.\" t .\" @(#)fvwm2.1 5/27/96 .de EX \"Begin example .ne 5 .if n .sp 1 .if t .sp .5 .nf .in +.5i .. .de EE .fi .in -.5i .if n .sp 1 .if t .sp .5 .. .ta .3i .6i .9i 1.2i 1.5i 1.8i .TH FVWM 2.xx "late 20th century" .UC .SH NAME fvwm2 \- F(?) Virtual Window Manager (version 2.xx) for X11 .SH SYNOPSIS \fBfvwm\fP [ \fIoptions\fP ] .SH DESCRIPTION \fIFvwm\fP is a window manager for X11. It is a derivative of \fItwm\fP, redesigned to minimize memory consumption, provide a 3-D look to window frames, and provide a simple virtual desktop. Version 2.xx uses only slightly more memory than 1.xx, mostly due to some global options being able to be window specific now. Fvwm provides both a large virtual desktop and multiple disjoint desktops which can be used separately or together. The virtual desktop allows you to pretend that your video screen is really quite large, and you can scroll around within the desktop. The multiple disjoint desktops allow you to pretend that you really have several screens to work at, but each screen is completely unrelated to the others. Fvwm provides keyboard accelerators which allow you to perform most window-manager functions, including moving and resizing windows, and operating the window-manager's menus, using keyboard shortcuts. Fvwm has also blurred the distinction between configuration commands and built-in commands that most window-managers make. Configuration commands typically set fonts, colors, menu contents, key and mouse function bindings, while built-in commands typically do things like raise and lower windows. Fvwm makes no such distinction, and allows, to the extent that is practical, anything to be changed at any time. Other noteworthy differences between Fvwm and other X11 window managers are the introduction of the SloppyFocus and per-window focus methods. SloppyFocus is focus-follows-mouse, but focus is not removed from windows when the mouse leaves a window and enters the root window. When sloppy focus is used as the default focus style, it is nice to make windows in which you do not typically type into (xmag, xman, xgraph, xclock, xbiff, etc) click-to-focus, so that your terminal window doesn't lose focus unnecessarily. .SH COPYRIGHTS Since \fIfvwm\fP is derived from \fItwm\fP code it shares \fItwm\fP's copyrights. Since nearly every line of twm code has been changed, the twm copyright has been removed from most of the individual code files. I do still recognize the influence of twm code in the overall package, so fvwm's copyright is still considered to be the same as twm's. \fIfvwm\fP is copyright 1988 by Evans and Sutherland Computer Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah, and 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, All rights reserved. It is also copyright 1993 and 1994 by Robert Nation. Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of Evans & Sutherland and M.I.T. not be used in advertising in publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. ROBERT NATION, CHARLES HINES, EVANS & SUTHERLAND, AND M.I.T. DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL EVANS & SUTHERLAND OR M.I.T. BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTUOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .SH ANATOMY OF A WINDOW \fIFvwm\fP 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. .SH THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP \fIFvwm\fP provides multiple virtual desktops for users who wish to use them. The screen is a viewport onto a desktop which may be larger than the screen. Several distinct desktops can be accessed (concept: one desktop for each project, or one desktop for each application, when view applications are distinct). Since each desktop can be larger than the physical screen, divided into m by n pages which are each the size of the physical screen, windows which are larger than the screen or large groups of related windows can easily be viewed. The (m by n) size (i.e. number of pages) of the virtual desktops can be changed any time, by using the DeskTopSize built-in command. All virtual desktops must be (are) the same size. The total number of distinct desktops need not be specified, but is limited to approximately 4 billion total. All windows on a range of desktops can be viewed in the Pager, a miniature view of the desktops. The pager is an accessory program, called a module, which is not essential for the window manager to operate. Windows may also be listed, along with their geometries, in a window list, accessible as a pop-up menu, or as a separate window, called the FvwmWinList (another module). "Sticky" windows are windows which transcend the virtual desktop by "Sticking to the screen's glass." They always stay put on the screen. This is convenient for things like clocks and xbiff's, so you only need to run one such gadget and it always stays with you. Icons can also be made to stick to the glass, if desired. Window geometries are specified relative to the current viewport. That is: .EX xterm -geometry +0+0 .EE 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: .EX xterm -geometry +1000+1000 .EE will place the window just off of the lower right hand corner of the screen. It can be found by moving the mouse to the lower right hand corner of the screen and waiting for it to scroll into view. There is currently no way to cause a window to map onto a desktop other than the currently active desk, or is there... A geometry specified as something like: .EX xterm -geometry -5-5 .EE will generally place the window's lower right hand corner 5 pixels from the lower right corner of the visible portion of the screen. Not all applications support window geometries with negative offsets. Some applications that understand standard Xt command line arguments and X resources, like xterm and xfontsel, allow the user to specify the start-up desk on the command line: .EX xterm -xrm "*Desk:1" .EE will start an xterm on desk number 1. Not all applications understand this option, however. You could achieve the same result with the following line in your .Xdefaults file: .EX XTerm*Desk: 1 .EE .SH INITIALIZATION During initialization, \fIfvwm\fP 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, \fIfvwm\fP will search for a file named .fvwm2rc (or .fvwmrc based on how it was compiled - .fvwm2rc is the default) in the users home directory. Failing that, it will look for /usr/lib/X11/fvwm/.fvwm2rc for system-wide defaults. If that file is not found, \fIfvwm\fP will be basically useless. \fIFvwm\fP will set two environment variables which will be inherited by its children. These are $DISPLAY which describes the display on which \fIfvwm\fP 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. \fIFvwm\fP has a two special functions for initialization: InitFunction and RestartFunction, which are executed during Initialization and Restarts (respectively). These may be customized in the user's rc file via the AddToFunc facility (described later) to start up modules, xterms, or whatever you'd like have started by \fIfvwm\fP. \fIFvwm\fP also has a special exit function: ExitFunction, executed when exiting or restarting before actually quitting or anything else. It could be used to explicitly kill modules, etc. .SH COMPILATION OPTIONS \fIFvwm\fP has a number of ways in which you can reduce memory usage by limiting the use of certain features during compilation. If you have trouble using a certain command or feature, check to see if support for it was included at compile time. Optional features are described fully in the Fvwm.tmpl Imake configuration file. .SH ICONS The basic \fIFvwm\fP configuration uses monochrome bitmap icons, similar to \fItwm\fP. If XPM extensions are compiled in, then color icons similar to ctwm, MS-Windows, or the Macintosh icons can be used. In order to use these options you will need the XPM package, as described in the Fvwm.tmpl Imake configuration file. If both the SHAPE and XPM options are compiled in you will get shaped color icons, which are very spiffy. .SH MODULES A module is a separate program which runs as a separate Unix process but transmits commands to \fIfvwm\fP to execute. Users can write their own modules to do any weird or bizarre manipulations without bloating or affecting the integrity of \fIfvwm\fP itself. Modules MUST be spawned by \fIfvwm\fP so that it can set up two pipes for \fIfvwm\fP 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 \fIfvwm\fP at any time during the X session by use of the Module built-in command. Modules can exist for the duration of the X session, or can perform a single task and exit. If the