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 ti‐
24 tlebar at the top and a special border around the window. The titlebar
25 contains the window's name, a rectangle that is lit when the window is
26 receiving keyboard input, and function boxes known as “titlebuttons” at
27 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 de‐
34 iconified by clicking in the associated icon or entry in the icon man‐
35 ager (see description of the variable ShowIconManager and of the func‐
36 tion 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 ti‐
42 tle or highlight region, dragging a window outline to the new location,
43 and then releasing when the outline is in the desired position. Just
44 clicking in the title or highlight region raises the window without
45 moving it.
46 When new windows are created, twm will honor any size and location in‐
48 formation requested by the user (usually through -geometry command line
49 argument or resources for the individual applications). Otherwise, an
50 outline of the window's default size, its titlebar, and lines dividing
51 the window into a 3x3 grid that track the pointer are displayed.
52 Clicking pointer Button1 will position the window at the current posi‐
53 tion and give it the default size. Pressing pointer Button2 (usually
54 the middle pointer button) and dragging the outline will give the win‐
55 dow its current position but allow the sides to be resized as described
56 above. Clicking pointer Button3 (usually the right pointer button)
57 will give the window its current position but attempt to make it long
58 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 de‐
104 scribed 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" }
135 or
137 AutoRaise
139 {
140 "emacs"
141 "XTerm"
142 "Xmh"
143 }
144 When a variable containing a list of strings representing windows is
146 searched (e.g., to determine whether or not to enable autoraise as
147 shown above), a string must be an exact, case-sensitive match to the
148 window's name (given by the WM_NAME window property), resource name or
149 class name (both given by the WM_CLASS window property). The preceding
150 example would enable autoraise on windows named “emacs” as well as any
151 xterm (since they are of class “XTerm”) or xmh windows (which are of
152 class “Xmh”).
153 String arguments that are interpreted as filenames (see the Pixmaps,
155 Cursors, and IconDirectory below) will prepend the user's directory
156 (specified by the HOME environment variable) if the first character is
157 a tilde (~). If, instead, the first character is a colon (:), the name
158 is assumed to refer to one of the internal bitmaps that are used to
159 create the default titlebars symbols: :xlogo or :delete (both refer to
160 the X logo), :dot or :iconify (both refer to the dot), :resize (the
161 nested squares used by the resize button), :menu (a page with lines),
162 and :question (the question mark used for non-existent bitmap files).
163 The following variables may be specified at the top of a twm startup
165 file. Lists of Window name prefix strings are indicated by win-list.
166 Optional arguments are shown in square brackets:
167 AutoRaise { win-list }
169 This variable specifies a list of windows that should automati‐
170 cally be raised whenever the pointer enters the window. This
171 action can be interactively enabled or disabled on individual
172 windows using the function f.autoraise.
173 AutoRelativeResize
175 This variable indicates that dragging out a window size (either
176 when initially sizing the window with pointer Button2 or when
177 resizing it) should not wait until the pointer has crossed the
178 window edges. Instead, moving the pointer automatically causes
179 the nearest edge or edges to move by the same amount. This al‐
180 lows the resizing of windows that extend off the edge of the
181 screen. If the pointer is in the center of the window, or if
182 the resize is begun by pressing a titlebutton, twm will still
183 wait for the pointer to cross a window edge (to prevent acci‐
184 dents). This option is particularly useful for people who like
185 the press-drag-release method of sweeping out window sizes.
186 BorderColor string [{ wincolorlist }]
188 This variable specifies the default color of the border to be
189 placed around all non-iconified windows, and may only be given
190 within a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional
191 wincolorlist specifies a list of window and color name pairs
192 for specifying particular border colors for different types of
193 windows. For example:
194 BorderColor "gray50"
196 {
197 "XTerm" "red"
198 "xmh" "green"
199 }
200 The default is "black".
202 BorderTileBackground string [{ wincolorlist }]
204 This variable specifies the default background color in the
205 gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight
206 hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color,
207 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows
208 per-window colors to be specified. The default is "white".
209 BorderTileForeground string [{ wincolorlist }]
211 This variable specifies the default foreground color in the
212 gray pattern used in unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight
213 hasn't been set), and may only be given within a Color,
214 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows
215 per-window colors to be specified. The default is "black".
216 BorderWidth pixels
218 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
219 rounding all client window frames if ClientBorderWidth has not
220 been specified. This value is also used to set the border size
221 of windows created by twm (such as the icon manager). The de‐
222 fault is 2.
223 ButtonIndent pixels
225 This variable specifies the amount by which titlebuttons should
226 be indented on all sides. Positive values cause the buttons to
227 be smaller than the window text and highlight area so that they
228 stand out. Setting this and the TitleButtonBorderWidth vari‐
229 ables to 0 makes titlebuttons be as tall and wide as possible.
230 The default is 1.
231 ClientBorderWidth
233 This variable indicates that border width of a window's frame
234 should be set to the initial border width of the window, rather
235 than to the value of BorderWidth.
