= FVWM3(1) == NAME fvwm3 - F? Virtual Window Manager for X11 == SYNOPSIS *fvwm3* [*-c* _config-command_] [*-d* _displayname_] [*-f* _config-file_] [*-r*] [*-s* [_screen_num_]] [*-V*] [*-C* _visual-class_ | *-I* _visual-id_] [*-l* _colors_ [*-L*] [*-A*] [*-S*] [*-P*]] [*-D*] [*-h*] [*-i* _client-id_] [*-F* _state-file_] [*--debug-stack-ring*] [*-blackout*] == DESCRIPTION Fvwm is a window manager for X11. It is designed to minimize memory consumption, provide a 3D look to window frames, and a virtual desktop. Note that there are several window managers around that have "fvwm" in their name. Fvwm3 is the successor to fvwm2, which preceded the 1.x versions of fvwm. This version is simply called fvwm throughout this document, while the main executable is named fvwm3. Fvwm is intended to have a small memory footprint but a rich feature set, be extremely customizable and extendible, and have a high degree of Motif mwm compatibility. 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_ that allow you to perform most window manager functions, including moving and resizing windows and operating the menus, using keyboard shortcuts. Fvwm has also overcome the distinction between configuration commands and action commands that most window managers make. Configuration commands typically set fonts, colors, menu contents, and key and mouse function bindings, while action commands do things like raise and lower windows. Fvwm makes no such distinction and allows anything to be changed at any time. Other noteworthy differences between fvwm and other X11 window managers are the introduction of the _SloppyFocus_ and _NeverFocus_ focus methods. Focus policy can be separately specified for different window groups. Windows using _SloppyFocus_ acquire focus when the pointer moves into them and retain focus until some other window acquires it. Such windows do not lose focus when the pointer moves into the root window. The _NeverFocus_ policy is provided for use with windows into which one never types (e.g. xclock, oclock, xbiff, xeyes, tuxeyes) - for example, if a SloppyFocus terminal window has focus, moving the pointer over a NeverFocus decoration window does not deprive the terminal of focus. == OPTIONS These are the command line options that are recognized by fvwm: *-i* | *--clientid* _id_:: This option is used when fvwm is started by a session manager. Should not be used by a user. *-c* | *--cmd* _config-command_:: Causes fvwm to use _config-command_ instead of '*Read* _config_' (or '*Read* _.fvwm2rc_') as its initialization command. (Note that up to 10 *-f* and *-c* parameters can be given, and they are executed in the order specified.) + Any module started by command line arguments is assumed to be a module that sends back config commands. All command line modules have to quit before fvwm proceeds on to the StartFunction and setting border decorations and styles. There is a potential deadlock if you start a module other than *FvwmCpp*/*FvwmM4*/*FvwmPerl* but there is a timeout so fvwm eventually gets going. + As an example, starting the pager this way hangs fvwm until the timeout, but the following should work well: .... fvwm -c "AddToFunc StartFunction I Module FvwmPager" .... *-d* | *--display* _displayname_:: Manage the display called _displayname_ instead of the name obtained from the environment variable _$DISPLAY_. *-D* | *--debug*:: Puts X transactions in synchronous mode, which dramatically slows things down, but guarantees that fvwm's internal error messages are correct. *-f* _config-file_:: Causes fvwm to read _config-file_ instead of _~/.fvwm/config_ as its initialization file. _$FVWM_USERDIR_ can also be used to change location of default user directory _~/.fvwm_. *-h* | *--help*:: A short usage description is printed. *-r* | *--replace*:: Try to take over from a previously running wm. This does not work unless the other wm is ICCCM2 2.0 compliant. *-F* | *--restore* _state-file_:: This option is used when fvwm is started by a session manager. Should not be used by a user. *-s* | *--single-screen* [_screen_num_]:: On a multi-screen display, run fvwm only on the screen named in the _$DISPLAY_ environment variable or provided through the *-d* option. The optional argument _screen_num_ should be positive or null and override the screen number. Normally, fvwm attempts to start up on all screens of a multi-screen display. *-V* | *--version*:: Prints the version of fvwm to _stderr_. Also prints an information about the compiled in support for readline, xpm, png, svg, GNOME hints, EWMH hints, session management, bidirectional text, multibyte characters, RandR and Xft aa font rendering. *-C* | *--visual* _visual-class_:: Causes fvwm to use _visual-class_ for the window borders and menus. _visual-class_ can be "StaticGray", "GrayScale", "StaticColor", "PseudoColor", "TrueColor" or "DirectColor". *-I* | *--visualid* _id_:: Causes fvwm to use _id_ as the visual id for the window borders and menus. _id_ can be specified as N for decimal or 0xN for hexadecimal. See man page of xdpyinfo for a list of supported visuals. *-l* | *--color-limit* _limit_:: Specifies a _limit_ on the colors used in image, gradient and possibly simple colors used by fvwm. In fact, fvwm (and all the modules) uses a palette with at most _limit_ colors. This option is only useful with screens that display 256 colors (or less) with a dynamic visual (PseudoColor, GrayScale or DirectColor). The default depends on your X server and how you run fvwm. In most case this default is reasonable. The *-l* option should be used only if you encounter problems with colors. By default, fvwm tries to detect large pre-allocated palettes. If such a palette is detected fvwm uses it and a priori the *-l* must not be used. Moreover, in this case the *-A* and *-S* options are forced. Note that XFree-4.2 pre-allocates 244 colors (if you use a driver with Render support) leaving only a few free colors. This may lead to some color problems (and nothing can be done). XFree-4.3 or better pre-allocate only 85 colors. If no pre-allocated palette is auto detected the defaults are as follow: + Display depth 8 (256 colors) + .... PseudoColor: 68 (4x4x4 color cube + 4 grey) GrayScale: 64 regular grey DirectColor: 32 (3x3x3 color cube + 5 grey) .... + Display depth 4 (16 colors) + .... PseudoColor: 10 (2x2x2 color cube + 2 grey) GrayScale: 8 regular grey DirectColor: 10 (2x2x2 color cube + 2 grey) .... + Note that if you use a private color map (i.e., fvwm is started with the *-C* or the *-I* options), then other defaults are used. + Now what to do if you encounter problems with colors? The first thing to do is to check if you really cannot run your X server with depth 15, 16 or better. Check your X server documentation. Note that some hardware can support two different depths on the same screen (typically depth 8 and depth 24). If depth 8 is the default, you can force fvwm to use the best depth by using the *-C* option with _TrueColor_ as argument. So now we assume that you are forced to run in depth 8 with a dynamic visual because your hardware/driver cannot do better or because you need to use an application which needs to run under this mode (e.g., because this application needs read-write colors). What it should be understand is that you have only 256 colors and that all the applications which use the default color map must share these colors. The main problem is that there are applications which use a lot or even all the colors. If you use such application you may have no more free colors and some applications (which used only a few colors) may fail to start or are unusable. There are three things that can be done (and fvwm does not really play a particular role, all applications are concerned). The first is to run the applications which waste your (default) color map with a private color map. For example, run netscape with the -install option, run KDE or QT applications with the --cmap option, use the *-C* option for fvwm. The disadvantage of this method is that it is visually disturbing (see the *ColormapFocus* command for a better control of the color maps switching). The second method is to limit the number of colors that the applications use. Again, some applications have options to specify a given color limit. With fvwm you may try various values, 61 (a special "visual" palette), 56 (a 4x4x3 color cube plus 6 grey), 29 (a 3x3x3 color cube plus 2 grey), 10 or 9. Also, you may use the *-L* option. However, limiting the number of colors is not the definitive solution. The definitive solution is to try cause applications which use a lot of colors use the same colors. This is a difficult task as there are no formal standards for this goal. However, some toolkits as QT and GTK use color cubes as palettes. So, the idea is to configure your applications/toolkits to all use the same color cube. Moreover, you can use the colors in this color cube in your X resources configuration files and/or as arguments to colors options. Fvwm can use any color cube of the form RxGxB with 2 <= R <= 6, R = G, R-1 =< B <= R and B >= 2. To get an RxGxB color cube give an argument to *-l* an integer c >= R*G*B and < (R+1)*(G+1)*B if B=R and < R*G*(B+1) if B < R (and different from 61). If c > R*G*B, then some grey may be added to the color cube. You can use the *PrintInfo* _Colors_ [_1_] command to get information on your fvwm colors setting. In particular, this command prints the palette used by fvwm in rgb format (the last integer gives the number of times fvwm has allocated the colors). *-L* | *--strict-color-limit*:: If the screen displays 256 colors (or less) and has a dynamic visual, causes fvwm to use its palette for all the colors. By default, the palette is used only for images and gradients. *-P* | *--visual-palette*:: If the screen displays 256 colors (or less) and has a dynamic visual, this option causes fvwm to use a palette designed for limiting the "visual" color distance between the points of the palette. Moreover, for better color sharing, if possible colors with a name in the X rgb data base are used for defining the colors (with the hope that applications and images prefer to use named colors). If the *-l* option is not used this palette has 61 colors. This palette is also automatically selected if 61 or 9 is used as argument to the *-l* option. *-A* | *--allocate-palette*:: If the screen displays 256 colors (or less) and has a dynamic visual this option causes fvwm to allocate all the colors of its palette at start up for reserving these colors for future use. This option forces the *-static-palette* option. By default, fvwm allocates (reserves) a color in its palette only if it needs this color. *-S* | *--static-palette*:: If the screen displays 256 colors (or less) and has a dynamic visual this option causes fvwm to never free the colors in its palette. By default, when fvwm does not need a color any more it frees this color so that a new color can be used. This option may speed up image loading and save a few bits of memory. *-blackout*:: This option is provided for backward compatibility only. Blacking out the screen during startup is not necessary (and doesn't work) anymore. This option will be removed in the future. *--debug-stack-ring*:: Enables stack ring debugging. This option is only intended for internal debugging and should only be used by developers. *-v*:: Enables debug logging. Writes in append mode to fvwm log file, which is ~/.fvwm/fvwm3-output.log by default. See ENVIRONMENT section on how to override this location on fvwm3 startup using _$FVWM_USERDIR_ or _$FVWM3_LOGFILE_ . + Logging can also be dynamically toggled on and off using signals: + .... SIGUSR1 : used as a signal to restart Fvwm SIGUSR2 : used as a signal to toggle opening/closing debug log file .... == 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. With the built-in minimal configuration, dragging mouse button 1 