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 +$mod+Shift+e+.
156 By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
160 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
161 a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
162 you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
163 for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
164 windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
165 hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
167 You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$mod+Shift+Space+. By
168 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
169 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
170 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>. Another way to resize
171 floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
173 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
175 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
179 i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
180 windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
181 the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
182 finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
183 (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
184 out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
186 === The tree consists of Containers
188 The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
189 host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
190 like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
191 simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
192 single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
195 image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
196 image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
198 === Orientation and Split Containers
202 It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
203 layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
204 orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
205 on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
206 for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
207 layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
208 nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
209 and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
211 image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
213 An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
214 Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
215 horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
216 another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
217 terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
218 Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
219 open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
220 terminal and it will open below the current one:
222 image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
223 image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
227 You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
232 Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
233 vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
234 you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
236 So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
237 The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
238 the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
239 Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
240 windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
242 image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
244 === Implicit containers
246 In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
249 One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
250 single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
251 windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
252 workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
254 Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
255 workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
256 you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
257 of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
258 other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
259 (for example). You would end up having one tab called "another container" and
260 the other one being the terminal window you moved down.
265 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent on your
266 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
268 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
269 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
272 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
273 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
274 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
275 can bind your keys to do useful things.
277 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
278 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
281 On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
282 file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
283 wizard to use either Alt (Mod1) or Windows (Mod4) as modifier in the config
284 file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
285 keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
286 Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
291 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
292 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
293 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
304 i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
305 render window titles.
307 To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
308 special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
311 A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
312 a variant, a stretch and a size.
313 FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
314 Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
316 If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
317 and fall back to a working font.
320 ------------------------------
321 font <X core font description>
322 font pango:[family list] [style options] [size]
323 ------------------------------
326 --------------------------------------------------------------
327 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
328 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
329 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
330 font pango:Terminus 11px
331 --------------------------------------------------------------
335 === Keyboard bindings
337 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
338 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
339 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
341 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
342 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
343 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
344 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
345 see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
347 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
348 hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
349 switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
351 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
352 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
353 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
356 Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
357 KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
358 situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
359 after the keys have been released.
362 ----------------------------------
363 bindsym [--release] [Modifiers+]keysym command
364 bindcode [--release] [Modifiers+]keycode command
365 ----------------------------------
368 --------------------------------
370 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
373 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
375 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
376 bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
378 # Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
379 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
381 # Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
382 bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
383 --------------------------------
387 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
388 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
391 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
392 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
393 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
394 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
395 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
397 [[floating_modifier]]
399 === The floating modifier
401 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
402 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
403 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
404 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
405 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
406 it to the position you want.
408 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
409 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
410 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
411 ratio will be preserved).
414 --------------------------------
415 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
416 --------------------------------
419 --------------------------------
420 floating_modifier Mod1
421 --------------------------------
423 === Constraining floating window size
425 The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
426 either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
427 will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
428 +floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
429 value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
430 manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
433 ----------------------------------------
434 floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
435 floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
436 ----------------------------------------
439 --------------------------------------
440 floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
441 floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
442 --------------------------------------
444 === Orientation for new workspaces
446 New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
447 (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
448 (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
450 With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
454 ----------------------------------------------
455 default_orientation <horizontal|vertical|auto>
456 ----------------------------------------------
459 ----------------------------
460 default_orientation vertical
461 ----------------------------
463 === Layout mode for new containers
465 This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
467 ///////////////////////////////
468 See also <<stack-limit>>.
469 //////////////////////////////
472 ---------------------------------------------
473 workspace_layout <default|stacking|tabbed>
474 ---------------------------------------------
475 /////////////////////////////////////////////
476 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
477 /////////////////////////////////////////////
480 ---------------------
481 workspace_layout tabbed
482 ---------------------
484 === Border style for new windows
486 This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
487 "normal". Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
488 floating windows, e.g. dialog windows.
491 ---------------------------------------------
492 new_window <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
493 new_float <normal|1pixel|none|pixel>
494 ---------------------------------------------
497 ---------------------
499 ---------------------
501 The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
505 ---------------------
506 # The same as new_window none
511 ---------------------
514 === Hiding vertical borders
516 You can hide vertical borders adjacent to the screen edges using
517 +hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
518 to waste even two pixels in displayspace. Default is none.
