NAME¶
fvwm1 - F(?) Virtual Window Manager for X11, version 1.x
SYNOPSIS¶
fvwm1 [
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. Memory consumption is estimated
at about one-half to one-third the memory consumption of
twm, due
primarily to a redesign of
twm's method of storing mouse bindings. In
addition, many of the configurable options of
twm have been removed.
The name "FVWM" used to stand for something, but I forgot what.
(Feeble, famous, foobar? It doesn't really matter, this is an acronym based
society anyway.)
STATUS OF THIS SOFTWARE¶
Since the release of FVWM 2.2 in March 1999, this release is officially
deprecated and no longer supported. Please do not report any bugs in this
software. Also, for Debian users, the module manpages for this release of FVWM
will be found as FvwmAudio1(1x) etc.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR XFREE86 USERS¶
XFree86 provides a virtual screen whose operation can be confusing when used in
conjunction with
fvwm. With XFree86 all windows which appear on the
virtual screen actually get drawn into video memory (whether or not they
appear on the physical screen), so the virtual screen size is limited by
available video memory.
With
fvwm's virtual desktop, windows which do not appear on the screen do
not actually get drawn into video RAM. The size of the virtual desktop is
limited to about 32,000 by 32,000 pixels, but it is probably impractical to
use a virtual desktop more than about 5 times the visible screen in each
direction. Note that memory usage is a function of the number of windows which
exist - the size of the desktop makes no difference.
When becoming familiar with
fvwm it is recommended that you disable
XFree86's virtual screen by setting the virtual screen size to the physical
screen size. After you become familiar with
fvwm you may want to
re-enable XFree86's virtual screen.
COPYRIGHTS¶
Since
fvwm is derived from
twm code it shares
twm's
copyrights.
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, 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, windows
which are larger than the screen or large groups of related windows can easily
be viewed.
The size of the virtual desktops can be specified at start-up. All virtual
desktops must be the same size. The total number of distinct desktops need not
be specified, but is limited to approximately 4 billion total. All windows on
the current desktop can be displayed in a Pager, a miniature view of the
current desktop. Windows which are not on the current desktop can be listed,
along with their geometries, in a window list, accessible as a pop-up menu.
"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.
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.
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, 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.
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
.fvwmrc in the users home directory. Failing that, it will look for
/etc/X11/fvwm/system.fvwmrc for system-wide defaults. If that file is not
found,
fvwm will exit.
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.
SHAPED WINDOWS¶
If you typically use shaped windows such as xeyes or oclock, you have several
options. You can make them all undecorated (NoBorder oclock and NoTitle
oclock, for example) or you can use the default configuration and leave them
decorated, in which case a decorative border and a solid-color backdrop are
shown. Alternately, you can compile in the SHAPE extensions by changing a flag
in the Makefile, in which case you get the shaped window with no backdrop, and
a title bar floats above the window. The shaped window extensions increase the
window manager's memory consumption by about 60 Kbytes when no shaped windows
are present but have little effect when shaped windows are present.
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 Makefile.noImake
and the Imakefile.
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. Future releases are expected to
provide a means for these modules to extract window information from
fvwm. Users can write their own modules to do any weird or bizarre
manipulations without 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 initialization via the Module option,
or at any time during the X session by use of the Module built-in. 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 .fvwmrc setup file. Certain auxiliary information is also transmitted, as
in the sample module GoodStuff. The GoodStuff module is documented in its own
man page.
ICCCM COMPLIANCE¶
Fvwm attempts to be ICCCM 1.1 compliant. As of this (1.20l) colormap
handling is not completely ICCCM 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.
M4 PREPROCESSING¶
If
fvwm is compiled with the M4 option,
fvwm uses
m4(1) to
preprocess its setup files before parsing. This way you can use
m4
macros to perform operations at runtime. This makes it very easy to work with
different displays with different characteristics.
For example, depending on your mood, you might want different color schemes. One
way of doing this is by using the
-m4opt to specify your mood. For a
sunny mood use
-m4opt -DSunny; for a dark mood use
-m4opt
-DDark. Your .fvwmrc file might then contain:
ifdef(`Sunny',`
StdForeColor Black
StdBackColor LightSkyBlue
HiForeColor yellow
HiBackColor PeachPuff1
PagerBackColor BlanchedAlmond ')
ifdef(`Dark',`
StdForeColor Black
StdBackColor #60a0c0
HiForeColor black
HiBackColor #c06077
PagerBackColor #5c54c0
PagerForeColor orchid
StickyForeColor Black
StickyBackColor #60c0a0 ')
The following
m4 symbols are predefined by
fvwm:
- BITS_PER_RGB
- The number of significant bits in an RGB color. (log base 2
of the number of distinct colors that can be created. This is often
different from the number of colors that can be displayed at once.)
