jwm(1)

NAME
JWM - Joe's Window Manager

SYNOPSIS
jwm [options]

DESCRIPTION
JWM is a window manager for the X11 Window System.

OPTIONS
-display display
    This option specifies the display to use; see X(1).

-exit
    Exit JWM by sending _JWM_EXIT to the root window.

-h
    Display a help message and exit.

-p
    Parse the configuration file and exit. It is a good idea to use this after making modifications to the configuration file to ensure there are no errors.

-restart
    Restart JWM by sending _JWM_RESTART to the root window.

-reload
    Reload menus by sending _JWM_RELOAD to the root window.

-v
    Display version information and exit.

FILES

/etc/system.jwmrc
    The default JWM configuration file.

~/.jwmrc
    Local configuration file. Copy the default configuration file to this location to make user-specific changes.

CONFIGURATION
OVERVIEW
    Configuration of JWM is done by editing ".jwmrc". This file is XML making it easy to edit, either by hand or programmatically. The example.jwmrc gives an example configuration file. Before restarting JWM, it is a good idea to run "jwm -p" to make sure the configuration file is free of errors. Otherwise you may end up without a root menu.

ROOT MENU
    The root menu in JWM is the primary way of starting programs. It also provides a way to restart or exit the window manager. The outer most tag is RootMenu. The following attributes are supported:

    onroot list
        Determine which buttons on the root window activate the menu. This is a list of integers specifying buttons. The default is "123". Note that multiple root menus may be specified by using different buttons for different menus. The range of possible button values is 0 to 9 inclusive.

    height int
        Height of each menu item in pixels. 0 indicates the largest menu item will determine the height. The default is 0.

    labeled bool
        Determines if a label appears at the top of the menu. Default is false.

    label string
        The label to display at the top of the menu. Default is "JWM".

    Within the RootMenu tag, the following tags are supported:

    Menu
        This tag creates a submenu item. Any of the tags allowed within the RootMenu tag, including the Menu tag are allowed within this element. The following attributes are supported:

        height int
            Height of each menu item in pixels. 0 indicates the largest menu item will determine the height. The default is inherited from the parent menu.

        label string
            The label to use. No default.

        icon string
            The icon to use for this menu. No default.

        labeled bool
            Determines if a label appears at the top of the menu. Default is false.

    Include
        Include the contents of a file into the menu structure. The file must start with a "JWM" tag. The file is specified by the text of the tag. If the text starts with "exec:" then the output of a program is used.

    Program
        The Program tag provides a way to start an external program. The text in this tag is the command used to start the program. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to display. Default is the text of the tag.

        icon string
            The icon to use. No default.

    Separator
        This tag simply puts a line in the menu allowing menu divisions. No text or attributes are used.

    Desktops
        Add a desktop menu. This will add a submenu with a list of desktops that can be used to change the current desktop. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use for the menu. The default is "Desktops".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    SendTo
        Add a "send to" menu to the menu. After selecting an item from this menu, a window may be selected to send that window to the selected desktop. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "SendTo".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Stick
        Add a stick/unstick window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to toggle the sticky state of that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Stick".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Maximize
        Add a maximize window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to toggle the maximized state of that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Maximize".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Minimize
        Add a minimize window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to minimize that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Minimize".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Shade
        Add a shade/unshade window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to toggle the shaded status of that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Shade".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Move
        Add a move window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to move that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Move".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Resize
        Add a resize window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to resize that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Resize".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Kill
        Add a kill window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to kill that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Kill".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Close
        Add a close window operation to the menu. After selecting this item a window may be selected to close that window. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Close".

        icon string
            The icon to use for this item. No default.

    Restart
        This tag adds a menu item to restart the window manager. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Restart".

        icon string
            The icon to use. No default.

    Exit
        This tag adds a menu item to exit the window manager. If text is present within this tag, it is interpreted as a command to run when JWM exits. This can be used to start another window manager. The following attributes are supported:

        label string
            The label to use. The default is "Exit".

        icon string
            The icon to use. No default.

        confirm bool
            Determine if a confirm dialog appears before exiting. Default is true.