in the frame or side-bars begins a resize operation on the window. Dragging mouse button 2 in the frame or side-bars begins a move operation. There are raise/lower operations bound to a single clicking on borders. Similarly for the window title. Up to ten title-bar buttons may exist. Their use is completely user definable. One popular configuration uses one button on the left that is used to bring up a list of window options and two buttons on the right used to iconify and maximize the window. Another popular configuration adds a close button to the right. The number of title-bar buttons used depends on which ones have mouse actions bound to them. See the *Mouse* command. == 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* command. All virtual desktops must be (are) the same size. The total number of distinct desktops does not need to be specified, but is limited to approximately 4 billion total. All windows on a range of desktops can be viewed in the *FvwmPager*, 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 using the *WindowList* command or the *FvwmIconMan* module. Fvwm keeps the windows on the desktop in a layered stacking order; a window in a lower layer never obscures a window in a higher layer. The layer of a window can be changed by using the *Layer* command. The concept of layers is a generalization of the _StaysOnTop_ flag of older fvwm versions. The _StaysOnTop_ and _StaysPut_ *Style* options are now implemented by putting the windows in suitable layers and the previously missing _StaysOnBottom_ *Style* option has been added. _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 xbiffs, 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 .... creates a window 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, invoking: .... xterm -geometry +1000+1000 .... places a 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. A geometry specified as something like: .... xterm -geometry -5-5 .... places 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 place the window's upper right hand corner 5 pixels above and to the left of the upper left hand corner of the screen; others may do just plain bizarre things. There are several ways to cause a window to map onto a desktop or page other than the currently active one. The geometry technique mentioned above (specifying x,y coordinates larger than the physical screen size), however, suffers from the limitation of being interpreted relative to the current viewport: the window may not consistently appear on a specific page, unless you always invoke the application from the same page. A better way to place windows on a different page, screen or desk from the currently mapped viewport is to use the _StartsOnPage_ or _StartsOnScreen_ style specification (the successors to the older _StartsOnDesk_ style) in your _config_ file. The placement is consistent: it does not depend on your current location on the virtual desktop. 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 or page on the command line: .... xterm -xrm "*Desk:1" .... starts an xterm on desk number 1; .... xterm -xrm "*Page:3 2 1" .... starts an xterm two pages to the right and one down from the upper left hand page of desk number 3. Not all applications understand the use of these options, however. You could achieve the same results with the following lines in your _.Xdefaults_ file: .... XTerm*Desk: 1 .... or .... XTerm*Page: 3 2 1 .... == USE ON MULTI-SCREEN DISPLAYS If the *-s* command line argument is not given, fvwm automatically starts 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. This is not to be confused with RandR support. == RANDR SUPPORT Fvwm supports the RandR X11 protocol. If Fvwm has been compiled wiith RandR support then it tracks the outputs (displays) which it finds. These outputs are stored by name, which can be found by running using the xrand(1) command. In doing so, Fvwm tracks events from RandR, such as when a given output changes size, or has been removed. In such cases, Fvwm will react by moving windows. If an output is removed, those windows on that removed output will be moved to the next active output (the output which contains the mouse pointer). If the same output reappears, Fvwm will move those windows back again. In addition to specific *FvwmEvent* conditions which can be used to track a monitor's change, there is a function called _RandRFunc_ which the user can define to be run when a screen event occurs (such as enabling/disabling/resolution change): .... DestroyFunc RandRFunc AddToFunc RandRFunc + I Exec exec xmessage "A screen changed" .... == DESKTOP BEHAVIOUR Because Fvwm has the capability to track outputs, Fvwm can be told how to handle those. This is controlled via the *DesktopConfiguration* command. By default, Fvwm treats all outputs it finds as one large screen, although Fvwm can be told to treat screens indepedantly of each other. == INITIALIZATION During initialization, fvwm searches for a configuration file which describes key and button bindings, and many other things. The format of these files is described later. Fvwm first searches for configuration files using the command .... Read config .... This looks for file _config_ in _$FVWM_USERDIR_ and _$FVWM_DATADIR_ directories, as described in *Read*. If this fails more files are queried for backward compatibility. Here is the complete list of all file locations queried in the default installation (only the first found file is used): .... $HOME/.fvwm/config /usr/local/share/fvwm/config $HOME/.fvwm/.fvwm2rc $HOME/.fvwm2rc /usr/local/share/fvwm/.fvwm2rc /usr/local/share/fvwm/system.fvwm2rc /etc/system.fvwm2rc .... Please note, the last 5 locations are not guaranteed to be supported in the future. If a configuration file is not found, the left mouse button, or or keys on the root window bring up menus and forms that can create a starting configuration file. Fvwm sets two environment variables which are inherited by its children. These are _$DISPLAY_ which describes the display on which fvwm is running. _$DISPLAY_ may be _unix:0.0_ or _:0.0_, which doesn't work too well when passed through ssh to another machine, so _$HOSTDISPLAY_ is set to a network-ready description of the display. _$HOSTDISPLAY_ always uses the TCP/IP transport protocol (even for a local connection) so _$DISPLAY_ should be used for local connections, as it may use Unix-domain sockets, which are faster. If you want to start some applications or modules with fvwm, you can simply put .... Exec app .... or .... Module FvwmXxx .... into your _config_, but it is not recommended; do this only if you know what you are doing. It is usually important to start applications or modules after the entire config is read, because it contains styles or module configurations which can affect window appearance and functionality. The standard way to start applications or modules on fvwm's start up is to add them to an initialization function (usually *StartFunction* or *InitFunction*). This way they are only started after fvwm finishes to read and execute _config_ file. Fvwm has three special functions for initialization: *StartFunction*, which is executed on startups and restarts; *InitFunction* and *RestartFunction*, which are executed during initialization and restarts (respectively) just after StartFunction. These functions may be customized in a user's _config_ file using the *AddToFunc* command (described later) to start up modules, xterms, or whatever you'd like to have started by fvwm. Fvwm has also a special exit function: *ExitFunction*, executed when exiting or restarting before actually quitting. It could be used to explicitly kill modules, etc. If fvwm is run under a session manager, functions *SessionInitFunction* and *SessionRestartFunction* are executed instead of InitFunction and RestartFunction. This helps to define the user's _config_ file to be good for both running under a session manager and without it. Generally it is a bad idea to start xterms or other applications in "Session*" functions. Also someone can decide to start different modules while running under a session manager or not. For the similar purposes *SessionExitFunction* is used instead of ExitFunction. .... DestroyFunc StartFunction AddToFunc StartFunction + I Module FvwmPager * * + I Module FvwmButtons DestroyFunc InitFunction AddToFunc InitFunction + I Module FvwmBanner + I Module FvwmIconMan + I Exec xsetroot -solid cyan + I Exec xterm + I Exec netscape DestroyFunc RestartFunction AddToFunc RestartFunction + I Module FvwmIconMan DestroyFunc SessionInitFunction AddToFunc SessionInitFunction + I Module FvwmBanner DestroyFunc SessionRestartFunction AddToFunc SessionRestartFunction + I Nop .... You do not need to define all special functions if some are empty. Also note, all these special functions may be emulated now using *StartFunction* and *ExitFunction,* like this: .... DestroyFunc StartFunction AddToFunc StartFunction + I Test (Init) Module FvwmBanner + I Module FvwmPager * * + I Test (Restart) Beep DestroyFunc ExitFunction AddToFunc ExitFunction + I Test (Quit) Echo Bye-bye + I KillModule MyBuggyModule + I Test (ToRestart) Beep .... == COMPILATION OPTIONS Fvwm has a number of compile-time options. 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 in the _config.h_ file that is generated during compilation. == ICONS AND IMAGES Fvwm can load *.xbm,* *.xpm,* *.png* and *.svg* images. *XBM* images are monochrome. Fvwm can always display *XBM* files. *XPM* and *PNG* formats are color images. SVG is a vector graphics image format. Compile-time options determine whether fvwm can display *XPM*, *PNG* or *SVG* icons and images. See the _INSTALL.fvwm_ file for more information. The related *SHAPE* compile-time option can make fvwm display spiffy shaped icons. === SVG rendering options SVG images are generated from (XML) text files. A really simple SVG file might look something like this: .... .... By default, SVG images are rendered as the image creator intended them to. But since SVG is a vector graphics format, the images can be rendered at any chosen size and rotation, e.g. making it possible to use the same icon file rendered at different sizes for the _Icon_ and _MiniIcon_ styles. The rendering options are specified as a string appended to the SVG filename as follows: .... _image.svg_:[!] [(1) _size_] [(2) _position_] [(3) _rotation_] [(4) _scale_] ... {empty}(1) [-]_width_{x}[-]_height_ {empty}(2) {- | +}_xpos_{- | +}_ypos_ {empty}(3) @[-]_angle_ {empty}(4) {* | }[-]_factor_[x | y] .... The option string always starts with a colon (':') to separate it from the filename. An empty option string can skip this colon, but it might still be a good idea to include it to prevent ambiguity if the filename contains any colon. .... filename_without_colon.svg filename:with:colon.svg: .... An exclamation point ('!') transposes the entire final image (including the rendering area), i.e. all the horizontal and all the vertical coordinates are swapped with each other. .... image.svg:! .... _width_ and _height_ specifies the dimensions of the rendering area in pixels, i.e. the dimensions of the resulting image. The actual image is fitted to fill the entire rendering area. .... image.svg:60x60 .... Use a _width_ or _height_ value of 0 to keep the aspect ratio. .... image.svg:0x60 image.svg:60x0 .... A '-' before _width_ mirrors the rendering area horizontally. .... image.svg:-0x0 .... A '-' before _height_ mirrors the rendering area vertically. .... image.svg:0x-0 .... _xpos_ and _ypos_ specifies a translation of the image in pixels. A positive _xpos_ value moves the image to the right. A positive _ypos_ value moves it down. Moving it partially outside of the rendering area results in a cropped image. .... image.svg:-30-0 image.svg:-0+10 image.svg:-30+10 .... _angle_ specifies a rotation around the actual image center in degrees. This might result in a cropped image. A positive value rotates the image clockwise. Floating point values are recognized. .... image.svg:@180 image.svg:@-90 image.svg:@30 image.svg:@57.3 .... _factor_ specifes a scaling of the actual image (not the rendering area). Scaling it up results in a cropped image. Floating point values are recognized. Division by zero is ignored. If _factor_ is directly followed by a 'x' or a 'y', the scaling is horizontal or vertical respectively. Otherwise the scaling is uniform. .... image.svg:*2 image.svg:/2 image.svg:/3x image.svg:/2y .... Scaling down a translated or rotated image can prevent cropping. .... image.svg:@30*0.6 .... Repeated usage of translation, rotation, and scaling is allowed. Translation and rotation are additive. Scaling is multiplicative. .... image.svg:*2/3 image.svg:/3x/2y .... When combining affine transformations, the scaling is always done first, then the rotation, and finally the translation. .... image.svg:-30+10@30/3x/2y .... Use a negative scale _factor_ to mirror the actual image. .... image.svg:-30+10@30/-3x/2y .... Mirroring of the rendering area is done after any scaling, rotation or translation of the image. .... image.svg:-0x0-30+10@30/3x/2y .... Transposing is done last of all, after everything else. .... image.svg:!