3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please check http://faq.i3wm.org/ first, then
8 contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your 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 the Windows
30 key (Mod4) 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+ before you create the new window.
65 To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
67 === Changing the container layout
69 A split container can have one of the following layouts:
72 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
73 container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
74 to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
77 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
78 windows at the top of the container.
80 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
81 a single line which is vertically split.
83 To switch modes, press +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
84 stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
86 image:modes.png[Container modes]
88 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
90 To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
93 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
94 available outputs (the command is +fullscreen global+).
96 === Opening other applications
98 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
99 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
100 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
101 application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
103 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
104 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
105 <<configuring>> for details.
109 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
110 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
111 can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
112 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
113 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
114 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
115 depends on the application.
119 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
120 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
121 another workspace, press +$mod+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
122 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
124 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
125 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
126 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
128 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
129 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
130 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
131 focus to that screen.
133 === Moving windows to workspaces
135 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
136 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
137 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
138 it does not yet exist.
142 The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
143 and move it to the wanted size.
145 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
146 columns/rows with your keyboard.
148 === Restarting i3 inplace
150 To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
151 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
155 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
159 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
160 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
161 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
162 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
163 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
164 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
166 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
167 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
168 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
169 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
171 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
173 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
177 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
178 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
179 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
180 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
181 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
182 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
184 === The tree consists of Containers
186 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
187 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
188 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
189 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
190 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
193 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
194 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
196 === Orientation and Split Containers
200 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
201 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
202 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
203 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
204 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
205 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
206 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+l+ in the default config)
207 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
209 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
211 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
212 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
213 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
214 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
215 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
216 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
217 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
218 terminal and it will open below the current one:
220 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
221 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
225 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
230 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
231 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
232 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
234 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
235 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
236 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
237 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
238 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
240 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
242 === Implicit containers
244 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
247 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
248 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
249 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
250 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
252 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+k+ by default). The workspace
253 node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window you moved
254 down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom of the
255 screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accomodate the other two
256 terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode (for
257 example). You would end up having one tab called "another container" and the
258 other one being the terminal window you moved down.
263 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
264 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
266 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
267 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
270 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
271 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
272 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
273 can bind your keys to do useful things.
275 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
276 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
279 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
280 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
281 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
282 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
283 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
284 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
289 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
290 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
291 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
302 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
303 render window titles.
305 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
306 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
309 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
310 a variant, a stretch and a size.
311 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
312 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
314 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
315 and fall back to a working font.
318 ------------------------------
319 font <X core font description>
320 font pango:[family list] [style options] [size]
321 ------------------------------
324 --------------------------------------------------------------
325 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
326 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
327 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
328 font pango:Terminus 11px
329 --------------------------------------------------------------
333 === Keyboard bindings
335 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
336 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
337 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
339 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
340 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
341 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
342 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
343 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
345 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
346 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
347 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
349 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
350 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
351 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
354 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
355 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
356 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
357 after the keys have been released.
360 ----------------------------------
361 bindsym [--release] [Modifiers+]keysym command
362 bindcode [--release] [Modifiers+]keycode command
363 ----------------------------------
366 --------------------------------
368 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
371 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
373 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
374 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
376 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
377 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
379 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
380 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
381 --------------------------------
385 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
386 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
389 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
390 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
391 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
392 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
393 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
395 [[floating_modifier]]
397 === The floating modifier
399 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
400 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
401 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
402 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
403 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
404 it to the position you want.
406 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
407 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
408 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
409 ratio will be preserved).
