Provided by: ctwm_4.0.3-2_amd64 
NAME
ctwm - Claude's Tab Window Manager for the X Window System
SYNTAX
ctwm [(--display | -d) dpy] [--replace] [--single]
[(--file | -f) initfile] [--cfgchk] [--dumpcfg]
[--nom4 | -n] [(--keep-defs | -k)] [(--keep | -K) m4file]
[--verbose | -v] [--quiet | -q] [--mono] [--xrm resource]
[--version] [--info] [--nowelcome | -W]
[(--window | -w) [win-id]] [--name name]
[--clientId clid] [--restore resfname]
[--help | -h]
DESCRIPTION
ctwm is a window manager for the X Window System. It provides titlebars, shaped windows,
virtual screens (workspaces), several forms of icon management, user-defined macro
functions, click-to-type and pointer-driven keyboard focus, and user-specified key and
pointer button bindings. It is actually twm(1) (Tab Window Manager) from the MIT X11
distribution slightly modified to accommodate the use of several virtual screens
(workspaces). It is heavily inspired by the Hewlett-Packard vuewm window manager. In
addition, ctwm can use coloured, shaped icons and background root pixmaps in XPM format
[from Arnaud Le Hors], in JPEG using libjpeg, and xwd files. ctwm can be compiled to use
any combination of the above icon/pixmap formats.
This program is usually started by the user’s session manager or startup script. When used
from xdm(1) or xinit(1) without a session manager, ctwm is frequently executed in the
foreground as the last client. When run this way, exiting ctwm causes the session to be
terminated (i.e. logged out).
By default, application windows are surrounded by a “frame” with a titlebar at the top and
a special border around the window. The titlebar contains the window’s name, a rectangle
that is lit when the window is receiving keyboard input, and function boxes known as
“titlebuttons” at the left and right edges of the titlebar to which actions can be bound.
Pressing pointer Button1 (usually the left-most button unless it has been changed with
xmodmap) on a titlebutton will invoke the function associated with the button. In the
default interface, windows are iconified by clicking (pressing and then immediately
releasing) the left titlebutton (which looks like a Dot). Conversely, windows are
deiconified by clicking in the associated icon or entry in the icon manager (see
description of the variable ShowIconManager and of the function f.showiconmgr).
Windows are resized by pressing the right titlebutton (which resembles a group of nested
squares), dragging the pointer over edge that is to be moved, and releasing the pointer
when the outline of the window is the desired size. Similarly, windows are moved by
pressing in the title or highlight region, dragging a window outline to the new location,
and then releasing when the outline is in the desired position. Just clicking in the title
or highlight region raises the window without moving it.
When new windows are created, ctwm will honor any size and location information requested
by the user (usually through -geometry command line argument or resources for the
individual applications). Otherwise, an outline of the window’s default size, its
titlebar, and lines dividing the window into a 3x3 grid that track the pointer are
displayed. Clicking pointer Button1 will position the window at the current position and
give it the default size. Pressing pointer Button2 (usually the middle pointer button) and
dragging the outline will give the window its current position but allow the sides to be
resized as described above. Clicking pointer Button3 (usually the right pointer button)
will give the window its current position but attempt to make it long enough to touch the
bottom the screen.
OPTIONS
ctwm accepts the following command line options:
--help, -h
Print usage text.
--display=dpy, -d dpy
This option specifies the X server to use.
--replace
This option indicates that it is not an error if a window manager is already running.
In that case, the existing window manager is asked to quit, and ctwm takes its place.
Available only if ctwm is built with the USE_EWMH flag. First appeared in 4.0.0.
--single
This option indicates that only the default screen (as specified by --display or by
the DISPLAY environment variable) should be managed. By default, ctwm will attempt to
manage all screens on the display.
--cfgchk
This option causes ctwm to only try to parse the config file, and indicate whether
errors are found.
--dumpcfg
This option causes ctwm to print out the compiled-in fallback config. First appeared
in 4.0.0.
--file=filename, -f filename
This option specifies the name of the startup file to use. ctwm will first try to load
filename.num, where num is the screen number. If it fails, it will try to load
filename. By default, ctwm will look in the user’s home directory for files named
.ctwmrc.num, .ctwmrc, .twmrc.num, or .twmrc (where num is a screen number).
--verbose, -v
This option indicates that ctwm should print error messages whenever an unexpected X
Error event is received. This can be useful when debugging applications but can be
distracting in regular use.
--quiet, -q
Disables --verbose (useful for overriding aliases, etc).
--nom4, -n
This option indicates that ctwm should not filter the startup file through m4.
Available only if ctwm is built with the USE_M4 flag.
--keep-defs, -k
This option indicates that ctwm should keep the definitions it prepends to your
startup file when filtering through m4 in /tmp. Available only if ctwm is built with
the USE_M4 flag.
--keep=m4file, -K m4file
This option indicates that ctwm should keep the result of filtering your startup file
through m4 in the named file. Available only if ctwm is built with the USE_M4 flag.
--mono
Run in monochrome mode.
--version
ctwm just prints its version number.
--info
ctwm prints its detailed version and compile time options.
--window[=win-id], -w[win-id]
If -w is specified without a win-id value, ctwm does not take over the whole
screen(s); instead it creates a new window that becomes its root window. If the win-id
value is given, it is considered to be the id of an existing window, in which case,
ctwm will try to use this window as root window. You can run any number of
instantiations of ctwm at the same time. You can even have embedded ctwm
instantiations. This is totally useless, but I like it. The f.adoptwindow function can
be used to capture an existing window belonging to another ctwm. A possible use of
such mode can be to test new configuration file without restarting ctwm.
--name=name, -n name
Set the captivename when using --window.
--nowelcome, -W
This option tells ctwm not to display any welcome when starting.
--clientId=clid, --restore=resfname
Something to do with session management
--xrm=resource
Ignored.
ctwm uses getopt_long() for parsing the command-line options. This means that args can be
passed via --long=arg and --long arg, as well as -l arg and -larg, and short args can be
bundled like -vnk as well as -v -n -k.
Note, however, that the handling of optional args is slightly different; they must be
specified with = or no space. e.g., --window=123 will set the win-id to 123, but
--window 123 will not; the 123 will be treated as a separate argument. Similarly, it
must be set as -w123, not -w 123.
CUSTOMIZATION
Much of ctwm’s appearance and behavior can be controlled by providing a startup file in
one of the following locations (searched in order for each screen being managed when ctwm
begins):
$HOME/.ctwmrc.screennumber
The screennumber is a small positive number (e.g. 0, 1, etc.) representing the screen
number (e.g. the last number in the DISPLAY environment variable
host:displaynum.screennum) that would be used to contact that screen of the display.
This is intended for displays with multiple screens of differing visual types.
$HOME/.ctwmrc
This is the usual name for an individual user’s startup file.
$HOME/.twmrc.screennumber, $HOME/.twmrc
The users twm startup file.
/usr/etc/system.ctwmrc
If none of the preceding files are found, ctwm will look in this file for a default
configuration. This is often tailored by the site administrator to provide convenient
menus or familiar bindings for novice users.
If no startup files are found, ctwm will use the built-in defaults described above. The
only resource used by ctwm is bitmapFilePath for a colon-separated list of directories to
search when looking for bitmap files (for more information, see the Athena Widgets manual
and xrdb(1)).
ctwm startup files are logically broken up into three types of specifications: Variables,
Bindings, Menus. The Variables section must come first and is used to describe the fonts,
colors, cursors, border widths, icon and window placement, highlighting, autoraising,
layout of titles, warping, use of the icon manager. The Bindings section usually comes
second and is used to specify the functions that should be invoked when keyboard and
pointer buttons are pressed in windows, icons, titles, and frames. The Menus section gives
any user-defined menus (containing functions to be invoked or commands to be executed).
Variable names and keywords are case-insensitive. Strings must be surrounded by double
quote characters (e.g. “blue”) and are case-sensitive. A pound sign (#) outside of a
string causes the remainder of the line in which the character appears to be treated as a
comment.
M4 PREPROCESSING
ctwm can use m4(1) to pre-process its setup files. The availability of the m4
preprocessing is dependent on the build option USE_M4 (on by default), and can be
selectively disabled with the --nom4 command-line argument.
When ctwm starts up, it opens a file for input as described above. But, it processes that
file through m4 before parsing it. So, you can use m4 macros to perform operations at
runtime. This makes it very easy to work when you use many different displays, with
different characteristics. For example, If you want to set the lower right section of the
screen to be your IconRegion, (see below for details on the IconRegion variable) you can
use m4 directives and pre-defined symbols to calculate the region you want. For example:
define(IRegion, translit(eval(WIDTH/3)*eval(HEIGHT/2)+eval(WIDTH-WIDTH/3)-0, *, x))
IconRegion "IRegion" SOUTH EAST 75 25
will define the lower half, and right-hand third of the screen. The above makes use of
symbols that are predefined for m4 by ctwm. The symbols WIDTH and HEIGHT are among those
calculated by ctwm and written into a temporary file for m4 to use.
You may well find that if you research the m4(1) manual well, and understand the power of
m4, this will be a very useful and powerful tool. But, if you use any of the symbols which
are predefined by m4, you are in severe danger! For example, the Sun m4 predefines shift,
so if you use that name in your .ctwmrc, you are out of luck.
The following symbols are predefined by ctwm:
Hostnames
SERVERHOST
This variable is set to the name of the machine that is running the X server.
CLIENTHOST
The machine that is running the clients. (ie, ctwm)
HOSTNAME
As of 4.0.2, this is a duplicate of CLIENTHOST. In prior versions, gethostbyname() was
used to attempt to derive a canonical or fully-qualified version of the hostname.
User Info
USER
The name of the user running the program. Value taken from environmental variables
$USER and $LOGNAME, or from the passwd lookup for your uid if they don’t exist. Falls
back to “unknown” if all methods fail.
HOME
The user’s home directory. Gotten from the environment var $HOME.
ctwm info
TWM_TYPE
Tells which twm offshoot is running. It will always be set to the string “ctwm” in
this program. This is useful for protecting parts of your .twmrc file that twm proper
won’t understand (like WorkSpaces) so that it is still usable with other twm programs.
TWM_VERSION
Tells which ctwm version is running in the form of a floating point number.
CTWM_VERSION_MAJOR, CTWM_VERSION_MINOR, CTWM_VERSION_PATCH, CTWM_VERSION_ADDL
Gives the ctwm version split out. e.g., for a version like "3.8.2-beta1", the _MAJOR
will be "3", _MINOR "8", _PATCH "2", and _ADDL "-beta1". Final releases will generally
have an empty CTWM_VERSION_ADDL; it’s mostly meaningful in dev and betas. For
comparison, in this situation, TWM_VERSION will be "3.8.2".
The CTWM_VERSION_* variables first appeared in 4.0.0.
X server info
VERSION
The X major protocol version. As seen by ProtocolVersion(3).
REVISION
The X minor protocol revision. As seen by ProtocolRevision(3).
VENDOR
The vendor of your X server. For example: MIT X Consortium.
RELEASE
The release number of your X server. For MIT X11R5, this is 5.
Display info
WIDTH
The width of your display in pixels.
HEIGHT
The height of your display in pixels.
X_RESOLUTION
The X resolution of your display in pixels per meter.
Y_RESOLUTION
The Y resolution of your display in pixels per meter.
PLANES
The number of bit planes your display supports in the default root window.
BITS_PER_RGB
The number of significant bits in an RGB color. (log base 2 of the number of distinct
colors that can be created. This is often different from the number of colors that can
be displayed at once.)
CLASS
Your visual class. Will return one of StaticGray, GrayScale, StaticColor, PseudoColor,
TrueColor, DirectColor, or, if it cannot determine what you have, NonStandard.
COLOR
This will be either “Yes” or “No”. This is just a wrapper around the above definition.
Returns “Yes” on *Color, and “No” on StaticGray and GrayScale.
ctwm compile-time options
XPM
Is defined only if ctwm was compiled with XPM support.
