"><p>Two containers can be swapped (i.e., move to each other’s position) by using
\r
2372 the <tt>swap</tt> command. They will assume the position and geometry of the container
\r
2373 they are swapped with.</p></div>
\r
2374 <div class="paragraph"><p>The first container to participate in the swapping can be selected through the
\r
2375 normal command criteria process with the focused window being the usual
\r
2376 fallback if no criteria are specified. The second container can be selected
\r
2377 using one of the following methods:</p></div>
\r
2378 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
2379 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2384 The X11 window ID of a client window.
\r
2387 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2392 The i3 container ID of a container.
\r
2395 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2400 A container with the specified mark, see <a href="#vim_like_marks">[vim_like_marks]</a>.
\r
2404 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that swapping does not work with all containers. Most notably, swapping
\r
2405 floating containers or containers that have a parent-child relationship to one
\r
2406 another does not work.</p></div>
\r
2407 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2408 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2409 <div class="content">
\r
2410 <pre><tt>swap container with id|con_id|mark <arg></tt></pre>
\r
2412 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2413 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2414 <div class="content">
\r
2415 <pre><tt># Swaps the focused container with the container marked »swapee«.
\r
2416 swap container with mark swapee
\r
2418 # Swaps container marked »A« and »B«
\r
2419 [con_mark="^A$"] swap container with mark B</tt></pre>
\r
2422 <div class="sect2">
\r
2423 <h3 id="_sticky_floating_windows">6.7. Sticky floating windows</h3>
\r
2424 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want a window to stick to the glass, i.e., have it stay on screen even
\r
2425 if you switch to another workspace, you can use the <tt>sticky</tt> command. For
\r
2426 example, this can be useful for notepads, a media player or a video chat
\r
2428 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that while any window can be made sticky through this command, it will
\r
2429 only take effect if the window is floating.</p></div>
\r
2430 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2431 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2432 <div class="content">
\r
2433 <pre><tt>sticky enable|disable|toggle</tt></pre>
\r
2435 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2436 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2437 <div class="content">
\r
2438 <pre><tt># make a terminal sticky that was started as a notepad
\r
2439 for_window [instance=notepad] sticky enable</tt></pre>
\r
2442 <div class="sect2">
\r
2443 <h3 id="_changing_named_workspaces_moving_to_workspaces">6.8. Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces</h3>
\r
2444 <div class="paragraph"><p>To change to a specific workspace, use the <tt>workspace</tt> command, followed by the
\r
2445 number or name of the workspace. Pass the optional flag
\r
2446 <tt>--no-auto-back-and-forth</tt> to disable <a href="#workspace_auto_back_and_forth">[workspace_auto_back_and_forth]</a> for this
\r
2447 specific call only.</p></div>
\r
2448 <div class="paragraph"><p>To move containers to specific workspaces, use <tt>move container to workspace</tt>.</p></div>
\r
2449 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
\r
2450 <tt>workspace next</tt> and <tt>workspace prev</tt>, which is handy, for example, if you have
\r
2451 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
\r
2452 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use <tt>workspace
\r
2453 next_on_output</tt> and <tt>workspace prev_on_output</tt>. Similarly, you can use <tt>move
\r
2454 container to workspace next</tt>, <tt>move container to workspace prev</tt> to move a
\r
2455 container to the next/previous workspace and <tt>move container to workspace current</tt>
\r
2456 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).</p></div>
\r
2457 <div class="paragraph"><p><tt>workspace next</tt> cycles through either numbered or named workspaces. But when it
\r
2458 reaches the last numbered/named workspace, it looks for named workspaces after
\r
2459 exhausting numbered ones and looks for numbered ones after exhausting named ones.</p></div>
\r
2460 <div class="paragraph"><p>See <a href="#move_to_outputs">[move_to_outputs]</a> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
\r
2461 RandR output.</p></div>
\r
2462 <div class="paragraph"><p>Workspace names are parsed as
\r
2463 <a href="https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html">Pango markup</a>
\r
2464 by i3bar.</p></div>
\r
2465 <div class="paragraph" id="back_and_forth"><p>To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use <tt>workspace
\r
2466 back_and_forth</tt>; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
\r
2467 workspace using <tt>move container to workspace back_and_forth</tt>.</p></div>
\r
2468 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2469 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2470 <div class="content">
\r
2471 <pre><tt>workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
\r
2472 workspace back_and_forth
\r
2473 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] <name>
\r
2474 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] number <name>
\r
2476 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
\r
2477 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
\r
2478 move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current</tt></pre>
\r
2480 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2481 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2482 <div class="content">
