1bemenu(1) General Commands Manual bemenu(1)
2
6 bemenu - dynamic menu inspired by dmenu(1)
7
9 bemenu [-hivwx] [-I <index>] [-l <lines>] [-P prefix]
10 [-p <prompt>] [--ifne] [--scrollbar none|always|autohide] [back‐
11 end_options]
12 bemenu-run [-hivwx] [-I <index>] [-l <lines>] [-P <prefix>]
14 [-p <prompt>] [--ifne] [--scrollbar none|always|autohide] [--fork]
15 [--no-exec] [backend-options]
16
18 bemenu is a dynamic menu for tty(4) (using ncurses(3)), X11 and Way‐
19 land, inspired by dmenu(1).
20 It reads a list of newline-separated items from standard input and then
22 presents them as a list, where the user can select one or more of them.
23 When pressing <carriage-return>, the selected items are printed to
24 standard output (one per line) and bemenu exits.
25 Entering text will filter the items to those that match the input. If
27 the number of items exceeds the size of the list, the items will be
28 paginated.
29 bemenu-run is a special-case invocation of bemenu, where the input is
31 the list of executables under PATH and the selected items are executed.
32
34 -h, --help
35 Print a help message to standard output and exit.
36 -I, --index <index>
38 Highlight the item at index at the start. Indices start at 0. By
39 default, the first item is highlighted.
40 -i, --ignorecase
42 Filter items case-insensitively.
43 -l, --list <number>
45 List items vertically with the given number of lines.
46 -P, --prefix <prefix>
48 Display prefix before the highlighted item in a vertical list.
49 -p, --prompt <prompt>
51 Defines the prompt text to be displayed to the left of the input
52 field. Defaults to ‘bemenu’.
53 -v, --version
55 Print the bemenu version number to standard output and exit.
56 -w, --wrap
58 Advancing past the end of the list returns you to the start.
59 -x, --password
61 Hide filter text.
62 --fork
64 Always fork(2) before executing the selections. Disabled by default
65 when using the terminal backend.
66 --no-exec
68 Print the selected items to standard output instead of executing
69 them.
70 --scrollbar none|always|autohide
72 Specify when to show a scrollbar for vertical lists:
73 ┌─────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
75 │none │ Never display a scrollbar (the default). │
76 ├─────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
77 │always │ Always display a scrollbar. │
78 ├─────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
79 │autohide │ Only display a scrollbar when the number of items exceeds │
80 │ │ the number of lines. │
81 └─────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
82 Backend options
84 These options are only available on backends specified in the parenthe‐
85 ses:
86 -b, --bottom (Wayland, X11)
88 The list will appear at the bottom of the screen.
89 -f, --grab (Wayland, X11)
91 Show the bemenu window whilst reading the items.
92 -H, --line-height <height> (Wayland, X11)
94 Specify the height in point size to make each entry.
95 -m, --monitor <index> (Wayland, X11)
97 Specify the monitor index where the list should appear. Monitor in‐
98 dices start at zero. The interpretation of the given argument de‐
99 pends on the utilized backend. With X11 and Wayland, a value of
100 ‘-1’ or focused indicates that the current monitor should be used
101 (the default). With Wayland, the index should be a string specify‐
102 ing a specific monitor name. The value ‘-2’ or all indicates that
103 the list should appear on all monitors.
104 -n, --no-overlap (Wayland)
106 Set the bemenu window to be on top of any other panels.
107 -M, --margin <margin> (Wayland, X11)
109 Specify the margin (empty space) in pixels to leave between menu
110 and vertical view borders. bemenu will reduce it's size to fit in
111 space between gaps.
112 -W, --width-factor <factor> (Wayland, X11)
114 Specify the relative width factor as a floating point number. It
115 makes sense to set it between 0 and 1 to define how much of the
116 screen width bemenu will use. However, bemenu will still respect
117 margin, so if resulting size is greater than space between gaps,
118 bemenu will ignore factor and use available space instead.
119 --fn <name [size]> (Wayland, X11)
121 Specify the font family name and size to be used. For more options,
122 consult the Pango Reference Manual for pango_font_descrip‐
123 tion_from_string().
