HERBSTLUFTWM(1)HERBSTLUFTWM(1)NAMEherbstluftwm - a manual tiling window manager for X
SYNOPSISherbstluftwm [OPTION ...]
DESCRIPTION
Starts the herbstluftwm window manager on DISPLAY. It also listens for
calls from herbstclient(1) and executes them. The list of available
COMMANDS is listed below.
OPTION can be:
-c, --autostart PATH
use PATH as autostart file instead of the one in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
-v, --version
print version and exit
-l, --locked
Initially set the monitors_locked setting to 1
--verbose
print verbose information to stderr
This manual documents the scripting and configuration interface. For a
more verbose introduction see herbstluftwm-tutorial(7).
TILING ALGORITHM
The basic tiling concept is that the layout is represented by a binary
tree. On startup you see one big frame across the entire screen. A
frame fulfills exactly one of the following conditions:
1. Frame contains windows:
It shows some clients and arranges them. The current layout
algorithms are:
· 0: vertical - clients are placed below each other
· 1: horizontal - clients are placed next to each other
· 2: max - all clients are maximized in this frame
· 3: grid - clients are arranged in an almost quadratic grid
2. Frame is split into subframes:
It is split into exactly two subframes in a configurable fraction
either in a vertical or horizontal way. So it produces two frames
which fulfill the same conditions (new frames always are about to
contain windows). If you split a frame that already contains
windows, the windows are inherited by the first new child frame.
If a new window appears, it is put in the currently focused frame. Only
the leaves of the frame tree can be focused.
A frame can be removed, it is then merged with its neighbour frame. Due
to the layout structure of a binary tree, each frame (i.e. node in
binary tree) has exactly one neighbour.
The analogy to a binary tree is explained the best way with a small
example: On startup you have a simple binary tree, with one frame that
can contain clients:
C
When splitting it (e.g. with the command split vertical 0.5) you will
get this:
V
/ \
C C
You also can split the left frame horizontally and you will get:
V
/ \
H C
/ \
C C
If you change the focus to the client on the right and remove this
frame, it will be merged with the left subtree and you will get:
H
/ \
C C
The layout command prints the current layout of all tags as a tree.
FRAME INDEX
The exact position of a frame in the layout tree may be described by
its index which is just a string of characters. The lookup algorithm
starts at the root frame and selects one of its two subtrees according
to the each character in the index.
The characters are interpreted as follows:
· 0: select the first subtree
· 1: select the second subtree
· .: select the subtree having the focus
· /: select the subtree not having the focus
Thus an empty string refers to the root frame, and "00" refers to the
first subtree of the first subtree of the root frame.
As a special case, the string "@" always refers to the currently
focused frame.
TAGS
Tags are very similar to workspaces, virtual desktops or window groups.
Each tag has one layout. There is a list of tags. You can add or remove
tags dynamically.
MONITORS
Monitors in herbstluftwm are totally independent of the actual physical
screens. This means you can for example split your screen in two
virtual monitors to view two tags at once on a big screen.
Each monitor displays exactly one tag on a specified rectangle on the
screen.
Each monitor may have a name, which can be set via add_monitor and
rename_monitor. It can be unset with the rename_monitor command. A
monitor name is an arbitrary non-empty string which must not start with
+, - or any digit.
A monitor can be referenced in different ways:
· by its absolute index as listed in the list_monitors command.
· by its relative index: a + or - followed by a delta, e.g.: +3
· by its relative position to the focused monitor. -l denotes the
monitor left of the focused monitor, -r right of, -u above of, and
-d below of, respectively.
· by "" (an empty string) which represents the current monitor.
· by its name.
COMMANDSherbstluftwm is controlled by internal commands, which can be executed
via herbstclient(1) or via keybindings.
quit
Quits herbstluftwm.
reload
Executes the autostart file.
version
Prints the version of the running herbstluftwm instance.
echo [ARGS ...]
Prints all given ARGS separated by a single space and a newline
afterwards.
true
Ignores all arguments and always returns success, i.e. 0.
false
Ignores all arguments and always returns failure, i.e. 1.
list_commands
Lists all available commands.
list_monitors
List currently configured monitors with their index, area (as
rectangle), name (if named) and currently viewed tag.
list_rules
Lists all active rules. Each line consists of all the parameters
the rule was called with, plus its label, separated by tabs.
list_keybinds
Lists all bound keys with their associated command. Each line
consists of one key combination and the command with its parameters
separated by tabs.
Warning
Tabs within command parameters are not escaped!
lock
Increases the monitors_locked setting. Use this if you want to do
multiple window actions at once (i.e. without repainting between
the single steps). See also: unlock
unlock
Decreases the monitors_locked setting. If monitors_locked is
changed to 0, then all monitors are repainted again. See also: lock
keybind KEY COMMAND [ARGS ...]
Adds a key binding. When KEY is pressed, the internal COMMAND (with
its ARGS) is executed. A key binding is a (possibly empty) list of
modifiers (Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5, Alt, Super, Control/Ctrl,
Shift) and one key (see keysymdef.h for a list of keys). Modifiers
and the key are concatenated with - or + as separator. If there is
already a binding for this KEY, it will be overwritten. Examples:
· keybind Mod4+Ctrl+q quit
· keybind Mod1-i toggle always_show_frame
· keybind Mod1-Shift-space cycle_layout -1
keyunbind KEY|-F|--all
Removes the key binding for KEY. The syntax for KEY is defined in
keybind. If -F or --all is given, then all key bindings will be
removed.
mousebind BUTTON ACTION [COMMAND ...]
Adds a mouse binding for the floating mode. When BUTTON is pressed,
the specified ACTION will be performed. BUTTON has a similar
syntax to the KEY argument of keybind: It consists of a list of
modifiers (separated by - or +, valid modifiers are listed in the
description of keybind) and exactly one button name:
· B1 or Button1
· B2 or Button2
· B3 or Button3
· B4 or Button4
· B5 or Button5
ACTION must be one of the following actions:
· move: Moves the window by dragging the cursor.
· resize: Resizes the window by dragging a corner.
