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jwm(1) General Commands Manual jwm(1)

NAME

JWM - Joe's Window Manager

SYNOPSIS

jwm [options]

DESCRIPTION

JWM is a window manager for the X11 Window System.

OPTIONS

-display display

This option specifies the display to use; see X(1).

-exit

Exit JWM by sending _JWM_EXIT to the root window.

-f file

Specify an alternate configuration file to use.

-h

Display a help message and exit.

-p

Parse the configuration file and exit. It is a good idea to use this after making modifications to the configuration file to ensure there are no errors.

-restart

Restart JWM by sending _JWM_RESTART to the root window.

-reload

Reload menus by sending _JWM_RELOAD to the root window.

-v

Display version information and exit.

FILES

/etc/jwm/system.jwmrc
The default JWM configuration file.
~/.jwmrc
Default local configuration file. Copy the default configuration file to this location to make user-specific changes. See also, option -f.

CONFIGURATION

OVERVIEW

Configuration of JWM is done by editing ".jwmrc" (or the configuration file specified with the -f option). This file is XML making it easy to edit, either by hand or programmatically. The example.jwmrc gives an example configuration file. Before restarting JWM, it is a good idea to run "jwm -p" to make sure the configuration file is free of errors. Otherwise you may end up without a root menu.

ROOT MENU

The root menu in JWM is the primary way of starting programs. It also provides a way to restart or exit the window manager. The outer most tag is RootMenu. The following attributes are supported:

onroot list

Determine which buttons on the root window activate the menu. This is a list of integers specifying buttons. The default is "123". Note that multiple root menus may be specified by using different buttons for different menus. The range of possible values is 0 to 9 inclusive as well as a to z inclusive, providing for up to 36 menus. Note that only the numeric values map to mouse buttons.

height int

Height of each menu item in pixels. 0 indicates the largest menu item will determine the height. The default is 0.

labeled bool

Determines if a label appears at the top of the menu. Default is false.

label string

The label to display at the top of the menu. Default is "JWM".

dynamic string

A dynamically loaded menu. If the text starts with exec:, the output of the specified program is used.

Within the RootMenu tag, the following tags are supported:

Menu

This tag creates a submenu item. Any of the tags allowed within the RootMenu tag, including the Menu tag are allowed within this element. The following attributes are supported:

height int

Height of each menu item in pixels. 0 indicates the largest menu item will determine the height. The default is inherited from the parent menu.

label string

The label to use. No default.

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this menu. No default.

labeled bool

Determines if a label appears at the top of the menu. Default is false.

Dynamic

Dynamically include the contents of a file or executable into a submenu. The file must start with a "JWM" tag. The file is specified by the text of the tag. If the text starts with "exec:" then the output of a program is used. This tag supports the same attributes as Menu. A timeout attribute may be specified to set a timeout in milliseconds. The default timeout is 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds).

Include

Include the contents of a file into the menu structure. The file must start with a "JWM" tag. The file is specified by the text of the tag. If the text starts with "exec:" then the output of a program is used. A timeout attribute may be specified to set a timeout in milliseconds. The default timeout is 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds).

Program

The Program tag provides a way to start an external program. The text in this tag is the command used to start the program. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to display. Default is the text of the tag.

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use. No default.

Separator

This tag simply puts a line in the menu allowing menu divisions. No text or attributes are used.

Desktops

Add a desktop menu. This will add a submenu with a list of desktops that can be used to change the current desktop. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use for the menu. The default is "Desktops".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

SendTo

Add a "send to" menu to the menu. After selecting an item from this menu, a window may be selected to send that window to the selected desktop. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "SendTo".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Stick

Add a stick/unstick window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to toggle the sticky state of that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Stick".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Maximize

Add a maximize window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to toggle the maximized state of that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Maximize".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Minimize

Add a minimize window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to minimize that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Minimize".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Shade

Add a shade/unshade window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to toggle the shaded status of that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Shade".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Move

Add a move window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to move that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Move".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Resize

Add a resize window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to resize that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Resize".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Kill

Add a kill window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to kill that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Kill".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Close

Add a close window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to close that window. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Close".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use for this item. No default.

Restart

This tag adds a menu item to restart the window manager. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Restart".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use. No default.