124 The following options control the colours for various parts of the list
126 for the Wayland and X11 backends. Each takes an argument in the form
127 of:
128 #RGB[A]
130 where R, G, B and A are hexadecimal integers from 00–FF that control
132 the red, green, blue and alpha-transparency channels.
133 --tb <color> Title background.
135 --tf <color> Title foreground.
137 --fb <color> Filter background.
139 --ff <color> Filter foreground
141 --cb <color> Cursor background.
143 --cf <color> Cursor foreground
145 --nb <color> Normal background.
147 --nf <color> Normal foreground.
149 --hb <color> Highlighted background.
151 --hf <color> Highlighted foreground.
153 --sb <color> Selected background.
155 --sf <color> Selected foreground.
157 --scb <color> Scrollbar background.
159 --scf <color> Scrollbar foreground.
161
163 bemenu supports keyboard commands to move around the list and edit the
164 filter. In the following examples, C-x means <control-x>, M-x means
165 <alt-x> and S-x means <shift-x>:
166 <cursor-up>, S-<cursor-left>, C-p, M-j, M-l
168 Highlight the previous item.
169 <cursor-down>, <tab>, C-n, M-h, M-k
171 Highlight the next item.
172 PageUp, M-v, M-u
174 Show the previous page of items, preserving the offset of the cur‐
175 rently highlighted item, if possible.
176 PageDown, C-v, M-d
178 Show the next page of items, preserving the offset of the currently
179 highlighted item, if possible.
180 S-M-<, S-PageUp
182 Highlight the first item in the list.
183 S-M->, S-PageDown
185 Highlight the last item in the list.
186 S-<tab>
188 Copy the highlighted item to the filter.
189 <escape>, C-g
191 Terminate bemenu without printing items.
192 C-<carriage-return>, C-m
194 Print selected items and the currently highlighted one, and exit.
195 Items are printed in the order they were selected, with the cur‐
196 rently highlighted item printed last.
197 S-<carriage-return>, Insert
199 Print the filter text to standard output and exit.
200 C-l, <cursor-left>
202 Move cursor left.
203 C-f, <cursor-right>
205 Move cursor right.
206 C-a, Home
208 Move cursor to the start.
209 C-e, End
211 Move cursor to the end.
212 <backspace> C-h
214 Remove character before the cursor.
215 <delete>
217 Remove character at the cursor.
218 C-u, S-<delete>
220 Remove all characters before the cursor.
221 C-k
223 Remove all characters after the cursor.
224 C-w
226 Clear the filter.
227 C-y
229 Paste the clipboard.
230 M-[0-9]
232 Print selected items and exit with a custom error code. See EXIT
233 STATUS.
234
236 ┌─────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
237 │BEMENU_OPTS │ An alternative way to pass command line arguments │
238 │ │ to bemenu. │
239 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
240 │BEMENU_BACKEND │ Force a backend to be used. If empty, one of the │
241 │ │ GUI backends (Wayland, X11) will be selected auto‐ │
242 │ │ matically. The accepted values are curses, wayland │
243 │ │ and x11. │
244 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
245 │BEMENU_RENDERER │ Force a backend by loading its shared object from │
246 │ │ the set value. │
247 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
248 │BEMENU_RENDERERS │ Override the backend search path to the set value. │
249 │ │ Defaults to /usr/lib64/bemenu. │
250 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
251 │BEMENU_SCALE │ Override the rendering scale factor for the GUI │
252 │ │ backends. │
253 └─────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
254
256 bemenu exits 0 on success, 1 if the user exited without selecting or an
257 error, and if exiting with a custom error code, 10 plus the number
258 specified.
259
261 dmenu(1), fork(2), ncurses(3), tty(4)
262 Pango Reference Manual, https://developer.gnome.org/pango/1.46/, August
264 20, 2020, Fonts — pango_font_description_from_string().
265
267 bemenu is written and maintained by Jari Vetoniemi <mail‐
268 roxas@gmail.com> with the help of various contributors.
269 2022-07-11 bemenu(1)