wmii - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

wmii - Window Manager Improved²

SYNOPSIS

wmii [-a <address>] [-r <wmiirc>]

wmii -v

DESCRIPTION

Overview
wmii is a dynamic window manager for X11. In contrast to static window management the user
rarely has to think about how to organize windows, no matter what he is doing or how many
applications are used at the same time. The window manager adapts to the current
environment and fits to the needs of the user, rather than forcing him to use a preset,
fixed layout and trying to shoehorn all windows and applications into it.

wmii supports classic and tiled window management with extended keyboard and mouse
control. Classic window management arranges windows in a floating layer in which tyen can
be moved and resized freely. Tiled window management arranges windows in vertical columns.
Each column holds an arbitrary number arbitrary windows and arranges them vertically in a
non-overlapping manner. They can then be moved and resized, among and within columns, at
will.

wmii provides a virtual filesystem which represents the internal state similar to the
procfs of Unix operating systems. Modifying this virtual filesystem results in changing
the state of the window manager. The virtual filesystem service can be accessed through
9P-capable client programs, like wmiir(1). This allows simple and powerful remote control
of the core window manager.

Command Line Arguments
-a <address>
Specifies the address on which wmii should listen for connections. The address
takes the form <protocol>!<address>. The default is of the form:

unix!/tmp/ns.$USER.${DISPLAY%.0}/wmii

which opens a unix socket per Plan 9 Port conventions. To open a TCP socket,
listening at port 4332 on the loopback interface, use:

tcp!localhost!4332

$WMII_NAMESPACE is automatically set to this value.

-r <wmiirc>
Specifies which rc script to run. If <wmiirc> consists of a single argument,
$WMII_CONFPATH is searched before $PATH. Otherwise, it is passed to the shell for
evaluation. The environment variables $WMII_ADDRESS and $WMII_CONFPATH are preset
for the script.

Terminology
Display
A running X server instance consisting of input devices and screens.

Screen A physical or virtual (Xinerama or Xnest(1)) screen of an X display.

Window A (rectangular) drawable X object which is displayed on a screen, usually an
application window.

Client An application window surrounded by a frame window containing a border and a
titlebar.

Floating layer
A screen layer of wmii on top of all other layers, where clients are arranged in a
classic (floating) manner. They can be resized or moved freely.

Managed layer
A screen layer of wmii underneath the floating layer, where clients are arranged in
a non-overlapping (managed) manner. Here, the window manager dynamically assigns
each client a size and position. The managed layer consists of columns.

Tag Alphanumeric strings which can be assigned to a client. This provides a mechanism
to group clients with similar properties. Clients can have one tag, e.g. work, or
several tags, e.g. work+mail. Tags are separated with the + character.

View A set of clients containing a specific tag, quite similar to a workspace in other
window managers. It consists of the floating and managed layers.

Column A column is a screen area which arranges clients vertically in a non-overlapping
way. Clients can be moved and resized between and within columns freely.

Bar The bar at the bottom of the screen displays a label for each view and allows the
creation of arbitrary user-defined labels.

Event An event is a message which can be read from a special file in the filesystem of
wmii, such as a mouse button press, a key press, or a message written by a
different 9P-client.

Basic window management
Running a raw wmii process without a wmiirc(1) script provides basic window management
capabilities. However, to use it effectively, remote control through its filesystem
interface is necessary. Without such a script, it is only possible to move and resize
clients with the mouse, but not to change their tags or to switch views. Other
interactions, such as customizing the style, killing or retagging clients, and grabbing
keys, cannot be achieved without accessing the filesystem.

The filesystem can be accessed by connecting to the address of wmii with any 9P-capable
client, such as wmiir(1)

Actions
The default configuration provides for a special menu of actions. These consist of either
shell scripts in $WMII_CONFPATH or action definitions included in wmiirc.

Here is a list of the default actions:

exec Replace the window manager with another program
quit Leave the window manager nicely
rehash Refresh the program list
showkeys Display a list of key bindings recognized by wmii
status Periodically print date and load average to the bar
welcome Display a welcome message that contains the wmii tutorial

Default Key Bindings
All of the provided wmiirc scripts accept at least the following key bindings. They should
also provide a showkeys action to open a key binding quick-reference.

