PROGRAMS

spectrwm allows you to define custom actions to launch programs of your choice and then bind them the same as with built-in actions. See the Sx BINDINGS section below.

Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:

program Bo action Bc = progpath [arg [arg ... ] ]

action is any identifier that does not conflict with a built-in action or keyword, progpath is the desired program, and arg is zero or more arguments to the program.

Remember that when using # in your program call, it must be escaped with a backslash. i.e. \#

The following argument variables will be substituted for values at the time the program is spawned:

$bar_border

$bar_color

$bar_font

$bar_font_color

$color_focus

$color_unfocus

$dmenu_bottom

-b if bar_at_bottom is enabled.

$region_index

$workspace_index

Example:

program[ff] = /usr/local/bin/firefox http://spectrwm.org/
bind[ff] = MOD+Shift+b # Now M-S-b launches firefox

To cancel the previous, unbind it:

bind[] = MOD+Shift+b

Default programs:

menu

dmenu_run $dmenu_bottom -fn $bar_font -nb $bar_color -nf $bar_font_color -sb $bar_border -sf $bar_color

term

x-terminal-emulator

lock

xscreensaver-command -lock      # optional

initscr

initscreen.sh                        # optional

screenshot_all

screenshot.sh full            # optional

screenshot_wind

screenshot.sh window         # optional

Note that optional default programs will not be validated unless overridden. If a default program fails validation, you can resolve the exception by installing the program, modifying the program call or disabling the program by freeing the respective key binding.

For example, to override menu

program[menu] = launchy

To unbind menu and prevent it from being validated:

bind[] = MOD+p

BINDINGS

spectrwm provides many functions (or actions) accessed via key or mouse bindings.

The current mouse bindings are described below:

M1

Focus window

M-M1

Move window

M-M3

Resize window

M-S-M3

Resize window while maintaining it centered

The default key bindings are described below:

M-S- Aq Return

term

M-p

menu

M-S-q

quit

M-q

restart

M- Aq Space

cycle_layout

M-S-\

flip_layout

M-S- Aq Space

stack_reset

M-h

master_shrink

M-l

master_grow

M-,

master_add

M-.

master_del

M-S-,

stack_inc

M-S-.

stack_dec

M- Aq Return

swap_main

M-j M- Aq TAB

focus_next

M-k M-S- Aq TAB

focus_prev

M-m

focus_main

M-u

focus_urgent

M-S-j

swap_next

M-S-k

swap_prev

M-b

bar_toggle

M-S-b

bar_toggle_ws

M-x

wind_del

M-S-x

wind_kill

M- Aq 1-9,0,F1-F12

ws_ Aq 1-22

M-S- Aq 1-9,0,F1-F12

mvws_ Aq 1-22

M- Aq Keypad 1-9

rg_ Aq 1-9

M-S- Aq Keypad 1-9

mvrg_ Aq 1-9

M- Aq Right

ws_next

M- Aq Left

ws_prev

M- Aq Up ws_next_all

M- Aq Down

ws_prev_all

M-a

ws_next_move

M-S- Aq Left

ws_prev_move

M-S- Aq Up ws_prior

M-S- Aq Right

rg_next

M-S- Aq Left

rg_prev

M-s

screenshot_all

M-S-s

screenshot_wind

M-S-v

version

M-t

float_toggle

M-S- Aq Delete

lock

M-S-i

initscr

M-w

iconify

M-S-w

uniconify

M-e

maximize_toggle

M-S-r

always_raise

M-v

button2

M--

width_shrink

M-=

width_grow

M-S--

height_shrink

M-S-=

height_grow

M-[

move_left

M-]

move_right

M-S-[

move_up

M-S-]

move_down

M-S-/

name_workspace

M-/

search_workspace

M-f

search_win

The action names and descriptions are listed below:

term

Spawn a new terminal (see Sx PROGRAMS above).

menu

Menu (see Sx PROGRAMS above).

quit

Quit .

restart

Restart .

cycle_layout

Cycle layout.

flip_layout

Swap the master and stacking areas.

stack_reset

Reset layout.

master_shrink

Shrink master area.

master_grow

Grow master area.

master_add

Add windows to master area.

master_del

Remove windows from master area.

stack_inc

Add columns/rows to stacking area.

stack_dec

Remove columns/rows from stacking area.

swap_main

Move current window to master area.

focus_next

Focus next window in workspace.

focus_prev

Focus previous window in workspace.

focus_main

Focus on main window in workspace.

focus_urgent

Focus on next window with the urgency hint flag set. The workspace is switched if needed.

swap_next

Swap with next window in workspace.

swap_prev

Swap with previous window in workspace.

bar_toggle

Toggle overall visibility of status bars.

bar_toggle_ws

Toggle status bar on current workspace.

wind_del

Delete current window in workspace.

