fvwm2-man.html
NAME
fvwm2 - F(?) Virtual Window Manager (version 2.xx) for X11
SYNOPSIS
fvwm [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
Fvwm is a window manager for X11. It is a derivative of
twm, redesigned to minimize memory consumption, provide a
3-D look to window frames, and provide a simple virtual
desktop. Version 2.xx uses only slightly more memory than
1.xx, mostly due to some global options being able to be
window specific now.
Fvwm provides both a large virtual desktop and multiple
disjoint desktops which can be used separately or together.
The virtual desktop allows you to pretend that your video
screen is really quite large, and you can scroll around
within the desktop. The multiple disjoint desktops allow
you to pretend that you really have several screens to work
at, but each screen is completely unrelated to the others.
Fvwm provides keyboard accelerators which allow you to
perform most window-manager functions, including moving and
resizing windows, and operating the window-manager's menus,
using keyboard shortcuts.
Fvwm has also blurred the distinction between configuration
commands and built-in commands that most window-managers
make. Configuration commands typically set fonts, colors,
menu contents, key and mouse function bindings, while
built-in commands typically do things like raise and lower
windows. Fvwm makes no such distinction, and allows, to the
extent that is practical, anything to be changed at any
time.
Other noteworthy differences between Fvwm and other X11
window managers are the introduction of the SloppyFocus and
per-window focus methods. SloppyFocus is focus-follows-
mouse, but focus is not removed from windows when the mouse
leaves a window and enters the root window. When sloppy
focus is used as the default focus style, it is nice to make
windows in which you do not typically type into (xmag, xman,
xgraph, xclock, xbiff, etc) click-to-focus, so that your
terminal window doesn't lose focus unnecessarily.
COPYRIGHTS
Since fvwm is derived from twm code it shares twm's
copyrights. Since nearly every line of twm code has been
changed, the twm copyright has been removed from most of the
individual code files. I do still recognize the influence
of twm code in the overall package, so fvwm's copyright is
still considered to be the same as twm's.
fvwm is copyright 1988 by Evans and Sutherland Computer
Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah, and 1989 by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, All rights reserved. It is also copyright
1993 and 1994 by Robert Nation.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this
software and its documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright
notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright
notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of Evans & Sutherland and
M.I.T. not be used in advertising in publicity pertaining to
distribution of the software without specific, written prior
permission.
ROBERT NATION, CHARLES HINES, EVANS & SUTHERLAND, AND M.I.T.
DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL EVANS & SUTHERLAND OR M.I.T. BE
LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR
ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR
PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHER TORTUOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH
THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
ANATOMY OF A WINDOW
Fvwm puts a decorative border around most windows. This
border consists of a bar on each side and a small "L" shaped
section on each corner. There is an additional top bar
called the title bar which is used to display the name of
the window. In addition, there are up to 10 title-bar
buttons. The top, side, and bottom bars are collectively
known as the side-bars. The corner pieces are called the
frame.
Unless the standard defaults files are modified, pressing
mouse button 1 in the title or side-bars will begin a move
operation on the window. Pressing button 1 in the corner
frame pieces will begin a resize operation. Pressing button
2 anywhere in the border brings up an extensive list of
window operations.
Up to ten title-bar buttons may exist. Their use is
completely user definable. The default configuration has a
title-bar button on each side of the title-bar. The one on
the left is used to bring up a list of window options,
regardless of which mouse button is used. The one on the
right is used to iconify the window. The number of title-
bar buttons used depends on which ones have mouse actions
bound to them. See the section on the "Mouse" configuration
parameter below.
THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP
Fvwm provides multiple virtual desktops for users who wish
to use them. The screen is a viewport onto a desktop which
may be larger than the screen. Several distinct desktops
can be accessed (concept: one desktop for each project, or
one desktop for each application, when view applications are
distinct). Since each desktop can be larger than the
physical screen, divided into m by n pages which are each
the size of the physical screen, windows which are larger
than the screen or large groups of related windows can
easily be viewed.
The (m by n) size (i.e. number of pages) of the virtual
desktops can be changed any time, by using the DeskTopSize
built-in command. All virtual desktops must be (are) the
same size. The total number of distinct desktops need not
be specified, but is limited to approximately 4 billion
total. All windows on a range of desktops can be viewed in
the Pager, a miniature view of the desktops. The pager is
an accessory program, called a module, which is not
essential for the window manager to operate. Windows may
also be listed, along with their geometries, in a window
list, accessible as a pop-up menu, or as a separate window,
called the FvwmWinList (another module).
"Sticky" windows are windows which transcend the virtual
desktop by "Sticking to the screen's glass." They always
stay put on the screen. This is convenient for things like
clocks and xbiff's, so you only need to run one such gadget
and it always stays with you. Icons can also be made to
stick to the glass, if desired.
Window geometries are specified relative to the current
viewport. That is:
xterm -geometry +0+0
will always show up in the upper-left hand corner of the
visible portion of the screen. It is permissible to specify
geometries which place windows on the virtual desktop, but
off the screen. For example, if the visible screen is 1000
by 1000 pixels, and the desktop size is 3x3, and the current
viewport is at the upper left hand corner of the desktop,
then invoking:
xterm -geometry +1000+1000
will place the window just off of the lower right hand
corner of the screen. It can be found by moving the mouse
to the lower right hand corner of the screen and waiting for
it to scroll into view.
There is currently no way to cause a window to map onto a
desktop other than the currently active desk, or is there...
A geometry specified as something like:
xterm -geometry -5-5
will generally place the window's lower right hand corner 5
pixels from the lower right corner of the visible portion of
the screen. Not all applications support window geometries
with negative offsets.
Some applications that understand standard Xt command line
arguments and X resources, like xterm and xfontsel, allow
the user to specify the start-up desk on the command line:
xterm -xrm "*Desk:1"
will start an xterm on desk number 1. Not all applications
understand this option, however.
You could achieve the same result with the following line in
your .Xdefaults file:
XTerm*Desk: 1
INITIALIZATION
During initialization, fvwm will search for a configuration
file which describes key and button bindings, and a few
other things. The format of these files will be described
later. First, fvwm will search for a file named .fvwm2rc
(or .fvwmrc based on how it was compiled - .fvwm2rc is the
default) in the users home directory. Failing that, it will
look for /usr/lib/X11/fvwm/.fvwm2rc for system-wide
defaults. If that file is not found, fvwm will be basically
useless.
Fvwm will set two environment variables which will be
inherited by its children. These are $DISPLAY which
describes the display on which fvwm is running. $DISPLAY
may be unix:0.0 or :0.0, which doesn't work too well when
passed through rsh to another machine, so $HOSTDISPLAY will
also be set and will use a network-ready description of the
display. $HOSTDISPLAY will always use the TCP/IP transport
protocol (even for a local connection) so $DISPLAY should be
used for local connections, as it may use Unix-domain
sockets, which are faster.
Fvwm has a two special functions for initialization:
InitFunction and RestartFunction, which are executed during
Initialization and Restarts (respectively). These may be
customized in the user's rc file via the AddToFunc facility
(described later) to start up modules, xterms, or whatever
you'd like have started by fvwm.
Fvwm also has a special exit function: ExitFunction,
executed when exiting or restarting before actually quitting
or anything else. It could be used to explicitly kill
modules, etc.
COMPILATION OPTIONS
Fvwm has a number of ways in which you can reduce memory
usage by limiting the use of certain features during
compilation. If you have trouble using a certain command or
feature, check to see if support for it was included at
compile time. Optional features are described fully in the
Fvwm.tmpl Imake configuration file.
ICONS
The basic Fvwm configuration uses monochrome bitmap icons,
similar to twm. If XPM extensions are compiled in, then
color icons similar to ctwm, MS-Windows, or the Macintosh
icons can be used. In order to use these options you will
need the XPM package, as described in the Fvwm.tmpl Imake
configuration file.
If both the SHAPE and XPM options are compiled in you will
get shaped color icons, which are very spiffy.
MODULES
A module is a separate program which runs as a separate Unix
process but transmits commands to fvwm to execute. Users
can write their own modules to do any weird or bizarre
manipulations without bloating or affecting the integrity of
fvwm itself.
Modules MUST be spawned by fvwm so that it can set up two
pipes for fvwm and the module to communicate with. The
pipes will already be open for the module when it starts and
the file descriptors for the pipes are provided as command
line arguments.