        Note that confirm dialogs can be disabled completely at the compile-time.
TRAYS
    One or more trays may be created via the Tray tag. This tag supports the following attributes:

    autohide bool
        Allows this tray to hide itself when not activated. Default is false.

    x int
        The x-coordinate of the tray. This may be negative to indicate an offset from the right of the screen.

    y int
        The y-coordinate of the tray. This may be negative to indicate an offset from the bottom of the screen.

    width int
        The width of the tray. 0 indicates that the tray should compute an optimal width depending on what it contains and the layout. 0 is the default.

    height int
        The height of the tray. 0 indicates that the tray should compute an optimal height depending on what it contains and the layout. 0 is the default.

    border int
        The width of the border. The default is 1. Valid values are between 0 and 32 inclusive.

    layer { below | normal | above }
        The layer of the tray. The default is above.

    layout { vertical | horizontal }
        The layout of the tray. The default is horizontal.

    valign { fixed | top | center | bottom }
        The vertical alignment of the tray. The default is fixed.

    halign { fixed | left | center | right }
        The horizontal alignment of the tray. The default is fixed.

    Within this tag the following tags are supported:

    Clock
        Add a clock to the tray. The text of this tag is a command to run when the clock is clicked. This tag supports the following attributes:

        format string
            The format of the clock. See strftime(3).

        zone string
            The time zone of the clock. See tzset(3).

        width int
            The width of the clock. 0 indicates that the width should be determined from the length of the text to be displayed.

        height int
            The height of the clock. 0 indicates that the height should be determined from the font used.

    Dock
        Add a dock for system notifications. This can be used by those programs that use the _NET_SYSTEM_TRAY_Sn selection. The size of the Dock is dynamic based on the size of the tray and the number of items contained. Only one Dock is allowed per instance of JWM. This tag supports the following attribute:

        width int
            The maximum width of an item contained in the dock. This defaults to the width or height of the tray (whichever is smaller).

    Pager
        Add a pager to the tray. A pager shows a miniature representation of a desktop. When over the pager, the scroll wheel will switch desktops. Holding down the right mouse button allows you to drag a window around in the pager which changes its position on the real desktop. You can also drag a window in the pager from one desktop to another. This tag supports the following attributes:

        labeled bool
            Determines if the pager has text labels. Default is false.

        Also see the PAGER STYLE section for more information.

    Spacer
        Add empty space to the tray. This tag supports the following attributes:

        width int
            The width of the spacer (0 to fill all available space). 0 is the default.

        height int
            The height of the spacer (0 to fill all available space). 0 is the default.

    Swallow
        Swallow a program into the tray. The text of this tag gives the command to run. This tag supports the following attributes:

        name string
            The name of the program to swallow. This attribute is required.

        width int
            The width of the swallowed program. 0 indicates that the width should be determined from the tray and size requested from the program. 0 is the default.

        height int
            The height of the swallowed program. 0 indicates that the height should be determined from the tray and the size requested from the program. 0 is the default.

    TaskList
        Add a task list to the tray. This tag supports the following attributes:

        border bool
            Determines if items in the task list have a border. Default is true.

        maxwidth int
            The maximum width of an item in the task list. 0 indicates no maximum. The default is 0.

    TrayButton
        Add a button to the tray. The text of this tag determines what action to take when the button is clicked. The following actions are supported:

        root:n
            Show root menu n. Note that the default TrayButton action is root:1.

        exec: string
            Execute a command.

        showdesktop
            Minimize all windows on the current desktop.

        This tag supports the following attributes:

        border bool
            Determines if a the button has a border. Default is true.

        label string
            A label to display. No default.

        popup string
            A string to be displayed for a popup. This will default to the value specified for label, if provided. If neither popup nor label are specified no popup will be shown.

        icon string
            An icon to display. No default.
INCLUDES
    Other configuration files may be included under the JWM tag via the Include tag. The text of this tag specifies the location of an additional configuration file. The path may be relative to the location JWM was started, an absolute path, or a path referencing an environment variable (using '$'). The format of the configuration file is the same as the main configuration file.
GROUP SETTINGS
    Program groups allow one to specify options which apply to a group of programs by name and/or class. A program group is created with the Group tag. As many program groups can be created as desired. If one or more Name tags is specified, at least one name must match. Likewise, if one or more Class tags is specified, at least one class must match. JWM matches using extended POSIX regular expressions for both Name and Class tags. See regex(7). Within the Group tag the following tags are supported:

    Name
        The window name of a program to match to be in this group (the first string in WM_CLASS).
    Class
        The window class for a program to match to be in this group (the second string in WM_CLASS).
    Option
        An option for this group. Possible options are:

        border
            Causes windows in this group to have a border.

        centered
            Center windows in this group upon initial placement instead of using cascaded placement.

        constrain
            Constrain windows in this group to the screen.

        desktop:#
            The desktop on which windows in this group will be started.

        hmax
            Make windows in this group maximize horizontally.

        icon:string
            The icon to be used for windows in this group.

        iignore
            Ignore the size increment hint when maximizing windows in this group.

