NAME¶

spectrwm — window manager for X11

SYNOPSIS¶

OPTIONS¶

-c file

Specify a configuration file to load instead of scanning for one.

-v

Print version and exit.

DESCRIPTION¶

spectrwm is a minimalistic window manager that tries to stay out of the way so that valuable screen real estate can be used for much more important stuff. It has sane defaults and does not require one to learn a language to do any configuration. It was written by hackers for hackers and it strives to be small, compact and fast.

When spectrwm starts up, it reads settings from its configuration file, spectrwm.conf. See the CONFIGURATION FILES section below.

The following notation is used throughout this page:

spectrwm is very simple in its use. Most of the actions are initiated via key or pointer bindings. See the BINDINGS section below for defaults and customizations.

CONFIGURATION FILES¶

spectrwm looks for the user-configuration file in the following order:

1. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/spectrwm/spectrwm.conf
2. ~/.config/spectrwm/spectrwm.conf (if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or empty)
3. ~/.spectrwm.conf.

If the user-configuration file is not found, spectrwm then looks for the global configuration file in the following order:

1. $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/spectrwm/spectrwm.conf (each colon-separated directory in $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS)
2. /etc/xdg/spectrwm/spectrwm.conf (if $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is either not set or empty)
3. /etc/spectrwm.conf

The format of the file is

For example:

Enabling or disabling an option is done by using 1 or 0 respectively.

Colors need to be specified per the XQueryColor(3) specification.

Comments begin with a #. When a literal ‘#’ is desired in an option, then it must be escaped with a backslash, i.e. \#

The file supports the following keywords:

autorun

Launch an application in a specified workspace at start-of-day. Defined in the format ws[idx]:application, e.g. ws[2]:xterm launches an xterm(1) in workspace 2.

Note that workspace mapping is handled via libswmhack.so. When autorun spawns windows via a daemon, ensure the daemon is started with the correct LD_PRELOAD in its environment.

For example, starting urxvtd(1) via xinit(1):

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libswmhack.so.0.0 urxvtd -q -o -f

Spawned programs automatically have LD_PRELOAD set when executed.

It is advised to check the man page of ld.so as LD_PRELOAD is sometimes ignored by some operating systems. A workaround is available, e.g. launch an xterm(1) in workspace 2:

autorun = ws[2]:xterm -name ws2
quirk[XTerm:ws2] = WS[2]

bar_action

External script that populates additional information in the status bar, such as battery life.

bar_action_expand

Process bar_format character sequences in bar_action output; default is 0.

bar_at_bottom

Place the statusbar at the bottom of each region instead of the top.

bar_border[x]

Border color of the status bar(s) in screen x.

bar_border_unfocus[x]

Border color of the status bar(s) on unfocused region(s) in screen x.

bar_border_width

Set status bar border thickness in pixels. Disable border by setting to 0.

bar_color[x]

Background color of the status bar(s) in screen x.

A comma separated list of up to 10 colors can be specified. The first value is used as the default background color. Any of these colors can then be selected as a background color in the status bar through the use of the markup sequence +@bg=n; where n is between 0 and 9.

bar_color_selected[x]

Background color for selections on the status bar(s) in screen x. Defaults to the value of bar_border.

bar_enabled

Set default bar_toggle state; default is 1.

bar_enabled_ws[x]

Set default bar_toggle_ws state on workspace x; default is 1.

bar_font

Fonts used in the status bar. Either Xft or X Logical Font Description (XLFD) may be used to specify fonts. Fallback fonts may be specified by separating each font with a comma. If all entries are in XLFD syntax, font set will be used. If at least one entry is Xft, Xft will be used.

The default is to use font set.

If Xft is used, a comma-separated list of up to 10 fonts can be specified. The first entry is the default font. Any font defined here can then be selected in the status bar through the use of the markup sequence +@fn=n; where n is between 0 and 9.

Also note that dmenu(1) does not support Xft fonts.

