i3 User’s Guide =============== Michael Stapelberg August 2009 This document contains all information you need to configuring and using the i3 window manager. If it does not, please contact me on IRC, Jabber or E-Mail and I’ll help you out. For a complete listing of the default keybindings, please see the manpage. == Using i3 === Creating terminals and moving around A very basic operation is to create a new terminal. By default, the keybinding for that is Mod1+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By pressing Mod1+Enter, a new terminal will be created and it will fill the whole space which is available on your screen. image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal] It is important to keep in mind that i3 uses a table to manage your windows. At the moment, you have exactly one column and one row which leaves you with one cell. In this cell, there is a container in which your newly opened terminal is. If you now open another terminal, you still have only one cell. However, the container has both of your terminals. So, a container is just a group of clients with a specific layout. You can resize containers as they directly resemble columns/rows of the layout table. image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals] To move the focus between the two terminals, you use the direction keys which you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used for these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +Mod1+J+ is left, +Mod1+K+ is down, +Mod1+L+ is up and `Mod1+;` is right. So, to switch between the terminals, use +Mod1+K+ or +Mod1+L+. To create a new row/column, you can simply move a terminal (or any other window) to the direction you want to expand your table. So, let’s expand the table to the right by pressing `Mod1+Shift+;`. image:two_columns.png[Two columns] === Changing mode of containers A container can be in two modes at the moment (more to be implemented later): +default+ or +stacking+. In default mode, clients are sized so that every client gets an equal amount of space of the container. In stacking mode, only one focused client of the container is displayed and you get a list of windows at the top of the container. To switch the mode, press +Mod1+h+ for stacking and +Mod1+e+ for default. === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window To display a window fullscreen or to go out of fullscreen mode again, press +Mod1+f+. === Opening other applications Aside from opening applicatios from a terminal, you can also use the handy +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +Mod1+v+ by default. Just type the name (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. It has to be in your +$PATH+ for that to work. Furthermore, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can also create a keybinding for it. See the section "Configuring i3" for details. === Closing windows If an application does not provide a mechanism to close (most applications provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you can press +Mod1+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support it, your X server will kill the window and the behaviour depends on the application. === Using workspaces Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to another workspace, press +Mod1+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created. A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one and the ones with which you work on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach. If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set focus to this screen. === Moving windows to workspaces To move a window to another workspace, simply press +Mod1+Shift+num+ where +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace. Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if it does not yet exist. === Resizing columns To resize columns just grab the border between the two columns and move it to the wanted size. A command for doing this via keyboard will be implemented soon. === Restarting i3 inplace To restart i3 inplace (and thus get it into a clean state if it has a bug, to reload your configuration or even to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +Mod1+Shift+r+. Be aware, though, that this kills your current layout and all the windows you have opened will be put in a default container in only one cell. Saving the layout will be implemented in a later version. === Exiting i3 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +Mod1+Shift+e+. === Snapping Snapping is a mechanism to increase/decrease the colspan/rowspan of a container. Colspan/rowspan is the amount of columns/rows a specific cell of the table consumes. This is easier explained by giving an example, so take the following layout: image:snapping.png[Snapping example] To use the full size of your screen, you can now snap container 3 downwards by pressing +Mod1+Control+k+ (or snap container 2 rightwards). === Floating Floating is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window are then not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar). You can enable floating for a window by pressing +Mod1+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. Bindings for doing this with your keyboard will follow. Floating clients are always on top of tiling clients. == Configuring i3 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your ideal working environment, so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them. While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays quite flexible regarding to the things you usually want your window manager to do. For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows, you can set specific applications to start on a specific workspace, you can automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3 or bind your keys to do useful stuff. To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +~/.i3/config+ and edit it with a text editor. === General configuration terminal:: Specifies the terminal emulator program you prefer. It will be started by default when you press Mod1+Enter, but you can overwrite this. Refer to it as +$terminal+ to keep things modular. font:: Specifies the default font you want i3 to use. Use an X core font descriptor here, like +-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1+. You can use +xfontsel(1)+ to pick one. === Keyboard bindings A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones). * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a" or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These are the ones you also use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. * Keycodes however do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for some hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you switch to a different keyboard layout. My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts because you try to learn a different one, but you want to keep your bindings at the same place, use keycodes. If you don’t switch layouts and like a clean and simple config file, use keysyms. *Syntax*: ---------------------------------- bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command bind [Modifiers+]keycode command ---------------------------------- *Examples*: -------------------------------- # Fullscreen bind Mod1+f f # Restart bind Mod1+Shift+r restart # Notebook-specific hotkeys bind 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh -------------------------------- Available Modifiers: Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control:: Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+ Mode_switch:: Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-). === 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 click anywhere in the window itself. The most common setup is to configure it as the same one you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Afterwards, you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button and drag it to the position you want it at. *Syntax*: -------------------------------- floating_modifier -------------------------------- *Examples*: -------------------------------- floating_modifier Mod1 -------------------------------- === Variables As you learned in the previous section about keyboard bindings, you will have to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save yourself some typing and have the possibility to change the modifier you want to use later, variables can be handy. *Syntax*: -------------- set name value -------------- *Examples*: ------------------------ set $m Mod1 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart ------------------------ Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing, there is no fancy handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more dynamic configuration, you should create a little script, like when configuring wmii. === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces It is recommended that you match on window classes whereever possible because some applications first create their window and then care about setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind, as the window starts up being named Firefox and only when Vimperator is loaded, the title changes. 