· zoom: Resizes the window into all four directions while keeping
the center of the window constant.
· call: Only calls the specified COMMAND while client.dragged
links to the client on which the BUTTON has been performed.
While an ACTION is performed, client.dragged is the client which is
dragged. E.g.:
· mousebind Mod1-Button3 zoom
· mousebind Mod1-B4 call substitute WID clients.dragged.winid
spawn transset-df --inc -i WID 0.05
· mousebind Mod1-B5 call substitute WID clients.dragged.winid
spawn transset-df --dec -i WID -m 0.2 0.05
mouseunbind
Removes all mouse bindings.
spawn EXECUTABLE [ARGS ...]
Spawns an EXECUTABLE with its ARGS. For details see man 3 execvp.
Example:
· spawn xterm -e man 3 execvp
wmexec [WINDOWMANAGER [ARGS ...]]
Executes the WINDOWMANAGER with its ARGS. This is useful to switch
the window manager in the running session without restarting the
session. If no or an invalid WINDOWMANAGER is given, then
herbstluftwm is restarted. For details see man 3 execvp. Example:
· wmexec openbox
chain SEPARATOR [COMMANDS ...]
chain expects a SEPARATOR and a list of COMMANDS with arguments.
The commands have to be separated by the specified SEPARATOR. The
SEPARATOR can by any word and only is recognized as the separator
between commands if it exactly matches SEPARATOR. "chain" outputs
the appended outputs of all commands and returns the exit code of
the last executed command. Examples are:
· Create a tag called "foo" and directly use it:
chain , add foo , use foo
· Rotate the layout clockwise:
chain .-. lock .-. rotate .-. rotate .-. rotate .-. unlock
Counterexamples are:
· This will only create a tag called "foo,":
chain , add foo, use foo
· Separator "." defined, but "," is used:
chain . add foo , use foo
and SEPARATOR [COMMANDS ...]
"and" behaves like the chain command but only executes the
specified COMMANDS while the commands return the exit code 0.
or SEPARATOR [COMMANDS ...]
"or" behaves like the chain command but only executes the specified
COMMANDS until one command returns the exit code 0.
! COMMAND
"!" executes the provided command, but inverts its return value. If
the provided command returns a nonzero, "!" returns a 0, if the
command returns a zero, "!" returns a 1.
try COMMAND
"try" executes the provided command, prints its output, but always
returns success, i.e. 0.
silent COMMAND
"silent" executes the provided command, but discards its output and
only returns its exit code.
focus_nth INDEX
Focuses the nth window in a frame. The first window has INDEX 0. If
INDEX is negative or greater than the last window index, then the
last window is focused.
cycle [DELTA]
Cycles the selection within the current frame by DELTA. If DELTA is
omitted, DELTA = 1 will be used. DELTA can be negative; DELTA = -1
means: cycle in the opposite direction by 1.
cycle_all [--skip-invisible] [DIRECTION]
Cycles through all windows and frames on the current tag.
DIRECTION = 1 means forward, DIRECTION = -1 means backward,
DIRECTION = 0 has no effect. DIRECTION defaults to 1. If there are
multiple windows within on frame, then it acts similar to the cycle
command. (The cycle_all command focuses the next/previous leave in
the layout tree.). If --skip-invisible is given, then this only
cycles through all visible windows and skips invisible windows in
the max layout. The focused window is raised.
cycle_frame [DIRECTION]
Cycles through all frames on the current tag. DIRECTION = 1 means
forward, DIRECTION = -1 means backward, DIRECTION = 0 has no
effect. DIRECTION defaults to 1.
cycle_layout [DELTA [LAYOUTS ...]]
Cycles the layout algorithm in the current frame by DELTA. DELTA
defaults to 1. You can find a list of layout algorithms above. If a
list of LAYOUTS is given, cycle_layout will cycle through those
instead of the default layout algorithm list. Each layout name
should occur at most once. Example:
· cycle_layout -1
· cycle_layout 1 vertical grid
set_layout LAYOUT
Sets the layout algorithm in the current frame to LAYOUT. For the
list of layouts, check the list of layout algorithms above.
close WINID
Closes the specified window gracefully or the focused window if
none is given explicitly. See the section on WINDOW IDS how to
reference a certain window.
close_or_remove
Closes the focused window or removes the current frame if no window
is focused.
split ALIGN [FRACTION]
Splits the focused frame into two subframes with a specified
FRACTION between 0 and 1 which defaults to 0.5. ALIGN is one of
· top
· bottom (= vertical)
· left,
· right (= horizontal)
· explode
· auto (split along longest side)
It specifies which of the two halves will be empty after the
split. The other half will be occupied by the currently focused
frame. After splitting, the originally focuse frame will stay
focused. One special ALIGN mode is explode, which splits the
frame in such a way that the window sizes and positions are
kept as much as possible. If no FRACTION is given to explode
mode an optimal fraction is picked automatically. Example:
· split explode
· split bottom 0.5
· split horiz 0.3
· split vertical 0.5
· split h
focus [-i|-e] DIRECTION
Moves the focus from current frame to the next frame or client in
DIRECTION which is in:
· l[eft]
· r[ight]
· u[p]
· d[own]
If -i (internal) is given or default_direction_external_only is
unset, then the next client in DIRECTION can also be within the
same frame. If there is no client within this frame or -e
(external) is given, then the next frame in specified DIRECTION
will be focused.
The direction between frames is defined as follows: The focus is in
a leaf of the binary tree. Each inner node in the tree remembers
the last focus direction (child 0 or child 1). The algorithm uses
the shortest possible way from the leaf (the currently focused
frame) to the root until it is possible to change focus in the
specified DIRECTION. From there the focus goes back to the leaf.
Example: The focus is at frame A. After executing focus right focus
will be at frame C.
Tree: V,0 Screen: .-----..-----. (before)
/ \ | B || C |
/ \ '-----''-----'
H,1 H,0 .-----..-----.
/ \ / \ | A* || D |
A* B C D '-----''-----'
Tree: V,0 Screen: .-----..-----. (after focus right)
/ \ | B || C* |
/ \ '-----''-----'
H,1 H,0 .-----..-----.
