i3 User’s Guide
===============
Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
-March 2013
This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
window manager. If it does not, please check https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/
== Default keybindings
For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
-keybindings (click to see the full size image):
+keybindings (click to see the full-size image):
*Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
=== The tree consists of Containers
-The building blocks of our tree are so called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
+The building blocks of our tree are so-called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
=== The floating modifier
To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
-or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
+or configure the so-called floating modifier which you can then press and
click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
workspace_layout tabbed
---------------------
-=== Border style for new windows
+=== Default border style for new windows
This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
-+normal+. Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
++normal+. Note that default_floating_border applies only to windows which are starting out as
floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.
*Syntax*:
---------------------------------------------
-new_window normal|none|pixel
-
new_window normal|pixel <px>
-new_float normal|none|pixel
-
new_float normal|pixel <px>
+default_border normal|none|pixel
+
default_border normal|pixel <px>
+default_floating_border normal|none|pixel
+
default_floating_border normal|pixel <px>
---------------------------------------------
+Please note that +new_window+ and +new_float+ have been deprecated in favor of the above options
+and will be removed in a future release. We strongly recommend using the new options instead.
+
*Example*:
---------------------
-new_window pixel
+default_border pixel
---------------------
The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
*Example*:
---------------------
-# The same as new_window none
-new_window pixel 0
+# The same as default_border none
+default_border pixel 0
# A 3 px border
-new_window pixel 3
+default_border pixel 3
---------------------
across many X applications.
Defining a resource will load this resource from the resource database and
-assign its value to the specified variable. A fallback must be specified in
+assign its value to the specified variable. This is done verbatim and the value
+must therefore be in the format that i3 uses. A fallback must be specified in
case the resource cannot be loaded from the database.
*Syntax*:
*Syntax*:
----------------------------
-bindsym button<n> <command>
+bindsym [--release] button<n> <command>
----------------------------
*Example*:
bar {
# disable clicking on workspace buttons
bindsym button1 nop
+ # Take a screenshot by right clicking on the bar
+ bindsym --release button3 exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
# execute custom script when scrolling downwards
bindsym button5 exec ~/.i3/scripts/custom_wheel_down
}
}
------------------------
-=== Strip workspace numbers
+=== Strip workspace numbers/name
Specifies whether workspace numbers should be displayed within the workspace
buttons. This is useful if you want to have a named workspace that stays in
instance, to display Roman numerals rather than digits by naming your
workspaces to "1:I", "2:II", "3:III", "4:IV", ...
+When +strip_workspace_name+ is set to +yes+, any workspace that has a name of
+the form "[n]:[NAME]" will display only the number.
+
The default is to display the full name within the workspace button.
*Syntax*:
------------------------------
strip_workspace_numbers yes|no
+strip_workspace_name yes|no
------------------------------
*Example*:
To change focus, you can use the +focus+ command. The following options are
available:
+<criteria>::
+ Sets focus to the container that matches the specified criteria.
+ See <<command_criteria>>.
left|right|up|down::
Sets focus to the nearest container in the given direction.
parent::
*Syntax*:
----------------------------------------------
+<criteria> focus
focus left|right|down|up
focus parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle
focus output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
*Examples*:
-------------------------------------------------
+# Focus firefox
+bindsym $mod+F1 [class="Firefox"] focus
+
# Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right
bindsym $mod+j focus left
bindsym $mod+k focus down
# defaults to 10 pixels.
move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px]
-# Moves the container either to a specific location
-# or to the center of the screen. If 'absolute' is
-# used, it is moved to the center of all outputs.
-move [absolute] position <pos_x> [px] <pos_y> [px]
+# Moves the container to the specified pos_x and pos_y
+# coordinates on the screen.
+move position <pos_x> [px] <pos_y> [px]
+
+# Moves the container to the center of the screen.
+# If 'absolute' is used, it is moved to the center of
+# all outputs.
move [absolute] position center
# Moves the container to the current position of the
RandR output.
[[move_to_outputs]]
-[[_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs]]
-=== Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
+=== [[_moving_containers_workspaces_to_randr_outputs]]Moving containers/workspaces to RandR outputs
To move a container to another RandR output (addressed by names like +LVDS1+ or
+VGA1+) or to a RandR output identified by a specific direction (like +left+,
*Syntax*:
-------------------------------------------------------
resize grow|shrink <direction> [<px> px [or <ppt> ppt]]
-resize set <width> [px] <height> [px]
+resize set <width> [px | ppt] <height> [px | ppt]
-------------------------------------------------------
Direction can either be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. Or you can be
how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or shrunk (the default
is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how
many percentage points a *tiling container* should be grown or shrunk (the
-default is 10 percentage points). Note that +resize set+ will only work for
-floating containers.
+default is 10 percentage points).
+
+Notes about +resize set+: a value of 0 for <width> or <height> means "do
+not resize in this direction", and resizing a tiling container by +px+ is not
+implemented.
It is recommended to define bindings for resizing in a dedicated binding mode.
See <<binding_modes>> and the example in the i3
*Examples*:
---------------------------------------
# Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
-bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
+bindsym $mod+m exec i3-input -F 'mark %s' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
# Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
-bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
+bindsym $mod+g exec i3-input -F '[con_mark="%s"] focus' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
---------------------------------------
Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
projects / i3 / i3 / blobdiff