\r
2483 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
\r
2484 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
\r
2485 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
\r
2488 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
\r
2489 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
\r
2492 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
\r
2493 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
\r
2494 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
\r
2496 # move the whole workspace to the next output
\r
2497 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
\r
2499 # move firefox to current workspace
\r
2500 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current</tt></pre>
\r
2502 <div class="sect3">
\r
2503 <h4 id="_named_workspaces">6.8.1. Named workspaces</h4>
\r
2504 <div class="paragraph"><p>Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
\r
2505 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:</p></div>
\r
2506 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2507 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2508 <div class="content">
\r
2509 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
\r
2512 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want the workspace to have a number <strong>and</strong> a name, just prefix the
\r
2513 number, like this:</p></div>
\r
2514 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2515 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2516 <div class="content">
\r
2517 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
\r
2518 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
\r
2521 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
\r
2522 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
\r
2523 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
\r
2524 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use <tt>workspace number 1</tt>
\r
2525 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
\r
2526 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
\r
2527 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use <tt>workspace number 1: mail</tt> to
\r
2528 specify a default name if there’s currently no workspace starting with a "1".</p></div>
\r
2530 <div class="sect3">
\r
2531 <h4 id="_renaming_workspaces">6.8.2. Renaming workspaces</h4>
\r
2532 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
\r
2533 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
\r
2534 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
\r
2535 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
\r
2536 rename command with <tt>i3-input</tt>.</p></div>
\r
2537 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2538 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2539 <div class="content">
\r
2540 <pre><tt>rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
\r
2541 rename workspace to <new_name></tt></pre>
\r
2543 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2544 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2545 <div class="content">
\r
2546 <pre><tt>i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
\r
2547 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
\r
2548 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
\r
2549 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"'
\r
2550 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '</tt></pre>
\r
2552 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want to rename workspaces on demand while keeping the navigation stable,
\r
2553 you can use a setup like this:</p></div>
\r
2554 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2555 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2556 <div class="content">
\r
2557 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+1 workspace number "1: www"
\r
2558 bindsym $mod+2 workspace number "2: mail"
\r
2561 <div class="paragraph"><p>If a workspace does not exist, the command <tt>workspace number "1: mail"</tt> will
\r
2562 create workspace "1: mail".</p></div>
\r
2563 <div class="paragraph"><p>If a workspace with number 1 does already exist, the command will switch to this
\r
2564 workspace and ignore the text part. So even when the workspace has been renamed
\r
2565 to "1: web", the above command will still switch to it.</p></div>
\r
2568 <div class="sect2">
\r
2569 <h3 id="_moving_workspaces_to_a_different_screen">6.9. Moving workspaces to a different screen</h3>
\r
2570 <div class="paragraph"><p>See <a href="#move_to_outputs">[move_to_outputs]</a> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
\r
2571 RandR output.</p></div>
\r
2573 <div class="sect2">
\r
2574 <h3 id="move_to_outputs">6.10. <a id="_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs"></a>Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs</h3>
\r
2575 <div class="paragraph"><p>To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like <tt>LVDS1</tt> or
\r
2576 <tt>VGA1</tt>) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like <tt>left</tt>,
\r
2577 <tt>right</tt>, <tt>up</tt> or <tt>down</tt>), there are two commands:</p></div>
\r
2578 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2579 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2580 <div class="content">
\r
2581 <pre><tt>move container to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output>
\r
2582 move workspace to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output></tt></pre>
\r
2584 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2585 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2586 <div class="content">
\r
2587 <pre><tt># Move the current workspace to the next output
\r
2588 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
\r
2589 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
\r
2591 # Put this window on the presentation output.