/ \ / \ | A || D |
A B C* D '-----''-----'
If the currently focused client is floated, then the next floating
window in the specified direction is focused and raised.
If focus_crosses_monitor_boundaries is set and no client or frame
is found in the specified DIRECTION, then the next monitor in that
DIRECTION is focused.
focus_edge [-i|-e] DIRECTION
Focuses the window on the edge of the tag in the specified
DIRECTION. The DIRECTIONS and -e behave as specified at the focus
command.
If -i (internal) is given or default_direction_external_only is
unset, then the window on the edge of the tag will be focused.
Else, only the frame on the edge of the tag will be focused, and
the window that was last focused in that frame will be focused.
raise WINID
Raises the specified window. See the section on WINDOW IDS on how
to reference a certain window. Its result is only visible in
floating mode.
Tip
The WINID also can specify an unmanaged window, although the
completion for the raise command does not list the IDs of unmanaged
windows.
jumpto WINID
Puts the focus to the specified window. See the section on WINDOW
IDS on how to reference a certain window.
bring WINID
Moves the specified window to the current frame and focuses it. See
the section on WINDOW IDS on how to reference a certain window.
resize DIRECTION FRACTIONDELTA
Changes the next fraction in specified DIRECTION by FRACTIONDELTA.
DIRECTION behaves as specified at the focus command. You should not
omit the sign - or +, because in future versions, the behaviour may
change if the sign is omitted. Example:
· resize right +0.05
· resize down -0.1
shift_edge [-i|-e] DIRECTION
Shifts the focused window to the the edge of a tag in the specified
DIRECTION. The DIRECTIONS behave as specified at the focus command
and -i and -e behave as specified at the focus_edge command.
shift [-i|-e] DIRECTION
Shifts the focused window to the next frame in the specified
DIRECTION. The DIRECTIONS and -i|-e behave as specified at the
focus command. If the focused client is floated instead of being
tiled, then client is shifted to the next window or screen edge.
shift_to_monitor MONITOR
Moves the focused window to the tag on the specified MONITOR.
remove
Removes focused frame and merges its windows to its neighbour
frame.
rotate
Rotates the layout on the focused tag counterclockwise by 90
degrees. This only manipulates the alignment of frames, not the
content of them.
set NAME VALUE
Sets the specified setting NAME to VALUE. All SETTINGS are listed
in the section below.
get NAME
Prints the value of setting NAME. All SETTINGS are listed in the
section below.
toggle NAME
Toggles the setting NAME if it’s an integer setting: If its value
is unequal to 0, it becomes 0; else its previous value (which was
unequal to 0) is restored.
cycle_value NAME VALUES ...
Cycles value of the setting NAME through VALUES: I.e. it searches
the first occurrence of the current value in VALUES and changes the
value to the next in the list or to the first one if the end is
reached or current value wasn’t found. Example:
· cycle_value frame_gap 0 5 10 15
· cycle_value frame_bg_normal_color red green blue
cycle_monitor [DELTA]
Cycles monitor focused by DELTA. DELTA defaults to 1.
focus_monitor MONITOR
Puts focus to the specified monitor.
add TAG
Creates a new empty tag named TAG.
use TAG
Switches the focused monitor to specified TAG.
use_index INDEX [--skip-visible]
Switches the focused monitor to the TAG with the specified INDEX.
If INDEX starts with + or -, then INDEX is treated relative to the
current TAG. If --skip-visible is passed and INDEX is relative,
then tags that are already visible on a monitor are skipped. E.g.
this cycles backwards through the tags:
· use_index -1 --skip-visible
use_previous
Switches the focused monitor to the previously viewed tag.
merge_tag TAG [TARGET]
Removes tag named TAG and moves all its windows to tag TARGET. If
TARGET is omitted, the focused tag will be used.
rename OLDTAG NEWTAG
Renames tag named OLDTAG to NEWTAG.
move TAG
Moves the focused window to the tag named TAG.
move_index INDEX [--skip-visible]
Moves the focused window to the tag specified by INDEX. Analogical
to the argument for use_index: If INDEX starts with + or -, then it
is treated relative. If --skip-visible is passed with a relative
index, then already visible tags are skipped.
lock_tag [MONITOR]
Lock the tag switching on the specified monitor. If no argument is
given, the currently focused monitor is used. When the tag
switching is disabled for a monitor, the commands use and use_index
have no effect when executed there. When swap_monitors_to_get_tag
is enabled, switching to a tag which is located on a locked
monitor, switches to that monitor instead of stealing it from
there. The lock state of a monitor is indicated by "[LOCKED]" in
the list_monitors output.
unlock_tag [MONITOR]
Re-enables the tag switching on the specified monitor. If no
argument is given, the currently focused monitor is used. This is
the reverse operation to lock_tag and has no further side effects
but removing this lock.
disjoin_rects RECTS ...
Takes a list of rectangles and splits them into smaller pieces
until all rectangles are disjoint, the result rectangles are
printed line by line. This command does not modify the current list
of monitors! So this can be useful in combination with the
set_monitors command.
· E.g. disjoin_rects 600x400+0+0 600x400+300+250 prints this:
300x150+300+250
600x250+0+0
300x150+0+250
300x150+600+250
600x250+300+400
· In the above example two monitors are split into 5 monitors,
which graphically means:
11111111 11111111
1 222222222 333222224444
1 2 1 2 disjoin 3 32 24 4
11121111 2 --------> 333222224444
2 2 555555555
222222222 555555555
set_monitors RECTS ...
Sets the list of monitors exactly to the list of given rectangles:
· The i’th existing monitor is moved to the i’th given RECT
· New monitors are created if there are more RECTS then monitors
· Existing monitors are deleted if there are more monitors then
RECTS
detect_monitors -l|--list|--no-disjoin
Sets the list of monitors to the available Xinerama monitors. If
the Xinerama extension is missing, it will fall back to one monitor
across the entire screen. If the detected monitors overlap, the
will be split into more monitors that are disjoint but cover the
same area using disjoin_rects.
