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i3 User’s Guide
===============
Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
March 2013
This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
window manager. If it does not, please check https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/
first, then contact us on IRC (preferred) or post your question(s) on the
mailing list.
== Default keybindings
For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
keybindings (click to see the full-size image):
*Keys to use with $mod (Alt):*
image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with $mod (Alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
*Keys to use with Shift+$mod:*
image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+$mod",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
are your homerow.
Note that when starting i3 without a config file, i3-config-wizard will offer
you to create a config file in which the key positions (!) match what you see
in the image above, regardless of the keyboard layout you are using. If you
prefer to use a config file where the key letters match what you are seeing
above, just decline i3-config-wizard’s offer and base your config on
+/etc/i3/config+.
== Using i3
Throughout this guide, the keyword +$mod+ will be used to refer to the
configured modifier. This is the Alt key (+Mod1+) by default, with the Windows
key (+Mod4+) being a popular alternative that largely prevents conflicts with
application-defined shortcuts.
=== Opening terminals and moving around
One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
for this is +$mod+Enter+, that is Alt+Enter (+Mod1+Enter+) in the default
configuration. By pressing +$mod+Enter+, a new terminal will be opened. It
will fill the whole space available on your screen.
image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
If you now open another terminal, i3 will place it next to the current one,
splitting the screen size in half. Depending on your monitor, i3 will put the
created window beside the existing window (on wide displays) or below the
existing window (rotated displays).
image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
To move the focus between the two terminals, you can 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, +$mod+j+ is left, +$mod+k+
is down, +$mod+l+ is up and `$mod+;` is right. So, to switch between the
terminals, use +$mod+k+ or +$mod+l+. Of course, you can also use the arrow keys.
At the moment, your workspace is split (it contains two terminals) in a
specific direction (horizontal by default). Every window can be split
horizontally or vertically again, just like the workspace. The terminology is
"window" for a container that actually contains an X11 window (like a terminal
or browser) and "split container" for containers that consist of one or more
windows.
TODO: picture of the tree
To split a window vertically, press +$mod+v+ before you create the new window.
To split it horizontally, press +$mod+h+.
=== Changing the container layout
A split container can have one of the following layouts:
splith/splitv::
Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
container. splith distributes the windows horizontally (windows are right next
to each other), splitv distributes them vertically (windows are on top of each
other).
stacking::
Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
windows at the top of the container.
tabbed::
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 +$mod+e+ for splith/splitv (it toggles), +$mod+s+ for
stacking and +$mod+w+ for tabbed.
image:modes.png[Container modes]
=== Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again,
press +$mod+f+.
There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all
available outputs (the command is +fullscreen toggle global+).
=== Opening other applications
Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
+dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +$mod+d+ by default. Just type the name
(or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The corresponding
application has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
<<configuring>> for details.
=== Closing windows
If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+w+ to close), you
can press +$mod+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
depends on the application.
=== Using workspaces
Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
another workspace, press +$mod+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 at
startup. 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 that screen.
=== Moving windows to workspaces
To move a window to another workspace, simply press +$mod+Shift+num+ where
+num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
it does not yet exist.
=== Resizing
The easiest way to resize a container is by using the mouse: Grab the border
and move it to the wanted size.
You can also use <<binding_modes>> to define a mode for resizing via the
keyboard. To see an example for this, look at the
https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config] provided
by i3.
=== Restarting i3 inplace
To restart i3 in place (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +$mod+Shift+r+.
=== Exiting i3
To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +$mod+Shift+e+.
By default, a dialog will ask you to confirm if you really want to quit.
=== Floating
Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of
a window are not managed automatically by i3, but manually by
you. Using this mode violates the tiling paradigm but can be useful
for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog windows, or toolbar
windows (GIMP or similar). Those windows usually set the appropriate
hint and are opened in floating mode by default.
You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing +$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>>. Another way to resize
floating windows using the mouse is to right-click on the titlebar and drag.
