Hints and FAQ ============= Hint: Don't restart ------------------- To make changes in your autostart take effect immediately, just type +herbstclient reload+. There is no need to restart herbstluftwm or X. + Even if you just updated you herbstluftwm-binary, there's no need to restart anything. Run +herbstclient wmexec+, which does an +exec+(3) on the new herbstluftwm version. (You also can use +wmexec+ to switch to another window manager without restarting anything) Hint: Use scripts! ------------------ There are a bunch of scripts coming along with herbstluftwm. Check out the scripts directory in the sources and the examples directory after installing. Hint: Understanding processes ----------------------------- To understand the relationship between the different processes that running in a typical herbstluftwm setup, consider the following diagram: ---- startx | f/e V ~/.xinitrc | f/e or exec IPC-Call V .- - - -> herbstluftwm __________________ ." / \ | Symbol | Meaning | . / \ |--------+---------| . f/e / \ f/e | A | A forks | . / \ | | f/e | and | . V V | V | execs | . autostart xterm | B | into B | . | | |________|_________| . f/e | | f/e . V V -- herbstclient $SHELL ---- As you can see, +herbstclient+ does nothing except sending requests to +herbstluftwm+. Whenever a process performs a fork-and-exec, the following rules apply: * A child process inherits the environment variables of its parent process. If you change an environment variable (like 'PATH'), then it will stay unchanged in the parent process. + + => If you want to set some environment variables for your complete session (i.e. all processes) then you have to set it in your +~/.xinitrc+. * If a process spawns a window, then the window will spawn delayed. This delay differs from application to application (and from time to time). So a script like ---- herbstclient spawn xterm herbstclient spawn xev ---- does *not* guarantee that the +xterm+ window will appear before the +xev+ window! It only guarantees that the +xterm+ is executed before +xev+ will be executed.+ => If you want to apply some rules only for the next windows, then use a bash-script like the one for <>. Q: Why is herbstluftwm called herbstluftwm? ------------------------------------------- I liked the name of the e-mail client wanderlust. Unfortunately I am a happy mutt user, so I needed an other application with a similar name. [[FORK]] Q: Is herbstluftwm a fork of dwm/musca/wmii/...? ------------------------------------------------ No. It was written from scratch, although it borrows some basic XLib function calls (like updating numlock-state, sending a +WMDelete+-Message to a client, updating the urgent hints, ...) from dwm. Q: If the config is a bash script, does it mean it is called on each keystroke? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, the configuration file is executed once to set internal settings and keybindings and so on. If a keybinding is registered and its key is pressed, the according (internal) command directly is called. Q: How can I let single clients float? -------------------------------------- Not at all. You don't need it. You have the power of manual tiling, so there is no need to place clients manually by dragging. Even better: You don't even need to place them manually. Use a rule to place special dialogs automatically when they appear. See the GIMP-Example for a good example. Q: But I use GIMP very often, how can I use it without floating? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Load a predefined layout to a gimp tag. Move the GIMP-Tool windows to the left and right border and put the rest in the center. Add this to your autostart: ---- # GIMP # ensure there is a gimp tag hc add gimp hc load gimp ' (split horizontal:0.850000:0 (split horizontal:0.200000:1 (clients vertical:0) (clients grid:0)) (clients vertical:0)) ' # load predefined layout # center all other gimp windows on gimp tag hc rule class=Gimp tag=gimp index=01 pseudotile=on hc rule class=Gimp windowrole~'gimp-(image-window|toolbox|dock)' \ pseudotile=off hc rule class=Gimp windowrole=gimp-toolbox focus=off index=00 hc rule class=Gimp windowrole=gimp-dock focus=off index=1 ---- Q: What about a layout for Instant Messaging applications (Gajim, Pidgin, …)? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A good layout for Instant Messaging applications looks as follows: One frame on the left displays the buddy list/roster, consuming ~15% of the monitor space, while the right side is used for the conversations. This can be configured easily with herbstluftwm. The following example configures such a layout on tag '7' and creates the rules to automatically move Gajim's windows to the right frame: ---- hc load 7 '(split horizontal:0.15:1 (clients horizontal:0) (clients grid:4))' hc rule class="Gajim" tag=7 index=1 hc rule class="Gajim" windowrole="roster" tag=7 index=0 ---- For pidgin, the setup looks similar. In this case the buddy list is on the right with a width of 20% of the monitor space. In addition to the above, the buddy list will not receive input focus when it shows up: ---- imtag=7 # just set the name of the tag here hc load "$imtag" '(split horizontal:0.800000:0 (clients grid:0) (clients vertical:0))' hc rule class=Pidgin windowrole=buddy_list tag=$imtag index=1 focus=off hc rule class=Pidgin ! windowrole=buddy_list tag=$imtag index=0 ---- [[TEMP_RULES]] Q: How can I add rules temporarily for some special clients? ------------------------------------------------------------ Add a rule for the clients pid, before the client appears. This script creates two xterms with different behaviours: ---- #!/usr/bin/env bash # Requirement: bash >= 4.0 (because of the usage of $BASHPID) spawn_with_rules() {( # this rule also requires, that the client # sets the _NET_WM_PID property herbstclient rule once pid=$BASHPID maxage=10 "${RULES[@]}" exec "$@" ) & } # spawn an xterm with uname info, but not where the focus is RULES=( index='/' focus=off ) spawn_with_rules xterm -e 'uname -a ; read' # spawn an xterm in pseudotile mode RULES=( pseudotile=on focus=on ) spawn_with_rules xterm ---- Q: Why doesn't a new client receive focus? ------------------------------------------ The reason is the default setting of the +focus+ consequence in the rules. You can change it by adding this to the link:herbstluftwm.html#RULES[rules] section in the autostart file: ---- hc unrule --all # clear rules hc rule focus=on # focus new clients by default ---- Warning: you need the current git version to get rules! Q: herbstclient is too long to type it in the shell --------------------------------------------------- Use tab-completion! +her<tab>c<tab>+ expands to herbstclient. There is also a tab-completion for the herbstclient parameters. After installing herbstluftwm, add this to your .bashrc: ---- source /etc/bash_completion.d/herbstclient-completion ---- (The tab-completion in zsh works out of the box with most zsh-configurations). You also can add an alias for herbstclient: ---- alias hc='herbstclient' ---- Q: My rules seem to be messed up -------------------------------- Clear them with +hc unrule -F+ and start over. It is recommended to do this in the autostart file. Q: I don't like that my mplayervideo/inputdialogs get resized to full framesize ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Add this to your autostartfile: ---- hc rule instance= pseudotile=on ---- You can request the instancename with xprop by clicking on the related window. ++ is the first string in the line +WM_CLASS(STRING)+ (for mplayer that would be +xv+, for firefox dialogs it is +Dialog+). Q: I set default_frame_layout to my favorite layout but it doesn't work with the root frame/existing frames ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Existing tags are not affected by a change of that variable (only new ones), so be sure to set it *before* creating any tags. A current workaround is to put +hc split vertical 0.5; hc remove+ at the end in your autostart file. You can also 'cycle_layout' in existing tags. [[PANELS]] Q: How can I start external panels correctly? --------------------------------------------- The cleanest solution to start the external EWMH panel (like +xfce4-panel+) from the autostart and manually reserve some space for it. Also start +herbstclient+ instance that knows when to kill the panel again so that there aren't multiple instances when reloading the autostart multiple times. Append the following code to your +bash+ autostart (assuming the panel needs 31 pixels at the bottom of monitor 0): ---- # add an external panel { pids=( ) # reserve some space for the panel on monitor 0 hc pad 0 "" "" 31 # start the panel itself and remember its pid xfce4-panel -d --sm-client-disable & pids+=( $! ) # or start another panel: # mypanel & # pids+=( $! ) # wait until the panels should be stopped herbstclient -w '(quit_panel|reload)' # stopp all started panels kill ${pids[@]} } & ---- Q: I'm using a compositing manager like xcompmgr and get ugly artifacts when switching tags or splitting frames --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You probably have an old version of herbstluftwm and +frame_bg_transparent+ enabled. Disable this setting and use +frame_active_opacity+ and/or +frame_normal_opacity+ instead or upgrade to the current git version. Q: How can I keybind a simple "Run" dialog? ------------------------------------------- Install dmenu and keybind +dmenu_run_hlwm+ by adding the following line to your autostart file: ---- hc keybind $Mod-p spawn dmenu_run_hlwm ---- Note