If -l or --list is passed, the list of rectangles of detected
pyhsical monitors is printed. So hc detect_monitors is equivalent
to the bash command hc set_monitors $(hc disjoin_rects $(hc
detect_monitors -l)).
add_monitor RECT [TAG [NAME]]
Adds a monitor on the specified rectangle RECT and displays TAG on
it. TAG currently must not be displayed on any other monitor.
RECT is a string of the form WxH±X±Y. If no or an empty TAG is
given, then any free tag will be chosen. If a NAME is given, you
can reference to this monitor by its name instead of using an
index. Example:
· add_monitor 1024x768-20+0 mynewtag main
remove_monitor MONITOR
Removes the specified monitor.
move_monitor MONITOR RECT [PADUP [PADRIGHT [PADDOWN [PADLEFT]]]]
Moves the specified monitor to rectangle RECT. RECT is defined as
in add_monitor. If no or an empty pad is given, it is not changed.
raise_monitor [MONITOR]
Raises the specified monitor or the current one if MONITOR is
omitted.
rename_monitor MONITOR NAME
(Re)names an already existing monitor. If NAME is empty, it removes
the monitor’s name.
stack
Prints the stack of monitors with the visible tags and their layers
as a tree. The order of the printed stack is top to bottom. The
style is configured by the tree_style setting.
monitor_rect [[-p] MONITOR]
Prints the rectangle of the specified monitor in the format: X Y W
H If no MONITOR or cur is given, then the current monitor is used.
If -p is supplied, then the remaining rect without the pad around
this monitor is printed.
pad MONITOR [PADUP [PADRIGHT [PADDOWN [PADLEFT]]]]
Sets the pad of specified monitor to the specified padding. If no
or an empty padding is given, it is not changed.
list_padding [MONITOR]
Lists the padding of the specified monitor, or the currently
focused monitor if no monitor is given.
layout [TAG [INDEX]]
Prints the layout of frame with INDEX on TAG, in a nice tree style.
Its style is defined by the tree_style setting. If no TAG is given,
the current tag is used. If no INDEX is given, the root frame is
used. To specify INDEX without specifying TAG (i.e. use current
tag), pass an empty string as TAG.
An example output is:
╾─┐ horizontal 50% selection=1
├─╼ vertical: 0xe00009
└─┐ vertical 50% selection=0
├─╼ vertical: 0xa00009 [FOCUS]
└─╼ vertical: 0x1000009
dump [TAG [INDEX]]
Prints the same information as the layout command but in a machine
readable format. Its output can be read back with the load command.
An example output (formatted afterwards) is:
(split horizontal:0.500000:1
(clients vertical:0 0xe00009)
(split vertical:0.500000:1
(clients vertical:0 0xa00009)
(clients vertical:0 0x1000009)))
load [TAG] LAYOUT
Loads a given LAYOUT description to specified TAG or current tag if
no TAG is given.
Caution
LAYOUT is exactly one parameter. If you are calling it manually
from your shell or from a script, quote it properly!
complete POSITION [COMMAND ARGS ...]
Prints the result of tab completion for the partial COMMAND with
optional ARGS. You usually do not need this, because there is
already tab completion for bash. Example:
· complete 0 m
prints all commands beginning with m
· complete 1 toggle fra
prints all settings beginning with fra that can be toggled
complete_shell POSITION [COMMAND ARGS ...]
Behaves like complete with the following extras, useful for
completion on posix shells:
· Escape sequences are removed in COMMAND and ARGS.
· A space is appended to each full completion result.
· Special characters will be escaped in the output.
emit_hook ARGS ...
Emits a custom hook to all idling herbstclients.
tag_status [MONITOR]
Print a tab separated list of all tags for the specified MONITOR
index. If no MONITOR index is given, the focused monitor is used.
Each tag name is prefixed with one char, which indicates its state:
· . the tag is empty
· : the tag is not empty
· + the tag is viewed on the specified MONITOR, but this monitor
is not focused.
· # the tag is viewed on the specified MONITOR and it is focused.
· - the tag is viewed on a different MONITOR, but this monitor is
not focused.
· % the tag is viewed on a different MONITOR and it is focused.
· ! the tag contains an urgent window
Warning
If you use a tab in one of the tag names, then tag_status is
probably quite useless for you.
floating [[TAG] on|off|toggle|status]
Changes the current tag to floating/tiling mode on specified TAG or
prints it current status. If no TAG is given, the current tag is
used. If no argument is given, floating mode is toggled. If status
is given, then on or off is printed, depending of the floating
state of TAG.
rule [[--]FLAG|[--]LABEL|[--]CONDITION|[--]CONSEQUENCE ...]
Defines a rule which will be applied to all new clients. Its
behaviour is described in the RULES section.
unrule LABEL|--all|-F
Removes all rules named LABEL. If --all or -F is passed, then all
rules are removed.
fullscreen [on|off|toggle]
Sets or toggles the fullscreen state of the focused client. If no
argument is given, fullscreen mode is toggled.
pseudotile [on|off|toggle]
Sets or toggles the pseudotile state of the focused client. If a
client is pseudotiled, then in tiling mode the client is only moved
but not resized - the client size will stay the floating size. The
only reason to resize the client is to ensure that it fits into its
tile. If no argument is given, pseudotile mode is toggled.
object_tree [PATH]
Prints the tree of objects. If the object path PATH is given, only
the subtree starting at PATH is printed. See the OBJECTS section
for more details.
attr [PATH [NEWVALUE]
Prints the children and attributes of the given object addressed by
PATH. If PATH is an attribute, then print the attribute value. If
NEWVALUE is given, assign NEWVALUE to the attribute given by PATH.
See the OBJECTS section for more details.
get_attr ATTRIBUTE
Print the value of the specified ATTRIBUTE as described in the
OBJECTS section.
set_attr ATTRIBUTE NEWVALUE
Assign NEWVALUE to the specified ATTRIBUTE as described in the
OBJECTS section.
new_attr [bool|color|int|string|uint] PATH
Creates a new attribute with the name and in the object specified
by PATH. Its type is specified by the first argument. The attribute
name has to begin with my_.
remove_attr PATH
Removes the user defined attribute PATH.
substitute IDENTIFIER ATTRIBUTE COMMAND [ARGS ...]