PIXMAP_DIRECTORY
The directory where the ctwm pictures are installed.
JPEG
Is defined only if ctwm was compiled with JPEG support.
SOUNDS
Is defined only if ctwm was compiled with SOUND support.
EWMH
Is defined only if ctwm was compiled with EWMH support. First appeared in 4.0.0.
I18N
Is defined if ctwm was compiled with I18N support. This is no longer optional since
3.8 and is always compiled in. The definition will be removed in a future version.
ctwm run-time options
TWM_CAPTIVE
This will be either “Yes” or “No”. “Yes” if the current ctwm is captive (flag -w),
“No” in the other case.
TWM_CAPTIVE_NAME
Defined only if TWM_CAPTIVE is also defined. Contains the name of the captive ctwm
(flag --name).
Obsolete options
GNOME
Defined when ctwm was compiled with GNOME1 support. Removed after 3.8.2.
VARIABLES
Many of the aspects of ctwm’s user interface are controlled by variables that may be set
in the user’s startup file. Some of the options are enabled or disabled simply by the
presence of a particular keyword. Other options require keywords, numbers, strings, or
lists of all of these.
Lists are surrounded by braces and are usually separated by whitespace or a newline. For
example:
AutoRaise { "emacs" "XTerm" "Xmh" }
or
AutoRaise
{
"emacs"
"XTerm"
"Xmh"
}
When a variable containing a list of strings representing windows is searched (e.g. to
determine whether or not to enable autoraise as shown above), a string must be an exact,
case-sensitive match to the window’s name (given by various window properties, such as
WM_NAME), resource name or class name (both given by the WM_CLASS window property). The
preceding example would enable autoraise on windows named “emacs” as well as any xterm
(since they are of class “XTerm”) or xmh windows (which are of class “Xmh”).
String arguments that are interpreted as filenames (see the Pixmaps, Cursors, and
IconDirectory below) will prepend the user’s directory (specified by the HOME environment
variable) if the first character is a tilde (~). If, instead, the first character is a
colon (:), the name is assumed to refer to one of the internal bitmaps that are used to
create the default titlebars symbols: :xlogo or :iconify (both refer to the X used for
the iconify button), :resize (the nested squares used by the resize button), and :question
(the question mark used for non-existent bitmap files).
The following variables may be specified at the top of a ctwm startup file. Lists of
window name prefix strings are indicated by win-list. Optional arguments are shown in
square brackets:
AlwaysOnTop { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows (all windows if the list is defaulted) that
ctwm will try its best to maintain on top of others. This doesn’t work in all case.
AlwaysShowWindowWhenMovingFromWorkspaceManager
When ReallyMoveInWorkspaceManager is present and the user is moving a window from the
WorkSpaceMap, ctwm display the actual window only if it crosses the current active
workspace. If AlwaysShowWindowWhenMovingFromWorkspaceManager is present, the actual
window is always visible during the move, regardless of whether it crosses the current
workspace or not. The Shift key toggles this behaviour.
AlwaysSqueezeToGravity [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that ctwm should obey window gravity when squeezing a window
even when the window has a titlebar. Normally, ctwm will always squeeze a window that
has a titlebar toward the north. The optional win-list may be used to control which
windows this applies on.
AnimationSpeed speed
The speed argument is a non-negative integer. It determines the number of times a
second animations (if any) are updated. If speed is 0, animations are freezed. The
default value is 0.
AutoFocusToTransients
Transient windows get focus automatically when created. Useful with programs that have
keyboard shortcuts that pop up windows.
AutoLower [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies a list of windows (all windows if the list is defaulted) to be
automatically lowered whenever the pointer leaves a window. This action can be
interactively enabled or disabled on individual windows using the function
f.autolower.
AutoOccupy
This variable specifies that clients will automatically change their occupation when
their name or icon name changes. The new occupation will be recalculated from the
Occupy and OccupyAll fields in the .ctwmrc file.
AutoPopup [{ win-list }]
This variables specifies a list of windows which will be deiconified whenever their
name changes. Can be used for xconsole, for instance,which adds a "*" to its name
whenever something gets displayed on the console, or for various mail readers who
change their icons depending on the presence of unread mail.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
AutoPriority
This variable specifies that ctwm should automatically recompute the priority of a
window (and its associated icon) when its name changes. See also OnTopPriority.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
AutoRaise [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies a list of windows (all windows if the list is defaulted) to be
automatically raised whenever the pointer has come to rest in a window for the amount
of time specified by the RaiseDelay variable. This action can be interactively enabled
or disabled on individual windows using the function f.autoraise.
AutoRaiseIcons
Icons are raised when the cursor enters it. Useful with ShrinkIconTitles.
AutoRelativeResize
This variable indicates that dragging out a window size (either when initially sizing
the window with pointer Button2 or when resizing it) should not wait until the pointer
has crossed the window edges. Instead, moving the pointer automatically causes the
nearest edge or edges to move by the same amount. This allows the resizing of windows
that extend off the edge of the screen. If the pointer is in the center of the window,
or if the resize is begun by pressing a titlebutton, ctwm will still wait for the
pointer to cross a window edge (to prevent accidents). This option is particularly
useful for people who like the press-drag-release method of sweeping out window sizes.
AutoSqueeze { win-list }
These windows will be auto-squeezed (see f.squeeze). i.e. automatically unsqueezed
when they get focus, and squeezed when they loose it. Useful for the workspace
manager. Not authorized for icon managers.
BackingStore
Enable usage of backing store on menus and workspace map windows. See also
NoBackingStore. Added in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.
BeNiceToColormap
By defaults new colors are allocated for shadows when a 3D look is used, but when you
specify BeNiceToColormap ctwm uses stipling instead of new colors, the effect is less
beautiful, but acceptable. In this case ClearShadowContrast and DarkShadowContrast
have no effects.
BorderBottom pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the bottom of the
screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc...)
will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.
BorderColor string [{ wincolorlist }]
This variable specifies the default color of the border to be placed around all
non-iconified windows, and may only be given within a Color or Monochrome list. The
optional wincolorlist specifies a list of window and color name pairs for specifying
particular border colors for different types of windows. For example:
BorderColor "gray50"
{
"XTerm" "red"
"xmh" "green"
}
The default is “black”.
BorderLeft pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the left of the
screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc...)
will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.
BorderResizeCursors
This variable specifies that ctwm should use resizing cursors when the pointer is on
the window border. To be used preferably when you have bound a button to f.resize in
the frame context.
BorderRight pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the right of the
screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc...)
will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.
BorderShadowDepth pixels
This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D window borders, when
UseThreeDBorders is selected.
BorderTileBackground string [{ wincolorlist }]
This variable specifies the default background color in the gray pattern used in
unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight hasn’t been set), and may only be given
within a Color or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows per-window colors
to be specified. The default is “white”.
BorderTileForeground string [{ wincolorlist }]
This variable specifies the default foreground color in the gray pattern used in
unhighlighted borders (only if NoHighlight hasn’t been set), and may only be given
within a Color or Monochrome list. The optional wincolorlist allows per-window colors
to be specified. The default is “black”.
BorderTop pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of a forbidden zone at the top of the
screen. All constrained window functions (f.movepack, f.move with DontMoveOff, etc...)
will consider this zone as offscreen. Default is 0.
BorderWidth pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding all client
window frames if ClientBorderWidth has not been specified. This value is also used to
set the border size of windows created by ctwm (such as the icon manager). The default
is 2.
ButtonIndent pixels
This variable specifies the amount by which titlebuttons should be indented on all
sides. Positive values cause the buttons to be smaller than the window text and
highlight area so that they stand out. Setting this and the TitleButtonBorderWidth
variables to 0 makes titlebuttons be as tall and wide as possible. The default is 1 if
UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0 if it is set.
CenterFeedbackWindow
The moving and resizing information window is centered in the middle of the screen
instead of the top left corner.
ClearShadowContrast contrast
Indicates to ctwm how to calculate the clear shadow color for 3D items. The value is a
comprised between 0 and 100. The formula used is :
clear.{RGB} = (65535 - color.{RGB}) * (contrast / 100).
Has no effect if BeNiceToColormap is active.
ClickToFocus
Focus windows by clicking on them, rather than merely mousing over them.
ClientBorderWidth
This variable indicates that border width of a window’s frame should be set to the
initial border width of the window, rather than to the value of BorderWidth. If
Use3DBorders is set this variable is automatically unset.
Color { colors-list }
This variable specifies a list of color assignments to be made if the default display
is capable of displaying more than simple black and white. The colors-list is made up
of the following color variables and their values: DefaultBackground,
DefaultForeground, MenuBackground, MenuForeground, MenuTitleBackground,
MenuTitleForeground, and MenuShadowColor. The following color variables may also be
given a list of window and color name pairs to allow per-window colors to be specified
(see BorderColor for details): BorderColor, IconManagerHighlight,
BorderTileBackground, BorderTileForeground, TitleBackground, TitleForeground,
IconBackground, IconForeground, IconBorderColor, IconManagerBackground, and
IconManagerForeground. For example:
Color
{
MenuBackground "gray50"
MenuForeground "blue"
BorderColor "red" { "XTerm" "yellow" }
TitleForeground "yellow"
TitleBackground "blue"
}
All of these color variables may also be specified for the Monochrome variable,
allowing the same initialization file to be used on both color and monochrome
displays.
ConstrainedMoveTime milliseconds
This variable specifies the length of time between button clicks needed to begin a
constrained move operation. Double clicking within this amount of time when invoking
f.move or other similar moving functions will cause the window only be moved in a
horizontal or vertical direction. Setting this value to 0 will disable constrained
moves. The default is 400 milliseconds.
Note that this also affects double clicking in f.raiseorsqueeze, and potentially other
places that need to track double clicks. It should probably be renamed.
Cursors { cursor-list }
This variable specifies the glyphs that ctwm should use for various pointer cursors.
Each cursor may be defined either from the cursor font or from two bitmap files.
Shapes from the cursor font may be specified directly as:
cursorname "string"
where cursorname is one of the cursor names listed below, and string is the name of a
glyph as found in the file <X11/cursorfont.h> (without the “XC_” prefix). If the
cursor is to be defined from bitmap files, the following syntax is used instead:
cursorname "image" "mask"
The image and mask strings specify the names of files containing the glyph image and
mask in bitmap(1) form. The bitmap files are located in the same manner as icon bitmap
files. The following example shows the default cursor definitions:
Cursors
{
Frame "top_left_arrow"
Title "top_left_arrow"
Icon "top_left_arrow"
IconMgr "top_left_arrow"
Move "fleur"
Resize "fleur"
Menu "sb_left_arrow"
Button "hand2"
Wait "watch"
Select "dot"
Destroy "pirate"
}
DarkShadowContrast contrast
Indicates to ctwm how to calculate the dark shadow color for 3D items. The value is a
comprised between 0 and 100. The formula used is :
dark.{RGB} = color.{RGB} * ((100 - contrast) / 100),
Has no effect if BeNiceToColormap is active.
DecorateTransients
This variable indicates that transient windows (those containing a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR
property) should have titlebars. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.
DefaultBackground string
This variable specifies the background color to be used for sizing and information
windows. The default is “white”.
DefaultForeground string
This variable specifies the foreground color to be used for sizing and information
windows. The default is “black”.
DontIconifyByUnmapping { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows that should not be iconified by simply
unmapping the window (as would be the case if IconifyByUnmapping had been set). This
is frequently used to force some windows to be treated as icons while other windows
are handled by the icon manager.
DontMoveOff
This variable indicates that windows should not be allowed to be moved off the screen.
It can be overridden by the f.forcemove function.
DontNameDecorations
Disable setting WM_NAME properties on the various decoration windows ctwm puts around
the windows it manages. These are handy to keep track of what’s what when poking
through the list of windows on the screen, but can confuse some tools that don’t
expect to find them there (xwit is known to be one of them). First appeared in 4.0.2.
