1TWM(1) General Commands Manual TWM(1)
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6 twm - Tab Window Manager for the X Window System
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9 twm [ -display dpy ] [ -s ] [ -f initfile ] [ -v ]
10
12 Twm is a window manager for the X Window System. It provides title‐
13 bars, shaped windows, several forms of icon management, user-defined
14 macro functions, click-to-type and pointer-driven keyboard focus, and
15 user-specified key and pointer button bindings.
16 This program is usually started by the user's session manager or
18 startup script. When used from xdm(1) or xinit(1) without a session
19 manager, twm is frequently executed in the foreground as the last
20 client. When run this way, exiting twm causes the session to be termi‐
21 nated (i.e., logged out).
22 By default, application windows are surrounded by a ``frame'' with a
24 titlebar at the top and a special border around the window. The title‐
25 bar contains the window's name, a rectangle that is lit when the window
26 is receiving keyboard input, and function boxes known as ``titlebut‐
27 tons'' at the left and right edges of the titlebar.
28 Pressing pointer Button1 (usually the left-most button unless it has
30 been changed with xmodmap) on a titlebutton will invoke the function
31 associated with the button. In the default interface, windows are
32 iconified by clicking (pressing and then immediately releasing) the
33 left titlebutton (which looks like a Dot). Conversely, windows are
34 deiconified by clicking in the associated icon or entry in the icon
35 manager (see description of the variable ShowIconManager and of the
36 function f.showiconmgr).
37 Windows are resized by pressing the right titlebutton (which resembles
39 a group of nested squares), dragging the pointer over edge that is to
40 be moved, and releasing the pointer when the outline of the window is
41 the desired size. Similarly, windows are moved by pressing in the
42 title or highlight region, dragging a window outline to the new loca‐
43 tion, and then releasing when the outline is in the desired position.
44 Just clicking in the title or highlight region raises the window with‐
45 out moving it.
46 When new windows are created, twm will honor any size and location
48 information requested by the user (usually through -geometry command
49 line argument or resources for the individual applications). Other‐
50 wise, an outline of the window's default size, its titlebar, and lines
51 dividing the window into a 3x3 grid that track the pointer are dis‐
52 played. Clicking pointer Button1 will position the window at the cur‐
53 rent position and give it the default size. Pressing pointer Button2
54 (usually the middle pointer button) and dragging the outline will give
55 the window its current position but allow the sides to be resized as
56 described above. Clicking pointer Button3 (usually the right pointer
57 button) will give the window its current position but attempt to make
58 it long enough to touch the bottom the screen.
59
61 Twm accepts the following command line options:
62 -display dpy
64 This option specifies the X server to use.
65 -s This option indicates that only the default screen (as speci‐
67 fied by -display or by the DISPLAY environment variable) should
68 be managed. By default, twm will attempt to manage all screens
69 on the display.
70 -f filename
72 This option specifies the name of the startup file to use. By
73 default, twm will look in the user's home directory for files
74 named .twmrc.num (where num is a screen number) or .twmrc.
75 -v This option indicates that twm should print error messages
77 whenever an unexpected X Error event is received. This can be
78 useful when debugging applications but can be distracting in
79 regular use.
80
82 Much of twm's appearance and behavior can be controlled by providing a
83 startup file in one of the following locations (searched in order for
84 each screen being managed when twm begins):
85 $HOME/.twmrc.screennumber
87 The screennumber is a small positive number (e.g. 0, 1, etc.)
88 representing the screen number (e.g. the last number in the
89 DISPLAY environment variable host:displaynum.screennum) that
90 would be used to contact that screen of the display. This is
91 intended for displays with multiple screens of differing visual
92 types.
93 $HOME/.twmrc
95 This is the usual name for an individual user's startup file.
96 /usr/share/X11/twm/system.twmrc
98 If neither of the preceding files are found, twm will look in
99 this file for a default configuration. This is often tailored
100 by the site administrator to provide convenient menus or famil‐
101 iar bindings for novice users.
102 If no startup files are found, twm will use the built-in defaults
104 described above. The only resource used by twm is bitmapFilePath for a
105 colon-separated list of directories to search when looking for bitmap
106 files (for more information, see the Athena Widgets manual and
107 xrdb(1)).
108 Twm startup files are logically broken up into three types of specifi‐
110 cations: Variables, Bindings, Menus. The Variables section must come
111 first and is used to describe the fonts, colors, cursors, border
112 widths, icon and window placement, highlighting, autoraising, layout of
113 titles, warping, use of the icon manager. The Bindings section usually
114 comes second and is used to specify the functions that should be to be
115 invoked when keyboard and pointer buttons are pressed in windows,
116 icons, titles, and frames. The Menus section gives any user-defined
117 menus (containing functions to be invoked or commands to be executed).
118 Variable names and keywords are case-insensitive. Strings must be sur‐
120 rounded by double quote characters (e.g. "blue") and are case-sensi‐
121 tive. A pound sign (#) outside of a string causes the remainder of the
122 line in which the character appears to be treated as a comment.
123
125 Many of the aspects of twm's user interface are controlled by variables
126 that may be set in the user's startup file. Some of the options are
127 enabled or disabled simply by the presence of a particular keyword.
128 Other options require keywords, numbers, strings, or lists of all of
129 these.
130 Lists are surrounded by braces and are usually separated by whitespace
132 or a newline. For example:
133 AutoRaise { "emacs" "XTerm" "Xmh" }
134 or
135 AutoRaise
136 {
137 "emacs"
138 "XTerm"
139 "Xmh"
140 }
141 When a variable containing a list of strings representing windows is
142 searched (e.g. to determine whether or not to enable autoraise as shown
143 above), a string must be an exact, case-sensitive match to the window's
144 name (given by the WM_NAME window property), resource name or class
145 name (both given by the WM_CLASS window property). The preceding exam‐
146 ple would enable autoraise on windows named ``emacs'' as well as any
147 xterm (since they are of class ``XTerm'') or xmh windows (which are of
148 class ``Xmh'').