Modules can be spawned during fvwm at any time during the X
session by use of the Module built-in command. Modules can
exist for the duration of the X session, or can perform a
single task and exit. If the module is still active when
fvwm is told to quit, then fvwm will close the communication
pipes and wait to receive a SIGCHLD from the module,
indicating that it has detected the pipe closure and has
exited. If modules fail to detect the pipe closure fvwm
will exit after approximately 30 seconds anyway. The number
of simultaneously executing modules is limited by the
operating system's maximum number of simultaneously open
files, usually between 60 and 256.
Modules simply transmit text commands to the fvwm built-in
command engine. Text commands are formatted just as in the
case of a mouse binding in the .fvwm2rc setup file. Certain
auxiliary information is also transmitted, as in the sample
module FvwmButtons. The FvwmButtons module is documented in
its own man page.
ICCCM COMPLIANCE
Fvwm attempts to be ICCCM 1.1 compliant. In addition, ICCCM
states that it should be possible for applications to
receive ANY keystroke, which is not consistent with the
keyboard shortcut approach used in fvwm and most other
window managers.
The ICCCM states that windows possessing the property
WM_HINTS(WM_HINTS):
Client accepts input or input focus: False
should not be given the keyboard input focus by the window
manager. These windows can take the input focus by
themselves, however. A number of applications set this
property, and yet expect the window-manager to give them the
keyboard focus anyway, so fvwm provides a window-style,
"Lenience", which will allow fvwm to overlook this ICCCM
rule.
M4 PREPROCESSING
M4 pre-processing is handled by a module in fvwm-2.0. To
get more details, try man FvwmM4. In short, if you want
fvwm to parse your files with m4, then replace the word
"Read" with "FvwmM4" in your .fvwm2rc file (if it appears at
all), and start fvwm with the command
fvwm -cmd "FvwmM4 .fvwm2rc"
CPP PREPROCESSING
Cpp is the C-language pre-processor. fvwm-2.0 offers cpp
processing which mirrors the m4 pre-processing. To find out
about it, re-read the M4 section above, but replace "m4"
with "cpp".
AUTO-RAISE
Windows can be automatically raised when it receives focus,
or some number of milliseconds after it receives focus, by
using the auto-raise module, FvwmAuto.
OPTIONS
These are the command line options that are recognized by
fvwm:
-f config_file
Causes fvwm to Read config_file instead of ".fvwm2rc"
as its initialization file. This is equivalent to -cmd
"Read config_file".
-cmd config_command
Causes fvwm to use config_command instead of "Read
.fvwm2rc" as its initialization command. (Note that up
to 10 -f and -cmd parameters can be given, and they are
executed in the order specified.)
-debug
Puts X transactions in synchronous mode, which
dramatically slows things down, but guarantees that
fvwm's internal error messages are correct. Also
causes fvwm to output debug messages while running.
-d displayname
Manage the display called "displayname" instead of the
name obtained from the environment variable $DISPLAY.
-s On a multi-screen display, run fvwm only on the screen
named in the $DISPLAY environment variable or provided
through the -d option. Normally, fvwm will attempt to
start up on all screens of a multi-screen display.
-version
Print the version of fvwm to stderr.
CONFIGURATION FILES
The configuration file is used to describe mouse and button
bindings, colors, the virtual display size, and related
items. The initialization configuration file is typically
called ".fvwm2rc". By using the "Read" built-in, it is easy
to read in new configuration files as you go.
Lines beginning with '#' will be ignored by fvwm. Lines
starting with '*' are expected to contain module
configuration commands (rather than configuration commands
for fvwm itself).
Fvwm makes no distinction between configuration commands and
built-in commands, so anything mentioned in the built-in
commands section can be placed on a line by itself for fvwm
to execute as it reads the configuration file, or it can be
placed as an executable command in a menu or bound to a
mouse button or a keyboard key. It is left as an exercise
for the user to decide which function make sense for
initialization and which ones make sense for run-time.
BUILT IN FUNCTIONS
Fvwm supports a set of built-in functions which can be bound
to keyboard or mouse buttons. If fvwm expects to find a
built-in function in a command, but fails, it will check to
see if the specified command should have been "Function
(rest of command)" or "Module (rest of command)". This
allows complex functions or modules to be invoked in a
manner which is fairly transparent to the configuration
file.
Example: the .fvwm2rc file contains the line "HelpMe". Fvwm
will look for a built-in command called "HelpMe", and will
fail. Next it will look for a user-defined complex function
called "HelpMe". If no such user defined function exists,
Fvwm will try to execute a module called "HelpMe".
In previous versions of fvwm, quoting was critical and
irrational in the .fvwmrc file. As of fvwm-2, most of this
has been cleared up. Quotes are required only when needed
to make fvwm consider two or more words to be a single
argument. Unnecessary quoting is allowed. If you want a
quote character in your text, you must escape it by using
the backslash character. For example, if you have a pop-up
menu called Window-Ops, then you don't need quotes: Popup
Window-Ops, but if you replace the dash with a space, then
you need quotes: Popup "Window Ops".
AddButtonStyle button [state] [style] [ -- [!]flag ... ]
Adds a button style to button. button can be a button
number, or one of "All," "Left," or "Right." state can
be "ActiveUp," "ActiveDown" or "Inactive." If state is
omitted, then the style is added to every state. If
the button style and flags are enclosed in parentheses,
then multiple state definitions can be placed on a
single line. Flags for additional button styles cannot
be changed after definition.
Buttons are drawn in the order of definition, beginning
with the most recent ButtonStyle, followed by those
added with AddButtonStyle. To clear the button style
stack, change style flags, or for descriptions of
available styles and flags, see the ButtonStyle
command. Examples:
ButtonStyle 1 Pixmap led.xpm -- Top Left
ButtonStyle 1 ActiveDown HGradient 8 grey black
ButtonStyle All -- UseTitleStyle
AddButtonStyle 1 ActiveUp (Pixmap a.xpm) ActiveDown (Pixmap b.xpm -- Top)
AddButtonStyle 1 Vector 4 50x30@1 70x70@0 30x70@0 50x30@1
Initially for this example all button states are set to
a pixmap. The second line replaces the ActiveDown
state with a gradient (it overrides the pixmap assigned
to it in the line before, which assigned the same style
to every state). Then, the UseTitleStyle flag is set
for all buttons, which causes fvwm to draw any styles
set with TitleStyle before drawing the buttons.
Finally, AddButtonStyle is used to place additional
pixmaps for both ActiveUp and ActiveDown states and a
Vector button style is drawn on top of all state.
AddTitleStyle [state] [style] [ -- [!]flag ... ]
Adds a title style to the title bar. state should be
one of "ActiveUp," "ActiveDown," or "Inactive." If
state is omitted, then the style is added to every
state. If the style and flags are enclosed in
parentheses, then multiple state definitions can be
placed on a single line. This command is quite similar
to the AddButtonStyle command (see above).
Title bars are drawn in the order of definition,
beginning with the most recent TitleStyle, followed by
those added with AddTitleStyle. To clear the title
style stack, change style flags, or for the
descriptions of available styles and flags, see the
TitleStyle and ButtonStyle commands.
AddToDecor decor
Add or divert commands to the decor named decor. A
decor is a name given to the set of commands which
affect button styles, title-bar styles, border styles,
hilight colors, and window fonts. If decor does not
exist it is created; otherwise the existing decor is
modified.
Created decors start out exactly like the default fvwm
decor without any style definitions. A given decor may
be applied to a set of windows with the UseDecor option
of the Style command. Modifying an existing decor will
affect windows which are currently assigned to it.
AddToDecor is similar in usage to the AddToMenu and
AddToFunc commands, except that menus and functions are
replaced by ButtonStyle, AddButtonStyle, TitleStyle,
AddTitleStyle, BorderStyle, HilightColor and WindowFont
commands. Decors created with AddToDecor can be
manipulated with ChangeDecor, DestroyDecor,
UpdateDecor, and the UseDecor Style option.
The following example creates a decor and style, both
named "flatness." Despite having the same name, they
are distinct entities:
AddToDecor flatness
+ ButtonStyle All ActiveUp (-- flat) Inactive (-- flat)
+ TitleStyle -- flat
+ BorderStyle -- HiddenHandles NoInset
+ HilightColor white navy
Style "flatness" UseDecor flatness,Color white/grey40,HandleWidth 4
Style "xterm" UseStyle flatness
An existing window's decor may be reassigned with
ChangeDecor, or a Style command followed by a
Recapture. The decorations of all windows or of a
specific decor can be updated with UpdateDecor (useful
after decorations are modified; changing Style options
requires a Recapture instead). A decor can be
destroyed with DestroyDecor.
