3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
8 question(s) on the mailing list.
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
28 Throughout this guide, the keyword +mod+ will be used to refer to the
29 configured modifier. This is the alt key (Mod1) by default, with windows (Mod4)
30 being a popular alternative.
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is mod+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing mod+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
42 splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
43 created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
44 existing window (rotated displays).
46 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
48 To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys
49 which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used
50 for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for
51 compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +mod+J+ is left, +mod+K+
52 is down, +mod+L+ is up and `mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
53 terminals, use +mod+K+ or +mod+L+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
55 At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
56 specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
57 horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
58 "window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
59 or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
62 TODO: picture of the tree
64 To split a window vertically, press +mod+v+. To split it horizontally, press
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
75 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
76 windows at the top of the container.
78 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
79 a single line which is vertically split.
81 To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+s+ for stacking and
84 image:modes.png[Container modes]
86 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
88 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
91 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 === Opening other applications
96 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
97 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
98 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
99 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
101 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
102 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
103 <<configuring>> for details.
107 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
108 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
109 can press +mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
110 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
111 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
113 depends on the application.
117 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
118 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
119 another workspace, press +mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
120 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
122 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
123 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
124 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
126 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
127 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
128 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
129 focus to that screen.
131 === Moving windows to workspaces
133 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +mod+Shift+num+ where
134 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
135 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
136 it does not yet exist.
140 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
141 and move it to the wanted size.
143 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
144 columns/rows with your keyboard.
146 === Restarting i3 inplace
148 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
149 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +mod+Shift+r+.
153 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +mod+Shift+e+.
157 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
158 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
159 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
160 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
161 appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
163 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
164 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
165 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
166 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
168 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
170 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
174 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
175 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
176 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
177 finally the windows themselve. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
178 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
179 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
181 === The tree consists of Containers
183 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
184 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
185 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
186 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
187 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
190 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
191 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
193 === Orientation and Split Containers
197 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
198 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
199 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified). So, in our example with the
200 workspace, the default orientation of the workspace +Container+ is horizontal
201 (most monitors are widescreen nowadays). If you change the orientation to
202 vertical (+mod+v+ in the default config) and *then* open two terminals, i3 will
203 configure your windows like this:
205 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
207 An interesting new feature of the tree branch is the ability to split anything:
208 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with horizontal
209 orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open another
210 terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new terminal
211 window, it would show up to the right due to the horizontal workspace
212 orientation. Instead, press +mod+v+ to create a +Vertical Split Container+ (to
213 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +mod+h+). Now you can open a new
214 terminal and it will open below the current one:
216 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
217 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
221 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
226 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
227 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
228 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
230 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
231 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
232 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
233 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
234 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
236 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
241 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
242 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
244 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
245 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
248 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
249 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
250 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
251 can bind your keys to do useful things.
253 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
254 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
257 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
258 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
259 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
260 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
261 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
262 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
267 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
268 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
269 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
278 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles. You can use
279 +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description. To see special characters
280 (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the ISO-10646 encoding.
282 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
283 and fall back to a working font.
286 ------------------------------
287 font <X core font description>
288 ------------------------------
291 --------------------------------------------------------------
292 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
293 --------------------------------------------------------------
297 === Keyboard bindings
299 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
300 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
301 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
303 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
304 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
305 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
306 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
308 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
309 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
310 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
312 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
313 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
314 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
318 ----------------------------------
319 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
320 bindcode [Modifiers+]keycode command
321 ----------------------------------
324 --------------------------------
329 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
331 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
332 bindcode 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
333 --------------------------------
337 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
338 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
341 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
342 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
343 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
344 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
345 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
347 [[floating_modifier]]
349 === The floating modifier
351 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
352 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
353 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
354 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
355 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
356 it to the position you want.
358 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
359 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
360 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional.
363 --------------------------------
364 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
365 --------------------------------
368 --------------------------------
369 floating_modifier Mod1
370 --------------------------------
372 === Orientation for new workspaces
374 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
375 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
376 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
378 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
382 ----------------------------------------------
383 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
384 ----------------------------------------------
387 ----------------------------
388 default_orientation vertical
389 ----------------------------
391 === Layout mode for new containers
393 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
395 ///////////////////////////////
396 See also <<stack-limit>>.
397 //////////////////////////////
400 ---------------------------------------------
401 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
402 ---------------------------------------------
403 /////////////////////////////////////////////
404 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
405 /////////////////////////////////////////////
408 ---------------------
409 workspace_layout tabbed
410 ---------------------
412 === Border style for new windows
414 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
417 ---------------------------------------------
418 new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
419 ---------------------------------------------
422 ---------------------
424 ---------------------
426 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
428 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
429 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
430 change their border style, for example.
433 -----------------------------
434 for_window <criteria> command
435 -----------------------------
438 ------------------------------------------------
439 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
440 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
442 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
443 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
445 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
446 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
447 # directory to ~/work
448 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
449 ------------------------------------------------
451 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
455 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
456 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
457 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
458 variables can be handy.