Xft examples:

bar_font = Terminus:style=Regular:pixelsize=14:antialias=true

bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,Terminus:pixelsize=14,-*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Font set examples:

bar_font = -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

bar_font = -*-profont-medium-*-*-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,-*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,-*-clean-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

To list the available fonts in your system see fc-list(1) or xlsfonts(1) manpages. The xfontsel(1) application can help with the XLFD setting.

bar_font_color[x]

Foreground color of the status bar(s) in screen x.

A comma separated list of up to 10 colors can be specified. The first value is used as the default foreground color. Any of these colors can then be selected as a foreground color in the status bar through the use of the markup sequence +@fg=n; where n is between 0 and 9.

bar_font_color_selected[x]

Foreground color for selections on the status bar(s) in screen x. Defaults to the value of bar_color.

bar_font_pua

Specify a font which uses the Unicode Private Use Area (U+E000 -> U+F8FF). Some fonts use these code points to provide special icon glyphs. Available only with Xft fonts.

bar_format

Set the bar format string, overriding clock_format and all of the enabled options. The format is passed through strftime(3) before being used. It may contain the following character sequences:

Character sequence	Replaced with
+<	Pad with a space
+A	Output of the external script
+C	Window class (from WM_CLASS)
+D	Workspace name
+F	Floating indicator
+I	Workspace index
+L	Workspace list indicator
+M	Number of iconic (minimized) windows in workspace
+N	Screen number
+P	Window class and instance separated by a colon
+R	Region index
+S	Stacking algorithm
+T	Window instance (from WM_CLASS)
+U	Urgency hint
+V	Program version
+W	Window name (from _NET_WM_NAME/WM_NAME)
+|[weight][justify]	Begin new section and reset markup sequence effects. weight is a positive integer used to allocate horizontal space between 'L', 'C' and 'R' sections (see justify). The default weight is 1. justify can have the value L, C, R or T. L, C, R are for left, center and right justified sections respectively. A 'T' section will limit its space usage to fit to the text. If no value is specified for a given section, the setting from bar_justify is used.
++	A literal ‘+’
+@	Prefix for text markup sequences

The currently recognized text markup sequences are:

Character sequence	Action
+@fn=n;	Selects font n (from 0 to 9) from bar_font.
+@fg=n;	Selects foreground color n (from 0 to 9) from bar_font_color.
+@bg=n;	Selects background color n (from 0 to 9) from bar_color.
+@stp;	Stops the interpretation of markup sequences. Any markup sequence found after +@stp will appear as normal characters in the status bar.

Note that markup sequences in bar_action script output will only be processed if bar_action_expand is enabled.

All character sequences may limit its output to a specific length, for example +64A. By default, no padding/alignment is done in case the length of the replaced string is less than the specified length (64 in the example). The padding/alignment can be enabled using a '_' character in the sequence. For example: +_64W, +64_W and +_64_W enable padding before (right alignment), after (left alignment), and both before and after (center alignment) window name, respectively. Any characters that don't match the specification are copied as-is.

bar_justify

Justify the status bar text. Possible values are left, center, and right.

Note that if the output is not left justified, it may not be properly aligned in some circumstances, due to the white-spaces in the default static format. See the bar_format option for more details.

bind[x]

Bind key or button combo to action x. See the BINDINGS section below.

border_width

Set window border thickness in pixels. Disable all borders by setting to 0.

boundary_width

Set region containment boundary width in pixels. This is how far a window must be dragged/resized (with the pointer) beyond the region edge before it is allowed outside the region. Disable the window containment effect by setting to 0.

clock_enabled

Enable or disable displaying the clock in the status bar. Disable by setting to 0 so a custom clock could be used in the bar_action script.

color_focus

Border color of the currently focused window. Default is red.

color_focus_maximized

Border color of the currently focused, maximized window. Defaults to the value of color_focus.

color_unfocus

Border color of unfocused windows, default is rgb:88/88/88.

color_unfocus_maximized

Border color of unfocused, maximized windows. Defaults to the value of color_unfocus.

dialog_ratio

Some applications have dialogue windows that are too small to be useful. This ratio is the screen size to what they will be resized. For example, 0.6 is 60% of the physical screen size.

disable_border

Remove border when bar is disabled and there is only one window on the region. Enable by setting to 1. Setting this to always removes border from lone tiled windows, regardless of the bar being enabled/disabled. Defaults to 0.

