Provided by: herbstluftwm_0.7.0-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       herbstluftwm-tutorial - A tutorial introduction to herbstluftwm

DESCRIPTION

       This tutorial explains how to create a basic herbstluftwm setup and introduces the major
       herbstluftwm features. This tutorial neither covers all features nor specifies the
       mentioned features entirely; see herbstluftwm(1) for a compact and more complete
       description.

       This tutorial covers these topics:

       •   Basic installation

       •   Usage of the client

       •   The tiling method

       •   Tags (or workspaces...)

       •   Multi-Monitor handling

BASIC INSTALLATION

       This describes two alternate installation methods. In any case, you also have to install
       the dependencies. Beside the standard libraries (GLib, XLib) which are found on nearly any
       system, you should install dzen2 (as current as possible) which is needed by the default
       panel.sh.

   Via the package manager
       You always should prefer installing herbstluftwm via your package manager on your system.
       It should be called herbstluftwm.

       After installing it, the default configuration file has to be copied to your home
       directory:

           mkdir -p ~/.config/herbstluftwm
           cp /etc/xdg/herbstluftwm/autostart ~/.config/herbstluftwm/

       You also should activate the tab completion for herbstclient. In case of bash, you can
       either activate the tab completion in general or source the herbstclient-completion from
       the bash_completion.d directory in your bashrc. In case of zsh the tab-completion normally
       is activated already (if not, consider activating it).

   Directly from git
       If there is no package for your platform or if you want to use the current git version,
       then you can pull directly from the main repository:

           git clone git://github.com/herbstluftwm/herbstluftwm
           cd herbstluftwm
           make # build the binaries

           # install files
           mkdir -p ~/bin
           # you also have to put $HOME/bin to your path, e.g. by:
           echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin' >> ~/.bashrc # or to your zshrc, etc...
           ln -s `pwd`/herbstluftwm ~/bin/
           ln -s `pwd`/herbstclient ~/bin/

           # copy the configuration
           mkdir -p ~/.config/herbstluftwm/
           cp share/autostart ~/.config/herbstluftwm/
           cp share/panel.sh ~/.config/herbstluftwm/

       •   If you are using bash, then source the bash completion file in your ~/.bashrc

               source path-to/herbstluftwm/share/herbstclient-completion

       •   If you are using zsh, then copy the share/_herbstclient file to the appropriate
           zsh-completion directory.

       Each time there is an update, you have to do the following steps in your herbstluftwm
       directory:

           git pull
           make

CONFIGURE HERBSTLUFTWM AS YOUR WINDOW MANAGER

       As usual you can define herbstluftwm as your window manager by either selecting
       herbstluftwm in your login manager or by starting it in your ~/.xinitrc, mostly by writing
       to your xinitrc (or .xsession on some systems):

           # start herbstluftwm in locked mode (it will be unlocked at the end of your
           # autostart)
           exec herbstluftwm --locked

       After logging in the next time, you will get a default herbstluftwm session.

FIRST START

       After starting herbstluftwm, the screen is surrounded by a green frame initially, which
       indicates that there is only one large frame. A frame is a container where actual windows
       can be placed or which can be split into two frames.

       Start an xterm by pressing Alt-Return, which will fill your entire screen.

USING THE CLIENT

       The only way to communicate to herbstluftwm is by using the client application called
       herbstclient. Its usual syntax is: herbstclient COMMAND [ARGUMENTS]. This calls a certain
       COMMAND within your running herbstluftwm instance. This causes some effect (which depends
       on the given COMMAND and ARGUMENTS), produces some output which is printed by herbstclient
       and lets herbstclient exit with a exit-code (e.g. 0 for success) like many other UNIX
       tools:

               shell              COMMANDS,
                  ╲ COMMAND,      ARGUMENTS
                   ╲ ARGUMENTS ╭────────────╮
                    ╲          │            │
                     V         │            V
                    herbstclient         herbstluftwm
                     ╱         ^            │
                    ╱ output,  │            │
                   ╱ exit-code ╰────────────╯
                  V               output,
            shell/terminal       exit-code

       The most simple command only prints the herbstluftwm version:

           $ # lines prefixed with $ describes what to type, other lines describe the
           $ # typical output
           $ # Type: her<tab>c<tab> ve<tab>
           $ herbstclient version
           herbstluftwm 0.4.1 (built on Aug 30 2012)
           $ herbstclient set window_border_active_color red
           $ # now the window border turned red

       The configuration of herbstluftwm only is done by calling commands via herbstclient. So
       the only configuration file is the autostart which is placed at ~/.config/herbstluftwm/
       and which is a sequence of those herbstclient calls.