-0x0-30+10@30/3x/2y .... == 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 are already open for the module when it starts and the file descriptors for the pipes are provided as command line arguments. Modules can be spawned by fvwm at any time during the X session by use of the *Module* 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 closes the communication pipes and waits 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 exits 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 commands to the fvwm command engine. Commands are formatted just as in the case of a mouse binding in the _config_ setup file. Certain auxiliary information is also transmitted, as in the sample module *FvwmButtons*. Please refer to the *Module Commands* section for details. == ICCCM COMPLIANCE Fvwm attempts to be ICCCM 2.0 compliant. Check _http://tronche.com/gui/x/icccm/_ for more info. 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. In particular you cannot have the same keyboard shortcuts working with your fvwm and another fvwm running within Xnest (a nested X server running in a window). The same problem exists with mouse bindings. 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 allows fvwm to overlook this ICCCM rule. Even with this window style it is not guaranteed that the application accepts focus. The differences between ICCCM 1.1 and 2.0 include the ability to take over from a running ICCCM 2.0 compliant window manager; thus .... fvwm; vi ~/.fvwm/config; fvwm -replace .... resembles the *Restart* command. It is not exactly the same, since killing the previously running wm may terminate your X session, if the wm was started as the last client in your _.Xclients_ or _.Xsession_ file. Further additions are support for client-side colormap installation (see the ICCCM for details) and the urgency hint. Clients can set this hint in the WM_HINTS property of their window and expect the window manager to attract the user's attention to the window. Fvwm has two re-definable functions for this purpose, "UrgencyFunc" and "UrgencyDoneFunc", which are executed when the flag is set/cleared. Their default definitions are: .... AddToFunc UrgencyFunc + I Iconify off + I FlipFocus + I Raise + I WarpToWindow !raise 5p 5p AddToFunc UrgencyDoneFunc + I Nop .... == GNOME COMPLIANCE Fvwm attempts to be GNOME (version 1) compliant. Check _http://www.gnome.org_ for what that may mean. To disable GNOME hints for some or all windows, the _GNOMEIgnoreHints_ style can be used. == EXTENDED WINDOW MANAGER HINTS Fvwm attempts to respect the extended window manager hints (ewmh or EWMH for short) specification: _https://specifications.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/wm-spec-1.3.html_ and some extensions of this specification. This allows fvwm to work with KDE version >= 2, GNOME version 2 and other applications which respect this specification (any application based on _GTK+_ version 2). Applications which respect this specification are called ewmh compliant applications. This support is configurable with styles and commands. These styles and commands have EWMH as the prefix (so you can find them easily in this man page). There is a new Context 'D' for the *Key*, *PointerKey*, *Mouse* commands. This context is for desktop applications (such as kdesktop and Nautilus desktop). When a compliant taskbar asks fvwm to activate a window (typically when you click on a button which represents a window in such a taskbar), then fvwm calls the complex function *EWMHActivateWindowFunc* which by default is Iconify Off, Focus and Raise. You can redefine this function. For example: .... DestroyFunc EWMHActivateWindowFunc AddToFunc EWMHActivateWindowFunc I Iconify Off + I Focus + I Raise + I WarpToWindow 50 50 .... additionally warps the pointer to the center of the window. The EWMH specification introduces the notion of Working Area. Without ewmh support the Working Area is the full visible screen (or all your screens if you have a multi head setup with RandR). However, compliant applications (such as a panel) can ask to reserve space at the edge of the screen. If this is the case, the Working Area is your full visible screen minus these reserved spaces. If a panel can be hidden by clicking on a button the Working Area does not change (as you can unhide the panel at any time), but the Dynamic Working Area is updated: the space reserved by the panel is removed (and added again if you pop up the panel). The Dynamic Working Area may be used when fvwm places or maximizes a window. To know if an application reserves space you can type "xprop | grep _NET_WM_STRUT" in a terminal and select the application. If four numbers appear then these numbers define the reserved space as explained in the *EwmhBaseStruts* command. == MWM COMPATIBILITY Fvwm provides options to emulate Motif Window Manager (Mwm) as well as possible. Please refer to the *Emulate* command as well as to the Mwm specific options of the *Style* and *MenuStyle* commands for details. == OPEN LOOK AND XVIEW COMPATIBILITY Fvwm supports all the Open Look decoration hints (except pushpins). Should you use any such application, please add the following line to your config: .... Style * OLDecor .... Most (perhaps all) Open Look applications have a strange notion of keyboard focus handling. Although a lot of work went into fvwm to work well with these, you may still encounter problems. It is recommended to use the _NeverFocus_ focus policy and the _Lenience_ style for all such applications (the windows still get the focus): .... Style NeverFocus, Lenience .... But in case you can not live with that focus policy, you can try using one of the other focus policies in combination with the _Lenience_ style: .... Style MouseFocus, Lenience Style SloppyFocus, Lenience Style ClickToFocus, Lenience .... == CONFIGURATION === 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 _config_ (or _.fvwm2rc_). By using the *Read* command, it is easy to read in new configuration files as you go. Lines beginning with '#' are ignored by fvwm. Lines starting with '*' are expected to contain module configuration commands (rather than configuration commands for fvwm itself). Like in shell scripts embedded newlines in a configuration file line can be quoted by preceding them with a backslash. All lines linked in this fashion are treated as a single line. The newline itself is ignored. Fvwm makes no distinction between configuration commands and action commands, so anything mentioned in the fvwm 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. === Supplied Configuration A sample configuration file, is supplied with the fvwm distribution. It is well commented and can be used as a source of examples for fvwm configuration. It may be copied from _/usr/local/share/fvwm/config_ file. Alternatively, the built-in menu (accessible when no configuration file is found) has options to create an initial config file for the user. == FONTS === Font names and font loading The fonts used for the text of a window title, icon titles, menus and geometry window can be specified by using the Font and IconFont *Style*, the Font *MenuStyle* and the *DefaultFont* commands. Also, all the Modules which use text have configuration command(s) to specify font(s). All these styles and commands take a font name as an argument. This section explains what is a font name for fvwm and which fonts fvwm loads. First, you can use what we can call a usual font name, for example, .... -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--10-100-75-75-m-60-ISO8859-1 -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--10-* -*-fixed-medium-o-normal--14-*-ISO8859-15 .... That is, you can use an X Logical Font Description (XLFD for short). Then the "first" font which matches the description is loaded and used. This "first" font depends of your font path and also of your locale. Fonts which match the locale charset are loaded in priority order. For example with .... -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--10-* .... if the locale charset is ISO8859-1, then fvwm tries to load a font which matches .... -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--10-*-ISO8859-1 .... with the locale charset ISO8859-15 fvwm tries to load .... -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--10-*-ISO8859-15. .... A font name can be given as an extended XLFD. This is a comma separated list of (simple) XLFD font names, for example: .... -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--14-*,-*-courier-medium-r-normal--14-* .... Each simple font name is tried until a matching font with the locale charset is found and if this fails each simple font name is tried without constraint on the charset. More details on the XLFD can be found in the X manual page, the X Logical Font Description Conventions document (called xlfd) and the XLoadFont and XCreateFontSet manual pages. Some useful font utilities are: xlsfonts, xfontsel, xfd and xset. If you have Xft support you can specify an Xft font name (description) of a true type (or Type1) font prefixed by "xft:", for example: .... "xft:Luxi Mono" "xft:Luxi Mono:Medium:Roman:size=14:encoding=iso8859-1" .... The "first" font which matches the description is loaded. This first font depends on the XftConfig configuration file with Xft1 and on the /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file with Xft2. One may read the Xft manual page and the fontconfig man page with Xft2. The first string which follows "xft:" is always considered as the family. With the second example Luxi Mono is the Family (Other XFree TTF families: "Luxi Serif", "Luxi Sans"), Medium is the Weight (other possible weights: Light, DemiBold, Bold, Black), Roman is the slant or the style (other possibilities: Regular, Oblique, Italic) size specifies the point size (for a pixel size use pixelsize=), encoding allows for enforce a charset (iso8859-1 or iso10646-1 only; if no encoding is given the locale charset is assumed). An important parameter is "minspace=bool" where bool is True or False. If bool is False (the default?) Xft gives a greater font height to fvwm than if bool is True. This may modify text placement, icon and window title height, line spacing in menus and *FvwmIdent*, button height in some fvwm modules ...etc. With a LCD monitor you may try to add "rgba=mode" where mode is either rgb, bgr, vrgb or vbgr to enable subpixel rendering. The best mode depends on the way your LCD cells are arranged. You can pass other specifications in between ":", as "foundry=foundry_name", "spacing=type" where type can be monospace, proportional or charcell, "charwidth=integer", "charheight=integer" or "antialias=bool" where bool is True or False. It seems that these parameters are not always taken in account. To determine which Xft fonts are really loaded you can export XFT_DEBUG=1 before starting fvwm and take a look to the error log. With Xft2 you may use fc-list to list the available fonts. Anyway, Xft support is experimental (from the X and the fvwm point of view) and the quality of the rendering depends on number of parameters (the XFree and the freetype versions and your video card(s)). After an Xft font name you can add after a ";" an XLFD font name (simple or extended) as: .... xft:Verdana:pixelsize=14;-adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--14-* .... then, if either loading the Xft font fails or fvwm has no Xft support, fvwm loads the font "-adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--14-*". This allows for writing portable configuration files. === Font and string encoding Once a font is loaded, fvwm finds its encoding (or charset) using its name (the last two fields of the name). fvwm assumes that the strings which are displayed with this font use this encoding (an exception is that if an iso10646-1 font is loaded, then UTF-8 is assumed for string encoding). In a normal situation, (i) a font is loaded by giving a font name without specifying the encoding, (ii) the encoding of the loaded font is the locale encoding, and then (iii) the strings in the fvwm configuration files should use the locale encoding as well as the window and icon name. With Xft the situation is bit different as Xft supports only iso10646-1 and iso8859-1. If you do not specify one of these encodings in the Xft font name, then fvwm does strings conversion using (iii). Note that with multibyte fonts (and in particular with "CJK" fonts) for good text rendering, the locale encoding should be the charset of the font. To override the previous rules, it is possible to specify the string encoding in the beginning of a font description as follow: .... StringEncoding=enc:_full_font_name_ .... where _enc_ is an encoding supported by fvwm (usually font name charset plus some unicode encodings: UTF-8, USC-2, USC-4 and UTF-16). For example, you may use an iso8859-1 locale charset and have an *FvwmForm* in Russian using koi8-r encoding. In this case, you just have to ask *FvwmForm* to load a koi8-r font by specifying the encoding in the font name. With a multibyte language, (as multibyte font works well only if the locale encoding is the charset of the font), you should use an iso10646-1 font: .... StringEncoding=jisx0208.1983-0:-*-fixed-medium-r-*-ja-*-iso10646-1 .... or .... "StringEncoding=jisx0208.1983-0:xft:Bitstream Cyberbit" .... if your *FvwmForm* configuration uses jisx0208.1983-0 encoding. Another possibility is to use UTF-8 encoding for your *FvwmForm* configuration and use an iso10646-1 font: .... -*-fixed-medium-r-*-ja-*-iso10646-1 .... or .... "StringEncoding=UTF-8:xft:Bitstream Cyberbit" .... or equivalently .... "xft:Bitstream Cyberbit:encoding=iso10646-1" .... In general iso10646-1 fonts together with UTF-8 string encoding allows the display of any characters in a given menu, *FvwmForm* etc. More and more, unicode is used and text files use UTF-8 encoding. However, in practice the characters used range over your locale charset (this is the case when you generate a menu with fvwm-menu-desktop with recent versions of KDE and GNOME). For saving memory (an iso10646-1 font may have a very large number of characters) or because you have a pretty font without an iso10646-1 charset, you can specify the string encoding to be UTF-8 and use a font in the locale charset: .... StringEncoding=UTF-8:-*-pretty_font-*-12-* .... In most cases, fvwm correctly determines the encoding of the font. However, some fonts do not end with valid encoding names. When the font name isn't normal, for example: .... -misc-fixed-*--20-*-my_utf8-36 .... you need to add the encoding after the font name using a slash as a delimiter. For example: .... MenuStyle * Font -misc-fixed-*--20-*-my_utf8-36/iso10646-1 .... If fvwm finds an encoding, fvwm uses the iconv system functions to do conversion between encodings. Unfortunately, there are no standards. For conversion between iso8859-1 and UTF-8: a GNU system uses "ISO-8859-1" and other systems use "iso881" to define the converters (these two names are supported by fvwm). Moreover, in some cases it may be necessary to use machine specific converters. So, if you experience problems you can try to get information on your iconv implementation ("man iconv" may help) and put the name which defines the converter between the font encoding and UTF-8 at the end of the font name after the encoding hint and a / (another possible solution is to use GNU libiconv). For example use: .... Style * Font -misc-fixed-*--14-*-iso8859-1/*/latin1 .... to use latin1 for defining the converter for the iso8859-1 encoding. The "*" in between the "/" says to fvwm to determine the encoding from the end of the font name. Use: .... Style * Font \ -misc-fixed-*--14-*-local8859-6/iso8859-6/local_iso8859_6_iconv .... to force fvwm to use the font with iso8859-6 as the encoding (this is useful for bi-directionality) and to use local_iso8859_6_iconv for defining the converters. === Font Shadow Effects Fonts can be given 3d effects. At the beginning of the font name (or just after a possible StringEncoding specification) add .... Shadow=size [offset] [directions]]: .... _size_ is a positive integer which specifies the number of pixels of shadow. _offset_ is an optional positive integer which defines the number of pixels to offset the shadow from the edge of the character. The default offset is zero. _directions_ is an optional set of directions the shadow emanates from the character. The _directions_ are a space separated list of fvwm directions: _N_, _North_, _Top_, _t_, _Up_, _u_, _-_ _E_, _East_, _Right_, _r_, _Right_, _r_, _]_ _S_, _South_, _Bottom_, _b_, _Down_, _d_, ___ _W_, _West_, _Left_, _l_, _Left_, _l_, _[_ _NE_, _NorthEast_, _TopRight_, _tr_, _UpRight_, _ur_, _^_ _SE_, _SouthEast_, _BottomRight_, _br_, _DownRight_, _dr_, _>_ _SW_, _SouthWest_, _BottomLeft_, _bl_, _DownLeft_, _dl_, _v_ _NW_, _NorthWest_, _TopLeft_, _tl_, _UpLeft_, _ul_, _<_ _C_, _Center_, _Centre_, _._ A shadow is displayed in each given direction. _All_ is equivalent to all the directions. The default _direction_ is _BottomRight_. With the _Center_ direction, the shadow surrounds the whole string. Since this is a super set of all other directions, it is a waste of time to specify this along with any other directions. The shadow effect only works with colorsets. The color of the shadow is defined by using the _fgsh_ option of the *Colorset* command. Please refer to the *Colorsets* section for details about colorsets. Note: It can be difficult to find the font, _fg_, _fgsh_ and _bg_ colors to make this effect look good, but it can look quite good. == BI-DIRECTIONAL TEXT Arabic and Hebrew text require bi-directional text support to be displayed correctly, this means that logical strings should be converted before their visual presentation, so left-to-right and right-to-left sub-strings are determined and reshuffled. In fvwm this is done automatically in window titles, menus, module labels and other places if the fonts used for displaying the text are of one of the charsets that require _bidi_ (bi-directional) support. For example, this includes iso8859-6, iso8859-8 and iso10646-1 (unicode), but not other iso8859-* fonts. This bi-directional text support is done using the _fribidi_ library compile time option, see _INSTALL.fvwm_. == KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Almost all window manager operations can be performed from the keyboard so mouse-less operation should be possible. In addition to scrolling around the virtual desktop by binding the *Scroll* command to appropriate keys, *Popup*, *Move*, *Resize*, and any other command can be bound to keys. Once a command 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 causes the pointer movement to go in larger steps and holding down the control key causes the pointer movement to go in smaller steps. Standard emacs and vi cursor movement controls can be used instead of the arrow keys. == SESSION MANAGEMENT Fvwm supports session management according to the X Session Management Protocol. It saves and restores window position, size, stacking order, desk, stickiness, shadiness, maximizedness, iconifiedness for all windows. Furthermore, some global state is saved. Fvwm doesn't save any information regarding styles, decors, functions or menus. If you change any of these resources during a session (e.g. by issuing *Style* commands or by using various modules), these changes are lost after saving and restarting the session. To become permanent, such changes have to be added to the configuration file. Note further that the current implementation has the following anomaly when used on a multi-screen display: Starting fvwm for the first time, fvwm manages all screens by forking a copy of itself for each screen. Every copy knows its parent and issuing a *Quit* command to any instance of fvwm kills the master and thus all copies of fvwm. When you save and restart the session, the session manager brings up a copy of fvwm on each screen, but this time they are started as individual instances managing one screen only. Thus a *Quit* kills only the copy it was sent to. This is probably not a very serious problem, since with session management, you are supposed to quit a session through the session manager anyway. If it is really needed, .... Exec exec killall fvwm .... still kills all copies of fvwm. Your system must have the *killall* command though. == BOOLEAN ARGUMENTS A number of commands take one or several boolean arguments. These take a few equivalent inputs: "yes", "on", "true", "t" and "y" all evaluate to true while "no", "off", "false", "f" and "n" evaluate to false. Some commands allow "toggle" too which means that the feature is disabled if it is currently enabled and vice versa. == BUILTIN KEY AND MOUSE BINDINGS The following commands are built-in to fvwm: .... Key Help R A Popup MenuFvwmRoot Key F1 R A Popup MenuFvwmRoot Key Tab A M WindowList Root c c NoDeskSort Key Escape A MC EscapeFunc Mouse 1 R A Menu MenuFvwmRoot Mouse 1 T A FuncFvwmRaiseLowerX Move Mouse 1 FS A FuncFvwmRaiseLowerX Resize Mouse 2 FST A FuncFvwmRaiseLowerX Move AddToFunc FuncFvwmRaiseLowerX + I Raise + M $0 + D Lower .... The Help and F1 keys invoke a built-in menu that fvwm creates. This is primarily for new users that have not created their own configuration file. Either key on the root (background) window pops up an menu to help you get started. The Tab key pressed anywhere with the Alt key (same as the key on PC keyboards) held down pop-ups a window list. Mouse button 1 on the title-bar or side frame can move, raise or lower a window. Mouse button 1 on the window corners can resize, raise or lower a window. You can override or remove these bindings. To remove the window list binding, use this: .... Key Tab A M - .... == COMMAND EXECUTION === Module and Function Commands If fvwm encounters a command that it doesn't recognize, it checks 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 _config_ file contains the line .... HelpMe .... Fvwm looks for an fvwm command called "HelpMe", and fails. Next it looks for a user-defined complex function called "HelpMe". If no such function exists, fvwm tries to execute a module called "HelpMe". === Delayed Execution of Commands **Note**: There are many commands that affect look and feel of specific, some or all windows, like *Style*, *Mouse*, *Colorset*, *TitleStyle* and many others. For performance reasons such changes are not applied immediately but only when fvwm is idle, i.e. no user interaction or module input is pending. Specifically, new *Style* options