236 Color { colors-list }
238 This variable specifies a list of color assignments to be made
239 if the default display is capable of displaying more than sim‐
240 ple black and white. The colors-list is made up of the follow‐
241 ing color variables and their values: DefaultBackground, De‐
242 faultForeground, MenuBackground, MenuForeground, MenuTitleBack‐
243 ground, MenuTitleForeground, MenuShadowColor, MenuBorderColor,
244 PointerForeground, and PointerBackground. The following color
245 variables may also be given a list of window and color name
246 pairs to allow per-window colors to be specified (see Border‐
247 Color for details): BorderColor, IconManagerHighlight, Border‐
248 TitleBackground, BorderTitleForeground, TitleBackground, Title‐
249 Foreground, IconBackground, IconForeground, IconBorderColor,
250 IconManagerBackground, and IconManagerForeground. For example:
251 Color
253 {
254 MenuBackground "gray50"
255 MenuForeground "blue"
256 BorderColor "red" { "XTerm" "yellow" }
257 TitleForeground "yellow"
258 TitleBackground "blue"
259 }
260 All of these color variables may also be specified for the
262 Monochrome variable, allowing the same initialization file to
263 be used on both color and monochrome displays.
264 ConstrainedMoveTime milliseconds
266 This variable specifies the length of time between button
267 clicks needed to begin a constrained move operation. Double
268 clicking within this amount of time when invoking f.move will
269 cause the window to be moved only in a horizontal or vertical
270 direction. Setting this value to 0 will disable constrained
271 moves. The default is 400 milliseconds.
272 Cursors { cursor-list }
274 This variable specifies the glyphs that twm should use for var‐
275 ious pointer cursors. Each cursor may be defined either from
276 the cursor font or from two bitmap files. Shapes from the cur‐
277 sor font may be specified directly as:
278 cursorname "string"
280 where cursorname is one of the cursor names listed below, and
282 string is the name of a glyph as found in the file /usr/in‐
283 clude/X11/cursorfont.h (without the “XC_” prefix). If the cur‐
284 sor is to be defined from bitmap files, the following syntax is
285 used instead:
286 cursorname "image" "mask"
288 The image and mask strings specify the names of files contain‐
290 ing the glyph image and mask in bitmap(1) form. The bitmap
291 files are located in the same manner as icon bitmap files. The
292 following example shows the default cursor definitions:
293 Cursors
295 {
296 Frame "top_left_arrow"
297 Title "top_left_arrow"
298 Icon "top_left_arrow"
299 IconMgr "top_left_arrow"
300 Move "fleur"
301 Resize "fleur"
302 Menu "sb_left_arrow"
303 Button "hand2"
304 Wait "watch"
305 Select "dot"
306 Destroy "pirate"
307 }
308 DecorateTransients
310 This variable indicates that transient windows (those contain‐
311 ing a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property) should have titlebars. By de‐
312 fault, transients are not reparented.
313 DefaultBackground string
315 This variable specifies the background color to be used for
316 sizing and information windows. The default is "white".
317 DefaultForeground string
319 This variable specifies the foreground color to be used for
320 sizing and information windows. The default is "black".
321 DontIconifyByUnmapping { win-list }
323 This variable specifies a list of windows that should not be
324 iconified by simply unmapping the window (as would be the case
325 if IconifyByUnmapping had been set). This is frequently used
326 to force some windows to be treated as icons while other win‐
327 dows are handled by the icon manager.
328 DontMoveOff
330 This variable indicates that windows should not be allowed to
331 be moved off the screen. It can be overridden by the f.force‐
332 move function.
333 DontSqueezeTitle [{ win-list }]
335 This variable indicates that titlebars should not be squeezed
336 to their minimum size as described under SqueezeTitle below.
337 If the optional window list is supplied, only those windows
338 will be prevented from being squeezed.
339 ForceIcons
341 This variable indicates that icon pixmaps specified in the
342 Icons variable should override any client-supplied pixmaps.
343 FramePadding pixels
345 This variable specifies the distance between the titlebar deco‐
346 rations (the button and text) and the window frame. The de‐
347 fault is 2 pixels.
348 Grayscale { colors }
350 This variable specifies a list of color assignments that should
351 be made if the screen has a GrayScale default visual. See the
352 description of Colors.
353 IconBackground string [{ win-list }]
355 This variable specifies the background color of icons, and may
356 only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome
357 list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and col‐
358 ors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the Bor‐
359 derColor variable for a complete description of the win-list.
360 The default is "white".
361 IconBorderColor string [{ win-list }]
363 This variable specifies the color of the border used for icon
364 windows, and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale
365 or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window
366 names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified.
367 See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the
368 win-list. The default is "black".
369 IconBorderWidth pixels
371 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
372 rounding icon windows. The default is 2.
373 IconDirectory string
375 This variable specifies the directory that should be searched
376 if if a bitmap file cannot be found in any of the directories
377 in the bitmapFilePath resource.
378 IconFont string
380 This variable specifies the font to be used to display icon
381 names within icons. The default is "variable".
382 IconForeground string [{ win-list }]
384 This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when
385 displaying icons, and may only be specified inside of a Color,
386 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list
387 of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
388 specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete de‐
389 scription of the win-list. The default is "black".
390 IconifyByUnmapping [{ win-list }]
392 This variable indicates that windows should be iconified by be‐
393 ing unmapped without trying to map any icons. This assumes
394 that the user will remap the window through the icon manager,
395 the f.warpto function, or the TwmWindows menu. If the optional
396 win-list is provided, only those windows will be iconified by
397 simply unmapping. Windows that have both this and the IconMan‐
398 agerDontShow options set may not be accessible if no binding to
399 the TwmWindows menu is set in the user's startup file.
400 IconManagerBackground string [{ win-list }]
402 This variable specifies the background color to use for icon
403 manager entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color,
404 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list
405 of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
406 specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete de‐
407 scription of the win-list. The default is "white".
408 IconManagerDontShow [{ win-list }]
410 This variable indicates that the icon manager should not dis‐
411 play any windows. If the optional win-list is given, only
412 those windows will not be displayed. This variable is used to
413 prevent windows that are rarely iconified (such as xclock or
414 xload) from taking up space in the icon manager.
