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 --replace
44 Replace an existing window manager.
45
47 INTRODUCTION
48 i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time,
49 didn’t provide some features we wanted (multi-monitor done right, for
50 example), had some bugs, didn’t progress since quite some time and
51 wasn’t easy to hack at all (source code comments/documentation
52 completely lacking). Still, we think the wmii developers and
53 contributors did a great job. Thank you for inspiring us to create i3.
54 Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and
56 developers.
57 IMPORTANT NOTE TO nVidia BINARY DRIVER USERS
59 If you are using the nVidia binary graphics driver (also known as blob)
60 before version 302.17, you need to use the --force-xinerama flag (in
61 your ~/.xsession) when starting i3, like so:
62 exec i3 --force-xinerama -V >>~/.i3/i3log 2>&1
64 See also docs/multi-monitor for the full explanation.
66 TERMINOLOGY
68 Tree
69 i3 keeps your layout in a tree data structure.
70 Window
72 An X11 window, like the Firefox browser window or a terminal
73 emulator.
74 Floating Window
76 A window which "floats" on top of other windows. This style is used
77 by i3 to display X11 windows with type "dialog", such as the
78 "Print" or "Open File" dialog boxes in many GUI applications. Use
79 of floating windows can be fine-tuned with the for_window command
80 (see HTML userguide).
81 Split container
83 A split container contains multiple other split containers or
84 windows.
85 Containers can be used in various layouts. The default mode is
87 called "default" and just resizes each client equally so that it
88 fits.
89 Workspace
91 A workspace is a set of containers. Other window managers call this
92 "Virtual Desktops".
93 In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By
95 default, screen 1 has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so
96 on... However, when you create a new workspace (by simply switching
97 to it), it’ll be assigned the screen you are currently on.
98 Output
100 Using XRandR, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real
101 monitors. Furthermore, you can set them up in cloning mode or with
102 positions (monitor 1 is left of monitor 2).
103 i3 uses the RandR API to query which outputs are available and
105 which screens are connected to these outputs.
106
108 Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:
109 Mod1+Enter
111 Open a new terminal emulator window.
112 Mod1+d
114 Open dmenu for starting any application by typing (part of) its
115 name.
116 j/k/l/;
118 Direction keys (left, down, up, right). They are on your homerow
119 (see the mark on your "j" key). Alternatively, you can use the
120 cursor keys.
121 Mod1+<direction>
123 Focus window in <direction>.
124 Mod1+Shift+<direction>
126 Move window to <direction>.
127 Mod1+<number>
129 Switch to workspace <number>.
130 Mod1+Shift+<number>
132 Move window to workspace <number>.
133 Mod1+f
135 Toggle fullscreen mode.
136 Mod1+s
138 Enable stacking layout for the current container.
139 Mod1+e
141 Enable default layout for the current container.
142 Mod1+w
144 Enable tabbed layout for the current container.
145 Mod1+Shift+Space
147 Toggle tiling/floating for the current container.
148 Mod1+Space
150 Select the first tiling container if the current container is
151 floating and vice-versa.
152 Mod1+Shift+q
154 Kills the current window. This is equivalent to "clicking on the
155 close button", meaning a polite request to the application to close
156 this window. For example, Firefox will save its session upon such a
157 request. If the application does not support that, the window will
158 be killed and it depends on the application what happens.
159 Mod1+Shift+r
161 Restarts i3 in place. Your layout will be preserved.
162 Mod1+Shift+e
164 Exits i3.
165
167 ~/.config/i3/config (or ~/.i3/config)
168 When starting, i3 looks for configuration files in the following order:
169 1. ~/.config/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3/config if set)
171 2. ~/.i3/config
173 3. /etc/xdg/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3/config if set)
175 4. /etc/i3/config
177 You can specify a custom path using the -c option.
179 Sample configuration.
181 # i3 config file (v4)
183 # Font for window titles. Will also be used by the bar unless a different font
185 # is used in the bar {} block below.
186 # This font is widely installed, provides lots of unicode glyphs, right-to-left
187 # text rendering and scalability on retina/hidpi displays (thanks to pango).
188 font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 8
189 # Before i3 v4.8, we used to recommend this one as the default:
190 # font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
191 # The font above is very space-efficient, that is, it looks good, sharp and
192 # clear in small sizes. However, its unicode glyph coverage is limited, the old
193 # X core fonts rendering does not support right-to-left and this being a bitmap
194 # font, it doesn’t scale on retina/hidpi displays.