module is still active when \fIfvwm\fP is told to quit, then \fIfvwm\fP 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 \fIfvwm\fP 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 \fIfvwm\fP built-in command engine. Text commands are formatted just as in the case of a mouse binding in the .fvwm2rc setup file. Certain auxiliary information is also transmitted, as in the sample module FvwmButtons. The FvwmButtons module is documented in its own man page. .SH ICCCM COMPLIANCE \fIFvwm\fP attempts to be ICCCM 1.1 compliant. In addition, ICCCM states that it should be possible for applications to receive ANY keystroke, which is not consistent with the keyboard shortcut approach used in \fIfvwm\fP and most other window managers. The ICCCM states that windows possessing the property .EX WM_HINTS(WM_HINTS): Client accepts input or input focus: False .EE should not be given the keyboard input focus by the window manager. These windows can take the input focus by themselves, however. A number of applications set this property, and yet expect the window-manager to give them the keyboard focus anyway, so fvwm provides a window-style, "Lenience", which will allow fvwm to overlook this ICCCM rule. .SH M4 PREPROCESSING .PP M4 pre-processing is handled by a module in fvwm-2.0. To get more details, try man FvwmM4. In short, if you want fvwm to parse your files with m4, then replace the word "Read" with "FvwmM4" in your .fvwm2rc file (if it appears at all), and start fvwm with the command .EX fvwm -cmd "FvwmM4 .fvwm2rc" .EE .SH CPP PREPROCESSING .PP Cpp is the C-language pre-processor. fvwm-2.0 offers cpp processing which mirrors the m4 pre-processing. To find out about it, re-read the M4 section above, but replace "m4" with "cpp". .SH AUTO-RAISE .PP Windows can be automatically raised when it receives focus, or some number of milliseconds after it receives focus, by using the auto-raise module, FvwmAuto. .SH OPTIONS These are the command line options that are recognized by \fIfvwm\fP: .IP "\fB-f\fP \fIconfig_file\fP" Causes \fIfvwm\fP to Read \fIconfig_file\fP instead of ".fvwm2rc" as its initialization file. This is equivalent to \fB-cmd\fP "Read \fIconfig_file\fP". .IP "\fB-cmd\fP \fIconfig_command\fP" Causes \fIfvwm\fP to use \fIconfig_command\fP instead of "Read .fvwm2rc" as its initialization command. (Note that up to 10 \fB-f\fP and \fB-cmd\fP parameters can be given, and they are executed in the order specified.) .IP "\fB-debug\fP" Puts X transactions in synchronous mode, which dramatically slows things down, but guarantees that \fIfvwm\fP's internal error messages are correct. Also causes \fIfvwm\fP to output debug messages while running. .IP "\fB-d\fP \fIdisplayname\fP" Manage the display called "displayname" instead of the name obtained from the environment variable $DISPLAY. .IP "\fB-s\fP" On a multi-screen display, run \fIfvwm\fP only on the screen named in the $DISPLAY environment variable or provided through the -d option. Normally, \fIfvwm\fP will attempt to start up on all screens of a multi-screen display. .IP "\fB-version\fP" Print the version of \fIfvwm\fP to stderr. .SH CONFIGURATION FILES The configuration file is used to describe mouse and button bindings, colors, the virtual display size, and related items. The initialization configuration file is typically called ".fvwm2rc". By using the "Read" built-in, it is easy to read in new configuration files as you go. Lines beginning with '#' will be ignored by \fIfvwm\fP. Lines starting with '*' are expected to contain module configuration commands (rather than configuration commands for \fIfvwm\fP itself). Fvwm makes no distinction between configuration commands and built-in commands, so anything mentioned in the built-in commands section can be placed on a line by itself for fvwm to execute as it reads the configuration file, or it can be placed as an executable command in a menu or bound to a mouse button or a keyboard key. It is left as an exercise for the user to decide which function make sense for initialization and which ones make sense for run-time. .SH BUILT IN FUNCTIONS \fIFvwm\fP supports a set of built-in functions which can be bound to keyboard or mouse buttons. If fvwm expects to find a built-in function in a command, but fails, it will check to see if the specified command should have been "Function (rest of command)" or "Module (rest of command)". This allows complex functions or modules to be invoked in a manner which is fairly transparent to the configuration file. Example: the .fvwm2rc file contains the line "HelpMe". Fvwm will look for a built-in command called "HelpMe", and will fail. Next it will look for a user-defined complex function called "HelpMe". If no such user defined function exists, Fvwm will try to execute a module called "HelpMe". In previous versions of fvwm, quoting was critical and irrational in the .fvwmrc file. As of fvwm-2, most of this has been cleared up. Quotes are required only when needed to make fvwm consider two or more words to be a single argument. Unnecessary quoting is allowed. If you want a quote character in your text, you must escape it by using the backslash character. For example, if you have a pop-up menu called Window-Ops, then you don't need quotes: Popup Window-Ops, but if you replace the dash with a space, then you need quotes: Popup "Window Ops". .IP "AddButtonStyle \fIbutton [state] [style] [\fP -- \fI[!]flag ... ]\fP" Adds a button style to \fIbutton\fP. \fIbutton\fP can be a button number, or one of "All," "Left," or "Right." \fIstate\fP can be "ActiveUp," "ActiveDown" or "Inactive." If \fIstate\fP is omitted, then the style is added to every state. If the button style and flags are enclosed in parentheses, then multiple state definitions can be placed on a single line. Flags for additional button styles cannot be changed after definition. Buttons are drawn in the order of definition, beginning with the most recent ButtonStyle, followed by those added with AddButtonStyle. To clear the button style stack, change style flags, or for descriptions of available styles and flags, see the ButtonStyle command. Examples: .EX ButtonStyle 1 Pixmap led.xpm -- Top Left ButtonStyle 1 ActiveDown HGradient 8 grey black ButtonStyle All -- UseTitleStyle AddButtonStyle 1 ActiveUp (Pixmap a.xpm) ActiveDown (Pixmap b.xpm -- Top) AddButtonStyle 1 Vector 4 50x30@1 70x70@0 30x70@0 50x30@1 .EE Initially for this example all button states are set to a pixmap. The second line replaces the ActiveDown state with a gradient (it overrides the pixmap assigned to it in the line before, which assigned the same style to every state). Then, the UseTitleStyle flag is set for all buttons, which causes \fIfvwm\fP to draw any styles set with TitleStyle before drawing the buttons. Finally, AddButtonStyle is used to place additional pixmaps for both ActiveUp and ActiveDown states and a Vector button style is drawn on top of all state. .IP "AddTitleStyle \fI[state] [style] [\fP -- \fI[!]flag ... ]\fP" Adds a title style to the title bar. \fIstate\fP should be one of "ActiveUp," "ActiveDown," or "Inactive." If \fIstate\fP is omitted, then the style is added to every state. If the style and flags are enclosed in parentheses, then multiple state definitions can be placed on a single line. This command is quite similar to the AddButtonStyle command (see above). Title bars are drawn in the order of definition, beginning with the most recent TitleStyle, followed by those added with AddTitleStyle. To clear the title style stack, change style flags, or for the descriptions of available styles and flags, see the TitleStyle and ButtonStyle commands. .IP "AddToDecor \fIdecor\fP" Add or divert commands to the decor named \fIdecor\fP. A decor is a name given to the set of commands which affect button styles, title-bar styles, border styles, hilight colors, and window fonts. If \fIdecor\fP does not exist it is created; otherwise the existing \fIdecor\fP is modified. Created decors start out exactly like the default fvwm decor without any style definitions. A given decor may be applied to a set of windows with the UseDecor option of the Style command. Modifying an existing decor will affect windows which are currently assigned to it. AddToDecor is similar in usage to the AddToMenu and AddToFunc commands, except that menus and functions are replaced by ButtonStyle, AddButtonStyle, TitleStyle, AddTitleStyle, BorderStyle, HilightColor and WindowFont commands. Decors created with AddToDecor can be manipulated with ChangeDecor, DestroyDecor, UpdateDecor, and the UseDecor Style option. The