DontPaintRootWindow
This variable tells ctwm not to paint the root window, whatever you told in the
Workspaces specification. This is useful to have pixmaps in the Workspace Map but not
on the root window.
DontSave { win-list }
These windows won’t have their characteristics saved for the session manager.
DontSetInactive { win-list }
These windows won’t be set to InactiveState when they become invisible due to a change
workspace. This has been added because some ill-behaved clients (Frame5) don’t like
this.
DontShowWelcomeWindow
Indicates the same as the -W option: the welcome window is not shown.
DontSqueezeTitle [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that titlebars should not be squeezed to their minimum size as
described under SqueezeTitle below. If the optional window list is supplied, only
those windows will be prevented from being squeezed.
DontToggleWorkSpaceManagerState
Turns off the feature toggling the workspace manager state to/from map/button state
when you press ctrl and the workspace manager window is in focus.
DontWarpCursorInWMap
Tells ctwm not to warp the cursor to the corresponding actual window when you click in
a small window in the workspace map.
EWMHIgnore { message-types }
Sets EWMH message types that ctwm will ignore. This is only valid if built with
USE_EWMH (currently on by default). The following example shows all the valid options:
EWMHIgnore
{
# Window states
"STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT"
"STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ"
"STATE_FULLSCREEN"
"STATE_SHADED"
"STATE_ABOVE"
"STATE_BELOW"
}
First appeared in 4.0.0.
ForceFocus [{ win-list }]
Give focus to windows whether they asked for it or not. This may occasionally be
useful with windows that tell us not to give them focus, but still need it and fail to
work right without us doing so. The optional window list allows specifying which
windows will get such treatment.
First appeared in 4.0.0. In prior versions, a variant of this functionality was
unconditionally enabled.
ForceIcons
This variable indicates that icon pixmaps specified in the Icons variable should
override any client-supplied pixmaps.
FramePadding pixels
This variable specifies the distance between the titlebar decorations (the button and
text) and the window frame. The default is 2 pixels if UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0
if it is set.
GrabServer
Specifies that ctwm should grab the X server (blocking all events other than ours)
when popping up menus and moving opaque windows. See also NoGrabServer. Added in
4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.
IconBackground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the background color of icons, and may only be specified
inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names
and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable
for a complete description of the win-list. The default is “white”.
IconBorderColor string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the color of the border used for icon windows, and may only be
specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of
window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the
BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is
“black”.
IconBorderWidth pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding icon windows.
The default is 2.
IconDirectory string
This variable specifies the directory that should be searched if a bitmap file cannot
be found in any of the directories in the bitmapFilePath resource.
IconFont string
This variable specifies the font to be used to display icon names within icons. The
default is “variable”.
IconForeground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when displaying icons, and may
only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a
list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the
BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is
“black”.
IconifyByUnmapping [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that windows should be iconified by being unmapped without
trying to map any icons. This assumes that the user is will remap the window through
the icon manager, the f.warpto function, or the TwmWindows menu. If the optional
win-list is provided, only those windows will be iconified by simply unmapping.
Windows that have both this and the IconManagerDontShow options set may not be
accessible if no binding to the TwmWindows menu is set in the user’s startup file.
IconifyStyle string
Where string is either "normal", "mosaic", "zoomin", "zoomout" or "sweep". Tells ctwm
to use some fancy graphical effects when iconifying windows.
IconJustification string
Where string is either "left", "center" or "right". Tells ctwm how to justify the icon
image against the icon title (if any).
IconManagerBackground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the background color to use for icon manager entries, and may
only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a
list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. See the
BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list. The default is
“white”.
IconManagerDontShow [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that the icon manager should not display any windows. If the
optional win-list is given, only those windows will not be displayed. This variable is
used to prevent windows that are rarely iconified (such as xclock or xload) from
taking up space in the icon manager.
IconManagerFont string
This variable specifies the font to be used when displaying icon manager entries. The
default is “variable”.
IconManagerForeground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the foreground color to be used when displaying icon manager
entries, and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional
win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors may be
specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete description of the win-list.
The default is “black”.
IconManagerGeometry string [ columns ]
This variable specifies the geometry of the icon manager window. The string argument
is standard geometry specification that indicates the initial full size of the icon
manager. The icon manager window is then broken into columns pieces and scaled
according to the number of entries in the icon manager. Extra entries are wrapped to
form additional rows. The default number of columns is 1.
IconManagerHighlight string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the border color to be used when highlighting the icon manager
entry that currently has the focus, and can only be specified inside of a Color or
Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that
per-window colors may be specified. See the BorderColor variable for a complete
description of the win-list. The default is “black”.
IconManagers { iconmgr-list }
This variable specifies a list of icon managers to create. Each item in the
iconmgr-list has the following format:
"winname" ["iconname"] "geometry" columns
where winname is the name of the windows that should be put into this icon manager,
iconname is the name of that icon manager window’s icon, geometry is a standard
geometry specification, and columns is the number of columns in this icon manager as
described in IconManagerGeometry. For example:
IconManagers
{
"XTerm" "=300x5+800+5" 5
"myhost" "=400x5+100+5" 2
}
Clients whose name or class is “XTerm” will have an entry created in the “XTerm” icon
manager. Clients whose name was “myhost” would be put into the “myhost” icon manager.
IconManagerShadowDepth pixels
This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D IconManager entries,
when UseThreeDIconManagers is selected.
IconManagerShow { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows that should appear in the icon manager. When
used in conjunction with the IconManagerDontShow variable, only the windows in this
list will be shown in the icon manager.
IconMenuDontShow { win-list }
Don’t show the name of these windows in the TwmIcons menu.
IconRegion geomstring vgrav hgrav gridwidth gridheight [iconjust] [iconregjust]
[iconregalign] [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies an area on the root window in which icons are placed if no
specific icon location is provided by the client. The geomstring is a quoted string
containing a standard geometry specification. If more than one IconRegion lines are
given, icons will be put into the succeeding icon regions when the first is full. The
vgrav argument should be either North or South and is used to control whether icons
are first filled in from the top or bottom of the icon region. Similarly, the hgrav
argument should be either East or West and is used to control whether icons should be
filled in from left or from the right. Icons are laid out within the region in a grid
with cells gridwidth pixels wide and gridheight pixels high. The optional win-list
argument tells ctwm that if such a window is iconified, and there is enough room in
this icon region for its icon, then place it here. The optional iconjust, iconregjust
and iconregalign can be used to give specific values of IconJustification,
IconRegionJustification and IconRegionAlignement for this IconRegion.
IconRegionAlignement string
Where string is either "top", "center" "bottom" or "border". Tells ctwm how to align
icons inside their place in the IconRegion. If “border” is given, the justification
will be “top” if the icon region gravity is “north” and “bottom” if the icon region
gravity is “south”.
IconRegionJustification string
Where string is either "left", "center" "right" or "border". Tells ctwm how to justify
icons inside their place in the IconRegion. If “border” is given, the justification
will be “left” if the icon region gravity is “west” and “right” if the icon region
gravity is “east”.
Icons { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of window names and the bitmap filenames that should be
used as their icons. For example:
Icons
{
"XTerm" "xterm.icon"
"xfd" "xfd_icon"
}
Windows that match “XTerm” and would not be iconified by unmapping, would try to use
the icon bitmap in the file “xterm.icon”.If ForceIcons is specified, this bitmap will
be used even if the client has requested its own icon pixmap.
IconSize string
(Only if built with USE_EWMH) string is of the form "<width>x<height>" or "size" for a
square size. This indicates the preferred size of icons selected from the EWMH window
property _NET_WM_ICON. If an icon with the exact size is not available, one with the
nearest (area) size will be chosen.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
IgnoreCaseInMenuSelection
Used when moving the pointer inside a menu with the keyboard. When you type a letter,
the pointer goes to the next entry beginning with this letter. If
IgnoreCaseInMenuSelection is present, this selection ignores the case of this first
letter.
IgnoreLockModifier
If present, all bindings (buttons and keys) will ignore the LockMask. Useful if you
often use caps lock, and don’t want to define twice all your bindings.
IgnoreModifier
All bindings (buttons and keys) will ignore the modifiers you specified. It is useful
when you use caps locks or num locks. You don’t need IgnoreLockModifier any more with
this option.
IgnoreModifier { lock m2 }
IgnoreTransient
List of windows for which to ignore transients.
IgnoreTransient { "Wine" }
InterpolateMenuColors
This variable indicates that menu entry colors should be interpolated between entry
specified colors. In the example below:
Menu "mymenu"
{
"Title" ("black":"red") f.title
"entry1" f.nop
"entry2" f.nop
"entry3" ("white":"green") f.nop
"entry4" f.nop
"entry5" ("red":"white") f.nop
}
the foreground colors for “entry1” and “entry2” will be interpolated between black and
white, and the background colors between red and green. Similarly, the foreground for
“entry4” will be half-way between white and red, and the background will be half-way
between green and white.
MakeTitle { win-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows on which a titlebar should be placed and is
used to request titles on specific windows when NoTitle has been set.
MapWindowBackground color [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the background colors to use for small windows in the
workspace map window and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list.
The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors
may be specified. If there is neither MapWindowBackground, nor MapWindowForeground the
window title colors are used.
MapWindowCurrentWorkSpace { border_color [background] [foreground] [bitmap] }
Specify the appearence of the map window corresponding to the current workspace.
MapWindowDefaultWorkSpace { border_color [background] [foreground] [bitmap] }
Specify the appearence of the map window corresponding to the workspaces other than
the current workspace when no root background information has been provided to ctwm in
the WorkSpace command. Not used in others cases.
MapWindowForeground color [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the foreground colors to use for small windows in the
workspace map window and may only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list.
The optional win-list is a list of window names and colors so that per-window colors
may be specified. If there is neither MapWindowBackground, nor MapWindowForeground the
window title colors are used.
MaxIconTitleWidth width
The integer argument tells ctwm the maximun width to use for an icon title. If an icon
title is larger than width, it is truncated.
MaxWindowSize string
This variable specifies a geometry in which the width and height give the maximum size
for a given window. This is typically used to restrict windows to the size of the
screen. The default is “30000x30000”.
MenuBackground string
This variable specifies the background color used for menus, and can only be specified
inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “white”.
MenuFont string
This variable specifies the font to use when displaying menus. The default is
“variable”.
MenuForeground string
This variable specifies the foreground color used for menus, and can only be specified
inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “black”.
MenuShadowColor string
This variable specifies the color of the shadow behind pull-down menus and can only be
specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “black”.
MenuShadowDepth pixels
This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D menus, when
UseThreeDMenus is selected.
MenuTitleBackground string
This variable specifies the background color for f.title entries in menus, and can
only be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “white”.
MenuTitleForeground string
This variable specifies the foreground color for f.title entries in menus and can only
be specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The default is “black”.
Monochrome { colors }
This variable specifies a list of color assignments that should be made if the screen
has a depth of 1. See the description of Color.
MoveDelta pixels
This variable specifies the number of pixels the pointer must move before the f.move
function starts working. Also see the f.deltastop function. The default is zero
pixels.
MovePackResistance pixels
This variable specifies the number of pixels of the movepack and movepush resistance.
See f.movepack and f.movepush.
MoveOffResistance pixels
This variable specifies the number of pixels of the moveoff resistance. If pixels is
positive, DontMoveOff will only prevent you from going off the edge if you’re within n
pixels off the edge. If you go further, DontMoveOff gives up and lets you go as far as
you wish. f.forcemove still allows you to totally ignore DontMoveOff. A negative value
puts you back into “never moveoff” mode (it’s the default).
MWMIgnore
Sets Motif window manager hints ctwm will ignore. The following example shows all the
valid options:
MWMIgnore
{
# en/disable window borders
"DECOR_BORDER"
# en/disable titlebars
"DECOR_TITLE"
}
First appeared in 4.0.0.