that +$Mod-p+ is bound to +pseudotile toggle+ in the default autostart of herbstluftwm, so you either need to change that binding or use a different one for +spawn dmenu_run_hlwm+. Q: How can I have a seperate list of tags per monitor? ------------------------------------------------------ As a solution: add the desired tags for each monitor and then configure the keybindings s.t. the i'th key references the i'th tag of that monitor instead of the i'th of all the tags. You can achieve this by replacing the section "tags" and "cycle through tags" in the autostart by the following: ---- # tags mon1_names=( 1_{1..5} ) # tag names for monitor 1 mon2_names=( 2_{1..5} ) # tag names for monitor 2 fallback_names=( {1..5} ) # tag names for all other monitors tag_keys=( {1..9} 0 ) hc rename default "${mon1_names[0]}" || true for tag in "${mon1_names[@]}" "${mon2_names[@]}" "${fallback_names[@]}" ; do hc try silent add "$tag" done for i in ${!tag_keys[@]} ; do key="${tag_keys[$i]}" # they kebinding is as follows: the or executes the commands seperated by # CASE and stops executing them after the first of those succeeds. # the first command is: check that we are on monitor 3 and can switch to tag "${mon1_names[$i]}" # if only one of these to steps fail, try the second one (and so one). # The setup for two monitors is as follows: hc keybind "$Mod-$key" \ or CASE and . compare monitors.focus.index = 0 . use "${mon1_names[$i]}" \ CASE and . compare monitors.focus.index = 1 . use "${mon2_names[$i]}" \ CASE use "${fallback_names[$i]}" hc keybind "$Mod-Shift-$key" \ or CASE and . compare monitors.focus.index = 0 . move "${mon1_names[$i]}" \ CASE and . compare monitors.focus.index = 1 . move "${mon2_names[$i]}" \ CASE move "${fallback_names[$i]}" done # cycle through tags # add additional information in order to cycle only through a monitor's tags # and not through all tags define-tag-cycle() { local n=$# local tags=( "$@" ) for i in "${!tags[@]}" ; do local t="${tags[$i]}" hc chain , new_attr string tags.by-name."$t".my_previous_tag \ , set_attr tags.by-name."$t".my_previous_tag "${tags[$(((i - 1 + n) % n))]}" \ , new_attr string tags.by-name."$t".my_next_tag \ , set_attr tags.by-name."$t".my_next_tag "${tags[$(((i + 1) % n))]}" done } define-tag-cycle "${mon1_names[@]}" define-tag-cycle "${mon2_names[@]}" define-tag-cycle "${fallback_names[@]}" # cycle through tags # check whether the current tag as a custom "next tag" configured # if yes, jump to that one, otherwise fall back to ordinary use_index +1 hc keybind $Mod-period or , substitute NEXT tags.focus.my_next_tag use NEXT \ , use_index +1 --skip-visible hc keybind $Mod-comma or , substitute PREV tags.focus.my_previous_tag use PREV \ , use_index +1 --skip-visible ---- You should also set +swap_monitors_to_get_tag+ to 0. Also consider the following hint for shifting windows between monitors: Q: How to navigate between monitors? ------------------------------------ In order to switch focus between the monitors, use the usual direction based focusing (the command +focus+). It either focuses a window on the current monitor or the next monitor if the boundary is reached. The analogous behaviour for +shift+ is not implemented yet, so you need to configure it in your +autostart+. In order to shift windows from monitor to monitor, replace the usual usage of +shift+ in your autostart by this one: ---- hc keybind $Mod-Shift-h or / shift left / \ chain , lock , shift_to_monitor -l , focus_monitor -l , unlock hc keybind $Mod-Shift-j or / shift down / \ chain , lock , shift_to_monitor -d , focus_monitor -d , unlock hc keybind $Mod-Shift-k or / shift up / \ chain , lock , shift_to_monitor -u , focus_monitor -u , unlock hc keybind $Mod-Shift-l or / shift right / \ chain , lock , shift_to_monitor -r , focus_monitor -r , unlock ---- (or analogously with arrow keys instead of +hjkl+). Again, this shifts a window to the next monitor if the monitor boundary is reached. [[firstautostart]] Q: How do I detect whether it is the first time that autostart is executed? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to actually autostart applications on herbstluftwm startup, one needs to take care that they are not executed on successive reloads. The following command returns success on the first time, autostart is executed, and failure on successive calls: ---- herbstclient silent new_attr bool my_not_first_autostart ---- It tries to create a new attribute (on the root object). If it is the first autostart run, then this succeeds. On any successive execution, this command fails, because the attribute +my_not_first_autostart+ already exists. An example looks as follows: ---- if hc silent new_attr bool my_not_first_autostart ; then /path/to/examples/exec_on_tag.sh web firefox & pidgin & fi ----