following example creates a decor and style, both named "flatness." Despite having the same name, they are distinct entities: .EX AddToDecor flatness + ButtonStyle All ActiveUp (-- flat) Inactive (-- flat) + TitleStyle -- flat + BorderStyle -- HiddenHandles NoInset + HilightColor white navy Style "flatness" UseDecor flatness,Color white/grey40,HandleWidth 4 Style "xterm" UseStyle flatness .EE An existing window's decor may be reassigned with ChangeDecor, or a Style command followed by a Recapture. The decorations of all windows or of a specific decor can be updated with UpdateDecor (useful after decorations are modified; changing Style options requires a Recapture instead). A decor can be destroyed with DestroyDecor. .IP "AddToMenu" Begins or adds to a menu definition. Typically a menu definition looks like this: .EX AddToMenu Utilities "Utilities" Title + "Xterm" Exec xterm -e tcsh + "Rxvt" Exec rxvt + "Remote Logins" Popup Remote-Logins + "Top" Exec rxvt -T Top -n Top -e top + "Calculator" Exec xcalc + "Xman" Exec xman + "Xmag" Exec xmag + "emacs" Exec xemacs + "Mail" MailFunction xmh "-font fixed" + "" Nop + "Modules" Popup Module-Popup + "" Nop + "Exit Fvwm" Popup Quit-Verify .EE The menu could be invoked via .EX Mouse 1 R A Menu Utilities Nop .EE or .EX Mouse 1 R A Popup Utilities .EE There is no end-of-menu symbol. Menus do not have to be defined in a contiguous region of the .fvwm2rc file. The quoted portion in the above examples is the menu-label, which will appear in the menu when the user pops it up. The remaining portion is a built-in command which should be executed if the user selects that menu item. An empty menu-label ("") and the Nop function can be used to insert a separator into the menu. If the menu-label contains a sub-string which is set off by stars, then the text between the stars is expected to be the name of an xpm-icon or bitmap-file to insert in the menu. For example .EX + "Calculator*xcalc.xpm*" Exec xcalc .EE inserts a menu item labeled "calculator" with a picture of a calculator above it. The following: .EX + "*xcalc.xpm*" Exec xcalc .EE Omits the "Calculator" label, but leaves the picture. If the menu-label contains a sub-string which is set off by percent signs, then the text between the percent signs is expected to be the name of an xpm-icon or bitmap-file to insert to the left of the menu label. For example .EX + "Calculator%xcalc.xpm%" Exec xcalc .EE inserts a menu item labeled "calculator" with a picture of a calculator to the left. The following: .EX + "%xcalc.xpm%" Exec xcalc .EE Omits the "Calculator" label, but leaves the picture. The pictures used with this feature should be small (perhaps 16x16). .IP "AddToFunc" Begins or add to a function definition. Here's an example: .EX AddToFunc Move-or-Raise "I" Raise + "M" Move + "D" Lower .EE The function name is Move-or-Raise, and could be invoked from a menu or a mouse binding or key binding: .EX Mouse 1 TS A Move-or-Raise .EE The quoted portion of the function tells what kind of action will trigger the command which follows it. "I" stands for Immediate, and is executed as soon as the function is invoked. "M" stands for Motion, i.e. if the user starts moving the mouse. "C" stands for Click, i.e., if the user presses and releases the mouse in a short period of time (ClickTime milliseconds). "D" stands for double-click. The action "I" will cause an action to be performed on the button-press, if the function is invoked with prior knowledge of which window to act on. The special symbols $w and $0 through $9 are available in the ComplexFunctions or Macros, or whatever you want to call them. Within a macro, $w is expanded to the window-id (expressed in hex, i.e. 0x10023c) of the window for which the macro was called. $0 though $9 are the arguments to the macro, so if you call .EX Key F10 R A Function MailFunction xmh "-font fixed" .EE and MailFunction is .EX AddToFunc MailFunction "I" Next [$0] Iconify -1 + "I" Next [$0] focus + "I" None [$0] Exec $0 $1 .EE Then the last line of the function becomes .EX + "I" None [xmh] Exec xmh -font fixed .EE The expansion is performed as the function is executed, so you can use the same function with all sorts of different arguments. I could use .EX Key F11 R A Function MailFunction zmail "-bg pink" .EE in the same .fvwm2rc, if I wanted. An example of using $w is: .EX AddToFunc PrintFunction "I" Raise + "I" Exec xdpr -id $w .EE Note that $$ is expanded to $. .IP "Beep" As might be expected, the makes the terminal beep. .IP "BorderStyle \fI[state] [style] [\fP -- \fI[!]flag ... ]\fP" Defines a border style for windows. \fIstate\fP can be either "Active" or "Inactive." If \fIstate\fP is omitted, then the style is set for both states. If the style and flags are enclosed in parentheses, then multiple state definitions can be specified per line. \fIstyle\fP is a subset of the available ButtonStyles, and can only be TiledPixmap (uniform pixmaps which match the bevel colors work best with this). If an "!" is prefixed to any flag, flag behavior is negated. If \fIstyle\fP is not specified, then one can change flags without resetting the style. The "HiddenHandles" flag hides the corner handle dividing lines on windows with handles (this option has no effect for NoHandle windows). By default, HiddenHandles is disabled. The "NoInset" flag supplements HiddenHandles. If given, the inner bevel around the window frame is not drawn. If HiddenHandles is not specified, this flag has no effect. To decorate the active and inactive window borders with a textured pixmap, one might specify: .EX BorderStyle Active TiledPixmap marble.xpm BorderStyle Inactive TiledPixmap granite.xpm BorderStyle Active -- HiddenHandles NoInset .EE To clear the style for both states: .EX BorderStyle Simple .EE To clear for a single state: .EX BorderStyle Active Simple .EE To unset a flag for a given state: .EX BorderStyle Inactive -- !NoInset .EE Title-bar buttons can inherit the border style with the UseBorderStyle flag (see ButtonStyle). .IP "ButtonStyle \fIbutton [state] [style] [\fP -- \fI[!]flag ... ]\fP" Sets the button style for a title-bar button. \fIbutton\fP is the title-bar button number between 0 and 9, or one of "All," "Left," "Right," or "Reset." Button numbering is described in the Mouse section (see below). If the style and flags are enclosed in parentheses, then multiple state definitions can be specified per line. \fIstate\fP refers to which button state should be set. Button states are defined as follows: "ActiveUp" and "ActiveDown" refer to the unpressed and pressed states for buttons on active windows; while the "Inactive" state denotes buttons on inactive windows. If \fIstate\fP is ActiveUp, ActiveDown, or Inactive, that particular button state is set. If \fIstate\fP is omitted, every state is set. Specifying a style destroys the current style (use AddButtonStyle to avoid this). If \fIstyle\fP is omitted, then state-dependent flags can be set for the primary button style without destroying the current style. Examples (each line should be considered independent): .EX ButtonStyle Left -- flat ButtonStyle All ActiveUp (-- flat) Inactive (-- flat) .EE The first line sets every state of the left buttons to flat, while the second sets only the ActiveUp and Inactive states of every button to flat (only flags are changed; the buttons' individual styles are not changed). If you want to reset all buttons to their defaults: .EX ButtonStyle Reset .EE To reset the ActiveUp button state of button 1 to the default: .EX ButtonStyle 1 ActiveUp Default .EE To reset all button states of button 1 to the default of button number 2: .EX ButtonStyle 1 Default 2 .EE For any given button, multiple state definitions can be given on one line by enclosing the style and flags in parentheses. If only one definition per line is given the parentheses can be omitted. \fIflags\fP affect the specified \fIstate\fP. If an "!" is prefixed to any \fIflag\fP, its behavior is negated. The available state-dependent flags for all styles are described here (the next ButtonStyle entry deals with state-independent flags). "Raised" causes a raised relief pattern to be drawn. "Sunk" causes a sunken relief pattern to be drawn. "Flat" inhibits the relief pattern from being drawn. "UseTitleStyle" causes the given button state to render the current title style before rendering the button's own styles. The Raised, Flat, and Sunk TitleStyle flags are ignored since they are redundant in this context. "UseBorderStyle" causes the button to inherit the decorated BorderStyle options. Raised, Sunk, and Flat are mutually