AddToMenu
Begins or adds to a menu definition. Typically a menu
definition looks like this:
AddToMenu Utilities "Utilities" Title
+ "Xterm" Exec xterm -e tcsh
+ "Rxvt" Exec rxvt
+ "Remote Logins" Popup Remote-Logins
+ "Top" Exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top
+ "Calculator" Exec xcalc
+ "Xman" Exec xman
+ "Xmag" Exec xmag
+ "emacs" Exec xemacs
+ "Mail" MailFunction xmh "-font fixed"
+ "" Nop
+ "Modules" Popup Module-Popup
+ "" Nop
+ "Exit Fvwm" Popup Quit-Verify
The menu could be invoked via
Mouse 1 R A Menu Utilities Nop
or
Mouse 1 R A Popup Utilities
There is no end-of-menu symbol. Menus do not have to
be defined in a contiguous region of the .fvwm2rc file.
The quoted portion in the above examples is the menu-
label, which will appear in the menu when the user pops
it up. The remaining portion is a built-in command
which should be executed if the user selects that menu
item. An empty menu-label ("") and the Nop function
can be used to insert a separator into the menu.
If the menu-label contains a sub-string which is set
off by stars, then the text between the stars is
expected to be the name of an xpm-icon or bitmap-file
to insert in the menu. For example
+ "Calculator*xcalc.xpm*" Exec xcalc
inserts a menu item labeled "calculator" with a picture
of a calculator above it. The following:
+ "*xcalc.xpm*" Exec xcalc
Omits the "Calculator" label, but leaves the picture.
If the menu-label contains a sub-string which is set
off by percent signs, then the text between the percent
signs is expected to be the name of an xpm-icon or
bitmap-file to insert to the left of the menu label.
For example
+ "Calculator%xcalc.xpm%" Exec xcalc
inserts a menu item labeled "calculator" with a picture
of a calculator to the left. The following:
+ "%xcalc.xpm%" Exec xcalc
Omits the "Calculator" label, but leaves the picture.
The pictures used with this feature should be small
(perhaps 16x16).
AddToFunc
Begins or add to a function definition. Here's an
example:
AddToFunc Move-or-Raise "I" Raise
+ "M" Move
+ "D" Lower
The function name is Move-or-Raise, and could be
invoked from a menu or a mouse binding or key binding:
Mouse 1 TS A Move-or-Raise
The quoted portion of the function tells what kind of
action will trigger the command which follows it. "I"
stands for Immediate, and is executed as soon as the
function is invoked. "M" stands for Motion, i.e. if
the user starts moving the mouse. "C" stands for
Click, i.e., if the user presses and releases the mouse
in a short period of time (ClickTime milliseconds).
"D" stands for double-click. The action "I" will cause
an action to be performed on the button-press, if the
function is invoked with prior knowledge of which
window to act on.
The special symbols $w and $0 through $9 are available
in the ComplexFunctions or Macros, or whatever you want
to call them. Within a macro, $w is expanded to the
window-id (expressed in hex, i.e. 0x10023c) of the
window for which the macro was called. $0 though $9
are the arguments to the macro, so if you call
Key F10 R A Function MailFunction xmh "-font fixed"
and MailFunction is
AddToFunc MailFunction "I" Next [$0] Iconify -1
+ "I" Next [$0] focus
+ "I" None [$0] Exec $0 $1
Then the last line of the function becomes
+ "I" None [xmh] Exec xmh -font fixed
The expansion is performed as the function is executed,
so you can use the same function with all sorts of
different arguments. I could use
Key F11 R A Function MailFunction zmail "-bg pink"
in the same .fvwm2rc, if I wanted. An example of using
$w is:
AddToFunc PrintFunction "I" Raise
+ "I" Exec xdpr -id $w
Note that $$ is expanded to $.
Beep As might be expected, the makes the terminal beep.
BorderStyle [state] [style] [ -- [!]flag ... ]
Defines a border style for windows. state can be
either "Active" or "Inactive." If state is omitted,
then the style is set for both states. If the style
and flags are enclosed in parentheses, then multiple
state definitions can be specified per line.
style is a subset of the available ButtonStyles, and
can only be TiledPixmap (uniform pixmaps which match
the bevel colors work best with this). If an "!" is
prefixed to any flag, flag behavior is negated. If
style is not specified, then one can change flags
without resetting the style.
The "HiddenHandles" flag hides the corner handle
dividing lines on windows with handles (this option has
no effect for NoHandle windows). By default,
HiddenHandles is disabled.
The "NoInset" flag supplements HiddenHandles. If
given, the inner bevel around the window frame is not
drawn. If HiddenHandles is not specified, this flag
has no effect.
To decorate the active and inactive window borders with
a textured pixmap, one might specify:
BorderStyle Active TiledPixmap marble.xpm
BorderStyle Inactive TiledPixmap granite.xpm
BorderStyle Active -- HiddenHandles NoInset
To clear the style for both states:
BorderStyle Simple
To clear for a single state:
BorderStyle Active Simple
To unset a flag for a given state:
BorderStyle Inactive -- !NoInset
Title-bar buttons can inherit the border style with the
UseBorderStyle flag (see ButtonStyle).
ButtonStyle button [state] [style] [ -- [!]flag ... ]
Sets the button style for a title-bar button. button
is the title-bar button number between 0 and 9, or one
of "All," "Left," "Right," or "Reset." Button
numbering is described in the Mouse section (see
below). If the style and flags are enclosed in
parentheses, then multiple state definitions can be
specified per line.
state refers to which button state should be set.
Button states are defined as follows: "ActiveUp" and
"ActiveDown" refer to the unpressed and pressed states
for buttons on active windows; while the "Inactive"
state denotes buttons on inactive windows.
If state is ActiveUp, ActiveDown, or Inactive, that
particular button state is set. If state is omitted,
every state is set. Specifying a style destroys the
current style (use AddButtonStyle to avoid this).
If style is omitted, then state-dependent flags can be
set for the primary button style without destroying the
current style. Examples (each line should be
considered independent):
ButtonStyle Left -- flat
ButtonStyle All ActiveUp (-- flat) Inactive (-- flat)
The first line sets every state of the left buttons to
flat, while the second sets only the ActiveUp and
Inactive states of every button to flat (only flags are
changed; the buttons' individual styles are not
changed).
If you want to reset all buttons to their defaults:
ButtonStyle Reset
To reset the ActiveUp button state of button 1 to the
default:
ButtonStyle 1 ActiveUp Default
To reset all button states of button 1 to the default
of button number 2:
ButtonStyle 1 Default 2
For any given button, multiple state definitions can be
given on one line by enclosing the style and flags in
parentheses. If only one definition per line is given
the parentheses can be omitted.
flags affect the specified state. If an "!" is
prefixed to any flag, its behavior is negated. The
available state-dependent flags for all styles are
described here (the next ButtonStyle entry deals with
state-independent flags).
"Raised" causes a raised relief pattern to be drawn.
"Sunk" causes a sunken relief pattern to be drawn.
"Flat" inhibits the relief pattern from being drawn.
"UseTitleStyle" causes the given button state to render
the current title style before rendering the button's
own styles. The Raised, Flat, and Sunk TitleStyle
flags are ignored since they are redundant in this
context.
"UseBorderStyle" causes the button to inherit the
decorated BorderStyle options.
Raised, Sunk, and Flat are mutually exclusive, and can
be specified for the initial ButtonStyle only.
UseTitleStyle and UseBorderStyle are also mutually
exclusive (both can be off however). The default is
Raised with both UseBorderStyle and UseTitleStyle left
unset.
There is an important note for the ActiveDown state.
When a button is pressed, the relief is inverted.
Because of this, to obtain a sunken ActiveDown state
you must specify the opposite of the desired relief
(i.e. to obtain a pressed-in look which is raised,
specify Sunk for ActiveDown). This behavior is
consistent, but may seem confusing at first.
Button styles are classified as non-destructive,
partially destructive, or fully destructive. Non-
destructive styles do not affect the image. Partially
destructive styles can obscure some or all parts of the
underlying image (i.e. Pixmap). Fully destructive
styles obscure the entire underlying image (i.e. Solid
or one of the gradient styles). Thus, if stacking
styles with AddButtonStyle (or AddTitleStyle for title
bars), use care in sequencing styles to minimize
redraw.
The available styles and their arguments now follow
(depending on compilation options, some button styles
may be unavailable).
The "Simple" style does nothing. There are no
arguments, and this style is an example of a non-
destructive button style.