\r
2592 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
\r
2594 # Put this window on the primary output.
\r
2595 bindsym $mod+x move container to output primary</tt></pre>
\r
2597 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:</p></div>
\r
2598 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2599 <div class="content">
\r
2600 <pre><tt>xrandr --output <output> --primary</tt></pre>
\r
2603 <div class="sect2">
\r
2604 <h3 id="_moving_containers_windows_to_marks">6.11. Moving containers/windows to marks</h3>
\r
2605 <div class="paragraph"><p>To move a container to another container with a specific mark (see <a href="#vim_like_marks">[vim_like_marks]</a>),
\r
2606 you can use the following command.</p></div>
\r
2607 <div class="paragraph"><p>The window will be moved right after the marked container in the tree, i.e., it ends up
\r
2608 in the same position as if you had opened a new window when the marked container was
\r
2609 focused. If the mark is on a split container, the window will appear as a new child
\r
2610 after the currently focused child within that container.</p></div>
\r
2611 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2612 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2613 <div class="content">
\r
2614 <pre><tt>move window|container to mark <mark></tt></pre>
\r
2616 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2617 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2618 <div class="content">
\r
2619 <pre><tt>for_window [instance="tabme"] move window to mark target</tt></pre>
\r
2622 <div class="sect2">
\r
2623 <h3 id="resizingconfig">6.12. Resizing containers/windows</h3>
\r
2624 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
\r
2625 <tt>resize</tt> command:</p></div>
\r
2626 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2627 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2628 <div class="content">
\r
2629 <pre><tt>resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
\r
2630 resize set [width] <width> [px | ppt]
\r
2631 resize set height <height> [px | ppt]
\r
2632 resize set [width] <width> [px | ppt] [height] <height> [px | ppt]</tt></pre>
\r
2634 <div class="paragraph"><p>Direction can either be one of <tt>up</tt>, <tt>down</tt>, <tt>left</tt> or <tt>right</tt>. Or you can be
\r
2635 less specific and use <tt>width</tt> or <tt>height</tt>, in which case i3 will take/give space
\r
2636 from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by how many
\r
2637 pixels a container should be grown or shrunk (the default is 10 pixels). The
\r
2638 optional ppt argument means "percentage points", and if specified it indicates
\r
2639 that a <strong>tiling container</strong> should be grown or shrunk by that many points, instead
\r
2640 of by the <tt>px</tt> value.</p></div>
\r
2641 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note about <tt>resize set</tt>: a value of 0 for <width> or <height> means "do not
\r
2642 resize in this direction".</p></div>
\r
2643 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is recommended to define bindings for resizing in a dedicated binding mode.