149 String arguments that are interpreted as filenames (see the Pixmaps,
151 Cursors, and IconDirectory below) will prepend the user's directory
152 (specified by the HOME environment variable) if the first character is
153 a tilde (~). If, instead, the first character is a colon (:), the name
154 is assumed to refer to one of the internal bitmaps that are used to
155 create the default titlebars symbols: :xlogo or :delete (both refer to
156 the X logo), :dot or :iconify (both refer to the dot), :resize (the
157 nested squares used by the resize button), :menu (a page with lines),
158 and :question (the question mark used for non-existent bitmap files).
159 The following variables may be specified at the top of a twm startup
161 file. Lists of Window name prefix strings are indicated by win-list.
162 Optional arguments are shown in square brackets:
163 AutoRaise { win-list }
165 This variable specifies a list of windows that should automati‐
166 cally be raised whenever the pointer enters the window. This
167 action can be interactively enabled or disabled on individual
168 windows using the function f.autoraise.
169 AutoRelativeResize
171 This variable indicates that dragging out a window size (either
172 when initially sizing the window with pointer Button2 or when
173 resizing it) should not wait until the pointer has crossed the
174 window edges. Instead, moving the pointer automatically causes
175 the nearest edge or edges to move by the same amount. This
176 allows the resizing of windows that extend off the edge of the
177 screen. If the pointer is in the center of the window, or if
178 the resize is begun by pressing a titlebutton, twm will still
179 wait for the pointer to cross a window edge (to prevent acci‐
180 dents). This option is particularly useful for people who like
181 the press-drag-release method of sweeping out window sizes.
182 BorderColor string [{ wincolorlist }]
184 This variable specifies the default color of the border to be
185 placed around all non-iconified windows, and may only be given
186 within a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional
187 wincolorlist specifies a list of window and color name pairs
188 for specifying particular border colors for different types of
189 windows. For example:
190 BorderColor "gray50"
191 {
192 "XTerm" "red"
193 "xmh" "green"
194 }
195 The default is "black".
196 BorderTileBackground string [{ wincolorlist }]
198 This variable specifies the default background color in the
199 gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight
200 hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color,
201 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows
202 per-window colors to be specified. The default is "white".
203 BorderTileForeground string [{ wincolorlist }]
205 This variable specifies the default foreground color in the
206 gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight
207 hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color,
208 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows
209 per-window colors to be specified. The default is "black".
210 BorderWidth pixels
212 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
213 rounding all client window frames if ClientBorderWidth has not
214 been specified. This value is also used to set the border size
215 of windows created by twm (such as the icon manager). The
216 default is 2.
217 ButtonIndent pixels
219 This variable specifies the amount by which titlebuttons should
220 be indented on all sides. Positive values cause the buttons to
221 be smaller than the window text and highlight area so that they
222 stand out. Setting this and the TitleButtonBorderWidth vari‐
223 ables to 0 makes titlebuttons be as tall and wide as possible.
224 The default is 1.
225 ClientBorderWidth
227 This variable indicates that border width of a window's frame
228 should be set to the initial border width of the window, rather
229 than to the value of BorderWidth.
230 Color { colors-list }
232 This variable specifies a list of color assignments to be made
233 if the default display is capable of displaying more than sim‐
234 ple black and white. The colors-list is made up of the follow‐
235 ing color variables and their values: DefaultBackground,
236 DefaultForeground, MenuBackground, MenuForeground, MenuTitle‐
237 Background, MenuTitleForeground, MenuShadowColor, MenuBorder‐
238 Color, PointerForeground, and PointerBackground. The following
239 color variables may also be given a list of window and color
240 name pairs to allow per-window colors to be specified (see Bor‐
241 derColor for details): BorderColor, IconManagerHighlight, Bor‐
242 derTitleBackground, BorderTitleForeground, TitleBackground,
243 TitleForeground, IconBackground, IconForeground, IconBorder‐
244 Color, IconManagerBackground, and IconManagerForeground. For
245 example:
246 Color
247 {
248 MenuBackground "gray50"
249 MenuForeground "blue"
250 BorderColor "red" { "XTerm" "yellow" }
251 TitleForeground "yellow"
252 TitleBackground "blue"
253 }
254 All of these color variables may also be specified for the
255 Monochrome variable, allowing the same initialization file to
256 be used on both color and monochrome displays.
257 ConstrainedMoveTime milliseconds
259 This variable specifies the length of time between button
260 clicks needed to begin a constrained move operation. Double
261 clicking within this amount of time when invoking f.move will
262 cause the window to be moved only in a horizontal or vertical
263 direction. Setting this value to 0 will disable constrained
264 moves. The default is 400 milliseconds.
265 Cursors { cursor-list }
267 This variable specifies the glyphs that twm should use for var‐
268 ious pointer cursors. Each cursor may be defined either from
269 the cursor font or from two bitmap files. Shapes from the cur‐
270 sor font may be specified directly as:
271 cursorname "string"
272 where cursorname is one of the cursor names listed below, and
273 string is the name of a glyph as found in the file
274 /usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h (without the ``XC_'' prefix). If
275 the cursor is to be defined from bitmap files, the following
276 syntax is used instead:
277 cursorname "image" "mask"
278 The image and mask strings specify the names of files contain‐
279 ing the glyph image and mask in bitmap(1) form. The bitmap
280 files are located in the same manner as icon bitmap files. The
281 following example shows the default cursor definitions:
282 Cursors
283 {
284 Frame "top_left_arrow"
285 Title "top_left_arrow"
286 Icon "top_left_arrow"
287 IconMgr "top_left_arrow"
288 Move "fleur"
289 Resize "fleur"
290 Menu "sb_left_arrow"
291 Button "hand2"
292 Wait "watch"
293 Select "dot"
294 Destroy "pirate"
295 }
296 DecorateTransients
298 This variable indicates that transient windows (those contain‐
299 ing a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property) should have titlebars. By
300 default, transients are not reparented.
301 DefaultBackground string
303 This variable specifies the background color to be used for
304 sizing and information windows. The default is "white".
