Ubuntu Manpage: bemenu - dynamic menu inspired by dmenu(1)

NAME

       bemenu - dynamic menu inspired by dmenu(1)

SYNOPSIS

       bemenu [-hCiKTvwx] [-I <index>] [-l <lines>] [-P <prefix>]
           [-p <prompt>] [--ifne] [--scrollbar none|always|autohide] [--binding vim] [--fork]
           [backend_options]

       bemenu-run [-hCiKTvwx] [-I <index>] [-l <lines>] [-P <prefix>]
           [-p <prompt>] [--ifne] [--scrollbar none|always|autohide] [--binding vim] [--fork]
           [--no-exec] [backend-options]

DESCRIPTION

       bemenu is a dynamic menu for tty(4) (using ncurses(3)), X11 and Wayland, inspired by
       dmenu(1).

       It reads a list of newline-separated items from standard input and then presents them as a
       list, where the user can select one or more of them. When pressing <carriage-return>, the
       selected items are printed to standard output (one per line) and bemenu exits.

       Entering text will filter the items to those that match the input. If the number of items
       exceeds the size of the list, the items will be paginated.

       bemenu-run is a special-case invocation of bemenu, where the input is the list of
       executables under PATH and the selected items are executed.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
Print a help message to standard output and exit.

-C, --no-cursor
Disable all cursor events.

-I, --index <index>
Highlight the item at index at the start. Indices start at 0. By default, the first
item is highlighted.

-i, --ignorecase
Filter items case-insensitively.

-K, --no-keyboard
Disable all keyboard events.

-l, --list <number>
List items vertically with the given number of lines.

-P, --prefix <prefix>
Display prefix before the highlighted item in a vertical list.

-p, --prompt <prompt>
Defines the prompt text to be displayed to the left of the input field. Defaults to
‘bemenu’.

-s, --no-spacing
Disable the title spacing on entries.

-T, --no-touch
Disable all touch events.

-v, --version
Print the bemenu version number to standard output and exit.

-w, --wrap
Advancing past the end of the list returns you to the start.

-x, --password
Hide filter text.

--binding
Use alternative key bindings. Available options: vim

--fork
Always fork(2) before executing the selections. Disabled by default when using the
terminal backend.

--no-exec
Print the selected items to standard output instead of executing them.

--scrollbar none|always|autohide
Specify when to show a scrollbar for vertical lists:

┌─────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│none │ Never display a scrollbar (the default). │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│always │ Always display a scrollbar. │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│autohide │ Only display a scrollbar when the number of items exceeds the number of │
│ │ lines. │
└─────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Backend options
These options are only available on backends specified in the parentheses:

-b, --bottom (Wayland, X11)
The list will appear at the bottom of the screen.

-f, --grab (Wayland, X11)
Show the bemenu window whilst reading the items.

-H, --line-height <height> (Wayland, X11)
Specify the height in point size to make each entry.

-m, --monitor <index> (Wayland, X11)
Specify the monitor index where the list should appear. Monitor indices start at zero.
The interpretation of the given argument depends on the utilized backend. With X11 and
Wayland, a value of ‘-1’ or focused indicates that the current monitor should be used
(the default). With Wayland, the index should be a string specifying a specific
monitor name. The value ‘-2’ or all indicates that the list should appear on all
monitors.

-n, --no-overlap (Wayland)
Set the bemenu window to be on top of any other panels.

-M, --margin <margin> (Wayland, X11)
Specify the margin (empty space) in pixels to leave between menu and vertical view
borders. bemenu will reduce it's size to fit in space between gaps.

-W, --width-factor <factor> (Wayland, X11)
Specify the relative width factor as a floating point number. It makes sense to set it
between 0 and 1 to define how much of the screen width bemenu will use. However,
bemenu will still respect margin, so if resulting size is greater than space between
gaps, bemenu will ignore factor and use available space instead.

