Provided by: fvwm3_1.1.2+ds-1_amd64 
NAME
FvwmIconMan - an fvwm icon manager
SYNOPSIS
FvwmIconMan is spawned by fvwm, so no command line invocation will work.
DESCRIPTION
FvwmIconMan is an icon manager modeled after the TWM icon manager. The user may have multiple icon
managers, each of which armed with a list of window types which it manages. For example, the user may
have one manager which lists only emacs windows, and another which lists everything else. You may also
specify what resolution each icon manager uses, for example, one icon manager may manage windows on all
desks, and another may manage only those on the current desk, page or screen. FvwmIconMan can display the
miniature icons provided by fvwm for its managed windows. The managers may have a maximum number of
columns (and so grows vertically), a maximum number of rows (and then grows horizontally), or stay at a
fixed size, and adjust the size of the window buttons to fit (think win95’s Taskbar). And when support is
compiled in for the X Shape extension, then the manager windows may be shaped.
You can specify actions to be run when mouse, or key events are received. For example, you could bind the
first mouse button to iconify the selected window, and make bindings for the arrow keys to navigate the
manager window without the mouse.
FvwmIconMan can be set to display which window currently has the keyboard focus, and by binding the
select event (see below) to the fvwm Focus function, you can emulate the TWM icon manager’s behavior.
INITIALIZATION
During initialization, FvwmIconMan searches though the fvwm configuration file for the options which are
described below. It is highly recommended that you make FvwmIconMan be a sticky window. And if you want
to make use of the followfocus option, and/or binding an action to Focus, then you should make
FvwmIconMan clicktofocus. Also, when using the Shape option, it’s recommended that the FvwmIconMan window
not be decorated at all by fvwm.
INVOCATION
FvwmIconMan can be invoked by inserting the line 'Module FvwmIconMan' in the .fvwm2rc file. If
FvwmIconMan is to be spawned during fvwm’s initialization, then this line should be placed in the
StartFunction declarations, or it can be bound to a menu, mouse button, or keystroke to invoke it later.
If you wish to run FvwmIconMan in a transient mode, such as with the built in window list, then pass
"-Transient" as an argument. The invocation "Module FvwmIconMan -Transient" will do nicely. In this mode,
FvwmIconMan will pop up one manager window directly under the cursor. When the mouse button is released,
it will execute the appropriate action, and then exit. Things are somewhat complicated by the fact that
you can specify that FvwmIconMan creates multiple manager windows, behavior which is unsuitable when
running transiently. So, when running transiently, FvwmIconMan will only create one manager window. Use
the manager id 'transient' to specify options for this manager window.
FvwmIconMan may accept an alias name as an argument. For example, "Module FvwmIconMan
FvwmIconMan-Variant2".
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS REFERENCE CHART
FvwmIconMan has acquired quite a few options. I assume others share my dislike of paging though a long
man page, so here is a terse reference chart describing the available options. They are described in more
detail in the next section.
┌─────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ │ │ │
│ Name │ Description │ Default │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ NumManagers │ number of managers │ 1 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Action │ binds command to event │ Mouse 0 N sendcommand │
│ │ │ Iconify │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Background │ default background │ gray │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ ButtonGeometry │ size of button in pixels │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Colorset │ default colorset │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ DontShow │ list of windows to ignore │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ DrawIcons │ use mini icons │ false │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ FocusAndSelectButton │ │ flat grey black │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ FocusAndSelectColorset │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ FocusButton │ style for focused buttons │ up grey black │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ FocusColorset │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ FollowFocus │ show which win has focus │ false │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Font │ │ 8x13 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Foreground │ default text color │ white │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Format │ describes button label │ "%c: %i" │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ IconName │ manager icon name │ FvwmIconMan │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ IconAndSelectButton │ │ up black grey │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ IconAndSelectColorset │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ IconButton │ style for icon buttons │ up black grey │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ IconColorset │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ ManagerGeometry │ size of manager in buttons │ 0x1 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ MaxButtonWidth │ max width of a button │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ MaxButtonWidthByColumns │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ NoIconAction │ animate iconification │ NOP │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ PlainButton │ style for normal buttons │ up black grey │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ PlainColorset │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ ReliefThickness │ size of button relief │ 2 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Resolution │ window filters │ desk page │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Reverse │ normal, icon or none │ none │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ SelectButton │ style for selected buttons │ flat black grey │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ SelectColorset │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Shape │ use shape extension │ false │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Show │ list of windows to show │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ ShowOnlyIcons │ only icons visible │ false │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ ShowNoIcons │ icons are not displayed │ false │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ ShowTransient │ transient windows visible │ false │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ ShowOnlyFocused │ only focused visible │ false │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Sort │ keep managers sorted │ name │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ SortWeight │ weight for sorting │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Tips │ Tool Tips mode │ none │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsDelays │ Tool Tips mapping delays │ 1000 300 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsFont │ Font for Tool Tips │ default fvwm font │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsColorset │ Tool Tips Colorset │ 0 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsFormat │ describes Tips label │ the Format value │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsBorderWidth │ Tool Tips border size │ 1 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsPlacement │ Tips placement vs button │ updown │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsJustification │ Tips Just vs button │ leftup │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TipsOffsets │ Tips placement Offsets │ 3 2 │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Title │ manager title │ FvwmIconMan │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TitleButton │ style for title button │ raisededge black grey │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ TitleColorset │ │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ UseWinList │ honor WinListSkip? │ true │
└─────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────┘
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
With the exception of the nummanagers option, all of the options may be defined on a per-manager basis.
So, for example, the user may have his emacs manager with a red foreground, and his xterm manager with a
blue one. A configuration line may therefore have one of two forms:
*FvwmIconMan: OptionName OptionValue
To specify that the OptionName takes the value OptionValue for all managers.
*FvwmIconMan: ManagerId OptionName OptionValue
To specify that the option OptionName takes the value OptionValue for manager ManagerId. ManagerId
may either be a positive integer, or the string "transient". An integer id refers to managers which
FvwmIconMan creates when running normally, and an id of "transient" refers to the single manager
which FvwmIconMan creates when running transiently.
The old syntax, that uses an asterisk instead of white spaces before ManagerId and OptionName, is
supported too, but it is obsolete now.
The following options may be specified:
*FvwmIconMan: NumManagers num
num is a positive integer specifying the total number of icon managers. Since FvwmIconMan would like
to know how many managers there are before handling any manager specific options, this should come
first. The default is 1.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Action type binding
Binds an FvwmIconMan command to an event. Type may be one of the values: Key, Mouse, or Select.
Actions are described in the following section ACTIONS.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Background background
Specifies the default background color.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] ButtonGeometry geometry
Specifies the initial geometry of an individual button in pixels. If the specified height is 0, then
the button height is determined from the font size. X and Y coordinates are ignored.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Colorset colorset
The default colorset used. Overrides background and foreground.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] DrawIcons value
If your version of fvwm is capable of using mini icons, then this option determines if FvwmIconMan
displays the mini icons. Otherwise, it generates an error message. "true" means that mini icons are
shown for iconified windows, "false" that mini icons are never shown, and "always" that mini icons
are shown for all windows.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusAndSelectButton style [forecolor backcolor]
Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons which are both selected, and have
the keyboard focus.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusAndSelectColorset colorset
Works like focusandselectbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be
applied with focusandselectbutton.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusButton style [forecolor backcolor]
Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons whose windows have the keyboard
focus.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] FocusColorset colorset
Works like focusbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with
focusbutton.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] FollowFocus boolean
If true, then the button appearance reflects which window currently has focus. Default is false.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Font font
Specifies the font to be used for labeling the buttons. The default is 8x13.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Foreground foreground
Specifies the default foreground color.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Format formatstring
A printf like format string which describes the string to be printed in the manager window for each
managed window. Possible flags are: %t, %i, %c, and %r for the window’s title, icon title, class, or
resource name, respectively. The default is "%c: %i".
*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconName iconstring
Specifies the window icon name for that manager window. Iconstring may either be a single word, or a
string enclosed in quotes. The default is "FvwmIconMan".