exclusive, and can be specified for the initial ButtonStyle only. UseTitleStyle and UseBorderStyle are also mutually exclusive (both can be off however). The default is Raised with both UseBorderStyle and UseTitleStyle left unset. There is an \fBimportant note\fP for the ActiveDown state. When a button is pressed, the relief is inverted. Because of this, to obtain a sunken ActiveDown state you must specify the opposite of the desired relief (i.e. to obtain a pressed-in look which is raised, specify Sunk for ActiveDown). This behavior is consistent, but may seem confusing at first. Button styles are classified as non-destructive, partially destructive, or fully destructive. Non-destructive styles do not affect the image. Partially destructive styles can obscure some or all parts of the underlying image (i.e. Pixmap). Fully destructive styles obscure the entire underlying image (i.e. Solid or one of the gradient styles). Thus, if stacking styles with AddButtonStyle (or AddTitleStyle for title bars), use care in sequencing styles to minimize redraw. The available styles and their arguments now follow (depending on compilation options, some button styles may be unavailable). The "Simple" style does nothing. There are no arguments, and this style is an example of a non-destructive button style. The "Default" style conditionally accepts one argument: a number which specifies the default button number to load. If the style command given is ButtonStyle or AddButtonStyle, the argument is optional (if given, will override the current button). If a command other than ButtonStyle or AddButtonStyle is used, the number must be specified. The "Solid" style fills the button with a solid color. The relief border color is not affected. The color should be specified as a single argument. This style is fully destructive. The "Vector" style draws a line pattern. Since this is a standard button style, the keyword "Vector" is optional. The specification is a little cumbersome: .EX ButtonStyle 2 Vector 4 50x30@1 70x70@0 30x70@0 50x30@1 .EE then the button 2 decoration will use a 4-point pattern consisting of a line from (x=50,y=30) to (70,70) in the shadow color (@0), and then to (30,70) in the shadow color, and finally to (50,30) in the highlight color (@1). Is that too confusing? See the sample .fvwm2rc for a few examples. This style is partially destructive. The "VGradient" and "HGradient" styles denote gradient styles. The H and V prefixes denote both horizontal and vertical directions. This style has two forms: .in +2 The first form specifies a linear gradient. Arguments: total number of colors to allocate (between 2 and 128), the initial color, and the final color. The second form specifies a nonlinear gradient. Arguments: total number of colors to allocate (between 2 and 128), then the number of segments. For each segment, specify the starting color, percentage to increment, then ending color. Each subsequent segment begins with the color of the last segment. All of the percentages must add up to 100. .in -2 Example: .EX TitleStyle VGradient 16 3 Red 20 Blue 30 Black 50 Grey .EE The gradient styles are fully destructive. The "Pixmap" style displays a pixmap. A pixmap should be specified as an argument. For example, the following would give button 2 the same pixmap for both states, and button 4 different pixmaps for the up, down and inactive states. .EX ButtonStyle 2 Pixmap my_pixmap.xpm ButtonStyle 4 ActiveUp (Pixmap up.xpm) ActiveDown (Pixmap down.xpm) ButtonStyle 4 Inactive Pixmap inactive.xpm .EE The pixmap specification can be given as an absolute or relative pathname (see PixmapPath). If the pixmap cannot be found, the button style reverts to Simple. Flags specific to the Pixmap style are "Left," "Right," "Top," and "Bottom." These can be used to justify the pixmap (default is centered for both directions). Pixmap transparency is used for the color "None." This style is partially destructive. The "MiniIcon" style draws the window's miniature icon in the button, which is specified with the MiniIcon option of the Style command. This button style accepts no arguments. Example: .EX Style "*" MiniIcon mini-bx2.xpm Style "xterm" MiniIcon mini-term.xpm Style "Emacs" MiniIcon mini-doc.xpm ButtonStyle 1 MiniIcon .EE The "TiledPixmap" style accepts a pixmap to be tiled as the button background. One pixmap is specified as an argument. Pixmap transparency is not used. This style is fully destructive. .IP "ButtonStyle \fIbutton\fP - \fI[!]flag ...\fP" Sets state-independent flags for the specified \fIbutton\fP. State-independent flags affect button behavior. Each flag is separated by a space. If an "!" is prefixed to the flag then the flag behavior is negated. The special flag "Clear" clears any existing flags. The following flags are usually used to tell fvwm which buttons should be affected by MWM function hints. This is not done automatically since you might have buttons bound to complex functions, for instance. "MWMDecorMenu" should be assigned to title bar buttons which display a menu. The default assignment is the leftmost button. When a window with the MWMFunctions Style option requests not to show this button, it will be hidden. "MWMDecorMin" should be assigned to title bar buttons which minimize or iconify the window. The default assignment is the second button over from the rightmost button. When a window with the MWMFunctions Style option requests not to show this button, it will be hidden. "MWMDecorMax" should be assigned to title bar buttons which maximize the window. The default assignment is the rightmost button. When a window with the MWMFunctions Style option requests not to show this button, it will be hidden. .IP "ChangeDecor \fIdecor\fP" Changes the decor of a window to \fIdecor\fP. \fIdecor\fP is "Default," or the name of a decor defined with AddToDecor. If \fIdecor\fP is invalid, nothing occurs. If called from somewhere in a window or its border, then that window is affected. If called from the root window the user will be allowed to select the target window. ChangeDecor only affects attributes which can be set using the AddToDecor command. .EX ChangeDecor "CustomDecor1" .EE .IP "ClickTime \fIdelay\fP" 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. .IP "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. .IP "ColormapFocus [FollowsMouse | FollowsFocus]" By default, fvwm installs the colormap of the window that the cursor is in. If you use ColormapFocus FollowsFocus, then the installed colormap will be the one for the window that currently has the keyboard focus. .IP "Current [\fIconditions\fP] \fIcommand\fP" Performs \fIcommand\fP on the current window if it satisfies all \fIconditions\fP. Conditions include "Iconic", "!Iconic", "Visible", "!Visible", "Sticky", "!Sticky", "Maximized", "!Maximized", "Transient", "!Transient", "Raised", "!Raised", "CurrentDesk", "CurrentPage", and "CurrentPageAnyDesk". In addition, the condition may include a window name to match to. The window name may include the wildcards * and ?. The window name, icon name, class, and resource will be considered when attempting to find a match. The window name can begin with ! which will prevent \fIcommand\fP if any of the window name, icon name, class or resource match. .IP "CursorMove \fIhorizontal vertical\fP" Moves the mouse pointer by \fIhorizontal\fP pages in the X direction and \fIvertical\fP 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. .IP "CursorStyle \fIcontext cursornum\fP" Defines a new cursor for the specified context. The various contexts are: .EX POSITION - used when initially placing windows (XC_top_left_corner) TITLE - used in a window title-bar (XC_top_left_arrow) DEFAULT - used in windows that don't set their cursor (XC_top_left_arrow) SYS - used in one of the title-bar buttons (XC_hand2) MOVE - used when moving or resizing windows (XC_fleur) WAIT - used during an EXEC builtin command (XC_watch) MENU - used in menus (XC_sb_left_arrow) SELECT - used for various builtin commands such as iconify (XC_dot) DESTROY - used for DESTROY, CLOSE, and DELETE built-ins (XC_pirate) TOP - used in the top side-bar of a window (XC_top_side) RIGHT - used in the right side-bar of a window (XC_right_side) BOTTOM - used in the bottom side-bar of a window (XC_bottom_side) LEFT - used in the left side-bar of a window (XC_left_side) TOP_LEFT - used in the top left corner of a window (XC_top_left_corner) TOP_RIGHT - used in the top right corner of a window (XC_top_right_corner) BOTTOM_LEFT - used in the bottom left corner of a window (XC_bottom_left_corner) BOTTOM_RIGHT - used in the bottom right corner of a window (XC_bottom_right_corner) .EE And the cursornum is the numeric value of the cursor as defined in the include file X11/cursorfont.h. An example: .EX # make the kill cursor be XC_gumby: CursorStyle DESTROY 56 .EE The defaults are shown in parenthesis above. .IP "Delete" Sends a message to a window asking that it remove itself, frequently causing the application to exit. .IP "Desk \fIarg1 arg2\fP" Changes to another desktop (workspace, room). If \fIarg1\fP is non zero then the next desktop number will be the current desktop number plus \fIarg1\fP. Desktop numbers can be negative. If \fIarg1\fP is zero then the new desktop number will be \fIarg2\fP. 