305 DefaultForeground string
307 This variable specifies the foreground color to be used for
308 sizing and information windows. The default is "black".
309 DontIconifyByUnmapping { win-list }
311 This variable specifies a list of windows that should not be
312 iconified by simply unmapping the window (as would be the case
313 if IconifyByUnmapping had been set). This is frequently used
314 to force some windows to be treated as icons while other win‐
315 dows are handled by the icon manager.
316 DontMoveOff
318 This variable indicates that windows should not be allowed to
319 be moved off the screen. It can be overridden by the f.force‐
320 move function.
321 DontSqueezeTitle [{ win-list }]
323 This variable indicates that titlebars should not be squeezed
324 to their minimum size as described under SqueezeTitle below.
325 If the optional window list is supplied, only those windows
326 will be prevented from being squeezed.
327 ForceIcons
329 This variable indicates that icon pixmaps specified in the
330 Icons variable should override any client-supplied pixmaps.
331 FramePadding pixels
333 This variable specifies the distance between the titlebar deco‐
334 rations (the button and text) and the window frame. The
335 default is 2 pixels.
336 Grayscale { colors }
338 This variable specifies a list of color assignments that should
339 be made if the screen has a GrayScale default visual. See the
340 description of Colors.
341 IconBackground string [{ win-list }]
343 This variable specifies the background color of icons, and may
344 only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome
345 list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and col‐
346 ors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the Bor‐
347 derColor variable for a complete description of the win-list.
348 The default is "white".
349 IconBorderColor string [{ win-list }]
351 This variable specifies the color of the border used for icon
352 windows, and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale
353 or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window
354 names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified.
355 See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the
356 win-list. The default is "black".
357 IconBorderWidth pixels
359 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
360 rounding icon windows. The default is 2.
361 IconDirectory string
363 This variable specifies the directory that should be searched
364 if if a bitmap file cannot be found in any of the directories
365 in the bitmapFilePath resource.
366 IconFont string
368 This variable specifies the font to be used to display icon
369 names within icons. The default is "variable".
370 IconForeground string [{ win-list }]
372 This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when
373 displaying icons, and may only be specified inside of a Color,
374 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list
375 of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
376 specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete
377 description of the win-list. The default is "black".
378 IconifyByUnmapping [{ win-list }]
380 This variable indicates that windows should be iconified by
381 being unmapped without trying to map any icons. This assumes
382 that the user will remap the window through the icon manager,
383 the f.warpto function, or the TwmWindows menu. If the optional
384 win-list is provided, only those windows will be iconified by
385 simply unmapping. Windows that have both this and the IconMan‐
386 agerDontShow options set may not be accessible if no binding to
387 the TwmWindows menu is set in the user's startup file.
388 IconManagerBackground string [{ win-list }]
390 This variable specifies the background color to use for icon
391 manager entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color,
392 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list
393 of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
394 specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete
395 description of the win-list. The default is "white".
396 IconManagerDontShow [{ win-list }]
398 This variable indicates that the icon manager should not dis‐
399 play any windows. If the optional win-list is given, only
400 those windows will not be displayed. This variable is used to
401 prevent windows that are rarely iconified (such as xclock or
402 xload) from taking up space in the icon manager.
403 IconManagerFont string
405 This variable specifies the font to be used when displaying
406 icon manager entries. The default is "variable".
407 IconManagerForeground string [{ win-list }]
409 This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when
410 displaying icon manager entries, and may only be specified
411 inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional
412 win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-win‐
413 dow colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for
414 a complete description of the win-list. The default is
415 "black".
416 IconManagerGeometry string [ columns ]
418 This variable specifies the geometry of the icon manager win‐
419 dow. The string argument is standard geometry specification
420 that indicates the initial full size of the icon manager. The
421 icon manager window is then broken into columns pieces and
422 scaled according to the number of entries in the icon manager.
423 Extra entries are wrapped to form additional rows. The default
424 number of columns is 1.
425 IconManagerHighlight string [{ win-list }]
427 This variable specifies the border color to be used when high‐
428 lighting the icon manager entry that currently has the focus,
429 and can only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
430 chrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names
431 and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the
432 BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-
433 list. The default is "black".
434 IconManagers { iconmgr-list }
436 This variable specifies a list of icon managers to create.
437 Each item in the iconmgr-list has the following format:
438 "winname" ["iconname"] "geometry" columns
439 where winname is the name of the windows that should be put
440 into this icon manager, iconname is the name of that icon man‐
441 ager window's icon, geometry is a standard geometry specifica‐
442 tion, and columns is the number of columns in this icon manager
443 as described in IconManagerGeometry. For example:
444 IconManagers
445 {
446 "XTerm" "=300x5+800+5" 5
447 "myhost" "=400x5+100+5" 2
448 }
449 Clients whose name or class is ``XTerm'' will have an entry
450 created in the ``XTerm'' icon manager. Clients whose name was
451 ``myhost'' would be put into the ``myhost'' icon manager.
452 IconManagerShow { win-list }
454 This variable specifies a list of windows that should appear in
455 the icon manager. When used in conjunction with the IconMan‐
456 agerDontShow variable, only the windows in this list will be
457 shown in the icon manager.
458 IconRegion geomstring vgrav hgrav gridwidth gridheight
460 This variable specifies an area on the root window in which
461 icons are placed if no specific icon location is provided by
462 the client. The geomstring is a quoted string containing a
463 standard geometry specification. If more than one IconRegion
464 lines are given, icons will be put into the succeeding icon
465 regions when the first is full. The vgrav argument should be
466 either North or South and control and is used to control
467 whether icons are first filled in from the top or bottom of the
468 icon region. Similarly, the hgrav argument should be either
469 East or West and is used to control whether icons should be
470 filled in from left from the right. Icons are laid out within
471 the region in a grid with cells gridwidth pixels wide and grid‐
472 height pixels high.
