3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
5 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
6 window manager. If it does not, please check https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/
7 first, then contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full-size image):
15 *Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with $mod (Alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+$mod:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
26 Note that when starting i3 without a config file, i3-config-wizard will offer
27 you to create a config file in which the key positions (!) match what you see
28 in the image above, regardless of the keyboard layout you are using. If you
29 prefer to use a config file where the key letters match what you are seeing
30 above, just decline i3-config-wizard’s offer and base your config on
35 Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
36 configured modifier. This is the Alt key (+Mod1+) by default, with the Windows
37 key (+Mod4+) being a popular alternative that largely prevents conflicts with
38 application-defined shortcuts.
40 === Opening terminals and moving around
42 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
43 for this is +$mod+Enter+, that is Alt+Enter (+Mod1+Enter+) in the default
44 configuration. By pressing +$mod+Enter+, a new terminal will be opened. It
45 will fill the whole space available on your screen.
47 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
49 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
50 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
51 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
52 existing window (rotated displays).
54 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
56 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
57 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
58 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
59 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +$mod+j+ is left, +$mod+k+
60 is down, +$mod+l+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
61 terminals, use +$mod+k+ or +$mod+l+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
63 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
64 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
65 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
66 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
67 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
70 TODO: picture of the tree
72 To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
73 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
75 === Changing the container layout
77 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
80 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
81 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
82 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
85 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
86 windows at the top of the container.
88 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
89 a single line which is vertically split.
91 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
92 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
94 image:modes.png[Container modes]
96 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
98 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
101 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
102 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
104 === Opening other applications
106 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
107 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
108 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
109 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
111 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
112 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
113 <<configuring>> for details.
117 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
118 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+w+ to close), you
119 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
120 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
121 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
122 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
123 depends on the application.
127 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
128 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
129 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
130 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
132 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
133 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
134 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
136 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
137 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
138 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
139 focus to that screen.
141 === Moving windows to workspaces
143 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
144 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
145 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
146 it does not yet exist.
150 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
151 and move it to the wanted size.
153 You can also use <<binding_modes>> to define a mode for resizing via the
154 keyboard. To see an example for this, look at the
155 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config] provided
158 === Restarting i3 inplace
160 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
161 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
165 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
166 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
170 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
171 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
172 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
173 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
174 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
175 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
177 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
178 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
179 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
180 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
181 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
183 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see the resizing binding mode
184 provided by the i3 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config].
186 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
190 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
191 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
192 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
193 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
194 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
195 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
197 === The tree consists of Containers
199 The building blocks of our tree are so-called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
200 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
201 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
202 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
203 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
206 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
207 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
210 === Orientation and Split Containers
212 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
213 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
214 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
215 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
216 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
217 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
218 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
219 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
221 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
223 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
224 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
225 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
226 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
227 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
228 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
229 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
230 terminal and it will open below the current one:
232 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
233 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
237 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
242 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
243 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
244 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
246 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
247 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
248 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
249 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
250 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
252 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
254 === Implicit containers
256 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
259 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
260 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
261 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
262 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
264 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
265 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
266 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
267 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
268 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
269 (for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
270 container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
276 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
277 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
279 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
280 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
283 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
284 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
285 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
286 can bind your keys to do useful things.
288 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
289 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
292 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
293 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
294 wizard to use either Alt (+Mod1+) or Windows (+Mod4+) as modifier in the config
295 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
296 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
297 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
300 Since i3 4.0, a new configuration format is used. i3 will try to automatically
301 detect the format version of a config file based on a few different keywords,
302 but if you want to make sure that your config is read with the new format,
303 include the following line in your config file:
305 ---------------------
306 # i3 config file (v4)
307 ---------------------
311 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
312 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
313 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
323 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
324 render window titles.
326 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
327 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
330 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
331 a variant, a stretch and a size.
332 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
333 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
335 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
336 and fall back to a working font.
339 ------------------------------
340 font <X core font description>
341 font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size>
342 ------------------------------
345 --------------------------------------------------------------
346 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
347 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
348 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
349 font pango:Terminus 11px
350 --------------------------------------------------------------
353 === Keyboard bindings
355 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
356 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
357 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
359 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
360 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
361 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
362 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
363 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
365 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
366 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
367 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
369 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
370 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
371 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
374 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
375 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
376 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
377 after the keys have been released.
380 ----------------------------------
381 bindsym [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
382 bindcode [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command
383 ----------------------------------
386 --------------------------------
388 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
391 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
393 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
394 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
396 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
397 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
399 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
400 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
401 --------------------------------
405 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
406 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
408 Group1, Group2, Group3, Group4::
409 When using multiple keyboard layouts (e.g. with `setxkbmap -layout us,ru`), you
410 can specify in which XKB group (also called “layout”) a keybinding should be
411 active. By default, keybindings are translated in Group1 and are active in all
412 groups. If you want to override keybindings in one of your layouts, specify the
413 corresponding group. For backwards compatibility, the group “Mode_switch” is an
419 A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
420 button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
421 can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
424 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
425 bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [--exclude-titlebar] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command
426 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
428 By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
429 window. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
432 If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
433 of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
434 when the border is clicked, specify the +--border+ flag.
436 If the +--exclude-titlebar+ flag is given, the titlebar will not be considered
440 --------------------------------
441 # The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
442 bindsym --release button2 kill
444 # The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
445 bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
447 # The right button toggles floating
448 bindsym button3 floating toggle
449 bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
451 # The side buttons move the window around
452 bindsym button9 move left
453 bindsym button8 move right
454 --------------------------------
459 You can have multiple sets of bindings by using different binding modes. When
460 you switch to another binding mode, all bindings from the current mode are
461 released and only the bindings defined in the new mode are valid for as long as
462 you stay in that binding mode. The only predefined binding mode is +default+,
463 which is the mode i3 starts out with and to which all bindings not defined in a
464 specific binding mode belong.