521 ----------------------------
522 hide_edge_borders <none|vertical|horizontal|both>
523 ----------------------------
526 ----------------------
527 hide_edge_borders vertical
528 ----------------------
530 === Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
532 With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
533 encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
534 change their border style, for example.
537 -----------------------------
538 for_window <criteria> command
539 -----------------------------
542 ------------------------------------------------
543 # enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
544 for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
546 # Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
547 for_window [class="urxvt"] border 1pixel
549 # A less useful, but rather funny example:
550 # makes the window floating as soon as I change
551 # directory to ~/work
552 for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
553 ------------------------------------------------
555 The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
559 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
560 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
561 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
562 variables can be handy.
570 ------------------------
572 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
573 ------------------------
575 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
576 is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
577 containing another variable. There is no fancy handling and there are
578 absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration
579 you should create a little script which generates a configuration file and run
580 it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
582 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
586 To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
587 can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
588 see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
589 (and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
590 because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
591 setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
592 starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
593 title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
594 window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
595 to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
597 Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
598 file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
602 ------------------------------------------------------------
603 assign <criteria> [→] workspace
604 ------------------------------------------------------------
607 ----------------------
608 # Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
609 assign [class="URxvt"] 2
611 # Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
612 assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
614 # Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
615 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
617 # Assignment to a named workspace
618 assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
620 # Start urxvt -name irssi
621 assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
622 ----------------------
624 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
625 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
627 To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
628 window, you will see the following output:
631 -----------------------------------
632 WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
633 -----------------------------------
635 The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
636 second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
638 Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
639 logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
640 details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
641 title when starting up.
643 Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
644 workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
645 can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
646 file in the following way:
648 *Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
649 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
650 # Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
651 # (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
652 # hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
653 # (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
654 # create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
655 # cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
656 exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
657 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
659 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
661 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
662 which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
663 commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
664 also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
665 keyword. These commands will be run in order.
669 exec [--no-startup-id] command
670 exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
674 --------------------------------
676 exec_always ~/my_script.sh
678 # Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
679 exec --no-startup-id urxvt
680 --------------------------------
682 The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
686 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
688 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
689 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
690 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
691 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
692 the second screen and so on).
695 ----------------------------------
696 workspace <workspace> output <output>
697 ----------------------------------
699 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
700 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
701 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
703 If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
706 ---------------------------
707 workspace 1 output LVDS1
708 workspace 5 output VGA1
709 workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
710 ---------------------------
714 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
717 --------------------------------------------
718 colorclass border background text indicator
719 --------------------------------------------
721 Where colorclass can be one of:
724 A client which currently has the focus.
725 client.focused_inactive::
726 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
727 the focus at the moment.
729 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
731 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
733 Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
734 (when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
736 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
737 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
741 -----------------------
742 client.background color
743 -----------------------
745 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
748 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
750 *Examples (default colors)*:
751 ---------------------------------------------------------
752 # class border backgr. text indicator
753 client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4
754 client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50
755 client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e
756 client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
757 client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000
758 ---------------------------------------------------------
760 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
761 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
764 The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
765 For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
766 color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
767 single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
768 from single windows outside of a split container.
770 === Interprocess communication
772 i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
773 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
774 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
776 The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
777 +/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
778 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
779 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
781 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
782 by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
783 does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
784 recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
785 user can create that directory.
788 ----------------------------
789 ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
790 ----------------------------
792 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
795 === Focus follows mouse
797 By default, window focus follows your mouse movements. However, if you have a
798 setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop
799 which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable 'focus
800 follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard. The mouse will
801 still be useful inside the currently active window (for example to click on
802 links in your browser window).
805 ----------------------------
806 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
807 ----------------------------
810 ----------------------
811 focus_follows_mouse no
812 ----------------------
816 By default, when switching focus to a window on a different output (e.g.
817 focusing a window on workspace 3 on output VGA-1, coming from workspace 2 on
818 LVDS-1), the mouse cursor is warped to the center of that window.
820 With the +mouse_warping+ option, you can control when the mouse cursor should
821 be warped. +none+ disables warping entirely, whereas +output+ is the default
822 behavior described above.