- CLASS
- Your visual class. Will return one of StaticGray,
GrayScale, StaticColor, PseudoColor,
TrueColor, DirectColor, or, if it cannot determine what you
have, NonStandard.
- CLIENTHOST
- The machine that is running the clients.
- COLOR
- This will be either 'Yes' or 'No'. This is just a wrapper
around the CLASS definition. Returns 'Yes' on *Color and 'No' on
StaticGray and GrayScale.
- FVWMDIR
- This is set to the path where the modules were configured
to be installed.
- FVWM_VERSION
- This is a string containing the version of
fvwm.
- HEIGHT
- The height of your display in pixels.
- HOME
- The user's home directory. Obtained from the
environment.
- HOSTNAME
- The canonical hostname running the clients (ie. a
fully-qualified version of CLIENTHOST).
- OPTIONS
- This is a string of compile time options used. Each option
is separated from the other by a space.
- PLANES
- The number of bit planes your display supports in the
default root window.
- RELEASE
- The release number of your X server. For MIT X11R5 this is
5.
- REVISION
- The X minor protocol revision. As seen by
ProtocolRevision(3).
- SERVERHOST
- This variable is set to the name of the machine that is
running the X server.
- TWM_TYPE
- Tells which twm offshoot is running. It will always
be set to the string "fvwm" in this program. This is useful for
protecting parts of your .twmrc file that fvwm proper won't
understand (like WorkSpaces) so that it is still usable with other
twm programs.
- USER
- The name of the user running the program. Obtained from the
environment.
- VENDOR
- The vendor of your X server. For example: MIT X
Consortium.
- VERSION
- The X major protocol version. As seen by
ProtocolVersion(3).
- WIDTH
- The width of your display in pixels.
- X_RESOLUTION
- The X resolution of your display in pixels per meter.
- Y_RESOLUTION
- The Y resolution of your display in pixels per meter.
You may well find that if you research the
m4(1) manual well and
understand the power of
m4, this will be a
very useful and
powerful tool. But if you use any of the symbols which are predefined by
m4, you are in severe danger! For example, Sun's
m4 predefines
include, so if you use that name in your .fvwmrc, you are out of luck.
The correct solution to this problem is to put a set of quotes around the
troublesome word:
`include'.
To help alleviate this problem, the following options may be useful. To change
the quoting characters used by
m4, use the options
-m4-squote
and
-m4-equote. Be sure to specify both options otherwise
m4
will be confused. When these are given, a
changequote macro is given
before the users fvwmrc file is processed.
NOTE: Some versions of
m4 are broken with respect to changing
quoting characters and included files. When the quoting strings are longer
than one character, the macro "include(<<file>>)", where
"<<" and ">>" are the quoting characters,
contains extra characters around the contents of the included file. This will
confuse fvwm. SunOS 4.1.3 is known to have this problem.
If you are using GNU
m4 an additional option is available. By specifying
-m4-prefix when starting
fvwm,
m4 is instructed to prefix
all builtin macros with
m4_. Thus,
include becomes
m4_include.
The availability of the m4 preprocessing is subject to the compilation define
M4.
OPTIONS¶
These are the command line options that are recoginzed by
fvwm:
- -f config_file
- Causes fvwm to use config_file in the user's
home directory instead of .fvwmrc as the window manager configuration
file.
- -debug
- Puts X transactions in synchronous mode, which dramatically
slows things down, but guarantees that fvwm's internal error
messages are correct.
- -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.
The following options are available only if fvwm is compiled with the M4 option.
- -no-m4
- Do not use m4 to preprocess the .fvwmrc. The default
is to preprocess the startup file using m4(1).
- -m4-prefix
- If GNU m4 is available, cause m4 to prefix
all builtin commands with m4_.
- -m4opt option
- Pass this option to m4. The option can be any
string of characters without spaces. This option can occur multiple times.
If GNU m4 is available, DO NOT pass the -P option
here. Use -m4-prefix instead.
- -m4-squote string
- Use this given string as the starting quote
characters. You must also specify -m4-equote.
- -m4-equote string
- Use this given string as the ending quote
characters. You must also specify -m4-squote.
- -m4prog path
- Use path as the location of the desired m4
processor. By default, m4prog is set to "m4" which must exist
somewhere on the user's path. This option allows the user to explicitly
choose the version of m4 to use.