466 Working with binding modes consists of two parts: defining a binding mode and
467 switching to it. For these purposes, there are one config directive and one
468 command, both of which are called +mode+. The directive is used to define the
469 bindings belonging to a certain binding mode, while the command will switch to
472 It is recommended to use binding modes in combination with <<variables>> in
473 order to make maintenance easier. Below is an example of how to use a binding
476 Note that it is advisable to define bindings for switching back to the default
479 Note that it is possible to use <<pango_markup>> for binding modes, but you
480 need to enable it explicitly by passing the +--pango_markup+ flag to the mode
484 ----------------------------
486 mode [--pango_markup] <name>
490 ----------------------------
493 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
494 # Press $mod+o followed by either f, t, Escape or Return to launch firefox,
495 # thunderbird or return to the default mode, respectively.
496 set $mode_launcher Launch: [f]irefox [t]hunderbird
497 bindsym $mod+o mode "$mode_launcher"
499 mode "$mode_launcher" {
500 bindsym f exec firefox
501 bindsym t exec thunderbird
503 bindsym Escape mode "default"
504 bindsym Return mode "default"
506 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
508 [[floating_modifier]]
509 === The floating modifier
511 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
512 or configure the so-called floating modifier which you can then press and
513 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
514 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
515 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
516 it to the position you want.
518 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
519 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
520 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
521 ratio will be preserved).
524 --------------------------------
525 floating_modifier <Modifier>
526 --------------------------------
529 --------------------------------
530 floating_modifier Mod1
531 --------------------------------
533 === Constraining floating window size
535 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
536 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
537 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
538 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
539 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
540 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
543 ----------------------------------------
544 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
545 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
546 ----------------------------------------
549 --------------------------------------
550 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
551 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
552 --------------------------------------
554 === Orientation for new workspaces
556 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
557 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
558 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
560 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
564 --------------------------------------------
565 default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto
566 --------------------------------------------
569 ----------------------------
570 default_orientation vertical
571 ----------------------------
573 === Layout mode for new containers
575 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
579 ---------------------------------------------
580 workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed
581 ---------------------------------------------
584 ---------------------
585 workspace_layout tabbed
586 ---------------------
588 === Window title alignment
590 This option determines the window title's text alignment.
594 ---------------------------------------------
595 title_align left|center|right
596 ---------------------------------------------
598 === Default border style for new windows
600 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
601 +normal+. Note that default_floating_border applies only to windows which are starting out as
602 floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.
605 ---------------------------------------------
606 default_border normal|none|pixel
607 default_border normal|pixel <px>
608 default_floating_border normal|none|pixel
609 default_floating_border normal|pixel <px>
610 ---------------------------------------------
612 Please note that +new_window+ and +new_float+ have been deprecated in favor of the above options
613 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the new options instead.
616 ---------------------
618 ---------------------
620 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
624 ---------------------
625 # The same as default_border none
626 default_border pixel 0
629 default_border pixel 3
630 ---------------------
633 [[_hiding_vertical_borders]]
634 === Hiding borders adjacent to the screen edges
636 You can hide container borders adjacent to the screen edges using
637 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
638 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. The "smart" setting hides borders on
639 workspaces with only one window visible, but keeps them on workspaces with
640 multiple windows visible. Default is none.
643 -----------------------------------------------
644 hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both|smart
645 -----------------------------------------------
648 ----------------------
649 hide_edge_borders vertical
650 ----------------------
653 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
655 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
656 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
657 change their border style, for example.
660 -------------------------------
661 for_window <criteria> <command>
662 -------------------------------
665 ------------------------------------------------
666 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
667 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
669 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
670 for_window [class="urxvt"] border pixel 1
672 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
673 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
674 # directory to ~/work
675 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
676 ------------------------------------------------
678 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
681 === Don't focus window upon opening
683 When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
684 this from happening and must be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
686 Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
687 causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
688 <<focus_on_window_activation>>.
690 +no_focus+ will also be ignored for the first window on a workspace as there shouldn't be
691 a reason to not focus the window in this case. This allows for better usability in
692 combination with +workspace_layout+.
700 -------------------------------
701 no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
702 -------------------------------
707 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
708 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
709 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
710 variables can be handy.
718 ------------------------
720 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
721 ------------------------
723 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
724 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
725 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
726 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
727 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
728 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
730 Also see <<xresources>> to learn how to create variables based on resources
731 loaded from the X resource database.
736 <<variables>> can also be created using a value configured in the X resource
737 database. This is useful, for example, to avoid configuring color values within
738 the i3 configuration. Instead, the values can be configured, once, in the X
739 resource database to achieve an easily maintainable, consistent color theme
740 across many X applications.
742 Defining a resource will load this resource from the resource database and
743 assign its value to the specified variable. This is done verbatim and the value
744 must therefore be in the format that i3 uses. A fallback must be specified in
745 case the resource cannot be loaded from the database.
748 ----------------------------------------------------
749 set_from_resource $<name> <resource_name> <fallback>
750 ----------------------------------------------------
753 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
754 # The ~/.Xresources should contain a line such as
756 # and must be loaded properly, e.g., by using
758 # This value is picked up on by other applications (e.g., the URxvt terminal
759 # emulator) and can be used in i3 like this:
760 set_from_resource $black i3wm.color0 #000000
761 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
764 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
766 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
767 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
768 see <<command_criteria>>. The difference between +assign+ and
769 +for_window <criteria> move to workspace+ is that the former will only be
770 executed when the application maps the window (mapping means actually displaying
771 it on the screen) but the latter will be executed whenever a window changes its
772 properties to something that matches the specified criteria.
774 Thus, it is recommended that you match on window classes (and instances, when
775 appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible because some
776 applications first create their window, and then worry about setting the correct
777 title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window starts up being named
778 Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the title change. As i3 will
779 get the title as soon as the application maps the window, you’d need to have to
780 match on 'Firefox' in this case.
