NAME

       i3 - an improved dynamic, tiling window manager

SYNOPSIS

       i3 [-a] [-c configfile] [-C] [-d all] [-v] [-V]

OPTIONS

       -a
           Disables autostart.

       -c
           Specifies an alternate configuration file path.

       -C
           Check the configuration file for validity and exit.

       -d all
           Enables debug logging. The all parameter is present for historical reasons.

       -v
           Display version number (and date of the last commit).

       -V
           Be verbose.

       --force-xinerama
           Use Xinerama instead of RandR. This option should only be used if you are stuck with
           the old nVidia closed source driver (older than 302.17) which does not support RandR.

       --get-socketpath
           Retrieve the i3 IPC socket path from X11, print it, then exit.

       --shmlog-size <limit>
           Limits the size of the i3 SHM log to <limit> bytes. Setting this to 0 disables SHM
           logging entirely. The default is 0 bytes.

       --replace
           Replace an existing window manager.

DESCRIPTION

   INTRODUCTION
       i3 was created because wmii, our favorite window manager at the time, didn’t provide some
       features we wanted (multi-monitor done right, for example), had some bugs, didn’t progress
       since quite some time and wasn’t easy to hack at all (source code comments/documentation
       completely lacking). Still, we think the wmii developers and contributors did a great job.
       Thank you for inspiring us to create i3.

       Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and developers.

   IMPORTANT NOTE TO nVidia BINARY DRIVER USERS
       If you are using the nVidia binary graphics driver (also known as blob) before version
       302.17, you need to use the --force-xinerama flag (in your ~/.xsession) when starting i3,
       like so:

           exec i3 --force-xinerama -V >>~/.i3/i3log 2>&1

       See also docs/multi-monitor for the full explanation.

   TERMINOLOGY
       Tree
           i3 keeps your layout in a tree data structure.

       Window
           An X11 window, like the Firefox browser window or a terminal emulator.

       Floating Window
           A window which "floats" on top of other windows. This style is used by i3 to display
           X11 windows with type "dialog", such as the "Print" or "Open File" dialog boxes in
           many GUI applications. Use of floating windows can be fine-tuned with the for_window
           command (see HTML userguide).

       Split container
           A split container contains multiple other split containers or windows.

           Containers can be used in various layouts. The default mode is called "default" and
           just resizes each client equally so that it fits.

       Workspace
           A workspace is a set of containers. Other window managers call this "Virtual
           Desktops".

           In i3, each workspace is assigned to a specific virtual screen. By default, screen 1
           has workspace 1, screen 2 has workspace 2 and so on... However, when you create a new
           workspace (by simply switching to it), it’ll be assigned the screen you are currently
           on.

       Output
           Using XRandR, you can have an X11 screen spanning multiple real monitors. Furthermore,
           you can set them up in cloning mode or with positions (monitor 1 is left of monitor
           2).

           i3 uses the RandR API to query which outputs are available and which screens are
           connected to these outputs.

KEYBINDINGS

       Here is a short overview of the default keybindings:

       Mod1+Enter
           Open a new terminal emulator window.

       Mod1+d
           Open dmenu for starting any application by typing (part of) its name.

       j/k/l/;
           Direction keys (left, down, up, right). They are on your homerow (see the mark on your
           "j" key). Alternatively, you can use the cursor keys.

       Mod1+<direction>
           Focus window in <direction>.

       Mod1+Shift+<direction>
           Move window to <direction>.

       Mod1+<number>
           Switch to workspace <number>.

       Mod1+Shift+<number>
           Move window to workspace <number>.

       Mod1+f
           Toggle fullscreen mode.

       Mod1+s
           Enable stacking layout for the current container.

       Mod1+e
           Enable default layout for the current container.

       Mod1+w
           Enable tabbed layout for the current container.

       Mod1+Shift+Space
           Toggle tiling/floating for the current container.

       Mod1+Space
           Select the first tiling container if the current container is floating and vice-versa.

       Mod1+Shift+q
           Kills the current window. This is equivalent to "clicking on the close button",
           meaning a polite request to the application to close this window. For example, Firefox
           will save its session upon such a request. If the application does not support that,
           the window will be killed and it depends on the application what happens.

       Mod1+Shift+r
           Restarts i3 in place. Your layout will be preserved.

       Mod1+Shift+e
           Exits i3.

FILES

   ~/.config/i3/config (or ~/.i3/config)
       When starting, i3 looks for configuration files in the following order:

        1. ~/.config/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3/config if set)

        2. ~/.i3/config

        3. /etc/xdg/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3/config if set)

        4. /etc/i3/config

       You can specify a custom path using the -c option.