For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see the resizing binding mode
provided by the i3 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/etc/config.keycodes[default config].
Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
== Tree
i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the
windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by
the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and
finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists
(of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned
out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
=== The tree consists of Containers
The building blocks of our tree are so-called +Containers+. A +Container+ can
host a window (meaning an X11 window, one that you can actually see and use,
like a browser). Alternatively, it could contain one or more +Containers+. A
simple example is the workspace: When you start i3 with a single monitor, a
single workspace and you open two terminal windows, you will end up with a tree
like this:
image::tree-layout2.png["layout2",float="right"]
image::tree-shot4.png["shot4",title="Two terminals on standard workspace"]
[[OrientationSplit]]
=== Orientation and Split Containers
It is only natural to use so-called +Split Containers+ in order to build a
layout when using a tree as data structure. In i3, every +Container+ has an
orientation (horizontal, vertical or unspecified) and the orientation depends
on the layout the container is in (vertical for splitv and stacking, horizontal
for splith and tabbed). So, in our example with the workspace, the default
layout of the workspace +Container+ is splith (most monitors are widescreen
nowadays). If you change the layout to splitv (+$mod+v+ in the default config)
and *then* open two terminals, i3 will configure your windows like this:
image::tree-shot2.png["shot2",title="Vertical Workspace Orientation"]
An interesting new feature of i3 since version 4 is the ability to split anything:
Let’s assume you have two terminals on a workspace (with splith layout, that is
horizontal orientation), focus is on the right terminal. Now you want to open
another terminal window below the current one. If you would just open a new
terminal window, it would show up to the right due to the splith layout.
Instead, press +$mod+v+ to split the container with the splitv layout (to
open a +Horizontal Split Container+, use +$mod+h+). Now you can open a new
terminal and it will open below the current one:
image::tree-layout1.png["Layout",float="right"]
image::tree-shot1.png["shot",title="Vertical Split Container"]
unfloat::[]
You probably guessed it already: There is no limit on how deep your hierarchy
of splits can be.
=== Focus parent
Let’s stay with our example from above. We have a terminal on the left and two
vertically split terminals on the right, focus is on the bottom right one. When
you open a new terminal, it will open below the current one.
So, how can you open a new terminal window to the *right* of the current one?
The solution is to use +focus parent+, which will focus the +Parent Container+ of
the current +Container+. In this case, you would focus the +Vertical Split
Container+ which is *inside* the horizontally oriented workspace. Thus, now new
windows will be opened to the right of the +Vertical Split Container+:
image::tree-shot3.png["shot3",title="Focus parent, then open new terminal"]
=== Implicit containers
In some cases, i3 needs to implicitly create a container to fulfill your
command.
One example is the following scenario: You start i3 with a single monitor and a
single workspace on which you open three terminal windows. All these terminal
windows are directly attached to one node inside i3’s layout tree, the
workspace node. By default, the workspace node’s orientation is +horizontal+.
Now you move one of these terminals down (+$mod+Shift+k+ by default). The
workspace node’s orientation will be changed to +vertical+. The terminal window
you moved down is directly attached to the workspace and appears on the bottom
of the screen. A new (horizontal) container was created to accommodate the
other two terminal windows. You will notice this when switching to tabbed mode
(for example). You would end up having one tab with a representation of the split
container (e.g., "H[urxvt firefox]") and the other one being the terminal window
you moved down.
[[configuring]]
== Configuring i3
This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependent 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 in regards 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 specific workspaces, you can
automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
can bind your keys to do useful things.
To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
(or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
with a text editor.
On first start (and on all following starts, unless you have a configuration
file), i3 will offer you to create a configuration file. You can tell the
wizard to use either Alt (+Mod1+) or Windows (+Mod4+) as modifier in the config
file. Also, the created config file will use the key symbols of your current
keyboard layout. To start the wizard, use the command +i3-config-wizard+.
