Provided by: fluxbox_1.3.5-2build2_amd64 
NAME
fluxbox-keys - keyboard shortcuts configuration for fluxbox(1)
SYNOPSIS
~/.fluxbox/keys
SYNTAX
Variable parameters are shown in emphasis: argument
Optional parameters are shown in square brackets: [argument]
All other characters shown are required verbatim. Whitespace is required where shown, but
it is fine to add more whitespace.
DESCRIPTION
The keys file defines the keyboard shortcuts for fluxbox(1).
You can customize fluxbox’s key handling through the ~/.fluxbox/keys file. The file
consists of lines of the basic format:
[modifiers] key :'command' [arguments ...]
The space between the key and the : before the command is mandatory.
All modifiers and commands are case-insensitive. Some command arguments (especially those
that will be passed to the shell) are case-sensitive. Some key names are case-sensitive.
Lines beginning with a # or ! are considered comments and are unread by fluxbox.
You will need to “reload” fluxbox after editing the keys file so it picks up your change.
MODIFIERS
You can get a list of possible modifiers by calling ‘xmodmap -pm’. This also shows you to
which keys the modifiers are mapped, but the following modifiers are most commonly used:
Shift Control Mod1 Mod4
where Mod1 is the Alt key on the PC keyboard and Mod4 is usually a key branded with a
familiar company logo.
There are also some special modifiers that refer to mouse button events
OnDesktop
The mouse cursor is over the desktop (root window), and not any window.
OnToolbar
The mouse cursor is over the toolbar (which is normally at the bottom of the
screen).
OnWindow
The mouse cursor is over a window.
OnTitlebar
The mouse cursor is over a window’s titlebar.
OnTab
The mouse cursor is over a tab.
Double
Limits this action to double-clicks only.
Combining Modifiers
To combine two or more modifiers, just list them (space-delimited) in any order.
KEYS
You may specify a key by its key name (for example, a or space) or by its numeric keycode
(for example, 38 or 0xf3).
If you don’t know the name of a key, you can run xev(1) in a terminal, push the key, and
see the name in the output. If you have some "special" keys that do not produce a key name
in the output of xev(1), you can just use the keycode (NOT the keysym!) in your keys file.
Commands can also be bound to mouse events (N denotes the number of the button, eg. 1 is
the primary button, 4/5 are the wheel buttons):
MouseN
The mouse button N is pressed down and held.
ClickN
The mouse button N is clicked (pressed and released with no movement in between)
MoveN
The mouse button N is currently held, the bound action is triggered as often as the
mouse moves.
There are some special "keys" that let you bind events to non-keyboard events:
ChangeWorkspace
Fires when the workspace changes. This can be used to change backgrounds or do
anything else you like when you switch to a new workspace. See the EXAMPLES below for
one idea.
Warning
Use caution with this event! For example, do NOT bind this to any action that changes
your current workspace. If you break your fluxbox with this feature, you get to keep
the pieces.
CHAINING
Key bindings can be chained in a fashion similar to Emacs key bindings using the syntax:
modifiers-1 key-1 modifiers-2 key-2 :'command' [arguments ...]*
To abort a chained command part-way through typing it, press the <ESC> key.
To Bind CTRL+C CTRL+X (Which means, press CTRL+C then CTRL+X) to quit fluxbox.
Control c Control x :Quit
KEYMODES
A specific set of key mappings can be activated and de-activated on-the-fly using what are
called keymodes. The syntax to define a mapping in a keymode is:
keymode: modifiers key :'command' [arguments ...]
Where keymode is any alpha-numeric string name.
When this keymode is activated (see the KeyMode command below), all bindings prefaced by
that keymode name become active (and all other keybindings will be deactivated) until the
keymode changes again.
COMMANDS
Some commands have multiple names which are shown below as
CMD1 | CMD2
Related commands have been grouped below as
CMD1 / CMD2
The commands are broken up into sections as follows
• Mouse Commands
• Window Commands
• Workspace Commands
• Menu Commands
• Window Manager Commands
• Special Commands
Mouse Commands
These commands may only be bound to mouse buttons (plus modifiers), not keystrokes. In all
cases, the action finishes when the mouse button is released.
StartMoving
Start dragging to move the window.
StartResizing [corner]
Start dragging to resize the window as if you had grabbed the window at the specified
corner.