Exit

This tag adds a menu item to exit the window manager. If text is present within this tag, it is interpreted as a command to run when JWM exits. This can be used to start another window manager. The following attributes are supported:

label string

The label to use. The default is "Exit".

tooltip string

A tooltip to display. No default.

icon string

The icon to use. No default.

confirm bool

Determine if a confirm dialog appears before exiting. Default is true.

Note that confirm dialogs can be disabled completely at the compile-time.

TRAYS

One or more trays may be created via the Tray tag. This tag supports the following attributes:

autohide string

Specifies the location to hide the tray when not activated. Default is "off" to disable hiding. Possible values are "left", "right", "top", "bottom", "off", "on" (JWM picks the location), and "invisible" (trays must be activated by a key binding).

delay int

The delay before hiding the tray in milliseconds. Default is 0 milliseconds.

x int

The x-coordinate of the tray. This may be negative to indicate an offset from the right of the screen.

y int

The y-coordinate of the tray. This may be negative to indicate an offset from the bottom of the screen.

width int

The width of the tray. 0 indicates that the tray should compute an optimal width depending on what it contains and the layout. A negative value subtracts from with screen width. 0 is the default.

height int

The height of the tray. 0 indicates that the tray should compute an optimal height depending on what it contains and the layout. A negative value subtracts from the screen height. 0 is the default.

screen int

The index of the screen on which to start the tray. 0 is the default (the primary screen).

layer { below | normal | above }

The layer of the tray. The default is above.

layout { vertical | horizontal }

The layout of the tray. The default is horizontal.

valign { fixed | top | center | bottom }

The vertical alignment of the tray. The default is fixed.

halign { fixed | left | center | right }

The horizontal alignment of the tray. The default is fixed.

Within this tag the following tags are supported:

Clock

Add a clock to the tray. The text of this tag determines what action to take when the clock is clicked. Optionally, one or more Button tags may be specified to bind actions to specific mouse buttons specified via the mask attribute. By default, the button mask is "123". The following actions are supported:

root:n

Show root menu n. Note that the default TrayButton action is root:1.

exec: string

Execute a command.

showdesktop

Minimize all windows on the current desktop.

This tag supports the following attributes:

format string

The format of the clock. See strftime(3).

zone string

The time zone of the clock. See tzset(3).

width int

The width of the clock. 0 indicates that the width should be determined from the length of the text to be displayed.

height int

The height of the clock. 0 indicates that the height should be determined from the font used.

Dock

Add a dock for system notifications. This can be used by those programs that use the _NET_SYSTEM_TRAY_Sn selection. The size of the Dock is dynamic based on the size of the tray and the number of items contained. Only one Dock is allowed per instance of JWM. This tag supports the following attributes:

width int

The maximum width of an item contained in the dock. This defaults to the width or height of the tray (whichever is smaller).

spacing int

The spacing of items contained in the dock (in pixels). This defaults to 0.

Pager

Add a pager to the tray. A pager shows a miniature representation of a desktop. When over the pager, the scroll wheel will switch desktops. Holding down the right mouse button allows you to drag a window around in the pager which changes its position on the real desktop. You can also drag a window in the pager from one desktop to another. This tag supports the following attributes:

labeled bool

Determines if the pager has text labels. Default is false.

Also see the PAGER STYLE section for more information.

Spacer

Add empty space to the tray. This tag supports the following attributes:

width int

The width of the spacer (0 to fill all available space). 0 is the default.

height int

The height of the spacer (0 to fill all available space). 0 is the default.

Swallow

Swallow a program into the tray. The text of this tag gives the command to run. This tag supports the following attributes:

name string

The name of the program to swallow. This attribute is required.

width int

The width of the swallowed program. 0 indicates that the width should be determined from the tray and size requested from the program. 0 is the default.

height int

The height of the swallowed program. 0 indicates that the height should be determined from the tray and the size requested from the program. 0 is the default.

TaskList

Add a task list to the tray. This tag supports the following attributes:

height int

The height of an item in the task list. 0 indicates that the height should be taken from the tray. The default is 0.

labeled bool

Determines if a label is shown for items in the task list. The default is true.

labelpos string

Determines the label position in the task list. The default is "right" where the icon is on the left and the label is on the right. Possible values are "right", "top" and "bottom". When the tray is vertical and "top" or "bottom" is chosen, an alternate method for resizing the task list will be used.

maxwidth int

The maximum width of an item in the task list. 0 indicates no maximum. The default is 0.