        layer:string
            The layer on which windows in this group will be started. Valid options are below, normal, and above

        maximized
            Make windows in this group initially maximized.

        minimized
            Make windows in this group initially minimized.

        noborder
            Causes windows in this group to be displayed without a border.

        nofocus
            Prevents windows in the group from grabbing the focus when mapped.

        nolist
            Causes the tray to ignore windows in this group.

        nopager
            Causes the pager to ignore windows in this group.

        noshade
            Prevent windows in this group from being shaded.

        notitle
            Causes windows in this group to be displayed without a title bar.

        noturgent
            Ignore the urgent hint for windows in this group.

        opacity:#
            Set the opacity for windows in this group. The value is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 inclusive.

        pignore
            Ignore initial window position requested by program.

        shaded
            Make windows in this group initially shaded.

        sticky
            Make windows in this group sticky.

        tiled
            Attempt to tile windows in this group upon initial placement. If tiled placement fails, windows will fall back to cascaded placement (the default) or centered if specified.

        title
            Forces windows in this group to have a title bar.

        vmax
            Make windows in this group maximize vertically.
WINDOW STYLE
    The WindowStyle tag controls the look of window borders. Within this tag, the following tags are supported:

    Font
        The font used for title bars. See the FONTS section for more information.

    Width
        The width of window borders in pixels. The default is 4, the minimum is 1, and the maximum is 128.

    Height
        The height of window title bars in pixels. The default is 20, the minimum is 2, and the maximum is 256.

    Active
        The colors/opacity used for the active window. See the COLORS section for more information on colors. The following tags are supported:

        Text
            The color of text on the title bar. The default is white.

        Title
            The color of the title bar (gradients are supported). The default is #CC7700:#884400.

        Opacity
            The opacity of the window. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. The default is 1.0. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.

        Outline
            The color of the window outline. The default is black.

    Inactive
        The colors used for inactive windows. See the COLORS section for more information on colors. The following tags are supported:

        Text
            The color of text on the title bar. The default is white.

        Title
            The color of the title bar (gradients are supported). The default is #333333:#111111.

        Opacity
            The opacity of inactive windows. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. The default is 0.75. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.

        Outline
            The color of the window outline. The default is black.
TRAY STYLE
    The TrayStyle tag controls the look of trays. Within this tag the following tag is supported:

    Font
        The default tray font to use. See the FONTS section for more information.

    Foreground
        The default foreground color. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Background
        The default background color. See the COLORS section for more information.

    ActiveForeground
        The default foreground color for active items. See the COLORS section for more information.

    ActiveBackground
        The default background color for active items. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Opacity
        The opacity of trays. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.
TASK LIST STYLE
    The TaskListStyle tag controls the look of task lists. This tag supports the following attribute:

    insert mode
        This determines how new items are added to the task list. Valid options are left and right. The default is right.

    Within this tag the following tags are supported:

    Font
        The font used for program names. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the FONTS section for more information.

    Foreground
        The foreground color of the task list items. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Background
        The background color of the task list items (gradients are supported). Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.

    ActiveForeground
        The foreground color of an active item on the task list. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.

    ActiveBackground
        The background color of an active item on the task list (gradients are supported). Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.
TRAY BUTTON STYLE
    The TrayButtonStyle tag controls the look of tray buttons. Within this tag, the following tags are supported.

    Font
        The font used for tray buttons. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the FONTS section for more information.

    Foreground
        The foreground color for tray buttons. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Background
        The background color for tray buttons (gradients are supported). Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.
    ActiveForeground
        The foreground color for pressed tray buttons. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.
    ActiveBackground
        The background color for pressed tray buttons (gradients are supported). Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.
CLOCK STYLE
    The ClockStyle tag controls the look of clocks. Within this tag, the following tags are supported.

    Font
        The font used for clocks. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the FONTS section for more information.

    Foreground
        The color of the text. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Background
        The background color. Inherited from TrayStyle by default. See the COLORS section for more information.
PAGER STYLE
    The PagerStyle tag controls the look of pagers. Within this tag, the following tags are supported:

    Outline
        The color of the outline around windows shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Foreground
        The color of inactive windows shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Background
        The background color of inactive desktops shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

    ActiveForeground
        The color of active windows shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

    ActiveBackground
        The background color of active desktops shown in the pager. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Text
        The color to use for pager labels. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Font
        The font to use for pager labels. See the COLORS section for more information.
MENU STYLE
    The MenuStyle tag controls the look of the menus in JWM (this includes the root menu and window menus). Within this tag the following tags are supported:

    Font
        The font used on menus See the FONTS section for more information.

