NAME
fvwm1 - F(?) Virtual Window Manager for X11, version 1.x
SYNOPSIS
fvwm1 [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
Fvwm is a window manager for X11. It is a derivative of twm, redesigned
to minimize memory consumption, provide a 3-D look to window frames,
and provide a simple virtual desktop. Memory consumption is estimated
at about one-half to one-third the memory consumption of twm, due
primarily to a redesign of twm’s method of storing mouse bindings. In
addition, many of the configurable options of twm have been removed.
The name "FVWM" used to stand for something, but I forgot what.
(Feeble, famous, foobar? It doesn’t really matter, this is an acronym
based society anyway.)
STATUS OF THIS SOFTWARE
Since the release of FVWM 2.2 in March 1999, this release is officially
deprecated and no longer supported. Please do not report any bugs in
this software. Also, for Debian users, the module manpages for this
release of FVWM will be found as FvwmAudio1(1x) etc.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR XFREE86 USERS
XFree86 provides a virtual screen whose operation can be confusing when
used in conjunction with fvwm. With XFree86 all windows which appear on
the virtual screen actually get drawn into video memory (whether or not
they appear on the physical screen), so the virtual screen size is
limited by available video memory.
With fvwm’s virtual desktop, windows which do not appear on the screen
do not actually get drawn into video RAM. The size of the virtual
desktop is limited to about 32,000 by 32,000 pixels, but it is probably
impractical to use a virtual desktop more than about 5 times the
visible screen in each direction. Note that memory usage is a function
of the number of windows which exist - the size of the desktop makes no
difference.
When becoming familiar with fvwm it is recommended that you disable
XFree86’s virtual screen by setting the virtual screen size to the
physical screen size. After you become familiar with fvwm you may want
to re-enable XFree86’s virtual screen.
COPYRIGHTS
Since fvwm is derived from twm code it shares twm’s copyrights.
fvwm is copyright 1988 by Evans and Sutherland Computer Corporation,
Salt Lake City, Utah, and 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, All rights reserved. It is also
copyright 1993 and 1994 by Robert Nation.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
supporting documentation, and that the names of Evans & Sutherland and
M.I.T. not be used in advertising in publicity pertaining to
distribution of the software without specific, written prior
permission.
ROBERT NATION, EVANS & SUTHERLAND, AND M.I.T. DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES
WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL EVANS & SUTHERLAND OR
M.I.T. BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR
ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTUOUS ACTION,
ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS
SOFTWARE.
ANATOMY OF A WINDOW
Fvwm puts a decorative border around most windows. This border consists
of a bar on each side and a small "L" shaped section on each corner.
There is an additional top bar called the title bar which is used to
display the name of the window. In addition, there are up to 10 title-
bar buttons. The top, side, and bottom bars are collectively known as
the side-bars. The corner pieces are called the frame.
Unless the standard defaults files are modified, pressing mouse button
1 in the title or side-bars will begin a move operation on the window.
Pressing button 1 in the corner frame pieces will begin a resize
operation. Pressing button 2 anywhere in the border brings up an
extensive list of window operations.
Up to ten title-bar buttons may exist. Their use is completely user
definable. The default configuration has a title-bar button on each
side of the title-bar. The one on the left is used to bring up a list
of window options, regardless of which mouse button is used. The one on
the right is used to iconify the window. The number of title-bar
buttons used depends on which ones have mouse actions bound to them.
See the section on the "Mouse" configuration parameter below.
THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP
Fvwm provides multiple virtual desktops for users who wish to use them.
The screen is a viewport onto a desktop which may be larger than the
screen. Several distinct desktops can be accessed (concept: one desktop
for each project, or one desktop for each application, when view
applications are distinct). Since each desktop can be larger than the
physical screen, windows which are larger than the screen or large
groups of related windows can easily be viewed.
The size of the virtual desktops can be specified at start-up. All
virtual desktops must be the same size. The total number of distinct
desktops need not be specified, but is limited to approximately 4
billion total. All windows on the current desktop can be displayed in a
Pager, a miniature view of the current desktop. Windows which are not
on the current desktop can be listed, along with their geometries, in a
window list, accessible as a pop-up menu.
"Sticky" windows are windows which transcend the virtual desktop by
"Sticking to the screen’s glass." They always stay put on the screen.
This is convenient for things like clocks and xbiff’s, so you only need
to run one such gadget and it always stays with you.
Window geometries are specified relative to the current viewport. That
is:
xterm -geometry +0+0
will always show up in the upper-left hand corner of the visible
portion of the screen. It is permissible to specify geometries which
place windows on the virtual desktop, but off the screen. For example,
if the visible screen is 1000 by 1000 pixels, and the desktop size is
3x3, and the current viewport is at the upper left hand corner of the
desktop, then invoking:
xterm -geometry +1000+1000
will place the window just off of the lower right hand corner of the
screen. It can be found by moving the mouse to the lower right hand
corner of the screen and waiting for it to scroll into view. There is
currently no way to cause a window to map onto a desktop other than the
currently active desk.
A geometry specified as something like:
xterm -geometry -5-5
will generally place the window’s lower right hand corner 5 pixels from
the lower right corner of the visible portion of the screen. Not all
applications support window geometries with negative offsets.
Some applications, like xterm and xfontsel, allow the user to specify
the start-up desk on the command line:
xterm -xrm "*Desk:1"
will start an xterm on desk number 1. Not all applications understand
this option, however.
INITIALIZATION
During initialization, fvwm will search for a configuration file which
describes key and button bindings, and a few other things. The format
of these files will be described later. First, fvwm will search for a
file named .fvwmrc in the users home directory. Failing that, it will
look for /etc/X11/fvwm/system.fvwmrc for system-wide defaults. If that
file is not found, fvwm will exit.
Fvwm will set two environment variables which will be inherited by its
children. These are $DISPLAY which describes the display on which fvwm
is running. $DISPLAY may be unix:0.0 or :0.0, which doesn’t work too
well when passed through rsh to another machine, so $HOSTDISPLAY will
also be set and will use a network-ready description of the display.
$HOSTDISPLAY will always use the TCP/IP transport protocol (even for a
local connection) so $DISPLAY should be used for local connections, as
it may use Unix-domain sockets, which are faster.
SHAPED WINDOWS
If you typically use shaped windows such as xeyes or oclock, you have
several options. You can make them all undecorated (NoBorder oclock and
NoTitle oclock, for example) or you can use the default configuration
and leave them decorated, in which case a decorative border and a
solid-color backdrop are shown. Alternately, you can compile in the
SHAPE extensions by changing a flag in the Makefile, in which case you
get the shaped window with no backdrop, and a title bar floats above
the window. The shaped window extensions increase the window manager’s
memory consumption by about 60 Kbytes when no shaped windows are
present but have little effect when shaped windows are present.
ICONS
The basic Fvwm configuration uses monochrome bitmap icons, similar to
twm. If XPM extensions are compiled in, then color icons similar to
ctwm, MS-Windows, or the Macintosh icons can be used. In order to use
these options you will need the XPM package, as described in the
Makefile.noImake and the Imakefile.
If both the SHAPE and XPM options are compiled in you will get shaped
color icons, which are very spiffy.