466 ------------------------
468 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
469 ------------------------
471 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
472 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
473 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
474 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
477 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
481 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
482 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
483 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
484 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
485 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
486 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
487 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
488 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
489 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
490 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
493 ------------------------------------------------------------
494 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
495 ------------------------------------------------------------
498 ----------------------
499 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
500 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
502 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
503 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
505 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
506 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
508 # Assignment to a named workspace
509 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
511 # Start urxvt -name irssi
512 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
513 ----------------------
515 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
516 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
518 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
519 window, you will see the following output:
522 -----------------------------------
523 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
524 -----------------------------------
526 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
527 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
529 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
530 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
531 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
532 title when starting up.
534 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
536 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
537 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
538 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
539 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
540 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
549 --------------------------------
550 exec i3status | i3bar -d
551 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
552 --------------------------------
556 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
558 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
559 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
560 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
561 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
562 the second screen and so on).
565 ----------------------------------
566 workspace <number> output <output>
567 ----------------------------------
569 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
570 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
571 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
574 ---------------------------
575 workspace 1 output LVDS1
576 workspace 5 output VGA1
577 ---------------------------
581 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
584 --------------------------------------------
585 colorclass border background text
586 --------------------------------------------
588 Where colorclass can be one of:
591 A client which currently has the focus.
592 client.focused_inactive::
593 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
594 the focus at the moment.
596 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
598 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
600 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
601 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
605 -----------------------
606 client.background color
607 -----------------------
609 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
610 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
611 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
612 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
613 area of the termianal and the i3 border.
615 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
617 *Examples (default colors)*:
618 -----------------------------------------------
619 # class border backgr. text
620 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
621 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
622 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888
623 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
624 -----------------------------------------------
626 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
627 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
630 === Interprocess communication
632 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
633 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
634 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
636 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
637 +/tmp/i3-%u/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username and +%p+ is the PID
640 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
641 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
642 does the right thing by default.
645 ----------------------------
646 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
647 ----------------------------
649 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
652 === Focus follows mouse
654 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
655 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
656 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
657 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
658 to click on links in your browser window).
661 ----------------------------
662 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
663 ----------------------------
666 ----------------------
667 focus_follows_mouse no
668 ----------------------
670 === Popups during fullscreen mode
672 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
673 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
674 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
675 There are two things which are possible to do in this situation:
677 1. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
678 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
679 you go out of fullscreen).
680 2. Leave fullscreen mode. This is the default.
683 -------------------------------------------------
684 popup_during_fullscreen <ignore|leave_fullscreen>
685 -------------------------------------------------
688 ------------------------------
689 popup_during_fullscreen ignore
690 ------------------------------
694 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
695 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
696 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
697 be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
698 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
700 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
701 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
702 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
706 -----------------------------
707 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
708 -----------------------------
711 ------------------------
712 force_focus_wrapping yes
713 ------------------------
717 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
718 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
719 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
720 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
721 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
724 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
725 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
728 -----------------------
729 force_xinerama <yes|no>
730 -----------------------
737 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
738 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
742 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
743 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
744 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
747 --------------------------
748 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
750 --------------------------
752 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
753 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
754 the following keybinding:
757 -------------------------------------------
758 bindsym mod+x move workspace 3; workspace 3
759 -------------------------------------------
763 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers
764 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
765 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
766 which have the class Firefox, use:
769 ------------------------------------
770 bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
772 # same thing, but case-insensitive
773 bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
774 ------------------------------------
776 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
779 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
781 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
783 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
785 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
787 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
789 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
791 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
792 interface. Handy for scripting.
794 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
795 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
796 information on how to use them.
798 === Splitting containers
800 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
801 can contain multiple windows. Every split container has an orientation, it is
802 either split horizontally (a new window gets placed to the right of the current
803 one) or vertically (a new window gets placed below the current one).
805 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
806 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
807 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window).
810 ---------------------------
811 split <vertical|horizontal>
812 ---------------------------
815 ------------------------------
816 bindsym mod+v split vertical
817 bindsym mod+h split horizontal
818 ------------------------------
820 === Manipulating layout
822 Use +layout default+, +layout stacking+ or +layout tabbed+ to change the
823 current container layout to default, stacking or tabbed layout, respectively.
825 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
826 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
827 (or +floating toggle+):
831 bindsym mod+s layout stacking
832 bindsym mod+l layout default
833 bindsym mod+w layout tabbed
836 bindsym mod+f fullscreen
838 # Toggle floating/tiling
839 bindsym mod+t floating toggle
842 === Focusing/Moving containers
844 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus down+ and +focus up+.
846 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
849 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
851 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
854 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
856 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
858 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
860 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
863 ----------------------
864 # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
865 bindsym mod+j focus left
866 bindsym mod+k focus down
867 bindsym mod+l focus up
868 bindsym mod+semicolon focus right
870 # Focus parent container
871 bindsym mod+u focus parent
873 # Focus last floating/tiling container
874 bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle
876 # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
877 bindsym mod+j move left
878 bindsym mod+k move down
879 bindsym mod+l move up
880 bindsym mod+semicolon move right
881 ----------------------
883 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
885 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
886 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
889 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
890 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
891 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
892 combination. Similarily, you can use +move workspace next+ and +move workspace
893 prev+ to move a container to the next/previous workspace.