*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconAndSelectButton style [forecolor backcolor]
Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons whose windows are iconified and the
button is selected.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconButton style [forecolor backcolor]
Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons whose windows are iconified.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconAndSelectColorset colorset
Works like IconAndSelectButton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be
applied with iconbutton.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] IconColorset colorset
Works like iconbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with
iconbutton.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] ManagerGeometry geometry
Specifies the initial geometry of the manager, in units of buttons. If height is 0, then the manager
will use width columns, and will grow vertically once it has more than width windows. Likewise, if
width is 0, it will use height rows, and grow horizontally. If both are nonzero, then the manager
window will be exactly that size, and stay that way. As columns are created, the buttons will narrow
to accommodate. If the geometry is specified with a negative y coordinate, then the window manager
will grow upwards. Otherwise, it will grow downwards.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] MaxButtonWidth width
Defines a maximum for the width of a button (in pixels). By default there is no maximum. A value of 0
resets the default. The maximum is only used with a non growing manager (the ManagerGeometry option
specifies non zero width and height).
*FvwmIconMan: [id] MaxButtonWidthByColumns col
This is another way to set the button width. col is the number of columns of icons. The button width
is determined by dividing the total width of FvwmIconMan by the number of columns. For example if the
width of FvwmIconMan manager is 1024, MaxButtonWidthByColumns is 4 then MaxButtonWidth is 256. This
is useful when you do not know, at config time, the width of the manager, for example, for a
swallowed FvwmIconMan.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] NoIconAction action
Tells FvwmIconMan to do action when a NoIcon style window is iconified or de-iconified. Relevant
coordinates are appended to action so that the icon can be traced to an FvwmIconMan button. An
example action is "*FvwwmIconMan: NoIconAction SendToModule FvwmAnimate animate". A blank or null
action turns this feature off.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] PlainButton style [forecolor backcolor]
Specifies how normal buttons look. style may be one of flat, up, down, raisededge, or sunkedge, and
describes how the button is drawn. The color options are both optional, and if not set, then the
default colors are used. If on a monochrome screen, then the style option is ignored, but must still
be set.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] PlainColorset colorset
Works like plainbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with
plainbutton.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] ReliefThickness num
num is an integer specifying the number of pixels thick that the relief at the edge of non-flat
buttons should be. Setting this to 0 will produce flat buttons, as if the values for
FocusAndSelectButton, FocusButton, IconAndSelectButton, IconButton, PlainButton, SelectButton, and
TitleButton were all set to flat. If num is negative, the button will be inverted as if you had used
Reverse for all classes.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Resolution [filter(s)]
Specifies a list of filters, separated by spaces, that configure which windows are displayed. If no
filters are given, then all windows of the appropriate type are shown (see the show and dontshow
options below). Each filter then limits the windows that are displayed and may take one of the
following values: desk, page, screen, !desk, !page, !screen, or invert. desk only shows windows on
the current desk, and page only shows windows on the current page. !desk and !page only show windows
not on the current desk or page respectively. invert reverses the filter displaying the windows that
did not match.
Notes: page and desk are independent. If the only filter is page, then you will see windows on the
current page on all desks. To only see windows on the current page and desk (the default) you need
both filters, 'desk page'. You can only have one of desk/!desk, page/!page, or screen/!screen, the
last one issued take precedence. The invert filter reverses the whole filter so 'invert desk page' is
not the same as '!desk !page'. Sticky windows are visible on all pages and desks, so they match all
page and desk filters, but won’t match the inverted filter.
The filters can take additional parameters to state which desk, page, or screen to show (or not
show). [!]desk [n] can take the desk number, which will only show windows (not) on the stated desk.
[!]page [x] [y] can take the horizontal, x, and vertical, y, page numbers, which will only show
windows (not) on the stated page.
[!]screen [S] shows windows (not) on monitor S, which can be:
• NAME: The "NAME" of the specific RandR monitor.
• c: The current RandR monitor (containing the pointer)
• p: The primary RandR monitor
• g: The global monitor
Since all windows are on the global monitor, screen g effectively does nothing. c is the current
monitor at the time resolution is issued, and once set will not change. This filter is best used with
a RandR NAME.