The "Default" style conditionally accepts one argument:
a number which specifies the default button number to
load. If the style command given is ButtonStyle or
AddButtonStyle, the argument is optional (if given,
will override the current button). If a command other
than ButtonStyle or AddButtonStyle is used, the number
must be specified.
The "Solid" style fills the button with a solid color.
The relief border color is not affected. The color
should be specified as a single argument. This style
is fully destructive.
The "Vector" style draws a line pattern. Since this is
a standard button style, the keyword "Vector" is
optional. The specification is a little cumbersome:
ButtonStyle 2 Vector 4 50x30@1 70x70@0 30x70@0 50x30@1
then the button 2 decoration will use a 4-point pattern
consisting of a line from (x=50,y=30) to (70,70) in the
shadow color (@0), and then to (30,70) in the shadow
color, and finally to (50,30) in the highlight color
(@1). Is that too confusing? See the sample .fvwm2rc
for a few examples. This style is partially
destructive.
The "VGradient" and "HGradient" styles denote gradient
styles. The H and V prefixes denote both horizontal
and vertical directions.
This style has two forms:
The first form specifies a linear gradient.
Arguments: total number of colors to allocate
(between 2 and 128), the initial color, and the final
color.
The second form specifies a nonlinear gradient.
Arguments: total number of colors to allocate
(between 2 and 128), then the number of segments.
For each segment, specify the starting color,
percentage to increment, then ending color. Each
subsequent segment begins with the color of the last
segment. All of the percentages must add up to 100.
Example:
TitleStyle VGradient 16 3 Red 20 Blue 30 Black 50 Grey
The gradient styles are fully destructive.
The "Pixmap" style displays a pixmap. A pixmap should
be specified as an argument. For example, the
following would give button 2 the same pixmap for both
states, and button 4 different pixmaps for the up, down
and inactive states.
ButtonStyle 2 Pixmap my_pixmap.xpm
ButtonStyle 4 ActiveUp (Pixmap up.xpm) ActiveDown (Pixmap down.xpm)
ButtonStyle 4 Inactive Pixmap inactive.xpm
The pixmap specification can be given as an absolute or
relative pathname (see PixmapPath). If the pixmap
cannot be found, the button style reverts to Simple.
Flags specific to the Pixmap style are "Left," "Right,"
"Top," and "Bottom." These can be used to justify the
pixmap (default is centered for both directions).
Pixmap transparency is used for the color "None." This
style is partially destructive.
The "MiniIcon" style draws the window's miniature icon
in the button, which is specified with the MiniIcon
option of the Style command. This button style accepts
no arguments. Example:
Style "*" MiniIcon mini-bx2.xpm
Style "xterm" MiniIcon mini-term.xpm
Style "Emacs" MiniIcon mini-doc.xpm
ButtonStyle 1 MiniIcon
The "TiledPixmap" style accepts a pixmap to be tiled as
the button background. One pixmap is specified as an
argument. Pixmap transparency is not used. This style
is fully destructive.
ButtonStyle button - [!]flag ...
Sets state-independent flags for the specified button.
State-independent flags affect button behavior. Each
flag is separated by a space. If an "!" is prefixed to
the flag then the flag behavior is negated. The
special flag "Clear" clears any existing flags.
The following flags are usually used to tell fvwm which
buttons should be affected by MWM function hints. This
is not done automatically since you might have buttons
bound to complex functions, for instance.
"MWMDecorMenu" should be assigned to title bar buttons
which display a menu. The default assignment is the
leftmost button. When a window with the MWMFunctions
Style option requests not to show this button, it will
be hidden.
"MWMDecorMin" should be assigned to title bar buttons
which minimize or iconify the window. The default
assignment is the second button over from the rightmost
button. When a window with the MWMFunctions Style
option requests not to show this button, it will be
hidden.
"MWMDecorMax" should be assigned to title bar buttons
which maximize the window. The default assignment is
the rightmost button. When a window with the
MWMFunctions Style option requests not to show this
button, it will be hidden.
ChangeDecor decor
Changes the decor of a window to decor. decor is
"Default," or the name of a decor defined with
AddToDecor. If decor is invalid, nothing occurs. If
called from somewhere in a window or its border, then
that window is affected. If called from the root
window the user will be allowed to select the target
window. ChangeDecor only affects attributes which can
be set using the AddToDecor command.
ChangeDecor "CustomDecor1"
ClickTime delay
Specifies the maximum delay (in milliseconds) between a
button press and a button release for the Function
built-in to consider the action a mouse click. The
default delay is 150 milliseconds.
Close
If the window accepts the delete window protocol a
message is sent to the window asking it to gracefully
remove itself. If the window does not understand the
delete window protocol then the window is destroyed.
ColormapFocus [FollowsMouse | FollowsFocus]
By default, fvwm installs the colormap of the window
that the cursor is in. If you use ColormapFocus
FollowsFocus, then the installed colormap will be the
one for the window that currently has the keyboard
focus.
Current [conditions] command
Performs command on the current window if it satisfies
all conditions. Conditions include "Iconic",
"!Iconic", "Visible", "!Visible", "Sticky", "!Sticky",
"Maximized", "!Maximized", "Transient", "!Transient",
"Raised", "!Raised", "CurrentDesk", "CurrentPage", and
"CurrentPageAnyDesk". In addition, the condition may
include a window name to match to. The window name may
include the wildcards * and ?. The window name, icon
name, class, and resource will be considered when
attempting to find a match. The window name can begin
with ! which will prevent command if any of the window
name, icon name, class or resource match.
CursorMove horizontal vertical
Moves the mouse pointer by horizontal pages in the X
direction and vertical pages in the Y direction.
Either or both entries may be negative. Both
horizontal and vertical values are expressed in percent
of pages, so "CursorMove 100 100" means to move down
and left by one full page. "CursorMove 50 25" means to
move left half a page and down a quarter of a page.
The CursorMove function should not be called from pop-
up menus.
CursorStyle context cursornum
Defines a new cursor for the specified context. The
various contexts are:
POSITION - used when initially placing windows (XC_top_left_corner)
TITLE - used in a window title-bar (XC_top_left_arrow)
DEFAULT - used in windows that don't set their cursor (XC_top_left_arrow)
SYS - used in one of the title-bar buttons (XC_hand2)
MOVE - used when moving or resizing windows (XC_fleur)
WAIT - used during an EXEC builtin command (XC_watch)
MENU - used in menus (XC_sb_left_arrow)
SELECT - used for various builtin commands such as iconify (XC_dot)
DESTROY - used for DESTROY, CLOSE, and DELETE built-ins (XC_pirate)
TOP - used in the top side-bar of a window (XC_top_side)
RIGHT - used in the right side-bar of a window (XC_right_side)
BOTTOM - used in the bottom side-bar of a window (XC_bottom_side)
LEFT - used in the left side-bar of a window (XC_left_side)
TOP_LEFT - used in the top left corner of a window (XC_top_left_corner)
TOP_RIGHT - used in the top right corner of a window (XC_top_right_corner)
BOTTOM_LEFT - used in the bottom left corner of a window (XC_bottom_left_corner)
BOTTOM_RIGHT - used in the bottom right corner of a window (XC_bottom_right_corner)
And the cursornum is the numeric value of the cursor as
defined in the include file X11/cursorfont.h. An
example:
# make the kill cursor be XC_gumby:
CursorStyle DESTROY 56
The defaults are shown in parenthesis above.
Delete
Sends a message to a window asking that it remove
itself, frequently causing the application to exit.
Desk arg1 arg2
Changes to another desktop (workspace, room).
If arg1 is non zero then the next desktop number will
be the current desktop number plus arg1. Desktop
numbers can be negative.
If arg1 is zero then the new desktop number will be
arg2.
The number of active desktops is determined
dynamically. Only desktops which contain windows or
are currently being displayed are active. Desktop
numbers must be between 2147483647 and -2147483648 (is
that enough?).
DeskTopSize HorizontalxVertical
Defines the virtual desktop size in units of the
physical screen size.
Destroy
Destroys an application window, which usually causes
the application to crash and burn.
DestroyFunc
Deletes a function, so that subsequent references to it
are no longer valid. You can use this to change the
contents of a function during an fvwm session. The
function can be rebuilt using AddToFunc.
DestroyFunc "PrintFunction"
DestroyDecor decor
Deletes the decor defined with AddToDecor, so that
subsequent references to it are no longer valid.
Windows using this decor revert to the default fvwm
decor. The decor named "Default" cannot be destroyed.