473 Icons { win-list }
475 This variable specifies a list of window names and the bitmap
476 filenames that should be used as their icons. For example:
477 Icons
478 {
479 "XTerm" "xterm.icon"
480 "xfd" "xfd_icon"
481 }
482 Windows that match ``XTerm'' and would not be iconified by
483 unmapping, and would try to use the icon bitmap in the file
484 ``xterm.icon''. If ForceIcons is specified, this bitmap will
485 be used even if the client has requested its own icon pixmap.
486 InterpolateMenuColors
488 This variable indicates that menu entry colors should be inter‐
489 polated between entry specified colors. In the example below:
490 Menu "mymenu"
491 {
492 "Title" ("black":"red") f.title
493 "entry1" f.nop
494 "entry2" f.nop
495 "entry3" ("white":"green") f.nop
496 "entry4" f.nop
497 "entry5" ("red":"white") f.nop
498 }
499 the foreground colors for ``entry1'' and ``entry2'' will be
500 interpolated between black and white, and the background colors
501 between red and green. Similarly, the foreground for
502 ``entry4'' will be half-way between white and red, and the
503 background will be half-way between green and white.
504 MakeTitle { win-list }
506 This variable specifies a list of windows on which a titlebar
507 should be placed and is used to request titles on specific win‐
508 dows when NoTitle has been set.
509 MaxWindowSize string
511 This variable specifies a geometry in which the width and
512 height give the maximum size for a given window. This is typi‐
513 cally used to restrict windows to the size of the screen. The
514 default width is 32767 - screen width. The default height is
515 32767 - screen height.
516 MenuBackground string
518 This variable specifies the background color used for menus,
519 and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list.
520 The default is "white".
521 MenuBorderColor string
523 This variable specifies the color of the menu border and can
524 only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome
525 list. The default is "black".
526 MenuBorderWidth pixels
528 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
529 rounding menu windows. The default is 2.
530 MenuFont string
532 This variable specifies the font to use when displaying menus.
533 The default is "variable".
534 MenuForeground string
536 This variable specifies the foreground color used for menus,
537 and can only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
538 chrome list. The default is "black".
539 MenuShadowColor string
541 This variable specifies the color of the shadow behind pull-
542 down menus and can only be specified inside of a Color,
543 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The default is "black".
544 MenuTitleBackground string
546 This variable specifies the background color for f.title
547 entries in menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color,
548 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The default is "white".
549 MenuTitleForeground string
551 This variable specifies the foreground color for f.title
552 entries in menus and can only be specified inside of a Color or
553 Monochrome list. The default is "black".
554 Monochrome { colors }
556 This variable specifies a list of color assignments that should
557 be made if the screen has a depth of 1. See the description of
558 Colors.
559 MoveDelta pixels
561 This variable specifies the number of pixels the pointer must
562 move before the f.move function starts working. Also see the
563 f.deltastop function. The default is zero pixels.
564 NoBackingStore
566 This variable indicates that twm's menus should not request
567 backing store to minimize repainting of menus. This is typi‐
568 cally used with servers that can repaint faster than they can
569 handle backing store.
570 NoCaseSensitive
572 This variable indicates that case should be ignored when sort‐
573 ing icon names in an icon manager. This option is typically
574 used with applications that capitalize the first letter of
575 their icon name.
576 NoDefaults
578 This variable indicates that twm should not supply the default
579 titlebuttons and bindings. This option should only be used if
580 the startup file contains a completely new set of bindings and
581 definitions.
582 NoGrabServer
584 This variable indicates that twm should not grab the server
585 when popping up menus and moving opaque windows.
586 NoHighlight [{ win-list }]
588 This variable indicates that borders should not be highlighted
589 to track the location of the pointer. If the optional win-list
590 is given, highlighting will only be disabled for those windows.
591 When the border is highlighted, it will be drawn in the current
592 BorderColor. When the border is not highlighted, it will be
593 stippled with a gray pattern using the current BorderTileFore‐
594 ground and BorderTileBackground colors.
595 NoIconManagers
597 This variable indicates that no icon manager should be created.
598 NoMenuShadows
600 This variable indicates that menus should not have drop shadows
601 drawn behind them. This is typically used with slower servers
602 since it speeds up menu drawing at the expense of making the
603 menu slightly harder to read.
604 NoRaiseOnDeiconify
606 This variable indicates that windows that are deiconified
607 should not be raised.
608 NoRaiseOnMove
610 This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
611 moved. This is typically used to allow windows to slide under‐
612 neath each other.
613 NoRaiseOnResize
615 This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
616 resized. This is typically used to allow windows to be resized
617 underneath each other.
618 NoRaiseOnWarp
620 This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
621 the pointer is warped into them with the f.warpto function. If
622 this option is set, warping to an occluded window may result in
623 the pointer ending up in the occluding window instead the
624 desired window (which causes unexpected behavior with
625 f.warpring).
626 NoSaveUnders
628 This variable indicates that menus should not request save-
629 unders to minimize window repainting following menu selection.
630 It is typically used with displays that can repaint faster than
631 they can handle save-unders.
632 NoStackMode [{ win-list }]
634 This variable indicates that client window requests to change
635 stacking order should be ignored. If the optional win-list is
636 given, only requests on those windows will be ignored. This is
637 typically used to prevent applications from relentlessly pop‐
638 ping themselves to the front of the window stack.
639 NoTitle [{ win-list }]
641 This variable indicates that windows should not have titlebars.
642 If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will not
643 have titlebars. MakeTitle may be used with this option to
644 force titlebars to be put on specific windows.
645 NoTitleFocus
647 This variable indicates that twm should not set keyboard input
648 focus to each window as it is entered. Normally, twm sets the
649 focus so that focus and key events from the titlebar and icon
650 managers are delivered to the application. If the pointer is
651 moved quickly and twm is slow to respond, input can be directed
652 to the old window instead of the new. This option is typically
653 used to prevent this ``input lag'' and to work around bugs in
654 older applications that have problems with focus events.