TrayButton

Add a button to the tray. The text of this tag determines what action to take when the button is clicked. Optionally, one or more Button tags may be specified to bind actions to specific mouse buttons specified via the mask attribute. By default, the button mask is "123". The following actions are supported:

root:n

Show root menu n. Note that the default TrayButton action is root:1.

exec: string

Execute a command.

showdesktop

Minimize all windows on the current desktop.

This tag supports the following attributes:

label string

A label to display. No default.

popup string

A string to be displayed for a popup. This will default to the value specified for label, if provided. If neither popup nor label are specified no popup will be shown.

icon string

An icon to display. No default.

INCLUDES

Other configuration files or the output of programs may be included under the JWM tag via the Include tag. The text of this tag specifies the location of an additional configuration file or program. The path may be relative to the location JWM was started, an absolute path, or a path referencing an environment variable (using '$'). If the text starts with "exec:", the specified program is executed and its output is used. The format of the configuration file or program output is the same as the main configuration file.

GROUP SETTINGS

Program groups allow one to specify options which apply to a group of programs by name, class, window type and machine. A program group is created with the Group tag. As many program groups can be created as desired. If one or more Name tags is specified, at least one name must match. Likewise, if one or more Class tags is specified, at least one class must match. JWM matches using extended POSIX regular expressions for both Name and Class tags. See regex(7). Within the Group tag the following tags are supported:

Name

The window name of a program to match to be in this group (the first string in WM_CLASS).
Class
The window class for a program to match to be in this group (the second string in WM_CLASS).
Type
The window type for a program to match to be in this group. Possible values are desktop, dialog, dock, menu, normal, notification, splash, toolbar, utility.
Machine
The machine on which a program runs to match to be in this group. (the string WM_CLIENT_MACHINE)
Title
The window title for a program to match to be in this group (string in WM_NAME)
Option
An option for this group. Possible options are:

aerosnap

Enable auto-maximization when a window is dragged to the corner of the screen.

border

Causes windows in this group to have a border.

centered

Center windows in this group upon initial placement instead of using cascaded placement.

constrain

Constrain windows in this group to the screen.

desktop:#

The desktop on which windows in this group will be started.

drag

Do not pass mouse events to the window. Instead, use the mouse to move/resize the window.

fixed

Fix windows in this group to their initial desktop. This causes the current desktop to change when the window is activated rather than the default behavior of bringing the window to the current desktop.

fullscreen

Make windows in this group initially fullscreen.

height:#

Set the initial window height (in pixels).

hmax

Make windows in this group maximize horizontally.

icon:string

The icon to be used for windows in this group.

ilist

Ignore the program-specified list setting for windows in this group. If specified with nolist, windows will not be listed in the task list, otherwise windows will be listed.

iignore

Ignore the size increment hint when maximizing windows in this group.

ipager

Ignore the program-specified pager setting for windows in this group. If specified with nopager, windows will not be shown in the pager, otherwise windows will be shown.

layer:string

The layer on which windows in this group will be started. Valid options are below, normal, and above

maximized

Make windows in this group initially maximized.

minimized

Make windows in this group initially minimized.

noborder

Causes windows in this group to be displayed without a border.

noclose

Prevent windows in this group from being closed.

nodrag

Disable mod1+drag moving/resizing for windows in this group.

nofocus

Prevents windows in the group from grabbing the focus when mapped.

nofullscreen

Prevent windows in this group from being fullscreen.

nolist

Causes the tray to ignore windows in this group when the window is initially mapped.

nopager

Causes the pager to ignore windows in this group.

nomax

Prevent windows in this group from being maximized.

nomaxborder

Do not show a border on maximized windows in this group.

nomaxtitle

Do not show a title bar on maximized windows in this group.

nomin

Prevent windows in this group from being minimized.

nomove

Prevent windows in this group from being moved.

noresize

Prevent windows in this group from being resized.

noshade

Prevent windows in this group from being shaded.

notitle

Causes windows in this group to be displayed without a title bar.

noturgent

Ignore the urgent hint for windows in this group.

opacity:#

Set the opacity for windows in this group. The value is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 inclusive.