825 ---------------------------
826 mouse_warping <output|none>
827 ---------------------------
834 === Popups during fullscreen mode
836 When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows
837 (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware
838 that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint).
839 There are three things which are possible to do in this situation:
841 1. Display the popup if it belongs to the fullscreen application only. This is
842 the default and should be reasonable behavior for most users.
843 2. Just ignore the popup (don’t map it). This won’t interrupt you while you are
844 in fullscreen. However, some apps might react badly to this (deadlock until
845 you go out of fullscreen).
846 3. Leave fullscreen mode.
849 -------------------------------------------------
850 popup_during_fullscreen <smart|ignore|leave_fullscreen>
851 -------------------------------------------------
854 ------------------------------
855 popup_during_fullscreen smart
856 ------------------------------
860 When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
861 focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
862 however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
863 be set on that container. This is the default behavior so you can navigate to
864 all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
866 If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
867 parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
868 +force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
872 -----------------------------
873 force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
874 -----------------------------
877 ------------------------
878 force_focus_wrapping yes
879 ------------------------
883 As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
884 video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
885 Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
886 inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
887 reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
890 For people who cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
891 +--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
894 -----------------------
895 force_xinerama <yes|no>
896 -----------------------
903 Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
904 Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
906 === Automatic back-and-forth when switching to the current workspace
908 This configuration directive enables automatic +workspace back_and_forth+ (see
909 <<back_and_forth>>) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
911 For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using
912 mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You don’t need to remember where you
913 came from now, you can just press $mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
916 --------------------------------------
917 workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>
918 --------------------------------------
921 ---------------------------------
922 workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes
923 ---------------------------------
925 === Delaying urgency hint reset on workspace change
927 If an application on another workspace sets an urgency hint, switching to this
928 workspace may lead to immediate focus of the application, which also means the
929 window decoration color would be immediately reset to +client.focused+. This
930 may make it unnecessarily hard to tell which window originally raised the
933 In order to prevent this, you can tell i3 to delay resetting the urgency state
934 by a certain time using the +force_display_urgency_hint+ directive. Setting the
935 value to 0 disables this feature.
937 The default is 500ms.
940 ---------------------------------------
941 force_display_urgency_hint <timeout> ms
942 ---------------------------------------
945 ---------------------------------
946 force_display_urgency_hint 500 ms
947 ---------------------------------
951 The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called
952 i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has
955 1. It is a modular approach. If you don’t need a workspace bar at all, or if
956 you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can
957 just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead.
958 2. It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well".
959 While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on
960 each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise).
961 3. It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you
962 don’t need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa.
964 That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is
965 because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which
966 are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no
967 sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good
968 configuration infrastructure in place.
970 Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a +bar+ block. You can have
971 multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
974 ---------------------------
976 status_command i3status
978 ---------------------------
982 By default i3 will just pass +i3bar+ and let your shell handle the execution,
983 searching your +$PATH+ for a correct version.
984 If you have a different +i3bar+ somewhere or the binary is not in your +$PATH+ you can
985 tell i3 what to execute.
987 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
988 have to have correct quoting etc.
991 ----------------------
992 i3bar_command command
993 ----------------------
996 -------------------------------------------------
998 i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
1000 -------------------------------------------------
1003 === Statusline command
1005 i3bar can run a program and display every line of its +stdout+ output on the
1006 right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like
1007 your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
1009 The specified command will be passed to +sh -c+, so you can use globbing and
1010 have to have correct quoting etc.
1013 ----------------------
1014 status_command command
1015 ----------------------
1018 -------------------------------------------------
1020 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
1022 -------------------------------------------------
1026 You can either have i3bar be visible permanently at one edge of the screen
1027 (+dock+ mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (+hide+ mode).
1028 It is also possible to force i3bar to always stay hidden (+invisible+
1029 mode). The modifier key can be configured using the +modifier+ option.
1031 The mode option can be changed during runtime through the +bar mode+ command.
1032 On reload the mode will be reverted to its configured value.
1034 The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also,
1035 i3bar sends the +SIGSTOP+ and +SIGCONT+ signals to the statusline process to
1038 Invisible mode allows to permanently maximize screen space, as the bar is never
1039 shown. Thus, you can configure i3bar to not disturb you by popping up because
1040 of an urgency hint or because the modifier key is pressed.