This configuration line is respected when FvwmIconMan is running as well, the resolution is changed
dynamically when sent to fvwm.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Reverse class
Causes certain classes of buttons to have their relief lines reversed so that up and down styles are
reversed. This has no affect on flat buttons. The class can be icon, normal or none. The default is
none.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] SelectButton style [forecolor backcolor]
Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of buttons when the mouse is over them.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] SelectColorset colorset
Works like selectbutton but uses colorsets instead. The style setting can still only be applied with
selectbutton.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Shape boolean
If True, then use make the window shaped. Probably only useful if you have multiple columns or rows.
If FvwmIconMan wasn’t compiled to support the Shape extension, this generates an error message. When
using shaped windows, it’s recommended that a fvwm style is made for FvwmIconMan that has no borders.
Otherwise, fvwm will get confused.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Sort value
If name, then the manager list is sorted by name. If namewithcase, then it is sorted by name
sensitive to case. If id, then the manager list is sorted by the window id, which never changes after
the window is created. If weighted, then the manager list is sorted by weight (see the description of
sortweight below). Or it can be set to none, which results in no sorting. Default is name.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] SortWeight weight pattern-list
Assigns the specified weight to windows that match pattern-list. The list is made up of patterns of
the form type=pattern, where type is one of class, resource, title, or icon, and pattern is an
expression of the same format used in the fvwm style command (minimalistic shell pattern matching).
Multiple sort weights can be given. Each window is matched against the list of sort weights, in
order, and is given the weight from the first match. Lower-weighted windows are placed first in the
manager list. For example:
*FvwmIconMan: Sort weighted
*FvwmIconMan: SortWeight 1 class=XTerm title=special*
*FvwmIconMan: SortWeight 10 class=XTerm
*FvwmIconMan: SortWeight 5
In this example, xterm windows whose titles start with "special" (weight 1) are listed first,
followed by everything but other xterms (weight 5), and the other xterms (weight 10) are listed last.
If no default weight (empty pattern list) is given, the default weight is 0. Only relevant if the
sort type is set to weighted.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Title title-string
Specifies the window title string for that manager window. Titlestring may either be a single word,
or a string enclosed in quotes. The default is "FvwmIconMan". This will be drawn in the title bar of
the manager window, if any, and in the title button, which is the button drawn when the manager is
empty.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TitleButton style [forecolor backcolor]
Same as the plainbutton option, but specifies the look of the title button (the button drawn when the
manager is empty). The manager’s title is drawn in the title button.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] UseWinList boolean
If true, then honor the WinListSkip style flag. Otherwise, all windows are subject to possible
management according to the show and dontshow lists.
The two following options control which windows get handled by which managers. A manager can get two
lists, one of windows to show, and one of windows to ignore. If only the show list is given, then
that manager will show only the windows in the list. If only the DontShow list is given, then the
manager will show all windows except those in the list. If both lists are given, then a window will
be shown if it is not in the DontShow list, and in the Show list. And finally, if neither list is
given, then the manager will handle all windows. Each list is made up of patterns of the form
type=pattern, where type is one of class, resource, title, or icon, and pattern is an expression of
the same format used in the fvwm style command (minimalistic shell pattern matching). Quotes around
the pattern will be taken as part of the expression. If a window could be handled by more than one
manager, then the manager with the lowest id gets it.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Show pattern list
If a window matches one of the patterns in the list, then it may be handled by this manager.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] DontShow pattern list
If a window matches one of the patterns in the list, then it may not be handled by this manager.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowTransient boolean
Show transient windows in the list (default false).
*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowOnlyIcons boolean
Only iconified windows are shown if boolean is true.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowNoIcons boolean
Only windows that are not iconified are shown if boolean is true.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] ShowOnlyFocused boolean
Only window with the focus is shown if boolean is true.
