bspwm is a tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning.
The windows are represented as the leaves of a binary tree.
bspwm have only two sources of informations: the X events it receives and the messages it reads on a dedicated socket.
Those messages are sent through the bspc program.
If the BSPWM_SOCKET environment variable is defined, it will be used as the socket path, otherwise /tmp/bspwm-socket is used.
The recommended way of defining keyboard shortcuts is to use xbindkeys.
The only way to configure bspwm is by sending set messages via the client, hence bspwm's configuration file is an executable called autostart which lives in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bspwm/.
Example configurations: autostart and xbindkeysrc.
There is only two splitting modes: automatic and manual.
The default mode is automatic. The manual mode is entered by sending a presel message.
Example: insertion of a new node (number 4) into the given tree in automatic mode:
b c
/ \ / \
3 a --> 4 b
^ / \ ^ / \
2 1 3 a
/ \
2 1
+-------------------------+ +-------------------------+
| | | | | |
| | 2 | | | 3 |
| | | | | |
| 3 |------------| --> | 4 |------------|
| ^ | | | ^ | | |
| | 1 | | | 1 | 2 |
| | | | | | |
+-------------------------+ +-------------------------+
Same departure, but the mode is manual, a presel up message
was sent beforehand:
b b
/ \ / \
3 a --> c a
^ / \ / \ / \
2 1 4 3 2 1
^
+-------------------------+ +-------------------------+
| | | | | |
| | 2 | | 4 | 2 |
| | | | ^ | |
| 3 |------------| --> |------------|------------|
| ^ | | | | |
| | 1 | | 3 | 1 |
| | | | | |
+-------------------------+ +-------------------------+
The syntax for the client is bspc COMMAND ARGUMENTS....
The following messages are handled:
quit
Quit.
get SETTING
Return the value of the given setting.
set SETTING VALUE
Set the value of the given setting.
dump
Output the internal representation of the window tree.
list
Perform a dump of each desktop.
windows
Return the list of managed windows (i.e. their identifiers).
close
Close the focused window.
kill
Kill the focused window.
presel DIR
Switch to manual mode and select the splitting direction.
ratio VALUE
Set the splitting ratio of the focused window.
cancel
Switch to automatic mode.
focus DIR
Focus the neighbor node situated in the given direction.
shift DIR
Focus the neighbor node situated in the given direction.
push DIR
Push the fence located in the given direction.
pull DIR
Pull the fence located in the given direction.
cycle CYC [--skip-floating|--skip-tiled|--skip-class-equal|--skip-class-differ]
Focus the next or previous window in the list of leaves.
rotate ROT
Rotate the tree of the current desktop.
magnetise COR
Move all the fences toward the given corner.
send_to DESKTOP_NAME
Send the focused window to the given desktop.
use DESKTOP_NAME
Select the given desktop.
alternate
Alternate between the current and the last focused desktop.
add DESKTOP_NAME
Make a new desktop with the given name.
rename CURRENT_NAME NEW_NAME
Rename the desktop named CURRENT_NAME to NEW_NAME.
cycle_desktop CYC
Select the next or previous desktop.
layout LYT
Set the layout of the current desktop to LYT.
toggle_fullscreen
Toggle the fullscreen state of the current window.
toggle_floating
Toggle the floating state of the current window.
toggle_locked
Toggle the locked state of the current window (locked windows will not respond to the 'close' command).
rule PATTERN floating
Make a new rule that will float the windows whose class name or instance name equals PATTERN.
reload_autostart
Reload the autostart file.
reload_settings
Reload the default settings.
reload
Reload the autostart file and the default settings.
Where
DIR = left|right|up|down
CYC = next|prev
ROT = clockwise|counter_clockwise|full_cycle
COR = top_left|top_right|bottom_left|bottom_right
LYT = monocle|tiled
Colors are either X color names or '#RRGGBB', booleans are 'true' or 'false'.
active_border_color
Color of the main border of a focused window.
normal_border_color
Color of the main border of an unfocused window.
inner_border_color
Color of the inner border of a window.
outer_border_color
Color of the outer border of a window.
presel_border_color
Color of the *presel* message feedback.
active_locked_border_color
Color of the main border of a focused locked window.
normal_locked_border_color
Color of the main border of an unfocused locked window.
urgent_border_color
Color of the border of an urgent window.
inner_border_width
main_border_width
outer_border_width
Width of the inner, main and outer borders.
window_gap
Value of the gap that separates windows.
top_padding
bottom_padding
left_padding
right_padding
Padding space added at the sides of the screen.
wm_name
The value that shall be used for the _NET_WM_NAME property of the root window.
borderless_monocle
Whether to remove borders for tiled windows in monocle mode.
M4 + Left Button
Move the window under the pointer.
M4 + Middle Button
Focus the window under the pointer.
M4 + Middle Button
Resize the window under the pointer (by moving one of its four corners).
Where M4 is the fourth modifier mask (generally bound to Super).
dzen2 fed with the output of ewmhstatus. Example: launchpanel.
libxcb, xcb-util-wm.
make
make install