CONFIGURATION FILES¶
The configuration file is used to describe mouse and button bindings, colors,
the virtual display size, and related items. This section describes the
configuration options. 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).
- AppsBackingStore
- Causes application windows to request backing store. This
option compromises the ICCCM compliance of the window manager. While this
option can speed things up in an X-terminal, where redraws of windows are
expensive, it may not help much on regular workstations.
- AutoRaise delay
- Enables auto-raising of windows and specifies the time
delay (in milliseconds) between when a window acquires the input focus and
when it is automatically raised. This option works in focus-follows-mouse
mode, and in click-to-focus mode if the focus is changed by clicking in
the application window instead of a decoration window. In click-to-focus
mode, you can suppress the raise-on-focus behavior by specifying a
negative delay value.
- BackingStore
- Causes fvwm decorations to request backing store.
See the discussion on AppsBackingStore.
- BoundaryWidth Width
- Changes the boundary width on decorated windows to the
specified value. The default is 6 pixels.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
BoundaryWidth.
- ButtonStyle button# WidthxHeight
- Defines the rectangular decoration shape to be used in a
title-bar button. button# is the title-bar button number, and is
between 0 and 9. A description of title-bar button numbers is given in the
Mouse section below. Width is the percentage of the full button width
which is to be used. Height is the percentage of the full height to be
used. Negative numbers cause the shading to be inverted.
And that's not all! If you use a line like:
ButtonStyle : 2 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 system.fvwmrc.
- CenterOnCirculate
- When circulating, the desktop page containing the window
which the pointer is moving to is automatically selected. If
CenterOnCirculate is selected then fvwm will do its best to center
the target window in the desktop viewport, rather than just lining up to
the closest page.
- CirculateSkip windowname
- Causes windows with the indicated name to be skipped over
when the circulate-up or circulate-down functions are invoked.
windowname can be a window's name or its class.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
CirculateSkip.
- CirculateSkipIcons
- Causes circulate and warp operations to skip over iconified
windows.
- 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.
- ClickToFocus
- Normally keyboard input goes to the window the mouse
pointer is in. If this option is set the keyboard input stays with one
window until the mouse is clicked with the pointer positioned in a new
window.
- Cursor cursor_num cursor_type
- This provides a very awkward way of changing cursor styles.
Cursor_num tells which cursor you are changing, and is a number
between 0 and 12, as follows:
0 POSITION - used when initially placing windows.
1 TITLE - used in a window title-bar.
2 DEFAULT - used in windows that don't set their cursor.
3 SYS - used in one of the title-bar buttons.
4 MOVE - used when moving or resizing windows.
5 WAIT - used during an EXEC builtin command.
6 MENU - used in menus.
7 SELECT - used for various builtin commands such as iconify.
8 DESTROY - used for DESTROY and DELETE built-ins.
9 TOP - used in the top side-bar of a window.
10 RIGHT - used in the right side-bar of a window.
11 BOTTOM - used in the bottom side-bar of a window.
12 LEFT - used in the left side-bar of a window.
13 TOP_LEFT - used in the top left corner of a window.
14 TOP_RIGHT - used in the top right corner of a window.
15 BOTTOM_LEFT - used in the bottom left corner of a window.
16 BOTTOM_RIGHT - used in the bottom right corner of a window.
The cursor_type argument is a number which tells the cursor shape to
use. The available numbers can be found in /usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h
and are currently even numbers between 0 and 152. At the current time, the
following cursor types are available:
0 X_cursor 2 arrow
4 based_arrow_down 6 based_arrow_up
8 boat 10 bogosity
12 bottom_left_corner 14 bottom_right_corner
16 bottom_side 18 bottom_tee
20 box_spiral 22 center_ptr
24 circle 26 clock
28 coffee_mug 30 cross
32 cross_reverse 34 crosshair
36 diamond_cross 38 dot
40 dotbox 42 double_arrow
44 draft_large 46 draft_small
48 draped_box 50 exchange
52 fleur 54 gobbler
56 gumby 58 hand1
60 hand2 62 heart
64 icon 66 iron_cross
68 left_ptr 70 left_side
72 left_tee 74 leftbutton
76 ll_angle 78 lr_angle
80 man 82 middlebutton
84 mouse 86 pencil
88 pirate 90 plus
92 question_arrow 94 right_ptr
96 right_side 98 right_tee
100 rightbutton 102 rtl_logo
104 sailboat 106 sb_down_arrow
108 sb_h_double_arrow 110 sb_left_arrow
112 sb_right_arrow 114 sb_up_arrow
116 sb_v_double_arrow 118 shuttle
120 sizing 122 spider
124 spraycan 126 star
128 target 130 tcross
132 top_left_arrow 134 top_left_corner
136 top_right_corner 138 top_side
140 top_tee 142 trek
144 ul_angle 146 umbrella
148 ur_angle 150 watch
152 xterm
- DecorateTransients
- Causes transient windows, which are normally left
undecorated, to be given the usual fvwm decorations. Note that some
pop-up windows, such as the xterm menus, are not managed by the window
manager and still do not receive decorations.