       Open it in your favourite text editor and replace the Mod-line by this to use the
       Super-key (or also called Windows-key) as the main modifier:

           # Mod=Mod1 # use alt as the main modifier
           Mod=Mod4 # use Super as the main modifier

       After saving the autostart file, you have to reload the configuration:

           # the following line is identical to directly calling:
           # ~/.config/herbstluftwm/autostart
           herbstclient reload

       Now you may notice that the red border color of your terminal turned green again, because
       the color is set in the default autostart. That’s the typical configuration workflow:

        1. Try some new settings in the command line

        2. Add them to the autostart file

        3. Press Mod-Shift-r which calls the reload command or directly execute the autostart
           file from your shell to get the error messages if something went wrong.

       To learn more about herbstluftwm, just go through the man page line by line and check
       using the herbstluftwm(1) man page what it does. For a quick introduction to the central
       paradigms, continue reading this.

TILING

       Initially there is one frame. Each frame has one of the two following possible types:

        1. It serves as a container for windows, i.e. it can hold zero up to arbitrarily many
           windows. Launch several more terminals to see what happens: If there are multiple
           windows in one frame, they are aligned below each other. To change this layout
           algorithm, press Mod-space to cycle all the available layouting algorithms for the
           focused frame.

        2. A frame also can be split into two subframes, which can be aligned next to or below
           each other. Press Mod-o to split to an horizontal alignment. To navigate to the fresh
           frame right of the old one press Mod-l. Press Mod-u to split vertically. The intuitive
           navigation is:

                     ⎧ h (or ←) ⎫                 ⎧ left
                     ⎪ j (or ↓) ⎪   means         ⎪ down
               Mod + ⎨ k (or ↑) ⎬  ═══════> focus ⎨ up
                     ⎩ l (or →) ⎭                 ⎩ right

           To undo splitting, you can remove a frame via Mod-r. To shift some window from one
           frame to one of its neighbours, use the same keyboard shortcut while holding the Shift
           key pressed. It is not possible to resize single windows, only to resize frames. The
           according keyboard shortcut is the same while holding Control pressed. All in all it
           is:

                                   ⎧ h (or ←) ⎫                          ⎧ left
                     ⎧         ⎫   ⎪ j (or ↓) ⎪  means  ⎧ focus frame  ⎫ ⎪ down
               Mod + ⎨ Shift   ⎬ + ⎨ k (or ↑) ⎬  ═════> ⎨ move window  ⎬ ⎨ up
                     ⎩ Control ⎭   ⎩ l (or →) ⎭         ⎩ resize frame ⎭ ⎩ right

       With this, you can define a custom layout. It can be printed via the layout command:

           $ herbstclient layout
           ╾─┐ horizontal 50% selection=1
             ├─┐ vertical 70% selection=0
             │ ├─╼ vertical: 0x1400009
             │ └─╼ vertical:
             └─╼ max: 0x1a00009 [FOCUS]

       Just play with it a bit to how it works. You also can permanently save the layout using
       the dump command:

           $ herbstclient dump
           (split horizontal:0.500000:1
               (split vertical:0.700000:0
                   (clients vertical:0 0x1400009)
                   (clients vertical:0))
               (clients max:0 0x1a00009))
           $ layout=$(herbstclient dump)

       And after some changes you can rewind to the original layout with the load command:

           $ herbstclient load "$layout"       # mind the quotes!

TAGS (OR WORKSPACES OR VIRTUAL DESKTOPS OR ....)

       A tag consists of a name and a frame layout with clients on it. With the default
       autostart, there are nine tags named 1 to 9. You can switch to the ith tag using Mod-i,
       e.g. Mod-4 to switch to tag 4 or with the command use 4. A window can be move to tag i via
       Mod-Shift-i, i.e. with the move command.

MONITORS

       The notion of a monitor in herbstluftwm is treated much more abstract and general than in
       other window managers: A monitor just is a rectangular part of your screen which shows
       exactly one tag on it.

       Initially there is only one large monitor ranging over your entire screen:

           $ herbstclient list_monitors
           0: 1440x900+0+0 with tag "1" [FOCUS]

       The output shows that there is only one monitor with index 0 at position +0+0 of size
       1440x900 showing tag 1. In most cases, the herbstluftwm monitors will match the list of
       physical monitors. So to add another physical monitor, you have to perform several steps:

        1. Enable it, such that it shows a part of your screen. You can use xrandr, xinerama or
           any other tool you like.

        2. Register it in herbstluftwm: Lets assume your new monitor has the resolution 1024x768
           and is right of your main screen, then you can activate it via:

               $ herbstclient set_monitors 1440x900+0+0 1024x768+1440+0

           Alternatively, if xinerama works for your setup, simply run:

               $ herbstclient detect_monitors

       For even more automation, you can enable the setting auto_detect_monitors. For more
       advanced examples, look at the q3terminal.sh example script, which implements a
       drop-down-terminal like monitor where you can put any application you like.

  herbstluftwm 0.7.0                        2016-02-09                     HERBSTLUFTWM-TUTORI(7)