412 --------------------------------
413 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
414 --------------------------------
417 --------------------------------
418 floating_modifier Mod1
419 --------------------------------
421 === Constraining floating window size
423 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
424 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
425 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
426 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
427 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
428 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
431 ----------------------------------------
432 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
433 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
434 ----------------------------------------
437 --------------------------------------
438 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
439 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
440 --------------------------------------
442 === Orientation for new workspaces
444 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
445 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
446 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
448 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
452 ----------------------------------------------
453 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
454 ----------------------------------------------
457 ----------------------------
458 default_orientation vertical
459 ----------------------------
461 === Layout mode for new containers
463 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
465 ///////////////////////////////
466 See also <<stack-limit>>.
467 //////////////////////////////
470 ---------------------------------------------
471 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
472 ---------------------------------------------
473 /////////////////////////////////////////////
474 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
475 /////////////////////////////////////////////
478 ---------------------
479 workspace_layout tabbed
480 ---------------------
482 === Border style for new windows
484 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
485 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
486 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
489 ---------------------------------------------
490 new_window <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
491 new_float <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
492 ---------------------------------------------
495 ---------------------
497 ---------------------
499 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
503 ---------------------
504 # The same as new_window none
509 ---------------------
512 === Hiding vertical borders
514 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
515 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
516 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
519 ----------------------------
520 hide_edge_borders <none|vertical|horizontal|both>
521 ----------------------------
524 ----------------------
525 hide_edge_borders vertical
526 ----------------------
528 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
530 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
531 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
532 change their border style, for example.
535 -----------------------------
536 for_window <criteria> command
537 -----------------------------
540 ------------------------------------------------
541 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
542 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
544 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
545 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
547 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
548 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
549 # directory to ~/work
550 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
551 ------------------------------------------------
553 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
557 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
558 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
559 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
560 variables can be handy.
568 ------------------------
570 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
571 ------------------------
573 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
574 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
575 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
576 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
579 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
583 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
584 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
585 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
586 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
587 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
588 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
589 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
590 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
591 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
592 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
594 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
595 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
599 ------------------------------------------------------------
600 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
601 ------------------------------------------------------------
604 ----------------------
605 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
606 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
608 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
609 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
611 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
612 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
614 # Assignment to a named workspace
615 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
617 # Start urxvt -name irssi
618 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
619 ----------------------
621 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
622 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
624 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
625 window, you will see the following output:
628 -----------------------------------
629 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
630 -----------------------------------
632 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
633 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
635 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
636 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
637 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
638 title when starting up.
640 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
641 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
642 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
643 file in the following way:
645 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
646 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
647 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
648 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
649 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
650 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
651 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
652 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
653 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
654 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
656 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
658 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
659 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
660 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
661 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
662 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
666 exec [--no-startup-id] command
667 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
671 --------------------------------
673 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
675 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
676 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
677 --------------------------------
679 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
683 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
685 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
686 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
687 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
688 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
689 the second screen and so on).
692 ----------------------------------
693 workspace <workspace> output <output>
694 ----------------------------------
696 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
697 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
698 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
700 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
703 ---------------------------
704 workspace 1 output LVDS1
705 workspace 5 output VGA1
706 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
707 ---------------------------
711 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
714 --------------------------------------------
715 colorclass border background text indicator
716 --------------------------------------------
718 Where colorclass can be one of:
721 A client which currently has the focus.
722 client.focused_inactive::
723 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
724 the focus at the moment.
726 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
728 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
730 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
731 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
735 -----------------------
736 client.background color
737 -----------------------
739 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
742 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
744 *Examples (default colors)*:
745 ---------------------------------------------------------
746 # class border backgr. text indicator
747 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
748 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
749 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
750 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
751 ---------------------------------------------------------
753 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
754 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
757 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
758 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
759 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
760 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
761 from single windows outside of a split container.
763 === Interprocess communication
765 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
766 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
767 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
769 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
770 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
771 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
772 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
774 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
775 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
776 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
777 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
778 user can create that directory.
781 ----------------------------
782 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
783 ----------------------------
785 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
788 === Focus follows mouse
790 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
791 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
792 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
793 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
794 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
795 links in your browser window).
798 ----------------------------
799 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
800 ----------------------------
803 ----------------------
804 focus_follows_mouse no
805 ----------------------
807 === Popups during fullscreen mode
809 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
810 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
811 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
812 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
814 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
815 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
816 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
817 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
818 you go out of fullscreen).