--fn <name [size]> (Wayland, X11)
Specify the font family name and size to be used. For more options, consult the Pango
Reference Manual for pango_font_description_from_string().

The following options control the colours for various parts of the list for the Wayland
and X11 backends. Each takes an argument in the form of:

#RGB[A]

where R, G, B and A are hexadecimal integers from 00–FF that control the red, green, blue
and alpha-transparency channels.

--tb <color> Title background.

--tf <color> Title foreground.

--fb <color> Filter background.

--ff <color> Filter foreground

--cb <color> Cursor background.

--cf <color> Cursor foreground

--nb <color> Normal background.

--nf <color> Normal foreground.

--hb <color> Highlighted background.

--hf <color> Highlighted foreground.

--fbb <color> Feedback background.

--fbf <color> Feedback foreground.

--sb <color> Selected background.

--sf <color> Selected foreground.

--ab <color> Alternating background color.

--af <color> Alternating foreground color.

--scb <color> Scrollbar background.

--scf <color> Scrollbar foreground.

KEYBOARD COMMANDS

       bemenu supports keyboard commands to move around the list and edit the filter. In the
       following examples, C-x means <control-x>, M-x means <alt-x> and S-x means <shift-x>:

       <cursor-up>, S-<cursor-left>, C-p, M-j, M-l
           Highlight the previous item.

       <cursor-down>, <tab>, C-n, M-h, M-k
           Highlight the next item.

       PageUp, M-v, M-u
           Show the previous page of items, preserving the offset of the currently highlighted
           item, if possible.

       PageDown, C-v, M-d
           Show the next page of items, preserving the offset of the currently highlighted item,
           if possible.

       S-M-<, S-PageUp
           Highlight the first item in the list.

       S-M->, S-PageDown
           Highlight the last item in the list.

       S-<tab>
           Copy the highlighted item to the filter.

       <escape>, C-g
           Terminate bemenu without printing items.

       C-<carriage-return>, C-m
           Print selected items and the currently highlighted one, and exit. Items are printed in
           the order they were selected, with the currently highlighted item printed last.

       S-<carriage-return>, Insert
           Print the filter text to standard output and exit.

       C-l, <cursor-left>
           Move cursor left.

       C-f, <cursor-right>
           Move cursor right.

       C-a, Home
           Move cursor to the start.

       C-e, End
           Move cursor to the end.

       <backspace> C-h
           Remove character before the cursor.

       <delete>
           Remove character at the cursor.

       C-u, S-<delete>
           Remove all characters before the cursor.

       C-k
           Remove all characters after the cursor.

       C-w
           Clear the filter.

       C-y
           Paste the clipboard.

       M-[1-9]
           Print selected items and exit with a custom error code 10 (M-1) through 18 (M-9), see
           EXIT STATUS.

       M-0
           Print selected items and exit with the custom error code 19, see EXIT STATUS.

ENVIRONMENT

       ┌─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │BEMENU_OPTS      │ An alternative way to pass command line arguments to bemenu.          │
       ├─────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │BEMENU_BACKEND   │ Force a backend to be used. If empty, one of the GUI backends         │
       │                 │ (Wayland, X11) will be selected automatically. The accepted values    │
       │                 │ are curses, wayland and x11.                                          │
       ├─────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │BEMENU_RENDERER  │ Force a backend by loading its shared object from the set value.      │
       ├─────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │BEMENU_RENDERERS │ Override the backend search path to the set value. Defaults to        │
       │                 │ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/bemenu.                                     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │BEMENU_SCALE     │ Override the rendering scale factor for the GUI backends.             │
       └─────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

EXIT STATUS

       0
           bemenu ran successfully.

       1
           The user exited without selecting, or bemenu encountered an error.

       10-19
           The user specified a custom exit code with M-[0-9], see KEYBOARD COMMANDS.

AUTHORS

       bemenu is written and maintained by Jari Vetoniemi <mailroxas@gmail.com> with the help of
       various contributors.

                                            2023-07-07                                  bemenu(1)