655 NoTitleHighlight [{ win-list }]
657 This variable indicates that the highlight area of the title‐
658 bar, which is used to indicate the window that currently has
659 the input focus, should not be displayed. If the optional win-
660 list is given, only those windows will not have highlight
661 areas. This and the SqueezeTitle options can be set to sub‐
662 stantially reduce the amount of screen space required by title‐
663 bars.
664 OpaqueMove
666 This variable indicates that the f.move function should actu‐
667 ally move the window instead of just an outline so that the
668 user can immediately see what the window will look like in the
669 new position. This option is typically used on fast displays
670 (particularly if NoGrabServer is set).
671 Pixmaps { pixmaps }
673 This variable specifies a list of pixmaps that define the
674 appearance of various images. Each entry is a keyword indicat‐
675 ing the pixmap to set, followed by a string giving the name of
676 the bitmap file. The following pixmaps may be specified:
677 Pixmaps
678 {
679 TitleHighlight "gray1"
680 }
681 The default for TitleHighlight is to use an even stipple pat‐
682 tern.
683 Priority priority
685 This variable sets twm's priority. priority should be an
686 unquoted, signed number (e.g. 999). This variable has an
687 effect only if the server supports the SYNC extension.
688 RandomPlacement
690 This variable indicates that windows with no specified geometry
691 should be placed in a pseudo-random location instead of having
692 the user drag out an outline.
693 ResizeFont string
695 This variable specifies the font to be used for in the dimen‐
696 sions window when resizing windows. The default is "fixed".
697 RestartPreviousState
699 This variable indicates that twm should attempt to use the
700 WM_STATE property on client windows to tell which windows
701 should be iconified and which should be left visible. This is
702 typically used to try to regenerate the state that the screen
703 was in before the previous window manager was shutdown.
704 SaveColor { colors-list }
706 This variable indicates a list of color assignments to be
707 stored as pixel values in the root window property _MIT_PRIOR‐
708 ITY_COLORS. Clients may elect to preserve these values when
709 installing their own colormap. Note that use of this mechanism
710 is a way an for application to avoid the "technicolor" problem,
711 whereby useful screen objects such as window borders and title‐
712 bars disappear when a programs custom colors are installed by
713 the window manager. For example:
714 SaveColor
715 {
716 BorderColor
717 TitleBackground
718 TitleForeground
719 "red"
720 "green"
721 "blue"
722 }
723 This would place on the root window 3 pixel values for borders
724 and titlebars, as well as the three color strings, all taken
725 from the default colormap.
726 ShowIconManager
728 This variable indicates that the icon manager window should be
729 displayed when twm is started. It can always be brought up
730 using the f.showiconmgr function.
731 SortIconManager
733 This variable indicates that entries in the icon manager should
734 be sorted alphabetically rather than by simply appending new
735 windows to the end.
736 SqueezeTitle [{ squeeze-list }]
738 This variable indicates that twm should attempt to use the
739 SHAPE extension to make titlebars occupy only as much screen
740 space as they need, rather than extending all the way across
741 the top of the window. The optional squeeze-list may be used
742 to control the location of the squeezed titlebar along the top
743 of the window. It contains entries of the form:
744 "name" justification num denom
745 where name is a window name, justification is either left, cen‐
746 ter, or right, and num and denom are numbers specifying a ratio
747 giving the relative position about which the titlebar is justi‐
748 fied. The ratio is measured from left to right if the numera‐
749 tor is positive, and right to left if negative. A denominator
750 of 0 indicates that the numerator should be measured in pixels.
751 For convenience, the ratio 0/0 is the same as 1/2 for center
752 and -1/1 for right. For example:
753 SqueezeTitle
754 {
755 "XTerm" left 0 0
756 "xterm1" left 1 3
757 "xterm2" left 2 3
758 "oclock" center 0 0
759 "emacs" right 0 0
760 }
761 The DontSqueezeTitle list can be used to turn off squeezing on
762 certain titles.
763 StartIconified [{ win-list }]
765 This variable indicates that client windows should initially be
766 left as icons until explicitly deiconified by the user. If the
767 optional win-list is given, only those windows will be started
768 iconic. This is useful for programs that do not support an
769 -iconic command line option or resource.
770 TitleBackground string [{ win-list }]
772 This variable specifies the background color used in titlebars,
773 and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
774 chrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names
775 and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The
776 default is "white".
777 TitleButtonBorderWidth pixels
779 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
780 rounding titlebuttons. This is typically set to 0 to allow
781 titlebuttons to take up as much space as possible and to not
782 have a border. The default is 1.
783 TitleFont string
785 This variable specifies the font to be used for displaying win‐
786 dow names in titlebars. The default is "variable".
787 TitleForeground string [{ win-list }]
789 This variable specifies the foreground color used in titlebars,
790 and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
791 chrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names
792 and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The
793 default is "black".
794 TitlePadding pixels
796 This variable specifies the distance between the various but‐
797 tons, text, and highlight areas in the titlebar. The default
798 is 8 pixels.
799 UnknownIcon string
801 This variable specifies the filename of a bitmap file to be
802 used as the default icon. This bitmap will be used as the icon
803 of all clients which do not provide an icon bitmap and are not
804 listed in the Icons list.
805 UsePPosition string
807 This variable specifies whether or not twm should honor pro‐
808 gram-requested locations (given by the PPosition flag in the
809 WM_NORMAL_HINTS property) in the absence of a user-specified
810 position. The argument string may have one of three values:
811 "off" (the default) indicating that twm should ignore the pro‐
812 gram-supplied position, "on" indicating that the position
813 should be used, and "non-zero" indicating that the position
814 should used if it is other than (0,0). The latter option is
815 for working around a bug in older toolkits.
816 WarpCursor [{ win-list }]
818 This variable indicates that the pointer should be warped into
819 windows when they are deiconified. If the optional win-list is
820 given, the pointer will only be warped when those windows are
821 deiconified.
822 WindowRing { win-list }
824 This variable specifies a list of windows along which the
825 f.warpring function cycles.