819 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
822 -------------------------------------------------
823 popup_during_fullscreen <smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen>
824 -------------------------------------------------
827 ------------------------------
828 popup_during_fullscreen smart
829 ------------------------------
833 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
834 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
835 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
836 be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
837 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
839 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
840 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
841 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
845 -----------------------------
846 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
847 -----------------------------
850 ------------------------
851 force_focus_wrapping yes
852 ------------------------
856 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
857 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
858 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
859 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
860 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
863 For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
864 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
867 -----------------------
868 force_xinerama <yes|no>
869 -----------------------
876 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
877 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
879 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
881 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
882 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
884 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
885 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
886 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
889 --------------------------------------
890 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
891 --------------------------------------
894 ---------------------------------
895 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
896 ---------------------------------
898 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
900 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
901 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
902 window decoration color would be immediately resetted to +client.focused+. This
903 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
906 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
907 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
908 value to 0 disables this feature.
910 The default is 500ms.
913 ---------------------------------------
914 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
915 ---------------------------------------
918 ---------------------------------
919 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
920 ---------------------------------
924 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
925 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
928 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
929 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
930 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
931 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
932 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
933 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
934 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
935 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
937 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
938 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
939 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
940 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
941 configuration infrastructure in place.
943 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
944 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
947 ---------------------------
949 status_command i3status
951 ---------------------------
955 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
956 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
957 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
958 tell i3 what to execute.
960 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
961 have to have correct quoting etc.
964 ----------------------
965 i3bar_command command
966 ----------------------
969 -------------------------------------------------
971 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
973 -------------------------------------------------
976 === Statusline command
978 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
979 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
980 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
982 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
983 have to have correct quoting etc.
986 ----------------------
987 status_command command
988 ----------------------
991 -------------------------------------------------
993 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
995 -------------------------------------------------
999 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1000 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1001 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1002 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1004 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1005 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1007 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1008 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1011 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1012 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1013 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1015 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1016 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1017 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1018 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1019 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1020 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1022 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1023 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1025 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1026 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1030 mode <dock|hide|invisible>
1031 hidden_state <hide|show>
1044 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1048 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1049 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1050 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1053 ---------------------
1055 ---------------------
1058 ---------------------
1062 ---------------------
1067 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1069 The default is bottom.
1072 ---------------------
1073 position <top|bottom>
1074 ---------------------
1077 ---------------------
1081 ---------------------
1085 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1086 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1087 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1089 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1090 directive multiple times.
1098 -------------------------------
1099 # big monitor: everything
1101 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1104 status_command i3status
1107 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1110 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1116 -------------------------------
1120 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1121 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1123 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1124 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1127 -------------------------
1128 tray_output <none|primary|output>
1129 -------------------------
1132 -------------------------
1133 # disable system tray
1138 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1141 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1145 -------------------------
1147 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1148 -------------------------
1149 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1150 -------------------------
1154 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1157 ---------------------
1159 ---------------------
1162 --------------------------------------------------------------
1164 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1165 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1167 --------------------------------------------------------------
1169 === Workspace buttons
1171 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1172 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1174 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1177 --------------------------
1178 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1179 --------------------------
1182 --------------------
1184 workspace_buttons no
1186 --------------------
1190 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1191 be configured at the moment:
1194 Background color of the bar.
1196 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1198 Text color to be used for the separator.
1200 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1203 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1204 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1205 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1206 using multiple monitors.
1207 inactive_workspace::
1208 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1209 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1210 will be the case for most workspaces.
1212 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1213 window with the urgency hint set.
1216 ----------------------------------------
1222 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1224 ----------------------------------------
1226 *Example (default colors)*:
1227 --------------------------------------
1234 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1235 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1236 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1237 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1240 --------------------------------------
1244 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1245 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1246 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1249 --------------------------
1250 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1252 --------------------------
1254 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1255 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1256 the following keybinding:
1259 --------------------------------------------------------
1260 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1261 --------------------------------------------------------
1263 [[command_criteria]]
1265 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1266 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
1267 prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
1268 which have the class Firefox, use:
1271 ------------------------------------
1272 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1274 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1275 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1276 ------------------------------------
1278 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1281 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1283 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1285 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1287 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1289 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1291 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1292 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1293 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1295 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1297 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1298 interface. Handy for scripting.