DestroyDecor "CustomDecor1"
DestroyMenu
Deletes a menu, so that subsequent references to it are
no longer valid. You can use this to change the
contents of a menu during an fvwm session. The menu
can be rebuilt using AddToMenu.
DestroyMenu "Utilities"
DestroyModuleConfig
Deletes module configuration entries, so that new
configuration lines may be entered instead. You can
use this to change the the way a module runs during an
fvwm session without restarting. Wildcards can be used
for portions of the name as well.
DestroyModuleConfig FvwmFormFore
DestroyModuleConfig FvwmButtons*
Echo string
Prints a message to stderr. Potentially useful for
debugging things in your .fvwm2rc.
Echo Beginning style defs...
EdgeResistance scrolling moving
Tells how hard it should be to change the desktop
viewport by moving the mouse over the edge of the
screen and how hard it should be to move a window over
the edge of the screen.
The first parameter tells how milliseconds the pointer
must spend on the screen edge before fvwm will move the
viewport. This is intended for people who use
"EdgeScroll 100 100" but find themselves accidentally
flipping pages when they don't want to.
The second parameter tells how many pixels over the
edge of the screen a window's edge must move before it
actually moves partially off the screen.
Note that, with "EdgeScroll 0 0", it is still possible
to move or resize windows across the edge of the
current screen. By making the first parameter to
EdgeResistance 10000 this type of motion is impossible.
With EdgeResistance less than 10000 but greater than 0
moving over pages becomes difficult but not impossible.
EdgeScroll horizontal vertical
Specifies the percentage of a page to scroll when the
cursor hits the edge of a page. If you don't want any
paging or scrolling when you hit the edge of a page
include "EdgeScroll 0 0" in your .fvwm2rc file. If you
want whole pages, use "EdgeScroll 100 100". Both
horizontal and vertical should be positive numbers.
If the horizontal and vertical percentages are
multiplied by 1000 then scrolling will wrap around at
the edge of the desktop. If "EdgeScroll 100000 100000"
is used fvwm will scroll by whole pages, wrapping
around at the edge of the desktop.
Exec command
Executes command. Exec does not require an additional
'exec' at the beginning or '&' at the end of the
command.
The following example binds function key F1 in the root
window, with no modifiers, to the exec function. The
program rxvt will be started with an assortment of
options.
Key F1 R N Exec rxvt -fg yellow -bg blue -e /bin/tcsh
ExecUseShell [shell]
Makes the Exec command use the specified shell, or the
value of the $SHELL environment variable if no shell is
specified, instead of the default Bourne shell
(/bin/sh).
ExecUseShell
ExecUseShell /usr/local/bin/tcsh
FlipFocus
Toggles focus between the last two focused windows.
Focus
Moves the viewport or window as needed to make the
selected window visible. Sets the keyboard focus to
the selected window. Raises the window if needed to
make it visible. Does not warp the pointer into the
selected window (see WarpToWindow function). Does not
de-iconify.
Function FunctionName
Used to bind a previously defined function to a key or
mouse button.
The following example binds mouse button 1 to a
function called "Move-or-Raise", whose definition was
provided as an example earlier in this man page. After
performing this binding fvwm will execute to move-or-
raise function whenever button 1 is pressed in a window
title-bar.
Mouse 1 T A Function Move-or-Raise
The keyword "Function" may be omitted if "FunctionName"
does not coincide with an fvwm built-in function name
GlobalOpts [options]
This is a TEMPORARY command used to set some global
options which will later be handled as Style parms (or
options to Style parms). It currently handles the
following:
SmartPlacementIsReallySmart/SmartPlacementIsNormal,
ClickToFocusDoesntPassClick/ClickToFocusPassesClick,
ClickToFocusDoesntRaise/ClickToFocusRaises,
MouseFocusClickDoesntRaise/MouseFocusClickRaises
GlobalOpts ClickToFocusDoesntPassClick, ClickToFocusDoesntRaise
GotoPage x y
Moves the desktop viewport to page (x,y). The upper
left page is (0,0), the upper right is (M,0), where M
is one less than the current number of horizontal pages
specified in the DeskTopSize command. The lower left
page is (0,N), and the lower right page is (M,N), where
N is the desktop's vertical size as specified in the
DeskTopSize command. The GotoPage function should not
be used in a pop-up menu.
HilightColor textcolor backgroundcolor
Specified the text and background colors for the
decorations on the window which currently has the
keyboard focus.
IconFont fontname
Makes fvwm use font fontname for icon labels. If
omitted, the menu font (specified by the Font
configuration parameter) will be used instead.
Iconify [ value ]
Iconifies a window if it is not already iconified or
de-iconifies it if it is already iconified. If the
optional argument value is positive the only
iconification will be allowed. It the optional
argument is negative only de-iconification will be
allowed.
IconPath path
Specifies a colon separated list of full path names of
directories where bitmap (monochrome) icons can be
found. Each path should start with a slash.
Environment variables can be used here as well (i.e.
$HOME or ${HOME}).
Note: if the FvwmM4 is used to parse your rc files,
then m4 may want to mangle the word "include" which
will frequently show up in the IconPath or PixmapPath
command. To fix this add undefine(`include') prior to
the IconPath command, or better use the '-m4-prefix'
option to force all m4 directives to have a prefix of
"m4_" (see the FvwmM4 man page).
Key keyname Context Modifiers Function
Binds a keyboard key to a specified fvwm built-in
function, or removes the binding if Function is '-'.
Definition is the same as for a mouse binding except
that the mouse button number is replaced with a key
name. The keyname is one of the entries from
/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h, with the leading XK_
omitted. The Context and Modifiers fields are defined
as in the Mouse binding.
The following example binds the built in window list to
pop up when Alt-Ctrl-Shift-F11 is hit, no matter where
the mouse pointer is:
Key F11 A SCM WindowList
Binding a key to a title-bar button will not cause that
button to appear unless a mouse binding also exists.
KillModule name
Causes the module which was invoked with name name to
be killed. name may include wild-cards.
Lower
Allows the user to lower a window.
Maximize [ horizontal vertical ]
Without its optional arguments Maximize causes the
window to alternately switch from a full-screen size to
its normal size.
With the optional arguments horizontal and vertical,
which are expressed as percentage of a full screen, the
user can control the new size of the window. If
horizontal is greater than 0 then the horizontal
dimension of the window will be set to
horizontal*screen_width/100. The vertical resizing is
similar. For example, the following will add a title-
bar button to switch a window to the full vertical size
of the screen:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 0 100
The following causes windows to be stretched to the
full width:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 100 0
This makes a window that is half the screen size in
each direction:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 50 50
Values larger than 100 can be used with caution.
If the letter "p" is appended to each coordinate
(horizontal and/or vertical), then the scroll amount
will be measured in pixels.
Menu menu-name double-click-action
Causes a previously defined menu to be popped up in a
"sticky" manner. That is, if the user invokes the menu
with a click action instead of a drag action, the menu
will stay up. The command double-click-action will be
invoked if the user double-clicks when bringing the
menu up.
MenuStyle forecolor backcolor shadecolor font style
Sets the menu style. When using monochrome the colors
are ignored. The shade-color is the one used to draw a
menu-selection which is prohibited (or not recommended)
by the mwm-hints which an application has specified.
The style option is either "fvwm" or "mwm", which
changes the appearance of the menu.
Module ModuleName
Specifies a module which should be spawned during
initialization. At the current time the available
modules (included with fvwm) are FvwmAudio (makes
sounds to go with window manager actions), FvwmAuto (an
auto raise module), FvwmBacker (to change the
background when you change desktops), FvwmBanner (to
display a spiffy XPM), FvwmButtons (brings up a
customizable tool bar), FvwmCpp (to preprocess your
.fvwm2rc with cpp), FvwmForm (to bring up dialogs),
FvwmIconBox (like the mwm IconBox), FvwmIconMan (like
the twm icon manager), FvwmIdent (to get window info),
FvwmM4 (to preprocess your .fvwm2rc with m4), FvwmPager
(a mini version of the desktop), FvwmSave (saves the
desktop state in .xinitrc style), FvwmSaveDesk (saves
the desktop state in fvwm commands), FvwmScroll (puts
scrollbars on any window), FvwmTalk (to interactively
run fvwm commands), and FvwmWinList (a window list).
These modules have their own man pages. There are
other modules out on there as well.
Modules can be short lived transient programs or, like
FvwmButtons, can remain for the duration of the X
session. Modules will be terminated by the window
manager prior to restarts and quits, if possible. See
the introductory section on modules. The keyword
"module" may be omitted if ModuleName is distinct from
all built-in and function names.