NoBackingStore
This variable indicates that ctwm’s menus should not request backing store to minimize
repainting of menus. This is typically used with servers that can repaint faster than
they can handle backing store. See also BackingStore. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.
NoBorder { win-list }
These windows won’t have borders. If you want no borders on all windows, use the
BorderWidth keyword.
NoCaseSensitive
This variable indicates that case should be ignored when sorting icon names in an icon
manager. This option is typically used with applications that capitalize the first
letter of their icon name.
NoDecorateTransients
Specify that transient windows (i.e., windows with a WM_TRANSIENT_FOR property set)
should be ignored (not given decorations) by ctwm. See also DecorateTransients. Added
in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the default.
NoDefaults
This variable indicates that ctwm should not supply the default titlebuttons and
bindings. This option should only be used if the startup file contains a completely
new set of bindings and definitions.
NoGrabServer
This variable indicates that ctwm should not grab the server when popping up menus and
moving opaque windows. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.
NoHighlight [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that borders should not be highlighted to track the location
of the pointer. If the optional win-list is given, highlighting will only be disabled
for those windows. When the border is highlighted, it will be drawn in the current
BorderColor. When the border is not highlighted, it will be stippled with an gray
pattern using the current BorderTileForeground and BorderTileBackground colors.
NoIconTitle [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that icons should not display the icon name of the client. If
the optional win-list is given, only those clients will not have icon titles.
NoIconManagerFocus
This variable indicates that ctwm will not set the focus on the corresponding window
when the pointer is in an IconManager.
NoIconManagers
This variable indicates that no icon manager should be created.
NoImagesInWorkSpaceManager
This variable turns off displaying of background images in the WorkSpaceMap. Instead
only the colors defined in WorkSpaces will be used as background in the WorkSpaceMap.
NoMenuShadows
This variable indicates that menus should not have drop shadows drawn behind them.
This is typically used with slower servers since it speeds up menu drawing at the
expense of making the menu slightly harder to read.
NoOpaqueMove [{ window-list }]
The counterpart of OpaqueMove. See OpaqueMove.
NoOpaqueResize [{ window-list }]
The counterpart of OpaqueResize. See OpaqueResize.
NoRaiseOnDeiconify
This variable indicates that windows that are deiconified should not be raised.
NoRaiseOnMove
This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when moved. This is
typically used to allow windows to slide underneath each other.
NoRaiseOnResize
This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when resized. This is
typically used to allow windows to be resized underneath each other.
NoRaiseOnWarp
This variable indicates that windows should not be raised when the pointer is warped
into them with the f.warpto function. If this option is set, warping to an occluded
window may result in the pointer ending up in the occluding window instead the desired
window (which causes unexpected behavior with f.warpring).
NoRestartPreviousState
Don’t attempt to regenerate the state the screen was in before the previous window
manager was shut down. See RestartPreviousState for details. Added in 4.0.0; in
previous versions this was the default.
NoSaveUnders
This variable indicates that menus should not request save-unders to minimize window
repainting following menu selection. It is typically used with displays that can
repaint faster than they can handle save-unders.
NoShowOccupyAll
This variable specifies that OccupyAll windows won’t be displayed in the WorkSpaceMap
window.
NoSortIconManager
Specifies that entries in the icon manager should be appended in the order they show
up. See also SortIconManager. Added in 4.0.0; in previous versions this was the
default.
NoStackMode [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that client window requests to change stacking order should be
ignored. If the optional win-list is given, only requests on those windows will be
ignored. This is typically used to prevent applications from relentlessly popping
themselves to the front of the window stack.
NoTitle [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that windows should not have titlebars. If the optional
win-list is given, only those windows will not have titlebars. MakeTitle may be used
with this option to force titlebars to be put on specific windows.
NoTitleFocus
This variable indicates that ctwm should not set keyboard input focus to each window
as it is entered. Normally, ctwm sets the focus so that focus and key events from the
titlebar and icon managers are delivered to the application. If the pointer is moved
quickly and ctwm is slow to respond, input can be directed to the old window instead
of the new. This option is typically used to prevent this “input lag” and to work
around bugs in older applications that have problems with focus events.
NoTitleHighlight [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that the highlight area of the titlebar, which is used to
indicate the window that currently has the input focus, should not be displayed. If
the optional win-list is given, only those windows will not have highlight areas. This
and the SqueezeTitle options can be set to substantially reduce the amount of screen
space required by titlebars.
NoWarpToMenuTitle
This variable indicates that the cursor should not be warped to the title of a menu
which does not have room to drop down below the current cursor position.
Occupy { occupy-list }
This variable specifies which windows occupy which workspaces at startup.
occupy-list consists of entries of the form :
[Window] win-name { wspc1 wspc2 ... }
or Workspace wspc-name { win1 win2 ... }
Example :
Occupy
{
"xload" {"all"}
Window "xterm" {"here" "there" "elsewhere"}
"xv" {"images"}
WorkSpace "images" {"xloadimage"}
}
If all is given for the workspace name (in either form), the named window[s] will be
put in all workspaces as if they were listed in OccupyAll. If the workspace name
begins with ws:, the workspace name will be looked up without the prefix first. That
is, if the given name is ws:abc, it will first look for a workspace called abc, and
assign to that if found. Else it will fall back to looking for the name ws:abc.
Note : The Occupy declaration should come after the WorkSpaces declaration.
OccupyAll { window-list }
This variable specifies a list of windows that will occupy all workspaces at startup.
window-list is a list of window names.
Example :
OccupyAll
{
"xload"
"xbiff"
"xconsole"
}
Note : The OccupyAll declaration should come after the WorkSpaces declaration.
OnTopPriority [Icons] priority [ { win-list } ]
ctwm allows you to put windows in several overlapping priority planes going from -8 to
+8, which makes it possible to have windows that stay on top or that are kept in the
background. If win-list is present, it specifies which windows should be put in the
priority plane. Else the priority sets the default value to use (the default default
is 0). The Icons parameter, if present, indicates that the preference described
applies to icons rather than to windows.
Example:
OnTopPriority Icons -1 # place icons a little in the background
OnTopPriority Icons 1 # place mail icons on top of normal windows
{
"Exmh"
"xbiff"
}
OnTopPriority 8 # keep these always on top of other windows
{
"Emacs Icon Manager" "WorkSpaceManager"
"TWM Icon Manager" "XDaliClock"
}
First appeared in 4.0.0.
OpaqueMove [{ window-list }]
This variable indicates that the f.move function should actually move the window
instead of just an outline so that the user can immediately see what the window will
look like in the new position. This option is typically used on fast displays
(particularly if NoGrabServer is set). The optional window list parameter indicates
that only windows in this list should actually be moved in opaque mode. The
NoOpaqueMove counterpart is also available.
As of 4.0.0 this is enabled by default.
OpaqueMoveThreshold threshold
The integer parameter is a percentage and indicates that only windows (elligible for
opaque moving) with a surface smaller than this percentage of the surface of the
screen should actually be moved in opaque mode. The default is 200. Since 4.0.0,
values >= 200 are treated as infinity, causing windows to always OpaqueMove if
eligible.
OpaqueResize [{ window-list }]
The opaque version of resize. Extremely resource intensive, but beautiful with fast
server/client/network. See OpaqueMove. The NoOpaqueResize counterpart is also
available. As of 4.0.0 this is enabled by default.
OpaqueResizeThreshold threshold
The resize version of OpaqueMoveThreshold. The default is 1000. Since 3.8.1, values >=
1000 are treated as infinity, causing windows to always OpaqueResize if eligible.
OpenWindowTimeout seconds
seconds is an integer representing a number of second. When a window tries to open on
an unattended display, it will be automatically mapped after this number of seconds.
PackNewWindows
Use f.movepack algorithm instead of f.move when opening a new window.
Pixmaps { pixmaps }
This variable specifies a list of pixmaps that define the appearance of various
images. Each entry is a keyword indicating the pixmap to set, followed by a string
giving the name of the bitmap file. The following pixmaps may be specified:
Pixmaps
{
TitleHighlight "gray1"
# TitleHighlight "supman%.xbm"
}
The default for TitleHighlight is to use an even stipple pattern.
PixmapDirectory path
This variable specifies the path where ctwm looks to find non-X11 bitmap files.
Whenever you want to use a image file that is not an X11 bitmap, specify :
xpm:filename for xpm files, xwd:filename for xwd files, jpeg:file for jpeg file, or
|command for an on the fly generated xwd file. Use the % character to specify an
animation. path can be a colon separated list of directories. Example :
PixmapDirectory "/usr/lib/X11/twm"
Icons
{
"Axe" "xpm:edit.xpm"
"xterm" "xpm:ball%.xpm"
}
N.B This is only valid if your version of ctwm has been compiled with the right
extension (XPM or JPEG).
PrioritySwitching [Icons] { win-list }
Specifies that the windows in win-list can switch priority. This means that they can
be in plane priority or -priority depending on the situation. For instance a window
whose priority is 2 will be put into plane 2 when raised and plane -2 when lowered,
which means that it will usually stay on top if you raise another window, but can
still be lowered if its priority is temporarily too high for your liking. If Icons is
specified, it means that the preference applies to icons rather than windows. See also
the f.priorityswitching function for dynamically adding/removing windows at runtime.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
PriorityNotSwitching [Icons] { win-list }
As above except that it declares that the default should be for windows to be able to
switch priority except for the windows in win-list which can’t.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
RaiseDelay milliseconds
For windows that are to be automatically raised when the pointer enters (see the
AutoRaise variable and the f.autoraise function) this variable specifies the length of
time the pointer should rest in the window before it is raised. The default is 0
milliseconds.
RaiseOnClick
If present a window will be raised on top of others when clicked on, and the
ButtonPress event will be correctly forwarded to the client that owns this window (if
it asked to). See RaiseOnClickButton.
RaiseOnClickButton button_number
Where button_number is a valid button number (currently 1 to 11). Specify the button
to use for RaiseOnClick.
RaiseWhenAutoUnSqueeze
Windows are raised when auto-unsqueezed (See AutoSqueeze).
RandomPlacement [ string1 [ string2 ]]
This variable indicates that windows with no specified geometry should be placed in a
pseudo-random location instead of having the user drag out an outline. If no argument
is given, it is interpreted as RandomPlacement "on".
string1 may be “on”, “off”, “all” or “unmapped”, and string2 is a displacement for the
pseudo-randomly placed window compared to the previous one. The argument “on” or “all”
are equivalent, and tell ctwm to do this for all such windows, “off”, not to do this,
and “unmapped”, only for unmapped windows, e.g. iconified or not visible in the
current workspace. If the second argument isn’t given, the displacement +30+30 (30
pixels right and down) is used.
As of 4.0.0, “on” is the default if no RandomPlacement is specified in the config.
Previously “off” was default.
ReallyMoveInWorkspaceManager
This keyword tells ctwm to move the actual window when the user is moving the small
windows in the WorkSpaceMap window. If not present the WorkSpaceMap can be used only
to modify the occupation of a window. Pressing the shift key while dragging a window
in the workspace manager temporarily toggles this option.
ResizeFont string
This variable specifies the font to be used for in the dimensions window when resizing
windows. The default is “fixed”.
RestartPreviousState
This variable indicates that properties on client windows to attempt to regenerate the
state that the screen was in before the previous window manager was shutdown. This
includes using the WM_STATE property to tell which windows should be iconified and
which should be left visible, and the WM_OCCUPATION property to determine in which
workspaces a window should be visible. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.
ReverseCurrentWorkspace
This variable tells ctwm to reverse the background and foreground colors in the small
windows in the workspace map for the current workspace.
RplaySoundHost string
The host on which sounds should be played. Only meaningful when ctwm is built with
USE_SOUND; will give a warning otherwise. See the SOUNDS section. Added in 4.0.0;
prior versions used the SoundHost parameter instead.