826 WarpUnmapped
828 This variable indicates that the f.warpto function should
829 deiconify any iconified windows it encounters. This is typi‐
830 cally used to make a key binding that will pop a particular
831 window (such as xmh), no matter where it is. The default is
832 for f.warpto to ignore iconified windows.
833 XorValue number
835 This variable specifies the value to use when drawing window
836 outlines for moving and resizing. This should be set to a
837 value that will result in a variety of of distinguishable col‐
838 ors when exclusive-or'ed with the contents of the user's typi‐
839 cal screen. Setting this variable to 1 often gives nice
840 results if adjacent colors in the default colormap are dis‐
841 tinct. By default, twm will attempt to cause temporary lines
842 to appear at the opposite end of the colormap from the graph‐
843 ics.
844 Zoom [ count ]
846 This variable indicates that outlines suggesting movement of a
847 window to and from its iconified state should be displayed
848 whenever a window is iconified or deiconified. The optional
849 count argument specifies the number of outlines to be drawn.
850 The default count is 8.
851 The following variables must be set after the fonts have been assigned,
853 so it is usually best to put them at the end of the variables or begin‐
854 ning of the bindings sections:
855 DefaultFunction function
857 This variable specifies the function to be executed when a key
858 or button event is received for which no binding is provided.
859 This is typically bound to f.nop, f.beep, or a menu containing
860 window operations.
861 WindowFunction function
863 This variable specifies the function to execute when a window
864 is selected from the TwmWindows menu. If this variable is not
865 set, the window will be deiconified and raised.
866
868 After the desired variables have been set, functions may be attached
869 titlebuttons and key and pointer buttons. Titlebuttons may be added
870 from the left or right side and appear in the titlebar from left-to-
871 right according to the order in which they are specified. Key and
872 pointer button bindings may be given in any order.
873 Titlebuttons specifications must include the name of the pixmap to use
875 in the button box and the function to be invoked when a pointer button
876 is pressed within them:
877 LeftTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
878 or
879 RightTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
880 The bitmapname may refer to one of the built-in bitmaps (which are
881 scaled to match TitleFont) by using the appropriate colon-prefixed name
882 described above.
883 Key and pointer button specifications must give the modifiers that must
885 be pressed, over which parts of the screen the pointer must be, and
886 what function is to be invoked. Keys are given as strings containing
887 the appropriate keysym name; buttons are given as the keywords But‐
888 ton1-Button5:
889 "FP1" = modlist : context : function
890 Button1 = modlist : context : function
891 The modlist is any combination of the modifier names shift, control,
892 lock, meta, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, or mod5 (which may be abbreviated
893 as s, c, l, m, m1, m2, m3, m4, m5, respectively) separated by a verti‐
894 cal bar (|). Similarly, the context is any combination of window,
895 title, icon, root, frame, iconmgr, their first letters (iconmgr abbre‐
896 viation is m), or all, separated by a vertical bar. The function is
897 any of the f. keywords described below. For example, the default
898 startup file contains the following bindings:
899 Button1 = : root : f.menu "TwmWindows"
900 Button1 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-lower"
901 Button2 = m : window | icon : f.iconify
902 Button3 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-raise"
903 Button1 = : title : f.function "move-or-raise"
904 Button2 = : title : f.raiselower
905 Button1 = : icon : f.function "move-or-iconify"
906 Button2 = : icon : f.iconify
907 Button1 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
908 Button2 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
909 A user who wanted to be able to manipulate windows from the keyboard
910 could use the following bindings:
911 "F1" = : all : f.iconify
912 "F2" = : all : f.raiselower
913 "F3" = : all : f.warpring "next"
914 "F4" = : all : f.warpto "xmh"
915 "F5" = : all : f.warpto "emacs"
916 "F6" = : all : f.colormap "next"
917 "F7" = : all : f.colormap "default"
918 "F20" = : all : f.warptoscreen "next"
919 "Left" = m : all : f.backiconmgr
920 "Right" = m | s : all : f.forwiconmgr
921 "Up" = m : all : f.upiconmgr
922 "Down" = m | s : all : f.downiconmgr
923 Twm provides many more window manipulation primitives than can be con‐
924 veniently stored in a titlebar, menu, or set of key bindings. Although
925 a small set of defaults are supplied (unless the NoDefaults is speci‐
926 fied), most users will want to have their most common operations bound
927 to key and button strokes. To do this, twm associates names with each
928 of the primitives and provides user-defined functions for building
929 higher level primitives and menus for interactively selecting among
930 groups of functions.
931 User-defined functions contain the name by which they are referenced in
933 calls to f.function and a list of other functions to execute. For
934 example:
935 Function "move-or-lower" { f.move f.deltastop f.lower }
936 Function "move-or-raise" { f.move f.deltastop f.raise }
937 Function "move-or-iconify" { f.move f.deltastop f.iconify }
938 Function "restore-colormap" { f.colormap "default" f.lower }
939 The function name must be used in f.function exactly as it appears in
940 the function specification.
941 In the descriptions below, if the function is said to operate on the
943 selected window, but is invoked from a root menu, the cursor will be
944 changed to the Select cursor and the next window to receive a button
945 press will be chosen:
946 ! string
948 This is an abbreviation for f.exec string.
949 f.autoraise
951 This function toggles whether or not the selected window is
952 raised whenever entered by the pointer. See the description of
953 the variable AutoRaise.
954 f.backiconmgr
956 This function warps the pointer to the previous column in the
957 current icon manager, wrapping back to the previous row if nec‐
958 essary.
959 f.beep This function sounds the keyboard bell.
961 f.bottomzoom
963 This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, but
964 resizes the window to fill only the bottom half of the screen.
965 f.circledown
967 This function lowers the top-most window that occludes another
968 window.
969 f.circleup
971 This function raises the bottom-most window that is occluded by
972 another window.
