1I3(1) i3 Manual I3(1)
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6 i3 - an improved dynamic, tiling window manager
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9 i3 [-a] [-c configfile] [-C] [-d all] [-v] [-V]
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12 -a
13 Disables autostart.
14 -c
16 Specifies an alternate configuration file path.
17 -C
19 Check the configuration file for validity and exit.
20 -d all
22 Enables debug logging. The all parameter is present for historical
23 reasons.
24 -v
26 Display version number (and date of the last commit).
27 -V
29 Be verbose.
30 --force-xinerama
32 Use Xinerama instead of RandR. This option should only be used if
33 you are stuck with the old nVidia closed source driver (older than
34 302.17) which does not support RandR.
35 --get-socketpath
37 Retrieve the i3 IPC socket path from X11, print it, then exit.
38 --shmlog-size <limit>
40 Limits the size of the i3 SHM log to <limit> bytes. Setting this to
41 0 disables SHM logging entirely. The default is 0 bytes.
42
44 INTRODUCTION
45 i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time,
46 didn’t provide some features we wanted (multi-monitor done right, for
47 example), had some bugs, didn’t progress since quite some time and
48 wasn’t easy to hack at all (source code comments/documentation
49 completely lacking). Still, we think the wmii developers and
50 contributors did a great job. Thank you for inspiring us to create i3.
51 Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and
53 developers.
54 IMPORTANT NOTE TO nVidia BINARY DRIVER USERS
56 If you are using the nVidia binary graphics driver (also known as blob)
57 before version 302.17, you need to use the --force-xinerama flag (in
58 your ~/.xsession) when starting i3, like so:
59 exec i3 --force-xinerama -V >>~/.i3/i3log 2>&1
61 See also docs/multi-monitor for the full explanation.
63 TERMINOLOGY
65 Tree
66 i3 keeps your layout in a tree data structure.
67 Window
69 An X11 window, like the Firefox browser window or a terminal
70 emulator.
71 Floating Window
73 A window which "floats" on top of other windows. This style is used
74 by i3 to display X11 windows with type "dialog", such as the
75 "Print" or "Open File" dialog boxes in many GUI applications. Use
76 of floating windows can be fine-tuned with the for_window command
77 (see HTML userguide).
78 Split container
80 A split container contains multiple other split containers or
81 windows.
82 Containers can be used in various layouts. The default mode is
84 called "default" and just resizes each client equally so that it
85 fits.
86 Workspace
88 A workspace is a set of containers. Other window managers call this
89 "Virtual Desktops".
90 In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By
92 default, screen 1 has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so
93 on... However, when you create a new workspace (by simply switching
94 to it), it’ll be assigned the screen you are currently on.
95 Output
97 Using XRandR, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real
98 monitors. Furthermore, you can set them up in cloning mode or with
99 positions (monitor 1 is left of monitor 2).
100 i3 uses the RandR API to query which outputs are available and
102 which screens are connected to these outputs.
103
105 Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:
106 Mod1+Enter
108 Open a new terminal emulator window.
109 Mod1+d
111 Open dmenu for starting any application by typing (part of) its
112 name.
113 j/k/l/;
115 Direction keys (left, down, up, right). They are on your homerow
116 (see the mark on your "j" key). Alternatively, you can use the
117 cursor keys.
118 Mod1+<direction>
120 Focus window in <direction>.
121 Mod1+Shift+<direction>
123 Move window to <direction>.
124 Mod1+<number>
126 Switch to workspace <number>.
127 Mod1+Shift+<number>
129 Move window to workspace <number>.
130 Mod1+f
132 Toggle fullscreen mode.
133 Mod1+s
135 Enable stacking layout for the current container.
136 Mod1+e
138 Enable default layout for the current container.
139 Mod1+w
141 Enable tabbed layout for the current container.
142 Mod1+Shift+Space
144 Toggle tiling/floating for the current container.
145 Mod1+Space
147 Select the first tiling container if the current container is
148 floating and vice-versa.
149 Mod1+Shift+q
151 Kills the current window. This is equivalent to "clicking on the
152 close button", meaning a polite request to the application to close
153 this window. For example, Firefox will save its session upon such a
154 request. If the application does not support that, the window will
155 be killed and it depends on the application what happens.
156 Mod1+Shift+r
158 Restarts i3 in place. Your layout will be preserved.
159 Mod1+Shift+e
161 Exits i3.
162
164 ~/.config/i3/config (or ~/.i3/config)
165 When starting, i3 looks for configuration files in the following order:
166 1. ~/.config/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3/config if set)
168 2. ~/.i3/config
170 3. /etc/xdg/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3/config if set)
172 4. /etc/i3/config
174 You can specify a custom path using the -c option.
176 Sample configuration.
178 # i3 config file (v4)
180 # Font for window titles. Will also be used by the bar unless a different font
182 # is used in the bar {} block below.