RplaySounds { sounds-list }
Define what sounds to play on various events through rplayd. It contains entries of
the form
"EventName" "/file/to/play.wav"
Only meaningful when ctwm is built with USE_SOUND; it will give a warning otherwise.
See the SOUNDS section. Note that if this section is given in the ctwmrc, the
~/.ctwm-sounds file will not be parsed. First appeared in 4.0.0.
SaveColor { colors-list }
This variable indicates a list of color assignments to be stored as pixel values in
the root window property _MIT_PRIORITY_COLORS. Clients may elect to preserve these
values when installing their own colormap. Note that use of this mechanism is a way
for an application to avoid the “technicolor” problem, whereby useful screen objects
such as window borders and titlebars disappear when a program’s custom colors are
installed by the window manager. For example:
SaveColor
{
BorderColor
TitleBackground
TitleForeground
"red"
"green"
"blue"
}
This would place on the root window 3 pixel values for borders and titlebars, as well
as the three color strings, all taken from the default colormap.
ShrinkIconTitles
A la Motif shrinking of icon titles, and expansion when mouse is inside icon. The old
incorrect spelling SchrinkIconTitles is also still accepted.
ShortAllWindowsMenus
Don’t show WorkSpaceManager and IconManagers in the TwmWindows and TwmAllWindows
menus.
ShowIconManager
This variable indicates that the icon manager window should be displayed when ctwm is
started. It can always be brought up using the f.showiconmgr function.
ShowWorkSpaceManager
This variable specifies that the WorkSpaceManager should be visible.
SloppyFocus
Use sloppy focus.
SaveWorkspaceFocus
When changing to a workspace, restore the focus to the last window that had the focus
when you left the workspace by warping the mouse into it. This essentially saves the
focus window with the workspace and restores it automatically when you switch. In many
cases, it avoids having to reach for the mouse after moving to a new workspace.
SortIconManager
This variable indicates that entries in the icon manager should be sorted
alphabetically rather than by simply appending new windows to the end. As of 4.0.0
this is the default.
SoundHost string
Alias for RplaySoundHost, used in versions prior to 4.0.0. Unless you need backward
compatibility with them, use RplaySoundHost instead. This alias will be removed in a
future version.
SqueezeTitle [{ squeeze-list }]
This variable indicates that ctwm should attempt to use the SHAPE extension to make
titlebars occupy only as much screen space as they need, rather than extending all the
way across the top of the window. The optional squeeze-list may be used to control the
location of the squeezed titlebar along the top of the window. It contains entries of
the form:
"name" justification num denom
where name is a window name, justification is either left, center, or right, and num
and denom are numbers specifying a ratio giving the relative position about which the
titlebar is justified. The ratio is measured from left to right if the numerator is
positive, and right to left if negative. A denominator of 0 indicates that the
numerator should be interpreted as pixels. For compatibility, the pixel-position 0/0
is the relative middle of the window (1/2) for center and the relative right side of
the window (2/2) for right, but this use is not recommended. Use "right 2 2" for
relative positioning, or "right -1 0" for absolute; this makes a difference when
dragging the titlebar (see f.movetitlebar). For example:
SqueezeTitle
{
"XTerm" left 0 0
"xterm1" left 1 3
"xterm2" left 2 3
"oclock" center 1 2
"emacs" right 2 2
}
The default positioning is left-justified, absolute at 0 pixels. The DontSqueezeTitle
list can be used to turn off squeezing on certain titles.
StartIconified { win-list }
This variable indicates that client windows should initially be left as icons until
explicitly deiconified by the user. If the optional win-list is given, only those
windows will be started iconic. This is useful for programs that do not support an
-iconic command line option or resource.
StartInButtonState
Start the WorkSpaceManage in button form. See also StartInMapState. Added in 4.0.0.
StartInMapState
This variable specifies that the WorkSpaceManager should be started in its map form
when created. See also StartInButtonState. As of 4.0.0 this is the default.
StartSqueezed { win-list }
These windows will first show up squeezed (see f.squeeze).
StayUpMenus
Tells ctwm to use stayup menus. These menus will stay on the screen when ButtonUp, if
either the menu has not yet been entered by the pointer, or the current item is a
f.title.
StrictWinNameEncoding
Whether to be strict about what encodings we accept for window naming properties.
Added in 4.0.2.
This is used when translating properties relating to naming windows, like WM_NAME. For
example, according to the ICCCM, WM_NAME can only be a STRING or COMPOUND_TEXT type.
However, sloppy programs like Chrome may set it to a UTF8_STRING instead. If this var
is set, ctwm will reject that, as was standard behavior prior to 4.0.2.
SunkFocusWindowTitle
This variable specifies that the title of the focus window (if exists) should be
sunken instead of raised. Only valid if UseThreeDTitles is set.
ThreeDBorderWidth pixels
The width of the 3D border in pixels, if any.
TitleBackground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the background color used in titlebars, and may only be
specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of
window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The default is
“white”.
TitleButtonBorderWidth pixels
This variable specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding titlebuttons.
This is typically set to 0 to allow titlebuttons to take up as much space as possible
and to not have a border. The default is 1 if UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0 if it is
set.
TitleButtonShadowDepth pixels
This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D title buttons, when
UseThreeDTitles is selected.
TitleFont string
This variable specifies the font used for displaying window names in titlebars. The
default is “variable”.
TitleForeground string [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies the foreground color used in titlebars, and may only be
specified inside of a Color or Monochrome list. The optional win-list is a list of
window names and colors so that per-window colors may be specified. The default is
“black”.
TitleJustification string
This keyword needs a string value. The acceptable values are : “left”, “center” and
“right”. The window titles will be justified according to this in the title window.
TitlePadding pixels
This variable specifies the distance between the various buttons, text, and highlight
areas in the titlebar. The default is 8 pixels if UseThreeDTitles is not set, 0 if it
is set.
TitleShadowDepth pixels
This variable specifies the depth of the shadow ctwm uses for 3D titles, when
UseThreeDTitles is selected.
TransientHasOccupation
This variable specifies that transient-for and non-group leader windows can have their
own occupation potentially different from their leader window. The default case is
that these windows follow their leader, use this keyword if the default action doesn’t
please you.
TransientOnTop percentage
The parameter (required) is a percentage and tells ctwm to put transient (and
non-group leader) windows always on top of their leader if and only if their surface
is smaller than this fraction of the surface of their leader. The surface of a window
is its width times its weight. The default is 30%. Added in 3.0.
UnknownIcon string
This variable specifies the filename of a bitmap file to be used as the default icon.
This bitmap will be used as the icon of all clients which do not provide an icon
bitmap and are not listed in the Icons list.
UnmapByMovingFarAway { win-list }
These windows will be moved out of the screen instead of being unmapped when they
become invisible due to a change workspace. This has been added because some
ill-behaved clients (Frame5) don’t like to be unmapped.
UsePPosition string
This variable specifies whether or not ctwm should honor program-requested locations
(given by the PPosition flag in the WM_NORMAL_HINTS property) in the absence of a
user-specified position. The argument string may have one of three values: "off" (the
default) indicating that ctwm should ignore the program-supplied position, "on"
indicating that the position should be used, and "non-zero" indicating that the
position should used if it is other than (0,0). The latter option is for working
around a bug in older toolkits.
UseSunkTitlePixmap
This makes it so the shadows are inversed for title pixmaps when focus is lost. This
is similar to having the SunkFocusWindowTitle, but it makes your xbm or 3d XPM (if
any) sink instead of just the whole bar.
UseThreeDBorders
Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking window borders. The width ot the 3D borders is
ThreeDBorderWidth. The color of the 3D border is BorderTileBackground, and if
NoHighlight is not selected, the border of the Focus window is BorderColor. Setting
this automatically unsets ClientBorderWidth.
UseThreeDIconManagers
Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking IconManagers if any.
UseThreeDMenus
Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking menus.
UseThreeDTitles
Tells ctwm to use 3D-looking windows titles. In which case the default values of
TitleButtonBorderWidth, FramePadding, TitlePadding and ButtonIndent are set to 0.
There are plenty of built-in scalable pixmaps for buttons: :xpm:menu, :xpm:dot,
:xpm:cross, :xpm:bar, :xpm:vbar, :xpm:iconify, :xpm:resize, :xmp:sunkresize, and
:xpm:box. There are several built-in scalable animations for buttons: %xpm:resize,
%xpm:menu-up, %xpm:menu-down, %xpm:resize-out-top, %xpm:resize-in-top,
%xpm:resize-out-bot, %xpm:resize-in-bot, %xpm:maze-out, %xpm:maze-in, %xpm:zoom-out,
%xpm:zoom-in, and %xpm:zoom-inout. Try them to see what they look like.
UseThreeDWMap
Tells ctwm to use 3D for the small windows in the workspace map.
VirtualScreens { geometries-list }
This variable specifies a list of geometries for virtual screens. Virtual screens are
designed to be used when you have several physical screens bound together with the
Xinerama X extension.
geometries-list is a list of valid geometry strings, that correspond to your actual
physical screens.
Example :
VirtualScreens
{
"1280x1024+0+0"
"1600x1200+1280+0"
}
WarpCursor [{ win-list }]
This variable indicates that the pointer should be warped into windows when they are
deiconified. If the optional win-list is given, the pointer will only be warped when
those windows are deiconified.
WarpOnDeIconify { win-list }
When ctwm receives a request to map a window, it normally just deiconifies it, but if
the window is in win-list, it will additionally bring it into the current workspace,
if necessary. For example
WarpOnDeIconify { "Emacs" }
will make sure emacs windows will always popup in the current workspace when necessary
(typically when the minibuffer or the Help frame is in another workspace).
First appeared in 4.0.0.
WarpRingOnScreen
Tells ctwm that f.warpring warps pointer only to windows visible in the current
workspace.
WarpToDefaultMenuEntry
(Useful only with StayUpMenus) When using StayUpMenus, and a menu does stays up, the
pointer is warped to the default entry of the menu.
WarpUnmapped
This variable indicates that that the f.warpto function should deiconify any iconified
windows it encounters. This is typically used to make a key binding that will pop a
particular window (such as xmh), no matter where it is. The default is for f.warpto to
ignore iconified windows.
WindowBox [{ win-list }]
creates a new window called a box, where all the client windows that match the windows
list are opened in, instead of the root window. This is useful to group small windows
in the same box (xload for instance)
WindowBox "xloadbox" "320x100+0-0" {
"xload"
}
WindowGeometries { win-list }
Used to give a default geometry to some clients :
WindowGeometries {
"Mozilla*" "1000x800+10+10"
"jpilot*" "800x600-0-0"
}
WindowRegion geomstring vgrav hgrav { win-list }
Similar to IconRegion, but for windows. Note that the win-list is not optional.
WindowRing [{ win-list }]
This variable specifies a list of windows along which the f.warpring function cycles.
If no argument is given, all the windows are in the ring.
WindowRingExclude [{ win-list }]
All listed windows will be excluded from the WarpRing.
WMgrButtonShadowDepth depth
Control the depth of the shadow of the workspace manager buttons.
WMgrButtonStyle string
Sets the style of the workspace manager buttons (when in button rather than map
state), as well as the buttons in the Occupy window. Available options are normal (the
default 3d look), style1, style2, and style3 (which are slightly different 2d looks).
WMgrHorizButtonIndent nb_pixels
Specifies the horizontal space, in pixel, between the buttons of the workspace manager
(in button mode).
WMgrVertButtonIndent nb_pixels
Specifies the vertical space, in pixel, between the buttons of the workspace manager
(in button mode).
WorkSpaceFont string
This allows you to specify the font to use for the small windows in the workspace
manager map. (Try -adobe-times-*-r-*--10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*).
WorkSpaceManagerGeometry string [ columns ]
This variable specifies the geometry of the workspace manager window. The string
argument is standard geometry specification that indicates the initial full size of
the workspace manager. The columns argument indicates the number of columns to use for
the workspace manager window.