Replaces all exact occurrences of IDENTIFIER in COMMAND and its
ARGS by the value of the ATTRIBUTE. Note that the COMMAND also is
replaced by the attribute value if it equals IDENTIFIER. The
replaced command with its arguments then is executed. Example:
· substitute MYTITLE clients.focus.title echo MYTITLE Prints the
title of the currently focused window.
sprintf IDENTIFIER FORMAT [ATTRIBUTES ...] COMMAND [ARGS ...]
Replaces all exact occurrences of IDENTIFIER in COMMAND and its
ARGS by the string specified by FORMAT. Each %s in FORMAT stands
for the value of the next attribute in ATTRIBUTES, similar to the
printf(1) command. The replaced command with its arguments then is
executed. Examples:
· sprintf STR title=%s clients.focus.title echo STR Prints the
title of the currently focused window prepended by title=.
· sprintf X tag=%s tags.focus.name rule once X Moves the next
client that appears to the tag that is currently focused.
· sprintf X %s/%s tags.focus.index tags.count echo X Tells which
tag is focused and how many tags there are
· sprintf l somelongstring echo l l l Prints somelongstring three
times, separated by spaces.
mktemp [bool|int|string|uint] IDENTIFIER COMMAND [ARGS ...]
Creates a temporary attribute with the given type and replaces all
occurrences of IDENTIFIER in COMMAND and ARGS by by the path of the
temporary attribute. The replaced command with its arguments is
executed then. The exit status of COMMAND is returned.
compare ATTRIBUTE OPERATOR VALUE
Compares the value of ATTRIBUTE with VALUE using the comparation
method OPERATOR. If the comparation succeeds, it returns 0, else 1.
The operators are:
· =: ATTRIBUTE's value equals VALUE
· !=: ATTRIBUTE's value does not equal VALUE
· le: ATTRIBUTE's value <= VALUE
· lt: ATTRIBUTE's value < VALUE
· ge: ATTRIBUTE's value >= VALUE
· gt: ATTRIBUTE's value > VALUE
The OPERATORsle,lt,ge,gt can only be used if ATTRIBUTE is of the
type integer or unsigned integer. Note that the first parameter
must always be an attribute and the second a constant value. If you
want to compare two attributes, use the substitute command:
substitute FC tags.focus.frame_count \
compare tags.focus.client_count gt FC
It returns success if there are more clients on the focused tag
than frames.
getenv NAME
Gets the value of the environment variable NAME.
setenv NAME VALUE
Set the value of the environment variable NAME to VALUE.
unsetenv NAME
Unsets the environment variable NAME.
SETTINGS
Settings configure the behaviour of herbstluftwm and can be controlled
via the set, get and toggle commands. There are two types of settings:
Strings and integer values. An integer value is set, if its value is 1
or another value unequal to 0. An integer value is unset, if its value
is 0.
frame_gap (Integer)
The gap between frames in the tiling mode.
frame_padding (Integer)
The padding within a frame in the tiling mode, i.e. the space
between the border of a frame and the windows within it.
window_gap (Integer)
The gap between windows within one frame in the tiling mode.
snap_distance (Integer)
If a client is dragged in floating mode, then it snaps to neighbour
clients if the distance between them is smaller then snap_distance.
snap_gap (Integer)
Specifies the remaining gap if a dragged client snaps to an edge in
floating mode. If snap_gap is set to 0, no gap will remain.
mouse_recenter_gap (Integer)
Specifies the gap around a monitor. If the monitor is selected and
the mouse position would be restored into this gap, it is set to
the center of the monitor. This is useful, when the monitor was
left via mouse movement, but is reselected by keyboard. If the gap
is 0 (default), the mouse is never recentered.
frame_border_active_color (String/Color)
The border color of a focused frame.
frame_border_normal_color (String/Color)
The border color of an unfocused frame.
frame_border_inner_color (String/Color)
The color of the inner border of a frame.
frame_bg_active_color (String/Color)
The fill color of a focused frame.
frame_bg_normal_color (String/Color)
The fill color of an unfocused frame (It is only visible if
always_show_frame is set).
frame_bg_transparent (Integer)
If set, the background of frames are transparent. That means a
rectangle is cut out frome the inner such that only the frame
border and a stripe of width frame_transparent_width can be seen.
Use frame_active_opacity and frame_normal_opacity for real
transparency.
frame_transparent_width (Integer)
Specifies the width of the remaining frame colored with
frame_bg_active_color if frame_bg_transparent is set.
frame_border_width (Integer)
Border width of a frame.
frame_border_inner_width (Integer)
The width of the inner border of a frame. Must be less than
frame_border_width, since it does not add to the frame border width
but is a part of it.
focus_crosses_monitor_boundaries (Integer)
If set, the focus command crosses monitor boundaries. If there is
no client in the direction given to focus, then the monitor in the
specified direction is focused.
raise_on_focus (Integer)
If set, a window is raised if it is focused. The value of this
setting is only used in floating mode.
raise_on_focus_temporarily (Integer)
If set, a window is raised temporarily if it is focused on its tag.
Temporarily in this case means that the window will return to its
previous stacking position if another window is focused.
raise_on_click (Integer)
If set, a window is raised if it is clicked. The value of this
setting is only noticed in floating mode.
window_border_width (Integer)
Border width of a window.
window_border_inner_width (Integer)
The width of the inner border of a window. Must be less than
window_border_width, since it does not add to the window border
width but is a part of it.
window_border_active_color (String/Color)
Border color of a focused window.
window_border_normal_color (String/Color)
Border color of an unfocused window.
window_border_urgent_color (String/Color)
Border color of an unfocused but urgent window.
window_border_inner_color (String/Color)
Color of the inner border of a window.
always_show_frame (Integer)
If set, all frames are displayed. If unset, only frames with focus
or with windows in it are displayed.
frame_active_opacity (Integer)
Focused frame opacity in percent. Requires a running compositing
manager to take actual effect.
frame_normal_opacity (Integer)
Unfocused frame opacity in percent. Requires a running compositing
manager to take actual effect.