195 # use Mouse+Mod1 to drag floating windows to their wanted position
197 floating_modifier Mod1
198 # start a terminal
200 bindsym Mod1+Return exec /usr/bin/urxvt
201 # kill focused window
203 bindsym Mod1+Shift+q kill
204 # start dmenu (a program launcher)
206 bindsym Mod1+d exec /usr/bin/dmenu_run
207 # change focus
209 bindsym Mod1+j focus left
210 bindsym Mod1+k focus down
211 bindsym Mod1+l focus up
212 bindsym Mod1+semicolon focus right
213 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
215 bindsym Mod1+Left focus left
216 bindsym Mod1+Down focus down
217 bindsym Mod1+Up focus up
218 bindsym Mod1+Right focus right
219 # move focused window
221 bindsym Mod1+Shift+j move left
222 bindsym Mod1+Shift+k move down
223 bindsym Mod1+Shift+l move up
224 bindsym Mod1+Shift+semicolon move right
225 # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
227 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Left move left
228 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Down move down
229 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Up move up
230 bindsym Mod1+Shift+Right move right
231 # split in horizontal orientation
233 bindsym Mod1+h split h
234 # split in vertical orientation
236 bindsym Mod1+v split v
237 # enter fullscreen mode for the focused container
239 bindsym Mod1+f fullscreen toggle
240 # change container layout (stacked, tabbed, default)
242 bindsym Mod1+s layout stacking
243 bindsym Mod1+w layout tabbed
244 bindsym Mod1+e layout default
245 # toggle tiling / floating
247 bindsym Mod1+Shift+space floating toggle
248 # change focus between tiling / floating windows
250 bindsym Mod1+space focus mode_toggle
251 # focus the parent container
253 bindsym Mod1+a focus parent
254 # focus the child container
256 #bindsym Mod1+d focus child
257 # switch to workspace
259 bindsym Mod1+1 workspace 1
260 bindsym Mod1+2 workspace 2
261 # ..
262 # move focused container to workspace
264 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 move workspace 1
265 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 move workspace 2
266 # ...
267 # reload the configuration file
269 bindsym Mod1+Shift+c reload
270 # restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3)
271 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
272 # exit i3 (logs you out of your X session)
273 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
274 # display workspace buttons plus a statusline generated by i3status
276 bar {
277 status_command i3status
278 }
279 ~/.xsession
282 This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It
283 is run by your login manager (xdm, slim, gdm, ...) as soon as you
284 login.
285 Sample xsession.
287 # Disable DPMS turning off the screen
289 xset -dpms
290 xset s off
291 # Disable bell
293 xset -b
294 # Enable zapping (C-A-<Bksp> kills X)
296 setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
297 # Enforce correct locales from the beginning:
299 # LC_ALL is unset since it overwrites everything
300 # LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 is used, except for:
301 # LC_MESSAGES=C never translates program output
302 # LC_TIME=en_DK leads to yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm date/time output
303 unset LC_ALL
304 export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
305 export LC_MESSAGES=C
306 export LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8
307 # Use XToolkit in java applications
309 export AWT_TOOLKIT=XToolkit
310 # Set background color
312 xsetroot -solid "#333333"
313 # Enable core dumps in case something goes wrong
315 ulimit -c unlimited
316 # Start i3 and log to ~/.i3/logfile
318 echo "Starting at $(date)" >> ~/.i3/logfile
319 exec /usr/bin/i3 -V -d all >> ~/.i3/logfile
320
323 I3SOCK
324 This variable overwrites the IPC socket path (placed in
325 /tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p by default, where %u is replaced with
326 your UNIX username, %p is replaced with i3’s PID and XXXXXX is a string
327 of random characters from the portable filename character set (see
328 mkdtemp(3))). The IPC socket is used by external programs like
329 i3-msg(1) or i3bar(1).
330
332 There is still lot of work to do. Please check our bugtracker for
333 up-to-date information about tasks which are still not finished.
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336 You should have a copy of the userguide (featuring nice
337 screenshots/graphics which is why this is not integrated into this
338 manpage), the debugging guide, and the "how to hack" guide. If you are
339 building from source, run: make -C docs
340 You can also access these documents online at https://i3wm.org/
342 i3-input(1), i3-msg(1), i3bar(1), i3-nagbar(1), i3-config-wizard(1),
344 i3-migrate-config-to-v4(1)
345
347 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
348i3 4.21.1 10/28/2022 I3(1)