pignore

Ignore initial window position requested by program.

shaded

Make windows in this group initially shaded.

sticky

Make windows in this group sticky.

tiled

Attempt to tile windows in this group upon initial placement. If tiled placement fails, windows will fall back to cascaded placement (the default) or centered if specified.

title

Forces windows in this group to have a title bar.

vmax

Make windows in this group maximize vertically.

width:#

Set the initial window width (in pixels).

x:#

Set the initial x-coordinate of the window. Negative numbers indicate that the value is relative to the right side of the screen.

y:#

Set the initial y-coordinate of the window. Negative numbers indicate that the value is relative to the bottom of the screen.

WINDOW STYLE

The WindowStyle tag controls the look of window borders. This tag supports the following attributes:

decorations

The window decorations to use. Valid options are flat and motif. flat is the default.

showclient

Include the X client machine name (WM_CLIENT_MACHINE) in the window title. Valid options are true and false. false is the default.

delimiters

The two characters used to wrap the X client machine name in the window title. The default characters are ().

Within this tag, the following tags are supported:

Font

The font used for title bars. See the FONTS section for more information. This tag supports the following attribute:

align

The window title alignment. Valid options are left, right, and center. left is the default.

Width

The width of window borders in pixels. The default is 4, the minimum is 1, and the maximum is 128.

Height

The height of window title bars in pixels. By default this is set to the size of the title font. The minimum is 1, and the maximum is 256.

Corner

The corner width of the window border for rounded window borders. The default is 4, the minimum is 0 (rectangular), and the maximum is 5 (most rounded).

Active

The colors/opacity used for the active window. See the COLORS section for more information on colors. The following tags are supported:

Foreground

The color of the text and buttons in the title bar. The default is white.

Background

The color of the title bar (gradients are supported). The default is #CC7700:#884400.

Opacity

The opacity of the window. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. The default is 1.0. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.

Outline

The color of the window outline. The default is a darkened version of the window background. If motif window decorations are specified, two colors may be given separated by a ':' to set the down and up colors respectively.

Foreground

The color of text and buttons in the title bar of inactive windows. The default is white.

Background

The color of the title bar (gradients are supported) of inactive windows. The default is #333333:#111111.

Opacity

The opacity of inactive windows. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. The default is 0.75. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.

Outline

The color of the window outline for inactive windows. The default is a darkened version of the window background. If motif window decorations are specified, two colors may be given separated by a ':' to set the down and up colors respectively.

TRAY STYLE

The TrayStyle tag controls the look of trays. The following attribute is supported:

decorations

The type of decorations to use for trays. Possible values are flat and motif. The default is flat.

Within this tag the following tags are supported:

Font

The default tray font to use. See the FONTS section for more information.

Foreground

The default foreground color. See the COLORS section for more information.

Background

The default background color. See the COLORS section for more information.

Outline

The color of the tray outline. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the tray background. If motif tray decorations are specified, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

Opacity

The opacity of trays. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.

Active

The default colors for active items on the tray. See the COLORS section for more information. The following tags are supported:

Foreground

The default foreground color for active items.

Background

The default background color for active items.

Outline

The default outline color for active items. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the background. If motif tray decorations are specified, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

TASK LIST STYLE

The TaskListStyle tag controls the look of task lists. The following attributes are supported:

decorations

The window decorations to use. Valid options are flat and motif. The default is inherited from TrayStyle.

group

Determines if windows are grouped by class when shown in task bars. Possible values are true and false. The default is false.

list

Determines which windows are shown in task bars. Possible values are desktop and all. The default is desktop.

showkill

Determines if the Kill popup menu item is shown on task bars and window title bars. Possible values are true and false. The default is true.

Within this tag the following tags are supported:

Font

The font to use. See the FONTS section for more information.

Foreground

The foreground color. See the COLORS section for more information.

Background

The background color. See the COLORS section for more information.

Outline

The color of the button outline. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the background. If motif tray decorations are specified, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

Active

The colors for the active items. See the COLORS section for more information. The following tags are supported:

Foreground

The foreground color for active items.

Background

The background color for active items.

Outline

The outline color for active items. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the background. If motif tray decorations are specified, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

Minimized

The colors for the minimized items. See the COLORS section for more information. The following tags are supported:

Foreground

The foreground color for minimized items.