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?). .IP "DeskTopSize \fIHorizontal\fPx\fIVertical\fP" Defines the virtual desktop size in units of the physical screen size. .IP "Destroy" Destroys an application window, which usually causes the application to crash and burn. .IP "DestroyFunc" Deletes a function, so that subsequent references to it are no longer valid. You can use this to change the contents of a function during an fvwm session. The function can be rebuilt using AddToFunc. .EX DestroyFunc "PrintFunction" .EE .IP "DestroyDecor \fIdecor\fP" Deletes the \fIdecor\fP defined with AddToDecor, so that subsequent references to it are no longer valid. Windows using this \fIdecor\fP revert to the default fvwm decor. The decor named "Default" cannot be destroyed. .EX DestroyDecor "CustomDecor1" .EE .IP "DestroyMenu" Deletes a menu, so that subsequent references to it are no longer valid. You can use this to change the contents of a menu during an fvwm session. The menu can be rebuilt using AddToMenu. .EX DestroyMenu "Utilities" .EE .IP "DestroyModuleConfig" Deletes module configuration entries, so that new configuration lines may be entered instead. You can use this to change the the way a module runs during an fvwm session without restarting. Wildcards can be used for portions of the name as well. .EX DestroyModuleConfig FvwmFormFore DestroyModuleConfig FvwmButtons* .EE .IP "Echo \fIstring\fP" Prints a message to stderr. Potentially useful for debugging things in your .fvwm2rc. .EX Echo Beginning style defs... .EE .IP "EdgeResistance \fIscrolling moving\fP" 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 \fIfvwm\fP 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. .IP "EdgeScroll \fIhorizontal vertical\fP" Specifies the percentage of a page to scroll when the cursor hits the edge of a page. If you don't want any paging or scrolling when you hit the edge of a page include "EdgeScroll 0 0" in your .fvwm2rc file. If you want whole pages, use "EdgeScroll 100 100". Both horizontal and vertical should be positive numbers. If the horizontal and vertical percentages are multiplied by 1000 then scrolling will wrap around at the edge of the desktop. If "EdgeScroll 100000 100000" is used \fIfvwm\fP will scroll by whole pages, wrapping around at the edge of the desktop. .IP "Exec \fIcommand\fP" Executes \fIcommand\fP. Exec does not require an additional 'exec' at the beginning or '&' at the end of the command. The following example binds function key F1 in the root window, with no modifiers, to the exec function. The program rxvt will be started with an assortment of options. .EX Key F1 R N Exec rxvt -fg yellow -bg blue -e /bin/tcsh .EE .IP "ExecUseShell \fI[shell]\fP" Makes the Exec command use the specified shell, or the value of the $SHELL environment variable if no shell is specified, instead of the default Bourne shell (/bin/sh). .EX ExecUseShell ExecUseShell /usr/local/bin/tcsh .EE .IP "FlipFocus" Toggles focus between the last two focused windows. .IP "Focus" Moves the viewport or window as needed to make the selected window visible. Sets the keyboard focus to the selected window. Raises the window if needed to make it visible. Does not warp the pointer into the selected window (see WarpToWindow function). Does not de-iconify. .IP "Function \fI\FunctionName\\fP" 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 \fIfvwm\fP will execute to move-or-raise function whenever button 1 is pressed in a window title-bar. .EX Mouse 1 T A Function Move-or-Raise .EE The keyword "Function" may be omitted if "FunctionName" does not coincide with an fvwm built-in function name .IP "GlobalOpts \fI[options]\fP" This is a TEMPORARY command used to set some global options which will later be handled as Style parms (or options to Style parms). It currently handles the following: SmartPlacementIsReallySmart/SmartPlacementIsNormal, ClickToFocusDoesntPassClick/ClickToFocusPassesClick, ClickToFocusDoesntRaise/ClickToFocusRaises, MouseFocusClickDoesntRaise/MouseFocusClickRaises .EX GlobalOpts ClickToFocusDoesntPassClick, ClickToFocusDoesntRaise .EE .IP "GotoPage x y" Moves the desktop viewport to page (x,y). The upper left page is (0,0), the upper right is (M,0), where M is one less than the current number of horizontal pages specified in the DeskTopSize command. The lower left page is (0,N), and the lower right page is (M,N), where N is the desktop's vertical size as specified in the DeskTopSize command. The GotoPage function should not be used in a pop-up menu. .IP "HilightColor \fItextcolor backgroundcolor\fP" Specified the text and background colors for the decorations on the window which currently has the keyboard focus. .IP "IconFont \fIfontname\fP" Makes \fIfvwm\fP use font \fIfontname\fP for icon labels. If omitted, the menu font (specified by the Font configuration parameter) will be used instead. .IP "Iconify [ \fIvalue\fP ]" Iconifies a window if it is not already iconified or de-iconifies it if it is already iconified. If the optional argument \fIvalue\fP is positive the only iconification will be allowed. It the optional argument is negative only de-iconification will be allowed. .IP "IconPath \fIpath\fP" Specifies a colon separated list of full path names of directories where bitmap (monochrome) icons can be found. Each path should start with a slash. Environment variables can be used here as well (i.e. $HOME or ${HOME}). Note: if the FvwmM4 is used to parse your rc files, then \fIm4\fP may want to mangle the word "include" which will frequently show up in the IconPath or PixmapPath command. To fix this add undefine(`include') prior to the IconPath command, or better use the '-m4-prefix' option to force all m4 directives to have a prefix of "m4_" (see the \fIFvwmM4\fP man page). .IP "Key \fIkeyname Context Modifiers Function\fP" Binds a keyboard key to a specified \fIfvwm\fP built-in function, or removes the binding if \fIFunction\fP is '-'. Definition is the same as for a mouse binding except that the mouse button number is replaced with a key name. The \fIkeyname\fP is one of the entries from /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h, with the leading XK_ omitted. The \fIContext\fP and \fIModifiers\fP fields are defined as in the Mouse binding. The following example binds the built in window list to pop up when Alt-Ctrl-Shift-F11 is hit, no matter where the mouse pointer is: .EX Key F11 A SCM WindowList .EE Binding a key to a title-bar button will not cause that button to appear unless a mouse binding also exists. .IP "KillModule \fIname\fP" Causes the module which was invoked with name \fIname\fP to be killed. \fIname\fP may include wild-cards. .IP "Lower" Allows the user to lower a window. .IP "Maximize [ \fI horizontal vertical\fP ]" 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: .EX Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 0 100 .EE The following causes windows to be stretched to the full width: .EX Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 100 0 .EE This makes a window that is half the screen size in each direction: .EX Mouse 0 4 A Maximize 50 50 .EE 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. .IP "Menu \fImenu-name double-click-action\fP" Causes a previously defined menu to be popped up in a "sticky" manner. That is, if the user invokes the menu with a click action instead of a drag action, the menu will stay up. The command \fIdouble-click-action\fP will be invoked if the user double-clicks when bringing the menu up. .IP "MenuStyle \fIforecolor backcolor shadecolor font style\fP" Sets the menu style. When using monochrome the colors are ignored. The shade-color is the one used to draw a menu-selection which is prohibited (or not recommended) by the mwm-hints which an application has specified. The style option is either "fvwm" or "mwm", which changes the appearance of the menu. .IP "Module \fIModuleName\fP" Specifies