ModulePath
Specifies a colon separated list of paths for fvwm to
search when looking for a module to load. Individual
directories do not need trailing slashes. Environment
variables can be used here as well (i.e. $HOME or
${HOME}).
Mouse Button Context Modifiers Function
Defines a mouse binding, or removes the binding if
Function is '-'. . Button is the mouse button number.
If Button is zero then any button will perform the
specified function. Context describes where the
binding applies. Valid contexts are R for the root
window, W for an application window, T for a window
title bar, S for a window side, top, or bottom bar, F
for a window frame (the corners), I for an Icon window,
or 0 through 9 for title-bar buttons, or any
combination of these letters. A is for any context
except for title-bar buttons. For instance, a context
of FST will apply when the mouse is anywhere in a
window's border except the title-bar buttons.
Modifiers is any combination of N for no modifiers, C
for control, S for shift, M for Meta, or A for any
modifier. For example, a modifier of SM will apply
when both the Meta and Shift keys are down. X11
modifiers mod1 through mod5 are represented as the
digits 1 through 5.
Function is one of fvwm's built-in functions.
The title bar buttons are numbered with odd numbered
buttons on the left side of the title bar and even
numbers on the right. Smaller-numbered buttons are
displayed toward the outside of the window while
larger-numbered buttons appear toward the middle of the
window (0 is short for 10). In summary, the buttons
are numbered:
1 3 5 7 9 0 8 6 4 2
The highest odd numbered button which has an action
bound to it determines the number of buttons drawn on
the left side of the title bar. The highest even
number determines the number or right side buttons
which are drawn. Actions can be bound to either mouse
buttons or keyboard keys.
Move [ x y ]
Allows the user to move a window. If called from
somewhere in a window or its border, then that window
will be moved. If called from the root window then the
user will be allowed to select the target window.
If the optional arguments x and y are provided, then
the window will be moved so that its upper left corner
is at location (x,y). The units of x and y are
percent-of-screen, unless a letter "p" is appended to
each coordinate, in which case the location is
specified in pixels.
Examples:
Mouse 1 T A Move
Mouse 2 T A Move 10 10
Mouse 3 T A Move 10p 10p
In the first example, an interactive move is indicated.
In the second, the window whose title-bar is selected
will be moved so that its upper left hand corner is 10
percent of the screen width in from the left of the
screen, and 10 percent down from the top. The final
example moves the window to coordinate (10,10) pixels.
Nop Does nothing. This is used to insert a blank line or
separator in a menu. If the menu item specification is
Nop " ", then a blank line is inserted. If it looks
like Nop "", then a separator line is inserted. Can
also be used as the double-click action for Menu.
Next [conditions] command
Performs command (typically Focus) on the next window
which satisfies all conditions. Conditions are the
same as for Current with the addition of CirculateHit
which overrides the CirculateSkip style attribute and
CirculateHitIcon which overrides the CirculateSkipIcon
style attribute for iconified windows.
None [arguments] command
Performs command if no window which satisfies all
conditions exists. Conditions are the same as for
Next.
OpaqueMoveSize percentage
Tells fvwm the maximum size window with which opaque
window movement should be used. The percentage is
percent of the total screen area. With "OpaqueMove 0"
all windows will be moved using the traditional
rubber-band outline. With "OpaqueMove 100" all windows
will be move as solid windows. The default is
"OpaqueMove 5", which allows small windows to be moved
in an opaque manner but large windows are moved as
rubber-bands.
PipeRead cmd
Causes fvwm to read commands output from the program
named cmd. Useful for building up dynamic menu entries
based on a directories contents, for example.
PixmapPath path
Specifies a colon separated list of full path names of
directories where pixmap (color) icons can be found.
Each path should start with a slash. Environment
variables can be used here as well (i.e. $HOME or
${HOME}).
Popup PopupName
This built-in has two purposes: to bind a menu to a key
or mouse button, and to bind a sub-menu into a menu.
The formats for the two purposes differ slightly.
To bind a previously defined pop-up menu to a key or
mouse button:
The following example binds mouse buttons 2 and 3 to
a pop-up called "Window Ops". The menu will pop up
if the buttons 2 or 3 are pressed in the window
frame, side-bar, or title-bar, with no modifiers
(none of shift, control, or meta).
Mouse 2 FST N Popup "Window Ops"
Mouse 3 FST N Popup "Window Ops"
Pop-ups can be bound to keys through the use of the
Key built in. Pop-ups can be operated without using
the mouse by binding to keys and operating via the up
arrow, down arrow, and enter keys.
To bind a previously defined pop-up menu to another
menu, for use as a sub-menu:
The following example defines a sub menu, "Quit-
Verify" and binds it into a main menu, called
"RootMenu":
AddToMenu Quit-Verify "Really Quit Fvwm?" Title
+ "Yes, Really Quit" Quit
+ "Restart Fvwm2" Restart fvwm2
+ "Restart Fvwm 1.xx" Restart fvwm
+ "" Nop
+ "No, Don't Quit" Nop
AddToMenu RootMenu "Root Menu" Title
+ "Open an XTerm Window" Popup NewWindowMenu
+ "Login as Root" Exec xterm -fg green -T Root -n Root -e su -
+ "Login as Anyone" Popup AnyoneMenu
+ "Remote Hosts" Popup HostMenu
+ "" Nop
+ "X utilities" Popup Xutils
+ "" Nop
+ "Fvwm Modules" Popup Module-Popup
+ "Fvwm Window Ops" Popup Window-Ops
+ "" Nop
+ "Previous Focus" Prev [*] Focus
+ "Next Focus" Next [*] Focus
+ "" Nop
+ "Refresh screen" Refresh
+ "Recapture screen" Recapture
+ "" Nop
+ "Reset X defaults" Exec xrdb -load $HOME/.Xdefaults
+ "" Nop
+ "" Nop
+ "Quit" Popup Quit-Verify
Popup differs from Menu in that pop-ups do not stay up if
the user simply clicks. These are Twm style popup-menus,
which are a little hard on the wrist. Menu provides
Motif or Microsoft-Windows style menus which will stay up
on a click action.
Prev Performs command (typically Focus) on the previous
window which satisfies all conditions. Conditions are
the same as for Next.
Quit Exits fvwm, generally causing X to exit too.
Raise
Allows the user to raise a window.
RaiseLower
Alternately raises and lowers a window.
Read filename
Causes fvwm to read commands from the file named
filename.
Recapture
Causes fvwm to recapture all of its windows. This
ensures that the latest style parameters will be used.
The recapture operation is visually disturbing.
Refresh
Causes all windows on the screen to redraw themselves.
RefreshWindow
Causes current (or chosen) window to redraw itself.
Resize [ x y ]
Allows the user to resize a window.
If the optional arguments x and y are provided, then
the window will be resized so that its dimensions are x
by y). The units of x and y are percent-of-screen,
unless a letter "p" is appended to each coordinate, in
which case the location is specified in pixels.
Restart WindowManagerName
Causes fvwm to restart itself if WindowManagerName is
"fvwm2", or to switch to an alternate window manager if
WindowManagerName is other than "fvwm2". If the window
manager is not in your default search path, then you
should use the full path name for WindowManagerName.
This command should not have a trailing ampersand or
any command line arguments and should not make use of
any environmental variables. Of the following
examples, the first two are sure losers, but the third
is OK:
Key F1 R N Restart fvwm &
Key F1 R N Restart $(HOME)/bin/fvwm
Key F1 R N Restart /home/nation/bin/fvwm
SendToModule modulename string
Sends an arbitrary string (no quotes required) to all
modules matching modulename, which may contain
wildcards. This only makes sense if the module is set
up to understand and deal with these strings though...
Can be used for module to module communication, or
implementation of more complex commands in modules.
Scroll horizonal vertical
Scrolls the virtual desktop's viewport by horizontal
pages in the x-direction and vertical pages in the y-
direction. Either or both entries may be negative.
Both horizontal and vertical values are expressed in
percent of pages, so "Scroll 100 100" means to scroll
down and left by one full page. "Scroll 50 25" means
to scroll left half a page and down a quarter of a
page. The scroll function should not be called from
pop-up menus. Normally, scrolling stops at the edge of
the desktop.
If the horizontal and vertical percentages are
multiplied by 1000 then scrolling will wrap around at
the edge of the desktop. If "Scroll 100000 0" is
executed over and over fvwm will move to the next
desktop page on each execution and will wrap around at
the edge of the desktop, so that every page is hit in
turn.