415 IconManagerFont string
417 This variable specifies the font to be used when displaying
418 icon manager entries. The default is "variable".
419 IconManagerForeground string [{ win-list }]
421 This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when
422 displaying icon manager entries, and may only be specified in‐
423 side of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome list. The optional
424 win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-win‐
425 dow colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for
426 a complete description of the win-list. The default is
427 "black".
428 IconManagerGeometry string [ columns ]
430 This variable specifies the geometry of the icon manager win‐
431 dow. The string argument is standard geometry specification
432 that indicates the initial full size of the icon manager. The
433 icon manager window is then broken into columns pieces and
434 scaled according to the number of entries in the icon manager.
435 Extra entries are wrapped to form additional rows. The default
436 number of columns is 1.
437 IconManagerHighlight string [{ win-list }]
439 This variable specifies the border color to be used when high‐
440 lighting the icon manager entry that currently has the focus,
441 and can only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
442 chrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names
443 and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the
444 BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-
445 list. The default is "black".
446 IconManagers { iconmgr-list }
448 This variable specifies a list of icon managers to create.
449 Each item in the iconmgr-list has the following format:
450 "winname" ["iconname"] "geometry" columns
452 where winname is the name of the windows that should be put
454 into this icon manager, iconname is the name of that icon man‐
455 ager window's icon, geometry is a standard geometry specifica‐
456 tion, and columns is the number of columns in this icon manager
457 as described in IconManagerGeometry. For example:
458 IconManagers
460 {
461 "XTerm" "=300x5+800+5" 5
462 "myhost" "=400x5+100+5" 2
463 }
464 Clients whose name or class is “XTerm” will have an entry cre‐
466 ated in the “XTerm” icon manager. Clients whose name was “my‐
467 host” would be put into the “myhost” icon manager.
468 IconManagerShow { win-list }
470 This variable specifies a list of windows that should appear in
471 the icon manager. When used in conjunction with the IconMan‐
472 agerDontShow variable, only the windows in this list will be
473 shown in the icon manager.
474 IconRegion geomstring vgrav hgrav gridwidth gridheight
476 This variable specifies an area on the root window in which
477 icons are placed if no specific icon location is provided by
478 the client. The geomstring is a quoted string containing a
479 standard geometry specification. If more than one IconRegion
480 lines are given, icons will be put into the succeeding icon re‐
481 gions when the first is full. The vgrav argument should be ei‐
482 ther North or South and control and is used to control whether
483 icons are first filled in from the top or bottom of the icon
484 region. Similarly, the hgrav argument should be either East or
485 West and is used to control whether icons should be filled in
486 from left from the right. Icons are laid out within the region
487 in a grid with cells gridwidth pixels wide and gridheight pix‐
488 els high.
489 Icons { win-list }
491 This variable specifies a list of window names and the bitmap
492 filenames that should be used as their icons. For example:
493 Icons
495 {
496 "XTerm" "xterm.icon"
497 "xfd" "xfd_icon"
498 }
499 Windows that match “XTerm” and would not be iconified by unmap‐
501 ping, and would try to use the icon bitmap in the file
502 “xterm.icon”. If ForceIcons is specified, this bitmap will be
503 used even if the client has requested its own icon pixmap.
504 InterpolateMenuColors
506 This variable indicates that menu entry colors should be inter‐
507 polated between entry specified colors. In the example below:
508 Menu "mymenu"
510 {
511 "Title" ("black":"red") f.title
512 "entry1" f.nop
513 "entry2" f.nop
514 "entry3" ("white":"green") f.nop
515 "entry4" f.nop
516 "entry5" ("red":"white") f.nop
517 }
518 the foreground colors for “entry1” and “entry2” will be inter‐
520 polated between black and white, and the background colors be‐
521 tween red and green. Similarly, the foreground for “entry4”
522 will be half-way between white and red, and the background will
523 be half-way between green and white.
524 MakeTitle { win-list }
526 This variable specifies a list of windows on which a titlebar
527 should be placed and is used to request titles on specific win‐
528 dows when NoTitle has been set.
529 MaxWindowSize string
531 This variable specifies a geometry in which the width and
532 height give the maximum size for a given window. This is typi‐
533 cally used to restrict windows to the size of the screen. The
534 default width is 32767 - screen width. The default height is
535 32767 - screen height.
536 MenuBackground string
538 This variable specifies the background color used for menus,
539 and can only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list.
540 The default is "white".
541 MenuBorderColor string
543 This variable specifies the color of the menu border and can
544 only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Monochrome
545 list. The default is "black".
546 MenuBorderWidth pixels
548 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
549 rounding menu windows. The default is 2.
550 MenuFont string
552 This variable specifies the font to use when displaying menus.
553 The default is "variable".
554 MenuForeground string
556 This variable specifies the foreground color used for menus,
557 and can only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
558 chrome list. The default is "black".
559 MenuShadowColor string
561 This variable specifies the color of the shadow behind pull-
562 down menus and can only be specified inside of a Color,
563 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The default is "black".
564 MenuTitleBackground string
566 This variable specifies the background color for f.title en‐
567 tries in menus, and can only be specified inside of a Color,
568 Grayscale or Monochrome list. The default is "white".
569 MenuTitleForeground string
571 This variable specifies the foreground color for f.title en‐
572 tries in menus and can only be specified inside of a Color or
573 Monochrome list. The default is "black".
574 Monochrome { colors }
576 This variable specifies a list of color assignments that should
577 be made if the screen has a depth of 1. See the description of
578 Colors.
579 MoveDelta pixels
581 This variable specifies the number of pixels the pointer must
582 move before the f.move function starts working. Also see the
583 f.deltastop function. The default is zero pixels.