focus_close

Window to put focus when the focused window is closed. Possible values are first, next, previous (default) and last. next and previous are relative to the window that is closed.

focus_close_wrap

Whether to allow the focus to jump to the last window when the first window is closed or vice versa. Disable by setting to 0.

focus_default

Window to put focus when no window has been focused. Possible values are first and last (default).

focus_mode

Window focus behavior with respect to the pointer. Possible values:

default

Set window focus on border crossings caused by cursor motion and window interaction.

follow

Set window focus on all cursor border crossings, including workspace switches and changes to layout.

manual

Set window focus on window interaction only.

iconic_enabled

Display the number of iconic (minimized) windows in the status bar. Enable by setting to 1.

keyboard_mapping

Clear all key bindings (not button bindings) and load new bindings from the specified file. This allows you to load pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout. See the KEYBOARD MAPPING FILES section below for a list of keyboard mapping files that have been provided for several keyboard layouts.

Note that /dev/null can be specified if you only want to clear bindings.

layout

Select layout to use at start-of-day. Defined in the format ws[idx]:master_grow:master_add:stack_inc:always_raise:stack_mode, e.g. ws[2]:-4:0:1:0:horizontal sets worskspace 2 to the horizontal stack mode, shrinks the master area by 4 ticks and adds one window to the stack, while maintaining default floating window behavior. Possible stack_mode values are vertical, vertical_flip, horizontal, horizontal_flip and max.

See master_grow, master_shrink, master_add, master_del, stack_inc, stack_dec, stack_balance, and always_raise for more information. Note that the stacking options are complicated and have side-effects. One should familiarize oneself with these commands before experimenting with the layout option.

This setting is not retained at restart.

maximize_hide_bar

When set to 1, maximize_toggle will also hide/restore the bar visibility of the affected workspace. Defaults to 0.

modkey

Change mod key. Mod1 is generally the ALT key and Mod4 is the windows key on a PC.

name

Set the name of a workspace at start-of-day. Defined in the format ws[idx]:name, e.g. ws[1]:Console sets the name of workspace 1 to “Console”.

program[p]

Define new action to spawn a program p. See the PROGRAMS section below.

quirk[c[:i[:n]]]

Add "quirk" for windows with class c, instance i (optional) and name n (optional). See the QUIRKS section below.

region

Allocates a custom region, removing any autodetected regions which occupy the same space on the screen. Defined in the format screen[idx]:widthxheight+x+y, e.g. screen[1]:800x1200+0+0.

To make a region span multiple monitors, create a region big enough to cover them all, e.g. screen[1]:2048x768+0+0 makes the region span two monitors with 1024x768 resolution sitting one next to the other.

region_padding

Pixel width of empty space within region borders. Disable by setting to 0.

spawn_position

Position in stack to place newly spawned windows. Possible values are first, next, previous and last (default). next and previous are relative to the focused window.

stack_enabled

Enable or disable displaying the current stacking algorithm in the status bar.

term_width

Set a preferred minimum width for the terminal. If this value is greater than 0, spectrwm will attempt to adjust the font sizes in the terminal to keep the terminal width above this number as the window is resized. Only xterm(1) is currently supported. The xterm(1) binary must not be setuid or setgid, which it is by default on most systems. Users may need to set program[term] (see the PROGRAMS section) to use an alternate copy of the xterm(1) binary without the setgid bit set.

tile_gap

Pixel width of empty space between tiled windows. Negative values cause overlap. Set this to the opposite of border_width to collapse the border between tiles. Disable by setting to 0.

urgent_collapse

Minimizes the space consumed by the urgency hint indicator by removing the placeholders for non-urgent workspaces, the trailing space when there are urgent windows and the default leading space. Enable by setting to 1.

urgent_enabled

Enable or disable the urgency hint indicator in the status bar. Note that many terminal emulators require an explicit setting for the bell character to trigger urgency on the window. In xterm(1), for example, one needs to add the following line to .Xdefaults:

xterm.bellIsUrgent: true

verbose_layout

Enable or disable displaying the current master window count and stack column/row count in the status bar. Enable by setting to 1. See master_add, master_del, stack_inc and stack_dec for more information.