WorkSpaceManagerGeometry "360x60+60-0" 8
WorkSpaces { workspace-list }
This variable specifies a list of workspaces that are created at startup, Where
workspace-list is :
name [{bg-button [fg-button] [bg-root] [fg-root] [pixmap-root]}]
With:
bg-button
background color of the corresponding button in the workspace manager.
fg-button
foreground color of the corresponding button in the workspace manager.
bg-root
background color of the corresponding root screen.
fg-root
foreground color of the corresponding root screen.
pixmap-root
pixmap to display on the corresponding root screen, either the name of a bitmap,
xpm:xpmfile, xwd:xwdfile, jpeg:jpgfile, or |command_that generates_xwd.
Example:
WorkSpaces
{
"One" {"#686B9F" "white" "DeepSkyBlue3" "white" "jpeg:shark.jpg"}
"Two" {"#619AAE" "white" "firebrick"}
"Three" {"#727786" "white" "MidnightBlue" "white" "xpm:ball%.xpm"}
"Four" {"#727786" "white" "white" "white"
"|(giftoppm | pnmtoxwd) < 2010.gif"}
"Five" {"#727786" "white" "DeepSkyBlue3" "white" "plaid"}
"Six" {"#619AAE" "white" "DeepSkyBlue3" "white" "xpm:background1"}
"Seven" {"#8C5b7A" "white" "chartreuse4"}
"Eight" {"#686B9F" "white" "MidnightBlue"}
}
The WorkSpaces declaration should come before the Occupy or OccupyAll declarations.
The maximum number of workspaces is 32.
Each workspace also has a label, which is displayed in the WorkSpaceManager window
when it is in button state. By moving the mouse cursor over a button and typing
letters and/or backspace, you may edit the label. The name is unaffected. Functions
that look up workspaces by name also look at the label.
XMoveGrid number
This variable specifies the value to use to constrain window movement. When moving
windows around, the x coordinate will always be a multiple of this variable. Default
is 1. f.forcemove ignores this variable.
XorValue number
This variable specifies the value to use when drawing window outlines for moving and
resizing. This should be set to a value that will result in a variety of
distinguishable colors when exclusive-or’ed with the contents of the user’s typical
screen. Setting this variable to 1 often gives nice results if adjacent colors in the
default colormap are distinct. By default, ctwm will attempt to cause temporary lines
to appear at the opposite end of the colormap from the graphics.
YMoveGrid number
This variable specifies the value to use to constrain window movement. When moving
windows around, the y coordinate will always be a multiple of this variable. Default
is 1. f.forcemove ignores this variable.
Zoom [ count ]
This variable indicates that outlines suggesting movement of a window to and from its
iconified state should be displayed whenever a window is iconified or deiconified. The
optional count argument specifies the number of outlines to be drawn. The default
count is 8.
The following variables must be set after the fonts have been assigned, so it is usually
best to put them at the end of the variables or beginning of the bindings sections:
ChangeWorkspaceFunction function
This variable specifies the function to be executed when the user change the current
workspace (zap).
DefaultFunction function
This variable specifies the function to be executed when a key or button event is
received for which no binding is provided. This is typically bound to f.nop, f.beep,
or a menu containing window operations.
DeIconifyFunction function
This variable specifies the function to be executed when a window is deiconified.
IconifyFunction function
This variable specifies the function to be executed when a window is iconified.
WindowFunction function
This variable specifies the function to execute when a window is selected from the
TwmWindows menu. If this variable is not set, the window will be deiconified and
raised.
BINDINGS
After the desired variables have been set, functions may be attached to titlebuttons and
key and pointer buttons. Titlebuttons may be added from the left or right side and appear
in the titlebar from left-to-right according to the order in which they are specified. Key
and pointer button bindings may be given in any order.
Title buttons
Titlebuttons specifications must include the name of the pixmap to use in the button box
and the function to be invoked when a pointer button is pressed within them:
LeftTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
or
LeftTitleButton "bitmapname" {
Buttoni = modlist : function
...
Buttonj = function
}
or
RightTitleButton "bitmapname" = function
or
RightTitleButton "bitmapname" {
Buttoni = modlist : function
...
Buttonj = function
}
The bitmapname may refer to one of the built-in bitmaps (which are scaled to match
TitleFont) by using the appropriate colon-prefixed name described above.
The pointer button specifications come in two forms, with a modifier list or without. When
the specification comes without a modifier list, it’s used for the case when no modifiers
are used. In other words, the following two lines are equivalent:
Buttoni = function
Buttoni = : function
Key and pointer buttons
Key and pointer button specifications must give the modifiers that must be pressed, over
which parts of the screen the pointer must be, and what function is to be invoked. Keys
are given as strings containing the appropriate keysym name; buttons are given as the
keywords Button1-Button11:
"FP1" = modlist : context : function
Button1 = modlist : context : function
A user who wanted to be able to manipulate windows from the keyboard could use the
following bindings:
"F1" = : all : f.iconify
"F2" = : all : f.raiselower
"F3" = : all : f.warpring "next"
"F4" = : all : f.warpto "xmh"
"F5" = : all : f.warpto "emacs"
"F6" = : all : f.colormap "next"
"F7" = : all : f.colormap "default"
"F20" = : all : f.warptoscreen "next"
"Left" = m : all : f.backiconmgr
"Right" = m | s : all : f.forwiconmgr
"Up" = m : all : f.upiconmgr
"Down" = m | s : all : f.downiconmgr
ctwm provides many more window manipulation primitives than can be conveniently stored in
a titlebar, menu, or set of key bindings. Although a small set of defaults are supplied
(unless the NoDefaults is specified), most users will want to have their most common
operations bound to key and button strokes. To do this, ctwm associates names with each of
the primitives and provides user-defined functions for building higher level primitives
and menus for interactively selecting among groups of functions.
Modifiers and Contexts
The modlist allows specifying different bindings for a button or key when modifiers are
applied. The list of recognized modifier names (abbreviated) are shift (s), control (c),
lock (l), alter1 (a1), alter2 (a2), alter3 (a3), alter4 (a4), alter5 (a5), meta (m), mod1
(m1), mod2 (m2), mod3 (m3), mod4 (m4), and mod5 (m5). Multiple modifiers may be applied to
a single line by combining them with a vertical bar (|). For example:
# Open the "top" menu with a Button1 (usually left mouse button) click in
# the root window
Button1 = : root : f.menu "top"
# Open the "top2" menu with shift-click
Button1 = s : root : f.menu "top2"
# And "top3" when control-shift-click
Button1 = c | s : root : f.menu "top3"
The lock modifier refers to CapsLock. meta is generally your Alt key. mod1 is the same as
meta. mod2..5 can have various special meanings; try running xmodmap -pm to see how your X
server is mapping things (the xkeycaps program may also be useful). The alter1..5
modifiers refer to ctwm alternate keymaps; see the description of f.altkeymap below for
details.
Note that if you’re using the m4 preprocessor, most implementations define a shift macro
internally, so using that as a modifier will silently fail to work right. To get around
it, you’ll need to quote it so that m4 passes it through as a literal string: `shift'.
The context lets you specify which mappings apply based on where the pointer currently is
on the screen. The available options are window (w), title (t), icon (i), root (r), frame
(f), workspace (no abbreviation), iconmgr (m), and alter (a). Like the modifiers above,
they may be combined with a vertical bar, which allows you to bind an action in multiple
contexts at once. Alternately, all can be given for the context to specify that the
binding should happen everywhere. It’s equivalent to combining all the choices (except
alter, which is special).
The alter context allows binding the function when in the alternate context; see the
f.altcontext function below for details.
There is an additional possible magical value for context; if you provide a quoted string
(e.g., "MyXterm") for the context of a key (but not button) binding, then that binding
will trigger the given function in window context to all windows matching that name. e.g.,
# Pressing "F1" anywhere on the screen will cause all windows with name
# "xterm" to raise themselves.
"F1" = : "xterm" : f.raise
Beware that this can have odd side effects if multiple windows are matched, especially if
the function can conflict one with the other (e.g., in the example above, if two "xterm"
windows overlap each other).
Functions
The function in a binding is any of the f. keywords described below. For example, the
default startup file contains the following bindings:
Button1 = : root : f.menu "TwmWindows"
Button1 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-lower"
Button2 = m : window | icon : f.iconify
Button3 = m : window | icon : f.function "move-or-raise"
Button1 = : title : f.function "move-or-raise"
Button2 = : title : f.raiselower
Button1 = : icon : f.function "move-or-iconify"
Button2 = : icon : f.iconify
Button1 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
Button2 = : iconmgr : f.iconify
User-defined functions contain the name by which they are referenced in calls to
f.function and a list of other functions to execute. For example:
Function "move-or-lower" { f.move f.deltastop f.lower }
Function "move-or-raise" { f.move f.deltastop f.raise }
Function "move-or-iconify" { f.move f.deltastop f.iconify }
Function "restore-colormap" { f.colormap "default" f.lower }
The function name must be used in f.function exactly as it appears in the function
specification.
In the descriptions below, if the function is said to operate on the selected window, but
is invoked from a root menu, the cursor will be changed to the Select cursor and the next
window to receive a button press will be chosen:
! string
This is an abbreviation for f.exec string.
f.addtoworkspace string
This function adds the selected window to the workspace whose name is string.
f.adoptwindow
This function asks for the user to select a window with the mouse, and then adopt this
window if it doesn’t belong to the current ctwm. Useful only with the -w flag.
f.altcontext
Set the alternate context. The next key or button event ctwm receives will be
interpreted using the alternate context. To define bindings in the alternate context,
use the keyword alter in the context field of the binding command. For example:
"Return" = m : all : f.altcontext
"n" = : alter : f.nextworkspace
"p" = : alter : f.prevworkspace
f.altkeymap number
Set the alternate keymap number, where number is an integer between 1 and 5 inclusive.
The next key or button event ctwm receives will be interpreted using this alternate
keymap. To define bindings in an alternate keymap, use the keyword a followed by
number in the modifier field of the binding command. For example:
"Return" = c : all : f.altkeymap "1"
"i" = a1 : window|icon|iconmgr : f.iconify
"z" = a1 : window : f.zoom
"d" = a1 : window|icon : f.delete
"o" = a1 : window|icon : f.occupy
"r" = a1 : window|icon : f.refresh
When using an alternate keymaps, only the root, window, icon and iconmgr contexts are
allowed.
f.autolower
This function toggles whether or not the selected window is lowered whenever the
pointer leaves it. See the description of the variable AutoLower.
f.autoraise
This function toggles whether or not the selected window is raised whenever entered by
the pointer. See the description of the variable AutoRaise.
f.backiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the previous column in the current icon manager,
wrapping back to the previous row if necessary.
f.backmapiconmgr
This function warps the pointer in the same manner as f.backiconmgr but only stops at
windows that are mapped.
f.beep
This function sounds the keyboard bell.
f.bottomzoom
This function stretches the bottom side of the window out to the bottom edge of the
screen, or restores the original size if the window was already bottomzoom’d.
f.changepriority rel-value
Change the priority of a window by rel-value (enclosed within double quotes). For
instance, to bury a window one level down, you would use f.changepriority "-1". See
OnTopPriority variable.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.changesize string
This function allows you to change the size of the focused window. The format of the
string must be either "<border> <+|-><sizechange>" (where <border> must be one of top,
bottom, left or right) or "<x size>x<y size>" (where the size is the requested new
window size). The height of the window can never be set/changed to less than the title
height + 1 (or 1 if the window has no title) and the width can never be set/changed to
less than 1.
"Right" = c|s : all : f.changesize "right +10"
"Left" = c|s : all : f.changesize "right -10"
"Down" = c|s : all : f.changesize "bottom +10"
"Up" = c|s : all : f.changesize "bottom -10"
"F1" = c|s : all : f.changesize "640x480"
"F2" = c|s : all : f.changesize "800x600"
"F3" = c|s : all : f.changesize "1024x768"
f.circledown
This function lowers the top-most window that occludes another window.
f.circleup
This function raises the bottom-most window that is occluded by another window.
f.colormap string
This function rotates the colormaps (obtained from the WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS property on
the window) that ctwm will display when the pointer is in this window. The argument
string may have one of the following values: "next", "prev", and "default". It should
be noted here that in general, the installed colormap is determined by keyboard focus.