By default corner is BottomRight, but may be overridden with one of:
NearestCorner NearestEdge NearestCornerOrEdge Center TopLeft Top TopRight Left
Right BottomLeft Bottom BottomRight
If NearestCornerOrEdge is specified the size of the corner can also be specified to be
the larger of one or two following numbers: [pixel-size [percent-size]] or
percent-size%, where percent-size is the percentage of half the window width or
height. If no size is given, it defaults to 50 pixels and 30%.
StartTabbing
Start dragging to add this window to another’s tabgroup.
ActivateTab
Activates the tab underneath the mouse.
Window Commands
These commands ordinarily affect only the currently focused window. The OnWindow modifier
and ForEach command may affect the window that is used.
Minimize | MinimizeWindow | Iconify
Minimize the current window, equivalent to the window button.
Maximize | MaximizeWindow
Maximize the current window, equivalent to the window button.
MaximizeHorizontal / MaximizeVertical
Maximize the current window in one direction only, leaving the other dimension
unchanged.
Fullscreen
Resize the window’s content to fit the whole screen, without any window decoration.
Raise / Lower
Reorder this window to the top or bottom of the window stack, within its current
layer. See fluxbox(1) for a discussion of layers.
RaiseLayer / LowerLayer [offset]
Raise the window up to the layer above, or lower it to the layer below. See fluxbox(1)
for a discussion of layers.
SetLayer layer
Move the window to the specified layer. layer should be one of AboveDock, Dock, Top,
Normal, Bottom, Desktop. See fluxbox(1) for a discussion of layers.
Close
Close the current window, equivalent to the window button.
Kill | KillWindow
Close a window that’s not responding to Close, like using xkill(1).
Shade | ShadeWindow
Toggle the shaded state of the current window, equivalent to the window button. A
shaded window appears as only the title bar.
ShadeOn / ShadeOff
Set the shaded state of the window to On / Off.
Stick | StickWindow
Toggle the sticky state of the current window, equivalent to the window button. A
sticky window is visible on all workspaces.
SetDecor decor
Sets which window decorations will be shown. decor has the same format as the
‘[Deco]’ parameter in the apps file. See fluxbox-apps(5) for more info.
ToggleDecor
Toggles the presence of the window decorations (title bar, window buttons, and resize
bar).
NextTab / PrevTab
Cycle to the next / previous tab in the current tab group.
Tab number
Cycle to the given tab in the current tab group, where 1 is the first tab. A negative
number counts from the end of the tab group (-1 is the last tab, -2 is the
next-to-last, etc.).
MoveTabRight / MoveTabLeft
Reorder the tabs in the current tab group, swapping the current tab with the one to
the right / left.
DetachClient
Remove the current tab from the tab group, placing it in its own window.
ResizeTo width[%] height[%]
Resizes the window to the given width and height. If the value is given in percent,
then the window size will be based on the current screen’s size.
Resize delta-width[%] delta-height[%]
Resizes the window relative to the current width and height. If the value is given in
percent, then the window size will be based on the current window’s size.
ResizeHorizontal delta-width[%] / ResizeVertical delta-height[%]
Resizes the window in one dimension only. If the value is given in percent, then the
window size will be based on the current window’s size.
MoveTo x[%] y[%] [anchor]
Moves the window to the given coordinates, given in pixels or relatively to the
current screen size if % is specified after the value.
If either x or y is set to \*, that coordinate will be ignored, and the movement will
only take place in one dimension.
The default anchor is the upper left corner, but this may be overridden with one of:
TopLeft Left BottomLeft Top Center Bottom TopRight Right BottomRight
Move delta-x delta-y
Moves the window relative to its current position. Positive numbers refer to right and
down, and negative to left and up, respectively.
MoveRight d / MoveLeft d / MoveUp d / MoveDown d
Moves the window relative to its current position by the number of pixels specified in
d. If the number is negative, it moves in the opposite direction.
TakeToWorkspace workspace / SendToWorkspace workspace
Sends you along with the current window to the selected workspace. SendToWorkspace
just sends the window. The first workspace is number 1, not 0.
TakeToNextWorkspace [offset] / TakeToPrevWorkspace [offset]
Sends you along with the current window to the next or previous workspace. If you set
offset to a value greater than the default of 1, it will move you that number of
workspaces ahead or behind. If you go beyond the end of the currently defined
workspaces, it will wrap around to the other end automatically.
SendToNextWorkspace [offset] / SendToPrevWorkspace [offset]
Identical to the "TakeTo..." commands, but again this sends only the window, and does
not move you away from your current workspace.
SetAlpha [alpha [unfocused-alpha]]
Sets the alpha value of a window.