584 NoBackingStore
586 This variable indicates that twm's menus should not request
587 backing store to minimize repainting of menus. This is typi‐
588 cally used with servers that can repaint faster than they can
589 handle backing store.
590 NoCaseSensitive
592 This variable indicates that case should be ignored when sort‐
593 ing icon names in an icon manager. This option is typically
594 used with applications that capitalize the first letter of
595 their icon name.
596 NoDefaults
598 This variable indicates that twm should not supply the default
599 titlebuttons and bindings. This option should only be used if
600 the startup file contains a completely new set of bindings and
601 definitions.
602 NoGrabServer
604 This variable indicates that twm should not grab the server
605 when popping up menus and moving opaque windows.
606 NoHighlight [{ win-list }]
608 This variable indicates that borders should not be highlighted
609 to track the location of the pointer. If the optional win-list
610 is given, highlighting will only be disabled for those windows.
611 When the border is highlighted, it will be drawn in the current
612 BorderColor. When the border is not highlighted, it will be
613 stippled with a gray pattern using the current BorderTileFore‐
614 ground and BorderTileBackground colors.
615 NoIconManagers
617 This variable indicates that no icon manager should be created.
618 NoMenuShadows
620 This variable indicates that menus should not have drop shadows
621 drawn behind them. This is typically used with slower servers
622 since it speeds up menu drawing at the expense of making the
623 menu slightly harder to read.
624 NoRaiseOnDeiconify
626 This variable indicates that windows that are deiconified
627 should not be raised.
628 NoRaiseOnMove
630 This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
631 moved. This is typically used to allow windows to slide under‐
632 neath each other.
633 NoRaiseOnResize
635 This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
636 resized. This is typically used to allow windows to be resized
637 underneath each other.
638 NoRaiseOnWarp
640 This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when
641 the pointer is warped into them with the f.warpto function. If
642 this option is set, warping to an occluded window may result in
643 the pointer ending up in the occluding window instead the de‐
644 sired window (which causes unexpected behavior with
645 f.warpring).
646 NoSaveUnders
648 This variable indicates that menus should not request save-un‐
649 ders to minimize window repainting following menu selection.
650 It is typically used with displays that can repaint faster than
651 they can handle save-unders.
652 NoStackMode [{ win-list }]
654 This variable indicates that client window requests to change
655 stacking order should be ignored. If the optional win-list is
656 given, only requests on those windows will be ignored. This is
657 typically used to prevent applications from relentlessly pop‐
658 ping themselves to the front of the window stack.
659 NoTitle [{ win-list }]
661 This variable indicates that windows should not have titlebars.
662 If the optional win-list is given, only those windows will not
663 have titlebars. MakeTitle may be used with this option to
664 force titlebars to be put on specific windows.
665 NoTitleFocus
667 This variable indicates that twm should not set keyboard input
668 focus to each window as it is entered. Normally, twm sets the
669 focus so that focus and key events from the titlebar and icon
670 managers are delivered to the application. If the pointer is
671 moved quickly and twm is slow to respond, input can be directed
672 to the old window instead of the new. This option is typically
673 used to prevent this “input lag” and to work around bugs in
674 older applications that have problems with focus events.
675 NoTitleHighlight [{ win-list }]
677 This variable indicates that the highlight area of the title‐
678 bar, which is used to indicate the window that currently has
679 the input focus, should not be displayed. If the optional win-
680 list is given, only those windows will not have highlight ar‐
681 eas. This and the SqueezeTitle options can be set to substan‐
682 tially reduce the amount of screen space required by titlebars.
683 OpaqueMove
685 This variable indicates that the f.move function should actu‐
686 ally move the window instead of just an outline so that the
687 user can immediately see what the window will look like in the
688 new position. This option is typically used on fast displays
689 (particularly if NoGrabServer is set).
690 Pixmaps { pixmaps }
692 This variable specifies a list of pixmaps that define the ap‐
693 pearance of various images. Each entry is a keyword indicating
694 the pixmap to set, followed by a string giving the name of the
695 bitmap file. The following pixmaps may be specified:
696 Pixmaps
698 {
699 TitleHighlight "gray1"
700 }
701 The default for TitleHighlight is to use an even stipple pat‐
703 tern.
704 Priority priority
706 This variable sets twm's priority. priority should be an un‐
707 quoted, signed number (e.g., 999). This variable has an effect
708 only if the server supports the SYNC extension.
709 RandomPlacement
711 This variable indicates that windows with no specified geometry
712 should be placed in a pseudo-random location instead of having
713 the user drag out an outline.
714 ResizeFont string
716 This variable specifies the font to be used for in the dimen‐
717 sions window when resizing windows. The default is "fixed".
718 RestartPreviousState
720 This variable indicates that twm should attempt to use the
721 WM_STATE property on client windows to tell which windows
722 should be iconified and which should be left visible. This is
723 typically used to try to regenerate the state that the screen
724 was in before the previous window manager was shutdown.
725 SaveColor { colors-list }
727 This variable indicates a list of color assignments to be
728 stored as pixel values in the root window property _MIT_PRIOR‐
729 ITY_COLORS. Clients may elect to preserve these values when
730 installing their own colormap. Note that use of this mechanism
731 is a way an for application to avoid the "technicolor" problem,
732 whereby useful screen objects such as window borders and title‐
733 bars disappear when a programs custom colors are installed by
734 the window manager. For example:
735 SaveColor
737 {
738 BorderColor
739 TitleBackground
740 TitleForeground
741 "red"
742 "green"
743 "blue"
744 }
745 This would place on the root window 3 pixel values for borders
747 and titlebars, as well as the three color strings, all taken
748 from the default colormap.