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] ------------------------------------------------------------ *Examples*: ---------------------- assign urxvt 2 assign urxvt → 2 assign "urxvt" → 2 assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3 assign "gecko" → ~4 assign "xv/MPlayer" → ~ ---------------------- === Automatically starting applications on startup By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure which commands will be performed by i3 on the first start (not when reloading inplace however). The commands will be run in order. *Syntax*: ------------ exec command ------------ *Examples*: -------------------------------- exec sudo i3status | dzen2 -dock -------------------------------- === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens If you use the assigning of clients to workspaces and start some clients automatically, it might be handy to put the workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens will determine the workspace which i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for the second screen and so on). *Syntax*: ---------------------------------- workspace screen ---------------------------------- Screen can be either a number (starting at 0 for the first screen) or a position. When using numbers, it is not guaranteed that your screens always get the same number. Though, unless you upgrade your X server or drivers, the order usually stays the same. When using positions, you have to specify the exact pixel where the screen *starts*, not a pixel which is contained by the screen. Thus, if your first screen has the dimensions 1280x800, you can match the second screen right of it by specifying 1280. You cannot use 1281. *Examples*: --------------------------- workspace 1 screen 0 workspace 5 screen 1 workspace 1 screen 1280 workspace 2 screen x800 workspace 3 screen 1280x800 --------------------------- === Named workspaces If you always have a certain arrangement of workspaces, you might want to give them names (of course UTF-8 is supported): *Syntax*: --------------------------------------- workspace workspace screen name --------------------------------------- For more details about the screen-part of this command, see above. *Examples*: -------------------------- workspace 1 www workspace 2 work workspace 3 i ♥ workspaces -------------------------- === Changing colors You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations and the bottom bar. *Syntax*: -------------------------------------------- colorclass border background text -------------------------------------------- Where colorclass can be one of: client.focused:: A client which currently has the focus. client.focused_inactive:: A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have the focus at the moment. client.unfocused:: A client which is not the focused one of its container. client.urgent:: A client which has its urgency hint activated. bar.focused:: The current workspace in the bottom bar. bar.unfocused:: All other workspaces in the bottom bar. bar.urgent:: A workspace which has at least one client with an activated urgency hint. Colors are in HTML hex format, see below. *Examples*: -------------------------------------- # class border backgr. text client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF -------------------------------------- === Interprocess communication i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. At the moment, this interface is only useful for sending commands. To enable it, you have to configure a path where the unix socket will be stored. The default path is +/tmp/i3-ipc.sock+. *Examples*: ---------------------------- ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock ---------------------------- You can then use the i3-msg command to perform any command listed in the next section. == List of commands === Manipulating layout To change the layout of the current container to stacking or back to default layout, use +s+ or +d+. To make the current client (!) fullscreen, use +f+, to make it floating (or tiling again) use +t+: *Examples*: -------------- bind Mod1+s s bind Mod1+l d # Toggle fullscreen bind Mod1+f f # Toggle floating/tiling bind Mod1+t t -------------- === Focussing/Moving/Snapping clients/containers/screens To change the focus, use one of the +h+, +j+, +k+ and +l+ commands, meaning respectively left, down, up, right. To focus a container, prefix it with +wc+, to focus a screen, prefix it with +ws+. The same principle applies for moving and snapping, just prefix the command with +m+ when moving and with +s+ when snapping: *Examples*: ---------------------- # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right: bindsym Mod1+j h bindsym Mod1+k j bindsym Mod1+j k bindsym Mod1+semicolon l # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right: bindsym Mod1+j mh bindsym Mod1+k mj bindsym Mod1+j mk bindsym Mod1+semicolon ml # Snap client to the left, bottom, top, right: bindsym Mod1+j sh bindsym Mod1+k sj bindsym Mod1+j sk bindsym Mod1+semicolon sl # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right: bindsym Mod3+j wch … ---------------------- === Changing workspaces/moving clients to workspaces To change to a specific workspace, the command is just the number of the workspace, e.g. +1+ or +3+. To move the current client to a specific workspace, prefix the number with an +m+. Furthermore, you can switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands +nw+ and +pw+, which is handy for example if you have workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key combination. *Examples*: ------------------------- bindsym Mod1+1 1 bindsym Mod1+2 2 ... bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 m1 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 m2 ... bindsym Mod1+o nw bindsym Mod1+p pw ------------------------- === Jumping to specific windows Especially when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a specific window, for example while currently working on workspace 3 you may want to jump to your mailclient to mail your boss that you’ve achieved some important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient, it would be more convenient to have a shortcut. *Syntax*: ---------------------------------------------------- jump ["]window class[/window title]["] jump workspace [ column row ] ---------------------------------------------------- You can either use the same matching algorithm as in the +assign+ command (see above) or you can specify the position of the client if you always use the same layout. *Examples*: -------------------------------------- # Get me to the next open VIM instance bindsym Mod1+a jump "urxvt/VIM" -------------------------------------- === Traveling the focus stack This mechanism can be thought of as the opposite of the +jump+ command. It travels the focus stack and jumps to the window you focused before. *Syntax*: -------------- focus [number] | floating | tilling | ft -------------- Where +number+ by default is 1 meaning that the next client in the focus stack will be selected. The special values have the following meaning: floating:: The next floating window is selected. tiling:: The next tiling window is selected. ft:: If the current window is floating, the next tiling window will be selected and vice-versa. === Changing border style To change the border of the current client, you can use +bn+ to use the normal border (including window title), +bp+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title) and +bb+ to make the client borderless. *Examples*: ------------------ bindsym Mod1+t bn bindsym Mod1+y bp bindsym Mod1+u bb ------------------ === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart your X session. However, your layout is not preserved at the moment, meaning that all open windows will be in a single container in default layout. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command, however you don’t need to (e.g., simply killing your X session is fine aswell). *Examples*: ---------------------------- bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart bindsym Mod1+Shift+w reload bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit ----------------------------