Putting a + or - in front of the value adds or subtracts from the current value. A
plain integer sets the value explicitly.
no arguments
Resets both focused and unfocused settings to default opacity.
one argument
Changes both focused and unfocused alpha settings.
two arguments
First value becomes the focused alpha, second becomes the unfocused alpha value.
SetHead number
Moves the window to the given display head. Only available when fluxbox has been
compiled with Xinerama support.
SendToNextHead [offset] / SendToPrevHead [offset]
Sends the current window to the next/previous display head. If you specify an offset
greater than 1, it will move the window that many heads. If this takes the window
beyond the total number of heads, it will wrap around to the beginning.
SetXProp PROP=value
Sets the xproperty PROP of the current window to value. Delete the content of PROP by
using PROP=.
Workspace Commands
These commands affect the entire workspace (or "desktop" as it is sometimes called).
AddWorkspace / RemoveLastWorkspace
Adds or removes a workspace from the end of the list of workspaces.
NextWorkspace [n] / PrevWorkspace [n] / RightWorkspace [n] / LeftWorkspace [n]
Switch to the Next / Previous workspace. All versions accept an offset value n, which
defaults to 1 and refers to the number of workspaces to move at one time.
{Next,Prev}Workspace wrap around when going past the last workspace, whereas
{Right,Left}Workspace do not.
Workspace number
Jumps to the given workspace number. The first workspace is 1.
NextWindow [{options}] [pattern] / PrevWindow [{options}] [pattern]
Focuses the next / previous window in the focus list.
options is one or more of the following, space delimited:
static
Instead of moving in order of most-recent focus, move in order of when the
window was opened (or, the order shown in the iconbar).
groups
Only include the current tab in windows with multiple tabs.
If pattern arguments are supplied, only windows that match all the patterns are
considered - all others are skipped. See the section CLIENT PATTERNS below for
more information.
This pair of commands has a special side-effect when the keybinding used has a
modifier - It will temporarily raise the cycled window to the front so you can see
it, but if you continue holding down the modifier and press the key again (For
example, keep holding "Alt" while you tap the "Tab" key a few times), fluxbox will
lower the window again when you move on to the next one. This allows you to
preview the windows in order, but does not change the order in doing so.
NextGroup [{options}] [pattern] / PrevGroup [{options}] [pattern]
Equivalent to NextWindow / PrevWindow above, but with the groups option forced on.
GotoWindow number [{options}] [pattern]
Focuses and activates the window at position number in the focus list. The options and
pattern arguments have the same meaning as NextWindow above.
Activate [pattern] | Focus [pattern]
With pattern, this is an alias for GoToWindow 1 pattern. Without, this behaves like a
window command, so that OnWindow events can change the focused window.
Attach pattern
Combines all windows that match the pattern into a single tab group. See CLIENT
PATTERNS for more about the pattern arguments.
FocusLeft / FocusRight / FocusUp / FocusDown
Focus to the next window which is located in the direction specified.
ArrangeWindows pattern / ArrangeWindowsVertical pattern / ArrangeWindowsHorizontal pattern
Tries to arrange all windows on the current workspace so that they overlap the least
amount possible. ArrangeWindowsVertical prefers vertical splits (windows side by
side), whereas ArrangeWindowsHorizontal prefers horizontal splits (windows on top of
eachother). See CLIENT PATTERNS for more about the pattern arguments.
ShowDesktop
Minimizes all windows on the current workspace. If they are already all minimized,
then it restores them.
Deiconify mode destination
Deiconifies windows (or, restores from a minimized state).
Where mode may be one of:
All
All icons across all workspaces.
AllWorkspace
All icons on the current workspace.
Last
The last icon across all workspaces.
LastWorkspace (default)
The last icon on the current workspace.
And destination may be one of:
Current (default)
Deiconify to the current workspace.
OriginQuiet
Deiconify to the window’s original workspace, but does so in the background,
without moving you there.
SetWorkspaceName name / SetWorkspaceNameDialog
Sets the name of the current workspace.
CloseAllWindows
Closes all windows on all desktops.
Menu Commands
These commands open or close fluxbox popup menus. For more information on what these menus
contain or how to configure them, see fluxbox(1).
RootMenu
Opens the root menu. See ROOT MENU in fluxbox-menu(5) for details.
WorkspaceMenu
Opens a menu showing all workspaces and windows. See Workspace Menu in fluxbox(1) for
details.
WindowMenu
Opens a menu containing actions for the current window. See WINDOW MENU in
fluxbox-menu(5) for details.
