186 lines
5.2 KiB
Groff
186 lines
5.2 KiB
Groff
i3(1)
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=====
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Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
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v3.alpha, February 2009
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== NAME
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i3 - an improved dynamic, tiling window manager
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== SYNOPSIS
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i3
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== DESCRIPTION
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=== INTRODUCTION
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i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time, didn’t
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provide some features we wanted (Xinerama done right, for example), had some
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bugs, didn’t progress since quite some time and wasn’t easy to hack at all
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(source code comments/documentation completely lacking). Still, we think the
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wmii developers and contributors did a great job. Thank you for inspiring us to
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create i3.
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Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and developers.
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=== ABOUT THIS RELEASE
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What you are using is i3.alpha. That means, it is a preview release, not yet fully
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stable, may still contain bugs and the implementation of several behaviour is
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subject to change. However, it should provide you with a pretty good picture of
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how i3 will look in subsequent releases.
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Please, use i3 and report all the bugs/problems you encounter by sending an
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email to <michael+i3 at stapelberg.de>
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=== TERMINOLOGY
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Client::
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A client is X11-speak for a window.
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Table::
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Your workspace is managed using a table. You can move windows around and create new columns
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(move a client to the right) or rows (move it to the bottom) implicitly.
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+
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By "snapping" a client in a specific direction, you increase its colspan/rowspan.
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Container::
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A container contains a variable number of clients. Each cell of the table is a container.
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+
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Containers can be used in various modes. The default mode is called "default" and just
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resizes each client equally so that it fits. The stacking mode is currently not implemented.
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Workspace::
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A workspace is a set of clients (technically speaking, it’s just a table). Other window
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managers call this "Virtual Desktops".
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+
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In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By default, screen 1
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has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so on… However, when you create a new
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workspace (by simply switching to it), it’ll be assigned the screen you are currently
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on.
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Virtual Screen::
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Using Xinerama, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real monitors. Furthermore,
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you can set them up in cloning mode or with positions (monitor 1 is left of monitor 2).
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+
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A virtual screen is the result of your Xinerama setup. For example, if you have attached
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two real monitors (let’s say your laptop screen and a beamer) and enabled cloning, i3
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will use one virtual screen with the size of the smallest screen you have attached (so
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that you can see all your windows on each screen all the time).
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If you have two monitors attached, one configured to be left of the other, i3 will use
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two virtual screens.
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== KEYBINDINGS
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Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:
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h/j/k/l::
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Direction keys (left, down, up, right)
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Mod1+<direction>::
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Focus window in <direction>.
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Mod1+Shift+<direction>::
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Move window to <direction>.
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Mod1+Control+<direction>::
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Snap window to <direction>.
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Mod1+<number>::
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Switch to workspace <number>.
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Mod1+f::
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Toggle fullscreen mode.
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Mod1+s::
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Enable stacking layout for the current container.
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Mod1+d::
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Enable default layout for the current container.
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== FILES
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=== i3.config
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When starting, i3 looks for i3.config in the current working directory and loads the
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configuration. At the moment, you can specify only the path to your favorite terminal
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emulator, the font and keybindings.
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At the moment, you have to bind to keycodes (find them out via xev(1)).
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.Sample configuration
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-------------------------------------------------------------
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terminal /usr/pkg/bin/urxvt
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font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1
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# Fullscreen
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bind Mod1+41 f
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# Stacking
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bind Mod1+43 s
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# Default
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bind Mod1+26 d
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# Focus
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bind Mod1+44 h
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bind Mod1+45 j
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bind Mod1+46 k
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bind Mod1+47 l
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# Snap
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bind Mod1+Control+44 sh
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bind Mod1+Control+45 sj
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bind Mod1+Control+46 sk
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bind Mod1+Control+47 sl
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# Move
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bind Mod1+Shift+44 mh
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bind Mod1+Shift+45 mj
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bind Mod1+Shift+46 mk
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bind Mod1+Shift+47 ml
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# Workspaces
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bind Mod1+10 1
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...
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-------------------------------------------------------------
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=== ~/.xsession
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This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It is run by
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your login manager (xdm, slim, gdm, …) as soon as you login.
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.Sample xsession
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-------------------------------------------------------------
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# Disable DPMS turning off the screen
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xset dpms force on
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xset s off
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# Disable bell
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xset -b
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# Enforce correct locales from the beginning
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unset LC_COLLATE
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export LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8
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export LC_TIME=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_MONETARY=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_MESSAGES=C
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export LC_PAPER=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_NAME=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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export LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.ISO8859-15
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exec /usr/bin/i3
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-------------------------------------------------------------
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== TODO
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There is lots of stuff left to do. This release is to be considered as a technology preview.
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Here is an overwiew of the most important points:
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* IPC
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* a command for toggling layouts/workspaces
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* floating
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* do something about applications which don’t use _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN (like xpdf)
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== AUTHOR
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Michael Stapelberg and contributors
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