i3 User’s Guide
===============
Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
-August 2011
+September 2011
This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
window manager. If it does not, please contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your
The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
a single line which is vertically split.
-To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+h+ for stacking and
+To switch modes, press +mod+e+ for default, +mod+s+ for stacking and
+mod+w+ for tabbed.
image:modes.png[Container modes]
windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the
appropriate hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
-You can enable floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
+You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +mod+Shift+Space+. By
dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
*Syntax*:
---------------------------------------------
-new_window <normal|1pixel|borderless>
+new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
---------------------------------------------
*Example*:
*Syntax*:
-----------------------------
-for_window [criteria] command
+for_window <criteria> command
-----------------------------
*Examples*:
for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
------------------------------------------------
+The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
+
=== Variables
As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
[[assign_workspace]]
-Specific windows can be matched by window class and/or window title. It is
-recommended that you match on window classes instead of window titles whenever
-possible because some applications first create their window, and then worry
-about setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The
-window starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does
-the title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
+To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
+can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
+see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
+(and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
+because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
+setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
+starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
+title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
-You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a `~` to specify that matching clients
-should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a `~`, the client will
-not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
-
*Syntax*:
------------------------------------------------------------
-assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] [workspace]
+assign <criteria> [→] workspace
------------------------------------------------------------
*Examples*:
----------------------
-assign urxvt 2
-assign urxvt → 2
-assign urxvt → work
-assign "urxvt" → 2
-assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3
-assign "gecko" → 4
+# Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
+assign [class="URxvt"] 2
+
+# Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
+assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
+
+# Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
+assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
+
+# Assignment to a named workspace
+assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
+
+# Start urxvt -name irssi
+assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
----------------------
Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not `->` or something like that.
+To get the class and instance, you can use +xprop+. After clicking on the
+window, you will see the following output:
+
+*xwininfo*:
+-----------------------------------
+WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"
+-----------------------------------
+
+The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the
+second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
+
+Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3
+logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more
+details about the matching process and the window’s actual class, instance and
+title when starting up.
+
=== Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
-*Examples*:
---------------------------------------
-# class border backgr. text
-client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF
---------------------------------------
+*Examples (default colors)*:
+-----------------------------------------------
+# class border backgr. text
+client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
+client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
+client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888
+client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
+-----------------------------------------------
Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
popup_during_fullscreen ignore
------------------------------
+=== Focus wrapping
+
+When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be
+focused when you use +focus down+ on the last container -- the focus wraps. If
+however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will
+be set on that container. This is the default behaviour so you can navigate to
+all your windows without having to use +focus parent+.
+
+If you want the focus to *always* wrap and you are aware of using +focus
+parent+ to switch to different containers, you can use the
++force_focus_wrapping+ configuration directive. After enabling it, the focus
+will always wrap.
+
+*Syntax*:
+-----------------------------
+force_focus_wrapping <yes|no>
+-----------------------------
+
+*Example*:
+------------------------
+force_focus_wrapping yes
+------------------------
+
+=== Forcing Xinerama
+
+As explained in-depth in <http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html>, some X11
+video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for
+Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the
+inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore don’t provide support for
+reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and
+that’s it).
+
+For people who do cannot modify their +~/.xsession+ to add the
++--force-xinerama+ commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
+
+*Syntax*:
+-----------------------
+force_xinerama <yes|no>
+-----------------------
+
+*Example*:
+------------------
+force_xinerama yes
+------------------
+
+Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like +HDMI1+) when using
+Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: +xinerama-0+, +xinerama-1+, …
+
== List of commands
+Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands
+at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to
+do this is to use the +i3-msg+ utility:
+
+*Example*:
+--------------------------
+# execute this on your shell to make the current container borderless
+i3-msg border none
+--------------------------
+
+Commands can be chained by using +;+ (a semicolon). So, to move a window to a
+specific workspace and immediately switch to that workspace, you can configure
+the following keybinding:
+
+*Example*:
+-------------------------------------------
+bindsym mod+x move workspace 3; workspace 3
+-------------------------------------------
+
+[[command_criteria]]
+
+Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers
+should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are
+prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows
+which have the class Firefox, use:
+
+*Example*:
+------------------------------------
+bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill
+
+# same thing, but case-insensitive
+bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
+------------------------------------
+
+The criteria which are currently implemented are:
+
+class::
+ Compares the window class (the second part of WM_CLASS)
+instance::
+ Compares the window instance (the first part of WM_CLASS)
+window_role::
+ Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE).
+id::
+ Compares the X11 window ID, which you can get via +xwininfo+ for example.
+title::
+ Compares the X11 window title (_NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME as fallback).
+con_mark::
+ Compares the mark set for this container, see <<vim_like_marks>>.
+con_id::
+ Compares the i3-internal container ID, which you can get via the IPC
+ interface. Handy for scripting.
+
+The criteria +class+, +instance+, +role+, +title+ and +mark+ are actually
+regular expressions (PCRE). See +pcresyntax(3)+ or +perldoc perlre+ for
+information on how to use them.
+
=== Splitting containers
The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers
=== Resizing containers/windows
If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the
-+resize+ command, I recommend using it inside a so called +mode+:
++resize+ command:
+
+*Syntax*:
+---------------------------------------------------------
+resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
+---------------------------------------------------------
+
+Direction can be one of +up+, +down+, +left+ or +right+. The optional pixel
+argument specifies by how many pixels a *floating container* should be grown or
+shrinked (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 shrinked (the default is 10 percentage points).
+
+I recommend using the resize command inside a so called +mode+:
.Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
----------------------------------------------------------------------
bindsym semicolon resize grow right
bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
- bindcode 36 mode default
+ # back to normal: Enter or Escape
+ bindsym Return mode "default"
+ bindsym Escape mode "default"
}
# Enter resize mode
projects / i3 / i3 / blobdiff