ClientMenu [pattern]
Opens a menu that contains all windows. If you specify a pattern, only matching
windows will be in the menu. Selecting a window will jump to that workspace and
raise the window. See CLIENT PATTERNS below for more details on the pattern
argument.
CustomMenu path
Opens a custom menu file. This path must be a valid menu file in the same format
as detailed by the ROOT MENU section of fluxbox-menu(5).
HideMenus
Hide all fluxbox popup menus.
Window Manager Commands
These commands affect the Window Manager, or more than one window.
Restart [path]
Restarts fluxbox. This does not close any running applications. If the optional path
is a path to an executable window manager, that manager is started in place of
fluxbox.
Quit | Exit
Exits fluxbox. This will normally cause X to stop as well and terminate all existing
applications, returning you to the login manager or console.
Reconfig | Reconfigure
Reloads all fluxbox configuration files including the keys file, apps file, and init
file, if they have changed.
SetStyle path
Sets the current style to that given in path, which must be the full path to a fluxbox
style.
ReloadStyle
Reloads only the current style. Useful after editing a style which is currently in
use.
ExecCommand args ... | Exec args ... | Execute args ...
Probably the most-used binding of all. Passes all the arguments to your $SHELL (or
/bin/sh if $SHELL is not set). You can use this to launch applications, run shell
scripts, etc. Since all arguments are passed verbatim to the shell, you can use
environment variables, pipes, or anything else the shell can do. Note that processes
only see environment variables that were set before fluxbox started (such as in
~/.fluxbox/startup), or any that are set via the Export or SetEnv commands, below. See
fluxbox(1) for more details on the ENVIRONMENT and \~/.fluxbox/startup file.
CommandDialog
Pops up a dialog box that lets you type in any of these commands manually.
SetEnv name value | Export name=value
Sets an environment variable in Fluxbox. It will be passed to any applications spawned
by any future ExecCommand commands.
SetResourceValue resourcename resourcevalue | SetResourceValueDialog
Sets a fluxbox resource value, which are normally stored in the init file. See
fluxbox(1) for more details on available resources and allowed values.
Special Commands
These commands have special meanings or behaviors.
MacroCmd {command1} {command2} {command3} ...
Allows you to execute more than one command with one keybinding. The commands will be
executed in series. The { } brackets are literally required, as in the following
example:
MacroCmd {MoveTo 0 0} {ResizeTo 1280 800}
Delay {command} [microseconds]
Delays running command for the given amount of time. If the same key binding is
activated again, the timer will be restarted.
ToggleCmd {command1} {command2} ...
Alternates between the commands. On the first press of the bound key, runs command1.
On the next press, runs command2.
BindKey keybinding
Adds the given keybinding (which must be a valid key binding as defined in the
DESCRIPTION section above) to your keys file.
KeyMode keymode [return-keybinding]
Activates the named keymode (or, all key binding lines prefaced with the same
keymode:) and deactivates all others until the return-keybinding (by default Escape)
is pressed. The default keymode is named default.
ForEach {command} [{condition}] | Map {command} [{condition}]
Runs the given command (normally one from the Window Commands section above) on each
window. If you specify a condition (See Conditions, below) the action will be limited
to matching windows.
If {condition} {then-command} [{else-command}] | Cond {condition} {then-command}
[{else-command}]
If the condition command returns true, then run the then-command, otherwise run the
optional else-command. See Conditions below for more information on the condition
argument.
Conditions
These special commands are used to match windows conditionally. They are commonly used by
the If and ForEach command.
Matches pattern
Returns true if the current window matches the given pattern. See CLIENT PATTERNS
below for details on the pattern syntax.
If your key binding uses the OnWindow modifier, it matches against the window you
clicked, not the currently focused window.
To check other windows besides the currently focused one, see the Every and Some
conditions below.
Some condition
Returns true if any window on any workspace (not just the currently focused one)
matches the condition.
Every condition
Returns true if every window on every workspace (not just the current one) matches the
condition.
Not condition
Returns true if condition returns false, and vice-versa.
And {condition1} {condition2} [{condition3} ...]
Returns true if and only if all given conditions return true.
Or {condition1} {condition2} [{condition3} ...]
Returns true if any of the listed conditions return true.
Xor {condition1} {condition2} [{condition3} ...]
Returns the boolean xor of the truth values for all conditions listed.
CLIENT PATTERNS
Many of the more advanced commands take a pattern argument, which allows you to direct the
action at a specific window or set of windows which match the properties specified in the
pattern.
A pattern looks like this
([propertyname[!]=]regexp) ...