wind_kill

Destroy current window in workspace.

ws_ n

Switch to workspace n where n is 1 through workspace_limit

mvws_ n

Move current window to workspace n where n is 1 through workspace_limit

rg_ n

Focus on region n where n is 1 through 9.

mvrg_ n

Move current window to region n where n is 1 through 9.

ws_next

Switch to next workspace with a window in it.

ws_prev

Switch to previous workspace with a window in it.

ws_next_all

Switch to next workspace.

ws_prev_all

Switch to previous workspace.

ws_next_move

Switch to next workspace with the current window.

ws_prev_move

Switch to previous workspace with the current window.

ws_prior

Switch to last visited workspace.

rg_next

Switch to next region.

rg_prev

Switch to previous region.

screenshot_all

Take screenshot of entire screen (if enabled) (see Sx PROGRAMS above).

screenshot_wind

Take screenshot of selected window (if enabled) (see Sx PROGRAMS above).

version

Toggle version in status bar.

float_toggle

Toggle focused window between tiled and floating.

lock

Lock screen (see Sx PROGRAMS above).

initscr

Reinitialize physical screens (see Sx PROGRAMS above).

iconify

Minimize (unmap) currently focused window.

uniconify

Restore (map) window returned by dmenu(1) selection.

maximize_toggle

Toggle maximization of focused window.

always_raise

When set tiled windows are allowed to obscure floating windows.

button2

Fake a middle mouse button click (mouse button 2).

width_shrink

Shrink the width of a floating window.

width_grow

Grow the width of a floating window.

height_shrink

Shrink the height of a floating window.

height_grow

Grow the height of a floating window.

move_left

Move a floating window a step to the left.

move_right

Move a floating window a step to the right.

move_up

Move a floating window a step upwards.

move_down

Move a floating window a step downwards.

name_workspace

Name the current workspace.

search_workspace

Search for a workspace.

search_win

Search the windows in the current workspace.

Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:

bind Bo action Bc = keys

action is one of the actions listed above (or empty to unbind) and keys is in the form of zero or more modifier keys (MOD, Mod1, Shift, etc.) and one or more normal keys (b, Space, etc.), separated by `+'

Example:

bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q

To use the currently defined modkey specify MOD as the modifier key.

Multiple key combinations may be bound to the same action.

To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb character name instead of the character itself. Run xev, focus the window and press the specific key and in the terminal output read the symbol name. In the following example for å:

KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x2600001,
    root 0x15a, subw 0x0, time 106213808, (11,5), root:(359,823),
    state 0x0, keycode 24 (keysym 0xe5, aring), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
    XmbLookupString gives 2 bytes: (c3 a5) "å"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

The xkb name is aring. In other words, in spectrwm.conf add:

bind[program] = MOD+aring

KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES

Keyboard mapping files for several keyboard layouts are listed below. These files can be used with the keyboard_mapping setting to load pre-defined key bindings for the specified keyboard layout.

spectrwm_cz.conf

Czech Republic keyboard layout

spectrwm_es.conf

Spanish keyboard layout

spectrwm_fr.conf

French keyboard layout

spectrwm_fr_ch.conf

Swiss French keyboard layout

spectrwm_se.conf

Swedish keyboard layout

spectrwm_us.conf

United States keyboard layout

QUIRKS

spectrwm provides "quirks" which handle windows that must be treated specially in a tiling window manager, such as some dialogs and fullscreen apps.

The default quirks are described below:

Firefox-bin:firefox-bin

TRANSSZ

Firefox:Dialog

FLOAT

Gimp:gimp

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

MPlayer:xv

FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV

OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame

FLOAT

OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame

FLOAT

pcb:pcb

FLOAT

xine:Xine Window

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

xine:xine Panel

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window

FULLSCREEN + FLOAT

Xitk:Xitk Combo

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

Xitk:Xine Window

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

XTerm:xterm

XTERM_FONTADJ

The quirks themselves are described below:

FLOAT

This window should not be tiled, but allowed to float freely.

TRANSSZ

Adjusts size on transient windows that are too small using dialog_ratio (see Sx CONFIGURATION FILES ) .

ANYWHERE

Allow window to position itself, uncentered.

XTERM_FONTADJ

Adjust xterm fonts when resizing.

FULLSCREEN

Remove border to allow window to use full region size.

FOCUSPREV

On exit force focus on previously focused application not previous application in the stack.

NOFOCUSONMAP

Don't change focus to the window when it first appears on the screen. Has no effect when focus_mode is set to follow

FOCUSONMAP_SINGLE

When the window first appears on the screen, change focus to the window if there are no other windows on the workspace with the same WM_CLASS class/instance value. Has no effect when focus_mode is set to follow

OBEYAPPFOCUSREQ

When an application requests focus on the window via a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message (source indication of 1), comply with the request. Note that a source indication of 0 (unspecified) or 2 (pager) are always obeyed.