The following two options control tips.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] Tips value
where value can be always, needed or false. Default is false, no tips are displayed. With always,
tips are enabled. With needed, a tip is displayed only if either the button string is truncated or
the tip string is not equal to the button string. This configuration line is respected when
FvwmIconMan is running as well.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsDelays delay [mappeddelay]
where delay and mappeddelay are time out values in milliseconds. If no mappeddelay is given delay is
assumed. Default is 1000 300. When the cursor is on a button, FvwmIconMan wait delay milliseconds
before displaying the tip. In the case where a tip is already mapped and the cursor goes to another
button, FvwmIconMan waits mappeddelay milliseconds before displaying the new tip.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsFont fontname
Specifies the font to be used for tips. Default is the default fvwm font.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsColorset colorset
Specifies the colors for tips window. Default is colorset 0.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsFormat formatstring
Similar to the Format option but for the tips window. The default is the format string from the
Format option.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsBorderWidth pixels
Specifies the border width (in pixels) of the tips window. Default is 1.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsPlacement value
where value can be up, down, right, left, updown or leftright. This value specifies the position of
the tips window relative to its button. Default is updown where buttons on the top half of the screen
get tips below the button, otherwise the tips are above the button.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsJustification value
where value can be leftup, rightdown or center. Specifies the justification (direction) of the tips
window relative to its button after the tips window has been placed. Default is leftup which means
that if a tip is placed above or below its button, then the left border of the tip and of the button
are aligned. If the tip is placed on the left or on the right of its button, leftup aligns the top
borders. rightdown and center work like leftup but in different directions. The alignment is adjusted
by the TipsOffset option. See next option.
*FvwmIconMan: [id] TipsOffsets placementoffset justoffset
where placementoffset and justoffset are offsets in pixels for the TipsPlacement and
TipsJustification configuration option. Default is 3 2.
ACTIONS
Actions are commands which may be bound to an event of the type: a key press, a mouse click, or the mouse
entering a window manager button - denoted by the action types Key, Mouse, and Select.
Normally, actions bound to a mouse click are executed when the button is pressed. In transient mode, the
action is executed when the button is released, since it is assumed that FvwmIconMan was bound to some
mouse event. A tip/warning: FvwmIconMan still keeps track of the mouse button and any modifier keys in
this case, so if you bind FvwmIconMan to say, meta-button3, then it would be wise to ensure that the
action you want to execute will be executed when the meta-button3 event occurs (which would be the button
release, assuming you kept your finger on the meta key).
The syntax for actions are:
Key actions: Key Keysym Modifiers FunctionList
Keysym and Modifiers are exactly the same as for the fvwm Key command.
Mouse actions: Mouse Button Modifiers FunctionList
Button and Modifiers are exactly the same as for the fvwm Mouse command.
Select actions: Select FunctionList
A FunctionList is a sequence of commands separated by commas. They are executed in left to right
order, in one shared context - which currently only contains a pointer to the "current" button. If a
button is selected (typically by the mouse pointer sitting on it) when the action is executed, then
the current button is initialized to that button. Otherwise, it points to nothing.
Most of the available commands then modify this "current" button, either by moving it around, making it
become the selected button, or sending commands to fvwm acting on the window represented by that button.
Note that while this current button is initialized to be the selected button, the selected button does
not implicitly follow it around. This way, the user can send commands to various windows, without
changing which button is selected.
Commands take five types of arguments: Integer, Manager, Window, Button, and String. A String is a string
specified exactly as for fvwm - either in quotes or as a single word not in quotes. Again, you may bind a
sequence of commands to an event, by listing them separated by commas.
Window and Button types look exactly the same in the .fvwm2rc file, but are interpreted as either
specifying a managed window, or a FvwmIconMan button representing a window. They can either be an integer
(which is interpreted module N where N is the number of buttons - so 0 is the first and -1 is the last),
or one of the strings: Select, Focus, Up, Down, Right, Left, Next, Prev. Select and Focus refer to the
currently selected or focused button or window. Up, Down, Right, and Left refer to the button or window
above, below, to the right of, or to the left of the current button in the manager window, allowing
navigation around the manager window. Next and Prev designates the window, button, or manager after or
before the current button, allowing navigation of the one dimensional list of windows which is drawn in
the manager window. If the manager is sorted, Next and Prev move through the windows in the sorted order.
The Manager type can either be an integer, Next, or Prev. The meaning is analogous to that of the Button
type, but in terms of the integral index of the managers, restricted to managers which are nonempty.