Moving Around
Key Action
Mod-h Move to a window to the left of the one currently focused
Mod-l Move to a window to the right of the one currently focused
Mod-j Move to the window below the one currently focused
Mod-k Move to a window above the one currently focused
Mod-space Toggle between the managed and floating layers
Mod-t <tag> Move to the view of the given <tag>
Mod-n Move to the next view
Mod-b Move to the previous view
Mod-[0-9] Move to the view with the given number

Moving Things Around
Key Action
Mod-Shift-h Move the current window window to a column on the left
Mod-Shift-l Move the current window to a column on the right
Mod-Shift-j Move the current window below the window beneath it.
Mod-Shift-k Move the current window above the window above it.
Mod-Shift-space Toggle the current window between the managed and floating layer
Mod-Shift-t <tag> Move the current window to the view of the given <tag>
Mod-Shift-[0-9] Move the current window to the view with the given number

Miscellaneous
Key Action
Mod-m Switch the current column to max mode
Mod-s Switch the current column to stack mode
Mod-d Switch the current column to default mode
Mod-Shift-c Kill the selected client
Mod-p <program> Execute <program>
Mod-a <action> Execute the named <action
Mod-Enter Execute an x-terminal-emulator

Configuration

If you feel the need to change the default configuration, then customize (as described
above) the wmiirc action. This action is executed at the end of the wmii script and does
all the work of setting up the window manager, the key bindings, the bar labels, etc.

Filesystem
Most aspects of wmii are controlled via the filesystem. It is usually accessed via the
wmiir(1) command, but it can be accessed by any 9P, including plan9port's 9P[1], and can
be mounted natively on Linux via v9fs[1], and on Inferno (which man run on top of Linux).
All data in the filesystem, including filenames, is UTF-8 encoded. However, when accessed
via wmiir(1), text is automatically translated to and from your locale encoding.

The filesystem is, as are many other 9P filesystems, entirely synthetic. The files exist
only in memory, and are not written to disk. They are generally initiated on wmii startup
via a script such as wmiirc. Several files are used to issue commands, others simply act
as if they were ordinary files (their contents are updated and returned exactly as
written), though writing them has side-effects (such as changing key bindings). A
description of the filesystem layout and control commands follows.

Hierarchy
/ Global control files

/client/*/
Client control files

/tag/*/
View control files

/lbar/, /rbar/
Files representing the contents of the bottom bar

The / Hierarchy
colrules
The colrules file contains a list of rules which affect the width of newly created
columns. Rules have the form:

/<regex>/ -> <width>[+<width>]*

Where,

<width> := <percent of screen> | <pixels>px

When a new column, <n>, is created on a view whose name matches <regex>, it is
given the <n>th supplied <width>. If there is no <n>th width, it is given
1/<ncol>th of the screen.

rules PROVISIONAL

The rules file contains a list of rules that may be used to automatically set
properties of new clients. Rules are specified as:

/<regex>/ <key>=<value> ...

where each <key> represents a command in the clients ctl file, and each <value>
represents the value to assign to it. The rules are applied when the client is
first started and the contents of the props file match the regular expression
<regex>.

Additionally, the following keys are accepted and have special meaning:

continue
Normally, when a matching rule is encountered, rule matching stops. When
the continue key is provided (with any value), matching continues at the
next rule.

force-tags=<tags>
Like tags, but overrides any settings obtained obtained from the client's
group or from the _WMII_TAGS window property.

keys The keys file contains a list of keys which wmii will grab. Whenever these key
combinations are pressed, the string which represents them are written to '/event'
as: Key <string>

event The event file never returns EOF while wmii is running. It stays open and reports
events as they occur. Included among them are:

[Not]Urgent <client> [Manager|Client]
<client>'s urgent hint has been set or unset. The second arg is [Client] if
it's been set by the client, and [Manager] if it's been set by wmii via a
control message.

[Not]UrgentTag <tag> [Manager|Client]
A client on <tag> has had its urgent hint set, or the last urgent client
has had its urgent hint unset.

Client<Click|MouseDown> <client> <button>
A client's titlebar has either been clicked or has a button pressed over
it.

[Left|Right]Bar[Click|MouseDown] <button> <bar>
A left or right bar has been clicked or has a button pressed over it.