that are set in a function are not applied until after the function has completed. This can sometimes lead to unwanted effects. To force that all pending changes are applied immediately, use the *UpdateStyles*, *Refresh* or *RefreshWindow* commands. == QUOTING 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 do not need quotes: .... Popup Window-Ops .... but if you replace the dash with a space, then you need quotes: .... Popup "Window Ops" .... The supported quoting characters are double quotes, single quotes and reverse single quotes. All three kinds of quotes are treated in the same way. Single characters can be quoted with a preceding backslash. Quoting single characters works even inside other kinds of quotes. == COMMAND EXPANSION Whenever an fvwm command line is executed, fvwm performs parameter expansion. A parameter is a '$' followed by a word enclosed in brackets ($[...]) or a single special character. If fvwm encounters an unquoted parameter on the command line it expands it to a string indicated by the parameter name. Unknown parameters are left untouched. Parameter expansion is performed before quoting. To get a literal '$' use "$$". If a command is prefixed with a '-' parameter expansion isn't performed. This applies to the command immediately following the '-', in which the expansion normally would have taken place. When uesed together with other prefix commands it must be added before the other prefix. Example: .... Pick -Exec exec xmessage '$[w.name]' .... opens an xmessage dialog with "$[w.name]" unexpanded. The longer variables may contain additional variables inside the name, which are expanded before the outer variable. In earlier versions of fvwm, some single letter variables were supported. It is deprecated now, since they cause a number of problems. You should use the longer substitutes instead. Example: .... # Print the current desk number, horizontal page number # and the window's class (unexpanded here, no window). Echo $[desk.n] $[page.nx] $[w.class] .... Note: If the command is called outside a window context, it prints "$[w.class]" instead of the class name. It is usually not enough to have the pointer over a window to have a context window. To force using the window with the focus, the *Current* command can be used: .... Current Echo $[desk.n] $[page.nx] $[w.class] .... The parameters known by fvwm are: $$:: A literal '$'. $.:: The absolute directory of the currently Read file. Intended for creating relative and relocatable configuration trees. If used outside of any read file, the returned value is '.'. $0 to $9:: The positional parameters given to a complex function (a function that has been defined with the *AddToFunc* command). "$0" is replaced with the first parameter, "$1" with the second parameter and so on. If the corresponding parameter is undefined, the "$..." is deleted from the command line. $*:: All positional parameters given to a complex function. This includes parameters that follow after "$9". $[_n_]:: The _n_:th positional parameter given to a complex function, counting from 0. If the corresponding parameter is undefined, the "$[_n_]" is deleted from the command line. The parameter is expanded unquoted. $[_n_-_m_]:: The positional parameters given to a complex function, starting with parameter _n_ and ending with parameter _m_. If all the corresponding parameters are undefined, the "$[...]" is deleted from the command line. If only some of the parameters are defined, all defined parameters are expanded, and the remaining silently ignored. All parameters are expanded unquoted. $[_n_-]:: All the positional parameters given to a complex function, starting with parameter _n_. If all the corresponding parameters are undefined, the "$[...]" is deleted from the command line. All parameters are expanded unquoted. $[*]:: All the positional parameters given to a complex function. This is equivalent of $[0-]. $[version.num]:: The version number, like "2.6.0". $[version.info]:: The version info, which contains the SHA of the latest commit (if compiled from git), or "(relesaed)" if a compiled from a release tarball. $[version.line]:: The first line printed by the --version command line option. $[vp.x] $[vp.y] $[vp.width] $[vp.height]:: Either coordinate or the width or height of the current viewport. $[wa.x] $[wa.y] $[wa.width] $[wa.height]:: Either coordinate or the width or height of the EWMH working area. $[dwa.x] $[dwa.y] $[dwa.width] $[dwa.height]:: Either coordinate or the width or height of the dynamic EWMH working area. $[desk.n]:: The current desk number. $[desk.name]:: These parameters are replaced with the name of the desktop number that is defined with the *DesktopName* command. If no name is defined, then the default name is returned. $[desk.width] $[desk.height]:: The width or height of the whole desktop, i.e. the width or height multiplied by the number of pages in x or y direction. $[desk.pagesx] $[desk.pagesy]:: The number of total pages in a desk in x or y direction. This is the same as the values set by *DesktopSize*. $[page.nx] $[page.ny]:: The current page numbers, by X and Y axes, starting from 0. _page_ is equivalent to _area_ in the GNOME terminology. $[w.id]:: The window-id (expressed in hex, e.g. 0x10023c) of the window the command was called for or "$[w.id]" if no window is associated with the command. $[w.name] $[w.iconname] $[w.class] $[w.resource] $[w.visiblename] $[w.iconfile] $[w.miniiconfile] $[w.iconfile.svgopts] $[w.miniiconfile.svgopts]:: The window's name, icon name, resource class and resource name, visible name, file name of its icon or mini icon defined with the _Icon_ or _MiniIcon_ style (including the full path if the file was found on disk), and (if fvwm is compiled with SVG support) the icon or mini icon svg rendering options (including the leading colon), or unexpanded "$[w.]" string if no window is associated with the command. + Note, the first 5 variables may include any kind of characters, so these variables are quoted. It means that the value is surrounded by single quote characters and any contained single quote is prefixed with a backslash. This guarantees that commands like: + .... Style $[w.resource] Icon norm/network.png .... + work correctly, regardless of any special symbols the value may contain, like spaces and different kinds of quotes. + In the case of the window's visible name, this is the value returned from the literal title of the window shown in the titlebar. Typically this will be the same as $[w.name] once expanded, although in the case of using _IndexedWindowName_ then this is more useful a distinction, and allows for referencing the specific window by its visible name for inclusion in things like *Style* commands. $[w.x] $[w.y] $[w.width] $[w.height]:: Either coordinate or the width or height of the current window if it is not iconified. If no window is associated with the command or the window is iconified, the string is left as is. $[w.pagex] $[w.pagey]:: The X or Y page the window is on. $[w.desk]:: The number of the desk on which the window is shown. If the window is sticky the current desk number is used. $[w.layer]:: The layer of the window. $[w.screen]:: The screen name the window is on. If RandR is not present, this does not expand. $[cw.x] $[cw.y] $[cw.width] $[cw.height]:: These work like $[w.…] but return the geometry of the client part of the window. In other words: the border and title of the window is not taken into account. $[i.x], $[it.x], $[ip.x] $[i.y], $[it.y], $[ip.y] $[i.width], $[it.width], $[ip.width] $[i.height], $[it.height], $[ip.height]:: These work like $[w.…] but return the geometry of the icon ($[i.…]), the icon title ($[it.…]) or the icon picture ($[ip.…]). $[pointer.x] $[pointer.y]:: These return the position of the pointer on the screen. If the pointer is not on the screen, these variables are not expanded. $[pointer.wx] $[pointer.wy]:: These return the position of the pointer in the selected window. If the pointer is not on the screen, the window is iconified or no window is selected, these variables are not expanded. $[pointer.cx] $[pointer.cy]:: These return the position of the pointer in the client portion of the selected window. If the pointer is not on the screen, the window is shaded or iconified or no window is selected, these variables are not expanded. $[pointer.screen]:: The screen name the pointer is currently on. No expansion if RandR is not enabled. + This command is deprecated; use $[monitor.current] instead. $[monitor..x], $[monitor..y], $[monitor..width], $[monitor..height], $[monitor..desk], $[monitor..pagex], $[monitor..pagey] $[monitor.primary], $[monitor.current], $[monitor.output], $[monitor.count], $[monitor..prev_desk], $[monitor..prev_pagex], $[monitor..prev_pagey]:: Returns information about the selected monitor. These can be nested, for example: $[monitor.$[monitor.primary].width] + should be a valid xrandr(1) output name. + "x" returns the monitor's x position; "y" returns the monitor's y position; "width" returns the monitor's width (in pixels); "height" returns the monitor's height (in pixels) + "current" is the same as the deprecated $[screen.pointer] variable; the monitor which has the mouse pointer. + "count" returns the number of active monitors. + "desk" returns the current desk displayed on the referenced monitor. + "pagex" returns the X page on the referenced monitor. + "pagey" returns the Y page of the referenced monitor. + "primary" is the name of the output set as primary via xrandr(1). + "prev_desk" returns the previous desk on the referenced monitor. + "prev_pagex" returns the previous X page on the referenced monitor. + "prev_pagey" retuns the previous Y page on the referenced monitor. $[screen]:: The screen number fvwm is running on. Useful for setups with multiple screens. $[screen.count]:: The total number of screens detected. Assumes RandR. + This is deprecated; use $[monitor.count] instead. $[fg.cs] $[bg.cs] $[hilight.cs] $[shadow.cs] $[fgsh.cs]:: These parameters are replaced with the name of the foreground (fg), background (bg), hilight (hilight), shadow (shadow), or the font shadow (fgsh) color that is defined in colorset (replace with zero or a positive integer). For example "$[fg.cs3]" is expanded to the name of the foreground color of colorset 3 (in rgb:rrrr/gggg/bbbb form). + If .lighten

or .darken

is appended to the parameters, they are instead replaced with a color that is lighter or darker than the one defined in colorset by a percentage value