781 Another known issue is with Spotify, which doesn't set the class hints when
782 mapping the window, meaning you'll have to use a +for_window+ rule to assign
783 Spotify to a specific workspace.
784 Finally, using +assign [tiling]+ and +assign [floating]+ is not supported.
786 You can also assign a window to show up on a specific output. You can use RandR
787 names such as +VGA1+ or names relative to the output with the currently focused
788 workspace such as +left+ and +down+.
790 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
791 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
795 ------------------------------------------------------------
796 assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] [number] <workspace>
797 assign <criteria> [→] output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
798 ------------------------------------------------------------
801 ----------------------
802 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
803 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
805 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
806 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
808 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
809 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
811 # Assignment to a named workspace
812 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
814 # Assign to the workspace with number 2, regardless of name
815 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number 2
817 # You can also specify a number + name. If the workspace with number 2 exists, assign will skip the text part.
818 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number "2: work"
820 # Start urxvt -name irssi
821 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
823 # Assign urxvt to the output right of the current one
824 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output right
826 # Assign urxvt to the primary output
827 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output primary
828 ----------------------
830 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
831 -------------------------
832 xrandr --output <output> --primary
833 -------------------------
835 Also, the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
836 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
838 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
839 window, you will see the following output:
842 -----------------------------------
843 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
844 -----------------------------------
846 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
847 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
849 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
850 logfile first (see https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
851 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
852 title when starting up.
854 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
855 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
856 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
857 file in the following way:
859 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
860 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
861 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
862 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
863 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
864 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
865 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
866 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
867 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
868 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
870 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
872 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
873 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
874 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
875 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
876 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
878 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
879 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
880 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
883 ---------------------------------------
884 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
885 exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command>
886 ---------------------------------------
889 --------------------------------
891 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
893 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
894 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
895 --------------------------------
897 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
900 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
902 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
903 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
904 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
905 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
906 the second screen and so on).
909 -------------------------------------
910 workspace <workspace> output <output1> [output2]…
911 -------------------------------------
913 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
914 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
915 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
917 If your X server supports RandR 1.5 or newer, i3 will use RandR monitor objects
918 instead of output objects. Run +xrandr --listmonitors+ to see a list. Usually,
919 a monitor object contains exactly one output, and has the same name as the
920 output; but should that not be the case, you may specify the name of either the
921 monitor or the output in i3's configuration. For example, the Dell UP2414Q uses
922 two scalers internally, so its output names might be “DP1” and “DP2”, but the
923 monitor name is “Dell UP2414Q”.
925 (Note that even if you specify the name of an output which doesn't span the
926 entire monitor, i3 will still use the entire area of the containing monitor
927 rather than that of just the output's.)
929 You can specify multiple outputs. The first available will be used.
931 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
934 ---------------------------
935 workspace 1 output LVDS1
936 workspace 2 output primary
937 workspace 5 output VGA1 LVDS1
938 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
939 ---------------------------
943 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
946 --------------------------------------------------------------------
947 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator> <child_border>
948 --------------------------------------------------------------------
950 Where colorclass can be one of:
953 A client which currently has the focus.
954 client.focused_inactive::
955 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
956 the focus at the moment.
958 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
960 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
962 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
963 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
965 Background color which will be used to paint the background of the
966 client window on top of which the client will be rendered. Only clients
967 which do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color. Note
968 that this colorclass only takes a single color.
970 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
972 *Examples (default colors)*:
973 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
974 # class border backgr. text indicator child_border
975 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4 #285577
976 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50 #5f676a
977 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e #222222
978 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000 #900000
979 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000 #0c0c0c
981 client.background #ffffff
982 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
984 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
985 "child_border", and "border" color is only the two thin lines around the
988 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
989 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
990 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
991 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
992 from single windows outside of a split container.
994 === Interprocess communication
996 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
997 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
998 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
1000 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
1001 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
1002 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
1003 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
1005 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
1006 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
1007 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
1008 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
1009 user can create that directory.
1012 ----------------------------
1013 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
1014 ----------------------------
1016 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
1019 === Focus follows mouse
1021 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements as the mouse crosses
1022 window borders. However, if you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your
1023 way (like a touchpad on your laptop which you do not want to disable
1024 completely), you might want to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus
1025 only by using your keyboard. The mouse will still be useful inside the
1026 currently active window (for example to click on links in your browser window).
1029 --------------------------
1030 focus_follows_mouse yes|no
1031 --------------------------
1034 ----------------------
1035 focus_follows_mouse no
1036 ----------------------
1040 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
1041 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
1042 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
1044 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
1045 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
1046 behavior described above.
1049 -------------------------
1050 mouse_warping output|none
1051 -------------------------
1058 === Popups during fullscreen mode
1060 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
1061 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
1062 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
1063 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
1065 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
1066 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
1067 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
1068 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
1069 you go out of fullscreen).
1070 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
1073 -----------------------------------------------------
1074 popup_during_fullscreen smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen
1075 -----------------------------------------------------
1078 ------------------------------
1079 popup_during_fullscreen smart
1080 ------------------------------
1084 By default, when in a container with several windows or child containers, the
1085 opposite window will be focused when trying to move the focus over the edge of
1086 a container (and there are no other containers in that direction) -- the focus
1089 If desired, you can disable this behavior by setting the +focus_wrapping+
1090 configuration directive to the value +no+.
1092 When enabled, focus wrapping does not occur by default if there is another
1093 window or container in the specified direction, and focus will instead be set
1094 on that window or container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate
1095 to all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
1097 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
1098 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can instead set +focus_wrapping+
1099 to the value +force+.