- DeskTopScale Scale
- Defines the virtual desktop scale with respect to the
screen.
- DeskTopSize HorizontalxVertical
- Defines the virtual desktop size in units of the physical
screen size.
- DontMoveOff
- Prevents windows from being moved off or initially placed
off of the desktop. A few programs will not work correctly if you use this
option. This only keeps windows from being completely lost off the edge of
the desktop. It insists on keeping 16 pixels on the desktop but doesn't
care a bit about keeping the whole window on the desk. See EdgeResistance
if you don't like having windows partially off the screen.
- 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
.fvwmrc 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.
- Font fontname
- Makes fvwm use font fontname instead of
"fixed" for menus, the resize indicators, and icon labels (if
IconFont is not specified).
- Function FunctionName
- Starts the definition of a complex function, composed of
the fvwm built-in functions, which will later be bound to a mouse
button or key. FunctionName must be enclosed in quotes. Function
entries are included on lines following the Function keyword. The
definition ends with the key word EndFunction. Function entries are
specified as shown in the following example. The first word on each line
is the built-in function which will be performed, followed the type of
event which should trigger the action (enclosed in quotes), followed by
any additional arguments needed by the built-in function. Menus can be
specified by using the Popup built-in as long as the menu was defined
earlier in the configuration file.
The trigger actions which are recognized are Immediate, Motion, Click, and
DoubleClick. Immediate actions are executed as soon as the function is
activated, even if a window has not been selected. If there are actions
other than immediate ones, fvwm will wait to see if the user is
clicking, double-clicking, or dragging the mouse. After the decision is
made, fvwm will execute only the built-ins from the function
definition whose trigger action matches the action performed by the user.
If the following example were bound to button 1 in a window title-bar, then,
when button 1 is pressed, fvwm would wait 150 msec to see if the
button is released. If the button is not released fvwm will start a
move operation. When the move operation is complete a raise operation will
be performed. If a button release is detected then fvwm will wait
another 150 msec for a second click. If only one click is detected then
the window will be raised. If two clicks are detected the window will be
alternately raised and lowered. The 150 msec wait duration can be altered
using the ClickTime option.
Function "Move-or-Raise"
Move "Motion"
Raise "Motion"
Raise "Click"
RaiseLower "DoubleClick"
EndFunction
The clicking and double clicking concepts do not carry through to using
keyboard shortcuts.
Two special functions exist: InitFunction and RestartFunction. The
InitFunction will be called when fvwm is started for the first time
in any X session and can be used to start modules, set background
patterns, and begin programs. The restart function will be called when
fvwm is restarted. It can be used to start modules and set
background patterns but probably should not be used to start programs.
- HiBackColor colorname
- Sets the background color of the selected window to
colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is ignored
and white is used.
- HiForeColor colorname
- Sets the color of the selected window's title to
colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is ignored
and black is used.
- Icon windowname bitmap-file
- Specifies the bitmap to be used for a window when it is
iconified. The windowname can be an application's window name or
class name and must be enclosed in quotes. The bitmap-file is
either the full path name to a standard X11 bitmap file or a file in the
IconPath or PixmapPath. The specified bitmap/pixmap is used in preference
to any icon supplied by the window itself.
If fvwm is compiled with XPM support for color icons then
bitmap can be an XPM pixmap file.
windowname should be enclosed in double quotes but
bitmap-file should not. Environment variables should not be used in
the bitmap-file specification.
If windowname is an empty string then the specified file is the
default icon, and will be used if no other icon bitmap or pixmap can be
found:
Icon "" my-favorite-icon
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
Icon.
- IconBox left top right bottom
- Defines regions of the screen in which to place icons. Up
to four icon boxes can be defined. If an IconBox line is provided then
icons will automatically be placed in them, if possible. Each time a
window is iconified a new place is found for it. Icon boxes are searched
for space going left to right, then top to bottom. Icons will not be
auto-placed on top of other icons but they may be placed underneath
application windows. If left or right is negative, then
fvwm will add the screen width to it. If top or
bottom is negative, then fvwm will add the screen height to
it. NOTE: -0 is not parsed as the right or bottom pixel on the screen. You
have to use -1 instead.