       Sample configuration.

           # i3 config file (v4)

           # Font for window titles. Will also be used by the bar unless a different font
           # is used in the bar {} block below.
           # This font is widely installed, provides lots of unicode glyphs, right-to-left
           # text rendering and scalability on retina/hidpi displays (thanks to pango).
           font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 8
           # Before i3 v4.8, we used to recommend this one as the default:
           # font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
           # The font above is very space-efficient, that is, it looks good, sharp and
           # clear in small sizes. However, its unicode glyph coverage is limited, the old
           # X core fonts rendering does not support right-to-left and this being a bitmap
           # font, it doesn’t scale on retina/hidpi displays.

           # use Mouse+Mod1 to drag floating windows to their wanted position
           floating_modifier Mod1

           # start a terminal
           bindsym Mod1+Return exec /usr/bin/urxvt

           # kill focused window
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+q kill

           # start dmenu (a program launcher)
           bindsym Mod1+d exec /usr/bin/dmenu_run

           # change focus
           bindsym Mod1+j focus left
           bindsym Mod1+k focus down
           bindsym Mod1+l focus up
           bindsym Mod1+semicolon focus right

           # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
           bindsym Mod1+Left focus left
           bindsym Mod1+Down focus down
           bindsym Mod1+Up focus up
           bindsym Mod1+Right focus right

           # move focused window
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+j move left
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+k move down
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+l move up
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+semicolon move right

           # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys:
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+Left move left
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+Down move down
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+Up move up
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+Right move right

           # split in horizontal orientation
           bindsym Mod1+h split h

           # split in vertical orientation
           bindsym Mod1+v split v

           # enter fullscreen mode for the focused container
           bindsym Mod1+f fullscreen toggle

           # change container layout (stacked, tabbed, default)
           bindsym Mod1+s layout stacking
           bindsym Mod1+w layout tabbed
           bindsym Mod1+e layout default

           # toggle tiling / floating
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+space floating toggle

           # change focus between tiling / floating windows
           bindsym Mod1+space focus mode_toggle

           # focus the parent container
           bindsym Mod1+a focus parent

           # focus the child container
           #bindsym Mod1+d focus child

           # switch to workspace
           bindsym Mod1+1 workspace 1
           bindsym Mod1+2 workspace 2
           # ..

           # move focused container to workspace
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 move workspace 1
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 move workspace 2
           # ...

           # reload the configuration file
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+c reload
           # restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3)
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
           # exit i3 (logs you out of your X session)
           bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit

           # display workspace buttons plus a statusline generated by i3status
           bar {
               status_command i3status
           }

   ~/.xsession
       This file is where you should configure your locales and start i3. It is run by your login
       manager (xdm, slim, gdm, ...) as soon as you login.

       Sample xsession.

           # Disable DPMS turning off the screen
           xset -dpms
           xset s off

           # Disable bell
           xset -b

           # Enable zapping (C-A-<Bksp> kills X)
           setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

           # Enforce correct locales from the beginning:
           # LC_ALL is unset since it overwrites everything
           # LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 is used, except for:
           # LC_MESSAGES=C never translates program output
           # LC_TIME=en_DK leads to yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm date/time output
           unset LC_ALL
           export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
           export LC_MESSAGES=C
           export LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8

           # Use XToolkit in java applications
           export AWT_TOOLKIT=XToolkit

           # Set background color
           xsetroot -solid "#333333"

           # Enable core dumps in case something goes wrong
           ulimit -c unlimited

           # Start i3 and log to ~/.i3/logfile
           echo "Starting at $(date)" >> ~/.i3/logfile
           exec /usr/bin/i3 -V -d all >> ~/.i3/logfile

ENVIRONMENT

   I3SOCK
       This variable overwrites the IPC socket path (placed in /tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p by
       default, where %u is replaced with your UNIX username, %p is replaced with i3’s PID and
       XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable filename character set (see
       mkdtemp(3))). The IPC socket is used by external programs like i3-msg(1) or i3bar(1).

TODO

       There is still lot of work to do. Please check our bugtracker for up-to-date information
       about tasks which are still not finished.

SEE ALSO

       You should have a copy of the userguide (featuring nice screenshots/graphics which is why
       this is not integrated into this manpage), the debugging guide, and the "how to hack"
       guide. If you are building from source, run: make -C docs

       You can also access these documents online at https://i3wm.org/

       i3-input(1), i3-msg(1), i3bar(1), i3-nagbar(1), i3-config-wizard(1),
       i3-migrate-config-to-v4(1)

AUTHOR

       Michael Stapelberg and contributors