1102 ---------------------------
1103 focus_wrapping yes|no|force
1105 # Legacy syntax, equivalent to "focus_wrapping force"
1106 force_focus_wrapping yes
1107 ---------------------------
1111 # Disable focus wrapping
1114 # Force focus wrapping
1115 focus_wrapping force
1118 === Forcing Xinerama
1120 As explained in-depth in <https://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
1121 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
1122 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
1123 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
1124 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
1127 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
1128 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
1131 ---------------------
1132 force_xinerama yes|no
1133 ---------------------
1140 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
1141 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
1143 [[workspace_auto_back_and_forth]]
1144 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
1146 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
1147 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
1149 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
1150 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
1151 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
1154 ------------------------------------
1155 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes|no
1156 ------------------------------------
1159 ---------------------------------
1160 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
1161 ---------------------------------
1163 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
1165 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
1166 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
1167 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
1168 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
1171 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
1172 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
1173 value to 0 disables this feature.
1175 The default is 500ms.
1178 ---------------------------------------
1179 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
1180 ---------------------------------------
1183 ---------------------------------
1184 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
1185 ---------------------------------
1187 [[focus_on_window_activation]]
1188 === Focus on window activation
1190 If a window is activated, e.g., via +google-chrome www.google.com+, it may request
1191 to take focus. Since this may not preferable, different reactions can be configured.
1193 Note that this may not affect windows that are being opened. To prevent new windows
1194 from being focused, see <<no_focus>>.
1197 --------------------------------------------------
1198 focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none
1199 --------------------------------------------------
1201 The different modes will act as follows:
1204 This is the default behavior. If the window requesting focus is on an active
1205 workspace, it will receive the focus. Otherwise, the urgency hint will be set.
1207 The window will always be marked urgent, but the focus will not be stolen.
1209 The window will always be focused and not be marked urgent.
1211 The window will neither be focused, nor be marked urgent.
1214 === Drawing marks on window decoration
1216 If activated, marks (see <<vim_like_marks>>) on windows are drawn in their window
1217 decoration. However, any mark starting with an underscore in its name (+_+) will
1218 not be drawn even if this option is activated.
1220 The default for this option is +yes+.
1232 [[line_continuation]]
1233 === Line continuation
1235 Config files support line continuation, meaning when you end a line in a
1236 backslash character (`\`), the line-break will be ignored by the parser. This
1237 feature can be used to create more readable configuration files.
1238 Commented lines are not continued.
1245 # this line is not continued \
1246 bindsym Mod1+F fullscreen toggle
1249 == Configuring i3bar
1251 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
1252 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
1255 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
1256 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
1257 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
1258 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
1259 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
1260 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
1261 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
1262 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
1264 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
1265 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
1266 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
1267 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
1268 configuration infrastructure in place.
1270 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
1271 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
1274 ---------------------------
1276 status_command i3status
1278 ---------------------------
1282 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
1283 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
1284 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
1285 tell i3 what to execute.
1287 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1288 have to have correct quoting etc.
1291 -----------------------
1292 i3bar_command <command>
1293 -----------------------
1296 -------------------------------------------------
1298 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1300 -------------------------------------------------
1303 === Statusline command
1305 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1306 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1307 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1309 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1310 have to have correct quoting etc. Note that for signal handling, depending on
1311 your shell (users of dash(1) are known to be affected), you have to use the
1312 shell’s exec command so that signals are passed to your program, not to the
1316 ------------------------
1317 status_command <command>
1318 ------------------------
1321 -------------------------------------------------
1323 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1325 # For dash(1) users who want signal handling to work:
1326 status_command exec ~/.bin/my_status_command
1328 -------------------------------------------------
1332 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1333 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1334 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1335 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1337 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1338 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1340 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1341 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1344 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1345 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1346 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1348 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1349 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1350 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1351 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1352 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1353 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1355 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1356 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1358 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1359 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1362 -------------------------
1363 mode dock|hide|invisible
1364 hidden_state hide|show
1365 modifier <Modifier>|none
1366 ------------------------
1377 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+). You can
1378 also use "none" if you don't want any modifier to trigger this behavior.
1380 === Mouse button commands
1382 Specifies a command to run when a button was pressed on i3bar to override the
1383 default behavior. This is useful, e.g., for disabling the scroll wheel action
1384 or running scripts that implement custom behavior for these buttons.
1386 A button is always named +button<n>+, where 1 to 5 are default buttons as follows and higher
1387 numbers can be special buttons on devices offering more buttons:
1392 Middle mouse button.
1400 Please note that the old +wheel_up_cmd+ and +wheel_down_cmd+ commands are deprecated
1401 and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the more general
1402 +bindsym+ with +button4+ and +button5+ instead.
1405 ----------------------------
1406 bindsym [--release] button<n> <command>
1407 ----------------------------
1410 ---------------------------------------------------------
1412 # disable clicking on workspace buttons
1414 # Take a screenshot by right clicking on the bar
1415 bindsym --release button3 exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
1416 # execute custom script when scrolling downwards
1417 bindsym button5 exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
1419 ---------------------------------------------------------
1423 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1424 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1425 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1428 ---------------------
1430 ---------------------
1433 ---------------------
1437 ---------------------
1442 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1444 The default is bottom.
1452 ---------------------
1456 ---------------------
1460 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1461 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1462 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1464 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1465 directive multiple times.
1469 output primary|<output>
1473 -------------------------------
1474 # big monitor: everything
1476 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1479 status_command i3status
1482 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1485 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1492 # show bar on the primary monitor and on HDMI2
1496 status_command i3status
1499 -------------------------------
1500 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1501 -------------------------
1502 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1503 -------------------------
1507 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1508 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1510 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1511 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1513 You can use multiple +tray_output+ directives in your config to specify a list
1514 of outputs on which you want the tray to appear. The first available output in
1515 that list as defined by the order of the directives will be used for the tray
1519 ---------------------------------
1520 tray_output none|primary|<output>
1521 ---------------------------------
1524 -------------------------
1525 # disable system tray
1530 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1535 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1539 -------------------------
1541 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1542 -------------------------
1543 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1544 -------------------------
1546 Note that when you use multiple bar configuration blocks, either specify
1547 `tray_output primary` in all of them or explicitly specify `tray_output none`
1548 in bars which should not display the tray, otherwise the different instances
1549 might race each other in trying to display tray icons.