If no IconBox line is provided or all icon boxes are full, then fvwm
will place icons near the current pointer location.
- 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.
- 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. Note: if the M4 patches are included when fvwm
is built, then m4 will 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.
- Key keyname Context Modifiers Function
- Binds a keyboard key to a specified fvwm built-in
function. 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.
Binding a key to a title-bar button will not cause that button to appear
unless a mouse binding also exists.
- Lenience
- The ICCCM 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.
If this parameter is set then fvwm will ignore this ICCCM convention.
- MenuBackColor colorname
- Sets the menu background color. When using monochrome this
option is ignored. This option is only available if fvwm is
compiled with MENUCOLOR defined.
- MenuForeColor colorname
- Sets the menu foreground color. When using monochrome this
option is ignored. This option is only available if fvwm is
compiled with MENUCOLOR defined.
- MenuStippleColor colorname
- Sets the color for shaded out entries in menus (for
functions which are not allowed on the currently selected window). When
using monochrome this option is ignored and a stipple pattern is used.
This option is only available if fvwm is compiled with MENUCOLOR
defined.
- Module ModuleName
- Specifies a module which should be spawned during
initialization. At the current time the available modules are FvwmAudio,
FvwmBacker, FvwmBanner, FvwmClean, FvwmDebug, FvwmIconBox, FvwmIdent,
FvwmPager, FvwmSave, FvwmSaveDesk, FvwmScroll, FvwmWinList, and GoodStuff.
These modules have their own man pages. Module can also be used as
a built-in. Modules can be short lived transient programs or, like
GoodStuff, 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.
- 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.
- Mouse Button Context Modifiers Function
- Defines a mouse binding. 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.
- MWMBorders
- Substitutes MWM style 1 pixel wide relief lines instead of
fvwm's 2 pixel borders.
- MWMButtons
- Disables button press feedback for all decorations except
the title bar and title-bar buttons, as in MWM.
- MWMDecorHints
- Causes fvwm to read the MOTIF_WM_HINTS atom from
application windows and to parse and attempt to replicate the Motif
behavior with regard to window decorations. Note that mwm allows function
hints to affect window decorations but these effects are not replicated by
this option.
- MWMFunctionHints
- Causes fvwm to read the MOTIF_WM_HINTS atom from
application windows and to parse and attempt to replicate the Motif
behavior with regard to allowed window functions. Unlike mwm, which simply
removes prohibited functions from the window's menus, fvwm simply
shades out the prohibited functions. Also, because fvwm implements
some functions in user defined macros that mwm implements internally, the
mapping of prohibited functions is partially based on the menu item label.
- MWMHintOverride
- If MWMFunctionHints is used then maximization and
iconfication are prohibited for transients. Also, windows can specify that
the window manager should not destroy or delete them. Since these MWM
rules are kind of stupid, especially with regard to the transient windows,
I provide this MWMHintOverride option. When it is used menu items will be
shaded out if MWM would prohibit their use, but the user can go ahead and
select that item and it will operate as expected.
The override should be used cautiously because some applications will break
if you override their mwm hints.
- MWMMenus
- Substitutes MWM look and feel menus in place of the
standard fvwm versions. This option also triggers a few other
mwm-style options, such as centering the size/resize window on the screen,
instead of leaving it in the upper left, and switches the
resize-on-initial-placement trigger action to shift-button-1 instead of
the twm style press-button-2
- NoBorder windowname
- Keeps fvwm from putting decorative borders on
windows named windowname. This command has no effect on the
title-bar. This is handy for clocks and similar gadgets that you don't
want to take up too much space. windowname can be a window's name
or its class.
If you specify both NoBorder windowname and NoTitle windowname
for the same window in your .fvwmrc file the window will be completely
undecorated.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?"
which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner.
Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a
window name can be entered by preceding the character with a
"\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
NoBorder.
- NoBoundaryWidth Width
- Changes the width of the decorations for windows with no
titles and no borders. The default is 1. Any positive or zero value is
acceptable. Decorations for these undecorated windows have the same
context as the side-bars on normally decorated windows.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
NoBoundaryWidth.
- 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.
- NoTitle windowname
- Keeps fvwm from putting a title-bar in the
decorations for windows named windowname. This is handy for clocks
and similar gadgets that you don't want to take up too much space.
windowname can be a window's name or its class.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?"
which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner.
Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a
window name can be entered by preceding the character with a
"\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
NoTitle.
- OpaqueMove 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.
- OpaqueResize
- Causes resize operations to be done with the window itself
instead of an outline.
