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