749 ShowIconManager
751 This variable indicates that the icon manager window should be
752 displayed when twm is started. It can always be brought up us‐
753 ing the f.showiconmgr function.
754 SortIconManager
756 This variable indicates that entries in the icon manager should
757 be sorted alphabetically rather than by simply appending new
758 windows to the end.
759 SqueezeTitle [{ squeeze-list }]
761 This variable indicates that twm should attempt to use the
762 SHAPE extension to make titlebars occupy only as much screen
763 space as they need, rather than extending all the way across
764 the top of the window. The optional squeeze-list may be used
765 to control the location of the squeezed titlebar along the top
766 of the window. It contains entries of the form:
767 "name" justification num denom
769 where name is a window name, justification is either left, cen‐
771 ter, or right, and num and denom are numbers specifying a ratio
772 giving the relative position about which the titlebar is justi‐
773 fied. The ratio is measured from left to right if the numera‐
774 tor is positive, and right to left if negative. A denominator
775 of 0 indicates that the numerator should be measured in pixels.
776 For convenience, the ratio 0/0 is the same as 1/2 for center
777 and -1/1 for right. For example:
778 SqueezeTitle
780 {
781 "XTerm" left 0 0
782 "xterm1" left 1 3
783 "xterm2" left 2 3
784 "oclock" center 0 0
785 "emacs" right 0 0
786 }
787 The DontSqueezeTitle list can be used to turn off squeezing on
789 certain titles.
790 StartIconified [{ win-list }]
792 This variable indicates that client windows should initially be
793 left as icons until explicitly deiconified by the user. If the
794 optional win-list is given, only those windows will be started
795 iconic. This is useful for programs that do not support an
796 -iconic command line option or resource.
797 TitleBackground string [{ win-list }]
799 This variable specifies the background color used in titlebars,
800 and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
801 chrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names
802 and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The de‐
803 fault is "white".
804 TitleButtonBorderWidth pixels
806 This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
807 rounding titlebuttons. This is typically set to 0 to allow ti‐
808 tlebuttons to take up as much space as possible and to not have
809 a border. The default is 1.
810 TitleFont string
812 This variable specifies the font to be used for displaying win‐
813 dow names in titlebars. The default is "variable".
814 TitleForeground string [{ win-list }]
816 This variable specifies the foreground color used in titlebars,
817 and may only be specified inside of a Color, Grayscale or Mono‐
818 chrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names
819 and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The de‐
820 fault is "black".
821 TitlePadding pixels
823 This variable specifies the distance between the various but‐
824 tons, text, and highlight areas in the titlebar. The default
825 is 8 pixels.
826 UnknownIcon string
828 This variable specifies the filename of a bitmap file to be
829 used as the default icon. This bitmap will be used as the icon
830 of all clients which do not provide an icon bitmap and are not
831 listed in the Icons list.
832 UsePPosition string
834 This variable specifies whether or not twm should honor pro‐
835 gram-requested locations (given by the PPosition flag in the
836 WM_NORMAL_HINTS property) in the absence of a user-specified
837 position. The argument string may have one of three values:
838 "off" (the default) indicating that twm should ignore the pro‐
839 gram-supplied position, "on" indicating that the position
840 should be used, and "non-zero" indicating that the position
841 should used if it is other than (0,0). The latter option is
842 for working around a bug in older toolkits.
843 WarpCursor [{ win-list }]
845 This variable indicates that the pointer should be warped into
846 windows when they are deiconified. If the optional win-list is
847 given, the pointer will only be warped when those windows are
848 deiconified.
849 WindowRing { win-list }
851 This variable specifies a list of windows along which the
852 f.warpring function cycles.
853 WarpUnmapped
855 This variable indicates that the f.warpto function should de‐
856 iconify any iconified windows it encounters. This is typically
857 used to make a key binding that will pop a particular window
858 (such as xmh), no matter where it is. The default is for
859 f.warpto to ignore iconified windows.
860 XorValue number
862 This variable specifies the value to use when drawing window
863 outlines for moving and resizing. This should be set to a
864 value that will result in a variety of of distinguishable col‐
865 ors when exclusive-or'ed with the contents of the user's typi‐
866 cal screen. Setting this variable to 1 often gives nice re‐
867 sults if adjacent colors in the default colormap are distinct.
868 By default, twm will attempt to cause temporary lines to appear
869 at the opposite end of the colormap from the graphics.
870 Zoom [ count ]
872 This variable indicates that outlines suggesting movement of a
873 window to and from its iconified state should be displayed
874 whenever a window is iconified or deiconified. The optional
875 count argument specifies the number of outlines to be drawn.
876 The default count is 8.
877 The following variables must be set after the fonts have been assigned,
879 so it is usually best to put them at the end of the variables or begin‐
880 ning of the bindings sections:
881 DefaultFunction function
883 This variable specifies the function to be executed when a key
884 or button event is received for which no binding is provided.
885 This is typically bound to f.nop, f.beep, or a menu containing
886 window operations.
887 WindowFunction function
889 This variable specifies the function to execute when a window
890 is selected from the TwmWindows menu. If this variable is not
891 set, the window will be deiconified and raised.