1300 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1301 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1302 information on how to use them.
1306 === Executing applications (exec)
1308 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1309 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1310 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1311 searched in your $PATH.
1314 ------------------------------
1315 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1316 ------------------------------
1319 ------------------------------
1321 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1323 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1324 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1325 ------------------------------
1327 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1328 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1329 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1330 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1331 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1332 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1333 cursor for 60 seconds.
1335 === Splitting containers
1337 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1338 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1339 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1340 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1342 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1343 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1344 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1345 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1346 to splith or vice-versa.
1349 ---------------------------
1350 split <vertical|horizontal>
1351 ---------------------------
1354 ------------------------------
1355 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1356 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1357 ------------------------------
1359 === Manipulating layout
1361 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1362 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1363 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1365 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1366 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1367 (or +floating toggle+):
1371 layout <default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith>
1372 layout toggle [split|all]
1377 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1378 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1379 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1381 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1382 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1384 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1385 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1388 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
1390 # Toggle floating/tiling
1391 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1394 === Focusing/Moving containers
1396 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1397 down+ and +focus up+.
1399 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1402 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1404 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1407 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1409 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1411 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1413 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1414 corresponding output.
1416 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1419 -----------------------------------
1420 focus <left|right|down|up>
1421 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1422 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1423 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1424 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1425 -----------------------------------
1427 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1428 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1431 ----------------------
1432 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1433 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1434 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1435 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1436 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1438 # Focus parent container
1439 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1441 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1442 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1444 # Focus the output right to the current one
1445 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1447 # Focus the big output
1448 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1450 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1451 bindsym $mod+j move left
1452 bindsym $mod+k move down
1453 bindsym $mod+l move up
1454 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1456 # Move container, but make floating containers
1457 # move more than the default
1458 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1460 # Move floating container to the center
1462 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1463 ----------------------
1465 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1467 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1468 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1469 +move container to workspace+.
1471 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1472 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1473 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1474 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1475 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1476 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1477 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1478 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1480 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1484 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1485 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1486 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1489 -----------------------------------
1490 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1491 workspace back_and_forth
1493 workspace number <name>
1495 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1496 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1497 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1498 -----------------------------------
1501 -------------------------
1502 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1503 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1506 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1507 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1510 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1511 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1512 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1514 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1515 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1517 # move firefox to current workspace
1518 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1519 -------------------------
1521 ==== Named workspaces
1523 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1524 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1527 -------------------------
1528 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1530 -------------------------
1532 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1536 -------------------------
1537 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1538 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1540 -------------------------
1542 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1543 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1544 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1545 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1546 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1547 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1548 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1549 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1551 ==== Renaming workspaces
1553 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1554 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1555 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1556 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you wan't to use the
1557 rename command with +i3-input+.
1560 ----------------------------------------------------
1561 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1562 rename workspace to <new_name>
1563 ----------------------------------------------------
1566 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1567 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1568 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1569 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1570 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1571 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to %s' -P 'New name: '
1572 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1574 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1576 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1579 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1583 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1584 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1585 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1588 --------------------------------------------------------
1589 move container to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1590 move workspace to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1591 --------------------------------------------------------
1594 --------------------------------------------------------
1595 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1596 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1597 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1599 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1600 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1601 --------------------------------------------------------
1605 === Resizing containers/windows
1607 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1611 ---------------------------------------------------------
1612 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1613 ---------------------------------------------------------
1615 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1616 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1617 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1618 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1619 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1620 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1621 default is 10 percentage points).
1623 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1625 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1626 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1628 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1630 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1631 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1632 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1633 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1634 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1635 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1636 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1637 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1639 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1640 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1641 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1642 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1643 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1645 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1646 bindsym Return mode "default"
1647 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1651 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1652 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1654 === Jumping to specific windows
1656 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1657 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1658 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1659 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1660 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1661 with criteria for that.