Please note that you must not have +~/.i3/config+, otherwise the wizard will
exit.
Since i3 4.0, a new configuration format is used. i3 will try to automatically
detect the format version of a config file based on a few different keywords,
but if you want to make sure that your config is read with the new format,
include the following line in your config file:
---------------------
# i3 config file (v4)
---------------------
=== Comments
It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
*Examples*:
-------------------
# This is a comment
-------------------
[[fonts]]
=== Fonts
i3 has support for both X core fonts and FreeType fonts (through Pango) to
render window titles.
To generate an X core font description, you can use +xfontsel(1)+. To see
special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports the
ISO-10646 encoding.
A FreeType font description is composed by a font family, a style, a weight,
a variant, a stretch and a size.
FreeType fonts support right-to-left rendering and contain often more
Unicode glyphs than X core fonts.
If i3 cannot open the configured font, it will output an error in the logfile
and fall back to a working font.
*Syntax*:
------------------------------
font <X core font description>
font pango:<family list> [<style options>] <size>
------------------------------
*Examples*:
--------------------------------------------------------------
font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 10
font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Terminus Bold Semi-Condensed 11
font pango:Terminus 11px
--------------------------------------------------------------
[[keybindings]]
=== 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 use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+. To interactively enter a key and
see what keysym it is configured to, use +xev+.
* Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for custom vendor
hotkeys on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you
switch to a different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
keysyms.
Some tools (such as +import+ or +xdotool+) might be unable to run upon a
KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these
situations, the +--release+ flag can be used, which will execute the command
after the keys have been released.
*Syntax*:
----------------------------------
bindsym [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keysym> command
bindcode [--release] [<Group>+][<Modifiers>+]<keycode> command
----------------------------------
*Examples*:
--------------------------------
# Fullscreen
bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle
# Restart
bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
# Notebook-specific hotkeys
bindcode 214 exec --no-startup-id /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
# Simulate ctrl+v upon pressing $mod+x
bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+v
# Take a screenshot upon pressing $mod+x (select an area)
bindsym --release $mod+x exec --no-startup-id import /tmp/latest-screenshot.png
--------------------------------
Available Modifiers:
Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
Group1, Group2, Group3, Group4::
When using multiple keyboard layouts (e.g. with `setxkbmap -layout us,ru`), you
can specify in which XKB group (also called “layout”) a keybinding should be
active. By default, keybindings are translated in Group1 and are active in all
groups. If you want to override keybindings in one of your layouts, specify the
corresponding group. For backwards compatibility, the group “Mode_switch” is an
alias for Group2.
[[mousebindings]]
=== Mouse bindings
A mouse binding makes i3 execute a command upon pressing a specific mouse
button in the scope of the clicked container (see <<command_criteria>>). You
can configure mouse bindings in a similar way to key bindings.
*Syntax*:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bindsym [--release] [--border] [--whole-window] [--exclude-titlebar] [<Modifiers>+]button<n> command
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By default, the binding will only run when you click on the titlebar of the
window. If the +--release+ flag is given, it will run when the mouse button
is released.
If the +--whole-window+ flag is given, the binding will also run when any part
of the window is clicked, with the exception of the border. To have a bind run
when the border is clicked, specify the +--border+ flag.
If the +--exclude-titlebar+ flag is given, the titlebar will not be considered
for the keybinding.
*Examples*:
--------------------------------
# The middle button over a titlebar kills the window
bindsym --release button2 kill
# The middle button and a modifer over any part of the window kills the window
bindsym --whole-window $mod+button2 kill
# The right button toggles floating
bindsym button3 floating toggle
bindsym $mod+button3 floating toggle
# The side buttons move the window around
bindsym button9 move left
bindsym button8 move right
--------------------------------
[[binding_modes]]
=== Binding modes
You can have multiple sets of bindings by using different binding modes. When
you switch to another binding mode, all bindings from the current mode are
released and only the bindings defined in the new mode are valid for as long as
you stay in that binding mode. The only predefined binding mode is +default+,
which is the mode i3 starts out with and to which all bindings not defined in a
specific binding mode belong.