IGNOREPID

Ignore the PID when determining the initial workspace for a new window. Especially useful for terminal windows that share a process.

IGNORESPAWNWS

Ignore the spawn workspace when determining the initial workspace for a new window.

WS Bq n

Force a new window to appear on workspace n

Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:

quirk Bo class Bo : instance Bo : name Bc Bc Bc = quirk [+ quirk ... ]

class instance (optional) and name (optional) are patterns used to determine which window(s) the quirk(s) apply to and quirk is one of the quirks from the list above.

Note that patterns are interpreted as POSIX Extended Regular Expressions. Any ':', '[' or ']' must be escaped with '\'. See regex(7) for more information on POSIX Extended Regular Expressions.

For example:

quirk[MPlayer] = FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV # Float all windows having a class of 'MPlayer'
quirk[.*] = FLOAT # Float all windows by default.
quirk[.*:.*:.*] = FLOAT # Same as above.
quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT # Float all Firefox browser windows.
quirk[::Console] = FLOAT # Float windows with WM_CLASS not set and a window name of 'Console'.
quirk[\[0-9\].*:.*:\[\[\:alnum\:\]\]*] = FLOAT # Float windows with WM_CLASS class beginning with a number, any WM_CLASS instance and a _NET_WM_NAME/WM_NAME either blank or containing alphanumeric characters without spaces.
quirk[pcb:pcb] = NONE # remove existing quirk

You can obtain class instance and name by running xprop(1) and then clicking on the desired window. In the following example the main window of Firefox was clicked:

$ xprop | grep -E "^(WM_CLASS|_NET_WM_NAME|WM_NAME)"
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"
WM_NAME(STRING) = "spectrwm - ConformalOpenSource"
_NET_WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "spectrwm - ConformalOpenSource"

Note that xprop(1) displays WM_CLASS as:

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "<instance>", "<class>"

In the example above the quirk entry would be:

quirk[Firefox:Navigator] = FLOAT

spectrwm also automatically assigns quirks to windows based on the value of the window's _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property as follows:

_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY

FLOAT + ANYWHERE

_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH

FLOAT

_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG

FLOAT

In all other cases, no automatic quirks are assigned to the window. Quirks specified in the configuration file override the automatic quirks.

EWMH

spectrwm partially implements the Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) specification. This enables controlling windows as well as spectrwm itself from external scripts and programs. This is achieved by spectrwm responding to certain ClientMessage events. From the terminal these events can be conveniently sent using tools such as wmctrl(1) and xdotool(1). For the actual format of these ClientMessage events, see the EWMH specification.

The id of the currently focused window is stored in the _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW property of the root window. This can be used for example to retrieve the title of the currently active window with xprop(1) and grep(1):

$ WINDOWID=`xprop -root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | grep -o "0x.*"`
$ xprop -id $WINDOWID _NET_WM_NAME | grep -o "\".*\""

A window can be focused by sending a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW client message to the root window. For example, using wmctrl(1) to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be focused):

$ wmctrl -i -a 0x4a0000b

Windows can be closed by sending a _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW client message to the root window. For example, using wmctrl(1) to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be closed):

$ wmctrl -i -c 0x4a0000b

Windows can be floated and un-floated by adding or removing the _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE atom from the _NET_WM_STATE property of the window. This can be achieved by sending a _NET_WM_STATE client message to the root window. For example, the following toggles the floating state of a window using wmctrl(1) to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be floated or un-floated):

$ wmctrl -i -r 0x4a0000b -b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE

Windows can also be iconified and un-iconified by substituting _NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN for _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE in the previous example:

$ wmctrl -i -r 0x4a0000b -b toggle,_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN

Floating windows can also be resized and moved by sending a _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW client message to the root window. For example, using wmctrl(1) to send the message (assuming 0x4a0000b is the id of the window to be resize/moved):

$ wmctrl -i -r 0x4a0000b -e 0,100,50,640,480

This moves the window to (100,50) and resizes it to 640x480.

Any _NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW events received for stacked windows are ignored.

FILES

~/.spectrwm.conf

spectrwm user specific settings.

/etc/spectrwm.conf

spectrwm global settings.

HISTORY

spectrwm was inspired by xmonad & dwm.

AUTHORS

An -nosplit spectrwm was written by:

Marco Peereboom Aq [email protected]

Ryan Thomas McBride Aq [email protected]

Darrin Chandler Aq [email protected]

Pierre-Yves Ritschard Aq [email protected]

Tuukka Kataja Aq [email protected]

Jason L. Wright Aq [email protected]

Reginald Kennedy Aq [email protected]

Lawrence Teo Aq [email protected]

Tiago Cunha Aq [email protected]

David Hill Aq [email protected]