    Foreground
        The text color of inactive menu items. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Background
        The background color of inactive menu items. See the COLORSsection for more information.

    ActiveForeground
        The text color of active menu items. See the COLORS section for more information.

    ActiveBackground
        Text background color of active menu items (gradients are supported). See the COLORS section for more information.

    Opacity
        The opacity of menus. This is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0. Note that a composite manager, such as xcompmgr, is required for this.
POPUP STYLE
    The PopupStyle tag controls the look of popup windows such as those shown when the mouse sits over a task list item. This tag supports the following attributes:

    delay int
        The delay in milliseconds before popups activate. The default is 600.

    enabled bool
        Determine if popups are shown. Default is true.

    Within this tag the following tags are supported:

    Font
        The font to use. See the FONTS section for more information.

    Outline
        The color of the window outline. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Foreground
        The text color. See the COLORS section for more information.

    Background
        The background color. See the COLORS section for more information.
FONTS
    Fonts for various parts of JWM are specified within a Font tag. The text of this tag determines the font to use. This can be either a standard X font string or, if compiled with XFT support, an XFT font string.
COLORS
    Colors for various parts of JWM are specified within specific tags (described above). Colors may either be hex triplets in RGB format (for example, #FF0000 is red) or by a name recognized by the X server. For components that support gradients, two colors may be specified separated by a colon.
ICONS
    Icons for windows that don't supply an icon via the _NET_WM_ICON hint are located by searching the icon search path(s) for an icon whose name (minus the ".xpm" or ".png" extension) matches the instance name of the window as returned in the WM_CLASS hint. If this lookup fails, a default icon is supplied. This icon will be displayed for the window on it's title bar and on the task list. Icons that are not an appropriate size will be scaled. Square icons work best.

    For menu items, the icon path is searched for a match. the icon specified for a menu item must be the exact name of the icon file with the extension. If no match is found, a blank area will appear where the icon should appear. If an icon is not specified for any menu item in a menu, no space will be allocated for icons.

    Zero or more IconPath tags may be specified. The text of this tag is assumed to be an absolute directory path to a directory containing XPM, PNG, and/or JPEG icons. When searching for icons, if multiple paths are provided, they will be searched in order until a match is made. Note that icon, PNG, JPEG, and XPM support are compile-time options.
KEY BINDINGS
    Keyboard bindings in JWM are specified in Key tags. Either the key or keycode attributes must be specified to determine which key will cause an action. The optional attribute, mask, specifies what key mask, if any, must be in effect for the binding to match. Finally, the text of the Key tag is the action to perform.

    One or more of the following key masks may be specified for mask (see xmodmap(1)):

        A   The "Alt" key (mod1).

        C   Control

        S   Shift

        1   mod1

        2   mod2

        3   mod3

        4   mod4

        5   mod5

    The key specified in the key attribute must contain a valid key string for XStringToKeysym(3). These values are usually what one would expect (for example, the escape key is called "Escape").

    Valid actions for a key binding are:

        up  Move up. Not grabbed.

        down
            Move down. Not grabbed.

        right
            Move right. Not grabbed.

        left
            Move left. Not grabbed.

        escape
            Stop a move/resize, exit a menu, or cancel an action. Not grabbed.

        fullscreen
            Toggle between fullscreen and not fullscreen. Grabbed.

        select
            Make a menu selection or confirm an action. Not grabbed.

        next
            Move to the next window in the task list. Grabbed.

        nextstacked
            Move to the next window in the stacking order. Grabbed.

        prev
            Move to the previous window in the task list. Grabbed.

        prevstacked
            Move to the previous window in the stacking order. Grabbed.

        close
            Close the active window. Grabbed.

        minimize
            Minimize the active window. Grabbed.

        maximize
            Maximize the active window. Grabbed.

        shade
            Shade the active window. Grabbed.

        stick
            Stick/unstick the active window. Grabbed.

        move
            Move the active window. Grabbed.

        resize
            Resize the active window. Grabbed.

        root:n
            Show root menu n. Grabbed.

        window
            Show the window menu for the active window. Grabbed.

        desktop#
            Switch to a specific desktop. To use this, "#" must be specified in the key section. The number 1 to the number of desktops configured are then substituted for "#". Grabbed.

        rdesktop
            Move one desktop to the right. Grabbed.

        ldesktop
            Move one desktop to the left. Grabbed.

        udesktop
            Move up one desktop. Grabbed.

        ddesktop
            Move down one desktop. Grabbed.

        showdesktop
            Show/hide the desktop (maximize/minimize all windows). Grabbed.

        showtray
            Unhide the tray (when using autohide). Grabbed.

        exec:command
            Execute command. Grabbed.

        restart
            Restart JWM. Grabbed.