a module which should be spawned during initialization. At the current time the available modules (included with fvwm) are FvwmAudio (makes sounds to go with window manager actions), FvwmAuto (an auto raise module), FvwmBacker (to change the background when you change desktops), FvwmBanner (to display a spiffy XPM), FvwmButtons (brings up a customizable tool bar), FvwmCpp (to preprocess your .fvwm2rc with cpp), FvwmForm (to bring up dialogs), FvwmIconBox (like the mwm IconBox), FvwmIconMan (like the twm icon manager), FvwmIdent (to get window info), FvwmM4 (to preprocess your .fvwm2rc with m4), FvwmPager (a mini version of the desktop), FvwmSave (saves the desktop state in .xinitrc style), FvwmSaveDesk (saves the desktop state in fvwm commands), FvwmScroll (puts scrollbars on any window), FvwmTalk (to interactively run fvwm commands), and FvwmWinList (a window list). These modules have their own man pages. There are other modules out on there as well. Modules can be short lived transient programs or, like FvwmButtons, can remain for the duration of the X session. Modules will be terminated by the window manager prior to restarts and quits, if possible. See the introductory section on modules. The keyword "module" may be omitted if \fIModuleName\fP is distinct from all built-in and function names. .IP "ModulePath" Specifies a colon separated list of paths for \fIfvwm\fP to search when looking for a module to load. Individual directories do not need trailing slashes. Environment variables can be used here as well (i.e. $HOME or ${HOME}). .IP "Mouse \fIButton Context Modifiers Function\fP" Defines a mouse binding, or removes the binding if \fIFunction\fP is \'-'. . \fIButton\fP is the mouse button number. If \fIButton\fP is zero then any button will perform the specified function. \fIContext\fP 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. \fIModifiers\fP 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. \fIFunction\fP is one of \fIfvwm\fP'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: .EX 1 3 5 7 9 0 8 6 4 2 .EE 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. .IP "Move [ \fIx y\fP ]" 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: .EX Mouse 1 T A Move Mouse 2 T A Move 10 10 Mouse 3 T A Move 10p 10p .EE 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. .IP "Nop" Does nothing. This is used to insert a blank line or separator in a menu. If the menu item specification is Nop " ", then a blank line is inserted. If it looks like Nop "", then a separator line is inserted. Can also be used as the double-click action for Menu. .IP "Next [\fIconditions\fP] \fIcommand\fP" Performs \fIcommand\fP (typically Focus) on the next window which satisfies all \fIconditions\fP. Conditions are the same as for \fICurrent\fP with the addition of CirculateHit which overrides the CirculateSkip style attribute and CirculateHitIcon which overrides the CirculateSkipIcon style attribute for iconified windows. .IP "None [\fIarguments\fP] \fIcommand\fP" Performs \fIcommand\fP if no window which satisfies all \fIconditions\fP exists. Conditions are the same as for \fINext\fP. .IP "OpaqueMoveSize \fIpercentage\fP" Tells \fIfvwm\fP 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. .IP "PipeRead \fIcmd\fP" Causes fvwm to read commands output from the program named \fIcmd\fP. Useful for building up dynamic menu entries based on a directories contents, for example. .IP "PixmapPath \fIpath\fP" Specifies a colon separated list of full path names of directories where pixmap (color) icons can be found. Each path should start with a slash. Environment variables can be used here as well (i.e. $HOME or ${HOME}). .IP "Popup \fI\PopupName\fP" 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: .sp .in +.25i The following example binds mouse buttons 2 and 3 to a pop-up called "Window Ops". The menu will pop up if the buttons 2 or 3 are pressed in the window frame, side-bar, or title-bar, with no modifiers (none of shift, control, or meta). .EX Mouse 2 FST N Popup "Window Ops" Mouse 3 FST N Popup "Window Ops" .EE Pop-ups can be bound to keys through the use of the Key built in. Pop-ups can be operated without using the mouse by binding to keys and operating via the up arrow, down arrow, and enter keys. .in -.25i .sp To bind a previously defined pop-up menu to another menu, for use as a sub-menu: .sp .in +.25i The following example defines a sub menu, "Quit-Verify" and binds it into a main menu, called "RootMenu": .EX AddToMenu Quit-Verify "Really Quit Fvwm?" Title + "Yes, Really Quit" Quit + "Restart Fvwm2" Restart fvwm2 + "Restart Fvwm 1.xx" Restart fvwm + "" Nop + "No, Don't Quit" Nop AddToMenu RootMenu "Root Menu" Title + "Open an XTerm Window" Popup NewWindowMenu + "Login as Root" Exec xterm -fg green -T Root -n Root -e su - + "Login as Anyone" Popup AnyoneMenu + "Remote Hosts" Popup HostMenu + "" Nop + "X utilities" Popup Xutils + "" Nop + "Fvwm Modules" Popup Module-Popup + "Fvwm Window Ops" Popup Window-Ops + "" Nop + "Previous Focus" Prev [*] Focus + "Next Focus" Next [*] Focus + "" Nop + "Refresh screen" Refresh + "Recapture screen" Recapture + "" Nop + "Reset X defaults" Exec xrdb -load $HOME/.Xdefaults + "" Nop + "" Nop + "Quit" Popup Quit-Verify .EE .in -.25i .sp Popup differs from Menu in that pop-ups do not stay up if the user simply clicks. These are Twm style popup-menus, which are a little hard on the wrist. Menu provides Motif or Microsoft-Windows style menus which will stay up on a click action. .IP "Prev" Performs \fIcommand\fP (typically Focus) on the previous window which satisfies all \fIconditions\fP. Conditions are the same as for \fINext\fP. .IP "Quit" Exits \fIfvwm\fP, generally causing X to exit too. .IP "Raise" Allows the user to raise a window. .IP "RaiseLower" Alternately raises and lowers a window. .IP "Read \fIfilename\fP" Causes fvwm to read commands from the file named \fIfilename\fP. .IP "Recapture" Causes fvwm to recapture all of its windows. This ensures that the latest style parameters will be used. The recapture operation is visually disturbing. .IP "Refresh" Causes all windows on the screen to redraw themselves. .IP "RefreshWindow" Causes current (or chosen) window to redraw itself. .IP "Resize [ \fIx y\fP ]" Allows the user to resize a window. If the optional arguments x and y are provided, then the window will be resized so that its dimensions are \fIx\fP by \fIy\fP). 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. .IP "Restart \fIWindowManagerName\fP " Causes \fIfvwm\fP to restart itself if WindowManagerName is "fvwm2", or to switch to an alternate window manager if WindowManagerName is other than "fvwm2". If the window manager is not in your default search path, then you should use the full path name for \fIWindowManagerName\fP. This command should not have a trailing ampersand or any command line arguments and should not make use of any environmental variables. Of the following examples, the first two are sure losers, but the third is OK: .EX Key F1 R N Restart fvwm & Key F1 R N Restart $(HOME)/bin/fvwm Key F1 R N Restart /home/nation/bin/fvwm .EE .IP "SendToModule \fImodulename string\fP" Sends an arbitrary string (no quotes required) to all modules matching \fImodulename\fP, which may contain wildcards. This only makes sense if the module is set up to understand and deal with these strings though... Can be used for module to module communication, or implementation of more complex commands in modules. .IP "Scroll \fIhorizonal vertical\fP" Scrolls the virtual desktop's viewport by \fIhorizontal\fP pages in the x-direction and \fIvertical\fP 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 \fIfvwm\fP 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. .IP "Stick" Makes a window sticky if it is not already sticky, or non-sticky if it is already sticky. .IP "Style \fIwindowname options\fP" This command is intended to replace the old fvwm 1.xx global commands NoBorder, NoTitle, StartsOnDesk, Sticky, StaysOnTop, Icon, WindowListSkip, CirculateSkip, SuppressIcons, BoundaryWidth, NoBoundaryWidth, StdForeColor, and StdBackColor with a single flexible and comprehensive window(s) specific command. This command is used to set attributes of a window to values other than the default or to set the window manager default styles. \fIwindowname\fP can be a window's name, class, or resource string. It can contain the wildcards * and/or ?, which are matched in the usual Unix filename manner. They are searched in the reverse order stated, so that Style commands based on the name override or augment those based