1042 In order to control whether i3bar is hidden or shown in hide mode, there exists
1043 the hidden_state option, which has no effect in dock mode or invisible mode. It
1044 indicates the current hidden_state of the bar: (1) The bar acts like in normal
1045 hide mode, it is hidden and is only unhidden in case of urgency hints or by
1046 pressing the modifier key (+hide+ state), or (2) it is drawn on top of the
1047 currently visible workspace (+show+ state).
1049 Like the mode, the hidden_state can also be controlled through i3, this can be
1050 done by using the +bar hidden_state+ command.
1052 The default mode is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually
1053 the windows key). The default value for the hidden_state is hide.
1057 mode <dock|hide|invisible>
1058 hidden_state <hide|show>
1071 Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see +xmodmap(1)+).
1075 Specifies the bar ID for the configured bar instance. If this option is missing,
1076 the ID is set to 'bar-x', where x corresponds to the position of the embedding
1077 bar block in the config file ('bar-0', 'bar-1', ...).
1080 ---------------------
1082 ---------------------
1085 ---------------------
1089 ---------------------
1094 This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
1096 The default is bottom.
1099 ---------------------
1100 position <top|bottom>
1101 ---------------------
1104 ---------------------
1108 ---------------------
1112 You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to
1113 handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different
1114 options for different outputs by using multiple 'bar' blocks.
1116 To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output
1117 directive multiple times.
1125 -------------------------------
1126 # big monitor: everything
1128 # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
1131 status_command i3status
1134 # laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
1137 status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
1143 -------------------------------
1147 i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as
1148 NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
1150 You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or
1151 you can turn off the functionality entirely.
1154 -------------------------
1155 tray_output <none|primary|output>
1156 -------------------------
1159 -------------------------
1160 # disable system tray
1165 # show tray icons on the primary monitor
1168 # show tray icons on the big monitor
1172 -------------------------
1174 Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
1175 -------------------------
1176 xrandr --output <output> --primary
1177 -------------------------
1181 Specifies the font to be used in the bar. See <<fonts>>.
1184 ---------------------
1186 ---------------------
1189 --------------------------------------------------------------
1191 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
1192 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
1194 --------------------------------------------------------------
1196 === Workspace buttons
1198 Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if
1199 you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
1201 The default is to show workspace buttons.
1204 --------------------------
1205 workspace_buttons <yes|no>
1206 --------------------------
1209 ------------------------
1211 workspace_buttons no
1213 ------------------------
1215 === Strip workspace numbers
1217 Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
1218 buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
1219 order on the bar according to its number without displaying the number prefix.
1221 When +strip_workspace_numbers+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
1222 the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the name. You could use this, for
1223 instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
1224 workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
1226 The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
1229 ----------------------------------
1230 strip_workspace_numbers <yes|no>
1231 ----------------------------------
1234 ----------------------------
1236 strip_workspace_numbers yes
1238 ----------------------------
1240 === Binding Mode indicator
1242 Specifies whether the current binding mode indicator should be shown or not.
1243 This is useful if you want to hide the workspace buttons but still be able
1244 to see the current binding mode indicator.
1245 For an example of a +mode+ definition, see <<resizingconfig>>.
1247 The default is to show the mode indicator.
1250 -------------------------------
1251 binding_mode_indicator <yes|no>
1252 -------------------------------
1255 -----------------------------
1257 binding_mode_indicator no
1259 -----------------------------
1263 As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can
1264 be configured at the moment:
1267 Background color of the bar.
1269 Text color to be used for the statusline.
1271 Text color to be used for the separator.
1273 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1276 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1277 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
1278 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
1279 using multiple monitors.
1280 inactive_workspace::
1281 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1282 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
1283 will be the case for most workspaces.
1285 Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace
1286 contains a window with the urgency hint set. Also applies to +mode+ indicators.