892
894 After the desired variables have been set, functions may be attached
895 titlebuttons and key and pointer buttons. Titlebuttons may be added
896 from the left or right side and appear in the titlebar from left-to-
897 right according to the order in which they are specified. Key and
898 pointer button bindings may be given in any order.
899 Titlebuttons specifications must include the name of the pixmap to use
901 in the button box and the function to be invoked when a pointer button
902 is pressed within them:
903 LeftTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
905 or
907 RightTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
909 The bitmapname may refer to one of the built-in bitmaps (which are
911 scaled to match TitleFont) by using the appropriate colon-prefixed name
912 described above.
913 Key and pointer button specifications must give the modifiers that must
915 be pressed, over which parts of the screen the pointer must be, and
916 what function is to be invoked. Keys are given as strings containing
917 the appropriate keysym name; buttons are given as the keywords But‐
918 ton1-Button5:
919 "FP1" = modlist : context : function
921 Button1 = modlist : context : function
922 The modlist is any combination of the modifier names shift, control,
924 lock, meta, mod1, mod2, mod3, mod4, or mod5 (which may be abbreviated
925 as s, c, l, m, m1, m2, m3, m4, m5, respectively) separated by a verti‐
926 cal bar (|). Similarly, the context is any combination of window, ti‐
927 tle, icon, root, frame, iconmgr, their first letters (iconmgr abbrevia‐
928 tion is m), or all, separated by a vertical bar. The function is any
929 of the f. keywords described below. For example, the default startup
930 file contains the following bindings:
931 Button1 = : root : f.menu "TwmWindows"
933 Button1 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-lower"
934 Button2 = m : window | icon : f.iconify
935 Button3 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-raise"
936 Button1 = : title : f.function "move-or-raise"
937 Button2 = : title : f.raiselower
938 Button1 = : icon : f.function "move-or-iconify"
939 Button2 = : icon : f.iconify
940 Button1 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
941 Button2 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
942 A user who wanted to be able to manipulate windows from the keyboard
944 could use the following bindings:
945 "F1" = : all : f.iconify
947 "F2" = : all : f.raiselower
948 "F3" = : all : f.warpring "next"
949 "F4" = : all : f.warpto "xmh"
950 "F5" = : all : f.warpto "emacs"
951 "F6" = : all : f.colormap "next"
952 "F7" = : all : f.colormap "default"
953 "F20" = : all : f.warptoscreen "next"
954 "Left" = m : all : f.backiconmgr
955 "Right" = m | s : all : f.forwiconmgr
956 "Up" = m : all : f.upiconmgr
957 "Down" = m | s : all : f.downiconmgr
958 Twm provides many more window manipulation primitives than can be con‐
960 veniently stored in a titlebar, menu, or set of key bindings. Although
961 a small set of defaults are supplied (unless the NoDefaults is speci‐
962 fied), most users will want to have their most common operations bound
963 to key and button strokes. To do this, twm associates names with each
964 of the primitives and provides user-defined functions for building
965 higher level primitives and menus for interactively selecting among
966 groups of functions.
967 User-defined functions contain the name by which they are referenced in
969 calls to f.function and a list of other functions to execute. For ex‐
970 ample:
971 Function "move-or-lower" { f.move f.deltastop f.lower }
973 Function "move-or-raise" { f.move f.deltastop f.raise }
974 Function "move-or-iconify" { f.move f.deltastop f.iconify }
975 Function "restore-colormap" { f.colormap "default" f.lower }
976 The function name must be used in f.function exactly as it appears in
978 the function specification.
979 In the descriptions below, if the function is said to operate on the
981 selected window, but is invoked from a root menu, the cursor will be
982 changed to the Select cursor and the next window to receive a button
983 press will be chosen:
984 ! string
986 This is an abbreviation for f.exec string.
987 f.autoraise
989 This function toggles whether or not the selected window is
990 raised whenever entered by the pointer. See the description of
991 the variable AutoRaise.
992 f.backiconmgr
994 This function warps the pointer to the previous column in the
995 current icon manager, wrapping back to the previous row if nec‐
996 essary.
997 f.beep This function sounds the keyboard bell.
999 f.bottomzoom
1001 This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, but re‐
1002 sizes the window to fill only the bottom half of the screen.
1003 f.circledown
1005 This function lowers the top-most window that occludes another
1006 window.
1007 f.circleup
1009 This function raises the bottom-most window that is occluded by
1010 another window.
1011 f.colormap string
1013 This function rotates the colormaps (obtained from the WM_COL‐
1014 ORMAP_WINDOWS property on the window) that twm will display
1015 when the pointer is in this window. The argument string may
1016 have one of the following values: "next", "prev", and "de‐
1017 fault". It should be noted here that in general, the installed
1018 colormap is determined by keyboard focus. A pointer driven
1019 keyboard focus will install a private colormap upon entry of
1020 the window owning the colormap. Using the click to type model,
1021 private colormaps will not be installed until the user presses
1022 a mouse button on the target window.
1023 f.deiconify
1025 This function deiconifies the selected window. If the window
1026 is not an icon, this function does nothing.
1027 f.delete
1029 This function sends the WM_DELETE_WINDOW message to the se‐
1030 lected window if the client application has requested it
1031 through the WM_PROTOCOLS window property. The application is
1032 supposed to respond to the message by removing the indicated
1033 window. If the window has not requested WM_DELETE_WINDOW mes‐
1034 sages, the keyboard bell will be rung indicating that the user
1035 should choose an alternative method. Note this is very differ‐
1036 ent from f.destroy. The intent here is to delete a single win‐
1037 dow, not necessarily the entire application.