default_frame_layout (Integer)
Index of the frame layout, which is used if a new frame is created
(by split or on a new tag). For a list of valid indices and their
meanings, check the list of layout algorithms above.
default_direction_external_only (Integer)
This setting controls the behaviour of focus and shift if no -e or
-i argument is given. if set, then focus and shift changes the
focused frame even if there are other clients in this frame in the
specified DIRECTION. Else, a client within current frame is
selected if it is in the specified DIRECTION.
gapless_grid (Integer)
This setting affects the size of the last client in a frame that is
arranged by grid layout. If set, then the last client always fills
the gap within this frame. If unset, then the last client has the
same size as all other clients in this frame.
smart_frame_surroundings (Integer)
If set, frame borders and gaps will be removed when there’s no
ambiguity regarding the focused frame.
smart_window_surroundings (Integer)
If set, window borders and gaps will be removed and minimal when
there’s no ambiguity regarding the focused window. This minimal
window decoration can be configured by the theme.minimal object.
focus_follows_mouse (Integer)
If set and a window is focused by mouse cursor, this window is
focused (this feature is also known as sloppy focus). If unset, you
need to click to change the window focus by mouse.
If another window is hidden by the focus change (e.g. when having
pseudotiled windows in the max layout) then an extra click is
required to change the focus.
focus_stealing_prevention (Integer)
If set, only pagers and taskbars are allowed to change the focus.
If unset, all applications can request a focus change.
monitors_locked (Integer)
If greater than 0, then the clients on all monitors aren’t moved or
resized anymore. If it is set to 0, then the arranging of monitors
is enabled again, and all monitors are rearranged if their content
has changed in the meantime. You should not change this setting
manually due to concurrency issues; use the commands lock and
unlock instead.
swap_monitors_to_get_tag (Integer)
If set: If you want to view a tag, that already is viewed on
another monitor, then the monitor contents will be swapped and you
see the wanted tag on the focused monitor. If not set, the other
monitor is focused if it shows the desired tag.
auto_detect_monitors (Integer)
If set, detect_monitors is automatically executed every time a
monitor is connected, disconnected or resized.
tree_style (String)
It contains the chars that are used to print a nice ascii tree. It
must contain at least 8 characters. e.g. X|:#+*-. produces a tree
like:
X-.root
#-. child 0
| #-* child 01
| +-* child 02
+-. child 1
: #-* child 10
: +-* child 01
Useful values for tree_style are: ╾│ ├└╼─┐ or -| |'--. or ╾│
├╰╼─╮.
wmname (String)
It controls the value of the _NET_WM_NAME property on the root
window, which specifies the name of the running window manager. The
value of this setting is not updated if the actual _NET_WM_NAME
property on the root window is changed externally. Example usage:
· cycle_value wmname herbstluftwm LG3D
pseudotile_center_threshold (Int)
If greater than 0, it specifies the least distance between a
centered pseudotile window and the border of the frame or tile it
is assigned to. If this distance is lower than
pseudotile_center_threshold, it is aligned to the top left of the
client’s tile.
update_dragged_clients (Int)
If set, a client’s window content is resized immediately during
resizing it with the mouse. If unset, the client’s content is
resized after the mouse button are released.
RULES
Rules are used to change default properties for certain clients when
they appear. Each rule matches against a certain subset of all clients
and defines a set of properties for them (called CONSEQUENCEs). A rule
can be defined with this command:
rule [[--]FLAG|[--]LABEL|[--]CONDITION|[--]CONSEQUENCE ...]
Each rule consists of a list of FLAGs, CONDITIONs, CONSEQUENCEs and,
optionally, a LABEL. (each of them can be optionally prefixed with two
dashes (--) to provide a more iptables(8)-like feeling).
Each rule can be given a custom label by specifying the LABEL property:
· [--]label=VALUE
If multiple labels are specified, the last one in the list will be
applied. If no label is given, then the rule will be given an integer
name that represents the index of the rule since the last unrule -F
command (which is triggered in the default autostart).
Tip
Rule labels default to an incremental index. These default labels
are unique, unless you assign a different rule a custom integer
LABEL. Default labels can be captured with the printlabel flag.
If a new client appears, herbstluftwm tries to apply each rule to this
new client as follows: If each CONDITION of this rule matches against
this client, then every CONSEQUENCE is executed. (If there are no
conditions given, then this rule is executed for each client)
Each CONDITION consists of a property name, an operator and a value.
Valid operators are:
· ~ matches if client’s property is matched by the regex value.
· = matches if client’s properly string is equal to value.
Valid properties are:
instance
the first entry in client’s WM_CLASS.
class
the second entry in client’s WM_CLASS.
title
client’s window title.
pid
the client’s process id (Warning: the pid is not available for
every client. This only matches if the client sets _NET_WM_PID to
the pid itself).
maxage
matches if the age of the rule measured in seconds does not exceed
value. This condition only can be used with the = operator. If
maxage already is exceeded (and never will match again), then this
rule is removed. (With this you can build rules that only live for
a certain time.)
windowtype
matches the _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE property of a window.
windowrole
matches the WM_WINDOW_ROLE property of a window if it is set by the
window.
Each CONSEQUENCE consists of a NAME=VALUE pair. Valid NAMES are:
tag
moves the client to tag VALUE.
monitor
moves the client to the tag on monitor VALUE. If the tag
consequence was also specified, and switchtag is set for the
client, move the client to that tag, then display that tag on
monitor VALUE. If the tag consequence was specified, but switchtag
was not, ignore this consequence.
focus
decides whether the client gets the input focus on his tag. The
default is off. VALUE can be on, off or toggle.
switchtag
if focus is activated and the client is put to a not focused tag,
then switchtag tells whether the client’s tag will be shown or not.
If the tag is shown on any monitor but is not focused, the client’s
tag only is brought to the current monitor if
swap_monitors_to_get_tag is activated. VALUE can be on, off or
toggle.
manage
decides whether the client will be managed or not. The default is
on. VALUE can be on, off or toggle.
index
moves the window to a specified index in the tree. VALUE is a
frame index.
pseudotile
sets the pseudotile state of the client. VALUE can be on, off or
toggle.
ewmhrequests
sets whether the window state (the fullscreen state and the demands
attention flag) can be changed by the application via ewmh itself.