Background

The background color for minimized items.

Outline

The outline color for minimized items. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the background. If motif tray decorations are specified, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

TRAY BUTTON STYLE

The TrayButtonStyle tag controls the look of tray buttons.

Within this tag the following tags are supported:

Font

The font to use. See the FONTS section for more information.

Foreground

The foreground color. See the COLORS section for more information.

Background

The background color. See the COLORS section for more information.

Outline

The color of the button outline. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the background. If motif tray decorations are specified, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

Active

The colors for pressed buttons. See the COLORS section for more information. The following tags are supported:

Foreground

The foreground color for pressed buttons.

Background

The background color for pressed buttons.

Outline

The outline color for pressed buttons. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the background. If motif tray decorations are specified, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

PAGER STYLE

The PagerStyle tag controls the look of pagers. Within this tag, the following tags are supported:

Outline

The color of the outline around windows shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

Foreground

The color of inactive windows shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

Background

The background color of inactive desktops shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

Active

The colors used for active items in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information. The following tags are supported:

Foreground

The color of active windows shown in the pager.

Background

The background color of active desktops shown in the pager.

Text

The color to use for pager labels. See the COLORS section for more information.

Font

The font to use for pager labels. See the COLORS section for more information.

CLOCK STYLE

The ClockStyle tag controls the look of clocks. Within this tag, the following tags are supported:

Font

The font to use for clocks. This defaults to the tray font. See the COLORS section for more information.
Foreground
The foreground (text) color of clocks. This defaults to the tray foreground color. See the COLORS section for more information.
Background
The background color of clocks (gradients are supported). This defaults to the tray background color. See the COLORS section for more information.

MENU STYLE

The MenuStyle tag controls the look of the menus in JWM (this includes the root menu and window menus). The following attribute is supported:

decorations

The type of decorations to use for menus. Possible values are flat and motif. The default is flat.
Within this tag the following tags are supported:

Font

The font used on menus See the FONTS section for more information.

Foreground

The text color of inactive menu items. See the COLORS section for more information.

Background

The background color of inactive menu items. See the COLORSsection for more information.

Outline

The color of the menu outline. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is a darkened version of the menu background. If motif decorations are used, this may be given as two colors separated by a ':' to indicate the down and up colors respectively.

Active

The colors used for active menu items. See the COLORS section for more information. The following tags are supported:

Foreground

The text color of active menu items.

Background

Text background color of active menu items (gradients are supported).

Opacity

The opacity of menus. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.

POPUP STYLE

The PopupStyle tag controls the look of popup windows such as those shown when the mouse sits over a task list item. This tag supports the following attributes:

delay int

The delay in milliseconds before popups activate. The default is 600.

enabled string

Determine if popups are shown. This is a comma-separated list of one or more of the following: true (all enabled), false (no popups enabled), button (tray buttons), clock (clocks), menu (menus), pager (pagers), and task (task list items). The default is true.

Within this tag the following tags are supported:

Font

The font to use. See the FONTS section for more information.

Outline

The color of the window outline. See the COLORS section for more information. The default is black.

Foreground

The text color. See the COLORS section for more information.

Background

The background color. See the COLORS section for more information.

FONTS

Fonts for various parts of JWM are specified within a Font tag. The text of this tag determines the font to use. This can be either an XLFD font string or, if compiled with Pango support, an XFT font string.

COLORS

Colors for various parts of JWM are specified within specific tags (described above). Colors may either be hex triplets in RGB format (for example, #FF0000 is red) or by a name recognized by the X server. For components that support gradients, two colors may be specified separated by a colon for a horizontal gradient or a semicolon for a vertical gradient.

ICONS

Icons for windows that don't supply an icon via the _NET_WM_ICON hint are located by searching the icon search path(s) for an icon whose name (minus the ".xpm" or ".png" extension) matches the instance name of the window as returned in the WM_CLASS hint. If this lookup fails, a default icon is supplied. This icon will be displayed for the window on it's title bar and on the task list. Icons that are not an appropriate size will be scaled. Square icons work best.

For menu items, the icon path is searched for a match. the icon specified for a menu item must be the exact name of the icon file with the extension. If no match is found, a blank area will appear where the icon should appear. If an icon is not specified for any menu item in a menu, no space will be allocated for icons.

