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.