1038 f.deltastop
1040 This function allows a user-defined function to be aborted if
1041 the pointer has been moved more than MoveDelta pixels. See the
1042 example definition given for Function "move-or-raise" at the
1043 beginning of the section.
1044 f.destroy
1046 This function instructs the X server to close the display con‐
1047 nection of the client that created the selected window. This
1048 should only be used as a last resort for shutting down runaway
1049 clients. See also f.delete.
1050 f.downiconmgr
1052 This function warps the pointer to the next row in the current
1053 icon manger, wrapping to the beginning of the next column if
1054 necessary.
1055 f.exec string
1057 This function passes the argument string to /bin/sh for execu‐
1058 tion. In multiscreen mode, if string starts a new X client
1059 without giving a display argument, the client will appear on
1060 the screen from which this function was invoked.
1061 f.focus This function toggles the keyboard focus of the server to the
1063 selected window, changing the focus rule from pointer-driven if
1064 necessary. If the selected window already was focused, this
1065 function executes an f.unfocus.
1066 f.forcemove
1068 This function is like f.move except that it ignores the Dont‐
1069 MoveOff variable.
1070 f.forwiconmgr
1072 This function warps the pointer to the next column in the cur‐
1073 rent icon manager, wrapping to the beginning of the next row if
1074 necessary.
1075 f.fullzoom
1077 This function resizes the selected window to the full size of
1078 the display or else restores the original size if the window
1079 was already zoomed.
1080 f.function string
1082 This function executes the user-defined function whose name is
1083 specified by the argument string.
1084 f.hbzoom
1086 This function is a synonym for f.bottomzoom.
1087 f.hideiconmgr
1089 This function unmaps the current icon manager.
1090 f.horizoom
1092 This variable is similar to the f.zoom function except that the
1093 selected window is resized to the full width of the display.
1094 f.htzoom
1096 This function is a synonym for f.topzoom.
1097 f.hzoom This function is a synonym for f.horizoom.
1099 f.iconify
1101 This function iconifies or deiconifies the selected window or
1102 icon, respectively.
1103 f.identify
1105 This function displays a summary of the name and geometry of
1106 the selected window. If the server supports the SYNC exten‐
1107 sion, the priority of the client owning the window is also dis‐
1108 played. Clicking the pointer or pressing a key in the window
1109 will dismiss it.
1110 f.lefticonmgr
1112 This function similar to f.backiconmgr except that wrapping
1113 does not change rows.
1114 f.leftzoom
1116 This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function but
1117 causes the selected window is only resized to the left half of
1118 the display.
1119 f.lower This function lowers the selected window.
1121 f.menu string
1123 This function invokes the menu specified by the argument
1124 string. Cascaded menus may be built by nesting calls to
1125 f.menu.
1126 f.move This function drags an outline of the selected window (or the
1128 window itself if the OpaqueMove variable is set) until the in‐
1129 voking pointer button is released. Double clicking within the
1130 number of milliseconds given by ConstrainedMoveTime warps the
1131 pointer to the center of the window and constrains the move to
1132 be either horizontal or vertical depending on which grid line
1133 is crossed. To abort a move, press another button before re‐
1134 leasing the first button.
1135 f.nexticonmgr
1137 This function warps the pointer to the next icon manager con‐
1138 taining any windows on the current or any succeeding screen.
1139 f.nop This function does nothing and is typically used with the De‐
1141 faultFunction or WindowFunction variables or to introduce blank
1142 lines in menus.
1143 f.previconmgr
1145 This function warps the pointer to the previous icon manager
1146 containing any windows on the current or preceding screens.
1147 f.priority string
1149 This function sets the priority of the client owning the se‐
1150 lected window to the numeric value of the argument string,
1151 which should be a signed integer in double quotes (e.g., "999"
1152 ). This function has an effect only if the server supports the
1153 SYNC extension.
1154 f.quit This function causes twm to restore the window's borders and
1156 exit. If twm is the first client invoked from xdm, this will
1157 result in a server reset.
1158 f.raise This function raises the selected window.
1160 f.raiselower
1162 This function raises the selected window to the top of the
1163 stacking order if it is occluded by any windows, otherwise the
1164 window will be lowered.
1165 f.refresh
1167 This function causes all windows to be refreshed.
1168 f.resize
1170 This function displays an outline of the selected window.
1171 Crossing a border (or setting AutoRelativeResize) will cause
1172 the outline to begin to rubber band until the invoking button
1173 is released. To abort a resize, press another button before
1174 releasing the first button.
1175 f.restart
1177 This function kills and restarts twm.
1178 f.startwm string
1180 This function kills twm and starts another window manager, as
1181 specified by string.
1182 f.righticonmgr
1184 This function is similar to f.nexticonmgr except that wrapping
1185 does not change rows.
1186 f.rightzoom
1188 This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except
1189 that the selected window is only resized to the right half of
1190 the display.
1191 f.saveyourself
1193 This function sends a WM_SAVEYOURSELF message to the selected
1194 window if it has requested the message in its WM_PROTOCOLS win‐
1195 dow property. Clients that accept this message are supposed to
1196 checkpoint all state associated with the window and update the
1197 WM_COMMAND property as specified in the ICCCM. If the selected
1198 window has not selected for this message, the keyboard bell
1199 will be rung.
1200 f.showiconmgr
1202 This function maps the current icon manager.
1203 f.sorticonmgr
1205 This function sorts the entries in the current icon manager al‐
1206 phabetically. See the variable SortIconManager.
1207 f.title This function provides a centered, unselectable item in a menu
1209 definition. It should not be used in any other context.