on the class, which override or augment those based on the resource string. Note - windows that have no name (WM_NAME) are given a name of "Untitled", and windows that don't have a class (WM_CLASS, res_class) are given Class = "NoClass" and those that don't have a resource (WM_CLASS, res_name) are given Resource = "NoResource". \fIoptions\fP is a comma separated list containing some or all of the keywords BorderWidth, HandleWidth, NoIcon/Icon, MiniIcon, IconBox, IconGrid, IconFill, NoTitle/Title, NoHandles/Handles, WindowListSkip/WindowListHit, CirculateSkip/CirculateHit, StaysOnTop/StaysPut, Sticky/Slippery, StartIconic/StartNormal, Color, ForeColor, BackColor, StartsOnDesk/StartsAnyWhere, IconTitle/NoIconTitle, MWMButtons/FvwmButtons, MWMBorder/FvwmBorder, MWMDecor/NoDecorHint, MWMFunctions/NoFuncHint, HintOverride/NoOverride, NoButton/Button, OLDecor/NoOLDecor, StickyIcon/SlipperyIcon, SmartPlacement/DumbPlacement, RandomPlacement/ActivePlacement, DecorateTransient/NakedTransient, SkipMapping/ShowMapping, UseDecor, UseStyle, NoPPosition/UsePPosition, Lenience/NoLenience, ClickToFocus/SloppyFocus/MouseFocus|FocusFollowsMouse. In the above list some options are listed as style-option/opposite-style-option. The opposite-style-option for entries that have them describes the \fIfvwm\fP default behavior and can be used if you want to change the \fIfvwm\fP default behavior. Icon takes an (optional) unquoted string argument which is the icon bitmap or pixmap to use. IconBox takes four numeric arguments or an X11 geometry string: .EX IconBox l t r b .EE or Where l is the left coordinate, t is the top, r is right and b is bottom. Negative coordinates indicate distance from the right or bottom of the screen. Perhaps easier to use is an X11 Geometry string: .EX IconBox -80x200-1-1 .EE Which would place an 80 by 240 pixel iconbox in the lower right hand corner of the screen. The iconbox is a region of the screen where fvwm attempts to put icons for any matching window, as long as they do not overlap other icons. Multiple icon boxes can be defined as overflow areas. When the first icon box is filled, the second one is filled. All the icon boxes for one style must be defined in 1 command. For example: .EX Style "*" IconBox -80x200-1-1, IconBox 1000x70-1-1 .EE IconGrid takes 2 numeric arguments greater than zero. .EX IconGrid x y .EE Icons are placed in an icon box by stepping thru the icon box using the x and y values for the icon grid, looking for a free space. The default grid is 3 by 3 pixels which gives a tightly packed appearance. To get a more regular appearance use a grid larger than your largest icon. Currently there is no way to clip an icon to a maximum size. An IconGrid definition must follow the IconBox definition that it applies to: .EX Style "*" IconBox -80x240-1-1, IconGrid 90 90 .EE IconFill takes 2 arguments. .EX IconFill Bottom Right .EE Icons are placed in an icon box by stepping thru the icon box using these arguments to control the direction the box is filled in. By default the direction is left to right, then top to bottom. This would be expressed as: .EX IconFill left bottom .EE To fill an icon box in columns instead of rows, specify the vertical direction (top or bottom) first. The directions can be abbreviated or spelled out as follows: "t", "top", "b", "bot", "bottom", "l", "lft", "left", "r", "rgt", "right". An IconFill definition must follow the IconBox definition that it applies to: .EX Style "*" IconBox -80x240-1-1, IconFill b r .EE MiniIcon specifies a pixmap to use as the miniature icon for the window. This miniature icon can be drawn in a title-bar button (see ButtonStyle), and can be used by various fvwm modules (FvwmWinList, FvwmIconMan, and FvwmTaskBar). It takes the name of a pixmap as an argument. StartsOnDesk takes a numeric argument which is the desktop number on which the window should be initially placed. Note that standard Xt programs can also specify this via a resource (e.g. "-xrm '*Desk: 1'"). StaysOnTop makes the window always try to stay on top of the other windows. This might be handy for clocks or mailboxes that you would always like to be visible. If the window is explicitly lowered it will not try to force its way back to the top until it is explicitly raised. StaysPut (the default) allows the window to be obscured and stay that way. BorderWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width of the border to place the window if it does not have resize-handles. HandleWidth takes a numeric argument which is the width of the border to place the window if it does have resize-handles. Button and NoButton take a numeric argument which is the number of the title-bar button which is to be included/omitted. StickyIcon makes the window sticky when its iconified. It will deiconify on top the active desktop. MWMButtons makes the Maximize button look pressed-in when the window is maximized. See the MWMButton flag in ButtonStyle for more information. MWMBorder makes the 3-D bevel more closely match mwm's. MWMDecor makes fvwm attempt to recognize and respect the mwm decoration hints that applications occasionally use. MWMFunctions makes fvwm attempt to recognize and respect the mwm prohibited operations hints that applications occasionally use. HintOverride makes fvwm shade out operations that mwm would prohibit, but it lets you perform the operation anyway. OLDecor makes fvwm attempt to recognize and respect the olwm and olvwm hints that many older XView and OLIT applications use. Color takes two arguments. The first is the window-label text color and the second is the window decoration's normal background color. The two colors are separated with a slash. If the use of a slash causes problems then the separate ForeColor and BackColor options can be used. UseDecor accepts one argument: the name of a decor created with AddToDecor. If UseDecor is not specified, the "Default" decor is used. Windows do not actually contain decors, but are always assigned to one. If the decor is later modified with AddToDecor, the changes will be visible for all windows which are assigned to it. The decor for a window can be reassigned with ChangeDecor. UseStyle takes one arg, which is the name of another style. That way you can have unrelated window names easily inherit similar traits without retyping. For example: 'Style "rxvt" UseStyle "XTerm"'. SkipMapping tells fvwm not to switch to the desk the window is on when it gets mapped initially (useful with StartsOnDesk). Lenience instructs fvwm to ignore the convention in the ICCCM which states that if an application sets the input field of the wm_hints structure to False, then it never wants the window manager to give it the input focus. The only application that I know of which needs this is sxpm, and that is a silly bug with a trivial fix and has no overall effect on the program anyway. Rumor is that some older applications have problems too. ClickToFocus instructs fvwm to give the focus to the window when it is clicked in. The default MouseFocus (or its alias FocusFollowsMouse) tells fvwm to give the window the focus as soon as the pointer enters the window, and take it away when the pointer leaves the window. SloppyFocus is similar, but doesn't give up the focus if the pointer leaves the window to pass over the root window or a ClickToFocus window (unless you click on it, that is), which makes it possible to move the mouse out of the way without losing focus. NoPPosition instructs fvwm to ignore the PPosition field when adding new windows. Adherence to the PPosition field is required for some applications, but if you don't have one of those its a real headache. RandomPlacement causes windows which would normally require user placement to be automatically placed in ever-so-slightly random locations. For the best of all possible worlds use both RandomPlacement and SmartPlacement. SmartPlacement causes windows which would normally require user placement to be automatically placed in a smart location - a location in which they do not overlap any other windows on the screen. If no such position can be found user placement or random placement (if specified) will be used as a fall-back method. For the best of all possible worlds use both RandomPlacement and SmartPlacement. An example: .EX # Change default fvwm behavior to no title-bars on windows! # Also define a default icon. Style "*" NoTitle,Icon unknown1.xpm, BorderWidth 4,HandleWidth 5 # now, window specific changes: Style "Fvwm*" NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip,BorderWidth 0 Style "Fvwm Pager" StaysOnTop, BorderWidth 