A pointer driven keyboard focus will install a private colormap upon entry of the
window owning the colormap. Using the click to type model, private colormaps will not
be installed until the user presses a mouse button on the target window.
f.deiconify
This function deiconifies the selected window. If the window is not an icon, this
function does nothing.
f.delete
This function sends the WM_DELETE_WINDOW message to the selected window if the client
application has requested it through the WM_PROTOCOLS window property. The application
is supposed to respond to the message by removing the indicated window. If the window
has not requested WM_DELETE_WINDOW messages, the keyboard bell will be rung indicating
that the user should choose an alternative method. Note this is very different from
f.destroy. The intent here is to delete a single window, not necessarily the entire
application.
f.deleteordestroy
First tries to delete the window (send it WM_DELETE_WINDOW message), or kills it, if
the client doesn’t accept such message.
f.deltastop
This function allows a user-defined function to be aborted if the pointer has been
moved more than MoveDelta pixels. See the example definition given for Function
"move-or-raise" at the beginning of the section.
f.destroy
This function instructs the X server to close the display connection of the client
that created the selected window. This should only be used as a last resort for
shutting down runaway clients. See also f.delete.
f.downiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the next row in the current icon manger, wrapping
to the beginning of the next column if necessary.
f.downworkspace
Goto the workspace immediately underneath the current workspace in the workspace
manager. If the current workspace is the bottom one, goto the top one in the same
column. The result depends on the layout of the workspace manager.
f.exec string
This function passes the argument string to /bin/sh for execution. In multiscreen
mode, if string starts a new X client without giving a display argument, the client
will appear on the screen from which this function was invoked. If the string
“$currentworkspace” is present inside the string argument, it will be substituted with
the current workspace name.
f.fill string
Where string is either : “right”, “left”, “top”, “bottom” or “vertical”. The current
window is resized in the specified direction until it reaches an obstacle (either
another window, or the screen border). f.fill “vertical” sets the window status to
“zoomed” and toggles, ie calling it again will reset the previous window size.
f.fittocontent
Can be used only with window boxes. The result is to have the box have the minimal
size that contains all its children windows.
f.focus
This function toggles the keyboard focus of the server to the selected window,
changing the focus rule from pointer-driven if necessary. If the selected window
already was focused, this function executes an f.unfocus.
f.forcemove
This function is like f.move except that it ignores the DontMoveOff variable.
f.forwiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the next column in the current icon manager,
wrapping to the beginning of the next row if necessary.
f.forwmapiconmgr
This function warps the pointer in the same manner as f.forwiconmgr but only stops at
windows that are mapped.
f.fullscreenzoom
This function is similar to the f.fullzoom function, except that it makes the client
window (the part inside the frame) the size of the screen, so the window decorations
are off-screen. This gives the same visual effect as the window covering the whole
screen with no decorations. If the window is already fullscreenzoom’d, it restores the
original size.
f.fullzoom
This function resizes the selected window to the full size of the screen, or restores
the original size if the window was already fullzoom’d.
f.function string
This function executes the user-defined function whose name is specified by the
argument string.
f.gotoworkspace workspace_name
This function warps you to the workspace whose name is workspace_name.
f.hbzoom
This function is a synonym for f.bottomzoom.
f.hideiconmgr
This function unmaps the current icon manager.
f.hideworkspacemgr
Unmap the WorkSpace manager.
f.horizoom
This function stretches the window so that it covers the whole width of the screen, or
restores the original size if the window was already horizoom’d.
f.htzoom
This function is a synonym for f.topzoom.
f.hypermove
Use this function to “move” a window between 2 captives ctwm (or between a captive and
the root ctwm). Of course 2 ctwms are completely different universes. You have to go
in hyperspace to achieve this, hence the name.
f.hzoom
This function is a synonym for f.horizoom.
f.iconify
This function iconifies or deiconifies the selected window or icon, respectively.
f.identify
This function displays a summary of the name and geometry of the selected window.
Clicking the pointer or pressing a key in the window will dismiss it.
f.initsize
This function resets a window to its initial size given by the WM_NORMAL_HINTS hints.
f.jumpdown step
This function is designed to be bound to a key, it moves the current window (step *
{X,Y}MoveGrid) pixels downward. stopping if the window encounters another window or
the screen border (ala f.pack).
f.jumpleft step
Leftward equivalent of f.jumpdown.
f.jumpright step
Rightward equivalent of f.jumpdown.
f.jumpup step
Upward equivalent of f.jumpdown.
f.lefticonmgr
This function similar to f.backiconmgr except that wrapping does not change rows.
f.leftworkspace
Goto the workspace immediately on the left of the current workspace in the workspace
manager. If the current workspace is the leftest one, goto the rightest one in the
same row. The result depends on the layout of the workspace manager.
f.leftzoom
This function stretches the left side of the window out to the left edge of the
screen, or restores the original size if the window was already leftzoom’d.
f.lower
This function lowers the selected window.
f.menu string
This function invokes the menu specified by the argument string. Cascaded menus may be
built by nesting calls to f.menu. When a menu is popped up, you can use the arrow keys
to move the cursor around it. “Down” or space goes down, “Up” goes up, “Left” pops
down the menu, and “Right” activates the current entry. The first letter of an entry
name activates this entry (the first one if several entries match). If the first
letter is ~ then Meta-the-second-letter activates it, if this first letter is ^ then
Control-the-second-letter activates it, and if this first letter is space, then the
second letter activates it.
f.move
This function drags an outline of the selected window (or the window itself if the
OpaqueMove variable is set) until the invoking pointer button is released. Double
clicking within the number of milliseconds given by ConstrainedMoveTime warps the
pointer to the center of the window and constrains the move to be either horizontal or
vertical depending on which grid line is crossed. To abort a move, press another
button before releasing the first button.
f.movepack
This function is like f.move except that it tries to avoid overlapping of windows.
When the moving window begin to overlap with another window, the move is stopped. If
you go too far over the other window (more that MovePackResistance pixels), the move
is resumed and the moving window can overlap with the other window. Useful to pack
windows closely.
f.movepush
This function is like f.move except that it tries to avoid overlapping of windows.
When the moving window begins to overlap with another window, the other window is
pushed. If you go too far over the other window (more that MovePackResistance pixels),
there is no push and the moving window can overlap with the other window. Only
available if OpaqueMove is active.
f.moveresize geometry
Takes one string argument which is a geometry with the standard X geometry syntax
(e.g. 200x300+150-0). Sets the current window to the specified geometry. The width and
height are to be given in pixel, no base size or resize increment are used.
f.movetitlebar
If applied to a squeezed titlebar (see SqueezeTitle) you can drag it along the top of
the window (a feature which was first found in BeOS). The existing justification type
is preserved, as is the positioning (relative or absolute). This means that a
relatively positioned titlebar will move when the width of a window changes, whereas
an absolutely positioned title will not. The default positioning is left-justified,
absolute at 0 pixels.
Button1 = m1 : title : f.movetitlebar
f.movetitlebar does nothing if the window has no title, the window is squeezed (see
f.squeeze), or the title is not squeezed (see SqueezeTitle).
f.movetonextworkspace, f.movetonextworkspaceandfollow
Move the window to the next workspace, and optionally switch view over to that
workspace.
f.movetoprevworkspace, f.movetoprevworkspaceandfollow
Move the window to the previous workspace, and optionally switch view over to that
workspace.
f.nexticonmgr
This function warps the pointer to the next icon manager containing any windows on the
current or any succeeding screen.
f.nextworkspace
Goto the next workspace in the list, using the order given in the .ctwmrc file.
f.nop
This function does nothing and is typically used with the DefaultFunction or
WindowFunction variables or to introduce blank lines in menus.
f.occupy
This function pops up a window for the user to choose which workspaces a window
belongs to.
f.occupyall
This function makes the specified window occupy all the workspaces.
f.pack string
Where string is either : “right”, “left”, “top” or “bottom” The current window is
moved in the specified direction until it reaches an obstacle (either another window,
or the screen border). The pointer follows the window.
f.pin
Valid only in a root menu. Make a menu permanent on the screen. This is a toggle
function, if you select it while the menu is already permanent, it becomes
non-permanent.
f.previconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the previous icon manager containing any windows on
the current or preceding screens.
f.prevworkspace
Goto the previous workspace in the list, using the order given in the .ctwmrc file.
f.priorityswitching
Toggle the window’s switching ability. X-ref PrioritySwitching and OnTopPriority
variables.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.quit
This function causes ctwm to restore the window’s borders and exit. If ctwm is the
first client invoked from xdm, this will result in a server reset.
f.raise
This function raises the selected window.
f.raiseicons
This function raises all the icons in the current workspace.
f.raiselower
This function raises the selected window to the top of the stacking order if it is
occluded by any windows, otherwise the window will be lowered.
f.raiseorsqueeze
Raise the window or squeeze it if it’s a double click. The time that defines a double
click is given by the ConstrainedMoveTime variable.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.refresh
This function causes all windows to be refreshed.
f.removefromworkspace string
This function removes the selected window from the workspace whose name is string.
f.rereadsounds
This function causes the .ctwm-sounds file to be re-read. Note that this will not
re-read sounds set in RplaySounds in the config file. As a result, this function will
probably go away in the future when .ctwm-sounds support is removed. See the SOUNDS
section.
f.rescuewindows
If you somehow managed to move a window out of sight, calling this function will check
all windows and icons on currently visible virtual screens, and those that are
(nearly) out of the bounds of their virtual screen will be brought completely inside
(if that fits).
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.resize
This function displays an outline of the selected window. Crossing a border (or
setting AutoRelativeResize) will cause the outline to begin to rubber band until the
invoking button is released. To abort a resize, press another button before releasing
the first button.
f.restart
This function kills and restarts ctwm.
f.restoregeometry
Restore the current window geometry to what was saved in the last call to
f.savegeometry.
f.righticonmgr
This function is similar to f.nexticonmgr except that wrapping does not change rows.
f.rightworkspace
Goto the workspace immediately on the right of the current workspace in the workspace
manager. If the current workspace is the rightest one, goto the leftest one in the
same row. The result depends on the layout of the workspace manager.
f.rightzoom
This function stretches the right side of the window out to the right edge of the
screen, or restores the original size if the window was already rightzoom’d.
f.ring
Selects a window and adds it to the WarpRing, or removes it if it was already in the
ring. This command makes f.warpring much more useful, by making its configuration
dynamic.
f.savegeometry
The geometry of the current window is saved. The next call to f.restoregeometry will
restore this window to this geometry.
f.saveyourself
This function sends a WM_SAVEYOURSELF message to the selected window if it has
requested the message in its WM_PROTOCOLS window property. Clients that accept this
message are supposed to checkpoint all state associated with the window and update the
WM_COMMAND property as specified in the ICCCM. If the selected window has not selected
for this message, the keyboard bell will be rung.
f.separator
Valid only in menus. The effect is to add a line separator between the previous and
the following entry. The name selector part in the menu is not used (but must be
present).
f.setbuttonsstate
Set the WorkSpace manager in button state.
f.setmapstate
Set the WorkSpace manager in map state.
f.setpriority "value"
Set the window’s priority to value (enclosed between double quotes). If value is
directly followed by < or b, the window is placed below other windows of the given
priority. Otherwise it is placed above. See OnTopPriority variable for details.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.showbackground
This function unmaps all windows in the current workspace. This is a toggle function,
if all windows are unmapped, they are all remapped. Better bind this function in the
root context.
f.showiconmgr
This function maps the current icon manager.
f.showworkspacemgr
Map the WorkSpace manager.
f.slowdownanimation
Decrease AnimationSpeed by 1.
f.sorticonmgr
This function sorts the entries in the current icon manager alphabetically. See the
variable SortIconManager.
f.speedupanimation
Increase AnimationSpeed by 1.
f.squeeze
f.squeeze squeezes a window to a null vertical size. Works only for windows with
either a title, or a 3D border (in order to have something left on the screen). If the
window is already squeezed, it is unsqueezed.
f.startanimation
Restart freezed animations (if any).
f.stopanimation
Freeze animations (if any).
f.switchpriority
Switch the window’s priority, independently of its ability to switch automatically.