Working with binding modes consists of two parts: defining a binding mode and
switching to it. For these purposes, there are one config directive and one
command, both of which are called +mode+. The directive is used to define the
bindings belonging to a certain binding mode, while the command will switch to
the specified mode.
It is recommended to use binding modes in combination with <<variables>> in
order to make maintenance easier. Below is an example of how to use a binding
mode.
Note that it is advisable to define bindings for switching back to the default
mode.
Note that it is possible to use <<pango_markup>> for binding modes, but you
need to enable it explicitly by passing the +--pango_markup+ flag to the mode
definition.
*Syntax*:
----------------------------
# config directive
mode [--pango_markup] <name>
# command
mode <name>
----------------------------
*Example*:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Press $mod+o followed by either f, t, Escape or Return to launch firefox,
# thunderbird or return to the default mode, respectively.
set $mode_launcher Launch: [f]irefox [t]hunderbird
bindsym $mod+o mode "$mode_launcher"
mode "$mode_launcher" {
bindsym f exec firefox
bindsym t exec thunderbird
bindsym Escape mode "default"
bindsym Return mode "default"
}
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[floating_modifier]]
=== 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 to move it. The most common setup is to
use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
it to the position you want.
When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional (the aspect
ratio will be preserved).
*Syntax*:
--------------------------------
floating_modifier <Modifier>
--------------------------------
*Example*:
--------------------------------
floating_modifier Mod1
--------------------------------
=== Constraining floating window size
The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If
either dimension of +floating_maximum_size+ is specified as -1, that dimension
will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of
+floating_maximum_size+ is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default
value to constrain the maximum size. +floating_minimum_size+ is treated in a
manner analogous to +floating_maximum_size+.
*Syntax*:
----------------------------------------
floating_minimum_size <width> x <height>
floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>
----------------------------------------
*Example*:
--------------------------------------
floating_minimum_size 75 x 50
floating_maximum_size -1 x -1
--------------------------------------
=== Orientation for new workspaces
New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors
(anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors
(anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
With the +default_orientation+ configuration directive, you can override that
behavior.
*Syntax*:
--------------------------------------------
default_orientation horizontal|vertical|auto
--------------------------------------------
*Example*:
----------------------------
default_orientation vertical
----------------------------
=== Layout mode for new containers
This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will
start.
*Syntax*:
---------------------------------------------
workspace_layout default|stacking|tabbed
---------------------------------------------
*Example*:
---------------------
workspace_layout tabbed
---------------------
=== Border style for new windows
This option determines which border style new windows will have. The default is
+normal+. Note that new_float applies only to windows which are starting out as
floating windows, e.g., dialog windows, but not windows that are floated later on.
*Syntax*:
---------------------------------------------
new_window normal|none|pixel
new_window normal|pixel <px>
new_float normal|none|pixel
new_float normal|pixel <px>
---------------------------------------------
*Example*:
---------------------
new_window pixel
---------------------
The "normal" and "pixel" border styles support an optional border width in
pixels:
*Example*:
---------------------
# The same as new_window none
new_window pixel 0
# A 3 px border
new_window pixel 3
---------------------
[[_hiding_vertical_borders]]
=== Hiding borders adjacent to the screen edges
You can hide container borders adjacent to the screen edges using
+hide_edge_borders+. This is useful if you are using scrollbars, or do not want
to waste even two pixels in displayspace. The "smart" setting hides borders on
workspaces with only one window visible, but keeps them on workspaces with
multiple windows visible. Default is none.
*Syntax*:
-----------------------------------------------
hide_edge_borders none|vertical|horizontal|both|smart
-----------------------------------------------
*Example*:
----------------------
hide_edge_borders vertical
----------------------
[[for_window]]
=== Arbitrary commands for specific windows (for_window)
With the +for_window+ command, you can let i3 execute any command when it
encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to
change their border style, for example.