1553 The tray is shown on the right-hand side of the bar. By default, a padding of 2
1554 pixels is used for the upper, lower and right-hand side of the tray area and
1555 between the individual icons.
1558 -------------------------
1559 tray_padding <px> [px]
1560 -------------------------
1563 -------------------------
1566 -------------------------
1570 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1573 ---------------------
1575 ---------------------
1578 --------------------------------------------------------------
1580 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1581 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1583 --------------------------------------------------------------
1585 === Custom separator symbol
1587 Specifies a custom symbol to be used for the separator as opposed to the vertical,
1588 one pixel thick separator.
1591 -------------------------
1592 separator_symbol <symbol>
1593 -------------------------
1596 ------------------------
1598 separator_symbol ":|:"
1600 ------------------------
1602 === Workspace buttons
1604 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1605 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1607 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1610 ------------------------
1611 workspace_buttons yes|no
1612 ------------------------
1615 ------------------------
1617 workspace_buttons no
1619 ------------------------
1621 === Strip workspace numbers/name
1623 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1624 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1625 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1627 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1628 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1629 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1630 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1632 When +strip_workspace_name+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1633 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the number.
1635 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1638 ------------------------------
1639 strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
1640 strip_workspace_name yes|no
1641 ------------------------------
1644 ----------------------------
1646 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1648 ----------------------------
1650 === Binding Mode indicator
1652 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1653 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1654 to see the current binding mode indicator. See <<binding_modes>> to learn what
1655 modes are and how to use them.
1657 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1660 -----------------------------
1661 binding_mode_indicator yes|no
1662 -----------------------------
1665 -----------------------------
1667 binding_mode_indicator no
1669 -----------------------------
1673 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1674 be configured at the moment:
1677 Background color of the bar.
1679 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1681 Text color to be used for the separator.
1682 focused_background::
1683 Background color of the bar on the currently focused monitor output. If
1684 not used, the color will be taken from +background+.
1685 focused_statusline::
1686 Text color to be used for the statusline on the currently focused
1687 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +statusline+.
1689 Text color to be used for the separator on the currently focused
1690 monitor output. If not used, the color will be taken from +separator+.
1692 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1695 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1696 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1697 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1698 using multiple monitors.
1699 inactive_workspace::
1700 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1701 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1702 will be the case for most workspaces.
1704 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1705 contains a window with the urgency hint set.
1707 Border, background and text color for the binding mode indicator. If not used,
1708 the colors will be taken from +urgent_workspace+.
1711 ----------------------------------------
1717 <colorclass> <border> <background> <text>
1719 ----------------------------------------
1721 *Example (default colors)*:
1722 --------------------------------------
1729 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1730 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1731 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1732 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1733 binding_mode #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1736 --------------------------------------
1740 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1741 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1742 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1745 --------------------------
1746 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1748 --------------------------
1750 [[command_chaining]]
1752 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1753 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1754 the following keybinding:
1757 --------------------------------------------------------
1758 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1759 --------------------------------------------------------
1761 [[command_criteria]]
1763 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1764 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1765 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1768 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1769 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1770 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1774 ------------------------------------
1775 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1776 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1778 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1779 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1781 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1782 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1784 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1785 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1787 # move all floating windows to the scratchpad
1788 bindsym $mod+x [floating] move scratchpad
1789 ------------------------------------
1791 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1794 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1795 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1796 class as the currently focused window.
1798 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS). Use the
1799 special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window
1800 instance as the currently focused window.
1802 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE). Use the special value
1803 +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the same window role as the
1804 currently focused window.
1806 Compare the window type (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE). Possible values are
1807 +normal+, +dialog+, +utility+, +toolbar+, +splash+, +menu+, +dropdown_menu+,
1808 +popup_menu+, +tooltip+ and +notification+.
1810 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1812 Compares the X11 window title (\_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1813 Use the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows having the
1814 same window title as the currently focused window.
1816 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1817 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1818 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1820 Compares the workspace name of the workspace the window belongs to. Use
1821 the special value +\_\_focused__+ to match all windows in the currently
1824 Compares the marks set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>. A
1825 match is made if any of the container's marks matches the specified
1828 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1829 interface. Handy for scripting. Use the special value +\_\_focused__+
1830 to match only the currently focused window.
1832 Only matches floating windows. This criterion requires no value.
1834 Only matches tiling windows. This criterion requires no value.
1836 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+, +workspace+ and +mark+ are
1837 actually regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1838 information on how to use them.
1841 === Executing applications (exec)
1843 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1844 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1845 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1846 searched in your +$PATH+.
1848 See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
1849 and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
1850 strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
1853 --------------------------------
1854 exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
1855 --------------------------------
1858 ------------------------------
1860 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1862 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1863 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1864 ------------------------------
1866 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1867 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1868 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1869 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1870 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1871 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1872 cursor for 60 seconds.
1875 If the command to be executed contains a +;+ (semicolon) and/or a +,+ (comma),
1876 the entire command must be quoted. For example, to have a keybinding for the
1877 shell command +notify-send Hello, i3+, you would add an entry to your
1878 configuration file like this:
1881 ------------------------------
1882 # Execute a command with a comma in it
1883 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send Hello, i3"
1884 ------------------------------
1886 If however a command with a comma and/or semicolon itself requires quotes, you
1887 must escape the internal quotation marks with double backslashes, like this:
1890 ------------------------------
1891 # Execute a command with a comma, semicolon and internal quotes
1892 bindsym $mod+p exec "notify-send \\"Hello, i3; from $USER\\""
1893 ------------------------------
1895 === Splitting containers
1897 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1898 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1899 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1900 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1902 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1903 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1904 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
1905 The +toggle+ option will toggle the orientation of the split container if it
1906 contains a single window. Otherwise it makes the current window a split
1907 container with opposite orientation compared to the parent container.