895 To move a container to another xrandr output such as +LVDS1+ or +VGA1+, you can
896 use the +move output+ command followed by the name of the target output. You
897 may also use +left+, +right+, +up+, +down+ instead of the xrandr output name to
898 move to the the next output in the specified direction.
901 -------------------------
902 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1
903 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2
906 bindsym mod+Shift+1 move workspace 1
907 bindsym mod+Shift+2 move workspace 2
909 -------------------------
911 ==== Named workspaces
913 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
914 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
917 -------------------------
918 bindsym mod+1 workspace mail
920 -------------------------
922 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
926 -------------------------
927 bindsym mod+1 workspace 1: mail
928 bindsym mod+2 workspace 2: www
930 -------------------------
932 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
933 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
934 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
935 will order them numerically.
939 === Resizing containers/windows
941 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
945 ---------------------------------------------------------
946 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
947 ---------------------------------------------------------
949 Direction can be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. The optional pixel
950 argument specifies by how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or
951 shrinked (the default is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points
952 and specifies by how many percentage points a *tiling container* should be
953 grown or shrinked (the default is 10 percentage points).
955 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
957 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
958 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
960 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
962 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
963 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
964 # more space on its left
966 bindsym j resize shrink left
967 bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
969 bindsym k resize grow down
970 bindsym Shift+k resize shrink down
972 bindsym l resize shrink up
973 bindsym Shift+l resize grow up
975 bindsym semicolon resize grow right
976 bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
978 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
979 bindsym Return mode "default"
980 bindsym Escape mode "default"
984 bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
985 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
987 === Jumping to specific windows
989 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
990 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
991 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
992 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
993 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
994 with criteria for that.
997 ----------------------------------------------------
998 [class="class"] focus
999 [title="title"] focus
1000 ----------------------------------------------------
1003 ------------------------------------------------
1004 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1005 bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1006 ------------------------------------------------
1008 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1012 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1013 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1014 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1015 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
1016 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
1019 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1020 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1021 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1022 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1025 ------------------------------
1027 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1028 ------------------------------
1030 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1031 ------------------------------
1033 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1034 ------------------------------
1036 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1037 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1039 ---------------------------------------
1040 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1041 bindsym mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1043 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1044 bindsym mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1045 ---------------------------------------
1047 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1048 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1049 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1051 === Changing border style
1053 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1054 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1055 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1057 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1060 ----------------------------
1061 bindsym mod+t border normal
1062 bindsym mod+y border 1pixel
1063 bindsym mod+u border none
1064 ----------------------------
1068 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1069 TODO: not yet implemented
1070 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1072 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1073 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1074 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1075 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1077 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1078 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1079 you limited) automatically as needed.
1082 --------------------------------
1083 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1084 --------------------------------
1088 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1091 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1095 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1096 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1098 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1100 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1101 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1102 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1103 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1104 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1107 ----------------------------
1108 bindsym mod+Shift+r restart
1109 bindsym mod+Shift+w reload
1110 bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
1111 ----------------------------
1115 == Multiple monitors
1117 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1118 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1119 handle multiple monitors.
1121 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1122 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1124 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1125 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1126 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1127 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1128 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1129 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1130 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1132 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1133 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1134 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1135 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1136 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1137 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1138 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1139 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1141 === Configuring your monitors
1143 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1144 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1145 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1146 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1147 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1149 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1150 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1151 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1152 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1153 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1155 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1156 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1160 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1162 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1163 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1164 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1165 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1167 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1168 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1169 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1171 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1172 -------------------------------------------
1173 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1174 -------------------------------------------
1175 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1176 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1177 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1178 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1180 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1181 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1182 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1185 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1187 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1188 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1190 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1191 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1192 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1194 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1195 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1199 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1200 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
1201 only what you can see in xrandr.
1203 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
1205 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
1207 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
1208 have more than one monitor:
1210 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
1211 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
1212 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
1213 <<workspace_screen>>.
1214 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
1215 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
1216 <<assign_workspace>>.
1217 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
1218 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
1219 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
1221 == i3 and the rest of your software world
1223 === Displaying a status line
1225 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
1226 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
1227 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
1229 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
1230 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
1231 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
1232 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
1233 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
1234 i3bar. Use a pipe to connect them: +i3status | i3bar -d+.
1236 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
1237 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
1238 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
1239 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can use +-d+ or +-dbottom+
1240 for positioning it at the bottom and +-dtop+ to position it at the top of the
1243 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
1245 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
1246 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
1247 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
1248 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
1252 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
1253 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
1254 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
1255 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
1256 -----------------------------------------------------
1257 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
1258 -----------------------------------------------------
1259 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
1260 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
1261 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
1263 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
1264 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
1265 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
1266 -----------------------------------------------------
1267 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
1268 -----------------------------------------------------
1269 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
1270 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
1272 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
1273 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1274 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).