MODULES
A module is a separate program which runs as a separate Unix process
but transmits commands to fvwm to execute. Future releases are expected
to provide a means for these modules to extract window information from
fvwm. Users can write their own modules to do any weird or bizarre
manipulations without affecting the integrity of fvwm itself.
Modules MUST be spawned by fvwm so that it can set up two pipes for
fvwm and the module to communicate with. The pipes will already be open
for the module when it starts and the file descriptors for the pipes
are provided as command line arguments.
Modules can be spawned during fvwm initialization via the Module
option, or at any time during the X session by use of the Module built-
in. Modules can exist for the duration of the X session, or can perform
a single task and exit. If the module is still active when fvwm is told
to quit, then fvwm will close the communication pipes and wait to
receive a SIGCHLD from the module, indicating that it has detected the
pipe closure and has exited. If modules fail to detect the pipe closure
fvwm will exit after approximately 30 seconds anyway. The number of
simultaneously executing modules is limited by the operating system’s
maximum number of simultaneously open files, usually between 60 and
256.
Modules simply transmit text commands to the fvwm built-in command
engine. Text commands are formatted just as in the case of a mouse
binding in the .fvwmrc setup file. Certain auxiliary information is
also transmitted, as in the sample module GoodStuff. The GoodStuff
module is documented in its own man page.
ICCCM COMPLIANCE
Fvwm attempts to be ICCCM 1.1 compliant. As of this (1.20l) colormap
handling is not completely ICCCM compliant. In addition, ICCCM states
that it should be possible for applications to receive ANY keystroke,
which is not consistent with the keyboard shortcut approach used in
fvwm and most other window managers.
M4 PREPROCESSING
If fvwm is compiled with the M4 option, fvwm uses m4(1) to preprocess
its setup files before parsing. This way you can use m4 macros to
perform operations at runtime. This makes it very easy to work with
different displays with different characteristics.
For example, depending on your mood, you might want different color
schemes. One way of doing this is by using the -m4opt to specify your
mood. For a sunny mood use -m4opt -DSunny; for a dark mood use -m4opt
-DDark. Your .fvwmrc file might then contain:
ifdef(‘Sunny’,‘
StdForeColor Black
StdBackColor LightSkyBlue
HiForeColor yellow
HiBackColor PeachPuff1
PagerBackColor BlanchedAlmond ’)
ifdef(‘Dark’,‘
StdForeColor Black
StdBackColor #60a0c0
HiForeColor black
HiBackColor #c06077
PagerBackColor #5c54c0
PagerForeColor orchid
StickyForeColor Black
StickyBackColor #60c0a0 ’)
The following m4 symbols are predefined by fvwm:
BITS_PER_RGB The number of significant bits in an RGB color.
(log base 2 of the number of distinct colors
that can be created. This is often different
from the number of colors that can be displayed
at once.)
CLASS Your visual class. Will return one of
StaticGray, GrayScale, StaticColor,
PseudoColor, TrueColor, DirectColor, or, if it
cannot determine what you have, NonStandard.
CLIENTHOST The machine that is running the clients.
COLOR This will be either ’Yes’ or ’No’. This is
just a wrapper around the CLASS definition.
Returns ’Yes’ on *Color and ’No’ on StaticGray
and GrayScale.
FVWMDIR This is set to the path where the modules were
configured to be installed.
FVWM_VERSION This is a string containing the version of
fvwm.
HEIGHT The height of your display in pixels.
HOME The user’s home directory. Obtained from the
environment.
HOSTNAME The canonical hostname running the clients (ie.
a fully-qualified version of CLIENTHOST).
OPTIONS This is a string of compile time options used.
Each option is separated from the other by a
space.
PLANES The number of bit planes your display supports
in the default root window.
RELEASE The release number of your X server. For MIT
X11R5 this is 5.
REVISION The X minor protocol revision. As seen by
ProtocolRevision(3).
SERVERHOST This variable is set to the name of the machine
that is running the X server.
TWM_TYPE Tells which twm offshoot is running. It will
always be set to the string "fvwm" in this
program. This is useful for protecting parts
of your .twmrc file that fvwm proper won’t
understand (like WorkSpaces) so that it is
still usable with other twm programs.
USER The name of the user running the program.
Obtained from the environment.
VENDOR The vendor of your X server. For example: MIT
X Consortium.
VERSION The X major protocol version. As seen by
ProtocolVersion(3).
WIDTH The width of your display in pixels.
X_RESOLUTION The X resolution of your display in pixels per
meter.
Y_RESOLUTION The Y resolution of your display in pixels per
meter.
You may well find that if you research the m4(1) manual well and
understand the power of m4, this will be a very useful and powerful
tool. But if you use any of the symbols which are predefined by m4,
you are in severe danger! For example, Sun’s m4 predefines include, so
if you use that name in your .fvwmrc, you are out of luck. The correct
solution to this problem is to put a set of quotes around the
troublesome word: ‘include’.
To help alleviate this problem, the following options may be useful.
To change the quoting characters used by m4, use the options -m4-squote
and -m4-equote. Be sure to specify both options otherwise m4 will be
confused. When these are given, a changequote macro is given before
the users fvwmrc file is processed.
NOTE: Some versions of m4 are broken with respect to changing quoting
characters and included files. When the quoting strings are longer
than one character, the macro "include(<<file>>)", where "<<" and ">>"
are the quoting characters, contains extra characters around the
contents of the included file. This will confuse fvwm. SunOS 4.1.3 is
known to have this problem.
If you are using GNU m4 an additional option is available. By
specifying -m4-prefix when starting fvwm, m4 is instructed to prefix
all builtin macros with m4_. Thus, include becomes m4_include.
The availability of the m4 preprocessing is subject to the compilation
define M4.
OPTIONS
These are the command line options that are recoginzed by fvwm:
-f config_file
Causes fvwm to use config_file in the user’s home directory
instead of .fvwmrc as the window manager configuration file.
-debug Puts X transactions in synchronous mode, which dramatically
slows things down, but guarantees that fvwm’s internal error
messages are correct.
-d displayname
Manage the display called "displayname" instead of the name
obtained from the environment variable $DISPLAY.
-s On a multi-screen display, run fvwm only on the screen named in
the $DISPLAY environment variable or provided through the -d
option. Normally, fvwm will attempt to start up on all screens
of a multi-screen display.
-version
Print the version of fvwm to stderr.
The following options are available only if fvwm is compiled with the
M4 option.
-no-m4 Do not use m4 to preprocess the .fvwmrc. The default is to
preprocess the startup file using m4(1).
-m4-prefix
If GNU m4 is available, cause m4 to prefix all builtin commands
with m4_.
-m4opt option
Pass this option to m4. The option can be any string of
characters without spaces. This option can occur multiple
times. If GNU m4 is available, DO NOT pass the -P option here.
Use -m4-prefix instead.
-m4-squote string
Use this given string as the starting quote characters. You
must also specify -m4-equote.
-m4-equote string
Use this given string as the ending quote characters. You must
also specify -m4-squote.
-m4prog path
Use path as the location of the desired m4 processor. By
default, m4prog is set to "m4" which must exist somewhere on the
user’s path. This option allows the user to explicitly choose
the version of m4 to use.