0 Style "*lock" NoHandles,Sticky,StaysOnTop,WindowListSkip Style "xbiff" Sticky, WindowListSkip Style "FvwmButtons" NoHandles,Sticky,WindowListSkip Style "sxpm" NoHandles Style "makerkit" # Put title-bars back on xterms only! Style "xterm" Title, Color black/grey Style "rxvt" Icon term.xpm Style "xterm" Icon rterm.xpm Style "xcalc" Icon xcalc.xpm Style "xbiff" Icon mail1.xpm Style "xmh" Icon mail1.xpm, StartsOnDesk 2 Style "xman" Icon xman.xpm Style "matlab" Icon math4.xpm, StartsOnDesk 3 Style "xmag" Icon magnifying_glass2.xpm Style "xgraph" Icon graphs.xpm Style "FvwmButtons" Icon toolbox.xpm Style "Maker" StartsOnDesk 1 Style "signal" StartsOnDesk 3 .EE 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: .EX Style "*" NoIcon Style "Fvwm Pager" Icon .EE .IP "Title" Does nothing. This is used to insert a title line in a popup or menu. .IP "TitleStyle \fI[justification] [height num]\fP" Sets attributes for the title bar. Justifications can be "Centered", "RightJustified," or "LeftJustified." \fIheight\fP sets the title bar's height to an amount in pixels. Defaults are Centered and WindowFont height. The \fIheight\fP parameter must be set after a WindowFont command since WindowFont resets the height to the default for the specified font. Example: .EX TitleStyle LeftJustified Height 24 .EE .IP "TitleStyle \fI[state] [style] [\fP -- \fI[!]flag ... ]\fP" Sets the style for the title bar. \fIstate\fP can be one of "ActiveUp," "ActiveDown," or "Inactive." If \fIstate\fP is omitted, then the style is added to every state. If parentheses are placed around the style and flags, then multiple state definitions can be given per line. \fIstyle\fP can be omitted so that flags can be set while not destroying the current style. If an "!" is prefixed to any \fIflag\fP, its behavior is negated. Valid flags for each state include "Raised," "Flat," and "Sunk" (these are mutually exclusive). The default is Raised. See the note in ButtonStyle regarding the ActiveDown state. Examples: .EX TitleStyle ActiveUp HGradient 16 navy black TitleStyle ActiveDown (Solid red -- flat) Inactive (TiledPixmap wood.xpm) TitleStyle ActiveUp (-- Flat) ActiveDown (-- Raised) Inactive (-- Flat) .EE This sets the ActiveUp state to a horizontal gradient, the ActiveDown state to solid red, and the Inactive state to a tiled wood pixmap. Finally, ActiveUp is set to look flat, while ActiveDown set to be sunk (the Raised flag for the ActiveDown state causes it to appear Sunk due to relief inversion), and Inactive is set to flat as well. An example which sets flags for all states: .EX TitleStyle -- flat .EE For a flattened look: .EX TitleStyle -- flat ButtonStyle All ActiveUp (-- flat) Inactive (-- flat) .EE .IP "UpdateDecor \fIdecor\fP" Updates window decorations. \fIdecor\fP is an optional argument which specifies the \fIdecor\fP to update. If given, only windows which are assigned to that particular \fIdecor\fP will be updated. This command is useful, for instance, after a ButtonStyle, TitleStyle or BorderStyle (possibly used in conjunction with AddToDecor). Specifying an invalid decor results in all windows being updated. This command is less disturbing than Recapture, but does not affect window style options as Recapture does. .IP "WarpToWindow \fIx y\fP" Warps the cursor to the associated window. The parameters x and y default to percentage of window down and in from the upper left hand corner (or number of pixels down and in if 'p' is appended to the numbers). .IP "Wait \fIname\fP" This built-in is intended to be used in \fIfvwm\fP functions only. It causes execution of a function to pause until a new window name \fIname\fP appears. \fIFvwm\fP remains fully functional during a wait. This is particularly useful in the InitFunction if you are trying to start windows on specific desktops: .EX AddToFunc InitFunction "I" exec xterm -geometry 80x64+0+0 + "I" Wait xterm + "I" Desk 0 2 + "I" Exec xmh -font fixed -geometry 507x750+0+0 + "I" Wait xmh + "I" Desk 0 0 .EE 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. .IP "WindowsDesk \fIarg1 [arg2]\fP" Moves the selected window to another desktop (workspace, room). If \fIarg1\fP is non zero then the next desktop number will be the current desktop number plus \fIarg1\fP. Desktop numbers can be negative. If \fIarg1\fP is zero then the new desktop number will be \fIarg2\fP. If only one argument is given, moves the selected window the the desktop specified as \farg1\fP. .IP "WindowFont \fIfontname\fP" Makes \fIfvwm\fP use font \fIfontname\fP instead of "fixed" for window title-bars. .IP "WindowId \fIid func\fP" The WindowId function is similar to the Next and Prev funcs, except that it looks for a specific window \fIid\fP and runs the specified \fIfunc\fP on it. .EX WindowId 0x34567890 Raise WindowId 0x34567890 WarpToWindow 50 50 .EE Mostly this is useful for functions used with the WindowList builtin. .IP "WindowList \fI[options]\fP" Generates a pop-up menu (and pops it up) in which the title and geometry of each of the windows currently on the desk top are shown. The geometry of iconified windows is shown in parenthesis. Selecting an item from the window list pop-up menu will by default cause the interpreted function WindowListFunc to be run with the window id of that window passed in as $0. By default the WindowListFunc looks like this: .EX AddToFunc WindowListFunc "I" WindowId $0 Iconify -1 + "I" WindowId $0 Focus + "I" WindowId $0 Raise + "I" WindowId $0 WarpToWindow 5p 5p .EE You can Destroy the builtin WindowListFunc and create your own if these defaults do not suit you. The \fIoptions\fP passed to WindowList can be "NoGeometry", "Function ", "Desk ", "CurrentDesk", "NoIcons", "Icons", "OnlyIcons", "NoNormal", "Normal", "OnlyNormal", "NoSticky", "Sticky", "OnlySticky", "NoOnTop", "OnTop", "OnlyOnTop", "Unsorted", "UseIconName", "Alphabetic", "NotAlphabetic". (Note - normal means not iconic, sticky, or ontop) If you pass in a function via "Function ", $0 is the window id: .EX AddToFunc IFunc "I" WindowId $0 Iconify WindowList Function IFunc, NoSticky, CurrentDesk, NoIcons .EE If you wanted to use the WindowList as an icon manager, you could invoke the following: .EX WindowList OnlyIcons, Sticky, OnTop, Geometry .EE (Note - the "Only" options essentially wipe out all other ones...) .IP "WindowShade [ \fIopt\fP ]" Toggles the window shade feature for titled windows. Windows in the shaded state only display a title bar. If \fIopt\fP is not given, the window shade state is toggled. If \fIopt\fP is 1, the window is forced to the shaded state. If \fIopt\fP is 2, then the window is forced to the non-shaded state. Maximized windows and windows without titles cannot be shaded. .IP "XORvalue \fInumber\fP" 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. .IP "+" Used to continue adding to the last specified decor, function or menu. See the discussion for AddToDecor, AddToFunc, and AddToMenu. .SH 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. .SH SUPPLIED CONFIGURATION A sample configuration file, .fvwm2rc, is supplied with the \fIfvwm\fP distribution. It is well commented and can be used as a source of examples for \fIfvwm\fP configuration. .SH USE ON MULTI-SCREEN DISPLAYS If the -s command line argument is not given, \fIfvwm\fP will automatically start up on every screen on the specified display. After \fIfvwm\fP starts each screen is treated independently. Restarts of \fIfvwm\fP 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. .SH BUGS As of fvwm 0.99 there were exactly 39.342 unidentified bugs. Identified bugs have mostly been fixed, though. Since then 9.34 bugs have been fixed. Assuming that there are at least 10 unidentified bugs for every identified one, that leaves us with 39.342 - 9.32 + 10 * 9.34 = 123.402 unidentified bugs. If we follow this to its logical conclusion we will have an infinite number of unidentified bugs before the number of bugs can start to diminish, at which point the program will be bug-free. Since this is a computer program infinity = 3.4028e+38 if you don't insist on double-precision. At the current rate of bug discovery we should expect to achieve this point in 3.37e+27 years. I guess I better plan on passing this thing on to my children.... Known bugs can be found in the BUGS file in the distribution, and in the TO-DO list. Bug reports can be sent to the FVWM mailing list (see the FAQ). .SH AUTHOR Robert Nation with help from many people, based on \fItwm\fP code, which was written by Tom LaStrange. Rob has since 'retired' from working on fvwm though, so Charles Hines maintains its care and feeding currently.