1289 ----------------------------------------
1295 colorclass <border> <background> <text>
1297 ----------------------------------------
1299 *Example (default colors)*:
1300 --------------------------------------
1307 focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
1308 active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
1309 inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
1310 urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
1313 --------------------------------------
1317 Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
1318 at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
1319 do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
1322 --------------------------
1323 # execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
1325 --------------------------
1327 Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
1328 specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
1329 the following keybinding:
1332 --------------------------------------------------------
1333 bindsym $mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
1334 --------------------------------------------------------
1336 [[command_criteria]]
1338 Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command - that is, which containers
1339 should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. The criteria
1340 are specified before any command in a pair of square brackets and are separated
1343 When using multiple commands, separate them by using a +,+ (a comma) instead of
1344 a semicolon. Criteria apply only until the next semicolon, so if you use a
1345 semicolon to separate commands, only the first one will be executed for the
1349 ------------------------------------
1350 # if you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
1351 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
1353 # same thing, but case-insensitive
1354 bindsym $mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
1356 # kill only the About dialog from Firefox
1357 bindsym $mod+x [class="Firefox" window_role="About"] kill
1359 # enable floating mode and move container to workspace 4
1360 for_window [class="^evil-app$"] floating enable, move container to workspace 4
1361 ------------------------------------
1363 The criteria which are currently implemented are:
1366 Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
1368 Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
1370 Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
1372 Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
1374 Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
1376 Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest".
1377 Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively.
1378 (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first)
1380 Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
1382 Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
1383 interface. Handy for scripting.
1385 The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
1386 regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
1387 information on how to use them.
1391 === Executing applications (exec)
1393 What good is a window manager if you can’t actually start any applications?
1394 The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a
1395 shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be
1396 searched in your $PATH.
1399 ------------------------------
1400 exec [--no-startup-id] command
1401 ------------------------------
1404 ------------------------------
1406 bindsym $mod+g exec gimp
1408 # Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware
1409 bindsym $mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt
1410 ------------------------------
1412 The +--no-startup-id+ parameter disables startup-notification support for this
1413 particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a
1414 window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it
1415 will change the X11 cursor to +watch+ (a clock) while the application is
1416 launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK
1417 and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch
1418 cursor for 60 seconds.
1420 === Splitting containers
1422 The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
1423 can contain multiple windows. Depending on the layout of the split container,
1424 new windows get placed to the right of the current one (splith) or new windows
1425 get placed below the current one (splitv).
1427 If you apply this command to a split container with the same orientation,
1428 nothing will happen. If you use a different orientation, the split container’s
1429 orientation will be changed (if it does not have more than one window). Use
1430 +layout toggle split+ to change the layout of any split container from splitv
1431 to splith or vice-versa.
1434 ---------------------------
1435 split <vertical|horizontal>
1436 ---------------------------
1439 ------------------------------
1440 bindsym $mod+v split vertical
1441 bindsym $mod+h split horizontal
1442 ------------------------------
1444 === Manipulating layout
1446 Use +layout toggle split+, +layout stacking+, +layout tabbed+, +layout splitv+
1447 or +layout splith+ to change the current container layout to splith/splitv,
1448 stacking, tabbed layout, splitv or splith, respectively.
1450 To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use +fullscreen+, to make
1451 it floating (or tiling again) use +floating enable+ respectively +floating disable+
1452 (or +floating toggle+):
1456 layout <default|tabbed|stacking|splitv|splith>
1457 layout toggle [split|all]
1462 bindsym $mod+s layout stacking
1463 bindsym $mod+l layout toggle split
1464 bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
1466 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/split:
1467 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle
1469 # Toggle between stacking/tabbed/splith/splitv:
1470 bindsym $mod+x layout toggle all
1473 bindsym $mod+f fullscreen
1475 # Toggle floating/tiling
1476 bindsym $mod+t floating toggle
1479 === Focusing/Moving containers
1481 To change the focus, use the focus command: +focus left+, +focus right+, +focus
1482 down+ and +focus up+.
1484 There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
1487 Sets focus to the +Parent Container+ of the current +Container+.
1489 The opposite of +focus parent+, sets the focus to the last focused
1492 Sets focus to the last focused floating container.
1494 Sets focus to the last focused tiling container.
1496 Toggles between floating/tiling containers.
1498 Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the
1499 corresponding output.