CONFIGURATION FILES
The configuration file is used to describe mouse and button bindings,
colors, the virtual display size, and related items. This section
describes the configuration options. Lines beginning with ’#’ will be
ignored by fvwm. Lines starting with ’*’ are expected to contain module
configuration commands (rather than configuration commands for fvwm
itself).
AppsBackingStore
Causes application windows to request backing store. This option
compromises the ICCCM compliance of the window manager. While
this option can speed things up in an X-terminal, where redraws
of windows are expensive, it may not help much on regular
workstations.
AutoRaise delay
Enables auto-raising of windows and specifies the time delay (in
milliseconds) between when a window acquires the input focus and
when it is automatically raised. This option works in focus-
follows-mouse mode, and in click-to-focus mode if the focus is
changed by clicking in the application window instead of a
decoration window. In click-to-focus mode, you can suppress the
raise-on-focus behavior by specifying a negative delay value.
BackingStore
Causes fvwm decorations to request backing store. See the
discussion on AppsBackingStore.
BoundaryWidth Width
Changes the boundary width on decorated windows to the specified
value. The default is 6 pixels.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying BoundaryWidth.
ButtonStyle button# WidthxHeight
Defines the rectangular decoration shape to be used in a title-
bar button. button# is the title-bar button number, and is
between 0 and 9. A description of title-bar button numbers is
given in the Mouse section below. Width is the percentage of
the full button width which is to be used. Height is the
percentage of the full height to be used. Negative numbers cause
the shading to be inverted.
And that’s not all! If you use a line like:
ButtonStyle : 2 4 50x30@1 70x70@0 30x70@0 50x30@1
then the button 2 decoration will use a 4-point pattern
consisting of a line from (x=50,y=30) to (70,70) in the shadow
color (@0), and then to (30,70) in the shadow color, and finally
to (50,30) in the highlight color (@1). Is that too confusing?
See the sample system.fvwmrc.
CenterOnCirculate
When circulating, the desktop page containing the window which
the pointer is moving to is automatically selected. If
CenterOnCirculate is selected then fvwm will do its best to
center the target window in the desktop viewport, rather than
just lining up to the closest page.
CirculateSkip windowname
Causes windows with the indicated name to be skipped over when
the circulate-up or circulate-down functions are invoked.
windowname can be a window’s name or its class.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying CirculateSkip.
CirculateSkipIcons
Causes circulate and warp operations to skip over iconified
windows.
ClickTime delay
Specifies the maximum delay (in milliseconds) between a button
press and a button release for the Function built-in to consider
the action a mouse click. The default delay is 150 milliseconds.
ClickToFocus
Normally keyboard input goes to the window the mouse pointer is
in. If this option is set the keyboard input stays with one
window until the mouse is clicked with the pointer positioned in
a new window.
Cursor cursor_num cursor_type
This provides a very awkward way of changing cursor styles.
Cursor_num tells which cursor you are changing, and is a number
between 0 and 12, as follows:
0 POSITION - used when initially placing windows.
1 TITLE - used in a window title-bar.
2 DEFAULT - used in windows that don’t set their cursor.
3 SYS - used in one of the title-bar buttons.
4 MOVE - used when moving or resizing windows.
5 WAIT - used during an EXEC builtin command.
6 MENU - used in menus.
7 SELECT - used for various builtin commands such as iconify.
8 DESTROY - used for DESTROY and DELETE built-ins.
9 TOP - used in the top side-bar of a window.
10 RIGHT - used in the right side-bar of a window.
11 BOTTOM - used in the bottom side-bar of a window.
12 LEFT - used in the left side-bar of a window.
13 TOP_LEFT - used in the top left corner of a window.
14 TOP_RIGHT - used in the top right corner of a window.
15 BOTTOM_LEFT - used in the bottom left corner of a window.
16 BOTTOM_RIGHT - used in the bottom right corner of a window.
The cursor_type argument is a number which tells the cursor
shape to use. The available numbers can be found in
/usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h and are currently even numbers
between 0 and 152. At the current time, the following cursor
types are available:
0 X_cursor 2 arrow
4 based_arrow_down 6 based_arrow_up
8 boat 10 bogosity
12 bottom_left_corner 14 bottom_right_corner
16 bottom_side 18 bottom_tee
20 box_spiral 22 center_ptr
24 circle 26 clock
28 coffee_mug 30 cross
32 cross_reverse 34 crosshair
36 diamond_cross 38 dot
40 dotbox 42 double_arrow
44 draft_large 46 draft_small
48 draped_box 50 exchange
52 fleur 54 gobbler
56 gumby 58 hand1
60 hand2 62 heart
64 icon 66 iron_cross
68 left_ptr 70 left_side
72 left_tee 74 leftbutton
76 ll_angle 78 lr_angle
80 man 82 middlebutton
84 mouse 86 pencil
88 pirate 90 plus
92 question_arrow 94 right_ptr
96 right_side 98 right_tee
100 rightbutton 102 rtl_logo
104 sailboat 106 sb_down_arrow
108 sb_h_double_arrow 110 sb_left_arrow
112 sb_right_arrow 114 sb_up_arrow
116 sb_v_double_arrow 118 shuttle
120 sizing 122 spider
124 spraycan 126 star
128 target 130 tcross
132 top_left_arrow 134 top_left_corner
136 top_right_corner 138 top_side
140 top_tee 142 trek
144 ul_angle 146 umbrella
148 ur_angle 150 watch
152 xterm
DecorateTransients
Causes transient windows, which are normally left undecorated,
to be given the usual fvwm decorations. Note that some pop-up
windows, such as the xterm menus, are not managed by the window
manager and still do not receive decorations.
DeskTopScale Scale
Defines the virtual desktop scale with respect to the screen.
DeskTopSize HorizontalxVertical
Defines the virtual desktop size in units of the physical screen
size.
DontMoveOff
Prevents windows from being moved off or initially placed off of
the desktop. A few programs will not work correctly if you use
this option. This only keeps windows from being completely lost
off the edge of the desktop. It insists on keeping 16 pixels on
the desktop but doesn’t care a bit about keeping the whole
window on the desk. See EdgeResistance if you don’t like having
windows partially off the screen.
EdgeResistance scrolling moving
Tells how hard it should be to change the desktop viewport by
moving the mouse over the edge of the screen and how hard it
should be to move a window over the edge of the screen.
The first parameter tells how milliseconds the pointer must
spend on the screen edge before fvwm will move the viewport.
This is intended for people who use "EdgeScroll 100 100" but
find themselves accidentally flipping pages when they don’t want
to.
The second parameter tells how many pixels over the edge of the
screen a window’s edge must move before it actually moves
partially off the screen.
Note that, with "EdgeScroll 0 0", it is still possible to move
or resize windows across the edge of the current screen. By
making the first parameter to EdgeResistance 10000 this type of
motion is impossible. With EdgeResistance less than 10000 but
greater than 0 moving over pages becomes difficult but not
impossible.
EdgeScroll horizontal vertical
Specifies the percentage of a page to scroll when the cursor
hits the edge of a page. If you don’t want any paging or
scrolling when you hit the edge of a page include "EdgeScroll 0
0" in your .fvwmrc file. If you want whole pages, use
"EdgeScroll 100 100". Both horizontal and vertical should be
positive numbers.