warp_focus

Focus on the target window/workspace/region when clamped. For example, when attempting to switch to a workspace that is mapped on another region and workspace_clamp is enabled, focus on the region with the target workspace. Enable by setting to 1.

warp_pointer

Centers the pointer on the focused window when using bindings to change focus, switch workspaces, change regions, etc. Enable by setting to 1.

window_class_enabled

Enable or disable displaying the window class name (from WM_CLASS) in the status bar. Enable by setting to 1.

window_instance_enabled

Enable or disable displaying the window instance name (from WM_CLASS) in the status bar. Enable by setting to 1.

window_name_enabled

Enable or disable displaying the window display name (from _NET_WM_NAME/WM_NAME) in the status bar. Enable by setting to 1.

To prevent excessively large window names from pushing the remaining text off the bar, it's limited to 64 characters, by default. See the bar_format option for more details.

workspace_clamp

Prevents workspaces from being swapped when attempting to switch to a workspace that is mapped to another region. Use warp_focus if you want to focus on the region containing the workspace and warp_pointer if you want to also send the pointer. Enable by setting to 1.

workspace_indicator

Configure the status bar workspace indicator. One or more of the following options may be specified in a comma-separated list:

listcurrent

Include the current workspace.

listactive

Include workspaces with windows.

listempty

Include empty workspaces.

listnamed

Include named workspaces.

listurgent

Include workspaces with urgent window(s).

listall

Include all workspaces.

hidecurrent

Always exclude the current workspace from the list.

markcurrent

Indicate the current workspace if it is in the list.

markurgent

Indicate workspaces in the list that contain urgent window(s).

printnames

Display the names of named workspaces in the list.

The default is listcurrent,listactive,markcurrent,printnames

workspace_limit

Set the total number of workspaces available. Minimum is 1, maximum is 22, default is 10.

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 BINDINGS section below.

Custom programs in the configuration file are specified as follows:

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.

With the exception of '~' expansion, program calls are executed as-is without any interpretation. A shell can be called to execute shell commands. (e.g. sh -c 'command string').

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:

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:

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 binding.

For example, to override lock:

program[lock] = xscreensaver-command -lock

To unbind lock and prevent it from being validated:

bind[] = MOD+Shift+Delete

BINDINGS¶

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

The default bindings are listed below:

The action names and descriptions are listed below:

Custom bindings in the configuration file are specified as follows:

action is one of the actions listed above (or empty to unbind) and combo is in the form of zero or more modifier keys and/or special arguments (Mod1, Shift, MOD, etc.) and a normal key (b, Space, etc) or a button (Button1 .. Button255), separated by ‘+’. Multiple key/button combinations may be bound to the same action.

Special arguments:

MOD example:

bind[reset] = Mod4+q # bind Windows-key + q to reset
bind[] = Mod1+q # unbind Alt + q
bind[move] = MOD+Button3 # Bind move to M-Button3
bind[] = MOD+Button1 # Unbind default move binding.

ANYMOD example:

bind[focus] = ANYMOD+Button3
bind[move] = MOD+Button3

In the above example, M-⟨Button3⟩ initiates move and ⟨Button3⟩ pressed with any other combination of modifiers sets focus to the window/region under the pointer.

REPLAY example:

bind[focus] = REPLAY+Button3

In the above example, when ⟨Button3⟩ is pressed without any modifier(s), focus is set to the window under the pointer and the button press is passed to the window.

To bind non-latin characters such as å or π you must enter the xkb character name instead of the character itself. Run xev(1), 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

To clear all default keyboard bindings and specify your own, see the keyboard_mapping option.

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.

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:

The quirks themselves are described below:

Custom quirks in the configuration file are specified as follows:

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:

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.

SIGNALS¶

Sending spectrwm a HUP signal will restart it.

FILES¶

~/.spectrwm.conf

spectrwm user specific settings.

/etc/spectrwm.conf

spectrwm global settings.

HISTORY¶

spectrwm was inspired by xmonad & dwm.

AUTHORS¶

spectrwm was written by: