1CWM(1) BSD General Commands Manual CWM(1)
2
4 cwm — a lightweight and efficient window manager for X11
5
7 cwm [-v] [-c file] [-d display]
8
10 cwm is a window manager for X11 which contains many features that concen‐
11 trate on the efficiency and transparency of window management, while
12 maintaining the simplest and most pleasant aesthetic.
13 The options are as follows:
15 -c file
17 Specify an alternative configuration file. By default, cwm loads
18 ~/.cwmrc, if present. Any error messages from lines in the con‐
19 figuration file will be sent to stderr; however, cwm will con‐
20 tinue to process the rest of the configuration file.
21 -d display
23 Specify the display to use.
24 -v Verbose mode. Multiple -v options increase the verbosity.
26 cwm actions are initiated either via key or mouse bindings. The follow‐
28 ing notations are used throughout this page:
29 C Control key.
31 M Meta key.
32 S Shift key.
33 4 Mod4 (windows) key.
34 M1 Left mouse button.
35 M2 Middle mouse button.
36 M3 Right mouse button.
37 The default key bindings are:
39 CM-Return Spawn a new terminal.
41 CM-Delete Lock the screen.
42 M-Return Hide current window.
43 M-Down Lower current window.
44 M-Up Raise current window.
45 M-slash Search for windows.
46 C-slash Search for applications.
47 CM-n Label current window.
48 M-Tab Cycle through currently visible windows.
49 MS-Tab Reverse cycle through currently visible windows.
50 CM-x Delete current window.
51 CM-[n] Toggle visibility of group n, where n is 1-9.
52 CM-a Toggle visibility of all groups.
53 CM-g Toggle group membership of current window.
54 M-Right Cycle through active groups.
55 M-Left Reverse cycle through active groups.
56 CMS-f Toggle freezing geometry of current window.
57 CM-s Toggle stickiness of current window.
58 CM-f Toggle full-screen mode of current window.
59 CM-m Toggle maximization of current window.
60 CM-equal Toggle vertical maximization of current window.
61 CMS-equal Toggle horizontal maximization of current window.
62 M-[hjkl] Move window by a small amount.
63 MS-[hjkl] Move window by a large amount; see cwmrc(5).
64 CM-[hjkl] Resize window by a small amount.
65 CMS-[hjkl] Resize window by a large amount; see cwmrc(5).
66 M-question Spawn “exec program” dialog.
67 M-period Spawn “ssh to” dialog. This parses
68 $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts to provide host auto-comple‐
69 tion. ssh(1) will be executed via the configured
70 terminal emulator.
71 CM-w Spawn “exec WindowManager” menu, allowing a switch
72 to another window manager.
73 CMS-r Restart.
74 CMS-q Quit.
75 The default mouse bindings are:
77 M-M1 Move current window.
79 CM-M1 Toggle group membership of current window.
80 M-M2 Resize current window
81 M-M3 Lower current window.
82 CMS-M3 Hide current window.
83 The following key bindings may be used to navigate search and exec
85 dialogs:
86 [Return] Select item.
88 [Down], C-s or M-j Next item.
89 [Up], C-r or M-k Previous item.
90 [Backspace] or C-h Backspace.
91 C-u Clear input.
92 C-a List all available items.
93 [Esc] Cancel.
94 cwm rereads its configuration file when it receives a hangup signal,
96 SIGHUP, by executing itself with the name and arguments with which it was
97 started. This is equivalent to the restart function.
98
100 cwm features the ability to search for windows by their current title,
101 old titles, and by their label. The priority for the search results are:
102 label, current title, old titles in reverse order, and finally window
103 class name. cwm keeps a history of the 5 previous titles of a window.
104 When searching, the leftmost character of the result list may show a
106 flag:
107 ! Window is currently focused.
109 & Window is hidden.
110
112 cwm has the ability to group windows together, and use the groups to per‐
113 form operations on the entire group instead of just one window. Together
114 with the sticky option, this can be used to emulate virtual desktops.
115 To edit groups, use the group selection commands to toggle membership of
117 a group. A blue border will be shown briefly on windows added to the
118 current group, and a red border will be shown on those just removed.
119
121 Menus are recalled by clicking the mouse on the root window:
122 M1 Show list of currently defined windows. Selecting an item
124 will warp to that window, unhiding it if necessary.
125 M2 Show list of currently defined groups. Selecting an item
126 will hide/unhide that group.
127 M3 Show list of applications as defined in ~/.cwmrc. Select‐
128 ing an item will spawn that application.
129
131 DISPLAY cwm starts on this display unless the -d option is given.
132
134 ~/.cwmrc Default cwm configuration file.
135
137 cwmrc(5)
138
140 cwm was originally inspired by evilwm, but was rewritten from scratch due
141 to limitations in the evilwm codebase. The from-scratch rewrite borrowed
142 some code from 9wm, however that code has since been removed or rewrit‐
143 ten.
144 cwm first appeared in OpenBSD 4.2.
146
148 cwm was developed by Marius Aamodt Eriksen <marius@monkey.org> with con‐
149 tributions from Andy Adamson <dros@monkey.org>, Niels Provos
150 <provos@monkey.org>, and Antti Nykänen <aon@iki.fi>. Ideas, discussion
151 with many others.
152BSD June 20, 2019 BSD