    Note that keys that are grabbed will not be available to applications other than JWM since JWM will interpret these. Also note that there are no default key bindings. Finally, it is possible to bind multiple key combinations to the same action.
MOUSE BINDINGS
    Any button other than the scroll wheel (buttons 4 and 5) on the root window will bring up the root menu unless otherwise specified via the onroot attribute of RootMenu. Scrolling up on the root window switches to the left desktop and scrolling down switches to the right desktop.

    Button 1 (typically the left button):
        Over the border, dragging resizes the window. Over the title bar, dragging moves the window and double clicking toggles the maximized state. Over the menu button, clicking shows the menu. Over the minimize button, clicking minimizes the window. Over the maximize button, clicking toggles between maximized and normal. Over the close button, clicking closes the window.

    Button 2 (typically the middle button):
        Over the maximize button, clicking toggles between vertically maximized and normal. Anywhere else on a window frame, dragging while holding button 2 will move the window.

    Button 3 (typically the right button):
        Over the frame, clicking shows the window menu. On the minimize button, clicking toggles between shaded and unshaded. On the maximize button, clicking toggles between horizontally maximized and normal. On the close button, clicking closes the window. Over the pager, dragging while holding button 3 will move a window.

    Scrolling up over the title bar will shade the window and scrolling down will unshade the window. When a menu is open, the scroll wheel will move through menu items. When over the pager, the scroll wheel will switch desktops. When over a task list, the scroll wheel will switch windows.
DESKTOPS
    Virtual desktops are controlled with the Desktops tag. Within this tag the following attribute is supported:

    width int
        The number of virtual desktops in the horizontal direction. The default is 4.

    height int
        The number of virtual desktops in the vertical direction. The default is 1.

    Within the Desktops tag the following tags are supported:

    Background
        The default background for desktops. The type attribute determines the type of background and the text contained within this tag is the value. Valid types are:

        solid
            A solid color. See the COLORS section for more information. This is the default.
        gradient
            A gradient color. See the COLORS section for more information.
        image
            A stretched image. This may be an XPM, PNG, or JPEG image. Note that support for XPM, PNG, and JPEG images must be compiled in and icon support is required.
        tile
            A tiled image. Like image, but the image is tiled instead of stretched.
        command
            A command to run for setting the background.

    Desktop
        Desktop-specific data. The name attribute may be specified to name the desktop (the default is the desktop number). Within this tag a Background tag may be specified for a desktop-specific background. See Background above for more information.
OTHER SETTINGS

    The following tags may also be supplied:

    ButtonClose
        An icon to display for the close button on client windows instead of the default.
    ButtonMax
        An icon to display for the maximize button on client windows instead of the default.
    ButtonMaxActive
        An icon to display for the maximize button on maximized client windows instead of the default.
    ButtonMin
        An icon to display for the minimize button on client windows instead of the default.
    DoubleClickDelta
        The number of pixels the mouse can move during a double click. The default is 2. Valid values are between 0 and 32 inclusive.

    DoubleClickSpeed
        The maximum number of milliseconds between clicks for a double click. The default is 400. Valid values are between 1 and 2000 inclusive.

    FocusModel
        The focus model to be used. The default is "sloppy". Valid values are "click" (click to focus) and "sloppy" (focus follows mouse).

    MoveMode
        The move mode. The default is "opaque". Valid values are "opaque" and "outline". This tag supports the following attributes:

        coordinates { off | corner | window | screen }
            The location of the status window. The default is screen.

        delay int
            The delay in milliseconds before moving a window to a different desktop. Setting this to 0 disables dragging windows between desktops. The default is 1000.

    ResizeMode
        The resize mode. The default is "opaque". Valid values are "opaque" and "outline". The optional coordinates attribute determines the location of the move status window. Possible values are: This tag supports the following attribute:

        coordinates { off | corner | window | screen }
            The location of the status window. The default is screen.

    SnapMode
        The snap mode. The default is "border". Valid values are "none" (for no snapping), "screen" (for snapping to the edge of the screen), and "border" (for snapping to the borders of windows and the screen). An optional attribute, distance, specifies the distance for snapping. The default is 5. Valid values are between 1 and 32 inclusive.

    StartupCommand
        A command to run when JWM starts.

    ShutdownCommand
        A command to run when JWM exits.

    RestartCommand
        A command to run when JWM restarts.

AUTHOR
Joe Wingbermuehle <joewing@joewing.net>

SEE ALSO
X(1)