If the horizontal and vertical percentages are multiplied by
1000 then scrolling will wrap around at the edge of the desktop.
If "EdgeScroll 100000 100000" is used fvwm will scroll by whole
pages, wrapping around at the edge of the desktop.
Font fontname
Makes fvwm use font fontname instead of "fixed" for menus, the
resize indicators, and icon labels (if IconFont is not
specified).
Function FunctionName
Starts the definition of a complex function, composed of the
fvwm built-in functions, which will later be bound to a mouse
button or key. FunctionName must be enclosed in quotes.
Function entries are included on lines following the Function
keyword. The definition ends with the key word EndFunction.
Function entries are specified as shown in the following
example. The first word on each line is the built-in function
which will be performed, followed the type of event which should
trigger the action (enclosed in quotes), followed by any
additional arguments needed by the built-in function. Menus can
be specified by using the Popup built-in as long as the menu was
defined earlier in the configuration file.
The trigger actions which are recognized are Immediate, Motion,
Click, and DoubleClick. Immediate actions are executed as soon
as the function is activated, even if a window has not been
selected. If there are actions other than immediate ones, fvwm
will wait to see if the user is clicking, double-clicking, or
dragging the mouse. After the decision is made, fvwm will
execute only the built-ins from the function definition whose
trigger action matches the action performed by the user.
If the following example were bound to button 1 in a window
title-bar, then, when button 1 is pressed, fvwm would wait 150
msec to see if the button is released. If the button is not
released fvwm will start a move operation. When the move
operation is complete a raise operation will be performed. If a
button release is detected then fvwm will wait another 150 msec
for a second click. If only one click is detected then the
window will be raised. If two clicks are detected the window
will be alternately raised and lowered. The 150 msec wait
duration can be altered using the ClickTime option.
Function "Move-or-Raise"
Move "Motion"
Raise "Motion"
Raise "Click"
RaiseLower "DoubleClick"
EndFunction
The clicking and double clicking concepts do not carry through
to using keyboard shortcuts.
Two special functions exist: InitFunction and RestartFunction.
The InitFunction will be called when fvwm is started for the
first time in any X session and can be used to start modules,
set background patterns, and begin programs. The restart
function will be called when fvwm is restarted. It can be used
to start modules and set background patterns but probably should
not be used to start programs.
HiBackColor colorname
Sets the background color of the selected window to colorname.
When using a monochrome screen this option is ignored and white
is used.
HiForeColor colorname
Sets the color of the selected window’s title to colorname. When
using a monochrome screen this option is ignored and black is
used.
Icon windowname bitmap-file
Specifies the bitmap to be used for a window when it is
iconified. The windowname can be an application’s window name
or class name and must be enclosed in quotes. The bitmap-file is
either the full path name to a standard X11 bitmap file or a
file in the IconPath or PixmapPath. The specified bitmap/pixmap
is used in preference to any icon supplied by the window itself.
If fvwm is compiled with XPM support for color icons then bitmap
can be an XPM pixmap file.
windowname should be enclosed in double quotes but bitmap-file
should not. Environment variables should not be used in the
bitmap-file specification.
If windowname is an empty string then the specified file is the
default icon, and will be used if no other icon bitmap or pixmap
can be found:
Icon "" my-favorite-icon
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying Icon.
IconBox left top right bottom
Defines regions of the screen in which to place icons. Up to
four icon boxes can be defined. If an IconBox line is provided
then icons will automatically be placed in them, if possible.
Each time a window is iconified a new place is found for it.
Icon boxes are searched for space going left to right, then top
to bottom. Icons will not be auto-placed on top of other icons
but they may be placed underneath application windows. If left
or right is negative, then fvwm will add the screen width to it.
If top or bottom is negative, then fvwm will add the screen
height to it. NOTE: -0 is not parsed as the right or bottom
pixel on the screen. You have to use -1 instead.
If no IconBox line is provided or all icon boxes are full, then
fvwm will place icons near the current pointer location.
IconFont fontname
Makes fvwm use font fontname for icon labels. If omitted, the
menu font (specified by the Font configuration parameter) will
be used instead.
IconPath path
Specifies a colon separated list of full path names of
directories where bitmap (monochrome) icons can be found. Each
path should start with a slash. Note: if the M4 patches are
included when fvwm is built, then m4 will want to mangle the
word "include" which will frequently show up in the IconPath or
PixmapPath command. To fix this add undefine(‘include’) prior to
the IconPath command.
Key keyname Context Modifiers Function
Binds a keyboard key to a specified fvwm built-in function.
Definition is the same as for a mouse binding except that the
mouse button number is replaced with a key name. The keyname is
one of the entries from /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h, with the
leading XK_ omitted. The Context and Modifiers fields are
defined as in the mouse binding.
Binding a key to a title-bar button will not cause that button
to appear unless a mouse binding also exists.
Lenience
The ICCCM states that if an application sets the input field of
the wm_hints structure to False, then it never wants the window
manager to give it the input focus. The only application that I
know of which needs this is sxpm, and that is a silly bug with a
trivial fix and has no overall effect on the program anyway.
Rumor is that some older applications have problems too.
If this parameter is set then fvwm will ignore this ICCCM
convention.
MenuBackColor colorname
Sets the menu background color. When using monochrome this
option is ignored. This option is only available if fvwm is
compiled with MENUCOLOR defined.
MenuForeColor colorname
Sets the menu foreground color. When using monochrome this
option is ignored. This option is only available if fvwm is
compiled with MENUCOLOR defined.
MenuStippleColor colorname
Sets the color for shaded out entries in menus (for functions
which are not allowed on the currently selected window). When
using monochrome this option is ignored and a stipple pattern is
used. This option is only available if fvwm is compiled with
MENUCOLOR defined.
Module ModuleName
Specifies a module which should be spawned during
initialization. At the current time the available modules are
FvwmAudio, FvwmBacker, FvwmBanner, FvwmClean, FvwmDebug,
FvwmIconBox, FvwmIdent, FvwmPager, FvwmSave, FvwmSaveDesk,
FvwmScroll, FvwmWinList, and GoodStuff. These modules have their
own man pages. Module can also be used as a built-in. Modules
can be short lived transient programs or, like GoodStuff, can
remain for the duration of the X session. Modules will be
terminated by the window manager prior to restarts and quits, if
possible. See the introductory section on modules.
ModulePath
Specifies a colon separated list of paths for fvwm to search
when looking for a module to load. Individual directories do
not need trailing slashes.
Mouse Button Context Modifiers Function
Defines a mouse binding. Button is the mouse button number. If
Button is zero then any button will perform the specified
function. Context describes where the binding applies. Valid
contexts are R for the root window, W for an application window,
T for a window title bar, S for a window side, top, or bottom
bar, F for a window frame (the corners), I for an Icon window,
or 0 through 9 for title-bar buttons, or any combination of
these letters. A is for any context except for title-bar
buttons. For instance, a context of FST will apply when the
mouse is anywhere in a window’s border except the title-bar
buttons.
Modifiers is any combination of N for no modifiers, C for
control, S for shift, M for Meta, or A for any modifier. For
example, a modifier of SM will apply when both the Meta and
shift keys are down. X11 modifiers mod1 through mod5 are
represented as the digits 1 through 5.