\r
2644 See <a href="#binding_modes">[binding_modes]</a> and the example in the i3
\r
2645 <a href="https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes">default config</a> for more
\r
2646 context.</p></div>
\r
2647 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2648 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2649 <div class="content">
\r
2650 <pre><tt>for_window [class="urxvt"] resize set 640 480</tt></pre>
\r
2653 <div class="sect2">
\r
2654 <h3 id="_jumping_to_specific_windows">6.13. Jumping to specific windows</h3>
\r
2655 <div class="paragraph"><p>Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
\r
2656 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
\r
2657 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
\r
2658 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
\r
2659 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the <tt>focus</tt> command
\r
2660 with criteria for that.</p></div>
\r
2661 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2662 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2663 <div class="content">
\r
2664 <pre><tt>[class="class"] focus
\r
2665 [title="title"] focus</tt></pre>
\r
2667 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2668 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2669 <div class="content">
\r
2670 <pre><tt># Get me to the next open VIM instance
\r
2671 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus</tt></pre>
\r
2674 <div class="sect2">
\r
2675 <h3 id="vim_like_marks">6.14. VIM-like marks (mark/goto)</h3>
\r
2676 <div class="paragraph"><p>This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
\r
2677 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
\r
2678 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
\r
2679 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
\r
2680 way, using the unmark command. If you don’t specify a label, unmark removes all
\r
2681 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
\r
2682 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.</p></div>
\r
2683 <div class="paragraph"><p>As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
\r
2684 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. <tt>i3-input</tt> is a tool created
\r
2685 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
\r
2686 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.</p></div>
\r
2687 <div class="paragraph"><p>The additional <tt>--toggle</tt> option will remove the mark if the window already has
\r
2688 this mark or add it otherwise. Note that you may need to use this in
\r
2689 combination with <tt>--add</tt> (see below) as any other marks will otherwise be
\r
2690 removed.</p></div>
\r
2691 <div class="paragraph"><p>By default, a window can only have one mark. You can use the <tt>--add</tt> flag to
\r
2692 put more than one mark on a window.</p></div>
\r
2693 <div class="paragraph"><p>Refer to <a href="#show_marks">[show_marks]</a> if you don’t want marks to be shown in the window decoration.</p></div>
\r
2694 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2695 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2696 <div class="content">
\r
2697 <pre><tt>mark [--add|--replace] [--toggle] <identifier>
\r
2698 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
\r
2699 unmark <identifier></tt></pre>
\r
2701 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example (in a terminal)</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2702 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2703 <div class="content">
\r
2704 <pre><tt># marks the focused container
\r
2707 # focus the container with the mark "irssi"
\r
2708 '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
\r
2710 # remove the mark "irssi" from whichever container has it
\r
2713 # remove all marks on all firefox windows
\r
2714 [class="(?i)firefox"] unmark</tt></pre>
\r
2717 <div class="sect2">
\r
2718 <h3 id="pango_markup">6.15. Window title format</h3>
\r
2719 <div class="paragraph"><p>By default, i3 will simply print the X11 window title. Using <tt>title_format</tt>,
\r
2720 this can be customized by setting the format to the desired output. This
\r
2721 directive supports
\r
2722 <a href="https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html">Pango markup</a>
\r
2723 and the following placeholders which will be replaced:</p></div>
\r
2724 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
2725 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2730 For normal windows, this is the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME
\r
2731 as fallback). When used on containers without a window (e.g., a split
\r
2732 container inside a tabbed/stacked layout), this will be the tree
\r
2733 representation of the container (e.g., "H[xterm xterm]").
\r
2736 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2741 The X11 window class (second part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
\r
2742 <tt>class</tt> criterion, see <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>.
\r
2745 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
2746 <tt>%instance</tt>
\r
2750 The X11 window instance (first part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
\r
2751 <tt>instance</tt> criterion, see <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>.
\r
2755 <div class="paragraph"><p>Using the <a href="#for_window">[for_window]</a> directive, you can set the title format for any window
\r
2756 based on <a href="#command_criteria">[command_criteria]</a>.</p></div>
\r
2757 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2758 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2759 <div class="content">
\r
2760 <pre><tt>title_format <format></tt></pre>
\r
2762 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2763 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2764 <div class="content">
\r
2765 <pre><tt># give the focused window a prefix
\r
2766 bindsym $mod+p title_format "Important | %title"
\r
2768 # print all window titles bold
\r
2769 for_window [class=".*"] title_format "<b>%title</b>"
\r
2771 # print window titles of firefox windows red
\r
2772 for_window [class="(?i)firefox"] title_format "<span foreground='red'>%title</span>"</tt></pre>
\r
2775 <div class="sect2">
\r
2776 <h3 id="_changing_border_style">6.16. Changing border style</h3>
\r
2777 <div class="paragraph"><p>To change the border of the current client, you can use <tt>border normal</tt> to use the normal
\r
2778 border (including window title), <tt>border pixel 1</tt> to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
\r
2779 and <tt>border none</tt> to make the client borderless.</p></div>
\r
2780 <div class="paragraph"><p>There is also <tt>border toggle</tt> which will toggle the different border styles. The
\r
2781 optional pixel argument can be used to specify the border width when switching
\r