X-ref OnTopPriority and PrioritySwitching variables.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.tinylower, f.tinyraise
These two functions allow you to raise/lower a window "one step" at a time. For
instance, f.tinyraise will bring the current window just above the lowest one that’s
hiding it. These two functions are not subject to priority-switching.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.title
This function provides a centered, unselectable item in a menu definition. It should
not be used in any other context.
f.toggleoccupation string
This function adds the selected window to the workspace whose name is string if it
doesn’t already belongs to it, and removes it from this workspace if not.
f.togglesound
Toggle sound on/off. See the SOUNDS section.
f.togglestate
Toggle the state of the WorkSpace manager.
f.toggleworkspacemgr
Toggle the presence of the WorkSpaceManager. If it is mapped, it will be unmapped and
vice versa.
f.topzoom
This function stretches the top side of the window out to the top edge of the screen,
or restores the original size if the window was already topzoom’d.
f.trace string
Used for handling dumping debug output. If a filename is given in string, begins
writing output to that file; if string is "stderr" writes to stderr. If debug file is
already open, calling f.trace again closes it.
This is probably only useful if you’re doing development on ctwm.
f.twmrc
Alias for f.restart.
f.unfocus
This function resets the focus back to pointer-driven. This should be used when a
focused window is no longer desired.
f.unsqueeze
Is to f.squeeze what f.deiconify is to f.iconify.
First appeared in 4.0.0.
f.upiconmgr
This function warps the pointer to the previous row in the current icon manager,
wrapping to the last row in the same column if necessary.
f.upworkspace
Goto the workspace immediately above the current workspace in the workspace manager.
If the current workspace is the top one, goto the bottom one in the same column. The
result depends on the layout of the workspace manager.
f.vanish
The specified window vanishes from the current workspace if it occupies at least one
other WorkSpace. Do nothing in the others cases.
f.version
This function causes the ctwm version window to be displayed. This window will be
displayed until a pointer button is pressed or the pointer is moved from one window to
another.
f.vlzoom
This function is a synonym for f.leftzoom.
f.vrzoom
This function is a synonym for f.rightzoom.
f.warphere win_name
This function adds the window which has a name or class that matches string to the
current workspace and warps the pointer to it. If the window is iconified, it will be
deiconified if the variable WarpUnmapped is set or else ignored.
f.warpring string
This function warps the pointer to the next or previous window (as indicated by the
argument string, which may be "next" or "prev") specified in the WindowRing variable.
f.warpto string
This function warps the pointer to the window which has a name or class that matches
string. If the window is iconified, it will be deiconified if the variable
WarpUnmapped is set or else ignored.
f.warptoiconmgr string
This function warps the pointer to the icon manager entry associated with the window
containing the pointer in the icon manager specified by the argument string. If string
is empty (i.e. ""), the current icon manager is chosen.
f.warptoscreen string
This function warps the pointer to the screen specified by the argument string. The
argument may be a number (e.g. "0" or "1"), the word "next" (indicating the current
screen plus 1, skipping over any unmanaged screens), the word "back" (indicating the
current screen minus 1, skipping over any unmanaged screens), or the word "prev"
(indicating the last screen visited).
f.winrefresh
This function is similar to the f.refresh function except that only the selected
window is refreshed.
f.zoom
This function stretches the window so that it covers the whole height of the screen,
or restores the original size if the window was already zoom’d. It’s the vertical
counterpart fo f.horizoom; perhaps f.vertzoom would be a better name...
MENUS
Functions may be grouped and interactively selected using pop-up (when bound to a pointer
button) or pull-down (when associated with a titlebutton) menus. Each menu specification
contains the name of the menu as it will be referred to by f.menu, optional default
foreground and background colors, the list of item names and the functions they should
invoke, and optional foreground and background colors for individual items:
Menu "menuname" [ ("deffg":"defbg") ]
{
string1 [ ("fg1":"bg1") ] function1
string2 [ ("fg2":"bg2") ] function2
.
.
.
stringN [ ("fgN":"bgN") ] functionN
}
The menuname is case-sensitive. The optional deffg and defbg arguments specify the
foreground and background colors used on a color display to highlight menu entries. The
string portion of each menu entry will be the text which will appear in the menu. The
optional fgN and bgN arguments specify the foreground and background colors of the menu
entry when the pointer is not in the entry. These colors will only be used on a color
display. The default is to use the colors specified by the MenuForeground and
MenuBackground variables. The function portion of the menu entry is one of the functions,
including any user-defined functions, or additional menus.
If an entry name begins with a “*” (star), this star won’t be displayed and the
corresponding entry will be the default entry for this menu. When a menu has a default
entry and is used as a submenu of another menu, this default entry action will be executed
automatically when this submenu is selected without being displayed. It’s hard to explain,
but easy to understand.
Special Menus
There are several special menus.
TwmWindows contains the names of all of the client and ctwm-supplied windows in the
current workspace. Selecting an entry will cause the WindowFunction to be executed on that
window. If WindowFunction hasn’t been set, the window will be deiconified and raised.
TwmVisible lists those windows which are currently deiconified (first appeared in 3.7).
TwmIcons lists only those which are currently iconified.
TwmAllWindows and TwmAllIcons act similarly to the non-All variants described above,
except that they show windows in all workspaces, rather than just the current one.
TwmWorkspaces contains the names of your workspaces, selecting an entry goto this
workspace. In addition, these entries have submenus containing the names of all windows
occupying this workspace, selecting such an entry executes f.warpto on this window.
TwmKeys lists all the keybindings in the root context that invoke f.exec. First appeared
in 3.7.
ICONS
ctwm supports several different ways of manipulating iconified windows. The common
pixmap-and-text style may be laid out by hand or automatically arranged as described by
the IconRegion variable. In addition, a terse grid of icon names, called an icon manager,
provides a more efficient use of screen space as well as the ability to navigate among
windows from the keyboard.
An icon manager is a window that contains names of selected or all windows currently on
the display. In addition to the window name, a small button using the default iconify
symbol will be displayed to the left of the name when the window is iconified. By default,
clicking on an entry in the icon manager performs f.iconify. To change the actions taken
in the icon manager, use the the iconmgr context when specifying button and keyboard
bindings.
Moving the pointer into the icon manager also directs keyboard focus to the indicated
window (setting the focus explicitly or else sending synthetic events NoTitleFocus is
set). Using the f.upiconmgr, f.downiconmgr f.lefticonmgr, and f.righticonmgr functions,
the input focus can be changed between windows directly from the keyboard.
X WINDOW PROPERTIES
As a window manager, ctwm reads and sets a huge variety of properties on the windows it
manages and the windows it creates. Most of that is beyond the scope of user
documentation. However, a few points are worth mentioning.
Window Naming
Windows get their names via X properties. There are two types of names; the window name
(which is what shows up in the titlebar, the f.identify window, etc), and the icon name
(which shows up on the icon and on the icon manager).
Prior to 4.0.2, ctwm only supported the standard ICCCM properties for setting the window
and icon names. These are WM_NAME for the window name, and WM_ICON_NAME for the icon name.
As of 4.0.2, ctwm also supports the EWMH versions of these, which are _NET_WM_NAME and
_NET_WM_ICON_NAME. If the EWMH variants exist, they’re used in preference to the older
ICCCM style.
As of 4.0.2, ctwm also supports an additional pair of properties; CTWM_WM_NAME and
CTWM_WM_ICON_NAME, which override all the others. These are specifically intended for the
user to manually set, not for programs to set themselves. This allows the user to override
programs that name themselves unhelpfully, or to otherwise label things to their liking.
You can set these via any method you’d use to set window properties. From the command
line, the xprop(1) tool is widely available, if a little clunky. So, for instance, to set
the icon name of a window (changing how it looks in the icon manager), but leave the
window name alone as the program itself normally sets it (leaving the titlebar normal),
you could run a command like:
xprop -f CTWM_WM_ICON_NAME 8u -set CTWM_WM_ICON_NAME "I hate this window"
and then click the window you want to set it on. Unfortunately, xprop(1) does require you
to specify the property name when defining the format, as well as when setting it, so it’s
a little ugly. The 8u means you’re giving a UTF-8 string. Other possible formats are 8s
for a plain 7-bit STRING (i.e, plain ASCII), and 8t for “internationalized” ICCCM-style
COMPOUND_TEXT. Usually you’d just use UTF-8 though. xprop -remove CTWM_WM_ICON_NAME and
click would let you undo it and go back to the normal naming. See the xprop(1) manual for
more.
SOUNDS
If built with the USE_SOUND option, ctwm is able to play sounds for any X event. This may
be configured in two ways.
As of 4.0.0, the sounds may be configured in the ctwmrc with the RplaySounds config
parameter. See above for details.
If that is not found, or in older versions, ctwm will look for the file .ctwm-sounds in
the user’s home directory to map every X event to a sound file to be played. Each line in
.ctwm-sounds has the following syntax:
{X event}: {sound file}
If RplaySounds is given in the config file, and .ctwm-sounds exists, a warning will be
given, and the contents of .ctwm-sounds will be ignored. All support for .ctwm-sounds will
be removed in a future version, leaving only the ctwmrc configuration method available
However configured, the currently known X events that can be given are:
KeyPress
KeyRelease
ButtonPress
ButtonRelease
MotionNotify
EnterNotify
LeaveNotify
FocusIn
FocusOut
KeymapNotify
Expose
GraphicsExpose
NoExpose
VisibilityNotify
CreateNotify
DestroyNotify
UnmapNotify
MapNotify
MapRequest
ReparentNotify
ConfigureNotify
ConfigureRequest
GravityNotify
ResizeRequest
CirculateNotify
CirculateRequest
PropertyNotify
SelectionClear
SelectionRequest
SelectionNotify
ColormapNotify
ClientMessage
MappingNotify
Additionally, the following two are recognised, and represent the time when ctwm is
started or shut down:
Startup
Shutdown
BUGS
The resource manager should have been used instead of all of the window lists.
Double clicking very fast to get the constrained move function will sometimes cause the
window to move, even though the pointer is not moved.
If IconifyByUnmapping is on and windows are listed in IconManagerDontShow but not in
DontIconifyByUnmapping, they may be lost if they are iconified and no bindings to f.menu
"TwmWindows" or f.warpto are setup.
FILES
See earlier Customization section.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DISPLAY
This variable is used to determine which X server to use. It is also set during f.exec
so that programs come up on the proper screen.
HOME
This variable is used as the prefix for files that begin with a tilde and for locating
the ctwm startup file.
SEE ALSO
X(1), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xrdb(1)
COPYRIGHT
Portions copyright 1988 Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation; portions copyright 1989
Hewlett-Packard Company and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, See X(1) for a
full statement of rights and permissions.
See COPYRIGHT file in distribution for more information.
AUTHORS
TWM
Tom LaStrange, Solbourne Computer; Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium; Steve Pitschke, Stardent
Computer; Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium; Dave Sternlicht, MIT X Consortium; Dave Payne,
Apple Computer.
CTWM
Claude Lecommandeur, Swiss Polytechnical Institute of Lausanne (lecom@sic.epfl.ch);
Richard Levitte (richard@levitte.org); Matthew Fuller (fullermd@over-yonder.net); and many
other contributors.
VERSION
This manual is build for ctwm 4.0.3.
2019-07-21 CTWM(1)