Zero or more IconPath tags may be specified. The text of this tag is assumed to be an absolute directory path to a directory containing XPM, PNG, and/or JPEG icons. When searching for icons, if multiple paths are provided, they will be searched in order until a match is made. Note that icon, PNG, JPEG, and XPM support are compile-time options.

KEY BINDINGS

Keyboard bindings in JWM are specified in Key tags. Either the key or keycode attributes must be specified to determine which key will cause an action. The optional attribute, mask, specifies what key mask, if any, must be in effect for the binding to match. Finally, the text of the Key tag is the action to perform. The last action to match is used if there are duplicates.

One or more of the following key masks may be specified for mask (see xmodmap(1)):

The "Alt" key (mod1).
Control
Shift
1
mod1
2
mod2
3
mod3
4
mod4
5
mod5

The key specified in the key attribute must contain a valid key string for XStringToKeysym(3). These values are usually what one would expect (for example, the escape key is called "Escape").

Valid actions for a key binding are:

Move up.
Move down.
Move right.
Move left.
Stop a move/resize, exit a menu, or cancel an action.
Toggle between fullscreen and not fullscreen.
Make a menu selection or confirm an action.
Move to the next window in the task list.
Move to the next window in the stacking order.
Remove the current binding.
Move to the previous window in the task list.
Move to the previous window in the stacking order.
Move to window position in the task list.
Close the active window.
Kill the active window.
Minimize the active window.
Maximize the active window.
Maximize the active window vertically.
Maximize the active window horizontally.
Maximize the active window to the top of the screen.
Maximize the active window to the top left of the screen.
Maximize the active window to the top right of the screen.
Maximize the active window to the bottom of the screen.
Maximize the active window to the bottom left of the screen.
Maximize the active window to the bottom right of the screen.
Maximize the active window to the left of the screen.
Maximize the active window to the right of the screen.
Restore a maximized window.
Send the active window to the specified desktop. To use this, "#" must be specified in the key section. The number 1 to the number of desktops configured are then substituted for "#".
Send the active window left.
Send the active window right.
Send the active window up.
Send the active window down.
Shade the active window.
Stick/unstick the active window.
Move the active window.
Resize the active window. An optional suffix may be applied to this option to specify the corner of the window to resize. The options are:
Resize the north side
Resize the south side
Resize the east side
Resize the west side
Resize the north-west corner
Resize the north-east corner
Resize the south-west corner
Resize the south-east corner
Center the current window.
Show root menu n.
Show the window menu for the active window.
Switch to a specific desktop. To use this, "#" must be specified in the key section. The number 1 to the number of desktops configured are then substituted for "#".
Move one desktop to the right.
Move one desktop to the left.
Move up one desktop.
Move down one desktop.
Show/hide the desktop (maximize/minimize all windows).
Unhide the tray (when using autohide).
Execute command.
Restart JWM.

Note that there are no default key bindings. It is possible to bind multiple key combinations to the same action.

MOUSE BINDINGS

Mouse bindings are configured using Mouse tags. The context attribute determines the context in which the binding applies, the button attribute species the mouse button, and the (optional) mask attribute specifies the key mask that must be in effect for the binding to match. Finally, the text of the Mouse tag determines the action to perform (see KEY BINDINGS for a list of actions). The button is a mouse button number, starting at 1 (typically the left button). A positive value for the button indicates that the action applies on mouse press and a negative value indicates that the action applies on release. The button number can be repeated to bind to double clicks. The following mouse contexts are supported:

border

The window border.

close

The close button on a window.

icon

The icon button on a window.

maximize

The maximize button on a window.

minimize

The minimize button on a window.

root

The root window.

title

The title bar of a window.

Other bindings:

Button 1 (typically the left button):

Over a task bar, restores or minimizes the window. Over a pager, switches the active desktop.

Button 2 (typically the middle button):

Over a task bar, closes the window. Over a pager, switches the active desktop.

Button 3 (typically the right button):

Over a task bar, shows the window menu. Over a pager, dragging while holding button 3 will move a window.

When a menu is open, the scroll wheel will move through menu items. When over the pager, the scroll wheel will switch desktops. When over a task list, the scroll wheel will switch windows.