1501 For moving, use +move left+, +move right+, +move down+ and +move up+.
1504 -----------------------------------
1505 focus <left|right|down|up>
1506 focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle>
1507 focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output>
1508 move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
1509 move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]
1510 -----------------------------------
1512 Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the +move+ command is only
1513 relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
1516 ----------------------
1517 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
1518 bindsym $mod+j focus left
1519 bindsym $mod+k focus down
1520 bindsym $mod+l focus up
1521 bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right
1523 # Focus parent container
1524 bindsym $mod+u focus parent
1526 # Focus last floating/tiling container
1527 bindsym $mod+g focus mode_toggle
1529 # Focus the output right to the current one
1530 bindsym $mod+x focus output right
1532 # Focus the big output
1533 bindsym $mod+x focus output HDMI-2
1535 # Move container to the left, bottom, top, right:
1536 bindsym $mod+j move left
1537 bindsym $mod+k move down
1538 bindsym $mod+l move up
1539 bindsym $mod+semicolon move right
1541 # Move container, but make floating containers
1542 # move more than the default
1543 bindsym $mod+j move left 20 px
1545 # Move floating container to the center
1547 bindsym $mod+c move absolute position center
1548 ----------------------
1550 === Changing (named) workspaces/moving to workspaces
1552 To change to a specific workspace, use the +workspace+ command, followed by the
1553 number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use
1554 +move container to workspace+.
1556 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands
1557 +workspace next+ and +workspace prev+, which is handy, for example, if you have
1558 workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key
1559 combination. To restrict those to the current output, use +workspace
1560 next_on_output+ and +workspace prev_on_output+. Similarly, you can use +move
1561 container to workspace next+, +move container to workspace prev+ to move a
1562 container to the next/previous workspace and +move container to workspace current+
1563 (the last one makes sense only when used with criteria).
1565 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1569 To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use +workspace
1570 back_and_forth+; likewise, you can move containers to the previously focused
1571 workspace using +move container to workspace back_and_forth+.
1574 -----------------------------------
1575 workspace <next|prev|next_on_output|prev_on_output>
1576 workspace back_and_forth
1578 workspace number <name>
1580 move [window|container] [to] workspace <name>
1581 move [window|container] [to] workspace number <name>
1582 move [window|container] [to] workspace <prev|next|current>
1583 -----------------------------------
1586 -------------------------
1587 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
1588 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2
1591 bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
1592 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2
1595 # switch between the current and the previously focused one
1596 bindsym $mod+b workspace back_and_forth
1597 bindsym $mod+Shift+b move container to workspace back_and_forth
1599 # move the whole workspace to the next output
1600 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1602 # move firefox to current workspace
1603 bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] move workspace current
1604 -------------------------
1606 ==== Named workspaces
1608 Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the
1609 workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
1612 -------------------------
1613 bindsym $mod+1 workspace mail
1615 -------------------------
1617 If you want the workspace to have a number *and* a name, just prefix the
1621 -------------------------
1622 bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1: mail
1623 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2: www
1625 -------------------------
1627 Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace
1628 names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named
1629 workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3
1630 will order them numerically. Also, you will be able to use +workspace number 1+
1631 to switch to the workspace which begins with number 1, regardless of which name
1632 it has. This is useful in case you are changing the workspace’s name
1633 dynamically. To combine both commands you can use +workspace number 1: mail+ to
1634 specify a default name if there's currently no workspace starting with a "1".
1636 ==== Renaming workspaces
1638 You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default
1639 numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to
1640 reflect what’s actually on them. You can also omit the old name to rename
1641 the currently focused workspace. This is handy if you want to use the
1642 rename command with +i3-input+.
1645 ----------------------------------------------------
1646 rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>
1647 rename workspace to <new_name>
1648 ----------------------------------------------------
1651 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1652 i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6'
1653 i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"'
1654 i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'
1655 i3-msg 'rename workspace to "2: mail"
1656 bindsym $mod+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '
1657 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
1659 === Moving workspaces to a different screen
1661 See <<move_to_outputs>> for how to move a container/workspace to a different
1664 === Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
1668 To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
1669 +VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
1670 +right+, +up+ or +down+), there are two commands:
1673 --------------------------------------------------------
1674 move container to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1675 move workspace to output <<left|right|down|up>|<output>>
1676 --------------------------------------------------------
1679 --------------------------------------------------------
1680 # Move the current workspace to the next output
1681 # (effectively toggles when you only have two outputs)
1682 bindsym $mod+x move workspace to output right
1684 # Put this window on the presentation output.