If the letter "p" is appended to each coordinate
(horizontal and/or vertical), then the scroll amount
will be measured in pixels.
Stick
Makes a window sticky if it is not already sticky, or
non-sticky if it is already sticky.
Style windowname options
This command is intended to replace the old fvwm 1.xx
global commands NoBorder, NoTitle, StartsOnDesk,
Sticky, StaysOnTop, Icon, WindowListSkip,
CirculateSkip, SuppressIcons, BoundaryWidth,
NoBoundaryWidth, StdForeColor, and StdBackColor with a
single flexible and comprehensive window(s) specific
command. This command is used to set attributes of a
window to values other than the default or to set the
window manager default styles.
windowname can be a window's name, class, or resource
string. It can contain the wildcards * and/or ?, which
are matched in the usual Unix filename manner. They
are searched in the reverse order stated, so that Style
commands based on the name override or augment those
based on the class, which override or augment those
based on the resource string.
Note - windows that have no name (WM_NAME) are given a
name of "Untitled", and windows that don't have a class
(WM_CLASS, res_class) are given Class = "NoClass" and
those that don't have a resource (WM_CLASS, res_name)
are given Resource = "NoResource".
options is a comma separated list containing some or
all of the keywords BorderWidth, HandleWidth,
NoIcon/Icon, MiniIcon, IconBox, NoTitle/Title,
NoHandles/Handles, WindowListSkip/WindowListHit,
CirculateSkip/CirculateHit, StaysOnTop/StaysPut,
Sticky/Slippery, StartIconic/StartNormal, Color,
ForeColor, BackColor, StartsOnDesk/StartsAnyWhere,
IconTitle/NoIconTitle, MWMButtons/FvwmButtons,
MWMBorder/FvwmBorder, MWMDecor/NoDecorHint,
MWMFunctions/NoFuncHint, HintOverride/NoOverride,
NoButton/Button, OLDecor/NoOLDecor,
StickyIcon/SlipperyIcon, SmartPlacement/DumbPlacement,
RandomPlacement/ActivePlacement,
DecorateTransient/NakedTransient,
SkipMapping/ShowMapping, UseDecor, UseStyle,
NoPPosition/UsePPosition, Lenience/NoLenience,
ClickToFocus/SloppyFocus/MouseFocus|FocusFollowsMouse.
In the above list some options are listed as style-
option/opposite-style-option. The opposite-style-
option for entries that have them describes the fvwm
default behavior and can be used if you want to change
the fvwm default behavior.
Icon takes an (optional) unquoted string argument which
is the icon bitmap or pixmap to use.
IconBox takes four numeric arguments:
IconBox l t r b
Where l is the left coordinate, t is the top, r is
right and b is bottom. Negative coordinates indicate
distance from the right or bottom of the screen. The
iconbox is a region of the screen will fvwm will
attempt to put icons for this window, as long as they
do not overlap other icons.
MiniIcon specifies a pixmap to use as the miniature
icon for the window. This miniature icon can be drawn
in a title-bar button (see ButtonStyle), and can be
used by various fvwm modules (FvwmWinList, FvwmIconMan,
and FvwmTaskBar). It takes the name of a pixmap as an
argument.
StartsOnDesk takes a numeric argument which is the
desktop number on which the window should be initially
placed. Note that standard Xt programs can also
specify this via a resource (e.g. "-xrm '*Desk: 1'").
StaysOnTop makes the window always try to stay on top
of the other windows. This might be handy for clocks
or mailboxes that you would always like to be visible.
If the window is explicitly lowered it will not try to
force its way back to the top until it is explicitly
raised. StaysPut (the default) allows the window to be
obscured and stay that way.
BorderWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width
of the border to place the window if it does not have
resize-handles.
HandleWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width
of the border to place the window if it does have
resize-handles.
Button and NoButton take a numeric argument which is
the number of the title-bar button which is to be
included/omitted.
StickyIcon makes the window sticky when its iconified.
It will deiconify on top the active desktop.
MWMButtons makes the Maximize button look pressed-in
when the window is maximized. See the MWMButton flag
in ButtonStyle for more information.
MWMBorder makes the 3-D bevel more closely match mwm's.
MWMDecor makes fvwm attempt to recognize and respect
the mwm decoration hints that applications occasionally
use.
MWMFunctions makes fvwm attempt to recognize and
respect the mwm prohibited operations hints that
applications occasionally use. HintOverride makes fvwm
shade out operations that mwm would prohibit, but it
lets you perform the operation anyway.
OLDecor makes fvwm attempt to recognize and respect the
olwm and olvwm hints that many older XView and OLIT
applications use.
Color takes two arguments. The first is the window-
label text color and the second is the window
decoration's normal background color. The two colors
are separated with a slash. If the use of a slash
causes problems then the separate ForeColor and
BackColor options can be used.
UseDecor accepts one argument: the name of a decor
created with AddToDecor. If UseDecor is not specified,
the "Default" decor is used. Windows do not actually
contain decors, but are always assigned to one. If the
decor is later modified with AddToDecor, the changes
will be visible for all windows which are assigned to
it. The decor for a window can be reassigned with
ChangeDecor.
UseStyle takes one arg, which is the name of another
style. That way you can have unrelated window names
easily inherit similar traits without retyping. For
example: 'Style "rxvt" UseStyle "XTerm"'.
SkipMapping tells fvwm not to switch to the desk the
window is on when it gets mapped initially (useful with
StartsOnDesk).
Lenience instructs fvwm to ignore the convention in the
ICCCM which states that if an application sets the
input field of the wm_hints structure to False, then it
never wants the window manager to give it the input
focus. The only application that I know of which needs
this is sxpm, and that is a silly bug with a trivial
fix and has no overall effect on the program anyway.
Rumor is that some older applications have problems
too.
ClickToFocus instructs fvwm to give the focus to the
window when it is clicked in. The default MouseFocus
(or its alias FocusFollowsMouse) tells fvwm to give the
window the focus as soon as the pointer enters the
window, and take it away when the pointer leaves the
window. SloppyFocus is similar, but doesn't give up
the focus if the pointer leaves the window to pass over
the root window or a ClickToFocus window (unless you
click on it, that is), which makes it possible to move
the mouse out of the way without losing focus.
NoPPosition instructs fvwm to ignore the PPosition
field when adding new windows. Adherence to the
PPosition field is required for some applications, but
if you don't have one of those its a real headache.
RandomPlacement causes windows which would normally
require user placement to be automatically placed in
ever-so-slightly random locations. For the best of all
possible worlds use both RandomPlacement and
SmartPlacement.
SmartPlacement causes windows which would normally
require user placement to be automatically placed in a
smart location - a location in which they do not
overlap any other windows on the screen. If no such
position can be found user placement or random
placement (if specified) will be used as a fall-back
method. For the best of all possible worlds use both
RandomPlacement and SmartPlacement.
An example:
# Change default fvwm behavior to no title-bars on windows!
# Also define a default icon.
Style "*" NoTitle,Icon unknown1.xpm, BorderWidth 4,HandleWidth 5
# now, window specific changes:
Style "Fvwm*" NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip,BorderWidth 0
Style "Fvwm Pager" StaysOnTop, BorderWidth 0
Style "*lock" NoHandles,Sticky,StaysOnTop,WindowListSkip
Style "xbiff" Sticky, WindowListSkip
Style "FvwmButtons" NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip
Style "sxpm" NoHandles
Style "makerkit"
# Put title-bars back on xterms only!
Style "xterm" Title, Color black/grey
Style "rxvt" Icon term.xpm
Style "xterm" Icon rterm.xpm
Style "xcalc" Icon xcalc.xpm
Style "xbiff" Icon mail1.xpm
Style "xmh" Icon mail1.xpm, StartsOnDesk 2
Style "xman" Icon xman.xpm
Style "matlab" Icon math4.xpm, StartsOnDesk 3
Style "xmag" Icon magnifying_glass2.xpm
Style "xgraph" Icon graphs.xpm
Style "FvwmButtons" Icon toolbox.xpm
Style "Maker" StartsOnDesk 1
Style "signal" StartsOnDesk 3
Note that all properties for a window will be OR'ed
together. In the above example "FvwmPager" gets the
property StaysOnTop via an exact window name match but
also gets NoHandles, Sticky, and WindowListSkip by a
match to "Fvwm*". It will get NoTitle by virtue of a
match to "*". If conflicting styles are specified for
a window, then the last style specified will be used.