DESKTOPS

Virtual desktops are controlled with the Desktops tag. Within this tag the following attribute is supported:

width int

The number of virtual desktops in the horizontal direction. The default is 4.

height int

The number of virtual desktops in the vertical direction. The default is 1.

backandforth string

Controls whether changing the desktop to the currently active desktop using the desktop# action should instead switch to the previously active desktop. Default is "off" to do nothing when switching to the currently active desktop. Possible values are "on" and "off".

Within the Desktops tag the following tags are supported:

Background

The default background for desktops. The type attribute determines the type of background and the text contained within this tag is the value. Valid types are:

solid

A solid color. See the COLORS section for more information. This is the default.
gradient
A gradient color. See the COLORS section for more information.
image
A stretched image. This may be an XPM, PNG, or JPEG image. Note that support for XPM, PNG, and JPEG images must be compiled in and icon support is required.
tile
A tiled image. Like image, but the image is tiled instead of stretched.
scale
A scaled image. Like image, but the aspect ratio of the image is preserved.
command
A command to run for setting the background.

Desktop

Desktop-specific data. The name attribute may be specified to name the desktop (the default is the desktop number). Within this tag a Background tag may be specified for a desktop-specific background. See Background above for more information.

OTHER SETTINGS

The following tags may also be supplied:

ButtonClose

An icon to display for the close button on client windows instead of the default.
ButtonCloseFocus
An icon to display for the close button on active client windows instead of the default.
ButtonMax
An icon to display for the maximize button on client windows instead of the default.
ButtonMaxFocus
An icon to display for the maximize button on active client windows instead of the default.
ButtonMaxActive
An icon to display for the maximize button on maximized client windows instead of the default.
ButtonMaxActiveFocus
An icon to display for the maximize button on active maximized client windows instead of the default.
ButtonMenu
An icon to display for the menu button on client windows instead of the default. This is used for client windows that do not specify an icon.
ButtonMenuFocus
An icon to display for the menu button on active client windows instead of the default. This is used for client windows that do not specify an icon.
ButtonMin
An icon to display for the minimize button on client windows instead of the default.
ButtonMinFocus
An icon to display for the minimize button on active client windows instead of the default.
DefaultIcon
An icon to display for windows that do not specify an icon.
DoubleClickDelta
The number of pixels the mouse can move during a double click. The default is 2. Valid values are between 0 and 32 inclusive.

DoubleClickSpeed

The maximum number of milliseconds between clicks for a double click. The default is 400. Valid values are between 1 and 2000 inclusive.

FocusModel

The focus model to be used. The default is "sloppy". Valid values are:

click

Click to focus and raise.

clicktitle

Click to focus. Click the title bar to raise.

sloppy

Focus follows mouse. Click to raise.

sloppytitle

Focus follows mouse. Click the title bar to raise.

MoveMode

The move mode. The default is "opaque". Valid values are "opaque" and "outline". This tag supports the following attributes:

coordinates { off | corner | window | screen }

The location of the status window. The default is screen.

delay int

The delay in milliseconds before moving a window to a different desktop. Setting this to 0 disables dragging windows between desktops. The default is 1000.

mask string

The key mask of the modifier that, when held, allows one to move the window by dragging it. The default is "A".

ResizeMode

The resize mode. The default is "opaque". Valid values are "opaque" and "outline". The optional coordinates attribute determines the location of the move status window. Possible values are: This tag supports the following attribute:

coordinates { off | corner | window | screen }

The location of the status window. The default is screen.

RestartCommand

A command to run when JWM restarts.

SnapMode

The snap mode. The default is "border". Valid values are "none" (for no snapping), "screen" (for snapping to the edge of the screen), and "border" (for snapping to the borders of windows and the screen). An optional attribute, distance, specifies the distance for snapping. The default is 5. Valid values are between 1 and 32 inclusive.

StartupCommand

A command to run when JWM starts.

ShutdownCommand

A command to run when JWM exits.

TitleButtonOrder

Change the order of buttons in title bars. This is a string of zero or more of the following characters to determine the order of items in the window title bar:

m Maximize button

i Minimize (iconify) button

t Window title

w Window menu button

x Close button

AUTHOR

Joe Wingbermuehle <joewing@joewing.net>

SEE ALSO

X(1)

2024-11-09 v2.4.6