2782 to the normal and pixel styles.</p></div>
\r
2783 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that "pixel" refers to logical pixel. On HiDPI displays, a logical pixel
\r
2784 may be represented by multiple physical pixels, so <tt>pixel 1</tt> might not
\r
2785 necessarily translate into a single pixel row wide border.</p></div>
\r
2786 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2787 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2788 <div class="content">
\r
2789 <pre><tt>border normal|pixel|toggle [<n>]
\r
2792 # legacy syntax, equivalent to "border pixel 1"
\r
2793 border 1pixel</tt></pre>
\r
2795 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2796 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2797 <div class="content">
\r
2798 <pre><tt># use window title, but no border
\r
2799 bindsym $mod+t border normal 0
\r
2800 # use no window title and a thick border
\r
2801 bindsym $mod+y border pixel 3
\r
2802 # use neither window title nor border
\r
2803 bindsym $mod+u border none</tt></pre>
\r
2806 <div class="sect2">
\r
2807 <h3 id="shmlog">6.17. Enabling shared memory logging</h3>
\r
2808 <div class="paragraph"><p>As described in <a href="https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html">https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html</a>, i3 can log to a shared
\r
2809 memory buffer, which you can dump using <tt>i3-dump-log</tt>. The <tt>shmlog</tt> command
\r
2810 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.</p></div>
\r
2811 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that when using <tt>shmlog <size_in_bytes></tt>, the current log will be
\r
2812 discarded and a new one will be started.</p></div>
\r
2813 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2814 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2815 <div class="content">
\r
2816 <pre><tt>shmlog <size_in_bytes>
\r
2817 shmlog on|off|toggle</tt></pre>
\r
2819 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2820 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2821 <div class="content">
\r
2822 <pre><tt># Enable/disable logging
\r
2823 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
\r
2825 # or, from a terminal:
\r
2826 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
\r
2827 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))</tt></pre>
\r
2830 <div class="sect2">
\r
2831 <h3 id="_enabling_debug_logging">6.18. Enabling debug logging</h3>
\r
2832 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <tt>debuglog</tt> command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
\r
2833 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
\r
2834 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
\r
2835 likely useful in combination with the above-described <a href="#shmlog">[shmlog]</a> command.</p></div>
\r
2836 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2837 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2838 <div class="content">
\r
2839 <pre><tt>debuglog on|off|toggle</tt></pre>
\r
2841 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2842 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2843 <div class="content">
\r
2844 <pre><tt># Enable/disable logging
\r
2845 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle</tt></pre>
\r
2848 <div class="sect2">
\r
2849 <h3 id="_reloading_restarting_exiting">6.19. Reloading/Restarting/Exiting</h3>
\r
2850 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can make i3 reload its configuration file with <tt>reload</tt>. You can also
\r
2851 restart i3 inplace with the <tt>restart</tt> command to get it out of some weird state
\r
2852 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
\r
2853 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the <tt>exit</tt> command,
\r
2854 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).</p></div>
\r
2855 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2856 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2857 <div class="content">
\r
2858 <pre><tt>bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
\r
2859 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
\r
2860 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit</tt></pre>
\r
2863 <div class="sect2">
\r
2864 <h3 id="_scratchpad">6.20. Scratchpad</h3>
\r
2865 <div class="paragraph"><p>There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. <tt>move
\r
2866 scratchpad</tt> will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
\r
2867 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
\r
2868 Instead, when using <tt>scratchpad show</tt>, the window will be shown again, as a
\r
2869 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using <tt>scratchpad show</tt> on
\r
2870 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
\r
2871 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
\r
2872 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
\r
2873 (<tt>floating toggle</tt>).</p></div>
\r
2874 <div class="paragraph"><p>As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
\r
2875 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
\r
2876 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
\r
2877 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?</p></div>
\r
2878 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2879 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2880 <div class="content">
\r
2881 <pre><tt>move scratchpad
\r
2883 scratchpad show</tt></pre>
\r
2885 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2886 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2887 <div class="content">
\r
2888 <pre><tt># Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
\r
2889 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
\r
2891 # Show the first scratchpad window
\r
2892 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
\r
2894 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
\r
2895 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show</tt></pre>
\r
2898 <div class="sect2">
\r
2899 <h3 id="_nop">6.21. Nop</h3>
\r
2900 <div class="paragraph"><p>There is a no operation command <tt>nop</tt> which allows you to override default
\r
2901 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
\r
2902 the middle mouse button.</p></div>
\r
2903 <div class="paragraph"><p>The optional <tt>comment</tt> argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
\r
2904 for debugging purposes.</p></div>
\r
2905 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2906 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2907 <div class="content">
\r
2908 <pre><tt>nop [<comment>]</tt></pre>
\r
2910 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2911 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2912 <div class="content">
\r
2913 <pre><tt># Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
\r
2914 # with the middle mouse button
\r