(between 0 and 100). For example "$[bg.cs3.lighten15]" is expanded to the background color of colorset 3 and then lightened 15% (in rgb:rrrr/gggg/bbbb form). + If .hash is appened to the end the color output will use #rrggbb form (instead of rgb:rrrr/gggg/bbbb). For example, $[bg.cs3.hash] or $[bg.cs3.lighten15.hash]. + Please refer to the *Colorsets* section for details about colorsets. $[schedule.last]:: This is replaced by the id of the last command that was scheduled with the *Schedule* command, even if this command was already executed. $[schedule.next]:: This is replaced by the id the next command used with *Schedule* will get (unless a different id is specified explicitly). $[cond.rc]:: The return code of the last conditional command. This variable is only valid inside a function and can not be used in a conditional command. Please refer to the section *Conditional Commands* in the command list. $[func.context]:: The context character of the running command as used in the *Mouse*, *Key* or *PointerKey* command. This is useful for example with: + .... Mouse 3 FS N WindowShade $$[func.context] .... $[debuglog.state]:: Either _0_ (debug log closed) or _1_. Indicates the current state of debugging and logging facility. $[gt._str_]:: return the translation of _str_ by looking in the current locale catalogs. If no translation is found _str_ is returned as is. See the *LocalePath* command. $[infostore._key_]:: Return the value of the item stored in the InfoStore at the given _key_. If no key is present, the unexpanded string is returned. $[...]:: If the string within the braces is neither of the above, fvwm tries to find an environment variable with this name and replaces its value if one is found (e.g. "$[PAGER]" could be replaced by "more"). Otherwise the string is left as is. + Some examples can be found in the description of the *AddToFunc* command. == SCRIPTING & COMPLEX FUNCTIONS To achieve the more complex effects, fvwm has a number of commands that improve its scripting abilities. Scripts can be read from a file with *Read*, from the output of a command with *PipeRead* or written as a complex function with the *AddToFunc* command. For the curious, section 7 of the fvwm FAQ shows some real life applications of scripting. Please refer to the sections *User Functions and Shell Commands* and *Conditional Commands* for details. A word of warning: during execution of complex functions, fvwm needs to take all input from the mouse pointer (the pointer is "grabbed" in the slang of X). No other programs can receive any input from the pointer while a function is run. This can confuse some programs. For example, the xwd program refuses to make screen shots when run from a complex function. To achieve the same functionality you can use the *Read* or *PipeRead* command instead. == LIST OF FVWM COMMANDS The command descriptions below are grouped together in the following sections. The sections are hopefully sorted in order of usefulness to the newcomer. * *Menu commands* * *Miscellaneous commands* * *Commands affecting window movement and placement* * *Commands for focus and mouse movement* * *Commands controlling window state* * *Commands for mouse and key bindings* * *The Style command (controlling window styles)* * *Other commands controlling window styles* * *Commands controlling the virtual desktop* * *Commands for user functions and shell commands* * *Conditional commands* * *Module commands* * *Quit, restart and session management commands* * *Colorsets* * *Color gradients* === Menus Before a menu can be opened, it has to be populated with menu items using the *AddToMenu* command and bound to a key or mouse button with the *Key*, *PointerKey* or *Mouse* command (there are many other ways to invoke a menu too). This is usually done in the configuration file. Fvwm menus are extremely configurable in look and feel. Even the slightest nuances can be changed to the user's liking, including the menu item fonts, the background, delays before popping up sub menus, generating menus dynamically and many other features. Please refer to the *MenuStyle* command to learn more. *Types of Menus*:: In fvwm there are four slightly different types of menus: + *Popup* menus can appear everywhere on the screen on their own or attached to a part of a window. The *Popup* command opens popup menus. If the popup menu was invoked with a mouse button held down, it is closed when the button is released. The item under the pointer is then activated and the associated action is executed. + *Menu* is a very similar command, but the menus it opens are slightly less transient. When invoked by clicking a mouse button, it stays open and can be navigated with no button held. But if it is invoked by a button press followed by mouse motion, it behaves exactly like a popup menu. + _Tear off menus_ or _Pin up menus_ are menus from either of the above two commands that have been "torn off" their original context and pinned on the desktop like a normal window. They are created from other menus by certain key presses or mouse sequences or with the *TearMenuOff* command from inside a menu. + _Sub menus_ are menus inside menus. When a menu item that has the *Popup* command as its action is selected, the named menu is opened as an inferior menu to the parent. Any type of menu can have sub menus. *Menu Anatomy*:: Menus consist of any number of titles which are inactive menu items that usually appear at the top of the menu, normal items triggering various actions when selected, separator lines between the items, tear off bars (a horizontal broken line) that tear off the menu when selected, and sub menu items indicated with a triangle pointing left or right, depending on the direction in which the sub menu appears. All the above menu items are optional. + Additionally, if the menu is too long to fit on the screen, the excess menu items are put in a continuation menu and a sub menu with the string "More..." is placed at the bottom of the menu. The "More..." string honors the locale settings. + Finally, there may be a picture running up either side of the menu (a "side bar"). *Menu Navigation*:: Menus can be navigated either with the keyboard or with the mouse. Many people prefer to use the mouse, but it can be rather tedious. Once you get the hang of it, keyboard navigation can be much faster. While fvwm displays a menu, it can do nothing else. For example, new windows do not appear before the menu is closed. However, this is not exactly true for tear off menus. See the *Tear Off Menus* section for details. *Mouse Navigation*:: Moving the pointer over a menu selects the item below it. Normally this is indicated by a 3d border around the item, but not all parts of a menu can be selected. Pressing any mouse button while a menu is open by default activates the item below it. Items of a popup menu are also activated by releasing a held mouse button. In case of an item that hides a sub menu, the sub menu is displayed if the pointer hovers over the item long enough or moves close to the triangle indicating the sub menu. This behaviour can be tuned with menu styles. + Scrolling a mouse wheel over a menu either wraps the pointer along the menu (default), scrolls the menu under the pointer or act as if the menu was clicked depending on the _MouseWheel_ menu style. + Clicking on a selected item activates it - what happens exactly depends on the type of the item. + Clicking on a title, a separator, the side bar, or outside the menu closes the menu (exception: tear off menus can not be closed this way). Pressing mouse button 2 over a menu title or activating a tear off bar creates a tear off menu from the current menu. Clicking on a normal menu item invokes the command that is bound to it, and clicking on a sub menu item either closes all open menus and replaces them with the sub menu or posts the menu (default). + Posting menus is meant to ease mouse navigation. Once a sub menu is posted, only items from that sub menu can be selected. This can be very useful to navigate the menu if the pointer tends to stray off the menu. To unpost the menu and revert back to normal operation, either click on the same sub menu item or press any key. *Keyboard Navigation*:: Just like with mouse navigation, the item below the pointer is selected. This is achieved by warping the pointer to the menu items when necessary. While a menu is open, all key presses are intercepted by the menu. No other application can get keyboard input (although this is not the case for tear off menus). + Items can be selected directly by pressing a hotkey that can be configured individually for each menu item. The hotkey is indicated by underlining it in the menu item label. With the _AutomaticHotkeys_ menu style fvwm automatically assigns hotkeys to all menu items. + The most basic keys to navigate through menus are the cursor keys (move up or down one item, enter or leave a sub menu), + (activate item) and + (close menu). Numerous other keys can be used to navigate through menus by default: + _Enter_, _Return_, _Space_ activate the current item. + _Escape_, _Delete_, _Ctrl-G_ exit the current sequence of menus or destroy a tear off menu. + _J_, _N_, _Cursor-Down_, _Tab_, _Meta-Tab_, _Ctrl-F_, move to the next item. + _K_, _P_, _Cursor-Up_, _Shift-Tab_, _Shift-Meta-Tab_, _Ctrl-B_, move to the prior item. + _L_, _Cursor-Right_, _F_ enter a sub menu. + _H_, _Cursor-Left_, _B_ return to the prior menu. + _Ctrl-Cursor-Up_, _Ctrl-K_ _Ctrl-P_, _Shift-Ctrl-Meta-Tab_, _Page-Up_ move up five items. + _Ctrl-Cursor-Down_, _Ctrl-J_ _Ctrl-N_, _Ctrl-Meta-Tab_ _Page-Down_ move down five items. + _Shift-P_, _Home_, _Shift-Cursor-Up_, _Ctrl-A_ move to the first item. + _Shift-N_, _End_, _Shift-Cursor-Down_, _Ctrl-E_ move to the last item. + _Meta-P_, _Meta-Cursor-Up_, _Ctrl-Cursor-Left_, _Shift-Ctrl-Tab_, move up just below the next separator. + _Meta-N_, _Meta-Cursor-Down_, _Ctrl-Cursor-Right_, _Ctrl-Tab_, move down just below the next separator. + _Insert_ opens the "More..." sub menu if any. + _Backspace_ tears off the menu. *Menu Bindings*:: The keys and mouse buttons used to navigate the menu can be configured using the *Key* and *Mouse* commands with the special context 'M', possible combined with 'T' for the menu title, 'I' for other menu items, 'S' for any border or sidepic, '[' for left border including a left sidepic, ']' for right border including a right sidepic, '-' for top border, '_' for bottom border. The menu context uses its own set of actions that can be bound to keys and mouse buttons. These are _MenuClose_, _MenuCloseAndExec_, _MenuEnterContinuation_, _MenuEnterSubmenu_, _MenuLeaveSubmenu_, _MenuMoveCursor_, _MenuCursorLeft_, _MenuCursorRight_, _MenuSelectItem_, _MenuScroll_ and _MenuTearOff_. + It is not possible to override the key Escape with no modifiers for closing the menu. Neither is it possible to undefine mouse button 1, the arrow keys or the enter key for minimal navigation. + *MenuClose* exits from the current sequence of menus or destroys a tear off menu. + *MenuCloseAndExec* exits from the current sequence of menus or destroys a tear off menu and executes the rest of the line as a command. + *MenuEnterContinuation* opens the "More..." sub menu if any. + *MenuEnterSubmenu* enters a sub menu. + *MenuLeaveSubmenu* returns to the prior menu. + *MenuMoveCursor* _n_ [_m_] moves the selection to another item. If the first argument is zero the second argument specifies an absolute item in the menu to move the pointer to. Negative items are counted from the end of the menu. If the first argument is non-zero, the second argument must be omitted, and the first argument specifies a relative change in the selected item. The positions may be suffixed with a 's' to indicate that the items should refer only to the first items after separators. + *MenuCursorLeft* enters a sub menu with the _SubmenusLeft_ menu style, and returns to the prior menu with the _SubmenusRight_ menu style. + *MenuCursorRight* enters a sub menu with the _SubmenusRight_ menu style, and returns to the prior menu with the _SubmenusLeft_ menu style. + *MenuSelectItem* triggers the action for the menu item. + **MenuScroll **__n__ performs menu scrolling according to the _MouseWheel_ menu style with _n_ items. The distance can be suffixed with an 's' to indicate the items should refer only to the first items after separators. + *MenuTearOff* turns a normal menu into a "torn off" menu. See *Tear Off Menus* for details. *Tear Off Menus*:: A tear off menu is any menu that has been "torn off" the window it was attached to and pinned to the root window. There are three ways to tear off a menu: click on the menu title with mouse button 2, press + in the menu or activate its tear off bar (a horizontal bar with a broken line). Tear off bars must be added to the menu as any other item by assigning them the command *TearMenuOff*. + The builtin tear off actions can be overridden by undefining the builtin menu actions bound to tear off. To remove the builtin mouse button 2 binding, use: + .... Mouse 2 MT A - .... + and to remove the builtin backspace binding, use: + .... Key Backspace M A - .... + See the section *Menu Bindings* for details on how to assign other bindings for tear off. + Note that prior to fvwm 2.5.20 the tear off mouse bindings were