1908 Use +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from
1909 splitv to splith or vice-versa. You can also define a custom sequence of layouts
1910 to cycle through with +layout toggle+, see <<manipulating_layout>>.
1913 --------------------------------
1914 split vertical|horizontal|toggle
1915 --------------------------------
1918 -------------------------------
1919 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1920 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1921 bindsym $mod+t split toggle
1922 -------------------------------
1924 === Manipulating layout
1926 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1927 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1928 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1930 Specify up to four layouts after +layout toggle+ to cycle through them. Every
1931 time the command is executed, the layout specified after the currently active
1932 one will be applied. If the currently active layout is not in the list, the
1933 first layout in the list will be activated.
1935 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen enable+ (or
1936 +fullscreen enable global+ for the global mode), to leave either fullscreen
1937 mode use +fullscreen disable+, and to toggle between these two states use
1938 +fullscreen toggle+ (or +fullscreen toggle global+).
1940 Likewise, to make the current window floating (or tiling again) use +floating
1941 enable+ respectively +floating disable+ (or +floating toggle+):
1944 --------------------------------------------
1945 layout default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith
1946 layout toggle [split|all]
1947 layout toggle [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith] [split|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith]…
1948 --------------------------------------------
1952 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1953 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1954 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1956 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1957 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1959 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1960 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1962 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith:
1963 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle stacking tabbed splith
1965 # Toggle between splitv/tabbed
1966 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle splitv tabbed
1968 # Toggle between last split layout/tabbed/stacking
1969 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle split tabbed stacking
1972 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
1974 # Toggle floating/tiling
1975 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1978 [[_focusing_moving_containers]]
1979 === Focusing containers
1981 To change focus, you can use the +focus+ command. The following options are
1985 Sets focus to the container that matches the specified criteria.
1986 See <<command_criteria>>.
1987 left|right|up|down::
1988 Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
1990 Sets focus to the parent container of the current container.
1992 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1995 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1997 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1999 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
2001 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
2002 corresponding output.
2005 ----------------------------------------------
2007 focus left|right|down|up
2008 focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
2009 focus output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
2010 ----------------------------------------------
2013 -------------------------------------------------
2015 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] focus
2017 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
2018 bindsym $mod+j focus left
2019 bindsym $mod+k focus down
2020 bindsym $mod+l focus up
2021 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
2023 # Focus parent container
2024 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
2026 # Focus last floating/tiling container
2027 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
2029 # Focus the output right to the current one
2030 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
2032 # Focus the big output
2033 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
2035 # Focus the primary output
2036 bindsym $mod+x focus output primary
2037 -------------------------------------------------
2039 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
2040 -------------------------
2041 xrandr --output <output> --primary
2042 -------------------------
2044 === Moving containers
2046 Use the +move+ command to move a container.
2049 -----------------------------------------------------
2050 # Moves the container into the given direction.
2051 # The optional pixel argument specifies how far the
2052 # container should be moved if it is floating and
2053 # defaults to 10 pixels.
2054 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
2056 # Moves the container to the specified pos_x and pos_y
2057 # coordinates on the screen.
2058 move position <pos_x> [px] <pos_y> [px]
2060 # Moves the container to the center of the screen.
2061 # If 'absolute' is used, it is moved to the center of
2063 move [absolute] position center
2065 # Moves the container to the current position of the
2066 # mouse cursor. Only affects floating containers.
2068 -----------------------------------------------------
2071 -------------------------------------------------------
2072 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right
2073 bindsym $mod+j move left
2074 bindsym $mod+k move down
2075 bindsym $mod+l move up
2076 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
2078 # Move container, but make floating containers
2079 # move more than the default
2080 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
2082 # Move floating container to the center of all outputs
2083 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
2085 # Move container to the current position of the cursor
2086 bindsym $mod+m move position mouse
2087 -------------------------------------------------------
2089 === Swapping containers
2091 Two containers can be swapped (i.e., move to each other's position) by using
2092 the +swap+ command. They will assume the position and geometry of the container
2093 they are swapped with.
2095 The first container to participate in the swapping can be selected through the
2096 normal command criteria process with the focused window being the usual
2097 fallback if no criteria are specified. The second container can be selected
2098 using one of the following methods:
2100 +id+:: The X11 window ID of a client window.
2101 +con_id+:: The i3 container ID of a container.
2102 +mark+:: A container with the specified mark, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
2104 Note that swapping does not work with all containers. Most notably, swapping
2105 floating containers or containers that have a parent-child relationship to one
2106 another does not work.
2109 ----------------------------------------
2110 swap container with id|con_id|mark <arg>
2111 ----------------------------------------
2114 -----------------------------------------------------------------
2115 # Swaps the focused container with the container marked »swapee«.
2116 swap container with mark swapee
2118 # Swaps container marked »A« and »B«
2119 [con_mark="^A$"] swap container with mark B
2120 -----------------------------------------------------------------
2122 === Sticky floating windows
2124 If you want a window to stick to the glass, i.e., have it stay on screen even
2125 if you switch to another workspace, you can use the +sticky+ command. For
2126 example, this can be useful for notepads, a media player or a video chat
2129 Note that while any window can be made sticky through this command, it will
2130 only take effect if the window is floating.