Function is one of fvwm’s built-in functions.
The title bar buttons are numbered with odd numbered buttons on
the left side of the title bar and even numbers on the right.
Smaller-numbered buttons are displayed toward the outside of the
window while larger-numbered buttons appear toward the middle of
the window (0 is short for 10). In summary, the buttons are
numbered:
1 3 5 7 9 0 8 6 4 2
The highest odd numbered button which has an action bound to it
determines the number of buttons drawn on the left side of the
title bar. The highest even number determines the number or
right side buttons which are drawn. Actions can be bound to
either mouse buttons or keyboard keys.
MWMBorders
Substitutes MWM style 1 pixel wide relief lines instead of
fvwm’s 2 pixel borders.
MWMButtons
Disables button press feedback for all decorations except the
title bar and title-bar buttons, as in MWM.
MWMDecorHints
Causes fvwm to read the MOTIF_WM_HINTS atom from application
windows and to parse and attempt to replicate the Motif behavior
with regard to window decorations. Note that mwm allows
function hints to affect window decorations but these effects
are not replicated by this option.
MWMFunctionHints
Causes fvwm to read the MOTIF_WM_HINTS atom from application
windows and to parse and attempt to replicate the Motif behavior
with regard to allowed window functions. Unlike mwm, which
simply removes prohibited functions from the window’s menus,
fvwm simply shades out the prohibited functions. Also, because
fvwm implements some functions in user defined macros that mwm
implements internally, the mapping of prohibited functions is
partially based on the menu item label.
MWMHintOverride
If MWMFunctionHints is used then maximization and iconfication
are prohibited for transients. Also, windows can specify that
the window manager should not destroy or delete them. Since
these MWM rules are kind of stupid, especially with regard to
the transient windows, I provide this MWMHintOverride option.
When it is used menu items will be shaded out if MWM would
prohibit their use, but the user can go ahead and select that
item and it will operate as expected.
The override should be used cautiously because some applications
will break if you override their mwm hints.
MWMMenus
Substitutes MWM look and feel menus in place of the standard
fvwm versions. This option also triggers a few other mwm-style
options, such as centering the size/resize window on the screen,
instead of leaving it in the upper left, and switches the
resize-on-initial-placement trigger action to shift-button-1
instead of the twm style press-button-2
NoBorder windowname
Keeps fvwm from putting decorative borders on windows named
windowname. This command has no effect on the title-bar. This
is handy for clocks and similar gadgets that you don’t want to
take up too much space. windowname can be a window’s name or its
class.
If you specify both NoBorder windowname and NoTitle windowname
for the same window in your .fvwmrc file the window will be
completely undecorated.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match
window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual
"*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by
preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying NoBorder.
NoBoundaryWidth Width
Changes the width of the decorations for windows with no titles
and no borders. The default is 1. Any positive or zero value is
acceptable. Decorations for these undecorated windows have the
same context as the side-bars on normally decorated windows.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying NoBoundaryWidth.
NoPPosition
Instructs fvwm to ignore the PPosition field when adding new
windows. Adherence to the PPosition field is required for some
applications, but if you don’t have one of those its a real
headache.
NoTitle windowname
Keeps fvwm from putting a title-bar in the decorations for
windows named windowname. This is handy for clocks and similar
gadgets that you don’t want to take up too much space.
windowname can be a window’s name or its class.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match
window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual
"*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by
preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying NoTitle.
OpaqueMove percentage
Tells fvwm the maximum size window with which opaque window
movement should be used. The percentage is percent of the total
screen area. With "OpaqueMove 0" all windows will be moved using
the traditional rubber-band outline. With "OpaqueMove 100" all
windows will be move as solid windows. The default is
"OpaqueMove 5", which allows small windows to be moved in an
opaque manner but large windows are moved as rubber-bands.
OpaqueResize
Causes resize operations to be done with the window itself
instead of an outline.
Pager X_Location Y_Location
Enables a paging style of moving across the desktop. A Pager
window (not a pop-up) will appear at (X_Location, Y_Location).
Miniature versions of all the non-sticky windows on the virtual
desktop are shown in the pager. The color of the miniature
version is the same as the color of the full-size window’s
border.
In the Pager window, pressing mouse button 1 will move the
desktop viewport to the selected page (in click-to-focus mode;
it will also move the keyboard focus to the window whose
miniature you click on). Pressing button 2 on a window in the
pager will begin a window move, using the miniature to quickly
move the window anywhere on the desktop. Pressing button 3 will
move the top-left corner of the viewport to the location of the
button press, even if it does not line up with a page. Dragging
button 3 will cause the selected viewport to scroll as you move
the pointer. The Pager is automatically sticky but does not
automatically stay on top.
PagerForeColor colorname
Causes the pager foreground color to be colorname instead of
black. This is the color used to highlight the current viewport
in the pager window. On a monochrome screen this option is
ignored. If the NO_PAGER option is set when building fvwm this
option is unavailable.
PagerBackColor colorname
Causes the pager background color to be colorname instead of
white. On a monochrome screen this option is ignored. If the
NO_PAGER option is set when building fvwm this option is
unavailable.
PagerFont fontname
Makes fvwm use font fontname for writing window icon names in
the window’s representation in the pager. If this option is
omitted no names are written in the pager windows.
PagingDefault pagingdefaultvalue
Tells fvwm if it should start up with paging enabled or
disabled. "PagingDefault 0" will start fvwm with paging
disabled; "PagingDefault 1" will start fvwm with paging enabled
by default.
PixmapPath path
Specifies a colon separated list of full path names of
directories where pixmap (color) icons can be found. Each path
should start with a slash.
Popup PopupName
Starts the definition of a pop-up menu which will later be bound
to a mouse button or key. PopupName must be enclosed in quotes.
Menu entries are included on lines following the Popup keyword.
The menu definition ends with the key word EndPopup. Menu
entries are specified as shown in the following example. The
first word on each line is the built-in function which will be
performed, followed by the caption (enclosed in quotes) which
will be shown in the menu, followed by any additional arguments
needed by the built-in function. Sub-menus can be specified by
using the Popup built-in as long as the sub-menu was defined
earlier in the configuration file.
Popup "Window Ops"
Title "Window Ops"
Move "Move"
Resize "Resize"
Raise "Raise"
Lower "Lower"
Iconify "(De)Iconify"
Nop " "
Destroy "Destroy"
Title "HARDCOPY"
Exec "Hardcopy" exec xdpr &
Exec "Hardcopy RV" exec xdpr -rv &
EndMenu
Note that if a tab character is embedded in the caption of a
menu entry then the text following the tab will be entered into
a second column in the menu and the entire menu will be left-
adjusted. This is intended for shortcut labeling. The tab
character must really be a tab. If it is expanded into spaces it
will not work! For example:
Popup "Window Ops"
Title "Window Ops Alt-F1"
.
.
.
Is the start of a left adjusted menu. Alt-F1 will be placed
toward the right side of the menu.