*Syntax*:
-------------------------------
for_window <criteria> <command>
-------------------------------
*Examples*:
------------------------------------------------
# enable floating mode for all XTerm windows
for_window [class="XTerm"] floating enable
# Make all urxvts use a 1-pixel border:
for_window [class="urxvt"] border pixel 1
# A less useful, but rather funny example:
# makes the window floating as soon as I change
# directory to ~/work
for_window [title="x200: ~/work"] floating enable
------------------------------------------------
The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see <<command_criteria>>.
[[no_focus]]
=== Don't focus window upon opening
When a new window appears, it will be focused. The +no_focus+ directive allows preventing
this from happening and must be used in combination with <<command_criteria>>.
Note that this does not apply to all cases, e.g., when feeding data into a running application
causing it to request being focused. To configure the behavior in such cases, refer to
<<focus_on_window_activation>>.
+no_focus+ will also be ignored for the first window on a workspace as there shouldn't be
a reason to not focus the window in this case. This allows for better usability in
combination with +workspace_layout+.
*Syntax*:
-------------------
no_focus <criteria>
-------------------
*Example*:
-------------------------------
no_focus [window_role="pop-up"]
-------------------------------
[[variables]]
=== Variables
As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
variables can be handy.
*Syntax*:
-------------------
set $<name> <value>
-------------------
*Example*:
------------------------
set $m Mod1
bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
------------------------
Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. Variables expansion
is not recursive so it is not possible to define a variable with a value
containing another variable. 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 which generates a configuration file and run
it before starting i3 (for example in your +~/.xsession+ file).
Also see <<xresources>> to learn how to create variables based on resources
loaded from the X resource database.
[[xresources]]
=== X resources
<<variables>> can also be created using a value configured in the X resource
database. This is useful, for example, to avoid configuring color values within
the i3 configuration. Instead, the values can be configured, once, in the X
resource database to achieve an easily maintainable, consistent color theme
across many X applications.
Defining a resource will load this resource from the resource database and
assign its value to the specified variable. A fallback must be specified in
case the resource cannot be loaded from the database.
*Syntax*:
----------------------------------------------------
set_from_resource $<name> <resource_name> <fallback>
----------------------------------------------------
*Example*:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The ~/.Xresources should contain a line such as
# *color0: #121212
# and must be loaded properly, e.g., by using
# xrdb ~/.Xresources
# This value is picked up on by other applications (e.g., the URxvt terminal
# emulator) and can be used in i3 like this:
set_from_resource $black i3wm.color0 #000000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[assign_workspace]]
=== Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you
can use an *assignment*. You can match windows by using any criteria,
see <<command_criteria>>. It is recommended that you match on window classes
(and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible
because some applications first create their window, and then worry about
setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window
starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the
title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the
window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have
to match on 'Firefox' in this case.
You can also assign a window to show up on a specific output. You can use RandR
names such as +VGA1+ or names relative to the output with the currently focused
workspace such as +left+ and +down+.
Assignments are processed by i3 in the order in which they appear in the config
file. The first one which matches the window wins and later assignments are not
considered.
*Syntax*:
------------------------------------------------------------
assign <criteria> [→] [workspace] [number] <workspace>
assign <criteria> [→] output left|right|up|down|primary|<output>
------------------------------------------------------------
*Examples*:
----------------------
# Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2
assign [class="URxvt"] 2
# Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring)
assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2
# Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :)
assign [class="^URxvt$"] → 2
# Assignment to a named workspace
assign [class="^URxvt$"] → work
# Assign to the workspace with number 2, regardless of name
assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number 2
# You can also specify a number + name. If the workspace with number 2 exists, assign will skip the text part.
assign [class="^URxvt$"] → number "2: work"
# Start urxvt -name irssi
assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] → 3
# Assign urxvt to the output right of the current one
assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output right
# Assign urxvt to the primary output
assign [class="^URxvt$"] → output primary
----------------------
Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
-------------------------
xrandr --output <output> --primary
-------------------------
Also, 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:
*xprop*:
-----------------------------------
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 https://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.