If the NoIcon attribute is set then the specified
window will simply disappear when it is iconified. The
window can be recovered through the window-list. If
Icon is set without an argument then the NoIcon
attribute is cleared but no icon is specified. An
example which allows only the FvwmPager module icon to
exist:
Style "*" NoIcon
Style "Fvwm Pager" Icon
Title
Does nothing. This is used to insert a title line in a
popup or menu.
TitleStyle [justification] [height num]
Sets attributes for the title bar. Justifications can
be "Centered", "RightJustified," or "LeftJustified."
height sets the title bar's height to an amount in
pixels. Defaults are Centered and WindowFont height.
The height parameter must be set after a WindowFont
command since WindowFont resets the height to the
default for the specified font. Example:
TitleStyle LeftJustified Height 24
TitleStyle [state] [style] [ -- [!]flag ... ]
Sets the style for the title bar. state can be one of
"ActiveUp," "ActiveDown," or "Inactive." If state is
omitted, then the style is added to every state. If
parentheses are placed around the style and flags, then
multiple state definitions can be given per line.
style can be omitted so that flags can be set while not
destroying the current style.
If an "!" is prefixed to any flag, its behavior is
negated. Valid flags for each state include "Raised,"
"Flat," and "Sunk" (these are mutually exclusive). The
default is Raised. See the note in ButtonStyle
regarding the ActiveDown state. Examples:
TitleStyle ActiveUp HGradient 16 navy black
TitleStyle ActiveDown (Solid red -- flat) Inactive (TiledPixmap wood.xpm)
TitleStyle ActiveUp (-- Flat) ActiveDown (-- Raised) Inactive (-- Flat)
This sets the ActiveUp state to a horizontal gradient,
the ActiveDown state to solid red, and the Inactive
state to a tiled wood pixmap. Finally, ActiveUp is set
to look flat, while ActiveDown set to be sunk (the
Raised flag for the ActiveDown state causes it to
appear Sunk due to relief inversion), and Inactive is
set to flat as well. An example which sets flags for
all states:
TitleStyle -- flat
For a flattened look:
TitleStyle -- flat
ButtonStyle All ActiveUp (-- flat) Inactive (-- flat)
UpdateDecor decor
Updates window decorations. decor is an optional
argument which specifies the decor to update. If
given, only windows which are assigned to that
particular decor will be updated. This command is
useful, for instance, after a ButtonStyle, TitleStyle
or BorderStyle (possibly used in conjunction with
AddToDecor). Specifying an invalid decor results in
all windows being updated. This command is less
disturbing than Recapture, but does not affect window
style options as Recapture does.
WarpToWindow x y
Warps the cursor to the associated window. The
parameters x and y default to percentage of window down
and in from the upper left hand corner (or number of
pixels down and in if 'p' is appended to the numbers).
Wait name
This built-in is intended to be used in fvwm functions
only. It causes execution of a function to pause until
a new window name name appears. Fvwm remains fully
functional during a wait. This is particularly useful
in the InitFunction if you are trying to start windows
on specific desktops:
AddToFunc InitFunction "I" exec xterm -geometry 80x64+0+0
+ "I" Wait xterm
+ "I" Desk 0 2
+ "I" Exec xmh -font fixed -geometry 507x750+0+0
+ "I" Wait xmh
+ "I" Desk 0 0
The above function starts an xterm on the current desk,
waits for it to map itself, then switches to desk 2 and
starts an xmh. After the xmh window appears control
moves to desk 0.
WindowsDesk arg1 [arg2]
Moves the selected window to another desktop
(workspace, room).
If arg1 is non zero then the next desktop number will
be the current desktop number plus arg1. Desktop
numbers can be negative.
If arg1 is zero then the new desktop number will be
arg2.
If only one argument is given, moves the selected
window the the desktop specified as rg1.
WindowFont fontname
Makes fvwm use font fontname instead of "fixed" for
window title-bars.
WindowId id func
The WindowId function is similar to the Next and Prev
funcs, except that it looks for a specific window id
and runs the specified func on it.
WindowId 0x34567890 Raise
WindowId 0x34567890 WarpToWindow 50 50
Mostly this is useful for functions used with the
WindowList builtin.
WindowList [options]
Generates a pop-up menu (and pops it up) in which the
title and geometry of each of the windows currently on
the desk top are shown. The geometry of iconified
windows is shown in parenthesis. Selecting an item
from the window list pop-up menu will by default cause
the interpreted function WindowListFunc to be run with
the window id of that window passed in as $0. By
default the WindowListFunc looks like this:
AddToFunc WindowListFunc "I" WindowId $0 Iconify -1
+ "I" WindowId $0 Focus
+ "I" WindowId $0 Raise
+ "I" WindowId $0 WarpToWindow 5p 5p
You can Destroy the builtin WindowListFunc and create
your own if these defaults do not suit you.
The options passed to WindowList can be "NoGeometry",
"Function <funcname>", "Desk <desknum>", "CurrentDesk",
"NoIcons", "Icons", "OnlyIcons", "NoNormal", "Normal",
"OnlyNormal", "NoSticky", "Sticky", "OnlySticky",
"NoOnTop", "OnTop", "OnlyOnTop", "Unsorted",
"UseIconName", "Alphabetic", "NotAlphabetic".
(Note - normal means not iconic, sticky, or ontop)
If you pass in a function via "Function <funcname>", $0
is the window id:
AddToFunc IFunc "I" WindowId $0 Iconify
WindowList Function IFunc, NoSticky, CurrentDesk, NoIcons
If you wanted to use the WindowList as an icon manager,
you could invoke the following:
WindowList OnlyIcons, Sticky, OnTop, Geometry
(Note - the "Only" options essentially wipe out all
other ones...)
WindowShade [ opt ]
Toggles the window shade feature for titled windows.
Windows in the shaded state only display a title bar.
If opt is not given, the window shade state is toggled.
If opt is 1, the window is forced to the shaded state.
If opt is 2, then the window is forced to the non-
shaded state. Maximized windows and windows without
titles cannot be shaded.
XORvalue number
Changes the value with which bits are XOR'ed when doing
rubber-band window moving or resizing. Setting this
value is a trial-and-error process.
+ Used to continue adding to the last specified decor,
function or menu. See the discussion for AddToDecor,
AddToFunc, and AddToMenu.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
All (I think) window manager operations can be performed
from the keyboard so mouseless operation should be possible.
In addition to scrolling around the virtual desktop by
binding the Scroll built-in to appropriate keys, pop-ups,
move, resize, and most other built-ins can be bound to keys.
Once a built-in function is started the pointer is moved by
using the up, down, left, and right arrows, and the action
is terminated by pressing return. Holding down the shift
key will cause the pointer movement to go in larger steps
and holding down the control key will cause the cursor
movement to go in smaller steps. Standard emacs and vi
cursor movement controls (^n, ^p, ^f, ^b, and ^j, ^k, ^h,
^l) can be used instead of the arrow keys.
SUPPLIED CONFIGURATION
A sample configuration file, .fvwm2rc, is supplied with the
fvwm distribution. It is well commented and can be used as
a source of examples for fvwm configuration.
USE ON MULTI-SCREEN DISPLAYS
If the -s command line argument is not given, fvwm will
automatically start up on every screen on the specified
display. After fvwm starts each screen is treated
independently. Restarts of fvwm need to be performed
separately on each screen. The use of EdgeScroll 0 0 is
strongly recommended for multi-screen displays.
You may need to quit on each screen to quit from the X
session completely.
BUGS
As of fvwm 0.99 there were exactly 39.342 unidentified bugs.
Identified bugs have mostly been fixed, though. Since then
9.34 bugs have been fixed. Assuming that there are at least
10 unidentified bugs for every identified one, that leaves
us with 39.342 - 9.32 + 10 * 9.34 = 123.402 unidentified
bugs. If we follow this to its logical conclusion we will
have an infinite number of unidentified bugs before the
number of bugs can start to diminish, at which point the
program will be bug-free. Since this is a computer program
infinity = 3.4028e+38 if you don't insist on double-
precision. At the current rate of bug discovery we should
expect to achieve this point in 3.37e+27 years. I guess I
better plan on passing this thing on to my children....
Known bugs can be found in the BUGS file in the
distribution, and in the TO-DO list.
Bug reports can be sent to the FVWM mailing list (see the
FAQ).
AUTHOR
Robert Nation with help from many people, based on twm code,
which was written by Tom LaStrange. Rob has since 'retired'
from working on fvwm though, so Charles Hines maintains its
care and feeding currently.