Shortcut keys may be specified in the menu definition by
preceding the character with an ampersand. The ampersand will
not be displayed but the character after it will be displayed
underlined, and if the user presses the corresponding key then
that item will be activated as if the user had clicked on it
with the mouse. Only alphabetic and numeric characters may be
used as shortcut keys. The shift state of the keyboard is
ignored when testing shortcut characters. For example:
Popup "Window Ops"
Maximize "Ma&ximise" 100 100
EndMenu
When this menu is popped up the ’x’ will be underlined and
pressing the ’x’ key will cause the current window to be
maximized. Shortcut keys are not operative unless MENU_HOTKEYS
was defined when building fvwm. If WINDOWLIST_HOTKEYS was also
defined then hot keys are automatically added to the WindowList
when it is displayed.
RandomPlacement
Causes windows which would normally require user placement to be
automatically placed in ever-so-slightly random locations. For
the best of all possible worlds use both RandomPlacement and
SmartPlacement.
SaveUnders
Causes the fvwm decoration frames to request save-unders. This
can significantly improve the performance during opaque moves
but it causes a significant increase in memory usage.
SloppyFocus
This focusing mode is like focus-follows-mouse (the default)
except that the focus will not be removed from a window until
your mouse enters a new window. Exiting a window to enter the
root window will leave the focus unchanged.
SmartPlacement
Causes windows which would normally require user placement to be
automatically placed in a smart location - a location in which
they do not overlap any other windows on the screen. If no such
position can be found user placement or random placement will be
used as a fall-back method. For the best of all possible worlds
use both RandomPlacement and SmartPlacement.
StartsOnDesk windowname desk-number
This command causes windows whose name or class is windowname to
be initially placed on desktop number desk-number. windowname
should be enclosed in double quotes. If the window requires
interactive placement, an outline will be displayed on the
current desk but the window will appear on the specified desk.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match
window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual
"*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by
preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying StartsOnDesk.
StaysOnTop windowname
These windows always try to stay on top of the other windows.
This might be handy for clocks or mailboxes that you would
always like to be visible. If the window is explicitly lowered
it will not try to force its way back to the top until it is
explicitly raised. windowname can be a window’s name or its
class.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match
window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual
"*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by
preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying StaysOnTop.
StdBackColor colorname
Sets the background color for menus and non-selected windows to
colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is ignored
and white is used.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying StdBackColor.
StdForeColor colorname
Sets the foreground color for menus and non-selected window
titles to colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option
is ignored and black is used.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying StdForeColor.
StickyBackColor colorname
Sets the background color for non-selected sticky windows to
colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is ignored
and white is used. Only available if -DMORE_COLORS is used when
compiling.
StickyForeColor colorname
Sets the foreground color for non-selected sticky window titles
to colorname. When using a monochrome screen this option is
ignored and black is used. Only available if -DMORE_COLORS is
used when compiling.
Sticky windowname
Sticky windows "stick to the screen’s glass." That is, they
don’t move the the viewport into the virtual desktop changes.
windowname can be a window’s name or its class.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match
window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual
"*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by
preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying Sticky.
StickyIcons
Causes icons to always stick to the screen’s glass. That is,
icons always follow you around the desktop. When a window is de-
iconified it gets un-stuck. Some people find this a useful way
of moving windows around.
StubbornIcons
Changes de-iconification behavior a bit. Instead of having
windows always de-iconify themselves on the current page they
de-iconify into their original position.
StubbornIconPlacement
When used with IconBoxes, causes icons to avoid placing
themselves underneath existing windows.
StubbornPlacement
When using SmartPlacement, causes new windows to avoid placing
themselves over icons.
Style windowname options
This command is intended to replace the commands NoBorder,
NoTitle, StartsOnDesk, Sticky, StaysOnTop, Icon, WindowListSkip,
CirculateSkip, SuppressIcons, BoundaryWidth, NoBoundaryWidth,
StdForeColor, and StdBackColor with a single flexible and
comprehensive command. This command is used to set attributes
of a window to values other than the default or to set the
window manager default styles.
windowname can be a window’s name, class, or resource string. It
can contain the wildcards * and/or ?, which are matched in the
usual Unix filename manner.
options is a comma separated list containing some or all of the
keywords BorderWidth, HandleWidth,NoIcon/Icon, NoTitle/Title,
NoHandles/Handles, WindowListSkip/WindowListHit,
CirculateSkip/CirculateHit, StaysOnTop/StaysPut,
Sticky/Slippery, StartIconic/StartNormal, Color, ForeColor,
BackColor, StartsOnDesk/StartsAnyWhere, IconTitle/NoIconTitle,
and NoButton/Button.
In the above list some options are listed as style-
option/opposite-style-option. The opposite-style-option for
entries that have them describes the fvwm default behavior and
can be used if you want to change the fvwm default behavior.
Icon takes an (optional) unquoted string argument which is the
icon bitmap or pixmap to use.
StartsOnDesk takes a numeric argument which is the desktop
number on which the window should be initially placed.
BorderWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width of the
border to place the window if it does not have resize-handles.
HandleWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width of the
border to place the window if it does have resize-handles.
Button and NoButton take a numeric argument which is the number
of the title-bar button which is to be included/omitted.
Color takes two arguments. The first is the window-label text
color and the second is the window decoration’s normal
background color. The two colors are separated with a slash. If
the use of a slash causes problems then the separate ForeColor
and BackColor options can be used.
An example:
# Change default fvwm behavior to no title-bars on windows!
# Also define a default icon.
Style "*" NoTitle,Icon unknown1.xpm, BorderWidth 4,HandleWidth 5
# now, window specific changes:
Style "Fvwm*" NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip,BorderWidth 0
Style "Fvwm Pager" StaysOnTop, BorderWidth 0
Style "*lock" NoHandles,Sticky,StaysOnTop,WindowListSkip
Style "xbiff" Sticky, WindowListSkip
Style "GoodStuff" NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip
Style "sxpm" NoHandles
Style "makerkit"
# Put title-bars back on xterms only!
Style "xterm" Title, Color black/grey
Style "rxvt" Icon term.xpm
Style "xterm" Icon rterm.xpm
Style "xcalc" Icon xcalc.xpm
Style "xbiff" Icon mail1.xpm
Style "xmh" Icon mail1.xpm, StartsOnDesk 2
Style "xman" Icon xman.xpm
Style "matlab" Icon math4.xpm, StartsOnDesk 3
Style "xmag" Icon magnifying_glass2.xpm
Style "xgraph" Icon graphs.xpm
Style "GoodStuff" Icon toolbox.xpm
Style "Maker" StartsOnDesk 1
Style "signal" StartsOnDesk 3
Note that all properties for a window will be OR’ed together. In
the above example "FvwmPager" gets the property StaysOnTop via
an exact window name match but also gets NoHandles, Sticky, and
WindowListSkip by a match to "Fvwm*". It will get NoTitle by
virtue of a match to "*". If conflicting styles are specified
for a window, then the last style specified will be used.
If the NoIcon attribute is set then the specified window will
simply disappear when it is iconified. The window can be
recovered through the window-list. If Icon is set without an
argument then the NoIcon attribute is cleared but no icon is
specified. An example which allows only the FvwmPager module
icon to exist:
Style "*" NoIcon
Style "Fvwm Pager" Icon
SuppressIcons
Prevents icon windows from being created or drawn. When used
with the window-list this provides a sort of icon manager.
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying SuppressIcons.