For a more comprehensive list of available events, see wmii.pdf[2]

ctl The ctl file takes a number of messages to change global settings such as color and
font, which can be viewed by reading it. It also takes the following commands:

quit Quit wmii

exec <prog>
Replace wmii with <prog>

spawn <prog>
Spawn a new program, as if by the -r flag.

The /client/ Hierarchy
Each directory under '/client/' represents an X11 client. Each directory is named for the
X window id of the window the client represents, in the form that most X utilities
recognize. The one exception is the special 'sel' directory, which represents the
currently selected client.

ctl When read, the 'ctl' file returns the X window id of the client. The following
commands may be written to it:

allow <flags>
The set of unusual actions the client is allowed to perform, in the same
format as the tag set.

activate
The client is allowed to activate itself – that is, focus its
window and, as the case may require, uncollapse it and select a tag
it resides on. This flag must be set on a client if you wish it
able to activate itself from the system tray.

floating <on | off | always | never>
Defines whether this client is likely to float when attached to a new view.
Ordinarilly, the value changes automatically whenever the window is moved
between the floating and managed layers. However, setting a value of
always or never overrides this behavior. Additionally, dialogs, menus,
docks, and splash screens will always float unless this value is set to
never.

fullscreen <on | off | toggle>
Sets the client's fullscreen state.

group <group id>
The client's group ID, or 0 if not part of a group. Clients tend to open
with the same tags and in the same columns as the last active member of
their group. Setting this property is only useful when done via the rules
file.

kill Close the client's window.

pid Read-only value of the PID of the program that owns the window, if the
value is available and the process is on the same machine as wmii.

slay Forcibly kill the client's connection to the X server, closing all of its
windows. Kill the parent process if the client's PID is available.

tags <tags>
The client's tags. The same as the tags file.

urgent <on | off | toggle>
Set or unset the client's urgent hint.

label Set or read a client's label (title).

props Returns a clients class and label as: <instance>:<class>:<label>.

tags Set or read a client's tags. Tags are separated by +, -, or ^. Tags beginning with
+ are added, while those beginning with - are removed and those beginning with ^
are toggled. If the tag string written begins with +, ^, or -, the written tags
are added to or removed from the client's set, otherwise the set is overwritten.

The /tag/ Hierarchy
Each directory under '/tag/' represents a view, containing all of the clients with the
given tag applied. The special 'sel' directory represents the currently selected tag.

ctl The 'ctl' file can be read to retrieve the name of the tag the directory
represents, or written with the following commands:

select Select a client: select [left|right|up|down]

select [<row number>|sel] [<frame number>]

select client <client>

send Send a client somewhere:

send [<client>|sel] [up|down|left|right]

send [<client>|sel] <area>
Send <client> to the nth <area>

send [<client>|sel] toggle
Toggle <client> between the floating and managed layer.

swap Swap a client with another. Same syntax as send.

grow Grow or shrink a client.

grow <frame> <direction> [<amount>]

nudge Nudge a client in a given direction.

grow <frame> <direction> [<amount>]

Where the arguments are defined as follows:

area Selects a column or the floating area.

area ::= <area_spec> | <screen_spec>:<area_spec>

When <screen_spec> is omitted and <area_spec> is not "sel", 0 is assumed.
"sel" by itself represents the selected client no matter which screen it is
on.

area_spec ::= "~" | <number> | "sel"

Where "~" represents the floating area and <number> represents a column
index, starting at one.

screen_spec ::= <number>

Where <number> representes the 0-based Xinerama screen number.

frame Selects a client window.

frame ::= <area> <index> | <area> sel | client <window-id>

Where <index> represents the nth frame of <area> or <window-id> is the X11
window id of the given client.

amount The amount to grow or nudge something.

amount ::= <number> | <number>px

If "px" is given, <number> is interperated as an exact pixel count.
Otherwise, it's interperated as a "reasonable" amount, which is usually
either the height of a window's title bar, or its sizing increment (as
defined by X11) in a given direction.

index Read for a description of the contents of a tag.

The /rbar/, /lbar/ Hierarchy
The files under '/rbar/' and '/lbar/' represent the items of the bar at the bottom of the
screen. Files under '/lbar/' appear on the left side of the bar, while those under
'/rbar/' appear on the right, with the leftmost item occupying all extra available space.
The items are sorted lexicographically.

The files may be read or written to obtain or alter the colors and text of the bars. The
format is similar to the various ctl files and should be self explanitory.

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