redefined in different way, which no longer work. + The window containing the menu is placed as any other window would be. If you find it confusing to have your tear off menus appear at random positions on the screen, put this line in your configuration file: + .... Style fvwm_menu UsePPosition .... + To remove borders and buttons from a tear-off menu but keep the menu title, you can use + .... Style fvwm_menu !Button 0, !Button 1 Style fvwm_menu !Button 2, !Button 3 Style fvwm_menu !Button 4, !Button 5 Style fvwm_menu !Button 6, !Button 7 Style fvwm_menu !Button 8, !Button 9 Style fvwm_menu Title, HandleWidth 0 .... + A tear off menu is a cross breeding between a window and a menu. The menu is swallowed by a window and its title is stripped off and displayed in the window title. The main advantage is that the menu becomes permanent - activating an item does not close the menu. Therefore, it can be used multiple times without reopening it. To destroy such a menu, close its window or press the Escape key. + Tear off menus behave somewhat differently than normal menus and windows. They do not take the keyboard focus, but while the pointer is over one of them, all key presses are sent to the menu. Other fvwm key bindings are disabled as long as the pointer is inside the tear off menu or one of its sub menus. When the pointer leaves this area, all sub menus are closed immediately. Note that the window containing a tear off menu is never hilighted as if it had the focus. + A tear off menu is an independent copy of the menu it originated from. As such, it is not affected by adding items to that menu or changing its menu style. + To create a tear off menu without opening the normal menu first, the option _TearOffImmediately_ can be added to the *Menu* or *Popup* command. *AddToMenu* _menu-name_ [_menu-label_ _action_]:: Begins or adds to a menu definition. Typically a menu definition looks like this: + .... AddToMenu Utilities Utilities Title + Xterm Exec exec xterm -e tcsh + Rxvt Exec exec rxvt + "Remote Logins" Popup Remote-Logins + Top Exec exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top + Calculator Exec exec xcalc + Xman Exec exec xman + Xmag Exec exec xmag + emacs Exec 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 _config_ file. The quoted (or first word) portion in the above examples is the menu label, which appears in the menu when the user pops it up. The remaining portion is an fvwm command which is executed if the user selects that menu item. An empty menu-label ("") and the *Nop* function are used to insert a separator into the menu. + The keywords _DynamicPopUpAction_ and _DynamicPopDownAction_ have a special meaning when used as the name of a menu item. The action following the keyword is executed whenever the menu is popped up or down. This way you can implement dynamic menus. It is even possible to destroy itself with *DestroyMenu* and the rebuild from scratch. When the menu has been destroyed (unless you used the _recreate_ option when destroying the menu), do not forget to add the dynamic action again. + Note: Do not trigger actions that require user interaction. They may fail and may screw up your menus. See the *Silent* command. + *Warning* Do not issue *MenuStyle* commands as dynamic menu actions. Chances are good that this crashes fvwm. + The keyword _Greyed_ will still render the menu item, but will grey it out making the option unselectable. + There are several configurable scripts installed together with fvwm for automatic menu generation. They have their own man pages. Some of them, specifically *fvwm-menu-directory* and *fvwm-menu-desktop*, may be used with _DynamicPopupAction_ to create a directory listing or GNOME/KDE application listing. + Example (File browser): + .... # You can find the shell script fvwm_make_browse_menu.sh # in the utils/ directory of the distribution. AddToMenu BrowseMenu + DynamicPopupAction PipeRead \ 'fvwm_make_browse_menu.sh BrowseMenu' .... + Example (Picture menu): + .... # Build a menu of all .jpg files in # $HOME/Pictures AddToMenu JpgMenu foo title + DynamicPopupAction Function MakeJpgMenu AddToFunc MakeJpgMenu + I DestroyMenu recreate JpgMenu + I AddToMenu JpgMenu Pictures Title + I PipeRead 'for i in $HOME/Pictures/*.jpg; \ do echo AddToMenu JpgMenu "`basename $i`" Exec xv $i; done' .... + The keyword _MissingSubmenuFunction_ has a similar meaning. It is executed whenever you try to pop up a sub menu that does not exist. With this function you can define and destroy menus on the fly. You can use any command after the keyword, but if the name of an item (that is a submenu) defined with *AddToFunc* follows it, fvwm executes this command: + .... Function .... + i.e. the name is passed to the function as its first argument and can be referred to with "$0". + The *fvwm-menu-directory* script mentioned above may be used with _MissingSubmenuFunction_ to create an up to date recursive directory listing. + Example: + .... # There is another shell script fvwm_make_directory_menu.sh # in the utils/ directory of the distribution. To use it, # define this function in your configuration file: DestroyFunc MakeMissingDirectoryMenu AddToFunc MakeMissingDirectoryMenu + I PipeRead fvwm_make_directory_menu.sh $0 DestroyMenu SomeMenu AddToMenu SomeMenu + MissingSubmenuFunction MakeMissingDirectoryMenu + "Root directory" Popup / .... + This is another implementation of the file browser that uses sub menus for subdirectories. + Titles can be used within the menu. If you add the option _top_ behind the keyword *Title*, the title is added to the top of the menu. If there was a title already, it is overwritten. + .... AddToMenu Utilities Tools Title top .... + All text up to the first Tab in the menu label is aligned to the left side of t the menu, all text right of the first is aligned to the left in a second column and all text thereafter is placed right aligned in the third column. All other s are replaced by spaces. Note that you can change this format with the _ItemFormat_ option of the *MenuStyle* command. + If the menu-label contains an ampersand ('&'), the next character is taken as a hot-key for the menu item. Hot-keys are underlined in the label. To get a literal '&', insert "&&". Pressing the hot-key moves through the list of menu items with this hot-key or selects an item that is the only one with this hot-key. + 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 image file to insert in the menu. To get a literal '*', insert "**". For example + .... + Calculator*xcalc.xpm* Exec exec xcalc .... + inserts a menu item labeled "Calculator" with a picture of a calculator above it. The following: + .... + *xcalc.xpm* Exec 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 image file (a so called mini icon to insert to the left of the menu label. A second mini icon that is drawn at the right side of the menu can be given in the same way. To get a literal '%', insert "%%". For example + .... + Calculator%xcalc.xpm% Exec exec xcalc .... + inserts a menu item labeled "Calculator" with a picture of a calculator to the left. The following: + .... + %xcalc.xpm% Exec exec xcalc .... + Omits the "Calculator" label, but leaves the picture. The pictures used with this feature should be small (perhaps 16x16). + If the menu-name (not the label) contains a sub-string which is set off by at signs ('@'), then the text between them is expected to be the name of an image file to draw along the left side of the menu (a side pixmap). You may want to use the _SidePic_ option of the *MenuStyle* command instead. To get a literal '@', insert "@@". For example + .... AddToMenu StartMenu@linux-menu.xpm@ .... + creates a menu with a picture in its bottom left corner. + If the menu-name also contains a sub-string surrounded by '^'s, then the text between '^'s is expected to be the name of an X11 color and the column containing the side picture is colored with that color. You can set this color for a menu style using the _SideColor_ option of the *MenuStyle* command. To get a literal '^', insert "^^". Example: + .... AddToMenu StartMenu@linux-menu.xpm@^blue^ .... + creates a menu with a picture in its bottom left corner and colors with blue the region of the menu containing the picture. + In all the above cases, the name of the resulting menu is name specified, stripped of the substrings between the various delimiters. *ChangeMenuStyle* _menustyle_ _menu_ ...:: Changes the menu style of _menu_ to _menustyle_. You may specify more than one menu in each call of *ChangeMenuStyle*. *CopyMenuStyle* _orig-menustyle_ _dest-menustyle_:: Copy _orig-menustyle_ to _dest-menustyle_, where _orig-menustyle_ is an existing menu style. If the menu style _dest_menustyle_ does not exist, then it is created. *DestroyMenu* [recreate] _menu_:: 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*. The optional parameter _recreate_ tells fvwm not to throw away the menu completely but to throw away all the menu items (including the title). + .... DestroyMenu Utilities .... *DestroyMenuStyle* _menustyle_:: Deletes the menu style named _menustyle_ and changes all menus using this style to the default style, you cannot destroy the default menu style. + .... DestroyMenuStyle pixmap1 .... *Menu* _menu-name_ [_position_] [_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 stays up. The command _double-click-action_ is invoked if the user double-clicks a button (or hits the key rapidly twice if the menu is bound to a key) when bringing up the menu. If the double click action is not specified, double clicking on the menu does nothing. However, if the menu begins with a menu item (i.e. not with a title or a separator) and the double click action is not given, double clicking invokes the first item of the menu (but only if the pointer really was over the item). + The pointer is warped to where it was when the menu was invoked if it was both invoked and closed with a keystroke. + The _position_ arguments allow placement of the menu somewhere on the screen, for example centered on the visible screen or above a title bar. Basically it works like this: you specify a _context-rectangle_ and an offset to this rectangle by which the upper left corner of the menu is moved from the upper left corner of the rectangle. The _position_ arguments consist of several parts: + {empty}[_context-rectangle_] _x_ _y_ [_special-options_] + The _context-rectangle_ can be one of: + _Root_::: the root window of the current screen. + _Mouse_::: a 1x1 rectangle at the mouse position. + _Window_::: the frame of the context window. + _Interior_::: the inside of the context window. + _Title_::: the title of the context window or icon. + __Button__::: + _Icon_::: the icon of the context window. + _Menu_::: the current menu. + _Item_::: the current menu item. + _Context_::: the current window, menu or icon. + _This_::: whatever widget the pointer is on (e.g. a corner of a window or the root window). + _Rectangle_ <__geometry__>::: the rectangle defined by <__geometry__> in X geometry format. Width and height default to 1 if omitted. If the context-rectangle is omitted or illegal (e.g. "item" on a window), "Mouse" is the default. Note that not all of these make sense under all circumstances (e.g. "Icon" if the pointer is on a menu). The offset values _x_ and _y_ specify how far the menu is moved from its default position. By default, the numeric value given is interpreted as a percentage of the context rectangle's width (height), but with a trailing '_m_' the menu's width (height) is used instead. Furthermore a trailing '_p_' changes the interpretation to mean pixels. Instead of a single value you can use a list of values. All additional numbers after the first one are separated from their predecessor by their sign. Do not use any other separators. If _x_ or _y_ are prefixed with "'__o__" where is an integer, the menu and the rectangle are moved to overlap