WindowFont fontname
Makes fvwm use font fontname instead of "fixed" for the window
title bar.
WindowListSkip windowname
Causes windows with the indicated name to be left out of the
window list.
Windowname can contain the wildcards "*" and "?" which match
window names in the normal Unix filename matching manner. Actual
"*", "?", and "\" characters in a window name can be entered by
preceding the character with a "\".
The Style command provides another (more general) method for
specifying WindowListSkip.
XORvalue number
Changes the value with which bits are XOR’ed when doing rubber-
band window moving or resizing. Setting this value is a trial-
and-error process.
BUILT IN FUNCTIONS
Fvwm supports a set of built-in functions which can be bound to
keyboard or mouse buttons:
Beep Makes the computer beep.
CirculateDown [ name window_name ]
Causes the pointer to move to the next window in the list of
windows for which CirculateSkip has not not been specified.
If the optional arguments are supplied then the focus will move
to the first window whose name (or icon name or class) matches
window_name. The optional argument name is required if
window_name is supplied and is enclosed in quotes. This argument
is the name which appears in menus if the function is called
from a menu, but serves no purpose if the function is not called
from a menu.
CirculateUp [ name window_name ]
Causes the pointer to move to the previous window in the list of
windows for which CirculateSkip has not not been specified.
If the optional arguments are supplied then the focus will move
to the first window whose name (or icon name or class) matches
window_name. The optional argument name is required if
window_name is supplied and is enclosed in quotes. This argument
is the name which appears in menus if the function is called
from a menu, but serves no purpose if the function is not called
from a menu
Here’s an example that move the focus to an xterm window when
Alt-F1 is pressed:
Key F1 A M CirculateUp "whatever" xterm
Close If the window accepts the delete window protocol a message is
sent to the window asking it to gracefully remove itself. If the
window does not understand the delete window protocol then the
window is destroyed.
CursorMove horizonal vertical
Moves the mouse pointer by horizontal pages in the X direction
and vertical pages in the Y direction. Either or both entries
may be negative. Both horizontal and vertical values are
expressed in percent of pages, so "CursorMove 100 100" means to
move down and left by one full page. "CursorMove 50 25" means to
move left half a page and down a quarter of a page. The
CursorMove function should not be called from pop-up menus.
Delete Sends a message to a window asking that it remove itself,
frequently causing the application to exit.
Desk arg1 arg2
Changes to another desktop (workspace, room).
If arg1 is non zero then the next desktop number will be the
current desktop number plus arg1. Desktop numbers can be
negative.
If arg1 is zero then the new desktop number will be arg2.
The number of active desktops is determined dynamically. Only
desktops which contain windows or are currently being displayed
are active. Desktop numbers must be between 2147483647 and
-2147483648 (is that enough?).
Destroy
Destroys a window. Guaranteed to get rid of the window, but is a
fairly violent way to terminate an application.
Exec name command
Executes command. command is not quoted but name is. name is
the name that appears in a menu, if that is where the function
is called from. name is required even if the function is not
called from a menu.
The following example binds function key F1 in the root window,
with no modifiers, to the exec function. The program rxvt will
be started with an assortment of options.
Key F1 R N Exec "rxvt" exec rxvt -fg yellow -bg blue -e /bin/tcsh &
Focus Moves the viewport or window as needed to make the selected
window visible. Sets the keyboard focus to the selected window.
Raises the window if needed to make it visible. Warps the
pointer into the selected window in focus-follows-mouse mode.
Does not de-iconify. This function is primarily for use with a
module such as FvwmWinList.
Function
Used to bind a previously defined function to a key or mouse
button.
The following example binds mouse button 1 to a function called
"Move-or-Raise", whose definition was provided as an example
earlier in this man page. After performing this binding fvwm
will execute to move-or-raise function whenever button 1 is
pressed in a window title-bar.
Mouse 1 T A Function "Move-or-Raise"
GotoPage x y
Moves the desktop viewport to page (x,y). The upper left page is
(0,0), the upper right is (N,0), where N is one less than the
current number of horizontal pages specified in the DeskTopSize
command. The lower left page is (0,M), and the lower right page
is (N,M), where M is the desktop’s vertical size as specified in
the DeskTopSize command. The GotoPage function should not be
used in a pop-up menu.
Iconify [ value ]
Iconifies a window if it is not already iconified or de-
iconifies it if it is already iconified. If the optional
argument value is positive the only iconification will be
allowed. It the optional argument is negative only de-
iconification will be allowed.
Lower Allows the user to lower a window.
Maximize [ horizontal vertical ]
Without its optional arguments Maximize causes the window to
alternately switch from a full-screen size to its normal size.
With the optional arguments horizontal and vertical, which are
expressed as percentage of a full screen, the user can control
the new size of the window. If horizontal is greater than 0 then
the horizontal dimension of the window will be set to
horizontal*screen_width/100. The vertical resizing is similar.
For example, the following will add a title-bar button to switch
a window to the full vertical size of the screen:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 0 100
The following causes windows to be stretched to the full width:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 100 0
This makes a window that is half the screen size in each
direction:
Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 50 50
Values larger than 100 can be used with caution.
If the letter "p" is appended to each coordinate (horizontal
and/or vertical), then the scroll amount will be measured in
pixels.
Module name ModuleName
Specifies a module which should be spawned. Modules can be short
lived transient programs or can remain for the duration of the X
session. Modules will be terminated by the window manager prior
to restarts and quits, if possible. name is a double-qouted
string which has absolutely no significance, but must exist.
Move [ x y ]
Allows the user to move a window. If called from somewhere in a
window or its border, then that window will be moved. If called
from the root window then the user will be allowed to select the
target window.
If the optional arguments x and y are provided, then the window
will be moved so that its upper left corner is at location
(x,y). The units of x and y are percent-of-screen, unless a
letter "p" is appended to each coordinate, in which case the
location is specified in pixels.
Examples:
Mouse 1 T A Move
Mouse 2 T A Move 10 10
Mouse 3 T A Move 10p 10p
In the first example, an interactive move is indicated. In the
second, the window whose title-bar is selected will be moved so
that its upper left hand corner is 10 percent of the screen
width in from the left of the screen, and 10 percent down from
the top. The final example moves the window to coordinate
(10,10) pixels.
Nop Does nothing. This is used to insert a blank line or separator
in a menu. If the menu item specification is Nop " ", then a
blank line is inserted. If it looks like Nop "", then a
separator line is inserted.
Popup This built-in has two purposes: to bind a menu to a key or mouse
button, and to bind a sub-menu into a menu. The formats for the
two purposes differ slightly.
To bind a previously defined pop-up menu to a key or mouse
button:
The following example binds mouse buttons 2 and 3 to a pop-up
called "Window Ops", whose definition was provided as an
example earlier in this man page. The menu will pop up if the
buttons 2 or 3 are pressed in the window frame, side-bar, or
title-bar, with no modifiers (none of shift, control, or
meta).
Mouse 2 FST N Popup "Window Ops"
Mouse 3 FST N Popup "Window Ops"
Pop-ups can be bound to keys through the use of the key
modifier. Pop-ups can be operated without using the mouse by
binding to keys and operating via the up arrow, down arrow,
and enter keys.