- Pager X_Location Y_Location
- Enables a paging style of moving across the desktop. A
Pager window (not a pop-up) will appear at (X_Location, Y_Location).
Miniature versions of all the non-sticky windows on the virtual desktop
are shown in the pager. The color of the miniature version is the same as
the color of the full-size window's border.
In the Pager window, pressing mouse button 1 will move the desktop viewport
to the selected page (in click-to-focus mode; it will also move the
keyboard focus to the window whose miniature you click on). Pressing
button 2 on a window in the pager will begin a window move, using the
miniature to quickly move the window anywhere on the desktop. Pressing
button 3 will move the top-left corner of the viewport to the location of
the button press, even if it does not line up with a page. Dragging button
3 will cause the selected viewport to scroll as you move the pointer. The
Pager is automatically sticky but does not automatically stay on top.
- PagerForeColor colorname
- Causes the pager foreground color to be colorname
instead of black. This is the color used to highlight the current viewport
in the pager window. On a monochrome screen this option is ignored. If the
NO_PAGER option is set when building fvwm this option is
unavailable.
- PagerBackColor colorname
- Causes the pager background color to be colorname
instead of white. On a monochrome screen this option is ignored. If the
NO_PAGER option is set when building fvwm this option is
unavailable.
- PagerFont fontname
- Makes fvwm use font fontname for writing
window icon names in the window's representation in the pager. If this
option is omitted no names are written in the pager windows.
- PagingDefault pagingdefaultvalue
- Tells fvwm if it should start up with paging enabled
or disabled. "PagingDefault 0" will start fvwm with
paging disabled; "PagingDefault 1" will start fvwm with
paging enabled by default.
- 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.
- Popup PopupName
- Starts the definition of a pop-up menu which will later be
bound to a mouse button or key. PopupName must be enclosed in
quotes. Menu entries are included on lines following the Popup keyword.
The menu definition ends with the key word EndPopup. Menu entries are
specified as shown in the following example. The first word on each line
is the built-in function which will be performed, followed by the caption
(enclosed in quotes) which will be shown in the menu, followed by any
additional arguments needed by the built-in function. Sub-menus can be
specified by using the Popup built-in as long as the sub-menu was defined
earlier in the configuration file.
Popup "Window Ops"
Title "Window Ops"
Move "Move"
Resize "Resize"
Raise "Raise"
Lower "Lower"
Iconify "(De)Iconify"
Nop " "
Destroy "Destroy"
Title "HARDCOPY"
Exec "Hardcopy" exec xdpr &
Exec "Hardcopy RV" exec xdpr -rv &
EndMenu
Note that if a tab character is embedded in the caption of a menu entry then
the text following the tab will be entered into a second column in the
menu and the entire menu will be left-adjusted. This is intended for
shortcut labeling. The tab character must really be a tab. If it is
expanded into spaces it will not work! For example:
Popup "Window Ops"
Title "Window Ops Alt-F1"
.
.
.
Is the start of a left adjusted menu. Alt-F1 will be placed toward the right
side of the menu.
Shortcut keys may be specified in the menu definition by preceding the
character with an ampersand. The ampersand will not be displayed but the
character after it will be displayed underlined, and if the user presses
the corresponding key then that item will be activated as if the user had
clicked on it with the mouse. Only alphabetic and numeric characters may
be used as shortcut keys. The shift state of the keyboard is ignored when
testing shortcut characters. For example:
Popup "Window Ops"
Maximize "Ma&ximise" 100 100
EndMenu
When this menu is popped up the 'x' will be underlined and pressing the 'x'
key will cause the current window to be maximized. Shortcut keys are not
operative unless MENU_HOTKEYS was defined when building fvwm. If
WINDOWLIST_HOTKEYS was also defined then hot keys are automatically added
to the WindowList when it is displayed.
- 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.
- SaveUnders
- Causes the fvwm decoration frames to request
save-unders. This can significantly improve the performance during opaque
moves but it causes a significant increase in memory usage.
- SloppyFocus
- This focusing mode is like focus-follows-mouse (the
default) except that the focus will not be removed from a window until
your mouse enters a new window. Exiting a window to enter the root window
will leave the focus unchanged.
- 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 will be used as a fall-back
method. For the best of all possible worlds use both RandomPlacement and
SmartPlacement.
- StartsOnDesk windowname desk-number
- This command causes windows whose name or class is
windowname to be initially placed on desktop number
desk-number. windowname should be enclosed in double quotes.
If the window requires interactive placement, an outline will be displayed
on the current desk but the window will appear on the specified desk.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?"
which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner.
Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a
window name can be entered by preceding the character with a
"\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
StartsOnDesk.
- StaysOnTop windowname
- These windows 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.
windowname can be a window's name or its class.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?"
which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner.
Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a
window name can be entered by preceding the character with a
"\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
StaysOnTop.
- StdBackColor colorname
- Sets the background color for menus and non-selected
windows to colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is
ignored and white is used.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
StdBackColor.
- StdForeColor colorname
- Sets the foreground color for menus and non-selected window
titles to colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is
ignored and black is used.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
StdForeColor.
- StickyBackColor colorname
- Sets the background color for non-selected sticky windows
to colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is ignored
and white is used. Only available if -DMORE_COLORS is used when compiling.
- StickyForeColor colorname
- Sets the foreground color for non-selected sticky window
titles to colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is
ignored and black is used. Only available if -DMORE_COLORS is used when
compiling.
- Sticky windowname
- Sticky windows "stick to the screen's glass."
That is, they don't move the the viewport into the virtual desktop
changes. windowname can be a window's name or its class.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?"
which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner.
Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a
window name can be entered by preceding the character with a
"\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
Sticky.
- StickyIcons
- Causes icons to always stick to the screen's glass. That
is, icons always follow you around the desktop. When a window is
de-iconified it gets un-stuck. Some people find this a useful way of
moving windows around.
- StubbornIcons
- Changes de-iconification behavior a bit. Instead of having
windows always de-iconify themselves on the current page they de-iconify
into their original position.
- StubbornIconPlacement
- When used with IconBoxes, causes icons to avoid placing
themselves underneath existing windows.
- StubbornPlacement
- When using SmartPlacement, causes new windows to avoid
placing themselves over icons.
- Style windowname options
- This command is intended to replace the commands NoBorder,
NoTitle, StartsOnDesk, Sticky, StaysOnTop, Icon, WindowListSkip,
CirculateSkip, SuppressIcons, BoundaryWidth, NoBoundaryWidth,
StdForeColor, and StdBackColor with a single flexible and comprehensive
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.
options is a comma separated list containing some or all of the
keywords BorderWidth, HandleWidth,NoIcon/Icon, NoTitle/Title,
NoHandles/Handles, WindowListSkip/WindowListHit,
CirculateSkip/CirculateHit, StaysOnTop/StaysPut, Sticky/Slippery,
StartIconic/StartNormal, Color, ForeColor, BackColor,
StartsOnDesk/StartsAnyWhere, IconTitle/NoIconTitle, and NoButton/Button.
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.
StartsOnDesk takes a numeric argument which is the desktop number on which
the window should be initially placed.
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.
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.
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 "GoodStuff" 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 "GoodStuff" 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
- SuppressIcons
- Prevents icon windows from being created or drawn. When
used with the window-list this provides a sort of icon manager.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
SuppressIcons.
- WindowFont fontname
- Makes fvwm use font fontname instead of
"fixed" for the window title bar.
- WindowListSkip windowname
- Causes windows with the indicated name to be left out of
the window list.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?"
which match window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner.
Actual "*", "?", and "\" characters in a
window name can be entered by preceding the character with a
"\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for specifying
WindowListSkip.
- 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.
BUILT IN FUNCTIONS¶
Fvwm supports a set of built-in functions which can be bound to keyboard
or mouse buttons:
- Beep
- Makes the computer beep.
- CirculateDown [ name window_name ]
- Causes the pointer to move to the next window in the list
of windows for which CirculateSkip has not not been specified.
If the optional arguments are supplied then the focus will move to the first
window whose name (or icon name or class) matches window_name. The
optional argument name is required if window_name is
supplied and is enclosed in quotes. This argument is the name which
appears in menus if the function is called from a menu, but serves no
purpose if the function is not called from a menu.
- CirculateUp [ name window_name ]
- Causes the pointer to move to the previous window in the
list of windows for which CirculateSkip has not not been specified.
If the optional arguments are supplied then the focus will move to the first
window whose name (or icon name or class) matches window_name. The
optional argument name is required if window_name is
supplied and is enclosed in quotes. This argument is the name which
appears in menus if the function is called from a menu, but serves no
purpose if the function is not called from a menu
Here's an example that move the focus to an xterm window when Alt-F1 is
pressed:
Key F1 A M CirculateUp "whatever" xterm
- 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.
- CursorMove horizonal 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.
- 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?).
- Destroy
- Destroys a window. Guaranteed to get rid of the window, but
is a fairly violent way to terminate an application.
- Exec name command
- Executes command. command is not quoted but
name is. name is the name that appears in a menu, if that is
where the function is called from. name is required even if the
function is not called from a menu.