1685 bindsym $mod+x move container to output VGA1
1686 --------------------------------------------------------
1690 === Resizing containers/windows
1692 If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
1696 ---------------------------------------------------------
1697 resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
1698 ---------------------------------------------------------
1700 Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
1701 less specific and use +width+ or +height+, in which case i3 will take/give
1702 space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by
1703 how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
1704 is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
1705 many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
1706 default is 10 percentage points).
1708 I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
1710 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
1711 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1713 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
1715 # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
1716 # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
1717 # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
1718 # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
1719 bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1720 bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1721 bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1722 bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1724 # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
1725 bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
1726 bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
1727 bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
1728 bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
1730 # back to normal: Enter or Escape
1731 bindsym Return mode "default"
1732 bindsym Escape mode "default"
1736 bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
1737 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1739 === Jumping to specific windows
1741 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
1742 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
1743 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
1744 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mail client,
1745 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. You can use the +focus+ command
1746 with criteria for that.
1749 ----------------------------------------------------
1750 [class="class"] focus
1751 [title="title"] focus
1752 ----------------------------------------------------
1755 ------------------------------------------------
1756 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
1757 bindsym $mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
1758 ------------------------------------------------
1760 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
1764 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
1765 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
1766 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
1767 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You can unmark the label in the same
1768 way, using the unmark command. If you don't specify a label, unmark removes all
1769 marks. You do not need to ensure that your windows have unique classes or
1770 titles, and you do not need to change your configuration file.
1772 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
1773 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
1774 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
1775 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
1778 ------------------------------
1780 [con_mark="identifier"] focus
1782 ------------------------------
1784 *Example (in a terminal)*:
1785 ------------------------------
1787 $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
1788 $ i3-msg unmark irssi
1789 ------------------------------
1791 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1792 TODO: make i3-input replace %s
1794 ---------------------------------------
1795 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
1796 bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
1798 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
1799 bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
1800 ---------------------------------------
1802 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
1803 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
1804 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1806 === Changing border style
1808 To change the border of the current client, you can use +border normal+ to use the normal
1809 border (including window title), +border 1pixel+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
1810 and +border none+ to make the client borderless.
1812 There is also +border toggle+ which will toggle the different border styles.
1815 ----------------------------
1816 bindsym $mod+t border normal
1817 bindsym $mod+y border 1pixel
1818 bindsym $mod+u border none
1819 ----------------------------
1823 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1824 TODO: not yet implemented
1825 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
1827 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
1828 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
1829 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up with only half of the title
1830 lines being actually used, wasting a lot of screen space.
1832 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
1833 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
1834 you limited) automatically as needed.
1837 --------------------------------
1838 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
1839 --------------------------------
1843 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
1846 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
1850 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
1851 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1855 === Enabling shared memory logging
1857 As described in http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html, i3 can log to a shared
1858 memory buffer, which you can dump using +i3-dump-log+. The +shmlog+ command
1859 allows you to enable or disable the shared memory logging at runtime.
1861 Note that when using +shmlog <size_in_bytes>+, the current log will be
1862 discarded and a new one will be started.
1865 ------------------------------
1866 shmlog <size_in_bytes>
1867 shmlog <on|off|toggle>
1868 ------------------------------
1872 # Enable/disable logging
1873 bindsym $mod+x shmlog toggle
1875 # or, from a terminal:
1876 # increase the shared memory log buffer to 50 MiB
1877 i3-msg shmlog $((50*1024*1024))
1880 === Enabling debug logging
1882 The +debuglog+ command allows you to enable or disable debug logging at
1883 runtime. Debug logging is much more verbose than non-debug logging. This
1884 command does not activate shared memory logging (shmlog), and as such is most
1885 likely useful in combination with the above-described <<shmlog>> command.