2915 bindsym button2 nop</tt></pre>
\r
2918 <div class="sect2">
\r
2919 <h3 id="_i3bar_control">6.22. i3bar control</h3>
\r
2920 <div class="paragraph"><p>There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
\r
2921 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands <tt>bar
\r
2922 hidden_state</tt> and <tt>bar mode</tt> allow setting the current hidden_state
\r
2923 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
\r
2924 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
\r
2925 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
\r
2926 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.</p></div>
\r
2927 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Syntax</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2928 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2929 <div class="content">
\r
2930 <pre><tt>bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
\r
2932 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]</tt></pre>
\r
2934 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Examples</strong>:</p></div>
\r
2935 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2936 <div class="content">
\r
2937 <pre><tt># Toggle between hide state and show state
\r
2938 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
\r
2940 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
\r
2941 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
\r
2943 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
\r
2944 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
\r
2946 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
\r
2947 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1</tt></pre>
\r
2952 <div class="sect1">
\r
2953 <h2 id="multi_monitor">7. Multiple monitors</h2>
\r
2954 <div class="sectionbody">
\r
2955 <div class="paragraph"><p>As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
\r
2956 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
\r
2957 handle multiple monitors.</p></div>
\r
2958 <div class="paragraph"><p>When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
\r
2959 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.</p></div>
\r
2960 <div class="paragraph"><p>When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
\r
2961 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
\r
2962 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
\r
2963 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
\r
2964 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
\r
2965 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
\r
2966 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.</p></div>
\r
2967 <div class="paragraph"><p>The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
\r
2968 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
\r
2969 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
\r
2970 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
\r
2971 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
\r
2972 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
\r
2973 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
\r
2974 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).</p></div>
\r
2975 <div class="sect2">
\r
2976 <h3 id="_configuring_your_monitors">7.1. Configuring your monitors</h3>
\r
2977 <div class="paragraph"><p>To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
\r
2978 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
\r
2979 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
\r
2980 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:</p></div>
\r
2981 <div class="listingblock">
\r
2982 <div class="content">
\r
2984 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
\r
2985 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
\r
2986 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
\r
2987 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
\r
2988 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
\r
2990 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
\r
2991 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
\r
2994 640x350 85.1</tt></pre>
\r
2996 <div class="paragraph"><p>Several things are important here: You can see that <tt>LVDS1</tt> is connected (of
\r
2997 course, it is the internal flat panel) but <tt>VGA1</tt> is not. If you have a monitor
\r
2998 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
\r
2999 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.</p></div>
\r
3000 <div class="paragraph"><p>The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
\r
3001 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
\r
3002 to be increased by editing <tt>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</tt>.</p></div>
\r
3003 <div class="paragraph"><p>So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:</p></div>
\r
3004 <div class="listingblock">
\r
3005 <div class="content">
\r
3006 <pre><tt>xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1</tt></pre>
\r
3008 <div class="paragraph"><p>This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
\r
3009 connected to <tt>VGA1</tt> and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
\r
3010 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:</p></div>
\r
3011 <div class="listingblock">
\r
3012 <div class="content">
\r
3014 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
\r
3015 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
\r
3016 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
\r
3019 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
\r
3021 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
\r
3022 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
\r
3024 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
\r
3025 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
\r
3026 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
\r
3028 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
\r
3029 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
\r
3032 640x350 85.1</tt></pre>
\r
3034 <div class="paragraph"><p>Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
\r
3035 only what you can see in xrandr.</p></div>
\r
3036 <div class="paragraph"><p>See also <a href="#presentations">[presentations]</a> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.</p></div>
\r
3038 <div class="sect2">
\r
3039 <h3 id="_interesting_configuration_for_multi_monitor_environments">7.2. Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments</h3>
\r
3040 <div class="paragraph"><p>There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
\r
3041 have more than one monitor:</p></div>
\r
3042 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
\r
3045 You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
\r
3046 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
\r
3047 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
\r
3048 <a href="#workspace_screen">[workspace_screen]</a>.