2133 ----------------------------
2134 sticky enable|disable|toggle
2135 ----------------------------
2138 ------------------------------------------------------
2139 # make a terminal sticky that was started as a notepad
2140 for_window [instance=notepad] sticky enable
2141 ------------------------------------------------------
2143 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
2145 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
2146 number or name of the workspace. Pass the optional flag
2147 +--no-auto-back-and-forth+ to disable <<workspace_auto_back_and_forth>> for this
2150 To move containers to specific workspaces, use +move container to workspace+.
2152 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
2153 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
2154 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
2155 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
2156 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
2157 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
2158 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
2159 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
2161 +workspace next+ cycles through either numbered or named workspaces. But when it
2162 reaches the last numbered/named workspace, it looks for named workspaces after
2163 exhausting numbered ones and looks for numbered ones after exhausting named ones.
2165 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
2168 Workspace names are parsed as
2169 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2173 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
2174 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
2175 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
2178 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2179 workspace next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output
2180 workspace back_and_forth
2181 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] <name>
2182 workspace [--no-auto-back-and-forth] number <name>
2184 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
2185 move [--no-auto-back-and-forth] [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
2186 move [window|container] [to] workspace prev|next|current
2187 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2190 -------------------------
2191 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
2192 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
2193 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3:<span foreground="red">vim</span>
2196 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
2197 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
2200 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
2201 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
2202 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
2204 # move the whole workspace to the next output
2205 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
2207 # move firefox to current workspace
2208 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
2209 -------------------------
2211 ==== Named workspaces
2213 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
2214 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
2217 -------------------------
2218 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
2220 -------------------------
2222 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
2226 -------------------------
2227 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
2228 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
2230 -------------------------
2232 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
2233 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
2234 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
2235 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
2236 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
2237 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
2238 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
2239 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
2241 ==== Renaming workspaces
2243 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
2244 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
2245 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
2246 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
2247 rename command with +i3-input+.
2250 ----------------------------------------------------
2251 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
2252 rename workspace to <new_name>
2253 ----------------------------------------------------
2256 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2257 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
2258 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
2259 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
2260 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"'
2261 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
2262 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
2264 If you want to rename workspaces on demand while keeping the navigation stable,
2265 you can use a setup like this:
2268 -------------------------
2269 bindsym $mod+1 workspace number "1: www"
2270 bindsym $mod+2 workspace number "2: mail"
2272 -------------------------
2274 If a workspace does not exist, the command +workspace number "1: mail"+ will
2275 create workspace "1: mail".
2277 If a workspace with number 1 does already exist, the command will switch to this
2278 workspace and ignore the text part. So even when the workspace has been renamed
2279 to "1: web", the above command will still switch to it.
2281 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
2283 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
2287 === [[_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs]]Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
2289 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
2290 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
2291 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
2294 ------------------------------------------------------------
2295 move container to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output>
2296 move workspace to output left|right|down|up|current|primary|<output>
2297 ------------------------------------------------------------
2300 --------------------------------------------------------
2301 # Move the current workspace to the next output
2302 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
2303 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
2305 # Put this window on the presentation output.
2306 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
2308 # Put this window on the primary output.
2309 bindsym $mod+x move container to output primary
2310 --------------------------------------------------------
2312 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
2313 -------------------------
2314 xrandr --output <output> --primary
2315 -------------------------
2317 === Moving containers/windows to marks
2319 To move a container to another container with a specific mark (see <<vim_like_marks>>),
2320 you can use the following command.
2322 The window will be moved right after the marked container in the tree, i.e., it ends up
2323 in the same position as if you had opened a new window when the marked container was
2324 focused. If the mark is on a split container, the window will appear as a new child
2325 after the currently focused child within that container.
2328 ------------------------------------
2329 move window|container to mark <mark>
2330 ------------------------------------
2333 --------------------------------------------------------
2334 for_window [instance="tabme"] move window to mark target
2335 --------------------------------------------------------
2338 === Resizing containers/windows
2340 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
2344 -------------------------------------------------------
2345 resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
2346 resize set [width] <width> [px | ppt]
2347 resize set height <height> [px | ppt]
2348 resize set [width] <width> [px | ppt] [height] <height> [px | ppt]
2349 -------------------------------------------------------
2351 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
2352 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give space
2353 from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by how many
2354 pixels a container should be grown or shrunk (the default is 10 pixels). The
2355 optional ppt argument means "percentage points", and if specified it indicates
2356 that a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk by that many points, instead
2357 of by the +px+ value.
2359 Note about +resize set+: a value of 0 for <width> or <height> means "do not
2360 resize in this direction".
2362 It is recommended to define bindings for resizing in a dedicated binding mode.
2363 See <<binding_modes>> and the example in the i3
2364 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config] for more
2368 ------------------------------------------------
2369 for_window [class="urxvt"] resize set 640 480
2370 ------------------------------------------------
2372 === Jumping to specific windows
2374 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
2375 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
2376 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
2377 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
2378 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
2379 with criteria for that.
2382 ----------------------------------------------------
2383 [class="class"] focus
2384 [title="title"] focus
2385 ----------------------------------------------------
2388 ------------------------------------------------
2389 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
2390 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
2391 ------------------------------------------------
2394 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
2396 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
2397 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
2398 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
2399 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
2400 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
2401 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
2402 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
2404 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
2405 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
2406 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
2407 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
2409 The additional +--toggle+ option will remove the mark if the window already has
2410 this mark or add it otherwise. Note that you may need to use this in
2411 combination with +--add+ (see below) as any other marks will otherwise be
2414 By default, a window can only have one mark. You can use the +--add+ flag to
2415 put more than one mark on a window.