The following functions are currently defined:
bif Button Integer/String
A relative branch instruction. If Button is Select or Focus, then take the branch if there is a
selected button or a focused button. If Button is an integer, then branch if nonzero. If it is one of
Up, Down, Right, Left, Next, Prev, then the branch is taken when the current button can move in that
direction. If the branch is taken, then Integer commands are skipped. No backwards branches are
allowed.
bifn Button Integer/String
The complement of bif. The branch is taken if Button evaluates to false, by the criteria listed for
bif.
gotobutton Button
Sets current button to Button. If Button is an integer, then the current button is set to Button
modulo the number of buttons, in the whichever manager contains the selected button, if any.
gotomanager Manager
Sets button to button 0 of Manager. This will only go to a visible, nonempty manager. So an integral
argument is taken modulo the number of such managers.
jmp Integer/String
Executes a relative jump of Integer instructions. Backwards jumps are not allowed. The jump is
computed relative to the instruction following the jmp.
label String
Provides a label that previous instructions can jump to. It will not be visible to subsequent jump
instructions, and the same label can be used multiple times in the same instruction list (though it
would be perverse to do so.)
print String
Prints String to the console. Useful for debugging actions.
printdebug
Prints defined actions to the console. Should only be used by developers. To enable this command, set
CONFIG and FUNCTIONS variables to '1' in the modules/FvwmIconMan/debug.h and recompile this module.
quit
Quits FvwmIconMan.
refresh
Causes all manager windows to redraw themselves.
ret
Stop executing the entire action.
searchback String
Sets button to button before the current one whose printed string in the manager window matches
specified String, which may contain wildcards.
searchforward String
Sets button to button after the current one whose printed string in the manager window matches
specified String, which may contain wildcards.
select
Selects the current button, if any. If a select action has been specified, it will then be run.
Therefore, it is considered unwise to set the select button in the select action.
sendcommand Command
Sends the fvwm command Command to the window represented by the current button, if any.
warp
Warps cursor to current button, if any.
Examples:
gotobutton select, gotobutton Down, select
Selects the button below the currently selected button. Since the current button is already initialized
to the selected button, this may be shortened to "gotobutton Down, select".
gotobutton Up, select
Selects the button above the currently selected button.
gotobutton 0, select
Selects the first button of the current manager. If there is no current manager, which is the case when
no button is selected, then this does nothing.
gotobutton -1, select
Selects the last button of the current manager.
gotobutton focus, select
Selects the button corresponding to the focused window.
gotobutton focus, Iconify
Sends the fvwm command Iconify to the focused window. Note that this does not change the selected button.
bif Next 3, gotobutton 0, select, ret, gotobutton Next, select
If a button is selected, and it’s the last button, go to button 0. If it’s not the last button, go to the
next button. Otherwise, do nothing. Basically, this action cycles through all buttons in the current
manager.
bif select 7, bif focus 3, gotomanager 0, select, ret, gotobutton focus, \
select, ret, gotobutton down, select
This is good for sending to FvwmIconMan with a SendToModule command. If there is a selected button, it
moves down. Otherwise, if there is a focused button, it is selected. Otherwise, button 0 of manager 0
gets selected.
bif select Select, bif focus Focus, gotomanager 0, select, ret, label Focus, \
gotobutton focus, select, ret, label Select, gotobutton down, select
Same as previous, but using the label instruction.
In addition to being bound to keys and mice, actions can be sent from fvwm to FvwmIconMan via the
SendToModule command. Don’t quote the command when using SendToModule. Also, due to a bug in the current
version of fvwm, don’t quote FvwmIconMan either.
SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS
This first example is of a the simplest invocation of FvwmIconMan, which only has one manager, and
handles all windows:
##############################################################
# Load any modules which should be started during
# fvwm initialization
ModulePath /usr/lib/X11/fvwm:/usr/bin/X11
Module FvwmIconMan
# Make FvwmIconMan title-bar-less, sticky, and give it an icon
Style "Fvwm*" Icon toolbox.xpm,NoTitle,NoHandles,Sticky
Style "FvwmIconMan" HandleWidth 5, Handles, BorderWidth 5
##############################################################
##############################################################
#Definitions used by the modules
*FvwmIconMan: NumManagers 1
*FvwmIconMan: Resolution global
*FvwmIconMan: Background slategrey
*FvwmIconMan: Foreground white
*FvwmIconMan: Font 7x13
*FvwmIconMan: ButtonGeometry 100x0
*FvwmIconMan: ManagerGeometry 1x0-0+0
This example is the Reader’s Digest version of my personal configuration. It has two managers, one for
emacs and one for everything else, minus things with no icon title. Only windows on the current page are
displayed. The use of the drawicons and shape options requires that fvwm and FvwmIconMan are compiled
with the correct options. Note how the geometry and show options are specified per manager, and the
others are common to all:
Style "FvwmIconMan" NoTitle, Sticky, WindowListSkip, BorderWidth 0
Style "FvwmIconMan" HandleWidth 0
Key F8 A N SendToModule FvwmIconMan bif select Select, bif focus Focus, \
gotomanager 0, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Focus, \
gotobutton focus, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Select, \
gotobutton prev, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow
Key F9 A N SendToModule FvwmIconMan bif select Select, bif focus Focus, \
gotomanager 0, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Focus, \
gotobutton focus, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow, ret, label Select, \
gotobutton next, select, sendcommand WarpToWindow
*FvwmIconMan: NumManagers 2
*FvwmIconMan: Resolution page
*FvwmIconMan: Background steelblue
*FvwmIconMan: Foreground white
*FvwmIconMan: Font 7x13
*FvwmIconMan: UseWinList true
*FvwmIconMan: DrawIcons true
*FvwmIconMan: Shape true
*FvwmIconMan: FollowFocus true
*FvwmIconMan: Sort name
*FvwmIconMan: PlainButton up white steelblue
*FvwmIconMan: SelectButton down white steelblue
*FvwmIconMan: FocusButton up white brown
*FvwmIconMan: FocusAndSelectButton down white brown
*FvwmIconMan: TitleButton raisededge white steelblue
*FvwmIconMan: NoIconAction "SendToModule FvwmAnimate animate"
*FvwmIconMan: 1 Title "Emacs windows"
*FvwmIconMan: 1 IconName "FvwmIconMan: Emacs"
*FvwmIconMan: 1 Format "%i"
*FvwmIconMan: 1 Show resource=emacs resource=gemacs
*FvwmIconMan: 1 ManagerGeometry 1x0-400+0
*FvwmIconMan: 1 ButtonGeometry 200x0
*FvwmIconMan: 2 Title "All windows"
*FvwmIconMan: 2 IconName "FvwmIconMan: all"
*FvwmIconMan: 2 Format "%c: %i"
*FvwmIconMan: 2 DontShow icon=Untitled
*FvwmIconMan: 2 ManagerGeometry 2x4-0+0
*FvwmIconMan: 2 ButtonGeometry 200x0
*FvwmIconMan: transient Geometry 194x100
*FvwmIconMan: transient DontShow icon=Untitled
*FvwmIconMan: transient Action Mouse 0 A sendcommand select select Iconify
*FvwmIconMan: Action Mouse 1 N sendcommand Iconify
*FvwmIconMan: Action Mouse 2 N sendcommand WarpToWindow
*FvwmIconMan: Action Mouse 3 N sendcommand "Module FvwmIdent FvwmIdent"
*FvwmIconMan: Action Key Left N gotobutton Left, select
*FvwmIconMan: Action Key Right N gotobutton Right, select
*FvwmIconMan: Action Key Up N gotobutton Up, select
*FvwmIconMan: Action Key Down N gotobutton Down, select
*FvwmIconMan: Action Key q N quit
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
There is one bug that I know of. A honest to goodness solution to this would be appreciated. When an icon
manager is set to grow upwards or leftwards, on some machines it may wander occasionally.
It doesn’t handle windows without resource names as gracefully as it should.
AUTHOR
Brady Montz (bradym@cs.arizona.edu).
THANKS
Thanks to: David Berson berson@cs.pitt.edu, Gren Klanderman greg@alphatech.com, David Goldberg
dsg@mitre.org, Pete Forman gsez020@compo.bedford.waii.com, Neil Moore amethyst@maxwell.ml.org, Josh M.
Osborne stripes@va.pubnix.com, Adam Rice <wysiwyg@glympton.airtime.co.uk, Chris Siebenmann
cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu, Bjorn Victor victor@delial.docs.uu.se, for contributing either code or
truly keen ideas.
2025-02-22 FVWMICONMAN(1)