183 # This font is widely installed, provides lots of unicode glyphs, right-to-left
184 # text rendering and scalability on retina/hidpi displays (thanks to pango).
185 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 8
186 # Before i3 v4.8, we used to recommend this one as the default:
187 # font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
188 # The font above is very space-efficient, that is, it looks good, sharp and
189 # clear in small sizes. However, its unicode glyph coverage is limited, the old
190 # X core fonts rendering does not support right-to-left and this being a bitmap
191 # font, it doesn’t scale on retina/hidpi displays.
192 # use Mouse+Mod1 to drag floating windows to their wanted position
194 floating_modifier Mod1
195 # start a terminal
197 bindsym Mod1+Return exec /usr/bin/urxvt
198 # kill focused window
200 bindsym Mod1+Shift+q kill
201 # start dmenu (a program launcher)
203 bindsym Mod1+d exec /usr/bin/dmenu_run
204 # change focus
206 bindsym Mod1+j focus left
207 bindsym Mod1+k focus down
208 bindsym Mod1+l focus up
209 bindsym Mod1+semicolon focus right
210 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
212 bindsym Mod1+Left focus left
213 bindsym Mod1+Down focus down
214 bindsym Mod1+Up focus up
215 bindsym Mod1+Right focus right
216 # move focused window
218 bindsym Mod1+Shift+j move left
219 bindsym Mod1+Shift+k move down
220 bindsym Mod1+Shift+l move up
221 bindsym Mod1+Shift+semicolon move right
222 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
224 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Left move left
225 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Down move down
226 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Up move up
227 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Right move right
228 # split in horizontal orientation
230 bindsym Mod1+h split h
231 # split in vertical orientation
233 bindsym Mod1+v split v
234 # enter fullscreen mode for the focused container
236 bindsym Mod1+f fullscreen toggle
237 # change container layout (stacked, tabbed, default)
239 bindsym Mod1+s layout stacking
240 bindsym Mod1+w layout tabbed
241 bindsym Mod1+e layout default
242 # toggle tiling / floating
244 bindsym Mod1+Shift+space floating toggle
245 # change focus between tiling / floating windows
247 bindsym Mod1+space focus mode_toggle
248 # focus the parent container
250 bindsym Mod1+a focus parent
251 # focus the child container
253 #bindsym Mod1+d focus child
254 # switch to workspace
256 bindsym Mod1+1 workspace 1
257 bindsym Mod1+2 workspace 2
258 # ..
259 # move focused container to workspace
261 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 move workspace 1
262 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 move workspace 2
263 # ...
264 # reload the configuration file
266 bindsym Mod1+Shift+c reload
267 # restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3)
268 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
269 # exit i3 (logs you out of your X session)
270 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
271 # display workspace buttons plus a statusline generated by i3status
273 bar {
274 status_command i3status
275 }
276 ~/.xsession
279 This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It
280 is run by your login manager (xdm, slim, gdm, ...) as soon as you
281 login.
282 Sample xsession.
284 # Disable DPMS turning off the screen
286 xset -dpms
287 xset s off
288 # Disable bell
290 xset -b
291 # Enable zapping (C-A-<Bksp> kills X)
293 setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
294 # Enforce correct locales from the beginning:
296 # LC_ALL is unset since it overwrites everything
297 # LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 is used, except for:
298 # LC_MESSAGES=C never translates program output
299 # LC_TIME=en_DK leads to yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm date/time output
300 unset LC_ALL
301 export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
302 export LC_MESSAGES=C
303 export LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8
304 # Use XToolkit in java applications
306 export AWT_TOOLKIT=XToolkit
307 # Set background color
309 xsetroot -solid "#333333"
310 # Enable core dumps in case something goes wrong
312 ulimit -c unlimited
313 # Start i3 and log to ~/.i3/logfile
315 echo "Starting at $(date)" >> ~/.i3/logfile
316 exec /usr/bin/i3 -V -d all >> ~/.i3/logfile
317
320 I3SOCK
321 This variable overwrites the IPC socket path (placed in
322 /tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p by default, where %u is replaced with
323 your UNIX username, %p is replaced with i3’s PID and XXXXXX is a string
324 of random characters from the portable filename character set (see
325 mkdtemp(3))). The IPC socket is used by external programs like
326 i3-msg(1) or i3bar(1).
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329 There is still lot of work to do. Please check our bugtracker for
330 up-to-date information about tasks which are still not finished.
331
333 You should have a copy of the userguide (featuring nice
334 screenshots/graphics which is why this is not integrated into this
335 manpage), the debugging guide, and the "how to hack" guide. If you are
336 building from source, run: make -C docs
337 You can also access these documents online at https://i3wm.org/
339 i3-input(1), i3-msg(1), i3bar(1), i3-nagbar(1), i3-config-wizard(1),
341 i3-migrate-config-to-v4(1)
342
344 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
345i3 4.18.1 04/22/2020 I3(1)