1210 f.topzoom
1212 This variable is similar to the f.bottomzoom function except
1213 that the selected window is only resized to the top half of the
1214 display.
1215 f.unfocus
1217 This function resets the focus back to pointer-driven. This
1218 should be used when a focused window is no longer desired.
1219 f.upiconmgr
1221 This function warps the pointer to the previous row in the cur‐
1222 rent icon manager, wrapping to the last row in the same column
1223 if necessary.
1224 f.vlzoom
1226 This function is a synonym for f.leftzoom.
1227 f.vrzoom
1229 This function is a synonym for f.rightzoom.
1230 f.warpring string
1232 This function warps the pointer to the next or previous window
1233 (as indicated by the argument string, which may be "next" or
1234 "prev") specified in the WindowRing variable.
1235 f.warpto string
1237 This function warps the pointer to the window which has a name
1238 or class that matches string. If the window is iconified, it
1239 will be deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or else
1240 ignored.
1241 f.warptoiconmgr string
1243 This function warps the pointer to the icon manager entry asso‐
1244 ciated with the window containing the pointer in the icon man‐
1245 ager specified by the argument string. If string is empty
1246 (i.e., ""), the current icon manager is chosen.
1247 f.warptoscreen string
1249 This function warps the pointer to the screen specified by the
1250 argument string. String may be a number (e.g., "0" or "1"),
1251 the word "next" (indicating the current screen plus 1, skipping
1252 over any unmanaged screens), the word "back" (indicating the
1253 current screen minus 1, skipping over any unmanaged screens),
1254 or the word "prev" (indicating the last screen visited.
1255 f.winrefresh
1257 This function is similar to the f.refresh function except that
1258 only the selected window is refreshed.
1259 f.zoom This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, except
1261 that the only the height of the selected window is changed.
1262
1264 Functions may be grouped and interactively selected using pop-up (when
1265 bound to a pointer button) or pull-down (when associated with a title‐
1266 button) menus. Each menu specification contains the name of the menu
1267 as it will be referred to by f.menu, optional default foreground and
1268 background colors, the list of item names and the functions they should
1269 invoke, and optional foreground and background colors for individual
1270 items:
1271 Menu "menuname" [ ("deffore":"defback") ]
1273 {
1274 string1 [ ("fore1":"backn")] function1
1275 string2 [ ("fore2":"backn")] function2
1276 .
1277 .
1278 .
1279 stringN [ ("foreN":"backN")] functionN
1280 }
1281 The menuname is case-sensitive. The optional deffore and defback argu‐
1283 ments specify the foreground and background colors used on a color dis‐
1284 play to highlight menu entries. The string portion of each menu entry
1285 will be the text which will appear in the menu. The optional fore and
1286 back arguments specify the foreground and background colors of the menu
1287 entry when the pointer is not in the entry. These colors will only be
1288 used on a color display. The default is to use the colors specified by
1289 the MenuForeground and MenuBackground variables. The function portion
1290 of the menu entry is one of the functions, including any user-defined
1291 functions, or additional menus.
1292 There is a special menu named TwmWindows which contains the names of
1294 all of the client and twm-supplied windows. Selecting an entry will
1295 cause the WindowFunction to be executed on that window. If WindowFunc‐
1296 tion hasn't been set, the window will be deiconified and raised.
1297
1299 Twm supports several different ways of manipulating iconified windows.
1300 The common pixmap-and-text style may be laid out by hand or automati‐
1301 cally arranged as described by the IconRegion variable. In addition, a
1302 terse grid of icon names, called an icon manager, provides a more effi‐
1303 cient use of screen space as well as the ability to navigate among win‐
1304 dows from the keyboard.
1305 An icon manager is a window that contains names of selected or all win‐
1307 dows currently on the display. In addition to the window name, a small
1308 button using the default iconify symbol will be displayed to the left
1309 of the name when the window is iconified. By default, clicking on an
1310 entry in the icon manager performs f.iconify. To change the actions
1311 taken in the icon manager, use the the iconmgr context when specifying
1312 button and keyboard bindings.
1313 Moving the pointer into the icon manager also directs keyboard focus to
1315 the indicated window (setting the focus explicitly or else sending syn‐
1316 thetic events NoTitleFocus is set). Using the f.upiconmgr, f.downicon‐
1317 mgr f.lefticonmgr, and f.righticonmgr functions, the input focus can be
1318 changed between windows directly from the keyboard.
1319
1321 The resource manager should have been used instead of all of the window
1322 lists.
1323 The IconRegion variable should take a list.
1325 Double clicking very fast to get the constrained move function will
1327 sometimes cause the window to move, even though the pointer is not
1328 moved.
1329 If IconifyByUnmapping is on and windows are listed in IconManager‐
1331 DontShow but not in DontIconifyByUnmapping, they may be lost if they
1332 are iconified and no bindings to f.menu "TwmWindows" or f.warpto are
1333 setup.
1334
1336 $HOME/.twmrc.<screen number>
1337 $HOME/.twmrc
1338 /usr/share/X11/twm/system.twmrc
1339
1341 DISPLAY This variable is used to determine which X server to use. It
1342 is also set during f.exec so that programs come up on the
1343 proper screen.
1344 HOME This variable is used as the prefix for files that begin with a
1346 tilde and for locating the twm startup file.
1347
1349 X(7), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xrdb(1)
1350
1352 Tom LaStrange, Solbourne Computer; Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium; Steve
1353 Pitschke, Stardent Computer; Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium; Dave
1354 Sternlicht, MIT X Consortium; Dave Payne, Apple Computer.
1355X Version 11 twm 1.0.11 TWM(1)