This does not affect the initial fullscreen state requested by the
window. VALUE can be on, off or toggle, it defaults to on.
ewmhnotify
sets whether hlwm should let the client know about EMWH changes
(currently only the fullscreen state). If this is set, applications
do not change to their fullscreen-mode while still being
fullscreen. VALUE can be on, off or toggle, it defaults to on.
fullscreen
sets the fullscreen flag of the client. VALUE can be on, off or
toggle.
hook
emits the custom hook ruleVALUEWINID when this rule is triggered by
a new window with the id WINID. This consequence can be used
multiple times, which will cause a hook to be emitted for each
occurrence of a hook consequence.
keymask
Sets the keymask for an client. A keymask is an regular expression
that is matched against the string represenation (see
list_keybinds). If it matches the keybinding is active when this
client is focused, otherwise it is disabled. The default keymask is
an empty string (""), which does not disable any keybinding.
A rule’s behaviour can be configured by some special FLAGS:
· not: negates the next CONDITION.
· !: same as not.
· once: only apply this rule once (and delete it afterwards).
· printlabel: prints the label of the newly created rule to stdout.
· prepend: prepend the rule to the list of rules instead of appending
it. So its consequences may be overwritten by already existing
rules.
Examples:
· rule --class=Netscape --tag=6 --focus=off Moves all Netscape
instances to tag 6, but doesn’t give focus to them.
· rule not class~.*[Tt]erm tag=2 Moves all clients to tag 2, if their
class does not end with term or Term.
· rule class=Thunderbird index=/0 Insert all Thunderbird instances in
the tree that has no focus and there in the first child.
· rule --windowtype=_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG --focus=on Sets focus
to new dialogs which set their _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE correctly.
WINDOW IDS
Several commands accept a window as reference, e.g. close. The syntax
is as follows:
· an empty string — or missing argument — references the currently
focused window.
· urgent references some window that is urgent.
· 0xHEXID — where HEXID is some hexadecimal number — references the
window with hexadecimal X11 window id is HEXID.
· DECID — where DECID is some decimal number — references the window
with the decimal X11 window id DECID.
OBJECTS
Warning
The object tree is not stable yet, i.e. its interface may change
until the next stable release. So check this documentation again
after upgrading the next time.
The object tree is a collection of objects with attributes similar to
/sys known from the Linux kernel. Many entities (like tags, monitors,
clients, ...) have objects to access their attributes directly. The
tree is printed by the object_tree command and looks more or less as
follows:
$ herbstclient object_tree
╾─┐
├─┐ tags
│ ├─┐ by-name
│ │ ├─╼ 1
│ │ ...
│ │ └─╼ 9
│ └─╼ focus
├─┐ clients
│ ├─╼ 0x1400022
│ └─╼ focus
└─┐ monitors
├─╼ by-name
└─╼ focus
To print a subtree starting at a certain object, pass the PATH of the
object to object_tree. The object PATH is the path using the separator
. (dot), e.g. tags.by-name:
$ herbstclient object_tree tags.by-name.
╾─┐ tags.by-name.
├─╼ 1
├─╼ 2
...
└─╼ 9
To query all attributes and children of a object, pass its PATH to
attr:
$ herbstclient attr tags.
2 children:
by-name.
focus.
1 attributes:
.---- type
| .-- writeable
V V
u - count = 9
$ herbstclient attr tags.focus.
0 children.
6 attributes:
.---- type
| .-- writeable
V V
s w name = "1"
b w floating = false
i - frame_count = 2
i - client_count = 1
i - curframe_windex = 0
i - curframe_wcount = 1
This already gives an intuition of the output: attr first lists the
names of the child objects and then all attributes, telling for each
attribute:
· its type
· s for string
· i for integer
· b for boolean
· u for unsigned integer
· if it is writeable by the user: w if yes, - else.
· the name of the attribute
· its current value (only quoted for strings)
To get the unquoted value of a certain attribute, address the attribute
using the same syntax as for object paths and pass it to attr or
get_attr:
$ herbstclient attr clients.focus.title
herbstluftwm.txt = (~/dev/c/herbstluftwm/doc) - VIM
$ herbstclient get_attr clients.focus.title
herbstluftwm.txt = (~/dev/c/herbstluftwm/doc) - VIM
To change a writeable attribute value pass the new value to attr or to
set_attr:
$ herbstclient attr tags.focus.floating
false
$ herbstclient attr tags.focus.floating true
$ herbstclient attr tags.focus.floating
true
$ herbstclient set_attr tags.focus.floating false
$ herbstclient attr tags.focus.floating
false
Just look around to get a feeling what is there. The detailed tree
content is listed as follows:
· tags: subtree for tags.
┌──────────┬────────────────┐
│u - count │ number of tags │
└──────────┴────────────────┘
· by-name
· TAG: a object for each tag with the name TAG
┌────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│s w name │ name of the tag │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w floating │ if it is in floating mode │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i - index │ index of this tag │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i - frame_count │ number of frames │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i - client_count │ number of clients on this │
│ │ tag │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i - curframe_windex │ index of the focused │
│ │ client in the select frame │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i - curframe_wcount │ number of clients in the │
│ │ selected frame │
└────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
· focus: the object of the focused tag
· clients
· WINID: a object for each client with its WINID
┌───────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│s - winid │ its window id │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│s - title │ its window title │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│s - tag │ the tag it’s currently on │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i - pid │ the process id of it (-1 │
│ │ if unset) │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│s - class │ the class of it (second │
│ │ entry in WM_CLASS) │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│s - instance │ the instance of it (first │
│ │ entry in WM_CLASS) │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w fullscreen │ │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w pseudotile │ │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w ewmhrequests │ if ewmh requests are │
│ │ permitted for this client │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w ewmhnotify │ if the client is told │
│ │ about its state via ewmh │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w urgent │ its urgent state │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w sizehints_tiling │ if sizehints for this │
│ │ client should be respected │
│ │ in tiling mode │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│b w sizehints_flaoting │ if sizehints for this │
│ │ client should be respected │
│ │ in floating mode │
└───────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
· focus: the object of the focused client, if any
· dragged: the object of a client which is dragged by the mouse,
if any. See the documentation of the mousebind command for
examples.