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" exec rxvt -fg yellow -bg blue -e /bin/tcsh &
- 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. Warps the pointer into the selected
window in focus-follows-mouse mode. Does not de-iconify. This function is
primarily for use with a module such as FvwmWinList.
- Function
- 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"
- GotoPage x y
- Moves the desktop viewport to page (x,y). The upper left
page is (0,0), the upper right is (N,0), where N is one less than the
current number of horizontal pages specified in the DeskTopSize command.
The lower left page is (0,M), and the lower right page is (N,M), where M
is the desktop's vertical size as specified in the DeskTopSize command.
The GotoPage function should not be used in a pop-up menu.
- 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.
- 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.
- Module name ModuleName
- Specifies a module which should be spawned. Modules can be
short lived transient programs or can remain for the duration of the X
session. Modules will be terminated by the window manager prior to
restarts and quits, if possible. name is a double-qouted string
which has absolutely no significance, but must exist.
- 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.
- Popup
- 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", whose definition was provided as an example
earlier in this man page. 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 modifier. 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 "Utilities":
Popup "Quit-Verify"
Title "Really Quit Fvwm?"
Quit "Yes, Really Quit"
Restart "Restart Fvwm" fvwm
Nop ""
Nop "No, Don't Quit"
EndPopup
Popup "Utilities"
Title "Utilities"
Exec "Xterm" exec xterm &
Exec "Rxvt" exec rxvt &
Exec "Top" exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top &
Exec "Calculator" exec xcalc &
Exec "Xman" exec xman &
Exec "Xmag" exec xmag &
Nop ""
Popup "Exit Fvwm" Quit-Verify
EndPopup
Sub-menus must be defined prior to the main menu in which they are bound.
Sub-menu nesting can be arbitrarily deep.
- Quit
- Exits fvwm, generally causing X to exit too.
- Raise
- Allows the user to raise a window.
- RaiseLower
- Alternately raises and lowers a window.
- Refresh
- Causes all windows on the screen to redraw themselves.
- Resize [ x y ]
- Allows the user to resize a 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.
- Restart name WindowManagerName
- Causes fvwm to restart itself if WindowManagerName
is "fvwm", or to switch to an alternate window manager if
WindowManagerName is other than "fvwm". If the window manager is
not in your default search path, then you should use the full path name
for WindowManagerName.
WindowManagerName is not quoted but name is. name is
the name that appears in a menu, if that is where the function is called
from. name is required even if the function is not called from a
menu.
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 three 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 " " twm -f .mystartupfile
Key F1 R N Restart " " /home/nation/bin/fvwm
- Stick
- Makes a window sticky if it is not already sticky, or
non-sticky if it is already sticky.
- 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.
- Title
- Does nothing. This is used to insert a title line in a
popup or menu.
- TogglePage
- Temporarily disables edge scrolling. Edge scrolling can be
re-enabled by calling this again.
- 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:
Function "InitFunction"
Exec "I" exec xterm -geometry 80x64+0+0
Wait "I" xterm
Desk "I" 0 2
Exec "I" exec xmh -font fixed -geometry 507x750+0+0 &
Wait "I" xmh
Desk "I" 0 0
EndFunction
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.
- Warp [ name window_name ]
- Same as CirculateDown but de-iconifies any iconified
windows as it focuses on them.
- WindowsDesk new_desk
- Moves the selected window the the desktop specified as
new_desk.
- WindowList arg1 arg2
- 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 brackets. Selecting an item
from the window list pop-up menu will cause that window to be moved onto
the desktop if it is currently not on it, will move the desktop viewport
to the page containing the upper left hand corner of the window, will
de-iconify the window if it is iconified, and will raise the window.
If arg1 is an even number then the windows will be listed using the
window name (the name that shows up in the title-bar). If it is odd then
the window's icon name is used.
If arg1 is less than 2 then all windows on all desktops (except those
listed in WindowListSkip directives) will be shown.
If arg1 is 2 or 3 then only windows on the current desktop will be
shown.
If arg1 is 4 or 5 then only windows on desktop number arg2
will be shown.
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, system.fvwmrc, 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.
Multi-screen support is only available if
fvwm is compiled with
-DMULTIPLE_SCREENS
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....
Binding a key to a window decoration but not to the window itself is discouraged
because when the key-press event finally gets to the window it will be marked
as SYNTHETIC and will be ignored by many applications.
Bug reports can be sent to fvwm@wonderland.org.
AUTHOR¶
Robert Nation with help from many people, based on
twm code, which was
written by Thomas LaStrange.