Note that if you want to start an application just once on a specific
workspace, but you don’t want to assign all instances of it permanently, you
can make use of i3’s startup-notification support (see <<exec>>) in your config
file in the following way:
*Start iceweasel on workspace 3 (once)*:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Start iceweasel on workspace 3, then switch back to workspace 1
# (Being a command-line utility, i3-msg does not support startup notifications,
# hence the exec --no-startup-id.)
# (Starting iceweasel with i3’s exec command is important in order to make i3
# create a startup notification context, without which the iceweasel window(s)
# cannot be matched onto the workspace on which the command was started.)
exec --no-startup-id i3-msg 'workspace 3; exec iceweasel; workspace 1'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=== Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure
which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. +exec+
commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run
also when restarting i3 you should use the +exec_always+
keyword. These commands will be run in order.
See <<command_chaining>> for details on the special meaning of +;+ (semicolon)
and +,+ (comma): they chain commands together in i3, so you need to use quoted
strings (as shown in <<exec_quoting>>) if they appear in your command.
*Syntax*:
---------------------------------------
exec [--no-startup-id] <command>
exec_always [--no-startup-id] <command>
---------------------------------------
*Examples*:
--------------------------------
exec chromium
exec_always ~/my_script.sh
# Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware.
exec --no-startup-id urxvt
--------------------------------
The flag --no-startup-id is explained in <<exec>>.
[[workspace_screen]]
=== Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
will determine which workspace 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 <workspace> output <output>
-------------------------------------
The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
If your X server supports RandR 1.5 or newer, i3 will use RandR monitor objects
instead of output objects. Run +xrandr --listmonitors+ to see a list. Usually,
a monitor object contains exactly one output, and has the same name as the
output; but should that not be the case, you may specify the name of either the
monitor or the output in i3's configuration. For example, the Dell UP2414Q uses
two scalers internally, so its output names might be “DP1” and “DP2”, but the
monitor name is “Dell UP2414Q”.
(Note that even if you specify the name of an output which doesn't span the
entire monitor, i3 will still use the entire area of the containing monitor
rather than that of just the output's.)
If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
*Examples*:
---------------------------
workspace 1 output LVDS1
workspace 5 output VGA1
workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
---------------------------
=== Changing colors
You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
*Syntax*:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
<colorclass> <border> <background> <text> <indicator> <child_border>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
client.placeholder::
Background and text color are used to draw placeholder window contents
(when restoring layouts). Border and indicator are ignored.
client.background::
Background color which will be used to paint the background of the
client window on top of which the client will be rendered. Only clients
which do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color. Note
that this colorclass only takes a single color.
Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
*Examples (default colors)*:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
# class border backgr. text indicator child_border
client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4 #285577
client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50 #5f676a
client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e #222222
client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000 #900000
client.placeholder #000000 #0c0c0c #ffffff #000000 #0c0c0c
client.background #ffffff
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
"child_border", and "border" color is only the two thin lines around the
titlebar.
The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened.
For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator
color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to
single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable
from single windows outside of a split container.
=== Interprocess communication
i3 uses Unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
(to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in
+/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p+ where +%u+ is your UNIX username, +%p+ is
the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)).
You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+ or
by specifying the +ipc-socket+ directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3
does the right thing by default. If you decide to change it, it is strongly
recommended to set this to a location in your home directory so that no other
user can create that directory.
*Examples*:
----------------------------
ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
----------------------------
You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
the next section.
=== Focus follows mouse
By default, window focus follows your mouse movements as the mouse crosses
window borders. However, if you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your
way (like a touchpad on your laptop which you do not want to disable
completely), you might want to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus
only by using your keyboard. The mouse will still be useful inside the