· monitors
┌──────────┬────────────────────┐
│u - count │ number of monitors │
└──────────┴────────────────────┘
· INDEX: a object for each monitor with its INDEX
· by-name
· NAME: a object for each named monitor
┌─────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│s - name │ its name │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│i - index │ its index │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│s - tag │ the tag currently viewed │
│ │ on it │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│b - lock_tag │ │
└─────────────┴──────────────────────────┘
· focus: the object of the focused monitor
· settings has an attribute for each setting. See SETTINGS for a
list.
· theme has attributes to configure the window decorations. theme
and many of its child objects have the following attributes
┌─────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│i w border_width │ the base width of the │
│ │ border │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i w padding_top │ additional border width on │
│ │ the top │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i w padding_right │ on the right │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i w padding_bottom │ on the bottom │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i w padding_left │ and on the left of the │
│ │ border │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│c w color │ the basic background color │
│ │ of the border │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i w inner_width │ width of the border around │
│ │ the clients content │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│c w inner_color │ its color │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│i w outer_width │ width of an additional │
│ │ border close to the edge │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│c w outer_color │ its color │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│c w background_color │ color behind window │
│ │ contents visible on resize │
├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│s w reset │ Writing this resets all │
│ │ attributes to a default │
│ │ value │
└─────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
inner_color/inner_width
╻ outer_color/outer_width
│ ╻
│ │
┌────╴│╶─────────────────┷─────┐ ╮ border_width
│ │ color │ ┝ +
│ ┌──┷─────────────────────┐ │ ╯ padding_top
│ │====================....│ │
│ │== window content ==....│ │
│ │====================..╾──────── background_color
│ │........................│ │
│ └────────────────────────┘ │ ⎱ border_width +
└──────────────────────────────┘ ⎰ padding_bottom
Setting an attribute of the theme object just propagates the value
to the respective attribute of the tiling and the floating object.
· tiling configures the decoration of tiled clients, setting one
of its attributes propagates the respective attribute of the
active, normal and urgent child objects.
· active configures the decoration of focused and tiled
clients
· normal configures the decoration of unfocused and tiled
clients
· urgent configures the decoration of urgent and tiled
clients
· floating behaves analogously to tiling
· minimal behaves analogously to tiling and configures those
minimal decorations triggered by smart_window_surroundings.
· active propagates the attribute values to tiling.active and
floating.active
· normal propagates the attribute values to tiling.normal and
floating.normal
· urgent propagates the attribute values to tiling.urgent and
floating.urgent
AUTOSTART FILE
There is no configuration file but an autostart file, which is executed
on startup. It is also executed on command reload. If not specified by
the --autostart argument, autostart file is located at
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/herbstluftwm/autostart or at
~/.config/herbstluftwm/autostart. Normally it consists of a few
herbstclient calls. If executing the autostart file in a user’s home
fails the global autostart file (mostly placed at
/etc/xdg/herbstluftwm/autostart) is executed as a fallback.
For a quick install, copy the default autostart file to
~/.config/herbstluftwm/.
HOOKS
On special events, herbstluftwm emits some hooks (with parameters). You
can receive or wait for them with herbstclient(1). Also custom hooks
can be emitted with the emit_hook command. The following hooks are
emitted by herbstluftwm itself:
fullscreen [on|off] WINID STATE
The fullscreen state of window WINID was changed to [on|off].
tag_changed TAG MONITOR
The tag TAG was selected on MONITOR.
focus_changed WINID TITLE
The window WINID was focused. Its window title is TITLE.
window_title_changed WINID TITLE
The title of the focused window was changed. Its window id is WINID
and its new title is TITLE.
tag_flags
The flags (i.e. urgent or filled state) have been changed.
tag_added TAG
A tag named TAG was added.
tag_removed TAG
The tag named TAG was removed.
urgent [on|off] WINID
The urgent state of client with given WINID has been changed to
[on|off].
rule NAME WINID
A window with the id WINID appeared which triggerd a rule with the
consequence hook=NAME.
There are also other useful hooks, which never will be emitted by
herbstluftwm itself, but which can be emitted with the emit_hook
command:
quit_panel
Tells a panel to quit. The default panel.sh quits on this hook.
Many scripts are using this hook.
reload
Tells all daemons that the autostart file is reloaded — and tells
them to quit. This hook should be emitted in the first line of
every autostart file.
STACKING
Every tag has its own stack of clients that are on this tag. Similar to
the EWMH specification each tag stack contains several layers, which
are from top to bottom:
· the focused client (if raise_on_focus_temporarily is enabled)
· clients in fullscreen
· normal clients
· frame decorations
All monitors are managed in one large stack which only consists of the
stacks of the visible tags put above each other. The stacking order of
these monitors is independent from their indices and can be modified
using the raise_monitor command. The current stack is illustrated by
the stack command.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DISPLAY
Specifies the DISPLAY to use.
EXIT STATUS
Returns 0 on success. Returns EXIT_FAILURE if it cannot startup or if
wmexec fails.
BUGS
See the herbstluftwm distribution BUGS file.
COMMUNITY
Feel free to join the IRC channel #herbstluftwm on irc.freenode.net.
AUTHORherbstluftwm was written by Thorsten Wißmann. All contributors are
listed in the herbstluftwm distribution AUTHORS file.
RESOURCES
Homepage: http://herbstluftwm.org
Gitweb: http://git.cs.fau.de/?p=re06huxa/herbstluftwm
Patch submission and bug reporting:
hlwm@lists.herbstluftwm.org
COPYING
Copyright 2011-2014 Thorsten Wißmann. All rights reserved.
This software is licensed under the "Simplified BSD License". See
LICENSE for details.
herbstluftwm 0.6.2\ 2014-03-27 HERBSTLUFTWM(1)