973 f.colormap string
975 This function rotates the colormaps (obtained from the WM_COL‐
976 ORMAP_WINDOWS property on the window) that twm will display
977 when the pointer is in this window. The argument string may
978 have one of the following values: "next", "prev", and
979 "default". It should be noted here that in general, the
980 installed colormap is determined by keyboard focus. A pointer
981 driven keyboard focus will install a private colormap upon
982 entry of the window owning the colormap. Using the click to
983 type model, private colormaps will not be installed until the
984 user presses a mouse button on the target window.
985 f.deiconify
987 This function deiconifies the selected window. If the window
988 is not an icon, this function does nothing.
989 f.delete
991 This function sends the WM_DELETE_WINDOW message to the
992 selected window if the client application has requested it
993 through the WM_PROTOCOLS window property. The application is
994 supposed to respond to the message by removing the indicated
995 window. If the window has not requested WM_DELETE_WINDOW mes‐
996 sages, the keyboard bell will be rung indicating that the user
997 should choose an alternative method. Note this is very differ‐
998 ent from f.destroy. The intent here is to delete a single win‐
999 dow, not necessarily the entire application.
1000 f.deltastop
1002 This function allows a user-defined function to be aborted if
1003 the pointer has been moved more than MoveDelta pixels. See the
1004 example definition given for Function "move-or-raise" at the
1005 beginning of the section.
1006 f.destroy
1008 This function instructs the X server to close the display con‐
1009 nection of the client that created the selected window. This
1010 should only be used as a last resort for shutting down runaway
1011 clients. See also f.delete.
1012 f.downiconmgr
1014 This function warps the pointer to the next row in the current
1015 icon manger, wrapping to the beginning of the next column if
1016 necessary.
1017 f.exec string
1019 This function passes the argument string to /bin/sh for execu‐
1020 tion. In multiscreen mode, if string starts a new X client
1021 without giving a display argument, the client will appear on
1022 the screen from which this function was invoked.
1023 f.focus This function toggles the keyboard focus of the server to the
1025 selected window, changing the focus rule from pointer-driven if
1026 necessary. If the selected window already was focused, this
1027 function executes an f.unfocus.
1028 f.forcemove
1030 This function is like f.move except that it ignores the Dont‐
1031 MoveOff variable.
1032 f.forwiconmgr
1034 This function warps the pointer to the next column in the cur‐
1035 rent icon manager, wrapping to the beginning of the next row if
1036 necessary.
1037 f.fullzoom
1039 This function resizes the selected window to the full size of
1040 the display or else restores the original size if the window
1041 was already zoomed.
1042 f.function string
1044 This function executes the user-defined function whose name is
1045 specified by the argument string.
1046 f.hbzoom
1048 This function is a synonym for f.bottomzoom.
1049 f.hideiconmgr
1051 This function unmaps the current icon manager.
1052 f.horizoom
1054 This variable is similar to the f.zoom function except that the
1055 selected window is resized to the full width of the display.
1056 f.htzoom
1058 This function is a synonym for f.topzoom.
1059 f.hzoom This function is a synonym for f.horizoom.
1061 f.iconify
1063 This function iconifies or deiconifies the selected window or
1064 icon, respectively.
1065 f.identify
1067 This function displays a summary of the name and geometry of
1068 the selected window. If the server supports the SYNC exten‐
1069 sion, the priority of the client owning the window is also dis‐
1070 played. Clicking the pointer or pressing a key in the window
1071 will dismiss it.
1072 f.lefticonmgr
1074 This function similar to f.backiconmgr except that wrapping
1075 does not change rows.
1076 f.leftzoom
1078 This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function but
1079 causes the selected window is only resized to the left half of
1080 the display.
1081 f.lower This function lowers the selected window.
1083 f.menu string
1085 This function invokes the menu specified by the argument
1086 string. Cascaded menus may be built by nesting calls to
1087 f.menu.
1088 f.move This function drags an outline of the selected window (or the
1090 window itself if the OpaqueMove variable is set) until the
1091 invoking pointer button is released. Double clicking within
1092 the number of milliseconds given by ConstrainedMoveTime warps
1093 the pointer to the center of the window and constrains the move
1094 to be either horizontal or vertical depending on which grid
1095 line is crossed. To abort a move, press another button before
1096 releasing the first button.
1097 f.nexticonmgr
1099 This function warps the pointer to the next icon manager con‐
1100 taining any windows on the current or any succeeding screen.
1101 f.nop This function does nothing and is typically used with the
1103 DefaultFunction or WindowFunction variables or to introduce
1104 blank lines in menus.
1105 f.previconmgr
1107 This function warps the pointer to the previous icon manager
1108 containing any windows on the current or preceding screens.
1109 f.priority string
1111 This function sets the priority of the client owning the
1112 selected window to the numeric value of the argument string,
1113 which should be a signed integer in double quotes (e.g. "999"
1114 ). This function has an effect only if the server supports the
1115 SYNC extension.
1116 f.quit This function causes twm to restore the window's borders and
1118 exit. If twm is the first client invoked from xdm, this will
1119 result in a server reset.
1120 f.raise This function raises the selected window.
1122 f.raiselower
1124 This function raises the selected window to the top of the
1125 stacking order if it is occluded by any windows, otherwise the
1126 window will be lowered.
1127 f.refresh
1129 This function causes all windows to be refreshed.
1130 f.resize
1132 This function displays an outline of the selected window.
1133 Crossing a border (or setting AutoRelativeResize) will cause
1134 the outline to begin to rubber band until the invoking button
1135 is released. To abort a resize, press another button before
1136 releasing the first button.
1137 f.restart
1139 This function kills and restarts twm.
1140 f.startwm string
1142 This function kills twm and starts another window manager, as
1143 specified by string.
1144 f.righticonmgr
1146 This function is similar to f.nexticonmgr except that wrapping
1147 does not change rows.
1148 f.rightzoom
1150 This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except
1151 that the selected window is only resized to the right half of
1152 the display.
1153 f.saveyourself
1155 This function sends a WM_SAVEYOURSELF message to the selected
1156 window if it has requested the message in its WM_PROTOCOLS win‐
1157 dow property. Clients that accept this message are supposed to
1158 checkpoint all state associated with the window and update the
1159 WM_COMMAND property as specified in the ICCCM. If the selected
1160 window has not selected for this message, the keyboard bell
1161 will be rung.