2417 Refer to <<show_marks>> if you don't want marks to be shown in the window decoration.
2420 ----------------------------------------------
2421 mark [--add|--replace] [--toggle] <identifier>
2422 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
2424 ----------------------------------------------
2426 *Example (in a terminal)*:
2427 ---------------------------------------------------------
2428 # marks the focused container
2431 # focus the container with the mark "irssi"
2432 '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
2434 # remove the mark "irssi" from whichever container has it
2437 # remove all marks on all firefox windows
2438 [class="(?i)firefox"] unmark
2439 ---------------------------------------------------------
2441 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2442 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
2444 ---------------------------------------
2445 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
2446 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -F 'mark %s' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
2448 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
2449 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -F '[con_mark="%s"] focus' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
2450 ---------------------------------------
2452 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
2453 separate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
2454 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2457 === Window title format
2459 By default, i3 will simply print the X11 window title. Using +title_format+,
2460 this can be customized by setting the format to the desired output. This
2462 https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html[Pango markup]
2463 and the following placeholders which will be replaced:
2466 For normal windows, this is the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME
2467 as fallback). When used on containers without a window (e.g., a split
2468 container inside a tabbed/stacked layout), this will be the tree
2469 representation of the container (e.g., "H[xterm xterm]").
2471 The X11 window class (second part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2472 +class+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2474 The X11 window instance (first part of WM_CLASS). This corresponds to the
2475 +instance+ criterion, see <<command_criteria>>.
2477 Using the <<for_window>> directive, you can set the title format for any window
2478 based on <<command_criteria>>.
2481 ---------------------
2482 title_format <format>
2483 ---------------------
2486 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2487 # give the focused window a prefix
2488 bindsym $mod+p title_format "Important | %title"
2490 # print all window titles bold
2491 for_window [class=".*"] title_format "<b>%title</b>"
2493 # print window titles of firefox windows red
2494 for_window [class="(?i)firefox"] title_format "<span foreground='red'>%title</span>"
2495 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2497 === Changing border style
2499 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
2500 border (including window title), +border pixel 1+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
2501 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
2503 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles. The
2504 optional pixel argument can be used to specify the border width when switching
2505 to the normal and pixel styles.
2507 Note that "pixel" refers to logical pixel. On HiDPI displays, a logical pixel
2508 may be represented by multiple physical pixels, so +pixel 1+ might not
2509 necessarily translate into a single pixel row wide border.
2512 -----------------------------------------------
2513 border normal|pixel|toggle [<n>]
2516 # legacy syntax, equivalent to "border pixel 1"
2518 -----------------------------------------------
2521 ----------------------------------------------
2522 # use window title, but no border
2523 bindsym $mod+t border normal 0
2524 # use no window title and a thick border
2525 bindsym $mod+y border pixel 3
2526 # use neither window title nor border
2527 bindsym $mod+u border none
2528 ----------------------------------------------
2531 === Enabling shared memory logging
2533 As described in https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
2534 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
2535 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
2537 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
2538 discarded and a new one will be started.
2541 ------------------------------
2542 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
2543 shmlog on|off|toggle
2544 ------------------------------
2548 # Enable/disable logging
2549 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
2551 # or, from a terminal:
2552 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
2553 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
2556 === Enabling debug logging
2558 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
2559 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
2560 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
2561 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
2564 ----------------------
2565 debuglog on|off|toggle
2566 ----------------------
2569 ------------------------
2570 # Enable/disable logging
2571 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
2572 ------------------------
2574 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
2576 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
2577 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
2578 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
2579 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
2580 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
2583 ----------------------------
2584 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
2585 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
2586 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
2587 ----------------------------
2591 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
2592 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
2593 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
2594 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
2595 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
2596 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
2597 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
2598 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
2599 (+floating toggle+).
2601 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
2602 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
2603 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
2604 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
2614 ------------------------------------------------
2615 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
2616 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
2618 # Show the first scratchpad window
2619 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
2621 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
2622 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
2623 ------------------------------------------------
2627 There is a no operation command +nop+ which allows you to override default
2628 behavior. This can be useful for, e.g., disabling a focus change on clicks with
2629 the middle mouse button.
2631 The optional +comment+ argument is ignored, but will be printed to the log file
2632 for debugging purposes.
2640 ----------------------------------------------
2641 # Disable focus change for clicks on titlebars
2642 # with the middle mouse button
2644 ----------------------------------------------
2648 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
2649 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
2650 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
2651 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
2652 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
2653 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
2654 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
2658 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
2660 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
2664 ------------------------------------------------
2665 # Toggle between hide state and show state
2666 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
2668 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
2669 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
2671 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
2672 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
2674 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
2675 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
2676 ------------------------------------------------
2679 == Multiple monitors
2681 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
2682 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
2683 handle multiple monitors.
2685 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
2686 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
2688 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
2689 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
2690 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
2691 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
2692 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
2693 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
2694 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2696 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2697 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2698 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2699 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2700 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2701 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2702 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2703 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2705 === Configuring your monitors
2707 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2708 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2709 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2710 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2711 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2713 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2714 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2715 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2716 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2717 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2719 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2720 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2724 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2726 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2727 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2728 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2729 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2731 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2732 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2733 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2735 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2736 -------------------------------------------
2737 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2738 -------------------------------------------
2739 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2740 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2741 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2742 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2744 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2745 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2746 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2749 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2751 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2752 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2754 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2755 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2756 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2758 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2759 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2763 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2764 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2765 only what you can see in xrandr.
2767 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2769 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2771 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2772 have more than one monitor:
2774 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2775 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2776 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2777 <<workspace_screen>>.
2778 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2779 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2780 <<assign_workspace>>.
2781 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2782 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2783 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2784 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2785 see <<move_to_outputs>>.
2787 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2789 === Displaying a status line
2791 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2792 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2793 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2795 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2796 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2797 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2798 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2799 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2800 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2802 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2803 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2804 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2805 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2806 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2809 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2811 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2812 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2813 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2814 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2817 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2818 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2819 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2820 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2821 -----------------------------------------------------
2822 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2823 -----------------------------------------------------
2824 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2825 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2826 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2828 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2829 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2830 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2831 -----------------------------------------------------
2832 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2833 -----------------------------------------------------
2834 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2835 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2837 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2838 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2839 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).