1664 ----------------------------------------------------
1665 [class="class"] focus
1666 [title="title"] focus
1667 ----------------------------------------------------
1670 ------------------------------------------------
1671 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1672 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1673 ------------------------------------------------
1675 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1679 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1680 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1681 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1682 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
1683 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
1684 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
1685 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
1687 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1688 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1689 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1690 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1693 ------------------------------
1695 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1697 ------------------------------
1699 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1700 ------------------------------
1702 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1703 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
1704 ------------------------------
1706 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1707 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1709 ---------------------------------------
1710 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1711 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1713 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1714 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1715 ---------------------------------------
1717 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1718 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1719 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1721 === Changing border style
1723 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1724 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1725 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1727 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1730 ----------------------------
1731 bindsym $mod+t border normal
1732 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
1733 bindsym $mod+u border none
1734 ----------------------------
1738 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1739 TODO: not yet implemented
1740 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1742 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1743 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1744 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1745 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1747 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1748 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1749 you limited) automatically as needed.
1752 --------------------------------
1753 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1754 --------------------------------
1758 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1761 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1765 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1766 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1770 === Enabling shared memory logging
1772 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
1773 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
1774 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
1776 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
1777 discarded and a new one will be started.
1780 ------------------------------
1781 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
1782 shmlog <on|off|toggle>
1783 ------------------------------
1787 # Enable/disable logging
1788 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
1790 # or, from a terminal:
1791 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
1792 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
1795 === Enabling debug logging
1797 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
1798 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
1799 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
1800 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
1803 ------------------------
1804 debuglog <on|off|toggle>
1805 ------------------------
1808 ------------------------
1809 # Enable/disable logging
1810 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
1811 ------------------------
1813 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1815 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1816 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1817 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1818 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1819 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1822 ----------------------------
1823 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
1824 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
1825 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
1826 ----------------------------
1830 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1831 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1832 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1833 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1834 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1835 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1836 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
1837 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
1838 (+floating toggle+).
1840 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1841 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1842 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1843 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1853 ------------------------------------------------
1854 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1855 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1857 # Show the first scratchpad window
1858 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
1860 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
1861 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
1862 ------------------------------------------------
1866 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
1867 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
1868 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
1869 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
1870 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
1871 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
1872 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
1876 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
1878 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
1882 ------------------------------------------------
1883 # Toggle between hide state and show state
1884 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
1886 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
1887 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
1889 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
1890 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
1892 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
1893 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
1894 ------------------------------------------------
1898 == Multiple monitors
1900 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1901 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1902 handle multiple monitors.
1904 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1905 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1907 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1908 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1909 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1910 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1911 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1912 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1913 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
1915 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
1916 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
1917 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
1918 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
1919 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
1920 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
1921 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
1922 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
1924 === Configuring your monitors
1926 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
1927 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
1928 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
1929 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
1930 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1932 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
1933 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1934 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1935 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1936 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1938 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1939 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1943 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1945 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
1946 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
1947 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
1948 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
1950 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
1951 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
1952 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
1954 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
1955 -------------------------------------------
1956 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
1957 -------------------------------------------
1958 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
1959 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
1960 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
1961 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1963 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
1964 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1965 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1968 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1970 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1971 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
1973 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
1974 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
1975 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1977 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
1978 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
1982 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1983 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
1984 only what you can see in xrandr.
1986 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
1988 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
1990 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
1991 have more than one monitor:
1993 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
1994 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
1995 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
1996 <<workspace_screen>>.
1997 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
1998 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
1999 <<assign_workspace>>.
2000 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2001 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2002 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2003 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2004 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2006 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2008 === Displaying a status line
2010 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2011 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2012 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2014 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2015 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2016 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2017 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2018 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2019 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2021 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2022 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2023 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2024 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2025 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2027 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2029 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2030 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2031 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2032 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2036 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2037 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2038 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2039 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2040 -----------------------------------------------------
2041 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2042 -----------------------------------------------------
2043 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2044 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2045 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2047 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2048 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2049 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2050 -----------------------------------------------------
2051 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2052 -----------------------------------------------------
2053 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2054 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2056 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2057 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2058 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).