To bind a previously defined pop-up menu to another menu, for
use as a sub-menu:
The following example defines a sub menu, "Quit-Verify" and
binds it into a main menu, called "Utilities":
Popup "Quit-Verify"
Title "Really Quit Fvwm?"
Quit "Yes, Really Quit"
Restart "Restart Fvwm" fvwm
Nop ""
Nop "No, Don’t Quit"
EndPopup
Popup "Utilities"
Title "Utilities"
Exec "Xterm" exec xterm &
Exec "Rxvt" exec rxvt &
Exec "Top" exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top &
Exec "Calculator" exec xcalc &
Exec "Xman" exec xman &
Exec "Xmag" exec xmag &
Nop ""
Popup "Exit Fvwm" Quit-Verify
EndPopup
Sub-menus must be defined prior to the main menu in which they
are bound. Sub-menu nesting can be arbitrarily deep.
Quit Exits fvwm, generally causing X to exit too.
Raise Allows the user to raise a window.
RaiseLower
Alternately raises and lowers a window.
Refresh
Causes all windows on the screen to redraw themselves.
Resize [ x y ]
Allows the user to resize a window.
If the optional arguments x and y are provided, then the window
will be moved so that its upper left corner is at location
(x,y). The units of x and y are percent-of-screen, unless a
letter "p" is appended to each coordinate, in which case the
location is specified in pixels.
Restart name WindowManagerName
Causes fvwm to restart itself if WindowManagerName is "fvwm", or
to switch to an alternate window manager if WindowManagerName is
other than "fvwm". If the window manager is not in your default
search path, then you should use the full path name for
WindowManagerName.
WindowManagerName is not quoted but name is. name is the name
that appears in a menu, if that is where the function is called
from. name is required even if the function is not called from a
menu.
This command should not have a trailing ampersand or any command
line arguments and should not make use of any environmental
variables. Of the following examples, the first three are sure
losers, but the third is OK:
Key F1 R N Restart " " fvwm &
Key F1 R N Restart " " $(HOME)/bin/fvwm
Key F1 R N Restart " " twm -f .mystartupfile
Key F1 R N Restart " " /home/nation/bin/fvwm
Stick Makes a window sticky if it is not already sticky, or non-sticky
if it is already sticky.
Scroll horizonal vertical
Scrolls the virtual desktop’s viewport by horizontal pages in
the x-direction and vertical pages in the y-direction. Either or
both entries may be negative. Both horizontal and vertical
values are expressed in percent of pages, so "Scroll 100 100"
means to scroll down and left by one full page. "Scroll 50 25"
means to scroll left half a page and down a quarter of a page.
The scroll function should not be called from pop-up menus.
Normally, scrolling stops at the edge of the desktop.
If the horizontal and vertical percentages are multiplied by
1000 then scrolling will wrap around at the edge of the desktop.
If "Scroll 100000 0" is executed over and over fvwm will move to
the next desktop page on each execution and will wrap around at
the edge of the desktop, so that every page is hit in turn.
If the letter "p" is appended to each coordinate (horizontal
and/or vertical), then the scroll amount will be measured in
pixels.
Title Does nothing. This is used to insert a title line in a popup or
menu.
TogglePage
Temporarily disables edge scrolling. Edge scrolling can be re-
enabled by calling this again.
Wait name
This built-in is intended to be used in fvwm functions only. It
causes execution of a function to pause until a new window name
name appears. Fvwm remains fully functional during a wait. This
is particularly useful in the InitFunction if you are trying to
start windows on specific desktops:
Function "InitFunction"
Exec "I" exec xterm -geometry 80x64+0+0
Wait "I" xterm
Desk "I" 0 2
Exec "I" exec xmh -font fixed -geometry 507x750+0+0 &
Wait "I" xmh
Desk "I" 0 0
EndFunction
The above function starts an xterm on the current desk, waits
for it to map itself, then switches to desk 2 and starts an xmh.
After the xmh window appears control moves to desk 0.
Warp [ name window_name ]
Same as CirculateDown but de-iconifies any iconified windows as
it focuses on them.
WindowsDesk new_desk
Moves the selected window the the desktop specified as new_desk.
WindowList arg1 arg2
Generates a pop-up menu (and pops it up) in which the title and
geometry of each of the windows currently on the desk top are
shown. The geometry of iconified windows is shown in brackets.
Selecting an item from the window list pop-up menu will cause
that window to be moved onto the desktop if it is currently not
on it, will move the desktop viewport to the page containing the
upper left hand corner of the window, will de-iconify the window
if it is iconified, and will raise the window.
If arg1 is an even number then the windows will be listed using
the window name (the name that shows up in the title-bar). If it
is odd then the window’s icon name is used.
If arg1 is less than 2 then all windows on all desktops (except
those listed in WindowListSkip directives) will be shown.
If arg1 is 2 or 3 then only windows on the current desktop will
be shown.
If arg1 is 4 or 5 then only windows on desktop number arg2 will
be shown.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
All (I think) window manager operations can be performed from the
keyboard so mouseless operation should be possible. In addition to
scrolling around the virtual desktop by binding the Scroll built-in to
appropriate keys, pop-ups, move, resize, and most other built-ins can
be bound to keys. Once a built-in function is started the pointer is
moved by using the up, down, left, and right arrows, and the action is
terminated by pressing return. Holding down the shift key will cause
the pointer movement to go in larger steps and holding down the control
key will cause the cursor movement to go in smaller steps. Standard
emacs and vi cursor movement controls (^n, ^p, ^f, ^b, and ^j, ^k, ^h,
^l) can be used instead of the arrow keys.
SUPPLIED CONFIGURATION
A sample configuration file, system.fvwmrc, is supplied with the fvwm
distribution. It is well commented and can be used as a source of
examples for fvwm configuration.
USE ON MULTI-SCREEN DISPLAYS
If the -s command line argument is not given, fvwm will automatically
start up on every screen on the specified display. After fvwm starts
each screen is treated independently. Restarts of fvwm need to be
performed separately on each screen. The use of EdgeScroll 0 0 is
strongly recommended for multi-screen displays.
You may need to quit on each screen to quit from the X session
completely.
Multi-screen support is only available if fvwm is compiled with
-DMULTIPLE_SCREENS
BUGS
As of fvwm 0.99 there were exactly 39.342 unidentified bugs. Identified
bugs have mostly been fixed, though. Since then 9.34 bugs have been
fixed. Assuming that there are at least 10 unidentified bugs for every
identified one, that leaves us with 39.342 - 9.32 + 10 * 9.34 = 123.402
unidentified bugs. If we follow this to its logical conclusion we will
have an infinite number of unidentified bugs before the number of bugs
can start to diminish, at which point the program will be bug-free.
Since this is a computer program infinity = 3.4028e+38 if you don’t
insist on double-precision. At the current rate of bug discovery we
should expect to achieve this point in 3.37e+27 years. I guess I better
plan on passing this thing on to my children....
Binding a key to a window decoration but not to the window itself is
discouraged because when the key-press event finally gets to the window
it will be marked as SYNTHETIC and will be ignored by many
applications.
Bug reports can be sent to fvwm@wonderland.org.
AUTHOR
Robert Nation with help from many people, based on twm code, which was
written by Thomas LaStrange.