1888 ------------------------
1889 debuglog <on|off|toggle>
1890 ------------------------
1893 ------------------------
1894 # Enable/disable logging
1895 bindsym $mod+x debuglog toggle
1896 ------------------------
1898 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
1900 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
1901 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
1902 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
1903 your X session. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
1904 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
1907 ----------------------------
1908 bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
1909 bindsym $mod+Shift+w reload
1910 bindsym $mod+Shift+e exit
1911 ----------------------------
1915 There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. +move
1916 scratchpad+ will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it
1917 invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace.
1918 Instead, when using +scratchpad show+, the window will be shown again, as a
1919 floating window, centered on your current workspace (using +scratchpad show+ on
1920 a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a
1921 keybinding to toggle). Note that this is just a normal floating window, so if
1922 you want to "remove it from scratchpad", you can simple make it tiling again
1923 (+floating toggle+).
1925 As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite
1926 editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently
1927 running applications which you don’t want to see all the time: Your music
1928 player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail client…?
1938 ------------------------------------------------
1939 # Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
1940 bindsym $mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad
1942 # Show the first scratchpad window
1943 bindsym $mod+minus scratchpad show
1945 # Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any.
1946 bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show
1947 ------------------------------------------------
1951 There are two options in the configuration of each i3bar instance that can be
1952 changed during runtime by invoking a command through i3. The commands +bar
1953 hidden_state+ and +bar mode+ allow setting the current hidden_state
1954 respectively mode option of each bar. It is also possible to toggle between
1955 hide state and show state as well as between dock mode and hide mode. Each
1956 i3bar instance can be controlled individually by specifying a bar_id, if none
1957 is given, the command is executed for all bar instances.
1961 bar hidden_state hide|show|toggle [<bar_id>]
1963 bar mode dock|hide|invisible|toggle [<bar_id>]
1967 ------------------------------------------------
1968 # Toggle between hide state and show state
1969 bindsym $mod+m bar hidden_state toggle
1971 # Toggle between dock mode and hide mode
1972 bindsym $mod+n bar mode toggle
1974 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to switch to hide mode
1975 bindsym $mod+b bar mode hide bar-1
1977 # Set the bar instance with id 'bar-1' to always stay hidden
1978 bindsym $mod+Shift+b bar mode invisible bar-1
1979 ------------------------------------------------
1983 == Multiple monitors
1985 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
1986 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
1987 handle multiple monitors.
1989 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
1990 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
1992 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
1993 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
1994 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
1995 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
1996 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
1997 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
1998 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
2000 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
2001 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
2002 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
2003 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
2004 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
2005 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
2006 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
2007 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
2009 === Configuring your monitors
2011 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
2012 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
2013 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
2014 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
2018 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
2019 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2020 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2021 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2023 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2024 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2028 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2030 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
2031 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
2032 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
2033 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
2035 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
2036 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
2037 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
2039 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
2040 -------------------------------------------
2041 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
2042 -------------------------------------------
2043 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
2044 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
2045 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
2046 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2048 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
2049 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
2050 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
2053 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
2055 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2056 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
2058 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
2059 1280x800 60.0*+ 50.0
2060 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
2062 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
2063 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
2067 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2068 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
2069 only what you can see in xrandr.
2071 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
2073 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
2075 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
2076 have more than one monitor:
2078 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
2079 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
2080 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
2081 <<workspace_screen>>.
2082 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
2083 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
2084 <<assign_workspace>>.
2085 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
2086 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
2087 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
2088 4. For information on how to move existing workspaces between monitors,
2089 see <<_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs>>.
2091 == i3 and the rest of your software world
2093 === Displaying a status line
2095 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
2096 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
2097 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
2099 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
2100 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
2101 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
2102 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states. Because
2103 i3status only spits out text, you need to combine it with some other tool, like
2104 i3bar. See <<status_command>> for how to display i3status in i3bar.
2106 Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you
2107 want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will
2108 position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending
2109 on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can configure its position,
2110 see <<i3bar_position>>.
2112 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
2114 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
2115 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
2116 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
2117 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
2121 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
2122 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
2123 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
2124 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
2125 -----------------------------------------------------
2126 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
2127 -----------------------------------------------------
2128 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
2129 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
2130 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
2132 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
2133 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
2134 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
2135 -----------------------------------------------------
2136 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
2137 -----------------------------------------------------
2138 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
2139 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
2141 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
2142 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
2143 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).