\r
3053 If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
\r
3054 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
\r
3055 <a href="#assign_workspace">[assign_workspace]</a>.
\r
3060 If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
\r
3061 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
\r
3062 quickly switch between windows. See <a href="#vim_like_marks">[vim_like_marks]</a>.
\r
3067 For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
\r
3068 see <a href="#move_to_outputs">[move_to_outputs]</a>.
\r
3075 <div class="sect1">
\r
3076 <h2 id="_i3_and_the_rest_of_your_software_world">8. i3 and the rest of your software world</h2>
\r
3077 <div class="sectionbody">
\r
3078 <div class="sect2">
\r
3079 <h3 id="_displaying_a_status_line">8.1. Displaying a status line</h3>
\r
3080 <div class="paragraph"><p>A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
\r
3081 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
\r
3082 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.</p></div>
\r
3083 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
\r
3084 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
\r
3085 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
\r
3086 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
\r
3087 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
\r
3088 i3bar. See <a href="#status_command">[status_command]</a> for how to display i3status in i3bar.</p></div>
\r
3089 <div class="paragraph"><p>Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
\r
3090 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
\r
3091 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
\r
3092 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
\r
3093 see <a href="#i3bar_position">[i3bar_position]</a>.</p></div>
\r
3095 <div class="sect2">
\r
3096 <h3 id="presentations">8.2. Giving presentations (multi-monitor)</h3>
\r
3097 <div class="paragraph"><p>When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
\r
3098 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
\r
3099 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
\r
3100 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
\r
3102 <div class="sect3">
\r
3103 <h4 id="_case_1_everybody_gets_the_same_output">8.2.1. Case 1: everybody gets the same output</h4>
\r
3104 <div class="paragraph"><p>This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
\r
3105 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
\r
3106 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:</p></div>
\r
3107 <div class="listingblock">
\r
3108 <div class="content">
\r
3109 <pre><tt>xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1</tt></pre>
\r
3111 <div class="paragraph"><p>i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
\r
3112 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
\r
3113 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).</p></div>
\r
3115 <div class="sect3">
\r
3116 <h4 id="_case_2_you_can_see_more_than_your_audience">8.2.2. Case 2: you can see more than your audience</h4>
\r
3117 <div class="paragraph"><p>This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
\r
3118 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:</p></div>
\r
3119 <div class="listingblock">
\r
3120 <div class="content">
\r
3121 <pre><tt>xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1</tt></pre>
\r
3123 <div class="paragraph"><p>Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
\r
3124 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <a href="#multi_monitor">[multi_monitor]</a>).</p></div>
\r
3125 <div class="paragraph"><p>Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
\r
3126 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
\r
3127 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).</p></div>
\r
3133 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
\r
3134 <div id="footer" lang="de">
\r
3135 © 2009-2011 Michael Stapelberg, <a href="/impress.html">Impressum</a>
\r
projects / i3 / i3.github.io / blob