Match definitions are enclosed in parentheses (...), and if no propertyname is given then
Name is assumed. The regexp can contain any regular expression, or the special value
[current], which matches the corresponding value of the currently focused window. See
regex(7) for more information on acceptable regular expressions.
propertyname is not case sensitive, whereas the regexp is.
If you specify multiple (pattern) arguments, this implies an AND condition - All specified
patterns must match.
You can use = to test for equality or != to test for inequality.
The following values are accepted for propertyname
Name
A string, corresponding to the CLASSNAME property (The first field of WM_CLASS
from the output of the xprop(1) utility).
Class
A string, corresponding to the CLASSCLASS property (The second field of WM_CLASS
from the output of the xprop(1) utility).
Title
A string, corresponding to the window title (WM_NAME from xprop(1)).
Role
A string, corresponding to the ROLE property (WM_WINDOW_ROLE from xprop(1)).
Transient
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is transient (typically, a popup
dialog) or not.
Maximized
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is maximized or not.
MaximizedHorizontal
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is maximized horizontally or
not.
MaximizedVertical
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is maximized vertically or not.
Minimized
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is minimized (iconified) or not.
Fullscreen
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is fullscreen or not.
Shaded
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is shaded or not.
Stuck
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window is sticky (on all workspaces) or
not.
FocusHidden
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window has asked to be left off the
focus list (or, the alt-tab list), or not.
IconHidden
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window has asked to be left off the
icon list (or, the taskbar), or not.
Urgent
Either yes or no, depending on whether the window has the urgent hint set.
Workspace
A number corresponding to the workspace number to which the window is attached.
The first workspace here is 0. You may also use [current] to match the currently
visible workspace.
WorkspaceName
A string corresponding to the name of the workspace to which the window is
attached.
Head
The number of the display head to which the window is attached. You may match this
against the special value [mouse] which refers to the head where the mouse pointer
currently resides.
Layer
The string name of the window’s layer, which is one of AboveDock, Dock, Top,
Normal, Bottom, Desktop
Screen
The number of the currently used screen. If the setup of the running xserver
involves independent screens (not Xinerama), the $DISPLAY environment contains
something like :0.1 or :1.0. The part after the dot (.) is the number of the
screen.
@XPROP
A string, corresponding to any xproperty (Use either the xprop(1) utility or the
SetXProp command to set a xproperty to a window)
Matches any windows with the CLASSNAME of "xterm".
(xterm)
Matches any windows with the same CLASSNAME as the currently focused window.
(Name=[current])
Matches any windows on the same head as the mouse but on a different layer than the
currently focused window.
(Head=[mouse]) (Layer!=[current])
Matches any windows having a xproperty named FOO with "bar" in it.
(@FOO=.*bar.*)
FILES
~/.fluxbox/keys
This is the default location for the keybinding definitions.
/usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h
X key names are in this file.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB
X key names are also in this file.
RESOURCES
session.keyFile: location
This may be set to override the location of the keybinding definitions.
ENVIRONMENT
Remember that ExecCommand command can take advantage of other environment variables if
they are set before fluxbox is started, or via the Export or SetEnv commands. For example,
if $TERM is set, it could be use like this:
Mod1 x :ExecCommand $TERM
For more information about environment variables, see your shell’s manual.
EXAMPLES
Here are some interesting and/or useful examples you can do with your keys file.
# Mod4+drag moves a window
OnWindow Mod4 Mouse1 :StartMoving
# If any xterm windows are open, cycle through them. If none are open, open
# one:
Mod4 t :If {Some Matches (xterm)} {NextWindow (xterm)} {Exec xterm}
# Set a different wallpaper on every workspace:
ChangeWorkspace :Exec fbsetbg ~/.fluxbox/bg$(xprop -root _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP | awk '{print $3}').png
# Focusses the next window with it's xproperty 'PROP' set to 'foo'
Mod4 p Mod4 Tab :NextWindow (@PROP=foo)
AUTHORS
• Jim Ramsay <i.am at jimramsay com> (>fluxbox-1.0.0)
• Curt Micol <asenchi at asenchi com> (>fluxbox-0.9.11)
• Tobias Klausmann <klausman at users sourceforge net> (⟨fluxbox-0.9.11)
• Grubert <grubert at users sourceforge net> (fluxbox)
• Matthew Hawkins <matt at mh dropbear id au> (blackbox)
• Wilbert Berendsen <wbsoft at xs4all nl> (blackbox)
SEE ALSO
fluxbox(1) xprop(1) xev(1) xkill(1) regex(7)
AUTHOR
Jim Ramsay <i.am@jimramsay.com>
Author.