1162 f.showiconmgr
1164 This function maps the current icon manager.
1165 f.sorticonmgr
1167 This function sorts the entries in the current icon manager
1168 alphabetically. See the variable SortIconManager.
1169 f.title This function provides a centered, unselectable item in a menu
1171 definition. It should not be used in any other context.
1172 f.topzoom
1174 This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except
1175 that the selected window is only resized to the top half of the
1176 display.
1177 f.unfocus
1179 This function resets the focus back to pointer-driven. This
1180 should be used when a focused window is no longer desired.
1181 f.upiconmgr
1183 This function warps the pointer to the previous row in the cur‐
1184 rent icon manager, wrapping to the last row in the same column
1185 if necessary.
1186 f.vlzoom
1188 This function is a synonym for f.leftzoom.
1189 f.vrzoom
1191 This function is a synonym for f.rightzoom.
1192 f.warpring string
1194 This function warps the pointer to the next or previous window
1195 (as indicated by the argument string, which may be "next" or
1196 "prev") specified in the WindowRing variable.
1197 f.warpto string
1199 This function warps the pointer to the window which has a name
1200 or class that matches string. If the window is iconified, it
1201 will be deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or else
1202 ignored.
1203 f.warptoiconmgr string
1205 This function warps the pointer to the icon manager entry asso‐
1206 ciated with the window containing the pointer in the icon man‐
1207 ager specified by the argument string. If string is empty
1208 (i.e. ""), the current icon manager is chosen.
1209 f.warptoscreen string
1211 This function warps the pointer to the screen specified by the
1212 argument string. String may be a number (e.g. "0" or "1"), the
1213 word "next" (indicating the current screen plus 1, skipping
1214 over any unmanaged screens), the word "back" (indicating the
1215 current screen minus 1, skipping over any unmanaged screens),
1216 or the word "prev" (indicating the last screen visited.
1217 f.winrefresh
1219 This function is similar to the f.refresh function except that
1220 only the selected window is refreshed.
1221 f.zoom This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, except
1223 that the only the height of the selected window is changed.
1224
1226 Functions may be grouped and interactively selected using pop-up (when
1227 bound to a pointer button) or pull-down (when associated with a title‐
1228 button) menus. Each menu specification contains the name of the menu
1229 as it will be referred to by f.menu, optional default foreground and
1230 background colors, the list of item names and the functions they should
1231 invoke, and optional foreground and background colors for individual
1232 items:
1233 Menu "menuname" [ ("deffore":"defback") ]
1234 {
1235 string1 [ ("fore1":"backn")] function1
1236 string2 [ ("fore2":"backn")] function2
1237 .
1238 .
1239 .
1240 stringN [ ("foreN":"backN")] functionN
1241 }
1242 The menuname is case-sensitive. The optional deffore and defback argu‐
1244 ments specify the foreground and background colors used on a color dis‐
1245 play to highlight menu entries. The string portion of each menu entry
1246 will be the text which will appear in the menu. The optional fore and
1247 back arguments specify the foreground and background colors of the menu
1248 entry when the pointer is not in the entry. These colors will only be
1249 used on a color display. The default is to use the colors specified by
1250 the MenuForeground and MenuBackground variables. The function portion
1251 of the menu entry is one of the functions, including any user-defined
1252 functions, or additional menus.
1253 There is a special menu named TwmWindows which contains the names of
1255 all of the client and twm-supplied windows. Selecting an entry will
1256 cause the WindowFunction to be executed on that window. If WindowFunc‐
1257 tion hasn't been set, the window will be deiconified and raised.
1258
1260 Twm supports several different ways of manipulating iconified windows.
1261 The common pixmap-and-text style may be laid out by hand or automati‐
1262 cally arranged as described by the IconRegion variable. In addition, a
1263 terse grid of icon names, called an icon manager, provides a more effi‐
1264 cient use of screen space as well as the ability to navigate among win‐
1265 dows from the keyboard.
1266 An icon manager is a window that contains names of selected or all win‐
1268 dows currently on the display. In addition to the window name, a small
1269 button using the default iconify symbol will be displayed to the left
1270 of the name when the window is iconified. By default, clicking on an
1271 entry in the icon manager performs f.iconify. To change the actions
1272 taken in the icon manager, use the the iconmgr context when specifying
1273 button and keyboard bindings.
1274 Moving the pointer into the icon manager also directs keyboard focus to
1276 the indicated window (setting the focus explicitly or else sending syn‐
1277 thetic events NoTitleFocus is set). Using the f.upiconmgr, f.downicon‐
1278 mgr f.lefticonmgr, and f.righticonmgr functions, the input focus can be
1279 changed between windows directly from the keyboard.
1280
1282 The resource manager should have been used instead of all of the window
1283 lists.
1284 The IconRegion variable should take a list.
1286 Double clicking very fast to get the constrained move function will
1288 sometimes cause the window to move, even though the pointer is not
1289 moved.
1290 If IconifyByUnmapping is on and windows are listed in IconManager‐
1292 DontShow but not in DontIconifyByUnmapping, they may be lost if they
1293 are iconified and no bindings to f.menu "TwmWindows" or f.warpto are
1294 setup.
1295
1297 $HOME/.twmrc.<screen number>
1298 $HOME/.twmrc
1299 /usr/lib/X11/twm/system.twmrc
1300
1302 DISPLAY This variable is used to determine which X server to use. It
1303 is also set during f.exec so that programs come up on the
1304 proper screen.
1305 HOME This variable is used as the prefix for files that begin with a
1307 tilde and for locating the twm startup file.
1308
1310 X(7), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xrdb(1)
1311
1313 Tom LaStrange, Solbourne Computer; Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium; Steve
1314 Pitschke, Stardent Computer; Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium; Dave
1315 Sternlicht, MIT X Consortium; Dave Payne, Apple Computer.
1316X Version 11 twm 1.0.9 TWM(1)