at the specified position before any other offsets are applied. The menu and the rectangle are placed so that the pixel at percent of the rectangle's width/height is right over the pixel at percent of the menu's width/height. So "o0" means that the top/left borders of the menu and the rectangle overlap, with "o100" it's the bottom/right borders and if you use "o50" they are centered upon each other (try it and you will see it is much simpler than this description). The default is "o0". The prefix "o" is an abbreviation for "+-m". A prefix of '_c_' is equivalent to "o50". Examples: .... # window list in the middle of the screen WindowList Root c c # menu to the left of a window Menu name window -100m c+0 # popup menu 8 pixels above the mouse pointer Popup name mouse c -100m-8p # somewhere on the screen Menu name rectangle 512x384+1+1 +0 +0 # centered vertically around a menu item AddToMenu foobar-menu + "first item" Nop + "special item" Popup "another menu" item +100 c + "last item" Nop # above the first menu item AddToMenu foobar-menu + "first item" Popup "another menu" item +0 -100m .... Note that you can put a sub menu far off the current menu so you could not reach it with the mouse without leaving the menu. If the pointer leaves the current menu in the general direction of the sub menu the menu stays up. The _special-options_: To create a tear off menu without opening the normal menu, add the option _TearOffImmediately_. Normally the menu opens in normal state for a split second before being torn off. As tearing off places the menu like any other window, a position should be specified explicitly: .... # Forbid fvwm to place the menu window Style UsePPosition # Menu at top left corner of screen Menu Root 0p 0p TearOffImmediately .... The _Animated_ and _Mwm_ or _Win_ menu styles may move a menu somewhere else on the screen. If you do not want this you can add _Fixed_ as an option. This might happen for example if you want the menu always in the top right corner of the screen. Where do you want a menu to appear when you click on its menu item? The default is to place the title under the cursor, but if you want it where the position arguments say, use the _SelectInPlace_ option. If you want the pointer on the title of the menu, use _SelectWarp_ too. Note that these options apply only if the _PopupAsRootMenu_ *MenuStyle* option is used. The pointer is warped to the title of a sub menu whenever the pointer would be on an item when the sub menu is popped up (_fvwm_ menu style) or never warped to the title at all (_Mwm_ or _Win_ menu styles). You can force (forbid) warping whenever the sub menu is opened with the _WarpTitle_ (_NoWarp_) option. Note that the _special-options_ do work with a normal menu that has no other position arguments. *MenuStyle* _stylename_ [_options_]:: Sets a new menu style or changes a previously defined style. The _stylename_ is the style name; if it contains spaces or tabs it has to be quoted. The name "*" is reserved for the default menu style. The default menu style is used for every menu-like object (e.g. the window created by the *WindowList* command) that had not be assigned a style using the *ChangeMenuStyle*. See also *DestroyMenuStyle*. When using monochrome color options are ignored. _options_ is a comma separated list containing some of the keywords Fvwm / Mwm / Win, BorderWidth, Foreground, Background, Greyed, HilightBack / !HilightBack, HilightTitleBack, ActiveFore / !ActiveFore, MenuColorset, ActiveColorset, GreyedColorset, TitleColorset, Hilight3DThick / Hilight3DThin / Hilight3DOff, Hilight3DThickness, Animation / !Animation, Font, TitleFont, MenuFace, PopupDelay, PopupOffset, TitleWarp / !TitleWarp, TitleUnderlines0 / TitleUnderlines1 / TitleUnderlines2, SeparatorsLong / SeparatorsShort, TrianglesSolid / TrianglesRelief, PopupImmediately / PopupDelayed, PopdownImmediately / PopdownDelayed, PopupActiveArea, DoubleClickTime, SidePic, SideColor, PopupAsRootMenu / PopupAsSubmenu / PopupIgnore / PopupClose, RemoveSubmenus / HoldSubmenus, SubmenusRight / SubmenusLeft, SelectOnRelease, ItemFormat, VerticalItemSpacing, VerticalMargins, VerticalTitleSpacing, AutomaticHotkeys / !AutomaticHotkeys, UniqueHotkeyActivatesImmediate / !UniqueHotkeyActivatesImmediate, MouseWheel, ScrollOffPage / !ScrollOffPage, TrianglesUseFore / !TrianglesUseFore. In the above list some options are listed as option pairs or triples with a '/' in between. These options exclude each other. All paired options can be negated to have the effect of the counterpart option by prefixing ! to the option. Some options are now negated by prefixing ! to the option. This is the preferred form for all such options. The other negative forms are now deprecated and will be removed in the future. This is a list of MenuStyle deprecated negative options: ActiveForeOff, AnimationOff, AutomaticHotkeysOff, HilightBackOff, TitleWarpOff _Fvwm_, _Mwm_, _Win_ reset all options to the style with the same name in former versions of fvwm. The default for new menu styles is _Fvwm_ style. These options override all others except _Foreground_, _Background_, _Greyed_, _HilightBack_, _ActiveFore_ and _PopupDelay_, so they should be used only as the first option specified for a menu style or to reset the style to defined behavior. The same effect can be created by setting all the other options one by one. _Mwm_ and _Win_ style menus popup sub menus automatically. _Win_ menus indicate the current menu item by changing the background to dark. _Fvwm_ sub menus overlap the parent menu, _Mwm_ and _Win_ style menus never overlap the parent menu. _Fvwm_ style is equivalent to !HilightBack, Hilight3DThin, !ActiveFore, !Animation, Font, MenuFace, PopupOffset 0 67, TitleWarp, TitleUnderlines1, SeparatorsShort, TrianglesRelief, PopupDelayed, PopdownDelayed, PopupDelay 150, PopdownDelay 150, PopupAsSubmenu, HoldSubmenus, SubmenusRight, BorderWidth 2, !AutomaticHotkeys, UniqueHotkeyActivatesImmediate, PopupActiveArea 75. _Mwm_ style is equivalent to !HilightBack, Hilight3DThick, !ActiveFore, !Animation, Font, MenuFace, PopupOffset -3 100, !TitleWarp, TitleUnderlines2, SeparatorsLong, TrianglesRelief, PopupImmediately, PopdownDelayed, PopdownDelay 150, PopupAsSubmenu, HoldSubmenus, SubmenusRight, BorderWidth 2, UniqueHotkeyActivatesImmediate, !AutomaticHotkeys, PopupActiveArea 75. _Win_ style is equivalent to HilightBack, Hilight3DOff, ActiveFore, !Animation, Font, MenuFace, PopupOffset -5 100, !TitleWarp, TitleUnderlines1, SeparatorsShort, TrianglesSolid, PopupImmediately, PopdownDelayed, PopdownDelay 150, PopupAsSubmenu, RemoveSubmenus, SubmenusRight, BorderWidth 2, UniqueHotkeyActivatesImmediate, !AutomaticHotkeys, PopupActiveArea 75. _BorderWidth_ takes the thickness of the border around the menus in pixels. It may be zero to 50 pixels. The default is 2. Using an illegal value reverts the border width to the default. _Foreground_ and _Background_ may have a color name as an argument. This color is used for menu text or the menu's background. You can omit the color name to reset these colors to the built-in default. _Greyed_ may have a color name as an argument. This 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. If the color is omitted the color of greyed menu entries is based on the background color of the menu. _HilightBack_ and _!HilightBack_ switch hilighting the background of the selected menu item on and off. A specific background color may be used by providing the color name as an argument to _HilightBack_. If you use this option without an argument the color is based on the menu's background color. The _ActiveColorset_ option overrides the specified color. If the colorset has a non solid background it is used for the hilighting. _HilightTitleBack_ switches hilighting the background of menu titles on. If a _TitleColorset_ was used, the background colour is taken from there. Otherwise the color is based on the menu's background color. If the colorset has a non solid background it is used for the hilighting. _ActiveFore_ and _!ActiveFore_ switch hilighting the foreground of the selected menu item on and off. A specific foreground color may be used by providing the color name as an argument to _ActiveFore_. Omitting the color turns hilighting on when an _ActiveColorset_ is used. _ActiveFore_ turns off hilighting the foreground completely. The _ActiveColorset_ option overrides the specified color. _MenuColorset_ controls if a colorset is used instead of the _Foreground_, _Background_ and _MenuFace_ menu styles. If the _MenuColorset_ keyword is followed by a number equal to zero or greater, this number is taken as the number of the colorset to use. If the number is omitted, the colorset is switched off and the regular menu styles are used again. The foreground and background colors of the menu items are replaced by the colors from the colorset. If the colorset has a pixmap defined, this pixmap is used as the background of the menu. Note that the _MenuFace_ menu style has been optimized for memory consumption and may use less memory than the background from a colorset. The shape mask from the colorset is used to shape the menu. Please refer to the *Colorsets* section for details about colorsets. _ActiveColorset_ works exactly like _MenuColorset_, but the foreground from the colorset replaces the color given with the _ActiveFore_ menu style and the colorset's background color replaces the color given with the _HilightBack_ command (to turn on background hilighting you have to use the _HilightBack_ menu style too). If specified, the hilight and shadow colors from the colorset are used too. The pixmap and shape mask from the colorset are not used. Hilighting the background or foreground can be turned off individually with the _!ActiveFore_ or _!HilightBack_ menu styles. _GreyedColorset_ works exactly like _MenuColorset_, but the foreground from the colorset replaces the color given with the _Greyed_ menu style. No other parts of the colorset are used. _TitleColorset_ works exactly like _MenuColorset_, but is used only for menu titles. _Hilight3DThick_, _Hilight3DThin_ and _Hilight3DOff_ determine if the selected menu item is hilighted with a 3D relief. Thick reliefs are two pixels wide, thin reliefs are one pixel wide. _Hilight3DThickness_ takes one numeric argument that may be between -50 and +50 pixels. With negative values the menu item gets a pressed in look. The above three commands are equivalent to a thickness of 2, 1 and 0. _Animation_ and _!Animation_ turn menu animation on or off. When animation is on, sub menus that do not fit on the screen cause the parent menu to be shifted to the left so the sub menu can be seen. _Font_ and _TitleFont_ take a font name as an argument. If a font by this name exists it is used for the text of all menu items. If it does not exist or if the name is left blank the built-in default is used. If a _TitleFont_ is given, it is used for all menu titles instead of the normal font. _MenuFace_ enforces a fancy background upon the menus. You can use the same options for _MenuFace_ as for the *ButtonStyle*. See description of *ButtonStyle* command and the *Color Gradients* sections for more information. If you use _MenuFace_ without arguments the style is reverted back to normal. Some examples of MenuFaces are: .... MenuFace DGradient 128 2 lightgrey 50 blue 50 white MenuFace TiledPixmap texture10.xpm MenuFace HGradient 128 2 Red 40 Maroon 60 White MenuFace Solid Maroon .... Note: The gradient styles H, V, B and D are optimized for high speed and low memory consumption in menus. This is not the case for all the other gradient styles. They may be slow and consume huge amounts of memory, so if you encounter performance problems with them you may be better off by not using them. To improve performance you can try one or all of the following: Turn hilighting of the active menu item other than foreground color off: .... MenuStyle